Episodes
John Gielgud reads Ozymandias, from Columbia’s 1939 “Voices of Poetry” collection.
What do mares and does have in common?
This song’s origins are debatable, much like the validity of…1920’s art critics? Ok, let’s see where this one’s going.
Arthur Sullivan was one of Britain’s most important composers, one half of a little theatrical team known as Gilbert and Sullivan.
Mr. Theodore G. Bilbo was a US senator....and not a good one.
We’re going back, before tie-dye was even a thing, to the Grateful Roots: songs that influenced the Grateful Dead.
...cold was the ground.
Jay McShann gave birth to the “Kansas City Sound”, but this song has gone down in history as a beginning of another sort.
This excerpt from Tom Sawyer, coming in the book’s second chapter shows Tom at his cunning, conniving best.
William James Basie got his start in Harlem, but he wasn’t “Count Basie” ‘til he got to Kansas City.
Richard Hollingshead learned a lot from the test run of his big idea.
History’s full of musicians claiming to have made deals with the devil. But only one claimed to have married into one.
That riff can only mean one thing…you’re listening to Chuck Berry…and you’re on the Sound Beat. Okay, two things.
One of the most popular tales in American folk history.
The squeaky landing gear gets the grease
Arthur Godfrey was a 50’s tv and radio icon, an aviator, equestrian…but not such a great tour leader. You’re on the Sound Beat You’re listening to The 1000 Islands Song, a Columbia 78 recorded in 1947. The archipelago lies in the St. Lawrence River,
Groovin' on the Beat...
Famed lawman Wyatt Earp has been the subject of nearly a dozen movies, but his role as on-set advisor for westerns would have a major impact on film history.
Il Travatore remains one of Guiseppe Verdi’s most popular operas, but it almost had a different name. Two, actually.