Tom Waits expanded a song from 'Swordfishtrombones' into "Un Operachi Romantico in Two Acts". 'Franks Wild Years' completes a trilogy of albums released by Waits in the eighties that began with 'Swordfishtrombones' and continued through 'Rain Dogs'. All three albums embrace a drunken, expressionistic, avante garde, carnival aesthetic that he developed with his wife Kathleen Brennan. 'Franks Wild Years' is drawn from the musical play that they took on the road. Waits recalls: "I just started working on the project in December [1978] when I got off the road. I'm working on it with a gentleman by the name of Paul Hampton who used to be Burt Baccarach's old songwriting partner; he used to write for Famous Music in New York during the '50s, writing for Gene Pitney and cats like that. And he is also an actor, and we're collaborating on this film script about a used car dealer in Southern California, and an old friend of his who are reunited on New Year's Eve. It's a nice story. It's about a guy who's a success at being a failure and a guy who's a failure at being a success."... "Actually we haven't got anyone to release the film yet. The whole thing's being written on spec. The characters are Jack Farley Fairchild, of Fairchild Dord. Torence, California, and Donald Fedore, his partner and side-kick. I never tried anything like this before. I don't find it at all easy. In fact, it's the hardest thing I've ever done... well, the most challenging anyway."
Waits produced the album at Universal Recording in Chicago, and at The Sound Factory and Sunset Sound in Hollywood with Jay Anderson on bass; Michael Blair on drums, conga, percussion, maracas, marimba, orchestra bells, and glockenspiel; Kathleen Brennan with vocal arrangements; Angela Brown on background vocals; Ralph Carney on sax, baritone horn, violin, and tenor sax; Greg Cohen on bass, alto horn, horn arrangements, and Leslie bass pedals; David Hidalgo on accordion; Leslie Holland and Lynne Jordan on background vocals; Marc Ribot on guitar and banjo; William Schimmel on piano, pump organ, accordion, Leslie bass pedals, and cocktail piano; Larry Taylor on bass and upright bass; Moris Tepper on guitar; Francis Thumm on prepared piano and pump organ; and Waits on vocals, pump organ, Optigan, guitar, vocal stylings, rooster, piano, Farfisa, Mellotron, drums, conga, and tambourine.
'Franks Wild Years' went to one hundred and fifteen in the US, forty-nine in Germany, twenty-four in Austria, twenty-one in the Netherlands, twenty in the UK, seventeen in Sweden, and peaked at number thirteen in Norway. It was certified gold in Canada. Waits says: "It's really, simply enough, the story of a guy from a small town who goes out to seek his fame and fortune; a standard odyssey. Eventually, what happens is that the story opens on a park bench in East St. Louis. Frank is despondent, penniless, and he dreams his way back home to the saloon where he began. He's thinking he's only moments from freezing, then wakes up, to his surprise, in the saloon. He's given um...a ticket home, and there he tells the story of his success. But he stops in the middle of it, and tells the real story. He's no hero, he is no champion; wasn't what he says he was. He was really a guy who stepped on every bucket on the road. His friends kind of pull him out of it, and tell him he's got plenty to live for. In the end, he wakes up on the bench, ready to start again."
http://www.tomwaits.com/
promo:
"Hang on St. Christopher"
"Blow Wind Blow"
"Temptation"
"Way Down in the Hole"
"Telephone Call from Istanbul"
'Franks Wild Years'
full album:
Tracks written by Tom Waits, except where noted.
Side One
1. "Hang on St. Christopher" 2:46
2. "Straight to the Top (Rhumba)" Waits, Greg Cohen 2:30
3. "Blow Wind Blow" 3:35
4. "Temptation" 3:53
5. "Innocent When You Dream (Barroom)" 4:15
6. "I'll Be Gone" Waits, Kathleen Brennan 3:12
7. "Yesterday Is Here" Waits, Brennan 2:29
8. "Please Wake Me Up" Waits, Brennan 3:36
9. "Frank's Theme" 1:49
Side Two
1. "More Than Rain" 3:52
2. "Way Down in the Hole" 3:30
3. "Straight to the Top (Vegas)" Waits, Cohen 3:26
4. "I'll Take New York" 3:58
5. "Telephone Call from Istanbul" 3:12
6. "Cold Cold Ground" 4:07
7. "Train Song" 3:20
8. "Innocent When You Dream (78)" 3:08
demos:
0:00 - Frank's Theme
1:55 - Innocent When You Dream
5:08 - Blow Wind Blow
8:44 - Hang On St. Christopher
10:45 - Please Wake Me Up
13:26 - Temptation
16:04 - Vocals Tune
17:53 - More Than Rain
21:43 - I'll Take New York
24:26 - Yesterday Is Here
26:45 - Piano Tune
28:12 - Train Song
31:24 - Franks Theme (Again)
Rainville. Hardly ever did rain though, rain that is. It was nowhere. Railroad tracks ran up the back of the state like stitches. Telephone lines slashed the orange dawns like a wrecked ship's rigging... and when it rained the whole town went mad. Dogs ran wild in the streets. Frank was squeezed between scrap iron places and radiator repair shops... Rainville, good place to dream yourself away from. When the trains thundered past the backyard fence, bound for Oxnard, Lompoc, Gila Bend, Stanfield and parts south where the wind blew big, Frank would count the cars and make a wish just like he did when he was a kid... At least something was getting out of town alive... One moonlit night Frank packed up his accordion and said Blow Wind Blow Wherever You May Go... Cause I'm Going Straight To The Top... Up Where The Air Is Fresh And Clean
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