Old Man Yells at Music

To mark the upcoming 40th anniversary of the channel formerly known as Music Television, Roger looks back at an ABC special that celebrated the pop video station's first ten years. There are montages galore, clips of the network’s most iconic videos and personalities, gratuitous movie star cameos, and musical performances by George Michael, Aerosmith, R.E.M. and The King of Pop Michael Jackson (wh...

July 1985. The month Marty McFly went back 30 years to rip off Chuck Berry, and a bunch of bands played all day one Saturday in Philadelphia and London. Roger goes back to look at the charts and finds a Christian star crossing over, some jazzy Germans, relentless optimism, megalomania, shushing, and much more. Follow on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDWLXjsOJPQlEI9jkEBMg78t8ITSCoPxn...

The tournament to determine the most unique hit of the 80s is down to the last 16 songs. Is the horror of war stranger in danceable or headbangable form? Can a song about a video game beat one about a vapid teen who plays it? Soaps or sci-fi? Comedy or vocal gymnastics? These are among the battles that will determine our quarterfinalists. Follow the action on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?...

In 1978, two teenage siblings who had built careers in TV and film were given the chance to be pop stars. They were sent to a couple of the guys who sang The Lion Sleeps Tonight, given a few oldies to cover and some other inoffensive pop and disco. And it went nowhere. Roger listened to it so you don't have to, and he tells you all about it. Listen and watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlis...

This week Roger travels back to when the United States was approximately 199 and twenty-five twenty-sixths old, the Antichrist had come...to your local cinema, and disco was beginning to colonize the charts. The hits included a cover band trying to do their own thing, a funky demolition crew, a song for sweathogs, a good Christian's encounter with a satanic sexpot, a housewife's plea to the town b...

Roger is back looking below the charts to find songs that didn't quite get on to the Billboard Hot 100. Among his subjects are a tribute to a DJ, a bunch of rich kids promoted by a smut peddler, a band proving a point to some young upstarts, an ode to unclad feet, a couple of recorded responses to the year's biggest blockbuster, and a misogyny anthem with a twist. Watch the bubbles burst on YouTub...

This week Roger goes back to the month that brought us The Lion King, the Bronco chase, and a World Cup in a country that preferred a different kind of football. Meanwhile, the charts featured lots of dance music and alternative, plus a future action heroine, a massive soundtrack ballad, veteran prog rockers teaming up with a famous scientist, some surrealist folk, a fractured nursery rhyme, a rob...

In 1973, ABC decided that they needed another singing heartthrob on their network to go with the Partridge Family's David Cassidy. After flipping through a stack of Tiger Beats, they picked an Australian with a single American hit. And what vehicle did they have in mind for him? Why, a Saturday morning cartoon where he played second fiddle to a teacher with magic powers, of course. Roger looks at...

Roger's back in 1983, when the Jedi returned, a computer mogul put on a music festival just for Us, and the pop charts contained a lot of synthesizers. We've got funny-haired birds, girls who cry while wearing parkas, auto accident love, lizard-based cuisine, and SEX! Find out more on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDWLXjsOJPQlo886ebmyXOEb59f8oa3Em And consider donating to the show's...

We're now into the fourth round of a tournament to determine the strangest American Top 40 hit of the 80s. Roger breaks down the matchups between all 32 remaining songs and is left with a Sweet? 16. Listen to the contenders on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDWLXjsOJPQli4wdWVohdk1VQRUSFI4rt And you can support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=35903110&fan_landing=tr...

This week Roger goes back 48 years to look at the songs that were hits while Congress was looking into some little burglary that a R. Nixon may have known more about than he said. There's a song about a creepy-crawly who really gets down, some nursery rhymes that aren't suitable for children, the early years of a metal icon, a preachy extraterrestrial, and a song to perform a very close shave by....

Spring 1990. Environmental issues are beginning to move to the forefront, and cartoon characters are banding together to warn three dimensional beings of the dangers of narcotics. Meanwhile, on the charts, rap is on the rise, but their are also songs about tiny lights, filthy lucre, and a treatment for infertility that is simultaneously very simple and extremely complicated. Follow along on YouTub...

