Afleveringen
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This episode takes us from the evolution of human musicality into the realm of music itself, and its origins. That story is big, controversial, and messy. So, I've sorted it into easily digestible summaries of the ideas of Charles Darwin, Steven Brown, and Steven Pinker: three thinkers whose work is important for understanding how and why we started making music. It could have been really long, but I've cleverly limited it to under 25 minutes.
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Here's a link to a brief and delightfully tension-filled conversation between Police drummer Stewart Copeland and Harvard Linguist/Psychologist Steven Pinker, referenced in the last third or so of the episode.
Episode playlist here. I'll be tinkering with these playlists periodically, so feel free to add them to your library and revisit from time-to-time.
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You don't make a musical sound by just sitting there. You have to fight for it.
This longish episode is about turning kinetic energy into mechanical energy into sound energy. It's about force. It's about electrical circuits, making stone arrowheads, and playing the piano. It's about how we learned to clench our fists and hold guitar necks, and how we learned to manage the delicate interplay of the bones and muscles in our hands. It's about Stanley Kubrick, and the Ramones, and how we learned really important skills from breaking things, blowing speakers, and abusing musical instruments with coins. Some of it is about me in 5th grade, and it's all about leading up to the fact that the guitar is inevitable.
One of the ways music begins is through little acts of controlled violence. And we've been learning how to do that for a very, very long time.
It rambles a bit, but I think you'll get the point. Hit it!
Support the project!
Episode playlist here. I'll be tinkering with these playlists periodically, so feel free to add them to your library and revisit from time-to-time.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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This episode is about one of the things that launched us homo sapiens on our journey toward making music, which would eventually get us to the guitar.
That one thing is our feet, which is really two things.
When we evolved into beings who could walk upright, we introduced something new into our lives. Becaming bipedal, millions of years ago, gave us one of the foundations of music, and Disco, and CPR. It also helped to make our brains bigger, which made us smarter, and our walking feet and bigger brains and smarter noggins pointed us toward music.
Support the project here!
Episode playlist here. I'll be tinkering with these playlists periodically, so feel free to add them to your library and revisit from time-to-time.
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In this episode we'll go back in time, into a cave with a Greek God where a mythical stringed instrument was created, to Wisconsin, California, and Mississippi, in search of an origin story for the guitar. The show title might give you a hint of where we'll end up.
Support the project here!
Episode playlist here. I'll be tinkering with these playlists periodically, so feel free to add them to your library and revisit from time-to-time.
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A People's History of the Guitar is about people, the guitar, people and their guitars, and the guitar and its people. In this introductory episode, you'll find out about the podcast, what the podcast is about, why I decided to do this in the first place, and who the podcast is for. Spoiler alert: it's for everybody.
As of October 2024 I'm just getting this going, so episodes are coming as I finish them. As this ramps up, my goal is a minimum of three episodes every month. We'll get there, especially if you keep listening and maybe even consider supporting the project, so support the project here!
Episode playlist here. A smattering of guitar-based music that means something to me. I'll be tinkering with these playlists periodically, so feel free to add them to your library and revisit from time-to-time.
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A People's History of the Guitar has been in the the podcast oven for a while, and it's finally time to take it out and poke it with a fork. Here's a short taste of the sound and purpose of the show to come.
