Franks Wild Years

Last updated

Franks Wild Years
Franks cover.jpg
Studio album by
Tom Waits
ReleasedAugust 17, 1987
Recorded
Length55:34
Label Island
Producer Tom Waits
Tom Waits chronology
Rain Dogs
(1985)		Franks Wild Years
(1987)		 Big Time
(1988)
Singles from Franks Wild Years
  1. "Hang On St. Christopher"
    Released: August 17, 1987
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]
Los Angeles Times Star full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [3]
Mojo Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [4]
Q Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [5]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [6]
Uncut Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [7]
The Village Voice B [8]

Franks Wild Years is the tenth studio album by Tom Waits, released 1987 on Island Records. It is the third in a loose trilogy that began with Swordfishtrombones . Subtitled "Un Operachi Romantico in Two Acts", the album contains songs written by Waits and collaborators (mainly his wife, Kathleen Brennan) for a play of the same name. The play had its world premiere at the Briar St. Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, on June 22, 1986, performed by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. "If I Have to Go" was used in the play, but released only in 2006 on Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards . The theme from "If I Have to Go" was used under the title "Rat's Theme" in the documentary Streetwise as early as 1984. The title is derived from "Frank's Wild Years", a track from Swordfishtrombones.

Contents

Background

Per Steve Hochman,

"This rags-to-rags tale completes the trilogy that began with 1983's Swordfishtrombones (featuring the song 'Frank's Wild Years,' in which the protagonist torches his suburban SoCal house and heads north on the Hollywood Freeway). Then came 1985's Rain Dogs , which mixed Brecht-Weill drama with Captain Beefheart bizarreness for an effect that conjured up a Saturday-night fish fry in the freak show of a decrepit circus... The story basically follows Frank on a hazy, ill-fated Orphic journey 'Straight to the Top (Vegas)' (as one song is titled) through 'Temptation,' 'Way Down in the Hole' and, finally, out on the 'Cold Cold Ground.' 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. [9]

Critical reception

The album ranked number 5 among "Albums of the Year" for 1987 in the annual NME critics' poll. [10]

AllMusic notes the "spare, stripped-down arrangements consisting of instruments like marimba, baritone horn, and pump organ and singing in a strained voice that has been artificially compressed and distorted. The songs themselves often are conventional romantic vignettes, or would be minus the oddities of instrumentation, arrangement, and performance. 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. (He points out the arbitrary nature of the arrangements by repeating 'Straight to the Top,' done as a demented rhumba in act one, as a Vegas-style Frank Sinatra swing tune in act two.) [11]

Elvis Costello included Franks Wild Years on his list of essential albums, highlighting "Hang On St. Christopher" and "Innocent When You Dream". [12]

Influence

Various versions of "Way Down in the Hole" were used as the theme music for the HBO series The Wire , including Waits' original version for the second season. "Temptation" and "Cold Cold Ground" were used in Jean-Claude Lauzon's Léolo (1992). "Cold Cold Ground" was also used in the series Homicide: Life on the Street . "Temptation" and "Straight to the Top (Vegas)" featured in Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), and "Innocent When You Dream" featured in Smoke (1995). [13] "Yesterday Is Here" appears in "The Night Shift", the second episode of Poker Face . [14]

Jim Sclavunos recalls that

"For the better part of a year after its release, Franks Wild Tears was the nightly go-to-pump-up album for me and my roommate. 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." [15]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Tom Waits, except where noted.

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Hang On St. Christopher" 2:46
2."Straight to the Top (Rhumba)"Waits, Greg Cohen 2:30
3."Blow Wind Blow" 3:35
4."Temptation" 3:53
5."Innocent When You Dream (Barroom)" 4:15
6."I'll Be Gone"Waits, Kathleen Brennan 3:12
7."Yesterday Is Here"Waits, Brennan2:29
8."Please Wake Me Up"Waits, Brennan3:36
9."Franks Theme" 1:49
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."More Than Rain" 3:52
2."Way Down in the Hole" 3:30
3."Straight to the Top (Vegas)"Waits, Cohen3:26
4."I'll Take New York" 3:58
5."Telephone Call from Istanbul" 3:12
6."Cold Cold Ground" 4:07
7."Train Song" 3:20
8."Innocent When You Dream (78)" 3:08

Note: "Cold Cold Ground" is incorrectly listed as "Cold Call Ground" on the Island CD release.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album liner notes. [16]

Musicians
Technical

Charts

Chart (1987)Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report) [17] 83
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [18] 24
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [19] 21
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [20] 49
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [21] 42
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) [22] 13
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [23] 17
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [24] 14
US Billboard 200 [25] 115

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada) [26] Gold50,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Related Research Articles

<i>Rain Dogs</i> 1985 studio album by Tom Waits

Rain Dogs is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Tom Waits, released in September 1985 on Island Records. A loose concept album about "the urban dispossessed" of New York City, Rain Dogs is generally considered the middle album of a trilogy that includes Swordfishtrombones and Franks Wild Years.

