It’s amazing how nice folks are to you when they know you are going away.
– Tom Waits interview on the Late Show with David Letterman
Take One Last Look is the 22nd song from Tom Waits to appear here after his previous entry – Step Right Up. Over the years, Waits made six appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman, and on May 14, 2015, sang Take One Last Look on the show’s fifth to last broadcast. It marked one of his rare television performances in later years. He was accompanied by Larry Taylor on upright bass and Gabriel Donohue on piano accordion, with the horn section of the CBS Orchestra.
The performance was particularly emotional, with both Waits and Letterman appearing moved by the sentiment of the song. The song carries an air of resignation and nostalgia, as if saying goodbye to a place. His gravelly voice gives the song a heartbreaking sincerity with the slow and melancholic melody, making it feel like a final wave to something cherished yet irretrievably lost.
Tom was also interviewed by Letterman (seen at the end of this post), discussing various topics including salad lines and antiperspirant.
Tom Waits´ work was influenced by his voracious reading of writers like Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski and by conversations that he overheard in diners. You can see in another post –Tom Waits reading Charles Bukowski’s – Nirvana. Tom Waits once said about the distinction between words and music: “I’m still a word guy. I’m drawn to people who use a certain vernacular and communicate with words. Words are music, really. I mean, people ask me, ‘Do you write music or do you write words?’ But you don’t really, it’s all one thing at its best“. Waits also said that “for a songwriter, Dylan is as essential as a hammer and nails and saw are to a carpenter.” He is an opera lover, and recalls hearing Puccini’s Nessun dorma “in the kitchen at Coppola’s with Raul Julia one night, and it changed my life, that particular Aria… It was like giving a cigar to a five-year old.“
[Verse 1]
Let’s watch the sun come up in another town
Try our luck a little further down
Leave the cards on the table
Leave the bread on the plate
Put your hand on the gearshift
Put your foot off the break
[Chorus]
And take one last look
At the place that you are leaving
Take one last look
Oh, take one last look
At the place that you are leaving
Take one last look
[Verse 2]
Our bed was something that the wind couldn’t carry
The arrow points away across the waiting prairie
This car looks like it could give us a good run
Our choice to leave was a good one
[Chorus]
[Verse 3]
Let’s look forward to the lights that are new
The world is a ribbon of road for you
All towns have churches and tire shops
They put up speed limit signs and they hire cops
I love to see the wind in your hair
All we ever need we can get anywhere
References:
1. Tom Waits – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
The 22nd song? Wow! I can safely say there’s no artist or band on my blog I’ve covered to that extent, not even The Beatles, to name my all-time favorite group. Obviously, you must know Tom Waits’ music pretty well.
One of my music buddies recommended “Nighthawks at the Diner.” I started listening to the album, but somehow something came up, so I never finished. That said, I generally was intrigued by what I heard.
Do you have a Tom Waits album you’d recommend as a good entry point?
As you know, I like vocals, which when it comes to Waits has been a bit of a deterrent. He really doesn’t have much of a voice, at least in a more traditional sense. That said, on “Nighthawks” he sounds like Caruso compared to the singing in the clip you featured. Still, his performance undoubtedly is captivating.
I also found it interesting to watch his interview with Letterman. He really had some great guests on his show!
Unlike other artists who I have featured as often as Tom, I do not consider myself particularly well versed on his music.
His music here is across a wide spectrum of his career and I couldn’t point you to a favourite album since I haven’t really listened to them as stand-alones, inc ‘Nighthawks’. I have mainly come across his music from best lists on YT or by chance. I will admit there is also a lot of his music I have decided against featuring as well.
Yeh, his interviews on Letterman are interesting. If he didn’t make it as a Singer-songwriter he may well have turned to Comedy. I liked Tom’s acting in the Coen Brothers ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’.
He’s so cool and comedian. I love his aura. And he’s song was interesting, like one of a kind.
Tom is like a minstrel of the circus. Very funny, unorthodox and curious. I’m glad you liked it Hazel.