MY FAVOURITE ALBUM EVER (if you're interested)

 TOM WAITS - RAIN DOGS

I don't think I'll be discussing music very much on this blog. It's not that I don't care about it or have strong opinions about it. Rather, I've never felt on particularly solid ground when discussing it. To put it simply, I don't really know anything about music, I just know that I like. I'm not saying I'm an expert on film or literature (for examples), It's just that I have at least some grasp of how to approach these subjects critically. I've never really been able to do that with music, I can discuss lyrics all right but the rest is a mystery to me. It either sounds good, or not.

However, I can hardly have a blog devoted to things that I'm passionate about without including Tom Waits. "Rain Dogs", released in 1985 was the first Tom Waits album I bought (on a recommendation from Bono(!) in Rolling Stone) and that did it. This eclectic, often discordant, but undeniably beautiful collection of songs captivated me immediately and I've been a fan ever since.

Over the course of 19 songs and over 50 minutes of music he runs the gamut of musical styles from delta blues (Gun Street Girl), old school country (Blind Love), romantic guitar ballads (Time), dissonant experimental songs with shades of Kurt Weill (Cemetery Polka, Rain Dogs) to at least one song commercial enough to be a hit for another singer (Downtown Train). We're also introduced to a gallery of bizarre characters lurking on the fringes of society but given their full measure of humanity by a great songwriter. I don't know how many nights I fell asleep to these hauntingly lovely songs coming over the headphones of my red sony walkman, but it seems like hundreds. There are many albums (that's right, I still say albums) I love that have enriched my life beyond words, but no other has ever spoken to me on the personal level of "Rain Dogs". If I was of a poetic turn of mind I'd say it was grafted to my soul, but that's a gaudy, pretentious statement, so I don't think I will. Even if it's true.