tom waits
posted in music
the nickel
from tom waits posted in music by nevereatshreddedwheat
According to Tom Waits, all the winos refer to downtown Los Angeles on 5th street (skid row) as the nickel. His hobo's lullaby 'On the Nickel' was recorded for the Ralph Waite film On the Nickel and also appears on his 1980 album Heartattack and Vine.
view full location details...briar street theater
from tom waits posted in music by nevereatshreddedwheat
Tom Waits collaborated with his wife Kathleen Brennan on the play Franks Wild Years based on the song "Frank's Wild Years" off of his 1983 album Swordfishtrombones. It premiered at the Briar Street Theater in Chicago on June 22, 1986 and played through July, performed by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
Waits played the title role of down-on-his-luck Frank O'Brien. Gary Sinise (Steppenwolf co-founder / Lt. Dan) directed and the cast also included Gary Cole (a.k.a. Office Space's Lumbergh) and featured some magic tricks devised by Teller (½ of Penn & Teller). The album Franks Wild Years, containing songs from the play, was released in 1987, completing the trilogy started by Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs.
Briar Street Theater was formerly a horse stable for Marshall Field and Company and is presently home to the Blue Man Group.
view full location details...napoleone pizza house
from tom waits posted in music by nevereatshreddedwheat
Tom Waits worked the graveyard shift here in the mid-sixties when he was fourteen. In the song "The Ghosts of Saturday Night (After Hours at Napoleone's Pizza House)" he sings "And the early dawn cracks out a carpet of diamond across a cash crop car lot filled with twilight Coupe Devilles," a reference to the Mile of Cars, the historic stretch of National City Boulevard currently home to twenty-one car franchises.
view full location details...red’s recovery room
from tom waits posted in music by tree
Kathleen was sittin down
In little reds recovery room
In her criminal underwear bra
view full location details...9th & hennepin
from tom waits posted in music by nevereatshreddedwheat
tom waits said in an interview that 9th & hennepin used to spell trouble and now it spells sandals and yogurt. i don't know about sandals and yogurt, but that intersection doesn't seem all that dangerous to me. the song is on rain dogs.