500songs (Andrew Hickey)

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Carpenters? New Seekers? Osmonds?

Good shout on the Carpenters, but would that be particularly contentious among fans of Andrew's show? Mind you, it does sound like he's occasionally bothered by a vocal minority of boring Proper Rock Aficionados.

[Egyptian Feast]

Hmm...hugely contentious...1970ish...he wouldn't, would he?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Glitter's first hit was in 1972, if that's who you're thinking of?

[Ignatius_S]

Glitter's first hit was in 1972, if that's who you're thinking of?

The question mark in Egyptian Feast's post was a link!

[Ignatius_S]

Hmm...hugely contentious...1970ish...he wouldn't, would he?

Contentious? Moi?

[Ignatius_S]

As we know, Andrew's odyssey ends in 1999, so the final episode will almost certainly be an impeccably researched three hour epic devoted to Flat Beat by Mr. Oizo.

But seriously...* episodes 176 and 177 will presumably cover Altamont and the Manson murders. He more or less said as much during the Rubin interview.

As for the hugely contentious episode 184, I have absolutely no idea. Andrew is a Monkees fan, so he may make a case for Nesmith's brilliant early '70s country rock albums being more pioneering than Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers.

If so, that'll annoy yer Steve Hoffman forum types.

_{* I wonder if he'll cover In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins? That gated drum sound dominated the '80s, it's a hugely significant recording whether you like the actual song or not (I do).}

Someone doesn't need to be a Monkees fan to do that - just someone of pure heart, keen intelligence and great taste... actually, maybe you do need to be a Monkees fan!

[Satchmo Distel]

I think #184 is going to be Edison Lighthouse, encompassing all the studio bands of that time that Tony Burrows sang with.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Burrows

[Egyptian Feast]

The Pretty Things bonus had some great WTF moments for me. I only know SF Sorrow and wasn't aware of much of their story other than general bad behaviour and luck, so this was full of revelations.

Spoiler alert

I was NOT aware they did a film with Norman Wisdom and got him into dope and Tolkien. If only it had been enough of a hit to bankroll his version of The Hobbit.

[close]

I didn't know about the library music either. I must check out The Electric Banana, I probably know loads of their stuff like that Dawn Of The Dead track.

[Pink Gregory]

Still only on the early episodes, but this is impressively far from a standard rockist history.  Hickey doesn't at all shy away from the nastier aspects of the business and people's lives under segregation.  A lot of people who lived poor and died needlessly.  It's fascinating.

[Egyptian Feast]

I'm still going through them too (I'm just up to Bo Diddley's first single), but listened to everything he'd put out in 2023 when I signed up as there was no way I'd be able to resist those new notifications.

Other than that, I won't even peek at what the next episode is until I've listened to the whole thing. There's so many records he'll have covered in the previous few years I can barely wait for him to get to, but I'm going to enjoy them even more when I get to them.

[SteveDave]

Was there a Lee and Herring reference in that Pretty Things episode?

Also I saw so the Pretty Things do all those Electric Banana songs live once. It was weird. They looked like they were having a good time though.

[Satchmo Distel]

I wonder if 20 years to finish this is a bit optimistic given how many obstacles he's been facing this year, which seem unlikely to go away (health, staffing, interview requests, emails and the like). There are quite strong parallels with Lewisohn in how the higher the bar he sets himself requires him to increase his commitments to a level that puts the main project into a longer and longer timescale. which literally might take him into his advanced old age to finish.

But if you advise him to cut down the episode lengths and bonus pieces, I'm just not sure he can, because he's convinced himself he has to do it this way.

[Tilt Araiza]

The Pretty Things bonus had some great WTF moments for me.

The bit in the spoiler tag, I told him that.

It's very well edited

[Egyptian Feast]

It is exceptionally well edited! ; - )

[Crabwalk]

Hi Tilt! Nice to see you back around and thanks for editing a magnificent podcast.

_{I wonder if he'll cover In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins? That gated drum sound dominated the '80s, it's a hugely significant recording whether you like the actual song or not (I do).}

I suppose Andrew could cover it in an episode about Peter Gabriel's 'Intruder' if he wanted to dodge covering Collins' entire solo career. Collins will pop up loads of course from the early 70s, so his more interesting/influential period will be well covered by the time 1980 is reached. Mind you, you could make the same argument about Gabriel.

But having said that, the sound of both their 80s works did permeate absolutely everywhere.

Fuck it, just pick 'Travels in Nihilon' for an early Lillywhite/Padgham gated reverb example and do an XTC episode instead.

[Satchmo Distel]

You can't really define Collins' solo career as rock. 'Easy Lover' is not bad, though.

I think you could do post-Gabriel Genesis and the solo careers of the post-Gabriel members (including Collins) as one episode given that Genesis kept doing studio albums every 3-4 years or so up to 1997, although I'm sure they stopped influencing anybody by the mid-80s.

[Johnboy]

Rock is everything from Judy Collins to Crass

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

As Andrew points out in his intro, it's strange that the latest episode is devoted to The Band, as Robbie Robertson died just last week.

Also, I've just been struck by something (not literally) - why did Elvis never cover The Weight? It would've suited him perfectly, it's bang in the centre of his early '70s country-soul wheelhouse.

Elvis was a fan of Dylan's music, so he was presumably aware of The Band too? A missed opportunity.

[SteveDave]

Fair play to Andrew his justification for only doing one episode on the Velvet Underground versus multiple episodes on the Beach Boys was a good little rant.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The latest episode has dropped - I Say A Little Prayer by Aretha Franklin.

[SteveDave]

Never knew that Aretha did "96 Tears"! That bass!

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Never knew that Aretha did "96 Tears"! That bass!

Love this

[Egyptian Feast]

Another superb episode, though I didn't appreciate the coating down of the first Aretha album I heard, (Hey Now Hey) The Other Side Of The Sky. He doesn't even bother naming it. It may have possibly the fuckugliest sleeve of any album in my collection (the artist only has herself to blame) but no way is 'Angel' the only decent track. Most of it is excellent, but two in particular will always be favourites.

The title track is basically 'Aretha goes psychedelic' so I'm already sold.

While 'Just Right Tonight' is one of her greatest performances ever if you ask me, which nobody ever has admittedly, but I'm right. So horny it makes Aretha herself remark "feels like somebody just slapped me with a nasty gym shoe!" Total banger.

[Egyptian Feast]

Idiot here had never listened to Laura Nyro before the latest bonus episode. Played Eli and the Thirteenth Confession utterly transfixed, wondering where the fuck she's been all my life.

[SteveDave]

When I first heard her I was amazed at how much Todd Rundgren ripped her off.

[Tarquin]

Is his Patreon worth it for the extra content?

I read them, nowt to do with him just prefer reading longform stuff.

An absolute gem.

2 hours on a train gripped by the history of The Greatful Dead!

[Egyptian Feast]

I reckon so, the bonus episodes are well worth £10 or so a year. He's done some great ones recently and they tend to run around 40 minutes to an hour.

Speaking of which, I was happy to see Jim Fielder from Blood, Sweat and Tears reappear in this week's episode

Spoiler alert

tripping with David Geffen and Laura Nyro, saying nothing, just playing the bass.

[close]

If there's one thing you can be certain of, it's that Jim Fielder is a bass player.

[centristmelt]

I'm glad you can get a transcript of each episode, because fuck me, it's an ordeal to actually listen to him.

[SteveDave]

Jim Fielder is a bass player.

I laughed out loud on my bike when his name came up on the Laura Nyro episode

[studpuppet]

Is his Patreon worth it for the extra content?

Yes - it's also worth it because it funds his wildly hedonistic lifestyle future research, so the best way of ensuring this gets to the full 500 episodes is to pay it forward. He also has an Amazon wishlist of books he needs for research, so that's another way of donating.