RockPopandRoll

Mar 10 2024 23

RockPopandRoll Podcast artwork

A look at music that was rock, pop, and radio of the 1980‘s, with takes on the greatest, the worst, the underappreciated, and the burned. It‘s a deep dive into the retro greatness of the decade, at the intersection where rock music, pop music, power pop, guitars, drums, memorable tunes, and guilty pleasures come together. Longtime radio rock DJ and music writer Rob Nichols hosts, along with his artist and writer friends, to dig into the music.

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Ep 42: Why the J. Geils Band Matters

Mar 10 2024 49 mins

More known as a party band than they were rock royalty, the J. Geils Band is still a rock band of the era that gets tossed aside, despite a decade of incendiary live shows and more hits than some may recall. One of my favorites. Played them loud. Learned some history too. I seriously rocked the “Blow Your Face Out” live cassette in my $2,000 brown Buick Skylark back in 1986. It

Ep. 41: Underrated Rockers: John Waite

Dec 04 2023 34 mins

John Waite was in The Babys, out front of two pop hits that both peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, ("Isn't It Time" and "Everytime I Think of You") His solo career started with a really good but forgotten 1982 debut album Ignition, which produced the single "Change". It didn’t chart on Billboard's Hot 100 during its initial release (June 1982) but was #16 rock track on A

Ep. 40: The Scandal Tracks

Oct 17 2023 32 mins

On this episode, take a tour with us - to the early 80’s - to Scandal, as we drop into the short history of the band that released an EP that was a scattering blast of five songs - including “Goodbye To You” and “Love Has Got A Line”. At the time, it was the best-selling EP in the history of Columbia Records. But did I ever really listen to, back in 1982 or 84 or 87 or wh

Ep. 39: The Rock and Roll Gospel of Henry Lee Summer

Aug 03 2023 42 mins

Henry Lee Summer latched on to the sound of pop and rock radio in the 80s and rode that bad boy to a couple of late-decade hits, and a handful of good, heartland rock and roll albums. But in his home state - Indiana - Summer was more than couple nice radio hits and a handful of albums. Weird that he could be, maybe? Really not. His story is like a lot of local-but-more-music heroes

Ep. 38: 80’s Roots Rock and Roll - What We Were Hearing

Jun 12 2023 73 mins

I thought it might be simple. Who were some of my favorite roots rock bands from the 1980’s and 90’s? And why? This episode turned into a deep dive into what still feels like it was only skimming along the surface of a genre that was hot for about five years and before fading back into where it was before, into a mostly forgotten sub-genre that I still love. "Roots Rock" was a

Ep. 37: Who Is Truth And Salvage Co. and Why Their New/Old Album Rocks

Apr 13 2023 21 mins

A band named Truth and Salvage Co. was formed in 2005, made a couple of albums, and broke up only to return in 2022 with a lost album that was released - again - with a sound that it should have always had. Late in 2022, the band came back, finding a nice way to revisit a career that sputtered and eventually splintered. It was 2009 when Black Crowes Chris Robinson signed the group

Ep. 36: 80s Rock Radio Hit Songs That Top 40 Missed (Mostly)

Feb 11 2023 33 mins

Rock hits but not Top 40 hits? What’s that really mean? We take a listen to some great throwbacks to a time when rock radio was more than day-after-day classic rock, same song, repeat cycle that it is today. Go back to when album rock stations (and for a brief time, Rock40 stations) made the radio a place for listeners to find a little bit of variety - and get surprised - with th

Ep. 35: Muscle Shoals, Bob Seger, and the Odd Story of Old Time Rock and Roll

Jan 13 2023 29 mins

Located alongside the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and the studios there helped create some of the most important and resonant songs in rock and roll. On this episode, we look back at bit of the history of the Muscle Shoals sound, a trio of FAME Studio house bands, including the great "Swampers", and how Detroit's Bob Seger fused their sound with his heartland rock to p

Ep 34: Why Am I Just Now Discovering Pat Todd and The Rankoutsiders?

Dec 07 2022 25 mins

Pat Todd has been called the most sincere rock and roll singer/songwriter on the planet. His first group, the LA-based Lazy Cowgirls, called it quits in 2004 after nearly 25 years together. Pat Todd, raised in Indiana, formed a new band, the Rankoutsiders. In them, I hear Jason and The Scorchers, the Georgia Satellites in their prime, cowpunk, and gassed up the guitars with bang-ba

Ep. 33: Remembering the Brilliance - and the Chaos - of Jerry Lee Lewis

Oct 31 2022 26 mins

The passing of Jerry Lee Lewis signifies the passing of one of the few remaining architects of rock and roll. That piano and that voice, recorded in a way that sounds like dim light, beers, AM radio rock and roll, cigarette smoke, and always the underlying idea that a fight might break out. He made music filled with gospel roots, country music, piano boogie woogie, fire, preaching,