Song by Song

Latest Episodes:

Kentucky Avenue, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits [063] Jan 04, 2017

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

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Whistlin Past the Graveyard, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits [062] Dec 28, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Whistlin' Past the Graveyard, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978) Trouble, King Creole, Elvis Presley (1958)

Wrong Side of The Road, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits [061] Dec 21, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

$29.00, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits [060] Dec 14, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

Romeo is Bleeding, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits [059] Dec 07, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits [058] Nov 30, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978)

Red Shoes by the Drugstore, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits [057] Nov 23, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

Somewhere (from West Side Story), Blue Valentine, Tom Waits [056] Nov 16, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

Blue Valentine Series Teaser [055a] Nov 09, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com facebook: https://www.facebook.com/songbysongshow/

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Blue Valentines, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978)

Foreign Affair, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits [055] Oct 19, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

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