Tom Waits's "Rain Dogs"

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I've been listening to this a lot today. I love it. I want to write so much about why I love it but can't because it's late and I have to go to bed as I've been getting drunk and getting 3 hours sleep a night every night this week so I must go. But I will say that it peters out towards the end, sadly, otherwise it would be one of my fave albums ever.

I'll let you say something else about it.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 22 April 2004 22:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Peters out?

Blind Love? Downtown Train? Anywhere I Lay My Mead? Shit, the last 6 tracks may be the BEST part of the album.

― Scott CE (Scott CE), Thursday, 22 April 2004 22:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I was about to say the same thing.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Thursday, 22 April 2004 22:48 (twenty-two years ago)

all i'm saying is:

I don't really like Blind Love and that annoying jazzy instrumental thing that sounds like a car chase and Walking Spanish. They're too jolly compared to the creepy Clap Hands and Singapore. I was listening to it today and thinking "this album is the tits till it gets near the end and then there are two or three duds". "Downtown Train" is one of the best songs ever written - it gives me chills like nothing else.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 22 April 2004 22:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Of course, "Walking Spanish" could only be considered jolly in the context of a Tom Waits album.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Thursday, 22 April 2004 22:54 (twenty-two years ago)

this is my favorite tome waits album ever. I know that it's probably the popular choice, but so be it.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Thursday, 22 April 2004 22:55 (twenty-two years ago)

"Downtown Train" is one of the best songs ever written - it gives me chills like nothing else.

amen!

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 22 April 2004 22:58 (twenty-two years ago)

see, i ignored it as it was lacking the darker ballads of swordfishtrombones, franks wild year, alice, etc. then i discovered how great "singapore" and "clap hands" are and now i think overall it's one of the very best. That said the "big three" of Tom's early 80s career blend together so well it's very hard to tell which is best.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 22 April 2004 22:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I love the lyrics to "Singapore" - especially since a workmate has to go there for business every so often and says it's actually a very dull place to go.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 22 April 2004 23:02 (twenty-two years ago)

This is one of my favourite albums ever. I haven't listened to it for a while, but it is pretty much perfect apart from a couple towards the end - but then it redeems itself a million times over with "Anywhere I Lay My Head". I love "Time" and "Tango Till They're Sore" and "Clap Hands" especially. He sounds drunk throughout.

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 22 April 2004 23:06 (twenty-two years ago)

"Blind Love" is a wee bit too countryish for my priggish tastes, otherwise the rest is great to near-great. Quite a lengthy playing time for 1985 - close to an hour, right? Of course, that became the standard within a few years, not always for the better.

Where the hell did he steal "Hang Down Your Head"'s gorgeous melody from? Sounded instantly familiar to me from the first hearing...

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Friday, 23 April 2004 00:22 (twenty-two years ago)

ha!, by coincidence i've just been listening to this during my lunch break!
easily my favourite waits album and a genuine stunner. the film-noire and cajun elements add so much textural, it feels like a totally different beast than any other album ive ever heard.. very cool

― chris andrews (fraew), Friday, 23 April 2004 00:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I did a bit of a Waits binge earlier this year or late last -- an album a day from the start -- and heard that way I think a major complaint levelled against him hold water, that at a certain point he nailed down a specific sound that provided a near constant template since, where the songs and albums are variations on a mood and style rather than a series of distinct changes or phases. It's no more or less a criticism than can be levelled at the Ramones or the Cocteau Twins or whoever, I guess, but I have a feeling I could boil down a lot of the albums to a 2 CDR comp and be content with that. Some great individual songs on this one, though, so its reputation makes sense -- "Clap Hands" and "Downtown Train" are darned spiff.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 23 April 2004 00:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Where the hell did he steal "Hang Down Your Head"'s gorgeous melody from? Sounded instantly familiar to me from the first hearing...

YES! But it's been years since first heard it now, and I still haven't worked it out - it may well be one of those instantly classic melodies. Was it the first Waits song which Kathleen Brennan was credited on?

― The Lex (The Lex), Friday, 23 April 2004 00:29 (twenty-two years ago)

an stunning album: gun street girl, time, downtown train.... Franks wild years is thee Tom Waits album for me though. i think that Bone Machine is better too.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 23 April 2004 00:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I would take the worst song on Rain Dogs over the best Tom Waits song that's not on Rain Dogs, whatever those songs may be.

