The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 960: Rock’s greatest disasters

October 14, 2022 Alan Cross 0 Comments

Humanity has always been beset by disasters, whether they be acts of God or something we somehow brought on ourselves. War. Disease, Earthquakes. Tsunamis and floods. Volcanic eruptions. Fires. Plane crashes. Industrial accidents. Sinking hips. Extreme weather. And so forth.

The worst disaster of all time? There are many candidates. The influence epidemic of 1918-20 possibly killed 100 million people. Then again, World War II was worse. By some estimates, the death toll was 120 million. And the Black Death of the 14th century? It may have claimed up to 200 million lives or about 20% of the planet’s population at the time.

Then there are the kinds of things that happen when people are supposed to be having fun. On February 14, 2004, the roof of an indoor waterpark in Moscow collapsed, killing 28 people. On December 8, 1863, up to 3,000 people were killed in a fire at a church celebration in Santiago, Chile.

Or how about this: Sometime around the year 283 CE, a wall at Circus Maximus, the chariot racing stadium in Rome, collapsed. It’s said that up to 13,000 spectators died. And that happened about 150 yeara after a previous collapse killed 1,500 people.

The universe is gonna do what the universe is gonna do. You can be as careful as possible yet still get caught up in something awful.

This applies to the world of music, too. It has seen its own situations where there has been the loss of life and plenty of injuries. These occasions need to be remembered and memorialized so we can minimize the chances of these things ever happening again.

This is a list of rock’s greatest disasters.

Songs heard on this show:

Tragically Hip, Nautical Disaster
Radiohead, Karma Police
Limp Bizkit, Break Stuff
Pearl Jam, Love Boat Captain
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fire (Live)
Axxis, 21 Crosses
Eagles of Death Metal, Kiss the Devil

Here’s Eric Wilhite’s playlist.

The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:

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