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Well, I'm Buzznight.
I'm the host of the Taken a Walk podcast and we love taking a look at the week in music history. And we'll go to the music history desk to my main man, Harry Jacobs.
Welcome back, Harry.
Hi, buzz, good to good to see you. Thanks for having me, not firing me after week one.
You did a fabulous job. All the reviews are pouring in, so let's give it another whirl here. So this is the week of November the twenty fifth, right.
It's correct, that's correct. Goings on, a lot of goings on.
I'm going to start where you and I have a favorite, and that's Bruce Springsteen. Big week for Bruce Springsteen. This is the this is the week. This is the album that changed everything for our man, Bruce. Nineteen eighty four, November twenty fifth is the release of studio album seven, Born in the USA, A Monster.
I'll never forget it because I was fortunate during that time.
I was working in Connecticut at I ninety five there during the week, but that's when I also had started my run at WNWFM, the place, the place where rock libs Harry and Boy was at an event at any WFM. When that album came out, we were wall to wall Bruce and we made a big deal about it, and it was fun.
That's an album when you think about albums that you you know, you might take with you on a desert island. Go okay, I could listen to this to me minus cover Me. That album had. Everything is perfect on that album. Cover Me always drove me crazy because it was a little poppy, a little dancy.
I never warmed up to cover Me. What's your other favorites there?
Oh, you know Darlington for sure, working on the Highway. You know, I loved Born in the USA. But I think I'm resentful about that song to some degree for the same reason maybe that he is.
And you know, Ronald Reagan co opted it famously.
Everyone looks at that song as this patriotic song, and it's not.
It's about how awful our country treated our veterans.
Right, there's nothing there's no reason to pound your you know, your fist and wave the flag when you hear Born in the USA.
I get the real fans understand that, right, Yeah, it's misunderstood for sure. Yeah. My favorite I think is Bobby Jean. I don't know. I love Bobby Jean.
He still hasn't answered the question whether Bobby jan was written for Stevie or not.
Right do you know the answer to that question. I don't think we'll ever know.
Born in the USA on this week in nineteen eighty four, This is the week that Led Zeppelin performed as a band for the for the last time with their original lineup. It was, you know, nineteen eighty I believe when you know when Bonham you know, passed away. But the last live show November twenty sixth, and it was at the Earl Court Arena.
Did you ever see them? No, I never did, unfortunately. I bet it would have been amazing to have seen them.
I know people who saw him at Madison Square Garden and just absolutely when you know, bonkers for it, just crazed. But never had the opportunity saw Robert Plant when he was in his rock mode after the end of Zeppelin. Would love to be curious to see him now with what he's doing. I think you talk about a guy who has reinvented himself in this format that he's in now with Alison Krause.
I think it's pretty cool.
He's singing some LEDs up on songs. They're just it's a very different tempo. He sings Black Dog and he sings you know, Kashmir or a whole Lot of Love, and it's I don't want to say it's a lounge version, but it's a slow down, different kind of kind of thing. I do have a very quick funny story about Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. In the mid eighties, Jimmy Page went and played the Worcester Centrum. We have a mutual friend in Rich Kreswick, who ran the Centrum and the Credential Center in New Jersey. And Rich was sitting in his office the night that Jimmy Page played the Worcester Centrum and there was a knock at the back door and someone radio to him, Rich, Robert Plant is at the back door, and you know the way Rich tells the story, he said, I didn't know if it was Harry or Butter. One of our friends like playing a joke on me that why would Robert Plant be at the back door the Centerm in Wooster when Jimmy Page is playing.
And Rich went to the back door and it.
Was within a short amount of time that they had that little reunion that was on MTV.
You know, last thing on Robert plant I classify him as the definition of aging gracefully. And the other person I would put into that category of aging gracefully who's so brilliant. There's probably a few others, But the other person that comes to mind for me is Mark Knopfler.
