...by Tom Waits, 2009.
This is a 2cd set, the first disc a live recording of songs from Waits's concert tour of 2008, and the second, "Tom's Tales", a single track of Waits spinning yarns, as he famously does when performing live.
I had the privilege of seeing Tom Waits perform live in this super city of ours (Auckland) back in 1981.
I was in a ska band called The Blue Asthmatics at the time, and after the Waits concert (featuring TW on vocals, piano, kettle drums and accompanied by a saxophonist and the legendary Greg Cohen on upright bass), my girlfriend and I made our way up from the Town Hall to Mainstreet (does anyone remember Mainstreet??) where the Asthmatics were supporting Blam Blam Blam and the Screaming Meemees, to be told rather huffily by the sound man that there would be a delay due to the fact that Mr Waits had used our sound gear for his concert - aah, those were the days!
Waits at the time had yet to release his tongue-in-cheek soundtrack for One From the Heart (Coppola), but previewed his "I Beg Your Pardon Dear" for the Ak audience.
30 years have passed (almost) since that night, and TW's voice sounds like it's been "shot to hell" - back in the early 70s it had a "warm burr" - now, it's virtually all burr and minimal sustained tone.
I often wonder whether this is simply his natural tonal character, or whether it is the result of a relentless effort to sound more and more like Louis Armstrong, and he's stuck with it now...
My favourite Tom Waits period is probably that of Blue Valentine and Heart Attack and Vine, though the albums Swordfishtrombones, Frank's Wild Years, Black Rider and so on contain highly innovative structures and timbres, Alice, Mule Variations etc. darken the atmosphere further and refine the instrumentation, and Orphans is a 3cd panoramic epic consisting of rhythm'n'blues consisting of ballads, rhythm'n'blues and bizarre narrative vignettes (or as TW calls them, bawlers, brawlers and bastards).
Glitter and Doom draws on these last albums, and the band lineup is pretty much the same as on Real Gone (2 of TW's children feature).
It's fun to hear these songs performed to an audience - they gain energy and dynamics.
Tom's Tales is highly entertaining (in a noir way), though the fact that it is one continuous track makes selection of choicer moments impossible (I miss vinyl and cassettes for that reason only).
The live songs CD I would recommend only to those who know and love Tom Waits - novices should go to Blue Valentine or Heart of Saturday Night.
Tom's Tales could be played to an attentive audience wanting to listen to something novel and dark (aural equivalent to Black Books).
7/10.
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A screaming mimi is when you're half Maori and pass a kidney stone.
ReplyDeletePainful (the joke and the experience both)...
ReplyDeleteI remember Mainstreet. And Charlie Grey. And The Blue Asthmatics (though not their names). Do you remember the Reverb Room on Symonds Street? (Do you remember an inn, Miranda ...)
ReplyDeleteFavourite Charlie Grey moment: a friend of mine who was active in the anti-nuclear movement was trying (unsuccessfully) to contact David Bowie when he came to NZ in 1983, to ask him to lend his support to the cause during his Auckland concert. Through Chris I arranged for Trish to meet Charlie Grey, who had 'contacts' (viz your sound gear!), so we went up to Mainstreet, and had an 'audience' (it really did feel that way, sitting in the gloom and talking in hushed whispers). I don't think Trish ever managed to talk to Bowie personally, but CG must have got the message to him on her behalf, because he released two white doves during the concert ... subtle, but effective. www.bowiedownunder.com puts it this way: 'The nuclear arms race was dominating world headlines, and Bowie finished the Auckland concert with an impassioned oration ("I wish our world leaders would stop their insane inability to recognise that we wish to live peacefully"), and released two white doves into the sky before the final encore."
Sudden epiphanic moment (only 26 years later!): if this was genealogy, I guess I could claim to have played a role in creating that moment ... and I don't even particularly like David Bowie (heathen that I am ... sorry).
Tom Waits: I used to have a tape David (the other brother) made for me. Not sure where it is any more, or which album. But it must have been around about the time of his NZ tour, I suspect. Most memorable song: The Piano has been drinking ... but I'd recognise that voice anywhere (and every so often I do).
Now there was a trip down memory lane!
'The nuclear arms race was dominating world headlines, and Bowie finished the Auckland concert with an impassioned oration ("I wish our world leaders would stop their insane inability to recognise that we wish to live peacefully"), and released two white doves into the sky before the final encore."
ReplyDeleteWow. Eloquent without being overly wordy.
Eloquent - that's Bowie for you (and indeed, Tom Waits as well).
ReplyDeleteDeirdre - fancy wasting your Bowie moment by not knowing who he was!
Have you seen that Extras episode ("sad little fat man")?
Oi! I didn't say I didn't know who he was!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the introduction: I'd never watched Extras before ... and now I have. It may prove addictive.
Extras IS addictive, as was the first series (The Office).
ReplyDeleteThe thing about Ricky G is his comic timing - bearing in mind he is at least partly responsible for the script as well, it is (another thing) also his observation of the subtle twists the human condition takes between comedy and tragedy - why some of the saddest situations can be turned into hilarity (witness the episode with Robert Lindsay and the boy with a terminal illness - RL brings a gift which the boy isn't at all keen on, and RL makes scathing comments about his lack of gratitude...also, see Ricky G's Comic Relief sketches on You Tube).
It would be nice to have Ricky at my bedside if/when I make another visit to l'hopitale.