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Song by Song is a podcast celebrating the music of Tom Waits, hosted by podcaster-musician Martin Zaltz Austwick and actor-musician Sam Pay. Sam and Martin set themselves the goal of listening to Tom Waits’s back catalogue from beginning to end, and devoting an episode to discussing each track.
Song by Song is in no way officially linked to Tom Waits, or endorsed by Tom Waits, or associates. All excerpts are used for criticism purposes – please purchase your own copies of the music at your favourite shop, app, or platform to get the full experience and support musicians’ work.
The podcast Song by Song is created by Song by Song podcast. The podcast and the artwork on this page are embedded on this page using the public podcast feed (RSS).
Aaaaaaand finally... we're delighted to welcome Sam Clements to the show for an extended farewell to the podcast, discussing the process involved in producing a weekly music show for 8+ years. Martin and Sam fess up to a few things, talk about the work involved behind the scenes, and consider what a project like this affects the people involved.
It's been a pleasure folks, the time went so quickly. Speak soon. x
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Having gone through all of Waits's music Song by Song, we're obviously well-placed to say which ones are best... or maybe least-worst... perhaps just from our perspective... subjectively good in these two people's opinions... but then who are we to say? Anyway, in this penultimate episode, Sam and Martin have a little chat about The Old Favourites as the podcast enters the final straight.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include (deep breath): All The World Is Green, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Barcarolle, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) Blind Love, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Blue Skies, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993) Cold Cold Ground, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) Diamond In Your Mind, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers and Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Downtown Train, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Fall Of Troy, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers and Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Falling Down, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988) Franks Wild Years, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Georgia Lee, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Ghosts Of Saturday Night (After Hours at Napoleone's Pizza House), The Heart Of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) In The Neighbourhood, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Kentucky Avenue, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978) Low side Of The Road, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Lucky Day, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) Martha, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Metropolitan Glide, Real Gone, Tom Waits (2004) More Than Rain, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988) Nighthawk Postcards, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975) Rainbow Sleeves, Girl At Her Volcano, Rickie Lee Jones [w. Tom Waits] (1978/1983) Ruby’s Arms, Heartattack And Vine, Tom Waits (1980) So It Goes, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993) Somewhere (from West Side Story), Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978) Strange Weather, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988) Telephone Call From Istanbul, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988) That Feel, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Tom Traubert’s Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) Whistle Down The Wind (For Tom Jans), Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Yesterday Is Here, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) You Can Never Hold Back Spring, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers and Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Having done the work, put in the hours and carefully considered all the options, Martin and Sam discuss exactly where they think a new listener to Waits's music might want to start, considering the various angles and perspectives one might have, as well as a little discussion of Tom's compilation albums.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Martha, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Lonely, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Closing Time, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Downtown Train, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Time, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) 9th & Hennepin, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) The Black Rider, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) I'll Shoot The Moon, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) Lucky Day, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) Diamonds On My Windshield, The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) (Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night, The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) The Ghosts of Saturday Night (After Hours At Napoleone's Pizza House), The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) Goin' Out West, Glitter&Doom, Tom Waits (2009) Step Right Up, Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) Frank's Wild Years, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) The Earth Died Screaming, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Who Are You, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Such A Scream, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Our second set of music videos brings Philippa back to Martin and Sam for the last decade-and-change of Waits music videos. Sampling the work of Jesse Dylan, Matt Mahurin and various others, we consider what these videos mean in a post-YouTube world, as well as Waits's filmed promos in the 21st century.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Hold On, Tom Waits music video from Mule Variations, dir. Matt Mahurin (1999) Come On Up To The House, (unauthorised?) Tom Waits music video from Mule Variations, dir. Anders Lövgren (1999) What's He Building, Tom Waits music video from Mule Variations, dir. Lex Brand (1999) God's Away On Business, Tom Waits music video from Blood Money, dir. Jesse Dylan (2002) Lie To Me, Tom Waits music video from Orphans, dir. Danny Clinch (2006) Tom Waits Press Conference, promo for Glitter&Doom tour, dir. unknown (2008) Tom Waits' Private Listening Party, promo for Bad As Me, dir. unknown (2011) Satisfied, Tom Waits music video from Bad As Me, dir. Jesse Dylan (2011) Hell Broke Luce, Tom Waits music video from Bad As Me, dir. Matt Mahurin (2012) Bad As Me, (unreleased?) Tom Waits music video from Bad As Me, dir. unknown / Jesse Dylan? (2011/2013?) Misery’s the River of the World, Tom Waits music / lyric video from Blood Money 20th Anniversary re-release, artwork by Casey Waits / animation by Sarah Sheikh Bridge (2022) Lost In The Harbour, Tom Waits music / lyric video from Alice 20th Anniversary re-release, artwork by Christy Smith / animation by Sarah Sheikh Bridge (2022) God's Away On Business, Tom Waits music / lyric video from Blood Money 20th Anniversary re-release, artwork by Casey Waits / animation by Sarah Sheikh Bridge (2022) Top Of The Hill, Real Gone, Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Continuing our season of specials on material outside the show’s main remit, Philippa Spanos returns to help Martin and Sam consider the creative and commercial aspects of Waits’s music videos. Starting with a long-overlooked animation experiment from the 70s, we chart how these films function in relation to the music, the commercial purpose of a video, as well as all the tiny tiny guitars.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Tom Waits For No-One / The One That Got Away, short film feat. Tom Waits, dir. John Lamb (1979) In The Neighbourhood, Tom Waits music video, dir. Haskell Wexler (1983) Rain Dogs Promos, dir. Chris Blum (1985) Downtown Train, Tom Waits music video, dir. Jean-Baptiste Mondino (1985) Blow Wind Blow, Tom Waits music video, and Limousine Interview promo, dir. Chris Blum (1987) Temptation, Tom Waits music video from Franks Wild Years, dir. Betzy Bromberg (1987) It's Alright With Me, Tom Waits music video from Red Hot + Blue, dir. Jim Jarmusch (1990) Going Out West, Tom Waits music video from Bone Machine, dir. Jesse Dylan (1992) I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, Tom Waits music video from Bone Machine, dir. Jim Jarmusch (1992)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Our final season wouldn't be complete without a look at the emails sent in by you, dear listeners, covering some errors and omissions, new theories, questions about remasters and several lovely well-wishes as we head towards the end of the show.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: You Have Beautiful Eyes, Over The Garden Wall OST, The Blasting Company (2014/2016) Glitter & Doom tour performance from The Fox Theatre, Atlanta GA (5 July 2008) Cold River, Master of Disaster, John Hiatt (2005) Sixthfinger from Topper Toys, advert (1965) Why Oh Why, Songs to Grow On for Mother and Child, Woodie Guthrie (recorded 1947, released 1956/1991)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We're delighted to bring you an extended interview with the man who literally wrote the book on Tom Waits, Barney Hoskyns. Bouncing through a selection of Waits's material from the 70s to the present day, we discuss what it's like to interview and write about artists, what changed (and stayed the same) in Waits's music, and how you should always take a suggestion from Nick Cave seriously.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Ol' 55, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) Shore Leave, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Goin' Out West, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Take It With Me, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Satisfied, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011)
Just imagine... at one point we thought this surprisingly epic True Orphans series might fit in two episodes, HA! Anyway, for this final episode Martin and Sam consider the Waits material from 2010 to the present day, including several contributions to tribute albums, a few live recordings, and his beautiful-yet-flawed farewell to David Letterman.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Tootie Ma Is A Big Fine Thing, Preservation - An Album To Benefit Preservation Hall and The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program, Tom Waits & The Preservation Hall Jazz Band (2010) Corrine Died on the Battlefield, Preservation - An Album To Benefit Preservation Hall and The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program, Tom Waits & The Preservation Hall Jazz Band (2010) Fortune Has its Cookies To Give Out, live recording, Herbst Theater, San Francisco CA, w. Lawrence Ferlinghetti (2 October 2010) Ghost to a Ghost, Ghost to a Ghost, Hank Williams III (2011) Fadin Moon, Ghost to a Ghost, Hank Williams III (2011) Shenandoah, Son Of Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys, Tom Waits & Keith Richards (2013) Little Red Rooster, live recording, Oracle Arena, Oakland CA, The Rolling Stones w. Tom Waits (5 May 2013) Take One Last Look, live recording, The Late Show with David Letterman, New York NY, Tom Waits (14 May 2015) The Soul of a Man, God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnston, Tom Waits (2016) John The Revelator, God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnston, Tom Waits (2016) Respect Yourself, live recording, Lagunitas Amphitheatre, Petaluma CA, Mavis Staples w. Tom Waits (11 September 2017) Rains On Me, live recording, Troubador, Los Angeles CA, w. Chuck E. Weiss & Tom Waits (18 March 2022) Getting Drunk On A Bottle / I Like To Sleep Late In The Morning, live recording, Snap Sessions - KPFK FM - Santa Monica OR Folk Arts Rare Records, w. Dave Blue (November, 1973)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As we enter the new millennium, Waits pushes into new sonic territory with various collaborations, covers and spoken word pieces, including nostalgic re-inventions and some more full-blooded engagement with hip hop music.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Helium Reprise, Helium, Tin Hat Trio (2000) I’ll Tell You Why That Is, Beatin' the Heat, Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks / Tom Waits (2000) Mahfouz, Witness, Dave Douglas / Tom Waits (2001) Go Tell It On The Mountain, Go Tell It On The Mountain, The Blind Boys of Alabama / Tom Waits (2002) Kitate, The Ride, Los Lobos / Tom Waits / Martha Gonzalez (2004) Going Fetal, Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, The Eels (2004) Ramblin’ Man, live recording, The House Of Blues, Cleveland OH, w. Hank Williams (13 August 2006) Spoonful, live recording, The House Of Blues, Cleveland OH, w. Willie Dixon (13 August 2006) Morning Hollow, It's A Wonderful Life / Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain, Sparklehorse (2001/2006) The Waitress, When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold, Atmosphere (2008) Spacious Thoughts, The Spirit Of Apollo, N.A.S.A / Tom Waits / Kool Keith (2009)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Just a brief FYI that Song by Song is taking a (previously unannounced) seasonal break for two weeks. We'll be back on January 10th 2024 with the penultimate episode of our True Orphans series. Have a lovely Winterval everyone!
Rounding out the second half(?) of the 1990s, Waits explores collaborations with old friends and some unusual covers, as well as the building of experimental musical instruments, including his own mouth. It's a weird one, no doubt about it!
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Brother Can You Spare a Dime, Brother Can You Spare A Dime Day, Tom Waits / w. Yip Harburg / Jay Gorney (1993) Fever, live recording, Raven Theatre, Healdsburg CA, w. Eddie Cooley / Otis Blackwell [under pseudonym "John Davenport"] (11 August 1996) Old Time Feeling, Friends Of Mine, Ramblin' Jack Elliot / Guy Clark / Tom Waits (1998) World Of Adventure / River Of Men, freeform singing, Fishing With John TV show, Tom Waits / John Lurie (1991/1998) Highway Cafe, Pearls In The Snow - The Songs Of Kinky Friedman, w. Kinky Friedman (1998) Coattails of a Dead Man, Antipop, Primus / Tom Waits (1999) Do You Know What I Idi Amin, Extremely Cool, Chuck E. Weiss / Tom Waits (1999) Babbachichuija, CD insert for the book 'Orbitones, Spoon Harps & Bellowphones', Tom Waits (1999) Buzz Fledderjohn, Wicked Grin, John Hammond (2001)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Into the 1990s, Martin and Sam return for more unreleased Waits tracks, splitting the decade into two more manageable chunks. This first episode sees some repurposed music, a few live songs, as well as Waits delivering heart-felt advice alongside Thelonius Monster.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Serrano, flexi-disc insert for the book 'Sylvia Plachy's Unguided Tour', Tom Waits (1990) I Left My Heart In San Francisco, live recording, Orpheum Theatre, San Francisco CA, w. George Corey / Douglass Cross (31 December 1990) Auld Lang Syne, live recording, Orpheum Theatre, San Francisco CA (31 December 1990/1 January 1991) It’s Alright With Me, Red Hot + Blue, Tom Waits / w. Cole Porter - music video dir. Jim Jarmusch (1990) Thousand Bing Bangs, Devout Catalyst, Ken Nordine / Tom Waits (1991) The Movie, Devout Catalyst, Ken Nordine / Tom Waits (1991) I'm Not Your Fool Anymore, Mississippi Lad, Teddy Edwards / Tom Waits (1991) Adios Lounge, Beautiful Mess, Thelonius Monster / Tom Waits (1992)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
More discussions of Waits's unreleased recordings brings us to the 1980s, featuring several demos, a bunch of covers, and significant collaborations with other musicians, both big and small. Highlights this week include his contribution to a poetry documentary, a live Ewan MacColl cover, and his evening of collaborations with The Replacements.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Purple Avenue / Empty Pockets, live recording, Expo Theatre, Montreal Canada (3 July 1981) Smuggler's Waltz / Bronx Lullaby, from Poetry In Motion, dir. Ron Mann (1982) Carnivalins, unreleased recording, Frank's Wild Demos (1986?) Vegas Theme, unreleased recording, Frank's Wild Demos (1986?) Downtown Train (alt take), NME's Big Four 7" EP, Tom Waits (1986) Harlem Shuffle, Dirty Work, The Rolling Stones (1986) I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Knew (About Her), live recording, Beverly Theatre, Los Angeles CA, Tom Waits with Elvis Costello and Lou Reed, w. Cecil Null (4 October 1986) Papa's Got A Brand New Bag, live recording, Massey Hall, Toronto Canada, w. James brown (7 October 1987) Mack The Knife, live recording, Freie Volksbuhne, Berlin Germany, w. Bertolt Brecht / Kurt Weill (8 December 1987) Big Rock Candy Mountain, from the film Ironweed, dir. Hector Babenco (1987) Once More Before I Go, from the film Candy Mountain, dir. Robert Frank and Rudy Wurlitzer (1988) Date To Church, single b-side, The Replacements / Tom Waits (1989) Lowdown Monkey Blues, Dead Man's Pop, The Replacements / Tom Waits (1989/2019) If Only You Were Lonely, Dead Man's Pop, The Replacements / Tom Waits (1989/2019) I Can Help, studio outtake / Dead Man's Pop, The Replacements / Tom Waits, w. Billy Swan (1989/2019) We Know The Night - Rehearsal Version, Dead Man's Pop, The Replacements / Tom Waits (1989/2019) Take It As It Comes, live recording, Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles CA, w. The Doors (31 December 1988) Pennies From Heaven, live recording, Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles CA, w. Arthur Johnston and Johnny Burke (31 December 1988) Dirty Old Town, live recording, Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles CA, w. Ewan MacColl (31 December 1988) Hound Dog, live recording, Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles CA, w. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (31 December 1988) Dirty Old Town, Rum Sodomy and The Lash, The Pogues (1985)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Our second episode dealing with the non-album work of Tom Waits (and our second from the 1970s) brings a variety of covers, live performances, outtakes and re-uses from studio sessions... including the Hokey Pokey. Check the show notes for versions of everything we're discussing, and hopefully you'll find some new favourites.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Martin Goes And Does Where It’s At / Bombed Anyway, I'm Everyone I've Ever Loved, Martin Mull feat. Tom Waits (1977) Just Another Dime Store Novel, unreleased recording - possibly from the Foreign Affairs sessions / Filmways Heider Recording, Tom Waits (1977) (Meet Me In) Paradise Alley, Paradise Alley Soundtrack, Tom Waits (1978) With a Suitcase (Street Band Version), unreleased recording - from the Paradise Alley sessions, Tom Waits (1978) Tijuana, Jack Tempchin, Jack Tempchin, w. Tom Waits (1978) Summertime, live recording, The Royal Horse, Osaka, Japan, w. George Gershwin (March 1978) Summertime / Putnam County, live recording, Park Motor Inn, Madison, Wisconsin (31 October 1977) Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo', live recording, Zilker Park, Austin TX (5 December 1978) OR Warner Theatre, Washington DC (21 November 1978) Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo' / I Wish I Was In New Orleans, live recording, Austin City Limits, Texas (December 1978) Waitin' For Waits, Hollywood Madness, Richie Cole / Eddie Jefferson feat. Tom Waits (1979) Gee Baby Ain’t I Good To You, live recording, Uptown Theatre, Kansas City, w. Andy Razaf and Don Redman (8 October 1979) OR Beacon Theatre, New York w. Andy Razaf and Don Redman (5 November 1979) Whose Sports Coat Is That, live recording, Uptown Theatre, Kansas City (8 October 1979) OR Beacon Theatre, New York (5 November 1979) Trash day, live recording, Uptown Theatre, Kansas City (8 October 1979) OR Beacon Theatre, New York (5 November 1979) Since I Fell For You, live recording, Capitol Theatre, Sydney Australia, w. Buddy Johnson (2 May 1979) Do The Hokey Pokey / Pasties & A G-String, live recording, Capitol Theatre, Sydney Australia (2 May 1979) I Feel Good, live recording, Paramount Theatre, Seattle WA, w. James Brown (7 October 1979) In Shades, Heartattack & Vine, Tom Waits (1980) When The Saints Go Marching In, live recording (197?/198?)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Having determined not to waste everyone's time with a comprehensive coverage of ALL of Waits's recordings... Sam and Martin return to the podcast to do exactly that. Sorry? In this first of several episodes, we consider some of the most prolific years of Waits's career, covering as many recordings as we can find between 1971 and 1977.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Getting Drunk On A Bottle / I Like To Sleep Late In The Morning, live recording, Snap Sessions - KPFK FM - Santa Monica OR Folk Arts Rare Records, w. Dave Blue (November, 1973) Friday’s Blues, live recording, Snap Sessions - KPFK FM - Santa Monica OR Folk Arts Rare Records, w. Ray Bierl (November, 1973) Good Night Loving Trail, Dime Store Novels vol 1 - Ebbets Field, w. Utah Phillips (1974) Spanish is the Loving Tongue, live recording, San Diego, w. Charles Badger Clark / Bill Simon (1974) Your Sweet and Shiny Eyes, Home Plate, Bonnie Raitt (1975) Apartment For Rent, live recording, Mainpoint - Bryn Mawr (June 1975) Tom Gets Hustled At 9 Ball, live recording, KWFM - Lee Furr's Studios - Tucson Arizona (1975) Saturday Night Fish Fry, live recording, Santa Barbara, w. Louis Jordan / Ellis Walsh (February 1975) Standing On The Corner, live recording, Agora Ballroom - Cleveland/ Ohio, w. Frank Loesser (August 1976) What Else Is New, unreleased recording - Small Change sessions, Tom Waits (July 1976) Stray Dog Help Yourself, unreleased recording - Small Change sessions, Tom Waits (July 1976) Cupid, live recording, Westchester, w. Sam Cooke (1976) Playin' Hooky, unreleased recording - Foreign Affairs sessions, Tom Waits (July/August 1977)Scarecrow, unreleased recording - Foreign Affairs sessions, Tom Waits (July/August 1977)A Nickle’s Worth of Dreams, unreleased recording - Foreign Affairs sessions, Tom Waits (July/August 1977)Mr Henry, Bounced Checks/Asylum Years - Foreign Affairs sessions, Tom Waits (1977/1981)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
WE DID IT! Just over 8 years and several hundred episodes since Ol’ 55, we’ve songed all the songs there are to Song by Song. Along with a little look back at Bad As Me, Kirk, Sam and Martin also give this alphabetically-first-but-chronologically-last track full consideration, and quickly check in to see how The Eagles have been doing. Plus - BONUS! A final appearance of the Smooth Marble Egg theory of art!
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: After You Die, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) I Wish You Peace, One Of These Nights, The Eagles (1975)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A quintessential and sincere song of advice and experience for Kirk, Martin and Sam this week, perhaps also bordering on the sentimental? We discuss the paired imagery in the lyrics, more rhythmic shifting, and examine the questions these songs are asking (along with the answers they suggest).
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Tell Me, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) Why, Diva, Annie Lennox (1992)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Diving into the three bonus tracks from the Bad As Me Deluxe edition, Sam and Martin welcome Kirk Hamilton of the Strong Songs podcast to explore isolated sax stabs, irregular rhythmic structures and sparse arrangements. We consider Waits's continued vocal experimentation, the oblique details of his lyric writing, and the politics and history of dancehall/pop crossovers from reggae star Shaggy.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: She Stole The Blush, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) It Wasn't Me, Hot Shot, Shaggy feat. Rik Rok (2000)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
At the end of the album-proper, Andrea, Martin and Sam consider the festive season as well as all its associated traumas. We return to Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Rickie Lee Jones as well as 1970s Tom Waits, debating possible autobiographical elements, poverty tourism, and which lullaby is best used to ring in the new year.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: New Year's Eve, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) A Sight For Sore Eyes, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits (1977)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
With serious discussion of disturbing events from the start, Andrea illuminates for Sam and Martin some of the context for this song of military trauma. We consider musical presentation of problems and solutions to injustice, sonic and lyrical density, and Waits’s political engagement more broadly
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Hell Broke Luce, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) Song 33, single, Noname (2020)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We’re heading towards conclusions, both in albums and in life, as Andrea Warner joins with Martin and Sam to examine another Tom and Keith team up. The hubris of Waits’s sentiments, the juxtaposition of humour and pain in music, and a consideration of vestigial tails all feature in this week’s discussion.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Last Leaf, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) Pale Green Things, The Sunset Tree, The Mountain Goats (2005)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Another Keith Richards collaboration brings Waits to a full confrontation with the Rolling Stones, as Song by Song engages with this cryptic track from the second half of Bad As Me. Determination in music and sports, the sexual or metaphorical interpretations of bullets and guns, and the lunacy of Harry Smith all feature in our third conversation with Sara Gran.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Satisfied, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Live in Paris, John Lee Hooker / Carey Bell (1970)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Waits's yearning for a new (or at least newness in) love brings Sara, Martin and Sam to some inherent features of popular music as well as human nature in general. We have conversations about changing affection in art itself, dig into the truths and lies we tell about the shape of life, and begin an extended consideration of the presence of limerence in music.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Kiss Me, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) And Then He Kissed Me, single / Philles Records Presents Today's Hits, The Crystals (1963)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We’re delighted to welcome John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats for this special extended episode listening to the title track from Bad As Me. Diving into the history of Waits’s musical evolution, John, Martin and Sam consider the value of originality, Waits's reasons for producing this album after a 7 year hiatus, and some of the philosophical questions around the creation and publication of music. Plus some good Zelda chat.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Bad As Me, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Joined by long-hoped-for guest Sara Gran, Sam and Martin shuffle back into the crowd of emotional songs of loss and yearning, flanked by Waits in a sorrowful mode and Roy Orbison full of powerful declamatory emotion. Some lyrical interpretation, a little passive-aggression, and the question of how lonely a voice sounds all occupy our discussion, as we continue through Bad As Me.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Back In The Crowd, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) Only The Lonely, Lonely and Blue, Roy Orbison (1960)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
With a brief digression into Beyoncé’s oeuvre, Kerry-Jo, Martin and Sam discuss some of the oddities in the writing of Pay Me, and what story Waits is trying to tell. We consider stories of theatrical life, where to find the end of the world, and specificities in the writing of Stephen Sondheim.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Pay Me, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) Send In The Clowns, Good Bad but Beautiful, Shirley Bassey / Stephen Sondheim (1975)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Back with Sam and Martin, Kerry-Jo has some opinions about the honesty of Waits’s reasons for departure, as well as the comprehensibility of his Sweetums voice. We discuss the inevitability and/or duality of his departure, styles of poetic writing in both tracks, and the various ways that we get “stuck” in situations and relationships.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Face To The Highway, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) Carrion, Tidal, Fiona Apple (1996)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We welcome Kerry-Jo Reilly to the show, joining Martin and Sam for songs of travel, departure and longing by Tom Waits, Larry Taylor, and their various associates. There’s discussion of the value of 60s/70s blues-rock, Waits’s various relationships over the years, and his attitude towards The King.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Get Lost, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) On The Road Again, Boogie With Canned Heat, Canned Heat (1968)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Waits pulls on some (possibly) contemporary references this week, as Bryce, Sam and Martin consider the various meanings that “everybody talking” may relate to. Considering the tone and quality of the song, the applications to various political concerns of various eras, and taking a step into popular music of 2022, the conversation continues through Bad As Me.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Talking At The Same Time, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) Late Night Talking, Harry's House, Harry Styles (2022)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Shambling on from Chicago, Waits lays down some relationship advice for Bryce, Martin and Sam to pick apart and interpret, with some mixed attitudes towards partners’ and parents’ influence over right and wrong men. We chat about the work of Aretha Franklin, overlap with Nick Cave, and of course the looming influence of Snagglepuss.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Raised Right Men, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) Do Right Woman, Do Right Man, single, Aretha Franklin (1967)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Back for the beginning of our final(?) season, Bryce Halliday joins Sam and Martin for a journey toward the great unknown of Illinois. We examine the era of the song’s setting, the power of Mavis Staples’s singing, and the reliability of moving to "better" places.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Chicago, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) I'll Take You There, Be Altitude: Respect Yourself, The Staples Singers (1972)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
One more Megamix before we hit the final straight, with Martin and Sam taking the opportunity to consider the penultimate release of Waits, the 2009 live album Glitter & Doom Live, bouncing through the 17+ tracks at an approximate minute-per-track. We consider the different energy and interpretations of these recordings compared to studio originals, how some tracks can be perfected live, and how this compares to other live albums. It's just a bunch of Tom Waits songs…
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Glitter & Doom Live, Tom Waits (2009)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A second week’s break, but there’s another discussion celebrating Flixwatcher’s 300th episode, this time digging into the 1991 classic that is Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves. And fear not, Sam and Martin will be back in just one short week for the Glitter & Doom megamix!
https://flixwatcher.tv/episode-300-part-ii-robin-hood-prince-of-thieves-with-martin-and-sam-from-song-by-song-podcast/
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
A week off for Martin and Sam... but never ones to rest on laurels, they've headed over to Flixwatcher to guest-host for Helen and Kobi's 300th episode, discussing the Martin Scorsese epic "The Irishman". While you build anticipation for Glitter & Doom, why not head over and take a listen.
https://flixwatcher.tv/episode-300-part-i-the-irishman-with-martin-and-sam-from-song-by-song-podcast/
Our third cameo compilation episode concludes Song by Song's journey through the film work of Tom Waits, with Leigh, Martin and Sam touching on the last decade of his screen appearances. This week considers Twixt (2011), The Laughing Heart (2003/2012), The Simpsons (2013), Citizen (2016), The Moon's Milk (2018), The Ultra City Smiths (2021), Licorice Pizza (2021) and a few others. Please pick up any spilled popcorn as you leave folks…
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from The Simpsons 'Homer Goes To Prep School', dir. Mark Kirkland (2013) Clips from Twixt, dir. Francis Ford Coppola (2011) Clips from The Laughing Heart, dir. John Dullaghan/Travis Carr (2003/2012) Clips from A Brief History of John Baldessari, dir. Henry Joost/Ariel Schulman (2012) Clips from Citizen, dir. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (2016) Clips from The Moon's Milk, dir. Ri Crawford (2018) Clips from Ultra City Smiths, dir. Steve Conrad/David H Brooks (2021) Clips from Licorice Pizza, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson (2021) (Meet Me In) Paradise Alley, Paradise Alley OST, Tom Waits (1978)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Moving on through the shorter film appearances of Tom Waits, Leigh, Sam and Martin find some of the sparkling (and less-than-sparkling) gems from his movie roles of the 90s and into the 2000s, discussing Queen’s Logic (1991), The Fisher King (1991), Until The End Of The World (1991), Domino (2005), The Tiger and The Snow (2005), The Book of Eli (2010), and The Monster of Nix (2011).
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from Queen's Logic, dir. Steve Rash (1991) Clips from The Fisher King, dir. Terry Gilliam (1991) Clips from Until The End Of The World, dir. Wim Wenders (1991) Clips from Domino, dir. Tony Scott (2005) Clips from The Tiger and The Snow, dir. Roberto Benigni (2005) Clips from The Book of Eli, dir. The Hughes Brothers (2010) Clips from The Monster of Nix, dir. Rosto (2011)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Song by Song embarks on a roundup of Waits’s many film cameo appearances, with Sam and Martin ably abetted by film critic Leigh Singer. With discussions of his smallest early film appearances (and several of his film absences), we take this first episode to discuss Paradise Alley (1978), Wolfen (1981), The Stone Boy (1984), Candy Mountain (1987), Greasy Lake (1988) and The Two Jakes (1990).
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from Paradise Alley, dir. Sylvester Stallone (1978) Clips from Wolfen, dir. Michael Wadleigh (1981) Clips from The Stone Boy, dir. Christopher Cain (1984) Clips from Candy Mountain, dir. Robert Frank / Rudy Wurlitzer (1987) Clips from Greasy Lake, dir. Damian Harris (1988) Clips from The Two Jakes, dir. Jack Nicholson (1990)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
It’s story time again, with Waits giving an almost-solo turn in the “All Gold Canyon” segment of The Coen Brothers’ anthology film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Rico Galliano of the MUBI Podcast joins Sam and Martin to consider all six of the film’s stories, its fatal themes, and Waits’s talent for shouting at owls.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs, dir. Coen Brothers (2018)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We welcome Eadie and Melia to the podcast, presenting five songs from Waits aimed at younger listeners, and discovering how the junior contingent of Song by Song feel about them. We discuss creepy voices and creepier sheds, the feeding habits of Golden Eagles, and the deep trauma of poor WiFi connectivity.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Children’s Story, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Heigh Ho, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Army Ants, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Bend Down The Branches, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Sam and Martin conclude the 22nd season of Song by Song, bringing thoughts on the 60+ tracks, 21 episodes, 10 guests and many musical influences we’ve considered over the last 5 months of the show. We talk over the album order, it’s purpose for both Waits and his listeners, and attempt to form a Best Of list by making a few “adoptions”.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Sea Of Love, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Diamond In Your Mind, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A final set of bonus tracks brings us to the end of season 22, with Christa, Martin and Sam enjoying a demo-style blues number, an extended bit of acapella storytelling, and Waits’s duet with a children’s choir. We conclude with some exaggerated masculinity, the Elizabethan-equivalent of Reservoir Dogs, and a bit of Christmas charidee.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: No One Can Forgive Me, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Mathie Grove, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Silent Night, S.O.S United, SOS Children’s Villages & Tom Waits (1989) Matty Groves, Liege And Lief, Fairport Convention (1969)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Musician and writer Christa Couture joins Martin and Sam for the final few Orphans, including a Book of Knots collaboration, the tale of an unpaid grocery bill, and a bit of ol’ Blue Eyes. Our penultimate episode for the season includes a celebration of youth, silly storytelling, and a surprise vocal cameo by the one and only Kathleen.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Pray, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Young At Heart, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Missing My Son, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Good Bayou, The Living Record, Christa Couture (2012)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Heading into the final tracks from Orphans, Tim, Martin and Sam discuss the ruinous junkyard dog that is Waits’s music, with another track from Brecht/Weill’s Threepenny Opera, some nursery rhyme cribs, and a bit of spontaneous(?) comedy. Waits delivers some aggressive anti-war sentiment, a song slightly lacking in specificity, and then finishes with a load of absolute bull.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Cannon Song, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Jayne's Blue Wish, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Dog Treat, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Cannon Song, Lost In The Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill, Kurt Weill / Bertolt Brecht / The Fowler Brothers / Stan Ridgway / trans. by Ralph Manheim and John Willett (1985)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We welcome writer and podcaster Tim Clare to Song by Song, for more Orphaned songs about the significance of imaginary diamonds, sound-check deadlines, and a collaboration with Primus. We discuss reinterpretations of The Ramones, another version of Kerouac’s song On The Road, and a very valuable belt.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Diamond In Your Mind, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Danny Says, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) On The Road, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Home I'll Never Be, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Having dealt with all the Brawlers, Sam and Martin dig into the bonus disc of Orphans with a Fats Waller cover, music first performed by Johnny Cash, and a synopsis of King Kong. We discuss Waits’s capability as a pianist, his treatment of history’s villains, and consider his cover of an iconic outsider-artist musician.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Crazy 'Bout My Baby, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Down There By The Train, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) King Kong, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) King Kong, Yip Jump Music, Daniel Johnston (1983)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Some soothing, some heartbreak, and some extreme weather for Miss Yankey, as she examines another set of Orphans with Sam and Martin. Waits looks back on his Troubador years with tenderness, calls for care of the children of Seattle, and delivers a questionable hip-hop tribute.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Rains On Me, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Take Care Of All My Children, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Spidey's Wild Ride, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Rat's Theme, Tom Waits, from Streetwise, dir. Martin Bell (1984)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Miss Yankey rejoins Martin and Sam, bringing her perspective on the writing and performance of this week’s selection of neighbourhood memories, childhood crimes and old cars. We peer over Waits’s fence at forbidden gardens, pair greek myth with tragic violence, and visit with Kathleen’s dad.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Buzz Fledderjohn, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) The Fall Of Troy, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) The Pontiac, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Jo, Martin and Sam return to the ocean, the church, and another Leadbelly cover to consider Waits's reinterpretation of various older songs. The swirling Sea of Love, the unnecessary pub singalong, and behind-the-altar confessionals all get a new twist, to varied effect.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Sea Of Love, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Goodnight Irene, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Altar Boy, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) What Became Of Old Father Craft, The Alice Demos, Tom Waits (1992 - unreleased)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Walking back to the show only to walk away again, Jo Neary takes on another trio of Orphans with Martin and Sam. Beginning with the 90s religious material, heading back to theatre of the 80s, and then the street poetry of William Kennedy’s childhood, we also consider how Waits’s writing functions as a dusting soundtrack.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Walk Away, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) If I Have To Go, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Poor Little Lamb, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Clip from Ironweed, dir. Hector Babenco (1987)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As we enter 2023, Sam and Martin take a quick rummage through the emails, tweets and carrier pigeon letters the listeners have sent in over the last year, getting your take on lyrical and musical elements we may have missed, as well as a bunch of other thoughts and considerations.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Bad As Me, Spirit In The Room, Tom Jones (2012)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Martin is a punk, Sam Pay is a runt, Vera joined the podcast and they all… focused on getting enough water because hydration is important. We dip back into the Woyzeck material, consider Ramones fandom, and Waits pays tribute to Jack Kerouac.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: The Return Of Jackie And Judy, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) It's Over, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Home I'll Never Be, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) On The Road (excerpt), Jack Kerouac reads On The Road, Jack Kerouac (1999)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Vera Chok makes her triumphant 2023 return to Song by Song for fat driving beats, donated smooth jazz vocals and a moment of zen. This week we discuss the anger of an ageing codependent relationship, the nature (and futility) of advice, and the magic of anticipated nostalgia.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: All The Time, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Little Man, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Nirvana, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) I'm Not Your Fool Anymore, Mississippi Lad, Teddy Edwards (1991)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Dina is back for some tricky conversations with Martin and Sam about the geography of Shreveport and Huston, more Woyzeck off-cuts, and of course, the big topic of the Gaza conflict. We consider Waits working outside his comfort zone, his Lead Belly reversal, and again discuss the “why” of his instrumental choices.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:Road To Peace, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)Fannin Street, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Redrum, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)Fannin Street (Mr Tom Hughes' Town), Lead Belly's Last Sessions, Lead Belly (1948/1959)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
It’s all stories of attentiveness and canines this week, as we welcome Dina Del Bucchia to the show for a striptease routine, sentimental intensity, and a song about a mean lady. We discuss his connection to Bette Midler, consensual domination, and the needs of attention-seeking Leos.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Puttin' On The Dog, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Never Let Go, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Dog Door, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Jeffrey’s with Martin and Sam for a second Orphaned week, delighting in gospel music, songs of absentee fathers, and approximately 500 Bing Bangs. Waits sidesteps his irony to celebrate religion (or at least its musical traditions), we get down and dirty with a country music legend, and Jeffrey… falls in love!
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Lord I've Been Changed, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Tell It To Me, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) First Kiss, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Thousand Bing Bangs, Devout Catalyst, Ken Nordine / Tom Waits (1991)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We welcome Nightvale’s own Jeffrey Cranor back to Song by Song, joining Martin and Sam to explore a Lead Belly cover, sentimental material from the film Pollock, and a murderous song of sibling rivalry. We talk about mutability and adaptation in the blues tradition, supernatural extensions in folk ballads, and Martin experiences a moment of emotional crisis.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Ain't Goin' Down To The Well, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) World Keeps Turning, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Two Sisters, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Bow And Balance / Two Sisters, Old Town School of Folk Music, Horton Barker (1962)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A positive start and slight decline for Hannah, Sam and Martin, with Waits in murder ballad mode, a simple banjo-led song of yearning and the first instrumental of the album. The ‘who’ of our Brawler, the ‘where’ of our Bawler, and the ‘why’ of the Bastard all get a good discussion, as Song by Song continues through Orphans.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Lucinda, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Shiny Things, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Bone Chain, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Martin and Sam welcome Hannah McGregor for another trio of Waits’s abandoned children: a hobo lullabye, his contribution to the Shrek-niverse and a tribute to one of 1969’s most unusual solo projects. Plus: how hard would it be for two women in their 30s to fit inside one overcoat?!?
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Bottom Of The World, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Little Drop Of Poison, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Books Of Moses, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Books Of Moses, Oar, Skip Spence (1969)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Returning for another eclectic selection of tracks, Amanda, Martin and Sam listen to a pescatarian jailbreak tune, an unusually conversational murder ballad, and Waits-does-Attenborough. We consider the possible origins of Widow's Grove, truth and fiction in insect monologues, and the value of seafood-based escapology.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Fish In The Jailhouse, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Widow's Grove, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Army Ants, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Martin and Sam welcome actor-musician Amanda Gordon to the show, getting into the groove of 2:19, the history of Long Way Home, and the strange dark texture of Heigh Ho. We discuss the value of grim interpretation, the lyrical flourishes in Waits's own writing and elsewhere, and the importance of accurate railway scheduling.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: 2:19, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Long Way Home, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Heigh Ho, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
There's both delights and disappointments this week, as Martin, Sam and Jeu Jeu la Foille find a disappointingly straightforward Brawler with LowDown, a delightful and layered Bawler in You Can Never Hold Back Spring, and a creepy story guaranteed to disturb the little Bastards in your life.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: LowDown, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) You Can Never Hold Back Spring, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Children's Story, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Aaaaand… we're off! Guest host Jeu Jeu La Foille rejoins Martin and Sam to tackle the first tracks from our monumental Orphans season, digging into the first tracks of Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards. We examine the Elvis influence in another hot-and-bothered song for Kathleen, a children's song for an elderly bunny, and a very faithful cover from the Threepenny Opera.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Lie To Me, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Bend Down The Branches, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) What Keeps Mankind Alive, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Next week begins season 22, the behemoth that is Orphans. And so we’re all on the same page, Sam and Martin explain how they (and we) will approach these three albums without breaking all our brains.
website: songbysongpodcast.com
twitter: @songbysongpod
e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
If I Have To Go, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)
You Can Never Hold Back Spring, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
While Sam and Martin prepare for Orphans, please enjoy a guest-podcast from our friends Fran and Babs of the Over/Underrated Music Podcast, featuring your regular SbS hosts as guests talking about some NY art rock, David Byrne’s lack of love, and the genius of the two Johns.
website: songbysongpodcast.com
twitter: @songbysongpod
e-mail: [email protected]
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Song by Song gets archeological, uncovering and piecing together muffled lyric fragments in this final episode on the Real Gone bonus track.
website: songbysongpodcast.com
twitter: @songbysongpod
e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Chick a Boom, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
Chick a Boom, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Waits reaches out for a form out of his usual style, as Sam and Martin consider who and where this song is coming from, as well as the technique and attitude of Waits’s political work through Real Gone and beyond.
website: songbysongpodcast.com
twitter: @songbysongpod
e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Day After Tomorrow, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
Bella Ciao, Songs of Resistance: 1942-2018, Tom Waits / Marc Ribot (2018)
Day After Tomorrow, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
It's point/counterpoint on Song by Song again, as Martin and Sam divide over Waits's song of loss and yearning. Whether this is a pure form of a classic sentiment or an unnecessary retread of predictable tropes gets turned over, alongside a rare Tom Waits cover for the interval track.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Make It Rain, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Make It Rain, Live at Sidney Opera House, Spinefex Gum (2019) Make It Rain, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Waits flies solo for this horny-noise-fragment, as Sam and Martin pin down both some of the sonic design as well as images of travel and freedom. We look at Waits's reuse of phrases from other songs, his line between affection and objectification, and compare with the technical precision of Bobby McFerrin's vocal performances.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clang Boom Steam, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Drive, Live from Montreal, Bobby McFerrin (2005) Clang Boom Steam, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
High energy blues number - check. Harsh beat-boxing rhythmic tone - check. Mumbled lyrics and anti-poetic phrasing - check. David, Sam and Martin find all the required elements, but discuss whether it all comes together in this week’s song.
Note: we mention Mark Rylance this episode; between recording and release, his brother Jonathan was killed - sympathies from all of us for this loss.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Baby Gonna Leave Me, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, In Concert, Joan Baez (1962) Baby Gonna Leave Me, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Singing from beyond the grave, Waits bridges the green grass boundary between life and death as David, Sam and Martin question whether this week's song presents a tender or threatening love.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Green Grass, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Green Green Grass Of Home, Green Green Grass Of Home, Tom Jones (1967) Green Grass, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Actor/musician David Ahmad joins Sam and Martin to discuss the religious material, consider the game-of-telephone lineage of folk classics, and celebrate this (perhaps overlooked) track of sorrow and loss.
Note: we mention Mark Rylance this episode; between recording and release, his brother Jonathan was killed - sympathies from all of us for this loss.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Trampled Rose, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) If It Wasn't For Dicky, Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection, Lead Belly (1941-47) Trampled Rose, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As EE Cummings said… 'damn everything but the circus'… although Dominic, Martin and Sam question whether this Circus deserves praise or damnation itself. We compare to other sections of Waits's work, as well as other real and fictional songs, plus the value of talking to strangers on night-buses.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Circus, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Moon Over Dog Street, single, Sour Sweet Tooth / Keith Sanders (2012) Circus, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Dominic is back with Sam and Martin, thinking about both the beauty and exploitation-of-beauty that this song contains, and considering how it compares with the traditions of murder ballads.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Dead and Lovely, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Long Black Veil, single, Jenny Owen Youngs (2017) Dead and Lovely, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Musician and theatre-maker Dominic Conway gets his dancing shoes on with Sam and Martin for a conversation about the sonic feel of this track, the lack of lyrical focus in this album, and dance instructionals of the early 2000s.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Metropolitan Glide, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Cha Cha Slide, Cha Cha Slide, DJ Casper (2004) Metropolitan Glide, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Waits returns to vignettes this week, as well as incomplete stories and the longing for closure, as Molly rejoins Sam and Martin to talk about how these stories relate to fiction, journalism, and apocalyptic love songs.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: How's It Gonna End, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) The End Of The World, Skeeter Davis Sings The End Of The World, Skeeter Davis (1963) How's It Gonna End, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
The dark history of a barn in Kentucky is Waits’s topic this week, as Molly, Sam and Martin examine how the story behind the barn relates to the Underground Railroad of the 1800. (Please note story is only metaphorically “behind the barn” - see local maps for geographical details)
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Don't Go Into That Barn, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Follow the Drinking Gourd, Songs of the Civil War, Richie Havens (1991) Don't Go Into That Barn, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We welcome writer, poet and theatre maker Molly Naylor, digging into the fractured narrative of Shake it with Martin and Sam. We unpick some of the hidden stories, discuss the tribute to Bill Hicks, and then hit the dance floor for a big party anthem!
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Shake It, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Hey Ya!, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, Outkast (2003) Shake It, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Three episodes of talking to Sam and Martin, and Shani is starting to check her watch, as Waits makes an exteeeeended exploration of generational trauma. Runtime does preoccupy our conversation, as well as density of imagery, hope for the future, and the logistics of bodies of water.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Sins of My Father, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Can't Blame The Youth, single, Peter Tosh (1972) Sins of My Father, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Groovy or bleak, polemic or afterparty, M.A.S.H or Generation Kill? Shani Erez rejoins Martin and Sam to look at the anthemic second track of Real Gone, exploring the anger of Waits, the song's effectiveness beyond its anti-war context, and the big remaster choices from 2017.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Hoist That Rag, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Shipbuilding, My Middle Name Is Misery, Ruth Dolores Weiss (2012) Hoist That Rag, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Season 21 launches into an opening track with surprising energy, as guest host Shani Erez joins Sam and Martin to climb the Real Gone mountain towards the top of that hill. The sonic qualities of this album, Waits's attitude to the stories he's telling, bawdy seafaring jokes about genetalia, and the utter delight of 1980s metal… it's a pretty standard episode really.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Top of the Hill, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Run To The Hills, The Number of the Beast, Iron Maiden (1982) Top of the Hill, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Next week Song by Song pushes into Waits's 2004 release Real Gone, but before we kick off, Sam & Martin acknowledge the remaster changes, how the show will deal with these different versions, and handle any other business arising.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Top of the Hill, Real Gone, Tom Waits (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Returning to wrap up our film mini-season, Leigh Singer helps Sam and Martin break down this zombie/comsumerism/meta mash-up. With some slight disappointment in this compared to other Jarmusch (and other zombie) films, we question the purpose of his story and his enthusiasm for the genre. And Tom Waits gets to be a weird hobo in the woods too.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from The Dead Don't Die, dir. Jim Jarmusch (2019)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Joining Robert Redford for his retirement performance, Tom Waits robs banks, performs motel surgery and talks about Christmas adventures as Bridie, Martin & Sam get to grips with both The Old Man and The Gun.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from The Old Man and The Gun Trailer, dir. David Lowery (2018)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Podcaster and theatre producer Bridie Donaghy joins Sam and Martin to consider some confusing plot and dense visuals from Heath Ledger and friends. CGI cobras, late-noughties-heart-throb recasting and the quasi-autobiographical themes of Gilliam's fairytale are all discussed, as well as Tom Waits in ear-hair prosthetics.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Trailer, dir. Terry Gilliam (2009)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Song by Song is delighted to welcome film journalist Leigh Singer, as we dive into another Jim Jarmusch anthology film. We consider the relationship of Waits to Iggy Pop, his position as a film actor in 1993, as well as taking a look at the successes and failures of the other chapters (and the film as a whole). website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from Coffee and Cigarettes, dir. Jim Jarmusch (1993/2003)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Returning for another film mini-season, we reconvene for a sizeable Tom Waits role in a film of… debatable quality? Mostly forgotten by modern audiences, Sam and Martin find a few interesting elements to pick at, but mostly struggle to recommend this curio from the middle of Waits's acting career.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale, dir. Ann & Eduardo Guedes (1989)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Before we move on into more films and Real Gone, Sam and Martin dig into the letters, tweets and pigeon-post sent in by listeners over the last year or so, accepting corrections, embracing re-interpretations and talking about disappointing lakes.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Rounding off our 20th season, Martin and Sam focus in on a few of the songs that appeared in Woyzeck but didn't make it to the album release, and then look back on Blood Money as the third Waits/Wilson-based collaboration (with a brief tangent onto superhero comics).
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Just The Way We Are Boys, unreleased Woyzeck song, Tom Waits (2000) It's Over, Liberty Heights OST, Tom Waits (1999)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
The final song from Blood Money sees Martin and Sam come together to discuss optimism and bleakness, some of the repeating themes of the album and the play, and a possible lineage for this track reaching back through the 20th century.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) A Good Man Is Hard To Find, single, Marion Harris/Eddie Green (1919)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Pete Fraser is back with Martin and Sam, breaking down this unusual chunk of instrumental music from Waits's back yard. We discuss the use and origin of this track, and have an extended conversation on the work of saxophonist Colin Stetson, as Blood Money heads into its final turns.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Calliope, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Won't Be A Thing To Become, Never Where the Way She Was, Colin Stetson/Sarah Neufeld (2015)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We consider the three roles of this song - in the play, on the album, and as a piece of music in isolation - as Pete, Martin & Sam dig into the value of variation in music, the wash of emotion in Woe, and the restrained delivery of Kitty White.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Woe, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Plain Gold Ring, single, Kitty White (1956)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We welcome saxophonist and composer Pete Fraser to the show, joining Sam and Martin to listen to the Tom Waits version of a song written for Ute Lemper. We discuss the performative and presentational aspects of the track, Waits as an artist, and our lives in general.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: The Part You Throw Away, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) The Part You Throw Away, Punishing Kiss, Ute Lemper (2000)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Album fatigue begins to set in this week, with mixed feelings from Sam and Martin about the third or fourth song from Blood Money dealing with the despair humanity is endlessly surrounded by. There’s some technical sonic analysis, as well as some thought about 90s images of whale-based music.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Starving in the Belly of a Whale, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Gepetto, Star, Belly (1993)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
There’s some disappointment in Waits’s bedtime song this week, as Martin & Sam consider the purpose of the lullaby in Woyzeck and beyond, and think about the perspectives we bring to the specificities of a song.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Lullaby, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Rockabye, 100 Not Out, Kit & The Widow (2011)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Theatrical music to underscore incidental events, or aggressive reenforcement of violent imagery? Martin & Sam find themselves poised between interpretations for this instrumental, along with their thoughts on other cutlery-based songs.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Knife Chase (instrumental), Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Spoonful, single, Howlin' Wolf (1960)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Repetitions of phrase and imagery dominate this song of lust, violence and betrayal, as Miss Yankey completes her journey with Martin & Sam through Blood Money. We discover more abandonment and bitterness, as well as considering images of infidelity from various different perspectives.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Another Man's Vine, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) The Other Woman, Ultraviolence, Lana Del Ray (2014)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
It's still lyrics-first, sound-second, with Miss Yankey sharing her approach to music analysis with Sam & Martin. Waits gets straight back into the religious material with this 'masterpiece of bitterness', bridging spiritual, earthly, and cookie concerns.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: God's Away on Business, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) God Bless The Child, single, Billie Holiday (1941)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Performance poet and writer Miss Yankey joins Martin and Sam to take a literary approach to Waits's lyrics in this song of love, lifeguarding and colour theory.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: All the World Is Green, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Eden, Last Year Was Weird vol 3, Tkay Maidza (2021)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As Waits returns to sentimentality and Americana, Babs and Fran are less struck by the qualities of the song and more curious as to the reality of the woman he's singing about. There's discussion of music vs lyrics in the appreciation of the Manic Street Preachers, whether Waits is Over/Underrated, and how classic Jim Henson characters might interpret his work.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Coney Island Baby, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier, Everything Must Go, Manic Street Preachers (1996)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Back with Martin & Sam, Bárbara and Fran find a little more danceability this week, albeit in a more cliched image of doomed relationships and gender roles. With some consideration of cabaret numbers and cowboys, we take a look at how Waits shapes the tone of the album, and whether everyone needs a nap.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Everything Goes to Hell, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) I'm Tired, Blazing Saddles Soundtrack, Madeline Kahn (1974)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Fran James and Bárbara Mendes-Jorge of the Over/Underrated podcast join Sam & Martin to kick off season 20 with a song about the saddest body of water you can imagine (feedback pending). We compare to other wet songs from musical theatre, discuss vocal quality and tone, and touch on the difference between enjoyment and analysis.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Misery Is the River of the World, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Ol' Man River, Showboat, Paul Robeson/Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II (1936)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Returning to deliver our GCSE Drama lecture for the season, Callum Hughes chats with Martin and Sam about the theatrical history of Woyzeck, some of the themes present in the play, and gives us a jumping off point for the Waits album to come.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Misery Is the River of the World, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Sam and Martin re-reconvene to dig into the Alice material that doesn't appear on the studio album. Great… because this show wasn't niche enough… We explore Waits's interpretation of Jabberwocky, his field-recording improvisations, the possible use of instrumentals in the play, and look back at the album as a whole.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: One Two and Through (Jabberwocky), The Alice Demos, Tom Waits (1992 - unreleased) What Became Of Old Father Craft, The Alice Demos, Tom Waits (1992 - unreleased) Falling Down The Lane, The Alice Demos, Tom Waits (1992 - unreleased) Instrumental 5, The Alice Demos, Tom Waits (1992 - unreleased) Instrumental 4, The Alice Demos, Tom Waits (1992 - unreleased) Instrumental 9, The Alice Demos, Tom Waits (1992 - unreleased) Instrumental 10, The Alice Demos, Tom Waits (1992 - unreleased)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Sam and Martin reconvene for their third centenary, concluding Alice with this delicate, pretty-yet-textured instrumental. We've got discussion of mythical creatures, we've got an unpacking of the value in novelty songs, and we've got a hard left-turn in the interval track choice.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Fawn, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) French Toast Man, Car Radio Jerome, Fred Lane & the Hittite Hot-Shots (1986)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Waits struggles against the passing of time (and perhaps the classical form of the song) this week, as Celine chats with Martin & Sam about beauty and clarity, song forms versus meaning, and why we don't do more opera on the show.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Barcarolle, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) Belle nuit, o nuit d'amour (Barcarolle), The Tales of Hoffman (Act IV), Ann Murray / Jessye Norman / Jacques Offenbach (1988/1881) Instrumental 1 (early version of Barcarolle), The Alice Demos, Tom Waits (1992 - unreleased)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Sound the klaxon; Martin reaches the apex of his Song by Song journey, as his discusses the beauty and elegance of this track with Celine and Sam. The contradictions of the narrative, the expression of the impossibility of (some) love, and a key link to Waits's collaboration with Brennan all feature in our conversation.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Fish & Bird, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) Exit Music (For A Film), OK Computer, Radiohead (1997)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Things get a little meta this week, as guest host Celine Teo-Blockey discusses with Sam & Martin the way that this song exemplifies the ways women are seen and perceived in art and culture, and in the world in general. We chat about storytelling, being trapped in roles, and the buddhist attitudes of Bill Murray.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: I'm Still Here, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) Playing Nancy, Groundhog Day The Musical, Rebecca Faulkenberry / Tim Minchin (2017)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Waits leaves the theatre and heads out to the streets, with Sean, Sam and Martin (as well as Udo Lindenberg) in tow. Discussion ranges from the image of Hamburg’s red-light district across the last 50 years, German re-purposing of US rock (and vice versa), and locational nostalgia from around the world.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Reeperbahn, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) Reeperbahn (Penny Lane), Lindenbergs Rock-Revue, Udo Lindenberg (1974) Reeperbahn, The Alice Demos, Tom Waits (1992 - unreleased)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Sean Real returns for a second week with Martin and Sam, to discuss a song that faces the complex and perhaps uncomfortable relationship between Dodgeson and Alice head-on. We talk about the intensity and intimacy of the recording sound, as well as the intensity and intimacy of naked women running through the streets of Coventry.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Watch Her Disappear, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) Peeping Tom, Monkey Man, The Metals (1969)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Multi-instrumentalist and 99pi music producer Sean Real joins Sam & Martin to discuss coherent and incoherent images of madness. Our discussion revolves around the song's gothic viscerality, the texture of both album and demo versions, and head back to a late 60s' image of the madness in Wonderland.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: We're All Mad Here, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) White Rabbit, Surrealistic Pillow, Jefferson Airplane (1967) Hang Me In The Bottle, The Alice Demos, Tom Waits (1992 - unreleased)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Never lost for a conversation, Jo, Miranda, Martin and Sam take a look at the theatrical and political context of Waits's less-mannered song of longing. We return to some conversations from recent episodes, consider Kathleen Brennan's presence in these songs, and break SbS rules to revisit Lotte Lenya's presentation of the music of Kurt Weill.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Lost in the Harbour, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) Lost In The Stars, Lost In The Stars, Lotte Lenya / Kurt Weill (1943)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Miranda returns alongside Jo (not currently available on table-tops) to talk about parody and joy in this Waits track as well as it's 1992 demo version. We dig into a discussion of the entertainment industry, images of American exceptionalism, and the presence/absence of women in music.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Table Top Joe, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) Table Top Joe, The Alice Demos, Tom Waits (1992 - unreleased) Wrote My Way Out, The Hamilton Mixtape, Lin-Manuel Miranda / Naz / Dave East / Aloe Blacc (2016)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As Waits takes a left-turn into a very different story from the 19th century, we're joined by Miranda Horvath and Jo Lewis to take a look at some of the gender politics in the tale of Edward Mordrake, and how nostalgia/fear/obsession are represented in this week's tracks.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Poor Edward, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) All Of My Mates Are Owls, from Imaginary Advice podcast 39 "I Heart 1984", Ross Sutherland (2017)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Waits mangles both minds and the German language, as translation expert Justine Houyaux rejoins Sam and Martin for this call to punctuality. We explore linguistic alterations in other directions, as well as the image of madness and the ways that meaning is projected onto misheard or uncomprehended language.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Kommienezuspadt, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) Prisencolinensinainciusol, Super Best, Adriano Celentano (1992/1974)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Our third week with Ashleyanne sees our hosts expressing some differing opinions on both the Waits and interval tracks. Portrait of bleak mortality or optimistic reach for freedom? Upbeat flirty plan for adventure or bloodless cover? All opinions are valid, except for the ones which are definitely wrong...
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: No One Knows I'm Gone, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) Cups, Cold Water, Lulu & The Lampshades (2011)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
There's some examination of the value and impact of this song, as Ashleyanne discusses the prettiness and depth of music with Martin and Sam. We talk about the context of the play, as well as the presence of hope and optimism in music with a fatalistic attitude.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Flower's Grave, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) Flowers On My Grave, Aunt Ma Kwacha, Smokey Haangala (1976)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Producer and DJ Ashleyanne Krigbaum joins Sam & Martin for the worst lullaby in the world, as Waits aggressively welcomes us into the body of the album. We discuss the sonic tone of this track, the use of sound effects, and the meaning of Dreamlands for Waits, Carroll and others.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Everything You Can Think, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) Dreamland, Studio One Women, Della Humphrey (1972/2005)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Carrollian scholar Justine Houyaux rejoins Sam & Martin to look at the eponymous opening track for our 19th season, Alice. We chat about the sorrow and violence in the song, the lyrical density and the overlap between the writing of Waits and Carroll, as well as other adaptations of the Alice stories.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Alice, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) Clips from Alice (Neco z Alenky), dir. Jan Svankmajer (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Before embarking on our Alice season, we thought a little context on the books, the play, and the biography of the major players would be relevant (for us as well as you, dear listener). So we welcome Carrolian scholar Justine Houyaux to talk about the writing of Charles Dodgeson, his friendship with Alice Liddell, and the adaptation by Robert Wilson, Paul Schmidt, Kathleen Brennan and... who's the other guy?
