Song by Song

Having gone through all of Waits's music Song by Song, we're obviously well-placed to say which ones are best... or maybe least-worst... perhaps just from our perspective... subjectively good in these two people's opinions... but then who are we to say? Anyway, in this penultimate episode, Sam and Martin have a little chat about The Old Favourites as the podcast enters the final straight.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include (deep breath): All The World Is Green, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Barcarolle, Alice, Tom Waits (2002) Blind Love, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Blue Skies, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993) Cold Cold Ground, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) Diamond In Your Mind, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers and Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Downtown Train, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Fall Of Troy, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers and Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Falling Down, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988) Franks Wild Years, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Georgia Lee, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Ghosts Of Saturday Night (After Hours at Napoleone's Pizza House), The Heart Of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) In The Neighbourhood, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Kentucky Avenue, Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978) Low side Of The Road, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Lucky Day, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) Martha, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Metropolitan Glide, Real Gone, Tom Waits (2004) More Than Rain, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988) Nighthawk Postcards, Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits (1975) Rainbow Sleeves, Girl At Her Volcano, Rickie Lee Jones [w. Tom Waits] (1978/1983) Ruby’s Arms, Heartattack And Vine, Tom Waits (1980) So It Goes, The Early Years vol 2, Tom Waits (1993) Somewhere (from West Side Story), Blue Valentine, Tom Waits (1978) Strange Weather, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988) Telephone Call From Istanbul, Big Time, Tom Waits (1988) That Feel, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Tom Traubert’s Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) Whistle Down The Wind (For Tom Jans), Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Yesterday Is Here, Franks Wild Years, Tom Waits (1987) You Can Never Hold Back Spring, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers and Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

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.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Martha, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Lonely, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Closing Time, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Downtown Train, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) Time, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) 9th & Hennepin, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985) The Black Rider, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) I'll Shoot The Moon, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) Lucky Day, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993) Diamonds On My Windshield, The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) (Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night, The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) The Ghosts of Saturday Night (After Hours At Napoleone's Pizza House), The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits (1974) Goin' Out West, Glitter&Doom, Tom Waits (2009) Step Right Up, Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) Frank's Wild Years, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) The Earth Died Screaming, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Who Are You, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Such A Scream, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Our second set of music videos brings Philippa back to Martin and Sam for the last decade-and-change of Waits music videos. Sampling the work of Jesse Dylan, Matt Mahurin and various others, we consider what these videos mean in a post-YouTube world, as well as Waits's filmed promos in the 21st century.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Hold On, Tom Waits music video from Mule Variations, dir. Matt Mahurin (1999) Come On Up To The House, (unauthorised?) Tom Waits music video from Mule Variations, dir. Anders Lövgren (1999) What's He Building, Tom Waits music video from Mule Variations, dir. Lex Brand (1999) God's Away On Business, Tom Waits music video from Blood Money, dir. Jesse Dylan (2002) Lie To Me, Tom Waits music video from Orphans, dir. Danny Clinch (2006) Tom Waits Press Conference, promo for Glitter&Doom tour, dir. unknown (2008) Tom Waits' Private Listening Party, promo for Bad As Me, dir. unknown (2011) Satisfied, Tom Waits music video from Bad As Me, dir. Jesse Dylan (2011) Hell Broke Luce, Tom Waits music video from Bad As Me, dir. Matt Mahurin (2012) Bad As Me, (unreleased?) Tom Waits music video from Bad As Me, dir. unknown / Jesse Dylan? (2011/2013?) Misery’s the River of the World, Tom Waits music / lyric video from Blood Money 20th Anniversary re-release, artwork by Casey Waits / animation by Sarah Sheikh Bridge (2022) Lost In The Harbour, Tom Waits music / lyric video from Alice 20th Anniversary re-release, artwork by Christy Smith / animation by Sarah Sheikh Bridge (2022) God's Away On Business, Tom Waits music / lyric video from Blood Money 20th Anniversary re-release, artwork by Casey Waits / animation by Sarah Sheikh Bridge (2022) Top Of The Hill, Real Gone, Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Continuing our season of specials on material outside the show’s main remit, Philippa Spanos returns to help Martin and Sam consider the creative and commercial aspects of Waits’s music videos. Starting with a long-overlooked animation experiment from the 70s, we chart how these films function in relation to the music, the commercial purpose of a video, as well as all the tiny tiny guitars.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Tom Waits For No-One / The One That Got Away, short film feat. Tom Waits, dir. John Lamb (1979) In The Neighbourhood, Tom Waits music video, dir. Haskell Wexler (1983) Rain Dogs Promos, dir. Chris Blum (1985) Downtown Train, Tom Waits music video, dir. Jean-Baptiste Mondino (1985) Blow Wind Blow, Tom Waits music video, and Limousine Interview promo, dir. Chris Blum (1987) Temptation, Tom Waits music video from Franks Wild Years, dir. Betzy Bromberg (1987) It's Alright With Me, Tom Waits music video from Red Hot + Blue, dir. Jim Jarmusch (1990) Going Out West, Tom Waits music video from Bone Machine, dir. Jesse Dylan (1992) I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, Tom Waits music video from Bone Machine, dir. Jim Jarmusch (1992)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Our final season wouldn't be complete without a look at the emails sent in by you, dear listeners, covering some errors and omissions, new theories, questions about remasters and several lovely well-wishes as we head towards the end of the show. 

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: You Have Beautiful Eyes, Over The Garden Wall OST, The Blasting Company (2014/2016) Glitter & Doom tour performance from The Fox Theatre, Atlanta GA (5 July 2008) Cold River, Master of Disaster, John Hiatt (2005) Sixthfinger from Topper Toys, advert (1965) Why Oh Why, Songs to Grow On for Mother and Child, Woodie Guthrie (recorded 1947, released 1956/1991)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

We're delighted to bring you an extended interview with the man who literally wrote the book on Tom Waits, Barney Hoskyns. Bouncing through a selection of Waits's material from the 70s to the present day, we discuss what it's like to interview and write about artists, what changed (and stayed the same) in Waits's music, and how you should always take a suggestion from Nick Cave seriously.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Ol' 55, Closing Time, Tom Waits (1973) Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen), Small Change, Tom Waits (1976) Shore Leave, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits (1983) Goin' Out West, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Take It With Me, Mule Variations, Tom Waits (1999) Satisfied, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011)

