The Heart of Saturday Night

Artist: Tom Waits
Label: Elektra / Wea
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 075596059725
EAN: 0075596059725
ASIN: B000002GXS

Release Date: 1990-10-25

The Heart of Saturday Night

Related Categories:

Singer-Songwriters

| Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

Album-Oriented Rock (AOR)

| Classic Rock | Styles | Music

Tracks:

New Coat Of Paint
San Diego Serenade
Semi Suite
Shiver Me Timbers
Diamonds On My Windshield (Looking For)
The Heart Of Saturday Night
Fumblin' With The Blues
Please Call Me, Baby
Depot, Depot
Drunk On The Moon
The Ghosts Of Saturday Night (After Hours At Napoleone's Pizza House

Similar Items:

Closing Time
Small Change
Nighthawks at the Diner
Blue Valentine
Heartattack and Vine

Amazon.com

The Eagles might have covered his song "Ol' 55," but Tom Waits was cut from a different cloth than California's other singer-songwriters--he suggested a scruffy beat poet who'd walked out of a forgotten scene of Jack Kerouac's <I>On the Road</I>. Waits's beatnik schtick could get old, and he developed into a much more musically adventurous songwriter in later years, but his second album contains some of his best early work, including the sweet romantic blues of "New Coat of Paint" ("You wear a dress baby, I'll wear a tie"), and his best hipster recitation, "Diamonds on My Windshield." Two songs are enduring classics: the doleful, dirge-like "San Diego Serenade" ("Never saw the morning till I stayed up all night") and the touchingly sweet "(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night" ("Stoppin' on the red, goin' on the green, `cause tonight'll be like nothin' that you've ever seen"). <I>--John Milward</I>

Customer Reviews:

I love Tom Waits........2007-05-05

My step-dad told me around Christmas time that he was a Tom Waits fan. He had never told me this before, and I was pleasantly surprised. I pin-pointed him as more of a early Tom Waits music kind of guy, so I bought him Heart of Saturday Night. It's a beautiful, fun, jazzy album that never goes out of style. We all had a great time listening to it together as background music. But, as avid Tom Waits fan, I like to sit down and listen to every one of his lyrics. They are stunning and spectacular. This album is a must for anyone who knows what's good for them.

i never saw the sun till i stayed up all night.......2007-03-15

this is it folks waits at his smooth, sleek, jazzy, smoke laced best pumping out the easy tunes for those late nights sitting in the dark drinking or whatever this one sets the mood. highly recomended

Yet another poetic classic by Tom Waits.......2007-01-02

The title track is in the vein of early Springsteen, while other tunes pay homage to jazz and blues greats. Yet THE HEART OF SATURDAY NIGHT stands as pure Tom Waits: a lyrical masterpiece of honesty and true-to-life storytelling.

The characters are all down-on-their-luck castaways, as per Waits's usual lineup, but this time there's a self-conscious hope about them. "This'll be the Saturday you're reaching your peak," Waits consoles. And: "I never heard the melody until I needed the song...I never spoke I love you until I cursed you in vain." There's hope for the present, and hope for the future: "I'm leavin' my family, leavin' my friends/My body's at home but my heart's in the wind/And the clouds are like headlines on a new front-page sky/Shiver me timbers, I'm a-sailin' away." Is is this anxious hopefulness underling these songs that makes HEART a standout, even in Waits's usually-depressing catalogue. Still...I wouldn't make this the soundtrack at your next wedding.

Really, the heart of Tom. At least his 70's version. His artisitcally true debut masterpiece........2006-03-25

Yeah, it's not his actual debut but Closing Time is almost a semi-professional release. Not yet ready. This album, his second, is what Tom was all about in the 70's. Small Change and Nighthawks at the Diner are the trio, throw in One From the Heart soundtrack if you like, of the meat of his 70's work.

I'm not sure how many times I've heard this album. Probably over 100 since I first saw him on the Mike Douglas Show in 1974. After that I was hooked. And I don't often listen to any album, even over 3 decades, 100 times or more. It's just a coincidence that he was from San Diego County (Chula Vista/National City). What's cool, least for us here, is that he's got San Diego Serenade, and Diamonds On My Windshield which is about the drive from San Diego to L.A. It's nuttin' but a pure delight to drive that, at night of course, and hear that song on your car stereo. I mean, it's a rush. His world and yours come smashing together.

