Tom Waits: 6 Albums (1973 - 1987)

 

Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, composer and

actor. His lyrics often focus on society's underworld and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He began in the folk scene during the 1970s, but his music since the 1980s has reflected the influence of such diverse genres as rock, jazz, Delta blues, opera, vaudeville, cabaret, funk and experimental techniques verging on industrial music.
                   

Since the '70s, Waits has charted a path from playing fleabag dive bars to opera theaters and prestigious concert halls all over the world. His recordings -- from early masterpieces such as Small

Change and Blue Valentine and the twisted, dramatic, and black, humorous art songs on the trilogy of Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, and Frank's Wild Years, to the deconstructed experimental soundworlds erected for Bone Machine and Mule Variations -- have charted the lives and circumstances of the humble, forgotten, evil, demented, abandoned, cursed, and just plain down-on-their-luck humans to places of honor in our pantheon in a spirit akin to the photographs of Robert Frank and Diane Arbus. 
            

Tom Waits was born in a middle-class family in Pomona, California and grew up there. Inspired by the work of Bob Dylan and the Beat Generation, he began singing on the San Diego folk

circuit. He moved to Los Angeles in 1972, where he worked as a songwriter before signing a recording contract with Asylum Records. His debut album was Closing Time (1973) and The Heart of Saturday Night (1974) and Nighthawks at the Diner (1975) followed. He toured the United States, Europe, and Japan finding greater critical and commercial success with Small Change (1976), Blue Valentine (1978), and Heartattack and Vine (1980). During that time, Waits entered the world of film, acting in Paradise Alley (1978) where he met Kathleen Brennan.
                           

In 1980, Waits married Brennan, split from his manager and record label, and moved to New York City. With Brennan's encouragement and frequent collaboration, he pursued a more eclectic and

experimental sound influenced by Harry Partch and Captain Beefheart, as heard on the loose trilogy Swordfishtrombones (1983), Rain Dogs (1985) and Franks Wild Years (1987). Waits' tunes have since provided Marianne Faithfull, Dion, and others with material. His profile in the world had risen. He was able to secure all-star sidemen including guitarists Marc Ribot, Chris Spedding, and Keith Richards, bassists Larry Taylor and Greg Cohen, percussionists Michael Blair and Bobby Previte, and saxophonist Ralph Carney.  
              

In 1990, he collaborated with theater director Robert Wilson on the musical The Black Rider, the songs for which were released on the album of the same name. Waits and Wilson reunited for the musicals

Alice (1992) and Woyzeck (2000). In 2002, the songs from them were released on the albums Alice and Blood Money. Waits won Grammys for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Contemporary Folk Album for Bone Machine (1992) and Mule Variations (1999). Waits went on to release Real Gone (2004), the compilation Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (2006), the live album Glitter and Doom Live (2009) and Bad as Me (2011). 
               

Tom Waits has taken influence from a wide variety of different artists and styles from across time. In his early career, he took influence from Bob Dylan's folk music and the pre-war composers Irving

Berlin, Cole Porter, and Hoagy Carmichael. Frank Sinatra and the 1940s and 1950s word-jazz and poetry of Beat and Beat-influenced writers such as Jack Kerouac, Lord Buckley and Charles Bukowski were a big influence on his albums in the 1970s. By 1982, his musical style shifted away from a lot of these earlier influences and took inspiration from a wider array of sources. Influences included; the Rolling Stones, avant-garde composer Harry Partch, Howlin' Wolf and Captain Beefheart's late-1960s experimental rock.
                 

01. TOM WAITS - CLOSING TIME 1973

                 

Tom Waits' debut album is a minor-key masterpiece filled with songs of late-night loneliness. Within his chosen narrow range of the cocktail bar pianistics and muttered vocals, Waits and producer Jerry

Yester manage to deliver a surprisingly broad collection of styles, from the jazzy "Virginia Avenue" to the uptempo off-kilter funkiness of "Ice Cream Man." The acoustic guitar folkiness of the tender "I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love with You" is an upside-down take on the Laurel Canyon sound, while the saloon song "Midnight Lullaby" would have been a perfect addition to the repertoires of Frank Sinatra and/or Tony Bennett. Waits' entire musical approach is highly stylized and, in its lesser moments, somewhat derivative of some of his own heroes: "Lonely" borrows from Randy Newman's "I Think It's Going to Rain Today."  
                       