Many thanks to Hannah McGregor and Amanda Lastoria for helping set up this episode.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: There's Only Alice, The Alice Demos, Tom Waits (1992 - unreleased) Untitled (Barcarolle), The Alice Demos, Tom Waits (1992 - unreleased)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
It's the silly-fun one folks! For perhaps the biggest blockbuster movie in the Waits filmography, Sam & Martin welcome Desiree Burch to get nostalgic(ish) for the 90s in this gigantic neon superhero comedy mashup. With a few frustrations and no small amount of delight, we talk about juggling the ensemble cast, how it relates to the cast and superhero films... but basically, you should give this one a look, it's a lot of fun.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from Mystery Men, dir. Kinka Usher (1999)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
For this challenging film, Martin and Sam call on the Kiefer Sutherland of Song by Song, Philippa Spanos, to tackle this 3hr epic and possibly save her daughter and the president along the way. We grapple with both the shortcomings and the charm of this behemoth, and end up finding lots to like... although possibly not much from Waits himself.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from At Play In The Fields Of The Lord, dir. Hector Babenco (1991)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Matthew Crosby returns for another film episode, this time with at least 80% more emeralds-hidden-in-a-horse. We discuss some of the big performance choices and tonal frustrations in this mostly-forgotten 80s comedy, and assess Waits's work as an actor in perhaps his biggest film role.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from Cold Feet, dir. Robert Dornhelm (1989)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We're joined by Helen O'Hara (host of the Empire Film Podcast and author of 'Women vs Hollywood') to discuss the down-and-out misadventures of Streep, Nicholson, Waits & co in this 1987 box-office flop.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from Ironweed, dir. Hector Babenco (1987)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Our second Gatmo megamix features a selection of tracks from 2007's Sideshow Seance and 2012's Thirsty? (don't forget that question-mark now), with some more positive feelings from Martin and Sam, some musings on how 'seriously' these recordings are being taken, and the visible and invisible work that goes into an artist's creative output.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Augminished Returns, Sideshow Seance, Gatmo/Waits et al (2007) Winged Audition, Sideshow Seance, Gatmo/Waits et al (2007) J.B.'s Choir, Sideshow Seance, Gatmo/Waits et al (2007) Laz Is Late, Thirsty?, Gatmo/Waits et al (2012) Crow's Landing, Thirsty?, Gatmo/Waits et al (2012) Waterphone Moan, Thirsty?, Gatmo/Waits et al (2012) My Clap Cuppeth Over, Thirsty?, Gatmo/Waits et al (2012)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Martin and Sam convene for the first of two episodes listening to a set of improvised albums, recorded between 1992 and 2012. This week we're digging into a selection of 7 tracks from Moanin' Parade and Swarm Warnings, both released in 2000, with some fairly mixed opinions from both hosts on the quality as well as the listen-ability of the music. We also do that thing where we introduce each track separately and bump up our "episode" count significantly. I'm amazed you're still listening to be honest, we're utterly unbearable.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: I'm Big In Japan, Moanin' Parade, Gatmo/Waits et al (2000) Variations Europa/Hurling Indecencies, Moanin' Parade, Gatmo/Waits et al (2000) White Rabbit's Lament, Moanin' Parade, Gatmo/Waits et al (2000) Mudhump, Swarm Warnings, Gatmo/Waits et al (2000) You See Her Eyes, Swarm Warnings, Gatmo/Waits et al (2000) In Your Underwear, Swarm Warnings, Gatmo/Waits et al (2000) Getoutoftown, Swarm Warnings, Gatmo/Waits et al (2000)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Sam and Martin return for a bonus episode and a bonus track, as Waits collaborates for the first time with his son on this short explosion of music from the special edition of Mule Variations. We also look back at our feelings on this fin de siècle album, consider the positives and the negatives and try to put them in their proper perspective.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Big Face Money, Mule Variations (Australian/New Zealand/Japanese bonus track), Tom Waits & Casey Waits (1999)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We're a bit mixed on this final Mule Variations track, with Shelley questioning whether Waits completely captures the gospel sound and energy. We compare it with older revivalist music, talk about the earthly imagery in songs about the afterlife, and discuss the presence of onanism in the work of Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Come On Up To The House, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) This Train, The Authorised Sister Rosetta Tharpe Collection (recorded live in Manchester, UK), Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1963)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
After a week away, Shelley Maxwell returns to celebrate this emotionally affecting track with Martin and Sam, one that seems to hit both the personal and the universal. We dig into the specifics of the lyrics, the memories linked to physical sensation and activity, and different ways "end of life" songs can be heard.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Take It With Me, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Two Slow Dancers, Be the Cowboy, Mitski (2018)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Helen Rosner returns after a week away for one more episode with Song by Song. She brings her culinary expertise to the party, explaining for Martin & Sam (and the audience) some of the gastronomic details Waits is bringing in this Bone-Machine-era rework. We discuss the musical and geographical locators in the song, and contrast this American perspective on the Philippines with a 1990s opposite.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Filipino Box Spring Hog, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Not All The World Is America, Smokey Mountain, Smokey Mountain (1990)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Shelley Maxwell joins Martin and Sam to discuss the haunting and brutal true story of Georgia Lee Moses, and Waits's description of circumstances surrounding her death.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Georgia Lee, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Is Waits talking about confectionary, Christianity or something else in this week's track? Helen Rosner returns to discuss her perspectives on all sides of the equation with Sam & Martin, along with communion wafer recipes, Brazilian religious statuary, and exactly how one goes about eating a saviour.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Chocolate Jesus, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Christo Redemptor, Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's South Side Band, Charlie Musselwhite (1967)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Food writer and Tom Waits fan Helen Rosner joins Martin and Sam to curate her end-of-life mixtape, as well as interrogate the central message of this tender and minimal love song.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Picture in a Frame, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, First Take, Roberta Flack (1969)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As Tom Waits explores his frustrations around the business of music/entertainment, Amrita shares some of her own experiences with Martin and Sam. We discuss the managerial perspective of the song, how that compares to Wait's own position in the industry, and the different strategies The Ting Tings use to express similar sentiments.
Note: Sam refers to Eddie Campbell as Australian; he is actually Scottish and just lived in Australia for a number of years.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Eyeball Kid, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) That's Not My Name, We Started Nothing, The Ting Tings (2008)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Images of illicit women blur with dangerous spousal descriptions, as Amrita rejoins Sam and Martin for a second Mule Variation. The value of heartbreak in the production of art, the prevalence of the male gaze in popular music, and feline solutions to romantic difficulties all feature in our discussion this week.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Black Market Baby, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Undercover, Music for People in Trouble, Susanne Sundfør (2017)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Actress Amrita Acharya joins Martin and Sam to kick off the new year with voyeurism and construction in this creepy Mule Variations classic. We chat about musical intention, whether Sam is funky (spoilers; he's not), and images of neighbourhood in 1970s America.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: What's He Building?, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) We Are Neighbours, (For God's Sake) Give More Power to the People, The Chi-Lites (1971)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A brief seasonal diversion into listener mail sees Martin and Sam discussing Elton John, winters in South London, and of course the second SbS appearance of Australian spin-bowler Mike Whitney . Nothing says Christmas like Mike Whitney. Happy Holidays all - we'll see you in 2021 for the second half of Mule Variations!
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Big In Japan, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Innocent When You Dream (Barroom), Frank's Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Martin and Sam fly solo this week, discussing Waits reaching back to his hyperbolic storytelling style of the 70s, how mixing draws the eye and ear to certain elements of film and music, as well as the mechanics of equine taxonomy.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Pony, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?, Chocolate And Cheese, Ween (1994)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Waits returns to stories of wandering America with a chainsaw guitar and a towel in this sleeper hit from Mule Variations. Justin, Sam and Martin discuss the revivalist gospel sound, the image of water in this and other music, and take an extended diversion into possible Tom Waits/Guillermo del Toro collaborations.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Cold Water, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Water Me Down, Vagabon, Vagabon (2019)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Justin returns to discuss the nature of abandonment and housing with Martin and Sam, as well as our feelings about Waits's sentimental tone. We dig into Kathleen's involvement in the composition, his vocal quality, and then get massively side-tracked by the recording history of the deepest man in showbiz.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: House Where Nobody Lives, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) This Ole House, single, Rosemary Clooney (1954)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
The breadth and intimacy of Waits's writing is highlighted by our new guest host, director Justin Audibert, who joins Martin and Sam for this quasi-title track from Mule Variations. We discuss the emotional expression of singing through popular music, how Waits paints a portrait of America with specifics and generalities, and yodelling. Lots on yodelling. You didn't ask for this, but you're getting it. Yodelling. You're welcome.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Get Behind The Mule, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Blue Yodel No. 8 (Mule Skinner Blues), Jimmie Rodgers (1930)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Waits returns to the vignette form (at least by Sam's estimation) in this sentimental track that (in Martin's estimation) doesn't manage to hit on all levels. The value of sentiment, the origins of songwriting and the "truthfulness" of expression in music writing, and the ever-present question of authenticity all feature in this third conversation with Chad Clark.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Hold On, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Fast Car, Tracy Chapman, Tracy Chapman (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Chad Clark rejoins Sam & Martin to discuss the second track of Mule Variations... or is it just a retread of the first? We pick apart the synthesis of old/new Waits, alongside more modern music fusions.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Lowside of the Road, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Old Town Road, 7 EP, Lil Was X (2019)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We return and begin again, this time with Chad Clark of Beauty Pill joining Martin and Sam for the first track of 1999’s Mule Variations. We discuss Chad’s perspective on music label relationships, the production choices and where the album sits at the end of the 20th century, plus how Waits relates to the energy of punk music.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Big In Japan, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Making Plans For Bison, Pretty Little Baka Guy, Shonen Knife (1986) Do You Like Me, Red Medicine, Fugazi (1995)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A couple of weeks out from the return of Song by Song to your podcatcher, here's a little preview of some of the conversations we've already recorded.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Big In Japan, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Chocolate Jesus, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Martin and Sam conclude the Early Years with a slight shrug towards this Closing Time demo, albeit with some sadness and mixed feelings. Looking back on both albums, we consider what they illuminate in Waits’s writing, and how the Early Years songs may inform the coming phase of his career.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Old Shoes, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Waits taps his inner animal (or two) as Martin Seagull-perches and Sam Puppy-scampers through this penultimate track from The Early Years. And, as a bonus, we take the space to listen to a trio of intervals speaking directly from an animal’s perspective. Spoilers; we go a bit long talking about the Virtute cycle, so make sure you give those songs a listen.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: So It Goes, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993)Plea from a Cat Named Virtute, Reconstruction Site, The Weakerthans (2003) Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure, Reunion Tour, The Weakerthans (2007) Virtute at Rest, Winter Wheat, John K. Samson (2016)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Dan's working on a crush this week (apologies Sarah), as we dig into crunchy chords, excited grunts and more examples on the piano in this plea by Waits to a wandering love. Personal and instrumental yearning, the interplay between flaws and personality, as well as the shift from "And I" to "But You're" in the lyrics all get some vigorous debate.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Please Call Me, Baby, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993) Walking In The Rain, Be My Baby: The Very Best of the Ronettes, The Ronettes (1964/2011)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A knee-slappingly good episode with Dan and Sarah, as we return to Waits's love of the beat poets in this sung demo of his spoken-word track from The Heart of Saturday Night. Again we discuss choices and changes as Waits moves from demo to studio, the intimacy that is gained and lost with speaking and singing, and ideas around performance and interpretation.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Diamonds on My Windshield, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993) The Green Automobile, Holy Soul Jelly Roll vol 1, Allen Ginsberg (1994)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Actor/musicians and vocal coaches Sarah Mahony and Dan De Cruz join Martin and Sam for some fruit-based imagery, a little demo/studio comparison, and some proper musical illustration courtesy of a guest with real musical facility. Also, 250 episodes, woo!
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Grapefruit Moon, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993) Pink Moon, Pink Moon, Nick Drake (1972)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Still no pirate-clown voice for Jeremy and Elizabeth, as Song by Song revisits this most sea-faring of Waits songs. We discuss its eulogistic tone, Waits's other oceanic music, as well as comparisons to a very different style of singing.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Shiver Me Timbers, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993) Poor Wandering One, The Pirates of Penzance, Linda Ronstadt/Gilbert & Sullivan (1981)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Elizabeth and Jeremy return for this gentle pastoral sketch of Waits's desire for another, and discuss the universality of this wanting sentiment, traditional masculine presentations of desire in music, and the irresistible rise of girl-power.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: I Want You, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993) Wannabe, Spice, The Spice Girls (1996)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Together again for the first time, Elizabeth Sankey and Jeremy Warmsley (aka Summer Camp) visit Martin and Sam for a discussion over demo-to-final-version transitions, the process of choosing tunes and harmonies, and of course… clown-pirates.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Nobody, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993) Love of My Life - Electronic Demo, single b-side, Summer Camp (2020) Love of My Life, Romantic Comedy, Summer Camp (2020)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A second week with Charlie brings his brief SbS return to a close, as we revisit this excellent demo version of Blue Skies. We broadly acknowledge our love of the simple 1971 version, before digging into Solange's 2016 image of Cranes in the Sky, and the beautiful complexities of that song’s structure.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Blue Skies, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993) Cranes in the Sky, A Seat at the Table, Solange (2016)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Charlie Harding of Switched On Pop returns to Song by Song to discuss this interstitial about between-moments-romance. What this love is, who it's directed towards and what that might mean is up for debate, and Charlie, Sam & Martin discuss the differences between ideas of middle/averageness on either side of the Atlantic.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: In Between Love, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993) Inbetweener, Smart, Sleeper (1995)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
It's a bit of a downer this week, as Nick, Sam & Martin get together to talk about at least one hosts' least-favourite Tom Waits song so far. We have a discussion about the success and failure of simplicity in music, as well as some of the complex history of the 1960s calypso hit Yellow Bird.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Mockin' Bird, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993) Mockin Bird, Step Right Up - Waits Tribute, Tindersticks (2004) Yellow Bird, Cherokeely Swings, Keely Smith (1962)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Nick returns for a second week’s chat with Sam and Martin about classic cars (and their parking logistics), the evolution of Ol’ 55 (from Early Years to Closing Time to The Eagles), as well as the role of the car in rock and roll (as well as American culture in general). Note: Sam refers to a car advert using the Joplin song as Porsche, when it's actually BMW - video on the website.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Ol' 55, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993) Mercedes Benz, Pearl, Janis Joplin (1971)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
For the first track from this second half of our 2-volume Early Years season, Martin and Sam are joined by Nick White from KCRW's Lost Notes to talk about this laid-back version of a Closing Time classic, including comparison to the early work of an icon of punk.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Hope I Don't Fall in Love with You, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993) Love Comes In Spurts, Spurts: The Richard Hell Story, The Neon Boys (1973/2005)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
For the last episode of our 2020 film mini-season, we welcome back Helen Zaltzman and Jenny Owen Youngs (of The Allusionist, Buffering The Vampire Slayer, and Veronica Mars Investigates) for a somewhat contentious discussion of this vampire-staple retelling. With some strong feelings and heavy levels of confusion, as well as a solo outing by Sam as guy-who-can-find-a-positive-in-almost-anything, Song by Song… well, we kind of get this one out of the way. Sorry to all the big fans, we did our best to find a balanced response, it just wasn't loved OK WHAT'S NEXT?
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from Dracula, dir. Francis Ford Coppola (1992)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
For our second Stripped Media crossover, Martin & Sam are joined by Helen Sadler & Kobi Omenaka for the Song-by-Song-by-Flixwatcher podcast, and take a look at the (at time of recording) available-on-Netflix-film Seven Psychopaths. With as many tangents in our conversation as there are in the film itself, lots of positive thoughts about a film all four hosts feel is fundamentally flawed, and with a very respectable Flixwatcher-patented-scoring-system-score, we end up with a varied but engaged response to the movie. Check out flixwatcher.tv for more Netflix-based movie reviews.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from Seven Psychopaths, dir. Martin McDonagh (2012) Misty Eyes, MightyPeople, via Soundcloud & courtesy of Flixwatcher (2014)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
The first of our Stripped Media film crossovers finds Sam Clements & Louise Owen of the 90 Minute Or Less Film Festival joining regular SbS hosts Sam & Martin for the only Tom Waits film short enough for us to both discuss. With some mixed feelings about the effectiveness of the film, albeit with general enthusiasm for specific elements, we debate some of the details of this debut film by Dukić and try to trace the reasons for some of its shortcomings.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from Wristcutters: A Love Story, dir. Goran Dukić (2006)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Casual enthusiasts Martin & Sam are joined by a genuine expert, NYT film journalist Amy Nicholson, to take a look at Waits's contribution to a massive 3-hour epic over overlapping narratives, Robert Altman's Short Cuts. We debate depictions of misogyny and family disfunction, the loyalty of the performers to Altman and many other questions that surround this interlocking set of stories.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from Short Cuts, dir. Robert Altman (1993)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A final episode for this first volume of demos sees Martin and Sam mulling the stylistic choices and tone Waits is aiming for, his choice of instrument going forward, and how the material on Early Years vol 1 strikes us nearly 5 decades years after its recording.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: So Long I'll See Ya, The Early Years vol 1, Tom Waits (1991)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Simplicity abounds, and seems to succeed - perhaps despite the title - as Jess, Martin and Sam dig into a sweet song with a crude punchline. The origins of the title's phrase, the sentiment of leaving as embodied in the country music tradition, and the shift that time and irony creates in music from 20-50 years ago all feature in this week’s discussion.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Looks Like I'm Up Shit Creek Again, The Early Years vol 1, Tom Waits (1991) Are You Leaving For The Country, In My Own Time, Karen Dalton (1971)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Jess Abbott returns for some slightly contentious debate with Sam & Martin around the “bros before hags” sentiment of this song. With some strong language in our interval track and the associated sentiments between children and parents, we talk about family and the ways they interact once children have grown up.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Frank's Song, The Early Years vol 1, Tom Waits (1991) Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole, Martha Wainwright, Martha Wainwright (2005)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Martin & Sam welcome our guest host Jess Abbott to not only discuss this little trip, but also to provide our interval track, as we discuss another Waits demo-to-studio song in relation to Jess's own (re)writing process.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Little Trip To Heaven, The Early Years vol 1, Tom Waits (1991) Clipping, Nightstand, Tancred (2018) Clipping, demo, courtesy of Jess Abbott (2018)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Our third episode with Michael, Sam & Martin brings us to a slightly less-excited point in the evolution of Waits's writing. We have a chat about what works for a live audience, what survives well on a recording, and the process of working through bad ideas to get to the gems.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: When You Ain't Got Nobody, The Early Years vol 1, Tom Waits (1991) Just a Gigolo, Kicks, Elisa JO (2020)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A sleepy week sees Michael, Sam & Martin brushing their teeth, getting in their pyjamas and heading off to bed. All three of us are struck by the strength of this Early Years version/demo, particularly the arrangement, and how it compares to other brilliant nap-time classics.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Midnight Lullaby, The Early Years vol 1, Tom Waits (1991) Mr Sandman, single, The Chordettes (1954)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Guest host Michael Caines joins Martin & Sam for another early version of a Closing Time track, as Waits wanders through Hollywood (or San Diego?) (or Reno?!?) slightly the worse for wear, as Song by Song has a think about how artists reinterpret their own songs.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Virginia Ave., The Early Years vol 1, Tom Waits (1991) This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us, Plagiarism, Sparks feat. Faith No More (1997)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
This week's sees Sam & Martin at odds and Alice forced to mediate over this country-style song about boredom and ageing. Returning to Waits's 70s writing brings us back to a discussion of appropriation, as well as unique voices and their contribution to songs' meaning and tone.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Rockin' Chair, The Early Years vol 1, Tom Waits (1991) September Song, The Collection, Eartha Kitt (2002/195?)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Alice returns for our first demo-to-studio jump, as Waits either trades frozen treats for hot lovin', or just embarks on a peripatetic dairy-based romance. Song endings, the interpretation between demos and final versions, as well as the nature of demos and producers/production in general all get consideration.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Ice Cream Man, The Early Years vol 1, Tom Waits (1991) Hit The Road Jack, demo, Percy Mayfield (1960)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Alice Fraser of The Bugle and The Last Post joins Martin and Sam to take a look at Waits's geocached conquest spreadsheet and the blue consequences thereof. The sexual politics of "having" and "virginity" gets serious consideration, as well as more discussion of the survivability of material outside the live venue.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Had Me a Girl, The Early Years vol 1, Tom Waits (1991) Like A Virgin, Like A Virgin, Madonna (1984)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Is this a tender song, a wry observation about the music industry, or a badly-placed bit of bawdy humour? Helen & Amy rejoin Martin & Sam to listen to a Tom Waits track that may have killed at the Troubadour, but does not seem to land on the album. And then it all kicks off over poor, poor Billy Joel. He never asked for any of this…
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: I'm Your Late Night Evening Prostitute, The Early Years vol 1, Tom Waits (1991) Piano Man, Piano Man, Billy Joel (1973)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A second week with Amy and Helen sees everyone feeling that the work is slighter and possibly understanding why this track didn't make the jump onto a studio recording. Our guests discuss with Martin and Sam ideas of cliche and originality, the process of developing as a songwriter as well as some of the relationship politics that Gladys Knight navigates in her 1973 hit.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Poncho's Lament, The Early Years vol 1, Tom Waits (1991) Midnight Train To Georgia, Imagination, Gladys Knight & The Pips (1973)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Helen Zaltzman returns, along with new guest host Amy Smith, to join Sam & Martin for season 16 of Song by Song. We take a trip back to Waits's earliest writing from 1971 in this album of demos and unreleased tracks, discussing the temporal and osteopathic implications of a slow night with Tom, the tone he's aiming for at this early stage in his career, and bouncy ball music.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Goin' Down Slow, The Early Years vol 1, Tom Waits (1991) Hearbeats, Deep Cuts, The Knife (2003)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A quick preamble to season sixteen, as Martin and Sam prepare to go back to Waits's earliest demos, as well as a bunch of new songs from the early 70s.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Ice Cream Man, The Early Years vol 1, Tom Waits (1991)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Happy New Year! It’s 2020 and that means Song by Song is taking the opportunity to delve into some of the listener mail we've received over the last year or so. Check out the show notes below for more links and details of the songs discussed.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: News From The Duke from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990) Town With No Cheer, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) The Black Rider, Black Letter Days, Frank Black & The Catholics (2002) Soldier's Things, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Our final discussion around The Black Rider continues from last week, as Martin and Sam get Burroughs quotes wrong (“Do what you will, that is the whole of the law” obviously being an Alistair Crowley quote, you idiot Sam, how did you miss that?!?), talk about the problematic autobiographical elements of the story, and what the lack of subtlety in this play means. Thanks for sticking with us through this very complicated season 15, and we’ll be back in the New Year with some... more accessible music.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: The Black Rider, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Sam and Martin dig into the four tracks that only appear in The Black Rider play, trying to decide why they weren’t featured on the Waits album. With some mixed feelings about the quality of the songs overall, and a little discussion about the language used by Waits and Burroughs (both in English and German), we start a conversation that will continue next week with a final summing up of both the play and the album.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: But He’s Not Wilhelm (@12m43s) from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990) Chase The Clouds Away (@48m47s & 54m30s) from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990) In The Morning (@1h6m10s) from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990) News From The Duke (@1h10m50s) from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A third week with David & Callum brings Sam & Martin to the end of The Black Rider album, although we reach back to much earlier in the play. Ideas of carnival celebrations in a British context are compared to the American funfair/freakshow image, and we take a bit of time to think about the ideology of the play and album in general.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Carnival, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) Good Morning, recorded on the drag during UK Panorama 2017, Endurance Steel Orchestra/Peter Ram (2017)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Moving into a coda of sorts (both in the album and the play) Callum, David, Sam & Martin discuss the way Waits winds down The Black Rider with this final “proper” song. With some full-blooded disagreement over comparison between the theatre and album versions, Song by Song edges towards the conclusion of this very complicated album.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: The Last Rose Of Summer, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) The Last Rose of Summer (and extra audience chat) (@2h0m11s) from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Theatre-maker David Shopland joins his collaborator and returning guest Callum Hughes (plus the usual goofs Martin & Sam) to listen to this climactic track from The Black Rider. We discuss fusion of Waits’s traditional mode of writing with the theatrical context, the nature of his writing throughout the album, as well as the writing of Belle&Sebastian. Stick with us to the end of the episode for a brief bonus performance...
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Lucky Day, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) My Wandering Days Are Over, Tigermilk, Belle & Sebastian (1996)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A fourth week with Penny Foxley sees her talk with Sam and Martin about more cacophonous instrumental music, this time with a vocal to put even Waits to shame.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Oily Night, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) khemchim, dalai beldiri, Yat-Kha (1999)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A short episode for the shortest of short tracks, as Penny, Martin and Sam discuss this 18sec Greg Cohen extract from the Black Rider score. Now with even less Tom Waits!
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Interlude, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Penny Foxley returns to give Martin & Sam some more context and detail for the Black Rider play from 2004. The cacophony of the music (and the evolution of that music), Marianne Faithfull’s tailcoat, and the raw energy of early-2000s girlband pop all feature in today’s discussion... sometimes slightly tangentially?
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Gospel Train, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) Overload, One Touch, Sugababes (2000)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Another Waits-does-Burroughs track this week, as we’re joined by stage manager and Black Rider alumnus Penny Foxley for some discussion of her first-hand experience working on the play. We talk through Robert Wilson’s micromanagement of actors’ gestures, the fun of doing the show compared to its bleak content, and the presence of the crossroads myth in the 1930s blues of Robert Johnson.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Crossroads, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) Cross Road Blues, King of the Delta Blues Singers, Robert Johnson (1937)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Waits returns to more directly narrative material through the lyrics of William Burroughs, as Jenny, Sam and Martin talk about vocal quality, musical dissonance, and the extraordinary musical stylings of Björk.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Flash Pan Hunter, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) Hunter, Homogenic, Björk (1997)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A second week with Jenny Conley-Drizos sees her talking with Sam and Martin about restraint, morbidity and violence in this crooner ballad. With some of Sam’s “Overworked Lyric Unpicking” (patent pending) and Martin’s Smooth Marble Egg theory of music, we have one of the most stereotypical episodes of Song by Song yet... sorry folks, we’re 100% on-brand this week.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: I'll Shoot The Moon, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) I'll Be Seeing You, Dreamy, Sarah Vaughan (1960)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
The mental gymnastics are in full force for this odd atonal instrumental, as Martin and Sam are joined by Jenny Conley-Drizos of the Decemberists to discuss the orchestral creation of “the essence of train”, Scott Johnson’s intense 80s editing strategies, and to list some instruments Sam has owned but never bothered to practice.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Gospel Train/Orchestra, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) John Somebody Part 1, John Somebody, Scott Johnson (1982)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
It's St. Petersburg or bust this week for Charlie, Martin & Sam, as Waits pulls out a shortcut to the traditional music of Russia (Soviet, Tzarist or otherwise) for this odd interstital moment in both the album and the play. I usually write something which vaguely describes the episode here, but really you should just stop reading, go to the website and watch every single Little Big video right now. k thx bye.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Russian Dance, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) Skibidi, Antipositive pt. 2, Little Big (2018)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Charlie Harding returns for this two-for-one special, listening to this twinned and linked pair of songs by Burroughs and Waits. With more talk of the endless foreshadowing as well as some comparisons to Shakespearian themes in pop music, Sam, Martin & Charlie think about the extra text for That’s The Way, the validity of biographical shout-outs, and the symbolism of neon shotguns.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: That's The Way, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) The Briar & The Rose, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Charlie Harding of Switched On Pop joins Sam and Martin for some discussion around this little instrumental interlude on The Black Rider. We begin with a brief exploration of leitmotif as related to lightsabers, and then move through Waits's more elegant compositional techniques, before landing on a bit of light bird identification. Many thanks to Charlie, as well as Suzy of The Casual Birder Podcast (casualbirderpod.libsyn.com), the hosts of Hannah & Erik Go Birding (www.gobirdingpodcast.com) and mash_ton of reddit for their input this week.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Flash Pan Hunter/Intro, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) Flash Pan Hunter/Intro (@55m33s) from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Text - transcribed from the 2004 Barbican version of text, spoken over the top of Flash Pan Hunter/Intro
The The The The The The The Angel The Angel of Death
The angel of death spreads wings on the blast. And breathed on the human worm has passed. There lies the hero broke and rank. The dew on his brow, the rust on his tank The Widows of Langley are long in their wail And the idols are broken in the temples at Yale. (breath) The might of the bored unspoke by the sword Has melted like snow with the glance of the bored. The wandering dead, like automatons, out of control are all but demands The work pyramid silently falling apart... no crops in the fields... no food in the stores... (shh) Bleak, ragged figures, wordless and starved Crawling through garbage, eyes covered with gore. Some regress to the state of apes, Roaming through cities to plunder and rape. The human mold has broken to pieces And all hell leaks out
OUT!
(breaths)
We’re sort of missing Waits this week, as William Burroughs covers this Edgars/Donaldson song from his childhood. Simon and David return for more discussion with Martin and Sam around authenticity (of voice, of writing, or of instrumental sound), the fusion of Waits and Burroughs’ writing, and the nature of wax art.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: 'Tain't No Sin, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
More mental gymnastics from David, Simon, Sam & Martin, as Song by Song grapples with not only defining the Black Box as a song, as well as a theatrical conceit. There’s some in-depth discussion of unusual instruments and their use in musical storytelling/signposting, comparison with other Robert Wilson collaborations, and we work our who that guy from Labyrinth is.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Black Box Theme, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) Knee Play 1, Einstein On The Beach, Phillip Glass/Christopher Knowles (1975/1979)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Playwright Simon Stephens and Composer David Shrubsole join Martin and Sam to talk about the influence of Kurt Weill, the nature of musical theatre and the origins of the story at the heart of The Black Rider. Looking at Porgy and Bess and the performance of Nina Simone in terms of themes of addiction, we touch on other autobiographical elements of the play, as well as the effect of poetic vs dramatic lyric writing.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Just The Right Bullets, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) I Loves You Porgy, Little Girl Blue, Nina Simone (1958)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As we try to unpick some of the interplay between the album The Black Rider and the play of the same name, Jeu Jeu la Foille, Martin & Sam reflect (pun intended) on the fatalistic imagery in the song, the foreshadowing of endings and beginnings, and the benefits of bonfire-building in awkward social situations.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: November, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) April Showers, Judy, Judy Garland (1956)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Guest host Jeu Jeu La Foille returns for a second week looking at the opening tracks from The Black Rider, discussing with Martin and Sam the presence and absence of Wilhelm and Käthchen in the play and the music, the mirror the play provides to Burroughs' own history, and how "beauty" and "ugliness" represent themselves through music and performance.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: The Black Rider, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) Pirate Jenny (English-language TV performance, via YouTube), The Threepenny Opera, Lotte Lenya/Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill (1928/1966)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Song by Song returns for its 15th season, digging into one of the densest and most involved albums in the whole project, The Black Rider. Guest host Jeu Jeu La Foille joins Sam and Martin to add her experience in use of Waits in theatrical performance as well as her own memories of the stage production, as we discuss the function of overtures & introductions, the interactions between ablism & empowerment, and how to properly discipline wayward children.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Lucky Day (Overture), The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) The Struwwelpeter Overture, Shockheaded Peter, The Tiger Lillies (1999)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We're just a week away from season 15, but The Black Rider needs a little contextual work from both us the podcast and you the listeners. Check the website for links to some of the material we'll be using to discuss the album as well as the play, collect your opera glasses and buy your popcorn, and we'll see you back here for the overture very shortly...
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Flash Pan Hunter/Intro, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) Black Box Theme, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Sam and Martin get together (on the same continent no less!) to talk through both this track specifically as well as the album Bone Machine in general. Discussing what That Feel might be - in terms of love, religion or friendship - as well as the evolution of Waits's music in general, Song by Song wraps up season 14 with a little musical flourish from our very own Mr Zaltz-Austwick.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: That Feel, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Ooh it's another little sound fragment track from Waits this week, as Scary, Martin and Sam explore the possibilities of a James Brown pun in this penultimate track from Bone Machine. With debate over seagulls vs. squeaking gears, various branding opportunities for the Godfather of Soul, and... and... and it's only 53 seconds long, so we just talk about some other stuff.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Let Me Get Up On It, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) (Get Up I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine, Sex Machine, James Brown (1970)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Scary, Martin & Sam return to Bone Machine for this Tom-Waits-Does-The-Ramones song about the frustrations of youth towards age. We take a look at ideas of inspiration, the evolution of punk in general and the Ramones specifically, and the value of our own childhood ambitions.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: I Don't Wanna Grow Up, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) I Wanna Be Sedated, Road To Ruin, The Ramones (1978)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We're at another anniversary, as guest host Scary Boots joins Sam & Martin for our bicentennial episode (muttermutter-onefromtheheart-mutter-nightonearth-muttermutter-whataboutthefilms-muttermutter) taking a look at this mournful ballad to locale and lost opportunity. Listening to the work of Tom Jans and thinking about what the dedication of a song means, we get a bit reflective about our own responses to music as an audience and a podcast.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Whistle Down the Wind, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) The Eyes Of An Only Child, The Eyes Of An Only Child, Tom Jans (1975)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Creepy supernatural vibes dominate the track this week, as Mary, Martin & Sam discuss the terrifying figure who stalks through this track, as well as Waits's own intimidating vocal performance. We discuss the presence (and restraint) of Joe Gore, the mystery of Dr John, and the League of Extraordinary Musical Gentlemen that we'll be pitching to Alan Moore very soon.
(Please note that this episode was recorded before the passing of Dr. John.)
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Black Wings, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Send His Love To Me, To Bring You My Love, PJ Harvey (1995)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Waits jumps on the salacious rumour-mill with this topical true-crime tale from... 1800s Suffolk. Maybe. Mary Epworth returns for a second week of conversation with Sam and Martin, discussing the truth and fiction around the real-life events that took place in the red barn, how Waits does or doesn't engage with this story, and issues surrounding vocal engagement and strain.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Murder in the Red Barn, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Murder of Maria Marten, No Roses, Shirley Collins & The Albion Country Band (1971)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Martin & Sam welcome Mary Epworth to the show, as Waits expresses his dream of heading (back?) to the coast to make it in the movies. With images of Hollywood by Waits in the wake of his experiences with Coppolla, as well as other west-coast imagery in our interval, Song by Song continues its journey through Bone Machine and beyond.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Goin' Out West, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) California Dreamin', If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears, The Mamas & The Papas (1966)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
For this bread-and-circus-iest (breadiest and circusiest?) of tracks, guest host Jenny Owen Youngs comes out strong for Waits and his political diatribe... while Sam and Martin are more equivocal.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: In the Colosseum, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Pretend We're Dead, Bricks Are Heavy, L7 (1992)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Amateur meteorologist and part-time Muppet Tom Waits takes another stab at bleak reportage in this song about loss and the threat to childhood. Jenny Owen Youngs returns for another discussion around Randy Newman, Django Reinhardt and our old friend the Smooth Marble Egg.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: A Little Rain, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) I Think It's Going To Rain Today, Randy Newman, Randy Newman (1968)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Our guest-host Jenny Owen Youngs (of the Buffering The Vampire Slayer podcast) joins us as Waits goes full-spiritual for this street-corner preacher scream. We chat about ironic or revolutionary attitudes to religion in LA and Scotland, some of our own religious experiences in music, and the role of coughing in exorcisms.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Jesus Gonna Be Here, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam, Enter The Vaselines, The Vaselines (1987/2009)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
For our third track with Eliza and Greg, we delve into a bleaker and more introspective world in Waits's atmospheric poem contemplating seaside suicide. Returning to his attitude to alcohol and growing up, we also take a look at a longer theatrical piece for comparison, via the work of Samuel Beckett.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: The Ocean Doesn't Want Me, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) A Piece Of Monologue, Sound For Spaces, Scanner/Robin Rimbaud/Samuel Beckett (1979/1998)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Greg and Eliza return to question Martin and Sam’s identity in this fifth track from Bone Machine, as Waits challenges an old lover, or maybe interrogates the music industry, or both? We make comparisons with a more even-handed musical picture of a breakup, and discuss how the song represents Waits and/or Brennan’s ideas of relationships.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Who Are You, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Somebody That I Used To Know, Making Mirrors, Gotye feat. Kimbra (2011)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As Song by Song progresses through Bone Machine, Sam & Martin welcome Eliza Rickman and Greg Alison for a conversation around the ambience of the album, both thematically as well as sonically. We discuss the overlap of religion and sexuality in this song, the presence of material things in this song as well as our interval artist Bessie Smith, and the antiquing opportunities around the Sebastopol, CA area.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: All Stripped Down, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out, The Best of Bessie Smith, Bessie Smith (1929)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A third week with guest hosts Vanessa & Kent brings Martin & Sam to Poetic Analysis 101 in this funhouse-mirror love song to Brennan. We talk about the depth of imagery that Waits employs, the vocal storytelling that he and our interval artist deploy, and Vanessa finally books that gig at Martin’s much-anticipated funeral!
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Such a Scream, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Acrobat, Half Way Home, Angel Olson (2012)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
More music chat (which is the goal, after all) with Kent, Vanessa, Martin & Sam, as Waits releases some of the tension established in the previous track with this weird breathy hymn to the end of life. With discussion of other weird vocal styles, a comparison between bleakness vs acceptance in death, plus an exciting bonus track featuring the resonant space inside Sam’s mouth, Song by Song continues it’s journey through Bone Machine.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Dirt in the Ground, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Satisfied Mind, For Pete's Sake, Pete Drake & His Talking Steel Guitar (1965/2005) Jockey Full of Bourbon, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits [feat. the inside of Sam's mouth] (1985/2019)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Hey there - how’s it going? Oh nothing much, you? Yeah, it has been a while, but you know how it goes. Hey, you want to talk about some new Tom Waits songs? Cool.
As we embark on our 14th season, Sam and Martin welcome Vanessa Lowe and Kent Sparling to talk through the quasi-religious eco-disaster anthem which opens Waits’s 1992 offering. We take a look at the contributors to this track and their relationship to Waits, the technical expertise both in this as well as the the work of Primus... plus Martin Austwick’s Tom Waits Secret Origin story, true believers!
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Earth Died Screaming, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Tommy The Cat, Sailing the Seas of Cheese, Primus (1991)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Martin & Sam welcome back friends of the show Simon Renshaw and Sam Clements to have a little chat about Coppola's jazz-odyssey The Cotton Club. There's some real difficulties for all four hosts with this one, although there are some standout scenes which seem to generate a little more enthusiasm; from the dancing of Gregory Hines, the crosscutting of dance-numbers and train stations, and the horse-drawing of Bob Hoskins.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: The Cotton Club trailer, via YouTube (dir. Coppola, 1984) Ill Wind, from the film The Cotton Club, Lonette McKee (1984)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Kevin Smokler rejoins Martin & Sam for another dip into a teen-drama Hinton/Coppola/Dillon collaboration, as Song by Song takes a look at 1983's Rumble Fish. There's some discussion about the acting styles of the Dillon/Rourke/Hopper family, the symbolism of elements like colour and sound (as well as the relationship between Rusty James and his brother), as well as the theatrical/dream-like quality of the film in general.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Rumble Fish trailer, via YouTube (dir. Coppola, 1983) Don't Box Me In, Rumble Fish OST, Stan Ridgway/Stewart Copeland (1983)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
To educate us all on the history of the Brat Pack, Sam & Martin welcome Kevin Smokler to take a look at Coppola's adaptation of S.E Hinton's coming of age novel, The Outsiders. While Kevin educates us as to the historical and social context of this story, we also debate the success of the scoring choices, try to chart Coppola's creative/commercial rise and fall, and get confused about fires in schoolhouses or churches.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: The Outsiders trailer, via YouTube (dir. Coppola, 1983) Stay Gold, The Complete Stevie Wonder, Stevie Wonder (1983/2005)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Back for a second week, Matthew Crosby joins Martin and Sam to take a look at Jim Jarmusch's 1989 multiple-narrative movie Mystery Train. While we're all full of love and excitement for the quirks and details of the film, there's some debate as to the strength of some of the acting performances, the narrative coherence, as well as whether it's Elvis or Carl Perkins.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Jockey Full of Bourbon, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Tango Til They're Sore, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Sam and Martin welcome friend of the show Matthew Crosby to dig into one of Waits's most sizeable film roles, the 1986 Jim Jarmusch classic Down By Law. Immediately proving their analytic credentials by remembering at least two of the main characters' names, Matthew, Sam and Martin discuss the acting strengths (and weaknesses…?) of the three protagonists, the improvisational elements in the scripting, as well as Jarmusch's ability and willingness to film actors listening.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Jockey Full of Bourbon, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Tango Til They're Sore, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Song by Song welcomes back Helen Zaltzman to talk through the film that launched a podcasting power-couple, Jim Jarmusch’s 1991 taxi-based anthology Night On Earth. With some mixed feelings about the various segments, along with overall admiration for the ambition of the piece, Helen, Martin & Sam pick through the emotional connections (or lack thereof) between the characters, the sense of space, time and tone found in the chapters, and the contribution of whichever random guy wrote the music.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Good Old World (Gypsy), Night On Earth, Tom Waits (1991)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
It’s back to the megamix format for the second Original Soundtrack of the Waits discography, as Martin and Sam spend a minute (or so) on each of the 16 tracks from his 1991 score to Jim Jarmusch’s film Night On Earth. This time with 100% less bell.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Night On Earth (album), Tom Waits (1991)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Lucky for some, season 13 brings us to another structural shift in the format of the podcast, as we take the opportunity to bounce off of the Night On Earth soundtrack into Waits's film appearances. Season 13 will continue to expand over the coming months and years as we add more films to this semi-complete catalogue, but for now look forward to the soundtrack, the film itself as well as a couple of other movie discussions through the beginning of 2019.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Good Old World (Gypsy), Night On Earth, Tom Waits (1991)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Happy New Year! 2019 brings Song by Song back to take another look through the listener mail we've received over the last year or so. Check out the show notes on the website for more links and details of the songs discussed.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Just Another Sucker On The Vine, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Having spent the last 28 episodes and 4 months looking at Big Time as a collection of songs, both on the album and in the concert film, Sam and Martin spend a little time thinking about both the film as an object in itself, and discuss the feel of this entire era of Waits's songwriting. We take a look at the interplay of ideology and narrative, the strengths and weaknesses of the reinterpretations of these songs, and ask the fundamental question of this era: How 'bout that band?
