{"podcast":{"title":"Dig Me Out: 70s & 80s Metal","slug":"dig-me-out-70s-80s-metal-6762076","podcast_index_feed_id":6762076,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/29505/s/103850.rss","website_url":"https://www.digmeoutpodcast.com/s/dig-me-out-80s-metal","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/29505/s/103850/15056b752959bc55b6d7106286a6fd19.jpg","author":"Beyond the hits—exploring the albums, bands, and moments that shaped the heavy 70s & 80s metal","episode_count":63,"summary":"Digging into the era's iconic and obscure albums with biweekly podcasts, History of the Band articles, and new music reviews","last_synced_at":"2026-07-08T08:28:43.787403+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/dig-me-out-70s-80s-metal-6762076"},"episode":{"title":"The 1973 Album by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band That Sounds Like Rocky Horror Meets AC/DC","slug":"the-1973-album-by-the-sensational-alex-harvey-band-that-sounds-like-rocky-horror-meets-ac-dc","published_at":"2026-03-03T14:59:31+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/dig-me-out-70s-80s-metal-6762076/the-1973-album-by-the-sensational-alex-harvey-band-that-sounds-like-rocky-horror-meets-ac-dc","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/dig-me-out-70s-80s-metal-6762076","url":"https://www.digmeoutpodcast.com/p/faith-healer-gang-bang-and-the-weird","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/189725178/7b43f0571ba5caf590b936837dc37f8c.mp3","summary":"A Scottish cult hero. A seven-minute pseudo-electronic epic. A song literally called “Gang Bang.” This episode dives into Next (1973) by the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a glam-adjacent, piano-driven, theatrical rock album that turned Cleveland into a true-believer city while barely registering anywhere else. If you’ve ever wondered how a band could sound like AC/DC fronted by a cabaret singer, this one’s for you. The conversation unpacks how Next won a community poll over Santana, Mountain, and Babe Ruth, then zooms into what makes this record so strange and so compelling: Alex Harvey’s gravelly, Bon Scott–adjacent vocal sneer; Hugh McKenna’s barroom piano at the center of the mix; Zal Cleminson’s clown-faced guitar theatrics; and a tracklist that veers from swampy 70s glam rock to French-tango whorehouse drama to 50s sock-hop pastiche. The hosts dig into the band’s ties to Cleveland’s WMMS, the album’s inclusion in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and why “The Faith Healer” feels like a proto-electronic blueprint hiding inside a 70s hard rock record. Along the way, they wrestle with whether Next is a fully realized album or a brilliantly messy collision of pub-rock instincts and art-rock ambition. Is this bar-band filler padded with covers, or the sound of a band inventing a theatrical rock universe on the fly? If you’re into Alice Cooper (early band era), Slade, Mott the Hoople, AC/DC’s Bon Scott years, or even the weirder corners of 70s glam and proto-metal, this episode will hit that sweet spot between grit, camp, and cult. Episode Highlights: - 0:00 – Swampsnake (intro clip) – Setting the scene with the swampy, bluesy glam groove that defines the album’s tone and why this 70s poll got “weird in the best way.” - 1:40 – The 70s album poll – Santana, Mount…","meta_description":"A Scottish cult hero. A seven-minute pseudo-electronic epic. A song literally called “Gang Bang.” This episode dives into Next (1973) by the Sensational A…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3368,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/dig-me-out-70s-80s-metal-6762076/episodes/the-1973-album-by-the-sensational-alex-harvey-band-that-sounds-like-rocky-horror-meets-ac-dc/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/dig-me-out-70s-80s-metal-6762076/the-1973-album-by-the-sensational-alex-harvey-band-that-sounds-like-rocky-horror-meets-ac-dc.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}