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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Spare Parts I (A Nocturnal Emission) - Nighthawks At The Diner [032]

Song by Song welcomes our latest guest-host Andrea Solomon as we head into the closing episodes of our third season. On the table today: more conversations over Waits's humour (as compared to his contemporaries); the musical accomplishments of his band and the value that adds to the lyrical content; and what a square Martin is.

The call is out for thoughts and opinions on our next series, Small Change - get in touch with your thoughts, opinions and outrages on this or any other upcoming albums, and have your say on Song by Song.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Spare Parts I (A Nocturnal Emission), Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975)

Nanook Rubs It, Apostrophe('), Frank Zappa (1974)

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Putnam County - Nighthawks At The Diner [031]

Where is Putnam County? Is it a state of mind? Small-town anywhere? Or really a place that lives in all our hearts? Nope, it's in Tennessee, sorry, should have said that earlier. Song by Song bids farewell to Catherine Hirst as we take one last road-trip together down the two-lane before realising the battery's gone flat in the… the pick-up truck of our… er… podcast feed aggregator… anyone got some jumper-cables for this analogy?

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Putnam County, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975)

John Wayne Gacy, Jr., Illinois, Sufjan Stevens (2005)

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Warm Beer And Cold Women - Nighthawks At The Diner [030]

What can you cover in a 14 minute podcast? Punk-Rock/Country vs. Jazz? The social implications of applause in live performances? Drinking culture as a mirror for the decline of American society? Sure, why not! Throw in a comparison of ages by your hosts and discussion of the kind of cigarettes Martin smokes… it’s another packed episode of Song by Song!

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Warm Beer And Cold Women, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975)

Theme from “Cheers”, The Monitor, Titus Andronicus (2010)

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Nighthawk Postcards (from Easystreet) - Nighthawks At The Diner [029]

This week Song by Song takes a stern look at the underpinnings of the drunken vagrant Tom Waits character, using the expertise of our guest host Catherine to explore what some of the poetic imagery of this stream-of-consciousness travelogue of a track actually represents, both in terms of Waits himself as well as the world he occupies.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Nighthawk Postcards (From Easystreet), Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975)

Nighthawk Postcards (From Easystreet), PBS Soundstage recording, Tom Waits (1975)

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Better Off Without A Wife - Nighthawks At The Diner [028]

Sam and Martin are joined by their latest guest-host Catherine Hirst, who finally confronts the fact that their perspective on 1970s America may be slightly… incomplete? Surely not?!? Working their way through both the lyrical implications as well as the musical storytelling in this weeks tracks leads to a casual discussion of sex and religion, topics guaranteed to generate zero controversy.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Better Off Without A Wife, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975)

Icicle, Under the Pink, Tori Amos (1994)

… and for angling context, Fishing With John (episode 2) - Jamaica with Tom Waits

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Eggs And Sausage (In A Cadillac With Susan Michelson) - Nighthawks At The Diner [027]

Nighthawks gets in a car, with a girl, and heads to the diner as Song by Song continues into season three. Does Waits rely on pretentious intellectual language? Is the man at the diner immersed in society or separated from it? Did Susan Michelson have some kind of tray table to balance those eggs and sausages? All these questions and more are posed... if not necessarily answered.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Eggs And Sausage (In A Cadillac with Susan Michelson), Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975)

Tom’s Diner, Solitude Standing, Suzanne Vega (1987)

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On A Foggy Night - Nighthawks At The Diner [026]

We move from a weather update into traffic news, as Song by Song charts a late night drive by Tom Waits, vice-gripped but nonetheless askew as Nighthawks heads onwards. With Martin playing guitar and Sam impersonating iconic vocal styles of bygone eras, credentials are on the line as we head out through a Foggy Night and Day.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
On A Foggy Night, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975)

A Foggy Day, Ella and Louis, Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Armstrong (1956)

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Emotional Weather Report - Nighthawks At The Diner [025]

Sit back, pour yourself a drink, maybe put a little smooth music on the stereo and put your arm around Song by Song, as Martin and Sam embark on an improvisational adventure through the metropolitan sprawl of Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits's third studio(ish) album. There's a definite divide in attitude as we settle into this first track, with variable high feelings and low-pressure thoughts throughout the discussion. So umbrellas up and ears open for Season three. How's your drink, can I freshen that up for you...?

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Emotional Weather Report, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975)

Young Americans, Young Americans, David Bowie (1975)

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State of the Union - Season 2

Two albums down, someothersizablenumber left to go!  So where are we on Song by Song? How's it going? What's the 411?

Well, from our point of view things are pretty positive. We've listened to two albums which, while we never thought badly of them, weren't our particular favourites, and come to appreciate them in a different way. For me, that's the most interesting things about the whole project - it's easy to fall into habits, but there are fascinating and obscure gems mixed in with the more famous tracks. I've heard Depot, Depot and Lonely many times, but clearly never listened to them properly (or maybe "fully" is a better term) until we talked about them here.

I'm certain that there are die-hard fans of Closing Time and Heart of Saturday Night who find the whole idea of re-appraising them slightly farcical, and I totally sympathise with that. I anticipate difficulties for myself with Nighthawks - I've listened to it so often over the years that finding new things to say seems almost... bizarre? But with luck the chronological approach will reveal journeys, shifts and progressions that we all may find interesting.

And that's where you folks come in - we've led the discussion up until now, but the input of our guest hosts has really given the show much more breadth, and we'd love to broaden even further by including your thoughts more actively in the recordings. So consider this...

an invitation!

Our email, twitter and the comments on this very blog can, could and should be used to flag up questions, theories and observations about tracks from Nighthawks; weird notes and phrases that have made you question what the song is actually about, the noise that makes you wonder if someone was kicking a cat outside the studio, or the buried meaning that you think everyone else is missing. There's so many associations we tie up with music, especially things we listen to over and over again, and if you've found anything we've talked about interesting, I'm certain that there are perspectives you have which we will find equally engaging.

While me and Martin don't record that frequently, we've talked a lot about how much fun we've been having on this project, and how much we're looking forward to ploughing on with it, into Nighthawks and beyond. I leave you with an odd little discovery - the YouTube playlist of a PBS broadcast from 1975, the year Nighthawks was released, featuring old favourites filmed in... some unusual ways.

Thanks for listening, and we hope to hear from you soon.

Sam

Blue Skies - The Heart of Saturday Night [024]

Even though we finished the album last week, there's one more episode and one more song for season two here at Song by Song, as Martin, Sam and Isy discuss a single from (but not from?) The Heart of Saturday Night in Blue Skies. Isy's love of messy houses, Sam's pronunciation of "Johnsons", and Martin's smooth marble egg theory all make an appearance, as we hit our second milestone in the Song by Song project. Two down, only ohmygodhowmany to go...

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Blue Skies (Single from The Heart of Saturday Night Sessions), Tom Waits (1974)

Blue Skies, The Early Years Vol. 2, Tom Waits (1971/1993)

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The Ghosts of Saturday Night - The Heart of Saturday Night [023]

The final track of Tom Waits's second album finds us peering through the window of a diner, watching the world passing by. Isy Suttie continues her stint as guest host, describing some of her early experiences playing music in Matlock, through to her current listening habits; Martin expresses his difficulties with Best Of albums and Heart of Saturday Night as a concept album; and Sam generates a conspiracy-theory-esqe thesis about this final track's links to previous songs. But is this the end of season two? Or is there one last twist in the tale?

[Disclaimer: This episode was recorded before the death of the peerless David Bowie]

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
The Ghosts Of Saturday Night (After Hours At Napoleone's Pizza House), The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974)

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Drunk On The Moon - The Heart of Saturday Night [022]

Returning from the Christmas break (which we slightly caught ourselves off-guard with, hope nobody was confused by a lack of episode for the last few weeks), we push on towards the close of this second season of Song by Song. Isy Suttie returns to debate, amongst other things, the relationship between audience and performer in live and recorded settings, and the ways that this can be shifted and altered. We also discuss Frank Zappa, Waits's difficulties opening for him on tour, and even find time to talk about Drunk On The Moon itself... all in less than 15 minutes!

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Drunk On The Moon, The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974)

Friday The 13th, Thelonius Monk & Sonny Rollins, Monk/Rollins (1954)

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