“Don’t you know there ain’t no Devil? That’s just God when he’s drunk.” Rasps Tom Waits in Heartattack and Vine’s title track. Here we find Waits deep in his element, hollering and spitting barroom melodrama that boils over with tough-guy bravado, lounge lizard cool and more tall tales than you can poke a drunken piano at. Waits’ bluesman-meets-hobo-meets-beatnik routine seems cliched until you realise that there is nobody quite like him – he is a master of constructing environments and subverting expectations – perhaps the greatest bullshit artist rock n’ roll has ever known. On Heartattack and Vine we find one of Waits’ biggest hits, Jersey Girl, a ballad written for his then-sweetheart, now wife and collaborator Kathleen Brennan. Jersey Girl caught the ear of a young Bruce Springsteen who covered it as a B-side to his top ten hit Cover Me and has since used it as a staple of his live performances, exposing Waits to a mainstream audience – Heartattack and Vine would become Waits’ most commercially successful album until 1999’s Mule Variations. Album highlights include the scowling title track, the freewheeling abandon of Mr. Siegel, the sentimental lilt of Jersey Girl and the laid back sleaze of the instrumental In Shades. This record is the soundtrack to an evening in a smoky bar and all of the strange and beautiful possibilities that await within. If you’re new to Tom Waits this is a great place to start.
Pete Whelan 