357. Tom Waits, "Rain Dogs"

 


Ok I guess.  I mean, if you like Tom Waits I'm sure you like this album.  It's got him doing what he does, that sort of croaky lounge singer meets jazz cabaret thing.  Of course it's all about the downtrodden and miserable:

Well, he took a hundred dollars off a Slaughterhouse Joe
Bought a brand new Michigan twenty gauge
He got all liquored up on that roadhouse corn
Blew a hole in the hood of a yellow Corvette
A hole in the hood of a yellow Corvette
He bought a second hand Nova from a Cuban Chinese
And dyed his hair in the bathroom of a Texaco
With a pawnshop radio quarter past four
He left Waukegan at the slammin' of the door
Left Waukegan at the slammin' of the door

Jesus, Tom Waits, don't you know any happy people?  How about a "Ballad of the Ice Cream Man" or something a little lighter?  This album is actually kind of a slog.  It feels longer than it actually is and it even sounds grey and dirty.  

Oh and there's also "Downtown Train," which you will know better as ther Rod Stewart semi-hit from 1989.  Having previously only heard the Rod Stewart version, it was jarring, to say the least, to hear it here.

In conclusion, this is Definitely Not My Thing.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? I have no idea.

Comments

  1. GGMay 17, 2021 at 3:44 PM

    My favorite/only tidbit about Tom Waits is that I once sat in front of him and his family at a seated Elvis Costello performance and I just kept thinking, "I have better seats than TOM WAITS." I also put my purse under my seat, which I wouldn't normally do because the person behind you can steal it, but I figured "It seems unlikely that TOM WAITS will steal my purse." He did not. The end.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. StephenMay 19, 2021 at 4:38 PM

      That Chapel show, before it was the Chapel? I was at that. I remember wishing he'd play some Elvis Costello songs.

      Delete

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