Tom Waits is a consummate storyteller, able to fit a short story into three or four minutes, and ‘Blue Valentine’ contains some memorable tales that are vivid and can make you feel a range of emotions. This is Tom’s patented mix of Jazz, Blues, Beat poetry, and anchored with those tales of dubious characters who don't normally get song lyrics. He romanticizes and trivializes what Marx [no, not Groucho - Ed.] referred to as the Lumpenproletariat, whom are in precarious situations, that Tom is so adept at evocatively describing.
If there's one track I would point to on the album that does so best, it would have to be ‘Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis’, which revolves around the contents of said Christmas card, and takes you on a rollercoaster ride before hitting you with an unexpected left turn. Swaggering jazz numbers like the effortlessly cool ‘Romeo Is Bleeding’ are broken up with a few more tender moments, like the heartbreaking ‘Kentucky Avenue’ and the delicate title track. "Wrong Side Of The Road" reads like the spirit of Macbeth's witches, have been relocated inside the pages of a pulp novel.
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| Tom & Rickie Lee |
The free load is a limited edition reissue, and part of Warner Music Japan's 40th anniversary reissue series, from 2010. It was remastered by Isao Kikuchiuchi, and will make for a nice sonic upgrade if you already have 'Blue Valentine'.
For the freeload, post your favorite Tom Waits lyrics or quotes.
I had about the worst-possible introduction to Waits: my dorm roommate moved out mid-semester, and after a few weeks, the college sent me a new person. He was okay, but he didn't communicate much and played one record only, "Closing Time." Nothing sounds that good the twelfth time through.
ReplyDeleteHe also didn't take off his boots for several days during finals and then crashed out in out room when he did remove them!
After several years, I was willing to listen again, and have enjoyed a number of different albums. The first lyric that came to mind, though, was this:
Well if you sit down with this old clown
Take that frown and break it
Before the evening's gone away
I think that we could make it
And I hope that I don't fall in love with you
- D in California
I know little about the work of Tom Waits but I just saw this quote that made me smile
ReplyDelete"On my gravestone, I want it to say, "I told you I was sick."
Tom Waits & Ken Nordine
ReplyDeleteTW: She drove a big ol' Lincoln with suicide doors and a sewing machine
In the back
KN: Thousand bing bangs near the end. Nothing's ever what it was
TW: And a light bulb that looked like an alligator egg was mounted up
Front on the hood
KN: Had myself a kind of brainstorm. Took a table spoon of buzz
TW: And she had a tattoo gun that she'd made herself from a cassette
Motor and a guitar string
KN: X-ray eyes can see right through me. Naked thought, put on your
Clothes
TW: And she always had leaves in her hair
KN: You hear that funny laughing? Just the caw of ancient crows
TW: And she cut two holes in the back of her dress, cause she had these
Scapular wings
KN: Somewhere near the raveled edges, by the pool of Think-a-Bit
TW: And they were covered with feathers and electrical tape, and when
She got good and drunk she would sing
KN: Once again the notion hits me: Half is quite a bit of wit
TW: About Elkhart, Indiana, where the wind is tall and folks mind their
Own business
KN: Power up that upper story. Ten percent is all you use
TW: And she had a hundred old baseballs that she'd taken from kids, and
She collected bones of all kinds
KN: Take a flight of simple fancy. You're the one who has to choose
TW: And she lived in a trailer under the bridge, and she made her own
Whiskey and gave cigarettes to kids
KN: Okay. All right for you. Look into the tiger's eye
TW: And she'd been struck by lightning seven or eight times, and she
Hated the mention of rain
KN: See if you can see the desert. Pour a drink, my throat is dry
TW: And she made up her own language and she wore rubber boots. She
Could fix anything with string
KN: Poetry ain't gonna catch me. Climb up this high plateau
TW: And her lips were like cherries, and she was stronger than any man
And she smelled like nutmeg and piss
KN: Finish up what you were thinking, just a day or so ago
TW: And she put mud on a bee sting I got at the crick, and she gave me
My very first kiss
KN: Illustrate for visionaries: Go buy a doodle pad. Basically
Thanks for posting this. the english language never sounded so truthful
DeleteA few favorite quotes:
ReplyDelete“A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn't.”
