Tom Waits has long been drawn less to the sound of a song than to how it was made, a fascination he says traces back to his youth listening to soul, funk and R&B records. Speaking to NPR in 2011, the songwriter singled out tracks by James Brown and Ray Charles as pieces that left him puzzling over their construction, reflecting his broader habit of studying the "anatomy" of songs rather than simply enjoying them. This curiosity about craftsmanship, he suggests, has been a driving force behind his own decades-long songwriting career.

Waits cited James Brown's 1966 single "It's a Man's World" (whose idea was reportedly taken from Betty Jean Newsome) and Ray Charles's recording of "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" with Cleo Laine, from an album of Porgy and Bess songs, as examples that left him "mystified". He said he never reaches a point of feeling he has fully understood how such songs are built, adding that he remains "curious and puzzled by the whole affair" even now, a mindset the article credits with sustaining his creative output over the years.