You know, oh yeah, yeah, Knefler is looks fantastic. He's a very interesting cat, you know, arguably, you know, for the guitar players in the room, one of those guys that everyone looks at and go.
You know, that's an interesting guy.
Doesn't play with a pick, there's a lot of fingerpicking, has a very unique sound. Always has Another guy, by the way, who wants to distance himself from the band that made him famous.
Yes, he wants nothing to do with Dire Straits.
This is the week in nineteen seventy six that the band's farewell concert, which was the last Waltz, came out.
And this is an interesting thing.
I don't know if it's an you know, we have there's a few years difference between our ages, and I don't know if that's what it is. But I was never a fan of the band. I never didn't like them. But they just, you know, they never caught my attention an interflup. Boy, they're fantastic and this music touches me at some level. You, on the other hand, were a big band guy, to the point where when we were at w CLX and Boston, you hired Robbie Robertson to be the station voice.
Yeah. Well, actually, truths be told.
I got it for free and got him to do the page of things because I knew he was hanging around some particular studio.
I don't know how I knew which studio it was, and.
I literally took a shot you talk about blind shots at something. I found the fax machine to that studio. I faxed over something saying, please get this to Robbie Robertson.
It was a page of.
Station I d's and various other positioning statements for the radio station.
And lo and behold. I think the way I ended up finding.
Out that he did that page of IDs is when it arrived in the mail a couple three days later.
Wow.
For those that don't know, Robbie Robertson has this deep and had this deep and very malifluous voice, raspy. He was a voice of I think Budweiser. That's right right at one point. So for those of you listening, if you want to treat that you didn't know about Robbie Robertson, you know, go to YouTube and find Robbie Robertson voice over and and you'll get that. And he was, you know, one of the voices on w c lex and Boston in the mid nineties.
But I was a big fan of the band, certainly because of the Bob Dylan association. I got to see Dylan and the band on the before the Flood tour actually, which was pretty incredible. I got to see the band play at the Academy of Music when they put the horns out there, which, by the way, people didn't like at first, but it was a brilliant show. And then of course the concert that you're referring to was captured by Martin Scorsese as one of the great concert films.
The interesting backdrop to all that.
Is that really we didn't know then that the band pretty much was falling apart at that point, and this was not you know, all the you know, the beauty and roses that it sort of was characterized in terms of the send off that was occurring for the band. Levon was very upset at this thing being put together, felt that Robbie had really kind of, you know, kind of stabbed the rest of the band in the back a bit over putting that show together. But you talk about some remarkable performances at that At that show, of course, the band Van Morrison was pretty amazing. The Joni Mitchell performance was striking. How that one occurred. It's still a great watch. And were you at ZLX when we had the remaining remnants of the band that we hired for the b in the hatshell?
Yeah, we did. I remember that.
I was just going to ask you, I said, I was just going to say, we did something with them.
I remember. I remember that.
By the way, what I remember is various members of our staff rolling into I'm sorry, walking into the bus and rolling out of the bus.
Because Levon wouldn't have it any other way.
As I as I recall, if he got everyone high as a lab rat.
In other words, I think that's that's the legacy that was told certainly by our friend mister Mathers.
That's right, That's exactly what I was thinking about.
I didn't want to didn't want to call him out anyway, there's there's the there's the brush with with with leve On.
Yeah.
You know what was amazing though about that show, Harry, was Look, it wasn't the band as we knew it. I think they had as supporting members this group called the Kate Brothers who supported them, but it was really, you know, the the surviving members. And the Levon part was amazing because we knew he had gone through a couple of bouts of cancer. And and by the way, when we saw him at that at that show, he looked like he had gone through a few bouts of cancer, no doubt, but he still played great. And the dude kept playing for many years after that, you know, in various forms. So that was really kind of a unique experience. I was kind of in awe of seeing them in that environment. Maybe I felt a little sad about it because it was in the original you know band, but they certainly sounded really good.
