Podcasts about Lester Bangs

THE HEART OF ROCK ‘N' ROLL—There's a saying about the Velvet Underground's first album: it didn't sell a lot of copies but everyone who bought it went on to form a band. Not everyone who read Creem went on to form a band, but almost everyone who ever wrote about rock music in a significant way has a connection to Creem. Founded in Detroit in 1969 by Barry Kramer, Creem was a finger in the eye to the more established Rolling Stone. Creem called itself “America's Only Rock ‘n' Roll Magazine” and its cheeky irreverence matched its devotion to its infamous street cred. Punk, new wave, heavy metal, alternative, indie were all championed at Creem.Writers and editors who worked for Creem read like a who's who of industry legends: Lester Bangs. Dave Marsh. Robert Christgau. Greil Marcus. Patti Smith. Cameron Crowe. Jann Uhelszki. Penny Valentine. And on and on and on.The magazine stopped publishing in 1989 a few years after Barry's death. A documentary about Creem's heyday in 2020 helped lead to a resurrected media brand, founded by JJ Kramer, Barry's son, and launched in 2022. The copy on the first issue's cover: “Rock is Dead. So is Print.”Totally typical Creem-assed fuckery. And still totally rock n roll, man. Print Is Dead (Long Live Print!) is a production of Magazeum LLC ©2021–2025

On the show today I lay out my plans for a hypothetical stint as editor of one of the big dance music media platforms. I spend enough time shitposting these guys, so given the opportunity what would I actually do?Spoiler alert - it would be pretty sick.Lester Bangs profile.Barret Brown columns.Clive Martin in Vice.If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Not A Diving Podcast Spotify playlist Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the final episode of our coming-of-age season we dive into the world of rock ‘n' roll excess, teen angst and 1970's fashion. Join us as we talk about Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (2000). We chat about the semi-autobiographical nature and explore it's coming of age themes, the character complexities and particularly the portrayal of women. We also look at some of Cameron Crowe's other films including Say Anything, Jerry Maguire and Aloha. Dan watched Aloha as part of this episode's research. I believe that is called sacrifice. Dan also did some digging into the real-life Lester Bangs, portrayed brilliantly in Almost Famous by the great Philip Seymour Hoffman. Make sure you listen right to the end to hear what we have planned for season 9, which begins Jan 6th. Before that, you can look forward to our coming-of-age wrap show which will be available on our £3 a month Patreon tier. We also have our between season bonus show releasing 30th December, although we haven't a clue what we'll be covering yet. If there is anything new releasing in December you would like us to review why not drop us a dm on Instagram or wherever (see links below) and we'll consider it. Would you like to see the full lineup for season 8? The only place we announce our schedule is over on Patreon and you don't even need to be a paying member. Just sign up for a free membership and get access to the lineup. If you have some change rattling around in your pocket, we have a £3.00 a month tier where you'll get access to around 90 movie reviews plus all of our end of season wrap shows for seasons 1-7.    Enjoy the show but can't support us financially? We get it. You could submit a review on the podcast player you're reading this on right now. Or if you listen on Spotify and you haven't given us a five-star rating yet, what are ye waiting for? It's easy. If you've done some or all of that and still want to do more, we would love it if you tell a friend about the show.   Or come find us on social media: Instagram | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube

THE HEART OF ROCK 'N' ROLL IS STILL BEATING—There's a saying about the Velvet Underground's first album: it didn't sell a lot of copies but everyone who bought it went on to form a band. Not everyone who read Creem went on to form a band, but almost everyone who ever wrote about rock music in a significant way has a connection to Creem. Founded in Detroit in 1969 by Barry Kramer, Creem was a finger in the eye to the more established Rolling Stone. Creem called itself “America's Only Rock ‘n' Roll Magazine” and its cheeky irreverence matched its devotion to its infamous street cred. Punk, new wave, heavy metal, alternative, indie were all championed at Creem.Writers and editors who worked for Creem read like a who's who of industry legends: Lester Bangs. Dave Marsh. Robert Christgau. Greil Marcus. Patti Smith. Cameron Crowe. Jann Uhelszki. Penny Valentine. And on and on and on.The magazine stopped publishing in 1989 a few years after Barry's death. A documentary about Creem's heyday in 2020 helped lead to a resurrected media brand, founded by JJ Kramer, Barry's son, and launched in 2022. The copy on the first issue's cover: “Rock is Dead. So is Print.”Totally typical Creem-assed fuckery. And still totally rock n roll, man. ©2024 The Full-Bleed Podcast is a production of Magazeum LLC. Visit magazeum.co for more information.

For this episode we're joined by the admirable Simon Raymonde, sometime Cocteau Twin, head honcho at Bella Union Records and author of the autobiographical In One Ear. We commence by asking our guest about growing up as the son of the legendary Ivor Raymonde, string arranger on umpteen hits by pop idols from Billy Fury to the Walker Brothers. We hear clips from Ira Robbins' 1989 audio interview with Raymonde Sr.'s most famous client Dusty Springfield — and discuss a Ray Connolly piece from 1970 in which she more or less outs herself as gay. Simon then talks about his days behind the counter at Beggars Banquet Records and how they led to his joining the Cocteaus in 1984. Clips from a 1996 audio interview with the trio prompt his reflections on writing and performing with Robin Guthrie and Elizabeth Fraser — and how their extraordinary music won the admiration of everyone from Prince to Jeff Buckley. Simon also recalls the fallout from leaving indie sanctuary 4AD for major-label Fontana. We conclude by asking our guest about the 27-year-old Bella Union label, home to Midlake, Fleet Foxes, Beach House, John Grant, Flaming Lips and Father John Misty… and to 17-year-old Nell Smith, who tragically died in a car accident three days before we recorded this episode. After Mark quotes from newly-added library pieces — Val Wilmer's 1966 interview with Sun Ra; Lester Bangs' rave review of the Temptations' Sky's the Limit — Jasper brings the episode to a close with his thoughts on early interviews with Alicia Keys (2001) and Amy Winehouse (2004). Many thanks to special guest Simon Raymonde. In One Ear: Cocteau Twins, Ivor and Me is published by Nine Eight Books and available now from all good bookshops. Visit the Bella Union Vinyl Shop at 25 Church St in Brighton and online at bellaunionvinylshop.com. Pieces discussed: Cocteau Twins, Cocteau Triplets, Cocteau Quadruplets, Dusty Springfield audio, Dusty Springfield: Dusty at 30... loneliness is an occasional thing, Sun Ra: Flying Saucers Coming To Take Me Away, Ha Ha!, The Temptations: Sky's the Limit, Alicia Keys: Move over Macy and Whine and Song; Amy Winehouse hits out at girl singers and why she's one of the very best.

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

If you were at all worried that famed Chicago rock critic, SOUND OPINIONS co-host, and prickly pear-par excellence Jim DeRogatis might be mellowing with age — fear not! We're here to assure you that Jim is is just as fearless and opinionated as ever. And it's a delight. On this episode he talks about being transformed by Lester Bangs and The Velvet Underground, seeing The Feelies 100 times, 8 1/2 months of Rolling Stone, 22 years of R. Kelly, assholes at The Sun Times, Wire cover bands opening for Wire, getting the truth out of Genesis, and WHAT'S THE BEST?!? drummers.

Ian goes big brain mode with Ruban Nielson of Unknown Mortal Orchestra talking the state of music media, the collapse of artistic ecosystems, Legs McNeil and Lester Bangs, Carles and Hipster Runoff, coming to terms with your lack of control, loving Public Image Limited and Steely Dan equally, and the opportunities afforded by the crack up of the established order. FOLLOW RUBAN ON X DOT COM COP UMO'S "V"

Episode 113: Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rock and RollThis week on the Not Funny Guys we begin our first part of a trilogy, a three pack, of movies starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. This week is Eric's choice: Almost Famous. See PSH play gonzo rock journalist Lester Bangs. Watch as a 15-year-old kid tags along with drinking and drugging rock band in the 1970s. Oh, and Kate Hudson is there too...Our Political Podcast is back! Take a listen over at Not Funny PoliticsNext Week: Boogie NightsFollow us, like us, comment, share and MORE!!!Questions?Email us at: NotFunnyGuys.OffTheReels@gmail.comFollow us on Instagram: @not_funny_guys_presents Follow us on Twitter: @NotFunnyGuysPodFollow us on BlueSky: @The Not Funny GuysWant to chat?Casey:Twitter @vash_maxwellHive @caseyfranklinJon:Letterbox: esoteric_evansInstagram @esoteric_by_designSubstack: estoericbydesign.substack.comEric:Letterbox: eklyInstagram @hothoney_comics Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

durée : 00:27:40 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Albane Penaranda - En 2000, Marc-Alexandre Millanvoye propose une série consacrée au rock critic Lester Bangs pour "Les chemins de la musique" sur France Culture. Dans ce dernier volet, il est question de sa reconnaissance à travers l'épopée d'une musique, le rock, indissociable des mythes bâtis autour de lui. - invités : Nick Kent; Michel Houellebecq Écrivain français

durée : 00:28:35 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Albane Penaranda - En 2000, Marc-Alexandre Millanvoye propose pour "Les chemins de la musique" sur France Culture une série de cinq émissions sur le critique rock américain Lester Bangs. Ce quatrième volet revient sur l'éclosion du punk à New York au milieu des années 70 dans son lieu emblématique underground le CBGB. - invités : Joey Ramone; Richard Hell

durée : 00:29:18 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Albane Penaranda - En 2000, Marc-Alexandre Millanvoye consacre une série de cinq émissions sur le critique rock Lester Bangs pour "Les chemins de la musique" sur France Culture. Dans ce troisième volet, le critique n'hésite pas à brûler les idoles du rock, à commencer par Lou Reed puis David Bowie. - invités : Nick Kent

durée : 00:29:36 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Albane Penaranda - En 2000, Marc-Alexandre Millanvoye consacre une série de cinq émissions sur le critique rock Lester Bangs pour l'émission "Les chemins de la musique" sur France Culture. Ce deuxième volet nous plonge dans l'atmosphère de Détroit, lieu emblématique d'un rock bruyant avec MC5 et The Stooges.

durée : 00:31:03 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Albane Penaranda - En 2000, Marc-Alexandre Millanvoye propose pour "Les chemins de la musique" sur France Culture une série de cinq émissions sur le critique rock Lester Bangs. Dans ce premier numéro, retour sur les débuts de sa carrière, avec les témoignages de deux autres rock critics Nick Kent et Jim DeRogatis. - invités : Nick Kent

Prompt Transformation: Jennifer Walshe on what we might learn about the latest LLMs from the writings of Lester Bangs.

Dave and the guys turn a critical gaze on the musical offering of music critic, Lester Bangs.

Content warning: This episode contains discussion of sexual violence (22:45–24:55). In this episode we welcome the excellent Barbara Ellen, who joins us on Zoom all the way from... well, the other side of London, actually. (It's a long story.) Barbara talks us through her illustrious writing career from zines such as her own Wax Lyrical and Ooh Gary, Gary (a footie zine dedicated entirely to one G. Lineker, Esq.) via ZigZag (in its Goth phase) to the golden decade she spent in the pages and offices of the NME. Always highly amusing in print, our guest is no less hilarious in (virtual) person – especially when recalling her 1987 interview with Guns N' Roses. But Barbara is also capable of reverence and seriousness, not least when speaking of the revelatory interview Madonna granted her in 1995. It's back to belly-laughs when we turn our attention to news of the planned sequel to This is Spinal Tap. A clip from Gavin Martin's 2009 audio interview with Tap axeman Nigel Tufnel (a.k.a. the 4th Baron Haden-Guest) has us all in stitches as we debate the wisdom or otherwise of attempting Spinal Tap 2. Another audio clip – of the late Genesis P-Orridge explaining why Santa Claus was originally a shaman – is almost as funny. After Mark quotes from interviews with Janis Joplin, Neneh Cherry and Thom Yorke, Barney cites splendid conversations with Beatles boffin Mark Lewisohn and power-balladeering songsmith Diane Warren. Finally, Jasper concludes the episode with his thoughts on Sophie Ellis-Bextor, muzak and a Hip Hop anniversary. Many thanks to special guest Barbara Ellen. Pieces discussed: Guns N' Roses, The NME, Madonna, Goldberg on Spinal Tap, Staunton on Spinal Tap, Genesis P-Orridge audio, Essra Mohawk by Michael Watts, Essra Mohawk by Max Bell, Janis Joplin, Lester Bangs, Neneh Cherry, Thom Yorke, Mark Lewisohn on the Beatles, Dianne Warren, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Elevator Muzak and 40 years of Hip Hop.

Acabo de terminar de leer a Lester Bangs y me siento aturdido y maravillado. Libros del Kultrum publica "Venas al Frente..." segundo volumen de sus escritos y lo celebramos con júbilo. Y como la cosa va de hablar de música en papel, contactaos con Javi Torreira para conocer sus descabellados planes de dominación de la prensa musical. Los temas 1 The Telescopes - Leave Nobody Behind 2 Bala - Prisas 3 Virgen de la Periferia - La Bestia de Caja Rural 4 Lester Bangs - Let it Blurt 5 Screaming Cheetah Wheelies - Magnolia 6 Miracle 3 - Amphetamine

In this episode we welcome the delightful Daryl Easlea to Hammersmith for a pre-Xmas special on Slade and the sadly-departed Shane MacGowan. Daryl talks about his Essex childhood: the psychogeography of Canvey Island; his memories of seeing Dr. Feelgood at Southend's legendary Kursaal Ballroom; and how working at Our Price Records led to an eclectic taste palette that stretched from prog-rock to Chic, the subject of his first book in 2004. We jump to Slade, the subject of his latest book, and discuss the legacy of glam-rock's Brummie bovver boys — culminating in the story behind their ageless 1973 hit 'Merry Xmas Everybody'. From there we sidestep into the parallel '70s stream of prog and public schoolboys Genesis. Clips from Adam Sweeting's 1992 audio interview with that band's former foxhead-sporting frontman Peter Gabriel give us an opportunity to evaluate the achievements of the maverick solo artist and WOMAD founder. News of Shane MacGowan's death at 65 came in as we were preparing to record this episode. With Daryl's help we do our best to pay tribute to the tragically self-destructive Pogues frontman before Mark recaps on new library pieces about Elton John (1974) and Eternal (1995). Finally, Jasper wraps up with remarks about a 2002 London show by Jack Black's Tenacious D...  Many thanks to special guest Daryl Easlea. Whatever Happened to Slade? When the Whole World Went Crazee is published by Omnibus and available now.. Pieces discussed: Dr Feelgood, Chic, Mike Rutherford, Whatever Happened to Slade?, Skinhead Slade, Lester Bangs on Slade, Christmas songs, Peter Gabriel audio, Shane MacGowan audio, The Pogues, One More for the Road with Shane MacGowan, Elton John, Eternal and Tenacious D live in London.

Episode 169 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Piece of My Heart" and the short, tragic life of Janis Joplin. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a half-hour bonus episode available, on "Spinning Wheel" by Blood, Sweat & Tears. 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 There are two Mixcloud mixes this time. As there are so many songs by Big Brother and the Holding Company and Janis Joplin excerpted, and Mixcloud won't allow more than four songs by the same artist in any mix, I've had to post the songs not in quite the same order in which they appear in the podcast. But the mixes are here — one, two . For information on Janis Joplin I used three biographies -- Scars of Sweet Paradise by Alice Echols, Janis: Her Life and Music by Holly George-Warren, and Buried Alive by Myra Friedman. I also referred to the chapter '“Being Good Isn't Always Easy": Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Dusty Springfield, and the Color of Soul' in Just Around Midnight: Rock and Roll and the Racial Imagination by Jack Hamilton. Some information on Bessie Smith came from Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay, a book I can't really recommend given the lack of fact-checking, and Bessie by Chris Albertson. I also referred to Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday by Angela Y. Davis And the best place to start with Joplin's music is this five-CD box, which contains both Big Brother and the Holding Company albums she was involved in, plus her two studio albums and bonus tracks. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I start, this episode contains discussion of drug addiction and overdose, alcoholism, mental illness, domestic abuse, child abandonment, and racism. If those subjects are likely to cause you upset, you may want to check the transcript or skip this one rather than listen. Also, a subject I should probably say a little more about in this intro because I know I have inadvertently caused upset to at least one listener with this in the past. When it comes to Janis Joplin, it is *impossible* to talk about her without discussing her issues with her weight and self-image. The way I write often involves me paraphrasing the opinions of the people I'm writing about, in a mode known as close third person, and sometimes that means it can look like I am stating those opinions as my own, and sometimes things I say in that mode which *I* think are obviously meant in context to be critiques of those attitudes can appear to others to be replicating them. At least once, I have seriously upset a fat listener when talking about issues related to weight in this manner. I'm going to try to be more careful here, but just in case, I'm going to say before I begin that I think fatphobia is a pernicious form of bigotry, as bad as any other form of bigotry. I'm fat myself and well aware of how systemic discrimination affects fat people. I also think more generally that the pressure put on women to look a particular way is pernicious and disgusting in ways I can't even begin to verbalise, and causes untold harm. If *ANYTHING* I say in this episode comes across as sounding otherwise, that's because I haven't expressed myself clearly enough. Like all people, Janis Joplin had negative characteristics, and at times I'm going to say things that are critical of those. But when it comes to anything to do with her weight or her appearance, if *anything* I say sounds critical of her, rather than of a society that makes women feel awful for their appearance, it isn't meant to. Anyway, on with the show. On January the nineteenth, 1943, Seth Joplin typed up a letter to his wife Dorothy, which read “I wish to tender my congratulations on the anniversary of your successful completion of your production quota for the nine months ending January 19, 1943. I realize that you passed through a period of inflation such as you had never before known—yet, in spite of this, you met your goal by your supreme effort during the early hours of January 19, a good three weeks ahead of schedule.” As you can probably tell from that message, the Joplin family were a strange mixture of ultraconformism and eccentricity, and those two opposing forces would dominate the personality of their firstborn daughter for the whole of her life.  Seth Joplin was a respected engineer at Texaco, where he worked for forty years, but he had actually dropped out of engineering school before completing his degree. His favourite pastime when he wasn't at work was to read -- he was a voracious reader -- and to listen to classical music, which would often move him to tears, but he had also taught himself to make bathtub gin during prohibition, and smoked cannabis. Dorothy, meanwhile, had had the possibility of a singing career before deciding to settle down and become a housewife, and was known for having a particularly beautiful soprano voice. Both were, by all accounts, fiercely intelligent people, but they were also as committed as anyone to the ideals of the middle-class family even as they chafed against its restrictions. Like her mother, young Janis had a beautiful soprano voice, and she became a soloist in her church choir, but after the age of six, she was not encouraged to sing much. Dorothy had had a thyroid operation which destroyed her singing voice, and the family got rid of their piano soon after (different sources say that this was either because Dorothy found her daughter's singing painful now that she couldn't sing herself, or because Seth was upset that his wife could no longer sing. Either seems plausible.) Janis was pushed to be a high-achiever -- she was given a library card as soon as she could write her name, and encouraged to use it, and she was soon advanced in school, skipping a couple of grades. She was also by all accounts a fiercely talented painter, and her parents paid for art lessons. From everything one reads about her pre-teen years, she was a child prodigy who was loved by everyone and who was clearly going to be a success of some kind. Things started to change when she reached her teenage years. Partly, this was just her getting into rock and roll music, which her father thought a fad -- though even there, she differed from her peers. She loved Elvis, but when she heard "Hound Dog", she loved it so much that she tracked down a copy of Big Mama Thornton's original, and told her friends she preferred that: [Excerpt: Big Mama Thornton, "Hound Dog"] Despite this, she was still also an exemplary student and overachiever. But by the time she turned fourteen, things started to go very wrong for her. Partly this was just down to her relationship with her father changing -- she adored him, but he became more distant from his daughters as they grew into women. But also, puberty had an almost wholly negative effect on her, at least by the standards of that time and place. She put on weight (which, again, I do not think is a negative thing, but she did, and so did everyone around her), she got a bad case of acne which didn't ever really go away, and she also didn't develop breasts particularly quickly -- which, given that she was a couple of years younger than the other people in the same classes at school, meant she stood out even more. In the mid-sixties, a doctor apparently diagnosed her as having a "hormone imbalance" -- something that got to her as a possible explanation for why she was, to quote from a letter she wrote then, "not really a woman or enough of one or something." She wondered if "maybe something as simple as a pill could have helped out or even changed that part of me I call ME and has been so messed up.” I'm not a doctor and even if I were, diagnosing historical figures is an unethical thing to do, but certainly the acne, weight gain, and mental health problems she had are all consistent with PCOS, the most common endocrine disorder among women, and it seems likely given what the doctor told her that this was the cause. But at the time all she knew was that she was different, and that in the eyes of her fellow students she had gone from being pretty to being ugly. She seems to have been a very trusting, naive, person who was often the brunt of jokes but who desperately needed to be accepted, and it became clear that her appearance wasn't going to let her fit into the conformist society she was being brought up in, while her high intelligence, low impulse control, and curiosity meant she couldn't even fade into the background. This left her one other option, and she decided that she would deliberately try to look and act as different from everyone else as possible. That way, it would be a conscious choice on her part to reject the standards of her fellow pupils, rather than her being rejected by them. She started to admire rebels. She became a big fan of Jerry Lee Lewis, whose music combined the country music she'd grown up hearing in Texas, the R&B she liked now, and the rebellious nature she was trying to cultivate: [Excerpt: Jerry Lee Lewis, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"] When Lewis' career was derailed by his marriage to his teenage cousin, Joplin wrote an angry letter to Time magazine complaining that they had mistreated him in their coverage. But as with so many people of her generation, her love of rock and roll music led her first to the blues and then to folk, and she soon found herself listening to Odetta: [Excerpt: Odetta, "Muleskinner Blues"] One of her first experiences of realising she could gain acceptance from her peers by singing was when she was hanging out with the small group of Bohemian teenagers she was friendly with, and sang an Odetta song, mimicking her voice exactly. But young Janis Joplin was listening to an eclectic range of folk music, and could mimic more than just Odetta. For all that her later vocal style was hugely influenced by Odetta and by other Black singers like Big Mama Thornton and Etta James, her friends in her late teens and early twenties remember her as a vocal chameleon with an achingly pure soprano, who would more often than Odetta be imitating the great Appalachian traditional folk singer Jean Ritchie: [Excerpt: Jean Ritchie, "Lord Randall"] She was, in short, trying her best to become a Beatnik, despite not having any experience of that subculture other than what she read in books -- though she *did* read about them in books, devouring things like Kerouac's On The Road. She came into conflict with her mother, who didn't understand what was happening to her daughter, and who tried to get family counselling to understand what was going on. Her father, who seemed to relate more to Janis, but who was more quietly eccentric, put an end to that, but Janis would still for the rest of her life talk about how her mother had taken her to doctors who thought she was going to end up "either in jail or an insane asylum" to use her words. From this point on, and for the rest of her life, she was torn between a need for approval from her family and her peers, and a knowledge that no matter what she did she couldn't fit in with normal societal expectations. In high school she was a member of the Future Nurses of America, the Future Teachers of America, the Art Club, and Slide Rule Club, but she also had a reputation as a wild girl, and as sexually active (even though by all accounts at this point she was far less so than most of the so-called "good girls" – but her later activity was in part because she felt that if she was going to have that reputation anyway she might as well earn it). She also was known to express radical opinions, like that segregation was wrong, an opinion that the other students in her segregated Texan school didn't even think was wrong, but possibly some sort of sign of mental illness. Her final High School yearbook didn't contain a single other student's signature. And her initial choice of university, Lamar State College of Technology, was not much better. In the next town over, and attended by many of the same students, it had much the same attitudes as the school she'd left. Almost the only long-term effect her initial attendance at university had on her was a negative one -- she found there was another student at the college who was better at painting. Deciding that if she wasn't going to be the best at something she didn't want to do it at all, she more or less gave up on painting at that point. But there was one positive. One of the lecturers at Lamar was Francis Edward "Ab" Abernethy, who would in the early seventies go on to become the Secretary and Editor of the Texas Folklore Society, and was also a passionate folk musician, playing double bass in string bands. Abernethy had a great collection of blues 78s. and it was through this collection that Janis first discovered classic blues, and in particular Bessie Smith: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Black Mountain Blues"] A couple of episodes ago, we had a long look at the history of the music that now gets called "the blues" -- the music that's based around guitars, and generally involves a solo male vocalist, usually Black during its classic period. At the time that music was being made though it wouldn't have been thought of as "the blues" with no modifiers by most people who were aware of it. At the start, even the songs they were playing weren't thought of as blues by the male vocalist/guitarists who played them -- they called the songs they played "reels". The music released by people like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Son House, Robert Johnson, Kokomo Arnold and so on was thought of as blues music, and people would understand and agree with a phrase like "Lonnie Johnson is a blues singer", but it wasn't the first thing people thought of when they talked about "the blues". Until relatively late -- probably some time in the 1960s -- if you wanted to talk about blues music made by Black men with guitars and only that music, you talked about "country blues". If you thought about "the blues", with no qualifiers, you thought about a rather different style of music, one that white record collectors started later to refer to as "classic blues" to differentiate it from what they were now calling "the blues". Nowadays of course if you say "classic blues", most people will think you mean Muddy Waters or John Lee Hooker, people who were contemporary at the time those white record collectors were coming up with their labels, and so that style of music gets referred to as "vaudeville blues", or as "classic female blues": [Excerpt: Mamie Smith, "Crazy Blues"] What we just heard was the first big blues hit performed by a Black person, from 1920, and as we discussed in the episode on "Crossroads" that revolutionised the whole record industry when it came out. The song was performed by Mamie Smith, a vaudeville performer, and was originally titled "Harlem Blues" by its writer, Perry Bradford, before he changed the title to "Crazy Blues" to get it to a wider audience. Bradford was an important figure in the vaudeville scene, though other than being the credited writer of "Keep A-Knockin'" he's little known these days. He was a Black musician and grew up playing in minstrel shows (the history of minstrelsy is a topic for another day, but it's more complicated than the simple image of blackface that we are aware of today -- though as with many "more complicated than that" things it is, also the simple image of blackface we're aware of). He was the person who persuaded OKeh records that there would be a market for music made by Black people that sounded Black (though as we're going to see in this episode, what "sounding Black" means is a rather loaded question). "Crazy Blues" was the result, and it was a massive hit, even though it was marketed specifically towards Black listeners: [Excerpt: Mamie Smith, "Crazy Blues"] The big stars of the early years of recorded blues were all making records in the shadow of "Crazy Blues", and in the case of its very biggest stars, they were working very much in the same mould. The two most important blues stars of the twenties both got their start in vaudeville, and were both women. Ma Rainey, like Mamie Smith, first performed in minstrel shows, but where Mamie Smith's early records had her largely backed by white musicians, Rainey was largely backed by Black musicians, including on several tracks Louis Armstrong: [Excerpt: Ma Rainey, "See See Rider"] Rainey's band was initially led by Thomas Dorsey, one of the most important men in American music, who we've talked about before in several episodes, including the last one. He was possibly the single most important figure in two different genres -- hokum music, when he, under the name "Georgia Tom" recorded "It's Tight Like That" with Tampa Red: [Excerpt: Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, "It's Tight Like That"] And of course gospel music, which to all intents and purposes he invented, and much of whose repertoire he wrote: [Excerpt: Mahalia Jackson, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord"] When Dorsey left Rainey's band, as we discussed right back in episode five, he was replaced by a female pianist, Lil Henderson. The blues was a woman's genre. And Ma Rainey was, by preference, a woman's woman, though she was married to a man: [Excerpt: Ma Rainey, "Prove it on Me"] So was the biggest star of the classic blues era, who was originally mentored by Rainey. Bessie Smith, like Rainey, was a queer woman who had relationships with men but was far more interested in other women.  There were stories that Bessie Smith actually got her start in the business by being kidnapped by Ma Rainey, and forced into performing on the same bills as her in the vaudeville show she was touring in, and that Rainey taught Smith to sing blues in the process. In truth, Rainey mentored Smith more in stagecraft and the ways of the road than in singing, and neither woman was only a blues singer, though both had huge success with their blues records.  Indeed, since Rainey was already in the show, Smith was initially hired as a dancer rather than a singer, and she also worked as a male impersonator. But Smith soon branched out on her own -- from the beginning she was obviously a star. The great jazz clarinettist Sidney Bechet later said of her "She had this trouble in her, this thing that would not let her rest sometimes, a meanness that came and took her over. But what she had was alive … Bessie, she just wouldn't let herself be; it seemed she couldn't let herself be." Bessie Smith was signed by Columbia Records in 1923, as part of the rush to find and record as many Black women blues singers as possible. Her first recording session produced "Downhearted Blues", which became, depending on which sources you read, either the biggest-selling blues record since "Crazy Blues" or the biggest-selling blues record ever, full stop, selling three quarters of a million copies in the six months after its release: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Downhearted Blues"] Smith didn't make royalties off record sales, only making a flat fee, but she became the most popular Black performer of the 1920s. Columbia signed her to an exclusive contract, and she became so rich that she would literally travel between gigs on her own private train. She lived an extravagant life in every way, giving lavishly to her friends and family, but also drinking extraordinary amounts of liquor, having regular affairs, and also often physically or verbally attacking those around her. By all accounts she was not a comfortable person to be around, and she seemed to be trying to fit an entire lifetime into every moment. From 1923 through 1929 she had a string of massive hits. She recorded material in a variety of styles, including the dirty blues: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Empty Bed Blues] And with accompanists like Louis Armstrong: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong, "Cold in Hand Blues"] But the music for which she became best known, and which sold the best, was when she sang about being mistreated by men, as on one of her biggest hits, "'Tain't Nobody's Biz-Ness if I Do" -- and a warning here, I'm going to play a clip of the song, which treats domestic violence in a way that may be upsetting: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "'Tain't Nobody's Biz-Ness if I Do"] That kind of material can often seem horrifying to today's listeners -- and quite correctly so, as domestic violence is a horrifying thing -- and it sounds entirely too excusing of the man beating her up for anyone to find it comfortable listening. But the Black feminist scholar Angela Davis has made a convincing case that while these records, and others by Smith's contemporaries, can't reasonably be considered to be feminist, they *are* at the very least more progressive than they now seem, in that they were, even if excusing it, pointing to a real problem which was otherwise left unspoken. And that kind of domestic violence and abuse *was* a real problem, including in Smith's own life. By all accounts she was terrified of her husband, Jack Gee, who would frequently attack her because of her affairs with other people, mostly women. But she was still devastated when he left her for a younger woman, not only because he had left her, but also because he kidnapped their adopted son and had him put into a care home, falsely claiming she had abused him. Not only that, but before Jack left her closest friend had been Jack's niece Ruby and after the split she never saw Ruby again -- though after her death Ruby tried to have a blues career as "Ruby Smith", taking her aunt's surname and recording