Roger reaches into the Bargain Bin again and finds a Russian rock legend taking advantage of Mikhail Gorbachev's softening of barriers to the West to make an album with both Eurythmics and a Pretender. Was America ready for rock with an Eastern European accent, or was this guy's poetic and esoteric approach to pop met with a "nyet"? Hear most of the album on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?l...

This week Roger looks back at the hits from shortly after a certain irresistible force met a certain immovable object just outside Detroit. There's a movie hit written by The Boss, a potential theme song for the Chippendales, a British bassist's childhood memories, a superstar duet, a song that took six years to hit #1, and more. And everywhere you turn, there's something that reminds you of a Can...

This week Roger takes a look at some songs that made the Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart but didn't make the main list. Hear about some not quite hits by gospel funksters, one half of a legendary brother combo, a guy less well known than the band that took part of his name, the other King of Las Vegas, and more. Find out more about these songs on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDWLXj...

At first, Roger was afraid of going back to St. Patrick's Day of 42 years ago. You might even say he was petrified. But in spite of it being a time when the movies were depicting the dangers of nuclear power, pop music was glowing with the heat of disco and the incendiary sound of punk. But there was still room for a lushly-maned teen idol, a song about a band bucking popular trends, a tune to wat...

This week Roger dials back to 1990 to look at the first two episodes of a British series where everyday people dressed up and sang like their favorite stars.  See a travel agent become Kylie Minogue,  a bartender channel George Michael, a portrait painter recreate Madonna, and other transformations that happen after people walk through the Magic Sliding Doors. Watch the episodes and the original s...

Roger finishes off the third round of his tournament to crown the strangest and most unique US Top 40 hit of the 1980s. Who you got, Gary Numan or Rockwell? Neil Diamond or Michael Jackson? Frank Sinatra or ZZ Top? Dan Fogelberg or the Fat Boys? These and other matchups will be decided in this episode. Follow the action on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDWLXjsOJPQlTTJLUeU1Qamc-oc738y...

Roger's journey through the 70s, 80s and 90s comes full circle with a look at a set of charts from his last uncovered year, 1993. He looks at a song by Canada’s mumbly poet king, a couple of alternative bands whose hits haven't aged well, a couple sweet flavors of hip hop, classic rockers and the people who want to sound like them, some radio unfriendly loudness, and a superstar in her most domina...

Roger returns to the Bargain Bin and finds one of the many previously successful acts who, at some point, got Lost in the 80s. In this case, it's a band of Boston bad boys who were hard rock titans in the late 70s. But as the new decade dawned, they had lost one of their creative engines, were facing declining album and ticket sales, and the remaining members were struggling with addiction issues....

This week Roger goes back to the second month of the year George Orwell predicted we'd be obeying Big Brother. Instead, we were watching the Winter Olympics and listening to songs about apathy, the joy of mistreatment, fast women, a romantic war zone, people who don't get what's coming to them, and whatever a "lizard mixture" is. And a certain bespectacled Englishman was big on the charts and at t...

This time Roger goes back 49 years to a time when John Wayne was still making movies and World War II wasn't quite over for everyone. On the charts, a TV couple lamented a changing society, funk rock explored family dynamics, and a strange mini-Afterschool Special of a song managed to do both at the same time. There was also a boy exalting his beloved Mater, a band named after a city an hour away...

We return to our tournament of odd and interesting 80s hits at the start of the 3rd round. Do the big stars like Prince, Billy Joel, and Metallica have what it takes to compete with known weirdos like Falco, Frank Zappa and Jump N the Saddle? Follow the competition on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDWLXjsOJPQm1CBS-6ymUckVlYwATIv40 And you can support the show and get bonus content on...

The latest episode covers the latest chart to date, the beginning of the end of a century. There's African royalty, Biblical anatomy, and schoolboy poetry, Plus gangsta rap goes Broadway, an ex-teen popper gets all metaphysical, a new teen popper breaks through, and a cartoon character has a recipe for ecstasy. But is any of it original, or has it all been done before? Answer that question and oth...

It's the end of a year, and for much of the Old Man's lifetime, that meant staying home and watching the man known as the World's Oldest Teenager stand in Times Square as the big ball dropped, in between taped performance by music stars. So this week Roger looks at one of the earliest editions that aimed to take down CBS' Canuck New Year’s juggernaut Guy Lombardo with Chicago, The Beach Boys, Oliv...