Looks like Barney Hoskins' Waits biography Lowside of the road: A life of Tom Waits is to hit the shelves somewhere in April next year. At least that is what Amazon says... A 288 page hard cover edition by publisher Broadway: that's about all the details that are available now.
11 comments:
Hope it's better than that horrendous Humphries bio that came out this year.
yes! i cant wait.
I'm reading the Humphries bio right now. I feel like he keeps repeating himself and will randomly slip into first-person. Very strange book, but it has made me really, really wish Tom Waits would write a book of some sort. How awesome would that be? And you know he could do it! Some of his quotes in the Humphries book are really interesting, while others are just flat-out hilarious!
http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/PB-36913/Innocent-When-You-Dream.htm is what you are after charlie.leave humphries like your maker left your hump: behind you.
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Yes, Innocent When You Dream is a great book. I am enjoying it right now, bought from Amazon Marketplace for ~$7 shipped.
Toshi says the Japanese translation of the Humphries book is rather good -- which could say more about the translator than the original.
Humphries book has some misinformation. For one, he has Waits living in the LA area in the very early 70's, when in fact he was still living in the San Diego area. Humphries states that California became part of the US after the Spanish American War, which isn't true. The Mexican-American War of 1846-48 was the war in which the US took the Desert Southwest and California from Mexico. The Spanish-American War was fought in 1898 to free Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines from 4 centuries of Spanish rule. That sort of mistake is unforgivable.
Humphries attempts to give the reader a perspective on what was going on in the world of music during various times of Waits' career, but he overdoes it and "name checks" way to many musicians and entertainers. He fails, however, to name people like Mike Melvoin and Jim Hughart (though he did name Shelley Manne) who worked on Waits albums in the 70's, and helped him compose the jazz instrumentals for some of the spoken word pieces on "Nighthawks" and "Small Change."
Yes, it would be great if Waits wrote an autobiography. I doubt he will, though. I would wager that Waits would invite Crystal Gayle to do some duets with him on a future tour on stage and sing "Wages of Love" and "Tired of Pickin' Up After You" before writing a book about himself!
Small Change, Humphries' first book on Waits was such a dud I never bothered with the latest one. Agree with everyone who says Innocent When You Dream is superb. Has anyone read Wild Years? Is it any good?
In light of Hoskyns's book, you might be interested to know that you can download a 2-part interview he conducted with Waits around the time Mule Variations was released. Cost: 1.98 Euros:
http://www.starzik.com/mp3/produits/Interview_By_Barney_Hoskyns___
Part_1-192596.html
According to target.com the book will be published on April 14 next year - so it should arrive just in time for my birthday on the 21st. Nice.
http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/016_02/3855
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