Tom Waits, Austin City Limits, 1978

Recorded in December 1978, the show features the iconoclastic singer/songwriter supporting his classic LP Blue Valentine and deep in the transitional phase of his career, evolving out of the jazzy beat poetry of his early work (“I Wish I Was in New Orleans”) and into the bluesier, more dissonant sounds (“Sweet Little Bullet From a Pretty Blue Gun”) for which he became known in the 80s and beyond. He acknowledged the season with the streetwise but lovely “Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis,” which incorporates a few bars of a better-known Xmas hymn. And he debuted “On the Nickel,” one of his greatest ballads, and which wouldn’t be released on record until Heartattack and Vine in 1980. Setlist: Summertime/Burma Shave Annie’s Back in Town/I Wish I Was in New Orleans A Sweet Little Bullet From a Pretty Blue Gun On the Nickel Romeo is Bleeding Silent Night/Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis Small Change