Peter Ames Carlin on the record that made Bruce Springsteen
word-podcast-798-peter-ames-carlinFriend of the pod and chronicler of the careers of Springsteen, Paul Simon and REM, Peter Ames Carlin has heard all the recordings that went into the album which was Springsteen’s last chance saloon and spoken to the people who were there to put together the story of how it was all done.….the lucky break that came when the boss’s son went to a Springsteen show….the man who played on Bruce Springsteen’s greatest record and then left….how Springsteen learned that the way to make a live-sounding record was not to record it live….the reconnecting of 70s rock with the great American rock & roll of the 50s…the thinking behind one of the few album covers deserving of the adjective “iconic”…what happened when Steve Van Zandt told the Brecker Brothers what to play….the fundamental difference between American and British musicTonight In Jungleland: The Making Of Born To Run: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tonight-Jungleland-Making-Born-Run/dp/0385551533Find 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.
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Jah Wobble - 40 hilarious unedited minutes interrupted by a pest control officer
Jah Wobble - touring in October - is outstanding company and rattles on here like a steam train, sparking off at tangents in a brilliant, barely steerable monologue with a crackling cast of characters. It’s not often a podcast gets a visitor mid-recording who says, “I’ve put more poison in - but the good news is, there’s nothing in your traps!” Here you will find … … an afternoon with Anthony Hopkins … the time Ginger Baker got the wrong dessert - “a bowl of rhubarb went flying” … East End violence: the Whitechapel firm v the Mile End mob … why bands are like short-order cooks … his first gig with Public Image – teargas, barricaded in the dressing-room and the head of security getting kicked in the throat … and his second gig – “someone threw a frozen pig’s head and it lay there looking balefully up at me” … Wilko Johnson (“a caged tiger”) and Lee Brilleaux tying his shoelaces to the mic lead … Bob Marley at the Lyceum and how Aston Barrett changed the game … tour managers whose metal briefcases have a cosh and a pepper spray … onstage exorcisms with the Invaders Of The Heart … John Lydon meeting Arthur Brown, the Heavy Metal Kids, Woody Woodmansey and the man with six fingers in Get Carter … and his community music project ‘Tuned In’ at Merton Arts Space, Wimbledon Library. Order tickets here: https://www.songkick.com/artists/13218-jah-wobble/calendarFind 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.
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Elvis, the Colonel & how unseen letters changed Peter Guralnick’s view of their partnership
There’s a widely accepted view of the relationship between Elvis and his manager Tom Parker, the one sustained by the recent Baz Luhrmann movie, but a new and fascinating archive of unseen letters makes you see it differently: it was warmer, deeper and infinitely more complicated. Peter Guralnick – rock book royalty! - met Parker towards the end of his life and has just published ‘The Colonel And The King: Tom Parker, Elvis Presley and the Partnership That Rocked The World’. He talks to us here about separating the myth from reality which touches on … ... overturning the conventional wisdom “that Elvis was the puppet, Sam Phillips the genius and Tom Parker the manipulator”. ... how theirs was “a partnership of equals” – though Elvis was in charge, not the Colonel. … how Presley’s “security risk” – carrying guns and drugs across borders – was a factor in his refusal to accept world tour offers. … two men powerfully motivated by money – Elvis liked spending it, Parker liked losing it. … humour, charisma, intelligence, a force of nature: how Parker’s letters paint a different picture. … “he was an entirely self-invented man. And there was no-one more American – which was ironic as he was Dutch.” … the full story of the Elvis TV Christmas Special. … how Parker grossly undersold Presley’s catalogue rights to RCA in 1973 for $5.4m. … the Colonel’s Honesty game – “think of the number I’m thinking of and I’ll pay you if you’re right!” … how Parker tried to curb Presley’s “smutty humour” and sell his “James Dean enigma” to the film industry after Dean’s death in 1955. … how the only time he didn’t carefully manage an Elvis appearance was the Steve Allen Show hound dog debacle. … why Parker couldn’t control either his or Presley’s self-destructive habits. … his gambling addiction and a miserable 72-hour stint in a Vegas casino. … and would the first internationally-known artist’s manager have been as famous had he not called himself “the Colonel”? Order ‘The Colonel And the King’ here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/peter-guralnick/the-colonel-and-the-king/9780316399449/?lens=little-brownFind 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.
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Are the Nineties the new Classic Rock? And whatever happened to comedy records?
Lowering the magnet of curiosity into the scrapyard of news and seeing what’s attracted, which includes … … does anyone still write satirical songs? … Four Sides of the Circle, Margaret On The Guillotine, From Here To Infirmary … real or fictitious working album titles? … the rarity of hearing new music without knowing what the musician looks like … the Strokes, the Faces and other confident gangs you wanted to join … Poisoning Pigeons In The Park, the Vatican Rag and the moment Tom Lehrer claimed was the death of satire … the dwindling need to feel ‘contemporary’ - Blur, Primal Scream and the Libertines have made one album in the last ten years … when MTV went ‘lifestyle’ … how ‘a 60 year-old rock star’ still feels young … bring on the ‘90s package tour! … “Please give my regards to Mr. Chainz, or may I call him 2?” … and honorary mentions of Chappell Roan, Blink 182, Henry Kissinger, Wet Leg, Randy Newman, PP Arnold and ‘Kicking Pigeons’ by Spunge.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.
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The Wedding Present turns 40, memories of John Peel & ‘the only time I ever pogo-ed’
The Wedding Present formed 40 years ago – why does that seem astonishing? - and have a new box set and tour to celebrate. David Gedge digs out his old notes about the first gigs he ever saw and played and looks back at what four decades onstage might have taught him. Among the delights … … Rick Wakeman in full cape attire at Manchester Free Trade Hall in ’76 and how Be-bop Deluxe pointed to the future … the bone-dry humour of the Ramones – “the only time I ever pogo-ed” – and memories of seeing Wire and Queen. … how Leeds’ goth culture coloured his early band the Lost Pandas (who had the nerve to play “minor chords”) … ‘Reception: The Wedding Present Musical’, about to open in Leeds and built around stories, characters and relationships in his songs. “Musicals are very divisive and I wasn’t sure I liked them” … “meticulous and geeky”: how the set lists flow and the two songs he never omits … how John Peel playing Go Out And Get 'Em, Boy! ten times launched the Wedding Present: “he was like the Emperor Nero really, almost too powerful. If he didn’t like you, you could vanish without trace” ... the unexpected challenge of band member manipulation … “if anything gets a laugh, repeat it” … and costly future visions of the Wedding Present plus orchestra! Order tickets to the Wedding Present 40th anniversary tour here: https://www.scopitones.co.uk/forthcomingconcerts And the box set here: https://www.scopitones.co.uk/post/the-wedding-present-to-release-career-spanning-40th-anniversary-compilationFind 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 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Ireland