Small Change
At the time of the recording of Small Change Waits was drinking more and more heavily, and life on the road was starting to take its toll on him. Waits, looking back at the period said:
I was sick through that whole period [...] It was starting to wear on me, all the touring. I'd been travelling quite a bit, living in hotels, eating bad food, drinking a lot - too much. There's a lifestyle that's there before you arrive and you're introduced to it. It's unavoidable.[6]
In reaction to these hardships Waits recorded Small Change (1976), which finds Waits in much more cynical and pessimistic mood lyrically than his previous albums, with many songs such as "The Piano Has Been Drinking" and "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart" presenting a bare and honest portrayal of alcoholism, while also cementing Waits' hard-living reputation in the eyes of many fans. The album's themes include those of desolation, deprivation, and, above all else, alcoholism. The cast of characters, which includes hookers, strippers and small-time losers, are for the most part, night-owls and drunks; people lost in a cold, urban world.
With the album Waits asserted that he "tried to resolve a few things as far as this cocktail-lounge, maudlin, crying-in-your-beer image that I have. There ain't nothin' funny about a drunk [...] I was really starting to believe that there was something amusing and wonderfully American about being a drunk. I ended up telling myself to cut that shit out." [7]
However, beyond the serious themes with which the album deals, the lyrics are often also noted for their humour; with songs such as "The Piano Has Been Drinking" and "Bad Liver And A Broken Heart" including puns and jokes in their treatment of alcoholism, with the added humour in Waits' drunken diction.
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Reception
It received critical reviews equal to or better than Waits's previous albums, but was at first a surprise commercial success, rising to #89 on the Billboard chart within two weeks of its release. However, Small Change fell off the Billboard Top 200 three weeks later, and Waits was never to better its position until 1999's Mule Variations [1].
When asked in interview by Q Magazine in 1999 if he shared many fans' view that Small Change was the crowning moment of his "beatnik-glory- meets-Hollywood-noir period" (i.e. from 1973-1980), Waits replied
Well, gee. I'd say there's probably more songs off that record that I continued to play on the road, and that endured. Some songs you may write and record but you never sing them again. Others you sing em every night and try and figure out what they mean. "Tom Traubert's Blues" was certainly one of those songs I continued to sing, and in fact, close my show with. [8]
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Artwork
The model posing as a stripper on the album cover is Cassandra Peterson, who later created the horror host character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.[9]
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Track listing
All songs written by Tom Waits.
- "Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen)" – 6:39
- "Step Right Up" – 5:43
- "Jitterbug Boy (Sharing A Curbstone With Chuck E. Weiss, Robert Marchese, Paul Body And The Mug And Artie)" – 3:44
- "I Wish I Was In New Orleans (In The Ninth Ward)" – 4:53
- "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (An Evening With Pete King)" – 3:40
- "Invitation To The Blues" – 5:24
- "Pasties And A G-String (At The Two O'Clock Club)" – 2:32
- "Bad Liver And A Broken Heart (In Lowell)" – 4:50
- "The One That Got Away" – 4:07
- "Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38)" – 5:07
- "I Can't Wait To Get Off Work (And See My Baby On Montgomery Avenue)" – 3:17
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Personnel
- Harry Bluestone – violin, concertmaster strings
- Jim Hughart – bass
- Ed Lustgarden – cello, orchestra manager strings
- Shelly Manne – drums
- Lew Tabackin – tenor sax
- Tom Waits – vocals, piano
- Jerry Yester – arranger & conductor of string section
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Footnotes
- ^ a b Tom Waits Time line: 1976 - 1980. Retrieved on 2007-01-18.
- ^ a b c d Ton Traubert's Blues. Tom Waits Library. Retrieved on 2007-01-18.
- ^ Grit in the Gears: Tom Traubert's Blues. gritinthegears.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-18.
- ^ Interview with Tom Waits on NPR's World Cafe, aired December 15, 2006
- ^ Montadon, Mac, Timeline and Discography in Innocent When You Dream, p.385
- ^ McGee, David (1977), Smellin' Like a Brewery, Lookin' Like a Tramp, in Montandon, p.29
- ^ McGee, David (1977), Smellin' Like a Brewery, Lookin' Like a Tramp, in Montandon, p.30
- ^ "Tom Traubert's Blues" lyrics and notes. Tom Waits Library.
- ^ The Big Takeover: "Steve Holtje’s Top Ten — March 19, 2006: #5 - Tom Waits – Small Change", by Steve Holtje
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References
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External links
- MacLaren, Trevor, "Tom Waits: Small Change", 2004 March 2 All About Jazz.com link
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