Tag: Tom Waits

Will I See You Tonight?

May 11, 2020 / C R Burgan

“Outside another yellow moon
Has punched a hole in the nighttime, yes
I climb through the window and down to the street
I’m shining like a new dime” – Downtown Train (Tom Waits) © Audiam, Inc

Thomas Alan Waits was born December 7, 1949, in Pomona, California. He has one older sister and one younger sister. Tom’s mother was a housewife and attended church regularly; his father taught Spanish at a local school and was an alcoholic. He spent his early life in Whittier, California, where he learned to play bugle and guitar. His father taught him to play the ukulele.

During summer school breaks young Tom would spend time with his maternal grandparents in Northern California. Later he would credit his uncle’s raspy, gravelly voice for inspiring what has become his trademark singing style.

When Tom was 10 years old, his parents separated with his father moving away from the family; his mother soon moved with the children to Chula Vista, a suburb of San Diego. It was here that Tom began exploring music to a greater degree. Before long he was fronting bands, imitating the soul and R&B artists of the day, while also showing interest in country music and roots rock ‘n’ roll. Later Bob Dylan would become a big influence with Tom studying the folk icon’s lyrics by writing them on his bedroom wall.

During his high school years Tom would later describe himself as “kind of an amateur juvenile delinquent”, dabbling in “malicious mischief”. He claims he was a “rebel against the rebels”, as he could not subscribe to the philosophies of the hippie subculture that was emerging across the country. Having acquired instead an affinity for the writings of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, he felt a much stronger kinship to the Beat generation of the 1950s.

At the age of 18 Tom dropped out of high school.

“The downtown trains are full
Full of all those Brooklyn girls
They try so hard to break out of their little worlds” – Downtown Train (Tom Waits)

Waits worked for a time at Napoleone’s pizza restaurant in National City, California; a job that he referenced in his song, “I Can’t Wait to Get Off Work”, and as a solo artist he was soon playing local folk venues and coffeehouses, eventually supporting acts such as Tim Buckley, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and his friend Jack Tempchin. But knowing that playing in San Diego would only ever take him so far, he began driving up the coast to Los Angeles, to play at the Troubadour.

It was while playing at the Troubadour that Tom would first sign a publishing deal, and later would meet David Geffen, who gave Tom a contract with his Asylum Records label.

David Geffen © Joel Bernstein
Asylum Records

“Well, you wave your hand and they scatter like crows
They have nothing that will ever capture your heart
They’re just thorns without the rose
Be careful of them in the dark” – Downtown Train (Tom Waits)

The first time I saw Tom Waits perform, or ever even heard of him for that matter, was on The Mike Douglas Show. Mike Douglas was a former singer who had sung for the Kay Kyser big band during the swing era, and was also the singing voice of Prince Charming in Walt Disney’s Cinderella. He went on to host his own syndicated afternoon variety show. At its peak The Mike Douglas Show was broadcast in 171 markets, with an estimated six million viewers.

Waits appeared on Douglas’ show on November 19, 1976. His appearance was to promote his album, Small Change, which had been released several months earlier. After being introduced by the host, Waits played “Eggs & Sausage” from his previous album, Night Hawks at the Diner, accompanied by a small combo. He then took a seat next to Douglas, with additional guests Glenda Jackson and Marvin Hamlisch looking on.

After telling his guest that he “project(s) a very strange image”, Douglas asks Waits how he would describe himself. Among other things Waits offers, “I’m an unemployed service station attendant most of the time. I’m just lucky. I’m a living, breathing example of success without college, is what it boils down to.” Further along in the interview Douglas asks Waits whether he likes to be classified as a poet or singer, to which he replies, “I’m a Methodist deep down inside. It’s hard to say”.

Later in the show, Waits performs the title track from Small Change accompanied by a saxophone. If you’ve never heard this “song” I suggest you look it up. It will help you understand how jarring this performance was to my early teen Top 40 sensibilities.

“I know your window and I know it’s late
I know your stairs and your doorway
I walk down your street and past your gate
I stand by the light at the four-way” – Downtown Train (Tom Waits)

To say that Tom Waits’ voice and music are an acquired taste is probably somewhat of an understatement. Many people will never get that far. It wasn’t until more than a decade after my initial exposure that I came to appreciate his talents as a songwriter, if not as a bona vox.

