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Lou Reed (An Origin Story) Pt. 1 · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. Heads Up, Everybody,
0:05
Speaker 1: This is not your typical Disgraceland episode where we tell
0:07
Speaker 1: the story of a musician through the true crimes they
0:10
Speaker 1: committed or that were committed to them. For this two
0:14
Speaker 1: part episode on the Velvet Undergrounds Lou Read, we're doing
0:17
Speaker 1: something different to honor loose habit of basically lying and
0:20
Speaker 1: exaggerating his way through most interviews about his past. We
0:24
Speaker 1: examine Lou's origin story in the Velvet Underground through the crimes,
0:28
Speaker 1: criminals and transgressive behavior depicted and Lose Velvet Underground lyrics
0:32
Speaker 1: to explore what really inspired Lou Read, one of the
0:35
Speaker 1: greatest rock and roll characters of all time, to create
0:38
Speaker 1: some of the coolest and most influential music of all time.
0:42
Speaker 1: All right, let's get into it. The stories Lou Reed
1:05
Speaker 1: told and his Velvet Underground songs are insane manslaughter in
1:10
Speaker 1: the song The Gift, Sado, masochism in sexual deviancy in
1:14
Speaker 1: the song Venus and Furs, drug abuse and heroin, and
1:18
Speaker 1: I'm Waiting for the Man, prostitution in the song There
1:21
Speaker 1: She Goes Again, and of course, murder in the Murder
1:25
Speaker 1: Mystery in the stories Lou Reed told about himself to
1:28
Speaker 1: the rock Press. Those were insane too, That he once
1:32
Speaker 1: put a rifle to a man's head, That his parents
1:35
Speaker 1: forced him to undergo electro shock treatments because he was gay,
1:39
Speaker 1: That he graduated from Harvard. Not sure why it would
1:42
Speaker 1: brag about that one, but I digress. Lou Reed was
1:45
Speaker 1: once quoted as saying, I've lied so much about the past,
1:49
Speaker 1: I can't even tell myself what is true anymore. The
1:52
Speaker 1: point is, Lou Reed told tall tales bolt in song
1:56
Speaker 1: and in real life, and you know what, that's fucking awesome.
2:01
Speaker 1: The best rock stars are experts, stewarts of their own myths.
2:05
Speaker 1: Lou Reid, like Bob Dylan, David Bowie and Kurt Cobain,
2:09
Speaker 1: mastered this skill because he studied the storytelling mastery of
2:12
Speaker 1: writers such as Raymond Chandler, Hubert Selby Junior, and William S. Burrows.
2:18
Speaker 1: Lou combined their transgressive influence with his own subversive coming
2:21
Speaker 1: of age experiences in mid sixties Manhattan as he wrote
2:25
Speaker 1: the lyrics for his band The Velvet Underground. Make no mistake,
2:29
Speaker 1: this is not a Velvet Underground episode, though. This is
2:32
Speaker 1: a Lou Reed origin story that takes place during his
2:35
Speaker 1: time in the beginning days of the Velvets, a time
2:39
Speaker 1: when lou Reid was making his first great music. Unlike
2:44
Speaker 1: that music I played for you at the top of
2:46
Speaker 1: the show. That wasn't great music. That was a preset
2:50
Speaker 1: loop from my melotron called slow Drag MK one. I
2:55
Speaker 1: played you that loop because I can't afford the rights
2:58
Speaker 1: to love us here and now you're gone by the Supremes.
3:02
Speaker 1: And why would I play you that specific slice of
3:05
Speaker 1: stupin the Boss at Motown Cheese? Could I afford it?
3:09
Speaker 1: Because that was the number one song in America on
3:12
Speaker 1: March twelfth, nineteen sixty seven, and that was the day
3:16
Speaker 1: that Lou Reed's Velvet Underground released their first album and
3:19
Speaker 1: forever changed modern music. On this episode, a multitude of
3:24
Speaker 1: mid sixties Manhattan transgressions, a murder mystery, a sado masochism,
3:29
Speaker 1: drug abuse. In the Tall Tale of the Velvet Undergrounds,
3:33
Speaker 1: lou Reid, I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. I
4:11
Speaker 1: was two SIPs into a lukewarm Maxwell House when Marsha
4:13
Speaker 1: Bronson's Beauty finally revealed itself. Prior to that, the White
4:18
Speaker 1: Light of trauma and the white heat of guilt. Marsha
4:21
Speaker 1: wore both like a ghost, and as such she was
4:23
Speaker 1: nearly invisible to me. But that was then Here in
4:27
Speaker 1: the now, the Sunday morning sunlight shone through her mother's
4:30
Speaker 1: long island kitchen window and revealed the truth. I was unnerved.
4:35
Speaker 1: She was young, nineteen, but I wasn't surprised. Marsha's mother
4:39
Speaker 1: was once a beauty too. Now she was an undiagnosed
4:42
Speaker 1: manic depressive, overprescribed on lithium, only two more nervous breakdowns
4:47
Speaker 1: away from electroshock therapy. Marsha's father was an old army connection.
4:52
Speaker 1: Now he was a bull out at Riker's, a mean
4:54
Speaker 1: son of a bitch, and this morning Big Bill Bronson
4:57
Speaker 1: was especially angry dog. His boyfriend, Waldo Jeffers was dead.
