This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode of the show. To hear the full episode and dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and sign up from £3 a month.

In this episode of LITM Extra, Jeremy takes the mic solo to expand a little on our recent patrons show on Kneecap, turning an eye specifically to musical and cultural antecedents of the Irish trio’s project. With reference to music both from the island of Ireland and abroad, Jeremy discusses Stiff Little Fingers, dancehall chatting, Scousers, and Welsh language punk bands. He introduces two Irish rap outfits - Marxman and Scary Eire - which clearly foreshadow Kneecap, alongside some mid-90s Irish techno and a classic slice of rave rap. Beyond the beats, Jeremy discusses Celtic language and culture, changing attitudes to Ireland in Britain, the ‘Celtic Tiger’, and even throws in  the Mushie Picker Boogie. 

The article about Papa Levi Jeremy mentions can be found here:

https://uncarved.org/dub/papalevi.html 

Produced by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:
Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster
Papa Levi - Militancy
Jegsy Dodd and the Sons of Harry Cross - Mushie Picker Boogie
Yr Anhrefn - Rhedeg i Paris
Marxman - Sad Affair
Scary Eire - Howld yer Whist
Scary Eire - The Dole Q
Secret Weapon - Dream Lover (Sound Crowd Remix) 

Here it is: our 18th and final episode of series 6. We’ve covered punk, Studio 54, the Warehouse, Black Disco, Eurodisco and Saturday Night Fever, but today Jeremy and Tim summarise some final reflections on the city of New York in the pivotal year of 1977. They discuss the early career of a businessman who liked to frequent the discotheques and would go on to become president of the USA, linking Mr Trump to a culture of corporate welfare and downtown development. We hear about the Son of Sam, the World Series, power cuts, looting, scratching, breaking, the Bronx and the beats that propelled the nascent Hip Hop culture.
Thanks to everyone who’s joined us on our deep dive this series - we’ll be taking a short summer break and will be back some time in September with more music, dance floors, sound systems and counterculture.

Produced by Matt Huxley.

Do check out the podcasts Jem shouts out in end notes of this show. We're listing them here, you can find them wherever you find this:
Pro Revolution Soccer
Red Medicine
Politics Theory Other

We are now on Youtube! Find series 6 here: https://www.youtube.com/@LITMPodcast

Remember, we have a rolling playlist of all the tracks discussed over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZpKyqhvhOXfTuPMHCBkFs

Tracklist:
Andrea True - What’s Your Name, What’s Your Number
Ryan Harvey - Old Man Trump
Philadelphia  All Stars - Let’s Clean Up the Ghetto
The Trammps - The Night the Lights Went Out
Parliament - Flashlight

In response to the death of the Ozzy Osborne this week, we've unlocked this patrons episode from last year about heavy metal, Black Sabbath and the Prince of Darkness himself. If you like this you can hear a lot more like it by becoming a patron at Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this episode Jeremy raises a devil’s horn salute to the gods and demons of heavy metal. He explores the etymology of the genre term, excavating its shared roots with acid rock, and explaining how heavy metal compliments our story here on LITM. With reference to Easy Rider and the misconceived ‘end of the ‘60s’, we hear about how biker culture, the legacy of the blues and changing regimes of accumulation contributed to the anguished intensity expressed in the music of Led Zeppelin, King Crimson and Iron Butterfly. 

Jeremy also explores noise, feedback and distortion as the new aesthetic tools of metal, questions why people in the late 60s would want to explore occult and black magic ideas, and finishes with a deep dive on Black Sabbath, asking: was heavy metal an expression of the blues for white guys who’s dad’s worked in the car factories of Birmingham?

Books and Films:

Easy Rider
Robert Walser - Running with the Devil: Power, Gender and Madness in Heavy Metal Music

Tracklist:

Steppenwolf - Born to be Wild 

Blue Cheer - Summertime Blues 

The Who - My Generation (Live 1968) 

Led Zeppelin - Dazed and Confused 

Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love 

King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man 

Iron Butterfly - Easy Rider (Let the Wind Pay the Way) 

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath 

Black Sabbath - Paranoid 

Black Sabbath - War Pigs 

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing, and dozens more, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and become a patron from £3 a month.

