Mick and the PhatMan Talking Music – Détails, épisodes et analyse

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We’re back again for another year and kicking off by looking at supergroups – that “elite” class of rock bands made up of members of other top bands! What they are, how they form, and shining examples! 

 Our “Album You Must Hear Before You Die” is Cream’s 1967 album, “Disraeli Gears”, a stunning work from a trio featuring Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce & Ginger Baker. With tracks like “Sunshine of your Love”, this album set the benchmark for rock albums for the next 50 years (or more)! 

 We know you’ll enjoy this one. 

References: Eric Clapton, Cream, Disraeli Gears, Rolling Stone, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, The Four Seasons, Blind Faith, The Yardbirds, Bluesbreakers, Traffic, The Spencer Davis Group, Stevie Winwood, Bob Seidemann, Mariora Goschen, Derek And the Dominos, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, Duane Allman, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Led Zeppelin, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Bad Company, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Highwaymen, Traveling Wilburys, Honeydrippers, The Firm, Power Station, Them Crooked Vultures, Electronic, Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, “Nothing Compares to you” 

Playlist – Supergroups 

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A quick final episode to see out the year! 

Christmas is many things to many people.  To us, it’s a chance to talk about themed music, or, in this case, movies that fit the theme. 

We talk about Phil Spector’s “A Christmas gift for You”, which is nowhere near as bad as it could be with that title.  Elsewhere in Rolling Stone’s 25 Greatest Xmas Albums, (which lives up to the terrible standard set by all their other “Greatest”), Elvis ranks below Phil Spector, The Carpenters wish us Season’s Greetings and Weezer’s “A Weezer Christmas” ranks below 2012’s “Christmas Joy in Latvia – Latvian Christmas Cantatas”.   

If you’ve never heard of Red Peter, you're probably lucky, as the song titles on his, “It’s a Red Peter’s Xmas” contain gems like, “It’s Christmas & you’re Sucking My Balls!”  So tasteful! 

As Kiss' Ace Frehley is now “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”, we look at a few of the many times those happy Kiss guys had disagreements.   

For a change, we look at IMDB’s list of the Top 10 Christmas movies.  No real surprises, but it’ll bring joy to your heart & a tear to your eye.  

See you on the last Sunday in January for our first episode of 2026. 

Enjoy the playlist. 

Xmas Playlist! 

References:  Red Peter, Red Peter’s Naughty Christmas, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Robert Dimery, A Christmas Gift for You, Phil Spector, The Ronettes, The Crystals, Darlene Love. Wall of Sound, Jack Nitzsche, Rolling Stone, Top 25 Christmas albums of all time, Top 10 Christmas movies, It's a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, A Christmas Story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Elf, Miracle on 34th Street, Die Hard 

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Why do you like the music you do?  Is it as simple as “It’s what I heard on the radio”? Or something deeper? People with elder siblings may be exposed to music earlier than first children.   Jeff had an older brother, so was exposed earlier to cool music - Beatles, Janis, Hendrix, and so on.  Mick was the eldest in his family and had to find his own taste. (No surprise considering what he listens to!) Were you bullied as a child?  Influence!  Did you share music with your friends?  Influence!  Did you have access to a good radio station?  Or print media?  Influence!! 

We talk about our early influences – musical & otherwise – and look at how they played a role in what we listen to today.   

In Rock News, Ringo has released a country album, and Toto is touring.  Oh well, shouldn’t take them long to play their 3 hits. 

You know Jeff's obsessed with AI, so he asked three AI brands to nominate the greatest albums of 1971.  Not much variation, really.  One day, we may ask them to understand quality, rather than sales figures, and see what they give us.    

Our Album You Must Listen to Before you Die is “Blue” by Joni Mitchell - a top grade album that deserves to be here.  Mick references Atlantic Records’ sampler called “Very Together” which featured “Carey” from this album, and points out a link between Joni Mitchell and Scottish hard rock band, Nazareth. 

How did YOUR tastes develop?  Drop us a line & let us know. 

Enjoy! 

References:  RAM Magazine, Rock Australia Magazine, Countdown, Molly Meldrum, 2DoubleJay, The Magus/Holger Brockman, Chris Winter, Mac Cocker, “Never Mind the Bollocks”, The Sex Pistols, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, David Bowie, “Five Years”, “Room to Move”, Chris Winter, “Starman”, “Rock'n'roll Suicide”, Birdland, Weather Report, Joe Zawinul, Brian Eno, “Another Green World”, “Zawinul Lava”, “Rock'n'Roll Animal”, Lou Reed, Steve Hunter, “Sweet Jane”, “Heroin”, “Rock’n’Roll”, Berlin, Alice Cooper, Velvet Underground, Peter Gabriel, “Car”, “Stranded”, Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, “Song for Europe”, “Street Life”, “Psalm”, Sisters of Mercy, XTC, Nico, REM, Television, Patti Smith, “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band”, The Beatles, "Within You Without You”, “Tomorrow Never Knows”, Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Like a Rolling Stone”, Revolver, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel, Pearl, Janis Joplin, Tapestry, Carole King, Slade Alive, Hot August Nigh”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, “Dark Side of the Moon”, “Led Zeppelin IV”, “Silk Degrees”, Box Scaggs, “Journey to the Centre of the Earth”, Rick Wakeman, “Woodstock”, “Monterey Pop”, “The Song Remains the Same”, “The Last Waltz”, The Guitar Spa, Redeye Records, John Foy, bootleg records, “His Master’s Voice”, “Sheetkeeckers”, Australian electronica/dance music store, Hipgnosis, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Regurgitator, “I like your old stuff better than your new stuff", DeepSeek, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Blue, Joni Mitchell, Henry Lewy, “Very Together”, “This Flight Tonight”, Nazareth  

Episode Playlist 

The first song played by 2DoubleJay - “You Just Like Me ‘Cos I’m Good in Bed” 

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Queen had just released “Bohemian Rhapsody” in 1976, with a ground-breaking film clip, and the question was, “Can they play the clip live?”.  Well, they not only did it, but they blew everyone's socks off!  

Mick and the Phatman were there and recall one of the best concerts ever seen in Australia.  

From Freddy Mercury appearing in silhouette, to a leap straight into a perfect recreation of the "rock" part of the song they showed 5,000 awestruck Aussies how it was done! 

References:  Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody, Sugar, Copper Blue, Bob Mould, Husker Du, ABBA, Toto, Frenzal Rhomb and a show with Bo Diddley, Sherbet and Cold Chisel all on the one bill.
 

Recommended Listening
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1SgQ8O8iKIHe7YsrxPf7EH?si=kHe8R9zWTXu8lYGYit6npw

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We’d love to know what you think of the podcast, what you’d like to hear us talk about, ask questions, or even let us know if we got something wrong!!
Contact us:
https://www.facebook.com/Mick-and-the-Phatman-Talking-Music-104246385065739
mickandthephatman@gmail.com

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This podcast is two guys born and bred in suburban Australia, whose opinions about music have been shaped by lots of concerts and shows, and rock music since their early teens.   

They discuss music and artists that made it into their collections in a fun, conversational style. 
References:  Queen, Bowie and Lou Reed, Cold Chisel, The Angels, Mi-Sex. 

Recommended Listening
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Vs2C9AsXFIZpEV4jJUvEw?si=icX1OzM7QsaY9PqG8mkHLg

Books:
I’m Your Man - Sylvie Simmons (Ecco/HarperCollins Publishers)

Web sites:

Klaus Voorman artworks:  www.voormann.com

Carol Kaye:  www.carolkaye.com

Polaroid in Concert reference (AC/DC & Skyhooks):  

http://www.ac-dc.net/archive/acdc_tour_history.php?date_id=140

We’d love to know what you think of the podcast, what you’d like to hear us talk about, ask questions, or even let us know if we got something wrong!!
Contact us:
https://www.facebook.com/Mick-and-the-Phatman-Talking-Music-104246385065739
mickandthephatman@gmail.com

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This episode, we look back at two hugely influential women artists – Patti Smith, whose 1975 “Horses” album inspired so many artists, and Marianne Faithfull, whose passing in January, 2025, is a huge loss.  

“Horses”, with its confrontational approach - “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine” - changed the landscape of rock music for the next few decades.  Produced by John Cale, of Velvet Underground fame, the album opened the door for so many women, including Debbie Harry of Blondie and Siouxsie Sue of Siouxsie & The Banshees, and so many English punk and new wave bands.  We talk about why we like this album, its influential impact, and how Patti Smith developed over later years. 

Marianne Faithfull has long been one of our favourites, and we talked about “Broken English” in Season 3. (If you haven’t heard that episode, here’s the link.) Tributes have come from every corner of the industry, all saying one thing – Marianne was inspirational to everyone she worked with, from The Rolling Stones to Metallica to Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. 

Banging our own drum for a moment, we’ve just been named as one of the top Australian Music Podcasts by monitoring service, Feedspot, which compiles the most comprehensive list of Australian Music Podcasts on the web. 

Great subjects.  Great episode.  Enjoy. 

References:  Marianne Faithfull, Patti Smith, Andrew Loog Oldham, Sister Morphine, Girl on a Motorcycle, Samuel Beckett, homelessness, Hipgnosis, Storm Thorgerson, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, “The Memory Remains”, Metallica, Lars Ulrich, Warren Ellis, She Walks in Beauty, Graham Coxon, Blur, TOTO, “Africa”, “Hold The Line”, "Rosanna”, Robert Dimery, 1001 Albums You Must Listen to Before You Die,  Jim Morrison, oil shortage – 70's, Robert Mapplethorpe, Allen Lanier, Blue Öyster Cult, Tom Verlaine, Television, "Break It Up",  John Cale, “Gloria”, Van Morrison, “Marquee Moon”, “Land (Horses)”, “Radio Ethiopia”, “Wave”, “Easter”, “Because the Night”, Siouxsie Sioux, Siouxsie & The Banshees, R.E.M.,  Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Morrissey, Johnny Marr,  Courtney Love, Hole, PJ Harvey 

Episode playlist

Horses

Broken English

Marianne Faithfull - Series 3, Episode 14

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Part 2 of our fascinating conversation with Radio Birdman's Rob Younger.  From music production styles, to why some people can't keep it in their pants, and the disgraceful lack of credit given to Stevie Wright for the success of The Easybeats, there's never a dull moment in this wide-ranging discussion.  

Enjoy!

References:  Rock producers, production styles, guitarists, band leaders, Died Pretty, Plunderers, Dragon, Punk rock UK vs US, Patti Smith, John Cale, orchestration, Jeff Beck, Frank Zappa, Mothers of Invention, 60's songwriting & playing, Keith Moon, John Bonham, weird time signatures, Norman Gunston, Top 40, Live vs studio playing, Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Stevie Wright, Vanda/Young, The Easybeats, The Plunderers 

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A special treat for you this episode!  Rob Younger, lead singer of legendary Australian group, Radio /Birdman, joins us in the studio to give us his thoughts on everything from music production to the influence of the Beatles on all rock music.   

Rob’s near-encyclopedic knowledge of the rock era is impressive, and it's eye-opening to hear his opinions on the shameful treatment of Stevie Wright (The Easybeats), the lyrics of Jim Morrison and Robert Plant, and guitarists "wanking" on stage, with plenty of stops in-between.   

The conversation went so long, we had to split it into 2 fascinating parts!  

We had a blast talking to Rob, and hope you do, too. 

Playlist:  Radios Appear

References:  Radio Birdman, New Christs, Nick Cave, Pere Ubu, influence of The Beatles, McCartney vs Lennon, Led Zeppelin, John Bonham's drumming, Australian music of the 70's, Oxford Hotel, Frank Zappa, Died Pretty 

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In case you hadn’t noticed, we love a good cover version! This episode, we’re looking at covers - staples, covers from strange sources, and some songs that have had a LOT of covers, including a bunch of covers of David Bowie's “Heroes”, one of Mick's favourite songs of all time. 

Our Album You Must Hear before You Die is “Is This It?” by The Strokes. This punk/Britpop-influenced album got rave reviews on release in 2001 from Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, and New Musical Express.  We’re not convinced.  

In Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, we mourn the loss of Wayne Osmond (of the Osmond Brothers), Chad Morgan, the Aussie country great, and Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary.  We hope they get to sing a rousing chorus of “Puff the Magic Dragon" together.  

As usual, there’s heaps of fun.  Enjoy!! 

