500 Songs Podcast - Highly recommended!

[Squishman]

Is anyone else tuning in to the https://500songs.com/ podcast? It’s called “The History of Rock Music in 500 Songs”. Each episode in the series goes about 30-35 minutes. I just discovered it a month ago and just finished episode 49 of around 177 so far. The series, hosted by a Brit named Andrew Hickey started in 2018. If you are a history buff and/or like rock and roll, this might very well be up your alley. It is on Apple Podcasts and probably elsewhere as well. @TLS Guy might find episode number 48 “Rock with the Caveman by Tommy Steele” interesting, as Mr. Hickey delves into the birth of British Rock and roll. There was another episode where he talked about skiffle. That was episode 21 “Rock Island Line by Lonnie Donegan”. But that one was not entirely about early British skiffle or R&R. The research he has done for this series is quite impressive. He said at the outset that this will go approximately 10 years.

edit: I should add that I certainly know TLS Guy is certainly not a fan of Rock music, but he is a guy who is obviously well studied and knows history. So for him, that is why I think he might find that episode intriguing to whatever degree.

 

[Squishman]

This guy Andrew Hickey has a dry sense of humor. I am listening to episode 53 "Screamin' Jay Hawkins I Put a Spell on You". Apparently, Hawkins was a huge liar. He claimed to have been a Japanese POW for 18 months even though he went into the Army in 1945 after WWII. He claimed on a regular basis that he joined the Armed Forces so he could "kill people and not face consequences". The truth is that he joined as a member of the Special Services. The people who put on shows for the rest of the Army where he learned to play the Saxophone. Hickey says: "history does not record how many people his saxophone playing killed".