After parting ways with producer Bones Howe and manager Herb Cohen, Tom Waits changed course completely. On Swordfishtrombones, his eighth studio album and the first he produced himself, the piano ballad makes way for marimba, harmonium, bagpipes, banjo and a heap of percussion, with Captain Beefheart and Harry Partch as new reference points. Kathleen Brennan, whom he had married shortly before, played a key role in that shift. The stories no longer revolve around the bar on the corner but around sailors, butchers and towns the train no longer stops in, in songs such as 'Shore Leave', '16 Shells From a 30.6' and 'In the Neighborhood'. The album opens a loose trilogy that continues with Rain Dogs and Franks Wild Years. In 1989 Spin placed it at number 2 on its list of the greatest albums of all time.

This edition is an LP.