ROK TOK! Common Man Hour 2

Common Man Hour 2 --5 Questions --Wolves Biggest Weakness --ROK TOK w/ Brian Oake

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Man.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
The holiday season is excuse me the perfect time to give
and receive. This December, partner with Builders and Remodelers and
get great savings on any project plus up to five
hundred dollars in holiday groceries and Builders and Remodelers will
make a matching donation as Second Harvest Heartland. Visit Builders
Remodelers dot com to help give this holiday season.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Go for thirteen fourteen.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Past I'm common, He's tend to be the legendary. Brian
Oak will join us at one or so for another
edition of rock Talk and Tennabee. Do we have a
rock rank as a part.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
We do have a rock Rank Today is rock Rank.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Rock Rank that'll be coming your way during Rock Talk
Mark Rosen just before two.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
However, right now it's time for five to three four
time now four.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
Five questions, Well, actually three, but five sounds like more
than four. Question number one.

Speaker 5 (01:09):
It's now time to take an in depth look at
the welfare of the Wolves.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
ESPN dot Com put together there NBA power Ranking.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Rankings, Rankings power and along.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
With it, they had each team's biggest weakness. They have
the Wolves rank number nine.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
I would say efferd.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
And for their biggest weakness. They say it's defense without Gobert.
Here's what they wrote, Rudy Gobert may not quite be
the dominant force he once was, but he's still a
very good defensive player, and the Turmberwolves don't have a
lot of success at that end of the court when
he's not involved. When Gobert plays, Minnesota has a one
to eight point six defensive rating, better than any team
but the league leading Thunder. But when he's off the court,

(01:58):
Minnesota falls to a one eighteen point three defensive rating,
which was slot right between the Charlotte Hornets twenty fourth
and the LA Clippers at twenty fifth. That has to
improve if Minnesota wants to make another trip to the
West Finals. Common do you agree that defense without Gobert
is the wolve's biggest weakness.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
No, I think the biggest weakness is a lack of effort.
That's the biggest weakness. And then which coincide's defense correct,
and then the lack of efic co insides of defense.
So yeah, defensively, I mean defense wins championships. They've always
they talked about always priding themselves on defense, and this
and that and the other thing matter if it was,
it was it before last season or before this season
where they won. I know, before this season they decided

(02:37):
they didn't want to play.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Harlem Globe Trotters.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
They actually wanted to try to win a world championship,
which is a relief to all of us. I can
go watch the Harlem Globe Trotters if I want, I'm
not I'm not watching the I want to watch an
NBA team try to win a championship. So I'm glad
you decided not to do that, though oftentimes it looks
like you're still trying or maybe you're trying to be
Washington Generals. I don't know, or the Washington Generals. But

(02:59):
they said, we want to be a really good defensive team,
and that's you know, that's how I don't know. I'm
not watching a lot of Oklahoma City Thunder basketball is either.
My guess is they put a defensive effort in each
and every game, and sometimes it just doesn't seem.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
Like we do.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
So yeah, defenses probably on is probably the number one
reason why. And because defense You've heard me say this
many times to me, I think in almost particularly in basketball.
I mean, I know there are different schemes and I know,
you have zone defenses and man to man and you
do this, and you do that in a box and
one and a and a square and two and a

(03:37):
rectangle and four.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
But most of it is effort.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
You just try really hard deny the other players the
ball in spots where they excel at. Every guy's got
a favorite, you know, most guys have a favorite place
they like to shoot the ball.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Don't let them get there.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Don't let them get the ball there, and just it's effort.
And so if they apply themselves, and maybe we just
have to wait until we get into the push for
playoff positioning. They are good enough even when they're not
trying to beat the terrible teams in the terrible cities
with the terrible fans in the terrible stadiums, And so

(04:16):
they'll hang around and sit around in that top six.
I'm sure you know the you know, win five in
a row like they did against terrible teams, then lose
a couple they shouldn't lose, and lose to some better teams,
and then maybe they'll decide it's time now to play
defense and play a full, complete, complimentary game so that
we can actually qualify for the playoffs. Get a nice

(04:38):
seat and win and get back to the Western Conference
Finals again and maybe beyond this time. But you know,
Aunt did say there was that quote and I can
dig it up if you want me to where he
said you have to keep and I'm paraphrasing what he said,
but you have to play defense all season. You can't
just all of a sudden at the end of the
year go, well, let's start playing defense now and it's
going to work.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
He doesn't think it works that way, and I'm not
sure does he?

Speaker 4 (05:03):
Question number two? And now it's time to go in
the trenches.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Trenches nfl dot Com put together their top eight MBP
candidates Entry VP candidate entering week fifteen. They have Matthew
Stafford at number one, Drake May at number two, Josh
Allen at three, Jordan Love at four, the Vikings opponent
this week, Dak Prescott at five, Jonathan Taylor at six,
Jackson Smith and Jigba at seven, and Miles Garrett at eight.

(05:35):
Common do you agree with those eight and in that order?
Where's Jamior Gibbs not on there?

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Why he's more valuable to that team than any of
those players that you just mentioned.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
Are of their teams.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
In Dallas. So what they're they're not going to make
the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Well the traitm not either, but well at least, yeah,
we at least they're on the outside looking there. Yeah,
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
I guess Matty's Matty Ice, right, I guess I agree
with that. I mean, he's that team is probably the
most well rounded team in football. They can run the ball,
pass the ball, and he's good. I mean, you know,
they were talking. I think I brought this up to you.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
I saw some.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Interview with him and he talked about how he just
loves the chess match and there's nothing he's never seen before.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
And who did I I think it was. I was.
I was listening to the Danny Campbell news conference.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
I think this was Campbell that was saying this about
because they play the Rams this week, and and and
what what he's really good at and and and the
best ones are, but he seems to really excel at it.
He says, he'll try to fool you with his eyes.
He'll drop back to pass, and he knows where everybody is.
There's nothing he's not seen before, and so he'll try
to make you think he's looking this way. Because he's

(06:57):
going to go that way, and if you commit, you're
going to be trouble because he's going the opposite direction.
So that's what he's really good at is next level.
That's he's that next level kind of that's like chess.
That is exactly it. And so I would say he
would be number one.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
I'm always as much as I like why, I mean,
wide receivers.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
You know, it's it's you know, they kind of go
hand at hand quarterback and wide receiver. I think you
and I both have sort of kind of decided. Maybe
I don't wan put wordream mouth. I think a really
good quarterback makes an okay wide receiver a lot better
than a really good wide receiver makes an okay quarterback
look better. I mean, and wide receivers can make quarterbacks
ordinary quarterbacks look better. So when you go with the who,

(07:39):
who's the jig buzzes JA, Yeah he's js N. Yeah,
js N is really good. But I don't know if
he's most valuable player. As a matter of fact, I mean,
the Viking shut him down completely, Now that's not right. Yeah,
so I you know last week it was he Yeah,
So I mean I guess you could put him there,

(08:00):
but I don't know.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
I would I would say, Stafford, how about you? Do
you have a to me?

Speaker 2 (08:05):
I look at this list, and I have a hard
time believing it's gonna be anyone other than top three.
I think there's a big drop off and Stafford, Drake
May and I still think Josh Allen has a chance.
You know, Buffalo goes on a run here and wins
the rest of their games. Josh Allen might be after that.
I don't see Jordan love Deck Prescott ain't getting it.
Jonathan Taylor at this point, now that Daniel j you know,

(08:26):
he's he's falling off the cliff the last couple of
weeks because now that Daniel Jones can't even walk, there's
loading up on Jonathan Taylor. You know, Miles Garrett's on
a team that's what's Cleveland's record three and ten. He's
not gonna be an MVP. So I think it's gonna
be one of those top through three. And at this
point it's Stafford.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, Matty Ice quick.

Speaker 4 (08:48):
One question numbers three and now it's time to go.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
In the trenches.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts had five turnovers day versus the Chargers,
and head coach Nick Sirianni.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
He was on WIP this morning.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
The Whip in Philadelphia to address fans calling for Hurts
to be benched. Here's what Sirianni you responded with, quote,
I think that's ridiculous. I know every time I go
out in that field with Jalen Hurts as our quarterback,
we have a chance to win the game. That's something
that's been proven. We've won a lot a lot of
football games. Common do you think the Eagles should pinch
Jalen Hurts?

Speaker 3 (09:25):
Who's the backup? My first question?

Speaker 2 (09:28):
They have a big drop. Well, Sam Howell is one
of them. I think Tanner McKee is the other one.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Maybe if you put Sam Howell on Tanner mckey's shoulders,
I would give it a try.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
But other than that, yeah, I guess you got to
stay with Hurts. He I won a super Bowl last year. Yeah,
he does. Though I don't know.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
I don't pay his close attention to Philly footballs. I
probably should. He's really good, but he does have times
or he just disappears and looks lost out there.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
But sort of a lot of other quarterbacks. But yeah,
you're not going to go it win a big game.
I gave you a little bit of yeah, Grace, and.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
You're not gonna Beneham because, like you said, they don't
have any If they add and he's not that bad,
they had Phil Rivers, then I might think about it.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
But they don't have phil Ate Max brozmerg JJ McCarthy bat.
That's for sure. That's it.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
Rock Talk on the side of the Break Brian oakin
studio here on the on the Common n program in
the Fan.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Minnesota, the state of Hockey, hosts the world this winter
A twenty twenty six IIHF World Juniors. Bring the best
young talent from across the globe to our backyard. Be
part of the celebration. Get your tickets now at Mnsports
and Events dot.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
Organ double thirteen fourteen past.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
I'm common He's going to be Brian Oak now joining
the Assum's Studio.

