The Black Rider


October - December 1999 		Beautiful Maladies
Friday 17th December 1999 - Setlists And Links
    Ater a spot of bother with FTP the Lounge can once again go about it's merry way with the resumption of updates. The updates kick off with the completion of the setlists for this years 'Get Behind The Mule' tour on the Concerts page and the rudimentry beginnings of a Links page has taken root.

Wednesday 1st December 1999 - Black Rider Outtake Lyrics
    The Black Rider Outtakes has only one song where the lyrics differ from the final version, The Briar And The Rose. The song Chase The Clouds didn't make it to the final release. Peruse the Black Rider outtake Lyrics for all the songs.

Monday 29th November 1999 - Fishing With John
    John Lurie is the leader and saxophonist of the jazz band the Lounge Lizards. He has composed music for films including 'Get Shorty', 'Mystery Train' and 'Down By Law'. Lurie has also appeared in films such as 'Paris, Texas', 'Desperately Seeking Susan', 'The Last Temptation of Christ', 'Smoke' (a film that includes two Waits songs) and 'Down By Law' (with Waits).
    Lurie writes, directs and stars in his own TV comedy series 'Fishing with John' on IFC. The idea of the series is to travel with his guests to exotic places to go fishing. Lurie has so far been fishing with Jim Jarmusch, Tom Waits, Matt Dillon, Willem Dafoe and Dennis Hopper. Lurie's record company Strange And Beautiful Music has released a soundtrack from Fishing With John which includes two tracks with Tom Waits.

Thursday 25th November 1999 - Get Behind The Mule Setlists
    Commencement has began in the new Concert section to populate the setlists for this years 'Get Behind the Mule' tour.
    Eric's FTP site is slowly filling up with MP3's from some of these concerts. Please read Eric's Guide for details of how to access and use the FTP site for uploads and downloads.

Tuesday 23rd November 1999 - Downtown Train (Part Two)
    Californian Tom Russell, who grew up surrounded by bull riders, obtained a degree in criminology and became a teacher in Africa. With a band called Mule Train he joined a carnival and backed strippers, dog acts and sword swallowers. After sweeping theatres in Texas he joined a French Canadian disco band in Puerto Rico who refused to speak English. Tom Russell recorded Downtown Train for his album Road To Bayamon and is not as you may think a character in a Tom Waits song.
    Tom Russell has recorded a duet with Shawn Colvin (who recorded The Heart Of Saturday Night) and worked with Dave Alvin who has recorded Ol' `55. The Eagles did a version of Ol' `55. Don Henley of the Eagles sung with Patty Smyth and Smyth recorded Downtown Train on her Greatest Hits album.
    The Original Downtown Train is found on Rain Dogs and the two compilation albums The Island Years and Beautiful Maladies.
    Now you can strum along with the chords even without a degree in criminology.

Sunday 21st November 1999 - Downtown Train (Part One)
    Possibly more people have heard Rod Stewart's rendition of Downtown Train then the original Tom Waits version. Downtown Train was a big hit for Rod Stewart in the 80's, his version appears on Storyteller and If We Fall In Love Tonight.
    In the same year that Rod Stewart moved to America Tom Waits mentioned Stan Getz on Nighthawks At The Diner, 'Got any Stan Getz records? '. Stan Getz appeared on an album by Everything But The Girl. Everything But The Girl recorded Downtown Train on their album Acoustic along with a Bruce Springsteen song.
    Springsteen recorded Jersey Girl on an album released in 1987. The same year Jersey girl Mary-Chapin Carpenter recorded Downtown Train for her album Hometown Girl

Wednesday 17th November 1999 - Down By Law
    The soundtrack for Jim Jarmusch's 1986 film Down By Law has been re-released this week. Although the film contains two of Tom's songs the soundtrack album doesn't. The score was written and performed by John Lurie.
Both Waits and Lurie star in this comedy which is shot in black and white. After being framed for crimes they didn't commit DJ Zack (Tom Waits) and pimp Jack (John Lurie) share a cell with Roberto (Roberto Benigni) who happens to know of an escape route.
John Lurie's soundtrack for the Betty Gordon film 'Various' is also included on this album.

Saturday 13th November 1999 - Eric's FTP Site
    One Eric Harlow has been a splendid chap and set up an FTP server for all to use. Contained within it are MP3's, pictures and videos of Mr Waits. This site is intended only for material that cannot be purchased in shops (live recordings, outtakes etc).
In order to access this server fire up your favourite FTP software and supply it with the following details;
Address : 209.177.135.139    Login : tom    Password : waits
If you do not know or want FTP software then you can use your browser, with the address;
ftp://tom:waits@209.177.135.139

Wednesday 10th November 1999 - Bremen 1977
    In 1977 Tom Waits performed a concert in Bremen, Germany. Fortunately this aural offering did not dissolve into the ether as it was recorded by a resourceful person and found it's way on to an unofficial CD entitled Invitation To The Blues.
    No longer do you have to pay bootleggers large sums of money as another resourceful person has created an FTP site upon which MP3's of this very concert can be found. Be patient, Eric's FTP Site tends to be busy and is not always accessible, but it's there.

