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Unread 04-23-2017, 01:23 AM
William A. Baurle William A. Baurle is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Arizona, USA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony Barnstone View Post
For me, Tom Waits, esp the red stuff in the song below

The Ghosts of Saturday Night

A cab combs the snake,
Tryin' to rake in that last night's fare,
And a solitary sailor
Who spends the facts of his life like small change on strangers

Paws his inside pea coat pocket for a welcome twenty-five cents,
And the last bent butt from a package of Kents,
As he dreams of a waitress with Maxwell House eyes
And marmalade thighs with scrambled yellow hair


Her rhinestone-studded moniker says, Irene
As she wipes the wisps of dishwater blonde from her eyes
And the Texaco beacon burns on,
The steel-belted attendant with a ring and valve special
Cryin' fill'er up and check that oil
You know it could be a distributor and it could be a coil

The early mornin' final edition's on the stands,
And that town cryer's cryin' there with nickels in his hands
Pigs in a blanket sixty-nine cents
Eggs, roll 'em over and a package of Kents
Adam and Eve on a log, you can sink 'em damn straight
Hash browns, hash browns, you know I can't be late

And the early dawn cracks out a carpet of diamonds
Across a cash crop car lot filled with twilight Coupe Devilles
Leaving the town in a-keeping
Of the one who is sweeping
Up the ghost of Saturday night
The poetry is exemplary, and the whole mood is wonderful, but it seems to me that Waits could have been reading/reciting almost anything to that repeated piano motif, and the effect would be similar. That's the impression I got, and always get from an artist like Waits or Lou Reed.

I think music critics fawned over people like Waits and Reed because it seemed like something they could do in their off hours. They generally hated and spat upon anything that they knew they couldn't do. They had an arsenal of cliches for that: pompous, pretentious, bombastic, egotistical, etc, etc.

Mark! I love the Smiths. Everything they recorded is epic. Will return...

Last edited by William A. Baurle; 04-23-2017 at 01:28 AM.
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