a few tracks with Sammy Price, the piano player who worked with Sister Rosetta Tharpe: [Excerpt: Ruby Smith with Sammy Price, "Make Me Love You"] The same month, May 1929, that Gee left her, Smith recorded what was to become her last big hit, and most well-known song, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out": [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"] And that could have been the theme for the rest of her life. A few months after that record came out, the Depression hit, pretty much killing the market for blues records. She carried on recording until 1931, but the records weren't selling any more. And at the same time, the talkies came in in the film industry, which along with the Depression ended up devastating the vaudeville audience. Her earnings were still higher than most, but only a quarter of what they had been a year or two earlier. She had one last recording session in 1933, produced by John Hammond for OKeh Records, where she showed that her style had developed over the years -- it was now incorporating the newer swing style, and featured future swing stars Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden in the backing band: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Gimme a Pigfoot"] Hammond was not hugely impressed with the recordings, preferring her earlier records, and they would be the last she would ever make. She continued as a successful, though no longer record-breaking, live act until 1937, when she and her common-law husband, Lionel Hampton's uncle Richard Morgan, were in a car crash. Morgan escaped, but Smith died of her injuries and was buried on October the fourth 1937. Ten thousand people came to her funeral, but she was buried in an unmarked grave -- she was still legally married to Gee, even though they'd been separated for eight years, and while he supposedly later became rich from songwriting royalties from some of her songs (most of her songs were written by other people, but she wrote a few herself) he refused to pay for a headstone for her. Indeed on more than one occasion he embezzled money that had been raised by other people to provide a headstone. Bessie Smith soon became Joplin's favourite singer of all time, and she started trying to copy her vocals. But other than discovering Smith's music, Joplin seems to have had as terrible a time at university as at school, and soon dropped out and moved back in with her parents. She went to business school for a short while, where she learned some secretarial skills, and then she moved west, going to LA where two of her aunts lived, to see if she could thrive better in a big West Coast city than she did in small-town Texas. Soon she moved from LA to Venice Beach, and from there had a brief sojourn in San Francisco, where she tried to live out her beatnik fantasies at a time when the beatnik culture was starting to fall apart. She did, while she was there, start smoking cannabis, though she never got a taste for that drug, and took Benzedrine and started drinking much more heavily than she had before. She soon lost her job, moved back to Texas, and re-enrolled at the same college she'd been at before. But now she'd had a taste of real Bohemian life -- she'd been singing at coffee houses, and having affairs with both men and women -- and soon she decided to transfer to the University of Texas at Austin. At this point, Austin was very far from the cultural centre it has become in recent decades, and it was still a straitlaced Texan town, but it was far less so than Port Arthur, and she soon found herself in a folk group, the Waller Creek Boys. Janis would play autoharp and sing, sometimes Bessie Smith covers, but also the more commercial country and folk music that was popular at the time, like "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", a song that had originally been recorded by Wanda Jackson but at that time was a big hit for Dusty Springfield's group The Springfields: [Excerpt: The Waller Creek Boys, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles"] But even there, Joplin didn't fit in comfortably. The venue where the folk jams were taking place was a segregated venue, as everywhere around Austin was. And she was enough of a misfit that the campus newspaper did an article on her headlined "She Dares to Be Different!", which read in part "She goes barefooted when she feels like it, wears Levi's to class because they're more comfortable, and carries her Autoharp with her everywhere she goes so that in case she gets the urge to break out into song it will be handy." There was a small group of wannabe-Beatniks, including Chet Helms, who we've mentioned previously in the Grateful Dead episode, Gilbert Shelton, who went on to be a pioneer of alternative comics and create the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, and Shelton's partner in Rip-Off Press, Dave Moriarty, but for the most part the atmosphere in Austin was only slightly better for Janis than it had been in Port Arthur. The final straw for her came when in an annual charity fundraiser joke competition to find the ugliest man on campus, someone nominated her for the "award". She'd had enough of Texas. She wanted to go back to California. She and Chet Helms, who had dropped out of the university earlier and who, like her, had already spent some time on the West Coast, decided to hitch-hike together to San Francisco. Before leaving, she made a recording for her ex-girlfriend Julie Paul, a country and western musician, of a song she'd written herself. It's recorded in what many say was Janis' natural voice -- a voice she deliberately altered in performance in later years because, she would tell people, she didn't think there was room for her singing like that in an industry that already had Joan Baez and Judy Collins. In her early years she would alternate between singing like this and doing her imitations of Black women, but the character of Janis Joplin who would become famous never sang like this. It may well be the most honest thing that she ever recorded, and the most revealing of who she really was: [Excerpt: Janis Joplin, "So Sad to Be Alone"] Joplin and Helms made it to San Francisco, and she started performing at open-mic nights and folk clubs around the Bay Area, singing in her Bessie Smith and Odetta imitation voice, and sometimes making a great deal of money by sounding different from the wispier-voiced women who were the norm at those venues. The two friends parted ways, and she started performing with two other folk musicians, Larry Hanks and Roger Perkins, and she insisted that they would play at least one Bessie Smith song at every performance: [Excerpt: Janis Joplin, Larry Hanks, and Roger Perkins, "Black Mountain Blues (live in San Francisco)"] Often the trio would be joined by Billy Roberts, who at that time had just started performing the song that would make his name, "Hey Joe", and Joplin was soon part of the folk scene in the Bay Area, and admired by Dino Valenti, David Crosby, and Jerry Garcia among others. She also sang a lot with Jorma Kaukonnen, and recordings of the two of them together have circulated for years: [Excerpt: Janis Joplin and Jorma Kaukonnen, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"] Through 1963, 1964, and early 1965 Joplin ping-ponged from coast to coast, spending time in the Bay Area, then Greenwich Village, dropping in on her parents then back to the Bay Area, and she started taking vast quantities of methamphetamine. Even before moving to San Francisco she had been an occasional user of amphetamines – at the time they were regularly prescribed to students as study aids during exam periods, and she had also been taking them to try to lose some of the weight she always hated. But while she was living in San Francisco she became dependent on the drug. At one point her father was worried enough about her health to visit her in San Francisco, where she managed to fool him that she was more or less OK. But she looked to him for reassurance that things would get better for her, and he couldn't give it to her. He told her about a concept that he called the "Saturday night swindle", the idea that you work all week so you can go out and have fun on Saturday in the hope that that will make up for everything else, but that it never does. She had occasional misses with what would have been lucky breaks -- at one point she was in a motorcycle accident just as record labels were interested in signing her, and by the time she got out of the hospital the chance had gone. She became engaged to another speed freak, one who claimed to be an engineer and from a well-off background, but she was becoming severely ill from what was by now a dangerous amphetamine habit, and in May 1965 she decided to move back in with her parents, get clean, and have a normal life. Her new fiance was going to do the same, and they were going to have the conformist life her parents had always wanted, and which she had always wanted to want. Surely with a husband who loved her she could find a way to fit in and just be normal. She kicked the addiction, and wrote her fiance long letters describing everything about her family and the new normal life they were going to have together, and they show her painfully trying to be optimistic about the future, like one where she described her family to him: "My mother—Dorothy—worries so and loves her children dearly. Republican and Methodist, very sincere, speaks in clichés which she really means and is very good to people. (She thinks you have a lovely voice and is terribly prepared to like you.) My father—richer than when I knew him and kind of embarrassed about it—very well read—history his passion—quiet and very excited to have me home because I'm bright and we can talk (about antimatter yet—that impressed him)! I keep telling him how smart you are and how proud I am of you.…" She went back to Lamar, her mother started sewing her a wedding dress, and for much of the year she believed her fiance was going to be her knight in shining armour. But as it happened, the fiance in question was described by everyone else who knew him as a compulsive liar and con man, who persuaded her father to give him money for supposed medical tests before the wedding, but in reality was apparently married to someone else and having a baby with a third woman. After the engagement was broken off, she started performing again around the coffeehouses in Austin and Houston, and she started to realise the possibilities of rock music for her kind of performance. The missing clue came from a group from Austin who she became very friendly with, the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, and the way their lead singer Roky Erickson would wail and yell: [Excerpt: The 13th Floor Elevators, "You're Gonna Miss Me (live)"] If, as now seemed inevitable, Janis was going to make a living as a performer, maybe she should start singing rock music, because it seemed like there was money in it. There was even some talk of her singing with the Elevators. But then an old friend came to Austin from San Francisco with word from Chet Helms. A blues band had formed, and were looking for a singer, and they remembered her from the coffee houses. Would she like to go back to San Francisco and sing with them? In the time she'd been away, Helms had become hugely prominent in the San Francisco music scene, which had changed radically. A band from the area called the Charlatans had been playing a fake-Victorian saloon called the Red Dog in nearby Nevada, and had become massive with the people who a few years earlier had been beatniks: [Excerpt: The Charlatans, "32-20"] When their residency at the Red Dog had finished, several of the crowd who had been regulars there had become a collective of sorts called the Family Dog, and Helms had become their unofficial leader. And there's actually a lot packed into that choice of name. As we'll see in a few future episodes, a lot of West Coast hippies eventually started calling their collectives and communes families. This started as a way to get round bureaucracy -- if a helpful welfare officer put down that the unrelated people living in a house together were a family, suddenly they could get food stamps. As with many things, of course, the label then affected how people thought about themselves, and one thing that's very notable about the San Francisco scene hippies in particular is that they are some of the first people to make a big deal about what we now  call "found family" or "family of choice". But it's also notable how often the hippie found families took their model from the only families these largely middle-class dropouts had ever known, and structured themselves around men going out and doing the work -- selling dope or panhandling or being rock musicians or shoplifting -- with the women staying at home doing the housework. The Family Dog started promoting shows, with the intention of turning San Francisco into "the American Liverpool", and soon Helms was rivalled only by Bill Graham as the major promoter of rock shows in the Bay Area. And now he wanted Janis to come back and join this new band. But Janis was worried. She was clean now. She drank far too much, but she wasn't doing any other drugs. She couldn't go back to San Francisco and risk getting back on methamphetamine. She needn't worry about that, she was told, nobody in San Francisco did speed any more, they were all on LSD -- a drug she hated and so wasn't in any danger from. Reassured, she made the trip back to San Francisco, to join Big Brother and the Holding Company. Big Brother and the Holding Company were the epitome of San Francisco acid rock at the time. They were the house band at the Avalon Ballroom, which Helms ran, and their first ever gig had been at the Trips Festival, which we talked about briefly in the Grateful Dead episode. They were known for being more imaginative than competent -- lead guitarist James Gurley was often described as playing parts that were influenced by John Cage, but was equally often, and equally accurately, described as not actually being able to keep his guitar in tune because he was too stoned. But they were drawing massive crowds with their instrumental freak-out rock music. Helms thought they needed a singer, and he had remembered Joplin, who a few of the group had seen playing the coffee houses. He decided she would be perfect for them, though Joplin wasn't so sure. She thought it was worth a shot, but as she wrote to her parents before meeting the group "Supposed to rehearse w/ the band this afternoon, after that I guess I'll know whether I want to stay & do that for awhile. Right now my position is ambivalent—I'm glad I came, nice to see the city, a few friends, but I'm not at all sold on the idea of becoming the poor man's Cher.” In that letter she also wrote "I'm awfully sorry to be such a disappointment to you. I understand your fears at my coming here & must admit I share them, but I really do think there's an awfully good chance I won't blow it this time." The band she met up with consisted of lead guitarist James Gurley, bass player Peter Albin, rhythm player Sam Andrew, and drummer David Getz.  To start with, Peter Albin sang lead on most songs, with Joplin adding yelps and screams modelled on those of Roky Erickson, but in her first gig with the band she bowled everyone over with her lead vocal on the traditional spiritual "Down on Me", which would remain a staple of their live act, as in this live recording from 1968: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Down on Me (Live 1968)"] After that first gig in June 1966, it was obvious that Joplin was going to be a star, and was going to be the group's main lead vocalist. She had developed a whole new stage persona a million miles away from her folk performances. As Chet Helms said “Suddenly this person who would stand upright with her fists clenched was all over the stage. Roky Erickson had modeled himself after the screaming style of Little Richard, and Janis's initial stage presence came from Roky, and ultimately Little Richard. It was a very different Janis.” Joplin would always claim to journalists that her stage persona was just her being herself and natural, but she worked hard on every aspect of her performance, and far from the untrained emotional outpouring she always suggested, her vocal performances were carefully calculated pastiches of her influences -- mostly Bessie Smith, but also Big Mama Thornton, Odetta, Etta James, Tina Turner, and Otis Redding. That's not to say that those performances weren't an authentic expression of part of herself -- they absolutely were. But the ethos that dominated San Francisco in the mid-sixties prized self-expression over technical craft, and so Joplin had to portray herself as a freak of nature who just had to let all her emotions out, a wild woman, rather than someone who carefully worked out every nuance of her performances. Joplin actually got the chance to meet one of her idols when she discovered that Willie Mae Thornton was now living and regularly performing in the Bay Area. She and some of her bandmates saw Big Mama play a small jazz club, where she performed a song she wouldn't release on a record for another two years: [Excerpt: Big Mama Thornton, "Ball 'n' Chain"] Janis loved the song and scribbled down the lyrics, then went backstage to ask Big Mama if Big Brother could cover the song. She gave them her blessing, but told them "don't" -- and here she used a word I can't use with a clean rating -- "it up". The group all moved in together, communally, with their partners -- those who had them. Janis was currently single, having dumped her most recent boyfriend after discovering him shooting speed, as she was still determined to stay clean. But she was rapidly discovering that the claim that San Franciscans no longer used much speed had perhaps not been entirely true, as for example Sam Andrew's girlfriend went by the nickname Speedfreak Rita. For now, Janis was still largely clean, but she did start drinking more. Partly this was because of a brief fling with Pigpen from the Grateful Dead, who lived nearby. Janis liked Pigpen as someone else on the scene who didn't much like psychedelics or cannabis -- she didn't like drugs that made her think more, but only drugs that made her able to *stop* thinking (her love of amphetamines doesn't seem to fit this pattern, but a small percentage of people have a different reaction to amphetamine-type stimulants, perhaps she was one of those). Pigpen was a big drinker of Southern Comfort -- so much so that it would kill him within a few years -- and Janis started joining him. Her relationship with Pigpen didn't last long, but the two would remain close, and she would often join the Grateful Dead on stage over the years to duet with him on "Turn On Your Lovelight": [Excerpt: Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead, "Turn on Your Lovelight"] But within two months of joining the band, Janis nearly left. Paul Rothchild of Elektra Records came to see the group live, and was impressed by their singer, but not by the rest of the band. This was something that would happen again and again over the group's career. The group were all imaginative and creative -- they worked together on their arrangements and their long instrumental jams and often brought in very good ideas -- but they were not the most disciplined or technically skilled of musicians, even when you factored in their heavy drug use, and often lacked the skill to pull off their better ideas. They were hugely popular among the crowds at the Avalon Ballroom, who were on the group's chemical wavelength, but Rothchild was not impressed -- as he was, in general, unimpressed with psychedelic freakouts. He was already of the belief in summer 1966 that the fashion for extended experimental freak-outs would soon come to an end and that there would be a pendulum swing back towards more structured and melodic music. As we saw in the episode on The Band, he would be proved right in a little over a year, but being ahead of the curve he wanted to put together a supergroup that would be able to ride that coming wave, a group that would play old-fashioned blues. He'd got together Stefan Grossman, Steve Mann, and Taj Mahal, and he wanted Joplin to be the female vocalist for the group, dueting with Mahal. She attended one rehearsal, and the new group sounded great. Elektra Records offered to sign them, pay their rent while they rehearsed, and have a major promotional campaign for their first release. Joplin was very, very, tempted, and brought the subject up to her bandmates in Big Brother. They were devastated. They were a family! You don't leave your family! She was meant to be with them forever! They eventually got her to agree to put off the decision at least until after a residency they'd been booked for in Chicago, and she decided to give them the chance, writing to her parents "I decided to stay w/the group but still like to think about the other thing. Trying to figure out which is musically more marketable because my being good isn't enough, I've got to be in a good vehicle.” The trip to Chicago was a disaster. They found that the people of Chicago weren't hugely interested in seeing a bunch of white Californians play the blues, and that the Midwest didn't have the same Bohemian crowds that the coastal cities they were used to had, and so their freak-outs didn't go down well either. After two weeks of their four-week residency, the club owner stopped paying them because they were so unpopular, and they had no money to get home. And then they were approached by Bob Shad. (For those