Name: Tom Waits Lived In His Car And Was Born In A Cab | Letterman
Uploaded: 2022-02-26T03:32:22.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Tom Waits Lived In His Car And Was Born In A Cab | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-02-26. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Tom Waits Lived In His Car And Was Born In A Cab | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-02-26. Transcript available.

Tom Waits is here.
Later we'll take a look at our giant late-night Christmas card
and Dr. Charles Levy, the dangerous animal expert, is going to be here.
Congratulations on the album, Tom.
I was reading, what is that you're brushing off here?
I don't know, I ran into a Christmas tree in the hall.
They're everywhere this time of year, aren't they?
They're out of town, out of Rome.
Yeah.
Anyway, I was going to say congratulations on the album.
It's getting terrific reviews, isn't it?
Yeah, some people are recognizing it.
It's really kind of an odyssey journey.
The songs interrelate.
There's 15 of them.
I think you get more for your entertainment dollar.
Well, that's good.
If you play some of the songs backwards, it says dirty things.
Oh, that's great.
So you really are, for the price of one album,
getting all kinds of entertainment there.
Yeah, I'm looking for some new consumers
and attempting to cook my dinner on your stove, possibly.
Sure, well, that's what our stove is here for, Tom.
Speaking of stoves, are you still living in the motel
on Santa Monica Boulevard in California?
You must have me mixed up with somebody else.
Didn't you spend some time there at the Tropicana?
I did spend some time at a, well, I don't know, motel.
I'd call it a palatial state.
Uh-huh.
Right on Santa Monica Boulevard there on the other side of La Cienega.
This is where Duke's Coffee Shop is?
Yeah, that's right, beneath the hotel.
You had your piano in the kitchen.
You've been reading my mail.
Yeah.
But you're not there anymore, huh?
No, no longer.
Travel has become an important part of my life.
Yeah, yeah.
You lived in a house trailer for a while?
Just for a brief period.
Now, what was that like as an experience
for a man of the world like yourself?
It's small.
It's close.
But you can always pick up and move the next day.
Yeah, that's true.
You also, for a while, years ago, lived in a car?
Well, not for an extended period of time, personally.
You know how those accommodations can be.
Yeah, yeah.
What kind of car was it?
It was a 62 wagon, black interior.
Did you do much entertaining in those days?
You mean nightclubs, that type of thing?
No, no.
I mean friends drop over, you know?
No, no.
I know where you're trying to take this.
No, no.
I just think it's interesting.
But also, and correct me if this is not the truth,
you were born in a piece of modern transportation, weren't you?
According to my Uncle Robert, yeah.
But I don't know.
People say a lot of things.
Was it a cab you were supposedly born in?
It was a red and white with the, you know, meter running.
With the meter was running.
And where was this?
In Indiana.
No, really?
What part of Indiana?
It's a place called Valparaiso.
Oh, sure, I know where that is.
Yeah.
That's sad.
No, I do.
I'm from Indiana myself, so I know that.
Well, and then I spent a lot of time in California,
in North Dakota, Minnesota, Florida, Guam.
Guam.
All right, now, for a man who started life in the backseat of a red and white
cab,
last year you were nominated for an Academy Award.
This is a long trip.
You actually, you went to the award ceremony, didn't you?
For the, it was for the music for One from the Heart.
Yeah.
Yeah, now what was that like for you, being there?
Well, you know, I went back and forth as well.
I mean, I'm going to go.
I'm not going to go.
I couldn't make up my mind.
In terms of fashion, I don't know.
I would have to classify it as a cotillion.
It's a lot of 1959 prom formals and that type of thing.
Yeah.
And so...
Did you have a tuxedo?
As a matter of fact, I did, yeah.
An old clothes horse like myself was in the right place.
Yeah.
Did, what was the, what made you decide to show up for the presentation?
Well, you know, I mean, you really are nominated by people who are in your
field
and a lot of composers and songwriters and musicians recognize the score from
the Coppola film.
Yeah.
And so it really is a, it is flattering.
Yeah.
But, you know, there was a time when people would think, well, it's not really
chic or hip.
You're nominated, sure, but I'll be busy that night.
I'll, you know.
But you decided to show up and...
Well, we were living like three, four blocks from the place.
So just drop in, what the heck?
Really, it was very simple.
Now, you mentioned earlier, Tom, about the concept of the album, Swordfish Trombones.
Go into that a little bit.
This is a combination of sounds you just hear around you all the time,
that music ought to be more what you're accustomed to hearing on the streets
and in your house and so on and so forth.
Is that close?
Am I getting warm there?
Well, let's see.
Frank really is the central protagonist who really kind of came to me in a
dream
and he spoke to me of many things.
And so it's really, I was trying to find musical instruments
that were more nightmarish or dreamlike.
There's some unusual things on here as far as instruments go, aren't they?
Break drums?
Yeah, that's the ones that you can find just about in any automobile wrecking
era.
Yeah, yeah.
And you used for percussion, those things?
Yeah, you hit them with something that, you hit them with anything, you hit
them with a rock.
Do you get a lot of strange mail, Tom?
I don't get as much mail as I used to.
Every now and then I get a letter that catches my attention.
Do you have an example from a recent batch that you could share with us?
I got a letter from a little kid that was from somewhere in the Midwest
who had been suspended from school for bringing one of my records into a share
class.
Got a show and tell deal?
Yeah, it was that type of thing.
And so I interrupted his curriculum temporarily.
What was the particular record in the song he was playing for the kids?
I think it was some reference to underwear in the song.
And so the teacher thought it was inappropriate.
He's seven years old.
I wrote a letter and did what I could.
Just trying to get him off the hook.
A lot of these things are out of my hands.
That's true.
That's true.
But it's nice that you made the effort.
I mean, without that, he might have gone on to a life of crime.
Someone's got to stand up for it.
You never know.
Sure.