Tom Waits names the one influence he shares with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan
Growing up, Tom Waits would place cut-outs of Bob Dylan lyrics on his bedroom walls. He would sneak out, hoping to catch a glimpse of Lightnin’ Hopkins live in concert. He recalls the first time he saw James Brown as “like putting a finger in a light socket”, embracing all of the influences you might expect of a teenager growing up in the 1960s. One thing that he maintains, however, is that, unlike many of his contemporaries, all of these players remain separate from his own work.
When we discuss musical influences, it’s usually in relation to an artist’s sound or style, as it is often challenging to resonate with a specific musician without expecting their characteristics to come through in the sounds of others. The Velvet Underground, for instance, can be heard in the various sounds of those that came after, including Sonic Youth, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Pixies, and more.
However, in Waits’ case, his approach to musical creation isn’t quite as simple as that. He may have grown up alongside various musical trailblazers, but his music is his own entity. “Of the cats I admire, there’s no trace of my admiration for them in my own style,” he once told Keyboard. “If I said I listen to Thelonious Monk,” he added, “you wouldn’t be able to go and find out where that comes into my playing.”
When it comes to jazz greats like Thelonious Monk, it’s easy to identify with Waits’ line of thinking. This is even more evident when you consider the influx of artists who emerged directly from other genres like jazz and rhythm and blues and how they made a name for themselves based on various innovative approaches to music. Rock may seem like its own unique entity, but the reality is that it adopted various elements of other genres to create a more hard-hitting sound.
Mose Allison, for instance, is said to have been a revolutionary musical critic and satirist who emerged long before figures like Dylan appeared on the scene. Allison, Waits explains, had widespread appeal across the board, even if it’s not immediately heard in the arrangements of those who came after. As he put it: “[Allison] has been a strong influence on more artists than you can name, The Beatles, The Stones, Dylan. When Mose played Ronnie Scott’s club in London in the mid-Sixties, it was a real event.”
Allison’s artistry influenced many of the major rock ‘n’ roll players in the ’60s and beyond, including Jimi Hendrix, The Yardbirds, The Who, and others. Some, like R&B musician Georgie Fame, even went as far as describing him as “more important than Bob Dylan”. Notably, Allison was also quite a complex figure in the blues space, whose reputation as a pioneer of the art related to Black communities and breaking barriers, despite the obvious implications in some of his songs about reclaiming others’ sensibilities as your own.
Nonetheless, as Waits explained, Allison’s influence on countless other huge names cannot be understated, as he was known not only for pushing musical boundaries but also for introducing a more head-on authenticity into his music that wasn’t as commonplace. 1960s rock ‘n’ roll may have taken this to new heights, but Allison knew how to play up irony and quirkiness in a way that injected greater depth and layers into the music.
