He started his career in the early 1970s as a singer in spit 'n' sawdust bars. Initially, he was deeply influenced by the beat generation, novelists like Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, and poets like Allen Ginsberg and Charles Bukowski. Waits is often compared to Charles Bukowski, being similar both in content and lifestyle
Waits was unable to make a living from his music in the 70s because his classical bar music, based in pre-rock, and Americana, blues, and Vaudeville styles were not popular. Waits's voice back then was soft, warm and clear.
Waits subsequently developed a devoted cult following and has influenced subsequent songwriters, despite having little radio or music video support. In fact, his songs are perhaps best known to the general public in the form of cover versions of more visible artists, such as the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart.
Although Waits’s albums have met with mixed commercial success in his native United States, they have occasionally achieved gold album sales status in other countries.
Lyrically, Waits's songs are known for atmospheric portrayals of seedy characters and places; he sings about the losers on the streets: alcoholics, junkies, prostitutes and social outcasts, although he also includes more conventional and touching ballads in his repertoire.
While opening for Frank Zappa, the audience catcalled and refused to listen to him; he was an unsuitable match with Zappa's avantgarde style.
Countless cigarettes, gallons of alcohol and many all night parties eventually left their trace in his face and voice.
His more recent gravelly voice can be first heard on Small Change. This distinctive voice turned out to be his trademark. It is described by the Music Hound Rock Album Guide as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months and then taken outside and run over with a car". Small Change with its sentimental ballads, its bar-jazz attitude and Film Noir-oriented stories turned out to be his biggest commercial success in the 1970s.
Waits subsequently developed a more unique style. His songs have grown more abrasive since then, and the arrangements have turned more surreal and experimental with every new record. His life brings him to new visions, as indicated by the direction taken in his "Alice" release.
While composing the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola's One From The Heart Waits met Kathleen Brennan, his bride-to-be. They married in 1980 and she helped him quit drinking and smoking. Since their marriage they have been working together on his albums as co-producers and co-writers. It is hard to say which part belongs to her and which to him, but it's easy to see that they make a perfect team. Additionally, his eldest son Casey can be heard on turntables and percussion on Waits's album "Real Gone".
One of Waits's greatest successes was the album "Swordfishtrombones", released in 1983. It struck with his critics and fans alike. He achieved a new level of song writing and left former conventions (and his earlier career) behind. All songs, whether ballads, jive or jazz are played in a completely different way. It seems that Waits had taken the musical archetypes of these styles and made them his own. All tracks are in the quintessential Waits style. They have a striking rawness and listenability and they set the stage for his success and his future career.
The Bad As Me Songfacts reports that 36 years after the release of Waits' first album, Closing Time in 1973, Bad As Me became Waits's first ever top 10 album in the US when it debuted at #6 with 63,000 sales.
In the late 1980s Waits discovered an outlet for his creativity in composing musicals. His first Musical was named "The Black Rider", and is based on "Der Freischütz" by Carl Maria von Weber. It was co-produced by Robert Wilson and the lyrics come from William S. Burroughs. The story is slightly reminiscent of Kurt Weil's and Berthold Brecht's "Three Penny Opera" and the 1930s. The debut performance of the play was in 1990 at the Thalia Theater, Hamburg and has been played by various theatre groups since then.
Waits was also responsible for two other musicals, which later became albums released simultaneously in 2002. One was the musical "Blood Money," which covers the "Woyczek" theme of Georg Büchner. This one is one of the darkest works from Waits. The other musical is based on Lewis Carroll's classic children's novel, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". "Alice" is very romantic, dreamy and soft, and contains one of Waits most romantic songs. Even though they were released at the same time, the bootlegs of the "Alice" musical were long before traded between fans and were just rearranged and re-mastered for the official release.
Besides many film contributions as composer – the Internet Movie Database imdb.com lists 47 appearances of Waits as composer and 38 soundtracks containing songs by Waits - he also is an actor with a total of 25 appearances, ranging from some mini-roles as a trumpeter in "Heart of Saturday Night" and the R. M. Renfield in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" to the major role of Zack in Jim Jarmusch's "Down by Law". He recently appeared in Roberto Benigni's "The Tiger and the Snow", playing You Can Never Hold Back Spring at Benigni's wedding dream. Even more recently, Waits played Mr.Nick (the Devil) in Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus".
In addition to a number of concert videos, he also appeared in the critically-acclaimed concert feature film "Big Time" (1990).
Waits has always refused to allow the use of his songs in commercials. He has filed several lawsuits against advertisers for using his material without permission. Waits also successfully sued an advertiser for using a work that was stylistically similar to his work, after he had declined to sell them the rights to his song. He has been quoted as saying, "Apparently the highest compliment our culture grants artists nowadays is to be in an ad — ideally naked and purring on the hood of a new car. I have adamantly and repeatedly refused this dubious honor."
Ol´55
Tom Waits Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I went lickety-splickly
Out to my old '55
As I pulled away slowly, feeling so holy
God knows, I was feeling alive
Now the sun's coming up
I'm riding with Lady Luck
Stars beginning to fade
And I lead the parade
Just a-wishing I'd stayed a little longer
Oh, Lord, lemme tell you that the feeling's getting stronger
And at six in the morning, gave me no warning
I had to be on my way
Well there's trucks all a-passing and and the lights all a-flashing
I'm on my way home from your place
And now the sun's coming up
I'm riding with Lady Luck
Freeway cars and trucks
Stars beginning to fade
And I lead the parade
Just a-wishing I'd stayed a little longer
Oh, Lord, lemme tell you the feeling's getting stronger
And my time went so quickly
I went lickety-splickly
Out to my old '55
As I pulled away slowly, feeling so holy
God knows, I was feeling alive
And now the sun's coming up
I'm riding with Lady Luck
Freeway cars and trucks
Freeway cars and trucks
Freeway cars and trucks
Tom Waits's song Ol'55 is a nostalgic reflection on a time in the past when the singer was driving in his old 1955 car. The song opens with the singer acknowledging that time has passed quickly and that he is now in that old car once more. He describes how he pulled away from his original location slowly, feeling "so holy" and alive. As the sun comes up, the singer is riding with "Lady Luck," cruising down the freeway alongside other cars and trucks. The stars are beginning to fade as the singer leads the parade of vehicles, feeling an intense desire to stay out just a little longer because the feeling is getting stronger.
As the song progresses, the singer reveals that it's now six in the morning, and he had to be on his way home from someplace. He's driving his old car once again, and lights are passing, trucks are flashing as he fights through the traffic. Despite this, he's still with Lady Luck and freewheeling as the sun begins to rise. The song ends with him cruising down the road, surrounded by other vehicles on the freeway.
The song's lyrics communicate a sense of yearning for the past, for something intangible that the singer can't quite identify. It's a bittersweet longing for a moment that has passed and can never be regained. The sense of freedom and independence that comes from driving an old car on the open road is unmistakable.
Line by Line Meaning
My time went so quickly,
I felt like I didn't have enough time, everything passed so fast
I went lickety-splickly
I moved quickly and efficiently
Out to my old '55
I went out driving in my old 1955 car
Pulled away slowly, feeling so holy,
As I started driving, I felt special and pure
God knows, I was feeling alive.
I felt very much alive and happy
And now the sun's coming up,
The night is over and a new day is beginning
I'm riding with Lady Luck,
I feel fortunate and lucky
Freeway cars and trucks,
I'm driving among other cars and trucks on the highway
Stars beginning to fade,
The night sky is disappearing as the sun rises
And I lead the parade
I feel like I'm in control, and others are following me
Just a-wishing I'd stayed a little longer,
I regret not staying longer at my destination
Oh, Lord, that the feeling's getting stronger.
I wish I could go back and stay longer because the feeling of happiness is becoming stronger
Now six in the morning, gave me no warning;
It's already six in the morning and I didn't realize it
I had to be on my way.
