Music Arcades: Tom Waits: The Black Rider

I got this very soon after it came out at the end of 1993. The combination of Robert Wilson, William Burroughs and Tom Waits was too good to miss. But the CD didn't seem to stand very well on its own. More than that it was a difficult listen: normally I like to rise to a challenge, but at the time this was just that bit too difficult.

I put the CD back on the shelf and probably didn't dig it out again until ten and a half years later (shit, was already five years ago?) when the full stage show of The Black Rider came to the Barbican. Somehow it was a disappointment again, not the best of Wilson, Burroughs or Waits. It didn't help that Marianne Faithfull was cast as Pegleg (the devil) and just wasn't up to it on the night we went; she was completely outshone by Mary Margaret O'Hara.

And then back on the shelf until this afternoon. It's funny how yesterday's challenges seem like today's commonplaces. Well, Oily Night is still an ugly sound, but I guess it's meant to be that way. And the many of the rest of the songs now, like That's the Way have a gentle charm. Not sure why it is that everything uncomfortable — from The Rite of Spring to The Residents — ends up being as cosy as old slippers. It would be nice to think that we've broadened our minds, but, more likely, it's just that the wind and tide rub the sharp edges off everything.