Tom Waits' Private Listening Party

Tom Waits' first new album in seven years, Bad As Me, comes out on Oct. 25th. This morning, the idiosyncratic California songwriter and bandleader conducted what was billed as a "Private Listening Party" on YouTube to give fans a sneak preview. After playing bits of a couple of songs, though, Waits pretended to take a phone call, and then addressed the camera on the topic of Internet-induced artistic privacy.

"We have a situation here," the carny barker / singer said. "I'm sorry we had to cut it. Apparently, there's no such thing as private anymore. It's an Internet thing. I thought this was a private party, a sneak preview for you, for me. Apparently not." He then asked a few pointed questions: "If you were having a birthday and I came early and started eating your cake and opened your presents and started playing with your toys ... Would you be okay with that? What if you had a root canal, and I asked you to gargle with raw sewage" - ironically, choosing words that have often been used to describe the sound of Waits' own voice - "Would you be okay with that?"

He then acted as if he was calling the whole off, took a seat in his car, and played a little more music. Watch below. Thanks to my glory-seeking editor Sam Wood for this.

Previously: I'm Shakin' Follow in the Mix on Twitter here