Blue Valentine
A rougher, guitar-led record that opens with a West Side Story cover.
Tom Waits, 1978
- Released
- 5 September 1978
- Recorded
- 24 July to 26 August 1978
- Studio
- Filmways/Heider, Hollywood
- Label
- Asylum
- Producer
- Bones Howe
- Length
- 49:32
The album was recorded in six sessions between 24 July and 26 August 1978 at Filmways/Heider in Hollywood. Part way through, Waits replaced his musicians to get a less jazz-oriented sound, and he switched from piano to electric guitar as his main instrument. The back cover photograph shows Waits and Rickie Lee Jones leaning on his 1964 Ford Thunderbird, taken by Elliot Gilbert.
It opens with Waits's reading of Somewhere from West Side Story, released as a single in August 1978. It did not chart. Deusner of Pitchfork calls Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis, a minor hit at the time, one of his most devastating songs. Don Shewey of Rolling Stone called it as solid a record as Waits had made, and it earned a BPI Gold certification.
More from Tom Waits
Closing Time (1973), The Heart of Saturday Night (1974), Nighthawks at the Diner (1975), Small Change (1976), Foreign Affairs (1977), Heartattack and Vine (1980), Swordfishtrombones (1983), Rain Dogs (1985), Franks Wild Years (1987), Bone Machine (1992), The Black Rider (1993), Mule Variations (1999), Alice (2002), Blood Money (2002), Real Gone (2004), Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (2006), Bad as Me (2011)
Sources
- Blue Valentine (Tom Waits album), Wikipedia
- Tom Waits: Closing Time to Heartattack and Vine reissues, Pitchfork (2018-03-24)
- Tom Waits, Wikipedia