Waits’s music continued making its insidious way into other mainstream media, as well. HBO’s critically acclaimed series The Wire used the Blind Boys of Alabama’s celebratory cover of “Way Down in the Hole” as the theme for its first season of the show. It defiantly set the stage for the streetwise tales of drugs, violence, and death on the streets of Baltimore. Waits was impressed enough with the series that he allowed his own original recording of the song to play over the credits in the show’s second season. The third season of the series was opened by yet another recording of the same song — this one done by the legendary New Orleans funk outfit The Neville Brothers, specifically for the show.
Waits’s music also played a big part on the television mystery series Crossing Jordan. The show stars Jill Hennessy as an offbeat Medical Examiner who fights her personal demons as she solves the murders of the cadavers that make it into her office. Jordan’s father owns a bar, and since the M.E. (and the actress who plays her) is a frustrated singer, Jordan will occasionally take the stage at the bar. Significantly, one of the few times that she was allowed the chance, she performed a lilting version of “Innocent When You Dream” from Frank’s Wild Years. “They submitted a few songs to me to look at,” Hennessy explained about the selection process for the songs on the show. “The ones that just hit me the most were Tom Waits and the Bob Dylan, because, that’s what I was raised with. Living in New York for so long, I’m a huge fan of Tom Waits. So that’s how it comes about. We all try to work together and come up with something that moves us the most.”
These performances also had a lot to do with the fact that the show was putting together a soundtrack cd. Hennessy’s versions of “Innocent When You Dream” and Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” were included, as well as a lovely cover of Waits’s “Hang Down Your Head” by respected folk singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams. “It was just great to work with people like T-Bone Burnett and Craig Street, who worked with Norah Jones,” Hennessy continued. “The end product was phenomenal. Alison Krauss was on it, Lucinda Williams, Cassandra Wilson …It was just a brilliantly done album. We were really well reviewed, which was the biggest thrill for me.”
In April of 2003, Waits was asked to present actor Dustin Hoffman a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 46th annual San Francisco International Film Festival. Waits and Hoffman had been friends since the late seventies, when they met through Bette Midler. Hoffman was in the middle of getting a divorce and staying at a cheap hotel. Midler brought Waits to visit, and as Waits explained to the audience, “Dustin was sitting at a piano playing, and there was a lot of alcohol involved.” Hoffman recalled the situation of their meeting to the crowd as well: “Tom sang all the songs from his album Closing Time because my marriage was ending, and you know how you think your first marriage will last forever. And you know, Tom, there wasn’t just alcohol involved.”16 Hoffman asked Waits to sing “Tom Traubert’s Blues” and the standard “Moonglow,” and Waits obliged. Later in the evening, Waits proudly pointed out that those days were past him; he hadn’t drunk any alcohol in ten years.
Another Lifetime Achievement Award that night was given to Robert Altman, Waits’s director in the film Short Cuts. Actress Lily Tomlin (who played Waits’s wife in that film and was part of the ensemble for Altman’s classic film Nashville) presented the award to Altman, complete with a performance of her old Laugh-In character Ernestine the telephone operator. Waits also played his skid-row ballad “On the Nickel” at the special request of Altman. 17 “I am not someone who can cry,” the venerable director explained from the podium. “I mean, I don’t think I’m physically able to cry. The only time I recall ever crying at all is when I was listening to Tom Waits sing.”18 Altman continued to respect Waits’s work as an actor, as well, and in 2004 rumors started circulating that the veteran director was making a movie version of Garrison Keillor’s respected radio and book series The Prairie Home Companion, with Waits pegged to play a starring role. Though at the time of this writing, Waits’s management insists that no official overture had been made towards having him in the film, the rumor will not die. Also supposedly chosen for parts in the film, projected for a 2006 release, were Keillor, Meryl Streep (who also worked with Waits in Ironwood), teen star Lindsay Lohan, Maya Rudolph, and Waits’s Short Cuts co-stars Lily Tomlin and Lyle Lovett. As the movie has come closer and closer to completion, rumors of Waits’s participation in the film never seemed to come to fruition.
