Mule Variations


January 2000 - December 2001
Used Songs

The Old Grey Whistle Test
    The Old Grey Whistle Test was a live music programme running on the BBC between 1971 and 1987. A two disk DVD set, The Best Of The Old Grey Whistle Test, has been released containing 40 rare performances and interviews from the programme's 16 year history. One of these performances sees Tom Waits playing Tom Traubert's Blues.


Hold On Single
    Along with the release of the album Mule Variations in 1999 came the CD Single Hold On. This CD contains two tracks not found on Mule Variations, Buzz Fledderjon and Big Face Money.


Paradise Alley
    In 1978 Tom Waits wrote two songs for the soundtrack of Sylvester Stallone's film Paradise Alley. Tom Waits also appears in the film as a character called Mumbles.


The Replacements - Date To Church
    Tom Waits added the backing vocals to the Replacements Date To Church for the B side of their single I'll Be You. Date To Church can also be found on the Replacements anthology All For Nothing and the compilation Just Say Mao.


Rolling Stones - Dirty Work
    In 1986 Tom Waits added his vocals to the Rolling Stone song Sleep Tonight from their album Dirty Work.


Richie Cole - Hollywood Madness
    Tom Waits can be heard explaining his lateness to Eddie Jefferson on Richie Cole and Eddie's song Waitin' For Waits from Cole's 1979 album Hollywood Madness.


Tales From The Underground Volume 1
    A while back some enterprising individual created the first of a set of five bootleg albums entitled Tales From The Underground Volume 1 upon which appeared Waits songs collected from various sources.


S.O.S United
    In 1989 the charity SOS Kinderdorf released the album S.O.S United consisting of children from 15 different countries singing together to raise money to help the S.O.S children villages organization. Tom Waits helps out in the vocal department of the track Silent Night.


Mississippi Lad - Teddy Edwards
    Back in 1991 Tom Waits sang and played guitar upon a duo of Teddy Edwards songs for his album Mississippi Lad.


Used Songs (1973-1980)
    On the 16th October 2001 Rhino Records celebrates Waits’ halcyon Asylum years with a collection of barroom ballads and coffee-shop croons on an album entitled Used Songs (1973-1980).


Ute Lemper - Punishing Kiss
    Cabaret diva Ute Lemper sings the Waits songs Purple Avenue and The Part You Threw Away on her album Punishing Kiss release in 2000.


Christine Collister
    The British folkist Christine Collister recorded Broken Bicycles on her albums Blue Aconite and Songbird with the comment, "I love the imagery Tom Waits uses and this song really captured my imagination."
Collister also recorded Dirt In The Ground on her album Dark Gift Of Time in 1998.


Tori Amos - Strange Little Girls
    Tori Amos's Strange Little Girls released on the 17th September 2001 contains her version of Waits's Time along with 11 other songs written by men about women.


Sparkehorse - It's A Wonderful Life
    June 2001 sees the release of Sparklehorse's third album It's A Wonderful Life with Waits singing and playing on the co-written track Dog Door.


Big Time US Revival Premiere
    On the 25th May 2001 the Tom Waits 1988 film, Big Time, opens for an exclusive engagement at the Rafael Film Center, California.
At the special preview screening on Thursday, May 24th, Big Time director Chris Blum will also screen rare clips of Tom Waits promotions and interviews.


John Hammond
    On the 13th March 2001 John Hammond released his Tom Waits produced album Wicked Grin. The album contains twelve songs penned by Waits, including two new Waits songs, 2:19 and Fannin Street. Waits plays guitar, piano and plucked piano throughout the album then adds his vocals to a traditional tune 'I Know I've Been Changed'.
This is not Hammonds only involvement with Waits in the past. In 1992 his album Got Love If You Want It contained a specially written Waits song.
John Hammond also appeared on Mule Variations along with Wicked Grin musician Charlie Musselwhite.


Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks
    Tom Waits adds his vocal talents to Dan Hicks song 'I'll Tell You Why That Is' on the same album as Dan Hicks performs the Waits song The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) on the album Beatin' The Heat released in August 2000.


Bonnie Raitt
    Bonnie Raitt added some Tom Waits backing vocals on her 1975 album Home Plate for a song called Sweet And Shiny Eyes.


Johnny Cash
    Back in 1994 Waits wrote a song for Johnny Cash called Down There By The Train. Cash recorded the song for his album American Recordings.


Bronx Lullabye/Smugglers Waltz
    In 1982 the documentary 'Poetry In Motion' featured a performance by Tom Waits strumming a guitar and singing a song commonly known as Bronx Lullabye or Smugglers Waltz. The documentary also contained performances by the 'Beat' poets Bukowski, Burroughs and Ginsberg.


30th May 2000 - New Coat Of Paint
    Manifesto Records release New Coat Of Paint : Songs Of Tom Waits, their second album of Tom Waits covers.


29th, 30th and 31st May 2000 - The Rex Theatre
    Tom Waits performs a trio of concerts at The Rex Theatre in Paris, France. See Setlists


26th May 2000 - Sala Kongresowa Theatre
    Tom Waits performs at the Sala Kongresowa Theatre in Warsaw, Poland as part of the TPSA Music and Arts Festival. See Setlist


11th April 2000 - Helium
    Today heralds the release of Tin Hat Trio's second album Helium. Tom Waits appends his vocals to the final track 'Helium Reprise' composed by Tin Hat guitarist Mark Orton.


5th April 2000 - Alice
    In the last-ditch moments of 1992 Tom Waits and his spouse Kathleen Brennan composed the score for the theatrical production of Alice. Alice was performed in an eight week sprint at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg under the direction of Robert Wilson. Alice contemplates the relationship between Reverend Charles Dodgson (he of Lewis Carroll fame) and Alice Liddell (she who inspired Dodgson's 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking-Glass' books).
    "I know what you're thinking about," said Tweedledum; "Has the soundtrack to Alice ever been officially released? But it isn't so, no-how."
    "Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee "If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't, but it can be found floating around as Alice (The Original Demos), yes-how."


13th March 2000 - On The Road
    In 1955 the beat poet and writer Jack Kerourac recorded a reading of his novel 'On The Road'. This recording was promptly lost but resurfaced to be released last year with the addition of Kerourac singing jazz standards. The album, Jack Kerourac Reads On The Road, is concluded with Tom Waits and Primus reworking a tune Kerourac based upon an old French Canadian folk tune.
    The Silver Cloud Lounge has today been travelling on the road for one whole year.


24th February 2000 - Grammy Awards
    Today the music industry awarded Mr Waits the Contemporary Folk Album Grammy for Mule Variations. This Grammy will not be lonesome upon Tom's mantlepiece as it will bookend his 1992 Alternative Album Grammy for Bone Machine.


9th February 2000 - I Don't Wanna Grow Up/Cold Water
    The Ramones have done it (Adios Amigos, Greatest Hits Live), Holly Cole has done it (Temptation), maybe even educated bees have done it, let's do it, lets play I Don't Wanna Grow Up.
    If you still don't want to grow up then you can play with Cold Water.


4th January 2000 - Liberty Heights
    A rollicking fresh year to you all. It is hoped, unlike the author who was unmercifully subjected to the millennium bug and squandered a lamentable Yuletide in the camaraderie of his duvet, that you had immense gaiety and are foaming with titillation for the twenty hundreds.
    Just a quartet of days into the century and already we have two new Waits songs, today should see the release of the soundtrack to the film Liberty Heights. The two new songs sit along side those by Frank Sinatra, James Brown, Lonnie Donegan and Louis Armstrong. Unacquainted Waits listeners may be forgiven for thinking that there are three songs by Louis Armstrong.


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