It's a tree.
It was a treat to hear that music, to hear, you know, to hear the remaining people play that together. It's you know, that's what happens, right, we're getting older, there's going to be remnants of these bands. This is the week that George Harrison released All Things Must Pass.
Brilliant, brilliant, a masterpiece I think to this day.
Yeah, for sure, you're familiar with that song run of the Mill. Oh I'm not.
That's a good deep track to check out.
You know there's another very underrated guitar player.
Oh my god, Yeah, there there's a There was a tribute to George Harrison that was attended by you know, Tom Petty and you know a bunch of people. I believe it was the I believe it was the Harrison Tribute where Prince was on stage playing the solo for while my guitar gently whips.
Do you ever see that?
Yeah, I'm not sure if that was either from that event or could that have even been at the Rock and.
Roll Hall of Fame. Possibly. It's a remarkable performance.
I had no idea that Prince could play guitar like that. You know, at one point, like Tom Petty's looking at George Harrison's kid, and Jeff Linn is on stage, all great players and people are looking at Prince going where did this come from?
Who knew? One of the biggest albums.
Of all time, The Wall came out this Week in nineteen seventy nine, and I remember what an important record that was and kind of being around people that loved and lived that music. That was a huge deal and a turning point in a way for you know, for that band, things kind of fell apart, yeah, around that.
And you know, when you think of albums as we knew them that were thread together with themes, that weren't just a collect of songs, that was the epitome of that. Certainly, there were others before it that were stage that way and set up and you know, sequenced in that manner.
There were others after that, but that.
Was the kind of the defining aspect of albums in the day that you'd start at the beginning and you'd go to the end and everything sort of was part of the story.
And the film made around it, right.
It was just they were just so far beyond anything run like Hell and Mother and Hey You and and those songs just I don't know why I never get into it when I was a young man, but now it's one of my favorites.
It's one of those things that's in my iTunes in my car a lot.
Did you ever have the opportunity to see them.
No, but I saw Roger Waters, which I wrestled with because he is widely considered to be a pretty anti Semitic guy.
That's right, that's an understatement.
And I'm Jewish, so he is, you know, anti Israel, and but boy, hearing him and seeing him on stage play those Pink Floyd songs was I saw him here in probably twenty twelve or twenty thirteen, and I was blown away.
You know, it's pretty cool now that David Gilmour has gone out for some dates. I think a few weeks back played Madison Square Garden for a couple of nights in a row. I think his daughter is part of the backing band as well in terms of being a vocalist, but got great reviews.
His daughter's a pretty good guitar player. And if you're for those of you David Gilmour fans, go to YouTube and search David Gilmore and his daughter and there's a video of the two of them in a pub in London somewhere doing wish you were here.
Funny story that I'll tell about David Gilmore. I think I probably have told you, Harry. But so when I was working in Columbus at w LVQ, Pink Floyd came in, they played, They were one of the they were the first band actually to play Ohio Stadium. So imagine this little Midwest town Columbus being overtaken by Pink Floyd coming in to do this date at at Ohio Stadium. I'm sure many more occurred, you know, with other artists.
Over the years.
And so mister Gilmore called in to my afternoon show as you know, like the afternoon of the show or you know, the show was going to be an evening show. Conveniently decided without any delays during the interview, I still have it. I should post it somewhere. Conveniently decided when I said welcome David Gilmour to QFM ninety six to just go, okay, what the.
F did he really?
And this was like before we had delay probably or you weren't even thinking about you know, this.
Guy was like right.
So I ended up seeing him a couple of hours after as we went to some reception before the concert started, and he got a real big kick out of that.
That's really funny. But that show was unbelievable.
They had like the I don't know Zeppelin whatever balloon flying over they were into those you know, theater theater aspects of it, and they sounded sensational. You know.
