Tom Waits Interview on CBC: "Burma Shave"

[falitosis]

If only she'd have been a bit more patient

[whateveritsnoyes]

Thanks for uploading this, debibulated. The only video footage of Tom in his Tropicana Motel apartment (as far as I know).

Also, I like the way he sings, "He didn't seem to be like any guy she'd ever known.." on here, as opposed to on the record. It sounds sweeter, somehow.

[ubreakinmepatlisa]

Tom Waits is an autistic savant, thank God.

[diddywahdaddy]

This clip actually brings me to tears... each and every take of Burma Shave I've seen and heard has its life of its own. This, however, is the best ever - to me, at least.

[RisaPaige]

I cried too. Beautiful.

[stripetuffy]

none better

[29rep]

I actually cried a little. That was fucking amazing, beyond any words.

[fman707]

Can't blame you, I've been a Waits' fan for many years but this is a gem. His hat is also different, what a great clip. I mean a real recording in a home-like setting. Love it! We are lucky to be watching this! This is the most authentic video I've seen in a long time. Thank you DEBIBULATED, wherever in Canada you may be!

[diddywahdaddy]

Amen to that!! The fact that it's actually Flo & Eddie interviewing him is cool, but so very secondary when he starts working on the piano, let the words flow, make the air in the room move and lets his soul out. To have things like this on DVD... Anyway, it's a fantastic version, how can one not cry? I'm into tears myself. There's music and there's music. Wow.

[himrawkz]

fucking genoius. btw anyone else think he might have had some form of ADD or something? just notice on his older interviews hes sort of gangly

[LandoftheShanks]

@himrawkz

He was just a nervous sort of guy. He did a lot of chain smoking, he did a lot of drinking. He wasn't ADD though.

ADD, if you have a look see, is ten times worse. Some people have fits of screaming and oye...

[sclogse1]

Gold.

IF you go to Waits web site, there's a lot of free audio downloads from his tour in 2008. (Today is Nov 2, 2009)

[doretgar]

how does he make the piano sounds so blue?? and btw anyone knows the tabs?

canadian tv is the best!

[sclogse1]

MIght be some flanging due to the video sound being uneven. Otherwise, it's the sound bouncing around in the upright. INteresting to hear the final version, which has much more development in the piano lines...this piano here is so repetitive, that one should be able to just sit down and find this notes.

[axldbaxr]

This is absolutely brilliant...pure genius.

[chantsdumort]

of all the great songs hes done, burma shave is probably my favorite... licorice tatoos turn a gun metal blue scrawled across the shoulders of a dying town... amazing

[sclogse1]

check out the lyrics to Widows Grove on the Orphans 3 CD set.....that thing...that song...wow. And Get Behind The Mule is a great tune.

[stripetuffy]

blistering performance

jh

[znajka]

isn't he also beautiful when he sings?

[normanplombe]

damn, i just realized-the voice of tom waits in the talkup to this song is the voice of heath ledger's joker....

[Emmy070]

i kinda noticed that too when he'd talk in interviews.

[mattydana]

Apparently, Heath Ledger based his character loosely off of Mr. Waits.

[229095]

Actually it is. For example, remember how Johnny Depp based Jack Sparrow on Keith Richards?

[lloydallisonyoung]

I don't think it was that seriously based off of Waits. Depp's was more or less an emulation of Richards - Heath wasn't THAT similar.

[xXTheSockRockerXx]

Apparently Tom Waits, Alex from a Clockwork Orange and Sid Vicious were all sources of inspiration for Ledger.

[diddywahdaddy]

Damn, I just realized - the two interviewers were FLO& EDDIE aka Mark Volman and Eddie Kaylan (Turtles, Zappa's Mothers)!!!

[sourxtimes]

I love this man so much.

[diddywahdaddy]

No problems with understanding that at all, he manages to make my tears flow, pouring from the eyes but starting from the core of my soul and travelling through the bottom of my heart, he's so full of plain human beauty and the best of real creativity squeezed out of a living, absorbing mind...and besides that, he's funny as hell. Yeah, I love him too. How can one not.

[Gballz1981]

He is a living piece of art,I wish I could write/play songs like this.

[jossycuz]

Waits is a legend!

[leirgauk]

hahaha canadian tv rocks! stoner tv ftw!

[strongf]

plain wonderful, nothing less! a musical genius, thats a FACT!

[tone2thebone]

for me this is musical perfection, must have watched it over 100 times by now....

[rockrocket]

we all know that we can't compare tom waits with anybody. sorry ben harper's fan.

[tweetermkyman]

Before and for a while after he met Kathleen he was using drugs and drinking way more. After the birth of his children he has been clean. And to the guy who said Ben Harper is not a druggie, well he is a pot smoker, heavy pot smoker. There's even pictures of him smoking joints.

[tone2thebone]

amazing

[blackmanson]

One of my favourite songs. The lyrics tell an incredible story

[scarabaeid]

It's so depressingly beautiful..

[frenchy5150]

great stuff...i guess he was doing a lot of blow and so many cigarettes and a six pack once in a while...

[debibulated]

He wasn't into drugs. Booze, yes.

[squirmypuppy]

really? no drugs???

he's got to be a pothead

all great musicians are

particularly blues/jazz/beatnik musicians

and he seems very coked out a lot

but he is a crazy bastard like that

[PlatonicFriend]

He has never eluded to or admitted he did coke. all the musicians I know who were into that usually stated so. Eric clapton,the greatful dead, hell even woody gunthrie

[NeverReality]

To people who don't know a lot about drugs it would appear that he is 'coked' out a lot. Honestly, I always thought that he dabbled in drugs that are worse then cocaine but I don't really know. Some of his later stuff, as beautiful as it is, comes off as pretty messed up.

He's definitely one of my favorite musicians, definitely a huge influence in my writing.

[chainyrabbit]

Im reading a book on him at the moment and it says hes never been intrested by drugs, only drink and smoke

[shanethepoet]

I tend to disagree with you. Not all great musicans are druggies. Ben Harper...great fucking musican not a drugy. But Tom Waits don't need crack or anyhting to be fucking awsome. He is my favorite musican without a doubt.

[siasia2]

yes he was - he was hooked into the "big freeze" for a long while

[cmhimaging]

I have heard that Zappa was clean too. Funny that... so many people try to propagate the drugs=creativity cliché, but two of the most creative musicians I can think of didn't use.

[torpedopants]

Actually, there is an interview that Jim Jarmusch does with him where he talks about buying coke from a guy with a bleeding gunshot wound. Other people have stated that they knew Tom to drink, and occasionally smoke weed and do a bit of blow, but Tom himself has never elaborated on it much besides the story he told Jim. Check it out online.

[ButzisAroma]

@debibulated

He did actually use some cocaine during this period, but infrequently. A chapter of Low Side of the Road, A Life of Tom Waits, he tells a story about going to a dealer's apartment to score and finding the guy had been shot by the time he arrived. His chest was all bandaged up, and he was bleeding on the coffee table as they counted the money. He gave up the booze (He's a 12-stepper) and the cigarettes too.

Tom and Bette dated on and off for several years.

[benway15]

@ButzisAroma Where did this information come from? I've got a couple of books on him but I haven't read them yet. I'm a big fan but haven't ever heard him speak of cocaine. I know he lies a lot though, but this would be a pretty heavy lie...his lies are normally light hearted.

[ButzisAroma]

@benway15

Low Side of the Road: The Lives of Tom Waits. He was a dabbler with some drugs in some social situations, but preferred the hooch. This colorful tale from the book could very well be a fabrication, or at the very least an exaggeration. You never know with Tom I suppose - he says his entire persona is a 'ventriloquist act". Great fucking book of the man's life up the present though.

[latthewmarkin]

@debibulated alcohol is a drug.

[minimonkey252]

@debibulated

>wasn't into drugs

>booze

oh you

[PlatonicFriend]

even if you see him now when he performs he does the same thing. I guess it helps his stagefright

[KtZA7]

music,expression,human,honest,­talent,genius,honest,honest...­TOM WAITS

[sourxtimes]

I love this song.

[mikeincalifornia]

That's such beautiful piano playing. So simple, so perfect. Takes my breath away. Thanks for posting this.

[SCLOGSE]

It ain't a pork pie hat. I have one...and not a cheap one...this isn't a pork pie....think of lester young when you talk of pork pie....different shape.

[SCLOGSE]

Tom Rocks...literally...So, my question, is...what style of hat is that he's wearing....he wears it on the australian tv show interview....great hat...

Note how Tom knows how to cut the goofiness and hit the keyboards.....

[bigswifty219]

and it's at least an inch too small on him!

[bigswifty219]

That's a 'pork-pie' hat. wiki_p it.

[Alasdairo]

Love that hat, anyone know what it is?

[torpedopants]

@Alasdairo No, it's not a pork-pie. It's called a Trilby, and yes its too small. A pork-pie is actually flat on top, thus the "pie" description.

[fungiat]

grazie!!!!!!!!!!

[fungiat]

the most beautyfull performance of a song that i do love... burma shave, despite of alchool, the music and liric are great and.. i'm italian, don't know so much words in english.. e' grande, sentita, profonda, un richiamo profondo come una vertigine, la paura e la voglia di cadere, le due sensazioni insieme. e' quello che ci fa vivere, e ci trascina allo stesso tempo

[Whatadump]

Youtube has been drinking...not me. Great vid, thanks for posting it.

[lemmymorton]

Love Waits. Hate youtube!

[DammitSteve]

genius - one of the best Waits performances I've seen. thanks for upping this

[MrGreenGenes]

WTF..Flo and Eddie on CBC??

Did they air the FLo and eddie show or did they host something else!?!

[debibulated]

I have no idea what the connection was with the CBC. I imagine it is the same Flo & Eddie show you know. I hadn't heard of their show before until I caught this on a retrospective of CBC shows for some anniversary. I guess it was a big hit in their line-up back in the 70's. I'm glad they chose this episode to re-air.

[MrGreenGenes]

There was some stuff on youtube form the show..Interviewing David Bowie...and someone else.

Did they re-air this recently?

[debibulated]

About three/four years ago. I have the David Bowie talk too, and Flo & Eddie singing with David Cassidy (Partridge Family dude).

[chukcanuk]

@debibulateFlo and Eddie were on the Peter Gzowski show regularly. I had the pleasure of interviewing them in Mtl once.

[baronmorris]

inspiring.

[bigdrop18]

no doubt.. this is pretty good. Thanks

[bonecone]

Whouhh! This is great. Thank you very many.