I have recently come across two remarkable resources for any of you who are, like me, fascinated [perhaps to the point of obsession] by the early history of rock-and-roll.
The first is the podcast "A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs," [available at the usual spots, and here] produced by Andrew Hickey. It's just what it says it is, and it's pretty astonishing. Each episode tells the story of one song in amazing detail, with a focus on (a) the production: how the song was written, how/why/where it was recorded, who the backing musicians were and how they got there, how they decided to add horns or extra vocals or whatever, etc. etc.—and (b) the music business: who owned the publishing rights and how they got them, who owned the masters and what they did with them, who decided which tracks went on which albums or on 45s (remember 45s?), who got the songwriting credits and why …
The guy has done an unbelievable amount of research, and he tells a great story. I find it mesmerizing (though Hickey's narrating voice takes a little getting used to). It's definitely not for everyone; the episodes are pretty substantial in length (an hour or sometimes a bit more), and they contain more than most people probably want to know about, say, how George Martin ended up producing the Beatles because his boss wanted to punish him for being such a pain in the ass (and for having an affair with his secretary), or how Ike Everly, through his contacts at the barber shop that he owned and operated, helped his sons Phil and Don get their first recording contract, or why Dylan didn't use The Band to back him on Blonde on Blonde, or how Buddy Holly ended up on that airplane because his manager had stolen all of the money The Crickets had earned**, or how The Mob (not a band—the actual Mob) controlled huge swaths of the music business—the clubs, the music publishers and recording companies, the musicians' unions, etc.—in NYC in the '50s and '60s. Etc. etc.
