The Black Rider

by Tom Waits

Overview

Tom Waits collaborated with director Robert Wilson and librettist William Burroughs on the musical stage work The Black Rider in 1990. A variation on the Faust legend, the 19th century German story allowed Waits to indulge his affection for the music of Kurt Weill and address one of his favorite topics of recent years, the devil. Waits had proven an excellent collaborator when he worked with director Francis Ford Coppola on One from the Heart, making that score an integral part of the film. Here, the collaboration and the established story line served to focus Waits' often fragmented attention, lending coherence and consistency. He then had three years to adapt the score into a record album in which he did most of the singing and writing (though Burroughs contributed, singing one song and writing lyrics to three), and he used the time to come up with his best recording in a decade, a varied set of songs that work whether or not you know the show. (Seven of the 20 tracks were instrumentals.) Waits used the word "crude" to describe his working method several times in the liner notes, and a crude performing and recording style continued to appeal to him. But the kind of chaos that can sometimes result from that style was reined in by the bands he assembled in Germany and Los Angeles to record the score, so that the recordings were lively without being off-puttingly primitive. ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	10/06/2023
Label:	Island / Ume / Umr
UPC:	0602448894830
Rank:	25562

Tracks

1. Lucky Day Overture
2. The Black Rider
3. November
4. Just the Right Bullets
5. Black Box Theme
6. 'Tain't No Sin
7. Flash Pan Hunter (Intro)
8. That's the Way
9. The Briar and the Rose
10. Russian Dance
11. Gospel Train [Orchestra]
12. I'll Shoot the Moon
13. Flash Pan Hunter
14. Crossroads
15. Gospel Train
16. Interlude
17. Oily Night
18. Lucky Day
19. The Last Rose of the Summer
20. Carnival

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Tom Waits   Primary Artist,Organ,Piano,Congas,Guitar,Vocals,Marimba,Calliope,Log Drums,Chamberlin,Synthesizer,Train Whistle,Whistle (Instrument),Emax,Banjo
Ralph Carney   Guest Artist,Saxophone,Contrabass,Clarinet (Bass),Horn (Baritone)
William S. Burroughs   Guest Artist,Vocals
Volker Hemken   Clarinet
Hans-Jorn Braudenberg   Organ
Nick Phelps   French Horn
Linda Deluca   Viola
Francis Thumm   Organ
Henning Stoll   Viola,Bassoon,Contrabassoon
Larry Rhodes   Bassoon,Contrabassoon
Stefan Schaefer   Bass
Gerd Bessler   Viola
Kenny Wollesen   Marimba,Percussion
Don Neely   Musical Saw
Greg Cohen   Bass,Emax,Banjo,Viola,Accordion,Percussion,Clarinet (Bass)
Matthew Brubeck   Cello
Kevin Porter   Trombone
Matt Brubeck   Cello
Christoph Moinian   French Horn
William Burroughs   Vocals
Bill Douglass   Bass
Boners   Featured Artist
Joe Gore   Banjo,Guitar

Technical Credits

Tom Waits   Composer,Producer,Recording Arranger
Greg Cohen   Composer,Recording Arranger
William S. Burroughs   Composer
Gerd Bessler   Engineer
William Burroughs   Composer,Lyricist
Devil's Rhubato Band   Recording Arranger
Tchad Blake   Engineer
Biff Dawes   Mixing
Edgar Leslie   Composer
Walter Donaldson   Composer,Lyricist
Kathleen Brennan   Composer