The Heart of Saturday Night

The Eagles might have covered his song"Ol' 55," but Tom Waits was cut from a different cloth than California's other singer-songwriters--he suggested a scruffy beat poet who'd walked out of a forgotten scene of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Waits's beatnik schtick could get old, and he developed into a much more musically adventurous songwriter in later years, but his second album contains some of his best early work, including the sweet romantic blues of"New Coat of Paint" ("You wear a dress baby, I'll wear a tie"), and his best hipster recitation,"Diamonds on My Windshield." Two songs are enduring classics: the doleful, dirge-like"San Diego Serenade" ("Never saw the morning till I stayed up all night") and the touchingly sweet"(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night" ("Stoppin' on the red, goin' on the green, `cause tonight'll be like nothin' that you've ever seen").