The Ongoing History of New Music, Episode 781: Rock’n’Roll Myths
Myths and legends come in all sizes. Atlantis: That’s a big one that we can’t seem to wrap our heads around. “Feed a cold, starve a fever” is one we’ve all heard—but turns out that’s wrong. Depriving yourself of calories may make it harder for your body to fight off that infection or virus. Then there are these gems:
- “We only ever use 10% of our brain.” That’s wrong, tool, Neuroscience has proven that to be false. The right number may be 20%–but there’s a lot of dispute over that.
- Here are some other myths I’ve run across:
- Don’t feed pigeons uncooked rice or they’ll blow up. (False)
- The Great Wall of China isn’t the only man-made object that can be seen from space. (False)
- Men think about sex every seven seconds. (Untrue. There is no basis in any scientific literature that it happens every seven seconds. If it were true, we’d never get anything done.)
There are also myths and legends in music, too. Robert Johnson’s pact with the devil at the crossroads. Gene Simmons of KISS did not have a cow tongue grafted onto his. Jim Morrison, Biggie, Tupac and Elvis are most certainly very dead, but Paul McCartney is still very much alive.
But what about the alt-rock word? What kind of myths and legends lurk there? You may be very, very surprised.
Songs included in this show:
Marilyn Manson, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
Sid Vicious, My Way
Clash, Rock the Casbah
David Bowie & Mick Jagger, Dancing in the Street
Police, The Bed’s Too Big Without You
White Stripes, Joline
Flaming Lips, Is David Bowie Dead?
U2, Pride (In the Name of Love)
William Burroughs & Kurt Cobain, The Priest They Called Him
Eric Wilhite had prepared this Spotify playlist.
For the podcast version of the show, subscribe to the Ongoing History feed at iTunes. New shows go up every Wednesday.
The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:
- 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7
- Live 88-5/Ottawa
- 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener
- FM96/London – Sunday night at 7, Monday night at 11
- The Drive/Kingston
- Power 97/Winnipeg (Sunday nights at 11)
- 98.1 The Bridge/Lethbridge – Saturday night at 6, Sunday morning at 10am
- Rock 97.7/Grand Prairie – Sunday nights at 6.
- 92X/Calgary
- Sonic 102.9/Edmonton
- The Zone/Victoria
- The Fox/Vancouver
- Live 105/Halifax
- NEW! WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown
We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor, Montreal, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.
