Podcast appearances and mentions of Charles R Cross

In our 1300 episode, Jesse Jackson and a panel of dedicated Bruce Springsteen fans - Shawn, Caroline, and Joyce - as they recap the highlights of the past year for The Boss in their second annual 'Springsteen in Review' episode. From emotional performances and significant releases to eagerly anticipated projects and personal anecdotes, this comprehensive discussion covers Bruce's health updates, his impactful political statements, and memorable collaborations. Dive into Bruce's enduring influence, his commitment to his craft, and what's on the horizon for the legendary rocker. This is a must-watch for any Springsteen enthusiast looking to relive the key moments of the year and gear up for what's next. 00:00 Countdown to the New Year 01:06 Meet the Hosts and Panel 03:11 Springsteen Tour Highlights 04:51 Reflecting on Set Lists and Performances 09:39 Adele Springsteen's Passing 14:16 Greatest Night in Pop Documentary 21:12 Bruce on Curb Your Enthusiasm 24:14 Collaborations and Guest Appearances 45:37 Springsteen's Return to Touring 01:03:09 Reflecting on Bruce Springsteen's Decisions 01:04:02 Theories on Born in the USA Live Performances 01:05:11 Stevie Van Zandt: A Fascinating Career 01:10:56 Bruce Springsteen's Future and Health Concerns 01:16:30 Tribute to Charles R. Cross and Backstreets Magazine 01:20:57 Jesse Mallon's Tribute Album and Road Diary 01:35:28 Bruce Springsteen's Political Involvement 01:42:52 Howard Stern Interview and Stand Up for Heroes 01:50:14 Elvis Presley Documentaries and Final Thoughts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Filmmaker Erik Nelson discusses his new film, Daytime Revolution. Plus we remember rock historian Charles R. Cross

In the latest episode of None But The Brave, co-hosts Hal Schwartz and Flynn McLean are joined by Backstreets Magazine editor Chris Phillips to pay tribute to Charles R. Cross, the founder of Backstreets, who died on August 9th. They discuss Charley's role in the creation of the Springsteen fan community, his final editorial that ran posthumously last month, Bruce's onstage dedication in his memory, and more. To hear Charley's final appearance on NBTB last year: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/none-but-the-brave/id1479939374?i=1000603574582 For more information on exclusive NBTB content via Patreon, please visit: Patreon.com/NBTBPodcast This show is sponsored by DistroKid. Use this link to support the show and get 30% off your first year: http://distrokid.com/vip/nbtb Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this bonus episode, we remember Seattle music journalist Charles R. Cross, who died on August 9, 2024 at age 67. Dusty Henry and Martin Douglas reflect on Cross' legacy, we listen back to Cross speaking with former KEXP DJ Marco Collins, and KEXP listeners share personal memories of him.  Hosts: Dusty Henry and Martin DouglasSpecial thanks: Emily Fox, Owen Murphy, Meerah Powell, Marco CollinsAudio producer: Roddy NikpourPodcast manager: Isabel KhaliliEditorial director: Larry Mizell Jr.  Support the podcast: kexp.org/cobainSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send us a Text Message.On Friday, August 9th, Charles R. Cross passed away from natural causes. For those who knew Charley in the Pacific Northwest music community, the Springsteen community and in real life, it was a shock. Charley was only 67 years old and was in the middle of working on his 10th book. Back in October 2023 Charley sat down with us and discussed Tower, Seattle, Music and a ton of other subjects. I first met Charley in 1984, the old fashioned way...by writing him a letter. I had seen his fanzine "Backstreets Magazine" and was stunned at the quality of the publication. I was going into my Senior year of college and I sent along articles I had written. He encouraged me to contribute whatever I wanted. Surprisingly he began printing my articles and photographs. When I moved to Seattle in 1990 I knew two people; my boss Rob Bruce and Charley. Both showed me the lay of the land in Seattle. While I knew Charley as the Publisher and Editor of "Backstreets" what I quickly found out was the influence of his "day job" publisher and editor of "The Rocket" an incredible chronicle of the Northwest Music scene long before I got there and after I left. As Springsteen's popularity ebbed and Seattle's was on the rise, Charley had a front row seat and shared it with his readers. We're rerunning our Episode with Charles R. Cross today. Give it a listen. 

Charles R Cross died this weekend, and even if you haven't heard his name, you've likely felt his impact in Seattle. He was a pioneering music journalist who championed Seattle's grunge scene during its meteoric rise, and later wrote biographies of music icons. Longtime Seattle DJ Marco Collins tells us about Charles and his impact on the city. We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. You have the power! Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW: https://www.kuow.org/donate/seattlenow And we want to hear from you! Follow us on Instagram at SeattleNowPod, or leave us feedback online: https://www.kuow.org/feedback See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Burien voters to decide on raising minimum wage, grocer C&S Wholesale could soon have hundreds of stores in WA, and we remember music journalist Charles R. Cross. It's our daily roundup of top stories from the KUOW newsroom, with host Ruby de Luna. We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. You have the power! Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Comedy records are records too!  WTF podcast host Marc Maron returns to the show to talk about his new vinyl LP, From Bleak To Dark (Craft Recordings) and a bit about the comedy albums of his youth. And since we just lost comedy legend Bob Newhart, the deadpan comic responsible for one of the most historic comedy albums of all time, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, comedy vinyl aficionado Dan Pasternack also returns to our show to say "Hi Bob" and contextualize the impact of Newhart's albums on the culture of comedy and even the Grammys. Asheville, North Carolina's Harvest Records turns 20 this year and we welcome Matt Schnable and Mark Capon to our program to talk about all the special 20th Anniversary events they have planned, including a free festival! The Record Store Day Podcast is a weekly music chat show written, produced, engineered and hosted by Paul Myers, who also composed the theme music and selected interstitial music.    Executive Producers (for Record Store Day) Michael Kurtz and Carrie Colliton. For the most up-to-date news about all things RSD, visit RecordStoreDay.com)   Sponsored by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (dogfish.com), Tito's Handmade Vodka (titosvodka.com), RSDMRKT.com, and Furnace Record Pressing, the official vinyl pressing plant of Record Store Day.   Please consider subscribing to our podcast wherever you get podcasts, and tell your friends, we're here every week and we love making new friends.   This episode is dedicated to Seattle music journalist and author Charles R. Cross who passed away just as this week's show was being put together. Read his books on Nirvana, Hendrix and Springsteen, a legend in music journalism and a good friend to many of our friends and favorite musicians. --

We wanted to round out today's show by remembering a man described as the greatest music journalist Seattle ever had - Charles R. Cross. For over 40 years, Cross tracked the pulse of Seattle through its music. He was also known for his biographies of local rock legends: Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart. Cross' family confirmed in a statement that he died on Aug. 9 of natural causes at his home in Shoreline. He was 67.  Charles was also a regular guest on KUOW. .  Our last conversation was back in January. Charles invited me over to his house to pour over archives of The Rocket - the scrappy biweekly music magazine he owned and edited. The paper published from 1979 to 2000, and its writers were tastemakers for the whole music industry  during grunge's dizzying heights in the ‘90s. When we sat down to talk, Cross had just announced that all 336 issues of The Rocket were available online, a painstaking process that exemplified the deep love he had for the journalism and artists who helped build Seattle culture .  Here's that conversation. Guest: Seattle-based music journalist Charles R. Cross   Relevant Links: Variety: Charles R. Cross, Music Journalist Who Wrote Heralded Kurt Cobain Biography and Edited Seattle's Alt-Weekly the Rocket, Dies at 67 The Seattle Times: Charles R. Cross, influential Seattle music journalist, dead at 67 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chapter 1 What's Heavier Than Heaven Book by Charles R. CrossThe book "Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain" by Charles R. Cross is a biography of the musician Kurt Cobain, who was the lead vocalist and guitarist of the band Nirvana. The book explores Cobain's life, his struggles with addiction, his rise to fame, and his tragic death by suicide in 1994.Chapter 2 Is Heavier Than Heaven Book A Good BookOpinions on the quality of a book can vary among individuals. However, "Heavier Than Heaven" by Charles R. Cross is generally regarded as a well-written and insightful biography on the life and death of Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana. The book delves into Cobain's complex personality and struggles with addiction, mental health, fame, and creativity. It provides a comprehensive perspective on Cobain's life, music, and legacy, making it highly recommended for fans of Nirvana and those interested in rock history.Chapter 3 Heavier Than Heaven Book by Charles R. Cross Summary"Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain" is a book written by Charles R. Cross. It is a comprehensive biography that delves into the life, career, and tragic end of American musician Kurt Cobain, the frontman of the influential grunge band Nirvana.The book begins by exploring Cobain's troubled childhood and the factors that shaped him into the complex and talented artist he would become. Cross delves into Cobain's relationships with his parents, his struggles with mental health, and his early musical influences, which eventually led him to form Nirvana in the late 1980s.As Cobain's fame and success grew, Cross provides an in-depth look at the impact of Nirvana and the grunge movement on the music industry and popular culture. The book explores the band's rise to stardom with their album "Nevermind" and the profound influence they had on a generation of music fans.However, the biography does not shy away from the darker aspects of Cobain's life. Cross delves into the singer's ongoing battle with drug addiction, his tumultuous relationship with Courtney Love, and the struggles he faced with his fame and success."Heavier Than Heaven" also delves into Cobain's artistic process, giving readers insight into the creation of iconic Nirvana songs and the band's creative collaborations. Cross explores Cobain's lyrics, images, and the deeper meanings behind them, shedding light on the raw honesty and vulnerability that made Cobain such a compelling figure in the music world.The book concludes by examining Cobain's tragic death in 1994, exploring the circumstances surrounding his suicide and the profound impact it had on his fans, the music industry, and popular culture as a whole. Cross offers a thoughtful exploration of Cobain's legacy and the ongoing fascination with his life and music.Overall, "Heavier Than Heaven" is a meticulously researched and captivating biography of Kurt Cobain, providing a comprehensive and nuanced look at the life and career of one of rock music's most iconic and troubled figures. Chapter 4 Heavier Than Heaven Book AuthorCharles R. Cross is an American author, journalist, and music critic. He was born on October 5, 1956. He is best known for his biography on Kurt Cobain, titled "Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain." The book was first published on August 15, 2001. Apart from "Heavier Than Heaven," Charles R. Cross has written several other books. Some of his notable works include:1. "Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix" (2005) - This biography explores the life and career of...

Životopis Ťažší ako nebo je mimoriadna kniha o temnom živote legendárnej hviezdy a o kapele Nirvana. Vzhľadom na to, čím všetkým Cobain prešiel a ako s týmito okolnosťami naložil, dodnes prehovára ľuďom do duše. Podarilo sa mu pretvoriť bolesť do umenia v podobe hudby a to nepochybne stojí za obdiv, či už ste jeho tvorbu mali radi, alebo nie.

Život Kurta Cobaina je opradený mnohými tajomstvami a mystifikáciami, ktoré vytvoril buď on sám, alebo jeho fanúšikovia. Charles R. Cross odhaľuje, aký bol Cobain v skutočnosti, ako tvoril, ako sa prepletalo jeho súkromie s profesionálnym životom a čo vlastne znamená názov Smells Like Teen Spirit. 

Charles R. Cross isn't our typical guest on 2500 DelMonte Street. He never ran a Tower store…never worked in a Tower store. But he had a lot of business and personal relationships with Tower Records, as well as being a steady customer. In the parking lot of the Tower Records at 5th & Mercer in Seattle, weeks before the release date, Charley first heard Nirvana's “Nevermind” given to him on a Maxell XL II 90 by the store's GM. Ten years later Charley would write and release what many consider to be the definitive biography of Kurt Cobain, “Heavier Than Heaven: A Kurt Cobain Biography”.Growing up in several cities before landing in Seattle to go to college, Charley was a passionate music fan at an early age. Some people pick up a guitar, Charley pecked on a typewriter to express his feelings about music. Some takes landed and some missed. But through it all Charley looked for a way to connect with readers who, like him, understood the joy that the best music could bring into a person's life. In this week's episode, we talk about the music and performances that Charley still remembers from his years of listening. Unbelievably there was a time when Springsteen fans couldn't find enough to read about their musical hero and in October 1980 that changed as Charley launched Backstreets Magazine, which he owned and operated until 1998 and which continued to publish, mostly electronically until early in 2023. Charley's years at The Rocket, Seattle's premier music and arts newspaper gave him a front-row seat and a strong part in the formation of the Seattle music scene of the 80's & 90's. There's a reason Courtney Love said on a recent podcast “Charley is an honorary Cobain”. Do we talk about Tower Records in this episode? Yes, we do. Not as much as on others. But if you want a glimpse into early 1990s Seattle, this episode is a great place to start. 

In the latest edition of None But The Brave, co-hosts Hal Schwartz and Flynn McLean welcome back the founder of Backstreets Magazine, Charles R. Cross, for a wide ranging discussion on the end of the magazine and Bruce Springsteen's 2023 Tour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 10 of Rock is Lit features Jennifer Haupt's novel ‘Come As You Are', a story set against the backdrop of the Seattle grunge scene of the early 1990s. Joining Jennifer and me on that episode to share their memories of that pivotal moment in music history to add real-world context to Jennifer's novel are Nabil Ayers, co-founder of Seattle's iconic record store Sonic Boom and author of the memoir ‘My Life in the Sunshine', about his efforts to connect with his father, the funk, soul, and jazz legend Roy Ayers; and Charles R. Cross, author of the award-winning 2001 biography on Kurt Cobain, ‘Heavier Than Heaven'. My conversation with Charles went on much longer than I'd anticipated when we began talking, and I could only fit a fraction of it in the regular episode. What Charles had to say about Kurt Cobain was so fascinating and astute, based on his extensive research into Kurt's life and career, Charles's extraordinary access to Kurt's private papers via Kurt's widow, Courtney Love, and Charles's unique position as the editor of the Seattle music magazine ‘The Rocket' before, during, and after the Seattle grunge explosion of the early ‘90s, a position that put him in direct contact with Kurt Cobain several times, that I decided to make the whole uncut interview with Charles available here.There are short outtakes from my interviews with Jennifer and Nabil in the Vault as well, which I hope you'll listen to. But for now, light a candle, drop the needle on track three of ‘Nevermind', and come as you are to hear Charles R. Cross talk about the genius and demons of Nirvana's front man and primary songwriter, Kurt Cobain. KEY QUOTES AND TEASERS:What was Kurt's relationship with Courtney Love like? What did Kurt think of the Weird Al parody of “Smells Like Teen Spirit? Why does Charles think Nirvana never could have happened in the Facebook era? Listen to the uncut interview to find out why.Charles: “[Nirvana] weren't great at the start. They were not the best band in Seattle in 1988, 1989, and 1990. They were the best band in Seattle in 1991.”Charles: “Kurt's greatest gift is that when he sang, you felt like he was singing to you.” MUSIC AND MEDIA THAT APPEAR IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:“Come As You Are” by NirvanaClip of Kurt Cobain talking about his lyricsMTV announcement of Kurt's death, April 8, 1994“Lithium” by Nirvana“Serve the Servants” by NirvanaClips of artists praising Nirvana and Kurt: Jewel, Henry Rollins, Robert Plant“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana“Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” performed by NirvanaMichael Stipe: “Kurt, we miss you.”LINKS: Charles' website, https://charlesrcross.com/Charles on Twitter, @charlesrcross  Christy Alexander Hallberg's website, https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/Christy Alexander Hallberg on Instagram, @christyhallbergChristy Alexander Hallberg on Twitter, @ChristyHallbergChristy Alexander Hallberg on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfSnRmlL5moSQYi6EjSvqagRock is Lit Vault, https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/rockislitvault

Episode 10 of Rock is Lit features Jennifer Haupt's novel ‘Come As You Are', a story set against the backdrop of the Seattle grunge scene of the early 1990s. Nabil Ayers, author of the memoir ‘My Life in the Sunshine' and co-founder of Seattle's iconic record store Sonic Boom, shares his memories of that pivotal moment in music history in the full episode. Here are two outtakes from my interview with Nabil, in which he talks about his new memoir about his efforts to connect with his father, the funk, soul, and jazz legend Roy Ayers, and Nabil's experience meeting Joan Jett when his band opened up for her back in the day.Check out other bonus material from Episode 10 in the Rock is Lit Vault, including my full, uncut interview with Charles R. Cross about Kurt Cobain, and outtakes from my interview with Jennifer Haupt about her novel ‘Come As You Are'. MUSIC AND MEDIA THAT APPEAR IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:“Everybody Loves the Sunshine” by Roy Ayers“Running Away” by Roy Ayers“I Hate Myself for Loving You” by Joan Jett & the BlackheartsLINKS: Nabil's website, https://www.nabilayers.com/Nabil on Twitter, @nabilayersNabil on Instagram, @nabilayersLink to Nabil's ‘Rolling Stone' article on Nirvana's OK Hotel show, “The Night Nirvana Changed Everything,” https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/nirvana-smells-like-teen-spirit-first-performance-1154128/Link to Nabil's ‘The Stranger' article on Soundgarden, https://www.thestranger.com/music/2017/05/18/25153388/soundgarden-will-never-be-the-first-seattle-band-anyone-mentions-but-for-me-soundgarden-was-the-first-band-that-changed-everything Christy Alexander Hallberg's website, https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/Christy Alexander Hallberg on Instagram, @christyhallbergChristy Alexander Hallberg on Twitter, @ChristyHallbergChristy Alexander Hallberg on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfSnRmlL5moSQYi6EjSvqagRock is Lit Vault, https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/rockislitvault

Episode 10 of Rock is Lit features Jennifer Haupt's novel ‘Come As You Are', a story set against the backdrop of the Seattle grunge scene of the early 1990s. In this outtake from that interview, I talk with Jennifer about lost and deferred dreams—for the characters in her novel and for herself—and the difference in her reaction to publishing her first novel and this one. Listen to Episode 10, then check out other bonus material in the Rock is Lit Vault, including my full, uncut interview with Charles R. Cross about Kurt Cobain, and outtakes from my interview with Nabil Ayers about his memoir, ‘My Life in the Sunshine', and his experience meeting Joan Jett back in the day. MUSIC AND MEDIA THAT APPEAR IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:“All Apologies” by Nirvana“About a Girl” by NirvanaLINKS: Jennifer's website, https://www.jenniferhaupt.com/Jennifer on Twitter, @Jennifer­­_HauptJennifer on Instagram, @jenniferhauptauthor Christy Alexander Hallberg's website, https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/Christy Alexander Hallberg on Instagram, @christyhallbergChristy Alexander Hallberg on Twitter, @ChristyHallbergChristy Alexander Hallberg on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfSnRmlL5moSQYi6EjSvqagRock is Lit Vault, https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/rockislitvault

Jennifer Haupt is here to talk about her new novel, ‘Come As You Are'. Set against a backdrop of Seattle in the early '90s, ‘Come As You Are' is a compelling love story and family drama that addresses the question: Can we alter our dreams and stories from the past to create a better future for our children?In the second half of the show, we're joined by two giants of the real Seattle grunge world: music journalist Charles R. Cross, author of the award-winning 2001 biography on Kurt Cobain, ‘Heavier Than Heaven', and Nabil Ayers, co-founder of Seattle's iconic Sonic Boom Records store and author of the new memoir ‘My Life in the Sunshine'. Charles and Nabil share their memories of and insight into that pivotal moment in music history. Jennifer:The significance of the title and Nirvana, particularly Kurt Cobain, in the novelHow Jennifer depicted drug addiction, anxiety, and grief in the storyThe death of Jennifer's own sister and how that informed the novelWhat music, especially the music of Nirvana, means to the main charactersMusic as a religion; Kurt Cobain as a god-figure in the novelJennifer's brush with celebrities: Dizzy Gillespie, author Wally LambHow seeing live music helps disparate people bondWhat “Smells Like Teen Spirit” means to Jennifer CharlesThe difference between Kurt Cobain's public and private personas and his attitude toward fameKurt's struggles with drug addiction, mental illness, and gastrointestinal problemsKurt's family history of suicide and his own many suicide attemptsHow Charles found out Kurt had diedWhy the ‘Nevermind' album is greatWhy naysayers of Nirvana should listen to their MTV Unplugged performanceWhen Charles first heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit”The genius of Nirvana's music and their impact on the culture NabilNabil's new memoir, ‘My Life in the Sunshine', about trying to connect with his father, funk, soul, and jazz legend Roy AyersSeattle in the early 1990s: music, record stores, clubs, atmosphere in general at that time (“Everyone here just looks like they're in a band”)Sub Pop RecordsBands Nabil saw play live in Seattle clubs that became grunge legends, like Mudhoney, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, NirvanaTales of when Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell used to shop at the record store where Nabil workedOK Hotel Nirvana show Nabil saw when Nirvana played “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for the first timeOpening Sonic Boom Records in Seattle in the ‘90s and interacting with the many great bands that frequented and played at the store Listen to the episode then migrate to the Rock is Lit Vault for the uncut interview with Charles R. Cross and outtakes from the Jennifer Haupt and Nabil Ayers interviews: https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/rockislit MUSIC AND MEDIA THAT APPEAR IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:“Come As You Are” by Nirvana (instrumental)“Piggy” by Nine Inch Nails“Hurt” by Oliver Tree“About a Girl” by Nirvana“Come As You Are” by Nirvana“Heart-Shaped Box” by Nirvana“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana“Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam” by Nirvana“Something in the Way” by Nirvana“I Hate Myself and Want to Die” by NirvanaAudio clip of Kurt Cobain talking about his stomach problems, drug use, suicidal thoughts“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana (Kurt solo), MTV Unplugged“All Apologies” by Nirvana“Smells Like Teen Spirit” live at the OK Hotel, 17 April 1991Clip of Michael Stipe inducting Nirvana into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014LINKS: Jennifer's website, https://www.jenniferhaupt.com/Jennifer on Twitter, @Jennifer­­_HauptJennifer on Instagram, @jenniferhauptauthor Charles' website, https://charlesrcross.com/Charles on Twitter, @charlesrcross  Nabil's website, https://www.nabilayers.com/Nabil on Twitter, @nabilayersNabil on Instagram, @nabilayers Link to Nabil's ‘Rolling Stone' article on Nirvana's OK Hotel show, “The Night Nirvana Changed Everything,” https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/nirvana-smells-like-teen-spirit-first-performance-1154128/ Link to Nabil's ‘The Stranger' article on Soundgarden, https://www.thestranger.com/music/2017/05/18/25153388/soundgarden-will-never-be-the-first-seattle-band-anyone-mentions-but-for-me-soundgarden-was-the-first-band-that-changed-everything Christy Alexander Hallberg's website, https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/Christy Alexander Hallberg on Instagram, @christyhallberg Christy Alexander Hallberg on Twitter,  @ChristyHallbergChristy Alexander Hallberg on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfSnRmlL5moSQYi6EjSvqagRock is Lit Vault, https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/rockislit

