When I first started blogging I tried to do it in as intensely a private way as was possible, given that I am posting things to the internet. Over the last little while I've loosened up a little and changed my privacy settings accordingly. So if you've been diligently keeping your promise not to share it with anyone, thank you very much for keeping your word; despite my gregarious nature I remain in many ways a very private person and doing a blog was not an easy decision for me.
That said, I'm ready to take the next small step. If you've been wanting to share this site with someone you think would enjoy it, go ahead and do so. I'll never commercialize this, and it is written too sloppily to market, but I'm not going to be embarassed of it anymore.
Except maybe the miniature painting - that is a little embarrassing, but I'll get over it.
Disc 349 is...Small Change
Artist: Tom WaitsYear of Release: 1976
What’s Up With The Cover?: It looks like a visual depiction of track 7, "Pasties and a G-String." I think it is supposed to capture a moment in the strippers' dressing room, but it just looks staged to me. An interesting side note - the model in the picture is purported to be Cassandra Peterson (the woman who would later become famous as Elvira). There is an article on the avclub where she discusses it, saying she thinks it is her, but that her memories of the 70s are pretty hazy. So not confirmed, but feel free to speculate. For those interested, here's a link to the article.
How I Came To Know It: This is just me with my Tom Waits Fanboy hat on, drilling through his collection. I can't remember when I got this particular CD, but sometime 5-10 years ago seems likely.
How It Stacks Up: We have 19 Tom Waits albums, and all are enjoyable in their own way. "Small Change" is not one of my favourites though, and I'd say it is 17th or 18th and near the bottom.
Rating: 3 stars - weak Tom Waits is still good music.
"Small Change" is Tom Waits' third studio album (discounting 1975's live album, "Nighthawks At The Diner") and is firmly in his early folk/barroom period. My first exposure to Waits' music was his first album, "Closing Time" and as I recently mentioned when I reviewed "Heartattack And Vine" I like this period just as much as his later expiremental stuff.
That said, some of these early records are better than others, and "Small Change" just doesn't grab me the same way. It isn't anything I can put my finger on. The songs are well written, and cover the usual gamut of Waits' favourite topics. The tale-telling street kid in "Jitterbug Boy," the drunk in the process of getting cut off in "The Piano Has Been Drinking" and the fellow in "Bad Liver And a Broken Heart," who doesn't need any description beyond the song title.
Waits' lyrics are still some of the best street poetry you'll hear as well, and his raspy staccato delivery paints pictures in full colour. Some of my favourite "Waitisms" from the album include:
"and you can't find your waitress
with a geiger counter
and she hates you and your friends
and you just can't get served
without her."
(The Piano Has Been Drinking)
"Well she's up against the register
with an apron and a spatula
with yesterday's deliveries
and the tickets for the bachelors
she's a moving violation
from her conk down to her shoes
but it's just an invitation to the blues."
(Invitation To The Blues)
This is good stuff, but the album overall is not as consistently strong lyrically as other early records like 1977's "Foreign Affairs" or 1978's "Blue Valentine," and the music is not as melodic or interesting as his his first two records, 1973's "Closing Time" and 1974's "The Heart of Saturday Night." It isn't so much that "Small Change" is bad, but rather that it compares unfavourably to the amazing records that bracket it. The best song musically is "Tom Traubert's Blues" and even in that one the hook and chorus is a direct lift from "Waltzing Matilda."
The arrangements are very simple, consisting mostly of Waits idly tinkling on the piano, accompanied by Lew Tabackin's jazzy tenor saxophone. I'm not a big fan of saxophone noodling, but on this record it is used tastefully, serving mostly to add a whimsical background to Waits' half-sung, half-spoken poetic banter. On a couple of tracks Waits even does a little old school scatting and does it pretty well. Scatting is one of those things that everyone thinks they can do, but few can do effectively.
I had a good time listening to this record, which put me in a relaxed and mellow mood on my walks to and from work, but it isn't a record that I put on a lot, and not where I'd start if I were trying to get someone into Waits' music.
Best tracks: Tom Traubert's Blues, I Wish I Was In New Orleans, Invitation To The Blues
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