Tom Waits Roger Waters

drewpropsdrewprops
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I saw Tom Waits on PBS tonight and he sang a song of his from 1980 called "On The Nickel" . As I listened to it warning lights flashed on my map.....because the melody sounded EXACTLY like something from a Roger Waters album (The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking).



If somebody can shed some light on this it would be appreciated....I'm doing the usual googling right now to try to find out the answer to this one....Waters' album came out in 1984 by the way.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    superkarate monkeydeathcarsuperkarate monkeydeathcar Posts: 2,407member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by drewprops

    I saw Tom Waits on PBS tonight and he sang a song of his from 1980 called "On The Nickel" . As I listened to it warning lights flashed on my map.....because the melody sounded EXACTLY like something from a Roger Waters album (The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking).



    If somebody can shed some light on this it would be appreciated....I'm doing the usual googling right now to try to find out the answer to this one....Waters' album came out in 1984 by the way.



    i know the performance your talking about from tom, he quotes quite heavily from the australian folk song "waltzing matilda" in the intro, which he would again do for "tom traubert's blues" on the album small change.

    i don't have my copy of pros and cons handy (it's an album in a box some where)
  • Reply 2 of 11
    aquafireaquafire Posts: 2,758member
    Yep it does sound similar..but then people take riffs off each other all the time.....Love on the Nickel...

    What ever happens to little boys who never comb their hair...



    Also reminds me of Tom Waits & Crystal Gail singing duets for the soundtrack of " One from the heart " That Zeotrope studios film that nearly killed Francis Ford Coppella. Good music indeed 8)
  • Reply 3 of 11
    superkarate monkeydeathcarsuperkarate monkeydeathcar Posts: 2,407member
    ok i dug out the lp and i know what drew props means. waits does quote waltzing matilda, but in the regular verses of the song the tune is similar to 4:30 a.m. (apparently they were traveling abroad). they share a nursery rhymey/sing songy kind of melody.
  • Reply 4 of 11
    superkarate monkeydeathcarsuperkarate monkeydeathcar Posts: 2,407member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by aquafire

    Yep it does sound similar..but then people take riffs off each other all the time.....Love on the Nickel...

    What ever happens to little boys who never comb their hair...



    Also reminds me of Tom Waits & Crystal Gail singing duets for the soundtrack of " One from the heart " That Zeotrope studios film that nearly killed Francis Ford Coppella. Good music indeed 8)



    i was pleased to see the "one from the heart" tracks in the itunes music store.
  • Reply 5 of 11
    aquafireaquafire Posts: 2,758member
    I was pleased to see the "one from the heart" tracks in the itunes music store.



    Yep, a good move..as far as I know, One from the Heart has been deleted from mainstream music store catalogues..

    I sometimes listen to it when slightly pissed & sentimental..You wouldn't think that CG & TW would sound great together..but they're a little suprise package indeed.

    Re : the Waltzing Matilda thing..Tom picked that tune up after his first Oz tour back in the very early 80's & as far as I know went on to incorporate in into other live gigs etc....

    My memory tricks me, but was "On the Nickel" a track from " Heart attack & Vine " ?
  • Reply 6 of 11
    superkarate monkeydeathcarsuperkarate monkeydeathcar Posts: 2,407member
    yeah it's heart attack and vine, but small change was four years earlier with "tom trauberts blues" which incorporates waltzing matilda.

    but speaking of duets, he did one with bette midler on foreign affairs called "i never talk to strangers" where waits delivers the line "you must be readin' my mail" quite deftly.

    tom waits is an american treasure.
  • Reply 7 of 11
    aquafireaquafire Posts: 2,758member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by superkarate monkeydeathcar

    yeah it's heart attack and vine, but small change was four years earlier with "tom trauberts blues" which incorporates waltzing matilda.

    but speaking of duets, he did one with bette midler on foreign affairs called "i never talk to strangers" where waits delivers the line "you must be readin' my mail" quite deftly.

    tom waits is an american treasure.



    Actually got vague memories of that duet. Speaking of which, I went to one of BM's concerts & someone in the audience shouted out for her to " Show us yer tits "..Mmmmm...in a flash she was prancing about bare boobed..all jiggly & laughing..the crowd went wild, hooting & whistling..what a trooper !



    I also seem to remember TW being in a walkin part in a film...Maybe it might have even been One from the Heart.

    Can you shed some light on this ?
  • Reply 8 of 11
    superkarate monkeydeathcarsuperkarate monkeydeathcar Posts: 2,407member
    he actually had a little acting career going there for a while. coppola loved him and was sticking him in all his movies for a while, he plays a sax player in a band in "one from the heart" but then he got speaking parts in "the outsiders" "rumblefish"& "the cotton club" (all francis movies) but my favorite role was in jim jarmusch's "down by law" which is a must see.

    after that he was in "ironweed" with jack nicholson, and since i think he kind of let acting fall by the wayside.
  • Reply 9 of 11
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by superkarate monkeydeathcar

    i was pleased to see the "one from the heart" tracks in the itunes music store.



    Me too. Gotta love Tom Waits.
  • Reply 10 of 11
    drewpropsdrewprops Posts: 2,321member
    The -only- Tom Waits song that I've ever owned is on a cassette of Red Hot & Blue, the Cole Porter tribute. He sings the song "It's All Right With Me". I might just be able to take a little Tom Waits now and again though, after hearing him on this special. I'll file him in the "I think I'll get drunk now" section of my collection between Roger Waters and Del Amitri.



    I love to hear artists quote each other because when you stumble across the reference it's like finding a "missing link"....kind of like, "HEY! Looky, Africa and South America? They fit like puzzle pieces....yeah lookit!"



    So, if ever I run into either of those guys I'll try to ask about that musical connection.
  • Reply 11 of 11
    superkarate monkeydeathcarsuperkarate monkeydeathcar Posts: 2,407member
    what's funny is now i've listened to pros and cons twice since you started the thread drewprops, and you can actually play a game with the roger waters record "count the musical rip-offs".

    most of the time he's stealing from floyd but there are many others as well. i think he's yet to find his musical chops yet at least in terms of melodies, he's lyrically strong but musically he sometimes relies on to many floyd cliches, or actually wall cliches.



    also i forgot how good clapton is on that album.



    as for waits, i think if you look at his career you can make out two distinct tom waits personage, the early waits which is half folkie/half jazz hipster (the one in the austin city limits) the second waits began with raindogs which saw him turn from folk to avant-garde performance art downtown new york jazz hipster.

    but both write brilliant songs.
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