Word In Your Ear

Fond and appraising enquiry of recent events, this week featuring …

… we now feel we have to approve of artists/musicians/writers before we can say we like what they do. When did all this start?

… a new Stackwaddy game – Hari-Krishna Stomp Wagon? Starchelle Chicago Bear? Flaming Lips song title or exotically named winner of Crufts’ Best In Show?

 … in defence of men with bad reputations eg Evelyn Waugh, Martin Amis, John Lennon …

… re-pressed versions of albums that were 70p in the late ‘60s now sell for £29.99. What fresh madness is this?

… Liam Gallagher’s son Lennon and Paul Weller’s daughter Dylan ‘toast the 20th anniversary of an iconic Mulberry bag’: an ‘It’s like punk never happened’ special!

.. how the Silicon Valley TV series tells the truth.

… Noel Gallagher’s magnificent use of the word ‘disingenuous’ (possibly to wrong-foot and baffle his brother). And why he wrote Acquiesce.

… the now comically over-the-top Cannes standing ovations and what’s behind them.

… and the weaselly worlds of film and daytime telly.

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377

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A special extra podcast recorded just after hearing the news. We can barely remember a time when we weren’t aware of her. This looks back at the Ike & Tina R&B hits of the ‘60s, the Ikettes dance routines and how he copyrighted her stage name, the story of the recording of River Deep Mountain High with Phil Spector, Proud Mary on the Ed Sullivan Show, supporting the Rolling Stones, her unique vocal style and the way she sold the drama of the songs … and then the greatest comeback imaginable: the arrival of manager Roger Davies, the B.E.F.’s recording of Ball Of Confusion at Abbey Road (and the impossible demands of James Brown), Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome, Private Dancer (and Bowie’s 1984) and the record-breaking 180,000-crowd show at Brazil’s Maracana Stadium in 1988. And the fine art of dancing in high heels.

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/576193870377

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

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Put through the boil-wash of enquiry and hung upon the washing line of truth this week you’ll find the following one-size-fits-all garments …

… which acts are fading from memory and who’ll be remembered in 50 years’ time?

… how Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen and Warren Zevon addressed mortality – (‘My Ride’s Here', ‘Enjoy Every Sandwich’ ...).

… actors who’ve made albums.

… the photo that changed the perception of Johnny Cash.

… why you should watch the Pet Shop Boys’ new BBC interview, Reel Stories.

… the prog star who stage-invaded Jacob Rees Mogg’s speech at the Conservative conference.

… “Nothing will ever beat the first time you hear yourself on the radio”: Sting and the law of diminishing returns.

.. how Will Self capsized his own career.

… how Shakespeare and Robert Johnson’s reputations were both made by a ‘Greatest Hits’.

… Brian Jones’s fall from grace.

... who invented the term ‘goth’?

.. and the genius of Andy Rourke.

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/576193870377

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

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Further nutritious items on the pod’s tasting menu this week include …

… the story of Tubular Bells and how the Exorcist sent its sales through the roof.

… beneath the surface of every band is a drama waiting to kick off: the View’s reunion gig was “a brotherly bust-up that went too far”.  

… one of the following didn’t endorse a credit card, but which? – Beyoncé, Michael Jackson, Kiss, the Wu-Tang Clan, U2 and the Sex Pistols.

… crimes in rhyme perpetrated by Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen and Boney M - plus do YOU know a better one than ‘You told me love was too plebeian/ Told me you were through with me an’ …”?

… Beyoncé’s tour is “a celebration of black queer dance music” but that didn’t stop her playing a private gig in Dubai for $24m.

… plus stadium tour profits, singing bassists and 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Blue Danube.

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/576193870377

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Where the Gold Bracelets of Sincerity and Wisdom and the Rod of Equity and Mercy meet the piping hot music news agenda in a weekly podcast and alight upon the following ….

… the greatest singer of sad songs we’ve ever heard.

… the extraordinary tale of the B-side of ‘13 Women And Only One Man’.

… songs you couldn’t record these days.

… Rufus Wainwright’s re-recording of Neil Young’s Harvest – but CAN modern technology possibly make it sound any better?

… Noel Coward in the Italian Job.

 ... the mystifying UK pop charts at the time of the last Coronation.

… old records we’ve re-discovered: this week, Bonnie Raitt’s magnificent Give It Up (and especially Love Has No Pride).

… John Prine’s Angel From Montgomery.

… Gordon Lightfoot: why Dylan adored him and the tale of The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald.

… the return of Frankie Goes To Hollywood and the excellent current occupation of Brian ‘Nasher’ Nash.

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Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377

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Encountering the cheerful ping-pong bats of conversation this week you’ll find …

… the most unprepossessing rock band on God’s green earth.

… Ed Sheeran v Marvin Gaye – “the case continues”. But does anybody genuinely copy anyone else these days?

… Springsteen and Michelle Obama and their irresistible thirst for publicity.  

… the return of the Stack Waddy game: Spencer Birtwistle? Wilfred Mott? … Bernard Cribbins sitcom character or former member of the Fall?

… Santana’s Caravanserai still sounds like it was made yesterday.

… what Paul McCartney and Coldplay were paid to play Glastonbury.

… if you tell people they’ll like things they tend to look for reasons to disagree but can we (cautiously) recommend the Australian comedy Colin From Accounts?

… Happy 70th, Bill Drummond. We remember his deafening ‘retirement’ exit at the BRITS in 1992 and his exotic activities since.

… the delicate rhythms of the funniest lines by PG Wodehouse.  

… a chilling stat involving football academies.

… Harry Belafonte, the original “singer and activist”, and the time he was in a drama class with Walter Matthau and Marlon Brando.

… plus Shakespeare, a light-fingered Noel Gallagher and amplified busking.

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Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377

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Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to all of our content!: 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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Items run up the flagpole this week include …

… our memories of the exquisite agony of teenage dances, especially Dave’s at the Mecca Ballroom in Wakefield, 1965.

... unforgettable things said and done by Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson.

… rock stars with Brian Jones’s hair.

… do we care more about the people who make music than the music itself?

… a point from Massive Attack – “is the discussion ‘should AI recreate music?’ or is it ‘Why is contemporary music so homogenised & formulaic that it’s really easy to copy?’”

… songs that never fail to fill dancefloors. 

… a “Ladies’ Prosecco Afternoon” with a Robbie Williams impersonator.

… what’ll be the next music revival?

… when did you last see a Teddy Boy?

… Dave’s story about why Take It Easy by the Eagles meant so much to him.

… and the eternal appeal of Mod.

… plus birthday guest Andrew Newbury – “was We Can Work It Out the Beatles’ tipping point?”

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dipping our shrimping nets this week into the ever-bountiful rock and roll rock pool we find …

… Dylan, Madonna, Pharrell Williams, Michael Jackson, Nick Cave and Keith Richards – which one didn’t write a children’s book?

… S Club 7, Miles Davis’s sessionmen and others apparently ripped off by the heartless, skinflint music industry.

… the unsung story of Jack Nitzsche, “the man with the golden touch”, his part in the Stones’ baroque period and the recordings he made in Barking Town Hall and St Giles Cripplegate.

… when Sly Stone got married onstage and the couple who got hitched at a Taylor Swift show.

… a “short-fingered vulgarian” and a “beaky, crow-coiffed, pleat-faced” guitarist.

… the Gershwin score to Woody Allen’s Manhattan.

… how two thirds of NBA players are bankrupt in 10 years.

... Jimmy Page’s Shirley Bassey session. 

… Rlchard Branson picking up women.

… how Jay Craydon’s still living off a Steely Dan guitar solo.

… can any musician hope to make it if they start aged 37?

… and somewhat irritatingly Jamie Oliver attaches himself to the celebrity children’s author gravy train.

Plus birthday guests Stephen Lambe –“that adolescent moment when pop music stops being just a nice noise and becomes Something Important: discuss”. And Chuck Loncon recommends Matthew Sweet and Susannah Hoffs’ Under The Covers compilations and the Stay Awake album of songs from Disney films.

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377

Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to https://nordvpn.com/yourear to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 months for free! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The “bargain basement Baudelaire” is setting out on a UK tour in April and tells Mark Ellen here about the earliest shows he saw and played, memories which happily include …

… the subtle art of crowd control.

… seeing Bob Hope when he was 9 and the strange impression of the adult world that suggested.

… the dress code that barred him from a Hendrix gig.

… auditioning for Bernard Manning at the Embassy Club and what he learnt from him. 

… “I was Little Richard’s gear carrier (aged 11)”.

… why he based his look on Ronnie Wood.

… the perfect song for the hopeless bass player. 

… the deathless advice his Dad gave him.

… why punk rock audiences were a breeze. 

… the desperate fashion-chasing changes of tack of the Mafia, the band he formed in the ’60s. Who became the Vendettas. Who became the Lovely Flowers.

… “the last time I saw a mouth like that it had a hook in it” and other comedy circuit one-liners.

… the life-changing inclusion of "Evidently Chickentown" in the Sopranos’ credits.

… and the greatest gig he ever saw “which may well have been cooked up in the playground of my imagination”.  

John’s tour dates here ….

https://johncooperclarke.com/gigs/

And this is his highly recommended memoir, I Wanna Be Yours …

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wanna-Yours-John-Cooper-Clarke/dp/1509896104

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s trawl of the rock and roll outer limits alights, among others, on the following sizzling hot topics …

... a lost Beatles tape and the night they played Stowe School 60 years ago.

… the return of the Stackwaddy game: were there really ‘60s New Zealand pop groups called the Chapta, Hi-Revving Tongues and the Kal-Q-Lated Risk?

… Todd Haynes’ brilliant Velvet Underground documentary and how the band spawned pop’s greatest look- and sound-alike movement. And could Lou Reed have made it without Andy Warhol, John Cale or Nico?

… Tracie, Bowie, Bonnie Tyler, Tracey Ullman, the JoBoxers, Kenny Everett and other top-notch components of the singles chart in April ‘83.

… did A Hard Day’s Night invent the word “grotty” and Steely Dan the word “scam”?

… who was the mysterious “Fred Flange”? The story of the Goons, George Martin , Peter Sellers and Matt Monro.  

… … and birthday guest Al Hearton remembers records you’d heard about before you heard them – eg Don’t Fear the Reaper, Bat Out Of Hell, Mother’s Little Helper, Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite and Eve Of Destruction.

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.