The MG Album Club #41 - Rain Dogs

[Zeeba Neighba]

My selection with be Tom Waits' album Rain Dogs

Yes I know it's one of the highest regarded album of this year (1985), but (if I'm judging on MG posts) not a lot of discuss Tom Waits here much. Perhaps that's because you love this album already and wouldn't post one you listen to regularly anyway (the same way one might not post Abbey Road or Dark Side of the Moon). Perhaps it's not posted because, like my wife, you can't stand Waits voice or his schtik or both. She is always amazed I enjoy this album so much - in fact I'm amazed I enjoy this album so much (though I have since I picked up it on cassette in college).

But who knows, perhaps, you just haven't spun it in awhile , and, if so, I'm glad I suggested it. It's definitely an album that deserves to be brought out from time to time, savored....it's a grower. It's a hodgepode of instuments, beautiful ballads, odd tales filled with strange character. Part Kurt Weill, part blues, part of Waits' prior piano bar persona. There's not many songs as sadly beautiful as "Time". There's "Downtown Train" which was covered as a pop hit by Rod Stewart but it better here. There's the opener - the jarring "Singapore". I have a ton of Waits' album, and really enjoy most of them, but must say, none strike me like this one. It's an album that stirs my soul for unclear reason, and any album that does that is pretty special

 

[Unsomnambulist]

My selection with be Tom Waits' album Rain Dogs

Yes I know it's one of the highest regarded album of this year (1985), but (if I'm judging on MG posts) not a lot of discuss Tom Waits here much. Perhaps that's because you love this album already and wouldn't post one you listen to regularly anyway (the same way one might not post Abbey Road or Dark Side of the Moon). Perhaps it's not posted because, like my wife, you can't stand Waits voice or his schtik or both. She is always amazed I enjoy this album so much - in fact I'm amazed I enjoy this album so much (though I have since I picked up it on cassette in college).

But who knows, perhaps, you just haven't spun it in awhile , and, if so, I'm glad I suggested it. It's definitely an album that deserves to be brought out from time to time, savored....it's a grower. It's a hodgepode of instuments, beautiful ballads, odd tales filled with strange character. Part Kurt Weill, part blues, part of Waits' prior piano bar persona. There's not many songs as sadly beautiful as "Time". There's "Downtown Train" which was covered as a pop hit by Rod Stewart but it better here. There's the opener - the jarring "Singapore". I have a ton of Waits' album, and really enjoy most of them, but must say, none strike me like this one. It's an album that stirs my soul for unclear reason, and any album that does that is pretty special

I too love this album. It's a masterpiece.

 

[Nickyboy]

I gave this another spin yesterday evening and again today. This guy is great, but I can also see how some people might be entirely put off by his sound. What is his sound, you may ask? Well, if you want 1930s-era Berlin cabaret (and who doesn't, let's be honest), start with "Singapore", "Cemetery Polka", and "Rain Dogs". Not your style? How about the film noir soundtrack tone of "Jockey Full of Bourbon", or the sound of drunk people playing their instruments in the apartment upstairs at 2am in "Diamond and Gold" and "Midtown"? A scene from an early 1960s movie where the leading man takes his date to a coffee house to listen to some poetry reading? "9th & Hennepin" has you covered. And I think I heard "Gun Street Girl" being played by some Cajuns on the front porch of their shotgun house last time I was doing work down outside of Ponchatoula. You don't forget metal pipes being used as percussion instruments.

I saw a cartoon once that basically said that Tom Waits' unique style comes from a fire in his belly and gravel in his throat. Not a bad description. The overall musical theme here is of a music that is long past, but not forgotten. And I like it. You might think you heard it once in the soundtrack of an art house movie you saw back in your college days. You might be right. Only Tom Waits knows for sure.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

I gave this another spin yesterday evening and again today. This guy is great, but I can also see how some people might be entirely put off by his sound. What is his sound, you may ask? Well, if you want 1930s-era Berlin cabaret (and who doesn't, let's be honest), start with "Singapore", "Cemetery Polka", and "Rain Dogs". Not your style? How about the film noir soundtrack tone of "Jockey Full of Bourbon", or the sound of drunk people playing their instruments in the apartment upstairs at 2am in "Diamond and Gold" and "Midtown"? A scene from an early 1960s movie where the leading man takes his date to a coffee house to listen to some poetry reading? "9th & Hennepin" has you covered. And I think I heard "Gun Street Girl" being played by some Cajuns on the front porch of their shotgun house last time I was doing work down outside of Ponchatoula. You don't forget metal pipes being used as percussion instruments.

