The thing I always fail to understand how a man can play piano in a subtle way like this, with those crooked hands (look at it on 3:31).
This is my favourit song, I've bougth the album (blue valentines) somewhere in the nineties and heard it for a million times or more. After all this time it still brings me to tears.
"Growin' up". It's about empowerment. Here's the testimony of an adolescent cataloguing that which empowers boys of that age: a catalogue of mischief : breaking windows, smoking cigs', jumping off roofs, etc. But the real empowerment is love: the braggart loves a wheelchair bound friend who could never participate in such acts of empowerment on his own, so the braggart will take action to share such exploits with him, thus empowering his friend also.
Hope Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune--without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. I've heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me. Emily Dickinson
With this song Tom manages to completely focus the listener. There is nothing else happening. It's completely consuming. They used to talk about Miles Davis getting on stage in a club, aim that trumpet down, and play really quietly in a noisy club. He pulled all the energy of the room toward him....everybody shut up, and then there was nothing else heard besides him. He got your full attention. There was only THIS..
Show me a 29-year old musician today, who has the ability to write something this fantastic! It's just so well-written, well-performed and heartfelt that it transcends mere singer/songwriting and becomes something higher, something deeper , something infinitely more beautiful.
My undying love for Tom Waits is the only thing in life that I'm really sure of ...
I am the biggest Tom Waits fan ever! I have a new original song on my channel called "The Stage" that I play with a band. I hope some of you can check it this piano ballad! However, it's not Waits-y at all.
back again...seem to drop by here about once a week. One of the very few times it seems that strings start playing...right at 1:51. And it's just. Well, it's just...it's just....
Go see Barney's Vision, with Paul Giamatti. amazing film...Leaves you with the kind of feeling this song does. Amazing performance by Paul. Amazing film.
Remember the running scene in Tom Hanks Forest Gump, where the braces start coming off beautifully while he begins to run? That's the only visual equivalent to this song I've ever seen.
Tom does, and will, not sing in this style anymore, as the style has the veil of the drunkard singer in it...(not as much as other earlier Waits songs). but what this style accomplished in it's transmission to the listener in so many songs was so rich, so melodic, that he will always be in a class by himself.
@sclogse1 I agree. This is right in the middle of what he was trying to sound like younger in his days, and what doing that ended up doing to his voice. I did hear some fairly good piano ballads at the Orpheum a few years ago.
@sclogse1 I agree. This is right in the middle of what he was trying to sound like younger in his days, and what doing that ended up doing to his voice. Which is right natural for him. I think he just figures without a drink and a cigarette in front of him he shouldn't do it. I did hear some fairly good piano ballads at the Orpheum a few years ago.
You're not gettin' near my rear. How 'bout you just change the strings on my guild 12?
Oh..I need to find a more heartfelt song.....
You know...I saw Cary Grant and Jean Arthur in Only Angels Have Wings, and in the middle, after a flyer has died, they are in a bar where a spanish singer sings one of the most beautiful melodies..in spanish...I bet there's a lot of wonderful songs from Mexico from the last century worth knowing about.
i've just recently discovered Mr. Waits and his genius, and cannot figure out where he's been all my life. i can't stop listening to this song today. it's under my skin, and i feel like there's so much more i need to know about it and about him. this will be a really fun ride. ; )
Pick up Small Change...get blown away by it...Then pick up the party at Nighthawks at The Diner, dabble in the best of Foreign Affairs, some Heart Attack and Vine, then cherry pick through Swordfish Trombone, Frank's Wild years, and Rain Dogs, then own One From The Heart, (The reissue with more) the infamous Bone Machine, and the fabulous Mule Variations, then Alice, and then you're on your own. It's a tremendous journey. Tom Waits Purple Avenue here on youtube is very special.
I'm seeing a lotta cats that really dig this song above all his other stuff. the one that tricks it for me is "Christmas Card". I can't imagine ever getting tired of that tune.
It just doesn't get any better than this. Go buy "Lowside of the Road, a life of Tom Waits" Great biography. It talks about this song and how most of the characters in it were people that Tom knew when he grew up on Kentucky Ave.
If I ever tried to list my top ten favourite songs - and at 55 it isn't easy, there's so much good stuff out there (and a boat load of dross) - there's no question this would be one of them. A haunting song that's lived with me for 30+ years. A classic in sonwriting and vocal.
How do you choose, say, just ten masterpieces from the oeuvre of a prolific genius such as Waits? For me, this has always been in the top ten since I first heard it on 'Blue Valentine' in '78. A magnificent piece of nostalgic Americana, Tom at his lyrically evocative best, which is most of the time. And the title is so cryptic as well - it gives you no anticipation of the hidden theme within. Indescribable poignancy, a great artist at work.
@EwolDJ You are so right................."indescribable poignancy" perfectly sums up the power within this song. I'm a cynical, 40 something, who should know better but this transports me to childhood, evoking images and memories and invariably reduces me to tears..........simply wonderful in every sense.
heard this whispering to me through the speakers at a party one night, followed by somehwere ,had sufficient articulationto ask who was singin,and though gassed to the eyeballs went out and bought asylum years the next day, twenty years on, lost the album but not the memory of this song. thank you .
oh sorry i just found it :) sorry bout that. well i'm the biggest fan of this guy in the world. have all his records, including night on earth on vinyl (a prized possession. meant to be is telling. i just believe that many people take tom seriously enough to believe his words as what has happened, going to his gig in phoenix showed me this. he tells stories, not truth. and i'm sure you realise this too. but still..had to justify myself
Thank you, Tom. This is the inspiring video that finally convinced me to create an account and post a comment. I must have watched this video at least fifty times and it still moves me. I've always been a big Waits fan. And now, with You Tube, and all these previously unknown - at leas to me - videos being shown, it's like falling in love with Tom all over again. So, thank you You Tube, thank you Tom, and thank you trombonestel. Please don't ever take this video down. Cheers.
Thanks 2 Tom one does not have 2 "suffer" in search of metaphors...he did it 4 me...or in stead...What a piece...what a poetry...what a music...what a genius ....
You have favourite songs and you have this one. Always reduces me to tears. Have been listening to this song for over 25 years now and has never lost it's magic. Some things never get lost, this wonderfull song is one of them. Thank you so very much.
for me it's "Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis". I don't think I'llever tire of that song. Bawl like a baby in bars and shit whenever I play it. It's quite embarrassing.
@danzxr Amen. Every time I need to let it out, I just play this...gets me every time. Wish he would only play his schmaltzy sentimental stuff..so good.
I'm reading a biography of Tom Waits by Barney Hoskins, a major T.W. fan himself. In the book, he explains that all of the names in this song are real guys from Tom's childhood, and the boy in the wheelchair was his best friend who used to race Tom to the bus stop in his wheel chair. So beautiful.
I don't disagree....although in this same book some of these actual chidlhood guys were interviewed by name also. But, yeah, Waits can't help but embellish, or make up alot of stuff. It's what he does best sometimes.
i do kinda like his style of lying and exaggeration. actually i lie. i love it. it makes him more mysterious and i guess it gets to keep his privacy :)
well that was justified. the sharing of opinion not allowed anymore? If you don't see the stories he tells as interpretations and beautiful stories, then listen to Randy Newman.
I couldn't have said it better. I first heard this on vinyl, and I remember rather distractedly reading the paper when this song suddenly and stealthily crept up and broke my heart in a hundred places.
One of my favorite Waits songs. His genius of melody, words and raw, honest & heartfelt delivery paint such vividly exquisite images. 4:16 on is truly stirring...still gets me like it did the first time I heard this incredible song.
Without exception the most beautifully written song of childhood innocence, Growing-up climbing tree's, throwing stones and breaking windows - Innocence lost forever!
I am shedding tears as i watch this clip of Kentucky Avenue. It is such a touching piece of work and it reminds me of people who i know and who i have lost along the way in my life. Tom waits is simply astounding!
I love Tom waits, I really do, but can anyone recommend similar artists with songs as beautiful as this one, and on the nickel, postcard from a hooker..., I wish I was in New Orleans etc... (only to compliment my Tom collection!)
frank zappa and warren zevon both have the stange yet beautiful and musical elements. the closest voice would be some of the deeper leonard cohen stuff/ motorheads 1916 album bears some waits like material aswell but in a heavier context
Pick up Joanna Newsom's Milk-Eyed Mender. Writes like E.E. Cummings, and has the great gift of wonderful melody. Has a very curious little voice that hooks you. A major talent, probably born in the wrong age...you can sample it on amazon...
(From the first song, Bridges and Balloons- "A little wicker beetle-shell, with four fine masts and latent sails..."
it prtty much means that his mate is in a wheel chair and he wishes he could take his mate outta the wheelchair and make him fly.. on the wings of a magpie
Tom is like half light or summer rain, the smell of two stroke oil.Painting perfect circles with a tenon saw, dressing the nipples of a 44 with 500gram wet/dry emery paper. Tom you make me glad i'm me thank you with genuine love x
the first time i listened to this i was thinkin god he was a little shit when he was a kid and then he got to the part "i'll take the spokes from your wheel chair and a maggpies wings.....", made me cry a little, still does.
Impossible to have a "favorite" Waits song, but this one packs an emotional wallop. He is a rare artist, capable of deep melancholy and humor sometimes in the same line. He and Ray Davies are my favorite songwriters.
I have to admit it's a song that slowly crept up on me, but once I got into just can't stop listening to it so fantastic, he's captured youth in a song not an easy feat. Love u Tom
ONE OF THE MOST MIXED UP / GREAT GREAT / DONT GET IT . BUT LOVE IT - HATE IT - THEN LOVE IT AGAIN [ THIS WOULD MAKE A PULP FICTION STYLE FILM ] wot the fuck are boson berries
When I listen to this song, i become completely immersed in the world he has created with his music and his lyrics, and his appearance... then it stops and I soberly realise that my life is pretty dumb n dull and I will never EVER be able to live in that world, or be like Waits. ...Thats depressing.lol. But we are lucky to have people like Tom Waits, and Bob Dylan, et all, who can help us escape to different worlds and be able to glimpse life from new perspectives.
I love how the piano music is really dignified, sombre, melancholic, and heartache-esque, you know, but at the same time he's singing about whores playing= strip poker and people who have shot up cars who stab people with steak knives. I love it. Tom, he may not lived life that way directly, but he sure knows how to conjure up the atmosphere and tell a low down tale. Man, uou want to be like him, but you never will be. Its glorious to watch this. One of a kind guy. Wonderful to watch.
Nothing worse than being sat, having a moment, wailing away in a pool of tears when someone comes and tidies up around you. Fuck!
designcredo 1 month ago
OMG! U just burst me into tears...I´m an old man and u just made me remeber true love..
matseman46 1 month ago 3
The thing I always fail to understand how a man can play piano in a subtle way like this, with those crooked hands (look at it on 3:31).
This is my favourit song, I've bougth the album (blue valentines) somewhere in the nineties and heard it for a million times or more. After all this time it still brings me to tears.
MrDiederikDuck 1 month ago 2
One of my favourite Tom Waits songs. I just love this performance.
clongownian1 2 months ago
"Growin' up". It's about empowerment. Here's the testimony of an adolescent cataloguing that which empowers boys of that age: a catalogue of mischief : breaking windows, smoking cigs', jumping off roofs, etc. But the real empowerment is love: the braggart loves a wheelchair bound friend who could never participate in such acts of empowerment on his own, so the braggart will take action to share such exploits with him, thus empowering his friend also.
I can't stop weeping. Thank you Tom.
msirt 2 months ago 2
there's nothing like a Tom Waits binge for falling in love with an old song, for the first time.
AmyPhetamine 2 months ago
BluesYourAss 3 months ago
I love the way his lyrics seem to be taking you down a certain path and then all of a sudden they bitch slap you until you cry like a baby.
78special 3 months ago 2
i love and adore tom waits this song never fails to reduce me to a weeping wreck fantastic.
mammashazza 3 months ago
wow just wow
bakerboy1974 5 months ago
With this song Tom manages to completely focus the listener. There is nothing else happening. It's completely consuming. They used to talk about Miles Davis getting on stage in a club, aim that trumpet down, and play really quietly in a noisy club. He pulled all the energy of the room toward him....everybody shut up, and then there was nothing else heard besides him. He got your full attention. There was only THIS..
sclogse1 6 months ago
Show me a 29-year old musician today, who has the ability to write something this fantastic! It's just so well-written, well-performed and heartfelt that it transcends mere singer/songwriting and becomes something higher, something deeper , something infinitely more beautiful.
My undying love for Tom Waits is the only thing in life that I'm really sure of ...
Mightyplayer 6 months ago 3
@Mightyplayer how true, i am 50 and came across tom when i was 18. i am devoted, this song kills me i love it to the core
mammashazza 3 months ago
i have never herad a song that gave me so much goosebumps
henkklaas13 6 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
I am the biggest Tom Waits fan ever! I have a new original song on my channel called "The Stage" that I play with a band. I hope some of you can check it this piano ballad! However, it's not Waits-y at all.
RocknPak 8 months ago
WOW, say no more
BorrisWhelp 10 months ago
This is one of my favorite songs of Tom's.. It is truly written the heart... and some dear childhood memories.
dmcresco 10 months ago
always gets to me this song .
ALfaDuB101 10 months ago
His accent is awesome!
