Title: The Dave Fanning Show Source: The Dave Fanning Show. RTE-2FM (Ireland). October 8, 2004. Transcription from tape by "Pieter from Holland" as published on the Tom Waits Library. Copyright RTE 2004. Date: aired October 8, 2004 (telephone interview) Keywords: Real Gone, piano, public image, influences, Kathleen, Ireland, Frank Zappa, Bob Dylan, Randy Newman, Mule variations, politics. Picture: Dave Fanning, 2004

The Dave Fanning Show

DF: Tom Waits, that's who we're talking to on the program tonight. Now let's start off with something there from a long long time ago from Tom Waits. Which is when his voice sounded... almost normal. This is a song called Martha.

[Martha]

DF: And there you go. That's music of course from Tom Waits. He's got the new album out called Real Gone. And I'm delighted to say he's on the line now. Tom, how are you?
TW: Dave, okay. How are you man?
DF: Very good indeed, and Tom one of the things about the kind of press release or the liner notes or whatever (..?..) says of these 15 tracks from Real Gone "From primal blues.." I'll take a wild stab at that, I think I understand that "...to cubist funk." Uhm, could you explain me the "cubist funk"?
TW: Gee I don't know Dave, I made it up. Now I'll make up a definition to go with it. Uh it's when you cut up a piece of funk and then you mess up the ingredients and you put it back together wrong. Uh I don't know. If you leave a few pieces out.
DF: Right, that's good enough an explanation for me. What about the vocal (..?..)? Is that just a lot of the stuff that like hip-hop people do on streetcorners without the music.
TW: Uh, well gee I don't know Dave. Most of it I guess originated purely economic. And, my wife used to communicate with drummers you know. When you're trying to explain to a drummer what you want them to do. You kinda go, you know [sings] "Aarh pfoom ah!, aarh pfoom ah!." And then they go: "I got it, okay."
DF: Yeah, that's exactly what I thought it would be myself. I mean, the thing is that like, you know, one of the nice things about the nineties albums from Tom Waits is the piano sound. You can hear all the peddle squeaks and the ambient noise. And now on this album here, this is the very first one you made with no piano?
TW: Well okay. Uh... Well you know, you bring everything in the studio and... My theory is, that when you don't bring it with you, you'll definitely need it. Which doesn't mean that if you bring it, you're gonna use it. You know? Uh, so I brought it and didn't use it, you know. So uh, you know it's like cooking you know. Is this ingredient correct for this particular item I'm making? And if it's not then we'll leave it out you know. When you make soup at home you don't put everything in it do you?
DF: No, quite true. Indeed you don't. Tom do you think you've been deliberately out of step with public culture. Or years ahead of us, or just (..?..)
TW: Am I a what?!
DF: I mean you take, during the Brit Invasion you had this R&B band which was The Systems⁽¹⁾, and people say you missed out on The Beatles cause you didn't really wanna know (..?..) and the hippies, you were into the Beat poets stuff and Jazz of the forties and fifties. You were out of step for a lot of the time. Do you think you were deliberately out of step with public culture? Do you think you were years ahead of us, or just a (..?..)
TW: Gee I don't know Dave. When I was a little kid, I wanted to be an old man. You know, I wanted a limb and a hat and a cane and a coat and a beard. Uh so I'm kinda living upside down, I guess, you might say. Nowadays I feel a lot younger then I used to... be when I was younger. Uh, but I don't know. I listened to old men's music cause it seemed more reliable. I didn't know about these young kids and their music. You know? Maybe it won't be around very long. I better listen to something that's a little more established you know? Uh, that was really my feeling about it. It was the permanence of it and, you know. All these musicians ultimately that I listened to became more like father figures. Rather then... You know what I mean? They were like portals to some other world. And I looked up to them so... You know listen to the old-timers, you know.
DF: Okay, I was just thinking, when you were a kid, a small kid, you said before that you were on your own a lot. Do you think that sollitude was important to your development later on?
TW: Gee I don't know. It's like I'm in therapy now!
DF: Yeah sorry, that is a bit heavy, you're right [laughs]
TW: Shall I lay down?
DF: Okay. [laughs] That's fifty dollars an hour here Tom! I think
TW: Cheap!
DF: Can you recall a moment at all, just one moment, that set you up like in the direction of becoming a musician. A lot of people often say: "I heard such and such on the radio... and I heard Big Bill Broonzy.", or these days, "I heard The Beatles or I heard something." Was there really one moment you said: "I gotta be a musician"?
TW: Uhm, gee I don't know. I saw Lightning Hopkins when I was a teenager. That had a big effect on me. Uh and uh, I saw James Brown when I was... I don't know, about fifteen. And uh... Heck I wanted to look like him and dance like him. You know I wanted his hair and his money, you know. So I don't know. But it's a long road from wanting to play music and to actually doing it you know.
DF: Do early memories of Mexico still filter through your songs? Or is that kinda, or was that gone by the late eighties?
TW: Mexico? Well gee I don't know. Yeah not everything that you listen to or eat or dream doesn't wind up in your music. You know. I mean, or if it does you may not notice it. I mean, Howlin' Wolf loved to listen to Jimmy Rogers. You know? Frank Sinatra loved The Rolling Stones. You know, go figure.
DF: Okay... Okay we're talking to Tom Waits, let's play some music.

