Song Noir - Tom Waits and the Spirit of Los Angeles

"Song Noir examines the formative first decade of Tom Waits's career, when he lived, wrote and recorded nine albums in Los Angeles; from his soft, folk-inflected debut, Closing Time (1973), to the abrasive, surreal Swordfishtrombones (1983). Starting his song-writing career in the '70s, Waits absorbed LA's wealth of cultural influences. Combining the spoken idioms of writers like Kerouac and Bukowski with jazz-blues rhythms, he explored the city's literary and film noir traditions to create hallucinatory dreamscapes. Mixing the domestic with the mythic, Waits turned quotidian, autobiographical details into something more disturbing and emblematic; a vision of LA as the warped, narcotic heart of his nocturnal explorations."--Provided by publisher.

About the author

Alex Harvey is a producer and director of programmes including Panorama and The Late Show for the BBC. His later films include The Lives of Animals (2002) and Enter the Jungle (2014). Based in Los Angeles, he regularly writes on literature, film and music for London Review of Books and LA Review of Books.

Summary

Examines Tom Waits’ first nine albums, created in and shaped by Los Angeles.

Product details

• Authors: Alex Harvey, Harvey Alex
• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.08.2022
• EAN: 9781789146639
• ISBN: 978-1-78914-663-9
• No. of pages: 240
• Series: Reverb
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Music > General, dictionaries; Rock, Rock & Pop music, Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups, MUSIC / History & Criticism, Pop Music, Popular Music, Musicians, singers, bands and groups, Composers and songwriters