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One Guy Was So Good At Violin That People Thought He Worshipped Satan · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
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  Speaker 1: the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
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  Speaker 1: for tuning in. Let's hear it for our super producer,
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  Speaker 1: mister Max Williams. Hello, I have never worshiped Satan. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: to your knowledge? Right. Also, you're missing out. Yeah, that's
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  Speaker 1: Doul Brown. I'm Ben Bollen. What's your position on Satan? Ben?
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  Speaker 1: Which one? There's ha Satan? Uh, there's also the idea
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  Speaker 1: of the light Bringer. I feel like the concept of
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  Speaker 1: Satan from the comic has many aspects, the idea of
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  Speaker 1: the anti q oh, the Antichrist is the son of Satan. Right. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: We did an episode years and years ago about the
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  Speaker 1: nature and origins of Satan for stuff they don't want
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  Speaker 1: you to know, and we got a lot We still
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  Speaker 1: have the YouTube video out. We had a lot of
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  Speaker 1: discourse on that one, because Noel, the devil is on
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  Speaker 1: people's minds.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the devil is in the details, Ben, that's what
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  Speaker 2: they say. Whatever happened to just good old American as
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  Speaker 2: apple pie Satan? When did it have to get all complicated?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah? What happened to the guy who just went down
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  Speaker 1: to Georgia? And lost a violin contest.
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  Speaker 2: You know, it is funny that you should say that, Ben,
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  Speaker 2: we are talking about making a deal with the devil
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  Speaker 2: for violin shop, but not the Charlie Daniels band version.
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  Speaker 2: Turns out there's a historical president for that tune.
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  Speaker 1: Oh what a setup, nol. Yeah, we are if we
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  Speaker 1: wanted to do something a little bit halloween ish, a
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  Speaker 1: bit HALLOWEENI. You can Seweeni a couple of Weeni's little HALLOWEENI.
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  Speaker 1: Here we have all become enamored with the story of
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  Speaker 1: a celebrity violinist. A lot of people not in the
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  Speaker 1: music world may not have heard of this guy, but
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  Speaker 1: in his day, Nicolo Paganini was a real life bad
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  Speaker 1: boy rock star, right like you have a past with
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  Speaker 1: the violin I like phrasing it that way.
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  Speaker 2: Why yes, Ben, Back when I was a small German boy,
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  Speaker 2: I too made a deal with the devil at a
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  Speaker 2: crossroads at midnight to attain my violin prowess. Much like
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  Speaker 2: Nicolo Paganini, though my deal was a little bit second rate.
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  Speaker 2: I could not shred nearly as well as the man.
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  Speaker 2: He's considered by many. By most who know of him
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  Speaker 2: to be a musical genius. He was also like basically
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  Speaker 2: a rock star guy, you know rock the long kind
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  Speaker 2: of unkempt locks and the un button do you know,
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  Speaker 2: silk shirt showing nip. You know, he was a virtuoso
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  Speaker 2: and some people believe that all of these powers combined
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  Speaker 2: could result from nothing less than a pact with Satan.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we're going to get to how that rumor started.
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  Speaker 1: But before we do, we've got to dive into his
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  Speaker 1: origin story. You'll see why we consider this ridiculous history.
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  Speaker 1: We're also gonna call our buddy Nikki the Devil's Violinist.
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  Speaker 1: Occasionally no offense to violinist or devils. But this guy
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  Speaker 1: is born. It's October twenty seventh, seventeen eighty two in Genoa, Italy,
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  Speaker 1: not the most stable time for Italy in general. He's
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  Speaker 1: part of a big family, that's right.
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  Speaker 2: He was the third of six children. Be isn't that
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  Speaker 2: like the literal middle child. Maybe that's where he got
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  Speaker 2: the chip on his shoulder to devil worship rie. We're kidding,
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  Speaker 2: by the way, these are rumors we're gonna play into
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  Speaker 2: a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: It's fun. We like to have fun here on Ridiculous History.
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  Speaker 2: Third of six children born to Antonio and Teresa nee
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  Speaker 2: Bocardo Paganini. M.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and okay, so you know how today we call
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  Speaker 1: people helicopter parents if they're always sort of living vicariously
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  Speaker 1: through their kids and taking them to a million different
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  Speaker 1: extra curriculars. You know, like, look, that can be really
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  Speaker 1: difficult for the kids, but every so often, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it results in a tiger woods And that's kind of
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  Speaker 1: what happened with Paganeti because his mom had decided from
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  Speaker 1: the jump that this one of her six children would
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  Speaker 1: be a famous violtist. His father was also really gifted musician.
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  Speaker 1: He was trying to be a salesman of boat supplies,
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  Speaker 1: but wow, yeah he wasn't good as like ropes and
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  Speaker 1: stuff and sales like voting pa finalia yeka. But he
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  Speaker 1: he unfortunately was not successful with that. He was more
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  Speaker 1: successful supporting his family and his six kids by playing
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  Speaker 1: music on the mandolin and also sulling mandolin. So that's
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  Speaker 1: a pretty good I think that's a pretty good way
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  Speaker 1: to sell mandolins. Right, You show up somewhere, you get
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  Speaker 1: paid to rock out on your little and someone's like,
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  Speaker 1: I'm so inspired, and then you say, guess what buddy,
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  Speaker 1: you can also buy a mandolin. I love the gentle
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  Speaker 1: sound of a mandolin, and there's.
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  Speaker 2: Nothing more cliche le Italian in a music cue than
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  Speaker 2: a fast picked mandolin, you know, perhaps by Captain Corelli himself.
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  Speaker 2: You know it's funny though, Ben, I mean, you may
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  Speaker 2: not know this. I bet you probably do, But anyone
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  Speaker 2: out there who doesn't, it's for you. A mandolin is
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  Speaker 2: tuned exactly the same as a violin. That's where the
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  Speaker 2: olin park comes from, except it has dual strings. The
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  Speaker 2: high strings are tuned in unisons and the low strings
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  Speaker 2: are tuned in octave. So that's what gives you that
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  Speaker 2: really nice, full sound. And while I did not have
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  Speaker 2: the same level of shred in common with Paganini, I
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  Speaker 2: too had a bit of a helicopter.
