Friday, October 14, 2022

A LOOSE THREAD, A GREAT EXCUSE


It's game three of the Padres/Dodgers division series. Yeah, I'm distracted. I've been meaning to post some early Tom Waits and, since he was at one time a local  (in the photo above outside the original location of Folk Arts on Washington Street), it's a good enough. The first two songs are Southern California-centric. "San Diego Serenade" is, obviously, and "Diamond On My Windshield" is about driving north, name checking first Oceanside (roughly 60 miles up the road) and then San Clemente and the Orange Drive-In (which may not exist anymore). Regardless of locale, all of these songs are favorite early Waits tunes. It's crazy how his stuff evolved after the early eighties, when he started getting a little weirder. Then again, he's always his his own style. Even with his early stuff he was wildly different from his contemporaries, not the least because of his gravel voice. While the Eagles (who covered his "Ol' 55" on an early LP) were singing about peaceful easy feelings, Waits was singing about pasties and G-strings.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~ 
Listen:
Tom Waits - San Diego Serenade mp3
at Internet Archive
Tom Waits - Diamond On My Windshield mp3
at Internet Archive
Tom Waits - Step Right Up mp3
at Internet Archive
Tom Waits - Martha mp3
at Internet Archive
Tom Waits - Ol' 55 mp3
at Internet Archive
Tom Waits - Shiver Me Timbers mp3
at Internet Archive

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