"Clang Boom Steam"
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I recently read sound engineer and producer Mark Howard’s memoir Listen Up! I picked it up to get more information on his work with Bob Dylan and Daniel Lanois on Bob’s 1997 album Time Out of Mind, recently the subject of a new box set. But I was pleasantly surprised to find a full chapter in there on Tom Waits too.
Howard recorded Tom’s dark and bluesy 2004 album Real Gone at a bespoke studio he set up in an abandoned schoolhouse near Tom’s home. Here’s a photo from the book of Tom, guitarist Marc Ribot, and bassist Les Claypool recording there:
Early on in the chapter, Howard writes about Tom playing him some home demos before they started their sessions. Howard doesn’t cite any song in particular, but, from reading elsewhere, “Clang Boom Steam” appears to be a primary example of what he’s talking about here:
Tom and his wife, Kathleen Brennan, came to L.A. to work with me at the Paramour [Howard’s regular studio] in March 2003. I walked them around the property and they couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. Tom pulled out his 4-track cassette recorder and I plugged it in. The songs were recordings that he had done in the bathroom of his house, late at night while everyone was sleeping. They sounded so animalistic — he had grunted into the mic and although it was distorted, the recording featured a nice overdrive. He had done beats with his mouth and then overdubbed pots and pans on top of them, boom chic clang. It was so bizarre, but it was also great.
Howard later writes that he figured they’d re-record those tracks properly in the schoolhouse studio. But, even with proper equipment, Tom’s late-night bathroom recordings couldn’t be topped:
Initially, I thought the mouth rhythms Tom had done on his 4-track cassette would sound better once we started the record and redid them, but I just couldn’t beat the sound he’d achieved, even with all the expensive gear I had. Overloading the preamp in the Tascam gave it a thump like a kick drum, and the low-fi quality was all part of the sound.
If you read reviews and interviews when Real Gone came out, “Tom beatboxes in the bathroom” became a narrative that press really latched onto. How could they not! In one interview, Tom described the bathroom as “a mystical place.” In another, he notes that “rooms are instruments” too.
“Clang Boom Steam” is barely a song. Even though he ultimately gave it some perfunctory blues lyrics on top, it’s primarily an excuse to hear Tom beatboxing in that bathroom, raw and unfiltered. What more do you need?