17 Episodes

  1. #15 - Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) / Kate Bush

    Published: 11/09/2025

  2. #14 - Good Life / Inner City

    Published: 28/08/2025

  3. #12 - Family Affair / Sly and the Family Stone

    Published: 14/08/2025

  4. #11 - I Feel Love / Donna Summer

    Published: 14/08/2025

  5. #13 - SOS / ABBA

    Published: 14/08/2025

  6. Series 2 trailer

    Published: 07/08/2025

  7. #10 - River Deep — Mountain High / Ike & Tina Turner

    Published: 27/08/2020

  8. #9 - The Makings of You / Curtis Mayfield

    Published: 13/08/2020

  9. #8 - Walkin' After Midnight & Crazy / Patsy Cline

    Published: 30/07/2020

  10. #7 - Cigarettes and Coffee / Otis Redding

    Published: 16/07/2020

  11. #6 - Jealous Guy / John Lennon

    Published: 01/07/2020

  12. #5 - Son of a Preacher Man / Dusty Springfield

    Published: 17/06/2020

  13. #4 - God Only Knows / The Beach Boys

    Published: 04/06/2020

  14. #3 - You're All I Need to Get By / Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

    Published: 21/05/2020

  15. #2 - One Fine Day / The Chiffons

    Published: 21/05/2020

  16. #1 - Bring It On Home to Me / Sam Cooke

    Published: 21/05/2020

  17. Series 1 trailer

    Published: 13/05/2020

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Award-winning music analysis podcast, The Secret Life of Songs, returns with a new series exploring classic songs from the 1970s and 80s. Hear how the fallout from the disappointed hopes of the 1960s was explored in the work of Sly Stone and Joni Mitchell, how the unearthly new sounds unlocked by radical new music technology was used to express both utopian and dystopian impulses by Giorgio Moroder and the originators of Detroit Techno, and how the era’s most divisive cultural concept - postmodernism - was uncannily reflected in the output of the era’s most divisive pop band - ABBA. All of this - and more - is presented by host Anthony in his inimitable style: deftly weaving fine-grained musical analysis, historical context and philosophical reflection with his own impassioned recreations of the music to produce embodied, thoroughly grounded and deeply personal insights into these wonderful songs. Winner of the bronze award in 'Best Arts & Culture Podcast' at the British Podcast Awards 2021.