Word In Your Ear

Musicians have flirted with Nazi imagery since the ‘60s, lampooning its theatre, absorbing its style, exploiting its shock value, even promoting its ideology. Daniel Rachel’s new book ‘This Ain’t Rock ‘N’ Roll’ points up extraordinary examples – “from Tommy Steele to Kanye West” - and how our reaction intensified over the years. Which leads us to …

… parallels between stadium rock and the Nuremberg rallies

… hearing the Sex Pistols’ Belsen Was A Gas and seeing their Nazi insignia at the age of 12

… David Bowie’s German memorabilia and belief that “Hitler was the first rock and roll superstar” – and the doctored photo of his “Nazi salute” at Victoria Station

… Bernie Rhodes versus Malcolm McLaren on the “reclaiming of the swastika”

… the lyrics and imagery of the Siouxsie & the Banshees

… Viv Stanshall and Keith Moon’s atrocious visit to Golders Green

... the German invention of the tape machine that started the record business

… “I’m not the Simon Wiesenthal of rock and roll!”

… Joy Division, New Order, K-Pop, Brian Jones and his SS uniform, Ron Asheton of the Stooges, John Lennon, Lemmy, Blue Oyster Cult, “Adolf Hitler on vibes”

… “Rock and Roll has a duty to recognise its downfalls”.

Order ‘This Ain’t Rock ‘N’ Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika and the Third Reich’ here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/this-aint-rock-n-roll/daniel-rachel/9781399635721

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Dan Jennings’ podcast ‘Desperately Seeking Paul’ is so successful he’s used 250 of the interviews in a best-selling oral history. ‘Dancing Through The Fire’ has voices from right across the spectrum – family members, band members, writers, pluggers, label bosses, collaborators and famous fans. He talks to us here about …

… Weller’s real name and when he changed it by deed poll

… a theory about bands formed in towns not cities

… the handbrake turn from the Jam to the Style Council – one minute the intense young man cutting out his press clippings, the next espadrilles, singing in French and “nibbling Mick’s ear on the River Cam”

… Weller’s “very English” need to be heard and respected - but not loved

… the role of his manager father in the Jam’s success, the days when the family phone number was in the Fan Club ads

... how Noel Gallagher engineered a Bono/Weller photo op

… Paul’s glorious chippiness – Band Aid, the pop press, “offering a journalist out for a fight in Victoria Park”

... John and Paul Weller and echoes of Only Fools And Horses

… when the Jam played ice rinks and swimming pools

… the cab-driver gossip grapevine

… cutting 1.5 million words to 250,000 and the book’s biggest revelations and surprises.

Order a copy of Dancing Through The Fire here: https://geni.us/dancingthroughthefire

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Marking our dance card at the rock and roll hop this week you’ll find …

… And Then He Kissed Me, I Saw Her Standing There, Springsteen’s All The Way Home: songs about the theatre of dancing

… is there a more influential sleeve than Patti Smith’s Horses?

… did Dylan invent the box-set?

… records you wish you liked

… when the Beach Boys were so off the boil they covered Dylan and three by the Beatles

… when did we stop dancing in couples?

… Jagger queueing for a sandwich, Beckham in a farm shop, Lady Di in Holland Park and other stars we’ve spotted

… Brown Sugar, All Right Now and the daft etiquette of the late ‘60s dancefloor  

… Like A Virgin: 42-year-old hears Stairway To Heaven for the first time!

… “Are you dancin’? Are you askin’? I’m askin’! I’m dancin’!

… plus George Faith, train songs, records you’ve not played for years, the anthem Zohran Mamdani was stopped from using, and birthday guest Giles Fraser on stars in unusual places.

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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David Bowie’s significance just keeps expanding and the look and sound of him never age. Paul Morley has been gripped from the start and his new book ‘Far Above The World’ explores the many reasons why. These among them …

… Labyrinth, YouTube and the new ways people discover Bowie

… why he’s a figurehead of a vanishing world

… dressing up for radio interviews

… his almost fatal relationship with America and the 1971 promo tour that was his ‘On The Road’

… Haddon Hall and his first key collaborators

… writing a book about Bowie in public as part of the V&A exhibition – “I was an art installation!”

… Five Years, the internet, the studio as an instrument and other ways he was ahead of the curve

… “his YouTube reels are now part of his catalogue”

… his boundless curiosity about art, film, books and technology

… that unforgettable clip of TFI Friday: “every interview was performance art”

… a missed chance on the Marc Bolan Show

… “music to repel the Dark Ages”

… and why his look and sound never age.

Order ‘Far Above The World: The Time And Space of David Bowie’ here: https://www.resident-music.com/product/morley-paul-far-above-the-world-the-time-and-space-of-david-bowie

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Sam Sussman’s mother Fran had a year-long love affair with Dylan when he was working on Blood on the Tracks – she’s mentioned in Tangled Up In Blue – and they met again in 1990. What she told him about that relationship is mapped out in the book he’s just written, Boy From the North Country, along with the firm belief that he’s Dylan’s son. Imagine how that must feel. This extraordinary conversation takes a number of turns and these are among them …

… Norman Raeben’s art class where Dylan was trying break his creative block and met the 20-year old Fran Sussman  

… details of their 12-month affair and how it ended: “he gave me love songs but not love”

… the verses of Tangled Up In Blue that relate to Fran and the philosophy, art and poetry woven into his songs at the time

… Dylan’s other women in 1974

… being told by a teacher that he looked like Dylan and how he’s played up that connection ever since

… how it feels to think you might have numerous Dylan siblings - and how many there might be(!)

… the kind of people Sam meets in his book-signing queues

... and why his mother wouldn’t confirm who his father was.

Order copies of Boy From The North Country here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/boy-from-the-north-country/sam-sussman/9781804711286

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Tom Bailey’s been based in New Zealand for the last 30 years, making records, DJing and avoiding British winters. He tours the UK in 2026 playing the Thompson Twins’ greatest hits and looks back here from Auckland at the first shows he ever saw and played, all this high in the mix …

... dance music and the British Invasion of America

… the inspiring delights of Some Kind Of Mushroom, his local record shop in Chesterfield

… seeing Blodwyn Pig, Edgar Broughton and Principal Edwards Magic Theatre when he was 15

… “bass players go to bed last”

… when his folk-rock band the Witching Hour supported Mick Farren & the Deviants - and promptly split up

… living in Clapham squats with members of the Pop Group and the Slits

… the Thompson Twins - from “the young angry white-boy funk” to the MTV trio with a policy statement

 .. their manifesto and division of labour – “Tom Bailey music, Alannah Currie lyrics, Joe Leeway the live show”

… Live Aid with Madonna when the David Letterman house band became the Thompson Twins

… “a miraculous palette of sound”: how affordable technology changed his life

… and the extravagant talent of his all-female band.

Tickets for Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey & Blancmange 2026 Tour here: https://www.alttickets.com/thompson-twins-tom-bailey-tickets

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The raw ingredients of this week’s news gently diced, simmered and served as a nutritious broth. And flavoured with the following …

… why Lily Allen’s divorce album doubled the value of her house

… how can you play real living people as fundamentally bad after Steve Coogan’s ‘Lost King’ court case?

… the cowbell on Honky Tonk Women, the guiro on Gimme Shelter, the tambourine on classic Motown: Richard Pite gives a percussion demo

… Kraftwerk, 10cc, Coolio, George McCrae – more records that sound unique

… music used in movies to say ‘we’re flying East!’

… You Have Selected Regicide, Kill Wealthy Dowager: Morrissey song or line from the Simpsons?

… Woodbines, potted herrings, Paris buns: things we expect to find in Van Morrison’s soon-to-open childhood home

... why it’s worth hearing Mishima by Philip Glass and John the Revelator by Son House

… the time Jack Ashford was flown across America just to add a tambourine

… people who found they had a famous father

… and Mick ‘Two Pairs of Maracas’ Jagger and what Eno predicted about I Feel Love.

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Morrissey and Marr both wrote memoirs but Mike Joyce hasn’t read either, preferring to publish ‘The Drums’, his version of one of the great success stories of the ‘80s, a book about “the beauty we’d given to people – and to ourselves”. At one point he and Andy Rourke shout, ‘Where did it all go right?”. He looks back here at …

… the fateful meeting in Geales fish bar when Johnny told them he was leaving – “none of us, not even Morrissey, saw it coming”

… the first Smiths rehearsal and impressions of “Steve” the singer

… how the songs were written - “we never asked what they meant”

… and how they were arranged: “I locked with Johnny like Charlie with Keith, and Andy played a bass song over the top”

... memories of Johnny at X Clothes in Manchester and Morrissey in ‘82 - “funny, dark, so Manc”

… the “almost anti-punk” appeal of the Buzzcocks and the urge for a John Maher red Premier drumkit

… “Morrissey’s articulacy was both his strength and his Achilles heel”

… echoes of Motown and James Honeyman-Scott in Marr’s guitar

… “Singers need to feel they’re the most important person in the room”

… on-stage gladioli versus “the austerity of the Hacienda”

… and Morrissey today - “very angry” - and the legacy of the Smiths.  

Order copies of ‘The Drums here: https://www.resident-music.com/product/joyce-mike-the-drums

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Boarding this week’s giddy carousel of news, we ride the following ponies …

… the Sliding Doors moment that made a ‘50s star a fortune

… Soft Cell’s Dave Ball and the art of being the Other One in a pop duo

… Bohemian Rhapsody, O Superman, I Feel Fine: records that sounded like nothing before them

… what links the Prodigy, Wet Leg, Daft Punk and Donna Summer?

… how all bands need a bad patch to make you appreciate the good ones

… “the concept album is a good servant but a bad master”

… Expensive = Reassuringly valuable? Cheap = Worthless?

… a new Taylor Swift album in ‘sweat and vanilla-perfumed orange glitter vinyl’, anyone?

… and the tricks singers use to disguise the fact that they can’t hit the top notes anymore.

… plus ‘the Siege and Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein's Castle at Weisseria’ by Blue Öyster Cult and birthday guest Phil Hopwood on best and worst concept albums.

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Paul Young was the bassist in a pub band playing Led Zeppelin and Patto covers ‘til his solo soul and blues slot launched him as a singer. He’s still touring nearly 50 years later, just back from filling Mexican stadiums with Rod Stewart. And next May launching his acoustic ‘Songs & Stories Tour’ in theatres, intercut with film clips and hoary old tales from the battlefield. He looks back here at …

… Smash Hits cover shoots and Rewind package tours: “what a glorious time the ‘80s was”

… the soul phrases he stole from Free and his impression of “the Paul Rodgers moan”

… discovering James Taylor, the Doors, Gregg Allman, Vinegar Joe and Van Morrison

… supporting Bob Marley when the crowd threw a dead duck at Joe Jackson – “and hit him!”

… Mike & Bernie Winters in panto - “I was rolling in the aisles”

… playing Led Zeppelin, Cream and Patto and the Bill Withers and Albert King covers that launched him as a singer

… memories of Live Aid – “I wish I’d thought about it more”

… “What am I, a performing monkey?”

… when Midge Ure told him the opening line of Band Aid had actually been a secret audition – “Simon, Tony Hadley or me”

… the “deafening” Slade at Luton Tech, the night the DJ played Black JuJu by Alice Cooper

… the over-cranked news story that he’d lost his voice

… and the night the Mafia came to Rhode Island.

Tickets for ‘Paul Young – Songs & Stories’ here: https://www.awaywithmedia.com/tours/paul-young-2026

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