This bonus episode of Sound Opinions opens with hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Cott in their Desert Island Jukebox segment, where each alternates picking a track they cannot live without. Cott teases his selection as coming from a great artist's worst-selling album, leading DeRogatis to guess Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music before Cott reveals it is Miles Davis. Cott frames the choice around Davis's upcoming 100th birthday on May 26, 2026, noting that Chuck Berry shares a centennial year, having been born just 22 miles away in St. Louis months after Davis was born in Alton, Illinois. Cott positions himself as a rock fan approaching jazz from the outside, looking for entry points rather than speaking as a jazz authority. He identifies Davis's 1970s jazz fusion period as the most controversial phase of the trumpeter's career, one that alienates many listeners at the mere mention of the term. Cott recommends Bitches Brew and Jack Johnson as accessible starting points before focusing on On the Corner from 1972. He describes the album as a convergence of influences: the funk of Sly Stone and James Brown, the avant-garde ideas of Karlheinz Stockhausen, and the free jazz of Ornette Coleman, whom Davis initially dismissed before recognizing his importance. Cott recounts listening to the album alone on long drives, noting it is not music to share with just anyone. On the Corner features only four tracks and was met with hostility from jazz critics and indifference from rock critics upon release. Cott argues the album was simply not understood in its time but sounds thoroughly contemporary now, having anticipated multiple subsequent genres. Producer Teo Macero's editing approach shaped the record, which features funk-influenced chicken-scratch guitars rather than extended solos, and Miles's trumpet filtered through a wah-wah pedal. Cellos and electronic keyboards were also run through effects, contributing to the album's dense, layered sound. Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea appear as keyboard players on the record. The cover art, created by Corky McCoy, depicts Black people gathered on a street corner, reflecting Davis's explicit intention to make an album for and about Black audiences, which he described as capturing a street life aesthetic he called Ghetto Delic. Cott praises the album's variety of percussion, including handclaps and sleigh bells, and describes the rhythmic approach as unlike anything else he has heard. The commercial and critical failure of On the Corner affected Davis personally, leading him to record sporadically afterward and release mostly live material through the mid-1970s. Davis retired from music entirely in 1975, feeling his work was no longer reaching the public. He returned in the 1980s, but Cott argues his health had deteriorated and the later records, while acceptable, never matched the quality of his pre-retirement output. Cott concludes that On the Corner is the last truly great Miles Davis studio album, one with a shelf life far beyond its era. DeRogatis closes by admitting he prefers Kind of Blue and may not yet be mature enough to appreciate On the Corner, a candid acknowledgment of the album's demanding nature.
