Lowside of the Road

'Lowside of the Road'A Life of Tom Waits by Barney Hoskyns Published by Faber and Faber with cover photo by Jill Furmanovsky exclusively available as a fine-art print through Rockarchive.

Pictures of Barney and Jill by Virgilio Ponce

'Just about the most absorbing satisfying and (whisper it) important biography of a modern artist that I can recall reading. Absolutely outstanding.'
  - Danny Baker
 
'It comes as a surprise to learn that Tom Waits is still only 59, given the centuries of sodden bohemia that are crammed into his gorgeous voice, and it's about time he received biographical homage from a rock writer of the stature of Hoskyns. Was Waits really born in the back seat of a yellow cab, as he likes to claim? Hoskyns draws on many of his own interviews with the artist over the years and access to Waits's "inner circle".'
- Stephen Poole, 'Treats in store for 2009', The Guardian
 
Published to coincide with the year Tom Waits turns 60, Lowside of the Road is the definitive biography of this notoriously private performer.  Like Bob Dylan and Neil Young, Waits is a chameleon, who's achieved long-term success while retaining cult credibility and a certain mystique.  From his 'jazzbo' years in '70's LA, to the multiple-Grammy winner of recent years, this monumental biography charts Waits's life step-by-step and album-by-album.
 
Affectionate and penetrating, and based on assiduous research and critical insight, Lowside of the Road is essential reading for anyone interested in Tom Waits's life and work.
 
Barney Hoskyns is the co-founder and editorial director of online music-journalism library Rock's Backpages (www.rocksbackpages.com). He is the author of several books including Across the Great Divide (1993), Waiting for the Sun (1996), and Hotel California (2006). Between 1996 and 1999 he was the US correspondent for MOJO. Currently he contributes to Uncut, The Observer Music Monthly and other UK publications, and has written for Rolling Stone, GQ, Spin and Harper's Bazaar in the US. He lives in southwest London.

To purchase the image used on the book cover as a fine art limited edition print from Rockarchive.com, click here.

 

To purchase the book, visit the Faber and Faber website.