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tom waits ~ the black rider

Somewhere at the Hell Hilton, Tom Waits sits at a piano strung with wire fashioned from human souls, all of them his. Waits has spent the last twenty years writing deep, introspective investigations of the dark side of existence. The Black Rider provides an excellent forum for Waits' talent.

Long having given up on the prospect of mainstream success, or perhaps just a desire to stick in the craw of less enlightened types, Waits abandoned his traditional whiskey-and-a-cigarette blues for a more avante garde style in the early 80s. Dissonant, vaudevillian arrangements and chaotic woodwinds befit the otherworldly theme of Waits' latest work.

Based on Gespensterbuch, a piece of German romantic literature first published in 1811, The Black Rider tells the tale of a clerk who makes a deal with the devil for the hand of his lady love. In true romantic fashion, the deal goes awry, lots of blood and gore ensues, and the clerk ends up another string in Waits' piano.

Here in the mortal realms, the Black Rider project took over four years to bring to recorded version. The german stage production, directed by Robert Wilson, wowed audiences across Europe and won Waits praise for his sarcastic ballads full of traditional melodies and scarred idealism.

Trying to work with the original Black Rider Orchestra was an exercise in patience. Waits recalls, "They were all from different backgrounds; some came from a strict classical world. Others were discovered playing in the train station and my crude way of working took some getting used to for them and I had to learn a language to communicate with them and still keep the spontaneity alive."

Unfortunately; time, distance and the need for new piano strings took its toll and Waits was forced to form a new Black Rider Orchestra stateside. Fortunately, Waits was able to reenlist the aid of original collaborator William Burroughs, another crazy old coot appreciated only by the hip and cool.

Says Waits of the not-so-unlikely pairing, "William Burroughs was as solid as a metal desk and his text was the branch this bundle would swing from. His cut up text and open process of finding a language for this story became a river of words for me to draw from in the lyrics for the songs. He brought a wisdom and a voice to the piece that is woven throughout.”

The original production and cast of The Black Rider makes its U.S. debut November 20 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn. NY. Here's hoping the show makes it this far west - they're sure to need more piano wire sooner or later.

published November 01993, In Music Magazine