Dennis McNally was the Grateful Dead’s publicist in the mid-‘80s, one of many reasons why he’s supremely qualified to write his new book about the birth of the counterculture in America’s West and East Coast and Britain. ‘The Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies And Created the Sixties’, a celebration of music, beat poetry, radical thinking, free speech and artistic liberty, seems even more precious now in the light of recent events. All sorts are discussed here, these being some of the highlights …

… how the Summer of Love of ‘67 actually happened in the Fall of ‘66 in Haight-Ashbury.

… “rigid, stagnant, terrifying”: early ‘60s America before the revolution.

… the three key cities that “experimented with freedom”.

... how San Francisco “cherished strangeness” and had a self-proclaimed ruler, Emperor Norton, who created his own currency.

… how the Grateful Dead - “the ultimate example of the bohemian pulse writ large in music” – spent $1m building a sound system when they were earning $125 a week.

… the influence of Private Eye, Beyond The Fringe and That Was The Week That Was on British culture. And of Lenny Bruce, the Hungry I club, Bill Cosby, Woody Allen and Mort Sahl in America.

… how Rebel Without A Cause and the Wild One helped establish the West Coast as rebellious.

… “there are two flags of freedom – one to make as much money as possible, the other to be as open-minded and thoughtful about everything”.

… Eisenhower said “in God we trust!” But which God?

… the entire security for the 25,000 crowd at the Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park was two mounted policemen.

… “nothing is more fun than researching”.

... how the counter-culture was created with very little money or technology.

Order the Last Great Dream here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Great-Dream-Bohemians-Hippies/dp/0306835665

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Passing the thermometer of conversation over the rock and roll news to see where the mercury rises, which this week includes …

… the new Barbra Streisand duets album. Duets are ‘playlets’, small intense dramas that depend on human interaction, but so many are recorded separately (including, tragically, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell).

… but … duets you HAVE to hear! eg Cash & Carter, Otis Redding & Carla Thomas, Ray Charles & Betty Carter, Siouxsie & Morrissey, Nick Cave & Kylie, Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush.

… the extraordinary story of the rebirth and Indian Summer of Mississippi John Hurt after 40 years of invisibility.

… blues lyrics that now seem unimaginable.

… Frank Zappa as a drug dealer? Miles Davis as a pimp? Cyndi Lauper as a trophy wife? Real or made-up Miami Vice rock star cameos.

… great opening lines – “We got married in a fever …!”

… how you always learn something you never knew about someone from their obituary - like Mike Peters’ involvement in the highest altitude concert ever performed (on Everest with Glenn Tilbrook and Slim Jim Phantom).

… where people listen to the Word In Your Ear “poddy” – eg in the bath, in court, at wedding receptions, by the Allman Brothers’ graveside.

Plus birthday guest John Montagna on rock stars who should be in a TV series.

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In which comedian Al Murray and historian James Holland talk about their new book Victory ’45 and our twin national obsessions, the Second World War and The Beatles. Includes:

….how being emotionally shut down enabled Montgomery to collect the surrender at Luneburg Heath

….how a profound sense of duty helped Harry Truman make the most dreadful decisions anyone has ever faced

…how German soldiers could keep on invoicing right until the end

…what all this has to tell us about our present predicament

…why thousands of blokes in camo (and a surprising amount of women) attend their We Have Ways Fest every summer: https://wehavewaysfest.co.uk/

….what it is that continues to fascinate us about World War II.

….how its story is being told in new ways

…how they both came to The Beatles

Buy Victory '45 here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victory-45-history-bestselling-historians/dp/0857507958

Help us to keep the conversation going by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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