Rob Harvilla's 60 Songs that Explain the 90s

I am digging this series of podcasts from Mr. Harvilla. Anyone else listening to them?

Thus far, he's done 45 - 60 minutes on the each of following songs:

You Oughta Know
Hey Jealousy
C.R.E.A.M.
The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)
November Rain
Mind Playing Tricks On Me
All I Want For Christmas is You
Mayonaise
I Want It That Way
Make 'Em Say Uhh!
Cannonball
Enter Sandman
You Get What You Give
Gonna Make You Sweat
Nuthin' But a G-Thang
Just a Girl
No Scrubs
Hunger Strike
Juicy
Man! I Feel Like a Woman
Stinkfist
Common People
Dreaming of You
I Got 5 on It
Scenario
Hyperballad

I have enjoyed his writing in the past, and he's got some pretty good angles for most of these pods. The I Got 5 on It episode, in particular, was really enjoyable to me.

some nice couplings there:

The Rain (November Rain) (Supa Dupa Fly)
Mayonaise (I Want It That Way)
Gonna Make You Sweat (You Get What You Give)
Just a Girl (Nuthin' But a G-Thang)

Sounds interesting, but appears to be a Spotify thing, not available as a podcast.

It pulls up via PocketCasts, someone might have a bootleg RSS feed.

It is a Spotify thing - it's from The Ringer, and they're now owned by Spotify.

two terrible tastes that taste worse together

Loved the latest episode on Nothing Compares 2 U

Thank you for recommending this. I've been making my way through and have really been enjoying Harvilla's voice. Good, simple concept of using 60 songs to tell bigger stories of trends, artist trajectories, and different genre pockets.

So far my favorites have been "All I Want For Christmas is You" and "Make 'Em Say Uhh!" Had a good laugh in the latter when he said, "Mystikal had the same relation to the beat as the Kool Aid Man had to a brick wall."

From the episode on Third Eye Blind:

We're talking songs that make you want to smooch your also-married-to-someone-else high-school sweetheart in the back of your minivan in the parking lot at your 15-year high school reunion.

holy fucking shit @ young Rob's interpretation of "Take Me Home Tonight"

possibly the funniest thing I've ever heard (in the "My Heart Will Go On" ep)

Assume you mean Eddie Money's song? I was thinking how it and the PSB' "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" appeared within a year of each other, and the way each brings in this legendary female pop voice halfway through the record in a way that's so haunting. I'd do a poll if it wouldn't be so wildly lopsided. (I do like "Take Me Home Tonight.")

yes, Eddie Money's song. As a young boy, Rob thought the song was a cautionary tale about the possible results from a one night stand. The lover from that night, voiced by Ronnie Spector, shows up at Eddie's doorstep to plead "Feed my little baby. Feed my little baaaaabbbaaaaay." The idea that she's singing "feed my little baby" and like that is just too much.

Definitely an interesting/creative mishearing.

I knew who the Jerky Boys were through my older brother, but I never owned an album or saw the movie. I cannot believe Pablo, Honey is named after a Jerky Boys call. I even started listening to PH more after Turrican's thread (and blowout). How does a band survive this?

the "no scrubs" episode was the only one i've heard and it was pretty enjoyable

I wish they'd put all of the songs referenced in each episode in the playlist

I've listened to most of them. Highly recommend the "Wonderwall" episode.

These are really good. I started bingeing them which was a mistake because Rob's normally very satisfying vocal cadence starts to feel gimmicky, but as long as I don't listen to more than 2 in a row I find most of the episodes immensely enjoyable, and usually pretty insightful. He also has really good guests most of the time, who actually have specific knowledge about the artist or scene in question and aren't just the usual suspects on the podcast circuit. And the interviews never overstay their welcome.

Rob occasionally drops an oddly sensual "yeah" while the guest is talking.

^lol

yeah that's gonna do it for me and message boards pic.twitter.com/GxI1gKnaf9

— rob harvilla (@harvilla) June 16, 2022

I am a regular listener to the show and enjoy it and how much I enjoy it surprisingly does not correlate with my own enjoyment (or lack thereof) of the song being profiled. Some of my least favorite music has been some of my favorite shows which is not the norm, for me anyway.

lol none stuck out in these last two eps

This is a great podcast. Is there a thread on ilm for music podcast recommendations?

