Tom Waits

[stip]

Might as well listen to Nighthawks. Going in I've never enjoyed this album, but maybe this time is different!

[stip]

This would really have felt like it came out of nowhere if I didn't already know Small Change. . This whole thing feels so performative, and it's not particularly funny.

[stip]

Better off Without a Wife isn't bad

[Kevin Davis]

This is what I had to say about Nighthawks last time, which is probably the last time I listened to it and is probably still true. I can't believe the last Waits LAL was 9 years ago!

Alright, I'm on this.

I'll begin by saying that any excitement I had surrounding the LALing of this album pretty much dissipated within the first ten minutes, and that's even the half of the record I like. However, I do think the anticipation I had--and apparently some others have too--leading up the actual LALing is a pretty good illustration of the kind of record Nighthawks is, which is a record that's more successful as an idea than as an execution. No matter how many times I hear it, I always manage to convince myself that when I listen to it it's going to be way better than it is, and that's because it should be way better than it is. The theoretical appeal of this album is epochal, and the Tom Waits of 1975 was as equipped to make this album as any artist has ever been to make anything. There's just no follow-through.

It's tempting to criticize the length, but if I'm honest, my real problem with it is that there's just too much damned talking. An album that wants to create this kind of atmosphere needs some kind of length, but the spoken-word-intros-to-spoken-word-pieces-and-then-back-to-another-spoken-word-intro routine gets tedious fast. Pieces like "Nighthawk Postcards" and "Putnam County" just drone on forever in an endless ramble--there are clever one-liners here and there, and I don't know that I'd find any of them nearly as objectionable one at a time, but en masse I find myself feeling like once I've heard one I've heard them all. Maybe someone with a better understanding of recited poetry will be able to formulate a cogent argument for why I'm an idiot for feeling that way, but what I hear are a lot of boring beat cliches that were hackneyed and outdated before Waits even hit the circuit. It's a rare example of Waits's own voice not being able to overcome the confines of a genre--maybe this and Closing Time are the only two examples of that criticism being applicable.

I do agree with Jorge that the band is pretty great, perfect for simulating the kind of atmosphere Waits wants here--the comfort of an after-hours cafe, surrounded by big-haired waitresses, cigarette-smoking art-douches wearing berets, and crappy food endearing in its crappiness. Despite Waits's '70's MO, I don't picture a bar here--I picture an actual diner, one that serves burgers and fries, eggs and sausage, eaten by patrons in booths made of naugahyde. In fact, a lot of the lyrical details in the song-songs do a really nice job of constructing the kind of world I suspect Waits is trying to--although I think "Eggs and Sausage," "Better Off Without a Wife," and especially "Warm Beer and Cold Women" (definitely the best song here) ultimately tell the whole story. The other song-songs--"On a Foggy Night" and "Nobody"--would be suitable filler on a stronger album, but here they're forced to work as melodic anchors against the bounty of spoken word pieces, and they're not up to the task. "Nobody" in particular, if memory serves, was an 'Early Years' holdover, and my best guess is that it's inclusion is due to lack of better material, simply because if what Waits was doing was saving it up until its proper context came along, he picked a weird record on which to unveil it to the world. In any case, neither song is bad--just average, but a pseudo-live record of then-all-new material and a truckload of extra-long poems needs to be propped up by better-than-average songs.

In conclusion, I think this album was ultimately a failed semi-detour that doesn't really add much to the story of Waits's development. I mean, it's significant because it's the first time you get a glimpse of the gravel voice, but I think the progression from Heart of Saturday Night to Small Change is pretty natural without it. That said, I'm glad to own it for "Eggs and Sausage," "Better Off Without a Wife," and "Warm Beer and Cold Women." And I really like the way Tom sings "burgers and fries" in "Eggs and Sausage." But until the next LAL session, I'll be content to admire it from afar on the shelf and dream of how much better it sounds in my mind.

Here's the link to that old thread btw:
http://archive.theskyiscrape.com/viewto ... 2441dff8ba

[stip]

Nobody is also decent. It's hard for me to really comment on individual songs here -they all blend together with slightly different gimmicks.

I think he's kind of annoying on this record, actually.

[Jorge]

Here's the link to that old thread btw:
http://archive.theskyiscrape.com/viewto ... 2441dff8ba

Hahahahaha it is a little embarrassing how abusive I get towards Stip on this thread. SORRY STIP

[VinylGuy]

Nighthawks...is a personal favorite....not because of the music so much, but because it means a lot to me.

