“Pop music is 80 per cent about hair”, remaking classic albums and why CDs are so hard to love

A small Pastis, a game of boules and a conversation putting the rock and roll world to rights, which this week includes …
… why Debbie Harry and Mick Jagger worked so well on the small screen.
… Elvin Pelvin on the Bilko Show and how Elvis was modelled on Tony Curtis.
… An American Werewolf In London, The Birds, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, Don’t Look Now, Nightmare On Elm Street and other old movies being rebooted.
… how Patti Smith based an entire career on looking like Keith Richards in 1972 and making records that sounded like they were produced by someone who looked like Keith Richards in 1972.
… a record separated from its sleeve ceases to exist.
… why doesn’t anyone remake classic albums?
… “Once we had something complete and perfect. And what happened? You spent it!”
… how CDs never have “materiality”.
… further proof that Oasis are the most conservative thing in pop music.
… primitive connections and how the album sleeve is the same size as a native American warrior’s shield.
… sounds that date records precisely - eg the syndrum.
Plus birthday guest Patrick Butler.
Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: / wordinyourear

[@sratus]

I'm pretty certain they had these exact same conversations about hair and about vinyl the other week. This really is like being down the pub.

[@MikusMusik]

🤣

[@loratadine921]

Debbie Harry's hairdo was a tribute to her hero Andy Warhol, who famously wore a cheap-looking blonde wig with his natural dark hair showing at the back.

[@garyrigby21]

The Beatles performance on the Ed Sullivan show kicked off 1000s of Garage bands all over the states

[@Lee.Carlson]

Noel Gallagher made me laugh by saying that Oasis wouldn't make it in today's music market on account of Bonehead's baldness. That being said, Bonehead could clearly be seen on the cover of Definitely Maybe and the clue was in his nickname. People knew there was a slaphead in the band but still bought the records. A follicle faux-pas from unfussy fans? No....just cos someone is bald, they can still play an instrument.

[@derekclacton]

CD Box sets as a package can be a wonderful thing!

[@derekclacton]

Eric Clapton had so many changes of hairstyle in Cream alone - for a band which was so short-lived, it doesn’t seem possible !

[@callingdrhoward8293]

Actor Ed Byrnes played a character called "Kookie" in the TV series "77 Sunset Strip." His greaser hairstyle and constant combing inspired a 1959 pop hit "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)".

[@foxbasealpha]

He also combs his hair in Grease when playing TV teen dance show host, Vince Fontaine.

[@apolloc.vermouth5672]

I was at school with a lad who used to get banned from chemistry lessons for having a Robert Smith back-comb. It was pretty flammable tbf.

[@spinynorman8217]

I buy CDs, l like them but as you say, l dont love them, however they still give ne thecsame feeling of owning it...l cant explain that feeling.

[@iainwelsh9372]

Talking of Clapton the chameleon, surely his biggest change was for Cream’s farewell concert in 1968. Gone was the “hippy garb”, as we used to call it, to be replaced by, cowboy boots, tight Levi’s, a nice western shirt and (for the time) short hair. And very smart he looked. He had obviously fallen under the influence of The Band but, being a “snappy dresser”, couldn’t go out looking like he’d been digging spuds, as his new heroes used to do.

[@15loucanova]

I don’t find anything particular hard about liking CDs a lot, they sound a lot better than many vinyl records and I can’t believe the amount of people getting suckered in by all the record companies hyperbole about vinyl especially since so much modern day vinyl is pressed from a digital source which just makes a lot of the consumers of it look pretty dumb, especially when they are paying £30 or above for each record.

[@martinlangston5206]

Surely the "Greatest Hits" LP is the Music Biz revisiting the existing back catalogue and the equivalent of remaking Ghostbusters?

[@derekclacton]

Chris Rea, “New Light Through Old Windows” was a Best Of remake.

[@SRDhain]

Great episode 🌅 I disagree with the music doesn't date anymore argument, as I'm a studio guy ( music, production ). Yes, due to the Internet and streaming etc anything can be ( and is) played anywhere and at all hours, which makes all genres now exist in a huge multi- linked online sort of Venn diagram. But I can hear the technological changes in many records, such as anything that uses early samplers ( Fairlight, emulators), 60s production ( heavy echo chambers and plates) 70s chinnichap records ( dryer and heavy compression), and so on. Even from the 90s onwards, you can hear the aforementioned changes. This isn't unusual; the music industry drives & facilitates technological innovation. It used to be hardware, now.its more software based innovations (auto tune, pitch correction, stem seperation, etc).

[@apolloc.vermouth5672]

I wonder, if hi-res 24-bit streaming becomes viable for everyone in 20 years' time, will today's pop just sound incredibly over-compressed and thin? People will probably start demanding rich sound quality from pop again.

