Wild Years: The Music and Myth of Tom Waits

An enjoyable read! Great stories, details about landmark albums, and just enough personal background to satisfy the reader without getting boring. Not to mention the most detailed discography on the planet. Great investment for the Tom Waits fan.

Waits' fans are no strangers to paradox -- his music, steeped in its own history yet undeniably original, deeply textured as corrugated steel yet with a compassionate heart that doesn't quit, songs that reveal humanity's every weakness, and in doing so somehow redeem it. His music revels in its own originality without falling prey to self-indulgence. So it shouldn't have surprised me that Tom Wait's biographies have been as badly written, speculative, and poorly directed as his music has been insightful and original. From his early years Waits portrayed the piano playing drunk, the street poet, the loser with dreams, and seemed to love using that voice to speak to the press. Interviewers were treated to long yarns about his life, loves and friends, yarns spun from a humorous imagination by a private man. Books trying to build on this paper foundation have fallen flat as last night's beer, and if some fans (and reporters) were annoyed by his evasions and stories, more were entertained by the them, and willingly accepted Waits as the character he portrayed, a seedy addition to American mythology. Waits is not the first artist to use a stage persona as a privacy screen, but he was one of the most successful. It is my opinion that this avoidance was not so much a personal aversion to the limelight, but a desire to proect his music from himself. To that end, he only revealed the parts of himself that supported his music, and, like any good thespian, hid the machinery with the scenery.Finally, someone got the point. Jay S. Jacobs writes about Waits from a thoughtful perspective unseen in previous biographers. Guiding us with a wink and a smile past the many myths and tall tales, Jacobs brings us backstage to the artist without knocking down his front door. Those looking for juicy details and scandalous stories will be disappointed-- the basics of his private life are related only in context of his musical career. Jacobs makes no attempt to analyse or interpret Waits' personality. That being said, those looking for a portait of Waits the artist will be amply rewarded. The details of his career are recorded here as nowhere else; details of projects he's worked on, creative decisions and how they related to his goals and situation at the time, inspirations for songs both factual and fantastic, interviews with producers and musicians he has worked with broaden our view. Here too we see that the easygoing streetpoet is defended by an uncompromising artst who picks his fights carefully: his refusal to sell his music rights to sell products; his lawsuit against Frito Lay; his legal action against police officers who mistook him for someone they could abuse. With each successive project, with each professional decision, we are given a block-by block construction of a remarkable career, which fell short (or steered clear?) of the commercial fast track in favour of a more winding road to a more unique, enduring and (I suspect) satisfying destiny. I know that Wa

I just finished reading both 'Wild Years' by Jacobs and 'Tom Waits' by Carroll (strangely that one is credited to Staunton on here). This was by far the better of the two books. It did a great job of covering Waits' music and acting and also gave you a sense that you knew the guy. I'd really recommend you read this book, if you like Waits or even if you were just curious about him.

I've always kind of wondered what makes Tom Waits tick, and I think this very well written book gave me as good a view as I'm likely to get. It covers all the basics, the drinking, the family, the childhood, the dives, the music, the movies, etc. It also opens up the fact that Waits seems to be a surprisingly introspective man, who puts his art before anything else. If nothing else, the book is worth reading because the man is such an original thinker and wordsmith. "Wild Years" seems to capture that originality and truly appreciates the body of work that Waits has put together. This book helps to explain the subtle mystery that is Tom Waits.

Jacobs' has written an informative, interesting book about Tom Waits, one of my favorite artists. It reads like a who's who of creative geniuses as we trace Waits' life up to his current Epitaph recordings. The two best things about the book are the context it gives to each od his songs and the beautiful black and white photographs, which I wanted to cut out and paste to my apartment's walls. Obviously, the book no where near as breath-taking as Waits' music, but it's a great and rewarding accessory.