Song for the day

My music tastes are pretty eclectic as I tend to only like songs instead of singers and when I do find a group I like, they almost immediately disappear, never to be seen again. I am fairly persistent in trying and finding music new to me. If I listen to a song more than once it either means the song is fantastic, critics be damned, or the song reflects my mood/moods.

Today I have listened six times to Tom Waits’ song Flash Pan Hunter from his collaboration with William S. Burroughs for Black Rider.

I guess the playing of the saw is an obsession with me. I play the double bass. Thanks to Mary Conliff of the Welsh National Opera who taught me how to make many funky bass sounds I have played almost every part of the bass in various art and poetry event accompaniment (yes, even the wooden sides). I however have never found anyone to teach me how to bow the long saw (yes, that thing that you cut trees down with). I once saw a guy playing the saw in Bath, UK but didn’t want to interrupt his performance and when I returned he was gone. I am also a very big fan of screaming/moaning out overwhelming emotions. And here, in one song, we have these two rather unusual musical aspects combined. (though there is also some nice howling in Crossroads also in the Black Rider CD)