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Philadelphia Rock Radio Denny Somach & Anita Gevinson

Jun 13, 2021

Behavioral Corner

The hills are alive with the sound of …


As we emerge from over a year without live music, World Music Day arrives. To note this celebration of music and its clear benefit to our behavioral health, music mavens Denny Somach and Anita Gevinson, join us on the Corner.

This is the podcast from PodcastOne that goes deep undercover to shine new light on the soundtrack of the most exciting decades in music. Producer/Rock Historian Denny Somach and friends are bringing their career experiences and his library of thousands of interviews to new life in this fast-paced, fan-focused series. They present not only the stories as they lived them, but as the artists did. From The Beatles to Foo Fighters, from John Bonham to Dave Grohl, from Woodstock to Coachella, these are the real stories: the greatest stories of rock from the artists themselves - in their own voices!

Listen Now!

Denny Somach

Denny Somach is an American businessman, author, and Grammy-award winning radio producer. He is the founder of Denny Somach Productions, an independent production company that produces syndicated and network programming. 


His latest book, A Walk Down Abbey Road, is a celebration of the impact and influence the Beatles have had on their generation and the one that followed, on both sides of the Atlantic. It contains interviews with major recording stars including the Rolling Stones, Sting, Billy Joel, Eagles, Steven Tyler, Brian Wilson, Jimmy Page, Elton John, David Bowie and others who were witness to history. A Walk Down Abbey Road also contains interviews with the four Beatles.

Buy It Here

Anita Gevinson

Throughout the course of Anita Gevinson’s four-decade long career in broadcasting, she has graced the airwaves of many of the most popular radio stations in the US. Combining a sharp wit with a deep appreciation for all styles of music, Anita says that she never planned to become a DJ in the first place. “All I wanted to do was get paid to play records and go to concerts for free, where I could go backstage to use the better bathrooms,” she says.


Anita detailed her career in her memoir, You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio...My Wild Rock 'N' Roll Life, which was published in 2012. 

Buy It Here

Ep. 55 - Denny Somach & Anita Gevinson Podcast Transcript

The Behavioral Corner

Hi, and welcome. I'm Steve Martorano. And this is the Behavioral Corner, you're invited to hang with us as we discuss the ways we live today. The choices we make, the things we do, and how they affect our health and well-being. So you're on the corner, the behavioral corner, please hang around a while. 


Steve Martorano 

Hi, everybody. How are you doing? Welcome to what is the sultry day on the Behavioral Corner. I'm Steve Martorano, and we're trying to be as cool as they could possibly be. The humidity on the corner today is about 400%. So it's very steamy in our little hometown. You know what we do on the corner, we talk about those things that affect our behavioral health. That's a big topic. It's almost everything we do winds up somehow affecting our emotional or physical and our spiritual lives. And I think we got a good one for you. I know we do because we've done it in the past. We're going to talk about music. And we sort of keyed it to something called World Music Day, which is the festival shorts have spread over 1000 cities that began about 30 years ago in France, it's simply that just a day to stand back and go, ain't music great. Music is amazing. It's sort of like, it's sort of like ice cream. I mean, who doesn't like ice cream, right? Nobody likes it. The next person that says you gotta hate music, you'll walk away from it very quickly, but you probably won't run into that person. So everybody loves music of some sort. So in order to revel in music, it's our appreciation of it and what it means to us. We went out and got ourselves a couple of experts because we're lucky. We know a lot of interesting people here on the Corner. Denny Somach is an American businessman, author, and Grammy Award-winning record producer. And that just scratches the surface of Denny's accomplishments. We'll get into all that with us also, Anita Gevinson. Anita began her illustrious broadcasting career, right in Philadelphia, notably as the host of Anita in the Morning, and the famous feature of Ask Anita, where she answered, you know, personal questions from the audience and ruined many, many lives with her advice. Anyway, that just was the beginning of a wild and exhilarating rock and roll career that took it to Boston and took it to the west coast where she is now and points in between. And that backstage pass that she managed to get took me to many, many, memorable experiences and a relationship with the legendary excitable boy himself, the late Warren Zevon. And we're going to talk a little bit about Warren and Anita straight ahead. Together, they handle a new Denny Somach Production called The Rock Podcast -- which I cannot recommend highly enough, particularly for young 'uns out there that want to catch up on what all the fuss is about this music that seems to never go away. And they're gonna take us through their careers and their attraction to music and what it's meant to them. Hi, guys.


Denny Somach 

Hi Steve. How are you doing? 


Anita Gevinson 

Hi Steve.


