Small Change (Tom Waits album)

Last updated
Small Change
Tom Waits - Small change (1976).jpg
Studio album by
Tom Waits
ReleasedSeptember 21, 1976 (1976-09-21)
RecordedJuly 15-29, 1976
Studio Wally Heider's Studio 3 (Hollywood)
Length49:28
Label Asylum
Producer Bones Howe
Tom Waits chronology
Nighthawks at the Diner
(1975)		Small Change
(1976)		 Foreign Affairs
(1977)

Small Change is the fourth studio album by singer and songwriter Tom Waits, released on September 21, 1976 on Asylum Records. [1] It was recorded in July at Wally Heider's Studio 3 in Hollywood. It was successful commercially and outsold his previous albums. This resulted in Waits putting together a touring band - The Nocturnal Emissions, which consisted of Frank Vicari on tenor saxophone, FitzGerald Jenkins on bass guitar and Chip White on drums and vibraphone. The Nocturnal Emissions toured Europe and the United States extensively from October 1976 till May 1977.

Contents

Production

Small Change was recorded, direct to 2-track stereo tape, July 15, 19–21 and 29, 1976 at Wally Heider's Studio 3 in Hollywood [2] under the production of Bones Howe. A multi-track recording was made as back up, and used when a reference Waits made to actress Jayne Meadows had to be changed. [3] Howe recounted: "We set up at Heider's for that record the same way I used to make jazz records in the 1950s. I wanted to take Tom back to that direction of making records, with an orchestra and Tom in the same room, all playing and singing together. I was never afraid of making a record where the musicians all breathed the same air. Leakage is not a problem. In fact, it's a good thing — it holds a record together... He was always surrounded by the music and the records sound like it. We never used headphones. Never." [3]

Music

The album featured famed drummer Shelly Manne, and was, like Waits' previous albums, heavily jazz-influenced, with a lyrical style that owed influence to Raymond Chandler and Charles Bukowski as well as a vocal delivery influenced by Louis Armstrong, Dr. John and Howlin' Wolf. The music, for the most part, consists of Waits' gravelly, rough voice, set against a backdrop of piano, upright bass, drums and saxophone. Some tracks have a string section, whose sweet timbre is starkly contrasted to Waits' voice.

"Tom Traubert's Blues" opens the album. Jay S. Jacobs has described the song as a "stunning opener [which] sets the tone for what follows." [4] The refrain is based almost word by word on the 1890 Australian song, "Waltzing Matilda" by A.B. "Banjo" Paterson, although the tune is slightly different.

The origin of the song is somewhat ambiguous. The sub-title, "Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen", seems to indicate that it is about a time that Waits spent in Copenhagen in 1976 while on a tour. There, he apparently met Danish singer Mathilde Bondo. Indeed, in a 1998 radio interview, she confirmed that she met Waits and that they spent a night on the town together. Waits himself described the song's subject during a concert in Sydney, Australia in March 1979: "Uh, well I met this girl named Matilda. And uh, I had a little too much to drink that night. This is about throwing up in a foreign country." [4] In an interview on NPR's World Cafe , aired December 15, 2006, Waits said that Tom Traubert was a "friend of a friend" who died in prison. [5]

Bones Howe, the album's producer, recalls when Waits first came to him with the song:

He said the most wonderful thing about writing that song. He went down and hung around on skid row in L.A. because he wanted to get stimulated for writing this material. He called me up and said, "I went down to skid row ... I bought a pint of rye. In a brown paper bag." I said, "Oh really?" "Yeah - hunkered down, drank the pint of rye, went home, threw up, and wrote 'Tom Traubert's Blues' [...] Every guy down there ... everyone I spoke to, a woman put him there." [4]

Howe was amazed when he first heard the song, and he's still astonished by it. "I do a lot of seminars," he says. "Occasionally I'll do something for songwriters. They all say the same thing to me. 'All the great lyrics are done.' And I say, 'I'm going to give you a lyric that you never heard before.'" Howe offers the following to his aspiring songwriters: "A battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace / And a wound that will never heal." This particular Tom Waits lyric Howe considers to be "brilliant." It's "the work of an extremely talented lyricist, poet, whatever you want to say. That is brilliant, brilliant work. And he never mentions the person, but you see the person." [4]

The song has been recorded by Rod Stewart on two 1993 albums, Lead Vocalist and Unplugged...and Seated under the title "Tom Traubert's Blues (Waltzing Matilda)".

The album's closing song, "I Can't Wait to Get Off Work (And See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue)", has a simple musical arrangement, boasting only Waits' voice and piano, with bass by Jim Hughart. The lyrics are about Waits' first job at Napoleone Pizza House in San Diego, which he began in 1965, at the age of 16. [6]

An excerpt of the opening saxophone solo from "Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38)" was used for the opening of BBC Two's Moviedrome in 1988, its first season of screening cult films introduced by Alex Cox.

Themes

At the time of the recording of Small Change Waits was drinking more and more heavily, and life on the road was starting to take its toll on him. Waits, looking back at the period said:

I was sick through that whole period [...] It was starting to wear on me, all the touring. I'd been travelling quite a bit, living in hotels, eating bad food, drinking a lot - too much. There's a lifestyle that's there before you arrive and you're introduced to it. It's unavoidable. [7]

Waits recorded the album in reaction to these hardships. This is evident in the pessimism and cynicism that pervade the record, with many songs, such as "The Piano Has Been Drinking" and "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart" presenting a bare and honest portrayal of alcoholism, while also cementing Waits' hard-living reputation in the eyes of many fans. The album's themes include those of desolation, deprivation, and, above all else, alcoholism. The cast of characters, which includes hookers, strippers and small-time losers, are, for the most part, night-owls and drunks; people lost in a cold, urban world.

With the album Waits asserted that he "tried to resolve a few things as far as this cocktail-lounge, maudlin, crying-in-your-beer image that I have. There ain't nothin' funny about a drunk [...] I was really starting to believe that there was something amusing and wonderfully American about being a drunk. I ended up telling myself to cut that shit out." [8]

Beyond the serious themes with which the album deals, the lyrics are often also noted for their humour; with songs such as "The Piano Has Been Drinking" and "Bad Liver And A Broken Heart" including puns and jokes in their treatment of alcoholism, with the added humour in Waits' drunken diction.

Cover

The cover art features Waits sitting in a go-go dancer's dressing room, with a topless go-go dancer standing nearby. It was alleged that the go-go dancer pictured is Cassandra Peterson, [9] who portrayed the iconic Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Peterson, however, says she's not sure of the authenticity of this claim, stating, "I can’t say it’s completely not me—I can’t say it’s not true—but I have absolutely no recollection of doing it, if it is true....I do not remember the ’70s, for who-knows-what-all reasons. But anyway, it could be me. There is a possibility. But I just look and look and look at it and go, “It doesn’t look exactly like me.” I don’t know. Maybe it is." [10] [11]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [12]
Christgau's Record Guide B− [13]
Classic Rock 9/10 [14]
Mojo Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [15]
Pitchfork 9.0/10 [16]
Q Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [17]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [18]
Uncut Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [19]

Small Change received critical reviews equal to or better than Waits' previous albums, and was at first a surprise commercial success, rising to #89 on the Billboard chart within two weeks of its release. Three weeks later, the album fell off the Billboard Top 200, and Waits was not to better its position until 1999's Mule Variations . [2]

When asked in an interview with Mojo in 1999 if he shared many fans' view that Small Change was the crowning moment of his "beatnik-glory-meets-Hollywood-noir period" (i.e. from 1973 to 1980), Waits replied:

Well, gee. I'd say there's probably more songs off that record that I continued to play on the road, and that endured. Some songs you may write and record but you never sing them again. Others you sing em every night and try and figure out what they mean. "Tom Traubert's Blues" was certainly one of those songs I continued to sing, and in fact, close my show with. [20]

In 2000, Small Change was voted number 958 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums . [21]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Tom Waits.

Side one

No.TitleLength
1."Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)"6:39
2."Step Right Up"5:43
3."Jitterbug Boy (Sharing a Curbstone with Chuck E. Weiss, Robert Marchese, Paul Body and The Mug and Artie)"3:44
4."I Wish I Was in New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward)"4:53
5."The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (An Evening with Pete King)"3:40

Side two

No.TitleLength
1."Invitation to the Blues"5:24
2."Pasties and a G-String (At the Two O'Clock Club)"2:32
3."Bad Liver and a Broken Heart (In Lowell)"4:50
4."The One That Got Away"4:07
5."Small Change (Got Rained on with His Own .38)"5:07
6."I Can't Wait to Get Off Work (And See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue)"3:17
Total length:49:28

Personnel

Chart positions

Chart (1976)Peak
position
US Billboard 200 [22] 89

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA) [23] Gold35,000^
United Kingdom (BPI) [24] Silver60,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Waits</span> American singer-songwriter and actor (born 1949)

Thomas Alan Waits is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He began in the folk scene during the 1970s, but his music since the 1980s has reflected the influence of such diverse genres as rock, country, Delta blues, opera, vaudeville, cabaret, funk, hip hop and experimental techniques verging on industrial music. Per The Wall Street Journal, Waits “has composed a body of work that’s at least comparable to any songwriter’s in pop today. A keen, sensitive and sympathetic chronicler of the adrift and downtrodden, Mr. Waits creates three-dimensional characters who, even in their confusion and despair, are capable of insight and startling points of view. Their stories are accompanied by music that’s unlike any other in pop history.”

