37. The Rock & Roll Hypothesis (feat. Greil Marcus)

Amid our long cultural intermission, the greatest ever critic and historian of ROCK & ROLL welcomes me into his home for an afternoon reverie on some of our favorite music artists and their covers of the American Dream.

Greil Marcus was the very first records editor of Rolling Stone and the author of critical masterpieces Mystery Train and Lipstick Traces, as well as several other books including The History of Rock n Roll in Ten Songs and most recently Folk Music: A Bob Dylan Biography in 7 Songs. His famous long-running column now appears on Substack. 

Enjoy this free episode, then give strong thought to following the rest of the twisted adventure by subscribing on patreon.com/filthyarmenian for access to more than twice as many episodes, including the most intimate and scandalous ones. 

Episode set list: Etta vs Beyoncé, Hitchens, Paglia, Madonna, Howlin Wolf and Jimmie Rodgers, John Hammond, Robert Johnson, Altemont, Rolling Stones, Lebron James, Rihanna, B.B. King, Bobby Blue Bland, Leon Russell, Harry Smith’s Anthology of Folk Music, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stone Magazine (early days), Teaching, Joni Mitchell, Melrose Place