Love is the Message: Dance, Music and Counterculture

Jeremy and Tim continue our mini-series on post-punk with a bit of 1978 scene-setting. Describing the inflationary crises, militant shop stewards and series of strikes in the UK and US, Jeremy paints a picture of the historic moment out of which a series of self-consciously anti-bourgeois bands were emerging. We hear about Jonny Rotten’s metamorphosis into John Lydon, take a moment to reflect on some of Leeds’ favourite sons the Gang of Four, and cross over to the Rust Belt to listen to an early track by Ohio’s own Pere Ubu. Sticking in the States, Tim spends time talking about Talking Heads’ second album More Songs About Buildings and Food, unleashes the Disco Clone, and enjoys the B52s Rock Lobster. Plus: Eno, Feminism, and the first ever thrift shop in NYC. 

Edited by Matt Huxley.
Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod
https://www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk/

Tracklist:
Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance
Public Image Ltd - Public Image
Gang of Four - Damaged Goods
Al Green - Take Me to the River
Cristina - Disco Clone
B52s - Rock Lobster

Books:
Bernard Gendron - Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club

UNLOCKED: we've decided to share this interview with writer Toby Manning that we originally distributed to patrons in May 2025. To hear dozen more bonus episodes on a vast array of topics, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to become a patron.

In this episode we welcome writer Toby Manning to the show to discuss his recent book Mixing Pop and Politics: A Marxist History of Popular Music. Toby's book offers a political reading of popular music, taking as its methodological starting point the songs found in the charts from the 1950s to the present day, to explore how the music people listen to reflects and resists the politics of their time in fascinating ways.
In this show Jeremy, Tim and Toby discuss the charts themselves, how we think of 'popular music', and discuss lyrics as a tool for analysis. This being LITM, we of course spend some time on the hits of the 1970s, but we hear also about '80s synth pop and yacht rock, Annie Lennox, MJ, and contemporary artists like FKA Twigs and Little Sims. Also found inside: the GLC, the High Sixties and Kneecap.

Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod
www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing and dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to sign up.

In this episode we begin a patrons mini-series on one of the most unique and beloved characters of the LITM story, Arthur Russell. Given Tim literally wrote the book on the singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist, you’re in good hands. We begin with the story of Arthur’s early life in Iowa and his move to San Francisco, including experiences with Buddhism and drugs, alongside musical instruction from the great Ali Akbar Khan. Tim and Jeremy paint a picture of Arthur’s explorations in countercultural living, refute the idea that he simply wasn’t good at finishing things, and introduce the musician as an avatar for the particular melting pot of NYC music and art culture. Join us next time to see us go bang…

Produced by Matt Huxley.
www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk

Tracklist:
Arthur Russell - This Time Dad You’re Wrong 
Arthur Russell - That’s Us / Wild Combination
Ali Akbar Khan - Shri Rag
Terry Riley - In C

On this week’s episode we return to 70s for the first of a mini-series on post-punk. A historical period, an unhelpful genre descriptor, a structure of feeling? Whatever it is, the guitar bands of the UK and NYC in 1978 were creating some serious music. Jeremy and Tim discuss where the term came from, what exactly the ‘punk’ it was following was, and some the music’s early proponents. With reference to The Slits, Wire, Talking Heads and more, we hear about the Hacienda, John Peel, Modernism and Mark E Smith. The guys unpack how funk and reggae were influencing bands like The Contortions in their experimentation with rhythm, visit the CBGB club in New York, and dispute received ideas about the division between punk and disco. Finally, we introduce a major character in out story over the coming months: Arthur Russell.

Tracklist:
The Slits - New Town (John Peel Session)
Wire - I Am the Fly
The Fall - Stepping Out
Talking Heads - Tentative Decisions
The Contortions - I Can’t Stand Myself 

Books:
Simon Reynolds - Rip It Up and Start Again
John Savage - ‘The New Musick’ in Time Travel

To hear the extended, 12", almost-2-hour version of this conversation, including discussion on Maximo Park, Kenickie and Bob Davenport, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and become a patron from just £3 a month.

In this episode of LITM Jeremy is joined by writer and editor of Tribune magazine Alex Niven to talk about the musical history of England’s North East. Our interest in this subject was piqued by Sam Fender’s victory in last year’s Mercury Music Prize. Fender is himself an artist indebted to our recent subject, Bruce Springsteen. Alex talks us through the particulars of the region, one of Britain’s main post-industrial heartlands, exploring through music various expressions of white working class identity and a particular form of masculinity that artists have variously embodied or pushed against. Jeremy and Alex discuss blues rock, ‘sophsti-pop’ and Sting, the folk club legacy of the North East, Richard Dawson, the smallpipes and the Sultans of Swing.

Alex Niven is the author of Folk Opposition, Definitely Maybe for 33 1/3, New Model Island: How to Build a Radical Culture Beyond the Idea of England and The North Will Rise Again: In Search of the Future in Northern Heartlands.

Tracklist:
Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under
The Animals - House of the Rising Sun
The Animals - We Gotta Get Outta This Place
Eric Burdon and War - Spill the Wine
Lindisfarne - Clear White Light
Alan Hull - I Hate to See You Cry
Lindisfarne - Fog on the Tyne
Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing
Pet Shop Boys - Being Boring
Sting - All This Time
Richard Dawson - The Vile Stuff
Sam Fender - People Watching
Kathryn Tickell - Bone Music