The afterlife of Hallelujah and the day David sold his old singles

Word In Your Ear

We ran our patent heat-sensing Scrutiniser®️ over the week’s news and here’s what set the bells off …

… are buskers now more expensive live entertainment than Taylor Swift?

… a Dickensian oik in Chapel Market and other riddles of modern etiquette.

… ‘Holiness and horniness’: how Hallelujah rebooted Leonard Cohen and became a one-song industry.

… the teenage self-promotional flair of Robert Plant and Marc Bolan.

… are singles a social experience and albums a solitary one?

… “Would you like a fruit gum?”: the 1950s in a single phrase.

… highly recommended: Wendy Waldman, Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band and ‘The Room’ by Fabiano do Nascimento.

… rock snobs’ alarm about the revelations of their Spotify Wrapped.

… why the Sherman Brothers are as enduring as Lennon-McCartney.

… Hallelujah cover versions - from kd lang and Rufus Wainwright to Johnny Mathis and the Osmonds.

... how King David removed ‘love rival’ Uriah the Hittite.

… reconnecting with records you haven’t heard for 40 years.

… whatever happened to She Sherriff?!

… Loudon Wainwright’s early inference about the YMCA.

… plus Lindsey Buckingham, Hugh Lloyd, Tony Hancock and fond memories of “stolen cheese guy”.

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