È tornato!
È tornato a raccontarci le sue storie sbilenche e stralunate, che parlano, come lui stesso ha detto, di “mamma, liquori, treni e morte, politica, topi, guerra, impiccagioni, balli, pirati, fattorie, peccati.” È tornato con le sue e le nostre paure tradotte in musica. È tornato ed è cambiato, anche se ha lo stesso spirito. È tornato ed ha portato con sé alcuni vecchi e nuovi amici a farci compagnia. È tornato, ma non era mai andato via, perché la sua musica è sempre stata con noi ogni giorno di questa fottutissima vita.
Quanto tempo è passato dall’ultima volta? Sei anni? Già sono passati sei anni da “Mule Variations” e in questo lasso di tempo Tom Waits ha pubblicato in un sol colpo “soltanto” due album, che teneva in qualche cassetto da anni: “Alice” e “Blood e Money”. Insomma, sono passati sì sei anni ed è stata una dolce attesa, ma pur sempre densa di curiosità per questo “Real Gone”. Le voci, poi, aumentavano l’impazienza. Si sapeva da qualche tempo che Waits avrebbe lavorato, oltre che con il fedelissimo Marc Ribot, anche con Brian Mantia e Les Claypool dei Primus; inoltre, era certa la decisiva e costante presenza della moglie Kathleen Brennan, cui doveva aggiungersi quella del figlio X Casey Waits.
Finita l’attesa ecco la prova del fuoco:l’ascolto. Poche note sono state sufficienti per convincermi che valeva la pena aspettare così tanto, perché Real Gone è un capolavoro. Spiegare brevemente il perché non è però cosa facile, sono, infatti, innumerevoli gli spunti su cui ci si potrebbe soffermare. Prima di tutto spicca l’assenza del pianoforte, che Waits ha deciso di tralasciare per ricercare nuove strade. Questo fatto non sorprende più di tanto, dato che nella sua lunga carriera (25 dischi dal 1973) Waits ha cambiato pelle diverse volte. Il passaggio alla Anti sei anni fa, poteva rappresentare un ulteriore gradino nello stadio evolutivo dell’arte di Tom, ma, per quanto bello, “Mule Variations” non era un disco inconsueto e innovativo. Ma l’attesa paga come dicevo poc’anzi, perché “Real Gone” è un nuovo inizio per il vate di Pomona. Fin dal principio (“Top of the hill”) ci si rende conto del cambiamento.
La sua voce è sempre ruvida e graffiante, ma il ritmo “funk cubista” è devastante, scatenante, pulsa nelle vene. Si comprende subito che vuole esaltare la forza ritmica della sua voce. Quindi, ascoltando, si ha come l’impressione di fare un viaggio nella caldaia di una locomotiva in corsa, di passeggiare stancamente in una notte senza luna, nera come la pece lungo strade luride e deserte, di nuotare in un oceano di veleno, di stare in un corridoio lunghissimo, stretto, pieno di curve e nicchie, dalle quali ogni tanto spunta all’improvviso il suono di un carillon, un banjo o un rumore, come una fucilata, che diventa ritmo, che ti entra nel sangue, non abbandonandoti un istante. “Don’t go into the barn”, ad esempio, è un’inquieta danza vudù, così trascinante che non puoi pensare di non prendere parte alla cerimonia. Ma non mancano ballate venate di quella sporca e amara malinconia che solo lui sa regalare, “How’s it gonna end” ad esempio e una piccola sorpresa come la ghost track "Chicka Boom". La chitarra di Marc Ribot, poi, mai come in questo caso sembra esistere solo per la voce di Waits.
So già che lo cullerò per anni. So che lo ascolterò fino a sentirmi male, fino all’esasperazione. Ne succhierò ogni nota, ogni minimo frammento e particolare, lacerandomi, distruggendomi come se stessi assaporando lentamente un dolce veleno. Perché la bellezza va vissuta fino allo spasmo.
Sì, è tornato!
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
03 Sins of My Father (10:36)
God said don't give me your tin horn prayers
Don't buy roses off the street down there
Took it all and took the dirt road home
Dreamin' of Jenny with the light brown hair
Night is fallin' like a bloody axe
Lies and rumours and the wind at my back
Hand on the wheel, gravel on the road
Will the pawn shop sell me back
What I sold
I'm gonna take the sins of my father
I'm gonna take the sins of my mother
I'm gonna take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond
Birds cry warnin' from a hidden branch
Carvin' out a future with a gun and an axe
I'm way beyond the gavel and the laws of man
Still livin' in the palm on the grace of your hand
World's not easy the blind man said
Turns on nothin' but money and dread
Dog's been scratchin' at the door all night
Long neck birds flyin' out of the moon light
I'm gonna take the sins of my father
I'm gonna take the sins of my mother
I'm gonna take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond
Down to the pond
Smack dab in the middle of a dirty lie
Star - spangled glitter of his one good eye
Everybody knows that the game was rigged
Justice wears suspenders and a powdered wig
Dark town alley been hidin' you
Long bell tollin' your Waterloo
Oh baby, what can you do?
Does the light of God blind you
Or lead the way home for you?
I'm gonna take the sins of my father
Take the sins of my mother
I'm gonna take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond
Down to the pond
I'm gonna take the sins of my father
Take the sins of my mother
Take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond
Down to the pond
God all mighty for righteousness sake
Humiliation of our fallen state
Writ' me the book of tubold Cain
Long black overcoat will show no stain
Feel the heat and the burn on your back
The rip and the moan and the stretch of the rack
All my belongings in a flour sack
I'm gonna take the sons of my father
Take the sins of my mother
Take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond
Down to the pond
Hang me in the mornin' on a scaffold yea big
To dance upon nothin' to the tyborn jig
Treats you like a puppet when your under his spell
Oh, the heart is Heaven
But the mind is Hell
Jesus of Nazareth told Mike of the weeds
Is born at this time for a reason you see
When i'm dead i'll be dead a long time
The wine's so pleasin' and so sublime
I'm gonna take the sins of my father
Take the sins of my mother
I'm gonna take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond
Down to the pond
Kissed my sweetheart by the chinaball tree
Everything I done is between God and me
Only He will judge how my time was spent
Twenty - nine days of sinnin'
And forty to repent
The horse is steady but the horse is blind
Wicked are the branches on the tree of mankind
Roots grow upward and the branches grow down
It's much too late to throw the dice again
I've found
I'm gonna take the sins of my father
Take the sins of my mother
Gonna take the sins of my brother
Down to the pond
I'm gonna wash them
I'm gonna wash them
I'm gonna wash the sins of my father
I'm gonna wash the sins of my mother
Wash the sins of my brother
'Til the water runs clear
'Til the water runs clear
'Til the water runs clear
04 Shake It (03:52)
Strip Poker Motel
Got a small blue tail
Hot ice, cold cash
I never been no good at staying out of jail
Wheel spin, roulette
Who's giving, don't get
Ripped shirt, black eye
Tuxedo, bow tie
Dark sound, straight road
Get lost, get loaded
Enlisted men, off duty
Stolen clouds, dark beauty
Cold gun, wild rose
Night clerk, door closed
Lie down baby
Your love is a faucet
Called China, cell phone
Chun King, not home
You know I feel like a preacher waving a gun around
Shake it, shake it. shake it baby!
Shake it, shake it, shake it now
Shake it, shake it, shake it baby
Shake it, shake it, shake it now
Shake it, shake it, shake it baby
Shake it, shake it, shake it now
Outside, it's damp
Put a towel on that lamp
You look hot in this light
I can love you all night
Shoes off, hair down
Got a pink night gown
Mike Tyson, KO'ed
On the wild, blue road
Small town, straight road
That rooster, done crowed
Flat tire, homemade cross
You know I feel like a preacher waving a gun around
Shake it, shake it, shake it baby!
Shake it, shake it, shake it now
Shake it. shake it, shake it baby
Shake it, shake it, shake it now
07 Metropolitan Glide (04:13)
Are you ready!?
Are you ready!?
Are you ready!?
Knocky Parker told Bowlegged Sal
They all know how to kick it in Cal
They're playing this dope and this-a money tune
Dancing baby with a 7 mile broom
Things are bulging out the rafters like hell
Down there at the Hush Hotel
They're jumping right out of their seats,
dancing to the bran' new beat
Do the Metropolitan Glide
Do the Metropolitan Glide
The floor is polished and your momma's gone
You can quake and roll and moan
29 gypsies in a Cadillac stoned
Turn off the ringer on your cellular phone
Whip the air like a Rainbow Trout
Drag your tail pipe till you bottom out
Do the Metropolitan Glide
Do the Metropolitan Glide
Hey! Hey!
Do the Metropolitan Glide
The low bottom of the China moon
The black swan and the way too soon
Ace pocket and the dog bone gone
The peacock and the mean black swan
The rain shower and high heeled shoe
Bombay money and I know I can do it
The sink hole and the victory dance
It's in the pocket in the real tight pants
Do.... the Metropolitan Glide
Do.... the Metropolitan Glide
Hey!
The Metropolitan!
The Metropolitan!
