Interview with Terry Smith on Music Talks Podcast

Hey, this is Joe Sanfilippo, you're listening

to the GeekCast Radio Network. brings you from

a smirk to a smile. That's when music talks to

you. Hello and welcome to episode 195 of GeekCast

Radio. I am of course TF2 and Mike, also known

as Mike Blanchard, and today I am very excited

to have a discussion with Terry Smith as we talk

about Music Talks podcast, his new endeavor.

This also allows Terry to redo his list of songs

and we'll talk about other music topics as well.

Hi Terry, how are you sir? I'm great Mike and

it's an absolute pleasure to be here and thank

you for giving me the opportunity to redo my

list. So you first started, you're friends with

my friend Jesse Jackson. Jesse and I have done

a couple of comic podcasts together about Tom

Zoller's Love and Capes. comic that Tom Zoller

had done but that's kind of how I found Jesse

was through that and through music and I've been

on Jesse's show once talking about Hall and Oates

and oh my god Nickelback and everything else

and whatever else and Jesse I think it was earlier

this year or last year Jesse sent me a hey I'm

gonna invite you to like this page on Facebook

and I'm like oh music talks podcast okay I like

music I'll like the page and I thought it was

something he was doing didn't realize at the

time it was your thing but I'm like okay I'll

like the page and I'll just you know go on from

there and I didn't really check it out until

I don't know six six or seven months ago is like

right after I got out of brain surgery or something

is when I started listening I think and so yeah

talk us through your your show, your format and

then we'll learn all about you after that. Okay.

So yeah, the podcast actually came out of something

I started doing face -to -face. So I've been

a music nut as we'll probably talk about all

my life. I've also been a hi -fi geek and I lived

for seven years between 2011 and 2018 in Seattle.

and of course you know good old crossman house

with a big basement so the hi -fi went in the

basement and people would come around for drinks

and food and that and typically the males I have

to say at some point we would disappear into

the basement we would stand around in that macho

male thing and ooh and ah about the hi -fi and

I'd play something loud and somebody would inevitably

say we should do a music you know wouldn't it

be great to have a music evening So in 2017,

I was retiring. I hit the age of 60 and decided

that 38 years in IT had been lovely but was enough.

And as that was coming up, of course, you start

thinking, well, what am I going to do with my

time? And I had a dear friend who has actually

been a guest on the show and also gave you that

great line about from a smoke to a smile, Mike.

So thank you for using that. But Larry Hauser,

and we were out one night having some food, and

I said, We should, when I retire, we should start

a music club. And you remember, Cheryl Crowe

did an album called Tuesday Night Music Club.

So we sort of joked about we should have the

Tuesday Night Music Club. Well, anyway, what

I did was that I actually started doing that.

So on a Tuesday, I would invite a friend around

and I'd cook a bit of food and we'd have a couple

of drinks and we'd listen to some music on this

great high fire of mine. and I did probably three

or four of those and you know the good old I

worked for 22 years for Microsoft so the good

old Microsoft thing of let's review how this

is going and I thought well I think I'm enjoying

them and I think my guests are enjoying them

but they do consist of me playing 60 seconds

of a track I like really loud shouting something

like doesn't it sound fantastic and then playing

60 seconds of another track I like very loud

And I'd said to people, you know, send me through

five songs you like or some stuff you want to

hear. And the interesting thing was that people

didn't. Now, and I get that because when people,

you know, send me your favorite songs and it's

like, oh God, that's really hard. And I would

love to tell you that there was this great moment

because I can't actually remember how I came

up with the idea of choose a song from each decade.

But anyway, that's what i started asking people

to do and it was fascinating because one everybody

really engaged with it two people played around

with the format three you know people started

sending me my long the long lists and then the

medium lists a really good friend of mine chris

voss uh he sent his list through and his list

from his two teenage children Um, so basically

I was, I was doing these most Tuesday nights

in Seattle and Jesse, who you mentioned, he invited

me onto, um, set listing. He's a set listing

Bruce podcast. And at the end, you know, I mean,

you know, he's, he's just a lovable, warm guy.

And I just said to him, Hey, have you got two

minutes? And I asked him how he got into podcasting.

And I said, I'm doing this thing. It feels like

it could be a good format for podcasts. What

do you think? and god bless him because you know

us brits at the end of the day we're still pretty

reserved and jesse did that great american enthusiastic

that's fantastic that's brilliant then and i'll

be honest you know us brits are also cynical

so you know we finished the call and i thought

i'd better never hear anything from that but

jesse being jesse a week later i got an email

saying i've talked to rob blah blah blah and

you're on so he and i did a number of pilot episodes

the first of which was him and I sharing our

lists which is why I'm now getting the chance

to redo it and then from that I started my own

podcast which as you say is called Music Talks

and one final quick story is originally the podcast

was called Tea Time with Terry because one of

my guests a guy called Dan Pilling who'd come

round to the house in Seattle he'd said if you're

doing these evenings they need a name and he

came up with the name of Tea Time with Terry

Unfortunately, I then went on a podcasting masterclass

and told about 120 people that that was the proposed

name for my podcast and when asked, what do you

think the podcast is about? There were a number

of answers and then this woman looked at me and

she said, golf. And I realized that I come up

with the most fantastic name for a golf podcast

but no one had any idea it was about music. So

I then changed it to music talks. So that's the,

um, that's the long answer to your question and

here we are. And I'm loving it, Mike. I mean,

you've done hundreds of these things. I'm just

hitting 10 or 11, but it's great fun. It's just,

yeah. When you've talked about the masterclass

you took and how most shows don't get past episode

seven or eight or whatever it is. And yeah. The

11 years that I've been... December... December...

