Talks from my book Come Together
Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On: How Did Rock and Roll Come to Be?
- 12 Changes That Paved the Way for the Rock and Roll of the 50s
- What Was the 1st Rock and Roll Record?
- Rockin’ ‘Round the Clock: DJ Alan Freed, the combo band Bill Haley and His Comets, and the movie Blackboard Jungle ignite a rock and roll explosion
Setting the Stage for the Beatles
- The King and Court: Elvis and 6 other rock and roll pioneers who greatly influenced the Beatles
- A New Frontier: The music of the Kennedy years (1960 to 1963)
From Rock and Roll to Rock: A 6-year musical road trip from Liverpool to Woodstock
- 1964 – The Beatles and the Music of the British Invasion
- 1965 – With Rubber Soul, The Beatles, Under the Influence of Bob Dylan and Pot, Create Song Lyrics with More Mature Meanings
- 1966 – Garage Rock Rules, but Albums like the Beatles’ Revolver Begin Making LPs More Important Than 45 Singles
- 1967 – With the Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s as Its Soundtrack, a Summer of Love Gives Birth to Psychedelic Rock and the Hippie Lifestyle
- 1968 – The Music of the Beatles, the Stones, and Others Reflect Turbulent Times
- 1969 – The Beatles Stay Home But from Atlantic Pop to Woodstock to the Isle of Wright to Altamont, It’s a Year of the Big Music Festival
- from Our Rock and Pop Culture Division – Rock of Agers Icons
Rock Icons and the Real World Series
The Bands
- Here, There, and Everywhere: How the World Would Be Much Different Without the Influences of the Beatles
- What a Drag It Is Getting Old: What the Rolling Stones Can Teach All of Us About Aging
- A Traveling Show of Deadheads and Tie-Dye: The Radical, Yet Highly Successful Business Plan of the Grateful Dead
Individual Artists
- The Answer Is Blowin’ in the Wind: The Great Protest Anthems of Bob Dylan
- Is a Dream a Lie If It Don’t Come True or Is It Something Worse: Bruce Springsteen and the Unfilled Promise of the American Dream
- Rebel, Rebel: David Bowie Drives GlamRock, Androgyny, and Gay Life Style
45 Revolutions a Minute: Singing Out for Social Change
- Just Show Me Some Respect: Songs Celebrating Gender Equality & Female Freedom
- Keep on Pushin’: The Greatest Songs of the Civil Rights Movement
- Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud: The Songs of Black Pride and Power
- We Gotta Get Out of This Place: Anti-Vietnam War Songs & Peace Classics
- Smile on Your Brother: Songs Calling for Peace, Love, & Understanding
- Look at Mother Nature on the Run Since the 1970s: Songs to Save Our Earth
The Free Speech & Protest Series
- They Are Women, Hear Them Roar: DC Protests for the Vote, Female Equality, and Reproductive Rights
- They Had a Dream: 7 Decades of Civil Rights Marches and Rallies in DC
- Hell No, We Won’t Go: The Pro-Peace, Anti-War Protests of the 60s and 70s
- We’re Coming Out: The Fight for LGBTQ Rights in DC
- It’s Nature’s Way of Telling Us (Something’s Wrong): DC As One of the Centers of the Struggle to Save the Planet
- 1970s: Songs to Save Our Earth
Looking at the Darker Sides of Our Government by Decade
- The 1920s – The KKK Rides Again: America First, White Pride, and the 1st Resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan
- The 1930s – Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? High Society, the Common Man, and the Great Depression
- The 1940s – Behind the Wire: World War II, FDR, and the Japanese-American Internment Camps
- The 1950s – Freedom Under Fire: Congress, McCarthyism, The Red Scare, the Lavender Scare, the Comic Book Controversy, and the Fear of Juvenile Delinquents, Blackboard Jungles, & Rebels without a Cause
- The 1960s – No Rockin’ in the Free World: J. Edgar Hoover & The FBI’s Secret Files on Rock and Roll Artiists, “Filthy” Songs, and “Anti-American” Albums
- The 1970s – One Toke Over the Line: Richard Nixon, His Enemies List, and the War on Drugs, the Youth Counterculture, and Rock Music