RSSAuriculum (Ep. 5): Bob & Carola & The Art and Science of List Making
Under discussion: the big fun work (and anxiety) of assembling top 50 albums ballots for the "Rolling Stone 500," why "What's Going On" didn't make the cut, and why DeBarge did
Sparked by a tweet from Ireland, the And It Don't Stop triumvirate--Der Dean, his executive editor Joe Levy, and for the first time ever his personal trainer Carola Dibbell--thought it might be a little fun for me and Carola to talk over the big fun, nice work if you can get it, and nagging anxieties that ensued when Rolling Stone asked not just Der Dean but pioneering female rock critic Dibbell to be among the many bizzers, musicians, and journos it harassed, ordered, flattered, and enticed into voting in its third 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. Fans curious about my working methods or the marital comity with which they have long been intertwined will get some notion of how they play out here without glimpsing the more dogged "work listening" part. Levy, who oversaw the first Rolling Stone 500 back when he was employed by the mag himself, nails crucial specifics, keeps the ball rolling whenever we get tangled up in a scrum, and has done us the tremendous favor of constructing an imaginative Spotify playlist based on the conversation which constitutes the fifth episode of the occasional And It Don't Stop podcast Auriculum. Thanks as always to Sandy Smallens for the audio and Wussy for the theme music.