Playlist (all the songs and artists referenced in the episode) 

Playlist – “Heroes” covers 

References:  Heroes, REM, Leonard Cohen, “Suzanne”, “Hallelujah", Bob Dylan, “All along the Watchtower”, "If Not for You”, Olivia Newton-John, Johnny Cash, American Recordings, “All the Young Dudes”, Mott the Hoople, Ian Hunter, XTC, White Music, “This is Pop”, Devo, “(I can’t get no) Satisfaction”, Zoot, “Eleanor Rigby”, Rick Springfield, Howard Gable, Alison Durbin, 801, “Tomorrow Never Knows”, ” 801 Live, "You Really Got Me”, Ministry, “Lay Lady Lay”, Al Jourgenson, “Heartbreak Hotel”, Elvis Presley, John Cale, June 1, 1974, Slow Dazzle, Fragments of a Rainy Season, Nirvana, "The Man Who Sold The World", “Unplugged”, Mick Ronson, Linda Ronstadt, “Different Drum”, Stone Ponies, Mike Nesmith, “You’re No Good”, “Poor Poor Pitiful Me”, Cowboy Junkies, “Sweet Jane”, Fine Young Cannibals, “Suspicious Minds”, Talking Heads, “Take Me to The River”, Elvis Costello, “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, And Understanding”, George Benson, “On Broadway”, Mia Dyson, “The Passenger”, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Sara Blasko, “Flame Trees”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, Reg Livermore, “Celluloid Heroes”, The Kinks, Peter Gabriel, Scratch My Back, I’ll Scratch Yours, Motorhead, David Hasselhoff, Blondie, Oasis, Nico, Moby (with Mindy Jones), Phillip Glass, “Superman”, Lifes Rich Pageant, “There She Goes Again”, “Pale Blue Eyes”, “First we take Manhattan”,  

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Every band/artist has to have a first album.  Sometimes those albums are good, sometimes they’re not, and sometimes they just show potential.  This episode, we look at some first albums over the gamut of the rock era that we regard as great, including some Australian albums. You've probably heard of most, but not all. 

In rock news, we look at Neil Young, The Wiggles (yes!), Joe Bonamassa, Jethro Tull and Billboard's new list – The Top 200 Albums of the 21st Century. 

 Our Album You Must Hear before You Die is Paris 1919 by John Cale. Mick regards this elegant 1973 album from the Velvet Underground co-founder as a stunning listen, and a great intro to John Cale.  Chris Thomas’ production is, as usual, precise, while Cale presents some wonderful imagery in the lyrics.   

References:  John Cale, Paris 1919, “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”, Fragments of a Rainy Season, Brian Wilson, UCLA Symphony Orchestra, Words for the Dying, Dylan Thomas, Chris Thomas, Roxy Music, Eno, Sex Pistols, Pretenders, INXS, Bowie, Lou Reed, Queen, The Police, Outlandos d’Amour, “Can’t Stand Losing You”, “Roxanne”, Stewart Copeland, Sting, Rod Stewart, The Tubes, “White Punks on Dope”, “What do you want from life?”, “a baby’s arm holding an apple”, Kate Bush, The Kick Inside, David Gilmour, “Wuthering Heights”, Wuthering Heights Day, Roxy Music, Kari-Ann Moller, Chris Jagger, Andy Mackay, saxophone, “Re-make / Re-model", Bryan Ferry, Steely Dan, Can't Buy a Thrill, Jeff (Skunk) Baxter, “Do it Again”, “Reelin’ in the Years”, “Only a fool would say that”, John Lennon, Imagine, Robert Dimery, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Peter Gabriel, The Cure, Three Imaginary Boys, Boys Don’t Cry, "10:15 Saturday Night", Robert Smith, Television, Marquee Moon, Devo, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, Rolling Stones, "Satisfaction", Mark Mothersbaugh, Violent Femmes, "Kiss Off", "Add It Up", “Glister in the sun”, "Blister in the Sun", Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols, Marlon Brando, The Wild One, Malcolm McLaren, The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle, “Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?”, Ramones, Mi-Sex, Graffiti Crimes, Midnight Oil, “Run by Night”, 2JJ, Cold Chisel, Khe Sanh, Skyhooks, Living in the 70’s, “You just like me ‘cos I’m good in bed”, Neil Young, Oceanside Countryside, Joe Bonamassa, Adele, Taylor Swift, Jethro Tull, Donald Trump 

Playlist – Everything we talked about in this episode 

The Wiggles’ new album (snippet) 

Donald Trump strikes again!