Tom Waits and the Deficit of Wonder

The Thoughts page in the Dec. 5 issue of Forbes is a little different this time in that all the quotes are by the same person, songwriter and musician Tom Waits. For those of you who aren't familiar with his music, try to imagine the spirits of Bruno Schulz, William S. Burroughs, Frank Sinatra and maybe Charles Bukowski mixed with a hundred gallons of whiskey and thrown into a barrel-size blender. He recently released a new album, "Bad As Me," his first in seven years. Just as his lyrics are funny and inventive ("The piano has been drinking, my necktie is asleep"), his quotes are just as vivid and fresh. For more info about  the troubadour of booze, tobacco and loneliness, go to Tomwaitslibrary.com.

Here he talks about ways that songs are interpreted, or misinterpreted (can't say that I've ever envisioned a rhino in hot pants, but now that I have, it's an image that's sitting heavily in my brainpan):

If you break open a song, you'll find the eggs of other songs. Misunderstandings are really kind of an epidemic and acceptable. I think it's about one thing, but someone else will say, 'That song is kind of a rhino in hot pants on a burnt rocking horse with a lariat shouting "Repent, repent!"'

Some might use the following quote to describe Richard Wagner's music:

I'm always looking for sounds that are pleasing at the time. The sound of a helicopter is really annoying until you're drowning, and it's there to rescue you. Then it sounds like music.

Without question this quote will resonate with parents:

Living with kids is like living with a bunch of drunks. You know you really have to be on your toes all the time. Things are falling over and breaking and spilling. If you live on the second story, you really have to keep the windows shut all the time.

Never has the sound of a bagpipe been so succinctly described:

It's hard to play with a bagpipe player. It's like an exotic bird. I love the sound, it's like strangling a goose.

This is the best description of jazz genius Thelonious Monk I've ever read:

I like Thelonious Monk, he's so gnarled, he's like a piece of machinery that's pulled up the bolts on the floor and gone off on its own.

For those of you tired of reading about successful billionaires:

People get frightened that success is going to take them out of life. They're no longer going to be on the corner of Bedlam and Squalor; life will only be something you can get through the mail.

Though we all enjoy the speed and convenience of Google searches, maybe we're losing some of the mystery in life:

Everything is explained now. We live in an age when you say casually to somebody "What's the story on that?" and they can run to the computer and tell you within five seconds. That's fine, but sometimes I'd just as soon continue wondering. We have a deficit of wonder right now.

SOURCES: THE NEW YORKER; TOMWAITSLIBRARY.COM; SOUNDS; ROCK BILL; LOS ANGELES TIMES; HARP; WNEW.