Tom Waits: Swordfishtrombones (Island)
This was a duplicate promo copy I scored from WRCT at the time of its release
One of the many reasons I started writing to this blog was to give purpose to my listening. Listen, and write my thoughts. I've amassed a substantial collection of CDs and vinyl LPs; nowhere nearly as large some I know, but large nonetheless. So given this field of possible choices, what do I choose?
To help myself in this respect, I created a Max (Max/MSP/Jitter) file to limit my choices. Max is the closest I've come to programming. I mean, it's programming of a sort. As my friend and world-renowned computer scientist Roger Dannenberg once said, "Max is audio programming for people who don't want to learn how to program." Sold! What might have been intended as a put-down is a selling point. In addition to to creating practical effects and instruments for use in Ableton Live, I created a patch (the word for the file) to calculate my grading for one of my classes.
I set up a system to randomize a letter choice and format. Single letters didn't fair; T shouldn't have as much of chance as V. Letters are grouped together. For format, I chose CD (X2), vinyl (X2) and "other". I'd also give myself leniency with respect to first and last names, and new purchases take precedence.
It's not a total Cage indeterminate action, just limiting my choices.
First roll: W X Y Z, vinyl. I had meant to put on this Tom Waits record recently, so easy choice.
I remember when this LP rolled into WRCT in 1983. It was surprising. I've liked Tom Waits for as long as I've been aware of him, but it was clear this album was a shift in direction for him. Immediately on track one ("Underground") it sounded like he was shifting away from his more cabaret-ish roots towards something more Captain Beefheart-like. The bass marimba, the spiky guitar, the space, suggested Ed Marimba and Zoot Horn Rollo from the Magic Band.
Listening to it now, maybe I don't think it's as radical a departure as I once did. But the Beefheart influence is definitely present, and I think Tom has said so himself. In subsequent albums, he'd increase the emphasis on atmosphere. If he wanted the drums to sound like cardboard boxes, well, play cardboard boxes. The closing track briefly uses glass harmonica(!). More, I say!
The songs are compact, seven on side one, eight on side two. Some are particularly memorable: the aforementioned opening cut, the lovely "Johnsburg, Illinois" followed by the hard hitting "16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six". I'm not generally one to react to lyrics, but I laughed out loud at a lyric in "Frank's Wild Years": "...he hung his wild years on a nail that he drove through his wife's forehead."
A couple of my friends have recorded with Tom, some years after this record. One of them told me that the strange thing meeting Tom was how normal everything was. His home is (or was, I don't know) in Sausalito. Kids were playing in the yard. Everything was very matter-of-fact.
I recently bought Tom's Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards. His album of leftovers is great, better than most people's first run material.
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