Tom Waits - (Looking for) The Heart Of Saturday Night

I think Saturday nights are very special. I work extremely hard all week.  While I do look forward to Friday - it has the sweet air of excitement of things to come - it falls short.   Friday night is a night to let loose a bit, a night to unwind or even on a bad week it's a night to crawl into one's hovel and collapse in a heap.  It is decidedly the night before the main event. Saturday night is what we all look forward to. It is the night - the top of the week's mountain before Sunday morning, coming down.

It is my favourite night because it is all about relaxing and doing whatever feels right.   And hopefully being with one's own honey.  There are lots of Saturday Night songs.  This one, The Heart of Saturday Night, by Tom Waits is my favourite.

From Wiki's entry on Tom Waits:

The Heart of Saturday Night (1974), featuring the song "(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night," revealed Waits's roots as a nightclub performer, with half-spoken and half-crooned ballads often accompanied by a jazz backup band. Waits described the album as:

...a comprehensive study of a number of aspects of this search for the center of Saturday night, which Jack Kerouac relentlessly chased from one end of this country to the other, and I've attempted to scoop up a few diamonds of this magic that I see.

This song is contained in his 1974 album of the same name. In 2003, the album was ranked number 339 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, his highest placing, according to the wiki entry relating to the album.  I just purchased the album  from iTunes.  His music has certainly stood the test of time.  I am enjoying some great songs as I write this blog.  :)

The mention of the name Jack Kerouac in the Wiki article is in reference to the style of some of his songs.  His recitation of the lyric rhythmically against bass and drums is reminiscent of Beat Generation poetry and Beat hipster Jack Kerouac who wrote about his trek across the States in his famous book "On the Road" published in April 1951.  This is, by the way, an advance plug for my May 30th Poetry Blog which will feature Beat Generation poetry.

This is not the first time I have blogged about Tom Waits.  Go here to read my earlier blog.

I think the Tom Waits Song, The Heart of Saturday Night, is so appropriate as my Saturday night anthem.  (OK, others might choose the Hockey Song by  Stomping Tom Connors LOL).  The melody is mellow and easy in tempo and tone and his lyrics speak of the sort of time we all experienced as teens out on the town on a Saturday night. 

I may not cruise down Main Street on Saturday night in the arms of my sweetie anymore, but Saturday night for me still holds that same excitement, even if sitting on my couch watching a movie alone rather than with my sweetie.   Indeed, Saturday night is a special night. I have long stopped looking for the heart of Saturday night. I live it each week and I hope you do too.

I have included 2 Videos of Tom Waits doing this signature song of his.  I like the first one, which was taken from his 1974 Album and is musically a better version, I think.  The second Video is a live performance of the song and contains a long humorous banter poking some fun at the songs lyrics.  It is fun to listen to also.

Close your eyes as you listen to Tom Waits sing my Saturday Night anthem.  Enjoy the Heart of Saturday night.



(Looking for) The Heart Of Saturday Night
by Tom Waits

You gassed her up behind the wheel
With your arm around your sweet one in your Oldsmobile
Barrelin' down the boulevard
Looking for the heart of Saturday night

Got paid on Friday and your pockets are jinglin'
And you see the lights, you get all tinglin'
'Cause you're cruisin' with a six
Looking for the heart of Saturday night

Comb your hair, pleads your face
Try to wipe out every trace
Of all the other days in the week
You know this'll be the Saturday reachin' your peak

Stop on the red, goin' on the green
Tonight'll be like nothin', you've ever seen
Barrelin' down the boulevard
Looking for the heart of Saturday night

Is it the crack of the poolballs, neon buzzin'?
Telephone's ringing, it's your second cousin
The barmaid that's smilin' from the corner of her eye
The magic of the melancholy tear in your eye

But that makes it kind of quiver down in the core
Dreamin' of them Saturdays that came before
And now you're stumblin', stumblin' onto the heart of Saturday night
Now you're stumbling, stumblin' onto the heart of Saturday night.