What You're Not Listening To

Revisiting the late 60's to early 70's religious phenomenon in popular music.

Revisiting the late 60's to early 70's religious phenomenon in popular music.

A little over thirty years ago, a wave of British Rock and Roll dance artists led a brief but amazing music scene based in Northern England. #madchester #baggy

Just days before the third annual World AIDS Day in 1991, 30 years ago, one of Rock's most iconic front men, Freddy Mercury, died of the disease. This show revisits the time just prior to their worldwide success, when they were breaking out of the Glam Rock ghetto into becoming legendary. #AIDS #WAD2021 #HIV #LGBTQ #HardRock #GuitarRock #GlamRock #1970s

For my final show of Rocktober 2021 on it's final day, Halloween, another act, much like the first three featured this year, that laid the foundation for their respective sub-genre of Rock and Roll: Glam Metal. Today we revisit the first decade of band that just won't die, Motley Crue. #glammetal #hairmetal #heavymetal #motleycrue

For our third show for Rocktober 2021, a band that seemed to do something only The Beatles did a decade prior: absorb all of their influences so well as to create their unique but highly recognizable sound that proved the leading light of a new form of Rock and Roll in the late 70's and early 80's, American band Blondie. #blondie #newwave #debbieharry #altrock #CBGB

Our second program for Rocktober features a band that achieved some mainstream success in the U.S., but remain a cult favorite and one of the most influential acts that would spawn not only the New Wave of British Heavy Metal but also the American Thrash Movement, English and German heavy rock/metal act UFO. #UFOband #heavymetal #hardrock #1970s #guitarrock

For my first program for Rocktober 2021, an audio primer for the very first documentary of one of the most important bands of the latter half of the 20th century, The Velvet Underground, directed by Portlander Todd Haynes and broadcasting on October 15th on Apple TV. The Velvet Underground are a band you have heard of, if not exactly heard. When you do hear them, it is usually in passing, or one of two tracks from the catalogue that are favorites of whomever is presenting them. Often, you hear about their their story in terms that have nothing to do with the music or their greatness: Andy Warhol, The 1960's, Avant Garde, banana peel, etc. The Velvet Underground, 1969: (l-r) Doug Yule, Lou Reed, Maureen Tucker and Sterling Morrison. Photographer unknown, courtesy of UMG. Originally calling themselves The Warlocks and The Falling Spikes (the latter a reference to using heroin intravenously), they adopted their now famous name after finding a book in the street by journalist Michael Leigh, which detailed the so-called deviant sexual behaviors of white suburbanites. They were a band that definitely broke the mold on many fronts, even with their line-ups: most of the members, like founder Lou Reed, were from or living in New York. Experimental musician John Cale and former model Nico were the exceptions, from Wales and Germany, respectively. Adding to this was that their "drummer" was a woman, Maureen Tucker; she played a partial kit, and did this standing up. "I wanted to write the great American novel, but I also liked Rock and Roll."Lou Reed The decade they formed in and released most of their material in, the 1960's, saw a seismic shift in demographics that would forever alter their musical style. Thanks to the growth of the suburbs and the Second Great Migration by Blacks, older eastern and Midwestern cities like Chicago and New York started to decay and fall apart, while places like California would flourish. If Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys invented the concept of California as being a magical paradise, then Lou Reed documented the fall of New York just as perfectly. John Cale, 1967, in New York City. Photographer unknown, courtesy of Getty Images. Their sometimes abrasive sound would make them truly fringe artists during their brief lifetime, which initially included just four studio albums (a fifth one called Squeeze in 1973 without Reed is discounted by all involved), and on a great many touring dates they were lucky if 20 people would show up to see them. Much of this was due to the subject matter of their songs, which, even for so-called "progressive" radio, was too much to handle: heroin, methamphetamines, drag queens, transsexuals, prostitutes, fellatio, orgies, etc. Radio refused to play them and only a handful of truly underground stations emerging on the FM dial would, and critics did not know what to make of them. Nico, 1967, in Monterrey, California. Photo by Elaine Mayes. All Music, founded in 1991 and the premier guide to all things music on the internet, ranks them at #5 among all artists in terms of influence. The joke, coined by Brian Eno, goes something like this: The Velvet Underground only sold 100 albums, but those 100 people went on to form bands of their own. These eleven songs were chosen as a representation of the sounds, subject matter and characters that made the Velvet Underground the premier 1960's New York bohemian icons they would indelibly become. First Part Rock & Roll (full-length version), 1970, Loaded ("Fully Loaded" version)Lady Godiva's Operation, 1968, White Light/White HeatI'm Waiting For The Man, 1967, The Velvet Underground and NicoStephanie Says, recorded 1968/released 1985, VUWhite Light/White Heat (live at the Matrix, San Francisco), recorded 1969/released 1974, 1969: The Velvet Underground Live Vol. 2 Second Part What Goes On, 1969, The Velvet UndergroundPale Blue Eyes, 1969, The Velvet UndergroundVenus In Furs, 1967,

