History of Rock and R&B

Billboard year end charts

Singer/Songwriters

• Joni Mitchell
  • On Let’s Sing Out (1965, 1966)
  • BBC In Concert (orig. broadcast October 9, 1970)
    • “Big Yellow Taxi“
    • “Both Sides Now“
  • “Coyote” (Last Waltz, 1976)
• Aretha Franklin
  • “Won’t Be Long” (1964, tv show)
  • “Do Right Woman” (11/1/1967, tv show)
  • “Dr. Feelgood” (1968, Amsterdam)
  • “Don’t Play the Song for Me” (1970)
  • “Share Your Love with Me” (1971)
  • “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” (3/5/1971, Fillmore West)
  • “Precious Lord” (Mahalia Jackson’s funeral, 1972)
  • “You Make Me Feel (Like a Natural Woman)” (Kennedy Center, 12/6/2015); “Why We’re Still Watching that Video” (medium.com, 1/4/2016); Aretha Franklin Vogue interview (1/13/2016)
  • “Soul Survivor” (New Yorker magazine, 4/4/2016)
• The Last Waltz (1976)
  • “Forever Young” (Bob Dylan); with Will.I.Am in Pepsi commercial (2009)

• Laurel Canyon in the 1960s and 70s (Vanity Fair, 3/2015)

Progressive/Art Rock

• Yes, “Roundabout” (live, 1973)
• from This is Spinal Tap, “Stonehenge” (1984)
• “The Persistence of Prog Rock” (Kelefa Sanneh, newyorker.com, 6/19/2017)

Disco

• Stonewall and Beyond: Lesbian and Gay Culture
• Beware Bogus Theories of Sexual Orientation (Scientific American, 2016)
• Nik Cohn’s 1976 NY mag article that inspired Saturday Night Fever; the real story (NY Times article 20 years later)
• 1979 Disco Demolition Night (with Greg Gumbel); Museum of Classic Chicago tv;
• The Last Days of Gay Disco (Peter Braunstein, Village Voice, 1998)
• Maestro: Larry Levan and early DJ Culture (documenary)
• Weather Girls/Two Tons of Fun, “It’s Raining Men” (1982, written by Paul Jabara and Paul Schaffer); Geri Halliwell’s version (2001); Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus
• Taste of Honey, “Boogie Oogie Oogie,” (1978); 2004
• Cars
  • Lesbians and Subarus (slate.com, 1/2/2014)
  • Gay-Friendly Cars (cbsnews.com, 4/17/2009)
  • It Drives Straight Too (latimes, 10/14/2004)

Punk

• Punk Magazine
• Richard Hell website (w/link to Blank Generation film)
• 1991: The Year Punk Broke (dvd trailer)
• SNL History of Punk
• Patti Smith
  • on SNL 4/17/1976
  • The Story Behind Gloria (covermesongs.com, 8/4/2014)
• CBGB Rock Festival: Top 40 New York Unrecorded Rock Talent (7/21/1975)
• Sex Pistols website (history, etc.)
• The Story of Feminist Punk in 33 Songs (pitchfork.com, 2016)
• These Photographers Blondie, Joan Jett, and the Women of Punk (artsy.net, 2016)
• Anarchy in the Archives  (Cornell University’s punk archives); Punkfest panels

Hard Rock

• Grand Funk Railroad
  • “We’re an American Band” (1974), lyrics
  • Homer Simpson on GFR; Homer plays bass
• Bachman-Turner Overdrive
  • “Takin’ Care of Business” (1974)
  • “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” (1974)

Glam Rock

• David Bowie
  • Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1973, released 1983, DA Pennebaker)
  • Ziggy Stardust Companion (timeline)

Soul Train

• Dance Off (O’Jays’ “Love Train” released 1972)

Stevie Wonder

• Breakdown of “Superstition” clavinet parts
• Stevie Wonder and Electric Lady Studios (prosoundnetwork.com, 2010)
• ‘I Thought He Was a Messenger’: Making Stevie Wonder’s ‘Talking Book’ (theatlantic.com, 9/2012)

Misc.

• “Walk on the Wild Side,” breakdown of the original bass line
• Kraftwerk, “The Robots” (1977); live medley (1978); “Das Model” (1980); BBC interview (2012)
• The Invention of Ambient Music (New Yorker, 1/20/2016)
• Grateful Dead at Wesleyan (May, 1970)
• Gil Scott-Heron
  • Winter in America, “H20Gate Blues” (1974, with Brian Jackson)
  • The Mind of Gil Scott-Heron, “We Beg Your Pardon America” (1978)