Soul Music

"May you never lay your head down without a hand to hold / May you never make your bed out in the cold."

A perfect folk song of brotherly affection, with simply voice and guitar, John's Martyn's May You Never has captured listeners' hearts since 1971.

John Martyn was born in Surrey in 1948 and grew up in Glasgow. Part of the potent London folk scene in the late 60s early 70s, John's style evolved from these folk roots. Written in his early 20s, the enduring version of May You Never was recorded in one take in the early hours of recording his beloved 1973 album, Solid Air. The lyrics encapsulate something of the essence of John Martyn: sweet, joyful and affectionate, yet with a hint of danger ("And may you never lose your temper / If you get in a bar room fight"). John's life was beset by substance abuse and addiction and he died in 2009, age 60.

May You Never, perhaps his most famous song, is remembered by those whose lives became entwined with the song, and by others who knew John or have covered it.

Featuring: Michael Volpe, Executive Director of If Opera; Lauren Bensted, a writer based in London; Graeme Thomson, author of Small Hours: The Long Night of John Martyn; Spencer Cozens, keyboard player and Musical Director in John Martyn's band from 1990-2009; Blythe Pepino, Kit Hawes, Pete Josef and Sam Brookes from The John Martyn Project.

With thanks to Kit Hawes and Spencer Cozens for the instrumental recordings.

Burns began a correspondence with Agnes McElhose, also known as Clarinda and Nancy, a married woman he was besotted with. When she left Scotland to reunite with her husband he wrote Ae Fond Kiss as a heartfelt farewell. It was later set to music and is one of his most famous 'songs' along with Auld Lang Syne and My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose.

Karen Matheson the singer with Capercaillie talks about its meaning to her and how performing it at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 was a very special moment.

Joan Donaldson from Michigan grew up with Scottish music and has called her latest historical novel Ae Fond Kiss. She says she channelled her grief into the characters as a way of dealing with a devastating loss.

Sir Geoff Palmer discovered the song when he arrived in Edinburgh in the 1960s. He has traced Burns' and the song's connection to his home country of Jamaica and feels proud of the links he discovered.

For film maker Karen Guthrie from Ayrshire - Burns' birthplace - coping with and caring for her estranged parents meant long drives home through the countryside he inhabited. It was a journey of rediscovering Scotland's national poet and relating her family's story to Ae Fond Kiss.

Musician Seonaid Aitken plays both versions of the song on the violin and explains how the music conveys the feelings of longing after an unresolved love affair.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Stories of love, loss and legacy surrounding Donna Summer's iconic 1977 hit. Producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte wanted to make something which sounded like the future, and sure enough 'I Feel Love' went on to revolutionise disco and pave the way for electronic dance music. Almost 40 years on, it still sounds fresh to this day: the pumping arpeggiated bassline, the synthesized drones, and Donna's soaring multi-tracked vocals.

Writer and AIDS activist Mark S. King reflects on what the song meant to him back when it was first released, and then later through the HIV/AIDS crisis. Retail consultant and author Mary Portas shares how the song got her through a difficult time of loss, taking her to a place beyond grief. A place of freedom and dance. Singer-songwriter Bruce Sudano, Donna Summer's husband of 32 years until her death in 2012, remembers the heady days when they first met. It was 1977, the same year that I Feel Love was written and released. And music journalist Danyel Smith, author of 'Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop', celebrates the incredible legacy of Donna and the power of this pioneering track. A track that still, decades later, gets people on the dance floor.

Producer: Becky Ripley