Song by Song

Latest Episodes:

Spare Parts II And Closing, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits [035] Apr 20, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

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Big Joe And Phantom 309, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits [034] Apr 13, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

Nobody, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits [033] Apr 06, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

Spare Parts I [A Nocturnal Emission], Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits [032] Mar 30, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

Putnam County, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits [031] Mar 23, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

Warm Beer And Cold Women, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits [030] Mar 16, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

Nighthawk Postcards (from Easystreet), Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits [029] Mar 09, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

Better Off Without a Wife, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits [028] Mar 02, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

Eggs and Sausage (in a Cadillac with Susan Michelson), Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits [027] Feb 24, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

On A Foggy Night, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits [026] Feb 17, 2016

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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)

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