The Black Rider - Tom Waits

In a previous lifetime (1992, first marriage, first house, first pickup truck) I was driving home one day from work and heard this really bizarre song on the radio. The band sorta wheezed along, the drummer smashed and clattered away, and the 'singer' was doing his best drunken Louis Armstrong imitation. The song was just finishing as I pulled into my driveway (a gravel driveway....the sound of tires on it used to remind me of 'home'...but later reminded me of a marriage gone sour and a dead-end job....but anyway...) so I had to sit there for a while until the college kid dj told me.....well, nothing. No announcement. Nuts.

So I go to work the next day and mention it to a coworker, and he immediately says "Oh ya, that's Tom Waits!!". So it turns out to be "Pasties and a G-String". I bought Small Change that afternoon.

The Black Rider might just be one of Waits' odder recordings. But this week has been kinda odd (in fact, I picked this cd over Radiohead's Hail To The Thief) and this music fits it perfectly.

(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)