<i>Swordfishtrombones</i> 1983 studio album by Tom Waits

Swordfishtrombones is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Tom Waits, released in 1983 on Island Records. It was the first album that Waits self-produced. Stylistically different from his previous albums, Swordfishtrombones moves away from conventional piano-based songwriting towards unusual instrumentation and a somewhat more abstract and experimental rock approach. The album peaked at No. 164 on the Billboard Pop Albums and 200 albums charts.

<i>Alice</i> (Tom Waits album) 14th studio album

Alice is the fourteenth studio album by Tom Waits, released in 2002 on Epitaph Records. It consists of songs written by Waits and Kathleen Brennan for the opera Alice ten years earlier. The opera was a collaboration with Robert Wilson, with whom Waits had previously worked on The Black Rider. Waits and Wilson collaborated again on Woyzeck; the songs from it were recorded and released on Blood Money at the same time as Alice.

<i>Blood Money</i> (Tom Waits album) 2002 studio album by Tom Waits

Blood Money is the fifteenth studio album by Tom Waits, released in 2002 on the ANTI- label. It consists of songs Waits and Kathleen Brennan wrote for Robert Wilson's opera Woyzeck. Waits had worked with Wilson on two previous plays: The Black Rider and Alice. Alice was released with Blood Money simultaneously in 2002.

<i>Bone Machine</i> 1992 studio album by Tom Waits

Bone Machine is the eleventh studio album by American singer and musician Tom Waits, released by Island Records on September 8, 1992. It won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album and features guest appearances by David Hidalgo, Les Claypool, Brain, and Keith Richards. The album marked Waits' return to studio albums, coming five years after Franks Wild Years (1987).

<i>Big Time</i> (Tom Waits album) 1988 live album by Tom Waits

Big Time is the first conventional live album by American musician Tom Waits, featuring performances from two shows on Waits' 1987 tour. The album was released less than a year later on Island Records. While Big Time was the first released recording of public concert performances by Waits, it was not strictly his first live release: his 1975 Nighthawks at the Diner was a live performance before an audience that was conducted entirely within a recording studio.

<i>Michael Bublé</i> (album) 2003 studio album by Michael Bublé

Michael Bublé is the record label debut studio album by Canadian singer Michael Bublé. It was released on 143 Records and Reprise Records. The album was released on February 11, 2003. The album spawned four singles: "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart", "Kissing a Fool", "Sway" and "Spider-Man Theme".

<i>Caribou</i> (album) 1974 studio album by Elton John

Caribou is the eighth studio album by English musician Elton John, released on 24 June 1974 by MCA Records in the US and on 28 June by DJM Records in the UK. It was his fourth chart-topping album in the United States and his third in the United Kingdom. The album contains the singles "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", which reached number 16 in the UK Singles Chart and number two in the US, and "The Bitch Is Back", which reached number 15 in the UK and number four in the US. Both singles reached number one in Canada on the RPM 100 national Top Singles Chart, as did the album itself.

<i>The Last Waltz</i> (soundtrack) 1978 soundtrack album by the Band

The Last Waltz is the second live album by the Band, released on Warner Bros. Records in 1978, catalogue 3WS 3146. It is the soundtrack to the 1978 film of the same name, and the final album by the original configuration of the Band. It peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard 200.

<i>The Delivery Man</i> 2004 studio album by Elvis Costello and The Imposters

The Delivery Man is the 21st studio album by Elvis Costello, released on 21 September 2004 through Lost Highway Records. It was recorded with the Imposters at Sweet Tea Studio in Oxford, Mississippi. It peaked at No. 40 on the Billboard 200.

<i>For the Stars</i> 2001 album by Anne Sofie von Otter and Elvis Costello

For the Stars is a collaboration album by classically trained Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and Elvis Costello, released in 2001.

<i>The River in Reverse</i> 2006 studio album by Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint

The River in Reverse is a collaboration album by Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint, released in 2006. It received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album.

<i>Call Me Irresponsible</i> (album) 2007 studio album by Michael Bublé

Call Me Irresponsible is the fifth studio album by Canadian singer Michael Bublé. Released on May 1, 2007 via 143 and Reprise Records, it was produced by David Foster, Humberto Gatica, and Bob Rock. The album features renditions of classic traditional pop songs, including the title track "Call Me Irresponsible", "'Always on My Mind", and "Comin' Home Baby" featuring Boyz II Men. Two original tracks were written for the album, "Everything" and "Lost", both of which were co-written by Bublé.

<i>One Night of Sin</i> 1989 studio album by Joe Cocker

One Night of Sin is the twelfth studio album by English singer Joe Cocker, released by Capitol Records in June 1989. It contains the hit single "When The Night Comes", which was Cocker's last US Top 40 hit and played at the end credits of Tom Selleck's crime drama An Innocent Man of that same year. The song is also notable because it was written by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance. In addition, the former plays rhythm guitar on the song. Other notable songs on the album include a cover of "One Night", a #1 hit by Elvis Presley from 1958, and "I'm Your Man" by Leonard Cohen. The album also features "Another Mind Gone", which was the first album track in thirteen years co-written by Cocker— in the interim, he had also received songwriting credits for the songs “We Stand Alone” and “Now That You’re Gone”. “Another Mind Gone” was dedicated to B. J. Wilson, Cocker's former bandmate and a friend.