DF: This is Blue Valentines.

[Blue Valentine]

DF: And that's the title Blue Valentines. It's twenty-three minutes past six o'clock. We're talking to Tom Waits for the rest of the program, by the way as well. So I should say, that whatever songs you wanna hear from about ten to seven onwards I'll play them. 087- 772 00 00. That's the text, 087-772 00 00. And the phone number is 1850-715922. There's a bunch of texts though "Tom Waits the living legend! Tell him there's room on my couch if you ever need a place to crash in Ireland" That's Kevin Lass. Come on Kevin, "(..?..) Tom is to do a gig. Tom the best show yet." "Dave you turned me into a Tom Waits fan!" is another one that's brilliant. "Hi Dave, would you humbly play I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You?" There's loads of specific songs already. "It's one of my favourites, it'll keep me going in the bus from Dublin" That's from Joanne. "Raindogs! Please" from Big Dave "I was at Eurostar". Sorry, oh "I was at Eurostar in Limerick!" Really. I'm very glad to hear it. "Come on Dave, please play The Heart Of Saturday Night." There's loads more and I will be playing stuff from his new album as well, which is out this week as mentioned earlier on. Now let me see, Real Gone by the way is the name of the new album. Let's first of all check up the traffic at the (..?..) and then back with Tom Waits.

[Break]
[Tom Traubert's Blues]