Steve Martorano 

You know, I buried the lede here, as they say, a newspaper business. We are all friends, obviously, and colleagues. We all made our bones in Philadelphia. We're all natives to this area. Denny, you started in Allentown, right? 


Denny Somach 

That's right. I did Allentown Pennsylvania, home of the famous song.


Anita Gevinson 

You buried the lead there. Tell him about the Billy Joel thing real fast. 


Denny Somach 

I don't know if you know this Steve but I brought Billy Joel to Allentown in the early 70s, for his first headline gig. And when I drove him, he came to my station for an interview -- this is WSAN -- I was headlining him at a 500 seat theater called the Roxy Theatre in North Hampton. And he comes to the station and he does an interview with me. And then I drive him to the theater. And he's never headline before. And I'm taking him through the back weighs between Allentown and Bethlehem and all the factories and all the imagery that later appeared in that song. And the whole time over I'm assuring him that the audience is going to love him and he's going to be great. And of course, he gets there and there are two sold-out shows. And he got a standing ovation on both shows and it was just you know, it kicked off. After that, he never was an opener again. 


Anita Gevinson 

Imagine if you took him to Camden, it would have been a whole different career.


Steve Martorano 

Well, you know, I mean, it resulted in, you know, the famous Goodnight Saigon, which is an amazing song. Yeah, I'm a little confused. The other thing I need to point out in the interest of complete disclosure is that Anita helps me get my first job broadcasting.


Anita Gevinson 

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's the opposite. When you got me my first job in broadcasting. 


Steve Martorano 

Oh.


Anita Gevinson 

Yeah. 


Steve Martorano 

Oh, well, yeah, that's it. 


Anita Gevinso

I was gonna mention...no, no, no, I was gonna bring that up and thank you again. But...


Steve Martorano 

Notice how I've managed to work that in without having to take credit. 


Anita Gevinson 

Yeah, yeah. No, no, Steve got me my first job in radio. Steve launched my career. I owe everything to Steve.


Steve Martorano 

Okay, let's not true. I just pointed in your right direction. And anyway...


Denny Somach 

And I listened to Steve when I was growing up


Steve Martorano 

Okay, that's great. 


Anita Gevinson 

Oh God.


Steve Martorano 

By the way, I get those messages too, by the way, you know. I've done a lot of stuff as you guys know, I mean, you know, my career path was broadcasting the music was just my first vehicle. But you know, it's a sports thing. I did sports for a while, and I hear from them a lot, a lot. Anyway, I know people love to talk about sports, but we're not doing that. So let's begin at the beginning for you guys. Look, I said everybody loves music. Everybody loves the music we grew up on because it's some of the best pop music that's ever been produced. But only a precious few were lucky enough to go, "You know what, I think I could do this. I could do something with this." Denny, what was the first live music you've ever heard of live music of any kind?


Denny Somach 

Oh, boy. That's been a long...people usually ask me the first record you buy...the first live music? Gosh, I do not remember. I just remember the first rock shows I went to.


Anita Gevinson 

What was the? 


Steve Martorano 

What was that? 


Denny Somach 

One of the early one's Three Dog Night, I think in Steppenwolf, and...


Steve Martorano 

Anita, how about you? What was the first...


Anita Gevinso

Monkees. Monkeys at Philadelphia Convention Center. 


Steve Martorano 

The Monkeys. 


Anita Gevinson 

My father drove me I had a box of my mother's homemade chocolate chip cookies with me in a shoebox. And I ran to the stage, put them on the stage and went back to my seat and just screamed for an hour. You know, in the early years when I would listen to music. It was visceral. I didn't really understand. But it was immediate the feeling you got. And for me -- in our house growing up, my parents were very cool. You met them, Steve. 


Steve Martorano 

Yes.


Anita Gevinson 

Really cool people. Yeah. And I really wanted to hang with them. That was so strange. And they had music on all the time. So the first time I ever saw my mother cry at a Broadway show out of joy, you know, at the big curtain, you know, when they bring the curtain down, and they come out for that extra bow. My mother's just bawling. And I had this, you know, I can remember her standing by the sink in tears, listening to Judy Garland live. 


Steve Martorano 

Yeah. 


Anita Gevinson 

And so you know, they would take me to Broadway shows and I knew there was something about the music, I wanted to relate to my parents to about that. And then I got my own music, and, of course, the Beatles moment. But even more than that, it was just that I started to think about all of the songs that were having this effect on me and I really took my cue. All my decisions were made by the music that I listened to.


Steve Martorano

You know, we grew up in an age where the music did many things certainly entertain. But it also informed. I mean, even in the midst of the kind of turmoil we're living through now I find pop music, practically devoid of anything beyond the beat to beat the beat or whatever. The music really beginning with the folk thing and then into rock. It was really about what was going on in the culture. That was a strong connection. For somebody like me who wants to get into broadcasting. When I heard music, reflecting what was going on in the streets. I thought there's some way in here. I'm not a musician. I can't write this stuff. But there's some way in here. And it was music. Music was a vehicle for me.


Denny Somach 

We had a bit on one of our shows where Bob Geldof said music the international language. Everybody gets it and that's why I needed to get Pink Floyd back together. For Live 8. Everybody would understand it doesn't matter what language they all get it. And that was the explanation he used to (David) Gilmore and (Roger) Waters. It's the international language. 


Anita Gevinson 

When you listen to music, then you had to think about what you were going to do with your life. Because there were songs about going to San Francisco. Everybody went somewhere. Took some sort of a journey. It was you know, you just had to figure out where you wanted to go. And I chose Mexico. And it's 1972. And I left Levittown, Pennsylvania, you know, in a little car, a little sports car with my boyfriend, and we're driving to Mexico. And my parents were like, yeah, go live your life. You know. It was unbelievable. And I get there. And I had trouble learning the language. And the pot was so good, you know, who could learn...How could you learn another language I could barely speak. And I remember I'm in my little apartment. And if it rained at the beginning of the week, by the end of the week, these guys would get on this bus from a place where they grew those psilocybin mushrooms. And they would roll them up in T-shirts and other native things that they would sell to tourists and they would roll them up, put them in their sombrero hats and get on the bus and they would come to our apartment. And we were part of a college scene back then. And all the college kids will come to our little apartment and buy the psilocybin mushrooms and they would go up to the pyramid. And the guys would hang out for a little while and then they take a bus back. Well, I didn't want to climb the pyramid. I wasn't into that. So I remember sitting there with these guys, I couldn't even speak to them. And they were the mushroom salesman, and I played David Bowie's Changes for them because we got little cassette tapes sent to us. And by the end of the evening, they were all singing cha cha cha changes. And I'll never forget that moment. I was like, this is the greatest thing ever. 


Steve Martorano

Yep. Something's going on here. Both of you are right. The Geldof comment that it connects on a universal basis. You know, I can go down the rabbit hole of internet searching a lot and often do that when I was just reading about music, because you know, where does it start to mean, I know people banging on drums since they came out of caves and all that. But really important. academic studies have been done about, you know, what is this? Where did music come from? And one of the things that struck me about it was some researcher said, well, look, we're a rhythmic creature. Human beings are rhythmic creatures. And they said that you can see it obviously manifested in our heartbeat, our breath rate, the flow of blood, it's all a rhythm we're hardwired into. So music connects on this immediate level. Doesn't make any difference what kind of music you like, it draws you in and then does a lot of different things. So you know, it's just a ridiculous question, Denny, but I can't think of a pop store over the past 40 or 50 years, you have in some way come in contact with. Is there somebody that's someone that stands out more than others that sort of went beyond the oh, you're a famous guy, and I love your music? Something deep, something that pulls you in?


Denny Somach 

Well, obviously, any of the Beatles. Fortunately, I was able to speak with three out of the four. I was on my way to speak to John Lennon on that fateful day. But so that never happened. But I do know Yoko Ono. I've been up to the Dakota a few times. But I would say all three of The Beatles in some way had had an impact on me. And then beyond that. People like Pete Townsend, you know, people that are like thinking man's musician.


Steve Martorano 

Yep. Yeah. In their presence, you go immediately beyond the fact that you're a fan and you're like the music. And you know, I'm sitting in front of somebody that's been really important in my life. 


Denny Somach 

Yeah. 


Steve Martorano 

How about you, Anita? 


