History Music / TheBlackRider

* GutturalGrowler: See EvilSoundsDeep.

''The Black Rider'' is a 1993 album by Music/TomWaits, based on the stage play/musical "The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets", written by Creator/WilliamSBurroughs in 1990 and directed by Robert Wilson for the Thalia Theater in UsefulNotes/{{Hamburg}}. For this Waits wrote the lyrics and music.

* EvilSoundsDeep: "Oily Night" has a very deep and frightening voice repeat the title over and over again, while the music around him slowly but surely glows berserk. In the context of the play it is meant to be music for a Satanic ritual.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The [[TheGrotesque human oddities]] mentioned in "Lucky Day Overture" are all real-life freakshow artists from the 19th and 20th century: Lya Graf [[note]]who suffered from [[LittlePeople dwarfism]] and was indeed once photographed sitting on J.P. Morgan's lap, as Waits sang.[[/note]], Percilla Bejano the monkey woman [[note]]whose face had some resemblance to a monkey and [[GirlsWithMoustaches who also had a beard]][[/note]], Jo-Jo the dog faced boy [[note]]whose real name was Fedor Jeftichew. He suffered from hypertrichosis, which made his hair grow abnormally long all over his body. Music/{{Eels}} was also inspired to write a song about him: "Dog Face Boy" on ''Music/{{Souljacker}}''.[[/note]], Milton Malone the human skeleton [[note]]An incredibly thin man[[/note]], Grace [=McDaniels=] the mule-faced woman [[note]]a woman born with grotesque facial deformity called the syndrome of Sturge-Weber.[[/note]], Sealo the seal boy "who has flippers for arms" [[note]]He was born as Stanislaus Berent and suffered from phocomelia[[/note]], Johnny Eck "the man born without a body, he walks on his hands" [[note]]Eck also appeared in the CultClassic ''Film/{{Freaks}}''. Waits wrote another song about him on ''Music/{{Alice}}''.[[/note]], Gerd Bessler the human pincushion [[note]]An inside joke on behalf of Waits. Gerd Bessler is not a freak. He is the sound technician for "The Black Rider" and plays violin on "Crossroads".[[/note]], Ko-Ko the bird girl [[note]]whose real name was Minnie Woolsey. She suffered from nanocephaly, which is a dwarfism condition in combination with an odd-shaped head. Apart from that she was also blind, mentally handicapped, toothless, and mostly bald. She also appeared in ''Film/{{Freaks}}''[[/note]], Mortado the human fountain [[note]]A man with holes in his hands, who had an act where water shot out of him, making him appear like a human fountain[[/note]], and Radian the human torso [[note]]A man born without any limbs and who also appeared in ''Film/{{Freaks}}''[[/note]].

Waits would later collaborate with Wilson again on the plays "Alice" (1992, another Thalia Theater production) and "Woyzeck" (2000), released as ''Music/{{Alice}}'' (2002) and ''Music/BloodMoney'' (2002).

* AudienceParticipation: Before the play starts, the Igor of the Announcer steps down from the stage, polishing the rails, personally greeting random guests etc., hoping a Wiki/TVTropes fan is present.

See Lea Graff the German midget who sat in J.F. Morgan's lap

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The [[TheGrotesque human oddities]] mentioned in "Lucky Day Overture" are all real-life freakshow artists from the 19th and 20th century: Lya Graf [[note]]who suffered from [[LittlePeople dwarfism]] and was indeed once photographed sitting on J.P. Morgan's lap, as Waits sang.[[/note]], Percilla Bejano the monkey woman [[note]]whose face had some resemblance to a monkey and [[GirlsWithMoustaches who also had a beard]][[/note]], Jo-Jo the dog faced boy [[note]]whose real name was Fedor Jeftichew. He suffered from hypertrichosis, which made his hair grow abnormally long all over his body. Music/{{Eels}} was also inspired to write a song about him: "Dog Face Boy" on ''Music/{{Souljacker}}''.[[/note]], Milton Malone the human skeleton [[note]]An incredibly thin man[[/note]], Grace [=McDaniels=] the mule-faced woman [[note]]a woman born with grotesque facial deformity called the syndrome of Sturge-Weber.[[/note]], Sealo the seal boy "who has flippers for arms" [[note]]He was born as Stanislaus Berent and suffered from phocomelia[[/note]], Johnny Eck "the man without a body, he walks on his hands" [[note]]Eck also appeared in the CultClassic ''Film/{{Freaks}}'' and on the cover of Waits's ''Music/{{Swordfishtrombones}} (1983)''. Waits wrote another song about him on ''Music/{{Alice}}''.[[/note]], Gerd Bessler the human pincushion [[note]]An inside joke on behalf of Waits. Gerd Bessler is not a freak. He is the sound technician for "The Black Rider" and plays violin on "Crossroads".[[/note]], Ko-Ko the bird girl [[note]]whose real name was Minnie Woolsey. She suffered from nanocephaly, which is a dwarfism condition in combination with an odd-shaped head. Apart from that she was also blind, mentally handicapped, toothless, and mostly bald. She also appeared in ''Film/{{Freaks}}''[[/note]], Mortado the human fountain [[note]]A man with holes in his hands, who had an act where water shot out of him, making him appear like a human fountain[[/note]], and Radian the human torso [[note]]A man born without any limbs and who also appeared in ''Film/{{Freaks}}''[[/note]].

** "Lucky Day Overture" provides a shout-out to ''Film/TheySavedHitlersBrain'' and 19th century billionaire J.F. Morgan. The song also mentions many real life sideshow artists from the 19th and early 20th century, among them Johnny Eck, Ko-Ko the bird girl, and Radian the human torso, who all played in ''Film/{{Freaks}}''.

* SpecialGuest: "It Ain't No Sin" is "sung" by Creator/WilliamSBurroughs, which makes it sound all the more creepier.
* SpokenWordInMusic: "It Ain't No Sin" is sung by Creator/WilliamSBurroughs, whose singing is closer to talking than anything else.

He got ways to move you

* GothicCountry: The album's [[SouthernGothic Gothic Americana]] themes are consistent with this genre, if the instrumentation is a bit [[HellIsThatNoise weirder]] than usual.

* BulletsDoNotWorkThatWay: Justified by "Crossroads", where the bullets given to Wilhelm by the devil are magic and never fail to hit their target.

* {{Instrumental}}: "Black Box Theme", "Flash Pan Hunter/Intro", "Russian Dance", "Gospel Train/Orchestra", and "Interlude".

--> ''And that's where old George found himself out there at the crossroads''
--> ''Molding the devil's bullets''

-->''I'll drink your blood like wine''

-->''A vulture circles over your head for you baby''

-->''When it gets too hot for comfort''\\
''And you can't get an ice cream cone''\\
''It ain't no sin to take off your skin''\\
''And dance around in your bones''

-->''Someway he got into the magic bullets and that leads straight to the Devil's work''\\
''Just like marijuana leads to heroin''

-->''Picked the rose one early morn''\\
''Pricked my finger on a thorn''\\
''They'd grown so close, their winding wove''\\
''The Briar and the Rose''

-->''Now when I was a boy''\\
''My daddy sat me on his knee''\\
''And he told me''\\
''He told me many things''\\
''And he said: "Son''\\
''There's a lot of things in this world''\\
''You're gonna have no use for''\\
''And when you get blue''\\
''And you've lost all your dreams''\\
''There's nothin' like a campfire and a can of beans"''

--->''You'll see Hitler's brain''\\
''See Lea Graff the German midget who sat in J.F. Morgan's lap''

-->''Well, this train don't carry no smokers''

-->''When it gets too hot for comfort''\\
''And you can't get an ice cream cone''\\
''It ain't no sin to take off your skin''\\
''And dance around in your bones''

-->''I'm taking out my winter clothes''\\
''My garden knows what's wrong''\\
''The petals of my favorite rose''\\
''Be in the shadows dark and long''

-->''Listen to me, come on people''\\
''Cause it's starting to rain''\\
''Get on board''\\
''Ride the gospel train''\\
''Don't listen to the devil''\\
''He got ways to move you''

* AudienceParticipation: (Theater version) Before the play starts, the Igor of the Announcer steps down from the stage, polishing the rails, personally greeting random guests etc., hoping a Wiki/TVTropes fan is present.
* BloodLust: "The Black Rider"
--> ''I'll drink your blood like wine''

* BulletsDoNotWorkThatWay: Subverted by "Crossroads", where the bullets given to Wilhelm by the devil are magic and never fail to hit their target.
* CarefulWithThatAxe: "Lucky Day Overture" in which Waits screams into a megaphone and "Flash Pan Hunter" where he moans and bellows halfway the end of the song.
* CirclingVultures: "I'll Shoot The Moon"
--> ''A vulture circles over your head for you baby''
* CircusOfFear and CreepyCircusMusic: A lot of music on the album has calliope-organ music, including an old carnival tune "sung" by Creator/WilliamSBurroughs. The album also starts off with Waits summoning people to come and watch all the bizarre things in his sideshow circus.

