Tom Waits - Kentucky Avenue

Well, congratulations to Mr. Tom Waits who turns 65 today. There are very few songwriters I admire as much. He's got a lifetime's worth of highly memorable albums, and today I've played two of them, Blue Valentine (1978) and Heartattack And Vine (1980). I was unaware of his birthday, they're just records I come back to again and again. "Kentucky Avenue" is from the former, a stunningly beautiful song in which Waits reminisces about his childhood on the titular street in Whittier, California. This is actually one of my all-time favourite Tom Waits songs, here in a live clip from 1979. Beautiful in every respect.

Watch and listen