Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
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Free Music Notes for Rain Dogs
Free Music Review: I think I've found a new favorite artist.
Hit: 5 Stars
This is my first Tom Waits album, and after listening to it nearly nonstop for the past two or three weeks, I'll say this: His reputation as one of the great modern American songwriters is more than well-deserved.
NOBODY writes lyrics like Tom Waits writes lyrics. Not even Dylan. While Bob's best work frequently consists of cryptic, complex metaphors and symbolism, Waits' are far more direct yet exquisite in their (comparative) simplicity and the imagery they create. And on Rain Dogs the images consist of shady "small-time Napoleons" and lost lovers all looking for a way out of grimy, seedy downtowns. From the pirate sea shanty opener Singapore all the way to the end, this album is an embarrassment of lyrical riches. One of my favorite passages, from Tango 'Til They're Sore:
"Make sure they play my theme song, I guess daisies will have to do/
Just get me to New Orleans and paint shadows on the pews/
Turn the spit on that pig and kick the drum and let me down/
Put my clarinet beneath your bed 'til I get back in town/
Let me fall out of the window with confetti in my hair/
Deal out Jacks or Better on a blanket by the stairs/
I'll tell you all my secrets, but I lie about my past/
So send me off to bed for evermore"
Even if the lyrics were downright banal, Waits could lend them an air of authenticity with that incredible cavernous, ravaged growl of his. An acquired taste definitely, but I defy you to find anybody post-Howling Wolf who can sing with this much raw emotion. I challenge you to listen to the funereal yet uplifting closer Anywhere I Lay My Head and not have your heartstrings yanked right out. I want that song to be the last one I hear before shuffling off this mortal coil.
Anyway, the best-known song on here, Downtown Train (later nearly slaughtered by Rod Stewart) is in my opinion the least of these tracks by far. I don't know, it just seems to lack conviction--Tom mumbles the verses, and the arrangement seems so straightforward, as if it was deliberately designated the "mainstream hit song," or something. I prefer the looser, more inventive arrangements (ex. Clap Hands, Jockey Full Of Bourbon, Diamonds And Gold, Cementary Polka, the title track) with more percussion and odd instruments, and where Marc Ribot's sporadic guitar lines seem to take on a life of their own. No matter. Downtown Train isn't even close to being bad enough to stain the album, what with so many classics here.
Highlights range from the aforementioned Singapore to the bluesy stomper Union Square to gorgeous gutter ballads Time and Blind Love to the jaunty banjo-driven Gun Street Girl to the gloomy spoken-word piece 9th And Hennepin to...well, the whole album. I don't care what you're into, your music collection is not truly complete without this. Five stars is not enough. Now I'm off to check out Swordfishtrombones and the rest of Tom's later albums, and if they're anywhere near the level of this my ears are gonna be happy for a lifetime.
Free Music Review: Take that, Britian!
Hit: 5 Stars
One thing you need to know about Tom Waits is that you can't have just one of his albums. Not because at so many of his records on this site are labeled Essential Recording (those don't mean ______ remember?). It's true, if you get hooked on this guy, you will need more of Tom Waits. Chances are, if you really like albums like Rain Dogs and Bone Machine, don't hesitate to dig deeper into the library of Tom Waits, he's got quite a bit. True, all of his albums may not be winners for you (or me), but that's what sound samples are for (as well as listener reviews, but they shouldn't be your main source for wanting to buy albums).
Regardless if you like Tom Waits or not, you got to give the man props for getting such a rabid fanbase and a voice that no one else can match. Indeed, there will never be a singer like Tom Waits. And he's on top form during the 80's.
The term Rain Dogs refers to a dog who has lost all scents from the rain and can't get home, and the whole album are about those people like those dogs. Signapore, Cemetary Polka, Anywhere I lay My Head, Downtown Train, and Rain Dogs are all about the following. Indeed, the lyrics on here are fantastic as usual, he creates a character that you can't help but like. It's another one of those albums that don't have lyrics about one certain thing that's so obvious. Some will open your imagination, while some are quite unexplainable. But those characters are all rain dogs. It's got imagery that will conjure up as well. Really, how could you go wrong?
The best thing is the music, of course. It's got the signature Tom Waits blues and country, but some of the songs are more than that. Clap Hands, Cemetary Polka, Midtown, Signapore. Talk about unconvential. I do love the way Cemetary Polka sounds like a carnival song, Signapore's Sea Shanty. Indeed, there's a perfect balance of totally listenable and cryptic music. No matter what his band does, it works. I tip my hat off to Marc Ribot's guitar playing. Love his playing.
Oh, and you got Tom's voice, as emotional and ruff as you want it. I think that goes without saying, his voice is incredible. Eat your heat out, disney. You'll never touch the way real singers do.
I'll say one thing bad, Downtown Train is a musical disaster. Not only is the song rather weak (Wait's version), Rod Steward killed it. Thankfully, all the other tracks make up for it. It's nearly an hour, anyway.