5:02
Speaker 1: His daughter, Marsha Bronson was accused of killing him, and
5:06
Speaker 1: if I didn't get her off, her father would put
5:08
Speaker 1: me in a box. I owed him. It was a
5:12
Speaker 1: large debt, the kindy take on at war, where Jesus
5:15
Speaker 1: looks the other way and you accrue debts you could
5:17
Speaker 1: never pay off, despite your better angels. I had other
5:21
Speaker 1: debts too, the KINDI take on downtown, where Uncle Dave
5:25
Speaker 1: passes your pony debts off to Italian roughnecks with horse
5:28
Speaker 1: cocks and crooked noses. Those guys got paid or else
5:33
Speaker 1: I needed money, Except Big Bill wasn't paid for this
5:36
Speaker 1: piece of work. Like I said, big Bill was collecting.
5:40
Speaker 1: That meant I was hustling for him until I got
5:42
Speaker 1: his daughter off. If only Waldo could have done the same,
5:46
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be in this mess. And that was Waldo's problem.
5:50
Speaker 1: He waited for it his whole life. He never took it,
5:54
Speaker 1: so when the time came to go out and get it,
5:56
Speaker 1: Waldo wound up dead in a box. Waldo descended from Locus, Pennsylvania.
6:03
Speaker 1: He met Marcia at college in Wisconsin. When semester broke,
6:06
Speaker 1: Waldo had it back to pa and Marcia, after a
6:09
Speaker 1: brief rendezvous with Waldo in Manhattan, returned to her off
6:12
Speaker 1: campus apartment in Wisconsin, rather than spending the summer with
6:15
Speaker 1: her parents out on Long Island. Marcia swore to Waldo
6:19
Speaker 1: she'd be faithful. She lied, Waldo bought it. Marcia called,
6:23
Speaker 1: but only twice. She wrote too, but again only twice.
6:29
Speaker 1: The way Marcia saw it, Waldo's insecurity and imagination got
6:32
Speaker 1: the best of them. He was the jealous type anyone
6:35
Speaker 1: could see it, and prone to nightmares. Marcia said he
6:39
Speaker 1: couldn't sleep, said this was just the type of dumb
6:42
Speaker 1: love struck, shittheel thing Waldo would do too, but that
6:45
Speaker 1: he wouldn't have done it alone. And if I read
6:48
Speaker 1: mont Alan Lewis Ace to my friends, Ace Lewis to
6:51
Speaker 1: my clients, if I was worth the income a private
6:53
Speaker 1: dick's license, that I could prove O Waldo had a conspirator,
6:57
Speaker 1: not just an accomplice, someone who put him to it.
7:00
Speaker 1: And if I could prove that, then I could shift
7:03
Speaker 1: the blame away from Marcia, and Big Bill would be satisfied.
7:06
Speaker 1: And I well, I could get back to my ponies,
7:09
Speaker 1: make back my roll, and put some space between me
7:11
Speaker 1: and no nos nuncio. But back to Waldo never wanted
7:16
Speaker 1: to sit at the head of the class. The idea
7:18
Speaker 1: was too simple for him to come to alone and
7:20
Speaker 1: too daring for him to do on his own without prodding. Waldough,
7:25
Speaker 1: despite mowing and edging the Edison's lawn for a dollar
7:27
Speaker 1: fifty every other week, was broke and there was no
7:30
Speaker 1: way he could afford a bus to get to Wisconsin
7:32
Speaker 1: to surprise Marcia. So the idea was to mail himself
7:37
Speaker 1: there in a cardboard box a staple gund and pactaped
7:42
Speaker 1: delivered to the attention of Marsha Bronson, care of the
7:44
Speaker 1: Clarence Darrow Post Office, Madison, Wisconsin, all the way from
7:48
Speaker 1: the great state of Pennsylvania. When Marsha opened the box
7:52
Speaker 1: upon delivery and Waldo emerged from inside, they'd be reunited
7:55
Speaker 1: and overtaken by love, Or so Waldo thought the night
8:00
Speaker 1: before he arrived in a box via the US Mail,
8:04
Speaker 1: Marcia spent the better part of the evening in the
8:06
Speaker 1: back seat of a sixty six Mustang fighting off a
8:09
Speaker 1: boy named Bill's octopus arms. She liked him, but with
8:13
Speaker 1: that name, he couldn't help but remind her of her dad,
8:16
Speaker 1: and for her dad, she put up a fight, resisting
8:18
Speaker 1: young Bill's advances, but eventually the Dakeeries won out and
8:22
Speaker 1: Marsha gave up the fight and submitted to the caresses
8:25
Speaker 1: of sexual oblivion. This morning, she didn't regret it, but
8:30
Speaker 1: she did regret her hangover. When the package arrived, with
8:33
Speaker 1: Waldo her boyfriend hidden inside. Beaming with desperation, Marcia and
8:38
Speaker 1: her roommate Sheila struggled to open it. Inside, Waldo choked
8:42
Speaker 1: down an excited squeal. He was on his knees, perched
8:45
Speaker 1: like an obedient puppy in anticipation of a treat. Marcia,
8:49
Speaker 1: with some regret, noted the return address was from Waldo.
8:52
Speaker 1: Sheila asked Marsha while she still bothered with that schmuck.
8:56
Speaker 1: Waldo took it like a bullet to the gut, and
8:58
Speaker 1: Marsha tugged at the box's flat and it refused to open.