Episode 10 of Rock is Lit features Jennifer Haupt's novel ‘Come As You Are', a story set against the backdrop of the Seattle grunge scene of the early 1990s.  Joining Jennifer and me on that episode to share their memories of that pivotal moment in music history to add real-world context to Jennifer's novel are Nabil Ayers, co-founder of Seattle's iconic record store Sonic Boom and author of the memoir ‘My Life in the Sunshine', about his efforts to connect with his father, the funk, soul, and jazz legend Roy Ayers; and Charles R. Cross, author of the award-winning 2001 biography on Kurt Cobain, ‘Heavier Than Heaven'.  My conversation with Charles went on much longer than I'd anticipated when we began talking, and I could only fit a fraction of it in the regular episode. What Charles had to say about Kurt Cobain was so fascinating and astute, based on his extensive research into Kurt's life and career, Charles's extraordinary access to Kurt's private papers via Kurt's widow, Courtney Love, and Charles's unique position as the editor of the Seattle music magazine ‘The Rocket' before, during, and after the Seattle grunge explosion of the early ‘90s, a position that put him in direct contact with Kurt Cobain several times, that I decided to make the whole uncut interview with Charles available here. There are short outtakes from my interviews with Jennifer and Nabil in the Vault as well, which I hope you'll listen to. But for now, light a candle, drop the needle on track three of ‘Nevermind', and come as you are to hear Charles R. Cross talk about the genius and demons of Nirvana's front man and primary songwriter, Kurt Cobain.   KEY QUOTES AND TEASERS: What was Kurt's relationship with Courtney Love like? What did Kurt think of the Weird Al parody of “Smells Like Teen Spirit? Why does Charles think Nirvana never could have happened in the Facebook era? Listen to the uncut interview to find out why. Charles: “[Nirvana] weren't great at the start. They were not the best band in Seattle in 1988, 1989, and 1990. They were the best band in Seattle in 1991.” Charles: “Kurt's greatest gift is that when he sang, you felt like he was singing to you.”   MUSIC AND MEDIA THAT APPEAR IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE: “Come As You Are” by Nirvana  Clip of Kurt Cobain talking about his lyrics MTV announcement of Kurt's death, April 8, 1994 “Lithium” by Nirvana “Serve the Servants” by Nirvana Clips of artists praising Nirvana and Kurt: Jewel, Henry Rollins, Robert Plant “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” performed by Nirvana Michael Stipe: “Kurt, we miss you.” LINKS:  Charles' website, https://charlesrcross.com/ Charles on Twitter, @charlesrcross    Christy Alexander Hallberg's website, https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/ Christy Alexander Hallberg on Instagram, @christyhallberg Christy Alexander Hallberg on Twitter, @ChristyHallberg Christy Alexander Hallberg on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfSnRmlL5moSQYi6EjSvqag Rock is Lit Vault, https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/rockislitvault Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 10 of Rock is Lit features Jennifer Haupt's novel ‘Come As You Are', a story set against the backdrop of the Seattle grunge scene of the early 1990s. In this outtake from that interview, I talk with Jennifer about lost and deferred dreams—for the characters in her novel and for herself—and the difference in her reaction to publishing her first novel and this one.  Listen to Episode 10, then check out other bonus material in the Rock is Lit Vault, including my full, uncut interview with Charles R. Cross about Kurt Cobain, and outtakes from my interview with Nabil Ayers about his memoir, ‘My Life in the Sunshine', and his experience meeting Joan Jett back in the day.   MUSIC AND MEDIA THAT APPEAR IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE: “All Apologies” by Nirvana “About a Girl” by Nirvana LINKS:  Jennifer's website, https://www.jenniferhaupt.com/ Jennifer on Twitter, @Jennifer­­_Haupt Jennifer on Instagram, @jenniferhauptauthor   Christy Alexander Hallberg's website, https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/ Christy Alexander Hallberg on Instagram, @christyhallberg Christy Alexander Hallberg on Twitter, @ChristyHallberg Christy Alexander Hallberg on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfSnRmlL5moSQYi6EjSvqag Rock is Lit Vault, https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/rockislitvault Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 10 of Rock is Lit features Jennifer Haupt's novel ‘Come As You Are', a story set against the backdrop of the Seattle grunge scene of the early 1990s. Nabil Ayers, author of the memoir ‘My Life in the Sunshine' and co-founder of Seattle's iconic record store Sonic Boom, shares his memories of that pivotal moment in music history in the full episode. Here are two outtakes from my interview with Nabil, in which he talks about his new memoir about his efforts to connect with his father, the funk, soul, and jazz legend Roy Ayers, and Nabil's experience meeting Joan Jett when his band opened up for her back in the day. Check out other bonus material from Episode 10 in the Rock is Lit Vault, including my full, uncut interview with Charles R. Cross about Kurt Cobain, and outtakes from my interview with Jennifer Haupt about her novel ‘Come As You Are'.   MUSIC AND MEDIA THAT APPEAR IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE: “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” by Roy Ayers “Running Away” by Roy Ayers “I Hate Myself for Loving You” by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts LINKS:  Nabil's website, https://www.nabilayers.com/ Nabil on Twitter, @nabilayers Nabil on Instagram, @nabilayers Link to Nabil's ‘Rolling Stone' article on Nirvana's OK Hotel show, “The Night Nirvana Changed Everything,” https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/nirvana-smells-like-teen-spirit-first-performance-1154128/ Link to Nabil's ‘The Stranger' article on Soundgarden, https://www.thestranger.com/music/2017/05/18/25153388/soundgarden-will-never-be-the-first-seattle-band-anyone-mentions-but-for-me-soundgarden-was-the-first-band-that-changed-everything   Christy Alexander Hallberg's website, https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/ Christy Alexander Hallberg on Instagram, @christyhallberg Christy Alexander Hallberg on Twitter, @ChristyHallberg Christy Alexander Hallberg on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfSnRmlL5moSQYi6EjSvqag Rock is Lit Vault, https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/rockislitvault Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennifer Haupt is here to talk about her new novel, ‘Come As You Are'. Set against a backdrop of Seattle in the early '90s, ‘Come As You Are' is a compelling love story and family drama that addresses the question: Can we alter our dreams and stories from the past to create a better future for our children? In the second half of the show, we're joined by two giants of the real Seattle grunge world: music journalist Charles R. Cross, author of the award-winning 2001 biography on Kurt Cobain, ‘Heavier Than Heaven', and Nabil Ayers, co-founder of Seattle's iconic Sonic Boom Records store and author of the new memoir ‘My Life in the Sunshine'. Charles and Nabil share their memories of and insight into that pivotal moment in music history.    Listen to the episode then migrate to the Rock is Lit Vault for the uncut interview with Charles R. Cross and outtakes from the Jennifer Haupt and Nabil Ayers interviews: https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/rockislit   MUSIC AND MEDIA THAT APPEAR IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE: “Come As You Are” by Nirvana (instrumental) “Piggy” by Nine Inch Nails “Hurt” by Oliver Tree “About a Girl” by Nirvana “Come As You Are” by Nirvana “Heart-Shaped Box” by Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana “Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam” by Nirvana “Something in the Way” by Nirvana “I Hate Myself and Want to Die” by Nirvana Audio clip of Kurt Cobain talking about his stomach problems, drug use, suicidal thoughts “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana (Kurt solo), MTV Unplugged “All Apologies” by Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit” live at the OK Hotel, 17 April 1991 Clip of Michael Stipe inducting Nirvana into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 LINKS:  Jennifer's website, https://www.jenniferhaupt.com/ Jennifer on Twitter, @Jennifer­­_Haupt Jennifer on Instagram, @jenniferhauptauthor   Charles' website, https://charlesrcross.com/ Charles on Twitter, @charlesrcross    Nabil's website, https://www.nabilayers.com/ Nabil on Twitter, @nabilayers Nabil on Instagram, @nabilayers   Link to Nabil's ‘Rolling Stone' article on Nirvana's OK Hotel show, “The Night Nirvana Changed Everything,” https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/nirvana-smells-like-teen-spirit-first-performance-1154128/   Link to Nabil's ‘The Stranger' article on Soundgarden, https://www.thestranger.com/music/2017/05/18/25153388/soundgarden-will-never-be-the-first-seattle-band-anyone-mentions-but-for-me-soundgarden-was-the-first-band-that-changed-everything   Christy Alexander Hallberg's website, https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/ Christy Alexander Hallberg on Instagram, @christyhallberg  Christy Alexander Hallberg on Twitter, @ChristyHallberg Christy Alexander Hallberg on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfSnRmlL5moSQYi6EjSvqag Rock is Lit Vault, https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/rockislit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nirvana, Nevermind Welcome to The Guys Review, where we review media, products and experiences.  **READ APPLE REVIEWS/Fan Mail**Mention Twitter DM group - like pinned tweet @The_GuysReviewRead emails theguysreviewpod@gmail.com Nirvana Nevermind​ Produced by Butch Vig. Kurt CobainKrist NovoselicDave GrohlReleased September 24, 1991 Budget $65,000 ($141,394.57 in 2022) Rating: google users: 96% RYM 3.95/5. ON spotify Nirvana has around 24M listerner a month. On Youtube Nevermind album has 4,9M views  Nevermind is the second studio album by the american grunge band Nirvana, released on September 24, 1991 by DGC Records. It was Nirvana's first release on a major label and the first to feature drummer Dave Grohl.Produced by Butch Vig, Nevermind features a more polished, radio-friendly sound then the band's prior work. Recording took place at Sound city studio in Van Nuys, California, and smart studios in Madison Wisconsin in May and June -91, with mastering being completed in August of that year st The Mastering Lab, California.Written primarily by frontman Kurt Cobain, the album is noted for channeling a range of emotions, being noted as dark, humorous, and disturbing. Thematically, it includes anti-establishment views, anti-sexism, Frustration, alienation and troubled love inspired by Cobain's broken relationship with Bikini kill's Toby Vail. Contrary to the popular hedonistic themes of drugs and sex at the time, writers have observed that Nevermind re-invigorated sensitivity to mainstream rock. According to Cobain, the sound of the album was influenced by bands such as Pixies, R.E.M, The Smithereens, and the Melvins. While the album is considered a cornerstone of the grunge genre, it is noted for its musical diversity, which includes acoustic ballads ("Polly" and "´Something in the way") and Punk-inspired Hard Rock("Territorial Pissings" and "Stay Away"). Nevermind became an unexpected critical and commercial success, charting highly on charts across the world. By January 1992, it reached number one on the US Billboard 200 and was selling approximately 300,000 copies a week. The lead single "Smells like teen spirit" reached the top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100 and went on to be inducted into the Grammy hall of fame. Its video was also heavily rotated on MTV. Three other successful singles were released: "Come as you Are", "Lithium", and "In Bloom". The album was voted the best album of the year in Pass & Jop critics' poll, while "Smells Like Teen Spirit" also topped the single of the year and video of the year polls. The album also garnered the band three Grammy Award nominations in total across the 34th and 35th Grammy Awards, including Best Alternative music album. AwardsHere cometh thine shiny awards Sire. My Lord Tucker the Wanker second Earl of Wessex. Lord of the Furries. Heir of Lord baldy the one eyed snake wrestler. Protector of Freedom units. Step Sibling with funny feelings down stairs. Entertainer of uncles. Jailor of innocent. Spanker of innocent milk maids and stable boys. Nirvana has 1 win and 6 Nominations NominationsBest Alternative Music AlbumNevermind (Album)Wins Best Alternative Music PerformanceMTV Unplugged In New York  Tracks1) "Smells Like Teen Spirit" Written by: Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl 5:01 Released September 10, 1991 as the lead single for the album.-One of the catchiest intro hooks of all time.-Very nonsensical and def full of contradictions; but it give the feeling of angst its supposed to.-Cobain said it was an attempt to write a song in the style of the Pixies, a band he admired:"I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band—or at least a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard."When Cobain presented the song to his bandmates, it comprised just the main guitar riff and the chorus vocal melody. Cobain said the riff was "clichéd", similar to a riff by Boston or the Richard Berry song "Louie Louie". Bassist Krist Novoselic dismissed it as "ridiculous"; in response, Cobain made the band play it for an hour and a half. Eventually, Novoselic began playing it more slowly, inspiring drummer Dave Grohl to create the drum beat, which drew from disco artists like The Gap Band. As a result, it is the only song on Nevermind to credit all three band members as writers. 2) "In Bloom" Written by Kurt Cobain 4:14 Released November 30, 1992 "In Bloom" was released as the album's fourth and final single in November 1992-The lyrics are just making fun of listeners who don't understand what Cobain is talking about. Never realized that.-I like to visualization and juxtaposition of the clean cut 50's style band to them wearing dresses and tearing everything up.-According to the 1993 Nirvana biography Come As You Are by Michael Azerrad, "In Bloom" was originally written about "the jocks and shallow mainstream types" of the underground music scene the band began to find in their audience after the release of their 1989 debut album, Bleach. In his biography of Cobain, Heavier Than Heaven, Charles R. Cross asserted that the song was a "thinly disguised portrait" of Cobain's friend Dylan Carlson. 3) "Come As You Are" Written by Kurt Cobain 3:38 Released March 2, 1992 as the second single from Nevermind.-Great song, all of the intros are very catchy and pull you in.-Interesting visuals in the music video... Lots of sperm swimming around and flowing water.-The origin of the song's title is unclear, but Charles R. Cross speculated the song may have been named after a motto used by the Morck Hotel in Cobain's hometown of Aberdeen, Washington. The Morck was one of many places Cobain stayed in after leaving home for a time while he was seventeen years old 4) "Breed" written by Kurt Cobain 3:03 Released September 24, 1991-Much heavier sound than the previous tracks. High energy and poppy.-Reading the lyrics, it is a bunch of just nonsense.-Lyrically, the song addresses themes of teenage apathy and fear within the American middle-class. Stevie Chick of Kerrang wrote that lyrics such as "We can plant a house, we can build a tree" displayed Cobain's "gift for crafting witty, purposeful nonsense. 5) "Lithium" written Kurt Cobain 4:16 Released July 13, 1992 as the third single from Nevermind.-Very chilled vibe from the previous tracks-It's still got a LOT of energy in the YEAH parts that gets hard.-As Cobain explained, "In the song, a guy's lost his girl and his friends and he's brooding. He's decided to find God before he kills himself. It's hard for me to understand the need for a vice like [religion] but I can appreciate it too. People need vices.” 6) "Polly" written by Kurt Cobain 2:57 Released September 24, 1991-Very downtrodden song. considering the content, not surprising.-This is a really dark song. Jesus.-Cobain wrote "Polly" about an incident in Tacoma, Washington involving the abduction and rape of a 14-year-old girl in August 1987. Gerald Arthur Friend kidnapped the girl while she was leaving a rock concert, suspended her upside down from a pulley in his mobile home and raped and tortured her with a blow torch. She managed to escape by jumping from his truck at a gas station, attracting attention from surrounding people. Arthur was later arrested and convicted for his crimes. Cobain's addition to the story was to have the victim fool the kidnapper into thinking she was enjoying what he was doing to her, causing him to let his guard down long enough for her to escape.-In his Nirvana biography Come As You Are, journalist Michael Azerrad noted that rape seemed to be a consistent theme in Cobain's songs and interviews, as if Cobain was "apologizing for his entire gender." However, Cobain explained, "I don't feel bad about being a man at all. There are all kinds of men that are on the side of the woman and support them and help influence other men. In fact, a man using himself as an example toward other men can probably make more impact than a woman can". 7) "Territorial Pissings" written by Kurt Cobain and Chet Powers. 2:22-Very punk and heavy.-I have no idea how Kurt would be able to perform this song live... It hurts my voice hearing his guttural screams.-this song is a two-and-a-half-minute punk lambasting of the typical "Macho Man." In addition to being about sexism, the song is also about the way Kurt Cobain saw Native Americans treated around his home town of Aberdeen, Washington. 8) "Drain You" written by Kurt Cobain 3:43 Released September 24, 1991 as a promotional single-
Good song, musically in the same category as the more popular Nirvana tracks. Heavy, but simple and poppy.-The strangest "love" song I've ever heard.-In the 1993 Nirvana biography Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana, Michael Azerrad described "Drain You" as "a love song, or rather a song about love," in which the babies in the lyrics "represent two people reduced to a state of perfect innocence by their love." Cobain told Azerrad that the lyrics made him think of "two brat kids who are in the same hospital bed." The song's imagery predicted the medical themes that would feature heavily in the lyrics of Nirvana's following album, In Utero.-According to the 2001 Cobain biography Heavier Than Heaven by Charles Cross, "Drain You" was one of "a half dozen...memorable songs" Cobain wrote following his break-up with American musician, Tobi Vail, in November 1990. Cross described the lyric, "It is now my duty to completely drain you," as "both an acknowledgement of the power [Vail] had over [Cobain] and an indictment." 9) "Lounge Act" written by Kurt Cobain 2:36-Super bass heavy.-It reminds me of Offspring sound-This is a song about heartache in a relationship.-The title comes from the fact that Nirvana thought that the bass intro sounded like something a cheesy lounge band would use.-This is the only song Kurt Cobain admitted was about his much maligned ex-girlfriend, Tobi Vail. 10) "Stay Away" written by Kurt Cobain 3:32-Very punk inspired-Pretty simple and to the point; confusion and agitation, easier to push people away than try to explain things to them.-Again, no idea how he would be able to sing anything else after this song. Dang.-Originally titled Pay To Play, this song appears to be about many things, including annoyance ("stay away"), lack of popularity ("I'd rather be dead than cool"), and predictability in people ("every line ends in a rhyme"). 11) "On a Plain" written by Kurt Cobain 3:16. Released on the album in September 1991, released as a promotional single in 1992.-Very much in the vein of the other tracks. Again, somewhat nonsensical, but still angsty and full of energy-Good track, I remember the single.-In a July 1993 interview in New York City, Cobain told English journalist Jon Savage that "On a Plain" was about "classic alienation, I guess," although he then noted he had to change his explanation every time he was asked about the meaning to his songs, saying that his lyrics were largely taken from "pieces of poetry thrown together," and that his poetry was "not usually thematic at all." 12) "Something in the Way" written by Kurt Cobain 3:52-Very downtrodden and depressing-Very heavy and moody-Doesn't have the explosive energy the other tracks did. But it's still solid and full of feeling.-Never released as a single and never a consistent part of the band's live setlist, "Something in the Way" charted for the first time in August 2020, after appearing in the first trailer for the 2022 superhero film, The Batman. The song peaked at number two on Billboard's US Rock Digital Songs Sales chart, and number five on their US Alternative Digital Songs Sales charts.[2] It also reached the top 20 in both Amazon Music's and iTunes' digital music charts-Cobain himself suggested that the song was not necessarily autobiographical, telling Nirvana biographer Michael Azerrad that the lyrics were "like if I was living under the bridge and I was dying of AIDS, if I was sick and I couldn't move and I was a total street person. That was kind of the fantasy of it". 13) "Endless, Nameless" written by Kurt Cobain-Very heavy and chaotic-I honestly don't know if I've ever heard this one before, but I'm not a fan of it... I don't like jam bandy type music. Sounds like they're just making noise.-According to Come As You Are, Cobain himself was unsure of what he was singing during the performance, but believed the lyrics included the lines, "I think I can, I know I can."-According to author Chuck Crisafulli, the song's placement on Nevermind was in part inspired by the use of hidden tracks by the Beatles, such as "Her Majesty" on their 1969 album, Abbey Road. **TRIPLE LINDY AWARD** **REVIEW AND RATING** TOP 5Stephen:1 Breakfast club2 T23 Sandlot4color out of space5 Mail order brides Chris:1. sandlots2. T23. trick r treat4. rocky horror picture show5. hubie halloween Trey:1) Boondocks Saints2) Mail Order Brides3) Tombstone4) Very bad things5) She out of my league  Tucker:1. T22: Tombstone4: My Cousin Vinny5: John WickNational treasure WHAT ARE WE DOING NEXT WEEK? Web: https://theguysreview.simplecast.com/EM: theguysreviewpod@gmail.comIG: @TheGuysReviewPodTW: @The_GuysReview - Twitter DM groupFB: https://facebook.com/TheGuysReviewPod/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYKXJhq9LbQ2VfR4K33kT9Q Please, Subscribe, rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts from!! Thank you,-The Guys

In this special episode, author and journalist Charles R. Cross, a longtime Springsteen chronicler, and author/journalist Denise Sullivan discuss their thoughts on the recent controversy surrounding the ticket prices to Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band's 2023 tour dates.

