Andrew Hickey’s History of Rock Music in 500 Songs podcast (& books) — discuss!

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The one problem with Andrew Hickey is that he's a firehose of content, so I can't find this post (I think a Twitter thread?) - but there is a great statement from him about the fact that he's turning up at the top of some podcast charts, and he's started to get people finding him through that who are used to the "Hi and welcome to the podcast, let me recap the premise and where we are at this point on the journey, in this 45 minutes we will be doing this, my guests will be these people, here's how I know them" and so on, in a very structured way.

Whereas, he is operating in a different context and lineage, so he gets a lot of "why don't you do it this way?" tips from people who are being friendly and helpful and incredibly fucking rude.

Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 09:57 (one year ago) link

I probably sound like a sycophant but everything about the show is perfect to me. Most of my favourite music books are well-researched and analysed hard fact rather than opinion-based stuff or hearsay (one of my hobbies is writing Wikipedia articles), and often I find myself put off by podcasts where it’s two people laughing while reading a Wiki page verbatim and saying things like “and at the same time you’ve got so and so happening” as though that’s worth any one’s time. Andrew’s style is perfect to me. He thinks harder and more critically than almost anyone I know of who has written or broadcast about popular music.

One thing I will say is I’ve started listening to Cocaine and Rhinestones because Andrew’s mentioned it so often, and though that’s good and I’ve learnt plenty, it reminds me how well Andrew put things in context. The host of that podcast will quite often mention specifically American things and provide no background for listeners outside the States.

houdini said, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 13:38 (one year ago) link

The main problem with Cocaine & Rhinestones is that dude's voice, makes everything sound so dramatic and aggressive even when it's the driest stuff. Hickey's Eeyore delivery I can deal with better.

Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 13:45 (one year ago) link

Yeah the C&R guy is definitely putting on a "podcast voice" in a way that Hickey doesnt, which is another +1 for Hickey.

Also (and I admit this is mostly just my own hangup) I have to admit that C&R became slightly ruined for me when younger people I know who previously couldnt give a shit about country started trying to tell me stuff like "a lot of people think country music is just about trucks and dead dogs, but actually its pretty FUCKED UP when you dig into it, for example did you know..." and its like on the one hand I'm glad that this podcast has turned you onto a genre you'd previously dismissed, but also yes, thank you for the newsflash, i did actually know that country music is good, welcome to the last 100 years bud

nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 14:08 (one year ago) link

I know enough about country music to know it's not just about trucks and dead dogs but not enough to actually know any country songs about trucks or dead dogs. Suggestions welcome (ideally involving both).

Alba, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 14:34 (one year ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIEtYS4iS04

Left, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 14:40 (one year ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49gL9hOXoio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILTZsn5spxM

(Alba I have collected a few country trucking records over the years, I guess something like 25 LPs, you’re welcome to come round and marvel at them! Can’t think of any favourites that also include dog action.)

Tim, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 14:46 (one year ago) link

I have yet to really get into Cocaine & Rhinestones, mainly because I keep remembering how insufferable the guy is on Twitter.

link.exposing.politically (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 14:49 (one year ago) link

houdini said OTMFM. Just finished the latest episode on James Jamerson's "I Was Made To Love Her" -- I've been waiting for this one for a long time, and Hickey did a fantastic job.

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 14:53 (one year ago) link

Country has more than its share of truck songs, yes. And dudes are still writin' em. The occasional woman too.

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 14:53 (one year ago) link

Yeah, I had to stop following the C&R guy on Twitter so it wouldn’t ruin my enjoyment of his podcast.

that's not my post, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 14:53 (one year ago) link

I love Tyler Mahan Coe on his podcast and on Twitter. And on Your Favorite Band Sucks.

banjoboy, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 22:53 (one year ago) link

That last one is the one I just can’t stomach, sorry.

2-4-6-8 Motor Away (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 22:59 (one year ago) link

Your favourite band may suck, but not anywhere near as much as that podcast sucks.

an incomprehensible borefest full of elves (hardcore dilettante), Wednesday, 26 October 2022 00:53 (one year ago) link

two weeks pass...

Enjoyed the AMM segment of the "See Emily Play" episode. Imo a nice thing about the sheer scale of the project is that it allows those sorts of connections room to breathe in a relatively unforced way.

New York Review of Wooks (swim), Wednesday, 9 November 2022 17:03 (one year ago) link

I loved this episode, and I'm not a Barrett fanatic. The way he framed it was, for me, unexpectedly very moving.

