Lyrically, Waits ' songs frequently present atmospheric portrayals of grotesque, often seedy characters and places — although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads.

In 1971, Waits moved to the Echo Park neighborhood of L. A. ( at the time, also home to musicians Glenn Frey of the Eagles, J. D. Souther, Jackson Browne, and Frank Zappa ) and signed with Herb Cohen at the age of 21.

The album also features Bette Midler singing a duet with Waits on " I Never Talk to Strangers.

The song " Blue Valentines " was also unique for Waits in that it featured a desolate arrangement of solo electric guitar played by Ray Crawford, accompanied by Waits ' vocal.

In 1978, Waits also appeared in his first film role, in Paradise Alley as Mumbles the pianist, and contributed the original compositions "( Meet Me in ) Paradise Alley " and " Annie's Back in Town " to the film's soundtrack.

During this period, Waits appeared in a series of minor movie roles, including a cameo role in Wolfen ( 1981 ) as an inebriated piano player, and his song " Jitterbug Boy " also appeared on the movie's soundtrack.

Waits also contributed two songs to the documentary Streetwise ( 1984 ), " Rat's Theme " and " Take Care of All My Children ".

" Swordfishtrombones also introduced instruments such as bagpipes (" Town with No Cheer ") and marimba (" Shore Leave ") to Waits ' repertoire, as well as pump organs, percussion ( sometimes reminiscent of the music of Harry Partch ), horn sections ( often featuring Ralph Carney playing in the style of brass bands or soul music ), experimental guitar, and obsolete instruments ( many of Waits ' albums have featured a damaged, unpredictable Chamberlin, and more recent albums have included the little-used Stroh violin ).

Waits developed his acting career with several supporting roles and a lead role in Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law in 1986, which also featured two of Waits's songs from Rain Dogs in the soundtrack.

In the same year, Waits also contributed vocals to the song " Harlem Shuffle " on The Rolling Stones ' album Dirty Work.

" Waits also continued to further his acting career with a supporting role as Rudy the Kraut in Ironweed ( an adaptation of William Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ) alongside Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, in which Waits performed the song " Big Rock Candy Mountain ", as well as a part in Robert Frank's Candy Mountain, in which Waits also performed " Once More Before I Go.

Waits also collaborated with photographer Sylvia Plachy in the same year ; her book Sylvia Plachy's Unguided Tour includes a short Waits record to accompany the photographs and text.

1992 also saw Waits featuring in Francis Ford Coppola's film Bram Stoker's Dracula, as the possessed lunatic Renfield.

The album also includes the traditional hymn " I Know I've Been Changed ", performed as a duet by Hammond and Waits.

That same year, Waits was also a judge for the 2nd annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists ' careers.

Waits was also a judge for the 10th annual Independent Music Awards.

In the same year, Waits contributed a cover of Cole Porter's " It's All Right with Me " to Red Hot + Blue, the first in the series of compilation albums from the Red Hot Organization — one of the first major AIDS benefits in the music business — which sold over a million copies worldwide.

The same year, Waits contributed a version of " The Return of Jackie and Judy " by The Ramones to the compilation album We're a Happy Family: A Tribute to Ramones, which was released in 2003 on Columbia Records.

The same year, Waits contributed backing vocals to the track " Go Tell It on the Mountain " on the Grammy Award ( Best Traditional Gospel Album )- winning album of the same name by The Blind Boys of Alabama.

The album cover contributed to the image of Jones as a stylish beret-wearing beatnik ; it was reported at the time that Jones was a heavy drinker and also a drug addict, and she and Tom Waits were, in some quarters, known as rock music's bohemian couple.

In the same year, Waits lent his vocals to Gavin Bryars ' 75-minute reworking of his 1971 classical music piece Jesus ' Blood Never Failed Me Yet ; appeared in Robert Altman's film version of Raymond Carver's stories Short Cuts and Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes: Somewhere in California, a short black-and-white movie with Iggy Pop ; and his third child, Sullivan, was born.

