Tom Waits - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 10-8-1974

The flood of Ebbets Field radio broadcasts continues. Here's a solo acoustic one from singer-songwriter Tom Waits.

I've found over 60 different concert recordings that come from the Ebbets Field venue. Out of all of those, I think only one where I have two performances by the same musical act from different dates is Tom Waits. I found this one, from 1974, and another one from 1975 that I'll be posting later.

The debut album by Waits, "Closing Time," was released in 1973. His second album, "The Heart of Saturday Night," came out on October 15, 1974. That's one week after this concert. So if someone attending this concert was only familiar with the "Closing Time" album, they wouldn't have known most of the songs. Only four songs performed where from that album (tracks 1, 7, 16, and 19). The rest would be included on his second album, or other later albums. One song, "Good Night Loving Trail," is a cover written by Utah Phillips, which Waits has never officially released.

There's a bootleg called "The Dime Store Novels, Vol. 1" that consists of this concert. It's packaged like an official release, and it seems it's widely available. However, it is still just a bootleg. (And there doesn't seem to be any "Vol. 2.")

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.  

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 I Hope that I Don't Fall in Love with You (Tom Waits)
02 talk (Tom Waits)
03 San Diego Serenade (Tom Waits)
04 Good Night Loving Trail (Tom Waits)
05 talk (Tom Waits)
06 Diamonds on My Windshield (Tom Waits)
07 Ice Cream Man (Tom Waits)
08 Please Call Me Baby (Tom Waits)
09 talk (Tom Waits)
10 Better Off without a Wife (Tom Waits)
11 The Ghosts of Saturday Night [After Hours at Napoleone's Pizza House] (Tom Waits)
12 Big Joe and Phantom 309 [Phantom 309] (Tom Waits)
13 talk (Tom Waits)
14 Semi Suite (Tom Waits)
15 talk (Tom Waits)
16 Ol' 55 (Tom Waits)
17 On a Foggy Night (Tom Waits)
18 talk (Tom Waits)
19 Martha (Tom Waits)
20 talk by emcee (Tom Waits) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/12bMyFNx

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/P7SQOo94iYaX8Z2/file

The cover image is a promo photo from 1973. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program.

Covered: Tom Waits, Volume 4: 2013-2023 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here's the fourth and last album in the Covered series celebrating the songs of Tom Waits by collecting cover versions.

Once again, I have to thank Fabio from Rio for being the prime mover behind putting these Waits albums together. He selected a large number of songs, and I narrowed it down to a reasonable amount. And one again, Fabio was nice enough to do the write up. So, take it away, Fabio:

--- 

Waits released his last studio record to date ("Bad as Me") in 2011. His later works revisit all earlier phases in fragmented, refined form. Waits alternates tender ballads with abrasive rhythm experiments, presenting a distilled, self-aware summary of his artistic language rather than a new stylistic break.

This last volume with performances from the 2010s and 2020s is mostly filled with female voices, hinting that, musically, Waits has become something of a ladies' man — at least for a younger generation of singers.

Here again we have a wild range of different styles, from forties-like doo-wop (Ice Cream Man) to eighties-drum-machine-electro-pop ("All Stripped Down"), from jazz and blues rock ("Fumblin' with the Blues", "Shore Leave") to americana and alt-country ("Walk Away", "Blue Skies").

We will also find adult contemporary ("In-Between Love"), dark cabaret ("Little Drop of Poison", "Starving in the Belly of a Whale"), R&B ("Such a Scream"), and confessional ballad ("Martha") in the mix.

Tom Jones makes "Bad as Me" his own. "Emotional Weather Report" is a deep cut taken from the little-known jazz and spoken-word Waits seventies album "Nighthawks on the Radio", which highlights Tom Waits' deadpan humor. 

Other standouts are Rosanne Cash's "Time" and Aimee Mann's version for "Hold On" - which kind of reminded me, in spirit if not in sound, of the acappella version sung by Emily Kinney as Beth Greene in "The Walking Dead" - one of the most poignant moments of the entire series(*). 

(*) You can check it out (along with Tom Waits' original version) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNeGLUAUbgQ&list=RDGNeGLUAUbgQ 

---

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 Walk Away (Steel Wheels)
02 Bad as Me (Tom Jones)
03 Emotional Weather Report (Marissa Mulder)
04 All Stripped Down (Lisa Bassenge)
05 Ice Cream Man (Hazelnuts)
06 Blue Skies (Lisa Bassenge)
07 In Between Love (Jennifer Porter)
08 Such a Scream (Good Paper of Rev. Rob Mortimer)
09 Fumblin' with the Blues (Natascha & the Spy Boys)
10 Little Drop of Poison (Ellie Gunn and the Firethornes)
11 Hold On (Aimee Mann)
12 Time (Rosanne Cash)
13 Starving in the Belly of a Whale (Belladone)
14 Martha (Jackie Greene)
15 Shore Leave (Nickel)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QwFCJsny 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/qn4qIm97mvtE5WO/file

The cover photo is a screenshot I took from a video of an interview he did around 2020.

Covered: Tom Waits, Volume 3: 2004-2012 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here's "Volume 3" out of four volumes made for the "Covered" series, showcasing the songs of Tom Waits.

Like the other volumes in this series, this was mostly put together by Fabio from Rio. He did all the heavy lifting in finding the source material, and I only helped to winnow down the songs to a reasonable number. Fabio also wrote the notes for each volume, so here's his notes for this one:

In the nineties and early 2000s, Waits fused experimental sounds with stark American roots music—blues, gospel, field hollers, and folk. Themes of death, sin, redemption, and rural myth dominate. This allows for covers that, while highlighting their folk or country origins (sometimes deeply buried at the original recordings, but more perceptible when reinterpreted by performers from diverse backgrounds), still keep their darker spirits through melancholic or nihilistic lyrics.

In this volume, the country side of Waits' music is quite perceptible via covers by Elvis Costello, Norah Jones, and Claudia Bettinaglio. One may also feel the sexiness and smoky-room cabaret ambiance at Diana Krall's "Temptation", Monique Maion's "Walking Spanish," and Clara Bellino's "Swordfishtrombone." 

Traces of rockabilly and R&B can be found with Mark Lemhouse's "No One Can Forgive Me" and English seventies folk with Plant and Krauss' "Trampled Rose", along with blues and rock tracks like Hart and Bonamassa's "Chocolate Jesus" and Goldheart Assembly's "Clap Hands." Overall, this makes for an eclectic selection, much like the average Tom Waits album. An acoustic, home-demo-like version of "In the Neighborhood" by Peter Gabriel, recorded in 2012 for a benefit album for war-torn regions, closes the volume on a poignant note.

--- 

This album is 57 minutes long. 

01 Innocent When You Dream (Elvis Costello)
02 Temptation (Diana Krall)
03 Long Way Home (Norah Jones)
04 Big in Japan (Shane Nicholson)
05 Swordfishtrombone (Clara Bellino)
06 Eyeball Kid (Michael Stanley)
07 Cold Cold Ground (Claudia Bettinaglio)
08 Trampled Rose (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
09 All the Time in the World (Southside Johnny)
10 No One Can Forgive Me (Mark Lemhouse)
11 Walking Spanish (Monique Maion)
12 Chocolate Jesus (Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa)
13 Clap Hands (Goldheart Assembly)
14 In the Neighborhood (Peter Gabriel)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/yUHGi7qy 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/i96wIB252GpXMcV/file

The cover photo shows Waits at a movie premiere in Leicester Square, in London, on October 6, 2009. (As usual with this series of course, I replaced the background with blank light blue).

Covered: Tom Waits, Volume 2: 1994-2004 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here's the second Covered volume for Tom Waits. Like the Covered albums made for other musical acts, the talent of a songwriter is shown through cover versions, rather than that person performing their own songs.

And like the rest of this series for Waits, most of the heavy lifting in making this album is thanks to Fabio from Rio. He basically found a zillion Waits covers, then whittled them down to his favorites. That was still a very large number, so I then listened to them and whittled them down a lot more.

Fabio also answered my request to do the write-ups for each album in this series. So here's what he had to say about this one. And thanks, Fabio, for all your work on these albums. Take it away:

--- 

Around the mid-1980s, Waits began to break away from conventional arrangements. The music became more percussive and raw, foreshadowing a major stylistic shift. This period marks the end of his "classic singer-songwriter" phase and the start of a more radical artistic reinvention. Waits embraced experimental instrumentation, junkyard percussion, polyrhythms, and global folk influences. His work became deeply theatrical, influenced by Brecht, Weill, and his collaborations with his wife Kathleen Brennan. Songs feel like surreal street operas populated by grotesques and dreamers. This second volume includes mostly songs from that period.

The best known cover here is probably "Way Down in the Hole," due to its use in the HBO series "The Wire." (The Blind Boys from Alabama's version was used as the first season opening music, and other versions were selected for the remaining four seasons, including Waits' own original version.) Norah Jones' delicate outtake "Picture in a Frame" also got some recognition, especially after its inclusion in special editions of her breakthrough album "Come Away With Me."

"I Don't Wanna Grow Up" sounds so natural in the Ramones' catalog that many listeners assume it is an original. It was used as the opening track and first single of their last studio album. Waits' version (from the excellent 1992 album "Bone Machine") is way darker. 

"Little Boy Blue" was only performed by Waits in the movie "One from the Heart." Here we have a bluesy version by jazz singer and pianist Holly Cole. Other highlights of the volume include Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "Whistling Past the Graveyard" and John Hammond's "Big Black Mariah" (which is taken from an album he did fully dedicated to Waits songs). 

On the mellower side, there are soft-sounding melodic folk versions by Shawn Colvin and Valerie Carter that prove Waits can write poignant ballads. Overall, another very nice flowing album with well performed covers that honor Waits' music.

--- 

This album is 58 minutes long. 

01 The Heart of Saturday Night (Shawn Colvin)
02 Whistling Past the Graveyard (Screamin' Jay Hawkins)
03 16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought Six (Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band)
04 I Don't Want to Grow Up (Ramones)
05 Better Off without a Wife (Pete Shelley)
06 Little Boy Blue (Holly Cole)
07 Whistle Down the Wind (Valerie Carter)
08 The Briar and the Rose (Niamh Parsons)
09 Dirt in the Ground (Christine Collister)
10 Heartattack and Vine (Popa Chubby)
11 Invitation to the Blues (Jennifer Warnes)
12 Big Black Mariah (John Hammond)
13 Picture in a Frame (Norah Jones)
14 Way Down in the Hole (Blind Boys from Alabama)
15 Jockey Full of Bourbon (Los Lobos)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zUDkHa5i

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/2nAIGV2f2Rq1n6p/file

The cover photo was taken in San Francisco in 2002.

Covered: Tom Waits, Volume 1: 1973-1994 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

It's high time I post more for the "Covered" series, highlighting great singer-songwriters. This time, we're looking at the songs of Tom Waits. Enough material has been found for four volumes. Here's the first one. As with all albums in this series, the focus is on cover versions, instead of versions done by the songwriter.

First off, I've gotta say I wouldn't be posting this now had it not been for the help of musical friend Fabio from Rio. It was he who suggested making Covered albums for Waits. I would have wanted to tackle him eventually, but that probably would have been well into the future. I have an issue with Waits: I can't stand his voice. As a result, even though it's easy for me to see he's a very talented songwriter, I haven't been that familiar with his songs. But Fabio is a big fan. He sent me literally hundreds of Waits cover versions, with recommendations on the best ones. I went through that and narrowed it down quite a lot. Hopefully this will make a strong collection that can turn the curious on to Waits' music.

Fabio from Rio helped with all aspects of putting this together. He even wrote the write-ups for the four volumes for Waits. So first I'm posting the relevant Wikipedia page:

Tom Waits - Wikipedia 

And now, take it away, Fabio (and a big thanks to him for all his work on this!):

For the general public, Tom Waits is "that guy with the raspy wino voice and the weird songs. Wasn't he one of the convicted fellows in that offbeat Jim Jarmusch movie?" A few music aficionados may also know him as the writer of songs like Springsteen's "Jersey Girl" or Rod Stewart's "Downtown Train", but that is usually where the story ends.

What many are not aware of is that Waits is widely recognized by his peers and by musical experts as an exceptional and influential songwriter. He is praised for his unique voice, vivid storytelling, poetic lyrics, and innovative musical style that blends genres like blues, jazz, vaudeville, and experimental rock. Waits is also known for creating three-dimensional characters and detailed narratives, often exploring life on the fringes. His lyrics are celebrated for their specificity, humor, melancholy, and ability to evoke strong moods, often drawing comparisons to Beat poets and Mark Twain.

Waits is a "songwriters' songwriter," with songs covered by literally hundreds of artists, many of them great composers themselves. He has been subject to many tributes. While searching for tracks for that project, I collected about three dozen different albums fully dedicated to his songs, and around 400 assorted covers, adding up to almost 1,200 tracks and 80-plus hours of music!

I initially selected about 220 different tunes (an almost fully comprehensive "Tom Waits songbook" that would comprise about 15 hours) which Paul wisely helped reduce to around 60 tracks across four volumes. We could have another four or eight volumes with additional top-notch Tom Waits songs - there is enough quality material for that - but I feel this reduced version is just the right size for a first dive into Tom Waits vast catalog. I hope you enjoy it!

Some listeners may find Waits' music difficult to approach due to his peculiar tone (which, contrary to popular belief, was not destroyed by booze and cigarettes, but was conscientiously cultivated as a vocal persona, as he mentioned in some interviews). The fact that some of his more experimental work sounds like monkeys loose in a crystal store doesn't help either. For those, a "Covered" collection focusing on his more melodic output is a great starting point, where one may discover the essence of Waits' music (often through soothing, frequently female, voices).

This first volume includes performances from a long range of years (1973 to 1994), but most of the songs here were composed during Waits' early and middle phases (the seventies and early eighties). His first albums feature piano-led ballads, romantic melancholy, and a relatively smooth, crooning voice. The character is that of a late-night drifter, nostalgic and tender. As his career progressed, Waits' voice grew tougher (both literally and figuratively) and his narratives darker and more cinematic. His late seventies and early eighties albums introduced sardonic humor, social misfits, and a sharper sense of irony, while still rooted in jazz, blues, and cabaret traditions.

Waits started as a folk singer/songwriter in the early seventies, with heavy jazz influences, when his voice was still not so rough. You can hear this in the first selection of this collection, "Rosie," from his 1973 first album. It's the only song in these four volumes that is the composer's own interpretation. He also first caught the ear of the public with an early cover of "Ol' 55" by The Eagles (which we skipped in favor of Sarah McLachlan's 1993 version, which both Paul and myself prefer). Other famous interpreters at the first volume are Johnny Cash and Marianne Faithfull (with songs Tom composed specifically for them), and also 10,000 Maniacs, Elvis Costello, Crystal Gayle and Canned Heat, which showcases the full range of styles and performers reached by Waits' compositions.

---

Thanks again, Fabio. I'll just add that there were only a few cases where Waits wrote hit songs, so we weren't tied down much by that factor. ("Downtown Train" is probably his biggest hit, thanks to the 1989 Rod Stewart version, included here.) And often, his songs didn't get a lot of covers until many years after they were written. So if you don't see some of his songs you really like from this era, wait before you judge. There's a good chance those songs could show up on one of the later volumes.

This album is 54 minutes long. 

01 Rosie (Tom Waits)
02 Foreign Affair (Manhattan Transfer)
03 Jersey Girl (Bruce Springsteen)
04 Is There Any Way Out of This Dream (Crystal Gayle)
05 I Hope that I Don't Fall in Love with You (10,000 Maniacs)
06 Strange Weather (Marianne Faithfull)
07 Downtown Train (Rod Stewart)
08 Gun Street Girl (Canned Heat)
09 San Diego Serenade (Nanci Griffith)
10 Tom Traubert's Blues [Waltzing Matilda] (Rod Stewart)
11 More than Rain (Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet)
12 Ol' 55 (Sarah McLachlan)
13 Down There by the Train (Johnny Cash)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FBZaqvMS

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/IJ5fbwJ3YDrAHXl/file

The cover photo was taken in Chicago, Illinois, on May 30, 1986.

Tom Waits and Mose Allison - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 8-12-1975

Here's an interesting episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. It's really two concerts in one: a short set by Tom Waits and then another short set by Mose Allison. I did a little research and confirmed that Waits and Allison performed on the same stage on the same day, due to a comment by Waits that he was excited to be taking part in the same show as Allison, one of his musical heroes. However, there's nothing here that has them together on stage as the same time. (That's why I'm using "and" in the title instead of "&," to try to convey the two acts weren't linked.)

Waits gets the top billing here, because his section is considerably longer, 36 minutes compared to 21 minutes. However, video footage confirms that Waits was the opening act. At the time of the concert, Waits was recording his third solo album, "Nighthawks at the Diner." It would be released a few months later, in October 1975, which was probably around the time this episode was broadcast. Three songs, " Eggs and Sausage (In a Cadillac with Susan Michelson)," "Better Off without a Wife," and "Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)," are from that album. The rest are from his previous album, "The Heart of Saturday Night."

