Word In Your Ear

Star Ratings are now ubiquitous and inescapable and it’s not just music, films and books. Everything we encounter tends to be rated which colours our judgement before we try it. Choice can be paralyzing but do we read anymore or just count? Benji Wilson’s ‘Rate This Book: How Star Ratings Took Over the World’ traces their origin – back to 350 BC! – paints a picture of modern life and wonders here where we’re heading, along with …

… Aristotle’s 2,500 year-old system of star-rated animals

… how Michelin cooked up starred restaurants to get you to wear out your tyres

… can we spot fake reviews and the people who sell them?

… do we only tend to read one- and five-star reviews? And why writers hate the system

… the ingenious deceit of the Krays movie poster

… the value of reviews in a world where time and tickets costs are escalating

… “Star Ratings are the democratisation of criticism, the least-worst method”

… why a 2016 episode of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror now seems prophetic

… the “hidden hands” that manipulate the ratings system

… and mass Amazon ratings and the power of Mob Rule.

Order copies of ‘Rate This Book’ here: https://linktr.ee/newmodern_books#560826579

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rate-This-Book-Ratings-World/dp/1917923651?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
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Philip Norman has written books about the Beatles – and John, Paul and George - and now turns the spotlight on the man who launched them and the extreme personal and professional obstacles in the dramatic path of his short life, the man who built a shield around them but couldn't protect himself. We talk to him here about ‘Mr Moonlight: Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles’ with particular attention to …

… how he changed Britain’s image and was mortified to get no recognition for it

… the Beatle whose demands he was always fastest to execute

… the level of homophobia and anti-Semitism he had to absorb

… his reckless pursuits in the days when homosexuality could mean life imprisonment

… contract killers, blackmail, rigged roulette wheels and why the Krays said “it wasn’t us” when they heard he’d died

… the way he fashioned his own myth and airbrushed others who’d helped the Beatles succeed

… why McCartney’s 21st birthday party could have ended the band

… his genius (and fraudulence) as a salesman

… the double catastrophe of Brian’s US merchandising deal

… John, Aunt Mimi and “a story about the British class system”

… and the chaperone on George and Pattie’s first date.

Order copies of ‘Mr Moonlight’ here: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Mr-Moonlight/Philip-Norman/9781398542266
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When the pedalo of perusal cruised the lagoon of news this week, it paused to inspect the following ...

… the particular magic of the late-night DJ

… a Get Well card to dear Bob Harris

… is Global Beatles Day a bridge too far?

… the exquisite Britishness of the Manics, the Fall and the Small Faces

… Cyprus Avenue, Soho, Asbury Park … the best places to visit to help you understand an artist who lived there

… how T.Rex and Roxy Music were “too fancy” for America

… Jagger, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Johann Sebastian Bach? Musicians with the most children

… All You Need Is Love – work of genius or “ropey old doggerel”?

Plus birthday guest Paul Thompson, Foghat and watching the One World global-cast on a black and white telly.
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Old friend of the podcast Lloyd Bradley wrote Bass Culture, the defining account of reggae, and he’s now turned his attention to funk, from its deepest roots and via the jazz, arts, TV, radio and pop culture that flavoured it. The main 10-year focus of ‘Funk Has Its Own Reward’ is from James Brown’s ‘Say It Loud - I’m Black and I’m Proud’ to Michael Jackson’s ‘Off The Wall’ but free your mind and all this will follow! …

… the importance of radio being “colourblind”

… Cab Calloway’s Jive Dictionary and the impact of DJs Martha Jean ‘the Queen’ Steinberg and Daddy-O Daylie

… how James Brown floor-tested his records and saved a fortune making them

… funk’s deep roots in America’s marching bands

… why jazz is funk’s closest relative and what it stole from white rock

… how the Family Stone’s Larry Graham made bass the place

… how solo singers gave way to the ‘funk gangs’

… how Richard Pryor gave mainstream America a window on a whole new world.

… the influence of Soul Train and Sesame Street (19-year-old Nile Rodgers on guitar!) in bringing funk to the masses

… George Clinton – “I can’t dance, can’t play, people tell me I can’t sing … but without me none of this would have happened!”

… plus the Chambers Brothers, Herbie Hancock, Funkadelic, Bootsy, Quincy Jones, Parliament and the greatest funk record ever made.

Order copies of ‘Funk Is Its Own Reward’ here: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/lloyd-bradley-2/funk-is-its-own-reward/9781472123411/

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
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Leo Sayer burst onto national telly in 1973 dressed as a Pierrot with the Show Must Go On launching a 50-year career in colourful company – songwriters, boxing legends, swindling managers, scurrilous socialites – and learning a great deal in the process. “Don’t underestimate the idiots!” is the hard-won advice. He’s touring in October and joins us here from Australia to look back at …

… how he and Linda Ronstadt escaped from Trump’s gruesome penthouse

… walking through Memphis dressed as a clown

… seeing Lonnie Donegan invent skiffle, Dylan at the Albert Hall and Bob Marley at the Lyceum from the side of the stage

… when Paul Kossoff asked him to audition for Free

… designing record sleeves for Marley, Roger Daltrey, Humble Pie and Quintessence

… “I’m the Forrest Gump of the music industry – nearly there!”

… “working with Adam Faith was like having Marlon Brando as your acting coach”

… the advice Paul McCartney gave him in 1973

… “Do you mind if I vomit in your shoe?”

… and a week in a training camp with Muhammad Ali.

Order Leo Sayer tickets here: https://tix.to/LeoLive26

Order the ‘Leothology’ box-set here: https://www.roughtrade.com/product/leo-sayer/leothology-the-studio-albums-1973-now

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