By rockforward
4.6
99 ratings
The podcast currently has 48 episodes available.
This episode is a conversation with a 30-something Bruce fan who came to Bruce Springsteen's career only recently. We talk with Brandon Fitzsimmons, who started his journey with Springsteen during the downtime he had during COVID in 2020. He did a deep dive into Springsteen's catalog, and most interesting to me, just saw Bruce for the first time at a show in Pittsburgh in the fall of 2024, driving 6 hours to see a 74-year old Springsteen and the E St. Band. What was that like? We talk about it, and how Brandon started - and went all in - in his Boss journey.
Brandon is a big music fan, albeit one who has deeper fandom for most things 90, and post-2000's. He's a great person to talk to because he has both an open mind about music styles and also loves rock and roll.
Greg Kihn, the California-via-Baltimore pop rocker passed away in August 2024, leaving behind a truly great FM radio hit with “The Breakup Song” and his biggest song, “Jeopardy”, that hit #2 and found heavy rotation on MTV. The same song was famously parodied by Weird Al Yankovic. Kihn also had a long career as a rock radio DJ on KFOX, and he wrote books.
But mostly he was a guy who just kept rocking. After a run of yearly albums for more than a decade, from the mid 70's to the mid 80's, he released his final album (Rekihndled) in 2017, a throwback to the ringing guitars pounding drums, and the echoes-of-The Beatles sound that he mined for a long time. Sure, he's remembered for his two big two songs, but he and his Greg Kihn Band had a couple more kinda-hits and a catalog of under-the-radar power pop.
I liked Greg Kihn's music. Unpretentious working rock and roll. “We want people to come back to hear the music,” he said in a 1982 interview. “I mean, nobody goes to see Bruce Springsteen because of the light show.”
Albums that may not have seen big sales - a couple did - but that are worth turning up. We talk about who, why, and how come they rock. And a couple of bonus albums too.
James McMurtry
Melissa Etheridge
Rick Springfield
Warren Zevon
Todd Snider
The Gaslight Anthem
The Elms
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Hear all the archived episodes and find our social media and email links on the website: rockpopandroll.com
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Read Rob's current and archived writing at rockforward.wordpress.com
We play just five songs from an artist's catalog - from all the albums, the singles, the live albums. The music game is called "Play Me 5".
Five songs that do two things:
1. Give a representation of the artist - the musician - the band - the singer.
2. Find songs that reveal a bit of the magic of the performance or the musicians. Or both.
Can that work? I don't know. That's the idea and intent. Can we hear a band or performer in five songs, and find the reason - a bit of the understanding - as to why they are who they are and why they matter in the rock and roll continuum?
That’s it. Let's go. We are going to start with Bob Seger.
Why does Seger, a journeyman rock and roll singer from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and by extension, Detroit, hold a place in rock and roll history? Five songs. It's not enough, but that's the rule. Agree or disagree as you please. Just turn up the rock and roll as you do.
Hear all the archived episodes and find our social media and email links on the website: rockpopandroll.com
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More known as a party band than they were rock royalty, the J. Geils Band is still a rock band of the era that gets tossed aside, despite a decade of incendiary live shows and more hits than some may recall. One of my favorites. Played them loud. Learned some history too. I seriously rocked the “Blow Your Face Out” live cassette in my $2,000 brown Buick Skylark back in 1986.
It’s really not just that the J. Geils Band is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But they probably aren't getting in. Yet the bridge they made - from the last 60s blues band era to the time of Seger, Springsteen, Petty, and U2 blowing up - was integral in rock and roll. Their live show. The R&B fused with rock and roll. The way they hit the stage, took no prisoners, and then blew out of town. That matters. That's their legacy. That was their time. It was a band more than the perceived one-time splash of "Centerfold" and "Freeze Frame". The J. Geils Band were road dogs. They were also a bunch of guys who reintroduced a whole lot of people to songs that were forgotten before they recaptured them. And they had hits well before they were able to fuse the new wave with the old rock, and did it more seamlessly than lots of others who tried.
