This week’s theories, rants, ruminations, recollections, weak gags and free and frank exchanges of view alight upon the following …
… is pop music now all about identity?
…. the recording of the Animals’ House of the Rising Sun and other apocryphal tales.
… has any act been as ubiquitous since Frankie Goes to Hollywood in 1984?
… or has anyone inspired a greater level of personal devotion than Taylor Swift?
… Peter Green, a shotgun and his accountant.
… books bought but never read.
.. re-reading Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity and the changing benchmarks for good and bad musical taste.
… intriguing parallels between the book and record industries.
… and Neil Tennant braves the digital lynch-mob.
Plus Adam Clayton’s garden, Konstantin Chernenko, Richard Burton, Rebel Wilson, Dark Academia, creepy weepies and birthday guest John Montagna looks at singles by the same act that are ‘descendants’ – ie pretty much identical – eg the Monkees’ Teardrop City and Last Train To Clarksville, the Kinks’ You Really Got Me and All Day And All of the Night and Mark Knopfler’s Cannibals and Walk Of Life. Or just try the first few seconds of these four by the Inkspots – Maybe, I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire, If I Didn’t Care and Whispering Grass.
Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
Get bonus content on PatreonHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Smoking on album sleeves, Smash Hits The Musical and records you own but have never played
Echo & the Bunnymen, why the rock press were “divs” and the secret of good hair by Will Sergeant
An Insider’s Guide To Goth by Cathi Unsworth (via Cruella De Vil and the Cure)
Nick Drake – a whole new perspective by Richard Morton Jack
Gary Numan, unlikely sex symbols and U2’s £1,000 night in the desert
Does Gary Numan regret throwing the glo-stick that hit David Bowie?
Why a sumptuous new book about the Island label is “like entering the record shop of your dreams”.
Mojo’s 30th birthday plus bands whose t-shirts you’d wear even if you didn’t have any of their records
The “unknown woman” in McCartney’s photos, the Human League and a new U2 game
Pulitzer Prize winner David Remnick takes the long view of Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Macca and more
The Stones return, rock’n’roll marriages and Freddie’s 50 kimonos
Plaid shirts? Brown ale? A smoke-stained pub rock special with Simon Matthews
What Kevin Armstrong learnt as the sideman for Bowie, McCartney, Morrissey, Sinead and Iggy Pop
Which acts will “go down in history” and what matters more than their music?
Bob Dylan - why he signs autographs left-handed and other mysteries solved by Ray Padgett
Achtung Baby, rock fantasy friends and the band that inspired the Bad News Tour
Robbie Robertson, Billy Connolly, Bridge Over Troubled Water and the “fake history” of Punk
Sinead O’Connor, that Morrissey outburst, over-long films and the pitiful plight of roadies
Tales of Hipgnosis sleeves (and the new film) and why the world needs Steely Dan more than ever
PP Arnold remembers life in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue aged 17
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Superfancast
Derringer Discoveries - A Music Adventure Podcast
One Song
Bandsplain
Every Single Album