In this episode, writer and self-taught musicologist Claude Lemaire chooses Iron Butterfly, Jeff Beck, and even the Beatles as pioneering heavy rock influencers.
In the glittering circus of pop music, where smoke, mirrors, and synthesized beats reign supreme, few scandals hit harderโor landed messierโthan the Milli Vanilli debacle of 1990. This wasnโt just a little hiccup in the pop machine. This was a full-on implosion, a moment when the flashy veneer of the music industry was peeled back,…
In February 1964, two of the most iconic forces of the 20th century collided in an encounter so surreal it could have been scripted by Hollywood. The Beatles, fresh off their earth-shattering debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, met Cassius Clay (soon to be Muhammad Ali) in Miami Beach. It was a meeting that combined…
George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh was an unqualified success, and the first-ever pop concert for charity.
On this day in history, the tapestry of modern music was forever altered by a seismic shift that sent ripples through the realm of pop culture and beyond. April 10, 1970, stands as a cornerstone moment, not just in rock โnโ roll lore but in the annals of artistic endeavors at large. It was on…
In the frosty grip of February 1964, four lads from Liverpool landed on American shores, igniting a cultural wildfire that would forever alter the course of music history. Their arrival on Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 at New Yorkโs Kennedy Airport was met with unprecedented fervor, with 3,000 fans creating a chaotic welcome for…
Flashback to 1961, a dimly lit Cavern Club in Liverpool, and a band about to explode into the stratosphere of rock legend. This is where we find The Beatles, raw and unrefined, far from their Sgt. Pepper days. Picture John Lennon, a youthful 20, and Paul McCartney, 19, strumming and crooning, while George Harrison, 18,…
In the transformative year of 1969, amidst the backdrop of Woodstock and intense Vietnam War protests, the Paul McCartney death rumor seeped into pop culture, becoming one of rockโs most tenacious legends. This Beatles conspiracy theory contended that the beloved bassist, Paul McCartney, had met a tragic end in a 1966 car accident. Instead of…
54 years back, in a slice of London that was more suburbia than swinging, The Beatlesโrockโs original Fab Fourโstopped traffic, literally and figuratively. It was August 8, 1969, when John, Paul, George, and Ringo strutted down Abbey Road, giving birth to an image as legendary as the riffs on that album. Outside the legendary recording…
1970 proved to be a landmark year in the annals of rock music.
By 1967, the Motor City is still monopolizing the music charts and airwaves, cruising full speed ahead, rivaled only by Britain’s Fab Four. But thereโs turbulence and static on the horizon stemming from a strong current blowing from the West Coast, along with inner tensions within Hitsville U.S.A., a.k.a. Motown Records.These combined factors would eventually…