Word In Your Ear

What’s the word ‘punk’ come to mean 50 years later? It’s been adopted by the very people it sought to unsettle. Chris Sullivan – DJ, club runner, lecturer, former band-leader – arrived in London just as it kicked off and looks back at a time when everything was a challenge, no-one apologised, outsiders linked up and fought for recognition, and pop culture could change overnight. We talk to him here about ‘Punk: the Last Word’ which traces its roots from Socrates to Soho, touching on…

… does ‘punk’ now mean conformity?

… is pop music still allowed to be outrageous?

… Socrates, Rimbaud, Lee Miller, the Warhol superstars: 2,000 years of people who embody the punk philosophy

… how the clothes often precede the music

… the 1975 pre-Pistols world – “people dressing as teddy boys, Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant, records by Patti Smith, the Velvets, MC5”

… the days when you were attacked for dressing up, in his case by the Newport Rugby team and a guy with a starting handle at a service station

... new punk equivalents emerging in 2025

… how the spirit of punk gave people a drive and identity – Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Jonathan Ross, John Galliano

 … “I threw a policeman through a plate-glass window”

The boys of the NYPD choir are still singing Galway Bay, so pour yourself a measure of the Rare Old Mountain Dew and warm your toes on the following …

… Steve Lillywhite (in Bali!) remembers making Fairytale Of New York and how “a fiery redhead” kicked the Chrissie Hynde duet into touch

… the most recent singer-songwriter you could call “a ledge”?

… records we loved in our 20s but now feel a bit embarrassing  

… “discipline and economy, tension and release”: the immortal twangs and tweaks of Steve Cropper and how the MGs redefined the idea of a great record

… Green Onions, I Thank You by Sam & Dave and the white heat of Otis Blue’s 24-hour recording

... Tim Buckley’s Greatest Misses

... performative listening: the exquisite awkwardness of the album playback!

… the link between Imogen Heap and the Hissing of Summer Lawns

… Jon Bon Jovi’s version of Fairytale – “so bad they had to turn the YouTube comments off!”

… plus Gram Parsons, the cult of the Blues Brothers, the Monochrome Set and a quiz from birthday guest Peter Petyt: spot the Hepworth/Ellen reviews of yesteryear!

In 1963, Capitol Records considered the Beatles “a band who looked and sounded weird with an odd name and no leader” and refused to release their records in America, despite being owned by EMI. As author Andrew Cook points out, “the truth is stranger than fiction”. New correspondence unearthed in his fascinating Capitol Gains maps out the tortuous wranglings of the deal-makers and “pantomime bad guys” behind the greatest and most successful marketing hype in history, all jockeying to take credit and manage their reputations. Some highlights here …

… the truth behind Epstein’s mythical phone calls

… “the more successful the Beatles were, the more Capitol were proving themselves wrong”

… why 1966 was the band’s “Last Supper”

… “from the Battle of Hastings to World War 2 to the Beatles ... it’s the winners who rewrite history”

… the American 12-track rule and how they repackaged product “to give it more grab”

… the Beatles’ commercial fate if they’d never been successful in the States

… the pitiful (standard) original EMI deal – “18.75 of a penny per group member for every album”

… the “Butcher sleeve”: how 750,000 were printed and the fortune lost in “Operation Retrieve”. And the Capitol exec whose kids made $1.5m from copies stashed in his garage

… how Epstein was contracted to make 25 per cent of all Beatles monies ‘til 1975

 … Bob Dylan’s tangential role in the signing of the Beatles to Capitol

… and the “cowboy film” that nearly happened.