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Tom Waits - Nighthawks at the Diner Audio CD

A fair review of the Tom Waits "Nighthawks at the Diner" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Tom Waits reviews here, or go back to the Tom Waits tabs.

Tom Waits Band: Tom Waits
Title: Nighthawks at the Diner
Rating:
Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Opening Intro 2: Emotional Weather Report 3: Intro 4: On a Foggy Night 5: Intro 6: Eggs and Sausage (In a Cadillac with Susan Michelson) 7: Intro 8: Better off Without a Wife 9: Nighthawk Postcards 10: Intro 11: Warm Beer and Cold Women 12: Intro 13: Putnam County 14: Spare Parts I (A Nocturnal Emission) 15: Nobody 16: Intro 17: Big Joe and Phantom 309 18: Spare Parts II and Closing

Once Again On The Matter Of Saturday Night


The inner lives of the denizens of that late night diner in the famous painting by the American realist artist Edward Hopper, "Nighthawks" (1942). The comments posted here are also being used to comment on other Tom Waits albums. The scorching literary sketches of the rich and famous and the skid row bums provided by the late "Gonzo" journalist Doctor Hunter Thompson, accompanied by the renderings of the artist Ralph Steadman. The jingle-jangle high side lyrics of the legendary folk musician Bob Dylan of the "Blood On The Tracks" period. The reach into the far side of the part of the psyche exhibited by those down at the base of American society in an earlier period by the novelist Nelson Algren in "Walk On The Wild Side". And that same reach later by the man of the "mean" Los Angeles streets, Charles Bukowski. Wrap them all up in a whiskey-soaked, cigarette-scarred, gravelly, rasping voice and you have the idiosyncratic musician Tom Waits. Placed in that same company as above? Yes, by all means. Not a bad place to be, right?

Although I have been listening to the music of one Tom Waits for decades, every since I heard Jerry Jeff Walker do a cover of his classic song of loneliness, longing and reaching for the elusive promise of Saturday night dreams in "Looking For The Heart Of Saturday Night", I am not familiar with his biography. All I know is that aside from his own far-reaching musical endeavors, as expressed in numerous albums over the years, he has acted in some motion pictures, most notably as a skid row philosopher of sorts in the movie version of William Kennedy's "Ironweed" (a natural, right?) and has provided the soundtrack music to many movies, most notably the Al Pacino-starring "Sea Of Love". That Waits soundtrack version of the late 1950's, early 1960's classic teenage anthem to longing and love is just the right example of what Brother Waits means musically to this reviewer. Taking that simple song of teenage longing, Waits' husky-voiced rendition reaches back and turns it into something almost primordial, something that goes back beyond time to our first understandings that we are `alone' in the universe. Enough said.

But so much for all of that because what I really want to mention is the "Waits effect". Every once in a while I `need' to listen to words and sounds that express the dark, misbegotten side of the human experience. You know, sagas of Gun Street girls, guys talking "Spanish in the halls', people lost out there on the edge of society and the like. Is there anyone today who can musically put it better? If you need to hear about hope, dope, the rope. Wine, women and song or no wine, no women or no song. About whiskey-caked barroom floors, floozies, boozies, flotsam, jetsam, stale motel rooms, cigarette-infested hotels, wrong gees, jokers, smokers and ten-cent croakers. Drifters, grifters, no good midnight sifters. Life on the fast lane, nowhere lane, some back street alley, perhaps, out in the valley. This, my friends is you address. Listen up. Professor Waits is at the lectern.

Nighthawks At The Diner", Tom Waits, Electra/Asylum Records, 1975

This is another early Waits album with some now classic material . Here there are some monologues interspersed into the material that give it a very West Coast back street night club kind of feel. "Emotional Weather Report", "Nighthawk Postcards" and the long intricate almost surreal "Big Joe and Phantom 309" stick out here.

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Night club at the Diner
But the images, expressions and vibe are impossible to shake. I loved this album when it came out 30+ yrs ago but lost it somewhere down the trail. Waits' cinematic, improvisational riffs disguise the genius of his craft. Think Beat generation poet meets jazz combo while hitching on a boxcar and they hop off to play a gig at a diner in exchange for patty-melted norms and Viceroys. Good thing somebody recorded it but your clothes will smell smoky just from listening. This is one that must be listened to in the dark. Brace yourself for Big Joe and Phantom 309, your heart ends up in your throat. But no Heimlich required. .


White Boy Blues
I hope to see Tom in a live preformance one day. I love this recording funny and grity at the same time. I'm scanning the papers for concert news. It's a shame it took me this long to discover his off center brand of entertainment.


waits in his element
this is waits at his most charismatic telling stories and jokes while delivering beautiful music its a wonderful experince. i'll put it plain and simple if your a waits fan then you need this album.


Something different for the evening
It was recorded live with a Jazz Quartet backing him, now I can hear you thinking immediately this is going to be dreadful - its not. This is unlike any other Tom Waits album.
In fact its astonishing, there are no long solos, the backing quartet just provide a swinging backdrop for Waits to weave his unusual brand of story telling.
Sometimes very funny, occasionally sad and always lyrically interesting, Waits scats/talks and sings in his distinctive growl.
You might want to hear this first, before purchasing, as I concede it's not going to be everybody's cup of tea.
However it has remained my favourite Tom Waits album for decades now, despite Swordfishtrombones etc.
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You can see a complete list of all Tom Waits discography, or go back to the Tom Waits tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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