Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits

After a longish lay off, I finished this book only yesterday (1st March 2011). There are some gems of information but in attempting to break through the enigma of Tom Wait's stage and album persona, Hoskyn's generates long (indeed overlong) descriptors, which have tangents and indeed the tangents have tangents. One example of tangents on tangents on tangents, that sticks in my mind, is a later chapter. The prime subject here is Waits in the early 90's  with a tangent going to discuss people who have covered Wait's tunes, which goes further to talking about Ute Lemper's albums, with another  tangent to say on her albums are tunes by Scott Walker who in number of ways is parallel to Waits wrt his reclusiveness, eclecticism and enigmatic nature as a  composer/musician (even explaining how Walker creates some of the sounds heard on his on albums.......). I admit I'm guilty here at PA writing somewhat tangentially, but in this sort of serious biography dense with information, I found myself time after time wading (treacle-like) through relatively irrelevant wodges trying to find my way back to the subject of Tom Waits. At  500 pages of biography plus an Appendix*, I finished being only a little wiser about the man but however more informed about Wait's discography, because Hoskyns produces two line thumbnail sketches about most tracks on most albums (so admittedly helpful to me). Nevertheless I'm left thinking this biography could been far more polished and well edited down to 200 pages. (As I tell my undergraduates why use 500 words when 300 will suffice - those extra 200 tend to create a fog  that clouds/obscures the facts and those pearls of wisdom contained in the relevant 300 words). As such, I've would have read it in fortnight, probably giving me more insight - while not having one large lump of book occupy floor space since last summer - no I didn't use it as a door stop but it probably would work.  However, in its praise, it is the sort of book you can dip into and maybe gather a snippet or two, e.g. during  those brief sessions sitting on the loo (i.e. a it's good have sitting in the toilet for those private moments). 

Edited by Dick Heath - March 02 2011 at 07:55

Ah, thats a shame. Is it comprised entirley of interviews?

Edited by sarge - October 11 2010 at 01:37

Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits by Barney Hoskyns .