Pasties and a G-String - Small Change [042]

Leaving the diner of Invitation To The Blues and following Waits to a much seedier location, Sam, Martin and Lucy all stare awkwardly at the floor, handing over their singles with polite thankyous and well-dones... but nonetheless go on to debate the levels of acceptance and condemnation in Waits's narratives, the relationship between voice and rhythm and most importantly... Eggs. Again. Always Eggs.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Pasties and a G-String (At the Two O'Clock Club), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976)

Artistry In Percussion, Early Masterpieces 1941-1946, Stan Kenton (1944/2011)

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Invitation To The Blues - Small Change [041]

Eggs. No matter how far into the discography of Tom Waits Song by Song gets, we can never get away from Martin Zaltz Austwick's obsession with Eggs. Whether they're smooth and marble, over-easy or scrambled, there they are, always lurking in the background. So that's what we're talking about today. (and songwriting and Sting and intimacy and truth in performance and various other things, sure, sometimes...)

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Invitation To The Blues, Small Change, Tom Waits (1976)

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Ghost In The Machine, The Police (1981)

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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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