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Song by Song — Music
Song by Song

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.

Copyright: © All rights reserved

Latest Episodes:

Trampled Rose, Real Gone, Tom Waits [325] Jun 29, 2022

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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.

Circus, Real Gone, Tom Waits [324] Jun 22, 2022

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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.

Dead and Lovely, Real Gone, Tom Waits [323] Jun 15, 2022

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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.

Metropolitan Glide, Real Gone, Tom Waits [322] Jun 08, 2022

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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.

How's it Gonna End, Real Gone, Tom Waits [321] Jun 01, 2022

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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.

Dont Go Into That Barn, Real Gone, Tom Waits [320] May 25, 2022

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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.

Shake It, Real Gone, Tom Waits [319] May 18, 2022

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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.

Sins of My Father, Real Gone, Tom Waits [318] May 11, 2022

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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.

Hoist That Rag, Real Gone, Tom Waits [317] May 04, 2022

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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.

Top of The Hill, Real Gone, Tom Waits [316] Apr 27, 2022

Show notes

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

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.

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