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Tom Waits: Heartattack and Vine

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Elektra Entertainment
Released: 1980.09.01
Time:
 44:26
Category: Progressive Rock
Producer(s): Bones Howe
Rating: ********** (10/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.anti.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2002.04.27
Price in €: 15,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Heart Attack and Vine (T.Waits) - 4:42
[2] In Shades (T.Waits) - 4:04
[3] Saving All My Love for You (T.Waits) - 3:39
[4] Downtown (T.Waits) - 4:43
[5] Jersey Girl (T.Waits) - 5:09
[6] 'Til the Money Runs Out (T.Waits) - 4:20
[7] On the Nickel (T.Waits) - 6:17
[8] Mr. Siegal (T.Waits) - 5:13
[9] Ruby's Arms (T.Waits) - 5:35

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


TOM WAITS - Guitar, Piano, Electric & Rhythm Guitar, Vocals

VICTOR FELDMAN - Percussion, Chimes, Keyboards
PLAS JOHNSON - Saxophone, Baritone & Tenor Saxophone
RONNIE BARRON - Organ, Piano, Keyboards, Hammond B3 Organ
LARRY TAYLOR - Bass
RONALD BAUTISTA - Electric & 12 String Guitar
DAVE "Clem" CLEMPSON - Guitar
GREG COHEN - Bass, Drums
JIM HUGHART - Bass
MICHAEL LANG - Piano
BIG JOHN THOMASSIE - Drums
BOB ALCIVAR - Conductor, String Arrangements
JERRY YESTER - Arranger, Conductor

BONES HOWE - Engineer
GEOFF HOWE - Assistant Engineer
TERRY DUNAVAN - Mastering
GREG GORMAN - Photography
NORM UNG - Art Direction, Design
RON CORO - Art Direction, Design

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1980 LP Asylum 1-295
1980 CD Asylum 2-295
1980 CS Asylum 5-295



Heartattack and Vine, Tom Waits' first album in two years and his last of seven for Asylum Records, was a transitional album, with tracks like the rhythm-heavy title song and "'Til the Money Runs Out" foreshadowing the sonic experiments of the Island albums, while piano with orchestra tracks like "Saving All My Love for You" and "On the Nickel" (written as a motion-picture title tune) harked back to Waits' Randy Newman-influenced early days. It was just as well that Waits never entirely gave up on the ballad material; "Jersey Girl," a Drifters-style song, was a winner, and it was appropriated by Bruce Springsteen on his 1981 tour. Also, at least at this point, the rougher tunes all tended to sound the same.

William Ruhlmann, All-Music Guide, © 1992 - 2002 AEC One Stop Group, Inc.



Jersey Girl

Appears on:
Heartattack and Vine [1980]
Anthology of Tom Waits [1985]

From the R&B-heavy album Heartattack and Vine (1980), Tom Waits sets down a Drifters-type groove for the very romantic love ballad "Jersey Girl." Written for his wife-to-be at the time, Kathleen Brennan, who had been living in New Jersey, the lyrics are heartfelt, from the point of view of a smitten narrator about to abandon the bachelor life: "Got no time for the corner boys/Down in the street making all that noise/Don't want no whores on 8th Avenue/'Cause tonight I want to be with you." The "whores" line seems to be influenced, if only subconsciously, by the Simon & Garfunkel line from "The Boxer": "Just a come-on from the whores on 7th Avenue." Thus, you still get the grit of the street, even in one of Waits' most tender songs, but here it is in contrast to the magic aura of the carnival on the shore, where "everything's all right/You and your baby on a Saturday night." Waits has always been gifted with an ear for conversation, and he can fit bits of everyday dialogue seamlessly into songs: "So don't bother me 'cause I got no time/I'm on my way to see that girl of mine." His characters are usually working class and, like Raymond Carver's, their lives are filled with drama, tragedy, and often sublimely beautiful moments. Featuring Waits' longtime bassist Greg Cohen, Roland Bautista on 12-string guitar, "Big John" Thomassie on drums, and Victor Feldman on keyboards, glockenspiel, and percussion, the band follows the slowed-down "Under the Boardwalk"-like riff that Waits prods out of his old semi-hollow-body guitar. Waits' guitar part and the tempo are evocative of the seaside, with the ringing notes reminiscent of the sound of distant buoys and sailing rigs. The arrangement builds to a climax with the help of Jerry Yester orchestration.

