A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs

By Andrew HickeySociety & Culture Documentary Music History Music History

Ranking
2nd
on Music History
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957
Followers
Typical duration
65 min
per episode
If it hooks
62%
finish an episode

Based on Podcast App listening data

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs episodes

December 23, 2020 Episode 109: “Blowin’ in the Wind” by Peter, Paul, and Mary
Episode one hundred and nine of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Blowin’ in the Wind”, Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, the UK folk scene and the civil rights movement. Those of you who get angry at me whenever I say anything that acknowledges the existence of racism may want to skip this one. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.
Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by the Crystals.
Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/
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December 16, 2020 Episode 108: “I Wanna Be Your Man” by the Rolling Stones
Episode 108 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “I Wanna Be Your Man” by the Rolling Stones and how the British blues scene of the early sixties was started by a trombone player.
Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.
Patreon backers also have an eight-minute bonus episode available, on “The Monkey Time” by Major Lance.
Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/
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December 16, 2020 BONUS: I Read The NewsToday Oh Boy: The Kennedy Assassination
The third in the occasional series of ten-minute looks at topics in the news during the time we’re looking at covers the Kennedy assassination. Click through for the transcript:
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December 08, 2020 Episode 107: “Surf City” by Jan and Dean
Episode 107 of A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs looks at “Surf City” and the career of Jan and Dean, including a Pop Symphony, accidental conspiracy to kidnap, and a career that both started and ended with attempts to get out of being drafted. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.
Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Hey Little Cobra” by the Rip Chords.
Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/
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December 08, 2020 Admin Note: Changing Providers
This is just a quick admin note to let you know that there might be a brief disruption to the podcast soon. Last night someone pointed out to me that the podcast’s host, Podbean, has made a change and now when you visit the website on a mobile device and try to download an individual episode, you get told you must install the Podbean app.
I pay for hosting so that people can access the podcast in whatever way they choose, and the open, platform-independent nature of podcasting is very important to me. So while this week’s episode will go up as normal, I’m going to change providers as soon as possible, hopefully this week. That might mean that there’s a little bit of disruption to the feed, and if so I apologise, but I’ll do my best to minimise that. But it’s very important to me that my listeners don’t feel forced to download apps whose quality I can’t vouch for.
The next proper episode will be up in a few hours.
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December 02, 2020 Episode 106: “Louie Louie” by the Kingsmen
Episode 106 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Louie Louie” by the Kingsmen, and the story of how a band that had already split up accidentally had one of the biggest hits of the sixties and sparked a two-year FBI investigation.
Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.
Patreon backers also have an eight-minute bonus episode available, on “It’s My Party” by Lesley Gore.
Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/
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November 24, 2020 Episode 105: “Green Onions” by Booker T. and the MGs
Episode 105 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Green Onions”, and how a company started by a Western Swing fiddle player ended up making the most important soul records of the sixties. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.
Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “He’s So Fine” by the Chiffons.
Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/
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November 16, 2020 Episode 104: “He’s a Rebel” by “The Crystals”
Episode 104 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “He’s a Rebel”, and how a song recorded by the Blossoms was released under the name of the Crystals. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.
Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Sukiyaki” by Kyu Sakamoto.
Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/
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November 16, 2020 BONUS: I Read The News Today Oh Boy — The Profumo Affair
This month’s ten-minute extra bonus episode on news events at the time we’re looking at is on the Profumo Affair, and how a sex scandal transformed Britain. Click through to the full post to read a transcript.
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November 14, 2020 Apology for Delays
Transcript
Hi, this is just a brief apology for the fact that things are going a bit slow at the moment with the podcast. I try to keep to a weekly schedule, but recently I’ve been having a bit of a flare-up of some of my chronic illnesses, which has in turn meant that I’ve not been sleeping very well, and it’s very difficult to write or research when I’m brain-fogged. This has meant that instead of a seven-day episode turnaround, things have slipped a bit, and it’s now taking about nine days, give or take, to get an episode done, and has done for a few weeks now. I’m recording this week’s episode tonight, and it should be up soon – possibly tomorrow, maybe Monday – and I hope this flare-up passes soon and I can get back to my normal working speed. Thanks for your patience.
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