Tom Waits, Not A Follower Of Fashion

The 80s were a period when two of my favourite recording solo artists went to shit. Bob Dylan began the decade with the second of his religious albums Saved and prolifically churned out rubbish until 1989 when he came back into some sort of form with a few good songs on Oh Mercy. Neil Young also had a few good songs on Freedom that was released in 1989 but the rest of the decade was awful.
So many other people lost it, I mean just look at David Bowie and Mick Jagger doing Dancing In The Street. Actually don’t, its painful.
But who out of the elder statesmen of rock didn’t loose it? I only have two Lou Reed albums from the decade but both The Blue Mask and New York are really good. Shame about that mullet though.
Tom Waits certainly never lost it in the 80s. He found a new sound and direction with the album Swordfishtrombones. Whereas others around him were following the fashion and going for the over produced synth big reverb snare drum sound, the percussion on Waits records sometimes sounded as if it was played on stuff found in a junkyard. Along with instruments that he could have picked up in a charity shop.
Tom waits has had the odd mediocre album but he's never had a bad period of albums, and they don’t sound dated. Maybe because he's never followed trends. In his music or his clothes.

Download or preview an mp3 of Tom Waits - Down, Down, Down from here.