9:01
Speaker 1: She shuffled into the kitchen for some scissors, and those
9:04
Speaker 1: didn't work either. She remembered there were old tools in
9:07
Speaker 1: the garage. Marcia settled on the first large capable tool
9:11
Speaker 1: she could find, an old sheet metal cutter. It was
9:14
Speaker 1: pre war, just like me and Marsha's dad. It was
9:17
Speaker 1: special vintage. Its shear stretched eight inches. Waldo in the
9:21
Speaker 1: box was so excited he could hardly breathe. Marcia tried
9:25
Speaker 1: cutting into the taped edge of the box, but the
9:26
Speaker 1: sheet metal shears were too old and offered a little action,
9:30
Speaker 1: and with her hangover calling the shots, Marcia stood impatiently
9:33
Speaker 1: above the box. She raised the sheet metal cutter over
9:37
Speaker 1: her head with two hands, and brought it down in
9:39
Speaker 1: one giant stabbing motion with the entire weight of her body,
9:43
Speaker 1: right through the middle of the package, through the masking tape,
9:47
Speaker 1: through the cardboard, through the packing cushion, and straight to
9:50
Speaker 1: the top of Waldo Jeffer's head. When they found the
9:54
Speaker 1: old Waldo in that box, the sheet metal cutter was
9:56
Speaker 1: sticking straight out of his skull. The two sides of
9:59
Speaker 1: his head had split slightly, just as a watermelon would.
10:03
Speaker 1: Waldo was dead. Marcia killed them, and if I didn't
10:07
Speaker 1: prove that she didn't, I'd be dead too. In nineteen
10:35
Speaker 1: sixty seven New York City, the avant garde rock and
10:38
Speaker 1: roll band The Velvet Underground recorded the song The Gift,
10:41
Speaker 1: about the troublesome death of Waldo Jeffers at the confused
10:44
Speaker 1: hand of his college sweetheart Marsha Bronson. The Velvet Underground's
10:48
Speaker 1: main singer songwriter Lou Reed, found his inspiration for The
10:52
Speaker 1: Gift and the story of Waldo jeffers death depicted in
10:55
Speaker 1: the Daily News. The details of the true crime screamed
10:59
Speaker 1: off the pages of the new newspaper at the student
11:01
Speaker 1: poet come musician. It was the exact inspiration the twenty
11:05
Speaker 1: three year old needed upstarts. The Velvet Underground were at
11:08
Speaker 1: the time, in nineteen sixty five, in need of an identity,
11:11
Speaker 1: and Lou found it in the gritty cracks of mid
11:13
Speaker 1: century Manhattan, with all of its grime, vice and beat
11:16
Speaker 1: Nick's subversiveness. Lou read embodied the city he called home,
11:20
Speaker 1: and he knew how to hustle inspiration from the pages
11:23
Speaker 1: of a daily rag into one of his songs. The
11:25
Speaker 1: Velvet Underground were on their way to where I didn't know.
11:29
Speaker 1: All I knew was that Lou was the perfect Patsy,
11:32
Speaker 1: and when I was done with them, Marshall would be free,
11:35
Speaker 1: and Big Bill and me we'd be square. They smashed
11:41
Speaker 1: my head face first into the dirty window of the
11:44
Speaker 1: Union Squared diner. That's when I saw him, sitting at
11:47
Speaker 1: the counter. He saw me, too, briefly, and then he
11:51
Speaker 1: looked away, as did the other patrons. But Lou looked
11:55
Speaker 1: back at his newspaper, and the others just stared off
11:57
Speaker 1: in a sweet, nothing caffeinated vacant. I could tell him
12:01
Speaker 1: that instant that Lou was different, alive outside beardless. Harry
12:07
Speaker 1: turned me around and stood me up straight, backed my
12:09
Speaker 1: shoulders into a lamp post and let loose with a
12:12
Speaker 1: wild left. It was half of what he was good for.
12:15
Speaker 1: I'd get the rest in three days if I didn't
12:17
Speaker 1: have Nunzio's vig. Harry delivered his promise with his trademark stutter.
12:21
Speaker 1: I understood him better than most. Harry didn't want to
12:24
Speaker 1: deliver on his promise. He was just doing his job,
12:27
Speaker 1: but he'd be back and he'd make it worth his
12:29
Speaker 1: cab fair next time. I believed him on that account, too,
12:33
Speaker 1: Harry scatamooched. I shook it off, collected myself, dragged the
12:37
Speaker 1: heat of the New York night into the diner with me.
12:40
Speaker 1: I counted two absent glances from the nighthawks and not
12:43
Speaker 1: one from Lou. I slid into a booth with an
12:46
Speaker 1: easy sight line toward the counter, close enough to read
12:48
Speaker 1: the large print on his daily news, but far enough
12:51
Speaker 1: away where I couldn't discern the smell of his lucky
12:53
Speaker 1: from the rest of the smoke hanging under the low ceiling.
12:56
Speaker 1: Lou wore the quilted collar of his leather bomber up
12:59
Speaker 1: high against the neck, as if to say, don't bother me.
13:03
Speaker 1: I took my cue. I was content to observe Lou
13:07
Speaker 1: was like a cool breeze, even sitting there in the diner.
