"Danny Says"
Every Tom Waits Song is an email newsletter covering just that, in alphabetical order. Find more info here and sign up to get it sent straight to your inbox:
The Orphans box set features not one but two Ramones covers. “The Return of Jackie and Judy,” which we’ll get to in the R’s, had been released a few years before Orphans on the 2003 tribute album We're a Happy Family. “Danny Says” though was new for the set, although I’m guessing its original origins might be tied to that tribute album as well.
Lead Belly and Ramones were the only two artists to get covered twice on Orphans (Kurt Weill too, if you include the vinyl bonus disc). In an interview with Greg Kot promoting the release, Tom explained he’s a fan:
Q. You also cover a couple of Ramones songs. Do they rank up there as songwriters with some of the other people you cover, like Brecht and Weill?
A. Oh, God, yeah. There's a trick to playing in a rudimentary fashion like that and staying true to what originally inspired you. Everyone wants to see someone that loves what they do and do it well. They were that. They sound like a big motor.
The funny thing is, the Ramones’ original version of “Danny Says” is a terrible example of what Tom’s talking about. It comes off their controversial Phil Spector-produced fifth album End of the Century. Spector went full Wall of Sound on many tracks, including this one, which he weighed down with all the literal bells and whistles. It sounds nothing like “a big motor.”
The pre-Spector demo version included on a later album box set is much better, and much more Ramones-y.
That End of the Century box set came out in 2002, right around the time Waits would likely have been recording for that tribute album. I wonder if he had that box. True, his soft acoustic-guitar ballad—who would have thought the Ramones cover would be on Orphans’ “Bawlers” disc of slow weepy ballads?—sounds little like either version, but you could see how this Ramones-ier sounding demo version might have drawn his attention to the song.
In Tom’s hands, though, it sounds like an old folk lament, something that might have originated on the Anthology of American Folk Music. Okay, maybe the lyrical references to going surfing and watching Get Smart on TV would be a little incongruous there, but musically speaking. He not only strips away any trace of Phil Spector; he strips away any trace of Ramones too. I’m sure many listeners never guessed the song’s origins.
One side note: End of the Century was the first Ramones record without original drummer Tommy Ramone, who, tired of touring, left the band in early 1978. I only mention him because he’s the only Ramone I can find photographed with Tom. The below shot comes from Brad Elterman, who writes on his website:
Do you see that phone booth in between Tom Waits and Tommy Ramone? That was everyone's office at the parking lot of the old Tropicana Motel in West Hollywood. The Ramones and other bands loved to stay there. Tom Waits lived there full time. One day, I was in London and I called the phone booth collect to check in with my pal Rodney. The British operator did not have a clue that it was a phone booth and when she asked Rodney if he would pay the charges, he simply said "yes." You could never pull that off today.
