101 Series Lesson 117: Harry Nilsson

There are not enough words, sometimes, to describe the greatness of an artist and their work. And the hunt for those words is usually done after an artist has passed from this mortal coil. Harry Nilsson is just such an artist. For Lesson 117 of the 101 Series we search for the right words to […]

101 Series Lesson 116: Aerosmith

There are lots of things that Boston is famous for – beans, clam chowder, trading Babe Ruth for an 86-year World Series drought. Boston is also home to the subject of Lesson 116 of the 101 Series – Aerosmith, also know as the “Bad Boys From Boston”. This week we rock New England and surrounding […]

101 Series Lesson 115: The Music of 1957

And now we have another installment in our look at pivotal years in music. For Lesson 115 we turn to the year 1957 when Leave It To Beaver and American Bandstand debuted on television, Dwight Eisenhower began his second term as President, and those pesky nuisances Rock ‘n’ Roll and Rhythm ‘n’ Blues were turning […]

101 Series Lesson 114 Part II: Return of New Wave

Ok, everyone! The intermission’s over. Time for now for part 2 of our look at the music of the early80s with Return of New Wave. For Lesson 114 we get back on the dance floor for more tunes from the days of roller disco, Madame Wong’s and maybe a few dozen cans of AquaNet. It’s […]

101 Series Lesson 114: It Came From New Wave Pt. 1

Every so often music regurgitates . . . a music genre is created and spews forth a nice new corporate name that everyone can latch onto. Out of the 70s came the regurgitation known as Punk Rock: the resulting spew left over became known as New Wave (and it was pretty good). For Lesson 114 […]

101 Series Lesson 113: Best of MTV Unplugged

Something weird happened at the MTV in the early 90s . . . after doing nothing but show Peter Gabriel and Michael Jackson videos for a decade, the channel put a bunch of strangers in a loft and slowly started giving up on music. Yet, around this same time MTV managed to give us one […]

101 Series Lesson 112: Michael Jackson, The Music Life

MJ. The King of Pop. The Gloved One. Owner of Bubbles. Brother of LaToya. Some stars get known by many titles. In Lesson 112 we focus on the pride of Indiana, Mr. Michael Jackson. In this episode we spin jams from a life’s work . . . literally a lifetime of material. (Mike started kinda […]

101 Series Lesson 111: Two-Person Bands

The world is made of dueling pairs. Good/Evil. No/Yes. In/Out/In/Out. Philosophers call it Duality. For everyone who has a Yin there is someone with a Yang, yearning for freedom. The world of music has its own version of Yin & Yang and for Lesson 111, we take up the topic of Two-Person Bands. Sometimes known as […]

101 Series Lesson 110: Queen

Some bands are lucky to be blessed with a true front man: The Stones. The Doors. Van Halen (sometimes). But . . . there is one band that was lead by a banshee-singing pan-sexual alien in furs and feathers . . . that band is Queen and that frontman is Freddie. For Lesson 110 of the […]

101 Series Lesson 109: Black Sabbath

The Devil has many names – Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Bieber, Minaj, Kardashian . . . . And even though The Devil gave you Jefferson Starship, he also gave you a little band called Black Sabbath. For Lesson 109, we plumb the depths of the seven circles and crank up the Sabbath, Hell’s house band. In the […]