Show your teeth, bray like a calf
You kill me with your machine gun laugh
You make me trouble with the floor that's creaking
I've been ready to ka-boom for a week
Put on your stockings and your powder and blush
Keep it all on the hush, hush, hush
Do..... the Metropolitan Glide
Do..... the Metropolitan Glide
Do..... the Metropolitan Glide
Do..... the Metropolitan Glide
The Metropolitan!
Do..... the Metropolitan Glide
Do..... the Metropolitan Glide
08 Dead and Lovely (05:40)
She was a middle class girl
She was in over her head
She thought she would
Stand up in the deep end
He had a bullet proof smile
He had money to burn
She thought she had the moon
In her pocket
But now she's dead
She's so dead
Forever dead and lovely now
I've always been told to
Remember this...
Don't let a fool kiss you
Never marry for love
He was hard to impress
He knew everyone's secrets
He wore her on his arm
Just like jewelry
He never gave but he got
He kept her on a leash
He's not the kind of wheel
You fall asleep at
But now she's dead
Forever dead
Forever dead and lovely now
Come closer
Look deeper
You're falling fast
Just like a plane on a
Stormy sea
She made up someone to be
She made up somewhere to be from
This is one business in the
World where that's no
Problem at all
Everything that is left
They will only plow under
Soon every one you know
Will be gone
And now she's dead
Forever dead
Forever dead and lovely now
Now she's dead
Forever dead
Forever dead and lovely now
I've always been told to
Remember this...
Don't let a kiss fool you
Never marry for love
Everything has it's price
Everything has it's place
What's more romantic
Than dying in the moonlight?
Now they're all watching the sea
What's lost can never be broken
Her roots were sweet
But they were so shallow
And now she's dead
Forever dead
Forever dead and lovely now
And now she's dead
Forever dead
And she's so dead and lovely now
09 Circus (03:56)
We put up our tent on a dark
Green knoll, outside of town by
The train tracks and a seagull dump
Topping the bill was Horse Face Ethel
And her 'Marvellous Pigs In Satin'
We pounded our stakes in the ground
All powder brown
And the branches spread like scary
Fingers reaching
We were in a pasture outside Kankakee
And One Eyed Myra, the queen of
The galley who trained the
Ostrich and the camels
She looked at me squinty with her
One good eye in a Roy Orbison
T-shirt as she bottle fed
An orangutan named Tripod
And then there was
Yodeling Elaine the
Queen of the air who wore a
Dollar sign medallion and she
Had a tiny bubble of spittle
Around her nostril and a
Little rusty tear, for she had
Lassoed and lost another
Tipsy sailor
And over in
The burnt yellow tent
By the frozen tractor, the
Music was like electric sugar
And Zuzu Bolin played
'Stavin' Chain' and Mighty
Tiny on the saw and he
Threw his head back with a
Mouth full of gold teeth
And they played 'Lopsided heart'
And 'Moon over Dog Street'
And by the time they played "Moanin Low"
I was soakin' wet and wild eyed
And Doctor Bliss slipped me a
Preparation and I fell asleep with
'Livery Stable Blues' in my ear
And me and Molley Hoey drank
Pruno and Koolaid and she had a
Tattoo gun made out of a cassette
Motor and a guitar string and
She soaked a hanky in 3 Roses
And rubbed it on the spot
And drew a rickety heart and
A bent arrow and it hurt like hell
And Funeral Wells spun
Poodle Murphy on the target
As he threw his hardware,
Only once in Sheboygan did he miss
At a matinee on Diamond Pier and
She'd never let him forget it
They were doing two shows and she
Had a high fever and he took
Off a piece of her ear and
Tip Little told her she should
Leave the bum
But Poodle said, "He fetched me
Last time I run."
But I'd like to hammer this ring into a bullet
And I wish I had some whiskey and a gun
My dear
And I wish I had some whiskey and a gun
My dear
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di NickGhostDrake
"The fucking grooves man è tornato a picchiare con le vecchie dita su qualsiasi cosa ululando inni di redenzione."
"Day after tomorrow è la violenta accusa di un artista immenso alla volgare guerra irachena e ai signori del potere."
Di vonhesse
Il vecchio Tom si è rimboccato le maniche e ha creato dal fango, dal sudore e dalle lacrime un disco che lascerà molti adepti dietro di sé.
Diavolo di un Tom, come diamine farai adesso a superarti?
Di Testaverde
"REAL GONE rappresenta l'ennesima riprova che Waits, quando ne ha voglia, sa fare musica."
"SINS OF MY FATHER... Tutto quello che l’arte della nota, dai tempi dei monaci del Medio Evo, ha partorito e sviluppato, si trova in quella traccia."