* CreepyMonotone: Creator/WilliamSBurroughs' delivery of "It Ain't No Sin" and "Oily Night", sang with a very deep voice.

* DemBones: "The Black Rider" and "It Ain't No Sin"
--> ''When it gets too hot for comfort''
--> ''And you can't get an ice cream cone''
--> ''It ain't no sin to take off your skin''
--> ''And dance around in your bones''.
* DrugsAreBad: "Crossroads"
--> ''Someway he got into the magic bullets and that leads straight to the Devil's work''
--> ''Just like marijuana leads to heroin''
* EvilSoundsDeep, EvilSoundsRaspy and GutturalGrowler: "Oily Night" has a very deep and frightening voice repeat the title over and over again, while the music around him slowly but surely glows beserk. In the context of the play it is meant to be music for a Satanic ritual.
* FlowerMotifs: The briar and the rose symbolizes Wilhelm's realization that he can't marry Käthchen (the rose) without help from Pegleg (the briar). Then, in one of Pegleg's many Villain Songs, "Flash Pan Hunter", he gloats over his impending victory with the line "The briar is strangling the rose back down." And when [[spoiler: Käthchen]] dies, what's the song? "The Last Rose of Summer Is Gone".
--> ''Picked the rose one early morn''
--> ''Pricked my finger on a thorn''
--> ''They'd grown so close, their winding wove''
--> ''The Briar and the Rose.''

* GoodParents: "Lucky Day"
--> ''Now when I was a boy''
--> ''My daddy sat me on his knee''
--> ''And he told me''
--> ''He told me many things''
--> ''And he said: "Son''
--> ''There's a lot of things in this world''
--> ''You're gonna have no use for''
--> ''And when you get blue''
--> ''And you've lost all your dreams''
--> ''There's nothin' like a campfire and a can of beans."''
* GratuitousGerman: "The Black Rider" is sang with a mock German accent
* GratuitousRussian: "Russian Dance" has a line in Russian: "one-two-three-four".

* {{Instrumental}}: "Black Box Theme", "Flash Pan Hunter/Intro", "Russian Dance", "Gospel Train/Orchestra" and "Interlude".
* HypocriticalHumor: (Only for the German play) The Announcer and his Igor goof around at the beginning of the 2nd act. Igor plays the radio station search button. When it turns into an OverlyLongGag, the radio plays a recorded snippet by [[CausticCritic Marcel Reich-Ranicki]] complaining this is nonsense and dramaturgically drawn-out.

* LyricalDissonance: "Lucky Day Overture" has a gentle musical fanfare band playing, while Waits screams in a megaphone about the bizarre things the people can see in his

* OneWordTitle: "November", "Crossroads", "Interlude" and "Carnival".
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The [[TheGrotesque human oddities]] mentioned in "Lucky Day Overture" are all real-life freakshow artists from the 19th and 20th century: Lya Graf [[note]] who suffered from [[LittlePeople dwarfism]] and was indeed once photographed sitting on J.P. Morgan's lap, as Waits sang. [[/note]], Percilla Bejano the monkey woman [[note]] whose face had some resemblance to a monkey and [[GirlsWithMoustaches who also had a beard]] [[/note]], Jo-Jo the dog faced boy [[note]] whose real name was Fedor Jeftichew. He suffered from hypertrichosis, which made his hair grow abnormally long all over his body. Music/{{Eels}} was also inspired to write a song about him: "Dog Face Boy" on ''Music/{{Souljacker}}''. [[/note]], Milton Malone the human skeleton [[note]] An incredibly thin man [[/note]], Grace [=McDaniels=] the mule faced woman [[note]] a woman born with grotesque facial deformement called the syndrome of Sturge-Weber. [[/note]], Sealo the seal boy "who has flippers for arms" [[note]] He was born as Stanislaus Berent and suffered from phocomelia [[/note]], Johnny Eck "the man without a body, he walks on his hands" [[note]] Eck also appeared in the CultClassic ''Film/{{Freaks}}'' and on the cover of Waits' ''Music/{{Swordfishtrombones}} (1983)''. Waits wrote another song about him on ''Music/{{Alice}}''. [[/note]], Gerd Bessler the human pincushion [[note]] An inside joke on behalf of Waits. Gerd Bessler is not a freak. He is the sound technician for "The Black Rider" and plays violin on "Crossroads". [[/note]], Ko-Ko the bird girl [[note]] whose real name was Minnie Woolsey. She suffered from nanocephaly, which is a dwarfism condition in combination with an odd-shaped head. Apart from that she was also blind, mentally handicapped, toothless and mostly bald. She also appeared in ''Film/{{Freaks}}'' [[/note]], Mortado the human fountain [[note]] A man with holes in his hands, who had an act where water shoot out of him, making him appear like a human fountain [[/note]], Radian the human torso [[note]] A man born without any limbs and who also appeared in ''Film/{{Freaks}}'' [[/note]]

* SanitySlippageSong: "Lucky Day", sang by Wilhelm after accidentally murdering his bride-to-be on their wedding day, before being dragged off to hell by Pegleg the devil.
* ShoutOut:
** "Lucky Day Overture" provides a shout-out to ''Film/TheySavedHitlersBrain'' and 19th century billionaire J.F. Morgan. The song also mentions many real life sideshow artists from the 19th and early 20th century, among them Johnny Eck, Ko-Ko the bird girl and Radian the human torso, who all played in ''Film/{{Freaks}}''.
--> ''You'll see Hitler's brain''
--> ''See Lea Graff the German midget who sat in J.F. Morgan's lap''

* SmokingIsNotCool: "Gospel Train"
--> ''Well, this train don't carry no smokers''
* SpecialGuest: "It Ain't No Sin" is "sang" by Creator/WilliamSBurroughs, which makes it sound all the more creepier.
* SpokenWordInMusic: "It Ain't No Sin" is sang by Creator/WilliamSBurroughs, whose singing is closer to talking than anything else.

* StrippedToTheBone: "The Black Rider" and "It Ain't No Sin"
--> ''When it gets too hot for comfort''
--> ''And you can't get an ice cream cone''
--> ''It ain't no sin to take off your skin''
--> ''And dance around in your bones''.
* TickTockTune: "Oily Night".
* TheTragicRose: "The Last Rose of Summer"

''Be in the shadows dark and long.''
* TrainSong: "Gospel Train"
--> ''Listen to me, come on people''
--> ''Cause it's starting to rain''
--> ''Get on board''
--> ''Ride the gospel train''
--> ''Don't listen to the devil''
--> ''He got ways to move you''
* VillainSong: "Just The Right Bullets" and "Flash Pan Hunter", sung by Pegleg the devil. "Oily Night" [[spoiler: goes along with a satanic ritual.]]

The play is an adaptation of the "folk tale" ''Der Freischütz'' from the 1810 German anthology ''Das Gespensterbuch'' ("The Book of Spectres") by August Apel and Friedrich Laun, which was translated into English by Thomas de Quincey in 1823 under the title ''The Fatal Marksman''. Two years before that, in 1821, it was already adapted into the opera ''[[Theatre/DerFreischutz Der Freischütz]]'' by Carl Maria von Weber and Friedrich Kind with changed names and a [[RevisedEnding happy ending]].

* AudienceParticipation: (Theater version) Before the play starts, the Igor of the Announcer steps down from the stage, polishing the rails, personally greeting random guests etc., hoping a TVTropes fan is present.

'''The Black Rider''' is a 1993 album by Music/TomWaits, based on the stage play/musical "The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets", written by Creator/WilliamSBurroughs in 1990 and directed by Robert Wilson for the Thalia Theater in UsefulNotes/{{Hamburg}}. For this Waits wrote the lyrics and music.

'''Tracklist'''

# "That's The Way" (1:07)

# "I'll Shoot The Moon" (3:51)

# "The Last Rose Of Summer" (2:07)

* Hypocritical Humor: (Only for the German play) The Announcer and his Igor goof around at the beginning of the 2nd act. Igor plays the radio station search button. When it turns into an OverlyLongGag, the radio plays a recorded snippet by [[CausticCritic Marcel Reich-Ranicki]] complaining this is nonsense and dramaturgically drawn-out.

* RockOpera: This is a prime example of a rock opera, based on the opera ''Theatre/DerFreischutz'' by German playwright Franz von Weber.

