Let It Roll

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Ryan Harkness continue their discussion of “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life - The History of the Disc Jockey” by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton. This week’s episode focuses on Larry Levan, his club the Paradise Garage and the post-disco genre named for it. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- The final 15 minutes of this episode are exclus...

Today Nate and Ryan are joined by hip-hop ringer Steve Juon continue their discussion of “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life - The History of the Disc Jockey” by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton. This week’s episode focuses on hip hop’s transition to records with the Sugarhill Gang, Afrika Bambaataa’s epic “Planet Rock” and how hip hop morphed from music for dancing and parties into a new form of albu...

Nate and Ryan get back to their discussion of “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life - The History of the Disc Jockey” by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton. This week’s episode focuses on the birth of hip-hop in the Bronx and the Holy Trinity: DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa. ⁠⁠⁠GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- The final 15 minutes of this episode are ex...

Today Nate and Ryan pause their discussion of “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life - The History of the Disc Jockey” by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton to welcome a special guest, hip hop writer Steve Juon. Together, they take a look at the documentary “Founding Fathers of Hip Hop” which fills in some important gaps in the story -- namely what were straight black DJs doing in the outer boroughs of NYC...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Ryan Harkness continue their discussion of “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life - The History of the Disc Jockey” by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton with a look at how Hi-NRG, the sound that emerged in the post-disco backlash club scenes of London, San Francisco and New York, spawned the most successful production/songwriting team of all-time and provided a soundtrack for tragedy...

Nate Wilcox and Ryan Harkness continue their discussion of “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life - The History of the Disc Jockey” by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton. Today's topic is the early days of disco in New York when an innovative wave of DJs like David Mancuso and Francis Grasso created a dancer’s utopia in Manhattan. ⁠GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE⁠ -- The final 15 mi...

Today Nate and Ryan continue their discussion of “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life - The History of the Disc Jockey” by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton with a look at the high water mark of disco -- Studio 54, Saturday Night Fever, the Bee Gees and the backlash. GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE⁠⁠ -- The final 15 minutes of this episode are exclusively for paying subscribers t...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Dave Thompson conclude their mini-series discussing Dave's book An Evolving Tradition: The Child Ballads in Modern Folk and Rock Music -- buy the book to support the show. This episode covers the 1970s high water mark of folk rock in the UK Led Zeppelin's controversial third album, and where folk has gone since. GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE -- The f...

Nate Wilcox and Ryan Harkness continue their discussion of “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life - The History of the Disc Jockey” by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton. Buy the book and support the show. Today Nate and Ryan take a look at Jamaica’s unique sound system scene which spurred the creation of ska, reggae and dub and directly influenced the creation of hip-hop. GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Dave Thompson continue their mini-series discussing Dave's book An Evolving Tradition: The Child Ballads in Modern Folk and Rock Music -- buy the book to support the show. This episode covers the emergence of UK folk-rock out of the hippie, psychedelic ballroom scene in the late 1960s. Dave and Nate discuss the formation of Pentangle a sort of super group comprised of Jacqui...

Nate Wilcox and Ryan Harkness continue their discussion of “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life - The History of the Disc Jockey” by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton." Buy the book and support the show! In this episode, Nate and Ryan discuss the uniquely British dance culture called Northern Soul where the kids of the British rust belt just wouldn't let go of their favorite up-tempo 60s soul and kept t...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Dave Thompson continue their mini-series discussing Dave's book An Evolving Tradition: The Child Ballads in Modern Folk and Rock Music -- buy the book to support the show. This episode discusses the UK folk scene from the peak of skiffle and Lonnie Donegan through the network of UK folk clubs who featured an open mic format that produced many of the leading talents of the com...

Nate Wilcox and Ryan Harkness continue their discussion of “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life - The History of the Disc Jockey” by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton.  In this episode, Nate and Ryan go way way back to the beginnings of the 20th Century and discuss the very first radio DJs -- including Sybil True the first female radio DJ who started in 1913 -- and the first club DJs including the now-i...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Dave Thompson continue their mini-series discussing Dave's book An Evolving Tradition: The Child Ballads in Modern Folk and Rock Music -- buy the book to support the show. This episode discusses the peak of the Folk Boom in the US with the rise of Peter, Paul, & Mary, Ian & Sylvia, Judy Collins' continued success and the rise of Bob Dylan. We cover Dylan's use of Child Ballad...

Today hosts Nate Wilcox and Ryan Harkness are joined by producer Stephie Haynes to introduce the series and our main source book “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life - The History of the Disc Jockey” by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton. GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE-- The final 15 minutes of this episode are exclusively for paying subscribers to the Let It Roll Substack. Also...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Dave Thompson continue their mini-series discussing Dave's book An Evolving Tradition: The Child Ballads in Modern Folk and Rock Music -- buy the book to support the show. This episode discusses the Child Ballads about Robin Hood and the folk revival's odd disinterest in them as well as the explosion of the American Folk Revival led by Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Tom Rush. G...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Dave Thompson continue their mini-series discussing Dave's book An Evolving Tradition: The Child Ballads in Modern Folk and Rock Music -- buy the book to support the show. This episode covers the collision of the Child Ballads with the leaders of the first American popular Folk Revival featuring leaders of the movement like Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger, Josh White and Jean Ritchie...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Dave Thompson continue their mini-series discussing Dave's book An Evolving Tradition: The Child Ballads in Modern Folk and Rock Music -- buy the book to support the show. This episode covers the first popular American revival of the Child Ballads by artist like The Carter Family and jazz singer Maxine Sullivan. We also cover the beginnings of the popular folk revival by arti...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Dave Thompson continue their mini-series discussing Dave's book An Evolving Tradition: The Child Ballads in Modern Folk and Rock Music -- buy the book to support the show. This episode covers Francis James Child himself and how the whole ballad collecting thing went big time, with the trend impacting the recording career of Woodrow Wilson's first lady, one of America's first...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Dave Thompson continue their mini-series discussing Dave's book An Evolving Tradition: The Child Ballads in Modern Folk and Rock Music -- buy the book to support the show. This episode covers the very oldest examples of The Child Ballads, with lyrical themes dating back to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, as well as the contributions of major literary figures like Sir Walter...

Hosts Nate Wilcox and Dave Thompson kick off a mini-series discussing Dave's book An Evolving Tradition: The Child Ballads in Modern Folk and Rock Music -- buy the book to support the show. GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE-- The final 15 minutes of this episode are exclusively for paying subscribers to the Let It Roll Substack. We've got all 350+ episodes listed, organized b...

Host Nate Wilcox returns with the fifth of five parts of a solo review of Nick Broomfield's documentary "The Stones and Brian Jones." GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE-- The final 15 minutes of this episode are exclusively for paying subscribers to the Let It Roll Substack. We've got all 350+ episodes listed, organized by mini-series, genre, era, co-host, guest and more. Plea...

Host Nate Wilcox returns with the fourth of five parts of a solo review of Nick Broomfield's documentary "The Stones and Brian Jones." CHECK OUT THE LET IT ROLL WEB SITE -- We've got all 350+ episodes listed, organized by mini-series, genre, era, co-host, guest and more. Please sign up for the email list on the site and get music essays from Nate as well as (eventually) transcriptions of every epi...

Host Nate Wilcox returns with the third of five parts of a solo review of Nick Broomfield's documentary "The Stones and Brian Jones." CHECK OUT THE LET IT ROLL WEB SITE -- We've got all 350+ episodes listed, organized by mini-series, genre, era, co-host, guest and more. Please sign up for the email list on the site and get music essays from Nate as well as (eventually) transcriptions of every epis...

Nate with the second of four parts of a solo review of Nick Broomfield's documentary "The Stones and Brian Jones." CHECK OUT THE LET IT ROLL WEB SITE -- We've got all 350+ episodes listed, organized by mini-series, genre, era, co-host, guest and more. Please sign up for the email list on the site and get music essays from Nate as well as (eventually) transcriptions of every episode. Also if you ca...