Foreign Affairs (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Foreign Affairs
Type = studio
Artist = Tom Waits


Released = September 1977
Recorded = July 28 – August 15, 1977
Genre = Jazz
Length = 41:53
Label = Asylum
Producer = Bones Howe
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:bqc8b5z4tsqa link]
*Robert Christgau (B) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Tom+Waits link]
*"Rolling Stone" [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/tomwaits/albums/album/252362/review/5943712/foreign_affairs link]
Last album = "Small Change"
(1976)
This album = "Foreign Affairs"
(1977)
Next album = "Blue Valentine"
(1978)

"Foreign Affairs" is an album by Tom Waits, released in 1977 on Elektra Entertainment. It was produced by Bones Howe, and features Bette Midler singing a duet with Waits on "I Never Talk to Strangers".

Production

Bones Howe, the album's producer, remembers the album's original concept and production approach thus:

[Waits] talked to me about doing this other material [...] He said, 'I'm going to do the demos first, and then I'm gonna let you listen to them. Then we should talk about what it should be. 'I listened to the material and said, 'It's like a black-and-white movie.' That's where the cover came from. The whole idea that it was going to be a black-and-white movie. It's the way it seemed to me when we were putting it together. Whether or not it came out that way, I don't have any idea, because there's such metamorphosis when you're working on [records] . They change and change. [ cite web | url= http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/timeline1976-1980.html | title= Tom Waits Time line: 1976 - 1980 | accessdate= 2007-01-18 ]

Artwork

Rickie Lee Jones, Waits' then-girlfriend, is pictured on the front cover with Waits.

Track listing

All tracks written by Tom Waits, except where noted.

# "Cinny's Waltz" (instrumental) – 2:17
# "Muriel" – 3:33
# "I Never Talk to Strangers" – 3:38
# "Medley: Jack & Neal/California, Here I Come" ("California, Here I Come" written by Joseph Meyer, Al Jolson and Buddy De Sylva) – 5:01
# "A Sight for Sore Eyes" – 4:40
# "Potter's Field" (words: Waits, music: Bob Alcivar) – 8:40
# "Burma-Shave" – 6:34
# "Barber Shop" – 3:54
# "Foreign Affair" – 3:46

Personnel

* Gene Cipriano – clarinet solos on "Potter's Field"
* Jim Hughart – bass
* Shelly Manne – drums
* Bette Midler – vocals on "I Never Talk to Strangers"
* Jack Sheldon – trumpet solos
* Frank Vicari – tenor saxophone solos
* Tom Waits – piano, vocals

Notes