God, do you think I'd remember the damn day?

December 8th of this year will be me podcasting

for 11 years. June 1st of this year, the GeekCast

Radio Network has been online for 10 years. A

year ago, as of June 4th, I had mathed up, my

buddy Optimus Solo did a whole Excel spreadsheet

and mathed out how many shows each of us that

have been on the GCRN has done. At that time,

a year ago June, I had just, including the nine

year special we did, I had basically racked up

2011 podcast episodes in... Ten years. Yeah,

that's incredible. That's incredible Incredible.

So yeah, I basically blow those numbers out of

the water There's only been one show that I have

not been able to get past episode Two three or

four and that was our boy meets world girl meets

world review. Well, it will it Interestingly

what the guy who ran that mass class his view

on that statistic was two things One it was people

not coming up with the right format and to frankly

people's commitment and you know one of his messages

was if you have a format that you would be doing

even if nobody was listening you're probably

onto something and you know that's that's how

I look at it that says now I get incredible satisfaction

when I realize people are listening and people

mail me and stuff but you know the conversations

I have with people I'd have I it's worth doing

just for the conversation That other people then

get something out of it is is a real bonus. So

yeah, and I've said since I've been listening

I've said the whole time This is easily music

talks podcast is easily the best podcast of this

decade if not any decade I'm not saying this

just to puff I'm saying this because it's damn

true. You know, it's the coolest like Your show

and another one of my friend's shows, Mike Laidman

and Chris Blonsky, Mike Laidman I podcasted with

a bunch of times over at This Week in Geek, and

he and his buddy Chris started a show called

Part -Time Nerds, Full -Time Dads. That's a great

title. It's basically the two of them talking

about fatherhood and all that and everything

else. So I had been listening to podcasts. mid

2006 until late 2008 and then Steve and I had

gotten you know the idea to do shows and I got

the idea to do you know the TFG one podcast which

is the transformers cartoon review podcast I

did and you know it just kind of went from there

and I'm the type of person that I will spend

an entire afternoon mapping out a two -year lifespan

of a show As long as I have a hundred episodes

written down, whether they happen or not, as

long as I have a hundred episodes of a podcast

written down or however I want to lay it out

or whatever, that's all well good and fine for

me. But your show is easily the most interesting

music podcast I've ever heard outside of a show

called Drop D over on Earth2 .net. Basically

it was two buddies, Desmond and Damien, reviewing

albums. Basically they would take like downward

spiral from Nine Inch Nails and they would review

it track by track. So they would basically kind

of do what you're doing where they would play

a part of the track, they would then talk about

it and discuss it and whatever kind of thing,

except obviously it's not music by one song for

every decade you've been alive. So you were born

in 1957, so we have seven choices here. The original

format actually wasn't every decade of your life.

I just thought your favorite song for the 60s

and it was Larry who came up with it. He said,

I was born in the 50s, I'm choosing the 50s and

then it became. So yeah, you have seven decades

to get through. Man, I didn't know you were 70

years old, sorry. I've been carbon dated at 80,

Mike. I think we're all carbon dated at 80 at

that point. Sometimes I feel like I've been carbon

dated and I'm not even 40 yet Not yet. Anyway,

alright, so the 50s take us through The 50s and

your choice here, which we were real in a moment.

Why was sir Cliff Richard and the drifters? Your

choice for the 50s and the shadows day boy the

shadows shadows. Oh, yeah Hank Marvin in the

shadows So well, let me kick off on I mean obviously

born in 57 then I don't have You know real musical

memories of the 50s, but this comes from I can

I can vividly remember sitting with my mum and

dad and my brothers my older brothers had two

older brothers watching our little 9 -inch black

and white television and seeing Cliff Richard

perform and The reason I chose him for a number

of reasons, one is I love my American music,

I love Springsteen, I've immersed myself in that

and Bruce, but a lot of other people talk about

Elvis being on the Ed Sullivan show and this

seismic shift happened and the world was never

the same again. Well, Cliff Richard was the British

equivalent of Elvis Presley and I'm not going

to pretend it was quite the seismic shift. of

the Ed Sullivan show but there was a show called

Oh Boy and Cliff appeared on that in August 58

with Move It and you know the irony with as you

rightly pointed out Sir Cliff Richard now is

that he went on to be a real he was a very he

came out publicly as a very devout Christian

which you know in the 60s and 70s in the music

industry in the UK was close to career suicide

But he, you know, he became very middle of the

road. He was known as what is the disparaging

phrase, I guess, now of housewives favorite.

So Cliff is Mr. Safe. And yet what people forget

is that in 1958, this man was dangerous. You

know, he was he was viewed as lock your daughters

up and all of that. So. One, I just love the

fact that his journey and he's still making records,

he's still touring. You look at his numbers then

he sold and of course he never really broke the

US. He had a couple of, we don't talk anymore,

a couple of others I think got some visibility

but he's very much a UK phenomenon but he sold

260 million records worldwide. So the only the

only British artist who solved more is the Beatles

He's had 130 UK top 20 hits more than anyone

including the Beatles And 67 top 10 hits and

the only one who beat him actually was Elvis

So, you know his numbers are impressive But probably

the most significant thing for me is John Lennon

not known for you know suffering fools uh...

he was interviewed in the sixties and his comment

was before clip in the shadows there was nothing

worth listening to in british music okay so here's

my thing uh... i'm gonna have to talk to spotify

cares on twitter because they listed as cliff

richard and the drifters on spotify on your playlist

where it says move it two thousand to remaster

they don't listed as the shadows they listed

as the drifters so Get your shit together and

yes, this is an explicit podcast. So if you feel

like the need I don't edit stuff out so Well,

that is amazing because I mean we should briefly

talk about the shadows because The lead guitarist

in the shadows was a guy called Hank Marvin So

if you listen to any Jimmy Page Jeff Beck Clapton

Neil Young, you know, Neil Young's first song,

recorded song, if you go back to, is basically

him in the midst imitating Hank Marvin, so as

well as Cliff doing, you know, him being, little

pun here, instrumental, the shadows were also

a major, major influence on the music, and I'm

amazed at Spotify getting it wrong, but no, it's

definitely Cliff and the Shadows, but I can...

