The Old Favourites pt 1 - Where do you begin? - Final Season Specials

Having done the work, put in the hours and carefully considered all the options, Martin and Sam discuss exactly where they think a new listener to Waits's music might want to start, considering the various angles and perspectives one might have, as well as a little discussion of Tom's compilation albums.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Classic Tom Waits starter playlist - Sam's picks from Closing Time (1973)

Lyrical Tom Waits starter playlist - Martin's picks from Rain Dogs (1985)

9th & Hennepin, from Big Time concert film, Tom Waits, dir. Chris Blum (1988)

Theatrical Tom Waits starter playlist - Sam's picks from The Black Rider (1993)

Beat-Poet Tom Waits starter playlist - Martin's picks from The Heart Of Saturday Night (1974)

Comic Tom Waits starter playlist - Sam's picks

Experimental Tom Waits starter playlist - Martin's picks from Bone Machine (1992)

Bounced Checks, compilation album, Tom Waits (1981)

Anthology of Tom Waits, compilation album, Tom Waits (1984)

Asylum Years, compilation album, Tom Waits (1986)

Beautiful Maladies, compilation album, Tom Waits (1998)

Used Songs - 1973-1980, compilation album, Tom Waits (2001)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

The Black Rider (Play) - The Black Rider [228/F09]

Our final discussion around The Black Rider continues from last week, as Martin and Sam get Burroughs quotes wrong (“Do what you will, that is the whole of the law” obviously being an Alistair Crowley quote, you idiot Sam, how did you miss that?!?), talk about the problematic autobiographical elements of the story, and what the lack of subtlety in this play means. Thanks for sticking with us through this very complicated season 15, and we’ll be back in the New Year with some... more accessible music.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Barbican Centre, London, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (2004)

The Black Rider song breakdown from The Tom Waits Library
Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

But He’s Not Wilhelm/Chase The Clouds Away/In The Morning/News From The Duke - The Black Rider [224-227]

Sam and Martin dig into the four tracks that only appear in The Black Rider play, trying to decide why they weren’t featured on the Waits album. With some mixed feelings about the quality of the songs overall, and a little discussion about the language used by Waits and Burroughs (both in English and German), we start a conversation that will continue next week with a final summing up of both the play and the album.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
But He’s Not Wilhelm (@12m43s) from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

Chase The Clouds Away (@48m47s & 54m30s) from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)


In The Morning (@1h6m10s) from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

News From The Duke (@1h10m50s) from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

The Black Rider song breakdown from The Tom Waits Library
Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

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)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

Oily Night - The Black Rider [220]

A fourth week with Penny Foxley sees her talk with Sam and Martin about more cacophonous instrumental music, this time with a vocal to put even Waits to shame. 

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

khemchim, dalai beldiri, Yat-Kha (1999)

Oily Night at 1h31m30s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

Uncle telling the Hemmingway Story at 1h51m10s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Barbican Theatre, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (2004)

Alash Hem (The Alash River), Genghis Blues, Kongar-ol Ondar w/ Paul Pena (2000)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

Interlude - The Black Rider [219]

A short episode for the shortest of short tracks, as Penny, Martin and Sam discuss this 18sec Greg Cohen extract from the Black Rider score. Now with even less Tom Waits!

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

Interlude at 11m57s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

Gospel Train - The Black Rider [218]

Penny Foxley returns to give Martin & Sam some more context and detail for the Black Rider play from 2004. The cacophony of the music (and the evolution of that music), Marianne Faithfull’s tailcoat, and the raw energy of early-2000s girlband pop all feature in today’s discussion... sometimes slightly tangentially?

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

Overload, One Touch, Sugababes (2000)

Gospel Train at 1h35m47s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

… and the same for the timecode 1h38m26s featuring Waits's voice on recording?

Overload music video (dir. Phil Poynter, via YouTube), Sugababes (2000)

Why the same scream is used in Hollywood Films - history of the Wilhelm Scream (via YouTube), Movie Insider (2018)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

Crossroads - The Black Rider [217]

Another Waits-does-Burroughs track this week, as we’re joined by stage manager and Black Rider alumnus Penny Foxley for some discussion of her first-hand experience working on the play. We talk through Robert Wilson’s micromanagement of actors’ gestures, the fun of doing the show compared to its bleak content, and the presence of the crossroads myth in the 1930s blues of Robert Johnson. 

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

Cross Road Blues, King of the Delta Blues Singers, Robert Johnson (1937)

Crossroads at 1h16m7s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

Flash Pan Hunter - The Black Rider [216]

Waits returns to more directly narrative material through the lyrics of William Burroughs, as Jenny, Sam and Martin talk about vocal quality, musical dissonance, and the extraordinary musical stylings of Björk. 

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

Hunter, Homogenic, Björk (1997)

Flash Pan Hunter at 1h1m40s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

Hunter music video (dir. Paul White, via YouTube), Björk (1997)

Bolero, Ravel/London Symphony Orchestra (1928/1995)

Mars, The Planets, Gustav Holst (1914/1987)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

I'll Shoot The Moon - The Black Rider [215]

A second week with Jenny Conley-Drizos sees her talking with Sam and Martin about restraint, morbidity and violence in this crooner ballad. With some of Sam’s “Overworked Lyric Unpicking” (patent pending) and Martin’s Smooth Marble Egg theory of music, we have one of the most stereotypical episodes of Song by Song yet... sorry folks, we’re 100% on-brand this week.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
I'll Shoot The Moon, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993)

I'll Be Seeing You, Dreamy, Sarah Vaughan (1960)

I'll Shoot The Moon at 1h26m30s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

Gospel Train/Orchestra - The Black Rider [214]

The mental gymnastics are in full force for this odd atonal instrumental, as Martin and Sam are joined by Jenny Conley-Drizos of the Decemberists to discuss the orchestral creation of “the essence of train”, Scott Johnson’s intense 80s editing strategies, and to list some instruments Sam has owned but never bothered to practice. 

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

John Somebody Part 1, John Somebody, Scott Johnson (1982)

Scott Johnson: Soliloquy (1991) from How It Happens (The Voice of I.F. Stone), Short Stories, The Kronos Quartet (1993)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

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...

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

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)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

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)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

'Tain't No Sin - The Black Rider [209]

We’re sort of missing Waits this week, as William Burroughs covers this Edgars/Donaldson song from his childhood. Simon and David return for more discussion with Martin and Sam around authenticity (of voice, of writing, or of instrumental sound), the fusion of Waits and Burroughs’ writing, and the nature of wax art.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
'Tain't No Sin, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993)

'Tain't No Sin (To Dance Around in Your Bones), Lee Morse: A Musical Portrait, Lee Morse & Her Blue Grass Boys (1930)

'Tain't No Sin To Dance Around in Your Bones, Single, George Olson & Dick Gardner (1929)

'Tain't No Sin at 1h21m50s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

London Road Trailer, via YouTube, film adaptation of the stage musical by Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork (2015)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

Black Box Theme - The Black Rider [208]

More mental gymnastics from David, Simon, Sam & Martin, as Song by Song grapples with not only defining the Black Box as a song, as well as a theatrical conceit. There’s some in-depth discussion of unusual instruments and their use in musical storytelling/signposting, comparison with other Robert Wilson collaborations, and we work our who that guy from Labyrinth is.

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

Knee Play 1, Einstein On The Beach, Phillip Glass/Christopher Knowles (1975/1979)

Black Box Theme at 1m51s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

Just The Right Bullets - The Black Rider [207]

Playwright Simon Stephens and Composer David Shrubsole join Martin and Sam to talk about the influence of Kurt Weill, the nature of musical theatre and the origins of the story at the heart of The Black Rider. Looking at Porgy and Bess and the performance of Nina Simone in terms of themes of addiction, we touch on other autobiographical elements of the play, as well as the effect of poetic vs dramatic lyric writing.

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

I Loves You Porgy, Little Girl Blue, Nina Simone (1958)

Just The Right Bullets at 40m31sfrom The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

I Loves You Porgy, Porgy & Bess, Gershwin/Audra McDonald & Norm Lewis, (2012)

There's A Boat That's Leaving Soon For New York, Porgy & Bess, Gershwin/David Alan Grier (2012)

Trailer for The Threepenny Opera (adapted by Simon Stephens, MD David Shrubsole), National Theatre London (2016)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

November - The Black Rider [206]

As we try to unpick some of the interplay between the album The Black Rider and the play of the same name, Jeu Jeu la Foille, Martin & Sam reflect (pun intended) on the fatalistic imagery in the song, the foreshadowing of endings and beginnings, and the benefits of bonfire-building in awkward social situations.

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

April Showers, Judy, Judy Garland (1956)

November at 21m27sfrom The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

The Black Rider - The Black Rider [205]

Guest host Jeu Jeu La Foille returns for a second week looking at the opening tracks from The Black Rider, discussing with Martin and Sam the presence and absence of Wilhelm and Käthchen in the play and the music, the mirror the play provides to Burroughs' own history, and how "beauty" and "ugliness" represent themselves through music and performance.

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

Pirate Jenny (English-language TV performance, via YouTube), The Threepenny Opera, Lotte Lenya/Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill (1928/1966)

Seeräuber Jenny (German-language film performance, via YouTube), Die Dreigroschenoper, Lotte Lenya/Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill (1928/1931)

The Black Rider at 4m24s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.

Lucky Day (Overture) - The Black Rider [204]

Song by Song returns for its 15th season, digging into one of the densest and most involved albums in the whole project, The Black Rider. Guest host Jeu Jeu La Foille joins Sam and Martin to add her experience in use of Waits in theatrical performance as well as her own memories of the stage production, as we discuss the function of overtures & introductions, the interactions between ablism & empowerment, and how to properly discipline wayward children.

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

The Struwwelpeter Overture, Shockheaded Peter, The Tiger Lillies (1999)

Lucky Day (Overture) at 0m7s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)

Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.