Episode 190: - The Banshees of Inishiddily
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Transcript
Time Crisis, back again.
On this week's TC, we talk about Fairport Convention.
We also listen to music from the old days and the new.
We'll hear great songs from the B-52s, Alana Miles and Janet Jackson.
This is Time Crisis with Ezra Koenig.
Time Crisis with Ezra Koenig.
They passed me by, all of those great romances
You were a belt from a knee, all my rightful chances
My picture clear, everything seemed so easy
And so I dealt you the blow, when a bus had to go
Now it's different, I want you to know
One of us is crying, one of us is lying
Keep an eye on me babe
Time Crisis, back again.
Gentlemen.
Hell of a winner. Hell of a winner.
I've been obsessed with my Twitter feed looking at the
historic snowpack that has accumulated in the Sierra Nevada.
Oh right, and that's the one that a few years ago they were like, "There's nothing there."
Well, it'll all melt this year. I mean, it's not like a glacier, but it snows every winter up there.
But this is like one of the, depending on what source you're looking at,
one of the top three snowpacks ever recorded.
Wow.
'52 was a big year. '82-'83 winter was huge.
Mm.
2023 winter, massive.
Interesting. So that's just because of all this precipitation?
Yeah. Just all these atmospheric rivers that, you know, manifest as rain in the lower elevations, but massive.
For people who don't live in Southern California, it's been a very cold, rainy winter.
I've been feeling it. I've been listening to Fairport Convention, which I think is the greatest winter band.
Interesting. I didn't know you were a Fairport head.
That's winter music for me. I couldn't imagine listening to it in the summer, but I don't know.
I don't know. Just it's raining outside.
What?
I don't know. It's something about that sort of...
You're really surprising me here.
All right.
I'm a massive Fairport fan as well. I don't know if we've ever gotten deep on it,
but the fact that you said you couldn't imagine listening to them in the summer, I respect it,
but it's kookier of a position than I associate with you.
I mean, most bands I feel like you can listen to all year round, but some bands just have like a summery vibe,
and some bands have a wintry vibe, and I would say Fairport Convention is as wintry as it gets.
Something about that kind of English folk rock frog with the Sandy Denny vocals.
I was about to say the Sandy Denny vocals, the cold, distant voices.
And the lyrics.
Sandy Denny.
Reinterpreting these old English folk songs.
Although I think one of their classic albums is called What We Did on Our Summer Holidays.
Yeah, but I don't care.
Interesting. I'm a massive Fairport fan. I'm sure we must have talked about them over the years, but like...
I think they've come up.
Yeah, they're great. What's your favorite Fairport song?
I've been really into Percy's song recently.
Oh, the Bob Dylan song.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's an interesting one too, because Bob Dylan wrote Percy's song,
and I think it was only available as a bootleg, probably.
It's not on an album.
And it's not from the basement tapes either, I don't think.
No.
I don't know what era that would be from.
I guess people talk about he's the original bootleg artist that...
Kind of pretty similar to Kanye now.
I'm not trying to talk about all the other Kanye stuff, but just like, there's Kanye fans
who have over the years heard like almost albums worth of leaked material.
Songs that never came out, verses, whatever.
And I think the same was true for Bob Dylan in the 60s.
So Fairport probably heard Percy's song on a bootleg,
and then they did a cover of it for their album.
Maybe he made a writing demo and sent it out,
because he also was kind of just like a working songwriter.
Yeah, because there's a lot of that stuff that's on like,
Sweetheart of the Rodeo and stuff that if you were like a good band...
You ain't going nowhere. Yeah.
You probably like maybe had access to those tapes.
But was his Percy song like a rewrite of an old song?
I think it's similar to a lot of, you know, 60s Dylan,
where he's totally using folk form that comes from an old folk song.
So my understanding is, because this song, for people who don't know it,
it has this refrain where he's telling a story.
And then, you know, he says something like,
I sat down and wrote the best words I could write.
Turn, turn, turn again.
And I turned to the air on Wednesday night.
Turn, turn to the rain and the wind.
Rain and the wind, dude.
Yeah, I've looked it up before.
Yeah, you're right. That is a very wintry song.
I've looked it up before.
And yeah, that turn to the rain and the wind.
And even that structure has its roots in a bunch of old folk songs
where you say something and then turn to the rain and the wind.
It's also interesting because it's like,
when I think of Bob Dylan's story songs from this era,
I think of like the lonesome death of Hattie Carroll
or things about these like civil rights issues.
And this one, it's still about pain and suffering and death,
but it's just like a little more mundane.
My understanding of the song is that a guy hears his buddy got in a car accident.
He's like, oh man, what happened?
He's like, yeah, he wasn't drunk or anything.
It was just kind of one of those situations,
but the people in the other car died.
Like, oh my God, that's crazy. Is he okay?
He's like, he's actually in jail.
It's like, really? It's like, yeah.
There's like a real hard ass judge trying to lock him up.
He really didn't do anything wrong.
Could have been you or me, just like one of these things.
It's like, wrong place, wrong time.
I'm writing a letter to the judge. I'm going to come.
It's also like a bit of a shaggy dog story.
Not trying to spoil it, but it's like,
it doesn't particularly end in some like big dramatic way, right?
You're so much more the lyricist guy than I am.
You're just vibing. I'm vibing.
Enjoying those beautiful harmonies.
Yeah. And just the feel.
All right, let's throw it on.
Bad news, bad news, come to me where I sleep.
Turn, turn, turn again.
Yeah, Sandy Denny, just one of the all-time great singers.
Say one of your friends is in trouble deep.
Turn, turn to the rain and the wind.
You got the message, one of your friends is in trouble deep.
Tell me the trouble, tell me once to my ear.
Turn, turn, turn again.
Joliet prison, I'm 99 years.
Okay, Joliet prison, Illinois.
99 years, yeah, all right.
Okay.
Turn to the rain and the wind.
Okay, so yeah, these British folk rock musicians singing about Joliet, Illinois.
Oh, what's the charge of how this came to be?
Turn, turn, turn again.
Pictures just like Bob Dylan being like undergrad at University of Minnesota.
Some of the homies road tripping in Illinois.
Got in a car accident.
Yeah, heard a story.
Your boy's looking down at 99 years.
For manslaughter?
I sat down and wrote the best words I could write.
Turn, turn, turn again.
I also do love this song too because it's like there just aren't that many songs about friends.
Of course, there's plenty, but obviously you got the love, romance, takes the biggest piece of the pie.
And this is a song just about like, damn, your buddy's in prison.
All right. I'm worried about my homie.
Right, yeah.
Just like my friend. Dude, my friend's in trouble deep.
Yeah.
I was in his chambers by the next stop of his.
Turn, turn to the rain and the wind.
Yeah, I listen to this song on repeat when I'm working.
Yeah.
Tell me the facts. I said without a doubt.
Then that like 12th string electric comes in.
Tell me the facts. I said without fear.
That a friend of mine would get 99 years.
A friend of mine could get 99 years.
Messed up.
Turn, turn to the rain and the wind.
A crash on the highway blew the car to a fear.
Turn, turn, turn again.
That reminds me of that Bruce song too, Wrecking the Highway.
Oh, right.
He finds that guy dying on the side of the road.
And then he goes home and sees his baby in the crib.
I think he just sees his, he refers to his wife as his baby.
Oh, okay.
And he's just like, the baby's sleeping.
Right, I see.
That's how I do it.
But I knew him I could as I knowing myself.
Turn, turn, turn again.
And he wouldn't harm a life that belonged to someone else.
He wouldn't harm a life that belonged to someone else.
Just like, I get a call from Nick like, dude, Ezra's in prison right now, man.
No, he like, he wasn't drunk.
He like was driving.
It's unclear what happened, but like the other people in the other car are dead.
He's looking at time.
I was just road tripping in Illinois.
That's really intense.
And then you're like, just call me back in the morning.
And then you're like, dude, I'm on a road trip.
You're sick in the Champaign-Urbana area.
Damn.
That may be true.
He's got a sentence to serve.
Turn, turn, turn again.
But 99 years he just don't deserve.
Turn, turn, too late and the wind.
I'm really curious.
How does this end?
This like ends on some like, oh wait, we're coming down.
For his case to seal.
Turn, turn, turn again.
He got there too late.
I mean, what was Bob Dylan going to do to the judge anyway?
His sentence, it is passed and cannot be revealed.
Turn, turn, to the right and the left.
But he ain't no criminal and his crime it is love.
Turn, turn, turn again.
What happened to him could happen to anyone.
Turn, turn, to the right and the left.
And that the judge jerked forward and his case it did approve.
Turn, turn, turn again.
Said could you kindly leave my office now please.
Judge, get the hell out of here.
Get the hell out of here.
Case closed.
I got a lot of cases today.
I don't have time for--
My docket is full.
The docket's crazy right now.
I can't talk to everybody's buddy.
Turn, turn, turn again.
With no other choice except for to turn, turn,
turn to the right and the left.
I walked down the hallway and I heard him moan and slam.
Turn, turn, turn again.
I walked down the cold hard stairs and did not understand.
Turn, turn, to the right and the left.
Oh, I remember how it ends now.
