The genius of Sly Dunbar & Catherine O’Hara plus Springsteen’s anthem and old New York

The genius of Sly Dunbar & Catherine O’Hara plus Springsteen’s anthem and old New York

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold February 1, 2026 Duration: 56:32

A bone-shaking ride on the weekly news cycle, stopping off here to pump up the tyres ….

 

… Springsteen’s Streets Of Minneapolis: it’s not what he said but the fact that he’s said it  

 

… “they’re all just Sly & Robbie records but with someone different singing on them”

 

… the price of stadium tickets: if it’s too high, don’t go – but stop complaining!

 

… Catherine O’Hara’s wit and humanity in Waiting For Guffman and A Mighty Wind, and why Home Alone wouldn’t work without her

 

… Melania’s deal with Amazon: the most craven act in the history of entertainment?

 

… is Mick Jones the first cousin of a Tory Home Secretary?

 

… the secret art of “four-walling”

 

… are most fans conservative with a small ‘c’?

 

… the romance of knackered old ‘70s New York: “the cheap pleasures have gone”

 

… and the whitest rap of all time!

 

Plus birthday guest Roger Millington and the agony of a band’s “new direction”.


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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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