The Tom Waits Listening Club - Glitter and Doom Polls on Post 7457/Top 10 Waits songs poll results from post 751

Welcome fellow racontours and roustabouts! Step right up for the Tom Waits Listening Club!

So I thought I’d let the people decide how this thing is going to be run. So there’s a few polls I’d like you to click on before we get going (all anonymous). If you’ve got any tips/requests/questions let me know. Then once we’ve got a start date and a schedule I’ll do a tl;dr intro post and then we’ll dive straight in with Closing Time.

How often would you like to have to dig into each album? Should we do albums:

  • Weekly
  • Fortnightly
  • Monthly
  • Longer (Explain Yourself!)

0 voters

And what’s everyone’s preferred day to get started on each album?

  • Monday
  • Tuesday
  • Wednesday
  • Thursday
  • Friday
  • Saturday
  • Sunday

0 voters

Lastly – when do we want to start this thing?

  • Next Week (w/c 21/11)
  • W/C 28/11
  • W/C 05/12
  • W/C 12/12
  • W/C 19/12
  • Save it till after Christmas
  • Just get on with it Horseman!

0 voters

Gonna tag everyone who registered an interest here: @scagden @spicer @schadenfreude @petagno @drspaceman @trev @el-barnetto @woweezowee @lotd @Jarvis @woodchuck @pale-eyedbadger

7 Likes

ASAP. Tom Waits for no man

15 Likes

Already off to a great start!

But yes, ASAP suits me. The weather has turned shite and I’d love the warm embrace of early Mr Waits.

1 Like

The rest of the folk who registered an interest (can only do 20 at once apparently):

@flittermouse @tuna @sizeofanocean @octobadger @wizardlizard @MelodiousThunk @crisps @yvash @larcorbett2010 @neilyoung @formerghost @lo-pan

9 Likes

Do you plan to go through them chronologically or mix it up a bit?

Well up for this!

I was planning to go chronologically. I think charting Wait’s evolution (and weird diversions) could be fun. And I quite like the idea of crooning through the winter and smashing oil drums with hammers in the spring. Happy to change direction though if folks would prefer to do it on shuffle.

12 Likes

Sounds good to me. I’m not actually that familiar with his early stuff, so looking forward to that.

1 Like

Oooh, looking forward to this.

Tom would probably approve of a freeform approach but I’m a boring fan of chronology, I’d love to follow from where he started to where he ended up.

I put Martha on yesterday and was in tears by “number please”. High hopes for this thread.

image

10 Likes

A bunch of his tracks have a brilliant Christmas/Winter feel. He’s always been my Christmas music go to.

1 Like

Despite being a big fan, I’ve never listened to Small Change through to Heart Attack and Vine and Bone Machine and Black Rider. I might not take part in the full thing but I’ll definitely be there for those ones.

1 Like

This sounds great - huge fan of the early ones and Raindogs, but have massive glaring gaps all over the place

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Think it’s because I though I’d be steadily picking up second hand vinyl as it came up whilst browsing - but that doesn’t seem to have happened so I may as well just listen on the streamers

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Maybe we should do a Waitsian Xmas Playlist in the run up to the festive period? I do find myself listening to him a lot more in the winter. Probably because it’s when I drink a lot more red wine & whisky tbf.

@hesastopsiiiiign / @grievoustim I’ve got a few gaps in my Waits knowledge myself (though I’m planning on styling them out and acting like an expert on every last song), looking forward to digging deep into the records that have never quite grabbed me.

3 Likes

I only gave his pre Bone Machine stuff a proper listen last year, so am looking forward to going back to them now.

i’m up for this. NOt sure i’ll always be able to join in everytime but will certainly endeavour to do so.

2 Likes

It looks like we’re definitely kicking off on Monday then, and unless Fortnightly has a late surge we’ll be doing an album a week. Which would make the schedule something like this:

Week Commencing Album
21/11/2022 Closing Time
28/11/2022 The Heart of Saturday Night
05/12/2022 Nighthawks at the Diner
12/12/2022 Small Change
19/12/2022 Foreign Affairs
XMAS BREAK
02/01/2023 Blue Valentine
09/01/2023 Heart Attack & Vine
16/01/2023 One From the Heart (Original Soundtrack)
23/01/2023 Swordfishtrombones
30/01/2023 Rain Dogs
06/02/2023 Franks Wild Years
13/02/2023 Night on Earth (Original Soundtrack)
20/02/2023 Bone Machine
27/02/2023 The Black Rider
06/03/2023 Mule Variations
13/03/2023 Alice
20/03/2023 Blood Money
27/03/2023 Real Gone
03/04/2023 Bad As Me
10/04/2023 Orphans: Brawlers
17/04/2023 Orphans: Bawlers
24/04/2023 Orphans: Bastards

Good lord that’s a lot of music. I’ll probably end up missing a week here and there so it’ll likely be summertime before we’ve got this all wrapped up. Happy to do live albums and other comps if there’s a demand - everyone should definitely watch Big Time when we get to the Frank’s Wild Years era anyhow.

12 Likes

Going to try and do this, if only to finally get all the way through Nighthawks at the Diner (something I have tried and failed to do more than once).

1 Like

Looks great (other than it’s a shame his best ‘Christmas’ song will be in the first week of January)

3 Likes