Curated playlist
Counterculture of the 1980s
- CocaineSpanish colonizers banned coca, then legalized and taxed it. Miners and field workers relied on the leaf.
- David LynchDavid Lynch began as a painter who just wanted his canvases to move. That wish led him to film.
- Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut survived the bombing of Dresden by hiding in an underground meat locker.
- Punk rockDetroit band Death couldn't get a record deal because of its name. They issued one single in 1976, then disbanded.
- Rolling StoneRolling Stone magazine began in 1967 on $7,500 borrowed from family. Its first cover showed John Lennon in a helmet.
- John CageJohn Cage once had a pianist play nothing for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. Audience noise became the music.
- Ralph BakshiRalph Bakshi sold CBS a show it already owned. CBS had acquired the Terrytoons library in 1955 and forgotten it.
- Jean GenetIn 1949, facing a possible life sentence, Jean Genet was saved by a petition.
- Mad (magazine)Mad magazine once received a letter whose envelope carried no address and no name, only a drawing of a gap-toothed boy's face. The United States mail delivered it anyway. According to Mad writer Frank Jacobs, the face alone did the job.…
- Frank ZappaAs a boy, Frank Zappa spread mercury across his bedroom floor with a hammer. His father brought it home from work.