who know the film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, the Bob Shad in that film is named after this one -- Judd Apatow, the film's director, is Shad's grandson) This Shad was a record producer, who had worked with people like Big Bill Broonzy, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, and Billy Eckstine over an eighteen-year career, and had recently set up a new label, Mainstream Records. He wanted to sign Big Brother and the Holding Company. They needed money and... well, it was a record contract! It was a contract that took half their publishing, paid them a five percent royalty on sales, and gave them no advance, but it was still a contract, and they'd get union scale for the first session. In that first session in Chicago, they recorded four songs, and strangely only one, "Down on Me", had a solo Janis vocal. Of the other three songs, Sam Andrew and Janis dueted on Sam's song "Call on Me", Albin sang lead on the group composition "Blindman", and Gurley and Janis sang a cover of "All Is Loneliness", a song originally by the avant-garde street musician Moondog: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "All is Loneliness"] The group weren't happy with the four songs they recorded -- they had to keep the songs to the length of a single, and the engineers made sure that the needles never went into the red, so their guitars sounded far more polite and less distorted than they were used to. Janis was fascinated by the overdubbing process, though, especially double-tracking, which she'd never tried before but which she turned out to be remarkably good at. And they were now signed to a contract, which meant that Janis wouldn't be leaving the group to go solo any time soon. The family were going to stay together. But on the group's return to San Francisco, Janis started doing speed again, encouraged by the people around the group, particularly Gurley's wife. By the time the group's first single, "Blindman" backed with "All is Loneliness", came out, she was an addict again. That initial single did nothing, but the group were fast becoming one of the most popular in the Bay Area, and almost entirely down to Janis' vocals and on-stage persona. Bob Shad had already decided in the initial session that while various band members had taken lead, Janis was the one who should be focused on as the star, and when they drove to LA for their second recording session it was songs with Janis leads that they focused on. At that second session, in which they recorded ten tracks in two days, the group recorded a mix of material including one of Janis' own songs, the blues track "Women is Losers", and a version of the old folk song "the Cuckoo Bird" rearranged by Albin. Again they had to keep the arrangements to two and a half minutes a track, with no extended soloing and a pop arrangement style, and the results sound a lot more like the other San Francisco bands, notably Jefferson Airplane, than like the version of the band that shows itself in their live performances: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Coo Coo"] After returning to San Francisco after the sessions, Janis went to see Otis Redding at the Fillmore, turning up several hours before the show started on all three nights to make sure she could be right at the front. One of the other audience members later recalled “It was more fascinating for me, almost, to watch Janis watching Otis, because you could tell that she wasn't just listening to him, she was studying something. There was some kind of educational thing going on there. I was jumping around like the little hippie girl I was, thinking This is so great! and it just stopped me in my tracks—because all of a sudden Janis drew you very deeply into what the performance was all about. Watching her watch Otis Redding was an education in itself.” Joplin would, for the rest of her life, always say that Otis Redding was her all-time favourite singer, and would say “I started singing rhythmically, and now I'm learning from Otis Redding to push a song instead of just sliding over it.” [Excerpt: Otis Redding, "I Can't Turn You Loose (live)"] At the start of 1967, the group moved out of the rural house they'd been sharing and into separate apartments around Haight-Ashbury, and they brought the new year in by playing a free show organised by the Hell's Angels, the violent motorcycle gang who at the time were very close with the proto-hippies in the Bay Area. Janis in particular always got on well with the Angels, whose drugs of choice, like hers, were speed and alcohol more than cannabis and psychedelics. Janis also started what would be the longest on-again off-again relationship she would ever have, with a woman named Peggy Caserta. Caserta had a primary partner, but that if anything added to her appeal for Joplin -- Caserta's partner Kimmie had previously been in a relationship with Joan Baez, and Joplin, who had an intense insecurity that made her jealous of any other female singer who had any success, saw this as in some way a validation both of her sexuality and, transitively, of her talent. If she was dating Baez's ex's lover, that in some way put her on a par with Baez, and when she told friends about Peggy, Janis would always slip that fact in. Joplin and Caserta would see each other off and on for the rest of Joplin's life, but they were never in a monogamous relationship, and Joplin had many other lovers over the years. The next of these was Country Joe McDonald of Country Joe and the Fish, who were just in the process of recording their first album Electric Music for the Mind and Body, when McDonald and Joplin first got together: [Excerpt: Country Joe and the Fish, "Grace"] McDonald would later reminisce about lying with Joplin, listening to one of the first underground FM radio stations, KMPX, and them playing a Fish track and a Big Brother track back to back. Big Brother's second single, the other two songs recorded in the Chicago session, had been released in early 1967, and the B-side, "Down on Me", was getting a bit of airplay in San Francisco and made the local charts, though it did nothing outside the Bay Area: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Down on Me"] Janis was unhappy with the record, though, writing to her parents and saying, “Our new record is out. We seem to be pretty dissatisfied w/it. I think we're going to try & get out of the record contract if we can. We don't feel that they know how to promote or engineer a record & every time we recorded for them, they get all our songs, which means we can't do them for another record company. But then if our new record does something, we'd change our mind. But somehow, I don't think it's going to." The band apparently saw a lawyer to see if they could get out of the contract with Mainstream, but they were told it was airtight. They were tied to Bob Shad no matter what for the next five years. Janis and McDonald didn't stay together for long -- they clashed about his politics and her greater fame -- but after they split, she asked him to write a song for her before they became too distant, and he obliged and recorded it on the Fish's next album: [Excerpt: Country Joe and the Fish, "Janis"] The group were becoming so popular by late spring 1967 that when Richard Lester, the director of the Beatles' films among many other classics, came to San Francisco to film Petulia, his follow-up to How I Won The War, he chose them, along with the Grateful Dead, to appear in performance segments in the film. But it would be another filmmaker that would change the course of the group's career irrevocably: [Excerpt: Scott McKenzie, "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)"] When Big Brother and the Holding Company played the Monterey Pop Festival, nobody had any great expectations. They were second on the bill on the Saturday, the day that had been put aside for the San Francisco acts, and they were playing in the early afternoon, after a largely unimpressive night before. They had a reputation among the San Francisco crowd, of course, but they weren't even as big as the Grateful Dead, Moby Grape or Country Joe and the Fish, let alone Jefferson Airplane. Monterey launched four careers to new heights, but three of the superstars it made -- Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, and the Who -- already had successful careers. Hendrix and the Who had had hits in the UK but not yet broken the US market, while Redding was massively popular with Black people but hadn't yet crossed over to a white audience. Big Brother and the Holding Company, on the other hand, were so unimportant that D.A. Pennebaker didn't even film their set -- their manager at the time had not wanted to sign over the rights to film their performance, something that several of the other acts had also refused -- and nobody had been bothered enough to make an issue of it. Pennebaker just took some crowd shots and didn't bother filming the band. The main thing he caught was Cass Elliot's open-mouthed astonishment at Big Brother's performance -- or rather at Janis Joplin's performance. The members of the group would later complain, not entirely inaccurately, that in the reviews of their performance at Monterey, Joplin's left nipple (the outline of which was apparently visible through her shirt, at least to the male reviewers who took an inordinate interest in such things) got more attention than her four bandmates combined. As Pennebaker later said “She came out and sang, and my hair stood on end. We were told we weren't allowed to shoot it, but I knew if we didn't have Janis in the film, the film would be a wash. Afterward, I said to Albert Grossman, ‘Talk to her manager or break his leg or whatever you have to do, because we've got to have her in this film. I can't imagine this film without this woman who I just saw perform.” Grossman had a talk with the organisers of the festival, Lou Adler and John Phillips, and they offered Big Brother a second spot, the next day, if they would allow their performance to be used in the film. The group agreed, after much discussion between Janis and Grossman, and against the wishes of their manager: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Ball and Chain (live at Monterey)"] They were now on Albert Grossman's radar. Or at least, Janis Joplin was. Joplin had always been more of a careerist than the other members of the group. They were in music to have a good time and to avoid working a straight job, and while some of them were more accomplished musicians than their later reputations would suggest -- Sam Andrew, in particular, was a skilled player and serious student of music -- they were fundamentally content with playing the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore and making five hundred dollars or so a week between them. Very good money for 1967, but nothing else. Joplin, on the other hand, was someone who absolutely craved success. She wanted to prove to her family that she wasn't a failure and that her eccentricity shouldn't stop them being proud of her; she was always, even at the depths of her addictions, fiscally prudent and concerned about her finances; and she had a deep craving for love. Everyone who talks about her talks about how she had an aching need at all times for approval, connection, and validation, which she got on stage more than she got anywhere else. The bigger the audience, the more they must love her. She'd made all her decisions thus far based on how to balance making music that she loved with commercial success, and this would continue to be the pattern for her in future. And so when journalists started to want to talk to her, even though up to that point Albin, who did most of the on-stage announcements, and Gurley, the lead guitarist, had considered themselves joint leaders of the band, she was eager. And she was also eager to get rid of their manager, who continued the awkward streak that had prevented their first performance at the Monterey Pop Festival from being filmed. The group had the chance to play the Hollywood Bowl -- Bill Graham was putting on a "San Francisco Sound" showcase there, featuring Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, and got their verbal agreement to play, but after Graham had the posters printed up, their manager refused to sign the contracts unless they were given more time on stage. The next day after that, they played Monterey again -- this time the Monterey Jazz Festival. A very different crowd to the Pop Festival still fell for Janis' performance -- and once again, the film being made of the event didn't include Big Brother's set because of their manager. While all this was going on, the group's recordings from the previous year were rushed out by Mainstream Records as an album, to poor reviews which complained it was nothing like the group's set at Monterey: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Bye Bye Baby"] They were going to need to get out of that contract and sign with somewhere better -- Clive Davis at Columbia Records was already encouraging them to sign with him -- but to do that, they needed a better manager. They needed Albert Grossman. Grossman was one of the best negotiators in the business at that point, but he was also someone who had a genuine love for the music his clients made.  And he had good taste -- he managed Odetta, who Janis idolised as a singer, and Bob Dylan, who she'd been a fan of since his first album came out. He was going to be the perfect manager for the group. But he had one condition though. His first wife had been a heroin addict, and he'd just been dealing with Mike Bloomfield's heroin habit. He had one absolutely ironclad rule, a dealbreaker that would stop him signing them -- they didn't use heroin, did they? Both Gurley and Joplin had used heroin on occasion -- Joplin had only just started, introduced to the drug by Gurley -- but they were only dabblers. They could give it up any time they wanted, right? Of course they could. They told him, in perfect sincerity, that the band didn't use heroin and it wouldn't be a problem. But other than that, Grossman was extremely flexible. He explained to the group at their first meeting that he took a higher percentage than other managers, but that he would also make them more money than other managers -- if money was what they wanted. He told them that they needed to figure out where they wanted their career to be, and what they were willing to do to get there -- would they be happy just playing the same kind of venues they were now, maybe for a little more money, or did they want to be as big as Dylan or Peter, Paul, and Mary? He could get them to whatever level they wanted, and he was happy with working with clients at every level, what did they actually want? The group were agreed -- they wanted to be rich. They decided to test him. They were making twenty-five thousand dollars a year between them at that time, so they got ridiculously ambitious. They told him they wanted to make a *lot* of money. Indeed, they wanted a clause in their contract saying the contract would be void if in the first year they didn't make... thinking of a ridiculous amount, they came up with seventy-five thousand dollars. Grossman's response was to shrug and say "Make it a hundred thousand." The group were now famous and mixing with superstars -- Peter Tork of the Monkees had become a close friend of Janis', and when they played a residency in LA they were invited to John and Michelle Phillips' house to see a rough cut of Monterey Pop. But the group, other than Janis, were horrified -- the film barely showed the other band members at all, just Janis. Dave Getz said later "We assumed we'd appear in the movie as a band, but seeing it was a shock. It was all Janis. They saw her as a superstar in the making. I realized that though we were finally going to be making money and go to another level, it also meant our little family was being separated—there was Janis, and there was the band.” [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Bye Bye Baby"] If the group were going to make that hundred thousand dollars a year, they couldn't remain on Mainstream Records, but Bob Shad was not about to give up his rights to what could potentially be the biggest group in America without a fight. But luckily for the group, Clive Davis at Columbia had seen their Monterey performance, and he was also trying to pivot the label towards the new rock music. He was basically willing to do anything to get them. Eventually Columbia agreed to pay Shad two hundred thousand dollars for the group's contract -- Davis and Grossman negotiated so half that was an advance on the group's future earnings, but the other half was just an expense for the label. On top of that the group got an advance payment of fifty thousand dollars for their first album for Columbia, making a total investment by Columbia of a quarter of a million dollars -- in return for which they got to sign the band, and got the rights to the material they'd recorded for Mainstream, though Shad would get a two percent royalty on their first two albums for Columbia. Janis was intimidated by signing for Columbia, because that had been Aretha Franklin's label before she signed to Atlantic, and she regarded Franklin as the greatest performer in music at that time.  Which may have had something to do with the choice of a new song the group added to their setlist in early 1968 -- one which was a current hit for Aretha's sister Erma: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] We talked a little in the last episode about the song "Piece of My Heart" itself, though mostly from the perspective of its performer, Erma Franklin. But the song was, as we mentioned, co-written by Bert Berns. He's someone we've talked about a little bit in previous episodes, notably the ones on "Here Comes the Night" and "Twist and Shout", but those were a couple of years ago, and he's about to become a major figure in the next episode, so we might as well take a moment here to remind listeners (or tell those who haven't heard those episodes) of the basics and explain where "Piece of My Heart" comes in Berns' work as a whole. Bert Berns was a latecomer to the music industry, not getting properly started until he was thirty-one, after trying a variety of other occupations. But when he did get started, he wasted no time making his mark -- he knew he had no time to waste. He had a weak heart and knew the likelihood was he was going to die young. He started an association with Wand records as a songwriter and performer, writing songs for some of Phil Spector's pre-fame recordings, and he also started producing records for Atlantic, where for a long while he was almost the equal of Jerry Wexler or Leiber and Stoller in terms of number of massive hits created. His records with Solomon Burke were the records that first got the R&B genre renamed soul (previously the word "soul" mostly referred to a kind of R&Bish jazz, rather than a kind of gospel-ish R&B). He'd also been one of the few American music industry professionals to work with British bands before the Beatles made it big in the USA, after he became alerted to the Beatles' success with his song "Twist and Shout", which he'd co-written with Phil Medley, and which had been a hit in a version Berns produced for the Isley Brothers: [Excerpt: The Isley Brothers, "Twist and Shout"] That song shows the two elements that existed in nearly every single Bert Berns song or production. The first is the Afro-Caribbean rhythm, a feel he picked up during a stint in Cuba in his twenties. Other people in the Atlantic records team were also partial to those rhythms -- Leiber and Stoller loved what they called the baion rhythm -- but Berns more than anyone else made it his signature. He also very specifically loved the song "La Bamba", especially Ritchie Valens' version of it: [Excerpt: Ritchie Valens, "La Bamba"] He basically seemed to think that was the greatest record ever made, and he certainly loved that three-chord trick I-IV-V-IV chord sequence -- almost but not quite the same as the "Louie Louie" one.  He used it in nearly every song he wrote from that point on -- usually using a bassline that went something like this: [plays I-IV-V-IV bassline] He used it in "Twist and Shout" of course: [Excerpt: The Isley Brothers, "Twist and Shout"] He used it in "Hang on Sloopy": [Excerpt: The McCoys, "Hang on Sloopy"] He *could* get more harmonically sophisticated on occasion, but the vast majority of Berns' songs show the power of simplicity. They're usually based around three chords, and often they're actually only two chords, like "I Want Candy": [Excerpt: The Strangeloves, "I Want Candy"] Or the chorus to "Here Comes the Night" by Them, which is two chords for most of it and only introduces a third right at the end: [Excerpt: Them, "Here Comes the Night"] And even in that song you can hear the "Twist and Shout"/"La Bamba" feel, even if it's not exactly the same chords. Berns' whole career was essentially a way of wringing *every last possible drop* out of all the implications of Ritchie Valens' record. And so even when he did a more harmonically complex song, like "Piece of My Heart", which actually has some minor chords in the bridge, the "La Bamba" chord sequence is used in both the verse: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] And the chorus: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] Berns co-wrote “Piece of My Heart” with Jerry Ragavoy. Berns and Ragavoy had also written "Cry Baby" for Garnet Mimms, which was another Joplin favourite: [Excerpt: Garnet Mimms, "Cry Baby"] And Ragavoy, with other collaborators

This month we're tackling an album I've been aware of for a long time, never listened to, but the time has come. Kick Out the Jams by MC5 was released in February 1969 and has been classified as proto-punk. While the band formed in 1963, it took a few years for their debut album to come into form, and uniquely, it was recorded live over two nights at Detroit's Grande Ballroom in 1968. Typically bands release a live album well into their career but MC5 uniquely opted to do so out of the gates. It was not terribly well received upon release, with critic Lester Bangs, writing his first review for Rolling Stone, calling Kick Out the Jams a "ridiculous, overbearing, pretentious album". But as time often does, as the years passed, it has become one of the most positively cited live albums, as well as noted for laying the tracks for the true punk explosion that was to come. Over the last few months I keep hearing Kick Out the Jams and MC5 being mentioned in articles and podcasts, so the time has finally come to embark down the MC5 road. So, buckle up, pour a drink, have a puff, turn it up to 11, and let's see where this takes us…

"Be honest and unmerciful. That is all. ---Lester Bangs.

In this episode we warm up the speculum with our breath, give the old forceps a wipe with our handkerchief and insert the internal ultrasound wand right up the birth canal to study the embryonic beginnings of heavy metal in the womb. The debut self-titled 1970 album, Black Sabbath, by the band Black Sabbath, featuring the number one song on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time list, Black Sabbath.Featuring cameo appearances from Birmingham, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, Jimmy Phillips, Alan Clarke, Ozzy Osbourne, The Polka Tulk Blues Band, Earth, Jim Simpson, Boris Karloff, Dad's Army, Rodger Bain, Aleister Crowley, Kory Grow, J.R.R. Tolkien, H.P. Lovecraft, a 15th century watermill in Oxfordshire, Inspector Morse, Keith McMillan, Culture Club, Blondie, Pat Benatar, Queen, Bob Marley, Simple Minds, Kiss, Ian Gillan, Paul McCartney, Mike Oldfield, Motörhead, Kate Bush, Bananarama, Billy Squier, Foreigner, Wings, The Clash, Louisa Livingstone, Faculty of Astrological Studies in London, Lester Bangs and Geezer Butler's mum. SAUCES https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-heavy-metal-songs-1234688425/black-sabbath-black-sabbath-4-1234688429/ https://www.metalsucks.net/2022/02/14/the-cover-model-from-black-sabbaths-debut-is-a-hardcore-anti-vaxxer/ https://www.revolvermag.com/music/black-sabbaths-debut-50-wild-facts-about-metals-first-album 

In this episode we're going back in time to talk about Ford Fairlane, a character created by Rex Weiner for a series of stories published in the late ‘70s in the now-defunct ‘New York Rocker' and a second series published in the early ‘80s in the ‘LA Weekly'. The 1990 movie ‘The Adventures of Ford Fairlane' starring Andrew Dice Clay is loosely based on the character Rex created. It wasn't until 2018 that the New York and LA stories were finally published in their entirety in book form, entitled ‘The (Original) Adventures of Ford Fairlane', and I'm jazzed that I get to chat with Rex about his book.   MUSIC IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE: From ‘The Adventures of Ford Fairlane' movie trailer Royalty-free 1970s instrumental rock music “Angel of the Morning” by Merrilee Rush “Mighty Six Ninety” by Tex Mex Rex (aka Rex Weiner) “I Wanna Be Sedated” by the Ramones “Magneto and Titanium Man” by Paul McCartney & Wings “In My Life” by The Beatles “That's Why God Made the Movies” by Paul Simon From ‘The Adventures of Ford Fairlane' movie trailer “Rock ‘N' Roll Junkie” by Motley Crue From ‘The Adventures of Ford Fairlane' movie trailer “Summertime Blues” by Eddie Cochran “Don't You Fade Away” by Screaming Sirens “Rumble” by Link Ray “What We Do is Secret” by The Germs   LINKS: Leave a rating and comment for Rock is Lit on Goodpods: https://goodpods.com/podcasts/rock-is-lit-212451 Leave a rating and comment for Rock is Lit on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rock-is-lit/id1642987350 Rex Weiner's website: https://rexweiner.com/ Rex Weiner on Twitter: @RexWeiner and @FordFairlanePI Rex Weiner on Instagram: @RexWeiner Rex Weiner on Facebook: @TheOriginalAdventuresofFordFairlane Tex Mex Rex Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2xNSCzJJAdsGLr1v58B2h5 Christy Alexander Hallberg's website: https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/ Christy Alexander Hallberg on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube: @ChristyHallberg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we're going back in time to talk about Ford Fairlane, a character created by Rex Weiner for a series of stories published in the late ‘70s in the now-defunct ‘New York Rocker' and a second series published in the early ‘80s in the ‘LA Weekly'. The 1990 movie ‘The Adventures of Ford Fairlane' starring Andrew Dice Clay is loosely based on the character Rex created. It wasn't until 2018 that the New York and LA stories were finally published in their entirety in book form, entitled ‘The (Original) Adventures of Ford Fairlane', and I'm jazzed that I get to chat with Rex about his book.   MUSIC IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE: From ‘The Adventures of Ford Fairlane' movie trailer Royalty-free 1970s instrumental rock music “Angel of the Morning” by Merrilee Rush “Mighty Six Ninety” by Tex Mex Rex (aka Rex Weiner) “I Wanna Be Sedated” by the Ramones “Magneto and Titanium Man” by Paul McCartney & Wings “In My Life” by The Beatles “That's Why God Made the Movies” by Paul Simon From ‘The Adventures of Ford Fairlane' movie trailer “Rock ‘N' Roll Junkie” by Motley Crue From ‘The Adventures of Ford Fairlane' movie trailer “Summertime Blues” by Eddie Cochran “Don't You Fade Away” by Screaming Sirens “Rumble” by Link Ray “What We Do is Secret” by The Germs   LINKS: Leave a rating and comment for Rock is Lit on Goodpods: https://goodpods.com/podcasts/rock-is-lit-212451 Leave a rating and comment for Rock is Lit on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rock-is-lit/id1642987350 Rex Weiner's website: https://rexweiner.com/ Rex Weiner on Twitter: @RexWeiner and @FordFairlanePI Rex Weiner on Instagram: @RexWeiner Rex Weiner on Facebook: @TheOriginalAdventuresofFordFairlane Tex Mex Rex Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2xNSCzJJAdsGLr1v58B2h5 Christy Alexander Hallberg's website: https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/ Christy Alexander Hallberg on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube: @ChristyHallberg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Erik Jensen is an actor, writer and director. As an actor, Erik appeared regularly in both seasons of the ABC series “For Life.” Other TV credits include major arcs on “The Walking Dead,” “Mindhunter” and “Mr. Robot,” appearances on “The Americans,” “House of Cards,” “Elementary,” The Blacklist,” and many more, including his critically acclaimed portrayal of legendary NY Yankee Thurman Munson in “The Bronx is Burning.” Film credits include the upcoming Viral with Blair Underwood and Alfre Woodard, Black Knight, The Love Letter and more than two dozen indie films. His theater credits as an actor include The Collaboration on Broadway opposite Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope, the Pulitzer-Prize winning production of Disgraced at Lincoln Center, The Good Negro at the Public Theater, Arthur Kopit's Y2K and Terrance McNally's Corpus Christi at MTC, and Lester Bangs in his play How To Be A Rock Critic (Kirk Douglas, South Coast Rep, ArtsEmerson, Steppenwolf, The Public). Erik's sci-fi graphic novel The Reconcilers was published in 2010 to wide acclaim, and he is co-host and co-creator of the podcast BardQuest Empire, which brings together entertainment industry professionals who play Dungeons & Dragons to talk about the intersections of D&D and storytelling. @ejensen123 -instagram @erikjensen123 - twitter https://www.instagram.com/shesallovertheplacepodcast/ https://www.chonacas.com/contact/    