I had to leave and continue my journey
Lights passing and trucks a flashing,
I see flashing lights and trucks passing as I continue driving
I'm on my way home from your place.
I'm driving home from where I was before
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, JALMA MUSIC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Tom Waits
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@Sc250108
Well, my time went so quickly
I went lickety-splitly
Out to my ol' 55
As I pulled away slowly
Feeling so holy
God knows I was feeling alive
Now, the sun's coming up
I'm riding with Lady Luck
Freeway, cars and trucks
Stars beginning to fade
And I lead the parade
Just a-wishin' I'd stayed a little longer
Oh Lord, let me tell ya that the feeling getting stronger
And it's six in the morning
Gave me no warning
I had to be on my way
Well, there's trucks all a-passin' me
And the lights all are flashing
I'm on my way home from your place
And now the sun's coming up
And I'm riding with Lady Luck
Freeway, cars and trucks
Stars beginning to fade
And I lead the parade
Just a-wishin' I'd stayed a little longer
Oh Lord, let me tell ya, the feeling getting stronger
And my time went so quickly
I went lickety-splitly
Out to my ol' 55
As I pulled away slowly
Feeling so holy
God knows I was feeling alive
And now the sun's coming up
I'm riding with Lady Luck
Freeway, cars and trucks
Freeway, cars and trucks
Freeway, cars and trucks
@Daniel-es2qy
Ol’ 55
Tom Waits
Track 1 on Closing Time
Produced by
Jerry Yester
One of Tom Waits' first songs. Initially, he was flattered when The Eagles covered it, but later he spoke derisively about their homage: I frankly was not that… Read More
Mar. 6, 1973
1 Viewer
41.4K Views
17 Contributors
Ol’ 55 Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Well, my time went so quickly, I went lickety-splitly
Out to my ol' fifty-five
As I pulled away slowly, feeling so holy
God knows I was feeling alive
[Chorus]
Now the sun's coming up
I'm riding with Lady Luck
Freeway cars and trucks
Stars beginning to fade
And I lead the parade
Just a-wishing I'd stayed a little longer
Oh Lord, let me tell you that the feeling getting stronger
[Verse 2]
And it's six in the morning, gave me no warning
I had to be on my way
Well, there's trucks all a-passing me and the lights all a-flashin'
I'm on my way home from your place
[Chorus]
And now the sun's coming up
I'm riding with Lady Luck
Freeway cars and trucks
Stars beginning to fade
And I lead the parade
Just a-wishing I'd stayed a little longer
Oh Lord, let me tell you the feeling getting stronger
@georgejasper8794
My late son passed almost 12 years ago at the age of 23 with an undiagnosed heart condition. I would have loved to be able to sit next to him as he went, playing this song and holding his hand. This always kills me!
@Vigilante311
Very sorry to hear that, I don't think anyone can understand what that's like without living through it, I'm 27 and have no kids but I work with a man who lost a son at age 18 to cancer and I can't imagine what it's like, kudos on your great taste in music, a tom waits fan is always a special person to me, take care of yourself
@bigmarty11288
I can't even imagine. I love you man.
@jawd1203
This was my father’s favorite song. He died 3 months ago but I I like to think that he just went out to his ol’ 55 and is driving off into the sunset. I’m just wishing he’d stayed a little longer.
@renatahelena9155
Don't you worry, he'll always be next to you: into your heart. Or protected by your memory. He'll stay, my friend. God bless you.
@sdwest4010
Joaquin Wells good for you, you're a son I'd be proud to have
@gusa7460
fuerza
@somejailnursedontask4658
God Bless you, your dad is there. My Dad loved the Badlands in South Dakota and I know he’s next to me when I’m a travel nurse driving thru at sunrise. I didn’t even think about it until,I felt his presence. You will feel the same.
@jaymoney-so8oo
Sorry for your lose brother!!!
@jackcarraway4707
Loneliness, late nights, whiskey and Tom Waits is quite the combo.