Do An Act Long Enough, And The Act Starts Doing You

Tom Waits and the face he keeps in a jar by the door.

I didn’t know he hooked up with Duke Robillard. Duke is the fellow with the voluminous guitar. He’s from Woonsocket, Rhode Island, near where I grew up. I used to see him here and there when I was still outside at night. He’s a terrific player; he founded Roomful of Blues back in the day.

Tom Waits? He must have put a funny hat on his head when he was young, and tilted it askew once while he sang, and so began a long glide of going out there while keeping The Picture of Mixolydian Gray in his attic. At some point, smeared with cheap hairspray from his dates’ bouffants and soaked to his tallow with booze and caked in nicotine, he spontaneously combusted and ran at the picture, consuming all. He is the ghost of whoever he was now, and rattles his chains for us on Letterman.