Albums for Life: 4: Leonard Cohen: Songs of Leonard Cohen

If it be your will that I speak no more

And my voice be still as it was before,
I will speak no more.
I shall abide until
I am spoken for,
If it be your will.
If it be your will that a voice be true,
From this broken hill I will sing to you.
From this broken hill all your praises they shall ring.

If it be your will to let me sing.

For someone whose singing voice seems commanded by God, it's odd that Leonard Cohen didn't see fit to record his debut until 1967, well into his 30s. He was already a noted literary figure in Canada so why did he choose to sing? The story goes that he went to a Bob Dylan concert in Montreal in 1967.

"This guy is so bad." he was reputed to have said "If that son of a bitch can make a living singing then so can I."

With this album Cohen commenced upon a lifetime's quest to articulate his romantic and personal life through poetry and music. He trod a similar path to Joni Mitchell; both are restless visionaries who recognize the wonders and mysteries of life. If they shared a t shirt it would say "There are more questions than answers". Joni once cited Leonard, her one time lover, as the only outside influence on her work besides Dylan. "Those two are my pacesetters'." Hard to believe but... They first met at the Newport Folk Festival in 1967. Both restless souls, they shared a wanderlust but also a soft spot for nostalgia:

'We're poets because we're such reminiscent kind of people. I love Leonard's sentiments, so I've been strongly influenced by him."

After their break up she mocked his influence and use of religious imagery, dismissing him as  'a holy man on the FM radio". Later she seemed a little more conciliatory, acknowledging his influence again in 'A Case of You':

You said 'love is touching souls'

Surely you touched mine

'Cause part of you pours out of me

In these lines from time to time.

'You're in my blood like holy wine" again recognises his familiar themes of sex and religion.

Although she later dismissed Cohen as a 'boudoir poet' she confessed "I'll always love some of Leonard's writing. He owns the words 'naked body', that's his. I don't think that he can write a song without using 'naked body'.

Stark naked kind of describes this affair. There's an austerity, even bleakness to the debut album that Cohen had to fight hard for. Producer John Simon wanted strings and horns. Len was right of course; I love the musical austerity, there's not a wasted note or word, making vital the intrusion of anything other than the voice and nylon stringed guitar.

The literary quality of Cohen's work has held me in awe ever since I first heard this album; if I had to define its tone, I'd go for 'erotic melancholy'. 

I'd love this record if only for that one famous line from Suzanne:

"and she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China"

I once taught a girl who swore that 'Suzanne' was her mother.

Maybe she meant Marianne...

Wisdom has it that the sexy, intelligent, neurotic heroine is in fact Joni.

Who could deny that when Cohen sings:

While Suzanne holds the mirror
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that you can trust her
For she's touched your perfect body with her mind

A traveller, a worldly man, a master of Zen, a student of Islam, Cohen's grace and fierce intelligence as the "poet of existential despair" , the 'patron saint of the sacred and the secular' continues to astound. Though his wisdom seems ancient and all encompassing, the modesty of his musical template ensures that he always hits his target; Bullseye! He can make the complex simple, he can render the mundane profound. And so he continues his journey, spiritually engaged, yet full of red blooded wit. Who wrote the line "You fucking whore, I thought that you were really interested in music. I thought your heart was somewhat sorrowful' and edited it down to 'but you don't really care for music, do you?'

Why, laughing Len of course. He also wrote the uncomfortable "Let your mercy spill on all these burning hearts in hell, if it be your will to make us well." He seems understandably preoccupied with death and redemption of late, although there's still enough juice in the old fella for him to be regularly chastised for goosing his ever present female backing singers...  

I always have two books in my travel: a Raymond Carver collection 'Where I'm Calling From' and an Everyman Pocket Poet Collection of Leonard Cohen's work.

The following quotation appears on the title page of all of Everyman's Library volumes. It's a quotation from the medieval play Everyman in which the character of Knowledge says:

Everyman, 

I will go with thee

And be thy guide,

In thy most need 

To go by thy side.

The final words in the collection are Cohen's:

So let's drink to when it's over

And let's drink to when we meet

I'll be standing on this corner

Where there used to be a street

Yup, if you're looking for a challenging but reliable drinking partner, Len's your man. 

