A few weeks back we lost one of the greats – ZZ Top bassist and singer Dusty Hill.
This week on NSTS we pay tribute to Hill by looking back on his life, including his cello-playing high school days, how he came to be the bass player in ZZ Top, the time he accidentally shot himself in the abdomen, and the events leading up to his death.
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Ten years ago we lost Amy Winehouse, a shepherd of the pop culture past whom Bob Dylan called “the last real individualist”.
This week NSTS examines the highs and lows of Winehouse’s tragic life – her love for the girl groups of the 60s, her rise to fame, the struggles she endured with substance abuse, and her very sad and untimely end.
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Creem magazine writer Jeffrey Morgan returns to the show this week to unveil his very unusual NSTS kin vibration playlist. When I express my lack of understanding in his choices, Jeffrey uses the movie “The Man Who Fell To Earth” to explain. And it does make sense.
Jeffrey and I also discuss his Van Halen Diver Down record review for Creem, with began with a warning that it was “an exceptionally vicious kick in the teeth to Van Halen fans everywhere”. The band was not at all pleased about the scathing review, and Jeffrey contends that as a result, Van Halen recorded a much better follow-up with 1984. Can he prove it? Listen and find out.
Morgan’s playlist:
Lou Reed – Metal Machine Music A1
Lou Reed – Metal Machine Music A2
Neil Young – Arc
Lou Reed – Metal Machine Music A3
Lou Reed – Metal Machine Music A4
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Remember Creem magazine? Remember Lester Bangs? This week’s NSTS guest, author and rock critic Jeffrey Morgan, worked for both of them. His new book, Rock Critic Confidential, opens with the original handwritten letter Morgan received from Lester Bangs, on Creem letterhead, inviting him to write album reviews for the magazine in 1974.
Rock Critic Confidential is a fantastic read done in the style of a magazine, and includes all of the greatest moments of Morgan’s writing and photography career. In Part One of my discussion with him, we talk book highlights – Morgan’s chat with KISS from 1974 when they played a Toronto strip club, the time he administered a Rorschach inkblot test to Gary Numan, his three-hour lunch with Lou Reed, and chats with Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, Stan Lee, and more.
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Dark and mysterious Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards vanished on February 1, 1995, and was never heard from again.
Was it a suicide, or was it staged to look like one? This week NSTS examines the life of the intellectual poet, the events leading up to his disappearance, and the clues left behind that led some to believe Edwards is still alive.
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It’s my privilege this week to be joined once again by Canadian great Murray McLauchlan, who returns to the show to discuss his new record Hourglass, available everywhere July 9.
Murray always has some great stories for me, and he brings in another handful of songs that mean something to him. We chat about Sinatra, Tom Thomson, Ray Charles, the healing power of music, and what it really means when people crave fame.
McLauchlan’s playlist (on Spotify):
Bob Dylan – Blowin’ in the Wind
Roy Orbison – Pretty Woman
Frank Sinatra – I’ve Got You Under My Skin
Ray Charles – Come Rain or Come Shine
Blossom Dearie – Now At Last
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This week on NSTS we look at the life and death of one of rock’s most polarizing icons, singer Scott Weiland.
Weiland has always been an intriguing figure, with a voice like Bowie crossed with Lennon, a wild and chaotic stage persona, and a decidedly perplexing personality. This episode examines that personality in depth through Weiland’s own eyes, and also from the perspectives of those closest to him amidst the madness.
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Alex Huard is the host of a great series called Release Day, a program that promotes new album releases by independent artists that don’t have the marketing reach of a major label.
Alex and I have been talking about collaborating on something new for a while now, and we finally landed on something that came together very organically as a result of him listening to No Sleep ’til Sudbury. This new project, called Thursday Night Record Club, is going to be a lot of fun. We discuss the details of TNRC this week, along with Alex’s skin vibrating songs. Check it out!
Huard’s playlist (on Spotify):
Tom Petty – Learning to Fly
Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash – Girl From The North Country
Olafur Arnalds – 3055
James Taylor – Fire & Rain
Classified – All About You
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My old pal Zero from The Kings makes his return to the show this week to talk about what’s going with the band lately – new videos, new records, and a few pretty prestigious awards received for their classic single “This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ To Glide”.
Z wanted to do something a little different for his skin vibration segment, and he did. These are the songs he listens to in the wee hours when he’s not rocking out – opera!
Z’s playlist (in Spotify):
Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli – The Prayer
Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli – Time To Say Goodbye
Pavarotti, Carrerras, and Domingo – Nessun Dorma
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This is an absolutely fascinating story.
A song appeared on the internet in 2007, with no information surrounding its name, the artist responsible for the song, or when and where it was recorded. To this day, despite the search for this information going viral, the mystery remains unsolved.
This week on NSTS we dig into this phenomenon, and consider the notion of something being unknowable in such an information-rich age.
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