Show Notes
In 1985, a group of powerful "Washington Wives" led by Tipper Gore formed the PMRC to clean up rock and roll, sparking a culture war that culminated in a dramatic Senate hearing.
This episode of Rock N Roll Archaeology, "The Three-Body Problem," performs a forensic autopsy on that manufactured moral panic. We explore how the unlikely, chaotic alliance of John Denver, Dee Snider, and Frank Zappa dismantled the PMRC's case piece by piece.
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More from Rock N Roll Archaeology
"Time has resumed its shape. All is as it was before. Many such journeys are possible. Let me be your gateway."
A sober, chronological narrative of the tragic final day of John Lennon on December 8, 1980. This episode tracks Lennon's last hours, his final interview, and the chilling, parallel actions of his killer, Mark Chapman, waiting outside the Dakota. We go inside the frantic rush to Roosevelt Hospital and recount the surreal, historic moment the news broke during Monday Night Football. This is the definitive, fact-based oral history of an empty, violent act that shattered a generation and a world.
The show opens December 27th, 1961, at the Cavern Club where Pete Best calls in sick, and the boys bring in Richard Starkey - Ringo Starr to the world - to sit in on drums, his first paid gig with the Beatles. It clicks musically; the band really swings with Ringo on drums.
Arrival: we begin the show on February 7th, 1964, in the first-class cabin aboard Pan American Airlines Flight 101 from London to New York City. It’s a raucous, party atmosphere, but John Lennon, for a moment anyway, feels alone in a crowd.