He is surely not Everyman, but he never disappoints, he's a trusty companion for life; he has always delivered, from that early promise to his more recent realizations. 

He's more relevant to me now than he was back in the early 70s, when I first heard this stark, haunting debut. I'm older now. I still don't understand everything he's telling me but I'm getting there...

He's a writer, a poet, a singer, a lover, a teacher and, in so many ways, he remains The Master.

In Cassidy's Care: Reviews: Let's Get Ready to Rock

Please click here to read Jason Ritchie's review of 'In Cassidy's Care' for 'Let's Get Ready to Rock'.

My Top Ten: Bazza

Barry Cross runs his own design company.
He's a very talented designer.

Hot Cross Designs.
Have a look here...

Bazza designed the covers for my two solo albums 'Hopeland' and 'Keepers'.
We first met after he sent me a fantastic fanzine 'Tune In' that he'd designed for Miracle Mile.

His first ever job (unpaid) for us was the diary insert for 'Glow'.
'In Cassidy's Care' is his first cover for Miracle Mile.

I think that he's maybe even more excited than Marcus and I...
Marcus and I played at Bazza's 50th birthday party.
I'll share some candid shots betwixt his choices.
Worth looking at to recognize the shock on Marcus's face.
'Don't look up, don't look up! Just keep playing...'
He's still in recovery...
You see... Bazza surprised us on the night by playing drums.
He'd had 'lessons'.
As I said, he's a very talented designer...

Here's Bazza:

The criteria for my Top Ten was: 
a) did I play this album to the point of obsession?
b) do I continually return to them and feel as passionate now as I did on first listen?
c) were I stranded on a desert island could I play this one album on repeat?

My Top Ten isn't cool, but then neither was my Ford Escort. 
They just got me from A to B. 
They are numbered 1 to 10 but the positions change on an hourly basis, and like all great 'Smash Hits' charts, there are some Bubbling Under albums that also deserve a mention:

Bubbling Under:

'A Walk Across The Rooftops' The Blue Nile

'Technique' New Order

'Sulk' Associates

'Alaska' Miracle Mile

'Closer' Joy Division

11. (woops!)  Under Cold Blue Stars - Josh Rouse (2002)

"and the old van is tired and slow, wouldn't go"

I first heard a Josh Rouse song - 'Miracle', when it featured on a free cover mounted CD on Select magazine. That led me to this album and the discovery of an artist who has been a consistent favourite ever since. '1972' is probably a more immediate album and would quite possibly be in my Top Ten on another day, but 'Under Cold Blue Stars' has greater depth and a more varied palette of influences. There is a unique vulnerability in his voice that I find appealing. This album follows the loose concept of a couple living in the 1950s and their everyday trials and tribulations, it paints these images perfectly. No one does melancholy better than Rouse - 'Summer Kitchen Ballad' being a great example, but it's the combination of this and the positive vibes created by songs like 'Miracle' and 'Feeling No Pain' that make this album so rewarding. He's great live too, and after some dodgy albums influenced by his adoptive homeland of Spain he's back on form with a new album 'The Happiness Waltz'.

10. Spirit of Eden - Talk Talk (1988)

"Take my freedom"

I was a big fan of Talk Talk's 'The Colour of Spring', and following its success the band were rewarded with an open budget by EMI to record this follow up. It's difficult to categorise this record but the experimental nature is awe inspiring and quite spiritual. The engineer on the album described it as being "recorded by chance, accident and hours of trying every possible overdub idea." It's hard to believe this album will be 25 years old this year - it sounds remarkably contemporary. A classic.

9. Paradise Circus - The Lilac Time (1989)

"There will be times of joy and sorrow, don't put off life until tomorrow, the spark of human kindness catches, a little flame among the ashes, truth will only come in snatches"

I'm surprised The Lilac Time hasn't had a mention in these pages. Maybe the ghost of 'Kiss Me' wears heavy, but for me 'Paradise Circus' is a perfect mix of great pop tunes with a folk sensibility suggested by snatches of banjo, harmonica and pedal steel. It also boasts some beautifully understated horns and strings. Maybe Stephen Duffy was ahead of his time as this is a sound many of today's bands are having success with! 

