DumpJack Listens to Tom Waits' Discography

tentoze · **Posted:** Thu Apr 08, 2010 5:27 pm

This shouldl be a very enjoyable read. I can't think of one Waits album that I actively dislike. Foreign Affairs may be my least favorite, but even so, it's no dog, IMO. The hat trick of Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, and Frank's Wild Years is unfuckwithable, as far as I'm concerned. And last year, he put on one of the BEST live shows I've ever seen.

nobody · **Posted:** Thu Apr 08, 2010 5:33 pm

Closing Time I like OK, but Heart of Saturday Night and Blue Valentine are my favorites of the early Waits albums.

I'll look forward to Swordfishtrombones in this thread.

discostu · **Posted:** Thu Apr 08, 2010 5:58 pm

Dalen Wrote:

Rick Derris Wrote:

Goes great with whisky and loneliness.

spot on.

yeah, that's why I'm not feeling it today at work. A mood album for sure.

dangerbird · **Joined:** Sun Aug 19, 2007 1:53 am **Posts:** 427

im also just recently trying to get into his catalogue. I only have Rain Dogs so far, but its great, definitely wont disappoint. I should try some other albums and will pay attention to this thread to see what else i should get.

DumpJack · **Posted:** Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:18 pm

Radcliffe Wrote:

Good enough for the Eagles, not good enough for me.

good lord

DumpJack · **Posted:** Fri Apr 09, 2010 8:02 am

Quote:

If Closing Time, Tom Waits' debut album, consisted of love songs set in a late-night world of bars and neon signs, its follow-up, The Heart of Saturday Night, largely dispenses with the romance in favor of poetic depictions of the same setting. On "Diamonds on My Windshield" and "The Ghosts of Saturday Night," Waits doesn't even sing, instead reciting his verse rhythmically against bass and drums like a Beat hipster. Musically, the album contains the same mixture of folk, blues, and jazz as its predecessor, with producer Bones Howe occasionally bringing in an orchestra to underscore the loping melodies. Waits' songs are sometimes sketchier in addition to being more impersonal, but "(Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night" and "Semi Suite" are the equal of anything on Closing Time. Still, with lines such as "...the clouds are like headlines/Upon a new front page sky" and references to "a 24-hour moon" and "champagne stars," Waits' imagery is beginning to get florid, and in material this stylized, the danger of self-parody is always present.

Code:

http://moourl.com/2hdcz

jewels santana · **Joined:** Thu Nov 04, 2004 2:36 pm **Posts:** 10198

sweet, looking forward to this one because i've had an empty cd case of "heart" for about six years, and have been too lazy to grab a copy.

catswilleatyou · **Posted:** Fri Apr 09, 2010 9:46 am

i played closing time three times yesterday.
i think i like it more now than i have in the past... gonna file it next to the national for whiskey-lonely music

i don't know if i've heard heart of saturday night or not.

DumpJack · **Posted:** Fri Apr 09, 2010 1:01 pm

shaMoxie Wrote:

well done. i think you're going to love heart of saturday night.

Yeah, this is also a really fine album, slightly better than Closing Time I think, but great companion albums all the same. Of course at this point I'll fully admit it was folly to ignore the multiple suggestions to check out these early records as they remind me a lot of both Nilsson and Kooper, both of whom I really like a lot. Even songs like 'Diamonds on the Windshield' I'm enjoying, but maybe because he sounds just like a jazzier Lou Reed right with a Springsteen voice. Maybe this is what makes these early records a bit more palatable. I think in the later years, I've found the vocals to be a bit trying. But we'll see, I'm curious when my tolerance is going to be tested. It will come, I'm sure.

Standout for me is 'Depot Depot', I keep repeating it in my head.

nobody · **Posted:** Fri Apr 09, 2010 1:08 pm

(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night is one of my all time favorite Waits Songs, and New Coat of paint is a great way to open this album.

Gordo · **Posted:** Fri Apr 09, 2010 1:20 pm

DumpJack Wrote:

Maybe this is what makes these early records a bit more palatable. I think in the later years, I've found the vocals to be a bit trying.

I haven't heard too many Tom Waits songs, but what I have heard just grated on my ears too much. This morning I listened to most of Closing Time and was more than pleasantly surprised -- sounded like a totally different person.

Has he made a conscious effort to change that voice/singing style of his over the years, or was it cigarettes/booze taking its toll over the last 35 years?

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Fri Apr 09, 2010 1:26 pm

Gordo Wrote:

Has he made a conscious effort to change that voice/singing style of his over the years, or was it cigarettes/booze taking its toll over the last 35 years?

I'm sure it's a combination of both, but probably more the former than the latter.

discostu · **Posted:** Fri Apr 09, 2010 1:30 pm

DumpJack Wrote:

Quote:

If Closing Time, Tom Waits' debut album, consisted of love songs set in a late-night world of bars and neon signs, its follow-up, The Heart of Saturday Night, largely dispenses with the romance in favor of poetic depictions of the same setting. On "Diamonds on My Windshield" and "The Ghosts of Saturday Night," Waits doesn't even sing, instead reciting his verse rhythmically against bass and drums like a Beat hipster. Musically, the album contains the same mixture of folk, blues, and jazz as its predecessor, with producer Bones Howe occasionally bringing in an orchestra to underscore the loping melodies. Waits' songs are sometimes sketchier in addition to being more impersonal, but "(Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night" and "Semi Suite" are the equal of anything on Closing Time. Still, with lines such as "...the clouds are like headlines/Upon a new front page sky" and references to "a 24-hour moon" and "champagne stars," Waits' imagery is beginning to get florid, and in material this stylized, the danger of self-parody is always present.

