We roll into our 80s hard rock showdown, where we put ACDC’s Back in Black, Van Halen’s 1984, and Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction under the brightest light we know: track-by-track comparison. Jump meets It’s So Easy; Panama squares off with Nightrain; Hot for Teacher tangles with Paradise City. The fun isn’t just the score—it’s how those matchups rewire your nostalgia.

From there, we zoom in on live recordings that changed how we hear legends: Elton John’s 1970 trio storm on 17-11-70, and The Doors’ final Jim Morrison concert, a difficult night for him by all accounts, that closes on the aptly chosen "The End."

Minute with Jimmy unwraps the shockingly modern birth of Little Richard’s Tutti Frutti—those opening syllables were a drum part first—and why 1955 still sounds like tomorrow. We close on the Jim Carroll Band’s People Who Died, a song that once felt like pure punk adrenaline and now reads like a roll call of lives that shaped us. If you love rock history, live albums, and the way songs become landmarks, you’ll feel right at home.

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A smiling John Lennon on Monday Night Football. A blunt 1970 interview that cut through the post‑Beatles haze. A late‑night Bermuda epiphany triggered by the B‑52s. We stitch together these scenes to tell a clear story of return, risk, and the ache of what never happened.

We revisit Lennon’s sharp takes on early solo albums, then jump to Howard Cosell’s halftime chat where “It’s always in the wind” floated a reunion hope. From there we follow the thread to Double Fantasy: phone‑call songwriting with Yoko, the decision to interleave their tracks, and the electric but shelved Cheap Trick‑backed version of I’m Losing You. The music reveals a man choosing domestic honesty over spectacle, and that choice rings loud on Watching The Wheels and Beautiful Boy. We also sit with the shock of December 8, 1980—how news broke live on TV, how radio turned into a vigil, and how listeners discovered deep cuts and new meanings in the days that followed.

The legacy keeps evolving. Anthology 1 brought Free As A Bird to life from a worn cassette, reminding us that imperfections can feel truer than polish. New restoration tools now separate voices from tape hiss, reframing classics without erasing their warmth, and sparking debate around releases like Now And Then. We dig into early Beatles gems, Pete Best’s late payday, and why Rubber Soul still feels like the band’s great hinge moment. Seasonal staples make an appearance too—Lennon’s reflective Happy Xmas and McCartney’s gloriously divisive Wonderful Christmastime—because these songs hold our calendars as much as our hearts.

Come for the stories, stay for the connective tissue: how culture, technology, and memory keep Lennon present. If this journey moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves The Beatles, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find these conversations.

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Some years don’t just produce great records—they redraw the map of how we listen. We dive into 1970 as a living, breathing turning point, starting with the Velvet Underground’s Loaded to George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, with detours into Derek and the Dominoes, CCR, and the Partridge Family. Stories of edits, covers, charts, lawsuits, and misheard lyrics tie together what makes songs endure.

• Velvet Underground’s Loaded, Lou Reed's last album with the band
• Who Loves the Sun, Sweet Jane, and Rock and Roll
• Phish’s Halloween cover and the life of influence
• George Harrison’s triple-album surge and wall of sound
• My Sweet Lord, What Is Life, and a-list session players
• Derek and the Dominoes, Bell Bottom Blues, and Layla
• Jim Gordon’s studio legacy and tragic downfall
• pop joy with the Partridge Family and TV-to-radio crossover

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A fast-moving tour through concerts, songs, and stories that still echo: REM’s 1995 blowout, U2’s 2005 highs, a supergroup surprise with Darius Rucker, Mike Mills, and Steve Gorman and how a ballad helped change maritime safety. We end with a spirited look at 80s alt gems and one notorious number-one.

• deep dive into REM’s 1995 Omni shows and rare covers
• U2’s 2005 setlist peaks, “Miss Sarajevo,” and a proposal during “One”
• Howl Owl Howl live review with Darius Rucker, Mike Mills, Steve Gorman
• airport chat about McCartney, Rod Stewart, and a Rick Astley ritual
• Gordon Lightfoot’s Edmund Fitzgerald and Great Lakes safety changes
• 70s–80s track talk: KC, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure, Oingo Boingo, Big Audio Dynamite
• hot take on Starship’s "We Built This City"

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What if a tribute didn’t wait for the final chapter? We sit down with artist-producer Anna Jensen and songwriter Kevn Kinney to unpack Let’s Go Dancing, a 100-song, multi-year celebration that reimagines Kevn’s catalog—solo and with Drivin N Cryin—while pairing each release with original artwork. Born from a lockdown birthday idea, the project became a living archive where legends, locals, and rising voices reinterpret songs and, in the process, open new doors for listeners to discover bands they might have missed.

