As you might expect, it's not your typical interview:
Q: What is a gentleman?
A: A man who can play the accordion, but doesn't.
(Not an original quote, but very Waitsian.)
…Oh, and while I'm on the subject of Tom Waits:
Tom Waits interviews himself
🦆
I always thought that a gentleman was someone who takes the weight on his elbows!
As much as I admire Tom Waits, I think that Screaming Jay Hawkins does the ultimate version.
Much appreciated. A Diamond.
Nite Owl is dead wrong on this one. To quote myself from back in 2006:
I would even go out on a limb & say that by far the best version of 'Pasties & aG string' is by Bill Sheffield & the Ringtail Rounders on his album Live at the Blue Raccoon. While you're at it, check out Eugene Chadbourne & Jimmy Carl Black playing the Cap'n. You will find stuff on Youtube....wonderful!
I think it would be wrong to say that cover versions don't ever match up to the originals.
I can instantly think ofa fewexamples:-
Dylan's Like a rolling stone, covered by Hendrix.
Screamin' Jay's I put a spell on you, covered by the crazy world of Arthur Brown
& J.J. Cale's Same old blues, covered by The Cap'n
any offers on any more where the cover version pisses all over the original?
Not sure if I don't prefer Dylan to Hendrix on Like a Rolling Stone, but both are certainly better than The Rolling Stones' version!
Other great covers: Tom Jones's version of Ashton, Gardner and Dyke's Resurrection Shuffle (Live at Caesar's Palace - his finest moment); Steve Earle's version of The Beatles' I'm Looking Through You; Ivor Cutler's version of Richard Thompson's Wheely Down; Janis Joplin's version of Erma Franklin's Piece of My Heart; Mike Flowers Pops' version of Oasis's Wonderwall; Amy Winehouse's version of The Zutons' Valerie; Tom Waits' version of The Seven Dwarfs' Heigh-ho!; and many more besides.
If Tom Waits recorded The Beatles song 'For No One', it would almost read as a well known album title!