Brawlers presents probably the best-known of Tom Waits' personalities, filled as it is with vocal cord damage, found percussion, old-timey arrangements, and cartoon-buzz lead guitar. It's also the disc that flirts most dangerously with cliché, filled as it is with his well-trod inventory of Americana underbelly images: trains, jailhouses, barrooms, etc. However, the secret of Waits' act is how well he deploys these should-be-tired cultural touchstones; at the very least, he sounds more comfortable in the role of a boxcar-hopper than he does reciting the ripped-from-the-headlines Middle East folk song "Road to Peace". Certainly it helps that he continues to buck the aging rocker career trend of increasing cleanliness, wrapping these songs in dirt-grit production that keeps the Big Bopper warble of "Lie to Me" or the garage 12-bar Ramones cover "The Return of Jackie and Judy" from sounding like a House of Blues exhibit.
- Format: Vinyl
- 2 LP
- Genre: Rock, Blues
- Remember, for our lowest prices, always order directly from Joco Records!
Track Listing:
A1 Lie To Me 2:10
A2 Low Down 4:15
A3 2:19 5:02
A4 Fish In The Jailhouse 4:22
B1 Bottom Of The World 5:43
B2 Lucinda 4:53
B3 Ain't Goin' Down To The Well 2:28
B4 Lord I've Been Changed 2:28
C1 Puttin' On The Dog 3:39
C2 Road To Peace 7:17
C3 All The Time 4:34
D1 The Return Of Jackie And Judy 3:29
D2 Walk Away 2:44
D3 Sea Of Love 3:43
D4 Buzz Fledderjohn 4:13
D5 Rains On Me 3:20
