I bought two albums a couple days ago, Patty Smith “Easter” and Tom Waits “Used Songs”. The Patty Smith I bought because Beta’s class at school is currently doing some sort of dance to a lame remake of “Because the Night” and I wanted to casually pop in the CD on the way to school one day and have her say “hey, that’s the song we’re dancing to, only better!” which is sort of what happened, only it was me saying, “Hey, that’s the song you’re dancing to, only better!”

Tom Waits I bought because I like him, the new songs better, but the old ones on this album are a good collection and bring back memories, or would if I had any, even though some of the time he sounds to me a lot like a white guy trying to sound black and beatnik at the same time.

What struck me about both albums, though, is how young both musicians are on them. How earnest, especially Patty Smith, with her poetry and “Rock and Roll Nigger,” how did I ever listen to that? Otherwise good stuff, though. The Tom Waits stuff, this “best of” album includes a lot of liner notes and reviews/Rolling Stone articles and stuff from 1975 or so; it reminds me of what Frank Zappa said about rock journalism – “people who can’t write writing for people who can’t read.” But the Waits ages better I think, than Patty.

Whatever. I like the way Tom Waits is going with his new stuff on “Blood Money” and “Alice”. He’s a good match with the German expressionism on “Blood Money” and “Alice” works better than I thought it would. And his face, now wrinkly, is starting to match his voice better.