Tom Waits Reworks a Pogues Song
Tom Waits's woolly voice reworks The Pogues' 1990 "Summer in Siam" for a Shane MacGowan tribute, showing how artists like Bruce Springsteen interpret his songs.
Tracklist
- Summer in Siam — Tom Waits
- Summer In Siam — The Pogues
- A Rainy Night in Soho — Bruce Springsteen
Transcript
Summer in Siam — Tom Waits
Margaret Farrell at Stereogum hears distant crickets in Tom Waits’s “Summer in Siam” and imagines an open-windowed shack. Waits made this new recording for a tribute to Shane MacGowan, the Pogues’ frontman; the song comes from their 1990 album Hell’s Ditch. Farrell calls Waits’s voice woolly and tangled, yet soft. Hear his take first; then we’ll return to the Pogues’ recording of the song. Hear Summer in Siam by Tom Waits.
Summer In Siam — The Pogues
Now go back to the Pogues’ “Summer In Siam,” from their 1990 album Hell’s Ditch. This track appears on the album’s expanded edition. You’ve heard Tom Waits take on the same song for the Shane MacGowan tribute. As the Pogues play it, what stays with you from Waits’s version, and what feels different? Hear Summer In Siam by The Pogues.
A Rainy Night in Soho — Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen’s “A Rainy Night in Soho” came out before the full Shane MacGowan tribute album. It sits alongside Tom Waits’s “Summer in Siam” on 20th Century Paddy. You’ve just heard Waits and the Pogues take on the same song; Springsteen takes on a different one. As you listen, what changes when both the singer and the song change? What, if anything, carries across these tributes to MacGowan? Hear A Rainy Night in Soho by Bruce Springsteen.