“Get Behind the Mule” by Tom Waits

Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan wrote and produced "Get Behind the Mule" together for Mule Variations, the 1999 album on ANTI- that shares its stubborn beast and ended a six-year wait for a new Waits studio record after The Black Rider. Waits sings it over a crack crew: Charlie Musselwhite blows harmonica, Smokey Hormel plays guitar, Larry Taylor holds down the bass and Stephen Taylor Arvizu Hodges handles percussion, while Oz Fritz and Jacquire King recorded and mixed it.

The album around it sent Waits back on the road for his first proper tour since 1987, across Europe and North America, won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and in 2012 Rolling Stone slotted it in at 416 among the 500 greatest albums.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.