‘Small Change’ by Tom Waits turns fifty this year. To celebrate the landmark occasion a new vinyl re-issue of the album will be available on 2nd October.
Pre-order it HERE.
Uniquely combining elements of the great American songbook, jazz, beat poetry, vivid storytelling and his own modern sensibility, ‘Small Change’ was the high watermark of Waits’ 70s period, with classic songs like “Tom Traubert’s Blues“, “Step Right Up” and “The Piano Has Been Drinking“. This is also the record where Tom’s now iconic voice reached full maturity.
Upon the album’s original release in the autumn of 1976, Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times declared: [Waits] “has not only fulfilled the promise of his early work, but extended it in a way that makes him one of America’s most valuable pop performers,” and that “by refusing to stay in the safe mould of his first two albums, he enriched his art.” In a 1976 interview following the release of his third album, Waits reflected on the storytelling roots behind his evolving style, tracing his songs back to his days working the door at a local nightclub and eavesdropping in late-night diners:
“I got a job as doorman at a night club in L.A., and I listened to all the acts from the door. I heard bluegrass, comics, folk singers, string bands. At the same time, I was picking up people’s conversations in all-night coffee shops—ambulance drivers, cabdrivers, street sweepers. I did research there as an evening curator, and I started writing—gingerly. I thought at some point I’d like to forge it all into something meaningful and give it dignity.”
Watch a much-loved clip of Waits performing “The Piano Has Been Drinking” on Martin Mull’s legendary late 70s TV show Fernwood Tonight
Included in Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Song Writers of All Time and a 2011 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Waits is a legendary artist who explored the full canon of American and European songwriting – from folk to jazz to blues and gospel to cabaret and spoken word – all in service of his experience of the human condition from every rung of the ladder. He has a voice and eye so singular that ‘Waitsian’ has become an adjective used by critics and dictionaries to describe his aesthetic and style.
Last month Waits shared “The Fly”, a spoken word track in which Waits wields his whipsaw humour in this satirical ode to the common housefly. The track expresses a begrudging admiration for the brief unsung life of the insect: “You have no house, well you have mine / You have no real friends, stay away from the wine / House fly go to sleep say goodbye, no one will weep when you die.” LISTEN HERE.
PRE-ORDER ‘SMALL CHANGE’ VINYL RE-ISSUE HERE
