Soul Music

By BBC Radio 4Music Music Commentary

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28 min
per episode

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Soul Music episodes

April 13, 2024 Someone to Watch Over Me
Written by George Gershwin for the musical Oh Kay, Someone To Watch Over Me has endured as a tender ballad about searching for someone special. It has been recorded by many different artists from Ella Fitzgerald to Willie Nelson but it's perhaps Ella's version that is best known.
Lyn Mackay grew up listening to it as a small child at her parents' home in Swansea. As she grew up and became a musician and entertainer the song has changed its meaning to her over the years.
Nica Strunk heard her father singing it during one of their sessions at his piano. As he sang the line "where is the shepherd for this lost lamb?" she began to understand the difficulties he faced in expressing his emotions and the song brought them closer together.
Nicholas McInerny loved Sarah Vaughan's version and his daughter sang it at his second wedding.
Music producers James Morgan and Juliette Pochin have been Ella Fitzgerald fans since they met as students and are thrilled to have been behind the most recent release of Someone To Watch Over Me using Ella's original vocals accompanied by the LSO.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
28 min
April 06, 2024 Sweet Thing
Sweet Thing by Van Morrison has an atmosphere full of tenderness, wonder and joy.
But underneath this, there a feeling of transience, a melancholy sense of things coming to an end, and of inevitable change.
It was written for his 1968 album Astral Weeks, at a time when the Northern Irish born Van had left his home country and was down-and-out in Boston, USA.
Hear how the track has come to mean so much to so many.
Caroline Mellor from Brighton remembers an intense moment of hearing Sweet Thing whilst staying in the mountains of Andalucía, Spain.
Sammy Douglas, Councillor and current High Sheriff of Belfast, reflects on memories of the Troubles and how the song intertwines with the tale of his first love.
Ryan H. Walsh, Bostonian and author of Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968, explains how the seminal album Astral Weeks came about, and John Payne, flautist on Sweet Thing, shares memories of those extraordinary recording sessions with Van Morrison.
And singer-songwriter Alanna Joy from South Africa considers why she opens her live sets with her own rendition of Sweet Thing, and recalls hearing it for the first time through Jeff Buckley's cover.
Technical Producer: Ilse Lademann
Editor: Emma Harding
Produced in Bristol by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2024.
28 min
November 11, 2023 Songs My Mother Taught Me
Antonin Dvorak wrote his Gypsy Songs in 1880. He was passionate about the folk music of his native Bohemia and set a poem by Czech poet Adolf Heyduk to music. Songs My Mother Taught Me is the fourth song in the cycle.
Songs my Mother taught me
In the days long vanished
Seldom from her eyelids
Were the teardrops banished....
It's a wistful melancholic piece evoking memory and loss. Soul Music hears the stories of musicians, poets and singers from around the world of why they are so drawn to it.
The poet Raine Geoghegan is the daughter of a Romany woman whose life was weighed down with the loss of her father at a young age. Raine identifies with the sadness of the music because it not only represents grief at the loss of her father but also for the loss of a way of life for the gypsy people.
For Emily MacGregor it's all about the music we inherit from our parents. She is writing a book about music and grief and says this piece perfectly represents the bittersweet feeling of listening to music associated with the loss of a loved one. Dvorak had already lost three children in infancy by the time he wrote his Zigeuner Lieder.
Paris based violinist and conductor Bartu Elci-Ozsoy associates Songs with the innocence of childhood and was moved to perform it at a benefit concert he organised in aid of the children affected by the devastating earthquake in his native Turkey and Syria in early 2023.
The Korean soprano Sumi Jo recorded it in honour of her mother and presented it to her a year before she died in gratitude for her determination to see her daughter become a professional singer.
When The Scotsman newspaper commissioned a series of lockdown concerts in Spring 2020 cellist Sua-Lee chose to recreate the concert by Beatrice Harrison a century earlier when she played the piece accompanied by nightingales in her garden in Surrey. Sua set up her cello in woodland near her home in Grantown- on-Spey and performed Songs My Mother Taught Me to a collection of woodland creatures
Singer Ruby Hughes performed the American composer Charles Ives' version of the piece for a collection called Bright Travellers - music curated and composed by Helen Grimes from poems by Fiona Benson. Ives wrote his own version of Dvorak's piece not long after the Czech composer had settled in America. She loves the rocking gentle lullaby sensation created by the lilting melodies of both Ives' and Dvorak's compositions.
Featuring additional recordings by Sua Lee and Zoe Challenor
Producer: Maggie Ayre
28 min
November 04, 2023 Fire and Rain
James Taylor's song of suicide, loneliness and addiction somehow remains hopeful and uplifting, even as people experience their own dark times.
Holly Sinclair was driving through a Missouri winter to see her brother, in hospital after a suicide attempt, when the song came on the radio.
Michael Granberry, arts writer for the Dallas Morning News, is also a huge James Taylor fan. He's the same age as Taylor, and reflects on the context of assassinations and war raging in America when he wrote Fire and Rain.
Peter Asher was James Taylor's manager and producer, and remembers their first meeting, and the first time he heard Fire and Rain.
Marcia Hines released a successful cover version of the song after moving from America to Australia as a teenager, and hearing the song blasting out of radios on both sides of the world.
Mark Deeks and Jeff Alexander from Sing United community choir talk about the emotions generated when people sing a song they feel a connection to.
And Peter Bardaglio, climate change activist, talks about a summer of fire and rain.
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sally Heaven
28 min
October 28, 2023 Pata Pata
Miriam Makeba recorded 'Pata Pata' in 1967 with the help of American producer Jerry Ragovoy. It became a huge hit and Miriam Makeba used newfound fame to speak the injustices of apartheid. Her records were banned and South Africa and she was forced to live in exile. Here, people from around the world share their stories about what this iconic track means to them.
Actor John Kani grew up in Johannesburg remembers dancing to the song when it came on the radio and says that Miriam Makeba became an inspiration for how art could bring about change. He would meet her years later after a concert in New York, and again in Johannesburg after apartheid ended.
Author of 'Makeba: the Miriam Makeba Story', Nomsa Mwamuka, charts the history of 'Pata Pata' and why Makeba would come to see it as "frivilous".
Buks van Heerden is a pace-runner who has completed over 800 marathons. He plays 'Pata Pata' late in the race when the runners he's pacing are getting tired and says it always lifts the mood.
Angelique Kidjo says Miriam Makeba was the first African woman on the cover of an album. Hearing 'Pata Pata' inspired her to perform, and later in life she and Makeba became friends.
Dr. Niyi Coker devised 'Mama Africa: The Musical' in Cape Town when he realised that a younger generation of South Africans weren't aware of Miriam Makeba of her work. 'Pata Pata' would see two generations of 'Miriam' singing together and it would bring the house down.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Toby Field
Technical Producer: Ilse Lademann
Editor: Emma Harding
With thanks to Rita Ray, Dr. Niyi Coker, and Moses Molapisane at the BBC bureau in Johannesburg.
28 min
October 21, 2023 Defying Gravity from Wicked
Wicked the musical is 20 years old in 2023. The story of the Wizard of Oz told from the witches' perspective examines themes of difference, power and alienation. The so called Wicked Witch of the West Elphaba born with green skin experiences the pain of growing up different and of longing for acceptance. No surprise then that anybody who has ever felt marginalised or that they don't fit in is drawn to her story. Defying Gravity is Elphaba's war-cry at the end of Act One as she bravely decides to forge her own path in life - to "close her eyes and leap".
The song has become a powerful anthem for people from all different walks of life and this episode tells some of their stories.
Edward Pierce the Broadway set designer of Wicked knows the song through and through as he worked on the sequence where Elphaba takes flight and begins Defying Gravity. It wasn't until he became severely ill with Covid that the song took on a different meaning. While he was in an induced coma on a ventilator a nurse sang and hummed Defying Gravity to him. He believes that song played more than a minor role in his recovery. That nurse was singer Felicia Temple who had featured on The Voice America singing talent show performing Defying Gravity. When her musical career was cut short by lockdown in March 2020 she returned to nursing and when she found herself at the bedside of a Broadway set designer there was only one song that came to mind. But it has a personal resonance for her too as she went onto that TV show to sing the song one year on from her own illness with cancer and was resolute that as the song goes 'nothing was ever going to bring me down'.
The first British singer to play the role of Elphaba in the West End and Broadway is Kerry Ellis. She recounts how that song has given her so much in life and how grateful she is to its strong message of courage.
Kath Pierce formerly of the Manchester Proud Choir outlines why Defying Gravity is such an important song to the LGTBQ community and why the choir and members of the public took to the trams and streets of Manchester one November evening in defiance of a violent attack against two young gay men. They'd been on their way home on the tram singing songs from Wicked after a night out. Hundreds of people assembled in the city centre and sang Defying Gravity as a protest against the hate crime.
Musicologist Mel Spencer talks us through the genius of composer Stephen Schwartz's song and how it harks back to Somewhere Over The Rainbow as well as to Wagner!
Producer: Maggie Ayre
28 min
October 14, 2023 I Will Always Love You
Written by Dolly Parton... sent stratospheric by Whitney Houston; I Will Always Love You is a song that has a worldwide fanbase reflected by the diverse memories shared here:
Nagham Kewifati tells how her mother, Mayada Bseliss, had a huge hit in Syria with an Arabic version. It was produced by Nagham's father, Mayada's husband, Samir.
Dr. Marie Thompson of the Open University, who co-wrote a short course entirely about Dolly Parton, reveals the unlikely story behind the song and why Elvis Presley was refused permission to record his own version.
Member of Parliament, Jim Shannon, explains why he introduced an unusual Early Day Motion in the House of Commons to celebrate the song's 50th anniversary in 2023.
Ben Rimalower, host of Giants in the Sky on the Broadway Podcast Network, describes how obsessed he became with Whitney Houston's performances of this track when he was recovering from alcohol and drug addiction.
Vocal Coach, CeCe Sammy Lightfoot, describes how difficult Whitney Houston's version is to sing and the technique required to perform this vocal high-wire act.
And Marcus Grimmie, brother of singer Christina Grimmie, remembers his sister's beautiful voice and rise to stardom before she was tragically murdered. He set up the Christina Grimmie Foundation in her memory to create a community and provide financial support for families affected by gun violence.
Producer: Karen Gregor
28 min
July 05, 2023 Fast Car
'Fast Car' is one of Tracy Chapman's biggest hits, with listeners from around the world finding striking connections with their own lives in the song's story.
It was released in April 1988, and that summer, the American singer-songwriter performed it to a global audience of 600 million at Nelson Mandela's 70th Birthday Tribute. This broadcast catapulted Tracy and the song to super-stardom, as it became a top ten hit on both sides of the Atlantic and received three Grammy nominations.
Ever since, 'Fast Car' has resonated with people around the world. The lyrics describe a working woman trying to escape a cycle of poverty, dreaming of a plan to leave in a "fast car". She speaks of wanting to get out of the life she finds herself in, living in a shelter, and driving towards the city to find something better.
This episode features the personal stories of Fitzroy Samuels in Kingston, Jamaica; Priscilla Munson in Indiana, U.S; Gemma Brown in Gateshead, UK and Dev Cuny in California, U.S. We also hear from Alister Wright in Sydney, Australia whose band, Vlossom, covered Fast Car; and Nigel Williamson, music journalist who has met and interviewed Tracy Chapman many times.
Produced by Eliza Lomas, BBC Audio Bristol
28 min
June 24, 2023 I Say a Little Prayer for You
When Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David wrote I Say A Little Prayer For You in 1967 the war in Vietnam was raging. The song was intended as message of support for the soldiers there. It was originally recorded by Dionne Warwick and the following year by Aretha Franklin.
Doug Bradley was drafted and served in Vietnam as a war correspondent. He says the music the troops all listened to on AFVN (Armed Forces Vietnam Network) sustained him and others while they were in country. His book We Gotta Get Out of This Place (The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War) documents the vital role music played for the soldiers. Aretha Franklin was a symbol of hope and civil rights for many African American troops and I Say A Little Prayer a soothing and calming message of love.
The singer-songwriter Rumer adored the song and all of Aretha's music as an unhapy teenager in England. She went on to write the hit song Aretha about a young girl whose mother has a mental illness confiding all her worries to the Queen of Soul. Her husband Rob Shirakbari was recruited by both Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach as keyboard player and musical arranger. To him the song with its mixture of time signatures and different interpretations symbolises many happy years playing with two of the musical greats.
Jazz singer Nnenna Freelon has recorded two versions of because it is one she has loved throughout the years but only after the death of her husband Phil in 2019 did it become a song about the expression of grief. Her latest version interprets the song as a plea and a prayer for her late husband as well as for herself. Her podcast Great Grief is a meditation on grief and loss combined with music.
In 1968 Aretha Franklin played in Stockholm. 15 year old Hasse Huss and his friend hung around her hotel hoping to meet her. Not only did they meet her but at her invitation they spent the next day with her as she rehearsed for her show. I Say A Little Prayer fills him with happiness and nostalgia for this happy day in the late sixties and he plans to incorporate the song lyrics into a speech for his son's wedding.
And Professor Daphne Brooks grew up with older siblings and musical parents who introduced her to the song. It has been with her throughout her life representing for her the 'fullness of black womanhood'. The song very recently helped her deal with her beloved mother's passing at the age of 96.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
28 min
June 17, 2023 Ghost Town
Ghost Town was recorded by British two-tone band The Specials as a comment on urban decay and social unrest.
It was released in June 1981 as riots were springing up around the UK and with the help of an iconic video it topped the UK singles charts. It was also the band's final single.
Writer Alex Wheatle first heard 'Ghost Town' in 1981 whilst in a social services hostel in Brixton awaiting his court appearance.
He'd been arrested following a day of action in Brixton to protest against racist treatment of Black people, after rumours of police brutality. He was sentenced to one year in prison and sang 'Ghost Town' in his cell, as he began to find hope and purpose in his life.
Claire Horton grew up in Dudley and says 'Ghost Town' echoed her experiences of watching the shops and nightclubs of this once vibrant town closing down.
Her Dad was made redundant and it had a huge impact on her family, and as a young police officer she would walk the streets and understand why people were getting so frustrated with their situation.
Soul and Reggae DJ Dave Marshall Barrett traces the history of The Specials who formed in Dave's hometown of Coventry in 1977. It's the first thing people mention when he says where he comes from.
John Collins was surprised when Jerry Dammers asked him to produce the record.
John created the initial opening 'ghostly' sounds on a synth at home but he says they now sound more like sirens. The song's success opened doors for John and he loves how it keeps finding new audiences.
Broadcaster Samira Ahmed grew up in London and said her the recession of the early 80s hit her family's catering business hard.
Too young for nightclubs, she remembers the video of 'Ghost Town' playing on Top of the Pops and says the track made a huge impact on her understanding of music and politics.
Jazz singer Beverley Beirne covered 'Ghost Town' for her 2018 album 'Jazz Just Wants to Have Fun' and was reminded of it during the first lockdown when she wasn't able to perform.
Founder of The Specials Jerry Dammers reflects on the inspiration behind 'Ghost Town' and how trombonist Rico Rodriguez was the heart and soul of the band.
Additional research: Melanie Pearson
Technical Producer: Michael Harrison
Editor: Emma Harding
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Toby Field.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2023.
28 min