Records & Rockstars

I was born ready and invite you to delve into the first of two parts featuring some of rock's most celebrated artists who had a penchant for the rich traditions of the corner stone of rock and roll music that leans to the country, including Tom Petty (who inspired this mini-series), Neil Young, Beatles and Stones, Dylan, The Band, The Byrds, and Led Zeppelin. It's as much as lesson as it is a cele...

I smile every time I hear these early essential songs from one of the finest soul singers of our time. This is a MUST for fans of the brilliantly soulful voice of Van Morrison, investigating and celebrating the first Van music post-THEM (his seminal rhythm and blues band that gave us “Here Comes the Night”, etc.), in songs that takes us well beyond Van’s Brown Eyed Girl, which by the way started o...

We're headed back to the early months of '75, and key albums out in Jan/Feb/March, including he who was tangled up in blue, plus the Beatle who'd been caught standing in a Hamburg Germany doorway pondering his band reaching the toppermost of the poppermost, as he put it, plus the earliest ACDC, Led Zeppelin get physical, The Coop, Bowie, the Acid Queen, the first so-called solo Jeff Beck, and the...

The conclusion of Jeff's celebration of Swan Songs, this time featuring three final cuts in the career of Pink Floyd (with and without former frontmen Roger Waters and Syd Barrett), Roxy Music, Queen, Nirvana, Chris Cornell (with a Johnny Cash angle), The Band, Tom Petty, Warren Zevon, John Lennon, and David Bowie. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at ht...

The 2nd of three parts this time – a celebration of the artistry in studio mostly, and the most iconic of final public performances, we’re calling Swan Songs, with stories and music to go with from a Jacksonville kid, two of rock’s most incendiary drummers, plus a bit about the logo that inspired this min-series, and the rockstar frontman whose swan song would finish, with a nod to Robin Williams....

Whether it’s a death of an artist, or the end of a band, there has to be one last recording and one final public performance, in every artist’s career. And so this time, a good look at some of Rock’s Swan Songs, from the summer of love through the early seventies. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Because there's so much more to Steve Earle than Copperhead Road, Jeff brings you select cuts from his stellar career of songwriting and performing, including from his acclaimed 2015 album Terraplane, plus a perfect in-concert Steve Earle story, and more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

It finally happened. The last Last Waltz, as it were. The last Canadian among four Canadian musical legends who with their American drummer, became known the world over, with Bob Dylan. And even before that, with another American who'd make Canada his home – Ronnie Hawkins. January 21st 2025, Garth Hudson passed, and so this episode pays tribute to he and the whole band, with select songs pre and...

Jeff takes you back through the years with select songs you'll know best in the hands of artists who typically didn't do them first and didn't write them, in an episode that takes you under the covers, with earlier versions of songs made famous by CCR, Nazareth, Rod Stewart, Janis Joplin, Grand Funk, Soft Cell, Rolling Stones, George Harrison, Joan Jett, Johnny Cash, REM, Blondie, and more. See Pr...

To close 2024, one more tribute and the conclusion to Jeff's look at music legends we lost this year, and one very influential radio broadcaster too. Comes with thanks to you for listening to Records & Rockstars. Spread the word about this music history and story-telling podcast, and all the best to you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://a...

It's a bittersweet time, paying tribute to rockstars we've lost in the last 12 months and this is the first of two parts celebrating their artistry and contributions to music. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Here's the final of the recurring four-parter looking back in celebration of the Classic Albums of 1974 with swan song records from King Crimson and Genesis, Mick Taylor's final with The Stones, the album that saved Supertramp, The Who, Tull, YES, Kraftwerk, and more.   See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-...

While last time the effect in the spotlight was the talk box, this time it's an equally cool effect and rather strange sound from the studio that makes the music and/or the vocal, sound like jets overhead! Call it phase-shifting or stereo flanging, nothing but that this time in a trippy episode titled after the classic song "Phasors on Stun" by the classic Canadian band known as FM. See Privacy Po...

The 2nd of a 3-parter, this time an episode featuring the finest examples of the magical effect in which mouth and guitar meet to produce an unmistakable sound on some big ones from the 70s, 80s, and nineties. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

The first of a 3-parter that begins with a wizard, a true star, and HIS first big song, plus a game called sounds of the studio, in an episode that also features bagpipes, slide whistle, home-made kazoo, and a dog fronting a band that plays to no one. The strange continues with didgeridoo, sugar packets, and more. Plus a call to you for theme ideas.    See Privacy Policy at https://...

This time to follow our choice night songs, an episode featuring select songs about the day in your life, and the day trips, the beautiful days, and perfect days, starring everyone from Beatles to Beatle influencer Buddy Holly, and Beatle soundalikes Badfinger, and a surprise even to JW, one day in the middle of the 1990s, Sheryl Crow did a duet with Johnny Cash about the kind of day Bob Marley ha...

After 800 weekly radio show episodes it seems like high time we do a 2 parter on day and night songs. Here comes part 1 and it features Bob Seger recounting how in Toronto, he laid down a song he believed in despite his management wanting him to do three other songs, and it became a career maker! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/pri...

Can you think of any bands that share their names with songs? Here comes nineteen now. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Not only the Billys of ROCK, because we've adopted the adage, "untethered by genre or era", happily colouring outside the lines this time again, with Williams turned Billys and with Billies too, from rock and jazz and blues and more, and a few Billy Joes to boot. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

There's something about the sound of the instrument, smallish in size, that adds something special to select rock songs. It's Italian. It has strings. It's part of the lute family of stringed instruments with long necks and and rounded bodies. Most often played with a pick, it typically has four courses or sets of 2 strings, tuned in unison and making it an 8 string instrument, and when you put tw...

Songs that start not with the verse but with the chorus, with lots of Beatle angles, plus Bowie, Blur, and a funky interlude or two. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Jeff packs another ton of bands from the 1950s to now, into the 2nd of two parts celebrating bands with brothers and bands with sisters. This time, brother and sister bands from the letters I through V. Q: recognize the brothers in the photo? The cradle will rock is right! That and more right here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/p...

Jeff packs a ton of bands from the 1950s to now, into the first of two parts celebrating bands with brothers and bands with sisters. This time, brother and sister bands from the letters A through H. Q: recognize the brothers in the photo? Think Macon Georgia, The Fillmore East, and some of the finest southern blues rock ever made. That and more right here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/p...

Taking you back to another time, another place, if you're up for the downstroke, with a rock 'n' roll doctor, and a trip to 461 Ocean Blvd, where we're sneakin' Sally through the Alley, but Sally can't dance, but we can ride the tiger. Hints as to the array of classic albums we're pullin' out this time, from July/Aug/Sept 1974. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy...

Another special session in the recurring “Performances” series featuring past guests, and a condensed versions of the original sessions, with song set-ups and stories, and live acoustic performances from Wild Woods Blue. This time not only a musician's musician, but a total people's choice player. Ottawa raised, Toronto based, Steve Marriner has been a blues harmonica player since the age of 11, a...