Frank Rider's definitions

Blood Money

The second half of Tom Waits' 2002 simultaneous release with Alice, his fifteenth album, and it's even got magical abilities. Kind of. This album is a studio version of music from Waits' version of the play Woyzcec. It is a chilling set of songs, but it is an amazing peek into Waits' mind. Track five, God's Away On Business, is a happy seeming tune, disguising a horrific tale of the sinking ship we are all on.

An excerpt from Blood Money's-
Misery Is the River of the World

God builds a church
The devil builds a chapel
Like the thistles that are growing
'Round the trunk of a tree
All the good in the world
You can put inside a thimble
And still have room for you and me
If there's one thing you can say about Mankind
There's nothing kind about man
You can drive out nature with a pitch fork
But it always comes roaring back again

by Frank Rider August 23, 2009

The Heart of Saturday Night

Tom Waits released his second album just a year after his first. Much had evolved from then, though much was the same. Waits' newer music had a more jazzy feel, rather than the country twang of his debut. The piano is often drowned out by other instruments, but it does come pounding back out. The title track, The Heart Of Saturday Night, and it's conclusion The Ghosts Of Saturday Night, are settled, but very bouncy tunes.

An excerpt from The Heart of Saturday Night's first track-
New Coat Of Paint

Let's put a new coat of paint, on this lonesome old town
Set 'em up, we'll be knockin' em down.
You wear a dress, baby, and I'll wear a tie.
We'll laugh at that old bloodshot moon, in that burgundy sky

by Frank Rider August 22, 2009

p-i-double-guh-ISSED

A declaration of anger suitable for fat white women and scrawny gay men.

"The bitch at the drive through forgot my five-pounder with cheese, you know I can't just eat a big fry! I am p-i-double-guh-issed!"

Said fat Tammy to her little Chee-Who-A-Who-A

by Frank Rider August 22, 2009

Small Change

This Tom Waits album is from 1976. It's his fourth, and again he has evolved just a bit. With more than half of the album about drunkenness and alcohol, Waits has deviated quite a bit in writing style. He is still quite hysterical in Step Right Up, but now there are mournfully slow songs like Bad Liver and a Broken Heart. The music itself is much more depressed, with lower notes and slower speeds on many songs, but diversely more laughable lyrics on others.

An excerpt from Small Change's-
Pasties And A G-String

Strip tease, prick tease, car keys blues
And the porno floor show, live nude girls,
Dreamy and creamy and brunette curls
Chesty morgan and watermelon rose
Raise my rent and take off all your clothes
With trench coats, magazines, a bottle full of rum,
Shes so good, to make a dead man come

by Frank Rider August 22, 2009

Nighthawks at the Diner

This 1975 live studio album was Tom Waits' third release. It begins with a bit of sax, percussion and an intro by Waits. He's a bit of a stage comedian, telling jokes between songs, and giving little introductions before them. The music is beautiful, as with all of Waits' live work. One of the best is Better Off Without A Wife, all about a stag and his love of being alone. Playing after that is Nighthawk Postcards, which is another great story, this time of a journey through a town past dark.

An excerpt from Nighthawks at the Diner's-
Emotional Weather Report

With tornado watches issued shortly
Before noon Sunday, for the areas
Including, the western region
Of my mental health
And the northern portions of my
Ability to deal rationally with my
Disconcerted precarious emotional
Situation, it's cold out there

by Frank Rider August 22, 2009

Every Bit Of Alic

Every Bit Of Alice is a generic term for a man's dream woman. Beautiful, smart, tolerant, quiet, great in bed, great cook, great mother, faithful, ETC.

"What do you look for in a woman, John?"

"I want Every Bit Of Alice!"

by Frank Rider August 22, 2009

Alice

From 2002, this is Tom Waits' fourteenth album, simultaneously released with Blood Money. For a third time, Waits made a studio version of the music that he used in a play, this is the second part of a trilogy involving The Black Rider. Waits' album is absolutely beautiful, but quite scary. Alice, the title track, is a song of obsession and love that pulls you into it's murky waters and holds you under. Table Top Joe is a great song, very full of life, and it reminds one of Straight Up To the Top. Reeperbahn is a sandpaper song with stories of various people, and their tragedies.

An excerpt from Alice's-
Reeperbahn

Now if you've lost your inheritance
And all you're left is common sense
And you're not too picky about the crowd you keep
Or the mattress where you sleep
Behind every window, behind every door
The apple's gone but there's always the core
The seeds will sprout up right through the floor
Down there in the Reeperbahn

by Frank Rider August 23, 2009