Tom Waits

Tom Waits

My Gravelly Voice

There's no one really in show business in my family but there were two relatives who had an effect on me very young and shaped me in some way. They were Uncle Vernon and Uncle Robert. I always hated the sound of my voice when I was a kid. I always wanted to sound more like my Uncle Vernon, who had a raspy, gravelly voice. Everything Uncle Vernon said sounded important, and you always got it the first time because you wouldn't dare ask him to repeat it.Eventually, I learned that Uncle Vernon had had a throat operation as a kid and the doctors had left behind a small pair of scissors and gauze when they closed him up. Years later at Christmas dinner, Uncle Vernon started to choke while trying to dislodge an errant string bean, and he coughed up the gauze and the scissors. That's how Uncle Vernon got his voice, and that's how I got mine

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

New Coat of Paint

New Coat of Paint

Let's put a new coat of paint
On this lonesome old town
Set em' up, we'll be knockin' 'em down
You wear a dress
Baby I'll a tie
We'll laugh at that old bloodshot moon
In that burgundy sky

All our scribbled love dreams are lost or thrown away
Here amidst the shuffle of an overflowin' day
Our love needs a transfusion let's shoot it full of wine
Fishin' for a good time starts with throwin' in your line.

So let's put a new coat of paint
On this lonesome old town
Set em' up, set em' up we'll be knockin' 'em down
You wear a dress baby
I'll wear a tie
We'll laugh at that old bloodshot moon
In that burgundy sky

No comments:

"On Sundays, we'd always visit Uncle Robert, who was the organist at a methodist church in La Verne, California. Uncle Robert had a pipe organ in his house that went right through the roof. When he would play he would smear all the notes together like hot melted crayons and the whole house would shake.I remember his house was a complete mess; his clothes were everywhere, his bed was never made. "Now this is show business," I thought to myself. I asked my mom why I couldn't keep my room like Uncle Robert's, and she said, "Tom, your Uncle Robert is blind."

 
Add to Technorati Favorites