{"id":8467,"date":"2023-03-16T07:22:09","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T07:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=8467"},"modified":"2023-03-23T23:10:57","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T23:10:57","slug":"music-closing-time-50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=8467","title":{"rendered":"MUSiC: Closing Time 50!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Very tempting!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Closing Time, 50th Anniversary<\/a> limited edition double vinyl release, 2 June, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh how I love this album! It captures Tom in a uniquely youthful and innocent mood, less gravelly, a bit more country, and utterly wonderful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The closing title track would, on its own, make this album essential. But there are plenty of other great tunes; from the cosy bar-room sentimentality of I Hope That I Don\u2019t Fall In Love With You, via the Tin Pan Alley balladry of Grapefruit Moon, to the ol\u2019 timey vibes of Ol\u2019 55 and Rosie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an astonishingly mature and assured debut recording. And the musical team that made it help evoke a timeless beauty drawing on a whole smorgasbord of American popular music, to craft a classic recording that\u2019s both gently obscure and disarmingly immediate and charming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A contemporary advert for Waits\u2019 debut.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An essential album, reissued for \u00fcber fans (like me!), in a couple of deluxe twin disc vinyl formats. I can\u2019t justify the extravagance (although it\u2019s not actually out for a bit!), but I\u2019m very sorely tempted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall I prefer the Tom of the \u2018first phase\u2019, ie the boho-beatnik barfly romantic and philosopher, of Closing Time <\/em>through to Swordfishtrombones<\/em> (and maybe even Frank\u2019s Wild Years<\/em>?) to the art house carnival freak he evolved into after that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Closing Time<\/em>, whose moody cover art is be Zappa\u2019s buddy Cal Schenkel, we have a sweeter, softer and smoother sounding Tom. He\u2019s already the folksy troubadour, with a big dose of jazz and blues in the pockets of his rumpled yet earnest thrift store suit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Waits, circa \u201872.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This album is unique in that after this awaits would produce a run of amazing recordings working with Bones Howe, a former jazz drummer turned producer, who helped craft the classic early Tom sound-world I so adore, by surrounding Waits with stellar jazz sidemen (like Jacky Sheldon, Jim Hughart and the incomparable Shelly Manne). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Closing Time<\/em> Jerry Yester produced, and the band – who are brilliantly sympathetic to awaits\u2019 material – are less familiar names, gathered together from Yester\u2019s musical orbit. Yester also did some superb string arrangements for Tom, on this and a few of his subsequent albums. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Closing Time, 50th Anniversary limited edition double vinyl release, 2 June, 2023. Oh how I love this album! It captures Tom in a uniquely youthful and innocent mood, less gravelly, a bit more country, and utterly wonderful. The closing title track would, on its own, make this album essential. But there are plenty of other … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MUSiC: Closing Time 50!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[233,115,89,153,130,133,77,114,107,139,234,183],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-2cz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8467"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8467"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8515,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8467\/revisions\/8515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}