To answer the finger pointing:

I’ve been reading the TWL site for some time (in fact I believe I mentioned it in an S,bT comment some time ago AND in my The WAITSING Room radio show) & it is, frankly, a very good resource for TW info & fact-based gossip (some of it inaccurate, some of it on the money).

I dare say all the info in my post can be found in the pages of TWL, especially as I used that & a number of other TW sites as cross-references to make sure the facts I cited were correct before I posted (I was, afterall, 5500 miles away, jetlagged to shitsville, & felt obliged to write a post for Toad after mentioning I would try to do so in a very tight schedule).

There hasn’t conciously been any direct copying, except for accuracy of quotes (which are available on any quote site, also), full label names & some fuzziness on dates (hence me feeling there was no need to cite TWL as a source – apologies to TWL should they feel they deserved the notation for this otherwise easily available info).

I concede, though, the Chilly / On The Yard info was a direct lift from TWL (I have never seen it, & bowed to TWL’s on-site listing as his first role; I HAVE seen Paradise Alley, though, & stand by my point that it is excruciatingly shit).

As for the dog food Commercial – I didn’t say the music was TW’s, I simply said it bore resemblance to that employed by TW across one album in particular. The embarassment re: the awards was felt by TW in retrospect once he had re-affirmed/focussed his opinion on slutting himself for financial gain in this way. So much so, & partly due to his stance on the use of his likeness/music in commercials, the owners of the original tapes of the commercial handed them over to Waits as a gesture of goodwill. But then, that info is on TWL as well – I’m just reiterating for the sake of anyone who doesn’t know.

As Toad says, TW info is generally very well known to his fans (I’m 36, been listening to TW for almost 20years) & across the interweb (TWL, as good as it is, isn’t the only source, afterall).

All I was doing was simply fulfilling the promise/remit of writing about a TW soundtrack – the original conception for my piece was to write about every song TW had had placed in films, but that task became ridiculous to say the least when I realised just how many there were. Hence the haphazard ramble of the actual end piece. The use of the dog food commercial info, I felt, was a good counterpoint to the use of TW songs in soundtracks; had I more time/discipline I’d have waxed lyrical on the wafer thin hypocrisy in favouring one media over the other (I mean, Domino is hardly something to feel proud about, right?).

I know TW fans are obsessive, almost insanely protective, & writing a fact-based piece as opposed to an emotional response was always going to run into a wall here & there from said quarters.

My suggestion is to go grab your vinyl copy of Closing Time, crack open a bottle of Bourbon, & let Tom do the talking. ‘Cause, afterall, that’s what really matters.

Peace, all.

DC

One of my readers wrote this in response to an invitation I made to contribute to this site and if there was any copying I a/ knew nothing about it and b/ don’t really give a shit anyway.

I will read your site on Monday (I’m away this weekend) and decide for myself if I think there is any copying happening. The reproduction of facts is not copying – but if there is any kind of artistic reproduction rest assured I will acknowledge it.

Having the same facts in a post on one website compared to another is not copying. Do you claim intellectual rights to the weather yesterday morning? But believe me, if your content, your interpretation or your thinking has been ripped off there will be an apology.

I am a prick, but I have no intention of being unfair. If it’s yours, credit will be given.

http://www.thomasgwaites.com/

As for the dog food commercial, to be clear, Waits was only the voice-over, he did not do the music for it. I cannot figure out why you say he was embarrassed that it won prestigious awards. Seems presumptious, unless you know that for a fact?

Cheers, Toad, for tidying the frothing shambles up.

I agree Ben, music is such a nebulous and such an emotive art form that directors are forever trying to shoehorn it into their work without really, truly thinking about the reaction in people’s brains when they hear it. They love the music, so in it goes.

Actually, I think most film soundtracks should make for shit listening without the actual film to which they belong. Otherwise, surely they’d be too dominant when their moment comes?