Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Franks Wild Years

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Released
  
17 August 1987

Franks Wild Years (1987)
  
Big Time (1988)

Release date
  
17 August 1987

Label
  
Island Records

Length
  
55:34

Artist
  
Tom Waits

Producer
  
Tom Waits

Franks Wild Years httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaeneebFra

Recorded
  
Universal Recording, Chicago, Illinois, The Sound Factory and Sunset Sound, Hollywood, California

Genres
  
Rock music, Jazz, Experimental rock, Alternative rock, Experimental music

Similar
  
Tom Waits albums, Experimental music albums

Franks Wild Years is an album by Tom Waits, released 1987 on Island Records. Subtitled "Un Operachi Romantico in Two Acts", the album contains songs written by Waits and collaborators (mainly his wife, Kathleen Brennan) for a play of the same name. The shared title of the album and the play is an iteration of "Frank's Wild Years", a song from Waits' 1983 album Swordfishtrombones.

Contents

The play had its world premiere at the Briar St. Theatre in Chicago, Illinois on June 22, 1986, performed by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

Various versions of "Way Down in the Hole" were used as the theme music for the HBO series The Wire, including Waits' original version for the second season. The songs "Temptation" and "Cold Cold Ground" were used in Jean-Claude Lauzon's film LĂ©olo (1992). "Cold Cold Ground" was also used in the series Homicide: Life on the Street. "Temptation" and "Straight to the Top (Vegas)" featured in the film Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), and "Innocent When You Dream" featured in the film Smoke (1995).

Track listing

Tracks written by Tom Waits, except where noted. Recorded by Danny Leake and Biff Dawes. Mixed by Biff Dawes at Sunset Sound, Hollywood, California.

Side One

Side Two

Musicians

  • Jay Anderson - bass
  • Michael Blair - drums, conga, percussion, maracas, marimba, orchestra bells, glockenspiel
  • Kathleen Brennan - vocal arrangements
  • Angela Brown - background vocals
  • Les Warner - drums
  • Richard Battin - guitar
  • Ralph Carney - sax, baritone horn, violin, tenor sax
  • Greg Cohen- bass, alto horn, horn arrangements, Leslie bass pedals
  • David Hidalgo - accordion
  • Leslie Holland - background vocals
  • Lynne Jordan - background vocals
  • Marc Ribot - guitar, banjo
  • William Schimmel - piano, pump organ, accordion, Leslie bass pedals, cocktail piano
  • Larry Taylor - bass, upright bass
  • Moris Tepper - guitar
  • Francis Thumm - prepared piano, pump organ
  • Tom Waits - vocals, pump organ, Optigan, guitar, vocal stylings, rooster, piano, Farfisa, Mellotron, drums, conga, tambourine
  • Songs

    1Hang on St Christopher2:46
    2Straight to the Top2:30
    3Blow Wind Blow3:34

    References

    Franks Wild Years Wikipedia