8. Fresh New Life - Phil Campbell (1997)

"I took some thoughts, some crazy ones, and let them become the truth"

I heard Phil Campbell on a 'Listening Post' - the place to find me on a Saturday afternoon when record shops were still on the High Street, and I was immediately blown away by his voice - rough, soulful, heartbreaking. There's a great inventiveness to the production on this album in a 'White Ladder' kind of way, and the songwriting is of the highest standard (I remember hearing Cliff Richard cover one of his songs on Songs of Praise, but don't let that put you off). There is a track on the album called 'Evangaline' - about the breakdown of a relationship, that can bring a tear to my eye. I'm pretty sure this album is currently unavailable, which is a travesty. Phil Campbell has done the rounds - major labels, independent releases, bands (White Buffalo, The Temperence Movement), but I don't think he has equalled the brilliance of this debut album. Some amazing talents very often fall under the radar, and I add Phil Campbell to a list that includes Lewis Taylor and Trevor Jones - classic songwriters still waiting to be appreciated by a wider audience.

7. Come On Feel The Illinois - Sufjan Stevens (2005)

"In the tower above the earth, there is a view that reaches far, where we see the universe, I see the fire, I see the end"

I'm always excited by new Sufjan Stevens albums. Actually, I'm quite excited each time I listen of this one, as his music is so multi layered there are new things to be discovered with every play. This is my current Sufjan favourite and part of his fifty states (a promotional joke!) project, although 'Avalanche' (amazingly an album of 'Illinois' outtakes) and 'Age of Adz' rate equally highly. I saw him live a couple of years ago and he puts on an amazing show. You've got to admire someone who has released 100 christmas songs!

6. Forever So - Husky (2012)

"We'll leave our things behind for friends and family, we'll roam like gypsies along shores of silent seas, there'll be no reason to be frightened or sad, there'll be no wishing for things we never had"

I'm quite surprised that an album released as recently as last year makes my Top Ten, but I can't stop playing this album. In a similar vein to the Midlake album 'The Trials of Van Occupanther, Husky evoke images of another world, a world that we'd like to be a part of, or a world that maybe we once were! From the sweet opening harmonies of 'Tidal Wave' this is a great listen, and of all the albums in my ten this is the one I would recommend everyone add to the 'Wish List'.

5. The Unforgettable Fire - U2 (1984)

"Oh don't sorrow, no don't weep, for tonight, at last, I am coming home"

I realise it isn't cool to like U2 anymore, but I can't dismiss the listening pleasure I received from their first four albums. I remember my mate 'Diddy' May playing me '11 O'Clock Tick Tock' - the major label debut single from U2, for the first time in 1980, and me being quite indifferent to that first listen. Although I think that was more to do to with Diddy having had the day off, and 'discovering' it before me, rather than the music that filled my ears. I saw U2 many times in the days of their first 4 albums - before they became the biggest band on the planet, and I enjoyed some particularly amazing nights at The Lyceum and The Hammersmith Palais seeing them. 'The Unforgettable Fire'  was the first collaboration with Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and it produced some inspired music. During the early eighties, I sent unsolicited illustrations to the U2 magazine - at the time not much more than a photocopied fanzine. But their publication may have been the catalyst that led me to a realisation that I may just be able to earn a living in design and artwork.

4. Round The Back - Café Jacques (1977)

"He lay to rest, the sun was slowly sinking, songs played are meaningless now"

I was a glam kid in the early seventies; Slade, Sweet, Mud, I'll even admit to owning an Osmonds single! And as the seventies drew to a close I struggled with punk. I didn't get The Clash until 'London Calling', The Jam until 'All Mod Cons', XTC until 'Drums and Wires', The Stranglers until 'Black & White'. So while the angry kids were thrashing their guitars and spitting at their audience, I was still desperately clinging on to uncool bands like Genesis, 10cc and Steely Dan. Three bands that - were they to emerge from a Kenwood mixer, may well have a produced an album sounding rather like 'Round The Back' by Café Jacques. Café Jacques were a scottish band who - despite the punk landscape, followed their own path; produced two great albums (this and 'International' in 1978); were championed by Phil Collins; and sank without trace. I've never met anyone who has heard of them and I don't expect any mutual appreciation for this choice. It's probably not worth seeking them out unless you're still lamenting the loss of Genesis (unlikely). I can remember the first time I heard this album - the sofa was pulled up close to the coal fire in it's winter position and I listened on headphones the size of cereal bowls. It remains my musical hot tea and toast. 

