One of the most celebrated songwriters on the planet, Tom Waits has woven himself into both alternative and contemporary music for well over 40 years. He has had songs covered by Bruce Springsteen, Tori Amos and the Ramones, has appeared in a number of films and has released 17 albums, contributed to a stack of movie soundtracks and appeared in several films as well.
The experimental side came through in full force in the 1980’s after almost a decade of jazz-blues noir and writing about your general down at heel skid row inhabitants and moving further into the underbelly of society populating his work with junkies, sex-workers and murderers. The noise amped up as well as use of eclectic and and unusual instrumentations.
With Mule Variations turning 25, a new version of ‘Get Behind the Mule’ has been released. Sparse, reflective and melancholy, this is the ‘spiritual’ version of the song, which on the original release is a more upbeat sounding song (even if the lyrics are not) with blues and folk inflections. With no studio albums since 2011’s Bad As Me, we’ll take what we can get. For those wondering where to start with in such a huge, varying discography – read on.
Bone Machine 1992
This one is arguably the album that people fell for the single ‘Goin’ Out West’, and found something more confronting on the album. Released in 1992, it hit exactly at the right time with Generation X travelling further into music that dwells on the fringes. Bone Machine had themes of death, the decay of society, humanity and environment and a very rough percussive sound (I had a friend liken it to someone dropping a cutlery drawer). With guests such as Les Claypool (Primus) and Keith Richards, this is a great intro into this period in Waits career.
Swordfishtombones 1983
Swordfishtombones marks the beginning of Wait’s use of eclectic instrumentation and the move away from whiskey-soaked jazz-blues noir. The use of banjo, marimba and calliope gave the album a broken carnival sound. There is moments of reflective quiet, broken by cacophonous mayhem and a despairing feel to the lyrics. It has stood the test of time with it appearing on several top 100 albums lists. The album needs to be listened to as a whole which makes it difficult to pull a lead single from it.
The Heart of Saturday Night – 1974
A love letter to Jack Kerouac, this is an off-the-boulevard piano-dive bar with a glass of neat whiskey and an ashtray on the piano, blues album. Wait’s voice had not reached the gravelly roughness that carried the subject matter in later albums. There is something about this album with ghosts of the boulevard omnipresent but the living taking respite in the bar. Lead track encapsulates the mood and scene with a new coat of paint over the rough edges.
Listen to New Coat of Paint
Alice – 2002
Alice was written for an opera of the same name almost a decade earlier which is why perhaps it seems slightly out of time. While all Waits albums have a story telling element, Alice is a very obvious timeline and story being tied to the opera. There are a lot of jazz elements reminiscent of the 70’s work, but there are also those jarring percussive moments that square it right in the era when it was written. It was released as a double release with Blood Money, both released in 2002.
Mule Variations – 1999
This album is somewhere in between the cacophony of Bone Machine and Alice and was released to critical acclaim. This album has a more blues inflection and likely stands as one of his most beloved albums. Lead by the single ‘Big In Japan’ the album still has the percussion heavy style but has a more accessible feel to it.
‘Get Behind the Mule (spiritual)’ from Mule Variations is out now on all streaming platforms – listen here
