A Sight For Sore Eyes - Foreign Affairs [051]

More debates this week around the use of borrowed musical themes and unique personal songwriting, as Martin and Sam explore Tom Waits’s nostalgic return to a bar and it’s denizens in A Sight For Sore Eyes. With some disagreement over the value of specificity and generalising, and Sam’s inability to name Beatles, Song by Song returns for another track from Foreign Affairs.

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)

Auld Lang Syne, The Sound of The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (2013)

Lullaby (Wiegelied, Op. 49, No. 4), Songs from the Arc of Life, Johannes Brahms/Yo-Yo Ma/Kathryn Stott (2015)

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Medley: Jack & Neal/California, Here I Come - Foreign Affairs [050]

Song by Song turns 50! Ignore the fact that we forgot and didn't mention on the podcast itself, it's a milestone episode! And to celebrate, Martin and Sam discuss a song... neither of them really enjoy. Yay? With a step back to a style already explored and defined in earlier tracks, a nod to a world that seems very different to the tone of the rest of the album, and some unusual lyrical choices, there are harsh assessments of this fourth track from Foreign Affairs.

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)

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I Never Talk To Strangers - Foreign Affairs [049]

Martin and Sam continue by their lonesomes, but Waits welcomes a guest-host of his own as Bette Midler joins him for this episode of Song by Song. As Foreign Affairs moves into more noir-esque tones, we discuss some of the technical choices in Midler's voice and production, the impact on the world that creates, and whether that helps or hinders a song as a whole.

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)

I Never Talk To Strangers (Live), BBC recording, Tom Waits (1979)

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Muriel - Foreign Affairs [048]

This week on Song by Song, Sam and Martin take a look at the mournful yearning ballad, as well as one of its most successful reversals. Inevitably inviting comparisons with other "name of a girl" songs, Muriel is discussed in terms of Martha, Rosie, Maria and Jolene, but it ends up being the presence of Edie that has the greatest effect...

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Muriel, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits (1977)

Jolene, Jolene, Dolly Parton (1973)

Muriel Cigar Advert, Edie Adams & Stan Getz (1965)

Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar), The Doors, The Doors (1967) Wikipedia information found here

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Cinny’s Waltz - Foreign Affairs [047]

The seemingly endless project continues! With only a bell-tree, a trumpet player and a sense of cinematic mystery to guide them, Martin and Sam return to Tom Waits to discuss his fifth album, Foreign Affairs, beginning with the instrumental track Cinny's Waltz. How the song functions as an opening track, the tone Waits is aiming for, as well as the ideology of the album as a whole are all discussed this week on Song by Song.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Cinny’s Waltz, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits (1977)

Closing Time, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973)

Theme from “To Kill a Dead Man”, B-side of “Sour Times”, Portishead (1994)

To Kill a Dead Man (short film), Portishead (1994)
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Inter-Season break - Foreign Affairs and Film Noir

Welcome back to Song by Song - we're taking a couple of weeks out before starting our fifth season on Foreign Affairs to listen to some music, watch some films, and argue about eggs. You're welcome to do the same, but please rejoin us later in August for more Tom Waits and sparkling repartee.

(Specifically, we'll be watching Pickup on South Street and They Live by Night - influences on Potter's Field and Burma Shave respectively, and available from all good film retailers)

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Cinny’s Waltz, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits (1977)

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I Can't Wait to Get Off Work (And See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue) - Small Change [046]

Welcome to the conclusion of Season four! Martin, Sam and Callum conclude their observations on Tom Waits’s Small Change with a look at this quiet, calmer and more accepting song, discussing the opposition raised by this track between work and art, as well as the way it puts the feel of the album as a whole in context. Thanks to all our guests; Jeffrey Cranor, Lucy Dallas and Callum Hughes, and we hope you’ll join us later in August for season five of Song by Song!

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)

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Small Change (Got Rained on with His Own .38) - Small Change [045]

Heading into the final tracks of Small Change, Song by Song joins the bystanders watching the death of Small Change, in the title track Small Change... gets his money's worth from a phrase, that Tom Waits... This week Martin, Sam and Callum discuss some of the pejorative impact of choice of language in lyrics, as well as the relationship between improvisational virtuoso and precision storyteller.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Small Change (Got Rained on with His Own .38), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976)

Be-Bop, The Rites of Pan, Lew Tabackin (1978/2009)

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The One That Got Away - Small Change [044]

As we approach the end of Small Change, Tom Waits shifts up a gear by telling not one but eight short stories in a single song, prompting Martin, Sam and Callum to discuss the dexterity and flair of his language, the push towards and against traditional images of loss, and the traumatic life and work of Judy Garland - all in a day's work for Song by Song. 

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
The One That Got Away, Small Change, Tom Waits (1976)

The Man That Got Away - Live at Great American Music Hall, Mystery White Boy, Jeff Buckley (2000)

The Man That Got Away, from A Star Is Born (via YouTube), Judy Garland (1954)

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Bad Liver and a Broken Heart (In Lowell) - Small Change [043]

Song by Song returns to the bar as Tom Waits examines the state of his own internal organs, telling the story of another lost woman and another endless spiral into drunken sorrow. New guest host Callum Hughes joins Sam and Martin to discuss the finer points of 1940s cinema, the genetic predisposition of men and women's eye colour and, naturally, Callum's ability to make a daiquiri.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Bad Liver and a Broken Heart (In Lowell), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976)

Old Red Eyes Is Back, 0898 Beautiful South, The Beautiful South (1992)

Play It Sam… Play "As Time Goes By", Casablanca Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Ingrid Bergman/Dooley Wilson/Humphrey Bogart (1997/2013)

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Pasties and a G-String - Small Change [042]

Leaving the diner of Invitation To The Blues and following Waits to a much seedier location, Sam, Martin and Lucy all stare awkwardly at the floor, handing over their singles with polite thankyous and well-dones... but nonetheless go on to debate the levels of acceptance and condemnation in Waits's narratives, the relationship between voice and rhythm and most importantly... Eggs. Again. Always Eggs.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Pasties and a G-String (At the Two O'Clock Club), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976)

Artistry In Percussion, Early Masterpieces 1941-1946, Stan Kenton (1944/2011)

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Invitation To The Blues - Small Change [041]

Eggs. No matter how far into the discography of Tom Waits Song by Song gets, we can never get away from Martin Zaltz Austwick's obsession with Eggs. Whether they're smooth and marble, over-easy or scrambled, there they are, always lurking in the background. So that's what we're talking about today. (and songwriting and Sting and intimacy and truth in performance and various other things, sure, sometimes...)

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Invitation To The Blues, Small Change, Tom Waits (1976)

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Ghost In The Machine, The Police (1981)

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The Piano Has Been Drinking - Small Change [040]

The episode has come out, and it's quintessential Waits, and Sam tries to play the piano, and Martin knows the background, and Lucy thinks we're idiots, and the structure is quite good, and the jokes are pretty funny, and Les Dawson is amazing, and the recording seemed to go well, and the blogpost has been written, and the listeners are forgiving, and it's Song by Song by Song... By Song... By Song... By Song...

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (An Evening with Pete King), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976)

Les Dawson plays The Entertainer, via YouTube, Les Dawson (1984)

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I Wish I Was in New Orleans - Small Change [039]

Sam and Martin continue their journey through Small Change, as our latest guest host Lucy Dallas challenges the notion that authenticity and honesty is a vital part of songwriting, and whether Waits manages to do more than recapitulate a tradition of yearning for another place and time. With comparisons to Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong and ninja dwarves, there's little doubt you'll wish you were in another episode of Song by Song.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
I Wish I Was In New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976)

Georgia On My Mind, The Genius Hits The Road, Ray Charles (1960)

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Jitterbug Boy - Small Change [038]

For our last episode with the delightful Jeffrey Cranor, Song by Song takes on the truth-or-lie stories of this third track on Small Change, talking about the Jitterbug Boy lying his way through the night. The truth of a person as well as the truth of a performance emerges from the discussion, touching on Jeffrey's own experiences with performance, as well as the experiences of one of the surprising heroes of 20th Century America.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Jitterbug Boy, Small Change, Tom Waits (1976)

A Talk With George, JoCo Looks Back, Jonathan Coulton (2008)

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Step Right Up - Small Change [037]

Driving up the tempo and pulling back on the production, this second track from Small Change both imitates and satirises the tone of salesman patter. Alongside discussion of advertising and art in general, Song by Song delves into Waits's relationship with commercialism, both in terms of his music as well as his vocal identity, and features the most sympathetic description of a dog this side of Frank's Wild Years.

Further reading on Waits's attitude to commercials and advertising can be found here.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Step Right Up, Small Change, Tom Waits (1976)

Butcher’s Blend Purina Advert, Tom Waits (1981)

All Things Considered, Joel Rose, NPR, May 6 2005

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Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen) - Small Change [036]

Sam and Martin returns for a victorious fourth season, joined by their latest guest host Jeffrey Cranor of Welcome to Night Vale. As Waits embarks on what we consider his most successful and exciting album to date, expanding his range and tone and truly cementing his voice both sonically and lyrically, we mirror the content of the album by doing... exactly the same as we've done for the last three seasons. Stability and continuity, the most Waitsian of values. Welcome back to Song by Song!

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Tom Traubert’s Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976)

Fyn Er Fin, Fyn Er Fin, Lasse & Mathilde (1995)

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Spare Parts II and Closing - Nighthawks At The Diner [035]

With this final collection of Spare Parts, and varying levels of relief, we arrive at the end of Nighthawks At The Diner, no wiser but at least eleven weeks older. With thanks to guest-hosts Andrea and Catherine, Sam and Martin conclude their ongoing disagreement about this album and swear to remain friends, or at the very least disagree in more varied ways next time. As always, thanks for joining us for this season of Song by Song, and we really hope you'll be back for Small Change in a few weeks time...

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 [034]

Yeah, that’s right, we’re messing with your heads this week, turning your preconceptions about the show totally upside-down… or at least marginally back-to-front… or perhaps fractionally out of sequence… whichever way you phrase it, yup, we did that…  Song by Song takes a trip out east (or west?!?!) to discuss the quiet ghostly storytelling of Red Sovine and Tom Waits, the subtle re-writing that Waits makes to the original story to make it his own, and how this very different track affects the feeling of the album as a whole.

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, (1967/2012)

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Nobody - Nighthawks At The Diner [033]

Changing tempo and style somewhat, we rejoin Tom Waits as he winds down Nighthawks at the Diner for these last few numbers. There’s some disagreement between our hosts over Joni Mitchell’s vocal chops, a few comparisons (and anticipations) regarding the kinds of musical reinvention Waits could go through, and we even have Martin saying he likes a song from the album; all part of another offering from the somebodies of Song by Song.

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)

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