The singer Tom Waits said has “the gift”
While Bob Dylan carries the torch as the eminent gravel-voiced poet, Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits are undoubtedly just a few steps behind. Such vocal styles have taken more than their fair share of flack over the years, with many fans calling vocal ability into question as a limiting factor in these artists’ creative output.
Fortunately, this myopic stance has been countered just as enthusiastically, with musical icons among the detractors. “It’s a funny voice,” Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones once said in defence of Dylan’s unique vocals during an appearance on a Dutch television programme. “It’s like a voice that’s never been one of the great tenors of our time, but it’s got a timbre, a projection, and it’s got a feeling to it.”
What constitutes a good vocal is a matter of subjectivity; hence, technical skill isn’t everything when it comes to sound musical expression. Without Dylan’s nasal snarl, his early protest folk wouldn’t have grabbed half as much attention, and without that whiskey-soaked rasp, Waits would have struggled to paint so vividly some of the scenes of sorrow he has over the years.
After his breakthrough in the 1970s, Waits entered the ’80s with a thirst to further his appeal within the bounds of his distinctive style. Following the unprecedented success of his 1985 album Rain Dogs, Waits became aware of an up-and-coming Anglo-Irish band named The Pogues. He was drawn to the familiar drunken drawl of the group’s classic line-up frontman, Shane MacGowan.
In a 2005 feature published by The Guardian, Waits wrote about his 20 favourite albums of all time. Among the selections were Bob Dylan’s The Basement Tapes, The Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main St. and I’m Your Man by Leonard Cohen. He also took some time to say a word for MacGowan, picking out The Pogues’ 1985 album Rum Sodomy and the Lash as a personal favourite.
“Sometimes when things are real flat, you want to hear something flat, other times you just want to project onto it, something more like… you might want to hear the Pogues,” Waits wrote of his selection. “Because they love the West. They love all those old movies. The thing about Ireland, the idea that you can get into a car and point it towards California and drive it for the next five days is like Euphoria, because in Ireland you just keep going around in circles, those tiny little roads.”
“‘Dirty Old Town’, ‘The Old Main Drag’. Shane has the gift. I believe him,” Waits continued. “He knows how to tell a story. They are a roaring, stumbling band. These are the dead end kids for real. Shane’s voice conveys so much. They play like soldiers on leave. The songs are epic. It’s whimsical and blasphemous, seasick and sacrilegious, wear it out and then get another one.”
Listen to Tom Waits’ live cover of The Pogues’ ‘Dirty Old Town’ below.
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