Big Characters we have loved and why the Clash wouldn’t last ten minutes in 2024
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- We’ve applied our celebrated sheep/goats separation technique to the rock and roll pasture and shepherded the following into this week’s pod …
… Beyoncé and why it’s hard to connect with songs written by committee.
… are we too old for biopics?
… Marvel films, the Arctic Monkeys and other things you either love or avoid.
… reviewing Human Touch and Lucky Town in a high-security studio (and how you can only tell if an album’s any good if you’ve lived with it for two months).
… why Tony Blackburn is the greatest British DJ.
… “Bing was no more Bing than Sinatra was Sinatra”.
… hoary old tales that were the engine of the rock press - the Clash shooting pigeons, Kevin Rowland stealing his own master-tapes, Cliff v Elvis, Beatles v Stones, Hendrix v Clapton, Bowie v Bolan, Clash v the Pistols, Spandau v Duran, Oasis v Blur.
… are Oasis songs mostly about being Oasis?
… “fame is no longer enacted in the public space”.
… indie cliches - escaping the drudgery of the Man and mundanity of Small Town life.
… “the harder I practice, the luckier I get”.
… Scots punk act get movie soundtrack windfall!
… Alex is arranging a woke stag do - “you go to places where ladies put clothes ON”.
… plus birthday guest Andrew Newbury wonders if Country is more than “the three Ds - driving, dogs and divorce”.
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Saw The Stranglers 50th Anniversary tour at the Royal Albert Hall last week. It was the baldest crowd I have ever seen! Still more lively than the average gig.
My favourite Eric and Ernie moment is when a interviewer asked them what they would have been if they had not been comedians.
Eric replied immediately, 'Mike and Bernie Winters'
I'd still go and see a biopic about Keith Moon but that's about it. Maybe Marc Bolan.
Biopics don't work for modern artists (1950 - 2000) because we have ample footage of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin etc... actors always look 'wrong' portraying people we feel we know and have some emotional connection to... what appeals to the magic money makers of the movie industry is that we have this pre-existing emotional connection that makes it easier to sell their product without offering anything creatively 'new', in other words 'branding'.
I'm prob in the minority but I much prefer to watch something like Renaldo & Clara or Eat the Document or Magical Mystery Tour because we actually get an insight into the personalities and creativity of these people we imagine we know... regardless of the conventional quality of these films...
Never forget Tony Blackburn making "Too Much Time" by Captain Beefheart his record of the Week ..Must have made John Peel Proud.
Agree. Saw an OK Clash related pic, Joe Strummer had some touchpoints with the main lad character---- I could see they positioned The Clash as the leading Woke of 1977. Old rope. Gimme enough....
I'm pretty sure you're referring to the film I'm playing Topper in! ~ Alex
Really enjoyable, discursive conversation.
Thinking back to the Clash incident, I don't recall an owner of said racing pigeons being interviewed by the press after the incident.
So I'm inclined to believe Paul and Topper were more likely shooting itinerant pigeons rather than avian athletes. And even more likely that this was a stunt designed to tie in with Simonon's self penned tune Guns of Brixton on the forthcoming London Calling LP.
The same year that Tony Blackburn liked Oh! You Pretty Things for both David Bowie and Peter Noone in 1971, he started playing what should have been an obscure album track on her second solo album, and because he liked it so much, it went from being a modest US Hot 100 & US R&B Chart hit to being a UK Number One Single for Diana Ross with I'm Still Waiting.
1971 must have been strange enough for Motown with Marvin Gaye demanding and getting complete artistic control to release the What's Going On Single and Album and finally Motown realising way too late the importance of albums, to Stevie Wonder demanidng that Motown works for him in terms of complete artistic control over what he wanted to release, and then what he delivered for the next five years, to have out of left field an unexpected UK Number One, because Tony Blackburn who was presenting the breakfast show on BBC Radio One at that point, liking I'm Still Waiting,
It was not going to be cease and desist from Motown because how stupid they would have been to try and stop playing a song that one of the major DJs (Tony Blackburn) liked from one of their biggest markets and most important charts (UK),. It was not going to the same way that Capitol tried to stop I Wan't To Hold Your Hand being played after the first time that Carroll James played on WWDC in Washington DC with the help of Marsha Albert and then other radio stations started playing it after that.
Oasis, Rock and Soul band is correct beacuse Rockin' Chair and Half The World Away shows Noel Gallagher wanting to escape Manchester at that time in his life and they are parts of what would have been "B-Sides" at the time of release. The Masterplan Compliation album of their UK B-Sides was going to be released everywhere except the UK in November 1998, but it was stupid that it would have come in as an import LP or CD, and in mid 1998 what should have been an obscure comedy show started on BBC2 called The Royle Family, and the theme tune to that?
Just watched Bruce Springsteen's appearance in the Penultimate Hilarious last "Curb Your Enthusiasm" Episode ... The Boss looked Pretty Gutted but was funny.
My first thought when hearing that Beyonce had produced an eighty minute CD was 'What is Beyonce going to do for the deluxe edition?'. But then I read in the music news that six tracks that are listed as being on the CD are absent because certain stages of the preparation of the album for CD and vinyl were rushed.... ...I thought 'problem solved'....
Bigger but smaller is very true! I still have no idea why Taylor Swift might be famous apart from the sequinned one-piece (not that I'm complaining). Tony Blackburn seemingly led to Smashie and Nicey and because of that he can be forgiven. Shooting homing pigeons: think General Melchett in Blackadder. ps I have just recently learned about "The Butter Queen", so now I consider myself 'with-it'. pps I am old enough to remember the sit-com 'Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width' on ITV.
Great podcast, and quite a few generalisations that do appear to have some truth to them. However, I'm not sure that dismissing all double albums except "The White Album" is fair (we would never have had the likes of "Physical Graffiti"). I also don't agree that Tony Blackburn is the "greatest British DJ" - he never 'broke' artists in quite the way that John Peel did. But, hey, it's all opinion, and that's why I enjoy "Word In Your Ear".
1. Exile On Main Street
2. Physical Graffitti
3. A Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
All more consistent than The White Album. Most doubles would however be stronger as single albums
A fair discussion leading to one' own favourite double albums, of course. There are always exceptions, surely.
@@matthewcoombs3282 I myself, am perfectly happy with the Stones' Exile, Eltons' "Yellow Brick Road, the Layla album or 'Physical Grafitti'.
@@matthewcoombs3282And all great albums would make great EPs.
@@matthewcoombs3282 Electric Ladyland... greatest album of the 1960's... doesn't get a lot of discussion for some reason...
Ami Winehouse ?
Too old for biopics?? Oh come on, guys - surely you were convinced and entertained by Johnny Flynn as Bowie...? 🤣🤣🤣
A Bio-Pic about "Nebraska"? Yuck. What does it say that Most Youngsters don't cares about Dylan and Springsteen? They DO care about Bob Marley though. Long Player(LP)? What's the Point? I'm glad the Internet returned us to the One Song(A-side) again. I DO Miss the B-Sides though. The 7" Single(45) was Always my Fave. Headon and Simonon shooting Pigeons is So F*cking Lame. Was appalled then, just as appalled today.