Added: 5 years ago
From: TombyStone
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  • i don't want to hear any other song after this...

    this song is just...painting...

  • I'm so far away from home...

  • and I wondered how the same moon outside

    over this Chinatown fair

    could look down on Illinois

    and find you there

    and you know I love you Baby

  • COOL-EVERYTHING-ESPECIALLY THE GUITAR

  • PERFECT!!!

  • Nine people are fucking stupid.

  • I had the good sense and fortune to catch this movie at the theater on 'the big screen'. I can only hope that it gets released on bluray ASAP. It get's better with each viewing.

  • SHORE LEAVE: My favourite Waits number. Stunning !!!!! - lyrics and music. In an industry full of phoney, this guy's the real deal, talent, genius, originality .

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  • if Tom Waits him self can talk to me in this moment he would say "drink some more, the pain will go away, but prepare your soul, cause, pain last some time, but your soul will last forever "

  • @yeahimazombie If Tom Waits could talk to you now he'd tell you that you were wrong baout him. He'd tell you he's been sober for around twenty years now.

  • @soggywallet

    About 30 I believe. I've read that he quit drinking and smoking after he met his wife.

  • Gotta Love His Sceam At The End Greatest Version Of This Song Love It. SHORE LEAVE!!!

  • 161.765 views. Rappers and alike have minimum 3 million. It's sad.

  • THE Best Version of this song... Deep, habited and inspiring ...

  • Tom Waits is one of my musical heroes. He has an amazing voice, a killer sense for evocative productions, and amazing songwriting skills. His songs are gruffly affecting or just plain scary. And I have 99% of everything he's ever done! He's got SOUL! And the music of a man struggling with his soul can't help but be beautiful. At least not to me ~ .
  • Love the performance, but it just doesn't have the atmosphere of the studio version -- a criticism that applies to the whole of "Big Time", great as it is.

  • @thedarkpresence i agree with most songs on the album but i like this one far better than the studio version, maybe its the feathers at the beginning? and i like the total different style of telephone call from istanbual for example...

  • @thedarkpresence I mean no disrespect (we're all fans here, after all), but you must be joking. The "Big Time" version of "Train Song" is THE version of that song

  • This performance is just mesmerizing.

  • For me Tom is up there with Beetoven, mozart etc. true genius and as good a lyricist as ANYONE out there and I'm including Dylan in that

  • Some guys should live for ever....

  • Brilliant performance, that microphone just got F'd in the A

  • 533 likes,6 dislikes...there's some hope left...

    just awesome :)

    and it's good to see Tom lightweight lol

  • Wow

  • Just enjoy a bit of genius FANTASTIC.

  • put out with passion!!

  • sweet, and people asks why im so obsessed with music

  • The end of this song is totally riviting, even though it's kind of painful to watch. He's hurting his voice--you can hear it losing steam in the last couple "shore leave"s. He no longer uses a falsetto, and I think it's because he damaged his voice doing stuff like this (though it lasted at least a few more years after this).

  • One of the best Waits songs ever, but I say that about all of them. A favourite line that my wife and I use regularly comes from this song "Squeezing all the life out of a lousy two day pass". This song is as close as humans come to teleportation.

  • Oh the fearless drama, the dirty beauty and the pure poetry... one of a kind.

  • that ron perlman is an ok singer

  • Do you know anyone else who can sing whispering?

    He gives me the shivers. And the blues. And the music. <3

  • when he says, "and find you there"

    his expression is so profoundly emotional.

    he's so incredible!

  • One word: Goosebumps!

  • I feel very sorry for the 6 people that disliked this.

  • The saxophone in this song wraps itself around Tom's ankles like a slinky cat. This man is a genius...

  • @alittlebluehouse Nice metaphor :-) The “Big Time” versions of his songs are probably the best orchestrated among all others. That had to be, at least partially, due to the contribution from the excellent band. Not to take anything away from TW’s enormous talent.

  • Things to understand Waits: A pack of cigs, a jug of bourbon and a crazy mind.

    Anyway, the best persons in the world are a lil' crazy...

  • Catharsis.

  • I'd hit it.

  • I am so very in love with Tom Waits

  • Fly to the stars Tommy, you do not belong to this humble Earth.

  • I shot billiards with a midget

    who else could get away with that?

  • Tom Waits is a weirdo. Just like me.

  • Hot damn! Sing it. SSSSSShhhhhhooooooorrrrreeeee lllleeeaaaavvvvvvvveeee

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  • now that i've seen this video, i don't see how i could have lived without it.

  • Unbelieveable!

  • i agree, 6 dumb asses.

  • 6 people are deaf.

  • i wish this was on the cd!

  • If a better love song exists I ain't heard it.

    I'm so far away from home, I miss my baby so..........

  • I can't make it by myself, I love you so!!!  PERFECTION!!!!!

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  • As Always AMAZING to say the least

  • thumbs up for the random work light!

  • I think I just came.

  • sums us all up and cuts us to the bone with a lyric.

  • About 10 years ago I was browsing through my ex's dads CDs. He had some good stuff in there.Stones,some Animals,Pirez Prado, GnR.Suddenly I find this CD from some guy called Tom Waits.

    I thought to myself 'Swordfishtrombones? What the fuck...?'

    So with spacecakes and redwine coursing through me, off came Jagger and on went this guy.

    5 seconds later that trombone starts playing and a voice that comes from Heaven but is living in a motel in LA reaches out and grabs my balls.Been there ever since.

  • @bluegiant69 that is sweet.

  • @bluegiant69 F*ck, now that's a moment.

  • Ive got the record album, still plays on my turntable, its cracks and pops and booms sooooooo sweet....

  • Tom Waits more or less ruined music for me.

    Be warned people ...if this guy gets into your bones you'll never get him out.

    I've been trying for twenty five years.

    Nothing does it for me any more ...not like like this guy.

    Everything fails to hit the mark once this guys got ya.

  • @jaxtabram

    I found him by accident about 7 years ago. I've been a junkie for his music ever since. I can't listen to most mainstream radio anymore.

  • @jaxtabram it's so true. i'm ruined at 22 years old. damnit all tom lol

  • @DrunkenPiano and me at 20.. :O

    Damn, it's gonna be a long life! Let's just hope Tom's there for many years to come, to fill it with his wonderful music.. ^.^

  • @jaxtabram Haha I can totally feel with you. Many friends show me their best music. And when I hear all the tons of other musicians I just think...wow they are far away from the quality and deepness of Tom Waits. Evrytime the same text in the other songs "I love him I miss him bla bla bla..." But what Tom Waits does is incredible. A real poet in my opinion.

  • I'm pretty sad that this song was not on the Big Time CD :(

  • ... also i think this was recorded on the set of BIG TIME and not live with a audience so it would have been even harder to get that level of intensity in his delivery

  • @woodhd he reminds me of the shyguy with the lantern at 3:10 and i agree, he seems to be in his own little world. what a performer!

  • i must have watched this a thousand times ... if you look close at tom around 02:38 theres a point he seems to go off somewhere ... after he got the verses out of the way ... from then on his hand movements and his expression ... he hardly seems aware of what hes doing with the mic stand and even when he stands up its like hes in a trance ... the whole thing is an incredible delivery anyway but from that point to the end tom actually seems to enter inside the song

  • sounds like there is one of those dollar store laughter boxes in the background over the coda ...

  • On my top ten list of people i'd most like to have lunch with he's up there mate , Hell i may even pay !!

  • the coolest cat that ever lived

  • doktorfuture: It's because there has not yet been a rating system invented that can truly convey the brilliance of Waits. ;^)

  • He`s the greatest beatnik,yeah!I love him!!!

  • at the end of the song it sounds like he's crying out for his wife... absolutely raw and incredible

  • feathers and... CONFETTTTTTTI IN YOUR HAIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!­!!

  • I love tom's little thin moustache on this

  • AWESOME. Agree too that it is even better than the studio version. The worlds greatest living artist!

  • @TheUnstableTables DAMN STRAIGHT

  • Where do you see Stars???

    I think he wouldn t Care

  • Tom not gonna be happy, when he knows theres only 5 stars available...

  • Tom not gonna be happy, when he knows theres only 5 stars available...

  • Thar was amazing...quite better than the studio version which is already excellent

  • Tom Waits is a fucking genius!!!

  • he has an almost creepy husky voice...love the lyrics <3

  • i love it !! thanks!

  • absolutely pure genius

  • I cant help myself - I just LOVE this song...

  • i listened to this song in Hong Kong while I was on shore leave lol.

  • Listening to this song while actually being in Hong Kong is pretty great, had a chance to do it a few years ago. Quite an experience.

  • seriously sexy

  • I don't know how he hits those notes but when he does... sends chills down my back.

  • I said BAY BEE

  • kick ass performance

  • So powerful. I can't think of anyone that even comes close to Tom's stage presence.

  • For me!... Tom Waits is the #1 (it's hard to grade artists.. but if i was forced to pick... he gets my vote.. art, art, art!!)

    So many brilliant songs in various styles.. untouchable.

  • Can listen to this on repeat for hours

  • can you please tell me how you can repeat 1 song in youtube for hours ? couldnt find the button

  • you can get a copy of Big Time on DVD from pirates bay :D you didnt hear that from me

  • i believe Tom Waits is jesus and the messiah together, preaching us all to go into a 4 week depression of drinking in a small shed with this song playing over and over on the turntable

  • Release Big Time on DVD please!

  • Yes!

    One of the best performances in a history.

    It's a mistery. People are waiting all over the world.

    Maybe we should form a pressure group,

    maybe they don't know, maybe the film is lying somewhere on a shelf in a cellar completely forgotten...

    Who's holding rights to this material anyway?

  • oh he's so hot, and his voice is so amazing I love him really I LOVE TOM WAITS

  • damn what a man....

    in a different category with bowie, iggy pop.

  • why can i not give this 6 stars?

  • the same reason why cant i give you 1000 thumbs up for saying that :)

  • Chaaaaaaaaaaar lieeeeeeeeeeeeeee........

  • Shoooooooooore leeeeeeeeeeave.......

  • how about the swordfish trombone.... i love this sexy man and his wicked mind

  • wow, amazing. gave me goose bumps. So Tom , when you coming to Australia???

  • GENIUS!

  • GENIUS!

  • " I shot billiards with a midget till the rain stopped"

    one of the greatest lyrics of time

  • Yes, almost as good as: "It's a tired old suitcase, to a hotel someplace, and wound that will never heal..."

    Waits is the master.

  • Shooooooore leeeeeeeeaaaaveeeeee.......

    Adore him......

  • Could someone put a good version of 'Franks Wild Years' on please.

  • One of the few true American heroes of all time.

  • This guy is unbelievable

    Tom Waits

    Amazing

    Awesome

    Genius

    I agree with all this comments, absolutely.

    Specially with tehtapemonkey

    Thank you very much for sharing.

  • pure fucking amazing

  • heartfelt

  • Jesus... I really got the emotion of the letter from this version. So powerful, and I totally didn't expect it. I felt the desperation.

  • absolutely awesome!!!!!!!!!

    what a performance

  • Priceless

  • This is great, and even hat sounds like a poor describtion.

    Tom Waits has a way of painting life with a raw stroke, melancholical but still worthwhile because the chance it might get a golden edge, makes you go on and try to make peace with the pain of living....

    I cannot stop listening to this song.

  • What a performance :-o

  • crnirok1 - re: your comment "What a performance" - Yeah!, I was literally at this very show when this filmed - and the whole show was AWESOME!! as he always is - Tom's a Genius!!

  • absolutley, wonderfully, immaculate

  • lord buckley?

  • Oh God!!!

  • Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."

    Taken from Wikipedia and absolutely spot-on lol

  • Interesting comment, man......

  • All hail Sir Tom of Waits!

    If you could stretch his voice out into thread and made a t-shirt with it, it'd be just shreds of dirty frayed cloth soaked in Jack Daniel's laying some god-foresaken dingy alley somewhere..

    But it'd be the fucking best shreds of dirty frayed cloth soaked in Jack Daniel's laying some god-foresaken dingy alley you've ever seen!!

  • haha well put

  • Great story, babbchuck

    You found the right woman there!

  • 2:47.  el chupacabra

  • 1986:my wife and I on climbing trip to Mt Kenya in East Africa. Alone high on the peak, camped in snow, hadn't seen another person for 10 days. Was saving the batteries for headlamps, but splurged and pulled out the walkman one day. The studio version of this song was on. It took us away. I looked in her eyes, and we both felt it. The closest thing I've ever had to a mystical or out of body experience. We had to look away - can't explain it. Like nothing I've experience since. Thanks Tom!

  • Wow.

  • 2:29-2:39 - those lyrics, how he sings them, and the expression on his face... brings the goosebumps every time.

    The man just catches my attention every time. I know some say he's an acquired taste, but easily acquired, surely.

    Too much effort for some people to actually listen to, perhaps.

  • Couldn't agree more. Well said.

  • Sorry to react so late, but I only saw this comment now. I totally agree with you.

    As I am dutch and english is not my native language, I never could describe exactely what I was feeling listening to TW, but what you said comes so close, I could have said it myself...lol

    what you say about catching your attention every time and getting goosebumps is so true, I can easily agree with you. thanks.......

  • man, Tom Waits is amazing...

  • I love all the versions he has done of this song. Such a great song to inspire your imagination into the story he is telling.

  • this is just the best, first time i heard it but im hooked, just like 16 shells a few minutes ago, this guy is such a great singer and storyteller.

  • What the hell is with your user name?

  • Yeah, this is the correct forum to address Tom Waits. I spoke to him last week and he confirmed he was taking requests for performances in the comments section of this video.

    Please be patient and wait for a response as he is currently facing a back-log.

  • love the pillow bit. this song is just too good.

  • Now I know where I've seen him before. He was in my ballerina class!!

  • Go watch "Sarah Brightman - It's a beautiful day" on youtube for a minute or two, then come back here and watch Tom mimick a certain thing she does. ha ha ha! It's funny.

  • Did you notice the Sarah Brightman influence at the beginning?

  • Tom = Cool

  • I ain't stackin nothing.

    Just here to say Tom is The Man.

    carry on...

  • o shit it got stacked at the top too. oh well, u got the message...

  • Well with buck shot eyes and a purple heart

    I rolled down the national stroll

    and with a big fat paycheck

    strapped to my hip sack

    and a shore leave wristwatch underneath

    my sleeve

    in a Hong Kong drizzle on Cuban heels

    I rowed down the gutter to the Blood Bank

  • where can i get that version??

    i just bought "Big Time" from a homeless dude and there's no Shore leave.

    by the way, the text of this song is divine. makes me wanna die

  • Swordfishtrombones

  • no man, not the studio ver.. this live ver. i really want it

  • I first thought about saying something like "buy the album" but I feel you, and this isn't on Big Time (the album) so my suggestion would be to download Tubetilla or something similar and transfer it to a mp3.

    this is so great I can't stop listening to it.

  • "And I wondered how the same moon

    over this Chinatown fair

    could look down on Illinois,

    and find you there"

  • That's the line. Seriously, where do you have to be, where do you have go, to write something so damn good like that?

  • Was referring to this:

    "And I wondered how the same moon

    over this Chinatown fair

    could look down on Illinois,

    and find you there"

  • kult

  • Woody, mate, if u fail 2 see the beauty of this remarkable artist u don't DESERVE to understand what he's saying. Tom waits 4 no man, and man, you've been left behind! maybe thats why yr a hobo. u shd read W.H. Davies 'Autobiography of a Supertramp' and learn something abt yr own roots, presuming u r aware of any...other than 'kak', a euphemism which is all yr own creation!

  • Woodythehobo my reply 2 yr comment got stacked on top of all the other comments instead of here where it shd be. it's a reply 2 yr criticism of Mr Waits and is aimed specifically at you. in a nice way. i got no gripe with hobos...cheers from mackie messer

  • Legend*

  • singapore sling...but if i listened to this at abt 2 am...it would successfully creep me out...lol