My God, is it really my 100th post? I know I still have a long, long, long way to go but it feels as if I've finally put some distance between myself and the starting line. I had prepared something else for tonight, but then I realized the 100th post requires something I really care about - so Tom Waits it is! I picked out this compilation because, as I keep it in the car and therefore play quite often, no relistening was necessary. I know it by heart...
"Beautiful Maladies - The Island Years" is a compilation covering a decade in Tom Waits' oeuvre, namely 1983-1993. It is a good starting point for the uninitiated, but be forewarned: You'll have to buy all the albums he recorded in this period, which will render this CD unnecessary. You simply cannot live without "Rain Dogs" and "Swordfishtrombones" (I'm exaggerating, of course. You can live, but what kind of wretched life would that be?). The other albums represented here are "Franks Wild Years", "Big Time", "Bone Machine", "Night on Earth O.S.T." and "The Black Rider". All will be presented here at some point, so I won't dwell much on individual tracks now. "Swordfishtrombones", the first album in this series, marked a big turning point for Waits. He had changed manager, producer, and record company and embarked on a songwriting partnership with his wife, Kathleen Brennan. Up to then, his persona was that of the beat poet/drunkard/nightfly piano player and his music rooted in jazz and folk. His new persona was much more difficult to define: still sarcastic but wildly weird and enigmatic, aggressive gravelly vocals reminiscent of underground anti-hippy hero Captain Beefheart, music experimental - like a Kurt Weill cabaret played with makeshift instruments in the bottom of a well. Indeed he often plays improvised instruments and the great musicians that accompany him (including Marc Ribot and Larry Taylor) sometimes sound like they're playing against, rather than with, each other. During this period he (and wife Brennan) also wrote a theatrical play based on a character from a song: "Franks Wild Years", a jazzy spoken word track with Hammond organ backing. Its hero, Frank, has supposedly settled down in an uneventful suburban life, but by the end of the song he burns down his house and escapes up the freeway to nowhere in particular. The reason? He never could stand that dog! The song gave birth to the play and that, in turn, to the same-named concept album.Waits also wrote music for Jim Jarmusch movies "A Night On Earth" and "Down By Law", in the latter together with John Lurie. Waits, Lurie and the inimitable Roberto Begnini are the co-stars of this stylish black & white (anti)buddy movie. "Jockey Full Of Bourbon" sets the mood for the picture and the trailer, which you can see here:This song is a rare delight: Latin percussion, unorthodox guitar courtesy of Marc Ribot and wacky lyrics by Tom: "Edna Million in a drop dead suit/Dutch Pink on a downtown train/Two-dollar pistol but the gun won't shoot/I'm in the corner on the pouring rain/Sixteen men on a dead man's chest/And I've been drinking from a broken cup/Two pairs of pants and a mohair vest/I'm full of bourbon, I can't stand up/Hey little bird, fly away home/Your house is on fire, children are alone". Not that the rest of the songs in this compilation fall behind, but like I said: I'll be presenting them one by one as part of their original albums. Stay tuned for more Tom Waits from presentingmyrecordcollection.blogspot.com...
***** for Clap Hands, Jockey Full of Bourbon, Way Down in the Hole, Downtown Train, 16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six, I Don't Wanna Grow Up
**** for Hang On St. Christopher, Temptation, Underground, Earth Died Screaming, Innocent When You Dream, Frank's Wild Years, Singapore, Shore Leave, Johnsburg Illinois, Strange Weather (Live), Cold Cold Ground (live), November, Jesus Gonna Be Here, Time
*** for The Black Rider, Straight To The Top, Good Old World (Waltz)
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