August 13 - Rain Dogs

I remember reading newspaper reviews and best album of the year and decade lists in the 80s, and one name would come back, over and over again: Tom Waits. From 1983-1987 he released a trio of albums that are widely considered to make up a trilogy, which makes sense if you take into consideration that they represented the completion of a stylistic change for Tom Waits - and that the third album is named for a song from the first album of the three. In the middle of the trilogy, sandwiched in between Swordfishtrombones and Frank's Wild Years, we find Rain Dogs from 1985. It is my favorite album of the trilogy - it is melodic and percussive all at once, and it has quite a few brilliant songs on it. And there, smack dab in the middle of the middle album of the trilogy, we find the song Rain Dogs. Tom Waits has always had his eyes towards the ones not fitting in with society - society's strays, if you will - and that is the subject of the trilogy - and very clearly reflected in the song Rain Dogs.