Anita Gevinson 

Well, I was attracted to musicians, but it wasn't always about the music. So it was difficult for me to...I didn't want to be with anybody that was like my idol or anything, you know. So when I met Bob Dylan, I would tell people that I met Bob Dylan. And people were like, "Oh?" and I'm like, No, no, no. I mean, you know, you don't fuck Bob Dylan. I mean, to me, that's just I just, I just, you know, I mean, I did. It wouldn't have been like, right, you know. I'm not saying that it was on the table even. But instead, I decided to ask him career advice, ask him life advice, because he's Bob Dylan. So I go to a Bruce Springsteen show. And I've been to a bunch of them that week, and I love Bruce, but Bruce has like, a date that won't end you know, like, they're kind of less is more sometimes, you know, it gets to that point. So when he's like, in that two and a half hour mark, you know, you're like, didn't he already do this song, you know, and he's only halfway through. I'm like, using my backstage pass to go back. Use the good bathroom, take a shot at somebody else's liquor, who knows. And I do that and I get back to my seat, and someone's sitting in my seat. Bruce never let his friends or family sit in the front, you always had to sit on the side, and the paying customer sat in the front. So I'm in this sports arena, in the bleachers. And I looked down and okay, someone's sitting in my seat. So I just slide in next to him. And the lights come on, and I turn and it's Bob Dylan. I'm sitting next to Bob Dylan. He's in my seat. So he sees my pass. And he says, "Can you get me backstage?" And I'm like, "You're Bob Dylan. I don't really think you're gonna, you know, have a hard time." And he didn't get it, you know? And he's like, "No, I need you to take me backstage." I'm like, "Sure, Bob. I'll take you backstage." So the show's over. And we stand up and I give them this my hand, like, come with me. And he grabs my hand. So it's like, Oh, my God. walk them through, walk them in the back. Take them backstage, go up to the dressing room. And I said, Bob Dylan's here to see Bruce Springsteen and the idiot guy. You know, the bouncer guys standing out there for security goes, "Give me 20 minutes." I'm like, "No, no, no, you don't understand Bob Dylan's here." So he says, "Give me 20 minutes." So I had 20 minutes with him. So I thought what should I do? What should I do? And I, I asked him advice about my life, told him my short story. And he stopped me at one point and he turns me and he says, "Go back to Philly." And I said, "What?" And he goes, "Go back to Philly." I'd been fired. I had nothing in LA left. This was 1980. And I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna go back. to Philly" and change the whole...my whole life I went back. I got my big shot at the morning show again on WMMR. And Bob was right about everything. So yeah, he, he was the guy for me. Still is.


Steve Martorano 

So I have to share credit with Bob, is that it? Okay.


Anita Gevinson 

You and Bob, I'm sorry, you and Bob.


Steve Martorano 

Anita Gevinson and Danny Somach. They're here because they know more about popular music and how it shaped their lives and what it's meant to them in their careers and lives. You couldn't find two more devoted music fans and these two guys. Denny, when did you decide that this -- I don't know how to put this -- you can make money doing this, this is something you wanted to do as a career?


Denny Somach 

I wasn't planning on it. I wanted to be a stockbroker and a stock analyst. And I happened to intern at a radio station and my senior year in high school. And I entered college as a business major. And I joined the college radio station for fun. And one thing led to another. And then I accidentally got a job at a radio station in Allentown while I was in school. So I figured, you know, this would be kind of cool. I think I'll switch my major from business -- they didn't have communications back then so it was Art English, you know, was my became my major. And going to school, I worked at this radio station, but you know, part-time and eventually full time, few hours a day. And then I was I met somebody in Philadelphia who's, you know, asked me if I wanted to work in Philly. And I said, no, I got one more year of college I want to finish. And then I don't know what I'm going to do probably, you know, go back to you know, I wanted to go to Junior Executive Training at Merrill Lynch. JET. That was my big thing. So anyway, long story short, I ended up getting an offer to come to Philadelphia, right when I was graduating, which was a WYSP which is where I worked part-time for a while. And as you know, Steve, somebody gets fired. And the next thing you know, you're the new whatever that other guy was. And I kept saying, you know, this would be kind of cool. I'll keep doing this until I can get back on my career path. Because this is a great gig play music go to shows. Meanwhile, you know, read the Wall Street Journal every morning, watch the financial trades, and kept trying to hone my skills. And I think after I turned 30 I said to myself, you know, this, this might be a real career. So that's when I decided that I'll just continue. But I didn't give up. I still hope to be a stockbroker. 


Anita Gevinson 

Don't give up on that dream. Yeah, it's crazy.


Steve Martorano 

It's amazing you would sacrifice Wall Street for radio.


Denny Somach 

Yeah.


Steve Martorano 

I just urge people to check out Denny's Wikipedia page if you got an hour and a half or not. I mean, he literally is...


Denny Somach 

Skip that. I've never even seen it. Go to my website: DennySomach.com


Steve Martorano 

And he...he's just done...he's just done amazing stuff with a lot of different people. I don't want to put you on the spot here. But like Anita was saying, the more I admire someone in the arts, the last I'm interested in meeting them. Because I just don't want to be disappointed if they're jerks, and they can be jerks. It's the work that should speak for itself. And it always has for me but is there have you ever been in a situation Denny where you're sitting in front of somebody who you admired their music is great, you're going, "Wow, this guy's really a jerk. What am I doing here?"


Anita Gevinson 

Yeah.


Denny Somach 

Yeah, I hate to say it but I don't think you can do anything to me. Jeff Beck. 


Steve Martorano 

Jeff Beck?!?


Denny Somach 

You know, first of all, he dissed The Beatles said they were no good. He's just obnoxious. What can I say? I was a big Yardbirds fan. So you know, that was hard to take. 


Steve Martorano 

But so you get -- what kind of a situation like that with someone who's given you so much joy, right. And you love everything. Think he's a genius. And you don't know how... he's like, wait a minute do I not like his stuff now or...Music's grip on this, though, is such it's kind of dangerous that we're willing to overlook a lot if the work is there. So I've made it a habit. And I know they're all great for staying away from me. Because I know they're gonna be disappointed in me. You know what I'm just thinking about... asked you guys have a tough question about the first live music. I'm now recalling what it is. Do you remember the song? Sir Duke, of course, the Stevie Wonder song, Sir Duke.


Denny Somach 

Yeah, sure. 


Steve Martorano 

When he came out, I think a lot of people I was among them like, that's an odd theme for him. And then in a flash, I went, "Oh my God." We were on the Steel Pier. I was 15/16 years old. And the headliner was the Duke Ellington Orchestra. And Little Stevie Wonder, opening the show. So that's the first live music I ever saw was a Little Stevie on the Steel Pier. 


Anita Gevinson 

Wow. 


Steve Martorano 

And I don't know if the orchestra played with him on the...on the...I can't remember the name of the hit -- Fingertips!


Anita Gevinson 

Fingertips - a song that he made up at the Apollo when they brought him back for an encore.


Steve Martorano 

The real fundament. I mean, the real moment when I went, there's something about the music that I got to get next to it. It's a cliche I know, but it was Presley on the Sullivan show. I tell young people all the time, who think they understand that Presley was not only the arch type. I mean, you know, he, there wasn't rock stars before. He was the arch type. But he was also dangerous, he was considered a threat. Yeah. And that was a very compelling aspect of pop music for me that it was forbidden



Anita Gevinson 
He was bringing the devil's music to the white suburban kids. And just, you know, I'm kind of ashamed to say how late to the party I was with jazz. But it wasn't until I watched the Ken Burns series, and not even when it originally aired. It transformed me and I literally would spend days like I'd have a Coltrane day where I saw I listened to and then I'd have a Miles Davis day and then I'd have a Chet Baker day and then I'd have a Charlie Parker day and that and now I'm at the point where I can tell like, I know these songs like I know Led Zeppelin songs. I know that and when you think about how crazy it was that all that music, and then, of course, the whole blues and the fact that all the blues had to be re-invented by white English musicians. You know, the way we got that music through Elvis Presley and through white English bands that recreated all that music, I'd say what 80% of the music that we ended up enjoying whether it was Motown or the Beatles cover of the r&b hits or the stuff that emerged from the jazz or the blues. 80% of that music all came from people of color that are you know, whatever made a cent on it never got famous never became anything. And that's all the music that we have.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, it's absolutely true. That contribution to people of color. We don't have the pop music we have without that.

Anita Gevinson 
Right. Elvis Presley. How damaged was he in real life? To your point, Steve about you know how important he was?

Steve Martorano 
Well, yeah, Elvis didn't know he was Elvis. Do you know what I mean?

Anita Gevinson 
He goes into the army and gets addicted to pills because he's got to be a guy that stands up all night guarding. I don't know what he was guarding. But he was. So he gets addicted. He comes back. And he's...and I mean, that's a terrible story. And there are so many of those out there. We were just talking about John Bonham. You know,

Steve Martorano 
Well, yeah. You know, the highways strewn with the body of these poor bastards who Kurt Cobain's mom said when Kurt died, he's joined that big dumb club in the sky. So let's talk a minute about this because this is important about what music has to do with our behavioral health, which is what we want to focus on. Music and race are linked in a fundamental way. I mean, we took great pride when we were first playing records, or thinking before, either you were on utterly the music library in that playlist had nothing to do with anything other than the songs. We didn't care who they were, what color they were. And the hope was that there would be some coming together over music. That's what music is supposed to do. A concert is that a bunch of different people with different ideas come together and enjoy this music without regard to race. And yet, we know tragically sitting here today, that when the conference over everybody goes home, the knuckleheads go over here, regular people go over here, it unites us for a moment. And in some of the songs that you that become anthems they become iconic songs. I just one point about jazz. Eric Clapton said years ago before the Ken Berns doc, Eric Clapton said that Louis Armstrong had the most impact on him as a musician, and I could never figure that out. 

Denny Somach 
That's true for a lot of people. 

Steve Martorano 
Yeah. And then and then it was explained later on to me, that prior to Louis Armstrong prior to jazz, it was John Philip Sousa time in America. Da da da da bump, bump, bump 4/4 rhythm. That's it. And Armstrong and the jazz.. the early jazz pioneers taught us to swing that rhythm. And when white guys heard it when Creoles heard it came out of you know, Congo Square down there, it created popular music. But do you share with me, Denny, at least some regret that I guess I don't want to put it all on music because what can music do that people want? But it seems like we've pulled further apart racially add music? Is that your impression of it?

Denny Somach 
Well, I sort of agree with your music as you know, didn't have any specific color back in the 60s when I was growing up and 70s you could hear you know, Motown next to the Hendrix next to, you know, that's what was so great about it. So let me just tell you what my feeling though about music in general and what and I was thinking about this when you told me what the topic was going to be. We spend so much of our time picking songs for our wedding, our funeral, a birthday, you know, everybody takes time to think about music, and people remember what songs came out when they were at a special event. And this and that. When you asked me earlier about first live music, I was thinking of rock music. I do have the answer now. The first music I saw was the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, under Donald Vorhees, the famed conductor, and I must have been, like 10 years old. So that's the first live music I saw.

Steve Martorano
The first time you hear it full orchestra real orchestra. I saw the academy music I used to fill it up here. It's unbelievably powerful, as powerful as any rock band diver. Let me ask you about that. This is really fascinating. As far as I'm concerned, we live in a different media landscape. Now. Music is so ubiquitous, it's so everywhere, and so available, that I wonder whether it has lost some of its ability to push that memory button. One of the great things about music is what you just said to me, you pick songs because they elicit a response that's tied to something that happened when you heard it. So the experience of being in your car when I was young, and an oldie would come on, you would be flooded with memories because you hadn't heard that song since perhaps when it was new. That's no longer the case. We live in a timeless moment. There's no then and now. There's just now. So I wonder, is it possible for any kid who's I don't know, 15 / 20 years old, to get anything out of hearing. And I'll use the greatest example I can think of Stairway to Heaven. Does it conjure up any memories for them about oh, the first time I heard that?

Anita Gevinson 
I need it. Well, not memories. But I don't know if you saw the YouTube videos of the two kids from Atlanta hearing rock music for the first time. Hysterical. So use that as an example. Why wouldn't that blow their minds and I know this is biting the hand that feeds me. But I blame radio. I blamed radio because when we were growing up, radio was so regional. And I saw that when I moved from Philadelphia to Boston, you know, you didn't play Hal & Oates. You played J. Geils. You didn't hear Bruce Springsteen so much. I heard different bands, I moved to LA. I'm like the Cure who I never even heard, you know. So it was so regional. And we in Philadelphia were treated to Motown, you know, everything Jose Feliciano, Trini Lopez, everything was played on the same station. And then the executives took over and sent in the consultants and they ruined everything they...

Steve Martorano 
You know, you know, it's certainly true. We lived through that. I'm not going to go into the details of this. But I walked away from playing records in the late 70s. I just went, I think it was KISS that finally did it for me. Well, I don't I don't blame you. I just didn't begrudge their popularity. They were popular. And then I came back very briefly -- Anita will know the details. So this we won't go into it. And I had a program director at that time explained to me how since I'd been going for four or five or six years, that it was no longer possible to play, you know, Jimi Hendrix. Couldn't do it. I said, "What do you mean, you can't do it?" He said, "Well because you know, disco..." or something. And he was clear, he was talking along racial lines, and the audience didn't want it anymore. But the culture had something to do with it. People chose sides. It was totally...

Anita Gevinson 
People choose sides. But I think that they were urged to do so because...

Steve Martorano 
Well, yeah, they were it's true. 

Anita Gevinson 
I think if you just play it all, just play it all, and let people hear it. Let people love it. And, you know, there's a lot of young kids today that, you know, the band that everybody compares with Led Zeppelin, right? 

Denny Somach 
Greta Van Fleet?

Anita Gevinson 
Yes, Greta Van Fleet. You know, grew up in the backwoods somewhere and all they had was their parent's record collection. And they heard Led Zeppelin and they built their whole lives around trying to capture that sound and recapture that sound. They get a lot of criticism from it. And some of the stuff to your point earlier. I tried to I don't try I do keep up with the new music and I don't like all of it. But there are some artists that I'm so happy that I forced myself to get to know whether I saw them on a late-night show and I'm like, well, this you know, looks interesting or and then I but there are artists out there today like the woman that calls herself her. Um, she's a throwback to every great guitar player and she can belt out an Aerosmith song. And yet she's so today. And there are a lot of bands. There's a guy called Machine Gun Kelly and you think, yuck, but you listen to those lyrics. And you see these just he seems like the songs were written by the Clash or people like that. There are people out there that do embody everything that's new, but also they reflect everything that has come before it and I think that we need to give everyone a chance and not just have stations that are so specific. To me, music is like sex, I'm never gonna pay for it, okay? So you can't sell me some sort of thing and then program it. I may like to hear a sensitive singer-songwriter, but that's not all I want to hear. And deep tracks are just bad tracks that nobody ever played because they're bad.

Steve Martorano 
I hear you. You know what it's like, you know, you might as well howl at the moon, radios radio. You know, I did an enrichment course in a high school situation a couple of years ago with kids, and they want to learn radio, right? So we walk in and I said, What station you listen to? They looked at me like it was insane. Right. And it occurred to me and 12 kids who were in the room between them, they probably had 50,000 songs in their knapsack...in their backpack. So we had to start over again. So it's something else. Yeah, let me ask you real quick. You had a couple of other things want to get to share, Denny for you with regard to the first thing that grabs you about music? Is it lyrics or is it the is the music?

Denny Somach 
You know, it's different, but a lot of times it's the lyric? It really is. 

Steve Martorano 
Yeah? Depends on the artist for me. I always said even Dylan I got to the lyrics after he hooked me with you know, the raggedy sound that that stuff and swirling organs, and then I would go, by the way, what the hell is he talking about? And then I was--forget about it.

Denny Somach 
But I'm a sucker for for for a great lyric.

Steve Martorano 
Well, he's...listen, you don't win a Nobel Prize in Literature.

Anita Gevinson 
It's unbelievable had he only written two of his albums that would be but when you go back and you think of those songs, it's just it's incredible. 

Steve Martorano 
More about language than anybody -- any pop writer. Anita, words, your music, which comes first?

Anita Gevinson 
Words come first for me because I feel like there's only a certain amount of notes, you know, and everything reminds me of something else. And I'm not mad at that. But for me, it's lyrics when I hear..

Steve Martorano 
Dick Clark taught us all that if you like the beat then you can dance to it, right? I just want to I want to sort of sum it up here now and remind people that we talk about music because as you can see, it's affected the three of us profoundly not just because we chose careers to be around it. But because it means something. I mean, Denny's an image of people choosing their wedding songs and their anniversaries and all that stuff. It's true. You don't haphazardly go, Oh, yeah, play a Gimme Shelter at my funeral. You don't do that. Right? You take time because it's meaningful. We have just endured a year, like no other for a multitude of reasons. But in the context of popular music, a year with no live music, practically anywhere in the world, stunning moment. So we now I believe, and you guys will correct me if I'm wrong, are on the cusp of what is going to be a tsunami of live music in this country. The likes of which we're not going to say I can't imagine a neighborhood bar or a baseball stadium. It's not going to have live music. Right, Denny?

Denny Somach 
It's going to be the Roaring Twenties all over again. I just went to see my first live show after a year and whatever. I went to see Hot Tuna last Sunday. Okay. I mean, yeah, I wouldn't necessarily be my choice for the first one, but they were the first ones that came around. And I remember and they've been around for 50 years, and they still put on a great show. And, you know, I went to the place was packed. It was you know, 350 seats outdoors, and you had to buy a pod of seats -- four -- so I went with another couple. But it was great to see them, you know.

Steve Martorano 
Live music got to get out and see it. You know, real quick, Hot Tuna. Hot Tuna was the band that got rock and roll thrown out of the Academy of Music for a short period of time after their concert. You know, they weren't even rockers. They were just a good-time old band. But it was so you know, the wine bottles rolling down the center aisle at the Academy. 