Code:

http://moourl.com/2hdcz

Moourl.com Wrote:

Yickes!!

This moourl has been disabled - maybe the source URL is in our blacklist, or we received complaints that it was being used for SPAM. Feel free to contact us if needed.

DumpJack · **Posted:** Fri Apr 09, 2010 1:44 pm

Stu:

Code:

http://moourl.com/olw2z

tentoze · **Posted:** Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:14 pm

Gordo Wrote:

DumpJack Wrote:

Maybe this is what makes these early records a bit more palatable. I think in the later years, I've found the vocals to be a bit trying.

I haven't heard too many Tom Waits songs, but what I have heard just grated on my ears too much. This morning I listened to most of Closing Time and was more than pleasantly surprised -- sounded like a totally different person.

Has he made a conscious effort to change that voice/singing style of his over the years, or was it cigarettes/booze taking its toll over the last 35 years?

I could be wrong, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that the booze & smokes went away about the time Brennan entered the picture. I think the chnages in vocal styles just mirrored the evolution of the music.

DJ- you might get challenged twice- the first, on Heart Attack & Vine, which sort of bridges the gap between the earlier music and what was coming; if you come out of that OK (which I suspect you will) and enjoy the first few albums of the "Island Years" (and they are brilliant, IMO), I think the second challenge will be Bone Machine. His britches may have always been unbuckled and unzipped, but with Bone Machine, he dropped them and pointed his ass squarely at even a nod to the conventions of pop music. Caterwauling growls, trash can lids and other "found instruments" being banged, etc. accompanying bleak, at times hellish, subject matter bordering on anomie- I recall reading a review of it when it first came out, and the one line that stuck with me was "Not of this earth." I love it.

discostu · **Posted:** Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:43 pm

DumpJack Wrote:

Stu:

Code:

http://moourl.com/olw2z

Thanks. I already dig this one more than the debut.

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:45 pm

OK, I'm doing this, too. I wanted to do a track-by-track thing, but I don't really have time. Maybe I will with the later albums that I'm more familiar with.

Closing Time - I would honestly not give a shit about Tom Waits at all if this was any kind of summation of his work. It's interesting that this is where he started, though, and there are some solid songs here, for sure. More than anything else, I think the arrangements are the biggest detractor. Being a big fan of his later sound, I find this smoothed-out, glossed-over production to be really dull and tedious. As other people have said, it's a pretty sappy record, for sure, and it comes as much - or more - from the sound as from the songs themselves.

billy g · **Joined:** Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:41 pm **Posts:** 9020

Just finished up with Closing Time. I like his earlier work more than his more adventurous Island recordings but I have to agree that he sounds like he's still finding his way here. "Martha",
"I hope I Don't Fall in Love With You", and "Virginia Avenue" are the standouts for me. Its definitely a mood record and I'd enjoy it more late at night with a glass of wine or whiskey than I do listening in my office. Given that its a bit surprising to learn that it was recorded during the daytime.

Jerry Yester Wrote:

Tom's real easy to work with, we had a real good relationship. I really wasn't interested in telling him what to do. I just wanted to get the music out of him. That was the important thing. So, we talked about how he wanted to do it and I would make suggestions. There was a very good relationship between all of the band members. That album was absolutely the easiest one I've ever done in my life. It was done in, like, a week and a half ... in the studio at Sunset Sound. One reason it was good, I think, was we couldn't get the nighttime hours that I was looking for. We had to come in from ten to five every day. It took two days to get used to it, but once we did it was great. We were even awake when we got there, and it was like a job. Everybody was real alert and into it. We took our lunch breaks, came back and worked again. And we had the evening to do something with. It was like being human, you know?

Radcliffe · **Posted:** Fri Apr 09, 2010 6:21 pm

DumpJack Wrote:

Radcliffe Wrote:

Good enough for the Eagles, not good enough for me.

good lord

Actually, I'm a little surprised you and Gar haven't gone on an Eagles kick yet.

DumpJack · **Posted:** Fri Apr 09, 2010 8:09 pm

Radcliffe Wrote:

DumpJack Wrote:

Radcliffe Wrote:

Good enough for the Eagles, not good enough for me.

good lord

Actually, I'm a little surprised you and Gar haven't gone on an Eagles kick yet.

I'll bring it up at our next team meeting.

jewels santana · **Joined:** Thu Nov 04, 2004 2:36 pm **Posts:** 10198

martha is such an incredible song. It almost always punches me in the gut.

god that is such a horrid cover of 'ol 55.

Flying Rabbit · **Posted:** Sat Apr 10, 2010 12:27 am

Radcliffe Wrote:

Actually, I'm a little surprised you and Gar haven't gone on an Eagles kick yet.

Lebowski law prevents that from happening.

catswilleatyou · **Posted:** Sat Apr 10, 2010 10:01 am

one more thought on closing time.

"time went so quickly i went lickety splitly" is possibly the worst opening rhyme i've ever heard.
it's the beauty mole of this album.

Senator LooGAR · **Posted:** Sat Apr 10, 2010 11:22 am

DumpJack Wrote:

Radcliffe Wrote:

DumpJack Wrote:

Radcliffe Wrote:

Good enough for the Eagles, not good enough for me.

good lord

Actually, I'm a little surprised you and Gar haven't gone on an Eagles kick yet.

I'll bring it up at our next team meeting.

I'm in. Bring Da Ambalamps (and the kilos)

DumpJack · **Posted:** Sat Apr 10, 2010 11:59 am

Updated link for Heart of Saturday Night:

Code:

http://tinyurl.com/y7wrsea

DumpJack Listens to Tom Waits' Discography

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