A great honor was bestowed on Waits when he was invited to perform at the Lincoln Center in New York in a special benefit concert called Healing the Divide, which was “dedicated to a theme of peace and reconciliation.”19 Opening the show with a speech was the Dalai Lama, who spoke first because he started his spiritual practices at 3:30 in the morning and couldn’t stay up for the entire show. “So His Holiness goes to bed at 7:30?” Waits joked with the crowd in his closing set. “That’s not the holiness I used to know.” Waits performed with the Kronos String Quartet and longtime bassist Greg Cohen. During the set he did stunning versions of songs like “Way Down in the Hole,” “What’s He Building?,” and the song he wrote for Solomon Burke, “Diamond in Your Mind.”20
A much more low-key performance came exactly one month later, when Waits joined old friend and touring partner Bonnie Raitt for the “Little Kids Rock” program at Spring Valley Elementary School in San Francisco. The program supports music education in schools. Raitt talked Waits into performing a duet of the song “Sweet and Shiny Eyes,” which they had recorded together on her 1975 album Home Plate. They were joined by former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted and Norton Buffalo on harmonica. Waits informed the children that his first piano had been left out in the rain so that many of the keys were not functioning. “I was fine with that, though,” Waits told the kids. “I just played the ones that were working. I used to make up little songs when I was angry or sad. I’m still doing that.”21
In a move to help celebrate new artists, Waits was added to an eclectic group of music industry judges to decide the winner of the third annual Shortlist Music Prize. Based on the Mercury Music Prize in England, the Shortlist Prize is formed to find the most daring and original new album of the year, spanning every genre and style. The star-studded list of judges for the 2003 prize included Waits, Dave Matthews, Tori Amos, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Erykah Badu, Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Chemical Brothers, ?uestlove of the Roots, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, Musiq, Mos Def, Perry Ferrell, and the Neptunes, as well as music-oriented filmmakers Cameron Crowe and Spike Jonze. The judges had to pick from a pool of nominees that included eclectic musical talents such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cody Chestnutt, Sigur Ros, Floetry, the Streets, Bright Eyes, Cat Power, Interpol, and the Black Keys. The award was given to singer/songwriter Damien Rice, for his acclaimed debut solo album O.22
History repeated itself in 2004 when Waits successfully sued a Spanish advertising agency in a case that mirrored his earlier suit with Frito-Lay. The company, Tandem Campany Guasch, had approached Waits to use “Innocent When You Dream” from Frank’s Wild Years, in a commercial for Audi. As is his custom when approached for advertising, Waits turned down the offer flat. However, the company, perhaps not familiar with the earlier cases, but more likely hoping that Spanish laws would be less stringent, decided to create the commercial anyway. The song they used had the same structure as “Innocent When You Dream” and also featured a singer who nearly sounded identical to Waits. The ad ran in 2000, and soon Waits’s people heard about it through postings on Internet sites. Again, Waits had to come out and explain that he was not the jingle vocal-ist, and he was not going against his fervent belief that celebrities should not endorse products. The original suit also named Volkswagen-Audi España as a co-defendant, but the Spanish courts cleared the car company of any wrongdoing.23
In 2003, Waits was approached to add a song to a tribute to the seminal punk group the Ramones. Two of the band’s members, lead singer Joey Ramone and bas
sist Dee Dee Ramone, had died in the past couple of years. A group of high profile fans of the band got together to create the disk We’re a Happy Family — A Tribute to the Ramones. Included on the album were such artists as U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eddie Vedder, Metallica, Kiss, The Pretenders, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Garbage, and Green Day. Perhaps in appreciation of the scrappy recording of “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” that the legendary band did on their final album, Waits decided to do a feisty cover of “The Return of Jackie & Judy.” On the track, friend Les Claypool of Primus played bass, Epitaph head (and former Bad Religion member) Brett Gurewitz played guitar, and Waits’s son Casey sat in on the drums. This led to yet another one of Waits’s offbeat Grammy nominations; in 2004 he was nominated for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for the track. Surviving Ramone member Johnny Ramone said, “It took the Ramones thirty years to be eventually nominated for a Grammy. Thanks to Tom Waits for finally getting us there.”24 Johnny Ramone would also die soon after, a victim of cancer.
