Music Banter - View Single Post - Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis; A Tom Waits review
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Old 04-23-2010, 11:53 AM   #3 (permalink)
TheBig3
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Released September 1978
Recorded July 24-August 26, 1978 at Filmways/Heider Recording, Hollywood, CA
Genre Blues-Rock
Length 49:09
Label Asylum
Producer Bones Howe

Blue Valentine is, for most Tom Waits fans, a forgotten record. This has a lot to do with it being a transitional album between his early 70's "James Taylor-esque" sounds and his post-Europe Brothel singer style. But for my money, its one of the best.

The record doesn't stray far from his origins. The voice has changed but the blues and jazz have stuck around. The album opens with "Somewhere" from West Side Story and sets an odd pace for the album. It sounds very little like the rest of the album, but what it doesn't represent in musicality, it sets in plot.

Valentine is a dark romp through the lower west side; a way past bed-time story set in the immigration-tenements of New York: The strife of a poverty stricken life led to crime; the manic elation of those eye-of-the-storm good times that are wrung for ever drop of good times they'll yeild, and always, overjoyed or miserable, a persistent aura of caution that keeps every character in every song with one-eye over his shoulder.

For a forgotten album, this has some absolute knockouts on it. Whistlin' Past the Graveyard is so over-the-top and frenzied that even Wait's voice, which is notorious for putting off newcomers, won't deter your grandmother from sitting up in bed, asking who this is, and decrying modern music with that old quip "this is how music should be." A baseline/sax riff that gets the blood flowing, drums fills that will give you speeding tickets, Graveyard waits in the weeds, and pounces on you from the sleepy lead ins.

And as for narrative, few songs in the American canon can compared with Romeo is Bleeding, a greaser anthem that might be a better play than Grease itself (I know, I know, boo-hiss...whatever).

But for all its upbeat action, and gutter-celebrity intrigue, Blue Valentine is no exception to Wait's traditional chest-compressing heart breakers. Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis, another amazing narrative, is such a a heavy tale of human tragedy that I'd caution you from listening to it drunk unless you really want to cry alone at your computer. Christmas Card utilizes some well-remembered stories from the narrators past that remind us that nothings is so soul-crushing like the embraced joy of the truly downtrodden. A late-game plot twist only exacerbates the suffering until you can't take it anymore.

And to close it out, the title-track flexes its strength in minimalism - a couple of electric guitars dancing between blues and flamenco - tells a more traditional tale of heartache, but when when Waits holds the brush, its not only a story like you've never heard before, you feel like that story is you.

I'd normally close the review out here, but I just have to write about "A Little Bullet from a Pretty Blue Gun" which is one of my favorite songs ever. The band makes everything here. Cold, calculating, and the flourishes bring the characters to life in a way you only get the full effect of when you hear it with your eyes closed.

Blue Valentine is not without its missteps, some songs don't measure up the weight of the great ones here, and thats mostly because they don't exactly fit mood-wise, but all in all, for a forgotten album, its the one you really should try out first.

Must Hear:
1. Romeo is Bleeding
2. Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
3. A Little Bullet from a Pretty Blue Gun
4. Blue Valentine
5. Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis
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