13:10
Speaker 1: He iced out the bustle and somehow charmed the waitress
13:13
Speaker 1: with the stony glare as she refilled his cup. The
13:16
Speaker 1: Puerto Rican busboy, a real swishblade type named Jesus, sweated
13:20
Speaker 1: over the way Lou filled out his Levi's there on
13:22
Speaker 1: the vinyl top bar stool. Lou was aware of the attention,
13:25
Speaker 1: and he welcomed it. Some jungle rhythm that I couldn't
13:28
Speaker 1: pretend to understand poured out of the jukebox under the
13:31
Speaker 1: high pitched squeal of a doper horn. I cringed, but
13:34
Speaker 1: Lou played easy, tapping in time with the exposed steel
13:37
Speaker 1: toe of his elevator boot against the bottom of the
13:39
Speaker 1: stool stand. The frozen pat of butter on the edge
13:42
Speaker 1: of his knife hit his mouth minus the toast, and
13:44
Speaker 1: didn't stand a chance. The butter was all he needed,
13:48
Speaker 1: all he could really stand. And my hunch was confirmed.
13:51
Speaker 1: In my business, most times, all you have is a hunch,
13:55
Speaker 1: your gut, and my gut told me that if Lou
13:57
Speaker 1: Reed didn't do it, and I knew he didn't, then
13:59
Speaker 1: he sure a shit could have done and besides either way,
14:03
Speaker 1: that little Long Island pisson. It was guilty of something,
14:06
Speaker 1: and surely that had a matter somewhat. But whether or
14:08
Speaker 1: not he did or didn't conspire with Waldo Jeffers to
14:11
Speaker 1: pull that cocamane stunt that wound up Olwaldo in a
14:13
Speaker 1: box didn't matter to me. What mattered to me was,
14:16
Speaker 1: like I said, that he could have conspired with his
14:18
Speaker 1: former childhood neighbor to do such a thing. It was
14:21
Speaker 1: the potential. That's where the percentage was. Odds were Lou
14:25
Speaker 1: was thinking the same thing right now, reading his daily news,
14:28
Speaker 1: sipping his sludge, meditating on Big Bill's Beauty Queen and
14:32
Speaker 1: all that baby, Baby, Where did our love go? Horseshit?
14:34
Speaker 1: They sell soft and nickel Seeberg's like the one in
14:37
Speaker 1: the corner. I hated the noise, but was still able
14:40
Speaker 1: to settle into the familiar calm with the greasy spoon.
14:43
Speaker 1: And just when I was beginning to see the light
14:45
Speaker 1: of a future without downtown debts, my past blew through
14:48
Speaker 1: the diner door like an uptown Adrian. She collapsed into
14:53
Speaker 1: my booth and grabbed my cup of Joe, brought it
14:55
Speaker 1: to her lips, took a loud slurp, and never once
14:57
Speaker 1: broke eye contact with me. She put the mug back
14:59
Speaker 1: onto the saucer, got no kick. What's it morning to you?
15:03
Speaker 1: The post midnight hour made it smartass? A slight curl
15:06
Speaker 1: of her lip made it all right, nah, I said,
15:09
Speaker 1: I'm working. She looked around made Lewin, an instant leather
15:14
Speaker 1: boy at the counter, Ding ding ding, Dorothy, we have
15:17
Speaker 1: a correct answer. What did he do? She asked, doesn't matter?
15:21
Speaker 1: I responded, what do you want? Money? She said, what
15:24
Speaker 1: does she ever want? And I owed it to her.
15:27
Speaker 1: Whether or not the kid was mine, it was coming
15:29
Speaker 1: one way or another. And she was just a kid too, practically,
15:32
Speaker 1: no next to kin, no no one, just me and
15:35
Speaker 1: an old pimp on the outs. Took that queen for
15:37
Speaker 1: a day thing too far and now went by the
15:39
Speaker 1: name do Run Ronda. He couldn't even pimp right, So
15:42
Speaker 1: young Pearley may here Stephanie was her name. When she
15:45
Speaker 1: was off the street, She who was maybe the soon
15:47
Speaker 1: to be mother of my child, was out of a job,
15:50
Speaker 1: and it wasn't as though she was employable anymore anyway,
15:52
Speaker 1: So money was the least I could do for her,
15:55
Speaker 1: I said to her. I got an idea. We want
15:58
Speaker 1: to play cops and robbers, toned her mouth into a scowl.
16:02
Speaker 1: For old time's sake, I said, you that broke, she asked,
16:06
Speaker 1: twice as much. How bad she wanted to know, Not
16:09
Speaker 1: so bad as I need to take it on the arches.
16:11
Speaker 1: I've got something I'm working. Leather boys got bread, she said,
16:14
Speaker 1: nodding to Ulu at the counter. How do you know,
16:16
Speaker 1: I asked, A girl's got a ease, she replied, at
16:19
Speaker 1: least he's got bread At the moment he's about to
16:21
Speaker 1: blow his wad. I stared at her and sip my coffee,
16:25
Speaker 1: and when I was done, I let the silence work.
16:27
Speaker 1: It's gravity on what I was about to say next.
16:29
Speaker 1: I ain't no hustler. The streets are your game. I'll
16:32
Speaker 1: help you out as best I can when I can,
16:34
Speaker 1: And now I ain't one of those times when I can.
16:36
Speaker 1: But all tomorrow's parties are lined with silks and linens
16:38
Speaker 1: of yesterday's gowns. That you help me out now with work,
16:41
Speaker 1: and I'll help you out when I land this bucket
16:43
Speaker 1: of bolts. She grabbed my coffee cup again and drained
16:47
Speaker 1: it in. Won go. Do I have a choice, she asked,
16:50
Speaker 1: not if you want to eat tonight, you don't. I
16:52
Speaker 1: pushed my plate over to her side of the table.
16:54
Speaker 1: She set about devouring to dry toast and runny eggs
16:57
Speaker 1: and called for the waitress to bring her a tomato juice.
17:00
Speaker 1: Stephanie spoke in short grunts and the microseconds between chewing
17:03
Speaker 1: and swallowing, leather boy, he's got a Jones, I figured,
17:07
Speaker 1: I said, he also likes the vasiline voice. I also figured,
17:11
Speaker 1: But that's besides the point right now. Why is that
17:14
Speaker 1: I wanted to know? She finished my plate and then
17:17
Speaker 1: she said, because in about four seconds, that pretty young
17:19
Speaker 1: waitress over there is about to make change for your
17:21
Speaker 1: man that is going to lay that change on the
17:23
Speaker 1: rest of his short stack, and that stack is going
17:25
Speaker 1: to total twenty six dollars in his hand, and then
17:27
Speaker 1: your man is going to head uptown to wait for
17:29
Speaker 1: his man. I smiled at her, and then I said,
17:32
Speaker 1: remind me again why we ain't married. She responded by saying,
17:36
Speaker 1: you're a degenerate gambler and I'm out of work working girl.
17:39
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I said, She smiled. The leather boy collected
17:42
Speaker 1: the smokes and hit the street, and we ditched on
17:45
Speaker 1: the bill and hustled out behind him. We'll be right
17:51
Speaker 1: back after this. We're we're, we're Lexington Avenue in one
18:01
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty fifth Street. The morning sun was in
18:04
Speaker 1: the sky, but it only wanted to shine on the
18:06
Speaker 1: better half of Manhattan. Lou leaned uneasy on a lamp post.
18:11
Speaker 1: That bohemian cool breach stick played differently up here in
18:14
Speaker 1: herm Hey, white boy, what are you doing uptown? We
18:18
Speaker 1: hung back in a doorway across the street and watched
18:20
Speaker 1: him try to worm his way out of the question. Nothing,
18:24
Speaker 1: just waiting on a friend that ray. The local just
18:27
Speaker 1: stared with menace. Lou shifted awkwardly in his tight cuff denim.
18:32
Speaker 1: He chasing our women around furthest from my mind, and
18:36
Speaker 1: then Lou laid it on a touch too thick, finishing
18:39
Speaker 1: his sentence with sir, fuck you call me white boy.
18:43
Speaker 1: The local pulled his blade. I started to step out
18:45
Speaker 1: of the doorway and toward the street to intervene and
18:47
Speaker 1: what would most certainly end with me lying in Saint
18:50
Speaker 1: Luke's like a stuck pig. Stephanie braced me with one arm,
18:53
Speaker 1: stopping my progress, leveling a steady hand in mid air
18:56
Speaker 1: as to say, cool out, and she never took her
18:59
Speaker 1: eyes off Lou. The local hold up, She whispered, Lou's
19:03
Speaker 1: cool and he was. Lou grinned at the locals knife.
19:07
Speaker 1: His smile combined with the matter of fact tone of
19:09
Speaker 1: his voice, cooled the heat on the street. I'm just
19:12
Speaker 1: looking for a dear friend of mine, Lou said. The
19:15
Speaker 1: local lowered his knife, cool and waltz down one, two five.
19:20
Speaker 1: Luke kept his lamp post, lean strong and stared down
19:22
Speaker 1: the street. I could practically hear his spine stiff. And
19:25
Speaker 1: when he saw his man, and there he was, all
19:28
Speaker 1: dressed in black pr shoes, big straw hat. Lou checked
19:33
Speaker 1: his wristwatch. His man was right on time, never early,
19:37
Speaker 1: always late. They traded quick nods for hellos and bounded
19:41
Speaker 1: up the Brownstone stairs. Lou merged ninety minutes later, noticeably
19:45
Speaker 1: groggy and staggering his steps over to Lexington. He descended
19:49
Speaker 1: down the subway steps for a downtown train. Stephanie and
19:54
Speaker 1: I gave loose chase. Lou's senses were adult. He wasn't
19:58
Speaker 1: gonna make us, so we stayed closer than normal. I
20:01
Speaker 1: was two bodies behind him on the train, hanging from
20:03
Speaker 1: a subway strap, and I could practically smell the innocence
20:06
Speaker 1: on him. He was young, naive, and clearly mixing himself
20:10
Speaker 1: up in the kind of city danger that forever leaves
20:12
Speaker 1: of mark. He wanted it, though I could see it
20:15
Speaker 1: in his dope smacked eyes. Stephanie nudged me and nodded
20:19
Speaker 1: for me to follow her to the back of the train.
20:21
Speaker 1: We moved into a couple of empty seats, close enough
20:23
Speaker 1: where I could still clock Lou, far enough away where
20:26
Speaker 1: he couldn't hear us over the subterranean rumbled and squeal.
20:29
Speaker 1: She got right to the point, what do you want
20:32
Speaker 1: with him? He got a client likes him for something. Something. Huh,
20:36
Speaker 1: let's just say it's something in the realm of transgressive possibilities.
