Share

cover art for The Buskers’ Hall of Fame – from Moondog and Billy Bragg to Don Partridge and “the skating Sikh”.

Word In Your Ear

The Buskers’ Hall of Fame – from Moondog and Billy Bragg to Don Partridge and “the skating Sikh”.

Ep. 670

Louis Armstrong, Wild Man Fischer, Irving Berlin and Lucinda Williams all started out as buskers and Cary Baker’s ‘Down On The Corner’ traces the romance and influence of street players from Ancient Rome via Chicago’s Maxwell Street to Elvis Costello outside the CBS conference and beyond. Cary, David and Mark chuck coins in the conversational hat, among them …  

… the turban and rollerblades stagewear of Harry Perry aka “the Skating Sikh”.


… Blind Arvella Gray who took up busking because of a gun battle.

 

… the sight of Bongo Joe on his daily commute (a moped loaded with steel drums).  

 

… what Mick Jagger learnt from Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.

 

… Ted Hawkins' journey from Venice Beach to Geffen Records.

 

… the time Cary met Moondog dressed as a Viking and why he was a symbol of old New York.

 

… how Billy Bragg learnt festival crowd control playing street corners.

 

… Madeleine Peyroux, aged 15, playing Paris subways.

 

… Jesse Fuller, father of the one-man band.

 

… do buskers now make it via Instagram?

 

… the only gig where you can play the same song repeatedly.

 

… and when is busking just noise pollution?

 

Order Cary Baker’s Down On The Corner here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Down-Corner-Adventures-Busking-Street/dp/1916829104


Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

More episodes

View all episodes

  • 684. Kris Kristofferson, a lost Tom Petty film and rock stars and the curse of the selfie

    45:18||Ep. 684
    We aimed the airgun of enquiry at this week’s rock and roll side-stall and dislodged the following coconuts …   … sports star, Rhodes scholar, bohemian: why Kris Kristofferson was a whole new breed of American hero.   … the letter his parents wrote disowning him. … how he invented the crossover hit. … echoes of his life in Five Easy Pieces. … Fellini’s La Strada and the story of ‘Me And Bobby McGee’. …. ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’ and other songs written to order. … why the past is the age before mobile phones. … Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Leonard Cohen, Carly Simon: the kiss and tell school of songwriting. … why Tracey Thorn misses the age of the autograph. … who’d be famous in the 21st Century? … “What do you think about when you’re playing the drums?” Cameron Crowe’s lost 1983 time capsule. … in a lift with Ken Barlow. Plus birthday guest Paul Cook and the furthest you’ve ever travelled for a gig.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
  • 683. How Christine McVie saw Fleetwood Mac and the real reason she left them – by Lesley-Ann Jones

    37:56||Ep. 683
    Christine McVie - one of only two British girl rock musicians in the ‘60s and part of the greatest pop soap opera of all time. Neither in the backline or the frontline but occupying a unique middle ground. Packed it in for 16 years then returned to the fold. Lesley-Ann Jones’ fresh and emotional memoir Songbird follows “the trajectory of a male rock star played by a woman”, the home she was keen to escape, the outer limits of life in Fleetwood Mac’s “toxic Camelot” and the rigours of holding her ground in a man’s world. We cover all sorts here including … … the lasting effect of not having “an ordinary mother”.   … the night in Sunderland that made her think again. … when your best friend sleeps with your fiancée. … supporting the Shadows when she was 15 at the 2I’s in Soho.   … Etta James, Chicken Shack and playing the Reeperbahn. … why rock stars can never be part of a village community. … Fleetwood Mac’s West Coast Elysium: “they were all as bad as each other”. … “cute and dangerous” meets “lifeline and anchor”: the love affair with Dennis Wilson. … why she and John McVie both needed a wife. … and her lifelong connection with the blues, “a sadness you can’t cure”. Order Songbird here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Songbird-Intimate-Biography-Christine-McVie/dp/1789467217Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
  • 682. Nick Heyward dressed like Cary Grant – then the Jam, XTC and Talking Heads. “It’s all about clothes, hair and shoes.”

    33:12||Ep. 682
    Nick Heyward was one of our favourite cover stars when we were at Smash Hits in the ‘80s, the days when hardcore Haircut One Hundred fans turned out in Fair Isle sweaters and Sou’Westers. He now lives mostly in Florida, he’s made nine solo albums – one magnificently titled Open Sesame Seed - and he’s toured again with his old band after ten years’ painful separation. Touring the UK in October, he couldn’t be more upbeat about the road ahead – “I can do anything!” – and looks back here at the first shows he saw and played himself. Which involves … … seeing Count Basie, Ray Charles and Oscar Peterson on the same bill when he was 12. … “if you stop playing music you’re like the boxer that gave up the fight”. … pop dress codes, knock-off pop merchandise and trips to Shellys Shoes. … growing up in Beckenham where Bowie was “the lighthouse beam that made being a pop star possible”. … old schoolfriends and Haircut One Hundred members Les and Graham and how “we got our friendship back”. … why seeing XTC was “like plugging into electricity”. … Buzzcocks and Boomtown Rats at the Croydon Greyhound.   … how he was saved by management. … singing Love Plus One in Salisbury Cathedral. … and the lingering thrill of his first reviews (by Graham K Smith and Adrian Thrills). Nick’s tour dates here:https://nickheyward.com/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
  • 681. In the studio with Nick Drake, Fairport, John Martyn & the String Band: John Wood remembers a golden age

    48:44||Ep. 681
    “There was no Command-Zed back then!” John Wood engineered or produced some of the most magical, timeless and affecting records ever made - by Nick Drake, John Martyn, the McGarrigles, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, John Cale, Squeeze and many more. He’s 85 now and looks back here at a luminous career that started with mastering singles at Decca and transferred to Sound Techniques, the mecca he co-founded in an old cowshed in Chelsea when takes were spontaneous and even the tape-op was part of the performance. He misses those days, when albums were organic and the labels had less control, and talks here about … … “the age when sound had perspective and seemed three-dimensional”. … Nick Drake’s confidence and his guiding lights - eg the Beach Boys and Randy Newman (“who I’d never heard of”). And his final nighttime sessions. … the way Fairport recorded – “We’re only going to do it once” – and why they could make three albums a year. …managing the girls in the Incredible String Band, “especially when Licorice played drums”. … John Cale in “maniac mode” and his sudden and unexpected friendship with Nick Drake. … Cale and Nico at the Chelsea Hotel. … and why ‘Geoff Muldaur Is Having A Wonderful Time’ was the job he remembers the fondest. Also mentioned: the Downliners Sect, Judy Collins, The Marmalade, Graham Gouldman and Squeeze. John’s got nothing to plug and just wanted to talk to us. Thanks, John, and bless your cotton socks.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
  • 680. Ian Hunter – joining Mott The Hoople, Bowie, Hamburg and being “enthused into craziness”.

    31:19||Ep. 680
    Ian Hunter – an image so familiar you’d recognise his silhouette - now lives in Connecticut and he’s just released expanded versions of two of his best-selling solo albums, You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic and Short Back N' Sides. He’s 85, born before any of the Beatles. We talk to him here about life growing up in the ‘40s and ‘50s when your father’s a copper and “music wasn’t allowed in the house”, and touch upon … … the debt he owes Freddie ‘Fingers’ Lee. … café jukeboxes full of Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino. … beating 165 acts at a talent contest at Butlins. … the record that made the Beatles (which they didn’t write). … “a two-piece corduroy suit, open-toed sandals, overweight …”: the Mott the Hoople audition. … Bowie playing All The Young Dudes – “a monster” – cross-legged on the floor in Denmark Street after they’d turned down Suffragette City. … why Hendrix was thrown out of Regent Sound studios. … playing the Reeperbahn in 1963. … recording ‘Schizophrenic’ with three members of the E Street Band. … “Do you want a cuddle?” The Mick Ronson recording method. … the good thing about Covid. … watching punk bands with Mick Jones. … plus a ‘dyed-black’ Ford Anglia and the Greatest Record Ever Made. Order Ian’s re-released albums here:Buy link: https://ianhunter.lnk.to/sbnsFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
  • 679. Bryan Ferry, Maggie Smith and why Ian Hunter is a movie in waiting

    46:44||Ep. 679
    As the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness draws in, we poke the embers of this week’s rock and roll bonfire and rake out the following chestnuts … … Maggie Smith on ‘70s chat shows. … when Radiohead meets Shakespeare. … the strange, circuitous and downright disgraceful launch of Francis Ford Coppola’s majestically bonkers Megalopolis. … Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter: the slow ascent of two ‘overnight sensations’. … is it big events anymore or just a low-level hum of distraction? … Bryan Ferry as an interpreter: why we love his clubby renditions of Dylan, Amy, Frank, Elvis, Broadway ballads and old sea shanties. … Movies In Waiting no 97: Butlin’s, skiffle, Hamburg and Ian Hunter’s 26-year clamber to the top. ... can any film still have instant world impact? … the unsettling structure of the Graham Norton show. … Simon Raymonde’s dad’s oceanic jazz adventure, 1949. … plus birthday guest Matthew North sees Wayne Rooney doing Ring Of Fire at a Plymouth open mic night.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
  • 678. When Cocteau Twins followed the Ramones onstage and why 1979 was the Golden Age - by Simon Raymonde

    45:10||Ep. 678
    Simon Raymonde’s affecting and beautifully written memoir ‘In One Ear’ records life in the ‘60s growing up with a father who wrote and arranged for Dusty Springfield, Helen Shapiro and the Walker Brothers, the impossibly shy promotional activities of the Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil and the struggles and eventual jackpot of the Bella Union record label he founded. He’s so perceptive, observant and self-mocking and we loved this energetic podcast which, among much else, lands upon …   ... why 1979 was the Golden Year. … the time Scott Walker came to his parents’ house. … why the Cocteau Twins might have tanked in the current age of self-promotion. … how a loathing for Phil Collins was a Sliding Doors moment.   … the problem with bands that don’t talk to each other. … why they refused to appear on Top Of The Pops. … following Rancid and the Ramones at Lollapalooza in 1996 and the sobering events that ensued. … why the Old Grey Whistle Test was “not a happy experience”. … the cryptic language of Elizabeth Fraser’s lyrics why he never asked her what they meant.   … “if I hadn’t worked at the Beggars record shop I wouldn’t be talking to you now”. … why bands are “less naïve now”. … and “Cocteau Twins - swirling sepulchral shards of sound that patter like raindrops against the windows of your mind” – ©️ the Music Press in 1985. Order Simon’s book here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Ear-Cocteau-Twins-Raymonde/dp/1788709381Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
  • 677. The deep secret of Abba’s “music without nostalgia” and the time they met the Pistols

    46:59||Ep. 677
    Abba’s biographer Jan Gradvall met and interviewed Abba many times and builds a fresh picture of their internal chemistry in his new book Melancholy Undercover. Highlights of this illuminating pod include … … how Sweden rejected their early hits for not being sufficiently “socialist”. …. the discomfiting early life of Anni-Frid Lyngstad. … what Max Martin and Denniz Pop thought made Abba’s music so durable.  … Strindberg, Bergman, the climate, the eight months of darkness and the role of melancholia in Swedish pop culture.  … the influence of the Human League on their later catalogue. … why manager Stig Anderson “became a burden”. … “Norway has Grieg, Finland has Sibelius, Sweden has Benny …” … the first band to write about divorce. … the Abba song with 57 chords and the only two samples Abba ever approved. … Elvis Costello, Joe Strummer and Ian Dury backstage at a 1979 London show. … when Sid Vicious ran into Abba at an airport on the Pistols’ 1977 Swedish tour.  … the role of the Lionesses football team, Kurt Cobain, Erasure, U2, Madonna and the Sydney gay community in the Abba revival.  … why the Abbatars are better than Abba.  … the myth of Agnetha as “the Greta Garbo of Pop”.  … and why The Day Before You Came is more than the Abba swansong. Order Melancholy Undercover here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-ABBA-Melancholy-Undercover/dp/0571390986Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
  • 676. Fond memories of lost ‘80s London, Morrissey v Marr and the film they should make about Toyah

    55:54||Ep. 676
    A free-form spontaneous jam this week - the Dark Star of podcasts – which navigates the outer reaches of the rock and roll stratosphere by way of the following … … was Michael Stipe’s father a military helicopter pilot in Korea? … our fantasy Odd Couple tragi-comedy: Morrissey and Marr in a thin-skinned middle-aged flat share.   … how the Golden Egg launched Roxy Music. … can anyone name more than one member of Coldplay? … did Paddy McAloon’s mum make the sets for the Clangers? … the ’80s version of the Internet.  … memories of lost London: international magazine shops, drinking in offices, Protein Man, roaming Hare Krishnas, “floating a curry”, wasp-covered sarnies in café windows, band flyers on derelict buildings, the romance of old Fleet Street. … the tangled saga of Bonfire Of The Teenagers. … “Oasis is the last of the household-name bands”. … why Toyah is a movie waiting to happen. … and birthday guest Jelltex on bands he thought had given up now filling stadiums.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear