Tom Waits - Closing Time [Asylum, 1979, Vinyl: EX]
£
22
$
30
![Tom Waits - Closing Time [Asylum, 1979, Vinyl: EX]](https://www.popsike.pics/pix/20231011/186117449166.jpg)
![Pic 2 Tom Waits - Closing Time [Asylum, 1979, Vinyl: EX]](https://www.popsike.pics/pix/20231011/186117449166_2.jpg)
![Pic 3 Tom Waits - Closing Time [Asylum, 1979, Vinyl: EX]](https://www.popsike.pics/pix/20231011/186117449166_3.jpg)
![Pic 4 Tom Waits - Closing Time [Asylum, 1979, Vinyl: EX]](https://www.popsike.pics/pix/20231011/186117449166_4.jpg)
£ 22
Sold For
Oct 18, 2023
Sold Date
Oct 11, 2023
Start Date
2
Number Of Bids
Great Britain
Country Of Seller
eBay
Auctioned at
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Description
Tom Waits - Closing Time, Asylum Records AS 53 030 Closing Time has a hazy, booze-soaked, country-jazz feel to it, but you can probably jump to that conclusion by the artwork alone. Just writing those words would normally scream out to me to avoid this album at all costs, but for some reason I felt compelled to investigate it fifteen years ago and since then it has slowly woven its way into the fabric of my life. The album opens with the original version of “Ol’ 55”, which many fans of the Eagles and their limp and unsatisfying cover version are unfamiliar with. Even with the spectre of country-rock lurking in its shadow, it’s a great song and Waits’ woozy rendition blows the better known cover-version clean out of the water. Waits just hasn’t written this song, he’s lived it. He’s breathed it. Given that this is the first song on his debut album, the fact that he manages to convey such emotional exhaustion in a line as simple as ‘light’s beginning to fade’ is a hell of a statement of intent and the first sign that he was a singular and extraordinary talent. After such a great opening track, it’s totally unexpected that the second track “I Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love With You” completely overshadows it in every conceivable way. It’s a heart-rending song of unspoken missed romantic opportunities, regret and acceptance from the point of view of a hard-bitten and careworn barfly slumped at a bar and trying to achieve drunken oblivion by the cheapest means possible. It’s a suitably quiet and downbeat number, but at the same time, for me at least, it’s Waits’ best song of his entire career, which, lets face it, isn’t short on brilliant songs. “Virginia Avenue” allows the album to shift down to a more sustainable gear and while it’s not quite as good as the songs that went before, isn’t a weak tune by any means. It maintains the mood and while it is filler, it’s superior filler at least. The same could be said for “Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards)”. Don’t get me wrong, on any other album, these songs would be stand outs, but on Closing Time, they find themselves in the company of some quite beautiful songs. “Midnight Lullaby” flirts around a soft and smokey jazz tune and is a pointer towards the type of song that Waits would very much make his own during the rest of the 70s. Sure, it’s a prototype for what was yet to come, but it’s startling to hear just how fully realised it was compared to Wait’s more heralded jazz-flecked work later in the decade. “Martha” finds Waits inhabiting another character all together and is another heartbreaker. Anyone who believes that Tim Buckley’s cover is the definitive version of the song is proven utterly incorrect upon listening to Waits’ original. A man with a life well lived behind him calls the girl who represents the great missed opportunity of his life out of the blue, to say hello after years of silence, recount the story of his life, their love, the lessons he’s learned since and to explain that although he missed her through the intervening decades, he’s had a good life, and he hopes that she has too. Whether he is singing this to an answer machine or an anonymous third party is something I have never figured out, but it packs an oddly emotional punch nonetheless as once again Waits performs it with an emotional weight and gravitas far beyond his age at the time. The second half of the album opens with the duo of “Rosie” and “Lonely”, a pair of killer songs that would have a lot more impact if they weren’t following the emotion low-blow of “Martha”. Heard in isolation, they’re great, great numbers, but with the running order as it is they get a little forgotten in the shuffle. There same cannot be said of the moment of levity provided by the cover of “Ice Cream Man”, but even then, it’s tinged with what sounds like borderline madness. It swings like mad, and is the closest that Closing Time gets to an upbeat number. The tempo is again dropped and further jazzy flourishes are indulged in through “Little Trip to Heaven (On the Wings of Your Love)”, which does everything you’d expect a song with a title like that to do. It’s pretty, it’s well executes, but perhaps it’s also a little too smug for its own good. The album’s last great stand-out moment is “Grapefruit Moon”, which sounds like and oddly optimistic and lovelorn lullaby which finds Waits once again at the top of his game, even at this early point in his career. He leaves us with the album’s title track, a beautiful instrumental number that evokes the smokey jazz bar vibe the whole album has had, allowing us drift off into a fitful slumber following the comforting “Grapefruit Moon”. Tom Waits has recorded a slew of better received, more exciting and weirder albums since, he has never recorded a prettier and more emotionally true album than his debut.
Grading scale: NM > EX > VG+ > VG > Good > Poor)
Vinyl: EX. Stunning showing only slight tiny signs of use. The finish is shiny with some light marks where the vinyl has been in and out of the inner sleeve a few times. Labels are superb, clean and bright without marks. Spindle shows no sign of wear. And no warps.
Cover: VG+. SPINE: Clear, readable text | SEAMS: Top & Bottom intact without splits | CREASES: Light | RING WEAR : None | DEFACING: None | (Actual images so you can check the condition)
Will combine for shipping if you buy mixed singles and albums. If you buy multiple items wait for invoice with correct shipping cost.
Records are packed well with extra protection and LPs taken out of sleeves. Double-LP usually works as 1LP but no extra protection.
Tracks:
A1 Ol' '55 3:55 A2 I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You 3:52 A3 Virginia Avenue\t 3:22 A4 Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards)\t 3:41 A5 Midnight Lullaby\t 3:10 A6 Martha 4:26 B1 Rosie 3:56 B2 Lonely 3:11 B3 Ice Cream Man\t 3:05 B4 Little Trip To Heaven (On The Wings Of Your Love)\t 3:55 B5 Grapefruit Moon\t 4:46 B6 Closing Time\t 3:58price rating
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