21st Century Radio pre-Christmas popular music special!
Sunday, 12/23/01 on 21st Century Radio -- Two American legends back to back! First we'll hear from Rob Durkee, author of the authoritative book on Casey Casem's American Top Forty - The Countdown of the Century. Founded in the 1960s "American Top 40," developed a winning formula of countdown and commentary. By the 1970's the show was providing music fans around the world with behind-the- scenes trivia about the pop stars of the day. The notion first made popular in the 1930's by the classic "Your Hit Parade" catered to the most-requested songs of its listeners. This book provides a complete history of the highly successful countdown radio program, through its years of success and decline, its disappearance, and its rebirth. American Top 40 offers compelling portraits of Kasem and Bustany, its later host Shadoe Stevens, their colleagues behind the scenes, guest hosts including Hall and Oates and Donny Osmond, and the corporations that (for better or worse) steered its course.
Rob Durkee worked on "American Top 40" from 1989 to 1995. Using his experience as a journalist and disc jockey, he has spent several years researching the history of countdown radio and has interviewed many of its key players
In the second hour on December 23, 2001, we'll hear from Howard Sounes on his book, Down the Highway : The Life of Bob Dylan. Howard Sounes describes "our hero" as a pampered Midwestern teen who listened to African-American music on the radio. His father bought him a pink convertible and a Harley in the same year; his high school band appeared on television sporting mom-made cardigans emblazoned with the band name "Jokers." He dropped out of his first year of college to explore the Greenwich Village folk scene and meet his hero, Woody Guthrie, into whose hospital room young Dylan barged. "[H]e instinctively played upon his baby-faced unworldly looks, and his considerable personal charm, to make friends [who] would help him... giving him a place to stay or offering him a few dollars," attests Sounes (Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life) in this exhaustive, up-to-date biography. Though the writing is uneven, Sounes delivers a judicious portrait of Dylan's foibles and virtues. Dylan, he claims, used people variously he mimicked his favorite performers and enjoyed of "the charity of kindhearted women." Much of the book traces his womanizing, from his relationship with Joan Baez to his eight years of marital bliss (before it unraveled) with Sara Lownds. Even his religious conversion was on account of the affections of his back-up singers, one of whom he had a child with and married, a little-known fact. Dylan has burned numerous bridges in his life, though many people remain loyal. Through extensive interviews Sounes aptly captures the contradictory facets of an American folk legend.
Don't miss our pre-Christmas popular music special--Sunday, December 16, 2001 at 7 PM Eastern.
Click here to listen live.
Click here to order Rob Durkee's Book, American Top Forty - The Countdown of the Century.
Click here to order Howard Sounes' book, Down the Highway : The Life of Bob Dylan.