This Week in Music History for the week of 11-17

Join Buzz Knight and Harry Jacobs, the Master of Music Mayhem, as they explore pivotal moments from the week of November 17th in rock history. This episode dives deep into Pink Floyd’s groundbreaking double album The Wall, released in the UK on November 17, 1979, examining Roger Waters’ creative vision, the band’s intense seven-studio recording sessions, and the controversial firing of keyboardist Richard Wright.

Discover the bizarre Star Wars Holiday Special that aired once on CBS in 1978 and became an infamous stain on the franchise. Learn how guitarist Danny Whitten’s tragic 1978 heroin overdose inspired Neil Young’s haunting classic “The Needle and the Damage Done.”

The hosts celebrate U2’s experimental Achtung Baby (1991), Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy going 11x platinum, and The Who’s complex rock opera Quadrophenia (1973), which represented each band member’s personality across its four album sides.

Plus: Michael Jackson’s game-changing Thriller video MTV premiere, The Beatles’ iconic White Album UK release (1968), Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy vinyl-first strategy, and an incredible story about young Jon Bon Jovi witnessing David Bowie and Freddie Mercury recording “Under Pressure.”

Keywords: Pink Floyd The Wall, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Quadrophenia, Beatles White Album, Thriller video, Achtung Baby, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, music history podcast, classic rock, 1970s music, 1980s music, rock opera​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
I'm buzs Night and welcome back to the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Another episode of This Week in Music History,
and we are going to conquer the week of November
the seventeenth, Master of Music Mayhem checking in Harry Jacobs, Hello, Harry,
Welcome back, Welcome.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Back, Master of Music may I knew it only took
us a year to find something that we would settle
into and go Master of Music Mayhem. They think I'm
going to open up an Instagram accoump okay, Master of
at Master of Music Mayhem.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Okay. I like it.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Doesn't Tommy Lee have a tattoo of may like the
word Mayhem across his belly?

Speaker 3 (00:39):
He probably does, and I don't want to see it.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I have a rather large canvas to do that. On
November seventeenth, nineteen seventy nine, The Wall by Pink Floyd
was releasing the United Kingdom. Last week we discussed David
Gilmour with Wish You Were Here. We talked a little
bit about the relationship with Gilmore and some feelings on

(01:04):
Roger Waters, and here we are talking about The Wall.
This was an album that was primarily written by Roger
Waters and it was inspired by Alienation that he felt
during the Animal's Tour, which was a tour that happened

(01:25):
in seventy seven. I think the album was epic on
many levels. But it was recorded in seven different studios,
one of those things where they bounced around. They were
in France, they were in England, they were in la
they were in all kinds of different locations, and as

(01:50):
you can probably imagine, given how technical their music is,
the sessions were really intense. I think the older they got,
the more prickly they all became, especially Waters, and they
fired Richard Wright, who was their keyboard player. And what
happened with that situation is that they fired him and

(02:13):
then they went out on tour, as you recall, and
they hired him as a session player for the tour.
They're like, you're out of the band, but we're gonna
pay you know, a thousand bucks a week to come
play the you know, your keyboard parts. I think he
was replaced on some of it on the album. I've
got to do a deeper dive on that. But those

(02:35):
shows in nineteen eighty were epic shows, you know, where
they built the wall across the stage and I saw
a version of it, you know, in twenty twelve here
in Vegas where they built a wall, and you know,

(02:56):
through the course of the show, the wall comes down.
And as angry as I was at Roger Waters, I
couldn't stay away from that show. And it was just
I use the word epic a lot, but it was.
It was pretty epic, no doubt, and one of the
highest grossing tours, by the way, that one was in

(03:17):
the history of any solo artist as well, And it
was a big deal, right people, there's a there's an
appetite for Pink Floyd.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
There's an appetite for Pink Floyd, and you know, just
the whole progressive rock you know genre on its own
as well, ravenous.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Do you remember who starred in the in the movie
version of The Wall? No, you probably thought I was
dozing off at that point. No, I was trying to
think of it. No, I saw you looking up. I
didn't know if you're thinking about lunch or who starred
in the Wall. It was Bob Geldoff, all right. I
was thinking, I was thinking Bob Geldof.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
See I should have trusted my first, the gut instinct.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, emphasis gut, yeah, emphasis gut. In nineteen seventy eight.
This is an odd one. I don't think either of
us were whatever real Star Wars or sci Fi people. No,
the Star Wars Holiday Special aired on CBS. It aired
once and only once, and it sent the Star Wars

(04:25):
fans and critics out into this tail spin because it
was awful. It was a nightmare to the loyalists, and
something that's kind of a stain on the franchise to
a lot of people. This was just by the way,
This was two years after Star Wars came out, so

(04:48):
it's a big step for them to do something like this,
and it sent the sci fi people through the roof.
They're like, you're doing a Christmas special with R two
D two and Chewbacca and Dark Fader? What are you?

Speaker 1 (05:01):
What in the hell are you doing? Well, we know
they probably wanted a little tight right.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Indeed they are. November eighteen, Danny Witten, who was a
guitarist for Neil Young's Crazy Horse Band, he passed away
an overdose and it was heroin overdose and it inspired
the song Needle and the Damage Done.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
Oh there you go. Yep.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
Great song, really a lovely song.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
It's a not a toe tapper, but it's a great song.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
No, and Jewell does a great version of it, by
the way, you know it's a it's a great song.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
I'm a Neil guy, you know that I love Neil.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, this is interesting. This has nothing to do with
music history, but this is something I always wonder about,
you know, you wonder about especially in the US. I
wonder about time zones. I got some information because I
saw the thing pop up and I was thinking about
the week and the US and Canadian railroads actually introduced

(06:06):
the standard time zone prior to the late eighteen hundreds,
which really is not that long ago. If you think
about it, each city and each town kept their own
local time. Imagine how confusing was that, and it was
industry really coming to save the government from itself.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Ever, try to have a conversation with somebody in Australia
and understand their time zones. No, no, oh, I can't
even explain it. Maybe someone can explain it to me
at some point, Maybe one of our Australian listeners can
explain it. But it is the craziest. I can't follow it.

(06:46):
I can't explain it. But anyway, I digress. I'm literally
I just made a note on the yellow pad. I'm
still a yellow pad guy.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
With all this digital stuff and phones and everything, I
still a yellow pad. I got a yellow pad.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
I got sticky notes.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
That sticky notes is indicative of a problem. My yellow
pad is still reasonable. Sticky pads they go everywhere. I know.
All right, I'm gonna make a note about Australian Times.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
Well, yeah, I'm probably completely wrong.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
So yeah, well I find I'll be the judge of that. Okay,
you will, and I'll report back.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
Thank you, Master of music, Mayhem and time zone Mayhem.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
That's right. November nineteenth, nineteen ninety one, you two released
a tun Baby. This was a you know, more of
an experimental era for them. I enjoyed that album me too.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
Seventy three November nineteenth, Houses of the Holy went eleven
times platinum in the US. Great, of course, the you
know the rain song obviously a great song. Song remains
the same. Over the Hills and Far Away the Crunge
another odd quick song. Oh yeah, like hot Dog or whatever,
you know what I mean. There were just all these
weird little almost like they had to put something on there,

(08:03):
and they did it. But over the Hills and Far
Away the Rain Song to me is a beautiful epic
oh yeah guitar piece, and the song remains the.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
Same of you know, and over the Hills and far
over this Yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
November twentieth, nineteen seventy three, The Who released Quadrophenia in
the US, and and this was, you know, another big
one for them. It was dark. Tommy was about the
young boy. This is another one about a boy named
Jimmy struggling with his identity. And I didn't realize that,

(08:40):
you know, because this was a double album that each
of the four sides dealt with and represented a different
aspect of the protagonist's personality, which corresponded This is really
funny to each of the different band members. Really another
like complex, you know, kind of thing you never would

(09:03):
have thought of it, you know, on your own. But
this was the follow up. This is very interesting to me.
They made Tommy in sixty nine and then this thing
comes out in seventy three. They were just this is
a long way from meaty bead big in bouncy oh
yeah right. They they did a couple of things conceptually
that were very different. You got to applaud him for it. Yep.

(09:27):
I just saw Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend like a
performing won't get fooled again in Eminence Front. You know,
they're in Roger's maybe eighty one at this point he is,
and they still look good, they still sound good. I
don't know how many tours they have left in him.
I don't know at what point you just say stop.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Well, Roger made some comments recently just how he felt
he was going to die at a young age, meaning
you know, he didn't have that much left between his
hearing and visions and just you know stuff. Yeah, it
was really the vision he was focused on. But sad
to see him, you know, talk that way, and but

(10:10):
you write, the complexity that those albums represented, you know,
needs to be noted.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
We're in a place in this country and in the
world where men just don't live much past eighty years old.
So you know, it's scary. I mean, these think about
all the people that we love musically that were inspired
by not just in general, not just the humanity part
of it, but you know, all of these guys are

(10:39):
you know, final chapter yep, kind of guys nineteen eighty three,
November twentieth Thriller. The video premiered on MTV. This changed
the game in terms of music videos and pretty amazing.
I remember seeing it and watching it over and over again.
That red leather jacket and kind of a creep fun

(11:00):
music video. November twenty first, nineteen seventy, your song entered
the Billboard Hot one hundred for Elton John and Queen
and David Bowie released under Pressure. I've got a funny
under pressure story. And I didn't even realize. I didn't
go back this morning and look at this. But yesterday

(11:20):
I'm watching something on Instagram and I see John bon
Jovi talking about his connection to under Pressure. Do you
have any idea about this story? You have any idea
clues historia In nineteen eighty one, bon Jovi was still,
you know, basically a kid. He was working at I
don't know the record plant or wherever he was working.

(11:43):
He was basically a gopher. He was an intern. I
knew that yet, right he was there that day. He
was there at that session. He looked, He says, he
looked into the recording studio and saw David Bowie and
Freddie Mercury singing under Pressure. He said that over the
years he had to ask people if he was doing

(12:05):
some revisionist history in his head, but bon Jovi was
there for under pressure.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
Pretty incredible. Yeah, a moment in music history.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah, November twenty second, the Beatles' white album Justin released
in the UK nineteen sixty eight and sixty. In nineteen
ninety four, sorry about that. Pearl Jam released Vitology on
an album and then I guess two weeks before the
CD came out in nineteen ninety four. We were all

(12:37):
well into the CDs at that point pretty much, but
the album came out first. And November twenty second, obviously
is the day that John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
And with that that brings this week in Music History
to a close.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
And that was a dark day for sure, that Nova
twenty second day, for sure.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
Harry, thank you for taking us through it and for
a look at not only music history but the life
we have led. And thanks for doing that, and thank
you all for checking out to Taking a Walk podcast
and listening to this Week in Music History.