Closing Time
The debut: piano-bar ballads that the Eagles borrowed from before the public had noticed him.
Tom Waits, 1973
- Released
- 6 March 1973
- Recorded
- Spring 1972
- Studio
- Sunset Sound and United Western Recorders, Hollywood
- Label
- Asylum
- Producer
- Jerry Yester
- Length
- 45:46
Jerry Yester produced and engineered the record, which was recorded in Hollywood in spring 1972 and mixed at Wally Heider in San Francisco. It did not chart in the US on release. Stephen Holden of Rolling Stone called it a remarkable debut album, and the Eagles covered Ol' '55 on On the Border in 1974.
Many of the songs were written while Waits was making the rounds in San Diego, among them Ol' '55, which Stephen M. Deusner of Pitchfork describes as an ode to the car that carries him away from his girlfriend's bed early in the morning. Barney Hoskyns noted that the album was broadly in step with the early-1970s singer-songwriter school. Waits had wanted a piano-led jazz album, but Yester pushed the sound in a more folk-oriented direction. Tim Buckley covered Martha on his album Sefronia in 1973.
Track listing
- Ol' '553:58
- I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love with You3:54
- Virginia Avenue3:10
- Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards)3:40
- Midnight Lullaby3:26
- Martha4:30
- Rosie4:03
- Lonely3:12
- Ice Cream Man3:05
- Little Trip to Heaven3:38
- Grapefruit Moon4:50
- Closing Time4:20
More from Tom Waits
The Heart of Saturday Night (1974), Nighthawks at the Diner (1975), Small Change (1976), Foreign Affairs (1977), Blue Valentine (1978), 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
- Closing Time (album), Wikipedia
- Tom Waits: Closing Time to Heartattack and Vine reissues, Pitchfork (2018-03-24)
- Tom Waits, Wikipedia
- Ol' '55, Wikipedia