Army greatcoats, plastic trousers, cowboy boots, scoop-neck t-shirts with bell sleeves … the list of laughable clobber and accessories we briefly thought were acceptable because rock stars wore them is delightfully long and shameful.

Also in the crosshairs this week …

… the rudest line the Beatles ever wrote.

 … Randy Newman – ‘the poet of the unworthy thought’.

… do bands with comic lyrics get the credit they deserve?

… a double Stackwaddy: real or invented Christmas singles.

… falling though a wormhole in time into a copy of the NME from February 1969: “The age of Supergroups! – set band members will be a thing of the past” – Klaus Voormann.

… “These days no two of us are on the same stream.” What we learn from discovering music separately.  

… Dead Eyes: the Tom Hanks’ comment that sparked a three-series podcast.

… why scat-singing brings us out in hives.

… the magic of Seinfeld – ‘four shallow self-obsessed people’ in a world where there’s ‘no growing and no hugging’.

… why you should listen to Joachim Cooder’ Over That Road I'm Bound: The Songs of Uncle Dave Macon.

… and what birthday guest John Innes learnt from re-listening to his entire music collection in chronological order – and the bands he decided to abandon.

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