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One of our favorite segments, The Story of a Song. Your pockets are jingling. And today's comes from an artist whose songs are best known through cover versions. By other Musicians. His Jersey Girl was performed by Bruce Springsteen.
is all 55. was sung by the Eagles. Down there by the train by Johnny Cash. I hope that I don't fall in love with you by 10,000 maniacs. The long way home.
By Nora Jones. I Don't Want to Grow Up by the Ramones and Downtown Train by Rod Stewart. And by the way, just from the mix of those artists, you've got to say, wow. What range? Today's song is about one man, one woman, and one man.
Tavern. With no further ado, let's take a listen to find out more about this one-of-a-kind American singer-songwriter. Our next guest is one of the most distinctive writers and performers working today. He's kind of a combination of poet, jazz singer, and vagrant. He is a mixture of Satchimo Armstrong and Humphrey Bogot.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Tom Waits. How are you, Tom? Oh, I'm better than nothing. Your songs are about waitresses and bartenders and Mums. Why do you celebrate these people in song?
For the same reason that a lawyer hangs out in a pool room or. How do you find a lot of photographers at a wedding, you know? 'Cause I don't know. I find a lot of ideas here and there's a lot of life going on around here and um you know so I'm uh Kind of a bit of a private investigator, maybe. You know, my dad spent a lot of time in the bars.
My dad drank in the afternoon. really dark bars.
So I was drawn to dark places. Everybody needs a different climate in order to create. Mine usually comes in, if I'm talking with somebody in a bar or something, I get a couple of bloggers and try to stretch out in conversation. I try to open things up and then I try to remember it all later and then I write it down. There's a a a real romance to hanging around these places.
It's where you go to meet girls, but it's also where you go to invent yourself in strangers' eyes. These are the extraordinary painter of pictures as well as a teller of stories. Tell me, is it the crack of the pool balls? Neon buzz and move. Loneliness is so much at the heart of so much of his music, I think.
It's just a longing for something and being alone and... How do you live with that? How do you deal with it? Magical to melancholy tear in your eyes. I think Waits is a poet of doomed Down in the whole purse.
People who are almost like characters from a noir novel. They're getting their last chance at love. Uh You're stumbling onto The heart. On Saturday night. He was just a man out of time, clearly, and he knew it, I think, obviously, and he played with it.
The craft and young genius of someone who was coming up with lyrics that were on a par with someone like Johnny Mercer or Hoagie Carmichael or any of the songwriters that had been the backbone of the classic American song book. That's where I'm always Don't run. That's why I changed my name. The Great American Songbook is something that either gets to you or it doesn't, and it got to Tom. Because there was a lot of intelligence in that.
In the lyrics of those songs, I would go over to my friends' houses and go into the den with their dads and find out what they were listening to. I couldn't wait to be an old man. I was about 13 now. I didn't really identify with the music of my own generation, but I seemed to like the old stuff, Cole Porter and Gershwin, Frank Snotsman. Mm-hmm.
What is this thing? Called. Tom had that wonderful talent to absorb all of these things that he saw. It's like storing up paints and being able to dig out the colors you want. When you get ready to paint a picture, this is what he does.
He paints pictures. And so true. And one of Tom Waits's most heartbreaking, beautiful picture songs. is called I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You. This tender story teller with a boozy baritone, while wearing a seven dollar suit, and an old man's weathered fedora hat.
expresses what a billion men have felt, Not the least, but on a lonely Saturday night. Here's I hope that I don't fall in love with you.
Now it's good. Yeah. The music's fading out last coffee drinks, I'll have another Stout.
Well I turn. around to look at you you knowh to be found And search the place for your lost face, cause I'll have another round. And I think that I just Fell in love with you. And the turn in the fourth phrase: I hope that you don't fall in love with me. after exposing all of his fears of commitment, The narrator realizes he is falling for this girl.
that he's never met but now must face the realization She may return the favour. You can feel the pain of a man afraid of commitment in this song. He fumbles and worries. And once he finally gets the confidence to face her, Well, it's too late. She's gone.
And he knows he's missed his shot. And that's the world of Tom Waits. That's the world he inhabited in his music. I was always wanting to be an old man, he said. listening to Sinatra when everybody else was listening to rock and roll, The work of Tom Waits, the life of Tom Waits, the story of a song.
I hope. I don't fall in love with you. This is our American Stories. Lee Habib here, and I'd like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get our podcasts. Any story you missed or want to hear again can be found there daily.
Again, Please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these great American stories coming. Ha ha ha. Shh, you won't believe what my new friend just told me about dinosaurs. Is your child having conversations you never imagined?
Are they learning without realizing it? It's not a tablet. It's not a toy. It's Miko Mini Plus, the AI-powered companion that turns curiosity into endless learning. Hear the future of playtime.
Meet the extraordinary Miko Mini Plus. Only at Costco. With a moustache, a taco in one hand, and ordering a rod in the other. Means you're stacking cash back. Nice.
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Amazon Five-Star Theater presents Real Customer Reviews performed by a Real Serious Improv Podcaster. Tonight's review, Spatula for the Stars. When I'm dead and civilization eventually collapses, this spatula will remain. it will be the only rune uncovered by some unknown species of the future upon which they base their assumptions of our existence. Eggs!
They were positive. These extinct people like to eat their eggs. And this was their primary tool for cooking them. Let us teleport and put this device in the Milky Way exhibit. Five stars, Zachary.
Find your perfect gift this holiday on Amazon. What a matchup we got, y'all. This is that classic HBCU vibe. Non-stop action, the bed is rocking and the crowd lick, chants echo, drum beat, everybody showing that school pride. Game like this?
Yeah, it calls for an ice cold Coca-Cola. Ah, crisp and refreshing. That's a game changer right there. Mmm, yeah. That taste always hits the right note, just like a band at halftime.
And just like that, we're back at it. Passionate fans, school colors everywhere, and an ice cold Coca-Cola, that's a winning combo. No matter the sport, no matter the yard, everybody knows. Fan work is thirsty work, so grab a Coca-Cola and keep that HBCU pride going. This is an iHeart podcast.
Guaranteed human. Mm-hmm.