20:39
Speaker 1: This little shit here would evolve himself in When did
20:43
Speaker 1: you become a wood a kind of man? And that's
20:46
Speaker 1: stun In my business, you rely on gut, the certainty
20:50
Speaker 1: of your gut, not on percentages, not on possibilities. That
20:55
Speaker 1: was the lawyer work, weasel sweat. I gave it to
20:58
Speaker 1: her sideways. I became a wanted man downtown when I
21:02
Speaker 1: became a WOA coulda should have just might maybe be
21:04
Speaker 1: a father type of man. Bullshit. She scowled, looked away.
21:08
Speaker 1: Look I said, the kid's dirty one way or another.
21:11
Speaker 1: Look at him. He could barely stand guy. I know,
21:14
Speaker 1: dear friend, his daughter's just a kid like you. She's
21:18
Speaker 1: on a thread. DA is gonna pull that thread. She's
21:20
Speaker 1: gonna spend her early twenties and the rest of her
21:22
Speaker 1: life behind bars. She has no business being behind it.
21:25
Speaker 1: Behind bars, Our boy, Lou here is destined for her anyway.
21:29
Speaker 1: She gave me a look of disgust and said, if
21:31
Speaker 1: you say so, I do say so. She then said, well,
21:36
Speaker 1: if that's the way you want to play it, you
21:37
Speaker 1: better be ready for what comes next. What's that? I asked?
21:43
Speaker 1: And then the train screeched to a stop. We hit
21:47
Speaker 1: the street farther back than I would have liked. Lou
21:50
Speaker 1: was moving fast. He quickly ascended the stairs and then
21:53
Speaker 1: headed down Saint Mark's place and eventually to a Saint
21:55
Speaker 1: Mark's apartment building. We went in behind him, but he
21:59
Speaker 1: was gone. Every door in the hall was black, except
22:03
Speaker 1: for the one in the back. White light exploded from
22:06
Speaker 1: its crease. We opened it slowly, and the white heat
22:09
Speaker 1: from the bodies inside smacked Stephanie and I in the face.
22:13
Speaker 1: Music blared. No one noticed us. The space was completely open,
22:18
Speaker 1: no rooms, just open space. Couches lined the walls, peppered
22:23
Speaker 1: with young, beautiful, androgynouts entangled bodies. There was a band
22:27
Speaker 1: against the far wall, making excruciating noise. Apparently I was
22:31
Speaker 1: the only one whose ears were bleeding. A more white light,
22:35
Speaker 1: this from film projectors blasting images onto the band and
22:38
Speaker 1: the wall behind it. Grotesque hedonistic images bodies writhed on
22:43
Speaker 1: the dance floor, mirroring the celluloid action. A man in
22:46
Speaker 1: a white wig and dark glasses, who reminded me of
22:48
Speaker 1: one of those port side shore leaf buoy toys, seemed
22:51
Speaker 1: to be in charge of everything. Where the hell was I?
22:55
Speaker 1: On the makeshift stage, A tall, icy blonde gently tapped tambourine.
23:00
Speaker 1: Three members of what looked like the Adams family made
23:03
Speaker 1: their instruments scream for help behind her, while a little
23:05
Speaker 1: boy with a penny haircut banged on a disassembled drum
23:08
Speaker 1: kit spread out on the floor. I turned to Stephanie
23:11
Speaker 1: and screamed over the music into her ear. Someone out
23:14
Speaker 1: to call the bureau a child welfare. Nodding to the
23:17
Speaker 1: little boy playing drums, amidst the intensely adult buccanalia. Stephanie
23:22
Speaker 1: yelled back informing me that the drummer was actually a
23:24
Speaker 1: full grown woman, not a little boy. I thought of
23:27
Speaker 1: Joe Namath A repressed the urge to spit. Recognize anyone else,
23:32
Speaker 1: Stephanie asked, I did our boy loop on stage? Black sunglasses,
23:38
Speaker 1: it doubled as a blindfold rap electric guitar hung high
23:41
Speaker 1: up on his chest. He used it to assault the audience,
23:44
Speaker 1: and at the same time he spoke softly into the
23:47
Speaker 1: microphone in a manner that suggested singing, though I couldn't
23:50
Speaker 1: really be sure. The band tightened up and brought it
23:53
Speaker 1: down loose. Words were shocking, as it makes me feel
23:57
Speaker 1: just like a man when I put a spike into
24:00
Speaker 1: my vein the dance floor in front of him opened
24:03
Speaker 1: up one man, if you could call him that, A
24:06
Speaker 1: real mess Hall beauty queen went into full performance mode
24:09
Speaker 1: and leather chaps. He seduced the disinterested audience with a bullwt.
24:13
Speaker 1: It was all show, a big howdy duty production, a
24:17
Speaker 1: bunch of kids whose parents didn't give him enough love,
24:19
Speaker 1: crying out for attention. But in the shadows back against
24:23
Speaker 1: the wall, things were darker what Lou copped up in Harlem,
24:27
Speaker 1: what Lou sang about up on that stage, was what
24:29
Speaker 1: a number of couch criminals were currently jamming into their
24:31
Speaker 1: arms with real life spikes and nodding off into sweet
24:34
Speaker 1: nothing on. Those who had already come out on the
24:36
Speaker 1: other side, worked out their kernel energy on one another
24:39
Speaker 1: right there in public, writhing on top of each other,
24:42
Speaker 1: licking boots, grinding heels into flesh, and back on the
24:45
Speaker 1: dance floor mess Hall Mary mock crucified him, slash herself.
24:50
Speaker 1: I'd seen enough. The band wrapped, Lou plopped onto a couch,
24:54
Speaker 1: and I needed a drink. He wasn't going anywhere, so
24:57
Speaker 1: I hit the door behind the makeshift stage and search
25:00
Speaker 1: something wet. What I got was darkness, more bodies, more
25:04
Speaker 1: insufferable noise passed off as music. But this vibe was different,
25:09
Speaker 1: more subdued, thick, with something that could put a chill
25:12
Speaker 1: on your spine. Someone handed me a drink and I
25:15
Speaker 1: thought nothing of it and threw it back. I felt
25:18
Speaker 1: it quick, a million tiny bullets speeding up my blood
25:22
Speaker 1: stream and moving through my brain, messing up my mind,
25:25
Speaker 1: and that tickled down to my toes, just like the
25:27
Speaker 1: South Korean pet pills we took in the war with
25:30
Speaker 1: times a thousand. The feeling was familiar, but you fork.
25:33
Speaker 1: Suddenly nothing mattered, not Lou, not Bill, not for nothing,
25:38
Speaker 1: no nose, Nunzio, neither nor maybe baby Stephanie. They all
25:41
Speaker 1: drifted away, and I stumbled onto a sofa. I felt
25:45
Speaker 1: a man fall down close to me. He was snug
25:47
Speaker 1: against my side. I could barely see through the vapors
25:50
Speaker 1: and trails of the spinning room's light revolutions. On his chest.
25:54
Speaker 1: The golden nameplate hung from a gold chain in cursive letters,
25:58
Speaker 1: it read Jesus. Jesus stared into my pinprick eyes. He
26:02
Speaker 1: was not forgiving me for anything. I felt a sharp
26:05
Speaker 1: steel against my belly, a little switch no doubt your wallet, motherfucker.
26:10
Speaker 1: I heard him, but I was powerless to move. Whatever
26:13
Speaker 1: speed was working through my system at the moment, it
26:15
Speaker 1: was cut with something debilitating to bore down on my
26:17
Speaker 1: shoulders and help me in place with fear, paranoia, and psychosis.
26:21
Speaker 1: It was Lou. He took his cool hands off my shoulders,
26:25
Speaker 1: circled around the couch, and squeezed in between me and Jesus,
26:28
Speaker 1: diffusing the switchblade drama. In the process, Jesus wandered. Lou
26:33
Speaker 1: looked at me with eyes I couldn't place, familiar, but
26:36
Speaker 1: so far away, like an old actor's name on the
26:39
Speaker 1: tip of your tongue. Then mess Hall Mary arrived fresh
26:43
Speaker 1: off the dance floor and squeezed in between Lou and I.
26:46
Speaker 1: Lou grabbed my eyes with his, He swung his arm
26:49
Speaker 1: around Messhaw Mary pulled him, slash her in, locked lips,
26:53
Speaker 1: engaged in one of those overacted, big Hollywood kisses, and
26:57
Speaker 1: never once broke eye contact with me. When the room
27:01
Speaker 1: went black, I woke up in blackness. I saw nothing,
27:37
Speaker 1: but I could hear their screams, women and children, their
27:41
Speaker 1: flesh burning right off of their bones, the result of
27:45
Speaker 1: our American gi torches. The ones we couldn't burn though
27:49
Speaker 1: we drowned. North Korea was no beach blanket bingo, and
27:53
Speaker 1: they never stood a chance. The ones we couldn't throw
27:56
Speaker 1: from the sock Tang bridge we held down underwater with
27:59
Speaker 1: their bare hands the so On reservoir. Then there were
28:03
Speaker 1: the wild dogs. Can't take credit for that one, and
28:06
Speaker 1: frankly I would have preferred to have avoided that whole mess.
28:09
Speaker 1: Some South Korean brask at bad idea, Jesus Christ's sun.
28:13
Speaker 1: What a fucking mess, he thought. People feared being burned,
28:17
Speaker 1: alive or drowning. Nothing brought more instant horror than a
28:21
Speaker 1: pack of wild flesh eating dogs, teeth bared, starved for
28:25
Speaker 1: days and willing to do anything except skip their next meal.
28:29
Speaker 1: They tore through civilian skin and bone, women and children.
28:32
Speaker 1: First Commis had no sense of honor, not even in defeat.
28:37
Speaker 1: Their screams never stopped, not then, not now. My headache
28:45
Speaker 1: was familiar. It was more of a reminder than anything else,
28:49
Speaker 1: a reminder of the impending pain about to come, the sweats,
28:53
Speaker 1: the chills, the body aches, the nausea, the uncontrollable twitching.
28:57
Speaker 1: Lou wasn't the only one. My own Jones hadn't felt
29:02
Speaker 1: it since just after the war. But there it was,
29:05
Speaker 1: back to say, hey, ho, let's go a little buddy.
