Anthony Clark Stewart

Swordfishtrombones

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Swordfishtrombones
Album by Tom Waits
Released September 1983
Recorded August 1982
Sunset Sound, Hollywood
Genre Experimental rock
Length 40:31
Label Island
Producer(s) Tom Waits
Tom Waits chronology
One from the Heart
(1982)
Swordfishtrombones
(1983)
Rain Dogs
(1985)
 Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [Swordfishtrombones at All Music Guide link]
Blender link
Mojo
Robert Christgau (A-) link

Swordfishtrombones is an album by American singer-songwriter Tom Waits, released in September 1983. It was the first album that Waits produced himself and is marked by a sense of artistic freedom that would increasingly characterize his later work.

Stylistically different from his previous LPs, the album moves away from the piano and string orchestra arrangements of the late 1970s, replacing them instead with unusual instrumentation and a somewhat more abstract songwriting approach.

The album peaked at #164 on the Billboard Pop Albums and 200 albums charts. In 1989, Spin Magazine named Swordfishtrombones the second greatest album of all time. In 2006, Q placed the album at #36 in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s."[1]

Italian songwriter Davide Van De Sfroos often plays his own rendition of Frank's Wild Years during his live exhibition; the Van De Sfroos's studio version of the song was also inserted in the live album [Laiv].

Track listing

All tracks written by Tom Waits. Arranger Frances Thumm. Recorded by Tim Boyle and Biff Dawes. Mixed by Biff Dawes at Sunset Sound Studios, Hollywood, CA.

Side One

# Title Length
1. "Underground"   1:58
2. "Shore Leave"   4:12
3. "Dave the Butcher" (Instrumental) 2:15
4. "Johnsburg, Illinois"   1:30
5. "16 Shells from a Thirty-Aught Six"   4:30
6. "Town with No Cheer"   4:22
7. "In the Neighborhood"   3:04

Side Two

# Title Length
1. "Just Another Sucker on the Vine" (Instrumental) 1:42
2. "Frank's Wild Years"   1:50
3. "Swordfishtrombone"   3:00
4. "Down, Down, Down"   2:10
5. "Soldier's Things"   3:15
6. "Gin Soaked Boy"   2:20
7. "Trouble's Braids"   1:18
8. "Rainbirds" (Instrumental) 3:05

Personnel

  • Tom Waits - Vocal (1, 2, 4, 5-7, 9-14), Chair (2), Hammond B-3 Organ (3), Piano (4, 15), Harmonium (6, 8), Synthesizer (6), Freedom Bell (6)
  • Victor Feldman - Bass Marimba (1, 2), Marimba (2,10), Shaker (2), Bass Drum with Rice (2), Bass Boo Bams (3), Brake Drum (5), Bell Plate (5), Snare (5, 11), Hammond B-3 Organ (7), Snare Drum (7), Bells (7), Conga (10), Bass Drum (10), Dabuki Drum (10), Tambourine (11), African Talking Drum (14)
  • Larry Taylor - Acoustic Bass (1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14), Electric Bass (10)
  • Randy Aldcroft - Baritone Horn (1, 7), Trombone (2)
  • Stephen Taylor Arvizu Hodges - Drums (1, 2, 5, 11, 13), Parade Drum (7), Cymbals (7), Parade Bass Drum (14), Glass Harmonica (15)
  • Fred Tackett - Electric Guitar (1, 5, 13), Banjo Guitar (2)
  • Francis Thumm - Metal Aunglongs (2), Glass Harmonica (15)
  • Greg Cohen - Bass (4), Acoustic Bass (10, 12, 15)
  • Joe Romano - Trombone (5), Trumpet (8)
  • Anthony Clark Stewart - Bagpipes (6)
  • Clark Spangler - Synthesizer Program (6)
  • Bill Reichenbach - Trombone (7)
  • Dick (Slyde) Hyde - Trombone (7)
  • Ronnie Barron - Hammond Organ (9)
  • Eric Bikales - Organ (11)
  • Carlos Guitarlos - Electric Guitar (11)
  • Richard Gibbs - Glass Harmonica (15)

Notes

  1. Q August 2006, Issue 241

This page was last modified 15.09.2011 03:39:38

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