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Kate Mossman has strong feelings about rock stars past their prime

6/16/202649 min

Kate’s an old pal of ours from Word magazine who writes scintillating columns and profiles for the New Statesman and Observer. We loved her book ‘Men Of A Certain Age: My Encounters With Rock Royalty’ – just out in paperback! – where she relives her meetings with a variety of legends, eccentrics and old lags whose music she finds particularly compelling and wonders what they all have in common. This typically funny and colourful conversation stops off at …

 

… the attractive fallibility of rock stars past their peak

 

… a lifetime’s devotion to Paul Simon

 

… “Olivia Dean is the Carole King of her generation”

 

… the ridiculous expectations we heap on musicians’ creativity

 

… why Arts Criticism is under threat

 

… when the first record you buy (aged five) is the Chicken Song

 

… “One-Hit Wonders have achieved infinitely more than most of us”

 

… Ray Davies and his “eternal sense of apartness”

 

… why George Michael is under-appreciated and the time he found someone living under his floorboards

 

… the days when Jeff Beck modelled PVC jackets for Rave

 … the genius of Pat Metheny’s Orchestrion

 

… and the new acts who’ll still be huge in ten years’ time.

 

Order copies of ‘Men Of A Certain Age’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Men-Certain-Age-Encounters-Royalty/dp/1788705645

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


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First 90 seconds
  1. David Hepworth· Host0:01

    [guitar music] Now look, Word in Your Ear comes to you at least once a week in the form of a podcast, a videocast, or a thing so new it has no name, and it's free. All we ask is that you subscribe, like, and wherever possible, leave a comment. And if you feel like getting further involved, you can become a Patreon supporter, which could mean you're inviting us to rifle through your record collection, our inviting you to join us for our very special Friday night quiz, and all of us feeling the sum of human happiness has been increased. Details at patreon.com/wordinyourear. And now on with the show.

  2. Kate Mossman· Guest0:44

    [guitar music] You're listening to a podcast from The Word.

  3. Mark Ellen· Host1:00

    Welcome to this and our old pal from Word Magazine, who always really delightfully used to put 40-year-old tracks by Glen Campbell on the office sound system [laughing] and which I have fond memories of. And whose terrific book, Men of a Certain Age, about her adventures with, uh, meetings with, uh, rock royalty, is now out in paperback if you haven't read it. Um, uh, an entirely original take on rock history, The Guardian. And it is. It's fantastic. Kate, lovely to see you again.

  4. Kate Mossman· Guest1:27

    And you, thank you for having me. Yeah, I prefer the

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