The big hook of the song is the chorus, where Waits sings "Sha la la la...I'm in love with a Jersey girl." In a 1980 interview around the time of the record's release, Waits said, "I never thought I would catch myself saying 'sha la la' in a song," adding, "This is my first experiment with 'sha la la.'" The song only hints slightly at the more disjointed rhythms and tones Waits would move toward when he left the singer/songwriter-dominated Asylum label. Listening to some of the new sounds and arrangement ideas on Heartattack and Vine, it becomes clear that Waits felt like he needed to stretch out a bit. Waits dedicates "Jersey Girl" to Brennan before he plays a quiet, intimate version on VH1's Storytellers. Similarly gritty-voiced singer Bruce Springsteen lugged Waits a bit closer to the mainstream when he started covering "Jersey Girl" in live shows in the early '80s, and it soon became one of his standards. Springsteen also added his own verse to the end of the song, as if he felt like he did indeed write the song that seemed destined for him. Indeed, it seemed as if Waits out-Bruced Bruce with "Jersey Girl." Springsteen released one of the live versions as a B-side to his "Cover Me" single in 1981, also available on the behemoth live box set Bruce Springsteen Live 1975-1985 (1986). Waits was also brought on-stage by Springsteen at one of the latter's arena shows in L.A. in 1981. Waits is heard singing the first verse and then harmonizing with Springsteen on bootleg recordings of the momentous event. Waits joked to interviewer Bill Flanagan in 1987, " Bruce Springsteen? Well, I've done all I can for him. He's on his own now."

Bill Janovitz, All-Music Guide, © 1992 - 2002 AEC One Stop Group, Inc.



On the Nickel

Appears on:
Heartattack and Vine [1980]

Tom Waits betrays a little Randy Newman influence on this cinematic ode to the men on Los Angeles' skid row from Waits' 1980 album, Heartattack and Vine. Written for the 1980 made-for-TV film On the Nickel by Ralph Waite ( John Walton on the television show The Waltons), Waits' title track is a pathos-filled lullaby for, "The little boys/Who never say their prayers," a lament for the denizens of the flophouses and doorways on Los Angeles' Fifth Street, called "the nickel." Waits seems stirred by the film, taking a moment to remember, as some of our mothers might have reminded us, that we were all someone's baby once. "And what becomes of all the little boys/Who run away from home/Well the world keeps gettin' bigger/Once you get out on your own." Like the barroom author and chronicler of the lives of such alcoholic derelicts, Charles Bukowski, Waits had always written about society's fringe-dwellers and night-crawlers — "the gypsy hacks and insomniacs" of his song "Nighthawks Postcards." But generally his protagonists were working-class people who turned in a hard day's (or night's) work — waitresses, bartenders, pizza-makers, taxi drivers, musicians — who cut loose at night. "On the Nickel," however, examines the truly downtrodden, and pauses to reflect: "There but for the grace of God." In a song with a subject and point of view that could have easily slipped into maudlin territory — and is perhaps a bit too lachrymose for some listeners — Waits artfully and sympathetically paints a picture of Los Angeles' incorrigibles. He mixes bits of childlike nursery rhyme themes in with sharp-eyed observations of life on the street. It would not be the last time Waits worked with such subject matter, having also provided some music for the 1985 documentary on Seattle street kids, Streetwise, by director Martin Bell. And like the William Kennedy novel Ironweed, in which Waits starred as an actor, "On the Nickel" offers a few what-if-type scenarios — more implied than spelled-out — that might lead one down such an awful path. Waits uses family ties, or the lack thereof, to provide plausible personal failure. Lines like, "Sticks and stones will break my bones/But I always will be true/And when your mama is dead and gone/I'll sing this lullaby just for you/And what becomes of all the little boys/Who never comb their hair/Well they're lined up all around the block/On the nickel over there," function on a few levels simultaneously. First, they establish empathy in the listener for these men who were once such little boys. Second, they offer a possible state of mind, a place where such folks retreat defensively to avoid their harsh realities, trying to get back home. Waits' deep growl starts in a world-weary whisper, seemingly welled up with emotion from the onset, but growing more so as the arrangement progresses. He reaches a chesty though restrained bellow, with a Louis Armstrong vibrato, as he reaches the line, "So if you chew tobacco." Waits and producer Bones Howe employ film arranger and composer Bob Alcivar — who Waits met when the two worked together on the soundtrack to the Francis Ford Coppola film One From the Heart (1982 release) — to arrange and conduct the orchestra on the track. Like Newman, who came from a Hollywood family with a history of composing for film, Waits' music was becoming more cinematic in scope, both in his narrative style and in his lush, soundtrack-inspired use of orchestration. It was a path that reached its logical conclusion on this album and his soundtrack to One From the Heart. He embraced the direction, but ultimately felt it was time for new challenges and approaches to his music, leading to his next record, the groundbreaking Swordfishtrombones (1983). Speaking about his more produced period, Waits wryly noted, "I was cutting off a very small piece of what I wanted to do. I wasn't getting down the things I was really hearing and experiencing. Music with a lot of strings gets like Perry Como after a while."

