6. Tom WaitsSwordfishtrombones
When I was at high school, everyone was talking about Swordfishtrombones. I knew who Tom Waits was and, when I was about 15, I had my mom take me down to buy the record. I was really interested in him, as everyone said he was so cool. However, the record scared the shit out of me. I started out with ‘Shore Leave’ and I guess I just didn’t understand it. Songs like ‘Underground’ and ’16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six’ really frightened me.
Therefore, I didn’t really like the record, but there was one song that I liked, which was ‘Johnsburg, Illinois’ and was a really soft ballad. I really liked that song but not enough to keep the record. I began to think the record was haunted and that I should get rid of it. Even the cover was scary. So, I sold the record back to the store.
However, I missed hearing ‘Johnsburg, Illinois’ so much that I went down and picked the record up three months later. It was still sitting there. When I re-listened, I began to like ‘Soldier’s Things’. So, that meant I liked two of the songs. Then I liked ‘Town With No Cheer’, which meant I liked the three ballads, which were the safest songs.
Then ‘Shore Leave’ got me. By this point, a year had gone by and I started to get more adventurous. Swordfishtrombones became this record on which I liked four songs, then five songs, then six. Gradually, all of the songs made sense and it became my favourite record of all time. I became obsessed and I didn’t really know much about him. Again, I think he was a classic songwriter. He could have written great songs in any decade – even the ’20s or ’30s. He is also really gutsy and wild.
When you have never gone anywhere or done anything and suddenly you hear a song about a guy going on shore leave – a married guy who loves his wife – and plays pool with a midget, buys cards with naked girls on them and drinks a Singapore Sling. I was like, "What the fuck is a Singapore Sling?" He created this whole world where you wanted to be – in east Asia, in a port and you are this cool guy who is in love with this woman and you are writing her a letter, but you are still going to go out and play pool with a midget. So, that and the ability to write ballads that would make you swoon, then to go to songs like ’16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six’ and be really dark, I thought it was just genius.
Both Waits and Gentry are great storytellers within their lyric writing. Did they inspire how you wrote lyrics for Richmond Fontaine?
Absolutely. I was always attracted to story-style songs for their escapism. As a fan, just to be transported from your town and be living in a different world via the music is really romantic and those songs become like a best friend. I was raised to be a huge fan of America and states like Nevada and the western US. That was set into me. Even when I started writing songs when I was 13 or 14, I was really obsessed with where I lived, which was the high desert of Nevada. I still am. Therefore, when I wrote, I wanted to transport people to the places I thought were cool.
