The Black Rider

In some ways, this is like a lot of Waits' other work, but in other ways, it's completely different. It's got all his grit, of course, but as far as I know Waits doesn't have another operatic concept album like this. (He has the "Franks Wild Years" show, but it was never made into a concept album.) Also, this is the only time he strikes me as creepy (not throughout, just in spots). This album isn't as highly regarded as his giant albums, but I think it's worth anyone's time to give it a close listen. It'll make you wince until it goes down smooth and you're craving more. Basically, this is the creative result of a theatrical collaboration Waits had with a stage director and the famous Beat generation writer William S. Burroughs. This opera is a retelling of the German "Freischütz" myth, about a gunslinger who makes a deal with the Devil for a number of magic bullets that unerringly hit their targets. All but one. In a classic Faustian twist, there's one bullet that's under control of the Devil. In this story, a mild-mannered clerk makes the deal to win the hand of a huntsman's daughter. He must prove his worth as a hunter, and with the magic bullets he does, but on his wedding day, the final bullet under Satan's control kills the clerk's young bride. And in a Greek tragedy parallel, the clerk, like Orpheus in his inconsolable grief, disappears from society. Orpheus is driven to wandering and drink, and in the end he is torn apart by Dionysus' maenads. The clerk joins Satan's carnival, losing his heart, soul, and mind to the infernal pleasures of the circus. This work first appeared as a play in 1990 in Hamburg before being arranged into a concept album.