The Story of Rock and Roll: S6E2 The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show

Season 6 episode 2 went out live on 12 January 2023 on Rebel Rock Radio, once again the live show was ruined by the load shedding issues we are suffering with in South Africa.  Power out for around 6 hours every 24 hours so the cell phone towers just cannot cope.  The show kicked off with Aaron Keylock and cool slow bluesy track called ‘Just One Question’.  The slowish start was kicked into touch by Pat Travers and his party anthem ‘Snortin Whiskey’.  The Cult with ‘King Contrary Man’ was a breath of fresh air, Electric has stood the test of time, Rick Rubin did an amazing job and Billy Duffy was just magnificent on this album.   
Sadly, we heard about the passing of Jeff Beck this morning.  He died suddenly after contracting bacterial meningitis.  We took a listen to a track he did with Ozzy Osbourne on the latest Ozzy album (A Top 10 TSORR album for 2022), called ‘A Thousand Shades’.  I interspersed quite a bit of Jeff’s work throughout the show.  TSORR is all about guitar driven music and Jeff Beck was one of the finest exponents of that.  RIP Jeff.  On a happier note, fellow Yardbird Jimmy Page is doing just fine and turned 79 this week.  To celebrate I allowed ‘Whole Lotta Love’ to make its TSORR debut.  It was a bit like Judas Priest getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, everyone knows they should have been there but for some reason it took a long time.  Iron Maiden and Burning Witches out of Switzerland followed on .

Celebrating out the anniversary of the launch of a track that changed everything in 1991 was a highlight of the show. I am talking about Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, released this week 32 years ago.  Don’t you just feel ancient now? 😊.  We followed it with another classic from 1991 in the form of ‘ Bullet In The Head’ from Rage Against the Machine.  Poison and Bon Jovi represented the ‘80s and then we took in another track in the new series I am calling ‘Songs that could be written about South Africa’, Tom Petty with ‘Straight Into Darkness’.  From there it was goosebump time, Springsteen off his On Broadway album and a perfect version of 'My Hometown' originally on the Born In The USA album.  It's the lyrics and the way he tells the story that is just so visceral.

This show is probably as mellow as TSORR gets so we did some ACDC, Airbourne and Slayer to restore some balance before checking out this weeks track in the weekly Immortals section.  This is where we take an immortal rock song that is longer than 7 minutes and is as iconic as iconic can be.  David Bowie would have been 76 this week so it was fitting to feature 'The Width of a Circle' off The Man Who Sold The World as this weeks immortal track.  From there is was the downhill run, two more tracks to say cheers to Jeff Beck, ZZ Top's Rough Boy where Jeff takes a solo and a cover of 'Like A Rolling Stone' off the Chimes of Freedom compilation with Seal on vocals , it is absolutely superb.  We ended with some heavy stuff from Arch Enemy and Deangersmith off his brilliant Lead Me to Your Taker (Disable The Corrupt) album and a powerful swipe at the massive overreach we experienced during the pandemic.  
Artists featured:  Aaron Keylock, Pat Travers, Metallica, Rainbow, The Cult, Michael Monroe, Ozzy Osbourne, Danko Jones, Ignite, Therapy, Led Zeppelin, Burning Witches, Iron Maiden, Coheed & Cambria, Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine, Poison, Bon Jovi, The Temperance Movement, Sons of Liberty, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen, ACDC, Airbourne, Slayer, Porcupine Tree, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, Jeff Beck & Seal, Deangersmith, Arch Enemy, Obituary, Laura Cox
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