Did rave kill dancing in couples? Stars seen in strange places?

Did rave kill dancing in couples? Stars seen in strange places?

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold November 11, 2025 Duration: 39:32

Marking our dance card at the rock and roll hop this week you’ll find …

 

… And Then He Kissed Me, I Saw Her Standing There, Springsteen’s All The Way Home: songs about the theatre of dancing

 

… is there a more influential sleeve than Patti Smith’s Horses?

 

… did Dylan invent the box-set?

 

… records you wish you liked

 

… when the Beach Boys were so off the boil they covered Dylan and three by the Beatles

 

… when did we stop dancing in couples?

 

… Jagger queueing for a sandwich, Beckham in a farm shop, Lady Di in Holland Park and other stars we’ve spotted

 

… Brown Sugar, All Right Now and the daft etiquette of the late ‘60s dancefloor  

 

… Like A Virgin: 42-year-old hears Stairway To Heaven for the first time!

 

… “Are you dancin’? Are you askin’? I’m askin’! I’m dancin’!

 

… plus George Faith, train songs, records you’ve not played for years, the anthem Zohran Mamdani was stopped from using, and birthday guest Giles Fraser on stars in unusual places.


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Word In Your Ear
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