Tom Waits is not a fan of his music being taken to further other people's endeavors. He's been just so very explicitly clear about this for the past few decades. Back in 2005, when asked by NPR about the possibility of having his music used in commercials, he said, "I'd rather have a hot lead enema. I hate it. I saw a commercial for toilet paper, and they were using "Let the Good Times Roll," you know? It's like, `Man, don't do that.'" He once sued Frito-Lay over a Doritos commercial that appeared to imitate his unique voice and style. Tom Waits will defend his music and legacy with an eloquent passion. One would be well-advised not to fuck with him.This makes the apparent actions of french circus act Bartabas the Furious seem all the more audacious. His current show On Achève Bien les Anges (They Shoot Angels, Don't They?), described as an "equestrian operatic ballet," features 16 of Waits's songs. Waits says that no permission was given for the tracks to be used in the show, despite them making up, in his own words, "the narrative heart and soul" of the performance.So, after a separate but similar case was thrown out of court in September, Waits has seemingly continued his legal battle against Bartabas. Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan, with whom he co-wrote the songs, are still seeking €500,000 ($560,000) in compensation from the performer.In a personal statement, The Guardian report that Waits said, "None of the customary courtesies between artists were observed" in obtaining the tracks.Waits's statement was inevitably lively and well-constructed: "What I say yes to and what I say no to creates the shape of how I am perceived," he said. "What I mean to my audience cannot be made separate from the music. It is absorbed into the songs and together they go into the ear of the listener.""I turn down all commercial product endorsement offers and rarely collaborate or lend my name or work to other endeavours. It is my choice to get paid or not to get paid. And that value has been taken and exploited for the profit and promotion of Bartabas's career and for his religious and political ideology, which neither the songs nor I chose to express. In short, it violates the integrity of my work. … Bartabas hitches a free ride to the marketplace on this misperception… and the whole thing just really burns me up.""These songs were not found like driftwood on the beach," he says. "They came from good families."The Guardian reported back in September that the solemn nature of Bartabas's show "made it popular with emotionally bruised audiences in Paris" after the November 2015 attacks on the city that left 130 people dead.This new stage in the dispute between Waits and Bartabas is likely to prevent the show from touring the UK and making an appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A final decision on the case is due in 2017.Lead image via Wikimedia Commons.Follow Noisey on Twitter.
Advertisement
Advertisement