01	Hope I Don'T Fall In Love With You						05:01
	02	Ol' 55						04:07
	03	Mockin' Bird						03:27
	04	In Between Love						03:01
	05	Blue Skies						02:13
	06	Nobody						02:47
	07	I Want You						01:22
	08	Shiver Me Timbers						03:48
	09	Grapefruit Moon						04:36
	10	Diamonds On My Windshield						03:10
	11	Please Call Me, Baby						03:43
	12	So It Goes						02:31
	13	Old Shoes						04:24

The Early Years Vol. 2
Recorded July - December 1971

Tom Waits (writer, vocals, piano, guitar)

THE EARLY YEARS VOL. 2

Year Of Release: 1993
Record rating = 7
Overall rating = 10

Perhaps the most accessible Waits album ever!
Best song: MOCKING BIRD

Track listing: 1) Hope I Don't Fall In Love With You; 2) Ol' 55; 3) Mockin' Bird; 4) In Between Love; 5) Blue Skies; 6) Nobody; 7) I Want You; 8) Shiver Me Timbers; 9) Grapefruit Moon; 10) Diamonds On My Windshield; 11) Please Call Me Baby; 12) So It Goes; 13) Old Shoes.

Obviously, Columbia was at the end of its rope - more than half of these tracks are versions of songs that later made it onto the original releases; most of the 'elsewhere unavailable' stuff was released on Vol. 1. It is interesting to note, though, that this second volume also includes some numbers which were radically reworked by Tom later to fit his beatnik image as opposed to this here Dylanistic crooner. 'Nobody', for instance, which got a far rougher treatment on Nighthawks At The Diner (although it was the lightest song on that album, to be frank). The most crucial difference, though, is with 'Diamonds On My Windshield'; running a little ahead, let us not forget the song was Tom's first effort at an imaginative beatnik rant and while later on these things became normal for him, on Heart Of Saturday Night this stuff was pretty shocking. But on this early version, Tom actually sings it - the lyrics are a bit different, but essentially it's just the tone and style that are different. This is a perfectly acceptable jazzy shuffle; kinda minimalistic, true, but the structure is no big shakes. Wonderful little piano phrases, though, that add a whole new delirious atmosphere of mystery and thrill if you wanna call it so.
Other 'repeating' tracks include early versions of 'Grapefruit Moon' and 'Please Call Me Baby' and 'Shiver Me Timbers' and suchlike, all excellent songs, but all of them very hard to distinguish from the finished product... the only big difference is that 'Ol' 55' is given here in an acoustic guitar arrangement instead of the usual piano treatment. And the underproduction really works against the song, not giving it the epic feel of Closing Time; something tells me, though, that those fans who'd have their right hand cut off to have Tom forever separated from the Eagles would definitely embrace this version more. Hard to tell; there are also people who like Harrison's acoustic demo of 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' better than the fully produced original. Which causes a natural question - if it's like that, what the hell do we actually need production values for? Good production + good melody = better than a good melody with no production. (And yes, Closing Time boasts a good production. And the Eagles had good production, too, their problem was with melodies. That's blasphemy? Could be, but you know I really don't have any theoretical difficulties with the Eagles.).
In any case, there are still several 'new' songs on here which are maybe even better than the ones on Vol. 1. 'Mocking Bird' might just be a successful Dylan imitation (I bet you anything you won't even suspect that it's Tom singing when you put this stuff on), but the idea of that ominous whistling in between the verses in unison with the main piano melody puts both Elton John and Billy Joel to absolute shame. To tell you the truth, this is one of the best Dylan songs that Dylan never wrote I've had the pleasure of hearing, and easily justifies acquisition of the album alone.
'Blue Skies' is also gorgeous. 'I Want You' is pretty strange, though - a short one-minute snippet with the lyrics limited to a short 'I want you, all I want is you, you, you...' and a couple more scattered cliches. I think it was just a brief moment of fun that Waits had in the studio in between serious recordings, yet the people at Columbia decided it would actually fit in in the regular scheme of things. Stupid. Compensated with the quiet melancholic introspection of 'So It Goes', which would be a perfect album closer if not for a totally redundant 'Old Shoes'. In other words, the track sequencing also sucks. And generally, were I more honest, I'd just put all the 'redundant' tracks on Vol. 2 and all the non-redundant ones on Vol. 1 and please the hard-working customer. Of course, a different approach is possible - nobody but a Tom Waits diehard will go for this early stuff anyway and the Tom Waits diehard will be more than willing to get all of these tracks. Of course, a different solution to this is possible - start playing 'Mocking Bird' on the radio and herds of classic rock station listener will flock to the stores in no time in order to get Vol. 2. Of course, though, we always choose the solution that'd be more pleasing for the record industry anyway. But really, I shouldn't care - I got both volumes for a minimal price.
Funny, though, looking at Tom through all these photos... funny how his looks never changed all that much, be it 1971 or 1981 or 1991 or anything like that. His voice, yeah, that's a different thing. That's the way it goes with ugly people (and I do mean to say that Tom's mug was, is, and will always be pretty ugly) - they never change much throughout their lives. Think the pretty faces of Bob Dylan and Keith Richards... what was the fate that met them eventually? Ooh, pretty scary. Tom Waits now, he was pretty scary from the very beginning. I guess that's why nobody buys his records, apart from the several billion or so fans who all buy his records because they have an inferiority complex. "See here, now here's a guy that looks even worse than me, darling! NOW will you marry me?" Or something like that.