Professor of Rock

Ah, man - this is one of my favorites!
Former Beatle Paul McCartney was trying to establish his band Wings when he flew to Nigeria to record Band on the Run. 2 key members quite right before and then when they arrived equipment in the studio was dismal and one day when Paul and Linda were walking the streets they were threatened at knifepoint by a gang of terrorists… Paul had to keep calm if he was going to save he and wife’s life. So along with his wallet, he handed over a bag containing two of his most prized possessions... a notebook of lyrics and a demo tape of songs for his new album. Neither of which he had copies of. These thieves, having no idea who was standing in front of them, stole one of the 70s greatest #1 hits. Band on the Run alone with 70s classics Jet and Helen Wheels. After surviving the ordeal this musical genius knew he either had to track down the stolen lyrics and tape or try to remember it and recreate it… Find out what happened next on professor of rock.
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Coming up, we’ve got rockstars going off the rails. And yeah, rock stars have always lived by their own rules — but some of them have been known to take things just a little too far from time to time… leaving a trail of wreckage in their wake. Today we’re counting down the most spectacularly unhinged, catastrophic meltdowns in rock history. Including Ozzy Osbourne, one of heavy metal’s most notorious hellraisers, who stumbled out of a hotel in his wife’s evening dress, and got him banned from an entire city for relieving himself on one of America’s most iconic monuments. There’s also Samantha Fox who was handed the biggest opportunity of her career… hosting a major televised awards show. But the whole production collapsed in real time all around her. Was it her fault? The press seemed to think so. And don’t forget about The Who's Keith Moon who woke up surrounded by a demolished hotel suite after blacking out. It took the concept of trashed hotel rooms new levels and he had to cut a hefty check to set things right… but did he actually do it? Or was he framed? Find out next.

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Well, we took a couple of months off from this show, but due to overwhelming feedback, we did another episode… We brought it back at least one more time… It’s outdated… Time in a Bottle show… the songs that take you right back to the moment you first heard them. They sound exactly like the moment they were released, and these songs have compelling stories too… including how one of rock’s most dangerous frontmen, Axl Rose, sat down on a curb outside a Hollywood club, crying over a girl he couldn’t have. Afterwards, he went and threw rocks at his bandmate’s window that same night, and the two sat down and wrote the most emotional ballads in hard rock history. There’s also the story of Boyz II Men who snuck backstage at their idol’s concert, cornered him in his dressing room, and started singing. After hearing them, this popular musician signed them on the spot, and they would go on to break records set by the Beatles and Elvis. And finally… The KLF, a duo spent two years building one of the most bizarre and brilliant careers in music and, at the height of their popularity, crashed one of the UK’s biggest award shows by firing blanks from an automatic weapon over the crowd before disappearing from the music industry forever and deleting their entire catalog of songs. Plus why the Metallica controversy is ridiculous...

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Alright, in the past we’ve tried our hand at soundtrack hits, movie scores, television themes, and even cartoon theme songs. But on this episode of POR, we’re trying something new and diving into the world of animated movie songs… tracks that were sung by popular artists and rockstars from the mid-80s to the present. And get ready for some nostalgia… Along the way, you’ll hear the story of Phil Collins, who has been accused of being too vanilla… and when his music beat out the South Park creators for an Oscar, they were so furious that they lampooned him and the song on South Park for a little payback. Plus, we’ve got a song from one of Pixar’s biggest movies Toy Story 2… and the movie almost went direct to home video, but the studio changed their mind when the completed film and it’s backup copy were accidentally erased from Pixar’s servers. Plus the cheeseball balladeer Michael Bolton that was tapped to sing a song for a Disney movie. He was so excited to have the opportunity he went into the studio and blew everyone away. And even I have to admit, though I can’t stand this guy’s music, I have to give him props. He slayed it. Let’s do it.

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Back with the B-52s!

Coming Up... a song that missed the top 40 in the early 80s but has since then Rock Lobster by the B-52s has become a modern day standard and a major influence after it was released. Cindy Wilson tells the story of how it helped John Lennon come out of retirement and how she and Kate Pierson mimicked sea creatures to get its interesting sound and Fred Schneider’s deadpan delivery. The song was punctuated their homage to Yoko Ono.
The story of a classic New Avant Guard classic is coming up next.
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