The Buskers’ Hall of Fame – from Moondog and Billy Bragg to Don Partridge and “the skating Sikh”.

Louis Armstrong, Wild Man Fischer, Irving Berlin and Lucinda Williams all started out as buskers and Cary Baker’s ‘Down On The Corner’ traces the romance and influence of street players from Ancient Rome via Chicago’s Maxwell Street to Elvis Costello outside the CBS conference and beyond. Cary, David and Mark chuck coins in the conversational hat, among them …  … the turban and rollerblades stagewear of Harry Perry aka “the Skating Sikh”.… Blind Arvella Gray who took up busking because of a gun battle. … the sight of Bongo Joe on his daily commute (a moped loaded with steel drums).   … what Mick Jagger learnt from Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. … Ted Hawkins' journey from Venice Beach to Geffen Records. … the time Cary met Moondog dressed as a Viking and why he was a symbol of old New York. … how Billy Bragg learnt festival crowd control playing street corners. … Madeleine Peyroux, aged 15, playing Paris subways. … Jesse Fuller, father of the one-man band. … do buskers now make it via Instagram? … the only gig where you can play the same song repeatedly. … and when is busking just noise pollution? Order Cary Baker’s Down On The Corner here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Down-Corner-Adventures-Busking-Street/dp/1916829104Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Om Podcasten

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1.Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience. Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.