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SYSK Selects: How Disco Works · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey there, it's me Josh and for this week's s
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Y s KSE selects, I chose How Disco Works, which
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: is one of my favorite, all time favorite episodes. Um,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and you'll know what I'm talking about in a second.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: When I say that, I feel like if we all
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: band together, we could still get Chuck to do that
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: how to video on the Hustle also domus Chuck's big
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: presentation after his first trip to Max Funcan instead of
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: listener mail, It's a very special treat. At the end
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: of this episode, which was first released in July of
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: two thousand twelve, enjoy Welcome to Stuff you Should Know
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: getting on down with his bad self. Get on down,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: mat to cow the Hustle. H Oh, is that what
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: you're doing? Actually looked up the Hustle because I wasn't
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: quite sure what it was specifically, and yeah, because no
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: one who does it now and knows what they're doing. Yeah,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: but then I saw it was like, oh yeah, sure,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: like sort of the boogie night stance they did was
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: because they're like a hand rolling. Yeah, there's a little
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: step up, a little step back, a little like side
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: three sixty clap clap, little John Travolta Saturday Night fever
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: hand action, little little hand roll, the little uh what
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: do you call that? This would be much better visually.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. Why don't we get you just
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: a quick how to video and we'll post it? Sound good? Yeah? Sure? Okay,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: well you'll be held to that. Great. I'm gonna go
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: start looking for clothes after um, so, chuck, you're doing well,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: feeling invigorated by the Presidential Executive Orders episode as you
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: ready for this? Buires me up for disco, so forward disco. Um,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: let's start at the end. I thought that Molly did
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: a very good job with this. Is that really edmans jam? Um.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: There was a night uh in nineteen nine. It was
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: July twelve in Chicago, and it was the White Sox
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: playing the Tigers and both of them were lousy other time. Uh,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the night before there had been uh, fifteen thousand people
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: for the Tiger socks. There's a double header today and
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: um they expected something like six thousand. All right, the
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: the I guess the owners of the White Sox had
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: started to create these promotions, and one of them that
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: night on July twelve, UM had been created by rock
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: DJ named Steve Dahl, who was the Chicago DJ. Yeah,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: it looked him up. Actually, he was fired. This is
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: why he was. He was so angry. He was fired
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: by a station that switched to disco. He got a
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: job at the competing rock station, w l u P
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: ninety eight FM, which is why it was cents the loop.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: That was the loop actually the loop, yeah, not the loop,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the loop, the loop. Okay, yeah, so yeah, anyway, he
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: got fired and said down with disco. Well, he said
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: disco sucks. There was a whole movement against disco t
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: shirts that said Disco sucks. Is before memes. This was
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: this was the real, Like you had to like run
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: out of your house, go across the street to a
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: neighbor's house, tell them disco sucks. They had to run
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: out of their house maybe a couple of blocks over
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: to their their their friends. That's how things spread back then.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: And this thing was like virulent, right, I missed us
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: times honest night, even with this UM, this Disco Demolition
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Night is what they called it. UM. They were expecting
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: like six thousand people, but they were going to put
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: on a heck of a show in between the two games.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Doll was going to take all the records that people brought.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: If you brought a disco record, UM, you get in
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: for ninety eight cents, because that was points something. The
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: this is before his point. This is when it was
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: just ninety eight on your dial. Oh okay, I mean
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: technically it was, but it wasn't digital, so no one knew.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Oh god, you know what I'm saying. Uh, And ninety
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: thousand people showed up. Ninety thousand people showed up. Stadium
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: held like fifty so there's like thirty eight thousand people
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: outside the gates. When you have thirty eight thousand people
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: who are there for to see something destroyed, um which
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: love which Doll was going to do these records in
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: between games. They don't usually stay outside of gates. Fences
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: don't usually contain people in that state in that many
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: larger number they broke through. Um. The apparently players on
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: both teams put on their batting helmets because the crowd
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: was getting crazy while they were throwing the records like frisbees.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: They were that's dangerous smoking weed in the stadium, like
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Harry Carey, you know, a younger Harry Carey announced that,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: you know, like he smelled me, I wanna this broadcast booth.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: And they got loaded and because they were mad, so
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: angry about the form of music. So the first game
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: ends and I guess what you would call halftime comes
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: and Johnny Fever, I mean Steve dohl Uh compiles ten
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: thousand and estimated ten thousand disco records and sets him
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: on fire. Well he exploded him first, which took out
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: like a chunk of the field. Yeah. I was wondering
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: how they did that. Yeah, they were. He was hooked
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: up the pyrotechnics and there was a big explosion and
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: ten thousand disco records went booming pretty much, and a
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: little fire started. People went crazy. They trashed the place. Yeah,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: they stormed the field and um they the Socks had
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: to forfeit the second game to the Tigers because they
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: couldn't play. The field was just too trashed. And that
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: was the night July twelve nine that most people point
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: to when they say disco died. Right then, Yeah, chance
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: of disco sucks. People smoking weed for a Harry carry
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Uh And consequently that was the last forfeited major league
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: baseball game in the American League. Oh is that right?