In this patrons episode we wanted to spend some time talking about the band on everyone’s lips: Kneecap. The Belfast three-piece have been in the headlines of all the papers in recent weeks for their vocal support of Palestine, trouble with the law, and Transatlantic festival shutdowns. Tim and Jeremy provide a healthy dollop of context to the group, including a potted history of Irish independence, the post-Good Friday Northern Irish settlement, working class culture and the changing status of the Irish language at home and abroad. In addition to this they discuss rave rap, drug humour, Welsh, McCarthyism, Kneecap’s eponymous 2024 film, their Glastonbury appearance, the BBC, and the British state response to their music and performances.
Jeremy is going to follow up this show with a supplementary episode on some of the musical antecedents to what Kneecap are up to, so hold tight for that in the coming few weeks.

Tracklist:
Kneecap - C.E.A.R.T.A

Kneecap - Amach Anocht
Kneecap x DYRT - Mam
Kneecap - Parful
Kneecap - Guilty Conscience
Kneecap ft Money - The Recap

We’re almost at the end of our 1977 series, but in true LITM fashion why have just one show on a topic when you could have two? Across this and the next episode we’ll be filling in a few gaps we haven’t touched on so far, and providing some broad economic and political scene-setting for this seminal year in both Britain and the States.
In this episode we hear about the emergent neoliberal order, the oil crisis, austerity then and now, and OPEC. Jeremy and Tim consider escapism in music and film, Punk, Mods, the Silver Jubilee and the decline of the British Empire. They discuss the mighty Paul Weller, the Sex Pistols, Alice in Wonderland, and dig deep into the crates for the James Bond theme as you’ve never heard it before...

Next time we’ll be looking to America for our final show of this run.
Do check out the podcasts Jem shouts out in end notes of this show. We're listing them here, you can find them wherever you find this:
Pro Revolution Soccer
Red Medicine
Politics Theory Other
Produced by Matt Huxley.

Become a patron for as little as £3 per month by visiting Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

We are now on Youtube! Find series 6 here: https://www.youtube.com/@LITMPodcast

Remember, we have a rolling playlist of all the tracks discussed over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZpKyqhvhOXfTuPMHCBkFs

Tracklist:
Biddu Orchestra - James Bond Disco Theme (Journey into Fantasy)
The Jam - In The City
The Jam - Eton Rifles
Sex Pistols - God Save the Queen
Talking Heads - Don’t Worry About the Government 

This is an excerpt from a patrons episode. to hear the full thing and dozens more, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and become a patron from £3 per month.

In this patrons-only episode we welcome writer and anti-fascist activist Joe Mulhall to the show to discuss his fantastic book Rebel Sounds: Music as Resistance, a survey across time and place of groups and cultures using musics as part of their resistance to forms of racism and imperialism. We hear about Irish rebel songs, Kneecap and an impromptu Irish history quiz in the toilets of a Wolftones gig; the role of Jazz, Blues and Soul in the Civil Rights Struggle; revisit Tropicalia with fresh eyes and ears; and fly to Nigeria to visit the Felabration in Lagos. Alongside these topics we consider how our personal tastes can divert from a music’s political power, US cultural hegemony, music in the USSR, 'bone records’, Two Tone, and bring things up to date with a trip to the trenches of Ukraine.
We won’t provide an order link here, but you can get the hardback of Rebel Sounds in your local bookshop, and the paperback is forthcoming in the Autumn. Thanks to Joe for joining us.

In this episode, Tim and Jeremy complete our mini-series on Saturday Night Fever by looking at the film in its cinematographic context alongside two other huge movies of the late1970s. With reference to Rocky and Taxi Driver, the guys unearth the shared visions of class and race politics in the USA of the period. They discuss the particular place of Italian Americans in the culture more broadly, discuss particular forms of American-ness, and spend some time on the real life events that inspired the character of Rocky Balboa.
After that, attention returns to Travlota to wrap up SNF with a look at how the film was received at the time and since, and reflect on how their own attitudes to the movie have changed down the years. Plus the Trammps, Jem’s Grandma, and the answer to the question of whether David Mancuso ever saw Tony Manero up on the big screen…

Produced by Matt Huxley.

We are now on Youtube! Find series 6 here: https://www.youtube.com/@LITMPodcast

Remember, we have a rolling playlist of all the tracks discussed over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZpKyqhvhOXfTuPMHCBkFs

Tracklist:

Bernard Herrmann - Taxi Driver (Theme)

Bill Conti - Gonna Fly Now 

Bee Gees - Night Fever

The Trammps - Disco Inferno 

This is am excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing along with dozen more, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and sign up for as little as £3 a month.

In this patrons-only 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.

Thanks to Toby for coming on the show. If you'd like to order his book, you can do so from Repeater Books: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/mixing-pop-and-politics-a-marxist-history-of-popular-music/. Enter the code 'popdiscount' for some money off.

In this episode, Tim and Jeremy pull on their white suits for a full run-down rewatch of Saturday Night Fever. Starting with the iconic 'Stayin' Alive' opening sequence, they draw out the class, race and gender politics of the film, including Italian American stereotypes, consumer culture, Bruce Lee, meritocracy and male grooming. On the music side, they talk blue-eyed Soul, falsetto, an early drum loop, Bee Gees, Kool and the Gang, MFSB and more.
Produced by Matt Huxley.

We are now on Youtube! Find series 6 here: https://www.youtube.com/@LITMPodcast

Remember, we have a rolling playlist of all the tracks discussed over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZpKyqhvhOXfTuPMHCBkFs

Tracklist:

Bee Gees - Stayin’ Alive
MFSB - K-Jee
Bee Gees - More Than a Woman
Kool & the Gang - Open Sesame
Yvonne Elliman - If I Can’t Have You

The day has finally come: after 79 episodes of Love is the Message, it’s time to talk Travolta. Saturday Night Fever was always coming down the pipe for us, and now we’re giving it the LITM treatment.

In this episode, Tim and Jeremy establish some of the pre-history to the seminal 1977 film. With musical examples drawn from Vince Aletti’s Disco Files playlists, we hear about the rise of the suburbs in the USA, the dynamics between the different boroughs of mid-70s NYC, and consider the suburban disco scene. We ask again what makes disco disco, revisit the Hustle, tune up the Salsoul Orchestra and take a trip to a disco conference.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Saturday Night Fever without the Bee Gees: often-derided and much-mocked but one of the highest selling bands of all time, it was their music which provided the soundtrack to the film. Are they a guilty pleasure? Listen along to find out.

Produced by Matt Huxley.

We are now on Youtube! Find series 6 here: https://www.youtube.com/@LITMPodcast

Remember, we have a rolling playlist of all the tracks discussed over on Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZpKyqhvhOXfTuPMHCBkFs⁠

Tracklist:Carl Douglas - Blue Eyed Soul Gloria Scott - Just as Long as We’re Together Babe Ruth - Elusive

Tina Charles - Disco Fever 

Joe Bataan - The Bottle Van McCoy - The Hustle Salsoul Orchestra - The Salsoul Hustle Bee Gees - Spicks and Specks Bee Gees - Massachusetts Bee Gees - Jive Talkin’ Bee Gees - You Should be Dancing

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing and dozens more episodes on topics ranging from Walter Gibbons to Glam Rock, visit patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this patrons episode we conclude our two-parter on Bob Dylan, dragging him from where we left off last time in 1966 all the way up to the freewheeling year of 1977. Through a glut of albums we hear about John Hammond, spirituality, gnosis, religious iconography, St Augustine, Joe Hill and The Band. Dylan meets the Panthers, who don’t think much of him, he gets married and divorced, sets out on the road with the Rolling Thunder Review, and lights up the silver screen. Tim and Jeremy consider the Grain of his voice, the reception history of his mid-70s output, and leave him smiling as the happy hippy uncle we wish he’d became.

