Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
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Free Music Notes for Rain Dogs
Free Music Review: Simply Brilliant
Hit: 5 Stars
The middle album of the Mid-80s trilogy (between "Frank's Wild Years" and "Swordfish Trombones") is considered by many to be Tom's greatest album. Who am I to argue with this assessment? On a dark and rainy night with a tumbler of bourbon, there is nothing that completes the mood like this disc.Quite simply, Tom Waits is a poet. Like Leonard Cohen and Shane McGowan--and even Louis Armstrong, from a different era--Tom's voice is evocative in it's harshness. Expressing a tough life of too much whiskey and too many cigaretes, songs such as "Downtown Train" (forget the good but not great cover by Rod Stewart), "Walking Spanish", and "Gun Street Girl", or spoken poems like "9th and Hennepin" add just the right amount of urban blight accompanyment to create something that is completely and totally unique, and beautiful.
I do have my favorites on this disc: "Tango Till They're Sore" with its images of a New Orleans funeral procession; the Country-music strains of "Blind Love"; and one must not forget the simple, raw emotion of "Time". There is no true filler material on this album, and the great songs are among Tom's greatest. All in all, the one Tom Waits album each fan must own above all others.
Free Music Review: My absolute favorite Musical Artist
Hit: 5 Stars
Tom Waits has touched my life like no other artist. I feel as though my life would not be complete had I not discovered is absolutely captivating and encapsulating/enveloping music.
I am so impressed and awed with this mans talent that I am completely blown away each and every time I listen to his music. Each time is better than the last and it hauntingly attaches itself to ones soul and spirit. It is if I can feel the pain of his life and the beauty of his creativity all at the same time. The highs and the lows.
I discovered Tom Waits by accident while residing in NYC attempting to be a struggling starving actor, and really doing great with the struggling and starving part of my goal. Tom Waits made me understand that art is not about achieving financial success or even achieving understanding from others. It is about complete pure honest expression and no one has been more true to their medium than Tom Waits.
I pray one day I get to shake this mans hand and tell him what a hero he is to me. I wish more people would be like Tom Waits. The world would be a much more pure better place.
Thank you Tom Waits for being such a powerhouse in the art world and such a beacon for all of humanity in the beyond.
-Keegan Reid
Free Music Review: ah yes, sometimes you need 6 stars...
Hit: 5 Stars
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.
Free Music Review: No sense in quibbling, I suppose...
Hit: 5 Stars
Okay okay--Rain Dogs is not technically 'perfect.' It does become noticably weaker in its second half. However, this is really scarcely an issue, because in this case the good outweighs the bad to such an extent that one has to make a conscious effort to remember that the latter even exists. Track after brilliant track, there is an absolute embarrassment of riches here. 'Time' and 'Hang Down Your Head' are perhaps Waits' best ballads; 'Clap Hands,' 'Jockey Full of Bourbon,' and 'Diamonds and Gold' are pitch-perfect examples of the twistedly evocative, surreal Waits song; and for all-out exultant dementia, it doesn't get much better than 'Cemetary Polka,' 'Tango 'Til They're Sore,' and the magnificent title track. And that's just for starters.I do apologize for using so many superlatives here, but the fact is, this is one of the all-time greats. It may take a while for newcomers to acclimate themselves to Waits' inimitable style, but once you have, it seems almost inconceivable that you will not be filled with the desire to own everything the man's ever recorded. Or perhaps that's just me. Still, twenty-some CDs later, I don't regret a minute of it. Rain Dogs is, to use a too-shopworn but nonetheless entirely applicable phrase, a must-buy.
Free Music Review: Best album of it's decade
Hit: 5 Stars
Thankfully there still are some genious writers in the music business. Tom Waits is one, and this is his stronges effort. "Rain Dogs" features such mazingly innovative classics as "Singapore", "Jockey full Of Bourbon", "Time", the title song, and "Downtown Train", wich should you not mix up with the dreadful version recorded by Rod Stewart. The atmosphere is pretty conducted with New York City, as you can hear on "Downtown Train", "Midtown", "Union Square" and so on. As much as an outstanding composer is, maybe even more, a storyteller. The lyrics aren't any "I-know-how-it-goes-I-know-it-all"-type of ones; no, they are actually pretty down to earth, wich makes it easier for listeners to put theirselves in the story. Tom hasn't had the easiest life, so the songs aren't all that happy either. His voice makes the songs even more soulful and familiar. In the perfect world "Rain Dogs" would be rated among the biggest sellig classic albums ever recorded. Instead, it is a classic among anyone enjoying great stories about everyday life. Tom Waits is the most valuable musician in the music business today.