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"...Room For The Forsaken... "
It amazes me that this expensive (at the time) 3CD 56-Track trawl through his unreleased 'Orphan' recordings from 1985 to 2004 is the biggest seller Tom Waits has had to date (it came out in November 2006 after much preparation). Three years after its almost entirely positive reception from the press and public alike, Anti- Records even released a pricey 7 x VINYL LP variant of "Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards" with six extra tracks on LP7 (see details below).
But then again, anything resembling a Box Set afforded to this giant of Alternative and Americana Music is the kind of thing that will get legions of his many admirers a tad excited. Tom Waits is God as far as I'm concerned. And I will have it no other way. There is a lot of dreaming of Knickerbockers on Fannin Street, yards of Buzz Fledderjohn, hobos throwing money off the back of a train and Moses looking to start another fire with used Pontiac Tyres. So let's bend down the branches my sea shanty people and get into details...
UK and EUROPE released 17 November 2006 - "Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards" by TOM WAITS on Anti- 6677-2 (Barcode 8714092667721) is a 56-Track 3CD Hardback Digibook Compilation of New Songs and Outtakes from 1985 to 2004. It plays out as follows:
CD1 "Brawlers" (64:20 minutes):
1. Lie To Me
2. Low Down
3. 2:19
4. Fish In The Jailhouse
5. Bottom Of The World
6. Lucinda
7. Ain't Goin' Down To The Well
8. Lord I've Been Changed
9. Puttin' On The Dog
10. Road To Peace
11. All The Time
12. The Return of Jackie And Judy
13. Walk Away
14. Sea Of Love
15. Buzz Fledderjohn
16. Rains On Me
NOTES on CD1:
Track 3 ("2:19"), Track 8 ("Lord I've Been Changed" credited as ("I Know I've Been Changed") and Track 15 ("Buzz Fledderjohn") were all used on the 2001 CD album "Wicked Grin" by JOHN HAMMOND on Pointblank Records – a whole album of Tom Waits songs done by the American Blues Harmonica Player. The versions on "Orphans..." are the Tom Waits originals – as is "Fannin Street" (Track 10 on CD2)
Track 5 appears in the 2003 Documentary "Long Gone"
Track 7 is a Leadbelly cover version
Tracks 8 and 15 see Notes on Track 3 etc
Track 9 appears in the 1999 Comedy Drama "Liberty Heights"
Track 12 is a Ramones cover version that appeared on the 2003 tribute album to the American Band called "We're A Happy Family"
Track 13 was on the 1996 Soundtrack Album "Dead Man Walking"
Track 14 is a cover version of 1959 Phil Phillips classic "Sea Of Love" and appeared in the 1989 Al Pacino film of the same name
Track 16 is a co-write with Chuck E. Weiss and first appeared on his 1999 album "Extremely Cool"
CD2 "Bawlers" (69:37 minutes):
1. Bend Down The Branches
2. You Can Never Hold Back Spring
3. Long Way Home
4. Widow's Grove
5. Little Drop Of Poison
6. Shiny Things
7. World Keeps Turning
8. Tell It To Me
9. Never Let Go
10. Fannin Street
11. Little Man
12. It's Over
13. If I Have To Go
14. Goodnight
15. The Fall Of Troy
16. Take Care Of All My Children
17. Down There By The Train
18. Danny Says
19. Jayne's Blue Wish
20. Young At Heart
NOTES ON CD2:
Track 1 first appeared on a Various Artists 2002 CD compilation of children’s songs called "For The Kids"
Track 2 first appeared in the 2005 Roberto Benigni film "The Tiger And The Snow"
Track 3 first appeared on the 2001 CD Soundtrack to "Big Bad Love" and was covered by singer Norah Jones on her 2004 album "Feels Like Home
Track 5 first appeared on the Soundtrack to the 1997 Wim Wenders film "The End Of Violence" and again in 2004 (in a different form than the one here) on the Dreamworks animated film "Shrek 2"
Track 6 is an outtake from the 2002 "Blood And Money" album and also appeared in the Robert Wilson production of Georg Büchner's unfinished 1837 play Woyzeck
Track 7 appeared on the 2001 Soundtrack to the movie "Pollock"
Track 8 first appeared as "Louise (Tell It To Me)" in 1998 on the Ramblin Jack Elliott CD album "Friends Of Mine" on Hightone Records; this version is by Tom Waits only and differs to the duet
Track 9 appeared in the 1992 Martin Bell film "American Heart"
Track 10 – see Notes on Tracks 3, 8 and 15 on CD1 – a Leadbelly cover version
Track 11 released on the 1991 album "Mississippi Lad" by Teddy Edwards
Track 12 previously appeared in the 1999 Comedy Drama "Liberty Heights", but in a different version
Track 13 "If I Have To Go" was first used in 1984 as "Rat's Theme" on the documentary film "Streetwise", later became an outtake "If I Have To Go" from the 1986 "Franks Wild Years" album - appeared in the theatre play version of "Franks Wild Years" but not on the album
Track 14 is a Leadbelly cover
Track 15 was on the 1996 Soundtrack Album "Dead Man Walking"
Track 16 was in the 1984 documentary film "Streetwise"
Track 17 from the 2003 documentary film "Long Gone" (Johnny Cash had done a version of it on his 1994 comeback album "American Recordings")
Track 18 is a Ramone cover version
Track 19 first appeared on the 2001 CD Soundtrack to "Big Bad Love"
Track 20 is a cover version of the Standard done by the likes of Frank Sinatra
CD3 "Bastards" (55:20 minutes – see NOTES):
1. What Keeps Mankind Alive
2. Children's Story
3. Heigh Ho
4. Army Ants
5. Book Of Moses
6. Bone Chain
7. Two Sisters
8. First Kiss
9. Dog Door
10. Redrum
11. Nirvana
12. Home I'll Never Be
13. Poor Little Lamb
14. Altar Boy
15. The Pontiac
16. Spidey's Wild Ride
17. King Kong
18. On The Road
19. Dog Treat (Not Credited, Hidden Track)
20. Missing My Son (Not Credited, Hidden Track)
NOTES:
Track 1 from the 1930s Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill production "Threepenny Opera"; also on the 1985 Various Artists Tribute Album "Lost In The Stars: The Music Of Kurt Weill"
Track 3 is a cover version of the famous Disney song from "Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs" – first appeared on the 1988 compilation "Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films"
Track 4 is a Skip Spence (ex Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape) cover version first issued 1999 on the Various Artists Tribute Album to his lone solo album "Oar"
Track 9 is with Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and is on their 2001 album "It's A Wonderful Life"
Track 11 has lyrics by the famous American writer Charles Bukowski
Track 12 has lyrics by the famous American hobo Jack Kerouac
Track 15 originally released on the 1987 Spoken Word compilation "Smack My Crack"
Track 17 is a Daniel Johnston cover version – first appeared on the 2004 Tribute Album "The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Uncovered"
Tracks 19 and 20 are Hidden Songs - the track list for CD3 on the rear has only 18 titles and neither are amongst the Six Bonuses issued on the 2009 VINYL EDITION of the Box Set.
Is this an Anthology Book Set of Previously Unreleased – a new 3CD compilation with new songs and stragglers? The packaging "Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards" doesn't actually elaborate in most cases – but with so many of the songs having been on other discs that stretch from 1985 up to 2004 – then I am calling it a Box Set.
The Hardback Digibook is a lovely thing to behold, but is a tad infuriating in some respects. It is very easy to snap the spine due to the rigidity of the thing – there is a Musicians Credits Page at the end of the lyric pages for each CD – Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards – unfortunately it gives you a core band and Guests but not who played on what or when. The lyrics are a fantastic read (bulk of nearly 80-pages), but again other than a Brennan/Waits writer credit in most cases, no details on where to find any track or history.
Guests include his wife Kathleen Brennan with Siblings Sullivan and Casey Waits on Guitar and Drums (respectively), Mitchell Froom (of Crowded House), Dave Alvin (of The Blasters), Ron Hacker, Mark Ribot, Joe Gore, Brett Gurewitz (of Bad Religion), Mark Linkus (of Sparklehorse) and Larry LaLonde (of Primus) on Guitars, Larry "The Mole" Taylor of Canned Heat on Bass, Blues Harmonica Players Charlie Musselwhite and John Hammond, Pedal Steel Guitar Player Bobby Black of Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, Jazz Pianist Art Hillary and many more. While you can so hear Pedal Steel player Bobby Black on say "If I Have To Go" (so you can guess it), others are not so easy to identify.
The Three Card Pouches offer right-way-up and upside-down typed fact sheets on stuff like who was the first to invent a Pipe Organ, the miseries of famous people in history – so very Tom Waits. The photographs in black and white too – pics of TW with Keith Richards, John Hammond, JJ Cale and John Lee Hooker, actors Nicholas Cage, Fred Gwynne of Munsters fame and Italian actor Roberto Benigni when he did the movie Down By Law in 1986. There are snaps of the house band, pianos, his sons, other images of cars, barns, book shops full of Pulp Fiction paperbacks, stains on wooden floors and concrete (probably blood), loudhailers, prison mugshots, old black and whites of family, interesting looking individuals and so on. The photo credits include great names like Anton Corbijn, Julianne Deery (cover photography), Jim Jarmusch, Jane Rose and Strangers.
Audio Restoration, Additional Digital Editing, Mixing and Remixing was done by KARL DERFLER at Bay View Studios while top Audio Engineer GAVIN LURSSEN did the Mastering. The sound is fantastic throughout even when the vaudeville madness on CD1 and CD3 threatens, there is always clarity to the organized musical chaos and the beauty of the stripped-back ballads on CD2 is simply hair-raising and a gorgeous contrast in overall tone. "Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards" feels like the White Album by The Beatles in many ways - you dip and dive and always come up trumps with another discovery you missed first time round or just plumb forgot about. It says a lot of Tom Waits that if this is the stuff he missed or fell by the wayside – and yet it still sounds this good and relevant – this yeah baby. To the music...
