Word In Your Ear

… in which we remember watching and talking to the magnificent Wilko Johnson and look back at extraordinary moments in his life – the hippie trail to India, his appearance on Question Time, the three albums the Feelgoods made in a year, how they discovered what made them unique and the effect on everyone from Television to the Clash, Gang of Four, Blur and Franz Ferdinand of the band “who could start a fight in an empty room”. Plus … Pet Shop Boys on the Archers. … the 40th anniversary of Thriller and Quincy Jones’ speech about how “we’re here to save the music business”. … the extraordinary - possiby incendiary - story of Bob Dylan and the faked autographs. … Lil Peep, Lil Flip, Lil Plum, Lil Dicky … spot the fictional rapper! ... and birthday guest Kevin Walsh on why everyone should hear ‘Electric Arguments’ by the Fireman (aka McCartney and Youth). And here’s our Word podcast with Wilko Johnson (plus guitar) from 2010 …https://shows.acast.com/word-in-your-ear-2/episodes/5fe229acf896715ee83196eaSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early access to every future Word Podcast alongside a whole world of additional and exclusive content, benefits and rewards!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ken’s a world authority and he’s been on the pod twice before, talking about his books about George Martin and the last days of John Lennon. He’s just revised and updated the one he wrote in 2007, ‘Long And Winding Roads’, partly to add new observations and material, especially in the light of Peter Jackson’s Get Back, and partly because the beleaguered world now needs the Beatles more than ever. It’s written like a literary biography, as much about the art as the story. This covers the waterfront - thoughts about their deal with EMI, pivotal events in their trajectory, the recent re-evaluation of McCartney (“the convenor”), the gorgeous “guitar embroideries in the margins of their music”, the key role of Mal Evans (“found crying in McCartney’s garden when he heard it was all over”), the artistic touchstones of I Am The Walrus and the sheer and comforting delight in hearing the Beatles’ music - “returning to the font” - when the world finds itself in times of trouble. As well as being a writer and historian, Ken is Professor of Popular Music at Monmouth University in New Jersey and you’d kill to be in his class. The revamped ‘Long And Winding Roads: the Evolving Artistry of The Beatles’ is just out and he’s working on a new book about Mal Evans which should appear in June 2023. Long And Winding Roads …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-Winding-Roads-Evolving-Artistry/dp/0826417469The Mal Evans book ...https://kennethwomack.com/mal-evans-the-biography-archives/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.

Further free-wheeling conversational detours include … … “like the consequences of mating Patti Smith with a Hoover vacuum cleaner”: barbed reviews in the Rolling Stone Record Guide.… ‘Bowie and Bing in a bauble’? The Taylor Swift ‘Merry Swiftmas’ t-shirt? Real or fictional Christmas accessories.… the four tracks by women - and there are only four! – among the 66 records Bob Dylan considers in The Philosophy Of Modern Song.   … “and any eye for detail caught a little lace along the seams”: exquisite descriptions of clothes in Joni Mitchell songs. … the NME Encyclopedia Of Rock revisited, that well-thumbed, much-loved and indispensable bible from the world before the internet. … who were Sons of Champlin, the Butts Band and Michael Fennelly?… magnificent rock books, Nik Cohn’s A Wop Bop A Loo Bop A Lop Bam Boom and Barney Hoskyns’ Hotel California among them. … and playing Mozart on a ukulele. Plus birthday guest Simon Poulter.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 additional content, benefits and rewards!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Things run up the flagpole this week in pursuit of entertainment … … Irish/American punk rock group or 19th Century criminal gang? … the eternal dependability of the first Stones album. … does ANYONE not like ska? …. seven “legends” you can still see for under £30. ... the now-for-sale cache of ‘50s love letters by a besotted Bob Dylan (and would you want anyone reading your teenage correspondence?). … the story of Bill Wyman trying to leave the Stones 30 years ago and the rest of them refusing to take him seriously.   … do audio books with a stellar cast really work? … why Elvis and the Beatles never did encores. … butt-dialling Boo Hewerdine. … and if you want to know why rock stars keep in touring read ‘No More Champagne: Winston Churchill And His Money’. … plus birthday guests Mike Sketch and Peter Petyt.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon to receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world... and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the radar this week in an enquiring, celebratory or goat-getting capacity … … has the World Cup balloon already been unmendably punctured? … and is the same thing happening to Twitter? … “if social media had come along earlier would Sergeant Pepper exist?” … Richard Osman-created fictional sleuth or rock stars’ real names: you decide. … a chance meeting with Jaco Pastorius. … speaker-testing moments of bass guitar brilliance. … the general public armed with a mouse are infinitely crueller and more aggressive than the very worst journalists: discuss.   … plus two thousand years of gruesome mortal combat.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world - and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The teenage Trevor Horn could be found playing bass in dance bands on the Top Rank circuit supporting acts like Tommy Cooper (and singing Long-Haired Lover From Liverpool and Hi-Ho Silver Lining). He began writing songs for Tina Charles, had a worldwide hit with Buggles and went on to produce Dollar, ABC, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Malcolm McLaren, Grace Jones, Pet Shop Boys and countless others. In this terrific exchange he talks about life in covers bands (“big money, £150 a week”), how the Fairlight changed the landscape, the diplomacy all producers require, his “pictorial sense” of how ABC should sound, his regrets about Frankie, bands’ paranoia about their record companies, Rod Stewart and the “farting post”, why he’d like to work with Bob Dylan and the drama of making Owner Of A Lonely Heart. Worth it for his uncanny impersonations of Dylan and Rod Stewart alone, and further stories from his just-out memoir ‘Adventures in Modern Recording: From ABC to ZTT’. Which you can buy here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventures-Modern-Recording-ABC-ZTT/dp/178870603X @Trevor_Horn_Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world - and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

… in which we remember the luminous music and diabolical life of the last of the old rock and roll guard standing. And this includes … the weird old America he came from (backwoods country, religious sects with their transporting songs), the career-cancelling British tour in 1958, the electrifying Live at The Star Club album, the Steve Allen Show breakthrough and the Seven Wives of Jerry Lee Lewis. Much to applaud, much to deplore. … and some of his deathless lyrics eg ‘39 And Holding’ – ‘Dim lights hide the mileage line/ Clairol hides the grey/ And he won't mention anything to give his old age away’. Stevie Wonder’s ‘Talking Book’ was released 50 years ago this week. How did it change the landscape of electronic music forever? Jockstrap, First Aid Kit, Dry Cleaning, Small Feet, Thermos and Diarrhea Planet. One of these is not a real band. But which? The new ‘Revolver’ remix. A technological masterpiece but don’t we prefer music to sound the way we first heard it on the equipment at the time?   The Giles Fraser parlour game. You have to go back to school and can appoint all the staff yourself but they have to be from the music world. Who’s headmistress (Dolly Parton? Annie Lennox?). Head of Art (Ferry? Eno?). Head of English (Richard Thompson?). Head of Science (Tom Dolby?). Matron (Clare Grogan? Lulu?). Plus birthday guests Giles Fraser and Ian Martin and new patrons recast as TV presenters. Jerry Lee Lewis on the Steve Allen Show in 1957: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw7SBF-35EsSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world - with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sheila’s portraits of ‘80s musicians and the club circuit filled the pages of magazines like the Face and Smash Hits at the time and now feature in her book ‘80s: Sound And Vision’. You’ll know a few from album sleeves too. She talks here about some favourites – Nick Logan in the Face office, Bryan Ferry, Bowie with Marc Bolan, Martin Fry in the famous gold lamé suit, Siouxsie in ‘Japanese chic’, Steve Strange and the day Frankie Goes To Hollywood turned up dressed as cowboys and swinging a lasso. The description of Leigh Bowery bursting out of a cab, festooned with piercings and painted blue, is worth the price of admission alone.  ‘80s: Sound and Vision’ by Sheila Rock …https://www.amazon.co.uk/80s-Sound-Vision-Nilgin-Yusuf/dp/0711278776Subscribe 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.

In the crosshairs this week … Sampha, Skepta? Mercury Prize winner or Italian sports-shoe brand? Was Revolver really the Beatles’ most “consequential” album? James Corden v Balthazar: fame in the age of social media. Liz Truss, Steven Gerrard, Bruce Springsteen and knowing “what it’s like to have failed with the whole world looking on”. Danny Baker’s selling 12,000 records: unsettling life-stage moments when you put your foot on the ball and look around the pitch. The joy of old books and finding pencil marks in the margin by other readers. Noel Coward in ‘In Which We Serve’ and were the Mountbattens “the orginal hot couple”? … and Simon Sebag Montefiore’s brilliant 213-song playlist of songs to accompany his new book “The World: A Family History” …https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0bXOS1k3hGKmfQCmbg21W4?si=CbdtROxeQie0rZyg_KA-SQ&nd=1Grab 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 to receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, ad-free, and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Craig was on the pod last year talking about his glorious Beatles book ‘One Two Three Four’ and he’s just published a collection of his writing called ‘Haywire: the Best of Craig Brown’ – Private Eye diaries, columns, reviews, essays and other assorted comic gems. It’s very good indeed. “Satirists,” he reminds you, “are on the side of things going wrong.” Here are just a few of the topics that stumble into view in this very funny and illuminating ramble – John Stonehouse, the strange life of Arthur Lowe, “all entertainers are disturbed”, Bruce Springsteen as dictatorial bandleader, Liz Truss’s speech patterns, meeting people he’s lampooned in print, Kenneth Williams, Bruce Robinson’s preposterous Jack the Ripper book and how Lieutenant Pigeon is anagram (but of what?). Buy ‘Haywire: the Best Of Craig Brown’ and his other wonderful books here … https://www.amazon.co.uk/Craig-Brown/e/B001HCVLIU%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share 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.