Lousypenguin 11 months ago
one of the absolute songs I would carry with me wherever I go
I would be a fly just to share a instant while Tom is playing piano
xavos1172 11 months ago
back again...seem to drop by here about once a week. One of the very few times it seems that strings start playing...right at 1:51. And it's just. Well, it's just...it's just....
Go see Barney's Vision, with Paul Giamatti. amazing film...Leaves you with the kind of feeling this song does. Amazing performance by Paul. Amazing film.
sclogse1 1 year ago
back again...seem to drop by here about once a week.
sclogse1 1 year ago
Remember the running scene in Tom Hanks Forest Gump, where the braces start coming off beautifully while he begins to run? That's the only visual equivalent to this song I've ever seen.
Tom does, and will, not sing in this style anymore, as the style has the veil of the drunkard singer in it...(not as much as other earlier Waits songs). but what this style accomplished in it's transmission to the listener in so many songs was so rich, so melodic, that he will always be in a class by himself.
sclogse1 1 year ago
@sclogse1 I agree. This is right in the middle of what he was trying to sound like younger in his days, and what doing that ended up doing to his voice. I did hear some fairly good piano ballads at the Orpheum a few years ago.
anitov 9 months ago
@sclogse1 I agree. This is right in the middle of what he was trying to sound like younger in his days, and what doing that ended up doing to his voice. Which is right natural for him. I think he just figures without a drink and a cigarette in front of him he shouldn't do it. I did hear some fairly good piano ballads at the Orpheum a few years ago.
anitov 9 months ago
82,643
xxparsley 1 year ago
My third favourite song of all time
ardranny 1 year ago
@ardranny
behind...?
benjinut 8 months ago
unmathcatchable. This is the kind of piece that leaves you without words to properly represent it.
basskick10 1 year ago
what i want to know is how the fuck did the waits know all about my childhood? because hes got it down to a tee in this song
TheReegar 1 year ago
Lucky's sound real good now, mmm.... of course good album too, Small Change, Blue Valentine, Foreign Affairs and Hearattack & Vine are my favorites.
maliciousRainDog 1 year ago
if there's a more heartfelt song than this I will kiss your ass
pretorious700 1 year ago
@pretorious700
You're not gettin' near my rear. How 'bout you just change the strings on my guild 12?
Oh..I need to find a more heartfelt song.....
You know...I saw Cary Grant and Jean Arthur in Only Angels Have Wings, and in the middle, after a flyer has died, they are in a bar where a spanish singer sings one of the most beautiful melodies..in spanish...I bet there's a lot of wonderful songs from Mexico from the last century worth knowing about.
Check out the lyrics to Tom's Widow's Grove.
sclogse1 1 year ago
fantastic song - i dont know any body else capable of writing a song like this
cinedores 1 year ago
@cinedores never heard a truer word in my life
TheReegar 1 year ago
i was born at a very young age
cbertish 1 year ago
If Tom had only done this one song...he'd still be the best thing that ever happened to me in the last 35 years.
sclogse1 1 year ago 3
i've just recently discovered Mr. Waits and his genius, and cannot figure out where he's been all my life. i can't stop listening to this song today. it's under my skin, and i feel like there's so much more i need to know about it and about him. this will be a really fun ride. ; )
24voices 1 year ago
@24voices
Pick up Small Change...get blown away by it...Then pick up the party at Nighthawks at The Diner, dabble in the best of Foreign Affairs, some Heart Attack and Vine, then cherry pick through Swordfish Trombone, Frank's Wild years, and Rain Dogs, then own One From The Heart, (The reissue with more) the infamous Bone Machine, and the fabulous Mule Variations, then Alice, and then you're on your own. It's a tremendous journey. Tom Waits Purple Avenue here on youtube is very special.
sclogse1 1 year ago
i tried cohen, i tried cave, i tried dylan... but i always come back to old tom....
you're awesome!
Nightwizard17 1 year ago 17
We'll hope that freight train in the hall.
Slide all the way down the drain
To new Orleans in the fall
Tom waits for no man
MrJohnered 1 year ago
I'm seeing a lotta cats that really dig this song above all his other stuff. the one that tricks it for me is "Christmas Card". I can't imagine ever getting tired of that tune.
RenoRaider 1 year ago 2
It just doesn't get any better than this. Go buy "Lowside of the Road, a life of Tom Waits" Great biography. It talks about this song and how most of the characters in it were people that Tom knew when he grew up on Kentucky Ave.
suaveray 1 year ago
Tom walks that fine line line between sentimentality and the truth.
TreyRoque 1 year ago
this song gets more beautiful every time i hear it.
lakajirasalome 1 year ago 2
This might just be the most beautifull song im aware of dammit!! Takes you all back to those happy days!!
MoffeAnimal 1 year ago
If I ever tried to list my top ten favourite songs - and at 55 it isn't easy, there's so much good stuff out there (and a boat load of dross) - there's no question this would be one of them. A haunting song that's lived with me for 30+ years. A classic in sonwriting and vocal.
MACHAWK123 1 year ago
I repeat - genius!
MACHAWK123 1 year ago
The most emotional performance of the best song ever written and he forgets the best line......:(
"I'll take a rusty nail and scratch your initials on my arm"
DixieNarko 1 year ago 2
Genius
MACHAWK123 1 year ago
Each and every time I hear this song I'm 10yrs old again with my 8 and a half year old brother Dave. I'm transported... true genius. Thanks Tom
paultoner01 1 year ago
the best romance song ever written! ***** AWESOME
Speedfeuer 1 year ago
How do you choose, say, just ten masterpieces from the oeuvre of a prolific genius such as Waits? For me, this has always been in the top ten since I first heard it on 'Blue Valentine' in '78. A magnificent piece of nostalgic Americana, Tom at his lyrically evocative best, which is most of the time. And the title is so cryptic as well - it gives you no anticipation of the hidden theme within. Indescribable poignancy, a great artist at work.
EwolDJ 1 year ago
@EwolDJ You are so right................."indescribable poignancy" perfectly sums up the power within this song. I'm a cynical, 40 something, who should know better but this transports me to childhood, evoking images and memories and invariably reduces me to tears..........simply wonderful in every sense.
10003949 1 year ago
This is so much better than on the album. Beautiful
ailsaailsa 1 year ago
My master, my favourite song. Saw him twice and still didn't here this one live. Hope that the third will be in Portugal and finally will hear it.
jcbelo 1 year ago
@jcbelo So you know anything bout Tom is going to have some more concerts ? If you do, please let me know :)
Od1n90 1 year ago
love it
eoinderis 1 year ago
ho scoperto questa canzone in un negozio di dischi a New Rochelle (NY) ed ogni singolo ascolto è una nuova emozione
MrAnthonystar 1 year ago
Tom this song is perfect it says so much man. I make music like this. The real truth is a mans own truth.
sadsadlyme 1 year ago
Amo la música de Tom,ésta canción , la historia de la canción relata lo que sentí con mi ex novia. una maravilla. Gracias Tom.
fetobe69 1 year ago
Funny how it seems that strings seem to enter at 1:53, but it's just the way he modulates his voice...and then the way we respond......
sclogse1 1 year ago
sentimental assholes
disalitervisum 1 year ago
Let me guess...you're running for ambassador to Palistine.
I've never heard sentimental and assholes used together...that's like having a 6.38's shotgun.
sclogse1 1 year ago
where i can download this version ? plzz tell mee
maglivi 1 year ago
Right here. If you have a mac, you can use audio hijack to grab it and leave it as a aiff on your desktop.
Windows must have the equivalent.
I have used audio hijack to also record plenty of internet radio. It works on safari, DVD, Itunes....
sclogse1 1 year ago
heard this whispering to me through the speakers at a party one night, followed by somehwere ,had sufficient articulationto ask who was singin,and though gassed to the eyeballs went out and bought asylum years the next day, twenty years on, lost the album but not the memory of this song. thank you .
whatsthiscalled1 1 year ago
The simplest famous things!!!! Stunning!
6ollie66 1 year ago
I cry every time I hear this without fail
andyrosstate 1 year ago 3
It's gonna be tough to leave this world someday.
sclogse1 1 year ago 9
oh sorry i just found it :) sorry bout that. well i'm the biggest fan of this guy in the world. have all his records, including night on earth on vinyl (a prized possession. meant to be is telling. i just believe that many people take tom seriously enough to believe his words as what has happened, going to his gig in phoenix showed me this. he tells stories, not truth. and i'm sure you realise this too. but still..had to justify myself
sausagekiller 1 year ago
Thank you, Tom. This is the inspiring video that finally convinced me to create an account and post a comment. I must have watched this video at least fifty times and it still moves me. I've always been a big Waits fan. And now, with You Tube, and all these previously unknown - at leas to me - videos being shown, it's like falling in love with Tom all over again. So, thank you You Tube, thank you Tom, and thank you trombonestel. Please don't ever take this video down. Cheers.
