TOM WAITS SURVIVOR: Round 17 - Franks Wild Years

[MrKnickerbocker]

I've made a decision to include Nighthawks at the Diner in the next round, so let's weed this down a bit before we get there (it's a big album). Come join us, @Deus_Adrian!


ELIMINATED after ROUND 2:
Grapefruit Moon
Closing Time
Depot, Depot
The Ghosts of Saturday Night (After Hours at Napoleone's Pizza House)

Vote for your least favorites, new round in a week so start listening to Nighthawks!

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

Voting for:

I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You
Virginia Avenue
Ice Cream Man
San Diego Serenade
Semi Suite
Diamonds
Please Call Me
Drunk on the Moon

 

[Deus_Adrian]

Ill probably jump in on the albums I know better.

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

Sorry Knick, I'm not sure if I could get into his music. I only do know Downtown Train from when we did that one in a cover band at work.

No worries, Foro. Feel free to jump in later if you wanna give him another chance!

Ill probably jump in on the albums I know better.

Which ones are you most familiar with?

 

[Mosh]

This is getting tough. Almost everything left is really strong.

I can see how the slow pace would be frustrating for some, but it's working out for me. I've listened to this album several times now and I feel I've gotten to know it a lot more than I would if we were going at a "normal" survivor speed.

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

This is getting tough. Almost everything left is really strong.

I can see how the slow pace would be frustrating for some, but it's working out for me. I've listened to this album several times now and I feel I've gotten to know it a lot more than I would if we were going at a "normal" survivor speed.

I totally agree. I've been able to listen to each album 4-5 times before every voting, with different degrees of analysis each time. That said, I don't want to take a month for each round, but having a couple weeks at least to really settle in to each set of songs is seriously nice. A lot of Tom's material requires that sort of "lived-in" quality, both in terms of the enjoyment of the music and the songs themselves.

As for the songs...yeah, voting off most of these is hard. I can't even fathom how much harder it's gonna get when we approach the albums I downright love.

 

[Deus_Adrian]

Which ones are you most familiar with?

Nighthawks/Small Change, H&V>>>Bone Machine.

I am also going to use the time to get deeper into Orphans. So much to get thru on that and after nearly 10 years I havent given it the time it deserves.

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

ELIMINATED IN ROUND 3:
Ice Cream Man
Please Call Me, Baby
Virginia Avenue
Semi Suite

We now enter the pinnacle of Tom's jazzy, beat poetry phase.

Nighthawks at the Diner (1975)

In an effort to capture more of Tom's raw, live spirit, producer Bones Howe and manager Herb Cohen pushed to make a live album. Tom Waits does nothing in the traditional sense, so of course this album would be comprised of completely new material. Also, the songs would be almost 100% jazz in composition and performance. The majority of these tunes are spoken-word pieces with moments of melody thrown in by a veteran jazz band.

In July 1975, Tom Waits and his band rented the Record Plant Studios in Los Angeles and turned it into a nightclub with small tables and an open bar. They invited a small crowd of friends and industry folks for a night of smoky, dirty jazz. The opening act was a burlesque stripper named Dewana, also backed by Tom's band.

Nighthawks at the Diner is an exercise in pure cleverness and mood. The ambiance achieved here is astounding and immediately puts the listener in the setting of a dark club as Tom weaves phrases and one-liners over slinky jazz instrumentation.

*No, I did not include the INTROS as they essentially count as a part of each song that they precede.

Spoiler: Nobody from The Early Years

Spoiler: Photos

Tom Waits Song by Song podcast - Playlist for Nighthawks at the Diner

Down in the Hole podcast, episode 3 - Nighthawks at the Diner

 

[Deus_Adrian]

Thank you.

Some of the intros are fantastic especially “Better Off Without...” i used to quote those lines verbatim when I was a single guy

“At end of the evening you end up taking advantage of yourself...” lol

 

[Cat Milk Supreme]

View attachment 6608

ELIMINATED IN ROUND 3:
Ice Cream Man

 

[Mosh]

Tom Waits does nothing in the traditional sense, so of course this album would be comprised of completely new material.

Seems to be the Zappa influence again, as Frank was known for doing the same thing. A year earlier, he released Roxy and Elsewhere which was also all new material and equally jazz tinged.

I liked this a lot. I like that the live album is made up entirely of new material that seemed to perfectly fit this audience as well as the band performing it. You can feel the energy in the crowd and they're a vital component to this recording, a lot of the material wouldn't work if it was just recorded in a dry studio. It's truly a live album and reminds me of what a lot of live albums today lack. Sometimes it's like the audience isn't even there and if they are there they might as well not be. Even though this was released at a time when live albums were at their peak, this still stands out amongst the crowd.