3. Get Happy! - Elvis Costello & The Attractions (1980)

"He'd seen the bottom of a lot of glasses, but he'd never seen love so near, he'd seen love get so expensive, but he'd never seen love so dear"

This album does what it says on the tin. If I'm ever in need of a lift this album does it, definitely the Elvis Costello feel good album, and my reason for placing it above 'This Year's Model' 'Armed Forces' and 'King of America' in my Top Ten. Elvis listened to stacks of Stax (see what I did), Soul and Motown prior to making this album, and himself admits to lifting a couple of Booker T and Four Tops parts long before 'sampling' became part of the music norm. I remember walking home from work at the local supermarket with this album under my arm, and an air of anticipation in my step - I never tire of it. I also love the cover design by the great Barney Bubbles - still a massive influence on my own work. There is a great retro feel to the cover that perfectly represents the music. The 'scuffing' effect on the artwork - as if the album has been continuously in and out of a listeners collection, is inspired. Apparently the US record company found this unacceptable and insisted on the artwork being cleaned up!

2. Steve McQueen - Prefab Sprout (1985)

"Here she is with two small problems, and the best part of the blame, wishing she could call him heartache, but it's not a boy's name"

Their first album 'Swoon' didn't quite get me, but Steve McQueen is perfection and I continuously return to it. Prefab Sprout - and this album in particular, evokes memories of listening to the Anne Nightingale show on Sundays - she was always a great champion of the band. 'From Langley Park…' pushes this a very close second in my affection, and I hope that Paddy still has a few more great albums up his sleeve. Genius doesn't do him justice and as I'm sure everyone here has this album, I need say no more.

1. Sheet Music - 10cc (1974)

"Old men of rock and roll, came bearing music, where are they now?"

I can remember walking home from school singing the 'Rubber Bullets' chorus to myself, and - at the time, having no clue who this band were. It was 1973, and the start of a long and rewarding appreciation - I saw the current incarnation of the band last year. Any of the first four albums could have been in my top ten, but 'Sheet Music' has the perfect mix of ingredients - from the hit singles, the epic cinematic songs, to the quirky one that Gouldman gets to sing. We were able to play records in our art lesson at school and this was regularly on the turntable. I play it now and can be back in that class, it continues to inspire me creatively. As with 'Get Happy!', the artwork to this album adds to the overall appreciation I have for it. The clever visualisation of the Sheet Music title is a perfect example of Storm Thorgerson at his best. The finest work from the original band of Gouldman/Stewart/Godley/Creme and although they have since enjoyed greater success, creatively this was their peak. "Play me" …oh alright then!

Albums for Life: 5: Simon and Garfunkel: Bridge Over Troubled Water

In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade, and he carries the reminder, of every glove that laid him down or cut him till he cried out, in his anger and his shame, 'I am leaving, I am leaving' but the fighter still remains

My parents' 'Dancette' record player.
Me lying on a dusty carpet, nose to the speaker.
Sometimes with the sound off.
'Turn it down!' meant turn it off...
You could still hear the voices through the needle...

"I have squandered my existence for a pocket full of mumbles such are promises"

The stylus had a 6 penny piece seloptaped to it to stop the needle from skipping like a six year old.
Much as they loved music Betty and Terry had a limited record collection:
Beatles EPs
Dusty Springfield singing with The Springfields
Jake Thackery's 'Bantam Cock' (which I still love)
Songs for Swinging Lovers
Nana Mouskouri
Noel Coward Live in Las Vegas
Dave Brubeck's 'Take Five'
Bob Newhart comedy skits
Kings College Choir sing on and on...
The soundtrack from 'Oliver'
and... 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'

'The sound of a time, like the smell of a room
Can haunt your memory'

That's the first line to a song that I've tried to write a few times about the impact this album had on me.
1970, I was 10, just back from living in Singapore and Cyprus, and didn't know a chord from a gourd... In those formative years abroad there was no music other than what my parents drip fed me. I'd had no gentle saturation from the radio, no chance to make any music mine. My quality control was all over the place; I had no quality control... but I loved this album.