That's why I would love to have seen them all together. Now you get them in a couple of pieces. Last two things pop culture. We talked about the Mike Tyson Jake Paul fight last week. You know, I'm going to go first because I want, I literally want to go. We recorded that the day before the fight, and I had these grand predictions about what was going to happen. I called you on Saturday. We talked on Saturday. I said we need to go back. I need to change my prediction. This was, you know, terrible, and you said, just leave it as it is. Well, we'll we'll talk about it, you know, live next time. But I I want to know what happened to Mike Tyson before that fight. He was hurt when he walked into the into the arena, he tripped, he was wearing a knee brace.
He never got his footing.
His movements were really good, but he never got close to Jake Paul. And there was there's something else to me underlying that we have not heard about.
Jake Paul said, well, I took it easy on him.
But the first thirty seconds or forty five seconds of that fight, Mike Tyson came out for blood and hit him like that was the best you know, the best part of the fight, you know, was we're the first minute or two of it, and then Tyson just fell apart. And there's a clip of him in between like rounds six and seven, where he sits on the bench and it looks like he's crying. And that made me sad. I thought, this is not how you want your guy to go out. And I don't want to talk badly about Mike, but I feel like I'm this low.
I feel like I'm cheating.
I felt sad about it. I couldn't watch the whole thing because it.
Took me back to when Willie Mays went to.
The New York Mets to play and he ended his career basically as somebody who was striking out was not able to make that circus catch out in center field or whatever.
It just was like, all right, this is a.
Marketing ploy for everybody, frankly for Netflix, for the two fighters, for sure.
But it was hard for me to watch it because it just it was sad.
You know, when he walked out, I said to the guy I was watching it with, I said, I don't like to look on his face.
He looked troubled, he was looking down. He wasn't looking at Jake Paul.
The whole thing just we were sold to Bill of Goods and it wasn't ideal. So anyway, the other pop culture thing I wanted to talk about, I apologize to everyone for my predication.
By the way, Star Trek.
This is the week in nineteen sixty eight where the episode Plato's step Children aired on Star Trek, which cut brand new ground on multiple levels. William Shatner's character and her they were breaking some ground. Now it's you know, we see everybody with everybody right, We're a melting pot. It wasn't accepted in the same way in nineteen sixty eight. You a sci fi person where you were Star Trek and you were a Star Wars kind of person.
Generally no, but I was into Star Trek and one of my fixations around Star Trek was the fact that when I was in college, the college booked University Dayton booked Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, for a Star Trek convention event that the university was part of and so I bought a gorn outfit, gorn hat, worn ahead whatever, and I was the MC for the evening and I brought out Gene Roddenberry, who had to be referred to as the Great Bird of the Galaxies. And I remember after I did my little intro for him and walked by him as he was as he was going on stage, the sweet smell of bourbon came off of mister rodn Berry because he clearly had to do a little pregaming before his speech up there. But so I was a fan of that that that you know, that show obviously that cast the way it just sort of took us all by storm. I think I subsequently would watch others in the Star Trek franchise for a number of years and then I kind of gave up on it.
But brilliantly cast well ahead.
Of its time, and I was, you know, it was certainly something that I was fixated on when it came.
And that's this week in music and pop history.
I'm changing our little you know, our segment for for for a minute.
And you know why you can't you can do that because you can't. That's right again, because you can't. Well, thanks for listening to this episode of This Week in Pop Culture and Music History. Thank you Harry Jacobs for giving it to us. Thanks for listening to the Taking a Walk Podcast. We're gonna have a busy December. I could promise you that, in terms of guests, I don't want to let the cat out of the bag on the big teaser that we gave you last week still because it's supposed to technically happen tomorrow. So until it happens, I'm going to keep my yap shut on it. But I promise you we got a lot of good guests coming up on Taking a Walk through December. Appreciate your support of the Taking a Walk podcast. Please make sure you follow it at iHeart, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Share it with your friends, and thanks for listening.