While Waits was in an early stage of his music career, Mose Allison was already about 50 years old and a much respected music veteran. Personally, I like his music, so I'm glad I finally have an excuse to post something from him. His music combined blues and jazz, and his songwriting had a quirky sense of humor. (He died in 2016 at the age of 89.) Here's his Wikipedia entry, if you want to know more:

Mose Allison - Wikipedia 

Unfortunately, if you watch the Mose Allison portion of this concert on YouTube, as I did, you can tell this recording is not complete. He was just starting a new song when the credits rolled and the show came to an end. There was only a little bit of that song, not enough to even identify what it was. So I just cut that off and added some extra applause to the end of the previous song to give this album a fitting ending. 

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Eggs and Sausage [In a Cadillac with Susan Michelson] (Tom Waits)
02 Semi Suite (Tom Waits)
03 Diamonds on My Windshield (Tom Waits)
04 Drunk on the Moon (Tom Waits)
05 Better Off without a Wife (Tom Waits)
06 Nighthawk Postcards [From Easy Street] (Tom Waits)
07 [Looking For] The Heart of Saturday Night (Tom Waits)
08 San Diego Serenade (Tom Waits)
09 If You Going to the City (Mose Allison)
10 Everybody's Crying Mercy (Mose Allison)
11 Your Molecular Structure (Mose Allison)
12 Swingin' Machine (Mose Allison)
13 How Much Truth (Mose Allison)
14 Your Mind Is on Vacation (Mose Allison)
15 I Don't Worry about a Thing (Mose Allison)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/URwxbg1H

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/QGtuyZjk2LeP8mY/file

The cover photo of Tom Waits is from this exact concert. I took a screenshot from a YouTube video. Since it was low-res, I ran it through the Krea AI program, sharpening it up some.

Tom Waits - VH-1 Storytellers, Burbank Airport, Los Angeles, CA, 4-1-1999

The "VH-1 Storytellers" flood continues with an episode featuring singer-songwriter Tom Waits.

I have conflicted opinions about Waits. On one hand, I really don't like his voice, which I feel is part of a deliberately constructed persona where he's trying to be a character in a Charles Bukowski novel. But on the other hand, I can't deny he's a talented songwriter, and I enjoy his songs when other people sing them. Given that, I wasn't really looking forward to prepping this album. But it was better than I'd expected. A big part of that is there's a lot of banter, and his talking is entertaining without the singing vocals problem I have with him.

One nice thing about the Storytellers album is that the episodes were typically only about 45 minutes long, but a good portion of them are bootlegs that are a lot longer. This is one such case. The soundboard bootleg I found was nearly two hours long, but I cut out a little bit of dead air here and there. I also removed a song or two that were redone because the producers of the show weren't happy with the first version for some reason or another.

At the time of this concert, Waits was just about to release "Mule Variations," his first studio album in six years. It would come out two weeks later. Rolling Stone Magazine would later include it in their list of the top 500 albums of all time. A few songs were played from it: "Chocolate Jesus," "Get Behind the Mule," "Hold On," "Picture in a Frame," "House Where Nobody Lives," and "What's He Building." This is mostly performed in solo acoustic mode.

This album is an hour and 44 minutes long.

01 talk (Tom Waits)
02 Tango 'till They're Sore (Tom Waits)
03 talk (Tom Waits)
04 Hang Down Your Head (Tom Waits)
05 talk (Tom Waits)
06 Ol' 55 (Tom Waits)
07 talk (Tom Waits)
08 Strange Weather (Tom Waits)
09 talk (Tom Waits)
10 Hold On [False Start] (Tom Waits)
11 Hold On (Tom Waits)
12 talk (Tom Waits)
13 Picture in a Frame (Tom Waits)
14 talk (Tom Waits)
15 I Can't Wait to Get Off Work (Tom Waits)
16 talk (Tom Waits)
17 House Where Nobody Lives (Tom Waits)
18 Get Behind the Mule Intro (Tom Waits)
19 Get Behind the Mule (Tom Waits)
20 talk (Tom Waits)
21 Chocolate Jesus (Tom Waits)
22 talk (Tom Waits)
23 What's He Building (Tom Waits)
24 talk (Tom Waits)
25 A Little Rain (Tom Waits)
26 talk (Tom Waits)
27 Downtown Train (Tom Waits)
28 talk (Tom Waits)
29 Black Wings (Tom Waits)
30 talk (Tom Waits)
31 Jesus Gonna Be Here (Tom Waits)
32 talk (Tom Waits)
33 Jersey Girl (Tom Waits)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/9Yg98Z61 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/pkgZMfAsTlgccJH/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/egFMe

The cover photo is from a concert at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, on March 20, 1999, just a couple of weeks prior to this concert.