The cover of Tom Wait’s sophomore effort sees in front of a bar, cigarette in mouth, bearing the world outside. The single lap lit cover of Closing Time is replaced with neon and street lights for The Heart of Saturday Night and in many ways it expresses that change of pace and style. It is the same brand of blues, jazz and folk, still the same sights and streets, only here they are illuminated with a further flourish from Wait’s further trek into poeticism or the inclusion of electric pianos and strings giving almost every trek a grander feel. The intimacy of the nightclub is still there, but now the door of the club have been open, if only for the world to hear it all.
The first song, “A New Coat of Paint,” gives a further emphasis on that change just from the title. New producer Bone Howes and Tom give the track a spacy feel with the smooth electric pianos, and a force from everything else. Tom demonstrates his progression as a true beatnik throughout this album, but when lines like “Our love needs a transfusion so let’s shoot it full of wine” and “we’ll laugh at that bloodshot moon/ in that burgundy sky” appear we know we’re in for a treat. As opposed to the swinging upbeat feel of the opening, “San Diego Seerenade” is unabashedly sincere, with punctuating orchestral strings helping to paint a story of love and heartbreak amidst the backdrop of a city sleeping and waking.
“Semi Suite” Jazz stylings maintains the melancholy of the previous track whilst including bursts of trumpets that scale down as much the listener’s emotions, ending with a strange outro in which the acoustic bass blurs out again when we assumed the song ended. Quite appropriate from for truck driving man who is only stopping while he can. This bass continues in the guitar led “Shiver Me Timbers” with a ringing strength and propelling another story of men moving and travelling the world alone. This time, as the title suggests, it is someone setting off to see, and their goodbye is not just written by “the moon in the sky” – I notice that either Waits had an obsession with moons at this point in his career, or I do – but by trumpets, guitars and strings that give the feeling of a wave.
The next two songs, that close the first half, and different in that they exemplify more of the beatnik feel of the opening track. “Diamonds On My Windshield” does this the most, with a drum and bass backing the kind of spoken word poetry that Waits was experimenting with in this point of his live shows. The music ensures this doesn’t come across “colder than a well digger’s ass,” as too do lyrics such as that, with many changes of beats and internal rhymes and vivid descriptions that makes this one of the album’s standouts as opposed to the album’s oddities. The title track also shows its beatnik influence, with the title a direct reference to Jack Kerouac, and another sparser backing with just an acoustic bass and guitar being more than enough of another car/escape track like “Ol’ 55” from Closing Time.
Something about the theatricality of the way the second half of this album opens with “Fumbling for the Blues,” especially with the clarinets, do in the smallest of parts demonstrate the kind of musical stylings Tom would prefer on later releases. That clarinet is certainly a great, melodic edition, as the muted guitars, trumpets and electric pianos, all helping to give the rolling, or even fumbling, feeling. The halves of this album in many ways mirror each other, in that just as the first two tracks were a jazzier beatnik number followed by something with more sincerity backed by orchestra, so is true with “Please Call Me, Baby.” This track’s chorus could show Wait’s being a straight up crooner if it wasn’t for his rougher tones – as opposed to other crooners, not opposed to future Waits – and the more spoken word lines.
“Depot, Depot” shows more of Wait lost sensibilities, with the narrator not knowing why he is at the aforementioned depot, as well as some great piano skills. It is probably my least favourite track on the album (by process of elimination), but in contains some absolutely amazing trumpet work0ut. Meanwhile “Drunk on The Moon” has my favourite piano work on the entire album, the trumpet serving more of a backing until the second half of the tracks sudden tempo change. The more I think about it the more I think this is my favourite song from the album, especially with lines as wonderful as “And the moon’s a silver slipper/ It’s pouring champagne stars/ Broadway’s like a serpent/ Pulling shiny top-down cars.
As mentioned before with the two halves mirroring, ends with another emphasis on time with “The Ghosts of Saturday Night.” Here the spoken word quality gives the song’s intro a Lou-Reed-esque feel, and contains some of the more “out there” lyrics of the whole of The Heart of Saturday Night. Her rhinestone-studded moniker says, “Irene”/ As she wipes the wisps of dishwater blonde from her eyes, as well as adding up to all the previous themes such as the place, women and cars of the night. Also, it’s appropriate that he ends his album with so much food talk because, I don’t know about you, but after a good Saturday night out you’ve just got to end it all with some greasy food among close friends.
The Heart of Saturday Night is an improvement on Closing Time, with more thoughtful and descriptive lyrics and a sense that Tom Waits feels more confident as a musician with striking pieces that still keep things intimate. The Nightclub atmosphere is still alive. The next album would make it more overt.
What did you think of the album, though?
Tom Waits Album Rankings
- The Heart of Saturday Night
- Closing Time