The variations of Tom Waits

"I have unreconcilable influences, I think, and I think that's what shows up on the record for me sometimes," Waits says. "You know, I end up with the Cuban and the Chinese, but it never really becomes Cuban-Chinese. Henh. I just kind of like accepted that, that I have the different sides to me--that I like Rachmaninoff and I also like the Contortions. So be it. Shoot me. Otherwise you feel at a certain point like you're wearing Bermuda shorts and a bathing cap and fishing boots and a necktie."

Is that a bad thing?
"I didn't say it was a bad thing, but at a certain point, when you're in your 20s, I think maybe you equate music...music is...um...some people are afraid...Uh, gee, I don't know how to put that. It's like Bob Dylan said, some people are afraid of the bomb, and some people are afraid of being seen with a Modern Screen magazine under their arm." He chuckles. "Right?"

After a moment, Waits is asked when he realized it was OK to have those irreconcilable influences. Perhaps it was Heartattack and Vine in 1980, or maybe it was 1983's Swordfishtrombones, the beginning of his "Frank's Wild Years" trilogy that sounded as though it were recorded at Fred Sanford's house. Waits is having none of it.

"There's a lot of intelligence in the hands," he explains. "When you pick up a shovel, the hands know what to do. The same thing's true of sitting at the piano--your hands just, after a while, kind of wrap themselves around certain structures and voicings. I think it's good to kind of surprise yourself sometimes. It's like, I've got a friend who's a painter who wears glasses. He goes out in the woods, takes off his glasses, and draws, you know, 'cause everything looks different.

"It's like, when I went down to Mexico, and I went into a sushi bar, and the guy asked me if I want that with or without cheese," he says, cracking himself up. "I said, 'Awright, this is a good thing.'"

And Waits keeps right on laughing.