Monday 9th November 1999 - Black Rider Outtakes
    If The Black Rider is your slice of cake and you yearn more, there is an unofficial recording floating about called The Black Rider Outtakes. Contained within are ten of the songs in their embryonic state with the addition of four others that never made it to the final release.

Sunday 7th November 1999 - Walking Spanish
    To walk Spanish is to be taken by the scruff of the neck and the seat of the pants and removed swiftly against ones own wishes. In the context of Tom's song walking Spanish means to be in the act of doing something you want not to be doing, this is the walk the convict does on his way to his execution, walking Spanish down the hall.
    It is hoped that you will not be involved in any such walk when you play the chords for Walking Spanish from the album Rain Dogs.

Wednesday 3rd November 1999 - Reviews
    A new review section is being constructed whereby upon clicking 'review' in the area you are perusing you will be confronted by various reviews. Reading peoples reviews is a great way of deciding if something is for you. In order for this to work the Silver Cloud Lounge needs your reviews. It would be pointless for the Lounge to review everything as this would just give one point of view. So if you want to have your say about a particular Waits related album, song, film, concert, website etc please send it to review@ripcat.idps.co.uk

Monday 1st November 1999 - 13th Annual Bridge School Benefit Concert
    On Saturday Tom Waits performed a 40 minute set at the 13th Annual Bridge School Benefit Concert in California along with Neil Young, Sheryl Crow, The Who, Green Day and others. The concert is the main source of funding for the school which is dedicated to helping children with severe speech and physical impairments. The concert could be viewed on the internet in a live webcast.
    Tom performed the following songs; Gun Street Girl, Jockey Full of Bourbon, Hold On, Chocolate Jesus, Sixteen Shells From a 30.06, Tango Till They're Sore, Innocent When You Dream and Tom Traubert's Blues.
    Now you can play along with the chords for Hold On.

Saturday 30th October 1999 - Mule Variation Lyrics
    The Silver Cloud Lounge scribes have now transcribed the lyrics for Mule Variations. In appreciation the Lounge entertained the scribes to a meal of rattle snake piccata, brown Betty, turkey neck stew and bottom black pie. From the hullabaloo generated by this feast you'd imagine they were cooking up a Filipino Box Spring Hog.

Thursday 28th October 1999 - The Primus Connection
    On 19th October 1999 Primus let loose their seventh full length album AntiPop.
    Tom Waits makes his second appearance on a Primus album, producing, providing the vocals and playing mellotron on the track Coattails Of A Dead Man. AntiPop also includes members of Metallica, Rage Against The Machine, Police and Faith No More.
    Tom's first appearance with the band was on Tommy The Cat from 'Sailing The Seas of Cheese' in 1991.
    The following year two Primusites appeared on Bone Machine, Les Claypool (Bass - Earth Died Screaming) and Brain Mantia (Drums - Such A Scream, In The Colosseum).
    Primus components, Les Claypool, Larry LaLonde and Brain Mantia backed Tom on Big In Japan from Mule Variations, an album recorded and mixed by AntiPop engineer Oz Fritz.

Wednesday 27th October 1999 - The Life Of Tom and Kinky Friedman
    Reg : So we go and purchase all his recordings and what has he ever given us in return this year?
    Rebel 2 : Books of Moses.
    Reg : What?
    Rebel 2 : Books of Moses from the More Oar Album.
    Reg : Oh yeah, yeah. He did give us that. That´s true, yeah.
    Rebel 3 : And the two songs on Extremly Cool.
    Reg : Yeah, all right, I´ll grant you Books Of Moses and the Extremely Cool songs are two things he has done this year...
    Mathias : And Mule Variations.
    Reg : Well, yeah. Obviously Mule Variations, I mean Mule Variations goes without saying, doesn't it? But apart from Mule Variations, Books Of Moses and Extremely Cool...
    Rebel 4 : Live concerts, TV appearances.
    Reg : Yeah, yeah, all right. Fair enough...
    Rebel 1 : And radio interviews.
    Reg : All right. But apart from Mule Variations, Books Of Moses, the two songs on Extremely Cool, live concerts, TV apperances and radio interviews... What has he ever done for us?
    Rebel 2 : Highway Cafe.
    Reg : Highway Cafe?
    Rebel 2 : Yes, on the same day as the US release of Mule Variations and seven days after More Oar, the album Pearls In The Snow - The Songs Of Kinky Friedman was released. Kinky, now a mystery writer, was a singer/songwriter of irreverent satirical country songs during the 1970's and founded such bands as Kinky Friedman & His Texas Jewboys. Tom performs the Kinky song Highway Cafe just a few tracks away from the Chuck E. Weiss contribution, Ol' Ben Lucas.
    Reg : Shaddup.

Monday 25th October 1999 - I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You
    Well, it's sing along time again. The music department has acertained the chords to I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You, perfect for a little finger picking. The song first appeared on Closing Time in 1973 and a version from 1971 can be heard on The Early Years Vol. 2.
    In 1992 the band 10,000 Maniacs released a cassette single whose B-side was none other than I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You. You can hear this on Step Right Up - The Songs Of Tom Waits.
    The following year the New York based singer/guitarist Priscilla Herdman performed the song on her album Forgotten Dreams.

23rd/24th October 1999 - Ol'`55
    Since the release of Closing Time in 1973 the song Ol' `55 has been popular with folkish type artists. Tom's Californian Asylum stablemates, The Eagles, pounced on the song just a year later for their top selling album On The Border.
    The Englishman Ian Matthews beat The Eagles by one month and gave the world his version of Ol' `55 on Some Days You Eat the Bear...Some Days the Bear Eats You later released on The Soul Of Many Places in 1993, by this time Iain had inserted an i into his moniker for celtic reasons.
    Eric Andersen plastered Ol' `55 on his album Be True To You which was remastered in 1998 and issued as Collection.
    Canadian Sarah MacLachlan placed it in three places, Freedom Sessions, Fumbling Towards Estasy/Freedom Sessions and on the soundtrack to Boys On The Side.
    You can aurally indulge in Dave Alvin's version on 'Step Right Up - The Songs Of Tom Waits'. Alvin declares that hearing Tom on radio inspired him to become a songwriter.
    Experience Tom's pre-Closing Time version on The Early Years Vol. 2.
    If you feel inspired to record your own rendition of the song then you can play along by following the chords for Ol' `55 and the song discussed yesterday, Jersey Girl as transcibed by the Silver Cloud's music department.

Friday 22nd October 1999 - Jersey Girl
    Back in August the thespian Kevin Bacon and his sibling Michael recorded Jersey Girl on their album Getting There under the nomenclature The Bacon Brothers. This was preceded a year earlier by an album entitled Live From The Mountain Stage Lounge which is a compilation taken from a weekly American radio show called Mountain Stage. The album contains Holly Cole's rendition of Jersey Girl. Also appearing on this album is Dave Van Ronk who by some coincidence has recorded Jersey Girl on his album To All My Friends In Far Flung Places. Van Ronk had a folk rock band in Greenwich Village in the 60's. (Incidently the Greenwich Village musical circle included Ramblin' Jack Elliot who has an album called Friends of Mine on which he performs a Waits song with the man himself). Bruce Springsteen who in the early 70's did a folk stint in Greenwich village has also recorded Jersey Girl on his Live album cleverly entitled Live 1975 - 1985. On the other side of the Atlanic the Pale Saints recorded Jersey Girl for Step Right Up - The Songs Of Tom Waits. Oh, and Tom Waits has a version of the song on Heartattack and Vine from 1980. Sing sha la la la.

Saturday 16th October 1999 - Holly Cole
    The Canadian Vocalist Holly Cole, has recorded songs by such artists as George Gershwin, Elvis Costello, Joni Michell, Charles Chaplin, the Beatles, Lyle Lovett and Tom Waits. One deduces Cole to be a Waits fan as a quartet of her seven albums hold his compositions.
    The Waits tribute Temptation embodies seventeen of his songs. Cole said that Waits is a very male figure and she wanted to take the songs out of their male context giving the like of Jersey Girl an immense amount of sexual ambiguity.
Blame It On My Youth is of interest even if Cole is not your cup of tea as it contains Purple Avenue, a song written but not recorded by Waits.
    Most of Cole's recordings and live appearances are performed with her Trio consisting of Aaron Davis on Piano and David Piltch on Bass. Together the threesome weave their jazzy interpretations. When asked about her popularity Cole stated that in Canada and Japan she is exactly what she wants to be (big in Japan?).

Thursday 14th October 1999 - Silver Cloud Lounge Returns
    Ladies and gentleman, after a break the Silver Cloud Lounge returns and is proud to present on the web tonight, Tom Waits. That's right. Unlike the Three Headed Baby and Hitlers brain comments and suggestions are always welcome.
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