Unofficial studio version
The multitude assembled and tried to make the noise
Them black blind poet generals and restless loud white boys
But time's grew thin and the axis was left somehow incomplete
Where instead of child lions was left aging junkie sheep
And how many wasted have I seen signed "Hollywood or bust"
Woah left to ride those ever ghostly Arizona gusts
Oh cheerleader tramps and kids with big amps sounding helpless in the void
High society vamps and ex-heavyweight champs mistaking soot for soil
So break me now big Mama as Old Faithful breaks the day
Believe me my good Linda, let the aurora shine the way
Woah the confederacy, she's in my name now, and the hounds are held at bay
Oh the axis needs a stronger arm, do you feel your muscle play
The doorstep blanket weaver, oh Madonna pushes bells
From house to house I see her giving last kisses and wishing well
To every gypsy mystic and hero that all the babies might find a place
Who've been lost to true fathers and mothers on their time travels deep in space
Now the sons return for fathers, but the fathers are all gone
Oh and the lost souls search for saviors, but saviors don't last long
Those aimless questless renegade brats who live their lives in songs
Run the length of a candle, and in a goodnight whisper and a puff they're gone
So break me now big Mama as Old Faithful breaks the day
Believe me my good Linda, help is on the way
'Cause the confederacy, she's in my name now, and the hounds are held at bay
The axis needs a stronger arm, I can feel my muscles play
The missions are filled with hermits looking for a friend
The terraces are filled with cat-men looking for a way in
And orphans abandoned on silver mountains are jumped in celestial alleyways
Wait for that old tramp Dog Man Moses 'cause he takes in all the strays
He told me, "don't grow on empty legends boy, or lonely cradle songs
'Cause Billy the Kid was just a bowery boy who made a living twirling his guns
And this night she'll be long and lanky, and she'll speak in a mother tongue"
And then he lullabied the refugees with an amplifier's hum
So break me now big Mama as Old Faithful breaks the day
And believe me my good Linda, woah help is on the way
And the confederacy, she's in our name now, and the hounds are held at bay
The axis needs a stronger arm, do you feel your muscles play
Do you feel your muscles play
Hmmm
The above lyrics are for a studio take of SONG FOR ORPHANS likely recorded around May-Jun 1972 at Pocketful Of Tunes Studios in New York City, NY. It features Springsteen solo on vocals and acoustic guitar. The May-Jun 1972 sessions at Pocketful Of Tunes Studios were produced by Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos, and Cretecos took the role of recording engineer. See the album version for more details about the song.
1972 was a massive songwriting period for Bruce Springsteen. He wrote many songs in 1972, prior to the January 1973 release of his debut album. According to Brucebase, the vast majority of the known recordings of these songs were made during a 3-4 month period, between May and August 1972, though a few were recorded shortly beforehand and several weren't recorded until early 1973. Virtually all of these feature Springsteen completely solo, on either acoustic guitar or keyboards. Springsteen's manager Mike Appel and his partner Jim Cretecos selected some of this large pool of recordings in 1973 and 1974 and distributed them in Europe most notably to the UK-based music publishing agency Intersong Music Ltd. Some recordings were distributed on tape, others on acetates. Most of these acetates were manufactured at Media Sound in New York City, NY, and Angel Sound in Bedford, MA. Springsteen did not record at either of these locations. Intersong also pressed its own acetates for distribution within the industry. This audio gradually filtered into collector circles in the late seventies, often under the misnomer the "London Publishing Demos". According to Clinton Heylin 2012 book E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, the track-listing of the so-called "London demo-tape" is as follows: STREET QUEEN, SOUTHERN SUN, HENRY BOY, IF I WAS THE PRIEST, VIBES MAN, SONG FOR ORPHANS, SHE'S LEAVING, THE SONG, ARABIAN NIGHTS, and COWBOYS OF THE SEA. Heylin adds that four other songs were also lodged with Intersong, including NO NEED. The remaining three are probably TOKYO, MARIE, and VISITATION AT FORT HORN.
The studio version of SONG FOR ORPHANS was released on the briefly-legal albums The Early Years (Early Records) and Unearthed (Masquerade Music, both issues). See PRODIGAL SON for more details.
Before its release on the above albums, the studio version of SONG FOR ORPHANS has been circulating on several bootlegs, including The Demo Tapes (Traveling Productions) [track 06], The Early Years Volume One (Bagel Boys Records) [track 06], and The Unsurpassed Springsteen Volume 4 (Yellow Dog Records) [track 11].
List of available versions of SONG FOR ORPHANS on this website:
SONG FOR ORPHANS [Album version]
