The Black Rider

Wikipedia synopsis:

Wilhelm, a file clerk, falls in love with a huntsman's daughter. In order to marry, Wilhelm must prove his worth as a hunter and gain her father's approval, but, as "a man of pen and ink", his shot is lousy and his hopes of marriage worsen. That is until he is offered magic bullets by the devil, Pegleg - who assures him that his bullets will always have a sure shot. However, Pegleg stipulates that, while most of the bullets will hit anything Wilhelm pleases, one of the bullets is under Pegleg's control. Foolish, naive, and overrun with desperate hope, Wilhelm accepts the Faustian pact. On the day of Wilhelm's wedding, the final bullet strikes his beloved dead. He then goes mad, and joins the previous victims of Satan's cunning in the Devil's carnival.

I'm just gonna file this under the heading of "Shit I Never Knew About". And given my recent fascination with all things Tom Waits, well...I should have heard about it before now.  Back in the late 80's Tom Waits got together with William S. Burroughs (!!!) and vanguard theater director Robert Wilson to create a Faustian musical fable based on German folktales.

Those must have been some fun times for these cats.  And given Burroughs own history of love lost at his own drug addicted hand, maybe a bit cathartic as well.

And it's something I never would have known about were it not for the Internet.  Oh sure...MAYBE someone would have told me about it eventually.  But there aren't a whole lot of Tom Waits folks in my life right now.  Pity.

This is something that I'm going to get into a little bit later on this week.  About something else that I recently found out about.  Something I should have known about years ago.  But for right now, howabout a three-part documentary on The Black Rider?  Sounds good?

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Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Willam S. Burroughs!