In a sort of return tribute, Waits’s ex-girlfriend Rickie Lee Jones took to sometimes performing Waits’s early song “(Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night” on her tour for her latest album, the politically charged The Evening of My Best Day. Jones has been famous for her reluctance to discuss their relationship, but in her own way she paid tribute to those days and her respect for his music.
Another artist that piqued Waits’s interest was a singer named Norah Jones. Jones, who is the daughter of famous Indian musician Ravi Shankar, had released a jazzy album in 2002 that had, against all odds, become one of the biggest hits of the year. Waits was impressed by her debut album Come Away with Me, which ended up winning five Grammys in 2003, including Artist of the Year and Record of the Year. Waits’s friend Keith Richards called her the best new singer he’d heard in twenty-five years in an interview in Q magazine. Waits thought that Jones may be able to do an interesting version of his song “The Long Way Home,” which Waits had recorded himself for the 2002 soundtrack album for the film Big Bad Love. Jones was also an admirer of Waits’s music. “I met Tom and Kathleen at a concert he was doing. Tom asked me if I had listened to the demos he sent me,” Jones said. “I didn’t even know he had sent me anything, but I assured him I would track them down.” She loved the song, a country-tinged lament that would show off her Texas roots. However, she admitted the idea of recording a Tom Waits song was a little intimidating. “We’ve covered a couple of his tunes in concert, but it’s hard to do because I like his versions so much. I’m a huge fan. We pretty much recorded it like he did.”25
Waits continues working with friends and artists he respects. He appeared on Mexican roots-rock band Los Lobos’s 2004 album The Ride, returning the favor of Los Lobos member Steve Berlin for appearing on his albums. Waits sang on the song “Kitate,” cut together with additional vocals by singer Martha Gonzales of the band Quetzal. “We sent Tom a rough demo and he said, ‘I love this track and want to collaborate, but I want to do it my way,’” Berlin told ICE. “He demanded that no one else be there, and he recorded it on this archaic, multi-track cassette… So we had to find one of those machines — of which there aren’t many left. . . . The funny thing Tom said was, ‘You know, I’ve always wanted to sing in Spanish. My dad spoke Spanish.’ So we were like, ‘Great! Awesome!’ We got it back and it was just Tom chanting, ‘Quitate ’ [‘Stop it’]. That was the extent of his Spanish.”26
Also in early 2004, Francis Ford Coppola re-released One from the Heart as a two-disk DVD, and reissued Waits’s soundtrack album. The whole idea came to being a couple of years before, when Coppola decided that he wanted to completely re-edit the film for DVD release. Coppola had the full right to do whatever he wanted with the film, because in the years of paying off the debts that came from closing his studio, American Zoetrope, (a closing caused greatly by the box-office failure of the film) he had regained the complete ownership of the film’s rights. When recutting the film, Coppola and his editors realized that they needed the original music because the song snippets they had access to were specifically timed for the older cut. The problem was that the tapes had been lost somewhere along the line during the studio closing.
At this point, Coppola had lost touch with Bones Howe. He wanted to reach him because some of the DVD bonus items would include film footage about the making of the soundtrack, and he wanted to make sure that Howe was amenable to being included in the documentaries, particularly one called “Tom Waits and the Music of One from the Heart.” Luckily, a mutual acquaintance who lived near Howe in central California heard that Francis was looking to contact Bones. “Somebody mentioned to him that they couldn’t find me,” Howe laughs. “He said, ‘Oh, he lives in Montecito, I see him every day.’” So Coppola gave the man a release for Howe to sign to use the film footage of Howe, Waits, Coppola, Bob Alcivar, and Crystal Gayle, that included their work in the studio and their first big meeting at Coppola’s house in Napa.
A few months later, Howe got a call from Kim Aubry, who was working with Coppola to produce the dvd. “He said, ‘We’ve been through the vaults here, do you know where the music is?’” Howe recalls. “I said funny you should ask me that, because in between when you called me I went back and looked… What happened was when Zoetrope went under and fell into bankruptcy, the studio [Wally Heider Recording] called me and said, ‘We have all these tapes from One from the Heart and Zoetrope is gone. What should we do with them?’ They said we have to get rid of these tapes or destroy them, because we need the space in the library. I had a tape store room at Heider, so I said just move them into my storage vault.” They sat there until Howe left Los Angeles in the nineties, and then he moved all of his tapes to a storage facility called Iron Mountain.
