THE COUGAR CRY, DECEMBER 16, 1976 — PAGE 3
Tom Waits: Inebriated Poet
Morning
BY RON WISHON
Tom Waits: “Nighthawks at
the Diner” (2 LP’s, recorded live,
Asylum 7E-2008).
A live album by an inebriated
poet from Los Angeles named
Tom Waits ^ has been on my
turntable more than any others
recently.
Who is Tom Waits? He could
best be described as the last of the
beatnik poets, who has been
writing and recording song-poems
and recitations in relative obscur
ity until The Eagles and Eric
Andersen recorded versions of his
song zol 55.” Prior to this live
album, Waits has recorded two
albums for the Asylum label,
“Heart of a Saturday Night” and
“Closing Time.” His sense of
humor is ridiculously funny; he is
perhaps the best ad-libber I’ve
ever heard, as is evidenced in his
intros to numbers on “Night-
hawks.”
Waits’ appearance immediately
indicates that he is the ultimate
beatnik; his beard is trimmed in
the goateed style of the beatniks
of the ’50’s, and his wardrobe is
topped off by a tweed burglar cap
of the type worn by Andy Capp in
the comics. Highlights of this live
LP are numbers done in the
recitation style of certain per
formers spoken to a background
of cool jazz music. He also throws
in a little “scat” singing during a
few numbers in the style of Louise
“Satchmo” Armstrong. An in
ventor of phrases and casual user
of expletives, he takes his
audience on an “...improvi-
sational adventure into the bowels
of the metropolitan region...”
describing subterranean hang
outs of the inhabitants of the
inner-city L.A. underground,
which include waitresses, barflies,
prostitutes, winos, truckers, red
necks, cabbies, burlesque queens
and patrons of the Ivar Theatre, a
burlesque palace in Los Angeles.
The best numbers on “Night-
hawks” are the opening cut,
“Emotional Weather Report,” in
which he contrasts his feelings of
with nine sucking pups pullin’ a
#4 trap up a hill in the dead of
winter in the middle of a
snowstorm with a mouth full of
porcupine quills...”. (That’s
cold!)
“Spare Parts H” continues this
sort of thing, relating an account
of how a friend advises him to buy
some new clothes, and he goes to
a well-known men’s clothing store
in L.A. looking for “...a serious
seersucker Saturday evening cran
berry acoutramon ensemble, with
an ended love affair to the
weather outlook for an indefinite
period of time (parcipitation is
expected). “Better Off Without a
Wife” is a ludicrous account
about the advantages of being
single (in the intro he tells about
calling himself up on the phone
and asking himself out, and ends
up concluding that there’s no way
around “...taking advantage of
yourself...” or “...making the
scene with a magazine...”).
“Nighthawk Postcards (from
Hasty Street)” describes used car
salesmen, truckers, cabbies, and
pool room characters. Some
examples of his descriptions in
this number: “...a Dracula moon
in a black disguise...” “...the sun
came crawling yellow out of a
manhole at the foot of 23rd
Street...,” “...the El train came
tumbling across the trestles, and it
sounded like the ghost of Gene
Krupa with an overhead cam and
glasspacks...”. “Eggs & Sausage
(In a Cadillac with Susan
Michelson)” describes the patrons
of an all-night diner, consisting of
“gypsy hacks and insomniacs...”.
In the intro he talks about having
“...dangerous veal cutlets at the
Copper Penny...”, which leave
the plate and walk down the
counter, and then come back
down the counter and try to beat
the s—t out of a cup of coffee.
(The coffee just isn’t strong
enough to defend itself!)
“Spare Parts I (A Nocturnal
Emission)” describes “...the sky
turned the color of Pepto
Bismol...” and the wind “...cold
er than a gut-shoe bitch wolf dog
a leviticously deuteronomous sort
of catastrophic lunch box Stetson,
danger high voltage slacks, and
high top mink Nunbrush suede
penny loafers, so I can be passin’
out wolf tickets no matter where I
go.”
Waits can also be serious as
evidenced in other numbers from
this album. “On a Foggy Night”
relates the bewildered feeling one
gets from being lost on an
abandoned road on a foggy night.
“Warm Beer and Cold Wo
men” is about the end of an
“...emotional cul-de-sac...,” in
which he is pre-occupied with
thoughts of his ex-lady friend,
and oblivious to the warm beer
and cold women “...and the band
playing something by Tammy
Wynette at the Last Ditch
Attempt Saloon...” around him.
“Putnam County” is a descrip
tion of a sort of redneck
community somewhere in the
U.S., and patrons of the club
where they hang out in town.
“Nobody” is a simple love song
in which Waits declares “...no
body, nobody will love you the
way that I could cause nobody,
nobody’s that strong...”. The
only non-original number on the
album. Red Sovine’s “Big Joe
and Phantom 309” is a recitation
about a phantom truck driver and
his rig who will stop and pick up a
stranded hitch-hiker on a rainy
night at the crossroads where he
was killed ten years ago in
avoiding a collision with a school
bus full of kids.
Waits is hard to describe in just
a short critique and must be heard
to be appreciated. If you like
weird humor and spell-binding
story-telling, 1 hope you won’t
have to be cajoled into buying this
double album, either of his
previous albums, or his newest
one on Asylum, “Small Change.”
We can look forward to a lot
more entertaining insanity from
Mr. Waits, the inebriated poet in
the future, if he does not become
a victim of his subterranean
lifestyle or chain-smoke himself to
death first.
Circle K Activities
Diane Dotson, head of the
Circle K Committee for Alleviat
ing Hunger, served punch and
cookies to the night students
Monday night.
This project is an effort for the
club to get food for a needy
family at Christmas.
Angie Crabb and other mem
bers of the committee worked
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednes
day nights. The donations of
money and food will be given to
the Social Services Department
for distribution.
The club will be in the
downtown area on December 23,
singing Christmas carols. Dona
tions will be taken up then for the
Lung Association.
A membership drive is planned
again for January, so plan to join.
I
0®’
The sun peeps over the trees and
makes the frost on my window
pane sparke like glitter,
The clouds float across the sky.
They look like balls of cotton
being blown by a soft breeze.
Dust particles dance on the
sunbeams as the sun shines
through my window.
I go outside and feel the cool fresh
air, and stop to listen as a new
day is being born.
-Linda T. McCann
Lines
Deadlines, headlines,
long lines, short
lines, soup lines, chorus
lines, welfare lines
center lines, white lines,
telephone lines.
power lines and
direct lines, all kinds of
lines but none
that connect me and you
-Shorty
Graffitti
Sue loves Bob Bill & Jill
Jack & Jane
Ronnie loves Angie
Tommy & Rhonda
Shorty kinda likes
Whatshername.
-Shorty
(ABOVE) HOWELL’S WINNING LEGS
(BELOW) BURGESS’ GORGEOUS GAMS
Billy Howell Wins Legs Contest
Having conducted an enthusi
astic campaign, Billy Howell,
president of Phi Beta Lambda
emerged first-place winner of the
legs Contest. Vicki Burgess,
vice-president of Phi Beta Lamb
da came in second.
Howell was awarded an
AM-FM radio, and Vicki received
2 complimentary tickets to
College Park Cinema.
The contest was a money
making venture for Phi Beta
Lambda. Understandably, the
club officers were the contest’s
most ardent boosters. (See photos
above.)