I first met Tom Waits when I was a young boy the age of seven. My father owned a shabby old vinyl pressing of Blue Valentine. I was more interested in the mechanics of the record player; how did sound come out of this revolving black plate? I would play all of my dad’s old records, observing them closely, and as the needle hit the grooves I would marvel at the crackled sounds that would emanate out of the speakers. After a few years of playing the dusty old records I bought my own CD player, I started listening to Nirvana and Bryan Adams, and forgot all about the old stuff.

When I hit my late teens I began actively seeking out great records that I felt I needed to hear in order to complete my informal music education. I’d spend a lot of time and too much money trawling through the discount bins at WOW Music in Pitt St Mall. Most classic records were available there for about ten or fifteen bucks. For old time’s sake I picked up a CD copy of Blue Valentine. It went straight out of the store, straight into my Sony Discman, and bang! I was instantly transported into Waits’ world. No longer was I a TAFE student riding the 440 bus home to Leichhardt, now I was mixed up with a bleeding Mexican gangster, hookers were sending me love letters from prison, I was driving all the way to Reno on the wrong side of the road, and all I had to my name was $29 and an alligator purse. Shit got real.

I must have listened to Blue Valentine everyday for over a year. I couldn’t get over the sound of it; the heavy jazz infused blues is as sexy as it is threatening, Waits’ voice is the perfect balance of crooner and criminal, and the characters he creates are masterfully observed. Waits would never sound this way again. After Blue Valentine he went on to make weirder and, ultimately, more creative records such as Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs and Bone Machine.

I still listen to Blue Valentine with the same regularity that I listen to any of my other favourite records. And I now have my dad’s shabby old vinyl copy on permanent loan.

- Roland Kay-Smith