{"podcast":{"title":"Word In Your Ear","slug":"word-in-your-ear-3755187","podcast_index_feed_id":3755187,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/5ff0586154e2a73589267809?cache=false","website_url":"https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/5ff0586154e2a73589267809/1620937674526-4e6eb29c967e869bd9d5a9d205d55599.jpeg","author":"Word In Your Ear","episode_count":986,"summary":"Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like \"Rock On\", \"Whistle Test\" and VH-1. Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience. Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-24T06:19:56.425854+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-3755187"},"episode":{"title":"Paul Simon’s Graceland and how the masterpiece was made","slug":"paul-simon-s-graceland-and-how-the-masterpiece-was-made","published_at":"2026-06-18T13:48:52+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-3755187/paul-simon-s-graceland-and-how-the-masterpiece-was-made","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-3755187","url":"https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/5ff0586154e2a73589267809/e/6a33f744b5bd2ede10df7242/media.mp3","summary":"‘Graceland’ was an almighty gamble for Paul Simon, a costly, high-risk departure from the music he’d been making and a complex international venture. And a game-changing, worldwide triumph. When Ashley Kahn taught a course about it at New York University, Simon turned up to contribute. His book ‘Days Of Miracle And Wonder’ tells the story of what inspired the album, the way it was recorded and the global reaction when it arrived in 1986. We talk to him here about …   … the bootleg cassette of township jive that inspired the Graceland project    … fraying relations with Art Garfunkel and Carrie Fisher   ... his habit of playing unfinished tracks to people – David Byrne, Philip Glass, Neil Diamond – while singing the vocal into their ear   … the extraordinary way he apologised for the failure of One Trick Pony   … how Bakithi Kumalo’s bass solo on You Can Call Me Al is a palindrome – “first half forwards, second half reversed!”   … the advice Quincy Jones gave him about South Africa’s cultural boycott   … the key role of Roy Halee, engineer and long-time creative collaborator   ... the Johannesburg sessions that “started with rhythm and worked backwards”   … Kind Of Blue, A Love Supreme, other albums that merit a book to themselves   … the details you hear in the tracks’ last seconds   … and the Grammy telecast that cemented the album’s US success.   Order copies of ‘Days of Miracle And Wonder’ here: https://geni.us/DaysofMiracleandWonder Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","meta_description":"‘Graceland’ was an almighty gamble for Paul Simon, a costly, high-risk departure from the music he’d been making and a complex international venture. And…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1998,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/word-in-your-ear-3755187/episodes/paul-simon-s-graceland-and-how-the-masterpiece-was-made/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-3755187/paul-simon-s-graceland-and-how-the-masterpiece-was-made.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}