About this episode
Welcome to the first-ever edition of the Rock & Roll High School Book Club!
For our inaugural selection, we're joined by veteran music writer and record executive Mitchell Cohen, author of Wake Me, Shake Me: New York City, the '60s, and the Pop-Rock Youthquake, along with a very special guest — founding member and drummer of The Smithereens, Dennis Diken, a lifelong student of rock & roll history in his own right.
Wake Me, Shake Me takes us back to New York City in the 1960s, when an extraordinary collection of artists, songwriters, musicians, producers and hustlers helped create a musical revolution that would change popular culture forever.
The Lovin' Spoonful. The Rascals. Dion. Simon & Garfunkel. The Blues Project. Laura Nyro. And many more.
Together, Mitchell, Dennis and Pete dig into the stories behind the book and the people, places and records that made New York one of the epicenters of the musical revolution of the 1960s.
They explore what made the New York music scene different from what was happening in Liverpool, London, Los Angeles and San Francisco — and how a generation of young New Yorkers absorbed everything from doo-wop and R&B to folk, soul and the British Invasion, turning those influences into something uniquely their own.
It's a fascinating look back at an extraordinary time and place in music history, told through the eyes of an author who has spent years exploring it, a musician who knows the records inside and out, and a host who shares their passion.
