Five reasons why you need 500 Songs

I've been doing this blog for years now, and I'm embarrassed to admit that I've never once talked about the best podcast in the world right now - A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs, by Andrew Hickey.

Hickey is a hundred and something episodes into the series, and I fell behind for a few months and that turned into year, and now I've binged on the past 12 months of absolutely brilliant music history. Absolutely delightful episodes about old favourites like The Beatles, Aretha Franklin and the Velvet Underground, and new insights into The Move and The Band that I knew nothing about.

There's five main reasons why I dig it the most, and you should too:

1. The context 

Each episode focuses on one song, produced by one artist (or a group of artists) at one time in history, but you also get everything that goes along with that - from the intricacies of the music itself, to the wider social constructs - different aspects of literature, spiritualism, modern art, drug use, and how it all fits together. 

It's all just pop music, but it's also really saying something about how human beings worked and thought in the last years of the 20th century, and I am all the way there for that. Songs don't exist in a vacuum - the episode of Hey Joe shows how things evolve through different styles and bands - and can carry greater meaning within the context of their times.

2. The respect

Every episode comes with a content warning, because there is always something fucked up going on, and giving the listener who might be upset by these things the chance to opt out is always a good idea.

Apparently, Hickey gets a lot of shit for this, and for refusing to deadname people, even if they're not with us anymore. And I deeply admire the way he doesn't give a fuck, and just thinks that showing people some respect - even rock gods and pop megastars - is a decent thing to do. 

There is so much hand-wringing about how to handle the problematic aspects of history, but Hickey makes it look easy

3. The new thing

In the vast and sprawling world of rock music, there are always new bits of trivia to dig out and let shine, and even after decades of reading and listening to stories about this stuff, I'm constantly delighted that people can still find new things to say about the Beatles, the most covered band in music journalism history.

There is always strange new unexpected connection between things, and the most unlikely people will show up in the most unlikely stories. You might be in an episode about how ELO are coming together, and then suddenly Jasper freakin' Carrott will show up. Fantastic.

4. The funny 

Rock stars are ridiculous people doing ridiculous things, so of course it's going to be funny. Hickey's ultra-dry and beautifully accented delivery just make it all the more hilarious.

5. The emotions

And yet, as ridiculous as it all gets sometimes, it can also be genuinely moving, especially when tragedy strikes and some young soul is struck down

The end of the Janis Joplin episode, and choice of song, is just heartbreaking; and the part at the end of the Otis Redding one where the ships do come rolling in is staggeringly moving. 

Even among the excess and depravity and outright bullshit of the music business, the humanity shines through, and that's more than I ever expect from a podcast, but I get it all the time from this one.