Classic Albums

Highlights remarkable albums and some all-time Domino favourites.

 1. Swordfishtrombones – Tom Waits (1983)

Tom waits for nobody and with this album from 1983 he re-invented himself completely. From the early seventies onwards Waits had built an impressive career as the desperate, alcoholic, lowlife character (‘the piano has been drinking, not me‘), the guy behind the piano slurring with that famous raspy, gravelly voice.  Result: great albums like Nighthawks at the Diner (1975), Small Change (1976), Foreign Affairs (1977), Blue Valentine (1978), and Heart Attack and Vine (1980).  But Waits must have felt trapped in that image and he decided it was time for a change.

Swordfishtrombones

Waits had met and married playwright Kathleen Brennan, with whom he later collaborated. He got rid of his manager, his producer, and his record company. And he drastically altered his musical approach.  Swordfishtrombones has none of the strings and much less of the piano work; instead, the dominant sounds on the record are low-pitched horns, bass instruments, and percussion.  His stories of lonely and desperate drunks had been replaced by surreal accounts of people who burned down their homes and of empty towns bypassed by the railroad — a world (not just a neighborhood) of misfits. 

When it appeared in 1983, rock critics predictably raved: after all, it sounded weird and it didn’t have a chance of selling. But Swordfishtrombones did remarkably well and artistically Waits reinvented himself as an artist.  Other great Waits albums would follow, notably Rain Dogs, Mule Variations and the more recent collection Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (2006) 

Stand-out tracks: Underground, Frank’s Wild Years, 16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought Six.

tom waits