I saw a cartoon once that basically said that Tom Waits' unique style comes from a fire in his belly and gravel in his throat. Not a bad description. The overall musical theme here is of a music that is long past, but not forgotten. And I like it. You might think you heard it once in the soundtrack of an art house movie you saw back in your college days. You might be right. Only Tom Waits knows for sure.

Tom Waits is a very cool person who once sued the police and won.

He also sued Frito-Lay over a Doritos commercial and won.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

This is my favorite article about Tom Waits.

Tom Waits, now teetotaller, is at 56 making the music of his life, he tells Sean O'Hagan

For years, he was the booze-soaked bard of the barstool, the keeper of 'a bad liver and a broken heart'. But Tom Waits was saved by his wife, hasn't had a drink for more than a decade and, at 56, is making the music of his life. Interview by Sean O'Hagan.

www.theguardian.com

 

[Ojai Sam]

 

[Ojai Sam]

But who knows, perhaps, you just haven't spun it in awhile , and, if so, I'm glad I suggested it.

Indeed I am, Zeeb!

On a side note, I just discovered that if you right-click and highlight a block of text in a prior post, a little "reply" button appears.

This is a brilliant record that last.fm tells me I have enjoyed only one time. Shame on me. My excuse is that I want to do a Tom Waits listening project, but as Helen Forrest says, "Tom Waits For No One".

Nick is right, Tom is one of those artists that alienate many people. But like Dylan, the combination of his strong songwriting mated with his equally strong persona make our usual notions of vocal ability irrelevant. Chris Dahlen at Pitchfork says it all:

Tom Waits’ life-as-theater has been onstage for nearly three decades, yet of all his albums, this one edges to the top of the pile. The second installment in his German art song/“Island trilogy,” Rain Dogs has the strongest songs and the surest grip on its own wanderings. With his hobo-centric lyrics reinspired by a move to New York City, Waits belts out “Union Square” and then rumbles out ballads like “Time”; the bleak vaudeville comes with accordion and pump organ wheezing out oompahs, while the percussion clanks, romps and slinks (“Clap Hands”). And then there are the guitars: Keith Richards shows up to make Waits look young and healthy, but it’s Marc Ribot whose icepick lines best suit Waits’ verses, and who owns the riff on “Jockey Full of Bourbon.” But c’mon, Waits, surely you could have stopped Rod Stewart from destroying “Downtown Train.”

on the Sam-O-Meter.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

An album all three admins of the MG agree on!

 

[Ojai Sam]

An album all three admins of the MG agree on!

 

[axolotl]

On a side note, I just discovered that if you right-click and highlight a block of text in a prior post, a little "reply" button appears.

I don't believe you.

 

[Ojai Sam]

I don't believe you.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

I don't believe you.

I just tried it and it works for me. YMMV, you might be hanging upside down on a telephone wire or somethin'.

 

[axolotl]

I just tried it and it works for me. YMMV, you might be hanging upside down on a telephone wire or somethin'.

Like a bird on a wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free

Waits... that's not Tom.

 

[Old Uncle Toe]

I've never listened to this album before. Go ahead, finish laughing. I'll be right here.

Ahem, so anyway... I have a couple of problems with Tom Waits. The first time I heard him was on Saturday Night Live (I think) singing 'The Piano Has Been Drinking.' Not the most melodic of his songs. His voice was so gravelly it hurt my ears and frankly, I don't think he was carrying the melody that well that particular night. So right off the bat I didn't see an appeal. The other is the same issue I have with Frank Zappa. His music is all over the place. I don't know where to start to get a feel for it. I probably should have listened to popular opinion, as this album is pretty dancing good.

Accepting the problem being impossible to categorize, it seems like there's no style he doesn't have mastered. This album is everywhere at once, yet it's all fun to listen to. I think that's where my initial impression with The Piano... steered me off. I assumed that lo-fi nonsense was his stock in trade. Someone chose the wrong song to display Tom to the media public. Who knows, maybe it was on purpose for shock value. But for me, it just made me miss out on a lifetime's work from Mr. Waits.

I enjoyed the burlesque-y songs like Singapore and Cemetery Polka. I like the film noir sound of Jockey Full of Bourbon. (btw, the Blue Hawaiians cover of this is equally noir and delightful.) It was nice that he included some accessible songs like Hang Down Your Head and Union Square. I loved the gypsy accordion and Halloween xylophone in Rain Dogs. And the list goes on...

I'm glad you chose this album, @Zeeba Neighba . It's a classic I had missed out on. I really enjoyed listening to it. The problem now, is to figure out what Tom Waits to listen to next.