Programming note: with autumn on the way, this radio show will start running biweekly. New episodes will drop every other Friday on this Substack and all podcast apps.
This week we explore lots of cool end-of-summer vibes and follow a trail that unearths some fantastic 70’s boogies I hadn’t heard in a long time — Sly Stone, Grace Jones, Harry Nilsson, Hot Chocolate etc.
And in my popular NAMEDROPPING segment, I tell my story about failing to pick up Randy Newman from JFK airport (even though I was holding a very f*cking clearly written sign with his name on it) — and we listen to some of Randy’s early behind-the-scenes work with Peggy Lee and Leiber & Stoller.
We also investigate how a few of our most innovative artists play around in the 1970’s with the schmaltzy grooves of “easy listening” music. So cool. And in the end, we luxuriate in some of the most melodramatic pop songs of all time.
There’s some particularly incredible singing in this episode. Peggy Lee and Sly Stone might win the best-singers-of-the-week award but, jeez, it’s a tight contest.
Enjoy!
-✌️❤️Walt
As always, I don’t do any prep research or Googling for these shows, I just use information that’s either in my head or on the record sleeve in front of me. So please enjoy some occasional old-school imprecise information. And please send me any corrections, comments, questions, requests or complaints.
You can add the podcast version of this radio show to Apple podcasts from my Substack and it’ll update weekly (that’s what I’d do).
The Walter Martin Radio Hour airs Sunday nights at 8pm on WEXT 97.1/106.1 upstate NY.
Walter Martin Radio Hour #13