Episode 188: Hoodwinkd Holidays
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Transcript
Time Crisis, back again.
As the year comes to a close,
we reflect on everything that's happened,
everything that's happening now,
and everything that will happen.
We talk Christmas,
hoodwink,
and Jake and I count down our personal
top five most streamed songs of the year.
This is Time Crisis
with Ezra Koenig.
♪ They passed me by ♪
♪ All of those great romances ♪
♪ They were a belt from beneath ♪
♪ All my rightful chances ♪
♪ My picture clear ♪
♪ Everything seemed so easy ♪
♪ So I dealt you the blow ♪
♪ One of us had to go ♪
♪ Now it's different ♪
♪ I want you to know ♪
♪ One of us is crying ♪
♪ One of us is lying ♪
♪ In a lonely bed ♪
Time Crisis, back again.
What's up, Jake?
Last one of the year.
We made it.
Unbelievable.
What a year.
The next day that Time Crisis would air
would be Christmas Eve.
So they'll probably just-
Run a rerun?
Maybe a rerun or some Christmas music, I don't know.
I feel like we did a Christmas,
way back when we did like a Christmas episode or two.
Maybe year one or year two.
I remember you and I going through a bunch of like,
rock Christmas songs
in like 2015 or 2016.
It's like, oh yeah, Kinks, Father Christmas.
Just the same ones over and over again.
Yeah.
Paul McCartney, Wonderful Christmas Time.
Right.
The Christmas song discourse, it just doesn't change.
I think maybe the young generation,
the children now will have some new things to say about it.
But I kind of feel like we lived through a time
where people would like talk about the canon.
Like I feel like for the last 20 years,
a lot of people have been talking about,
is that Paul McCartney Christmas song actually good?
I think it was kind of like a Gen X.
Oh, it's not.
All right, well, that's funny.
I was about to say,
it's kind of like a Gen X millennial thing.
That's when the years between come into play.
Jake said, absolutely not.
I would say it's pretty good.
Yeah, it's good.
So the millennials are saying,
simply having a wonderful Christmas dime is good.
Dime?
Yeah.
And the wonderful Christmas dime.
All right, throw it on.
Well, here we go.
This became our Christmas episode.
It's not hard to see it through the eyes of Gen X
or perhaps McCartney's fellow boomers
who would have seen this as,
this song as kind of like the epitome of like corny,
past his prime, 80s McCartney.
Is it 80s?
I think maybe like 1980.
Okay, I would have guessed, I don't know,
77 or something, but okay.
Okay, well, let's find out.
Not gonna split hairs.
It's 1979.
Ooh, damn.
Just missed it.
What month?
December?
November.
Ah, really close.
There is just a little bit of that 70s skank on it still.
Yeah.
♪ The mood is right ♪
♪ The spirit's up ♪
♪ We're here tonight ♪
♪ And that's enough ♪
♪ Simply having a wonderful Christmas time ♪
The reason that slightly younger people
think this song is good and or cool
is 'cause it's like, it's weird, it's eerie.
It's eerie old sense.
It reminds people of like kind of spooky cartoons
you might've seen as a child that kind of,
it's like a little bit like chill wave or something.
So you can see why to the millennials,
this had like chill wave energy,
just like it's eerie, it's vibey, it's spooky.
The synth sound is cool.
I don't think it's eerie or vibey, but what do I know?
I mean, the synths are kind of goofy.
Yeah, this part's kind of vibey.
♪ Simply having a wonderful Christmas time ♪
♪ We're simply having a wonderful Christmas time ♪
♪ Simply having a wonderful Christmas time ♪
Just hearing that chorus repeated,
♪ Simply having ♪
It just makes me think of being in like a Toys R Us
or like a CVS and like wanting to blow my head off.
Like just stressful, like retail environment,
December 22nd.
And like that is like insisting
that I'm having a wonderful Christmas time.
♪ The choir of children sing their song ♪
♪ They practiced all year long ♪
♪ Ding dong ♪
You know what guys, you're talking Beatles,
you're a Paul guy, you're a John guy.
I'm a John guy.
The John Lennon Christmas song
is heads and shoulders above the Paul song.
Yes, kind of undeniable.
Although they are two sides of the same coin in a funny way.
Yeah.
And actually it's a bit unfair
because the John Lennon Christmas song,
I think was recorded in like '69,
a full decade before this.
This song, he wouldn't have used synths at the time,
but the general mood of it doesn't feel a million miles away
from stuff on Double Fantasy.
You know, Lennon's last album
when he was getting a little more domestic and sweet.
Nostalgic, looking back, yeah.
If he had lived, there would have been
like a total convergence.
I could totally picture having some time in the '90s
and they still would have had this like slight competition.
I could totally picture there being a narrative
within like the classic rock world where it's like,
1993, the year McCartney made a Lennon album
and Lennon made a McCartney album.
Can you just like picture that?
Like John made like a surprisingly
nostalgic domestic album with songs
about like the Penny Lane type songs
about like growing up in England
and McCartney was like, for whatever reason,
he'd been listening to a lot of like grunge or something
and he made this like kind of darker, more intense album.
People were like, "Whoa!"
And the release on the same day.
Released on the same day.
I think you're right though about the, you know,
it's tough to compare the songs that are 10 years apart.
If McCartney had written a Christmas song
and recorded it when he was making like, you know,
his first solo record,
it would have been a much vibier, homier, cozier vibe.
- The other thing I want to say about the McCartney song
first is that another thing that happened
with the discourse around McCartney too,
is that, I meant McCartney also,
but his album, McCartney 2,
which came out roughly the same time
as Wonderful Christmas and sounds like it
because it's a little freaky, weird sense.
In a small way, that became a kind of a rediscovered classic
for millennials, I guess I would say,
if we're talking generations.
That was a way in for people to be like,
"You know what?
Actually, McCartney was doing some weird (beep)
and there is cool stuff on McCartney 2."
Were you ever part of that McCartney 2 wave?
- Yeah, no, I mean, that album is mind-blowing.
I mean, it's so out of step with like what he did before
and it's really like a kind of singular moment in his career.
- There's a song from that popped into my head recently
called "Check My Machine."
- Uh-huh.
- I don't know why, like maybe I heard somebody say something
that sounded like "Check My Machine"
and then it made me think of like this weird McCartney song,
"Check my machine."
And I was like, "Oh yeah, it's on McCartney 2."
And then I looked it up and it was a bonus track.
And I was like, "Damn, he was really,
he was like firing on all cylinders."
- Yeah.
- The album itself is cool and weird.
The single, which is not indicative of the synthy sound,
but coming up was like a really solid song.
And then even these like deep cuts gave you the sense of like,
oh, it was a very fertile period for him.
- Temporary secretary.
- Temporary secretary.
- And then there's beautiful ballads on that one too.
- Oh yeah, "Waterfalls."
- Right.
And there's another one too.
I don't have the tracks in front of me,
but I listened to that record a lot, 10 or 15 years ago.
- So you can see why like with the rediscovery of that album
people might in a weird way lump "Wonderful Christmas Time"
into his like 79, 80 synth wave.
- I don't see that.
Well, I mean, I see it, I guess in like the plucky synths,
but the songwriting,
there's nothing so out and out corny on "McCartney 2."
- Yeah, as "Wonderful Christmas Time."
- Yeah.
Not a fan of the song, won't be convinced.
It's just sort of like a instinctual aesthetic reaction
of like, I like a lot of Paul songs,
but that's the side of Paul that I'm not a big fan
of the very cloying.
- I get it, he's having a good time.
He's having a laugh, it's Christmas, but you know.
- He's having a wonderful Christmas time.
- He's having a wonderful Christmas time.
It's all good.
- Fair enough.
It's maybe my least favorite "McCartney."
- Yeah, fair enough.
But my larger point though,
is like even this discussion we're having right now,
we're still talking about the song from 1979.
Are there any songs that were added to the Christmas canon
since the 90s, since Mariah Carey?
- Seinfeld, Nick, can we get some number crunch?
I'm picturing if you guys search this,
you're gonna find some like random article
that's like the 10 best Christmas songs
from the 21st century.
And you'll like list them and me and Jake will be like,
we never heard any of these.
- I feel when people-
- Creed like has a great Christmas song.
- When people talk about Christmas,
they do talk about Michael Bublé a lot.
Is he just doing standards or is he doing original songs?
- No.
- I want original.
- I've never heard an original.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Michael Bublé did a cool big band arrangement of
"Do You See What I See?"
Who cares?
I mean, all due respect, I'm just saying,
is Christmas culture frozen in the 20th century?
- It feels a little frozen to me.
I mean, personally, as an adult,
like actually I was texting with my brother the other day
and we were like, Christmas should be every three years.
'Cause then it would be actually special.
(laughing)
'Cause it's just so exhausting.
I'm just like, oh my God, I have to go get stuff for people.
Like, you know, it's someone's birthday.
That's kind of cool.
Like you go get something.
But like when you're like getting together with the family,
it's like, I gotta get something for my mom, my dad,
my in-laws, blah, blah, blah.
It's just like, and then when the kids get to like
the excitable Christmas,
well, maybe when the kids get excited about Christmas,
then it becomes-
- That's when you want it to be every year.
- That's when it becomes fun again.
But like, oh my God.
Like, I'm just kind of low-key dreading Christmas.
- All right, well, sounds like you're in a bit of like
a Scrooge situation.
And I imagine that probably something will warm your heart
this Christmas.
And-
- Yeah, listen, going, hanging out-
- Hallmark group.
- Hanging out with family and going up there
to see my parents, that's gonna be great.
Cooking food, drinking cocktails, all good.
It's the sort of like-
- You're not a true Scrooge,
but you get bogged down by the commercialism
and the demands.
- And you know, as you age, like the years go by so fast.
And I'm like, it just felt like it was Christmas.
I guess what I'm saying, every three years,
it'd be like, okay, it's like,
this is like the World Cup or something.
It's like kind of special.
- Yeah.
- It's Christmas this year, can you believe it?
Like-
- The World Cup model's great.
♪ When I was small, I believed in Santa Claus ♪
♪ Though I knew it was my dad ♪
♪ And I would hang up my stocking at Christmas ♪
♪ Open my presents and I'd be glad ♪
♪ But the last time I played for the Christmas ♪
♪ I stood outside the department store ♪
♪ A gang of kids came over and mugged me ♪
♪ And knocked my reindeer to the floor ♪
♪ I said, for the Christmas, give us some money ♪
♪ No messing around with those silly toys ♪
♪ We'll beat you up, don't hand it over ♪
♪ We want your bread, so don't make us annoyed ♪
♪ Give all the toys to the little rich boy ♪
- I don't know if this is every year,
but certainly this year, there's a lot of artists.
Everyone from Lizzo to Phoebe Bridgers
has released a new holiday Christmas song.
So these have not entered the canon yet.
- People never stop trying.
My question though, is there anything from the past 20 years
that became really part of the canon?
- No.
- Like a stone cold, you're saying no.
- No.
- Yeah, I've got this list on goodhousekeeping.com
and there were a lot of pop music heavy hitters.
You got Justin Bieber on here with a few entries.
You know, NSYNC.
- This is a list of the best Christmas songs
of the 21st century?
- Yeah, this is-
- What are those titles?
- This is an article called 55 Best Modern Christmas Songs
for an Instant Dose of Holiday Cheer.
What are the titles?
I mean, it's a lot-
- Hit me with some titles.
- It's an instant dose.
I mean, we got number one is
Christmas Tree Farm by Taylor Swift.
Have you ever heard of this song?
- No, that's a compelling title.
- Yeah, but it's like, I'm just saying,
there's a lot of pop heavy hitters,
but no cultural resonance.
A few Ariana Grande songs,
Mariah Carey's tried to replicate the magic,
but nothing has really taken, you know,
Buble's on this list.
It is all standards.
- It's a 20th century holiday, apparently.
They really should make it like the World Cup, Jake.
That's a great idea.
- Until people really start to appreciate it
and really have something new to say about it.
Maybe the truth is,
it's as Christmas became kind of a secular thing,
it naturally got tied to kind of 20th century commercialism.
You know?
- Yeah.
- So you either put the Christ back in Christmas
or make it like the World Cup.
If you want it to be a commercial phenomenon,
you got to space out the sequels a little bit.
If you want it to be a religious thing,
celebrating the birth of your savior,
by all means, once a year.
But if you're more on the camp
that it's a big, just global marketing event,
World Cup model makes a lot more sense.
