Season 4 Reading Series: Detroit on Fire: Guest Host Andrew Smith Talks With Peter Werbe About 1967, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and Revolution in Peter’s Novel ‘Summer On Fire’
Peter Werbe
Andrew Smith
About the Episode
EPISODE SUMMARY:
In this special episode, Rock is Lit host Christy Alexander Hallberg hands the mic over to podcaster and DJ Andrew Smith, who interviews his friend Peter Werbe about Peter’s debut novel, ‘Summer On Fire’. Peter also reads an excerpt from the novel.
Peter Werbe is a long-time figure in alternative and commercial media in Detroit, and a political activist. He is a member of the editorial collective of the ‘Fifth Estate’ magazine. His articles that have appeared there are available in the publication's online archive.
His professional career was as a DJ on Detroit's major rock stations, WABX, WWWW. WRIF, and WCSX. He hosted Nightcall, WRIF's phone-in talk show, that was the longest running such program in U.S. radio history, 1970-2016.
During the pandemic and around the time of his 80th birthday, Peter wrote his first novel, ‘Summer On Fire’, a fictionalized memoir-ish text about the Detroit rebellion of 1967 and the surrounding antiwar psychedelic rock counterculture. This is the scene that birthed the MC5 and Stooges, and Peter was close associates with all the major players, such as Wayne Kramer, John Sinclair, and Gary Grimshaw.
The characters in ‘Summer On Fire’ are thrust into tumultuous episodes of the 1967 Detroit Rebellion, anti-war demonstrations, fighting fascists, rock and roll at the Grande Ballroom, drugs, anarchism, the White Panther Party, Wilhelm Reich, and a bomb plot that provide “a people’s history and radical folklore of Detroit.” The setting is seven weeks in a critical year that demands ethical choices by all involved, ones which mirror today's crises.
Andrew Smith is the host of the Teacher On The Radio show and podcast. He also teaches English and religious studies courses at Tennessee Tech.
MUSIC IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:
Rock is Lit theme music
[Guitar Instrumental Beat] Sad Rock [Free Use Music] Punch Deck—“I Can’t Stop”
Late 60s Style Psychedelic Rock Track “Summer of Love”/License Music for Videos
MC5 “Kick Out the Jams”
Frank Zappa “Plastic People”
Big Brother and the Holding Company “Down On Me”
Bar-Kays “Soul Finger”
John Lee Hooker “The Motor City is Burning”
The Stooges “I Wanna Be Your Dog”
[Guitar Instrumental Beat] Sad Rock [Free Use Music] Punch Deck—“I Can’t Stop”
Rock is Lit theme music
LINKS:
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Peter Werbe’s website: https://www.peterwerbe.org/
Peter Werbe on Facebook: @PeterWerbe
Andrew Smith’s website: http://www.teacherontheradio.com/
Andrew Smith on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@teacherontheradio
Andrew Smith on Facebook: @AndrewWilliamSmith
Andrew Smith on Twitter: @teacheronradio
Christy Alexander Hallberg’s website: https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/rockislit
Christy Alexander Hallberg on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube: @ChristyHallberg
Rock is Lit on Instagram: @rockislitpodcast
Guest host Andrew Smith interviews author Peter Werbe for this episode of Rock is Lit.
