tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665713763624541378.post5602292202678062325..comments2023-06-14T07:11:22.757-04:00Comments on Exile on Plain Street: Measures of Waits Part Two: "Beat Out the Dustman"Seth Peaglerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01806292374068671954noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665713763624541378.post-13333151698445092582011-05-12T14:44:11.716-04:002011-05-12T14:44:11.716-04:00Thanks, Henry. I'm glad you're enjoying th...Thanks, Henry. I'm glad you're enjoying the Waits pieces. I'm a little behind on part 3, but have several notes to draw from once I sit down to finish it, probably not until after HeroesCon. Hope it's worth the wait. And as you might have already known, "Rain Dogs" is still one of my favorites Waits albums.Seth Peaglerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01806292374068671954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665713763624541378.post-76685401047108114622011-05-12T11:36:56.664-04:002011-05-12T11:36:56.664-04:00I’m actually angry with myself that it took me so ...I’m actually angry with myself that it took me so long to find the time to read your take on Tom’s Eighties output. But, once I did sit on down and stare at the screen for a while, I found myself well pleased with what I read. I agree with you very much that over his 3 albums of that decade, Waits is moving well beyond working within the sphere of his influences and is bravely forging new ground as a strange and singular creature imbued with his own cacophonous sense of the world. I’ll have to admit that the first time I heard “Swordfishtrombones” it confused the hell out of me. I guess it still seems like a strangely put together affair even now even though I’ve come to really like many of its oddities. “Rain Dogs,” on the other hand, is a record I took to at first listen and that means a lot to me now. You’re totally right about how it is the perfect distillation of this era of his career. Where I find both “Swordfishtrombones” and “Frank’s Wild Years” a little disjointed from song to song, “Rain Dogs” perfectly builds an environment, a time, a place and it takes you there and you can exist in the record for as long as it plays. Seriously, one of my favorite records in the world. The theatrical elements of “Frank’s Wild Years” will reassert themselves later on in “Bone Machine” (thinking especially of “Earth Died Screaming” and “In the Coliseum”) and in the still perplexing to me “The Black Rider” and I’ll be even yet more interested by your thoughts there. Anyhow, I’m really enjoying these reads about one of my favorite musicians ever, keep up the fine work and remember to never drive a car when you’re dead.Henry Eudyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04003440480802849915noreply@blogger.com