When you’re the lead singer in a band, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get all the attention…after all, you are the visual and audio focal point for pretty much everything…

Yeah, there might be a hot guitarist or someone else flashy in the group, but for the 99% of the time, the spotlight is on you…which is fine if you’re the lead singer…

But if you’re not?...what if you’re the schlep on bass or drums?...what if you’re the newest member of the band and you haven’t earned the right to claim any of the glare…maybe you have something to say…or maybe you have something to sing…

Chances are you’ll get shouted down, ignored or buried…but not always…i’ve found some very, very good songs where the second voice in the band—or the third or the even the fourth has stepped-up big-time to grab centre stage, even for just one single song…and here’s the thing: you might not even know it…

This is a look at some times when the lead singer took a step back and handed the mic to a second voice

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Friday, August 16, 1974, was a hot summer day in New York City…it was 31 degrees, but the humidity made it feel a lot hotter…and if you were down in the Bowery amidst all the concrete, it was hotter still...and it smelled.

But what happened that night, when a bunch of punks took the stage at a scussy dive bar called "CBGB's", would change music forever.

This is the story of the original Ramones.

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Most of us probably go through a phase where we decide to make music for ourselves…maybe we’ll do it alone, or perhaps we want to be part of a band.

The first thing you need to do is decide what instrument you will play…once you do that, you have to narrow things down to the exact make and model of that instrument.

When you’re starting out, your dream instrument is probably out of reach financially, so you make do with whatever you can afford…but you never lose sight of one day owning an iconic rock’n’roll machine of some sort.

It might be a guitar…and if it’s a guitar, you will inevitably have an opinion on amplifiers…perhaps you’re into keyboards…you might covet an expensive grand piano…or you have your eye on a particular line and model of electronic keyboard….the same applies to drums.

So what are these iconic instruments? What instruments are famous and desired by musicians worldwide, regardless of their level of expertise ?...and what about these particular music-making things that make them so desirable?

Let’s investigate…this is a look at the most iconic instruments—the goats of the tools of rock’n’roll.

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After World War II, Germany was destroyed…the country was divided…the east was under the control of the USSR…the west was in democratic Europe…and then there was berlin, sitting in the east but cut into different zones dominated by the Russians, the Americans, the British, and the French. 

Most history books look at the political and military side of things…what we don’t hear about nearly as much as how Germany society was rebuilt…imagine being a young person who is too young to have been in the military…what prospects did you have growing up in a divided country ruined by war. 

This is where art comes in…art is always downstream from whatever is happening in society…and in the case of West Germany, many artists wanted things to be different. 

Young German musicians had some very serious ideas of what needed to be done…many were into rock…but they were determined to create rock that was different from what was being made in the UK and America. 

And they certainly didn’t want anything resembling traditional German music…it had been tainted by the nazi legacy…it was time for something new, different, and away from the status quo. 

There were experiments in the 50s that were pretty radical and, frankly, all over the place…but the results of these experiments began to coalesce into something by the end of the 60s. 

Within a few years, something distinctly German had emerged…it rocked (in its own way)…it had elements of psychedelic music…things could either be extremely structured or open to wild improvisation…it certainly wasn’t from any blues tradition or normal rock conventions upon which British or American rock was built. 

The structures of some compositions weren’t exactly what you could call normal—at least not in the context of rock…and occasionally, things got political, but not necessarily in a protest sense. 

By the middle 70s, we had a new distinctly German sound…the scene was very diverse in terms of sonics, but there was a Teutonic purpose underlying everything. 

The Germans just called it “German rock”…the British, however, gave it another name…it was supposed to be a joke, but the name stuck…and looking back, this sound, approach, aesthetic, and name can be found throughout many different corners of the rock. 

This is an explanation of thing that has become known as a “Krautrock”…and believe me, you’ve heard it more than you realize.

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What do you remember from history class back in school?... Maybe a few dates and events…maybe the names some important people…and probably how dull a lot of history classes were.

 I remember being inundated with a bunch of facts—which was fine (i guess), but it didn’t really make history come alive, you know? ...and it didn’t have to be this way. 

History is more than this country going to war with that one, who married who to create what royal alliance, and which explorers went where to inflict harm on what indigenous people…there are many other branches of historical study.

There’s social history, economic history, the history of science and technology, technology—and (my favourite) stupid history…these are stories of how civilization changed because of stupid people and stupid things…and if we were taught stupid history alongside all the record stuff, those classes would have been a whole lot more fun.

For example, in 1545, winemakers in Saint-Julien, France, were in a panic because their vines were being eaten by weevils…these vineyard owners were so upset that they brought legal action against the bugs.