― Maxwell von Bismarck (maxwell von bismarck), Friday, 23 April 2004 01:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I think that 2-CD "Best of" is exactly Swordfishtrombones & Raindogs, though there are at least three on "Heartattack & Vine" I'd be sad to lose

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Friday, 23 April 2004 01:08 (twenty-two years ago)

tom waits, he's the worst. it's only serious music people who enjoy him, it must be something about learnign to live with disappointment, what a drag he is. it always sounds to me like he's playing a joke on his listeners, "look i'll make this even more unlistenable than the last and then be championed as a greater genius than ever i was before".

― keith m (keithmcl), Friday, 23 April 2004 01:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Mine would have to include "I Don't Want To Grow Up," "Who Are You" and "The Briar and the Rose."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 23 April 2004 01:10 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't find anything 'unlistenable' about tom waits.. though i DID take a while to click on his style (swordfishtrombones saw me through).. i guess people just don't get the uncoventional approach and throaty voice.. but goddamn does he have CHARACTER, no other artist could so convincingly conjure so many vivid characters..

― chris andrews (fraew), Friday, 23 April 2004 01:15 (twenty-two years ago)

although I like Tom Waits, I'm not unsympathetic to keith's postion - once someone's gotten the PBS stamp of approval it's hard to get excited about 'em
NB I would chew off my own right pinky to grab a little of that PBS stamp-of-approval dollar

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Friday, 23 April 2004 01:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey, don't do that -- you have to do the Gira thing and say if someone pays you a million bucks you'll cut it off and eat it.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 23 April 2004 01:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I would take the worst song on Rain Dogs over the best Tom Waits song that's not on Rain Dogs, whatever those songs may be.

id say you need to hear Franks Wild years and Bone Machine, both superior records.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 23 April 2004 01:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah. 'Cold Cold Ground' is probably my favourite Waits track, but Rain Dogs is probably my favourite Waits album (though I haven't heard them all yet.

― Sasha (sgh), Friday, 23 April 2004 01:45 (twenty-two years ago)

holy shit jed_, i thought i was the only Frank's Wild Years devotee. do people ignore it because it's ostensibly a soundtrack? i think it's his most consistently engaging release - barroom drunk perosna done more playfully than before on "Innocent When You Dream" (first Waits song I ever heard, via 'Smoke'); the uptight old man shout of "I'll Be Gone"; the heartsick moans and busted-carnival-organs of "Please Wake Me Up". random aside: i put the latin version of "Straight To The Top" on the jukebox at an NYCFAP (Siberia) and Tim Hopkins totally made fun of me because it was so muffled. anyways, Rain Dogs fans might not dig this because it has less maudlin 70s Waits breaking through the clouds, more the maturation of the Swordfishtrombones songs, but Bone Machine fans should find themselves rightfully hooked.

(not to say Rain Dogs is bad, "Singapore" is like my anthem because I live here and it is that dull most of the time, though we aren't of course harumph harumph; "Jockey Full Of Bourbon" with the best Ribot playing in forever; "Downtown Train" more memorable for my sister's boyfriend's impression of it than the song itself, translate this to your own experience as needed; "Cemetary Polka" - Uncle Vernon independant as a HOG ON ICE!!! genius, sheer genius)

― Dave M. (rotten03), Friday, 23 April 2004 01:47 (twenty-two years ago)

..meanwhile 'one from the heart' is the weakest waits ive ever heard..i wouldn't have expected much from crystal gayle though, i guess

― chris andrews (fraew), Friday, 23 April 2004 01:51 (twenty-two years ago)

x-post john and kieth: I think the "backlash" against Tom Waits (for lack of a better term) is based on this perception that people like him as a posture, and specifically his "edgier" or "avant garde" stuff (esp. Bone Machine, Frank's Wild Years, etc--and which probably leads to the PBS approval, though I was not aware of it). There's this knee-jerk reaction against him based on what is perceived as a lazy knee-jerk support FOR him and his "edgy" or "cool" persona(and, to be clear, I am not accusing either of you guys of this knee-jerk-ism).

But to me, the real genius of Waits is his maudlin, sentimental stuff. Really, no one does it better. Blind Love, Downtown Train, Jersey Girl, Ol' 55, Martha, Hold On, the list of just unbelievably great sappy sentimental, BRILLIANT songs goes on and on. To me, his great love songs are just unimpeachably great.

I also love his more "experimental" stuff (though I think it's a stretch to call it unllistenable--it all still seems relatively tame in the larger musical context), but I understand how someone could say that it's pretentious or somehow too full of artifice. His love songs, though--I just can't say (or, really, hear) a bad word about them.

― Scott CE (Scott CE), Friday, 23 April 2004 02:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I remember hearing this album at age 12 and having my mind blown. I had heard some of his 70s stuff before courtesey the weirdo hippy guy down the street, and I knew Rod Stewart's version of "Downtown Train." But I was completely baffled and awed by Rain Dogs. Within two months I "acquired" four or five other TW albums, but this one remains that magic moment, probably rivaled only by the first time I heard Lou Reed's Transformer, where I could see infinity. In terms of musical possibility.

― Huck, Friday, 23 April 2004 02:37 (twenty-two years ago)

look i'll make this even more unlistenable than the last and then be championed as a greater genius than ever i was before.

Some of us visit the circus for the lion tamers and trapeze artists; some of us prefer the side show.

― Evanston Wade (EWW), Friday, 23 April 2004 02:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Have all Tom Waits fans chosen a side? Pre-Swordfishtrombones or post? I'm curious because I find both of his personas entertaining.

Side note: along with the underrated Frank's Wild Years (which I think you've pegged, Dave), on a nice hifi, the only thing missing from Nighthawks at the Diner is burger and a coke.

― Evanston Wade (EWW), Friday, 23 April 2004 02:48 (twenty-two years ago)

walking spanish jolly? isn't it about a guy on death row?

― mullygrubber (gaz), Friday, 23 April 2004 02:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Thanks a lot, guys. Two glasses of wine in and I'm already strutting around the place to "Big Black Mariah".

― Evanston Wade (EWW), Friday, 23 April 2004 02:50 (twenty-two years ago)

"Blind Love" is an AWESOME song, but it's true Frank's Wild Years is a better album all around. I liked the bit in Eternal Sunshine that had Rain Dogs as one of the memories to be erased...that pretty much sums up that album-break up with someone and you can never listen to it AGAIN, EVER.

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Friday, 23 April 2004 04:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, either that, or you can ONLY this to that album over and over again, FORever. And, like, Drink.

― Scott CE (Scott CE), Friday, 23 April 2004 04:21 (twenty-two years ago)

either way, you gotta drink

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Friday, 23 April 2004 04:23 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah. and hmmm, not sure how I managed to spell "listen" as "this."

― Scott CE (Scott CE), Friday, 23 April 2004 04:25 (twenty-two years ago)

are you....drunk?

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Friday, 23 April 2004 04:40 (twenty-two years ago)

No. Lord, No. Never

― Scott CE (Scott CE), Friday, 23 April 2004 04:46 (twenty-two years ago)

i love 70s and 80s Waits and i dont think the two personas are that unique.. kind of a natural evolution. plus GE Smith is on Rain Dogs!

― Pablo Cruise (chaki), Friday, 23 April 2004 05:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I have fond memories of Rain Dogs, but I own and listen to Frank's Wild Years. (currently the only TW in my collection, after trading most of his albums in for cash when I realized the used place was paying more for stuff people actually wanted)(but my kid brother has lots)

― Huck, Friday, 23 April 2004 05:44 (twenty-two years ago)

add me to the frank's wild years devotee pile - that and closing time easily my top two

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 23 April 2004 06:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm amazed nobody's given props to Blue Valentine yet, prob'ly the essential precursor of the SwordfishDogs sound. It's an album that tends to get overlooked, and maybe that's why I love - less of the shadow of canonical acceptance. Much as I love Tom, I could quite happily live with just Valentine, Swordfish and Rain Dogs.

But what would be intriguing would be a mid-80s re-working of the first 2 albums.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Friday, 23 April 2004 07:11 (twenty-two years ago)

valentine's probably like number four for me (swordfish #3)

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 23 April 2004 07:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I tend to think of Tom Waits' albums in two completely separate sets, almost as if they were done by separate artists: the Asylum stuff being the first and everything from Swordfishtrombones being the second.

I love both of course.

I could express a preference between the two if I was at gunpoint but I wouldn't want to and it would quite likely be different tomorrow - and trying to arrange both sets of albums in order of preference would seem about as pointless as putting all The Clash and Buzzcocks' albums together and trying to do the same with them.

The real puzzle for me 'though (as Chris Andrews hints above) is all the love that One From The Heart sems to have been attracting recently.

For me it's by far his weakest album and I prefer to deny it's existence by failing to include it in either of the two sets.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 23 April 2004 10:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I would move Bone Machine and beyond into a separate category as well, Stewart. The changes were more subtle, but he's def. been cooking with different oil.

Also, I have a lot of affection for Foreign Affairs. Even the Bette Midler duet.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Friday, 23 April 2004 13:28 (twenty-two years ago)

There are few albums I would call perfect, and Rain Dogs is one of them.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 23 April 2004 13:56 (twenty-two years ago)

That's it - i'm starting an I Love Frank's Wild Years board!

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 23 April 2004 14:13 (twenty-two years ago)

why?

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Friday, 23 April 2004 14:13 (twenty-two years ago)

cos i feel like it.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 23 April 2004 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)

As far as grouping Waits' albums into sets, I've always done that. My criteria is the label he was one at the time, though. The Asylum stuff is a distinct style. The Island stuff is, as well. The Epitaph albums seem like a close descendent of his Island material, but still very much have their own indentities.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Friday, 23 April 2004 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes Blue Valentine, great cover and music, both sides. Tom Waits had a similar effect on me as with others. Rain Dogs was my introduction and I quickly proceeded to seek out earlier records. The Asylum Years double album best of was a great introduction, and again the cover, an ace John Baeder Diner painting. Waits does good image.

― mentalist (mentalist), Friday, 23 April 2004 15:18 (twenty-two years ago)

If only more was written on this man...

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 23 April 2004 15:25 (twenty-two years ago)

have any of you seen tw live? mofo is fucking hilarious. hes better than most stand ups. then he busts out with rubys arms and makes you cry.

― Pablo Cruise (chaki), Friday, 23 April 2004 15:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Anyone who could write, perform, or imagine in advance, "I'm Still Here" [on "Alice"] is eventually exempt from all prior criticism.

He devotes less than two minutes to a song out of which others would extenuate entire careers.

― Neil Willett (Neil Willett), Friday, 23 April 2004 19:41 (twenty-two years ago)

have any of you seen tw live?

I saw TW at the Beacon Theatre a couple years ago and he was standing on a wooden box with dust on it and stomping his feet so the dust would fly up in the lights, all broadway-hobo style. Classic.

"Downtown Train" is the best jukebox song ever.

― mcd (mcd), Friday, 23 April 2004 19:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Rain Dogs is my favourite Waits album and one of my ten or so favourite albums ever - and I love the other two from that trilogy (as I still think of them), and lots of the earlier stuff (I think Burma-Shave might be my favourite Waits song - that blaring trumpet at the end was a master stroke), and some of the later stuff too, though I need to listen to that more. He's one of my three or four favourite lyricists ever too - there may be more lines of his that I think are beautiful and evocative than anyone else.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 24 April 2004 11:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Is there a song called "Ruby's Arms? I heard it in a film and it moved me to tears.

― Baravelli. (Jake Proudlock), Saturday, 24 April 2004 12:12 (twenty-two years ago)

"Ruby's Arms" is from Heartattack And Vine... song and album are both wonderful. Oh, the strings.

― The Lex (The Lex), Saturday, 24 April 2004 12:33 (twenty-two years ago)

six months pass...

Am I the only one to be really annoyed by the fade-outs on this album?

― Bumfluff, Saturday, 30 October 2004 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

it does scream "too lazy to write a proper ending"...

but i'd never noticed it until you mentioned it. but now i see it, yes. damnit.

― Ian John50n (orion), Saturday, 30 October 2004 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

It usually happens just at that point where the sound is pushing me into some kind of ecstasy, but then, disappointment..
It makes it feel unfinished to me.

bitch bitch

― Bumfluff, Saturday, 30 October 2004 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

never noticed it.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Thursday, 28 September 2006 10:51 (nineteen years ago)

rain dogs is in my top 10 of all time. not that i've ever tried to compile such a list, but i'd make sure it would slot in there somewhere (towards the back end) nonetheless. it's my overall favourite from mr. waits and therefore simply has to be there.

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Thursday, 28 September 2006 11:02 (nineteen years ago)

ten years pass...

i just found out that the guy on the cover of this album is NOT Tom Waits! he looked enough like him that i never questioned it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_Dogs#/media/File:Tom_Waits_-_Rain_Dogs.png

http://www.tomwaitsfan.com/tom%20waits%20library/www.tomwaitslibrary.com/images/imagesextras/lehmitz-6.jpg
"Lily and Rose"
by Anders Petersen
Café Lehmitz, Hamburg 1967-1970 (1)

― nomar, Thursday, 10 November 2016 18:36 (nine years ago)

I can't accept the disses to One From The Heart on this thread. It's the most underrated of all the "early" Waits albums, probably because it was out of print for years. Some of Tom's ballads on there are the sweetest he's ever done, although it's funny hearing I Beg Your Pardon and realising he recycled the exact same melody for I'm Still Here.

The demo version of Take Me Home could easily fit on any of the post-Asylum Waits albums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdiM8W324qQ

Crystal Gayle's voice seems like an odd fit for the material at first, but it kind of grows on you. I'd like to imagine a fantasy version with someone a bit more careworn and well-travelled. Ricky Lee Jones, maybe.

― Pheeel, Thursday, 10 November 2016 19:08 (nine years ago)

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