TOM WAITS
Used Songs 1973-1980 (Rhino)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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I could wax ecstatic about any period in Tom Waits' thirty year career, but my favorite remains the eight albums he recorded for Asylum in the 1970's. Waits came across as an ancient hipster degenerate, a relic of sorts in an era that was notorious for the cult of the young and the new. Of course, he actually *was* young, and though it echoed other times, what he was doing actually *was* new. Sounding like Satchmo singing Kerouac poetry about Bukowski's neighborhood to a bebop soundtrack, Waits synthesized fifty years of hipster history in a way that made it accessible to a new generation, evoking without actually imitating any of his predecessors.

Tom Waits' early music may have sounded like a lot of things, but nobody had ever sounded like Tom Waits. No one has since, either. He's widely admired and occasionally (less often than the quality of the songs deserves) covered, but he's never been duplicated. Not even by himself. Tom Waits has moved well past the music on this album, conjuring new images for himself and his music. It's well worth a trip back to where it all started, though, and the best stops on the tour to yesteryear are all here.

Track List:

Heartattack And Vine * Eggs And Sausage (In A Cadillac With Susan Michelson) * A Sight For Sore Eyes * Whistlin' Past The Graveyard * Burma Shave * Step Right Up * Ol' '55 * I Never Talk To Strangers (w/ Bette Midler) * Mr. Siegal * Jersey Girl * Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis * Blue Valentines * (Looking For) The Heart Of Saturday Night * Muriel * Wrong Side Of The Road * Tom Trauber's Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen)

© 2002 - Shaun Dale