Product Description

Tom Waits discarded his bohemian sage persona with the radical Swordfishtrombones, and this follow-up release synthesized and developed themes from that groundbreaking album. Ever-shifting percussive textures are supported, where applicable, by horns or Farfisa organ and several guest musicians, including Rolling Stone Keith Richards, contribute to its melange. Waits' bourbon-laced voice is as riveting as ever, intoning lyrics that are, at various times, touching, evocative,sly or simply funny. His off-kilter perceptions encompass country, polkas and heart-rending ballads, each of which he expresses with consummate ease. Rain Dogs is yet another strong statement from a highly innovative artist.

Track Listing

1. Singapore
2. Clap Hands
3. Cemetery Polka
4. Jockey Full Of Bourbon
5. Tango Till They're Sore
6. Big Black Mariah
7. Diamonds And Gold
8. Hang Down Your Head
9. Time
10. Rain Dogs
11. Midtown
12. 9th & Hennepin
13. Gun Street Girl
14. Union Square
15. Blind Love
16. Walking Spanish
17. Downtown Train
18. Bride Of Rain Dog
19. Anywhere I Lay My Head

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #531 in Music
• Released on: 1989-05-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 54 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The middle album of the trilogy that includes Swordfishtrombones and Franks Wild Years, Rain Dogs is Waits's best overall effort. The songs are first-rate, and there are a lot of them--19 in all, ranging from grim nightlife memoirs ("9th and Hennepin," "Singapore") to portraits of small-time hustlers ("Gun Street Girl", "Union Square") to bursts of street- corner philosophy ("Blind Love", "Time"). The album also contains the original version of "Downtown Train", which Rod Stewart turned into a smash hit. The image of "rain dogs"--animals who've lost their way home because the rain has washed away their scent--is an appropriate symbol for the entire cast of characters Waits has brought to life over the years, and this album has thus far proved to be his most enduring effort. --Daniel Durchholz

Customer Reviews

Hang down your head
What an album! I have never known two songs hang down your head and time to make me cry! They are two af my fave songs EVER! But the whole album just oozes by wonderfuly! Tom is an amazing geezer and this album rocks from start to finish! BUY IT!!

A brilliant mid-career set - My favourite Waits album
Tom Waits is one of music's best-kept secrets. You may not know his name, but you'll know his songs - Rod Stewart's cover of 'Downtown Train' or Springsteen's 'Jersey Girl' for instance. He's a outstanding songwriter with a unique selling point ... his voice. To describe it as a bourbon-soaked, gravelly barroom growl would be to do him a disservice as it's far more than that. It's another musical instrument, but one deriving from the theatre or circus, not from any conventional orchestra.

Rain Dogs, the sequel to Swordfishtrombones (vols I & II of a mid-career trilogy of albums for Island records), was released in 1985. There is not a single dud track from the first 'Singapore' and the anticipation of a journey just beginning, right to the end and the world-weary 'Anywhere I lay my head'. As usual we meet a motley groups of Waitsian characters from Uncle Vernon in the percussive 'Cemetery Polka' to Brooklyn girls in the sublime aforementioned 'Downtown Train'. We meet the guys 'Walking Spanish' - prisoners walking down death row and see the seedy side of life on '9th & Hennepin'. My personal favourites are 'Jockey full of bourbon' and the title track 'Rain Dogs', both of which are about booze and carousing, and although they're not lullabies are strangely soothing musically. Several tracks are boosted by the appearance of Keith Richards too. This character fuelled album is upbeat and uplifting and totally addictive.

For I am a Rain Dog Too
Wait's most pop oriented (in the sense of short songs and catchy, easy to listen to tunes) lp and many people's favourite. A dizzyingly diverse series of vignettes in a range of Waits styles past and present ('Walking Spanish' looks back; 'Singapore' looks forward). A little of everything here, this album is almost like a commercial for Wait's career. Also perhaps his most varied album vocally, from whispered hush to his full scale `pirate' boom.
Very upbeat, with little in the way of the slow ballads that had been his staple before this(though that doesn't mean there are no lumps in the throat: there are), there is an immediacy here that will rattle you through the 19 tracks before you can catch your breath.