Word In Your Ear

Panning for gold in the murky waters of this week’s news, we found the following …

… is Sabrina Carpenter’s aunt the voice of Bart Simpson?

… is punk now just a small room in the giant apartment block of Goth?

… why band life was different for Ringo, Kathy Valentine and Clem Burke

… Barack Obama’s songs that define America and how you can’t do the same for Britain

… what you notice about the Who’s ‘Tommy’ 47 years later

… the night Tom Fogerty’s widow brought his ashes to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

… Hurrrggggh! Aah-haaaa!: the vocal trademarks of Clarence Carter, Bob Wills, James Brown and Bobby Bland

… did Select magazine REALLY once give away a giant inflatable Jarvis? (spoiler: yes)

… plus Shleep and Rock Bottom by Robert Wyatt and Sam Cooke humming.

Sam Cooke humming:
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-e&channel=entpr&q=sam+cooke+thumming+youtube+#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7e9fec7d,vid:ZYd8DFI5CJg,st:0

Order copies of David Hepworth's new paperback 'Hope I Get Old Before I Die' here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hope-Get-Old-Before-Die/dp/1804991996

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Damned are – yes! - 50 years old with three of the originals still onboard. And just starting a world tour. In this immensely funny and touching podcast, Rat Scabies (who’s smoking!) points up the repercussions of life in a band. He looks back at their first shows, their devoted audience, “old-fashioned rules”, highlights, regrets, the value of friendship, “putting on the black suit again” and how it felt to rejoin after 30 years on the outside. And all this too …

… playing drums in an Essex panto while pelted with boiled sweets

… Dave Vanian when he was a grave-digger

… punk rock strongholds the world over – “South America was like being in the Beatles”

… Mexico and other places you can still torch a drumkit

… Mr Scabies, aged 70. “Even my mother calls me Rat. The name’s done me well over the years”

… going to the Isle Of Wight aged 14 (with the Danish nanny) and running a hot-dog stand during Hendrix

… supporting the Pistols at the 100 Club: “like letting a greyhound out of a trap”

… Tim Burton, the Goth revival, the Young Ones, steampunk and other factors that keeps the Damned in motion

… “One band’s an oddity, two’s a fashion, three’s a movement”

… rejoining the Damned after 30 years – “like a great stain had been lifted”

… Green Day, algorithms and how they acquired a whole new following.

Order Damned tickets here: aegp.uk/the-damned

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A whole new age of psychedelia kicked off in the mid-‘80s, of dream-weavers and glorious underachievers, a complete rejection of the standard rock approach to stagecraft, sound and self-promotion. Simon Reynolds was at the heart of it, writing for Melody Maker and piping aboard the pioneering noise-mongers aiming to entrance and disorientate, as recalled in his new book ‘Still In A Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock 1984-1994’. He looks back with us here from his home in Los Angeles at its key bands, events and spiritual godfathers, these among them …

… the return to childhood via Syd Barrett and Jonathan Richman to Sarah Records

… is ‘feeble little horse’ the most Shoegaze band name ever?

... what it was about Morrissey that made Smiths singles sink after Top Of The Pops

… the reason Bowie formed a band

… charming/infuriating interviews with the Cocteau Twins: “words only have any meaning when they’re sung”

… how Britpop brought down the curtain of the wall of sound

… Shoegaze, Dreampop, Lovelynoise, Wide-Brimmed Hat Music and the rock press attempt to impose order: “if a band was on the cover they could double their fee”

... the divine arrogance of Lawrence of Felt who “didn’t want ordinary people buying my records”

… the ever-extending “noise chasms” of My Bloody Valentine

… “shattering quartz”: reviewing music that’s about sound not words

… Shoegaze DNA in the 21st Century

... and the greatest album of that decade, “each track like a session beer”.

Order copies of ‘Still In a Dream’ here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/still-in-a-dream/simon-reynolds/9781399618373

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s news gets a thorough shake-down to see what falls out of its pockets. Which includes …

… cupcakes, mobiles, rubber ducks, a dead swan: weird things thown at rock stars

… “polka-dotted micro-tonal space-rock from the planet Zog”: Alex gets the Angine de Poitrine live experience!

… is Shoegaze the Adrian Mole of pop?

… “Hands off my Husker Du!” Joint record collections and who gets what when you split

… Sun Studios, the Albert Hall stage, the Savile Row roof: places where we’ve shivered with excitement

… why don’t they put an old phonebox back in Heddon Street so Bowie fans can take pictures?

… Ocean Blue, Washed Out, Skimming Stones, Pelt: Dreampop band or Farrow & Ball paint colour?

… Physical Graffiti, Anticipation, New Boots and Panties: album sleeve tourist locations

… plus burning wedding photos, when uncles gave you cash and the house Jackson Browne’s grandpa built.

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For nearly 60 years, Brian Eno has been a “proud non-musician” who changed the way people thought and sounded while inventing whole new ways of recording. We loved reading the updated edition of ‘On Some Faraway Beach’ which examines his staggering catalogue of avant garde experiment and wonders if there’s anyone remotely like him. Author David Sheppard looks back with us here at …

… a life of great good fortune: “luck is being ready”

… the rivalry with Bryan Ferry sparked by his getting more attention … and girls

... where you can hear the effect on his Oblique Strategy cards on the Bowie recordings

... the ingenious way he made U2 make up their minds

… his first experience of immersive sound via the organ his granddad built in the family home

… why Wire’s Colin Newman calling him “a Class A Bullshitter” was a compliment

… Bono: “We didn’t go to art school, we went to Brian Eno”

… was Coldplay “a Rubicon he should never have crossed?”

… the appeal of the sculptured sound of early ‘70s synths to someone who couldn’t play keyboards

… his greatest record, Another Green World, and the time he heard Music For Airports playing in an airport

Order copies of On Some Faraway Beach here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Some-Faraway-Beach-Times-Brian/dp/1399605712/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.