Lowside of the Road is an unauthorized biography of Tom Waits by Barney Hoskyns, published in 2009. I’m going to come clean and say upfront that I haven’t read many biographies I really loved and I don’t read that many biographies period. I really liked the Patty Smith book, Just Kids, and although I’m no Rolling Stones fan, I thought Keith Richards’ book Life was excellent. Tuffy P read this one and while she didn’t recommend it without reservation, she said it was well worth reading. We both have been listening to Tom Waits’ music for many years and the draw here for us was to simply learn a little about the man behind the music.
Part of the problem Hoskyns had in attempting an unauthorized biography of Waits is simply that Waits has made an effort to lead a private live, in particular over the past three decades. Work life and family life are separate, although Waits’ wife Kathleen Brennon is certainly a partner in their music-making and their son Casey is also a musician. At the end of the book, Hoskyns published a series of emails from people who chose to respect the Waits’ family privacy rather than talk to the biographer.
The first half of the book was far and away more interesting than the second half. I’ll admit I was curious about how Waits got started about how he developed the early beat-hobo-drunk routine. I was curious about Chuck E Weiss and about Ricky Lee Jones, and I was curious about what the heck Waits was doing opening for Zappa and company to audiences that had no interest in his music. And so now I know, and it’s all interesting enough. More interesting than all that is Waits’ music, music which stands on its own feet very well. As a music fan, I’m interested in who played on the albums and all that business but the book didn’t tell me anything about the music that the music didn’t tell me better.
I’d say if you dig the music and you just need to know, the book is pretty good, particularly the first half. That’s curious, since I think Waits’ music has grown increasingly interesting over the years. While I liked Ol’ 55 and many of the other early songs, Waits’ musical growth has been spectacular.
27th Street 