Reading in Tune

READING IN TUNE

POSTED: 03 MAY 2009

Barney Hoskyns, Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits*

Spanning Tom Waits’ extraordinary 40-year career, from Closing Time to Orphans, Lowside of the Road is Barney Hoskyns’ unique take on one of rock's great enigmas. Like Bob Dylan and Neil Young, Waits is a chameleonic survivor who's achieved long-term success while retaining cult credibility and outsider mystique.

From his perilous 'jazzbo' years in 70s Los Angeles to the multiple-Grammy winner of recent years — by way of such shape-shifting 80s albums as Swordfishtrombones — this exhaustive biography charts Waits' life step-by-step and album-by-album.

Affectionate and penetrating, and based on a combination of assiduous research and deep critical insight, this is an outstanding investigation of a notoriously private artist and performer — the definitive account to date of Tom Waits' life and work.

(Faber; 352pp paperback; $35)



		READING IN TUNE POSTED: 03 MAY 2009 Barney Hoskyns, Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits* Spanning Tom Waits’ extraordinary 40-year career, from Closing Time to Orphans, Lowside of the Road is Barney Hoskyns’ unique take on one of rock's great enigmas. Like Bob Dylan and Neil Young, Waits is a chameleonic survivor who's achieved long-term success while retaining cult credibility and outsider mystique. From his perilous 'jazzbo' years in 70s Los Angeles to the multiple-Grammy winner of recent years — by way of such shape-shifting 80s albums as Swordfishtrombones — this exhaustive biography charts Waits' life step-by-step and album-by-album. Affectionate and penetrating, and based on a combination of assiduous research and deep critical insight, this is an outstanding investigation of a notoriously private artist and performer — the definitive account to date of Tom Waits' life and work. (Faber; 352pp paperback; $35)

		*Information based on material provided by publishers. [RETURN TO TOP]