Customer Reviews

Tom Waits' Swordfishtrombones (33 1/3)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

And it turns out, this one keeps the spirit of the album by not being a dry reporting or an academic exercise. The author honors this key turning point album in Waits' career with the creative dignity it deserves. I kept finding info bits in it that I liked, that I didn't know and I'm a bit Waits fan. As per the 33 1/3 series he breaks down the album song by song and appears to strive to not have any bland sentences. Don't think I found one. Glad I bought it. If yer a fan, you really should. If yer not into Tom Waits, forget it, this is a fan's delight.

This book was an extremely disappointing addition to the 33 1/3 series. After reading the excellent 33 1/3 book about Paul's Boutique, I moved immediately to this one. While there is some information about how the songs were written and recorded, to get to it you have to slog through pages and pages of David Smay's made-up "Chuck Norris Facts"-like tales of Tom Waits. Click the Search Inside link above and read the first chapter to see what you're in for - the whole book is like that. Maybe this is great for David Smay fans, but Tom Waits fans are better off reading a different book.

It is almost impossible to convey how badly written this book is. Smay attempts to recreate in his prose the mood and imagery of Waits' music and lyrics. He fails. There is some useful information about this important album in the book, but it's buried under paragraphs which seem to have been written by a very stoned and not very smart high school freshman. It's embarrassing how bad this book is.

This 33 1/3 edition was energetic, enthusiastic, desultory, and a little kooky - the author clearly had a great love for Swordfishtrombones and conveyed a great deal of information about the work. Highly recommended.

I write this as a huge Tom Waits fan and a moderate fan of the 33 1/3 series (i think the idea is often better than the execution). Of the five or six books in the 33 1/3 series i've read, this one is hands down the best. It's written with a wry wit and humor, but also depth of insight (alot like a Tom Waits song!). i would recommend this for any fan of Tom Waits.