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Rating: Uncle Tom (or should I call him Frank?) sitting at a table in a noisy pub, wearing his usual hat and downing yet another mug of beer, talking about the good old days with some of his ragged friends, maybe even the devil.
That's how I imagine him while listening to these 17 bizarre tracks that never, for a moment, stop making my right foot tap to the beat.
Many were written by Waits and his wife Kathleen, and arranged with the participation of numerous musicians playing numerous instruments (they haven't missed out on almost anything).
As soon as "Hang On St. Christopher" starts, I'm captivated by the brazen and drunk notes that encourage the soon-to-come delirium.
Yes, because there's nothing sober about this album, and its beauty is also its peculiarity.
Do you know the band that plays for the town festival?
It seems to be there, following the high Tom who, in a typically alcohol-induced frenzy, is convinced he can reach the top of the world "Straight To The Top (Rhumba)" and drink the entire city "I'll Take New York".
It's in the moments of clarity that our protagonist's lyrics become melancholic and suffering, as in "I'll Be Gone" and "More Than Rain".
At times, in "Yesterday Is Here" I expect him to start singing "House Of The Rising Sun". Here and in "Way Down In The Hole" I love his voice that becomes more serious, and especially in the latter, the bass pulls you down while you try to keep your demons at bay.
He disrupts his typical howl instead in "Temptation" and in "Train Song" where he seems to even try to cry the lyrics out.
In the (Vegas) version of "Straight To The Top", he almost mimics Sinatra.
The album is the musical version of the show staged a year earlier at the Briar St. Theatre in Chicago and performed by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with Waits playing the character of Wolf.
These roughly 55 minutes of music don't bore and flow without tiring as the tracks (or most of them) are short in duration.
The irony of suffering turned into music.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 Temptation (03:53)
Rusted brandy in a diamond glass
everything is made from dreams
time is made from honey slow and sweet
only the fools know what it means
temptation, temptation, temptation
oh, temptation, temptation, I can't resist
I know that she is made of smoke
but I've lost my way
she knows that I am broke
so that I must play
temptation, temptation, temptation
oh, woah, temptation, temptation, I can resist
Dutch pink and Italian blue
she is there waiting for you
my will his disappeared
now my confusion's oh so clear
temptation, temptation, temptation
woah, woah, temptation, temptation
I can't resist
07 Yesterday Is Here (02:31)
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.
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By Grasshopper
Tom Waits doesn’t do anything to please: you have to sweat it out, suffer with him, and this tough 'Franks Wild Years' is certainly no exception.
Towards the middle of the album, you enter a kind of tunnel of horrors where shreds of waltzes, marches, warped blues, and others appear in all their misery.
