Tom Waits - WMMS Coffee Break Concert - 1975

Another Tom gem for you, and one of his final solo outings... I could listen to these tunes over and over, and hey, so can you now! This time he's on the air for Cleveland station WMMS, on their Coffee Break show. Unlike the Howard Larman interview for KPFK, the interviewer here, Kid Leo ("sitting in for Matt The Cat"), in attempting to strike up a cool rapport with Waits elicits the first signs of the ornery mule familiar to so many who've had the privilege/misfortune of interviewing him. In using phrases like "laidback Lenny", and with attempts to buddy up to Waits, we can sense Tom bristling a bit, which seems to almost cause an allergic reaction, as Tom coughs and snivels throughout the interview sections, and he's noticeably resistant to Kid Leo's requests for certain songs. That said, he does open up quite a bit, and that makes this a great document of the young Waits.

The performances, both musical and verbal, are impeccable, and the audio quality is great (this was originally taken from a sound-board recording, and is presented here as 192 kbps MP3). In a quick verbal detour with the DJ, when discussing influences, Waits uses a favourite phrase: "passing out wolf tickets". In trying to find out what the hell he meant I discovered that, in an interview for Playboy in 1988, he attempted a definition himself: "Another one I like is wolf tickets, which means bad news, as in someone who is bad news or generally insubordinate. In a sentence, you’d say, “Don’t fuck with me, I’m passing out wolf tickets.” Think it’s either Baltimore Negro or turn-of-the-century railroadese." This is from his 'nocturnal emissions' period, where his shows featured a lot hipster beat-speak raps, his verbally florid monologues in which his gift for wordsmithery and the alchemy of imagery get full rein... and it's great!

This show also finds Waits slagging of The Eagles when discussing their cover of 'Ol' 55', which, according to Barney Hoskyns, in his great book Hotel California: Singer-songwriters and Cocaine Cowboys in the L.A. Canyons 1967-1976, Waits regretted later on: "I was a young kid... corkin' off and being a prick... I talked to Don Henley about that, and I apologised and I took it all back and we patched it up". Humility and contrition from Mr Waits? We like it! He further elucidates the Catch-22 of youthful aspirations to stardom and consequential ego issues succinctly thus: "It was saying "Notice me" ... followed by "Leave me the fuck alone", sometimes in the same sentence". He's an articulate ol' bugger our Tom, and you gotta love him, warts and all.

Tracklisting: Drunk on the Moon / Interview / Eggs and Sausage / Interview / Better Off Without A Wife / Interview / Putnam County / Ol 55 / Interview / Nighthawks Postcards / Interview / Warm Beer and Cold Women / Ghosts of Saturday Night / The Heart Of Saturday Night

Charles Kynard - Your Mama Don't Dance - 1973

I actually have this record in storage somewhere, but with no turntable I can't digitise it just yet. I mention this 'cause this posting is taken from some .flac files I found (here, here, and here). Obviously .flac files are intended to help with audio quality, but these are nonetheless quite noisy... hi-res dirt in the grooves I suppose. Still, this was such a formative album for me, I had to put it up. For now I'm posting 320 kbps AAC files. If/when I get a new turntable I'll try and post a cleaner version.

My dad bought this at a car-boot sale at the old folks home where my grandpa lived out his last years. I think he paid 50p for it, what a bargain that was! This was the first place I heard the delectable grooves of 'The World Is A Ghetto', 'Summer Breeze' and the mightily funkalistic 'I Got So Much Trouble On My Mind'. This all instrumental album starts and finishes with Stevie Wonder covers: first up a great version of 'Superstition', with Kynard taking the melody on his fat and greasy Hammond, and closing with a nice reading of 'You've Got It Bad Girl'.

Recorded in 1973 for Bob Shad's Mainstream label, the cast for the album is a dream ticket who's-who of funky cats: as well as Kynard himself, there's bass-meister Chuck Rainey, who I grew to know and love through his work with Steely Dan (check his nifty bass solo here on 'So Much Trouble'), guitarist Arthur Adams (wicked throughout, you gotta love his volume knob-twiddlin' solo on 'Superstition'!), and groove assassins Paul Humphreys and Ray Pounds on kit. Dunno which of the two drummers played on which tunes, but the slinky grooves of 'Mama Jive' and 'Zambezi' are pure rhythmic pleasure, and I love the buzz rolls at the end of 'Summer Breeze'. There's some fulsome horn charts too, courtesy of Richard Fritz, which lean towards soundtrack/big band vibes in places, with unison figures, stabs, punches and the like, kind of karate horns if you will.

Tracklisting: Superstition / The World Is A Ghetto / Momma Jive / I Got So Much Trouble On My Mind / Your Mama Don't Dance / Zambezi / Summer Breeze / You've Got It Bad Girl

I should mention the tremendously groovy Shad Shack blog at this point, curated by the ever resourceful 'cheeba'... what a great site! I love the trend for these discog style blogs. There are others too, so be sure to check these: Impulse, Flying Dutchman, CTI/Kudu, Strata East, MPS, and Muse. There are possibly some others out there as well, if you think I'd be interested, leave me a message in the comments section. The blogosphere is where it's at!

I'd like to say how much love and respect I have for the people whose passion for music leads them to spend so much time and energy sharing it with us all. Of course - and as a musician I've really got to say this - if you really love the artists, then buy their product where and when you can.

Earth Disciples - Getaway Train - 1969

UPDATED 18/12/09 - Most of the text below is 'as was' when written, but since some things have changed, here's a quick update: EMI have made this album digitally available via iTunes (and probably other outlets too). I think that the band were long ago cut out of any money from the album, as the label it was on has changed hands on numerous occasions. I'd still like to see their follow up found and the whole lot put out as a 'Complete Earth Disciples' package, but that looks fairly unlikely, as even the guys in (or connected to) the band, can't locate masters. I've updated the Four Brothers Beats' link, as they've moved their blog here: 4BB. I'm not sure that the album is available anywhere in blog-land right now, but since it can be bought... go buy it! And anyone with info on masters or acetates for the follow up, please get in touch.

I can't take credit for discovering or sharing this fabulous album, that goes to Soulbrotha and co. over at the exceedingly tasty Four Brothers Beats blog.

The music is a sublime blend of jazz, funk, soul and rock, and like much great music, really defies categorization, surpassing such pigeon-holing, and existing on an altogether higher plane. The musicianship is of a very high level, with the drums and guitar deserving special mention. The music manages to marry passion and intensity with mellow subtlety and a real lightness of touch... amazing! This is SOUL music in a truly spiritual sense of the term: four guys groovin' on a cosmic sonic trip... hearts, minds and bodies fused into a new single entity.

Talking of a 'single entitly', here's a pic of the single they released from the album, along with a Youtube video of the album's title track (which was also the A-side of the single.



Recorded in 1969 for Sonny Lester's Solid State label (SS 18064), the band comprised Rudy Reid on keys, Red Holloway's son Jimmy Holloway on guitar (and poss keys also), Reggie Austin on bass, and Reggie Harris on drums. I'm researching this album for a forthcoming article, to be published soon here in the UK. I don't want to give too much away just yet tho', so, as the 4BB guys say, let the music do the talkin'!

I made the composite cover aw from pics at Throwback Music, who also had a link to the album at one point, but their blog has been invite only for some time.

Tracklisting: Getaway Train / La Bahemia / Life Cycle / Earth Island Ferry / Bitter End (Pt. 1) / Native Planet / Spirit of the Bells / Rollin' Over / Serenade of a Summer Butterfly / Bitter End (Pt. 2)

Tom Waits, Live – 16/12/75 – ASI Studios, KQRS Minneapolis

Recorded at ASI studios, for the Minneapolis station KQRS, under the auspices of the implausibly named Steve Fingerett, most of the opening seven minutes runs under the ‘Nocturnal Emissions’ title, and features Tom doing a high-octane finger-poppin beatnik rap: “with all due candour, I really don’t do this for a living, I’m really a labour organiser for a maternity ward”. He runs down a whole heap of his metropolitan double-talk, caught halfway between a Kerouack-ian reverie and a stand up comedian’s schtick. Recorded Dec 16th ’75, this is some months after he ‘d waxed the Nighthawks at the Diner album at Wally Heider’s studio, and he draws heavily on that material, jamming it all together. The intro to ‘Eggs & Sausage’ continues the banter, and is as unhealthily pleasurable as the kind of food he’s singing about.

Sound quality is good overall, with only a few bits of unwanted noise during ‘Better Off Without a Wife', and some kind of tape-op glitch in Tom's encore 'Putnam County'. During ‘Semi-Suite’, which has a nice long rambling intro, he slips in a little ‘As Time Goes By’ quote, which he eventually put down as the intro to ‘Bad Liver & a Broken Heart’ on the sublime Small Change album. ‘Spare Parts’ returns to the toe-tapping finger snappin’ beat vibe, and he manages to slip portions of ‘Diamonds on My Windshield into his rap, along with his patented ‘automobile passing by’ impersonation (seeing him do this on the Austin City Limits film is great, track that down if you can).

“’Scuse me, I usually vomit… but this is gonna be a tasteful programme”.

Tracklisting: Intro / Emotional Weather Report / Eggs And Sausage (Intro) / Eggs And Sausage / Better Off Without A Wife / Semi Suite / Spare Parts / Ghosts Of Saturday Night/The Heart Of Saturday Night / New Coat Of Paint / Warm Beer And Cold Women / Virginia Avenue / San Diego Serenade / Putnam County / Ol' '55

Tom Waits, Live at Ebbets Field, Denver - 10/8/74

This is an absolute peach of a recording: Tom’s on top form, and the audience are clearly diggin’ on him big time. This was actually released at one point under the title Dime Store Novels (I got a copy from Amazon, but as it wasn't an official release it got stepped on pretty quickly), but I’m putting up a version I got from the archive of the very generous GG, which has a great little intro not included on the Dime Store CD.

In term of Waits’ delivery, nearly all the songs here are performed fairly close to the officially recorded versions, except that Tom’s performing solo ('Foggy Night' is less relaxed rhythmically, sounding somewhat clipped here). As well as Tom’s inimitable spiel, there’s a song you won’t find elsewhere in his catalogue (least-wise I haven’t heard it elsewhere): the Utah Phillips country tune ’Good Night Loving Trail’, which is excellent in itself, and also benefits from a nice intro: “ah, hush up now I’m trying to sing this damn thang now… I ain’t opening the show tonight!” Some of Herbie Cohen’s gigs for Tom had been hardcore ‘baptism under fire’ scenarios!

Tom sounds quite soused at times, tho’ whether this is stage-sottedness or genuine alcohol oblivion isn’t clear, as he sings and plays very well. This really is good enough to be enjoyed as a solo performance counterpoint to the fabulous Nighthawks at the Diner. All in all, a very relaxed night in with Tom, and highly recommended.

"Operator number please..."

Tracklisting: I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You / San Diego Serenade / Good Night Loving Trail / Diamonds On My Windshield / Ice Cream Man / Please Call Me, Baby / Better Off Without A Wife / The Ghost Of Saturday Night / Big Joe & Phantom 309 / Semi Suite / Ol' 55 / On A Foggy Night / Martha

Tom Waits - 12/8/’73 - KPFK Folk Scene

A youthful Waits for you on this one, playing solo, accompanying himself on keys or guitar (upright bassist Bob Webb was scheduled to appear on the programme with Tom, but couldn’t make it). Between songs Tom’s interviewed by DJ Howard Larman for the programme Folk Scene, a programme he and his wife Roz produced and aired for the Los Angeles KPFK station for many years. Compared with Tom’s infamously obtuse and sometimes surreal responses to interviewers for most of the last 20/30 or so years, Larman gets a fairly open, relaxed, and informal response from the great man, perhaps due to the as yet unsullied innocence of the fresh faced young troubador.

This is an endearing window onto the young Waits at work, and he raps quite freely about his formative years, and the musical processes and influences working on him at that point. I chose the picture of Waits shown here ‘cause I like him with all that hair, and it’s also him pretty much as he was looking on the cover of the Music World magazine mentioned by the DJ. The lady in the pic is Bobi Thomas, and they’re showing off Tom’s first tattoo! Note that the scroll over the heart is at this point blank! The pic’s apparently from early ‘74, so this recording may have featured Tom sporting even more hair! I guess that’s something we can only muse upon, given this is a radio spot…

It’s a great recording, clean and clear, and with good info from Tom about growing up and getting into music and so on. Some of the versions are brilliant, like ‘San Diego Serenade’ and ‘Semi Suite’, whilst others were performed better elsewhere, like ‘Rosie’ and ‘Ice Cream Man’. ‘Depot, Depot’ is outright strange compared to the album version, but that makes it all the more interesting to hear, tho’ it has to be said the reading on Heart of a Saturday Night is far superior. The music is very good overall, and the audio quality is ok, with just a bit of trebly wobble on the piano, but it’s the talk in between that adds a lot of historic interest. Tom signs off with ‘Big Joe’, at this stage admitting that he doesn’t know who actually wrote the song, but telling us that it was “the first real folk song that just knocked me out… gave me the chills”.

Another TW gem for y’all to enjoy!

Tracklisting: Virginia Avenue / Interview / San Diego Serenade / Interview / Ol' 55 / Interview / Semi Suite / Interview / Fumblin With the Blues / Interview / Rosie / Interview / Depot Depot / Interview / Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You / Interview / The Heart Of Saturday Night / Interview / Ice Cream Man / Interview / Big Joe and Phantom 309 and Interview

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