It's point/counterpoint on Song by Song again, as Martin and Sam divide over Waits's song of loss and yearning. Whether this is a pure form of a classic sentiment or an unnecessary retread of predictable tropes gets turned over, alongside a rare Tom Waits cover for the interval track.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Make It Rain, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
Make It Rain, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
Make It Rain, Live at Sidney Opera House, Spinefex Gum (2019)
Make It Rain, live on David Letterman, Tom Waits (2004)
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Waits flies solo for this horny-noise-fragment, as Sam and Martin pin down both some of the sonic design as well as images of travel and freedom. We look at Waits's reuse of phrases from other songs, his line between affection and objectification, and compare with the technical precision of Bobby McFerrin's vocal performances.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Clang Boom Steam, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
Clang Boom Steam, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
Drive, Live from Montreal, Bobby McFerrin (2005)
Drive, Simple Pleasures, Bobby McFerrin (1988)
Polyphonic Overtone Singing explained visually, Anna-Maria Hefele, via YouTube (2014)
Live improvisation at the Kennedy Centre, Bobby McFerrin, via YouTube (2017)
The Power of the Pentatonic Scale, Bobby McFerrin at The World Science Festival, via Youtube (2009)
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High energy blues number - check. Harsh beat-boxing rhythmic tone - check. Mumbled lyrics and anti-poetic phrasing - check. David, Sam and Martin find all the required elements, but discuss whether it all comes together in this week’s song.
Note: we mention Mark Rylance this episode; between recording and release, his brother Jonathan was killed - sympathies from all of us for this loss.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Baby Gonna Leave Me, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
Baby Gonna Leave Me, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, In Concert, Joan Baez (1962)
Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin (1969)
Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, single, Anne Bredon (1959)
Day After Tomorrow, Day After Tomorrow, Joan Baez (2008)
Whistle Down The Wind, Whistle Down The Wind, Joan Baez (2018)
Last Leaf, Whistle Down The Wind, Joan Baez (2018)
Clip from 'So I Married an Axe Murderer', dir. Thomas Schlamme (1993)
Singing from beyond the grave, Waits bridges the green grass boundary between life and death as David, Sam and Martin question whether this week's song presents a tender or threatening love.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Green Grass, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
Green Grass, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
Green Green Grass Of Home, Green Green Grass Of Home, Tom Jones (1967)
Didn't He Ramble, The Complete Victor Recordings, Jelly Roll Morton (1939)
Didn't He Ramble, Goin' Back To New Orleans, Dr. John (1992)
Green Grass Of Home, BBC Jools Holland Hootenanny, Tom Jones (2009)
Green Green Grass Of Home, single, Johnny Darrell (1965)
Green Green Grass Of Home, Today, Elvis Presley (1975)
Green Green Grass Of Home, David's Album, Joan Baez (1969)
Lay Down In The Tall Grass, Timber Timbre, Timber Timbre (2010)
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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.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Trampled Rose, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
Trampled Rose, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
If It Wasn't For Dicky, Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection, Lead Belly (1941-47)
Kisses Sweeter Than Wine, single, The Weavers (1951)
Where Did You Sleep Last Night, MTV Unplugged In New York, Nirvana (1994)
The Phantom of the Open trailer, via YouTube (dir. Craig Roberts, 2021)
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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.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Circus, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
Circus, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
Moon Over Dog Street, single, Sour Sweet Tooth / Keith Sanders (2012)
Moanin Low, single, Billie Holiday (1937)
Livery Stable Blues, single B-side, Original Dixieland Jass Band (1917)
Thousand Bing Bangs, Devout Catalyst, Ken Nordine & Tom Waits (1991)
Circus, Stories for Ways and Means, Ken Nordine (2017)
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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.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Dead and Lovely, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
Dead and Lovely, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
Long Black Veil, single, Jenny Owen Youngs (2017)
Long Black Veil, single, Lefty Frizzell (1959)
Long Black Veil, Music From Big Pink, The Band (1968)
The Long Black Veil, The Long Black Veil, The Chieftains / Mick Jagger (1995)
The Long Black Veil, Orange Blossom Special, Johnny Cash (1965)
The Suspicious Death Of Carol Wayne, Facts Verse, via YouTube (2021)
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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 workout instructionals of the early 2000s.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Metropolitan Glide, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
Metropolitan Glide, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
Cha Cha Slide, Cha Cha Slide, DJ Casper (1998/2004)
Lean Back, True Story, Terror Squad (2004)
Cha Cha Slide, SNL sketch via YouTube (2019)
The Cha Cha Slide: How One Uncle Changed Weddings Forever, Every Little Thing podcast (2018)
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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.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
How's It Gonna End, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
How's It Gonna End, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
The End Of The World, The End Of The World, Skeeter Davis (1963)
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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)
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Don't Go Into That Barn, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
Don't Go Into That Barn, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
Follow the Drinking Gourd, Songs of the Civil War, Richie Havens (1991)
Follow The Drinking Gourd, There's A Meetin' Here Tonite, Joe Gilbert / Eddie Brown (1963)
Follow The Drinking Gourd, The Weavers at Carnegie Hall (Live), The Weavers (1955)
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!
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Shake It, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
Shake It, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
Hey Ya!, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, Outkast (2003)
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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.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Sins of My Father, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
Sins of My Father, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
Can't Blame The Youth, single, Peter Tosh (1972)
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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.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Hoist That Rag, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
Hoist That Rag, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
Shipbuilding, My Middle Name Is Misery, Ruth Dolores Weiss (2012)
Shipbuilding, Punch The Clock, Elvis Costello and The Attractions (1983)
Shipbuilding, single, Robert Wyatt (1982)
You Can Never Hold Back Spring, Ruth Dolores Weiss and Yehu Yaron, IDC Radio, via YouTube (2012)
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Season 21 launches into an opening track with surprising energy, as guest host Shani Erez joins Sam & 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 genitalia, and the utter delight of 1980s metal… it's a pretty standard episode really.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Top of the Hill, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
Top of the Hill, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)
Run To The Hills, The Number of the Beast, Iron Maiden (1982)
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Next week Song by Song pushes into Waits's 2004 release Real Gone, but before we kick off, Sam & Martin acknowledge the 2017 remaster, how the show will deal with these different versions, and handle any other business arising.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Top of the Hill, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)
Neutrinowatch podcast, also available at neutrinowatch.org, Martin Zaltz Austwick & Lily Sloane (2021-present)
New York Art Rock: Talking Heads & They Might Be Giants, Over/Underrated Podcast, Fran James & Barbara Mendes-Jorge (2022)
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Before we move on into more films and Real Gone, Sam & Martin dig into the letters, tweets and pigeon-post sent in by listeners over the last year or so, accepting corrections, embracing re-interpretations and talking about disappointing lakes.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
On The Nickel, Heartattack And Vine, Tom Waits (1980)
16 Shells From A 30.6, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983)
Pony, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999)
Picture In A Frame, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999)
I'm Still Here, Alice, Tom Waits (2002)
Filipino Box Spring Hog, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999)
He's Gonna Make It, Nathaniel Metcalfe, via Vimeo (2011)
Take It With Me, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999)
Come On Up To The House, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999)