Definitions by frank rider
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
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
Mule Variations by Frank Rider August 23, 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
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
Alice by Frank Rider August 23, 2009
Frank's Wild Years
This album was Tom Wait's 1987 release. In all actuality, it was the soundtrack to a play of the same name that Waits had written and starred in, it was about a murderous accordion player. One of his most popular songs, Innocent When You Dream, is on the album. More Than Rain is here with I'll Be Gone, as well. It is a sad sort of album, but with plenty of up tempo music and a bit of old style jazziness to it.
An excerpt from Frank's Wild Years'
Straight Up To The Top (Rhumba)-
I'm going straight up to the top
Up where the air is fresh and clean
I know that I will never stop, no no
Until I know I'm wild and free
I'm like a champagne bubble
Pop pop pop
Straight Up To The Top (Rhumba)-
I'm going straight up to the top
Up where the air is fresh and clean
I know that I will never stop, no no
Until I know I'm wild and free
I'm like a champagne bubble
Pop pop pop
Frank's Wild Years by Frank Rider August 23, 2009
Jaheseus
An odd way of saying Jesus, used by Tom Waits in the song Filipino Box Spring Hog. It has few practical conversational uses, but it is an interesting word.
An excerpt from Filipino Box Spring Hog-
From the album Mule Variations-
Tom Waits-
"Jaheseus Christ I can always
Make room, when they're
Cookin' up a filipino box spring hog"
From the album Mule Variations-
Tom Waits-
"Jaheseus Christ I can always
Make room, when they're
Cookin' up a filipino box spring hog"
Jaheseus 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
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
Real Gone by Frank Rider August 23, 2009
Conando
A character played by Conan O' Brien on The Tonight Show. The character is used durring a segment called Los Noches De Passion, and is always quite ridiculous.
Conando by Frank Rider August 23, 2009