Prisoners of Rock and Roll

The Sex Pistols were one of the pioneers of the music, fashion, and attitude of the punk rock movement. They were only together for about 2 ½ a half years and released just one album. But over that period, they were just as famous (or infamous) for their behavior as they were as for their music. They didn’t care what you, the music industry, or society thought about them. Led by frontman Johnny Ro...

Woodstock was an important moment in pop culture, music, and the hippie movement. The organizers of the event originally planned it as a way to raise money so they could build a recording studio in New York. They sold tickets in advance but decided to let people in for free when nearly half a million people showed up at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, New York over the course of three days in A...

The drum is the world’s oldest instrument. Drummers can use their kit to lay down the back beat and help the rest of a band keep time, or they can use it in solos just like a guitar.  In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re taking a look at the best drummers in music history. We’re starting with the big band drummers Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich, who put the spotlight on their instrument...

The Grateful Dead are among the most unlikely stars in the history of rock and roll. They created a culture and became one of the most famous bands in the world on their own terms.  They toured relentlessly, made things up as they went and didn’t care about making mistakes. They never cared about being famous, and would probably hate me even calling them stars in this monologue.  In this trippy ep...

Summertime is the right time for heading to the beach, going to the lake, or sitting by the pool. And you can’t do any of that without some music. In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re talking about the best songs of summer. So open a cold beverage of choice, sit back in your beach chair, and turn up the volume.  Our show is sponsored by our home base of McCusker's Tavern at 17th an...

Hey guys!  Sorry you haven't gotten a new episode from us in a few weeks. Life outside of podcast land has been hectic, but we'll be back on July 11th. In the meantime, Check us out online, on Facebook and Twitter, or shoot us an email at prisonersofrockandroll@gmail.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like rock and roll before it, hip hop gave a new voice to generations of people and became a cultural movement just as much as a type of music. In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re taking a look at the Golden Age of hip hop. We’re going to look at the pioneers who started hip hop in the wake of disco. The rappers who helped bring hip hop to the mainstream like Run DMC and LL Cool J...

The 1950s were an awesome time for music. And when rock and roll crossed paths with television, it blew the doors off of post-war America and changed everything it touched. These artists built the foundation of modern music and you can still hear their influence on artists 70 years later. Elvis. Chuck Berry. Buddy Holly. And more.  But the story isn’t all sock hops and poodle skirts. The history o...

Hair metal ruled the radio and the backs of denim jackets in the 1980s. A cornerstone of every hair metal band’s music output was a power ballad – this was a chance for the bad guys in rock and roll to show their softer side by slowing things down and singing about the women they love. These were the songs you put on a mixtape for the girl who sat in front of you in history class or requested on t...

Sub Pop was an independent record label that rose to fame by putting out albums by several Seattle rock bands before they got huge and had teenagers rocking Doc Martens and flannels. While the label is still around today, they’re best known for releasing early material from Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, L7, and more. In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we take a look at Sub Pop Record...

When it comes to rock and roll, nobody does it louder or bigger than KISS. They took the idea that rock is about having a good time and then turned that up to 11 with their bluesy music, soaring solos, and some of the most recognizable looks in rock and roll. In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re taking a look at KISS. Their rise to fame. The personality conflicts. The make up. The...

By 1968, Elvis Presley he had been out of the music spotlight for a decade. He had only performed once since getting out of the army in 1960, and most of his time was spent turning out dozens of b-level movies that left him frustrated with his career. Then his manager and infamous jerk Colonel Tom Parker pitched an idea to NBC to have Elvis do a TV special. Presley took the stage in a black leathe...

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced the nominees for the class of 2022. As always, the list includes some people who deserve to be inducted as well as some head scratchers. In this week’s episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we’re talking about artists who have been snubbed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  We’ve put together a list of 10 artists that we think should be nominated, and...

David Bowie defied every category society tried to put him in. He constantly experimented with new sounds in his music and releasing albums that were glam, proto punk, industrial, and plastic soul. He blurred the lines of gender, fashion, and sexuality. He also combined theater and music by inventing characters that he played on stage and in his music.  In this week’s episode of Prisoners of Rock...

Rush is one of the most successful progressive rock bands of all time. They’ve made 14 platinum albums and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame calls them “the patron saints of brainy, technical, ambitious rock and roll.” But we just don’t like them.  Are we missing something? Do we have bad taste in music? On today’s episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll, we agreed to put our opinions aside and objecti...

1992 was a great year for music. Rock branched out into all sorts of different cool directions and we got to hear grunge and alternative albums from Alice In Chains, Faith No More, White Zombie, Soul Asylum, and the Gin Blossoms. We heard debut albums from Rage Against the Machine, Stone Temple Pilots, and Body Count.  Industrial music took off with Psalm 69 from Ministry and Broken by Nine Inch N...

American Pie by Don McClean is one of the most analyzed songs in rock and roll. This 8 and a half minute song looks at what happened to rock and roll – and America – in the decade after Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash in 1959. Don McClean has never fully explained the meaning of the song but there are references to Bob Dylan, Elvis, the Beatles, the Rolling Sto...

It's our second annual Christmas episode, where talk about some of the worst holiday tunes of all time. We discuss famously terrible songs by Kenny G, Mariah Carey, Paul McCartney, and the Carpenters. We also play the sequel to Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer and some lesser known songs from Regis Philbin, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Insane Clown Posse, and the cast of Star Wars. If you want to...

In 1979, Pink Floyd released their amazing double album The Wall. It’s a rock opera about a dark and gloomy rock star named Pink who became so disenfranchised by the world around him that he built a wall around his life as he descended into madness. It’s one of the most famous concept albums of all time, selling more than 30 million copies. It also led to a full length movie and incredibly elabora...

Johnny Cash was a county music legend and one of the founding fathers of rock and roll, but he thought he was washed up by the mid 1990s. The Man In Black had lost his edge. His record company didn’t care about him any more, and he was playing small venues for a few hundred people.  Then, he met famous record producer Rick Rubin. The man who produced albums from Slayer and the Beastie Boys had a s...

Bob Marley was more than just a musician. He was a musical pioneer. An ambassador of Jamaican culture. A humanitarian, an activist, and a really competitive soccer player. He grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Kingstown, Jamaica, but thought music could change the world. His songs talk about standing up to oppression, hope, freedom, politics, and love. He survived an assassination atte...

Motown Records is one of the most successful and influential record labels in music history. Between 1961 to 1971, they produced a staggering 110 top 10 hits from artists like Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, the Four Tops, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.  You know these songs, but do you know who played the music on them? Behind all of...

MTV did a lot for music before they went off the rails and became a carousel of crappy reality shows, and their greatest contribution might have been MTV Unplugged. On today's episode, we're unplugging the mics and talking about some of the most memorable episodes of the show: Eric Clapton, 10,000 Maniacs, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys, LL Cool J, Nirvana and more.  Check o...

Exile on Main Street by the Rolling Stones is one of the greatest albums by the greatest bands in rock and roll. The story of how this record was made is a wild one. The band had fled the UK to avoid a huge tax bill, and they recorded most of it in the basement of a villa Keith Richards rented in Southern France that the Gestapo used for a headquarters in WWII. The house became a revolving door of...

We love our drummers and bass players, but the guitar is the backbone of rock and roll. It’s a relatively simple instrument that can sound so incredibly different in the hands of different people. Slash, Carlos Santana, Duane Allman, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Satriani, Hendrix, Jeff Beck, BB King. All amazing musicians making completely different sounds with the same instrument. On today’s episode of Pris...