You MUST OWN this #2

With Tom Waits going back on tour I thought I would take a trip down memory lane and do a short post about the first album that I purchased from this amazing artist:

Tom Waits – SMALL CHANGE

Here is a quick review from the All Music Guide:
“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.”

I remember when I picked this up (the first time). I was driving through New Orleans and decided to take a stroll through Tower Records (RIP). Tom had just won a grammy for the album Bone Machine and I went in looking for it. Tower was sold out of that one, but the guy behind the counter pointed me in the direction of Small Change… The rest is history! I since then have purchased every single album by Tom Waits and I love them all.

Here’s a list:
Closing Time • The Heart of Saturday Night • Nighthawks at the Diner • Small Change • Foreign Affairs • Blue Valentine • Heartattack and Vine • One from the Heart • The Early Years, Volume One • The Early Years, Volume Two • Swordfishtrombones • Rain Dogs • Franks Wild Years • Big Time • Night on Earth • Bone Machine • The Black Rider • Mule Variations • Blood Money • Alice • Real Gone • Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards