LongPlayer: Bryan Adams “Into The Fire”

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Is Bryan Adams underrated with his legacy of loud rock and roll, filled with generic lyrics, cranking guitars, slamming drums, and hooks made of bubblegum? How has time treated the music of a guy who best took the Mellencamp/Springsteen template and covered it with a bunch of sugar? We look back at the album that came after his career-making Reckless record. Is Bryan Adams an overrated rocker, tainted by three or 12 too many vapid soundtrack songs?  Or not?  Here’s what I did. I slapped the 1987 Into The Fire album on the turntable (yep, the vinyl LP) and gave the … Read more

Essential 7 – Tom Petty

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In the years since Tom Petty’s passing, his music rings true as ever, and sounds just as it was produced – timeless.  Let’s rewind and take a listen to the band that has best represented American Rock music for 40 years – a deserved title for Petty and the Heartbreakers. Sounding not from one place (belying the band’s strong Florida roots), and instead sounding like they were from everywhere enabled them to connect with rednecks and hippies, East coast attitude and West coast shine. They rocked loud. And Tom could become acoustic and quiet. Lyrics resonated. Petty could also sweat … Read more

Welcome to Our Podcast

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We talk about the greatness that was the 80’s music. Radio. Rock and roll. Pop. The music that made the decade. We make lists. We rank things. We care. Take a listen. It’s 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 … Read more