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 9 November 2022 17:30 (one year ago) link

yeah this was one of my favourites, I love Barrett-era Floyd which if anything put more pressure on this one to be good, and it lived up to it entirely. bonus on The Incredible String Band is also a good un.

link.exposing.politically (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 9 November 2022 17:38 (one year ago) link

xp 100%. I'm also not especially attached to Barrett's work but I thought that Hickey's treatment of the meta-discourse around it was a great example of what this series does best.

New York Review of Wooks (swim), Wednesday, 9 November 2022 18:08 (one year ago) link

two months pass...

catching up on bonus eps and wow fuck John Fahey, don't think I had any idea

Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 25 January 2023 15:56 (one year ago) link

One of the worst things about this series is learning just how many of my favourite musicians were garbage humans.

The land of dreams and endless remorse (hardcore dilettante), Wednesday, 25 January 2023 16:00 (one year ago) link

Which bonus episode discusses John Fahey? I think I've listened to them all but I don't remember that one.

JRN, Wednesday, 25 January 2023 17:19 (one year ago) link

Fuck, I really need to proofread my posts! John Martyn, not Fahey.

Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 25 January 2023 18:50 (one year ago) link

Artists with similar names that you get mixed up

enochroot, Wednesday, 25 January 2023 20:16 (one year ago) link

According to his biography, John Fahey caused a lot of trouble, but mostly to himself.

Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 25 January 2023 20:21 (one year ago) link

Fuck, I really need to proofread my posts! John Martyn, not Fahey.


I just chalked not remembering the Fahey episode up to my terrible memory, but yes, I remember that episode and it was awful. I never liked John Martyn, and since listening to that ep I don’t have to ever bother myself about trying to force myself to dig Solid Air ever again.

The land of dreams and endless remorse (hardcore dilettante), Thursday, 26 January 2023 00:46 (one year ago) link

two months pass...

From the Patreon email:

Early Access! Episode 164: "White Light/White Heat" by the Velvet Underground is finally here!

As some of you have seen me complain about, Spotify does a thing where if you upload a file and then fix it, it never corrects the fix, so I get people complaining for literally years about some tiny glitch that I didn't notice when uploading but fixed within an hour.

This episode is *three and a half hours long* (it's one of those stories where I don't even mention the first of the band members until an hour in) and was recorded and edited under more than usually stressful circumstances, so I'm sure that somewhere in there there is a glitch that Tilt or I missed.

Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to listen to this three-and-a-half-hour long episode a day before it goes live, and if you see any horrible glaring thing in there, let me know. If you don't want to do that, just wait til first thing tomorrow morning and it'll be live in the main podcast feed and linked here as normal. I'm doing this because normally if there *is* an error, someone here is the one to point it out.

(NB I'm not talking about mispronunciations and so on -- I'm not going to rerecord the entire thing -- but if there's a bad edit or something, do let me know, or an *easily* fixed factual error that can be fixed by snipping a sentence. Other stuff has to just be errata. Indeed, I have already noted one erratum which will go in the notes -- I say at one point they didn't play in New York "for the rest of the sixties", when in fact they did at least one performance in 1967)

Also, I'm rather brittle at the moment, so preemptively please don't do any "joking" pointing out of fake errors, or "criticism" that amounts to "I wouldn't have made the episode this way, it's boring". This really, really, took a lot out of me, and if you don't like it, that's your right of course, but I don't need to hear it.

The land of dreams and endless remorse (hardcore dilettante), Sunday, 2 April 2023 17:55 (one year ago) link

And then, of course, a link.

The land of dreams and endless remorse (hardcore dilettante), Sunday, 2 April 2023 17:55 (one year ago) link

listening to it right now

Camaraderie at Arms Length, Sunday, 2 April 2023 17:57 (one year ago) link

Just in time. I finally caught up after listening from the beginning. Was wondering if/when he would tackle VU since he skipped their first lp.

that's not my post, Sunday, 2 April 2023 18:50 (one year ago) link

50 minutes in and we've embarked on what promises to be a detailed biography of La Monte Young, no mention of any member of the Velvet Underground yet, brilliant stuff.

Camaraderie at Arms Length, Sunday, 2 April 2023 18:56 (one year ago) link

Finished this about an hour ago. Ridiculously informative, meticulously researched (which accounts for both its length and, to a degree, the delays in getting it finished), a few surprising mentions/relationships…just endlessly engaging.

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Sunday, 2 April 2023 20:12 (one year ago) link

oh my god just got to the part where nico talks about gender stuff shortly before the 2 hour mark. _very_ cisgender of her, haha.

Kate (rushomancy), Tuesday, 4 April 2023 20:12 (one year ago) link

45 minutes in and he’s still reading off content warnings.

J/k this was good. I sensed he was tiptoeing around the Todd Haynes documentary trying not to duplicate info from it. But I feel as if he gave a good framework for understanding what the group chose to do at each turning point in their lifetime.

Josefa, Tuesday, 4 April 2023 21:07 (one year ago) link

This episode gave more time — and respect — to Yule than Haynes’s film did.

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 4 April 2023 21:31 (one year ago) link

Man, I need to find 2.5 hours to listen to this pronto.

Beatles in My Passway (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 12:16 (one year ago) link

Haynes bio shoehorned Yule in near the end like the after-rehab coda of a Behind the Music episode.

Beatles in My Passway (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 12:22 (one year ago) link

Damn, if I listen to this along with the Jokerman podcast that's been going through every VU and Lou Reed, John Cale, and Nico album, I'll have listened to far more hours of podcasts about this band than albums (tbh I never really listened to any of it until the last year).

change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 13:55 (one year ago) link

Interesting episode but yeah time consuming. Does give some interesting background on the avant garde that Cale came out of. Still need to get more Lamonte Young.
Does a beginner listener have the stamina to listen through 3+ hours of the history behind the band history or do they need to tune in a couple of hours in.
Pretty in depth, like.

Stevo, Wednesday, 5 April 2023 14:00 (one year ago) link

Haven't listened to this one yet, but for the longer episodes he tends to spend a majority of the time building context and setting the scene, and then gives a reasonable condensed summary of the band. I often find the tangential stuff more engaging than the main act. For instance, in the Byrds episode it felt like he spent more time discussing Coltrane and the history of modal jazz than he did discussing the Byrds, which worked just fine for me.

enochroot, Wednesday, 5 April 2023 14:28 (one year ago) link

Just wanted to drop by and say that after listening to the first ~25 episodes and losing a bit of interest (more so found I didn't have time to give it the attention it needed) I bought the books and am loving them. Super readable and rich; I've picked up a ton of detail I missed in podcast form.

Indexed, Wednesday, 5 April 2023 18:55 (one year ago) link

I had a similar reaction -- I was too impatient to listen, but I've read all the episode transcripts on his website. The VU episode is great.

Brad C., Wednesday, 5 April 2023 19:04 (one year ago) link

This is a good tip, thanks.

Beatles in My Passway (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 19:30 (one year ago) link

What is this weird cover of Bowie’s “Andy Warhol”?

Beatles in My Passway (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 19:33 (one year ago) link

^ Sounded like a demo of Dana Gillespie's version

Josefa, Wednesday, 5 April 2023 20:04 (one year ago) link

Yep, it’s on the Bowie Divine Symmetry box. If I hadn’t heard it before, I woulda been pretty baffled.

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 21:49 (one year ago) link

The podcasts are extraordinary documents but I've only listened to maybe 10 as I find them hard work. Listened to the VU one on a long walk and, yeah, what I said in the first sentence: extraordinary, but was flagging madly by the end. I have no idea how he navigates so much research. Like, where one episode ends and another begins, or how to decide what to include, what to leave out. I can see why he's feeling pretty 'brittle' tbh.

Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 21:53 (one year ago) link

Right. To me podcasts are like audiobooks. On the one hand I like to hear someone else speaking as a way to get something into my head. On the other hand it’s way too much information for me to retain coming through without the ability to constant vary the speed, to double back and reread or look ahead or any of the things that make physical books and to some extent ebooks such an amazing technology.

Beatles in My Passway (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 6 April 2023 00:58 (one year ago) link

I really liked his Monkees book. I assume I will eventually buy these books but may get the one about The Kinks first.

Beatles in My Passway (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 6 April 2023 01:02 (one year ago) link

I’ve been trying to listen to some of a Twin Peaks podcast by a guy whose writing I really like, and they’re interesting, but so insanely detailed… like he’ll spend almost 2 hrs. 15 mins. dissecting even one of the weaker eps. in the depths of S2. The folks who do these podcasts are so obsessive that unless you’re a fellow super-obsessive, I don’t know how you can have the stamina for them.

hypnic jerk (morrisp), Thursday, 6 April 2023 01:13 (one year ago) link

I, too, find this podcast to be overwhelming in the amount of detail. I usually listening while running or dog walking or driving but I can never devote 100% of my attention and miss out on long stretches of info.

That said, he provides more detail than I really need in my life so it’s no big deal. I wish he didn’t spend quite so much time on the context/background stuff and spent more time on the song in question.

tobo73, Thursday, 6 April 2023 02:08 (one year ago) link


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