Song by Song

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Flash Pan Hunter (Intro), The Black Rider, Tom Waits [210] Sep 18, 2019

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

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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)

'Tain't No Sin, The Black Rider, Tom Waits [209] Sep 11, 2019

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: 'Tain't No Sin, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993)

Black Box Theme, The Black Rider, Tom Waits [208] Sep 04, 2019

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

Just the Right Bullets, The Black Rider, Tom Waits [207] Aug 28, 2019

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

November, The Black Rider, Tom Waits [206] Aug 21, 2019

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: November, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) April Showers, Judy, Judy Garland (1956)

The Black Rider, The Black Rider, Tom Waits [205] Aug 14, 2019

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

Lucky Day (Overture), The Black Rider, Tom Waits [204] Aug 07, 2019

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

The Black Rider (Introduction), Tom Waits [203a] Jul 31, 2019

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

That Feel, Bone Machine, Tom Waits [203] Jul 17, 2019

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: That Feel, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992)

Let Me Get Up On It, Bone Machine, Tom Waits [202] Jul 10, 2019

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

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