Tom Waits – Ol’ 55

When most people think of Tom Waits (including me), they think of the gravelly voice and the experimental music he would make later in his career. I like that as well, but on his debut album, Closing Time, he sounded very different. He is such a great songwriter, and like the greats, he puts his soul into his performances. His voice in this is perfect to me.

This track caught my attention with its storytelling. The song was inspired by Waits’ driving home at dawn after spending the night with someone special. Rather than focusing on drama, he captured a simple moment that many people have experienced.

Musically, it’s built around a gentle piano and an arrangement that owes as much to folk and country music as it does to rock. Waits recorded the song during the sessions for Closing Time in Los Angeles. Producer Jerry Yester helped shape the album’s laid-back sound, allowing Waits’ songwriting to take center stage.

As most people who know me know, I’m not the biggest Eagles fan, to say the least, but I’m glad they covered this. Their version brought the song to a much wider audience and introduced many listeners to Waits’ songwriting. While Waits later joked about some of the band’s interpretations of his work, there is no question that their recording helped spread the song far beyond his usual fan base.

Today, it is a signature song from Tom Waits’ early years. It captures a side of him that is sometimes overlooked, the songwriter who could turn an ordinary drive home into something memorable. Long before he became one of music’s most unique voices, this song showed that he already knew how to tell a story and make listeners feel like they were right there beside him.

Ol’ 55

Well, my time went so quickly, I went lickety-splitly
Out to my ol’ fifty-five
As I pulled away slowly, feeling so holy
God knows I was feeling alive

Now the sun’s coming up
I’m riding with Lady Luck
Freeway cars and trucks
Stars beginning to fade
And I lead the parade
Just a-wishing I’d stayed a little longer
Oh Lord, let me tell you that the feeling getting stronger

And it’s six in the morning, gave me no warning
I had to be on my way
Well, there’s trucks all a-passing me and the lights all a-flashin’
I’m on my way home from your place

And now the sun’s coming up
I’m riding with Lady Luck
Freeway cars and trucks
Stars beginning to fade
And I lead the parade
Just a-wishing I’d stayed a little longer
Oh Lord, let me tell you the feeling getting stronger

And my time went so quickly, I went lickety-splitly
Out to my ol’ fifty-five
As I pulled away slowly, feeling so holy
God knows I was feeling alive

And now the sun’s coming up
I’m riding with Lady Luck
Freeway cars and trucks
Freeway cars and trucks
Freeway cars and trucks

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

39 thoughts on “Tom Waits – Ol’ 55”

  1. Pingback: Tom Waits – Ol’ 55 – MobsterTiger

  3. I did hear the Eagles’ version first. Later on I started listening to Waits. I love his version of “Somewhere” from West Side Story, and the album Mule Variations. If you haven’t heard it, check out John Hammond’s album Wicked Grin, where he does all Waits songs. Waits produced it.

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  6. Wow! I’m only vaguely familiar with The Eagles version (quite like it but don’t have ‘on the Border’,only heard it maybe a dozen times total) and had never heard this. Wouldn’t have guessed it was young Tom Waits. Pretty good job of writing and simple recording

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      1. I think of that gravel truck voice, then the devil in that odd ‘Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus’ movie , and maybe ‘Downtown train’ song when I hear his name

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  7. That’s a cool pick, Max. When listening to Tom Waits nowadays, it’s hard to believe the man at some point had something that resembled a singing voice. He’s someone who for a long time has been on my growing pile of artists I hope to explore in greater detail at some point!

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  8. Yes some gems on this record and he was probably more accessible with the filed down vocals. I liked him then and later. The fist I had heard of Tom was when Tim Buckley covered ‘Martha’ off of this record. I have never heard the Eagles version. Tom’s works for me.

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      1. They sure did, as they were the exact opposite of the Grateful Dead who never played a song the same way, because they made sure that they always played every song the same way.

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  10. The first two Tom Waits albums go together to me, Closing Time and Looking For the Heart of Saturday Night. They are both full of GREAT songs, strong performances and a charisma that fights you all the way until you realize that it is perfect. I strongly recommend both.

    As for the Eagles version of Ol’ 55, well, I’m glad Tom got some money but other than that, it has none of the strength, the magic and the personality that Tom gives it.

    After the first two albums, Tom turned a corner. That live double record was clearly a development for the artist, and there are horrible lines (even the crack of dawn has to be worried around me) that stand the test of time. After that, whoa, Tom learned he could go in all sorts of different directions.

    Tim Buckley covered Martha? Hmmm… For some reason I’ve never explored the Buckley father or son. Need to check this out.

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    1. You know more than I do about Waits. I love this debut album but its the only thing I’ve really only listened to. Yea I’m glad he made some money and maybe got known a little more.
      I knew that Buckley cut because I posted something by him before I considered that one.
      (even the crack of dawn has to be worried around me)…I gotta remember that line.

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  11. like the original version now. Honestly when I heard Sarah McLachlan’s version I thought she was covering the Eagles…I like her version as well, her’s is more like a demo

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    1. Yea…this debut album is really good Warren. I’ve never heard McLachlan’s version before. The song I remember by her the most is Building A Mystery. I turn that song up to 11 when I hear it…it is produced so well.

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  12. I like the cover by The Eagles, but whatever he is doing with his voice, and does with his voice, feels contrived to me. I like Tom Waits, I like his lyrics, and I’ve liked his acting in movies, but the singing voice doesn’t do it for me.

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  13. As an aside, more and more I’m honing in on the lyrics, even with songs I’ve dismissed/dissed as pure crapPop.Hey, I don’t mean Toms songs here!
    Sometimes there’s more to the words than five words in the chorus, if that makes sense?

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      1. Paul at his besotted wors- best. Sha doop sha doop shooby wooby a ding dong… the Doo wop bands had so many vocal tics it was frightening. (Suddenly I’m thinking of Sha Na Na and that guy with the gargantuan mouth!)

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      2. Oh yes! They had a television show in the 70s…this is odd…but some songs I can take weak lyrics. Power pop songs…they hook you by the jangle…the lyrics usually are not great but passable. Doo wop songs can get by with some but I know exactly what you are talking about. I guess I’m biased….but Paul McCartney with a serious ballad? No…no leeway Paul. This is why you needed John at times.

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    1. You might be joking referencing Bing Crosby, but the joke hits a real truth. There is a sense of the greats of the great American Songwriters in the first two albums. The songs are classic, well formed. The vocals Waits made his own were a necessary, according to some, distraction from the form, structure and perfection of the song construction.

      Max, I am jealous of your opportunity to discover each of these masterpieces. I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You will linger in your senses, coming back at moments to mesmerize you. Little Trip To Heaven, Rosie, Lonely. Each one a delight.

      Moving on to the second album. The Ghosts of Saturday Night suggests a new direction, obvious portraits that come from the soul, the heart. It will hit at your imagination and you, Max, will realize the truth that you are sweeping up the tales of the shipwreck humanity, of the Prisoner and so much more and how we, your readers, so love it.

      Other people have covered a lot of these songs. Bette Midler to name one, and her versions are fantastic. That suggests these are raw demos, but they are not demos. To be sure, they are raw. Raw is one of the words that describes Waits and all the explorations, all the visions and all the mastery.

      Depot, Depot comes from the same love of the great American Songbook, and it is no lie to say that Waits truly did contribute and continue the tradition. So many songs much more breath taking and all encompassing that Ol’ 55, and I do love Toms’ version of Ol’ 55.

      Waits has a way with songs. It is difficult to explain the magic in the idea of Waits, in full character, singing “The piano has been drinking, not me.” That is sheer poetry culled from the image he developed for himself. The fact that he is sober, and has been, only reminds us that Waits was always a character, a well-defined character we knew and loved without invading the privacy of the man.

      Nighthawks at the Diner was his third album, and is that persona in full glory. Here is his take on Phantom 309, and Tom makes the bit his own. Wait, that’s not true. Not his own, but fully in keeping with the character. The double album is full of the Waits character.

      Yes, Max, there is a treasure trove of wonders. Take it slowly. You’ll have a great time.

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      1. Thanks for the answer! Well, on could also say Tom Waits’ early songs sounded like sessions between Frank Sinatra and Charlie Parker, the lyrics like conversations between Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski. Waits was a fan of the Beat Generation—a B-post-Beatnik.

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