- You know, what's weird is,
a very like not modern song is on this list.
At number 48, it's Bruce Springsteen's
cover of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town,"
which was recorded live at CW Post College in 1975.
Are you guys-
- Yeah, he's been playing that for-
- That's a classic.
- This is a big, is it good?
- No.
- It's fun, well, it's fun.
- It's fun, yeah, I mean.
♪ Santa Claus is coming to town ♪
- Oh, great.
♪ Santa Claus ♪
- Without even hearing it,
I can already tell you that I'm sure
the Taylor Swift "Christmas Tree Farm" song
is probably more in the vein
of like a Joni Mitchell "River" type song,
where I imagine-
- It's like sad.
- It's more like, it's like, yeah,
or like a sad meditation on life
that happens to take place at Christmas.
It could very well be a great song.
It could be one of her best for all I know.
I just already know that it's not like-
- A Christmas song.
- One of those songs that's gonna
instantly connote holiday cheer.
'Cause also I feel like with the Christmas movies
they make for kids, you already know
they're gonna use, depending on their budget,
there's probably gonna be a part
where somebody puts on sunglasses or whatever,
and then you hear like Run-D.M.C.
(imitates music)
There's gonna be like a hip hop moment,
and they're gonna go back 40 years.
Santa got like a makeover.
It's gonna be like,
(imitates music)
You already know they're gonna use it over-
- That song rolls.
- It does roll.
- Some ale reindeer.
(laughs)
- But it's the same songs over and over again.
- Yeah.
♪ It was December 24th when Hollis Avenue's dark ♪
♪ When I see the man chillin' with his dog at the park ♪
♪ I approach him very slowly with my heart full of fear ♪
♪ Looked at his dog, oh my God, a ill reindeer ♪
♪ But then I was ill and called the man at a bid ♪
♪ Had a bag full of goodies, 12 o'clock it near ♪
♪ So I turned my head a second and the man was gone ♪
♪ But he must have dropped his wallet smack dead on the lawn ♪
♪ I picked the wallet up and then I took a pause ♪
♪ Took out the license and it called, said Santa Claus ♪
♪ A million dollars in it, called Hunter to G ♪
♪ Enough to buy a Boney Mansion car with ease ♪
♪ But I'd never steal for Santa, 'cause that ain't right ♪
♪ So I was going home to man a back to him that night ♪
♪ But when I got home I bumped, 'cause under the tree ♪
♪ Was a letter from Santa and it don't seem to mean ♪
- One cool phenomenon, somebody said this to me
about Japanese Christmas and Seinfeld.
Maybe you know a bit about this too,
'cause Japanese Christmas is kind of its own thing.
We probably already talked about how here
you go to KFC on Christmas.
- Oh, right, right, right. - We talked about that
on the show?
- We have. - Right.
- Get a Christmas bucket.
- You get a Christmas bucket at KFC.
And also, if you're single, I think there's some people,
there's a bit of like a Valentine's Day element.
Like maybe you, at some point you might kind of go on a date
with your boyfriend or girlfriend.
- On Christmas.
- This is one of these things that like somebody says to you
and then you're kind of like kicking the tires on it.
Somebody said to us at some point,
well, the thing in Japan,
it's different than in the West, it's flipped.
They said Christmas is kind of like a lover's holiday.
Young people go out and do something fun together
on a date and then New Year's, you spend with your family.
- Oh, interesting.
- And I think that the New Year's thing is true.
New Year's here is generally seen as quiet.
There's traditional foods you go eat with your family.
I think Christmas, there is a family element.
I don't know if it's a thing where you stop
by your family's house and say,
oh, I gotta go on my Christmas date.
- But does Japan like shut down on Christmas
the way the US and Europe do?
Or are people going to work on Christmas?
- That's a great question.
I'm not sure.
I think it shuts down a bit on New Year's.
- I have to disagree.
I had the craziest New Year's I've ever had in Tokyo.
During the day you go and there's wishing a good year
and there's a certain amount of ritual around it,
but it goes off.
- What year was this?
- 2010.
You couldn't even find champagne.
That was, you know, it was absolutely wild.
Everyone in the streets staying up
till six, seven in the morning.
- A lot of Japanese people.
- A lot of Japanese people, yeah.
- Maybe it depends on the neighborhood.
I don't know.
Somebody was saying like,
you're gonna go to certain places where even like
a lot of stores and restaurants might even be closed early.
- I'm very into the quiet New Year's Eve vibe,
as I'm solidly in my mid forties now.
- That's how it should be regardless.
- Just a quiet New Year's Eve.
- Kicking off the New Year hungover doesn't make any sense.
But anyway, I was thinking, but yeah, generally,
like Nick, you might be right.
These are just things people say to you all the time
when you're in a different country
and there's a language barrier, like,
well, you know, here it's more like this.
And you're kind of like, oh really?
And you're like, okay.
- How come there are no like New Year's Eve traditional songs
like, I feel like that would be like a market.
- There's just old Lang Zang.
- Yeah, there's no like--
- I think because they wrote the perfect one
and that was that.
Boom.
Nothing needed.
Again, this is one of these things people say,
whether or not I can't really speak to whether it's true,
although I've heard it.
Somebody said, well, here in Japan,
it's very obvious what the greatest Christmas song is.
And I said, oh yeah?
And they said, "Last Christmas" by Wham.
That's the people's choice, favorite Christmas song,
like head and shoulders above everything else.
And I kind of, it's funny, in the US for a while,
it really seemed like Mariah Carey,
that was the Christmas song.
Which is interesting because that song came out
in the '90s and you would think that the popularity
of the Mariah Carey Christmas song meant
that there was totally a runway and cultural space
for new Christmas songs to come in.
If the biggest Christmas song of the 20th century
came out in the '90s, if you were betting, man,
you would bet that maybe an even bigger one might come out
in the 2000s and in the 2010s after that.
But then it turns out the '90s was obviously the end
of a certain type of culture.
But anyway, in Japan, apparently it's "Last Christmas"
by Wham, which weirdly seems Japanese to me.
I don't know that one. - I don't know that one.
- For a second.
Oh yeah, you do.
- Oh, you definitely do.
- Uh-oh, this might be another repeat of.
- I just don't see how you could have gone
to the Americana in December and not know this song.
- I remember it sort of.
♪ Last Christmas ♪
- And you know, Jake, if I try to look through your eyes
about "Wonderful Christmas Time" by Paul McCartney,
ultimately it's not that great.
If you compare it to this,
if you want a mournful, synthy Christmas song,
this is the clear-cut winner for sure.
♪ Last Christmas, I gave you my heart ♪
♪ But the very next day ♪
- I mean, is this a Christmas song, though?
♪ It's here to set me free ♪
- Or is it just kind of like, is it like "Die Hard"?
It happens to be taking place on Christmas,
but it's more of just a heartbreak song.
- Now you got some jingle bells.
- This is very sad.
I mean, I like the song,
but I just wouldn't ever put this
on like a Christmas playlist.
- I guess it would make sense
if Christmas is a bit more of a lover's holiday in Japan.
It would make sense that this is the people's choice.
♪ But you still catch my eye ♪
♪ Tell me, baby, do you recognize me? ♪
♪ Well, it's been a year, it doesn't surprise me ♪
- They did not write it to be a Christmas song.
It was definitely adopted.
- Well, it was originally called "Last Thursday."
"Last Thursday, I gave you my heart."
- Last Easter.
- The other guy from the Wham said to George Michael,
he's like, "Dude, you're (beep) insane
if you don't change it to 'Last Christmas.'"
♪ Last Thursday, I gave you my heart ♪
♪ But the very next day, you gave it away ♪
- That's Friday, it's the very next day.
- So December 26th.
♪ I'll give it to someone special, special ♪
♪ Last Christmas, I gave you my heart ♪
♪ But the very next day, you gave it away ♪
- I think ultimately this is a Christmas song
because there's a nod to Christmas vibes in the music.
And because it's called "Last Christmas,"
it's just, they double down on the name.
- Yeah.
- If the song was called "Someone Special,"
it would just maybe happen to be Christmassy,
but it's "Last Christmas."
- There's this movie I keep seeing billboards for
around town called "Violet Night."
- Oh yeah, David Harbour.
- "Violet Night."
- It looks hilarious.
- It's a, wait, is it a comedy or is it?
- Yeah, it's like an action comedy
where like there's this super national,
like Santa is like this bad dude who's like,
I saw the trailer a few weeks ago.
- It's like the Tim Robinson sketch
where Santa's in an action movie?
- Yeah, it is really, it's like that in real life.
Yeah, good call.
It's, he's like a vengeful action Santa
who like defends this family or something.
It looks pretty funny.
- The guys who wrote it, Ezra, worked at ADHD.
- Oh really?
- While we were making "Neo-Yokio."
And they, so I spent a lot of time with them.
And when they left, they went and made the "Sonic" movies.
So they wrote the "Sonic the Hedgehog" movies
and "Violet Night."
- It's a great title.
- This makes more sense because I was sort of like,
I've just seen the poster and I just, to me, I was like,
oh, this is just a straight up horror movie, slasher film.
It's a play on "Silent Night, Deadly Night"
from like the '80s, which was, you know,
a serial killer dresses up like Santa
and kills people with an ax.
But I thought this was just like
the Blumhouse update of that.
Heartened to hear that it's more, that it's a comedy.
'Cause I was like, who the hell needs "Violet Night"
if it was like an actual real deal horror film?
- Yeah. - Get that out of here.
- Enough of that.
Everything that I'm hearing really sounds
like "Christmas Needs to Get Back to Basics."
- I agree.
It's stuck in this weird 20th century moment.
Take it all the way back.
If you're gonna be stuck in a century,
how about the first century?
- How about 20 centuries ago?
- How about the year one?
And everybody needs to remember that
Jesus was not born in the year zero.
He was born in the year one.
- I just have this memory as a kid,
like getting like my plastic, like He-Man action figures
and stuff for Christmas.
And then my dad's mom, my grandmother,
just being like a depression kid or depression era kid.
And just being like, you know, Christmas morning,
we would get an orange.
And it was the best piece of fruit we had all year.
We wouldn't have another orange until the next Christmas.
- Whoa.
- And I'm just like ripping open like
these He-Man action figures.
- Cool story, grandma.
- Just like all like the Christmas chocolate,
just like this absurd bounty, you know,
circa 1987 or whatever.
- It's cool that now you've synthesized
your experience as a kid.
Now you can understand your grandma's perspective
a little bit more.
And now you're a huge advocate
for the World Cup Christmas schedule.
- I'm reading on guideable.com.
If you're a single man in Japan,
what do you do on Christmas?
And it says, quote, those guys who are single
will go to the supermarket
before the Christmas season starts
and try to buy as many foods as possible.
Why do they do this?
Because they're trying to store the food
so they won't have to go out of their room on Christmas day.
- Oh, and see the lovers?
- Yeah.
- That's really emo.
- So then you can understand why last Christmas
might be the people's favorite in Japan.
And also, of course, Japan,
there's so much Christmas stuff around,
but it's imported so that you're gonna get naturally
like a bit of a prismatic version of Christmas,
you know, through many cultural layers.
So it makes sense.
Maybe they can see Christmas more clearly.
Modern Christmas for the melancholy spectacle it is.
- I wonder if Japan did Christmas like pre-World War II.
Japan in like the '30s, are they doing Christmas?
I don't think so.
- I imagine there's a small, very small Christian minority
who might've been having a religious celebration.
But would your local restaurant or market
in a village in 1930s Japan
have Christmas tree decals on the window?
I'm not picturing it.
- It would.
It might come as a surprise to many,
but actually Japan's relationship with Christmas
is quite old.
Records indicate that the first Christmas in Japan
was in 1552.
- What the hell?
- Only three short years after the introduction
of Christianity.
Moreover, in 1560, Kyoto held a huge Christmas day mass.
- Damn.
- Well, but with all these things, it's like, again,
yeah, because there were Portuguese missionaries
coming back then.
So there were Christians.
You just need to, with all this stuff, it's always like,
but you gotta know, man on the street.
- Right.
- Was the man on the street thinking about Christmas
on December 25th?
- 1560.
- Yeah, again, I'm willing to believe
there were Christians passionately celebrating the holiday.
- Yeah.
- It's really sad to realize that there's not a single
addition to the Christmas canon.
And I mean, I guess you could just say the, you know,
whatever culture splintered,
and there just could never be a consensus pick
in the same way, but there still are hit songs.
You know what I mean?
- Yeah, I mean, it is puzzling.
I mean.
- In this splintered moment,
everybody still knows Harry Styles as it was.
Everybody.
- Yeah.
- It just, it plays too much.
You can't, whether you like it, don't like it,
that's an inescapable giant hit.
There's other songs like that.
So as much as things splinter,
there's not a single Christmas addition to the canon.
- I mean, maybe just because like modern production
is just so gnarly,
like maybe there's a version where like someone like
Post Malone does some like tasteful acoustic or paint,
like stripped down or Taylor Swift or whoever
does some sort of like tasteful palette Christmas song.
Like, cause I feel like, I don't know, man,
like recording a Christmas,
let's say you write a great Christmas song.
- Yeah.
- And then you record it with like contemporary production
and then you're trying to play it at the house
with like your parents and grandparents.
It's not gonna, it's not gonna fly.
- Christmas Tree Farm sounds pretty tasteful.
- Can we throw it on?
- All right, yeah, we'll go.
- I think Ezra's right.
I think it's not really a Christmas song, but.
(Christmas Tree Farm by Taylor Swift)
- Oh.
♪ My winter nights are taken up by static ♪
♪ Stress and holiday shopping traffic ♪
- Okay, I think I was pretty wrong.
- I feel you, Taylor.
♪ And I'm somewhere else ♪
♪ Just like magic ♪
- Okay.
Oh, she's doing, she's going throwback.
Wow, this came out last year?
Oh wait, no, 2019.
Missed it.
♪ Sparkles and lights bundled up in their mittens and coats ♪
♪ And the cider would flow ♪
♪ And I just wanna be there tonight ♪
♪ Sweet dreams of Holly and Riv ♪
♪ And mistakes are forgiven ♪
♪ And everything is icy and blue ♪
- She's going for it.
- She's doing the Mariah Carey vibe.
Kind of '60s, a little Phil Spector.
- Yeah.
♪ Watching the fire glow ♪
♪ And telling me I love you ♪
♪ Just being in your arms ♪
♪ Takes me back to that little farm ♪
♪ Where every wish comes true ♪
♪ In my heart is a Christmas tree farm ♪
♪ There's a light in the barn ♪
♪ We'd run inside out from the cold ♪
♪ In the town kids are dreaming of sleighs ♪
♪ And they're warm and they're safe ♪
♪ They wait to see a blanket of snow ♪
♪ Sweet dreams of Holly and Riv ♪
- So is this song kind of like Hallmark movie vibe?
She was stressed out in the big city,
but in her heart is like a rural Christmas,
Christmas tree farm.
- I heard that title,
I immediately thought of like,
oh, it's a funny comment on like the commercialism.
Like there's like a plot of land
that's devoted to growing these like industrial
to dwarf pine trees.
It's like, I thought of it as a sort of dystopian vision.
Like, couldn't you picture some like weird art photograph
of just like-
- Like raising a place energy?
- Yeah, completely homogenized landscape
of just Christmas tree farms.
- Yeah, it would have been a combination
of Joni Mitchell, River plus Big Yellow Taxi.
- Exactly.
- And I think Taylor Swift has songs like that
or she has like sad, folky songs, of course.
So I could totally picture like acoustic ballad.
That's just like, my heart feels like a Christmas tree farm,
nothing but stumps, grown to be cut down,
just kind of really sad.
- Yeah, apparently this is a biographical song.
Sounds like Taylor Swift grew up
or working on Christmas tree farms.
- Oh, did her family own one?
- Not sure, but she did say we all had jobs in the farm.
Mine was picking the praying mantis pods off the trees,
collecting them so that the bugs
wouldn't hatch inside people's houses.
- Whoa, that'd be a cool Christmas.
Come downstairs, it's the whole family praying mantis.
Just post it up all over your tree.
Praying mantis pods, interesting.
- She lived on a Christmas tree farm
in Redding, Pennsylvania as a young kid.
- Crazy.
- But yeah, not an instant classic.
- It's not gonna become like a 20th century classic.
And she's the biggest artist in the world.
It's no knock.
It's just, there's just seems to be no appetite
to add to the canon.
- Yeah, there's no cultural room for it.
- In 20 years, is there gonna be a children's movie
where they drop?
Yeah, they might, just because if they can't afford
Mariah Carey, but yeah, that also doesn't,
it adds something to her world, sure.
We only listened to it once.
It sounds like, you know,
a classic Taylor Swift storytelling songwriting.
I'm sure her fans love it as an addition to,
it's something for them to throw on at Christmas time.
But just vibe wise, is there anything that's missing
between the kind of like sad John Lennon,
so this is Christmas, the Mariah Carey fun one,
the Run DMC, it's almost like we still have
our bases covered.
And also like with modern music,
there's not gonna be like a trap Christmas classic.
I'm sure if we went on YouTube,
we could find literally 1 million trap remixes
of like, (singing)
(imitating drumming)
Yeah, but no appetite for it.
It's the war on Christmas.
I guess the war on Christmas won.
♪ So this is Christmas ♪
♪ And what have you done ♪
♪ Another year over ♪
♪ And a new one just begun ♪
♪ And so this is Christmas ♪
♪ I hope you have fun ♪
♪ The near and the dear ones ♪
♪ The old and the young ♪
♪ A merry, merry Christmas ♪
♪ And a happy new year ♪
♪ Let's hope there's nothing wrong ♪
♪ Without any fear ♪
- Well, if anybody disagrees and thinks
that there actually has been an addition
to the Christmas classic, please send us an email
and we promise we'll get to it by next Christmas.
Over the next 12 months,
we can compile these emails and revisit.
All right, should we get into the song "Boom" by Hoodwink?
- Yes, let's do it.
- Jake, maybe you gotta explain where this comes from.
People might not be familiar.
- Well, I don't really know.
I mean, I got a text from my brother a few weeks ago
with just, you know, an audio file
in the body of a text message and I pushed play
and I had no idea what I was listening to.
And I immediately was like, this is total TC fodder.
- Maybe we should just throw it on then
so people can experience what you experienced.
- Yeah, just quiet. - Just getting a text
of an MP3, no idea what it is.
- Nope.
- Was there a part of you in the beginning
that thought maybe this is a new Dirty Projectors song?
Like the first few seconds.
♪ I'm the rest of the century ♪
♪ Whether I want it or not ♪
♪ It's a long way from Woodstock nation ♪
♪ From staying high to staying alive ♪
♪ I'm the first rock generation to arrive ♪
♪ Boom ♪
♪ I was born in the boom ♪
♪ I'm a cold war kid making my bed ♪
- This rips.
♪ Baby, crack it down, generation gap ♪
♪ You can read my life like a road map ♪
♪ I rocked out of my cradle ♪
♪ Now I'm halfway to my tomb ♪
♪ I was born in the boom ♪
- Halfway to his tomb.
♪ I was born in the boom ♪
♪ Boom ♪
♪ Starting a war up against the wall ♪
♪ People just want to be free ♪
♪ Someone I knew shining in awe ♪
♪ Someone who looked like me ♪
♪ But maybe the feet of my dreams are dragging ♪
♪ But my dreams never pay the rent ♪
♪ Now I'm driving my station wagon ♪
♪ Wondering where time went ♪
- Great lyric.
♪ Boom ♪
♪ I was born in the boom ♪
♪ I never hoped for them to ever come again ♪
♪ The time slipped by somehow ♪
♪ But I'm gonna change the world any day now ♪
♪ First I got to get that loan ♪
♪ For the family room ♪
♪ I was born in the boom ♪
- He's gotta get that home equity loan
to add the addition on.
(laughing)
♪ Growing up on TV ♪
♪ Howdy doody binky lee ♪
♪ Rock and roll is starting to run ♪
- This song came out in '86
and it's a dude talking about being born in the boom.
How old do you think this guy is?
I mean, 'cause the boom,
I mean, this guy could have been in his 40s.
Also, he could have been around late 30s.
- Around 40.
- Couldn't he even have been like late 20s?
- Yeah, I mean, if he was born in the late 50s.
- 1957.
- Yeah.
♪ Pardon me, I'm not a crook ♪
♪ The years are going faster than I care to look ♪
♪ Harder to get out of bed ♪
♪ I'm a hard as lazy John instead ♪
♪ Thought I'd make a difference ♪
♪ Made a baby instead ♪
♪ Boom ♪
- Thought I'd make a difference, made a baby instead.
♪ Will the hopeful man ever come again ♪
♪ The times slip by somehow ♪
♪ But I'm gonna change the world any day now ♪
♪ I locked out of my cradle ♪
♪ Now I'm halfway to my tomb ♪
♪ I was born in the boom ♪
- Halfway to my tomb.
- Halfway to my tomb.
- Right, so this is basically a boomer
approaching middle age.
- I mean, I'm just a sucker for this kind of stuff.
Whether it's, you know, the boys of summer.
- Old hippie.
- Or it's old hippie.
- That's "Hoodwink" with "Boom."
I can imagine, I mean, picture Jake hearing this
for the first time, just what is this
mysterious piece of music?
Because none of us have ever heard of the band Hoodwink.
Never heard of the song.
I mean, for me on first listen, I was struck by,
sometimes somebody will send you some weird old song
you never heard of, and part of what they like about it
is that it is a bit amateurish.
Some weird folk album that nobody ever heard
from the '60s, or some like, you know,
digging into like the lessors,
the stuff that never really made it
from the obscure funk or country.
Just stuff that you can tell.
Part of why it's cool is maybe it's a touch less
professional, or it's a little more idiosyncratic.
What's interesting about this song is
it's like exceptionally well-made.
- And sung.
- The guy's a great singer, and even like,
there's something about it, like maybe the mix
makes it sound not quite like something
that you would have, you know, a massive hit from that era.
But the arrangement really is like excellent.
The playing's great, and even that,
"Boom, I was born in the boom."
It's not, very little about it is amateur.
And as we did some digging to find out
where this actually came from,
it was on a compilation album called "Made in the USA,"
which came out in 1986, that was put together
by a Cincinnati radio station called WEBN,
which still exists in some form,
but they would basically do these albums
to highlight local artists.
So this band, Hoodwink, I think they released
very little music outside of this song.
They were a local band.
So once we realized that this was just like
a local Cincinnati band that maybe had a connection
to this radio station on this special compilation,
I was even more impressed.
- It must've been a real standout.
- Yeah, and these must've been like some,
like maybe some of the best, I don't know,
arrangers, players, singers in Cincinnati.
- I mean, I would love to be a fly on the wall,
yeah, like of the recording of this.
Like you're in like a professional recording studio
in Cincinnati in like early '86, late '85,
and you're watching this dude like throw down the vocals.
♪ I need that home equity loan for the family room ♪
I mean, boom!
- If you just played this for me and you said,
"What do you think the backstory is on this?"
I'd say, I would be like,
this was a demo that a major label paid for.
It was recorded at a studio in the Valley in the mid '80s.
This was recorded in Van Nuys.
And they'd say, yeah, it was this guy,
he made some demos, he was supposed to release an album,
but something happened, he got dropped,
but it didn't work out.
But actually a lot of the people who helped make this demo,
these are people who also played on Toto albums or something.
You know what I mean?
It has that kind of vibe.
- Lionel Richie thought about recording it.
- Yeah.
This is like when a friend of the show, Bruce Hornsby,
was like hanging out in the Valley,
just kind of like getting his (beep) together,
probably taking gigs here and there.
And he told me, he's like,
"Yeah, I did one session with Hoodwink.
I helped them arrange 'Boom!'"
It was a really good demo,
but they decided to leave it off the album.
So in a sense, it's a very impressive piece of music.
And it's memorable too.
Normally, if you think about these weird compilations
you hear where somebody just throws
a bunch of local artists on, you know.
- Oh yeah.
- So much of it is just so deeply forgettable.
There is something about this song.
It has flavor and that pause, boom!
But let's talk more about the songwriting,
'cause I think in some ways that's the most TC element of it.
- Yeah, the lyrics are just incredible.
I don't think we have the lyrics, do we?
So we'll have to just start the song over.
- Yeah, throw it on one more time.
- Yeah, 'cause it's fast paced.
I mean, you can miss a lot.
- Yeah.
- I mean, it's a guy looking back at his life
and like saying, "God, where did the time go?"
♪ Give me a nap, give me shelter ♪
♪ Give me something for what I got ♪
- Give me, referencing, "Give Me Shelter."
♪ I own the rest of the century ♪
♪ Whether I want it or not ♪
- Okay, pause it, I'm already missing something.
- Yeah, yeah.
- I'm in the rest of the century.
Give me an F, give me shelter.
- Just start it over, Matt, can you start it over?
- We need to do a close reading of "Boom."
- Insane intro.
- Yeah, bam.
♪ Give me a nap, give me shelter ♪
♪ Give me something for what I got ♪
- Give me an F, give me shelter,
give me something for what I got.
♪ I own the rest of the century ♪
♪ Whether I want it or not ♪
♪ I own the rest of the century ♪
♪ Whether I want it or not ♪
♪ I'm not away from Woodstock nation ♪
♪ From staying high to staying alive ♪
♪ I'm the first rock generation to arrive ♪
- Wait, he's, pause it.
He's the first rock and roll generation to,
basically, we're the Boomers,
we are the Zeitgeists, and we are ascendant,
and soon to be in power in 1985.
- Yeah.
- And we're the first generation raised on rock.
We were at Woodstock.
This is the stuff I love.
That's sort of like,
yeah, real Don Henley,
where did the idealism go, man?
- Right.
- Nobody on the beach.
- 1986, you're surrounded,
clearly, rock has changed.
You've already seen the rise of punk, hardcore.
- Disco, all of it, yeah.
- I guess, as people have,
it's a cliched point now,
but people talk about the selfishness of the Boomers.
You see the younger generations say this all the time.
Although, to me, it's pretty clear
that the Boomerism is really just more like modern life.
- It's just post-war consumer capitalism.
- There's even a case to be made
that every generation's gotten more and more Boomer.
It's all just sequels to Boomers,
as much as people love to,
including us, and want to talk about the differences.
- I was talking about my grandmother,
coveting an orange on Christmas morning.
But then her kids are all post-war babies
born in the bounty of American hegemony.
And so, that's what the Boomers are.
They were in the shining new city on the hill
of your life is defined by consumerism,
for better or worse.
And since then, living in the same set of conditions.
- People love to point out the,
"Well, yeah, Boomer,
"you could have bought a house for this much,
"and college was cheaper."
100%, these differences are not fake.
There are legitimate differences.
And even within generations, you can get this like if--
- Oh, absolutely.
- Sometimes it's better to be 14
at when the economy collapses than 18 or 22.
It really depends.
That could really have a big difference on
when you're getting a job and things like that.
So, these are all real.
But I think when you go back to the,
"I got an orange, one orange a year mentality,"
these are all looks like people living
in the shining city on the hill.
And I think the sad truth of human existence
is that people rarely feel that way.
So, the idea that you would tell
like a member of Hoodwink type Boomer,
like, "Oh, you guys had it so good."
There's a feeling of, you know,
it's like Billy Joel, "We Didn't Start the Fire."
At some point, we got to talk about that song
'cause clearly similar energy.
There's a feeling of,
you just grew up in the lap of luxury and abundance.
People, it doesn't make any sense to them.
What are you talking about?
JFK was killed when I was in middle school.
I came of age in the craziest decade.
There's a sense not of living in abundance,
but in a sense of living in chaos and social turmoil
and fighting for a new world to be born,
which I think is probably true of younger generations now.
What year did "We Didn't Start the Fire" come out?
I was thinking about that.
- I was gonna say, this is before that.
That's like '90 or something.
- No.
- I think so.
Seinfeld, "Number Crunch," on "We Didn't Start the Fire."
- 1989.
- Okay.
- Ah, got you, Jake.
Just like I messed up.
I called it as '80 for McCarney.
All right, we're officially even.
We'll need a tiebreaker.
- We're all tied up.
And they both hinge on nine and zero years.
Anyway.
- I think for people like us who love years,
the nine and zero can be a real danger zone.
- Oh yeah.
- When you're guessing what year something came out.
Okay, so wow, this is significantly
before "We Didn't Start the Fire."
'Cause what's interesting about it too
is that when you talk about "Boys of Summer"
as a kind of like looking back from the '80s
towards the '60s, that's a beautiful song,
but it's eerie, sad, and wistful.
And it's melancholy.
- Right, and the details, I mean,
like the only really true vivid detail
in "Boys of Summer" is,
out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.
The rest of it is very vibey,
just like wayfarers, or just like you're on the beach,
and I jumped by your house.
- And in some ways, if you take away
that the Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac,
really what you're left with is a very good,
I'd say excellent song that's in the tradition
of songs that there's always been
about time going by and youth passing.
You know, I'm sure there are 15th century troubadours
more or less singing about the same themes
of eternal love in the face of,
it's like Shakespearean sonnet,
eternal love in the face of the devouring tooth of time.
There's a superficial boomer element to it,
but it really is just a beautiful song
about remembering the past and saying,
"My love for you will still be strong
"even when summer's over
"and we approach the winter of our lives."
That's really some eternal thematic stuff.
- What this has in common with "We Didn't Start the Fire"
is a very unique slice of boomer cultural energy
that's angry and pumped up at the same time,
like hitting middle age in this kind of intense,
like, "JFK, man of the year!"
- "JFK blown away, what else do I have to say?"
- "What else do I have to say?"
There is something pretty funny
about getting more fired up when you're 40.
Some people mellow, or they're just like,
they have a deeper realization of what life's all about
when they hit middle age.
Like, you know, you're an adult now,
you have family, things change,
you understand the cyclical nature of time, whatever.
There's something about getting more fired up at 40.
"What more do I have to say?"
Or this song, "I was born in the boom!"
This and "We Didn't Start the Fire,"
I can't think of too many other examples
of that particular slice of intense,
kind of angry boomer energy.
It's unique.
And anyway, I guess "Hoodwink" beat "Billy" to it
by at least three years, so there's really something.
- I mean, I guess you could say "Born in the USA" by Bruce
has a little bit of that, but again,
it's poetry is just sort of deeper and not so,
I mean, it's pretty specific about, like, you know,
his buddies back in Saigon and all that, but.
- Yeah, "Born in the USA" would hit so different
if instead of being about a guy who came back
all messed up from war and felt abandoned,
which in some ways is also a pretty classic theme
about the horrors of war and returning to life.
Even the ancient Greeks were writing about that.
But yeah, if instead of, you could totally picture it
if instead of being like, "I went to Vietnam
"and I watched my friends get killed,
"and then I came back and I couldn't get a job,"
if instead it was just like a guy who never left New Jersey,
he was just kind of just like,
just generally had this sense of like,
"What the (beep) man?
"What's going on?"
From Woodstock to this, you know.
I'm sure it still is very emotional
watching the time slip by and things not pan out.
But yeah, "Born in the USA" being rooted
in the war experience, that still, to me,
it's a war song.
♪ Trying to get a home equity loan ♪
♪ So I can have the second bathroom ♪
But you know, just like.
- Yeah, 'cause I think this energy of,
is more not like, "I went to war
"and then I was abandoned by an ungrateful nation
"who's the one who sent me there in the first place."
Like, why?
Why did I even fight this war?
That's one thing.
It's another to be like,
and maybe it's even equally sad in a weird way
of just like, "What happened?
"How did I get here?"
- I don't know if this song is angry though.
I think it's more of just like, "Wow."
Like, time just slipped away
and like, life's so different now, 1985,
than it was in 1969.
- No, I know what you mean.
It's not overtly angry,
but the fact that it's so up-tempo and go boom!
It's teetering on anger.
- Yeah.
- Well, let's keep listening.
- Confusion.
♪ Born in the boom ♪
♪ I'm a Cold War kid making my bed ♪
♪ Baby, crack your jack ♪
- Cold War kid making my bed?
♪ You can read my life like a road map ♪
- Okay, wait, pause it, sorry.
I love, "You can read my life like a road map."
Is he saying like,
"I'm part of this massive generation
"and we're all subject to the same sort of like
"forces of history and economics."
And like, "Yeah, I was born in the boom
"and now I'm like a single family homeowner in the suburbs."
Like, what is he?
- You would think in some ways,
he'd be the one kind of writing the road map
or like diagnosing it.
But maybe already by '86,
they'd been talking about the end of the '60s for 15 years.
I mean, even by '69,
maybe he is saying something like pretty sophisticated,
just kind of like,
there's something about his generation
where it felt almost like preordained.
'Cause I think even when it happened,
we look backwards and people like us
who are interested in classic rock history,
you read about Altamont
and you might read a book in 2005 or something.
It's like, now we look at the deaths
at the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont
as being the end of the '60s.
But I think that people were saying that in the '60s,
like when it happened,
there was already a sense of like,
"Well, yeah, the promise of the hippies is over."
So maybe he's reflecting on this feeling
that because his generation was so like self-conscious,
people always have a sense of like,
"I'm young and other people are old."
And that's what maybe why the boomers
kicked off this whole new way of thinking about generations.
Not everybody grew up where you had a hit song
called "My Generation" about your generation.
Limp Bizkit fans had that.
But again, the boomers created a new archetype.
So maybe he's reflecting on this feeling
that like this was the first deeply,
deeply self-conscious generation.
And when a generation is very self-conscious,
even as things unfold, it almost feels preordained
because people are like already talking about it
in historical terms, like something happens,
well, that was the end of that era.
Maybe even today, people talk about vibe shifts,
just like something, just like, "Yep, shifted."
- Is this the first generation where people felt
that they just inherited the previous generation's bull(beep)?
- Right, because maybe previous generations
saw themselves as being part of
some sort of historical continuity.
'Cause of course, there's always been generational tension,
but yeah, maybe the idea that a generation
is truly distinct and like pushing off of the old one
versus a sense of like,
"Well, of course you're born into this world
"and you build off what the previous generation did
"and you're part of this longer story."
Yeah, I think you're right.
That there's something specific about the boomers
and that particular kind of generational conflict.
♪ Read my life like a roadmap ♪
Maybe by '86, he's also just saying,
"Everybody's been talking about this.
"Born in the '60s, the '70s, everything changed.
"And by the '80s, we're in a totally new America.
"Yep, that's me."
You know, like you've been talking about it for 20 years
and I'm exactly that.
I'm the boomer cliche.
I was excited about the Woodstock Nation
and now I'm trying to get a home equity loan.
I'm that guy, 100%.
♪ Wrapped out of my cradle ♪
♪ Now I'm halfway to my tomb ♪
♪ I was born in the boom ♪
(glass shattering)
♪ Standing up against the wall ♪
♪ People just want to be free ♪
♪ Someone I knew shouted off ♪
♪ Someone who looked like me ♪
♪ But maybe the feet of my dreams are dragging ♪
♪ Thought my dreams never paid the rent ♪
♪ Now I'm driving my station wagon ♪
♪ Wondering where time went ♪
Okay, pause it.
Okay.
So yeah, his dreams never paid the rent.
You know, he's middle-aged, so he has to be pragmatic.
Driving a station wagon.
I mean, the dream is over.
You know, maybe he had a band back in the '70s.
Had a little interest from some major labels.
Didn't work out.
I mean, I'm assuming that's what his dream is.
I don't know, maybe he means dream
in a larger cultural sense, I don't know.
- Well, I would actually love to know the background
of the people in Hoodwink
because they're definitely talented.
Depending on what age they are,
if they're pushing 40,
then it is possible that the singer, the guitarist,
whoever, could have been in one of the most badass
hard rock bands in Cincinnati in the '70s.
- Do you think that this singer is white or black?
I honestly can't tell.
- Oh.
- You assumed white?
- I assumed white, maybe I gotta check my biases.
There's just something about a track
from a 1986 Cincinnati rock radio station.
- I assumed it's a majority white, but.
- I'm sure it is, but something about this singing,
but I'm picturing the recording.
I'm just like, I'm picturing like several different people
singing this song.
- I could picture a rainbow coalition
of different types of singers who sing this.
We need help finding out more about the band Hoodwink.
Do we have any listeners in the Cincinnati area
who have any connection to this band?
Because our producers did some digging.
There's a classic rock cover band in Cincinnati
called Hoodwink, but there doesn't seem to be
an affiliation between the two Hoodwinks.
- Well, and I remember on the text thread
a few weeks ago, we found some guy's name.
I don't have it in front of me.
And we were Googling him and we found some guy
that was like a county commissioner.
- A lawyer.
- Yeah, or something in like the Lexington, Kentucky area,
which I think is across the river from Cincinnati.
- He was part of a charity.
- Right.
- We found a name of a member of Hoodwink
and then we ran it through our advanced computer system.
And we found that there's somebody who shares that name
who is part of some sort of Lexington, Kentucky event
where local kind of white collar lawyers
and business people play rock music
to raise money for charity.