For someone who is notoriously unwilling to accommodate any kind of autobiography written about him (he famously told friends and acquaintances not to cooperate with one) – Waits has collaborated with so many (check out the number of Soundtrack songs he has done). But what is fascinating about this set is getting to hear his originals (so to speak). If you take the John Hammond CD album "Wicked Grin" for instance – his "2:19" is about five and half minutes long and overstays its welcome, Hammond shortened it to about 4:20 but that smaller playing time tightened it so much. Yet his "Buzz Fledderjohn" is the opposite – better by him than by Hammond. Stuff like "Lucinda" is fabulous and the plaintive "Rains On Me" might have lyrics that repeat just a tad too much, but it is a real find.
For me the gem here is CD2 where the mood is mellow and love songs like "Tell It To Me", "Down There By The Train" and "If I Have To Go" (Barry Beckett on Pedal Steel) are gorgeous. But he does not do soppy for too long. To counter the wounded piano of "World Keep Turning", TW of course throws in the croaking acidity rhythms of "Little Drop Of Poison" (a rat always knows when he’s in with weasels). Or jostling beside the witty and entirely suitable covers of "Goodnight Irene" by Leadbelly and the crooner standard "Young At Heart" made famous by Sinatra – Waits floors you with the bury-the-axe ring-in-the-pawnshop desperation in his gravel vocals for "Never Let Go" – where a loverman may put a rope over the cross-leg tree but he will not let go the hand of his loved one. Silver twine from a Valentine beauty permeates the banjo and oboe of the deceptively simple "Shiny Things". It might be a bit hissy too, but "Fannin Street" has a lost and never found loveliness to its lonesome story. "Little Man" sees him hog a piano – words drawn out as the notes creak and moan before the Sax and High-hat shuffle comes in like a pair of sinners heading into adjacent confessionals. In "It's Over", you can hear too how he reused the music and themes in another song but this is still as good – always me whenever there is trouble – a feather left by his woman on an unmade bed.
CD3 begins as it intends to rant, rave and shock and maybe even make you laugh along the way – pump organ and lyrics about seven deadly sins and starving first mates (a Kurt Weill song called "What Keeps Mankind Alive"). Then comes a spoken piece called "Children's Story" where he describes the earth as an overturned piss-pot and then says night-night to the child presumably listening (hoping for a peaceful night's kip). The mania continues with heavily treated vocals for "Heigh Ho" where it sounds like a Christmas Carol meets a creepy movie. The witty and erratic continues as Waits talks about "Army Ants" – wasps and female ants who bite off the head of their lovers (nice). Tunes actually appear in a brilliant cover version of "Books Of Moses" – an Alex Spence (ex Jefferson Airplane, then Moby Grape) cover version from his lone and famous "Oar" – when the Spence song actually sounds like Waits wrote it first. The madness continues with Harmonica wailing for the almost unlistenable one minute and three seconds of madness that is "Bone Chain". Traditional sea shanty "Two Sisters" has Waits accompanied only by a lonesome violin.
You gotta love any musician who opens a sideways song to his wife Kathleen with lyrics like "She drove a big old Lincoln with suicide doors and a sewing machine in the back..." – a song about a woman who was struck by lightning eight times and collected bones of all kinds (well of course she did). And even though it sounds like it was recorded in an echoing muddy bucket, Waits somehow makes "Home I'll Never Be" touching (shame there are no lyrics for it in the booklet). And on the humor and whack goes to a live (uncredited) song called "Dog Treat" where he schmoozes the audience with a story about a Bull Penis that has become a snack for canines (his comedic genius shining). The last un-credited track called "Missing My Mom" is again spoken – a story about a Chinese Mom who meets TW in a supermarket and has an unusual request for him. Both are an absolute hoot and a truly great way to end a box set even Captain Beefheart would have given the nod too.
Genius is a word bandied about liberally when it comes to off-centre musicians and artists – too damn often truth be told. But after time with this fantastic, funny and yes moving American songsmith – you will know why Tom Waits elicits such passion amongst his fans – and yes – smiles. Time to go bringing in Bo Peep for a date with a Transylvanian Chimney Sweep who just wants to show her his fabulous one-of-a-kind soot collection (it's dark baby). Genius...and then some...
PS: 8 December 2009 also saw a Limited Edition 7 x 180-Gram LP VINYL VERSION of "Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards" released in the UK/EUROPE on Anti- 86677-1 (Barcode 8714092667714) which contained a 34-Page Booklet and six songs that were not on the 3CD original release of November 2006. The six are all on LP7 ("Bonus") as follows:
Side 1:
1. Crazy 'Bout My Baby (Fats Waller cover)
2. Diamond In Your Mind (Brennan/Waits song)
3. Cannon Song (Eugen Brecht/Kurt Weill cover)
Side 2:
1. Pray (Brennan/Waits and more song)
2. No One Can Forgive Me (Tom Waits song)
3. Mattie Grove (Traditional cover, Arranged by Brennan/Waits)
