week 2:
for love of mixtapes; god is a dj (and his name is fred); wyclef returns; A-HA RETURNS (!); the twenty greatest songs ever scientifically determined by a three man panel consisting of me, myself and i; oh, and, boobs.

week 3:
get drawn to the magnetic fields; three movies that are grossly overrated; some of the greatest movies...ever; xtc murders love...again; james brown breaks out in a "cold sweat"; morrissey and springsteen...separated at birth?; i bare my soul...again; and MORE!

week 4:
gladiator slays me, eminem and xtc reviews, a new look!, i poke fun at my own writing, the inmates take over the asylum, and MORE!

other blogs i like:
(because they're out there, you know)
nylpm
blue lines
josh's blog
westernhomes
log.nu
skykicking
pearls that are his eyes
catherine's pita
public blog
i drank WHAT?
cultural artifacts of the moment
frytopia

TOM WAITS - "A LITTLE RAIN"

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beginning with swordfishtrombones, tom waits reposited himself as a kid in a candy store. except this kid has advanced throat cancer and a few screws loose, and the candy store is more like a garage filled with tools and the most obscure instruments ever. this sound was a stark contrast to the traditional singer-songwriter (and i do use "traditional" usely -- not many songwriters have had a persona as ornery as tom waits') records he made prior to 1983.

the more you read this blog, the more you'll learn about my musical tastes, so in this instance i'll spell them out. i much preferred those earlier records to his more recent output (though 1999's excellent mule variations was a good career survey). so imagine my surprise at stumbling across this song on perhaps his most dissonant album, 1992's grammy award-winning bone machine.

"a little rain" is among the most tuneful, most flat-out wonderful tunes he's ever written. it's not very complex -- barring a bridge, the melody repeats over and over -- but, oh, what a heart-wringing melody, and what evocative, heart-rending lyrics. waits, unlike any other songwriter i can think of, has the uncanny ability to throw out a slew of surreal images, and then somehow link them all together with one poignant, simple verse. in this case, amidst ice men with mules and dancing german dwarves, the last verse tells the story of a young girl who never saw the ocean and got into a van with a vagabond, her last words were, "i love you, mom."

corny? on paper, yes, but somehow, with that sandpapered larynx of his, he delivers this straightforward passage and it just works. and that is the magic of tom waits.