After taking a more cursory approach last season for One From The Heart, Song by Song rolls up its sleeves (between four and eight sleeves usually, six this week) to return to a more in-depth analysis of the music of Tom Waits, beginning season 9 with the opening track of Swordfishtrombones, Underground. Philippa Spanos joins Sam and Martin to debate the instrumentation and lyrical content of the song, as well as David Bowie's ball-manipulation technique and goblins. All the goblins.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Underground, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983)
Subbacultcha, Trompe Le Monde, The Pixies (1991)
Log into the Spotify web player to hear these tracks.