Latest / DISGRACELAND / Miles Davis Pt. 2: Mountains of Pills, Bitches Brew, and the Reinvention of the Original Motherf#%*er

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Miles Davis Pt. 2: Mountains of Pills, Bitches Brew, and the Reinvention of the Original Motherf#%*er · DISGRACELAND

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Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
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Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information.
0:07
Speaker 2: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis.
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Speaker 1: Miles Davis.
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Speaker 2: His origins in Saint Louis, his assent to jazz Master,
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Speaker 2: and his turbulent relationship with drugs and women is so
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Speaker 2: complex that we needed two episodes to properly tell this story.
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Speaker 2: If you're just tuning in now, I suggest you hit
0:37
Speaker 2: pause and go back to part one of the Miles
0:39
Speaker 2: Davis story, where we discuss Miles's violent home life as
0:43
Speaker 2: a child, his journey from bopping on fifty second Street
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Speaker 2: to living behind bars and a heroin addiction so public
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Speaker 2: that it nearly extinguished his career. In this episode, we
0:54
Speaker 2: get into Miles's reinvention of himself, a second act that
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Speaker 2: features a wrecked Lamborghie, two broken legs, and a mountain
1:02
Speaker 2: of coke and pills so massive that Miles almost never
1:06
Speaker 2: made it down the other side. We also, of course,
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Speaker 2: get into the experimental music that Miles made great music,
1:13
Speaker 2: unlike that music I played for you at the top
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Speaker 2: of the show that wasn't great music. That was a
1:19
Speaker 2: preset loop from my melotron called on a daily bassist
1:23
Speaker 2: MK one, I played you that loop because I can't
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Speaker 2: afford the rights to the three Bells by the Browns.
1:31
Speaker 2: And why would I play you that specific slice of
1:34
Speaker 2: Little Jimmy Brown Cheese? Could I afford it? Because that
1:38
Speaker 2: was the number one song in America? On August twenty fifth,
1:42
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty nine. In that it was the day of Bloodied,
1:45
Speaker 2: Miles Davis left his own performance in handcuffs simply because
1:50
Speaker 2: he was black, causing Miles Davis to reassess everything on
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Speaker 2: this episode two broken legs, fermentation, mountains of coke and pills.
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Speaker 2: In the reassessment of the original motherfucker Miles Davis, I'm
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Speaker 2: Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland nineteen fifty nine, four
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Speaker 2: years from Newport, ten years from Paris, fifteen years from
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Speaker 2: Juilliard and the dizzy and creative high of Bebop's advent.
2:47
Speaker 2: Miles Davis was standing outside Birdland on forty fourth Street
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Speaker 2: smoking a cigarette. His name was on the marquis because
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Speaker 2: like Billy motherfucking Eckstein before him, Miles Davis was now
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Speaker 2: the motherfucking headline. Miles cut a cool figure on forty
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Speaker 2: fourth Street, cigarette in hand, bespoke suit made to measure
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Speaker 2: shades at night, somehow not looking like an asshole.
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Speaker 3: He was.
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Speaker 2: Miles, a true original, mostly clean and on top of
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Speaker 2: his game. It had been that way largely since Newport
3:18
Speaker 2: Columbia Records, the crown jewel of the record industry, came calling.
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Speaker 2: They wanted to sign Miles to an exclusive record deal,
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Speaker 2: but there were conditions. Number one, no more heroin. Miles
3:31
Speaker 2: kicked mostly. His passion for boxing, cultivated from an early age,
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Speaker 2: was his new source of discipline. It was hard, but
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Speaker 2: he was strong as tough.
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Speaker 1: As Heroine was.
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Speaker 2: Myles knew he was tougher. He also knew there were
3:45
Speaker 2: much tougher motherfuckers out there doing much tougher things. His friend,
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Speaker 2: the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson tough as nails. Sugar Ray
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Speaker 2: jumped up a weight class to middleway, stared down the
3:55
Speaker 2: bruiser Jake Lamada, and kicked his ass all over the
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Speaker 2: ring for thirteen rounds to take the championship off of him.
4:01
Speaker 2: Prior to that, shook Savage Jimmy Doyle, knocking him unconscious
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Speaker 2: in the eighth. Doyle never got up. He died later
4:08
Speaker 2: that night in the hospital. That kit was a motherfucker,
4:12
Speaker 2: but it didn't keep Suparat down. He was tough as nails.
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Speaker 2: Miles would be too. Condition number two, put a band
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Speaker 2: together and keep it together. No more half assed, pick
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Speaker 2: up bullshit. Colombia wanted consistency. Columbia wanted to hear what
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Speaker 2: Miles could do without having to worry if the wind
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Speaker 2: was tight at his back. Colombia wanted Miles backed up solid.
4:34
Speaker 2: Miles recruited Paul Chambers on bass, Philly Joe Jones on drums,
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Speaker 2: Red Garland on piano and on tenor saxophone, a young
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Speaker 2: dude who'd worked with Bird and Diz in the past
4:45
Speaker 2: and was hustling down in Philly at the time. Whoeveryone
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Speaker 2: called train Train was short for John Coltrane. He got around,
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Speaker 2: found it hard to stick on to one group or
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Speaker 2: get much of his own thing going, but Myles believed
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Speaker 2: in him and so his the band was complete. Condition
5:02
Speaker 2: number three Miles had to get out of his RinkyDink
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Speaker 2: Prestige record contract he'd signed back in nineteen fifty one
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Speaker 2: for allows he seven hundred and fifty dollars. Miles owed
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Speaker 2: Prestige five records for that seven hundred and fifty dollars
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Speaker 2: and couldn't go to Columbia, where the real money was
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Speaker 2: until he fulfilled his contractual obligation to Prestige. So Miles,
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Speaker 2: in his new quintet, got down to work. In less
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Speaker 2: than a handful of recording sessions, Miles led the recording
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Speaker 2: of five interconnected, long playing albums that were unmatched in
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Speaker 2: modern jazz at the time and that sound as fresh
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Speaker 2: today as they did upon their various release dates back
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Speaker 2: in the mid to late fifties. Miles cooking, relax and
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Speaker 2: working and steaming crackle with romance in intensity. Each album
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Speaker 2: is filled with jazz and pop standards, with Bebop's inimitable
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Speaker 2: approach stylizing each song. Miles's ever present romantic point of
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Speaker 2: view shines throughout, with John Coltrane leveling up to the
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Speaker 2: occasion on nearly every track. Coltrane comes alive on these albums,
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Speaker 2: as if given wings by the Master, permissioned to soar
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Speaker 2: like bird and to smolder like Miles. There wasn't a
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Speaker 2: lick of filler on any of the five Prestige albums.
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Speaker 2: Each record was part of the lead up to Miles
6:18
Speaker 2: Davis's first creative master stroke, his Columbia breakthrough Kind of Blue.
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Speaker 2: Change was necessary for this new creation. Miles wasn't about
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Speaker 2: to rely on standards for his Columbia coming out party.
6:33
Speaker 2: Miles was going to be Miles, which was to say,
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Speaker 2: he needed to bring something fresh, something cooler than before.
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Speaker 2: He tweaked his Quintete, kept Coltrane, and slid Cannonball utterly
6:44
Speaker 2: into the chair next to train on alto Sachs. Miles
6:48
Speaker 2: then replaced Red Garland with pianist Bill Evans, who Miles
6:51
Speaker 2: had worked with prior, and brought in Jimmy Cobb to
6:54
Speaker 2: replace Philly Joe Jones on drums. Paul Chambers remained on bass,
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Speaker 2: and Miles assembled for a Kind of Blue produced one
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Speaker 2: of jazz's greatest achievements, one of music's greatest achievements, one
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Speaker 2: of art's greatest achievements. Kind of Blue is as much
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Speaker 2: of a masterpiece as any music in popular culture before
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Speaker 2: or since, Like the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's or Picasso's Ganica.
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Speaker 2: There was nothing before like these works, and nothing after
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Speaker 2: these works that would ever be the same. Miles took
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Speaker 2: a new approach to composing the songs for Kind of Blue.
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Speaker 2: He employed the modal method, which meant abandoning chords and
7:32
Speaker 2: relying instead on scales, and just sketches of scales at that,
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Speaker 2: not full compositions. This forced himself and the other musicians
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Speaker 2: to be more inventive with their playing, gave them more space,
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Speaker 2: more freedom. The result was a greater emphasis on melody
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Speaker 2: and in turn, an intense inventive romance shines through on
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Speaker 2: the album, a new kind of romance to go along
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Speaker 2: with Miles has already established new kind of cool, hence
8:00
Speaker 2: kind of blue. The album was an instant smash and
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Speaker 2: to this day is one, if not the most successful
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Speaker 2: jazz album of all time. Miles was quickly elevated to
8:10
Speaker 2: mainstream success. He was now getting paid, and he reinvested
8:14
Speaker 2: in his cool more bespoke suits, fast cars, and beautiful
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Speaker 2: famous women. He had Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner coming
8:21
Speaker 2: to Birdland every night. Ava was even slipping into his
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Speaker 2: dressing room, sneaking kisses and asking him out to parties.
8:28
Speaker 2: Miles Davis was jazz music's first and only rock star.
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Speaker 2: Sophisticated cool, hip, ultra clean, black all man, and he
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Speaker 2: took no shit off, no motherfucker.
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Speaker 1: Like his music.
8:41
Speaker 2: As a man, there was no one liked Myles at
8:43
Speaker 2: the time, and in nineteen fifty nine in America, being
8:47
Speaker 2: Miles Davis, living loud and proud while black, was nothing
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Speaker 2: short of daring risky. Again, just like the music he played,
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Speaker 2: Miles wasn't averse to risk. He knew that's where the
8:58
Speaker 2: rewards were in the dirty sh shadows, but not everyone
9:02
Speaker 2: saw it that way, especially not the cops milling about
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Speaker 2: outside Birdland that night on August twenty fifth, nineteen fifty nine,
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Speaker 2: Miles was cool, leaning up against the wall outside the club,
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Speaker 2: dragging on a smoke, trying to beat the humid nighttime
9:18
Speaker 2: August air smoldering inside the venue. A friend of his,
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Speaker 2: white woman, started to come through the outdoor. Miles held
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Speaker 2: it open for her and then kept stride with her
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Speaker 2: to her waiting taxi. He opened the cab door let
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Speaker 2: her in, saw her on her way backstepped into the
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Speaker 2: curb and turned toward his post outside the club. Then
9:38
Speaker 2: there in front of him a big white uniformed cop.
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Speaker 1: Move along.
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Speaker 2: The cop didn't say it, but Miles could hear the
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Speaker 2: word N word ring out at the end of the
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Speaker 2: sentence move along.
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Speaker 1: Miles knew enough.
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Speaker 2: About phrasing in space to know that oftentimes what wasn't
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Speaker 2: said was just as important as what was said. Motherfucker
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Speaker 2: said it, even though he didn't say it. Move on
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Speaker 2: for what I'm working downstairs. That's my name up there.
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Speaker 2: Miles pointed to the Birdland Marquis. The cop didn't give
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Speaker 2: a shit.
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Speaker 1: I don't care where you were.
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Speaker 2: If you don't move along, I'm going to arrest you.
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Speaker 2: Miles just stared and the cop stared back. The tension
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Speaker 2: quickly enveloped both of them. Miles wasn't moving along anywhere.
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Speaker 1: That was clear.
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Speaker 2: The cop called it, You're under arrest and reached for
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Speaker 2: his cuffs. Miles had seen enough Sugar Ray Robinson fights
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Speaker 2: to know that distance can kill. Distance can give your
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Speaker 2: opponent the requisite space needed to drive power for their
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Speaker 2: punch to knock you the fuck out. So Miles leaned
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Speaker 2: in toward the cop while the cop fumbled for his cuffs.
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Speaker 2: The cops stumbled backwards, fell onto the sidewalk out to
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Speaker 2: the pavement, spilled his cuffs as Billy club is keys.
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Speaker 1: Now a crowd was gathering.
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Speaker 2: Audience members from inside the club, Miles's friends, fans, other folks,
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Speaker 2: white folks just walking down the street, curious at this scene,
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Speaker 2: a dapper black man standing above a uniform white cop
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Speaker 2: on the ground grappling for his cuffs, and then out
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Speaker 2: of no a second cop. The detective sprung from behind
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Speaker 2: Miles and bashed him over the head with his fist,
11:07
Speaker 2: quickly putting an end to the confrontation. Miles was arrested
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Speaker 2: and booked, incredibly for resisting arrest. Clearly he didn't resist
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Speaker 2: in the slightest He was arrested for being black and
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Speaker 2: for not immediately submitting to the bullshit demand of a
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Speaker 2: white cop.
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Speaker 1: His head gushed blood, his khaki suit took most of him.
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Speaker 2: The newspapers were on the scene at the fifty fourth
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Speaker 2: precinct for Miles's discharge. The photo was brutal. A bloody
11:33
Speaker 2: black man leaving the station in the arms of his
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Speaker 2: beautiful girlfriend, A clear victim of some kind of brutality
11:39
Speaker 2: unclear in that moment, but later confirmed by the court's
11:42
Speaker 2: dismissal of his quote unquote resisting arrest charge that it
11:46
Speaker 2: was police brutality. While on trial, Miles lost his cabaret licensing,
11:51
Speaker 2: couldn't perform. It was a brutal lesson. Didn't matter how
11:54
Speaker 2: tight you got your shit. Didn't matter how much shine
11:57
Speaker 2: was on your name. This was America nineteen to some,
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Speaker 2: you were still just that black boy, country as fuck,
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Speaker 2: zero sophistication, lesser than him the other. It was enough
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Speaker 2: to make a man's blood boil with rage. It was
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Speaker 2: enough to make Miles.
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Speaker 1: Davis reassess everything.
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Speaker 2: Young Miles Davis was back in the woods in East
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Speaker 2: Saint Louis, thirteen years old, listening to birds, hearing their call,
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Speaker 2: providing his response in the horn.
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Speaker 1: His father bottom. It was a distraction.
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Speaker 2: He was far enough away he couldn't hear his father's
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Speaker 2: erupting temper, his mother screams, from the pain, from the horror,
13:00
Speaker 2: from the abuse. These memories never went away. They were formative,
13:04
Speaker 2: and as such, always there lying in wait, like a
13:07
Speaker 2: snake trauma, just under the surface, skin deep, peering out
13:11
Speaker 2: through his current drug Hayes. Years later, nineteen sixty five,
13:16
Speaker 2: two hip surgeries, one bad, the other the fix. Both
13:20
Speaker 2: hurt like a motherfucker. Miles was laid up, bedridden, booze
13:27
Speaker 2: pills cocaine to dull the pain. His wife, world renowned
13:30
Speaker 2: dancer Francis Taylor, had retired to Miles's kitchen from the
13:34
Speaker 2: stage prior to the operation on his insistence was where
13:38
Speaker 2: she belonged.
13:39
Speaker 1: He said, fuck her career.
13:41
Speaker 2: He said he was a musician after all, he said,
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Speaker 2: leggy Ballerinas didn't compare. He needed the support. His creativity
13:48
Speaker 2: drained him. It knew no bounds. After Kind of Blue,
13:52
Speaker 2: Miles followed up as Columbia breakthrough with another groundbreaking long player,
13:56
Speaker 2: Sketches of Spain.
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Speaker 1: At the top of his game in sixty.
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Speaker 2: Five, but stretched out on a mattress, dependent on the
14:02
Speaker 2: debilitating cocktail of coke and pills to fight the pain,
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Speaker 2: Miles Davis was depressed when he did manage to make
14:09
Speaker 2: it out. He was paranoid, jealous. Quincy Jones was a friend,
14:14
Speaker 2: but slippery as he was slick out in the clubs.
14:17
Speaker 2: Francis paid q too much attention. Handsome motherfucker like Quincy
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Speaker 2: Jones is liable to smile at you coming in through
14:23
Speaker 2: the front door and escort your wife out the back,
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Speaker 2: So went Miles as thinking, anyway, Francis is too Why
14:31
Speaker 2: else would you tell Miles Quincy was handsome? That didn't
14:35
Speaker 2: Miles whacked Frances around. Francis could tolerate a lot, and
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Speaker 2: leaving behind her successful career to support the genius of
14:42
Speaker 2: a man she loved. Sure, but take the back of
14:45
Speaker 2: his hand even once. Fuck that Francis took those long
14:49
Speaker 2: legs and walked train walked too, took a giant step
14:55
Speaker 2: toward his own mythmaking left Miles's group. Miles picked himself up,
15:00
Speaker 2: put together another quintete, Herbie Hancock on piano, Weighing Shorter
15:04
Speaker 2: on sacks, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums.
15:08
Speaker 2: Motherfuckers All sixty five turned to sixty six and in
15:12
Speaker 2: sixty seven, the summer of love, speed of the decade
15:14
Speaker 2: in Ti died technicolors. Straight past sixty eight and into
15:18
Speaker 2: sixty nine. Miles looked up from his bandstand and it
15:21
Speaker 2: was as if the entire world had changed in the
15:24
Speaker 2: quick flutter of notes ringing from his last run. What
15:28
Speaker 2: the fuck was this? White kids were on some other trip.
15:33
Speaker 2: Long ass hair ass for days, fucking in the mud,
15:36
Speaker 2: fucking in the streets into his music, not directly, but
15:40
Speaker 2: all this NEWTLEI rock improv nonsense was pulled direct from
15:43
Speaker 2: his toolkit, and it was filling stadiums at a time
15:46
Speaker 2: when Miles was having a hard time filling clubs. Rock
15:50
Speaker 2: was in the scent, jazz was going the other way.
15:53
Speaker 2: As a result, Miles wasn't making the bread he needed when,
15:56
Speaker 2: in contrast, rock artists on Columbia, Blood, Sweat and Tear
16:00
Speaker 2: in Chicago were getting paid. Miles storm president of Columbia
16:04
Speaker 2: Records Clive Davis's office and demanded money, A fuck ton
16:08
Speaker 2: of it.
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Speaker 1: Where the fuck is my money? Motherfucker? You and your
16:11
Speaker 1: so called artists so ripping my shit off.
16:14
Speaker 2: Miles demanded to be released from his contract. Clive Davis
16:17
Speaker 2: wouldn't have it. Clive offered instead to get Miles dates
16:20
Speaker 2: on the club circuit, performing with rock bands and four
16:24
Speaker 2: rock fans.
16:25
Speaker 1: Miles took it as the best solution he was going
16:27
Speaker 1: to get and went at it head first. Sly Stone
16:30
Speaker 1: knew where it was at.
16:31
Speaker 2: He and his band could play, and audiences rewarded them
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Speaker 2: for it, showing up in droves.
16:37
Speaker 1: Sly got paid, so too, then did Miles.
16:42
Speaker 2: He went at the rock audience full board, switched up,
16:45
Speaker 2: changed up his band, electric bass, electric guitar, four percussion players,
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Speaker 2: two bassis, multiple keyboard players, all dueling with each other simultaneously.
16:54
Speaker 2: They had permission to play whatever they heard, permission to
16:57
Speaker 2: delve into a new kind of improv None of that
16:59
Speaker 2: quote unquote pre arranged shit Miles's new band. Creatively, it
17:03
Speaker 2: was a far cry from his early to mid sixties efforts.
17:06
Speaker 2: This wasn't just jazz or even pop. This was something
17:10
Speaker 2: entirely new. Miles got it all down on record bitchesbur
17:14
Speaker 2: a spellbinding, free fall and head spinning melting pot of
17:17
Speaker 2: an album.
17:18
Speaker 1: Kids loved it.
17:20
Speaker 2: Even jazz heads came around to love it like kind
17:23
Speaker 2: of blue. Bitchesburu bridged Miles to jazz musician, to a
17:26
Speaker 2: much broader audience, and sold like crazy. The album was wild.
17:32
Speaker 2: Miles's new fashion reflected the new, wild, electrified improvisational music
17:36
Speaker 2: he was making. Inspired by his new girlfriend, musician Betty Maybray,
17:40
Speaker 2: Miles traded bespoke suits for fringe jackets and flamboyant handkerchiefs,
17:44
Speaker 2: and in his album cover artwork he traded in the
17:47
Speaker 2: sentimental for the psychedelic. Nineteen seventy two, Miles Davis was
17:52
Speaker 2: now a full fledged rock star. Rock Stars didn't take
17:56
Speaker 2: the a train. Rock Stars drove fast. Sports car Ferraris
18:01
Speaker 2: Lamborghini's Miles Davis wound his Lambeau north on Manhattan's West
18:06
Speaker 2: Side Highway Midtown to Harlem, racing toward and resenting every
18:10
Speaker 2: red light in the process.
18:12
Speaker 1: Speed, motherfucker speed.
18:14
Speaker 2: Miles drove like Charlie Parker, played fast like lightning. Didn't
18:19
Speaker 2: matter if he was straight, didn't matter if he was high,
18:21
Speaker 2: which he most certainly was now Screaming up the three
18:24
Speaker 2: way between lights. The Lambeau moved so damn quick he'd
18:27
Speaker 2: get at the sixty in an instant and then have
18:29
Speaker 2: to stop the next red light. The further north he'd got,
18:32
Speaker 2: the fewer the lights, and the more he could open
18:34
Speaker 2: it up. The sleeping pill he took earlier, it just
18:37
Speaker 2: kicked in above fifteen minutes too early, fifteen minutes before
18:41
Speaker 2: he was to arrive at his destination a Harlem after hours.
18:45
Speaker 1: Miles thought about reaching.
18:46
Speaker 2: Into one of the bags of cocaine on the passenger
18:48
Speaker 2: seat next to him and fingering out a bump.
18:50
Speaker 1: To keep his head right. Mother fucker.
18:52
Speaker 2: The exit one hundred and twenty fifth Street from the
18:54
Speaker 2: left lane, Myles caught hard right across the three lanes
18:57
Speaker 2: of traffic at sixty miles per hour. Myles and his
19:00
Speaker 2: lime green Lamborghini hit the stone wall in the off
19:02
Speaker 2: ramp with maximum forks. The tiny sports car buckled, so
19:07
Speaker 2: too did both of Myles's legs broke in an instant.
19:10
Speaker 2: His bones compound fractured through the leather of his tight pants,
19:14
Speaker 2: and the cocaine in the passenger seat balloon burst confectionery
19:17
Speaker 2: plumes all over the interior. Miles was covered in white dust,
19:21
Speaker 2: high as a motherfucker, but grounded in place. He wasn't
19:25
Speaker 2: going anywhere at the moment. He was in bad shape.
19:28
Speaker 2: A white dude in another fast car rolled up on him,
19:31
Speaker 2: quick to help. He instantly recognized Myles. He saw the
19:34
Speaker 2: bags of cocaine on the seat, grabbed them and stuffed
19:37
Speaker 2: them in the nearest sewer. Then he started scooping up
19:39
Speaker 2: rain water out of the puddles and wiping down the
19:41
Speaker 2: interior of Myles's cocaine dusted car. Miles sat in agony,
19:46
Speaker 2: two broken stems, and the police made the scene in
19:48
Speaker 2: an instant. Just after the white dude completed his good
19:51
Speaker 2: Samaritan drug cover up. He sat by looking dumb. The
19:54
Speaker 2: cops told him to scram he did. Myles was taken
19:57
Speaker 2: to the hospital and of course give him more painkiller.
20:00
Speaker 2: It would be a long time before we'd recover from
20:03
Speaker 2: his injuries in a long time before Miles Davis would
20:06
Speaker 2: take the stage or even think of making music again.
20:13
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this.
20:15
Speaker 2: We're, We're, We're. The coke kept you up, even if
20:23
Speaker 2: you had nowhere to go besides to the coke dealer.
20:26
Speaker 2: The painkillers knocked the coke back and eventually knocked you out,
20:29
Speaker 2: put you down, and then in sleep the coke would
20:32
Speaker 2: come back full force, rouse your subconscious, give your dreams,
20:37
Speaker 2: big Hollywood blockbuster, budget sized impact with Fellini like twists.
20:42
Speaker 2: And the car was always stuck, fine machine like that.
20:46
Speaker 2: Not going anywhere was a motherfucking shame. Not up the
20:49
Speaker 2: West Side Highway, not south toward Philly, not over the
20:52
Speaker 2: GW New Jersey, nowhere, dead on the side of the road,
20:58
Speaker 2: Clive Davis's head scurrying at on Ava Gardner's body, stashing
21:02
Speaker 2: your coke, offering you blowjobs, but not trying as hard
21:05
Speaker 2: as he she would if your dick was white. The
21:08
Speaker 2: Lambeau wrecked on the side of the highway, then the
21:11
Speaker 2: Ferrari years earlier, down on Fifth Avenue. This shit was real,
21:15
Speaker 2: This shit happened, This shit haunted you. Motherfucking white cop
21:19
Speaker 2: couldn't cope with your black ass winding through his city
21:21
Speaker 2: in a car that cost about four times his annual salary.
21:24
Speaker 2: So he fucked with you just because he could not
21:27
Speaker 2: because you were a vicious drug feed not because you
21:29
Speaker 2: were a vicious jazz man, because you were black. There
21:33
Speaker 2: was no end to the rage that shit filled you with.
21:36
Speaker 2: It consumed you like Ava Gardner, consumed men like Clive Davis,
21:40
Speaker 2: consumed bagels with locks and ice cream for dessert. Fuck
21:43
Speaker 2: Columbia Records, racist motherfuckers that they were. You told the press,
21:47
Speaker 2: so yourself told him. They didn't promote black artists the
21:49
Speaker 2: same as they did white artists. The proof was in
21:52
Speaker 2: how they fucked up. You're on the Corner record. That
21:54
Speaker 2: shit was crazier than your coke dream, But they tried
21:56
Speaker 2: selling it to straight jazz heads when they should have
21:58
Speaker 2: been leaning into the white rock audience. But they had
22:01
Speaker 2: Herbie's New Headhunters record for that. Imagine that your side
22:05
Speaker 2: fucking man making more noise and more money than you.
22:08
Speaker 2: That shit burned Columbia Records. I guess you only get
22:11
Speaker 2: muscle for one black motherfucker at a time. On the
22:14
Speaker 2: Corner didn't make it to the fucking corner or anywhere else.
22:16
Speaker 1: For that matter. That record bombed. Fuck first on the corner.
22:20
Speaker 2: Never get out of park, just like you down on
22:23
Speaker 2: fifth and your ferrari stuck standing in a no standing
22:26
Speaker 2: zone license and registration. Fuck is this in the glove
22:32
Speaker 2: box next to the registration?
22:34
Speaker 1: Brass knuckles?
22:35
Speaker 2: Motherfuck cuffed booked back in the Hoo's cow bullshit In
22:43
Speaker 2: and out of jail turnstile style. What was jail anyway?
22:48
Speaker 2: It wasn't just thirty two bars lined up to hem
22:51
Speaker 2: you in. It was modal, a fucking concept. Society was jail.
22:56
Speaker 2: Columbia was jail. Music was jail. It was up to
22:58
Speaker 2: you to change your state of being, to transcend what
23:01
Speaker 2: rained you in socially, professionally, creatively. Right now, there was
23:06
Speaker 2: no change.
23:06
Speaker 1: Right now. Was all jail.
23:09
Speaker 2: Right now, your desolate townhouse on West seventy seventh Street
23:12
Speaker 2: was jailed. You didn't play, you didn't write, you didn't leave,
23:15
Speaker 2: you used. It was a years long hiatus. It was
23:18
Speaker 2: just coke, booze, pills and whores. You didn't run them.
23:21
Speaker 2: They ran you ran you down like that voodoo, for
23:24
Speaker 2: your money, for your fame, for their own benefit. EVA
23:27
Speaker 2: couldn't finish you off in your dream. You awoke unsatisfied, looking.
23:31
Speaker 1: To score.
23:33
Speaker 2: Back of the West Side Highway, your white manager in
23:36
Speaker 2: the back of the Chaufford car with you next to
23:38
Speaker 2: your date. He wanted a fucker. Everyone wanted a fucker
23:42
Speaker 2: except you. You wanted to get high. Sex was like
23:45
Speaker 2: music these days, a non fucking starter. You left them
23:49
Speaker 2: alone in a limo. You climbed the tenement stairs. You
23:52
Speaker 2: gave the man you cash, took his drugs, now your drugs.
23:55
Speaker 2: Hop back in the limo, accused.
23:57
Speaker 1: Your white manager of wanted to fuck your black girlfriend.
23:59
Speaker 1: Were wrong, You didn't care.
24:01
Speaker 2: You got ripped, You crashed, You dreamed, woke scored, ripped,
24:04
Speaker 2: crash dreamed, woke, scored, ripped, crash dreamed. You woke up
24:08
Speaker 2: almost six years later, and it was nineteen fucking eighty
24:11
Speaker 2: and you were still Miles mother fucking Davis. Thank God,
24:14
Speaker 2: or more to the point, thanks Cicily Tyson. Cicily Tyson
24:21
Speaker 2: was the real miracle worker. The Oscar nominated actress had
24:25
Speaker 2: been reappearing in Miles Davis's life since the mid sixties,
24:29
Speaker 2: first on his TV screen for East Side West Side,
24:32
Speaker 2: then in real life on the Upper West Side, where
24:35
Speaker 2: they fell in love well before their marriage in nineteen
24:38
Speaker 2: eighty one. She got him to quit smoking cigarettes and
24:41
Speaker 2: drinking hard liquor for a few years. Anyway, now she
24:45
Speaker 2: nursed him back to life on a diet full of
24:47
Speaker 2: fresh juices and vegetables, squared away in their own private
24:51
Speaker 2: piece of Malibu. But most importantly, she fed them the
24:55
Speaker 2: confidence to return to music, a reason to move forward,
24:59
Speaker 2: a reason to show the motherfucker's they still had a
25:01
Speaker 2: lot to learn. Miles kicked. Then he put a band together,
25:07
Speaker 2: a new electric band, and went and saw his old
25:09
Speaker 2: friend in concert promoter, George Ween. He played George the tapes.
25:13
Speaker 2: George wrote out a check for thirty five large for
25:16
Speaker 2: two concerts, thirty five more. After the gigs were through,
25:20
Speaker 2: Miles channeled Sugar Ray Robinson, swung that sweet science trained
25:24
Speaker 2: put in work, got his bag back together, and tore
25:27
Speaker 2: the motherfucking stage up, and the audience loved him, and
25:31
Speaker 2: the audience wanted more more. Miles Miles for days, Miles
25:36
Speaker 2: stretched out as far as the eye could see, Miles
25:39
Speaker 2: for miles and Miles, and Miles. Miles took to his
25:42
Speaker 2: new claim fame with a fury He embraced modern music,
25:46
Speaker 2: that electric eighties feel since pre recorded tracks.
25:50
Speaker 1: None of it scared Miles.
25:52
Speaker 2: He was all about that change as always, like he
25:55
Speaker 2: was with Birth of the Cool, like he was with
25:57
Speaker 2: Kind of Blue, like he was with Bitch's Brew. If
26:00
Speaker 2: anyone wants to keep creating, they have to be about
26:02
Speaker 2: to change.
26:04
Speaker 1: The same hell true.
26:05
Speaker 2: Now Miles wasn't about no safe, tired yesterday bullshit for
26:09
Speaker 2: a constantly searching jazz man, steeped in improvisation, and then
26:13
Speaker 2: the avant garde. Pop music wasn't safe. Pop was the opposite.
26:18
Speaker 2: Pop was risk, and now Miles was pop. Miles was everywhere.
26:22
Speaker 2: Miles hit the talk show circuit, letterman Ursineo. Miles was
26:26
Speaker 2: on Miami Vice with Don mother fucking Johnson and that
26:28
Speaker 2: other dude. Miles ate up the eighties like a man
26:31
Speaker 2: making up for lost time. Miles was embraced mainstreamed. Miles
26:35
Speaker 2: was a new man, a living legend, an icon. Miles
26:39
Speaker 2: was stuck on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway
26:42
Speaker 2: in his Ferrari with a white motherfucking cop in his
26:45
Speaker 2: face because something's never change. The California's son beat down
27:09
Speaker 2: on Miles Davis in his sports car. The cop wanted
27:12
Speaker 2: to know of Myles had seen him in his rear view.
27:15
Speaker 2: Hell no, Miles told him, I wasn't looking behind me
27:18
Speaker 2: watching you. You're watching me. Miles's new girl was asleep
27:23
Speaker 2: in the passenger. See Miles was clean. Cop wanted to
27:26
Speaker 2: know if he was drunk. Hello, motherfucker.
27:29
Speaker 1: The ship was old.
27:30
Speaker 2: Every single time it happened, it further cinged Miles. He
27:34
Speaker 2: carried the ship, the anger, the rage. He used it,
27:38
Speaker 2: channeled it into his music, even the pop stuff. That's
27:41
Speaker 2: what the album You're Under Arrest was about. Clearly, the
27:44
Speaker 2: numerous injustices were fuel. They were for him, just like
27:47
Speaker 2: they were for his old friend, Sugar Ray Robinson. Sugar
27:51
Speaker 2: Ray was a pure fighter, one of the best. It
27:53
Speaker 2: was long gone, and Miles was on his.