bandwagonfred 1 year ago 6
Thanks 2 Tom one does not have 2 "suffer" in search of metaphors...he did it 4 me...or in stead...What a piece...what a poetry...what a music...what a genius ....
madrussian1000 1 year ago
Im so glad that i was forced to play piano as a child
boru1982 2 years ago
I just wanna cry
GuyClinch71 2 years ago
You have favourite songs and you have this one. Always reduces me to tears. Have been listening to this song for over 25 years now and has never lost it's magic. Some things never get lost, this wonderfull song is one of them. Thank you so very much.
danzxr 2 years ago 19
for me it's "Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis". I don't think I'llever tire of that song. Bawl like a baby in bars and shit whenever I play it. It's quite embarrassing.
RenoRaider 2 years ago
@danzxr Amen. Every time I need to let it out, I just play this...gets me every time. Wish he would only play his schmaltzy sentimental stuff..so good.
kennhiser 6 months ago
I'm reading a biography of Tom Waits by Barney Hoskins, a major T.W. fan himself. In the book, he explains that all of the names in this song are real guys from Tom's childhood, and the boy in the wheelchair was his best friend who used to race Tom to the bus stop in his wheel chair. So beautiful.
peggyjonni 2 years ago 4
Even though it sounds beautiful, i have a feeling Mr Waits i teling pork pies half the time
sausagekiller 2 years ago
I don't disagree....although in this same book some of these actual chidlhood guys were interviewed by name also. But, yeah, Waits can't help but embellish, or make up alot of stuff. It's what he does best sometimes.
peggyjonni 2 years ago
P.S. replying to sausagekiller's last comment
peggyjonni 2 years ago
Comment removed
sclogse1 1 year ago
i'd like to know where i wrote that. clarification on what exactly?
sausagekiller 1 year ago
i do kinda like his style of lying and exaggeration. actually i lie. i love it. it makes him more mysterious and i guess it gets to keep his privacy :)
sausagekiller 2 years ago
Comment removed
RenoRaider 1 year ago
well that was justified. the sharing of opinion not allowed anymore? If you don't see the stories he tells as interpretations and beautiful stories, then listen to Randy Newman.
sausagekiller 1 year ago
adesso mi sento un po' come in questa canzone...
SELECTER73 2 years ago
Came here to get a little before hitting the sack....I've watched this maybe twenty times. I'm crying like a baby.
sclogse1 2 years ago 4
only a few songs you will ever hear in your life will make time stand still.....this is one of them
pretorious700 2 years ago 5
I couldn't have said it better. I first heard this on vinyl, and I remember rather distractedly reading the paper when this song suddenly and stealthily crept up and broke my heart in a hundred places.
RodneyWelch 2 years ago 4
One of my favorite Waits songs. His genius of melody, words and raw, honest & heartfelt delivery paint such vividly exquisite images. 4:16 on is truly stirring...still gets me like it did the first time I heard this incredible song.
rockyljp 2 years ago 3
Its beautiful isn't it - I had tears in my eyes the first time I ever heard this.
Resenbrink 2 years ago
yeah, me too
pretorious700 2 years ago
he needs more cigarettes...
mert16 2 years ago
danke, danke, D A N K E ! ! !
vol89pone 2 years ago
eine der besten aufnahmen die ich jeh gesehn habe!!! mehr gefühl kann man nicht vermitteln!!! danke tom!!!!
BioReiswaffel 2 years ago
just the best..
sumbie25 2 years ago
This is my favorite song. It has so many references to my childhood.
joshchandler13 2 years ago
It's one of the deepest Waits Songs.... Great, beautyful and fragile.... unbelievable
thomas56283 2 years ago 4
Beautiful - makes me yearn for a place I wasn't, a time that will never be, and a person I will never know. The Tom Waits Magic I suppose...
hypnotoads 2 years ago
Brilliant!
Tonefid115 2 years ago
Tom, you are such a romantic fucker at heart. Your music brings tears to my swear glands.
Uncle Fester
YourUncleFester 2 years ago 53
@YourUncleFester
ta musique me fait venir les larmes aux couilles !!
c bien ça que t'as écrit ?!?
courriernord 1 year ago
Wonderfully so.
6ollie66 2 years ago 2
GREAT !
punkrocker1974 2 years ago
indescribable..
KawaiiMofia 2 years ago
STUPENDA !!!
sigey1 2 years ago 2
Americas homey Soul. Full of eminisce on Grandpa´s aul´d pocketwatch.
Wunderbar!
ozeangruen 2 years ago
Almost anyone can relate to this Masterpiece.
