A chair dragged across a linoleum floor? A drum kit made out of kitchen utensils? A wooden, and – a groundbreaking trio of albums, full of devilled blues, crepuscular weirdness and moonstruck laments that are reissued this month. Here, we talk to Waits’ closest collaborators to discover the untold stories behind this audacious artistic year zero. “He would wrestle with the feel, the characters, and the tone of his voice. It was really an intense process for him,” learns Graeme Thomson.
