Tom Waits: Foreign Affairs (Asylum 7E-1117)
Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1977
THE ADMIRING audience that Tom Waits built up with his early work now worries about him in a way that does his derelict's persona proud: when is that old boy gonna straighten up? Closing Time was a quiet classic in 1973, but with The Heart of Saturday Night, Small Change and Nighthawks at the Diner, the singer songwriter's beaten raps, overflowing with pathos and Americana, had turned self-indulgent.
Total word count of piece: 455
