Product Description
Brand New ~ Sealed! Superior Remastered 45th Anniversary Edition 180 Gram Vinyl LP. Includes Inner Sleeve With Lyrics. Remastered By Waits & Brennan At Infrasonic.
‘Closing Time’ is the debut record of Tom Waits, presenting the distinctly lyrical storytelling and original blending of jazz, blues and folk styles that would come to be associated with the artist. Waits performs enduring classics of his career such as “Ol’ 55” (covered by Eagles), the heartbreaking “Martha”, and the gentle acoustic folk of “I Hope I Don’t Fall In Love With You”.
Side 1:
Ol’ 55
I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You
Virginia Avenue
Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards)
Midnight Lullaby
Martha
Side 2:
Rosie
Lonely
Ice Cream Man
Little Trip To Heaven (On The Wings Of Your Love)
Grapefruit Moon
Closing Time
AMG –
Closing Time quietly announces the arrival of a talented songwriter, blessed with wry barroom humor and solitary melancholy. 4 ½ Stars Tom Waits' debut album is a minor-key masterpiece filled with songs of late-night loneliness. Within his chosen narrow range of the cocktail bar pianistics and muttered vocals, Waits and producer Jerry Yester manage to deliver a surprisingly broad collection of styles, from the jazzy "Virginia Avenue" to the uptempo off-kilter funkiness of "Ice Cream Man." The acoustic guitar folkiness of the tender "I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love with You" is an upside-down take on the Laurel Canyon sound, while the saloon song "Midnight Lullaby" would have been a perfect addition to the repertoires of Frank Sinatra and/or Tony Bennett. Waits' entire musical approach is highly stylized and, in its lesser moments, somewhat derivative of some of his own heroes: "Lonely" borrows from Randy Newman's "I Think It's Going to Rain Today." His lovelorn lyrics can be sentimental without penetrating too deeply, but they still get the job done since these are song portraits in miniature. The frameworks of most of the songs come from the songwriter's literary obsessions with Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac. Waits also has a gift for gentle, rolling pop melodies; his original scenarios are strikingly visual on the best songs, such as "Martha" -- which Yester discreetly augments with strings -- and the now iconic "Ol' 55." Waits' original version is far superior in conveying the early-morning emotions after leaving a lover's room to the Eagles' hooky hit cover -- which ultimately guaranteed Waits an income for life. Closing Time quietly announces the arrival of a talented songwriter whose self-consciousness, wry barroom humor, and solitary melancholy made him a standout from virtually all of his peers, and difficult to pigeonhole. 4 ½ Stars