Tom Waits

[Anders]

Okay, putting on Closing Time. I hope I'm not the only person to listen to it today.

Ol'55: It doesn't take long to setting in but it's always slightly jarring to listen to Closing Time Tom Waits when you predominantly listen to his work after he went to the singing he is famous for.

This is warm, lovely song. It evokes a vinyl feel, even on Spotify. It feels of an older time, but timeless in that you can't quite place it. It sounds like a memory. It's actually a really nice performance, but I've never liked the lyrics (I went lickity splitly doesn't sound good) and there are no real stunning moments. It almost seems like it the song is pandering in some small way.

Still, it is always a better song than I remember it being.

I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You: I love this song. One of the album highpoints - a top 10 from the pre-swordfish part of his career. It's such a simple, direct premise, and the humane sympathy that inhabits all but his most vile songs (and maybe even those) is immediately on display. It's direct and non-performative in a way that is surprising for him. Totally relatable story of someone obsessing over a stranger, building a narrative in their head, and missing their moment. The final line "I think that I just fell in love with you" is surprisingly powerful, given how well the song set the moment up.

Virginia Avenue: This feels like it could have fit in nicely on Heart on Saturday Night. In hindsight, this is a song he would go on to write a dozen times, with different characters. But the template is here. This feels like a two in the morning song (hah, he just gave the time in the song right after i wrote that line). I totally forgot about this song. Pretty solid when you're in the mood for this side of him.

Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards): My favorite song on this album, and probably a top 5 from his early period (just did a mental check, and it just squeaks in). this seems like a song that should have been covered a million times. I wonder why the guitar playing disappeared from his repertoire for the next 4 albums. It is striking how unadorned these lyrics are, but how effective they are. He is so good at getting to the core of an experience.

Midnight Lullaby: Another song whose name I remembered that I totally forgot about. This is a lesser song (has a prototype feel - something he will come back to, in a better way, later on) - it feels a bit like it is retreading the same ground Virginia Avenue just covered, even though this is about a couple at home, and Virginia Avenue is about a guy wondering around feeling lonely. Everything on this album is smooth and easy to listen to, and so if you're looking for a quiet, bar jazz number this can wash over you and do the trick. It's just that I am rarely looking for that.

Martha: This was one of the first Tom Waits songs I ever heard (possibly the second. Innocent When You Dream was the first). This is an incredibly powerful song, especially if you don't come back to it often, and I don't. Just emotionally devastating in its bittersweet longing. It's all in his words and the humanity in his performance, which elevates the lyrics in powerful ways. The writing is very direct, and fairly simple (with 1-2 exceptions there are no amazing turns of phrase here). But the performance (from a guy in his early 20s, I assume?), completely inhabits the shuffling discomfort and years and years of regret of an older man. It is astonishing, actually.

"And I remember quiet evenings trembling close to you" is a devastating final moment

Roise: This always reminds me of Ol'55, and almost everything I said there applies here. It's a really nice performance, and a love letter to a type of urban romanticism that is a constant in his Asylum work. Not a song I would seek out, but one I should probably include the next time I make a massive Tom Waits playlist (which I'm guessing will be after I go through the albums)

Lonely: This is one of the weaker efforts on the album. I feel like this song needs a character to ground it and give it an emotional core. I don't know who is singing this, and he does such an amazing job situating every other song in a particular person, and it makes the comparatively simple writing feel real. This just floats past without anything to grab on to, though the brief "I still love you/I still love you" at the end, works well. It would be even more powerful if I was tracking a person

Ice Cream Man: This is a fun little number that is a nice little infusion of energy on a very low key second half of the album. Not an all timer, or even a song I'd seek out on its own, but it works well enough in the context of the album

Little Trip to Heaven: Probably the best version of the Virginia Avenue, Midnight Lullaby, Lonely run of songs that all seem to be trying to do the same things. It's not what I'm looking for, normally, but again in the context of the album and the space it creates it works well. He generally does this better on Heart of Saturday Night

Grapefruit Moon: I like this one - feels like the prototype of the sweeping piano ballads that he does on to do so well, and the writing starts to combine the character study with some of the lyrical abstractions that he is so good at. Controlling for the change in voice, you can start to draw a line from Grapefruit Moon to Tom Taubert's Blues. Not sure how often I would seek this out since he goes on to write the same kind of song to even greater effect so many times, but it's cool to see where it begins, and it benefits from the mood of the album. "Now I'm smoking cigarettes and I strive for purity. And I slip just like the stars into obscurity" is a really nice lyric - honest and self aware.

