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Tom Waits’ (alcoholic) blend of bar-room blues, cocktail jazz, and beat poetry, never generated anywhere near the same volume of sales for Asylum as his label mates The Eagles. Yet, there have been a few attempts to tell the story of the early part of this raspy-voiced, singer-songwriter’s long career. This abridged version of a 1984 double LP shares some of its best selections with the more evocatively named
TOM WAITS BOUNCED CHECKS
and
Used Songs (1973-1980)
: ‘Burma Shave’, ‘I Never Talk To Strangers', and ‘Tom Traubert’s Blues’. There is also space in the relatively impressive 14-track running order for the hugely underrated ‘Potter’s Field’ and the semi-autobiographical 'Kentucky Avenue'.
But none of this trio feel definitive, perhaps because it was always going to be difficult to sum up the seven uneven albums he made for Asylum between 1973 and 1980. ‘Jersey Girl’, ‘Heartattack and Vine’, and ‘Step Right Up’, were considered good enough for other collections, but for whatever reason do not feature here. Whilst the inclusion of ‘Martha’ and ‘Grapefruit Moon’ is a reminder of just how much of an outlier his smooth-sounding debut
Closing Time
really was.
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