Without exception the most beautifully written song of childhood innocence, Growing-up climbing tree's, throwing stones and breaking windows - Innocence lost forever!
Never fails to move me - Thank you Tom
Raindog309 2 years ago 6
Beautiful love song! I agree. I haven't listened to Blue
Valentines in a while. What a great album.
blastofre 2 years ago 3
My friend Frank thinks this song is rubbish.
He's such a dumbass.
HEY, DUMBASS, WHATCHUTHINK A THAT?
drumm23 2 years ago
Is he a six foot tall bunny rabbit?
TehSkeh 2 years ago
This song always makes me wanna help someone out who might be having hard times...
CANDOKNOWHOW 2 years ago 2
Is this the finest love song ever written ? I fancy it must come close.
kevcoatbridge 2 years ago 3
It is the finest love song ever written
markbooyah 2 years ago 3
i think it get's just edged by 'take it with me'
786hanif 1 year ago
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sclogse1 1 year ago
As well as a great musician, his lyrics hits the spot ...
Happy birthday Tom ...
roor06 2 years ago 4
His lyrics come as close to real poetry than any other lyricist.
bigjobformom 2 years ago 7
i was born at a very young age lol
544325 2 years ago 5
It always moves me to tears. Tom turns 60 this year.
Fleagle27 2 years ago 3
just this...my friends ...is poetry ..just this!!!
alexnas81 2 years ago 4
such a touching song, captures the essence of childhood very well
Troken7 2 years ago 4
poetry, music, mixed togheter: we can't ask anything else to an artist.
and Tom is such an Artist
dottorluca 2 years ago 7
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snaebjorn53 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
lay off the smokes man ...
KentuckyLane1984 2 years ago
Lay on the smokes man . . .
ShadowCrashed81 2 years ago 3
the best romance song ever written!
natemoore88 2 years ago
I am shedding tears as i watch this clip of Kentucky Avenue. It is such a touching piece of work and it reminds me of people who i know and who i have lost along the way in my life. Tom waits is simply astounding!
clocktower7 2 years ago 7
Great voice , great songs , a poet .
torreart 2 years ago 4
ich kann nur meinen hut ziehen....es ist so lange her, war damals 18, für mich nach wie vor einer der besten songs überhaupt.....
Joymaker13 2 years ago
Thanks to all the suggestions, cheers
Christoph888 2 years ago
thank you for sharing that - beautiful.
suzireid 2 years ago
i love how the talking of the orgin of the song melts into the intro.
josheatsdonuts 2 years ago
i like pretending hes talking about kentucky--my home state.
sickofdao 2 years ago
Outstanding!
tontokurt 2 years ago 4
This is the ONLY known video recording of Kentucky Avenue. Thanks for sharing.
Jostoc 2 years ago 3
there was a beautiful old black and white movie that was removed I wish these things could be saved it was tops
jh
stripetuffy 2 years ago
I love Tom waits, I really do, but can anyone recommend similar artists with songs as beautiful as this one, and on the nickel, postcard from a hooker..., I wish I was in New Orleans etc... (only to compliment my Tom collection!)
Christoph888 2 years ago
I truly don't believe there are any similar artists. He is one of a kind. A genius.
bevyg49 2 years ago 4
Harold Arlen...
(A Sleepin' Bee, This Time's The Dreams On Me, Over The Rainbow, etc.)
Check out One More For The Road, an excellent Toots Thielemans CD on amazon, all Harold Arlen songs...with different singers for each one....wonderful
sclogse1 2 years ago
frank zappa and warren zevon both have the stange yet beautiful and musical elements. the closest voice would be some of the deeper leonard cohen stuff/ motorheads 1916 album bears some waits like material aswell but in a heavier context
TomRAFC 2 years ago
Pick up Joanna Newsom's Milk-Eyed Mender. Writes like E.E. Cummings, and has the great gift of wonderful melody. Has a very curious little voice that hooks you. A major talent, probably born in the wrong age...you can sample it on amazon...
(From the first song, Bridges and Balloons- "A little wicker beetle-shell, with four fine masts and latent sails..."
sclogse1 2 years ago
It is Lateen Sails. Sailing reference.
ericmower 2 years ago
Interesting. but i had to get back to Tom. has definite possibilities. thanks for the reference.
RenoRaider 2 years ago
I love Joe Cockers rendition of "the moon is a harsh mistress". if you can find that listen to it. but like bevyg said, tom really is one of a kind.
RenoRaider 2 years ago
Tom Waits for President ...
