Rare Earth's sound was equal parts funky soul and straight-up rock. For decades, when there's cause for celebration, folks have been crankin' up this chunk of funk rock. Let's take a closer look at how…Read more
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When Alice Cooper recorded "Elected" in 1972, it was a satire about a rich, grandstanding, self-obsessed celebrity running for president. He's a "yankee doodle dandy in a gold Rolls Royce". We all laughed. That kind…Read more
When Matthew Sweet, Shawn Mullins & Pete Droge (aka The Thorns) recorded "No Blue Sky" almost in 2002, they had no idea that the skies over the Western US would be thick with smoke, or…Read more
Some bands take time to develop a unique sound, but Queen sounded like Queen right from the beginning. "Keep Yourself Alive" was the opening track on their first album, and it contains all the requisite…Read more
Hard to believe now, but Motown resisted releasing this song as a single. Marvin's version sat on a shelf for months before being relegated to an album track-- until some DJ's discovered it, and the…Read more
Emitt Rhodes had an extraordinary gift as a songwriter, a fantastic voice and was a remarkable musician-- he was one of the first artists to record by himself, playing every instrument on his albums. He…Read more
Picture this: You're a successful chart-topping band, but your managers are writing all your hits and ignoring the songs you're writing. You wrote a track on your latest album that has potential, but the record…Read more
It Came From Boston (Vol. 3): MIT graduate/Polaroid employee Tom Scholz recorded an album's worth of songs in his basement in Watertown, MA after work, and somehow the record eventually sold 25 million copies worldwide.…Read more
Pink Floyd released "Us & Them" in 1973, but it feels like it could've been written yesterday. Can we ever get past our compulsion to separate "us" from "them"? This is a song for the…Read more
This being Episode # 57, I thought it would be fun to revisit '57 -- as in the year 1957. With the loss of Little Richard recently, virtually all of the early pioneers of Rock…Read more
Earth, Wind & Fire's 6th album, That's The Way of The World, was ostensibly a soundtrack album; when the film bombed, the album was on the verge of fading away, too-- until "Shining Star" was…Read more
A Todd Rundgren album can vary between pure pop to bossa nova, guitar rock to wild experimentation; like the proverbial box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get with the next Rundgren album.…Read more
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