Waterloo Sunset

Waterloo Sunset

Author: BBC Radio 4 May 17, 2017 Duration: 27:18

Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks was released in 1967.

Soul Music hears the poignant, thoughtful and life-changing memories of those who love it.

Childhood holidays were an escape from bullying for John Harvey. He describes the unforgettable moment when he heard Waterloo Sunset for the first time, on the radio, in 1967. Getting to know the music of The Kinks, and finding out about the character of its lead singer, Ray Davies, shaped and coloured his life from then on.

Allison Moore Adams is an American who married Vernon, a Brit. Waterloo Sunset was sung at his bedside following a terrible road accident. The painting used to illustrate this edition of Soul Music is of Vernon and Allison on Waterloo Bridge. It's by Allison's friend, Isabelle Logie, who also sang to Vernon in hospital.

Christopher Young used to work in mental health. For him, the lyrics of Waterloo Sunset symbolise the isolation that many people feel.

Professor Allan Moore, a musicologist, discusses why this beautiful pop song works so well.

Producer: Karen Gregor

First brodacast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2017.


There’s a certain piece of music that, when you hear it, seems to stop time. It might be a melody from your childhood, a song that played at a pivotal moment, or a composition that simply reaches into your chest and grips your heart. Soul Music, from BBC Radio 4, is built around that very phenomenon. This isn’t a program about genres or charts; it’s an intimate exploration of why specific pieces of music carry such profound emotional weight. Each episode focuses on a single, iconic work-from classical adagios to folk ballads, from film scores to pop anthems. The podcast weaves together the voices of people whose lives have been indelibly marked by that music: listeners share personal, often moving stories of grief, joy, love, and remembrance, while composers and performers might shed light on the piece’s creation. You’ll hear the music itself, of course, but framed in a way that reveals its deeper resonance in human experience. It’s a quiet, thoughtful series that reminds us how soundtracks our inner lives. Tuning into this podcast feels like being part of a conversation about the invisible threads that connect us all through notes and rhythms, exploring how a sequence of sounds can become a vessel for collective memory and feeling.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Soul Music
Podcast Episodes
River [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:49
Soul Music with stories of the lasting impact of Joni Mitchell's song 'River', from her iconic 1971 album Blue. A song about the breakdown of a relationship and of a longing to be elsewhere that has become a melancholy C…
True Colors [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:52
"Your true colors...are beautiful, like a rainbow..."Billy Steinberg's lyrics were originally inspired by his mother but his song writing partner Tom Kelly recognised its universal appeal. With a slight re-write, it beca…
God Only Knows [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:28
"God only knows what I'd be without you"For artist Kim Lynch God Only Knows is a song that she has carried with her from the moment her father played it to her mother back in their 1960's London home and it's the song th…
Prelude a l'Apres Midi d'un Faune by Debussy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:33
Claude Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun speaks to artists of different kinds. Jamaican poet Ishion Hutchinson recalls hearing it through an open window in Kingston Jamaica and being mesmerised by its beauty,…
A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:44
Why has Procol Harum's surreal track ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ remained enduringly popular for over 50 years? Soul Music hears the stories and memories of those who love it. Released in May 1967, it was the group's first…
Songs of the Civil Rights Movement [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:46
Actor Clarke Peters narrates this special edition to mark 50 years since the assassination of the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King on April 4th 1968. "If in doubt, pray and sing" an activist recalls how music was used as p…
Cerys Matthews' Soul Music Mixtape - Part One [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:53
Cerys Matthews delves into the archives to put together a specially curated mixtape of her favourite stories from across 25 series of the BBC Radio 4's Soul Music.Each episode of Soul Music takes a different piece of mus…
Cerys Matthews' Soul Music Mixtape - Part Two [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:38
Cerys Matthews delves into the archives to put together a specially curated mixtape of her favourite stories from across 25 series of the BBC Radio 4's Soul Music.Each episode of Soul Music takes a different piece of mus…
Cerys Matthews' Soul Music Mixtape - Part Three [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:34
Cerys Matthews delves into the archives to put together a specially curated mixtape of her favourite stories from across 25 series of the BBC Radio 4's Soul Music.Each episode of Soul Music takes a different piece of mus…
Kraftwerk: Computer World [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:44
How Kraftwerk's classic album Computer World has changed people's lives. On their first wedding anniversary, David Sanborn and Jennifer Huber remember their Kraftwerk themed celebrations. Ramona Gonzales from the band Ni…