Feb 20, 2024
I am dedicating this episode to my high school classmate Thomas Campbell who recently passed away. He was a huge music enthusiast and musician plus an occasional listener to the podcast who has corrected me on occasion (which I appreciated). We were not close in high school though if we had been my music knowledge and diversity would probably have come sooner than it did. I also think he would have appreciated this particular episode as it features artists from the '70s and '80s who were on the cutting edge of music that I imagine he followed at the time.
The conversation in this episode builds off my annual look back at previous years. I had been re-evaluating music from the years 1973, 1983, and 1993 during 2023 and the first 2 episodes of Castlist 12 feature songs from those years. In this episode the songs chosen are the catalyst to a discussion of how artists evolve over time. The 4 primary songs of this episode are "The Paris Match" by The Style Council, "Strange Town" by The Jam, "Rising' by Midge Ure and "Hoover Dam" by Sugar. Maybe all are new to you but they are all important to me.
There's a lot of history in this episode. Influences range from Jazz to Glam Rock, Punk to Soul, 60's Brit Pop to Sythn Pop to Grunge.
Which song sounds like a movie montage to Jeff? What is a Glass Pinecone? How to do ruin a song with an updated version? (IMO). How did we land on The Daily Show at the end of the episode?
The opening song is the latest track from Sheryl Crow, the song "Evolution", a solid offfering and preview to her upcoming twelfth studio album, coming out at the end of March.