There was a whole car of Japanese gangsters dressed like Al Capone and Cagney, really zooted. Last time I was there, I was on a bullet train, had my little porkpie hat, my pointed shoes and my skinny tie. This is a song about those people who can't work anywhere else but Japan, and, so it's just a goof, you know? I've been over there several times, but I haven't been there in many years.
Well, I hope to be big in Japan after this. And over there, they're hawking cigarettes, underwear, sushi, whiskey, sunglass es, used cars, beach blankets. And then there are all those people that don't do any commercials, they have this classy image. You can go over there and find people you haven't heard of in 20 years, that have moved over there, and they're like gods. It's also kind of a junkyard for entertainment. There are people that are big in Japan, and are big nowhere else. I see myself in the harbor, ripping up the electrical towers, picking up cars, going in like Godzilla and leveling Tokyo. Naturally, a number of interviewers at the time asked Tom the obvious question: Are you big in Japan? He gave at least three different answers, two of them hilarious (he must have been tired for the middle one): What Tom Waits fan wouldn’t want to hear him holler “I got the moon, I got the cheese / I got the whole damn nation on their knees”? Lyrically, it’s nonsense, but of the most enjoyable sort. Musically, it’s fairly reminiscent of another ‘90s classic, “Goin' Out West.” It also includes something you don’t hear on many Tom songs though: A Stax-esque horn section. If you love Tom Waits, it’s hard not to love “Big in Japan.” It includes so much of what’s great about his post- Swordfishtrombones music: Loud growly bellowing, squalls of jagged blues-guitar, distorted beatboxing, almost violently aggressive percussion.
It sounded like some guy alone in a room, which it was, trying his hardest to sound like a big, loud band. I had it on a cassette, and used to listen to it and laugh.
Big in japan tom waits full#
I turned it on, and I started screaming and banging on this chest of drawers really hard, till it was kindling, trying to make a full sound like a band. I was in Mexico in a hotel, and I only had this little tape recorder. He explained in a Mule Variations promo interview: It turns out there’s an extremely-Waits story about where those 15 seconds of distorted audio come from. They’re just typical Tom lo-fi beatboxing before the band kicks in. I’d never paid too much attention to them before. The opening 15 seconds of “Big in Japan” encapsulate everything I love about Tom Waits, both musically and narratively.
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