Tom Waits

TOM WAITS Released His 4th LP ‘SMALL CHANGE’ Today 50 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

21 September 2026

TOM WAITS (76 now) released his 4th album, named
SMALL CHANGE today, 50 years ago, on 21 Sept 1976.

It peaked at #89 in the US, actually his first charting album.

Waits: “It’s all about ambulance drivers, night watchmen, ticket takers, street sweepers,
tattoo parlors, stage door jockeys, shoe string hotels from New York City to Chicago, Buffalo, Los Angeles, all the way from Tuxedo Junction to swing town. Did it in five nights on the corner of Selma and Cahuenga. Recorded complete and direct to 2-track stereo tape.”

Los Angeles Times said: “He has not only fulfilled the promise of his early
work, but extended it in a way that makes him one of America’s most valuable
pop performers. By refusing to stay in the safe mold of his first albums, he
enriched his art.”

ALBUM


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Amazing Album Artwork – Cover Of The Upcoming One By Mega Pop Star TROYE SIVIAN

Posted on by JL

14 August 2026

Artist: TROYE SEVIAN
Who: Australian mega R&B pop star, who was
born 31 years ago in Johannesburg, South Africa

Album: SHE’S THE BEST.
It’ll be shared with the
world on Oct 9th.

ARTWORK

Title Track

Below the cover of Tom Waits‘s 4th LP Small Change released 50 years ago
(21 Sept 1976). Could it be the same woman as on the upcoming Sivian LP?
If so she hasn’t hardly aged.

Image Of The Day – TOM WAITS

Posted on by JL

1 August 2026

TOM WAITS worked with Massive Attack on their upcoming 12″,
named Boots On The Ground. It’ll be out September 4.

The B-side of the 12″ is a spoken word piece by Waits, called The Fly.
It’s on all streaming platforms, and the proceeds will go to migrants
in the US.

Artwork on top.

Waits: “Today, as in all of mankind’s yesterdays, guarantees this type of
song will never go out of style. Man’s folly of fiascos is a feast for the flies.
‘The Fly’ features my appreciation for the winged nuisance.”

MASSIVE ATTACK & TOM WAITS Team Up For Bone-Chilling Protest Song ‘BOOTS ON THE GROUND’

Posted on by JL

Vitalizing tunes that work faster than a stream of caffeine

16 April 2026

British trip-hop icons MASSIVE ATTACK and legendary crooner-maverick
TOM WAITS have teamed up for a collaborative politically-loaded track,
named BOOTS ON THE GROUND.

It’s a loud and clear protest song, critising today’s autocratic America.

Boots On The Ground comes with a video clip created by MA & made with work by US photo artist thefinaleye. It shows the aftermath of the recent largest public protests in American history against “ICE raids, the militarisation of domestic forces, and state authoritarianism”.

The intro of the clip starts with the text “From the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 5 2020, to recent ICE raids on migrant communities and the killing of civilians that protect them,” and moves on to, “From the brutal state repression of public protest, to the reality of American homelessness that includes nearly 33,000 military veterans” and ends by detailing those who have lost their lives to ICE and the impact of oppressive retaliation to protest.

Bone-chilling in sound and vision.

The clock is ticking.

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UNCUT Magazine – New Issue With Cover Star TOM WAITS

Posted on by JL

26 March 2026

Artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Robert Plant, Lucinda Williams, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Marianne Faithfull covered TOM WAITS and KATHLEEN BRENNAN songs over the years.

A new compilation, named Where The Willow and The Dogwood Grow will feature a total of 19 of those covers. It comes with extensive sleeve notes featuring a track-by-track commentary and will be out on May 29.

Tracklist and order info HERE.

For this occasion, UNCUT talked with famous fans such as Beck, Steve Earle, Rosanne
Cash, Lucinda Williams, about the sprawling genius of a true American original. From
boho troubadour to avant-garde alchemist.

Also in this issue: Tori Amos, Queen, Pixies, Kurt Vile, Rick Wakeman, Earth WInd & Fire,
Jack White’s, Country Joe McDonald, Gary Walker RIP, and many more.

This month’s Free CD, titled Songs In The Chest Of Love, features 15 tracks picked by Kurt Vile, including Kim Gordon, Sun Ra, Royal Trux, Steve Gun, Jessica Pratt, The Halo Benders, Red Red Meat; Vile himself and more.

You can purchase a copy of this new issue and let it be sent to your home. Info HERE.

TOM WAITS – The Genial Barfly Released His 3rd LP ‘NIGHTHAWKS AT THE DINER’ Today 50 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

21 October 2025

Crooner and barfly legend TOM WAITS (75 now) released his 3rd LP, titled
NIGHTHAWKS AT THE DINER today, 50 years ago, on 21 October 1975.

It was recorded over four sessions in July in the Los Angeles Record Plant studio
in front of a small invited audience, set up to recreate the atmosphere of a jazz club.
The album got very positive critics but didn’t score commercially well at first, as it
peaked at #164 on the Billboard 200. Over the years it went silver.

The title was inspired by Edward Hopper‘s 1942 painting Nighthawks. See here.

Jim Hughart, who played upright bass on the recordings
recalled the experience of preparing for and recording the
album:

“Preparing for this thing, we had to memorize all this stuff, ’cause Waits had nothing on paper. So ultimately, we spent four or five days in a rehearsal studio going over this stuff. And that was drudgery. But when we did actually get it all prepared and go and record, that was the fastest two days of recording I’ve ever spent in my life. It was so fun.”

Join the bar crowd.


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TOM WAITS – Legendary Barfly Crooner Released His 9th Album ‘RAINDOGS’ Today 40 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

30 September 2025

Legendary barfly crooner TOM WAITS (aged 75 now) released his
9th LP RAINDOGS on 30 September 1985, today 40 years ago.

A concept record about the urban dispossessed of New York City.
Rain Dogs is generally considered the middle album of a trilogy
that includes Swordfishtrombones and Franks Wild Years.

Tom Waits: “I didn’t really want to be part of a clique or a niche. But I also was
looking for my own voice, as a writer, y’know? And a world I could call my own.”

Artwork: The man on the cover looks definitely like Waits, but the photo is actually
one of a series taken by the Swedish photographer Anders Petersen at Café Lehmitz (near the Hamburg red-light street called Reeperbahn, where The Beatles used to play gigs in small clubs in the early days) in the late 1960s. The man and woman on the front sleeve are called Rose and Lilly.

Rolling Stone Magazine: “Rain Dogs insists on nosing its way
around the barrooms and back alleys Waits has so often visited
before.”

SINGLE

ALBUM


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TOM WAITS Released Two Albums – ‘BLOOD MONEY’ And ‘ALICE’ – On The Same Day 23 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from the past

7 May 2025

On 7 May 2002, today 23 years ago, the now 75-year-old
crooner legend TOM WAITS released two LPs on the same
day.

Waits: “Well, thing is, people get upset when you haven’t had a record out
in seven years, then they get upset when you put out two at the same time.
It’s like, ‘Where are my eggs?’ then ‘I didn’t order this!’ My feeling is that if it
turns out to be a success, then it was my idea, and if it’s not, then I blame it
on someone else.”

Pitchfork wrote about the two records: “Both albums are further testament
that Waits’ inner cryptkeeper is getting sharper, combining disparate instruments
with calamitous precision and conjuring worlds in which celebrities are born without
bodies and razors ‘find’ throats. The music is so expressive and confident in its
spook-ass vibe that it’s flat-out cinematic.

Waits is serving up vintage brittle fusion and somehow breaking the law of diminishing returns. Something wicked this way hams, and it ain’t afraid to be misanthropic and admit that humans are just monkeys trained to parallel park.”

– BLOOD MONEY –

It features songs that Waits wrote with songstress/producer Kathleen Brennan
for an opera Woyzeck by experimental theater stage director Robert Wilson.

#32 in the US, #21 in the UK.


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– ALICE –

It also consists of songs written by Waits and Kathleen Brennan for the opera Alice
ten years earlier. The opera was again a collaborative work with Robert Wilson.

#33 in the US, #20 in the UK.


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