Blue Skies - The Early Years vol 2 [246]

A second week with Charlie brings his brief SbS return to a close, as we revisit this excellent demo version of Blue Skies. We broadly acknowledge our love of the simple 1971 version, before digging into Solange's 2016 image of Cranes in the Sky, and the beautiful complexities of that song’s structure.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Blue Skies, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993)

Cranes in the Sky, A Seat at the Table, Solange (2016)

Blue Skies (Single from The Heart of Saturday Night Sessions), Tom Waits (1974)

Cranes in the Sky, music video (via YouTube, dir. Alan Ferguson & Solange Knowles), Solange (2016)

Song Exploder episode 94: Solange - Cranes in the Sky, Hrishikesh Hirway/Song Exploder (2017)

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In Between Love - The Early Years vol 2 [245]

Charlie Harding of Switched On Pop returns to Song by Song to discuss this interstitial about between-moments-romance. What this love is, who it's directed towards and what that might mean is up for debate, and Charlie, Sam & Martin discuss the differences between ideas of middle/averageness on either side of the Atlantic.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
In Between Love, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993)

Inbetweener, Smart, Sleeper (1995)

Inbetweener, music video (via YouTube), Louise Wener (1995)

Hey Ya!, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, OutKast (2003)

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Russian Dance - The Black Rider [213]

It's St. Petersburg or bust this week for Charlie, Martin & Sam, as Waits pulls out a shortcut to the traditional music of Russia (Soviet, Tzarist or otherwise) for this odd interstital moment in both the album and the play. I usually write something which vaguely describes the episode here, but really you should just stop reading, go to the website and watch every single Little Big video right now. k thx bye.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Russian Dance, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993)

Skibidi, Antipositive pt. 2, Little Big (2018)

Skibidi (Romantic Edition), Single remix, Little Big (2018)

Russian Dance at 1h29m6s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

Soviet Anthem scene from The Hunt For Red October (dir. McTiernan), via YouTube (1990)

A variety of Little Big videos for your entertainment...

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That's The Way / The Briar & The Rose - The Black Rider [211/212]

Charlie Harding returns for this two-for-one special, listening to this twinned and linked pair of songs by Burroughs and Waits. With more talk of the endless foreshadowing as well as some comparisons to Shakespearian themes in pop music, Sam, Martin & Charlie think about the extra text for That’s The Way, the validity of biographical shout-outs, and the symbolism of neon shotguns.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
That's The Way, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993)

The Briar & The Rose, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993)

That's The Way / The Briar & The Rose at 28m36s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

Love Story, Fearless, Taylor Swift (2008)

Cruel To Be Kind, When Did We Do That?, Letters To Cleo (2008/1999)

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Flash Pan Hunter/Intro - The Black Rider [210]

Charlie Harding of Switched On Pop joins Sam and Martin for some discussion around this little instrumental interlude on The Black Rider. We begin with a brief exploration of leitmotif as related to lightsabers, and then move through Waits's more elegant compositional techniques, before landing on a bit of light bird identification. Many thanks to Charlie, as well as Suzy of The Casual Birder Podcast (casualbirderpod.libsyn.com), the hosts of Hannah & Erik Go Birding (www.gobirdingpodcast.com) and mash_ton of reddit for their input this week.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Flash Pan Hunter/Intro, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993)

Flash Pan Hunter/Intro at 55m33s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

Text - transcribed from the 2004 Barbican version of text, spoken over the top of Flash Pan Hunter/Intro

The The The The The The
The Angel
The Angel of Death

The angel of death spreads wings on the blast.
And breathed on the human worm has passed.
There lies the hero broke and rank.
The dew on his brow, the rust on his tank
The Widows of Langley are long in their wail
And the idols are broken in the temples at Yale.
(breath)
The might of the bored unspoke by the sword
Has melted like snow with the glance of the bored.
The wandering dead, like automatons,
out of control are all but demands
The work pyramid silently falling apart...
no crops in the fields... no food in the stores...
(shh)
Bleak, ragged figures, wordless and starved
Crawling through garbage, eyes covered with gore.
Some regress to the state of apes,
Roaming through cities to plunder and rape.
The human mold has broken to pieces
And all hell leaks out

OUT!

(breaths)
Star Wars Character Themes (via YouTube), Star Wars: A New Hope Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, John Williams, (1977)

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