Tom Waits - Real Gone
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Tom WaitsBrand: WAITS,TOM
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2004-10-05
Music Label: Anti
Soundtracks:
- Top Of The Hill
- Hoist That Rag
- Sins Of My Father
- Shake It
- Don't Go Into That Barn
- How's It Gonna End
- Metropolitan Glide
- Dead And Lovely
- Circus
- Trampled Rose
- Green Grass
- Baby Gonna Leave Me
- Clang Boom Steam
- Make It Rain
- Day After Tomorrow
Free Music Notes for Real Gone
Free Music Review: Exceptional!
Hit: 5 Stars
What??s a Tom Waits album without the manditory 1-star review I say! Reading Mr. Slikas?? take is quite... interesting though, if you can stand the SHOUTING; first he makes a huge deal out of an error in the liner notes, only to go on to recommend "Frankie's Wild Years" instead (It's Frank's Wild Years)... Only a very shalow listen indeed could lead one to think that this album was anything like chicken-wire flavoured folk album ??Mule Variations?, much less a carbon copy.
But that??s enough of that - briefly, ??Real Gone? is exceptionally brilliant. Less brief account to follow:
Tom Waits seems to have had a habbit of jolting the listener right out of whatever expectations he might have had - On Bonemachine he came at us with "Earth Died Screaming" that had him singing his apocalyptic visions through the falcetto voice of a mad prophet distracted by love. On Mule Variations he kicked us on gear with a steamtrain of a song "Big In Japan" - and then, when expectations had shifted towards the abrasive shocker, he eased us into "Alice" with the title-track; a smooth, gentle jazz ballad.
This time we start with "Top Of The Hill"; a number dominated by human beat boxing (By Waits), turntable scratching (!). No piano; nor room for one. The song is the second cousin of "Big In Japan", but wheras it's relative was concerned with fame (with a toungue firmly in cheek), this one appears to just want to hitch a ride to the top of the hill. The presentation takes atention away from the lyrics (which aren't always very clearly intonated either), and reading the lyrics from the booklet reveal more depth than may be apparent at first.
With "Hoist That Rag" things just keep getting better - it starts like some big clanking machine, gaining it's rythm gradually so that after the first time Wait's growls his "Hoist that rag!" it has evolved into a brilliant cuban/latin piece with Mark Ribbot's guitar crafting the themes, and Waits singing his lyrics about the misguided kind of patriotism that can lead to acceptance of attrocity in the name of the flag; this is a rough, briliant shout against war.
This political awareness in his songs is new to Waits, and he goes to it with all the gusto he always exhibits when he finds a new path to explore; yet when he protests, he does it with all the skill of someone who had done it all his life. Never banal or shallow, and always timeless. No matter how many of the songs can be tied to current events, they'll work a hundred years from now too, I'll be willing to wager.
"Sins Of The Father" is a long, atmospheric, Jamaica-flavoured song with political undertones. One may think that at over 10 minutes, it's too long - I would disagree. Even after eight or nine listens to the album now, not once have I felt the need to skip any of it, nor the need to glance at the time in the middle of it. It works beautifully.
Other highlites from the album include ??Don??t Go Into That Barn? which is perhaps my favourite off the album; it??s a murder story of ??Everett Lee?, escaped and inflicted onto the world at large, and this time ??it??s worse than the time before? ?" again one may wonder whether there is a hidden political reference here. The song proceeds in apocalyptic scenery with the atmosphere of something that would be at home among Nick Cave??s ??Murder Ballads? ?" then breaks out in military-like questioning: ??Did you cover your tracks? Yes sir!, Did you bring your knife? Yes sir!, Did they see your face? No sir!, Did the Mom see you? No sir!...?. Is this Everett??s check list? Or perhaps it??s the questioning of a military unit, perhaps a recruiting party to get new blood bones in the gears. In the end on and on goes the murderer on it??s path chanting: ??Put me on a flat boat / Dover, down to Covington / Covington to Louisville / Louisville to Henderson /Henderson....?
??How??s it Gonna End? is another great one, a slow, catchy, simple song of extistential bewilderment.
??Dead And Lovely? is a ballad that one could imagine hearing in a Taratino movie; it??s the only song I think suffers from the fact that the mics were (purposefully) overloaded in the recording... Wait??s voice gets a little blurry, like listening through a broken speakerphone. An excellent song nevertheless ?" about a woman who marries a high roller, only to find herself in the life of an ornament, dead and lovely.
??Circus? is vintage Waits; a glance back at the ??Black Rider? landscape, dotted with characters like Zuzu Bolin and Mighty Tiny. Waits speaks the story in lazy tones over a scratchy, lazy background with a hint of a turntable scratch to be found.
??Green Grass? has Waits singing in a voice graduated from gravely to ??bouldery?; he??s singing cold comfort from the grave to a love left behind. Towards the end there??s startlingly beautiful wistling, that sent chills down my spine; such is the contrast to the album??s general soundscape.
??Make It Rain? is almost daytime radio-material; a blues holler: ??I??m close to heaven / crushed at the gate / they sharpen their knives / on my mistakes? Works best as a live song I expect.
??Day After Tomorrow? is the most clearly statement-making protest song on the album, and indeed anywhere on Waits?? catalogue. It is a folk song reminiscent of Johnny Cash that draws its power from it??s directness, and from its emphasis of the ordinary, and how it becomes so desireable in the reality of war.
In conclusion, this album makes it among the greatest in Waits?? extraordinary career. Not necessarily the optimal introduction to Waits for the uninitiated, but pure pleasure for the rest of us. Keeps improving with repeated listens; please don??t judge this one on just one spin.
Real Gone Poster
Tom Waits is one of the most influential musicians in the world today, an artist who never rests on his laurels. He continues to re-invent music, push boundaries and create new sounds. On Real Gone, the up tempo tracks are some of the rawest and most kinetic he's ever laid down...He's never sounded like he's had this much fun...while the ballads are among his most beautiful and even chilling at times. Real Gone also contains his first overtly political song, "The Day After Tomorrow", a plaintive letter home from a young soldier in the middle of a war. Taken as a whole, the experience is breathtaking.There's little risk of confusing Tom Waits with the gentle pop folk who have covered his songs--Rod Stewart, Sarah McLachlan, Everything But the Girl, just to name a few. That's because even though the eccentric songwriter is capable of summoning the most tender sentiments, his preferred method of delivery is through carnival melodies, crackpot instruments, and a bourbon-soaked bark. Real Gone continues the dark experimental streak of not just its predecessors like Alice and Blood Money, but the past 30 years. Yes, the percussion is sharper, the arrangements stranger, and the voice more ghost-like than ever, but at the center of all the chaos remains an uncanny storyteller--capable of ripping down governments ("Sins of My Father") and building up tears ("Day After Tomorrow"). --Aidin Vaziri
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