Here’s some more details about the rumored Altman and Tom Waits picture partnership. Looks like the work will be based on a screenplay by Garrison Keillor and will reunite Lily Tomlin, Lyle Lovett and Tom Waits again after their appearance together in Short Cuts.
ANTI- has posted some details about the tracks on Real Gone along with some of the musicians working on the album:
Tracklisting for Real Gone is:
- Top of the Hill. The song has a ‘cut up’ Mungo Jerry dance feel with a syncopated wind-up car beat highlighted by turntables, nonsense rhyme and kazoo funk guitar. Described by Waits as “an expensive ride to a bad neighbourhood”.
- Hoist That Rag. A pounding heat-soaked Afro-Cuban-style sea tale of plundering mercenaries.
- Sins of My Father. A crosscut and fade of dark tales and wayward odysseys, complete with oblique references to politics past and present. A song which chronicles personal and collective failings … with a promise of redemption.
- Shake It. An erotic mambo melded into a blue stomp … an escaped convict’s dream of real freedom.
- Don’t Go Into That Barn. A cautionary tale, A rural blues’ Night of the Hunter told in the voices of four different characters.
- How’s It Gonna End. Bleak vignettes of tragic endings – every card in the deck is a spade.
- Metropolitan Glide. A twisted James Brown funky-bad dance number, complete with Waits’ own instructions on a strange new step.
- Dead and Lovely. Blond ambition. It’s about all the young girls who get into cars with powerful men hoping to be driven to great new heights.
- Circus. The portrait of a struggling family circus with a one-eyed this and a broken that and one of these instead of one of those. The tune features Casey Waits on drums behind a broken carousel waltz.
- Trampled Rose. West Africa joined with Appalachia and a furtive tarantella.
- Green Grass. Love is never having to say goodbye – touching or diabolical?
- Baby Gonna Leave Me. Rocks in a blender, the Stones in a can …
- Clang Boom Steam.
- Make It Rain. Naked gospel blues, giving God his marching orders. Thick and lurid guitar work from Marc Ribot.
- Day After Tomorrow. The human face of war.
Real Gone has been engineered by Mark Howard, whose previous credits include work with Bob Dylan and Lucinda Williams. The musicians featured on Real Gone are:
- Larry Taylor (bass and guitar). One of the original members of Canned Heat, Taylor is a veteran of Tom Waits’ recordings since 1980’s Heartattack & Vine album;
- Marc Ribot (guitar and cigar box banjo). Real Gone is Ribot’s first full collaboration with Tom Waits since their classic pairing on 1985’s acclaimed Raindogs album. Ribot is also the leader of Los Cubanos Postizos;
- Brain Mantia (drums). Brain is a former member of Primus and was most recently seen playing on the Guns N’ Roses tour;
- Casey X. Waits (percussion and turntables). Casey also contributed to 2002’s Blood Money album;
- Les Claypool (electric bass). Claypool is a member of Primus;
- Harry Cody (guitar and banjo). Cody made his reputation with the ’90s Swedish band, Shotgun Messiah.
Tom Waits will be doing the soundtrack for an upcoming documentary series on The Documentary Channel. Makes me wish I had cable sometimes . . .
Long Gone: Modern-day hobos travel the country without luggage, home or final destination in this Canadian creation featuring an original soundtrack by Tom Waits.
In thanks for the artists who appeared on their recent album The Ride, Los Lobos is releasing Ride This, an EP of covers. On this album appears what promises to be a great cover of “Jockey Full of Bourbon”.
Full Story: Los Lobos continue roadwork, covers EP on the way
The track listing for Real Gone is now available at the Anti- website. If these titles are any indication, we are in for some more junkyard brilliance:
I think “Clang Boom Steam” is the one I’m really looking forward to.
I found this very brief quote in an article about Sally Kellerman, who played Hot Lips Houlihan in Robert Altman’s classic film MASH:
At the suggestion of her pal Altman, who’s been talking about doing a film with her and Tom Waits . . .
sfgate.com: Actress and stage performer who’s been there, done that still wants more
Well, it’s been several years since Waits’ and Altman’s last film together. It certainly would be nice to get them back together.
Well, I can’t say that MoveOn.org is one of my favorite organizations. However, in support of journalistic integrity (go ahead and snicker), I should report that Tom Waits is to appear on an album entitled Future Soundtrack for America in support of MoveOn.org which is being put together by They Might be Giants. The album is scheduled for release on August 10th. Full Story
OK, now here is an odd cover. Local Vancouver jazz act Shhz is doing very original version of “What’s He Building?”:
A BIG PART OF JAZZ is wringing unexpected changes on familiar material, but there was nothing standard about Shhz’s slowed-down version of Tom Waits’s “What’s He Building?”. Featuring a rare vocal appearance by the ubiquitous Jesse Zubot, the tune replaced the original’s clanging percussion with ominous electronics–and, toward the end, some spooky jaw-harp, courtesy of singer Viviane Houle.
This may be ancient news since I’ve never been much of an Eagles fan, but on The Complete Greatest Hits they do a cover of Ol’ 55.
Apparently on a recent re-release of Kojak Variety, their appears a previously unreleased cover of “Innocent When You Dream” by the esteemed Elvis Costello.
Sorry for the long delay, but I’m back in business. Sorry the trials of work and life took me away from my pressing duties here at the Tom Waits blog. However, I’ll be positing all of the stuff that has collected over the past few weeks.