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  Speaker 1: Parent situation growing up.
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  Speaker 2: Though it was my father who stood over me assiduously
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  Speaker 2: as I practiced violin and would give me a good
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  Speaker 2: swat with a bow if I messed up. Yeah, that
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  Speaker 2: part true, It is very true. It was not the
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  Speaker 2: best relationship. Made me resent the violin, but I eventually
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  Speaker 2: moved on to you know, taking that parleying that into
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  Speaker 2: other things that I enjoyed very much.
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  Speaker 1: Like guitar, playing in bands and all of that.
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  Speaker 2: So I've forgiven my papa for this transgression, and not
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  Speaker 2: to be apologist, but he came to it in his
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  Speaker 2: own way.
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  Speaker 1: He wanted me.
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  Speaker 2: To be a very skilled and perhaps famous violin as
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  Speaker 2: that did not transpire. I instead became a skilled and
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  Speaker 2: mildly Internet famous podcaster.
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  Speaker 1: And I today I learned I knew about the tuning,
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  Speaker 1: but I did not know about the etymology of mandolin
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  Speaker 1: and violin. That's very interest. Thank you for that. So
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  Speaker 1: Paganini is training on the mandolin first, and he's doing
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  Speaker 1: it when he's five. A couple of years later, he's
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  Speaker 1: stepping up to the violin, and his dad is his teacher.
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  Speaker 1: Similar kind of to your situation. His dad is also
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  Speaker 1: figuring out, look, let's be honest, folks, it's the late
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  Speaker 1: seventeen hundreds. Child labor is very highly normalized and approved of.
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  Speaker 1: So by the time this kid is eleven, his dad
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  Speaker 1: puts him on the mean streets of Judoah to play,
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  Speaker 1: to play violin.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, for the public. He's already pretty good by then.
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  Speaker 2: He gets sent at the age of thirteen to study
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  Speaker 2: with the famous violinist and teacher Alessandro Rola, But when
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  Speaker 2: he arrived, Rolla decided that Paganini was already so skilled
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  Speaker 2: up that he really couldn't teach him much, so instead
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  Speaker 2: he referred to him to his own teacher, the teacher's teacher,
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  Speaker 2: Ferdinando Pier, and because of his abilities, he was then
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  Speaker 2: again passed on to another teacher, Pierre's teacher, the teacher's
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  Speaker 2: teachers teacher, Yeah, Gasparo Jiretti, the grandfather teacher, like the
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  Speaker 2: final boss of violin teachers.
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  Speaker 1: That's that's how swatsy with a boat too, That's how
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  Speaker 1: the story goes. There is a perspective that we're putting
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  Speaker 1: a spin on here in our research, because we know
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  Speaker 1: that he definitely went to all three of those teachers.
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  Speaker 1: But as we'll see, our buddy Nick is kind of is.
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  Speaker 1: There's no kind of about it. He's a source of legend.
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  Speaker 1: So a lot of times you'll hear stories about his
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  Speaker 1: progression phrased in this way, right like, instead of just
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  Speaker 1: saying he had three different teachers who knew each other,
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  Speaker 1: they'll say, oh, he's too good, and he was too
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  Speaker 1: good again, and then finally he met the master. He
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  Speaker 1: was too too good again again. Just like a Kanye West.
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  Speaker 1: In March of seventeen ninety six, Genoa is massively destabilized
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  Speaker 1: because the French invade northern Italy. As a result, the family,
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  Speaker 1: the Paganini family, relocates to their country home near Bolzanetto.
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  Speaker 1: And there was a silver lining here. This is really
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  Speaker 1: interesting to me for such a public facing guy. While
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  Speaker 1: his family was basically on lockdown exile to the country,
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  Speaker 1: Paganini picked up a guitar. At some point he became
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  Speaker 1: obsessed with the guitar. It was one of his favorite
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  Speaker 1: instruments ever, and he never did a public performance. He
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  Speaker 1: decided probably from the jump, that guitar was for him
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  Speaker 1: and maybe his friends had maybe his lovers if he
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  Speaker 1: thought they performed. Well, that's fair.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting in guitar, you know, on the other hand,
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  Speaker 2: to it completely different than the violin and a whole
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  Speaker 2: other set of skills, you know, definitely a string instrument
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  Speaker 2: held in the same way as the mandolin, the whole
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  Speaker 2: other universe of tuning and technique. So this guy really
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  Speaker 2: was super super you know, just primed to be a
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  Speaker 2: brilliant musician.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and then guitar tunes, as you said, a
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  Speaker 1: whole other bag of badgers. This is at least part
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  Speaker 1: of the reason he is primarily known as a violinist today.
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  Speaker 1: Later people would the public, I mean, would learn about
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  Speaker 1: his virtuosity with the guitar. In seventeen ninety seven, he
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  Speaker 1: and his father Paganini Senior go on tour, and little
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  Speaker 1: Nikki builds a reputation with every single concert he does.
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  Speaker 2: Because, like I said of the aforementioned shredding, the guy
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  Speaker 2: tosses his hair around and like rends his garments practically.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I bet you he at some point did
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  Speaker 2: the move where he slides on his knees across the
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  Speaker 2: stage at that level of flair.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: The only historical classical music analog that I can think
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  Speaker 2: of that reminds me of him as Ben who.
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  Speaker 1: Is that Franz list list?
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  Speaker 2: Domania RAN's list was similarly a big, showy, flashy performer
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  Speaker 2: and had women like literally throwing their pantaloons at him.
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  Speaker 1: Often considered the first analog to the rock Star and
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  Speaker 1: Shout Out Phoenix.
