Time Line: 1976 - 1980

1976

Tom Waits (1976): "I must admit that I hoisted up six tall cool ones in the back with the stage crew, before I actually went out into the limelight, and I got to sing one song and sit on the panel...she had a good personality. It was a little awkward I must admit. I was at the end of the couch....but they talked to me, they tolerated me..." (Source: unidentified BBC Interview, 1976)

Fred Dellar (1976): "There is heckling. "Your opinions are like assholes, buddy," comes the voice from beneath the cap. "Everybody's got one." The fans at the back yell "Shut up!" to the front-line main-mouths. Waits flicks a lighted cigarette into the central area of contention and everybody holds their breath waiting for a fight to start. Nothing happens, so Waits moves on to deliver a finger-poppin' work-out on 'Diamonds on My Windshield' the tempo being about twice that employed on the Heart Of Saturday Night version." (Source: "Tom Waits: Ronnie Scott's London". By Fred Dellar. New Musical Express. June 12, 1976)

Tom Waits (1987): "That was a tightrope. The rope was round my neck. Nightmares. Playing a lounge in the middle of a golf course with this nomadic audience all waiting for a Moroccan jazz combo. That was a rough gig. Two weeks! Man, I had to dry out after that one. That was like spending two weeks at somebody else's grandmother's house. It was miscasting I was miscast." (Source: "I Just Tell Stories For Money" New Musical Express magazine (UK), by Sean O'Hagan. Date: Travelers Cafe/ Los Angeles. November 14, 1987)

In June 1976 Waits was still living in the Silver Lake area. Shortly after he moved to a larger apartment at 1309 North Coronado Street in Echo Park (Source: Bobi Thomas interview as quoted in “Lowside Of The Road: A Life Of Tom Waits" by Barney Hoskyns. Faber/ Broadway, 2009). Apparently Waits only lived there for a couple of months, because in December 1976 Waits had already moved in the Tropicana.

"Bones Howe knew that the songs Waits was now bringing to him were as good as anything he had ever written, so he stepped back and allowed Waits to develop his vision. "My purpose was to make the best record that I could with Tom. Tom is, and has been from the very beginning, very strong about what he wants on his records. He was not a produced artist, ever. As Albert Grossman used to say, I just delivered the baby, you know? [Tom] was the creative engine. But I did make a lot of suggestions, I think, that helped him. Tom always said that with each record I held the bar a little higher for him to jump over.' And Small Change was a success - critically and commercially. The album far outsold any of Waits's previous albums, particularly Nighthawks at the Diner. With it, Waits broke onto Billboard's Top 100 Albums chart for the first time in his career (he wouldn't manage it again until 1999, with the release of Mule Variations). Suddenly Tom Waits was everywhere. He was profiled in all the music publications. Interviewers from such magazines as Time, Newsweek, and even Vogue lined up to talk to him. Waits remarked that his mother had never been entirely sure that a career in music was right for her son until she saw him looking back at her from the pages of Vogue. This was as close as Waits had ever come to being a rock star, and, given the choice between being an obscure cult artist and a cult artist with a sizable following - well, that was a decision Waits didn't need to mull over. He sat back and enjoyed what was happening to him. Waits had toured solo for years, but now, thanks to the money and prestige that Small Change had brought him, he was able to put together a regular band. He called it The Nocturnal Emissions, and it featured Frank Vicari on tenor sax, Fitzgerald Jenkins on bass, and Chip White on percussion and vibes. They toured the United States extensively, and a number of those tour shows were broadcast on radio. Then they headed for Europe, where Waits had wowed the critics and consumed a few pints of ale the year before. They performed in Germany, Holland, and then Japan."(Source: "Wild Years, The Music and Myth of Tom Waits". Jay S. Jacobs, ECW Press 2000)

1977

Jay S. Jacobs (2000): "He talked to me about doing this other material," Bones Howe recalls. Waits was ready to record again, and he described to Howe his method for putting Foreign Affairs together. "He said, 'I'm going to do the demos first, and then I'm gonna let you listen to them. Then we should talk about what it should be. 'I listened to the material and said, 'It's like a black-and-white movie.' That's where the cover came from. The whole idea that it was going to be a black-and-white movie. It's the way it seemed to me when we were putting it together. Whether or not it came out that way, I don't have any idea, because there's such metamorphosis when you're working on [records]. They change and change."" (Source: Telephone conversation with Jay S. Jacobs. Jun. 23, 1999. Wild Years, The Music and Myth of Tom Waits. Jay S. Jacobs, ECW Press 2000)

1978

"Bones Howe remembers that Sly and Tom "got to be friends somehow or other. Maybe Sly saw him at the Troubadour or met him through somebody. I have no idea. He was suddenly there. But it wasn't unusual, because Tom had a way of accumulating people. Chuck E. Weiss. Rickie Lee Jones. People just sort of appeared all of a sudden." Stallone offered Waits the small role of Mumbles and asked him to record some songs for the Paradise Alley sound track album. Tom jumped at the chance to act, and the part was perfect for testing his wings. Mumbles, a piano player at a neighborhood saloon, wasn't exactly a stretch for him. Howe recalls that in the end he and Tom only contributed a couple of songs to the film's sound track - "Bill Conti was really upset because he wanted to do all the source music himself. He and Sly were very close, but Sly wanted Waits in that movie." Conti, a jazz musician, had scored Rocky, and he was thrilled when the movie's rousing, horn-based theme rose to the top of the pop charts. Of the five tracks that Waits and Howe recorded for Paradise Alley, only two made it into the sound track: " (Meet Me In) Paradise Alley," a pretty piano ballad in which one of Waits's barfly lovers wards off desperation in the local taproom; and "Annie's Back in Town," a sad love tune with just a touch of West Side Story grit. The other tracks that Waits and Howe had laid down for Stallone were a new version of the Small Change song "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart" (which incorporated the old standard "As Time Goes By" into its intro and outro) and two different versions of a song called "With a Suitcase." Neither version of the latter song was ever released. One was done with a rhythm section. The other - the "street" band version in which, says Howe, "we were banging on bass drums and all that kind of stuff " - reflected Waits's growing interest in experimental tones and instrumentation. Paradise Alley was released to scathing reviews, and it flopped at the box office. Tom, however, didn't experience the acute disappointment that Stallone must have felt. After all, the project had allowed him to become an actor, and he'd thoroughly enjoyed himself." (Source: "Wild Years, The Music and Myth of Tom Waits". Jay S. Jacobs, ECW Press 2000)

1979

Art Fein (2003): "In late 1978 some friends and I began producing private New Years parties, and Chuck and Waits came to the first two. Tom met his wife at the second one, which featured Roy Brown." (Source: "Another Fein Mess/ Other Fein Messes" by Art Fein. March, 2003. Copyright Art Fein)

Art Fein (2004): "We held it at Troupers Hall in Hollywood. That one featured Roy Good Rocking Brown with a backup band including Lee Allen and Pee Wee Crayton, and we gave away a '62 Cadillac as the door prize. (Purchased at 4 pm Dec 31st for $200. It went OK in reverse, but forward it slipped out of gear at 20 mph.) Chuck Weiss and Tom Waits came again (buying tickets, like all our friends - nobody got in free, except Johnny Legend, who stiffed us with a bad check) and Tom met his future wife there." (Source: "Another Fein Mess/ Other Fein Messes" by Art Fein. November, 2004. Copyright Art Fein)

1980

Jay S. Jacobs (2000): "Bones Howe believes that the real reason Tom chose Manhattan as his new base of operations had nothing to do with scenery changes or shoes or a quest for fresh watering holes. He admits, "You know, Tom did go to New York and try to work with another producer. I was aware of that. He did some demos and stuff. He came back and we talked a lot about what he wanted to do. It was between Blue Valentine and Heartattack and Vine." While in New York, Waits attempted to come to a meeting of the minds with Jack Nitzche and several other producers, but it just wasn't happening for him. None of it - neither the producers nor the city itself. New York, New York may be a wonderful town, where the Bronx is up and the Battery down, but Tom Waits was feeling a little lost." (Source: Telephone conversation with Jay S. Jacobs. Jun. 23, 1999. "Wild Years, The Music and Myth of Tom Waits". Jay S. Jacobs, ECW Press 2000).

Stephen Peeples (1980): After working with Bones Howe on every album since your first, I'd heard you were thinking about connecting with Jack Nitzsche for this one. Tom Waits: Yeah, I had some plans to explore new producers. I'd moved to New York for about five-six months, wanting to challenge myself with an entirely new environment. But my relationship with Bones has been a very close and personal one. That for me is more important than anything when you're in the studio - to have somebody you can trust and who knows you, knows who you are and doesn't let you get away with anything. I didn't really want to disturb that relationship. But at the time I thought I wanted to change everything. Then I decided that the change was something that had to take place inside of me and with my own musical growth. I wanted to take some dangerous chances, and I felt Bones could best accommodate me. (Source: "Heartattack and Vine". Us promo pack: Stephen Peeples. September 4 1980.)

In New York Waits is approached by Francis Ford Coppola. He'll stay in NY until Apr. 30 1980. It's the beginning of the turning point in his life. Further reading: One From The Heart

Further reading
Performances 1976-1980 
Pictures 1976-1980 
Interviews