Rock N Roll Archaeology

Welcome back to the second half of our big chapter telling the big story of a big year in Rock. If you haven’t done so already, we highly recommend you listen to Episode 18 before you delve into this one!  We tell the story of 1969 by telling the story of four concerts: The Beatles on the Roof, The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park was the first part. Part Two will take us to the peak, to the apotheosis of Woodstock...and to the abyss at Altamont. And we’ll go to some other places in between too.  1969 is the year Rock N Roll goes global, and we’ll get into that a little, and set up later discussions of great topics like Rock behind the Iron Curtain and the growing influence of Reggae and World Beat.  Then we’ll take you to Woodstock, and call off the roster, with lots of great music and commentary.   The first mythical Rock tour--the Rolling Stones ‘69 tour of America, is up next. That will take us to the final show of the tour, on a dark December night in California, where everything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and the consequences will be tragic.  We close out with some thoughts on the year and on the decade we’ve just completed, and on what comes next. www.rocknrollarchaeology.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Progressive Rock reached its zenith during the early 1970s, a period often celebrated as the genre's golden age. This era of Prog Rock has inspired intense opinions—both positive and negative—that rival those of any other rock movement or genre throughout music history. Fans of Progressive Rock are known for their passionate dedication. On the flip side, critics, including renowned voices like Lester Bangs, Robert Christgau, and Robert Hilburn, were notoriously dismissive of Progressive Rock. Despite their often harsh criticisms, we believe that time has proven them wrong. Our perspective has evolved, and we now view the best of 70s Progressive Rock as a genre with substantial depth and intellectual substance. The music from this era isn't just enjoyable; it’s some of the most significant work of the 20th century. Not all Prog Rock from this period hit the mark—there were certainly moments of excessive self-indulgence. However, the Prog bands and songs that have stood the test of time are truly exceptional and worth celebrating. Producer and Host: Christian Swain Head Writer: Richard Evans Sound Designer: Jerry Danielsen RockNRollArchaeology.com RNRA on Patreon RNRA on TeePublic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode Title: The Last Great Dream: Dennis McNally on the 1960s Counterculture, the Grateful Dead, and Its Lasting LegacyEpisode Summary:What if everything you thought you knew about the 1960s hippie movement and the Summer of Love was just scratching the surface? In this deep-dive conversation, acclaimed author and Grateful Dead historian Dennis McNally joins the show to discuss his monumental book, The Last Great Dream. We go beyond the clichés of flowers and tie-dye to uncover the intellectual, political, and artistic currents that fueled the San Francisco counterculture. McNally reveals how the dream of the 60s continues to shape our modern world in surprising ways—from the food we eat to the computers we use—and offers a profound look at its triumphs, its failures, and its unfulfilled promises. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Glam rock was more than just a sound—it was a shift in how music, fashion, and identity intertwined.  We explore the rise of Glam in the early ‘70s, with David Bowie as its central figure. Through alter egos like Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke, Bowie use theatricality, androgyny, and science fiction themes to push the boundaries of rock music and stardom.  But Glam wasn’t just Bowie. UK Artists like T. Rex and Slade, and Americans like Lou Reed and Alice Cooper each brought their own take, blending rock with elaborate visuals and a playful disregard for traditional norms.  Glam faded after a few short years, but its influence is lasting. Glam style and attitude reappear, over and over, in Rock Music.  Producer and Host: Christian Swain  Head Writer: Richard Evans  Sound Designer: Jerry Danielsen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Soul of the 1970s. First, Marvin Gaye kicked the door open with “What’s Going On,” and then Stevie Wonder barged in. The Wonder Years spanned 1971 to 1976; when the transcendent, diverse talent of Stevie Wonder was in its fullest flower. That five-album span is one of the most successful and impactful creative runs in the history of recorded music. Our podcast offers immersive storytelling, insightful commentary, and a stellar musical playlist. Join us as we delve deep into the lives and musical genius of these iconic Soul-Music luminaries. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7s4Vyw1FLb4XpJnANduFPs?si=14746e9dd53049b1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We want the airwaves, baby! Chapter 23 of Rock N Roll Archaeology tunes into radio and radio culture in America and elsewhere. There was a brief moment in the 70s and early 80s where FM Rock Radio was something pretty special.So what was that like, and where have all the good times gone? Some storytelling in this one, but it’s a little heavier on the commentary…and of course we’re featuring some killer songs, because that’s how we roll. “Begin the day with a friendly voice, a companion unobtrusive, Plays that song that’s so elusive” For full show notes and to support Rock and Roll Archaeology visit www.rocknrollarchaeology.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We start with a tragedy, then a cautionary tale of the world not ready for a band. We then find more positive inspiration from an artist who delivers a huge seller. We end with a legend.   Janis Joplin dies just before releasing her magnum opus, “Pearl.” A band called Fanny is ready to rock, but a culture poisoned by the patriarchy isn’t yet ready to accept them. Carole King makes Tapestry, a sincere, modest, and deeply personal album that hits huge and becomes a milestone for women. We complete the story with a profile of one of the giants of 20th Century Music, Joni Mitchell. We discuss her artistic and commercial peak in the early 70s with “Blue,” “For the Roses,” and “Court and Spark.” We admire all of these women for kicking down the door, and we celebrate the progress we’ve made since them, but there is still a long way to go.  Now for some general remarks about the research and writing. To the best of our ability, we tried to center women in this chapter. We’ll leave it to the listener to decide how we did with that. There’s a diversity of opinion about this, but we think it’s fair to say the second wave of feminism hits the crest during the period we are covering, and it is not at all a coincidence that women really start to make big and important contributions to Rock Music right around this time too.  Roe vs Wade was decided right around here, about fifty years ago. We are painfully aware of the US Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe, stripping many millions of American women of their fundamental human rights to bodily autonomy and medical privacy. As we move forward with our chapters, we will document that half century of regressive backlash and how it got us here; it’s part of the story. Like we often say, Rock N Roll reflects back on, interacts with, and affects the larger society. And vice versa. In the late Sixties and early Seventies, it seemed like the progress would be permanent, and that more progress was on the way. Some of us were naive enough to believe that. We would do well now to remember the words of the anti slavery activist Frederick Douglass, way back in 1857:  This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.  Voice Talent Richard Evans as L.A. County Coroner Stephanie Pena as Alice Echols Stephanie Meyers as the voice of Creem Magazine Amanda Morck as Meredith Ochs Christy Alexander Hallberg as the voice of the IMA mission statement Carole King as Herself Erin Alden as Tanya Pearson Lynley Ehrlich as Carol Hanisch Thessaly Lerner as Judy Kutulas Holly Cantos as the voice of the New York Times Online Resources Rock’s Back Pages Coroner's Report, archived at janisjoplin.net  ABC Nightly News Report, from October 4th, 1970 Deeper Digs in Rock: 'Rock N Roll Woman: The Fifty Fiercest Female Rockers' with Meredith Ochs The Institute for the Musical Arts 1416 N. La Brea Ave, Hollywood 50 years ago, the Sylmar earthquake shook L.A., and nothing’s been the same since Women of Rock Oral History Project "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be": Baby Boomers, 1970s Singer-Songwriters, and Romantic Relationships Carol Hanisch The Personal is Political New York Times “Albums as Mileposts in a Musical Century” Deeper Digs in Rock: Reckless Daughter - A Portrait of Joni Mitchell Jonimitchell.com Joni Mitchell, Woman of Heart and Mind Books Joan Didion, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” Alice Echols: “Scars of Sweet Paradise” Carole King: “Natural Woman” Meredith Ochs: “Rock And Roll Woman: The Fifty Fiercest Women Rockers” Sheila Weller: “Girls Like Us” Jerry Wexler: “Rhythm and the Blues” David Yaffe: “Reckless Daughter” Documentaries and Films Fanny: The Right to Rock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The fuse was lit in 1966. Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Keith Moon came together to record a proto-metal classic. After the session an offhand quip from Keith Moon sticks with Jimmy Page.  Then we meet The G; the imposing Peter Grant. Led Zeppelin’s fearsome tough-guy manager was a key reason why Zep dominated the rock landscape in the early 70s.  Well away from Swinging London, in the grimy industrial town of Birmingham, Black Sabbath comes together. We’ll also take a look at one of the greatest Jam Bands ever, Deep Purple.  Then on to probably the single saddest story in all of Rock History, the final days of Jimi Hendrix.  Jimi towers over all of it, the late, lamented godfather of Heavy Rock--Rock that centers around the guitar and celebrates blazing virtuosity on that instrument.  Gone but not forgotten: the Guitarmageddon explosion has reverberated way beyond the Seventies--all the way up to the present day.  Far more than any other movement or genre within Rock music...Metal, Heavy Rock, Jam Rock, pick your label...it’s got legs. It changes and grows, continues to reinvent itself, and it sticks around.  Still with us, still going strong, still powered by fans.   Voice Actors Jemma Sconce as Sophia DeBoick  Bryan Reesman as Gauntlet.com Tony MIchaelides as Martin Power Jerry Danielsen as Oxford Dictionary Courtney Anderson as Gregg Tate Peter Ferioli as Stephen Hyden Mistress Carrie as Consequence of Sound Charles Cross as Charles Cross Rich Price as David Fricke Dave Sloan as Jon Landau Full show notes at http://pantheonpodcasts.com/rock-n-roll-archaeology Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rock N Roll as the First Draft Of History We begin in the midwest college town of Kent, Ohio, in the late spring of 1970. We’ll meet three future rockers--students at Kent State University, barely out of their teens--who will be changed forever by what they witness. We’ll check in on Motown, where the fluffy pop “Sound of Young America” is still alive, but there's a big change coming, a movement towards a tougher, more topical sound. We’ll foreshadow that just a little--lots more to come in a later chapter. Rock N Roll is now Rock, and it is mainstreamed now, big and getting bigger. It set out to subvert the dominant paradigm, now it is the dominant paradigm. It can be downright paradoxical at times; defined by its own contradictions. We come back to the campus for the shattering events of May 4th. They inspire a unique musical response, something we really haven’t seen since then.   Written by Richard Evans and Christian Swain Hosted and Produced by Christian Swain Sound Design by Jerry Danielsen Voice Actors Holly Cantos as the voice of the Kent State Official History Dr. Stephen Arnoff as the voice of Prof. Charles Reich James O’Laughlin as the voice of Jimmy McDonaugh Eric Nash as the voice of Kevin C. Smith David Browne as the voice of David Browne Songs Randy Newman: “Burn On” from Sail Away, 1972 James Gang: “Funk 48” from Yer’ Album, 1969 The Stooges: “1970” from Fun House, 1970 Rare Earth: “Hey Big Brother” single released in 1970 Graham Nash: “Chicago” from Songs for Beginners, 1971 Edwin Starr: “War” from War & Peace, 1970 Eric Burdon and War: “Spill The Wine” from Eric Burdon Declares War, 1970  Frank Zappa and The Mothers: “Nanook Rubs It” from Apostrophe, 1974 John Lennon and the Plastic Ono: “Working Class Hero” from Plastic Ono Band, 1970 Jackson 5: “I Want You Back” Single released in 1969 Marvin Gaye: “Inner City Blues” from What’s Goin’ On, 1971 War: “Slippin’ Into Darkness” from All Day Music, 1971 CSN&Y: “Carry On” from Deja Vu, 1970 Neil Young & Crazy Horse: “Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown” from Tonight’s the Night, 1974 Neil Young: ”The Needle And The Damage Done” from Harvest, 1972 Elton John: “Burn Down The Mission” from Tumbleweed Connection, 1970 Ten Years After: “I’d Love To Change The World” from A Space In Time, 1970 CSN&Y: “Find The Cost Of Freedom” single released in 1970 CSN&Y: “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” from Four Way Street, 1971 CSN&Y: “Ohio” single released in 1970 Led Zeppelin: “What Is And What Should Never Be” from Led Zeppelin II, 1969 Books David Browne: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Bob Burroughs: Days of Rage Robert Giles: When Truth Mattered Todd Gitlin: The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage Chrissie Hynde: Reckless: My Life as a Pretender Jimmy McDonough: Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography Rick Perlstein: Nixonland Charles Reich: The Greening of America Neil Sheehan: A Bright Shining Lie Kevin C. Smith: Recombo DNA Hunter S. Thompson: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Online Sources The Cuyahoga River James Gang on Tour Port Huron Statement Jerry Casale at Kent State Kent State University Official History More Resources on the The Kent State Massacre Assassination of Fred Hampton Assassination of Fred Hampton--Gov’t Docs Podcasts WTF With Marc Maron: Episode 942, interview with Joe Walsh Deeper Digs in Rock With Christian Swain: Interview with David Browne Films and Documentaries The Murder of Fred Hampton, Directed by Howard Alk, 1971 This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts. @PantheonPods Listen in HD only at www.rocknrollarchaeology.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is dedicated with love to the memory of our dear friend Dennis Gordon. Dennis was the big booming voice on our show “bumpers” that would begin and end each chapter of Rock N Roll Archaeology. Thank you Dennis, we miss you. May the Four Winds blow you safely home.  Welcome back to the second half of our big chapter telling the big story of a big year in Rock. If you haven’t done so already, we highly recommend you listen to Episode 18 before you delve into this one!  We tell the story of 1969 by telling the story of four concerts: The Beatles on the Roof, The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park was the first part. Part Two will take us to the peak, to the apotheosis of Woodstock...and to the abyss at Altamont. And we’ll go to some other places in between too.  1969 is the year Rock N Roll goes global, and we’ll get into that a little, and set up later discussions of great topics like Rock behind the Iron Curtain and the growing influence of Reggae and World Beat.  Then we’ll take you to Woodstock, and call off the roster, with lots of great music and commentary.   The first mythical Rock tour--the Rolling Stones ‘69 tour of America, is up next. That will take us to the final show of the tour, on a dark December night in California, where everything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and the consequences will be tragic.  We close out with some thoughts on the year and on the decade we’ve just completed, and on what comes next. This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts. @PantheonPods Listen in HD only at www.rocknrollarchaeology.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re putting down a marker with this episode, and the follow-up: the highest highs and the lowest lows of the entire Rock Era occurred in 1969. It’s a year so big, we had to cut it in two, in order to serve it up properly.  We start in January, with The Beatles on The Roof, a 42-minute outdoor concert that definitely warmed up the neighborhood of Mayfair, London, England. Then we catch up with their friends and rivals, The Rolling Stones.   The Stones broke out HUGE in 68 and 69, the beginning of an incredible five-year run: from Beggars Banquet on through to Exile On Main Street. Peak Stones, the sweet spot for the World’s Greatest Rock N Roll Band.  Brian Jones is out, Mick Taylor is in. We talk about how that happened, and how it impacted the Stones’ sound and attitude. Another influence starts seeping in: American Country Music, thanks to Keith’s new best buddy, Gram Parsons.  Brian’s tragic--and still unexplained--demise changes the Hyde Park Concert from a coming-out party into a memorial service. Emotion and conviction carry the day, and Hyde Park sets a very high and hopeful bar; it’s an early example of How To Successfully Pull Off A Really Big Concert.  During that “Moon-Crazy Summer” of 1969, NASA pulls off something really big. It’s the single greatest feat--so far--of human exploration: The Apollo 11 mission to the moon and back. We look at the moon landing through the Rock N Roll lens; we’ll talk about space travel, science fiction, and fantasy...in books, film, television, and most of all, in Rock Music.  Then David Bowie, with his lifelong knack for being ahead of his time, said take your protein pills and put your helmet on.  And we did.  And in just a short time we got used to it, became a little jaded about it.  That comes later. Here and now in the summer of 1969; stardust, golden, billion year old carbon...got to get ourselves back to the garden.  We’ll open Part Two at Yasgur’s Farm in upstate New York, and we’ll light a candle in the rain. Head over to Pantheon Podcasts for full show notes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 17 of Rock N Roll Archaeology is bookended by a couple of Simon & Garfunkel albums: “Bookends” from the spring of 1968; and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” from January of 1970.  Our story takes place mostly in New York City: a city big enough to spawn two very different, very talented--and very influential--artists: Paul Simon and Lou Reed.  We skip work on a cold January afternoon to catch a movie: Mike Nichols’ “The Graduate.” It’s a generation milestone of a film, and Simon & Garfunkel’s music is a big part of that; what’s more, we argue, it’s a different kind of soundtrack, something new in film and popular culture.  We meet Tom Wilson, the first African-American staff producer at Columbia Records. Tom oversaw the first two Simon & Garfunkel albums. We follow him for a little while and he leads us to...Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground. We get to know Lou and the Velvets, and the scene from which they sprang: Andy Warhol’s Factory. We meet a Factory hang-around, an angry young woman with good reasons to be angry, but she takes it way too far, with tragic consequences.  And we’ll meet the first Punk Rock band: The MC5, and the revolutionary political milieu they occupied. Wayne Kramer of the MC5 has some things to say about that, and about a fateful MC5 gig at the Fillmore East.  Finally, we’ll meet one of our favorite artists ever, who came from the same scene as the MC5: Iggy Pop. We say “Amen” to Iggy Pop.  We wrap it back around to Simon & Garfunkel, and their take on the anger and disappointment, on the turmoil of the late 1960s. An offer of comfort and healing is the first big Pop hit of the 1970s. Listen to episodes 1-16 of Rock N Roll Archaeology and all our other podcasts at www.pantheonpodcasts.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We start our tale of Paradise Lost in Buena Vista Park, San Francisco, in the fall of 1967. Hippie, the Devoted Son of Mass Media, is dead, and the San Francisco Diggers are conducting the funeral.  From the funky streets of the Haight we head east a couple miles to the Fillmore West, and meet a complicated man, concert promoter Bill Graham. It was during these early years in San Francisco that Bill created the rock concert experience.  Then a brief trip to Texas, where Janis Joplin cleans up and then heads back; to San Francisco to find her family. We get to know Janis a little better, and talk about her early work with Big Brother and the Holding Company--and what happened when Janis left Big Brother.  We’ll spend a little more time on the Big Picture. Politically, culturally, in pretty much every way, 1968 was a pivotal year, in America and around the world.  Then across the Bay, to the lands that lie East of Eden. We’ll meet two very different acts, that interestingly enough, have similar stories: Sly and the Family Stone, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.  We close it out with a short meditation on the aftermath of the Summer of Love. We still dream it and dance to it.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An impressionistic look at the interplay of Rock N Roll and Culture in Los Angeles during the latter half of the 1960s. There are familiar elements: storytelling, critical discussion and commentary, and lots of Rock N Roll attitude. But this one is different from most of our previous RNRAP offerings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We open in Manila, in the Republic of the Philippines, July 3rd, 1966. The second stop of the Far East leg of the Beatles’ 1966 tour starts out weird and ominous, and gets worse from there. By the time the tour sputters to a halt—late August in San Francisco—the boys are almighty sick of it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We open at Waldo Point Marina in Sausalito, California, just north of San Francisco. Otis Redding takes a break from the road on Bill Graham’s houseboat, and comes up with a signature song. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jimi Hendrix's astonishing, supernatural talent was forged in poverty and neglect as he grew up in Seattle. We talk about that, and about the night Elvis came to town. After a short stint in the Army comes to a humiliating end, Jimi takes it on the road and spends the next four years paying his dues as a sideman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We start by taking a clear-eyed look at the infamous seaside “Riots” in the resort town of Clacton, United Kingdom and several other towns in the summer of 1964. The British press were WAY over the top in their depiction of these events, but they did document the first schism, the first big division in Rock music and culture: the traditionalist Rockers versus the Modernists, or “Mods.” Oh yeah, a couple bands like The Who and Kinks make an appearance... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode Ten opens up with Christian narrating at the site of the Bricklayer’s Arms Public House, in Soho, West London, where Brian Jones met with two younger men, school chums, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, in the fall of 1963. You might know them as The Rolling Stones. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back Diggers to Episode Nine: The Medium, The Message, The Music. This show will contain familiar elements — storytelling, commentary, and musicology — but it is also a bit of a departure. It takes place mostly in the mid-sixties, but we’re not following a timeline or building a story: it’s more of a mosaic, a think-piece. We think the influence of psychedelic drugs — especially LSD — on rock music is critically important and very much overlooked. It’s a vital part of the overall story. We hope to make that case with this show. We will meet some rockers and there will be lots of musical examples, because that’s how we roll. But we will also meet scholars, inventors, researchers and writers: Marshall McLuhan, Albert Hofmann, Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey…and more. We will spend some time on the advances in music technology — better instruments and amps, multi-tracking and effects — and show these advances in the musical media arrive at the same time as advances in the psychedelic media. And the results of that arrival are, well, mind-blowing. We’re going “Further” with this episode, so turn on, tune in, and enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices