Tracks:
Lucky Day Overture
The Black Rider
November
Just The Right Bullets
Black Box Theme
'Tain't No Sin
Flash Pan Hunter/Intro
That's The Way
The Briar And The Rose
Russian Dance
Gospel Train/Orchestra
I'll Shoot The Moon
Flash Pan Hunter
Crossroads
Gospel Train
Interlude
Oily Night
Lucky Day
The Last Rose Of The Summer
Carnival
The Black Rider
November
Just the Right Bullets
Black Box Theme
'T' Ain't No Sin
Flash Pan Hunter/Intro
That's the Way
The Briar and the Rose
Russian Dance
Gospel Train/Orchestra
I'll Shoot the Moon
Flash Pan Hunter
Crossroads
Gospel Train
Interlude
Oily Night
Lucky Day
The Last Rose of Summer
Carnival

Performer Notes:

• Personnel: Tom Waits (vocals, organ, keyboards, marimba, calliope, percussion); Wiliam Burroughs (vocals); Greg Cohen (various instruments); Joe Gore (guitar, banjo); Henning Stoll (viola, bassoon); Linda Deluca, Gerd Bessler (viola); Matt Brubeck (cello); Volker Hemken (clarinet); Ralph Carney (bass clarinet, saxophone); Larry Rhodes (bassoon); Nick Phelps (French horn); Kevin Porter (trombone); Hans-Jorn Braudenberg, Francis Thumm (organ); Bill Douglas, Stefan Schafer (bass); Kenny Wollesen (percussion, marimba); Don Neely (musical saw); Kathleen Brennan, Clive Butters, Joe Marquez (boots).
• Recorded at Prairie Sun Recording Studios, Cotati, California and Music Factory, Hamburg, Germany. Includes liner notes by Tom Waits.
• This album contains songs Tom Waits wrote and performed for the stage production of THE BLACK RIDER directed by Robert Wilson and written by William Burroughs.
• Personnel: Tom Waits (vocals, piano, organ, calliope, synthesizer, marimba, congas); William S. Burroughs (vocals); Greg Cohen (banjo, viola, accordion, bass clarinet, percussion); Joe Gore (banjo); Henning Stoll (viola, bassoon); Linda Deluca (viola); Matthew Brubeck (cello); Volker Hemken (clarinet); Ralph Carney (bass clarinet, saxophone); Larry Rhodes (bassoon); Christoph Moinian, Nick Phelps (French horn); Kevin Porter (trombone); Francis Thumm, Hans-Jorn Braudenberg (organ); Kenny Wollesen (percussion); Don Neely (musical saw).
• Recording information: Music Factory, Hamburg, Germany; Prairie Sun Studios, Cotati, CA.
• THE BLACK RIDER contains Waits' versions of the songs he wrote for the Robert Wilson play of the same name. Wilson has worked with everyone from Philip Glass to Lou Reed, so he's just the kind of left-of-center visionary to accommodate Waits' offbeat musical style. From NIGHTHAWKS AT THE DINER to FRANK'S WILD YEARS, Waits has always been a concept man, and you don't get more conceptual than supplying songs for this semi-mythological narrative of passion and death.
• THE BLACK RIDER is somewhat similar in style to the twisted cabaret/blues of Waits' mid-80s work, but with a pronounced European artsong flavor. Accordingly, Waits is accompanied by a mix of his U.S. cronies (Joe Gore, Greg Cohen, etc.) and the musicians from the original BLACK RIDER production. The presence of William Burroughs as lyricist on a couple of tunes represents the closing of a circle that includes the heavy influence of the '50s beat writers on Waits' early work. Less visceral and more cerebral then Waits' previous work, BLACK RIDER is nevertheless full of masterful compositions and inventive, idiosyncratic arrangements.

Professional Reviews: Rolling Stone (3/10/94, p.64) - 4 Stars - Very Good - "...Waits' work has grown consistently stronger, more ambitious and less self-conscious...."

Spin (1/94, p.74) - Highly Recommended - "...Tom Waits has suddenly emerged to become the hardest-working epiglottis in show business....nothing like a pinch of hobo logic to spice up a successful marriage of high opera and low fidelity..."

Entertainment Weekly (11/12/93, p.64) - "...[THE BLACK RIDER] showcases [Tom Wait's] penchant for disturbing mood music and grotesque sentiment..." - Rating: B

Q (12/93, p.116) - 3 Stars - Good - "...[BLACK RIDER] is eclectic, bleak, funny, plain barmy in places and, at a couple of exquisite moments, as touching as anything Tom Waits has recorded..."

Melody Maker (11/13/93, p.32) - "...Roll up for ringside seats and prepare to be amazed, astounded and bedevilled. For this ringmaster has no living equal...."

Stereo Review (3/94, p.98) - Performance: Harrowing / Recording: Good - "...Waits mines instrumental sounds like the pipeline to the netherworld itself...his vocals sound drawn across broken glass and rusty nails, and filtered through bubbling blood...."

NME (Magazine) (11/13/93, p.29) - 8 - Excellent - "...with records as challenging, tuneful and blackly comic as THE BLACK RIDER, Tom Waits threatens to come as close as anyone since Brecht to piecing together a cross-cultural jigsaw that doesn't fall apart..."

Producer: Tom Waits

Format: CD (1 Disc); Stereo

Country: USA

Studio/Live: Studio

Guest Artist: William S. Burroughs; Ralph Carney

Release Date: 2 November, 1993

Label: Island

Dimensions: 12.9 x 1 x 14.4 centimeters (0.06 kg)