Frank Leroux, from S wordfishtrombones' "Frank's Wild Years" became the archetypal main character for the upcoming theatre play. He must have had "great expectations" starting in 1979 with the "Why Is The Dream Always So Much Sweeter Than The Taste?

I suspect that it went missing in a house move, along with many other favourites that I am gradually replacing. If anything, these self-imposed parameters freed up Waits to showcase his flexibility and range; gone was the safety net of escaping to another lyrical or musical shore – this is him pinning himself down and loving every minute of it. Gussying ourselves up to war-song strains of 'Temptation', 'Straight to the Top' etc was an essential part of our ritual of getting ourselves 'in the mood' before emerging from the squalor of our Lower East Side tenement, ready to take on the world.After the theatre play Waits went in the studio and recorded the songs from the play to be released on the 1987 album Franks Wild Years (Island, August 1987). This tho is wierd and not as instantly likeable but give it a chance and then you see just how beautiful it is. Unfettered mad genius will always seduce and intrigue, but there is much to be said for a narrowing of the scope. Composed as a soundtrack to a stage show of the same title, it does not hang together as well as Tom's other show scores, like Blood Money or Alice, and in truth it always felt like the successor to Rain Dogs and Swordfishtrombones.

It's just wood and lights and people walking around until you somehow bang up against something, and something breaks, and something sparks, and something catches and then it has a life. Everything from sleazy strip-show blues to cheesy waltzes to supercilious lounge lizardry is given spare, jarring arrangements using various combinations of squawking horns, bashed drums, plucked banjo, snaky double bass, carnival organ and jaunty accordion (the last provided by Los Lobos' David Hidalgo on two tracks). 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. A new start for Cecil Parkinson, I wonder, but suggest Pee Wee Marquet, fabled midget emcee from Birdland.There's a wack of strange characters that society has forgotten, no one is clean shaved, (especially the ladies,) there's a dwarf banging some trash can lids, and many of the townsfolk are missing limbs for some reason. Therefore no matter how heartfelt, angry or etc the song, there is always a bit of tongue in the cheek, a bit of burlesque, a little twinkle in the eye. Jacobs (2000): "Terry Kinney was set to direct Frank's Wild Years, but just a few weeks before it was scheduled to open, Kinney resigned (or was fired) over creative differences with Waits.

I also bought the excellent 192/24 digital file (mostly for headphone listening) but the vinyl edition simply sounds more realistic. He wins a talent contest and some money on the crap tables, but then he gets rolled by a cigarette girl, and - despondent and penniless - he finds an accordian in a trashcan, and one thing leads to another, and before you know it he's onstage. Newly remastered for the first time ever from the original ½” flat master tape and personally overseen by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. It was one of all-time-great LPs to start with, but for me this is the definitive version, and I can't recommend it highly enough. For example, 'Innocent When You Dream,' a song of disappointment in love and friendship, has a winning melody, but it is played in a seesaw arrangement of pump organ, bass, violin, and piano, and Waits sings it like an enraged drunk.See, by running a small theatre, if I want a blue light and an oversized cocktail glass and a red clock and a midget in a wet-suit, I can have it without having to send out, tuba, trombone, banjo, accordian, electric stick and an emcee with a pencil-thin mustache and a Mexican accent. 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. 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. Che mastica di tutto, dal jazz (e questo ai miei occhi gli fa guadagnare molti punti) alla musica di Broadway, dalla musica da cabaret a quella gitana, dal rock al punk e tante altre cose ancora.