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Rating: GOOD EVENING
The most terrifying greeting one can hear. This is the drunken ogre's rasp with which Tom Waits, in 1988, decided to conclude his first fifteen years of studio albums with a "Great Event" like this: a live performance featuring the best of his '80s repertoire ("Franks Wild Years", "Swordfishtrombones", "Rain Dogs") reinterpreted with emotion and involvement never felt before. On stage, he brings his best stories, his bespectacled musicians dressed like Indian porters, and his music that's born old and outmoded. He clings to the microphone stand, plays with the lamp hanging from it, bares his teeth mockingly, then brays, neighs, shouts; in short, a real stage animal. He gives a new guise to his songs, you can feel even more the scent of folk music ("Rain Dogs"), the marches, the accordions, but also the electricity ("15 Shells From A 30.6", "Underground"), of repetitive and hypnotizing mantras ("Red Shoes").
Like any respectable circus, Waits' has roamed half the world; thus, the pieces captured on this album come from all the places Tom had "within shoe reach": Dublin, Los Angeles, Stockholm, Berlin: cities that, for one night, became the settings for the stories evoked by Our Guy. The band of chameleons following him is one of the best Waits has ever had: Marc Ribot on guitars, Hayward on drums, Clark on bass and followed by a slew of sitar, trumpets, banjo, congas, bongos, percussions, saxophones, accordions, horns...as if a dusty antique shop came to life and started to play... And then comes the piano, adding that wobbling and tipsy touch to accompany Waits' stories, jokes, and introductions.
Indeed, because in these concerts, he's the first to have fun: he shouts, encourages the audience, laughs and makes others laugh, dances, hops, acts, and makes people emotional. Tom knows full well that the core of his art is all there, in the concerts, and so he doesn’t miss the chance to record everything and even create a film from his performances. His is not a conventional show, it's a cabaret, a theatrical representation of his flair and characters; it's a moment of enchantment and disbelief, and he, with his customary gray hat and confetti in his pocket, is the lion, the monkey, and the tamer at the same time.
Recently, the "Daily Telegraph" defined him: "the greatest entertainer on Planet Earth"; I always distrust superlatives, but I know Waits and my passion for him and I believe it might truly be so: one of the finest American singer-songwriters, a mysterious and fascinating musician, but above all one of the greatest circus performers of the 20th century.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought-Six (04:17)
I plugged 16 shells from a thirty-ought-six
and a Black Crow snuck through
a hole in the sky
so I spent all my buttons on an
old pack mule
and I made me a ladder from
a pawn shop marimba
and I leaned it up against
a dandelion tree
And I filled me a sachel
full of old pig corn
and I beat me a billy
from an old French horn
and I kicked that mule
to the top of the tree
and I blew me a hole
'bout the size of a kickdrum
and I cut me a switch
from a long branch elbow
Chorus
I'm gonna whittle you into kindlin'
Black Crow 16 shells from a thirty-ought-six
whittle you into kindlin'
Black Crow 16 shells from a thirty-ought-six
Well I slept in the holler
of a dry creek bed
and I tore out the buckets
from a red Corvette, tore out the buckets from a red Corvette
Lionel and Dave and the Butcher made three
you got to meet me by the knuckles of the skinnybone tree
with the strings of a Washburn
stretched like a clothes line
you know me and that mule scrambled right through the hole
Repeat Chorus
Now I hold him prisoner
in a Washburn jail
that stapped on the back
of my old kick mule
strapped it on the back of my old kick mule
I bang on the strings just
to drive him crazy
I strum it loud just to rattle his cage
strum it loud just to rattle his cage
Repeat Chorus
02 Red Shoes (04:19)
She wore red shoes by the drugstore
as the rain splashed the nickel
spilled like chablis along the midway
theres a little bluejay
in a red dress, on a sad night
one straw in a rootbeer
a compact with a cracked mirror
and a bottle of evening in paris perfume
he told her to wait in by the magazines
he had to take care of some buisness it seems
bring a raincoat and a suitcase
and your dark eyes
and wear those red shoes
theres a dark huddle at the bus stop
umbrellas arranged in a sad bouquet
li'l cesaer got caught
he was going down to second
he was cooled
changing stations on the chamber
to steal a diamond
from a jewelry store for his baby
he loved the way she looked in those red shoes
she waited by the drugstore
cesaer had never been this late before
and the dogs bayed the moon
and rattled their chains
and the cold jingle of taps in a puddle
was the burglar alarm
snitchin on ceasar
now the rain washes memories from the sidewalks
and the hounds splash down the nickel
full of soldiers
and santa claus is drunk in the ski room
and it's christmas eve in a sad cafe
when the moon gets this way
there's a little blue jay
by the newstand
wearing red shoes
so meet me tonight by the drugstore
we're goin out tonight
wear your red shoes
03 Underground (02:35)
Rattle big black bones
in the danger zone
there's a rumblin' groan
down below
there's a big dark town
it's a place I've found
there's a world going on
Underground
they're alive, they're awake
while the rest of the world is asleep
below the mine shaft roads
it will all unfold
there's a world going on
Underground
all the roots hang down
swing from town to town
they are marching around
down under your boots
all the trucks unload
beyond the gopher holes
there's a world going on
Underground
06 Yesterday Is Here (02:42)
If you want money in your pocket
You want a top hat on your head
Hot meal on your table
And a blanket on your bed,
Well today is grey skies,
Tomorrow is tears,
You'll have to wait
Til yesterday is here.
