Soundtracks #4 – Tom Waits – One From the Heart
[The latest installment of our soundtracks series is even more rambling than some of my own screeds. Christ you lot are like a burst dam aren't you! Allow me to present one half of Drunk Country, generally known as DC to you regular commenters, and a man who harbours a Tom Waits obsession that may even eclipse my own, although I think I'd give him a run for his money. He also, along with a dubious cast of cohorts, presents the fine show The Waiting Room on Error FM. It can be downloaded as a podcast, and I recommend you go and do just that. Perhaps start with The Waitsing Room, for some topical material.]
In 1981, when essentially rebuilding a career that had stalled after 8 moderately well received albums, Tom Waits decided to do voice-over work on a television commercial for Ralston Purina (now owned by Nestle). The product was a dry dog food called Butcher’s Blend. Waits’ unmistakable bourbon-cracked delivery was underscored by a light, feathery blue-smoke jazz, almost identical to that taking centre stage on his meisterwerk Nighthawks at the Diner. Embarrassingly for him it earned three prestigious industry awards: the Toronto Television Cinema International Winner, Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival & Clio Awards Festival, New York. He vowed it would be the first & last whoring of his personality & talent.
Since then it has been well documented that Waits harbours an indelible distaste for artists that ‘appear’ in commercials. That little blip in 1981, against his better judgement but necessitated by financial desperation, sharply refocused his opinion that “Commercials are an unnatural use of my work”. Ever since, Waits has “adamantly & repeatedly refused this dubious honour”, referring to it as “like having a cow’s udder sewn to the side of my face. Painful & humiliating” – a perfect Waitsian metaphor if ever there was one.
