Word In Your Ear

Tony King was there when it all started, working for Decca in the late ‘50s, plugging records on Housewives’ Choice and Family Favourites and looking after visiting Americans like the Ronettes, Roy Orbison and Phil Spector. He went on to become a close friend of many of the acts he worked with and his memoir ‘The Tastemaker’ is full of wonderful tales and revelations about all of them. As is this podcast which includes … … the day Reg Dwight changed his name (and getting him session work with the Barron Knights). … wearing “lime green trousers, blue moccasins and a kaftan” at the Beatles’ One World broadcast. … the weekend with George and Pattie Harrison in Esher when the Daily Express turned up to tell them McCartney had admitted he’d taken acid. … taking Brenda Lee to the pictures. … holidays with Charlie Watts in France and memories of his wake. … why he used to ring Elton up and ask, “what’s the weather like there, Jean?”  … seeing the Stones at the Scene club with Chrissie Shrimpton. … the advice he gave John Lennon (and getting him on the Old Grey Whistle Test) … and the qualities all stars need to be successful.  Buy ‘The Tastemaker: My Life With The Legends and Geniuses of Rock Music’ here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tastemaker-Life-Legends-Geniuses-Music/dp/0571371930 Tony dressed as the Queen in an ad for John Lennon’s Mind Games album …https://www.facebook.com/johnlennon/videos/mind-games-advert/1009681682383878/Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for a whole world of extra and exclusive content, benefits and rewards: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

… in which we amble fearlessly into the New Year in tireless pursuit of amusement, stopping off at various stations along the way, among them …  … can any song be completely original? … meeting Sun Ra. … the time Gianluca Vialli kissed David’s wife’s hand. … does streaming make us more adventurous? … did Frank Zappa ever appear in Miami Vice? … tortuous puns in music memoir titles. ... singers we’ve had enough of.... Sam Cooke humming.  … some rare and rewarding records – eg Billie Joe Armstrong & Norah Jones’ Foreverly and Mellow Candle’s Swaddling Songs plus Jorma Kaukonen, Jimmy Webb, the Pursuit of Happiness … … powerful feelings of envy provoked by John McLaughlin. .. the diminishing appeal of Jeff Buckley. … why you have to hear Van Dyke Parks’ ‘Super Chief: Music For The Silver Screen’. … and birthday guest (and magnificent repeat winner of our Friday night quiz) Andrew Slattery.  Sam Cooke humming …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cds8YQyFeTI Rolling Stone’s Best 200 singers …https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-singers-all-time-1234642307/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.

Things explored this week in pursuit of entertainment and diversion … … Neil Tennant interviews Malcolm McLaren and other delights in Smash Hits, January 1983. … “there’s no such thing as a finished record!” … the link between Cliff & the Shadows and the Merry Pranksters. … a touching interview with Jim Morrison’s father and sister about the son/brother who cut them off completely - plus would Jim Morrison have made it in the age of social media? … pop stars’ school reports. … when did the ‘60s turn from black and white to colour?   … and when did people start talking about old records as if they were like old books - “first pressings”, “imprints”? … Muriel’s Wedding, Priscilla Queen Of the Desert, Strictly Ballroom and the return of Abba. … the pure unalloyed joy of rubbing a shrink-wrapped box-set against your cheek.… Jack Charlton’s high-rolling £100 spending spree. … guess the ‘80s fan club from its address!… and birthday guest Sandra Austin.  Smash Hits Jan 1983 …https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Smash-Hits/1983/Smash-Hits-1983-01-06.pdf  Jim Morrison’ father and sister …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz63-q8otYMSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon to 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.

The full and extraordinary story of “the Zelig-like” Cutler – poet, performer, broadcaster, playwright, surrealist, humorist – is mapped out in Bruce Lindsay’s exceptional new book, ‘Ivor Cutler: A Life Outside the Living Room’. Most of us discovered him through the patronage of fans like John Peel – or first saw him as part of the Magical Mystery Tour cast – but this fascinating conversation covers the early years too, his time as a progressive schoolteacher, the formative influence of Kafka and the Goons, his big break into TV via Ned Sherrin and his immediate adoption by the counter-culture. Has there ever been anyone remotely like him before or since? At one point Bruce reads a section of Life In A Scotch Sitting Room - with its echoes of Under Milk Wood and Sir Henry At Rawlinson End - and there are tales of gruts for tea, his fear of noise, the time he left an overheated hotel room to sleep on a station platform and a Denmark Street agent weeing in a sink. Order Bruce’s book here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ivor-Cutler-Outside-Sitting-Popular/dp/180050294X/ref=sr_1_6?qid=1671698453&refinements=p_27%3ABruce+Lindsay&s=books&sr=1-6 @bruce956Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for a whole world of extra and exclusive content, benefits and rewards!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Army greatcoats, plastic trousers, cowboy boots, scoop-neck t-shirts with bell sleeves … the list of laughable clobber and accessories we briefly thought were acceptable because rock stars wore them is delightfully long and shameful.Also in the crosshairs this week …… the rudest line the Beatles ever wrote. … Randy Newman – ‘the poet of the unworthy thought’.… do bands with comic lyrics get the credit they deserve?… a double Stackwaddy: real or invented Christmas singles.… falling though a wormhole in time into a copy of the NME from February 1969: “The age of Supergroups! – set band members will be a thing of the past” – Klaus Voormann.… “These days no two of us are on the same stream.” What we learn from discovering music separately.  … Dead Eyes: the Tom Hanks’ comment that sparked a three-series podcast.… why scat-singing brings us out in hives.… the magic of Seinfeld – ‘four shallow self-obsessed people’ in a world where there’s ‘no growing and no hugging’.… why you should listen to Joachim Cooder’ Over That Road I'm Bound: The Songs of Uncle Dave Macon.… and what birthday guest John Innes learnt from re-listening to his entire music collection in chronological order – and the bands he decided to abandon.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, alongside a whole heap of extra and exclusive content, benefits and rewards: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gordon Raphael was the sonic architect of arguably the two most important and influential albums of the noughties - The Strokes' 'Is This It' and its follow-up 'Room On Fire', and in this special Word In Your Ear chat with 'Magic' Alex Gold he talks about the creation of those seminal records alongside other key moments in his life as told in his memoir 'The World Is Going To Love This: Up From The Basement With The Strokes', including working with Regina Spektor and the impact of seeing her perform at their first meeting, grunge-era Seattle and its legendary music store The Trading Musician, and his time with the pre-fame Libertines.Buy 'The World Is Going To Love This: Up From The Basement With The Strokes' here: https://www.wordville.net/product-page/the-world-is-going-to-love-thisGordon's website: https://www.gordotronic.com/Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for a whole world of early, extra and exclusive content, benefits and rewards!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In which we boldly tackle the burning issues des nos jours in our restless forage for entertainment. Nutritious items on the tasting menu this week include … … albums whose cover was over half the sell. … was Jet Black older than all the Beatles and Stones? Dave Greenfield and Edgar Allan Poe – separated at birth. … that brief moment when Creedence Clearwater were the biggest thing on the planet. … what people paid for the wooden balls on the Rumours cover and one of Christine McVie’s dresses.  … Stackwaddy: Abba v Zappa song titles - spot the ringer! … a Marshall Crenshaw 40th anniversary covers album? The race to find the next bizarre obscurity. … Little Feat, Fragonard and a cake on a swing.   … plus Anthony Blunt, Elton John will never retire and new Patreon supporters (and their fictional jobs).Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and 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.

Danny’s done two hysterically funny, cartwheeling canters round the UK in the last few years and sets out again in February for 49 nights with ‘At Last …The Sausage Sandwich Tour’, another ‘panjandrum of unstoppable anecdote’. His memories of old rock and roll and theatre shows are high in the mix in this crackling exchange. Among the highlights … … Anita Harris at the ABC in Yarmouth. … appearing with the Millwall squad and Jimmy Tarbuck singing ‘New York New York’ in top hat and tails. … the joy of Keef Hartley’s Half-Breed. … arriving to see Frank Zappa to discover he’d been thrown offstage in the afternoon show “but Cochise were still appearing!” … his dad Spud’s amateur doctor who did a good sideline in racing tips. … why selling his 14,000 albums is like being “unchained from a lunatic”. … Black Sabbath playing ‘unplugged’ in a powercut at the Albert Hall. … and an honorary mention of the pith helmet full of saveloys. Tickets here: Danny Baker: At Last… The Sausage Sandwich Tourhttps://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/danny-baker @prodnose https://www.dannybakerstore.com/Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for 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.

In which the piercing searchlight of conversational scrutiny points in the direction of … … Christine McVie’s early adventures, our burning love for Chicken Shack’s ‘40 Blue Fingers’, her Sliding Doors moment in a Dickins & Jones window display, supporting the Shadows at the 2I’s coffee bar in ‘59, writing Songbird, the forgotten years of Kiln House and two film clips that point up Fleetwood Mac’s luckless mid-‘70s slog with the bank-breaking success to come. … records you never connected with that suddenly make sense 50 years later. … the deep-seated, underrated pleasure of ‘Electric Arguments’ by the Fireman (aka Youth and McCartney). … what your InstaFest line-up reveals about your listening habits. … and a rare mention of ‘Deed I Do’ by Blossom Dearie!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.

Phil and his brother Steven started a market stall in Cheltenham in the mid-‘80s and made enough money selling rare records to open the world-famous Badlands (now occupying three floors of an old coach house). It’s been thriving ever since specialising in Springsteen and Dylan, collectible vinyl, books and box-sets and branching out into concert package tours all over Europe. Here he talks about the first records he ever bought, XTC at Cheltenham Town Hall, the cassette and CD booms, the return of vinyl, new threats to the record shop world, taking Steve Van Zandt round Cheltenham (in full Little Steven attire) and the Greatest Record Ever Made. https://badlands.co.uk/ @BadlandsUKSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for 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.