Customer Reviews

Small Change

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Tom Waits is a poet first and blues artist second. He can sculpt images in your mind using word tools so sharp you find places you never knew you had in you. Do yourself a favor and walk down his street. Just don't catch your death of cold out walkin in the rain.

Small Change was one of my first two Tom Waits albums. It literally changed me, added to me, I guess. I am more than I was before I knew this artist, and his influence on me musically far exceeded any other. I cherish the late night hours spent with my friend soaking up this record...an occasion repeated whenever the two of us find ourselves together.

One of my favorite albums of all time, this one just gets better every time I play it. Among my favorite tracks: "Tom Traubert's Blues" is the essence of noir, "Pasties and A G-String" tells you everything you need to know about the lost world of burlesque in a single song, and "Step Right Up" details the cosmic history of the white rap tradition (Sideshow barkers, Medicine Show grifters, tobacco auctioneers, tentshow Preachers). This album is the aural equivalent of a rain-soaked night on the sleazy side of town, a sonic masterpiece by one of our best musicians, a unique and distinctly American voice. If you don't know Tom Waits and want to, this is the album to buy, and if you do know him and don't have it, what are you waiting for?

With Small Change, Tom Waits has shown that he is THE heavyweight romantic poet of the latter twentieth century. So eloquent, so moving are these songs that the listener becomes infused with a warm glow. And the more you play it, the more you hear. His sly, deep blues vocal style has the power to knock you over every time. And then there is his musicianship- these are GREAT SONGS. Probably the best of all his seventeen albums.

OHMIGOD this c.d. is choice. I am listening to it right now. There is a sensual beauty in the music but the real brilliance comes out in the lyrics. "You ask me what I'm doin' here, hold this old lamppost, flippin' this old quarter, tryin' to make up my mind... If it's heads I'll go to Tennessee, if it's tails I'll buy a drink, if it lands on the edge I'll keep talkin'... to... you..."
Waits' nostalgia and grinning, drunken comraderie come in his devastating growl and the pure poetry of his language. Gloomy yet headshakingly happy. "The Piano Has Been Drinking" is one of the best songs I have ever heard- "the carpet needs a haircut and the spotlight looks like a prison-break and the telephone's out of cigarettes and the balcony is on the make..." This album can actually change the atmosphere in the room- it is enlightening and intimate. There is nothing self-indulgent about it- it is about real life- waitresses and dead-end jobs, late-night liquor and broken down cars on bad streets. This is the blues, done with lots of hope and heart. I fell in love with this music instantly.

Solid. 'New Orleans,' 'Jitterbug Boy'--complete filler. 'Get Off Work,' astoundingly mediocre. Should've closed with title track (sureal, great). 'Step Right Up,' 'Pasties/G-String'--cute, disposable, fun. 'TT's Blues'--not bad; not so good as public opinion has it. 'One That Got Away,' 'Invitation to the Blues'--yes! Classics! The latter especially.

Not a five-star album. Hardly. Absurd supposition. Nonetheless worthwhile. Love the man, but most albums somewhat inconsistent, at least. Better than most. A grower. Better to star with Blue Valentine. Or Rain Dogs, for the later bit. Fan's necessity, though. Over and out.

As far as music is concerned this record is very weak. For most of the time Tom Waits just mumbles his poetry pretending to play piano. There are 3 or 4 interesting songs, especially Step Right Up and Invitation to the Blues but the rest are just fillers. Any other of his early records is much better than this one. I recommend Foreign Affairs or Closing Time. Or if you want to hear real live Tom Waits buy Nighthawks at the Diner and have fun. You can safely skip this one unless you feel you must have a complete discography of Tom Waits.