Originally published at: Take a deep dive into rock history. 500 songs deep. - Boing Boing
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“Savory” Truffle? Really? George is gently tut-tutting from the afterlife.
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Generally the episodes have expanded as the bands and songs become more well known, and more of their history (and future) need to be mentioned to put the song in context.
There’s a four hour episode on the Grateful Dead (insert Grateful Dead gig metaphor here 
) which really doesn’t drag on as it remains interesting all the way through. (YMMV, obviously)
Also, if you want bonus episodes, on bands and songs not really part of the narrative, or tangential to other stories he tells, then sign up for the Patreon.
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From Bob Knetzger…
This seems like it might be interesting… the way to tell is this podcast is a “rock guy” podcast, though, is to see how they talk about Yoko Ono… if they repeat the “she broke up the Beatles” shit, then that’s a nah…
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I haven’t heard any of the Beatles segments yet, but I very much doubt he takes that tack. He spends a lot of time highlighting both racism and misogyny in the music industry. He often refuses to use racial and misogynist slurs in lyrics and quotes.
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Good to know! Lots of youtubers/podcasters/critics/writers on the history of popular music just end up reinforcing that shit, so I’m generally wary of such media. I’ll have to check this out then!
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He’s wonderful, and a very progressive person. I’ve been listening in order for a year now (not quite through his 2020 posts) and it’s so good I’m backing him at a high level on Patreon to listen to the bonus episodes, which are equally good. It’s the deep dive college course on the history of popular music I’ve been looking for all my life - highly recommended!
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This is a fantastic podcast. The Patreon bonus episodes are worth the price of support.
I’ve listened to all the podcasts available and I started over. There is a lot of information to digest.
I can’t recommend this podcast enough.
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What everyone else has said.
I’ve been supporting Andrew since before this project started (he wrote a wonderfully funny novel about techbros and crypto - The Basilisk Murders - which I highly recommend, amongst other things.)
I know next to nothing about popular music, or rather, I didn’t before I started on this, but I have rarely felt as though I was expected to know anything more than the names of really famous singers/bands/songs.
The format reminds me a little bit of Carl Sagan or James Burke - he will start a story somewhere utterly unexpected and demonstrate why and how it inexorably led to the creation of whatever song or group he is talking about.
And, as others have noted, he is very quick to acknowledge when a position of white cis privilege may lead him to an assumption that may be inaccurate or be a misunderstanding, he is very, very keen to make sure that women get their dues, and he pulls no punches when dealing with some very, very objectionable men.
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