Two heavyweights in their respective fields of music and writing discuss their mutual friend, the late Rolling Stone writer, Paul Nelson—and go on to create a tribute song for him 'Two Cokes for Paul Nelson'. Stream the song: https://ffm.to/twocokes TWO COKES FOR PAUL NELSON (Murphy / Lethem / Stafford) These are the elements of a verse Sherman cigarettes - but it gets worse Footprints on the running board of his wall And by the way his name was Paul And let's not talk of his fall … just yet Oh starved to death – that's what the tabloids say But you know - I don't see it that way In fact for me - the opposite is true Paul was a glutton for everything he loved and knew From Orson Welles, Ross Macdonald, Howard Hawks, Raymond C, Chet B, PKD, and Warren Z … oh The New York Dolls and me So let's take a seat at the Jackson Hole Let's raise two cokes and toast his soul The soul of a man - our friend Paul Nelson – Paul Nelson A magnum forty-five and a snub-nose thirty-eight But books can kill if you can't get them straight A paragraph, a sentence, to a starving mind Some die for want of an opening line Life on a shrinking editorial island Paul couldn't lie, he couldn't lie Hey Rod Stewart - bashed out on a lark Typing as fast as Lester Bangs could bark Paul the quiet man, living in a borrowed head An enabler who couldn't get out of bed Marathon man in a hamburger booth He told the truth, he told the truth - that's Paul Let's take a seat at the Jackson Hole Let's raise two cokes to toast his soul The soul of a man - our friend Paul Nelson – Paul Nelson Abiding mentor, with a guiding mind Freeze-frame, isolate the details, and then rewind A stickler for the director's cut His own mis-en-scene, he fell into a rut Scraps on the cutting-room floor Shut the door, shut the door, shut the door Now somehow he lost his way and that's a pity But in the words of Norma Desmond The movies got small not Paul not Paul not Paul not Paul A drink at the Jackson Hole Two cokes oh let's toast his soul The soul of a man Our dear friend Paul Nelson – Paul Nelson The older you get, the more you live with ghosts And that's according to Nick Tosches who's now among them And Paul … Credits: Elliott Murphy : Vocals, Acoustic Guitars Jack Stafford : Backing Vocals Massimino Voza : Mellotron, Percussions Luigi Falcione : Bass Guitars Maurizio Sarnicola : Electric Guitars, Percussions Written by Elliott Murphy, Jonathan Lethem & Jack Stafford Recorded in Paris, France and Goldmine Records, Italy Mixed and mastered by Maurizio Sarnicola at Goldmine Records Produced by Elliott Murphy, Gaspard Murphy and Maurizio Sarnicola Cover artwork Brendan O'Connell https://elliottmurphy.com/https://jonathanlethem.com/https://www.podsongs.com/http://www.brendanoconnell.com/ // SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL // Newsletter, donations and download the song for €/$1 @ https://podsongs.com // LINKS // Website: https://podsongs.com Podcast episodes: https://podsongs.com/podcast-episodes Songs: https://podsongs.com/music Spotify artist: https://open.spotify.com/artist/32FYyRx1y1ex3jHHAgLMC7?si=4Nv7WW85SbSPZvCsj1o7Ig Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6sN1viy82HPiNTVX2YBxpq?si=1b84c2b9bdea4656 // SOCIAL // Twitter: https://twitter.com/podsongs Instagram: https://instagram.com/podsongs Facebook: https://facebook.com/podsongs --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/podsongs/message

Erik Jensen is an actor, writer and director. As an actor, Erik appeared regularly in both seasons of the ABC series “For Life.” Other TV credits include major arcs on “The Walking Dead,” “Mindhunter” and “Mr. Robot,” appearances on “The Americans,” “House of Cards,” “Elementary,” The Blacklist,” and many more, including his critically acclaimed portrayal of legendary NY Yankee Thurman Munson in “The Bronx is Burning.” Film credits include the upcoming Viral with Blair Underwood and Alfre Woodard, Black Knight, The Love Letter and more than two dozen indie films. His theater credits as an actor include The Collaboration on Broadway opposite Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope, the Pulitzer-Prize winning production of Disgraced at Lincoln Center, The Good Negro at the Public Theater, Arthur Kopit's Y2K and Terrance McNally's Corpus Christi at MTC, and Lester Bangs in his play How To Be A Rock Critic (Kirk Douglas, South Coast Rep, ArtsEmerson, Steppenwolf, The Public). Erik's sci-fi graphic novel The Reconcilers was published in 2010 to wide acclaim, and he is co-host and co-creator of the podcast BardQuest Empire, which brings together entertainment industry professionals who play Dungeons & Dragons to talk about the intersections of D&D and storytelling. As a writer, Erik has been named by the New Yorker as “among the foremost practitioners of documentary theater in the U.S.” With his wife Jessica Blank, he is author of The Exonerated, a genre-defining play based on interviews they conducted with over 40 wrongly convicted death row inmates across the United States, which Governor George Ryan cited as instrumental in his 2003 decision to clear Illinois' death row. The Exonerated won Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Ovation, Fringe First and Herald Angel Awards, and was nominated for the Hull-Warriner Award and the John Gassner Playwriting Award; it has also received awards from Amnesty International, the American Bar Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Death Penalty Focus, and Court TV, and was named Best Play of the Year by the New York Times. The Exonerated has been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Farsi, Mandarin and Japanese and adapted by Erik and Jessica into an award-winning TV movie starring Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Brian Dennehy, Aidan Quinn and Delroy Lindo. Living Justice, Erik and Jessica's book on the making of The Exonerated, was published by Simon and Schuster. Their documentary play Aftermath, based on interviews they conducted with Iraqi civilian refugees in Jordan, had its Off Broadway premiere at New York Theater Workshop, was a New York Times Critics' Pick, toured internationally for two years and was nominated for two Drama League Awards. Their play How to be a Rock Critic (based on the writings of Lester Bangs) played sold-out runs at the Kirk Douglas, South Coast Rep, ArtsEmerson, Steppenwolf, and the Public Theater, with Erik starring as Lester Bangs; they are currently developing How To Be A Rock Critic for feature film. Their documentary play Coal Country, about West Virginia's 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, opened at the Public Theater on March 3, 2020, with original music written and performed by three-time Grammy Award-winning musician Steve Earle (Edgerton New Play Award, 2 Drama Desk noms, Lortel Award nom). When its run was cut short by COVID-19, the pair pivoted and wrote The Line, a documentary play based on firsthand interviews with NYC medical first responders at the height of the pandemic, starring Lorraine Toussaint, John Ortiz, Alison Pill, Santino Fontana and more. Also a NYT Critics' Pick, The Line garnered rave reviews from coast to coast and was viewed by over 85,000 people in 50 countries. Coal Country recently reopened commercially at the Cherry Lane Theater in 2022 to massive critical acclaim, produced by the Public and Audible, and was recorded for Audible Theater (Signal Award for Best Drama) . Erik and Jessica currently have a major new musical under commission with the Public Theater. As TV/screenwriters, Erik and Jessica currently have projects in development with David Simon/Blown Deadline, Levinson/Fontana, and Ed Burns (The Wire, Generation Kill). They wrote the pilot The Negotiator for Gaumont TV (EP Tom Fontana) and have developed with Fox TV Studios, 20th Century TV, Levinson/Fontana, Avenue Pictures, Sunswept, Virgin Produced, and Radical Media. Erik and Jessica's first feature as writer/directors, Almost Home, was released by Vertical Entertainment in 2019 and their second scripted feature, How To Be A Rock Critic, is currently in development. They are in pre-production with Meteor17 to co-direct a feature documentary about legendary rock engineer Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones) in collaboration with the Hendrix estate, and in development for a feature documentary about the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, produced by Audrey Rosenberg (I Am Not Your Negro, HBO's Katrina Babies) and executive produced by Steve Earle. Erik lives in Brooklyn with his wife Jessica and their daughter Sadie. Connect more with Erik:  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ejensen123 Twitter https://twitter.com/erikjensen123   Please consider SUPPORTING my SHOW, SUBSCRIBE to the NEWSLETTER, ENTER in the GIVEAWAYS https://www.chonacas.com/contact/ Social media links: https://twitter.com/katiechonacas https://www.instagram.com/chonacas https://www.instagram.com/shesallovertheplacepodcast/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiechonacas   Disclaimer: None of the information in the podcast should be considered as a financial advice. Always do your own research.

This week we dust off our vinyl and light some candles, we're about to go on tour; I sure hope we don't have tests or graduation we need to be back for. . . . We follow Still Water on their Almost Famous tour in 1973, starring Russel on guitar, Jeff on vocals, that guy there on the bass, and that other guy on the drums. Presenting the Baby-Faced Assassin, William Miller, portraying a fictionalized version of writer and director Cameron Crowe on his journey of growing up. We meet the transcendent Kate Hudson luring William into a world of rock and roll while the anchor of "MOM" (Frances McDormand) screams, "Don't Take Drugs!" But really we learn about the Tao of Lester Bangs: never make friends with the rock stars. 

Mike Derrico and Heather Drain talk Blue Oyster Cult, Lester Bangs and Kiss in Episode 94 of the Rock Under Fire podcast. Heather Drain is a writer who veers between the worlds of esoterica film, wild music, heart-born words, and prose that is dark, rich, quirky, and often undefinable. In the nonfiction realm, her work has appeared on the print and digital pages of Dangerous Minds, Diabolique, Video Watchdog, Art Decades, just to name a few. Her prose has appeared in both the Women in Horror Annual, as well as the 2020 anthology, The Blind Dead Ride Out of Hell: A Literary Tribute to the Amando de Ossorio. In addition to writing and researching the weird, lurid, and phantasmagorical, she is also married to writer/painter C.F. Roberts and is the human mom to two beautiful thug cats and their sweet-crazy Brodie Lee dog. The creative world of Heather Drain can be explored at MONDO HEATHER.  https://www.mondoheather.com/ Check out Heather's Patreon...  https://www.patreon.com/mondoheather Follow Heather Drain on Twitter...  https://twitter.com/mondoheather Derrico Untitled...  https://derricountitled.com/ RUF Archives...  https://rockunderfire.libsyn.com/ Follow Mike on Twitter https://twitter.com/Mike__Derrico ROCK UNDER FIRE...THE FINAL SEASON Copyright free music provided by Lovers Squared by Letter Box 1973 by Bruno E Giorgio Di Campo for FreeSound Music

Creem Magazine is back, and original editor Jaan Uhelszki (1970-1979) and current CEO John Martin join the show to talk about Creem's wild sex, drugs and rock n roll past, and their unlikely 2020s comeback. Why did the magazine move from the slums of Detroit to a commune in the middle of nowhere? What was it like to work and live with your colleagues 24/7? What made Lester Bangs such a wildcard? What's it feel like for a rock journalist to don the KISS makeup and perform with them on a sold-out show? Iggy Pop did WHAT to end an interview early? And lastly, why is Creem Magazine needed now more than ever, and how did they pull off their own resurrection? It's a wild one! Tune in!

On this episode of the show, we are joined by Music Critic, Author, and former Managing Editor of Creem Magazine, Robert Duncan. We talk about a variety of topics from Robert's early writing days at Creem, his friendship with the great Lester Bangs, and his books including Loudmouth, and his unauthorized biography of Kiss. Robert also talks about interviewing everyone from Freddie Mercury to Bruce Springsteen. A music critic and an author with a fab career and its all here... Music Milquetoast & Co "Cigarette Burns" Shovel "Flyswatter" Matweeds "What's Your Name" Zoom Interview: February 24, 2023 This episode was supported by Baby Loves Loves Tacos(Pittsburgh PA), Joe's Albums(Worcester/Northampton MA), and Studio Float Audio. Please support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/twistedrico Keep The Rock N Roll Alive. #CreemMagazine #Loudmouth #Kiss Contact: twistedrico@gmail.com Blowing Smoke with Twisted Rico is brought to you by Light Street Media(Denver Colorado). --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/blowingsmoketr/support

In this TMEP classic, Jon Langford taps the deep, dark bowels of punk rock to share his 1979 prediction that U2's career was "going nowhere"; how Lester Bangs declared the Mekons to be better than REO Speedwagon and Budgie...combined; and about being dissed at the A&M Records Christmas party. This Spinal Tap Moment swap meet was originally released on November 4, 2021. See Jon's art: www.yarddog.com/collections/jon-langford Find out about Mekon's gigs, music, and other stuff on FB @Mekons -------------------------------------------------- Get in touch with Too Much Effing Perspective Contact us: hello@tmepshow.com Website: https://tmepshow.com Social: @tmepshow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Devil's Triangle: Mark Judge vs the New American Stassi. The Eric Metaxas Show. The Eric Metaxas Show Mark Judge (Encore)  Dec 27 2022   Mark Judge, with his new book, "The Devil's Triangle: Mark Judge vs the New American Stassi," recalls his incredible ordeal involving an old classmate named Brett Kavanaugh. (Encore Presentation) The Eric Metaxas Show- https://metaxastalk.com/podcasts/ About the book- The Devil's Triangle: Mark Judge vs the New American Stasi Paperback – November 10, 2022 by Mark Judge  (Author) A harrowing account of one man's ordeal during the contentious Brett Kavanaugh hearings at the hands of the New American Stasi⎯a sinister cabal of partisan journalists, Democratic politicians, and shadowy oppo researchers the author calls “The Devil's Triangle.” “Do you remember the woman in To Kill a Mockingbird who falsely accuses a black man of raping her? What could possess anyone to do such an evil thing—to viciously attempt to destroy a life by knowingly lying? For that answer look no farther than the riveting and gloriously candid The Devil's Triangle by Mark Judge, who himself was targeted for destruction by that same evil, and who lived to tell the tale, if only so that we might all recognize the dark forces at work in our nation. In a voice evoking J.D. Salinger, Hunter S. Thompson, and yes, Lester Bangs—within a narrative that brings to mind All the President's Men and Fast Times at Ridgemont High—Judge tells us the truth, in all of its brutality and beauty. May this book open the way for a spate of similar memoirs, whose honesty will lead this once-great nation out of the fetid triangular swamp of lies that is this brave book's eponymous Devil's Triangle—and toward a new sunlit frontier, in which genuine liberty and unvarnished truth once more become our beacons and our hope.” —Eric Metaxas, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Fish Out of Water: A Search for the Meaning of Life and Host of Socrates in the City In 2018, in the midst of a contentious Supreme Court confirmation battle, Christine Blasey Ford named Mark Judge as a witness to her alleged attempted rape over thirty years earlier at the hands of a teenaged Brett Kavanaugh. Overnight, the unassuming writer, critic, videographer, and recovering alcoholic was unwillingly thrust into the national media spotlight. Reporters combed through Judge's writings, pored over his high school yearbook, hounded him with emails and phone calls, and invaded the privacy of his relatives, friends, and former girlfriends. He was mauled in the press, denounced in the Senate, received threatening late-night calls, became the target of a classic honey trap, and was even called out by Matt Damon on Saturday Night Live. As the lunacy reached its crescendo, Judge began to fear for his sanity⎯and even his life. A year later, still traumatized by this Kafkaesque experience, Judge found himself washing dishes in a Maryland restaurant, trying to piece his shattered life back together. Even at the time, it was clear that Judge himself was not the target of this campaign of vilification. Instead, it was an attempt to use his spotty record as a teenage alcoholic, and later, a political and cultural conservative, to destroy Brett Kavanaugh by proxy. The actors in this malicious and cynical plot were an informal cabal of partisan reporters, Democrats in Congress, and shadowy opposition researchers: a “Devil's Triangle” whom Judge aptly compares to the Stasi, the dreaded East German secret police who terrorized citizens during the Cold War. Now, in a frank, confessional, and deeply moving book that stands comparison to Arthur Koestler's Cold War classic Darkness at Noon, Judge rips the mask from the new American Stasi. Using pop culture, politics, the story of his friendship with Kavanaugh, and the fun, wild, and misunderstood 1980s, Judge celebrates sex, art, and freedom while issuing a timely warning to the rest of us about our own endangered freedoms.   You can purchase this book at your favorite bookseller or on Amazon at- https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Triangle-Judge-American-Stasi/dp/163758072X   HELP ACU SPREAD THE WORD!  Please go to Apple Podcasts and give ACU a 5 star rating. Apple canceled us and now we are clawing our way back to the top. Don't let the Leftist win. Do it now! Thanks. Forward this show to friends. Ways to subscribe to the American Conservative University Podcast Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts Click here to subscribe via RSS You can also subscribe via Stitcher FM Player Podcast Addict Tune-in Podcasts Pandora Look us up on Amazon Prime …And Many Other Podcast Aggregators and sites   Please help ACU by submitting your Show ideas. Email us at americanconservativeuniversity@americanconservativeuniversity.com Please go to Apple Podcasts and give ACU a 5 star rating. Apple canceled us and now we are clawing our way back to the top. Don't let the Leftist win. Do it now! Thanks.   Metaxas charities mentioned- -------------------------------------------------------- Pre-Born! Saving babies and Souls. https://preborn.org/ OUR MISSION To glorify Jesus Christ by leading and equipping pregnancy clinics to save more babies and souls. WHAT WE DO Pre-Born! partners with life-affirming pregnancy clinics all across the nation. We are designed to strategically impact the abortion industry through the following initiatives:… -------------------------------------------------------- Help CSI Stamp Out Slavery In Sudan Join us in our effort to free over 350 slaves. Listeners to the Eric Metaxas Show will remember our annual effort to free Christians who have been enslaved for simply acknowledging Jesus Christ as their Savior. As we celebrate the birth of Christ this Christmas, join us in giving new life to brothers and sisters in Sudan who have enslaved as a result of their faith. https://csi-usa.org/metaxas   https://csi-usa.org/slavery/   Typical Aid for the Enslaved A ration of sorghum, a local nutrient-rich staple food A dairy goat A “Sack of Hope,” a survival kit containing essential items such as tarp for shelter, a cooking pan, a water canister, a mosquito net, a blanket, a handheld sickle, and fishing hooks. Release celebrations include prayer and gathering for a meal, and medical care for those in need. The CSI team provides comfort, encouragement, and a shoulder to lean on while they tell their stories and begin their new lives. Thank you for your compassion  Giving the Gift of Freedom and Hope to the Enslaved South Sudanese --------------------------------------------------------

In this very special BONUS episode of Breaking the Curtain, we're joined by the phenomenal Rob Colletti who stars as Lester Bangs in Almost Famous on Broadway! We chat with Rob all about the genius that is Cameron Crowe, the wonderful support from the fans, the real Lester Bangs and the current state of Broadway in the era of Covid. Almost Famous runs on Broadway until January 8th, 2023. You do not want to miss this special show!

Hello, Lit Listeners. If you dig the crazy, down-and-dirty (and deafening), let-it-all-hang out, have-a-nice-day, far out 1970s, you're in for a treat. Music journalist-cum-rock novelist Robert Duncan is here doing double duty as both author and music guru—because why wouldn't he?—and he dishes on some folks whose records are in your collection. You DON'T want to miss this episode! EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:The blurred lines between the novel ‘Loudmouth' and Robert's real lifeRobert's wild boy big brother—“the original rock ‘n roll guy”—RustyScratch inspections and Robert's friend with a special talent at summer camp (get ready to laugh)Robert and I playing a drinking game on the episode, and the phrase I coined for itRobert having tea with Lester Bangs at MC5's Rob Tyner's houseGetting drunk at Patti Smith's and Allen Lanier's apartment near Washington Square in NYC with Jim Carroll, author of ‘The Basketball Diaries'How Robert became a music journalist and got the job at ‘CREEM'Lester Bangs—and Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of him in ‘Almost Famous'The time Legs McNeil took the last beer from Robert's NYC apartment fridge and Robert and Lester's subsequent fightThe day Lester diedRobert's interactions with various rock stars, including Ron Wood and Keith Richards, Iggy Pop and David Bowie, KISS, Ozzy Osbourne, The Clash, etc.Partying at Liza Minnelli's apartment in NYC with tons of celebritiesDriving around Cleveland with a young Bruce SpringsteenThe tragic genesis of the novel ‘Loudmouth'Robert Duncan's one and only Jimmy Page encounter MUSIC IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:[No Copyright Music] Retro ‘70s Funky Jazz-Hop Instrumental (Copyright Free) Music—FunkmanThe Beatles—Live at Shea Stadium, New York (August 23, 1966)—cheering“My Foolish Heart” by Bill Evans“I Am A Scientist” by Guided By Voices“Hound Dog” by Elvis Presley“Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh!” by Allan Sherman“I Touch Myself” by the Divinyls“I Wanna Be Your Dog” by The Stooges‘Metal Machine Music' by Lou Reed“Holy Ghost” by Albert Ayler“Breathe On Me” by The New Barbarians, live 1979 Washington, DC“Detroit Rock City” by KISS“Upside Down” by Diana Ross“The River” by Bruce SpringsteenClip of Jimmy Page talking to Robert Duncan“Tommy's Holiday Camp” by The Who“Rock and Roll Radio” by The Ramones LINKS: Robert Duncan's website, https://www.duncanwrites.com/Robert Duncan on Twitter, @robertduncansfRobert Duncan on Instagram, @rduncansfRobert Duncan on Mastodon, @Rduncan@newsie.social Christy Alexander Hallberg's website: https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/Christy Alexander Hallberg on Twitter, @ChristyHallbergChristy Alexander Hallberg on Instagram, @christyhallbergChristy Alexander Hallberg's YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfSnRmlL5moSQYi6EjSvqag

Hello, Lit Listeners. If you dig the crazy, down-and-dirty (and deafening), let-it-all-hang out, have-a-nice-day, far out 1970s, you're in for a treat. Music journalist-cum-rock novelist Robert Duncan is here doing double duty as both author and music guru—because why wouldn't he?—and he dishes on some folks whose records are in your collection. You DON'T want to miss this episode!   EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: The blurred lines between the novel ‘Loudmouth' and Robert's real life Robert's wild boy big brother—“the original rock ‘n roll guy”—Rusty Scratch inspections and Robert's friend with a special talent at summer camp (get ready to laugh) Robert and I playing a drinking game on the episode, and the phrase I coined for it Robert having tea with Lester Bangs at MC5's Rob Tyner's house Getting drunk at Patti Smith's and Allen Lanier's apartment near Washington Square in NYC with Jim Carroll, author of ‘The Basketball Diaries' How Robert became a music journalist and got the job at ‘CREEM' Lester Bangs—and Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of him in ‘Almost Famous' The time Legs McNeil took the last beer from Robert's NYC apartment fridge and Robert and Lester's subsequent fight The day Lester died Robert's interactions with various rock stars, including Ron Wood and Keith Richards, Iggy Pop and David Bowie, KISS, Ozzy Osbourne, The Clash, etc. Partying at Liza Minnelli's apartment in NYC with tons of celebrities Driving around Cleveland with a young Bruce Springsteen The tragic genesis of the novel ‘Loudmouth' Robert Duncan's one and only Jimmy Page encounter   MUSIC IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE: [No Copyright Music] Retro ‘70s Funky Jazz-Hop Instrumental (Copyright Free) Music—Funkman The Beatles—Live at Shea Stadium, New York (August 23, 1966)—cheering  “My Foolish Heart” by Bill Evans “I Am A Scientist” by Guided By Voices “Hound Dog” by Elvis Presley “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh!” by Allan Sherman “I Touch Myself” by the Divinyls “I Wanna Be Your Dog” by The Stooges ‘Metal Machine Music' by Lou Reed “Holy Ghost” by Albert Ayler “Breathe On Me” by The New Barbarians, live 1979 Washington, DC “Detroit Rock City” by KISS “Upside Down” by Diana Ross “The River” by Bruce Springsteen Clip of Jimmy Page talking to Robert Duncan “Tommy's Holiday Camp” by The Who “Rock and Roll Radio” by The Ramones   LINKS:  Robert Duncan's website, https://www.duncanwrites.com/ Robert Duncan on Twitter, @robertduncansf Robert Duncan on Instagram, @rduncansf Robert Duncan on Mastodon, @Rduncan@newsie.social   Christy Alexander Hallberg's website: https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/ Christy Alexander Hallberg on Twitter, @ChristyHallberg Christy Alexander Hallberg on Instagram, @christyhallberg Christy Alexander Hallberg's YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfSnRmlL5moSQYi6EjSvqag Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For many of us, the inner voice is generally loving and encouraging, maybe not enthusiastic, but in your corner, calmly evaluating. In fact, a good internal dialog should function more like a reasonable judge. Or like Lester Bangs tells his young protege William Miller in Almost Famous: “I know you think those guys are your friends. You wanna be a true friend to them? Be honest, and unmerciful.”In other words, sometimes you need a good truth-telling even if it's not what you want to hear.With that said, there is a reason we universally struggle with self-talk. Struggle implies conflict. And conflict with the self is what we call inner conflict. But the problem is twofold. Not only is it hard to do something about the way our inner critic talks to us, but a great deal of the time we're not even aware we're doing it.Why? Because it's our default state. We're used to the way we talk to ourselves. We'd almost never talk to our friends or family the way we sometimes may talk to ourselves. So why do we do it?Because our Inner Critic is fueled by the simultaneous belief that we are better than others and that we are less than others; both feelings are energized by harshness and contempt. Feeling that we're not enough–especially at work—is painful.the consequences of not being aware of or tuning into what our Inner Critic is telling us can hurt us and hold us back in many of the most important areas of our lives. Time Stamps:4:39--The inflating and deflating of the Inner Critic7:15--The story of the two wolves inside us all11:11--Anne Lamott quote of being militantly on your own side14:42--Walking through a little thought exercise18:52--Shelley names her Inner Critic and gives it a persona25:38--There is a balancing we have to do, not just expect to completely get rid of the Inner Critic32:22--Take on the persona of the Inner Teacher34:27--The simple ABCDE frameworkShow Notes and Links:Brendon Burchard says that successful people use positive self-talk frequently.Pete Walker suggests memorizing your list of positive attributes and repeating them to yourself whenever you have an Inner Critic attack. Positive self-talk is part of the emotional healing process.Studies show that people who practice “self-compassion” are happier, more optimistic and less anxious and depressed.Follow up with us and check out our Burnout Coaching Package here.Subscribe on Spotify

In this episode we invite esteemed author RJ Smith to tell us about his career, his adopted Los Angeles, and his new biography of Chuck Berry.We start in Detroit, where RJ was raised on a diet of AM radio, the Stooges and Creem magazine, then follow him to New York and his decade of writing for the Village Voice. He talks about the impact of Lester Bangs and Robert Christgau before explaining why he followed the Voice's executive editor Kit Rachlis to California and the L.A. Weekly. We hear how he became fascinated by the pre-rock history of African-American L.A. and how that led to the publication of The Great Black Way (2008). His fourth book, Chuck Berry: An American Life, gives us the opportunity to discuss the problematic brilliance of St. Louis's "Black bard of white teen angst", a half-century after the creepy novelty comedy of 'My Ding-a-Ling' gave the Black-rock pioneer a No. 1 hit on both sides of the Atlantic.We return to our L.A. theme to hear clips from a 1991 audio interview in which Tracy "Ice-T" Marrow talks to Andy Gill about the birth of gangsta rap and his thrash-metal side project Body Count. RJ recalls his own writing about West Coast hip hop before we say a sad goodbye to the great Wilko Johnson and hear the-then Dr. Feelgood guitarist speaking to Mick Gold in 1975.Mark quotes from some of the pieces he's added to the RBP library, including interviews with Long John Baldry and Olivia Newton-John, after which Jasper wraps matters up with remarks on articles about Deadmau5 and Asian Dub Foundation.Many thanks to special guest RJ Smith. Chuck Berry: An American Life is published by Omnibus in the UK and Hachette in the US and is available now from all good bookshops.Pieces discussed: Chuck Berry, Chuck Berrier, Chuck Berriest, Interview with RJ Smith, Charles Brown, N.W.A., Ice-T audio, Dr. Feelgood, Wilko Johnson, Rab Noakes, Long John Baldry, Free, Captain Beefheart, B. Bumble and the Stingers, Simon and Garfunkel, Olivia Newton-John, Deadmau5 and Asian Dub Foundation.

In the first of what should be at least three new episodes this week, here's a low-key "choppin' it up" ep in which Jack and Yair talk Dune(s), Lou Reed's 2000 album Ecstasy, and books by Bob Dylan and Lester Bangs.

In this episode we invite esteemed author RJ Smith to tell us about his career, his adopted Los Angeles, and his new biography of Chuck Berry.We start in Detroit, where RJ was raised on a diet of AM radio, the Stooges and Creem magazine, then follow him to New York and his decade of writing for the Village Voice. He talks about the impact of Lester Bangs and Robert Christgau before explaining why he followed the Voice's executive editor Kit Rachlis to California and the L.A. Weekly. We hear how he became fascinated by the pre-rock history of African-American L.A. and how that led to the publication of The Great Black Way (2008). His fourth book, Chuck Berry: An American Life, gives us the opportunity to discuss the problematic brilliance of St. Louis's "Black bard of white teen angst", a half-century after the creepy novelty comedy of 'My Ding-a-Ling' gave the Black-rock pioneer a No. 1 hit on both sides of the Atlantic.We return to our L.A. theme to hear clips from a 1991 audio interview in which Tracy "Ice-T" Marrow talks to Andy Gill about the birth of gangsta rap and his thrash-metal side project Body Count. RJ recalls his own writing about West Coast hip hop before we say a sad goodbye to the great Wilko Johnson and hear the-then Dr. Feelgood guitarist speaking to Mick Gold in 1975.Mark quotes from some of the pieces he's added to the RBP library, including interviews with Long John Baldry and Olivia Newton-John, after which Jasper wraps matters up with remarks on articles about Deadmau5 and Asian Dub Foundation.Many thanks to special guest RJ Smith. Chuck Berry: An American Life is published by Omnibus in the UK and Hachette in the US and is available now from all good bookshops.Pieces discussed: Chuck Berry, Chuck Berrier, Chuck Berriest, Interview with RJ Smith, Charles Brown, N.W.A., Ice-T audio, Dr. Feelgood, Wilko Johnson, Rab Noakes, Long John Baldry, Free, Captain Beefheart, B. Bumble and the Stingers, Simon and Garfunkel, Olivia Newton-John, Deadmau5 and Asian Dub Foundation.

