For some inexplicable reason, although I already own Raindogs and Swordfish/Trombones (among many others) this one was absent from my collection. Elated to see that the Tom Waits albums are being reissued, one, I can retire the originals which are now too damn valuable to be playing, and two, Waits becomes available on vinyl for some for the first time. Frank was renamed Frank O'Brien (Big Time video) and transformed a despondent and penniless accordian player with very Waitsian qualities.

When I arrived, I actually had a cab-driver say, If yer can make it here, yer can make it anywhere, jus' like Frank said.

I had forgotten that there were so many other gems on this or how strongly it reminds me of Bertold Brecht. Franks Wild Years is an iteration of the track “Frank’s Wild Years” from Waits’ 1983 album Swordfishtrombones.

Some may be tempted see this as being done at the sacrifice or tempering of energy, but if anything it’s an intensification; a shifting of form; an inhabiting of a new skin. Frank Leroux, from S wordfishtrombones' "Frank's Wild Years" became the archetypal main character for the upcoming theatre play.

When the trains thundered past the backyard fence, bound for Oxnard, Lompoc, Gila Bend, Stanfield and parts south where the wind blew big, Frank would count the cars and make a wish just like he did when he was a kid.

In which, he seems largely inspired by German art song and carnival music; producing songs which themselves would be conventional romantic vignettes, if not for the oddities of instrumentation, arrangement, and performance that Waits adds to them. From the early off-kilter cocktail piano to the theatrical junkyard sound of his later work, I like it all. Tom Waits (1985): "It actually starts out with Frank at the end of his rope, despondent, penniless, on a park bench in East St. All these bulletproof songs, one after another": remembering Tom Waits's extraordinary mid-career trilogy". It is a front-to-back album and will reward those who attend, like a cinematic experience, straight through to the bitter end.At the road's end lies "Innocent When You Dream (78)," a moral that is told to Frank early on but doesn't hit home until the end, when it is heard in a lovely, tinnily nostalgic rendition. Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering under the guidance of Waits’ longtime audio engineer, Karl Derfler.

The various guises and personas he has taken on throughout his career are so utterly perfect and the transitions between them so seamlessly blended, that it is tempting to view him as an embodiment of people’s aspirations – he is the person, or people, that we wished we had enough grit, snarl and fierce talent to be. For the better part of a year after its release, Franks Wild Tears was the nightly go-to-pump-uo album for me and my roommate. Blues fumosi, marcette jazz da locale malfamato, musica da cabaret berlinese, anni 30 o già di li, innocue melodie sdolcinate sporcate, violentate da arrangiamenti tanto scarni quanto magistrali, musica da film muto ovviamente in bianco e nero, questo è "Frank's wild years", questo in fondo è Tom Waits, il mio vecchio amico Waits. It is dirty and smells funny, but while wondering how you got into this back alley of Oz, you still do not want to leave and probably aren't sure how to leave, anyway.Tom’s 12 July ‘23 newsletter: The good - Universal will reissue his Island Records catalog ~ Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Frank’s Wild Years, Bone Machine, and The Black Rider ~ on CD and on vinyl this Fall.