Released
in 1985, this is my favorite Tom Waits record, and it's on the short-list of my
favorite all-time albums. The record
came on the heels of Swordfishtrombones, and continues that album's approach of
eccentric instrumentation, spare and
atmospheric production, and surreally poetic lyrics. On Rain Dogs, Waits perfected the formula,
adding Marc Ribot's distinctive guitar to an assortment that includes accordion,
marimba, banjo and horns.
It's a
sprawling album, containing 19 songs in a true variety of styles (Kurt Weill
opera, ballads, polka, country, New Orleans-funeral jazz). Lyrics and music complement each other
sublimely, especially on the stark "Jockey Full of Bourbon", the
haunting "9th and Hennepin", and the beautiful "Time". It culminates with one of the best-ever album
closers, "Anywhere I Lay My Head", with its defiantly shouted lyric
and the aforementioned jazz funeral march.
Like
other Waits albums, this one is peopled by a ragtag bunch of desperate souls,
criminals, prostitutes, lonely saints and sinners. The album was written in Manhattan and the
feeling of dark, rain-washed city streets is palpable throughout the album
(although it's difficult for me not to imagine the opening scenery of black and
white New Orleans from "Down By Law" when I hear "Jockey"). It's a
masterwork by the ever-experimenting Waits, a singular artist and one of my
musical heroes.
For a
long time I had assumed that the male figure on the cover was Waits himself, but this photograph is by a Swedish photographer,
taken in a German cafe in the '60s.
