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Tracklisting & More Information
Five albums released by singer-songwriter Tom Waits for Island Records between 1983 and 1993 are being reissued. The first three include Swordfishtrombones (1983), Rain Dogs (1985) and Franks Wild Years (1987), releasing to stores on Sept. 1, 2023. Two more, Bone Machine (1992) and The Black Rider (1993) are releasing Oct. 6.
The albums have been remastered in high-resolution 192kHz/24-bit audio from original sources — an original EQ'd 1/2" production master for Swordfishtrombones, and 1/2" flat master tapes for the rest. Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering serves as mastering engineer, and Alex Abrash at AA Mastering has cut the new vinyl lacquers.
Noted as Tom Waits' most critically acclaimed album, Rain Dogs follows the new musical path Waits had taken with Swordfishtrombones. Considered the middle of a de facto trilogy with Swordfishtrombones and Franks Wild Years, Rain Dogs is the first of Waits' albums to be written in New York, in a Lower Manhattan basement. A 53-minute, 19-track monster, Rain Dogs is a kind of mutant, late 20th century musical "Canterbury Tales" with a shape-shifting band.
There are banjos and marimbas and bowed saw and parade drum and howling horns (and Keith Richards and Marc Ribot) on this rollicking, roughhewn opus — and Waits, using his voice in increasingly weird — and wild ways. The songs are stories, sagas, laments, breakdowns, character studies, comedies and cabaret numbers. There's the aching "Hang Down Your Head," and the moving anthem, "Downtown Train," which was covered by Patti Smith and Rod Stewart.
Waits coined the term "rain dog," a reference to dogs who lose their way when touchstone scents are washed away in storms. Among the lost dogs on the album: gruff, wandering merchant marines ("Singapore"), an accordion player in a slaughterhouse ("Cemetery Polka"), a "jockey full of bourbon" (also the song title), an abandoned, withdrawn woman ("Time"), a "gun street girl," the old drunks and hustlers of Union Square, and even Waits, himself: Aboard a shipwreck train / Give my umbrella to the Rain Dogs / For I am a Rain Dog, too. . .
Originally released in 1985 on Island Records, the album reissue is personally overseen by Tom Waits and his wife, Kathleen Brennan. Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering under the guidance of Waits' longtime audio engineer, Karl Derfler. The album packaging has also been restored. Rain Dogs includes tracks such as "Downtown Train," "Clap Hands" and "Jockey Full of Bourbon." Available on 180-gram black vinyl.
Side One
1. Singapore
2. Clap Hands
3. Cemetery Polka
4. Jockey Full of Bourbon
5. Tango Till They're Sore
6. Big Black Mariah
7. Diamonds & Gold
8. Hang Down Your Head
9. Time
Side Two
10. Rain Dogs
11. Midtown
12. 9th & Hennepin
13. Gun Street Girl
14. Union Square
15. Blind Love
16. Walking Spanish
17. Downtown Train
18. Bride of Rain Dog
19. Anywhere I Lay My Head
LP RECORD
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