The other album released by Waits in 1992 would be his second movie soundtrack, though this one would be mostly instrumental. Having worked with director Jim Jarmusch on
Down by Law, Waits hooked up with him again to score the movie
Night on Earth, about five different taxi drivers and their passengers in five different cities on the same night. Kathleen had, again, some small input into this album, though she had obviously acquired a taste for songwriting, which she would carry later into the writing of
Bone Machine, on which you can certainly hear her love of Beefheart begin to really take hold, and to exert its power over her husband.
Night On Earth Original Soundtrack (1992)
It gets underway with a very “Singapore”-like track, with congas and accordion, slow in the vein of “More Than Rain” but with that sort of cracked, growly voice Waits had adopted since
Franks Wild Years. “Back in the Good Old World” starts the album off well, and is one of only three vocal tracks as we move into “Los Angeles Mood (Chromium Descensions)”, with marimba and cello trailing along the sides of the track like drunks carefully navigating their way along a sidestreet, feedback shooting back like the glaring headlights of cars that narrowly miss them on their inebriated stroll. It's a slow, almost heartbeat rhythm that drives the piece, with some wailing guitar added in, while the companion piece, “Los Angeles Theme (Another Private Dick)” runs on smoky lonely sax from that right into a sort of Peter Gunn idea, with rockabilly guitar and horn. It shuffles along nicely as the guitar and sax trade licks like two gangsters trying to outboast each other.
You can hear moods from
Rain Dogs and
Franks Wild Years go off here and there, and I'd wonder if some of this music was not written during those sessions but never used? “New York Theme (Hey, You Can Have That Heart Attack Outside Buddy)” switches things up with a piano lead yet retaining the basic melody of the previous track, quite a honky-tonk idea in the music, sax still there but somehow it's more upmarket in a way yet sleazy too. Great bassline, like the one from “Diamonds On My Windshield” but slightly slower. This of course then gives way to “New York Mood (New Haircut and a Busted Lip)” which takes the theme but slows it right down, removing the piano and allowing the sax to take centre stage as the bass follows along.
There's a big, crunching, striding swing melody then for “Baby, I'm Not a Baby Anymore (Beatrice Theme)” with some banjo but driven on the alto sax of Ralph Carney, who plays a hell of a lot of instruments on this album. “Good Old World (Waltz)” is exactly that, a slow waltzing rhythm driven on accordion and violin that circles around like two dancers oblivious to everything around them, then “Carnival (Brunello del Montalcino)” kind of takes that basic melody and puts a ragtime spin on it, throwing in organ and strange horn sounds as well as odd percussion in that way Waits does so well. The second vocal track is next, as Waits croaks his way through a rather tender and French-tinged “On the Other Side of the World”. There's been so much instrumental music at this point that the first time you hear him sing again it comes as something of a surprise, but of course a pleasant one. Some great minimalistic banjo here from Joe Gore, to say nothing of Carney's sublime clarinet work.
There's another version of “Back in the Good Old World”, this time an instrumental, possibly a little indulgent though it is a great song, and then we're travelling again with “Paris Mood (Un de fromage)” which kind of tippy-toes around the main theme with really less French flavour about it than some of the other tracks, despite the accordion used, but my favourite on the album, certainly title-wise, is “Dragging a Dead Priest”: the images it conjures up! Musically, it has that great screeching, scratching sound that, yeah, does give the impression of someone hauling a heavy weight through the streets. Very atonal and some cool off-kilter percussion really makes this track stand out I feel. Sort of a moan in there for good measure (hey buddy, you
sure this priest is dead?) then “Helsinki Mood” skitters along as if hoping not to be seen, the same basic theme again running through the music, which is fine I guess as they're all supposed to relate to one another.
“Carnival Bob's Confession” has a nice uptempo feel to it and steps away from the main theme, with some cool horns and crashing drums again
a la “Singapore”. Climbing violins really help as does some accordion and some other weird instruments I'm not even going to try to identify. We then get a vocal version of “Good Old World (Waltz)”, and it's quite nice to hear it. Reversing that, then, the album closes with an instrumental version of “On the Other Side of the World”.
TRACKLISTING
1. Back in the Good Old World (Gypsy)
2. Los Angeles Mood (Chromium Descensions)
3. Los Angeles theme (Another private dick)
4. New York Mood (Hey, You Can Have That Heart Attack outside Buddy)
5. New York Theme (A New Haircut and a Busted Lip)
6. Baby, I'm not a baby anymore (Beatrice Theme)
7. Good Old World (Waltz)
8. Carnival (Brunello del Montalcino
9. On the Other Side of the World
10. Good Old World (Gypsy Instrumental)
11. Paris Mood (Un de fromage)
12. Dragging a Dead Priest
13. Helsinki Mood
14. Carnival Bob's Confession
15. Good Old World (Waltz)
16. On the Other Side of the World
It's been a while since I listened to this album, and I must say I find that it has a lot of flaws. While the music is great, so much of it is merely variations on a central theme that it's easy to get the tracks confused. I know that's because of the nature of the movie, where each story crosses over into the other and all end up intertwined into one great tapestry, but I feel this doesn't give Waits the freedom to be as versatile as he normally is. I wouldn't go so far as to say that once you've heard one track on this album you've heard them all, but in some cases - far too many - it does seem as if he's just repeating himself, altering the melody slightly or adding things in, but basically sticking to the one general tune.
There are exceptions of course. “Dragging a Dead Priest” is nothing like anything else on the album, and “Carnival Bob's Confession” stands out on its own, but much of the rest can be almost lumped together as one melody, and that's a pity, because while Waits does infuse certain pieces that refer to cities with something that makes it their own, identifies with it - New York with the bar piano, Paris with the accordion, etc. - it's a little cliched, a little expected, and one thing we have learned about Waits is that he usually shies from the usual, the typical, and surprises us at every turn.
Although it's a soundtrack album, and can be given something of a pass because of that, it's still miles behind
One From the Heart, which was a much more varied and interesting album. Less than six months later he would enter the studio again and record a
real Waits album, that would reaffirm his delight in confounding, thrilling and surprising us, and though this is a good soundtrack it would soon be forgotten in the wake of the release of
Bone Machine, as it should be.
Rating: 7.0/10
Here: you might as well have the whole thing. It's pretty much all the same, with a few exceptions.