I remember when I was running a record store there was a writer in
his mid-50s named Richard who used to come in once in a while. He had
been out of the music scene for quite a few years and came in
occasionally to pick my brain and get musical suggestions. It was around
this time that Asylum was reissuing Waits' early albums, so I suggested
that he pick up the reissue of "Small Change," which has long been my
favorite of the Asylum-era records. So he bought it and took off. A
couple of hours later I had gone downstairs to get a soda and when I came
back up my assistant manager told me that Richard had called. "No
foolin'? What'd he want?" "He said 'Fucking awesome' and that he was
coming right back down to buy everything else we had by Tom Waits." Sure
enough, he cleaned us out an hour later. Guess he really liked "Tom
Traubert's Blues."
Wasted and wounded...
Jon Johnson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Wollaston, Massachusetts
