Revisiting Tom Waits’ possible last performance of ‘Waltzing Maltilda’
Inspired by the Beat Poets and Bob Dylan, a young Tom Waits began performing in the San Diego folk music scene. By 1973, the singer had released his debut album, Closing Time, a jazz-inspired project that garnered little attention until artists such as the Eagles and Tim Buckley covered some of the tracks.
However, just a few years later, his work garnered critical success, such as Blue Valentine, Small Change, and Heartattack and Vine. Despite finding a lack of major mainstream success, Waits has gained a cult following and is a hugely influential figure in alternative music. He has balanced music with acting roles, often collaborating with independent director Jim Jarmusch or Francis Ford Coppola, starring in such films as Mystery Train, Coffee and Cigarettes, The Outsiders, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Waits has steadily released music over the years, despite keeping a relatively low public profile. His most recent album is Bad As Me, which dropped in 2011. However, the musician, who has sold over 4.6 million albums in the U.S alone, hasn’t toured since 2008, when he embarked on his Glitter and Doom tour. For his U.S leg of the tour, he skipped the obvious cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco, instead opting for towns such as Mobile, Alabama and El Paso, Texas.
In 2013, Waits played a rare performance, one that is believed to be his last, at Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit. His band included Les Claypool on standup bass and David Hidalgo on guitar and accordion. The extensively rehearsed set included career-spanning tracks such as ‘Lucky Day’, ‘Come On Up to the House’, ‘Cemetery Polka’ and ‘Singapore’.
One of the most emotional moments of the set was a performance of his classic track ‘Tom Traubert’s Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)’, also known as ‘Waltzing Matilda’. First appearing on Waits’ 1976 album Small Change, the song was popularised by Rod Stewart’s 1993 cover. The song is also a favourite of Leonard Cohen’s, ranking at number eight on his Top Ten Songs of 1988 list.
Although Waits has not played a gig in almost a decade, fans still have hope. After all, the musician has since performed several times on The Late Show With David Letterman. He has also continued to act, recently starring in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs in 2018 and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza in 2021.
