Tom Waits - Frankie's Starter (2025)

• Tom Wait’s tenth studio album, Franks Wild Years, was released in 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. • Waits had devised the idea of a musical play, Franks Wild Years, which would be loosely based on the eponymous song. In late 1985, he reached an agreement that the play would be performed by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago's Briar Street Theatre for a three-month stretch from June 1986. During the show, Waits starred as the central character, Frank. Reviews were generally positive. He had initially considered a run in New York City, but decided against it. The songs from the show were recorded at Universal Recording Studios for the subsequent album. The play had its world premiere at the Briar St. Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, on June 22, 1986. • The demos for Frank's Wild Years are rough sketches performed with acoustic guitar, pump organ, piano and some percussion. The arrangements are illustrations for the cast of the original theatrical production, whereas the official Frank's Wild Years album not only introduces material new to the original show, but also features new arrangements throughout. • Bonus cuts on this new CD release (tracks 14 - 24) include demo takes of numbers from previous albums/projects, including six (19 - 24) from his 1982 soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s movie One from The Heart.