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Scarlett Johansson as Tom Waits

Jill

As any of of the regular Friday Random Ten readers know, I am a huge Tom Waits fan. He occupies more of my music collection than any other single artist; and because of that, he appears almost weekly on my FRT. I love his old stuff, when he voice was smoother and had yet to develop that signature grit; I love his more experimental stuff, when he had established himself and was playing with sound and drama. I love and hate his persona — the can’t-quite-make-it, down-on-his-luck guy who turns to liquor and women for comfort. But I love his music. I’m not sure if it’s the tonality of his voice — there’s something about imperfection and grit and that smoker throat that I just adore — or if it’s because he was always on in the background when I was a kid, but I love his music. I have no direct memory of listening to his music growing up, the way that I do with Bob Dylan or Van Morrison or Miles Davis, but I guess he was just sort of on, quietly. Maybe that’s why I have such a soft spot in my heart for him, and why I find his stuff so calming.

So when it was announced that Scarlett Johansson was doing a cover album of Tom Waits songs, I got about 500 emails about it. And I’ve remained… apprehensive. But it’s gotten decent reviews, especially since I imagine music critics are dying to tear her apart on this one. And I’m pleasantly surprised that she’s covering some of my favorite Tom tunes — “No One Knows I’m Gone” and “Who Are You.”

So here’s her doing “Falling Down:”

And… I don’t hate it, even though I want to. Thoughts?

UPDATE: Yeah, I just went back and listened to Tom do the song (the live version off of Big Time), and… I still don’t hate Scarlett, but she really is no Tom. There’s a pain in his voice that she just can’t quite capture, and there’s a less predictable tone to it that makes it much more interesting. Hers, to me, sounds like background music. His is something that I actually listen to. Here’s his version for comparison:

24 thoughts on Scarlett Johansson as Tom Waits

  4. Wait, she is and does? I just think of her as an incredibly talented actor.

    Leave it to Amanda to just stare at her chest.

  12. I am absolutely riveted. Somehow, I imagined that her singing voice would be much lower and smokier. But that would have been too obvious, even. This really works.

  13. I’m a huge Tom Waits fan, too, and I got this as soon as it released; I listened to it very carefully and decided that it is a cunning ploy on the part of the Waits himself to prove to everyone that he is actually a better singer than they think he is. The production is amazing; her voice, not so much. (of course, I prefer Billie Holiday and Johnny Cash at the twilight of their careers, so what do I know?)

  14. Before reading this thread, I couldn’t have told you that Tom Waits was a musician, let alone anything about his music. So from that perspective, the linked song seems fine. Not my cup of tea, but not badly done.

  15. I’m afraid I do, in fact, hate it. In fact, It’s really very very bad. The auto-tune is not quite as obnoxious as I had feared, but only because they completely buried her voice in a reverb wash and set it adrift in the mix. It’s not just that she can’t really sing, which is forgivable — it’s that she can’t even deliver a lyric convincingly. Everything is in this wooden, leaden, detached, monotone, like she either has no emotional conenction to the lyrics, or doesn’t even understand what they mean in the first place.

    Excuse me while I go wash my ears out with Neko Case singing “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis.”

  17. I couldn’t get more than a few seconds into it, though I’m willing to give the whole album a listen. My guilty pleasure is Holly Cole’s album of Tom Waits covers, though.

  19. Yeah, I like the production on Scarlett’s version — she obviously has great taste, so she picked good songs and found good people to work with — but that doesn’t actually translate into being that good a singer. A review I read said that her best performances are all restrained and laconic (I’m thinking Lost In Translation and Ghost World here), and that that doesn’t really translate in a recording studio.

  20. No.

    Tom Waits cover = instant and epic fail.

    I’ve never heard one done right. Never. (It’d be nice, but I don’t think they exist.)

  21. Holly Cole’s version of Falling Down is much better. Her album Temptation is entirely Waits covers I think it is at least 10 years old now.

    Her versions of Temptation and Soldiers Things are excellent. All of the songs are that kind of moody mellow Cassandra Wilson jazz sound. If that means anything to you and you dig that sort of thing.

  22. No.

    Tom Waits cover = instant and epic fail.

    I’ve never heard one done right. Never. (It’d be nice, but I don’t think they exist.)
    These are a few that I like:

    Violent Femmes Step Right Up.
    Bette Midler’s Shiver Me Timbers
    Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Whistling Past the Graveyard

    I find that covers of his earlier stuff can be good, but anything after, say, Swordfishtrobones just doesn’t cut it.

  23. I mentioned a cover by Neko Case upthread, which is a terrific rendition by a singer who has a very un-Waitsean voice but deeply gets his music. It’s from an album of Waits covers called New Coat of Paint, which is also the source of the Screamin’ Jay version Tom mentions.

  24. I have loved Tom Waits for years.. he’s like an old friend that I never knew but hung out with in the past. I was actually slightly annoyed when I found out about Johansson’s album, out of curiosity I listen to bits and pieces. It is better than I thought – however I still feel she is out of her league and should leave this alone. He is wonderful and stands tall on his own. It seems a bit invasive to hear someone else singing his music.

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