
Hosted by Jeremy Dylan · EN

The legendary singer-songwriter Marshall Crenshaw joins me to talk about an artist whose influence changed the sound of music forever. Marshall talks discovering the classic Diddley Greatest Hits record as a teenager growing up in suburban Michigan, the deceptive drone quality to some of the tracks, the origin of the Bo Diddley name, the other players who were an important part of the Bo Diddley sound, the gear Diddley used, how Marshall has injected elements of the soundscape from this record into his own music through the years, the magic of a group of players performing together live in the studio, how technology and budgets has influenced how records are made and more.

Author and journalist Peter Ames Carlin specialises in puncturing rock'n'roll myths while enriching the legends. His biographies of iconic musicians and bands from Springsteen to REM are often definitive and his latest is no exception, a high stakes page turning exploration of how Bruce Springsteen transformed himself, his career and fulfilled his destiny as rock'n'roll future with his 1975 iconic album 'Born to Run'. We talk about the breakneck writing of the book and his conversations with Bruce himself, Springsteen's self-mythologising, being Superman and Clark Kent, how Springsteen's treatment by his parents and grandparents shaped his personality, getting out vs sticking around, how Thunder Road evolved into the legendary song we all know with some help from John Landau, how audiences behave at Springsteen shows vs other artists and why 'Born to Run' still means something to Bruce in the way that some of his other records don't.

TW: Suicide Today, celebrated author Ken Womack joins me to unpack his extraordinary new definitive biography of Beatles road manager Mal Evans, 'Living the Beatles Legend'. Ken talks about the incredible access given to him by the Evans family, including Mal's unpublished memoirs and diaries, the digital warehouse he built to sort through the incredible archival material, how much of the Beatles story is Mal's story, how the Beatles invented the pop superstar industry as they went along, how Mal managed to take on roles that would now be filled by dozens of individuals, how the Beatles laid the template for every rock'n'roll narrative that has followed, the friction between Mal and Brian Epstein, how Mal compartmentalised his life, how Mal championed and produced Badfinger in the face of Allen Klein's opposition, Mal's friendship with Paul McCartney, the upcoming quartet of Sam Mendes directed Beatles movies, the myth of the solitary genius, how important every member of the Beatles inner circle was to their success, and the conterfactuals in Beatles history, including how Mal's story might have unfolded over the past decades if it hadn't been so tragically cut short.