Speaker 3 (10:46):
I don't believe it.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
I've had six seven people tell me that you have
a podcast.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
Is that true?

Speaker 5 (10:54):
When did you start this podcast? I mean it must
be relatively new. No, No, In fact, I started just
over six years ago. We just celebrated our sixth anniversary
last month and we also Yeah, I just I'm literally
coming from there right now. Just recorded episode five hundred
and thirty eight, that is five hundred and thirty eight
forty five minutes to hour long missives about the Twin Cities,

(11:14):
about Twin Cities music, the restaurant scene, entrepreneurs, the art
and performance scene. It's really focused on Minnesota and the amazing,
incredible talent that we have here. And we decided that
a pretty long time ago that we weren't going to
try to compete in the upper echelons. You know, we
weren't never going to get all the biggest national yers,
and we've had some national artists in, but we really

(11:35):
wanted to kind of hyper focus on this area and
how rich it is, and we figured that's where we
could do the most good. And our numbers are better
than you'd expect. I do it for a living now,
so it's great and it's going very well. And you
can find it on the free iHeartRadio app. Maybe you're
going there to like look for a holiday playlist, or
maybe you want to make sure and put Common Man
on your presets rock talk specifically, but while you're there,

(11:58):
don't forget to check out podcasts. And while you're there,
you can check out the Brian Oaks Show, and I
had some great ones. And then next week we're looking
forward to Liz Winstead, legendary Minnesota comedian and also co
founder of the original Daily Show way back in the
Kilbourne days. She's going to be in town next week
for her annual shows and she's going to be on
the podcast and local DJ Extraordinary Jake Rude. So we've

(12:19):
had a ton of great guests and we've got nothing.
But it sounds better too than it ever has, which
it should after six years.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
So yeah, it's going well.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
I went to down in the Valley last week right
on to pick up my uh my little stash.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
Of forty five spindles.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Forty five spindles. Well, it's the it's the forty five
on a button. Okay, I don't play. It's just like
it's it's the forty five spindle.

Speaker 5 (12:45):
The insert the little the little plastic thing in your case.
There in one of the most common ones, the yellow
ones that were kind of like a little triangle kind
of thing, and it's keeps the forty five centered on
an LP platter and they have.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
You know, you've been done on the many times. It's
like going back in time. For me, it's like going
back to the Hate Ashbury days.

Speaker 5 (13:06):
Well, they got a sizeable paraphernalia section there down in
the valley a lot like the record store I work
at doesn't have any paraphernalia. More records, but not as much.
But when you go into one of those old school
ones like that that's been around since the Hate Ashbury days,
it is fun.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
Man.

Speaker 5 (13:19):
It's total time travel, flipping through the records, deciding what
water pipe might best go along with your holiday season.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
Well, just walking in.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
As soon as you open the door, you smell the
incense pet surely, Yes you do.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
I don't know if you really smell petruly? That's from?
Do you know what song? That's from? Incense? And Patchurely?
I mean I love both of those things and they've
been around me my entire life. Al Stewart hear of
the cat? Oh is it okay?

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Incense and patchu the year of the case. Yeah, so
I don't even know what petrurely is tny. Can you
look up a chuli? I mean, I know the scent petuli,
you can spell it.

Speaker 5 (13:53):
Before I got into radio, I worked for six years
at the Clean Water Action Alliance, which was staffed almost
entirely hippies and left leaning individuals. It was an environmental organization,
but there's a lot of these hippies, you know, we're
kind of live in a loosen, free lifestyle, and oftentimes
I love the scent of petuli, but I don't like
it when it's used in place of things like showering

(14:14):
and deodorant. Then it takes on, so it gets kind
of a bad rap for being a Hippies always stink
like pet surely. Pet surely itself is a glorious smell,
all those earthy ones like sandalwood and petchurely, but nothing
covers that kind of stink. Step in the shower, stinking always.
If I'm going to see people during the day, I'm
taking a shower.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
That's those hippie days where it's so what, we get drunk,
so what, we smoke weed exactly, just having fun.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
We don't care who's see. We're wild and free.

Speaker 5 (14:42):
That's why those people the difference is the people who
did that song. They take a shower every day. Yeah, yeah,
I just love my buttons.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
I just so. I bought ten of them. And what
do you do? What do you do with them? Well?
I put them in in in all.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
Hats and on the pels, and I wear them because
they're great conversations are. And here's the I'm almost like,
I'm also I don't know who I'm trying to compare
myself to, like somebody who just like gives stuff away, right,
because I like I have Papa Noel.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
Well maybe Papa Noel. Because here's what I'll tell you. Yeah,
So this happened about a year ago. I had to
go do a tc of bank.

Speaker 1 (15:18):
Knows had been longer than because TCF doesn't exist anymore,
but it was a TCF bank thing right inside cub
Lady behind it us. He goes, I haven't seen one
of those in years, and I said, here, you can
have this. And when I gave her the button, yeah,
she almost began to cry because she was so happy
to have that butt.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
So that's why going by a batter and so Scott
had ten set aside.

