In my 20’s I was really looking for something different.
Nirvana had just broken out to the mainstream world, which was a good thing.
The problem was, after that every existing band decided to make a grunge album. Labels would sign anyone from Seattle.
I was done with it. There were few acts during this period I would even listen to in my own time. I wasn’t feeling it anymore.
People I knew would play this stuff repeatedly. I still say to this day I don’t ever need to hear the album ‘Ten’ by Pearl Jam ever again in my lifetime, it was played so much.
I was looking for something different.
But I didn’t know where to look for it. There wasn’t a streaming service at the time to suggest something.
Then I found a suggestion in the most unlikely place. A Nick-at-nite TV program.
The show was called Fernwood 2 Night.
It was an obscure spinoff of another show from the 70’s “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman”.
The concept was, a late night talk show hosted in a small town called Fernwood.
Like the show Between Two Ferns. Only it was just made decades earlier and hosted by Martin Mull & Fred Willard. (Ha! Fernwood… Ferns. Didn’t realize that before.)
So I’m watching this and finding it thoroughly entertaining.
Then they introduce the musical guest. He’s passing through town and his van broke down. So he came to do the show to pay for it.
His name was Tom Waits.
He’s at the piano playing like he knew the notes but his fingers kept slipping on the keys. Then with a growling swagger, he sang into the microphone.
“The piaaaano has been drinking…”
His different way of playing, his unique voice. The way that he seemed like a cool 60s jazz musician, without… all the jazz.
I know it was supposed to be funny but there was something about it. Something I needed to hear more of.
I remember clearly, turning to my wife when he was done and saying, “If this guy is actually a musician and not just an actor? I’m going out and buying this album tomorrow.”
I had no idea what to expect. And Jesus, did I not expect this! Thought maybe at its worst, it would be a comedy album.
But it opened with a serious heartbreak ballad. Then it jumped from cool upright bass & scatting vocals to beat poetry over a free style saxophone that sounded like a New York street corner soliloquy.
It was different from anything around at the time. I had discovered something.
But here’s the thing. This album was from the 70’s. And at this time, I was unaware that he was about release a new album.
I didn’t know it, but this album was going to change my musical direction forever.
This album was just nothing like I had ever heard! The sounds were out of nowhere. The lyrics and vocals just did things I didn’t know how to do. And from the man with that same voice. He had taken what he had and made something completely new out of it.
That’s when it went from just finding something different, to wanting to know how to make things that felt and sounded this way.
I needed to figure it out. I needed to know how it was done.
I studied every aspect of his albums after this.
I started experimenting with different instruments and recording techniques. Mixing media types, handheld recorders and reel to reel tapes. Layering studio takes on top of it to get more depth and sound.
And I haven’t stopped. I’m not sure where I would be musically if I hadn’t seen this silly little cult program one night.