A visit to the hit-factory this week as Waits produces one of his most commercial and accessible tracks to date, picked over and compared to the documentaries of the 1930s by Heath and Robert Sledge (plus the usual two goons).

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Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Downtown Train, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985)

Downtown Train music video, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (via YouTube) (1985)

Night Mail, Poem from GPO Film Unit documentary “Night Mail”, W.H. Auden/Benjamin Britten (1936)

Night Mail, Anthology of English Verse vol 2, W.H. Auden/John Laurie (1936/1961)

Night Mail, GPO Film Unit documentary (via YouTube) (1936)

Tonight, Rod Stewart (1996)

Downtown Train, The Language Of Life, Everything But The Girl (1990)

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