Swordfishtrombones

by Tom Waits

Overview

Between the release of Heartattack and Vine in 1980 and Swordfishtrombones in 1983, Tom Waits got rid of his manager, his producer, and his record company. And he drastically altered a musical approach that had become as dependable as it was unexciting. Swordfishtrombones has none of the strings and much less of the piano work that Waits' previous albums had employed; instead, the dominant sounds on the record were low-pitched horns, bass instruments, and percussion, set in spare, close-miked arrangements (most of them by Waits) that sometimes were better described as "soundscapes." Lyrically, Waits' tales of the drunken and the lovelorn have been replaced by surreal accounts of people who burned down their homes and of Australian towns bypassed by the railroad -- a world (not just a neighborhood) of misfits now have his attention. The music can be primitive, moving to odd time signatures, while Waits alternately howls and wheezes in his gravelly bass voice. He seems to have moved on from Hoagy Carmichael and Louis Armstrong to Kurt Weill and Howlin' Wolf (as impersonated by Captain Beefheart). Waits seems to have had trouble interesting a record label in the album, which was cut 13 months before it was released, but when it appeared, rock critics predictably raved: after all, it sounded weird and it didn't have a chance of selling. Actually, it did make the bottom of the best-seller charts, like most of Waits' albums, and now that he was with a label based in Europe, even charted there. Artistically, Swordfishtrombones marked an evolution of which Waits had not seemed capable (though there were hints of this sound on his last two Asylum albums), and in career terms it reinvented him. ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	09/22/2023
Label:	Island / Umr
UPC:	0602448898425

Tracks

1. Underground
2. Shore Leave
3. Dave The Butcher
4. Johnsburg Illinois
5. 16 Shells From A 30.6
6. Town With No Cheer
7. In The Neighbourhood
8. Just Another Sucker On The Vine
9. Frank's Wild Years
10. Swordfishtrombone
11. Down Down Down
12. Soldier's Things
13. Gin Soaked Boy
14. Trouble's Braids
15. Rainbirds

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Tom Waits   Primary Artist,Bells,Piano,Fiddle,Guitar,Vocals,Harmonium,Percussion,Synthesizer,Organ (Hammond),Multi Instruments
Victor Feldman   Guest Artist,Bass,Bells,Drums,Congas,Shaker,Boobams,Marimba,Darbouka,Percussion,Tambourine,Bass Marimba,Drums (Bass),Talking Drum,Drums (Snare),Organ (Hammond),Multi Instruments
Fred Tackett   Guest Artist,Banjo,Guitar,Guitar (Electric)
Bob Alcivar   Piano
Chuck Findley   Trumpet
Joe Romano   Trumpet,Trombone
Lanny Morgan   Wind
Jack Sheldon   Trumpet
Larry Bunker   Drums
Eric Bikales   Organ
William Frank "Bill" Reichenbach Jr.   Trombone
Stephen Hodges   Drums,Cymbals,Harmonica,Drums (Bass),Harmonica (Glass)
Jeff Porcaro   Percussion
Richard Gibbs   Harmonica,Harmonica (Glass)
Pete Jolly   Piano,Accordion
Ronnie Barron   Keyboards,Organ (Hammond)
Dick Hyde   Trombone
Larry Taylor   Bass,Bass (Acoustic),Bass (Electric)
Carlos Guitarlos   Guitar,Guitar (Electric)
Greg Cohen   Bass,Bass (Acoustic)
Dennis Budimir   Guitar
Emil Richards   Vibraphone
Gayle LaVant   Horn
Anthony Clark   Bagpipes
Anthony Stewart   Bagpipes
Clark Spangler   Synthesizer
Joe Rimano   Trumpet,Trombone
Francis Thumm   Angklung,Harmonica,Percussion,Harmonica (Glass)
John Lowe   Wind
Donald Waldrop   Tuba
Randall Aldcroft   Horn,Trombone,Sax (Baritone),Horn (Baritone)
Bill Reichenbach   Trombone
Les Thompson   Harmonica
Big John Thomassie   Drums
Stephen Arvizu Taylor Hodges   Drums,Cymbals,Harmonica

Technical Credits

Biff Dawes   Mixing,Engineer
Bill Jackson   Assistant Engineer
Kathleen Brennan   Producer
Richard McKernon   Assistant Engineer
Tim Boyle   Engineer
Tom Waits   Design,Arranger,Composer,Producer,Cover Art Concept
Peggy McCreary   Assistant Engineer
Frank Mulvey   Art Direction
Clark Spangler   Programming,Synthesizer Programming
Michael Solomon   Production Coordination
Francis Thumm   Arranger
Jeff Sanders   Mastering