tom waits is here later we'll take a look at our giant late-night christmas card and dr charles
levy the dangerous animal expert is going to be here congratulations on the album tom i was
reading you have what is that you're brushing off your i don't know i ran into a christmas
tree in the hall they're everywhere this time of year aren't they yeah uh anyway i was gonna say
congratulations on the album you're getting it's getting terrific reviews isn't it yeah
some people are uh recognizing it and uh it's really uh kind of an odyssey uh journey the
songs interrelate and i there's 15 of them i i think you get more for your entertainment dollar
well that's good if you play some of the songs backwards it says dirty things
oh that's great so so you really are for the price of one album getting all kinds
of entertainment there yeah i'm i'm i'm looking for some new consumers and attempting to cook
my dinner on your stove possibly sure well that's that's what our stove is here for tom
um speaking of stoves are you still living in the motel on santa monica boulevard in california
you must have me mixed up with somebody else didn't you spend some time there at the tropicana
did spend some time at a um well i don't know motel i'd call it a palatial uh state uh-huh uh
yeah right on santa monica boulevard they're uh on the other side of los angeles this is
where duke's coffee shop is yeah that's right beneath the hotel you had your piano in the
kitchen you've been reading my mail yeah and but you're not there anymore huh no no longer uh
travel has become an important part of my life yeah yeah you lived in a house trailer for a while
just for a brief period now what was that like as an experience for a man of the world like yourself
uh it's close but you can always pick up and move the next day yeah that's true
uh you also for a while uh years ago lived in a car um well not for an extended period of time
you know how those accommodations can be yeah yeah what kind of car was it
this is a 62 wagon black interior yeah
did you do much entertaining in those days
you mean uh man nightclubs that type of thing no no i mean friends drop over you know
oh no i know where you're trying to take this no no i was just i just think it's interesting
but also and correct me if this is not the truth you were born in a piece of modern transportation
weren't you according to my uncle robert yeah but i i don't know people say a lot of things
was it a cab you were supposedly born in it was a red and white with the uh you know meter right
where the meter was running and uh where was this in indiana no really what part of indiana uh uh
it's a place called valparaiso oh sure i know where that is yeah no i do i i'm from indiana
myself so i know and then i spent a lot of time in california in north dakota minnesota florida guam
uh all right now for uh for a man who was who started life in the back seat of a red
and white cab uh last year you were nominated for an academy award this is a long trip you actually
you went to the the award ceremony didn't you for the it was for the music for uh
one from the heart yeah yeah now what was that like for you being there
well um you know i i went back and forth as well i mean i'm gonna go i'm not gonna go i i couldn't
make up my mind in terms of fashion i i don't know i would have to classify it as a cotillion
it's a lot of 1959 prom formals and that type of thing yeah and uh
so uh did you have a tuxedo as a matter of fact i did yeah an old clothes horse like myself was
in the right place yeah did the what was the uh what made you decide to show up for the uh
presentation well you know i mean you really are are nominated by by people
who are in your field and uh a lot of uh composers and songwriters and
musicians that uh recognized the score from uh the coppola film yeah and uh so it really is a
is flattering yeah but you know there was a time when people would think well
it's not really chic or hip you're nominated sure but i'll be busy that night i'll you know
but you decided to show up well we were living like three four blocks from the place
so i just drop in what the heck really it was very simple yeah now
you mentioned earlier tom about the concept of the album swordfish trombones go into that
a little bit this is a a combination of sounds you just hear around you all the time that the
music ought to be more what you're accustomed to hearing on the streets and in your house and
so on and so forth is that close am i getting warm there well let's see frank really is the
central protagonist uh who really kind of came to me in a dream and he spoke to me of many things
and uh so it's really uh i was trying to find uh uh musical instruments that
were more nightmarish or you know dream like there's some unusual things on here as far
as instruments go aren't they uh brake drums yeah that's the ones that uh you can find just
about in any automobile wrecking here yeah yeah have you used for for percussion those things
yeah you hit them with uh something that uh you hit them with anything him or a rock
do you get uh you get a lot of strange mail tom i don't get as much mail as i used to uh
every now and then i get a letter that uh that uh catches my attention you have an example of
from a recent batch that you could share with us i got a letter from a little kid that was uh
who was from uh somewhere in the midwest who uh had been uh suspended from school for bringing
one of my records into a share class sure got a show-and-tell deal yeah it was that type of thing
and uh so i interrupted his curriculum temporarily what was the uh what was the particular record in
the song he was playing for the kids i think uh it was something uh some reference to uh underwear
in the song and uh and so the teacher thought it was inappropriate he's seven years old so
i wrote a letter and uh did what i could just trying to stop trying to get him off the hook
a lot of these things are out of my hand that's true but it's nice that you made the effort i
mean without that he might have gone on to a life of christ someone's got us you never know sure