Hoist That Rag - Great Tom Waits song. Sound feel like a mix of Mexican bar with New Orleans.I like the violence in Waits song when he scream HOIST THAT RAG. Great latin guitar to punch it.

    Trampled Rose - This song is unique - a beautiful lament to a lost lover, the pain of a heart-shattering breakup epitomised in a trampled rose, which the narrator finds in the street muddy. The song is the most overt evidence I've discovered in Tom's work of his rightful status as a poet, and a beat peot. The beautifully and unconventionaly formed sentences ('piano from a window played') really do impress. There is also some great, typically-tom waits, poetic imagery - 'blind man with a cup I asked, if he'd play 'Kisses Sweeter Than Wine'. The music is a delight too. Worth buying Real Gone even if this was only this song on it.

    Hoist That Rag - This song is so great! It's piratey sounding. One of my faves!

    Hoist That Rag - Very very good song, with clear anti-war overtones. I love Tom Waits

    Green Grass - I first heard of Tom Waits watching The Late Show, when he was promoting Real Gone. I loved the pictures the horses had drawn into their stable gates, and after hearing Make It Rain, decided I had to hear more. Green Grass moved me more than any song I'd heard before or since. Kinda like the way I was moved by Johnny Cash's Highwayman, but much deeper. I'm 23 and only recently found Tom Waits, but I make a point of finding more. Thank you very much for the emotion in both your lyrics and delivery. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

    Hoist That Rag - I'm not sure why, but this is one of my favorite Waits songs. I think it's the fire & grit in his voice, especially during the chorus.

    Day After Tomorrow - One of the most moving songs I have heard. It had me in tears.

    Circus - This is just one persona of a shifting cavalcade of characters that Tom Waits calls upon at will. But this is a favorite, drawing from the darkest off-key world of disappointed dreams and bittersweet make-do. Poetry lurks in the seamiest shadows, you can even find it crawling up and out of a two-bit bum that no one missed behind the backside of a dumpster, as his ghost lingers in that terrible place, unwilling to let go of the only side of earth he knew, black as it was, hopeless as destiny. Inspiring, that's what this entire album is. Black as jet, exhilirating as a midwest thunderstorm roaring in and lighting the dirt on the windows in chiarascuro glimpses of illumination at midnight. 'Nuff said.

    Day After Tomorrow - The best anti-war song I have heard in years. This actually surprised me so much. I am grateful Tom can still do that to me. The mark of a true artist.

    Make It Rain - What more can we say. sheer brilliance. tom is so far ahead, he's ahead.

    "Hoist That Rag", the first notable track on this satisfyingly visceral album, gives us yet more of the harsh distorted textures Waits does so delightfully well. On top of some nicely distorted percussion, we get some fantastic Latin-ish guitar work from Marc Ribot. Lovely.
Next, Sins of the Father. An 11 minute song may sound either boring or pretentious, but Waits pulls it off with style. No need to listen to Waits ramble on, just let yourself drift off with the hypnotic guitar and percussion.
"Shake It" is a strong contender for noisiest Tom Waits song ever and , again, Ribot's guitar work makes it stand out.
There's also some equally impressive quite songs- "How's It Gonna End", "Trampled Rose" and "Green Grass" are just as powerful as loud tracks like "Don't Go Into That Barn".
There are a few letdowns though, "Dead & Lovely" and "Circus" have been done better before - by Waits himself.
Overall, Real Gone is up there with Wait's best work. If you're fond of his darker more dissonant stuff, get it. It's rather good.

    Multiple listens of Real Gone verify that it is not going to be a favourite (unlike the CD cover). On primary listen a barrage of growling vocal percussion that elevate the eyebrows with a jolt assault the ears. The appropriately titled Real Gone is gloomy, humourless and less tuneful than previous Waits albums. The songs containing the verbal percussion are the loudest and most abrasive (especially the irritating 'Shake It'). This album is a noisy affair. One gets the notion that Waits was more engrossed by the harsh vocal sounds he could generate rather than the quality of the songs. The two songs that arise from the horde are 'How's It Gonna End' and 'Dead And Lovely'. Vocal harshness is blissfully deficient in these more tuneful offerings. No Waits album is inclusive without a talking song but 'Circus' is the most uninteresting and uninspired he has recorded. It is tricky to balance Real Gone with any of Tom's preceding albums but perhaps it shall grow upon one if one can endure the noise.

    Saying Waits' was back to his best would imply he was ever anything but at his best (we shall overlook the booze fuelled mistake that was Heart Attack & Vine!), but this is a truly awesome work. For devotees imagine the rawness of 'Bone Machine' on tracks such as, 'Goin Out West' as so brilliantly screamed on, 'Shake It' and the anti-war song, 'Hoist That Rag'; then throw in some of the twisted sentimentality of,'How's It Going To End' that could be a bonus track from, 'Mule Variations'; sprinkle this heady mixture with the plaintive 'Make it Rain' that is Tom on 'Raindogs' form and top-off with the spoken-word 'Circus' (...horse-faced Ethel...) that sounds like his own hommage to, 'Franks Wild Years' on, 'Swordfishtrombones' and you are starting to scratch the surface of this massive effort. 'Top of the Hill' and 'Day After Tomorrow' see Tom experimenting with being a human beat-box - with his voice! It's got to be heard! 'Don't Go Into That Barn' is just wonderful, with the clanging, chain-gang-like background vocals giving Tom's, often high-pitched voice, even greater penetration and grit than usual.

Often breathtaking, never disappointing, this is arguablly Tom's greatest work ever. Those of you who are joining me on the 23rd in Hammersmith, we are in for a treat, but if you can't get there, make sure you get this. It's stunning!

    Simply put, this is a fantastic effort by Tom Waits. From the new vocal percussion style to the classic Tom Waits ballads that we have enjoyed for years, this is a solid CD with absolutely NO filler; and even a hidden track! "Top Of The Hill" starts with Tom asking the sound engineer for a little more volume on his voice...this is a harbinger of things to come! "Hoist That Rag", with it's latin shuffle, kicks things into high gear and "Shake It" has Tom sounding like a drunken Jim Morrison when he wails "I feel lke a preacher waving a gun around". The CD flows from start to finish with all of the signature Waits elements...great songwriting, vocal stylings and peculiar sounds. The human beat-box percussion adds an interesting raw and stripped down element that gives the entire album a very muscular feel...but still it has it's tender moments - note "Dead & Lovely". The spoken piece "Circus" paints a picture even more vivid than the off-beat "What's He Building" from Mule Variations and "Green Grass" may be one of the most heartfelt ballads in his library. The themes deal with the same material that we have heard about for years...the picturesque metaphors, booze, rats, war, sailors, farms, murder, rain, love and a little politics - on the haunting "Day After Tomorrow. Tom Waits has proven once again that he is at the top of his game and he says that he is just going to the "Top of The Hill"? I think he is headed far beyond the top of hill.