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Word In Your Ear — Music
Word In Your Ear

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like “Rock On”, “Whistle Test” and VH-1.

Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience.

Over these years they’ve produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they’ve produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com.

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Copyright: © Word In Your Ear

Latest Episodes:

Pulitzer Prize winner David Remnick takes the long view of Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Macca and more Sep 17, 2023

Show notes

David Remnick got his Pulitzer for his reporting on Russia. These days he edits The New Yorker, in which capacity he has had close encounters with some of music’s legends during their final acts, some of which is gathered in “Holding The Note”, a collection of his writings on music. From his ill-lit Manhattan eyrie he talks to David Hepworth of many matters, including:

….what was in the handbag which remained on the piano during Aretha Franklin shows

….what it was like being on the receiving end of an almighty dressing-down from the elderly Leonard Cohen

….how Bruce Springsteen learned nothing at school but has picked up a great deal since

….how Bob Dylan reckons he’s in a “post-interview” phase of life - or is he?

….how his father took him to see Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald and he has taken his own kids to see Radiohead

….how Keith Richards found a ghost writer who could throw his voice

….what was really the last good Stones album.

…why you should never try to get rock stars to like you.

Pre-order Holding The Note here: https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/david-remnick/holding-the-note/9781035023974

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHK

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Stones return, rock’n’roll marriages and Freddie’s 50 kimonos Sep 12, 2023

Show notes

Recorded together in Mark Ellen’s attic! Among the conversational footballs booted round the park this week you’ll find:-

… Freddie’s “exquisite clutter”: would YOU buy one of his bonzai plant-holders, his catsuit with ballet shoes and a $0.5m silver bangle?

… when did the story change from “the Stones are old, knackered and ought to give up!” to “the Stones are old, brilliant and should carry on forever!”?

... do all enduring legacies need an element of tragedy?

… who calls the Ezra Collective “a jazz band”?

… who’s been married the longest … Bono, Alice Cooper or Peter Noone from Herman’s Hermits?

… 1984 was the annus mirabilis of the album? Birthday guest Matthew North has the records to prove it.

… the perils of celebrities chairing press conferences (QED Jimmy Fallon).

... how they’ve only gone and wrecked the Rugby World Cup anthems.

… and useful phrases to deploy when you didn’t much care for your mate’s band but don’t want to hurt their feelings – eg You’ve done it again! Only YOU could have put in a show like that! You took it to a whole new level!

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHK

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Plaid shirts? Brown ale? A smoke-stained pub rock special with Simon Matthews Sep 06, 2023

Show notes

Fired by the rock and roll revival of 1970 and a post-Easy Rider taste for American music, a circuit of some 35 London pubs filled with bands playing fizzing, small-scale shows that never sounded quite the same on record, bands whose moment in the sun was ultimately wrecked by the arrival of punk rock. This pod – and Simon’s book ‘Before It Went Rotten: the Music That Rocked London Pubs 1972-1976’ – raises a dimple jug to some of its forgotten heroes including Meal Ticket, Roogalator, Ducks Deluxe, the Winkies and the Kursaal Flyers. Be honest, when did YOU last hear mention of the Count Bishops or GT Moore & the Reggae Guitars? So what was it about Southend? How did Eggs Over Easy play such a pivotal role in it all? And Creedence Clearwater Revival? And Dave Edmunds? Why was this the perfect launchpad for Ian Dury? And what was the final nail in the pub rock coffin?

Order ‘Before It Went Rotten: the Music That Rocked London Pubs 1972-1976’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Before-Went-Rotten-Londons-1972-1976/dp/0857305743/ref=sr_1_11?qid=1693561624&refinements=p_27%3ASimon+Matthews&s=books&sr=1-11

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHK

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What Kevin Armstrong learnt as the sideman for Bowie, McCartney, Morrissey, Sinead and Iggy Pop Sep 05, 2023

Show notes

Kevin Armstrong was the guitarist in the band David Bowie asked him to assemble for Live Aid and toured and recorded with him many times. Playing the guitar intro to Rebel Rebel in a stadium, he says, is “like lighting a match”. Start the Passenger with Iggy Pop and you’re greeted with “a great mass of love”. His memoir, Absolute Beginner, is “a window onto the high table of rock and roll” and full of insights into life in studios and on the road and the fathomless levels of diplomacy often required to collaborate. This entertaining pod expands upon …

… why he turned down the offer to join the Smiths.

… how Jim Osterberg transforms himself into Iggy Pop.