I do have strong opinions about his 4 basic phases.
The 70's. Lovely. Though, I'm quite surprised at myself, the last few years I've sorta found myself leaving that period in favor of:
The 80's Rain Dogs/Swordfishtrombones/Frank's Wild Years/Big Time. Really, the Beautiful Maladies hits package of essentially his 80's work really does it for me now. It's definitely a next musical sound and stage. More complex.
The 90's wasteland. Black Rider, Alice, is too sterile. Too dry, too dark. I keep expecting to learn to love it and the love never comes.
The good news is, there's light at the end of the 90's tunnel.
The 2000's. Yup, essentially, Real Gone. He's back, like finding the best of his musical heart from the 80's and maybe a dash from the 90's and possibly a hint from the 70's even, possibly. There's hope baby. Who knows what he can crank out next.

I've always considered his 70's material to be excellent (night) driving music. There's just something about it. Occasionally in one of his live shows he'll make the sound of cars driving by, I mean it's a real fun sound to hear and I don't think he's ever put that sound on one of his records. Makes you feel the connection to the road even more. In fact, in a few shows, he'll make the sound of trying to get the engine to turn over, hopelessly. Beautiful sound effect, again, I don't believe, on any album release.

New Coat Of Paint is possibly my least favorite song on this album and it's still a winner.
San Diego Serenade has some of the finest lyrics of any song, ever. I'm not much into lyrics. Very few ever reach me or have much meaning for me. At church praise lyrics with a good melody, that can move me, in fact, well, there was a SMASHING PUMPKINS type rock band blazin' it at the youth church service and the lyrics were all about a good God thing and I was just crying. But, that's an aside. This song, whew doggy, let's put it this way, when I was in a multi-cultural in 17th grade as part of my 5 minutes to say who I was, I played this song. Semi Suite is such a love song. Working man's. Real.
Shiver Me Timbers always gets a smile from me.
Diamonds On My Windshield (Looking For) will always be precious to my heart.
The Heart Of Saturday Night ends up meaning just a little more to me when I realize it's about National City here but it's definitely universal. One of the great songs. Period. I get a real feel of true America listening to this one.
Fumblin' With The Blues conveys his character so well, sad, lovelorn, semi lost. You feel it baby.
Please Call Me, Baby. Man, I think I get choked up every single time I hear this song.
Depot, Depot somehow had a bigger impact on me when I was at the San Diego Train station one evening.
Drunk On The Moon another example of how Tom is a wordsmith, weaving hearts and minds together in artistry.
The Ghosts Of Saturday Night (After Hours At Napoleone's Pizza House). I can't believe how perfect this is, ending the album as a sort of postlude. Even better, after 20 years of hearing the album and this song, along with its companion piece, I finally, doi, decided to see if Napoleon's Pizza was still around. Boy is it. Right there in National City. A picture of a returned Tom with the proprietor. A very simple place. It's clearly not changed since the 70's. A fine Provelone sandwich and tasty pizza all at remarkably reasonable prices. Really sorta are stuck in a bit of a time warp. It's like Tom willed the place to stay a living shadow/memory/testament to his days working there in the 70's (and I think late 60's). Feels good bein' there. Brings the album to life in a subtle way. Like the other dimension we don't often get to experience with an album.

I consider a few albums to be masterpieces, that is, perfect, no weak songs and the ability to still sound great 10, 20, 30 years later:
CAT STEVENS Tea For the Tillerman
SANTANA s/t
STEEL PULSE Reggae Fever
HALF JAPANESE The Band That Would Be King
and Music to Strip By
JIMI HENDRIX Axis Bold As Love
and Electric Ladyland
COCKNEY REJECTS Greatest Hits Vol. I
RED ROCKERS Condition Red
UNDERTONES s/t
The BOBS s/t and My I'm Large
CREAM Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire
YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS Colossal Youth
The JAM In the City and The Modern World
DAN HICKS and HIS HOT LICKS Where's the Money
LED ZEPPLIN I & II
The BEATLES White album, Rubber Soul and Abbey Road
CROSBY, STILLS and NASH s/t
PERE UBU Dub Housing
GANG OF FOUR Entertainment
The ROCHES s/t
(I left off 10 hardcore punk albums, wrong audience)
TOM WAITS Heart of Saturday Night, Small Change and Swordfishtrombones are, for me, on this short list. chrisbct@hotmail.com

Music Album:

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Remember the River ~ Fred Simon

Gong With the Wind Suite ~ Lee Konitz, Matt Wilson

Sudden Life

Mohawk ~ Larry Schneider

Up at Minton's, Vol. 2 ~ Stanley Turrentine

Mi Propia Aventura ~ Charlie Cardona

Mental Voyager ~ Gerhard Daum

Ao Vivo ~ Nilton and Andrea Carla

Momo to Mimi ~ Mimori Yusa