Nighthawks at the Diner

This article is about the album by Tom Waits. For the painting by Edward Hopper, see Nighthawks.

Nighthawks at the Diner
Live album by Tom Waits
Released	October 1975
Recorded	July 30 – 31, 1975 Record Plant Studios
Genre	Jazz
Length	73:54
Label	Asylum
Producer	Bones Howe
Tom Waits chronology
The Heart of Saturday Night (1974) Nighthawks at the Diner (1975) Small Change (1976)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
Mojo
Robert Christgau	(B) link

Nighthawks at the Diner is a 1975 album by Tom Waits, released on Asylum Records. The title was inspired by Edward Hopper's 1942 painting Nighthawks.

The album's working title had been "Nighthawk Postcards from Easy Street," but it was shortened to Nighthawks at the Diner.^[1]

The album was recorded live in Record Plant Studios, in front of a small invited audience. This gives the record an intimate feeling as Waits spends time telling stories, jokes and explaining the stories behind his songs through seven separate introductions.

Recording

Bones Howe, the album's producer, on the recording of the album:

We did it as a live recording, which was unusual for an artist so new [...] Herb Cohen and I both had a sense that we needed to bring out the jazz in Waits more clearly. Tom was a great performer on stage [...] So we started talking about where we could do an album that would have a live feel to it. We thought about clubs, but the well-known ones like The Troubadour were toilets in those days. Then I remembered that Barbra Streisand had made a record at the old Record Plant Studios, when they were on 3rd Street near Cahuenga Boulevard [...] There was a room there that she got an entire orchestra into. Back in those days they would just roll the consoles around to where they needed them. So Herb and I said let's see if we can put tables and chairs in there and get an audience in and record a show.^[2]

Howe was mostly responsible for organising the band for the "live show", and creating the right atmosphere for the record.

I got Michael Melvoin on piano, and he was one of the greatest jazz arrangers ever; I had Jim Hughart on [upright] bass, Bill Goodwin on drums and Pete Christlieb on sax. It was a totally jazz rhythm section. Herb gave out tickets to all his friends, we set up a bar, put potato chips on the tables and we had a sell-out, two nights, two shows a night, July 30 and 31, 1975. I remember that the opening act was a stripper. Her name was Dewana and her husband was a taxi driver. So for her the band played bump-and-grind music - and there's no jazz player who has never played a strip joint, so they knew exactly what to do. But it put the room in exactly the right mood. Then Waits came out and sang 'Emotional Weather Report'. Then he turned around to face the band and read the classified section of the paper while they played. It was like Allen Ginsberg with a really, really good band.^[2]

Dewana was an old-time burlesque queen whom Tom had met on one of his jaunts to the Hollywood underworld.^[3]

Jim Hughart, who played upright bass on the recordings recalled the experience of preparing for and recording the album

Preparing for this thing, we had to memorize all this stuff, 'cause Waits had nothing on paper. So ultimately, we spent four or five days in a rehearsal studio going over this stuff. And that was drudgery. But when we did actually get it all prepared and go and record, that was the fastest two days of recording I've ever spent in my life. It was so fun. Some of the tunes were not what you'd call jazz tunes, but for the most part that was like a jazz record. This was a jazz band. Bill Goodwin was a drummer who was associated with Phil Woods for years. Pete Christlieb is one of the best jazz tenor players who ever lived. And my old friend, Mike Melvoin, played piano. There's a good reason why it was accepted as a jazz record.^[2]

Music

The song "Big Joe and Phantom 309" is a cover of a song titled "Phantom 309", written by Tommy Faile and performed by Red Sovine on his 1967 album of the same name.

Track listing

All songs written by Tom Waits, except where noted.

Side One

No.	Title	Length
1.	"(Opening Intro)"	2:58
2.	"Emotional Weather Report"	3:47
3.	""(Intro)" to "On a Foggy Night""	2:16
4.	"On a Foggy Night"	3:48
5.	""(Intro)" to "Eggs and Sausage""	1:53
6.	"Eggs and Sausage (In a Cadillac with Susan Michelson)"	4:19

Side Two

No.	Title	Length
1.	""(Intro)" to "Better Off Without a Wife""	3:02
2.	"Better Off Without a Wife"	3:59
3.	"Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)"	11:30

Side Three

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	""(Intro)" to "Warm Beer and Cold Women""		0:55
2.	"Warm Beer and Cold Women"		5:21
3.	""(Intro)" to "Putnam County""		0:47
4.	"Putnam County"		7:35
5.	"Spare Parts I (A Nocturnal Emission)"	Waits, Chuck E. Weiss	6:25

Side Four

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Nobody"		2:51
2.	""(Intro)" to "Big Joe and Phantom 309""		0:40
3.	"Big Joe and Phantom 309"	Tommy Faile	6:29
4.	"Spare Parts II and Closing"	Waits, Weiss	5:13

Personnel

• Pete Christlieb – tenor sax
• Bill Goodwin – drums
• Jim Hughart – upright bass
• Mike Melvoin – piano, electric piano, Guitar
• Tom Waits – vocals, piano, guitar

Notes

1. ^ "The RMF Loves Tom Waits - Nighthawks At The Diner" at Real Music Forum
2. ^ ^{a b c} "Comments and anecdotes On Waits". Tom waits Library. http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/anecdotes.html. 
3. ^ "The RMF Loves Tom Waits - Nighthawks At The Diner" Real Music Forum