Gets ma vote ...
roor06 2 years ago 2
can someone upload the studio version..?
planb776 2 years ago
Blue Valentine is the album. Buy it, you really won't regret it :-)
anononomous 2 years ago 6
Tom Wait's you mimick southern blues and jazz brilliantly...boy you got it down.
That is your gift...praise God, or praise that you got the gift. Talent it is...not everyone has it.
Vearlsriver 2 years ago
it prtty much means that his mate is in a wheel chair and he wishes he could take his mate outta the wheelchair and make him fly.. on the wings of a magpie
KhuntFayce 2 years ago 4
What don't you understand about it?
chrisrus1 2 years ago 4
I think he means hes going to take his friend from his wheelchair and attach Maggpies to him so he can "walk" or even fly.....and be free
roncronton 3 years ago
Tom is like half light or summer rain, the smell of two stroke oil.Painting perfect circles with a tenon saw, dressing the nipples of a 44 with 500gram wet/dry emery paper. Tom you make me glad i'm me thank you with genuine love x
MaximumMartin 3 years ago 2
There is no place i would rather be on Christmas eve.
gjerrildkro 3 years ago 4
amazing from Fan and Musician CHRIS HOLLY (holly on methadone)
musicmoney21 3 years ago
i use to drink an drive goin between born to run and kentucky avenue.
gjerrildkro 3 years ago
Belated birthday wishes to our best friend Tom.anybody know if tom has any brothers or sisters ??
gjerrildkro 3 years ago
"I'll take the spokes from your wheeelchair* gets me every time. Happy Birthday and god bless
coolhandluke1551 3 years ago 3
The finest Tom Waits song Ever. And there's so, so many. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM FOR 7th DEC 08 59yrs. Sorry, mate, no secrets in the world any longer!
susiepussycat 3 years ago 3
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM ! you did write an opera !
ffruuitube 3 years ago
that would make him 60 now.....damn, I've been listening to him for 40 fucking years and he just gets better
pretorious700 2 years ago 3
the first time i listened to this i was thinkin god he was a little shit when he was a kid and then he got to the part "i'll take the spokes from your wheel chair and a maggpies wings.....", made me cry a little, still does.
alowhite 3 years ago 7
I can't say anything better than Tom Waits.
alphamon7 3 years ago 2
nothing can touch this nothin ' the most heart rippin song ever !
ffruuitube 3 years ago 6
Good to see that so many other people feel the same about waits genius as I do. Ansolutely incomparable...
doktorherb 3 years ago 2
Impossible to have a "favorite" Waits song, but this one packs an emotional wallop. He is a rare artist, capable of deep melancholy and humor sometimes in the same line. He and Ray Davies are my favorite songwriters.
pretorious700 3 years ago
I have to admit it's a song that slowly crept up on me, but once I got into just can't stop listening to it so fantastic, he's captured youth in a song not an easy feat. Love u Tom
mrwaits86 3 years ago
One of his most underrated songs and one his best period.
WheresPoochie 3 years ago
I completely agree! This song makes me want to learn how to play the piano.
Jostoc 3 years ago
ONE OF THE MOST MIXED UP / GREAT GREAT / DONT GET IT . BUT LOVE IT - HATE IT - THEN LOVE IT AGAIN [ THIS WOULD MAKE A PULP FICTION STYLE FILM ] wot the fuck are boson berries
isisbob 3 years ago
Poison berries?
denacioust 3 years ago
Nope. Boysenberries. Look them up on wikipedia. There's more about them than you ever wanted to know...
WalluferInEngland 3 years ago
When I listen to this song, i become completely immersed in the world he has created with his music and his lyrics, and his appearance... then it stops and I soberly realise that my life is pretty dumb n dull and I will never EVER be able to live in that world, or be like Waits. ...Thats depressing.lol. But we are lucky to have people like Tom Waits, and Bob Dylan, et all, who can help us escape to different worlds and be able to glimpse life from new perspectives.
zanklwang09 3 years ago
I love how the piano music is really dignified, sombre, melancholic, and heartache-esque, you know, but at the same time he's singing about whores playing= strip poker and people who have shot up cars who stab people with steak knives. I love it. Tom, he may not lived life that way directly, but he sure knows how to conjure up the atmosphere and tell a low down tale. Man, uou want to be like him, but you never will be. Its glorious to watch this. One of a kind guy. Wonderful to watch.
zanklwang09 3 years ago
Beautiful, I defy anyone to listen to that and not be moved
adriandv7878 3 years ago
God bless Tom Waits.
porkantiko 3 years ago