The Eyes of an Only Child

by Tom Jans

It all started like this: the proprietor of the excellent second hand store in my hometown where I buy a lot of my records called me to say that they’ve bought a big cd collection. Not only big, but also incredible, and apparently full of records that looked like they would be right down my alley. So I cycled over there and started digging through the crates. 

And, yes, the collection was amazing. Mainly pop, rock, soul, country from the 1970’s. I picked out a lot of records, and ended up spending a lot of money. This is life. 

Enter: Tom Jans’ second solo album, ”The Eyes of an Only Child” from 1975. I knew nothing about this guy. No, that’s wrong. I knew that for some reason Tom Waits had dedicated his song ”Whistle Down The Wind” (from ”Bone Machine”, 1992) to Tom Jans. So the name rang a bell. But apart form exactly that bell: nothing. Nada. 

But you know how it is: the album cover looked really good. It had that 70’s laid-back, organic, soft feeling. A photograph of Tom leaning against a house wall smoking a cigarette. And the title of the album? Sublime. The few reviews I found on music sites talked about a melodic, melancholic, lyrical singer-songwriter who stood at the crossroads of country, folk and pop. The producer? Lowell George. 

So, I bought it. Took it home, together with the rest of the loot. And when I got around to play it the other day, I had read up on Tom Jans. He started out as a a duet partner to Mimi Farina (Joan Baez’ younger sister), but after a tour supporting Cat Stevens and one album, ”Take Heart”, in 1971, they broke up. A year later he was a songwriter at publishing house Irving/Alamo, and wrote ”Loving Arms” (that Elvis Presley and Kris Kristofferson recorded). In 1974 he released his first self-titled solo album, a year later came ”The Eyes of an Only Child”, and a year after that ”Dark Blonde”. 

Then a clean break. It wasn’t until 1982 that his fourth and final album, ”Champion”, came out, a Japan-only release. And then tragedy: in 1983 he was in a serious motorcycle accident, and a year later he was dead of a suspected drug overdose. He was only 36 years old. 

When I put the record on I was literally stunned. It sounded too good to be true. The songwriting, the production, Tom’s voice, the overall feeling of the music, this wasn’t the album of a more or less obscure guy. It sounded like a great American 1970’s album. One of those that ends up on place 328 when Rolling Stone ranks the greatest 500 rock albums of all time. It sounded like a lost album by Jackson Browne, or Boz Scaggs, or Terence Boylan. 

It starts with ”Gotta Move” and the wistful lyrics set the tone of the next 40 minutes: ”Have you ever been lonely in the middle of the night / Even though the one you love got her arms around you so tight”. This is personal and emotional stuff. But it’s never outright miserable. No one is overwhelmed by sadness. It’s muted melancholia, reflective regret. 

Case in point, the title-song, where he sings: ”Wondered in my heart of hearts if I’d been here before / Trembled when the winter wind would blow against my door / Been so far at sea I could not find the shore / Got down on my knees and prayed I would see more / With these eyes of an only child”. It continually circles around the big questions in life, but never fully lands on them. This is existential contemplation, done late a night, alone, heart aching, with the compass needle unable to find north. 

This is a wonderful album, truly wonderful. The music is warm, generous, full-of-heart. The melodies stay with you, the arrangements are exquisite. The back story of Tom Jans, his untimely and devastating death, that he struggled to get his beautiful music out there, the fact that he remains obscure, but that somehow a bunch of initiated few - including Tom Waits of all people - know his value, all heightens the listening experience. And underlines the irrefutable fact we all know: life isn’t fair.