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: The most recent that is? That is an amazing story.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: But and and it makes a lot of sense. You
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: can find video this on YouTube. By the way, there
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: was that's awesome. There was definitely even I knew, like
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: there was an anti disco disco sucks sentiment. I remember it.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: That's how old I am. Well, I remember it too.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I was like eight years old when this happened. I
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: was like three, Yeah, yeah, I was three. I was
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: actually this is three days before my third birthday. This
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: all went down. I don't remember this happening. But like
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: I knew people said disco suck like an airplane, um,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: when the planes like making that crazy land and they
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: knock out a tower where the DJ's like saying, we're
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: disco lives forever. Right, I knew people hated disco. But
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: now reading this and figuring out that the disco was
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: this amazing cultural phenomenon and in unpacking like this story
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: behind it and the motives of hating it and all that,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: it's really really interesting. It's not as cut and dry
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: as like, you know, Ted Nugent thinks disco sucks. So
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: it just goes sucks. Maybe Ted Nugent is a homophobe. Huh,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: that's what cultural critics would say. Now, and we'll get
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: into that. We will, not Ted Nugent specifically, but anyone
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: who thought just goes sucks. It's not so cut and dry.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: The music music, it was tent Yeah. Uh you know
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: what I would like in this to what zoot suits?
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, good one. The interesting history. Then it turns
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: out there was like racial and misogynistic, well not misogynistic
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: and zoot suits, but in the case of disco, yes, homophobic. Yeah. Basically, Uh,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the straight white establishment does not like flashy dressing. Yeah,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: and they don't like them them New Yorkers. Yeah, well
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: in their in their bars where they dance with their
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: shirts off. Yes, that kind of thing, e g. Gate clubs.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: All right, so let's get into the music and then
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: we'll get into the politics. Okay. So um, well it
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: was Chuck the first disco record. Do you think disco duck? No,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: the Dolly parton No Disco Dolly No. No, she actually
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: did some disco tinged stuff. So did the Grateful Dead.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Everybody did it, sucking, Carol King, Barbara Streisand it's amazing
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: the people that got caught up in this disco way, Disco, Christmas, Disco,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: star wars, dude. Um, yeah, disco was huge from when
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: from what seventy four or seventy nine, Oh well yeah,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: when it was huge, yeah yeah yeah. But um, some
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: trace of beginnings of disco to the early parties UM
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: in New York thrown by David Mancuso, these invitation only
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: parties that he had at his place called the Loft,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: legendary first party called Love Saves the day they were
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: themed LSD. Yeah, and then there was a store in
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: these village called loups Is today. I don't know if
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: it's still there. It's like bric a brac, like everything's
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: coated and acid. That kind of like junk lands here
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: in Atlanta, that kind of Um. So a lot of
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: people trace it to Mancuso and in those early parties,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: which later on was sort of the precursor to what
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: raves would be, right, that's exactly right, um and Mancuso
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: um kind of created this, um, this foundation that would
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: become kind of the basis of disco, which was it
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: was DJ driven and UM, the DJ didn't just like
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: one song didn't just fade out and they're like, Okay,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: it's time for the next one and put on another record.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Mancusa actually dropped a bunch of money on a sound
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: system that allowed him to cut back and forth between
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: records and UM. He also liked to basically just just
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: use all sorts of different music and and create this
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: whole really cool set and music never stopped basically, no,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: it didn't, UM and he So that was kind of
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: this this basis that you'll see turn up later in
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: hip hop, but first it appears in disco. But yeah,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: he started throwing these parties in nineteen seventy, but I've
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: read sources that say it goes back even further than that.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Nineteen sixty The club was opened in New York in
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty five, Arthur was open. They were because they
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: were UM, they were DJ driven, and that was like,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: that's one of the basis of disco is the DJ.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: And there's this guy named Terry Noll and he went off.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: He became probably the first d J. I know that name,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: don't I do? I maybe, I mean, he's pretty pretty big.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: I mean he's like the godfather of DJing. I might know.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: I don't know. DJ so much though, but so that
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: he branched off in UM he started working at gay clubs,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: and gay clubs is where disco really started to emerge. UM.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: So if you if you go back far enough, at
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: about the same time that Mancuso was throwing his parties,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: the gay clubs had like DJ's playing Philly soul. Yes,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: the New York City specifically, which is where they think
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: that disco originally came from. It's probably Philadelphia soul, Yeah,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Philadelphia soul. If you listen to works by um like
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: some people claim that things like Barry Whites Can't get
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Enough of Your Love, Babe or um his love theme
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: from Yeah does very much sound like disco, even though
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: they were R and B soul singers. The same with
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: like Isaac Hay's right, but that is funk, clear and simple. Right,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Isaac Hayes is definitely funk, And a lot of people
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: rightly attribute the death of funk to disco, like they
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: both had this moment and disco just one out. Yeah,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: it's easier to dance to for one reason. Should we
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: listen to the Barry White Yeah which one? This is
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Love's theme from nineteen seventy three, and you can hear
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: like the big orchestral sound with like the M four
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: on the floor beat. So that's people say that that
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: may be the first disco one. Another one is Jerry
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Butler's UM one Night Affair and this guy this song
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: really shows that disco hybridized out of Philadelphia soul. That's true.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Then this is the purest evidence of it. And then
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: one more do you mind? So this one is this
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: is from Cameroon, a guy named Manu Dabango from the
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: island of Cameroon. Does the island No, it's not, well,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: you know if it was an island, right, yeah, but
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: it's just Cameroon. We're going with um. His name is
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Manu Dbingo and uh. He released a track called Soul
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Makasa and Soul Macasa. UM is noteworthy because a lot
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: of people say it's the first disco song. Well, it's here,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: so you're here. It's like very clearly a Cameroonian. It's
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: very African, very it's got that tribal beat, but it's
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: also discoe. The reason why people point to that song,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: which was released in nineteen seventy two, is because a
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: year later, UM, a Rolling Stone um rock critic or
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: music critic named Vinceletti put a paper pen to paper
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: and described that the the reason behind this obscure Cameroonian
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: songs popularity is because of this new thing that's going
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: on own Queens and the Bronx and all the hip
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: kids are doing it, and uh, we don't know what
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: it's called. So let's just call it disco. And that
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: was the first mentioned what he coined. The term disco
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: is is applied to this music, and it was the
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: first written description of disco, vincelet n So I think
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: we failed to mention that disco obviously is short for discotheque,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: which is the French term for nightclub, for a nightclub
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: where you listen to cammed music rather than alive. And
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: you still hear that, and see that when you go
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: all over Europe you still hear like disco thick, yes,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: right right, guys, trying to get you in there, you know, yeah,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: it's pretty great. That was a pretty good impression some
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: nameless country. I don't even know what that was, Eastern Bloc.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Let's just go with that. Is that I would have
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: I would have guessed, like Morocco, whatever it sounded like,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: that's what I was doing. So the the the you
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: just kind of said something very important that a disco teque.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: One of us just said it that a disco teque
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: is a dance club where there's no band, And this
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: flew in the face of the rock establishment at the time.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: We're still like very much entrenched in the sixties led
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Zeppelin and like you went and saw them, that was
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: the point, Like you went and saw their show, and
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: when when they weren't touring, you listen to their records
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: at home and sat on beambag chairs and worshiped at
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: their feet exactly. Disco was different. And the reason discoes
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: different is because nobody cared. They didn't want to hear
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: your live band. They went to go see the DJ.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah uh, And that had a big impact on record
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: sales because people weren't you know, it was one hit
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: wonder after one hit wonder. For for the most part,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: there were you know, quite a few that had multiple
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: hits but summer, but they were still like and far between, Yeah,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: and they were confined to the disco era. Not not
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: too many lasted beyond unless they were like crossing over
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: to begin with, like Dolly Partner, Carol King got you,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Barbra streisand but you will hear, you know, since nine
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: with Rock the Boat by the Hughes Corporation, which, speaking
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: of one hit wonder, a lot of people say, that's
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: when it really really took off. Um lak, I'm sorry.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Left Freak by Chic and good Times by Chic Good
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Times or did they do that? I will survive, of course,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: the classic Anthem by Glory Gaynor, Funky Town Casey and
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: the Sunshine Band with their multiple hits. They were another
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: group disco group, Get Down Tonight, shake your booty, classic songs.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: But I'm your boogie man. Play that funky music. Wild
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: hate that song. No, I really do too. That's up
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: there with bad to the Bone for me. Hey man,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: George Thorogood is a okay. There's nothing that guy did
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: that stunk except for that god play that funky music.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: I told you, George Thorogood worked out with me at
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: the y m c A in Hollywood. Yeah, like not
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: with me the last time we had this argument and
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: you told me and you still and you still maintain
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: that these stinks even though you know I don't maintain
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: these stinks. I think, George, you still maintain these good
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: that's what I meant. Okay, well you're wrong. Philadelphia Soul,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Josh is where it was born. We talked about that,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: I know, and uh, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. Well, yeah,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: so like if you didn't have one hit, you didn't
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: have groups generally that people followed or whose records they bought.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: You had one hit wonders. So singles were kind of big,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: and you had um DJ's. People went to specific clubs
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: to see specific DJs, and you had pretty users. People
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: would would get would find out like what song a
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: producer was making, and then they go see and they
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: go listen to that, right, like Gamble and Huff Uh.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: I can't remember the name of their company, but it
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: was Philadelphia something and it was all about Philadelphia soul.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: It started in the Philadelphia soul movement like previous in
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: the sixties and pretty much dwarfed Motown for a little while,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: which was a big, big, big deal at the time
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: and my time was two huge. Yeah, Barry Gordy and
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Motown took a hit when disco came around. There was
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: also a Giorgio Marauder. He was huge. He was a
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: huge disco He actually um produced Donna summers and then
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: the case they created Saucel Records, which is a pretty
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: big disco label. Well Gamble and huff Um you know
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: their work if you don't know their names. And they
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: wrote songs like Ain't No Stopping Us Now, that's a
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: good one, Love Train, that's a great one. And the
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Sound of Philadelphia t s Op which you might not
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: recognize by title, but you might recognize by the fact
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: that it is also the Soul Train theme. That is
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: a very very good song, very good song. That's surprisingly good.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: I remember Fresh Air played that when Don Cornelius died.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Uh so. And also, can I just interject one thing
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: if you're if you're bored right now? Um or I
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: should say, of course you how bored right now? Friends?
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: After the podcast, if you find yourself forward, go check
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: out um Moon Shoes Boogie Land. I think those four
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: words are actually just two words on YouTube, and you
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: will be treated to an awesome new I guess acid
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: disco track over um just laid perfectly over the Soul
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Train like the march, the procession thing, the lines they did,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: just clip after clip of that, and you will be
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: surprised to see a young rerun in the first A
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: couple of minutes. I think I've seen that clip. I
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: think I've seen him on Soul Train. Yeah, or he
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: just falls on his butt. Yeah. Man, that stuff was good.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, how do you move like that? I couldn't
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: do any of those moves. No, I couldn't either, Moon Shoes,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Boogey Land. Yeah. And you know what, Also, if if
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: you're a little young but you're a Star Wars fan
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: you don't remember the Mecco Star Wars and other galactic funk,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: go check that out. It's on YouTube. It's pretty amazing
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: to hear the Star Wars score orchestral arrangement to disco.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: And it was a big, big hit that Well, that's
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: not the only one. Arthur Fiedler from the Boston Pops,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: he had a night on Bald Mountain to disco. There
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: was I can't remember who who made it, but it's
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, fifth of Beethoven. Yeah,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, sure. People love to take classical stuff in
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: disco fight. They disco fight everything like you said, Dolly
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: parton Star Wars, Disco Duck Sesame street Head, not one
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: but two disco albums, Disco Christmas Albums, Discoes everywhere, And
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: even if you do say disco sucks, you cannot say
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: that musically disco sucks. Musically speaking, disco does not suck.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: It is difficult to play. It includes generally tough orchestral arrangements.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: And while it may be repetitive, and if you went
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: and saw your favorite disco performer playing a club, they
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: were just lip sinking, it's still Initially it was difficult
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: to make. Yeah, I think where disco takes the biggest
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: knock from from music rock music fans is lyrically right
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: and for good reason. Sure, so disco we were saying
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: it was. It flew in the face of rock, the
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: rock scene in Manhattan at the time, in part because
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: it was out in the Bronx out in Queens. It
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: was very popular among the working class, Yeah, Latinos, Italians.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: It's spread out of the gay clubs UM so white
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: gay dudes in underground clubs dancing to music UM created
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: by black people, black groups UM. And then in her
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: mixed in with working class Italians and Latinos in that
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: same club that was disco and that is not with
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: the rich kids in Manhattan we're doing at the time
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: rocking out well, Yeah, and that's a point that a
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: lot of people, a lot of people were misguided and
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: saying at one point that disco was of the bourgeois
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: because Studio fifty four transformed from a dance club of
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: the people to a dance club of the elite and
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: everyone started grooming over grooming and dressing to the nines
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: and spin all this money. And well they did. Yeah,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: but but once the rich people got involved, was like,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: you can't keep up with that. Yeah, and it but
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: it started out as very much a music of the people. Um,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: and like we said, disco Fever was like they were
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: doing the hustle in retirement homes, like disco classes. My
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: parents took disco dance lessons and my dad does not
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: take disco dance lessons, yet he did. That's pretty interesting,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Like that's how big it was. Well, I mean, if
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: you go back and watch like Sarah Nitye Fever for example,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: that's some pretty good dancing in there. Yeah. Of course,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: I'll bet your dad was like sexier when he was
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: taking disco lessons. So, um, we've got this thing and
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: it's weirdlet's I think it bears repeating, chuck, Like when
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: you think of disco these days. You think of Studio
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: fifty four, you think of cocaine, which is that there
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: there were symbiotic yeah. Um, you think of the beautiful
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: and the rich in in Manhattan, right that. But like
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: you said, that's not how it started out. It was
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: working class, across ethnic lines, gays were involved, um, and
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: it was it basically was co opted and usurped and
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, now there's a division between
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: it and the people who were criticizing it before really
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: started to speak up, meaning the rockers, and they really
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: had a point, Like you said, the lyrics fly Robin Fly,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: who cares? Yeah, And the other part of the problem
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: was disco was meant for escape, like it was set
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: in this time of economic hardship. New York City was
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: hit particularly about getting out there and dancing your frustrations
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: out and forgetting in everything. The problem is is while
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: you're dancing, politicals don't dance, and while everybody else is dancing,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: they're just doing whatever they want. No one's paying attention
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: because they're dancing. So um. Especially once it crossed over
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: to the rich and became like divided by class, rockers
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: really started to have some some ground to stand on
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: by saying just goes vapid and and politically and a
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: political and it sucks for those reasons. And it started
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: to become true after that point, right, right. Have you
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: ever seen Summer of Sam no good one. Yeah, that's
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: the Spike Lee one about the Son of Sam killings.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: But beyond it's it's more a movie about that time
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: and period in New York City and that summer than
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: it is about this. I mean, Summer Sam figures are
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Son of Sam figures in like huge, but it really
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: just capture is that time period. It's good and plus
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: that John Languizamo mhm, Saturday Night Fever changed everything, Josh, great,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: great movie. Did you read the article? Uh? Yeah, I
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: read the article and I've seen the movie probably five
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: or six times, so I read the article recently, like yesterday. Yeah.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: It's called um the Tribal Rights of the New Saturday Night.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: It was written in seventies six. Guy named Nick Conan
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: was the cover story of New York magazine. Right, he
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: made it up? Did you know that? Apparently he came
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: out to the Guardian and said, like I I fabricated everything.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Tony didn't exist. Um No, Vincent the main guy didn't exist.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: He said, he made up practically the whole thing, Like
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: he just got in to New York and like just
