Oh man, how to describe Tom Waits' voice? His distinctive tone is something which is off-putting to many but also one of the primary reasons for his fandom. His voice has changed considerably over the years. On his earlier albums, his voice is 'normal' and he actually appears to be trying his hardest to sing in a soothing manner. By the 80s, however, something had noticeably changed. His voice was rough, coarse even. He often sounded like he was in considerable pain. Had he taken up glass gargling as a hobby? Was he a fire breather in his spare time? Or was it just a case of too many Old Gold cigarettes and whisky? Probably the latter, although nobody really knows for certain. Waits definitely lived hard for many, many years and was into his booze and cigarettes (and other things). Waits himself has claimed that it was from pushing himself too hard during long tours with crappy sound systems. It is also possible that it's just an inflection. Waits can still sing beautifully when he needs to (see: Hold On) and seems to reserve his raspiest voice for when he performs live. For a lot of people, the mask is a huge turnoff. But for Waits fans, it's completely necessary and part of his genius. He wouldn't be Tom Waits without it.