Howe told Aubry that he had all of the demos, including some things that probably never saw the light of day. “He said, ‘Oh, God that would be wonderful. Because some of the stuff that we want is like there’s an intro missing from one of the songs and we’ve made the thing longer and if we had the intro, we could put the intro in.’” Howe said he was glad to send the original master tapes to them, only asking in return that when they go through the demos they would burn all the songs on DVD for him. They burned everything for Howe who said, “It’s a wonderful collection of stuff. Of course there is a lot of stuff there that isn’t of any value, but it does have some nostalgic value.”
The new version of the soundtrack included two unreleased tracks from the original sessions, “Candy Apple Red” and “Once Upon a Town/Empty Pockets.” “That’s where those two songs came from,” Howe continued, “and it was a great idea to do that, because it made it a brand new album.” The DVD gives bonus work-in-progress versions of the songs “The Wages of Love,” “Picking Up After You,” “I Beg Your Pardon,” “Candy Apple Red,” and “Take Me Home.” But perhaps the most eye-opening of these is a really raw live-in-studio version of “This One’s from the Heart,” under its original title, “Cold Chisel.” This includes studio chatter between Waits and Bones Howe and shows the song coming to life as they massage it into shape. Coppola’s son Roman also created a new music video for “This One’s from the Heart,” using scenes from the film. “That album is still one of the best examples of [Waits’s] work,” Howe says.
Howe also helped a bit in setting up the music in the new cut and tracking down the musicians who worked on the songs to make sure they received proper compensation and credit. “Francis is much happier with [the new cut of the movie],” Howe says. “Again, it sort of got the same attention the movie got when it came out. People who love Francis’s work loved it. People who hated the movie still hate it. But, the one thing that becomes obvious when people look at it now is how much influence that movie had on video filmmakers and music-clip filmmakers, mtv clip-makers and all. How far ahead of the times it was at the time we made it.”
In summer 2004, another older film that Waits had worked on was released to theaters. Waits’s good friend, film director Jim Jarmu
sch released Coffee and Cigarettes, a long-planned melding together of a series of eleven related short films in which, as the title suggests, different personalities sit down together in funky diners and chat over java and smokes. Waits’s segment had actually been filmed back in 1993 (back when he was still smoking; he finally gave up this last vice just a few years ago). In the short, Waits chats with punk-rock forefather Iggy Pop of the Stooges. “Iggy Pop and I play two characters in the short film. It was actually rather funny,” says Waits. “It’s just a little bit that Jarmusch does called Coffee and Cigarettes. Using different people that you cast in it, you talk about coffee and you talk about cigarettes, and then it’s over. Iggy and I did one, and it was really great.”27 He was right, Waits and Pop were truly entertaining playing themselves (well, highly stylized versions of themselves) as they meet over coffee and size each other up, engaging in a subtle game of career one-up-manship. Two segments starring Cate Blanchett and Alfred Malina with Steve Coogan were also terrific little slice-of-life vignettes — but the other shorts seemed rather slight, unfocused, and kind of boring. Other people who took part in the project are actors Steve Buscemi, Roberto Begnini, Joie Lee, and Bill Murray and musicians Jack White and Meg White (The White Stripes), rza and GZA (Wu-Tang Clan), and comedian Steven Wright.
In the meantime, the world was waiting patiently for Waits’s next full-length studio album. An article in Billboard magazine in the summer of 2003 promised Waits’s next album was to be released in March of 2004. But when that anticipated month arrived, there was still no word of a release date.28 That word came soon after; Waits was hard at work on the new album in his old Down By Law stomping grounds of New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta and the new album, to be called Real Gone, should be released in October 2004. Again, the information wasn’t exactly on track — the idea of him returning to the bayous was a bit fanciful. Waits insisted to Barney Hoskyns, “People just assumed it was the Mississippi Delta. But see, there’s a Sacramento [California] delta, and that’s where we were.”29 People took the release date with a bit of a grain of salt since earlier deadlines had been missed, but on October 5, 2004, the album was finally available for the patient fans. Not that the missed deadlines meant that Waits had been lazing around instead of working. “I’m up early every morning,” he insisted on KFOG radio. “I take the kids to school and all that.”30
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