Take a bouncing ride on this podcast. We dig into the reasons why this band from Boston, one in a long line of great rock and roll, from The Standells to Aerosmith to the Cars - made in that town, matters.
John Waite was in The Babys, out front of two pop hits that both peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, ("Isn't It Time" and "Everytime I Think of You") His solo career started with a really good but forgotten 1982 debut album Ignition, which produced the single "Change". It didn’t chart on Billboard's Hot 100 during its initial release (June 1982) but was #16 rock track on AOR radio stations and was produced by the great Bob Clearmountain. And Patty Smyth sings background vocals on "Change"
But it was the album No Brakes that gave him his career a real path to moving forward. "Missing You" went to No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and the album was a top 10 record.
We spend our time digging into his often-overlooked career. A guy with a distinctive voice that rocks.
“Perched perfectly between anthemic mainstream rock and sleek post-new wave pop, it was a minor miracle -- a flawlessly written, classicist pop song, delivered with a stylish, MTV-ready flair. It deservedly became not just a number one hit, but one of those records that everybody knows” -- Stephen Thomas Erlwine / allmusic.com
Waite had two more singles from No Brakes, including "Tears" which was a #8 hit on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and #37 top 40. His next album had a single, "Every Step of the Way" that got radio play (#4 rock charts and #25 top 40 and would be his last top 40 hit.
He did join former Babys bandmates Jonathan Cain and Ricky Phillips, along with Neal Schon and drummer Deen Castronovo from Journey, to form Bad English and the 1989 ballad "When I See You Smile" went to No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 and the album sold nearly two million copies. I didn't love that band, but I've always had a spot for John Waite in my rocker heart.
He kept going after the band broke up. But he keeps going. Waite is not always the first thought as a terrific rock band frontman - but he was - and is. He is still on the road. A singer who fronts a band like someone who wants to be there. Who has been there. He’s 72 years old. He’s on tour as I recorded this, with dates booked well into 2024. One who is worth mentioning if you talk about great rock and roll frontmen of the past, for like 50 years. He’s a rock and roll lifer still working. There is honor in that.
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Read Rob's current and archived writing at rockforwardmusic.com
WEBSITE: rockpopandroll.com
EMAIL: [email protected]
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On this episode, take a tour with us - to the early 80’s - to Scandal, as we drop into the short history of the band that released an EP that was a scattering blast of five songs - including “Goodbye To You” and “Love Has Got A Line”. At the time, it was the best-selling EP in the history of Columbia Records. But did I ever really listen to, back in 1982 or 84 or 87 or whenever, all the five songs? Maybe.
Around this time, in 1982, Pat Benatar was coming towards the end of her best run. Scandal had that vibe - rock and roll crunch with a new wave-ish bite. Early 80’s production and the couple hits were all about the chorus making your hips move and your head nod.
Scandal threw five variations of their sound out there to see what's stuck. And did it with 80's killer keyboard playing, guitars-and-drums of the time, and a powerhouse singer out front.
Patty Smyth went solo in 1987 with her debut album. The first of two hits on it, "Never Enough" (the album's title track), was written by The Hooters’ Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian (there are a surprising amount of Hooters connections to other artist's music of the era).
Rick Chertoff, who produced both The Hooters and Cyndi Lauper's debut megasmash album is involved too. Baby Grand, a pre-Hooters lineup, recorded an earlier version of "Never Enough".
Smyth said the album "was never supposed to be a solo record; it was meant to be a record by 'Scandal Featuring Patty Smyth'.”
So we listen to the EP. Let's dig into “The Warrior” album, and hear some of what we like - and don’t so much - with Smyth’s solo records. Still, at the essence of it all is a great rock and roll voice, some drops of rock and pop candy, and a whole bunch more to like than what was heard just on the radio.
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Read Rob's current and archived writing at rockforwardmusic.com
WEBSITE: rockpopandroll.com
EMAIL: [email protected]
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Henry Lee Summer latched on to the sound of pop and rock radio in the 80s and rode that bad boy to a couple of late-decade hits, and a handful of good, heartland rock and roll albums.