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: started hanging out and just wrote the thing. Wow, I
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: can't believe he made it all up. He did. Crazy
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: great movie though, and famous for the uh not only
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the dancing, uh, great story, coming of age story. Um.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: And the suit, the white suit with the black shirt.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: The black shirt wouldn't have popped nearly as much without
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: that black no, no, no, the in the white vest,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: which Jeans Ciskel owned for a while. Yeah, it's now
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: at the Museum of Music, and I think New York. Yeah,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: well Ciscle cleaned up on it. He bought it in
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: seventy eight because he was such a huge fan of
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: the movie. Bought it for two grand, sold it in
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: nice that fat cat, and he's no longer with us. Um.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: But the clothing was a huge deal. The fashion of
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: disco was arguably as important as it was just all
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: a part of the scene. It was all intermingled, the polyester,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: the spandex, the tight clothes, revealing as much skin as
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: you can, jewelry, leopard prints. It was like out of control. Yeah,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: and it's kind of come back of course, like all
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: fashion does. Yeah, well, especially with that early eighties throwback,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: that skill went on or that was going on. No,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: I think we've reached mid to late eighties, like the
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: the Fresh Prince years. It wasn't take twenty years supposedly
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: or something like that supposedly, So grunges next, I guess
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: we'll be flying the flannel. So not looking forward to that.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: I still got my flannel. I'll be good. I'm covered.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: You're like, hey, uh, you talked about Studio fifty four,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: which is now still called Studio fifty four, but it's
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: a theater. Um another populo club. If you live in
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: New York, you might be walking by these places and
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: not even realize it. Yeah, like, um, the Sanctuary which
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: became Limelight made famous, and Party Monster that's now like
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: a church that you can shop in. Well, Paradise Garage,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: very famous. Um on King Street in New York, very famous.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: Discotheque is now Verizon, is there really? Yeah? Man Zenon
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: on West forty three Xenon was a huge discotheque and
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: it is now the Stephen Sondheim Theater. Okay, well you
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: can do worse than that, exactly. So if you're walking
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: around New York and you see these places, just remember
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: there was a lot of drugs and sex and dancing
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: going on there thirty plus years ago. Yeah, people forgetting
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: their economic turmoil troubles. That's right. Stop you know, stop
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: you stop, you know stop. Um So we said that, well,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: you said that the record industry kind of took a hit,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: um because of the disco. Yeah, people were not buying
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: their albums by their favorite artists because there were no
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: favorite artists, and there was like it took a little
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: while for the effects to show up, but from like,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: records sales dropped by like two million units. That's a
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: lot um. And so the record industry turned on disco. Eventually,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: this this thing that had created this kind of vapid
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: um very quick, very attractive, sexy movement, or helped promote
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: it and push it out into the mainstream like and
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: shoved down everybody's throats were the ones that turned their
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: back on it. Um. I don't think people were quite
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: ready to yet, but the record industry was. And um
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: that probably more than anything, led to discost demise more
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: than this Chamiskey Park thing. I mean that's like a
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: it was symbolic. It was very symbolic. But if the
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: record industry is no longer agreeing to produce disco records,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: there's no disco records, and it doesn't matter if people
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: wanted it or not. And you know, looking back, it
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: was bound. It was bound to be a fad. It's
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: not a lasting thing, although it's come back around now
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: with stuff like Scissor Sisters and well not just that go.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: The reason why this the title of this episode is
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: in present tenses because maybe the name died, but that
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: four on the floor beat and then what now a
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: company with like electronic music that never went away? No,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: you're right, it may have fitted in the background. Now
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: it's like all over the radio, like Katy Perry stuff
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: and Britney Spears stuff. I'm told um they they they
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: used the same stuff. It's just disco. It's just a
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: different name for it. At its peak, Josh Disco was
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: a four billion dollar industry and they claim more than
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: fifteen thousand UH discos in the United States. It's a lot.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: So they spread from the city's clearly to uh the
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Bible Belt, the rust Belt, the Heartland, and uh as
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: we'll get into now. It wasn't very accepted by the
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: white male establishment a k a. Rock and roll fans exactly. Yea. Um,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: and people just kind of on the surface, it's just
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: because you know, discoing rock, they don't they don't go together,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: you know. But there's a lot of, like we said
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: at the beginning, cultural critics who say, you know that
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: people who were into disco didn't think about rock, they
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: didn't care about rock. No, they were high and dancing.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: People who are into rock hated disco. Why it was
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: a threat, they claim, and they were probably very right
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: to their what they thought were good American values. They
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: didn't like gay people, didn't probably like black people in
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: latinos or women do. He was hogging the spotlight because
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: rock and roll in the nineteen unless your name is
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: like Patti Smith, it wasn't a big haven for female
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: singers or like a Grace Slick. She was backed up
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: by an all male band. You know, it was like
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: very rare for like a female lead. And even then
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: she was like the one girl and a guy band,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: you know, unless they're the Runaways, I guess, right, which
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: is like they made a movie about him, was such
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: a big deal. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's a good point.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Chuck but for the most part, disco represented everything that
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: was a threat to the white straight establishment, and that's
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: why a lot of people think that this whole disco
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: sucks movement came about. So if you are one of
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: those people who's just like disco sucks, maybe should reevaluate
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: exactly why you think disco sucks. Is it really just
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: the music? And if it is, hey, man, like, I'm
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: sure that's the case. But if there's probably a lot
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: of people out there who think disco sucks and don't
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: even know that disco is pretty gay and maybe that's
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: why you don't like it, or disco is pretty black
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: and maybe that's why you don't like it, or maybe
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: you just hate women. Maybe maybe you should go work
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: on your relationship with your mother and then take another
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: listen to disco and see if it sounds any sweeter. Well,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: it's the whole lifestyle was It was hedonistic. Uh, You
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: had the village people as sort of the cartoonish face
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: of of the gay movement at the time, you know,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: dressing up and you know, it was it was not
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: accepted in in these rock and roll circles in the
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: Midwest and in the South, and it just was not cool.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: But even in New York or London or wherever, like
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: you got punk punk punk, people hated disco, but at
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: least they for the most part had a legitimate like
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: the stand on which was punk was intended to be
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: political and disco was not political at all, like Mark
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: Mother's Ball, said, Mother's Ball or Mother's braw Okay. He
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: he apparently went to Studio fifty four and had a
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: crazy experience on pcp UM. But he said that disco
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: was like a dumb girl with good looks and good body, uh,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: which is kind of like it's an apt description I
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: guess of disco in a way. Yeah, that makes sense.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: So this guy who wrote this book, what's it called, Uh,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: His name is Peter Shapiro. He wrote Turned the Beat
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Around colon the Secret History of Disco. Yeah, he argues,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: and he makes a pretty good point that disco was
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: the most democratic musical form ever in the history of music. Yeah,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: he said, it's the most democratic form of popular music
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: ever conceived. And it really brought about the gay culture
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: into the mainstream, even though it wasn't super accepted in
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: all circles. It was the first time it was like
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: in your face out in the open. We're dancing, and
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: here's the village people exactly who I used to draw
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: pictures up. I still have one. Yeah, I still have
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: this crayon photo, our photo crayon drawing that I did
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: of the village people. And I wore that album out,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: and I'm sure my parents were like, what's going on,
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: especially like Stone Mountain, Georgia, in like, can I just
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: like a leather daddy? For I thought the biker guy
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: was the coolest one. I was like, he's so tough.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: Look at that must dand I, oh boy, it's funny too.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: It was such an innocent time, you know, for me
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: at least, Yeah, it was. That was a good time
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: to grow up on aware because you could just love disco. Yeah,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: doing all that stuff exactly. Uh what else you got? Oh,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: I think we should we'd be remissing mentioning disco's role
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: in hip hop, like we said earlier, Um, you may
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: have noticed that that whole dejaying thing kind of crossed over.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: And if you doubt disco as a foundation for hip
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: hop and rap, uh you look, you need to look
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: no further than what three the sugar Hill Gangs rappers
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: delight all that's almost all chics good times, just go anthem.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: That's right, you were dead right, sir. Uh. And then
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: of course it's influence on, like we said, all dance
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: music to come, really electronica. It never stopped. You can't
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: stop the music, and I imagine it's going on now.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: Like there's probably some very cool underground parties that you
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: and I will never ever ever ever know exist. Yeah,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: um doing the same thing. Yeah, yeah, well Scissor Sisters
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: I mentioned them. I know there's a lot more bands,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: but they're really like ripping on that old disco thing.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Very cool. Hercules and Love Affair, that's a good one.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know them. There's Anthony and the Anthony of
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: the Johnson's Yeah, his side project. Oh really it's pretty
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: it's very discosed. Love that guy. Um boy, he does
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: such like Morow's orchestral downbeat, not like that really, it's
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: like his other in different He's got to get out
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: his happiness so he can go do the Anthony and
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: the Johnston's thing. I'm trying to imagine him happy. That'd
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: be so weird. Anyway, I'm a fan of his. I'll
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: check that out. Yeah, new disco, it's all over the place.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: It is, um, if you want to oh wait quickly,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: we should say r I P. Because we lost to
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: disco ends recently to cancer. Oh yeah, Donna Summer and
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: Robin Gibb both passed within the past like a month.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah. And who will be the third? Yeah, the
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: disco third. Well, there were four not disco, but four
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: musicians with cancer, and like the span of six weeks
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: was sad well, um, adam ya can and leave on
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: helm Oh yeah, Donna Summer and Robin Gibb bam four
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: in a row. So then who will be the other two? Yes? Jeez,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: I hope nobody. I hope not too. Yeah. Um, I
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: said we were done with disco. We are the Nights
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: on Broadway and we are done with disco. Very nice,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: which sucks. Um. I didn't like the music, yeah, like
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: dis guy of music. No, it's not, you know I was.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: I was listening to rock and roll pretty early on.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: I like it, I like, I like it all. But
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: then also I was listening to the Smith's Death of
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: a Disco Dancer, great song, um, and it makes you
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: wonder like, exactly why did that disco dancer die? That's right? Huh. Um.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: If you want to learn more about disco, you can
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: type that in surprisingly enough to the search bar how
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: stuff works and it will bring up this article. And uh,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: let's see. Since I said article, it's time for Chuck's presentation. Yeah,
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: Josh and Lieu of Listener Mail. Uh, I just got
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: back from Max fun con Um and I'm going to
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: do a little presentation called Max fun Plug because great
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: people are involved and we need to give them their day. Uh. Firstly,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: I want to thank Jesse Thorn and recognize Jesse Thorn,
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: friend of a friend of stuff. You should know, godfather,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: great guy. Uh. He has an empire out there in California. Um,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: a podcasting empire and you can podcasting and knockoff wallets. Yeah,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: he's a fashion icon. Uh, Jesse you can you can
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: go to maximum fund dot org to look up his bag.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: He used to be the sound of Young America. Now
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: his main shows called Bull's Eye to the Interview show.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: It's really great. We've been on it. Yeah, we talked
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: about Mexican wrestling on Was that on Bull's Eye? Yeah
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: it wasn't. I thought it might have been on Jordan