DF: There you go, music from Tom Waits. Tom uh, with the writing of the stuff, I mean most of the significant changes that you went through musically and as a person, you said began when you met your wife Kathleen. Has she been writing with you on this album as well?
TW: Oh yeah, we collaborated on this one too you know. And uh... Yeah she's the best. And uh she's uhhh... I don't know how to describe her. She's done a million things you know. She kinda pushed me out on the freeway in a baby carriage, you know. I was uh, I don't know. She's done a lot of stuff. She's been a newscaster. She actually drove heavy equipment for a while. That I really admired, you know, that she knows to start up an earthmover. You know she can run a caterpillar, a steam shovel all that stuff you know. Uhm, so she understands, you know, music AND engineering. So I appreciate her. A lot.
DF: Absolutely. Is she Irish?
TW: She is Irish! Yeah! That's why I appreciate her!
DF: [laughs] Where is she from in Ireland?
TW: Well I think her... Let's see, her father's father was from uh the county Cork I believe. And uh we get over there every now and then. And uh, yeah she comes from a big wild loud uh Irish family you know? There was a lot of noise at the dinner table and carrying on and uh. So I fell in love with the whole clan you know.
DF: Okay Tom, do you think in some ways, the experimenting with some of the ethnic instruments and the unusual recording techniques and the found sounds and the bizarre textures. Had Kathleen got a lot to do...Are you saying when she pushed you on the highway, when you were sitting in your pram or whatever, as you call it, was that her helping you go to those sounds?
TW: Uh, I don't know. It's hard to say you know, cause you know every relationship, sometimes it's fifty-fifty, sometimes it's seventy-thirty you know. Uh it's hard to tell. I uh... You know, I don't know. It's kinda like lightning of firecrackers. Sometimes you get to light them and she gets to throw 'em, you know. I don't know, it's different every time. But yeah she did, you know, encourage me to produce my own record, you know cause I had never done that before and didn't really have the guts to do it. And nor had I found a record company with the guts to allow me to. So uh what we did, we did Swordfishtrombones and we handed it in and the guy said: "You're gonna loose all your old audience and you'll never get a new one." And uh, so we played it for Chris Blackwell at Island and he loved it and he put it out. And so it was a big turning point for me in 1980 when I started hearing things differently and doing things differently, you know.
DF So do you think you would see it then, in terms of a recording artist, as like having two distinctive kind of things, in terms of seventies and eighties. For instance, if you think about The Heart Of Saturday Night or Nighthawks At The Diner or Small Change or whatever Heartattack And Vine up to there. You thad these kind of very prolific six years. The Swordfishtrombones thing was Island Records by the early eighties, so to many people that was a very creative and quite startling turning point. Was it that way for you or was it just a natural progression and you didn't realise what all the fuss was about?
TW: Ah gee I don't know, you kinda want there to be some kind of fuss. But you know people were listening you know. Uh you know, you've entered some other portal or... Yeah you've made a left turn off the main highway. Yeah, you want people to notice it. Yeah I mean, making songs the old way for me was more like uh, I don't know, putting my head on somebody else's body. You know, I was trying to sound like an old man and I think I've gotten a lot younger in a lot of ways. I certainly write songs a lot faster, you know we write 'em a lot a-cappella. You know, I write in the car, it's the only place where I can get myself alone nowadays you know. So I play and write in the car.
DF: And when you write in the car does that mean you have a tape recorder to take down what your head is saying?
TW: Oh yeah. So we pull out for a drive and make up a bunch of strange tunes, and then come back home. [laughs]
DF: Okay listen, we do have the new album. But I just wanna play one from the earlier albums
TW: What are you gonna play?
DF: We're talking to Tom Waits back now from Swordfishtrombones.
TW: Hey, hey what are you gonna play!
DF: Which track do you like? I'll play any track you like...
TW: I like Underground, I like Franks Wild Years, I like Shore Leave.
DF: Okay Franks Wild Years it is, okay?

[Franks Wild Years]