The play is an adaptation of the "folk tale" ''Der Freischütz'' from the 1810 German anthology ''Das Gespensterbuch'' ("The Book of Ghosts") by August Apel and Friedrich Laun, which was translated into English by Thomas de Quincey in 1823 under the title ''The Fatal Marksman''. Two years before that, in 1821, it was already adapted into the opera ''[[Theatre/DerFreischutz Der Freischütz]]'' by Carl Maria von Weber with changed names and a happy ending.

The play is an adaptation of the "folk tale" ''Der Freischütz'' from the 1810 German anthology ''Das Gespensterbuch'' ("The Book of Ghosts") by August Apel and Friedrich Laun, which was translated into English by Thomas de Quincey in 1823 under the title ''The Fatal Marksman''. Two years before that, in 1821, it was already adapted into the opera ''[[Theatre/DerFreischutz'' Der Freischütz]]'' by Carl Maria von Weber with changed names and a happy ending.

'''The Black Rider''' is a 1993 album by Music/TomWaits, based on the stage play/musical "The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets", written by Creator/WilliamSBurroughs in 1990 and directed by Robert Wilson. For this loose adaptation of the German folktale ''Literature/DerFreischutz'' Waits wrote the lyrics and music.

The play tells how a file clerk, Wilhelm, wants to marry Agathe, the daughter of a hunter. In order to gain her hand in marriage he must prove that he is a good hunter, which he isn't. To improve his talents he strikes a DealWithTheDevil, Pegleg, who offers him magic bullets that never miss their target. At first everything goes smooth. Wilhelm impresses his soon to be father-in-law and the marriage goes on as planned. However, on the wedding day Wilhelm accidentally shoots his wife dead. He goes insane and the Pegleg carries him and his soul off to hell. People familiar with Creator/WilliamSBurroughs' own lifestory will notice the parallel with his own accidental shooting of his wife in a drunken attempt to go WilliamTelling with her.

Waits would later collaborate with Wilson again on the plays "Alice" (1992) and "Woyzeck" (2000), released as ''Music/{{Alice}}'' (2002) and ''Music/BloodMoney'' (2002).

* MinimalisticCoverArt: The cover shows the name of the artist and the title of the album written in such big letter type that it covers the entire album cover.

!! ''It ain't no sin to take off your skin and trope around in your skin''

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The [[TheGrotesque human oddities]] mentioned in "Lucky Day Overture" are all real-life freakshow artists from the 19th and 20th century: Lya Graf [[note]] who suffered from [[LittlePeople dwarfism]] and was indeed once photographed sitting on J.P. Morgan's lap, as Waits sang. [[/note]], Percilla Bejano the monkey woman [[note]] whose face had some resemblance to a monkey and [[TheBeardedLady who also had a beard]] [[/note]], Jo-Jo the dog faced boy [[note]] whose real name was Fedor Jeftichew. He suffered from hypertrichosis, which made his hair grow abnormally long all over his body. Music/{{Eels}} was also inspired to write a song about him: "Dog Face Boy" on ''Music/{{Souljacker}}''. [[/note]], Milton Malone the human skeleton [[note]] An incredibly thin man [[/note]], Grace [=McDaniels=] the mule faced woman [[note]] a woman born with grotesque facial deformement called the syndrome of Sturge-Weber. [[/note]], Sealo the seal boy "who has flippers for arms" [[note]] He was born as Stanislaus Berent and suffered from phocomelia [[/note]], Johnny Eck "the man without a body, he walks on his hands" [[note]] Eck also appeared in the CultClassic ''Film/{{Freaks}}'' and on the cover of Waits' ''Music/{{Swordfishtrombones}} (1983)''. Waits wrote another song about him on ''Music/{{Alice}}''. [[/note]], Gerd Bessler the human pincushion [[note]] An inside joke on behalf of Waits. Gerd Bessler is not a freak. He is the sound technician for "The Black Rider" and plays violin on "Crossroads". [[/note]], Ko-Ko the bird girl [[note]] whose real name was Minnie Woolsey. She suffered from nanocephaly, which is a dwarfism condition in combination with an odd-shaped head. Apart from that she was also blind, mentally handicapped, toothless and mostly bald. She also appeared in ''Film/{{Freaks}}'' [[/note]], Mortado the human fountain [[note]] A man with holes in his hands, who had an act where water shoot out of him, making him appear like a human fountain [[/note]], Radian the human torso [[note]] A man born without any limbs and who also appeared in ''Film/{{Freaks}}'' [[/note]]