Tom Waits, 1987.
I think I may have already mentioned that there are basically 2 phases to Tom Waits's output (so far!).
Phase 1 - boozy barfly, telling stories about "low life" and largely piano-based, finishing with the album Heart Attack and Vine.
Phase 2 - Berlin cabaret-influenced deconstructions of...virtually everything, with an expanded instrumental line-up, big on wind...much more "off-beat" in both content and presentation.
What happened?
Well, he met Kathleen Brennan, and was comissioned to write music for theatre pieces in Berlin...anything else??
Frank's Wild Years is in the 2nd phase, though fairly early on.
It has a subtitle on the cover - "Un Operachi Romantico in Two Acts".
And indeed there is a reasonably clear story line to the song cycle - Frank decides to aim for the top and make it big in New York.
The song which clarifies the story best is probably "I'll Take New York", a deconstruction of New York, New York - in fact, one could see the entire album as something derived from Frank Sinatra's real life biog - there's even a song called "Straight to the Top (Vegas)".
My favourite song on this album is "Innocent When You Dream" - poignant and classic Waits.
My heart aches also when I hear "Train Song" about Frank's realisation that maybe he will never make it "home" again...
This album, then, has a very strong narrative, with witty and sizzling instrumentations. For the novice/uninitiated, the question is... will you feel comfortable enough with that raspy voice? It's not an easy listen, but it can be extremely rewarding...
10/10.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment