American Song
American Song is a podcast that traces the origins and development of American - and ultimately world-wide - forms of modern musical entertainment. Over time, we will trace every major genre from its origins through the current day.American Song looks at the development of our music through the lens of social, political, and economic changes that were occurring in each case, and we'll feature the most important musicians in each genre.Every episode is chock-full of the music we love and where possible, we include archival interviews so you can hear about, in the actual words and voices of these great musicians and singers, the motives and passions that drove their creativity.
Podcasting since 2021 • 53 episodes
American Song
Latest Episodes
Bruce Springsteen and the American Reckoning: Part Five - Last Man Standing
Part Five starts with a funeral and a realization: when Bruce's friend and former Castile's band mate, George Theiss, dies, Bruce becomes the last man left from his teenage band. That shock pushes him into Springsteen on Broadway, ...
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45:52
Bruce Springsteen and the American Reckoning: Part Four - Breakups, Ghosts, and Trump’s America
Part Four is where the story cuts close to the bone. Bruce lets the E Street Band go, stares down his own failures on Tunnel of Love, and writes The Ghost of Tom Joad for the people that some Americans prefer not to see: migra...
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51:21
Bruce Springsteen and the American Reckoning: Part Three: Darkness, The River, Nebraska, and Berlin ’88
Factories closing, marriages cracking, the glitter of the ’80s hiding a lot of hurt—Part 3 lives right in that gap between the American dream and the American day-to-day. Bruce digs into Darkness, The River, and Nebraska
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52:00
Bruce Springsteen and the American Reckoning: Part Two - Born to Run, Bomb Scares, and the Edge of Fame
Part two picks up in the clubs and dives where Bruce and the band are trying to outrun obscurity. We walk with them through the struggle to get the first records heard, the critics who saw the spark, and the brutal work of making Born to Ru...
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Season 5
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Episode 8
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41:23
Bruce Springsteen and the American Reckoning: Part One - Freehold to Cherry Hill
We start the episode in 2025, at Springsteen's show in Manchester, UK where he makes a landmark statement about America's "leadership" before we flash back to his formative years.A cramped house in Freehold. A father smoking in the dark ...
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Season 5
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Episode 7
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49:19