Tom Waits

Thomas Alan Waits born December 7 1949 is an American musician composer songwriter and actor His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep gravelly voice He worked primarily in jazz during the 1970s but his music since the 1980s has reflected greater influence from blues rock vaudeville and experimental genres Waits was born and raised in a middleclass family in Whittier California Inspired by the work of Bob Dylan and the Beat Generation he began singing on the San Diego folk music circuit as a young boy He relocated to Los Angeles in 1972 where he worked as a songwriter before signing a recording contract with Asylum Records His first albums were the jazzoriented Closing Time 1973 and The Heart of Saturday Night 1974 which reflected his lyrical interest in nightlife poverty and criminality He repeatedly toured the United States Europe and Japan and attracted greater critical recognition and commercial success with Small Change 1976 Blue Valentine 1978 and Heartattack and Vine 1980 He produced the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppolas film One from the Heart 1981 and subsequently made cameo appearances in several Coppola films In 1980 Waits married Kathleen Brennan split from his manager and record label and moved to New York City With Brennans encouragement and frequent collaboration he pursued a more experimental and eclectic musical aesthetic influenced by the work of Harry Partch and Captain Beefheart This was reflected in a series of albums released by Island Records including Swordfishtrombones 1983 Rain Dogs 1985 and Franks Wild Years 1987 He continued appearing in films notably starring in Jim Jarmuschs Down by Law 1986 and also made theatrical appearances With theatre director Robert Wilson he produced the musicals The Black Rider 1990 and Alice 1992 first performed in Hamburg Having returned to California in the 1990s his albums Bone Machine 1992 The Black Rider 1993 and Mule Variations 1999 earned him increasing critical acclaim and multiple Grammy Awards In the late 1990s he switched to the record label ANTI which released Blood Money 2002 Alice 2002 Real Gone 2004 and Bad as Me 2011 Despite a lack of mainstream commercial success Waits has influenced many musicians and gained an international cult following and several biographies have been written about him In 2015 he was ranked at No 55 on Rolling Stones 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011 Description above from the Wikipedia article Tom Waits licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia