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Small Change

His first charting album, cut direct to two-track stereo with a jazz rhythm section and strings.
Tom Waits, 1976

Released
21 September 1976
Recorded
July 1976
Studio
Wally Heider Studio 3, Hollywood
Label
Asylum
Producer
Bones Howe
Length
49:28

Sessions took place on 15, 19 to 21 and 29 July 1976 at Wally Heider Studio 3. The record was cut direct to two-track stereo, with a multitrack backup used when a reference to Jayne Meadows had to be changed. Jerry Yester arranged the strings, with Harry Bluestone as concertmaster.

It reached number 89 in the US, his first album to chart. Pitchfork gave it 9.0 out of 10 and AllMusic 4.5 stars. It opens with Tom Traubert's Blues and also holds Step Right Up, the song at the center of the Frito-Lay case.

Waits recalled it as the record on which he became completely confident in the craft. Deusner wrote that it outsold his earlier albums and established him as an artist who could headline instead of support, and that he used a cash register as percussion on Step Right Up. Deusner also picked out The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) for the way it presents its barroom setting as nearly surreal. Around its release Waits was profiled in Newsweek, Time, Vogue and The New Yorker.

Track listing

  1. Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)6:39
  2. Step Right Up5:43
  3. Jitterbug Boy (Sharing a Curbstone with Chuck E. Weiss, Robert Marchese, Paul Body and the Mug and Artie)3:44
  4. I Wish I Was in New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward)4:53
  5. The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (An Evening with Pete King)3:40
  6. Invitation to the Blues5:24
  7. Pasties and a G-String (At the Two O'Clock Club)2:32
  8. Bad Liver and a Broken Heart (In Lowell)4:50
  9. The One That Got Away4:07
  10. Small Change (Got Rained On with His Own .38)5:07
  11. I Can't Wait to Get Off Work (And See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue)3:17

Personnel

More from Tom Waits

Closing Time (1973), The Heart of Saturday Night (1974), Nighthawks at the Diner (1975), 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

  1. Small Change (Tom Waits album), Wikipedia
  2. Tom Waits: Closing Time to Heartattack and Vine reissues, Pitchfork (2018-03-24)
  3. Tom Waits, Wikipedia
  4. Discogs master: Small Change, Discogs
  5. Discogs release: Small Change, Asylum 7E-1078, Discogs
  6. Step Right Up (song), Wikipedia