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Feedback and Fire
Season 5 Episode 509
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Today, we turn to a musician whose care there were moves separations long stretches were Jimmy simply simply had to figure things out on his own no one was buying but whose shadow is so…
Published on 1 month, 1 week ago
The Queen of Soul
Season 5 Episode 508
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Today we turn to a voice that has become a kind of measuring stick. A singer you can’t ignore, can’t casually imitate, and certainly can’t replace.
Aretha Louise Franklin.
You can line up…
Published on 1 month, 1 week ago
Dylan and the Fall
Season 5 Episode 507
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If you grew up in a certain era, his name isn’t just a performer on a poster. It’s a weather system. A shift in air pressure. A bulletin from the fault line where art, politics, faith, …
Published on 1 month, 1 week ago
California Counterpoints
Season 5 Episode 506
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Today’s pairing may look odd until you start really listening:
The Beach Boys and The Grateful Dead.
Two California bands. Two American institutions. Two completely different ideas of wha…
Published on 1 month, 1 week ago
Tickets and Conscience
Season 5 Episode 505
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Today I want to put two names in the same frame—Joan Baez and Taylor Swift—not because they sound alike or have the same values but because they tell us how the culture around music, fa…
Published on 1 month, 1 week ago
Enduring Stones
Season 5 Episode 504
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In a recent episode, we spent time with a man who changed popular culture and then became a warning about what fame, isolation, and addiction can do to a single human body—Elvis Presley…
Published on 1 month, 1 week ago
The Beatles Blueprint
Season 5 Episode 503
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I’d like to begin, not in Liverpool or Hamburg or Abbey Road, but in an American living room—mine, and millions of others—on a Sunday night in 1964.
It’s February 9th. The television is …
Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago
The Elvis Trap
Season 5 Episode 502
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Today we’re stepping into complicated territory.
Not a personal hero of mine.
Not a composer whose scores I pore over, or a bandleader whose arrangements I quote with delight or a singer …
Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Rock’s Rough Architect
Season 5 Episode 501
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Before we talk about charts and riffs and influence, I want to begin with a memory.
Years ago, I saw Chuck Berry live at the Paramount Theatre in Manhattan.
I later learned that a few ye…
Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Creative Inheritance
Season 5 Episode 500
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Birthdays - as well as the 500th episode of a podcast - are times that generally you might want to slow down and look at the past, the present, and the future. Using that logic, I'd li…
Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago