Waiting in the wings…
You’ve no doubt already read news stories regarding David Bowie’s contribution to
The album, produced by TV On The Radio?s Dave Sitek, includes ten Tom Waits covers and one original composition, Song for Jo, and is due via Atco/Rhino on May 20th.
It seems many of the press stories regarding the album are going big with the Bowie contribution angle, which I guess is understandable. But nevertheless, this is what David said when I asked him whether he thought we should now acknowledge his part in the recordings…
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“I’ve seen the press on this and I suppose the record company wanted to spin my involvement a little more than it actually warrants. All I contribute are these oo’s and ah’s on a couple of tracks.
I popped up to Avatar Studios, way up on w.53rd Street in Manhattan and laid down my humble parts in an hour or so, double and sometimes quadruple-tracking them. David Sitek, the producer, originally asked me to do three songs, but for one of them, I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, I didn’t feel I could contribute much to it (lol) so I left it alone.
The songs are great, really good Tom Waits stuff, and Scarlet’s performances are mystical and twice cool. She creates a mood that could have been summoned by someone like Margery Latimer or Jeanette Winterson.”
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Thanx for that David, much appreciated.
As I’m sure you all know, the two tracks that David oo’d and ah’d on were Falling Down and Fannin? Street. The tracks were originally issued by Tom Waits on the albums: Big Time from 1988 and 2006’s Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards respectively.
Scarlett is cleanly pleased at David’s decision to take part as she is a long-term fan whose attention was first grabbed when she saw Labyrinth, (09.11.06 NEWS: BOWIE LEFT SCARLETT JOHANSSON SPEECHLESS) a long time before the making of The Prestige in which they both appeared.
Anyway, I’ll leave you with the full tracklisting for Anywhere I Lay My Head…
01 Fawn
02 Town With No Cheer
03 Falling Down
04 Anywhere I Lay My Head
05 Fannin? Street
06 Song for Jo
07 Green Grass
08 I Wish I Was in New Orleans
09 I Don?t Want to Grow Up
10 No One Knows I?m Gone
11 Who Are You?