Bill Janovitz, All-Music Guide, © 1992 - 2002 AEC One Stop Group, Inc.



Tom Waits's hipster persona began to evaporate at the beginning of the '80s, but not before he released the transitional but eminently worthwhile Heartattack and Vine, which contained "On the Nickel," a Dickensian tale of street life, and "Jersey Girl," a song Bruce Springsteen gave a far wider airing to on his Live 1975-1985 box set. You can hear hints of Waits's style growing more trenchant on songs like "Downtown" and the stark, bluesy title track, which contains the immortal line "Don't you know there ain't no devil / That's just God when he's drunk." Indeed.

Daniel Durchholz, Amazon.com essential recording



"..a ragged, rugged blues album...the theme of lowlife redemption, of escape, is ever present.."

Q Magazine (10/92, p.101) - 4 Stars - Excellent



Sieben Alben spielte Tom Waits zwischen 1973 und 1980 für Elektra ein. "Heartattack And Vine", Waits' Schwanengesang für das Label, liegt jetzt in ausgezeichneter Überspielung ebenso auf CD vor wie sein Debüt "Closing Time" (5061-2, AAD, 45:54, I:08, K:07, R:09). Hinreißende Balladen waren stets die Spezialität des Mannes mit der Reibeisenstimme, und schon auf "Closing Time" stellte er das mit "Ol' 55", "I Hope I Don't Fall In Love With You" und "Martha" unter Beweis. Überragendes Format weisen auf "Heartattack And Vine" neben "Jersey Girl", "On The Nickel" und "Ruby's Arms" auch der wuchtige Rhythm & Blues von "Downtown" und dem Titelstück auf. ** Klang.: 08-09

© Stereoplay



Arguably the Greatest Songwriter of the Rock Era

The Eagles, Sarah McLachlan, Rod Stewart, Bruce Springsteen, the Ramones, Johnny Cash, Bette Midler. Can you guess what all of these acts have in common?

Besides the fact they're all stars, they have all covered a song or songs by Tom Waits, the man many would argue is the greatest songwriter of the rock era.

An artist who inspires tremendous fanaticism in his followers, Waits, who turns 50 this December, has all the traits of a superstar following, without ever having had a hit record of his own. He has a devoted legion of fans, who make every live appearance and new release (both far too infrequent occurrences) by their hero a newsworthy occasion.

For the many who call themselves admirers of his work, the single most important musical event of 1999 is the upcoming release of Mule Variations, Waits' first new album in six years.

Since 1973's stunning debut, Closing Time, Waits has been the voice of the downtrodden, telling gut-wrenching tales of sorrow and a lack of luck in such songs as "Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis" (found on Blue Valentine) and the finale of Heartattack and Vine, "Ruby's Arms," described, accurately, by the band Frente! as "simply the saddest song ever written."

