The big news of the day is, of course, Tom Waits being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Here Waits describes his influences:
Jazz, Gershwin, Porter, Kern, Arlen, Carmichael, Mercer, Louis Armstrong, Stravinsky, Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt…. I used to read Hubert Selby, Kerouac, Larry McMurtry, John Rechy, Nelson Algren…. I liked comedians and storytellers: Wally Cox, Harry the Hipster, Rodney Dangerfield, Redd Foxx, Lord Buckley…. Then I got a job as a doorman at a night club in L.A., and I listened to all the acts from the door. I heard bluegrass, comics, folk singers, string bands. At the same time, I was picking up people’s conversations in all-night coffee shops—ambulance drivers, cab drivers, street sweepers. I did research there as an evening curator, and I started writing—gingerly. I thought at some point I’d like to forge it into something meaningful and give it dignity.
Our blogging buddies for the night are over at Bright Side Of The Sun. Be excellent to one another.