Tom Waits

This post is actually specifically about Rain Dogs. The reason for the title just being Tom Waits is because a number of people have recommended him as a general artist (George mentioned Tom Waits, and Jessica Tom Waits early(ier) years, whatever time period that means). Chris Laun recommended Rain Dogs specifically, so I am going to chalk this up as an 80% Laun recommends with 10% George and 10% JeskA thrown in. OK?

I've been meaning to post about Rain Dogs for some time now. My problem was that even though a number of people have told me how great of an album it is, it never really hit me as a Tom Waits favorite. Before two weeks ago my favorite Tom Waits album was without question Mule Variations. I would have nothing of anyone ever telling me that there was a better Tom Waits album, because Mule Variations is near perfect. It has goofy tracks, painful heart-wrenching ballads, Primusy tracks, creepy tracks about creepy neighbors, and everything in between. I was pretty much set with my favorite Tom Waits album for the rest of my life. About two weeks ago I decided to do a post on the Chris Laun Rain Dogs recommendation. After listening to Rain Dogs a couple times through I can now only say that Mule Variations is probably my favorite Tom Waits album, it is no longer definite. P.S. before I completely move on from Mule Variations. I recommend the whole album, that is for sure. It works well in it's entirety, and I think from start to finish it is extremely well crafted. A lot of variety from song to song, but that gives the album a great overall arch. Also, there are some top notch musicians on it, including bassist Greg Cohen (Masada, Ornette Coleman), Les Claypool (Primus), Marc Ribot (to be discussed further), and others. While I love all the tracks, some standouts for me are Big In Japan, Hold On, House Where Nobody Lives, Black Markey Baby, Chocolate Jesus, and maybe you should just buy the album.

After all of this praise for Mule Variations I can honestly say that I highly recommend Rain Dogs as well. Where the mood of Mule Variations is overall that of a rainy day and leans towards the depressing side, Rain Dogs sounds like a circus of pirates and muppets overall. It is pretty far to the outer edges of pop music in terms of accessibility, and actually took me a couple listens before I even decided that I liked it. And now I am listening as I type this post and realize that I love this album. Clap Hands just came on and I feel myself almost singing along. Anyway, one of my favorite parts of Rain Dogs is the wide range of instruments Waits used to get the sound. A quick visit to the Rain Dogs Wikipedia entry and a quick scroll down to personell will give you the rundown of exactly which instruments are on the album, but some strange highlights are the use of percussion instruments (most standout being marimba), organ, accordian, banjo, and a variety of horn, string and woodwind instruments. This wide scope of instruments paired with Waits' voice gives us an album that is completely unlike any other. It is also notable for being the first time that Waits hired jazz-based guitar wizard Marc Ribot, and Keith Richards of some famous rock band contributes additional guitar. Check out this one for sure. If you don't like it at first, I suggest you keep listening and it might grow. It did for me.

I have to make a special note of the sequence of the last three songs on the album, Downtown Train, Bride of Rain Dog, and Anywhere I Lay My Head. This might be the best concluding sequence of any album I've ever heard. It really ties the whole thing together. I don't have a link to Bride of Rain Dog, but here is a great video for Downtown Train followed by a live recording of Anywhere I Lay My Head from 2008. It is really great to listen to the Rain Dogs version and then listen to the 2008 version and hear how much lower his voice is now. Amazing! Enjoy. Also, I am too tired to go back and edit this post (which I normally do). You can just deal with it!