Tom Waits – Closing Time
Label: Elektra – 5061-2
Format: CD, Album, Reissue
Country: US
Released: Oct 16, 1990
Genre: Jazz, Blues, Pop
Style: Smooth Jazz, Piano Blues, Ballad

TRACKS

                  

01. Ol' '55    3:55
02. I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You    3:52
03. Virginia Avenue    3:22
04. Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards)    3:41
05. Midnight Lullaby    3:10
06. Martha    4:26
07. Rosie    3:56
08. Lonely    3:11
09. Ice Cream Man    3:05
10. Little Trip To Heaven (On The Wings Of Your Love)    3:55
11. Grapefruit Moon    4:46
12. Closing Time    3:58

LINE - UP

Tom Waits – vocals, piano, guitar, harmonium, harpsichord, celeste
Delbert Bennett – trumpet
Shep Cooke – guitar, backing vocals on "Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards)"
Peter Klimes – guitar, pedal steel guitar on "Rosie"
Bill Plummer – double bass
John Seiter – drums; backing vocals on "Ol' 55" and "Rosie"

GUEST MUSICIANS

Arni Egilsson – bass guitar on "Closing Time"
Jesse Ehrlich – cello on "Martha"
Tony Terran – trumpet solo on "Closing Time"

Flac Size: 244 MB

02. TOM WAITS -  NIGHTHAWKS  AT THE DINER 1975

                   

Tom Waits' first two albums, 1973's Closing Time and 1974's The Heart of Saturday Night, documented his estimable strengths as a songwriter, but they didn't always give much of a sense of the personality that came through in his live performances. In front of an audience, Waits transformed himself into

something resembling a minor character from a Jack Kerouac novel, a witty but bedraggled hipster from the seedy side of Los Angeles. His third album, 1975's Nighthawks at the Diner, was designed to show off Waits as an entertainer as well as a tunesmith; producer Bones Howe set up a nightclub facsimile in a recording studio, paired Waits with a solid band of jazz-inclined studio musicians, brought in an audience, and recorded what was in essence his first live album. As entertainment, Nighthawks at the Diner is one of Waits' most thoroughly enjoyable albums. 
                        

Tom Waits – Nighthawks At The Diner
Label: Asylum Records – E2-2008
Format: CD, Album, Club Edition, Reissue 1989
Country: US
Released: 1975    
Genre: Rock, Blues
Style: Blues Rock

TRACKS 

                   

 
01. (Opening Intro)    2:59
02. Emotional Weather Report    3:43
03. (Intro)    2:18
04. On A Foggy Night    3:49
05. (Intro)    1:55
06. Eggs And Sausage (In A Cadillac With Susan Michelson)    4:13
07. (Intro)    3:22
08. Better Off Without A Wife    3:53
09. Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)    11:27
10. (Intro)    0:55
11. Warm Beer And Cold Women    5:21
12. (Intro)    0:48
13. Putnam County    7:34
14. Spare Parts I (A Nocturnal Emission)   6:23
Written-By – Chuck E. Weiss
15. Nobody    2:49
16. (Intro)    0:41
17. Big Joe And Phantom 309   6:30
Written-By – Tommy Faile
18. Spare Parts II And Closing    5:14

LINE - UP

Tom Waits – vocals, piano, guitar
Pete Christlieb – tenor saxophone
Bill Goodwin – drums
Jim Hughart – upright bass
Mike Melvoin – piano, electric piano

Flac Size: 410 MB

03. TOM WAITS - SMALL CHANGE 1976   

                        

The fourth release in Tom Waits' series of skid row travelogues, Small Change proves to be the

archetypal album of his '70s work. A jazz trio comprising tenor sax player Lew Tabackin, bassist Jim Hughart, and drummer Shelly Manne, plus an occasional string section, back Waits and his piano on songs steeped in whiskey and atmosphere in which he alternately sings in his broken-beaned drunk's voice (now deeper and overtly influenced by Louis Armstrong) and recites jazzy poetry. It's as if Waits

were determined to combine the Humphrey Bogart and Dooley Wilson characters from Casablanca with a dash of On the Road's Dean Moriarty to illuminate a dark world of bars and all-night diners. Of course, he'd been in that world before, but in songs like "The Piano Has Been Drinking" and "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart," Waits gives it its clearest expression. 
                  

