Writing candidly about intimate, private moments and feelings is today such an accepted practice in pop songwriting that it can be startling to go back to 1971 and find Joni Mitchell reflecting that, at that point, 'the only thing that I could see to do fresh, that hadn't really been explored poetically, was the internal landscape. … [to] write from my own experience … was one of the few territories left for a poet to be a contributor of any kind'. The album she's talking about is Blue, and if she's right, then it might be viewed as the origin of this tradition of songwriting as 'an investigation of self, self-analysis of sorts', as she put it elsewhere. In this final episode of the series, I look at the penultimate song on this great album, 'A Case of You', in the context of wider shifts in American society, as well as Mitchell's particular musical and philosophical development, to see what's revealed in this bold venture inwards.All the songs discussed in this episode, including the original recording of 'A Case of You' can be heard here. If you've enjoyed it, please leave a review on Apple podcasts; thank you.With very special thanks to Paul Wierdak, the producer of this episode.
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#19 - Streets of Philadelphia / Bruce Springsteen
When Bruce Springsteen was asked why he was invited to write the theme song for 'Philadelphia', the first mainstream motion picture about the AIDS crisis, and one of the first films made in Hollywood featuring a gay protagonist, he responded that the film's director, Jonathan Demme, had 'wanted to take a subject that people didn’t feel safe with and were frightened by and put it together with people that they did feel safe with'. The song that Springsteen would create in response to this brief was 'Streets of Philadelphia', and it plays over the film's long opening credits sequence, Springsteen's murmured vocals echoing over shots of the city's inhabitants and some of its historical landmarks. Why would the presence of Springsteen have helped viewers feel less frightened by the subject of AIDS? And what does this particularly strategic soundtrack casting do to the meaning of the song?All the songs discussed in this episode, including the original recording of 'Streets of Philadelphia' can be heard here. If you've enjoyed it, please leave a review on Apple podcasts; thank you.With very special thanks to Paul Wierdak, the producer of this episode.
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#18 - I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) / Whitney Houston
'I Wanna Dance with Somebody' is now safely embedded in the pantheon of great songs: a 2023 Billboard poll named it the greatest pop song of all time, and it continues to be an ever-present on pop radio and wedding playlists. When it was first released, however, as the lead single from Whitney Houston's second album, it prompted a widespread critical backlash. Rolling Stone found it 'ridiculously safe' and the novelist Trey Ellis called it 'lifeless'. This would culminate in the notorious moment at the 1989 Soul Train awards when Houston was audibly booed by the live TV audience. What was behind this controversy and what does it tell us about freedom, a concept which seemed to attach itself to Houston throughout her career, which people heard in her singing and expected her to represent?All the songs discussed in this episode, including the original recording of 'I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)' can be heard here. If you've enjoyed it, please leave a review on Apple podcasts; thank you.With very special thanks to Paul Wierdak, the producer of this episode.
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#17 - Time After Time / Cyndi Lauper
Of all the pop songs released in the era this series has been looking at, there are few which command the depth of love and affection as Cyndi Lauper's 'Time After Time'. It brings with it, for many listeners, a powerful weight of nostalgic associations and memories, which is one reason it’s the perfect choice for accompanying the mesmerising dance sequence at the end of the 1997 film, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, but is there something about the song itself - something which goes beyond the particular personal feelings we might associate with it - which prompts reflection on this integral, yet elusive, aspect of being alive: the role memory plays in shaping our understanding of the passing of time?The original recording of 'Time After Time' can be heard here. If you're enjoying the series, please leave a review on Apple podcasts; thank you.With very special thanks to Paul Wierdak, the producer of this episode.
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#16 - 9 to 5 / Dolly Parton
Why do we work? The answer might seem obvious; as teenagers the world over have long been told, the world does not owe you a living, but predictions by economists that technological advances would inevitably lead to shorter working hours have not been borne out. We work more than ever, and experience more stress and dissatisfaction with our lives as a result. As Dolly Parton's famous song about the working life, '9 to 5', puts it: 'it's enough to drive you crazy, if you let it'. It was released at a moment when work was changing rapidly: agriculture and manufacturing jobs were collapsing, the number of women in work had risen dramatically, and the power of organised labour was permanently diminished. Parton, a sharper and more subtle songwriter than almost any of her contemporary critics could credit, was able to write a song in the midst of these historic changes which speaks to anyone who's ever watched a clock, longing for the working day to end: 'working 9 to 5, what a way to make a living'. All the songs discussed in this episode, including the original recording of '9 to 5' can be heard here. If you've enjoyed it, please leave a review on Apple podcasts; thank you.With very special thanks to Paul Wierdak, the producer of this episode.
Award-winning music analysis podcast, The Secret Life of Songs, returns with a new series exploring classic songs from the 1970s and 80s. Hear how the fallout from the disappointed hopes of the 1960s was explored in the work of Sly Stone and Joni Mitchell, how the unearthly new sounds unlocked by radical new music technology was used to express both utopian and dystopian impulses by Giorgio Moroder and the originators of Detroit Techno, and how the era’s most divisive cultural concept - postmodernism - was uncannily reflected in the output of the era’s most divisive pop band - ABBA. All of this - and more - is presented by host Anthony in his inimitable style: deftly weaving fine-grained musical analysis, historical context and philosophical reflection with his own impassioned recreations of the music to produce embodied, thoroughly grounded and deeply personal insights into these wonderful songs. Winner of the bronze award in 'Best Arts & Culture Podcast' at the British Podcast Awards 2021.
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