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om Waits has always been happily out of step. Throughout the 1970s, his vaudevillian, piano-based songwriting was often in direct contrast to that decade’s bombastic forays into prog, disco, and riff-replete classic rock. His more sophisticated musical persona – sort of a Beatnik take on Randy Newman – nevertheless gained him critical raves and a cult following. In 1983, his album Swordfishtrombones moved his sound into a completely new direction, but one that still managed to distance himself from the then-burgeoning sounds of new wave, synth-heavy pop, and pastel fashion cues.

Swordfishtrombones, which turned 40 on 1 September, was the direct sonic result of the influence of his partner, Kathleen Brennan, who introduced Waits to the sounds of the outsider blues hollering of Captain Beefheart. Additionally, he became interested in implementing the sounds and concepts of experimental artist Harry Partch. These sonically rich influences, light years away from Waits’ first single, “Ol’ 55”, gave him a new direction for his music. While Waits has returned to the well that inspired his earlier work and has occasionally moved on to even weirder, noisier sonic palettes, Swordfishtrombones is the reset that changed everything…