"I like Thelonious Monk, he’s so gnarled, he’s like a piece of machinery that’s pulled up the bolts on the floor and gone off on its own."
"Living with kids is like living with a bunch of drunks. You know you really have to be on your toes all the time. Things are falling over and breaking and spilling. If you live on the second story, you really have to keep the windows shut all the time."
“We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness.”
ReplyDelete“Songs really are like a form of time travel because they really have moved forward in a bubble. Everyone who’s connected with it, the studio’s gone, the musicians are gone, and the only thing that’s left is this recording which was only about a three-minute period maybe 70 years ago.”
“I think this whole division between the genres has more to do with marketing than anything else. It’s terrible for the culture of music.”
Welcome to Raphael's Silver Cloud Lounge. Thanks Babs.
ReplyDeleteThe lyrics to "Hold On" -Muzak McMusics
ReplyDeleteWell Frank settled down in the Valley
ReplyDeleteAnd he hung his wild years
On a nail that he drove through
His wife's forehead
He sold used office furniture
Out there on San Fernando Road
And assumed a $30, 000 loan
On a little two bedroom place
His wife was a spent piece of used jet trash
Made good bloody marys
Kept her mouth shut most of the time
Had a little Chihuahua named Carlos
That had some kind of skin disease
And was totally blind
They had a thoroughly modern kitchen
Self-cleaning oven (the whole bit)
Frank drove a little sedan
They were so happy
One night Frank was on his way home
From work, stopped at the liqour store
Picked up a couple of Mickey's Big Mouths
Drank 'em in the car on his way
To the Shell station, he got a gallon of
Gas in a can, drove home, doused
Everything in the house, torched it
Parked across the street laughing
Watching it burn, all Halloween
Orange and chimney red then
Frank put on a top forty station
Got on the Hollywood Freeway
Headed north
Never could stand that dog
From 'Frank’s Wild Years', Swordfishtrombones...
Don't get on my knees to pray
ReplyDeleteDon't memorize the books of the Bible
I got my own special way
I know Jesus loves me
Maybe just a little bit more
I fall down on my knees every Sunday
At Zerelda Lee's candy store
Well it's got to be a chocolate Jesus
Make me feel good inside
Got to be a chocolate Jesus
Keep me satisfied
Well I don't want no Anna Zabba
Don't want no Almond Joy
There ain't nothing better
Suitable for this boy
Well it's the only thing
That can pick me up
Better than a cup of gold
See only a chocolate Jesus
Can satisfy my soul
When the weather gets rough
And it's whiskey in the shade
It's best to wrap your savior
Up in cellophane
He flows like the big muddy
But that's ok
Pour him over ice cream
For a nice parfait
Well it's got to be a chocolate Jesus
Good enough for me
Got to be a chocolate Jesus
Good enough for me
Well it's got to be a chocolate Jesus
Make me feel so good inside
Got to be a chocolate Jesus
Keep me satisfied
"Nothin' else matters in this whole wide world
ReplyDeleteWhen you're in love with a Jersey girl"
(married 40 years to and still in love with a Jersey girl)
Can't remember it all & too lazy to look it up, but the refrain is...
ReplyDeleteWhat's he building in there?
It's also the title of the song, from 'Mule Variations'.
DeleteThanx for the reminder. The mind is the 2nd thing to go...
DeleteFavorite early Waits is Nighthawks at the Diner.
Thanx for the link, too.
Link
ReplyDeletehttps://we.tl/t-JkCilFEfRr
Now it's closing time, the music's fading out
ReplyDeleteLast call for drinks, I'll have another stout.
Well I turn around to look at you, you're nowhere to be found,
I search the place for your lost face, guess I'll have another round
"everyone that I used to know was either dead or in prison"
ReplyDeleteA rat always knows when he's in with weasels
ReplyDeleteHere you lose a little every day
Well, I remember when a million was a million
They all have ways to make you pay
Shining like a new dime
ReplyDeleteSaw this hilarious spoof by Fred Armisen in a Dockumentary Now episode just this weekend. Any Tom Waits fan (or hater) should get a good chuckle.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/xTH9EX_055w?si=qGY0BoJ9w35VfYbi&t=1167
Thanks for the upgrade Babs!
That's so good, thanks MrDave!
Delete