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Big Black Mariah, Big Time (film), Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Jeremy Warmsley returns for everyone's favourite, Tom Waits In A Bath. With discussion of the fusion of embodied and distanced performance, the post-modern nature of telling a story about stolen memories, and the slightly repetitious nature of the verses, we pick over the final track of Big Time.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Innocent When You Dream, Big Time (film), Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Lily Sloane returns to give a more nuanced and informed assessment of Waits's repression of feelings, as we revisit the heartbreak, loss and loneliness of this song. With some discussion of his singing technique as well as the lyrical changes, we head towards the final tracks of this extended season of Song by Song.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: More Than Rain, Big Time (film), Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Gabriel Ebulue of The Three Track Podcast is back for more explorations into the crazed narrative of this film, as Waits's breakdown is mirrored by the breakdown of the world of the film.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: I'll Take New York, Big Time (film), Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Song by Song's roaming poet Ross Sutherland (of the Imaginary Advice podcast) returns to discuss the umbrella-based rooftop iteration of this terrifying dream poem. Looking at some of the logistical and emotional elements of the recording, we also embark on a soup-based metaphor for the film as a whole. It's great guys, another totally coherent bit of musical analysis.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: 9th & Hennepin, Big Time (film), Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Martin and Sam welcome back Gabriel Ebulue of The Three Track podcast to take another look at the horrific wedding-singer persona expressed in this version of Straight To The Top. With cameos from other figures from the Tom Waits Players and theories about the cut-and-paste writing style in these songs, we take a fourth (and final) look at this tune.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Straight To The Top, Big Time (film), Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Taking a deep cut into Tom Waits's back catalogue, Sam and Martin discuss his beautiful reworking of the songs we all knew and grew to love as children. C'mon.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Old Favourites, Big Time (film), Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Back on the road with Tom Waits, Martin and Sam struggle with the sound effects breaking into the music, embrace the driving bass line in this live version and note how awful it is celebrating a birthday around actors.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Hang On St. Christopher, Big Time (film), Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Regular Big Time contributor Philippa Spanos returns for her third visit, laying out the physical space described by Waits in the next film-only version of Shore Leave. Back "in the studio", Sam and Martin talk about the scale and strength of Waits's voice in this track, as both a singer and a screamer.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Shore Leave, Big Time (film), Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As we dive into the first of the Big Time film-only tracks, Martin and Sam look at the imagery in the film as well as the looser feel of the lyrics in this later interpretation of the life of Frank O'Brien.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Frank's Wild Years, Big Time (film), Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As we reach the end of the album, Waits produces a great version of this quiet mournful tune, for once communicating the meaning and poetry of the lyrics in a clearer and more connected way.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Time, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Sam and Martin head into the final tracks of the Big Time album struggling with the energy of this version of Gun Street Girl, as well as questioning the purpose of a narrative song that seems to be uninterested in its own narrative.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Gun Street Girl, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Helen Zaltzman returns to take another listen to this track from Rain Dogs, now with 100% more terrifying childcatcher. More deprioritised lyrics here, and as Waits works more to enhance the sinister feel of the song, we discuss some of its limitations as a piece of writing.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clap Hands, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Having already cited it as a strong reinterpretation several times throughout this season, Martin and Sam celebrate this party version of Waits’s weird telephone call.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Telephone Call From Istanbul, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Returning from Heartattack & Vine, Vera Chok delivers her report for this live version of Ruby’s arms, angry at the recapitulation of the disconnected dismissive attitude Waits has towards Ruby. Meanwhile Martin struggles with the cognitive dissonance of critical analysis and Sam disses Ribot’s horn.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Ruby's Arms, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Cub reporter Philippa Spanos returns to revisit another Swordfishtrombones track, the tender ballad for his wife Kathleen, now with added concluding harmony! Back at the SbS ranch, Martin and Sam think about Waits's vocal shift upwards, theorise about Brennan's attitude to his sentimentality, and again consider the space between the performer and a silent (and attentive) live audience.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Johnsburg, Illinois, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Sam once again starts off an episode with an extended theory about the dramatic structure that lives between this song and the dumb story about conception-by-musket… if you'd like to skip this, please begin the episode at the two-minute mark. Meanwhile, Martin pulls things back to more mainstream discussion about Tom's weird flat hands. P.s the song is beautiful.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Train Song, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Slightly blown away by this reinterpretation of Waits's mid-80s classic, Martin and Sam join in by celebrating this eastern-Europe/klezmer dance number. We also take some more time to discuss sticking to or pulling away from the strict rhythm of the lyrics, and the shape and meaning of words vs the aesthetic of vocal sound.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Rain Dogs, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Our man-on-the-street Eric Molinsky returns to revisit Big Black Mariah, talking about lyric comprehension and the quality of Waits's voice in relation to bed frames and animated characters.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Big Black Mariah, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Helen Zaltzman returns for the second new track from Big Time, this time dealing with the dull mundanity of cloudy days. The Marianne Faithfull version and the klezmer style in this track are discussed, as well as other representations of weather through the work of Ann Peebles.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Strange Weather, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988) I Can't Stand The Rain, I Can't Stand The Rain, Ann Peebles (1973/1974)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
For the first of the two original tracks on Big Time, Sam and Martin welcome back friend/wife of the show Helen Zaltzman, for discussions ranging from how it affects breakfast time, similarities to the work of Michael Douglas, and the fundamental question as to why this studio track is included on a live album. We also debate the subject and object of the lyrics, and the tone of condemnation in this song as compared to Waits's earlier work.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Falling Down, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988) I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down, Get Happy, Elvis Costello & The Attractions (1980)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Episode 150! We made it! … if by "it", you mean a round number of episodes, and if by "we" you mean Sam, Martin and returning guest Lily Sloane. In this landmark episode we go back to talk about Way Down In The Hole for the 7th (8th?) and final time, discussing again question of the appropriation of black culture, the use of money in the language of Waits's preacher character, and Lily's random Tom Waits sightings.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Way Down In The Hole, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Live and in-person, Martin and Sam welcome back Helen Sadler to discuss the general feel of live albums vs studio equivalents, and the presentation of music to different audiences simultaneously.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Yesterday Is Here, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Looking back to the Rhumba version of this track from Franks Wild Years, Sam and Martin feel their way through an excellent version of a song that has little appeal for either of them. We also discuss some of the physicality of Waits's live performance, and how that informs the performance.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Straight To The Top, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Lacking a guest this episode, Martin and Sam debate similarities and differences between live and studio versions, including some of the musical effects of changing counts, back-singing of phrases, and how these techniques help reinterpret the songs of Fleetwood Mac.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Cold Cold Ground, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Philippa Spanos, our first guest from Swordfishtrombones, takes another look at Underground on Big Time, which seems to be her preferred upbeat bouncy party version. Back in the Song by Song bunker, Sam and Martin compare Disney animated corollaries, note the disparity of material and the similarity of tone on this live album, and how meaning is retained slightly better on this third track.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Underground, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
From her discussion with us back on Blue Valentine, we welcome back special correspondent Elizabeth Sankey to discuss the process of reinterpretation and translation of songs from studio-to-live settings. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Song by Song Towers, Martin and Sam talk about the textural shift in performances, more loss of meaning in the storytelling, as well as the brilliance of the Big Time band.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Red Shoes, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Roving reporter Jo Neary returns to Song by Song to revisit this track from Swordfishtrombones… and to apologise for her own presence. Meanwhile back in the studio Sam and Martin look at the similarities between this live performance and the original, the lack of priority given to the lyrics, and the shift in recording quality in this album.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: 16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Thanks for coming everyone - you all got a coffee, great, there's plenty more chairs up here at the front, don't be shy. Ok, welcome to Song by Song season twelve, Big Time album and film, parish notices first I think… As we embark on another (slightly) contracted season covering this 1988 live release, there are a few details to explain about how we're going about things this time around, so if you could all pay attention we'll get out of here nice and quick.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Opening of Big Time (movie), Tom Waits (1988) Jockey Full Of Bourbon, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
After seventeen tracks, we reach the end of Franks Wild Years with this scratchy demo-style version of Innocent When You Dream. We discuss the album as a whole, some of the recording techniques and the information that imparts, as well as the narrative of the show in relation to the drama of American identity as well as his own life. And Sam gets a bit emotional about 1980s Scottish cinema.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Innocent When You Dream (78), Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Sam and Martin return for the penultimate track of Franks Wild Years, to debate the refining of the Tom-Waits-Saying-Goodbye-And-Catching-A-Train song. We talk about the sense of conclusion to Frank's story (or stories), the departure and the collapse of the dream he's seeking throughout this album, and Waits reaching again for older traditions of songwriting.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Train Song, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) The Cold Icy Floor, Archive Recording, The Bogtrotter Band (1937)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Waits begins to step away from Frank and the relationship of the songs to the play, as Martin and Sam discuss the tense nature of the music on this album, the simplicity of this song compared to the arrangement of others on Franks Wild Years, and the political and social charge that land (and what lurks beneath) can have.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Cold Cold Ground, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) Down Under, Mining, Rivona, Dear Reader (2013)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Heading into the closing tracks of Franks Wild Years, Sam and Martin debate the change of locations in Waits's songwriting from this era, scrunchy chords in relation to atonality, and the relationship of intention & accident in art. Also, a small dog finding the World Cup.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Telephone Call From Istanbul, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) Istanbul (Not Constantinople), 16 Most Requested Songs, The Four Lads (1953)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Gabriel Ebulue returns for a second portion of Tom Waits doing his crazy lounge singer schtick. This week’s discussion includes atonal organ arrangements, the trajectory of depression in pop songs, and the lonely death of Frank O’Brien.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: I’ll Take New York, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) Here, Working For The Man, Tindersticks (2004)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Song by Song welcomes fellow music enthusiast Gabriel Ebulue from The Three Track Podcast to discuss the second version of this track, as it relates to Sinatra, Jaques Brel, and your crazy uncle at a wedding.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Straight To The Top (Vegas), Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) Jacky, Tenement Symphony, Marc Almond (1991)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We present (now in the correct context) our special episode with Kobi Omenaka, discussing the use of Way Down In The Hole in the opening credits of the TV show The Wire. Kobi and his co-host Dave Corkery have launched their new show The Wire Stripped, so conversation ranges from the musical styles and influences of the covers into the content of the seasons themselves, and how the credits music informs and echoes that content.
We'll be back to our regular schedule next week. In the meantime, be sure to check out The Wire Stripped on your podcatcher of choice.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Way Down In The Hole, Frank's Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) Way Down In The Hole, Spirit Of The Century, Blind Boys Of Alabama (2002) Way Down In The Hole, "...and all the pieces matter..." - The Music of The Wire, The Neville Brothers (2008) Way Down In The Hole, "...and all the pieces matter..." - The Music of The Wire, DoMaJe (2008) Way Down In The Hole, Washington Square Serenade, Steve Earle (2007)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Lily Sloane returns for one more Franks Wild Years track, debating Waits’s attitude towards religion, how the track relates to the rest of the album, and the presence of joy in music.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Way Down In The Hole, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) Oh Happy Day, The Best of the Edwin Hawkins Singers, The Edwin Hawkins Singers (1967/2001)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Existential crises galore, or just a really bad hangover, as Lily, Sam and Martin attempt to catch the bouquet of Waits's mournful gallic ditty. Accordion tuning, a keyboard called Leslie and a slightly unfair comparison to one of the great Jazz numbers of the 20th Century all feature this week on Song by Song.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: More Than Rain, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) Alabama, Live At Birdland, John Coltrane (1964)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Martin and Sam are joined by Lily Sloane of A Therapist Walks Into A Bar to discuss this side of the album's final track (as well as the first song from the play), and the images of dreams, hope, despair and fantasy that it evokes. Plus turnip-sales.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Franks Theme, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) Life In A Scotch Sittingroom #2 Episode 11, Jammy Smears, Ivor Cutler (1976)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
More dream talk with Helen, Sam and Martin, as Waits constructs an unsettled and dislocated musical world to capture the sense of space between waking and sleeping. We also discuss the impact of sound (and film) on big systems vs headphones, as well as terrifying clown music and the vocal brilliance of Mike Patton.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Please Wake Me Up, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) Carousel, Mr. Bungle, Mr. Bungle (1991)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Still picking apart the worlds of the album and the play, Helen, Sam and Martin delve into the tone created by Waits, as well as Paul McCartney, in their songs yearning for the past.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Yesterday Is Here, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) Yesterday, Help, The Beatles (1965)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Helen Sadler of the Flixwatcher podcast joins Martin and Sam to listen to Tom Waits's cock...rel. Some brief discussion of Waits as an actor, further debate around the danceability of Tom Waits songs and a celebration of the work of Kate Bush quickly devolves into Martin making bird noises. Sorry folks, business as usual ...
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: I’ll Be Gone, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) An Endless Sky Of Honey, Aerial, Kate Bush (2005)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Song by Song is back for one more episode with Jeremy Warmsley, as he, Sam and Martin take a look at one of Waits's classic songs from this album, the way his storytelling style relates to truth and lies/dreams, as well as some more esoteric music from Ralph Carney & co.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Innocent When You Dream (Barroom), Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) New York's Finest Dining Experience, Contents Dislodged During Shipment, Tin Huey (1979)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Hitting his groove (as well as the sideboard), Waits lifts into his falsetto for this warning against the evils of... alcohol? Women? Lack of faith? All three? Jeremy Warmsley returns for more discussion of music videos, sex, and identity in the 1980s.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Temptation, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) If I Was Your Girlfriend, Sign 'O' The Times, Prince (1987)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Jeremy Warmsley joins Sam and Martin to bloviate on Blow Wind Blow, a track which does not seem to connect easily with any of them. Picking the narrative apart, discussing some of the strengths (or frustrations) of the arrangement, and the importance of weather to Waits's writing all feature on this week's Song by Song.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Blow Wind Blow, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) I Want Wind to Blow, The Glow Pt. 2, The Microphones (2001)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Straight to one-down-from-the-top (track-listing-wise), Martin and Sam continue with more tortuous car similes, the divide between genuine celebration and the desperation for the same, and special guest-input from Google Translate.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Straight To The Top (Rhumba), Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) Rumba Azul, Rumba International!, Lecuona Cuban Boys (1935/2015)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Welcome back to Song by Song for this, our eleventh season, taking on the 1987 album Franks Wild Years. Sam and Martin begin again with some (brief) discussion of its theatrical context, as well as the strange mechanised wanderlust of this track as compared to previous Waits songs and the early-20th Century work of Woodie Guthrie.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Hang On St. Christopher, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) Hard Travelin', The Asch Recordings vol. 3, Woodie Guthrie (1940s/1999)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As Martin and Sam continue preparations for season eleven, Franks Wild Years, we take a long-overdue dive into the mailbag to justify the endless trails of email/twitter/facebook in *every single episode*! With comments, corrections, additions and rock-climbing videos going all the way back to our first series, Song by Song revisits some old ideas and older jokes.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Rosie, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Warm Beer And Cold Women, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975) Fyn Er Fin, Fyn Er Fin, Lasse & Mathilde (1995) Pasties and a G-String (At the Two O'Clock Club), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) I Beg Your Pardon, One From the Heart Original Soundtrack, Tom Waits/Crystal Gale (1982) Take Me Home, One From the Heart Original Soundtrack, Tom Waits/Crystal Gale (1982) Frank's Wild Years, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Swordfishtrombone, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Trouble's Braids, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Cemetery Polka, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Take Me Home, One From The Heart (outtake), Tom Waits (1982)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Lyrics - Fyn Er Fin (as provided by listener Mats Ahlin (Note: Fyn is one of the Danish islands):
You can think it's a good sight To look at the scenery in Midtfyn When a groomed hooked road "Stand down and there" No a " Is there a troll with witch shudder? And princesses with sexy skin And they dance wild at night However, they protect the magic tax Fyn is nice, Fyn is nice, Fyn is nice.
You can think it's a good sight When you are a bye and you have seen Funen Beautiful houses ... island bukke shower Thy protest singer and a horse contender Between Store and Lillebælt We have a crown with circus tents And we sing and drink at night We will give you if you want to take it Fyn is nice, Fyn is nice, Fyn is nice.
To all of you who have only seen Funen And never been to Midtfyn itself You must know, you must suffer And are you blinded with sadness in the mind And do not know a farm Then you will be healed in Lundeborg Because there you sing gently at night An anthem just like people want it Fyn is nice, Fyn is nice, Fyn is nice.
Fyn is nice, Fyn is nice, Fyn is nice Fyn is nice, Fyn is nice, Fyn is NICE.
For this final track of Rain Dogs, Sam and Martin regroup to look at the shape of this album as a whole, how this song relates to Waits's personal situation circa 1985, and pay tribute to one of his great collaborators.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Anywhere I Lay My Head, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) BoJacks Theme, BoJack Horseman (Music from the Netflix Original Series), Patrick Carney/Ralph Carney (2017)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We're rounding the corner and heading into the final tracks of Rain Dogs, but Waits isn't done with us yet as he deploys another odd instrumental groove (or two) to remind us of the strange spine of this album.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Bride of Rain Dog, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Gevurah, Bar Kokhba, John Zorn (1996)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A visit to the hit-factory this week as Waits produces one of his most commercial and accessible tracks to date, picked over and compared to the documentaries of the 1930s by Heath and Robert Sledge (plus the usual two goons).
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Downtown Train, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Night Mail, Poem from GPO Film Unit documentary “Night Mail”, W.H. Auden/Benjamin Britten (1936)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
For more Criminal activities, Lauren Spohrer and Phoebe Judge reunite with Martin and Sam for some prison-lingo dissection, attitudes towards vocal stylings and the archetypal biblical perp walk.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Walking Spanish, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Black Steel, Maxinquaye, Tricky (1995)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Our third set of rotating hosts, Robert and Heath Sledge, join Martin and Sam for another weird off-shoot of Rain Dogs, in the form of a little country number.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Blind Love, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) I Just Want To See His Face, Exile On Main Street, The Rolling Stones (1972)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Ross Sutherland of Imaginary Advice returns to shuffle his shoulders along to this latest direction-specific Waits track, discussing some more exotic elements of the subcultures of NY, the pace vs the momentum of songs, and Martin's endless yearning for the lindy-hop.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Union Square, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) I'm Waiting For The Man, The Velvet Underground and Nico, The Velvet Underground (1967)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Phoebe and Lauren return to discuss some more Criminal-related music this week, as Waits seems to further abandon the New York core of Rain Dogs for a more southern blues/chain gang feel, wandering into the world of the murder ballad.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Gun Street Girl, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Stack O’Lee, American Epic: Mississippi John Hurt, Mississippi John Hurt (1928/2017)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
The Rain Dogs Shuffle begins in earnest as Ross Sutherland joins Martin and Sam to discuss the poetic stylings of 9th & Hennepin. The spontaneity of performance in songs and poetry, as well as the nature of social interaction on public transport feature in the conversation, along with the perspectives of writers on the internal and external lives of their subjects.
Please note that the text of the Berman poems can be found in the YouTube description linked at the website.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: 9th & Hennepin, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) "Governors On Sominex" & "My Life at Home During Banking Hours", Actual Air, David Berman (1999)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Sam and Martin are joined by Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer of the podcast Criminal to discuss the challenges associated with improvisational Jazz music, the James Bond franchise and dream sequences, as they relate to the work of George Gershwin and this brassy instrumental track from Rain Dogs. Thanks to WUNC for their help in this episode.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Midtown, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Rhapsody In Blue, George Gershwin/dir. Michael Tilson Thomas (1985)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We reach the apex of the album (and perhaps the best exemplar of this era of Waits) as Jon, Sam and Martin dig into the portentous imagery of this song as well as some of the real consequences of life on the street.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Rain Dogs, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet - 5. Tramp and Tom Waits with full Orchestra, Bryars - Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, Gavin Bryars/Tom Waits (1971/1993)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
The lyrical richness of Waits’s writing moves into the foreground again as Jon, Martin and Sam deal with the sense of loss and isolation found in this track, as well as in Jon’s feature film Frank.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Time, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) If I Should Fall From Grace With God, If I Should Fall From Grace With God, The Pogues (1988)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Song by Song welcomes Jon Ronson to the show to discuss the way Waits inspires an image of a world beyond Cardiff, Wales. With the division between the heart and the head, as related to Waits vs. Springsteen, as well as a possible dairy-based spin-off show, we continue our meander through Rain Dogs.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Hang Down Your Head, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Thundercrack, Live Version (via YouTube), Bruce Springsteen (1973)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
For our final week with Eric Molinsky we discuss a Sesame Street crossover, oblique western storytelling, the dreamlike landscapes of Waits’s worlds, and the power of group singing folk music.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Diamonds & Gold, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Deep Blue Sea, The Complete Bowdoin College Concert, Traditional/Pete Seeger (1960)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
For a second week with Eric Molinsky, Martin and Sam take a look at the image of police as both a mortal figure as well as an existential threat, as well as Waits’s role (through his music) as an ambassador for the strangeness of his worlds.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Big Black Mariah, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Sound of da Police, Return of the Boom Bap, KRS-One (1993)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As they continue through Rain Dogs, Martin and Sam are joined by Eric Molinsky of the Imaginary Worlds Podcast. Discussion focuses not only on the songwriting of Waits, but also the talk-show stylings of David Letterman, the idea of stepping into character for both songs as well as promotional appearances, and the Harvard witticisms of another singing Tom.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Tango Till They're Sore, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) The Masochism Tango, An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer, Tom Lehrer (1959)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Back in the studio, Sam and Martin regroup briefly for a discussion of some of the features in this fourth track from Rain Dogs. More magpie work from Waits, cherry-picking children’s rhymes and pirate songs, as well as the unique guitar stylings of Marc Ribot in both collaboration and his solo work.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Jockey Full of Bourbon, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Fat Man Blues, Silent Movies/Live Version, Marc Ribot (2010)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
For our third week at the London Podcast Festival, John and Helen help us pick apart some of the exaggerated family narratives at play in this third track from Rain Dogs. Waits's preoccupation with the exoticisation of deformity, the vocal effect of gauze scissors, and Helen's Aunty Susan all help wrap up our first set of live shows - thanks to everyone who came along!
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Cemetery Polka, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Lah-Di-Dah, Jake In The Box, Jake Thackray (2006/1967)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Returning for a second week of live shows, Helen, John, Sam, Martin and the rest of our London Podcast Festival audience dig into the next track from Waits’s 1985 album Rain Dogs. With discussion of intertextuality with songs from the 1960s, debate around culture vs cultural reference, as well as some of the sexual extremity of Waits breakfast choices, Song by Song continues with season 10.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clap Hands, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) The Clapping Song, The Clapping Song… and more, Shirley Ellis (2016/1965)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Returning for season 10, Song by Song throws its hat into the live arena in a conversation with John Hodgman and Helen Zaltzman, recorded as part of the London Podcast Festival 2017. In this first of three special episodes, Martin, Sam, Helen and John discuss Singapore, the first track from Waits's 1985 classic, Rain Dogs.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Singapore, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Sausolito, Western Union Band, Western Union Band (2003/1972)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Closing off season nine, Købi, Sam and Martin take a look at this final instrumental track from Swordfishtrombones, the musical outlook of the album in general, and fumble their way through an analysis of the work of John Cage. (Note: mention in the episode of Schopenhauer should be Schoenberg)
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Rainbirds, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Sonata No. 6, Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano, John Cage/Boris Berman (1946-48/2001)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As Swordfishtrombones winds down, Waits ramps up the tension with a breakneck chase sequence, while Købi, Martin and Sam rush to keep up with the pace.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Trouble's Braids, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Seven Steps To Heaven, Seven Steps To Heaven, Miles Davis/Victor Feldman (1963)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
With respect but no great love, Købi, Sam and Martin dig into Waits's return to the New Orleans blues style, with particular reference to the guitar playing of Fred Tackett.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Gin Soaked Boy, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) In A Town Like This, In A Town Like This, Fred Tackett (2003)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Købi Omenaka joins Song by Song for these final tracks of Swordfishtrombones as Waits (and Paul Young) pick through the detritus of a man's life.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Soldier's Things, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Soldier's Things, The Secret Of Association, Paul Young, (1985)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A celebration of playing instruments that aren't tuned properly, Waits launches himself into his crazed preacher persona, reaching back into traditions of gospel and blues.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Down, Down, Down, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) It's Nobody's Fault But Mine, It's Nobody's Fault But Mine - The Best Of, Blind Willie Johnson (1925/2010)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Some genuine detailed discussion this week (instead of the usual tangential nonsense) as Sam and Martin question the divide between the political and the personal.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Swordfishtrombone, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan (1963)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
100 episodes! (Sort of.) Martin and Sam fly solo to talk about some of the many complex and intricate question which surround this bleak little story of a man and his dog.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Frank's Wild Years, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Our two regular suckers return with guest Jo Neary to pick through the opening track of the second half of Swordfishtrombones.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Just Another Sucker On The Vine, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Rocket, Future Shock, Herbie Hancock (1983)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
From Mr Rogers, via The Burbs and XTC through to In The Heat Of The Night, Jo, Sam and Martin go through every single diversion possible on this week's episode of Song by Song.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: In The Neighbourhood, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Bungalow, Nonsuch, XTC (1992)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Pipes at the ready, Jo, Martin and Sam head to the Australian outback for this week's track, celebrating (for once) a community completely devoid of alcohol.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Town With No Cheer, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) There Is A Town, Nocturama, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (2003)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Song by Song welcomes Jo Neary to the show to discuss repeated musical themes in the writing of Waits, surreal lyrical imagery, and the influence (or lack thereof) of Captain Beefheart.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: 16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought Six, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Ice Cream For Crow, Ice Cream For Crow, Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band (1982)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Waits seems to reach beyond himself to make a more meaningful connection in this week's song. Philippa bids goodbye to Sam and Martin with some discussion of the yearning tone and the lyrical elegance in Waits's writing.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Johnsburg, Illinois, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Chelsea Hotel #2, New Skin For The Old Ceremony, Leonard Cohen (1974)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As Waits takes his first dive into the rich world of non-narrative meat-worker music, Martin, Sam and Philippa discuss some ideas of intention and improvisation, as well as the politics of food production.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Dave The Butcher, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) December, One Pig, Matthew Herbert (2011)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
On this second track from Swordfishtrombones, Philippa Spanos returns to discuss with Sam and Martin some of the spaces created by the instrumental choices, and processes of musical reinvention of reinterpretation.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Shore Leave, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Shore Leave, Wicked Grin, John Hammond (2001)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Back again for season 9 (we'll do this one properly, I promise), Martin and Sam are joined by Philippa Spanos to discuss the subterranean influence on Waits's early 80s work.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Underground, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Subbacultcha, Trompe Le Monde, The Pixies (1991)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
It's a bonus extra-sized bumper megamix episode this week, as Martin and Sam dive headlong into One From The Heart... then quickly dash out of it again! Taking a quick-fire approach to season 8, we spend a minute (that's right, a whole 60 seconds) on each track, getting our thoughts, concerns and analysis of 14 tracks condensed into one easy-to-swallow download.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: One From the Heart Original Soundtrack, Tom Waits/Crystal Gale (1982)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Sam and Martin join forces with Dave and Cathy of the Cinemile Podcast this week to take on the film that Francis Ford Coppola wouldn't even put his middle name to... One From The Heart. Debating the intention and execution of the film, as well as it's narrative strengths and weaknesses, the performances therein, as well as some of the sexual politics of a failed romance story with a happy ending, the new entity of Song by Cinemile finally puts to rest the age-old question: where can you buy an affordable DVD player on a Saturday lunchtime?
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Married couple Dave and Cathy podcast their walk home from the movies. Voted the UK's Best New Podcast at the British Podcast Awards 2017, and featured in The Observer, The Guardian, The Irish Times and The Irish Examiner.
website: thecinemile.com twitter: @thecinemile e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Tracks from the OST for One From The Heart, Tom Waits (1982)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
The question this week is whether Waits is walking away from a long-term lover or a one-night-stand, as Vera, Sam and Martin take one last longing backwards look at Heartattack And Vine before walking away and catching a train. There's some discussion across the gender perspective here as well, with the boys buying into some of Waits's romance while Vera reminds us that it takes two to tango… or at least it should.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Ruby’s Arms, Heartattack And Vine, Tom Waits (1980) Softly, As I Leave You, Single, Matt Monro (1962)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
More detritus of Americana this week, as Vera, Martin and Sam look at the inspiration provided by Bugsy Siegel, Murder Inc. and the early days of Las Vegas on this Waits track. With some discussion of the juxtaposition of sexiness and violence in this track (and many, many others), as well as the contributions of listener Mike Smith speaking on behalf of London's own Chas & Dave, we edge towards the end of season 7 of Song by Song.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Mr. Siegal, Heartattack And Vine, Tom Waits (1980) Ain't No Pleasing You, Mustn't Grumble, Chas & Dave (1982)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
This week on Song by Song, Vera Chok takes us all the way back to the beginning by questioning "this whole Tom Waits thing", as well as going through one of Waits's most hobo-centric songs in this lullaby for the down-and-out. We also revisit the perennial question of authenticity, as well as some of Larry Taylor's bass-playing excursions outside of his Heartattack work. Also: Martin has a cold.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: On The Nickel, Heartattack And Vine, Tom Waits (1980) Fried Hockey Boogie, Boogie With Canned Heat, Canned Heat (1968)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We have some difficulties parsing the meaning of the track this week, as Sarah, Martin and Sam visit some confusing (and perhaps terminal?) lyrics in 'Til The Money Runs Out. With side-by-side comparisons between this and Downtown a couple of episodes ago, as well as some pretty explicit interval track work by Mr Ronnie Barron, Song by Song continues its journey along Heartattack and Vine.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: 'Til The Money Runs Out, Heartattack And Vine, Tom Waits (1980) I Can Give It To You, 12" Single, Ronnie Barron (1980)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
There's some confused feelings this week on Song by Song, despite feeling overwhelmingly positive about the track. Leading off with spirited debate about the pros and cons of the line "sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la" (I think that's the correct number of "la"s) as well as the simplicity of some of the other lyrics, Sarah, Martin and Sam discuss Waits's relationship to Kathleen Brennan, Kylie Minogue and short third verses.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Jersey Girl, Heartattack And Vine, Tom Waits (1980) Tears On My Pillow, Enjoy Yourself, Kylie Minogue (1989)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Martin and Sam welcome Sarah Cook to the show, as Waits returns to the street life he loves (or despises?) so well. As the song explores the geography as well as the politics of the city's downtown in the 1980s, we also look at some alternate interpretations of this location, as well as Petula Clark's influence on resource-management games.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Downtown, Heartattack And Vine, Tom Waits (1980) Downtown, Petula Clark, The Best of Petula Clark (1996/1964)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Back one more time with Miranda and Andy, we dive right into the gender politics of criticising women for breaking their shoes and dressing up like cars, as well as Waits borrowing the childrens television music of Bryan Daly (circa 1981, not 1986, apologies for that). With Whitney Huston's smooth stylings as counter-point, Song by Song continues its journey along Heartattack and Vine.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Saving All My Love For You, Heartattack And Vine, Tom Waits (1980) Saving All My Love For You, Whitney Huston, Whitney Huston (1985)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As Waits gives his voice a well-earned rest, Andy and Miranda return to listen to this electric instrumental. With some biographical details, an honest exploration of our own ignorance regarding hip hop, and a trip through Andy's eBay history, Song by Song continues to explore new material.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: In Shades (Instrumental), Heartattack And Vine, Tom Waits (1980) Organ Donor, Endtroducing…, DJ Shadow (1996)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We're back! Kicking off season seven we play host to Martin's in-laws, as the power-couple of Lawyer Miranda Zaltzman and Beggarman/Thief Andy Zaltzman join Song by Song for a rundown of children's rhymes, breakfast foods and cricket statistics.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Heartattack And Vine, Heartattack And Vine, Tom Waits (1980) Heartattack And Vine, Best of the Bizarre Sessions (1990-1994), Screamin' Jay Hawkins (2000)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Putting a bow on Blue Valentine, Kit, Sam and Martin dip back into Waits-adjacent material to listen to Rickie Lee Jones singing a Waits song. With some nerdy (and possibly inaccurate and impenetrable) music chat and also some slightly weird guess-work about their relationship chronology, Song by Song wraps up season six.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Rainbow Sleeves, Girl At Her Volcano, Rickie Lee Jones [w. Tom Waits] (1978/1983) A Lucky Guy, Pirates, Rickie Lee Jones (1981)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Bonus episode #1 for season six sees us visiting Waits's first foray into film, with this track from the Paradise Alley soundtrack. Kit, Sam and Martin discuss his use/reuse of music, the image of women in his songs and the possibilities in their re-interpretation.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Annie’s Back In Town, Paradise Alley OST, Tom Waits (1978) Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis, New Coat Of Paint, Neko Case/Tom Waits (2000)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Whether Waits is a hunter, being hunted, or simply avoiding a vengeful highway patrolman, Sam, Martin and Kit look into the heartbreak of both this track as well as the album as a whole.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Blue Valentines, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978) My Funny Valentine, Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Rodgers and Hart Songbook, Ella Fitzgerald (1956)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Song by Song welcomes Kit Lovelace, author of Romantic Misadventure, to discuss some of the bleak storytelling on this penultimate track of Blue Valentine.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: A Sweet Little Bullet from a Pretty Blue Gun, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978) Sapphire Bullets Of Love, Flood, They Might Be Giants (1990)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As we head towards the close of this album (and bid farewell to Jen and Dave), the music and storytelling make a radical departure from the tone so far, into a nostalgic and autobiographical ballad of innocence and childhood. We look at both the specificity of the song as well as some of the implications of writing about and for a specific time and place.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Kentucky Avenue, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978) Reasons To Be Cheerful (Part 3), Single/Jukebox Dury, Ian Dury & The Blockheads (1979/1981)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
More lyrical density and ambiguity on this week's Song by Song, as this track flirts both with a life on the railroad as well as the bad luck omens. Sam, Dave, Jen and Martin find multiple interpretations of this track (in Martin's case, a physical interpretation!) as Waits goes further than ever before into vocal experimentation. Groundbreaking!
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978) Trouble, King Creole, Elvis Presley (1958)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Trying to stay on the right side of each other, Dave, Jen, Sam and Martin get into the magical realist stylings of this witches brew of a track, examining the density of lyric writing, their integration with the music, as well as possible comparisons with Waits's own life and relationships.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Wrong Side of the Road, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978) These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, Boots, Nancy Sinatra (1966)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Jen Adamthwaite and Dave Pickering from The Family Tree podcast (http://thefamilytreepodcast.co.uk/) join Song by Song for this fifth track from Blue Valentine, to discuss the adequate musical choices of Tom Waits and the need for clarity of storytelling. There's some differences of opinion, as well as debates over Waits's judgement of the song's protagonist (and our judgement of him for that), and the nature and associations of "white blues' in general.
Nb: the Tracy Chapman track we discuss is "Behind The Wall" from the album Tracy Chapman.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: $29.00, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978) Shot Gun Blues, Briefcase Full Of Blues, The Blues Brothers/Donnie Walsh (1978)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As we come to Elizabeth and Caspar's final episodes with Sam and Martin, Song by Song returns to the bleak streets of LA for the violent shooting of a Latino gang-leader. Revisiting some of the structural issues from the previous episode, more of Waits's musical experimentation (even as he re-explores story ideas already covered in previous albums) and the sense of reality delivered by Waits and Johnny Cash all make up this week's discussion.
(Thanks to Rob Maher for the "Kenny's Dead" theory on twitter.)
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Romeo Is Bleeding, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978) The Streets Of Laredo, American IV: The Man Comes Around, Johnny Cash (2002)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Firmly rooted in South London and unavailable for sexual engagements, Sam, Martin, Elizabeth and Caspar join Tom Waits in reading over Charlie's shoulder. Big cast this week. Elizabeth questions the structure of a song with no chorus section, Caspar gets excited by the density of music (although probably not the lyrics), and we can all agree there's not a potato in sight.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Back once again with Sam, Martin, Elizabeth and Caspar, we join Waits hanging out outside the drugstore with Little Caesar and his red-shod ladyfriend. Some discussion this week of the musical environment created slides seamlessly, SEAMLESSLY into the textural features of Vangelis on the soundtrack from Blade Runner. It's another tight focused never-rambling episode of Song by Song.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Red Shoes by the Drugstore, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978) Love Theme - from Blade Runner, Blade Runner, Vangelis (1982/1994)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
A trip to the musicals for this first episode on Blue Valentine, as Martin and Sam are joined by Caspar Salmon and Elizabeth Sankey to discuss another of Waits's rare covers. The (perhaps inevitable) comparisons between this and other versions of Somewhere, the nature of the song in its original context and the extent to which Waits reinterprets the material all kick off season six of Song by Song.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Somewhere (from West Side Story), Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978) Somewhere, West Side Story Motion Picture Soundtrack, Jim Bryant & Marni Nixon [w. Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim] (1961)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Season Six of Song by Song features Blue Valentines Elizabeth Sankey and Caspar Salmon from High Brow Low Brow, Jen Adamthwaite and Dave Pickering from The Family Tree, and Kit Lovelace from Romantic Misadventures. We'll be back on November 16th, so keep your Waits thoughts coming in until then!
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians who, out of some obsessive completist compulsion, have decided to listen to and discuss every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected] facebook: https://www.facebook.com/songbysongshow/
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Blue Valentines, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
It's the conclusion of another album and another season, as Martin, Sam, Sam and Simon discuss the thematic oppositions between this final track and the themes and ethos of the rest of Foreign Affairs.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Foreign Affair, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits (1977) Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home), That Stubborn Kinda' Fella, Marvin Gaye (1963)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
The four-part harmony-group of Martin, Simon and two Sams wanders in for a quick short back and sides as Tom Waits visits Mr Snip-Snip-Snip for this penultimate track of Foreign Affairs. The variety of this album, the beauty/technicality of barber-shop quartet singing, and the need for emotional commitment in musical performance are all debated, as well as some…mild diversions.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Barber Shop, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits (1977) That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day), That Lucky Old Sun, Crossroads/Beasley Smith & Haven Gillespie (2010/1949)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
This week on Song by Song Martin, two Sams and a Simon head out onto the wide open roads of America to examine possibly one of the strongest songs on Foreign Affairs, with discussion of the origins of the Burma Shave advertising campaign, the interplay of voice and melody on the track, and the appearance of Farley Granger in Nicholas Ray's debut film They Live By Night.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Burma-Shave, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits (1977) They Live By Night (film), directed by Nicholas Ray (1948)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Joined by Sam Clements and Simon Renshaw, Sam and Martin dive into the pomp and bluster of the orchestral stylings of Potter’s Field. With the musical and lyrical setting clearly placed in the world of noir, we examine this song and its explicit influence, Sam Fuller’s film Pickup On South Street, as well as some of the obscure storytelling choices made by Waits in this track from Foreign Affairs.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Potter’s Field, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits (1977) Pickup On South Street (film), directed by Samuel Fuller (1953)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
With some disagreement and friction, Martin and Sam discuss some of the musical borrowings and stylistic repetitions in this track from Foreign Affairs. Debating cliche, originality and their place in pop music, as well as Mary Hopkins’s contribution to the theme in a very similar track, Song by Song returns for another discussion on Tom Waits.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: A Sight for Sore Eyes, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits (1977) Those Were The Days, Single, Mary Hopkin (1968)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Song by Song reaches its fiftieth episode as Waits returns to one of his greatest influences, the beat poets. With mixed feelings, Sam and Martin discuss extreme vocal styling (and its overuse) as a storytelling tool, the value (or lack thereof) of California as a location, as well as touching briefly on one of cinema and recorded music's iconic figures, Al Jolson.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Medley: Jack & Neal/California, Here I Come, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits (1977) California, Here I Come, The Best Of Al Jolson, Al Jolson (1921/2002)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
The regular duet of Sam and Martin explore one of the few vocal collaborations Waits includes on his studio albums, with this piano-bar seduction of (and by) Bette Midler. The verbatim nature of the lyrics, the locating nature of music, and interference with postal carriers all feature in this week's discussion.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: I Never Talk to Strangers, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits/Bette Midler (1977) Yellow Beach Umbrella, Broken Blossom, Bette Midler (1977)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Dreaming of a(nother) girl who left him, Tom Waits returns to mournful yearning for the second track of Foreign Affairs. Martin and Sam continue discussing the possible influences on this song through the person of Edie Adams and Muriel cigars, as well as the vocal stylings of Dolly Parton and the production choices on the album as a whole.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Muriel, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits (1977) Jolene, Jolene, Dolly Parton (1973)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Welcome to the fifth season of Song by Song! Martin and Sam return to take a listen to Waits's 1977 album, beginning with the instrumental Cinny's Waltz. With discussion of the tone of this album, the cross-pollination of creative inspiration between film and music, and more than a few bad similes, we begin our journey through Foreign Affairs.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Cinny’s Waltz, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits (1977) Theme from “To Kill a Dead Man”, B-side of “Sour Times”, Portishead (1994)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Welcome back to Song by Song - we're taking a couple of weeks out before starting our fifth season on Foreign Affairs to get some plans made, listen to some music, watch some films and argue about eggs. Do the same, and please rejoin us later in August for more Tom Waits discussions.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians who, out of some obsessive completist compulsion, have decided to listen to and discuss every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Cinny's Waltz, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits (1977)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Concluding our shuffle through Tom Waits’s Small Change, Sam, Callum and Martin struggle to wrap up their duties and get back to their respective avenues. This final track’s relationship to the album as a whole, backstage vs. onstage personas, and the concept of work in opposition to art all help us wrap up our fourth season of Song by Song.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: I Can't Wait to Get Off Work (And See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) Frankly, Mr. Shankly, The Queen Is Dead, The Smiths (1986)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Hitting the apex (or the wind-down?) of the album with its title track, Martin, Sam and Callum work through the details of the untimely death of Small Change, discussing some of the societal commentary in the song, choices of harsh and clinical language and the amazing Jazz stylings of Lew Tabackin.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Small Change (Got Rained on with His Own .38), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) Be-Bop, The Rites of Pan, Lew Tabackin (1978/2009)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
It's storytime again, as Martin, Sam and Callum are taken on a series of single-verse vignettes. Watching the way Waits creates a series of spaces, the kind of shamed men who live there, and his ability to simultaneously retain a sense of fun all form part of the conversation on this week's Song by Song.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: The One That Got Away, Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) The Man That Got Away - Live at Great American Music Hall, Mystery White Boy, Jeff Buckley (2000)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Martin and Sam welcome their new guest host Callum Hughes, immediately getting side-tracked by old sitcom themes and how old Geoffrey Palmer might be. Casablanca misquotes, internal rhyming structures, intertextuality and depression - all on Song by Song.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Bad Liver and a Broken Heart (In Lowell), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) Old Red Eyes Is Back, 0898 Beautiful South, The Beautiful South (1992)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
For her final track with Song by Song, Lucy Dallas discusses with Sam and Martin some of the social setting and politics of this bump and grind number from Small Change. The relationship of satire and exploitation, sex and sexiness as well as the extent of Waits's critique on the characters he plays and embodies all appear, set to a thumping beat!
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Pasties and a G-String (At the Two O'Clock Club), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) Artistry In Percussion, The Chronological Classics 1946, Stan Kenton and his Orchestra (1946)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
An invitation to musical analysis (as well as rambling nonsense), Song by Song returns to the diner for another longing message to an unattainable woman. Martin, Sam and Lucy Dallas return to discuss how realistic this longing is, how attainable the draw of independence and freedom might be, and whether Sam should practice piano on-air or in his own time.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Invitation To The Blues, Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Ghost In The Machine, The Police (1981)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Whether it's actually possible for a piano to drink or not, it is totally conceivable that a podcast can be hosted by creampuff fencepost-IQ mental midgets, and here they are with another episode of Song by Song. As Martin, Sam and Lucy peel back the layers of writing on this track, comparing it to the comic genius of Les Dawson as well as Waits's own singing persona, the question arises as to whether this is a quick gag, or a deeper exploration of many other themes.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (An Evening with Pete King), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) Les Dawson plays The Entertainer, via YouTube, Les Dawson (1984)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Martin and Sam are joined by their latest guest host Lucy Dallas, wandering arm-in-arm through the streets and debating (again/still) the merits of truth and authenticity in the storytelling of Tom Waits. Whether we buy into the mythmaking of this group and location, or whether Waits is as successful as some of his heroes at creating these idealised places is challenged in weeks episode.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: I Wish I Was In New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) Georgia On My Mind, The Genius Hits The Road, Ray Charles (1960)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Liars, liars, all their pants on fire, Sam, Martin and Jeffrey explore the fakery and tall-tale-telling of Waits's drunken persona, debating the truths and lies of the song's narrative and questioning whether we should disbelieve the stories... or believe that a man could really live such a life. Neo-futurist theatre, George Plimpton and the rise of the hobo all join us for another episode of Song by Song.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Jitterbug Boy, Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) A Talk With George, JoCo Looks Back, Jonathan Coulton (2008)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
For your consideration, at value price, cut bargain basement availability for one night only and in any shade and texture you could wish for, Martin, Sam and Jeffrey return to package, wrap, fold, spindle and mutilate another conversation on everyone's favourite anti-salesman, Tom Waits.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Step Right Up, Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) Butcher’s Blend Purina Advert, Tom Waits (1981)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Sam and Martin welcome Night Vale writer Jeffrey Cranor to this first track from season four of Song by Song, ploughing straight into Waits's Aussie-faux-bo song with instant disagreement and conflict. It's good to be back... Duality of tone and meaning, the unknowability of Danish lyricism and the lure of the open road all feature in the discussion, as well as our putative Waits Theme Pub.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Tom Traubert’s Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) Fyn Er Fin, Fyn Er Fin, Lasse & Mathilde (1995)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
It's the end of the night, time to thank the band, stack up the chairs and bid farewell to our friends here at Raphael's Silver Cloud Lounge as Song by Song concludes its third season and heads off into the night. Rounding up discussions over authenticity and appropriation, as well as the value of the album as a whole, Sam Martin and Andrea bid you farewell, and prepare to rifle through their Small Change for next season.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Spare Parts II and Closing, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975) The Nazz, Royal Best Of, Lord Buckley (1955/2011)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Keep your cool, Waitsheads, Song by Song is still here and still committed, we’re just starting with the original Red Sovine track before heading into Waits’s cover of Big Joe’s story. Strange goings-on on the road are dealt with by our ghostbusters Sam, Martin and Andrea, as Red and Tom in turn are picked up by the spirit of a kindly truck-driving spook, who teaches us not to be afraid of the afterlife, as it’ll happily front you the cost of a cup of coffee should you require.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Big Joe and Phantom 309, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975) Phantom 309, Phantom 309, Red Sovine, (1967)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
More somethings from our somebodies Martin, Sam and Andrea, as Waits turns down the lights and the tempo with a simple yet soulful ballad of loss and longing. With some curiosity as to where his songwriting is and where it might be going, the masculine and feminine personas in his stories and discussion of where his immediate contemporaries are in this era, Song by Song rounds the corner and heads for home on Nighthawks.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Nobody, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975) Car On A Hill, Court And Spark, Joni Mitchell (1974)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
For the final tracks of Nighthawks, Sam and Martin are joined by Andrea Solomon, talking from the start about the jazz stylings of the album and its instrumentalists, the dual attitude of Waits towards relationships, as well as the relative temperatures of well-digger's posteriors, ticket-takers smiles and gut-shot bitch-dogs… not to mention frozen husky-urine.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Spare Parts I (A Nocturnal Emission), Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975) Nanook Rubs It, Apostrophe('), Frank Zappa (1974)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Slowing into the final tracks, Catherine, Martin and Sam find Tom Waits in a calmer, more observational mood, as he swings through small-town America and describes some much more wholesome figures than we've encountered so far. And then… Martin picks a song about a serial-killer for contrast… and we get into tax returns and ignoring lyrics… hoo-boy!
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Putnam County, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975) John Wayne Gacy, Jr., Illinois, Sufjan Stevens (2005)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
As Waits moves away from his standup stylings, Sam, Martin and Catherine discuss the contribution of some of the other performers on the album, the strengths (or lack thereof) in the songwriting as well as the details of the 1970s described in the lyrics. More conversations as well around drinking culture, and the decline of the American dream… all in less than 14 minutes!
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Warm Beer And Cold Women, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975) Theme from “Cheers”, The Monitor, Titus Andronicus (2010)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
All smooth phrases and cold analysis, Martin, Sam and Catherine head down Easy Street for some hard looks at Waits’s attitude towards alcohol and the lifestyle that surrounds it. Thinking about place and location, and the contrast between the two performances Waits gives us of this number, we edge up to some tough questions over the poetic hobo ideology of the album as a whole.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Nighthawk Postcards (From Easystreet), Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975) Nighthawk Postcards (From Easystreet), PBS Soundstage recording, Tom Waits (1975)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Guest host Catherine Hirst joins Song by Song, and straight away gives us new perspective on the yearning qualities of Waits’s peon to solitude. Whether the song is an honest rejection of marriage or just a cover for a sublimated desire to be told not to go fishing, we discuss the broader implications of mutual love vs. self-love and the fact that Sam isn’t typical of 1975 Americana - shocks all around!
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Better Off Without A Wife, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975) Icicle, Under the Pink, Tori Amos (1994)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Stopping briefly to shovel down a quick breakfast, Martin and Sam talk through the different perspectives on (and from) diners in Waits's songwriting, the intellectual posturing of overly loquacious verbosity (big words), and the marvellously stripped back a-cappella stylings of Suzanne Vega. (ps go watch Network)
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Eggs And Sausage (In A Cadillac with Susan Michelson), Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975) Tom’s Diner, Solitude Standing, Suzanne Vega (1987)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Aimlessly askew, misinformed and misdirected, Sam and Martin return for the second track of Nighthawks, debating the value of an authentic vs affected identity, guitar technique, and revisit one of Waits's greatest vocal influences. (Please note; no voices were harmed in the clumsy imitation of performers during the making of this show.)
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: On A Foggy Night, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975) A Foggy Day, Ella and Louis, Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Armstrong (1956)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Welcome to Raphael's Silver iCloud-based-storage! Season three of Song by Song opens with Martin and Sam expressing some differing opinions on the strengths and weaknesses of the album as a whole, live and studio recording techniques, and some thoughts on the late David Bowie.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Emotional Weather Report, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975) Young Americans, Young Americans, David Bowie (1975)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Beyond the final track, Martin, Sam and Isy round things off with a single from (but not on) The Heart of Saturday Night, teasing apart Waits's relationship with his band, his woman, and his own earlier version of this song. And so we bid farewell to Isy, Saturday Night and season two - thanks for joining us folks.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: www.songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Blue Skies, Single from "The Heart of Saturday Night" sessions, Tom Waits (1974) Blue Skies, The Early Years Vol. 2, Tom Waits (1971/1993)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
The final song of The Heart of Saturday Night takes on a contemplative air, with Isy, Sam and Martin looking at the structure of both this track as well as the album as a whole. The virtue of the "Best Of" compilation, the wonder of covering Frank Zappa, and Waits as a voyeur wrap up our discussion... but not our season.
[Disclaimer: This episode was recorded before the death of the peerless David Bowie]
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: www.songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: The Ghosts Of Saturday Night (After Hours At Napoleone's Pizza House), The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Back from the Christmas break, Isy Suttie rejoins Martin and Sam to examine some of the connective tissue between Waits and his influences and peers. Discussing the relationship between artist, music and listener in live and recorded settings, as well as some of his early experiences touring, 2016 starts with a bang as we... wind down season 2. That's the right tone to strike for the New Year, right?
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: www.songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Drunk On The Moon, The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) Friday The 13th, Thelonius Monk & Sonny Rollins, Monk/Rollins, (1954)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Martin and Sam are joined by Tom Waits's close personal friend Isy Suttie to discuss the final tracks of The Heart of Saturday Night. Metaphorical vs literal locations, the romance of working-class life vs the reality, and lying to taxi drivers all feature.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: www.songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Depot, Depot, The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) End of the Line, Pastel Blues, Nina Simone (1965)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Contradictions and oppositions abound this episode, as Alice makes her departure from Sam and Martin. Discussion centers on the politics of pet names, social compromise and... some more ridiculous stuff too. Who will our next guest host be? Have we jumped the shark on interval tracks? Where will Alice be drinking tonight?!?
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: www.songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Please Call Me, Baby, The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) Baby It's Cold Outside, Jimmy Pardo and Scott Aukerman via Youtube (2012)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
We enter the hangover from the night before as Martin, Sam and Alice discuss issues of originality and authenticity, as well as some of the darker history of the performers appearing on the album.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: www.songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Fumblin With The Blues, The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) St Louis Blues, Live At The 1958 Monterey Jazz Festival, Louis Armstrong (1958/2007)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Sam, Martin and Alice arrive at the album's title track, and discover that the Heart of Saturday Night is perhaps something a little less grand than one might imagine. Stumbling through the surprises, the accidental encounters and the distant relatives dropping calling without warning all prove a heady night's entertainment.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: www.songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: The Heart of Saturday Night, The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) The Heart of Saturday Night, On The Scene '73 KPFK Folk Scene Broadcast, Tom Waits (1973)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
New guest-host Alice Sanders joins to talk through her feelings for both Tom Waits and Jack Kerouac as we venture into a Beat Poetry-influenced tale of the Southern Californian roads. Please note that, despite Sam's insistence, Diamonds On My Windshield does not appear on Nighthawks At The Diner - he's very sorry and will be more precise in future!
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: www.songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Diamonds on my Windshield, The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) October in the Railroad Earth, Poetry For The Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac and Steve Allen (1959) (available on "American Haikus: Letters from the Road" via Spotify/iTunes/other)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Martin waxes lyrical about a life on the open waves, and Sam and Anna view the whole endeavour a little more fatalistically. Perhaps that had an unpleasant experience on a ferry as small children?
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: www.songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Shiver Me Timbers, The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, Read by Richard Burton (1954)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.
Truckin' further through Saturday Night's heart, Sam, Martin and Anna enter a tale of broken relationships on the roads of America. As Waits begins to speak about characters other than himself, the beginnings of a broader style of writing starts to make its presence felt.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: www.songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Semi Suite, The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) Working for the Man, More of Roy Orbison's Greatest Hits, Roy Orbison (1964)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. Do not operate heavy machinery while being Tom Waits.
The search for the Heart of Saturday Night continues as Martin, Anna and Sam discuss the universality (or lack thereof) of the love song in this somewhat simpler track. Is it indulgent or sparse? What is the deeper meaning of space and time? Has Sam ever actually listened to any music?
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: San Diego Serenade, The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) November Rain, Use Your Illusion I, Guns and Roses (1991)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. Never listen to the music until you've purchased the album.
Song by Song returns, now with 50% more opinion! Martin and Sam are joined by guest host Anna Turrell, to discuss the first track on Tom Waits's second album "New Coat of Paint". Fear of change, the new sound and the totally unacceptable presence of neckties all feature in the discussion.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: New Coat Of Paint, The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. No cats were harmed in the making of this episode.
In this final instrumental track on Closing Time, Sam and Martin sum up their feelings about the album as well as the interesting discoveries they’ve made in beginning the Song by Song project. They discuss arrangements, collaborators, lack of biography and sleeping in the back of a Buick. It’s a Buick Sam, a Buick…
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Closing Time, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. We’ll see you next season.
As we head into the final tracks of Closing Time, Martin and Sam explore the sentimental side of Waits’s writing and the presence of unusual types of love in his lyrics.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Grapefruit Moon, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Lazy Eye, Rabbit Songs, Hem (2001)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. May be combined safely with citrus.
Sam and Martin debate Waits’s influences as a singer and performer and his relationship to Frank Sinatra, and the ways they break expectations of songs and draw audiences in. Marble eggs also feature somehow.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Little Trip to Heaven (On the Wings of Your Love), Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning, In The Wee Small Hours, Frank Sinatra (1955)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. Never, ever, listen to the music of Frank Sinatra.
Things kick up a gear as Martin and Sam discuss the energetic outlier of Closing Time’s second half. Discussion includes explicit lyrics, comic-book ice-cream sellers and the swing era of the Big Band.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Ice Cream Man, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Is You Is Or Is You Aint (My Baby), Let the Good Times Roll, BB King (1999)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. Excessive consumption may cause hyperglaecemia.
Sparse and open orchestration, dissonant ringing and obscure meaning all feature in the discussion of what Sam considers the most interesting song of the album, with debate over vocal authenticity vs technical ability and musical theatre performance.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Lonely, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Pure Imagination, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Sountrack), Gene Wilder (1971)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. Never drive while crying.
Utterly unable to keep their minds out of the gutter, Martin and Sam get seriously stuck on one particular lyric, but push through to talk about Closing Time as an album, falsetto singing and courtly language.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Rosie, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. Blowing your horn in public may carry a statutory penalty.
Sam and Martin reach the iconic, eulogic apex of Closing Time, as Tom Waits makes a long-distance call to an old flame. Narrative structure and resolution, Sam’s hatred of oboes and the Meatloaf reading of Gilliam’s Brazil all come up. Honestly.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Martha, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Martha, Sefronia, Tim Buckley (1973)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. You will sleep forever, you will never sleep again.
Lulled by children’s rhymes and traditional tunes, Martin and Sam start to talk about Waits’s lyrical content (or lack thereof), as well as personality vs. persona, tenderness compared with romance and a magpie attitude to language and songs.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Midnight Lullaby, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Bo Diddly, His Best, Bo Diddly (1997/1955)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. Light aircraft and UAVs have priority for the next six miles.
We finally get some real disagreement with this fourth track from Closing Time, Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards) - as the Dylan influence starts to show Sam rails against the pointlessness of the track while Martin defends the folk influences of Waits. Strong feelings and not-very-strong language feature.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards), Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. Tom Waits should never be combined with salicyclic acid or hypericin based medicine; please consult your physician.
Closing Time continues with Virginia Avenue, a wander through the late night streets of 1970s LA and through a song that both Martin and Sam seem to have forgotten about until today. Trumpet players, the voice as instrument and background storytelling all feature in the discussion.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Virginia Avenue, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. May cause irritability and scratchy throat.
Sam and Martin follow track one of Closing Time with the bold choice of track two, I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love with You, discussing counting elephants, authenticity of space and the brutality of live performance.
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love with You, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love with You, Dime Store Novels vol.1, Tom Waits (2001/1974)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. May cause drowsiness and female erectile dysfunction.
Tom Waits's first album, Closing Time (1973) opens with Ol' 55, a mournful ballad of late night and early morning driving. Martin and Sam kick things off with discussion of covers, quaaludes, intrusive guitar players and driving a Buick Roadmaster in reverse. It’s a Buick, Martin, a Buick…
Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every single Tom Waits track in chronological order.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Ol' 55, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Ol' 55, On The Border, The Eagles (1974)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. And never put on Tom Waits whilst operating heavy machinery.
Welcome to Song by Song - we are Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians who, out of some obsessive completist compulsion, have decided to listen to and discuss every single Tom Waits track in chronological order. Join us weekly, episode by episode, song by song. In Season One, we will plunge headlong into Closing Time, Tom Waits's 1973 debut album.
website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: [email protected]
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Just Another Sucker On The Vine, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Jockey Full Of Bourbon, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Russian Dance, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1985) Closing Time, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973)
We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly. And never put on Tom Waits whilst operating heavy machinery.
En liten tjänst av I'm With Friends. Finns även på engelska.