Songs from the Dead: 10-Minute Histories of Legendary Songs

Axioms of Mediocrity
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Every week, we take one legendary song, uncover its dark history, and reinvent it with a brand new recording. Why? History usually smells like mothballs. We think our ancestors were stiff figures in black and white photos. This is a lie. They were just like us. They hated their bosses, got drunk, and fell in love. They just didn't have amplifiers. This podcast is a bite-sized exploration of music history. In less than 10 minutes, we uncover the weird, true origins of the world's oldest songs. Hosted by the band Axioms of Mediocrity. New episodes every Monday.

Episodes

  1. In the Pines: The History of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"

    4D AGO

    In the Pines: The History of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"

    You know the chorus: "In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines..." You might know the title as "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" or "Black Girl." But do you know what actually happened in the pines? This episode traces the history of a song that never settled on a single story. Across 100 years, "In the Pines" has been blamed on jealousy, on a train wreck, and on death. Each explanation appears. None quite fit. In this 10-minute deep dive, we explore: The Origins: Why "The Pines" wasn't a metaphor, but a literal place of exile in early America. The Evolution: How the song changed from Dock Walsh (1926) to Clayton McMichen. The Legends: How Lead Belly turned it into a collision of grief and death. The Revival: Interpretations by Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Dolly Parton. The Scream: Why Nirvana's Unplugged version brought the danger back. Along the way, we ask why some songs survive precisely because they leave their questions unanswered. The episode ends with a new, original re-imagining by Axioms of Mediocrity titled "Grave in the Pines." Subscribe for a new legendary song history every Monday.

    10 min
  2. Abdel Kader: When a Name Becomes a Rhythm

    FEB 9

    Abdel Kader: When a Name Becomes a Rhythm

    Abdel Kader is a song that feels immediate and overwhelming, even if you don’t understand a word. Today, many people know it from stadium performances by Khaled, Rachid Taha, and Faudel, where the name becomes a chant and the crowd moves as one. But the song did not begin as pop music. Long before amplifiers and concert stages, Abdel Kader lived in oral devotional traditions in western Algeria, sung by women’s groups using voice, hand percussion, and repetition. The lyrics were direct appeals for help and mercy, addressed to saints by name. Not metaphor. Not storytelling. A request, repeated until it took on force. This episode traces how that logic survived electrification, migration, and global success. From women’s devotional singing to early Raï recordings, from Khaled’s breakthrough version to the famous trio performances, the song kept its core intact. Along the way, the episode asks what happens when a name stops being information and becomes rhythm — and how repetition itself can carry meaning. The episode ends with a new interpretation that translates this logic into a secular setting.

    10 min
  3. Pastime with Good Company: When the King Is Bored

    FEB 2

    Pastime with Good Company: When the King Is Bored

    Pastime with Good Company is a song that sounds cheerful, innocent, and familiar. You may know it as The King's Ballad or King Henry's Madrigal by Jethro Tull. A Renaissance tune about pleasure, fellowship, and staying busy. It was written in 1513 by a young King Henry VIII, decades before history hardened him into a tyrant. At the time, Henry was everything a Renaissance king was supposed to be: athletic, educated, musical, and bored. This song was his defense of enjoyment, and his warning against idleness, which he called “the chief mistress of vices all.” The episode follows how this tune escaped the court and became a hit across Europe, then traces its strange afterlife. Over five centuries, the melody sheds its words, regains them, turns into dance music, atmosphere, historical signal, and finally a symbol of power rather than personality. Along the way, the episode asks what happens when pleasure stops being an argument and becomes a habit, and what it means when a song outlives the person who wrote it. The episode ends with a new version titled King’s Pastime.

    10 min
  4. Three Sailors: Famous, But Not Here

    JAN 26

    Three Sailors: Famous, But Not Here

    Three Sailors is a song many people recognize.And almost no one in the English-speaking world knows. The melody comes from Tri Martolod, a Breton folk song dating back to at least the eighteenth century. Sung for generations as a communal dance song, it tells a modest story: three young sailors leave home, cross the Atlantic to Newfoundland, and encounter a woman who remembers a promise made long ago. The song does not resolve the story. The sea calls louder than memory. Some return. Some do not. This episode traces how Tri Martolod lived for centuries in Brittany, then unexpectedly traveled across genres and borders. From Alan Stivell’s iconic folk-rock revival, to a 1990s French rap hit, to modern folk-metal adaptations, the melody moved widely while largely bypassing English altogether. Along the way, it asks how songs survive without becoming fixed, and why some melodies wait centuries before finding new words. The episode ends with a new English-language version of Tri Martolod, titled Three Sailors.

