Tom Waits – Frank’s Wild Years CD

Tom Waits – Frank’s Wild Years

Originally released in 1987 on Island Records, Franks Wild Years is Tom Waits 10th studio album. Titled for a play of the same name and authored by Waits and his wife, Kathleen Brennan, Franks Wild Years was performed by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1986. Franks Wild Years is an iteration of the track "Frank's Wild Years" from Waits' 1983 album Swordfishtrombones.The album divides the story neatly into two acts and although titled "un operachi romantic", there is no opera in Franks. While Franks featured a 14-member cast on stage, the album is all-Waits - yet suggests a multitude of characters by virtue of his chameleon vocals.

The album is a startling group of lost dreams, bad dreams, dreams that might not even be dreams. The music is nightmarish, ethereal, beautiful. Think broken calliopes played by genius children, horns played at dawn in a graveyard, banjos leaking through practice room walls.

Newly remastered for the first time ever from the original ½" flat master tape and personally overseen by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering under the guidance of Waits longtime audio engineer, Karl Derfler. The album packaging has also been restored.

Tracklist:
1. Hang On St. Christopher
2. Straight To the Top (Rhumba)
3. Blow Wind Blow
4. Temptation
5. Innocent When You Dream (Barroom)
6. I'll Be Gone
7. Yesterday is Here
8. Please Wake Me Up
9. Franks Theme
10. More Than Rain
11. Way Down In the Hole
12. Straight To the Top (Vegas)
13. I'll Take New York
14. Telephone Call From Istanbul
15. Cold Cold Ground
16. Train Song
17. Innocent When You Dream (78)

Label: Island Records
Released: 1987/2023