<i>Beautiful Maladies</i> 1998 compilation album by Tom Waits

Beautiful Maladies: The Island Years is a Tom Waits compilation album, consisting of previously released songs from his years recording with Island Records, most notably from the albums Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Big Time and Franks Wild Years. The tracks were selected by Tom Waits. The album was released in 1998, but represents Waits's output from 1983 to 1993.

<i>Up on the Roof: Songs from the Brill Building</i> 1993 studio album by Neil Diamond

Up On the Roof: Songs from the Brill Building, released in 1993 on Columbia Records, is a cover album and also the twenty-first studio album by Neil Diamond. It contains a duet with Dolly Parton, string arrangements by David Campbell, along with re-makes of tracks associated with the Brill Building, where Diamond had worked in the 1960s.

<i>Shadows and Light</i> (Wilson Phillips album) Album by Wilson Phillips

Shadows and Light is the second album by American vocal group Wilson Phillips, released in 1992 by SBK Records.

<i>Bad as Me</i> 2011 studio album by Tom Waits

Bad as Me is the seventeenth and most recent studio album by American singer-songwriter Tom Waits, released on October 21, 2011, by Anti- Records. The album is known to have been recorded as early as February 2011 and was officially announced for release on August 23, 2011, on Waits' official web site and various social media networks. On the same day, the title track, "Bad as Me", was released as the album's first single on iTunes.

<i>Wise Up Ghost</i> 2013 studio album by Elvis Costello and the Roots

Wise Up Ghost is a collaborative studio album by British singer/songwriter Elvis Costello and American hip hop group the Roots. The album was released on 17 September 2013, by Blue Note Records. The album's first single "Walk Us Uptown" was released on 23 July 2013.

<i>She Remembers Everything</i> 2018 studio album by Rosanne Cash

She Remembers Everything is Rosanne Cash's fourteenth album. The album was released on November 2, 2018, as well as Cash's second album for Blue Note Records. The album was produced by Tucker Martine and Cash's husband John Leventhal. Cash co-wrote every song on the album. The track "Crossing to Jerusalem" received a Grammy Award for Best American Roots Song nomination at the 62nd Grammy Awards.

References

  1. ↑ Ruhlmann, William. "Franks Wild Years – Tom Waits". AllMusic . Retrieved November 17, 2015.
  2. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN   978-0-85712-595-8.
  3. ↑ Cromelin, Richard (August 30, 1987). "Waits: Dreamlike, Distant". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved February 14, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Tom Waits: Franks Wild Years". Mojo (200): 77. July 2010.
  5. ↑ "Tom Waits: Franks Wild Years". Q (73): 101. October 1992.
  6. ↑ Coleman, Mark; Scoppa, Bud (2004). "Tom Waits". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp.  854–55. ISBN   0-7432-0169-8.
  7. ↑ "What Is He Building In There..?". Uncut (175): 52–53. December 2011.
  8. ↑ Christgau, Robert (January 26, 1988). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice . Retrieved November 17, 2015.
  9. ↑ Hochman, Steve. "Tom Waits, Franks Wild Years".
  10. ↑ "Albums and Tracks of the Year: 1987". NME . 2018. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  11. ↑ "Tom Waits - Franks Wild Years".
  12. ↑ Costello, Elvis. "Elvis Costello's 500 Must-Have Albums, from Rap to Classical". Vanity Fair.
  13. ↑ "Smoke (1995) - IMDb". IMDb .
  14. ↑ Patten, Dominic (January 25, 2023). "'Poker Face' Review: No Lie! Natasha Lyonne & Rian Johnson's Peacock Road Trip Procedural Is All Green Lights & Parking Spaces". Deadline. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  15. ↑ Adams, Tim. ""All these bulletproof songs, one after another": remembering Tom Waits's extraordinary mid-career trilogy". The Guardian.
  16. ↑ "Franks Wild Years". Discogs . Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  17. ↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 331. ISBN   0-646-11917-6.
  18. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – Tom Waits – Franks Wild Years" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
  19. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Tom Waits – Franks Wild Years" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
  20. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – Tom Waits – Franks Wild Years" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
  21. ↑ "Charts.nz – Tom Waits – Franks Wild Years". Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
  22. ↑ "Norwegiancharts.com – Tom Waits – Franks Wild Years". Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
  23. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – Tom Waits – Franks Wild Years". Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
  24. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Tom Waits – Franks Wild Years". Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
  25. ↑ "Tom Waits - Chart history Billboard". www.billboard.com. Archived from the original on April 23, 2016.
  26. ↑ "Canadian album certifications – Tom Waits – Franks Wild Years". Music Canada . Retrieved November 11, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.