I like this record. Actually, it is my secret favorite of Waits's 1970. She is such a nice middle ground. On one hand, there's a bit of the memories of the baby fat of Closing Time. The "San Diego Serenade" is very true to the spirit of the first work. And with "The Heart of Saturday Night" and above all the to die for "Shiver Me Timbers" can be found on the A-side of two of the most wonderful tearjerker of his rich repertoire tearjerker.
But there is also the Jazz, the bar music. The bass always exhilarating jumps around in the dregs of the pieces. Finger flick. A saxophone stänkert. And Tom begins by developing his typical narrative recitative, in the already weave first early samples of his later developed for Championship metaphors language. On the A-side off you go with the great "Diamonds on my Windshield". The B-side is then pure Bar Gecroone. What does the world? "Drunk on the Moon" is quite magnificent. And as bouncer "The Ghosts of Saturday Night", which is so atmospheric that you immediately looks next to the guys on the wet road in the lamplight of the newspaper stand, deep in the night, where the beginning of the evening is far back and in the mornings is not even thinking.
"The heart of Saturday Night" is a passage deeper into the night. Tom stumbles ahead. And we afterwards.
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This is the second part of my Annäherungscersuches to Waits's canon. The predecessor can be found in "Closing Time". It continues with "Nighthawks at the Diner".