Artist: TOM WAITS
Album: RAIN DOGS (CD)

Year: 1985
Media type: CD

Rain Dogs is the 9th album by American singer-songwriter Tom Waits, released in August 1985 on Island Records. A loose concept album about "the urban dispossessed" of New York City, Rain Dogs is generally considered the middle album of the trilogy that includes Swordfishtrombones and Franks Wild Years.

The album, which includes appearances by guitarists Keith Richards and Marc Ribot, is noted for its broad spectrum of musical styles and genres, described by Rolling Stone magazine as merging "Kurt Weill, pre-rock integrity from old dirty blues, [and] the elegiac melancholy of New Orleans funeral brass, into a singularly idiosyncratic American style"

Rain Dogs peaked at #188 on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart. In 1989, it was ranked #21 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s. In 2003, the album was ranked number 397 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

All songs by Waits, except where noted.

TRACKLIST:

Side One
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" Kathleen Brennan, Waits 2:32
9. "Time" 3:55

Side Two
# Title Length
1. "Rain Dogs" 2:56
2. "Midtown" (Instrumental) 1:00
3. "9th & Hennepin" 1:58
4. "Gun Street Girl" 4:37
5. "Union Square" 2:24
6. "Blind Love" 4:18
7. "Walking Spanish" 3:05
8. "Downtown Train" 3:53
9. "Bride of Rain Dogs" (Instrumental) 1:07
10. "Anywhere I Lay My Head" 2:48

LINE-UP:

Tom Waits – Vocals (1-10, 12-17, 19), Guitar (2, 4, 6, 8-10, 15-17), Farfisa Organ (3, 19), Piano (5, 12), Pump Organ (8), Banjo (13), Harmonium (18)
Michael Blair - Percussion (1-4, 7, 8, 13, 17), Marimba (2, 7, 10, 12), Congas (4), Drums (8, 14, 18), Metal Percussion (12), Bowed Saw (12), Parade Drum (19)
Stephen Taylor Arvizu Hodges - Drums (1, 2, 4, 6, 10, 11, 15, 16), Parade Drums (3)
Larry Taylor - Double Bass (1, 3, 4, 6, 8-10, 15), Bass (7, 11, 14, 16)
Marc Ribot - Guitar (1-4, 7, 8), Lead Guitar (10)
Chris Spedding - Guitar (1)
Hollywood Paul Litteral - Trumpet (1, 11, 19)
Tony Garnier - Double Bass (2)
Robert Previte - Percussion (2), Marimba (2)
William Schimmel - Accordion (3, 9, 10)
Bob Funk - Trombone (3, 5, 10, 11, 19)
Ralph Carney - Baritone Sax (4, 14), Sax (11, 18), Clarinet (12)
Greg Cohen - Double Bass (5, 12, 13)
Keith Richards - Guitar (6, 14, 15), Backing Vocals (15)
Robert Musso - Banjo (7)
Arno Hecht - Tenor Sax (11, 19)
Crispin Cioe - Sax (11, 19)
Robert Quine - Guitar (15, 17)
Ross Levinson - Violins (15)
John Lurie - Alto Sax (16)
G.E. Smith - Guitar (17)
Mickey Curry - Drums (17)
Tony Levin - Bass (17)
Robert Kilgore - Organ (17)