Agent Palmer

What we know of as rock n roll, is not only the story of music but the history of instruments as well. The Birth of Loud chronicles a rivalry that was at the center of more than one musical movement and it is superbly written by Ian S. Port who not only describes the people and their instruments, the trials and innovation, but the feelings of change and moments of inspiration.

Author Ian S. Port writes this book not only with great prose, but there’s some poetry in there too. His description of Hendrix at Woodstock performing the Star-Spangled Banner is the best I have ever read…

Marvel’s influence on popular culture and the references to Marvel within that culture has been rising equal to the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), but this list is proof that Marvel had its hand well into the popular culture well before the rise of the current MCU.

As with the DC inspired playlist I created, these songs need to be inspired by the comics, so Black Sabbath’s Iron Man, which is totally and completely unrelated to the comic character doesn’t get to be on the list. And no, it’s inclusion at the end of the 2008 Iron Man film doesn’t give it a pass.

Recorded in 1981 and released on September 30, 1982 as the third single on Toto’s fourth studio album Toto IV, “Africa,” has gone from hitting number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1983 to its current place in popular culture as a meme. Not being lost but being beloved during the course of that journey.

Now, I’ll admit that a friend of mine who remains steadfast that Hold the Line is the better song, which I respectfully disagree with, because it’s more of the I don’t want to go with the crowd pick.

This is a fun little exercise if you like Guns ‘N Roses. Take their Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II albums and create a single album selecting tracks with a standard CD length cutoff on time at 74 minutes.

Now, Use Your Illusion I comes in at 16 songs with a run time of 76 minutes and Use Your Illusion II is 14 songs with a 75 minute runtime, so why 74? Well, it makes it more challenging, and it’s easy to use what was the standard.