[@derekclacton]

You can’t watch a CD play, unlike a record - nor can you see what reveals the sound - arm/cartridge/stylus. The visual aspect is important - even though you listen to the music, rather than watch the record going round, you’ve seen the start of the process and physically engaged with it too.

[@ivanconnolly7332]

Dick James who sang the Robin Hood theme lost his hair and became the Beatles publisher.

[@michaelmouse4024]

Best hair in rock - Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, Roger Taylor, Mick Jagger & Scott Walker

[@ozmonaut1]

Bowie as well, surely

[@joeinjun401]

All the pretenders worship at the coifured throne of Wayne Cochran. No one else mentioned comes close.

[@sratus]

Keef surely trumps em all....and The Beatles 65-68.

[@johnnowlan9963]

Paul weller had one time 😔

[@sratus]

@@johnnowlan9963 Yes Weller 1982 is ace but it is essentially Steve Marriott 1965.

[@giabgr]

I'm surprised that Roger Waters' re-recording of Dark Side Of The Moon wasn't mentioned. Or Chris Martin's outlandish hairstyle. Also, Pink Floyd's Momentary Lapse of Reason has be 'de-Eightyfied' recently.

[@margaretjbuckley]

Noel and Liam have had some different hairstyles, granted they probably didn't have them for long, but they have changed on occasion.

[@KevKavanagh]

Not sure if anybody here noticed, but the other day, apparently, a major interwebs event occurred featuring two blokes supposedly having a chat for a few hours, one of whom went bald early but had enough spare change for a full hair implant procedure, and the other sported the most elaborately absurd combover in human history. Gentlemen, I rest your case.

[@selwyn77]

You should do a piece on what late 60s/early 70s musicians that never had facial hair. Keith Richards would be one.

[@MrBrindleStyle]

Gisborne

[@samguberman2288]

Better hair and more talented and photogenic than even Debbie Harry is the amazing Kate Bush, and don't forget she revisited tracks from The Sensual World and The Red shoes with her Directors cut but I can't off the top of my head think any of the songs were improved upon. Best not tamper with the originals.

[@parousiathelast9464]

There is a record industry similar model to films in terms of remastering. Take the Beatles remastering by Giles Martin or the roseland nyc live performance by Portishesd which had now 2 remaster/mixes. In both cases it could be viewed because recent mixing advances means a lot more can be done with the original recordings (often tape).

[@paulcoleman3081]

Roger Waters has indeed released a rebooted version of Dark Side of the Moon in the last couple of years. In a spirit of inclusivity, he's aimed it at those in a coma.

[@foxbasealpha]

I’ve seen one or two photos of Mick Jagger with a beard, but I’ve always wondered why the Rolling Stones never took to wearing beards like other bands of the late 1960s/1970s.

[@KevKavanagh]

Because they weren't playing Australian bush rangers in a film.

[@margaretjbuckley]

Wasn't the Bilko Show, Elvis, name Melvin Pelvin?

[@anthonymcnamee6297]

Joe browns the one

[@GustavoJacob]

The comment about Patti Smith's career being based on Keith Richards hair is the dumbest thing I've heard on this podcast.

[@apollomemories7399]

You misundestood the context. She based her image on KR's image and launched her career with that and stuck with it for 6 years. You only have to look at photos of that era to ascertain that fact. What she did after 1980, nobody really cares or even noticed.

[@spinynorman8217]

Just a bit of fun.

[@tonydolan6843]

For the sake of balance and inclusion - and in light of your mature demographic who might be affected - I'd like to highlight baldies in rock. I can only think of Michael Stipe and the bloke from Classix Nouveaux who let it all shine loose but there must be more. Most seem to find a sudden interest in headgear, which rather proves your point but from another angle.

[@matthewcoombs3282]

Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno have embraced their male pattern baldness......

[@foxbasealpha]

Matt Johnson of The The.

[@foxbasealpha]

Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil was iconic with his chrome dome.

[@KevKavanagh]

@@foxbasealpha Indeed, as was Angry Anderson of Rose Tattoo.

[@foxbasealpha]

Also Buster Bloodvessel of Bad Manners.

[@themacraecase4323]

All the film reboots will be rubbish. All CGI and no film.

[@selwyn77]

I could never take CGI seriously as the result is a glut of Marvel movies. Films for a 9 year old mentality.

[@sianwarwick633]

Cher's thing was the vocoder

[@margaretjbuckley]

Taylor Swift is probably bald, that hair is a wig, or it should be.

[@234cheech]

dsotm is art and never should be fucked with like many albums

[@igolfjtweetler4097]

How about a cassette comeback vid?😊