Born On This Day... December 7th- Songwriter Tom Waits

He is a bit of a polarizing figure in my circle, some friends just can’t abide him & some can’t get enough & own the boxed sets of his very experimental theatre work, but I am a fan. Singer/songwriter Tom Waits,with a cap pulled low over his brow, a cigarette dangling from his stubbled face, singing in his mumbling jive of a whiskey growl accompanied by any number of sounds, from cool jazz to heartbreaking balladry & then throw in whole the kitchen sink. I have been a fan of this rather bizarre iconoclast who over 4 decades. Waits has developed a timeless & classic catalog of heartfelt tunes as well as an impressive list of screen credits.


Tom Waits claimed to have been born in a moving taxi. He grew up in California, where he listened to Bing Crosby, Stephen Foster parlor songs, & George Gershwin. He also developed an intense admiration for, & identification with, such Beat writers as Jack Kerouac & Charles Bukowski. As a teenager, Waits was living out of a car while working as a doorman at the L.A. nightclub the Heritage when he decided he should be performing & began writing songs based on overheard snatches of conversation. He is responsible for may songs that I admire- Downtown Train, Heart of Saturday Night, The Piano Has Been Drinking, & his amazing cover of Somewhere from West Side Story. But, he remains very important to me as the writer of 1 of my top 10 songs of all time, a song that I want played at my memorial service- Shiver Me Timbers, here presented by his occasional collaborator Bette Midler:

I'm leavin' my fam'ly

Leavin' all my friends

My body's at home

But my heart's in the wind

Where the clouds are like headlines

On a new front page sky

My tears are salt water

& the moon's full & high

& I know Martin Eden's

Gonna be proud of me

& many before me

Who've been called by the sea

To be up in the crow's nest

Singin' my say

Shiver me Timbers

'Cause I'm a-sailin' away

& the fog's liftin'

the sand's shiftin'

I'm driftin' on out
Ol' Captain Ahab

He ain't got nothin' on me, now.

So swallow me, don't follow me

I'm trav'lin' alone

Blue water's my daughter

I'm gonna skip like a stone

So please call my missus

Gotta tell her not to cry

'Cause my goodbye is written

By the moon in the sky

nobody knows me

I can't fathom my stayin'

Shiver me timbers

'Cause I'm a-sailin' away

& I'm leavin' my family

Leavin' all my friends

My body's at home

but my heart's in the wind

Where the clouds are like headlines

Upon a new front page sky

& shiver me timbers

'Cause I'm a-sailin' away