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

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

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

Filipino Box Spring Hog

1. The fourteenth song on Tom Waits' 1999 album, Mule Variations.

2. A term for any strange or disgusting new food. If you can't figure out a food's name or ingredients, you may call it this.

Rattle snake piccata with grapes and figs
Old brown Betty with a yellow wig
Tain't the mince meat filagree
And it ain't the turkey neck stew
And it ain't them bruleed okra seeds
Though she made them especially for you
Worse won a prize for her bottom black pie
The beans got thrown to the dogs
Jaheseus Christ, I can always make room
Cookin' up a Filipino Box Spring Hog

by Frank Rider August 22, 2009

Blue Valentine

Tom Waits' fifth studio album, from 1978, Blue Valentine is an amazing work of art. This album was really the turning point between classic Waits, and the more avant-garde Waits. His voice became much more gravelly in his hiatus, and he added more low-lifes and hard-lucks to the songs. One of the best songs he has ever recorded is here, Romeo Is Bleeding, along with $29.00, and Blue Valentines.

An excerpt from Blue Valentine's-
A Sweet Little Bullet From A Pretty Blue Gun

I'd rather die before I wake
Like Marilyn Monroe
And throw my dreams out in
The street and the
Rain will make em grow

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