Song By Song

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) We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying th

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) We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee arti

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) We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from 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: 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) We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced

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) We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs

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) We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artist

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) We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by

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) We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you ca

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) We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee a

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) We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from 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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com 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 sh

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com 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 servi

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com 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 b

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com 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

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com 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 art

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com 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 re

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com 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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com 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

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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com 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: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com 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 the