Tom Waits Week: Things Get Weird (1983-1993)

Also, the first three albums of this period make up The Frank Trilogy. There are frequent references to a guy named Frank, but it’s best not to think too much about it. The one constant of Frank seems to be that he’s a GI who returned from war with posttraumatic stress disorder. Now, not every song on these three albums is about Frank (except for Frank’s Wild Years), and it’s not even clear that he’s the same Frank on every album. We could be seeing three (or four) alternate versions of Frank. If I ever go back to school for an advanced degree, I will write my thesis on the Frank Trilogy. However, thinking about Frank isn’t necessary to enjoying these albums, and you really don’t even have to accept a connection between them. Thus, I’m not going to dwell on the minutiae here.