TOM TRAUBERT'S BLUES

My daughter hates Tom Waits’ music, or pretends to because she is sixteen and gets a kick out of suggesting there is a gulf between us. Everything Waits has ever recorded is her evidence. I picture her in court, a copy of Swordfishtrombones held up like a bloody knife.

In truth we have plenty in common, a pleasing amount, and under cross-examination she might even admit it. I don’t think there’s too much in the world that she really hates. But still, if one of Tom Waits’ songs pops up when we’re driving to school or the grocery store, she’ll lunge for the stereo, dial in some Noah Kahan quick, as if her life depends on it. It’s her thing, her schtick. This afternoon, for example, she just about seized up when “Clap Hands”, from the brilliant album Rain Dogs, came on. But then she chose to replace it with Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead, which I love, and I took the substitution as proof that we’ll always be able to find common ground if we work at it hard enough.

This particular video is part of a new 2025 Italian documentary series, The Human Factor. The final episode, on homelessness and featuring Tom Waits, is titled Ultima Fermata (The Last Ride). The song here dates to the 1970s, and Waits is a fully half a century on from its conception. He leans more gravely over his piano these days, and has grown out his hair in such a way that I want nothing more than to see him twinned with Lyle Lovett on some dusty stage before I die. But he introduces the song and then sings it as tenderly as if it only came to him this morning, and he’s worried it might still break. It’s a lovely (and heartbreaking) few minutes and I’m grateful to have added that time to the bits and pieces I cart around with me like identification.