Writing candidly about intimate, private moments and feelings is today such an accepted practice in pop songwriting that it can be startling to go back to 1971 and find Joni Mitchell reflecting that, at that point, 'the only thing that I could see to do fresh, that hadn't really been explored poetically, was the internal landscape. … [to] write from my own experience … was one of the few territories left for a poet to be a contributor of any kind'. The album she's talking about is Blue, and if she's right, then it might be viewed as the origin of this tradition of songwriting as 'an investigation of self, self-analysis of sorts', as she put it elsewhere. In this final episode of the series, I look at the penultimate song on this great album, 'A Case of You', in the context of wider shifts in American society, as well as Mitchell's particular musical and philosophical development, to see what's revealed in this bold venture inwards.

All the songs discussed in this episode, including the original recording of 'A Case of You' can be heard here. If you've enjoyed it, please leave a review on Apple podcasts; thank you.

With very special thanks to Paul Wierdak, the producer of this episode. 

When Bruce Springsteen was asked why he was invited to write the theme song for 'Philadelphia', the first mainstream motion picture about the AIDS crisis, and one of the first films made in Hollywood featuring a gay protagonist, he responded that the film's director, Jonathan Demme, had 'wanted to take a subject that people didn’t feel safe with and were frightened by and put it together with people that they did feel safe with'. The song that Springsteen would create in response to this brief was 'Streets of Philadelphia', and it plays over the film's long opening credits sequence, Springsteen's murmured vocals echoing over shots of the city's inhabitants and some of its historical landmarks. Why would the presence of Springsteen have helped viewers feel less frightened by the subject of AIDS? And what does this particularly strategic soundtrack casting do to the meaning of the song?

All the songs discussed in this episode, including the original recording of 'Streets of Philadelphia' can be heard here. If you've enjoyed it, please leave a review on Apple podcasts; thank you.

With very special thanks to Paul Wierdak, the producer of this episode. 

'I Wanna Dance with Somebody' is now safely embedded in the pantheon of great songs: a 2023 Billboard poll named it the greatest pop song of all time, and it continues to be an ever-present on pop radio and wedding playlists. When it was first released, however, as the lead single from Whitney Houston's second album, it prompted a widespread critical backlash. Rolling Stone found it 'ridiculously safe' and the novelist Trey Ellis called it 'lifeless'. This would culminate in the notorious moment at the 1989 Soul Train awards when Houston was audibly booed by the live TV audience. What was behind this controversy and what does it tell us about freedom, a concept which seemed to attach itself to Houston throughout her career, which people heard in her singing and expected her to represent?

All the songs discussed in this episode, including the original recording of 'I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)' can be heard here. If you've enjoyed it, please leave a review on Apple podcasts; thank you.

With very special thanks to Paul Wierdak, the producer of this episode. 

Of all the pop songs released in the era this series has been looking at, there are few which command the depth of love and affection as Cyndi Lauper's 'Time After Time'. It brings with it, for many listeners, a powerful weight of nostalgic associations and memories, which is one reason it’s the perfect choice for accompanying the mesmerising dance sequence at the end of the 1997 film, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, but is there something about the song itself - something which goes beyond the particular personal feelings we might associate with it - which prompts reflection on this integral, yet elusive, aspect of being alive: the role memory plays in shaping our understanding of the passing of time?

The original recording of 'Time After Time' can be heard here. If you're enjoying the series, please leave a review on Apple podcasts; thank you.

With very special thanks to Paul Wierdak, the producer of this episode. 

Why do we work? The answer might seem obvious; as teenagers the world over have long been told, the world does not owe you a living, but predictions by economists that technological advances would inevitably lead to shorter working hours have not been borne out. We work more than ever, and experience more stress and dissatisfaction with our lives as a result. As Dolly Parton's famous song about the working life, '9 to 5', puts it: 'it's enough to drive you crazy, if you let it'. It was released at a moment when work was changing rapidly: agriculture and manufacturing jobs were collapsing, the number of women in work had risen dramatically, and the power of organised labour was permanently diminished. Parton, a sharper and more subtle songwriter than almost any of her contemporary critics could credit, was able to write a song in the midst of these historic changes which speaks to anyone who's ever watched a clock, longing for the working day to end: 'working 9 to 5, what a way to make a living'. 

All the songs discussed in this episode, including the original recording of '9 to 5' can be heard here. If you've enjoyed it, please leave a review on Apple podcasts; thank you.

With very special thanks to Paul Wierdak, the producer of this episode. 

‘When I was little, I really wanted to be a psychiatrist. That's what I always said at school. I had this idea of helping people, I suppose, but I found the idea of people's inner psychology fascinating, particularly in my teens.’ This is Kate Bush, talking about what she wanted to do before becoming a musician. In this episode I explore whether the trace of ideas from contemporary psychology can be found in the songs she would go on to write and what light it might shine on the meaning of one of her most famous, 'Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)', in particular her given explanation of its inspiration: 'I was trying to say that, really, a man and a woman can't understand each other because we are a man and a woman'. 

All the songs discussed in this episode, including the original recording of 'Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)' can be heard here. If you've enjoyed it, please leave a review on Apple podcasts; thank you.

With very special thanks to Paul Wierdak, the producer of this episode. 

The 1970s were a period of intensifying fears about the rapid spread of technological complexity in the wake of environmental catastrophes such as the Three Mile Island accident and the popularity of dystopian sci-fi and 'tech-critical' books which warned that technology was already harming human wellbeing and would soon be out of control. In this context, then, what are we to make of the development of a musical style in the early 1980s known from the very start as Techno? And what of the fact that techno’s most successful song contained an uplifting vision of human flourishing, Inner City’s 1988 single, ‘Good Life’?

All the songs discussed in this episode, including the original recording of 'Good Life' can be heard here. If you've enjoyed it, please leave a review on Apple podcasts; thank you.

With very special thanks to Paul Wierdak, the producer of this episode. 

Has there ever been a pop band which has been as loved - and as hated - as ABBA? Even in the period before they appeared on the Eurovision Song Contest, when they were only well-known in Sweden, there were protests held and satirical songs written about them. In parallel with the long history of critical condemnations of ABBA, however, they have attracted greater love and admiration, from a wider range of listeners, than perhaps any other band of the era. What explains this range of reactions to them and why are they still so popular decades after their late-70s heydey? I break down their early hit, ‘SOS’, among others, to try to answer the surprisingly tricky question of what we’re listening to when we listen to ABBA.

All the songs discussed in this episode, including the original recording of 'SOS' can be heard here. Portishead's version of 'SOS' is not on Spotify but can be found here at the time of writing. If you're enjoying the series, please leave a review on Apple podcasts; thank you.

With very special thanks to Paul Wierdak, the producer of this episode. 

When people first encountered Sly and the Family Stone in their early performances in San Francisco they were often struck by how much they really seemed like a family. They eschewed starriness; no one was put on a pedestal and it was clear that each member was valued and cared for. In a few short years, however, as the 1970s dawned, the band and this idealism seemed to implode. Sly Stone, the band's songwriter, had retreated into his Beverly Hills mansion, making music virtually alone and in the grip of substance addictions. In this context, he made the great song, 'Family Affair', which asks some very fundamental questions: who is our family? What do we owe them? What holds us together when promises are broken and lives fall apart?

All the songs discussed in this episode, including the original recording of 'Family Affair' can be heard here. If you've enjoyed it, please leave a review on Apple podcasts; thank you.

With very special thanks to Paul Wierdak, the producer of this episode. 

When Brian Eno first heard 'I Feel Love' by Donna Summer, produced by Giorgio Moroder in 1977, he declared that he had 'heard the sound of the future'. It was the first pop song to be entirely produced on a synthesiser and quickly came to be seen as an important milestone in the history of record production, pointing the way forward to the dominance of electronic technology in the decades following its release. Equally, it's a song which was immediately embraced by gay clubbing communities; when Sam Smith recorded their cover of it in 2019, they could describe it as a 'queer anthem'. In this episode, the first of a new series focussing on songs from the 1970s and 80s, I ask what it is about 'I Feel Love' which has inspired these responses and what might link these two key strands of its history.

All the songs discussed in this episode, including the original recording of 'I Feel Love' can be heard here. The theme from A Clockwork Orange is not on Spotify but at the time of writing can be found here. If you've enjoyed the episode please leave a review on Apple podcasts. Thank you.

With very special thanks to Paul Wierdak, the producer of this episode.