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Rating: "Nothing is born from diamonds, flowers are born from manure" F. De André
This is the preface I would have expected when reading the first lines of the booklet of this work, but although our Tom probably doesn't know our national Faber, something subtle ties the artistic paths of the two, and we'll see why.
It starts with a jumble of distant, rhythmic sounds, almost as if they were coming from the underworld, the first track of this album, titled "Bone Machine" which immediately makes the reason clear: a dirty, noisy, damn disorderly rhythm that grows with our singer's vocals, increasingly dirty, tattered, sick, and irresistibly rotten. Such a voice would be capable of narrating exacerbated and submerged worlds, even if it only recited the vowels or in complete silence, just listening to its breathing. We then move to the jazzy, melancholic blues of "Dirt in the Ground" to arrive at the syncopated "Such a Scream", a sort of disjointed, disconnected blues with a snare drum that surprises and hammers greatly.
The album unfolds between rhythmic pieces and slow country-blues ballads ("Who Are You" somewhat in a classic mold) ennobled by the excellent work of the support band that interprets and enriches the ideas of our artist to the fullest. Then comes the dark "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me", a true lugubrious and desperate spoken-song, in a journey in search of the black soul hidden in the shadows. We return with "Jesus Gonna Be Here", yet another desperate chant in the form of a blues prayer seeking an answer to life's malaise. The subsequent "A Little Rain" returns to the stylings of classic country, narrating moments of refined and delicate poetry. And finally, the masterpiece of the album: the gothic "In the Colosseum" with its charge of distorted and chilling sounds, in a slow, heavy, and desperate crescendo, like the approach of a rickety cart loaded with all the imaginable rot, driven by an inspired and cynical Tom Waits, almost a scene from a Tim Burton movie. Moving forward with "Goin' Out West" and then "Murder in the Red Barn", a slow ballad in the style of Nick Cave that narrates the events of a hypothetical murderer through evocative descriptions like dirty watercolors painted on rough and crumpled packing paper. The following "Black Wings" offers no hope and rises high in sharing the miseries of humanity as a whole.
An album desolate and desperately lucid in making poetry by drawing nourishment from the underworld itself, from the void that surrounds us, from the darkness of the soul that can only give the impulse to see beyond, placing us in the condition to look inside ourselves as objectively as possible, without frills and without easy justifications. The CD closes with "That Feel", a sort of swan song, resigned but deep down happy to belong to that small circle of elect who know how to draw poetry and light from impossible or desperate situations, written and played with another "drinking buddy" who has lived these things hand in hand all his life: Keith Richards, the most experienced and most outrageous of the Stones.
A profound and moving album that reaches peaks of the highest sensitivity, revealing poetry and feeling in places where most stop at the "dirt" of raw, stripped sounds (and therefore real), indigestible at first listen and therefore less accessible and listenable by the masses. A parallel journey with that of De André, who, however, preferred the world atmospheres of the ancient Mediterranean ("Crueza de Ma") or the traditional melodies of Italian musicality, more reassuring and accessible to his fans, to the dark and dirty sounds of our artist. Different paths to probably narrate not dissimilar realities which, in the end, are those of one, great, single humanity: thinking about it, who knows what they would have brought to light if the two had met...
"Bone Machine": A masterpiece along with "Real Gone", "Rain Dogs", and "Slowfishtrombones" (but the list would be too long).