Anna pulls back the curtain on the unglamorous work: thousands of emails, clearances, timelines, and a painting cadence that often demands a finished piece in a week or two. She explains how lyric imagery sparked four anchor albums and how curating rather than assigning songs led to better fits and braver performances. Kevn talks about hearing his work return in new shapes and why those covers have made him more flexible in the studio.

If you love discovery, backstories, and art that meets music at full speed, this one’s for you. Follow the series via Tasty Goody Records, queue up the Let’s Go Dancing playlist, and tell us the cover that surprised you most. If the conversation moves you, share it with a friend and leave a quick review—it helps others find the music and the makers behind it.

https://beacons.ai/tastygoodyrecords/music

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The lights drop in Atlanta and Paul McCartney steps into a room full of memory—and invention. We unpack how an icon in his eighties still delivers a two-hour-forty marathon by leaning on tight harmonies, a punchy horn section, and the kind of live tech that lets Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite explode off a modern stage. The show’s emotional peak arrives when Paul sings I’ve Got a Feeling with John via Get Back footage, a moment that proves technology can connect past and present without cheapening either one.

From there we chase the thread of discovery. Remember when The Doors felt brand new again in 1980? A radio deep dive, Apocalypse Now, and a greatest hits record turned Hello, I Love You and Riders on the Storm into fresh obsessions for a new generation. We map that rush forward and backward: how L.A. Woman and Morrison Hotel still punch, how Mr. Mojo Risin’ became every teenager’s riddle. Along the way, we decode the stories behind The Rolling Stones’ Get Off of My Cloud and Neil Diamond’s Cracklin’ Rosie, and how fame, loneliness, and late-night singalongs sneak into pop myth.

Then we give American Beauty the close listen it deserves. From Box of Rain’s tenderness to Ripple’s campfire wisdom and Truckin’s road-scarred grin, we talk sequencing, sunshine daydream codas, and the tradition behind I Know You Rider. We round out the tour with U2’s Boy—lean, urgent, and still startling—and a Ramones reappraisal that finds great songs beneath Phil Spector’s glossy wall. Through it all, one idea keeps returning: artists adapt, listeners evolve, and the best songs keep meeting us where we are.

If that resonates, hit play, follow the show, and share it with a friend who loves live music and music history. Leave a review to tell us which song hit you differently this time—we’ll feature our favorite takes on a future episode.

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A leather jacket, an iconic eagle logo, and a three-chord blur that changed everything—tour manager Monte A. Melnick joins us to reveal how the Ramones became an institution without ever chasing the charts. From booking chaos and van miles to Sire Records deals and night-after-night precision, Monty shares the systems and scrapes that kept the band loud, fast, and on time.

We go inside the job nobody sees: shows and hotels, wrangling crews, negotiating with agents, and surviving mismatched arena bills where batteries and ice picks rained from the crowd. Monte explains why the Ramones doubled down on headlining their own rooms, how CBGB’s gave them a lab to refine short, no-solo songs, and why minimalism was a deliberate design, not a limitation. He walks through Joey’s rise from drums to the mic, Dee Dee’s volcanic creativity and volatility, Tommy’s drum architecture to Marky’s transition, and Johnny’s iron will that protected the brand.

If you’ve ever wondered how a band with modest sales became a global touchstone, this conversation connects the dots: discipline over myth, craft over chaos, and a road team that made it all possible. Listen, share with a fellow Ramones fan, and leave a review to tell us your favorite track—and why it still hits.

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A band doesn’t thrive for thirty plus years by accident. Guitarist/Singer and cofounder Johnny Hickman opens up about the simple pact that kept Cracker alive—stay the course, skip the drama, and serve the song. We dig into how he and David Lowery decide who sings what, which ideas belong to Cracker versus solo projects, and how rotating players and richer arrangements kept the sound evolving without losing its soul.

Johnny shares the heart of their identity as a conversation between his signature riffs and David’s singular voice, a push-pull that lets them morph styles while staying unmistakably Cracker. From the pressure to follow Kerosene Hat with more of the same to choosing strings, keys, and pedal steel instead, he explains how ignoring trends led to a fan favorite. We swap notes on Tom Petty and Mike Campbell’s riff-to-song alchemy, why Boys of Summer proves genre lines are flimsy, and how great songs outlast scenes and labels.

Community threads through everything: Camp In and Camp Out’s curated nights and those joyous, glitchy “Live from the Cave” streams that carried fans through lockdown. Johnny previews a Halloween return on his public page “Johnny from Cracker,” complete with costumes and sly covers alongside Cracker staples.

Hit play for candid stories behind I Hate My Generation, Loser, and the band’s onstage philosophy: play the hits proudly, let the deep cuts breathe, and keep the room connected. If Cracker ever sound like your favorite band, Johnny says, you’ll bring friends—and that’s exactly how this family keeps growing. Enjoy the conversation, share it, and subscribe so you don’t miss the celebration and more.

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