Word In Your Ear

All the leaves are brown and the sky’s a bit unruly but mellow fruitfulness abounds in this week’s pick of the rock and roll news. Add to basket …  

… is Morrissey hacked off, broke or just desperate for attention?

… are stadium gigs the new tourism?

… bucket hats, Man City, lads culture … how did America finally ‘get’ Oasis?

… singles that weren’t on albums

… are we sated by an overabundance of music?

… how Gary Numan got a record deal

… why Gene Loves Jezebel are the new Sam & Dave!

 … the new age of the rock and roll pilgrimage

… did Slade record the Hokey Cokey? The Dave Clark Five did Neil Young? The Troggs did Foxy Lady?

… the Jam, the Yardbirds, The Nice, the Smiths: bands who broke up because they couldn’t crack America

… selling Barry White records to Middle Eastern airline pilots

Plus Tubeway Army, the Scaffold doing Ging Gang Goolie, “Mister Ferry’s diction” and birthday guest Jelltex.

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Immortalised by Hendrix, ‘Hey Joe’ had its roots in 18th century murder ballads, ‘60s folk and rock clubs before the world got to hear it. Jason Schneider unravels its twisted genesis in ‘That Gun In Your Hand’, and talks to us here about the miracles that allowed it to happen and the sad fate of Billy Roberts, the man who claimed he wrote it. Along with …

… “all pop records are built on the back of other pop records”

… the allure of violent songs: “we get our kicks from real-life murder”

… the bit-part players in the story – David Crosby, Dino Valenti, Tim Rose, Cass Elliot, the Byrds, the Leaves, the Creation and Bob Dylan

… the final twist: how Chas Chandler was looking to make Hey Joe a hit when Linda Keith pointed him at Hendrix

… “a song with no chorus and a circle of fifths”: why it was a rock staple alongside Gloria and Louie Louie

… the cruel fate of Billy Roberts who never recorded Hey Joy as couldn’t bear to give away 50 per cent of the royalties

… the girl murders the man? “It’s a song still in evolution”

… how Andy Summers was the first person to hear Hendrix play in the UK

… 1,881 guitarists mass-performed Hey Joe in 2007 but could you even release a version of it now?

You can order ‘That Gun In Your Hand: The Strange Saga of Hey Joe and Popular Music’s History of Violence’ from Anvil Press here: https://www.anvilpress.com/books/that-gun-in-your-hand-the-strange-saga-of-hey-joe-and-popular-musics-history-of-violence

And from the US distributor Asterism here: https://asterismbooks.com/product/that-gun-in-your-hand-the-strange-saga-of-hey-joe-and-popular-musics-history-of-violence-jason-schneider

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Maddy Prior – folk royalty, an absolute hero of ours – is touring with Steeleye Span again this autumn 66 years after they started, a life someone should make into a movie. She talks to us here about her undimmed love of live performance and …  

… when the height of your ambition is a £3 ticket to Blackpool Pleasure Beach

… “Rod Argent, the first boy I ever kissed”

… her fox-fur-trimmed Lambretta when a teenage mod

… the night Steeleye Span showered their audience with £4,000

… seeing Acker Bilk, Chris Barber, Josh White and Sony Boy Williamson in St Albans clubs

… driving Rev Gary Davis round Britain in a Triumph Herald: “Miss Maddy, you’d make a great nurse! Was that a compliment or an insult?”

… “Traditional music is great material to work with. It’s like steel – you can bend it but you can’t break it”

… hearing Dylan for the first time (with Donovan) and thinking “this man can’t sing”

 … memories of her father who wrote Z Cars

… life with Tim Hart: “Living in sin? No, we’re living in Archway!”

… Tony Secunda, his spray-can and his promotional stunts – “Win 24 hours with a member of Steeleye Span”

… Alan Partridge and the great ‘Gaudete’ moment

… the new Steeleye Span album Conflict “about the rip and tear relationship we have with the planet that hosts us”

… and Singing For The Uncertain, her course for singers who think they can’t

Steeleye Span tour dates here: https://steeleyespan.org.uk/sample-page/tour-dates-2025/

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Our pencil-chewing, critical assessment of this week’s news gets mainly * and *** reviews, among them …

…. Sting v Summers & Copeland over Every Breath You Take, the goose that laid the golden egg

… what John Lennon would have thought about the ‘cancelled’ track on Some Time In New York City

… when did “critically acclaimed” come to mean unpopular?

