Big Time

by

Tom Waits

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If you're new to Tom Waits, skip over this CD for a while. If you've lived with Tom Waits's songs for some time you might be ready to hear this eclectic, bizarre, and energetic collection of live performances. Some of the songs are almost totally reinvented - recognizable only by the lyrics (Red Shoes, Big Black Mariah). Some are played exactly the same as the original recording with sometimes better results (Ruby's Arms) and sometimes inferior results (Johnsburg, Illinois, Train Song). There's also the delightfully strange and funny pre-song banter and story telling that he's well known for. For me, the absolute highlight of the CD is the song "Falling Down" which is the only studio track and ranks among the best songs of his entire career. It's oddly buried in the middle of the CD without fanfare, but to me it's a major selling point of the CD. Recently, I viewed the video "Big Time" (long out of print and a collectors item - check Ebay -- they go for over a hundred bucks!) and was quite surprised to find that there is very little overlap between the movie and the CD. Even some cases where the same song is on both, it is a different version. I guess that's just one more quirk in this quirky CD.

I LOVE the old Tom Waits. Heart Attack and Vine, Heart of Saturday Night, Blue Valentine, Closing Time, Nighthawks at the Diner -- you get the picture. Don't get me wrong, I've known lots of folks who think Swordfish Trombones and Big Time and that part of his work is great. I respect their opinions and wish I could get into this stuff, but it just doesn't work for me. The Waits stuff I love, I love as much as any other music in the world. His artistry is unmatched. Ah, well. I'm glad he's going where his vision takes him. Just wish it was a place I wanted to follow. . . .