•
Rating: He’s back!
He’s back to tell us his lopsided and disoriented stories, which speak, as he himself said, of “mom, liquors, trains and death, politics, mice, war, hangings, dances, pirates, farms, sins.” He’s back with his and our fears translated into music. He’s back and he’s changed, even though he has the same spirit. He’s back and he has brought along some old and new friends to keep us company. He’s back, but he never really left, because his music has been with us every day of this damn life.
How much time has passed since the last time? Six years? It’s already been six years since “Mule Variations” and in this span of time, Tom Waits has released “only” two albums at once, which he had tucked away in some drawer for years: “Alice” and “Blood and Money.” So, yes, six years have passed and it has been a sweet wait, yet always filled with curiosity for this “Real Gone.” The rumors added to the impatience. It had been known for some time that Waits would be working, along with the faithful Marc Ribot, with Brian Mantia and Les Claypool of Primus; furthermore, the decisive and constant presence of his wife Kathleen Brennan was certain, and joined by that of his son, X Casey Waits.
The wait is over and here’s the trial by fire: the listening. A few notes were enough to convince me that it was worth the wait because Real Gone is a masterpiece. However, explaining briefly why is not easy, as there are countless points one could dwell on. First of all, there’s the noticeable absence of the piano, which Waits decided to omit in order to explore new paths. This fact is not all that surprising, given that throughout his long career (25 records since 1973), Waits has reinvented himself several times. The shift to Anti six years ago could have been another step in the evolutionary stage of Tom’s art, but, as beautiful as it was, “Mule Variations” was not an unusual and innovative album. But waiting pays off as I mentioned earlier, because “Real Gone” is a new beginning for the bard of Pomona. From the outset (“Top of the hill”) you realize the change.
His voice is still rough and grating, but the “cubist funk” rhythm is devastating, exhilarating, pulsing through the veins. It’s immediately clear that he wants to emphasize the rhythmic power of his voice. So, while listening, you get the impression of taking a journey in the boiler of a racing locomotive, of walking wearily in a moonless night, pitch-black along filthy and desolate streets, of swimming in an ocean of poison, being in a long, narrow corridor, full of curves and niches, from which occasionally pops out the sound of a music box, a banjo, or a noise like a gunshot that becomes rhythm, entering your blood, not leaving you for a moment. “Don’t go into the barn,” for example, is an unsettling voodoo dance, so captivating that you can’t think of not taking part in the ceremony. But there are also ballads tinged with that dirty and bitter melancholy that only he can deliver, “How’s it gonna end” for instance, and a little surprise like the ghost track "Chicka Boom". Marc Ribot’s guitar then, never before like in this case, seems to exist only for Waits’ voice.
I already know I will cradle it for years. I know I will listen to it until I make myself sick, until I reach exasperation. I will suck every note, every tiny fragment and detail, tearing myself apart, destroying myself as if savoring a sweet poison slowly. Because beauty must be lived to the spasm.
Yes, he’s back!
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
03 Sins of My Father (10:36)
God said don't give me your tin horn prayers
Don't buy roses off the street down there
Took it all and took the dirt road home
Dreamin' of Jenny with the light brown hair
Night is fallin' like a bloody axe
Lies and rumours and the wind at my back
Hand on the wheel, gravel on the road
Will the pawn shop sell me back
What I sold
I'm gonna take the sins of my father
I'm gonna take the sins of my mother
I'm gonna take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond
Birds cry warnin' from a hidden branch
Carvin' out a future with a gun and an axe
I'm way beyond the gavel and the laws of man
Still livin' in the palm on the grace of your hand
World's not easy the blind man said
Turns on nothin' but money and dread
Dog's been scratchin' at the door all night
Long neck birds flyin' out of the moon light
I'm gonna take the sins of my father
I'm gonna take the sins of my mother
I'm gonna take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond
Down to the pond
Smack dab in the middle of a dirty lie
Star - spangled glitter of his one good eye
Everybody knows that the game was rigged
Justice wears suspenders and a powdered wig
Dark town alley been hidin' you
Long bell tollin' your Waterloo
Oh baby, what can you do?
Does the light of God blind you
Or lead the way home for you?
I'm gonna take the sins of my father
Take the sins of my mother
I'm gonna take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond
Down to the pond
I'm gonna take the sins of my father
Take the sins of my mother
Take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond
Down to the pond
God all mighty for righteousness sake
Humiliation of our fallen state
Writ' me the book of tubold Cain
Long black overcoat will show no stain
Feel the heat and the burn on your back
The rip and the moan and the stretch of the rack
All my belongings in a flour sack
I'm gonna take the sons of my father
Take the sins of my mother
Take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond
Down to the pond
Hang me in the mornin' on a scaffold yea big
To dance upon nothin' to the tyborn jig
Treats you like a puppet when your under his spell
Oh, the heart is Heaven
But the mind is Hell
Jesus of Nazareth told Mike of the weeds
Is born at this time for a reason you see
When i'm dead i'll be dead a long time
The wine's so pleasin' and so sublime
I'm gonna take the sins of my father
Take the sins of my mother
I'm gonna take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond
Down to the pond
Kissed my sweetheart by the chinaball tree
Everything I done is between God and me
Only He will judge how my time was spent
Twenty - nine days of sinnin'
And forty to repent
The horse is steady but the horse is blind
Wicked are the branches on the tree of mankind
Roots grow upward and the branches grow down
It's much too late to throw the dice again
I've found
I'm gonna take the sins of my father
Take the sins of my mother
Gonna take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond
I'm gonna wash them
I'm gonna wash them
I'm gonna wash the sins of my father
I'm gonna wash the sins of my mother
Wash the sins of my brother
'Til the water runs clear
'Til the water runs clear
'Til the water runs clear
04 Shake It (03:52)
Strip Poker Motel
Got a small blue tail
Hot ice, cold cash
I never been no good at staying out of jail
Wheel spin, roulette
Who's giving, don't get
Ripped shirt, black eye
Tuxedo, bow tie
Dark sound, straight road
Get lost, get loaded
Enlisted men, off duty
Stolen clouds, dark beauty
Cold gun, wild rose
Night clerk, door closed
Lie down baby
Your love is a faucet
Called China, cell phone
Chun King, not home
You know I feel like a preacher waving a gun around
Shake it, shake it. shake it baby!
Shake it, shake it, shake it now
Shake it, shake it, shake it baby
Shake it, shake it, shake it now
Shake it, shake it, shake it baby
Shake it, shake it, shake it now
Outside, it's damp
Put a towel on that lamp
You look hot in this light
I can love you all night
Shoes off, hair down
Got a pink night gown
Mike Tyson, KO'ed
On the wild, blue road
Small town, straight road
That rooster, done crowed
Flat tire, homemade cross
You know I feel like a preacher waving a gun around
Shake it, shake it, shake it baby!
Shake it, shake it, shake it now
Shake it. shake it, shake it baby
Shake it, shake it, shake it now
07 Metropolitan Glide (04:13)
Are you ready!?
Are you ready!?
Are you ready!?
Knocky Parker told Bowlegged Sal
They all know how to kick it in Cal
They're playing this dope and this-a money tune
Dancing baby with a 7 mile broom
Things are bulging out the rafters like hell
Down there at the Hush Hotel
They're jumping right out of their seats,
dancing to the bran' new beat
Do the Metropolitan Glide
Do the Metropolitan Glide
The floor is polished and your momma's gone
You can quake and roll and moan
29 gypsies in a Cadillac stoned
Turn off the ringer on your cellular phone
Whip the air like a Rainbow Trout
Drag your tail pipe till you bottom out
Do the Metropolitan Glide
Do the Metropolitan Glide
Hey! Hey!
Do the Metropolitan Glide
The low bottom of the China moon
The black swan and the way too soon
Ace pocket and the dog bone gone
The peacock and the mean black swan
The rain shower and high heeled shoe
Bombay money and I know I can do it
The sink hole and the victory dance
It's in the pocket in the real tight pants
Do.... the Metropolitan Glide
Do.... the Metropolitan Glide
Hey!
The Metropolitan!
The Metropolitan!
Show your teeth, bray like a calf
You kill me with your machine gun laugh
You make me trouble with the floor that's creaking
I've been ready to ka-boom for a week
Put on your stockings and your powder and blush
Keep it all on the hush, hush, hush
Do..... the Metropolitan Glide
Do..... the Metropolitan Glide
Do..... the Metropolitan Glide
Do..... the Metropolitan Glide
The Metropolitan!
Do..... the Metropolitan Glide
Do..... the Metropolitan Glide
08 Dead and Lovely (05:40)
She was a middle class girl
She was in over her head
She thought she would
Stand up in the deep end
He had a bullet proof smile
He had money to burn
She thought she had the moon
In her pocket
But now she's dead
She's so dead
Forever dead and lovely now
I've always been told to
Remember this...
Don't let a fool kiss you
Never marry for love
He was hard to impress
He knew everyone's secrets
He wore her on his arm
Just like jewelry
He never gave but he got
He kept her on a leash
He's not the kind of wheel
You fall asleep at
But now she's dead
Forever dead
Forever dead and lovely now
Come closer
Look deeper
You're falling fast
Just like a plane on a
Stormy sea
She made up someone to be
She made up somewhere to be from
This is one business in the
World where that's no
Problem at all
Everything that is left
They will only plow under
Soon every one you know
Will be gone
And now she's dead
Forever dead
Forever dead and lovely now
Now she's dead
Forever dead
Forever dead and lovely now
I've always been told to
Remember this...
Don't let a kiss fool you
Never marry for love
Everything has it's price
Everything has it's place
What's more romantic
Than dying in the moonlight?
Now they're all watching the sea
What's lost can never be broken
Her roots were sweet
But they were so shallow
And now she's dead
Forever dead
Forever dead and lovely now
And now she's dead
Forever dead
And she's so dead and lovely now
09 Circus (03:56)
We put up our tent on a dark
Green knoll, outside of town by
The train tracks and a seagull dump
Topping the bill was Horse Face Ethel
And her 'Marvellous Pigs In Satin'
We pounded our stakes in the ground
All powder brown
And the branches spread like scary
Fingers reaching
We were in a pasture outside Kankakee
And One Eyed Myra, the queen of
The galley who trained the
Ostrich and the camels
She looked at me squinty with her
One good eye in a Roy Orbison
T-shirt as she bottle fed
An orangutan named Tripod
And then there was
Yodeling Elaine the
Queen of the air who wore a
Dollar sign medallion and she
Had a tiny bubble of spittle
Around her nostril and a
Little rusty tear, for she had
Lassoed and lost another
Tipsy sailor
And over in
The burnt yellow tent
By the frozen tractor, the
Music was like electric sugar
And Zuzu Bolin played
'Stavin' Chain' and Mighty
Tiny on the saw and he
Threw his head back with a
Mouth full of gold teeth
And they played 'Lopsided heart'
And 'Moon over Dog Street'
And by the time they played "Moanin Low"
I was soakin' wet and wild eyed
And Doctor Bliss slipped me a
Preparation and I fell asleep with
'Livery Stable Blues' in my ear
And me and Molley Hoey drank
Pruno and Koolaid and she had a
Tattoo gun made out of a cassette
Motor and a guitar string and
She soaked a hanky in 3 Roses
And rubbed it on the spot
And drew a rickety heart and
A bent arrow and it hurt like hell
And Funeral Wells spun
Poodle Murphy on the target
As he threw his hardware,
Only once in Sheboygan did he miss
At a matinee on Diamond Pier and
She'd never let him forget it
They were doing two shows and she
Had a high fever and he took
Off a piece of her ear and
Tip Little told her she should
Leave the bum
But Poodle said, "He fetched me
Last time I run."
But I'd like to hammer this ring into a bullet
And I wish I had some whiskey and a gun
My dear
And I wish I had some whiskey and a gun
My dear
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By NickGhostDrake
"The fucking grooves man was the bard of the desperate, the clown of crowded streets, the theatrical poet."
"Real Gone is… the second album from which I suck the marrow without delay. And I devour it, in the usual frenzy of loves feared to end soon."
By vonhesse
Old Tom rolled up his sleeves and created from mud, sweat, and tears a record that will leave many followers behind.
"Real Gone" is a desperately 'blues' record in the most raw sense of the term and profoundly 'soul' in the true sense of the (black) soul.
By Testaverde
REAL GONE represents, however, yet another proof that Waits, when he wants to, knows how to make music.
Everything that the art of the note, since the time of the monks of the Middle Ages, has created and developed is found in that track.