So that's a promising lead.
- Is it possible that that person's name was Stephen Howard?
- I don't remember.
- Sounds possible.
- Are you digging back into the time crisis text thread?
- You know, I did a cold Google search
and I found a Hoodwink Cincinnati Facebook page
with 59 likes.
- That's probably the current classic rock cover band,
I would imagine.
- Is there really no affiliation?
- Matt found it.
So it's Hoodwink on bass is somebody named Mike Scharf,
percussion, David Michael Zanders,
guitar, Ted Karras, keyboards, Jay Gilbert.
- Oh, Rick Marksberry.
- That was the name.
(laughing)
Rick Marksberry on vocal.
God, I hope so deeply that somebody who's listening
is like, "Rick Marksberry is my dad."
- Okay, wow.
- Or like, what was that episode we did
where we talked to that guy in Colorado about his,
like the guy that played in that Connecticut fusion band
with Michael, that was like gigged with Michael Bolton.
- Oh yeah, that was a great band.
- And like his son or someone like heard the episode
and then, didn't we talk to him or something?
I'm trying to remember.
- Yeah, it was about how he'd been sampled by DJ Shadow
and how he got like 50 grand.
- Well, they sent an email.
I don't think we talked to him,
but they wrote an email at least.
I don't remember, but.
- Yeah.
- I was born in the boom.
- Yeah, let's keep going, great song.
- Boom!
♪ I was born in the boom ♪
♪ With a hope I'll never come again ♪
♪ The time slipped by somehow ♪
♪ But I'm gonna change the world any day now ♪
♪ First I got to get that loan ♪
♪ For the family room ♪
- It's a great arrangement,
just going down to just that, the hi-hat.
- Yeah.
- Gives it that like tick, tick, tick, boom.
- He's gotta get the loan for the family room.
- Ted Karras just ripping on guitar.
♪ Rolling back on TV ♪
♪ Howdy doody binky lee ♪
♪ Rock and roll is starting to go gunning for me ♪
- Plouy.
♪ Don't know if I'm on blacklist ♪
♪ Don't care if we co-exist ♪
- See, this is.
♪ Come on baby do the twerk ♪
- Okay, hold on, sorry.
Can you back it up?
- He's really getting into,
we didn't start the fire energy here.
- Right.
- I think Billy heard this.
- He's commenting on it.
- I think Billy had the comp.
- Yeah, I think someone slipped Billy the comp.
(laughing)
♪ First I got to get that loan ♪
♪ For the family room ♪
- Okay, here we go.
♪ I was born in the boom ♪
♪ Growing up on TV ♪
♪ Howdy doody binky lee ♪
♪ Rock and roll is starting to go gunning for me ♪
♪ Don't know if I'm on blacklist ♪
- He's listing stuff.
He said, "Howdy doody."
♪ Come on baby do the twist ♪
♪ Jackie in the Dallas, Don Weaver ♪
♪ The flowers gonna want to hold you ♪
♪ And I'd love to turn you on ♪
- Ooh, the chords nice.
♪ Day glow for dead in Ohio ♪
♪ Had enough, let's go to the disco ♪
- Okay, so he's doing the chronology.
Four days in Ohio, four dead in Ohio.
♪ I'm not a crook, the years are going faster ♪
♪ Than I care to look ♪
♪ Harder to get out of bed ♪
- Billy totally ripped off this verse.
♪ Make a difference, made a baby in style ♪
- Big time.
♪ Boom ♪
♪ I was born in the boom ♪
- Wait, I gotta point something out, so pause again.
- He does a very compressed rock history,
including the Beatles.
He goes from, "I wanna hold your hand"
to, "I wanna turn you on."
- And I heard, "It's my party."
And yeah, he was talking about,
he grew up on TV watching Howdy Doody's,
listing all the music,
little murder most foul energy,
talking about everything.
But then I like, it's also interesting too,
how that verse ends with him,
"Thought I'd make a difference, made a baby instead."
And then boom, which is interesting.
Now there's the next boom.
There's something funny too,
about the name of the generation, the baby boom,
where you're constantly thinking about when you were a baby.
At least like Gen X and millennials,
it's all related to when you were born.
But the baby boomer,
it's like, you're still thinking about being a baby.
- Right, no, Gen X is sort of like,
yeah, '90s culture, you know.
- Yeah, and also Gen X-
- Pavement and Quentin Tarantino is-
- Yeah, in some ways we associate,
Gen X sounds more like a descriptor
of the culture those people created as adults.
- Right.
- Or at least as young adults consuming culture.
Whereas the baby boomer generation,
you'd be cooler if their name had something less to do
with just being born by,
when horny soldiers came home
and were ready to have children after fighting abroad.
If it had something more to do with the culture
they experienced in the '60s or something,
if you're like the Aquarian generation or the-
- Right.
- Or even the Woodstock generation is corny in its own way.
But it's like, at least that's describing
their young adult culture, not the baby.
But anyway, I thought I'd make a difference,
made a baby instead.
I wonder what, and this is actually going back
to our discussion about what is the tone of the song
that becomes important?
'Cause there's a way to frame that positively.
You could picture one dude who was like,
you know what, I lived through tumultuous times
and then by the mid '80s, even though I used to believe
that I was gonna be this revolutionary
and that everything was gonna change,
I actually have a deeper understanding
of the way the world works
and the larger forces of history.
And now here I am, I have my own baby.
And now the cycle starts anew.
And I'm gonna let go of all this cultural baggage
of the last 40 years,
'cause I understand everything's cyclical.
I was a baby boomer, now I'm the person,
I was part of the baby boom, now I'm having a baby.
There's almost a way to look at it as like,
ah, I think I understand something a bit more
about life now.
But again, I'd have a baby instead, boom!
I mean- - So intense.
- Maybe that's what gives this song
that sort of amateur sheen,
is that there is no real clear perspective.
Like we can't tell how this guy feels about any of this.
Like there's no real coherent worldview.
It's just sort of like stuff happened.
- Which maybe is what makes it great art.
It's like a primal scream.
Yeah, maybe it's lacking the storytelling
of a "Born in the USA" or a "Boys of Summer."
And it doesn't have that kind of professional sheen,
obviously, if we didn't start the fire.
But it's a mix of like anger, joy, confusion.
It's real in that sense.
- Hey guys, Matt has been putting in the work
behind the scenes here,
and it looks like he's uncovered a Rick Marksbury band
circa 2007 that is on Apple Music.
- Oh, throw it on.
- It's a band called Retroactive
that's been together- - Love it.
- For eight years, I guess before 2007.
Yeah, let's hear some of this.
- Do we think Rick Marksbury
was the primary songwriter of "Hoodwink"?
Is "Boom" like his baby?
- Well, wait, he's confirmed the vocalist here?
- Yes, Rick Marksbury was lead vocals on "Boom,"
according to Discogs.
- I mean, the way he's singing it,
it really sounds like he takes ownership,
like you can feel that ownership.
Oh.
♪ Life is never easy ♪
♪ At least not for this day ♪
♪ It seems the road that I take ♪
♪ Is headed the wrong way ♪
♪ Back to step one ♪
♪ I'm stuck in second gear ♪
♪ Every time I turn around ♪
♪ I'm lost for another year ♪
- Is this the same guy?
- Similar sentiment.
♪ You don't know what ♪
♪ You don't know what you want ♪
- That's real '60s.
♪ You don't know what ♪
♪ You don't know what ♪
♪ You don't know what you want ♪
♪ Sometimes I'm so busy ♪
♪ I don't know what to do ♪
♪ If I had a choice ♪
♪ I'd leave it up to you ♪
♪ My face up on the screen ♪
♪ Just need a little day ♪
- Maybe Rick got really into fellow Ohio-Great GBV
and was like, "You know what?
I'm loving this lo-fi basement sound."
- A little more lo-fi on the vocals.
Way more.
♪ You don't know what ♪
♪ You don't know what you want ♪
♪ You don't know what ♪
♪ You don't know what ♪
♪ You don't know what you want ♪
- It doesn't sound like the same singer, though.
- How many years later would this have been?
Like 30 years?
- 20.
- Okay.
- Maybe he's a versatile singer
and he can kind of do different approaches.
- I like the guitar on this song.
The riff in the beginning really sounded good.
♪ Hey, you don't know what ♪
♪ You don't know what ♪
- It does sound like the vocals were recorded
in like a separate auditory universe in the drum.
The drums are very close mic'd.
- Yeah, right.
- And the vocals are like in a closet.
- Yeah.
- And the vocals are like in a closet.
♪ Life is never easy ♪
♪ At least not for this day ♪
- Yeah, the vocals are much more lo-fi.
♪ This is the road that I take ♪
♪ You said it the wrong way ♪
♪ Back to South Florida ♪
- I'm not mad at this.
I mean, you know.
- No, I mean, obviously Rick Marksbury is a talented person.
And so is Rick Marksbury the one who's maybe a lawyer
in Lexington, Kentucky now?
- Well, oh wait, he might be.
He might've died.
- Oh.
- Matt said something, sent over a obituary.
Rick Marksbury, June 3rd, 1954 to March 3rd, 2012.
- Is that a different Rick Marksbury?
- Is there any information?
- Well, Rick Marksbury, 57, passed away on 2012.
Not really.
I mean, he's- - I can't do it, guys.
- I mean, no, it's a Cincinnati
and Kentucky based Rick Marksbury.
- That's possible.
I mean, the spelling of Rick being R-I-C,
lacking the K is a bit of a tell.
- Man, I'm looking at an obituary that,
no, wait, what are these years?
These years don't seem right.
I'm looking at one where the years say 1967 to 2022.
- Well, that's weird 'cause I'm looking at one
from, no, '54 to 2012.
- I found a Rick Marksbury who's a retired inspector
for the Northern Kentucky Health Department.
- That's what I've, I found that guy.
- Yeah, I think this is our guy.
I think- - I think so too.
- So he died?
- No, no, no, I think he's a-
- He's still alive.
- A retired health inspector.
That's, I remember finding that guy a few weeks ago
when we were texting about this.
- The Beachwood High School, 1971.
Okay, this must be him.
Rick Marksbury, he was a musician,
studied literature and language
at Northern Kentucky University,
Beachwood High School, class of '71.
This sounds like our guy.
- Well, maybe for the first episode next year,
we try to get Rick Marksbury to call in
and really get to the bottom of this song.
- I'd love to know more about where he was coming from
on this song and clearly a talented guy.
I'd love to, yeah, just hear his story.
Well, hopefully we can find out.
If anybody listening is gonna be maybe spending Christmas
in Southern Ohio or Kentucky
and wants a bit of a mission, help us out.
Let's track down Marksbury.
- Listen to the end of the song again and just-
- Yeah, yeah.
- Go on to the top five.
♪ The time slipped by somehow ♪
♪ But I'm gonna change the world any day now ♪
♪ I locked down of my cradle ♪
♪ Now I'm halfway to my tomb ♪
♪ I was born in a boom ♪
- He's a really good singer.
Like, it's not just like, oh, he's pretty good.
This type of singing, this like, kinda classic rock,
♪ I was born in a boom ♪
- I mean, there's a lot of soul in that,
like soul music in that scene too.
That's why I was like, it's hard for me to pin down
the race of the singer.
It's like kinda raceless.
- Next year, first question for Rick Marksbury, race.
- All I'm saying is like, that singing is on par
with like anybody from like a rock band of that era.
You know, it's like, it's real rock singing
with like range, soul, depth.
It's not just like some, you know,
discovering some cool like lo-fi classic,
like Daniel Johnston type thing,
which is, you know, amazing in its own way,
but you're like, oh yeah, well, of course this was,
you know, this is somebody like a real professional singer.
- Yeah.
- All right, so let's get into the top five.
- Let's do top five.
- It's time for the top five on iTunes.
- So this week, because it's the end of the year,
for the top five, we decided,
and actually this was a suggestion, right?
From a--
- Someone on Twitter.
- This was a suggestion from a listener.
- Yeah.
- Somebody named Alex said,
when do we do our top five Apple Music
kind of year end stuff?
'Cause they give that to you.
- This is interesting 'cause this is truly,
I have no idea what might be in Jake's,
and you, I'm sure, have no idea what might be in mine.
The one thing I'll say is I've noticed
with these streaming platform year end things,
because a lot of people, especially maybe younger people,
it's an exciting thing, you get to share
and show what you've been listening to and stuff like that.
I imagine for you and me, Jake,
as us guys who are halfway to our tomb,
we don't put much thought in curating
(laughs)
our streaming listening.