I'm a going to New York City
I'll be leaving on a train
If you wanna see me
Til I come back again,
Well today is grey skies
Tomorrow is tears,
You'll have to wait till
Yesterday is here.
Now if wanna go
Where the rainbows end
You will have to say goodbye.
All our dreams come true
Baby up ahead,
In a town where your memories lie.
Now the road is out before me
And the moon is shining bright
What I want you to remember
As I disappear tonight
That today is grey skies
Tomorrow is tears
You'll have to wait till
Yesterday is here.
09 Strange Weather (03:35)
Will you take me across the Channel?
London bridges falling down
Stranger woman tries to save
More than a man who tries to drown.
And it's the rain that they predicted
It's the forecast every time
The rose has died because we picked it
I believe that brandy's mine,
And all over the world
Strangers talk only about the weather.
All over the world it's the same
It's the same.
And the world is getting flatter
And the sky is falling down
Oh and nothing is the matter
For I never cry in town
And a love like ours my dear
Is best measured when it's down
And I never buy umbrellas
Cause there's always one around,
And all over the world
Strangers talk only about the weather
All over the world it's the same
It's the same.
And you know that it's beginning
And you know that it's the end
Once again we are strangers
As the fog goes rolling in
And all over the world
Strangers talk only about the weather
All over the world it's the same
It's the same.
13 Johnsburg, Illinois (01:30)
She's my
Only true love
She's all that I think of
Look here
In my wallet that's her.
She grew up
On a farm there
There's a place on my arm
Where I've written her name
Next to mine.
You see I just can't
Live without her
And I'm her only boy
She grew up
Outside McHenry
In Johnsburg, Illinois.
14 Ruby's Arms (04:54)
I will leave behind all of my clothes,
I wore when i was with you,
all I need's my railroad boots
and my leather jacket
as i say goodbye to Ruby's arms
although my heart is breaking,
i will steal away out through your
blinds, for soon you will be waking.
The morning light has washed your face
and everything is turning blue now,
hold on to your pillow case
there's nothing i can do now,
as i say goodbye to Ruby's arms,
you'll find another soldier,
and i swear to god by christmastime,
there'll be someone else to hold you.
The only thing i'm taking is
the scarf off of your clothesline,
i'll hurry past your chest of drawers
and your broken wind chimes,
as i say goodbye
i'll say goodbye,
say goodbye to Ruby's arms.
I will feel my way down the darkened hall,
and out into the morning,
the hobos at the freightyards
have kept their fires burning,
so jesus christ this goddamn rain,
will someone put me on a train,
i'll never kiss your lips again
or break your heart,
as i say goodbye
i'll say goodbye,
say goodbye to Ruby's arms.
18 Time (04:10)
Well, the smart money's on Harlow
and the moon is in the street
the shadow boys are breaking all the laws
and you're east of East St. Louis
and the wind is making speeches
and the rain sounds like a round of applause
Napoleon is weeping in the Carnival saloon
his invisible fiance is in the mirror
the band is going home
it's raining hammers, it's raining nails
yes, it's true, there's nothing left for him down here
And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time
that you love
And it's Time Time Time
And they all pretend they're orphans
and their memory's like a train
you can see it getting smaller as it pulls away
and the things you can't remember
tell the things you can't forget that
history puts a saint in every dream
Well she said she'd stick around
until the bandages came off
but these mamas boys just didn't know when to quit
and Matilda asks the sailors are those dreams
or are those prayers
so just close your eyes, son
and this won't hurt a bit
And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time
that you love
And it's Time Time Time
Well, things are pretty lousy for a calendar girl
the boys just dive right off the cars
and splash into the street
and when she's on a roll she pulls a razor
from her boot and a thousand
pigeons fall around her feet
so put a candle in the window
and a kiss upon his lips
till the dish outside the window fills with rain
just like a stranger with the weeds in your heart
and pay the fiddler off till I come back again
And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time
And it's Time Time Time
that you love
And it's Time Time Time
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