Thursday April 14, 2022 “Downtown Train” Tom Waits
The magical connections continue. Yesterday was the Royal Guardsmen with “Baby Let’s Wait” and today it’s Tom Wait(s) on the “Downrown Train”. OK, there’s no hard and fast rules in this game because, well I made it up, so you will have to give me the ‘s’.
Tom Waits is a musician, composer, songwriter and by his own acknowledgment his lyrics tend to focus on “nightlife, poverty, isolation and criminality.” He has acted in more than forty movies, scored films and broadway plays and has recorded seventeen albums. He has been nominated for seven Grammys, is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and is ranked number fifty-five on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time list.
I know this isn’t hard to believe but there are many artists who have recorded Tom Waits songs who seem to do more justice vocally to them than maybe Tom does. Some of those artists include Tim Buckley, 10,000 Maniacs, Johnny Cash, Norah Jones, The Ramones and Rod Stewart.
Bob Seger recorded his own version of “Downtown Train” and has said that he mentioned that recording in a conversation with Rod Stewart who a month later recorded his own version which went to number three on the charts. While Stewart’s version includes slide guitar work by Jeff Beck, Seger’s version never charted.
Stay safe and well…and yes I know vocally Tom Waits is not to everybody's taste and you will be more likely to remember Rod Stewart’s interpretation but it’s Wait’s song and he sells it with a passion that may be lacking in Stewart’s more polished version.