OT: Tom Waits

[BillWelcome Home Studios]

Many many years ago Tom gave a great graduation speeech. I would like to pass those words of wisdom on to my niece, who graduates this year. Anyone got a reference on this speech? I have not been able to locate it.

 

Thanks,

 

Bill

[Dr. Ellwood]

Well with about 45 mins. of searching I still haven't found it! I've found reference too it, but no text yet! I called a friend of mine who is a TW freak, left a message, maybe he will have it?

[BillWelcome Home Studios]

Yeah, I have a hard copy somewhere, but I have moved twice since getting it. Thanks for spending the time... I did the same thing with the eame results.

 

Bill

[Dr. Ellwood]

OMG..now it's an obsession! NOW I want to read it LOL!!!

[A String]

Can you give me any more info? Which university, year, title of the speech, was he a guest etc. etc. Any info you have would greatly add in a search. If it's out there, I can find it...

[Dr. Ellwood]

Bill, I hope you don't mind, this is for Neil, but I'm still looking for Tom's!!!

 

 

 

Commencement Address

James Taylor

May 7, 1995

 

Berklee Professor Richard Evans (left) joins James Taylor after the 1995 Commencement concert.

 

Ladies and gentlemen of the graduating class of 1995, President Berk, assembled faculty, family members, well-wishers and hangers-on, congratulations! I feel deeply honored to be with you here today and in such distinguished company. It's a beautiful day and it was a lovely performance last night; very moving and wonderful to feel included in it.

 

I get the feeling that people all over the country are graduating and they're leaving one phase and moving on to another with a combined feeling of anxiety and elation. I feel it too; as we approach the millennium the world itself is in a state of profound transition. And, in these times and on this day, there's bound to be a lot of talk about music as a career, music as an industry and the "entertainment business." And that's fine.

 

But I want to talk about music as spiritual food. I applaud and admire your decision to make music the focus and the center of your lives, because in spite of the increasing presence of corporate priorities in music today, it is not a "safe" career choice to become a musician. There are risks involved, and I think it's important to remember why we take those risks.

 

My wife Katherine refers to this period of time that we're in now as "high late capitalism," and I agree with her that it's characterized by a general, ongoing attempt to put a dollar value on pretty much everything. In fact, as a culture we seem to feel uneasy and skeptical about anything that doesn't have a number attached to it that represents money in the bank.

 

I would just like to make one simple and obvious point that was clear to me when I started out, but that has become more obscure as I've repeatedly taken myself to market. And that's simply that it's a gift. It's a blessing, and we really are the lucky ones to have music in our lives and at the center of things.

 

Because as you know, music is the true soul food, and not that other stuff. You can criticize it, you can put a spin on it, you can analyze it and interpret it in terms of its cultural significance. But, basically that doesn't affect music. Music is beyond the fashion of consensus reality, and basically, it either connects with us, or it doesn't.

 

And because it follows the laws of the physical universe, it reminds us of the truth that lies beneath and beyond the illusion that we live in. It gives us relief from the insanity of constantly trying to invent ourselves. And in this way, music is true spiritual practice. I thank God for music, and I thank music for God.

 

So, render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, but keep the moneychangers out of the temple, and keep music to yourself. I would advise you to keep your overhead down; avoid a major drug habit; play every day; and take it in front of other peoplethey need to hear it, and you need them to hear it . And persevere. The Japanese say, "fall down seven times, and stand up eight times."

 

So, remember why you chose this risky enterprise. Well, Class of ´95, carry on

 

[A String]

That's James Taylor.

[Dr. Ellwood]

Check my edit:

[Dr. Ellwood]

S H O R T I M A G I N E D

M O N O L O G U E S .

 

- - - -

 

Today's

AA Speaker:

Mr. Tom Waits

(If Mr. Waits Is

Actually Like

the People He

Writes Songs

About).

BY Russell Bradbury-Carlin

- - - -

 

(2/5/07)

 

Hello, I'm Tom. I am a partial alcoholicpartial to the whiskey Mickey Nickels concocted in his basement still. I did most of my hard drinking while living with Mickey in Reno, a dusty place full of loose cash, loose criminals, and loose womenmy kind of town. I should have known not to mix whiskey and hookers. Her name was Rosie. She found me at Harvey's Late-Night Diner, where the eggs are greasy enough to lube the carburetor of your father's Lincoln. Rosie leaned toward me at the counter and said, "I prefer my bacon as crispy as a brand-new $20 bill and my eggs over easy like I want you." I was out of my seat before the heat came off my coffee.

 

This began a long alcoholic romance. Each day, I'd play three-card monte in the alley, rolling suckers for extra cash. Then Rosie would roll me over at her place. The day she lost those pasties and that G-string in her grimy apartment was the day I found religion. Then I found cheap bourbon. Then Rosie found me in the alley, necktie around my head, talking to the trash cans. She stomped on my heart like a barrel full of grapes, and then left me and a bottle of cheap wine to find our way home.

 

I tried to quit on my own after that. I smoked a lot of Camelsso many it made my throat hoarse. I soothed it with a bottle of tequila14 bottles, actually, and a 14-day bender. I barely remember that last Saturday night. I cruised the streets in my old Oldsmobile, watching the streetlights gleam like diamonds on the windshield (tequila makes you hallucinate). I came to, parked on someone's lawn, my head pounding like a ham-fisted piano player.

 

I went to find Rosie. I found her with her new boyfriend, Mickey Nickels, who had pockets full of cash from whiskey sales. He and my sweet Rosie tossed out dollar bills to the vagrants like he was the King of Sixth Avenue. Sure, my porkpie hat was dusty and my coat had more patches than the tires on my uncle's old Coupe de Ville, but I knew I'd hit bottom when Rosie tossed me a fiver like I was some kind of gin-eyed hobo. It was then that I realized that I was a gin-eyed hobo. I didn't drink again.

 

My final words to you are: remember to Keep It Simple, live One Day at a Time, and, most importantly, to Let Go and Let Godbut don't let your two-bit-loser bootlegging buddy anywhere near your dusty old hooker girlfriend.

 

Reference LINK: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/monologues/5tomwaits.html

 

- - - -

 

 

[A String]

Here is a good place to look. They seem to have every speech, quote and lyric that Tom every spoke or wrote.

http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

My favourite Tom Waits quote is from this questionnaire thing that Vanity Fair asks celebs to fill out. "Where were you happiest?" "What do you like best in a man?", "In a woman?", and so on.

 

One of the questions is "How would you like to die?", to which Tom Waits replied, "I wouldn't like it at all". That's a cool answer.