Song by Song is a podcast celebrating the music of Tom Waits, hosted by podcaster-musician Martin Zaltz Austwick and actor-musician Sam Pay. Sam and Martin set themselves the goal of listening to Tom Waits’s back catalogue from beginning to end, and devoting an episode to discussing each track. Song by Song is in no way officially linked to Tom Waits, or endorsed by Tom Waits, or associates. All excerpts are used for criticism purposes - please purchase your own copies of the music at your favourite shop, app, or platform to get the full experience and support musicians' work.
http://songbysong.libsyn.com/website
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 6 days 3 hours 32 minutes
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episode 3: Cemetery Polka, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits [109]
For our third week at the London Podcast Festival, John and Helen help us pick apart some of the exaggerated family narratives at play in this third track from Rain Dogs. Waits's preoccupation with the exoticisation of deformity, the vocal effect of...
episode 2: Clap Hands, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits [108]
Returning for a second week of live shows, Helen, John, Sam, Martin and the rest of our London Podcast Festival audience dig into the next track from Waits’s 1985 album Rain Dogs. With discussion of intertextuality with songs from the 1960s, debate...
episode 1: Singapore, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits [107]
Returning for season 10, Song by Song throws its hat into the live arena in a conversation with John Hodgman and Helen Zaltzman, recorded as part of the London Podcast Festival 2017. In this first of three special episodes, Martin, Sam, Helen and John...
episode 15: Rainbirds, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits [106]
Closing off season nine, Købi, Sam and Martin take a look at this final instrumental track from Swordfishtrombones, the musical outlook of the album in general, and fumble their way through an analysis of the work of John Cage. (Note: mention in the...
episode 14: Trouble's Braids, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits [105]
As Swordfishtrombones winds down, Waits ramps up the tension with a breakneck chase sequence, while Købi, Martin and Sam rush to keep up with the pace. Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every...
episode 13: Gin Soaked Boy, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits [104]
With respect but no great love, Købi, Sam and Martin dig into Waits's return to the New Orleans blues style, with particular reference to the guitar playing of Fred Tackett. Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening...
episode 12: Soldier's Things, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits [103]
Købi Omenaka joins Song by Song for these final tracks of Swordfishtrombones as Waits (and Paul Young) pick through the detritus of a man's life. Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and discussing every...
episode 11: Down, Down, Down, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits [102]
A celebration of playing instruments that aren't tuned properly, Waits launches himself into his crazed preacher persona, reaching back into traditions of gospel and blues. Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to...
episode 10: Swordfishtrombone, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits [101]
Some genuine detailed discussion this week (instead of the usual tangential nonsense) as Sam and Martin question the divide between the political and the personal. Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to and...
episode 9: Frank's Wild Years, Swordfishtrombones, Tom Waits [100]
100 episodes! (Sort of.) Martin and Sam fly solo to talk about some of the many complex and intricate question which surround this bleak little story of a man and his dog. Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians listening to...