To celebrate this year's launch of the second series of our award-winning podcast, we're hosting a series of live shows at LCCM in London. TICKETSWith a live band, Anthony will be discussing and recreating 'I Feel Love' by Donna Summer (July 6t

#10 - River Deep — Mountain High / Ike & Tina Turner

Aug 27th, 2020 24m 11s

How does a record make us feel like we're in a vast space, one that we've never experienced, one that may not exist? In this episode, the last of the series, I look at the Phil Spector production, 'River Deep — Mountain High', performed in 1966

#9 - The Makings of You / Curtis Mayfield

Aug 13th, 2020 27m 30s

Since I first started listening to pop music, I've wondered about what's really going on in songs about love. Something seems to haunt expressions of romantic affection or loss, something that often seems to go beyond the strict meaning of the

#8 - Walkin' After Midnight & Crazy / Patsy Cline

Jul 30th, 2020 24m 46s

When Patsy Cline first heard Willie Nelson's demo version of 'Crazy', she didn't like it, thinking it sounded too vulnerable and heartbroken. Talked into it by her husband and her producer, she would make a record that seemed to capture somethi

#7 - Cigarettes and Coffee / Otis Redding

Jul 16th, 2020 26m 21s

What does a chorus do in a pop song? Among our most basic assumptions about what will happen in a pop song is the expectation that it will lead us towards the fulfilment and clarity of a chorus, so it’s always interesting when a song chooses no

#6 - Jealous Guy / John Lennon

Jul 1st, 2020 20m 38s

The history of rock music is in large part a history of men writing condescending and degrading songs about women, so it's interesting when a songwriter like John Lennon - with a track record of some of rock's most notoriously misogynistic lyri

#5 - Son of a Preacher Man / Dusty Springfield

Jun 17th, 2020 23m 10s

The story of Billy-Rae, the preacher's son, and the singer of 'Son of a Preacher Man', stealing away from their parents to discover love in the back yard is contained in one of the most familiar and enduringly popular songs of the 1960s. The sc

#4 - God Only Knows / The Beach Boys

Jun 4th, 2020 23m 46s

The story of the Beach Boys starting out as preppy Californian surf-popsters to become Rock n Roll Hall of Famers responsible for 'Greatest Albums Ever' list perennial 'Pet Sounds' is a familiar one. This narrative tends to overlook the current

#1 - Bring It On Home to Me / Sam Cooke

May 21st, 2020 23m 21s

How does a song make us feel like we want to go home? that we miss someone who has left us at a home that now feels nothing but empty? that they may never come home, though we'll never stop hoping? In this first episode, I look at Sam Cooke's s

#3 - You're All I Need to Get By / Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

May 21st, 2020 23m 32s

The classic Motown duet, 'You're All I Need to Get By', seems to be about commitment - about a love which has recently been embarked on and which stretches ahead into the future - has come, perhaps surprisingly, to resonate with those mourning

#2 - One Fine Day / The Chiffons

May 21st, 2020 20m 8s

The 1960s girl group genre might seem an odd place to find tragedy, particularly when it's wrapped in such apparently joyful music as The Chiffons' 'One Fine Day'. Legendary songwriting partners Gerry Goffin and Carole King manage the difficult

Trailer

Series 1 trailer

May 13th, 2020 59s

‘The Secret Life of Songs’ is a new podcast series exploring ten classic pop recordings to get to the heart of why they mean so much to us. Hosted by Anthony T Jackson, a songwriter, it’s intended for musicians and non-musicians alike, a person

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