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Tom Waits: The Fresh Air Interview

Tom Waits' music is changing, incorporating new styles like tango and Tin Pan Alley. He has a new performance film called Big Time, which features Waits singing different personas, and an album of the same name.

27:13
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Other segments from the episode on September 28, 1988

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, September 28, 1988: Interview with Tom Waits; Review of the album "She Loves Me: Original Broadway Cast"; Interview with Scott Johnson; Commentary on the parlor game …
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06:34

A Quiet Landmark Musical

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz never saw She Loves Me on Broadway, but recently discovered the reissued original cast recording. He says the musical has the feel of classic operetta, and succeeds at everything it sets out to do.

Review
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09:40

Bridging Art and Popular Music

Rather than features songs from the 1970s in the recent Patty Hearst biopic, the filmmakers recruited composer Scott Johnson to write the soundtrack. His dense score combines synthesizers with heavy percussion, but retains the accessibility of pop music.

Interview
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03:20

Setting Poetry to Music

Language commentator Geoff Nunberg talks about the game "settings," wherein players pair poems with complimentary pieces of music. The goal is to find works whose rhythm and meter sync up.

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Transcripts are created on a rush deadline, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of Fresh Air interviews and reviews are the audio recordings of each segment.

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50:04

Waits: Paying Homage To Outcasts On 'Bad As Me.

The darkness of Tom Waits' lyrics is accentuated by the rumble and rasp of his voice, which sounded old even when he was young. On Bad As Me, Waits reflects on loneliness, life, death and heartbreak. Here, he talks to Terry Gross about performing, being a father and writing his haunting melodies.

Singer and musician Tom Waits sings into a mic on stage with a hat tipped back on his head
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42:14

Tom Waits: On 'Alice' And 'Blood Money'

Since the 1973 release of his first album, Closing Time, Tom Waits has won fans over with his original songwriting and distinctive, gravelly vocal style. Musicians including Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart have recorded covers of his songs. He has also acted in films, including Sylvester Stallone's Paradise Alley, Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law and Robert Altman's Short Cuts. Waits has two new CDs out this month: Alice and Blood Money.

Interview

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Daughter of Warhol star looks back on a bohemian childhood in the Chelsea Hotel

Alexandra Auder's mother, Viva, was one of Andy Warhol's muses. Growing up in Warhol's orbit meant Auder's childhood was an unusual one. For several years, Viva, Auder and Auder's younger half-sister, Gaby Hoffmann, lived in the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan. It was was famous for having been home to Leonard Cohen, Dylan Thomas, Virgil Thomson, and Bob Dylan, among others.

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This fake 'Jury Duty' really put James Marsden's improv chops on trial

In the series Jury Duty, a solar contractor named Ronald Gladden has agreed to participate in what he believes is a documentary about the experience of being a juror--but what Ronald doesn't know is that the whole thing is fake.

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