The Story Behind The Song

Sports, the breakthrough third album by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News, was released in 1983 and reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1984. It charted for 160 weeks and featured top-ten hits like "Heart and Soul," "The Heart of Rock & Roll," "I Want a New Drug," and "If This Is It."

But what made Sports so special? For one thing, it was incredibly eclectic. The album's influences ranged from rock and roll to R&B to soul to pop. As Huey Lewis himself explains on this episode of The Story Behind the Song, the band intentionally aimed at every single radio chart and it struck gold.

Sports was also a product of Lewis's wild journey into his music career. He graduated high school a year early, traveled across the country, snuck on a plane to Europe with $10 to his name, and eventually dropped out of an engineering program to pursue music.

In recent years, Lewis has experienced challenges due to hearing loss, but his resilience and creativity continue to shine. He's working on a new Broadway show and, soon, hopefully, a TV show.

Learn more about Huey Lewis and News’ Reissue for the 40th Anniversary of Sports here.

Listen to the full conversation with Huey Lewis and the News’s Sports and more in this episode. Then, make sure to like, review, and subscribe to TSBTS wherever you get podcasts for updates on all our new episodes.

You can keep an eye on the Consequence Podcast Network for updates on all our series, and follow host Peter Csathy on X/Twitter @pcsathy and Deep Cuts Media.

Punk rock in the mid-to-late '70s and early '80s meant different things to different people, depending on which city you were in. For Los Angeles, it was the band X that helped define the sound from their Venice home. (The band sits at #13 on Consequence's own list of the Best Punk Bands of All Time.)

X’s most iconic song happens to be the title track of their debut LP, Los Angeles. "Los Angeles" reflects all of that city’s deep complexities, including racial, sexual and religious intolerance, in a biographical tale centered on a figure known personally by Doe and Cervenka. As told via lyrics intended to shock, this person so hated others in LA not like herself that she moved several time zones away to escape them. Her POV is so raw that certain radio stations that previously championed the song no longer play it. But the song’s driving power remains and was always meant to be a social commentary, a thrashing no-holds-barred critique about intolerance that is perhaps even more relevant today.

In this seventh episode of The Story Behind the Song podcast, host Peter Csathy interviews X’s John Doe about the origins of “Los Angeles,” co-written by Cervenka and produced by Ray Manzarek of The Doors (a band also known for writing songs about LA’s deep, dark underbelly). The two also discuss Doe’s recording of Cervenka’s very different, haunting song, “Alone in Arizona” from Doe’s 2016 solo album, Westerner.

Listen to the podcast above, or check out the full video of the discussion at Consequence.

Then, make sure you’re subscribed to The Story Behind the Song wherever you get your podcasts to catch each episode of the monthly series. You can also keep an eye on the Consequence Podcast Network for updates on all our podcasts, and follow host Peter Csathy on Twitter @pcsathy and check out his company CREATV Media.

Theme music courtesy of Juan Pieczanski.

Metric are an enigmatic, shape-shifting band -- always has been, always will be. Born out of Canada in 2001, they have built a discography that now spans eight studio albums that are difficult to box into any one genre (or two, for that matter). Part indie rock, part pop punk, part dance, part electronic -- why even try to put a label on it? The point is that it all works.

At the center of it all is Emily Haines, who sings, writes songs, and plays synths and other instruments. Haines rocks it effortlessly with authenticity, energy, and swagger, despite confessing to suffering from deep bouts of stage fright. It's actually a topic she addressed on Metric's breakout single "Help I'm Alive," with its thumping beats and searing lyrics like, "I tremble, I tremble/ They're gonna eat me alive/ If I stumble."

Haines joins The Story Behind the Song host Peter Csathy to talk about "Help I'm Alive" and how it and Metric's fourth album, 2008's Fantasies, helped save the band. Also on this episode, Haines discusses the dark but euphoric "Doomscroller," the 10-minute track that kicks off Metric's latest album, Formentera.

Listen to the latest episode of The Story Behind the Song now, or watch the full discussion via Consequence. This is the first of a trio of Halloween-themed bonus episodes coming this month on TSBTS, with future episodes centered on Blue Oyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (October 17th) and Danny Elfman discussing Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party" (October 31st). So, make sure to like, review, and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts to be alerted when each new episode drops.

You can also keep an eye on the Consequence Podcast Network for updates on all our series, and follow host Peter Csathy on Twitter @pcsathy and at Creative Media.

The Story Behind the Song's Peter Csathy is back to talk to legendary The Police drummer Stewart Copeland to talk about "Roxanne."

Definitely known as "The Police Song," "Roxanne" is a song that changed the fortunes of the English rock band The Police. The song was written by lead singer and bassist Sting for their debut album Outlandos d'Amour, which celebrates its 45th anniversary this year. But it would not have found its rhythmic magic if Stewart Copeland hadn't reenvisioned the song's bossa nova and turned it into a reggae-rock anthem.

Stewart Copeland also discusses his two recent grammies from DIVINE TIDES with Ricky Kej and the release of The Police's Police Deranged for Orchestra album, which learn more about here.

Listen to the full conversation with The Police's Stewart Copeland about “Roxanne" and more in this episode, and watch some of the interview highlights on YouTube. Then, make sure to like, review, and subscribe to TSBTS wherever you get podcasts for updates on all our new episodes.

You can keep an eye on the Consequence Podcast Network for updates on all our series, and follow host Peter Csathy on Twitter @pcsathy and at Creative Media.

Alex Ebert is lead singer, songwriter and resident shaman of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, the hippie-inspired outfit that broke out in 2009 with a fresh sound that was difficult to pin down. Via his alter-ego messiah character Edward Sharpe, Ebert and the Magnetic Zeros' breakout single and signature song across four albums is, of course, "Home." An ebullient and endearing anthem of love and pure joy, the song has become iconic thanks to its instantly recognizable whistles and indelible opening lyric, "Alabama, Arkansas/ I do love my ma and pa."

But the veneer of joy on "Home" hides an underlying truth: Ebert used Edward Sharpe to rise above his own personal demons. And out of that reality, Ebert later penned his solo song “Truth” – from his first solo album, Alexander – to set the record straight to his fans as a companion piece to "Home."

Ebert joined host Peter Csathy for the 10th episode of The Story Behind the Song podcast to discuss his classic "Home." He takes listeners through the inspirations to the production (including that spoken-word ode to Castrinos), and reveals how the darker realities underpinning "Truth" connect to that original hit. Along the way, Ebert's candid, raw conversation reveals his musical journey from rapper to spiritual "Bad Guru" (the name of his philosophy and spirituality newsletter).

Listen to the episode, and then be sure to like, subscribe, and review The Story Behind the Song wherever you get your podcasts. You can also keep an eye on the Consequence Podcast Network for updates on all our podcasts, and follow host Peter Csathy on Twitter @pcsathy and check out his company CREATV Media.