Rain Dogs

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Rain Dogs
Studio album by Tom Waits

Publication
(s)

September 30, 1985

Label (s) Island Records

Format (s)

LP , CD , MC , SACD

Genre (s)

Blues rock , experimental rock

Title (number)

19th

running time

53:46

occupation #Occupation

production

Tom Waits

chronology
Swordfishtrombones
(1983) 		Rain Dogs Frank's Wild Years
(1987)

Rain Dogs is the eighth studio album by American musician Tom Waits , released in 1985. Together with its predecessor, Swordfishtrombones (1983), it is considered to be the album that marked his transition from a bar jazz singer to an adventurous rock musician . The British music journalist and Waits biographer Barney Hoskyns called Rain Dogs a "milestone of the eighties".

Emergence

Rain Dogs was the second album of a new creative phase by Tom Waits (the first was the 1983 Swordfishtrombones ), in which his music became much more experimental, percussive and unconventional than before. The album was made mainly in a basement room on the corner of Washington and Horatio Street in New York in the fall of 1984. It was the first collaboration with two musicians who would appear frequently on Waits' later albums - the tenor saxophonist Ralph Carney and the Lounge -Lizards guitarist Marc Ribot , whom Waits met through John Lurie . Lurie, like the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, had a guest appearance. In the 2015 Netflix documentary Keith Richards - Under the Influence directed by Morgan Neville , Tom Waits recalls this collaboration with Richards: “ He came with a semi-trailer and about 300 guitars. I wasn't ready for that. He also had a kind of guitar butler with him who handed him the guitars, drinks and desserts. It was all a bit much for me. "

The song Hang Down Your Head is the first official collaboration between Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan . Most of the later albums were composed entirely by both of them.

The cover photo is an excerpt from the photograph Lily and Rose by Swedish photographer Anders Petersen from his book Café Lehmitz . It shows a man (Rose) in the arms of a woman (Lily). The picture was taken at the end of the 1960s in Café Lehmitz near Hamburg's Reeperbahn . The photo on the back of the album was shot by director Robert Frank , who was still a photographer at the time.

Originally the album was supposed to be called Evening Train Wrecks .

Style and subject

According to Waits, the album is much more rhythmic than its predecessor. Michael Blair is said to have drummed on a chest of drawers in the opening Singapore . The sound of the saxophones ( Waits had done without swordfish trombones ) is reminiscent of the post bop by Albert Ayler and Rahsaan Roland Kirk . Marc Ribot's guitar playing is considered to be the hallmark of the album's characteristic sound . The stylistic range extends from ballads ( Hang Down Your Head ) to spoken word pieces such as 9th & Hennepin , free jazz- related instrumental pieces ( Midtown ) to the percussive, marimba- dominated songs of the first third of the album, which are for typical of the late Waits.

Regarding the album title, Waits said that "rain dogs" are "... hobos, prostitutes, people in need, that gritty menagerie I create to motivate myself." According to Barney Hoskyns, "... was the big topic of the Album […] the deceived of the cities - the losers of life who wither away in the shadow of the great mammon. ”The song Cemetery Polka deals with the quirks of Waits' relatives - he regretted having become so personal in the song.

reception

source rating
Allmusic
Rolling Stone
Music Express
Laut.de

From Musikexpress received Raindogs six stars (the highest rating). The author of the review described the music on the album as "a variety of rhythms between Captain Beefheart and Kurt Weill , melodic harmonic structures from blues, jazz, polka, country and rhythm & blues, none of these can be forced into shape like him."

Anthony Decurtis of the American edition of Rolling Stone criticized Waits' tendency, which was also noticeable on Rain Dogs , to " romanticize the abyss ". At the same time, he praised some songs, they were among the best by Waits, in particular Time , Clap Hands , Union Square , Downtown Train and Blind Love .

In the review on Allmusic , William Ruhlmann wrote about Waits' lyrics on Rain Dogs :

"Waits' lyrics here sometimes are imaginative to the point of obscurity, seemingly chosen to fit the rhythms rather than for sense."

“Waits' lyrics here are sometimes fanciful to the point of obscurity; it seems they were chosen for their rhythm rather than their purpose. "

He called the album one of the best of Waits' career and gave it the highest possible rating.

The renowned music journalist Robert Christgau rated Rain Dogs "B +" (equivalent to the German grading system as a "2+"). He compared the sound of the album with the music of the fake jazz band Lounge Lizards and welcomed the turn away from " booze, bathos, beatnikism ", with which the pre- Swordfishtrombones period in Waits' career.

New Musical Express called Downtown Train "the greatest song Bruce Springsteen didn't write."

The German music portal Laut.de added the album to the “Milestones” section, in which “album classics” are presented “that have changed music history or at least our lives forever.” According to the author of the review, it is the best album the 1980s, although it had nothing to do with the trends prevailing at the time.

The American music magazine Rolling Stone voted Rain Dogs at number 399 of the 500 best albums of all time . It is also number 21 of the 100 best albums of the 1980s. Pitchfork Media lists Rain Dogs at # 8 on the 100 Best Albums of the Decade. The New Musical Express voted it 105th of the 500 best albums of all time. The album was included in the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die .

Rain Dogs in Pop Culture

Two songs from Rain Dogs were used by Jim Jarmusch in his 1987 film Down by Law , in which Waits played a leading role alongside John Lurie and Roberto Benigni . At the beginning of the film, Jockey Full of Bourbon is heard , at the end Tango till They're Sore .

Downtown Train was u. a. Covered in 1987 by Mary Chapin Carpenter and in 1990 by Rod Stewart . Stewart's version became very successful and reached high chart positions.

The rock band The Silver Hearts covered the entire album live in 2005.

In the album credits for his solo debut Talk Is Cheap (1988) Keith Richards named the collaboration with Tom Waits an important inspiration.

Adrian McKinty named one of his crime novels Rain Dogs in 2015 with reference to Tom Waits .

Track list

With the exception of the one indicated, all songs are written by Tom Waits .

Page 1:

  1. Singapore - 2:46
  2. Clap Hands - 3:47
  3. Cemetery Polka - 1:51
  4. Jockey Full of Bourbon - 2:45
  5. Tango till They're Sore - 2:49
  6. Big Black Mariah - 2:44
  7. Diamonds & Gold - 2:31
  8. Hang Down Your Head ( Kathleen Brennan , Tom Waits) - 2:32
  9. Time - 3:55

Page 2:

  1. Rain Dogs - 2:56
  2. Midtown - 1:00 am
  3. 9th & Hennepin - 1:58
  4. Gun Street Girl - 4:37
  5. Union Square - 2:24
  6. Blind Love - 4:18
  7. Walking Spanish - 3:08
  8. Downtown Train - 3:53
  9. Bride of Rain Dog - 1:07
  10. Anywhere I Lay My Head - 2:48

occupation

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hoskyns, p. 390.
  2. ↑ Peterson.
  3. ^ Hoskyns, p. 380.
  4. ^ Rain Dogs
  5. ^ Hoskyns, p. 379.
  6. ^ Hoskyns, p. 381.
  7. ^ Hoskyns, p. 383
  8. ^ A b c William Ruhlmann: Review on AllMusic
  9. ↑ In an interview with Robert Sabbag for the Los Angeles Times , February 22, 1987.
  10. ^ Hoskyns, p. 379.
  11. ↑ Interview for CBC Stereo at the end of 1985, quoted in: Hoskyns, p. 382.
  12. ↑ Review by Arion Berger on rollingstone.com (archived, 2002) (accessed June 4, 2018)
  13. ↑ a b Archive Review in the Musikexpress
  14. ↑ a b Ulf Kubanke: Rain Dogs by Tom Waits. laut.de
  15. ↑ Review in Rolling Stone , November 21, 1985
  16. ↑ Brief reviews of Waits' albums on the Christgau site
  17. ↑ Quoted in Siegfried Schmidt-Joos, Wolf Kampmann: Pop-Lexikon . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek 2002, ISBN 3-499-61114-7 , p. 678 .
  18. ↑ 500 Greatest Albums of All Time on rollingstone.com (accessed June 4, 2018)
  19. ↑ 100 Best Albums of the Eighties on rollingstone.com (accessed June 4, 2018)
  20. ↑ Top 100 Albums of the 1980s on pitchfork.com (accessed June 4, 2018)
  21. ↑ The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time on nme.com (accessed June 4, 2018)
  22. ↑ thesilverhearts.ca