… the Sinead O’Connor’s tour manager’s trick to speed the band through security.

… the song Bowie dropped from the Live Aid set.

… why Michael Hutchence is “terrified of small crowds”.

… Bowie’s ex-Navy Seal minder and the old decoys-under-blankets ruse.

… why Morrissey is “thin-skinned”.

… and the eternal curse of “Imposter Syndrome”.

Order ‘Absolute Beginner’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Absolute-Beginner-Memoirs-least-known-guitarist/dp/1911036173

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHK

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Which acts will “go down in history” and what matters more than their music? Sep 03, 2023

Show notes

We dipped the shrimping net of curiosity in the rock and roll rockpool this week and transferred the following items to the podcast bucket …

… who now regrets being the “little tyrant” that broke up their band 30 years ago?

… who was the real Bungalow Bill and how did the song about him change his life?

… Bing Crosby and Paul Whiteman are almost forgotten. Are the Doors and the Kinks heading the same way?

… the unique and extraordinary Bill Wyman, “more a witness to the Rolling Stones than a member”, plus Nellcôte and the Birds’ Custard.

… is the ice finally melting in the Talking Heads camp?

… an everyday tale of Culture’s “Two Sevens Clash” on the mean streets of North London’s garden suburbs.

… was Lennon v the Maharishi an early example of “career cancelling”?

… is Life During Wartime from Stop Making Sense the greatest live performance ever filmed?

… the curse of the Budokan.

… and birthday guests Avi Chaudhuri and Jelltex (who strongly recommends The Mood Elevator's second album, Married Alive).

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHK

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bob Dylan - why he signs autographs left-handed and other mysteries solved by Ray Padgett Sep 02, 2023

Show notes

Ray Padgett lives in Vermont, first discovered Dylan when he was 16 in the 21st Century and was fascinated and besotted, later launching the newsletter ‘Flagging Down the Double E’s’ and now publishing the enthralling ‘Pledging My Time’, a collection of his interviews with over 40 people who’ve worked, performed and recorded with the inscrutable old rogue. Both the book and this fast-moving, whip-smart and very funny conversation are revelatory and highly recommended, the podcast shedding light on …

… the daily life of Bob Dylan – eg the piles of gifts he routinely receives and the security men who scour his vacated hotel rooms to remove anything that could be nicked and put on eBay.

… the only friend who seemed to co-exist with him on “an equal footing”.

... an eye-witness account of his first performance (aged 13) at a Jewish summer camp in Minnesota.

… the childhood friend who owned a fish business in Duluth and ended up running the Rolling Thunder Revue - as Dylan enigmatically put it, “if you can sell fish, you can sell tickets”.

... the time he went to a business conference and nobody recognised him.

… how he tells musicians to “never play the same thing twice”.

… the chance meeting with Scarlet Rivera – two hours later she was onstage as “my violinist” with Dylan and Muddy Waters.

… multiple examples of his love of spontaneity and the extraordinary way he hires musicians.

… a rare moment when his career seemed to stall.

… and honourable mentions of Richard Thompson, Paul Stookey, Jim Keltner, Stan Lynch and Jeff Bridges.

Pledging My Time …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pledging-My-Time-Conversations-Members/dp/B0C6VRBZQC

Flagging Down the Double E’s newsletter …

https://dylanlive.substack.com/about

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHK

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/woridinyourear

https://www.covermesongs.com/about-ray-padgett

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Achtung Baby, rock fantasy friends and the band that inspired the Bad News Tour Aug 29, 2023

Show notes

Its tyres pumped, its engine tuned, its air-con still on the blink, the rock and roll charabanc trundles off on its circuit which, this week, makes the following stops …

… the singer who sold vials of her tears as part of a merchandise range.

… when Billy Bragg entered a Paul Simon lyric in his school poetry contest and only got 7 out of 10.

… why our favourite music still tends to be the stuff we heard in our teens.

… how Bill Graham’s “Electric Ballroom Experience” changed the landscape – “we were out there with no compass”.

… former Kursaal Flyers drummer Will Birch re-watches their ’76 TV film documentary: “There are only two good things about Scotland - the whisky and the road out of there.” “Five autographs? Wasn’t like this at the Carnegie Hall!”

… “creamy mousse with ripe stone fruits, bright citrus and a biscuity length”: home-brewing with Alex James.

… and how Wreckless Eric’s made a living for 46 years out of just one song.

That Bill Graham interview …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVeuDS0n3XI

Melvyn Bragg introduces the Kursaal Flyers on the BBC’s 2nd House in 1976 …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQKNeWlQzdI&t=11s

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Robbie Robertson, Billy Connolly, Bridge Over Troubled Water and the “fake history” of Punk Aug 21, 2023

Show notes

Even podcasts take “annual leave” but we’re back and once again propelling the two-man Pedalo of Enquiry down the rock and roll seafront stopping off at sundry wave-rippled spots, among them …

… what Chuck Berry said about the Clash.

… a band whose keyboard player is the King’s second cousin.

… the song Art Garfunkel sang for years without realising it was about him.

… Billy Connolly’s bicycle gag and other things you couldn’t get away with now.

… Ian Hunter remembering “that little bloke from Beckenham”.

… why Punk was like a religious movement. Guest Paul Burke claims it was a “passing fad and its over-cooked legacy was fashioned by the middle-class media”.

… the Shakespearian echoes of ‘The Boxer’.

… what Bowie would have done if the Laughing Gnome had been a hit.

… how Robbie Robertson lived the life Bob Dylan claimed to have lived and never recaptured the spirit of the first two Band albums.

… Earl Shilton, Norbert Putnam … American session player or remote place in Leicestershire?

… lost TV documentaries about Gene Vincent and the Global Village Trucking Company.

That Global Village Trucking Company doc …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SNrBey7yQI

Punk’s fake history, Spectator column by Paul Burke …

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/punks-fake-history/

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sinead O’Connor, that Morrissey outburst, over-long films and the pitiful plight of roadies Jul 31, 2023

Show notes

The mellifluous melody and soaring counterpoint of this week’s podcast were comprised of the following notes …

… Morrissey’s broadside on the treatment of Sinead O’Connor – and her electrifying moment at Dylan’s 30th Anniversary tribute two weeks after she’d torn up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live.

… two unsettling events in the later life of Randy Meisner.

… Adele revives the old Las Vegas business model (at about £8m a night).

… the eternal mystery of Bob Dylan’s motorcycle crash and his Shea Stadium and Russian shows that never happened.

… how long news took to travel: the Battle of Waterloo (three days), the death of Jim Morrison (two weeks).

… Oppenheimer and why so many films are so long.

… Things It’s Almost Impossible To Accept, No 97: Mick Jagger is 80!

… in 2006 BBC viewers voted Morrissey second in a Greatest Living British Icons poll (Sir David Attenborough was first, McCartney third). Where would he be if they ran they voted tomorrow?

… that photo of Pulp and their 57-strong entourage.

… the time the Troggs turned psychedelic.

… the endless value of the mantra “never apologise, never explain”.

… TV clips from the Lost World of Rock And Roll – Hush tour Australia in 1997 (and pay their road crew $1 an hour);

Quintessence in 1970, ‘the sound of Notting Hill Gate’.

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Clips:-

Sinead O’Connor at Dylan’s 30th anniversary concert two weeks after she tore up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKeJifOXAnA

Glam-rock roadhogs Hush in 1977 …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-Iyytr1AJ4

Getting It Straight In Notting Hill Gate …

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-getting-it-straight-in-notting-hill-gate-1970-online

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tales of Hipgnosis sleeves (and the new film) and why the world needs Steely Dan more than ever Jul 24, 2023

Show notes

Blips on the rock and roll radar this week include …

… Things You No Longer See, No 97: the celebrity airport arrival shot.

.. do we, in all honesty, need Roger Waters’ re-interpretation of the Dark Side Of The Moon for it is upon us on October 6?

… is there really an Edinburgh Fringe show called ‘Bald Man Sings Rihanna”, ‘A Shark Ate My Penis’ or ‘In The Court Of The Crimson Ting: Prog Rock in A Reggae Style’?

… a 1976 clip of Elton John as the jobbing pianist on the Morecambe & Wise Show. “Elton John? Sounds like an exit on the motorway.

… the poignant story of 1968’s lost psych-rock voyagers the Mike Stuart Span and what happened when they became Leviathan.

… the time Hipgnosis put a sheep on a psychiatrists’ couch in the Hawaiian surf and landed a chopper in the Alps to photograph a statue.

… the Scottish stately pile Bob Dylan’s just put on the market.

.. and – with birthday guest Patrick Butler - six theories as to why Steely Dan are hipper now than ever.

The Mike Stuart Span TV clip …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufD0e8tE-UY

Elton with Eric & Ernie …

https://twitter.com/eric_ernie_col/status/1673207024702636033

Roger Waters’ Money redux …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUVmeYgo1Iw

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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