What was your first Tom Waits LP?

I ask because today I've both listened to the new Waits record Bad As Me and screened the classic 1979 Waits episode of Austin City Limits. And while I love his 70s stuff, I've always preferred his work from the past 30 years, probably because my first Waits LP was Swordfishtrombones. So I'm curious: what, for those who are Waits fans (and I know not everyone on this board is - hi, Erik!), was the first Waits album you experienced?

Raindogs.

Loved it, then went back and picked up his earliest albums- of which Closing Time and Heart Of Saturday Night are very good, great actually.

But the next three Seventies discs were lost on me. I played them only a half dozen times before I sold them off.

I like pretty much all of what he's done since 1980.

Never became a major fan. He always lingered at the edges of my preferences. But Orphans gave me a real shot in the arm, and sent me back to pick up the previous decade+ worth of albums I'd neglected. Alice was a highlight.

Blue Valentine, at a garage sale. He's one of those "always mean't to get a CD of his for like 25 years, got heaps of stuff on various compilations but just never got 'round to it type things", so finally a couple of years ago I picked it up with Screamadelica ($2 each) which I'd also been intending to get for a long time. Rain Dogs and Franks Wild Years followed.

Interestingly, the first time he was sighted out here was as a total unknown on the Paul Hogan Show in 1979 where he did Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis. Apparantly many viewers phoned to complain saying he looked drunk and stoned but just as many phoned to inquire about him on a positive note and he came back the next week and did On The Nickel.

Yep, 'Swordfishtrombones' for me too. Never paid much attention to him before that, just dismissed him as another of the endless parade of singer/songwriters clogging up the '70s. But 'Swordfishtrombones' was all over alternative radio when it came out - I think a lot of us discovered him thru that album. He certainly had not been anywhere near alt-radio, still very punk-influenced at the time, before then (or in early editions of the TP books.)

Been a fan ever since. Looking forward to getting the new one - I heard the single and thought, "Hello, Capt Beefheart, we salute you!"



Post Edited (10-31-11 18:53)

I heard the album Nighthawks at the Diner shortly after it was released in 1975. A DJ on one of the local FM rock stations (probably either KGB or KPRI) played the entire two disc album during the graveyard shift, probably 1 or 2 a.m. I tuned in at the beginning of the album and listened in the dark until the very last song ended. The next day I went to the record store and bought the album.

Bone Machine.

I had never heard Tom Waits music before, and this one dropped on me like a bomb during my first month in College. I swear "Earth Died Screaming" actually and genuinely terrified me. I would listen to The Ocean Doesnt Want Me today again and again. It was like listening to a Vincent Price movie, or War of The Worlds radio broadcast from the 1920's.

I never got into his 70's stuff. But I pretty much love everything from 1980-2000.

I worked in a record store when Bone Machine came out. We all loved it, but were barred by the manager (who also loved it, but was more practical than the rest of us) from playing it during certain hours of the day.

So we used to play it as the last album of the day in order to drive the customers out. (We stayed open until midnight on weekends, so this isn't quite the asshole move it sounds like - by that time we were exhausted and just wanted the 2-3 stragglers to rent their videos and go home.) Fugazi and Primus were also popular choices for this purpose.

Anyway, one night it was 15 minutes 'til midnight and we slapped Bone Machine into the CD player. After "Earth Died Screaming" (you're right, Nose, it's pretty terrifying), we had two people approach the counter. The middle-aged man said, "This is terrible, take it off." The 20-something said, "This is the coolest thing I've ever heard - what is this?" We took it off the stereo (as we were required to do if we had customer complaints), but we sold a copy to the young man.

At the time it was the harshest, most extreme album I'd ever heard. (This is long before my death metal flirtations.) I still think it might be his best album.

One of the things I find interesting about his work is that some folks see a clear line of demarcation between his 70s beat poet/jazz/singer-songwriter and his 80s+ work. The more I watch the ACL episode, which was recorded in late 1978 during the Blue Valentine tour (and also includes "On the Nickel," unreleased at the time), the more I think his more avant-garde music is of a piece with his 70s work.

If I ever buy a Tom Waits album, I'll let you know. I've never heard anything by him that interested me enough to send me to the record store.

Nighthawks at the Diner for me, too. Just about then (either just before or just after) there was a PBS special which paired a concert by him with one by Mose Allison. I enjoyed it and bought the record.

I've been sort of meh on the stuff he's done since he started channeling Kurt Weill, but my wife likes it a lot. Haven't heard the new one yet.