Search - Tom Waits :: Used Songs 1973-1980

And every thing is broken ...

11/26/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Tom Waits has had many compilations in the past (Beautiful Maladies, Bounced Checks) but this one should not be excluded from any music fan's collection. Used Songs, from Rhino Records, highlights the Asylum Years - those years where Tom was a hobo (now he's a grave-digger, ring leader, and train riding poet) and singing in bars with a cigarette (now he's got a bigger audience and a mega-phone). I love Tom's most recent works, and I also love this stuff. It's a little bit more jazzy - but it is still beautiful and great late-night music.Some highlights (for me):"Heartattack & Vine". This is a trademark Waits tune. Scratchy guitars and growler vocals. "Don't cha know there ain't no Devil, that's just God when he's drunk.""A Sight for Sore Eyes". Great piano song. Waits at the top of his "story telling" game."Whistlin' past the Graveyard". I honestly feel like going out at 2 in the morning and whistling past a graveyard. You will too."Jersey Girl". Great Waits song that was made greater by Springsteen. Personally, I think Tom's version is better by far. Great guitar, great lyrics (as always), great vocals. So catchy, so catchy."The Heart of Saturday Night". Back when Tom's voice was leaning towards a true singer. The whisky & cigarettes hadn't set it yet."Tom Traubert's Blues". Apart from "Take it with Me", this is probably the most beautiful Tom Waits song that has been made (so far).Also, with the compilation comes a booklet with a few great articles and pictures. A good buy. Better than any of that mainstream pop nonsense out there today. Bravo."

Tom Waits gets the Rhino-treatment!!

Simone Oltolina | Morbio Inferiore, TI Switzerland | 12/14/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Rhino has done an incredible job, just as usual! Generally they take recordings that have languished in a corner for too long and give them the treatment they deserve: this means brilliant sequencing on a single disc, equally brilliant liner notes and a nice package, just for good measure! This year they did it among others with Elvis Costello (check out "my aim is true") and Tom Waits and both releases are strong to say the very least.Technically speaking "used songs..." is a "best of" that collects songs already included in proper albums released between 1973 and 1980. So no rarities or non-album versions here, just brilliant music for those who need an introduction to Tom Waits (his later stuff tends to be increasingly "difficult", often bordering on the "experimental", so his early period is the best starting point) Now, for those of you who are entirely new to Tom Waits I'll say that he WRITES lyrics in a style that is imbued with beat poetry and then sings them in a raspy voice, backed by some jazzy, cabaret-like music. He's one of my favourite singers and he might well become one of yours!"

Used songs, but good as new.

H3@+h | VT | 04/11/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Tom Waits is just one of those guys that's beyond description or comparison. This is a collection of some of his 70's work, apparently before he got weird, which is funny because alot of this is pretty wild stuff itself. Some tracks like "Step Right Up" sound like an auctioneer gone nuts, and others like "Jersey Girl" are really quite moving and pretty. A unique artist and voice indeed. These songs often paint a picture for me, and it's of a guy who has a cigarette in one hand and a whiskey in the other, singing in a smokey jazz/beat club, the one down the alley in the old part of town that mostly just the locals end up in, and if you stumble in the door, you leave having had one of those memorable nights that you only get a few of in your lifetime."