Damn.

mikerot 28 Jan 2015

The song that turned me on to Waits. Here he uses an old English folk melody, heard also in "House of the Rising Sun" (The Animals) and "Matty Groves." The structure of "House" dates to 18th-century tabloid ballads. In 1930s Kentucky, folklorist Alan Lomax documented two versions of what he called "The Rising Sun Blues" -- one sung by a 16-year-old miner's daughter. In the 60s, The Animals' Eric Burdon heard that ode to an addict's downfall in a Newcastle club. The ballad "Matty Groves" dates to the 17th century and tells of adultery -- Lady sleeping with a bullish young man, Lord killing both in a rage. Waits's take on the melody combines the foreboding tales of its predecessors. His narrator, purveyor of profligacy, goes mad from the conflict between his devotion to Lucinda and her demand for the "bell in [his] soul." Obsession kills its object; he is "the jewel of her sin." And so Waits leaves an ashen, gravelly trail 'cross history...   3

iprefernotto 7 Sep 2014