We’re continuing our series of episodes inspired by the 2024 documentary Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat with an examination of some of the film’s key characters: the so-called ‘Jazz Ambassadors’, a group of mostly black US musicians sent around the world to (unwittingly) promote American soft power during the Cold War. Tim and Jeremy give a brief history of the emergence of the CIA in the post-war USA, explain the role of NATO, and detail a few of the great many instances of US interference in newly decolonised states around the globe. We hear about Louis Armstrong in Ghana, Dizzy Gillespie’s tours to West Asia and revisit Max Roach from our previous show, alongside Brubeck, Stravinsky and… Bing Crosby. The guys discuss these various attempts to portray America as a haven of free self expression at home while it repeatedly violated sovereignty and democracy abroad. Also included in this show: Fantasia, the Military Industrial Complex, the Kennedy assassination and some speculative White House tripping. 

Edited by Matt Huxley.

Become a Patron at Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

www.LoveistheMessagePod.com

Tracklist:

Aaron Copeland - Fanfare for the Common Man
Bing Crosby - The Isle of Innisfree
Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring
Louis Armstrong - (What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue
Louis Armstrong - Spooks
Dizzy Gillespie - Tour de Force
Dave Brubeck - Take Five
Max Roach - Triptych: Prayer / Protest / Peace
The Byrds - He Was a Friend of Mine
Books:
William Blum - Killing Hope
Susan Williams - White Malice 

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing, and dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and become a patron from £3 a month.

In this patrons episode we’re taking some time to explore some of the background to our recent main feed show about colonialism, jazz diplomacy and the documentary Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat with a bitesize primer on the origins of the Cold War. Jeremy and Tim run it all the way back to 1917 to unpack the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, the subsequent years of communist rule leading into WW2, and the musical expressions of this historic period. Along the way they discuss Soviet Realism, Modernism, formal experimentation in the arts, Stalin, the Monro Doctrine and the CIA. Elsewhere in the episode we hear about George Formby, Peter and the Wolf, the Red Army Choir, and ask whether any of us really like orchestral music. 

Tracklist:
The Red Army Choir - The Internationale
Billy Bragg - The Internationale
Shostakovich - Symphony No.2 (October)

Books:
William Blum - Killing Hope

Love is the Message is back! After last series’ mammoth 18-month excavation of the year 1977 we’re switching things up a bit. While we’ll continue to chart our rough way through the history explored in our work to date, for the moment we’re going to focus on a few smaller, more bite-size topics, starting with the 2024 film Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat. A natural partner piece to our beloved Summer of Soul, Johan Grimonprez’s documentary tracks in vivid and exhilarating style the Cold War episode that led American musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach to crash the UN Security Council in protest against the murder of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.
On this show Tim and Jeremy discuss mid-Twentieth Century decolonialism, resistance and the activities of black jazz activists in America. We hear the history of the colonisation of Congo by Belgium, introduce Lumumba as a unique historical figure, and spend some time reflecting on how these imperial legacies resonate today.
On the music front, we hear listen to Roach behind the kit, cue up a series of Congolese rhumbas and boleros, and close with seminal civil rights singer Nina Simone. Elsewhere in the episode we stop by Malcom X, Khrushchev, and Joseph Conrad. The horror, the horror…
Edited by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:
Max Roach - Freedom Day
Ata Ndele - Adou Elenga
Joseph Kabasele - Independence Cha-Cha
O.K. Jazz - Pas Un Pas Sans…
Nina Simone - Wild is the Wind

Books:
Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode of the show. To hear the full episode and dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and sign up from £3 a month.

In this episode of LITM Extra, Jeremy takes the mic solo to expand a little on our recent patrons show on Kneecap, turning an eye specifically to musical and cultural antecedents of the Irish trio’s project. With reference to music both from the island of Ireland and abroad, Jeremy discusses Stiff Little Fingers, dancehall chatting, Scousers, and Welsh language punk bands. He introduces two Irish rap outfits - Marxman and Scary Eire - which clearly foreshadow Kneecap, alongside some mid-90s Irish techno and a classic slice of rave rap. Beyond the beats, Jeremy discusses Celtic language and culture, changing attitudes to Ireland in Britain, the ‘Celtic Tiger’, and even throws in  the Mushie Picker Boogie. 

The article about Papa Levi Jeremy mentions can be found here:

https://uncarved.org/dub/papalevi.html 

Produced by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:
Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster
Papa Levi - Militancy
Jegsy Dodd and the Sons of Harry Cross - Mushie Picker Boogie
Yr Anhrefn - Rhedeg i Paris
Marxman - Sad Affair
Scary Eire - Howld yer Whist
Scary Eire - The Dole Q
Secret Weapon - Dream Lover (Sound Crowd Remix) 

Here it is: our 18th and final episode of series 6. We’ve covered punk, Studio 54, the Warehouse, Black Disco, Eurodisco and Saturday Night Fever, but today Jeremy and Tim summarise some final reflections on the city of New York in the pivotal year of 1977. They discuss the early career of a businessman who liked to frequent the discotheques and would go on to become president of the USA, linking Mr Trump to a culture of corporate welfare and downtown development. We hear about the Son of Sam, the World Series, power cuts, looting, scratching, breaking, the Bronx and the beats that propelled the nascent Hip Hop culture.
Thanks to everyone who’s joined us on our deep dive this series - we’ll be taking a short summer break and will be back some time in September with more music, dance floors, sound systems and counterculture.

Produced by Matt Huxley.

Do check out the podcasts Jem shouts out in end notes of this show. We're listing them here, you can find them wherever you find this:
Pro Revolution Soccer
Red Medicine
Politics Theory Other

We are now on Youtube! Find series 6 here: https://www.youtube.com/@LITMPodcast

Remember, we have a rolling playlist of all the tracks discussed over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZpKyqhvhOXfTuPMHCBkFs

Tracklist:
Andrea True - What’s Your Name, What’s Your Number
Ryan Harvey - Old Man Trump
Philadelphia  All Stars - Let’s Clean Up the Ghetto
The Trammps - The Night the Lights Went Out
Parliament - Flashlight

In response to the death of the Ozzy Osborne this week, we've unlocked this patrons episode from last year about heavy metal, Black Sabbath and the Prince of Darkness himself. If you like this you can hear a lot more like it by becoming a patron at Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this episode Jeremy raises a devil’s horn salute to the gods and demons of heavy metal. He explores the etymology of the genre term, excavating its shared roots with acid rock, and explaining how heavy metal compliments our story here on LITM. With reference to Easy Rider and the misconceived ‘end of the ‘60s’, we hear about how biker culture, the legacy of the blues and changing regimes of accumulation contributed to the anguished intensity expressed in the music of Led Zeppelin, King Crimson and Iron Butterfly. 

Jeremy also explores noise, feedback and distortion as the new aesthetic tools of metal, questions why people in the late 60s would want to explore occult and black magic ideas, and finishes with a deep dive on Black Sabbath, asking: was heavy metal an expression of the blues for white guys who’s dad’s worked in the car factories of Birmingham?

Books and Films:

Easy Rider
Robert Walser - Running with the Devil: Power, Gender and Madness in Heavy Metal Music

Tracklist:

Steppenwolf - Born to be Wild 

Blue Cheer - Summertime Blues 

The Who - My Generation (Live 1968) 

Led Zeppelin - Dazed and Confused 

Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love 

King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man 

Iron Butterfly - Easy Rider (Let the Wind Pay the Way) 

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath 

Black Sabbath - Paranoid 

Black Sabbath - War Pigs 

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing, and dozens more, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and become a patron from £3 a month.

In this patrons episode we wanted to spend some time talking about the band on everyone’s lips: Kneecap. The Belfast three-piece have been in the headlines of all the papers in recent weeks for their vocal support of Palestine, trouble with the law, and Transatlantic festival shutdowns. Tim and Jeremy provide a healthy dollop of context to the group, including a potted history of Irish independence, the post-Good Friday Northern Irish settlement, working class culture and the changing status of the Irish language at home and abroad. In addition to this they discuss rave rap, drug humour, Welsh, McCarthyism, Kneecap’s eponymous 2024 film, their Glastonbury appearance, the BBC, and the British state response to their music and performances.
Jeremy is going to follow up this show with a supplementary episode on some of the musical antecedents to what Kneecap are up to, so hold tight for that in the coming few weeks.

Tracklist:
Kneecap - C.E.A.R.T.A

Kneecap - Amach Anocht
Kneecap x DYRT - Mam
Kneecap - Parful
Kneecap - Guilty Conscience
Kneecap ft Money - The Recap

We’re almost at the end of our 1977 series, but in true LITM fashion why have just one show on a topic when you could have two? Across this and the next episode we’ll be filling in a few gaps we haven’t touched on so far, and providing some broad economic and political scene-setting for this seminal year in both Britain and the States.
In this episode we hear about the emergent neoliberal order, the oil crisis, austerity then and now, and OPEC. Jeremy and Tim consider escapism in music and film, Punk, Mods, the Silver Jubilee and the decline of the British Empire. They discuss the mighty Paul Weller, the Sex Pistols, Alice in Wonderland, and dig deep into the crates for the James Bond theme as you’ve never heard it before...

Next time we’ll be looking to America for our final show of this run.
Do check out the podcasts Jem shouts out in end notes of this show. We're listing them here, you can find them wherever you find this:
Pro Revolution Soccer
Red Medicine
Politics Theory Other
Produced by Matt Huxley.

Become a patron for as little as £3 per month by visiting Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

We are now on Youtube! Find series 6 here: https://www.youtube.com/@LITMPodcast

Remember, we have a rolling playlist of all the tracks discussed over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZpKyqhvhOXfTuPMHCBkFs

Tracklist:
Biddu Orchestra - James Bond Disco Theme (Journey into Fantasy)
The Jam - In The City
The Jam - Eton Rifles
Sex Pistols - God Save the Queen
Talking Heads - Don’t Worry About the Government 

This is an excerpt from a patrons episode. to hear the full thing and dozens more, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and become a patron from £3 per month.

In this patrons-only episode we welcome writer and anti-fascist activist Joe Mulhall to the show to discuss his fantastic book Rebel Sounds: Music as Resistance, a survey across time and place of groups and cultures using musics as part of their resistance to forms of racism and imperialism. We hear about Irish rebel songs, Kneecap and an impromptu Irish history quiz in the toilets of a Wolftones gig; the role of Jazz, Blues and Soul in the Civil Rights Struggle; revisit Tropicalia with fresh eyes and ears; and fly to Nigeria to visit the Felabration in Lagos. Alongside these topics we consider how our personal tastes can divert from a music’s political power, US cultural hegemony, music in the USSR, 'bone records’, Two Tone, and bring things up to date with a trip to the trenches of Ukraine.
We won’t provide an order link here, but you can get the hardback of Rebel Sounds in your local bookshop, and the paperback is forthcoming in the Autumn. Thanks to Joe for joining us.

In this episode, Tim and Jeremy complete our mini-series on Saturday Night Fever by looking at the film in its cinematographic context alongside two other huge movies of the late1970s. With reference to Rocky and Taxi Driver, the guys unearth the shared visions of class and race politics in the USA of the period. They discuss the particular place of Italian Americans in the culture more broadly, discuss particular forms of American-ness, and spend some time on the real life events that inspired the character of Rocky Balboa.
After that, attention returns to Travlota to wrap up SNF with a look at how the film was received at the time and since, and reflect on how their own attitudes to the movie have changed down the years. Plus the Trammps, Jem’s Grandma, and the answer to the question of whether David Mancuso ever saw Tony Manero up on the big screen…

Produced by Matt Huxley.

We are now on Youtube! Find series 6 here: https://www.youtube.com/@LITMPodcast

Remember, we have a rolling playlist of all the tracks discussed over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZpKyqhvhOXfTuPMHCBkFs

Tracklist:

Bernard Herrmann - Taxi Driver (Theme)

Bill Conti - Gonna Fly Now 

Bee Gees - Night Fever

The Trammps - Disco Inferno