Considering that much of Heartattack and Vine, including the title track and "Downtown," features jazzier, more avant-garde instrumentation that foreshadows Waits' successful musical shift in direction that began with 1983's Swordfishtrombones, "Ruby's Arms" could even be considered the finale of his piano-playing troubadour days.

To say that it's Waits' best song from that era is damn near impossible, as cases can be made for "San Diego Serenade," "I Hope I Don't Fall in Love With You," "Christmas Card …," "Ol' 55" or any one of a number of songs, but the finale of "Ruby's Arms," where Waits cries out in pain the lines, "So Jesus Christ, this goddamn rain, will someone put me on a train, I'll never kiss your lips again," is arguably the finest vocal performance of his career.

The mark of a great work of art is timelessness, both in its ability to endure and to transport its patrons to a different era. "Ruby's Arms," the story of a soldier being forced to leave his lover behind, told against the backdrop of lush orchestral arrangements conducted by Jerry Yester, takes the listener back to the 1940s.

That the song was written in 1980 is testament to the ability of Waits to create timeless art and why so many musicians and fans alike are in awe of him.

Steve Baltin - April 27, 2000
Copyright © 1994-2002 CDnow Online, Inc. All rights reserved.



On Heartattack and Vine, the patron saint of America's hobo hipsters returns to the sentimental ballad style he abandoned for jazzier, less song-oriented turf after The Heart of Saturday Night. Though Tom Waits' new album sports its share of slinky blues vamps, it's the tear-jerkers that really matter. Lyrically, "Jersey Girl" conjures up Bruce Springsteen's world, then adds an arrangement that echoes the Drifters' "Spanish Harlem." But the tune's eager romanticism becomes warped in the caldron of what's left of Waits' voice. In the six years since The Heart of Saturday Night, the artist's vocals have deteriorated from gruff drawls into hoarse and sometimes ghastly gargles that make the very effort of drawing breath seem a life-and-death proposition.

"Saving All My Love for You," "Ruby's Arms" and "On the Nickel" boast the same morbid pathos as "Jersey Girl." With their wistful folk-pop melodies and Fifties film-score orchestrations, they suggest the pop-song equivalents of hand-tinted antique post cards. Or at least that's what the singer's down-and-out delivery turns them into. Of course, Tom Waits' derelict-poet-saint, gazing up from the gutter to find a rainbow, is an assumed character. Yet it's only partly an act. For almost a decade, Waits has submerged his own personality and played this role so completely that he's now a willing surrogate for all the low-life dreamers who don't have his gift of gab.

But in a time when hipness is often equated with selfishness, Waits' woozy, far-out optimism has never seemed fresher. While he can be faulted on many counts–the godawful condition of his voice, his perverse love for dime-store kitsch imagery–the purity of his intentions is never in question: Tom Waits finds more beauty in the gutter than most people would find in the Garden of Eden. If his lack of objectivity has kept him from developing into a major artist, Waits' indivisibility from his self-created persona makes him a unique and lovable minor talent.

STEPHEN HOLDEN - RS 336
© Copyright 2002 RollingStone.com
 

 L y r i c s


HEARTATTACK AND VINE

liar liar with your pants on fire,
white spades hangin' on the telephone
wire, gamblers reevaluate along the dotted line,
you'll never recognize
yourself on heartattack and vine.

doctor lawyer beggar man thief,
philly joe remarkable looks on in disbelief,
if you want a taste of madness,
you'll have to wait in line, you'll probably
see someone you know on heartattack and vine.

boney's high on china white, shorty found a punk,
don't you know there ain't
no devil, there's just god when he's drunk,
well this stuff will probably kill
you, let's do another line,
what you say you meet me down
on heartattack and vine.

see that little jersey girl in the see-through top,
with the peddle pushers sucking on a soda pop,
well i bet she's still a virgin
but it's only twenty-five 'til nine,
you can see a million of 'em
on heartattack and vine.

better off in iowa against your scrambled eggs,
than crawling down cahuenga on a broken pair of legs,
you'll find your ignorance is blissful every goddamn time,
your're waitin' for the rtd on heartattack and vine.


IN SHADES

Instrumental


SAVING ALL MY LOVE FOR YOU

It's too early for the circus,
It's too late for the bars,
no one's sleepin' but the paperboys,
and no one in this town is makin' any noise,
but the dogs and the milkmen and me.


The girls around here all look like cadillacs,
no one likes a stranger here,
I'd come home but i'm afraid
that you won't take me back,
but i'd trade off everything just to have you near.

I know i'm irresponsible and i don't behave,
and i ruin everything that i do,
and i'll probably get arrested when i'm in my grave,
but i'll be savin' all my love for you.

I paid fifteen dollars for a prostitute,
with too much makeup and a broken shoe,
but her eyes were just a counterfeit,
she tried to gyp me out of it,
but you know that i'm still in love you.

Don't listen to the rumors that you hear about me,
cause i ain't as bad as they make me out to be,
well i may lose my mind but baby can't you see,
that i'll be savin' all my love for you.


DOWNTOWN

Red pants and the sugarman in the temple street gloom,

drinkin' chivas regal in a four dollar room,
just another dead soldier in a powder blue night,
sugarman says baby everything's alright,
goin' downtown down downtown.

Montclaire de havelin doin' the st. vitus dance,
lookin' for someone to chop the lumber in his pants,
how am i gonna unload all of this ice and all this mink,
all the traffic in the street but it's so hard to think,
goin' downtown down downtown.

Frankie's wearin' lipstick pierre cardin,
i swear to god i seen him holdin' hands with jimmy bond,
sally's high on crank and hungry for some sweets,
she's fem in the sheets but she's butch in the streets,
goin' downtown down downtown.

It's the cool of the evening the sun's goin' down,
i want to hold you in my arms i want to push you around,
i want to break your bottle and spill out all your charms,
come on baby we'll set off all the burglar alarms,
goin' downtown down downtown.

Red pants and the sugarman in the temple street gloom,
drinkin' chivas regal in a four dollar room,
just another dead soldier in a powder blue night,
red pants turns to sugarman and says everything's alright,
goin' downtown down downtown.


JERSEY GIRL

Got no time for the corner boys,
down in the street makin' all that noise,
don't want no whores on eighth avenue,
cause tonight i'm gonna be with you.

'cause tonight i'm gonna take that ride,
across the river to the jersey side,
take my baby to the carnival,
and i'll take you on all the rides,
sing sha la la la la la sha la la la.

Down the shore everything's alright,
you're with your baby on a saturday night,
don't you know that all my dreams come true,
when i'm walkin' down the street with you,
sing sha la la la la la sha la la la.

You know she thrills me with all her charms,
when i'm wrapped up in my baby's arms,
my little angel gives me everything,
I know someday that she'll wear my ring.

So don't bother me cause i got no time,
I'm on my way to see that girl of mine,
nothin' else matters in this whole wide world,
when you're in love with a jersey girl,
sing sha la la la la la la.

and i call your name, i can't sleep at night,
sha la la la la la la.


'TIL THE MONEY RUNS OUT

check this strange beverage that falls out from the sky,
splashin' bagdad on the hudson in panther martin's eyes,
he's high and outside wearin' candy apple red,
scarlet gave him twenty seven stitches in his head,
with a pint of green chartreuse ain't nothin' seems right,
you buy the sunday paper on a saturday night.

can't you hear the thunder someone stole my watch,
I sold a quart of blood and bought a half a pint of scotch,
some one tell those chinamen on telegraph canyon road,
when you're on the bill with the spoon there ain't no time
to unload, so bye bye baby baby bye bye.

droopy stranger lonely dreamer toy puppy and the prado,
we're laughin' as they piled into olmos' el dorado,
jesus whispered eni meany miney moe,
they're too proud to duck their heads
that's why they bring it down so low,
so bye bye baby baby bye bye.

the pointed man is smack dab in the middle of july,
swingin' from the rafters in his brand new tie,
he said i can't go back to that hotel room
all they do is shout,
but i'll stay wichew baby till the money runs out,
so bye bye baby baby bye bye.


