Andrew Hickey and a History of Rock in 500 Songs

I don’t recall how I discovered a History of rock in 500 songs podcast. Somehow I found the first episodes back in 2018. He started his countdown in the pre-rock era with big band and jump blues songs and artists.

I read a lot about pop music and biographies of musicians. Hickey doesn’t just tell these stories. He plays guitar which gives him inside knowledge on how these songs are constructed. He tells what songs have similar riffs and structure.

He also picks a song that gives a theme, like the time he picked “Lawdy Miss Clawdy.” The show went into songwriters and how they were exploited. He spent a lot of time on Fats Domino, who didn’t sing the song, and Hickey got the whole history of the song.

He did a podcast on “Twenty Flight Rock” to talk about 1950s Rock N roll movies.

He did several Beatles and Beach Boys podcasts.

I learned a lot about the exploitation of young singers and songwriters. The racism on the inside.

Recently he did a show about “Here Comes the Night” by Them. I was going to skip it. Good thing I didn’t. The show went into Brill Building writers, Neil Diamond, Bert Burns and getting to the band Them. I bought the book that Hickey used as research to get more details on Burns.

Hickey has done side shows that were for paid fans. A couple of those shows were released as podcasts. “Windchester Cathedral” was a lot of fun. Rocky Erickson deserves a listen.

The history of avant-garde art was part of a show. Religion.

Hickey really researches his shows and I never feel disappointed by each show.