Released: November 20, 2006
Recorded: 1985–2005
Length: 189:17
Label: ANTI-
Producer: Kathleen Brennan, Tom Waits
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Ok so I know its been a long while since I've spoken at length about anything... but aside from my tethering I issues I'd like to apologize and give you people an album that is longer and more robust than before. So for this selection I choose an album that wasn't a greatest hits, but something that was a huge chunk of this artist's career.
Tom Waits has always been an artist that I've always wanted to write about, but I always thought I'd leave him as the pinch hitter that was worth more than the average or surface stuff... "Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards" is the album I choose that had a huge volume that was like a greatest hits but wasn't. So with that disclaimer stuff said, I wanna start with the first song to catch me "what keeps mankind alive"... this song really sounds like a gothic play (I can't remember the proper term of darker plays), similar to a live rendition of Faust... This one is very theatrical.
For the most part I would say I'm a fan of the gritty, broken thick rhythms of a simple song like "Dog Door". Something about this song really feels like it would be my intro to a place. Not like a wrestler, but something like a theme song. there's some elements of violence in this song that might be speaking to my frustrations as of late... so this would serve as the unofficial theme song to the Drunk Poet for the meantime.
If you've ever read "On the Road" you can really feel all the words in the song "Home I'll never be"... with this song as the book did for me, I wanna travel across America. Living more lives than I could spill out on to paper in one day. If you ever read the book you'd understand.
Have you ever felt that with the last breath of the night, that to have fitting rest you need to be set in your environment? Meaning that you need to be somewhere comfortable. Well "Bend down the Branches really makes me feel like that's where I need to be at times... and "You can never hold back Spring" fulfills that feeling in me more than any other song.
And with everything that ends, there must be a feeling that isn't words... but a sound of understanding... when I think of songs that will end me, without being terribly depressing I hear this song "Shiny Things" among two other songs (songs that I may eventually really in the future). This song never says the most depressing elements that it evokes, but it only seems like reaching above to the waves to be more.
I hope that would be enough for the time being... till at least when I don't have to be tethered again... but I ask that in the mean time that you give your attention to my friend LEE of Pinata Hour fame.
So till I'm not at someone else's mercy PASS IT ON
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Disc one: Brawlers
"Lie to Me" – 2:10
"LowDown" – 4:15
"2:19" – 5:02 Appears on the Waits-produced John P. Hammond recording Wicked Grin (2001)
"Fish in the Jailhouse" – 4:22
"Bottom of the World" – 5:42 Appears in the 2003 documentary film Long Gone[24]
"Lucinda" – 4:52 (Covered by Jonathan Richard)
"Ain't Goin' Down to the Well" (Lead Belly, John Lomax, Alan Lomax) – 2:28
"Lord I've Been Changed" (trad. arr. Waits, Brennan) – 2:28 Appears on the Waits-produced John P. Hammond recording Wicked Grin as "I Know I've Been Changed" (2001)
"Puttin' on the Dog" – 3:39 Appears in the 1999 comedy-drama film Liberty Heights[25]
"Road to Peace" – 7:17
"All the Time" – 4:33
"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)
"Walk Away" – 2:43 Previously released on the Dead Man Walking soundtrack recording (1996)
"Sea of Love" (Phil Phillips, George Khoury) – 3:43 Previously released on the Sea of Love soundtrack recording (1989)
"Buzz Fledderjohn" – 4:12 Previously released on the "Hold On" single (1999)
"Rains on Me" (Waits, Chuck E. Weiss) – 3:20 Previously released on Chuck E. Weiss' 1999 Extremely Cool,[26] then on Free the West Memphis 3 in 2000. This is the latter version.
Disc two: Bawlers
"Bend Down the Branches" – 1:06
Previously released on For the Kids (2002), an album featuring renditions of children's songs by various artists
"You Can Never Hold Back Spring" – 2:26 Originally appeared in the 2005 Roberto Benigni film The Tiger and the Snow.
"Long Way Home" – 3:10 Previously released on the Big Bad Love soundtrack recording (2001)
(Covered by Norah Jones, on her 2004 album Feels like Home)
"Widow's Grove" – 4:58
"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.
"Shiny Things" – 2:20
"World Keeps Turning" – 4:16 Previously released on the Pollock (2001) soundtrack recording
"Tell It to Me" – 3:08 Previously recorded as a duet with Ramblin' Jack Elliot as "Louise (Tell It To Me)" (from Elliot's Friends of Mine). This version differs from the original with Elliot's absence, and a change in time signature.
"Never Let Go" – 3:13 Previously appeared on the soundtrack for the 1992 Martin Bell film American Heart.
"Fannin Street" – 5:01 Song appears on the Waits-produced John P. Hammond recording Wicked Grin (2001) performed by John Hammond. This version by Waits.
"Little Man" (Teddy Edwards) – 4:33 Previously released on Mississippi Lad, an album by Teddy Edwards released in 1991 on the Verve Label
"It's Over" – 4:40 Previously appeared in a different take on the soundtrack to the 1999 film Liberty Heights.
"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[27]
"Goodnight Irene" (Lead Belly, Gussie L. Davis) – 4:47
"The Fall of Troy" – 3:01 Previously released on the Dead Man Walking soundtrack recording (1996)
"Take Care of All My Children" – 2:31 Appears in the 1984 documentary film "Streetwise"[28]
"Down There by the Train" – 5:39 Song appears on the Johnny Cash album American Recordings (1994) performed by Cash. This version by Waits.
"Danny Says" (Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone) – 3:05
"Jayne's Blue Wish" – 2:29
Previously released on the Big Bad Love soundtrack recording (2002)
"Young at Heart" (Carolyn Leigh, Johnny Richards) – 3:41
Disc three: Bastards
"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 (1985)
"Children's Story" – 1:42 Based on Georg Büchner's Woyzeck (public domain)
"Heigh Ho" (Frank Churchill, Larry 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)
"Army Ants" – 3:25
"Books of Moses" (Skip Spence) – 2:49 Previously released on More Oar, a 1999 various-artists tribute to Spence and his solo album Oar.
"Bone Chain" – 1:03
"Two Sisters" (traditional, arr by Waits / Brennan) – 4:55
"First Kiss" – 2:40
"Dog Door" (Waits, Brennan, Mark Linkous) – 2:43 With Sparklehorse; previously released on the Sparklehorse album It's a Wonderful Life (2001)
"Redrum" – 1:12
"Nirvana" – 2:12
Words: Charles Bukowski
"Home I'll Never Be" – 2:28
Words: Jack Kerouac "Poor Little Lamb" (William J. Kennedy, Waits) – 1:43
"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?"[29]
"The Pontiac" – 1:54 Originally released on the 1987 spoken word compilation Smack My Crack[30]
"Spidey's Wild Ride" – 2:03
"King Kong" (Daniel Johnston) – 5:29 Previously released on the Johnston tribute album The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered (2004)
"On the Road" – 4:14 Words: Jack Kerouac. Originally appeared on the 1999 album Jack Kerouac Reads On the Road.
"Dog Treat" (Hidden track) – 2:56 Live recording
"Missing My Son" (Hidden track) – 3:38
