“Franks Wild Years” started out as a little vignette from 1983’s Swordfishtrombones; Frank gives up his former reprobate life and settles down in the suburbs, but finds that he hates it and burns the whole thing to the ground (literally). In 1987, he expanded that idea into a theatrical production, then made the songs his next album. In this longer version of the tale, Frank makes a run at a showbiz career, and it goes okay for a while, but eventually it falls apart, as it must (this is a Tom Waits album, after all). This record may be best known for giving the world “Way Down In The Hole,” which became the theme song to The Wire, but the twin versions of “Straight To The Top” and “Innocent When You Dream” (Frank’s hit song), as well as “Temptation” and “Cold Cold Ground,” make this one of the more intriguing works from the second half of his career.