Rather to my surprise I found myself listening to Tom Waits this evening. We were about to eat and I wanted to put something on we could listen to for the meal. i leafed through the CD’s and there was a copy of Asylum Years I had almost forgotten I had.The vinyl version is one of the first albums I bought. I can remember it now going through the racks in Penny Lane records in chester and being frustrated that there were three or four albums i was going tp have to leave behind.

Those were the days you could discover someone new and then find there was a back catalogue to be scoured for and discovered. I have all the records now but I am not fully convinced I have got to grips with all of Tom Waits’ back catalogue. The memory is more in the places and times I have listened to them al and the people that were there with me.

But mostly Tom Waits has been about being sat in a room by myself and listening to the music tease its way out. That’s no more so than on Kentucky Avenue. I have been listening to the song for twenty five years and I still don’t quite know hat it is about but for the tumble of words which catch up short.

I then I find myself listening to it and all I want to is close my eyes and cut off the spokes from my wheelchair and put on a pair of magpie wings and then maybe I can find myself.