cemeterypolka Wrote:
Makes No Sense At All Wrote:
cemeterypolka Wrote:
Of course, obviously mine is Tom Waits.
He's fucking brilliant. He's a great songwriter and storyteller, and a fine actor. He's quite innovative (in certain ways, though his vocals and style can generally be compared to other artists), and is extremely talented.
He's influenced me immensely, with my art especially.
I hope to meet him one day. I have a feeling that if I try hard enough I will, but I feel like if his music can inspire me as much as it does a conversation with him would affect me a million times more than simply listening to his records.
Captain Beefheart did it first, and better.
Just saying
Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits don't even share that similar of styles, really. I can see it on Trout Mask, but on Safe As Milk he sounds so much more like Howlin' Wolf that the Tom Waits comparison is irrelevant, if there ever was one. Actually now that I think about it, the Trout Mask Replica comparison is lost on me as well. Captain Beefheart has always sounded so much more like Howlin' Wolf than Tom Waits ever would, and now that I listen to Beefheart from Doc At The Radar Station to Safe As Milk I can't see how much they compare anymore. They both have the "I smoked 9,000 cigarettes today and I just had a tracheotomy performed on me with a ballpoint pin (ha ha)" sort of sound to their voice (Tom Waits' moreso with the growl), but their styles are still extremely different which makes it difficult to compare the two much anymore. However, with the comparison that is unjust but will always be prevalent when discussing either artist, Beefheart was a hell of a lot stranger and "ahead of the times" than Waits' was, but Tom is still and always will be my favorite.
I know you love Captain Beefheart, but like Tom Waits. I like Captain Beefheart, but love Tom Waits. This will always make us very different.
How can you say they're incomparable?
The only thing about 70s Tom Waits to Captain Beefheart is the voice. From Swordfishtrombones on though, Captain Beefheart is a HUGE influence on his music, even lyrically. His 70s songs are mostly about sleazy clubs and drinking, and all of a sudden with Swordfishtrombones everything got darker and much more abstract. Tom Waits has said before that he didn't even listen to Captain Beefheart until sometime after he met his wife, who he married in 1980 -- right before the Swordfish/Rain Dogs/Franks trilogy. And with those albums, everything about him changed, even his singing style. The piano was replaced with odd phrases from a variety of different instruments, the percussion is RIDICULOUSLY similar to all of Beefheart's work (listen to the percussion on "Ella Guru" - or nearly any of Beefheart's songs - and then listen to some of Tom Waits' post-1983 percussion). He piano work was gradually replaced with twanging guitar lines, that sound like a lot of the work of Safe as Milk or Trout Mask Replica.
I like Tom Waits quite a bit obviously, but the two are obviously comparable, and there would be no Tom Waits as everyone knows him without Captain Beefheart.
And in my opinion, Captain Beefheart's work is just much better in general. What does Tom Waits have that can compare to the greatness of Trout Mask Replica, or even Shiny Beast (among others) for that matter?
I haven't listened to Captain Beefheart quite as much as you have, so I suppose my opinions are biased. Captain Beefhearts work isn't better in my opinion, but I haven't heard his whole catalog of music. I was just stating opinions based on observations created upon what i've heard from both artists, and you know i've heard all of Tom Waits, and not all too much of Captain Beefheart.
Give me a break.
