Word In Your Ear

Given the once-over this week in vigorous pursuit of edification and amusement … … should a Fawlty Towers sequel be illegal? … over-refreshed audiences wrecking Jukebox Musicals. … our hunt for the elusive album sleeve with the long-haired girl/Afghan hound. … how acts signal their popularity now the charts no longer matter. … critics who attacked people who attacked back. … the Beatles and ‘the genius of personality’. … how the parental credit card fuels the Springsteen ticket price inflation. … U2 about to play the new Las Vegas venue with an LED screen the size of three football pitches. … what’s the best age to be? … when are we in our prime and when are we at our most stupid? Plus birthday guest Nick Foreman and Danny Baker’s rare album hand-out.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon to receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The dazzling super-trouper of gentle enquiry is trained this week upon:- … Sam Smith’s inflatable suit. … “TV kills everything”. … What do producers actually do? Old pal Kate Mossman joins us to talk about the inscrutable working methods of Rick Rubin, “the golden ratio”, the significance of his beard, the concept of being “Rubinised” and his transformation of Johnny Cash (and how the same thing worked later for Loretta Lynn, Glen Campbell and Willie Nelson). … Lawyers will be the only winners in the Roger Waters v Gilmour/Samson spat – “bands tend to start on a whim in a scout hut with a bunch of 16 year-olds and generally end with someone wearing a wig”. … Burt Bacharach’s magical eight-year run of hits from Three Wheels On My Wagon to Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head. … the mystifying story of the re-recording of The Dark Side Of The Moon. … if the BRITS wants to attract a teenage audience, why put it on terrestrial telly on a Saturday night? We’ve got a better idea. … “wearing the iron hat”.  -------- Cilla and Burt Bacharach recording Alfie …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glpIgnmKrZcGrab 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! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Midge Ure starts a UK tour in April (with Band Electronica) and talks here about bands that left an impression and what he’s learnt about live performance. This includes … … audiences “wanting their pound of flesh”. … lessons learned from watching Derek Nimmo in panto. … “cheesy” stage effects - eg Bowie’s mirrorball in Space Oddity.   … Stan Webb of Chicken Shack charging offstage at Green’s Playhouse in Glasgow with a 100 foot guitar lead. … being “a human jukebox” at Clouds discos playing Jo Jo Gunne and Sparks covers. … seeing “The Marmalade” at a Radio 1 roadshow when he was 14. … memories of Taj Mahal, Skid Row, Colosseum and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. … 10,000 people blocking Sauchiehall Street to get tickets for Deep Purple. … and headliners who didn’t turn up. Midge’s tours dates here: https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/midge-ure@midgeure1 http://www.midgeure.co.uk/Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon to receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Conversational footballs punted about the park this week include … … why George Harrison’s trip to Benton, Illinois, in 1963 would make a great Netflix drama – the $400 Rickenbacker, the local gig billed as “the English Elvis”, the roller-skating waitresses. “I’m in a band called the Beatles back home and we’re doing quite well.” … buskers being allowed to use amplification is a monstrous invasion of our private space: discuss. … is Deliveroo the new generation gap?   … we asked some AI software to write lyrics in the style of certain bands. You need to hear the results. … musicians and the positions they should play on the football pitch. … a deathless picture of McCartney and all-girl crowd at the Cavern. … plus birthday guest Keith Adsley flies the flag for ‘Jaguar Sound’ by Adrian Quesada.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, alongside a whole host of extra and exclusive content, benefits and rewards!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ron Sexsmith starts a UK tour at the end of April and talks about what he’s learnt about live performance, which includes:- … “notes from girls” after winning the High School Variety Show. … playing for drunks in his local bar when he was underage and being hidden when the police arrived.  … Elton John at the Rich Stadium in Buffalo (and being a member of the Fan Club). … his first performance, singing ‘Ben’ by Michael Jackson. … the influential low-key stagecraft of Gordon Lightfoot and Leonard Cohen, “people who just stood there”. … the rigours of long tours. … being “on Cloud Nine for a year” after seeing the Who. … and watching Cat Stevens from the best seat in the house.   All details about Ron’s upcoming tour here …https://ronsexsmith.com/tours/ @RonSexsmith https://ronsexsmith.com/Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, alongside a whole host of extra and exclusive content, benefits and rewards!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joel worked for various labels - Mushroom, Atlantic and Sony among them - and was the man who signed the Darkness. Training to become a psychotherapist, he began trading in rare records, travelling all over the country to buy collections and, during Lockdown, starting a special “mystery vinyl” service where he’d send people albums he thought they’d like based on their musical taste.   