ON THE NICKEL

sticks and stones will break my bones,
but i always will be true, and when
your mama is dead and gone,
i'll sing this lullabye just for you,
and what becomes of all the little boys,
who never comb their hair,
well they're lined up all around the block,
on the nickel over there.

so you better bring a bucket,
there is a hole in the pail,
and if you don't get my letter,
then you'll know that i'm in jail,
and what becomes of all the little boys,
who never say their prayers,
well they're sleepin' like a baby,
on the nickel over there.

and if you chew tobacco, and wish upon a star,
well you'll find out where the scarecrows sit,
just like punchlines between the cars,
and i know a place where a royal flush,
can never beat a pair, and even thomas jefferson,
is on the nickel over there.

so ring around the rosie, you're sleepin' in the rain,
and you're always late for supper,
and man you let me down again,
i thought i heard a mockingbird, roosevelt knows where,
you can skip the light, with grady tuck,
on the nickel over there.

so what becomes of all the little boys,
who run away from home,
well the world just keeps gettin' bigger,
once you get out on your own,
so here's to all the little boys,
the sandman takes you where,
you'll be sleepin' with a pillowman,
on the nickel over there.

so let's climb up through that button hole,
and we'll fall right up the stairs,
and i'll show you where the short dogs grow,
on the nickel over there.


MR. SIEGAL

I spent all my money in a mexican whorehouse,
across the street from a catholic church,
and then i wiped off my revolver,
and i buttoned up my burgundy shirt,
i shot the morning in the back,
with my red wings on,
i told the sun he'd better go back down,
and if i can find a book of matches,
i'm goin' to burn this hotel down.

you got to tell me brave captain,
why are the wicked so strong,
how do the angels get to sleep,
when the devil leaves the porchlight on.

well i dropped thirty grand on the nugget slots,
i had to sell my ass on fremont street,
and the drummer said there's sanctuary,
over at the bagdad room,
and now it's one for the money, two for the show,
three to get ready, and go man go,
i said tell me mr. siegel,
how do i get out of here.

well willard's knocked out on a bottle of heat,
drivin' dangerous curves across the dirty sheets,
he said man you ought to see her,
when her parents are gone,
man you ought to hear her when the siren's on.
you got to tell me brave captain,
why are the wicked so strong,
how do the angels get to sleep,
when the devil leaves the porchlight on.

don't you know that ain't no broken bottle,
that i picked up in my headlights,
on the other side of the nevada line,
where they live hard die young,
nd have a good lookin' corpse every time,
well the pit-boss said i should keep movin',
this is where you go when you die,
and so i shot a black beauty,
and i kissed her right between the eyes.

well willard's knocked out on a bottle of heat,
drivin' dangerous curves across the dirty sheets,
he said man you ought to see her,
when her parents are gone,
man you ought to hear her when the siren's on.

you got to tell me brave captain,
why are the wicked so strong,
how do the angels get to sleep,
when the devil leaves the porchlight on.


RUBY'S ARMS

I will leave behind all of my clothes,
I wore when i was with you,
all I need's my railroad boots,
and my leather jacket,
as i say goodbye to ruby's arms,
although my heart is breaking,
i will steal away out through your
blinds, for soon you will be waking.

The morning light has washed your face,
and everything is turning blue now,
hold on to your pillow case
there's nothing i can do now,
as i say goodbye to ruby's arms,
you'll find another soldier,
and i swear to god by christmas,
there'll be someone else to hold you.

The only thing i'm taking is
the scarf off of your clothesline,
i'll hurry past your chest of drawers,
and your broken window chimes,
as i say goodbye
i'll say goodbye,
say goodbye to ruby's arms.

i'll feel my way down the darken hall,
and out into the morning,
the hobos at the freightyards,
have kept their fires burning,
so jesus christ this goddamn rain,
will someone put me on a train,
i'll never kiss your lips again,
or break your heart,
as i say goodbye
i'll say goodbye,
say goodbye to ruby's arms.

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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