Speaker 5 (15:41):
The combination of nostalgia mixed with the kindness of a stranger.
Right there, you made that person's day. And I bet
they still tell that story even if they didn't know
you were the common man.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
It's still a very cool thing to do.

Speaker 5 (15:54):
And those are perfect for that, and it's there are
a few things that are more iconic that are associated
visually anyway, that are more iconic, that are associated with
albums and music, and especially childhood, because kids were always
the ones that bought the forty fives. Unless you were
a radio DJ or you ran a jukebox company, mostly
forty fives were kids buying singles. The albums weren't a

(16:15):
thing yet when those really first came into huge popularity,
certainly not popularly. And yeah, so that little spindle you
had to put in the middle to hold it on
the post, that is, that's about as iconic.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
As it gets when it comes to record.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
Well, I'm learning more and more about the infancy of
R and B rock and roll pop music from the
late fifties the sixties. I mentioned that book to you
the other day, the Anatomy of a Song for forty five.
So I called my brother and I said, hey, I
got a book I want to loan you, and Adam,
he goes, I got it already, who wrote a second one?
There's fifty five more songs that he breaks. I got
to get it to you, But I would love to

(16:47):
see what's so cool about it? It's just talking about
like back in the day because they only radio only
wanted two minute songs correct to twenty five, maybe because
they could play.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
More commercials that way, right, it was more commercials.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
And then once FM band became more popular, then some
of these bands youre led Zeppelins of the world, they
wanted to play longer songs, but there wasn't any room
for that. So that's why a lot of FM stations
weren't even making any money back in the day. And
it talks about how if you were signed to a
record label back in the olden days, it was just
standard operating procedure.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
We need two albums out of you every year. Two albums.
And when you think about.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
That, that's what eight to twelve songs an album, and
two of them in your touring and rehearsing and writing.

Speaker 5 (17:34):
It, and they have to be good enough to sustain
your career and public interests.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
Absolutely, it was a lot to ask of these people.

Speaker 5 (17:41):
Well, you know, in prior to that, I mean certainly
bands were making albums before it really got into vogue
with the you know, the sixties and the Beatles sort
of cementing that album concept. There were lots of other
people who had done albums, but in terms of commerce,
in terms of popular culture, it was the forty fives.
It was the singles. This is what you went to
the record to get, unless you were buying a symphony

(18:02):
or something. You have popular music. That was the that
was the medium, and people always did that. And then
it moved into albums throughout the late sixties and really
into the seventies. But then now we're in the modern
era where once again it is very singles oriented.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
Very singles. Sorry, I was worried.

Speaker 5 (18:19):
That was my laptop to no, and that was what
we can't have the audio of my laptop going out
over Now.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
As we go to Bray, we had a You're the
the grum Reaper, the Angel of Death, the Angel of Death.
We have we have a couple of rock and roll desthholes.
We're gonna do rock Talk, a rock rank inside Rock Talk.
But one last thing about that book, just quickly, and
I wish I'll skim through it next week and have
them even the song for you. There was a song
and I can't remember which one it was, but it

(18:46):
ran like three forty five and you know three miss
and forty five, say, oh my gosh, you can't run
a song that long. So the record producer guy, you
already hit huh, he just wrote three oh five on
the label.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
And nobody knew because nobody know much time, and it's sorry.
He just said, I can fix that, So.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
We put in set of three forty five for the
you know time, you put three h five.

Speaker 5 (19:10):
See, that's brilliant right now, And now I want to
read that book even more because that's the kind of
stuff I love.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
Be so cool.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
We'll take a break, We'll come back with more rock
talk here in the common Man program at Common ten.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
Toy and Bryan Oak here in the.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
Fan Cafan welcome some great shows to missic Lake Amphitheater.
Guns n' Roses will be there August eighth, Lynyrd Skynyrd
and Foreigner will be their August sixteenth, and Motley Crue
will be there August twenty. First get the complete details

(19:42):
on all upcoming shows on the concert page at kfan
dot com.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
Keybord Calendar.

Speaker 5 (20:00):
Asked the sounds of Christmas, It's the most wonderful time
of the year.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
Well, actually, NFL free Agency if you talk to Pa
and do still my favorite radio bit on sports Stock
of all time. They would the first day of free agency.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
That it's the most wonder.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
And then they and they would pretend they're ripping open
and they'd go, yeah, presence. It would be like, let's
just say, you know, Jonathan, Jonathan.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
Grenard Paul, it's just a brilliant, brilliant.