He talks here in fascinating detail about what an emotionally charged world this is, seeing people’s entire life stories mapped out in records, becoming a “temporary custodian” of their past, learning about whole new areas of music and obscure genres that suddenly come into vogue and every aspect of what makes a record valuable. And the thrill of finding the odd “holy grail” (Vashti Bunyan’s Just Another Diamond Day, rare Bowie first pressings etc), a process that involves “kissing an awful lot of frogs”. He even pulled out an album by a band neither of us knew, the 1970 psych-folk act Justine. Also featured – buying Roger St. Pierre’s record collection, the magic “fallibility” of vinyl (eg personal messages on sleeves) and the Greatest Record Ever Made! Brighter Day Vinyl runs a weekly Flick-Through Thursday - at the same time Top Of The Pops used to be on! - where you can get to see what’s currently on offer and you’ll find all details about Joel’s shop, its collection and what he buys and sells here …   https://linktr.ee/brighterdayvinyl @BrighterdayvnlSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon to receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, alongside a whole lot more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Asher started out as a child actor in films with John Mills, Alastair Sim and Boris Karloff. He was in the Adventures of Robin Hood with his sister Jane but they were eventually “demoted to peasant children”. He then formed Peter & Gordon, had a global number one with A World Without Love (written by his sister’s boyfriend who was living in the family home) and then began a career in production and management that’s still thriving today. This is full of wonderful stories and features … … playing the London club circuit in 1964. … Paul McCartney adding the missing bridge to A World Without Love in eight minutes – “I have the handwritten lyrics and chords in a fireproof safe in case I ever need to run to Sotheby’s and Paul can save the day again!”). … assembling the band for a Paul Jones session – Nicky Hopkins piano, Jeff Beck guitar, Paul Samwell-Smith bass, McCartney drums).  … appalling ‘60s royalty rates. … life as head of A&R at Apple where people sent “100 pages of certifiably mental lyrics in the hope that John Lennon might put them to music”. … signing and producing James Taylor and the album that changed the music business. And Taylor supporting the Who on US tours. … the secret of being a great manager.... Linda Ronstadt singing barefoot at the Bottom End.  … Apple recording artist Brute Force and his non-chart-troubling single The King Of Fuh. … the other role model for Austin Powers. … and why music today is just as good as the past.  David Jacks' memoir, Peter Asher: A Life In Music …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Peter-Asher-Music-David-Jacks/dp/1493061216Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon to receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, and ad-free!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Things featured this week in hot pursuit of entertainment and enlightenment … … seeing Television in 1975 for £1.50 - support act, Blondie. … Kaleidoscope, Country Joe & the Fish, Fairport Convention and other origins of the Tom Verlaine guitar sound.   … the mystery voices on The Dark Side Of The Moon, the Clare Torry story and how Pink Floyd used Abbey Road as an instrument. … “It’s Not You It’s Me”: more classic records that leave us cold – eg Pet Sounds and Humble Pie’s Performance: Rockin' the Fillmore. … “If Loving You Is Wrong I Don’t Wanna Be Right”: rotten records we’re devoted to – paging Jobriath, Oasis, Hello …… how the Ashers became Paul McCartney’s adopted family. … that Nick Kent review of Marque Moon – “Cut the crap, junior, he sez, and put the hyperbole on ice. I concur thus. Sometimes it takes but one record – one cocksure magical statement – to cold-cock all the crapola and all-purpose wheatchaff mix ‘n’ match, to set the whole schmear straight and get the current state of play down down down to stand or fall in one, dignified granite-hard focus!” … songs with great intros.  … and birthday patron Kevin Rose flies the flag for ‘Simple Songs’ by Jim O'Rourke.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early access to every future Word Podcast, ad-free!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Long Ryders are touring in May and our old pal Sid Griffin tells us what to expect and looks back here at … … Herman’s Hermits and the Dave Clark Five playing on a steamboat. … his first live performance aged 16 in a glam-rock red dress at a barbecue in Kentucky (fee a colossal $100) playing Paul Revere, Kinks and Byrds covers. … seeing Big Joe Turner with the Lee Allen Orchestra (11-piece horn section!). … the Everly Brothers’ first reunion. … a barely known Carole King onstage in The City in 1968. … his local bluegrass sessions at the Landseer Arms in Archway (“very Greenwich Village 1961”). … and the benefits of touring when you’re older – “the pressure’s off”.  Details and tickets here:https://www.thelongryders.com/The-Long-Ryders-Tour-Dates.html https://www.sidgriffin.com/ @SidCPsGriffinSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early access to content, invites to our get-togethers digital and in person, and a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Crosby was famous for nearly 60 years, a celebrity sustained by records, tours, brushes with the law and serial disagreements with old pals and collaborators (he was the very definition of a non-team player). We look back fondly at various stops along the way - his upscale background, his role in the Byrds, his ‘Will Scarlet in Robin Hood’ haircut and unsexy cape ensemble, CS&N as the soundtrack to a West Coast American fantasy, the time the Beatles played him the unreleased A Day In The Life, a public fallout with Neil Young and a tuxedoed Graham Nash’s last show with the Hollies with the piss-taking Crosby in the dressing-room. Plus “It’s Not You It’s Me” – classic records that leave us cold: fight-starting suggestions include albums by Patti Smith (“that bawling harridan with her jive muse”), Nirvana, Love, Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Arctic Monkeys and the Beatles. Did the Who start to decline from the moment John Entwistle began growing facial hair? Discuss.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!———-Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, with full visuals, and ad-free!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.