"I just try to walk my own path," he said. "You have to believe in yourself and you have to ride out the seasons. Everybody wants it to be summer all the time, in relationships and with their career. And when the weather starts to turn, they think they better get out. So it takes a certain amount of persistence."
"I'm an old softie," Mr. Waits said. "Most songwriters are probably writing one or two songs over and over again in one way or another. Kathleen said that with me, it's either Grand Weepers or Grim Reapers. Yeah, I run hot and cold. I like melody, and I like dissonance. I guess maybe it's an alcoholic personality. I get mad, and I cry."
"Sometimes songs are coming so fast there's not enough to catch them in," he said. "And other days you have to do a rain dance for it. You wait. I've got tape recorders all over the house. I can scribble notes on a napkin. But what I've really done is learn to exercise my memory. If I have a melody in my head, my challenge is to keep it in my head all day. And then try to sit down to dinner, forget it and then go back in the car and see if I can remember it again. I think if this is a really good melody it'll never leave me. Some you lose. A lot of them get away. Those are the best songs, the ones that got away."
Interview By JON PARELES
2 comments:
Congratulations - hope you caught the BBC Radio 6 podcast (Available on BBC iPlayer) -Isn't it about time Mr.Waits released some new music??
Hi Dell! Curiously I didn’t catch it and much like your message, I missed it!! Sorry
I will check it out on catch up. Oddly enough I am very poor with regards to podcasts, my kids are great at following folk and occasionally let me know of a good to great podcast but somehow I never catch them up . . . . .ramble ramble mutter mutter. . . . apologies and I will catch that one . . . . . . thanks as ever for dropping by buddy!
Have great weekend!
Andy
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