A (Mostly) 80s Music Podcast: What Difference Does It Make?

Whether it's Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, or Duran Duran, music journalist Annie Zaleski immerses herself in each project. Now Annie takes on a true icon: Cher. The book is called I Got You Babe: A Celebration Of Cher. This gives us a chance to revisit all our favorite Cher moments, from her variety show with Sonny, to her fashion sense, to her movies. Cher has always fascinated us, and so we turn to Annie to figure out why Cher means so much to us.

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Whether we like it or not, our moms shape who we are, and influence how we feel about so much in our lives. This episode is devoted to the music that is embedded in our DNA, thanks to our mothers, or in Holly's case, for her children. Dave goes to showtunes, movie musicals, and one-hit wonders from the 60s and 70s. Holly's mom is all Classic Rock and 90s Alternative. It's an emotional episode filled with bad singing, dancing, and Seinfeld clips.

Happy Mother's Day!

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Singer/Songwriter Suzanne Vega has been recording her songs of personal reflection and social issues for more than 40 years. Her latest record, Flying With Angels, is her first full-length album of new music in over a decade. Suzanne joins the podcast to talk about the album, family life, and getting her start playing the New York folk scene in the early 80s.

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Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill have been married since 2003. Vicki is a member of The Bangles, along with her sister Debbi. John Cowsill is a member of the platinum-selling family band, The Cowsills. So it’s been a long time coming for Vicki and John to release their own debut Americana album, comprised of songs written by John’s late brothers, Barry and Bill Cowsill. The album is titled Long After The Fire, and is out now. The couple join our podcast, where they reminisce about singing in the family car, The Partridge Family, playing drums for another family band, called The Beach Boys, and creating their own music together.

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It's good to be Paul Rappaport. As the head of Rock Promotion at Columbia Records, Paul rubbed shoulders with the likes of The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and Alice In Chains. It was Paul's creativity and enthusiasm that contributed to his success in getting his artists' music played on the radio. It's all documented in his book, Gliders Over Hollywood: Airships, Airplay And The Art Of Rock Promotion.

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Sam Rice-Edwards, co-director and editor for the rock documentary One to One: John & Yoko, joins the podcast. The film centers around the One to One benefit concert for the Willowbrook State School in New York, an institution for special needs children. Sam shares with us some of the details about how he and co-director Kevin Macdonald were able to sort through tens of thousands of hours of previously unseen archival footage to create a fully realized documentary on the lives of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in the early 70s.

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Jimbo Mathus, frontman for the Squirrel Nut Zippers, joins the podcast to reminisce about his music origins, and how he landed in Chapel Hill, leading to the massive success of the band. Squirrel Nut Zippers continue to tour with their own unique brand of Americana music with their Jazz From The Back O' Town show.

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Christopher Cross might sing of sailing away, but does he feel that way about cruises? Man on the scene, Dave Sloan steps onto The 80s Cruise with his guests Steve Spears and Brad Williams, from the Stuck In The 80s podcast, to discuss how they became involved in this 80s lifestyle. They also offer us their unique take on songs #80 to #71 from the KROQ 1988 year-end countdown. 

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Bruce Warren's title on LinkedIn may say he's "Chief of a lot less Stuff at WXPN”, but we think he's just being modest. For more than 30 years, Bruce has helped shape the sound of one of the most influential public radio stations today, 88.5 WXPN in Philadelphia. He is also a producer and one of the people that helped create the widely popular syndicated radio show, World Cafe. Bruce is ready to move on to his next adventure, as he slowly steps away from his duties at the station. We discuss his love of music while looking at songs 90-81 from the KROQ 1988 year-end playlist.

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You might be familiar with Outlaw Country, but now there's a new subgenre of American country music. Author Geoffrey Himes' latest book, In-Law Country: How Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, and Their Circle Fashioned a New Kind of Country Music, 1968-1985. Geoffrey joins the podcast to explain this extraordinary music that, much like Outlaw Country, managed to create hits outside the traditional sound coming out of Nashville.

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