Episode one hundred and forty-seven of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Hey Joe" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and is the longest episode to date, at over two hours. Patreon backers also have a twenty-two-minute bonus episode available, on "Making Time" by The Creation. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources As usual, I've put together a Mixcloud mix containing all the music excerpted in this episode. For information on the Byrds, I relied mostly on Timeless Flight Revisited by Johnny Rogan, with some information from Chris Hillman's autobiography. Information on Arthur Lee and Love came from Forever Changes: Arthur Lee and the Book of Love by John Einarson, and Arthur Lee: Alone Again Or by Barney Hoskyns. Information on Gary Usher's work with the Surfaris and the Sons of Adam came from The California Sound by Stephen McParland, which can be found at https://payhip.com/CMusicBooks Information on Jimi Hendrix came from Room Full of Mirrors by Charles R. Cross, Crosstown Traffic by Charles Shaar Murray, and Wild Thing by Philip Norman. Information on the history of "Hey Joe" itself came from all these sources plus Hey Joe: The Unauthorised Biography of a Rock Classic by Marc Shapiro, though note that most of that book is about post-1967 cover versions. Most of the pre-Experience session work by Jimi Hendrix I excerpt in this episode is on this box set of alternate takes and live recordings. And "Hey Joe" can be found on Are You Experienced? Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Just a quick note before we start – this episode deals with a song whose basic subject is a man murdering a woman, and that song also contains references to guns, and in some versions to cocaine use. Some versions excerpted also contain misogynistic slurs. If those things are likely to upset you, please skip this episode, as the whole episode focusses on that song. I would hope it goes without saying that I don't approve of misogyny, intimate partner violence, or murder, and my discussing a song does not mean I condone acts depicted in its lyrics, and the episode itself deals with the writing and recording of the song rather than its subject matter, but it would be impossible to talk about the record without excerpting the song. The normalisation of violence against women in rock music lyrics is a subject I will come back to, but did not have room for in what is already a very long episode. Anyway, on with the show. Let's talk about the folk process, shall we? We've talked before, like in the episodes on "Stagger Lee" and "Ida Red", about how there are some songs that aren't really individual songs in themselves, but are instead collections of related songs that might happen to share a name, or a title, or a story, or a melody, but which might be different in other ways. There are probably more songs that are like this than songs that aren't, and it doesn't just apply to folk songs, although that's where we see it most notably. You only have to look at the way a song like "Hound Dog" changed from the Willie Mae Thornton version to the version by Elvis, which only shared a handful of words with the original. Songs change, and recombine, and everyone who sings them brings something different to them, until they change in ways that nobody could have predicted, like a game of telephone. But there usually remains a core, an archetypal story or idea which remains constant no matter how much the song changes. Like Stagger Lee shooting Billy in a bar over a hat, or Frankie killing her man -- sometimes the man is Al, sometimes he's Johnny, but he always done her wrong. And one of those stories is about a man who shoots his cheating woman with a forty-four, and tries to escape -- sometimes to a town called Jericho, and sometimes to Juarez, Mexico. The first version of this song we have a recording of is by Clarence Ashley, in 1929, a recording of an older folk song that was called, in his version, "Little Sadie": [Excerpt: Clarence Ashley, "Little Sadie"] At some point, somebody seems to have noticed that that song has a slight melodic similarity to another family of songs, the family known as "Cocaine Blues" or "Take a Whiff on Me", which was popular around the same time: [Excerpt: The Memphis Jug Band, "Cocaine Habit Blues"] And so the two songs became combined, and the protagonist of "Little Sadie" now had a reason to kill his woman -- a reason other than her cheating, that is. He had taken a shot of cocaine before shooting her. The first recording of this version, under the name "Cocaine Blues" seems to have been a Western Swing version by W. A. Nichol's Western Aces: [Excerpt: W.A. Nichol's Western Aces, "Cocaine Blues"] Woody Guthrie recorded a version around the same time -- I've seen different dates and so don't know for sure if it was before or after Nichol's version -- and his version had himself credited as songwriter, and included this last verse which doesn't seem to appear on any earlier recordings of the song: [Excerpt: Woody Guthrie, "Cocaine Blues"] That doesn't appear on many later recordings either, but it did clearly influence yet another song -- Mose Allison's classic jazz number "Parchman Farm": [Excerpt: Mose Allison, "Parchman Farm"] The most famous recordings of the song, though, were by Johnny Cash, who recorded it as both "Cocaine Blues" and as "Transfusion Blues". In Cash's version of the song, the murderer gets sentenced to "ninety-nine years in the Folsom pen", so it made sense that Cash would perform that on his most famous album, the live album of his January 1968 concerts at Folsom Prison, which revitalised his career after several years of limited success: [Excerpt: Johnny Cash, "Cocaine Blues (live at Folsom Prison)"] While that was Cash's first live recording at a prison, though, it wasn't the first show he played at a prison -- ever since the success of his single "Folsom Prison Blues" he'd been something of a hero to prisoners, and he had been doing shows in prisons for eleven years by the time of that recording. And on one of those shows he had as his support act a man named Billy Roberts, who performed his own song which followed the same broad outlines as "Cocaine Blues" -- a man with a forty-four who goes out to shoot his woman and then escapes to Mexico. Roberts was an obscure folk singer, who never had much success, but who was good with people. He'd been part of the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 1950s, and at a gig at Gerde's Folk City he'd met a woman named Niela Miller, an aspiring songwriter, and had struck up a relationship with her. Miller only ever wrote one song that got recorded by anyone else, a song called "Mean World Blues" that was recorded by Dave Van Ronk: [Excerpt: Dave Van Ronk, "Mean World Blues"] Now, that's an original song, but it does bear a certain melodic resemblance to another old folk song, one known as "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" or "In the Pines", or sometimes "Black Girl": [Excerpt: Lead Belly, "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"] Miller was clearly familiar with the tradition from which "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" comes -- it's a type of folk song where someone asks a question and then someone else answers it, and this repeats, building up a story. This is a very old folk song format, and you hear it for example in "Lord Randall", the song on which Bob Dylan based "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall": [Excerpt: Ewan MacColl, "Lord Randall"] I say she was clearly familiar with it, because the other song she wrote that anyone's heard was based very much around that idea. "Baby Please Don't Go To Town" is a question-and-answer song in precisely that form, but with an unusual chord progression for a folk song. You may remember back in the episode on "Eight Miles High" I talked about the circle of fifths -- a chord progression which either increases or decreases by a fifth for every chord, so it might go C-G-D-A-E [demonstrates] That's a common progression in pop and jazz, but not really so much in folk, but it's the one that Miller had used for "Baby, Please Don't Go to Town", and she'd taught Roberts that song, which she only recorded much later: [Excerpt: Niela Miller, "Baby, Please Don't Go To Town"] After Roberts and Miller broke up, Miller kept playing that melody, but he changed the lyrics. The lyrics he added had several influences. There was that question-and-answer folk-song format, there's the story of "Cocaine Blues" with its protagonist getting a forty-four to shoot his woman down before heading to Mexico, and there's also a country hit from 1953. "Hey, Joe!" was originally recorded by Carl Smith, one of the most popular country singers of the early fifties: [Excerpt: Carl Smith, "Hey Joe!"] That was written by Boudleaux Bryant, a few years before the songs he co-wrote for the Everly Brothers, and became a country number one, staying at the top for eight weeks. It didn't make the pop chart, but a pop cover version of it by Frankie Laine made the top ten in the US: [Excerpt: Frankie Laine, "Hey Joe"] Laine's record did even better in the UK, where it made number one, at a point where Laine was the biggest star in music in Britain -- at the time the UK charts only had a top twelve, and at one point four of the singles in the top twelve were by Laine, including that one. There was also an answer record by Kitty Wells which made the country top ten later that year: [Excerpt: Kitty Wells, "Hey Joe"] Oddly, despite it being a very big hit, that "Hey Joe" had almost no further cover versions for twenty years, though it did become part of the Searchers' setlist, and was included on their Live at the Star Club album in 1963, in an arrangement that owed a lot to "What'd I Say": [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Hey Joe"] But that song was clearly on Roberts' mind when, as so many American folk musicians did, he travelled to the UK in the late fifties and became briefly involved in the burgeoning UK folk movement. In particular, he spent some time with a twelve-string guitar player from Edinburgh called Len Partridge, who was also a mentor to Bert Jansch, and who was apparently an extraordinary musician, though I know of no recordings of his work. Partridge helped Roberts finish up the song, though Partridge is about the only person in this story who *didn't* claim a writing credit for it at one time or another, saying that he just helped Roberts out and that Roberts deserved all the credit. The first known recording of the completed song is from 1962, a few years after Roberts had returned to the US, though it didn't surface until decades later: [Excerpt: Billy Roberts, "Hey Joe"] Roberts was performing this song regularly on the folk circuit, and around the time of that recording he also finally got round to registering the copyright, several years after it was written. When Miller heard the song, she was furious, and she later said "Imagine my surprise when I heard Hey Joe by Billy Roberts. There was my tune, my chord progression, my question/answer format. He dropped the bridge that was in my song and changed it enough so that the copyright did not protect me from his plagiarism... I decided not to go through with all the complications of dealing with him. He never contacted me about it or gave me any credit. He knows he committed a morally reprehensible act. He never was man enough to make amends and apologize to me, or to give credit for the inspiration. Dealing with all that was also why I made the decision not to become a professional songwriter. It left a bad taste in my mouth.” Pete Seeger, a friend of Miller's, was outraged by the injustice and offered to testify on her behalf should she decide to take Roberts to court, but she never did. Some time around this point, Roberts also played on that prison bill with Johnny Cash, and what happened next is hard to pin down. I've read several different versions of the story, which change the date and which prison this was in, and none of the details in any story hang together properly -- everything introduces weird inconsistencies and things which just make no sense at all. Something like this basic outline of the story seems to have happened, but the outline itself is weird, and we'll probably never know the truth. Roberts played his set, and one of the songs he played was "Hey Joe", and at some point he got talking to one of the prisoners in the audience, Dino Valenti. We've met Valenti before, in the episode on "Mr. Tambourine Man" -- he was a singer/songwriter himself, and would later be the lead singer of Quicksilver Messenger Service, but he's probably best known for having written "Get Together": [Excerpt: Dino Valenti, "Get Together"] As we heard in the "Mr. Tambourine Man" episode, Valenti actually sold off his rights to that song to pay for his bail at one point, but he was in and out of prison several times because of drug busts. At this point, or so the story goes, he was eligible for parole, but he needed to prove he had a possible income when he got out, and one way he wanted to do that was to show that he had written a song that could be a hit he could make money off, but he didn't have such a song. He talked about his predicament with Roberts, who agreed to let him claim to have written "Hey Joe" so he could get out of prison. He did make that claim, and when he got out of prison he continued making the claim, and registered the copyright to "Hey Joe" in his own name -- even though Roberts had already registered it -- and signed a publishing deal for it with Third Story Music, a company owned by Herb Cohen, the future manager of the Mothers of Invention, and Cohen's brother Mutt. Valenti was a popular face on the folk scene, and he played "his" song to many people, but two in particular would influence the way the song would develop, both of them people we've seen relatively recently in episodes of the podcast. One of them, Vince Martin, we'll come back to later, but the other was David Crosby, and so let's talk about him and the Byrds a bit more. Crosby and Valenti had been friends long before the Byrds formed, and indeed we heard in the "Mr. Tambourine Man" episode how the group had named themselves after Valenti's song "Birdses": [Excerpt: Dino Valenti, "Birdses"] And Crosby *loved* "Hey Joe", which he believed was another of Valenti's songs. He'd perform it every chance he got, playing it solo on guitar in an arrangement that other people have compared to Mose Allison. He'd tried to get it on the first two Byrds albums, but had been turned down, mostly because of their manager and uncredited co-producer Jim Dickson, who had strong opinions about it, saying later "Some of the songs that David would bring in from the outside were perfectly valid songs for other people, but did not seem to be compatible with the Byrds' myth. And he may not have liked the Byrds' myth. He fought for 'Hey Joe' and he did it. As long as I could say 'No!' I did, and when I couldn't any more they did it. You had to give him something somewhere. I just wish it was something else... 'Hey Joe' I was bitterly opposed to. A song about a guy who murders his girlfriend in a jealous rage and is on the way to Mexico with a gun in his hand. It was not what I saw as a Byrds song." Indeed, Dickson was so opposed to the song that he would later say “One of the reasons David engineered my getting thrown out was because I would not let Hey Joe be on the Turn! Turn! Turn! album.” Dickson was, though, still working with the band when they got round to recording it. That came during the recording of their Fifth Dimension album, the album which included "Eight Miles High". That album was mostly recorded after the departure of Gene Clark, which was where we left the group at the end of the "Eight Miles High" episode, and the loss of their main songwriter meant that they were struggling for material -- doubly so since they also decided they were going to move away from Dylan covers. This meant that they had to rely on original material from the group's less commercial songwriters, and on a few folk songs, mostly learned from Pete Seeger The album ended up with only eleven songs on it, compared to the twelve that was normal for American albums at that time, and the singles on it after "Eight Miles High" weren't particularly promising as to the group's ability to come up with commercial material. The next single, "5D", a song by Roger McGuinn about the fifth dimension, was a waltz-time song that both Crosby and Chris Hillman were enthused by. It featured organ by Van Dyke Parks, and McGuinn said of the organ part "When he came into the studio I told him to think Bach. He was already thinking Bach before that anyway.": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "5D"] While the group liked it, though, that didn't make the top forty. The next single did, just about -- a song that McGuinn had written as an attempt at communicating with alien life. He hoped that it would be played on the radio, and that the radio waves would eventually reach aliens, who would hear it and respond: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Mr. Spaceman"] The "Fifth Dimension" album did significantly worse, both critically and commercially, than their previous albums, and the group would soon drop Allen Stanton, the producer, in favour of Gary Usher, Brian Wilson's old songwriting partner. But the desperation for material meant that the group agreed to record the song which they still thought at that time had been written by Crosby's friend, though nobody other than Crosby was happy with it, and even Crosby later said "It was a mistake. I shouldn't have done it. Everybody makes mistakes." McGuinn said later "The reason Crosby did lead on 'Hey Joe' was because it was *his* song. He didn't write it but he was responsible for finding it. He'd wanted to do it for years but we would never let him.": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Hey Joe"] Of course, that arrangement is very far from the Mose Allison style version Crosby had been doing previously. And the reason for that can be found in the full version of that McGuinn quote, because the full version continues "He'd wanted to do it for years but we would never let him. Then both Love and The Leaves had a minor hit with it and David got so angry that we had to let him do it. His version wasn't that hot because he wasn't a strong lead vocalist." The arrangement we just heard was the arrangement that by this point almost every group on the Sunset Strip scene was playing. And the reason for that was because of another friend of Crosby's, someone who had been a roadie for the Byrds -- Bryan MacLean. MacLean and Crosby had been very close because they were both from very similar backgrounds -- they were both Hollywood brats with huge egos. MacLean later said "Crosby and I got on perfectly. I didn't understand what everybody was complaining about, because he was just like me!" MacLean was, if anything, from an even more privileged background than Crosby. His father was an architect who'd designed houses for Elizabeth Taylor and Dean Martin, his neighbour when growing up was Frederick Loewe, the composer of My Fair Lady. He learned to swim in Elizabeth Taylor's private pool, and his first girlfriend was Liza Minelli. Another early girlfriend was Jackie DeShannon, the singer-songwriter who did the original version of "Needles and Pins", who he was introduced to by Sharon Sheeley, whose name you will remember from many previous episodes. MacLean had wanted to be an artist until his late teens, when he walked into a shop in Westwood which sometimes sold his paintings, the Sandal Shop, and heard some people singing folk songs there. He decided he wanted to be a folk singer, and soon started performing at the Balladeer, a club which would later be renamed the Troubadour, playing songs like Robert Johnson's "Cross Roads Blues", which had recently become a staple of the folk repertoire after John Hammond put out the King of the Delta Blues Singers album: [Excerpt: Robert Johnson, "Cross Roads Blues"] Reading interviews with people who knew MacLean at the time, the same phrase keeps coming up. John Kay, later the lead singer of Steppenwolf, said "There was a young kid, Bryan MacLean, kind of cocky but nonetheless a nice kid, who hung around Crosby and McGuinn" while Chris Hillman said "He was a pretty good kid but a wee bit cocky." He was a fan of the various musicians who later formed the Byrds, and was also an admirer of a young guitarist on the scene named Ryland Cooder, and of a blues singer on the scene named Taj Mahal. He apparently was briefly in a band with Taj Mahal, called Summer's Children, who as far as I can tell had no connection to the duo that Curt Boettcher later formed of the same name, before Taj Mahal and Cooder formed The Rising Sons, a multi-racial blues band who were for a while the main rivals to the Byrds on the scene. MacLean, though, firmly hitched himself to the Byrds, and particularly to Crosby. He became a roadie on their first tour, and Hillman said "He was a hard-working guy on our behalf. As I recall, he pretty much answered to Crosby and was David's assistant, to put it diplomatically – more like his gofer, in fact." But MacLean wasn't cut out for the hard work that being a roadie required, and after being the Byrds' roadie for about thirty shows, he started making mistakes, and when they went off on their UK tour they decided not to keep employing him. He was heartbroken, but got back into trying his own musical career. He auditioned for the Monkees, unsuccessfully, but shortly after that -- some sources say even the same day as the audition, though that seems a little too neat -- he went to Ben Frank's -- the LA hangout that had actually been namechecked in the open call for Monkees auditions, which said they wanted "Ben Franks types", and there he met Arthur Lee and Johnny Echols. Echols would later remember "He was this gadfly kind of character who knew everybody and was flitting from table to table. He wore striped pants and a scarf, and he had this long, strawberry hair. All the girls loved him. For whatever reason, he came and sat at our table. Of course, Arthur and I were the only two black people there at the time." Lee and Echols were both Black musicians who had been born in Memphis. Lee's birth father, Chester Taylor, had been a cornet player with Jimmie Lunceford, whose Delta Rhythm Boys had had a hit with "The Honeydripper", as we heard way back in the episode on "Rocket '88": [Excerpt: Jimmie Lunceford and the Delta Rhythm Boys, "The Honeydripper"] However, Taylor soon split from Lee's mother, a schoolteacher, and she married Clinton Lee, a stonemason, who doted on his adopted son, and they moved to California. They lived in a relatively prosperous area of LA, a neighbourhood that was almost all white, with a few Asian families, though the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson lived nearby. A year or so after Arthur and his mother moved to LA, so did the Echols family, who had known them in Memphis, and they happened to move only a couple of streets away. Eight year old Arthur Lee reconnected with seven-year-old Johnny Echols, and the two became close friends from that point on. Arthur Lee first started out playing music when his parents were talked into buying him an accordion by a salesman who would go around with a donkey, give kids free donkey rides, and give the parents a sales pitch while they were riding the donkey, He soon gave up on the accordion and persuaded his parents to buy him an organ instead -- he was a spoiled child, by all accounts, with a TV in his bedroom, which was almost unheard of in the late fifties. Johnny Echols had a similar experience which led to his parents buying him a guitar, and the two were growing up in a musical environment generally. They attended Dorsey High School at the same time as both Billy Preston and Mike Love of the Beach Boys, and Ella Fitzgerald and her then-husband, the great jazz bass player Ray Brown, lived in the same apartment building as the Echols family for a while. Ornette Coleman, the free-jazz saxophone player, lived next door to Echols, and Adolphus Jacobs, the guitarist with the Coasters, gave him guitar lessons. Arthur Lee also knew Johnny Otis, who ran a pigeon-breeding club for local children which Arthur would attend. Echols was the one who first suggested that he and Arthur should form a band, and they put together a group to play at a school talent show, performing "Last Night", the instrumental that had been a hit for the Mar-Keys on Stax records: [Excerpt: The Mar-Keys, "Last Night"] They soon became a regular group, naming themselves Arthur Lee and the LAGs -- the LA Group, in imitation of Booker T and the MGs – the Memphis Group. At some point around this time, Lee decided to switch from playing organ to playing guitar. He would say later that this was inspired by seeing Johnny "Guitar" Watson get out of a gold Cadillac, wearing a gold suit, and with gold teeth in his mouth. The LAGs started playing as support acts and backing bands for any blues and soul acts that came through LA, performing with Big Mama Thornton, Johnny Otis, the O'Jays, and more. Arthur and Johnny were both still under-age, and they would pencil in fake moustaches to play the clubs so they'd appear older. In the fifties and early sixties, there were a number of great electric guitar players playing blues on the West Coast -- Johnny "Guitar" Watson, T-Bone Walker, Guitar Slim, and others -- and they would compete with each other not only to play well, but to put on a show, and so there was a whole bag of stage tricks that West Coast R&B guitarists picked up, and Echols learned all of them -- playing his guitar behind his back, playing his guitar with his teeth, playing with his guitar between his legs. As well as playing their own shows, the LAGs also played gigs under other names -- they had a corrupt agent who would book them under the name of whatever Black group had a hit at the time, in the belief that almost nobody knew what popular groups looked like anyway, so they would go out and perform as the Drifters or the Coasters or half a dozen other bands. But Arthur Lee in particular wanted to have success in his own right. He would later say "When I was a little boy I would listen to Nat 'King' Cole and I would look at that purple Capitol Records logo. I wanted to be on Capitol, that was my goal. Later on I used to walk from Dorsey High School all the way up to the Capitol building in Hollywood -- did that many times. I was determined to get a record deal with Capitol, and I did, without the help of a fancy manager or anyone else. I talked to Adam Ross and Jack Levy at Ardmore-Beechwood. I talked to Kim Fowley, and then I talked to Capitol". The record that the LAGs released, though, was not very good, a track called "Rumble-Still-Skins": [Excerpt: The LAGs, "Rumble-Still-Skins"] Lee later said "I was young and very inexperienced and I was testing the record company. I figured if I gave them my worst stuff and they ripped me off I wouldn't get hurt. But it didn't work, and after that I started giving my best, and I've been doing that ever since." The LAGs were dropped by Capitol after one single, and for the next little while Arthur and Johnny did work for smaller labels, usually labels owned by Bob Keane, with Arthur writing and producing and Johnny playing guitar -- though Echols has said more recently that a lot of the songs that were credited to Arthur as sole writer were actually joint compositions. Most of these records were attempts at copying the style of other people. There was "I Been Trying", a Phil Spector soundalike released by Little Ray: [Excerpt: Little Ray, "I Been Trying"] And there were a few attempts at sounding like Curtis Mayfield, like "Slow Jerk" by Ronnie and the Pomona Casuals: [Excerpt: Ronnie and the Pomona Casuals, "Slow Jerk"] and "My Diary" by Rosa Lee Brooks: [Excerpt: Rosa Lee Brooks, "My Diary"] Echols was also playing with a lot of other people, and one of the musicians he was playing with, his old school friend Billy Preston, told him about a recent European tour he'd been on with Little Richard, and the band from Liverpool he'd befriended while he was there who idolised Richard, so when the Beatles hit America, Arthur and Johnny had some small amount of context for them. They soon broke up the LAGs and formed another group, the American Four, with two white musicians, bass player John Fleckenstein and drummer Don Costa. Lee had them wear wigs so they seemed like they had longer hair, and started dressing more eccentrically -- he would soon become known for wearing glasses with one blue lens and one red one, and, as he put it "wearing forty pounds of beads, two coats, three shirts, and wearing two pairs of shoes on one foot". As well as the Beatles, the American Four were inspired by the other British Invasion bands -- Arthur was in the audience for the TAMI show, and quite impressed by Mick Jagger -- and also by the Valentinos, Bobby Womack's group. They tried to get signed to SAR Records, the label owned by Sam Cooke for which the Valentinos recorded, but SAR weren't interested, and they ended up recording for Bob Keane's Del-Fi records, where they cut "Luci Baines", a "Twist and Shout" knock-off with lyrics referencing the daughter of new US President Lyndon Johnson: [Excerpt: The American Four, "Luci Baines"] But that didn't take off any more than the earlier records had. Another American Four track, "Stay Away", was recorded but went unreleased until 2006: [Excerpt: Arthur Lee and the American Four, "Stay Away"] Soon the American Four were changing their sound and name again. This time it was because of two bands who were becoming successful on the Sunset Strip. One was the Byrds, who to Lee's mind were making music like the stuff he heard in his head, and the other was their rivals the Rising Sons, the blues band we mentioned earlier with Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder. Lee was very impressed by them as an multiracial band making aggressive, loud, guitar music, though he would always make the point when talking about them that they were a blues band, not a rock band, and *he* had the first multiracial rock band. Whatever they were like live though, in their recordings, produced by the Byrds' first producer Terry Melcher, the Rising Sons often had the same garage band folk-punk sound that Lee and Echols would soon make their own: [Excerpt: The Rising Sons, "Take a Giant Step"] But while the Rising Sons recorded a full album's worth of material, only one single was released before they split up, and so the way was clear for Lee and Echols' band, now renamed once again to The Grass Roots, to become the Byrds' new challengers. Lee later said "I named the group The Grass Roots behind a trip, or an album I heard that Malcolm X did, where he said 'the grass roots of the people are out in the street doing something about their problems instead of sitting around talking about it'". After seeing the Rolling Stones and the Byrds live, Lee wanted to get up front and move like Mick Jagger, and not be hindered by playing a guitar he wasn't especially good at -- both the Stones and the Byrds had two guitarists and a frontman who just sang and played hand percussion, and these were the models that Lee was following for the group. He also thought it would be a good idea commercially to get a good-looking white boy up front. So the group got in another guitarist, a white pretty boy who Lee soon fell out with and gave the nickname "Bummer Bob" because he was unpleasant to be around. Those of you who know exactly why Bobby Beausoleil later became famous will probably agree that this was a more than reasonable nickname to give him (and those of you who don't, I'll be dealing with him when we get to 1969). So when Bryan MacLean introduced himself to Lee and Echols, and they found out that not only was he also a good-looking white guitarist, but he was also friends with the entire circle of hipsters who'd been going to Byrds gigs, people like Vito and Franzoni, and he could get a massive crowd of them to come along to gigs for any band he was in and make them the talk of the Sunset Strip scene, he was soon in the Grass Roots, and Bummer Bob was out. The Grass Roots soon had to change their name again, though. In 1965, Jan and Dean recorded their "Folk and Roll" album, which featured "The Universal Coward"... Which I am not going to excerpt again. I only put that pause in to terrify Tilt, who edits these podcasts, and has very strong opinions about that song. But P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri, the songwriters who also performed as the Fantastic Baggies, had come up with a song for that album called "Where Where You When I Needed You?": [Excerpt: Jan and Dean, "Where Were You When I Needed You?"] Sloan and Barri decided to cut their own version of that song under a fake band name, and then put together a group of other musicians to tour as that band. They just needed a name, and Lou Adler, the head of Dunhill Records, suggested they call themselves The Grass Roots, and so that's what they did: [Excerpt: The Grass Roots, "Where Were You When I Needed You?"] Echols would later claim that this was deliberate malice on Adler's part -- that Adler had come in to a Grass Roots show drunk, and pretended to be interested in signing them to a contract, mostly to show off to a woman he'd brought with him. Echols and MacLean had spoken to him, not known who he was, and he'd felt disrespected, and Echols claims that he suggested the name to get back at them, and also to capitalise on their local success. The new Grass Roots soon started having hits, and so the old band had to find another name, which they got as a joking reference to a day job Lee had had at one point -- he'd apparently worked in a specialist bra shop, Luv Brassieres, which the rest of the band found hilarious. The Grass Roots became Love. While Arthur Lee was the group's lead singer, Bryan MacLean would often sing harmonies, and would get a song or two to sing live himself. And very early in the group's career, when they were playing a club called Bido Lito's, he started making his big lead spot a version of "Hey Joe", which he'd learned from his old friend David Crosby, and which soon became the highlight of the group's set. Their version was sped up, and included the riff which the Searchers had popularised in their cover version of  "Needles and Pins", the song originally recorded by MacLean's old girlfriend Jackie DeShannon: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Needles and Pins"] That riff is a very simple one to play, and variants of it became very, very, common among the LA bands, most notably on the Byrds' "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better"] The riff was so ubiquitous in the LA scene that in the late eighties Frank Zappa would still cite it as one of his main memories of the scene. I'm going to quote from his autobiography, where he's talking about the differences between the LA scene he was part of and the San Francisco scene he had no time for: "The Byrds were the be-all and end-all of Los Angeles rock then. They were 'It' -- and then a group called Love was 'It.' There were a few 'psychedelic' groups that never really got to be 'It,' but they could still find work and get record deals, including the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Sky Saxon and the Seeds, and the Leaves (noted for their cover version of "Hey, Joe"). When we first went to San Francisco, in the early days of the Family Dog, it seemed that everybody was wearing the same costume, a mixture of Barbary Coast and Old West -- guys with handlebar mustaches, girls in big bustle dresses with feathers in their hair, etc. By contrast, the L.A. costumery was more random and outlandish. Musically, the northern bands had a little more country style. In L.A., it was folk-rock to death. Everything had that" [and here Zappa uses the adjectival form of a four-letter word beginning with 'f' that the main podcast providers don't like you saying on non-adult-rated shows] "D chord down at the bottom of the neck where you wiggle your finger around -- like 'Needles and Pins.'" The reason Zappa describes it that way, and the reason it became so popular, is that if you play that riff in D, the chords are D, Dsus2, and Dsus4 which means you literally only wiggle one finger on your left hand: [demonstrates] And so you get that on just a ton of records from that period, though Love, the Byrds, and the Searchers all actually play the riff on A rather than D: [demonstrates] So that riff became the Big Thing in LA after the Byrds popularised the Searchers sound there, and Love added it to their arrangement of "Hey Joe". In January 1966, the group would record their arrangement of it for their first album, which would come out in March: [Excerpt: Love, "Hey Joe"] But that wouldn't be the first recording of the song, or of Love's arrangement of it – although other than the Byrds' version, it would be the only one to come out of LA with the original Billy Roberts lyrics. Love's performances of the song at Bido Lito's had become the talk of the Sunset Strip scene, and soon every band worth its salt was copying it, and it became one of those songs like "Louie Louie" before it that everyone would play. The first record ever made with the "Hey Joe" melody actually had totally different lyrics. Kim Fowley had the idea of writing a sequel to "Hey Joe", titled "Wanted Dead or Alive", about what happened after Joe shot his woman and went off. He produced the track for The Rogues, a group consisting of Michael Lloyd and Shaun Harris, who later went on to form the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, and Lloyd and Harris were the credited writers: [Excerpt: The Rogues, "Wanted Dead or Alive"] The next version of the song to come out was the first by anyone to be released as "Hey Joe", or at least as "Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go?", which was how it was titled on its initial release. This was by a band called The Leaves, who were friends of Love, and had picked up on "Hey Joe", and was produced by Nik Venet. It was also the first to have the now-familiar opening line "Hey Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand?": [Excerpt: The Leaves, "Hey Joe Where You Gonna Go?"] Roberts' original lyric, as sung by both Love and the Byrds, had been "where you going with that money in your hand?", and had Joe headed off to *buy* the gun. But as Echols later said “What happened was Bob Lee from The Leaves, who were friends of ours, asked me for the words to 'Hey Joe'. I told him I would have the words the next day. I decided to write totally different lyrics. The words you hear on their record are ones I wrote as a joke. The original words to Hey Joe are ‘Hey Joe, where you going with that money in your hand? Well I'm going downtown to buy me a blue steel .44. When I catch up with that woman, she won't be running round no more.' It never says ‘Hey Joe where you goin' with that gun in your hand.' Those were the words I wrote just because I knew they were going to try and cover the song before we released it. That was kind of a dirty trick that I played on The Leaves, which turned out to be the words that everybody uses.” That first release by the Leaves also contained an extra verse -- a nod to Love's previous name: [Excerpt: The Leaves, "Hey Joe Where You Gonna Go?"] That original recording credited the song as public domain -- apparently Bryan MacLean had refused to tell the Leaves who had written the song, and so they assumed it was traditional. It came out in November 1965, but only as a promo single. Even before the Leaves, though, another band had recorded "Hey Joe", but it didn't get released. The Sons of Adam had started out as a surf group called the Fender IV, who made records like "Malibu Run": [Excerpt: The Fender IV, "Malibu Run"] Kim Fowley had suggested they change their name to the Sons of Adam, and they were another group who were friends with Love -- their drummer, Michael Stuart-Ware, would later go on to join Love, and Arthur Lee wrote the song "Feathered Fish" for them: [Excerpt: Sons of Adam, "Feathered Fish"] But while they were the first to record "Hey Joe", their version has still to this day not been released. Their version was recorded for Decca, with producer Gary Usher, but before it was released, another Decca artist also recorded the song, and the label weren't sure which one to release. And then the label decided to press Usher to record a version with yet another act -- this time with the Surfaris, the surf group who had had a hit with "Wipe Out". Coincidentally, the Surfaris had just changed bass players -- their most recent bass player, Ken Forssi, had quit and joined Love, whose own bass player, John Fleckenstein, had gone off to join the Standells, who would also record a version of “Hey Joe” in 1966. Usher thought that the Sons of Adam were much better musicians than the Surfaris, who he was recording with more or less under protest, but their version, using Love's arrangement and the "gun in your hand" lyrics, became the first version to come out on a major label: [Excerpt: The Surfaris, "Hey Joe"] They believed the song was in the public domain, and so the songwriting credits on the record are split between Gary Usher, a W. Hale who nobody has been able to identify, and Tony Cost, a pseudonym for Nik Venet. Usher said later "I got writer's credit on it because I was told, or I assumed at the time, the song was Public Domain; meaning a non-copyrighted song. It had already been cut two or three times, and on each occasion the writing credit had been different. On a traditional song, whoever arranges it, takes the songwriting credit. I may have changed a few words and arranged and produced it, but I certainly did not co-write it." The public domain credit also appeared on the Leaves' second attempt to cut the song, which was actually given a general release, but flopped. But when the Leaves cut the song for a *third* time, still for the same tiny label, Mira, the track became a hit in May 1966, reaching number thirty-one: [Excerpt: The Leaves, "Hey Joe"] And *that* version had what they thought was the correct songwriting credit, to Dino Valenti. Which came as news to Billy Roberts, who had registered the copyright to the song back in 1962 and had no idea that it had become a staple of LA garage rock until he heard his song in the top forty with someone else's name on the credits. He angrily confronted Third Story Music, who agreed to a compromise -- they would stop giving Valenti songwriting royalties and start giving them to Roberts instead, so long as he didn't sue them and let them keep the publishing rights. Roberts was indignant about this -- he deserved all the money, not just half of it -- but he went along with it to avoid a lawsuit he might not win. So Roberts was now the credited songwriter on the versions coming out of the LA scene. But of course, Dino Valenti had been playing "his" song to other people, too. One of those other people was Vince Martin. Martin had been a member of a folk-pop group called the Tarriers, whose members also included the future film star Alan Arkin, and who had had a hit in the 1950s with "Cindy, Oh Cindy": [Excerpt: The Tarriers, "Cindy, Oh Cindy"] But as we heard in the episode on the Lovin' Spoonful, he had become a Greenwich Village folkie, in a duo with Fred Neil, and recorded an album with him, "Tear Down the Walls": [Excerpt: Fred Neil and Vince Martin, "Morning Dew"] That song we just heard, "Morning Dew", was another question-and-answer folk song. It was written by the Canadian folk-singer Bonnie Dobson, but after Martin and Neil recorded it, it was picked up on by Martin's friend Tim Rose who stuck his own name on the credits as well, without Dobson's permission, for a version which made the song into a rock standard for which he continued to collect royalties: [Excerpt: Tim Rose, "Morning Dew"] This was something that Rose seems to have made a habit of doing, though to be fair to him it went both ways. We heard about him in the Lovin' Spoonful episode too, when he was in a band named the Big Three with Cass Elliot and her coincidentally-named future husband Jim Hendricks, who recorded this song, with Rose putting new music to the lyrics of the old public domain song "Oh! Susanna": [Excerpt: The Big Three, "The Banjo Song"] The band Shocking Blue used that melody for their 1969 number-one hit "Venus", and didn't give Rose any credit: [Excerpt: Shocking Blue, "Venus"] But another song that Rose picked up from Vince Martin was "Hey Joe". Martin had picked the song up from Valenti, but didn't know who had written it, or who was claiming to have written it, and told Rose he thought it might be an old Appalchian murder ballad or something. Rose took the song and claimed writing credit in his own name -- he would always, for the rest of his life, claim it was an old folk tune he'd heard in Florida, and that he'd rewritten it substantially himself, but no evidence of the song has ever shown up from prior to Roberts' copyright registration, and Rose's version is basically identical to Roberts' in melody and lyrics. But Rose takes his version at a much slower pace, and his version would be the model for the most successful versions going forward, though those other versions would use the lyrics Johnny Echols had rewritten, rather than the ones Rose used: [Excerpt: Tim Rose, "Hey Joe"] Rose's version got heard across the Atlantic as well. And in particular it was heard by Chas Chandler, the bass player of the Animals. Some sources seem to suggest that Chandler first heard the song performed by a group called the Creation, but in a biography I've read of that group they clearly state that they didn't start playing the song until 1967. But however he came across it, when Chandler heard Rose's recording, he knew that the song could be a big hit for someone, but he didn't know who. And then he bumped into Linda Keith, Keith Richards' girlfriend,  who took him to see someone whose guitar we've already heard in this episode: [Excerpt: Rosa Lee Brooks, "My Diary"] The Curtis Mayfield impression on guitar there was, at least according to many sources the first recording session ever played on by a guitarist then calling himself Maurice (or possibly Mo-rees) James. We'll see later in the story that it possibly wasn't his first -- there are conflicting accounts, as there are about a lot of things, and it was recorded either in very early 1964, in which case it was his first, or (as seems more likely, and as I tell the story later) a year later, in which case he'd played on maybe half a dozen tracks in the studio by that point. But it was still a very early one. And by late 1966 that guitarist had reverted to the name by which he was brought up, and was calling himself Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix and Arthur Lee had become close, and Lee would later claim that Hendrix had copied much of Lee's dress style and attitude -- though many of Hendrix's other colleagues and employers, including Little Richard, would make similar claims -- and most of them had an element of truth, as Lee's did. Hendrix was a sponge. But Lee did influence him. Indeed, one of Hendrix's *last* sessions, in March 1970, was guesting on an album by Love: [Excerpt: Love with Jimi Hendrix, "Everlasting First"] Hendrix's name at birth was Johnny Allen Hendrix, which made his father, James Allen Hendrix, known as Al, who was away at war when his son was born, worry that he'd been named after another man who might possibly be the real father, so the family just referred to the child as "Buster" to avoid the issue. When Al Hendrix came back from the war the child was renamed James Marshall Hendrix -- James after Al's first name, Marshall after Al's dead brother -- though the family continued calling him "Buster". Little James Hendrix Junior didn't have anything like a stable home life. Both his parents were alcoholics, and Al Hendrix was frequently convinced that Jimi's mother Lucille was having affairs and became abusive about it. They had six children, four of whom were born disabled, and Jimi was the only one to remain with his parents -- the rest were either fostered or adopted at birth, fostered later on because the parents weren't providing a decent home life, or in one case made a ward of state because the Hendrixes couldn't afford to pay for a life-saving operation for him. The only one that Jimi had any kind of regular contact with was the second brother, Leon, his parents' favourite, who stayed with them for several years before being fostered by a family only a few blocks away. Al and Lucille Hendrix frequently split and reconciled, and while they were ostensibly raising Jimi (and for a  few years Leon), he was shuttled between them and various family members and friends, living sometimes in Seattle where his parents lived and sometimes in Vancouver with his paternal grandmother. He was frequently malnourished, and often survived because friends' families fed him. Al Hendrix was also often physically and emotionally abusive of the son he wasn't sure was his. Jimi grew up introverted, and stuttering, and only a couple of things seemed to bring him out of his shell. One was science fiction -- he always thought that his nickname, Buster, came from Buster Crabbe, the star of the Flash Gordon serials he loved to watch, though in fact he got the nickname even before that interest developed, and he was fascinated with ideas about aliens and UFOs -- and the other was music. Growing up in Seattle in the forties and fifties, most of the music he was exposed to as a child and in his early teens was music made by and for white people -- there wasn't a very large Black community in the area at the time compared to most major American cities, and so there were no prominent R&B stations. As a kid he loved the music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, and when he was thirteen Jimi's favourite record was Dean Martin's "Memories are Made of This": [Excerpt: Dean Martin, "Memories are Made of This"] He also, like every teenager, became a fan of rock and roll music. When Elvis played at a local stadium when Jimi was fifteen, he couldn't afford a ticket, but he went and sat on top of a nearby hill and watched the show from the distance. Jimi's first exposure to the blues also came around this time, when his father briefly took in lodgers, Cornell and Ernestine Benson, and Ernestine had a record collection that included records by Lightnin' Hopkins, Howlin' Wolf, and Muddy Waters, all of whom Jimi became a big fan of, especially Muddy Waters. The Bensons' most vivid memory of Jimi in later years was him picking up a broom and pretending to play guitar along with these records: [Excerpt: Muddy Waters, "Baby Please Don't Go"] Shortly after this, it would be Ernestine Benson who would get Jimi his very first guitar. By this time Jimi and Al had lost their home and moved into a boarding house, and the owner's son had an acoustic guitar with only one string that he was planning to throw out. When Jimi asked if he could have it instead of it being thrown out, the owner told him he could have it for five dollars. Al Hendrix refused to pay that much for it, but Ernestine Benson bought Jimi the guitar. She said later “He only had one string, but he could really make that string talk.” He started carrying the guitar on his back everywhere he went, in imitation of Sterling Hayden in the western Johnny Guitar, and eventually got some more strings for it and learned to play. He would play it left-handed -- until his father came in. His father had forced him to write with his right hand, and was convinced that left-handedness was the work of the devil, so Jimi would play left-handed while his father was somewhere else, but as soon as Al came in he would flip the guitar the other way up and continue playing the song he had been playing, now right-handed. Jimi's mother died when he was fifteen, after having been ill for a long time with drink-related problems, and Jimi and his brother didn't get to go to the funeral -- depending on who you believe, either Al gave Jimi the bus fare and told him to go by himself and Jimi was too embarrassed to go to the funeral alone on the bus, or Al actually forbade Jimi and Leon from going.  After this, he became even more introverted than he was before, and he also developed a fascination with the idea of angels, convinced his mother now was one. Jimi started to hang around with a friend called Pernell Alexander, who also had a guitar, and they would play along together with Elmore James records. The two also went to see Little Richard and Bill Doggett perform live, and while Jimi was hugely introverted, he did start to build more friendships in the small Seattle music scene, including with Ron Holden, the man we talked about in the episode on "Louie Louie" who introduced that song to Seattle, and who would go on to record with Bruce Johnston for Bob Keane: [Excerpt: Ron Holden, "Gee But I'm Lonesome"] Eventually Ernestine Benson persuaded Al Hendrix to buy Jimi a decent electric guitar on credit -- Al also bought himself a saxophone at the same time, thinking he might play music with his son, but sent it back once the next payment became due. As well as blues and R&B, Jimi was soaking up the guitar instrumentals and garage rock that would soon turn into surf music. The first song he learned to play was "Tall Cool One" by the Fabulous Wailers, the local group who popularised a version of "Louie Louie" based on Holden's one: [Excerpt: The Fabulous Wailers, "Tall Cool One"] As we talked about in the "Louie Louie" episode, the Fabulous Wailers used to play at a venue called the Spanish Castle, and Jimi was a regular in the audience, later writing his song "Spanish Castle Magic" about those shows: [Excerpt: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Spanish Castle Magic"] He was also a big fan of Duane Eddy, and soon learned Eddy's big hits "Forty Miles of Bad Road", "Because They're Young", and "Peter Gunn" -- a song he would return to much later in his life: [Excerpt: Jimi Hendrix, "Peter Gunn/Catastrophe"] His career as a guitarist didn't get off to a great start -- the first night he played with his first band, he was meant to play two sets, but he was fired after the first set, because he was playing in too flashy a manner and showing off too much on stage. His girlfriend suggested that he might want to tone it down a little, but he said "That's not my style".  This would be a common story for the next several years. After that false start, the first real band he was in was the Velvetones, with his friend Pernell Alexander. There were four guitarists, two piano players, horns and drums, and they dressed up with glitter stuck to their pants. They played Duane Eddy songs, old jazz numbers, and "Honky Tonk" by Bill Doggett, which became Hendrix's signature song with the band. [Excerpt: Bill Doggett, "Honky Tonk"] His father was unsupportive of his music career, and he left his guitar at Alexander's house because he was scared that his dad would smash it if he took it home. At the same time he was with the Velvetones, he was also playing with another band called the Rocking Kings, who got gigs around the Seattle area, including at the Spanish Castle. But as they left school, most of Hendrix's friends were joining the Army, in order to make a steady living, and so did he -- although not entirely by choice. He was arrested, twice, for riding in stolen cars, and he was given a choice -- either go to prison, or sign up for the Army for three years. He chose the latter. At first, the Army seemed to suit him. He was accepted into the 101st Airborne Division, the famous "Screaming Eagles", whose actions at D-Day made them legendary in the US, and he was proud to be a member of the Division. They were based out of Fort Campbell, the base near Clarksville we talked about a couple of episodes ago, and while he was there he met a bass player, Billy Cox, who he started playing with. As Cox and Hendrix were Black, and as Fort Campbell straddled the border between Kentucky and Tennessee, they had to deal with segregation and play to only Black audiences. And Hendrix quickly discovered that Black audiences in the Southern states weren't interested in "Louie Louie", Duane Eddy, and surf music, the stuff he'd been playing in Seattle. He had to instead switch to playing Albert King and Slim Harpo songs, but luckily he loved that music too. He also started singing at this point -- when Hendrix and Cox started playing together, in a trio called the Kasuals, they had no singer, and while Hendrix never liked his own voice, Cox was worse, and so Hendrix was stuck as the singer. The Kasuals started gigging around Clarksville, and occasionally further afield, places like Nashville, where Arthur Alexander would occasionally sit in with them. But Cox was about to leave the Army, and Hendrix had another two and a bit years to go, having enlisted for three years. They couldn't play any further away unless Hendrix got out of the Army, which he was increasingly unhappy in anyway, and so he did the only thing he could -- he pretended to be gay, and got discharged on medical grounds for homosexuality. In later years he would always pretend he'd broken his ankle parachuting from a plane. For the next few years, he would be a full-time guitarist, and spend the periods when he wasn't earning enough money from that leeching off women he lived with, moving from one to another as they got sick of him or ran out of money. The Kasuals expanded their lineup, adding a second guitarist, Alphonso Young, who would show off on stage by playing guitar with his teeth. Hendrix didn't like being upstaged by another guitarist, and quickly learned to do the same. One biography I've used as a source for this says that at this point, Billy Cox played on a session for King Records, for Frank Howard and the Commanders, and brought Hendrix along, but the producer thought that Hendrix's guitar was too frantic and turned his mic off. But other sources say the session Hendrix and Cox played on for the Commanders wasn't until three years later, and the record *sounds* like a 1965 record, not a 1962 one, and his guitar is very audible – and the record isn't on King. But we've not had any music to break up the narration for a little while, and it's a good track (which later became a Northern Soul favourite) so I'll play a section here, as either way it was certainly an early Hendrix session: [Excerpt: Frank Howard and the Commanders, "I'm So Glad"] This illustrates a general problem with Hendrix's life at this point -- he would flit between bands, playing with the same people at multiple points, nobody was taking detailed notes, and later, once he became famous, everyone wanted to exaggerate their own importance in his life, meaning that while the broad outlines of his life are fairly clear, any detail before late 1966 might be hopelessly wrong. But all the time, Hendrix was learning his craft. One story from around this time  sums up both Hendrix's attitude to his playing -- he saw himself almost as much as a scientist as a musician -- and his slightly formal manner of speech.  He challenged the best blues guitarist in Nashville to a guitar duel, and the audience actually laughed at Hendrix's playing, as he was totally outclassed. When asked what he was doing, he replied “I was simply trying to get that B.B. King tone down and my experiment failed.” Bookings for the King Kasuals dried up, and he went to Vancouver, where he spent a couple of months playing in a covers band, Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers, whose lead guitarist was Tommy Chong, later to find fame as one half of Cheech and Chong. But he got depressed at how white Vancouver was, and travelled back down south to join a reconfigured King Kasuals, who now had a horn section. The new lineup of King Kasuals were playing the chitlin circuit and had to put on a proper show, and so Hendrix started using all the techniques he'd seen other guitarists on the circuit use -- playing with his teeth like Alphonso Young, the other guitarist in the band, playing with his guitar behind his back like T-Bone Walker, and playing with a fifty-foot cord that allowed him to walk into the crowd and out of the venue, still playing, like Guitar Slim used to. As well as playing with the King Kasuals, he started playing the circuit as a sideman. He got short stints with many of the second-tier acts on the circuit -- people who had had one or two hits, or were crowd-pleasers, but weren't massive stars, like Carla Thomas or Jerry Butler or Slim Harpo. The first really big name he played with was Solomon Burke, who when Hendrix joined his band had just released "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Empty Arms)": [Excerpt: Solomon Burke, "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Empty Arms)"] But he lacked discipline. “Five dates would go beautifully,” Burke later said, “and then at the next show, he'd go into this wild stuff that wasn't part of the song. I just couldn't handle it anymore.” Burke traded him to Otis Redding, who was on the same tour, for two horn players, but then Redding fired him a week later and they left him on the side of the road. He played in the backing band for the Marvelettes, on a tour with Curtis Mayfield, who would be another of Hendrix's biggest influences, but he accidentally blew up Mayfield's amp and got sacked. On another tour, Cecil Womack threw Hendrix's guitar off the bus while he slept. In February 1964 he joined the band of the Isley Brothers, and he would watch the Beatles on Ed Sullivan with them during his first days with the group. Assuming he hadn't already played the Rosa Lee Brooks session (and I think there's good reason to believe he hadn't), then the first record Hendrix played on was their single "Testify": [Excerpt: The Isley Brothers, "Testify"] While he was with them, he also moonlighted on Don Covay's big hit "Mercy, Mercy": [Excerpt: Don Covay and the Goodtimers, "Mercy Mercy"] After leaving the Isleys, Hendrix joined the minor soul singer Gorgeous George, and on a break from Gorgeous George's tour, in Memphis, he went to Stax studios in the hope of meeting Steve Cropper, one of his idols. When he was told that Cropper was busy in the studio, he waited around all day until Cropper finished, and introduced himself. Hendrix was amazed to discover that Cropper was white -- he'd assumed that he must be Black -- and Cropper was delighted to meet the guitarist who had played on "Mercy Mercy", one of his favourite records. The two spent hours showing each other guitar licks -- Hendrix playing Cropper's right-handed guitar, as he hadn't brought along his own. Shortly after this, he joined Little Richard's band, and once again came into conflict with the star of the show by trying to upstage him. For one show he wore a satin shirt, and after the show Richard screamed at him “I am the only Little Richard! I am the King of Rock and Roll, and I am the only one allowed to be pretty. Take that shirt off!” While he was with Richard, Hendrix played on his "I Don't Know What You've Got, But It's Got Me", which like "Mercy Mercy" was written by Don Covay, who had started out as Richard's chauffeur: [Excerpt: Little Richard, "I Don't Know What You've Got, But It's Got Me"] According to the most likely version of events I've read, it was while he was working for Richard that Hendrix met Rosa Lee Brooks, on New Year's Eve 1964. At this point he was using the name Maurice James, apparently in tribute to the blues guitarist Elmore James, and he used various names, including Jimmy James, for most of his pre-fame performances. Rosa Lee Brooks was an R&B singer who had been mentored by Johnny "Guitar" Watson, and when she met Hendrix she was singing in a girl group who were one of the support acts for Ike & Tina Turner, who Hendrix went to see on his night off. Hendrix met Brooks afterwards, and told her she looked like his mother -- a line he used on a lot of women, but which was true in her case if photos are anything to go by. The two got into a relationship, and were soon talking about becoming a duo like Ike and Tina or Mickey and Sylvia -- "Love is Strange" was one of Hendrix's favourite records. But the only recording they made together was the "My Diary" single. Brooks always claimed that she actually wrote that song, but the label credit is for Arthur Lee, and it sounds like his work to me, albeit him trying hard to write like Curtis Mayfield, just as Hendrix is trying to play like him: [Excerpt: Rosa Lee Brooks, "My Diary"] Brooks and Hendrix had a very intense relationship for a short period. Brooks would later recall Little

This week we track the new live album from The Tedeschi Trucks Band, Layla Revisited. TTB plays Derek & the Dominoes album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs in its entirety. This release features Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio.We also take a look at, 'The 27 Club.' "The 27 Club includes popular musicians who have died at age 27,often as a result of drug and alcohol abuse or violent means such as homicide, suicide, or transportation-related accidents.The deaths of several 27-year-old popular musicians between 1969 and 1971 (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, Jim Morrison) led to the belief that deaths are more common at this age. Statistical studies have failed to find any unusual pattern of musician deaths at this age, comparing it to equally small increases at ages 25 and 32, with a 2011 BMJ study noting instead that young adult musicians have a higher death rate than the rest of the young adult population, concluding: "Fame may increase the risk of death among musicians, but this risk is not limited to age 27".The "club" has been repeatedly cited in music magazines, journals and the daily press. Several exhibitions have been devoted to the idea, as well as novels, films and stage plays. There have been many theories and speculations about the causes of such early deaths and their possible connections. Four years before the BMJ study was published, Cobain and Hendrix biographer Charles R. Cross wrote: "The number of musicians who died at 27 is truly remarkable by any standard. [Although] humans die regularly at all ages, there is a statistical spike for musicians who die at 27."21. Seth Walker / Hard Road22. Ally Venable / Love Struck Baby 23. The Doors / Peacefrog [Jim Morrison]24. Tedeschi Trucks Band / Layla 25. Hector Anchondo / Here's to Me Giving Up 26. Billy Gibbons / My Lucky Card 27. Badfinger / Baby Blue [Pete Ham]28. Big Star /  In the Street (Theme to 'That 70s Show') [Chris Bell]29. Rex Granite Band / Haunted30. Claudettes (Johnny Iguana) / Stop Breaking Down Blues31. Amy Winehouse / Love is a Losing Game [Amy Winehouse]32. Bonnie Raitt / Nobody's Girl 33. Tedeschi Trucks Band / Tell the Truth34. Amythyst Kiah / Black Myself35. Chase / I Need Your Lovin' [Wally Yohn]36. Maceo Parker (James Brown) / Grazing in the Grass

This week we track the new live album from The Tedeschi Trucks Band, Layla Revisited. TTB plays Derek & the Dominoes album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs in its entirety. This release features Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio.We also take a look at, 'The 27 Club.' "The 27 Club includes popular musicians who have died at age 27,often as a result of drug and alcohol abuse or violent means such as homicide, suicide, or transportation-related accidents.The deaths of several 27-year-old popular musicians between 1969 and 1971 (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, Jim Morrison) led to the belief that deaths are more common at this age. Statistical studies have failed to find any unusual pattern of musician deaths at this age, comparing it to equally small increases at ages 25 and 32, with a 2011 BMJ study noting instead that young adult musicians have a higher death rate than the rest of the young adult population, concluding: "Fame may increase the risk of death among musicians, but this risk is not limited to age 27".The "club" has been repeatedly cited in music magazines, journals and the daily press. Several exhibitions have been devoted to the idea, as well as novels, films and stage plays. There have been many theories and speculations about the causes of such early deaths and their possible connections. Four years before the BMJ study was published, Cobain and Hendrix biographer Charles R. Cross wrote: "The number of musicians who died at 27 is truly remarkable by any standard. [Although] humans die regularly at all ages, there is a statistical spike for musicians who die at 27."Pacific Street BluesPlaylist: July 25, 2021 1. Tedeschi Trucks Band / Have You Ever Loved a Woman 2. Eric Clapton / Traveling Riverside Blues 3. Robert Johnson / Love in Vain  4. Taj Mahal / Crossroads Blues  5. Delaney & Bonnie / I Know How It Feels to Be Lonely 6. Tedeschi Trucks Band / Bell Bottom Blues 7. Canned Heat / Going Up the Country (Alan WIlson)  8. Grateful Dead / Good Morning Little School Girl (Pigpen)  9. Kim WIlson / No Place to Go10. Jimi Hendrix / Long Hot Summer Nights [Jimi Hendrix] 11. Tedeschi Trucks Band / Little Wing 12. Robert Randolph & the Family Band / Purple Haze 13. Larry Cray / Midnight Rambler14. Buddy Guy / Do Do Do Heartbreaker15. Rolling Stones / Stray Cat Blues [Brian Jones] 16. Robert Wilkins / That's No Way (To Get Along) [Prodigal Son, Beggars Banquet] 17. Aretha Franklin / Rock Steady18. Irma Thomas / Dr. Feelgood19. Janis Joplin / Kozmic Blues [Janis Joplin] 20. Cathy Richardson & Sugar Blue / Try Just a Little Bit Harder 

