Spanning Tom Waits' extraordinary 40 year career, from Closing Time to Orphans, Lowside of the Road is barney Hoskyns' unique take on one of rock's great enigmas. Like Bob Dylan and Neil Young, Waits is a chameleonic survivor who's achieved long-term success while retaining cult credibility and outsider mystique. From his perilous 'jazzbo' years in 70s Los Angeles to the multiple-Grammy winner of recent years - by way of such shape shifting '80s albums as Swordfishtrombones - this exhaustive biography charts Waits' life step-by-step and album-by-album.
Affectionate and penetrating, and based on a combination of assiduous research and deep critical insight, this is an outstanding investigation of a notoriously private artist and performer - the definitive account to date of Tom Waits' life and work.