The Mary J. Blige episode was one of the best, really outstanding stuff. I immediately emailed a musicologist professor who taught "Women in Music" when I was school, to tell her she ought to give it a listen.

this podcast just illuminated - for me, for the first time - the potential double meaning of the title of Blink-182's second album Dude Ranch

both hilarious and horrifying

as soon as he mentioned the possibility, i was like oh, got it, say no more

yes, that was good insight

whoa

i wonder what internal spotify nonsense caused them to stop appending the song being discussed at the end of the episode. could it really be as dumb as the episodes being original content that they don't have to pay rights for but the songs being stuff they do have to pay for, so it helps their bottom line if not everyone who listens through the episode also plays the song?

i have no idea but it probably won’t be a case of them paying or not paying for the song it will be a victim of some larger agreement between spotify and a rights holder about whether or not “spotify original” podcast content can contain their music (and it might be different per territory)

yeah its weird bc the song was not actually embedded in the episode -- queueing up an ep would add the podcast followed by the song, separately. So that doesn't quite track. But can't really imagine what else the reason would be.

oh i see. hmm dunno.

maybe they just gave up on the "podcast+song" experiment? i've never heard of it outside of the mentions on this show.

I see these are available on non-Spotify feeds, will check it out

In today's episode re "Enjoy the Silence" by Depeche Mode, Rob refers to "the great critic Neg Raggett."

I can proudly say I once served the great Ned Raggett a drink at the Pasadena McCormick & Schmick's, nearly 16 years ago now.

I've listened to a ton of these now and it's great. Haven't listened to the last few because the songs weren't enticing (Hootie, Lisa Loeb, etc), but I know he goes way beyond the title artist and I probably should, huh?

xp Pretty sure I called up Ned while he was doing a radio show c. 1999, and we briefly chatted about the Dead C.

Hootie one was good. Makes a good case for the band's strengths and the underappreciated world-weariness or social commentary in their lyrics. It does open with a lot of 80s baseball card material and "my life as a sports fan" material; that didn't do as much for me, but many here might find it very sweet and charming!

i need to dig into this more, i listened to an episode ages ago & really liked it

Hootie and Lisa were both fantastic!

^seconded.

I’m up to episode 58 and there hasn’t been a dud episode so far. I could listen to this guy recite the phone book.

lol at the Enjoy the Silence episode being structured around the "For the Masses" tribute album, a mostly forgotten album I listened to a whole lot in the late-90s and which actually got me back into depeche mode at the time

Ok I'll eventually get around to those eps (even though sports talk is equally unenticing)

I like the way he tells stories and his eye for banal personal details, so even the sports talk wasn't a total deal-breaker for a sports-hater like myself. YMMV of course.

lol at his pronunciation of Basildon

you can find "sports talk" in the works of David Berman as well

Not to take anything away from the great Ned Raggett but I do like his subtle habit of always referring to critics as "the great music writer x" or "the great critic x", just bigging up his colleagues.

I've tried to get both my 90s music-obsessed friend and his 90s music-obsessed 14 year old stepson to listen, without success.

my partner likes 90s music and absolutely hates it.

I did like the Depeche entry — then again I’m name checked in it. But also the detail about DJing for a college radio station only available on cable, as I’ve been there.

it can be patchy early on yes but that is not at all the rule in my experience of the series as a whole. skip at your peril imo

I don't want to name the two guests I heard, because I don't want to hurt any feelings here in case someone is buddies with them, but they were from 2021. Is that early? Neither guest enriched the song at all, but I may have simply listened to a couple songs that didn't really have much to enrich? I'll try a couple of others, maybe the ones you mentioned.

Hanif Abdurraquib on Gin Blossoms, Yasi Salek on Hole

Very much enjoyed both of those. The most obnoxious I've heard was Jay Caspian Kang on "Basket Case," which was weird because he more or less liked Green Day but hated that song. And also just didn't really have much interesting to say. (Music is not really his area of expertise.)

But to the point, yeah, I kind of consider the episode over when the guest appears, and then I keep listening if it's somebody interesting and not if not.

yes, Kang was the one i was thinking of.

"superfan" was a poor word choice on my part ... but Kang is a good example of someone they should've ditched.

enrichment is great, of course, but i'm happy with knowledge of the band and enthusiasm. basically, just nerd out with Rob.

The Oakland guys on the Luniz episode was a good example of the guests really bringing some expert knowledge.

Okay, I just listened to the New Radicals one, and Rob Sheffield is a good guest, not least because this sort of thing is totally in his wheelhouse as a guy who excels at showing boundless enthusiasm for pretty much everything.

