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Here's a bit more thoughtful a response than what I gave above.
I finally GOT Tom Waits after hearing this; I've been a fan for awhile, but these three discs put everything into perspective. And that is, Waits plays American music. The thing starts off with Lie To Me, where Waits does a great Presley impression. There are folk songs in there, along with some Tin Pan Alley stuff. Even the weirder stuff has American roots: Harry Partch's fucked-up percussion, Beat poetry, etc.
As strange and as idiosincratic as Waits can sometimes seem, he is actually working within a long tradition that is, it seems to my ears and my understanding of music history, specifically American.
ps- I've never listened to the thing from start to finish. I begin on a song I like and hit the random button. This approach has yielded many riches.
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