I love this album.

The title track was my first memory of actually trying to dissect a production.

I knew that there was magic here:

In the spine tingling gospel tinged piano intro by Larry Knetchel.
And what was it that raised the shivers on that 3rd verse?
"Sail on silver girl..." onwards.
Was it the harmonies?
Was it the thunderous echo on the tom toms beneath?

Was it the fantastic reverb on the snare?

Was it the introduction of the bass?
And what a bass sound. Flat wound strings for sure...
And the bass didn't always play the root note, it often suspended the chord.
Terry taught me that... the chord progression lifted and lifted until that climax and final sustain; my vinyl couldn't sustain because it was warped. The undulation in sound produced a giddy feeling akin to sea sickness... I still anticipate it, even on CD.
And what joys lay beyond...

I loved the 'up' songs; the jaunty 'Baby Driver' and 'Keep the Customer Satisfied'.
But it was the slower tunes that enraptured.
They smelt and tasted of loneliness...
'So Long Frank Lloyd Wright', 'The Boxer' (that Hal Blaine snare again on the 'lai la lais', and how I gasped at the mention of 'whores on 7th Avenue'; I knew that this must be adult music), the gentle, mysterious melancholy of 'The Only Living Boy in New York' (a farewell song for Art?) and the sublime closer 'Song for the Asking'.
Sad songs never felt so right.
Roy Halee's production is ambitious too, snippets of radio, motor cars, found sounds... but it's the drums that reverberate, echo, explode and give the album its dynamic presence.
This album was the start of my curiosity in sound craft, production; the magic of making music...

I know that you know the obvious tracks so how about a few Chicken Skin Moments from these:

The Only Living Boy in New York:
Listen to the drum entry at 1.06
The harmonies at 1.17
The catch in Simon's voice at  2.10 on "hey, let your honesty shine, shine, shine, doy de doy de doy it shines on me, the only living boy in New York..."

So Long Frank Lloyd Wright
1.07 'Architects may come and architects may go...'
1.20 The flute solo
2.16 "...all of the nights we harmonised till daaaawn!"

Song for the Asking
Essentially the last song they ever did together...
1.55 of quiet beauty.
Check out the strings.

Albums for Life: My Top 10: Di

Here's Di's Top Ten.

She's managed 12.

Must've snuck a couple in under her hat...

1. Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen 

2. Slow Fade - Miracle Mile 

3. Ultra - Brian Lopez

4. Eight - Nik Kershaw

5. White Ladder - David Gray

5a. Coming From Reality - Sixto Rodriguez

6. Poses - Rufus Wainwright

7. Steve McQueen - Prefab Sprout 

8. Feather & Stone - Tom Baxter

8a. Pulp Fiction (Soundtrack)

9. Human Condition - Richard Ashcroft

10. Poetry & Aeroplanes - Teitur

Albums for Life: 6: Tom Waits: Asylum Years

"They say I have no hits and that I'm difficult to work with... like it's a bad thing... I've never met anyone who made it with a chick because they owned a Tom Waits album. I've got all three, and it's never helped me."
Tom Waits

I know, I know, it's a compilation but... let me explain: 
'The obsession's in the chasing, and not the apprehending'
Tom taught me that many years back. 1979 to be exact. I've thought long and hard about which is my favourite Waits album. It's been a joy trying to sort that one out. Excuse the ramble that will surely follow but... I'm a little disheveled this morning.

