With nary a George Orwell reference in sight, Martin and Sam delve deep into textual interpretation of both this Waits track as well as a classic Dylan protest song. Whether Waits is writing about the personal or the political, as well as the variety of vocal styles at his disposal, all this and more makes up the discussion on this week's Song by Song.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Swordfishtrombone, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983)
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan (1963)
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