The People's Songs Feed

It's (nearly) Christmas!

Christopher Jones — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 17:02:40 +0000

Slade at Xmas

Are you hanging up your stocking on the wall?

Well, no… not yet (we hope), but all the signs are here: the adverts with fake snow (when did it EVER snow on Xmas day, unless you live in the Highlands?); the shop windows and high streets stuffed with festive ornaments; and it can only be a matter of time before one of our presenters cranks up the Yuletide hits.

But here at The People’s Songs, as we approach our final month on the air, are preparing for episode number 50, which, as you know, will be about Christmas! And, as the entire series has been about you, the listener, we still welcome your memories and your thoughts on how December 25^th was enhanced, enlivened or just plain ruined by pop music.

From the family ritual of watching the Top Of The Pops Xmas Special (always a disappointment as it nearly always consisted of number ones from the preceding year: never a guarantee of quality) to the endless soundtrack of cheesy yet heartwarming hits, from Slade, Wizzard, Wham! or Shaking Stevens to the jazzy jive of Chris Rea’s ‘Driving Home For Christmas’ or Greg Lake’s prog-tinged ‘I Believe In Father Christmas’. In fact, if you think about it, just about every genre or act that has featured in the series has eventually succumbed to the idea of a ‘Xmas hit’.

So don your Santa hats, and send us your festive memories… You know how to get in touch. After all, Iiiiiit’s Chriiiiiiistmaaaaassss!

The Golden Age?

Stuart Maconie — Tue, 28 May 2013 10:25:50 +0000

Delia Derbyshire

When that bright spark Thomas Alva Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, the last use in he had in mind for it was music. He thought it would be used for speeches and such and to replace the business letter. That’s the way technology works; the business heads who promoted the mobile phone actually sniggered at the SMS messaging function, wondering what possible appeal that could have. Until teenagers picked up on it and the culture of texting was born

Little did Edison know that the phonograph would have no effect on secretarial work but would actually usher in an entirely new art form. And in truth, the story of pop music is as much about technology as it is about Terpsichore (She’s the Greek muse of music and dancing, you’re going to have to keep up, you know). Of course, before Edison’s invention, music only existed in the now, in the moment it was actually being performed and each performance was idiosyncratic and unique. Technology took that moment and sealed it in perpetuity (or however long a CD or cassette lasts or one’s memory lasts).

Technology brings out the grump in some. Whether it’s Neil Young’s refusal to countenance the release of some of his albums on CD or when he’s whinging about iTunes spelling the death of the album. But there has never been a golden age of pure music. Pop culture has always been shaped by technology. The rock album – whose death is so bemoaned by traditionalists – is actually a newcomer. Before The Beatles' Please Please Me, the EP and single was the dominant rock artefact. I have no problem with that becoming the case again.

The Arctic Monkeys are as northern as mushy peas and as traditional a rock band as you could wish for. But they made their name through the lightning fast connections and bush telegraph of the internet. Music thrives because of technology. Pining for the golden age of the CD is a little ridiculous and after all, an acoustic guitar is a machine too, whatever Neil Young thinks.

Remembering The Chartbusters

Christopher Jones — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:05:13 +0000

As the series unfolds it becomes clear that often it’s the tangential journeys down memory lane that add to the experience of listening to the show. It seems only fitting that in the month that celebrates The Golden Age Of The Album that we take a short detour beyond the singles format and look at how albums also played a huge part in the cultural landscape of Britain.

You may have seen last Friday's TV show on BBC Four: When Albums Ruled The World and, like me, have been overwhelmed by the memory, not only of the music that was such a huge part of our lives, but also by the Proustian rush of seeing old album sleeves along with descriptions of taking those slices of vinyl out of their sleeves.

During the show the story of Marvin Gaye’s classic album, What’s Going On showed how, until the early ‘70s, Tamla Motown label boss Berry Gordy’s insisted that the 45 rpm single was the medium to get the music of Detroit to the people. Received wisdom meant that rock was deemed the premier genre to be experienced via the album format.

And if you heard last week's episode which looked at the experience of young black people in '60s and '70s Britain, you'll have heard The Supremes' wonderful ‘Nathan Jones’ along with a contributor remembering how a night down the roller rink involved every kind of music the including reggae and soul but definitely ‘no rock’. So how does this tie up with a celebration of the album?

Well, straight afterwards we heard how the legendary Motown Chartbusters album series allowed school kids to experience soul by taping their friends’ copies. These compilation albums collected together for the first time the hundreds of hits enjoyed by the label.

Volume 3 with its 'hologram' cover was mentioned and, as the lady says in the show, it was the first compilation album to ever reach the top of the UK album charts (in 1969), which shows how massively important these albums were in the UK at the time. The following two volumes also topped the charts, and Volume 6 is the one with ‘Nathan Jones’ on it (there were 12 volumes in total).

And, because we like a nice circular blog post, you may be interested to know (or be reminded) that the cover of Volume 6 was designed by none other than Roger Dean. This is the man who is interviewed during When Albums Ruled The World and whose fantastical paintings usually graced the covers of progressive rock bands like Yes and Asia. Admittedly the strange spaceship/insect on the cover seems a long way from the urban grit of Detroit’s soul factory, but it's a canny demonstration of how albums played a huge part in the musical history of modern Britain.

It'll be a while before this series comes to look more closely at the very English genre of progressive rock (not until episode 46 in November). More in keeping with the Tamla sound is tonight's show featuring the late great Amy Winehouse. Stuart will be looking at the dark side of celebrity culture that blights the path to stardom in the 21^st century.

Stuart Maconie looks ahead to episode 7 of The People's Songs, 'The Price of Modern Fame'.

I hope you can join us tonight at 10pm.

MORE FROM THE BBC'S ALBUMS SEASON:

Vote for your favourite from Radio 2's Top Albums list
Listen to Radio 2's re-recording of The Beatles' Please Please Me at Abbey Road
See more of the best bits from the BBC's Golden Age of the Album