Waits appears on most songs, playing guitar, piano, and / or offering backing vocals.

Waits also provided guest vocals on the song " Pray " by fellow ANTI-artists The Book of Knots on their album Traineater.

* Tom Waits – vocals, guitar, chamberlin, percussion, shakers

" Waits himself provided guitar work and backing vocals as well as producing the project.

The album is also notable for containing a number of covers of songs by other artists, including The Ramones (" The Return of Jackie and Judy " and " Danny Says "), Daniel Johnston (" King Kong "), Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht (" What Keeps Mankind Alive "), and Leadbelly (" Ain't Goin ' Down to the Well " and " Goodnight Irene "), as well as renditions of works by poets and authors admired by Waits, such as Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac and a previously released duet with Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse entitled " Dog Door ".

This had been followed three years later by " Twins ", a segment featuring actors Steve Buscemi and Joie and Cinqué Lee, and then in 1993 with the Short Film Palme d ' Or-winning " Somewhere in California ", starring musicians Tom Waits and Iggy Pop.

* David Coulter, Multi-Instrumentalist and Producer / Music Supervisor ; ex-member of Test Dept and The Pogues, has played Musical Saw on numerous albums and live with a who's who of Contemporary Popular Music: Damon Albarn, Gorillaz, Tom Waits, Hal Willner, Richard Hawley, Jarvis Cocker, Marianne Faithfull, Tim Robbins, The Tiger Lillies.

Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding " like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car.

Although Waits ' albums have met with mixed commercial success in his native United States, they have occasionally achieved gold album sales status in other countries.

Waits lives in Sonoma County, California with his wife, Kathleen Brennan, and three children.

After Waits ' parents divorced in 1960, he lived with his mother in Whittier, and then moved to National City, in San Diego County, near the Mexico – United States border.

Waits, who taught himself how to play the piano on a neighbor's instrument, often took trips to Mexico with his father, who taught Spanish ; he would later say that he found his love of music during these trips through a Mexican ballad that was " probably a Ranchera, you know, on the car radio with my dad.

Waits received increasing critical acclaim and gathered a loyal cult following with his subsequent albums.

In 1975, Waits moved to the Tropicana Motel on Santa Monica Boulevard and released the double album Nighthawks at the Diner, recorded in a studio with a small audience in order to capture the ambience of a live show.

In reaction to these hardships, Waits recorded Small Change ( 1976 ), which finds him in a much more cynical and pessimistic mood, lyrically, with many songs such as " The Piano Has Been Drinking ( Not Me ) ( An Evening with Pete King )" and " Bad Liver and a Broken Heart ( In Lowell )".

With it, Waits broke onto Billboards Top 100 Albums chart for the first time in his career ( a feat Waits would not repeat until 1999 with the release of Mule Variations ).

Around this time, Waits had a relationship with Rickie Lee Jones ( who appears on the sleeve art of the Blue Valentine album ).

The same year, he began a long working relationship with Francis Ford Coppola, who asked Waits to provide music for his film One from the Heart.

For Coppola's film, Waits originally wanted to work with Bette Midler ; she was unavailable due to prior engagements, however.

Waits ended up working with singer / songwriter Crystal Gayle as his vocal foil for the album.

Despite having shared a manager with Beefheart in the 1970s, Waits says, " I became more acquainted with him when I got married.

" Waits would later describe his relationship with Brennan as a paradigm shift in his musical development.

One from the Heart received its official theatrical release in 1982, with Waits appearing in a cameo as a trumpet player as well as receiving an Oscar nomination for Original Song Score ( eventually losing out to Victor Victoria, by Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse ).

This marked the first in a series of collaborations between Waits and Coppola, with Waits appearing in cameos in Coppola's movies The Outsiders ( 1983 ), Rumble Fish ( 1983 ), and The Cotton Club ( 1984 ), and a major role in Bram Stoker's Dracula.