Tracklist:
Bob Dylan - As I Went Out One Morning
Bob Dylan - Lay, Lady, Lay
Bob Dylan - George Jackson
Bob Dylan - Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Bob Dylan - Meet Me in the Morning
Bob Dylan - Tangled Up in Blue
Bob Dylan, The Band - This Wheel’s on Fire
Bob Dylan - Isis 

Tim and Jeremy conclude our look at Eurodisco with a series of cuts from the mighty Giorgio Moroder. We hear the silky vocals of Donna Summer, the relentlessness of the 4-to-the-floor, the aesthetics of whiteness and what can only be called Prog Disco.

Also in the episode Tim recounts a recent visit to the Philharmonie de Paris, Jeremy revels in a Star Wars rework, and we board the Trans Europe Express once again to spend some time with Kraftwerk.

Remember, we have a rolling playlist of all the tracks discussed over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZpKyqhvhOXfTuPMHCBkFs

And you can hear plenty of bonus episodes by becoming a patron at patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

Produced by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:

Giorgio - From Here to Eternity 

Munich Machine - Get on the Funk Train

Donna Summer - Once Upon a Time 

Donna Summer - Back in Love Again
Meco - Star Wars Theme
Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express 

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing and a hell of a lot more, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

Timothée Chalamet is currently lighting up the silver screen as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. Have you seen in? We haven’t, but we still thought it high time to dig into some Dylanology. In this episode Tim and Jeremy discuss Bob’s early albums up to 1966, interrogating his intentions, his seriousness, his self-mythology, and whether he invented rock music.

Tracklist:
Bob Dylan - Song to Woody
Bob Dylan - Blowin’ in the Wind
Bob Dylan - Chimes of Freedom
Bob Dylan - Mr Tambourine Man

Tim and Jeremy are back on European soil for our second episode on Eurodisco. Examining their record boxes with a post-colonial lens they discuss the aesthetics and politics of race within the genre. We also here about homoeroticism, history-themed tracks, ‘the honky box’, and the life and times of two of the key players in the scene: Jacques Morali and Richie Rome.
And of course… Village People.

Next time – Moroder!

Tracklist:
The Ritchie Family - Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
The Ritchie Family - African Queens
Village People - San Francisco
Boney M - Ma Baker
Boney M - New York City

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full show and lots more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

For the first time in a while Tim and Jeremy dig into their record bags for a selection of tracks they’ve been enjoying recently. We hear the strange deep tones of the Rudra Veena, contemporary virtuosic New Age noodling out of California and some Antipodean sitar funk. Elsewhere in the episode Jeremy buys his first D’n’B white label in a long while, we get a few tributes to some big names of the UK scene, and revisit the mighty WAR.

Tracklist:

Madhuvanti Pal - Bhairavi (Part 1)
Turn On the Sunlight - Floating Sunset
Glass Beams - Black Sand
War - War is Coming! War is Coming!
Yannis & The Yaw - Walk Through Fire
Vibration Black Finger - New Wave (The Hustle Bustle Song)
Ariwo - El Alacrán
Sami Galbi - Dakchi Hani
Big Bud - Cloudsurfing
Calabra - Mazzara Return
The Mighty Zaf & Linkwood - Thinking About Phlash

In the first episode of 2025 Jeremy and Tim attempted to understand a somewhat maligned genre: Eurodisco. What is it and where did it come from? We hear about the cross-continental currents that gave rise to the form, unpack its aesthetics and spend time with some of its key proponents like the French composer and drummer Cerrone. Tim and Jeremy also take time to unpack the Switched On Classics, play us an infamous Beethoven reinvention, ask what the Enlightenment has to answer for, and compare Eurodisco and another genre that riles people up, prog rock.

Tracklist:
The SalSoul Orchestra - Magic Bird of Fire

The Walter Murphy Band - A Fifth of Beethoven 

Kongas - Jungle

Cerrone - Love in C Minor

Love and Kisses - I’ve Found Love (Now That I’ve Found You) 

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full show and lots more, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

On this patrons episode we complete our close reading of Resistance through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain’. Jeremy and Tim take in chapters on criminality and culture, Style, and feminist analysis of girls’ culture. They refer to another seminal work ‘Policing the Crisis’, interrogate the links between class and generational consciousness, and return to the Mods, alongside Taylor Swift and Ray Davis.

