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Song by Song

Apr 26, 2017

The question this week is whether Waits is walking away from a long-term lover or a one-night-stand, as Vera, Sam and Martin take one last longing backwards look at Heartattack And Vine before walking away and catching a train. There's some discussion across the gender perspective here as well, with the boys buying into...


Apr 19, 2017

More detritus of Americana this week, as Vera, Martin and Sam look at the inspiration provided by Bugsy Siegel, Murder Inc. and the early days of Las Vegas on this Waits track. With some discussion of the juxtaposition of sexiness and violence in this track (and many, many others), as well as the contributions...


Apr 12, 2017

This week on Song by Song, Vera Chok takes us all the way back to the beginning by questioning "this whole Tom Waits thing", as well as going through one of Waits's most hobo-centric songs in this lullaby for the down-and-out. We also revisit the perennial question of authenticity, as well as some of Larry...


Apr 5, 2017

We have some difficulties parsing the meaning of the track this week, as Sarah, Martin and Sam visit some confusing (and perhaps terminal?) lyrics in 'Til The Money Runs Out. With side-by-side comparisons between this and Downtown a couple of episodes ago, as well as some pretty explicit interval track work by Mr...


Mar 29, 2017

There's some confused feelings this week on Song by Song, despite feeling overwhelmingly positive about the track. Leading off with spirited debate about the pros and cons of the line "sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la" (I think that's the correct number of "la"s) as well as the simplicity of some of the other lyrics, Sarah,...