And also you and I both listen on other platforms as well.
- Yeah, records and yeah.
- Our whole life doesn't revolve around only streaming.
So I imagine for you, certainly for me,
it's not like this curated, like,
well, this year I was really into this new record
and that's the one I listened to the most.
And of course you're gonna see,
I spent a lot of time digging into the catalog of who,
it's not gonna be like that.
- Do you think people are like,
in like, you know, February and March of a given year
are like thinking about what their year end playlists,
social media share is gonna look like?
And they're-
- Yes, I do.
- Wow.
That's absolutely psychotic.
- I bet you especially get it in November
where you probably have some people who,
you enjoy that and they start jamming in stuff
that they think is better for their brand.
This to me is a very like,
like kind of revealing of like my private habits
or, you know, my soul,
because I'm never thinking about the year end rap
when I'm listening to music on a streaming service.
- Maybe you should start.
- I was surprised to see the five songs
that were my top five listens.
Although I will say a little bit kind of,
it's a similar analog to your theory on the Grammys
being weighted towards the A, Bs and Cs.
A lot of this music in my top five
were songs I kind of engaged with or discovered
in the early part of the year,
because I make like every year,
I start like a 2022 playlist.
And if I hear a song that I like,
it could be new, it could be old,
but kind of new to me,
I'll put it to the 2022 playlist.
So a lot of the stuff, I think these five songs
are songs that I discovered,
you know, say Q1 or two of this year.
- And it's at the start of the playlist.
So every time you throw on the playlist.
- Exactly, or I usually just hit shuffle,
but it's usually when I don't know what to listen to
and I'm just in the car or I'm working and painting,
I'll just like, oh yeah,
I got like 20 songs on this playlist
that I'm feeling right now.
Let me just hit shuffle.
And you know, the songs that I put on
in January, February, March, I'm going to hear more.
- I see.
- So this is really a snapshot of me,
I would say the first half of 2022.
- Well, let's get into it.
Let's see what we're talking about.
So I guess we're starting with your number five, Jake.
- Yeah.
- Paul Westerberg, "Mr. Rabbit."
- Oh, interesting.
- Paul Westerberg from The Replacements.
- Yes.
I'm learning things already.
The songwriter is a traditional.
- Okay.
♪ Mr. Rabbit, Mr. Rabbit ♪
♪ Your coat is mighty gray ♪
♪ Yes, bless God has made that way ♪
♪ Never let a soul shine ♪
♪ Never let a soul shine ♪
- Do you know this song?
- No.
His voice sounds great.
I mean, I love The Replacements, like everybody,
but know basically nothing
about Paul Westerberg's solo career.
So this is from his fourth solo album.
- Yeah.
- Well, how'd you get into this song, Jake?
- I heard it.
No, like- - You just heard it?
- I heard it.
Hannah had some random playlist playing in the house
and I was like, "What is this?"
And I was like, "I gotta add this to my playlist."
- Yeah.
- And I've been listening to it all year.
- Do you know any other Paul Westerberg solo songs?
- No. - Can you name one?
- No.
- All I'll say is that every time I've ever heard
Paul Westerberg solo stuff, I've always been like,
"All right, man, look at you."
- I gotta check this out.
- Yeah, this guy's always good.
- I've been listening to the song all year
and I was like, to me, it was like such a timeless song.
It almost reminds me of like a Hank Williams song
or something.
- Well, there you go. - It's interesting.
- It's a traditional.
- It's a traditional.
Every little soul must shine.
♪ Mr. Rabbit, Mr. Rabbit ♪
♪ Your eyes are mighty red ♪
♪ This place got some almost daily heaven ♪
- I guess this is like Paul Westerberg's version
of like Bob Dylan, "Wiggle Wiggle."
It's kind of like deep in your career,
just doing like really simple, childlike, folky stuff.
♪ Heaven is so much shine ♪
♪ Heaven is so much shine ♪
♪ Heaven is so much shine ♪
♪ Heaven is so much shine ♪
- But it's cool to like take a traditional
and make it sound like a classic kind of lo-fi basement
indie rock recording.
His arrangement, like the voicings,
like the voicings on the chords and stuff
are not really traditional.
Anyway, that song rips.
- My number five.
See, I thought about if I should like curate this more,
but whatever, I left it raw.
Number five, Bob Dylan, "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall."
- Hell yeah, dude.
- Okay, wait, how many plays?
Oh, I don't have that written down.
- Oh, I had mine.
I think the Paul Westerberg was like 20 or something.
- Yeah, it'd probably be something similar.
You know this one, Jake?
- Yeah, I know this one.
I've heard it.
♪ Where have you been, my blue-eyed son ♪
- One thing I have to say is that
Brownsville Girl was only a few slots away.
That was like seven or eight.
So this part of me wanted to curate it
and just switch out Brownsville Girl to talk about,
but no, "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall."
- I mean, we talked about Brownsville Girl
for like 45 minutes, so.
- Yeah.
I mean, yeah, what more can you say about this one, though?
"A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall."
What's bringing you back to this song
so many times this year?
- I do think I listen to it a lot,
but I was just listening to so much Bob Dylan
this year is the truth.
And I think a lot of times when you get to the end
of a Bob Dylan album,
it might auto-play into this or something.
I think this, I don't know.
(laughing)
- That's so much less inspiring.
- Yeah, and I do listen to this song a bunch.
And I just remember putting it on in the house
and listening to it with the family.
(acoustic guitar music)
♪ Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son ♪
♪ And what did you see, my darling young one ♪
- Also, at some point, I remember when we first got to Japan,
I was like, and because I'd seen Bob Dylan play
at Fuji Rock Festival a few years ago,
I think I was researching Bob Dylan's history in Japan,
'cause he's toured here quite a bit.
He had the live record in the '70s.
And somehow I came across a video on YouTube,
which I kind of recommend,
which is him playing at this famous temple in the city,
Nara, where you might've heard of it.
It's like, there's these deer that roam around.
If you've ever seen a picture of somebody visiting Japan
surrounded by deer, it's probably at Nara.
And so Bob played in front of this famous temple
that has a really striking, amazing,
huge Buddha statue inside.
But he's playing at the outside of,
they had some sort of event in the '90s
where Bob played with an orchestra.
And there's like this slightly schmaltzy,
but still moving version of "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall,"
just like Bob in the '90s in Japan with an orchestra.
So I remember kind of watching that
and then took me back to the song,
which of course I've listened to many times in my life.
♪ My son ♪
♪ And what did you hear, my darling young one ♪
- Well, it's resonant that him playing this song in Japan,
you know, 50 years after Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
- Right, 'cause at the time,
a lot of people interpreted "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall"
as being about nuclear war.
The cool thing about Dylan is,
I think it's a flexible metaphor.
So you can imagine this 1963,
it's like, it probably seemed like a hard rain.
Yeah, it sounds like nuclear bombs,
but in an even more mystical way,
it's also just like, things are gonna get weird.
I've been out there in this world
and I saw all sorts of weird stuff.
And I can tell you one thing, it's not gonna stop.
Things are gonna get weirder and weirder.
"A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall."
- Yeah, it could be frogs falling from the sky
or, you know, nuclear winter.
- Right.
- But yeah, the fact that this was released in '63,
so presumably recorded in '62,
I mean, Cuban Missile Crisis, I mean, you know.
- When did JFK die?
Was that late '63?
- November 22nd, '63.
So this was released before--
- That's pretty wild.
- Yeah.
- In 1963, this probably was a lot of people's favorite song
of the year or like a song they spent a lot of time with.
- Yeah.
- When people were getting their year-end streaming metrics
back at the end of '63,
they were still reeling from the assassination of JFK
and thinking to themselves,
"Damn, the song I listened to the most this year
was called 'A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall.'"
Look what just happened.
When you really put it that way,
no wonder he was seen as not just an excellent songwriter,
but like an almost spookily prophetic dude.
- Yeah.
Voice of a generation, dude.
"A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall."
And then the president is murdered, a murder most foul.
And then he writes a song 50 years later about it.
- Amazing.
♪ I met another man who was wounded in the hatred ♪
♪ And it's hard, it's hard, it's hard, it's hard ♪
♪ It's a hard rain's gonna fall ♪
- Jake, let's get into your number four.
(laughing)
- This was the real surprise.
- That's awesome.
Meatloaf, "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad."
Oh, I didn't know that this was produced by Todd Rungrin.
- Yeah.
- I didn't know that.
Oh, he produced "Bad Outta Hell."
I didn't know.
- I'm surprised by that.
I'm learning things about all these songs.
Like I said, I don't know the Paul Westerberg solo career,
but damn.
- So, you know, famously Meatloaf's songwriter,
Jim Steinman, who died recently.
And I can't remember if I sent this to our text thread,
but Jim Steinman's mansion is for sale right now.
And it includes some of his memorabilia and his piano.
And guess where it is?
- Somewhere in LA or?
- No, Connecticut.
- Oh, what town?
- I think you need to buy it, Jake.
I think it's-
- Is he in the Southwest corner?
Is he in Fairfield County?
- Can we get some, a number crunch?
Where's Jim Steinman's house?
What's the, what are they looking for?
- Bring up that Zillow link.
- Yeah.
♪ I poured it on and I poured it out ♪
♪ I tried to show you just how much I paid ♪
- So what got you listening to this song this year, Jake?
- Well, funny story.
I, it's related to the TC Friends of the Show.
I went, and so in February,
'cause I saw this on my playlist and I was like,
are you kidding me?
In February of 2022,
I went to a karaoke birthday party
at Friend of the Show, Tom Sharpling's house.
And I went with Friend of the Show, Daniel Ralston.
And Tom did this song.
- Oh, that's awesome.
- And then I was like, what was that song?
I was like, what?
I didn't know that Meat Loaf song.
I was like, what was that?
And he was like, dude, two out of three ain't bad.
You don't know.
I was like, I don't know that one.
And then- - Oh, you literally
didn't know it.
- I didn't know the song.
I mean, it was very vaguely familiar.
- Did we listen to it on the show?
Because I feel like I didn't know it that well
until recently in my life either.
- He was singing it and I was sort of like,
oh, this is vaguely familiar.
You know that thing of like,
oh, I kind of know this song,
but it's kind of hitting me right now.
So anyway, we get in the car.
I went with Daniel.
We get in the car to drive back to Highland Park
or whatever, Eagle Rock.
And I put the song on, on Apple Music.
And then I have it at very low volume.
And then we're talking the entire way.
It's like a solid 25 minute drive
to drop Daniel off or, you know, whatever.
And so that's probably like-
- And he plays 25 times.
- Well, probably played like seven or eight times.
I definitely listened to this song.
- So you're off to a big start
and then you kept listening to it.
- Exactly.
I think the first night,
I think I listened to it like seven or eight times
on low volume.
And then I listened to it another 10 times
probably this year.
I like the song.
- It's a good song.
This is an amazing fact.
In Japan, they changed the title to a Japanese title
and it translates as a 66% seduction.
Two out of three ain't bad, 66%.
They did the math.
That's also sounds like a great song.
- 66 point?
Yeah.
- 66% seduction.
- That's a great song title.
♪ And that was so many years ago ♪
♪ And though I know I'll never get her out of my heart ♪
♪ She never loved me back ♪
♪ Ooh, I know ♪
♪ Well, I remember how she left me on a stormy night ♪
♪ Oh, she kissed me and got out of our bed ♪
- All right, so Seinfeld,
what do we have on the real estate front?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Jim Simons.
- The home is in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
You familiar?
- Yeah, I think that's probably be the northwest corner.
Is that Litchfield County?
- I think so.
And the house is available to you for $5.5 million.
- Okay, I think it's been sitting on the market for a while.
So maybe they need to take it up a little bit.
- What if they come down a little bit?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Sure.
- He lived there for 30 years until his death last year.
And there's some pictures here.
- All right, he's a legend.
- Yeah, rest in power.
And there's some like pictures here of the interior.
I don't know if there's a stage,
but there's a grandfather clock.
There's some sort of giant crystal sculpture in there.
It's what you would imagine from the writer of
"I Would Do Anything for Love."
It's a lovely home.
- Yeah, and does it say something?
It comes with his piano or like some...
- All right, well, maybe I'll come in there,
like maybe like 4.9.
See if they come down a little bit.
- I think you could get it.
- Be a nice summer home for me.
(laughing)
You know, I've been stashing away those time crisis paychecks.
