Rain Dogs
Rolling Stone magazine called Rain Dogs Waits' "finest portrait of the tragic kingdom of the streets" [12]. The album's title comes from an expression which also suggests this tragic kingdom of the streets; "Rain dogs" are dogs which became lost after the rain washed away the scent of home, thus barring their return. Waits cast further light on the metaphor by stating that the album was about "People who live outdoors. You know how after the rain you see all these dogs that seem lost, wandering around. The rain washes away all their scent, all their direction. So all the people on the album are knit together, by some corporeal way of sharing pain and discomfort." [13]
As with most Waits albums since Swordfishtrombones in 1983, Rain Dogs includes a spoken word number. "9th and Hennepin" concerns a character who observes the inhabitants of Hennepin Avenue and 9th Street in Minneapolis, Minnesota "through the yellow windows of the evening train." The songs depicts a bleak portrayal of characters who "started out with bad directions," in an environment where "everyone is behaving like dogs". In interview Waits described the inspiration for its lyrics, admitting that while the street itself is in Minneapolis
[M]ost of the imagery is from New York. It's just that I was on 9th and Hennepin years ago in the middle of a pimp war, and 9th and Hennepin always stuck in my mind. "There's trouble at 9th and Hennepin." To this day I'm sure there continues to be trouble at 9th and Hennepin. At this donut shop. They were playing "Our Day Will Come" by Dinah Washington when these three 12-year-old pimps came in in chincilla coats armed with knives and, uh, forks and spoons and ladles and they started throwing them out in the streets. Which was answered by live ammunition over their heads into our booth. And I knew "Our Day Was Here." I remember the names of all the donuts: cherry twist, lime rickey. But mostly I was thinking of the guy going back to Philadelphia from Manhattan on the Metroliner with the New York Times, looking out the window in New York as he pulls out of the station, imagining all the terrible things he doesn't have to be a part of. [14]
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Artwork
Despite the facial similarity, the man on the cover of Rain Dogs is not Tom Waits. The photograph is one of a series taken by the Swedish photographer Anders Petersen at Café Lehmitz (a café near the Hamburg red-light boulevard Reeperbahn) in the late sixties. The man and woman depicted on the cover are called Rose and Lily. The cover typography is similar to that of Elvis Presley's self-titled debut. K.D. Lang's Reintarnation and The Clash's London Calling have also used similar designs.
The European version of the cover features red rather than blue text.
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Album song covers
- The song "Downtown Train" became a #2 US hit for Rod Stewart in 1989.
- Bob Seger released a cover of "Blind Love" on his 1991 album The Fire Inside.
- Tori Amos included a cover of "Time" on her 2001 covers album Strange Little Girls.
- On the Thrice DVD If We Could Only See Us Now (2005), Dustin Kensrue can be heard performing an acoustic cover of "Tango Till They're Sore".
- Bomb the Music Industry! included a cover version of "Anywhere I Lay My Head" on their 2006 album Goodbye Cool World.
- Scarlett Johansson used the song "Anywhere I Lay My head" as the title track on her 2008 debut album.
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Track listing
All songs by Waits, except where noted.
- "Singapore" – 2:46
- "Clap Hands" – 3:47
- "Cemetery Polka" – 1:51
- "Jockey Full of Bourbon" – 2:45
- "Tango Till They're Sore" – 2:49
- "Big Black Mariah" – 2:44
- "Diamonds & Gold" – 2:31
- "Hang Down Your Head" (Kathleen Brennan, Waits) – 2:32
- "Time" – 3:55
- "Rain Dogs" – 2:56
- "Midtown" [instrumental] – 1:00
- "9th & Hennepin" – 1:58
- "Gun Street Girl" – 4:37
- "Union Square" – 2:24
- "Blind Love" – 4:18
- "Walking Spanish" – 3:05
- "Downtown Train" – 3:53
- "Bride of Rain Dog" [instrumental] – 1:07
- "Anywhere I Lay My Head" – 2:48
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Personnel
- Tom Waits – guitar, composition, pump organ, piano, harmonium, Farfisa organ, banjo, vocals, production
- Robert Quine – guitar
- Marc Ribot – guitar
- Chris Spedding – guitar
- Ralph Carney – bass sax, wind
- Larry Taylor – bass, double bass
- Michael Blair – percussion, drums, marimba
- Crispin Cioe – saxophone
- Greg Cohen – bass, double bass
- Mickey Curry – drums
- Bob Funk – trombone
- Tony Garnier – bass, double bass
- Arno Hecht – tenor horn, saxophone
- Stephen Hodges – drums
- Hollywood Paul Litteral – trumpet
- Robbie Kilgore – organ
- Tony Levin – bass
- Ross Levinson – violin
- John Lune – saxophone
- John Lurie – alto sax
- Robert Musso – engineering
- Robert Previte – percussion, marimba
- Keith Richards – guitar, background vocals
- William Shimmel – accordion
- G.E. Smith – guitar
- Uptown Horns – horns
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Notes
- ^ The Sultan Of Sleaze: In Interview with YOU Magazine, 1985. Tom Waits Library.
- ^ "The 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s" Rolling Stone issue 565, November 16, 1989.
- ^ Ribot would also play guitar on the Waits albums Franks Wild Years (1987), Mule Variations (1999), Real Gone (2004) and Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (2006)
- ^ a b Comments and anecdotes On Waits. Tom Waits Library.
- ^ Waits would later contribute vocals and piano to the Rolling Stones album Dirty Work, and Richards would also later contribute vocals and guitar to the track "That Feel" on Waits' 1992 album Bone Machine
- ^ Big Black Mariah lyrics. Tom Waits Library.
- ^ Berger, Arion. "Rain Dogs" album review. Rolling Stone Magazine.
- ^ "Tango Till They're Sore" lyrics and notes. Tom Waits Library.
- ^ "Anywhere I Lay My Head" lyrics and notes. Tom Waits Library.
- ^ "Blind Love" lyrics and notes. Tom Waits Library.
- ^ The lyrics of "Tom Dooley", which follow the same rhyme scheme and metre as "Hang Down Your Head" are: Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Hang down your head and cry. Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Poor boy, you're bound to die I met her on the mountain. There I took her life. Met her on the mountain. Stabbed her with my knife (Chorus) This time tomorrow. Reckon where I'll be. Hadn't-a been for Grayson, I'd-a been in Tennessee (Chorus) This time tomorrow. Reckon where I'll be. Down in some lonesome valley hangin' from a white oak tree (Chorus)."
- ^ 397) Rain Dogs. Rolling Stone Magazine.
- ^ Raindogs. Tom Waits Library.
- ^ 9th & Hennepin lyrics. Tom Waits Library.
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