[stip]

why is nighthawkks a favorite, VG?

[Jorge]

Not because of the music so much, but because it means a lot to him

[stip]

well obviously not because of the music.

[VinylGuy]

why is nighthawkks a favorite, VG?

Well, i grabbed it a long time ago, and it cost really cheap. It was a record store i used to really find some treasures. It was located in a very dangerous neighborhood in Buenos Aires i used to visit some friends back in the day, and it was an obligated stop...got so many cool cds, vinyl and vhs...

First time i listened to it, i loved loved the setting, the sound, the overall vibe. I think its a wonderful time capsule.

[stip]

okay, onto Small Change

[stip]

First off, it needs to be noted that this has to be one of the all time great album covers

[stip]

Tom Traubert's Blues justifies the entire album's existence. The affectations that nighthawks was drowning in (and this album doesn't quite escape - the parenthetical titles are an example) all work here.

Some of it is that this is a really emotional performance (the way his voice quavers on almost every line). Melodramatic as hell, but the lyrics are lush and evocative and cinematic so it works. And he writes the hell out of this song. It's just full of memorable moment after moment, misery piled onto of misery. It's a song full of self-pity, and this guy probably deserves it, but you cannot help but sympathize.



Wasted and wounded, it ain't what the moon did
I Got what I paid for now

I'm an innocent victim of a blinded alley
And tired of all these soldiers here
No one speaks English and everything's broken
And my Stacys are soaking wet

I begged you to stab me, you tore my shirt open
And I'm down on my knees tonight
Old Bushmill's I staggered, you buried the dagger
Your silhouette window light

No, I don't want your sympathy
The fugitives say that the streets aren't for dreaming now
Manslaughter dragnets and the ghosts that sell memories
They want a piece of the action anyhow

And it's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace
And a wound that will never heal

And goodnight to the street sweepers
The night watchman flame keepers and goodnight, Mathilda too


He's written variants of this song a few times, but he doesn't really capture this magic again for a decade (Time). So good

[stip]

Fun fact about Small Change - apparently Frito Lays used this song in an ad and Tom sued them for his first million dollars. Assuming that actually happened. I read about it in a tom waits biography so he could have been making it up.


This is a fun song that probably belongs later on the album - it feels like a palette cleanser.



Also, I was trying to do some mindless computer work while this is on, and these are not background songs. It's really hard not to pay attention in a way the similar songs on Nighthawks never were.

[Jorge]

Fun fact about Small Change - apparently Frito Lays used this song in an ad and Tom sued them for his first million dollars. Assuming that actually happened. I read about it in a tom waits biography so he could have been making it up.

You mean "Step Right Up," right? And that's sort of true! They hired a soundalike and he sued them

[stip]

Jitterbug Boy is a little too similar to TT Blues for me. Different sort of character - both losers (it's an album full of losers), although this guy is a down on his luck hustler rather than someone about to pass out on a sidewalk - but the songs feel the same. And this one doesn't have a fraction of TTB's power.

If I recall, KD likes this one more than TT.

[stip]

I wish I was in New Orleans just started, and I realize that Tom Traubert's Blues ruins this album for me. Too many of the songs feel like they're coming from a similar space, and that one gets it perfect out the gate. Maybe if it came later in the album I'd feel differently. Later Tom Waits has so much variety from song to song, so some of these early albums can start to feel a bit sloggish.

Small Change definitely feels longer than the first two records - even the songs there I didn't necessarily care for still float by in a pleasant way. But the abrasive voice takes that away.

Having said that, this is one of the better songs on the album for me. In the top half, probably. Lets see if that holds up.

[stip]

The Piano Has Been Drinking is a fun interlude. It's a song it's hard to imagine anyone else writing

[stip]

ohh, I forgot about Invitation to the Blues - not sure what it is, but something about the piano at the start really drew me in. There is a noir quality to this one that's pretty compelling.

Two albums, two breakfast egg references.


Pasties and a G-String: I can't decide how I feel about this one.

Bad Liver...: Not bad, but the problem is that this late in the album I feel like I've already heard this song 6 times.

The One that Got Away: Another nice noir number. Not sure we needed this AND small change though. I used to prefer Small Change - now I like this one more, I think


I apparently really struggle with the musical repetition on the pre-Blue Valentine's albums