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© 2025 Anthony T Jackson
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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.
16 Episodes
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The 1970s were a period of intensifying fears about the rapid spread of technological complexity in the wake of environmental catastrophes such as the Three Mile Island accident and the popularity of dystopian sci-fi and 'tech-critical' books which warned that technology was already harming human wellbeing and would soon be out of control. In this context, then, what are we to make of the development of a musical style in the early 1980s known from the very start as Techno? And what of the fa...
Has there ever been a pop band which has been as loved - and as hated - as ABBA? Even in the period before they appeared on the Eurovision Song Contest, when they were only well-known in Sweden, there were protests held and satirical songs written about them. In parallel with the long history of critical condemnations of ABBA, however, they have attracted greater love and admiration, from a wider range of listeners, than perhaps any other band of the era. What explains this range of reactions...
When people first encountered Sly and the Family Stone in their early performances in San Francisco they were often struck by how much they really seemed like a family. They eschewed starriness; no one was put on a pedestal and it was clear that each member was valued and cared for. In a few short years, however, as the 1970s dawned, the band and this idealism seemed to implode. Sly Stone, the band's songwriter, had retreated into his Beverly Hills mansion, making music virtually alone and in...
When Brian Eno first heard 'I Feel Love' by Donna Summer, produced by Giorgio Moroder in 1977, he declared that he had 'heard the sound of the future'. It was the first pop song to be entirely produced on a synthesiser and quickly came to be seen as an important milestone in the history of record production, pointing the way forward to the dominance of electronic technology in the decades following its release. Equally, it's a song which was immediately embraced by gay clubbing communities; w...
The return of the award-winning music analysis podcast, The Secret Life of Songs, is a major event in the worlds of podcasting and pop music writing. Building on the success of the first series, which was awarded Bronze in Best Arts & Culture Podcast at the British Podcast Awards 2021, the ten new episodes explore classic songs from the 1970s and 80s in ways which transform our understanding of popular music and break new ground for the podcast as a medium. We’ll hear how the fallout from...
How does a record make us feel like we're in a vast space, one that we've never experienced, one that may not exist? In this episode, the last of the series, I look at the Phil Spector production, 'River Deep — Mountain High', performed in 1966 by Tina Turner, to explore how we hear space in music. It was a groundbreaking record in its time, costing an unprecedented amount of money to make, and it still sounds as if it's pushing at the outer limits of what can be captured on record. I'm inter...
Since I first started listening to pop music, I've wondered about what's really going on in songs about love. Something seems to haunt expressions of romantic affection or loss, something that often seems to go beyond the strict meaning of the words. How can we explain the power of apparently simple songs about heartbreak and devotion? This episode looks into the history of American popular song to seek an answer to the question of meaning in songs about love, and to wonder what a classic lov...
When Patsy Cline first heard Willie Nelson's demo version of 'Crazy', she didn't like it, thinking it sounded too vulnerable and heartbroken. Talked into it by her husband and her producer, she would make a record that seemed to capture something fundamental about the lives of its contemporary listeners, but while much has been written on Cline's status as a pioneering woman in the male-dominated world of country music, the fact that the song and many of her other famous singles - like her fi...
What does a chorus do in a pop song? Among our most basic assumptions about what will happen in a pop song is the expectation that it will lead us towards the fulfilment and clarity of a chorus, so it’s always interesting when a song chooses not to do this. Looking at this question in the context of Otis Redding’s 1966 version of ‘Cigarettes and Coffee’ can tell us something about what pop songs as a whole express to us: the way - perhaps unconsciously - listening to them shapes our understan...
The history of rock music is in large part a history of men writing condescending and degrading songs about women, so it's interesting when a songwriter like John Lennon - with a track record of some of rock's most notoriously misogynistic lyrics - performs a song that at first listen appears to be apologetic and self-critical. In this episode, I look closely at the songwriting in his 1971 song, 'Jealous Guy', in the context of rock's historic sexism, to see how convincing this gesture of apo...
The story of Billy-Rae, the preacher's son, and the singer of 'Son of a Preacher Man', stealing away from their parents to discover love in the back yard is contained in one of the most familiar and enduringly popular songs of the 1960s. The scene Dusty Springfield paints with such flair is one of the deep American South, so it might come as a surprise to learn that she was born Mary O'Brien in Enfield, north London, with Catholic parents originally from County Kerry. How - and why - did Spri...
The story of the Beach Boys starting out as preppy Californian surf-popsters to become Rock n Roll Hall of Famers responsible for 'Greatest Albums Ever' list perennial 'Pet Sounds' is a familiar one. This narrative tends to overlook the currents of tension and angst rippling under the surface of both the early pop hits and the Phil-Spector-meets-Maurice-Ravel grandeur of their mature work. 'God Only Knows', one of the most analysed and acclaimed songs in pop, is a case in point: how does this...
The classic Motown duet, 'You're All I Need to Get By', seems to be about commitment - about a love which has recently been embarked on and which stretches ahead into the future - has come, perhaps surprisingly, to resonate with those mourning the loss of loved ones, including Marvin Gaye himself, who chose this song to play as he gave his eulogy at singing partner Tammi Terrell’s funeral. I look at this iconic soul recording, and in particular the song's use of pedal notes, extensions and in...
The 1960s girl group genre might seem an odd place to find tragedy, particularly when it's wrapped in such apparently joyful music as The Chiffons' 'One Fine Day'. Legendary songwriting partners Gerry Goffin and Carole King manage the difficult trick of combining the bright-eyed optimism of new love with the sad certainty it'll never be realised in a song which takes in influences from both doo-wop and opera. It's a wonderful demonstration of the way minor chords and 'blue notes' can make a s...
How does a song make us feel like we want to go home? that we miss someone who has left us at a home that now feels nothing but empty? that they may never come home, though we'll never stop hoping? In this first episode, I look at Sam Cooke's song, 'Bring It On Home to Me', to introduce the concept of the 'home' chord and to explore all the ways Cooke uses melody, harmony, lyrics and more to achieve a powerful expression of missing someone, of longing for their return. All the songs mentione...
‘The Secret Life of Songs’ is a new podcast series exploring ten classic pop recordings to get to the heart of why they mean so much to us. Hosted by Anthony T Jackson, a songwriter, it’s intended for musicians and non-musicians alike, a personal, reflective journey through some of pop’s greatest songs. The first three episodes will be released on May 21st, 2020, then fortnightly on Thursdays after that. The series is intended for anyone who loves music - musicians and non-musicians alike - ...
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Love this! So informative, yet at the same time very soothing to listen to. Strongly recommend.