Tom Waits

The general consensus is that cult artists start small and stay small, sustained by a tiny cohort of dedicated fans whose love and admiration endure. Tom Waits—professional beatnik and gravel-voiced singer—rewrote that definition. For starters, his musical and theatrical personality was big. Not big like Elton John, but big like Jack Kerouac or Dashiell Hammett. A scruffy piano player in a mythic barroom, Tom Waits told stories of America’s down-and-outs and built a solid following through the 1970s. But he did not stop there, expanding his palette to include much more experimental sounds that still incorporated jazz, blues, and popular song but also layered in serious weirdness.

Early albums such as Closing Time and Small Change offer stories of outcasts and loners, whilst Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs capture the 80s experimentalism. Into the twenty-first century, Waits has continued to create and perform, filling concert halls with fans who devour his cinematic songs of struggle and strife from the comfort of plush seats.