It's common these days that the word singer/songwriter ain't exactly that powerful. With hacks like Daniel Prowter and John Mayer plugging up the airwaves, it's not getting any better. But this guy is truly a talented soul. I understand this guy, and you just might to. If you don't, that's fine. If you do, you've found an artist.
Free Music Review: Varied sounds, poetic lyrics
Hit: 5 Stars
I heard the gravelly voice and incredible lyrics of Tom Waits for the first time two years ago on a friend's copy of "Mule Variations." While my exposure to the wide breadth of his past material and musical evolution has been gradual, I became a fast and devoted fan. "Rain Dogs" is the third of his albums that I bought, and what a piece of work it is. There's such a variety of sounds on this album - "Rain Dogs" truly showcases Waits's ability to take any musical style and call it his own. The album starts out with versions of Waits's classic junket band, a sound that first entranced me with the much later "Cold Water". The first three tracks ("Singapore," "Clap Hands," and the weird "Cemetary Polka") are a ramble down the bizzare and dark. The title track lies in the middle of the album, and begins with a melancholy accordian solo, then becomes a delightful romp in the life of the "Rain Dogs," who "...danced and swallowed the night / For it was so ripe for dreaming." A more country sound is present in the earthy "Gun Street Girl" and the twangy melancholy of "Blind Love." It's an incredibly varied album, yet Waits still fuses it all together somehow.
The Uptown Horns, a brash and boisterous quartet of sax, trumpet and trombone players, contributed their talents to most of this album, much to the delight of the listener. There is the instrumental entitled "Midtown" - an explosion of brass that sounds like it's setting the scene for a private eye flick. For other songs, one or two of the horn players often accompany Waits's vocals. The trombone player of the band contributes to my favorite song on the album, "Tango Till They're Sore." This is a delightful piano-and-trombone croon that evokes wee-hour gatherings with friends after a long, staggering night out: "Let me fall out of the window with confetti in my hair / Deal out jacks or better on a blanket by the stairs / I tell you all my secrets but I lie about my past / Send me off to bed forevermore..."
Waits is an outstanding songwriter and poet, and the lyrics for all the songs on "Rain Dogs" never fail to be vivid and poignant. Whimsical ("Diamonds and Gold") or cruel ("Ninth & Hennepin"), all evoke clear, unusual, and very human images that are unmatched by other songwriters -- no wonder Tom Waits is one of the most covered artists of our time.
"Anywhere I Lay my Head" is last on the list. With the Uptown Horns playing a slow, taps-like accompaniment, Waits croons with his signature voice, "I don't need anybody / Because I learned to be alone / And anywhere, anywhere I lay my head, boys / I will call my home." The horn quartet caps it off with a boistrous oom-pahing coda, you can almost see them strutting away down Bourbon Street. Undoubtedly one of the best finishes to an album I've ever heard.
Free Music Review: Waits' Best
Hit: 5 Stars
It is rare for any lyricist to pen a verse as remarkably specific and thoughtful as "Make sure they play my theme song I guess daisies will have to do/Just get me to New Orleans and paint shadows on the pews/Turn the spit on that pig and kick the drum and let me down/Put my clarinet beneath your bed 'til I get back in town/Let me fall out of the window with confetti in my hair." Yet Tom Waits belts out such verses with regularity on his epochal "Rain Dogs," one of the best releases of the 80s.
Waits functions almost like a sponge for every style of American music of the last century; you can hear within the howling, sepia tones of his roughened voice the distant echoes of blues, jazz, ragtime, folk, country, and old school rock 'n roll. Yet for all of his homage to roots music, Waits displays a creative cunning and adventurousness that is seldom seen among singer-songwriters. Take, for example, his adroit use of percussion backdrops--never does he take the easy way out and use a simple drum pattern, opting instead to craft a pulsing rhythmic collage that drifts unsettingly beneath an array of icepick guitar (courtesy of Marc Ribot and, in some places, Keith Richards) and bar-room piano. Such an approach only hints at Waits' unique genius and his seemless mastery of American music.
It is hard to determine whether Waits' acute lyrics or his soulful, wounded voice merits more praise; the former are so complex and beautiful ("And they all pretend they're orphans and their memory's like a train/You can see it getting smaller as it pulls away/And the things you can't remember tell the things you can't forget/That history puts a saint in every dream") that they often leave me speechelss, while the latter imbues these words with a grizzled character and the tangible feeling that every scene and every character that escapes from Waits' mouth is just as real and just as colorful as he claims it is.
Named for dogs that lose track of their scent in the wake of a rainstorm, "Rain Dogs" is stained with feelings of broken love and bluesy lament; you can almost see Waits sitting at some street corner in the middle of a gullywasher, strumming a guitar and beating a conga whilst bestowing wisdom and pure poetry. The blue and somber and tones of this album ebb and flow brilliantly with Waits' more whimsical moments ("Uncle Vernon, Uncle Vernon, independent as a hog on ice/He's a big shot down there at the slaughterhouse/Plays accordion for Mr. Weiss"), and the result is nothing short of one of the most unique and intricately crafted albums in history.
Free Music Review: One of my desert islands discs
Hit: 5 Stars
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.