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  Speaker 2: Very much so, and also the very delightfully schlocky sixties
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  Speaker 2: film list of Mania. But I would definitely say that
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  Speaker 2: Paganini is in the running for another proto rock star.
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  Speaker 1: Oh for sure. Yeah. In eighteen hundred, he and his
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  Speaker 1: father traveled to Livorno, where Paganini plays in more concerts,
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  Speaker 1: and his dad again tries to be a salesperson for
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  Speaker 1: boding paraphernalia. You can probably hear me rolling my eyes,
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  Speaker 1: and that's just because he had to make a living.
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  Speaker 1: No one knew what was going to happen to Paganini
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  Speaker 1: at this point. He's like seventeen years old. He's already
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  Speaker 1: making waves. But you know, sometimes the brightest stars burned briefest,
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  Speaker 1: and we didn't know that he was going to be
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  Speaker 1: this amazing musical force. In eighteen oh one, he's eighteen
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  Speaker 1: years old and he is appointed first Violin of the
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  Speaker 1: Republic of Luca. No, maybe could tell our fellow ridiculous
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  Speaker 1: historians a little bit about the prestige of being first
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  Speaker 1: violin in these kind of groups.
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  Speaker 2: Just means you're the best. You know people how they
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  Speaker 2: call it first chair. You're just the number one hot
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  Speaker 2: sh shredder the conductor's hand at the very beginning. You
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  Speaker 2: certainly do. You also are the person that provides the
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  Speaker 2: initial tuning pitch for the entire orchestra. It's a big
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  Speaker 2: deal and oftentimes you're the person that gets the solos.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, they'll have like featured artists that come in
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  Speaker 2: and do so, but like, yeah, the first of first
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  Speaker 2: chair violinist is a very important leadership position in any orchestra.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know who I love in any orchestra? Or
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  Speaker 1: we are immensely fortunate to have the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra here,
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  Speaker 1: and I go pretty often because I just dig the
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  Speaker 1: vibe of the place and it's by a museum that
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  Speaker 1: I go to already. And my favorite, one of my
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  Speaker 1: favorite performers, just just for their energy is always the
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  Speaker 1: percussionist in the group, who have you don't have beat
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  Speaker 1: me here, Max, who don't have shit to do? For
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  Speaker 1: like eight to ten minutes, and then it's time for
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  Speaker 1: the symbols, right, it's time for the big drums, and
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  Speaker 1: they just go tambourine shake is one of my favorites,
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  Speaker 1: and they so tambourine shit. You're right, I love the
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  Speaker 1: I've only seen this in real life a couple of times,
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  Speaker 1: but I did see a person who was, you know,
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  Speaker 1: on the miscellaneous percussion, but they were on a song
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  Speaker 1: where they just had some triangle business going on. And
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  Speaker 1: they just triangle is an important part of the orchestra,
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  Speaker 1: but they just stared at the sheep music, you know,
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  Speaker 1: stock still absolutely like a like a scarecrow Halloween statue.
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  Speaker 1: And then when their time came, they hit that ding,
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  Speaker 1: and they hit that ding perfectly, the occasional clippity clop. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I think I saw a really great video. I think
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  Speaker 1: it was I think I'm describing this correctly.
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  Speaker 2: It was a percussionist who has waited exactly what you're described,
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  Speaker 2: been waiting in that moment, and then hit the big
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  Speaker 2: skin drum, big bass drum with a mallet and it
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  Speaker 2: bounced it out of his hand and hit somebody in
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  Speaker 2: the back of the head.
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  Speaker 1: Paganini would never now well, I mean he might, he
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  Speaker 1: might have lost himself in the music, you know, the
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  Speaker 1: moment that he wanted. He didn't let it go because
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  Speaker 1: he was Paganini. You're right right, And a substantial portion
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  Speaker 1: of Paganini's income came from freelance. See even when he
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  Speaker 1: had the prestigious roll of first violin. This sounds like
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  Speaker 1: a meteoric rise to fame, but the success story was
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  Speaker 1: not perfect. It hit some discordant notes. I know, Pagadidi
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  Speaker 1: didn't just act like a rock star on stage. He
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  Speaker 1: had all the vices of a rock star from you know,
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  Speaker 1: the Halcyon era of the nineteen seventies. He loved gambling,
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  Speaker 1: he loved romancing people on a very short term basis.
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  Speaker 1: How's that for diplomacy. I think it's good he did.
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  Speaker 2: Indeed, he was no stranger to diabolical rumors from the start.
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  Speaker 2: It sounds like a plot lifted directly out of the
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  Speaker 2: incredibly good TV series Hannibal. Rumors ran a muck about
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  Speaker 2: his having murdered a woman and used her intestines as
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  Speaker 2: violin strings and imprisoning her soul.
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  Speaker 1: With the instrument. Right, that's just for fun.
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  Speaker 2: It is true that early violin streams were made from
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  Speaker 2: gut material. Kata are often made from kat guts, so
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: you could, in fact harvest to human beings guts.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm not joking.
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  Speaker 2: This is in fact a plot of an episode of
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: Hannibal where there's a murderous violin maker.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and keep in mind to folks, of course, this
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  Speaker 1: is kind of our Halloween episode. So we're talking about
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  Speaker 1: these scary rumors. But keep in mind back in this time,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: pre social media, rumors were spread word of mouth and
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  Speaker 1: usually just some often by the way by people who
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  Speaker 1: are making a joke and then someone else took it seriously. Uh,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: satire sometimes gets lost in the game of telephone. People
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  Speaker 1: like to gab it. Ben.
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  Speaker 2: Actually, you know what, here's a good chance to plug
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  Speaker 2: our sister podcast stuff they don't want you to know.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: And an episode we've got that just came out about
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: info hazards, the idea that an idea can infect you
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  Speaker 2: and be spread around like a disease. So rumors, one
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  Speaker 2: could argue, are info hazard.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're mimetic. That's a really good comparison, and that
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  Speaker 1: is I really enjoyed that conversation me too. I think
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  Speaker 1: we both still kind of have a stage high off
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: of it because we recorded that yesterday.