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: jesse Go oh Man, Okay, well, Jordan jesse Go since
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: I mentioned it is one of his other shows with
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: his partner Jordan's in there. That's a funnier one, although
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: they're all funny, but thanks to Jesse, he he has
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: this um concept that he's he's built the maximum fun
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: Empire on called New Sincerity. And it's just great. It's
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: nice people, it's it issues uh, cynicism, um and this
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: ironic crap. Oh that's cool that everyone does and it's
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: it's called new sincerity. It really says it all. Did
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: he found new sincerity? Is it like like a lightning
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: bull or a light bulb that he had? Yeah, that's cool.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: I mean you google new sincerity and it comes up
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: as Jesse Thorne's mantra. I'm going to start taking him
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: more is more sincere than I always assumed he was
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: making fun of me. No, of course not. He's a
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: very sincere guy. And his wife Teresa and little little
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: baby Simon. We're all there and they're all doing great
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: and they're wonderful people. So Riff Tracks was in the
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: house yes, formerly Mystery Science Theater three thousand. Josh's Heroes
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: Uh Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, Uh, Tom Serbo and
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: crot Robot people. They are fans of stuff you should know.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: And I flipped out email Josh and beyond that, they
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: are literally the two nicest guys I've met so far
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: in show business. You said that in the email. Yeah,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: I can vouch for that. They are the nicest dudes
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: I've ever met in show business so far. That's awesome.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: And then includes John Hodgman. Hodgeman is not gonna like that,
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: but maybe he'll step it up. And I would say
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: Hodgman will take that as a challenge. Uh. You can
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: go to Riff Tracks r I F F t R
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: a X dot com. You can buy their stuff. You
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: can buy I look out for Riff Trecks Live. They're
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: awesome and funny and we're supporting for sure. UM My Brother,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: My brother and Me. We're on their show. The McElroy brothers, Justin,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Travis and Griffin hung out with them a lot, really
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: super cool dudes. They had their uh wives and girlfriends
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: with them, and uh, they were all sweet and funny
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: and nice and great people. And they have um a
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: great podcast called My Brother, My Brother and Me. New
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: episodes out every Monday. You can find that at maximum
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: fund dot org. Travis, who was the middle bro co
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: host a show also called In Case of Emergency that's
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: very funny. Um. And then Justin and his wife Sydney
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: have a show called Satellite Dish that's about TV shows
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: and they're both really funny. It was like literally all
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: six of them were six of the funniest people I've
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: hung around. That's really cool. It's like, man, Christmas must
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: be a blast around the map didn't even give each
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: other presence. This that around and like the light one another. Uh.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: Mary Roach was there, author of Stiff, which we've plugged
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: Stiff Boink Spook Bonk Bonk Spook Spook and talking from Marsh.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah what she likes, she's yeah. I didn't meet her,
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: but I heard her lecture. Susan Orlean lectures on science,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: e authoring and cool stuff like that. So it was
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: like a workshop. Yeah, very cool. Susan Orlean was there.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: She was great. Yeah, you know her as Meryl Street. Um.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: I did not meet her, but she was. She was
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: great on stage as well. Josh Bierman who I met.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: Joshua Bierman. He's one of Hodgeman's buddies. He is a
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: writer and you can find his work in Rolling Stone,
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Wired Harper's This American Life, McSweeney's HuffPo. He's like all
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: over the place, and he is genuinely one of the
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: delightfully weirdest dudes I've ever hung out with in my life,
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: Like one of those guys just like, man, you are
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: so odd and I want to hug you. Talked to
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: you for hours. That kind of dude. Hodgeman has another
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: friend like that, David Reese, who I met. He's next
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: on you met David. Yeah, okay, he's awesome. I have
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: I have a David Reese story. Man. Well, let me
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: set up who he is first. David Rees is uh
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: and are He was formerly the cartoonist that you might
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: know from Get Your War On Great Political Cartoon and
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: during the Bush years. He is now an artisanal pencil sharpener.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: And you heard me correctly. He sharpens pencils by hand. Um.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: He goes on tour teaching this. He has a book
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: that you can buy called how to Sharpen Pencils, and
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: you can go to Artisanal Pencil Sharpening dot com. You
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: can send him your pencils. He will sharpen in my
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: hand and return the pencil and the clippings and the
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: clippings because the clippings belong to the client. And it's
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: not a joke, but it is a joke. It's funny,
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: but he's really serious about well yeah, I mean he'll
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: really sharpen your pencils and he really wrote a book
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: on it. I'm glad you met him. I didn't know
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: that he's awesome. So let's hear the story. I I, um,
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: you mean. And I went and saw his his I
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: Guess Book tour show um in Brooklyn when we were
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: there a couple of weeks ago, and uh, before the show,
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: I was talking to him and Hodgeman and we're all
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: hanging out, and um, I was like, well, break a leg.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: And I turned to walk away and he goes, you too,
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: and I turned her around and he was just glowering
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: at Really yeah he was. He was pretty cool, dude. Yeah,
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: he was funny. He he had his video on Reddit
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: the other day and uh, he was posting comments that
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: people are making like assisted serious, Like I can't tell
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: that this is a joker or not it but it's both.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: It's like funny, but he's really really serious about pencils.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: I think it's just one of those things you just
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: no need to explain it. Man, take it however you want, agreed.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: His class was one of the most popular ones there though.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: Actually pencil was it like a bring your own pencil
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: or did he provide them? He provided the pencils in
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: the equipment, but you took home everything nice. Uh So, yeah,
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: by David's book how to Sharpened Pencils, it's excellent. He
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: said that one to me yesterday. Actually by mine. Really Yeah,
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: you mean I eat spot one? Well, I told him
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: I was going to plug it. You should need to
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: work it. Roman Mars was there. Yeah, did you get
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: to meet him? Huh? I didn't what I couldn't find?
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's right. I meant to tell you. He
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: tweeted that. Like the low point was that he kept
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: missing you. Sorry I forgot to do so, Like I
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: looked around for him, and I guess we just missed
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: each other. I emailed on the other day he was sad. So.
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: Roman has a design and architecture podcast called Invisible, which
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: is great. Yeah, he did it cool and about the
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: twin towers on the rete and it was like he
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: got his hands on like a recording of the sound
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: they made, like swaying creaking. It was really cool. Well,
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: and the cool thing about that show is you don't
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: have to be into design or architecture to to think
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: it's an awesome show. Yeah, I just encourage you to
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: listen to it. Uh. And then the comedians there, Maria Bamford,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: who's a stalwart at maximon Con. She's great Maria Bamford
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: dot com. Cameron Esposito did the morning Trivia with me.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: She stepped up and co hosted UM. She uh sports
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: the side mullet, which he has coined that term like
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: all shaved on one side and hangs down on the other.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: And she is super sweet and very funny and I'm
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: really rooting for her in her career. It is the
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: real Cameron Esposito dot com, uh w comal Bell w
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: comal Bell dot com. He has an upcoming show on
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: f X this fall, his brand new TV show premiering
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: after Louis So he's like, he's set kind of crap
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: in his fans right now, but I'm very exciting time
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: for him. It was cool to meet him at the
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: stage and the name of Kamal show is totally biased
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: and um. It premieres August nine at eleven pm on
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: FX That was a huge plug chuck uh, Steve A G.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: Did you watch a Sarah Silverman show here there? He
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: was one of the neighbors, the two guys, the two
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: gay guys. He was like kind of a big slovenly dude.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: Oh you're thinking of um Steve e Ag Okay, okay,
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: but he's very funny and um like all the other
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: comedians were doing this very like not avant garde. It's
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: very interesting, sort of different style of comedy. And then
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: he gets up there and starts making like poop and
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: marijuana jokes, which is refreshing for me. You can follow
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: him on Twitter at Steve A G. And that's a
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: g E or Steve a G dot tumbler dot com.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: Chris Fairbanks performed Chris Fairbanks dot com. He was really great.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: Didn't get to meet him, but he was super funny.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: And of course John Hodgman follow John at Hodgeman, listen
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: to judge John Hodgeman. Can buy his books the areas
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: of my Expertise more information than you require, that is all.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: And what's his website? I don't know. It's it's not that,
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: it's all. It's areas of my Expertise dot com. I
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: believe Okay, and John stepped up as usual and we
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: did a fun uh pub trivia together and uh, it's
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: just a great time, you know, Hodgi Oh yeah, good,
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: good dude, He's a great dude. I'm glad you had
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: a good time, Chuck. It was fun and it was
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: it wasn't quite last year with Upright Citizen's Brigade, Andy
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: Richter Like that was huge for me just personally. This
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: probably would have been bigger for you because of h
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: MST three K. Yeah, but they sent me an email
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: and they said to say hello and that you guys
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: are great. That is really something. Yeah, that is very nice.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: So support all these people, support Jesse Thorne and his empire.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: They're all good folks doing great work. I couldn't couldn't
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: support nicer people. Yeah, the next time you see a
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: knockoff Greucci wallet being sold on the street, to purchase it,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: because the funds probably go to Jesse Thorn and to
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: provide for his family. That's right. Um, let's see, I
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: don't even know what to call for best disco song ever? Sure,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: how about best overlooked disco song ever? Because yeah, I
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: mean we've all heard by Robin Fly and all the
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: other ones that we we mentioned in this episode Nights
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: on Broadways. Mind okay, Um, you can tweet to us.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: You can well, you can tweech us s y s
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: K podcast. You can join us on Facebook at facebook
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: dot com slash stuff you should know, um, and you
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: can send us an email right right, I'll give you
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: the email address. Send a second, but Chuck, I want
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: to play us out with what I think is the
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: greatest discos song of all time. All right, what's your
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: A taste of honeyes? Fogi? Yogi yogi? So you got
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: that plan right now? You can send us an email
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: to Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com for more on
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: works dot com