Five Classic Tom Waits Mid-Period Island Records Titles Now Back In Circulation
‘Swordfishtrombones,’ ‘Rain Dogs,’ ‘Frank’s Wild Years,’ ‘Bone Machine’ and ‘The Black Rider’ have all been remastered and are all available for streaming.
Forty years ago today, Tom Waits’ transformative creative breakthrough, Swordfishtrombones, was released into the wild, ushering in a new and critically acclaimed era for Waits and his longtime songwriting and production partner, Kathleen Brennan.
To honor this metamorphic period, Waits’ spectacular middle-period albums – released on Island Records between 1983 and 1993 – have been newly remastered from the original tapes for reissue on vinyl and CD via Island/UMe, personally overseen by Waits and Brennan.
Swordfishtrombones (1983), its sprawling and superb sequel, Rain Dogs (1985), and the trilogy-completing, tragi-comic stage musical, Franks Wild Years (1987), kick off the series today with their new CD releases. The trilogy will be released on vinyl on September 22.
The epic song-cycle, Bone Machine (1992) and the Waits (with Robert Wilson and William S. Burroughs) musical fable, The Black Rider (1993), will arrive on vinyl and CD on October 6. September, incredibly, marks the 40th anniversary of Swordfishtrombones, and the 30th of The Black Rider.
All of the albums are available to stream and download with the newly remastered audio, allowing fans to hear how these landmark recordings now sound better than ever.
In addition to the new CD releases, each album is available in two vinyl options: 180-gram black vinyl and a limited edition color variant available exclusively via Tom Waits’ official website and UDiscover Music. Swordfishtrombones is pressed on canary yellow, Rain Dogs is on opaque sky blue, Franks Wild Years is on opaque gold, The Black Rider is on opaque apple red and Bone Machine is on translucent milky clear vinyl.
All albums were mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering under the guidance of Waits’ longtime audio engineer, Karl Derfler. Swordfishtrombones was sourced from the original EQ’ed ½” production master tapes while Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years, Bone Machine and The Black Rider were sourced from the original ½” flat master tapes. Bellman meticulously transferred the tapes and then remastered the audio in high resolution 192 kHz/24-bit. The lacquers for all titles were cut by Alex Abrash at AA Mastering. The new vinyl editions include specially made labels featuring photos of Waits from each era in addition to artwork and packaging that has been painstakingly recreated to replicate the original LPs, which have been out of print since their initial release. Surprisingly, The Black Rider and Bone Machine were never released on vinyl outside of Europe and will be making their vinyl debut in most of the world.
These critically acclaimed works are a monument to an artist’s ability to break through into new creative territory. Waits went from ‘70’s-era “bluesy, boozy” wordsmith and melodist with seven albums behind him to sound sculptor, miner of the subconscious, abstract orchestrator, sonic cubist—while retaining his innate lyricism, melodic invention, humanity. A rough analogy: Picasso switching from exquisite literal depictions to pouring his brain and id out onto canvas. Waits was still painting, in other words, but the frames were made of blood and bone and feathers and old carburetors.
Working with experimental composer Francis Thumm, and taking inspiration from the music of found-object composer Harry Partch—plus Waits’ friend, Captain Beefheart—the renowned singer-songwriter reinvented his sound, album by album.
As Tom Waits put it in a 1983 interview: “I tried to listen to the noise in my head and invent some junkyard orchestral deviation—a mutant apparatus to drive this noise into a wreck collection.”
