Episodes
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In the wake of the Attica Prison Uprising, BB King performs for the prisoners at Sing Sing Prison in 1972. The Thanksgiving Day concert sparks a new conversation about prisoner rights. Documentarian Daivd Hoffman recalls his time behind the camera, watching BB King perform, and how he softened the hearts of otherwise life-hardened men. Meanwhile, with the surly Sonny Liston as a role model, George Foreman rises in the ranks as a heavyweight. He fights the Champ, Smokin’ Joe Frazier, and is held hostage in Venezuela.
FILM/VIDEO REFERENCES
Muhammad Ali poem from the Cathal O’Shannon TV show (available on YouTube)
Sing Sing Thanksgiving, documentary by David Hoffman (available on YouTube)
BOOKS
“The Rumble in the Jungle” by Lewis Erenberg
“Angela Davis: an autobiography” by Angela Davis
“Hit Me, Fred” by Fred Wesley (autobiography)
“Smokin’ Joe” by Joe Frazier and Phil Berger (autobiography)
“Smokin’ Joe: The Life of Joe Frazier” by Mark Kram Jr.
“By George” by George Foreman (autobiography)
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In their epic showdown, “The Fight of the Century,” Muhammad Ali takes on the Champ, Smokin’ Joe Frazier. It’s a stunning exhibition of strength, pain, and violence. Their fight is covered by many great writers, who transform Ali into an avatar of the age as they celebrate his ascendance as the People’s Champ. A new boxing contender enters the scene: the giant George Foreman while Miriam Makeba wins hearts as she’s dubbed Mama Africa by her fans.
REFERENCE MATERIALS:
"Ali: A Life" by Jonathan Eig
"The Fight" by Norman Mailer
"Ego" (Life magazine Cover Story, March 19, 1971) article by Norman Mailer
"The Redemption of the Champion" (Life magazine, Sept 9, 1966), article by Gordon Parks
"Shadow Box" by George Plimpton
"Ringside: A Treasury of Boxing Reportage" by Budd Schulberg
"The Greatest, My Own Story" by Muhammad Ali (autobiography)
"Smokin’ Joe" by Joe Frazier and Phil Berger (autobiography)
"Smokin’ Joe: The Life of Joe Frazier" by Mark Kram Jr.
"By George" by George Foreman (autobiography)
Miriam Makeba FBI file (available online at: https://vault.fbi.gov/miriam-makeba)
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Missing episodes?
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Ali’s time in exile only strengthens his position as a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. James Brown plays his first show in Paris, and his dancer, Lola Love!, recalls seeing The Godfather of Soul for the first time at The Apollo Theater. Muhammad Ali befriends heavyweight champion, Joe Frazier, only to realize that in order to win his title back, he must face his comrade in the ring.
FILM REFERENCES
“When We Were Kings” (documentary, 1996) directed by Leon Gast
“Soul Power” (documentary, 2008) directed by Jeffrey Kusama–Hinte (available on YouTube)
BOOKS
"The Greatest, My Own Story" by Muhammad Ali (autobiography)
"King: A Life" by Jonathan Eig
"Smokin’ Joe" by Joe Frazier and Phil Berger (autobiography)
"Smokin’ Joe: The Life of Joe Frazier" by Mark Kram Jr.
"The Rumble in the Jungle" by Lewis Erenberg
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A season of assassinations sparks a loud cry for change. Young Cassius Clay befriends Malcolm X, joins the nation of Islam, changes his name to Muhammad Ali, and refuses to fight in Vietnam. Meanwhile, James Brown’s Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud becomes an anthem for Black America, and Hugh Masekela escapes the evils of apartheid.
FILM/VIDEO REFERENCES
Nelson Mandela “Ready to Die” speech April 20, 1964 (available on YouTube)
Miriam Makeba UN Address speech March 9, 1964 (available on YouTube)
”The Hate that Hate Produced”, documentary (1959) WNET Mike Wallace (available on YouTube)
BOOK REFERENCES
Muhammad Ali books (Cassius Clay period):
Ali: The Greatest, My Own Story by Muhammad Ali
Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig
King of the World by David Remnick
Hit Me, Fred by Fred Wesley (autobiography)
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Muhammad Ali and George Foreman’s heavyweight title fight is considered one of the greatest sporting events of all time. What’s less well known is that five weeks earlier in the very same stadium, James Brown headlined an epic, three-day long, pre-fight music festival. Rumble braids together both boxing and music history for a compelling account of Muhammad Ali’s growth into both The People’s Champ and the GOAT. For his first title fight, he takes on the “bad man” Sonny Liston.
REFERENCE BOOKS:
Ali: The Greatest, My Own Story by Muhammad Ali
Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig
Rumble In the Jungle by Lewis Erenberg
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After a wild two-month tear through North America, the Stones play the last gig of the STP tour at NYC's Madison Square Garden. Their entourage work overtime to ensure that it's the craziest rock show to ever hit the Big Apple. After their final bows, the band is exhausted. What's more, they're disheartened by the overly glitzy showbiz crowd that turns up at their tour wrap party, which doubles as Jagger's 29th birthday. As they come to grips with aging, they also grapple with their gradual drift towards the mainstream. The STP trek birthed the modern rock tour, but it also hastened the Stones' transformation from a rock band to a business venture. The bonds that kept the motley 40-person crew together evaporate and everyone goes their separate ways. Reintegration into everyday life is lonely and confusing, and everyone copes in different ways as they struggle to make sense of the life-altering experience they'd just shared — one that could never be duplicated.
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The Stones organization is rocked to its core when terrorists bomb one of the band's equipment vans in Montreal. The STP squad are relieved to make it out of Canada alive, but they soon discover that their problems are just beginning. The flight to Boston for that night's concert is diverted to Rhode Island due to bad weather. Already late, Mick and Keith get arrested at the airport after a scuffle with a photographer. With 18,000 rowdy fans ready and waiting at the Boston Garden, a riot seems imminent — until they get a hand from a higher power.
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The STP tour has hit the midway point, and the Stones & Co struggle to stave off boredom and madness as a result of the destabilizing daily grind. Some blow off steam by deconstructing their hotel rooms, while others get lost in gratuitous sex. Drugs are a frequent refuge, which wreaks havoc on the physical and mental health of many. The tour starts to seem like a cult, with members feeling increasingly isolated from the world outside and everyday reality in general. With tempers shortened by exhaustion, tedium and drug use, tour mates feud with fellow rock star road warriors — and also each other. Ultimately, a savage beating requires an impromptu trial (with Mick Jagger as the judge!) to affirm law and order within this wild roving pirate nation.
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So far over the course of this series, we've examined the madness and socio-political movements that made the Rolling Stones' 1972 North American tour a singular moment in pop culture. But very little attention has been paid to the music — especially the album that the Stones were on the road to promote: their moody double disc epic 'Exile on Main St.' To remedy this, host Jordan Runtagh and executive producer/co-composer Noel Brown sit down with legendary Georgia-based record maker David Barbe, a veteran of the band Sugar (with Hüsker Dü's Bob Mould) and the producer of albums from the likes of Drive-By Truckers and Son Volt. Together they throw down about all things Stones and discuss why the sound and style of 'Exile' continues to endure.
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The Rolling Stones' gigs in Texas are hampered by the arrival of Truman Capote, who makes it clear that covering a rock 'n' roll road tour as a mere journalist is beneath him. The intrusion of the snobbish author and his entourage of Upper East Side Manhattan socialites (including Jackie Kennedy Onassis' sister) cramps the band's style, but they put up with it in hopes of crossing over into a different strata of social acceptance — until Keith finally snaps. Moving through the Deep South, the Stones have uneasy interactions with the bluesmen who inspired their music, raising questions about the fine line between appreciation and appropriation. Having embraced the rhythm and blues of the region, they were able to achieve mainstream crossover success due to the color of their skin — while their heroes toiled in obscurity. It's a tense trip, made all the more nerve wracking by the gun-toting Alabama sheriffs who aren't pleased by the presence of drug-taking long-hairs in their midst.
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The Stones accept Hugh Hefner's offer to stay at his palatial pleasure dome, delighting some members of the STP squad and offending others. It's a counter-culture clash between two generations of social rebels, as the two camps try to find common ground amid differing views of drug use and misogyny. The invitation forces the band to confront the fact that they aren't young punks anymore, but drifting ever closer to the middle-of-the-road — and middle age. Naturally the Stones take full advantage of the excess on offer — until Keith parties a little too hard and nearly burns the house to the ground. Fun and sex is had by all, but they all agree that there's something a little creepy about it all.
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The Stones return to LA, the rockbiz capital where illusion is an industry and nothing is quite what it seems. Immediately prior to the Stones' gig at the Palladium, an unhinged Satanist appears at the stage door, claiming to be the band's dead guitarist Brian Jones. The unsettling apparition reminds the band of the high cost of their profession, and all that they left behind to make it atop the rock mountain. Later, a long night in a Hollywood Hills haunted house reminds one key member of the STP entourage about his terrifying close call with Charles Manson — who had marked him to die.
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Chris O'Dell has been called the Zelig of rock 'n' roll. After getting her start working at the Beatles' London offices in 1968, she became a trusted confidant of practically every major artist of the '70s. George Harrison, her one time boss, immortalized her in the song "Miss O’Dell.” Leon Russell wooed her by writing “Pisces Apple Lady” in her honor. She's the "woman down the hall" in Joni Mitchell's "Coyote" and was pictured on the back cover of the Stones' Exile on Main Street. More than a muse, she was one of just a handful of professional women in rock, managing gargantuan, globe-trotting tours for the likes of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Bob Dylan; Linda Ronstadt; Santana; Phil Collins, Earth, Wind and Fire; Fleetwood Mac; Queen and many more. But before all that, she earned her stripes on the STP tour with the Stones. Listen as she reunites with her friends and fellow STP vets Robert Greenfield and Gary Stromberg for the first time since the tour wrapped in 1972. Together they recall drug runs for Keith Richards, long nights at the Playboy Mansion, and longer days in the Rolling Stones' inner sanctum.
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The Stones enjoy a night on the town to distract themselves from fears that the Hell's Angels are plotting to assassinate Mick Jagger as revenge for the disaster at Altamont. While the band blows off steam and revels in the royal treatment, the STP support squad struggle to navigate the peculiar politics of being perpetually fame-adjacent. As they scramble to maintain their place in the tour pecking order, they simultaneously strive to take every precaution against nefarious plots. The Stones survive, but they receive a scary reminder that they can't escape the past quite so easily.
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The Rolling Stones touch down in San Francisco to play their first gig in the Bay Area since their disastrous concert at the Altamont Speedway three years earlier — when they'd inadvertently provided the soundtrack to a murder. Their arrival forces them to revisit that awful day when members of the Hells Angels, supposedly acting as security, stab 18-year-old Meredith Hunter to death in the middle of the band's set. The Stones hope these new gigs will serve as an apology to the hippest music city in America, but fear that the motorcycle gang will make good on their threats to assassinate Mick Jagger as revenge for Altamont's legal fallout.
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After millions of dollars and months of preparation, the biggest production in rock is now off and running — sort of. In truth, they’ve already hit some snags. A logistical snafu means they have no way to fly to their first tour stop in Canada, where they’re expected to perform in a matter of hours. Keith Richards has relapsed following his recent detox, and his personal pharmacy makes traveling through border control a stressful nightmare. An international incident of one kind of another appears immanent. Against all odds, they arrive at the arena on time, only to find it swarmed by thousands of ticketless rioters hell-bent on taking the venue by force. The Rolling Stones’ tour kickoff was bound to make news, but these explosive headlines were more than the STP crew bargained for.
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After fleeing France to avoid jail time resulting from Keith Richards' gargantuan drug purchases, the Rolling Stones settle in Los Angeles in the fall of 1971. There they race the clock to finish their new album before their summer tour is due to kick off. The progress is delayed by their perfectionist streak, a blizzard of cocaine, and Keith's ever-worsening heroin addiction. As the band struggles, preparations are made for the biggest rock 'n' roll roadshow the world has ever seen — and both journalist Robert Greenfield and PR exec Gary Stromberg endure the hazing required to hang with the Stones. But before Keith can hit the road, he's sent to Switzerland to get clean. The harrowing experience is excruciating but successful — for now.
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At the dawn of the ‘70s, The Rolling Stones discover they’re broke. After resettling in Southern France as a tax dodge, the band begin sessions for what would become their gritty masterpiece, Exile on Main Street, in the sweltering basement of Keith Richards’ seaside mansion, Villa Nellcote. The notorious (possibly) Nazi-haunted home played host to the most debauched parties of all time, multi-day binges that drew a who’s-who of rock royalty. But Keith’s heroin relapse derails the sessions and threatens his relationship with bandmate Mick Jagger, which is further strained by the frontman’s ongoing affair with Keith’s partner, Anita Pallenberg. The mood turns dark when Keith runs afoul of both Corsican drug heavies and French authorities. Caught between bought sides of the law, the Stones make a run for it — with their cache of new songs.
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The Rolling Stones’ 1972 US tour wasn’t merely the biggest musical event of the year; it redefined the modern rock tour as we know it, both in spectacle and debauchery… and risk. This was the band’s first trip to the States since the deadly disaster at Altamont in ’69. The bruise left by that show put a target on the bands’ back—particularly Mick Jagger—who became the pariah not only for conservative America, but the Hell’s Angels as well. As the World’s Greatest Rock ’n’ Roll Band swept across the country in limos and private jets, the question loomed large on everyone’s mind: Would someone try to assassinate Mick Jagger?
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