I get a new turntable and dust off some old records. Vinyl Tap #22:
People who live outdoors. You know how after the rain you see all these dogs that seem lost, wandering around. The rain washes away all their scent, all their direction. So all the people on the album are knit together, by some corporeal way of sharing pain and discomfort.
Back in the mists of time — the '80s — I was entering the lobby of the Wiltern Theater one of the five nights Elvis Costello and the Attractions were putting on their “Spinning Wheel” concerts. The shows comprised full-on festivities with all the festooned trimmings, as go-go dancers in cages frugged away amid a carnival-like atmosphere in a bright, colorful setting replete with props — the main one being a giant spinning wheel with a considerable assortment of Costello-penned song titles radiating out like rays of angry-young-man angst, alienation, and smart pop perfection.
A hands-down bar-none Barnum fun zone, a splendid time was guaranteed for all -- especially since there was to be surprise celebrity moderators to randomly draw audience members’ names from a big drum. Where she stops nobody knows, but when she stops, the luckily picked pickee comes up onto the stage with much hoopla and confetti.
Anyway, when I walked into the lobby of the Wiltern, there was Tom Waits surrounded by some orbiting and over-zealous fans. As it would turn out, he was to serve as the evening’s master of ceremonies, in more of a carnival barker mode — a perfect choice, given the crass hard sell huckster persona he assumed in Small Change’s “Step Right Up,” in which he promises all sorts of unlikely miracles and marvels, though inevitably, “The large print giveth and the small print taketh away”: "That's right, it filets, it chops/ It dices, slices, never stops/ lasts a lifetime, mows your lawn..."
Waits didn’t look especially happy about the surround-sound mini-mob. I wanted to meet him but I also didn't want to be just another jerk taking up his time — I wanted to be the only jerk taking up his time. But before I kept walking on, he noted my hesitation and caught my eye, subtly nodding his head as if to invite me over. Emboldened and feeling a bit brazen as I was seemingly being summoned, I walked around to the other side and he took this occasion to turn from the crowd to greet me while the other fans got the hint and dispersed.
Article comments
1 - Vern Halen
I prefer Swordfishtrombones to Rain Dogs or Frank's Wild Years, but there are some classic cuts on all of these albums. Maybe because RD is in the middle, it's the deepest of the three - there's no end in sight as it were like there is on FWY.
2 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Thanks Vern--while I like Swordfishtrombone, too, especially Down Down Down, Soldier'a Things and I used to play to death and Frank's Wild Years, it's mostly circumstances that intercede and affect judgement: In the time of Swordfish, I was too busy w/o a lot of spare time compared to RD period in which I got into that album a lot (but not enough leisure to backtrack to older albums enough to do them justice). Anyway, I love this part from Frank's Wild Year:
...his wife was a spent piece of used jet trash
made good bloody marys
kept her mouth shut most of the time
had a little Chihuahua named Carlos
that had some kind of skin disease
and was totally blind.
3 - tomfan
anyone out there (in atlanta) have the setlist from last night, 8/1?, thx
4 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
tomfan--here's the Atlanta set list if you still need it:
ATLANTA SET LIST--TOM WAITS:
Make it Rain
Hoist that Rag
Shore Leave
God’s Away on Business
November
‘Til the Money Runs Out
Blue Valentines
Lucky Day
Tango Til’ they’re Sore
House Where Nobody Lives
Don’t Go Into that Barn
Lie to me Baby
Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard
9th & Hennepin
Trampled Rose
Get Behind the Mule
Murder in the Red Barn
Shake It
FIRST ENCORE
Singapore
Goin’ Out West
SECOND ENCORE
Day After Tomorrow
Heartattack & Vine
5 - Condor
Excellent commentary.
My dearly departed wife used to call him the "leering wino-poet" and we used to chuckle whenever we put the vinyl on the turntable.
Thanks
6 - Mark Saleski
love Rain Dogs...though it's pretty near impossible for me to pick a favorite Waits.
7 - tomfan
thanks a lot gh, did you see the show? I am going next week (in det.),i can't wait...
8 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
tomfan--unfortunately I didn't see the show, but I stumbled across a "Tom Waits for No Man" blog that looks pretty interesting:
http://tomwaits.radicalwacko.
Has a concert schedule--have fun at the Detroit show. Hope I get too see him, too--looking for west coast/SoCal dates.
9 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Condor--thanks for the comment. "Leering Wino-Poets"--good name for a band, too.
10 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Thanks Mark--I like the early stuff, too, especially Small Change and Closing Time. Waits is one of those artists who is admirable for contiuing to explore and experiment, record sales be damned.
Since I'm on a bit of a Waits kick, I'll soon be having an upcoming Vinyl Tap feature on the One From the Heart soundtrack, with Crystal Gayle. Music's better than the movie, but the Coppola film is a visual treat.