When this Tom Waits jazz – blues number came on my music player the other day, I wondered how I hadn’t already presented it here. His alley cat vocal sound is by Tom standards as smooth as it gets and sits in neat harmony with the small orchestral swinging bar sound. Special shout-out to Mike Melvoin here who does a fantastic job on keys.
New Coat of Paint is an expression of a couple freshening themselves up to have a night on the town. The anticipation is palpable – You wear a dress, baby, I’ll wear a tie / We’ll laugh at that old bloodshot moon in that burgundy sky. The song sets a romantic, late-night mood about rejuvenating a relationship with a night out on the town. It has a lyrical magic that just takes you into the music and the story unfolding.
New Coat of Paint is the lead track from Tom’s second studio album, The Heart of Saturday Night (1974). The title song, which I presented here back in 2019, just soon after the commencement of my music library project, was in recognition of the ‘Beat Generation’ American author and novelist Jack Kerouac. Tom, in line with Jack, one of his biggest influences, is an urban romantic poet himself.
I think today’s featured song and the title track would be good starters for those who are not familiar with Tom Waits’ vast discography. They are also relatively conventional by his own standards, as was a lot of his music in the mid-’70s, until he branched out more and experimented with sound and his image.
I’m a relative latecomer to Tom’s music. Back in about 2017, my friend and I were cooped up in a suburban bus here in Bogotá, Colombia, in the tumultuous midday traffic congestion – a real stinker. We decided to listen to a one-hour random selection of his music because I had hardly heard his music, but his reputation preceded him.
Well, on the bus that day, his music wondrously drowned out the chaos and stress of the outside world. The more we heard, the more we liked it. His music and storytelling are masterful at getting you into a mood – a ‘mood setter’. It felt like a drug – how transformative his art was on my outlook and humour. Tom is now one of the most prominent artists on my project.
So that’s what I’d recommend to the uninitiated when it comes to Tom’s music. When you find yourself with a little to do on a bus trip somewhere or jogging on the treadmill – whatever – just put on an hour-long random selection of his music to let it really seep in and give you a taste of the wide array of his musical styles and leanings. By the end of the hour, you’ll know full well if you like it or not.
Later on in your Tom journey, you might start hearing a Tom song and just say, I’m not really in the mood for Tom right now. But when you persist, after a few minutes or so, at least from my own experience, you might find yourself being blissfully ignorant and unfazed by the traffic conundrums around you or dancing in the kitchen while washing the dishes. It’s pretty neat.
I like how someone once commented on a Tom post here – ‘Once a Tom fan – always a Tom fan.’ Also, in another comment, a New York taxi driver said he would put on Tom’s music to calm down unruly drunk passengers.
Interesting note to end on (Wikipedia) – the album cover is based on In the Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra. It is an illustration featuring a tired Tom Waits being observed by a blonde woman as he exits a neon-lit cocktail lounge late at night.
[Verse 1]
Let’s put a new coat of paint on this lonesome old town
Set ’em up, we’ll be knockin’ em down
You wear a dress, baby, I’ll wear a tie
We’ll laugh at that old bloodshot moon in that burgundy sky
[Verse 2]
All our scribbled love dreams are lost or thrown away
Here amidst the shuffle of an overflowing day
Our love needs a transfusion, let’s shoot it full of wine
Fishin’ for a good time starts with throwin’ in your line
[Verse 1]
So let’s put a new coat of paint on this lonesome old town
Set ’em up, set ’em up, we’ll be knockin’ em down
You wear a dress, baby, I’ll wear a tie
We’ll laugh at that old bloodshot moon in that burgundy sky
References:
1. The Heart of Saturday Night – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
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