29:07
Speaker 1: It's been a bit of a moment and you thought
29:09
Speaker 1: you had me licked. But I'm always here waiting for
29:11
Speaker 1: the right moment to make an appearance, to show up
29:14
Speaker 1: and let you know, just toombs boss in that moment
29:17
Speaker 1: was now my South Korean pet pill habit During the war,
29:21
Speaker 1: a habit picked up to stay awake on long overnights
29:24
Speaker 1: discharged me as a real American, and fetamine archie couldn't
29:27
Speaker 1: live without those little beauties when I got home. But
29:29
Speaker 1: cold turkey set me straight last night. Though whatever was
29:32
Speaker 1: in that drink, speed was definitely the top of the list.
29:36
Speaker 1: And now my jones was back triggered by the juice
29:38
Speaker 1: job whipped up by one of those fire Island aheads.
29:41
Speaker 1: So my new reality was this. If I wanted to
29:45
Speaker 1: get my head straight, I had two options. Number one,
29:49
Speaker 1: sweat out the jones and waste two or three days
29:52
Speaker 1: crashed and drying out. Number two, grab a pill, speed
29:55
Speaker 1: my headache into oblivion, and get back on the case
29:58
Speaker 1: without wasting any real time. Option two was clearly the
30:01
Speaker 1: best option. I'd take half a hit, just enough to
30:04
Speaker 1: kill the jones, then gradually reduce my intake from there
30:07
Speaker 1: until I saw this thing for Big Bill and be
30:09
Speaker 1: done with the pills after that. Option number two is
30:12
Speaker 1: problem number one. I had no speed, and I had
30:15
Speaker 1: no idea where to get any speed. Maybe Lou did,
30:18
Speaker 1: though Heroin seemed to be his game. Maybe one of
30:21
Speaker 1: his bandmates did. They certainly looked like speed freaks, well
30:25
Speaker 1: most of them that blonde fem fetale with the tambourine
30:27
Speaker 1: was strictly downers. I tried opening my eyes, but they
30:32
Speaker 1: wouldn't cooperate, and they were kate shut. And that's when
30:35
Speaker 1: the smell hit me, and the taste, that smell, that taste,
30:39
Speaker 1: the feeling of whatever was kicking my eyes shut. It
30:42
Speaker 1: was the Sinshown massacre all over. It was blood. I
30:47
Speaker 1: sat up with a shot, took my fingers and peeled
30:49
Speaker 1: my eyelids back. The slight crinkle of separating flesh gave
30:53
Speaker 1: way to a darkened vision. I gagged and spit up
30:56
Speaker 1: someone else's blood. I snorted in air to my nostrils,
30:59
Speaker 1: pushing more blood down the back of my throat and
31:01
Speaker 1: then out of my mouth in heavy sprays. I looked
31:04
Speaker 1: around the loft from the previous night's party, Darkness all around,
31:08
Speaker 1: the only illumination coming from the space between the front
31:11
Speaker 1: door and the hallway white light. Up close to that light,
31:15
Speaker 1: I could partially make out a figure sumped against the wall.
31:18
Speaker 1: I stumbled the fifteen or twenty feet or so over
31:20
Speaker 1: to it. My shoes slipped on something slick. I hit
31:23
Speaker 1: the floor with a thud. I was now rolling in
31:26
Speaker 1: blood covered in the irony molasses. I gagged, I heaved
31:30
Speaker 1: my head ache, screamed. I got up. I fell down again,
31:34
Speaker 1: more blood on my face, on my palms. I pressed
31:36
Speaker 1: myself to my hands and my knees and crawled through
31:38
Speaker 1: the pool to the slumped figure against the wall. Oh sweet, nothing,
31:42
Speaker 1: don't let it be not now. We were so close.
31:46
Speaker 1: But there she was. There they were Stephanie and her
31:50
Speaker 1: unborn child, my unborn child, both damned. A switchblade stuck
31:57
Speaker 1: straight out from her chest. Her torso was as per
32:00
Speaker 1: fraidd as a pasta strainer. Her blood pooled all around her,
32:04
Speaker 1: And despite the instant horror, I remained calm. Trauma always
32:08
Speaker 1: slowed my world down, and right now, with my head,
32:11
Speaker 1: it's exactly what I needed. Besides, I'd actually seen worse,
32:16
Speaker 1: much worse. I grabbed Stephanie and pulled her close. Even
32:20
Speaker 1: though she always said she's not afraid to die, the
32:23
Speaker 1: fact that this was our last embrace still stung. I
32:27
Speaker 1: patted down the frizzy locks on her head. I whispered
32:29
Speaker 1: to her and mangled our father and caressed her cheek.
32:32
Speaker 1: That's when I felt it, something unnatural in her mouth.
32:37
Speaker 1: I felt my stomach drop. I pried open her jaws
32:40
Speaker 1: and reached in with my hand. I pulled out a
32:43
Speaker 1: lot of bills. Stephanie, in addition to being stabbed, full
32:46
Speaker 1: of countless holes, had been gagged. I closed my eyes,
32:50
Speaker 1: but it didn't help, and the tears came quick, and
32:53
Speaker 1: my diaphragm sputtered and my chest heaved as I sobbed uncontrollably.
32:58
Speaker 1: I opened my eyes and looked down at what I
33:00
Speaker 1: pulled from Stephanie's mouth. Twenty six dollars my hand in
33:06
Speaker 1: this murder mystery. In this episode of Disgraceland, this to
33:10
Speaker 1: be continued. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is
33:25
Speaker 1: produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode
33:29
Speaker 1: can be found on the show notes page at disgracelamdpod
33:32
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34:17
Speaker 1: bed Don Man.