Tom Waits – Small Change
Label: Asylum Records – CD 1078
Format: CD, Album, Reissue 1989
Country: Canada
Released: 1976    
Genre: Rock
Style: Blues Rock, Rock & Roll

TRACKS

                  

01. Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen)    6:40
02. Step Right Up    5:39
03. Jitterbug Boy (Sharing A Curbstone WIth Chuck E. Weiss, Robert Marchese, Paul Body And The Mug And Artie)    3:41
04. I Wish I Was In New Orleans (In The Ninth Ward)    4:50
05. The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (A Evening With Pete King)    3:37
06. Invitation To The Blues    5:20
07. Pasties And A G-String (At The Two O'Clock Club)    2:32
08. Bad Liver And A Broken Heart (In Lowell)    4:46
09. The One That Got Away    4:00
10. Small Change (Got Rained On WIth His Own .38)    5:03
11. I Can't Wait To Get Off Work (And See My Baby On Montgomery Avenue)    3:20

LINE - UP

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

Flac Size: 262 MB

04. TOM WAITS - HEARTATTACK AND VINE 1980   

                     

Heartattack and Vine is Tom Waits' seventh and final album for Asylum. As such, it's transitional. As

demonstrated by its immediate predecessors, 1978's excellent Blue Valentine and 1977's Foreign Affairs, he was already messing with off-kilter rhythms even in the most conventionally structured blues and jazz songs, with nastier-sounding guitars -- he plays a particularly gnarly style of rhythm on this entire album. Five of these nine tracks are rooted in gutbucket blues with rock edges and primal R&B beats.
                  

Tom Waits – Heartattack And Vine
Label: Elektra – 295-2
Format: CD, Album, Reissue 1989
Country: US
Released: 1980    
Genre: Rock
Style: Blues Rock, Alternative Rock

TRACKS

                 

01. Heartattack And Vine   4:42
02. In Shades   4:04
03. Saving All My Love For You   3:39
04. Downtown   4:43
05. Jersey Girl   5:09
06. 'Til The Money Runs Out   4:20
07. On The Nickel   6:17
08. Mr. Siegal   5:13
09. Ruby's Arms   5:35

LINE - UP

Tom Waits – vocals, electric guitar, piano
Bob Alcivar – string arrangement, orchestral arrangement, conductor
Ronnie Barron – Hammond organ, piano
Roland Bautista – electric guitar, twelve-string guitar
Greg Cohen, Jim Hughart, Larry Taylor – bass guitar
Victor Feldman – percussion, chimes, glockenspiel
Plas Johnson – tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone
Michael Lang – piano
"Big John" Thomassie – drums
Jerry Yester – orchestral arrangement, conductor

Flac Size: 206 MB

05. TOM WAITS - SWORDFISHTROMBONES 1983

                   

Between the release of Heartattack and Vine in 1980 and Swordfishtrombones in 1983, Tom Waits got rid of his manager, his producer, and his record company. And he drastically altered a musical approach that had become as dependable as it was unexciting. Swordfishtrombones has none of the strings and

much less of the piano work that Waits' previous albums had employed; instead, the dominant sounds on the record were low-pitched horns, bass instruments, and percussion, set in spare, close-miked arrangements (most of them by Waits) that sometimes were better described as "soundscapes." Lyrically, Waits' tales of the drunken and the lovelorn have been replaced by surreal accounts of people who burned down their homes and of Australian towns bypassed by the railroad -- a world (not just a neighborhood) of misfits now have his attention. 
                   

Tom Waits – Swordfishtrombones
Label: Island Records – 255 774, Island Records – CID 9762
Format: CD, Album, Reissue 1987
Country: Europe
Released: 1983    
Genre: Rock
Style: Blues Rock

TRACKS

                   

01. Underground      2:01
02. Shore Leave      4:18
03. Dave The Butcher    2:21
04. Johnsburg, Illinois    1:34
05. 16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six    4:33
06. Town With No Cheer      4:28
07. In The Neighborhood      3:07
08. Just Another Sucker On The Vine    1:47
09. Frank's Wild Years     1:54
10. Swordfishtrombone    3:08
11. Down, Down, Down    2:16
12. Soldier's Things    3:23
13. Gin Soaked Boy    2:24
14. Trouble's Braids    1:18
15. Rainbirds    3:15  

