Tom Waits has recalled the extraordinary moment he was given a lift by none other than Eden Ahbez, the writer behind Nat King Cole’s hit song “Nature Boy”.
The notoriously interview-shy US musician made a rare appearance on Iggy Pop’s podcast, The Confidential Show, for BBC Sounds, where the duo discussed some of Waits’s favourite songs.
Introducing “Nature Boy”, the 73-year-old recounted (in his trademark gravelly voice) how he was trying to get to LA from San Diego in the early days of his career, around 1972.
“When I first started, I was a folk singer, and I remember hitchhiking in the rain with a guitar, and I got picked up by a guy in an old Volkswagen bus – long hair, beads over the rear-view mirror swinging back and forth – and he picked me up and dropped me off about a quarter of a mile up the road,” he said.
Waits said the man then introduced himself as Eden Ahbez, the songwriter behind “Nature Boy”, one of the most popular recordings of all time.
“I remember thinking to myself, I don’t really know anybody in showbusiness, but after meeting Eden Ahbez, I now know somebody literally who is in showbusiness. It was a big thrill for me,” he said.
“And he dropped me off somewhere that was worse than the one where he picked me up, but I didn’t mind. It continued to rain, I was trying to get to LA.”
Waits then recounted the tale of how Ahbez famously recorded a demo tape of him singing unaccompanied to “Nature Boy” and managed to get it to Nat King Cole, after pestering his manager, Mort Ruby.
At the time, he was living a nomadic lifestyle and would camp out below the first “L” in the Hollywood sign overlooking Los Angeles, existing on a diet of fruit and nuts, and writing songs on occasion to make ends meet.
His autobiographical song told of a “strange, enchanted boy” who wandered “very far over land and sea”, only to learn that the greatest gift is “to love and be loved in return”.
Enchanted by the Yiddish melody and beautiful lyrics, Cole included it in his show and, in 1947, recorded it with a string arrangement and released it as a B side to his single, “Lost April”.
It proved to be his breakthrough hit, and has since been covered by artists including Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and David Bowie.
After playing the track on his podcast, Pop observed what a “great demo” it was: “He sings it beautifully, there’s no arrangement in the way to mess up somebody’s dream about what it could be…”
“There’s a lot in it,” Waits agreed.
Other songs selected by Waits included “Lip Gloss” – the 2008 single from hip-hop artist Lil Mama – “Surfin’ Bird” by The Trashmen, and “So What'cha Want” by the Beastie Boys.
The Rain Dogs artist recently paid tribute to the late Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan, following the “Fairytale of New York” singer’s death last week aged 65.
Issuing a rare public statement with his wife, Kathleen Brennan, Waits said: “Ah, the blessings of the cursed. Shane McGowan’s torrid and mighty voice is mud and roses punched out with swaggering stagger, ancient longing that is blasted all to hell. A Bard’s bard, may he cast his spell upon us all forevermore.”
The couple closed their tribute by quoting “If I Should Fall from Grace with God” by The Pogues: “Let him go boys, let him go down in the mud where the rivers all run dry…”
