HE’S SO UNUSUAL, #7. Tom Waits, Swordfishtrombones. “He came back from the war with a party in his head/And an idea for a fireworks display” Title song is one of my favorite noises. Like Dylan at Newport, alienating fans who wanted him to stay folk, Waits alienated a lot of his singer-songwriter-style fans when he started singing like an angry Howlin’ Wolf belching. “Gin Soaked Boy” is like a Howlin’ Wolf soundalike contest winner. Making this switch from attractively soulful gutter-crooner to gravelly voiced eccentric is almost like he decided he wanted some of the Captain Beefheart market. Still I find the songs here pretty lovable. Sometimes I get “In the Neighborhood” stuck in my head (“Well Butch joined the Army/Yeah, that’s where he’s been”) and he never sounds more intensely melancholic than “Johnsburg, Illinois.” One time I heard “16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought-Six” at a Starbucks. His fans are everywhere. Some of the songs are a little mannered, I suppose, but it’s kind of like watching a little play. And that marimba or whatever it is on the title track trading back and forth with the bass with that yarn on top makes me so happy I start to worry that I’m too happy. #tomwaits #swordfishtrombones #frankswildyears #theresaworldgoingonunderground (at Noblesville, Indiana) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAZYggwAZGy/?igshid=uvbsikwrf9el
