Before he gargled barbed wire and used the Elephant Man’s spine for a marimba, Tom Waits crooned at the Joanna in the smoky halo of a half-busted spotlight. His masterpiece debut, 1973’s Closing Time, introduced a songwriter who seemingly could knock out classics in between coffee breaks.
While follow-up The Heart Of Saturday Night – now reissued on 50th-anniversary coloured vinyl – doesn’t have anything quite as familiar as Ol’ 55 or Martha, it still has a lot to recommend it. There’s the freewheeling dance of night-out opener New Coat Of Paint, the aching romanticism of San Diego Serenade, and the after-hours melancholy to Semi Suite. And while you might think that Fumblin’ With The Blues or even the sentimental Shiver Me Timbers were Waits sailing slightly on autopilot, his melodic skill and ever-present charm let him get away with it.
