On 30 September 1985, Tom Waits released Rain Dogs, his ninth studio album and one that would become a cornerstone of his career. Forty years on, the record still stands as one of the most daring and distinctive works in American music, an album that transformed Waits from a beat-poet barfly into a true avant-garde songwriter.
A loose concept album about the “urban dispossessed” of New York City, Rain Dogs formed the centrepiece of a trilogy that began with Swordfishtrombones (1983) and ended with Franks Wild Years (1987). Across its 19 tracks, Waits built a sprawling carnival of drifters, dreamers, hustlers, and outcasts – characters wandering the back alleys, docksides, and flophouses of a shadowy America that only he could conjure.
Waits wrote most of Rain Dogs during a two-month stay in a basement apartment on the corner of Washington and Horatio Streets in Manhattan. To bring the city to life, he even recorded street sounds and ambient noises on a handheld cassette recorder, using them as inspiration for the textures and rhythms of the album.
The result was unlike anything else in 1985. The record incorporated marimbas, accordions, banjos, trombones, double bass, and improvised percussion (including Waits famously banging a bathroom door with a two-by-four). Where most artists were embracing glossy studio production of the era, Waits created something organic, raw, and lived-in – an album that sounded like it had been pulled from the cracks of the city itself.
Rain Dogs was also the first time Waits collaborated with guitarist Marc Ribot, whose jagged, unpredictable playing would become central to Waits’ sound from then on. Ribot later recalled that Waits gave instructions like “play it like a midget’s bar mitzvah,” creating an environment of spontaneity and freedom in the studio.
Also joining the sessions was Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards, who played guitar on “Big Black Mariah,” “Union Square” and “Blind Love.” Richards’ instinctive, animal-like approach to rhythm and groove meshed perfectly with Waits’ vision, beginning a long-lasting creative partnership that would continue on later albums like Bone Machine and Bad As Me.
The album is packed with songs that would become staples of Waits’ career and favourites among fans. “Singapore” sets the scene with its pirate-like stomp. “Clap Hands” and “Jockey Full of Bourbon” ooze menace and nocturnal mystery. “Time” stands as one of Waits’ most tender ballads, its cracked vulnerability proving just as powerful as his carnival bark.
Then there’s “Downtown Train,” later covered by Rod Stewart, whose version became a huge hit in 1989. It remains one of Waits’ most enduring compositions, a rare bridge between his off-kilter world and mainstream recognition.
Upon release, Rain Dogs reached number 29 on the UK Albums Chart and number 188 on the Billboard 200 in the US. Modest numbers at the time, but the album’s reputation only grew. Critics hailed it as one of the best albums of the 1980s, ranking it 21st on its decade list, while Pitchfork later called it “a romantic and carnivalesque masterpiece.”
Over the decades, Rain Dogs has consistently appeared on “greatest albums” lists, including Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (ranked at #399 in 2012 and #357 in 2020). It has also been celebrated in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die and was voted among the top 300 albums of all time in Colin Larkin’s All Time Top 1000 Albums.
Thom Yorke of Radiohead has described the album as a life-changing discovery, calling each track “a short movie set in a mysterious, circus-like down-at-heel America.” For countless musicians and songwriters, Rain Dogs has served as a touchstone for how far popular music can stretch without losing its heart.
Forty years later, Rain Dogs remains the quintessential Tom Waits album. It’s wild yet precise, experimental yet soulful, abrasive yet heartbreakingly beautiful. Its world is populated by strange characters, but the emotions they carry, loss, love, resilience, longing, are universal.
Rain Dogs – Track Listing
Side One
Singapore
Clap Hands
Cemetery Polka
Jockey Full of Bourbon
Tango Till They’re Sore
Big Black Mariah
Diamonds & Gold
Hang Down Your Head
Time
Side Two
Rain Dogs
Midtown (instrumental)
9th & Hennepin
Gun Street Girl
Union Square
Blind Love
Walking Spanish
Downtown Train
Bride of Rain Dog (instrumental)
Anywhere I Lay My Head
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