Rock N Roll Archaeology
Rock N Roll Archaeology (RNRA) is more than a podcast; it’s an immersive, carefully researched and produced audio documentary.
RNRA explores the history of Rock Music, and then goes a step further. We contextualize Rock N Roll; we place it within the cultural, political, and technological landscapes of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
With storytelling, commentary, and a dash of musicology, we explore how music, culture, and technology interact and affect each other—how they ARE each other.
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Episode 13: Hard to Handle
We open at Waldo Point Marina in Sausalito, California, just north of San Francisco. Otis Redding takes a break from the road on Bill Graham’s houseboat, and comes up with a signature song.
64 min
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Episode 12: Machine Gun
Jimi’s astonishing, supernatural talent was forged in poverty and neglect as he grew up in Seattle. We talk about that, and about the night Elvis came to town. After a short stint in the Army comes to a humiliating end, Jimi takes it on the road and spend
68 min
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Episode 11: I Can't Explain
We start by taking a clear-eyed look at the infamous seaside “Riots” in the resort town of Clacton, United Kingdom and several other towns in the summer of 1964. The British press were WAY over the top in their depiction of these events, but they did docu
67 min
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Episode 10: Roll Away The Stones
Episode Ten opens up at the site of the Bricklayer’s Arms Public House, in Soho, West London, where Brian Jones met with two younger men, school chums, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, in the fall of 1963.
66 min
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Episode 9: The Medium, The Message, The Music
This show will contain familiar elements — storytelling, commentary, and musicology — but it is also a bit of a departure. It takes place mostly in the mid-sixties, but we’re not following a timeline or building a story: it’s more of a mosaic, a think-pie
69 min
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Episode 8: Meet The Beatles Part 2
The show opens December 27th, 1961, at the Cavern Club where Pete Best calls in sick, and the boys bring in Richard Starkey - Ringo Starr to the world - to sit in on drums, his first paid gig with the Beatles. It clicks musically; the band really swings w
61 min
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Episode 7: Meet The Beatles Part 1
Digging into the Journey of the Fab Four in this 2 Part Special
56 min
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Episode 6: Soul Sisters
Fall of 1963 in Manhattan, in the main room, the big studio at Columbia Records. A big-time, high-stakes recording session for Aretha Franklin is about to get underway.
56 min
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Episode 5: The Ballad of Bob and J.R.
Two legends meet as we experience the events of the early Sixties in America.
65 min
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Episode 4: The Change of the Guard
We briefly recap the first Golden Age of Rock N Roll: 1956 to 1959. A lot happened, and fast.
59 min
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Episode 3: The Day the Music Died
We describe Rock N Roll as an “enfant terrible,” then an unruly toddler, then a hyperactive kid. When Buddy Holly breaks out in late 1957, we see Rock N Roll has stepped out into the world as a confident young adult.Our story begins on a snowy two-lane
52 min
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Episode 2: Elvis and the Rise of Television
Archaeology is the study of human activity in the past, looking at lots of different things from lots of different angles. We take that approach with Rock N Roll. We recap episode one, and open in Memphis, 1954. Sun Records owner Sam Phillips has found hi
50 min
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Episode 1: The Precursors
We start by asking: how does Rock n Roll affect the larger society, and how does the larger society affect Rock n Roll?
62 min