Christ, what a night!
There's a half empty/full bottle of 16 year old Aberlour rattling around my ankles.
Yesterday I worked my way through most of Tom Waits' back catalogue in chronological order.
Di's away so I had the time and space for the indulgence. It was a strange soundtrack to the excellent FA Cup final; which saw the cup working its usual magic for the underdog. Underdogs seem to loom large in Waits' work: misfits abound in Tom's world, particularly in his later work for 'Island' records; from Swordfishtrombones onwards the theatrical elements of his work has been to the fore, with the increasing influence of his wife, screenwriter Katherine Brennan who is now always listed as co-writer and co-producer. 
In the earlier 'Asylum' days lovable losers abounded, invariably in a romantic half light, lurching from seedy bars to strip joints to dingy diners. Story telling has always been Waits' forte; he loves words and the willful mis use of them. He forces his characters onto us with such wit, enthusiasm and flinty eyed conviction that we can't help but believe in them, invest in them, indeed care for them. Anyone who's seen the actor in action can only agree that, whether he's wearing an Hawaiian shirt or snakeskin boots, there's only one Tom Waits. It's that strength of character that convinces us to buy into any given version of his own questionable  history. According to various sleeve notes he was born (at a very young age) in a storm in the back of a yellow NY cab; he has a pet chinchilla, he once washed Mario Lanza's car and is purported to have six fingers on his left hand... oh, and his fridge contains a claw hammer, a small jar of artichoke hearts, an old parking ticket and a can of roof cement. His first known quote was at 13, "I can't wait to be an old man." Yup, with Mr Waits you need to suspend belief and disbelief when you enter his world. The air is rarified; it is a less comfortable experience. Remember, you're innocent when you dream, but there'll be no drifting off to dreamland in his enigmatic presence. Tom's got a lot to tell you.  He may lie about his past but the pay off is that he'll tell you all his secrets; some you really don't want to hear. There's a lot of shouting...

Waits comes from a golden age of songwriting excellence. What sets him apart from his then peers (Joni/Randy/Jackson) is that eccentric strength of personality. His debut 'Closing Time' came fully formed. There was no sense of a fledgeling artist; he had no history of playing rhythm guitar with some 60s beat band. Here was 'the poet of the crack of dawn' writing about loners and their loneliness. Their quest? To get to the heart of saturday night... 
To accompany these early folk/jazz ruminations the initial palette was a traditional one; brushed drums, upright bass, guitar, but mainly piano. The occasional syrupy strings gave romantic resonance; a gush and glimmer to the guttural goings on. 

With Swordfish... onwards things turned down a darker street. There would be no easy relief, but whether we regarded Tom as mad professor or magician, we all waited at his door with baited breath, wondering: what's he building in there? And it was rough magic. He raps, he rasps, he bawls, he brawls, he barks. This intense new music was described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car." There's a Brechtian noir to the experimental muse that's as impressive and ambitious as it was unpredictable and, oftentimes, impenetrable. Kurt Weill haunts the proceedings. To accompany the visionary vaudeville the musical template was deliberately rendered unconventional and all the more innovative. Beyond the rasping delivery, a clatter of percussion was accompanied by off kilter woodwind, spiky guitars (stand down Marc Ribot), wheezing organs, accordions and... bagpipes. 
Waits himself explained the change:


"Your hands are like dogs, going to the same places they've been. You have to be careful when playing is no longer in the mind but in the fingers, going to happy places. You have to break them of their habits or you don't explore; you only play what is confident and pleasing. I'm learning to break those habits by playing instruments I know absolutely nothing about, like a bassoon or a waterphone."



These otherworldly, under worldly sounds often seemed haphazardly thrown together, but ultimately, with a little work from the listener, made some kind of sense. It wasn't always easy. Tom sometimes seemed (literally) barking mad; Beefheart mad. 
Primal blues, cabaret, rumba, tango and tin pan alley are tethered, tamed and turned inside out.
Rolling Stone magazine attempted to sum up the musical menagerie:

"Everything from sleazy strip-show blues to cheesy waltzes to supercilious lounge lizardry is given spare, jarring arrangements using various combinations of squawking horns, bashed drums, plucked banjo, snaky double bass, carnival organ and jaunty accordion."

His misfit characters are still adrift and downtrodden; he continues to articulate their confusions and despairs with a poet's keen eye. Their moments of redemption are few, but all the more beautiful when they rise above the cacophonous chaos... 
Tom still looks them (and you) in the eye...

So... there I was last night. I'd worked my way through the bittersweet conventions of the early albums, and got as far as the brilliant (if over long) 'Rain Dogs'. 
As things started to fade I still had the wherewithal to recognize the fabulous lyrics of 'Time':

And they all pretend they're Orphans
And their memory's like a train
You can see it getting smaller as it pulls away
And the things you can't remember
Tell the things you can't forget that

History puts a saint in every dream

I turned the TV on, sound turned down and discovered that the perfect visual to this period of Waits' work is The Coen Brothers' 'The Man Who Wasn't There'. That nightmarish black and white vision of 50s American paranoia seemed a perfect fit last night. 
Try it! 
I'd done the single malt thing a little too enthusiastically; things got a little blurry and... noisy, so I put on 'Alice', Waits' beautiful musical imaging of the Alice in Wonderland story. 
That calmed me down, put me to sleep in fact. 
There weren't many saints in my dreams...

Anyway... this morning I went back to the source: 
The first time I ever heard Tom's music was in a basement bar on the Greek island of Ios. 
Must have been 1979. 
The retsina was burning as much as the day's sun damage but I remember the salve of the balmy music that initially came from the speakers. In the early hours, post disco, the DJ put on some vinyl. The orchestral intro to 'Somewhere' was just beautiful; then came the jarring intrusion of a voice that could have stripped the brass veneer from Louis Armstrong's tin trumpet. That comedy moment soon turned into a musical epiphany... by the time we got to 'Kentucky Avenue' I knew that this was the beginning of a lifetime's love affair. 
So, this morning I played that album, 'Blue Valentines' expecting the same trill thrill. 
Nope, the high points are still exquisite, but some of the raps and r 'n' b work outs are just 'fine'. 
So... I then reached for the first album that I ever brought of his. 
Bingo! 
I'm not going to apologize for breaking the rules. 
I know it's a compilation but... sometimes you just cannot deny your affections.
Maybe I'm taken with the enigma that is Tom Waits, rather than any specific period of his work...
Whatever, no apologies because... I can truly call this 'love'.
'The Asylum Years' it is. 

The CD version is missing a few tracks that were on the (double?) cassette that I initially invested in. 'On the Nickel' being the most notable omission. I'm now used to the new order; this has nearly all of my favourite early Waits songs on. Heartbreak's spoken here. In my defense I'll offer up 'Kentucky Avenue' 'Ruby's Arms' and 'Tom Traubert's Blues' and let you do the rest. 
Wait's later recordings are testament to his maverick genius as he squeezes your heart and pokes you in the eye at the same time. Ah, but those early 'Asylum' years... every song was one from the heart.
'Ruby's Arms' is the album version, as is Tom Traubert's Blues' but I've followed it by a live version. Same with 'Kentucky Avenue'. 
Let's start with that; probably my favourite Tom Waits song. 
If you can get through it with a dry eye, I reckon that you need the other half of the bottle that sits by my feet. 
If you are Mr Aberlour it's got your name on it...



Well Eddie Grace's Buick got four bullet holes in the side
and Charlie DeLisle is sittin at the top of an avocado tree
Mrs. Storm will stab you with a steak knife if you step on her lawn
I got a half a pack of Lucky Strikes man so come along with me
and let's fill our pockets with macadamia nuts
and go over to Bobby Goodmanson's and jump off the roof

Well Hilda plays strip poker when her mamas cross the street
Joey Navinski says she put her tongue in his mouth
and Dicky Faulkner's got a switchblade and some gooseneck risers
that eucalyptus is a hunchback there's a wind down from the south
so let me tie you up with kite string and I'll show you the scabs on my knee
watch out for the broken glass put your shoes and socks on
and come along with me

Let's follow that fire truck I think your house is burnin down
asnd go down to the hobo jungle and kill some rattlesnakes with a trowel
and we'll break all the windows in the old Anderson place
and we'll steal a bunch of boysenberries and I'll smear em on your face
I'll get a dollar from my mama's purse and buy that skull and crossbones ring
and you can wear it round your neck on an old piece of string

Then we'll spit on Ronnie Arnold and flip him the bird
and slash the tires on the school bus now don't say a word
I'll take a rusty nail and scratch your initials in my arm
and I'll show you how to sneak up on the roof of the drugstore
I'll take the spokes from your wheelchair and a magpie's wings
and I'll tie em to your shoulders and your feet
I'll steal a hacksaw from my dad and cut the braces off your legs
and we'll bury them tonight out in the cornfield
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