>I have everything he's recorded. Most of it on vinyl, but eventually I'll have it all on CDs.
>
>One of the great pieces in all lyricdom: (from "Mr. Siegel")
>
>you got to tell me brave captain,
>why are the wicked so strong,
>how do the angels get to sleep,
>when the devil leaves the porchlight on.

Um, yeah, the one thing that annoys me in his lyrics is too many religious references - regardless of what kind of references they may be.

When we arrived here, my boss asked our youngest daughter, age 7 then, does she like any American music that she knows off, and she said "yes, Tom Waits". The guy was flattened with shock. But I do think she learned some of the pronunciation and some words from Tom.

One (of the) thing(s) I never understood is why does he, in "Russian Dance", count "yen, dva, tri, chetire" - that "yen" is Serbian short for "jedan" (one), two and three are the same anyway, and he pronounces the four in a very Russian manner. The proper Russian counting for rhythm goes "raz, dva, tri, chetire" (once, two, three, four). Now why would he mix languages in something as simple as counting... no idea. And the music sounds more like the Hungarian/Ukrainian Gypsies - which was then made popular by the "Camp goes to sky" (or whatever the translation was - "Tabor uhodit v nebo") and the soundtrack by Yevgeniy (Eugene?) Doga, which was a Soviet movie then.