Tom Waits

Blue Valentine

Asylum Records 6E-162  LP 33RPM 12" 1978 (USA)

Two welcome changes in style made Blue Valentine a fresh listening experience for Tom Waits fans. First, Waits alters the instrumentation, bringing in electric guitar and keyboards and largely dispensing with the strings for a more blues-oriented, hard-edged sound. Second, though his world view remains fixed on the lowlifes of the late night, he expands beyond the musings of the barstool philosopher who previously had acted as the first-person character of most of his songs. When Waits does use the first-person, it's to write a "Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis," not the figure most listeners had associated with the singer himself. The result is a broadening of subject matter, a narrative discipline that makes most of the tunes story songs, and a coherent framing for Waits' typically colorful and intriguing imagery. These are not radical reinventions, but Waits had followed such a rigidly stylized approach on his previous albums that for anyone who had followed him so far, the course correction was big news.

Tracklist
A1 Somewhere (From "West Side Story")
Written-By – Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim
3:50
A2 Red Shoes By The Drugstore
Bass – Byron Miller
Drums – Ricky Lawson
Electric Guitar – Roland Bautista
Electric Piano [Yamaha] – Da Willie Gonga
3:11
A3 Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis
Electric Piano [Yamaha Grand] – Da Willie Gonga
Piano [Acoustic] – Tom Waits
4:30
A4 Romeo Is Bleeding
Bass – Jim Hughart
Congas – Bobbye Hall
Drums – Chip White
Electric Guitar – Tom Waits
Organ – Charles Kynard
Tenor Saxophone – Frank Vicari
4:50A5 $29.00
Bass – Byron Miller
Drums – Ricky Lawson
Electric Guitar – Roland Bautista, Tom Waits
Electric Piano [Yamaha Grand] – Da Willie Gonga
8:12
B1 Wrong Side Of The Road
Bass – Jim Hughart
Drums – Chip White
Electric Guitar – Tom Waits
Organ – Charles Kynard
Tenor Saxophone – Frank Vicari
5:11
B2 Whistlin Past The Graveyard
Bass – Scott Edwards
Drums – Earl Palmer
Electric Guitar – "Shine" Robinson, Tom Waits
Piano – Harold Battiste
Tenor Saxophone – Herbert Hardesty
3:14
B3 Kentucky Avenue
Arranged By [Strings], Conductor – Bob Alcivar
Piano – Tom Waits
4:47
B4 A Sweet Little Bullet From A Pretty Blue Gun
Bass – Scott Edwards
Drums – Earl Palmer
Electric Guitar – "Shine" Robinson, Tom Waits
Piano – Harold Battiste
Tenor Saxophone – Herbert Hardesty
5:34
B5 Blue Valentines
Electric Guitar – Tom Waits
Electric Guitar, Soloist – Ray Crawford
5:50
Companies, etc.
Produced For – B.H. Production
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Elektra/Asylum Records
Copyright (c) – Elektra/Asylum Records
Record Company – Warner Communications Inc.
Recorded At – Filmways/Heider Recording
Mastered At – Elektra Sound Recorders
Published By – Fifth Floor Music, Inc.
Published By – G. Schirmer Inc.
Published By – Chappell & Co., Inc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Asylum Records
Manufactured By – Elektra/Asylum/Nonesuch Records
Pressed By – Specialty Records Corporation

Art Direction, Design – Ron Coro
Engineer [2nd] – Geoff Howe, Ralph Osborne
Guitar – Ray Crawford (tracks: A4, B1)
Management – Herb Cohen Management
Mastered By [Disc Mastering] – Terry Dunavan
Other [Cover Model, Uncredited] – Rickie Lee Jones
Photography By – Elliot Gilbert
Producer [Production & Sound], Engineer – Bones Howe
Typography [Hand Lettering] – Bill Franks
Vocals – Tom Waits
Written-By – Tom Waits (tracks: A2 to B5)

Herb Cohen Management: from Winchell's Donut Shop to the Brown Derby--a step up.

℗ & © 1978 Elektra/Asylum Records [back cover]
℗ 1978 by Asylum Records [labels]

lyrics © 1978 Fifth Floor Music, Inc. (ASCAP) except A1

Recorded to 2-track tape at Filmways/Heider Recording, Hollywood, California on July 24, 25; & August 10, 17, 23 & 26, 1978.
Disc Mastering, Elektra Sound Recorders, Hollywood, Calif.

All Songs Published by Fifth Floor Music, Inc. ASCAP
except A1 Published by G. Schirmer, Inc. and Chappell & Co., Inc. ASCAP

Thanks to MOJO for a great guitar and a great bottle of wine, Chuck E. Weiss for his support and encouragement, Louis "The Mug" Lsta, Dee Barnett, Diane "Steal That Black Jockey Off The Lawn" Quinn, Mary Simon -- Custom Car Painting and Design on the Thunderbird, Harold Battiste for his patience. Bones, Howe did we do it?

Vinyl is NEAR MINT in a plastic inner sleeve in a hard card gatefold picture sleeve in VERY GOOD condition (delete cut) in a plastic protector sleeve.

Note About Shipping To The U.S.
We are located in Canada, but have registered ourselves on eBay.com instead of eBay.ca because it gives us significantly better global exposure.  The problem with this is that eBay wants us to charge shipping appropriate to US, where media mail and other options make for fairly reasonable delivery costs. We tried it for a while but ended up losing money on shipping or having to cancel the orders because we couldn't afford to ship for those rates. To manage this we have set the US shipping to run a calculator based on an American location (we chose Plattsburgh as fairly close) and charging according to UPS pricing.  This avoids the cancellation issue, but appears to the buyer to be a prohibitive shipping cost and misrepresents the shipping as being only expedited. If you give us your postal code we will see if we can offer a more reasonable option, but generally we can get a single LP by air to most places in the continental US for $11, a few bucks less for ground.
Thanks for shopping Sir Helmitt,
Jeff Green, e-sales

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