Composer Reacts to Tom Waits - The Piano Has Been Drinking (REACTION & ANALYSIS)

[@hapahapahappy]

Yes!!! So glad you're warming up to Tom Waits, he can be a little hard to get in to but you seem to have a grasp on what makes his music so special and brilliant! His album Rain Dogs has always been my favorite - know it's everyone's favorite Tom Waits album but it was the very first record I heard from him and I just remember getting the urge to listen to it over and over again, picking up on things that I originally didn't quite get. Very solid analysis, love your take on how the piano playing might be all in the singers head, although there are some parts where it seems like the piano is also intentionally playing some flub notes. God Waits is such a genius

[@JamieBarnes11]

I think everything you've said is entirely spot on. I think the other thing with the piano playing is whilst it is played very deliberately and with that lightness to jt there are little hints at dissonance or odd stays from the main theme which feel like a hint at him losing grip on how lucid he thinks he is or how convincingly sober he appears to those around him. It feels like it could get away from him or is landing in a way that emphasises some of the more negative thoughts getting to him

[@CriticalReactions]

Great catch and I like the interpretation of the detail as well, like the courage is giving way and the darker parts of his mind (maybe depression, or self loathing) are beginning to break through.

[@brendo9672]

my fave song by him!

[@davehackett8848]

Tom was a bouncer in his earlier years, so maybe it was him.

[@horn977]

Hell yeah, Bryan. Special Selections has had a good run.

[@tomross5347]

Caspar Milquetoast was a timid comic book character from the early 20th century. The name is used generically to mean a weakling.

[@CriticalReactions]

Oh interesting. I mean, the phrase means exactly that broken apart as well but it's neat to know the whole phrase has a history too.

[@tomross5347]

@@CriticalReactions When Tom Waits makes a pop-culture reference, it's not going to be a recent one! I remember that my father (born 1927) used that expression when I was a kid.

[@lumina1104]

I've always viewed this song through the lens of a blend of surreal and absurdist art. In the same way that Picasso isn't/wasn't valued for the capacity to paint a lifelike portrait, Tom Waits used his writing and dissonant playing to use a break from expectation/perceived perfection to convey a greater message. It's not about the surface-level message of the words, it's about how one who listens can see there's a message that in spite of absurdity accords with human nature. On the Nickel would be a great Tom Waits song to react to.

[@desperateambrose5373]

"Caspar Milquetoast is a comic strip character created by H. T. Webster for his cartoon series The Timid Soul. Webster described Caspar Milquetoast as 'the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick'." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar_Milquetoast

[@jonathanhenderson9422]

Yeah, this definitely isn't a deep song, but it's one I can't listen to without a goofy grin on my face the whole time. Plus, despite the simplicity, who else can (or would) write songs like this besides Tom Waits? It probably shows off the vaudeville influence in his music, where it's as much about the performance art aspect as anything else. Love all the little nuances that you mention like the the slurring and the "wrong notes" on the piano that hint that he's drunk even before he sings a word. As for interviews, most of the interviews with Waits I'm aware of he doesn't discuss this or any songs in particular. He did do a VH1 Storytellers where he explains the inspiration behind the few songs he plays on it. He also performed an abbreviated version of this song on Fernwood Tonight way back in '77 with a short interview afterwards that's more like a comedy bit. There's also a compilation on KZbin of all his appearances on Letterman (he was a semi-regular there). Tom's just a naturally funny guy, which tends to make for funny interviews. There are probably some in-print interviews too that I don't know about. Now the question is where to go next with Waits... I've done fun/catchy Waits, dark/weird Waits, storytelling Waits, funny Waits... maybe something more straight-forward like a singer-songwriter ballad? Glad to hear you're warming up to him. He's definitely the epitome of an acquired taste, but one I feel lucky to have acquired myself. Artists like this almost always require more than one song (and one listen) to give them time to grow on you.

[@CriticalReactions]

I think the other thing about Waits is that he doesn't ever feel bound by genre. I think there's definitely a type of music that he's most at home in but I gotta be on my toes with each suggestion for him because they could realistically go anywhere. This singer-piano stuff is soooo different from Hell Broke Luce which is quite a bit different from Goin' Out West. If you told me he did a metal album I wouldn't even question it 😂

[@jonathanhenderson9422]

@@CriticalReactions That's very true and it's one thing that makes exploring his discography such a cool experience as you don't know what you're going to get album-to-album, sometimes song-to-song. I think the closest he ever got to a "home" was his 70s singer-songwriter material, but from the 80s on he just let his creativity run wild and genres are just toys for him to play with, combine, or ignore entirely. I know a lot of people say X artist/band is "their own genre," but that genuinely applies to much of Waits.

[@markobaturina2498]

Can you do Gun Street Girl by Tom Waits?

[@TommiBrem]

In German, a "Kasper" is a baffoon.

[@wcsxwcsx]

A very multi-layered song, both from its musical and literary aspects. I don't think you were ready for it.

[@shotgunridersweden]

The allusion is to caspar milquetoast, a comicbook figure

[@AHTOtv]

Not a fan of the fan video. No subtlety, just on the nose imagery. Kills the vibe. Not cool. Tom is the man though

[@paulpalmer4385]

Caspar Milquetoast was an effeminate cartoon character from the 1930s

[@dylanratcliffe8763]

Rody absolutely lost his voice on this tour. Check out Good Tiger. The supporting act it's a basically a super group. I blew my knew out too them in the pit.

[@61hink]

Actually the fan video ruins the song. When I hear Tom Wait lyrics I want to see images in my mind, not rapid fire flashcards telling me (wrongly) what I should be seeing. The fan is not the poet that Tom Waits is.