Speechification

I've read a lot of obituaries of Malcolm McLaren in the last few days but few have mentioned his later career as a radio voice - a funny and distinctive one too. In the last few years he's done (to my knowledge): The New Look (a tribute to Christian Dior) and The Appalling Mr Dali for Radio 4; A Musical Map of London, The Game (featured here on Speechification two years ago, natch), The Great Jukebox Racket (pop music and organised crime), Le Chanson de Serge (about Serge Gainsbourg) and From Forties to Noughties (his personal musical journey) for Radio 2. The Radio 2 programmes are especially lovely - ambitious, playful, poetic (sometimes a bit gauche - but that's the man, I guess). From Forties to Noughties has just been repeated on 6Music so you can listen again there. So, by way of a tribute to the man, here's A Musical Map of London (my favourite) and his Salvador Dali tribute (only the former will show up in the podcast).

Thanks to Daniel Weir for the pic.

For Radio 2, Stephen Fry looks at how Hitler's Germany pioneered many - if not most - of the recording techniques that made later music possible. This, the second episode, covers the Rock'n'Roll years and tells how the multi-track recording process changed the face of music production forever. [MP3]

Blimey, it's still there! Reader (listener?) Daniel Weir found the Real stream for the Jarvis Cocker show, although it ought strictly to have gone away by now, so I rushed off and hijacked it. Here it is. And it is absolutely excellent.

Here's a reminder of the richness and surprise that's on offer all over the BBC's radio output. Watchification contributor Jem Stone told me I ought to nip over to Radio 2's web site and listen to Jarvis Cocker's programme about Sheffield, which he said was excellent. But I was too late, by about half an hour. So I poked around a bit and came across this really marvelous one-hour feature—presented by one-time guest Joan Rivers—about The Ed Sullivan show, on the occasion of its Sixtieth birthday. Perfection (MP3).

I've missed most of this Radio 2 series by Paul Morley about new musical genres but I reckon this one must be the best episode because it's about Glitch, which is a genre that I reckon must be right up his street. The show sounds like an episode of Radio Lab—very self-conscious and playful and lots of entertaining bleeps and whistles. Morley and his regular producer Paul Kobrak have fun in the edit and lots of the off-mic laughter and mucking about have been left in to good effect. Brilliant (MP3).

Episode five of BBC Radio 2's documentary 'The Record Producers' is all about Stock, Aitken and Waterman. I grew up to the sounds of Rick Astley, Mel and Kim, Kylie and Jason, so hearing the distinctive Stock, Aitken and Waterman sound dissected and explained (LIN9000! Fairlight! Quantize buttons!) gives me deep joy.

(MP3)

Best of all, the documentary begins with an audio Rickroll.

Thanks to Nick for the link.

Praise the Lord. A big, loopy concept album of a radio show (which has a computer game to go with it) from Malcolm McLaren. It's an hour long and it's about Paris and life and... you know. Need I say more? (MP3). BBC radio does this kind of one-off quite often these days but makes hardly any fuss about it. Did you read about this in the paper? Did you know about it at all? Why not, I wonder?

More forty-something thrills from Radio 2. This time a terrific three-part series about songwriting that originally went out last Summer. All three subjects—Leonard Cohen, Nile Rodgers and Patti Smith—are old enough and rugged enough not to be troubled by self-doubt or by fear of the opinion of others so we get disarming honesty about methods and inspirations. Of the three, Smith is probably the most guarded but this is still a mesmerising show (MP3) and the other two parts are here.

Stephen "The Office" Merchant is obviously a real telly enthusiast. Here he tells the story of edgy, 35 year-old American phenomenon HBO. Lots of excellent contributors and clips from all the top shows, especially from the last decade - and a show that handily defines Radio 2's mission: unpretentious, grown-up factual programming with a current pop culture theme (MP3). Last year Merchant presented an equally good show about Seventies TV comedy landmark Taxi - for Radio 4 (MP3).

Over on Radio 2 Paul Morley has made a clever two-parter about celebrity. I hesitated to put it up actually because, well, it's not quite as good as I was hoping it would be. Don't get me wrong, the show's thoughtful and funny and there are loads of excellent contributors (and Paul Morley, obviously). I think it's just too long. Each part is an hour long. Whose idea was that? Anyway, don't let me put you off. Here's part one and part two.