Release date: 01-10-1996 (re-issue from 1978 album)

1996 German issue limited vinyl edition of the 1978 10-track vinyl LP, pressing on 180 gram virgin vinyl, featuring his trademark deep & dark lyrics, BLUE VALENTINE is often given a glossing-over in Tom Waits' legacy, calling it a transitional work at best.presented in glossy gatefold picture sleeve with lyrics inside.

Tracks:
01. Somewhere {From West Side Story} 
02. Red Shoes by the Drugstore 
03. Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis 
04. Romeo Is Bleeding 
05. $29.00 
06. Wrong Side of the Road   
07. Whistlin' Past the Graveyard   
08. Kentucky Avenue   
09. Sweet Little Bullet from a Pretty Blue Gun   
10. Blue Valentines

More hard-boiled tales from Tom Waits, who manages to sing lines like "Everyone I know is either dead or in prison" in a raw, whiskey-soaked rasp that sounds both comical and deadly serious. Waits doesn't break any new creative ground here, but continues to refine his down-and-out ham-and-egger persona. It's booze and broads, sex and violence, laughs and heartbreak. This 1978 album opens with an astonishingly desperate version of "Somewhere" (from "West Side Story"), performed like Louie Armstrong with a migraine. From there it's the usual Waits mix of crackpot wordplay and the cocktail lounge jazz likes of "Romeo Is Bleeding." --Steve Appleford

Tom Waits has had a career in music that is mercurial at best. His 1973 debut CLOSING TIME was probably the closest he got to recording a tried-and-true singer-songwriter album, but the follow-up, 1974's HEART OF SATURDAY NIGHT, proved that, lyrically at least, Tom was beginning to make changes that would drastically alter his sound & image. It was a slow process, but by 1978's BLUE VALENTINE, the fruits of that change were starting to show. Tom's voice was just beginning to get more edgy & his lyrics were starting to go off into other dimensions altogether. Yet there was still melody high up in the mix, making BLUE VALENTINE a good way to ease into the more experimental stuff.