Frank Rider's definitions

Big Time

Big Time, from 1988, was Tom Waits' second live album, but it was his tenth release. Waits did a tour called Big Time which was taped and became a little known movie of the same name, and there was an album of the songs released. There are two new songs on the album, but all recordings of old songs are new. Falling Down and Strange Weather are the originals, though the latter was from the stage version of Frank's Wild Years. This is an amazing album, with beautiful versions of already perfect songs.

An excerpt from Big Time's-
Strange Weather

Will you take me across the Channel,
London Bridge is falling down
Strange, a woman tries to save
What a man will try to drown
And he's the rain that they predicted,
Its the forecast every time
The rose has died because you picked it
And I believe that brandy's mine

by Frank Rider August 23, 2009

A and B the C.O.D.

Above and Beyond the Call Of Duty

That work you did is really A and B the C.O.D.

by Frank Rider August 22, 2009

Real Gone

The sixteenth album by "self proclaimed junk-man," Tom Waits, released in 2004. With fifteen full length tracks, and a hidden one, it's a beautiful seventy minutes. The music on the album seems to be a cross between waitsian and mechanical. Metropolitan Glide is one of the odd ones here, it's quite grainy and loud. Dead and Lovely is a sad story of a girl dying because she lied about who she was. Another great is How's It Gonna End, about murder, lies and gossip. Waits is darker than ever, and still just as beautiful.

An excerpt from Real Gone's-
Don't Go Into That Barn

Black cellophane sky at midnite
Big blue moon with three gold rings
I called Champion to the window
And I pointed up above the trees
That's where I heard my name in a scream
Coming from the woods, out there
I let my dog run off the chain
I locked my door real good with a chair

by Frank Rider August 23, 2009

Co Co

A nick name for Conan O'Brien, given to him by Tom Hanks on the Tonight Show.

Conan hates being called Co Co

by Frank Rider August 23, 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

Mule Variations

This album was Tom Waits' 1999 release, and his thirteenth. The songs range from Big in Japan, a smooth but tough rock song, to Come On Up To the House, a powerful telling of a world's troubles. Waits did good again, striking a strange chord with Chocolate Jesus, and tugging your thought strings with Black Market Baby.

An excerpt from Mule Variations'-
Get Behind the Mule

Punctuated birds on the power line
In a Studebaker with the Birdie Joe Joaks
I'm diggin' all the way to China
With a silver spoon
While the hangman fumbles with the noose, boy
The hangman fumbles with the noose
Got to get behind the Mule
In the morning and plow

by Frank Rider August 23, 2009