Ryan talks with Charles R. Cross, author of the fantastic Jimi Hendrix biography, Room Full of Mirrors. Buy Room Full of Mirrors on Amazon (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/3BbFraJ Charles R. Cross website: http://charlesrcross.comSign up for an exclusive Songs of Note episode and playlist here: https://mailchi.mp/5a4c0459fa02/songsofnotenewsletterFollow me: http://instagram.com/songsofnotehttps://www.facebook.com/songsofnotehttps://twitter.com/thesongsofnoteMusic  provided by Tyler Ramsey.  Find Tyler on Spotify, Apple Music, and his website. 

In part two of the season two finale of None But The Brave, hosts Hal Schwartz and Flynn McLean continue their conversation with Backstreets Magazine's Charles R. Cross, Erik Flannigan, Jonathan Pont, and Chris Phillips. The discussion includes the story of the first time Bruce Springsteen gave Backstreets an interview, their thoughts on the two most recent Bruce records, the growth of E Street Nation, and what are some of their favorite Archive releases. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In part one of the season two finale of None But The Brave, hosts Hal Schwartz and Flynn McLean are joined by Backstreets Magazine's Charles R. Cross, Erik Flannigan, Jonathan Pont, and Chris Phillips for a wide ranging conversation on the creation of the magazine, working with Springsteen and his team, what brings us all to Bruce's music, and the growth of E Street Nation over the years. Hal and Flynn also discuss the return of Springsteen On Broadway. Part two of the season finale will be released July 15th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join me as I speak with music journalist and author, Charles R. Cross. He was the Editor of The Rocket in Seattle for fifteen years (1986–2000) during the height of the Seattle music mania. He is also the founder of Backstreets Magazine, a periodical for fans of Bruce Springsteen. His 2001 biography of Kurt Cobain (Heavier Than Heaven) was winner of the 2002 ASCAP Award for Outstanding Musical Biography. We chat about Kurt Cobain, Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, cancel culture and so many more topics. Fun music fan chat. Give it a listen!

In this episode, host Rich Tupica chats with author Charles R. Cross about his definitive biography of Kurt Cobain, Heavier Than Heaven. The acclaimed 448-page book, which turns 20 this year, is packed with years of research, making it essential reading for any Nirvana fan seeking facts instead of myths. In this discussion, we not only dig into why and how he wrote the book, but also what it took to present an honest take on a larger-than-life rock star. Check out his other Nirvana-related books, as well: Cobain Unseen and Here We Are Now: The Lasting Impact of Kurt Cobain. (The audio of Cobain talking at the start of this episode is from a 1993 Jon Savage interview). Bio:Charles R. Cross graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle with a degree in creative writing. At the UW, he served as editor of the Daily in 1979, and caused a major ruckus when he left the front page of the newspaper blank. The only type was a small line that read “The White Issue,” in deference to the Beatles’ White Album.After college, Cross served as editor of The Rocket, the Northwest’s music and entertainment magazine, from 1986 through 2000. The Rocket was hailed as “the best regional music magazine in the nation” by the L.A. Reader, and it was the first publication ever to run a story on Nirvana. Cross wrote stories on such seminal Northwest bands as The Wailers, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and hundreds, if not thousands, of lesser-known bands. In addition to The Rocket, Cross’s writing has appeared in hundreds of magazines, including Rolling Stone, Esquire, Playboy, Spin, Guitar World, Q, Uncut, and Creem. He has also written for many newspapers and alternative weeklies, including the London Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Seattle Times, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He has lectured and read at universities and colleges around the world, and has frequently been interviewed for film, radio, and television documentaries, including VH1’s "Behind the Music."Cross is the author of seven books, including 2005’s Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix (published by Hyperion in the U.S., and Hodder in the U.K.). His 2001 release, Heavier Than Heaven: The Biography of Kurt Cobain (Hyperion/Hodder), was a New York Times bestseller and was called “one of the most moving and revealing books ever written about a rock star” by the Los Angeles Times. In 2002, Heavier Than Heaven won the ASCAP Timothy White Award for outstanding biography. Cross’s other books include the national bestseller Cobain Unseen (Little Brown), Backstreets: Springsteen, the Man and His Music (Harmony, 1989); Led Zeppelin: Heaven and Hell (Harmony, 1992); and Nevermind: The Classic Album (Schirmer, 1998).

What kind of childhood did Kurt Cobain, the rock star who shocked the world in the 1990s, have? How did he become famous, and why did he choose to end his life with a bullet? Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain takes you down the path of Cobain’s life. The Los Angeles Times described the book as “One of the most moving and revealing books ever written about a rock star.”

Bancada: Anderson Rocha, Carlos Anibale, Cris Bertold e Renato Crozatti. Links Fridaycast: Instagram: instagram.com/fridaycast Twitter: twitter.com/fridaycastbr Facebook: facebook.com/fridaycast Participe do “Eu Tava Ali” e mande sua mensagem para o e-mail fridaycast@fridaycast.com.br ou por nossas redes sociais! Apoio: Shogun Livraria - shogunlivraria.com.br Edição: AudioTune - audiotune.com.br Arte de capa: Carlos Anibale - behance.net/anibalecarlos Dicas da bancada: Livros Mais pesado que o céu: Uma biografia de Kurt Cobain (Charles R. Cross) Nova Jaguaruara (Mauro Lopes) As Ilusões Armadas - Coleção Ditadura (Elio Gaspari) Crônicas Saxônicas Vol. 1 a 12 (Bernard Cornwell) Jogos 7 Days to Die (2013) GRIS (2018) Disco Elysium (2019) Música Emicida - AmarElo (2020) Weezer - Teal Album (2019)

Ryan talks with Charles R. Cross, author of the Kurt Cobain biography Heavier Than Heaven. Cross tells the story behind Nirvana's final recording session where they recorded, "You Know You're Right."Buy Heavier Than Heaven: https://www.amazon.com/Heavier-Than-Heaven-Biography-Cobain/dp/0786884029Charles R. Cross website: http://charlesrcross.com/

Journalist Charles R. Cross tells us what live music has done for Seattle, and what could happen if local venues don’t see any economic relief. When the novel coronavirus took hold in Washington state, live music venues were some of the first businesses to go dark. It made sense. Little was known about the virus then, but it was clear that crowded rooms of people dancing, shouting and singing were not advisable. Now, as the nation looks forward to the potential of reopening, it has become clear that these venues will be among the last to re-open. When they do reopen, there are likely to be far fewer of them. Cross discusses the efforts to secure government assistance for these businesses. 

