Nighthawks at the Diner

Yesterday in the afternoon after the weekend was almost done -- my outstanding accomplishment being that I finally filed my federal taxes -- I had the good fortune to hear Tom Waits'  "Eggs and Sausage (In a Cadillac with Susan Michelson)" off Nighthawks at the Diner (1975). It reminded me of the W. years and the invasion and occupation of Iraq. At that time I listened a lot to Nighthawks at the Diner and Small Change (1976) -- I think Small Change is Tom Waits' finest album -- both of which belonged to my girlfriend. I had borrowed them and made copies.

With Nighthawks you have the clear articulation of the gravel-voiced Waits ethos that would bring him such success. His first two albums, Closing Time (1973) and The Heart of Saturday Night (1974), are more in line with a Randy Newman L.A. piano man type thing. The whole "piano man" singer-songwriter phenomenon is very big in the Watergate era. Think Billy Joel and Elton John. I interpret it as one signal that the Hippies were retiring from the battlefield. No more mass emancipation and rock as revolution. The solitary piano man plunking and moaning on his bench becomes the new symbol, and it is one of isolation and defeat.