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The next time someone asks me what Tom Waits sounds like, I’m going to play them “Cannon Song.” It’s not the best Tom Waits song, but it might be the most Tom Waits song. Playing this for a newbie is like teaching someone to swim by hurling them in the deep end and just seeing what happens. Even Captain Beefheart might hear this monstrous beatbox growlfest and think, maybe tone it down a little.
“Cannon Song” comes from The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill (music) and Bertolt Brecht (lyrics). Tom is clearly a fan of the play, having also covered at least two other songs from it, “Mack the Knife” and “What Keeps Mankind Alive?” The former he did live back in ‘87; the latter came from the early Hal Willner-helmed tribute album Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill.
That album also features The Fowler Brothers and Stan Ridgway’s version of “Cannon Song,” in case you want a comparison point. This less bellow-and-beatboxed version is closer to what you’d see in a typical Threepenny Opera production.
I can’t figure out what Tom originally recorded “Cannon Song” for. Was Tom’s buddy Willner planning a third volume in his Kurt Weill tributes series at some point (the second hadn’t included Waits)? At any rate, the outtake eventually got released on Orphans. Well, it was actually an orphan from Orphans – left off the original box set, but included as a vinyl bonus track three years later. It’s advanced-level Tom Waits. Which, if you’re the sort of person who reads this newsletter, you’re ready for.
Pure punk. J’adore!