4.5 Stars- A nocturne classic
I'll knock it up a letter grade because it's about one of my favorite subjects: The night. The Heart Of Saturday Night gets a curve. Specifically, it's a grizzled ode to wakeful Americana, to nights spent unblinking among seedy bars, 24 hour diners, and twisting city streets. It's like Edward Hooper's Nighthawks set to music, a work of art too spooked and lonely to sleep. It's an aesthetic that brims with desolation, catharsis, bitterness, and humor. It's artful and poetic, and it's also hauntingly sad.
If it hadn't encapsulated that image so perfectly, this album would have received a paltry three and a half stars. It would've lost that star for its occasional bursts of melodrama, for its smattering of imperfect songs ("Shiver Me Timbers" is weighed down by cliches, and "(Looking For) The Heart Of Saturday Night" is far too hammy), for the fact that occasionally tries waaaay too hard. But these transgressions can be halfway forgiven thanks to the layers of smoke and booze and sourness that billow out of your speakers every time you play it.
Plus, no album with "New Coat Of Paint," "San Diego Serenade," "Semi Suite," and some of "Drunk On The Moon" deserves to be slighted. Throw in two spectacular hipster beat poetry readings ("Diamonds On My Windshield" and "The Ghosts Of Saturday Night (After Hours At Napoleone's Pizza House)") and you've got yourself a faded-soul classic.
Hug! How, wait baby don't hit me it's just Tom Waits!!!
and I were pulling up to our mailbox along an old country road. Our saga begins as the Mrs. We had both just ended a day of hittin da malls and doing the baby shopping thing. My mother in law opens our wanna be 1920's farm house mail box and pulls a yellow package from within. My wife's eyes read my name across the front and then those words pierced from her lips, "MARC ***** YOU BETTER NOT HAVE BOUGHTEN ANYTHING FROM AMAZON, WE JUST INVESTED 14 THOUSAND DOLLARS IN AN HVAC SYSTEM FOR OUR HOUSE!!!!" My puzzled look said it all. Then I said those famous words, "I don't know what this is. " Ah, but that's when I noticed the precision of the handwriting. It was detail oriented, precise, and clearly legible. I only know one person with that handwriting!!!
I opened the package and a letter was attached to this CD.
(BRER MARC,
A Pretty "Bluesy" album, and probably one of my top 10 or top 12 from any genre. Hope you enjoy it too. BRO!
Postscript: Please do not send anything in return. If you do, I will regret having sent this. I want less stuff, not more!!!)
I immediately put this CD in knowing my friends excellent taste in music. Tom's voice is soothing over these bluesy, rhythmic, yet beautiful songs. Nope, not a bad one in the bunch!!! San Diego Serenade helped put my mind at peace and relax my exhausted body. My other favorites are: New Coat Of Pain, The Heart Of Saturday Night, and Drunk On The Moon. This is a can't miss collection of songs for any blues fan, and was worth the near death experience I almost received in the process. Having only listened to it for the first time I can guarantee any potential new listener that you have been missing out on a quality album if you haven't listened to this. This CD/Album should be viewed as a blues classic PERIOD!!! If you don't own this quickly run out and purchase it. I might even want this CD played in my memory at my funeral. It seems fitting since I already almost died for it.
Bottom Line: A can't miss CD, 5 plus stars.
Postscript: Thank You my warm hearted friend for sharing this musically genius compilation of songs written and performed by Tom Wait. The Heart of Satturday Night is as you said in the top 10 to 12 of any genre. I am very thankful for this most excellent gift. I appreciate it more than you know. I will always remember you when I hear these tunes, and I'm especially thankful that unlike Tom's line in "Diamonds on my windshield" my little fanny will be nice and warm in the comfort and safety of my bed tonight, and not "colder than a well diggers a**. "
.
The Heart Of Saturday Night
Long considered to be Waits' best album, or at least along side Rain Dogs, The Heart Of Saturday Night is phenomenal. Tom Waits-The Heart Of Saturday Night *****
If Tom Waits' 1973 debut album Closing Time was the amazing start it is often written to be (which it is) then The Heart Of Saturday Night is nothing short of a stroke of genius! Combining what made his debut so great (beat-generation lyrics and imagery and soulful vocals) with a new even slicker, cooler style, and a hint of jazz his sophomore album had all the right touches of a classic. Housing such felons as `New Coat Of Paint' `Shiver Me Timbers' brilliant tribute to his young days working in a pizza parlor `The Ghost Of Saturday Night' and the incestuous title track `The Heart Of Saturday Night. ' Bette Midler went on to do a surprisingly decent cover of `Shiver Me Timbers' on her biggest album of the decade which created way for Midler and Waits to do a duet of their own on her next album.
The Imagery flows through Waits' lyrics like heroin into a junky's mainline. Songs like `Diamonds On My Windshield' evoke scenes of Jack Kerouack during On The Road; while the title track sends a feeling of longing and lost through your veins like electric shock. The man can write!
The instrumentation is subtle on the album but no less impressive. It serves it's role without out doing the other pieces of the album. Waits' piano work is especially impressive. Musicianship is something that Waits is always overlooked for as well as his amazing ability to write one slaying melody.
The Heart Of Saturday Night is the total package. For the best of early beat-era/crooner Waits this is the place to go, rivaled only by that of the great Rain Dogs. For a great Waits album, look no further.
Essential
Among the best of the songer/songwriter, Pop/Rock albums - ever. An absolute indesputable classic. And in the midst of the flowering of the best of that genre - quite a feat. Tom Waits never topped this masterpiece - though Small Change was close. His voice is moving and genuinely emotional - long before he later became a parody of himself. This folks, is great songwriting.
My one caveat is that the recording could use a re-mastering to contemporary standards. Obviously the CD is a direct transfer from the original record master - dull and thuddy. But dispite this, Waits' early genius shines through.
I love Tom Waits.
He had never told me this before, and I was pleasantly surprised. My step-dad told me around Christmas time that he was a Tom Waits fan. I pin-pointed him as more of a early Tom Waits music kind of guy, so I bought him Heart of Saturday Night. It's a beautiful, fun, jazzy album that never goes out of style. We all had a great time listening to it together as background music. But, as avid Tom Waits fan, I like to sit down and listen to every one of his lyrics. They are stunning and spectacular. This album is a must for anyone who knows what's good for them.
You can see a complete list of all Tom Waits discography, or go back to the Tom Waits tabs
|