LINE - UP

Tom Waits – vocals (1:1–2, 1:4–7, 2:2–7), chair (1:2), Hammond B-3 organ (1:3), piano (1:4, 2:5, 2:8), harmonium (1:6, 2:1), synthesizer (1:6), freedom bell (1:6)
Victor Feldman – bass marimba (1:1–2), marimba (1:2, 2:3), shaker (1:2), bass drum with rice (1:2), bass boo bams (1:3), Brake drum (1:5), bell plate (1:5), snare (1:5, 2:4), Hammond B-3 organ (1:7), snare drum (1:7), bells (1:7), conga (2:3), bass drum (2:3), Dabuki drum (2:3), tambourine (2:4), African talking drum (2:7)
Larry Taylor – acoustic bass (1:1–2, 1:5, 1:7, 2:2, 2:4, 2:6–7), electric bass (2:3)
Randy Aldcroft – baritone horn (1:1, 1:7), trombone (1:2)
Stephen Taylor Arvizu Hodges – drums (1:1–2, 1:5, 2:4, 2:6), parade drum (1:7), cymbals (1:7), parade bass drum (2:7), glass harmonica (2:8)
Fred Tackett – electric guitar (1:1, 1:2, 1:5, 2:6), banjo (1:2)
Francis Thumm – metal aunglongs (1:2), glass harmonica (2:8)
Greg Cohen – bass (1:4), acoustic bass (2:3, 2:5, 2:8)
Joe Romano – trombone (1:5), trumpet (2:1)
Anthony Clark Stewart – bagpipes (1:6)
Clark Spangler – synthesizer program (1:6)
Bill Reichenbach Jr. – trombone (1:7)
Dick Hyde – trombone (1:7)
Ronnie Barron – Hammond organ (2:2)
Eric Bikales – organ (2:4)
Carlos Guitarlos – electric guitar (2:4)
Richard Gibbs – glass harmonica (2:8)

Flac Size: 235 MB

06. TOM WAITS - FRANKS WILD YEARS 1987

                   

Tom Waits wrote a song called "Frank's Wild Years" for his 1983 Swordfishtrombones album, then used the title (minus its apostrophe) for a musical play he wrote with his wife, Kathleen Brennan, and

toured with in 1986. The Franks Wild Years album, drawn from the show, is subtitled, "un operachi romantico in two acts," though the songs themselves do not carry the plot. Rather, this is just the third installment in Waits' eccentric series of Island Records albums in which he seems most inspired by German art song and carnival music, presenting songs in spare, stripped-down arrangements consisting of instruments like marimba, baritone horn, and pump organ and singing in a strained voice that has been artificially compressed and distorted. 
                        

Tom Waits – Franks Wild Years
Label: Island Records – ITWCD 3
Format: CD, Album
Country: UK
Released: 1987
Genre: Jazz, Rock
Style: Lounge, Folk Rock, Contemporary Jazz

TRACKS
       

ACT I.

    
01. Hang On St Christopher   2:46
02. Straight To The Top (Rhumba)   2:30
03. Blow Wind Blow   3:34
04. Temptation   3:53
05. Innocent When You Dream (Barroom)  4:15
06. I'll Be Gone   3:12
07. Yesterday Is Here   2:31
08. Please Wake Me Up   3:35
09. Frank's Theme   1:50

ACT II.

    
10. More Than Rain   3:52
11. Way Down In The Hole   3:30
12. Straight To The Top (Vegas)   3:24
13. I'll Take New York   4:00
14. Telephone Call From Istanbul   3:12
15. Cold Cold Ground   4:07
16. Train Song   3:20
17. Innocent When You Dream (78)    3:00

LINE - UP

Tom Waits – vocals (all tracks), pump organ (3, 5, 9, 16), Optigan (2, 4, 8, 10), guitar (4, 7, 15), vocal stylings (12), rooster (6), piano (16), Farfisa (14), Mellotron (8), drums (14), conga (2), tambourine (7)
Jay Anderson – bass (8)
Michael Blair – drums, conga, percussion, maracas, marimba, orchestra bells, glockenspiel (1–4, 6, 10–14)
Kathleen Brennan – vocal arrangements (4)
Angela Brown – background vocals (11)
Ralph Carney – saxophone, baritone horn, violin, tenor saxophone (1–2, 4–6, 8, 10–13, 17)
Greg Cohen – bass, alto horn, horn arrangements, Leslie bass pedals (1–6, 10–14, 16–17)
David Hidalgo – accordion (15–16)
Leslie Holland – background vocals (11)
Lynne Jordan – background vocals (11)
Marc Ribot – guitar, banjo (1, 4, 11, 14)
William Schimmel – piano, pump organ, accordion, Leslie bass pedals, cocktail piano (1, 2, 5–6, 10, 12–13, 17)
Larry Taylor – bass, upright bass (2, 7, 8, 15)
Moris Tepper – guitar (4, 6, 10, 14)
Francis Thumm – prepared piano, pump organ (3, 10)

Flac Size: 341 MB 

TOM WAITS ON URBAN ASPIRINES:

                

The Heart Of Saturday Night 1974 HERE
Forain Affairs 1977 HERE
BLUE VALENTINE 1978 HERE
Rain Dogs 1985 HERE
Mule Vatiations 1999 HERE