Hoy en nuestro programa contamos parte de la historia de 'The Rocket', la revista cultural que apoyó desde el inicio la escena local de Seattle y que se convirtió en un referente en la zona, por sus páginas pasaron Charles R. Cross, Matt Groening o Lisa Orth... Suenan: 01. Nirvana - Big Cheese 02. The Fluid - Your Kinda Thing 03. Soundgarden - Beyond the Wheel  04. Rockin' Robin Roberts & The Wailers - Louie Louie 05. Treepeople - Handcuffs 06. Thee Hypnotics - All Night Long (Live) 07. Green Day - Having A Blast 08. Kurt Cobain -  Something In The Way (Demo) 09. Hole- Northern Star

Hoy en nuestro programa contamos parte de la historia de 'The Rocket', la revista cultural que apoyó desde el inicio la escena local de Seattle y que se convirtió en un referente en la zona, por sus páginas pasaron Charles R. Cross, Matt Groening o Lisa Orth... Suenan: 01. Nirvana - Big Cheese 02. The Fluid - Your Kinda Thing 03. Soundgarden - Beyond the Wheel  04. Rockin' Robin Roberts & The Wailers - Louie Louie 05. Treepeople - Handcuffs 06. Thee Hypnotics - All Night Long (Live) 07. Green Day - Having A Blast 08. Kurt Cobain -  Something In The Way (Demo) 09. Hole- Northern Star

As part of our Northwest Classics series, KEXP DJ Marco Collins talks with music journalist Charles R. Cross about the legacy of The Postal Service and how the group’s method of producing music remotely is relevant during COVID-19. We also hear Ben Gibbard’s new track, "Life in Quarantine." Support the show.

Továbbra is Zentai Balázs mesél és folytatja azt az ívet, ami ebben az adásban a seattle-i grunge-tól visz jó messzire. Gitártechnika, torzítás - mindenféle hangzásbeli érdekességek hangzanak el, emellett megtudjuk, melyik neves énekes rendszámtábláját inspirálta az akkor még nála jóval kisebb név, a Pearl Jam egyik albumának címe, mivel jár a család számára, ha sztárzenész a családfő, valamint hogy melyik ikon felesége volt nagyon unszimpatikus, mégis megkerülhetetlen figura a 80-as és 90-es évek zenészvilágában. A könyvek: Nic Cohn: Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom Nikki Van Noy: So Much To Say: Dave Matthews Band -20 Years on the Road Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run Mark Yarm: Everybody Loves Our Town Eric Clapton: Clapton – Az önéletrajz Neil Young: Waging Heavy Peace Pete Townshend: Who I Am Patti Smith: Just Kids Patti Smith: M Train Keith Richards: Life Charles R. Cross: Tükörszoba – Jimi Hendrix Victor Bockris: Transformer: The Complete Lou Reed David Buckley: Bowie – Strange Fascination Peter Freestone: Freddie Mercury Sting: Broken Music Az adásban a Dave Matthews Bandtől a Lie in our Graves című szám hangzik el, valamint a Keep on Rocking in the Free World Neil Young és a Pearl Jam felvételén.

Az év első adásával szó szerint belecsapunk a húrokba:). Vendégünk, Zentai Balázs (rock)zenészek (ön)életírásait mutatja be a podcastban, de a sztárok életeseményeinél jóval többet tudunk meg: Balázs lángoló zeneszeretettel sztorizik arról, hogyan szerettek, buliztak és főleg alkottak ezek az ikonok, és hogy milyen találkozások határozták meg őket, rajtuk keresztül pedig a zenetörténelmet. A könyvek: Nic Cohn: Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom Nikki Van Noy: So Much To Say: Dave Matthews Band -20 Years on the Road Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run Mark Yarm: Everybody Loves Our Town Eric Clapton: Clapton – Az önéletrajz Neil Young: Waging Heavy Peace Pete Townshend: Who I Am Patti Smith: Just Kids Patti Smith: M Train Keith Richards: Life Charles R. Cross: Tükörszoba – Jimi Hendrix Victor Bockris: Transformer: The Complete Lou Reed David Buckley: Bowie – Strange Fascination Peter Freestone: Freddie Mercury Sting: Broken Music   Az adásban David Bowie Under Pressure (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTHUPvL9ghY&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR0ponLv-ZoiPcJrRbleAUKw1I1rEW3XxpRmemLixcKBKh_IgycVJ8iyKr0) és Patti Smith és Bruce Springsteen Because the Night című száma hangzik el.

FKA twigs talks about dance, feminism and the impact of her recent health complications. We launch our “Northwest Classics” series, where we’ll discuss iconic albums that came out of the Pacific Northwest. We start off by talking about the life and legacy of Jimi Hendrix through his album, ‘Are You Experienced,’ with KEXP’s Marco Collins and Hendrix biographer, Charles R. Cross. KEXP’s Darek Mazzone, host of Wo’ Pop, shares a variety of music from Iran in response to current events. Support the show.

The 27 Club includes popular musicians, artists, actors and athletes who have died at age 27,[1] often as a result of drug and alcohol abuse, or violent means such as homicide, suicide, or transportation-related accidents.[2] The deaths of several 27 year-old popular musicians between 1969 and 1971 led to the belief that deaths are more common at this age. Statistical studies have failed to find any unusual pattern of musician deaths at this age, comparing it to equally small increases at ages 25 and 32, with a 2011 BMJ study noting instead that young adult musicians have a higher death rate than the rest of the young adult population, concluding: "Fame may increase the risk of death among musicians, but this risk is not limited to age 27" The "club" has been repeatedly cited in music magazines, journals and the daily press. Several exhibitions have been devoted to the idea, as well as novels, films and stage plays.[6][7][8][9] There have been many different theories and speculations about the causes of such early deaths and their possible connections. Cobain and Hendrix biographer Charles R. Cross wrote, four years before the BMJ study was published, "The number of musicians who died at 27 is truly remarkable by any standard. [Although] humans die regularly at all ages, there is a statistical spike for musicians who die at 27.

Famous musicians Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse all died at 27 years old. Some call this phenomenon "a media construct". Research shows that of the 3,463 musicians who died in the last two hundred years, there is a 40% spike at the age of 27, compared to the years surrounding it. But, recent studies on the brain help put this data into context. What really happened? Guests: Charles R. Cross (New York Times Best-Selling author of "Heavier Than Heaven"), and Dr. Roger McIntyre (Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology at the University of Toronto, Head of the Mood Disorders Psychopharmacology Unit at the University Health Network)

The second installment in the series about the tragic endings of musical icons this time I discuss the life and death of Nirvana's frontman, Kurt Cobain. Justin Evans from the Generation Why and The Peripheral podcasts weighs in on "Soaked in Bleach" and the murder theory. www.TheGenerationWhyPodcast.com www.theperipheral.libsyn.com Click on the links below for resources and to purchase the music. Books: Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain - Charles R. Cross Videos: Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck Soaked in Bleach  

Kurt Cobaini surmast tema enda käe läbi 1994. aasta aprillis on möödas üle kahekümne aasta. Üle neljasaja intervjuu, neli aastat uurimistööd, eksklusiivne ligipääs Cobaini avaldamata päevikutele, laulutekstidele ja perepiltidele, tohutule hulgale dokumentidele lubab autoril jälgida väga lähedalt Cobaini elu alates lapsepõlvest, elust haagiselamus kuni kuulsuse, edu ja ühe põlvkonna iidoliks tõusmiseni. / Siin on Jim Morrison kogu oma mitmekülgsuses – laulja, filosoof, luuletaja, mässaja, hiilgav, karismaatiline ja kinnismõtteline otsijavaim kes trotsis võime selle kõikides vormides, avastaja kes kompas tegelikkuse piire, et näha, mis juhtub … (Charles R. Cross. Kurt Cobaini elulugu. /ja/ Jerry Hopkins, Danny Sugerman. Keegi ei pääse siit eluga: Jim Morrisoni elulugu.)

Sejam bem-vindos, leitores e leitoras ao 30:MIN, o seu podcast de literatura. Nesta edição, Vilto Reis, Jefferson Figueiredo e Cecilia Marcon analisam discutem o que é uma biografia e indicam mais de uma. Neste Podcast: É tipo One Direction; oba, posso pegar férias!; um bom biografado; ah, esse cara barbudo; tipo, a morte dele; a coisa mais sacana que a Cecilia fez em 100 podcasts; enfia no sovaco e leva; no banheiro do Jefferson; e muito mais. O 30:MIN se mantém no ar pelo apoio dos Ouvintes Grupo Lista Negra do Paul Rabbit Quer conhecer as Biografias indicadas? Cash – A Autobiografia de Johnny Cash (Cecilia) Scar Tissue, de Anthony Kiedis (Jefferson) Relato Autobiográfico, de Akira Kurosawa (Vilto) O anjo pornográfico, de Ruy Castro (Cecilia) Crônicas: volume um, de Bob Dylan (Jefferson) Manson, de Jeff Guinn (Vilto) Olga, de Fernando Morais (Cecilia) Goya à Sombra das Luzes, de Tzvetan Todorov (Vilto) O mundo prodigioso que tenho na cabeça, de Louis Begley (Vilto) Imagine – Crescendo com o meu irmão Jonh Lennon, de Julia Baird (Cecilia) Mais Pesado que o Céu, de Charles R. Cross (Cecilia) O Livro de Jack – Uma Biografia Oral de Jack Kerouac (Cecilia) Van Gogh, de David Haziot (Jefferson) Caio Fernando Abreu – Inventário de um escritor irremediável, de Jeanne Callegari (Cecilia) A Autobiografia de Alice B. Toklas, de Gertrude Stein (Vilto)

Emitido el 10/09/2015 en www.radioutopia.es Arranca la cuarta temporada de "Bienvenido a los 90" agradeciendo a todo aquel que nos escucha, bien sea en el FM o en los podcast. En esta cuarta temporada queremos hacer la mejor radio posible de la historia del programa, por eso hoy hacemos algo que jamás se ha hecho en la radio española: entrevistar a Charles R. Cross, periodista de Seattle y biógrafo de Jimi Hendrix y Kurt Cobain. Charles Cross editó en 2014 su último libro llamado "Here We Are Now, The Lasting Impact Of Kurt Cobain" donde se inicia con el prólogo "This Horrible Secret" que leemos a modo de introducción. Después de la conexión Madrid-Seattle viajamos a Boimorto, a 25km de Santiago de Compostela para hablar con Paco Pérez Bryan, padrino de este programa. Paco nos da su "bendición" para este nuevo curso, por lo que nos espera un año muy muy entretenido.

Emitido el 10/09/2015 en www.radioutopia.es Arranca la cuarta temporada de "Bienvenido a los 90" agradeciendo a todo aquel que nos escucha, bien sea en el FM o en los podcast. En esta cuarta temporada queremos hacer la mejor radio posible de la historia del programa, por eso hoy hacemos algo que jamás se ha hecho en la radio española: entrevistar a Charles R. Cross, periodista de Seattle y biógrafo de Jimi Hendrix y Kurt Cobain. Charles Cross editó en 2014 su último libro llamado "Here We Are Now, The Lasting Impact Of Kurt Cobain" donde se inicia con el prólogo "This Horrible Secret" que leemos a modo de introducción. Después de la conexión Madrid-Seattle viajamos a Boimorto, a 25km de Santiago de Compostela para hablar con Paco Pérez Bryan, padrino de este programa. Paco nos da su "bendición" para este nuevo curso, por lo que nos espera un año muy muy entretenido.

Emitido el 02/10/2014 en www.radioutopia.es "Mi vuelo a Seattle llegaba con retraso... unos 20 años aproximadamente... tal vez por eso, cuando mis pies pisaron tierra, no me apresuré en buscar mi maleta" Así arranca el programa nº 130 donde entrevistamos al periodista y escritor Charles R. Cross afincado en Seattle. Cross vivió en primera persona todo el movimiento ocurrido en la ciudad ya que era editor de la revista The Rocket desde 1986 al 2000. Como escritor ha elaborado libros sobre Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix o Nancy Wilson pero su mayor éxito ha sido la biografía sobre Kurt Cobain titulada "Heavier Than Heaven". Cross nos cita en un restaurante de Capitol Hill, a kilómetro y medio de donde Cobain decidiría quitarse la vida y pasar a la historia.

Emitido el 02/10/2014 en www.radioutopia.es "Mi vuelo a Seattle llegaba con retraso... unos 20 años aproximadamente... tal vez por eso, cuando mis pies pisaron tierra, no me apresuré en buscar mi maleta" Así arranca el programa nº 130 donde entrevistamos al periodista y escritor Charles R. Cross afincado en Seattle. Cross vivió en primera persona todo el movimiento ocurrido en la ciudad ya que era editor de la revista The Rocket desde 1986 al 2000. Como escritor ha elaborado libros sobre Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix o Nancy Wilson pero su mayor éxito ha sido la biografía sobre Kurt Cobain titulada "Heavier Than Heaven". Cross nos cita en un restaurante de Capitol Hill, a kilómetro y medio de donde Cobain decidiría quitarse la vida y pasar a la historia.

Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah has written for The Believer, The LA Review of Books, Transition and The Paris Review. "If He Hollers Let Him Go," her essay on Dave Chappelle, was a 2014 National Magazine Award finalist. "So the stakes are high. I’m not just writing this to write. I’m writing because I think there’s something I need to say. And there’s something that needs to be said. ... What I hope is that a young kid or an older person will see that you have choices, that you don't have to accept what people hand to you. That you have control." Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: the-rachelkaadzighansah.tumblr.com [:30] "If He Hollers Let Him Go" (The Believer • Oct 2013) [15:15] Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix (Charles R. Cross • Hyperion • 2005) [17:10] "What Lured Hemingway to Ketchum?" (Hunter S. Thompson • The National Observer • May 1964) [Google Books] [19:45] "Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You: The Roots Are One of the Most Respected Hip-Hop Acts in the World; Why Can’t They Leave the Sad Stuff Alone?" (Capital New York • Dec 2011) [24:40] "He Shall Overcome: Jay-Z Is $450 M Beyond the Marcy Projects. Where Does He Go From Here?" (New York Observer • Dec 2010) [27:16] "The B-Boy’s Guide to the Galaxy: A Review of the RZA’s Tao of Wu" (Transitions • Sep 2012) [27:52] "When the Lights Shut Off: Kendrick Lamar and the Decline of the Black Blues Narrative" (Los Angeles Review of Books • Jan 2013) [29:37] "We a Baddd People" (VQR • Jun 2014) [35:15] "Stakes Is High—and Black Lives Are Worthy of Elaboration" (Kameelah Janan Rasheed • Gawker • Jun 2014) [44:25] Miles: The Autobiography (Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe • Simon and Schuster • 1989) [48:20] "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You: The BeyHive" (NPR • Mar 2014)

Charles R. Cross is a Seattle-based music writer and author who has written nine books, including the award-winning and definitive Heavier Than Heaven: The Biography of Kurt Cobain. He was the editor-in-chief of the Seattle music magazine The Rocket, covering the early rise of local bands like Nirvana and he’s regarded as both an esteemed […]

In its 30 year history, Backstreets magazine has has served as the ultimate Springsteen fan resource and is commonly recognized as one of the best rock n’ roll fanzines ever created. In this two part series, We spoke at length with the two men who crafted the success of Backstreets, original founder Charles R. Cross, and current owner and publisher, Christopher Phillips. We examine the magazine’s unique history and find out what it takes to satisfy the most rabid fans in rock n’ roll. Visit Backstreets on the web at http://www.backstreets.com

In its 30 year history, Backstreets magazine has has served as the ultimate Springsteen fan resource and is commonly recognized as one of the best rock n’ roll fanzines ever created. In this two part series, We spoke at length with the two men who crafted the success of Backstreets, original founder Charles R. Cross, and current owner and publisher, Christopher Phillips. We examine the magazine’s unique history and find out what it takes to satisfy the most rabid fans in rock n’ roll. Visit Backstreets on the web at http://www.backstreets.com