Rain Dogs

Tom Waits | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 15, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Island
• ASIN: B000001FFJ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (149 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,428 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #98 in Music > Rock > Progressive > Progressive Rock

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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

Product Description

Essential 1985 album features "Downtown Train" and "Jockey Full Of Bourbon".One of Tom's best!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my desert islands discs May 3, 2003

By Robert Moore HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

I have long loved Tom Waits, and have a host of his albums, but this gem of a record remains by far his best effort. It isn't just that many of his best songs are on this album, but that virtually all of the songs are at least highly listenable. The quality of RAIN DOGS can be seen in the fact that a large number of artists have recorded this album's songs.

Musically, the amazing arrangements sound like Kurt Weill meets Captain Beefheart meets a carnival barker meets a bottle of bourbon. As the album begins and moves from "Singapore" to "Clap Hands," you know that you are not dealing with a three-chords-and-a-cloud-of-dust performer. What is stunning after the album's first few songs, however, is how lyrical Waits becomes as the album goes on. For all the raucousness of some of the numbers, it is easily balanced by the beauty of songs like "Downtown Train," the gorgeous "Time," or the mournfully drunken "Blind Love." Waits employs a crack back up band, with significant guess appearances with performers like Keith Richards. The star back up musician is, however, Marc Ribot, who as he so often does provides stunningly original guitar lines that embellish every song upon which he appears.

Lyrically, Waits has never been better, turning out one superb line after another. Several of the songs read as more than decent poetry, and many individual lines pop out, such as (from "Time") "The things you can't remember tell the thing you can't forget" or, in the best line about being down, down and out I have heard, "When you're east of East St. Louis" (with apologies to East St. Louis). Or what about this great line from "Blind Love": "They say if you get far enough away/You'll be on your way back home...." Even some of the less well-known songs on the album, like "Tango Till They're Sore," are lyrically stunning.

I'm a big fan of Tom Waits, but while in his other albums I always find him at least interesting, I still find there are a lot of individual songs that aren't up to the level of his best work. RAIN DOGS is Tom's best album partly because it contains many of his best songs, but partly because it contains absolutely none of his worse. This is all the more remarkable given the fact that RAIN DOGS was one of the first albums to take advantage of the greater capacity of CDs to expand the number of cuts. Despite the larger number of songs, there are no weak cuts and no filler. Read more ›

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars ah yes, sometimes you need 6 stars... January 17, 2000

By le_chimp

Format:Audio CD

It's 1:30 AM. You're alone and it's hot, and ALL your sheets are firmly to the wind. Rain Dogs [and another drink] is all you need.

Waits' style is a personal one, distinct and poetic, so trying to convince me he's got a best album is like trying to convice someone they like filet mignon more than grilled salmon! All his albums are great meals, so just because you're bound to prefer one to another doesn't mean your tastebuds are better than anyone else's -- the only way to know which you like best is to sample them for yourself.

Because if you like Blues and standard arrangements, try Heartattack and Vine or Blue Valentine. If you like softer stuff or jazz hipsterism, try Heart of Saturday Night or Nighthawks. And if you like it more deviant, try Swordfish or Bone Machine. Waits's got something for everyone.

And yet in answer to all the critics, if you want them all on one plate -- if you want pop and jazz, blues and acoustic, raveups and hoedowns, and lyrics you actually want to read like a book -- there's no way you can go wrong with Rain Dogs. I don't doubt this is the one album that would make ALL Waits fans' top 5.

From there, you're on your own. Because like all great experiences in life, one person's worst might just be your best.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Waits' best album--and that's really saying something! December 10, 2002

By Brooke Pennington

Format:Audio CD

It has been said that Britain may have spawned the Beatles and 90% of all other great musicians of our era, but that America makes up for it by having Tom Waits. Listen to this album and you might start to see why.

I am admittedly a fan of the "middle" period of Waits' career. I find his early work interesting because it shows him trying to find his personal "voice"--a songwriting idiom that works for him. Waits began his career by writing mostly formulaic love songs with a blues edge or wistful melodies sung alone with solo-piano accompaniment. Then, with "Heartattack and Vine" and "Frank's Wild Years" Waits was beginning to find his voice. Here, he finally found it.

First of all, this album is most consistent in placing three of Waits' constant themes in almost every song: rain, whiskey, and trains. Almost any image you can conjure up featuring those three things is probably found in a Waits song somewhere. The songs on this album also display a variety of subject matter sometimes lacking on Waits albums. There are uptempo, upbeat songs, humorous short ditties that sound like nursery rhymes, and a lot of what Waits does best: songs with a catchy tempo or a hum-along chorus that you can hear over and over and then realize they're simultaneously the saddest and most haunting songs you've ever heard. Songs on this album which fit this description are "Rain Dogs", "Downtown Train" (shame on you if you thought that was a Rod Stewart original!), and "Hang Down Your Head".

Tom's next album, "Swordfishtrombones", comes close to the lyrical virtousity and perfect blend of musical skill and eccentricity displayed here.... Since then he has tried many different directions with his music and his latest two albums show that he is on the verge of making another masterpiece like this one any day now. Don't get me wrong, his latest work is a hundred times better than anything else out there today, but "Rain Dogs" is definitely the place to start. Read more ›

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Criminally Under-Rated Artist September 19, 2001

By "guyfreakinmorcado"

Format:Audio CD

Rain Dogs is one of the greatest albums that no one else on my college campus has heard of. Waits is an incredible songwriter, in the top class with only a handful of others. This is an interesting album in that it may be called a Waits sampler album. He has the rough jazz/blues with the growling lyrics that some of his albums are known for and the ballads that others are known for. His experimental blues tracks are incredible, Singapore, Clap Hands, Jockey Full of Bourbon are all great songs. His voice adds to the texture and realism of the characters. The true highlights of the album, to me, are the slower songs, Time, Downtown Train, and Anywhere I Lay my Head, which rips my soul out every time. The placement of the instrumental tracks is interesting in its obvious strategy. One is after the title track because after that song, the sheer power of it, the listener needs some time to cool down; then between Downtown Train and Anywhere I Lay my Head, because the songs would be too much back to back. Waits voice is an interesting instrument. Tori Amos was on Letterman last night and performed Time. She did a very good job, putting all of herself in the song and the audience loved it. However Waits is in that regard is like Dylan. You can cover the songs, but no one can sing Dylan like Dylan, and no one can sing Tom Waits like the man himself. That voice is incredible.