A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs

Welcome to episode five of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs . Today we’re looking at Sister Rosetta Tharpe and “This Train” (more…)

Welcome to episode four of  A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs . Today we’re looking at Louis Jordan and “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” (more…)

Welcome to episode three of  A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs . Today we’re looking at Bob Wills and “Ida Red”. (more…)

Transcript This is not a full episode of A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs . The full episode will also turn up in your podcatcher. But I thought I should do a separate episode as a disclaimer. I’m placing this one here because in the next epsiode proper I talk about “the king of Western swing” and I don’t refer to Spade Cooley, and I thought I should explain why. You se...

Here’s the second episode, on “Roll ‘Em Pete” by Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson. One erratum before we continue — in the episode, I say that “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” follows a particular formula common in hokum songs. That’s not actually true for the original version — it is true for Bill Haley’s cover version, and Elvis’ and the...

Welcome to the first episode proper of  A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs ! As this is the first real episode, you may notice a couple of flaws in the production — those will hopefully get ironed out in the coming weeks. In the meantime, sit back and listen to the story of “Flying Home” by the Benny Goodman Sextet! (more…)

Welcome to  A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs ! Episode 1, the first episode proper, is coming next week, but for now here’s an introduction, laying out my plans for the series. As I say in the tag at the end of every episode, please, if you like this episode, tell someone about it — word of mouth is important, especially with these early episodes. Resources Mentioned in the Podcast...