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He must have had "great expectations" starting in 1979 with the "Why Is The Dream Always So Much Sweeter Than The Taste?
Vinyl mastering is exemplary, given the fact that there is almost an hour of music packed in just 1LP. Then came 1985's Rain Dogs, which mixed Brecht-Weill drama with Captain Beefheart bizarreness for an effect that conjured up a Saturday-night fish fry in the freak show of a decrepit circus. It was one of all-time-great LPs to start with, but for me this is the definitive version, and I can't recommend it highly enough. The album divides the story neatly into two acts and although titled 'un operachi romantic', there is no opera in Franks.
Tom Waits (1999): " First person we approached was Robert Wilson, and he didn't know what to make of it. See, by running a small theatre, if I want a blue light and an oversized cocktail glass and a red clock and a midget in a wet-suit, I can have it without having to send out, tuba, trombone, banjo, accordian, electric stick and an emcee with a pencil-thin mustache and a Mexican accent. Even when percussion is absent, the body-movin' tendencies are still present as accordions, pump-organs and even a rooster twist the narrative through a carnival of broken dreams. It was a wonderful record anyway, but this version just takes all the things that were great about it to start with and gives you more direct access to all of them without losing anything in the translation.
Unfettered mad genius will always seduce and intrigue, but there is much to be said for a narrowing of the scope. AllMusic notes the "spare, stripped-down arrangements consisting of instruments like marimba, baritone horn, and pump organ and singing in a strained voice that has been artificially compressed and distorted.
He always wanted a bit of a rub in everything, and when we got that right he seemed to be relatively satisfied. I’ve heard the name Tom Waits tossed around for absolutely yonks, but I never got around to actually hearing the guy properly until I really got into HBO’s The Wire, where his song “Way Down In The Hole” was used as the theme song for every single season. He points out the arbitrary nature of the arrangements by repeating "Straight to the Top," done as a demented rhumba in act one, as a Vegas-style Frank Sinatra swing tune in act two. There was some talk of retooling the production - building new stage sets - but by this point both time and money were in short supply. Then you realise, after about the fourth listen, that life is indeed a vegas devil german barroom cast as an operatic spaghetti western and that fozzy really has missed his train.