Speaker 5 (20:28):
That's pretty good. Okay, the second best time of the year.
But I really do get into it. And I like
the snow. That's why I drive a truck, and you know,
I like the snow and this time of year, and
I love holiday music. My collection of holiday music is
getting unwieldy. It's great, it's fun.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah, Melt Tormet and Eadie Gourmet sleigh.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
Ride maybe my favorite.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
When we were when I was a kid, my parents had,
you know, the phonograph and they bought you know, and
like I think the sponsor was good Year Tire.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
The albums were actually sponsored. Oh yeah, yeah. But I've
got a couple of Campbell's sue I think right, And.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
It was it was different artists of that, you know,
that era that you know, fifties, sixties, yep, doing Christmas
songs and one of the Steve Lawrence and Edie Gourmett
doing sleigh ride. You know there were a couple, Yeah,
very legendary, very successful, and they're laughing and there the
snow is falling and friends like we used to play
that over over in the Christmas season.

Speaker 5 (21:22):
I love Christmas music so much that even a soulless
ghoul that like Robert Goulay, he has a Christmas album
that I absolutely love and I put on every Yearol
what he just he's sort of vapid and there's nothing there.
I mean, he was just one of those old school
crooners that he's just considered very cheesy, like a Pat
Boon of the crooner said, just real milk toe, had deep,

(21:43):
rich voice, but always kind of corny. In fact, if
anybody's never seen Will Ferrell doing his Robert Goulay on
sn L during his run, there, that is peak Will
Ferrell And absolutely who Robert Goolay was sixty until it
starts to get weird.

Speaker 3 (21:58):
But my point being this time a year, I love
all of it.

Speaker 5 (22:01):
I love the Carpenter's Christmas album is in my top
ten Christmas albums of all time. But there's great stuff
Bing Crosby, you know, Ray Charles pick him there's a
zillion great, great Christmas record.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
I don't mind Andy Williams again Christmas. I don't want
to hear him the rest of the year.

Speaker 5 (22:17):
But it's the Holidays season that I could listen to well,
I do every Christmas, Every Christmas.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
You are the the grim Reaper of the Grum, the
grum Reaper, the grum Reaper. This story broke shortly after
we wrapped up Rock Talk last week. Steve Cropper, legendary
guitars for Booker t and the MG's Otis Redding and
the Blues Brothers, dies at the age of eighty four.
Steve Cropper, your thoughts.

Speaker 5 (22:44):
Steve Cropper is as important to the legacy of American music,
especially like lifer studio musicians, as any other single figure
that you can point out. He you know, we've heard
of the Swampers and the Wrecking and all of these
sort of legendary house bands. Right Stax Record out of

(23:05):
Stacks Records out of Memphis, Tennessee created if it wasn't Motown,
it was on Stacks. They were a huge part of
the American R and B and soul story and Cropper,
white guy guitar player, played on I promise you that
every single person hearing our voice right now has heard

(23:26):
his guitar playing and likely what the sounds that come
out of his mouth make. I've got a super fun fact.
How big a deal is Steve Cropper. We're all familiar
with Otis Redding sitting on the dock of the bank.
Not only does he play guitar on that track because
he was the house band. He was in the house band.
He co wrote that song with Otis and the whistling
you hear is Steve Cropper, That's correct. So I mean,

(23:47):
this guy was there for these key, incredible moments throughout
a really influential period of American music. You know, a
place where you wouldn't expect to necessarily find a white guy,
especially in the fifties and sixties, But there he was
alongside some of the all time greats and just some
of the other people in stacks that he played on
their records. The list is incredible. Albert King, Booker t

(24:10):
and the mgs. As you mentioned, Eddie Floyd who did
the original knock on Wood. Isaac Hayes, Yeah, kids, the
same Isaac Hayes from the early days of South Park,
Mabel John, Little Milton Melvin Van Peebles and in the
modern era, Nathaniel Rayliff in The Night Sweats. They're on
Stack Records, but otis Redding Rufus Thomas. This was a
really important part of the American story and Steve Krobert

(24:32):
Cropper's guitar playing and fingerprints and ideology are all over it.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
And then he sort of not that he had a renaissance,
but he really came.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
He became more of a household name when he appeared.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
With Dan Ackroyd in John Belushi in the Blues Brothers,
and he did all the guitar work on Briefcase Full
of Blues, a highly successful album and movie yep. And
he was Steve Cruppert and Duc Dunn the bass player
who passed away at the not long ago as well.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
It wasn't too long ago. Yeah, I know. Both legendary.

Speaker 5 (25:03):
And there's a reason that Cropper was invited to be
in the Blues Brother's band because Dan Aykroy's love of
old blues and old soul has obviously been evidenced for
many years. It's why the Blues Brothers happened, why he
put it together, and so when it came time to
do a major motion picture and to have a proper
band that would tour and do these things. He hand
picked this incredible Blues Brother's band, including Steve Cropper. And

(25:26):
because that movie and the legacy of the Blues Brothers
is so associated with Chicago, there are many Chicagoans who
take very very serious ownership over the legacy of Cropper,
even though he did most of his groundbreaking and groundwork
in Memphis, Tennessee, but no much beloved and important part
of the American story of popular music, and just one

(25:47):
of the guitar players that, even if you couldn't pick
out an individual lick, everybody.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
Has heard the work of Steve Cropper.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
Well, I wish I took better notes because in one
of the many stories I read about him and the
people you know.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
The odes out him. Yeah, somebody called him.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
One of the top three guitar players of all time.

