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. Small Change isn't his best album. Like most of the albums Waits made in the '70s, it's uneven, probably because he was putting out one a year and didn't have time to come up with enough first-rate material. But it is the most obvious and characteristic of his albums for Asylum Records. If you like it, you also will like the ones before and after; otherwise, you're not Tom Waits' kind of listener.
I have been working on my Tom Waits collection recently. It's been playing almost non-stop in my car and in my head. I was sharing my affection for his music with someone the other day who asked, "What does he sound like?" That was a tougher question than what I thought it would be. He doesnt really have a particular sound. The only way I could decsribe Tom was, "Well, in his early years, ...
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you know the feeling when you discover a song that you felt like has been with you your whole life? this is just a smoking Tom Waits track introduced to me by the mog father d. hyman on sunday. i have not listened to much of him in quite awhile, but this gem is going to push me all over his catalog. cheers
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Well I hope I'm not cursing anything but the Mog-0 seems to be working. I reinstalled on the home PC which has a lot more tuneage. Ok, I take back some of the snarky-er statements. Good job, MOG.
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I have been working on my Tom Waits collection recently. It's been playing almost non-stop in my car and in my head. I was sharing my affection for his music with someone the other day who asked, "What does he sound like?" That was a tougher question than what I thought it would be. He doesnt really have a particular sound. The only way I could decsribe Tom was, "Well, in his early years, ...
More >
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 "Small Change")