- Originally built in 1920, home has two bedrooms,
two full bathrooms, 6,200 square feet total living space.
- How many acres?
- I think it comes with some nice outdoor space,
like tucked away in the foresty vibes.
- I'm sure, I'm sure, in Ridgefield.
- There's like a genre of kind of TikTok videos now,
where I guess TikTok is kind of like,
people basically have these bizarre pranks,
but also kind of horrific real life things
that they do to their loved ones,
such as like surprise somebody, like you bought a house.
There was one going viral recently that was a guy like,
surprise I bought this house, and like the woman is irate.
It doesn't seem fake, she's truly like,
she starts yelling like, I'm gonna sue you.
What are you talking about?
- It's her money that he's used.
- Yeah, it's her money, like he used,
yeah, something, it's pretty frightening.
But anyway, Jake, if you wanna get big on TikTok,
it could just be like, surprise Hannah,
I took out a psycho loan.
We now have Jim Steinman's house in Connecticut, Ridgefield.
Mortgage payments only 25--
- What the (beep) are you talking about?
- Mortgage payments only 25 grand a month, no biggie.
- I want my daughter to spend her summers in CT, come on.
- You love an East Coast summer.
- It's a piece of rock history, it's a bargain.
- Someone sent me a TikTok link the other day.
I think my Cheesecake Factory painting went mildly viral
at Art Miami Basel.
There was some big account that like showed my painting
of the Cheesecake Factory, and she was like,
"Oh my God, this is actually hilarious."
And it was like a quick, like turn it from her face
to like the painting, and then that was it.
- An account that's just like a general influencer
or somebody who covers the contemporary arts?
- No, no, it seemed like a general influencer.
I don't know, I tried to like,
I had to like download TikTok on my phone
to like look at this link.
And I was like, okay, this person has like
several hundred thousand followers,
and like, you know.
- Was it Julia Fox?
I feel like she's been-
- It wasn't Julia Fox.
I don't know who it was, but I was like,
"Okay, I love to see my paintings on TikTok."
- You gotta DM them to say,
"Hey, next time you make a TikTok about one of my paintings,
"like throw a little mountain breeze on the soundtrack."
- Soundtrack, right.
♪ Take a little fan crack a few ♪
Okay, now you're number four.
- My number four, this is Eden Abez.
- Oh, hell yeah. - Eden's Cove.
You know Eden Abez?
- Do you?
He sang-
- He wrote "Nature Boy."
- Oh, he wrote "Nature Boy."
- Yeah, he wrote "Nature Boy."
He's kind of like a legend.
- Kind of proto-hippie.
- Proto-hippie.
He opened like a very early LA health food store
in Laurel Canyon.
I feel like you and I have always threatened one day
to do like a deep history of health food stores.
He would definitely be part of it,
like in the forties, vegetarian.
And he made this kind of like legendary record
in 1960 called "Eden's Island."
And it's kind of about this utopian place,
but because it's 1960,
the music is still kind of like lounge, exotica music.
And this is just some kind of like family thing.
I think I heard this song once
and I listened to it a couple of times
and then just became kind of like an inside joke
with inside the family.
♪ Eden's Island ♪
♪ Eden's home ♪
♪ Eden's home ♪
♪ Eden has a sandy coast ♪
♪ Ooh yeah yeah ♪
♪ Boys and girls all in love ♪
It became just kind of like a joke with my son
enjoying this part.
♪ Love is all they live for ♪
♪ Ooh yeah yeah ♪
I'm digging it, man.
It's vibey, but it's not too much deeper than that.
Like, you know, I think probably a lot of people
with families, oftentimes you're like playing music
for situations or for other people, you know,
such as a child who wants to hear a song or like,
you know, oh, play that part again.
'Cause that ooh yeah yeah is kind of fun and cute.
That's rad.
- My daughter Lizzie is not quite at the age
where she's requesting songs.
- Requesting, right.
- This past week, I've been listening to Big Star 3rd,
like on repeat.
And you know that record?
- Oh, 3rd, pretty deep.
Yeah.
- Well, and also- - Yeah, that is some
amazing songs.
- He does a cover of Nature Boy on it.
- Right. - Which is amazing.
♪ There was a boy ♪
His vocals on that are just so amazing.
- That's a cool, actually, talking about
underrated Christmas songs, how about Jesus Christ?
That's on 3rd, right?
♪ Jesus Christ was born today ♪
- Yeah.
- Great song.
All right, Jake, your number three song,
we got Warren Zeevon, The Indifference of Heaven.
I love this is so on brand for you,
like Paul Westerberg song from early 2000s.
Wait, is this actually from 1995?
- Yeah, it is.
This is- - Sick.
- Off the Mutant Near album, it's like his weird,
well, friend of the show, Stephen Hyden,
describes his record as his weird lo-fi GBV record.
It's just like drum machines and him recording it at home.
♪ My head's in the till ♪
♪ Down at the 7-Eleven ♪
♪ Gentle rain ♪
- And I gotta give a shout out to the boys
at Jokerman Pod because they did an episode,
maybe with Hyden actually, on this record, Mutant Near.
This like Warren Zeevon record from '95.
- 'Cause it says Bob Dylan covered the title track a bunch.
- Yeah.
But this record is really good.
- Never heard it.
♪ There seems really there ♪
♪ Present to me now ♪
♪ I've got memories to bear ♪
- Warren said, "This is the first of many depressing songs
"about the departure of my flaxen-tressed fiance."
Wow.
♪ Yesterday ♪
♪ I remember the times when I was happy ♪
- Great vibe.
♪ Same old sound ♪
♪ Same old moon ♪
♪ It's the same old story ♪
♪ Same old tune ♪
♪ They all say ♪
- I haven't really had my Warren Zeevon moment
yet in my life, but--
- Do you know his first couple records or?
- Not that well.
I know a couple of the hits and then--
- Sure.
- I randomly used to have an MP3 of Jerry Garcia
covering the song "Accidentally Like a Martyr."
- Uh-huh.
- I used to do that all the time.
- Wow.
- And I don't think I realized it was a Warren Zeevon song.
- Yeah, it's a great song.
- "Accidentally Like a Martyr,"
"The Hurt Gets Worse and the Heart Gets Harder."
- Yeah, I mean, we're talking broad strokes.
I mean, his first two records are kind of unstoppable.
- I gotta check it out 'cause, yeah.
- You would love it, man.
- Jerry, Bob, everybody loves Warren Zeevon.
- And then, yeah, this record from '95,
it's just sort of like,
picturing this icon of the '70s
making this weird record at his house in 1994, '95
with drum machines.
- Love it.
- It's just, yeah, dope vibe.
- Sounds great.
My number three song, "Yau, Gilberto,"
Brazilian legend with "Aguas de Marzo."
I don't really know how to say it.
Everybody knows this song.
There's a few versions of it.
Basically, the reason this is on here
is because whenever people ask me to put on music,
like if, like, I don't know,
having a dinner party or just hanging out somewhere,
I put on this album, and this is track one on the album.
It's his self-titled album.
It's a beautiful album.
And I think partially it's because like,
because sometimes I can have a devilish sense of humor.
People really shouldn't ask me to put on music.
This is what I put on to stop myself
from just playing like a-
- Side B of "Tattoo You."
- Well, at least I'd be like tasteful.
- Yeah.
- I mean, I'm trying to think just like,
what would I put on just if people ask me to just like-
- Some terrible label.
- Well, no, it's not even like something
that I think is cool.
Or I don't know, I'd probably put on like "Bah, Wada, Bah."
I do kind of like entry-level troll choices.
I put on like "Kid Rock" or like-
- Yikes.
- You know, "Mambo No. 5" or something like that.
Suffice to say, when I don't actually enjoy stopping
and trying to like curate the moment.
So I feel like, like if somebody said, put something on,
maybe it's because I'm a musician,
maybe people sometimes expect I'm gonna be like,
you know what's a really cool record
that came out a few months ago
that I've been spending a lot of time with is,
you know, the new "Wise Blood" or whatever.
I'm never gonna say that.
- Yeah.
- That's just not how I think and in the moment.
So to stop myself from putting on just troll stuff,
this is what I put on to be unimpeachably tasteful,
mellow, classic sounding stuff.
- Well, it's funny you say that because in those situations,
I will frequently put on the "Gets Gilberto" album,
which is from probably 10 years before this.
- There you go.
- '63. - Yeah, yeah.
- With, you know, "Groupanima Nima."
- Yeah.
- Incredible.
- Well, clearly then we're tapping into something.
'60s and '70s, maybe Brazilian music specifically,
"Gilberto," it's a crowd pleaser.
It's a little something different.
It's not as basic as like throwing on a Beatles record
or like "Motown" or something.
It's old.
- I'm picturing like a dinner party.
Regina's like, "Ezra, put something on."
You just throw on like "Rubber Soul."
You just like, it'd be too distracting, you know?
- People might even like that.
I don't know.
I don't like thinking in those situations.
- No, I know, I know.
I'll frequently go to, I'll be really basic, man.
I'll throw on "Kinda Blue."
I'll throw on John Coltrane ballads album.
I'll go "Tasteful Adult Jazz."
- I mean, it's all great stuff.
- Yeah, it's amazing stuff.
- Yeah.
- But anyway, this is a great-
- The "Getsky" or "Gilberto" stuff is-
- Yeah.
- Yeah, legit incredible.
- And also there is something kind of cliche
about being at a bougie little dinner party
and putting on any of this music.
And yet I'm kind of like, you know,
it's cliche for a reason.
- Sounds good.
People like it.
Beautiful.
Jake, your song number two.
Oh, I just got a little bit disappointed
'cause it's a Van Morrison song,
but I really hoped it was gonna be
one of his new anti-vax songs.
- Why you on Facebook?
- Yeah, I thought it was gonna be "Why are you on Facebook?"
But no, it's "Dweller on the Threshold"
from "Beautiful Vision" from 1982.
- Do you know this?
- No.
Ooh.
- This song goes hard.
Recorded in Sausalito.
That's tight.
- Oh yeah, record plant Sausalito.
I think it's like Fleetwood Mac recorded there.
That's a real-
- Joan Garden recorded Bad Motor Finger there.
- Really?
Wow.
I feel like there's been a lot of like,
music from the past five, 10 years
trying to sound this good.
Like elevated yacht rock tasteful.
- Yeah.
This is another,
the Jokerman also did an episode on this album,
"Beautiful Vision,"
which is,
honestly,
"Beautiful Vision" is such an incredible record.
This isn't even my favorite song on the record,
but it ended up on the playlist.
- Yeah, why do you think that is?
Is it track one?
- No, it's track three.
I think I threw it on,
it was my like initial favorite song.
But after listening to the album more,
like the title track "Beautiful Vision" is incredible.
The first track is incredible.
I mean, I love this song.
"Dweller on the Threshold."
What a title.
Yeah, you would love this record, man.
♪ Dweller on the threshold ♪
♪ And I'm waiting at the door ♪
- Yeah, really good arrangement.
Great playing.
All right, let's keep moving.
- Yep.
- My number two song
is the choir of King's College, Cambridge
with "Abide With Me," "Eventide."
It's a hymn.
Do you know this one, Jake?
- Maybe I'll know it when we start playing it.
- "Abide With Me."
I can't help but think of the dude.
- I know, that might be why I like it.
♪ The darkness deep ♪
- Well, this is written by Irish minister
Henry Francis Light,
as he was dying from tuberculosis.
- Yeah. - In 1847.
- Beautiful.
- So what's the context that you're listening to this in?
- This one I actually just got really into
and I listened to it all the time.
- Yeah, just jamming it.
- Like earbuds or speakers?
- Mostly earbuds.
- Wow, man.
- I mean, this is just a beautiful hymn.
I think part of my memory of how I got into this is,
this is the exact type of thing.
It's like, yeah, if you're listening to this by yourself
in like a peaceful moment,
this is definitely not something
you're just like throwing on, like, check this out.
You need to really spend your own time with it.
But I think part of how I got into this was I,
you know, sometimes it's just like a phrase pops
into your head and you kind of get curious
about where does it come from?
And the phrase, "Death, where is thy sting?"
You know, popped into my head.
And I think, I don't know if that also exists in the Bible,
but you know, I don't know why.
Maybe I was reading a book or something
and I just thought of, 'cause I know this phrase.
Like you do too, right?
It's in the culture, death, death, where's thy sting?
- I'm not that familiar, honestly.
Death, where's thy sting?
- Yeah.
♪ O thou whose angels not abide with me ♪
♪ I need thy presence ♪
- Beautiful.
