Episode 165: “Dark Star” by the Grateful Dead

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
Episode 165: "Dark Star" by the Grateful Dead
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The Grateful Dead

Episode 165 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Dark Star” and the career of the Grateful Dead. This is a long one, even longer than the previous episode, but don’t worry, that won’t be the norm. There’s a reason these two were much longer than average. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.

Patreon backers also have a twenty-minute bonus episode available, on “Codine” by the Charlatans.

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XMAS BONUS: Little St. Nick

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
XMAS BONUS: Little St. Nick







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As we’re in the period between Christmas and New Year, the gap between episodes is going to be longer than normal, and the podcast proper is going to be back on January the ninth. So nobody has to wait around for another fortnight for a new episode, I thought I’d upload some old Patreon bonus episodes to fill the gap. Every year around Christmas the bonus episodes I do tend to be on Christmas songs and so this week I’m uploading three of those. These are older episodes, so don’t have the same production values as more recent episodes, and are also shorter than more recent bonuses, but I hope they’re still worth listening to.

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Episode 154: “Happy Together” by the Turtles

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
Episode 154: "Happy Together" by the Turtles







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The Turtles

Episode one hundred and fifty-four of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs is the last of our four-part mini-series on LA sunshine pop and folk-rock in summer 1967. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.

Patreon backers also have a fifteen-minute bonus episode available, on “Baby, Now That I’ve Found You” by the Foundations.

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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Episode 153: “Heroes and Villains” by the Beach Boys

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
Episode 153: "Heroes and Villains" by the Beach Boys







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The Beach Boys (plus Brian's dog Banana) lying on top of one another, with pillows, in a tent. smiling. Brian and Carl are on the bottom of the pile, Banana is at the top

Episode one hundred and fifty-three of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Heroes and Villains” by the Beach Boys, and the collapse of the Smile album. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.

Patreon backers also have a sixteen-minute bonus episode available, on “I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night” by the Electric Prunes.

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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Episode 152: “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
Episode 152: "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield







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Buffalo Springfield

Episode 152 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “For What It’s Worth”, and the short but eventful career of Buffalo Springfield. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.

Patreon backers also have a twenty-five-minute bonus episode available, on “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” by Glen Campbell.

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/

Errata: I say Moby Grape never recorded the song “On the Other Side”, but someone in the comments has pointed me to a demo of it which was released under the name “Stop”. I also say Buffalo Springfield were the third white act to sign to Atlantic, after Bobby Darin and Sonny and Cher. They were the fourth, as the list I saw didn’t include the Young Rascals

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Episode 151: “San Francisco” by Scott McKenzie

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
Episode 151: "San Francisco" by Scott McKenzie







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The Mamas and the Papas, with Scott McKenzie peeking between Michelle and Cass

We start season four of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs with an extra-long look at “San Francisco” by Scott McKenzie, and at the Monterey Pop Festival, and the careers of the Mamas and the Papas and P.F. Sloan.  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 “Up, Up, and Away” by the 5th Dimension.

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/

Errata: An incorrect version of the file was previously uploaded, with the wrong section edited in at approximately 57 minutes. This was fixed about three hours after uploading, but some streaming services may have cached the wrong file.

Also I say that John Phillips wrote “No, No, No, No”. I got this from an interview with McKenzie, but he must have been misremembering — the song is a cover version of “La Poupee Qui Fait Non” by Michel Polnareff, with English-language lyrics by Geoff Stephens

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Episode 150: “All You Need is Love” by the Beatles

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
Episode 150: "All You Need is Love" by the Beatles







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The Beatles holding sandwich boards saying "Love" "is" "you" and "need" in a variety of languages. A board saying "all" is behind them

This week’s episode looks at “All You Need is Love”, the Our World TV special, and the career of the Beatles from April 1966 through August 1967. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.

Patreon backers also have a thirteen-minute bonus episode available, on “Rain” by the Beatles.

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/

NB for the first few hours this was up, there was a slight editing glitch. If you downloaded the old version and don’t want to redownload the whole thing, just look in the transcript for “Other than fixing John’s two flubbed” for the text of the two missing paragraphs.

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Episode 146: “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
Episode 146: "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys







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The Beach Boys (plus Brian's dog Banana) lying on top of one another, with pillows, in a tent. smiling. Brian and Carl are on the bottom of the pile, Banana is at the top

Episode one hundred and forty-six of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys, and the history of the theremin. 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 “You’re Gonna Miss Me” by the Thirteenth Floor Elevators.

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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Episode 142: “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
Episode 142: "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys







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The Beach Boys in 1966

Episode one hundred and forty-two of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys, and the creation of the Pet Sounds album. 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 “Sunny” by Bobby Hebb.

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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Episode 131: “I Hear a Symphony” by the Supremes

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
Episode 131: "I Hear a Symphony" by the Supremes







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The Supremes in 1965

Episode one hundred and thirty-one of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “I Hear a Symphony” by the Supremes, and is the start of a three-episode look at Motown in 1965. 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 “Rescue Me” by Fontella Bass.

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/

Continue reading “Episode 131: “I Hear a Symphony” by the Supremes”