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A special April 4, 2011 edition of Connections on WPKN with Eric Cocks, exploring Bob Dylan and The Beatles in mono, plus a wide variety of music from the present and the past.

Up until the late 1960's, records by The Beatles, Bob Dylan and many others were primarily mixed in mono. That's where all the focus was. The aim was to get the best possible balance between the vocals and instruments for playback on one speaker. Stereo was an afterthought... considered a gimmick at the time. Stereo mixes were often done by second engineers, well after all effort had been made to get a great mono mix. Yet all these years later, the stereo mixes are what many of us have become used to, especially in the cd and mp3 eras.

The first half hour of this show explores the mono mixes of songs by The Beatles and Bob Dylan.

After that, music by Nellie McKay, Bo Diddley, LCD Soundsystem, Randy Newman, Raul Malo, Dave Edmunds, Japan, Robert Plant, The Tod Puddle Martyrs, The Beach Boys, Dodos and more.

Also Peppy Castro and The Blues Magoos, an interview excerpt from Tommy James (talking about the origin of Mony Mony), and Sam Phillips talking about her brilliant cover of (I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone.

Plus music from Mojo Mancini, Brian Eno, Maple Mars, Peter Rechter and The Tol Puddle Martyrs, Burning Wire, Anna Rose, Risa Hall, Debora Iyall (formerly of Romeo Void), Belle & Sebastian, the original version of I Go To Pieces by songwriter Del Shannon, comedy from Mike Nichols & Elaine May and more...

The entire interview with Sam Phillips can be found in the WPKN archives featured section, or at: http://archives.wpkn.org/bookmarks/listen/14471

Special thanks to Expecting Rain, Jan at Psychedelic Central and Bob Meshnick for greatly valued inspiration.

For updates, info and occasional videos, feel free to join the FaceBook page: Connections on WPKN

Stay tuned for future episodes and in depth interviews...

Connections... with Eric Cocks

Explores the connections between songs, songwriters, musicians, producers and people... often in surprising ways.

Vital, intelligent music with true artistic vision.

Includes extended features on specific artists such as Bob Dylan, The Kinks, The Beatles and far more. Also comedy by Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Eddie Izzard, Paul Krassner and others with a rock and roll renegade attitude. In depth explorations of early electronic music (and how it relates to current music). Vital new music that deserves to be heard. Surf music. Garage bands. British invasion. Rock and Roll. John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Jimi Hendrix, Laurie Anderson, William Burroughs, Robert Anton Wilson, The Blues Magoos, David Bowie, The Beach Boys, Dr Fiorella Terenzi, Beethoven, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, Alex Chilton, Tom Petty, The Pretenders, Blondie, demos, rarities, unreleased new music and far more may be part of any given show. Also live interviews of performers, writers, producers, engineers, session musicians and people behind the scenes. Plus unexpected surprises...

Previous in depth interviews include Sam Phillips, Peppy Castro of The Blues Magoos, author/comedian Paul Krassner, Chris Frantz, Neil Innes, Tommy James, legendary session musician Carol Kaye and more. All are available in archives for about 385 days. (Maybe that'll get extended one day.)  Stay tuned for future interviews and special features.

The show will keep changing over time.

Tune in every 2nd and 4th Monday of each month from 9 am to noon eastern. Also special editions at other times. Available live at http://wpkn.org or listen later in archives.

For further info, updates, news, videos and special features, please check the FaceBook site: Connections on WPKN

Thanks for tuning in!