Tom Waits - Closing Time
- FaceOff - עימות חזיתי
- Mar 6
- 4 min read
Written By: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 06.03.1978
"If 30,000 people go together to a big event, don’t look for me there. I simply distrust large groups of people going anywhere together."
If you ever find yourself at large gatherings (did someone say protests), don’t expect to see Tom Waits standing next to you. He has always despised mass events. The barroom troubadour with the gravel-soaked voice released his debut album "Closing Time" on March 6, 1973.
Waits, who seemed almost fully grown from the very beginning, once said: "I wanted to skip adolescence and go straight to 40." He is the attentive musician who constantly searches for the small stories of people living on society’s margins. Look for him among the quiet stories unfolding on the streets. That is where he will be.
Thomas Alan Waits was born in December 1949 in Pomona, California. He was the middle child. His father, Jesse Frank, was of Scottish and Irish descent and worked as a teacher, while his mother Alma, of Norwegian origin, managed the household.
Waits once said about his father: "He was a tough guy, always an outsider." His father also struggled with alcoholism and often took young Tom along on bar rounds. Tom would sit beside him and listen to his stories, an experience that later shaped him into a captivating storyteller and an outsider who sought out the fringe characters of society.
When he was nine years old, his father left the family home, and the young Waits felt the burden of earning a living resting on his shoulders. He began working a wide range of jobs, from dishwasher to pizza maker, ice-cream truck vendor, and even forest ranger assistant. He and his mother moved first to Whittier, California, and later to Chula Vista in San Diego.
Tom taught himself to play piano on an instrument that belonged to a neighbor. During high school he played in a soul and R&B band called "The Systems", where he developed a love for artists such as Ray Charles, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Roy Orbison, and Bob Dylan, who became a key example for him of how to write songs.
In 1969 Waits began working as a doorman at the Heritage nightclub, which regularly hosted folk musicians. Gradually, through his fascinating stories and small performances, he moved from the door position to the small stage inside the club.
The breakthrough exposure that helped propel Waits forward came at the famous "Troubadour" club in Los Angeles, a venue that offered aspiring artists a chance to perform every Monday night.
These Monday nights were in high demand, and many artists appeared there early in their careers. "The Eagles", Elton John, "The Byrds", Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young were only some of the musicians who got their early opportunities on that stage.
"I used to come to the Troubadour in the morning and wait in line all day hoping to get to the front. When your turn came, you had 15 minutes to give the best show of your life. It was like a slave market. People sold their souls just to play one night on that stage," Waits later recalled.
During one of his performances at the Troubadour he was noticed by Herb Cohen, the manager of Frank Zappa, Linda Ronstadt, and Tim Buckley. Cohen took him under his wing, primarily as a songwriter. Waits’ star continued to rise until David Geffen, the promising head of "Asylum Records", set his sights on him. After negotiations between Geffen and Herb Cohen, Waits signed with one of the most exciting record labels of the early seventies, a roster that also included Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne.
Waits entered the studio to record his debut album "Closing Time", with Jerry Yester, formerly of the band "Lovin' Spoonful", chosen as the producer.
Waits’ debut is essentially a singer-songwriter album accompanied by minimal instrumentation of piano, drums, bass, and trumpet. He offers a somewhat sympathetic portrait of melancholy people searching for love in all the wrong places, allowing loneliness and despair to drive their actions and emotional connections in songs like "Midnight Lullaby".
The album forms a bridge between Waits’ desire to create a fully jazz-influenced record and producer Jerry Yester’s inclination to guide the music toward folk-rock territory.
Most of the songs reflect influences Waits absorbed from writers such as Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac. One cannot ignore the clear inspiration behind "Ice Cream Man", which echoes the spirit of Ray Charles’ "Hit the Road Jack".
In "Martha" and "I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You", Waits sings about unfulfilled love and about an old man who remembers a lost romance and calls the woman he loved after forty years.
The opening song "Ol' 55", which later became a cover by "The Eagles", was written about a car that faithfully served Waits and on which he spent much of his early earnings.
Tom Waits wrote an album that feels like the work of a man observing life with clear-eyed maturity and experience, despite being only twenty-three years old when it was released.
The album cover was designed by Cal Schenkel. Schenkel took inspiration from Waits’ own vision of how the album should sound. On the cover Waits leans against a piano decorated with a beer bottle, cigarettes, an ashtray, and a small candle, while above his head hangs a blue lamp reminiscent of those traditionally placed over billiard tables.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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