DF: There it is, Franks Wild Years is the name of the song. It is Tom Waits we're talking to. That's from the album now... mother of god, twenty years ago at this day 1983 Swordfishtrombone. The new album is out now. It is called Real Gone. What's the thing about the new album Tom. Like what makes you wanna go back in the studio. I mean there was a six year gap at one stage in the nineties. You just say: "This is what I do, I'm a musician, I go in, I make records, that's it"?
TW: Gee I don't know. You know uhm. What makes you wanna go back in? The only thing that makes you go back in is you want to make some new tunes cause you're tired of the old ones. There's no other reason to do it you know. Otherwise you just make one record and you'd be done with the whole business. So, you know I think after a while it gets like a seasonal thing. Yeah there's the planting and then there's the watering and then there's the pruning and there's some kind of harvest at the end, just like everything else it's alive. And uh... well you know it's exciting when you say: "Let's start a record!" you know. And uh you kinda gather all your forces and... I don't know. It's hard to talk about. It happens naturally.
DF: And did it happen naturally when you were working at a pizza place⁽²⁾ for most of your teens. At the age of nineteen when you kinda gave it up and started to make records or whatever, Is that when you started writing or had you been writing well before that?
TW: Oh I don't know. You're always thinking about it, you know. Whether you're writing anything down or not. I didn't really start getting serious about it until I was probably in my twenties. I was like, you know as a career you know, as a teenager you know, I was... you know I wasn't really thinking of it as something that was even possible to do as a career. So I started right up in the restaurant business. That seemed to be what I had been doing up to that point. (..?..) a caf� or something you know.
DF: Okay but (..?..) you felt like your feet were in different camps. I mean The Eagles covered your songs⁽³⁾. There was like, there was all this Asylum crowd. Like Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne and Judee Sill or whatever. And then you were doing your completely kind of weird stuff as well. Did you feel part of any camp at all, or did you think that the idea of camps was not a good idea anyway, so you went well out off it?
TW: Gee I don't know. With all due respect. I guess I always felt kinda like somewhat of a loner. You know, uncomfortable with crowds. So I don't know, I guess I've always kinda been on my own. You know? Uh... You know those folks were all great and I, and you gotta wind up somewhere you know. I was on a record label with a lot of well-established people on it and so I was glad to be recording, you know. But my first tour, one of my first tours, I went up and opened a show for Frank Zappa. That kinda snapped my head around a little bit. As I was his opening act for three years and uh it was, you know, it was a rather rude experience, but I thought that was really kinda what it was all about. You know, paying your dues and all that. I took the knocks.
DF: Okay you took the knocks, you paid your dues you toured with Frank Zappa. At that time when you toured with Frank Zappa, was he somebody you'd look up to and almost be scared of? Like he was this great leader of this great vision. People used to talk about him as being something...
TW: Oh yeah.
DF: Was he... Would you have been scared at first?
TW: Oh yeah, yeah. He was like a big old wizard you know. He was like uh. You know he was like he came out of a bottle, you know. And uh you know he was spooky. But he was, you know, very hard working, and highly imaginative and uh a kinder class you know. He was someone to aspire to I think you know. You know he was working in the system and uh, so I wanted to be doing so. Yeah I paid attention, I watched him, I loved all of his band members. In those days he was working with Ruth Underwood and uh George Duke and uh Tom Fowler, Bruce Fowler, Chester Thompson, those folks. So uh yeah, it was an exciting time for me. I was hearing a lot of music that was inspiring to me. You know, taking it all in. Takes a while for it to all come back out.
DF: Okay, we're talking to Tom Waits by the way and we're here until half past seven, doing just that, there's a bunch of, millions of texts in here. "This man's soundtrack is the youth that we wished we had.", "He's a legend. Please play the whole back catalogue tonight, and I'll stay up with a load of drink!" [laughs] That's from (,,?..). I'm afraid we have to stop at seven, we have little more then forty-five minutes to go and it's Tom Waits all the way. "Dave, On The Nickel from Heartattack And Vine will relax anyone stuck in traffic at the moment." That's from (..?..). "Dave, I like Heartattack And Vine. What does it feel like to talk to god? You made my weekend." Dave in Cork: "Dave, the three nights are sold out in Holland⁽⁴⁾. The tickets are gone on auction on eBay for up to € 2800,- a ticket." Jeevers! "Uh⁽⁵⁾. The new album is fantastic." Which we play a track or two from it, now it's called Real Gone uh "Metropolitan Glide" is the one that you want", that's from Colin. And we'll check out more of that.. That didn't make much sense didn't it?

[Break]

DF: Tom Waits is what we're doing on the program tonight, talking to him. "High Dave, Tom Waits surely one of the best storytellers of all time. Any chance playing Jack & Neal?. All the best." That's from John in (..?..). "Tom Waits he's just the medicine I needed after another great day of work, play What's He Building." Oh yeah What's He Building, I'll ask him about that track as well "...from Mule Variations. It's just creepy." That's Allan from something in Galway. "Could you play Kentucky Avenue the saddest and happiest song from the world." That's from Dave from Cork. Some people have asked about this, which is from The Heart Of Saturday Night album, which is the title track. Tom Waits...

DF: So if you have a favourite, there is plenty of time to play music up the air. So 087-772 00 00. (..?..)

[The Heart Of Saturday Night]

DF: Were you taking all the music in even before that. When people say that Tom Waits draws from the very deep end of American songs You go from Folk to Blues to Country to Jazz to ballads to all kinds of waltzes, cabaret, Swing, and popular ballads all the way. Is there a chance that when you were a doorman at the Heritage nightclub in San Diego there was so much music on offer you were taking all that in whether you even knew it or not?
TW: Gee I don't know. It's not always a conscious thing you know. It was really more of a, absorbing all kinds of things. You know mostly, you know I was listening to the radio a lot. You know I was listening to Ray Charles and Solomon Burke and you know. You know "Save The Last Dance For Me", "On Broadway" Uh "Moving On", "Abilene" You know it really got a hold on me, you know. I loved soul music, loved The Stones, loved The Beatles, loved Bob Dylan. You know stuff (..?..) you know. You know, Merle Haggard, you know whatever was on the radio that's what I usually listened to.
DF: When Bob Dylan said that "Tom Waits is one of my secret heroes." Does that say... do you kinda say, "Oh yeah that's great?" You know does that make you feel good?
TW: Oh yeah, sure yeah. [laughs] Yeah I mean sure. Yeah of course it makes me feel good! Yeah cause he's a... Bob Dylan is definitely a planet to be explored, you know? And uh, so yeah, he changed music you know, uh permanently. And uh, so he's one of the giants you know. So yeah, when a giant acknowledges you, yeah of course it effects you, yeah.
DF: But one of the people who could have changed music, and could have been a giant, but wasn't is Randy Newman. Did you look up to somebody as Randy Newman?
TW: Oh yeah, loved him, loved him! Loved Randy Newman. Amazing songwriter! You know and... Yeah of course, but uh you know even Randy Newman's a giant. You know? Uh no question about that.
DF: Would you think... would it be possible to say that an album like Mule Variations is your most intimate album, or is that like, that's for other people to decide. It's not something for you to decide one way or the other?
TW: I don't know, you move on to something else. You know, it's exciting when you're working on it, but when it's over and it's done, and it's released and it is out. You know it's finished. For me it's not really... there's little else I can do to it. Once it's out.. so uh... But yeah I like the tunes on there. We worked on one of those songs... for like about... We did about fourteen different versions of it on that Get BUhind The Mule. And so my wife finally said, when she heard us working on the tune again, we had done a Cuban version and we did a Chinese version and we did an a-cappella version and we did one with strings, you know. We couldn't seem to land on the right one. She said: "Oh it sounds like another Mule Variation!" So that's where our title came from, and it seemed to stick. And uh... No, once they're done they're done. You know, and you're more interested in fresh material. new stuff down the road.
DF: Okay well before I come back to talk a final bit to Tom Waits I'm gonna play some fresh material, some new stuff down the road, from the new album which is called Real Gone. This track here is called Top Of The Hill.

[Top Of The Hill]
[Break]

DF: Thank you very much indeed. Gene Barry from (..?..) says: "My Tom Waits ticket to Amsterdam is costing me €350,- But how else could I spend the money better?" Good question. Back with Tom Waits after this.

[Break]

DF: Okay let's see. Friday evening, we've got twenty-five minutes left. Until half past seven. Dave Fanning with you every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday from six to half past seven. and Tom Waits is what we're on about tonight. And we did ask about the songs. There were 130 different songs being mentioned so far in terms of the ones you wanna hear. 087-772 00 00 and certainly on the top of the list is this one here. I've mentioned it twice. The choice of Dave in Cork: "I love Tom Waits. Please play Kentucky Avenue. He's a genius." That's from Mary so I will.

[Kentucky Avenue]

DF: Tom the final bit. I mean in terms of your movie career and that. You always play the strange character in the movie. Is that what suits you best or you're just typecast?
TW: Gee I don't know. I'm not really an actor you know. I do some acting. So I'm like a plumber that does a little electrical.
DF: [laughs]
TW: Like a farmer who writes a little poetry. You know, that's all. And I dig it, you know I have fun with it. I meet interesting people and go to weird places. You know, but you start to play in small parts sometimes. You gotta get up the steam. It's hard to get up the speed. In a film, you know, that's already been going on for, you know six, eight weeks and you come in and do your business for three days you know. It looks easy but it's not. So, but you know, I leave that to the people who really do it well you know. I get a kick out of it, but you know it's not my real calling, you know?
DF: Okay, well one part of your real calling is on stage. Those gigs in Dublin⁽⁶⁾ for instance, oh god so many years ago now I can't remember exactly when, some gigs at the Olympia in Dublin are still being talked about by those who were there. So uhm, when are you coming back?
TW: I don't know uh, I think we're coming back some time in November. I think we're gonna go to London for a couple of days, but I'm not sure when.
DF: Okay, there is a thing that happens in upstate New York somewhere, Uhm which is called Waitstock⁽⁷⁾. Kind of an annual celebration of Tom Waits. Is that something you'd say: "Hey I might drop in on that some time", or would you run a mile?
TW: Jesus! Now I have heard about it, and I can't imagine what these people do. I guess, what do they get up late and then they have Whiskey and eggs? I don't know what it is. Uh, to be honest with you, it's some form of worship of some kind but I can't imagine being there, or you know. I try not to think about it. I mean god, hey bless their hearts you know. It's a form of entertainment but you know, there wouldn't be anything in there for me, you know.
DF: Well like what is it with you, cause when I mentioned The Eagles and all the people who covered your songs, you went through the Asylum years. Before all that you went to The Troubadour and you used to wait in line on a Monday night like anybody else, you'd hope to get up on stage, the spotlight would pick you up, you'd walk towards the stage and you'd do whatever it is you do. And in one way you are still doing that now. You never wanted to do any other stuff and get involved in the madness of huge tours or even supporting an Eagles, who've been playing to 100.000 people every night on a major tour. Is that just the way it is? Song and dance man Tom Waits?
TW: Gee, I don't know. I wouldn't call myself a song and dance man, but I don't know how I would respond to that You mean why am I not playing larger venues?
DF: No, that's not really what I mean. I mean, what I mean is that like you never wanted to buy into a lot of what people might have you expected to buy into. You want to what Tom Waits wants to do. That means, play the nice venues and do it the way you want to do it.
TW: Oh, shouldn't everybody do it the way they wanna do it?
DF: Yeah but they don't. Sometimes the machine rolls them along. The ball becomes too big and they have to do it a different way.
TW: Well I don't know uh, it's kinda supply and demand. It's much better to be in more demand then there is a supply of.
DF: True.
TW: And the other way around you know. So if I wanna play a 10.000 seat arena, I could in some places, but I just really don't like theatres like that you know. It's like Uh... Yeah they were designed for sports events.
DF: True.
TW: You know? And I don't think of music as a sporting event and I'm more comfortable in the theatre, that's all.

[Soldier's Things]

DF: Tom Waits's Soldier's Things.

DF: What about, just finally, the way we are now and the way we live now, there is a song you have called What's He Building In There? which I played a good few times. It's a busy body trying to find out what the eccentric neighbour is doing in his very weird house. Is he a serial killer, is he the Unabomber? Whatever. The whole idea of a climate of fear, the whole idea of not getting on as well with your neighbours as you might have done because of your own head or whatever, do you think that a lot of that is going on in America with George Bush, in terms of people and home policy and foreign policy. Like for instance You know, in the early seventies and the late sixty-nineties you were allowed to be out there and be with Crosby Stills and Nash and Young or whatever it was... and give on about the Vietnam war. If you did that now you'd be called un-American.
TW: Mmm... gee I don't know. You mean is that what What's He Building In There about?
DF: No not necessarily but...
TW: Your questions are so long I get lost in them, and I kept looking for the question mark!
DF: [laughs]
TW: Have you had too much coffee?
DF: I honestly have had a lot of coffee! [laughs]
TW: Jesus Christ!
DF: Okay, what I'm saying is this. Okay like at the moment as the Republican conventions has entered in New York and the Democratic conventions a weeks back as well. And we're coming towards a general election in America. A very big and important election. George Bush... I'm trying to say... I'm not gonna say which side you are on, but how do you feel like post 9/11 in terms of... Do you think America has really wielded itself out a little bit, and could do with a little chilling out?
TW: Well I'd say this is probably one of the most important elections that we've had in a long time, not that they aren't all important but you know, but I join the voices of a lot of Americans and hope that he's voted out of office. You know? Uh I can say that, you know. I can't say that Kerry is a logical and the most effective alternative, I think maybe we're kinda of a, we're one party with two heads. You know? In a lot of ways. Uhm I don't know. I like what Bill Hicks said⁽⁸⁾. I think when you are elected president in the United States, they take you into a small room. And they run a film clip of the Kennedy assassination from an angle no one has ever seen before. And then they turn to you and say: "Are there any questions?"
DF: [laughs] Excellent. Alright listen Tom. I'm gonna leave you with this. Do you still have a tattoo of Easter Island on your back?
TW: Uh... Alright yes, Easter Island! Yes I do! Easter Island and uh...Who told you that?!
DF: Argh I don't know! Kathleen maybe, I can't remember. [laughs]
TW: No, the front is a menu from a Vietnamese restaurant. You know...
DF: The front is a menu from a Vietnamese restaurant, and the back is Easter Island?
TW: Yeah.
DF: Alright, well listen Tom let's hope you can come over here and show it to us some time because you're always welcome back in Ireland. In fact there was an album you had out some time, a kind of a best of Tom Waits⁽⁹⁾, and the only new track on it was a live version of The Piano Has Been Drinking and it was recorded here in Dublin at the Olympia.
TW: Oh, right, right, right.
DF: So you're welcome back as I said. Tom thank you, you've been talking to us.
TW: Alright.
DF: Alright good luck.
TW: See ya.
DF: Take it easy. Thanks Tom. Bye, bye.

DF: Oh god a million requests. A lot of people wanted this one from the Heartattack And Vine album. Jersey Girl. So here it is. "Not one song from Raindogs!" that's from Shane "There's not one song from that sort of albums!"

[Jersey Girl]
[Metropolitan Glide]
[What's He Building In there?]

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ The Systems: further quotes at: Quotes: Childhood.

⁽²⁾ Working at a pizza place: further reading: Topography: Napoleone.

⁽³⁾ The Eagles covered your songs: On The Border. The Eagles, 1974 Label: Elektra/ Asylum LP 1004. Song covered: "Ol' '55". (Re-released by Elektra Entertainment in 1990).

⁽⁴⁾ The three nights are sold out in Holland: November 19-21, 2004. Shows promoting Real Gone at Koninklijk Theater Carr�. Amsterdam/ The Netherlands: Friday, Saturday, Sunday (on sale October 2nd).

⁽⁵⁾ Tom live in London: November 23, 2004. Show promoting Real Gone at Carling (Hammersmith) Apollo theatre. London/ UK: Tuesday (on sale September 10th)

⁽⁶⁾ Those gigs in Dublin: November 15-17, 1987 Olympia Theatre. Dublin/ Ireland (Franks Wild Years tour)

⁽⁷⁾ Waitstock: further reading: Waitstock.

⁽⁸⁾ I like what Bill Hicks said: refering to track 31 "The elite" from the album Rant In E-Minor (Rykodisc, posthumously released in 1997)

⁽⁹⁾ Kind of a best of Tom Waits: "Bounced Checks", WEA/ Asylum Records, 1981.