Rock N' Roll...

The story behind the infamous 1970's era song DOA by Bloodrock Podcast on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rock-n-roll-true-stories-podcast/id1876614383 My second YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@RockNRollTrueStories2 In the fall of 1970, a Fort Worth rock band called Bloodrock released a song so grim that radio didn't know what to do with it. "D.O.A." wasn't about sex, drugs or politics. It was about dying, told in real time by the man doing the dying. Stations pulled it. DJs hung up on fans who requested it. Some high schools reportedly banned it. And drivers were said to be pulling over because they thought an ambulance was coming up behind them. By every rule of the record business, it should have been dead on arrival. Instead, it climbed to number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100. This is the true story of Bloodrock's "D.O.A.," one of the most disturbing hit songs of the 1970s. We go back to the band's roots as The Naturals and Crowd + 1, to Grand Funk Railroad manager Terry Knight discovering them at a Texas fraternity party, and to the rehearsal where guitarist Lee Pickens played two repeating notes meant to sound like a European siren. That tritone riff, sometimes called the devil's interval, became the backbone of an eight-and-a-half-minute nightmare. Pickens later explained where the story came from. At 17, he watched a friend take off in a small plane, roll and crash. We also clear up the myths: why the song wasn't about the Wichita State or Marshall football plane crashes, why some people heard it as a car crash, and how the line "we were flying along" turned it into a rumored drug song. Then there's the radio fight. In March 1971, the FCC warned broadcasters about songs that seemed to glorify drug use. The warning didn't ban any records, but it scared stations into acting as their own censors. Buffalo's WKBW dropped "D.O.A." along with "White Rabbit" and "One Toke Over the Line," even though Bloodrock's song had nothing to do with drugs. A Minneapolis DJ poll even put it on a list of the worst rock songs of all time. And yet the more radio buried it, the more teenagers wanted it. Request lines lit up. Fans bought the 45 and the album just to hear it. Bloodrock 2 reached number 21 and eventually went Gold, and the band hit the road with Grand Funk Railroad: a plane crash song touring with a band that flew in its own plane. But the hit became a trap. Bloodrock tried to stop playing "D.O.A." and got booed off the stage in Baton Rouge. Singer Jim Rutledge and Lee Pickens left in 1972, the sound changed, and the band played its last show in 1974. Decades later, the original members reunited one more time in Fort Worth, and the song still comes back every Halloween. If you like stories about songs the industry tried to bury and the bands who lived with the fallout, subscribe for more true rock history. Have a video request or a topic you'd like to see us cover? Comment below or send in your idea: https://bit.ly/3stnXlN CONNECT ON SOCIAL TIKOK:https://www.tiktok.com/@rocknrolltruestory Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rnrtruestories/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RNRTrueStories Twitter: https://twitter.com/rocktruestories Blog: www.rockandrolltruestories.com #bloodrok #doa These videos are for entertainment purposes only. DISCLAIMER https://rockandrolltruestories.com/youtube-disclaimer/