Although Waits rarely gives interviews, when he does sit with a writer it’s typically questionable whether you’re getting the man or his carefully crafted shtick. Because I admire Tom Waits’ songwriting ability, I’ve always been curious how he feels about other artists recording his compositions. It’s easy to say that many of Tom’s songs would be improved when rendered by a friendlier voice, although that may seem blasphemous to Waits purists.

Surely the exposure that he has received from having his songs recorded by others has not hurt his career any. Using as an example “Ol’ ’55”, the first track from his debut album Closing Time, which was subsequently recorded by The Eagles: Waits version of his song was released as a single, but neither the song, nor the album charted; while The Eagles album On the Border, which contained their version of Waits’ song, reached #17 on the Billboard 200 chart, and was certified double platinum, with sales of 2 million units.

When asked about The Eagles recording of “Ol’ ’55” Waits commented that he was “not that particularly crazy about (their) rendition of it … I thought their version was a little antiseptic”.

Later he would remark, “I don’t like the Eagles. They’re about as exciting as watching paint dry. Their albums are good for keeping the dust off your turntable and that’s about all.”

Tom is certainly entitled to his opinion, but there is no doubt that other artists – respected by him, or otherwise – have generated a significant amount of income for the prolific songwriter.

“You watch them as the fall
Oh baby, they all have heart attacks
They stay at the carnival
But they’ll never win you back” – Downtown Train (Tom Waits)

“Downtown Train” is a song from Waits’ 1985 album release Rain Dogs. The album was written and recorded while he was making his home in NYC, and there is no denying the New York grittiness inherent in each of the album’s selections. The lyrics of the song conjure a damp, shadowy urban nightscape, punctuated by the glare and roar of a night train, where the narrator waits to have his desperate desire and longing fulfilled by a perception that may be nothing more than an implausible apparition. But still he waits and asks the same question over and over.

“Will I see you tonight
On a downtown train?
Every night it’s just the same
You leave me lonely, now” – Downtown Train (Tom Waits)

“Downtown Train” soon drew the attention of other artists. Patty Smyth was the first to record the song, releasing her version in 1987. While Tom Waits had never had one of his own recordings crack the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Smyth’s cover rose to #95. Mary Chapin Carpenter included a version on her debut album, also released in 1987.

Patty Smyth
Mary Chapin Carpenter

Rod Stewart included the song as a last minute addition to his Storyteller anthology, a 4-disc boxed set with recordings spanning his entire career to that point. Stewart’s version of “Downtown Train” reached #3 on the Hot 100, with the anthology reaching #54 on the album charts, and being certified double platinum. It was a number-one single on the album rock and adult contemporary charts, went to number one in Canada and made the top ten on the UK Singles Chart in 1990. Stewart received a Grammy nomination for the song in the category Best Male Pop Vocal performance.

Rod Stewart
Bob Seger

Bob Seger recorded his own version of the song in 1989, but decided against releasing it after Stewart’s version hit the market. He would later include the track on his 2011 compilation Ultimate Hits: Rock and Roll Never Forgets.

I know that some are not necessarily fond of Rod Stewart’s cover of “Downtown Train”. It’s been criticized for being too pop; too overblown. I happen to be a fan of Rod’s version, particularly for the over-the-top production from Trevor Horn. It satisfies my pop sweet tooth, with a nod to Phil Spector’s “wall of sound” in the bridge. Being a fan of Rod’s voice, I can identify with the longing he portrays in the final chorus, as strains of the instrumental “train” fade away down the track.

But don’t let it be said that I am not a fan of Tom’s version. Nobody does stripped-down, urban angst as he does, playing the eccentric vagrant as no one can; and being a fan of film noir I love the imagery of Tom’s accompanying video (featuring a cameo from the Raging Bull himself, Jake LaMotta). The fact that other artists have covered the song with their own versions speaks to its ability to convey emotion, and being relatable to a wide and varied audience.

And there is no doubt that – good, bad, or indifferent – these various covers of Tom’s original songs have brought the song writer a considerable amount scratch!

“Will I see you tonight
On a downtown train?
All of my dreams just fall like rain
On a downtown train” – Downtown Train (Tom Waits) © Audiam, Inc

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Train

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/rod-stewart/downtown-train

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Waits

All photos sourced through internet searches, none belong to the author.

Railway Time

April 13, 2020 / C R Burgan

“Well I woke up this morning
And the sun refused to shine
I knew I’d leave my baby
With a troublin’ mind
It rains every morning
And evening is the same
And it’s gonna be a long time
‘Til I hear the 2:10 train” – 2:10 Train (Albertano / Campbell)

Ever since the dawn of human life on this planet brilliant minds have devised methods by which to measure the passage of time: tracking the sun, and other celestial bodies; counting the flow of sand through a narrow neck of glass; water clocks, candle clocks, and time sticks. But all of these practices left room for great variation, and time, or the measure of, was far from uniform.

Iron framed clock at Salisbury Cathedral, UK. Believed to be oldest mechanical clock in the world. From about 1386

Not until the early 14th century did mechanical time keepers appear; followed several hundred years later by the pendulum clock, and with the invention of the mainspring, portable clocks soon evolved into pocket watches.

But even as the more reliable timekeeping mechanisms of the Industrial Age allowed for the increasingly more accurate measure of time, there was still plenty of room for fluctuation from place to place, and the coming of the railroad introduced an immediate need for time standardization.

“Inside outside, leave me alone
Inside outside, nowhere is home
Inside outside, where have I been?
Out of my brain on the 5:15” – 5:15 (Pete Townshend)

In England, a standardized system known as Railway Time was first adopted by the Great Western Railway in November 1840. This was the first occasion in which local mean times were synchronized to a single standard time. Over the next several years Railway Time was progressively adopted by all the railway companies in Great Britain, and by 1855 the electric telegraph allowed for all stations along all railway lines throughout the country to be synchronized to Greenwich Mean Time.

Prior to the adoption of Railway Time, each town in England would synchronize their local time according to a public clock, usually located in the town square, courthouse, or church. Until the latter part of the 18th century these clocks were set by solar time, using a sundial. Understandably this left room for significant variance in time from town to town.

As travel in that period was often undertaken by foot, by horse, or by carriage, there were plenty of opportunities to make corrections during a journey, which could take many hours, or even days. As the onset of the railways considerably decreased the duration of travel to one’s destination, there was clearly a need to bring local times in line with each other.

While it may be easy for us today to see the sound judgment in having uniform time throughout a country, the railway companies initially encountered resistance in many towns, where it was not uncommon to find two different times displayed and in use. A railway station clock would often show a time that could differ by several minutes from other clocks in town. In spite of the early reluctance, Railway Time was soon adopted by the entire country, although the government did not legislate a single Standard Time and single time zone for Great Britain until 1880.

“I lost everything I had in the ’29 flood
The barn was buried ‘neath a mile of mud
Now I’ve got nothing but the whistle and the steam
My baby’s leaving town on the 2:19” – 2:19 (Brennan/Waits)

In New England, in August of 1853, two trains collided resulting in the death of 14 passengers. The trains were travelling towards each other on the same track, with the collision resulting from the individual train guards having different times set on their watches. Soon railway schedules were coordinated throughout New England, but numerous other accidents led to the need to set up a General Time Convention, which was a committee comprised of railway companies to agree on scheduling.

“I want to ride again
On the 3:10 to Yuma
That’s where I saw my love
The girl with the golden hair” – 3.10 to Yuma (Washington/ Dunning)

At Promontory Point in Utah, on May 10, 1869, a crowd had gathered to witness the driving of the final, ceremonial golden spike, which would join the Union Pacific & Central Pacific Railroads into what would become known as the transcontinental railroad. Telegraph wires had been attached to both the spike, and the maul that would be used to drive it. When the maul struck the spike, that exact moment in time would be transmitted along telegraph lines to those awaiting the news in cities throughout the US.

