Closing Time: My Favorite Music Podcast Has Ended

60 Songs That Explain the '90s, hosted by rock journalist Rob Harvilla, chose Semisonic's 1998 hit for its final episode.

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Writing about the songs that get stuck in my head and the stories they summon from my memory bank is my main jam, and hopefully a main reason you read EW&SL. But, I also like to share other types of posts: monthly media reCOWmendations (COW=Community of Wormheads), playlists, and assorted bonus posts. Below is one of these bonus posts.

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Earworms and Song Loops’ Biggest Influence

Over nearly two years of weekly posts, I don’t think I’ve discussed the one media source that has probably had the greatest influence on my writing voice and style for Earworms and Song Loops.

I had been meaning to, but the truth is, I did write about 60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s — exactly one month before starting this newsletter, back in March of 2022. It was for my blog, Fuzzy’s Warbles, which was the precursor for this Substack. I wrote about the podcast for my penultimate post before migrating here. If you would like to check out my older music writing, it’s all still live at fuzzyswarbles.wordpress.com. Most of it is hard for me to read, as I can only see where I should have revised, edited, and tightened it up. It’s indeed true that the more you write, the better you get at it.

At the time that I wrote that piece, 60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s had just posted episode #59, and I was feeling sad at the prospect of such an entertaining, funny, music-nerdy, and often long-winded podcast coming to an end. While listening to the episode, which featured Tom Petty’s “It’s Good to Be King,” host Rob Harvilla paused to make an announcement. The Ringer (the podcast network that produced the show) had agreed to fund an additional 30 episodes, expanding the show to 90 Songs That Explain the ‘90s (though the title did not change).

I was beyond thrilled. Actually, I think I was simply thrilled. I don’t know what would be beyond that. What is beyond thrilled? Ecstatically thrilled? Thrilled to an infinite degree? How does one go about measuring thrilledness? (These sorts of semantic meanderings are a Harvilla trademark, as well as a Goldberg trademark.)

A year ago, when the show reached episode 89, Rob announced that The Ringer had agreed to produce another 30 episodes, giving Harvilla a chance to explore 120 Songs to explain the 1990s. Again, the name of the show did not change.

Well, today, I listened to episode 120, which, unless another rabbit gets pulled from the proverbial hat, was indeed the show’s finale. I didn’t feel sad about it coming to an end.

The sadness, the not-readyness, the borderline distraughtness, expressed in the blog post I wrote two years ago had evolved into gratitude. I could only feel grateful that, for a show hoping to explain an entire decade in 60 songs (and episodes), it had been given the opportunity to double that amount and do the decade justice.

Are there hundreds of important songs and artists from the ‘90s that didn’t make the cut? Of course. But that’s beside the point. The point is simply to listen, and if you were of a certain age during the 1990s (I’d say a teen to your 30s, roughly), to reminisce in a sea of nerdy nostalgia.

Which, I suppose, is a concise way of describing what I do here: reminisce in a sea of nerdy nostalgia.

You can read my original piece on 60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s here:

But What is the Podcast About?

60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s is not for everyone.

For example, people in a hurry. Also, people who could care less about music from the ‘90s. Also, people who don’t like to listen to podcasts.

The episodes are long and can run anywhere from an hour to almost two hours. Rob sometimes doesn’t get to the featured song in the episode’s title until minute 45. You might hit play, thinking you’re going to listen to a dissection of, say, U2’s 1992 smash hit, “One.”

The episode starts with Rob listing and playing snippets from his top five funniest moments from the 1984 film This Is Spinal Tap.

He then talks about the greatness of the classic rockumentary (which, being one of my 13 favorite films, I could listen to for hours). After fifteen minutes of this, Rob moves on to talk about U2’s Popmart tour during the late ‘90s. With its massively elaborate stage design and giant props, he effortlessly links this tour to Spinal Tap. Specifically, the Stonehenge fiasco and the band getting lost backstage scenes. Then, Rob backtracks to discuss earlier eras of the famous Irish quartet before catching back up to Achtung Baby and the featured song twenty minutes later.

To me, it’s perfect. No matter how far off the beaten path Rob veers, like Jefferson Starship, he always finds his way back to your heart.

Sure, some episodes might be characterized as bloated, rambling, and needlessly wordy. One might use those same words to describe my writing. Me and Rob, we are twinsies like that.

Every episode is divided into two parts. The first half (or 2/3) is the monologue, read with dramatic flair and ease by Harvilla. Then, for about the last half-hour or so, Rob interviews someone from the music or rock journalism spheres, to discuss the featured song in more depth. It’s a nice balance, including another voice, though I will admit to often skipping the interview parts due to time constraints.

Do I have a favorite episode? Why thank you for asking. In the blog post, I reference episode 32, featuring Third Eye Blind’s “Semi-Charmed Life.” That is for sure a great one. But I’ll go with episode 100, which explores They Might Be Giants’ “Birdhouse in Your Soul.” As a huge TMBG fan (I’ve written about them more than any other band), I found listening to this episode to be 83 minutes of pure bliss.

Closing Time - The Final Episode

The final episode of 60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s features the song “Closing Time” by the band Semisonic. It’s the perfect song to end the podcast with—not just because it’s one of the all-time great “ending” songs, but also because it’s a song I wrote about for the Fuzzy Warbles blog in the summer of 2016.

I’m reluctant to share the link (but I will: here it is) because my writing is so lacking in a point (kind of like this, now that I think about it) and never mentions that Semisonic vocalist/guitarist Dan Wilson would go on to co-write Grammy-winning hits with Adele (“Someone Like You”), Chris Stapleton (“White Horse”), and so many others.

I also never mention that Wilson has collaborated with a diverse^[3] range of acclaimed artists, including Pink, Celine Dion, Leon Bridges, Mitski, Claud, Halsey, Weezer, Panic! at the Disco, My Morning Jacket, Dierks Bentley, John Legend, Joy Oladokun, Laufey, and more. (Wikipedia)

I also never explain — because I did not know this until today — that “Closing Time” is only partly about the time when a bar closes at 2 or 3 am. It’s also about being born. Wilson explains in a 2019 interview for American Songwriter:

“My wife and I were expecting our first kid very soon after I wrote that song. I had birth on the brain, I was struck by what a funny pun it was to be bounced from the womb.”

Bounced from the womb is a great way to describe how I feel now that this show is over. I’m ready to see what else this big, crazy world has to offer.

It was a lovely final episode for a lovely 120-episode podcast.

It feels right for it to end now. It didn’t feel right back in early 2022 when I was not ready to say goodbye, but now I’m ready.

Goodbye, 60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s. Goodbye, host-extraordinaire Rob Harvilla. I’ll hear you on the flipside.

Now I have time to tackle the mammoth A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs podcast. The first 173 songs are currently posted. I’ll let you know my impressions when I finish it in 30 years.

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I almost forgot to mention:

I’d sent the link to the original essay to Rob Harvilla on Twitter and received a very gracious personal reply. I had suggested that he might want to follow the show with “60 Songs That Explain the ‘80s” and hire me as a writer. He said it was a great idea and that he’d keep me in mind for the job….I’d include a screen cap of the tweet, but I deleted my Twitter account.

• Were you familiar with the 60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s podcast? What did/do you think?

• If you do happen to check out the podcast, I’d love to get your impressions.

• I’d also love to know if you check out my 2-year-old blog essay or the Semisonic post.

• By the way, the bonus Zero Playlist Post is almost ready — expect it later this week!

As always, my appreciation is boundless,

Steve