Stuff I'm Listening To - Christmas Advent Edition - December 14th

Artist: Tom Waits

Title: Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis

Lyrics: 

And hey Charley I think about you
Everytime I pass a fillin' station
On account of all the grease
You used to wear in your hair
And I still have that record
Of little Anthony & the Imperials

But someone stole my record player
How do you like that?

Why?:
I really enjoy songs that have a story to tell. There are some pretty great songs that use Christmas time as a place to tell you a story that's going to stick to your feels. Even George Michael knew that. His is a typical story of heartbreak, but toss in that it happened on Christmas and suddenly a run of the mill breakup story comes with that much more "Aww".

Tom Waits is one of those phenomenal song writers that are great story tellers too. And honestly, he could have pulled off this song without adding Christmas to it. There is one song writer on Instagram I follow that I think falls into that category of great song writer, great story teller. A quick browse through his (*cough* @rustinmanofficial *cough*) Instagram and you wonder why for is he not writing a book? Read through the comments on any of his posts. I'm not the only one that thinks so.


While 'Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis' is most certainly NOT a Christmas carol, it's definitely got something to say. I love Tom's husky raspy voice. I love the way he can just sit there at a piano and belt out this song like he's making it up on the spot. I feel like I'm in some dive bar and he's the musician on for the night. I could easily sit there nursing that beer in a questionably clean glass for hours, and go through a pack of cigarettes (when I used to smoke) listening to the stories he wanted to tell that night.
 
And I would come back the next night, just to see if he's got more stories to tell.
Such is the power of Tom Waits voice and story telling. 

Special thanks to Instabuddy @Alla who posted a list of some pretty great songs that had me revising this Advent list last minute. I'd forgotten about this song.