Friday, December 29, 2006
Darkness Past the Edge of Town
With some kindness bestowed over the holidays from the maternal side of the family, procurement of Tom Waits' Orphans was made possible. I went for the committed-but-not-insane version of the album as opposed to the Church-of-Waits version, the latter now going for over 3 times the price of the former. Must be the price of the Holy Oil from the spit of all of those Swordfish Trombones. Just a note here. The price of the Church-of-Waits version was listed at Amazon as $84.99 two days ago. Today (12/29/06), it's at $99.99. The stock of Waits is pointing up; time to invest in Orphans.Some reviews to consider, before I unload my own impressions (to be done piecemal, if you don't mind).
Here's one by Philly Inq.'s Dan DeLuca, always a source of sound (ouch! Block that pun) auditary advice. A set of exciteable blurbs is located here. Making it a trio, here's this one, by ChartAttack. Wait! One more Waits.
Mr. Bruce Springsteen generally works in the light of day, occassionally taking you to the Darkness at the Edge of Town. Tom Waits lives in that darkness, especially as reflected in his recordings of the past 15 years or so, revelling in its possibilities and impossibilities. His is a world you believe in implicitly as he weaves stories of death, dankness, and lives slipping away. If Charon had an iPod as he leisurely rowed back and forth on the River Styx, I'm sure the Waits discography would be getting heavy play.
Orphans is a 3-cd set. The cd's are titled Brawlers, Bastards and Bawlers, thus pretty much describing the human condition, well the male human condition with the 3 B's. Each cd is unique, with its own set of musicians and song stylings. Bastards, as one would expect, has the most "unique" instruments, including items named The Bug and Waterphone. The estimable Charles Musselwhite bends your ear on this cd as he bends his notes on the harmonica. The ever-entertaining guitar-god, Marc Ribot, is also present doing his patented string hysterics as he coaxes semblances of notes and definities of noise from his instrument.
(continuinung later today....)
Labels: Recording Reviews
Comments:
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Charlie was mixing it up with Waits?! Oh, what is the world coming to? A sure sign of the apocalypse if ever there was one. 8-}
With the mileage both Mr.'s Waits & Musselwhite have evidence by their faces, I'm sure they've crossed paths many a time before, perhaps not recorded, but certainly in person.
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