The Last Of The Big Time Spenders
Song: The Last of the Big Time Spenders
Album: Streetlife Serenade (1974)
After listening to “The Entertainer” about 50 times over the course of two days I wanted to take a break before digging into the rest of the record. I was worried that after The Entertainer the rest of the songs would feel like a letdown. As luck would have it I got ridiculously sick last week and spent three straight days unable to put together a coherent sentence. When I felt better I jumped back into Streetlife Serenade starting with “The Last Of The Big Time Spenders” and unfortunately I still feel let down.
“The Last of the Big Time Spenders” unintentionally does a good job of encapsulating the frustrating elements of the Streetlife Serenade album. At various times throughout the record it seems like Billy Joel is trying to make a sweeping statement about the lives of those who struggle to make it in America. It doesn’t matter if it’s a struggling musician, an actor looking for a break or struggling nine to fiver, Billy Joel knows we’re all just trying to get ahead. I think what he’s doing with some of these songs is trying to give them a voice and tie it all together to show what we all have in common but the sketches he’s providing are just too thin to hold my interest. While Billy Joel put a decent melody over a sparse musical backdrop, the lyrics just don’t do anything for me.
As best I can piece together from the sparse details the song provides, Billy is singing about someone who is short on money but long on feelings for somebody. Kind of a John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row meets early Tom Waits (who it seems based some of his later career character sketches on Cannery Row). I suppose someone could say it’s intended to be evocative rather than detailed but to me it just feels like a song that isn’t quite done.
Speaking of Tom Waits, I could write at length about him too. I used to really like Tom Waits but as I’ve gotten older I’ve found myself less interested in his stuff in part because the later stuff feel’s formulaic. I realize that Tom is probably playing the part of “Tom Waits” now but it feels much less satisfying than it used to. I think I stopped enjoying it around Mule Variations when he was romanticizing the Cannery Row style hobo. I know we all think hobo’s are hilarious but I have to tell you, it get’s tiresome.
When I moved to LA I lucked out by finding a great, affordable place to live. I lived there with my then girlfriend and when we split up I stayed there. I don’t know if she took the class with her when she left or I just never noticed the weirdness while she was around but in a short while the building became a haven for unemployable drifters. At one point there were 10 people living in the building and the only dope going to a job every day was me. I was working like crazy just to end up in the same place as a bunch of guys who sat on the grass getting drunk. The hobo thing was amusing at first but coming home after a hard days work to find six drunk guys cooking potatoes over an open fire behind the house (100% true) was enough to change my mind about the hobo lifestyle. It’s not the fun and games Tom Waits makes it out to be.
That said I still like Rain Dogs and Bone Machine even though I never listen to them anymore. I realize this has nothing to to with Billy Joel but I had to get this off of my chest. Hobos are nothing but a pain in the ass.
