Claim OwnershipHistory in Five Songs with Martin Popoff
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Description
History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff is the show that aims to make grand and often oddball hard rock and heavy metal points through a narrative built upon the tiny idea of a quintet of songs. Buttressed with illustrative clips, Martin argues quickly and succinctly why these songs - and the specific sections of these tracks - support his mad professor premise, from the wobbly invention of an “American” heavy metal, to the influence of Led Zeppelin in hair metal or to more succinct topics like tapping and twin leads. The songs serve as bricks, but Martin slathers plenty of mortar. At the end, hopefully he has a sturdy house in which this week’s theory can reside unbothered by the elements. At approximately 7000, Martin has had published in books more record reviews than anybody in the history of music writing across all genres. Additionally, Martin has penned approximately 85 books on hard rock, heavy metal, classic rock and record collecting. Proud part of Pantheon - the podcast network for music lovers.
345 Episodes
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Paying Your Dues
Black Sabbath – “Hand of Doom”
Van Halen – “On Fire”
Rush – “Best I Can”
The Clash – “Safe European Home”
Starz – “Subway Terror”
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In Episode 346 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin traces the parallel career arcs of Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel, comparing their conservative early albums, synchronized creative peaks, shared technologies and collaborators, commercial high points, and eventual semi-retirement marked by long gaps, home studios, and artistic mystique.
Peter Gabriel – “Modern Love”
Kate Bush – “Delius”
Peter Gabriel – “Mercy Street”
Kate Bush – “Snowed in at Wheeler Street”
Peter Gabriel – “Intruder”
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In Episode 345 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin explores surprisingly famous rock stars across metal, prog, and punkrock who—despite major influence, acclaim, and ticket-selling power—never earned a single U.S. gold record.
Scorpions – “Top of the Bill”
Status Quo – “Down Down”
Porcupine Tree – “Shallow”
The Replacements – “I Don’t Know”
Motörhead – “(Don’t Need) Religion”
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In Episode 344 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin explores how famously British and international bands—from Yes and Black Sabbath to Bowie, Foreigner, and Peter Gabriel—gradually absorbed American members, not to “become American,” but through creative instinct, convenience, touring realities, and fresh energy that subtly reshaped their sound and identity.
Yes – “Cut from the Stars”
Foreigner – “Lonely Children”
Sepultura – “Unconscious”
Rainbow – “Freedom Fighter”
Peter Gabriel – “The Family and the Fishing Net”
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In Episode 342 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin contemplates the unusual choice of albums where the title track appears last, and examines what that placement says about the songs and albums, using examples from Slayer, Alice in Chains, David Bowie, and more.
Slayer – “Seasons in the Abyss”
Nazareth – “No Mean City”
Alice in Chains – “Black Gives Way to Blue”
April Wine – “The Whole World’s Going Crazy”
David Bowie – “Heathen (Rays)”
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In Episode 343 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin explores the most surprising and often baffling musical “biggest left turns,” spotlighting bands that radically and unexpectedly reinvented their sound—from punk to prog, metal to synth-pop, and rock to funk—often defying logic, trends, and their own pasts.
The Saints – “See You in Paradise”
Alice Cooper – “Leather Boots”
The Meat Puppets – “Paradise”
The Tubes – “Tip of My Tongue”
Rush – “Lock and Key”
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In Episode 341 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin rings in the "new year” of 1980 by examining how classic rock, metal, punk, and new wave bands either reinvented themselves, stalled out, or flat-out quit as the calendar flipped from the ’70s into the radically different ’80s.
Y&T – “Shake It Loose”
Led Zeppelin – “Carouselambra”
Black Sabbath – “Wishing Well”
The Damned – “Plan 9 Channel 7”
David Bowie – “Ricochet”
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In Episode 340 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin treats Judas Priest’s Painkiller and AC/DC’s The Razor’s Edge as near-identical 1990-era comeback doppelgangers, comparing their timing, guitars, drummers, production, and missed momentum as two old-guard metal bands tried to outmuscle a changing scene on the eve of grunge.
AC/DC – “Are You Ready”
Judas Priest – “Between the Hammer & the Anvil”
AC/DC – “Moneytalks”
Judas Priest – “Night Crawler”
AC/DC – “Thunderstruck”
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In Episode 339 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin explores how persistence and simply staying in the game can eventually pay off, using life-lesson stories and musical examples—from Gary Moore and John Wetton to Tommy Thayer and Derek Shulman—of artists who kept showing up, climbed the ladder in different ways, and ultimately landed career-defining gigs inside and beyond the rock world.
Gary Moore – “Moving On”
Gentle Giant – “All Through the Night”
Kiss – “Outta This World”
Asia – “Cutting It Fine”
Trans-Siberian Orchestra – “The Dark”
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In Episode 338 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin explores why veteran rock stars like Alice Cooper, Robert Plant, Rob Halford and others collaborate with younger musicians, examining whether it’s for creative renewal, staying culturally relevant, genuine mentorship, or tapping into youthful energy.
Alice Cooper – “Dirty Diamonds”
Robert Plant – “Big Love”
Fight – “Immortal Sin”
Bruce Dickinson – “Back from the Edge”
Iggy Pop – “American Valhalla”
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In Episode 337 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin examines rock and metal bands that “missed the pre-grunge window” by failing to release one more album before grunge’s 1991 breakthrough wiped out their commercial momentum.
Whitesnake – “Judgment Day"
Foreigner – “Counting Every Minute”
Accept – “Monsterman”
UFO – “Mean Streets”
Blue Öyster Cult – “Del Rio’s Song”
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In Episode 336 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin ponders the bands who managed—through timing, luck, pivots, or pure momentum—to sneak in a successful album just before grunge exploded and reshaped the entire rock and metal landscape.
Alice Cooper – “Little by Little”
Pantera – “Domination”
Judas Priest – “Hell Patrol”
Metallica – “Holier Than Though”
AC/DC – “Let’s Make It”
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In Episode 335 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin traces the parallel rise, stumbles, and enduring legacies of Motörhead and Saxon, showing how the two bands evolved like true heavy-metal doppelgängers across debuts, classics, live albums, missteps, and comeback eras.
Motörhead – “Keep Us on the Road”
Saxon – “Out of Control”
Motörhead – “Marching Off to War”
Saxon – “Hole in the Sky”
Motörhead – “When the Eagle Screams”
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In Episode 334 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin digs into why so many rock, metal, and even punk bands slip old-school 1950s-style rock-and-roll rave-ups into their albums, exploring the roots, motives, and surprising examples behind this enduring musical quirk.
Whitesnake – “Bloody Luxury”
Kiss – “Let Me Go, Rock ‘n’ Roll”
Accept – “Burning”
The Clash – “Brand New Cadillac”
Rush – “In the Mood”
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In Episode 333 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin dives into those puzzling album openers that deflate excitement right out of the gate—exploring songs that worry, confuse, or misrepresent their bands, from The Who and Rush to Queen, Rainbow, and Yes.
The Who – “New Song”
Rush – “The Big Money”
Queen – “Party”
Rainbow – “I Surrender”
Yes – “Going for the One”
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In Episode 332 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin digs into the most surprising omissions from classic live rock albums by legends like Led Zeppelin, Queen, and Rush—spotlighting the iconic tracks that somehow never made the cut.
Led Zeppelin – “Immigrant Song”
Queen – “Somebody to Love”
Rush – “Limelight”
AC/DC – “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”
Blue Öyster Cult – “Astronomy”
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In Episode 331 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin ponders the bands and albums that helped invent multiple rock and metal genres at once—from Hendrix, Cream, and Pink Floyd shaping psychedelia, prog, and metal, to King Crimson, Uriah Heep, Sabbath, and Venom forging the foundations of progressive metal, power metal, goth, thrash, and black metal.
Jimi Hendrix Experience – “Love or Confusion"
King Crimson – “The Court of the Crimson King”
Uriah Heep – “Poet’s Justice”
Venom – “Witching Hour”
Metallica – “No Remorse”
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In Episode 330 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin explores the birth of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in 1979, tracing the pivotal singles, band formations, and cultural shifts that set the stage for Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Saxon, and countless others to ignite a new era of heavy music.
Girlschool – “Take It All Away”
Motörhead – “Tear Ya Down”
Samson – “It’s Not as Easy as It Seems”
Vardis – “If I Were King”
Witchfynde – “Give ‘Em Hell”
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In Episode 329 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin digs through the decade’s heavy underground to find traces of early U.S. doom metal—spotlighting bands like Sir Lord Baltimore, Blue Öyster Cult, and Kiss—while concluding that true doom wouldn’t fully take shape in America until years after Black Sabbath set the template.
Sir Lord Baltimore – “Kingdom Come”
Blue Oyster Cult – “This Ain’t the Summer of Love”
Kiss – “Strange Ways”
Aerosmith – “Nobody’s Fault”
Ted Nugent – “Venom Soup”
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In Episode 328 of History in Five Songs with Martin Popoff, Martin explores “the last hair metal album”—digging into the moment before grunge overtook the charts to pinpoint which glossy, glam-fueled record marked the true end of hair metal’s unironically flashy golden era.
Guns N’ Roses – “Think About You”
Trixter – “Heart of Steel”
Slaughter – “Spend My Life”
Extreme – “Get the Funk Out”
Jackyl – “Brain Drain”
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Love Alice's ballads but after Killer, Billion Dollar Babies, etc, the song You and I was pretty weak tea.
I cannot disagree with your assessments of Hagar and DLR but I greatly prefer DLR VH to Van Hagar. Rawness, heaviness, and charisma count, just listen to A Different Kind of Truth. Some bands are not meant to be slick.
BTW, love The Vigil. top 5 boc song for me. love buck's solo.
still catching up on back episodes. love your candor here - BOC, my fave band, didn't do what was needed to be massive, and that's why we love them. they aren't Def Leppard, which is why we love them AND why they're less famous.
fun topic! so many great ones. three that came to mind: metallica's fade to black, vh's DOA, and ozzys tonight.
ok, Martin, figured out podcasts. loved this one and take your point that glam was less music than fashion. Listened to several other HI5S episodes and think you've got a thinking man's rock show here ... but I love it anyway! keep up the great work -- Mainzer Girl