    10 min
  5. Gallows Pole: An Execution with an Audience

    JAN 19

    Gallows Pole: An Execution with an Audience

    Most people know Gallows Pole as a Led Zeppelin song. But the song is much older than that. And it was never really about the hanging. This ballad circulated across Europe for centuries under names like The Maid Freed from the Gallows or Hangman. The story is simple. Someone is about to be executed. People keep arriving. Each time, the same question is asked. Did you bring the money? Verse by verse, the song names the audience. Parents. Siblings. Friends. Almost all of them refuse to act. In this episode, we trace Gallows Pole from its early folk versions through interpretations by Lead Belly, Peggy Seeger, Bob Dylan, Odetta, and Led Zeppelin. Along the way, the focus shifts. From waiting. To witnessing. To spectacle. What changes is not the execution.It is what happens to the crowd. The episode ends with a new version of Gallows Pole that leans into repetition and discomfort, keeping the listener where the song always placed them. Watching.

    10 min
  6. Misirlou: A Melody That Refused to Stay Still

    JAN 12

    Misirlou: A Melody That Refused to Stay Still

    You know this song. Pulp Fiction. Dick Dale’s surf rock instrumental. Fast. Aggressive. All adrenaline. For many listeners, this is Misirlou. That version made the song famous, but it was not where the song began. Misirlou started as a love song in the Eastern Mediterranean, likely emerging from Greek and Ottoman musical traditions in the early twentieth century. The original lyrics describe an intense, almost obsessive attraction to a woman from another culture. Over time, the words were lost, but the melody traveled on. This episode follows Misirlou as it moves across languages, borders, and genres. From Greek cafés to Arabic dance halls, from immigrant recordings in New York to the surf scene in California, the song keeps changing shape while remaining unmistakably itself. The episode ends with a new version of Misirlou that brings the voice back into the music, not to restore a single original meaning, but to continue a tradition of transformation.

    9 min
  7. Greensleeves: A Song We Stopped Hearing

    JAN 12

    Greensleeves: A Song We Stopped Hearing

    “Greensleeves” is one of the most familiar melodies in Western music. Today it often sounds like a Christmas song, or background music, or something so old that it no longer asks for attention. That was not how it began. First published in England in 1580, “Greensleeves” was a song about rejection, longing, and resentment. A man addresses a woman who has taken his devotion and his gifts, and then refused him. The melody is beautiful, but the story underneath it is sharp and uncomfortable. This episode traces how “Greensleeves” moved from a Renaissance love song to a cultural cliché, and how its meaning slowly disappeared while the melody survived. The episode ends with a new version of “Lady Greensleeves” that strips the song back down to voice and guitar, and tries to hear it again.

    10 min
  8. John Henry vs the Machine: Why This Folk Song Still Matters Today

    JAN 12

    John Henry vs the Machine: Why This Folk Song Still Matters Today

    John Henry is a folk song about a man who races a machine and wins. Then he dies. The ballad emerged in the late nineteenth century from the African American work camps that built America’s railroads. It tells the story of a steel-driver who competes against a steam drill during tunnel construction, proving that a man can outperform a machine at a fatal cost. This episode follows the song from its origins as a work song used to pace exhausting manual labor, through early field recordings and folk revival performances, to later versions that turned John Henry into an American legend. Along the way, it asks a question that still feels uncomfortably current. What happens to human dignity when productivity becomes the only thing that matters? The episode ends with a new original version of John Henry.

    10 min
  • 8 Episodes

About

Every week, we take one legendary song, uncover its dark history, and reinvent it with a brand new recording. Why? History usually smells like mothballs. We think our ancestors were stiff figures in black and white photos. This is a lie. They were just like us. They hated their bosses, got drunk, and fell in love. They just didn't have amplifiers. This podcast is a bite-sized exploration of music history. In less than 10 minutes, we uncover the weird, true origins of the world's oldest songs. Hosted by the band Axioms of Mediocrity. New episodes every Monday.

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