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Most songs that aren't jump-rope songs, or lullabies, are cautionary tales or goodbye songs and road songs.

Tom Waits

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Tom Waits
Age: 75
Born: 1949
Born: December 7
Actor
Composer
Guitarist
Jazz Guitarist
Pianist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Writer
Pomona
California
Thomas Alan Waits
Aren
Lullabies
Songs
Cautionary
Song
Lullaby
Rope
Goodbye
Jump
Tales
Road

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It's terrible for the culture of music. Like anything that is purely economic, it ignores the most important component.
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Sometimes the magnetism of a song is impossible to ignore, and it demands that it be sung in a certain way.
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God's away, God's away, God's away on business. Business!
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I do like books on anatomy. I have to say I'm an amateur physician, I guess.
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The blues and gospel stuff seemed to go together.
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I think some bands thrive on the idea of changing instruments. When they're off their real instrument, the ability to go very far from the original idea is reduced.
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I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.
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Writing songs is like capturing birds without killing them. Sometimes you end up with nothing but a mouthful of feathers.
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He said, I'm better off without her, until I showed him my tattoo.
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What you want is for music to love you back. That's why you pay your dues. You want to feel like you belong and are part of this symbiosis, metamorphosis, whatever you want to call it.
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Every single song has its own individual character and you can't treat each song the same way, because it wants to be treated differently and there are songs that are like scared birds that you have to sneak up on over the course of months in the woods.
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I just don't like the word 'fun'--it's like Volkswagen, or bell-bottoms, or patchouli-oil or bean-sprouts...it rubs me up the wrong way.
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Are you still jumping out of windows in expensive clothes?
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I'm just trying to make a buck like everyone else.
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Never have your wallet with you onstage. It's bad luck. You shouldn't play the piano with money in your pocket. Play like you need the money.
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Sing me a rainbow. Steal me a dream.
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In terms of black music - the only music that we can call our own, that was really born here - I don't think a lot has been done to chronicle the relations between American history and where black music fits in.
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The big print giveth and the small print taketh away.
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I hope I'm becoming more eccentric. More room in the brain.
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The ship is sinking The ship is sinking There's leak, there's a leak,in the boiler room The poor, the lame, the blind Who ore the ones that we kept in charge Killers, thieves, and lawyers God's Away, God's away God's away on Business
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