This week, Sid Vicious talks about the Sex Pistols splitting up and his inimitable cover of 'My Way' in clips from a previously unheard audio interview by John Tobler. RBP podcast host Mark Pringle is joined in Barney Hoskyns' absence by Jasper Murison-Bowie to listen to it and, predictably, talk about it. They contemplate Sid's sadness at the band coming to an end, as well as his endorsement of Nancy Spungen as his manager, who he thinks will take the music industry by storm. Moving on to the week's free feature, Bobbie Gentry, ahead of an upcoming reimagining of her album The Delta Sweete, they consider the meaning of 'Ode to Billy Joe' and Gentry's retirement from music after only three albums, with Mark wondering what else might have been if she hadn't. Next up are pieces by featured writer Andrew Bailey of Rolling Stone on British bluesman Alexis Korner, T. Rex's Marc Bolan and Guy Peellaert's Rock Dreams, before Mark and Jasper pick some of their highlights from the week's library load. Topics range from Cliff Bennett meeting Jerry Lee Lewis to Caroline Sullivan on the disappointing boybands of the 90s, via Cannonball Adderley on the intellectualisation of jazz, John Mendelssohn slagging off Led Zeppelin I and Van Morrison's Astral Weeks in one fell swoop, and much else besides. Finally, Mark and Jasper discuss Loyle Carner's approach to grime and London hip-hop, producer Mura Masa's difficulty at being a convincing performer and the despicable Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines.
Produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie
Pieces discussed: Sid Vicious, Bobbie Gentry, Ode to Billy Joe, Mercury Rev, Alexis Korner, Marc Bolan, Guy Peellaert's Rock Dreams, Cliff Bennett/Jerry Lee Lewis, Chet Helms and psychedelia, Peter Frampton, Mendo hates Led Zeppelin I, Mike Bloomfield, Caroline Sullivan on Bubblegum Pop, Cannonball Adderley, James Blunt, Loyle Carner, Mura Masa and Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines