“All bands are sad stories,” Peter Doggett points out, but is there a more woven, moving and, at times, farcical tale than that of the Beach Boys? It gives the sound of them a greater melancholy and resonance with every passing year. As his fascinating new book Surf’s Up reveals, nothing that happened is straightforward and very little as simple as it sounds. We talk here about …

… Dennis Wilson and the Beach Boys’ creation myth

… what started their revival

… why they’d never have survived beyond 1962 without Mike Love

… was Derek Taylor’s ‘Brian is a genius’ campaign partly to explain his procrastination and eccentricity?

… the chaos of SMiLE and the long shadow of the Beatles

… Murry Wilson’s “superstar” ambitions and original plan for the group

… the days when they looked like Old Testament prophets or hippies from Central Casting

… Dennis and Manson, Carl v the draft, Mike Love’s arrest … scandals that would have sunk them in the days of social media

… the “Brian as victim trope” and his extraordinary appearance on “The Tension Behind the Music”

… when Bart Simpson turned them down

… can anyone name a good Beach Boys album cover?

… and the band’s future, a controlled touring franchise with no original members

Order Peter Doggett’s ‘Surf’s Up: Brian Wilson & the Beach Boys’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Surfs-Up-Brian-Wilson-Beach/dp/1917923341

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Five decades of rock and roll with none of the names redacted. In the despatches this week …

… Kevin Rowland? Adam Ant? Toyah? Morrissey? Which Smash Hits cover stars are now ‘legends’?

… a classic encounter with Van Morrison down a Bristol alley

… the boy who mailed dead rodents and Boomtown Rats singles to radio stations became Pope Leo XIV!

… 25 recent big-name Hollywood films all flopped. Are robots the new movie stars?

… was Sticky Fingers the last Stones album with songs?

… best nights out for a tenner

… RIP Gilson Lavis and Donna Godchaux

... the daft rituals of the ’70s ‘slow dance’

… when Percy Sledge was a hospital porter

… “Run for your life, it’s Eater!”

… Tom Waits’ on-brand luggage, Boo Hewerdine and birthday guest Mike Sketch on the joy of gigs on your own (and in a scout hut in Staveley).

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Musicians have flirted with Nazi imagery since the ‘60s, lampooning its theatre, absorbing its style, exploiting its shock value, even promoting its ideology. Daniel Rachel’s new book ‘This Ain’t Rock ‘N’ Roll’ points up extraordinary examples – “from Tommy Steele to Kanye West” - and how our reaction intensified over the years. Which leads us to …

… parallels between stadium rock and the Nuremberg rallies

… hearing the Sex Pistols’ Belsen Was A Gas and seeing their Nazi insignia at the age of 12

… David Bowie’s German memorabilia and belief that “Hitler was the first rock and roll superstar” – and the doctored photo of his “Nazi salute” at Victoria Station

… Bernie Rhodes versus Malcolm McLaren on the “reclaiming of the swastika”

… the lyrics and imagery of the Siouxsie & the Banshees

… Viv Stanshall and Keith Moon’s atrocious visit to Golders Green

... the German invention of the tape machine that started the record business

… “I’m not the Simon Wiesenthal of rock and roll!”

… Joy Division, New Order, K-Pop, Brian Jones and his SS uniform, Ron Asheton of the Stooges, John Lennon, Lemmy, Blue Oyster Cult, “Adolf Hitler on vibes”

… “Rock and Roll has a duty to recognise its downfalls”.

Order ‘This Ain’t Rock ‘N’ Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika and the Third Reich’ here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/this-aint-rock-n-roll/daniel-rachel/9781399635721

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Dan Jennings’ podcast ‘Desperately Seeking Paul’ is so successful he’s used 250 of the interviews in a best-selling oral history. ‘Dancing Through The Fire’ has voices from right across the spectrum – family members, band members, writers, pluggers, label bosses, collaborators and famous fans. He talks to us here about …

… Weller’s real name and when he changed it by deed poll

… a theory about bands formed in towns not cities

… the handbrake turn from the Jam to the Style Council – one minute the intense young man cutting out his press clippings, the next espadrilles, singing in French and “nibbling Mick’s ear on the River Cam”

… Weller’s “very English” need to be heard and respected - but not loved

… the role of his manager father in the Jam’s success, the days when the family phone number was in the Fan Club ads

... how Noel Gallagher engineered a Bono/Weller photo op

… Paul’s glorious chippiness – Band Aid, the pop press, “offering a journalist out for a fight in Victoria Park”

... John and Paul Weller and echoes of Only Fools And Horses

… when the Jam played ice rinks and swimming pools

… the cab-driver gossip grapevine

… cutting 1.5 million words to 250,000 and the book’s biggest revelations and surprises.

Order a copy of Dancing Through The Fire here: https://geni.us/dancingthroughthefire

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Marking our dance card at the rock and roll hop this week you’ll find …

… And Then He Kissed Me, I Saw Her Standing There, Springsteen’s All The Way Home: songs about the theatre of dancing

… is there a more influential sleeve than Patti Smith’s Horses?

… did Dylan invent the box-set?

… records you wish you liked

… when the Beach Boys were so off the boil they covered Dylan and three by the Beatles

… when did we stop dancing in couples?

… Jagger queueing for a sandwich, Beckham in a farm shop, Lady Di in Holland Park and other stars we’ve spotted

… Brown Sugar, All Right Now and the daft etiquette of the late ‘60s dancefloor

… Like A Virgin: 42-year-old hears Stairway To Heaven for the first time!

… “Are you dancin’? Are you askin’? I’m askin’! I’m dancin’!

… plus George Faith, train songs, records you’ve not played for years, the anthem Zohran Mamdani was stopped from using, and birthday guest Giles Fraser on stars in unusual places.

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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David Bowie’s significance just keeps expanding and the look and sound of him never age. Paul Morley has been gripped from the start and his new book ‘Far Above The World’ explores the many reasons why. These among them …

… Labyrinth, YouTube and the new ways people discover Bowie

… why he’s a figurehead of a vanishing world

… dressing up for radio interviews

… his almost fatal relationship with America and the 1971 promo tour that was his ‘On The Road’

… Haddon Hall and his first key collaborators

… writing a book about Bowie in public as part of the V&A exhibition – “I was an art installation!”

… Five Years, the internet, the studio as an instrument and other ways he was ahead of the curve

… “his YouTube reels are now part of his catalogue”

… his boundless curiosity about art, film, books and technology

… that unforgettable clip of TFI Friday: “every interview was performance art”

… a missed chance on the Marc Bolan Show

… “music to repel the Dark Ages”

… and why his look and sound never age.

Order ‘Far Above The World: The Time And Space of David Bowie’ here: https://www.resident-music.com/product/morley-paul-far-above-the-world-the-time-and-space-of-david-bowie

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Sam Sussman’s mother Fran had a year-long love affair with Dylan when he was working on Blood on the Tracks – she’s mentioned in Tangled Up In Blue – and they met again in 1990. What she told him about that relationship is mapped out in the book he’s just written, Boy From the North Country, along with the firm belief that he’s Dylan’s son. Imagine how that must feel. This extraordinary conversation takes a number of turns and these are among them …

… Norman Raeben’s art class where Dylan was trying break his creative block and met the 20-year old Fran Sussman

… details of their 12-month affair and how it ended: “he gave me love songs but not love”

… the verses of Tangled Up In Blue that relate to Fran and the philosophy, art and poetry woven into his songs at the time

… Dylan’s other women in 1974

… being told by a teacher that he looked like Dylan and how he’s played up that connection ever since

… how it feels to think you might have numerous Dylan siblings - and how many there might be(!)

… the kind of people Sam meets in his book-signing queues

... and why his mother wouldn’t confirm who his father was.

Order copies of Boy From The North Country here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/boy-from-the-north-country/sam-sussman/9781804711286

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Tom Bailey’s been based in New Zealand for the last 30 years, making records, DJing and avoiding British winters. He tours the UK in 2026 playing the Thompson Twins’ greatest hits and looks back here from Auckland at the first shows he ever saw and played, all this high in the mix …

... dance music and the British Invasion of America

… the inspiring delights of Some Kind Of Mushroom, his local record shop in Chesterfield

… seeing Blodwyn Pig, Edgar Broughton and Principal Edwards Magic Theatre when he was 15

… “bass players go to bed last”

… when his folk-rock band the Witching Hour supported Mick Farren & the Deviants - and promptly split up

… living in Clapham squats with members of the Pop Group and the Slits

… the Thompson Twins - from “the young angry white-boy funk” to the MTV trio with a policy statement

.. their manifesto and division of labour – “Tom Bailey music, Alannah Currie lyrics, Joe Leeway the live show”

… Live Aid with Madonna when the David Letterman house band became the Thompson Twins

… “a miraculous palette of sound”: how affordable technology changed his life

… and the extravagant talent of his all-female band.

Tickets for Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey & Blancmange 2026 Tour here: https://www.alttickets.com/thompson-twins-tom-bailey-tickets

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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