“I am a Golden God!”Listen to your favourite old school record with a candle burning and you will see your entire future… That's right. For the second episode in Raphael's masterclass theme on Frances McDormand, we're turning the clocks back and revisiting the nostalgic, smoky, rock ‘n' roll remembrances of Cameron Crowe's 2000 magnum opus Almost Famous. Featuring one of Miss McDormand's most memorable supporting turns as Elaine Miller, this coming-of-age epic is an endlessly rewatchable power ballad about musical obsession, the passage of time and the never-ending pursuit of being cool.Join us at the back of the tour bus as we dive into some of our favourite scenes, debate the legacy of Philip Seymour Hoffman's Lester Bangs, and share our own fantasies of life on the road. Don't forget to like, share and subscribe – and, as always, SPOILERS AHEAD.***JABRIEL ALSUHAIMI is a multi-disciplinary creative, working on a multitude of various projects in the audiovisual sphere. Hailing from Saudi Arabia and Singapore, Jabriel brings his international perspective and varying influences into his work, which includes podcasts like Curious Humans, Founders For Good & The Movie Newbie, music under the alias Rei.do.Nada, video content for YouTube and some occasional writing on his website.Twitter: https://twitter.com/jabealsuhaimiInstagram: https://instagram.com/__jabriel__Website/Newsletter: www.jabrielalsuhaimi.comRAPHAEL LECAT is an actor; some would say thespian, some would say clown; others would say human golden retriever (and by some, he means himself...) Raphael was born in France to French parents but quickly became a third-culture kid after his family moved to Singapore. This is where he discovered his passion for theatre and decided to make it his mission in life to be a vessel for stories old and new through the craft of acting.Website: https://raphaellecat.me/IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8941524/OLIVER MANGHAM is a represented screenwriter, producer, fundraiser and content creator across a range of media. A cinema obsessive from a young age, he channelled his passion for storytelling by co-founding the film and television production company Through The Lens Entertainment. When he's not navigating the shark-infested waters of Hollywood, Oliver likes to pen scripts, record podcasts, host musical events and consume large quantities of pasta.Twitter: https://twitter.com/olivermangham1Instagram: https://instagram.com/hoothoot1992 ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

In 1987, R.E.M. released an album that would catapult the band from Slightly Obscure to Mainstream Rock Heroes — inspiring Rolling Stone to declare the Georgian quartet: "America's Best Rock & Roll Band"! And on that Little Album That Could was a 4-minute ode to the End of Days, a word salad delivered with such erratic fury that more than 20 years later, it still compels listeners in their darkest hours to fire it up and attempt to sing along. But what do the words really mean? And what does it have to do with Lester Bangs and Leonard Bernstein? Take a ride with us as we take a closer look at The End of The World As We Know It. It's fine. Everything's fine. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lyricsforlunch/support

We revisit Bag Dragger Jones Jukebox. We talk about Dave Stewart, The Tourist, and then hear the back story of the Police. Get your papers here, The Paterson Evening News. We woodshed Almost Famous and props to Lester Bangs. Finally, we talk Art House Films

Johnny and Christopher are getting out an episode before too many listeners start giving them crap. They share their Top 5 complaints from fans of the podcast. They discuss the Hulu series The Bear. And they recommend some stuff.   

Hey, welcome to WASTOIDS With  Jaan Uhelszki of the legendary CREEM Magazine. Founded in Detroit in 1969, CREEM covered rock & roll irreverently and with a wickedly funny style. It closed up shop in 1989, but 30 years later, a new documentary film, 2019's CREEM: America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine, helped to reignite interest in the publication, and now, CREEM has returned in full force over at CREEM.com. Not only is the site home to a remarkable archive—featuring stories by Lester Bangs, Cameron Crowe, Patti Smith, Greil Marcus, Lisa Robinson, Susan Whitall, Dave Marsh, Robert Christgau, our guest Jaan, and so many others—it's also home to brand new features, interviews, articles, and music recommendations. We launched WASTOIDS last year for a lot of reasons, but one of the main ones is that it feels increasingly like music fans are looking for original and fun places to discover new music. CREEM was one of our primary inspirations. Uhelszki joins us for stories about the pot-fueled “cult of CREEM,” her role in its return, seeing Big Star live, and that time she got up on stage with KISS in full regalia. Thanks for listening. Call 1-877-WASTOIDS. 

In this episode we mark the 40th anniversary of the death of arguably the greatest — and certainly the most "almost famous" — writer in the history of music journalism. Two of Lester Bangs's closest Creem colleagues (both wonderful writers in their own right) join us from California to reminisce about the man and his work. Jaan Uhelszki, who started in the Creem office the same day as Lester, gets the ball rolling by putting Detroit's "anti-Rolling Stone" in context. Robert Duncan, who arrived two years later in 1974, adds his recollections of "America's only rock'n'roll magazine" [sic] before paying tribute to Lester. Respect, laughter and sadness ensue as Robert & Jaan discuss their friend's gonzoid genius, his exasperating foibles and the addiction that killed him at 33, six years after Robert persuaded him to move to New York. Seminal New York duo Suicide — beloved of Bangs — are the subjects of the week's new audio interview, clips from which feature pioneering electropunks Alan Vega & Martin Rev talking in 1998 about their "confrontational" live act, their introduction of the word "punk" into NYC's music scene in 1971… and Vega's love of British comedy The Full Monty! Finally, Mark talks us through his highlights among the articles recently added to the RBP library, including pieces about the Righteous Brothers, Laura Nyro, Jeff Beck at the Fillmore East, Pharoah Saunders and England's miserable Bickershaw festival. Barney notes a 1988 Paul Morley rumination on, yes, music journalism… and Jasper quotes from a John Doran "review" of Aphex Twin's Collapse. Many thanks to special guests Robert Duncan and Jaan Uhelszki; you can visit Robert's website at duncanwrites.com and find more of Jaan's writing on her RBP writer's page. Pieces discussed: Lester on RBP, Lester Bangs and Almost Famous, Richard Riegel on Lester, Robert Duncan, Lester on the MC5, Lester on how to be a rock critic, Lester on Astral Weeks, Lester on punk/jazz, Suicide audio, Righteous Brothers, Laura Nyro, Pharaoh Sanders, George Jones, Grateful Dead & Jeff Beck Group, Bickershaw festival, KISS, Divine, Paul Morley on the rock press and Aphex Twin's Collapse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we mark the 40th anniversary of the death of arguably the greatest — and certainly the most "almost famous" — writer in the history of music journalism.Two of Lester Bangs's closest Creem colleagues (both wonderful writers in their own right) join us from California to reminisce about the man and his work. Jaan Uhelszki, who started in the Creem office the same day as Lester, gets the ball rolling by putting Detroit's "anti-Rolling Stone" in context. Robert Duncan, who arrived two years later in 1974, adds his recollections of "America's only rock'n'roll magazine" [sic] before paying tribute to Lester. Respect, laughter and sadness ensue as Robert & Jaan discuss their friend's gonzoid genius, his exasperating foibles and the addiction that killed him at 33, six years after Robert persuaded him to move to New York.Seminal New York duo Suicide — beloved of Bangs — are the subjects of the week's new audio interview, clips from which feature pioneering electropunks Alan Vega & Martin Rev talking in 1998 about their "confrontational" live act, their introduction of the word "punk" into NYC's music scene in 1971… and Vega's love of British comedy The Full Monty!Finally, Mark talks us through his highlights among the articles recently added to the RBP library, including pieces about the Righteous Brothers, Laura Nyro, Jeff Beck at the Fillmore East, Pharoah Saunders and England's miserable Bickershaw festival. Barney notes a 1988 Paul Morley rumination on, yes, music journalism… and Jasper quotes from a John Doran "review" of Aphex Twin's Collapse.Many thanks to special guests Robert Duncan and Jaan Uhelszki; you can visit Robert's website at duncanwrites.com and find more of Jaan's writing on her RBP writer's page.Pieces discussed: Lester on RBP, Lester Bangs and Almost Famous, Richard Riegel on Lester, Robert Duncan, Lester on the MC5, Lester on how to be a rock critic, Lester on Astral Weeks, Lester on punk/jazz, Suicide audio, Righteous Brothers, Laura Nyro, Pharaoh Sanders, George Jones, Grateful Dead & Jeff Beck Group, Bickershaw festival, KISS, Divine, Paul Morley on the rock press and Aphex Twin's Collapse.

Dr. Allison Bumsted joins Phoebe and Daphne to discuss how rock journalism in the 1970s re-shaped Paul McCartney's critical reputation for the next three decades (and beyond).  Also discussed in this episode: authenticity, gatekeeping, rock aesthetics and rhetoric, hyper-masculinity and the inherent inclusivity of pop.   SOURCES Paul McCartney interviewed on Radio Luxembourg May 12, 1973 Something About the Beatles, “Critiquing the Critics” Episodes 176a and 176b A Women's History of the Beatles, Christine Feldman-Barrett (2021) The Beatles and the Historians, Erin Torkelson-Weber (2016) Truant Boy: Art, Authenticity and Paul McCartney, Martin Shough (2017) Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music, Yuval Taylor and Hugh Barker (2007) “Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader,” Lester Bangs (2003) “Physical Graffiti” review by Jim Miller, Rolling Stone (March 27, 1975) John Landau reviews RAM, (July 8, 1971) Wildlife review by John Mendelssohn, Rolling Stone (Jan 20, 1972) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, written by Allen Evans, NME (May 20, 1967) “The Jefferson Airplane and the San Francisco Sound,” Ralph J Gleason (1969) “Just Two Superstars from Middle Rock,” NY Times (Aug 3, 1975) “Imagine” review by Ben Gerson (Oct 28, 1971) “The Former Beatle Gets Personal” Paul Gambincini, Rolling Stone (Jan 31, 1974) “Records: Paul McCartney and Wings” Band on the Run review by Dave Downing, Let it Rock (1974) Band on the Run review, Jon Landau (1974) “Paul and Linda McCartney: Bionic couple serves it your way” Lester Bangs, Creem: 34–39 and 72–73 (1976) “Yesterday, Today and Paul” Rolling Stone, Ben Fong-Torres (June 17 1976)  "Paul McCartney & Wings" Rolling Stone page 14; Paul Gambaccini (June 21 1973)  Life Magazine (November 7, 1969) “Man of the Year” Rolling Stone, Jann Wenner (February 7, 1970) “Sound effects: Youth, Leisure, and the Politics of Rock ‘n' Roll” Simon Frith. New York: Pantheon Books (197.) "Rod Stewart's Holiday Turkey: Blondes Have More Fun Review" Rolling Stone, Janet Maslin (Feb 8, 1979) "Every Picture Tells a Story" Review Rolling Stone, John Mendelsohn (July 8, 1971)   OTHER WRITERS MENTIONED Pete Wiley, Robert Christgau, Matt Brennan, Holly Tessler, Leonard Feather, Leroy Jones, Barbara Gardner, Nat Hentoff, Simon Frith, Jim DeRogatis    ALLISON'S LINKS My social (Inast and Twitter @Allison Bumsted) Website: www.allisonbumsted.com (I update it with what's happening) Book Link: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-85543-7 Chapter Link:: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-85543-7_5 (ask your local library to get a hold of the book!)   PLAYLIST The Mess (live at the Hague) WINGS Band on the Run PAUL McCARTNEY & WINGS Wildlife WINGS Too Many People PAUL & LINDA MCCARTNEY I Am Your Singer WINGS Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey PAUL & LINDA MCCARTNEY Mama's Little Girl PAUL MCCARTNEY & WINGS Let Me Roll it PAUL MCCARTNEY & WINGS Rockshow WINGS

On this episode I am joined by musician and author Mickey Leigh! A staple in New York City music since the 1970's playing in bands like The Rattlers and Stop, Mickey's latest group Mickey Leigh's Mutated Music recently dropped their debut record Variants of Vibe. We discuss new music as well as-Goals for Mutated Music-Having Steven Van Zandt release your bands new record-Mickey's songwriting approach-Seeing he and brother Joey Ramones lives reenacted on the big screen as his book I Slept With Joey Ramone gets adapted into a Netflix movie-The great undertaking of writing a book and if he could see himself ever doing it again-The added responsibilities of being the sole guitarist in a band-If New York City surroundings shape the sound of his music-Finding creative inspiration in others lives and journeys and not just sticking to what you know-Being the most critical of your own work and why musicians are never 100% happy with the final product-What goes in to putting together the Joey Ramone Birthday Bash every year (and his plans for this year)-The ever changing music industry-The feeling he gets from playing Ramones songs on stage with Richie and CJ and much more!Follow Mickey Leigh/Mutated Musichttps://mickeyleigh.comhttps://mickeyleighsmutatedmusic.bandcamp.com/album/variants-of-vibehttps://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialMickeyLeighhttps://www.instagram.com/mickeyleighnyc/?hl=enhttps://www.facebook.com/MickeyLeighhttps://twitter.com/MickeyLeighNYCCheck out the Power Chord Hour radio show every Friday night at 10 to midnight est on 107.9 WRFA in Jamestown, NY. Stream the station online at wrfalp.com/streaming/ or listen on the WRFA app.powerchordhour@gmail.comInstagram - www.instagram.com/powerchordhourTwitter - www.twitter.com/powerchordhourFacebook - www.facebook.com/powerchordhourYoutube - www.youtube.com/channel/UC6jTfzjB3-mzmWM-51c8LggSpotify Episode Playlists - https://open.spotify.com/user/kzavhk5ghelpnthfby9o41gnr?si=4WvOdgAmSsKoswf_HTh_Mg