Watch Tom Waits Perform “Ol’ 55” On VH1 Storytellers

If you don’t remember Storytellers was VH1’s sort-of answer to MTVs Unplugged, whereupon they invited various artists on their stage not to play acoustic instruments but to talk about the songs (the stories if you will) they had written over the years and then perform them. It was a really cool show, actually, and it was always neat to hear people talk about their songs.

Tom Waits performed on the show in 1999 and it is epic. Waits is a great songwriter, of course, and a great storyteller (and bullshitter). His Storytellers is full of all three in ample doses. It isn’t available anywhere commercially. I posted the show a while back (but it is currently unavailable on my blog, I’ll get it back up eventually) but you can listen to the whole thing over on the Archive. It is well worth your time.

Tori Amos – New York, NY (04/11/96) Unplugged

Tori Amos
MTV Unplugged
April 11, 1996

1. Cornflake Girl
2. Blood Roses
3. Silent All These Years
4. Icicle
5. Caught A Lite Sneeze
6. Somewhere Over The Rainbow
7. Hey Jupiter>Purple Rain
8. In The Springtime Of His Voodoo
9. Losing My Religion
10. I’m On Fire
11. Sugar
12. Somewhere Over the Rainbow
13. Hey Jupiter

As best I can figure songs 1-8 are from the MTV Unplugged Performance. I believe song 12 is from CMT Crossroads and songs 9-11, and 13 are from VH1 Storytellers. If anyone knows differently please let me know.

Tom Petty – VH1 Storytellers

Tom Petty
VH1 Storytellers
1991

1. I Won’t Back Down
2. Storytellers Dialog
3. Free Fallin’
4. Storytellers Dialog
5. You Don’t Know How It Feels mp3
6. Storytellers Dialog mp3
7. You Wreck Me Baby
8. Storytellers Dialog
9. Room At The Top
10. Storytellers Dialog
11. Walls
12. Storytellers Dialog
13. Swingin’
14. Storytellers Dialog
15. Angel Dream
16. Storytellers Dialog
17. King’s Highway (Saturday Night Live 1991)
18. Room At The Top (Saturday Night Live 1999)