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  Speaker 2: We did, and we just in general on that show
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: and sometimes on this show, we just really love thought experiments,
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: and there are so many fascinating thought experiments, including the
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: idea of Rocco's basilisk that we discussed in that episode.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: So do check that out if you're not an initiate
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: into the world of stuff I Don't want you to know.
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  Speaker 1: And do check out some more Paganini rumors. So this
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  Speaker 1: guy is a mysterious dude. We'll talk a little bit
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  Speaker 1: more about his very singular appearance and the vibe he cultivates.
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  Speaker 1: But he wanted these rumors. He invited these to them,
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  Speaker 1: you could say, as often as he solicited his lovers.
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  Speaker 1: Another rumor on the streets was that he his violin
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  Speaker 1: emitted the screams of women when he performed on stage.
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  Speaker 1: And you can read contemporary historical figures who go to
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  Speaker 1: AINI Paganini concert, not a Panini concert, have a Panini
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  Speaker 1: at a Paganini. I'm into the idea of a Panini concert.
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  Speaker 1: You know what I mean is that just like a
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  Speaker 1: parade of sandwiches. Well, Panini is an Italian sandwich, if
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  Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken.
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  Speaker 2: So perhaps and the refreshment counter at a Paganini concerto,
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  Speaker 2: one could enjoy a Panini.
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  Speaker 1: I think women were screaming in the audience, by the way,
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  Speaker 1: like I said, it was a total like BEATLEMANI at
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  Speaker 1: type situation.
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  Speaker 2: Ben I put a link in the chat. I just
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  Speaker 2: really would love you to see this image. I thought
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  Speaker 2: that I remembered seeing something like this, but it is
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  Speaker 2: such a cool painting, or like an etching kind of
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  Speaker 2: thing of Paganini ripping into the violet. It his fingers flying,
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  Speaker 2: and his silhouette on the wall is the devil.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I've seen this one. I love it. I
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  Speaker 1: feel like this would be Paganini approved as well. The
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  Speaker 1: devil virtuoso.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Ben, don't you think he had I mean it
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  Speaker 2: was a little bit dangerous. I guess he was in
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  Speaker 2: a part of Europe. It was the eighteen hundreds. They
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  Speaker 2: weren't burning people at the stake anymore. It was just
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  Speaker 2: a little bit you know, unclean, you know, kind of
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  Speaker 2: maybe the rumors, but I would think, uh, he would
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  Speaker 2: lean into this stuff because it's just absolutely fabulous. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: no pr is bad pr And like, I gotta go
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  Speaker 2: see this devil, the demon possessed violinist.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and for a long time the violin was regarded
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: by certain aspects of the European population as an instrument
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: of the devil. Right. That's part of why we get
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: the American folklore about the devil playing the fiddle. So
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: it's not necessarily surprising that rumors about a deal with
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: the devil will start circulating, at least for fun, when
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: someone's really good at the violin, and some people even
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: took it a step further and they said, maybe Paganini
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: is the devil himself. That was for the record several
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: of his exes who said that da da da da,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: but the one of the first, one of the first rumors,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: and I think this is what the drawing that you
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: shared shows us. One of the first rumors came out
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: of a concert in Vienna where one audience member swore seriously,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: from what we can tell, that they had seen the
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: devil helping Paganini play on stage. And then other people
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: started saying, I saw Paganini on the street, but when
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: he isn't performing, he's rocking horns and hooves.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I can picture it too, Ben, can't you you know,
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: like sort of doing that rooting, sort of bull wind
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: up thing with his right hoof as he you know,
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: cocks his head like rips it on the violin.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I totally see this. Yeah. Somebody said lightning struck the
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: end of Paganini's bow during a performance and fire from
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: his fingers as he rossened up his bow. Man. I
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: love that Charlie Daniels song All Hard if your great cool?
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah great too, big influence.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: I would have to argue on the band Primus.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Also with every song, every Primus song sounds like Devil
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: went down to George. Also, uh, looking back, I think
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: that was uh for for many kids, that may have
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: been their first introduction to rap cadence. Yeah met Dam Dad, but.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: Also auctioned Yeah Going Once, Going twice fun tune though
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: holds up. I will say then that you should if
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: you have, if you likely you have only heard bits
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: of it. I do recommend listening to it in one
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: sitting because it is a it is an it's about really,
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: it tells it sale.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a it's a long form narrative. It's pretty good.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna listen to it after this again. So uh.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: One thing was for sure, though, All of these rumors
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: about a cult or infernal activity came about as satire
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: or as an attempt to explain just why this guy
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: was so good. His skill on the violin was unparalleled.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: He was one of the first solo violinists. This is fascinating,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: some of the first solo violinists to perform in public
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: without sheet music. Instead, he chose to memorize everything, and
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: he was cool with some of his contemporaries. You know
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: other people who are professional violinists. If he liked a
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: compass somebody made, then he would do his own cover
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: version of it, and he would just kind of, you know,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: go Charlie Daniels with it, because he's since he doesn't
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: have sheet music, he's just running around the stage, you
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: know what, you know what I mean, like a nineteen
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: seventies got lead guitarist.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: Exactly, like what's that guy's name, Angus from ac DC,
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: always kind of hoofing around, you know, like with his
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: foot out, kind of jumping, doing the little Marty McFly
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: kind of dance.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and still he's got a pretty serious gambling problem.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: So he's he Being a famous musician, as we can
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: unfortunately assure you, does not always make you a wealthy person.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Well that's right, I was going to say earlier.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: The reason he needed to supplement his income with freelance,
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: you know, solo violin gigs, is because being a first chair,
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: while prestigious and depending on the orchestra, doesn't typically pay
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: a whole heck.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Of a lot. It is not a life of luxury, no, yeah. Yeah,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: And add to that lose in Paganini's case, he's losing
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: a lot of his disposable income because he loves the gambling.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: You know, he serves at the pleasure of the fates
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: and fortune, and he loses a lot. He pawned his
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: own violin one time because he just had to get
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: out of this gambling debt. A French merchant came and
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: saved the day they lent him. I don't know, have
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: you heard of this. You're more familiar with violins than
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: I am. Have you heard of a Guarneri violin? I haven't,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: but I'm.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Sure it's just like a maker's mark kind of situation,
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: you know, like a very like you know, I mean,
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: the big famous one is Strativarius. Those are still around
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: and incredibly sought after and incredibly expensive. But I do
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: know that, like, really serious violinists often will have instruments
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: that are worth tens of thousands of dollars and have
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: to be insured for super high amounts. Oh, because they're
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: one of a kind, you know, handmade, And that's likely
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: what the deal was with this.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: I'm not familiar with that particularly. Okay, Well, this this guy,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: French merchant, you don't think of him like the upper
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: middle class kind of Let's call him kindly a kindly
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: French merchant lent Paganini a violin, said, you know, I
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: know you got to play this concert. I believe in music,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: you know, give me a plus one to your concert.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: I could borrow my violin. And after he heard Paganini play,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: he was so moved that he gave Nick the violin.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: He heard a play and he said, oh dang, all right, bro,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: you keep it. We don't know too much more about
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: how stuff worked out with that French merchant, but we
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: do know that Paganini was what I call a known lothario.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: He had many many intimate intimate partners, intimate partners after
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: dark experiences. He was a busy boy off stage. He
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: did get busy off stage again.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: This this plays into the whole kind of mythos of
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: like the rock star.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: However you may look at that.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: Lifestyle, it definitely is a thing, and this guy lived
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: it many sexual partners. Amid all of those partners was
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: at least one who was considered kind of the love
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: of his life type figure, a singer named Antonio Bianci,
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: who he met in Milan in eighteen thirteen. They would
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: do concerts together throughout Italy and had a son together.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Named Achili Tiro Alessandro born on July twenty third, eighteen
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: twenty five in Palermo, baptized at Saint Bartolomeo's And they
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: actually never officially legalized their partnership.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Let's just say they had an entanglement a situationships. They
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: didn't do that.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: Situationship came to an end April of eighteen twenty eight
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: in Vienna. And then for a little bit of context
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: around this part of the world or this part of Italy.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: If anyone's seen the second season of The White Lotus,
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: the HBO series about the you know, the resort and
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: all of the crimey wymy shenanigans that ensue.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: They go to Palermo.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then it is an island like off of
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: the coast of I can't remember exactly.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Maybe it is Milan.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: I think it is where the actual resort is, but
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: the Palermo part is where the is where they go
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: for the kind of finale, the big climax.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Palermo is the capital of Sicily and Vienna. Austria
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: is so not too far away. But when things don't
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: work out for them, they're in Austria. That's where it ends.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: If we're jumping around in time a little bit here,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: as is our right, as is our want. Paganini becomes
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: a violinist earlier in eighteen oh five for the how
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: would you say this, Bacciochi court, Sure, yeah, maybe put
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: a little more stank on it, but Ciocchi, all right,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: I don't want to be that guy in Taco Bell
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: asked for a case Sudi.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: Do that in honor of my father. He did it
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: all the time. I've carried on that legacy of cringe.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: So this guy is he's a court violinist. He's still gambling.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: It's the early eighteen hundreds. He is giving private lessons
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: to the husband of Alisa Bonaparte, who is Napoleon's sister,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: and her husband is named Felice. And while Paganini is
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: teaching this guy to play violin for a decade, by
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: the way, he's also sleeping with Alisa.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: What a cat rest scallion, scally wag, yeah, lout rake yeah.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: And he he has to hit the road jack at
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: a as a result, the heat's getting too much, so
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: he returns to touring. Like you said, Genoah, he's popular
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: with local audiences, but he's not super well known to
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: the rest of Europe until his first big break in
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: eighteen thirteen concert in Milan. This is where he gets
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: a huge following. This is where rumors start spreading about
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: his spellbinding powers and is packed with the forces of evil,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: by the way, rumors that he never publicly rejected.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. It would make sense, you know,
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: if he was not a feared for his you know, safety,
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: why not lean into it. It's a it's a point
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: of interest. I would certainly want to want to get
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: in on this particular satanic panic.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, And that's just what it was, right,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: perhaps not as dangerous as the Inquisition, right, if it
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: was just a it was a naughty boy who is edgy,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: who is Alice Cooper esque original Edge Lord. Yeah yeah.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: And he leaned into it because he composed what is
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: often described just a fiendishly difficult set of variations called
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: the Witches l'astrega. Yeah, yeah, just so, and he rocked out.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: This gave him the attention of other prominent, perhaps more
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: conservative musicians across Europe. Yeah.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: The thing that was neat and sort of unique about
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Paganini was that he didn't you sheet music because he
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: memorized all of his stuff, which gave him the freedom
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: to do all of those stage theatrics that we were
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: talking about, like you know, swaying quite literally rocking the
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: f out, and he started to attract the attention of
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: other prominent, yet more conservative musicians across Europe who maybe
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: looked a bit of skance.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: At his shenaniganry.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: One of his early encounters with Charles Philippe Lafonte and
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: Lewis Spohrer birthed a very intense rivalry.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Yes, which continued for quite some time. He was friends
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: with other musics, but not friends with all of them.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: He was old, but like his vibe. Yeah yeah, not
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: everything is for everyone. You know. One guy who did
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: like him was the Pope. I guess that's a flex.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: In eighteen twenty seven, Pope Leo twelve gave Paganini the
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Order of the Golden Spur, which was a big deal
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: in the day. We must not have heard the devil rooms.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: What do you think about that? You know, I wonder
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: about that one too. Honestly, maybe that was a maybe
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: he just got co signs from both sides of the aisle.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: I guess, so you know, it's better to have him
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: in our corner, right, for when the infernal line comes
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: down and starts taking names, his fame begins to truly
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: spread across Europe. He goes on like a proper rockstar
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: concert tour that began in Vienna in eighteen twenty eight,
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: stopped in every single major European city in Germany, Poland Bohemia,
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: running until February of eighteen thirty.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: One, when he played in Strasberg. Yeah, and then he
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: moves on with more tours around Paris and Britain. He
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: gets pretty much unanimous critical acclaim because he's just good. Yes, Yeah,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: he's a badass. He's a bad mamma jammer. As long
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: as he could, as long as he could get on stage.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: He was no stranger to chronic illness. We're going to
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: dive into that in a second, but we know that
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: being a relatively sickly child and sickly adult and also
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: frequently touring probably had an effect on his health. And
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: then it didn't help that he also got syphilis as
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: early as eighteen twenty two. The treatment he was given
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: for syphilis was mercury and opium, which are, by the way, yeah,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: not things you should take even if you don't have syphilis.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean opium, you know, okay that you probably
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: have a good old time with that, But mercury, they
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: kind of went on to figure out that that stuff
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: made you crazy. And if I'm not mistaken, soda syphilis, yeah,
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: given enough time to metastasize. By the way, Ben, it
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: always occurs to me when we're talking about people like this,
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: whether they be great performers or speakers or whatever, and
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: the thought that crosses my mind is are there recordings?
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: And the good news is kind of yes, you know,
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: we haven't really pushed this home, but be kind of
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: leaning more on his performance skills so that he was
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: a composer. Yes, he wrote all his music. He wrote,
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: He wrote original music, which required the level and skill
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: that he had, and so there would be you know,
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: some people wouldn't be able to pull this stuff off.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: You can find wax cylinder recordings in the British Library,
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: thought to be one of Paganini's only pupils. Actually I
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: think his only pupil Camillo Sivori, and then include his
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: Witch's Dance and Savori, who also composed in the style
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: of Paganini.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: The second violin can share you.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: I am not seeing if there are any actual pugany
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: because I guess he couldn't really do recordings until early
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: nineteen hundreds, and we lost him just before the technology
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: I think came into it.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: You know what, Let's play just briefly so everybody can
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: hear it. Let's play a little bit of a Paganini composition. Yes,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: so here's a snippet of the Witch's dance. The violinist
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: shakes the hand, yeah, all right, the conductor's warming up,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: all right, he's doing his own weird hand thing. So
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: there's multiple people played. You got to wait for our guy,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: the first violin to hop in. Here he comes. Oh yeah,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: So in like the seventeen eighteen hundreds, this would be
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: like Harry and Jimmy hendrixh one hundred percent listening to
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: those runs.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: I mean he also kind of created some unique stylistic
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: touches of his own that we'll get to in a minute.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: But those are called like those really fast runs, glissando
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: kind of things. It's very, very difficult, and if anyone
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: has ever had a sibling or maybe themselves tried to
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: take up the violin, it sounds horrible unless you're really
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: really good.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, because unlike unlike your favorite guitar, the violin
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: doesn't have frets.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: You gotta man, it's a very small fingerboard, you know,
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: and you know when you first start. I started playing
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: Suzuki violin, which also leans heavily into memorization, which I
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: thought was interesting. It tapes little little pieces of tape
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: on the on the fret, on the front board, on
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: the fingerboard, so that you know where the main notes are.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: But once you start getting more advanced, you start to
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: shift your hand around and like shift up and up
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: and up, and sometimes do things called like double stops,
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: where you'll play two strings at a time and make
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: these like little kind of mini chords and.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: All on this tiny piece of physical real estate. It's
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: funny the memorization, which I do believe is impressive, just
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: the muscle memory of it. It reminds me of when
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: I ask my accomplished trombonist friends to show me without
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: the trombone what a note looks like, and they have
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: it down and it looks really cool when they just
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: stretch their arm to a certain degree and say this
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: is this and this, uh so shout out to trombodis
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: I don't think you get enough love, and you're an
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: important part of the crew. How did Paganini get so good? Well,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: going back to that small fingerboard conversation, he was a
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: very very flexible guy. He was basically gumby on stage,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: and later historians and researchers would wonder whether this came
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: from something called Eller's don Lois syndrome or possibly more fans,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: which people speculate Abraham Lincoln might have had as well
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: because of the word.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: Jefford Cox from the bands Deer Hunter has been very
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: open about his mar Fans syndrome. He's a very tall
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: and lanky fellow and it has actual health consequences with
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: it does result in sort of a very tall and
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: skinny frame.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And whether you have Mark fans or Eller's down
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: los we have a lot of speculation that this condition
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: may have been part of how he was able to
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: go at the violin with such phenomenal speed and not
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: always have to change his position. His fingers were just
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: super flexible, which meant that he could hit these huge
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: stretches and these runs with relative ease.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm not gonna dox anybody, but we do
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: have a close friend both of you. You and I'm
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: mutual who has dollars dan Low's And it is not
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: some sort of debilitating I guess there maybe are our
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: stages of it, but what it typically results in is
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: just a very stretchy and flexible skin.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of a gumby situation. And bro, if
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: you're listening, you know, we're saying that out of affection.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: And I love when that guy explains it to people.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: It's always like he's got his presentation down, pat, you
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: know what I mean with the super flexible stuff. Also
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: it helps fight wrinkles, right right, Yeah.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the friend that I'm talking about has a perpetually youthful.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: Glow and also youthful fun vibe. I love that guy,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: all right. So Paganini widely employs the special effects of
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: the violin world. He's got a high speed left hand pisocado.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: He barely touches the strings to make some ghosty sounds,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: and the pisocados where the upper fingers of the left
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: hand plucked the string while the lower ones hold down
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: the notes.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: Sort of pitsicado in general is just plucking the violin,
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: but he's doing a form of pitsicato. That's like even
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: more advanced, I think is borderline of his own design.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: So what he would do is he would be plucking
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: with his left hand, which is the hand you typically
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: push down the strings on the left hand. Yeah, and
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: then he could also be he sort of like a
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: hammer on on a guitar, where you pull up on
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: the string and it makes a plucking sound. But he
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: would combine that with hitting it with the bow in between,
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: and then aven plucking.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: With the right hand.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: And there are some really really fancy, showy violin pieces
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: that incorporate that technique and the ghostly harmonics that you
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: were describing. There's a really beautiful piece was when I
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: was at my kind of advanced dist in violin called
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: the Chardash. It's a very famous you've heard heard.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: Anyway.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: There's a whole part in it that uses these double
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: harmonics where you have to so gently touch your pinky
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: at an exact fifth interval and just touch it of
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: the finger you're putting down the string, and it creates
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: this really kind of ghostly harmonic sound. They're called artificial harmonics. Yeah,
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: and I'm a nerd.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: And he also had a lot of these double stops
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: two notes played simultaneously every way you can imagine a
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: bow touching a violin and producing a sound. He did it.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: You know. He basically he knew all the super moves,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: and he had been called by multiple people faultless, beyond imagination,
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: utterly unique and gifted beyond, you know, beyond mortal KeNH
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: Because he was such a successful virtuoso, it became a
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: coup of your own if you were in the audience.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: And he cultivated this is what we're talking about earlier,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: his appearance. He cultivated a purposely edgy appearance. He wanted
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: to look like a fan of the film The Crow.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: He was pale, he was gaunt, he had eternally messy
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: black hair, he was wore a long frock coat. And
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: because he had an earlier botched operation on his jaw, Yeah,
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: he had a weird He always had a kind of
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: weird expression. So he looked like a spooky guy.
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: He did look like a bit of a ghoul, didn't he. Yes,
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: just a spooky season you know what. I also bet Ben,
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: I'm picturing a bit of a smell. Oh, come on, man, it.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: Was don't know why. I just I picture a bit
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: of a of a tour bus smell. In this era,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: it was already smelling everything stink, you know what I mean?
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: I think that was Oh gosh. We were talking with
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: Bahamas about that a while a while ago. Yes, Aj Bahamas,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: Jacob's one of our smartest friends. Remember when we talked
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: to Moe Raka and he was just talking about mostly
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: said the same thing.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: He was talking about the seventies in New York City recently,
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: the seventies everyone smelled like Bo on the subway.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: It's very, very true. This is a different time for Bo.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: And I'm just thinking our boy Agannini was a bit
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: of a stinker.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I hate to profile. I don't know why, but
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: he's got the look. He does have the look, the unkempt.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: I bet that Frock coat. Bet it didn't get laundered
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: too frequently. Yeah, how many Frock coats did he have?
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: That's all?
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: Did he even have a closet? At this point, he
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: seemed like he was a bit of a transient.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: Well, in eighteen thirty six, he goes back to Paris
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: to set up a casino and the casino fail. That
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: goes well, right now, okay, yeah, it fails terribly cartoonishly.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Dare I say ridiculously. It left him in financial dire straits.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: Not the band.
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: You don't have no microwave of it. You know that
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: song drops a slur very casually. I did not realize
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: it until very recently when I was I was trying
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: to show my kid in the video because it was
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: that classic early MTV computery video. And then the second verse,
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: I mean to be fair, it is sort of playing
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: a character who would use that word five.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: But it's not good. It does not age well, no, no, no.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: And then we've got what's the name of that? Is
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: it money for nothing? Money for nothing? Is it chicks
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: for free? Or checks for free? I think it's money
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: for nothing and chicks for free, chicks for free? Okay,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: let us know, let us let us know. Dire straits.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: They're still kicking around, and because the casino is ruined,
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: he has to auction off a bunch of his personal effects.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: So if he had multiple frock coats, he doesn't anymore.
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: He has to auction off his musical instruments to make
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: good on his losses. He leaves Paris for Marseille in
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty eight during Christmas. Then he travels to Nice
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: in the entire time, his medical condition is getting worse
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: and worse and worse. It's eighteen forty. The local bishop
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: sends Paganini a priest to perform the last rites, and
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: Paganini is pissed off. He pretty much says, come on, guys,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: I'm not dead yet. Why are you here? And he
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: turns the priest away because he says, you know, I'm
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: not gonna die yet. That's the official explanation. But for
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: people who believe the rumor that he was the Devil's violinist,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: they thought he had already sworn allegiance to infernal powers
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: and as such could not take last rites in the church. Anyway,
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: it looks like the bishop who sent the priest was
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: onto something, because Paganini dies a week later, May eighteen forty,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: May twenty seventh, eighteen forty. He's just fifty seven years old. Yes,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: he died as he lived fast and loose. Oh that's
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: a heck of a way to describe internal hemorrhagy. I
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: know exactly, internal hemorrhaging. Indeed, was this a complication from
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: his syphilis? It had to be a culmination of multiple things. Yeah,
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: you know, we talked about genetic conditions syphilis, tuberculosis, whatever
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: else he picked up in his adult adventures. It's a
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: weird pause. Try for the diplomacy here, folks. Uh, yeah,
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: his This is how we know that he had this
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: association with the devil. The Catholic Church denied his body
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: a Catholic burial in Genoa, but the Popa loved him.
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but Papa, Papa, where are you in his hour
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: of need?
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: Where is burial? Need? Where is job rule? It took uh?
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: But the okay like his fans though, are the equivalent
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: of barbs? Is that the Nicki minaj fans.
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: Or whatever bars in the behive or swifties in Behi Bayhive.
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: There's another what do you know what they called chapel
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: ron fans. I don't know that was too new. Chaps,
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: the Chapsters. Charlie xc x O G fans are angels
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: because Charlie's angels.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: You know, I get it. Well, he had this kind
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: of fandom. You know, what do they call it? What
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: can we give him a name? Then the Ninis I
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: like that? Yeah, Oh, the Pagans, the Pagans followers. There
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: we go. I believe the guy didn't think to start
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: a cult of Paganini. I I had a little harder guy.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: I think he was a one on one kind of guy.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: I think that's probably true, you know what I mean,
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: and probably with people he's trying to sleep with. That's what. Yeah,
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: it took anyways, fans the Pagans uh. They spend four
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: years lobbying the Catholic Church and appealing to the Pope
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: to let this guy's body be transported back to Genoa.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: He goes on a posthumous tour, he's taken to Genoa.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: He's still not buried. He's finally buried in eighteen seventy six,
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: so many years after he dies, he is buried in
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: a cemetery in Pharma.
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: You know, this reminds me of remember when James Brown
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: passed away and like he went unburied for months. I
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: want to say, he died on Christmas Day of whatever
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: year that was, and they kept his body like in
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: a freezer or something, or like a refrigerator in his
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: own on his own property, I want to say, because
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: there were a lot of legal issues his a state
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: and all of that, but it was the weirdest thing,
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: like they did. There was a whole like what's the
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: deal with James Brown's burial very similar.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is only one story of a musician
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: rumored to have sold their soul to the devil. We
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: know that Paganini's body was finally reinterred in a new
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: cemetery still in part in eighteen ninety six. He has
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: found peace. We cannot speak to any direct proof of
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: supernatural affiliation, but we can say some people genuinely believe
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: he had made a deal with the devil because he
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: was just that good. So if you want an obscure
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: Halloween costume, or if you don't want to dress up,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: just mess up your hair, put on a long coat
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: and tell people you're Paganini for Halloween exactly. I mean,
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: fun costume.
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: There was one thing in the Beetlejuice movie, the New
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: Beetlejuice movie, that I thought was kind of cute. I
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: had a little ragged on It's okay, it's fine, but
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: the young Lydia Dietz's daughter character played by Jenna Ortega,
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: dresses up as Marie Currie for Halloween, and like she's
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: got like sort of like like bags under her eyes,
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: like it's meant to represent like radiation poisoning. I love
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: the idea of deep cut historical Halloween cousin. I think
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: Paganini would be a good one.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: That's a cool Yeah, it's a cool idea. The more
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: I think about more I like it. I love obscure costumes.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: Not only really backfired once. I don't think we knew
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: each other. I dressed as HH Holmes and I looked
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: I did it Orange Star No, uh, the serial Killer
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: from the Devil with the White City. I was thinking
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: of John. Sorry, different different homes. But HH Holmes. Please
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: read The Devil in the White City if you haven't,
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: It's just a fantastic book. HH Holmes, real monster, kind
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: of a deep cut. And here's why I backfired. The
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: one person other than my girlfriend at the time who
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: recognized was super not chill No was very excited that
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: they've met someone dressed as HH Holmes and wanted to
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: hang out. What does that say about this person? Not
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: not I get you know. First suppressions are the measure
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: the within span of a human character. But that lady
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: had a creepy vibe.
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: Well, speaking of creepy vibes and serial killer fandom. Since
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: we're wrapping up this episode and Ben, a huge thanks
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: to you for putting together this incredible brief on such
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: an incredibly weird and I guess divisive fellow. I did
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: want to make a spooky season film recommendation.
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: Let's hear it. It is called.
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: Red Rooms, and it is a French Canadian kind of
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: procedural horror, you know, serial killer type thing, but it
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: is all from the perspective of a super fan of
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: this serial killer who is on trial, and it does
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: some of the most incredible things with there's I don't
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: know if anyone's familiar or it have to be too heavy,
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: but the idea of Red Rooms is sort of an
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: Internet rumor, kind of like snuff films, the idea that
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: on the dark Web there exists these murder films that
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: you can bid on or watch cams of or whatever,
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: and they are largely thought to be mythical. But in
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: the reality of this movie, they are not mythical. And
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: this gentleman has perpetrated multiple of these and you experience
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: others watching them, but you don't ever see them.
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: You just see their reactions and hear the sound.
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: And I swear ben it is one of the most
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: stunning and haunting horror type films I've ever seen. It's
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: up there to me with like a Silence of the
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: Lambs type situation. I highly I can't recommend it enough.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: Do check it out, folks. I will do the same
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: and let us know your favorite Halloween films and rewatches.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: I'm all, it's always Halloween in America in my opinion,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: so I'm always yeah, so I'm always watching horror films.
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: The thanks has always ridiculous histories for tuning in, big,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: big thanks to our super producer, mister Max Williams. I
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: called him the Ookie Boogieman earlier because I was up
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: really late last night and Nightmare Before Christmas came on
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: and I just came on, Ben, you have like cable
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: or something, what do we talk? Well, not to I
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: wrote anybody, you know what I mean, but it popped
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: on and I remember distinctly thinking, well, I can't go
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: to sleep now, I've got to see what happens in
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: this movie that I've watched, you know clearly like thirty times.
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: Well, the four K remaster looks fantastic, stunning, right, yeah,
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: very very very cool.
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: A big fan of Night Before Christmas as well.
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: And big fan of you, Ben as well as you
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: superproducer Max as well. As Alex Williams who composed this theme,
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: and huge fans of Christopher Hasiotis and Ease Jeffcoat here
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: in spirit oh.
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: Our buddy Christopher is going to be performing at our
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: local Atlanta Rite Club I Believe on November sixth. It's
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: a good show for a good cause. Check it out
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: if you're in town. We also want to thank, with
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: great reluctance, our pal Jonathan Strickland, who definitely made a
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: deal with the Devil but for podcast Yeah, kind of
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: a similarly bunk deal to the one I'm met for violining.
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: Just kidding, Jonathan, You're great. Yeah, we love you, man
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: jee UIs Ben You got anything else to say? Happy Halloween? Ah, Yes,
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: Happy Halloween. Indeed, we'll see you next time, folks.
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.