Happy Birthday Tom Waits | Unedited Storytellers Appearance
By Scott Bernstein Dec 7, 2013 • 12:30 pm PST
Today marks singer-pianist Tom Waits’ 64th birthday. The uncanny storyteller with the whiskey-soaked voice was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame a few years back with the organization noting, “Tom Waits is a gruff-voiced, big-hearted singer/pianist who is to songwriting what Charles Bukowski is to poetry, Jack Kerouac is to prose and Edward Hopper is to painting. A true original, Waits’ specializes in story-songs about all kinds of beautiful losers: nighthawks, boozers, grifters, drifters, dreamers, con men and other flotsam from the underbelly of American life.” 
In 1999 Waits appeared on VH-1’s Storytellers series in support of the Mule Variations LP. Tom tells many tales throughout, some tall and some seemingly true; though the music channel only aired 45-minutes of Waits’ performance. Thankfully, audio of Waits’ full unedited set circulates for our enjoyment.
Watch the episode of Storytellers that aired on VH-1:
Listen to the full unedited version:
