Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia - Angry Young Men Edition Part 2
Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Slate Podcasts
4.8 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 3 December 2022
⏱️ 52 minutes
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Summary
Punk was meant to be angry. But the so-called Angry Young Men of the late ’70s U.K. scene were secret sophisticates in punk clothing. They delivered withering lyrics and snarling attitude over melodies a pop fan could love.
In so doing, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson and Graham Parker helped transform a slew of back-to-basic styles—pub-rock, power-pop, post-punk—into the catchall category New Wave. It would take over the charts at the turn of the ’80s. But the launch of the MTV era forced these sardonic troubadours to adjust their songwriting for a New Romantic age.
Join Chris Molanphy as he chronicles the history of three men who wrote the book on alternative rock before it had a name.
Podcast production by Kevin Bendis.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening Ad-Free on Amazon Music. |
| 0:13.6 | Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate magazine, about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris |
| 0:22.7 | Melanphy, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why Is This Song Number One series? |
| 0:28.9 | On our last episode, we talked about the rise of three British singer songwriters, Elvis Costello, |
| 0:36.6 | Joe Jackson, and Graham Parker, who came up through |
| 0:40.2 | pub rock and power pop, adopted punk attitude, helped shape new wave, and were tagged with the |
| 0:47.3 | moniker, angry young men. We're now in the early 80s, when all three of these men would evolve their sound in directions |
| 0:56.8 | far removed from punk. |
| 1:04.1 | Chapter 1, you didn't really get along. |
| 1:04.7 | Chapter 2. |
| 1:05.9 | I think I fell in love. |
| 1:08.1 | Elvis Costello had been on a role with his friend and producer Nick Lowe. |
| 1:14.1 | Over five straight albums, they had developed a punchy new wave sound |
| 1:19.0 | that encompassed a range of styles, but still all came out sounding like Costello's brand of power pop. |
| 1:27.5 | On the final album of their five-l-p streak, |
| 1:31.3 | 1981's Trust, Costello and Lowe ranged even more widely, |
| 1:36.6 | with songs alluding to jazz, rockabilly, even country. |
| 1:41.6 | The singles veered from the reggae meets cabaret of Clubland, |
| 1:46.2 | To the minor key soul and melodica dub of Watch Your Step. |
| 2:01.6 | Think it to watch your step. |
| 2:07.6 | Every day is full of fun. |
| 2:11.6 | One track from Trust, the hard rocking from a whisper to a scream, |
... |
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