Tom Waits has shared a previously unreleased version of âGet Behind the Mule.â The song, which originally appeared on his Grammy-winning 1999 studio album Mule Variations, is coming out to ring in the LPâs 25th anniversary. Give âGet Behind the Mule (Spiritual)â a listen below.
âDefinitely part of the original idea was to do something somewhere between surreal and rural,â Waits said in a statement. âWe call it surrural. Thatâs what these songs are: surrural. Thereâs an element of something old about them, and yet itâs kind of disorientingâ¦â
The drought of new music from Waits continues onwards, as is now tradition for the eccentric musician. The same year that he released his most recent album, 2011âs Bad as Me, Waits was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since then, however, Waits has continued his lifelong acting career in feature films such as Paul Thomas Andersonâs Licorice Pizza, the Coen brothersâ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Martin McDonaghâs Seven Psychopaths.
Last year, Waits made a rare public appearance to present Nicolas Cage with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the SFFilm Awards to honor his Rumble Fish co-star. He also penned a similarly uncommon public statement just a week before, honoring the late Pogues frontman Shane Macgowan. Waitsâ next project is a starring role in Jim Jarmuschâs upcoming movie Father Mother Sister Brother.
Revisit âA Deep Dive Into Tom Waitsâ Best Rare and Unreleased Material.â