Jeremy and Tim also examine the long theoretical introduction to the book - a watershed piece of writing in the development of cultural studies. 

Tracklist:
Junior Murvin - Police and Thieves
The Kinks - Dedicated Follower Of Fashion
The Clash - Career Opportunities
David Cassidy - Cherish 

In this episode of Love is the Message Jeremy and Tim have packed a bag chock full of stone cold 1977 dance floor classics that share a Black Disco aesthetic. We hear a number of cuts from Tom Moulton and Walter Gibbons that can be pinpointed as some of the most important contributions to early remix culture (whilst still guaranteed to go off at a party). François K makes a fleeting appearance, alongside Boney M, Grace Jones, Miami, the SalSoul Orchestra and Henri Bergson. We close out the show with an all-timer in Lamont Dozier’s ‘Going Back to my Roots’. Enjoy this week listeners, as next time we’re taking on Euro Disco… 

Due to licensing issues, we can only play short clips of the music discussed. If you’d like to listen along to the full tracks, we have an ever-expanding Spotify playlist hosting (most) of the tracks played in the show. You can find Series 6 here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZpKyqhvhOXfTuPMHCBkFs

Produced by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:

CJ & Co - Devil’s Gun (Tom Moulton Mix)
Elton John - Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance) (Tom Moulton Mix)
First Choice - Dr Love (Tom Moulton Mix)
Loleatta Holloway - Hit and Run (Walter Gibbons Mix)
Rare Earth - Happy Song (François K Edit)
T-Connection - Do What You Wanna Do
Peter Brown - Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me?
Sine - Keep It Coming
Lamont Dozier - Going To My Roots

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full show, plus dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

We start this patrons episode with a tribute to Phil Cohen, a colleague of Jem and Tim’s at UEL and a fellow traveller to the Birmingham cultural studies writers discussed in this episode. From there we pick up where we left off in our reading of the seminal edited collection ‘Resistance Through Rituals’. Tim and Jem cover the two ethnographies of 70s drug use found in the book - weed and acid if you’re wondering - before rolling on to a disappointed essay on the Commune movement. We hear about Tim’s experience on a Kibbutz, The Farm and a funky cut from YES.
Later in the episode we examine two excellent pieces from the collection: Dick Hebdige on Reggae, Rastas and Rudis; and Ian Chambers on the Racial Politics of Rock’n’Roll.
Next time we’ll be completing our journey through the book with chapters on youth fashion, criminality and more, and taking a deep look at the weighty theoretical introduction.

Produced by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:
Yes - Yours is No Disgrace 

The Farm Band - Loving You
Bob Marley and the Wailers - Duppy Conqueror
Big Joe Turner - Shake Rattle and Roll

In this episode Tim and Jeremy continue the story of Frankie Knuckles first year at the controls of the seminal Chicago nightclub, the Warehouse. We hear an investigation of Frankie’s early musical aesthetic, how it would lend itself to the development of the House sound some years later, and whether stability or dynamism are better for a pumping dance floor.
Elsewhere in the episode we hear about how Robert Williams came to know Frankie and Larry Levan, the experiences the two young club kids had at the Continental Baths, the understated role of social workers in the story of dance history, and what the PMC have to do with Afrika Bambaataa.
Plus - stolen donuts, LSD in the fish tank, and Jeremy’s dreams of lamé…
Produced by Matt Huxley.
Due to licensing issues, we can only play short clips of the music discussed. If you’d like to listen along to the full tracks, we have an ever-expanding Spotify playlist hosting (most) of the tracks played in the show. You can find Series 6 here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZpKyqhvhOXfTuPMHCBkFs

Tracklist:
The Osmonds - One Bad Apple
The Originals - Down to Love Town
Roy Ayres - Running Away 

Pam Todd & Love Exchange - Let’s Get Together
First Choice - Let No Man Put Asunder
Made in USA - Melodies