Closing Time: Is this the only instrumental in the whole catalog? I think there may be one on Foreign Affairs and Heart Attack. It is an appropriate last call to send the album home, and it works for me having just listened to closing time, but I'm not going to seek it out on its own.

Closing Time is an album I rarely go back to beyond a few songs I know I really like. It works better than I remember as a full album. Even the lesser songs go down smooth and it creates such a consistent mood and feel that everything is elevated by what surrounds it. Everything is easy to listen to, but not everything lingers. There is a simplicity to the songs that fast disappears, but the core of so much of what he is about is present from jump. The character based songwriting, the 2 AM romanticism, the refusal to judge people for being people are all in their infancy, but the key components of what will make him Tom Waits are all here. And I write that in total hindsight. There is a shocking degree of maturity to the performance (Martha, especially), even as he is clearly trying to figure out what it is all about.



Album highlights: I Hope that I Don't Fall In Love With You, Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards), Martha
Near Highlights: Ol'55, Rosie
Pretty Good: Virginia Avenue, Ice Cream Man, Little Trip to Heaven, Grapefruit Moon
Don't Need: Midnight Lullaby, Lonely, Closing Time

Nice review. I love this album.

[stip]

On to Blue Valentines. Not an album I've listened to in a long while, but historically it's been my favorite 70s Waits album (Heart Attack is 80, right?)

Somewhere: This is a nice pivot song in a lot of ways. The heavily affected style he's been using since Nighthawks is still there, but he is starting to figure out how to get what sounds like some genuine emotional moments in there. Not fully (that sax that comes in and out isn't doing this song any favors).

Red Shoes: I've always really liked the music on this one (the electric piano, the rolling drums, the plinking guitar). I think this is one of the successful noir pieces from this period. He also tones down the overly descriptive writing to focus on the narrative, so the details that do emerge hit a bit harder (umbrella's arrayed in a sad bouquet is a nice lyric). It's still a bit excessive, but it's good.

Postcard from a Hooker: This is too familiar at this point (I haven't usually gone through the Small Change and Foreign affairs before I get here), but it's a nice (if not entirely unpredictable) reveal at the end

Romeo is Bleeding: This is an all timer for me - my second favorite song from the 70s after Tom Traubert's blues. One of the songs that got me into Tom Waits. Great performance (the way he drops the growl into something of a whisper gives the moments where he raises his voice some bite), fantastic music (the horns in this are so good and the whole thing is just damn smooth), the writing sets the scene perfectly without overdoing it, and another great reversal at the end - the death of a lonely, sad, loser seen through the eyes of those who admire him, and then the truth. The ending could be 20 seconds shorter.

[stip]

$29: Is there a word her murders more than 'dollars' in this song. I always have a moment where I think he's singing balloons. This doesn't need to be 8 minutes long. It's kind of a nothing song - or at least nothing we haven't already heard before.

Wrong Side of the Road: I had totally forgotten what this one sounds like. I don't have anything new to say about it. Bluesy song about a badass troublemaker - or someone who thinks he is one, but there isn't the pull back the curtain moment like there are on some of the other ones. I think Romeo is bleeding and Sweet Little Bullet both give me what this song does, and much better

Whistlin Past the Graveyard: I like this one. It's disposable, but it's a fun hit of energy at a moment when the album needs it, and there is a self-deprecation to it that makes these songs better

[stip]

Kentucky Avenue: I like his 'old man reminiscences' songs, and while some of the early moments are overwritten, it's a nice performance, and it gets genuinely moving at places, especially towards the end (and the moments where he lifts his voice). Always reminds me in a way of On the Nickle (which is better). Third favorite on the album


Sweet Little Bullet From a Pretty Blue Gun: I love this one, even if it's not quite on my best of list. I love the writing, I love the dangerous slink of the music, I like the way the sax colors the song and the way the guitar provides punctuation for the whip crack delivery. This is masterful storytelling, too. Arguably his best lyrics to date

Well it's raining it's pouring
You didn't bring a sweater
Nebraska will never let you come back home

Now on Hollywood and Vine
By the Thrifty Mart sign
Any night I'll be willin to bet

There's a young girl
With sweet little dreams and pretty blue wishes
Standin there just gettin all wet

Now there's a place off the drag
Called the Gilbert Hotel
And there's a couple letters
Burned out in the sign

And it's better than a bus stop
They do good business every time it rains
For little girls with nothing in their jeans
But pretty blue wishes and sweet little dreams

And its raining its pouring
The old man is snoring
Now I lay me down to sleep
I hear the sirens in the street
All my dreams are made of chrome
I have no way to get back home
I'd rather die before I wake
Like Marilyn Monroe
And you could throw my dreams out in the street
And let the rain make 'em grow

Now the night clerk he got a club foot
He's heard every hard luck story
At least a hundred times or more

He says check out time is 10 am
And thats just what it means
Go on up the stairs
With sweet little wishes and pretty blue dreams

And it's raining its pouring
And Hollywood's just fine
Swindle a little girl out of her dreams
Another letter in the sign

Now never trust a scarecrow wearin shades after dark
Be careful of that old bow tie he wears
It takes a sweet little bullet from a pretty blue gun
To put those scarlet ribbons in your hair

No that ain't no cherry bomb
Fourth of July's all done
Just some fool playin that second line
From the barrel of a pretty blue gun


Blue Valentines: Not bad, but it's a bit unexciting after sweet little bullet, which is where the album should end.

It's an uneven album - more than I remembered it being, but there are three-four songs I might put on a mix, which is the highest number I get on any of these early albums. Closing Time gets there too, but I like the songs surrounding them better here.

[stip]

Heartattack and Vine- this musical hangover is my favorite of the early records, and the best overall fit for the character he had been developing since Nighthawks - for the most part it all works here

Heartattack and Vine: just a lot of great moments ‘I bet she’s still a virgin but its only 25 to nine’, the way he sings god damned in ‘you’ll find your ignorance is blissful every god damned time’. The whole song feels like a drunken rant from an idiot way too pleased with his own insights. And its really good, and not even the best of its type on the album

In Shades: fine for what it is. my general thoughts on jazz/blues instrumentals hold here. feels like a well executed version of something I don’t generally get excited for. I like tbe guitar tone towards the false end.

Saving All My Love: the church bells are a nice touch I am kind of shocked it took 7 albums to get to. I like the morning after confessional feel to this one, and how in the cold morning light he tries to convince himself that the fact that he loves this person somehow excuses the fact that he is a shitty person and doesnt deserve it. A quietly clever song, and one of the better versions of its type.

Downtown: This song is okay. I wish we got more of this type, though, at least before we leave the seedy urban setting for the 16 shells insanity that takes over

[stip]

Jersey Girl: The music feels like a memory, and I love how muted and lovely it sounds against his forward, impassioned performance. The heart on sleeve mentality works really well here. It’s a song that could so easily be ironic (especially since jersey girl is not a compliment coming from a new yorker) and I think the fact that he plays it safe adds a lot to the overall song. Very good song, but probably number 5 on the record for me, thanks to the fantatic final 3 songs.

Until the Money Runs Out: This album pretty effectively interweaves sentimentally and songs about awful people (without the sympathy he evoked for the losers on his prior albums). I always forget about this song, but its a lot of fun.

On the Nickle: This is a beautiful performance of a beautiful song that only Tom Waits could do. So much bittersweet longing for a simpler time (simpler in our memory, anyway) before all the mistakes we made. The repetition of ‘what becomes of all the little boys’ becomes increasingly powerful. And the places where he elevates his voice become really powerful compared to the more muted singing elsewhere. He can make a phrase like ring around the rosey break your heart just a little bit. ‘so what becomes of all the little boys who run away from home? the world just keeps on getting bigger once you get out on your own.’’

This is just a marvelous song

[stip]

Mr. Siegal: This may well be my favorite 70s TW song. Maybe his most rotten, miserable song until All the Time on Orphans. Everything about this song is a blast. There may not a better fit for his 70s persona. I dont have anything potentially insightful about this song. It’s all surface, but what a filthy, stained, glorious surface.

I shot the morning in the back with my red wings on
Told the sun it better go back down
If I can find a book of matches
I’m going to burn this hotel down.

Ruby’s Arms: if you catch this song in the right moment it is heart wrenching. Such a sad, beautiful song, and almost every syllable he sings is perfectly inflected and in alignment with the music for maximum impact. This walks the very thin line between schmaltzy mawkish nonsense and the naked transcendent purity of a miserable sacrifice, and never stumbles. it is his first great closer

[stip]

I forgot how good this album is. His first great outing. Although One From the Heart stands between Heartattack and Swordfishtrombones, his pivot makes sense. A few of the songs on here represent the endpoint of what he was trying to do in the 70s, and even the lesser moments on here are still work for me.

Its the first album I enjoy enough to rank - lets see.

Mr. Siegal
On the Nickle
Ruby’s Armys
Heart Attack and Vine
Until the Money Runs Out
Jersey Girl
Saving all my love
Downtown
In Shades

[stip]

And my 70s Tom Waits top 10



Old Shoes and Picture Postcards
Martha
San Diego Serenade
Heart of Saturday Night
Tom Traubert’s Blues
Romeo is Bleeding
Sweet Little Bullet From a Pretty Blue Gun
On the Nickle
Mr Siegal
Ruby’s Arms

[Anders]

Listening to Heartattack and Vine from 1980 now.

[Anders]

It was ok, long time since I've heard it. Closing Time now. Much better album in my mind.

[Jorge]

Heartattack doesn't do a lot for me. "Ruby's Arms" is the best song on there, everything else feels a little slight. And I hate the production, so hollow sounding

[Strat]

Oh man. Love Heartattack. Love the bluesy stompers and on the nickel is just fantastic.

[Mike]

Listening to Heartattack and Vine from 1980 now.

[Kevin Davis]

I agree with Jorge that Heartattack is a bit uneven and sounds airy. I like a lot of the individual tracks but the album as a whole doesn't do the best job of reconciling its two disparate worlds. The last three tracks are the best: "On the Nickel," "Mr. Siegal," and "Ruby's Arms." What a run.

Track down the Austin City Limits '78 version of "On the Nickel" if you can -- heartwrenching stuff.

[VinylGuy]

Heartattack and Vine is a top 5 album for me.

[epilogue]

Heartattack and Vine is a top 5 album for me.

My top 5 are pretty set:

Bone Machine
Blood Money
Mule Variations
Real Gone
SwordfishTrombines

But Heartattack and Vine is #8. And that includes Orphans. Take away that box set and it's #7. So, firmly in my top 10. It's such a great album.

[epilogue]

Heartattack doesn't do a lot for me. "Ruby's Arms" is the best song on there, everything else feels a little slight. And I hate the production, so hollow sounding

I agree that the production is weird and hollow sounding. But I actually think it works for this record. I like it a lot. Something about it makes sense to me. Maybe because I imagine the record as a weird sort of "live" concept record? Not sure exactly. I'd have to think about it.

[Jorge]

To me it doesn't sound very live. Mostly it's that ugly gated reverb on the drums, and the way Tom's voice is processed. I also think it was mastered a bit too quiet, but I have that problem with a lot of 80s TW albums. These wouldn't be big problems if I thought the songs were all winners

[epilogue]

To me it doesn't sound very live. Mostly it's that ugly gated reverb on the drums, and the way Tom's voice is processed. I also think it was mastered a bit too quiet, but I have that problem with a lot of 80s TW albums. These wouldn't be big problems if I thought the songs were all winners

No, it doesn't sound live to me either. And I agree that's it's mastered too quiet. That does bug me.