Now with all that being said, I now definitely see why @MrKnickerbocker originally opted not to include it. If I was familiar with the album ahead of time, I would've voted not to include it. Having it in this format is really a disservice to the material and is not an ideal way to introduce newcomers to the album. It would've been better to maybe take a week to just discuss it before moving on to the next album. Most of this album isn't made up of "songs" and I don't really think any one of these spoken word pieces are better than any other. They're all sort of at the same level and the album should be enjoyed as a single unit. So with that in mind, I'm voting for everything except the actual songs on the album: Better Off Without a Wife, Warm Beer and Cold Women, and Nobody.

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

The Zappa influence is definitely reigning supreme here. This part of his career smells real hard of his influences.

Now with all that being said, I now definitely see why @MrKnickerbocker originally opted not to include it. If I was familiar with the album ahead of time, I would've voted not to include it. Having it in this format is really a disservice to the material and is not an ideal way to introduce newcomers to the album. It would've been better to maybe take a week to just discuss it before moving on to the next album. Most of this album isn't made up of "songs" and I don't really think any one of these spoken word pieces are better than any other. They're all sort of at the same level and the album should be enjoyed as a single unit. So with that in mind, I'm voting for everything except the actual songs on the album: Better Off Without a Wife, Warm Beer and Cold Women, and Nobody.

This nails my thoughts down exactly and I will be voting the same way. Nighthawks is a glorious spot in the Waits collection, but if you asked me what my top 50 Tom Waits songs are...I couldn't tell you a single one from this album because each track bleeds together. It bleeds together in a glorious, atmospheric way, but none of these songs stand out as a whole, they are all, as Tom says, "spare parts."

 

[Deus_Adrian]

It’s only live album in as much as it was staged studio set set in studio to resemble an actual night club. I never realize that until much later on. This is one reason that I pushed for its inclusion in this contest because it is as much a part of Waits’ canon as any other album. Yes it is unique but that being said in the album should be weighted accordingly.

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

It’s only live album in as much as it was staged studio set set in studio to resemble an actual night club. I never realize that until much later on. This is one reason that I pushed for its inclusion in this contest because it is as much a part of Waits’ canon as any other album. Yes it is unique but that being said in the album should be weighted accordingly.

Agreed, it's worth considering at least. I'm interested to do a Tom Waits album survivor at the very end of this journey because I think, even though I don't rate any of these songs highly, the album as a whole would come in higher than a good number of other ones.

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

Anybody else wanna vote here? Otherwise I'll update pretty soon.

 

[Deus_Adrian]

Anybody else wanna vote here? Otherwise I'll update pretty soon.

Yes. Small Change.

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

ELIMINATED after Round 4:
On a Foggy Night
Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)
Putnam County
Spare Parts I (A Nocturnal Emission)
Big Joe and Phantom 309
Spare Parts II and Closing

Small Change is coming soon, but we've still got 16 songs in the game and that's just too many to add any more.

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

Nooooow it's hard to vote! Jeez.

I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You

San Diego Serenade
Diamonds on My Windshield
Drunk on the Moon

Emotional Weather Report
Eggs and Sausage

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

@JudasMyGuide, @Shadow - return to us!

Impending update tomorrow

 

[JudasMyGuide]

Sorry, as far as Nighthawks are concerned, I really didn't know how to vote. I think I don't even like that record like youse do (or seem to). Although I had heard it before, I've gone through it two times and then I deleted it from my phone to make room for other stuff. It's one of those records that really do nothing to me. The jazz is mostly rudimentary, the lyrics are... fine I guess, the talking in between can be pretty damn funny ("...well you know I've been playing night clubs and staying out all night long, come a home late, gone for three months, come back and everything in the refrigerator turns into a science project..."), but the last time Beat (or pseudo-Beat) approach did anything for me was with Kendrick's For Free? and Dylan around 1965. But then again, I hate Kerouac, Ginsberg and nowadays even Burroughs, as the Stephen King thread will show soon I don't even like Kubrick, I like Fear of the Dark (the album), one of my favourite movies is A River Runs Through It and I voted against Diamonds on My Windshield, so what do I know?

Gimme Small Change, which is definitely more coherent and actually has some musical value, IMHO. I don't say the album is bad or anything, but I voted against all of the remaining tracks off it, Diamonds and San Diego.