Gathering at noon, the crowd waited 45 minutes for Leland Stanford to raise the silver maul, and drive the golden spike. The moment was recorded as 12:45 p.m. at Promontory Point, 12:30 p.m. in Virginia City, both 11:44 and 11:46 a.m. in San Francisco, and 2:47 p.m. in Washington D.C.

At the time that the two railroads were joined to form the transcontinental railroad, more than 8,000 towns were using their own local time over 53,000 miles of track that had been laid across the United States.

“Eight-oh-five
I guess you’re leaving soon
I can’t go on without you
Its useless to try

Eight-oh-five
I guess you’re leaving…goodbye” – 8:05 (Laura Anne Stevenson)

In the mid-19th century US, three types of time measurements were used: natural time, local time, and railroad time. Natural time was measured by tracking the movement of the sun throughout the day; local time used synchronized astronomical time, based on the meridian of a specific location; railroad time was kept in the city where the line originated. As railroads expanded and distances increased this practice became cumbersome and difficult to calculate. In the 1860s eighty different timetables were in use in the US, creating a burdensome task for passengers needing to connect between various rail lines.

Cleveland Abbe, who in 1871 was appointed chief meteorologist at the United States Weather Bureau, subsequently divided the continental United States into four standard time zones, in order to institute a time-keeping system that was consistent between the nation’s weather stations. In 1879 he published a paper titled Report on Standard Time, and in 1883 was successful in convincing the General Time Convention and North American railroad companies to adopt his time-zone system, replacing the 50 different railway times that were then in use.

Surely it would seem the wisdom of this standardized system is self-evident, but there were many smaller towns and cities that were opposed to the adoption of Railway Time. An 1883 report in the Indianapolis Daily Sentinel complained that people would have to “eat, sleep, work … and marry by railroad time”. However, with the support of nearly all railway companies, most cities, and nationally influential scientific institutions, Standard Railway Time was introduced in the United States at noon on November 18, 1883.

Through the ensuing decades Railway Time became a trusted standard, generally accepted as being highly reliable and accurate; departure and arrival times became an embodiment of train lore as much as any other aspect of railroading. Why even bother writing a song about it if you were not fairly certain that your train would be on time?

“5:15, I’m changing trains
This little town, let me down
This foreign rain brings me down

“5:15, train overdue
Angels have gone, no ticket
I’m jumping tracks, I’m changing time” – 5:15 (The Angels Have Gone) David Bowie

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_time

https://railroad.lindahall.org/essays/time-standardization.html

All photos sourced through internet searches, none belong to the author.

A Train Can’t Bring Me Home

March 2, 2020 / C R Burgan

“Well I broke down in East St. Louis, on the Kansas City line
Drunk up all my money that I borrowed every time
And I fell down at the derby, the night’s black as a crow
It was a train that took me away from here
But a train can’t bring me home” – Train Song (Thomas A. Waits) © Audiam, Inc

In the late 1980s – early 1990s I was working a job in the Coachella Valley of Southern California. My place of employment was almost exactly 50 miles from my home. Having been given by a friend a homemade cassette tape that included Tom Waits’ Small Change on one side, and Swordfish Trombones on the other, I had discovered that if I began the Small Change (total length of album: 48 min, 29 sec) side of the tape just as I was departing work, the album’s final song, “I Can’t Wait to Get Off Work”, would be playing as I entered my driveway and parked in front of my garage. This soon became a weekly ritual for me; my “TGIF” celebration as I drove home, paycheck in hand, leaving my job and workweek behind for a couple of days.

Small Change was Tom Waits’ third studio album. Recorded direct to two-track stereo tape in July 1976, and released later that same year, the album’s eleven tracks featured some of Waits’ best lyrical work to date. With Waits on piano and vocals, the album included the talents of Shelly Manne on drums, Jim Hughart on bass, and some delectable tenor saxophone work from the legendary Lew Tabackin. Along with a number of brilliant string arrangements by Jerry Yester, the release has been described as “beatnik-glory-meets-Hollywood-noir”.

Even someone with only a passing familiarity with the music of Tom Waits would likely agree that he is not the easiest of artists to sing along with. I’ve learned that for me the pursuit typically results in a sore throat. So, my Friday afternoon drive time was spent listening to Tom’s philosophical ruminations of urban life’s seamier side, as I contemplated my impending weekend. It wasn’t long before my weekly immersion in Small Change, led me to wade deeper into Waits’ catalog of recordings.

