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Rating: 56 orphans... that's a lot. Enough to fill three dormitories, so let's organize: troublemakers over there, criers in the middle, bastards at the back... and it's already better, because at least now there's an arrangement for the night, but all this vocal and noisy humanity is full of stories to tell, each one has their own, bizarre, frightening, tormented, hallucinatory...
... but all the stories have the same voice, that of Tom Waits. In the works for years, Orphans is a monumental piece that gathers all (or almost all) of the songs the Californian artist has scattered in films, operas, tributes, and so on, which had never found an organic and worthy placement. Orphaned, indeed. Many will remember among these "Fall Of Troy" from "Dead Man Walking", "You Can't Never Hold Back Spring" from "The Tiger and the Snow" or the beautiful "Little Drop Of Poison" from "Shrek 2". It's clear that the most faithful and dedicated Waitsians will already possess much of that material, but to these rarities are added no less than 30 new pieces, like the splendid and mournful "Road To Peace", also the result of the historic authorial partnership with his wife Kathleen Brennan. The box set consists of three different albums, which upon listening reveal themselves as distinct and perfectly autonomous works, each characterized by its own particular mood.
"Brawlers" is the album of the blues/rock songwriter with a dirty and rusty sound, "Bawlers" gives us back the iconic Tom Waits pianist of the smoky night ballads while "Bastards" represents the experimental musician, the eccentric and bizarre genius who recites Kerouac and Bukowski with a touch of sonic delirium. There's something for everyone, frankly, for all tastes and moods, and also for record enthusiasts because the packaging is as precious as the content: the sturdy book-like, cardboard box contains, in addition to the three CDs, a very substantial booklet, including all the lyrics and a beautiful photo album, printed on excellent matte paper. The menu is completed with some reinterpretations ranging from the Ramones to Kurt Weill up to gospel and traditional songs, all perfectly deconstructed and reconstructed to fit a rain dog, with the help of the musicians involved, who are mainly trusted companions like Marc Ribot, Larry Taylor, Joe Gore, Greg Cohen, and many other "guests" like John Hammond and Les Claypool.
We are faced with an imposing work, a fresco of humanity and poetry that's not even easy to grasp in its entirety: the three hours of music on Orphans would be enough in quality and quantity to guarantee a complete and glorious career on which anyone could live on rental income. Countless are the suggestions, the characters that populate these songs which are often true stories; innumerable are the inspirations, as well as the many faces of this extraordinary poet and musician capable of giving life to the darkest anxieties as well as the whitest passions, always with the same vivid evocative power that makes bizarre, cruel, moving, gothic, bizarre, dramatically true or imaginatively metaphoric stories pass before our eyes, but always capable of speaking to the intellect, the gut, and the heart. In other words, Tom Waits.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 LowDown (04:15)
She's a crooked Sheriff in a real straight town
She opened the door shake shake the lights go down
Clover honey and the Jimson Weed
Red leather skirt way up above her knees
Oh yeah, my baby's lowdown
She's a gone lost dirt road
There ain't no way back I been told
Well she's a story they all tell
She's a rebel, she's a yell
Oh yeah, my baby's lowdown
White heat in a cold rain
I'm a mergin here in your mergin lane
Jockey La Fayette, Big Eyed Al
The second hand moon's shining for my gal
She's a big red flag in a mean bullpen
She'll steal it from you, sell right
Back to you again
Well she's a whild rose, she's not settled
Cold gun of ice blue metal, oh
My baby's lowdown
White heat in a cold rain
I'm a mergin here in your mergin lane
Jockey la Fayette, Big Eyed Al
She's a cheap motel with a burned out sign
She'll take care of you definitely every time
She got a stolen check book and leg's upto here
Singing into a hairbrush
Right in front of the mirror
Oh yeah, my baby's lowdown
12 The Return of Jackie and Judy (03:28)
Jackie is a punk, Judy is a runt
They went down to the Mudd Club
And they both got drunk
Oh-yeah
Jackie is a bookie, Judy's taking loans
They both came up to New York
Just to see the Ramones
Oh-yeah
And oh, I don't know why she wrote that letter
Oh no, oh no
Oh I don't know why,
We won't forget her oh no
Jackie's playing hooky Judy's playing pool
They both got caught for cutting
Got to go to summer school
Oh-yeah
Jackie's scalping tickets Judy's getting harassed
They both got kicked outside
Didn't have a backstage pass
Oh-yeah
And oh, I don't know why she wrote that letter
Oh no, oh no
And oh, I don't know why
Don't know what's on her mind
I don't know, no, I don't know
But I can't stand to see her cryin'
She's still cryin', she ain't tryin'
She's going to get left behind
Nobody wants you, nobody wants you
15 Buzz Fledderjohn (04:12)
I stood on the roof, stood toward dark
To get a better look at the Fledderjohns’ lawn
Big sharp pistols, ammo too
Nothing but books about World War II
Rottweiler, Dobermann, a Pinkerton guard
I ain’t allowed in Buzz Fledderjohn’s yard
I ain’t allowed
No, I ain’t allowed
I said, I ain’t allowed in Buzz Fledderjohn’s yard
I seen a python swallowing a Dobermann whole
Piranhas swimming in a mixing bowl
Buzz Fledderjohn
Paper’s full of stabbings, the sky’s full of crows
She’s singing in Italian while she’s hanging out her clothes
Carp in the bathtub and it’s raining real hard
I ain’t allowed in Buzz Fledderjohn’s yard
I said that I ain’t allowed
No, I ain’t allowed
No, I ain’t allowed in Buzz Fledderjohn’s yard.
Well, the sailor’s ringing doorbells, the sinner’s in the pew
Weathervane’s squeaking to the west
I seen the cliffs of Dover and the deepest ocean blue
One thing in the world I can’t recommend to you
Because I ain’t allowed
I said, I ain’t allowed
No, I ain’t allowed in Buzz Fledderjohn’s yard
I said, I ain’t allowed
No, I ain’t allowed
I ain’t allowed in Buzz Fledderjohn’s yard
I ain’t allowed
I ain’t allowed
I said, I ain’t allowed in Buzz Fledderjohn’s yard
Music Lyrics by: Tom Waits
Official release: “Hold On”, Anti Inc., 1999
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Other reviews
By Stronko
"Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards, a true deep dive into his indolent and magical world."
"An unmissable box set for the 'hardcore' and pure fans of this tireless artist who greatly improves with age."
By desade
Once again, I fall in love with the voice devastated by alcohol and drugs of Waits, which modulates different tones but always capable of reaching your heart, as if he were your lifelong drinking companion.
Complex, exciting, visionary, unpredictable. This is what comes to mind after finishing listening to 'Orphans' and every time I insert it in the player.