… the knock-about days when a critic was “a jerk, a crank and a spoilsport”

… Jonny Greenwood’s dad was a bomb disposal expert? Pete Doherty’s mum was a Lance-Corporal in the Royal Army Nursing Corps?

… what matters more, the song or the record?

... Anthony Fantano, Rick Beato and the rise of the YouTube rock review

… “negative comments about a famous act’s new album are like graffiti on the walls of a hallowed institution”

… Bob Dylan’s Self Portrait, Andrew Ridgeley’s Son Of Albert (“half a star”) and the lost age of the crushing review

… and “you never mention Depeche Mode!”

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Debsey Wykes was in Dolly Mixture, one of the very few all-girl groups in post-punk London, a time when bands with charisma won the battle for attention and you promoted singles on the back of a truck. Her memoir Teenage Daydream perfectly captures a slice of late ‘70s life, the thrill of playing the pub circuit and trying to storm Radio One. Along with …

… the agony of re-reading teenage diaries

… being supported by U2 then watching their “annoying” ascent

… Girls With Electric Guitars and why rock hacks couldn’t take them

… forming bands for self-expression: “you reach that moment when all you want to do is scream!”

… “when Jean-Jacques Burnel rests his boot on your head you don’t wash your hair for a week”

… early adventures with Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, David Cassidy and Bowie: “Cassidy was normal, Bowie was weird”

… diary entries: “the lead singer of the Only Ones has fantastic legs and glittery plimsolls”

… “Sugary Sweets Cause Youth Decay!”: the NME’s withering interview

 … the satin-and-silk allure of Stevie Nicks

… violence at ‘70s gigs: “we were locked in the dressing-room with the sirens going off”

… “a cross between the Slits and the Nolans”: John Peel’s producer’s loathing for Dolly Mixture

… the vicious rivalry between ‘70s girl singers

… letters from her old boss and headmaster after she appeared on Top Of The Pops

Order ‘Teenage Daydream: We Are The Girls Who Play In A Band’ here: https://linktr.ee/new.modern?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=008bc73f-2400-4a67-81df-04fa9758dc06

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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A tub-thumping, snare-cracking, cymbal-simmering, two-way backbeat to this week’s rock and roll news, the on-beats including …

… “Trauma-bonding?” Why being ‘a fan’ is like a love affair

… Ian Brown, Morrissey, Siouxsie, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison … why singers who don’t play an instrument are a different species

… the stadium-rock drummer transfer window

… Sigourney Weaver at Shea Stadium in ’65

… singers who don’t sound like their personalities

… what can a singer-songwriter write about if they get famous at 18?

… the unreleased Beatles Holy Grail?

… can you be a fan of someone younger than you are?

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

… how do you know a drummer’s knocking on your door?

… plus Leonard Cohen, Phil Oakey and are you ever too old to be wearing a Libertines military tunic?

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How can you not love the Divine Comedy whose inspirations include Tom Lehrer and “Landfill Indie”? And Neil Hannon wrote music for Wonka, Father Ted and the IT Crowd. There’s a new album, Rainy Sunday Afternoon, and a tour in October and all bases are covered in this conversation from Kildare, these among them …

 … seeing U2 at Croke Park “and feeling as though I’d won the Wonka Golden Ticket”.

… favourite bands of the ‘80s and ‘90s - Pixies, Sugarcubes, Sonic Youth and Ride.

… the miserably cancelled Father Ted musical and how he’s recycled the songs he wrote for it.

… a research trip to an Indie Disco with Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian.

 … how it feels to record at Abbey Road.

 … his teenage band inventing new words to R.E.M songs in an Enniskillen youth club.

… how new songs begin.  

… supporting Carter USM and Suede, “the moment I first felt like a pop star”.

… Mar-A-Lago, a childhood trip to London and further melancholia on his new album Rainy Sunday Afternoon.

… rocks on the street in Derry en route to Primary School during the Troubles.

… Hepworth and Ellen appearing on a Duckworth Lewis album - “nudging and nurdling!”

… his first stab at “witty pseudo-intellectual lyrics”.

… “never leave your tour bus, be rehearsed before you start rehearsals” and other ways touring saves money.

… and the five songs he always plays.

Divine Comedy tickets here: https://thedivinecomedy.com/live

Pre-order Rainy Sunday here: https://lnk.to/RainySunday

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Tanita Tikaram’s second gig had an audience of three – one paying customer and two concert promoters. When one of them wanted to talk to her afterwards she said, “sorry, I’ve got to get the train home.” She was 17. In this podcast she tells us the story of the one of the fastest career ascents on record which stops off at …

… an open-mic night with a girl who cut up newspaper – “what happened to her?”

… Basingstoke alumni –Tanita Tikaram, Jane Austen, Liz Hurley …

… ignoring Wham! in favour of Suzanne Vega and Tom Waits.

… the lure of school theatre groups – “a skive, you could basically be arty and smoke”.

… “Ringo Starr gave me an award!”

… supporting Warren Zevon and Jonathan Richman - and John Martyn (with Tracy Chapman).

… the faint absurdity of promoting Twist In My Sobriety on Kids TV.

… “when you’re young, you’re adaptable”.

… mourning the loss of mainstream music.

… a summer spent miming on European pop TV shows.

… the thrill of hearing Ancient Heart was Top Ten when playing the Cambridge Folk Festival – “they all thought, that’s one of us in the charts!”

… and today’s imbalance between new music and nostalgia.

Order Tanita Tikaram tickets here: https://www.tanita-tikaram.com/live/

Order Liar: Love Isn’t A Right here: https://www.tanita-tikaram.com/music/

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Bob Mould, whose records with Hüsker Dü had such impact on Nirvana and Pixies, is back on tour again, both solo and with a band. “I’ve built this tiny soap box - and if you don’t like it, it’s been nice knowing you!” He talks to us from San Francisco about …

… March 30 1979: “the day that changed my life”

… over-refreshment on the bus to see Rush and Aerosmith, aged 16

… the influence of Hüsker Dü on Nirvana, Pixies and My Bloody Valentine – “it’s a game of hot potato. YOU take this sound now!”

… seeing the Ramones opening for Iggy Pop – “simplistic on the surface but I got all their ‘60s pop references”

… the art of the three-song set-opener

… playing Buzzcocks and Ventures covers in ‘three-two’ bars

… opening for the Foo Fighters, playing for 100,00 people – and for crowds wearing masks during Covid

… “the more the production, the less the spontaneity”

… visual clues playing solo to let the audience know where the beat is

… “I’m one of those others”: inter-song riffs about politics, protest and oppression

Order Bob Mould tickets here: https://bobmould.com/

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Damping down the wildfires of rock and roll news this week we focus on the following …

… Oasis, Taylor Swift and Coldplay and the new age of Winner Takes All

… did Bob Dylan write a song with Gene Simmons, advertise lingerie or appear on a telethon with Harry Dean Stanton?

… movies that need making eg the Molly Drake Story, the Rock And Roll Mitford Sisters (Pattie, Jenny and Paula Boyd)

… surely what makes the rock business ‘unfair’ are the people spending the money on it?

… is the Golden Age of TV over?

… Paul Weller’s magnificent Find El Dorado and the songwriters he’s rebooting - Willie Griffin, Bobby Charles, Duncan Browne, Eamon Friel

… a JR Hartley moment: Brian Protheroe taking his grandson to watch his album being re-mastered at Abbey Road

… ‘Programmes made for older viewers always have a lot of green in them’

… will we ever get another comedy record?

… why did we love Succession, Breaking Bad, the Queen’s Gambit and Six Feet Under yet have no burning desire to ever watch them again?

… how 200 Go-Betweens box-sets came with books from the late Grant McLennan’s library signed by Robert Forster

… ‘Never glad confident morning again!’

… new acronyms – RIYL, anyone?

… do any new TV comedies merit an Xmas Special?

... plus the Trump Awards, main character syndrome, Black Pudding Bertha (the Queen of Northern Soul) and birthday guest Ed Newman on box-set addiction – “this way madness lies!”

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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