That's still true that is!

It is and it isn't =.

It is an official compilation of some of the best songs of the years (1980-1989) that he was with the Island Recording label

Tigs, here's one for you:

Q: Tom, you love words and their origins. For $2,000…what is the origin of the word bedlam?

A: It’s a contraction of the word Bethlehem. It comes from the hospital of Saint Mary of Bethlehem outside London. The hospital began admitting mental patients in the late fourteenth century. In the sixteenth century it became a lunatic asylum. The word bedlam came to be used for any madhouse- and by extension, for any scene of noisy confusion.

It's amazing some of the stuff he knows that he can recall right away.

I have seen this thread, but never opened it.

After all, who would start a thread about "Beautiful ailments / sicknesses" ....... <deleted>?

Beautiful Maladies,,,,,, sheeeeeeeesh

Yeah, go call me pedantic.....LOL

Beautiful Maladies is one of the albums released by Tom Waits.

Yeah, ya big dope pete!

Gawd, neva heered of it or this guy Tom who waits......woffer?

Guess I will crawl back into "Fabulous 50s & Sexy 60s" cubby hole....

That just might be a good idea!

Always used as the ultimate threat by my dear old Mum..........." If you keep playing with it, you'll end up looking and singing like Tom Waits !!! "

Kept many a young hand where it should have been in those days i'll tell you .

I still sleep that way these days, though sometimes I use pillow substitutes.

You wouldn't be the first (Girl nor guy) to do this.

Bops, we all thought you were wierd before this thread, but we love ya all the same.

Mine would have to be, when I was about thirteen, I got my first real taste of Pu55y.

Still gets me knickers in a twist every time, some 16 years later.

Yes, I remember my first muff diving experience........aaahhhhh......like fresh fruit...only not.

Here is one you would like Kayo......Waits, Nighthawks at the Diner....can't listen to it without thinking about this wonderful girl who I loved openly for so long but would only be my friend. She was a Waits song.

Which song Bops? Warm Beer/Cold Women?

I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You

Or Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street) :

copyright Tom Waits or Asylum Records pro'lly

there's a blur drizzle down the plateglass

as a neon swizzle stick stirrin up the sultry night air

and a yellow biscuit of a buttery cue ball moon

rollin' maverick across an obsidian sky

as the busses go groanin' and wheezin',

down on the corner I'm freezin';

on a restless boulevard at a midnight road

I'm across town from EASY STREET

with the tight knots of moviegoers and out of towners

on the stroll

and the buildings towering high above

lit like dominoes or black dice

all the used car salesmen dressed up in

Purina Checkerboard slacks

and Foster Grant wrap-around,

pacing in front of EARL SCHLEIB

$39.95 merchandise

like barkers at a shootin' gallery

they throw out kind of a Texas Guinan routine

"Hello sucker, we like your money

just as well as anybody else's here"

or they give you the P.T. Barnum bit

"There's a sucker born every minute

you just happened to be comin' along at the right time"

come over here now

you know... all the harlequin sailors are on the stroll

in a search of "LIKE NEW," "NEW PAINT,"

decent factory air and AM-FM dreams

and the piss yellow gypsy cabs

stacked up in the taxi zones waitin' like

pinball machines

to be ticking off a joy ride to a magical place

waitin' in line like "truckers welcome" diners

with dirt lots full of

Peterbilts, Kenworths, Jimmy's and the like, and

they're hiballin' with bankrupt brakes, over driven

under paid, over fed, a day late and a dollar short

but Christ I got my lips around a bottle and

my foot on the throttle and I'm standin' on the corner

standin' on the corner like a "just in town"

jasper, on a street corner with a gasper lookin

' for some kind of Cheshire billboard grin

stroking a goateed chin, and using parking meters

as walking sticks on the inebriated stroll

with my eyelids propped open at half mast

but you know... over at Chubb's Pool Hall and Snooker

it was a nickle after two, yea it was a nickle after two

and in the cobalt steel blue dream smoke, it

was the radio that groaned out the hit parade

and the chalk squeaked, the floorboards creaked

and an Olympia sign winked through a torn yellow

shade, old Jack Chance himself leanin' up against

a Wurlitzer and eyeballin' out a 5 ball combination shot

impossible you say? ...hard to believe?, perhaps

out of the realm of possibility? naaaa

he be stretchin' out long tawny fingers out across a

cool green felt with a provocative golden gate

and a full table railshot that's no sweat and I leaned

up against my bannister and wandered over to the

Wurlitzer and I punched A-2 I was lookin' for

something like Wine, Wine, Wine by the Night Caps

starring Chuck E. Weiss or High Blood Pressure

by George (cryin' in the streets) Perkins - no dice

"that's life," that's what all the people say ridin' high

in April, seriously shot down in May, but I know I'm

gonna change that tune when I'm standing underneath

a buttery moon that's all melted off to one side

It was just about that time that the sun

came crawlin' yellow out of a manhole

at the foot of 23rd Street

and a dracula moon in a black disguise

was making its way back to its

pre-paid room at the St. Moritz Hotel (scat)

and the El train came tumbling across the trestles and it sounded

like the ghost of Gene Krupa

with an overhead cam and glasspacks

and the whispering brushes of wet radials

on a wet pavement and there's a

traffic jam session on Belmont tonight

and the rhapsody of the pending

evening, I leaned up against

my bannister and I've been looking

for some kind of an emotional

investment with romantic dividends

kind of a physical negociation

is underway

as I attempt to consolidate all my

missed weekly payments, into

one-low-monthly payment

through the nose

with romantic residuals and leg akimbo

but the chances are more than likely I'll probably

be held over for another smashed weekend

Love that tune.

ALright, Just cos I know you really really really want it Bops:

late night and early morning low clouds

with a chance of fog

chance of showers into the afternoon

with variable high cloudiness

and gusty winds, gusty winds

at times around the corner of

Sunset and Alvorado

things are tough all over

when the thunder storms start

increasing over the southeast

and south central portions

of my apartment, I get upset

and a line of thunderstorms was

developing in the early morning

ahead of a slow moving coldfront

cold blooded

with tornado watches issued shortly

before noon Sunday, for the areas

including, the western region

of my mental health

and the northern portions of my

ability to deal rationally with my

disconcerted precarious emotional

situation, it's cold out there

colder than a ticket taker's smile

at the Ivar Theatre, on a Saturday night

flash flood watches covered the

southern portion of my disposition

there was no severe weather well

into the afternoon, except for a lone gust of

wind in the bedroom

in a high pressure zone, covering the eastern

portion of a small suburban community

with a 103 and millibar high pressure zone

and a weak pressure ridge extending from

my eyes down to my cheeks cause since

you left me baby

and put the vice grips on my mental health

well the extended outlook for an

indefinite period of time until you

come back to me baby is high tonight

low tomorrow, and precipitation is

expected

I really wish I could write like him.

Always used as the ultimate threat by my dear old Mum..........." If you keep playing with it, you'll end up looking and singing like Tom Waits !!! "

Kept many a young hand where it should have been in those days i'll tell you .

So you look and sing like Tom, then?

Cruel !!!!! ( true..but cruel )

Waits is okay, I prefer Randy Newman though.

ahaahah, fail.

Well spotted Torres!

anyone ever see Tom Waits in the Dracula movie as the Renfield character?...he was excellent...if I was in Renfield's shoes I would have been just like Tom Waits...'mastah...mastah!!!'...showed that he knows how to act as well as the booze and cigarettes parody...he received professional accolades...

as far as the rest goes he's just a posturing white boy; he's never been in an alley with a can of Ranier Ale in his life...I have an' it's neither romantic or attractive...you're beat and think about robbery and murder..

Ah...whiskey, smokes, and songs about wasted life.

Side order of razor blade?

In all fairness I dont know the music to make an acurate judgement..but tend to lean towards music that uplifts my soul than has me feeling like life is so hard and sad. From your description I think it may not be my thing. However..can post a music link or a sample dl?

Sunday morning coming down... by Kris Kristopherson comes to mind. I always loved that ballad... just as I love most melodious ballads played in a minor key.

anyone ever see Tom Waits in the Dracula movie as the Renfield character?...he was excellent...if I was in Renfield's shoes I would have been just like Tom Waits...'mastah...mastah!!!'...showed that he knows how to act as well as the booze and cigarettes parody...he received professional accolades...

as far as the rest goes he's just a posturing white boy; he's never been in an alley with a can of Ranier Ale in his life...I have an' it's neither romantic or attractive...you're beat and think about robbery and murder..

He was awesome as Renfield!! I loved that movie, big reason was him, plus it was sort of like Tim Burton doing Dracula. I can see the point about his music you make, but I think that is a little unfair. A great many singers and song writer never did half of what they sang about, but that was never the point. Just the music.

I don't mean to dig up old threads (self-admitted liar ) but came across this one while searching out one of Bedders most enjoyable posters, Bops, to see what trouble he's been up to lately (in case it ain't enuff and he's in needs of my help ). What a beaut!! You've outdid yourself, Bops . . . again. :jap: (Should be in the Bedlam Hall of Shame Fame.)

Hats off to a co-conspirator klown after my own heart (sorry, mate, but a recent search unveiled the sad truth that it's the only one I've got, smallish as it is . . . so no, wabbit, you can't have it ) Keep postin' mate . . . yer numbers are down and heading into negative territory. :jap:

But I must contribute here, I can't resist the urge, see . . .

Spent a night with TW in a smoke-filled lounge/club back in me younger times, so long ago and not so long ago (I can't tell anymore, maybe never could ). I still consider it one of the best shows I've pleasured seeing and hearing. I'm sure this has made views amongst the posters here but not yet posted so I will . . . there! Coffee and Cigarettes and classic TW. Luv the end, 555555555555! Enjoy!

OT, but related . . . the show that night featured a most perfect back-up for TW . . . a better one I can't imagine. If ever there was a white man who sounded like a black man then it must be Leon Redbone. And for those who haven't had the pleasure of hearing his stuff before I present a diddy . . .

I don't mean to dig up old threads (self-admitted liar ) but came across this one while searching out one of Bedders most enjoyable posters, Bops, to see what trouble he's been up to lately (in case it ain't enuff and he's in needs of my help ). What a beaut!! You've outdid yourself, Bops . . . again. :jap: (Should be in the Bedlam Hall of Shame Fame.)

Hats off to a co-conspirator klown after my own heart (sorry, mate, but a recent search unveiled the sad truth that it's the only one I've got, smallish as it is . . . so no, wabbit, you can't have it ) Keep postin' mate . . . yer numbers are down and heading into negative territory. :jap:

But I must contribute here, I can't resist the urge, see . . .

Spent a night with TW in a smoke-filled lounge/club back in me younger times, so long ago and not so long ago (I can't tell anymore, maybe never could ). I still consider it one of the best shows I've pleasured seeing and hearing. I'm sure this has made views amongst the posters here but not yet posted so I will . . . there! Coffee and Cigarettes and classic TW. Luv the end, 555555555555! Enjoy!

OT, but related . . . the show that night featured a most perfect back-up for TW . . . a better one I can't imagine. If ever there was a white man who sounded like a black man then it must be Leon Redbone. And for those who haven't had the pleasure of hearing his stuff before I present a diddy . . .

Awesome Tip!! You added Leon Redbone, what a classic guy. Always loved, 'I wanna be seduced.' Lovely addition.