Although Small Change doesn’t really include any direct references to trains, it didn’t take long for me to recognize that trains & rail travel are familiar imagery in Tom Waits’ lyrical compositions. Not only has he penned songs dealing specifically with trains (e.g., “Train Song”, “Downtown Train”, “2:19”), but many of his songs include one or more lines referring to trains and/or traveling by rail.

In fact, further sleuthing led to an internet site listing more than 40 of Waits’ songs that contain references to trains, including:

“I come into town on a night train with an arm full of boxcar/ On the wings of a magpie cross a hooligan night” – Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard (Blue Valentine)

“Just put a church key in your pocket we’ll hop that freight train in the hall / We’ll slide all the way down the drain to New Orleans in the fall” – Kentucky Avenue (Blue Valentine)

“He went down, down, down and the devil called him by name / He went down, down, down hangin’ onto the back of a train” – Down, Down, Down (Swordfish Trombones)

“And they all pretend they’re Orphans and their memory’s like a train / You can see it getting smaller as it pulls away” – Time (Rain Dogs)

“I lived on nothing but dreams and train smoke” – Pony (Mule Variations)

Trains have been featured in popular music for as long as trains have existed. Sometimes the reference is literal, but often the train is used in a metaphorical sense. Train travel can signify deliverance, or transportation to a better life. The depiction of a locomotive barreling under a full head of steam may suggest loss of control. And there is likely no confusion what the railroad term “sidetracked” implies when used as a figure of speech.

Train imagery can also indicate transience. A quick perusal of Tom Waits’ life may find evidence of a significant amount of roving, and plainly his songs are populated by vagabonds and wanderers, whether autobiographical or otherwise. Waits once stated, “I don’t like the stigma that comes with being called a poet– so I call what I’m doing an improvisational adventure or an inebriational travelogue, and all of a sudden it takes on a whole new form and meaning”.

“What made my dreams so hollow, was standing at the depot
With a steeple full of swallows that could never ring the bell
And I’ve come ten thousand miles away, not one thing to show
It was a train that took me away from here
But a train can’t bring me home” – Train Song (Waits)

“A steeple full of swallows that could never ring the bell”, is a favorite line from Waits’ “Train Song”.

The song appears on his ninth studio album, Frank’s Wild Years, which is a collection of songs written for a play of the same name, and released in 1987. Waits starred as the eponymous lead character, Frank, for a three-month period in 1985, when the play was produced by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater Company.

While I’m not absolutely clear on the play’s plot, “Train Song” appears near the end of the album’s side two, which makes the song’s final repeated line, “It was a train that took me away from here/ But a train can’t bring me home”, somewhat telling.

Many of Tom Waits’ songs – diehard fans may consider this blasphemy – often sound better when recorded by other artists. That being said, my favorite recording of “Train Song” is a live rendition by Canadian singer Holly Cole, recorded in Montreal and released on Cole’s 1996 album, It Happened One Night. Guitarist Kevin Breit uses his instrument to create train sound effects that, along with David Piltch’s throbbing bass and the spare percussion parts, lend Waits’ classic train song a haunting, ethereal quality.

Not that Tom’s version of the song doesn’t possess a haunting and ethereal quality of its own. It absolutely does, and I would not take anything away from his original recording. But as a lover of music and song, I appreciate being able to enjoy further interpretations of an artist’s work. On that subject, I believe that I will in a future blog post, shine the spotlight on another of Waits’ train songs, recorded by a number of different artists.

Until then . . .

“I remember when I left without bothering to pack
Don’t you know I up and left with just the clothes I had on my back
Now I’m sorry for what I’ve done and I’m out here on my own
It was a train that took me away from here
But a train can’t bring me home
It was a train that took me away from here
But a train can’t bring me home” – Train Song (Waits)

Sources:

http://www.tomwaitsfan.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8993

http://www.tomwaits.com/wit/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Waits

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franks_Wild_Years

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Change_(Tom_Waits_album)

All photos sourced through internet searches, none belong to the author.