Chocolate Jesus

This is a Tom Waits song off of Mule Variations. It's a classic. He sings it through a megaphone - you can check out a video of it on the Tom Waits post I did after we saw him in Jacksonville. At any rate - I noticed the other day that Garageband has a megaphone effect you can put on your voice and this cover was born. Also, I discovered there are "master track" effects that will be put on all the tracks in the song. So I used one of those as well - it's called "Old Movie" and it makes everything just a bit more grainy and lo-fi sounding. So this recording sounds pretty rough - but it's supposed to be that way! Just trying to capture the Tom Waits sound.

Great lyrics by the way - It's about an immaculate confection. I think my favorite line is "Pour him over ice cream for a nice parfait." Good stuff.



[Update: Apparently the blogamp thing doesn't show up in google reader - so most of my recording posts don't make much sense unless you actually visit the blog]

Tom Waits!

We saw Tom Waits in Jacksonville yesterday and he was great! His voice is so powerful and his band sounds really tight - don't think there was a single note out of place all night. One guy in his band is like a one man orchestra... we saw him play at various times a guitar, harmonica, three types of sax and possibly a clarinet/oboe. At one point I'm fairly certain he was playing two sax's at once. I didn't even know that was possible. At any rate... below is the set list followed by some videos for those of you not familiar with Tom Waits.

1. Lucinda/Ain't Goin Down to the Well
2. Way Down In The Hole
3. Falling Down
4. All The World Is Green
5. Chocolate Jesus
6. Cemetery Polka
7. Get Behind The Mule
8. 16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought Six
9. Hang Down Your Head
10. Trampled Rose
11. Dirt In The Ground
12. Black Market Baby
13. Rain Dogs/Russian Dance
14. On The Nickel
15. I Can't Wait To Get Off Work
16. Invitation To The Blues
17. Lost In The Harbour
18. Circus
19. Hoist That Rag
20. Lie To Me
21. Anywhere I Lay My Head
22. Singapore
23. Cold, Cold Ground
24. Make It Rain
25. House Where Nobody Lives
    

For the videos, first up is Tom Traubert's Blues off of "Small Change." This one is pretty old but it's great. Gives you a feel for his softer piano-based side. Songs 14-17 of our show are of a similar style.



Next is a version of Chocolate Jesus off of "Mule Variations." This video is from the David Letterman show. Lyrics are hilarious.



Next we've got Make It Rain off of "Real Gone" from another Letterman show. This is one of my favorite Tom Waits songs and it was probably my favorite from the show.



And finally a video from this tour of Lucinda/Ain't Going Down The Well (both off of Orphans - which I'm a huge fan of). This is exactly what we saw last night. Amazing...