The Depths · All albums

Rain Dogs

Tom Waits · 1985

• Scores: Noise 2, Unease 3, Complexity 2 (each 1 to 5)
• Genre: Rock, Art rock, Blues rock
• Mood: ramshackle, smoky, theatrical
• Sound: scrap-metal percussion, junkyard, theatrical

Tom Waits wrote most of this in a basement room in Lower Manhattan in autumn 1984 and recorded it at RCA in New York. Before the sessions he captured street sounds on cassette to represent the city, and he avoided sampled drums, preferring to hit a bathroom door with a two-by-four. Marc Ribot and Robert Quine play guitar, Keith Richards appears on three tracks, and Waits played the songs live in the studio without rehearsal. The theme of the urban dispossessed was partly inspired by the documentary Streetwise.

Track list

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 (2:32)
9. Time (3:55)
10. Rain Dogs (2:56)
11. Midtown (1:00)
12. 9th & Hennepin (1:58)
13. Gun Street Girl (4:37)
14. Union Square (2:24)
15. Blind Love (4:18)
16. Walking Spanish (3:05)
17. Downtown Train (3:53)
18. Bride of Rain Dog (1:07)
19. Anywhere I Lay My Head (2:48)