This was all very formal…documents were drawn up and the weevils were appointed a defense lawyer by the court…there was a trial with a judge and when it was all over, the weevils were found guilty of, well, being weevils and eating grapevines.

Almost a year later, the presiding judge issued a proclamation demanding that the weevils cease and desist with their ravaging of the vineyards…dumb, right?...but believe it or not, the weevils listened…the infestation stopped almost overnight.

There was not any kind of weevil problem for 40 years…and when they showed up again in 1587, the vineyards again took the bugs to court… the result of that case is lost to time…i love it…that is wonderful stupid history.

Music has its own stories like this…yes, there are things that require serious sober study…but then there’s also the stuff that makes you think “that really didn’t happen—did it?”.

 Oh, yes it did…this is another round of stupid history, the music version.

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There are plenty of thankless jobs out there…think about the people who have to work outside in all kinds of weather…line workers for power companies…garbage collectors… construction workers.

Same goes for prison officers, nurses, teachers, and first responders of all types…i could go on, but you get the idea…so much needs to go on behind the scenes for us to be able to live our lives. 

There are dirty jobs but someone’s gotta do it…for the most part, they do their jobs so well that we don’t even think about them…but if not for these people, society wouldn’t function. 

Now let’s look at the music industry…the performers get all the glory, but we’d know nothing of them if it wasn’t for the massive support they get from people in the background. 

That includes support staff at record labels and management companies,  publicists, assistants, and thousands of other positions that helps make the music happen. 

One of the most important positions is paradoxically both visible and invisible…if they do their jobs well, they’re ghosts…but if they don’t, things don’t go so well…in fact, they may not go as well. 

I’m talking about roadies, members of the road crew, the people who enlist in the army that’s necessary to put an act on tour…without their expertise, long hours, and willingness make sure everything always goes smooth, there would be no live experience. 

They say that if there ain’t no audience, there ain’t no show…but if there ain’t no road crew, then their ain’t nothing at all.

This is a history of the men and women who make live shows happen…it’s the story of roadies.

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At its best, rock is a transcendent experience, something that takes us somewhere away from the ordinary, the normal, and the safe…there’s a huge fantasy element to it…done right, rock removes us from this universe and transports us someplace completely different where anything could happen—at least for a little while.

Sometimes the music alone is enough to take us there…but there’s so much more that can be done to enhance the experience.

Costuming, for one…make-up and wild hair make a nice addition…how about going hard on the visuals and theatrics?...sure!...why not?...can’t hurt…how about dropping in some sci-fi…good…what about sex and horror and shock and the occult and then really, really exaggerate everything?... Bring it on. 

And you know what else might be fun?...a big dollop of sexual ambiguity…that’ll freak people out.

What I’ve just described is a lot of today’s music…the rock era has been around long enough and has gone through so many bouts of extremism that it seems like there’s we can’t be shocked by anything a rock star does anymore.

But there was a time in the very late 60s and early 70s when a specific group of artists were very shocking…they did and said things that were so outrageous and wild that they kinda knocked the planet around on its axis a little bit.

They also set in motion some knock-on effects that changed everything about rock…and then they became extinct…but the influence and fallout from that four or five-year period is still being seen and felt today…you just have to know where to look.

This is the surprising history of glam rock…it still lives and it can still make things very interesting.

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This is the fifth edition of an occasional series called “The Rock Explainer.” The idea is to explore the strange, unexplained, and traditional aspects of rock culture that don’t get enough attention and analysis…

In many cases, we just accept these things and don’t question them as much as we should…but if we stop for just a second and cock a quizzical eyebrow and actually ask the question, then it’s possible to review new things about music that you might never have imagined…

Where do accents go when people sing?...why do artists sing the melody lines when they perform live?... How come we hear lyrics wrong?...let’s answer those questions and more.

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The mp3 had a spectacular rise…the tech was everywhere…it brought music and the industry into the digital era. But like almost everything in this universe, it has a finite lifespan…it’s still with us and in many ways is still ubiquitous in some circles, but things have changed.

And yes, it did kill the music industry—at least the old one that insisted on selling fans their music on pieces of plastic

I’m going to try to tell the story of how mp3 technology came into our lives—and how it is slowly leaving it. It’s a story with all kinds of twists and turns…there are heroes and villains…there are casualties and survivors…and one thing is for sure: music has been forever changed in a billion different ways.

This is the rise and fall of the mp3.

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Ever been to a concert and wondered "How do they make all of this work?". "How have I not gone deaf?" or "Why does the dude on stage wearing what looks like a pair of ear-buds?"

Well we're here to answer those questions and more as we delve deep into the history of concert sound...

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