Tom Waits - 'Small Change'

'Small Change' from 1976, was recorded at the height of when Tom was effectively method-acting his way through the 70s as the character of an alcoholic drifter.  It does however find him hitting a peak as a songwriter, writing about life’s impoverished and under-regarded characters (people Marx, termed as Lumpenprol) that he had either met the acquaintance of, or witnessed across a crowded room, bar, strip club or more probably, just a figment of his imagination.

It's a little bluesy, a little jazzy and all theater with a humorous approach.  Yet, you can’t help but feel sympathy, or sometimes even empathy, for the characters Tom writes about in the first and third person.  Small Change is a perfectly formed album exploring the experiences of people well versed in the seedier sides of society, and it's brimming with his rawest lyrics, which he sings with his heart on his sleeve.  Tom also wears his lyrical influences on his sleeve, and to me comes off as Charles Bukowski crossed with Hubert Selby Jr. and Raymond Chandler, whom are impersonating a piano bar singer.  But if you look past this facade, the music he sculpted was a superb blend of blues, jazz and its literary offshoot, beat poetry.

My favorite song on 'Small Change' is "Step Right Up", an upbeat number with Jim Hughart's smooth walking bassline, the jazz drumming courtesy of Shelly Manne and Tom playing the role of an amphetamine addled carnival barker rapidly firing out lyrics in a comical parody of sales pitches.  It just might be his single best vocal delivery of his career, proving his voice does have a unique, charming niche which often gives the music much character it would be lacking without it.

Speaking of Shelly Manne, his tom-tom heavy drumming is sublime on "Pasties and G-String" which is drunken beat poetry ramblings about strippers, peepshows and softcore porn.  As it turns out, Shelly had experience in this field; in his younger and leaner years, he drummed in strip clubs.

The title track is the favorite of many a Tom Waits fan, is an aggressively told story set to the score of a lone saxophone.  Waits spits out lyrics about a violent street hustler who gets what's coming to him (Small Change got rained on with his own .38) with some lyrics that are strong, metaphorical and venomous all at once.

Oh, and there's a duet with Bette Midler on the song, "I Never Talk To Strangers"

The mood of 'Small Change' reminds me of Times Square in the 60s and 70s, and old Long Beach, California, when "The Pike" was there.  A once family orientated amusement park, The Pike turned seedy and alcohol-soaked in the late 60s.  It had low-brow shabby cocktail dives, open front liquor stores, girly-shows and tattoo parlors that catered to workers and sailors from the nearby Long Beach Naval Shipyard.

While we're on the subject of tattoos, I got a tattoo at the legendary Bert Grimm's tattoo shop on The Pike from none other than Bert himself in 1969, more or less, on a dare.  The tattoo is a peace sign, on my upper right arm.  A few months later, while back in Brooklyn visiting my parents, my mother noticed it, when my tee shirt sleeve rode up and she went totally ballistic.

On the cover of 'Small Change' the stripper behind Tom is none other than Cassandra Peterson who would later be known as Elvira, "Mistress of the Darkness," though Cassandra will not claim authenticity to this, as she claims she "can't remember".

Also featured on the cover, is a glass bottle of Miller beer, a jar of Vaseline, an amber pill bottle [no doubt Quaaludes, which would explain Cassandra not remembering - Ed.], a Floral Design Tissue Box, a copy of Dxing Magazine, pack of Old Gold filtered cigarettes, can of Helen Reddy Hair Spray, a small circular makeup mirror with cocaine residue, and a box of Trojans... I'm sure there's much more, but this is this all I could discern.

Here's another picture from the photoshoot.

Tom Waits - vocals, piano
Shelly Manne – drums
Lew Tabackin – tenor saxophone
Jim Hughart – bass
with:
Harry Bluestone – violin, concertmaster strings
Ed Lustgarten – cello
Jerry Yester – arranger and conductor of string section

For the freeload (a Japanese remastered limited edition reissue), tell us about some of the seedy places and dive bars that you have visited.