purchase [ Blue Valentines ]
I've been turning this idea over in my head for 10 days: do... don't do .. do. I can't believe that SMM hasn't previously hit this one: it seems so obvious.
30-40 years ago, Waits was a lot rougher (around the edges - edges being the area he staked out with his style - a gravely voice and his choices of themes and lyrics). Where most of us paint our valentines red, he painted his blue. Blue as in blues? Blue as in the pained psychology of his protagonists.
The commercialization of valentines (yes, my family also bought those poke out valentine albums of the 60s, and I still buy my wife Hallmark cards marked <For Her> before February 14th so that I am "armed" for the day) has jaded the meaning of sending a valentine.
Do you remember the Peanuts/Charlie Brown's where he never got a card and/or debated the risk of sending <the read haired girl> a card? The anguish? I remember actually making my own - paper, scissors and colored pens. And searching for the "right" message for each person. Days gone by.
history.com has an interesting (well ... I like history) article about the history of the day, if you want to pick up some trivia facts.
So ...Tom Waits' pointed themes and lyrics tend to cut deep. A valentine meant/not sent... or sent and lost to time or without heartfelt value. A blue valentine. (He's also got a song called "Christmas Card ...", too.)
More poet than "vocalist", he sings:
Baby, it's the thistle in the kiss
It's the burglar that can break a rose's neck
It's the tatooed broken promise
I gotta hide beneath my sleeve
I'm going to see you every time I turn my back
Billys Band does it, too:
