Latest / DISGRACELAND / Bonus: Real “Emo” Notes from the Punk Rock Museum, DIY Recording, and More Bobby Fuller
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Hey Discos, need a little more Disgraceland in your life?
- 0:05Speaker 1: Just a touch to get you through? Yeah, me too.
- 0:08Speaker 1: This is the podcast that comes after the podcast. Welcome
- 0:12Speaker 1: to Disgraceland, the after party. Welcome to the Disgraceland bonus episode,
- 0:30Speaker 1: a little thing we like to call the after party.
- 0:33Speaker 1: This is the show after the show, the party after
- 0:35Speaker 1: the party, the bridge to get you from one full
- 0:36Speaker 1: episode of Disgraceland to the other, the backyard to dig
- 0:39Speaker 1: into the dirt. Our mission to uncover the truth, to
- 0:42Speaker 1: confront the myth, to reclaim the story. On this bonus episode,
- 0:45Speaker 1: I give you my thoughts on my visit to the
- 0:48Speaker 1: Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas, some home recording recommendations,
- 0:53Speaker 1: your takes on Bobby Fuller's death with your emails, comments, DMs, Voicemails, texts,
- 1:00Speaker 1: and as always, a whole lot of Rosie. This is
- 1:02Speaker 1: the podcast for the musically obsessed, the outsiders, the independent
- 1:05Speaker 1: thinkers who know that the best history is the history
- 1:07Speaker 1: that gets buried. Disgraceland is where I tell the stories
- 1:10Speaker 1: you'll end up telling someone else. All right, discos, let's
- 1:14Speaker 1: get into it. So no one ever called Bobby Fuller
- 1:25Speaker 1: punk rock because he existed forever. before punk rock, though
- 1:28Speaker 1: one of the greatest punk rock bands of all time
- 1:30Speaker 1: further popularized his song, I Fought the Law. I'm talking
- 1:33Speaker 1: about The Clash, of course. Bobby Fuller was not punk. Again,
- 1:37Speaker 1: he was from the early to mid-1960s, but he was
- 1:40Speaker 1: very punk rock in the way that he created his music.
- 1:44Speaker 1: He was one of the first DIY artists at a
- 1:46Speaker 1: time when that wasn't a thing at all. He created
- 1:49Speaker 1: a real home studio in his parents' modest suburban home,
- 1:53Speaker 1: so a lot of punk rock exists in Bobby Fuller.
- 1:57Speaker 1: And I was thinking of Bobby Fuller this past weekend
- 2:00Speaker 1: when I visited the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas.
- 2:04Speaker 1: When I was there, I had an experience that I
- 2:06Speaker 1: didn't think I would have. I became strangely emotional, like
- 2:11Speaker 1: legit trying not to cry emotional from being there. Laura
- 2:15Speaker 1: Jane Grace from Against Me was our tour guide and
- 2:18Speaker 1: she was fantastic. She said this thing that really crystallized
- 2:23Speaker 1: the feeling I was having while on that tour. She
- 2:26Speaker 1: said that Punk rock is about broken people, broken kids
- 2:31Speaker 1: coming together and being put back together again by punk rock.
- 2:35Speaker 1: It's so true. It really stuck with me. It doesn't
- 2:38Speaker 1: matter if we're talking about punk rock kids from the
- 2:42Speaker 1: New York scene, the LA scene, the Boston hardcore scene,
- 2:45Speaker 1: the Bay Area, whatever. We were all misfits. And most
- 2:50Speaker 1: of us were latchkey kids. It didn't matter where we
- 2:53Speaker 1: came from, our race, our sexuality, our gender, how much
- 2:56Speaker 1: money our parents did or didn't have. When we went
- 3:00Speaker 1: to those all ages shows, we were finally part of
- 3:04Speaker 1: a community. We finally identified as something other than the
- 3:08Speaker 1: fuck ups that we were told that we were. Now,
- 3:11Speaker 1: sensing that feeling, that crystallization of that idea, I always
- 3:16Speaker 1: knew this, obviously, but a lot of that has become
- 3:20Speaker 1: lost in the last 20 or 30 years of punk
- 3:22Speaker 1: rock as we've gotten older. And some of us, myself included,
- 3:25Speaker 1: have become more cynical when we think about what punk
- 3:28Speaker 1: rock has become. It's obviously a massive business, this huge thing,
- 3:32Speaker 1: but you're so reminded of that foundational spark that punk
- 3:39Speaker 1: rock gave you When you're inside the Punk Rock Museum
- 3:42Speaker 1: in Las Vegas because of all the ephemera and the
- 3:45Speaker 1: tactile nature of all the ephemera that's surrounding you. When
- 3:49Speaker 1: you're looking at Johnny Thunders' guitar, you're looking at homemade
- 3:53Speaker 1: flyers by Raymond Pettibone for Black Flag. You're looking at
- 3:57Speaker 1: these amazing zines, Suburban Voice from Massachusetts, What's Up Al Quint,
- 4:01Speaker 1: Maximum Rock and Roll from the Bay Area. all these flyers,
- 4:05Speaker 1: all this, you know, Joe Strummer's last bag of grass
- 4:09Speaker 1: is there in a case. You're literally looking at Mike
- 4:12Speaker 1: Ness's living room, the artifacts from his living room. You're
- 4:16Speaker 1: looking at the sofa, the studio sofa anyways, that Kurt
- 4:19Speaker 1: Cobain nodded out on. And all of that, it gives
- 4:24Speaker 1: you this feeling, you really feel what it felt like
- 4:27Speaker 1: to be in those rooms back then and to have
- 4:30Speaker 1: those experiences. And I'm not trying to suggest that This
- 4:34Speaker 1: is only for people who hung out with Kurt Cobain
- 4:36Speaker 1: in the studio or Mike Ness in Social Distortion in
- 4:39Speaker 1: Mike's living room. If you're into punk rock, if you're
- 4:43Speaker 1: into DIY music, if you're putting things together in the
- 4:47Speaker 1: same way that these other scene kids were, then you
- 4:51Speaker 1: were using the same materials. You were sitting on the
- 4:55Speaker 1: same furniture. Your living room felt like Mike Ness's living room.
- 4:58Speaker 1: Your garage space that you practiced in felt like the space,
- 5:03Speaker 1: I think it's the no effects space, their garage or
- 5:06Speaker 1: the Pennywise garage that they recreate in the Punk Rock Museum.
- 5:11Speaker 1: You know, you feel it is my point. All the
- 5:16Speaker 1: tactile nature of everything on display, it connected me back
- 5:21Speaker 1: to that emotion in a very real way. It was
- 5:25Speaker 1: an insane emotional feeling that I had. And it wasn't nostalgia.
- 5:28Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it kind of was on some
- 5:30Speaker 1: level nostalgia, but more than that, it was gratitude This
- 5:34Speaker 1: feeling of, I feel so lucky to have found this
- 5:38Speaker 1: scene and the people in my life who were part
- 5:40Speaker 1: of that scene then, who taught me at a young
- 5:44Speaker 1: age during those very formative years, taught me how to
- 5:47Speaker 1: look at the world differently in a way that allowed
- 5:50Speaker 1: me to value myself and who I was and the
- 5:52Speaker 1: music that I loved, which people told me was shit.
- 5:56Speaker 1: and that it was crap, and that it wasn't mainstream
- 5:59Speaker 1: or whatever, that fucking dumb, tired bullshit argument that we
- 6:02Speaker 1: all laugh at now. It doesn't apply anymore. But back then,
- 6:05Speaker 1: it did matter. I felt grateful because all of that
- 6:09Speaker 1: led me to where I am now. I had this
- 6:12Speaker 1: other thought too. The museum and the tour are set
- 6:16Speaker 1: up so that you start at the beginning of punk
- 6:19Speaker 1: rock with the New York Dolls and with Iggy Pop,
- 6:22Speaker 1: sort of pre-punk music. And then you're quickly a couple
- 6:26Speaker 1: years further down the line in the 70s with the
- 6:29Speaker 1: Ramones and Blondie and Talking Heads. And then you're in
- 6:33Speaker 1: Europe with the Sex Pistols and The Clash. Then you're
- 6:36Speaker 1: in LA with Black Flag. And then New York hardcore,
- 6:39Speaker 1: Boston hardcore, the Bay Area, all that stuff. You go
- 6:42Speaker 1: through the whole thing chronologically. And you're traveling all over
- 6:47Speaker 1: the world as punk rock traveled. And I had this feeling, again,
- 6:52Speaker 1: out of gratitude. Like, not to be name droppy or anything,
- 6:56Speaker 1: but I had real experiences with so many of these
- 7:01Speaker 1: artists that helped form me. And I never really think
- 7:03Speaker 1: about them because these artists are giants to me. I've
- 7:07Speaker 1: met and had real experiences with so many of them.
- 7:10Speaker 1: I'm so lucky. I mean, I shared a laugh with
- 7:13Speaker 1: David Johansson backstage at, I think it was a Patti
- 7:15Speaker 1: Smith show. I like talked myself on, not talked, I
- 7:19Speaker 1: just bum rushed the stage at a Patti Smith show
- 7:23Speaker 1: at Carnegie Hall and was singing backup vocals. I met
- 7:26Speaker 1: the Ramones for God's sake when I was 10 years old.
- 7:29Speaker 1: And a couple of them later on when I was
- 7:31Speaker 1: an adult, I once went for a walk with Debbie
- 7:33Speaker 1: Harry through lower Manhattan. I recorded with John Doe from X.
- 7:37Speaker 1: I toured with John Doe. I literally once went to
- 7:40Speaker 1: a bar to meet John Lydon, Johnny Rotten, and have
- 7:42Speaker 1: a drink with him. You know, I never really think
- 7:47Speaker 1: of these things unless I'm talking to my kids, you know, and,
- 7:50Speaker 1: you know, I talk about how I played with Blink-182
- 7:52Speaker 1: once or whatever, you know, these are just things that
- 7:54Speaker 1: happened in my life and I'm very grateful for them.
- 7:58Speaker 1: I really am. I truly am. And I don't think
- 8:00Speaker 1: of them enough with enough gratitude because these experiences helped
- 8:05Speaker 1: form me just as all the other experiences before I
- 8:09Speaker 1: kind of was even in a band. And I was just,
- 8:11Speaker 1: I was just a fan. And when I was putting
- 8:14Speaker 1: my own zine together, when I was going to matinees
- 8:16Speaker 1: and just walking through that museum, it's just, it's just damn,
- 8:21Speaker 1: you know, I just felt blessed. And so many of
- 8:25Speaker 1: us are, and my experiences are not that unique. I'm
- 8:29Speaker 1: not trying to be name droppy again or present them as,
- 8:32Speaker 1: as such, you know, I'm just struck by how important
- 8:35Speaker 1: this culture is. this music is to me, this scene,
- 8:38Speaker 1: this community. I always knew that, obviously, but it just
- 8:42Speaker 1: really hit me over the head when I was there.
- 8:44Speaker 1: And I mean it. I was trying not to cry.
- 8:47Speaker 1: Laura Jane Grace was just fucking incredible. She nailed the
- 8:51Speaker 1: tour and then she played at the end of this thing.
- 8:54Speaker 1: And I mean, it was heavy. I did not expect that.
- 9:00Speaker 1: I'm so impressed. with how the ethos of punk and
- 9:05Speaker 1: DIY culture and hardcore came across in this museum. This
- 9:12Speaker 1: idea that we were all broken and punk rock put
- 9:16Speaker 1: us back together again. If I never ran with punk
- 9:20Speaker 1: rock music and hardcore music and wasn't in a hardcore band,
- 9:24Speaker 1: my life would not be what it is now. I
- 9:27Speaker 1: don't think it would be as rich and I don't
- 9:29Speaker 1: think it would be as rewarding. It just The museum
- 9:32Speaker 1: really blew me away. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
- 9:36Speaker 1: If you're in Las Vegas, make sure you check them out.
- 9:40Speaker 1: Punk Rock Museum. And again, where this all started, if
- 9:45Speaker 1: Bobby Fuller was born 10, 15 years later, he would
- 9:48Speaker 1: have been a punk kid. He would have been DIY.
- 9:50Speaker 1: He would have been in that world, and he would
- 9:53Speaker 1: have made his own music, and he wouldn't have had
- 9:55Speaker 1: to fuck with dangerous men from the music industry and
- 9:57Speaker 1: ended up how things... ended for him. A lot of people,
- 10:03Speaker 1: we talk about this in the Bobby Fuller episode and
- 10:05Speaker 1: a lot of people don't know this. I certainly didn't
- 10:06Speaker 1: know this, but it was one of the things that
- 10:08Speaker 1: was sold to me by my old bandmate, Seth Goodman,
- 10:11Speaker 1: back in the day when he was trying to sell
- 10:14Speaker 1: me on Bobby Fuller and to go listen to him.
- 10:17Speaker 1: He had that, what was that? Bear Family record label compilation.
- 10:22Speaker 1: And I remember him telling me how Bobby Fuller recorded
- 10:24Speaker 1: his own stuff, kind of did everything. He was his
- 10:26Speaker 1: own little rock and roll empresario. And when I was
- 10:30Speaker 1: researching Bobby Fuller for this episode, I was really blown
- 10:33Speaker 1: away with how he went about recording himself in an
- 10:36Speaker 1: era when it was not easy. Not only was it
- 10:39Speaker 1: not easy, it wasn't really even accepted. And he literally
- 10:43Speaker 1: turned his parents' suburban home into a recording studio. This
- 10:48Speaker 1: is not, Bobby Fuller did not grow up rich. He
- 10:51Speaker 1: didn't even really grow up middle class. It was more
- 10:53Speaker 1: working class. And the home was a small home. And he,
- 10:58Speaker 1: you know, he like, you know, got into the drywall
- 11:00Speaker 1: and built a control room with a window facing the
- 11:05Speaker 1: live room, which was the living room. Built his own
- 11:09Speaker 1: echo chamber outside of the house, attached it like adjacent
- 11:13Speaker 1: to the house. Just really incredible stuff. And again, that
- 11:16Speaker 1: wasn't accepted then. It wasn't done and it wasn't accepted.
- 11:20Speaker 1: It wasn't until really, you know, the 80s, I guess,
- 11:24Speaker 1: but not even really. I mean, the 80s, you know,
- 11:26Speaker 1: the Ramones and all the sort of downtown bands could
- 11:29Speaker 1: rent these like, you know, massive lofts for cheap in
- 11:32Speaker 1: New York. And that's how, that's why those sounds, those
- 11:36Speaker 1: songs by those bands have those massive drum sounds and
- 11:39Speaker 1: big guitar sounds. And then it wasn't really until the
- 11:43Speaker 1: 90s that the home recording, the lo-fi thing, the sebados,
- 11:46Speaker 1: all the pavements, all that stuff kind of like kind
- 11:49Speaker 1: of took off and became really accepted, I guess, is
- 11:54Speaker 1: the word. And then, you know, in the early 2000s,
- 11:57Speaker 1: the early aughts, the 2010s, you know, when everything kind
- 12:01Speaker 1: of started to be able to happen on your laptop,
- 12:03Speaker 1: you get the whole electro clash thing happening in New York. And,
- 12:06Speaker 1: you know, that leads to the LCD sound system and
- 12:08Speaker 1: all that. So this stuff fascinates me, the way it
- 12:10Speaker 1: evolves over time. Zeth and I, in the exclusive section
- 12:14Speaker 1: of The After Party, are going to go through some
- 12:16Speaker 1: of our Our favorite recommendations from sort of the home
- 12:20Speaker 1: recording verse, the home recording universe. And we promise there'll
- 12:24Speaker 1: be some revealing stuff in here, some revelatory stuff that
- 12:26Speaker 1: hopefully you're not aware of or wouldn't think of that'll
- 12:30Speaker 1: send you down a rabbit hole. And we're just going
- 12:32Speaker 1: to recommend some cool shit to you. That conversation is
- 12:34Speaker 1: happening in the exclusive section of this episode. Go to
- 12:37Speaker 1: disgracelandpod.com to sign up to unlock exclusive and ad-free content
- 12:40Speaker 1: like this. Become part of our all-access Disgraceland community. All right,
- 12:47Speaker 1: so Bobby Fuller in the feed this week in our
- 12:49Speaker 1: latest episode of Disgrace Land. If you haven't heard it,
- 12:52Speaker 1: you got to understand that Bobby Fuller was worth more
- 12:55Speaker 1: dead than alive to his record label Delphi Records. Because
- 12:59Speaker 1: at the time, Bobby Fuller was all that Delphi Records had.
- 13:04Speaker 1: But Bobby Fuller was going to leave, at least that
- 13:07Speaker 1: was the rumor, he was going to leave Delphi Records
- 13:09Speaker 1: for Atlantic Records. And this wasn't just a rumor. I
- 13:13Speaker 1: believe it comes from his brother, Randy. There was a
- 13:16Speaker 1: meeting between Bobby Fuller and Ahmet Erdogan in New York City. Now,
- 13:21Speaker 1: it's believed that Notorious Genevieve's family-connected businessman, Morris Levy, had
- 13:26Speaker 1: unofficially taken control of Delphi Records and that Levy had
- 13:30Speaker 1: personally invested in Bobby in exchange for the rights to
- 13:35Speaker 1: Bobby's hit song, Let Her Dance. So, if Bobby Fuller
- 13:39Speaker 1: were to leave Delphi Records, the label would be done. Again,
- 13:43Speaker 1: he was all that the label had. So not only
- 13:47Speaker 1: would the label be done, but Morris Levy's control of
- 13:49Speaker 1: Delphi would be worthless. However, Delphi Records had a million-dollar
- 13:55Speaker 1: insurance policy on Bobby Fuller. So if anything were to
- 13:58Speaker 1: happen to Bobby Fuller, Delphi, or whoever controlled Delphi, would
- 14:03Speaker 1: collect a million dollars. And if Bobby Fuller was going
- 14:07Speaker 1: to leave Delphi for Atlantic and render Delphi virtually worthless,
- 14:10Speaker 1: then some believe Bobby Fuller was worth more dead than alive.
- 14:15Speaker 1: On the day he called a meeting with Delphi to
- 14:18Speaker 1: inform them that he was leaving, he was found dead
- 14:20Speaker 1: in his mother's Oldsmobile. So who killed Bobby Fuller? Okay,
- 14:24Speaker 1: we uncover the truth in our new episode of Disgraceland.
- 14:27Speaker 1: Check that out. That's the Bobby Fuller story. Now, if
- 14:30Speaker 1: you love Bobby Fuller's version of I Fought the Law
- 14:32Speaker 1: and early rock and roll's impact on punk rock, then again,
- 14:36Speaker 1: this Bobby Fuller episode is going to blow your mind, okay?
- 14:40Speaker 1: That's at the top of our feed right now. Coming up.
- 14:43Speaker 1: Next in the feed, right after this episode, this bonus episode,
- 14:46Speaker 1: right after this is our Rewind episode this Sunday on
- 14:49Speaker 1: Lil Peep. I'm not even sure if we've ever pulled
- 14:52Speaker 1: this one out of the archive for you guys and
- 14:54Speaker 1: put it in the Rewind slot. If we have, it
- 14:57Speaker 1: was only once and it was a long, long time ago.
- 14:59Speaker 1: Great story. I love this story. In 2017, fans didn't
- 15:03Speaker 1: find out Lil Peep died from a headline or a
- 15:07Speaker 1: radio story. They found out from an Instagram story and
- 15:10Speaker 1: not like just some fan posting about his death, okay?
- 15:14Speaker 1: Lil Peep and two of his fans, while he was
- 15:17Speaker 1: at a show, they headed to his tour bus to
- 15:19Speaker 1: get high. The bus was a mess, as you would expect.
- 15:24Speaker 1: There was a little bit of a party going on.
- 15:25Speaker 1: Peep was handed a Xanax and he swallowed it and
- 15:28Speaker 1: he passed out. his new friends, two of his fans,
- 15:32Speaker 1: they kept partying, they kept laughing, they kept fucking around,
- 15:34Speaker 1: texting their friends, oh, we're hanging out with a rock star, blah, blah, blah,
- 15:37Speaker 1: posting on their socials, all that stuff. And sometime afterward,
- 15:41Speaker 1: Lil Peep lost consciousness and he stopped breathing. And he
- 15:46Speaker 1: had fallen victim to fentanyl, which had laced the Xanax
- 15:51Speaker 1: that he was taking, that he had taken, excuse me.
- 15:55Speaker 1: Now this dude, Bexy, okay, one of collaborators from the UK.
- 16:00Speaker 1: He walked to the back of the bus. He saw
- 16:02Speaker 1: Lil Peep passed out. It was close to showtime. He
- 16:05Speaker 1: didn't check, Bexy did not check on Lil Peep to
- 16:08Speaker 1: see if he was all right. Instead, the dude took
- 16:11Speaker 1: out his phone and he Insta-storied himself with the passed
- 16:16Speaker 1: out Lil Peep. Others, Lil Peep's fans, they're on the bus.
- 16:20Speaker 1: They did the same thing. They didn't know that Lil
- 16:23Speaker 1: Peep wasn't passed out. Okay. It was much darker than that.
- 16:27Speaker 1: You want to know more about this story? You want
- 16:29Speaker 1: to know more about how Lil Peep died and how
- 16:32Speaker 1: news of his death traveled in the crazy modern world
- 16:38Speaker 1: fuckery of all of this? You got to check out
- 16:41Speaker 1: this Lil Peep episode. Also, side note, those of you
- 16:44Speaker 1: who are punk rock, hardcore fans, when I was at
- 16:51Speaker 1: the Punk Rock Museum, there was a discussion going on
- 16:54Speaker 1: about how emo music today means something completely different than
- 17:00Speaker 1: it did in the 90s. In the 90s, it was
- 17:04Speaker 1: more connected to what it was in the 80s to
- 17:07Speaker 1: write Rites of Spring and embrace those great DC hardcore bands.
- 17:11Speaker 1: In the 90s, bands like Texas is the Reason, Promise Ring, Piebald, J.June,
- 17:18Speaker 1: Rye Coalition, I guess. It was something else. That was
- 17:22Speaker 1: kind of when I was around emo music. And I
- 17:25Speaker 1: knew a lot of those people in those bands. I
- 17:27Speaker 1: saw them all karate. Anyways, Lil Peep, heavily, heavily, heavily
- 17:33Speaker 1: influenced by emo. And we get into what emo is
- 17:36Speaker 1: fully in this episode. And I'm pretty proud of the
- 17:40Speaker 1: way we describe it and pull it together for you guys.
- 17:42Speaker 1: So check that out. Lil Peep, hitting your feeds next,
- 17:45Speaker 1: right after this bonus episode. Then that's on Sunday and
- 17:49Speaker 1: in the rewind slot. And then our next new episode
- 17:51Speaker 1: next week is going to be on Quincy Jones. Now,
- 17:53Speaker 1: Quincy Jones, arguably the greatest music producer of all time,
- 17:56Speaker 1: but towards the end of his life, Quincy Jones made
- 17:59Speaker 1: some truly outrageous claims. You might've seen these when they
- 18:03Speaker 1: were popping off. He said that the Beatles didn't play
- 18:07Speaker 1: their instruments. His experience in the studio with Ringo Starr
- 18:10Speaker 1: that Ringo couldn't nail a simple four-bar drum part, and
- 18:13Speaker 1: that Quincy and George Martin had to bring in an
- 18:15Speaker 1: ace jazz drummer, Ronnie Varel, to do what Ringo couldn't do.
- 18:20Speaker 1: Quincy Jones also claimed that Michael Jackson stole a lot
- 18:24Speaker 1: of songs. That's a direct quote. He said that Michael
- 18:26Speaker 1: stole the bass line for Billie Jean from Donna Summer's
- 18:28Speaker 1: State of Independence, and that the notes don't lie, man.
- 18:32Speaker 1: That's what Quincy said about Michael Jackson. He also claimed
- 18:34Speaker 1: that Frank Sinatra was the reason that he, Quincy Jones,
- 18:36Speaker 1: knew exactly who killed John F. Kennedy. So was Quincy
- 18:40Speaker 1: Jones arguably the greatest producer of all time? Was he lying?
- 18:45Speaker 1: Was he lying about these musical crimes, fraud, theft, murder,
- 18:48Speaker 1: about the Beatles, about Michael Jackson, about Sinatra? We're going
- 18:52Speaker 1: to find out in this upcoming episode. And we're going
- 18:54Speaker 1: to get into Q's life, just an incredible life. The
- 18:58Speaker 1: dude was everywhere. He played with everybody, everybody, a true
- 19:02Speaker 1: giant from music history. And who at the end of
- 19:07Speaker 1: his career had zero fucks to give and said whatever
- 19:10Speaker 1: the hell he wanted. And oh my, it's glorious. I'm
- 19:13Speaker 1: just scratching the surface here with this stuff about Michael
- 19:16Speaker 1: Jackson and the Beatles and Frank Sinatra. We unpack all
- 19:19Speaker 1: that in the episode, but there's so much more. So
- 19:21Speaker 1: that's a Quincy Jones episode. When you're listening to this episode,
- 19:24Speaker 1: be thinking about Quincy's connection to music's greatest artists, okay?
- 19:29Speaker 1: And let us know if you believe that the claims
- 19:32Speaker 1: that he's made that we unpack are Let us know
- 19:34Speaker 1: if you think they're true or not. If you think
- 19:35Speaker 1: he was lying. I want to know. I unpack it.
- 19:37Speaker 1: I litigate it. I want to know what you guys
- 19:39Speaker 1: think though. Side note, who is your favorite music producer?
- 19:42Speaker 1: We've never asked this question. Which producer has made the
- 19:45Speaker 1: records that you can't live without?
- 19:47Speaker 2: 617-906-6638.
- 19:47Speaker 1: I'll take your answers for either of those questions. Voicemail
- 19:53Speaker 1: and text. Email me, disgracelandpod at gmail.com. Hit me up
- 19:57Speaker 1: at disgracelandpod on the socials. Discos, we're covering a lot
- 20:00Speaker 1: of ground right now on Disgrace Land this week with
- 20:02Speaker 1: Bobby Fuller, Punk Rock, Hardcore Emo, Quincy Jones. I want
- 20:05Speaker 1: to hear from you guys. We're going to be back
- 20:07Speaker 1: in a flash with your answers to last week's question
- 20:09Speaker 1: of the week. your voicemails, text, DMs, and more coming
- 20:11Speaker 1: up right after this. All right, guys, we're back. 617-906-6638,
- 20:28Speaker 1: voicemail and text. Question of the week from our Bobby
- 20:32Speaker 1: Fuller episode. What do you think? Who killed him? Pretty simple.
- 20:36Speaker 1: Do you believe my take? I want to know. Let's
- 20:38Speaker 1: go to the 903.
- 20:42Speaker 3: Well, Jake, I have to say, being a former journalist
- 20:46Speaker 3: and just a general seeker of information and a historian
- 20:49Speaker 3: where I've had to document things and everything, I think
- 20:52Speaker 3: you did a very, very, very, very thorough job of
- 20:55Speaker 3: drawing out the real story of Bobby Forrest's death and
- 20:59Speaker 3: pretty eloquently put it together. And in my mind, there's
- 21:03Speaker 3: no question of what happened to him. People, I guess,
- 21:06Speaker 3: are covering their ass and everything like that in Texas,
- 21:09Speaker 3: but that's Texas. So I grew up in Texas. I
- 21:13Speaker 3: lived in Texas for the first, you know, 40 plus
- 21:16Speaker 3: years of my life. So I know Texas corruption pretty well.
- 21:20Speaker 3: And of course, DC and stuff where I'm living now
- 21:23Speaker 3: isn't that much better. But anyway, kudos to you for
- 21:27Speaker 3: the job. Kudos for you for the story and the
- 21:30Speaker 3: podcast and everything. you're honestly the only podcast that I
- 21:33Speaker 3: pay to support anymore because, you know, things are not
- 21:37Speaker 3: that great right now economically, but anyway, rock and roll,
- 21:41Speaker 3: keep doing what you're doing.
- 21:42Speaker 1: Bye. 903. Thank you so much for your call and
- 21:44Speaker 1: thank you for support. Appreciate you being part of the
- 21:47Speaker 1: disgrace and all access community and paying for that ad
- 21:50Speaker 1: free and exclusive content. You're never some good, uh, home
- 21:54Speaker 1: recording recs for you in the exclusive section of the
- 21:56Speaker 1: after party coming up. But, um, Yeah, man, I'm shocked
- 22:00Speaker 1: that this isn't common knowledge. I mean, it's pretty obvious
- 22:03Speaker 1: to me when you get into the research. Appreciate you
- 22:06Speaker 1: vibing on what we were saying and how we put
- 22:08Speaker 1: the story together. I'm glad it resonated with you, 903.
- 22:11Speaker 1: Thank you. Let's go to the 915. Hey, what's up, Disgraceland?
- 22:16Speaker 2: Richie Valenzuela from El Paso, Texas. Man, the Bobby Fuller
- 22:20Speaker 2: episode was jaw-dropping. I knew the story being from El Paso,
- 22:23Speaker 2: but I had no idea about all the extra layers.
- 22:27Speaker 2: What's crazy to me is the manager, Bob King. He
- 22:30Speaker 2: also managed Richie Valens. And after Richie died, King came
- 22:34Speaker 2: to El Paso looking for young, dumb, Mexican-American talent. And instead,
- 22:39Speaker 2: he found a genius, Bobby Fuller. Man, crazy episode. After
- 22:46Speaker 2: hearing your episode, I can't wait but wonder how much
- 22:48Speaker 2: Bob King really had to do with what happened to Bobby. Anyway,
- 22:54Speaker 2: phenomenal story. Phenomenal job. Love the podcast. Call out to
- 22:58Speaker 2: you later. Richie V. Peace.
- 23:01Speaker 1: Hey, Richie. Thanks for the call, man. My take on
- 23:05Speaker 1: Bob Keene is that he was more kind of a
- 23:07Speaker 1: bystander to the more powerful powers that be who were
- 23:11Speaker 1: really controlling his record label. the distributor, and of course,
- 23:16Speaker 1: the man from New York. Bob Keene, he lived. He
- 23:21Speaker 1: lived to tell his story. That's kind of telling. Whereas,
- 23:25Speaker 1: of course, Bobby Fuller did not. Appreciate you, man. Thanks
- 23:28Speaker 1: for the call. A lot of Texans chiming in. Let's
- 23:31Speaker 1: go to the 361. What's up, Jake?
- 23:34Speaker 3: This is Jessica down from 361, Corpus Christi, Texas. Chiming
- 23:39Speaker 3: in on the best super group ever.
- 23:42Speaker 1: And it has to be hands down, my friend, the Highwaymen.
- 23:46Speaker 3: That's all I have to say. Have a blessing, brother.
- 23:48Speaker 3: Take care.
- 23:50Speaker 1: Hard to argue with the Highwaymen, Jessica. Hard to argue
- 23:53Speaker 1: with a Texan about the Highwaymen. I think that's how
- 23:56Speaker 1: I should have put it. I got to say, we
- 23:58Speaker 1: got a Buddy Holly, Day of the Music Died, Richie Valens.
- 24:02Speaker 1: Buddy Holly being from Texas, so I'm mentioning it here. Episode,
- 24:06Speaker 1: good Dr. Lundy is working up right now. Maybe something
- 24:10Speaker 1: on the highway meant in the future. I don't know. 617-906-6638.
- 24:15Speaker 1: Voicemail and text 404-TEXAN. Bob Marley and the Whalers. Bad
- 24:20Speaker 1: card would be a great track for the casino mixtape.
- 24:24Speaker 1: I stayed out of the casinos. I mean, I walked
- 24:26Speaker 1: through them, of course. You can't avoid them. I don't gamble.
- 24:30Speaker 2: I don't know.
- 24:30Speaker 1: You know, I come from a whole family of gamblers.
- 24:32Speaker 1: Everybody in my family gambles, and I'm the one person
- 24:35Speaker 1: who doesn't. In both families, my wife's family as well.
- 24:38Speaker 1: It's strange.
- 24:39Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 24:39Speaker 1: I just have this aversion to it, except football. I
- 24:41Speaker 1: bet on football. I don't know. I don't know how
- 24:44Speaker 1: much of that I can talk about. I guess you
- 24:45Speaker 1: can talk about it, right? 630 writes in, hey, Jake,
- 24:49Speaker 1: your comments about your early 20s mirroring John Cusack's movie
- 24:53Speaker 1: roles reminded me of the great opening essay, This is Emo,
- 24:57Speaker 1: from Chuck Klosterman's book, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. If
- 25:00Speaker 1: you've never checked it out, please do. Thanks for everything
- 25:03Speaker 1: you do. This is Rob from the 630. Rob from
- 25:06Speaker 1: the 630, thank you. I don't know this book. I
- 25:09Speaker 1: love Chuck when I hear him interviewed. And I read
- 25:12Speaker 1: one of his books. I can't remember what it was called.
- 25:14Speaker 1: I have it lying around behind me. I don't know
- 25:16Speaker 1: where the hell it is. But I'm going to check
- 25:18Speaker 1: this out because I got emo on the brain. And
- 25:20Speaker 1: like I said, in the little peep episode coming up,
- 25:22Speaker 1: we've got some good emo history coming at you. And
- 25:29Speaker 1: we unpacked this Cusack take more fully in the upcoming
- 25:32Speaker 1: episode of This Film Should Be Played Loud, which hits
- 25:34Speaker 1: next week on Gross Point Blank. You're not going to
- 25:37Speaker 1: want to miss that. For those of you who do
- 25:40Speaker 1: not know, this film should be played loud, is our
- 25:42Speaker 1: monthly video podcast on the greatest music from the greatest movies.
- 25:48Speaker 1: And we're doing Gross Point Blank, which the soundtrack is
- 25:50Speaker 1: just a fucking banger. This is our second John Cusack movie.
- 25:53Speaker 1: We've already done High Fidelity. You want to hear this,
- 25:56Speaker 1: you got to go to disgracelandpod.com, sign up, become an
- 25:59Speaker 1: All Access member to check that out. This one comes
- 26:02Speaker 1: from Dee in Dallas. She says, hey, I just listened
- 26:06Speaker 1: to the episode About Scorsese and other things. And there's
- 26:09Speaker 1: a question about who is the best transition from music
- 26:12Speaker 1: artist to actor. And hands down, Jared Leto. I will
- 26:16Speaker 1: fight someone over that. Seriously, I'll die on this hill.
- 26:20Speaker 1: It is absolutely not Will Smith. Definitely 100,000% Jared motherfucking Leto.
- 26:27Speaker 1: But wasn't Jared Leto an actor before he was a musician?
- 26:31Speaker 1: Not a musician who turned actor like Will Smith?
- 26:36Speaker 2: Also.
- 26:37Speaker 1: I don't know if you're going to be happy about this, D.
- 26:38Speaker 1: Sounds like you're a Jared Leto 30 Seconds to Mars fan.
- 26:41Speaker 1: But we've got a Jared Leto episode coming up. And
- 26:46Speaker 1: I got to say, the shit I'm finding in the
- 26:47Speaker 1: research is fucking disgusting. And there's a torrent of this
- 26:52Speaker 1: information out there. That's kind of the one theme I've
- 26:55Speaker 1: found so far is that this information is abundant. First
- 27:00Speaker 1: person sourced in addition to tons and tons of Even
- 27:06Speaker 1: stuff people are sending me, their experiences, nevermind the tons
- 27:11Speaker 1: and tons of stuff on Reddit and just, you know, it's,
- 27:16Speaker 1: I kind of don't even know what to do with
- 27:18Speaker 1: it all, you know, but I'll figure it out. Don't
- 27:20Speaker 1: worry about it. And, you know, if I piss you off, D, apologies.
- 27:23Speaker 1: Just remember, we've got a whole bunch of other episodes
- 27:26Speaker 1: where I don't piss you off. All right. Get at
- 27:30Speaker 1: me guys. 617-906-6638. Voicemail and text. Question of the week
- 27:35Speaker 1: next week is going to be about Quincy Jones. Do
- 27:36Speaker 1: you believe him? Is he lying? Is he making that
- 27:39Speaker 1: shit up? Sub question. Who's your favorite music producer? Who
- 27:42Speaker 1: made the records you can't live without? That's what I
- 27:46Speaker 1: want to know. 617-906-6638. Trying to keep up with the
- 27:50Speaker 1: DMs on Instagram. I feel like I'm doing a better
- 27:52Speaker 1: job than normal lately. At DisgracelandPod. Things are popping over there.
- 27:57Speaker 1: Get on over. Give us a follow. Follow us on
- 28:00Speaker 1: X and TikTok. Been a little more active there lately.
- 28:04Speaker 1: Facebook got some login problems, but we're figuring it out.
- 28:09Speaker 1: At DisgracelandPod on the socials is what I'm saying. Now,
- 28:13Speaker 1: we all know Michael Jackson's Thriller. But did you know
- 28:17Speaker 1: that Thriller, one of the greatest, most important records ever recorded,
- 28:22Speaker 1: almost never happened? Because its producer, Quincy Jones, almost died
- 28:28Speaker 1: in 1974. That was the year that he had a
- 28:32Speaker 1: brain aneurysm. Doctors gave Quincy Jones a 1% chance of surviving.
- 28:36Speaker 1: His friends, Marvin Gaye, Richard Pryor, among them, began planning
- 28:39Speaker 1: Quincy Jones' memorial service for him. That's how dire things were.
- 28:42Speaker 1: But Quincy Jones survived and not only went on to
- 28:45Speaker 1: produce Michael Jackson's first three albums, including Thriller, but he
- 28:48Speaker 1: also produced many, many others. And he became the most
- 28:51Speaker 1: Grammy-nominated artist in history. 80 nominations and 28 wins. But
- 28:57Speaker 1: all that nearly didn't happen. Can you imagine pop history
- 29:00Speaker 1: without Thriller, without Quincy Jones? I can't. And I'm glad
- 29:03Speaker 1: we don't have to. And I can't wait for you
- 29:05Speaker 1: to hear our new episode on Quincy Jones coming up
- 29:07Speaker 1: next week. Coming up after this break, your emails. All right.
- 29:24Speaker 1: This one comes from Jeff Smith. Hey, Jake, JJ Smitty
- 29:28Speaker 1: living in Osaka, Japan. I went from thinking your show
- 29:31Speaker 1: was just gossip to loving it. Loving is in all caps.
- 29:36Speaker 1: Keep on rocking and rolling. First of all, before I
- 29:38Speaker 1: read the rest of your email here, JJ Smitty. whatever
- 29:41Speaker 1: gave you the impression that Disgraceland was gossip? This is
- 29:44Speaker 1: a very serious question. I'm not just picking bones, picking nits.
- 29:49Speaker 1: I want to know, is this something you heard? Certainly
- 29:51Speaker 1: not the episodes. You can tell that they're all very
- 29:54Speaker 1: well researched. Who told you that? Because I'm going to
- 29:58Speaker 1: fucking find them. No, I'm not. I just want to know. Okay.
- 30:02Speaker 1: JJ Smitty goes on to say, as a native New Yorker,
- 30:05Speaker 1: no doubt Bobby Fuller got released from any obligations, quote unquote.
- 30:10Speaker 1: Bobby talked too much and threatened. And that was it.
- 30:13Speaker 1: Sad story because getting ripped off happened and happens to
- 30:16Speaker 1: so many young artists and they really have no help.
- 30:19Speaker 1: Bobby was from Texas, which meant at the time that
- 30:21Speaker 1: he knew nothing about the entertainment business in New York
- 30:24Speaker 1: or LA. Just too bad. Rockarola, you're a bad man.
- 30:28Speaker 1: All the best and continued success. JJ Smitty. JJ Smitty,
- 30:31Speaker 1: you are absolutely right. You nailed it. You nailed it.
- 30:35Speaker 1: Texans have that thing about them. I read this in
- 30:37Speaker 1: a Mario Puzo book years ago. That's sort of, you know,
- 30:41Speaker 1: everything's bigger in Texas. I feel like Texans have that
- 30:45Speaker 1: imbued in them in the same way, you know, us
- 30:47Speaker 1: from the Northeast have this like smart ass thing in us.
- 30:52Speaker 1: You know, I don't even really notice it until like
- 30:54Speaker 1: get out of New England. And I think Bobby Fuller
- 30:58Speaker 1: had brass balls. I really do. And I felt like,
- 31:01Speaker 1: I think he felt like he could take over the
- 31:02Speaker 1: world and he could stand up to guys in New
- 31:05Speaker 1: York and LA and, uh, did not happen. Sad, sad stuff.
- 31:12Speaker 1: Disgracelandpod at gmail.com. You want to hit us up, talk
- 31:15Speaker 1: about anything. Listen, Zeth and I are going to be
- 31:18Speaker 1: talking about home recording recommendations. Now I'm not talking about
- 31:21Speaker 1: like gear you use at home to record. I'm talking about, uh,
- 31:25Speaker 1: home recordings that were turned into great art. We're going
- 31:28Speaker 1: to get into that on the exclusive section of this
- 31:30Speaker 1: after party coming up right now. Go to disgracehandpod.com to
- 31:33Speaker 1: sign up, become an all access member, unlock ad-free listening
- 31:36Speaker 1: and exclusive content just like this by supporting the show.
- 31:41Speaker 1: And it's not expensive. It's very reasonably priced. I know
- 31:45Speaker 1: things are tough right now. I get it. But this
- 31:47Speaker 1: little extra bit of support every month, it helps us
- 31:49Speaker 1: make extra content. And that's what you guys want. So
- 31:53Speaker 1: go to disgracelandpod.com to sign up. We appreciate it. Before
- 31:57Speaker 1: we get there, however, I almost forgot. I've got to
- 32:00Speaker 1: tell you about Hollywoodland. You know about Hollywoodland. It's our
- 32:03Speaker 1: Hollywood and true crime podcast. It's Zeth Helms. We've got
- 32:06Speaker 1: archive episodes. We've got Will Smith in the feed this week.
- 32:09Speaker 1: Zeth's hitting you two times a week in the Hollywoodland
- 32:12Speaker 1: feed with the wrap party with my recommendations as well
- 32:15Speaker 1: in the screening room. This weekend, we're all going to
- 32:17Speaker 1: be watching Tony Scott's Enemy of the State, which is
- 32:20Speaker 1: probably my favorite Will Smith movie. Fantastic movie. Love this movie.
- 32:25Speaker 1: Early Jack Black. So make sure you subscribe to Hollywoodland
- 32:28Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get
- 32:31Speaker 1: your podcasts. Because this whole conversation I'm doing here, it's
- 32:33Speaker 1: happening in a different way over there. Different conversation. More conversation.
- 32:37Speaker 1: That's my point. Like I said earlier, this film should
- 32:39Speaker 1: be played loud. Our new episode on Gross Point Blank,
- 32:41Speaker 1: that hits next week. Okay, disgracelandpod.com to sign up. Make
- 32:45Speaker 1: sure you're an all-access member so you can cop that
- 32:47Speaker 1: video episode. And of course, get the bonus section of
- 32:52Speaker 1: the after party as well that I teased earlier that
- 32:54Speaker 1: I'm about to get into right now with Dr. Zeth Lundy.
- 32:57Speaker 1: All right, coming up right after this. All right, we're back.
- 33:12Speaker 1: We're ready to split. Before we do, I just want
- 33:14Speaker 1: to say thank you. And, you know, appreciate you guys,
- 33:17Speaker 1: as always. Newbies, new Disgraceland listeners, you want more Disgraceland,
- 33:23Speaker 1: whole archive, nearly 300 episodes on basically every artist you
- 33:26Speaker 1: can think of. Get in there. You got questions, hit
- 33:29Speaker 1: me up, disgracelandpod.gmail.com. I will answer them. I will point
- 33:32Speaker 1: you in the right direction. All right. Let's recap. Number one,
- 33:36Speaker 1: this week, our new episode on Bobby Fuller is available
- 33:39Speaker 1: for you right now. Number two, in the rewind slot
- 33:40Speaker 1: this weekend, our classic episode on Lil Peep. Number three,
- 33:44Speaker 1: next week, coming up, our next new episode on Quincy Jones.
- 33:47Speaker 1: Number four, Zeth gives you those Hollywood and crime vibes
- 33:50Speaker 1: in Hollywoodland. So, Make sure you're subscribed. And I give
- 33:53Speaker 1: you my music recommendations in the wrap party over in
- 33:55Speaker 1: the Hollywoodland feed. Again, subscribe to Hollywoodland. Number five, this
- 33:59Speaker 1: film should be played loud video podcast episode on licorice pizza.
- 34:03Speaker 1: That's available now. And our next new episode on gross
- 34:06Speaker 1: point blank is coming September 30th. That's next week. Go
- 34:09Speaker 1: to disgracelandpod.com to sign up to become an all access
- 34:13Speaker 1: member and unlock exclusive content. Just like this, along with
- 34:17Speaker 1: ad-free listening. Number 6, 617-906-6638. Your voice keeps us digging
- 34:22Speaker 1: into the dark corners of music history. So keep calling,
- 34:24Speaker 1: keep texting with your answers to this week's question of
- 34:26Speaker 1: the week. Who's your favorite music producer? Or with whatever
- 34:29Speaker 1: else you want to talk about. Hit us up, let
- 34:31Speaker 1: us know. Number 7, don't forget discos. This isn't just content.
- 34:34Speaker 1: It's a community, a community of the obsessed. No one
- 34:36Speaker 1: cares about music, books, records, and the crime and grime.
- 34:39Speaker 1: It ties them all together like you do. And well,
- 34:41Speaker 1: that's a disgrace. All right, back on July 18th, 1966.
- 34:45Speaker 1: Bobby Fuller's body was discovered in a parking lot, and
- 34:48Speaker 1: this is what America was listening to on that day
- 34:50Speaker 1: according to the Billboard charts. 1. Hanky Panky, Tommy James,
- 34:56Speaker 1: and the Shondells. Last week, 1. Peak Position, 1. Weeks
- 35:01Speaker 1: on Chart, 8. 2. Wild Thing, The Trogs. Last week, 2.
- 35:06Speaker 1: Peak Position, 7. Two, Weeks on Chart. Five. Number three,
- 35:12Speaker 1: Lil Red Riding Hood. Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs.
- 35:16Speaker 1: Last week, Pied 9. Peak position. Three, Weeks on Chart. Seven.
- 35:21Speaker 1: Number four, the Pied Piper. Peak position. Crispy and St. Peter's.
- 35:25Speaker 1: Last week, 12. Peak position. Four, Weeks on Chart. Seven.
- 35:31Speaker 1: Number five, the Pied Piper. Quit talking and start mixing.
- 35:49Speaker 3: Cut it!