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October 21, 2004
Tom Waits continued
And since I'm in a list making mood. My top ten Tom Waits albums. Here are the top three.
- The Heart of Saturday Night - A bit of a romantic selection since this always reminds me of Sarah. We would have liked to have this play completely at our wedding. It's a bit too melancholy for such an occasion, but still some of the most beautiful music you'll hear. The title track makes me melt.
- Rain Dogs - Easily number one on a different night. I'd make it 1B if I could without a timewasting CSS hack so it's #2 but really even with the above. Remember Rod Stewart's hit "Downtown Train?" Too bad for you, but the original in its grimy brilliance is on this album. Probably some of Waits' best ballads are on this album including "Hang Down Your Head" and "Time." One of my favorite tracks on the record is "9th & Hennepin" which is basically a prose poem set to some eerie music
The poetry on this album is really what makes it. This section of "Time" f'rinstance:Well it's Ninth and Hennepin
All the doughnuts have names that sound like prostitutes
And the moon's teeth marks are on the sky
Like a tarp thrown all over this
And the broken umbrellas like dead birds
And the steam comes out of the grill
Like the whole goddamn town's ready to blow...
And the bricks are all scarred with jailhouse tattoos
And everyone is behaving like dogs
And the horses are coming down Violin Road
And Dutch is dead on his feet
And all the rooms they smell like diesel
And you take on the dreams of the ones who have slept here
And I'm lost in the window, and I hide in the stairway
And I hang in the curtain, and I sleep in your hat...
And no one brings anything small into a bar around here
They all started out with bad directions
And the girl behind the counter has a tattooed tear
"One for every year he's away", she said
Such a crumbling beauty, ah
There's nothing wrong with her that a hundred dollars won't fix
She has that razor sadness that only gets worse
With the clang and the thunder of the Southern Pacific going by
And the clock ticks out like a dripping faucet
'til you're full of rag water and bitters and blue ruin
And you spill out over the side to anyone who will listen...
And I've seen it all, I've seen it all
Through the yellow windows of the evening train...Well things are pretty lousy for a calendar girl
The boys just dive right off the cars and splash into the street
And when they're on a roll she pulls a razor from her boot
And a thousand pigeons fall around her feet
So put a candle in the window and a kiss upon his lips
As the dish outside the window fills with rain
Just like a stranger with the weeds in your heart
And pay the fiddler off 'til I come back again - Small Change - Waits at his best in his early period of hanging out in bars and puking in bus stations as he travels the country type music. From the opening tune of "Tom Traubert's Blues" with its Waltzing Matilda chorus to the tale of a gambler's death in "Small Change" with a lone sax playing in the background, it's all good.
Posted by Half-Cocked at October 21, 2004 11:15 PM
Comments
Ten, huh? Bone Machine, Frank's Wild Years, Blue Valentine, Rain Dogs, Small Change, and Mule Variations are my top five. Although I might put Swordfishtrombones in there, too. The new one, Real Gone, is growing on me fast, though.
Posted by: Rufus at October 22, 2004 07:27 PM
Bone Machine, Rain Dogs, Small Change, Blue Valentine, and Frank's Wild Years are my top five. I'd put Mule Variations and Swordfishtrombones pretty high up, too. And the new one, Real Gone, is fast growing on me.
Posted by: Rufus at October 22, 2004 07:30 PM
I think I can make it to ten. What I've got now plus some combination of Bone Machine, Frank's Wild Years, Mule Variations, Swordfishtrombones, The Black Rider, Blue Valentine and Heartattack & Vine.
Posted by: Steve at October 23, 2004 05:14 PM