Rain Dogs
by Tom Waits
- Type: Album
- Released: September 30, 1985
- Label: Island
- Country: United States
- Length: 53:45
- Community rating: 4.43/5 from 29 ratings
Album Notes & Community Reviews
As a loose concept album focusing on New York City's "urban dispossessed," 'Rain Dogs' merges a broad spectrum of outsider musical styles, from Kurt Weill-inspired cabaret to pre-rock blues and New Orleans funeral brass. The album is defined by its raw, textured production, which utilizes junkyard percussion and ambient city sounds, and features landmark guitar performances from Marc Ribot and Keith Richards. Widely considered the centerpiece of a trilogy with 'Swordfishtrombones' and 'Franks Wild Years,' the record solidified Waits' shift toward a more experimental and theatrical sound.
Genres
Descriptors: storytelling, theatrical, experimental, narrative, unconventional, diverse, avant-garde
Tracklist
- Singapore (02:45)
- Clap Hands (03:47)
- Cemetery Polka (01:46)
- Jockey Full Of Bourbon (02:46)
- Tango Till They're Sore (02:51)
- Big Black Mariah (02:43)
- Diamonds And Gold (02:31)
- Hang Down Your Head (02:32)
- Time (03:55)
- Rain Dogs (02:56)
- Midtown (01:02)
- 9th & Hennepin (01:56)
- Gun Street Girl (04:36)
- Union Square (02:24)
- Blind Love (04:19)
- Walking Spanish (03:06)
- Downtown Train (03:52)
- Bride Of Rain Dog (01:09)
- Anywhere I Lay My Head (02:49)
Credits
- Tom Waits - chant, guitare, farfisa organ, piano, pump organ, banjo, harmonium, producer, arranged by, written-by
- Michael Blair - percussion, marimba, drums, congas, bowed saw, parade drum, gong, metal percussion
- Stephen Hodges - drums, parade drum
- Larry Taylor - double bass, bass
- Marc Ribot - guitar
- Chris Spedding - guitar
- Greg Cohen - double bass
- Ralph Carney - baritone saxophone, saxophone, clarinet
- Keith Richards - guitar, ch艙urs
- Robert Quine - guitar
- John Lurie - alto saxophone
- G.E. Smith - guitar
- Mickey Curry - drums
- Tony Garnier - contrebasse
- Hollywood Paul Litteral - trumpet
- Bobby Previte - percussion, marimba
- William Schimmel - accordion
- Bob Funk - trombone
- Tony Levin - basse
- The Uptown Horns - arranged by
- Robert Musso - engineer, mixed by
- Howie Weinberg - engineer [mastered], mastered by
- Dennis Ferrante - recorded by [assistant]
- Jeff Lippay - mixed by, mixed by [assistant rpm studio]
- Tom Gonzales - engineer [quadrasonic studio / assistant], mixed by [assistant quadrasonic studio]
- Peter Corriston - art direction [album cover direction]
- Valerie Goodman - coordinator [production coordination]
- Anders Petersen - photography by [front cover photo], cover [front cover photo]
- Robert Frank - cover [back cover photo], photography by [back cover photo]