Ha! Rob has kind of amazing ability to do that and still keep his dignity totally intact. A friend and I have interacted with him in a certain trivia league several of us ILX0rs are on and briefly ended up on the receiving end of that enthusiasm as a result which felt really good.

Also he's good in reverent mode, but the ones where he can loosen up are a bit more fun (listening to the Oasis one now, lol)

Interviews are hit or miss for sure, but VG is right that the good ones really add something.

I hit my first "backfire" episode. Previously my feelings about Counting Crows consisted of mild unexamined nostalgic affection, but now I think they're legit terrible and Duritz is an all-time awful singer and irritating whiner. I still enjoyed the ep though! I didn't bother with the Simmons interview; his Pumpkins appearance was one of the early ones that made me think the interviews were a waste of time.

Feel free to toss out good eps in this thread, at this point I've listened to most of the ones that I was drawn to, but you never know which ones are going to be surprisingly good based on the tangents and other artists he pulls in for background.

Yeah, same here!

I listened to the Oasis one, and it was ... OK. Oasis is innately funny, so there's that. But it's one where I made it through the whole thing (well, not much of the interview) without ever figuring out if Harvilla is at all a fan. Same thing with the New Radicals one, come to think of it. He just spends the whole time amusingly making fun of the group (however fair or good natured he may often be), but when he emerges on the other side I have no sense where he really stands. I'm not sure it matters, of course, just some cognitive dissonance on my end when he seems to have more affection for, say, Limp Bizkit than he does for an equally (or, more likely, less) shitty band. I listened to the Tool one, too, and he seemed to show some actual legit enthusiasm for the group, but right now it's an outlier among the ones I have heard.

I do like how each individual episodes sometimes seems to only glance at the state theme of the podcast, but taken as a whole they appear to be amounting to a good portrait of a period of time I remember well, even if I have no nostalgia for any of it, at least not in a "remember the '90s?" sense.

The most reliable ones, imo, are the rap and rnb episodes. I don't think I've disliked any of those so far and moreover they tend to be peak eps for me (out of my recent listens, the DMX and Bone Thugs ones were both great), though I also find the whole project remarkably consistent so ymmv.

I liked the Oasis one, because I am embarrassed by my own brief but intense teenage love for them, so that tone worked. But that plus the Pulp one suggests he's maybe better off focusing on American music (Spice Girls ep wasn't bad though iirc?); all three of those were a little too focused on the UK music press. Compare to the Tori and Fiona Apple eps, where the (heinous) US media coverage is important but not quite as dominant in the analysis.

I thought the Alice in Chains one was good. Definitely made me appreciate the band more than I ever have, and I thought Chuck Klosterman was a fine guest.

I bet Bone Thugs one is great, got the Ohio connection! I think my problem is that the ones I have been looking forward to the most I have, ironically, been saving for later (like Missy, or Tori, NIN - more Ohio!, or Fiona, or Aaliyah, or Pearl Jam, or "Torn").

NIN was great, "Torn" was really good for the backstory and different versions (all the more so since I've never liked that song).

"Macarena" also fun for backstory and tracking the versions.

For sure, same for Whoomp! There It Is.

listened ages ago so memory may not be reliable but I enjoyed the guests on Billy Ray Cyrus and Brandy/Monica episodes v much - didn't see how he could get lots of mileage out of either song but they added a new dimension

have only listened to a few of these but i highly recommend the one on "mind playin' tricks on me"

xp yeah the guest for Billy Ray was really great

I have actually found that I like the episodes more for songs I don't like very much compared to songs I do enjoy.

For sure, same for Whoomp! There It Is.

Yeah, using Whoomp to talk about the whole history of Miami bass and 2 Live Crew was really good and interesting.

I have actually found that I like the episodes more for songs I don't like very much compared to songs I do enjoy.

Same, that's why I haven't listened to the Missy, Aaliyah, etc. eps and I'll probably listen to Limp Bizkit before those.

fwiw, the Missy and Aaliyah episodes are both good.

my favorites for either Rob’s telling, the guest’s input, or both

Mary J Blige -Real Love
Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
Gin Blossoms -Hey Jealousy
Tom Petty - It’s Good To Be King
Hootie - Only Wanna Be w You
Erykah Badu - Tyrone
Bonnie Raitt - I can’t make you love me
Hole - Doll Parts

i’ve missed a bunch but these are the one’s immediately to mind

I said upthread that I really liked the Sinead O'Connor and Tori Amos episodes, can't remember exactly why now though

And Alanis Morrisette

oh yes! Sinead & Tori both A++ episodes

Tori Amos one was great (didn't listen to the interview).

