Tom Waits - Live @ Ebbet's Field, Denver, 19/2/75

Thanks to the very generous GG - you know who you are - for sharing his FTP booty with me. This is the 'Wolf Remaster', supplied here as 224 kbps mp3. This is a great, very clean recording, with an excellent balance between Tom's voice and instruments (it's just Tom, accompanying himself on guitar and keys), and the audience. Tom's in top beatnik mode here, starting off the night's entertainment with an excellent finger-poppin rap-only version of 'Diamonds On My Windshield', followed by a fledgling version of the 13th/aug guitar chord cycles of the 'Foggy Night' travelogue, with a nifty intro on public transport versus cheap automotion... Then there's the piano based 'Eggs & Sausage', in what sounds like an early incarnation, with some nice bluesy trills.

'Ice Cream Man' and 'San Diego Serenade' keep the piano backing going, and are performed straight up, before a wry spiel: "we'll get to all your favourites... 'I Left My Shorts In San Francisco'...", which leads into a monologue reading of the Red Sorbine nugget 'Big Joe & Phantom 309'. The audience are clearly rapt, and Tom finishes his tale very much in the same way he does on Nighthawks. Classic stuff! Back at the piano, we're treated to a jaunty version of 'New Coat of Paint', followed by the nocturnal emission that is 'Spare Parts', and the ol' favourite and set closer 'Ol' 55'. But they want more, so the MC joins in cajoling Tom back out: Tom drops the low E on his guitar to a D, and raps a while, finally hunkering down for the double whammy of 'Ghosts of...' & 'Heart of Saturday Night'. The segue is, just like the music itself, utterly sublime! They love him so much we get a further encore: "I was right in the middle of pleasurable piss" complains the old curmudgeon, before finishing with 'Nobody', a new number at the time... "kinda naugahyde" he explains in typically elliptical fashion.

Enjoy the genius of Waits here.

Tracklisting: Introduction / Diamonds On My Windshield / On A Foggy Night / Eggs And Sausage / Ice Cream Man / San Diego Serenade / Big Joe And Phantom 309 / New Coat Of Paint / Spare-Parts / Ol' 55 / The Ghost of Saturday Night / The Heart of Saturday Night / Nobody