Songs about sweltering heat, Willie Nelson’s braids and is vinyl now ‘luxury goods’?

Songs about sweltering heat, Willie Nelson’s braids and is vinyl now ‘luxury goods’?

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold June 1, 2026 Duration: 47:53

Chasing the shade and slapping the Sunscreen on this week’s overheated news, we pour a tinkling drink and reflect upon the following …

 

… British people in hot weath-ah!

 

… when rock stars you haven’t seen for 50 years pop up on Zoom

 

… Lennon’s tooth? Timberlake’s toast? Mooney’s school report? Weird things sold at auction

 

… Paul Horn playing in the Taj Mahal, Sonny Rollins on the Williamsburg Bridge, U2 in Slane Castle

 

… are new vinyl albums now ‘luxury goods’ and old ones ‘antiques’?

 

… where you can hear the Abbey Road building on the Dark Side of the Moon

 

… the cinematic records Daniel Lanois made in an abandoned movie theatre near Santa Barbara

 

… Summer In The City: the Lovin’ Spoonful’s road-drill and Regina Spektor’s cleavage

 

… Cat-calming music! Gym motivation! Stress-busting songs for Spurs fans on Judgement Day! The age of the prescriptive playlist

 

… the new dawn of instrumental music, “a public utility like turning on a tap”

 

… and the single Sinatra recorded for Maureen Starkey (only one copy made!).


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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
Podcast Episodes
Mustn’t grumble! Songs with the essence of Englishness [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:29
A milky tea, a jam sponge and this week’s news served on a tin tray with a steam train painted on it points our very English conversation towards the following … … what connects the Monkees and a British Prime Minister?…
Neil Tennant revisits songs he’s written since the age of nine [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:35
Neil Tennant co-wrote a musical at Primary School and soon decided that “learning other people’s songs was hard work compared with making up your own”. He’s chosen some from the Pet Shop Boys’ 40-year catalogue, hits and…
Shaun & Bez and other Odd Couples we love [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:14
Pointing the scanner of inquiry at the baggage carousel of news to see what gets the lights flashing, which this week includes … … we know what’s making Morrissey miserable … bands that can get a whole stadium singing ……
How A Hard Day’s Night ripped up the pop movie rulebook [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:15
Author and broadcaster Samira Ahmed used to watch A Hard Day’s Night once a week and she’s just written an enthralling account of the shoot and its impact for the BFI’s Classic Films series. A movie, she points out, that…
Mark Lewisohn and why writing the real Beatles story just got harder [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:12
Mark Lewisohn began his Beatles’ trilogy in 2003, the first volume appearing ten years later. He’s hoping the second, Turn On, which covers 1963 to 1966 and every recording session, might be ready by 2031 and working “ni…
Albums we bought because we liked the title [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:55
Spinning sides at the conversational disco to see what fills the dancefloor, which this week includes … … Jerry Garcia had seven fingers! Brian Jones had seven children! Morrissey worked for the Inland Revenue! … the mos…