Anita Gevinson 
But that's what's wrong with concerts these days. There are too many rules. You can't smoke a joint you can't...It's unbelievable. What you can't do a concert these days. You know, it's like they taze you if you get up to dance, it's, it's horrific. But through this past year, it's never been more important for me to listen to music. And as great as the music is to celebrate the good things. For me, it's been essential when things went bad and things went very bad in my life very early on. When my sister died, I was 21 years old. I'm sorry, she was 21 years old. I was 23 years old, and she died of a drug overdose. And you know, when you get to that point in your life where you feel like it's a good thing that you did go to Mexico and had all this stuff because your life is obviously over now. So you're glad you did stuff like that. You go up to your room and I turned to music I turned to the Leonard Cohen album I turn to every sad song that Jackson Browne ever sang. I turned to all these sad songs and I didn't feel as alone quite literally and 10 years after my sister dies, I meet Warren Zevon, and now he's in my life and I love him. I absolutely love him. And yet it's this I'm like, wow, what does this remind me of what is these? What are these feelings that we might, oh, this reminds me of my sister. And I was ill-equipped to go through that again, from what I had been through, coming out the other side, basically, okay, parents stayed together, able to smile again, I got my radio career. And then this comes along, and I had a choice to go through this with him are not and I chose not because you have to remember how early on it was. It was the 80s. And nobody knew we call it a detox. We didn't even call it rehab. And these sensitive but damaged people were leading great lives, and yet they could barely function. So I never thought that you could go into a facility, sit around in a group hold hands, sing Kumbaya, come back out two weeks later, and you'd be cured. So I was like, No...

Steve Martorano
Well, in fact, you can. Of course, that is an aspect of your life. That's fascinating. And we do a whole show on that because the man was a major league artist, one of the great songwriters ever and you were with him that his worst moments, and sometimes that's creative fuel. Other times its destruction. An amazing story of your relationship with Warren Zevon. Listen, guys, I gotta run. I know you have things you want to do. This was a gimme. The proposition was, hey, let's discuss whether music is important. I know that's a softball, but I wanted people who understood it at a deeper level. And I think you proved me correct there. I got lucky again. Denny, thanks. Good luck with the podcast. By the way, going back to the podcast, The Rock Podcast. Dinosaurs like me go Oh, yeah, far out. This is great stuff. I hadn't thought of it. But you youngins this is the show for you. Trust me when I tell you. You only think you know about what went on and what these people were like. This is the podcast for you. Wherever find podcasts, our "podcastable" right, Denny?

Denny Somach 
Yeah, well, you'll appreciate this. We have been a sports guy we look at this is like the inside baseball of rock and roll.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, no, this is a this is not for the dilettante.

Anita Gevinson 
Although I'm a proud dilettante. I will go to my grave with that. But Denny, it's the reason I wanted to do this with Denny is that I mean, everybody has a freakin podcast. But Denny's got this amazing vault of interviews that no one has heard and no one else has. And we build shows around these interviews. And that's what makes this podcast so great. That's why I wanted to be a part of it. It's not just us flapping our lips about our favorite songs. This is like he goes into these, I guess what do you have, like a safe or a...

Denny Somach 
Vault.

Anita Gevinson 
He brings out these great interviews with artists that a lot of them have passed. So you'll never hear this stuff again. And it's incredible stuff. So that's why I wanted to be part of it and thankful that he asked me and that's what I think is the best part of it.

Steve Martorano 
What's great, it's a great show, and again, Denny's done a lot of things. Is that one of your prints behind you?

Denny Somach 
That's the cover of my book, which you might remember because I was on your show promoting that book. You're doing a show with the Buzz...

Steve Martorano 
Buzz Bissinger. Yes. 

Denny Somach 
Yeah, I have it. I wrote a book. 

Steve Martorano 
Yeah. And Anita wrote a book. 

Denny Somach 
I wrote a memoir. It's on Amazon. 

Steve Martorano 
And they lifted the ban in Boston on that book.

Anita Gevinson 
Yes, they have. But just lately, it's called. You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio. The Joni Mitchell song title and yeah, you're in it, Steve.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, well, yeah, my lawyers contacted you about it? Thanks so much, guys. 

Denny Somach 
Thanks for having us. 

Steve Martorano 
Appreciate this. This was great fun. It was as good as I thought it would be appreciated. World Music Day, the 21st. Get out and sing in big bang on pots. Thanks, guys. 

Denny Somach 
Okay, bye-bye, Steve.

Retreat Behavioral Health 
Every storm runs out of rain, according to the great Maya Angelou. Her words can remind us of one very simple truth that storms do cross our paths, but they don't last forever. So the question remains, how do we write out this storm of COVID-19 and all the other storms life may throw our way? Where do we turn when issues such as mental health or substance abuse begin to deeply affect our lives? Look to Retreat Behavioral Health. With a team of industry-leading experts, they work tirelessly to provide compassionate, holistic, and affordable treatment. Call To learn more today. 855-802-6600. Retreat Behavioral Health where healing happens.

The Behavioral Corner 
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