Tom Waits

JP Liz

Does he have a greatest hits album?

Aspiration

Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards is a collection of old and new stuff. I don't know if I'd call it a Greatest Hits album though.

He also has compilations out too.

Jay P

Greatest hits albums are stupid. Buy actual albums instead and listen to the music properly.

Stef1979

HMV were selling all his albums for like 7.99 each the other week you might get lucky and get a few for the price of one

Fanny Cradock

JP Liz wrote: »

Does he have a greatest hits album?

You don't want to do that. He's being going for over 30 years and his style has change more than a little in that time. It would be impossible to encapsulate his work into a greatish hits album.

His earlier stuff such as Closing Time are probably more accessible to most. His later albums - Raindogs, Alice, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards etc. - though more challenging, are his best, IMO.

humberklog

Jay P wrote: »

Greatest hits albums are stupid. Buy actual albums instead and listen to the music properly.

This is a snobbish nonsense. Directing people into enjoying music as you want them too? Where'd be the enjoyment in that?
A perfect example is Tom Waits. Someone interested in discovering his body of work could easily go wrong in buying a fairly inaccessable album and leave it at that or an album that has only a few accessable numbers and figure that he isn't worth the effort. If a person shows an interest in finding a Greatest Hits (I know, I know, but let's use that term) then having an interest in such a non-manestream,occassionally difficult but occassionally worth it artist then surely it should be encouraged.
I don't think he has other than Orphans (not really). I would suggest downloading a compilation ones self.

Oh and Greatest Hits can work for some with different artist. I myself love Bob Marley's Legend. It's just enough reggae and for me his damn finest. I've only a single loading cd therefore if (being oddly forced to enjoy music the way someone else dictates)I wanted to take a few tracks from Babylon By Bus and soon have to switch to Exodus as there are many songs on both albums I don't like. However I like almost all of legend and can leave it on from start to end whilst I get on with the housework.

Kold

humberklog wrote: »

This is a snobbish nonsense. Directing people into enjoying music as you want them too? Where'd be the enjoyment in that?
A perfect example is Tom Waits. Someone interested in discovering his body of work could easily go wrong in buying a fairly inaccessable album and leave it at that or an album that has only a few accessable numbers and figure that he isn't worth the effort. If a person shows an interest in finding a Greatest Hits (I know, I know, but let's use that term) then having an interest in such a non-manestream,occassionally difficult but occassionally worth it artist then surely it should be encouraged.
I don't think he has other than Orphans (not really). I would suggest downloading a compilation ones self.

Oh and Greatest Hits can work for some with different artist. I myself love Bob Marley's Legend. It's just enough reggae and for me his damn finest. I've only a single loading cd therefore if (being oddly forced to enjoy music the way someone else dictates)I wanted to take a few tracks from Babylon By Bus and soon have to switch to Exodus as there are many songs on both albums I don't like. However I like almost all of legend and can leave it on from start to end whilst I get on with the housework.

I don't know. I think an album should be regarded as a complete work and should be treated and respected as such. If you want to get into the artist there are many places you can test the water; youtube, itunes, lastfm. But the best way to experience music should be to listen to an album start to finish. Greatest Hits tend to be collections made by execs of songs that did commercially well.

OP, I'd advise getting Raindogs. Was the first album I got of his and still probably my favourite. Every song's a cracker. Much less daunting than 3 discs of Orphans.

Jay P

humberklog wrote: »

This is a snobbish nonsense. Directing people into enjoying music as you want them too? Where'd be the enjoyment in that?
A perfect example is Tom Waits. Someone interested in discovering his body of work could easily go wrong in buying a fairly inaccessable album and leave it at that or an album that has only a few accessable numbers and figure that he isn't worth the effort. If a person shows an interest in finding a Greatest Hits (I know, I know, but let's use that term) then having an interest in such a non-manestream,occassionally difficult but occassionally worth it artist then surely it should be encouraged.
I don't think he has other than Orphans (not really). I would suggest downloading a compilation ones self.

Oh and Greatest Hits can work for some with different artist. I myself love Bob Marley's Legend. It's just enough reggae and for me his damn finest. I've only a single loading cd therefore if (being oddly forced to enjoy music the way someone else dictates)I wanted to take a few tracks from Babylon By Bus and soon have to switch to Exodus as there are many songs on both albums I don't like. However I like almost all of legend and can leave it on from start to end whilst I get on with the housework.

Well, that is your opinion. I don't like greatest hits albums because it doesn't give a proper image of the artist. Take Bob Dylan for example. How could you pick out just 15 or 16 songs out of a remarkable catalogue? Then, do you really think you're going to get an accurate picture his music?

Not only that, but greatest hits cds are generally for artists who can't write any more decent music and want to make it seem like they're actually doing something. Then, they get a massive world tour out of it. Or, for artists who want even more money. That said, it's not always the artist who decides to realease one. It can be down to the record label or the artists family who want money and don't want to work properly for it.

delbertgrady

I agree that some compilations are cash-ins and are used to tack on the obligatory two or three new songs to force the die-hards to buy them, but as far as Waits is concerned, Beautiful Maladies: The Island Years (the eighties and early nineties) is an excellent, Waits-endorsed collection, and is as good a place to start as any for a newcomer to his music.

An old collection, The Asylum Years and the more recent Used Songs contain material from the seventies, but these are open to more criticism as compilations, as his style changed quite a bit during the decade, so the track selection is more debatable.

humberklog

delbertgrady wrote: »

I agree that some compilations are cash-ins and are used to tack on the obligatory two or three new songs to force the die-hards to buy them, but as far as Waits is concerned, Beautiful Maladies: The Island Years (the eighties and early nineties) is an excellent, Waits-endorsed collection, and is as good a place to start as any for a newcomer to his music.

An old collection, The Asylum Years and the more recent Used Songs contain material from the seventies, but these are open to more criticism as compilations, as his style changed quite a bit during the decade, so the track selection is more debatable.

Excellent post. Helpful to the OP and informative to the wider.

Some people are inclined to discover an artist in full, others want a pick and mix. Music is best working when it feels personal and this happens when the information is taken on board as the individual listener chooses. Without peer preasure or haughty 'knowing' nods of disapproval until you approach the music in a way that your uncomfortable with but it's the 'right' way. Twaddle.

'Ol Jack Chance

OP to answer your question as mentioned by delbert and speaking from personal experience i recommend a disc called beautiful maladies the island years, its what i bought first of his, gave me a good taster of his music from when he was with island which is really different from his earlier asylum/electra stuff and shows the beginning of his later current stuff, also it has two live songs that iirc i dont think you can get on any other cd. all in all a good doorway into the wierd world of mr waits

vincenzo1975

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOrG1r3S6ZA

If your a Tom waits fan, you gotta watch his press conference for the new tour......

Legend

'Ol Jack Chance

vincenzo1975 wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOrG1r3S6ZA

If your a Tom waits fan, you gotta watch his press conference for the new tour......

Legend

say it with me...ppehdtsckjmba. Tom is the man :pac:

Setun

I find listening to an album a much better way of listening to a musician's work than by listening to a 'best of'. You can clearly hear where he/she was going with their style at a given time in their career, rather than in a 'best of' where there's no flow. As others have mentioned, you're best off listening to a few random tracks of Waits' different albums on lastfm or youtube etc, and buying the albums that you like the sound of.

blastman

What delbertgrady said works for me. If it hadn't been for Asylum Years all those years ago, I might never have gotten into Waits at all. It's an excellent overview of his early career, when he was at his most accessible. Beautiful Maladies is a good summing-up of the middle of his career, when he was releasing classic after classic (Swordfishtrombones/Rain Dogs/Frank's Wild Years/Bone Machine). I would NOT recommend starting with something like The Black Rider or Big Time (probably his most disappointing album, IMO).

vincenzo1975

Hey, trust people to start where they naturally find themselves. there is no signpost into the world of Tom waits, I started with hearing raindogs on the dave fanning sjow in college many years ago and was hooked. I know someone who bought real gone on a whim and is now into it in a big way.

If people have the pallet and taste for what Tom serves up, they will be drawn in no matter where they start, even if the first song is like a door slamming in their face, next time they will hear the magic, or maybe the time after that.

The bottom line is, if you crave cutting edge creativness of just something with a bit more character and personality ten the charts, Tom waits will make an impact.

Trust peoples taste I say!!!!!

eunified61

TOm waits doesn't have a greatest hits album because he didn't have any hits , to suggest Orphans is one is stupid, bounced checks asylum years are compilations. Would suggest you buy Closing Time to see where he started then I would buy each album in turn. But if you want a compilation buy Beautiful Maladies
ON a different point I was at his gig on Aug 1 would like to thank the
McCarthys who swapped seats to let my son and daughter sit with me . They made a fantastic evening even better