Track Listing

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 Braids
15. Rainbirds

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8634 in Music
• Released on: 1989-05-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds
• Running time: 41 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The first album of the loose trilogy that also includes Rain Dogs and Franks Wild Years, Swordfishtrombones marked a radical departure for Waits, whose avant-garde ambitions became plain not so much in his lyrics or subject matter--the songs here deal, as do his older albums, with hard life on the wrong side of the tracks and dreams of escape and transcendence--but in the music, a sound somewhere between German cabaret music from between the wars and contemporary Manhattan rush hour. Odd time signatures, unusual instrumentation (glass harmonicas and brake drums, among others), and Waits's barked vocals make this one of his most individualistic and challenging albums. --Daniel Durchholz

CD Description
Though Tom Waits had spent most of the '70s establishing himself as one of America's most distinctive singer-songwriters, SWORDFISHTROMBONES found him reinventing himself and creating one of the most original sounds in popular music. Leaving behind his Kerouac-influenced lyrics and lounge-lizard piano-bar stylings for an unprecedented eclecticism that merged Brecht-Weill artsong, Captain Beefheart-style avant blues,Harry Partch-inspired junkyard percussion, along with a healthy dose of everything else but the kitchen sink.
All this sonic exoticism would be for naught where it not accompanied by equally striking, arch songwriting. SWORDFISHTROMBONES moves from the Ken Nordine-style recitative of "Frank's Wild Years" and the demented Delta blues of "Gin Soaked Boy" to the marimba-laced shaggy-dog tale "Shore Leave" and the crazed, Loony Tunes instrumental "Dave the Butcher".
The blazed a trail that Waits (and countless imitators) would follow fruitfully for years to come, and remains one of the mostimpressive recordings not just of Waits's career, but of anyone's.

Customer Reviews

A creative genius at his creative best.
Tom Waits' earlier albums can be pinned down like wild dogs and just about forced into their specific genres. 'The Heart of Saturday Night', 'Heartattack and Vine' and to an extent 'Franks Wild Years' can be defined loosely as jazz. But quite where to start with 'Swordfistrombones' is a hefty challenge for the most ardent of listener. Each song tells it's story of life at it's quirkiest and the intertwined variety achieved is facinating, humourous and strangely addictive.
From the romantic wheeze of 'Johnsberg, Illonois', which was written for Waits'partener Kathleen Brennan, to the jolting pound of '16 Shells From ..' and 'Dave The Butcher' this is one of few contempory albums that really does have the lot, even bagpipes! 'Swordfishtrombones' is simular in diversity to 'Raindogs' but if the gun was at my head I'd favour the former.
For what it's worth my favorite track on the album is 'Just Another Sucker On The Vine', a instrumental lament which conjures a fresh image with every engagement.
Nineteen years on and this album has lost none of it's vigour or the raw uniqueness that typifies this most gifted of artists. Frank's 'little Sedan' may be rotting in the knackers yard but Waits is still wringing his strands of creativity in the questionable modern music scene. If your looking to explore Tom Waits then make 'Swordfishtrombones' your first endeavour.

unparalleled beauty meets carnival burlesque
You may think everything's already been said about this album... you're wrong!

Tom's change of direction, marked by this release, has left me gradually less and less inclined to put the later albums on. It's like he feared becoming a caricature barfly, so instead became a caricatured carnival freak. His relationship with Kathleen Brennan undoubtedly has some bearing on this (more on this later).

On this pivotal release however, you get the best of both worlds. Most albums since (and including) SFT start with a rumbling uptempo oddball number (uptempo by Tom's standards as opposed to Slayer's): here it's 'Underground' (Frank's Wild Years starts with 'Hang On St Christopher', and Rain Dogs with 'Singapore' etc). The fact this has become a bit of a formula is sad, but all three tunes referenced are utterly brilliant.

Enough's been said elsewhere about the Beefheart and classical modernist influences. What I want to focus on is the remaining strain of simple romanticism (what Brennan calls his "Grand Weepers"). Brennan's appearance in Wait's life seems, from his interviews, to signal a complete change (of personal perspective/heart), redemption and rescue even. Testament to this wonderful and simple enduring love continues to be evident in his work: 'Take It With Me' from Mule Variations being a wonderful example: "ain't no good thing ever dies". I cry every time I listen to that song.

Johnsburg Illinois is, so I've read, written as a love song to Brennan, and, fittingly, it transcends the theatricaltiy of other material here with its straightforward and honest confession of love. I've always like this side of Tom most. And it's in the very fabric of his best music. I feel that one of his most sublime recordings is the fabulously minimal and haunting Rainbirds. After a brief but exquisite 'glass harmonica' intro, Waits piano and Greg Cohen's bass paint a picture of such desolate blue beauty it floors me, it's my all time melancholy desert island disc number one!

One more testimony as to why you should buy this CD!

never could stand that dog
I first heard this album in 1987 and it was the first Waits album I ever owned. On the first few listens, it was one of the strangest albums I'd ever heard, and the only immediate song was "In the Neighbourhood". However, after a bit of work from me, I grew to appreciate it, and moved on to "Raindogs" and "Franks Wild Years" when it came out. I also had the pleasure of seeing Waits at the Hammersmith Odeon in '87 and it was a great show. Hard to believe this was the last time he played in the UK - come back Tom! A great album, and essential to an understanding of the new direction he took after his more jazzy balladry of the 70's.