In some ways "How Bizarre" was probably more 'alternative' since it was this weird song featuring a Maori-Niuean guy from a ghetto in New Zealand sort of rapping over Mariachi horns.

I think that's in part because popular music has largely become a producer-driven medium in the last decade—and while this was true at times in the past as well, it's become even more so these days. Plus technology makes it easy for bands to sound the same when you're drenching everything in digital production…

I always sort of lump together Marcy's Playground, Semisonic, Nada Surf and Harvey Danger in my head—I guess I wasn't that familiar with Dan Wilson though I didn't realize the amount of notable songs he wrote before wiki-ing him.

The late 90s was sort of an "after the gold rush" period of Alternative Rock—if the hardcore punk of the early 80s and SST bands like Husker Du were like the mountain men and explorers, bands like the Pixies were the first prospectors, Nirvana and the Seattle bands were the Leland Stanfords of the bunch who became…

Yeah but, back in 1984, nothing got their panties off quicker than a bottle of champagne, some candles, and "Run Runaway" on the hi-fi…

Law and Order: Internal Affairs where they investigate the cops on other Law and Order shows…

"Well looks like we've got a mistrial, but we've also got a Hung Jury…"

I was just listening to an old Stones record and I never realized that the Velvet Underground's "There She Goes Again" completely copied the opening guitar riff from the Stones cover of Marvin Gaye's "Hitch Hike".

That was really his cousin Marvin's fault though…

Yeah, post-Blood Sugar Sex Magik, RCHP has basically two songs, kind of reflective ballads and funky scat rapping jams—though then they got creative and said, what if we put the funky scat rapping in the middle of the reflective ballads…

To be fair, Jack White stole that guacamole recipe from Blind Willie McTell and Mississippi John Hurt.

The Kinks were banned from being able to tour the US at the height of the 1960s rock era—and then they released very Anglo-centric classic albums like Village Green and Arthur at the height of the psychedelic era that were not psychedelic. Reading the biography of that band is interesting, they had really sporadic…

And then Dan Akroyd is in a scene where Russians play "Soul Finger" in Spies Like Us in 1985, a year after Ghostbusters was released— completing the circle and bringing order back to the universe.

"Yellow Ledbetter" is pretty close to "Little Wing" as it is.

It was written in 1968, so the classic roots reggae sound wasn't even fully born yet—the one drop rhythms that define that style were adopted around 1968 or 1969. It's sort of influenced by the period where ska was transitioning to reggae. But yeah, growing up I never associated that song with reggae—where as…

Sublime's What I Got also directly borrows from Half Pint's "Loving" though it's so direct it's basically a homage or semi-cover.

Yeah, Crosby needs another liver. Again.

Yeah, I thought about that after I wrote that—-it's rocksteady-influenced, very early reggae. The Desmond reference in the song is from Desmond Dekker who was just starting to get big in England at that time.

I remarked on this when there was a discussion on here on Houses of the Holy a few months back—but I've always thought of that album as being Zeppelin at their happiest. It's a real eclectic album—I think after they made IV and being at the height of their success they sort of loosened up for that one. It's true…

Yeah, that song is a real pale imitation of the original.