Speaker 3 (26:05):
That's how good he was.

Speaker 5 (26:06):
And that person probably would be in a better position
to know than you and I. But you don't get
to be the house guitarist, the main guitarist in the
house band of a massive label like Stax was in
the sixties, without being absolutely and the great thing about
those like you know Carol Kay. Just all these different
people you hear about, they can sit down and play

(26:26):
anything and not just you know, kind of bumble their
way through it. They can sit down and make it
sound like they've been playing that their whole life, like
a master work. So, you know, I don't know how
you would rank that sort of thing, but I'm not
at all surprised to hear that he was held in
that high regard, because you don't get to have that legacy,
you don't get to take part in that part of
American musical history without being genuinely amazing.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
Well, Variety wrote.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
Cropper was best known to the public for his distinctive
economical lead slash rhythm work and the hit making interracial
instrumental commbo Booker t and the Mgs's playing also fired
dozens of Truro Whitchy producer injury with Stax Records, as
you mentioned for the Otis writing and Wilson Pickett, Sam
and Dave Rufus and Carla Thomas and Eddie Floyd. I mean,
the names just go on and on and on. It's

(27:10):
like those house bands that you talk about. You talk
about the Wrecking Crew and all these people they played
for everything Larry Carlton played for He's played on almost
everything you've ever heard.

Speaker 3 (27:18):
But as far as Larry Carlton.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
You know, the solo artist of his own right, he
I'm sure he has albums, but it's not like the
work that they've done with you know, household names.

Speaker 5 (27:28):
Well, that's not his lasting legacy he got to do.
You know, they get to do those kind of side
projects or other sort of vanity projects for lack of
a less insulting term. They get to do those because
of the legacy they've built around doing what they do.
Looks everybody's good at something, right, and if you are
the guy who can pick up the guitar and fit
in with any combo at the highest level, then that's

(27:48):
who you are, and then there's no shame in that.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
This was in nineteen ninety six.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Here I found the quote in nineteen ninety six British
music monthly Mojo.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
We're all familiar with Mojo.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
I am familiar with the Mojo, but Yeah named him
the second greatest guitarist of all time behind Jimmy Hendrix.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
The publication said, Cropper puts everything he's got, which is
considerable at the disposal of the artists in the song metronome,
crisp timing, deadly accurate chops, earth moving bottom line riffs, sharp,
nasty little licks and grace notes. His solos never outstay
their welcome or leavey wanting less.

Speaker 5 (28:28):
You know, that's a person who obviously writes about music
for a living, because I couldn't put it that well.
But it speaks to the fact that if you're going
to be one of these gunslingers, one of these studio aces,
that you have to be good at everything, and you
have to be adaptable, and you have to serve both
the song and the artist who has come in with
that song. Your job is to make it amazing. And

(28:48):
he clearly did that dozens, if not hundreds, hundreds hundreds
of times.

Speaker 3 (28:52):
How about you.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
Said there was another grim Reaper report and I had
not heard of this person or the.

Speaker 5 (28:58):
Group, anybody who's not really into Americana or this particular
wing of country.

Speaker 3 (29:03):
This is going to be a brand new name to you.

Speaker 5 (29:05):
But there are people out there, including the Grammys and
the music establishment. A band called the Mavericks has been
crafting this special homegrown mix of Americana and country for many,
many decades and the main guy behind the universally loved
and revered and admired. Raul Malo died last week at

(29:26):
the age of sixty, taken too early by colon cancer,
but he among the music community is revered as one
of the great American songwriters of the last fifty years,
certainly one of the great players. In fact, the night
that he was in the hospital and about to lose
his life, it was his whole family was in town
in Nashville. He was supposed to be at the Ryeman

(29:48):
for two nights because there was a two night long
celebration of all this country music and Americana glitterati there
to pay tribute to him specifically, And of course he
goes into the hospital and he can't make it to
either of them. But his band, the Mavericks, after the
second one, went to his hospital room and played in
one final concert before he passed. But this guy's a
big enough deal in the country music world that he

(30:11):
he was having a two night tribute to him and
his music and his legacy at the Rhyman, which is
the you know, the Vatican of country music in this country.
And so yeah, raal ma Allo gone too early. And
if people are ever in the mood for that kind
of cool, mellow American country music. I would absolutely recommend
checking out the Mavericks.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
Without further ado. Tennaby, it's time for rock right rock
right rock rock whink rock rock rank. Here's going to
be releasing it rock rock rank. He really gets into
the lock. Well, he knows how to punch on.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yes, yes, he knows how to like you say, exclamation
market there. Huh what are we doing for rock?