I understand that's what you're saying at the

moment. I don't know. That's what it says. I

don't know why it says that, but that's what

it says. Alright, so let's take a quick listen

to Move It and then we'll be back and we'll jump

into the 60s. Shake, oh baby, shake, oh honey,

please don't lose it The rhythm that gets into

your heart and soul Let me tell you, baby, it's

called rock 'n 'roll They say it's gonna die,

but honey, please, let's face it Right, so now

that we've moved it along into the 60s, and we've

figured out that you'll hear later about Cliff

Richard and his band, the 60s, sir, your choice,

is a Hendrix song all along the watchtower. Now,

what was going on in the 60s that you thought

back when making your list? What was going on

then in your life? that this song affected you?

Okay, so if you look at this, a little bit about

me, so I grew up near Liverpool, six miles from

the cabin, actually in a place called Bebington,

so it's on the other side of the Mersey, so I

always rather romantically tell people, I think

one of the many reasons I like Springsteen is

that Bebington and Birkenhead to Liverpool is

what New Jersey is to New York. Okay, so, you

know, Bebington once got voted the third most

boring town in Britain You know, but Birkenhead

is all shipyards and stuff But but basically

you spend you you grow up Looking out over the

Mersey and seeing the live of buildings and thinking

that's where all the fun is over there my dad

Scottish worked on the docks Union leader a man

not short of opinion and I certainly get that

from him uh... my mom Liverpool Irish uh... and

ran uh... worked in the greengrocers then ran

my uncle's shop so I always tell people I'm British

in the basis and not English in the basis that

Scottish father Irish mother born near Liverpool,

which is a bit of a, we talked about your background

Mike, but Liverpool considers itself a different

place to the rest of the UK. And I then later

went to university in Wales. So I was in British

and I also had two older brothers, Owen and Jim.

So Owen was eight years older than me and Jim

was seven. So and my dad was very musical so

music was a big part of the family but growing

up in the 60s near Liverpool music was a big

part of everyone's family because you know the

Beatles were just the biggest thing and they

were local and There was genuine and I don't

think this is me sort of thinking back and doing

post -event rationalization There was this whole

thing of change and I was saying it, you know,

my brother my brothers were growing up Long Her,

which if you look at it now wasn't Long Her.

My eldest brother Owen actually left home at

16. He was thrown out of the house by my dad

because he wouldn't get his hair cut. We lived

at 36 Stanton Road and he ran away to 40 Stanton

Road, which is where my grandmother lived and

moved in with her. So he managed to move two

houses up the road. But that was, you know, all

of this change was going on. So when I look at

the 60s, that's the word that sort of comes out.

And I always quote to people, you know, if the

Beatles first greatest hits, they came out with

when it was still on vinyl, there was there was

a blue album and a red album. I can never remember

which way it was around, but one was from 63

to 67. The other was 67 to 70. But what they

did. if anyone's not seen those, is that one

album had the cover of The Beatles' first album

on, and then the second album was exactly the

same shot, the same location, seven years later.

And they've gone from, you know, Italian suits

and neat haircuts to Afghan coats and beards

and long hair. And I've always thought that's

a brilliant image to just show what happened

in those seven years. And if you listen to their

music, you know, it's the same thing that they've

gone from, you know, I want to hold your hand

or please please me to, you know, Strawberry

Fields and The End and all of that stuff. So

trying to find a song to represent the 60s and

change and the reason I chose this, you know,

it's a Dylan song done by Hendrix. And for me,

if you look at it lyrically, Dylan just ripped

up the rule book in the 60s of what a song was.

And one of the stories I always trot out was

the famous Playboy interview where the guy said,

you know, people spend a lot of time working

out what your songs are about and you're not

very forthcoming. and he said oh I'm happy to

tell you what my songs are about and the guy's

like really and he said yeah he said some are

about three minutes long some are about five

minutes long and some are about 11 minutes long

and of course he did write 11 minute songs so

lyrically I think he he ripped the rule book

up and then Hendrix I think musically and particularly

with the guitar and the three piece you know

he redefined what was what was possible with

that so I think the combination of the two is,

you know, I love the song. I did a project when

I was 16 at school. I managed to convince my

teacher not to do the romantic poets that I do

a piece on all along the watchtower. So I've

always loved the song and I'm a sucker for a

cover version and particularly cover versions

that redefine a song. So this is actually the

most, this is the song that Bob Dylan has played

live more than anything else he's written. And

I love the sort of irony that he plays it in

the style of Hendrix, not the way he wrote it.

So for all of those reasons, and I just think

it sums up the sixties. And I guess the final

thing is, you know, I love songs that the start

just hit you in the face. And this is one of

those songs, you know, that opening riff is just

like, whoa, what the hell is that? So for all

of those reasons, it's all along the watchtower

by Hendrix. Let's take a listen to that, and

we'll compare it to, not that we are going to

compare it to, but we'll also get to listen to

the Dylan version as well. There must be some

kind of way out of here. Said a joker to the

thief. There's too much confusion. I can't get

no relief. Business man there, drink my wine.

Plowman dig my... There must be some way out

of here, say the joker to the theme. Alright

folks, now that we've heard from two legends

in Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan, we head on into

the 70s and your teenage years, sir, and apparently

you want to go to California. Yeah, so I became

a teenager May 1970. Now, of course, I became

a teenager and instantly thought that I'd just

missed the best decade there ever was over the

60s. There's an element of that I guess. But

it was the decade, I mean as I say music had

always been around me and the family but it was

when I really started getting my own music and

that was a big thing for me having two older

brothers was that I loved a lot of what they

listened to and actually their tastes were very

different but it was about It was about getting

my own stuff. I bought my first two albums, which

were I bought them on the same day and actually

bought them from Richard Branson's very first

advertisement as for what became Virgin. He was

doing mail order at the time, but it was after

the Gold Rush by Neil Young and Led Zeppelin

won. So I guess it was always going. come down

to one of those and I chose Led Zeppelin. It

was actually really hard to do, I mean each decade

was hard for me but this was probably the hardest

in that I am retentive enough, I am the classic

archetypal male who does lists so I have my very

pretentious hundred best albums of the 20th century.

And of course, it's no surprise that literally

25 % of those are between 1970 and 1975. So I

always said to my son that be careful what you're

listening to between the ages of 14 and 19 because

you'll spend the rest of your life listening

to it. The reason for deciding on this track,

there's a couple of things, because I mentioned

the thing about being a hi -fi nut as well as

a music nut, and in 1970 we moved house, and

for some reason I was up in, there was a little

loft up there, it wasn't a big house, but a little

loft, and I found in the corner this old Bakelite,

you know, the big old brown with the speak grill,

I found this thing, and I brought it down to

my little bedroom and I managed to put a new

plug on it and I plugged it in and it was all

I think we call it valves you call it tubes but

it was all tubes and I plugged it in and the

lights came on and it worked and I don't again

think this is nostalgia it sounded absolutely

bloody fantastic and literally a couple of weeks

after getting that working I can still like play

the movie in my head But Led Zeppelin played

a one -hour live show on the BBC at 7 o 'clock.

It was a show I think called Sands of the 70s.

And I remember sitting in my bedroom listening

to that show just being beyond excited. And actually

the version I've chosen is the BBC later, but

I think only about three, four years ago released

that. And then another thing is that You know,

America always held, one of the reasons being,

I think my love of music, but this fascination,

you know, everywhere in America sounded exciting.

You know, there's a great Elton John story that

he wrote a song about Grimsby, which is an awful

chipping town up on the east coast of Britain.

And they said, why have you done that? And he

said, well, when I was growing up, I'd listen

to 24 hours from Tulsa. and Galveston and he

said these places all sound so exciting and he

looked and he said have you been to Galveston

and the guy says no he says this is a shithole

now I don't know whether that's actually right

but I think the point is everywhere in America

sounded exciting and and it was where everything

was possible so going to California holds a lot

of memories and actually they played it on that

BBC show I got to see them live twice. The first

time was great. The second time was my 80th birthday,

and it was a real disappointment because they

were rusty. But they played Go Into California

both times. And then last year, just before I

left Seattle, I saw Robert Plant for the first

time in, where are we, 43 years, and he played

Go Into California. And I have to say, and people

see this as heresy, those three shows the most

enjoyable impressive was Robert Plant's solo

so yeah I thought he was absolutely brilliant

so that's my choice very cool very cool let's

take a listen to Led Zeppelin and we'll be back

after that Spent my days with a woman unkind

Smoked my stuff and drank all my wine Made up

my mind, making you start Going to California

with an aching in my heart Someone told me there's

a girl out there with love in her eyes and flowers

in her hair To my chances on a big jet plane

Never let them tell you that we're all the same

The sea was red and the sky was gray I wondered

how tomorrow could ever follow today Alright,

so we've been to California I am often called

a fool in the rain So there's that. That is like,

I've slowly been rediscovering Led Zeppelin because

they were kind of before my time. Sure. And for

some odd reason, I don't know where I heard it

in the last six, seven months or whatever, but

I kept hearing Fool in the Rain and I'm like,

I gotta go listen to this. And that song has

such a great tune to it. the lyrics are great

but that music that they made up for the oh god

i love that yeah and i guess one of the things

i should say about going to california is you

know there are so many of the sort of heavy rock

i mean obviously stairway to heaven but things

like trampled under thurton cashmere which i

think people you know associate more typically

with led zeppelin but i think one of the things

that made them so brilliant was that they were

never the archetypal heavy rock band. You know,

they always had a folk side to them. They always

had different things in there that spice things

up. So, uh, you know, I, um, I do enjoy going

back to their stuff, I have to say. Absolutely.

So we head into the eighties best decade ever.

Uh, and your choice for the eighties is not It's

not any song I've heard of in the it's very original

Because when I think of the 80s I think of you

know the synth pop the the pop rock the holla

I Think justify my love was the first song I

got hard to Maybe that's too much information

for folks, but I don't care. I was, you know,

eight or nine or whatever when that Madonna song

came out. Well, at least it's understandable.

Well, hello. Have you seen that video? Absolutely.

So take us through the 80s. You're out of your

teen years. Yeah. So, you know, I've out of my

teen years, I've been to university. I worked

in Holland on building sites for a year so I

was the insulation engineer on Holland's largest

ever coal store which was a bit of a surprise

because my only qualification was I had an English

degree and I'd worked in my uncle's greengrocers

and we used to have a very small coal store to

put the vegetables in and then I'd started working

so it's interesting you say 80s the best decade

ever because I've and if you look at the previous

time I did this and I've said it quite often

In my head, I'm I always say I'm not the greatest

fan of the 80s and I think the reason for that

is actually that 80s production sound, you know

that there is There is so much stuff that you

listen you go, you know, and I include Springsteen

here You know, I'm one of those people who thinks

born in the USA is is His weakest album actually

he's got some great songs on but the production

is just awful But I went back a couple of days

ago because I mentioned I have my list of a hundred

great albums and I went back to check and actually

29 of my hundred are in the 80s. So it was clearly

a better decade than I remember Coming soon to

the geek cast radio network Terry Smith's top

100 I'm not kidding. No, and you would also recognize

this, Mike, as obviously compulsive like I am,

that I have toyed with the idea of blogging my

100 best albums. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Trust

me. That needs to be a podcast. Whether it's

broken ... No, no, no. We'll talk about that

off air. I'll send this. In amongst all of that,

the reason for choosing Murray's Prayer is ...

I subscribe to Spotify, I'm nerdy enough to subscribe

to Tidal because the quality is better. I love

the fact that you can get to all the music in

the world but the old fart in me does get nostalgic

for that. I'm driving 40 -50 ,000 miles a year,

I'm a rep in the IT industry. The great thing

is this was before there was mobile phones so

you used to go out Calling on customers and no

one could get hold of you. It was it was fantastic

but I listened to a lot of music during that

time and I listened to a lot of radio and This

song by Danny Wilson and they're a band or a

Scottish band, you know And the irony is you

know now back living in Scotland. This is from

The first album they did three albums, but the

reality is the first one was vaguely popular

the other two bombed And then I think most of

them actually got out of the music industry.

But it's just it's one of those fantastic pop

songs that whenever if it comes on shuffle, if

I hear it, it just lights me up. And, you know,

the opening line is everything is wonderful.

Being here is heavenly. And I just think it's

I think it's something like three minutes, 43

seconds of just pop genius. Um, and I will always

love it. Yeah. It was, when I was listening to

it, I'm like, this is very different. This is

very non eighties. This is very redheaded stepchild

of the eighties kind of thing. Not in a bad way,

but like, I'm like, because again, I'm thinking

like, I'm not saying you were going to pick.

you know, piano man, or you know, something like

that, you know, and I'm not, you know, and the

whole point of your format is it's not whatever

the most popular song is of the decade, it's

what song from that decade speaks to you or has,

you know, has you a story. If you go back to

the episode of Music Talks I did, folks, my four

choices are all story -driven. They were never

the... biggest number one hits of whatever. I

think the Hall and Oates song might have been,

but whatever. And I'm listening to this and I'm

looking through the lyrics and I'm like, wow,

this is a really great song that steps out of

the 80s stereotype. And seriously, I would try

and listen to the album because it is different.

But my final comment I think would be this, which

is my wife mercifully takes a piss at me that

if we ever do pub quizzes and it's like what

year was this song i am consistently wrong but

i'm never wrong by more than one year all right

but i'm almost always out but i can tell you

mary's prayer was 1987 so it will always be sort

of that time in my life i guess Awesome. Well,

let's take a quick listen to some verses from

Mary's Prayer, and we will be back after that.

This place when I was married Now it is time

to Get into the 90s and the 90s was a decade

to remember wasn't it? Yeah, it was in many ways.

So Yeah, the 90s for me. I was I guess in the

the classic Mid -30s sort of corporate thing.

So I got married in 88. My son cannon was born

in May 1990 You know, work was going well, which

meant promotion, which actually meant less traveling,

less time to listen to music, more time at work.

And then in 95, I stumbled into this, at that

time still in the UK, viewed as relatively small

company called Microsoft. And when I took that

job, my wife at the time refused to move from

where we were living. And it meant, you know,

my round trip to the office was best part of

200 miles. So I was going to be doing a lot of

traveling and therefore I decided, OK, I'm going

to I bought a second hand car and I put a really

good high five in there. It was I'm going to

enjoy and that actually sparked. I mean, I'd

still been listening to music, but it had become

just out of a function of time and other pressures.

It become less is probably the period of my life

when it was. the least significant, but two things

happened. One was getting that job and traveling

so that got me back into listening and music

and hi -fi and then the other thing was of course

in the mid 90s in the UK there was this thing

called Britpop and Oasis and Blur and you know

and it was it was a classic replay of the Stones

and the Beatles battles in the 60s because you

know the Beatles were from Liverpool and the

North and the Stones were from London and the

South and one was working class and one was posh

and here we were 30 years later and it was exactly

the same script um and the irony is i've chosen

an oasis song for reasons i'll explain but i'm

actually a much bigger blur fan um i think i

think damon alban is a massive massive talent

and whereas i think oasis had you know They were

a supernova in that they had their couple of

years, but Noel Gallagher I think is still a

talent. Liam, my view is he's been overrated

from day one, but that's probably the subject

of another podcast. But the reason for choosing

Oasis and choosing Don't Look Back in Anger is

at the end of it, end of 95, early 96, wherever

you went, You know, there was Oasis. I mean,

I remember my first day in Microsoft was the

annual company meeting and Actually this song

I was chosen with you know that was used in one

of the videos and you know you tell you turn

on the radio and backing music on television

and The the real strong memory for this is We've

always been pretty good at having family parties

and it was my niece's car is 18th birthday and

the good news is that then allowed me to go back

and check the dates it was June the 4th 1996

and we're in this village hall and all of the

extended families together and I'm standing with

my son Callum and the DJ put on this and I look

around and literally everyone was singing we

were singing my dad was singing you know young

and old and it actually it felt like going back

to what i said about the 60s it felt like the

Beatles were back in the sense of here was a

band that had crossed out you know they weren't

they weren't a pop or a rock band anymore they

were everybody knows who aces is everybody's

singing wonderwall and wondering what is a wonderwall

you know everybody's buying this album so um

for me it would it's it will always be the ultimate

90s song and There were quite a few other candidates.

I mentioned that Callum was born in 1990, so

I'd have loved to have chosen a song for him.

Bruce does a brilliant song called Living Proof,

which is about his first son being born. It's

one of my favorite set of lyrics. The trouble

is, the music and the arrangement I have just

never liked. um you know even and normally when

he plays things live he moves it around and it's

just never worked um and if i could ask him to

ever rerecord one song um you know when i joined

microsoft that was it was literally two weeks

before windows 95 was launched and you know start

me up was you know we paid the stupid amount

of six million dollars to you start me up Um,

so there were loads of other kind of, but this,

this will always be the song that Yana and again,

I think you said Mike, you're very visual. Uh,

the, the moments that stick with me, I do have

a video in my head and it's playing at the moment.

You know, I can see that party and I can see

the song playing. So that's why I've chosen it.

And the funny thing for me is before we get to

hearing a part of the song is that Like right

before you sent me your Spotify list I Heard

this song somewhere. I don't know where it was

Like just out of the blue. It wasn't on though.

I don't think it was on the radio I don't remember

it was somewhere like a week before you sent

me your playlist and I was like When I saw the

pub like oh, hey, I just heard that the other

day Yeah, kind of thing and I haven't heard I

haven't heard Wonderwall in at least 20 years

It was never Oasis for me. Wonderwalls are okay

song. It's kind of cool, but all as I remember

about them is all the drunken brawls and all

the news bra. Oh my God. What is Nolan and Liam

done now and all the celebrity crap to do with

them. But let's take a listen to don't look back

in anger from Oasis. So we've survived the Y2K

bug. We are now in the new millennium. And what's

going on in the 2000s for you, sir? You're married.

You're working at Microsoft. You've had your

son. Your son is 10 years old at this point.

What's going on in the Smith household after

the Y2K scare? Well, I guess the first thing

I should say is that I did actually have to work

really hard not to be working on New Year's Eve

on the Millennium because literally we had an

army of people lined up and 16 phone calls came

in. So yeah, the Y2K, that's another subject.

So what was happening for me personally, sadly,

is that my first marriage was sort of starting

to fall apart. So, you know, Alvin and I split

up mid -2000s. I then met Laura and got remarried

on August the 2nd, 2008. And that's really the

driver of my choice because if It was just a

musical choice that I would absolutely choose

something from Wilco. They're a band I love.

I saw them again recently, about six weeks ago.

But for me, they're a band who really peaked

during this decade. And just for completeness,

if I was choosing a Wilco song, it will be Impossible

Germany. And I've said this before on Music Talks.

anybody wants to get on the show and they want

to influence me, just choose impossible Germany

as your choice and you're in. But it would be

absolutely wrong of me to choose a Wilco song

because as I say, Laura and I got married in

2008, best thing that ever happened to me. I'll

leave her to comment on it from her point of

view. The song I've chosen is by a band called

Elbow, another band from the north of England

and it's a song called Starlings and it should

have been the song that Laura walked up the aisle

to. The reason it wasn't was that we actually

only heard the song on our honeymoon and it literally

was we were on a flight, we had the delight of

going to South America. I heard this song and

literally was sat next to each other and I just

stopped and it was I was on the British Airways

channel and I listened to it again and then I

said Laura you've got to listen to this so and

but by the way the the song she did walk up the

aisle to was first day of my life by bright eyes

which I think was a pretty good choice but the

reason I say this this should have been the one

is that in trying to be that the last episode

of music talks my guest was a lady called Jen

Henshaw and she talked about there are times

when you hear a song and you think right somebody's

just got inside my head and they've written down

you know sort of I've written this song so that

the lyrics of Starling if I can quote a couple

of them it says in it starts with I sat you down

and told you how the truest love you'll ever

find is for oneself You pulled apart my theory

with a weary and disinterested sigh. Laura and

I had that conversation and by the way she was

the one pulling apart the theory with the weary

and disinterested sigh. It also includes probably

my favourite ever, if you're writing a one -line

love poem which is you're the only thing in any

room you're ever in. But one of the reasons I

love sort of music from the north of England

is that there's always a sting in the tail. And

there is a noticeable age gap between myself

and Laura. So the actual lyrics read, you're

the only thing in any room you're ever in. I'm

stubborn, selfish and too old. So yeah, if you

listen to that song, it's our song. And the final

thing I would say is that if you go onto YouTube,

Elbow were invited by the BBC Concert Orchestra

to come and perform the whole album that this

track is off, and that album's called Seldom

Seen Kid. They did it at Abbey Road. and it's

just an absolute delight so I'd encourage anyone

who listens to this and likes it to go and have

a look at that and you will hear Guy Garvey who's

the lead singer who actually now has his own

show on the BBC but he's got one of those great

northern accents he's from Bury near Manchester

and you know it's like Getting to play with this

orchestra is the biggest privilege we've ever

had and and Glenn Miller played in here and the

Beatles and people start you go You've heard

of them have you so you get this and then the

man opens his mouth and this beautiful voice

comes out So take a listen Yeah, take a listen

to this folks when I listen to it. I was like

Oh, this kind of reminds me of my wife, Karen,

having me listen to the Cure, a couple of the

Cure songs, because the intro to this is, like,

this song is more instrumental than... it is

lyrical. It has lyrics, but the music throughout

Starlings is just wonderful, and it's interesting,

and it's just great. So have a listen, and we'll

be back with the current decade, after this.

How dare the Premier ignore my invitations? He'll

have to go So to the bunch he lunches with it's

second on my list of things to do At the top

is stopping by your place of work and acting

like I haven't dreamed of you and I and marriage

in an orange grove You are the only thing in

any room you're ever in. I'm still being selfish

and too old. Before we get to the current decade,

one last comment on Elbow's Starling, sir. Yeah,

it was just that, one, I'm delighted that you

love the music in that. But you know how it opens,

and I remember reading a review that said, why

is it that the first track of every Elbow album

sounds like the Hatch opening in 2001? Which

I just thought was a brilliant idea. You get

that diddle -deedle -deedle, and then the horns

coming in. So yeah, not true of the latest stuff,

but the first four or five albums all start with

this sort of twinkly thing and then bang. So

as you can tell, a favorite band of mine. Very

cool, very cool. All right, so the current decade,

you can't make up your mind. You can't make a

choice. So this is where I have to be completely

honest, which is I tend to be quite, I hope I'm

not draconian, but I'm quite firm with my guess

of you with some of your choices. I mean, I must

have. I suspect I've got an excel spreadsheet

with all of the different versions of these of

what was going to be my choice but the one I

struggled most with probably was the current

decade and not because you know I've had a number

of guests who say you know the the later on you

get the harder it gets because there's less new

music you like I I personally don't subscribe

to that I actually think there's as much if not

more great music around today than there's ever

been and of course the fantastic thing is it's

easier and easier to find without spending money.

But yeah, this one has been the challenge for

me and when I initially did it with Jesse, I

referenced Jason Isbell who I think is the finest

songwriter certainly this decade. and he's right

up there with some of the greats. But I chose

a song from Bank or War on Drugs called Red Eyes,

and basically, one, I love them, but also my

rationale for that was I think they're one of

those bands where it sounds of today, it sounds

current, and yet in there is lots of nice references.

You can hear Springsteen, you can hear Petty,

but not in a, oh, they've copied. You know like

a melting pot where the current and modern but

they've got all of that history so that that's

what attracted me but to be honest in the Now

probably 18 months since I did that first one

with Jesse Jason Isbell has just become someone

I've got to love and love and love more and you

know i think he's written i actually think he's

written the best love song since starlings uh

and it's called vampires but i decided whilst

i know i confuse you mike in my head at least

i decided not to go with vampires simply because

i'd chosen a fantastic love song but again if

and go just go and go and listen to vampires

and its rationale of 40 years together it's it's

beautiful but the song i've chosen is a song

called white man's world and My rationale for

this is, boy has this decade been challenging

and I'm not talking personally, but if you look

at what's happened in the last five or six years,

both in your country and in mine and across Europe,

I do honestly think we are living through one

of those periods that in whatever, 30 years time,

history will look back and go, what the fuck

happened? I think one of the things for me is

then what does the individual do in those circumstances

and the words that come into my head, Bruce used

this in the Broadway show where Martin Luther

King's, the arc of the moral universe is long

but it points towards justice and it's like,

I kind of buy that. And then there's that thing

of, you know, the only thing necessary for the

triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

And what I think Jason does in this song brilliantly,

because I love angry protest songs, but I like

really clever songs that just make you think.

And, you know, the lines that really pop for

me is I think it's the third verse, but I'm a

white man looking in a black man's eyes. Wishing

I'd never been one of the guys who pretended

not to hear another white man's joke So the reason

that hit me so hard is I think it's so easy For

us certainly for me to you know, hey, I'm not

racist. I don't do this I don't do that, but

I think that brilliantly posts the question of

Turning a blind eye and doing nothing when you

see things that actually you don't agree with

You know is is that any better than somebody

who's doing something bad? So, you know, it's

the reason it's the reason I love him as a songwriter.

I love his music there's There's a live at the

Ryman album which if anyone he ever says well

There's Jason Isbell and then there's this Jason

Isbell and the 400 unit if you want to know why

he has a band listen to that live album because

They just enhance what are brilliant songs But

I think he's a brilliant songwriter. So that's

why I've eventually chosen and I'm not changing

ever again until the next time. Until the next

time. Exactly. I've chosen White Man's World.

All right. Well, because this is my show and

I'll do whatever the hell I damn well please.

We're going to hear all three of Terry's choices

because he can't make up his mind. So we'll hear

selections from War on Drugs. And the two Jason

Isbell songs. And we'll be back after this. It's

not the long flowing dress that you're in Or

the light coming off of your skin The fragile

heart you've protected for so long Or the mercy

in your sense of right and wrong It's not your

hands searching slow in the dark Or your nails

feeling the love's water more It's not the way

you talk me off the roof I'm a white man living

on a white man's street I got the bones of the

red man under my feet The highway runs through

the burial ground Past the oceans of cotton Never

been one of the guys who pretended not to hear

seven songs, seven decades, all of Mr. Terry

Smith's life, his musical choices, his musical

influences, his indecisiveness when it comes

to his current decade. You know, all of that.

Very, very awesome. I'm glad we had the chance

to do this. I'm glad we had the chance to actually

get your choice. Yeah. Down for the current decade.

Me too. And I did listen to that initial... I

actually listened to both. I actually got confused

when prepping for this. I listened to the...

Previous like the introduction that Jesse did

for music talks and then I'm like, oh wait They're

not talking about their choices in this episode.

Where's the other one? So then I went to the

remastered episode 197 or 179 that he did right

and I I listened to like the first maybe 20 minutes

and I'm like, wait a minute I'm talking to this

guy. I need to come into the story fresh I don't

need to hear the story and then reference the

other episode. So I stopped listening good I

mean the other thing I would like to say thank

you and give Jesse credit for so much because

genuinely I would not be doing this if it wasn't

for Jesse Jackson. The other thing I owe to him

is I should go back to that original pilot episode

and edit his parts into an episode or just redo

it with him. Just redo it with him. He came on

to that pilot episode and he told very personal

stories as you did when you recorded yours and

if I'm honest at that point in my head it was

more of a Muso podcast than it's become and you

know a lot of that's down to Jesse because it

was just you know he started talking and I was

I mean I knew that yeah I talked about my I knew

I would talk about personal stuff but one of

the joys for me has been how people have approached

this and you know probably my favorite example

is having Paul Simpson on the show who I've known

for 15 years and considered to be a good friend

and then you find out that you know he did this

song for his daughter's wedding that I was completely

unaware of so I have I have learned things about

my guests Every single guest and some of them

I've known for a very long time So that's that's

that's part of the fun for me, but a lot of that

goes down to Jesse Yeah, I mean there's no most

like Like what I did. I will have Jesse's episode

post Linked in my show notes on on the website

for our podcast here. Yeah Don't go back and

cut that up. Don't do that to make it, you know

a re -edited version Get him when he's available.

Do it again. Hey, let's do it proper. Well, I

might do it as the first anniversary episode.

That would be quite nice, wouldn't it? That would

be that would be timely. I like that idea. Yeah,

let's do that. I'll do that. Alrighty then, so

talking about, you know, you talking about your

format and the slight changes in the stories

that were told, it was funny because before we

take a quick ad break here in a moment, I came

up with two lists at first. I came up with the

list that people will hear on my episode of Music

Talks, but then I'm like, oh, but... I'm also

driven by soundtracks and scores and soundtrack

songs and things like that. So I came up with

a second list soundtrack score songs from 80s,

90s, 2000s and 2010s. We're not gonna go through

that here, it may be an episode at some point,

it may be, it might be a quick B -sides for music

talks, who knows. And maybe that'll be a thing

in the future, but for right now, we're gonna

take a quick ad break. You're gonna hear some

ads from, you'll hear a new ad from Terry talking

about his show, and you'll hear some other ads

from other shows that the Geekcast Radio either

does or supports as well. We will be back in

a moment. Do you like retro cartoons? Then Saturday

Morning Rewind is the podcast for you. Join them

each month as they talk about classic cartoons

and interview legendary voice actors like Jim

Cummings Corey Burton Rob Paulson Nancy Cartwright

and many more so grab a bowl of Lucky Charms

Put on your hammer pants. Go to SaturdayMorningRewind

.com. And be prepared to feel like a kid again.

Once again, that's SaturdayMorningRewind .com.

Saturday Morning Rewind was voted best podcast

ever by its host, Tim Nydel. So it's gotta be

good. Hello, geeks and geekettes. Looking for

a podcast that covers a vast array of topics?

Then check out Altered Geek Unleashed, where

we discuss our thoughts on this week's geeky

news, tech, gaming, television shows, movies,

cartoons, comics, and more. So get Altered Get

Geeky with the Altered Geeks, every Friday on

the Geekcast Radio Network. Hi, I'm Terry Smith,

the host of Music Talks, the podcast where I

ask guests a simple but beguiling question. Choose

a song from each decade of your life and tell

me why these songs mean so much to you. Guests

and listeners love this format, and if you want

to find out why, then take a listen at musictalkspod

.buzzsprout .com or use your favourite podcast

app. Just search on Music Talks, Terry Smith.

If you'd like to be a guest on the show and...

Then send me a tweet at music talks pod. I look

forward to doing some music talking soon All

right, we're back and you had talked about Messy,

you know people messing with the format and I

just mentioned at some point that my soundtrack

score list that I have for the 80s 90s 2000s

and 2010s might be a b -side for music talks

in the future not anytime soon But with me messing

with your format, I wanted to see if I could

take a band from today and fit each of their

songs into the past decades. So that's what's

coming up next on GeekCast Radio, folks. You'll

hear that. But we want to thank you for listening

to us here on GeekCast Radio. If you'd like to

get in contact with us, we'll leave feedback

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First of all, visit the website geekcastrio .com

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But we prefer you use the ones mentioned. Leave

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are on face book instagram all that stuff as

well yet was was your uh... talks pot on face

book face book is out music talks pot as well

yet All right, we hope you enjoyed this episode

of geek cast radio wish you'll join us next time

as we'll be talking about yet another geeky musical

topic as I fit in an artist of the decades playlist

I am TFG1 Mike with This is where you say your

name I Just thought I just thought I'd wind you

up with Terry Smith and it's been a delight Mike.

Thank you Thank you for listening. Until next

time, unleash the music geek in you. We will

catch you next time, folks. There's an interesting

see that's why I love doing this Mike you learn

so much stuff Let's see even Wikipedia has it

listed as Chris Richard and Cliff Richard and

the drifters Well, therefore they must have renamed

themselves after the first song See now So I've

got 1960, there's a Cliff Richard and the Shadows,

so I think they must have recorded as the Drifters

and then renamed themselves. That's what this

says. It says, recorded by Cliff Richard and

the Drifters, the UK band that would later become

the Shadows. Originally intended as the B -side

to Schoolboy Crush. Yes, I knew that. Well, there

you go, you see. I've learned something again.

That's great. Yeah, the man who does music talks

and doesn't actually know his own song If if

you tell me that the Led Zeppelin track is actually

the New Yardbirds, I'm just gonna give up