Carnival - The Black Rider [223]

A third week with David & Callum brings Sam & Martin to the end of The Black Rider album, although we reach back to much earlier in the play. Ideas of carnival celebrations in a British context are compared to the American funfair/freakshow image, and we take a bit of time to think about the ideology of the play and album in general. 

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

Good Morning, recorded on the drag during UK Panorama 2017, Endurance Steel Orchestra/Peter Ram (2017)

Good Morning, Single, Peter Ram (2016)

Carnival at 25m17s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

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The Last Rose Of Summer - The Black Rider [222]

Moving into a coda of sorts (both in the album and the play) Callum, David, Sam & Martin discuss the way Waits winds down The Black Rider with this final “proper” song. With some full-blooded disagreement over comparison between the theatre and album versions, Song by Song edges towards the conclusion of this very complicated album. 

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
The Last Rose Of Summer, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993)

The Last Rose of Summer (and extra audience chat) at 2h0m11s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

The Last Rose Of Summer (and extra audience chat) at 2h16m10s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Barbican Centre, London, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (2004)

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Lucky Day - The Black Rider [221]

Theatre-maker David Shopland joins his collaborator and returning guest Callum Hughes (plus the usual goofs Martin & Sam) to listen to this climactic track from The Black Rider. We discuss fusion of Waits’s traditional mode of writing with the theatrical context, the nature of his writing throughout the album, as well as the writing of Belle & Sebastian. Stick with us to the end of the episode for a brief bonus performance...

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

My Wandering Days Are Over, Tigermilk, Belle & Sebastian (1996)

Lucky Day at 1h54m55s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

The "Priest" They Called Him, Single, William S. Burroughs & Kurt Cobain (1993)

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