♪ When we pass in love ♪
- So I like the actual hymn, like the words.
So there's this part and it's death,
death, where is thy sting?
Grave thy victory.
That's just like a part that really stood out to me is.
♪ O Lord Christ, heart of my heart ♪
- And I guess as I've gotten older,
I found myself more and more drawn to like choir music.
- Wow.
This is a surprise.
I mean, a delightful surprise.
I love to picture you listening to this in solitude.
Yeah.
- But yeah, really, I kind of remember it was like,
it started with me looking for that,
the verse that has that,
"I fear no foe with thee at hand to bless.
"Ills have no weight and tears no bitterness.
"Where is death's sting?
"Where grave thy victory?
"I triumph still if thou abide with me."
And then there's another part that,
as I started listening to it, it's interesting.
Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day.
Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away.
Change and decay in all around I see.
O thou who changes not abide with me.
Change and decay in all I see.
It's kind of interesting.
We were talking about the hoodwink song
and talking about kind of like eternal themes
and art and literature.
- Hard rain's gonna fall.
- Yeah.
- A hard rain's gonna fall.
And there's something, and I guess,
I didn't even realize that it was written
by a minister dying of tuberculosis,
but just this idea of, in some ways,
this could be a deeper conversation for another day,
but just the, so much of,
so much art and themes of life boils down to
is just change and decay versus the eternal.
However you phrase that, you know,
in some ways just like change versus no change.
That might even be the basis of all reality.
But there's just something about this
change and decay in all I see.
Oh thou who changes not abide with me.
And I agree with you.
There's something about abide,
probably 'cause of the Big Lebowski.
I just always kind of enjoy.
- So wait, what is that last part?
Those who don't change abide with me?
Or like the phenomena that don't change,
like the eternal everlasting?
- Which from an Irish minister in 1847 would be God.
- G-O-D.
- The big G-O-D.
But you know, of course there's a,
the more mystical side of, well, what does that mean?
And to some people, the eternal,
the unchanging oneness, you know.
There's the phenomenon of change
that we see in front of us in every moment.
- Yeah.
- Jake, remember I sent you that book
I was reading about time?
Remember we were talking about that a while ago?
- Wait, what was the book?
- It's by an Italian physicist named Carlo Rovelli.
- I did not read it. - It's a little hard
to get through.
- It's just, it's one of those things.
- Appreciate you sending it.
- Yeah, I feel like we were having a conversation
about the nature of time and how weird it is.
I sent you this book and like,
I don't think I ever finished the book either,
but I was like, one day we'll have a book club
about the nature of time.
But you know, time is, some people when they,
physicists sometimes when people,
they're like, well, what is time?
Because there's debates about it.
And some people say, well, time is just a,
it's the phenomenon of change, you know?
Time is change.
And anyway, so there's the phenomenon of change
and there's the phenomenon of no change.
- This is sung by the choir of King's College, Cambridge.
I have a cousin, a British cousin,
who is a professional singer in that choir.
Now, I don't know what year this was recorded.
He's a few years older than me.
This guy, Francis, and I've only met him once or twice.
- Wait, how do you have an English cousin?
How have we never talked about this?
When did your family leave England?
Like 300 years ago?
- I'm picturing one of those movies
where it's like exactly the same as Jake, but it's British.
Like, so you're British, like, bizarro.
- No, I don't know why.
Someone went back at some point.
It was on my mom's side.
- Okay, someone went back.
That makes more sense.
- My mom has first cousins who are British
and their children are like my, around my age.
Right, and this guy, Francis, who's a singer,
I think he's a bass in the choir of King's College, Cambridge.
He visited the United States in '94 or '93,
and he stayed with us for a few days.
And he was a few years older than me.
And like, a cool guy. - He gave you
the first Radiohead album?
- Well, no, dude, check this out.
- He handed you Pablo Honey and said,
"These guys are one to watch, man."
- No, dude, he started me playing guitar.
This was like legendary in the family lore
'cause I had taken guitar lessons,
but I was like eight or nine classical guitar lessons
and it sucked 'cause you were trying to read music
and pick out Beethoven things, and it was boring as hell.
And then he strung up the guitar when he was visiting us,
and he started playing Metallica songs
and Fugazi songs.
And I was like, "What?"
And Nirvana songs.
And I was like, and the Nirvana songs were easy,
so he showed me how to play them.
Just like, this is a G, this is an E minor,
this is a D, this is how you play "Poly" by Nirvana.
And this was in like '93 or something.
And I was like, "I'm in, I'm playing guitar now.
"Now I'm like 16, let's go.
"I wanna do this."
And anyway, this guy, Francis,
who I haven't seen in like decades,
maybe we should have him call in.
- Yeah. (laughs)
Cousin Francis.
- What's up, dude?
- So out of a movie, just like kinda all-American,
crunchy dude like Jake, you're just like,
"Cousin Francis from England?"
- Hello, Jacob.
- Yeah, we went down to like New Haven,
and we went to like a minor league baseball game
in New Haven, and then we went to this cool record store
called Cutler's, and he bought the new Fugazi album on tape.
And we were blasting that in my house for a few days.
- So did he go to Cambridge?
How do you become part of the King's Cod?
- I don't know, I don't know,
but my parents are always like,
"Your cousin Francis, he sings bass
"in the King's Choir of Cambridge.
"He must have gone there."
- I'm gonna make a playlist
of the extended Longstreth family universe.
Some Mountain Brew, some Dirty Projectors,
a little bit of King's College Cambridge Choir.
- Hell yeah.
- That's a very famous choir,
and it's a very famous cathedral, I guess.
'Cause I was watching something else on YouTube,
some other like hymn that I like,
and you know, these beautiful shots of King's College
and what it actually looks like.
It's really cool, you know?
- Yeah.
- It looks like kind of like bones or something, the ceiling.
It's a specific type of like English cathedral roof style.
It's like a very special building.
Anyway, that's cool that he's,
wow, your cousin Francis, man, who knew?
Definitely let's get him to call in.
- He's probably like 49.
Let's talk Fugazi and Metallica, let's go.
- You still a big Fugazi fan?
Yeah, maybe cousin Francis wants to talk,
I think Metallica just dropped a new song last week.
You hear it, Jake?
- I didn't hear it, no.
- Just like hit up Francis for the first time in a while.
Hey man, wanna come on to my internet radio show
and talk the new Metallica, Lux Aeterna?
- Oh man.
- Okay, Jake, your number one song.
- No shocker here.
- Your top five, very on brand.
- Oh yeah.
- I think when Lizzie starts like requesting songs more,
you'll definitely be,
it'll have a slightly different flavor,
but Jake's number one song could not be more on brand.
Guided by Voices, Crystal Nunn's Cathedral,
the title track from the album of the same name.
- Released March.
- Came out this year.
- 2022.
- March, 2022.
♪ You're rich from the politics ♪
♪ While world's free of others ♪
- Rich from your politics.
♪ But you don't want them all the same ♪
♪ And your shields are your enemies ♪
♪ It's a palace run brick by brick ♪
♪ But it's mother goose and a gossip church ♪
♪ It's a storybook steps through ♪
♪ A cup of tea and a crystal nun's cathedral ♪
- What's this song, Rips?
- A cup of tea and a crystal nun's cathedral?
- Yeah.
♪ Shock prevention books ♪
♪ Dreams of fog of a well-named prince ♪
♪ With his jealous reptile hiss ♪
♪ Kiss me so that I may fall back on my own ♪
- So this album is GBV's 35th album.
- Yeah.
- I think Bob has 39 albums,
so GBV's gonna pass him pretty soon.
Next few years.
- Big time.
(upbeat rock music)
- There are like a hundred Pollard-related albums.
- Crazy.
- GBV's a third of the output.
Anyway, great song.
Crystal nun's cathedral.
Psalm at Pappy and Harriet's in April.
And just for full context,
like obviously you've always been a GBV fan.
Is crystal nun's cathedral like the hardest
you got into like a new album from them in a while?
- Yeah, I really liked this whole record.
This is the closing track.
And I listened to this song on repeat.
I remember one day when I was working,
I probably listened to it like 10 times in a row.
I was so into it one day.
It says I listened to this 39 times this year,
which is a lot.
But it is only a minute and a half.
But I think 10 of those was like one day.
But yes, I did get in very into this record.
- Return to form for GBV.
- Kind of.
Some of the records I'll listen to once or twice
and not really return to,
but those are putting out like two or three a year.
They have a new one coming out next January
called La La Land.
- Can't wait for it.
Number 36.
(laughs)
- Can't wait.
- My number one song.
- Let's go.
- This one's funny 'cause this is,
yeah, my top five is definitely all a bit random,
but this one's a,
it's kind of a hybrid
'cause this is a song I legitimately do really like.
It also became part of like a bit of like a family ritual.
I don't know why these things happen around bath time.
So it definitely got a lot more plays that way.
People might've heard of the,
some people call the music genre, zam rock,
a 70s phenomenon combining traditional African music
with psychedelic rock, garage rock, blues and funk.
And this is the, I don't know exactly how to say it.
I think it's Ngozi family.
And the song is called "Hi Babe."
You ever heard any of this kind of music, Jake?
- I don't know.
- It's a lot of good music from Zambia in the 70s.
- I'm more up on that kind of Ethiopian kind of stuff
or like.
- This is a bit like hard rock.
- I don't know this.
- I get some places.
- Is that a guitar doing that chord progression?
- Yeah.
Yeah, crazy tone.
- Weird phrasing.
It sounds like a keyboard.
♪ Hi baby ♪
♪ Hi baby ♪
♪ When I wake up ♪
♪ In the morning ♪
♪ I get to town ♪
♪ I meet some lads ♪
- I meet some lads.
♪ I gotta say ♪
- I gotta say.
♪ Hi brother ♪
♪ Hi brother ♪
- I love that distortion tone.
- Yeah, the guitar in their music is always sick.
- It's raw.
♪ Da na, da na, da na ♪
- Are there solos?
- Yeah, there's this part like.
You can kind of hear the dude turn the pedal on
towards the end.
Sometimes they have solos.
♪ And man next to you ♪
♪ Is your brother ♪
♪ You gotta respect him ♪
- I love the drums.
♪ When I wake up ♪
♪ I go to my table ♪
♪ I meet some girls ♪
♪ I got to say ♪
♪ Hi baby ♪
♪ When I wake up ♪
♪ In the morning ♪
♪ I meet some boys ♪
- The band leader's name was Paul Ngozi,
born in 1949 in Zambia.
- Wow.
So he was 26 here?
27?
- Yeah, just about, yeah.
1976.
♪ Hi brother ♪
♪ I dig it, come on ♪
♪ Yeah, come on baby ♪
- I love this distortion.
It sounds like.
- Yeah.
- Ooh, here we go.
- See, it's like the pedal turned on.
- Yeah.
Or maybe it's just like in the.
It's so like a Peavey amp vibe.
- Yeah.
Yeah, there's something just pretty like hypnotic
about this song.
Just like the great drums.
Yeah, so it became a bit of a ritual
just like to kind of play it.
- Like in the morning?
Like what context?
- It was around bath time.
Just these, yeah.
With that, you know, just create these like bizarre
like little like fake songs.
Like I was singing something.
I don't know.
I don't know exactly where it came from.
Wait, but hold on a second.
I just want, Matt, can you find a song
by the same group, Ngozi family?
They have a song called,
the first word is Kumanda, K-U-M-A-N-D-A.
I just want Jake to hear another sick song from this band.
You can see what they're going for here.
- Hendrix?
- Or Sabbath, I thought.
- Oh.
- Like War Pigs vibe.
- Oh, sure.
I was thinking like, oh, I see what you're saying.
(singing in foreign language)
The vocal melody too.
- Yeah.
(singing in foreign language)
- Is this recorded with like, just like,
on a one, like live on a one track, basically,
on a boom box?
Doesn't sound multi-track to me.
- I don't know, it's 1976.
Like, well, I'm sure it's live.
I don't know exactly how it's mic'd up.
- It doesn't even sound multi-track to me.
- The vocals sound very clear.
Yeah, could the guitar and the drums
just be in the same room, like, totally, definitely.
- I think so.
- All right, well, it's been a great year.
Should we just play out on this?
- Yeah, I think so, man.
- Have a wonderful holiday season from Time Crisis.
We'll see you soon.
Peace.
(singing in foreign language)
- Time Crisis.
- With Ezra Koenig.
(rooster crowing)
(audience laughing)
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