Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 6 days 3 hours 32 minutes
Welcome to Song by Song - we are Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam Pay; two musicians who, out of some obsessive completist compulsion, have decided to listen to and discuss every single Tom Waits track in chronological order. Join us weekly, episode by...
Tom Waits's first album, Closing Time (1973) opens with Ol' 55, a mournful ballad of late night and early morning driving. Martin and Sam kick things off with discussion of covers, quaaludes, intrusive guitar players and driving a Buick Roadmaster in...
Sam and Martin follow track one of Closing Time with the bold choice of track two, I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love with You, discussing counting elephants, authenticity of space and the brutality of live performance. Song by Song is Martin Zaltz...
Closing Time continues with Virginia Avenue, a wander through the late night streets of 1970s LA and through a song that both Martin and Sam seem to have forgotten about until today. Trumpet players, the voice as instrument and background storytelling...
We finally get some real disagreement with this fourth track from Closing Time, Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards) - as the Dylan influence starts to show Sam rails against the pointlessness of the track while Martin defends the folk influences of...
Lulled by children’s rhymes and traditional tunes, Martin and Sam start to talk about Waits’s lyrical content (or lack thereof), as well as personality vs. persona, tenderness compared with romance and a magpie attitude to language and songs. Song...
Sam and Martin reach the iconic, eulogic apex of Closing Time, as Tom Waits makes a long-distance call to an old flame. Narrative structure and resolution, Sam’s hatred of oboes and the Meatloaf reading of Gilliam’s Brazil all come up. Honestly....
Utterly unable to keep their minds out of the gutter, Martin and Sam get seriously stuck on one particular lyric, but push through to talk about Closing Time as an album, falsetto singing and courtly language. Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and...
Sparse and open orchestration, dissonant ringing and obscure meaning all feature in the discussion of what Sam considers the most interesting song of the album, with debate over vocal authenticity vs technical ability and musical theatre performance....
Things kick up a gear as Martin and Sam discuss the energetic outlier of Closing Time’s second half. Discussion includes explicit lyrics, comic-book ice-cream sellers and the swing era of the Big Band. Song by Song is Martin Zaltz Austwick and Sam...