The Black Rider

It’s a rare thing when a soundtrack we listen to is not based in either film or television, but from a stage show. [All theatre people, please keep your shit together. I’m talking about regular people here] But as a student of theatre in what seems like a previous life, I can both acknowledge & appreciate the beauty in creating something simply for a live performance.

Admittedly, I’ve never seen the show. It’s only been put into production a handful of times around the world. But believe me when I say that if ever your were able to listen to something and get a crystal clear picture of what it would have been like….this is it.

The play ‘The Black Rider: The Casting of Magic Bullets’ was created as a collaboration in 1988 by three guys. A director, a writer and a musician. The director Robert Wilson, was widely known as the world’s most Avant-Garde theatre artist. [he’s 75 now]. But it’s the writer’s and musician’s collaboration that really fueled my love for this soundtrack.

Tom Waits & William Burroughs are not exactly your run of the mill, make it sound wonderfully perfect, “Are the sequined leotards finished yet…” kind of theatre folk. Which is why it works so friggen well. My love for Waits is not exactly a secret, but if you have had any experience with the beat writers like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg or even Charles Bukowski, you can immediately be transported to the essence of what Burroughs was trying to bring out in this ultimately tragic story.

A story that is has been said to have parallels to Burroughs own life, it tells a gut wrenching tale of a man who pays the worst of prices after making a deal with the devil to gain the hand of his beloved. Geez, it just sounds like something Tom Waits would offhandedly fart after his morning coffee. The gritty, raw world that is Waits shapes this album [and I’m sure in retrospect the play] in a way that leaves you feeling a melancholy kind of sad but in the most beautiful way.

It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. In fact, it’s probably not most anyone’s cup of tea. But thats why I love it. I have always had a fascination with the shadow side of life even though I am lucky enough not to have gone through what I can’t imagine some have to. But when artists who do work for the sake of work and not profit, there is a realness that shines through and gives you a gift that is nigh on impossible to find in the ocean of commercial shit shoved down our ever expanding throats.

Made up of more than a handful of these weird and wonderful tracks, I will touch on a few of my favourites. But please realise that if you actually give this entire album a listen [which I don’t blame you if you don’t] it begins to make more sense as a whole and then proceeds to grow on you like the sweet, musty drunk smell of your favourite uncle who pops in every third Tuesday because his ‘supposed’ AA meeting is three streets up.

‘The Black Rider’ is very simple in its essence. Beginning with what feels like a travelling carnival feel, it immediately sets an off kilter tone that opens the door for pretty much anything. Tom uses some old school instruments throughout this album, but more specifically on this track an instrument called a calliope which is essentially a steam powered organ used in that carnival age on the back of a horse drawn cart just re enforces the random unpredictable nature of these tracks. [I really do love the decisions Tom Waits makes]

A beautiful track called ‘November’ is so innately morbid that it reads like a eulogy for the world’s saddest poet. And maybe he really is. But the real artistry behind his musicality lies in his ability to make you love it because he taps into some part of you that really does feel like this.

‘Flash Pan Hunter’ is a track that doesn’t really stand out, but as a consequence of my upbringing, it reminds me of the old ‘Peter and the Wolf’ score from an age ago. We used to have it on vinyl when I was young and the oboe is so prominent in both scores that I naturally warm to the soft deepness of what an oboe can bring to a piece of music.

‘Crossroads’…well, it just jumps out at you like a Marlboro smoking cowboy. It takes a blues curve and could be found on any Waits album over the years. A change up like this is the hallmark of both Waits & Burroughs and keeps the journey fresh.

I have two favourites though. First is ‘The Russian Dance’. Back to our carni feel, it’s a cross between Eastern European Gypsy music and Zorba the Greek. Like Zorba, it is so powerful in its nature. A track without lyrics [apart from the gruff countdown in the middle] it feels like a celebration song that always makes me feel like drinking shots of hard liquor afterward.

Finally, I was actually introduced to this album in 1996 by a dear friend of mine Christine Bauer who would randomly sing this last track to me whilst in the middle of meaningless everyday tasks. It became so frequent that to this day, I still do it. Mostly without anyone really knowing why.

‘I’ll Shoot the Moon’ is one of the most beautifully romantic songs written about the death of someone you love. It seems to call out that side of yourself which understands that even when the worst thing we can imagine happens, no matter how wrong it seems to the rest of the world, how strangely others may see you or how alone it makes you feel, that part of you that is only truly seen by yourself, is actually the part you value most.

If you have the time to listen to it…do it. Just once.

This one’s for you Christine x

M /