Word In Your Ear

Rock journalism as an occupation is rapidly heading in the direction of the watch-mender or lamplighter so Chris Charlesworth’s account of life at the Melody Maker in the ‘70s is already starting to feel like an historic document. ‘Just Backdated’ covers a time when the rock press set the agenda, sold over half a million copies a week and was courted by attention-seeking musicians of every rank, a lost world remembered in this conversation with Mark Ellen which includes … … the unwritten rules of ‘70s rock journalism and its limitless access. … the “homesick and slightly lost” John Lennon when living with May Pang. … life at Melody Maker’s Fleet Street office and staff writer Max Jones’s fling with Billie Holiday. … touring with Led Zeppelin alongside the 17 year-old Cameron Crowe (part of the inspiration for Almost Famous). … “Beatles to reform?” and other coverline staples. … the night Frank Zappa was thrown off the Rainbow stage – ‘people thought he’d been killed’. … the first British interview with Steely Dan. … Debbie Harry when she was still in the Stillettos and the day Blondie asked him to manage them.   ... why the Bay City Rollers at an airport was “the nearest thing to a nightmare while being awake”. … his time as MM’s West and East Coast correspondent aka “the best job in the world”. Order ‘Just Backdated’ here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-Backdated-Melody-Maker-Seventies/dp/1915858224Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With David asleep on a French sun-lounger beneath a copy of Summer Lightning, Alex and Mark pour themselves a cold drink and consider … … the great ska floor-fillers. … taking kids to rock concerts. … the fate of all bands: “as musicianship improves, vocals decline”. … left-field Beatles songs reworked as nursery rhymes. … why 2-Tone had pop’s “triple threat” (and the genius of Mike Barson). … of the five big acts with all original members intact, only one should reform. … how “Tay-gating” became a thing. … the secret life of Chris Ballew, former leader of minimal grunge trio the Presidents Of The United States of America. … is the Jam a “young man’s concept”? … the downside of “Cuddly Liam”.  … Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran: has normality replaced escapism? … and Frank Carter as the new Johnny Rotten.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Love’s official biographer John Einarson tells David Hepworth the star-crossed tale of the band who made the least psychedelic album of the psychedelic era. Their conversation takes in:….Lee’s growing up between Memphis and L.A., dealing with the problems of looking more like Johnny Mathis than Otis Redding.….how being indulged as a youngster by his family made him a tyrant as a band leader.….growing up with a prodigious musical talent but without the mastery of a single instrument.….refusing to put up with the inconvenience of touring and bearing personal grudges which prevented him taking up life-changing offers.….their competition with The Doors, who would do all the things that Love wouldn’t.…how Arthur Lee heard Forever Changes in his head and how he transferred that knowledge to an arranger who’d never heard a pop record.….why Brian Wilson, John Sebastian and Arthur Lee “never got past 1967”.….the gun charges that put Arthur Lee in jail and the third act he enjoyed when he came out.You can order the book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Forever-Changes-Authorized-Biography-Arthur/dp/1916829120/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Mark Ellen goes shrimping at Frinton David Hepworth and Alex Gold links hands across the Atlantic to discuss:….why a quick turn around Mount Hood in a Cessna should never be confused with pleasure….why all the highly-rated albums are actually over-rated.….why Timothee Chalamet has no hope of being able to capture more than one facet of Bob Dylan….the name of the only music-related location in the whole of Oxford Street which has managed to survive the great hollowing-out….why there really is no point corporations spending fortunes on renaming the places which were christened in our hearts…the likelihood and desirability of Oasis getting back togetherFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A small Pastis, a game of boules and a conversation putting the rock and roll world to rights, which this week includes … … why Debbie Harry and Mick Jagger worked so well on the small screen. … Elvin Pelvin on the Bilko Show and how Elvis was modelled on Tony Curtis. … An American Werewolf In London, The Birds, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, Don’t Look Now, Nightmare On Elm Street and other old movies being rebooted. … how Patti Smith based an entire career on looking like Keith Richards in 1972 and making records that sounded like they were produced by someone who looked like Keith Richards in 1972. … a record separated from its sleeve ceases to exist. … why doesn’t anyone remake classic albums? … “Once we had something complete and perfect. And what happened? You spent it!” … how CDs never have “materiality”. … further proof that Oasis are the most conservative thing in pop music. … primitive connections and how the album sleeve is the same size as a native American warrior’s shield. … sounds that date records precisely - eg the syndrum. Plus birthday guest Patrick Butler.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rockfield is a converted farmhouse in the Welsh countryside where, for over 50 years, bands have lived while recording. In the ‘70s Tiffany Murray’s mum was the in-house cook, filling Motorhead to the brim with boeuf bourguignon and Black Sabbath with salmon en croute. Her touching memoir My Family And Other Rock Stars – hailed as “a rock and roll Cider With Rosie” – sees a succession of visiting bands though the wide eyes of a child and in a wholly new light - Freddie Mercury is the man who “smelt of sweet wood and oranges” and was nice to her dog, Julian Cope is “pretty and dressed in a white sheet”. It’s a movie waiting to happen. We loved this highly original and revealing book and our conversation with Tiff which involves … … the ‘Saffy from Ab Fab’ relationship she had with her mum who began her professional life spying on the Duchess of Argyll from a wardrobe. … floppy hats, Biba dresses and a purple beach buggy. … the only woman who recorded at Rockfield in the ‘70s. … the realisation that the men singing “Galileo” repeatedly in the stables were the same people later on Top Of The Pops. … her mother’s Book Of Rules for visiting rock stars, “a matron in the body of Julie Christie in Darling”. … ample proof that rock music allows a life of extended adolescence. … shelved albums and unpaid bills. … Tiff’s stepfather and in-house Rockfield producer Fritz Fryer. … Nick Lowe through the eyes of a 10 year-old – “tall, kind and looked like a bird”. ... Graham Parker’s trout in almonds and how the cook was paid extra “just to get food into Lemmy”. … and mentioned in despatches – Squeeze, the Tyla Gang, Showaddywaddy, Van Der Graaf Generator and Dr Feelgood. Order ‘My Family And Other Rock Stars' here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Family-Other-Rock-Stars-groundbreaking/dp/0349727538Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Blake calls Dreams: the Many Lives of Fleetwood Mac a “mosaic biography”, their almost six-decade saga presented as a series of enthralling short stories with titles like ‘Mick Fleetwood’s Great Epiphany’ and ‘Rumours: A Doomed Romance in Six Acts’. It opens in fact with a “cast of characters”, the 18 one-time members, as if dramatis personae in a play, a play that gets more outlandish and dumbfounding with every new discovery and much of it based on his interviews and meetings with most of them (including Peter Green). A few highlights here … … how Stevie Nicks arrived as the spare part of a package deal and rose to become indispensable. … the fake Fleetwood Mac and the Jeremy Spencer and Peter Green impersonators (which involves an egg and potato farmer from Essex). … why you should watch the Tusk video repeatedly (and its ruinous cost).  … Bill Clinton, Daisy Jones & the Six, the dancing pony, Guardians of the Galaxy and other key factors in the return of the Mac.    … from model to muse to psychotherapist, the story of the real life Black Magic Woman. … “Oh Lord, she’s writing another song.” … internal romantic tangles that give their music a poignancy. … the horrors of Kiln House. … Lyndsey Buckingham’s Armani/Clash episode. … Stevie’s love affair with Derek Taylor who then had to promote a slow-selling album containing a secret song about it. … Mick Fleetwood, “old ham”, drag act, compulsive show-off, unsuitable band manager.   Order ‘Dreams: the Many Lives of Fleetwood Mac’ here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dreams-Many-Lives-Fleetwood-Mac/dp/1639367322Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beloved Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith, old pal of the pod, is touring the UK in November, two of the nights at the Palladium, and looks back here at the first shows he saw and played himself. Which delights include … … what you learn playing Canadian bars aged 16. … seeing Elton John in a 75,000-seater stadium when he was 12. … early memories of the Kinks and the Who. … why every gig is “a mini-battle”. … Bob Dylan’s courage to do what the crowd don’t expect. … original fans in middle-age: they’re back and they bring their kids! … why a support tour with Robyn Hitchcock took him in a new direction. … exotic wild ‘critters’ in his yard in Ontario. … and how the UK launched his international career. Tickets from: https://ronsexsmith.com/tours/  Ron’s ‘Cobblestone Runway’ and ‘Retriever’ albums have just been re-released.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Passing the baton of discourse on the rock and roll racetrack, our Olympian hosts sprint in the following direction … … watching Toumani Diabaté play in the pitch-black Malian night. … Laurel Canyon, the Brain Damage Club and the great fire of ‘79. … the Kinks in Fortis Green Road, the Beatles in Chiswick House and other alternative London rock landmarks. … is Cerrone’s Supernature nicked from the Days Of Pearly Spencer? … lower-level graduates from the John Mayall Academy – Jon Hiseman, Keef Hartley, Larry Taylor, Aynsley Dunbar – and how being sacked from the Bluesbreakers was a badge of honour. … why do songwriters value suffering over joy? … “the more seriously someone takes musical taste, the more you should disregard them”. … what connects Bob Dylan and the Life of Brian? … a blueser from Preston in a Sioux headdress and one from Macclesfield pretending to hop a freight train.   … and why “song and dance man” Leadbelly had to play “complaining songs”. Plus Birthday guest Gianluca Tramontana. The Beatles at Chiswick House:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvvVNaU_qa8Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Once again the ping-pong ball of conversation is batted across the rock and roll net and these are the scores on the doors …  … how to wreck the national anthem. … cover versions that are better than the original. … the genius of Bob Newhart - "nutty Walt", Abraham Lincoln and that gag about country music. … virtue signalling in rock magazines. … why we connect with pop stars on the slide. … how Tainted Love went from the Northern Clubs to the top of the American charts via a cloakroom in Leeds. … Ingrid Andress and the curse of ‘cursive singing’. … the comedy album that saved Warners Brothers Records. … parenthood and Bruce Springsteen: “the world of love and the world of fear – and they’re the same world”. … who’d rather Elvis Costello played (whisper it) other people’s songs? … have there been any great album sleeves since the arrival of CDs? … why Don Rickles and Bob Newhart’s friendship proves all showbiz is just an act. ... musicians, athletes, comedians, politicians and the addiction of adrenaline. Rolling Stone’s 100 best album covers:https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-album-covers-1235035232/#recipient_hashed=228eb87724435002888d7f82108650021cdb318bf64d1067e1ebef25cd1818de&recipient_salt=d0d82b7aaf06cd217ba5546bced15f5c8c98f6e3776c6c1b2145e79711b91e18Find out more about how to help us keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.