27:56
Speaker 1: Way out too. He knew it.
27:58
Speaker 2: He was tired, a long for this world. It was
28:04
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety one. Miles was sick a stroke, pneumonia and
28:09
Speaker 2: respiratory failure. He was in bed in the hospital. Change
28:13
Speaker 2: was coming now, motherfucker, and not in a good way.
28:17
Speaker 2: Miles accepted it. Turns out change was not only in necessity,
28:21
Speaker 2: it was also inevitable. He lay back his woman at
28:24
Speaker 2: his side in the bed. Fucked those doctors, fucked the
28:27
Speaker 2: way things were done. His girl could stay. He was
28:30
Speaker 2: the one going someplace. He closed his eyes, he could
28:36
Speaker 2: hear the crowd, and they roared. Sugar Ray danced in
28:39
Speaker 2: the ring. Myles sparred with him, friendly but fierce. Ray
28:44
Speaker 2: bounced in between the ropes. Came his detractors, one final fight,
28:48
Speaker 2: one after another. First, his father, a big motherfucking swang,
28:54
Speaker 2: the one he kept.
28:55
Speaker 1: Coiled for Miles's mama. Miles leaned back.
28:57
Speaker 2: He knew at a lean, did it on stage all
29:00
Speaker 2: the time, perfected that trumpet player lean that he perfected
29:03
Speaker 2: that junkie lean. His old man's haymaker didn't stand a chance.
29:07
Speaker 2: Swung himself out of the ring. In his place, the
29:09
Speaker 2: Bird sang out, and then Bird himself. His punches were different, verbal,
29:14
Speaker 2: big brother, abusive type shit. Bird had no control over
29:18
Speaker 2: his mouth, over his appetite. Miles blasted back with his horn.
29:22
Speaker 2: Bird ran rings around his journeyman, jive master that he was,
29:25
Speaker 2: but Miles was strong.
29:27
Speaker 1: Bird was flying south on his way out.
29:29
Speaker 2: Next came the critics, fucking morons, every last one. Miles
29:33
Speaker 2: made quick work of the dance jab shut jive, toyed
29:36
Speaker 2: with them and then knocked them the fuck out. Then
29:39
Speaker 2: came the horse, big, strong, a beast that corralled him.
29:43
Speaker 2: It knocked him down standing eight count down, but not out.
29:46
Speaker 2: Miles was strong too. He heard Sugar Ray's voice. It
29:49
Speaker 2: propelled him. He overcame, ran that horse out of his
29:52
Speaker 2: ring for good, and then became Captain Cocaine aka La
29:57
Speaker 2: Cocoroca aka Boom Boom.
29:58
Speaker 1: Bumci flashy fast.
30:00
Speaker 2: He tired Miles out in the three endless rounds, but
30:02
Speaker 2: Miles kept pace, reserving a little extra energy for later
30:05
Speaker 2: when he knew the Captain would let his guard down,
30:07
Speaker 2: and when he did, Miles would punish him. When he
30:11
Speaker 2: knocked out Captain Cocaine, they carried him out of the
30:14
Speaker 2: ring of the stretcher Jimmy Doyle style.
30:16
Speaker 1: Sugar Ray cringed, Miles shrugged, fucker had it coming.
30:21
Speaker 2: Then came the cops, one after another over the rope.
30:25
Speaker 2: They all wanted a piece. They surrounded Miles. Miles swung this.
30:29
Speaker 1: Way, then that, he pulled from deep down.
30:31
Speaker 3: With every punch he summoned all that rage and all
30:34
Speaker 3: that pain, all the hate they made him try to
30:36
Speaker 3: swallow and pummel them one after another. Down, Down, Down, Down,
30:44
Speaker 3: Miles Davis saw himself emerge victorious. He exited the auditorium
30:48
Speaker 3: through the wild applause of the crowd.
30:50
Speaker 1: He didn't give a fuck. Applause was cheap like dancers.
30:54
Speaker 1: There then gone.
30:58
Speaker 2: That cool air hit his sweats, silk skin. He hopped
31:01
Speaker 2: into his new Lamborghini the when he ordered special with
31:05
Speaker 2: his final drive, the one with the ragtop. He peeled
31:09
Speaker 2: out on that lamp helped the Pacific Coast Highway topped down.
31:13
Speaker 2: He raised his fist defiantly to the sky and extended
31:17
Speaker 2: his bony middle finger high into the air. Later, motherfuckers,
31:24
Speaker 2: Miles Davis was gone dead on September twenty eighth, nineteen
31:30
Speaker 2: ninety one, and forever changed.
31:34
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan in this his Disgraceland.
31:50
Speaker 2: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
31:53
Speaker 2: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
31:56
Speaker 2: found on the show notes page at disgracelamdpod dot com.
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Speaker 1: Rock a roller, He's a man,