Closing Time (1973)

Closing Time (1973)

Tom Waits’ debut album was produced by The Lovin’ Spoonful’s Jerry Yester, which might explain why it’s the only album in the Tom Waits catalog to remotely resemble the cocaine-Rogaine folk rock popular at the time. Casual fans who only know Tom Waits as the glass-gargling, “Rowlf The Dog“-sounding, scrapheap-whacking enigma he is today will be shocked by the robust and unspoiled-sounding voice heard on these earnest soft rock ballads. Closing Time’s rightful claim to fame is the stirring “Ol 55,” a song covered by the Eagles (who play and sing on the version found here), but the excellent “Martha” even better hints at the songwriting greatness to come. Though much of Closing Time now sounds inchoate and dated, little of it is embarrassing (“Ice Cream Man” not withstanding), and some of it is quite good. It may have seemed his imminent destiny at the time, but Waits was not content to merely write songs for prestige acts, and would soon blaze a trail the likes of which popular music had never seen. Still, Closing Time offers little indication of this; it’s an album that introduces a talented songwriter, not a star.