"Babbachichuija"
"Babbachichuija"
'Orbitones, Spoon Harps, and Bellowphones: Experimental Musical Instruments', 1998
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Here are the instruments Tom “plays” on "Babbachichuija":
Tire hydraulic machine echoing in a garage
Sewing machine
Door squeaking
Washing machine spin cycle
Yes, even by Tom Waits standards, "Babbachichuija" is a bizarre artifact.
It's also an obscure one. It's not on any of his albums. It's not a B-side, live track, outtake, or something from Orphans. Instead, it appeared on the 1998 CD compilation Orbitones, Spoon Harps, and Bellowphones: Experimental Musical Instruments, alongside artists like electronic musician Aphex Twin and composer John Cage.
In the CD liner notes, Tom explained the genesis of one of aforementioned insane instruments:
“I was in the garage, and they were fixing a flat, and I was listening to the sound of the tire machine - the hydraulic machine that pushes the tire down and lets the air out - and all the tools involved. I turned my tape recording on, and I got some amazing sounds. I mean the tire machine is just a little machine, but in the echo of the garage it sounds like something from the industrial revolution.”
I'm actually not entirely sure which sound on this Eraserhead sound collage of a song is the tire machine; the squeaky door and churning sewing machine (or is that the spin cycle?) are more identifiable. There’s one other instrument you can pick out though: Tom's voice. And it really is more like just another instrument than actual singing, as he repeats the nonsense title phrase over and over like a mantra. I applaud the chaotic energy of the Tom Waits Library transcribing the, for lack of a better word, lyrics:
Where’s Tom’s Nobel Prize for Literature, huh?
The whole Orbitones compilation is worth checking out. It also comes with some wonderfully detailed liner notes - 95 pages’ worth! - which you can read on Discogs. Here is the Waits portion, which is where that quote a few paragraphs up comes from:
The same record label, Ellipses Arts, also released a companion album to Orbitones, titled Gravikords, Whirlies & Pyrophones.
Tom didn't contribute a track to that one, but he did write a forward to the again-extensive liner notes. He's a hell of a forward writer, describing one weird instrument as sounding "like a keyboard lobster dying on a campfire" and another "like bad bus brakes." For many more such descriptions, here you go:
I love the image of him bringing a mallet and violin bow to the hardware store to test out the different "instruments" for sale there. He and Weird Al should hang out.
PS. The line he wrote about the sounds produced by dragging chairs across the floor reminds me of this classic Tig Notaro comedy bit: