Del cabaré a los charcos de Central Park

TOM WAITS: I was trying to imagine myself as a real New Yorker, and I was having a hard time. My wife was pregnant with our second child; we were living down on 14th Street over a Cuban-Chinese restaurant. But at that moment, I was busting at the seams that Robert Frank was photographing me. I just thought, Shoot me now. The record was called “Rain Dogs,” so we were expecting to find a rainy day, which we did not find. But we found the one rain puddle in the whole park, and I’m kind of down there like a dog. Maybe that was the idea: I’m gonna get down on the dog’s level, and then Robert would get there at a dog’s level with me. Anyway, I don’t know why people in music seem to want to squat down. Maybe we just want to feel close to the earth. I’m still down there, actually. I’m squatting right now.

ROBERT FRANK: I think he saw that puddle, and it was his idea to sit there. Tom’s comfortable that way, and it’s a good angle. I think he’s very aware when he’s being photographed — the stance he takes, the way he moves and the way the picture is going to be. That’s one of his favorite positions anyhow. When he comes in the room, he sits like that.

TED BARRON:I lived on the Lower East Side and was out walking in the neighborhood. I was just cutting through Tompkins Square Park and walked up to this scene, and I immediately recognized Robert Frank, because at that point I was probably looking at his photographs every day. I realized who he was photographing, and I made a few photographs while I was watching. I didn’t want to be in the way, and I didn’t want to become part of what was going on.

The New York Times Magazine

Fotografía de Ted Barron - Tom Waits y Robert Frank - Nueva York 1985
... y el lobo se enternece con los años: Hold On (Mule Variations - Tom Waits, 1999)

Hold On

They hung a sign up in out town
"if you live it up, you won't
live it down"
So, she left Monte Rio, son
Just like a bullet leaves a gun
With charcoal eyes and Monroe hips
She went and took that California trip
Well, the moon was gold, her
Hair like wind
She said don't look back just
Come on Jim

Oh you got to
Hold on, Hold on
You got to hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right here
You gotta hold on

Well, he gave her a dimestore watch
And a ring made from a spoon
Everyone is looking for someone to blame
But you share my bed, you share my name
Well, go ahead and call the cops
You don't meet nice girls in coffee shops
She said baby, I still love you
Sometimes there's nothin left to do

Oh you got to
Hold on, hold on
You got to hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right here, you got to
Just hold on.

Well, God bless your crooked little heart St. Louis got the best of me
I miss your broken-china voice
How I wish you were still here with me

Well, you build it up, you wreck it down
You burn your mansion to the ground
When there's nothing left to keep you here, when
You're falling behind in this
Big blue world

Oh you go to
Hold on, hold on
You got to hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right here
You got to hold on

Down by the Riverside motel,
It's 10 below and falling
By a 99 cent store she closed her eyes
And started swaying
But it's so hard to dance that way
When it's cold and there's no music
Well your old hometown is so far away
But, inside your head there's a record
That's playing, a song called

Hold on, hold on
You really got to hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right here
And just hold on.