A showcase for the widest-possible definition of pop music, plus interviews with the world's finest music makers. (Visit homepage.)

June 14, 2014: Fickle Finger of Fate

Listen to this show:  Pop-up player!

CLICK HERE for info on how to get your own membership card! to Michael Shelley's #1 Hit Club

CLICK HERE to subscribe to the free Michael Shelley podcast!

CLICK HERE for a funny video with info on Jay Gonzalez's Kickstarter campaign.

CLICK HERE for something odd: on the website of session guitarist Jay Graydon (he plays the guitar solo on Steely Dan's "Peg") he lists playing guitar on Cheap Trick's studio version of "I Want You To Want Me" among his 1977 credits.

CLICK HERE for some audio Illusions - "Can You Trust Your Ears"?

CLICK HERE for info about Fender's plans name Bono and the Edge from U2 to its board, and a video about the company's business troubles.

CLICK HERE for optical illusions

CLICK HERE to read or download the liner notes for "More Super Hits of the Seventies"

CLICK HERE for "The Jarmels" "A Little Bit of Soap" - don't think this is the original lead singer - but he does a great job

CLICK HERE for info on Joel Selvin and his book "Here Comes The Night: The Dark Soul Of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business Of Rhythm and Blues"

CLICK HERE for Bert Berns Info!

CLICK HERE for the Abbey Road crossing cam

CLICK HERE to find out if we need to be touching

CLICK HERE for a short film of two craftsmen at work

CLICK HERE to see actual AFM contracts for some legendary recording sessions

CLICK HERE to play Name That Drum Fill

CLICK HERE to read "Phish Has Been a Band for Thirty Years Now and They Have Sucked the Whole Time" and then CLICK HERE to read "This Is What Happens When You Make Fun Of Phish On The Internet"

CLICK HERE for the story of Be Bop Deluxe's Bill Nelson and how he says his record label ripped him off

CLICK HERE to watch the famously hard to find MC5 documentary

CLICK HERE to read about a recent Jerry Lewis show

CLICK HERE for the new release of 5 Style 1996 live on WFMU

CLICK HERE for Paul Lukas' excellent piece about cultural criticism

CLICK HERE to read "A Portrait of the Worst Guy Ever"

CLICK HERE for proof that Michael Nesmith is a nut

CLICK HERE to see some wise asses I'm a fan of

CLICK HERE to find out how Sweden’s domination of the international pop charts started

CLICK HERE to hear Bernard Prurdie talk about all kinds of things - including saying "Ringo's not on anything"

CLICK HERE for a film excerpt "Session Men - Memphis"

CLICK HERE for a laugh

CLICK HERE for a good Kirsty MacColl documentary from the BBC

CLICK HERE for Roz Chast's piece “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?”

CLICK HERE for a brief history of the baritone guitar"

CLICK HERE for a two hour documentary about Louis Prima

CLICK HERE for "The Making of 96 Tears"

CLICK HERE for a Rolling Stone piece about The Jerky Boys

CLICK HERE for Ronee Blakley singing "Dues" from "Nashville"

CLICK HERE for Ronee Blakley singing "Tapedeck in His Tractor" from "Nashville"

CLICK HERE for Ronee Blakley & Henry Gibson singing "One, I Love You" from "Nashville"

CLICK HERE and tell me if you think this is really edited from the news, or if it was performed knowingly

CLICK HERE to play the web Theremin

CLICK HERE to see the set list of the Cheap Trick show i saw last week

CLICK HERE to see drummer Joff from the band Bucky so some drawings of old people

CLICK HERE if you want see a lady call for President Obama's execution. My mind keeps returning to his video and what it means about how screwed up our county is.

CLICK HERE for wrong from the get go NPR blog "The Worst Songs Of All Time?"

CLICK HERE for my July 2007 interview with Mighty Hannibal

CLICK HERE for the website of the guy who shot Bigfoot

CLICK HERE to see why the cowardly anonymous culture of the internet drives me even more crazy then art does

CLICK HERE for a little background on the Buddy Rich tapes

CLICK HERE for a weird Tonight Show episode where Jerry Lewis fills in for Johnny, with guest Bob Hope

CLICK HERE for the Jim Keltner Discography

CLICK HERE for the The Knack - this clip (with hard panned guitars) will help you understand the division of guitar parts in this song - which is not quite what I thought it was

CLICK HERE then click "Random Video"

CLICK HERE Rolling Stone's 500 Worst Reviews of All Time, according to Schmidtt

CLICK HERE for the 1966 Esquire Magazine piece "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold"

CLICK HERE for a dumbly titled, but interesting piece on Tom Wilson

CLICK HERE to find out about folks buying old lps in the USA to sell in Europe

CLICK HERE for a grammar test

CLICK HERE for Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee

CLICK HERE for the first issue of "BOMP!" magazine

CLICK HERE to see Jerry Lewis and Al Goldstein show of gadgets in 1976 on "A.M. New York"

CLICK HERE for Nick Lowe's odd appearance on the Adam Carolla show.

CLICK HERE for a $400+ out of print book about Pub Rock that Nick Lowe mentions - OR - buy it HERE for for £17 (about $28), including postage, on Will Birch's website

CLICK HERE for a reminder that you have to be 恋のホワン・ホワン (or HERE, or HERE , or HERE , or HERE, or HERE!)

CLICK HERE for info on an odd e-book "Nick Lowe: A Long Career That Never Gets Stale." It is 4 pages long and "sells" for $1.99. The same author has one about Dean Martin that was reviewed like this: "This pamphlet was complete gargbage. A sixth grader could have written a better essay. All of this author's works should be removed from Amazon."

CLICK HERE for a New York Times piece from Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger and CLICK HERE to read one from Chris Collingwood

CLICK HERE for the unfortunately titled but otherwise interesting "60 Great Albums You Probably Haven’t Heard"

CLICK HERE for a new interactive video from Bob Dylan

CLICK HERE, but only if you have golden ears

CLICK HERE for some amazing RARE STAX MUSIC from tapes Robert Gordon pulled out of the debris when the STAX building was being torn down!

CLICK HERE for STAX at The White House

CLICK HERE to read about "The Albums Everyone Can Love"

CLICK HERE to read the list of the best selling vinyl records of the last 20 years

CLICK HERE for info on Nothing To Hide which was amazing

CLICK HERE for Shelby Lynn w/ Darrly Hall

CLICK HERE for " Portraits of Unrelated Doppelgangers Who Have Found Their Match"

CLICK HERE for photos of Nashville session cello player Byron Bach's ledger from Paul Lukas' excellent Permanent Record web site

CLICK HERE for another of my links to stories about Will Smith's annoying kids - and one person's reply to a tweet from one of them

CLICK HERE for Dave Edmunds'new song

CLICK HERE to see a guy really get into a Bon Jovi song

CLICK HERE if you're a BEATLE fan!

CLICK HERE for ROCKPILE live

CLICK HERE for The Spampinato Brothers live at The Hamilton

CLICK HERE for The Turtles "Happy Together" (vocals only)

CLICK HERE to read the story behind Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” bass line

CLICK HERE to read 20th Century Headlines Rewritten To Get More Clicks

CLICK HERE I think this hurts ants, but it looks cool - I want one

CLICK HERE to check your News IQ

CLICK HERE for a long documentary on The Everly Brothers!

CLICK HERE if you're a fan of funky drums

CLICK HERE for a song about Chinese Food - usually I'd suggest ignoring this kind of thing, but this is so misguided, and just plain bad, it needs to be seen - it make you ponder: what kind of world are we living in?

CLICK HERE for Ernie Bushmiller illustrated autobiography, on an amazing website

CLICK HERE for Johnny T's NYC Tourist Tips !

CLICK HERE for "If you thought CBGB’s bathrooms were full of shit check out the movie"

CLICK HERE to find out who's getting the "Baby Blue" money from Badfinger's song being on Breaking Bad

CLICK HERE for info on wealth inequality

CLICK HERE for The Mills Brothers

CLICK HERE for some videos from the BUCKY album 'Women, Ladies and Girls (Sing the Bucky Songbook).' (I especially like THIS ONE! {due to the great acting})

CLICK HERE for James Jamerson & Gladys Knight going nuts on I Heard It Through The Grapevine

CLICK HERE for Wilton Felder's so good isolated bass on "I Want You Back"

CLICK HERE read producer Steve Albini’s incredible four-page letter to Nirvana

CLICK HERE for a 1958 film "The Capitol Tower"

CLICK HERE for interesting reviews of Haribo Gummy Candy Sugarless Gummy Bears 5-Pound Bag

CLICK HERE to find out Popular Science is shutting off their comments

CLICK HERE for an article by WFMU's Joe McGasko: "Johnny Cash: 10 Things You Might Not Know About Him"

CLICK HERE for info on the new Nashville DVD

CLICK HERE for " The Weirdest Photos Of Mike Love You Can Find "

CLICK HERE for some Steve Allen bashing

CLICK HERE for The Beach Boys reunion show live In Japan - full show

CLICK HERE and page down to the Violent Femmes Trivia section

CLICK HERE for Liverpool Scene's "Batpoem Live!

CLICK HERE for Deke Dickerson's 2013 Tour Documentary--PART ONE!

CLICK HERE for a "Step Inside Legendary New Jersey Radio Station WFMU!

I have low expectations for THIS

CLICK HERE to read about how Adam Schlesinger? from Fountains of Wayne writes songs

CLICK HERE to watch The Beach Boys pretend to record "Good Vibrations"

CLICK HERE for The Mighty Hannibal "Midnight Hour" on The !!!! Beat

CLICK HERE for Rock Aficionados Try to Spin Old Vinyl Into Gold in New Investing Track

CLICK HERE for Ted Nugent

CLICK HERE for "Iconic NYC Music Venues, Then And Now" slideshow

CLICK HERE for "Ex”-Cheap Trick Drummer Bun E. Carlos in Lawsuit With “Former” Band Mates"

CLICK HERE for Sinatra doing his thing

CLICK HERE for 45 minutes of Elvis Costello & The Attractions at their peak

CLICK HERE to watch the full "Beach Boys Live in Concert 50th Anniversary"

CLICK HERE to see listener Bjarne from Norway who tattooed the Woof Moo Logo on his hip area

CLICK HERE for some live Magic and CLICK HERE for the proper chords.

CLICK HERE for Celebrity Make Unders – What Would Celebrities Look Like If They Were Everyday People?!

CLICK HERE to listen to almost every top 10 of the top 40 era.

I love THIS!

CLICK HERE for a short documentary on Donnie And Joe Emerson!

CLICK HERE for info on Fake Amps!

CLICK HERE to hear Gene Simmons say that Ace Frehley is a drugged racist with low self esteem who did nothing

CLICK HERE to see Malcolm Brickhouse & Jarad Dawkins sixth-grade metalheads from Flatbush, Brooklyn

CLICK HERE to hear David Letterman ask: "Are Those Your Drums?"

CLICK HERE for a PDF of who plays what on Everly Brothers recordings.

CLICK HERE for How we made "You Really Got Me"!

CLICK HERE for another of the worst people in the world!

CLICK HERE for a not quite right piece called "The Rising Cost of New Vinyl"

CLICK HERE for 10 of the all-time greatest disc jockeys - with audio clips of their chatter

CLICK HERE this train wreck is a great microcosm of what is wrong with the world.

CLICK HERE for Nina Simone: nutty but good.

CLICK HERE to read: KISS' Paul Stanley: 'I Don't Need The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame'

CLICK HERE to read: An Open Letter From a Bar Owner to Musicians!

CLICK HERE to see Robin Zander's "son"

CLICK HERE for a nice piece about the the L.A. studio musicians who dominated the 70's sound.

CLICK HERE for Kim Shattuck.

I love THESE Beach Boy videos!

CLICK HERE for more Jerry. the whole clip is crazy - but 2:13 in is really off the charts nuts.

CLICK HERE to see Google interview Nick Lowe after his Live@Google performance in Mountain View. To get the two tracks for free from this performance CLICK HERE

There's some controversy about the coin toss that decided who would get seats in the plane that crashed on February 3, 1959 and killed Buddy Holly, Richie Vallens & Big Bopper. CLICK HERE for "An open Letter & Challenge to Dion from Tommy Allsup" then CLICK HERE for Dion's version from "The Wanderer Talks Truth"

CLICK HERE to explore & watch a short film on The Cosimo Code, an attempt to catalog every Cosimo Matassa 45!

CLICK HERE for info on an amazing new drug: Unpretentiousil!

CLICK HERE for Paul Anka's famous post-gig turned into a short film!

CLICK HERE for an recent Montclair Times article on Michael Shelley!

CLICK HERE to read how Big Star's "September Gurls" was recorded at Ardent Studios

CLICK HERE to read Carol Kaye review of "The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret"

Apparently Bowie offered "Golden Years" to Elvis Presley - but The King declined. CLICK HERE former guest Stevie Riks nails the Elvis/Bowie duet version.