Speaker 2 (30:51):
This one took a little bit of an explanation. Uh,
but I seem I think Oaks seemed to figure out
what I wanted to help immediately.

Speaker 3 (30:57):
I know exactly what you want.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
I want Bryano top five favorite artists or bands that
you would hear on like a city's sampler if you
know the city sampler was back in the day, Okay, now,
kind of like that singer songwriter acoustic that kind of.

Speaker 5 (31:12):
Sound so real. Quick elevator speech for people who don't
know what the sampler is. Cities ninety seven, for more
than twenty five years, put out a year at an
end of our year, pardon me, end of year CD
that was an amalgamation of the music who represented the
station that year. In its earliest days, it was just
licensing songs by artists that had that the station played.

(31:33):
But as it moved on and studio c became a
bigger thing and more and more artists came by to play.
We would collect these studio see performances and at the
end of the year kind of it would be a
combination of our wish list and what we were able
to get the licensing rights to to be able to
put together this CD. It would go on sale at
area Target stores. It would sell out that day thirty
thousand copies. There was never enough to go around. We

(31:53):
couldn't make more than that because we were asking the
artists and the labels to give up their rights to
these songs to raise money for charity. But it raised
tens of millions of dollars over the years. So I
was very, very fortunate for the bulk of the second
half of the City Sampler Run to be in studio
See when all these artists came through. So I have
a very unique perspective because not only did I get
to sit five feet away from truly great artists, major

(32:15):
names too, but pack their brains apart well, and we'll
get to those too. So I'm picking my favorite five
who have come through and ended up on the sampler
with their studio see performances. But this is leaving out
dozens of incredible artists who appeared on multiple samplers, but
coming in at number five. While a lot of people
may laugh at or dismiss their music, they were in studio.

(32:36):
See in my tenure at Cities, which was almost twenty
years Archiees Nope, they never came in. I would have
welcomed them with open arms, but no. The San Francisco
band Train, Oh now, Train were some of the nicest
people I've ever met. They knew how to studio see
whether it was us just sitting down doing a private
interview or there was a packed house there. This is

(32:57):
a group that knows how to perform in thatronment. Yes
they can play in huge theaters, but they could command
a small room like that. They were super funny, they
were super poignant, and they ended up on a lot
of different samplers because they were essentially for a brief time,
the house band basically of Cities ninety seven.

Speaker 3 (33:14):
What's their biggest songs? I know, I know one.

Speaker 5 (33:16):
Oh, there's a ton of them, drops of Jupiter was
their first sort of first big coming out party they've had.
Soul Sister, ain't the mister mister I don't know about.
But there's again, I always kind of even so I
got to know Pat over the years, the lead singer,
and I always kind of poked fun and him, like,
you know, your lyrics are pretty oblique, man, you're not

(33:36):
really saying anything, and you know, he kind of well, seriously,
He's like, why would I let an important story plot
or plot development get in the way of a good rhyme?

Speaker 3 (33:47):
And I'm like, that's exactly I'm saying. He had a
lot of google him well.

Speaker 5 (33:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean like, hay, Soul Sister, I
ain't that mister mister on the radio stereo the way
you are, you know, and just yeah, okay, So.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
Anyway, but they were great taffery.

Speaker 5 (34:04):
They well exactly, and they were good at what they did,
and they made my number five spot.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
How about a soap impression of his wife which he
ate and donated.

Speaker 5 (34:12):
To Okay, not quite that oblique, Okay, I don't think
they were quite as acid addled at that point as
a certain mister Lennon Number four. Number four is hometown
flavor Semi Sonic. They rose from the ashes of the
former band Trip Shakespeare. They would go on to Time
They Do Right, and they would go on and a
bunch of other great songs, but that was the big one,

(34:33):
and they'd go on to dizzying heights of success. And
Dan Wilson of course has moved on to you know,
writing and collaborating and producing, co writing with the likes
of Adele you know, I mean, so he's done well
with the six exactly the Chicks, and so Semi signed
many others. Semi Sonic though at the time they were
the biggest thing going in terms of Minnesota music.

Speaker 3 (34:52):
And yeah, they had a string of hits.

Speaker 5 (34:54):
They were bought through the studio a number of times,
and they appeared on a few samplers as well. So
they came in at number four for me because I
still to this day go back a Great Divide, their
debut full length record. I would put up there against
just about any other Minnesota Babe album.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
I love it so much.

Speaker 5 (35:09):
If you like pop music like that, rock pop music, Yeah,
Great Divide is about as good an album as I've
ever heard come out of Minnesota. Number three, number three.
This is a very personal one to me. She came
through Studio See three total times, and every time I
was more enamored of her than the time before. She
was incredible, she was warm, she was wonderful. I'd always
been a fan of her music long before i'd met her,

(35:30):
and then even more so after having met her. She
appears on a few of the samplers and just really,
I I'm going to be honest, a little crushed out
on her and to this day still am. And that
would be none other than Canadian Sarah maclachlin.