<i>One from the Heart</i> (album) 1982 soundtrack album by Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle

One from the Heart is a soundtrack album of Tom Waits compositions for the Francis Ford Coppola film of the same name. It was recorded from October 1980 to September 1981. It was during this period that Waits met his wife Kathleen Brennan, an employee at the studio where it was recorded. While the film was released in February, the soundtrack album release was delayed until October of 1982 due to a dispute between Columbia Records and Coppola's Zoetrope Studios.

<i>Blue Valentine</i> (album) 1978 studio album by Tom Waits

Blue Valentine is the sixth studio album by singer and songwriter Tom Waits, released on September 5, 1978, on Asylum Records. It was recorded over the course of six sessions from July to August 1978 with producer Bones Howe. Rickie Lee Jones is pictured with Waits on the back cover.

<i>Blood Money</i> (Tom Waits album) 2002 studio album by Tom Waits

Blood Money is the fifteenth studio album by Tom Waits, released in 2002 on the ANTI- label. It consists of songs Waits and Kathleen Brennan wrote for Robert Wilson's opera Woyzeck. Waits had worked with Wilson on two previous plays: The Black Rider and Alice. Alice was released with Blood Money simultaneously in 2002.

<i>Heartattack and Vine</i> 1980 studio album by Tom Waits

Heartattack and Vine is the seventh studio album by Tom Waits, released on September 9, 1980, and his final album to be released on the Asylum label.

<i>The Heart of Saturday Night</i> 1974 studio album by Tom Waits

The Heart of Saturday Night is the second studio album by singer and songwriter Tom Waits, released on October 15, 1974, on Asylum Records. The title song was written as a tribute to Jack Kerouac. The album marks the start of a decade-long collaboration between Waits and Bones Howe, who produced and engineered all Waits' recordings until the artist left Asylum.

<i>Nighthawks at the Diner</i> 1975 studio album by Tom Waits

Nighthawks at the Diner is the third studio album by singer and songwriter Tom Waits, released on October 21, 1975 on Asylum Records. It was recorded over four sessions in July in the Los Angeles Record Plant studio in front of a small invited audience set up to recreate the atmosphere of a jazz club. The album peaked at 164 on the Billboard 200, the highest place Waits had held at the time, and is currently certified silver by the BPI. It has received critical acclaim for its successful mood-setting, capturing of the jazz-club atmosphere and characterization.

<i>Foreign Affairs</i> (Tom Waits album) 1977 studio album by Tom Waits

Foreign Affairs is the fifth studio album by singer and songwriter Tom Waits, released on September 13, 1977, on Asylum Records. It was produced by Bones Howe, and featured Bette Midler singing a duet with Waits on "I Never Talk to Strangers".

Kathleen Patricia Brennan is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and artist. She is known for her work as a co-writer, producer, and influence on the work of her husband Tom Waits.

<i>Broken Blossom</i> 1977 studio album by Bette Midler

Broken Blossom is the fourth studio album by American singer Bette Midler, her second album release in 1977 and her fifth on the Atlantic Records label. Just as Midler's three previous studio albums Broken Blossom includes songs from a wide variety of genres, ranging from Edith Piaf's signature tune "La vie en rose", Phil Spector-esque covers of Billy Joel's "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" and Harry Nilsson's "Paradise" and hard rock like Sammy Hagar's "Red", to a jazzy duet with Tom Waits, "I Never Talk to Strangers", and a rendition of "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes", originally from Walt Disney's 1950 film version of Cinderella. The album reached No. 51 on Billboard's album chart.

<i>Look at the Fool</i> 1974 studio album by Tim Buckley

Look at the Fool is the ninth and final studio album by American singer-songwriter Tim Buckley, released on September 13, 1974, by DiscReet Records.

<i>Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards</i> 2006 box set by Tom Waits

Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards is a limited edition three CD set by Tom Waits, released by the ANTI- label on November 17, 2006 in Europe and on November 21, 2006 in the United States.

<i>Used Songs 1973–1980</i> 2001 compilation album by Tom Waits

Used Songs 1973–1980 is a compilation of songs from Tom Waits's Asylum Records years.

<i>Lead Vocalist</i> (album) 1993 compilation album by Rod Stewart

Lead Vocalist is a compilation album released by Rod Stewart on 22 February 1993. It was released by Warner Bros. Records in the UK and Germany, but was never released in the US. Three songs from this album either had previously or would be released as singles: "Tom Traubert's Blues", "Shotgun Wedding", and "Ruby Tuesday".

<i>Bounced Checks</i> 1981 compilation album by Tom Waits

Bounced Checks is the first compilation of Tom Waits recordings, including album, live and alternate versions of songs from six of his seven albums for Asylum Records, excepting his debut, Closing Time.

<i>Anthology of Tom Waits</i> 1985 compilation album by Tom Waits

Anthology of Tom Waits is the first "best of" compilation of Tom Waits recordings, with tracks taken from his albums for Asylum Records.

<i>Asylum Years</i> 1986 compilation album by Tom Waits

Asylum Years is the second "best of" compilation covering Tom Waits' Asylum Records years. The album retreads more than half of the track-listing of Anthology of Tom Waits.

"I Just Want to See His Face" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones featured on their 1972 release Exile on Main St. It is credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

"Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)" (commonly known as "Tom Traubert's Blues" or "Waltzing Matilda") is a song by American musician Tom Waits.

"Romeo Is Bleeding" is a song written and performed by Tom Waits, and released on his 1978 album Blue Valentine. The lyrics make frequent use of Spanish, including phrases such as "Hey Pachuco!", "Dáme esa pistola, hombre!", "Hijo de la chingada madre!", and "Vamos a dormir, hombre". Waits also makes a reference to gangster movie-star James Cagney, previously mentioned in "Invitation to the Blues" on Small Change.

References

  1. ↑ "Releases". Anti-. p. 1. Archived from the original on March 8, 2018. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  2. 1 2 "Tom Waits Time line: 1976 - 1980". Archived from the original on 2008-10-26. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
  3. 1 2 Daley, Dan (February 2004). "'Bones' Howe & Tom Waits". Sound On Sound. SOS Publications Group. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Tom Traubert's Blues". Tom Waits Library. Archived from the original on 2011-12-09. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
  5. ↑ Interview with Tom Waits on NPR's World Cafe, aired December 15, 2006
  6. ↑ Montadon, Mac, Timeline and Discography in Innocent When You Dream, p. 385
  7. ↑ McGee, David (1977), Smellin' Like a Brewery, Lookin' Like a Tramp, in Montandon, p.29
  8. ↑ McGee, David (1977), Smellin' Like a Brewery, Lookin' Like a Tramp, in Montandon, p.30
  9. ↑ "When Elvira met Tom Waits". The A.V. Club . 13 September 2010.
  10. ↑ "Elvira on her date with Elvis and the fish recipe she got from Vincent Price". The A.V. Club . 5 October 2016.
  11. ↑ O'Neal, Sam (October 28, 2009). "Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark (and merchandising)". The A.V. Club . Retrieved November 20, 2009.
  12. ↑ Ruhlmann, William. "Small Change – Tom Waits". AllMusic . Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  13. ↑ Christgau, Robert (1981). "W". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor and Fields. ISBN   0-89919-026-X . Retrieved March 21, 2019– via robertchristgau.com.
  14. ↑ Johnston, Emma (May 2018). "Tom Waits: Reissues". Classic Rock . No. 248. p. 98.
  15. ↑ "Tom Waits: Small Change". Mojo . No. 200. July 2010. p. 76.
  16. ↑ Deusner, Stephen M. (March 24, 2018). "Tom Waits: The Asylum Era". Pitchfork . Retrieved March 24, 2018.
  17. ↑ "Tom Waits: Small Change". Q . No. 73. October 1992. p. 101.
  18. ↑ Coleman, Mark; Scoppa, Bud (2004). "Tom Waits". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp.  854–55. ISBN   0-7432-0169-8.
  19. ↑ Gill, Andy (December 2011). "What Is He Building in There..?". Uncut . No. 175. pp. 52–53.
  20. ↑ ""Tom Traubert's Blues" lyrics and notes". Tom Waits Library. Archived from the original on 2012-01-01.
  21. ↑ Colin Larkin (2000). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd ed.). Virgin Books. p. 290. ISBN   0-7535-0493-6.
  22. ↑ Small Change – Tom Waits: Awards at AllMusic . Retrieved July 26, 2012.
  23. ↑ "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2001 Albums" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association . Retrieved July 26, 2012.
  24. ↑ "British album certifications – Tom Waits – Small Change". British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved July 26, 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.