Fiona Apple one is even better, even liked some of the discussion.

Whoa, what a way to come back (have not listened yet).

Wow. I figured he was saving Teen Spirit for the final run, but it worked out because it gave time for Courtney to become a "60 Songs" fan. Looking forward to listening!

So I'm about 20 minutes into the interview, and I'm finding it... rather hard to listen to, in the most literal sense. Love is talking a mile a minute but mumbling like Juliette Lewis on Yellowjackets, and her Skype connection from England isn't the greatest. Nothing really revelatory so far -- more of the conversation so far has been about Billy Corgan than Kurt Cobain -- I think I might have to bail on this one, and maybe I'll come back and listen to the rest in small doses.

INCOHERENT

I went into her interview with Marc Maron a short while ago with the best of intentions, but I lasted less than 10 minutes.

I started to slag her without listening earlier but deleted because I thought that seemed a little shitty. But I wonder if he tried to get Grohl and couldn't. I would much, much, much rather listen to him talk about the song than Courtney Love.

I've made it through a decent chunk of the interview, and I mean, Courtney's is Courtney, but, I mean, Courtney Love is a force of nature and national treasure, right? She's a walking study in demonology! I think it's a good interview. Rob did a decent job trying to keep from getting thrown off this bucking bronco of pontification. I wish he had pulled out his bass when Courtney was trying to get him to accompany her on the Smells Like Teen Spirit draft lyrics. He has made no secret on this podcast of being a bass player in a former life.

"You know that thing, imposter syndrome?"
"Yeah."
"I've never had one day of it."

I would much, much, much rather listen to him talk about the song than Courtney Love.

Borrrrrrring. J/k but not really, I don't know that I've heard Grohl say anything especially interesting in all of his talking head appearances. I wasn't really bothered by rolling with Courtney's stream of consciousness in the WTF interview, at least with her you'll get some surprises.

Incomprehensible. But in the end I’m reasonably glad I stuck with it. I found the endless namedropping and the pinball ricochet from topic to topic — often with no context at all — maddening, but by halfway through I was rolling with it, not trying to follow any of these little sidequests, taking them like random interruptions from a separate feed. I’ve never spent any time “with” Love, so this glimpse of her was sort of illuminating. I don’t 100% buy her re-framing of Kurt and her insistence that he never, ever told anyone the truth, but it adds a colour, a new layer of depth, to the mental image I have of that scene. I feel like Rob threaded the needle about as well as anyone could there — not 100% humouring her, but playing along just right, the goldilocks balance of respect and irreverence/skepticism.

And Rob’s essay/performance was, as always and maybe moreso, excellent.

xp: couldn't disagree more, but so be it!

I usually find Grohl to be interesting and authentic when I hear him speak, especially when he's telling stories from those times, talking about Kurt, admitting to ripping off funk drummers, etc.

Stream-of-consciousness, endless-namedropping, topic-ricocheting Courtney Love sounds like a nightmare to me.

I'll listen, though. Def wanna hear Rob's essay.

The only time I've heard Dave Grohl speak at length was on his episode of WTF which was - holy shit - over ten years ago now. I remember it being a good chat.

He was good on one NPR show or another after his book came out, very engaging dude. I would definitely listen to him. But I love Courtney, so I'm sure I'll enjoy this even if it's a mess. (How could it not be a mess? That's her brand. But a smart mess.)

I'm really enjoying the first 20 mins so far and guessing the Wesley Willis and Daniel Johnston dives are more fun than 2 hours with Courtney.

It actually settles down and gets better in the last 45 min or so, with Courtney singing the unused lyrics to Teen Spirit, talking more directly about Kurt, etc.

Interview was a bit wild but absolutely worth it for that section. Asking Rob to play the guitar part and listening to him squirm was surreal and fantastic. Glad show is back.

Here’s the thing:

With this Courtney conversation - and his lovely essay - for 2 hours and 45 minutes, Kurt was alive. He wasn’t past tense, he wasn’t in pain, he wasn’t od’ing. Rob & Courtney kept him alive as a songwriter, as her then-boyfriend, as a person and not a myth and for me it was fucking magic. It made me happy.

Think whatever you want about Courtney but she understood the assignment and I love her for it. And I don’t think she does that with just anyone. I think Rob being genuine & open & unjudgemental made that possible.

the eurypides medea NYT bit was v funny

oh and her brief Jeremy cover lol