Speaker 3 (35:43):
Oh, Sarah McLachlin.

Speaker 5 (35:46):
Seriously, dude, crushed out the whole time. I couldn't believe.
I was sitting there talking to her. Remember we had
the green room right there. So she comes in and
there's this isn't gonna be one for an audience. She's
just coming in to do a performance on an interview,
and there was a green room with a mispa in there.
I showed her the green room. I'm like, after we
set up everything, we'll get we'll get it going and
I'll come back and.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
Grab you in about five or ten.

Speaker 5 (36:06):
So I go back and she's playing Miss pac Man
and she's killing it and she's not even looking up
at me. She's focused, she is locked in, and she
I'm like, all right, anytime you're ready.

Speaker 3 (36:19):
Cool.

Speaker 5 (36:19):
And so I go back and I'm hanging out with
our engineer Brian Thomas, and you know, five ten minutes
and I'm like, she didn't have a handler there or anything.
So I just went back again, still playing Miss pac Man,
and I'm like, She's like, I'll be right there, and
she wasn't. It was about an I mean, it was
probably a total of twenty minutes. But when she walked
out of that green room and then blew us all
away with her incredible, intimate, warm performance, we went back

(36:42):
to find out that she had set the high score
on Miss pac Man that stayed there for the next
four years.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
And that is how I met your mother exactly.

Speaker 5 (36:50):
Oh so again, how do you not crush out on
one of the great female singer songwriters of our time
who also can absolutely own a Miss pac Man machine.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
That's my Number three is sarao Deduce number two.

Speaker 5 (37:01):
These are two of the biggest artists we ever had
in studio. See these top two And this one probably
the most poignant for me because she came through a
few times, and whether it was in studio see and
ultimately on the sampler, or I was going to see
her at the State Theater, or the number of different
places I've seen her. I've never seen her once live
and not cried. I cried every single time she was

(37:23):
in studio. See pop music is that powerful. Her voice
is such an instrument that can be used.

Speaker 3 (37:31):
For the softest.

Speaker 5 (37:32):
The Indigo Girls, Nope, it killed me not to put
them on this list, by the way, because they are
awesome no matter what anyone says. But I'm talking about
Brandy Carlyle. Brandy Carlyle's voice, her songwriting skill, her overall
attitude towards life, and her ascendancy. Despite her being sort
of a nonconformist and sort of left field in the
songwriting community compared to the national norms, She's made her

(37:56):
way in both in country and in pop music. She
is is an incredible force and we got heart exactly
the right time. She came through a few different times
before she really hit it big, and she was just
always wonderful. But again, to be in the presence of
her music live is one of the great privileges of
my thirty years in radio.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
She was incredible Numero Uno number one. You might be
able to guess this one. I don't know.

Speaker 5 (38:22):
My boss at Cities for most of my time there
a woman by the name of Lauren MacLeish. Single best
boss I've ever had in my life, the greatest inspirational,
protected us from corporate nonsense. I just I've never worked
for anybody with her abilities or her vision. She was
wondrous and she's the reason the sampler became such a
big deal in the first place.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
Adele Adele came in to.

Speaker 5 (38:44):
Studio CE on two different occasions, and it was one thing.
It was a coup because she was just starting to
blow up here, already a superstar in the UK. It
was a coup to get her in. But then it
was the hardest work I've ever seen. Behind the scenes
was my boss Lauren, trying to get the license and
it was down to the last second. There were different
mixes of the final mix of the sampler in case
we couldn't get it.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
At the zero hour.

Speaker 5 (39:06):
We got the approval and Adele appeared on the City's
ninety seven sampler with a track she'd recorded in studio
See I remained. It a huge coup and again it
was right at the beginning of when she would become
for the next ten years eight years at least, the
biggest artist on planet Earth.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
And did she talk like this, oh very much?

Speaker 5 (39:23):
Even more make that accent a little more cartoonish and
you've got it there.

Speaker 3 (39:27):
Yeah. No, she was quiet first time.

Speaker 5 (39:29):
Through a little dowdy, real reserve, very kind of sing
songy British accent, working class British accent, and then all
of a sudden the voice would open up and again
you knew you were in the presence of great boys.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
What was her the second time she came back?

Speaker 1 (39:42):
Was that after seventeen twenty one, thirty five, forty eight?

Speaker 3 (39:46):
And didn't she name her album's number right? Was after
sixty seven? After six seven? Yeah, sixty seven. I always
loved that one.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
Always good to see you, Great to see you too,
and thanks for coming in again, and then you'll be
back next Wenesday for rock talking again.

Speaker 5 (39:57):
If people watch a podcast, yeah, it's The Brian Oakshow podcast.
Five hundred and thirty plus episodes available out there and
you can get it through the free iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
They warm this weekend frigid temperatures. Will see you next Wednesday.
We'll take a break, come back.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
That's rock Talk Up Next. S Mark Rosener on the
fan