Just imagine... at one point we thought this surprisingly epic True Orphans series might fit in two episodes, HA! Anyway, for this final episode Martin and Sam consider the Waits material from 2010 to the present day, including several contributions to tribute albums, a few live recordings, and his beautiful-yet-flawed farewell to David Letterman.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Tootie Ma Is A Big Fine Thing, Preservation - An Album To Benefit Preservation Hall and The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program, Tom Waits & The Preservation Hall Jazz Band (2010) Corrine Died on the Battlefield, Preservation - An Album To Benefit Preservation Hall and The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program, Tom Waits & The Preservation Hall Jazz Band (2010) Fortune Has its Cookies To Give Out, live recording, Herbst Theater, San Francisco CA, w. Lawrence Ferlinghetti (2 October 2010)  Ghost to a Ghost, Ghost to a Ghost, Hank Williams III (2011) Fadin Moon, Ghost to a Ghost, Hank Williams III (2011) Shenandoah, Son Of Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys, Tom Waits & Keith Richards (2013) Little Red Rooster, live recording, Oracle Arena, Oakland CA, The Rolling Stones w. Tom Waits (5 May 2013) Take One Last Look, live recording, The Late Show with David Letterman, New York NY, Tom Waits (14 May 2015) The Soul of a Man, God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnston, Tom Waits (2016) John The Revelator, God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnston, Tom Waits (2016) Respect Yourself, live recording, Lagunitas Amphitheatre, Petaluma CA, Mavis Staples w. Tom Waits (11 September 2017) Rains On Me, live recording, Troubador, Los Angeles CA, w. Chuck E. Weiss & Tom Waits (18 March 2022) Getting Drunk On A Bottle / I Like To Sleep Late In The Morning, live recording, Snap Sessions - KPFK FM - Santa Monica OR Folk Arts Rare Records, w. Dave Blue (November, 1973)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

As we enter the new millennium, Waits pushes into new sonic territory with various collaborations, covers and spoken word pieces, including nostalgic re-inventions and some more full-blooded engagement with hip hop music.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Helium Reprise, Helium, Tin Hat Trio (2000) I’ll Tell You Why That Is, Beatin' the Heat, Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks / Tom Waits (2000) Mahfouz, Witness, Dave Douglas / Tom Waits (2001) Go Tell It On The Mountain, Go Tell It On The Mountain, The Blind Boys of Alabama / Tom Waits (2002) Kitate, The Ride, Los Lobos / Tom Waits / Martha Gonzalez (2004) Going Fetal, Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, The Eels (2004) Ramblin’ Man, live recording, The House Of Blues, Cleveland OH, w. Hank Williams (13 August 2006) Spoonful, live recording, The House Of Blues, Cleveland OH, w. Willie Dixon (13 August 2006) Morning Hollow, It's A Wonderful Life / Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain, Sparklehorse (2001/2006) The Waitress, When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold, Atmosphere (2008) Spacious Thoughts, The Spirit Of Apollo, N.A.S.A / Tom Waits / Kool Keith (2009)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Just a brief FYI that Song by Song is taking a (previously unannounced) seasonal break for two weeks. We'll be back on January 10th 2024 with the penultimate episode of our True Orphans series. Have a lovely Winterval everyone!

Rounding out the second half(?) of the 1990s, Waits explores collaborations with old friends and some unusual covers, as well as the building of experimental musical instruments, including his own mouth. It's a weird one, no doubt about it!

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Brother Can You Spare a Dime, Brother Can You Spare A Dime Day, Tom Waits / w. Yip Harburg / Jay Gorney (1993) Fever, live recording, Raven Theatre, Healdsburg CA, w. Eddie Cooley / Otis Blackwell [under pseudonym "John Davenport"] (11 August 1996) Old Time Feeling, Friends Of Mine, Ramblin' Jack Elliot / Guy Clark / Tom Waits (1998) World Of Adventure / River Of Men, freeform singing, Fishing With John TV show, Tom Waits / John Lurie (1991/1998) Highway Cafe, Pearls In The Snow - The Songs Of Kinky Friedman, w. Kinky Friedman (1998) Coattails of a Dead Man, Antipop, Primus / Tom Waits (1999) Do You Know What I Idi Amin, Extremely Cool, Chuck E. Weiss / Tom Waits (1999) Babbachichuija, CD insert for the book 'Orbitones, Spoon Harps & Bellowphones', Tom Waits (1999) Buzz Fledderjohn, Wicked Grin, John Hammond (2001)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Into the 1990s, Martin and Sam return for more unreleased Waits tracks, splitting the decade into two more manageable chunks. This first episode sees some repurposed music, a few live songs, as well as Waits delivering heart-felt advice alongside Thelonius Monster.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Serrano, flexi-disc insert for the book 'Sylvia Plachy's Unguided Tour', Tom Waits (1990) I Left My Heart In San Francisco, live recording, Orpheum Theatre, San Francisco CA, w. George Corey / Douglass Cross (31 December 1990) Auld Lang Syne, live recording, Orpheum Theatre, San Francisco CA (31 December 1990/1 January 1991) It’s Alright With Me, Red Hot + Blue, Tom Waits / w. Cole Porter - music video dir. Jim Jarmusch (1990) Thousand Bing Bangs, Devout Catalyst, Ken Nordine / Tom Waits (1991) The Movie, Devout Catalyst, Ken Nordine / Tom Waits (1991) I'm Not Your Fool Anymore, Mississippi Lad, Teddy Edwards / Tom Waits (1991) Adios Lounge, Beautiful Mess, Thelonius Monster / Tom Waits (1992)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

More discussions of Waits's unreleased recordings brings us to the 1980s, featuring several demos, a bunch of covers, and significant collaborations with other musicians, both big and small. Highlights this week include his contribution to a poetry documentary, a live Ewan MacColl cover, and his evening of collaborations with The Replacements.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Purple Avenue / Empty Pockets, live recording, Expo Theatre, Montreal Canada (3 July 1981) Smuggler's Waltz / Bronx Lullaby, from Poetry In Motion, dir. Ron Mann (1982) Carnivalins, unreleased recording, Frank's Wild Demos (1986?) Vegas Theme, unreleased recording, Frank's Wild Demos (1986?) Downtown Train (alt take), NME's Big Four 7" EP, Tom Waits (1986) Harlem Shuffle, Dirty Work, The Rolling Stones (1986) I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Knew (About Her), live recording, Beverly Theatre, Los Angeles CA, Tom Waits with Elvis Costello and Lou Reed, w. Cecil Null (4 October 1986) Papa's Got A Brand New Bag, live recording, Massey Hall, Toronto Canada, w. James brown (7 October 1987) Mack The Knife, live recording, Freie Volksbuhne, Berlin Germany, w. Bertolt Brecht / Kurt Weill (8 December 1987) Big Rock Candy Mountain, from the film Ironweed, dir. Hector Babenco (1987) Once More Before I Go, from the film Candy Mountain, dir. Robert Frank and Rudy Wurlitzer (1988) Date To Church, single b-side, The Replacements / Tom Waits (1989) Lowdown Monkey Blues, Dead Man's Pop, The Replacements / Tom Waits (1989/2019) If Only You Were Lonely, Dead Man's Pop, The Replacements / Tom Waits (1989/2019) I Can Help, studio outtake / Dead Man's Pop, The Replacements / Tom Waits, w. Billy Swan (1989/2019) We Know The Night - Rehearsal Version, Dead Man's Pop, The Replacements / Tom Waits (1989/2019) Take It As It Comes, live recording, Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles CA, w. The Doors (31 December 1988) Pennies From Heaven, live recording, Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles CA, w. Arthur Johnston and Johnny Burke (31 December 1988) Dirty Old Town, live recording, Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles CA, w. Ewan MacColl (31 December 1988) Hound Dog, live recording, Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles CA, w. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (31 December 1988) Dirty Old Town, Rum Sodomy and The Lash, The Pogues (1985)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Our second episode dealing with the non-album work of Tom Waits (and our second from the 1970s) brings a variety of covers, live performances, outtakes and re-uses from studio sessions... including the Hokey Pokey. Check the show notes for versions of everything we're discussing, and hopefully you'll find some new favourites.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Martin Goes And Does Where It’s At / Bombed Anyway, I'm Everyone I've Ever Loved, Martin Mull feat. Tom Waits (1977) Just Another Dime Store Novel, unreleased recording - possibly from the Foreign Affairs sessions / Filmways Heider Recording, Tom Waits (1977) (Meet Me In) Paradise Alley, Paradise Alley Soundtrack, Tom Waits (1978) With a Suitcase (Street Band Version), unreleased recording - from the Paradise Alley sessions, Tom Waits (1978) Tijuana, Jack Tempchin, Jack Tempchin, w. Tom Waits (1978) Summertime, live recording, The Royal Horse, Osaka, Japan, w. George Gershwin (March 1978) Summertime / Putnam County, live recording, Park Motor Inn, Madison, Wisconsin (31 October 1977) Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo', live recording, Zilker Park, Austin TX (5 December 1978) OR Warner Theatre, Washington DC (21 November 1978) Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo' / I Wish I Was In New Orleans, live recording, Austin City Limits, Texas (December 1978) Waitin' For Waits, Hollywood Madness, Richie Cole / Eddie Jefferson feat. Tom Waits (1979) Gee Baby Ain’t I Good To You, live recording, Uptown Theatre, Kansas City, w. Andy Razaf and Don Redman (8 October 1979) OR Beacon Theatre, New York w. Andy Razaf and Don Redman (5 November 1979) Whose Sports Coat Is That, live recording, Uptown Theatre, Kansas City (8 October 1979) OR Beacon Theatre, New York (5 November 1979) Trash day, live recording, Uptown Theatre, Kansas City (8 October 1979) OR Beacon Theatre, New York (5 November 1979) Since I Fell For You, live recording, Capitol Theatre, Sydney Australia, w. Buddy Johnson (2 May 1979) Do The Hokey Pokey / Pasties & A G-String, live recording, Capitol Theatre, Sydney Australia (2 May 1979) I Feel Good, live recording, Paramount Theatre, Seattle WA, w. James Brown (7 October 1979) In Shades, Heartattack & Vine, Tom Waits (1980) When The Saints Go Marching In, live recording (197?/198?)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Having determined not to waste everyone's time with a comprehensive coverage of ALL of Waits's recordings... Sam and Martin return to the podcast to do exactly that. Sorry? In this first of several episodes, we consider some of the most prolific years of Waits's career, covering as many recordings as we can find between 1971 and 1977.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Getting Drunk On A Bottle / I Like To Sleep Late In The Morning, live recording, Snap Sessions - KPFK FM - Santa Monica OR Folk Arts Rare Records, w. Dave Blue (November, 1973) Friday’s Blues, live recording, Snap Sessions - KPFK FM - Santa Monica OR Folk Arts Rare Records, w. Ray Bierl (November, 1973) Good Night Loving Trail, Dime Store Novels vol 1 - Ebbets Field, w. Utah Phillips (1974)  Spanish is the Loving Tongue, live recording, San Diego, w. Charles Badger Clark / Bill Simon (1974) Your Sweet and Shiny Eyes, Home Plate, Bonnie Raitt (1975) Apartment For Rent, live recording, Mainpoint - Bryn Mawr (June 1975) Tom Gets Hustled At 9 Ball, live recording, KWFM - Lee Furr's Studios - Tucson Arizona (1975) Saturday Night Fish Fry, live recording, Santa Barbara, w. Louis Jordan / Ellis Walsh (February 1975) Standing On The Corner, live recording, Agora Ballroom - Cleveland/ Ohio, w. Frank Loesser (August 1976) What Else Is New, unreleased recording - Small Change sessions, Tom Waits (July 1976) Stray Dog Help Yourself, unreleased recording - Small Change sessions, Tom Waits (July 1976) Cupid, live recording, Westchester, w. Sam Cooke (1976) Playin' Hooky, unreleased recording - Foreign Affairs sessions, Tom Waits (July/August 1977)Scarecrow, unreleased recording - Foreign Affairs sessions, Tom Waits (July/August 1977)A Nickle’s Worth of Dreams, unreleased recording - Foreign Affairs sessions, Tom Waits (July/August 1977)Mr Henry, Bounced Checks/Asylum Years - Foreign Affairs sessions, Tom Waits (1977/1981)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

WE DID IT! Just over 8 years and several hundred episodes since Ol’ 55, we’ve songed all the songs there are to Song by Song. Along with a little look back at Bad As Me, Kirk, Sam and Martin also give this alphabetically-first-but-chronologically-last track full consideration, and quickly check in to see how The Eagles have been doing. Plus - BONUS! A final appearance of the Smooth Marble Egg theory of art!

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: After You Die, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) I Wish You Peace, One Of These Nights, The Eagles (1975)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

A quintessential and sincere song of advice and experience for Kirk, Martin and Sam this week, perhaps also bordering on the sentimental? We discuss the paired imagery in the lyrics, more rhythmic shifting, and examine the questions these songs are asking (along with the answers they suggest). 

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Tell Me, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) Why, Diva, Annie Lennox (1992)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Diving into the three bonus tracks from the Bad As Me Deluxe edition, Sam and Martin welcome Kirk Hamilton of the Strong Songs podcast to explore isolated sax stabs, irregular rhythmic structures and sparse arrangements. We consider Waits's continued vocal experimentation, the oblique details of his lyric writing, and the politics and history of dancehall/pop crossovers from reggae star Shaggy.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: She Stole The Blush, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) It Wasn't Me, Hot Shot, Shaggy feat. Rik Rok (2000)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

At the end of the album-proper, Andrea, Martin and Sam consider the festive season as well as all its associated traumas. We return to Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Rickie Lee Jones as well as 1970s Tom Waits, debating possible autobiographical elements, poverty tourism, and which lullaby is best used to ring in the new year.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: New Year's Eve, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) A Sight For Sore Eyes, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits (1977)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

With serious discussion of disturbing events from the start, Andrea illuminates for Sam and Martin some of the context for this song of military trauma. We consider musical presentation of problems and solutions to injustice, sonic and lyrical density, and Waits’s political engagement more broadly 

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Hell Broke Luce, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) Song 33, single, Noname (2020)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

We’re heading towards conclusions, both in albums and in life, as Andrea Warner joins with Martin and Sam to examine another Tom and Keith team up. The hubris of Waits’s sentiments, the juxtaposition of humour and pain in music, and a consideration of vestigial tails all feature in this week’s discussion. 

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Last Leaf, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) Pale Green Things, The Sunset Tree, The Mountain Goats (2005)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Another Keith Richards collaboration brings Waits to a full confrontation with the Rolling Stones, as Song by Song engages with this cryptic track from the second half of Bad As Me. Determination in music and sports, the sexual or metaphorical interpretations of bullets and guns, and the lunacy of Harry Smith all feature in our third conversation with Sara Gran.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Satisfied, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Live in Paris, John Lee Hooker / Carey Bell (1970)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Waits's yearning for a new (or at least newness in) love brings Sara, Martin and Sam to some inherent features of popular music as well as human nature in general. We have conversations about changing affection in art itself, dig into the truths and lies we tell about the shape of life, and begin an extended consideration of the presence of limerence in music.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Kiss Me, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) And Then He Kissed Me, single / Philles Records Presents Today's Hits, The Crystals (1963)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

We’re delighted to welcome John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats for this special extended episode listening to the title track from Bad As Me. Diving into the history of Waits’s musical evolution, John, Martin and Sam consider the value of originality, Waits's reasons for producing this album after a 7 year hiatus, and some of the philosophical questions around the creation and publication of music. Plus some good Zelda chat.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Bad As Me, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Joined by long-hoped-for guest Sara Gran, Sam and Martin shuffle back into the crowd of emotional songs of loss and yearning, flanked by Waits in a sorrowful mode and Roy Orbison full of powerful declamatory emotion. Some lyrical interpretation, a little passive-aggression, and the question of how lonely a voice sounds all occupy our discussion, as we continue through Bad As Me.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Back In The Crowd, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) Only The Lonely, Lonely and Blue, Roy Orbison (1960)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

With a brief digression into Beyoncé’s oeuvre, Kerry-Jo, Martin and Sam discuss some of the oddities in the writing of Pay Me, and what story Waits is trying to tell. We consider stories of theatrical life, where to find the end of the world, and specificities in the writing of Stephen Sondheim.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Pay Me, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) Send In The Clowns, Good Bad but Beautiful, Shirley Bassey / Stephen Sondheim (1975)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Back with Sam and Martin, Kerry-Jo has some opinions about the honesty of Waits’s reasons for departure, as well as the comprehensibility of his Sweetums voice. We discuss the inevitability and/or duality of his departure, styles of poetic writing in both tracks, and the various ways that we get “stuck” in situations and relationships. 

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Face To The Highway, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) Carrion, Tidal, Fiona Apple (1996)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

We welcome Kerry-Jo Reilly to the show, joining Martin and Sam for songs of travel, departure and longing by Tom Waits, Larry Taylor, and their various associates. There’s discussion of the value of 60s/70s blues-rock, Waits’s various relationships over the years, and his attitude towards The King.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Get Lost, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) On The Road Again, Boogie With Canned Heat, Canned Heat (1968)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Waits pulls on some (possibly) contemporary references this week, as Bryce, Sam and Martin consider the various meanings that “everybody talking” may relate to. Considering the tone and quality of the song, the applications to various political concerns of various eras, and taking a step into popular music of 2022, the conversation continues through Bad As Me.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Talking At The Same Time, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) Late Night Talking, Harry's House, Harry Styles (2022)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Shambling on from Chicago, Waits lays down some relationship advice for Bryce, Martin and Sam to pick apart and interpret, with some mixed attitudes towards partners’ and parents’ influence over right and wrong men. We chat about the work of Aretha Franklin, overlap with Nick Cave, and of course the looming influence of Snagglepuss. 

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Raised Right Men, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) Do Right Woman, Do Right Man, single, Aretha Franklin (1967)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Back for the beginning of our final(?) season, Bryce Halliday joins Sam and Martin for a journey toward the great unknown of Illinois. We examine the era of the song’s setting, the power of Mavis Staples’s singing, and the reliability of moving to "better" places.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Chicago, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011) I'll Take You There, Be Altitude: Respect Yourself, The Staples Singers (1972)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

One more Megamix before we hit the final straight, with Martin and Sam taking the opportunity to consider the penultimate release of Waits, the 2009 live album Glitter & Doom Live, bouncing through the 17+ tracks at an approximate minute-per-track. We consider the different energy and interpretations of these recordings compared to studio originals, how some tracks can be perfected live, and how this compares to other live albums. It's just a bunch of Tom Waits songs…

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Glitter & Doom Live, Tom Waits (2009)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

A second week’s break, but there’s another discussion celebrating Flixwatcher’s 300th episode, this time digging into the 1991 classic that is Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves. And fear not, Sam and Martin will be back in just one short week for the Glitter & Doom megamix!

https://flixwatcher.tv/episode-300-part-ii-robin-hood-prince-of-thieves-with-martin-and-sam-from-song-by-song-podcast/

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

A week off for Martin and Sam... but never ones to rest on laurels, they've headed over to Flixwatcher to guest-host for Helen and Kobi's 300th episode, discussing the Martin Scorsese epic "The Irishman". While you build anticipation for Glitter & Doom, why not head over and take a listen.

https://flixwatcher.tv/episode-300-part-i-the-irishman-with-martin-and-sam-from-song-by-song-podcast/

Our third cameo compilation episode concludes Song by Song's journey through the film work of Tom Waits, with Leigh, Martin and Sam touching on the last decade of his screen appearances. This week considers Twixt (2011), The Laughing Heart (2003/2012), The Simpsons (2013), Citizen (2016), The Moon's Milk (2018), The Ultra City Smiths (2021), Licorice Pizza (2021) and a few others. Please pick up any spilled popcorn as you leave folks…

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from The Simpsons 'Homer Goes To Prep School', dir. Mark Kirkland (2013) Clips from Twixt, dir. Francis Ford Coppola (2011) Clips from The Laughing Heart, dir. John Dullaghan/Travis Carr (2003/2012) Clips from A Brief History of John Baldessari, dir. Henry Joost/Ariel Schulman (2012) Clips from Citizen, dir. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (2016) Clips from The Moon's Milk, dir. Ri Crawford (2018) Clips from Ultra City Smiths, dir. Steve Conrad/David H Brooks (2021) Clips from Licorice Pizza, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson (2021) (Meet Me In) Paradise Alley, Paradise Alley OST, Tom Waits (1978)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Moving on through the shorter film appearances of Tom Waits, Leigh, Sam and Martin find some of the sparkling (and less-than-sparkling) gems from his movie roles of the 90s and into the 2000s, discussing Queen’s Logic (1991), The Fisher King (1991), Until The End Of The World (1991), Domino (2005), The Tiger and The Snow (2005), The Book of Eli (2010), and The Monster of Nix (2011).

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from Queen's Logic, dir. Steve Rash (1991) Clips from The Fisher King, dir. Terry Gilliam (1991) Clips from Until The End Of The World, dir. Wim Wenders (1991) Clips from Domino, dir. Tony Scott (2005) Clips from The Tiger and The Snow, dir. Roberto Benigni (2005) Clips from The Book of Eli, dir. The Hughes Brothers (2010) Clips from The Monster of Nix, dir. Rosto (2011)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Song by Song embarks on a roundup of Waits’s many film cameo appearances, with Sam and Martin ably abetted by film critic Leigh Singer. With discussions of his smallest early film appearances (and several of his film absences), we take this first episode to discuss Paradise Alley (1978), Wolfen (1981), The Stone Boy (1984), Candy Mountain (1987), Greasy Lake (1988) and The Two Jakes (1990). 

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from Paradise Alley, dir. Sylvester Stallone (1978) Clips from Wolfen, dir. Michael Wadleigh (1981) Clips from The Stone Boy, dir. Christopher Cain (1984) Clips from Candy Mountain, dir. Robert Frank / Rudy Wurlitzer (1987) Clips from Greasy Lake, dir. Damian Harris (1988) Clips from The Two Jakes, dir. Jack Nicholson (1990)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

It’s story time again, with Waits giving an almost-solo turn in the “All Gold Canyon” segment of The Coen Brothers’ anthology film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Rico Galliano of the MUBI Podcast joins Sam and Martin to consider all six of the film’s stories, its fatal themes, and Waits’s talent for shouting at owls.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs, dir. Coen Brothers (2018)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

We welcome Eadie and Melia to the podcast, presenting five songs from Waits aimed at younger listeners, and discovering how the junior contingent of Song by Song feel about them. We discuss creepy voices and creepier sheds, the feeding habits of Golden Eagles, and the deep trauma of poor WiFi connectivity. 

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Children’s Story, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Heigh Ho, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Army Ants, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, Bone Machine, Tom Waits (1992) Bend Down The Branches, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Sam and Martin conclude the 22nd season of Song by Song, bringing thoughts on the 60+ tracks, 21 episodes, 10 guests and many musical influences we’ve considered over the last 5 months of the show. We talk over the album order, it’s purpose for both Waits and his listeners, and attempt to form a Best Of list by making a few “adoptions”.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Sea Of Love, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Diamond In Your Mind, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

A final set of bonus tracks brings us to the end of season 22, with Christa, Martin and Sam enjoying a demo-style blues number, an extended bit of acapella storytelling, and Waits’s duet with a children’s choir. We conclude with some exaggerated masculinity, the Elizabethan-equivalent of Reservoir Dogs, and a bit of Christmas charidee.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: No One Can Forgive Me, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Mathie Grove, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Silent Night, S.O.S United, SOS Children’s Villages & Tom Waits (1989) Matty Groves, Liege And Lief, Fairport Convention (1969)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Musician and writer Christa Couture joins Martin and Sam for the final few Orphans, including a Book of Knots collaboration, the tale of an unpaid grocery bill, and a bit of ol’ Blue Eyes. Our penultimate episode for the season includes a celebration of youth, silly storytelling, and a surprise vocal cameo by the one and only Kathleen.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Pray, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Young At Heart, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Missing My Son, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Good Bayou, The Living Record, Christa Couture (2012)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Heading into the final tracks from Orphans, Tim, Martin and Sam discuss the ruinous junkyard dog that is Waits’s music, with another track from Brecht/Weill’s Threepenny Opera, some nursery rhyme cribs, and a bit of spontaneous(?) comedy. Waits delivers some aggressive anti-war sentiment, a song slightly lacking in specificity, and then finishes with a load of absolute bull.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Cannon Song, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Jayne's Blue Wish, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Dog Treat, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Cannon Song, Lost In The Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill, Kurt Weill / Bertolt Brecht / The Fowler Brothers / Stan Ridgway / trans. by Ralph Manheim and John Willett (1985)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

We welcome writer and podcaster Tim Clare to Song by Song, for more Orphaned songs about the significance of imaginary diamonds, sound-check deadlines, and a collaboration with Primus. We discuss reinterpretations of The Ramones, another version of Kerouac’s song On The Road, and a very valuable belt.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Diamond In Your Mind, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Danny Says, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) On The Road, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Home I'll Never Be, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Having dealt with all the Brawlers, Sam and Martin dig into the bonus disc of Orphans with a Fats Waller cover, music first performed by Johnny Cash, and a synopsis of King Kong. We discuss Waits’s capability as a pianist, his treatment of history’s villains, and consider his cover of an iconic outsider-artist musician. 

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Crazy 'Bout My Baby, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Down There By The Train, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) King Kong, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) King Kong, Yip Jump Music, Daniel Johnston (1983)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Some soothing, some heartbreak, and some extreme weather for Miss Yankey, as she examines another set of Orphans with Sam and Martin. Waits looks back on his Troubador years with tenderness, calls for care of the children of Seattle, and delivers a questionable hip-hop tribute.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Rains On Me, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Take Care Of All My Children, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Spidey's Wild Ride, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Rat's Theme, Tom Waits, from Streetwise, dir. Martin Bell (1984)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Miss Yankey rejoins Martin and Sam, bringing her perspective on the writing and performance of this week’s selection of neighbourhood memories, childhood crimes and old cars. We peer over Waits’s fence at forbidden gardens, pair greek myth with tragic violence, and visit with Kathleen’s dad.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Buzz Fledderjohn, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) The Fall Of Troy, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) The Pontiac, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Jo, Martin and Sam return to the ocean, the church, and another Leadbelly cover to consider Waits's reinterpretation of various older songs. The swirling Sea of Love, the unnecessary pub singalong, and behind-the-altar confessionals all get a new twist, to varied effect.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Sea Of Love, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Goodnight Irene, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Altar Boy, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) What Became Of Old Father Craft, The Alice Demos, Tom Waits (1992 - unreleased)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Walking back to the show only to walk away again, Jo Neary takes on another trio of Orphans with Martin and Sam. Beginning with the 90s religious material, heading back to theatre of the 80s, and then the street poetry of William Kennedy’s childhood, we also consider how Waits’s writing functions as a dusting soundtrack.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Walk Away, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) If I Have To Go, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Poor Little Lamb, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Clip from Ironweed, dir. Hector Babenco (1987)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

As we enter 2023, Sam and Martin take a quick rummage through the emails, tweets and carrier pigeon letters the listeners have sent in over the last year, getting your take on lyrical and musical elements we may have missed, as well as a bunch of other thoughts and considerations.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Bad As Me, Spirit In The Room, Tom Jones (2012)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Martin is a punk, Sam Pay is a runt, Vera joined the podcast and they all… focused on getting enough water because hydration is important. We dip back into the Woyzeck material, consider Ramones fandom, and Waits pays tribute to Jack Kerouac.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: The Return Of Jackie And Judy, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) It's Over, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Home I'll Never Be, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) On The Road (excerpt), Jack Kerouac reads On The Road, Jack Kerouac (1999)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Vera Chok makes her triumphant 2023 return to Song by Song for fat driving beats, donated smooth jazz vocals and a moment of zen. This week we discuss the anger of an ageing codependent relationship, the nature (and futility) of advice, and the magic of anticipated nostalgia.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: All The Time, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Little Man, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Nirvana, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) I'm Not Your Fool Anymore, Mississippi Lad, Teddy Edwards (1991)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Dina is back for some tricky conversations with Martin and Sam about the geography of Shreveport and Huston, more Woyzeck off-cuts, and of course, the big topic of the Gaza conflict. We consider Waits working outside his comfort zone, his Lead Belly reversal, and again discuss the “why” of his instrumental choices.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:Road To Peace, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)Fannin Street, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Redrum, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)Fannin Street (Mr Tom Hughes' Town), Lead Belly's Last Sessions, Lead Belly (1948/1959)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

It’s all stories of attentiveness and canines this week, as we welcome Dina Del Bucchia to the show for a striptease routine, sentimental intensity, and a song about a mean lady. We discuss his connection to Bette Midler, consensual domination, and the needs of attention-seeking Leos.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Puttin' On The Dog, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Never Let Go, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Dog Door, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Jeffrey’s with Martin and Sam for a second Orphaned week, delighting in gospel music, songs of absentee fathers, and approximately 500 Bing Bangs. Waits sidesteps his irony to celebrate religion (or at least its musical traditions), we get down and dirty with a country music legend, and Jeffrey… falls in love!

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Lord I've Been Changed, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Tell It To Me, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) First Kiss, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Thousand Bing Bangs, Devout Catalyst, Ken Nordine / Tom Waits (1991)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

We welcome Nightvale’s own Jeffrey Cranor back to Song by Song, joining Martin and Sam to explore a Lead Belly cover, sentimental material from the film Pollock, and a murderous song of sibling rivalry. We talk about mutability and adaptation in the blues tradition, supernatural extensions in folk ballads, and Martin experiences a moment of emotional crisis.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Ain't Goin' Down To The Well, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) World Keeps Turning, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Two Sisters, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Bow And Balance / Two Sisters, Old Town School of Folk Music, Horton Barker (1962)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

A positive start and slight decline for Hannah, Sam and Martin, with Waits in murder ballad mode, a simple banjo-led song of yearning and the first instrumental of the album. The ‘who’ of our Brawler, the ‘where’ of our Bawler, and the ‘why’ of the Bastard all get a good discussion, as Song by Song continues through Orphans.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Lucinda, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Shiny Things, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Bone Chain, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Martin and Sam welcome Hannah McGregor for another trio of Waits’s abandoned children: a hobo lullabye, his contribution to the Shrek-niverse and a tribute to one of 1969’s most unusual solo projects. Plus: how hard would it be for two women in their 30s to fit inside one overcoat?!?

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Bottom Of The World, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Little Drop Of Poison, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Books Of Moses, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Books Of Moses, Oar, Skip Spence (1969)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Returning for another eclectic selection of tracks, Amanda, Martin and Sam listen to a pescatarian jailbreak tune, an unusually conversational murder ballad, and Waits-does-Attenborough. We consider the possible origins of Widow's Grove, truth and fiction in insect monologues, and the value of seafood-based escapology.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Fish In The Jailhouse, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Widow's Grove, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Army Ants, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Martin and Sam welcome actor-musician Amanda Gordon to the show, getting into the groove of 2:19, the history of Long Way Home, and the strange dark texture of Heigh Ho. We discuss the value of grim interpretation, the lyrical flourishes in Waits's own writing and elsewhere, and the importance of accurate railway scheduling.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: 2:19, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Long Way Home, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Heigh Ho, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

There's both delights and disappointments this week, as Martin, Sam and Jeu Jeu la Foille find a disappointingly straightforward Brawler with LowDown, a delightful and layered Bawler in You Can Never Hold Back Spring, and a creepy story guaranteed to disturb the little Bastards in your life.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: LowDown, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) You Can Never Hold Back Spring, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Children's Story, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Aaaaand… we're off! Guest host Jeu Jeu La Foille rejoins Martin and Sam to tackle the first tracks from our monumental Orphans season, digging into the first tracks of Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards. We examine the Elvis influence in another hot-and-bothered song for Kathleen, a children's song for an elderly bunny, and a very faithful cover from the Threepenny Opera.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Lie To Me, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) Bend Down The Branches, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006) What Keeps Mankind Alive, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Next week begins season 22, the behemoth that is Orphans. And so we’re all on the same page, Sam and Martin explain how they (and we) will approach these three albums without breaking all our brains.

website: songbysongpodcast.com

twitter: @songbysongpod

e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:

If I Have To Go, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)

You Can Never Hold Back Spring, Orphans: Brawlers Bawlers & Bastards, Tom Waits (2006)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

While Sam and Martin prepare for Orphans, please enjoy a guest-podcast from our friends Fran and Babs of the Over/Underrated Music Podcast, featuring your regular SbS hosts as guests talking about some NY art rock, David Byrne’s lack of love, and the genius of the two Johns.

website: songbysongpodcast.com

twitter: @songbysongpod

e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Song by Song gets archeological, uncovering and piecing together muffled lyric fragments in this final episode on the Real Gone bonus track.

website: songbysongpodcast.com

twitter: @songbysongpod

e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:

Chick a Boom, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)

Chick a Boom, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Waits reaches out for a form out of his usual style, as Sam and Martin consider who and where this song is coming from, as well as the technique and attitude of Waits’s political work through Real Gone and beyond.

website: songbysongpodcast.com

twitter: @songbysongpod

e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:

Day After Tomorrow, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017)

Bella Ciao, Songs of Resistance: 1942-2018, Tom Waits / Marc Ribot (2018)

Day After Tomorrow, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

It's point/counterpoint on Song by Song again, as Martin and Sam divide over Waits's song of loss and yearning. Whether this is a pure form of a classic sentiment or an unnecessary retread of predictable tropes gets turned over, alongside a rare Tom Waits cover for the interval track.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Make It Rain, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Make It Rain, Live at Sidney Opera House, Spinefex Gum (2019) Make It Rain, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Waits flies solo for this horny-noise-fragment, as Sam and Martin pin down both some of the sonic design as well as images of travel and freedom. We look at Waits's reuse of phrases from other songs, his line between affection and objectification, and compare with the technical precision of Bobby McFerrin's vocal performances.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clang Boom Steam, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Drive, Live from Montreal, Bobby McFerrin (2005) Clang Boom Steam, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

High energy blues number - check. Harsh beat-boxing rhythmic tone - check. Mumbled lyrics and anti-poetic phrasing - check. David, Sam and Martin find all the required elements, but discuss whether it all comes together in this week’s song.

Note: we mention Mark Rylance this episode; between recording and release, his brother Jonathan was killed - sympathies from all of us for this loss.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Baby Gonna Leave Me, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, In Concert, Joan Baez (1962) Baby Gonna Leave Me, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Singing from beyond the grave, Waits bridges the green grass boundary between life and death as David, Sam and Martin question whether this week's song presents a tender or threatening love.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Green Grass, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Green Green Grass Of Home, Green Green Grass Of Home, Tom Jones (1967) Green Grass, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Actor/musician David Ahmad joins Sam and Martin to discuss the religious material, consider the game-of-telephone lineage of folk classics, and celebrate this (perhaps overlooked) track of sorrow and loss.

Note: we mention Mark Rylance this episode; between recording and release, his brother Jonathan was killed - sympathies from all of us for this loss.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Trampled Rose, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) If It Wasn't For Dicky, Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection, Lead Belly (1941-47) Trampled Rose, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

As EE Cummings said… 'damn everything but the circus'… although Dominic, Martin and Sam question whether this Circus deserves praise or damnation itself. We compare to other sections of Waits's work, as well as other real and fictional songs, plus the value of talking to strangers on night-buses.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Circus, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Moon Over Dog Street, single, Sour Sweet Tooth / Keith Sanders (2012) Circus, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Dominic is back with Sam and Martin, thinking about both the beauty and exploitation-of-beauty that this song contains, and considering how it compares with the traditions of murder ballads.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Dead and Lovely, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Long Black Veil, single, Jenny Owen Youngs (2017) Dead and Lovely, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Musician and theatre-maker Dominic Conway gets his dancing shoes on with Sam and Martin for a conversation about the sonic feel of this track, the lack of lyrical focus in this album, and dance instructionals of the early 2000s.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Metropolitan Glide, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Cha Cha Slide, Cha Cha Slide, DJ Casper (2004) Metropolitan Glide, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Waits returns to vignettes this week, as well as incomplete stories and the longing for closure, as Molly rejoins Sam and Martin to talk about how these stories relate to fiction, journalism, and apocalyptic love songs.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: How's It Gonna End, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) The End Of The World, Skeeter Davis Sings The End Of The World, Skeeter Davis (1963) How's It Gonna End, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

The dark history of a barn in Kentucky is Waits’s topic this week, as Molly, Sam and Martin examine how the story behind the barn relates to the Underground Railroad of the 1800. (Please note story is only metaphorically “behind the barn” - see local maps for geographical details)

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Don't Go Into That Barn, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Follow the Drinking Gourd, Songs of the Civil War, Richie Havens (1991) Don't Go Into That Barn, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

We welcome writer, poet and theatre maker Molly Naylor, digging into the fractured narrative of Shake it with Martin and Sam. We unpick some of the hidden stories, discuss the tribute to Bill Hicks, and then hit the dance floor for a big party anthem!

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Shake It, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Hey Ya!, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, Outkast (2003) Shake It, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Three episodes of talking to Sam and Martin, and Shani is starting to check her watch, as Waits makes an exteeeeended exploration of generational trauma. Runtime does preoccupy our conversation, as well as density of imagery, hope for the future, and the logistics of bodies of water.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Sins of My Father, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Can't Blame The Youth, single, Peter Tosh (1972) Sins of My Father, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Groovy or bleak, polemic or afterparty, M.A.S.H or Generation Kill? Shani Erez rejoins Martin and Sam to look at the anthemic second track of Real Gone, exploring the anger of Waits, the song's effectiveness beyond its anti-war context, and the big remaster choices from 2017.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Hoist That Rag, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Shipbuilding, My Middle Name Is Misery, Ruth Dolores Weiss (2012) Hoist That Rag, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Season 21 launches into an opening track with surprising energy, as guest host Shani Erez joins Sam and Martin to climb the Real Gone mountain towards the top of that hill. The sonic qualities of this album, Waits's attitude to the stories he's telling, bawdy seafaring jokes about genetalia, and the utter delight of 1980s metal… it's a pretty standard episode really.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Top of the Hill, Real Gone (remastered), Tom Waits (2004/2017) Run To The Hills, The Number of the Beast, Iron Maiden (1982) Top of the Hill, Real Gone (original), Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Next week Song by Song pushes into Waits's 2004 release Real Gone, but before we kick off, Sam & Martin acknowledge the remaster changes, how the show will deal with these different versions, and handle any other business arising.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Top of the Hill, Real Gone, Tom Waits (2004)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Returning to wrap up our film mini-season, Leigh Singer helps Sam and Martin break down this zombie/comsumerism/meta mash-up. With some slight disappointment in this compared to other Jarmusch (and other zombie) films, we question the purpose of his story and his enthusiasm for the genre. And Tom Waits gets to be a weird hobo in the woods too.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from The Dead Don't Die, dir. Jim Jarmusch (2019)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Joining Robert Redford for his retirement performance, Tom Waits robs banks, performs motel surgery and talks about Christmas adventures as Bridie, Martin & Sam get to grips with both The Old Man and The Gun.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from The Old Man and The Gun Trailer, dir. David Lowery (2018)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Podcaster and theatre producer Bridie Donaghy joins Sam and Martin to consider some confusing plot and dense visuals from Heath Ledger and friends. CGI cobras, late-noughties-heart-throb recasting and the quasi-autobiographical themes of Gilliam's fairytale are all discussed, as well as Tom Waits in ear-hair prosthetics.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Trailer, dir. Terry Gilliam (2009)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Song by Song is delighted to welcome film journalist Leigh Singer, as we dive into another Jim Jarmusch anthology film. We consider the relationship of Waits to Iggy Pop, his position as a film actor in 1993, as well as taking a look at the successes and failures of the other chapters (and the film as a whole). website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from Coffee and Cigarettes, dir. Jim Jarmusch (1993/2003)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Returning for another film mini-season, we reconvene for a sizeable Tom Waits role in a film of… debatable quality? Mostly forgotten by modern audiences, Sam and Martin find a few interesting elements to pick at, but mostly struggle to recommend this curio from the middle of Waits's acting career.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Clips from Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale, dir. Ann & Eduardo Guedes (1989)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Before we move on into more films and Real Gone, Sam and Martin dig into the letters, tweets and pigeon-post sent in by listeners over the last year or so, accepting corrections, embracing re-interpretations and talking about disappointing lakes.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Rounding off our 20th season, Martin and Sam focus in on a few of the songs that appeared in Woyzeck but didn't make it to the album release, and then look back on Blood Money as the third Waits/Wilson-based collaboration (with a brief tangent onto superhero comics).

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Just The Way We Are Boys, unreleased Woyzeck song, Tom Waits (2000) It's Over, Liberty Heights OST, Tom Waits (1999)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

The final song from Blood Money sees Martin and Sam come together to discuss optimism and bleakness, some of the repeating themes of the album and the play, and a possible lineage for this track reaching back through the 20th century.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) A Good Man Is Hard To Find, single, Marion Harris/Eddie Green (1919)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Pete Fraser is back with Martin and Sam, breaking down this unusual chunk of instrumental music from Waits's back yard. We discuss the use and origin of this track, and have an extended conversation on the work of saxophonist Colin Stetson, as Blood Money heads into its final turns.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Calliope, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Won't Be A Thing To Become, Never Where the Way She Was, Colin Stetson/Sarah Neufeld (2015)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

We consider the three roles of this song - in the play, on the album, and as a piece of music in isolation - as Pete, Martin & Sam dig into the value of variation in music, the wash of emotion in Woe, and the restrained delivery of Kitty White.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Woe, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Plain Gold Ring, single, Kitty White (1956)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

We welcome saxophonist and composer Pete Fraser to the show, joining Sam and Martin to listen to the Tom Waits version of a song written for Ute Lemper. We discuss the performative and presentational aspects of the track, Waits as an artist, and our lives in general.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: The Part You Throw Away, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) The Part You Throw Away, Punishing Kiss, Ute Lemper (2000)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Album fatigue begins to set in this week, with mixed feelings from Sam and Martin about the third or fourth song from Blood Money dealing with the despair humanity is endlessly surrounded by. There’s some technical sonic analysis, as well as some thought about 90s images of whale-based music.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Starving in the Belly of a Whale, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Gepetto, Star, Belly (1993)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

There’s some disappointment in Waits’s bedtime song this week, as Martin & Sam consider the purpose of the lullaby in Woyzeck and beyond, and think about the perspectives we bring to the specificities of a song.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Lullaby, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Rockabye, 100 Not Out, Kit & The Widow (2011)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Theatrical music to underscore incidental events, or aggressive reenforcement of violent imagery? Martin & Sam find themselves poised between interpretations for this instrumental, along with their thoughts on other cutlery-based songs.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Knife Chase (instrumental), Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Spoonful, single, Howlin' Wolf (1960)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Repetitions of phrase and imagery dominate this song of lust, violence and betrayal, as Miss Yankey completes her journey with Martin & Sam through Blood Money. We discover more abandonment and bitterness, as well as considering images of infidelity from various different perspectives.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Another Man's Vine, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) The Other Woman, Ultraviolence, Lana Del Ray (2014)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

It's still lyrics-first, sound-second, with Miss Yankey sharing her approach to music analysis with Sam & Martin. Waits gets straight back into the religious material with this 'masterpiece of bitterness', bridging spiritual, earthly, and cookie concerns.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: God's Away on Business, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) God Bless The Child, single, Billie Holiday (1941)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Performance poet and writer Miss Yankey joins Martin and Sam to take a literary approach to Waits's lyrics in this song of love, lifeguarding and colour theory.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: All the World Is Green, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Eden, Last Year Was Weird vol 3, Tkay Maidza (2021)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

As Waits returns to sentimentality and Americana, Babs and Fran are less struck by the qualities of the song and more curious as to the reality of the woman he's singing about. There's discussion of music vs lyrics in the appreciation of the Manic Street Preachers, whether Waits is Over/Underrated, and how classic Jim Henson characters might interpret his work.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Coney Island Baby, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier, Everything Must Go, Manic Street Preachers (1996)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.

Back with Martin & Sam, Bárbara and Fran find a little more danceability this week, albeit in a more cliched image of doomed relationships and gender roles. With some consideration of cabaret numbers and cowboys, we take a look at how Waits shapes the tone of the album, and whether everyone needs a nap.

website: songbysongpodcast.com twitter: @songbysongpod e-mail: songbysongpodcast@gmail.com

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include: Everything Goes to Hell, Blood Money, Tom Waits (2002) I'm Tired, Blazing Saddles Soundtrack, Madeline Kahn (1974)

We think your Song by Song experience will be enhanced by hearing, in full, the songs featured in the show, which you can get hold of from your favourite record shop or online platform. Please support artists by buying their music, or using services which guarantee artists a revenue - listen responsibly.