But in his home state - Indiana - Summer was more than couple nice radio hits and a handful of albums. Weird that he could be, maybe? Really not. His story is like a lot of local-but-more-music heroes. Cleveland and Providence and Pittsburgh and Toronto. Artists like Donnie Iris, Kim Mitchell, John Cafferty, and Joe Grushecky.
Henry Lee Summer mined the sound of late 80’s rock and roll with his own little twist, influenced by Top 40 AM radio hooks, and, in the best way, a product of live sets in the smoke and noise and chaos of a live rock and roll club. His is the sound of the Midwest. The studio recordings - most of them - shined up for presentation to the masses, and the live shows greased and gritted for the faithful.
And he played great shows. Evenings that turned revival-ish. A shared act of live, loud, shakin' crowd-into-it rock and roll. Henry Lee, well beyond most of his hit-making days, brought the goods, man. His last hit was the early 90s. I saw him making it rock in a live setting be fantastic ten years past that.
And then he wasn't. And now he is again.
I loved seeing Henry Lee live. Here's an episode driven by a hope to share how great that act was without overselling it. Because in the end, Henry Lee Summer had a handful of hits on the radio. Nothing more than that - unless you saw him live. Then it makes more sense: the straining-to-be-loose studio albums that never quite were roughed up enough (other than the second major label release - "I've Got Everything") as he chased the right mix of hanging on and totally in the groove. That balance was what he harnessed on stage.
So these are my stories of discovery and the way one musician nothing much to most music fans, found a way to mean something more where he was and when he could. Maybe this one is a little more personal than usual. I'm OK with that. I hope you are too. Enjoy the listen.
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website: rockpopandroll.com
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I thought it might be simple. Who were some of my favorite roots rock bands from the 1980’s and 90’s? And why? This episode turned into a deep dive into what still feels like it was only skimming along the surface of a genre that was hot for about five years and before fading back into where it was before, into a mostly forgotten sub-genre that I still love.
"Roots Rock" was a name that was branded on a sound that came of age in the mid-'80s. Some guitar rawness. Some harmonies. Roots rock had twang and guitars and drums. Garage-ish rock. There was definitely a crossover with the sound called heartland rock. There was, however, a rawness that made it more roots than heartland.
Heartland rock was a name used in the 1970s to describe Midwestern arena rock. The Mount Rushmore of 80s heartland rock? Arguably - but correctly - Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, and Tom Petty, John Mellencamp. Could also include bands like REO if you wanted. Maybe Cheap Trick? Michael Stanley Band for sure.
We listen to bands that made an impact both on the roots rock genre and on me. It is not an all-inclusive list of everyone and every band that fit or that I listened to. Instead, it is a selection of music that was on the radio, or maybe not, and we talk about why it was or wasn't. But these are certainly bands and music that slid into my cassette player in the 1979 Buick Skylark a whole lot of times.
Band like:
It is an epic podcast. More than an hour’s worth of bands and artists and tracks for listeners to dig into more deeply. Turn it up.
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website: rockpopandroll.com
EMAIL: [email protected]
A band named Truth and Salvage Co. was formed in 2005, made a couple of albums, and broke up only to return in 2022 with a lost album that was released - again - with a sound that it should have always had.
Late in 2022, the band came back, finding a nice way to revisit a career that sputtered and eventually splintered.
It was 2009 when Black Crowes Chris Robinson signed the group to his label and gave them the opening slot on his band's tour that year. The band released its debut album (produced by Robinson) on May 2010. I loved that album.
That album captured the words, the heart, and the intelligence of a powerfully relaxed band. It is fair to say it was a band that played rock and roll with an arms-around-each other attitude and a nod to their influences while still working to forge their own sound.
Truth and Salvage Co. created uplifting, pounding, loose, build-and-release rock and roll. This is their short story, recounted because of an album Atoms Form - that is really good.
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Read Rob's current and archived writing at rockforwardmusic.com
website: rockpopandroll.com
EMAIL: [email protected]
The podcast currently has 48 episodes available.