Although a month late, celebrating the wonderful milestone of the 75th birthday of Baby Boy, Ronald Smith, of Portland, OR, with a series of vintage tracks that all revolve around color. #blackmusic #birthday #blackveterans

For Hispanic Heritage Month 2021, looking at the Chapters series of albums Impulse Records last major star recorded for the label during the mid 1970's, as well as his truly iconic connection to a Jim Henson character. #latinjazz #gatobarbieri #muppets #jazzfusion

Nevermind, the second album by Nirvana, released 30 years ago next week, launched an alternative rock revolution with catchy, loud songs that truly cleared the air of the morass on commercial media in a way no one saw coming. #nirvana #altrock #grunge #nevermind30

File under: strange but true, a partial list of songs that a major radio network didn't want you to hear in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. #strangebuttrue #september11 #clearchannel

For those confused on why the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Roxy Music, here's your answer. #roxymusic #RRHOF

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first ever major, large-scale charity benefit and album that all came about because one person who felt powerless asked another very famous friend for help. The result was first-ever major musical charity event: The Concert for Bangladesh. #bangladesh #georgeharrison #charity

The first of what promises to be a semi-regularly recurring feature of this series: Original tracks and cover versions, with each performance standing on its own. #covers

Taking a look back almost five decades to one of the most unique and iconic albums of the 1970's, Something/Anything? by Todd Rundgren, that proved an album of incredibly diverse styles, almost all written and performed completely by the artist himself, could prove a template for all lo-fi, indie and self-produced and self-performed albums in history. #toddrundgren

How do you know when you have made it? When the lawyers start coming around. As Hip-Hop was becoming more a part of the mainstream daily, all of sudden, the checks got bigger. At least it did for some. What started out as Black, block party music in New York City over a decade prior was now very big business, and about to get bigger, which also drew the attention of an unfair, racist system that wanted it gone. #hiphop #oldschool

Nineteen Eighty-Six was the year mainstream America could no longer ignore Hip-Hop. It exploded nationally in the middle part of the year and then did something that took it even further: white kids from the suburbs became fascinated with it in a major way. This was also the era where Hip-Hop sub-genres, such as New Jack Swing and Hip-Hop Soul, were hitting the Pop charts regularly, along with female rappers and dance remixes further pushing it everywhere. #hiphop #rap #hiphipsoul #newjackswing #oldschool

In the sixth and seventh years of emergence into recorded music, Hip-Hop was branching out into the mainstream through inroads into Dance and Pop music with two new hybrids, Hip-Hop Soul and Latin Freestyle, while MC's started to become more forceful in their delivery and a new sonic experience, the Human Beatbox, was making its mark on the culture. oldschool #blackmusic #hiphop #electronic #bboys #bgirls #hiphopsoul #humanbeatbox #freestyle

Three years after the initial wave of Hip-Hop singles released on vinyl made a sudden impact, the genre went into completely different directions at a rapid pace, much of this stirred on by advancements in technology and a refocus on lyrical themes. #oldschool #blackmusic #hiphop #electronic #bboys #bgirls