Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards

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Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards cover
Studio album by Tom Waits
Released November 20, 2006
Genre Rock, folk, blues, experimental
Label ANTI-/Epitaph
Producer Kathleen Brennan, Tom Waits
Professional reviews
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.[1] Waits has described the collection as

A lot of songs that fell behind the stove while making dinner, about 60 tunes that we collected. Some are from films, some from compilations. Some is stuff that didn't fit on a record, things I recorded in the garage with kids. Oddball things, orphaned tunes. [2]

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

[edit] Subdivision into three albums

On the decision to organize the songs into three themed albums, under the titles Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards, Waits said in interview:

It was just a big pile of songs. It's like having a whole lot of footage for a film. It needs to be arranged in a meaningful way so it will be a balanced listening experience. You have this big box with all these things in it and it doesn't really have any meaning until it's sequenced. It took some doing. There's a thematic divide, and also pacing and all that. There are different sources to all these songs and they were written at different times. Making them work together is the trick [3]

Brawlers, the most rock and blues-orientated of the three collections, contains songs covering themes ranging from failed relationships ("Lie to Me", "Walk Away"), floods and subsequent havoc ("2:19"), and a song about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ("Road to Peace"); and incorporates musical styles such as bluesy gospel ("Ain't Goin' Down to the Well", "Lord I've Been Changed"), sentimental tunes ("Lucinda", "Sea of Love")

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" [4], "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. Waits claims to have originally intended to call this part of the compilation Shut Up and Eat Your Ballads [3].

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 enlightenment ("Nirvana") and two songs, "Home I'll Never Be" and "On the Road", originally penned by Jack Kerouac.

[edit] Reception

The album was released to mostly very positive reviews. [1][5][6] It ranked #2 on Metacritic's Top 30 albums of 2006 [7], just behind Savane by Ali Farka Toure, and was nominated for the 2006 Shortlist Music Prize and the 2007 Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

[edit] Alternate editions

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

A limited amount of other copies came with a special vinyl single, including the songs "Lie to me" and "Crazy about my baby".

[edit] Chart information

Chart Peak position
Billboard 200 74
Australia 56
Austria 15

[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
  13. "Walk Away" – 2:43
  14. "Sea of Love" (Phil Phillips, George Khoury) – 3:43
    • Previously released on the Sea of Love soundtrack recording
  15. "Buzz Fledderjohn" – 4:12
    • Previously released on the "Hold On" single
  16. "Rains on Me" (Waits, Chuck E. Weiss) – 3:20

[edit] Disc two: Bawlers

  1. "Bend Down the Branches" – 1:06
    • Previously released on For the Kids (2002), an album featuring renditions of children's songs by various artists
  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
    • Previously released on the End of Violence and Shrek 2 soundtrack recordings. The "End of Violence" version differs from this, which is the "Shrek 2" version.
  6. "Shiny Things" – 2:20
  7. "World Keeps Turning" – 4:16
    • Previously released on the Pollack soundtrack recording
  8. "Tell It to Me" – 3:08
  9. "Never Let Go" – 3:13
  10. "Fannin Street" – 5:01
    • Appears on the Waits-produced John P. Hammond recording "Wicked Grin" (2001)
  11. "Little Man" (Teddy Edwards) – 4:33
  12. "It's Over" – 4:40
  13. "If I Have to Go" – 2:15
    • Originally from Waits' 1986 theatre play Franks Wild Years, although not released on the studio album of the same name [8]
  14. "Goodnight Irene" (Lead Belly, Gussie L. Davis) – 4:47
  15. "The Fall of Troy" – 3:01
    • Previously released on the Dead Man Walking soundtrack recording
  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
    • Previously released on the Big Bad Love soundtrack recording
  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
  2. "Children's Story" – 1:42
  3. "Heigh Ho" (Frank Churchill / Larry Morey) – 3:32
  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
  10. "Redrum" – 1:12
  11. "Nirvana" – 2:12
  12. "Home I'll Never Be" – 2:28
  13. "Poor Little Lamb" (Kennedy / Waits) – 1:43
  14. "Altar Boy" – 2:48
    • Originally written for Alice; an earlier version can be found on The Alice Demos, under the title "What Became Of Old Father Craft?" [9]
  15. "The Pontiac" – 1:54
  16. "Spidey's Wild Ride" – 2:03
  17. "King Kong" (Daniel Johnston) – 5:29
  18. "On the Road" – 4:14
  19. "Dog Treat" (Bonus track) – 2:56
  20. "Missing My Son" (Bonus track) – 3:38

[edit] Personnel

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Rolling Stone review of "Orphans". Rolling Stone Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
  2. ^ Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards (3 CD Box Set) at JB Hi-Fi Australia. JB Hi-Fi. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
  3. ^ a b Pitchfork Feature: Interview: Tom Waits. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved on 2007-01-17.
  4. ^ The version of "Little Drop of Poison" included in this collection is the one which appears on the Shrek 2 soundtrack, an alternate recording to the one found on The End of Violence soundtrack
  5. ^ Review of "Orphans" by Uncut Magazine. Uncut Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
  6. ^ Review of "Orphans" by allmusic.com. allmusic.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
  7. ^ Best reviewed albums of 2006. metacritic.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
  8. ^ Frank's Wild Years: Songs performed in the play. Tom Waits Library. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
  9. ^ "Altar Boy" lyrics and notes. Tom Waits Library.

[edit] External links

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