The Secret Life of Songs
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.
The Secret Life of Songs
Latest Episodes
#20 - A Case of You / Joni Mitchell
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 ...
#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 th...
#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 w...
#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 ass...
#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 n...