Tom Waits - Closing TIme
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On this episode, we discuss Closing Time, the debut album by enigmatic singer-songwriter Tom Waits. Released on David Geffen’s Asylum label in 1973, it immediately stood out from most of the folk and Americana tinged offerings from the other Artists on the label like Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, and the Eagles.
Closing Time is considered by many Tom Waits fans who prefer his more experimental and avant-garde output as an outlier within his discography. It is certainly his most straightforward and accessible album. His “gateway” album, if you will.
As the title (and cover) indicates, Closing Time was an album of songs that embrace a time gone by; a time of smoky bars, peopled with earnest and lonely individuals, ruminating on lost love and a life unfulfilled. Heavily influenced by the beat writers and Charles Bukowski, it's the aural equivalent to a film noir The fact that the stories told by Waits seem beyond the comprehension of the 23-year-old musician who wrote them makes listening to them all the more compelling.
THINGS WE DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE
Tom Waits circa 1973
This was an early Asylum publicity photo.
Tom Waits car parked in front the Troubadour on Santa Monica Blvd for his midnight show in 1975. The Troubador was where David Geffen saw Waits perform “Grapefruit Moon.” That performance convinced Geffen to sigh Waits to Asylum Records.
Picture taken by Barry Schultz. You can purchase copies of the image from the Morrison Hotel Gallery website.
Tom Waits reads “The Laughing Heart.” A poem written by Charles Bukoski, who was a huge influence on Waits.
Tom Waits joined Bruce Springsteen on stage in August of 1981 to sing “Jersey Girl” during The River tour.
Here is Tom Waits performing “On the Nickel” in 1983 on Late Night with David Letterman.
