S4E15 aired at 7 pm on 15 April and went without a hitch. The show kicked off with Rainbow off 1982’s Straight Between the Eyes. We spent some time in the ’70s with Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd before checking out the LA metal scene circa 1980. Check out the book Nothing But a Good Time by Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock for the full story of how all these wonderful bands that gave us so much good music came to be. We took a listen to Skid Row, W.A.S.P., Tesla, Great White, and Quiet Riot, the band that kicked the door down and was the catalyst for this massive explosion in good times rock and roll.
We got into the South African stuff early with AKing and Johnathan Martin and then we took a short detour into the New Wave world of Joe Jackson’s masterpiece Look Sharp! The pace picked up with Judas Priest, Circus of Power, Motörhead, Led Zeppelin, and Venom. The Venom was particularly good, we heard ‘The Death of Rock ‘n’ Roll‘ off their 2015 release From The Very Depths.
The final few tracks featured some amazing acoustic guitar from Lynyrd Skynyrd and ‘The Last Rebel‘ and then a true blue classic protest song called ‘The Great American Novel‘. It’s an amazing lyric from his 1972 album called Only Visiting This Planet. I tell you what, if he was pissed off back in ’72 he must be apoplectic by now.
Artists featured: Rainbow, Ace Frehley, Def Leppard, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Bonamassa, Blackstone Cherry, AKing, Johnathan Martin, Pink Floyd, My Chemical Romance, Skid Row, Quiet Riot, W.A.S.P., Great White, Joe Jackson, The White Stripes, ACDC, John Mellencamp, Thin Lizzy, Rock Goddess, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Seether, The Pretty Reckless, Saraya, Judas Priest, Blaze Bailey, Smith / Kotzen, Circus of Power, Motörhead, Led Zeppelin, Venom, Tesla, Black Sabbath, Jon Bon Jovi, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Larry Norman, The Distillers