Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards

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Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
Studio album by Tom Waits
Released	November 21, 2006
Genre	Rock, Folk, Blues, Experimental
Label	ANTI-/Epitaph
Producer(s)	Kathleen Brennan, Tom Waits
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Being There Magazine link Music Emissions link Pitchfork (8.4/10) 28 Nov 2006 Prefixmag (9.0/10) 27 Nov 2006 Robert Christgau (A) [5] Stylus (B+) 20 Nov 2006 Scene Point Blank (9.1/10) 10 Dec 2006
Tom Waits chronology
Real Gone (2004)	Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (2006)

Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards is a limited edition three CD set by Tom Waits, released by the ANTI- label on November 17, 2006 in Europe and on November 21, 2006 in the United States (see 2006 in music).

The set is a collection of 24 rare and 30 brand new songs. Each disc is intended to be a separate collection in itself; the first disc with the more roughcut rock and blues cuts, the second the more melancholy tunes and ballads, and the third disc having the more experimental songs & spoken word pieces. Although the liner notes claim "56 songs, of which 30 are new", there are only 14 songs on the collection which can readily be found on other albums.

The Orphans Tour was done in support of the album prior to the release.

Brawlers contains songs covering themes ranging from failed relationships ("Lie to Me", "Walk Away"), floods and subsequent havoc ("2:19"), bluesy gospel ("Ain't Goin' Down to the Well", "Lord I've Been Changed"), sentimental tunes ("Lucinda", "Sea of Love"), and a song from the perspective of a Palestinian suicide bomber ("Road to Peace").

Bawlers is comprised of mostly downtrodden numbers, replacing the hope of ballads on previous albums with resignation (notably "Bend Down the Branches", "Little Drop of Poison" (an alternate recording, appearing on the Shrek 2 soundtrack, to the one found on The End of Violence soundtrack), "Fannin Street", "Little Man", and "Widow's Grove"). The track "Down There by the Train" was written by Waits for Johnny Cash, and was first released on Cash's first American Recordings album.

Bastards is concerned with Waits' more experimental musical styles, opening with an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's poem "What Keeps Mankind Alive?" (music by Kurt Weill) and continuing on "Children's Story", which is en excerpt of Georg Büchner's play Woyzeck, the score of which Waits wrote and later released as his Blood Money album. The disc contains other literary adaptations, including a Charles Bukowski poem about a typical day in a cafe ("Nirvana") and two songs, "Home I'll Never Be" and "On the Road", originally penned by Jack Kerouac.

Waits describes the collection as "A lot of songs that fell behind the stove while making dinner".^[1]

The album was released to mostly very positive reviews.^[2][3][4]

Some copies of the initial "limited edition" are autographed by Waits.

The album ranked #2 on Metacritic's Top 30 albums of 2006[6], just behind Savane by Ali Farka Toure.

[edit] Chart information

Billboard 200[citation needed]
Week	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08
Position	74	98	139	138	144	182	179	188
Sales	21,066	13,683	13,124	17,383	22,543	8,407	5,333	4,033
Total	21,445	35,128	48,252	65,635	88,178	96,585	101,918	105,951

Australia - 56 (Peak position) (November 20, 2006) Austria - 15 (Peak position) (November 29, 2006)

[edit] Track listing

All songs by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, except where otherwise noted.

[edit] Disc one: Brawlers

1. "Lie to Me" – 2:10
2. "Lowdown" – 4:15
3. "2:19" – 5:02
4. "Fish in the Jailhouse" – 4:22
5. "Bottom of the World" – 5:42
6. "Lucinda" – 4:52
7. "Ain't Goin' Down to the Well" (Lead Belly, John Lomax, Alan Lomax) – 2:28
8. "Lord I've Been Changed" (trad. arr. Waits/Brennan) – 2:28
9. "Puttin' on the Dog" – 3:39
10. "Road to Peace" – 7:17
11. "All the Time" – 4:33
12. "The Return of Jackie and Judy" (Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone) – 3:28
    • Previously released on the Ramones tribute album We're a Happy Family (2003).
13. "Walk Away" – 2:43
14. "Sea of Love" (Phil Phillips, George Khoury) – 3:43
15. "Buzz Fledderjohn" – 4:12
16. "Rains on Me" (Waits, Chuck E. Weiss) – 3:20
    • Previously released on Weiss's 1999 album Extremely Cool

[edit] Disc two: Bawlers

1. "Bend Down the Branches" – 1:06
2. "You Can Never Hold Back Spring" – 2:26
3. "Long Way Home" – 3:10
4. "Widow's Grove" – 4:58
5. "Little Drop of Poison" – 3:09
6. "Shiny Things" – 2:20
7. "World Keeps Turning" – 4:16
8. "Tell It to Me" – 3:08
9. "Never Let Go" – 3:13
10. "Fannin Street" – 5:01
11. "Little Man" (Teddy Edwards) – 4:33
12. "It's Over" – 4:40
13. "If I Have to Go" – 2:15
14. "Goodnight Irene" (Lead Belly, Gussie L. Davis) – 4:47
15. "The Fall of Troy" – 3:01
16. "Take Care of All My Children" – 2:31
17. "Down There by the Train" – 5:39
18. "Danny Says" (Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone) – 3:05
19. "Jayne's Blue Wish" – 2:29
20. "Young at Heart" (Carolyn Leigh, Johnny Richards) – 3:41

[edit] Disc three: Bastards

1. "What Keeps Mankind Alive?" (Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht) – 2:09
   • From the Threepenny Opera
   • Previously released on the various-artists Weill tribute album Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill
2. "Children's Story" – 1:42
   • From Georg Buchner's Woyzeck (public domain)
3. "Heigh Ho" (Churchill / Morey) – 3:32
   • From the 1937 Walt Disney film Snow White And the Seven Dwarfs
   • Previously released on the various-artists Disney tribute album Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films (1988)
4. "Army Ants" – 3:25
5. "Books of Moses" (Skip Spence) – 2:49
   • Previously released on More Oar, a 1999 various-artists tribute to Spence and his solo album Oar.
6. "Bone Chain" – 1:03
7. "Two Sisters" (traditional, arr by Waits / Brennan) – 4:55
8. "First Kiss" – 2:40
9. "Dog Door" (Waits/Brennan/Linkous) – 2:43
   • With Sparklehorse; previously released on the Sparklehorse album It's a Wonderful Life
10. "Redrum" – 1:12
11. "Nirvana" – 2:12
    • Words: Charles Bukowski
12. "Home I'll Never Be" – 2:28
    • Words: Jack Kerouac
13. "Poor Little Lamb" (Kennedy / Waits) – 1:43
14. "Altar Boy" – 2:48
15. "The Pontiac" – 1:54
16. "Spidey's Wild Ride" – 2:03
17. "King Kong" (Daniel Johnston) – 5:29
    • Previously released on the Johnston tribute album The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered (2004)
18. "On the Road" – 4:14
    • Words: Jack Kerouac
19. "Dog Treat" (Bonus track) – 2:56
20. "Missing My Son" (Bonus track) – 3:38

[edit] Musicians

• Vocals – Tom Waits
• Guitar – Tom Waits, Dave Alvin, Joe Gore, Brett Gurewitz, Ron Hacker, Mike Knowlton, Larry LaLonde, Mark Linkous, Marc Ribot, Sullivan Waits
• Steel Guitar – Bobby Black
• Banjo – Bent Clausen, Harry Cody, Eddie Davis
• Bass – Matt Brubeck, Les Claypool, Greg Cohen, Seth Ford-Young, Trevor Horn, Adam Lane, Mark Linkous, Eric Perney, Mike Silverman, Matthew Sperry, Larry Taylor, Leroy Vinnegar
• Piano – Bent Clausen, Art Hillery, Steve Prutsman, Francis Thumm
• Pump Organ – Tom Waits
• Chamberlain – Mitchell Froom
• Keyboards – Tom Waits, Gary Knowlton
• Accordion – Dan Cantrell, Guy Klesevik
• Harmonica – John Hammond, Charlie Musselwhite
• Whistles – Anges Amar
• Waterphone – Richard Waters
• Drums – Michael Blair, Billy Higgins, Mark Linkous, Casey Waits
• Percussion – Tom Waits, Ray Armando, Michael Blair, Andrew Borger, Brain, Steve Foreman, Stephen Hodges, Gino Robair, Jeff Sloan
• Cowbells – Bobby Baloo
• The Bug – Tom Nunn
• Boulders – Bobby Baloo
• Violin – Carla Kihlstedt
• Circular Violin – Darrel Devore
• Horns – Nic Phelps
• Trumpet – Ara Anderson, Chris Grady, Paul "Hollywood" Litteral, Nolan Smith
• Trombone – Jimmy Cleveland, Bob Funk, Tom Yoder
• Sax – Ralph Carney, Crispin Cioe, Arno Hecht, Colin Stetson
• Clarinet – Dan Plonsey, Bebe Risenfors
• Bamboo Clarinet – Bart Hopkins

[edit] See also

• The Orphans Tour

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• ANTI.com information page
• Tom Waits Library - Lyrics and information on all of the songs on Orphans