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Earth Died Screaming (03:41)
Rudy's on the midway
and Jacob's in the hole
the monkey's on the ladder
the devil shovels coal
with crows as big as airplanes
the lion has three heads
and someone will eat the skin that he sheds
and the earth died screaming
the earth died screaming
while I lay dreaming of you
Well hell doesn't want you
and heaven is full
bring me some water
put it in this skull
I walk between the raindrops
wait in bug house square
and the army ants
they leave nothin' but the bones
and the earth died screaming while I lay dreaming of you
There was thunder there was lightning
then the stars went out and the moon fell from the sky
it rained mackerel it rained trout
and the great day of wrath has come
and here's mud in your big red eye
the poker's in the fire and the locusts take the sky
and the earth died screaming while I lay dreaming of you
07 Jesus Gonna Be Here (03:23)
Well, Jesus will be here
Be here soon
He's gonna cover us up with leaves
With a blanket from the moon
With a promise and a vow
And a lullaby for my brow
Jesus gonna be here
Be here soon
Well I'm just gonna wait here
I don't have to shout
I have no reason and
I have no doubt
I'm gonna get myself
Unfurled from this mortal coiled up world
Because Jesus gonna be here
Be here soon
I got to keep my eyes open
So I can see my Lord
I'm gonna watch the horizon
For a brand new Ford
I can hear Him rolling on down the lane
I said Hollywood be thy name
Jesus gonna be
Gonna be here soon
Well I've been faithful
And I've been so good
Except for drinking
But He new that I would
I'm gonna leave this place better
Than the way I found it was
And Jesus gonna be here
Be here soon
08 A Little Rain (03:00)
Outside the bar
Where a man with missing fingers
Plays a strange guitar
And the German dwarf
Dances with the butcher's son
And a little rain never hurt no one
They're dancing on the roof
And the ceiling's coming down
I sleep with my shovel and my leather gloves
A little trouble makes it worth the going
And a little rain never hurt no one
The world is round
And so I'll go around
You must risk something that matters
My hands are strong
I'll take any man here
If it's worth the going
It's worth the ride
She was 15 years old
And she never seen the ocean
She climbed into a van
With a vagabond
And the last thing she said
Was, "I love you mom."
And a little rain
Never hurt no one
And a little rain
Never hurt no one
09 In the Colosseum (04:52)
The women all control their men
With razors and with wrists
And the princess squeezes grape juice
On a torrid bloody kiss
What will you be wearing there
The lion or the raven hair?
The flesh will all be tearing
But the tail will be my own
In the colosseum, in the colosseum
In the colosseum tonight
In the colosseum, in the colosseum
In the colosseum tonight
This one's for the balcony
And this one's for the floor
As the senators decapitate
The presidential whore
The bald headed senators
Are splashing in the blood
The dogs are having someone
WHo is screaming in the mud
In the colosseum, in the colosseum
In the colosseum tonight
In the colosseum, in the colosseum
In the colosseum tonight
Now it's raining and it's pouring
On the pillaging and goring
The constable is swinging
From the chains
For the dead there is no story
No memory no blame
Their families shout blue murder
But tomorrow it's the same
In the colosseum, in the colosseum
In the colosseum tonight
In the colosseum, in the colosseum
In the colosseum tonight
A slowly acting poison
Will be given to the favorite one
THe dark horse will bring glory
To the jailer and his men
It's always much more sporting
When there's families in the pit
And the madness of the crowd
Is an epileptic fit
In the colosseum, in the colosseum
In the colosseum tonight
In the colosseum, in the colosseum
In the colosseum tonight
No justice here, no liberty
No reason, no blame
There's no cause to taint the sweetest taste of blood
And greetings from the nation
As we shake the hands of time
They're taking their ovations
The vultures stay behind
In the colosseum, in the colosseum
In the colosseum tonight
In the colosseum, in the colosseum
In the colosseum tonight
In the colosseum tonight
In the colosseum tonight
10 Goin' Out West (03:22)
Well I'm goin' out west
Where the wind blows tall
'Cause Tony Franciosa
Used to date my ma
They got some money out there
They're giving it away
I'm gonna do what I want
Do what I want
And I'm gonna get paid
Little brown sausages
Lying in the sand
I ain't no extra baby
I'm a leading man
Well my parole officer
Will be proud of me
With my Olds 88
And the devil on a leash
My Olds 88
And the devil on a leash
Well I know karate, Voodoo too
I'm gonna make myself available to you
I don't need no make up
I got real scars
I got hair on my chest
I look good without a shirt
Well I don't lose my composure
In a high speed chase
Well my friends think I'm ugly
I got a masculine face
I got some dragstrip courage
I can really drive a bed
I'm gonna change my name
To Hannibal or maybe
Just Rex
Change my name to Hannibal
Or maybe just Rex
I'm gonna drive all night
Take some speed
I'm gonna wait for the sun
To shine down on me
I cut a hole in my roof
In the shape of a heart
And I'm goin' out west
Where they'll appreciate me
Goin' out west
Goin' out west
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