It's a beautiful ending, haunting ending.
And I played my guitar through the night to the day.
I played my guitar.
He left the court out, didn't understand,
played my guitar through the night and the day.
Writing the song?
But the only tune my guitar could play was the old--
The old sad--
Oh, the cruel rain and the wind.
So whatever song this is like semi-based on,
it's he's being meta, he's referencing it.
Very Bob.
Whether he's writing about the Titanic or, you know,
the actor in Brownsville Girl.
Yep, 'cause when you really think about that song,
it's interesting because he's telling the story,
and because it's a folk song,
you don't think too much that there's a refrain,
turn, turn to the rain and the wind,
which would totally make sense.
You know, you're basically like, got a call.
Right.
My buddy's in trouble.
I wrote to the judge.
I'm heading there.
It's chaotic.
What happened?
What's going on?
I finally get there.
And just throughout, he's going,
turn, turn to the rain and the wind.
And you're kind of like, what does that mean?
In this--
Turning into harshness.
Right.
I think it is just kind of about accepting the harshness of life,
but you're kind of like, well, yeah,
where are you going with this?
Both buddies are turning to the rain and the wind.
Actually, I think we've got to kind of look up
the old cruel rain and the wind,
because whatever that song is actually saying,
just the refrain of the old cruel rain and the wind,
I mean, you're just talking about nature,
the cruelty of nature.
Obviously, in this circumstance, you could say,
well, it's the cruelty of man.
Why is this judge such a hard on?
99 years?
Come on, man.
Could have happened to you or me.
Nobody did it on purpose.
How could you be so harsh?
You know, Bob could have taken that--
his kind of righteous indignation '60s energy about the judge,
but it's almost more like it happened.
He walks out bewildered.
Buddy's going down for 99 years.
He's just standing there on the courthouse steps,
and all he can think about is this old folk song
about the old cruel rain and the wind.
Just nature, man, the harshness of life.
Simple twist of fate.
Yeah.
Cold rain and snow.
Yeah, right.
I wonder if he ever did a version of that.
Obviously, the famously folk song, "The Dead," played a lot.
Yeah, Fairport, great band.
Incredible arrangement, too.
I mean, it's this incredibly repetitive structure,
and the lyrics are so repetitive as well that to make that really dynamic
and kind of crescendo and come down and then crescendo again
and come back down, it's--
I just love that recording being able to just like, oh,
they're bringing in the organ here.
The organ cuts out.
Oh, they're bringing in the--
Richard Thompson's going off on the acoustic.
Oh, now they're bringing in the electric.
Yeah, and it follows the narrative, like what's happening?
It's like--
Chills out.
Nothing's happening.
Got there too late.
This is one of my favorite Fairports.
And they have some like bangers, too, but like a truly beautiful one.
You know this one, "Farewell, Farewell"?
Of course.
Love it.
[MUSIC - "FAREWELL, FAREWELL"]
(SINGING) Farewell, farewell to you who'd hit.
Did they write this one?
(SINGING) You lonely traveler's own.
That's the thing I like about this band.
I don't even know what songs they write, what songs they don't.
(SINGING) The cold north wind will blow again.
See, this is what I'm saying.
It's a winter band.
(SINGING) The winding road.
It's pouring rain outside.
I'm just like, I'm throwing up.
Airport, dude, I'm making a cup of tea.
"Withered and Died."
Dude, well, that's on the--
That's Richard Thatcher and Linda Thompson.
That song, but "Withered and Died" is one of the ultimate winter songs.
Gonna say so.
Yeah.
I love this part.
(SINGING) Oh, I would.
I would.
If welcome I was.
Oh, they would loathe me.
My understanding, because I've heard of--
This is traditional.
This is?
Yeah.
What's your understanding?
There's another song.
I guess this happens a lot with folk songs
that I thought maybe they wrote the lyrics to this
because this is this beautiful goodbye song.
Also, this is-- the vibe of this, too.
Obviously, Sandy Denny's voice is so distinct
and makes it very wintry England.
But couldn't you totally picture Lou Reed singing on this?
This should be like a Velvet song.
Totally.
Or Mo Tucker.
Or yeah, I could see Yola Tango covering this.
Oh, yeah.
(SINGING) We will never cut the cloth or drink the light to be.
But I'll swear ye to wander lies.
Asleep along the side of the pond.
There's another band from this era called Pentangle.
Have you ever gone deep on this stuff?
Oh, yeah.
Pentangle.
My parents loved Pentangle, so I listened to them a ton growing up.
For some reason, they didn't know it was Fairport.
Interesting.
(SINGING) The king has been a prisoner.
It's called Willie of Winsbury.
(SINGING) And a prisoner long in Spain.
And Willie of the Winsbury has lain long with his daughter.
The Fairport arrangements, they just make these songs their own.
Well, this is '90s Pentangle.
This is probably a different recording.
Oh, wow.
Oh, yeah.
I'm hearing that.
It's a '90s piano tone.
Do you know that Pentangle song, "Trees They Do Grow High"?
No.
Oh, man.
Yeah, there's a beautiful video of Pentangle doing a late '60s English TV recording.
They sound so good.
I watch that all the time.
I believe that guy Bert Janch was in Pentangle, right?
Yes, right.
Yeah.
OK, and then he made some great records in the '70s.
I saw Bert Janch play, opening for Neil Young in Connecticut with my brother.
He played in Wallingford.
I think it was Wallingford, Connecticut, a little theater.
Was that the show that Joe Rogan worked security at?
No, that's Massachusetts.
Do you remember that game?
Yes, Rogan worked security at Neil Young in 1990 or something.
Yeah.
Anyway, Bert Janch, he died a little bit, within a year of that show.
It was awesome.
Just like dense, heady, acoustic music.
All this music, it has so much in common with Neil Young.
It hits so different because he's got his Americana or Canadian Americana.
But the drumming is so similar.
That kind of simple--
This might be an interesting turn for us.
Is that line, if we go back to Percy's song for a second,
the line, "Oh, the cruel rain and the wind"?
Yeah.
That's based on a traditional song, the Twa Sisters,
is one of the-- a bunch of different names that it's known.
The other one is "Wind and Rain," which Jerry Garcia did cover.
Different from the "Cold Rain and Snow."
Right, but if the song that they're talking about in Percy's song,
when he says there's a song in their head,
the rain and the wind, that is the specific song.
That's a song.
That's a specific song.
Let's find that Jerry "Wind and Rain."
So we have it here.
"The Rain and the Wind"?
They're calling it "Dreadful Wind and Rain,"
but it's the same traditional song.
Oh, this is like Jerry acoustic.
I've also been on a very heavy Jerry acoustic kick.
Like live shows?
Yeah, I got this record.
There's a Jerry acoustic version.
Okay, let's check-- yeah, with David Grisman, the mandolinist.
[laughs]
I thought it was my fault.
No, I think it's my fault.
Okay.
[laughs]
My fault.
So Linda and Richard, this is the song in their head.
"There were two sisters game walking down the street,
oh, the wind and rain.
The one behind pushed the other one in,
crying, oh, the dreadful wind and rain."
What year is this, you say?
This feels like a '90s recording.
"Johnny gave the young just a gay gold ring,
oh, the wind and rain.
Didn't give the oldest one anything,
crying, oh, the dreadful wind and rain."
Well, they did another band like Fairport,
where it's like the songs they write and the songs they cover,
you can't really tell.
Like if you were like, "Jerry wrote this," I'd be like, "Okay."
Right, yeah.
"Marched her as she floated down the river,
crying, oh, the dreadful wind and rain."
This is kind of dark.
Someone's drowning.
[playing guitar]
Murder Ballads, they're the original true crime podcast.
Because you always find that era of Bob Dylan's Woody Guthrie's,
these people got obsessed with folk music,
they're always talking about murder ballads,
because that was such a classic pillar of the genre.
So you could totally picture somebody pre-radio, pre-TV,
and just being at some group gathering or pub or something,
and say, "Anybody got a good song?"
People probably did want to hear one with a story.
You're on the edge of your seat.
Right.
Yeah, you could see people don't care that much.
It's like quaint.
I feel like Taylor Swift dropped a murder ballad a few years ago.
They come out, people still like them,
but probably back then if you just picked a really generalized love song,
it probably wouldn't be quite as interesting.
It's just you're really listening to it, and then what happened?
I'm picturing the bar in Banshee's of Inisheeran.
Oh, yeah, totally.
You know there's those scenes when they're kind of jamming at the bar?
Yeah, yeah.
And I'm like, "Give me more of that."
Oh, yeah, totally.
And then just picturing someone coming out
and just dropping an eight-minute murder ballad.
Yeah.
I bet you could hear a pin drop in there.
1920, rural Ireland bar.
Yeah, and even further back.
Yeah, 1820.
Who knows?
Even 13th century medieval times.
Yeah, because probably back then somebody would just roll up and--
even a great song like "Take On Me" by A-ha.
Beautiful song, but I could see if you never heard it before
and you're passing around the guitar and someone's like,
"Needless to say, done, done, done, passed away."
Yeah, I could see you'd probably be way more engaged
where you're just like--
It opens with, "Come on, gather round ye.
Hear ye, hear ye.
I'm going to tell you a story," and then the repetitive nature
would draw you in.
Nobody's looking for a perfect three-minute pop song.
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I just had this funny Bill and Ted fantasy
happening in my head right now where you have access to--
It's sort of like "Yesterday," the movie, but weirder.
You have access to a time machine and you go back to the year 1400
and you're just playing "Take On Me"
or you're playing Green Day songs to people in a bar.
And they're just like, "Cool."
Right, and then you bust out Percy's song.
Okay.
Yeah, and I feel like that does happen in those movies.
Famously in "Black Knight" with Martin Lawrence.
I feel like at some point they start playing a modern song.
Most famously, "Back to the Future."
Sure.
Oh, right, yeah.
He plays the Van Halen version of "Time to Be Good."
Yeah, you're not ready for this, but your kids will love it.
Yeah, just dropping--
Yeah, that's so funny.
Just imagine a dude who only knows two or three songs on guitar.
He knows "Wonderwall" by Oasis and "Time of Your Life" by Green Day,
and he gets brought back to the Middle Ages.
♪ I hope you had the time of your life ♪
And they're just like, "What? My life sucks."
What are you talking about? "Time of my life."
Also, who is this song about?
I'm shoveling manure 18 hours a day.
You haven't named a single character in your song.
What is happening?
Nobody got murdered?
You're like, "You guys may not like this,
but your 20th great-grandchildren are going to love it."
Dude, throw in "Wonderwall," and let's just pretend we're in a bar
in Ireland in the year 1422.
Today.
You're just like, "What?"
Okay, so there's a six-string guitar there.
You're like, "So far, so good."
I got to tune it, the standard tuning.
Interesting suspended chords.
Haven't quite heard anything exactly like that.
♪ Today is going to be the day ♪
♪ That they're going to throw it back to you ♪
Already weird.
♪ By now you should have somehow realized what you got to do ♪
Huh? I don't have any choices.
♪ I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do ♪
That's really cool.
No, but I was just like-- I married my cousin.
That was the only option. I didn't have any feelings.
♪ Backbeat, the word is on the street ♪
♪ That the fire in your heart is out ♪
♪ I'm sure you've heard it all before ♪
♪ But you never really had a doubt ♪
♪ I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do ♪
Also, maybe I'm wrong, but back then,
the songs tended not to have the second "U," right?
Probably not.
Yeah, that's like a real hallmark of modernity,
is this idea that--
Century of the Self.
Right, Century of the Self.
I'm talking to you.
Everybody in the pub is like,
"You're making us feel very uncomfortable."
♪ Who likes to say to you, but I don't know how ♪
"But I don't know how." Maybe that's me, man.
♪ Because maybe ♪
♪ You're gonna be the one that saves me ♪
♪ And after all ♪
♪ You're my wonderwall ♪
You're losing 'em.
You're losing 'em.
Some of them, they're stepping outside.
Yeah, I guess this is a very basic observation,
but I never really thought about it,
that traditional folk music,
at least the Anglo-Gaelic, Anglo-Celtic tradition
that filtered into America,
they never say "U," right?
I mean, I'm not an expert in that field of music,
but it rings true.
You're singing third person,
and you're singing first person.
No, you could sing-- you could say first person.
There might be like, "I did this, I did that."
Yeah.
Like--
"I killed my brother."
Right.
You could tell everybody, "This is your song."
No, it's very 20th century.
It'd probably make people very uncomfortable
that you just start talking about you.
♪ You got a lot of nerve ♪
♪ To say you are my friend ♪
Were they saying "thou"?
Would they be doing "thou"? "Thy"?
"Thine"?
Were they doing "thine" back then?
Well, it may be in--
♪ Thine my wonderwall ♪
I mean, maybe I'm wrong.
I could very well be wrong.
A lot of like--
I mean, it's a different--
a whole different medium,
but a lot of the Shakespearean sonnets,
as I recall from my studies,
are directed to you.
A lot of times he's talking about
this and that about you.
Here's a time for--
Can you get a number--
Can you read one of the Shakespeare sonnets?
Maybe, um, 21 and 47.
I don't think we've gotten into Shakespeare on the show yet.
Very little Shakespeare discussion.
You a fan, Jake?
Not really.
See, that one I could see going either way with you.
Similar to like the David being like--
I'm gonna call for the greatest work of art.
Like, I could either see you just being like,
"Yeah, I was never really feeling that in high school.
I never really followed up."
Or you could just be like--
It's a foundation of storytelling.
Foundation of storytelling.
My top five works of dramatic art?
Three out of the five Shakespeare plays.
Like, damn, Jake!
"Hamlet," "Othello," "Macbeth."
I mean, top that. Top that.
Number four is "Big Lebowski."
Number five, "Pulp Fiction."
All right, Jake.
Shall I compare thee to--
"A Summer's Day."
Oh, yeah.
Thou art more lovely--
Than a rose bouquet.
That's cool.
Close.
And more temperate.
I mean, there's some "thee" and "thou."
Yeah, right.
A lot of those are directed towards--
Thou my wonder wall.
[laughter]
No, I'm an idiot with stuff,
so I can't read Shakespeare.
Like, the English language is mutated too far
from where he was at.
Oh, yeah.
500 years ago. I just can't follow it.
Of course you're not alone.
Obviously, as a guy that created
all these classic plot archetypes,
you gotta give it up.
Right.
But if I see a production--
It's probably the same way you feel
about Woody Guthrie.
A little bit. I'm not throwing on the Woody.
I'm not throwing on Woody at the studio, man.
What are your thoughts on the Baz Luhrmann
"Romeo and Juliet"?
You throwing that on?
Not a fan of Baz.
Okay.
Hannah's a big fan of that.
Elvis?
Did you ever see Elvis?
A good chunk of it.
Shout out to Austin Butler,
friend of the show, because--
Is he a friend of the show?
No, but we've talked about him.
Oh, we have talked about him.
I like you're like, "Dude, did he call in?"
I could be led to believe he'd been on the show once.
No, I mean, his performances.
He's a great actor.
The first scene where you see him play,
the movie really did viscerally represent
how shocking and exciting that music
would have been at the time
for the teen audiences.
Yeah.
Which is such a cliche that we've seen
so many times.
So it is like a testament to the movie
that I kind of got excited watching
the musical portions.
I just didn't like all the stylistic
kind of window dressing.
Did you watch it?
I watched it, and yeah, it's insane,
but it's also kind of good.
I want to get to the--
I should just go back to it
and get to the Elvis in Vegas period.
My favorite Elvis period.
Elvis crushed it in Vegas.
I've watched the videos of him many times.
They're super tight.
Those shows would have been sick.
And you got to sit down.
It's kind of cool that there's a trend
back towards the--
Seated?
Well, actually, what's going on
at these residencies in Vegas
when you go see Katy Perry or Adele?
Are you seated and you're ordering
lobster Thermidor and stuff to your table?
No.
But I think it's--but it's seated.
Not table service.
But seated the way an arena show is seated
and everybody stands up the whole time.
A theater show.
I mean, from anything I've seen in Vegas
and these shows, I think--
What have you seen?
Shania Twain or something?
Did you see Morrissey?
Saw Morrissey.
That's at Caesar's Theater.
Any of the elegant--
No, but that's not a residency.
He was just on tour, right?
He did a couple days,
but the long residencies, I think,
are in theaters that are already built.
That sort of coppa, whatever idea
that we have of the elegance of old--
you know, where everyone's at the tables.
The 50s, like Copacabana.
I just don't think--
Billy Rose's magic horseshoe.
My guess is that it's to pack--
it's a numbers game.
It's just to make as much money as possible
to make these affordable.
In Vegas?
Yeah.
[laughs]
No, but you know what I mean?
That there's this idea of having a table
where you got your six people
and then over there, it's like,
no, they've just packed it in.
No, and that is what's funny.
When you see the actual footage
of Elvis performing,
or even in the movie, the recreation,
there is something about watching
the biggest artist on the planet,
one of the most famous people on the planet,
performing, and rather than looking out
and just seeing a stadium or an arena,
you see some older people
just sitting at a table
with food in front of them.
Yeah.
Lobster.
Yeah, The Weeknd's not doing that,
but it is such a better way to enjoy a show.
Yeah, it also feels like--
You're packing way less bodies in the room.
Yeah.
I mean, I think we've talked about
going to the Usher residency.
Yeah, that's probably just,
you're just standing up.
Or you're seated in a theater,
but how great would it be if, yeah,
you were able to order a steak,
loaded potato, baked potato.
Now I'm interested.
And you're watching Usher.
Yeah, see, also,
and the nature of the show is different,
because I've heard the Usher show is great,
but it's kind of like an arena-level spectacle
with dancing and stuff.
I'm sure he's such a charismatic guy.
I'm sure he probably talks to the audience
a little bit, but back then,
it probably was such a treat
that suddenly here you are.
You got a fully loaded baked potato,
lobster steak in front of you.
You're on your third martini with the missus.
Hide of the empire.
Having a great time.
And Elvis is there,
and he's just kind of like looking around.
He probably was making small talk with everybody.
You know?
It's the same when you see--
It's intimate.
It's the same when you see old pan and--
And I think also the lights were on, too.
I get that impression, too.
It wasn't that dark in the room.
Bright room.
Yeah, you know, you guys know,
I saw David Blaine in Vegas not so long ago.
Great show.
But if you had been at a table--
Amazing magician.
I mean, truly magical.
He would walk through the audience.
But you're in little seats.
You're in a stadium.
It's a theater situation.
He's going up and trying to do magic with you
and walk through the seating.
And if you were at a table,
and he's walking through the tables
and able to talk to people.
You know, when you see Sinatra,
and he walks down, he's able to lean in.
Any of that magic's gone.
Can you order a drink?
No, outside.
You have to get up and go to the bar.
Yeah.
You know, it's the same thing when you see the old,
you know, how you used to fly.
Pan Am, you know, where you'd see people at tables.
Right.
You know, and they're smoking a cigarette at a table.
Right.
With, you know, someone coming and bringing them a martini.
Those tables became four chairs.
Can you order martinis on planes still?
Like, if you're flying first class?
Do they have a--
I mean, obviously, you can order booze on a plane.
They're not mixing any drinks for you.
Even first class on a U.S. airline,
if they make you a martini,
you're definitely going to be drinking out of, like,
one of those little ridged plastic cups.
Right.
Delta does espresso martinis.
Are you into those?
I'm not a martini guy.
Oh.
A little too hard for me.
Doesn't an espresso martini count as, like, a legit martini,
or is that, like, a newfangled?
Sounds pretty newfangled.
No, but some people are very into them.
They really wake you up.
Wow, this is a real soft show so far,
but covering some interesting stuff.
Matt texted saying that the Percy song
was probably one of our best flights of fancy.
Oh, good.
Oh, yeah, no, I like the oasis in the bar.
We went off the rails with the Vegas stuff, Matt, so just--
Hey, you know one thing that gave me pause?
Banshees?
That's set in 1920?
I think so.
I thought that was modern day.
Yes, we talked about this.
Did we?
Oh, yeah, no, no.
Multiple people have said that to me.
That's what's cool about it.
It feels contemporary or timeless.
Timeless is a better way to put it.
Oh, yeah, I think that's also because--
well, we'd have to ask a rural Irish person.
I feel like not all the language was period.
They would say a couple things that are just kind of like--
Well, they're referencing--
there's, like, an Irish Civil War happening,
and there's a few shots of the calendar,
and it says 1923 or something.
I just Googled it. It's 1923.
A hundred years ago just blows my mind.
That's really cool.
Until you see the calendar in Colin Farrell's house,
you don't realize.
It is funny that multiple people have that feeling
because there's absolutely nothing that makes it present day.
Yeah, it's kind of obvious when you think about it.
Like the donkey.
That must have been deliberate, I would think,
on the director's part.
Or I think what Ezra was about to point out
was maybe our ignorance.
You know, you watch this.
You're looking at Ireland, and you're going,
"Oh, small town.
They probably don't have Wi-Fi.
They probably still use donkeys."
I mean, if you-- I'm watching that movie.
If I'm watching that movie,
and I'm thinking it's 2023, I'm like,
"Of course they have Wi-Fi, and they have phones,
but, like, they're not on them in the pub."
No, they might be in the pub,
and they probably have, like, a digital jukebox
blasting Ariana Grande.
Yes, in reality--
After the first 20 minutes of that movie,
they go into the pub.
You think it's, you know--
and then they go in, and they play Ariana Grande
on the digital jukebox.
♪ Breakfast at Tiffany's and bottles of bubbles ♪
♪ Girls with tattoos who like getting in trouble ♪
♪ Lashes and diamonds, ATM machines ♪
♪ Buy myself all of my favorite things ♪
♪ Been through some bad, but I should be a savage ♪
♪ Who would've thought it'd turn me to a savage ♪
♪ Rather be tied up with calls and not strings ♪
♪ Write my own checks like I write what I sing ♪
♪ I'm a mess, stop watching, my neck is frozen ♪
♪ Make big deposits, my gloss is proper ♪
♪ You like my hair? Gee, thanks, just rub it ♪
♪ I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it ♪
I guess also some of the--
I feel like they're always, like, trudging back and forth
to the pub and, like, seeing who's there.
There would've been a little more texting.
I feel like their pub day started pretty early,
like at, like, two or three.
Yeah, I think that's how it used to be.
So they, like, work from, like, 5.30 to, like--
I feel like they were, like, settling in at the bar at, like, three.
But then the night's over at, like, eight.
Right.
You're getting up at five.
Then you wake up with the dawn.
Yeah.
Yeah, but there would've been a lot more texting.
If that took place in present day, they'd just be like--
"Bro, where you at?"
Yeah, Colin Farrell looking out at the sea,
and then just, like, overlaid on his face would be, like, the text.
Just, like, him just, like, "For real?
We're seriously not friends anymore?"
"Dude, are we good?"
And then you just, like, see that other dude, like,
the Brendan Gleeson, the "pop, pop, pop."
Then he doesn't actually write anything.
"If you talk to me, I'm going to chop my finger off."
And then it's, like--
LOL.
It's an iPhone pic with, like, the finger chopped off.
That's the reveal.
Instead of passing each other on the trail
with his bloody stump dripping,
you just hear, like, "Whoop."
[laughter]
"Whoosh."
That's a cool idea because so many people clearly--
there's a deep desire that "Fancies of Innocent"
take place in modern day.
What if we do a version of it where it's entirely on screens?
One of those movies.
Oh, like, one of those, like, they're trying to find, like,
the daughter gets kidnapped or something?
Yeah, there's ones like that.
I've seen some horror movies like that.
And, yeah, nobody actually, like, lives together.
A lot of it takes place in a Discord server.
That's nice, the entire movie.
Yeah.
What's nice about that is it would be a much shorter film.
It would be, like, a 20-minute film
because all the walking would be eliminated
and conversations would get, like, collapsed.
Yeah, enough of these long--
and these shots of quaint little--
No beautiful landscapes.
Don't need any of that.
More efficient.
That's a cool movie.
It's about a friendship that falls apart
because one guy's self-harming,
and it's just called "Discord."
Fully takes place on a Discord server.
In rural Ireland.
Yeah, maybe they have a Discord server just for the island.
Everybody gets on it.
It's a lot of gossip and stuff,
and there's probably, like, some sidebars,
and there could be a little bit of FaceTiming.
You could see the pastoral images.
It's on a Slack channel.
Oh, yeah.
The pastoral images are, like, screensavers and stuff.
Like, you could still catch some of that, like--
Good stuff.
We just started to start a company
that really cheaply produces movies
for people who hate things that are set in the past.
We're just constantly banging it out and just, like--
We just hire--
We probably just use AI at this point.
Just, like, we're bus--
Just, like, rewrite the script for "Banshees of Innistrand,"
but it totally takes place on a Slack channel.
It's called "Banshees of Something."
Can you see if you can do that right now?
I was just about to, yeah.
Sometimes you meet people who--
I've definitely met people who are just like,
"I don't like old movies."
Like, "Really? Where do you tap out?"
Like, "Mm, early 2000s."
I've met people like that.
Oh, wow.
I tap out a little bit, like, in the '60s.
Like, I have trouble watching movies
from the '50s and earlier.
But '70s, you're psyched?
Oh, I'm all in.
In '60s, I'm in.
The tasteful palate of the 1970s cinema?
Of course.
Some '50s stuff I'll get into.
Pre-World War II is tough.
That's a different America.
Silent era?
Well, I've never seen a silent film.
I have no interest.
In your whole life?
Well, you know, one funny thing--
They're not actually silent.
They always have somebody playing
some kind of depressing piano music.
[Hums "Silent Night"]
Yeah.
You never watched a Charlie Chaplin movie?
No.
Never?
No.
In your life?
Not interested.
Have you guys?
Yes.
No.
You've never seen a Charlie Chaplin film?
Where have you watched it?
I mean--
Just looking at your house
with, like, your parents when you were a kid?
I threw one on for my son, like, a month ago.
Really?
The Great Dictator.
Yeah, it was The Great Dictator.
No, I think I threw it on Modern Times.
I have-- I had a vague memory.
I was just getting, like, a little bit fed up
with, like, some of the junk
that clogs up the streamers.
No disrespect to the people
making great children's programming,
of which there's plenty,
but sometimes when you're going through
the various streamers,
and you're on, like, kids,
there are all these, like, brightly colored ones,
and you watch--
And some of those look like--
And then you throw it on,
and you're like, "Oh, this looks cool,"
or, like, your kid wants to watch it,
and you're watching, and you're like,
"This is written by AI.
This is nonsensical.
Nobody put any time into this.
Looks like sh--."
And there are these shows
that a lot of people love now,
like Bluey.
I don't know if you're aware of this one, Jake.
Heard of it. Heard of it.
It's an Australian show,
and you can tell that the people
who make it care about--
I don't know, what do you--
Like, the interior world of children
or what matters to them,
and they built their whole world
of what Australia would look like
if it was run by humanoid dogs.
They put thought and feeling into it.
But so anyway, it was like
we were, like, watching some junk,
and I was like, "Oh, God,"
and I was just like, "Enough of this
endless cartoons kind of thing."
And I had the vague memory
that when I was a teacher,
somebody told me to, for some lesson,
"Oh, you should show them Charlie Chaplin."
And I really remember this
throwing--
For my eighth-grade class,
when I was a teacher in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn,
almost none of the kids
seemed to have much awareness
of Charlie Chaplin,
and I remember, like,
throwing on one of those movies,
and everybody was loving it.
Wow. Okay. I'm interested.
Charlie Chaplin movies
are pretty watchable.
So anyway, I had a feeling,
I was like, I kind of remember,
like, the eighth graders liking it,
well, like, a little kid like it,
and the beginning of modern times
is he's working in a factory.
It's just, like, full of hijinks.
♪ Don't be city lights ♪
♪ Life is street to life ♪
♪ Mouth is crazy nice ♪
♪ Bring us together ♪
♪ In a rainy day ♪
♪ You can dance your blues away ♪
♪ Don't be city lights ♪
♪ Bring us together ♪
♪ Charlie Chaplin's kid ♪
♪ Well, it flicked away in the rain ♪
♪ Things weren't quite the same ♪
♪ After he came here ♪
♪ But then when he left ♪
♪ Upon our own request ♪
♪ Things weren't quite the same ♪
♪ After he came here ♪
I just got to know,
were you able to have AI rated Banshees
done in the Slack channel?
I'm not super impressed
with what they're delivering.
Shocker.
I'll tell you.
It's kind of wordy,
so what I'll tell you is basically
they've reset it in 2023
where the lead characters,
Padraic and Calm, have grown apart.
One of them moved to the city
to pursue a career in finance
and the other stayed on the island
in the fishing industry.
So far, so good.
And then it's sort of like
very clunkily frozen.
Despite their distance,
the two characters remain in touch
through communication tools
like iPhone, Slack, text messages,
emails, and Discord forums.
And then one of them returns
to whoever returns to the island
and then the one feels too modern
and so they reconnect.
They reconcile their differences.
It's not great.
Here's what I'll say.
It's not great.
You know, I trust everybody
who says that AI technology
is reaching this tipping point
and soon we're not going to recognize
the world we live in.
But when you see all this stuff,
so often when people have any kind of,
I hear people doing any kind of
sophisticated idea like that
for Chat GPT,
it often seems like it just repeats back at you
a longer version.
It kind of seems like a kid writing,
where you're like,
"Your assignment is to write a version
of Banshees of Innistrand,
but it all takes place on a Slack server."
And it's like,
"The film Banshees of Innistrand
takes place in Ireland,
a gorgeous country across the Irish Sea
from the other country, England.
In this film, we will have our characters
be communicating primarily through
the wonderful world of Slack."
What is Slack?
Just like describing what you said
in a longer way.
You are right,
except you're not giving this AI credit.
Banshees takes place now
with one of the guys moving to the big city
to take a job in finance,
and then when he comes back home,
they fight because one of them is too modern.
That is great.
Yeah, you're right.
That is pretty good.
Like he's become alienated
because he's in the financial fintech world.
Jake's not sold.
No, I agree.
I think that people are
shitting their pants over Chat GPT.
I'm just like, "Why?"
It's just literally just like taking snippets
from other texts and just kind of like
recontextualizing them.
I guess because they see the...
There's no thought.
I guess the people who really know about this stuff,
they know the growth rate.
Right.
So we're seeing this like cheap version
for everybody to use,
and maybe they're more familiar with
how quickly it's growing,
so they can see how, you know,
today it's like that,
next year it's writing, you know,
pitch perfect Fairport Convention songs.
I've had a few people over the last few months
send me like Vampire Weekend lyrics,
and I've been very unimpressed.
And not even unimpressed,
but also just a tiny bit hurt
because clearly there's not enough
discussion on the internet about
what makes Vampire Weekend lyrics
remotely notable because they're so boring.
It's not even like I hear it,
I'm just like, "No, this sounds more like
Jonathan Richman."
It's not even like that.
It's just like very generic.
Okay, I guess we got to do this.
Seinfeld, ask it to do a Vampire Weekend song
about Banshees of Innistrand.
About Banshees of Innistrand,
although that's already giving it a...
That's too weird.
It's giving it a leg up
because Banshees of Innistrand is like
an interesting film.
Like about summer?
A Vampire Weekend song about summer.
Yeah, great, great call.
Verse one,
"The summer sun is shining bright."
Actually, maybe you should read this.
Okay.
It's your In the Band Vampire Weekend.
"The summer sun is shining bright.
The waves are crashing at our feet.
We're sipping on our drinks and living life.
As we soak up the summer heat."
Sounds like a Katy Perry song.
Not a Vampire Weekend song.
Not even one of the great Katy Perry songs.
Chorus, "Summer, oh summer,
the season of love and light.
We dance under the stars as the moon rises high."
Verse two,
"We'll ride our bikes down to the shore.
Our skin kissed by the salty breeze.
We'll make memories that will last forever more."
I mean...
This would be great for writing Hallmark cards.
"As we take in the sights and sounds with ease.
Summer, oh summer,
the season of love and light.
We dance under the stars as the moon rises high.
The firefly..."
This is the bridge.
I like that they made a bridge.
"The fireflies light up the night
as we sing and dance with all our might.
Our hearts beat as one underneath the summer sun."
And then one more chorus.
I'm not even trying to say that
there's anything special about Vampire Weekend lyrics.
You could even hate Vampire Weekend lyrics, but like...
And Love Time Crisis.
You could hate Vampire Weekend and Love Time Crisis,
of which we know there's a few.
But if I made a totally neutral evaluation
of Vampire Weekend lyrics,
generally, even if somebody was doing a parody...
And in fact, I kind of remember, of course,
over the years I've come across somebody doing a parody
or in the early days of Twitter, whatever.
And when they would do parodies,
of course, the low-hanging fruit,
especially for early Vampire Weekend,
would just be these funny names,
these proper nouns.
The Oxford comma or Mansard roof
or Cape Cod, Quasiquas.
So even if people would make up...
Even if they hated Vampire Weekend
and they were just making up dumb Vampire Weekend lyrics,
they would probably call it like...
Something, I don't know, Palm Beach Fiesta.
Or like, you know, the lyrics would be,
"I tore my polo shirt."
And my brand new townhouse.
And my new townhouse.
Anyway, again, I'm not saying
our lyrics are anything special,
but it just feels like they didn't even try.
Do a Bob Dylan song about summer.
'Cause you'd also imagine for Bob Dylan,
there's much more text on the internet about his lyrics.
He has more lyrics.
More discussion about his lyrics, more history.
Here we go.
All right, let's see. Maybe they can bring it for Bob.
The summer breeze is blowing strong.
All right, so far they're doing "blowing"
with the B-L-O-W-I-N apostrophe.
That's more Bob.
The summer breeze is blowing strong.
The trees are swaying to the song.
The sun is high up in the sky,
and everything just feels so right.
(imitates buzzer)
Feels so right?
Chorus.
Everything feels so right.
Summer days, they come and go,
but memories, they last forever more.
Come on!
Why do they gotta use "forever more"?
The warm sun upon my face
and the sweet smell of summer grace.
We take a walk down by the lake,
watch the boats sail and the ducks swim.
The laughter and the joy we share,
our memories will always hold dear.
See, in both songs, they're just taking the most
hackneyed summer...
-Imagery? -Imagery.
And they're not even differentiating.
It's total hallmark.
I like the line about the ducks.
Yeah, I mean, Bob would say something about ducks.
Okay, how about a Kendrick Lamar song about summer?
(laughter)
I'll die if he says "forever more."
Can we add a little bit of nuance to it?
Like something that happens in the summer?
No, no, first, just to do--
-Keep it consistent. -Just to keep it consistent.
-We're practicing science here. -All right, fair.
This is a Kendrick Lamar song about summer.
The sun is blazing, the block is hot.
(laughter)
Summer's here, and we're living nonstop.
Kids are playing in the fire hydrant,
barbecues, and the smell of the grill,
it's vibrant.
It's a vibrant urban community.
Actually, I could kind of hear the word "vibrant" in his voice.
Sure, you'd say "vibrant," but the computer is just like,
"This song is in a city."
And here's the chorus.
"Summertime and the living's easy," quote.
"Summertime and the living's easy,
"everybody's out here getting tipsy.
"We take it slow, we take it easy,
"living life like it's always been breezy."
Verse two, "Hit the beach, let your toes in the sand,
"got your girl by your side holding hands.
"Listen to the waves, let them soothe your mind.
"Sun kissed, feel like we're out of time."
There was something pretty subtle in there,
that specifically, "I got your girl holding hands."
Well, but he might be talking about you.
I don't know, that's like a pretty,
I don't know if it's Kendrick,
but that certainly feels like Drake.
You think he's stealing your girl?
He's like, "I stole your girl."
No, no, he's saying, 'cause he said,
"Hit the beach, let your toes in the sand,
"got your girl by your side holding hands."
Second Poe.
Yeah, he's talking about you.
He's talking about you and your wife, Nick.
Toes in the sand.
I guess I would say that this song,
their Kendrick Lamar song about summer,
is 10% more Kendrick Lamar than it is Bob Dylan,
if I had to compare them.
And one thing's for sure, is like,
forget about Vampire, Bob Dylan and Kendrick Lamar,
you'd think they'd be able to figure something out
that would be a tiny bit surprising,
the way that those artists are a tiny bit surprising.
Like, you know, that doesn't seem like
you need a supercomputer just to analyze
Bob Dylan lyrics and say, like,
he juxtaposes these types of images.
That's part of what makes Bob,
he would use a folkism and then maybe have
a line or a word you wouldn't expect,
or Kendrick Lamar might use a word you wouldn't expect.
There's none of that.
Well, that's 'cause they're writing their songs
based on their personal idiosyncratic histories
and tastes, which the computer doesn't have.
All it is doing is just, you know,
aggregating all of the text.
And I have a feeling if we put in like other rappers,
well, first of all, I'm sure if we put in
Neil Young versus Bob Dylan's song about summer,
it's going to be not different.
If we put in like Jay-Z's song about summer,
it's not going to be any different.
This has me thinking though, I'm surprised
there's like no beach imagery that I can think of
in any Southern California rap.
I'm sure it must happen, but considering
all those classic rappers are from Hawthorne,
Inglewood, Compton, Long Beach,
pretty close to the beach, all those towns.
Can you think of one?
Dr. Dre references palm trees in...
Well, it's not the beach, palm trees.
Oh, you want specific...
I'm saying specifically like a SoCal rap beach song.
There's a lot of talk about Nobu in Malibu.
Nobu in Malibu?
Which has a view of the beach.
I was thinking like 90s...
But I'm saying that even has a view of the beach
and they're not talking about the beach.
But also I think, yeah, I'm sure the answer
a lot of people would give is you're talking
about the world of NWA and what they were describing.
And the beach probably felt like a...
Not an NWA record, but yeah.
Maybe like a Warren G record.
NWA, Straight Outta Compton is like the original
Southern California rap record.
It's possible that those guys,
first of all, what they're talking about...
Check Left Off The Record.
Could you look up an AI song about NWA song about the beach?
And who knows, maybe with everything going on
in their lives at that moment,
maybe they barely got to the beach.
They weren't getting over there.
I mean...
10 minute drive to the beach.
Is it only 10 minutes?
I don't know.
It depends where you are.
It could have felt a world away with everything going on.
Or maybe there was a song that their manager said...
Guys, Dr. Dre was like,
"We gotta have at least one fun at the beach song."
Come on, guys.
You know, Paul Giamatti is like...
Yeah, Paul Giamatti.
Come on, guys.
You're the new beach boys.
It's all about cops and violence and gang banging.
Don't you ever take a day off?
It's only 10 minutes away.
A Sunday afternoon with the family?
Man, you don't understand where we're from at all.
You know, the other thing about...
You guys never go surfing?
What are you talking about?
You could be in Malibu in an hour.
You guys...
You guys never been surfing?
I've never heard of...
Boogie boarding at least?
Boogie boarding.
Just Ice Cube quietly raging.
And he's just like, "Come on, hear him out, man."
"Hear him out."
Can I add a bit of a twist just to keep this interesting?
Sure.
I said write an NWA song about the summer,
but being mad that they have never had time to visit the beach.
Okay.
Just to give it some of that aggression.
Sure, sure.
Keep it consistent with their body of work.
Okay, hang on a second.
Is it writing it?
It's the Kendrick Lamar lyrics, though.
"Summertime and the livin's easy" is the first line here.
Although, the one thing I'll say that it deserves some credit for
is that as it writes it out, it says, "Verse 1, MC Ren,"
and then, "Verse 2, EZ."
So at least it like--
So the computer can correctly name the members of a very famous historical group.
I'm impressed.
Okay, I'm just looking through it.
It's pretty dumb, but okay.
This Dr. Dre verse is kind of interesting.
"I see the pictures, all my friends at the shore,
and I can't help but feel like I'm missing out on more.
The waves crashing, the sand between my toes,
but instead I'm stuck in the studio making flows."
That's kind of amazing.
That's workaholic.
This is Ice Cube's verse.
"I'm sick of this hustle, I need a break.
I want to hit the beach and feel the waves shake,
but until then I'll keep grinding and working hard
until I can finally let down my guard."
"Let down my guard."
I mean, even in that classic Ice Cube song, "Today was a good day."
No beach.
Didn't drop by the beach.
I'm sure Ice Cube would probably give you--
he probably maybe didn't feel welcome at the beach in '90s LA.
Does he say where he is in that song?
People have spent a lot of time trying to figure out the--
Well, the geography?
Somebody claims that they--
we ought to throw this on.
We've never really--we're so classic rock oriented,
we don't talk enough about classic rap on this show.
Were you loving this in the '90s when it came out, Jake?
Or did you not hear it that much because you were on the East Coast?
No, I heard it.
Yeah, no, I dug it.
I didn't love it initially, but then--I don't know.
Within a few years, I dug it.
Such a haunting beat.
It had Doggystyle on tape.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
You showed some love to the West Coast?
Big time.
Almost preferred West Coast rap.
Really?
Yeah.
Never was in the tribe.
Wow.
Jake, what about that--
No shots fired.
I just--I don't know.
I just--
What about that high-pitched synth sound that they always use?
Love that.
Oh, really?
Well, I guess we've talked about this.
Jake, born and raised in Connecticut, but always--
Spiritually West Coast.
I gotta go 'cause I got me a drop top
And if I hit the switch, I can make the ass drop
Had to stop at a red light
Looking in my mirror, not a jacker in sight
And everything is alright
I got a beat from Kim
And she could do it all night
Called up the homies and I'm asking y'all
Which part are y'all playing basketball?
Get me on the court and I'm troubled
Last week, messed around and got a triple-double
Freaking brothers every day
Like it's just a game, buddy
To me, it's just a game
Drove to the pad and hit the showers
Didn't even get no static from the cowards
'Cause just yesterday, them booze tried to blast me
Saw the police and they rode right past me
No flexing, didn't even look in the mirror
He's a 26-minute drive from the closest beach
Yeah, that probably felt a world away
What are you saying his location is?
I just typed in South Central Los Angeles
Uh-huh
Shake 'em up, shake 'em up, shake 'em up, shake 'em
Roll 'em in a circle, our homies, and watch me break 'em
With a 7, 7-11, 7-11, 7-11 back door
Little jump, I picked up the cash from
Then we played balls, and I'm yelling domino
Plus nobody I know got killed in South Central LA
Today was a good day
That had a touch of record executive being like
"I gotta say, Cube, doesn't sound like that good of a day"
"You mean go to Universal Studios or?"
It's ironic, I had the booze, she had the chronic
The Lakers beat the Supersonics
See, I gotta remember there was some thing years ago
where somebody figured out what day
Of course, it wasn't actually a day
He's just an artist painting a picture
But there was a day
There's only so many days in the early 90s
when the Lakers beat the Supersonics
and there was no smog
I think those are like the primary things
that helped that out
I miss the smog part
Yeah, no smog
Okay
I was glad everything had worked out
Dropped the vert off and then chirped out
Today was like one of those fine dreams
Didn't even see a berry flashing those high beams
No helicopter looking for the murder
Two in the morning got the fat burger
Got the fat burger
Even saw the lights of the Goodyear blitz
And it read "Ice Cube's a pimp"
I always love that part
It is so amazingly simple
He's basically telling a pretty normal story
He wants a fat burger
And also, there's the emotional, sociopolitical element
No cops doing anything bad
Nobody got murdered
It's a mellow day
But in a way, it's very small and human
The small wins of living in a place like that
Dealing with life as Ice Cube in the early 90s
And then out of nowhere he looks up at the Goodyear blimp
And it says "Ice Cube's a pimp"
Magic realism
It's pure magic realism
Hold up, Poop, stop this, man
Yeah, and then the flight of fantasy was over
He couldn't just leave it
As this kind of nostalgic, dreamy, Proustian reverie
So basically at the end he's saying it didn't happen
He had to unplug
Actually, that is kind of dark
Especially, this album is famously a pretty hard album
Ice Cube, The Predator
This is pure gangster rap
Ice Cube, early 90s
Very angry
Had left NWA
And this is one of the bigger hits
But it's this mellow song
And it is kind of funny
Kind of funny, kind of sad
That it's this reverie
And it's almost like some Matrix thing
Where he wakes up and he's like
Man, I have a really stressful life
With the police and crime
And my feud with EZE
But I woke up today and actually everything's pretty good
Look at that
No real smog today
Things are going pretty good
Oh, mom didn't put any bacon in breakfast
That's good, I'm trying not to eat pigs
And then just walk around like
Things are going pretty good
Oh, I got a beep from Kim
That'll be fun
But something's not quite right
Something's not quite right
But he's having such a good day
He doesn't really think about it too much
And then it is like the weird Truman Show moment
Is actually when he looks up at the blimp
And it says Ice Cube is a pimp
And he's thinking, that's pretty cool
Wait, why would they say that on the Goodyear blimp?
And then he hears the alarm
Beep, beep
And he's like, what?
He was in the Matrix
Spooky
Just having a great dream
Wait, actually, this makes me curious
On the album, what happens right after that song
I was just wondering that too
Peace, quiet, and good order
Will be maintained in our city
To the best of our ability
Riots, melees, and disturbances of the peace
Are against the interest of all our people
And therefore cannot be permitted
This is probably from the 60s
Talking about
Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty
I've been told all along
That it's not not guilty
There's a series of fires
I'm not talking about Rodney King
And the things going on
In the disaster area, obviously
The jury found that they were all not guilty
Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty
Make it rough
A lot of activity continues here in this cabaret
Make it rough
We have sporadic fires
And guilty, not guilty, not guilty
I'm not saying it's not guilty
Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty
Not guilty, the filthy
Devil's trying to kill me
When the news get to the hood
The brothers will be
Hotter than cayenne pepper
Cuss, bust, kicking up dust
Is a must, I can't trust
A cracker in a blue uniform
Stick a brother like a unicorn
Born wicked, Lawrence
Pow, foul, cut his damn throat
And I smile
Go to Simi Valley
And surely somebody knows the address
Simi Valley, yeah, that's where all the cops live
And where they did the trial
Oh, right, yeah, that's where the, yeah, you're right
That provides quite a bit of context
He wakes up from the reverie of it was a good day
And immediately the news is on
Talking about riots
And the first line he says after
Today was a good day
Not guilty, the filthy devil's trying to kill me
Back to reality
A little further number crunching
Reveals two songs that I found
Where they talk about going to the beach
Two rap songs, going to the beach
But interestingly, so there's going back to Cali
Biggie's, going back to Cali
Where he talks about spending a week on Venice Beach
And then LL Cool
Yeah, well, he's a tourist
Well, that's what I was gonna say
But LL Cool J's, going back to Cali
Also spending time on the beach
Point being is that I think if you're here
Maybe you just don't even appreciate it
You know what I mean?
I mean, I don't go to the beach that often
But I also live, like, much farther away
Yeah, but again, I think the answer is like, you know
Living in this era, underserved community
It's not necessarily the most welcoming, easy thing
To go to the beach
But your colleague from New York flies in
They're going to the beach
You know what I mean?
I'm sure people went to the beach
It just doesn't fit into the image
That the albums are projecting
How often did MC Ren go to the beach growing up?
Yeah, MC Ren in like 1979
When he was a kid
How often does he go to the beach?
It's funny talking about 90s rap
Because I did have an idea a while back
That we could talk about this song
I just don't know how often we've talked about
Big Pun
Never
Now Jake, what do you think about Big Pun?
Not a fan of East Coast rap?
No opinion
Do you know where he's from?
New York?
Yeah, what part of New York?
Brooklyn?
Nope
Queens?
Nope
Close
Bronx?
Yes, Bronx
What about you, Seinfeld?
Do you a Big Pun fan?
I used to love Big Pun
That Capital Punishment album is just like a straight
It's his one and only album
And you know, the thing about him
Is that he died very young
He came out as this huge album
But then his friend and producer
And fellow rapper Fat Joe
Went on to have a very illustrious career
But of course you remember this song
Oh, yeah
Yeah, I know this
This is Big Pun
Yeah
I didn't know that
Did you like this song?
Love it
Yeah, this is a great song
So this song is so huge
I even remember
So I was like 13, 14 when this came out
Just like
Just being at like an awkward school dance
And then just like blasting this
Since the birth of New Jersey
Just kind of like
Great song
Where did you pick this song?
Okay, no, but I wasn't thinking about this song
Everybody knows that song
There was another single from this album called Twins
Which was essentially a cover of
The Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre song
Deep Cover
They took the same beat
And they wanted to do a similar
Kind of like gangster storytelling thing
Anyway, I was just thinking about this because
I was having a conversation
And a lyric from this popped into my head
And I wondered
We do talk about lyrics on this show a lot
Of course, as you know, we always veer to classic rock
But this is a very classic line
And I thought it's worth discussing on the show
Does the beat sound familiar?
Because before this it was also Deep Cover
Deep Cover
So it's him and the beat
It's definitely familiar
I don't know if I know this song though
This is the classic line coming up
You guys know that line?
It's incredible, yeah
No, what's that line from?
It's, no, no, it's from this song
I'm just saying this is like
Maybe, I don't know
I feel like maybe just like some of my
New York friends have always talked about like
That was a legendary line
Or at least a famous line
Because of the really extreme wordplay
In Montreal, are people talking about that line, Seinfeld?
This is a legendary lyric
The internal rhyme is
That in the middle of little, little, little
Did we know that we riddled some middle men
Who didn't do diddly
Here to be a cold day in Ravendale
And actually in the video, it does
There's like a close up
There's a close up of his mouth
Because it is kind of legendary
And then I was like looking it up
And on Genius they had like a quote
From Fat Joe who basically said
That Big Pun was such a wordsmith
He was always coming up with
These crazy tongue twisters like that
And that because this song
Takes place in Little Italy
Probably Bronx, Little Italy
Not Manhattan, Little Italy
That Joe said to him
Oh you gotta do that crazy tongue twister rap
And that Pun said
No, no, no, come on
That's like a joke
And he said no, no, no
It's incredible
And he said people are going to make fun of me
It's so stupid
And that Fat Joe being a great producer
Was like no, no, you gotta put it in
And convinced him to
I wonder why he thought it was stupid
It's like over the top
Yeah, it's over the top
And it does, you know
There is a way in which it just sounds like
Diddle, diddle, diddle, diddle, diddle, diddle
Diddly
Maybe not the coolest word
Diddly
I do kind of love it
And then I can't help but
It's dead in the middle of Little Italy
DWLP5
Yeah, I should do a tribute to Big Pun
Album title?
Yeah, album title
Just diddly
Where'd you come up with that?
It's a tribute to deceased rapper Big Pun
I think the reason I thought of this is because
I randomly said something about being in the middle of Little Italy
And then just like instantly took me back to this
But it's dead in the middle of Little Italy
Little did we know that we riddled some middle men
Who didn't do diddly
So not only is it like a tongue twister
But he's really like telling the story here
Because in the beginning
Didn't do diddly
Diddly squat
He said, he basically
They were hired by some dirty cops
That were gonna help
He says that'll get us in
I don't know if that means like get them in with like the
The police organization or help them somehow
Give them money
But some dirty cops
Asked them to go kill somebody
So this is a real murder ballad
Oh this is a murder ballad
Yeah, okay, it comes full circle
So these dirty cops hired
Big Pun and Fat Joe to go kill some Italians
I'm just picturing Michael Rappaport
Oh he's a dirty cop
Yeah
No totally, somebody could make a
I wonder if one day there will be a movie
Just called Dead in the Middle of Little
Dead in the Middle of Little Italy
That almost seems like something could happen
That could happen
Netflix presents an eight part mini series
Based on this one big pun line
Just an egregious Scorsese rip off
Yeah that'd be cool
It could be Scorsese's next movie
So then they hop in the Hummer
The Punisher's ready
He's the Punisher
And then he says meet me at Vito's with noodles
We'll do this dude while he's slurping spaghetti
I think in The Godfather
Doesn't that iconic scene in the bathroom
Take place in the Bronx?
That does ring true
Yeah, it'd be a Coppola film
So then they go in
They start yelling at everybody
Presumably they kill a bunch of people
And then he says
Dead in the middle of little Italy
Little do we know that we riddled some middle men
Who didn't do diddly
I guess the cops told him to kill these guys
And who knows, maybe Michael Rappaport was like
Guys, these are some bad dudes
Rappaport owed those guys like 50 grand for gambling
Right
Yeah, right, and he spins it
And he's like
You know I'm a cop
You know what I could do to you?
But I'm telling you
I'll be your friend
You kill this guy who's a really bad guy
I'll give you 50k
Turns out he was lying through his teeth
He owed these middle men something
They didn't do anything bad
And now it's going to be pinned on Big Pun and Fat Joe
So it is pretty impressive that it's like
Insane wordplay that somehow tells the story
It sometimes just gets stuck in my head
Dead in the middle of little Italy
Little do we know that we
Dead in the middle of little Italy
Little do we know that we riddled some middle men
Who didn't do diddly
It's like a children's limerick
Dead in the middle of little Italy
Little do we know that we riddled some middle men
Who didn't do diddly
I can almost do like Micro Machine Guy
Oh, Micro Machine Guy
Hold on
Dead in the middle of little Italy
Little do we know that we riddled some middle men
Who didn't do diddly
Dead in the middle of little Italy
Little do we know that we riddled some middle men
Who didn't do diddly
He does it about this
(singing)
Dead in the middle of little Italy
Little do we know that we riddled some middle men
Who didn't do diddly
That's about how fast he does it
Dead in the middle of little Italy
Little do we know that we riddled some middle men
Who didn't do diddly
Dead in the middle of little Italy
Little do we know that we riddled some middle men
Who didn't do diddly
This is starting to sound like Primus
(laughing)
Actually this would be a great Primus cover
(singing)
Dead in the middle of little Italy
Now dead in the middle of little Italy
Little do we know that we riddled some middle men
Who didn't do diddly
Dead in the middle of little Italy
Little do we know that we riddled some middle men
Who didn't do diddly
Let's do it again
(singing)
Every word does make sense
Like on the one hand you're like
We riddled some middle men
Yeah
They were riddled with bullets
Also the worst kind of
Well you followed the logic
And also the worst kind of middle man
Would be the one that didn't do anything
That didn't do diddly
Yeah like you're thinking
We're about to get paid 500k
We took out a mob boss
Like what are you talking about?
These guys were just middle men
They were nobodies
But they were bad guys
Nah
They were taking some action on the side
Big Punisher
These guys didn't do diddly
Whoa!
Diddly?
You're telling me they didn't do diddly?
Diddly
They didn't do squat
They didn't
They didn't?
It's like a Killer Brothers movie at that point
They didn't
They didn't do diddly
They didn't do squat
They didn't do diddly or squat
Okay
It's time for the top 5
It's time for the top 5
5 on iTunes
This week we'll be comparing the top 5 iTunes songs of today
With the top 5 songs this week in 1990
Very weird year
I've always considered 1990 a really weird year
Why do you think 1990 is a weird year Jake?
You were kind of more
Let's see
You were 13
I was tapped in
Yes you were more tapped in than I was
I was very tapped in on MTV in 1990
Which was a funny time to be like
Obsessively watching MTV
So even as a 13 year old you're like
This is neither here nor there
Nirvana hasn't arrived yet
But the hair metal era feels tapped out
What's going on?
Yeah I mean
Who's big?
Like Slaughter
And like
I mean yeah
It was still hair metal
But it felt
They were still rolling out singles from the Dr. Feelgood album
Motley Crue
And maybe some Poison
In 1990
Very innocuous pop
Were you aware of like the Pixies and Sonic Youth
No
No not at all
I was not aware of any kind of underground cool music
In 1990 were you aware of the band Bad English?
I think so
I think I'm looking at this now
And I'm like that rings a bell
It was a super group
That formed in '87 and featured
Journey's keyboardist Jonathan Cain
Guitarist Neil Schon
Schon
And drummer Dean Castronova
As well as vocalist John Waite of the Babies
And Ricky Phillips of Styx
This is Price of Love
I'll be curious if I
If this like
Stirs a deep memory within
Because I probably haven't heard it since
Cain takes you right back
I do love these hair metal ballads
Girl
Sometimes it seems to me
Okay
That I don't say the things I should
To you I act like I'm no good
And you
Who wrote the lyrics?
Jetman EP 2
Wait for me
This house is not a home without you
It takes two hearts to show
I like the chords
Your eyes will always see through me
And bring me to my knees
And I will always turn to you
You're everything I need
And through the good and bad times
You have always been there
We hold each other close
You're the sand between our toes
The nights we fight about it
Never dream of giving up
I feel like they're trying to write a Peter Sotero song
Yeah but it's just not, not hitting
That's the price of love
I just feel bad, it's just like
Listening to a hit song from 1990 as if it's like a demo tape
Just like, sorry fellas
Yeah
You don't have it
It's not gelling quite yet
Yeah, I would go work on
Guys my advice
Too many chord changes
My advice, go re-simplify the song, re-work on the lyrics a bit
It's also funny this era
It sounds like a demo tape
Yeah
We can see what you're going for
Like kind of a Peter Sotero thing
But really listen to his greatest songs
There's a level of craft that you guys are missing
So this is something funny about this era
Where there are all these like supergroups
Because when you think of a supergroup
You imagine just like a group of people from bands
That either just like love playing so much
And want to do something maybe really technical they can't do
Or just something unique that their skills bring together
And this picture like all these dudes come together
Let's do something together
And they're just like yeah
Let's try like a middle of the road power ballad
Yeah, this feels like a very contrived project
A lot of A&R guys with a lot of flop sweat
Getting this project together
Yeah
Actually I don't remember that song
Because I probably at age 13 if that came out
I was probably like this sucks
Right
I'm changing the channel
I'll cruise back to MTV in a little bit
The number 5 song on
We're going back to the iTunes chart this week
Just so people understand
iTunes chart is a little different than Apple Music
Sometimes Apple Music because if like a big album comes out
It's all one artist
Right, right
Sometimes you get a little more variety
When we look at the iTunes chart
For the people who still buy songs on iTunes
We salute you
This is Lady Gaga with Hold My Hand
From the great film Top Gun Maverick
Hold my hand
Is this the one that she did at the Oscars?
I miss that part of the Oscars
It lost to Not Too Not Too from RRR
Have any of you guys seen that movie?
Not yet
I've seen most of it
It's a long one
It's long, it rules
Yeah, it's great
Never quite seen anything like it
Yeah, it's cool
It's the best of all types of action movies together
In a very unique package
I caught this part of the Oscars actually
And it was sort of like a stripped down
She even said at the beginning
She's like we're doing kind of like a
A basement rock
Kind of performance here
Okay
She's just wearing like a black t-shirt
No makeup
Close up shot of her face
Kind of like Ally from Stars Born
Yeah
Which is my favorite Gaga
I thought it was great
It's pretty funny
This song has 1990 energy
It does have 1990 energy
Didn't Blood Pop produce this?
Who's Blood Pop?
Blood Pop is a legendary producer
He's well known for working with Lady Gaga
The first thing that was like
He kind of came up with grimes
In that universe
But the thing he's probably best known for is the
Justin Bieber song Sorry
Is it too late now to say sorry?
He's worked with everybody
We've worked together
What did you guys work on?
Was he on Father of the Bride?
Yeah, he's on Father of the Bride a little bit
What song?
He
Some of the deeper cuts
Like we started
I think a somewhat slept on song on that album
Although there are a lot of songs
If I could call it a deep cut
He worked with you on Neo Yokio
On
What is it? Friend Like You?
Oh right!
I forgot about that
Yeah, yeah
So he helped out with that
He's also just like a
Very smart, interesting guy
What do you think the slept on songs
On Father of the Bride are?
Okay
What's the Chet Bakery one?
That one popped into my head
Oh, my mistake
Yes
That one popped into my head
A week or two ago
That's exactly the type of slept on one
Because I feel like
That one
You know
Because that one's kind of like a genre-y
Like Chet Baker
Kind of throwback
I feel like people are kind of like
Eh, you know like
It's not like a classic vampire ballad
Nor is it like a high energy song
And it's pretty like washy
It's washy and weird
And
But I felt even more
I always liked that song
I felt even more confident
When we started playing it live
Because we did like kind of a cool arrangement
Without all like the weird sounds
And
I remember even getting a few like messages
Or some reviews
Or people were like
What song actually really stood out?
My mistake
It's a little like jazzy moment
One song that I think is
Was slept on is Spring Snow
It's another like vibey little ballad
Deep in the album
So like understandably
Third to last
Yeah, yeah
Way towards the end
And I think naturally
Those are the types of songs that are like
Fall by the wayside
Because they're like slow
Like I meet people who like
Love like Rich Man
Which is like kind of another short weird song
But you know even that's like
That stands out maybe
On first listen compared to
The lyric
Yeah, the lyrics
And it's like a little more energy
Number four
Back to 1990
Taylor Dane
Love Will Lead You Back
Love will lead you back
So 1990
Yeah, 1990 is very weird
Very liminal spaces
Wow, weird album title
Can't Fight
Oh
Can't Fight Fate
I thought it said
Hate
I was like, "Dang it"
You can't fight hate
1990 was weird
Yeah
Okay, Can't Fight Hate
Can't Fight Hate
Saying goodbye
Is never a need
Who's Diane Warren?
She's the songwriter
Yeah, she was like at the Oscars
Because she's written so many huge songs
Right
I mean she wrote this song
Oh, she had Whitney Houston in mind
But darling I set you free
But I know in time
We'll be together
I will try
To stop you now from leaving
This is so 90
Like just ballads
Yeah
So far two power ballads
Love will lead you back
I definitely remember watching this on MTV in 1990
In like four in the afternoon
And just being so depressed
It is depressing
This also just feels so like
This is Eileen's car to the full extent
Yeah, and I can just totally picture like
Working at an office
In an office building in 1990
It's like working at like a dentist's office
You're the receptionist
Just like zoning out
This is playing
You get in your car, it's playing
It's still playing
You stop off at the CVS to get your
Prescription, it's playing there
You stop home off at the grocery store
Right, it's still playing
Still playing
Love will lead you back
You get home
You put it on
Yeah
Then you drive down to the Coconut's
Say, you guys have the new Taylor Dance CD?
Purchase it for
1990, what do you think?
1099?
Oh, CD or tape?
Oh, I was thinking CD
Yeah, what would tape be?
799?
Yeah
You going for a nightcap later?
It's Love Will Lead You Back
Playing at the bar
Bar's empty
It's also a depressing concept
Because I think she's basically saying
Alright, you want to leave?
Go ahead, leave
But love will lead you back
You're going to come back to my arms
You're not going anywhere
And I'm sure
I'm sure as the stars are shining
One day you'll find me again
It won't be long
You sure about that, Taylor?
Sure about that?
Won't be long?
Alright
There's other fish in the sea
Yeah, let's not
Let's don't wait too long for this guy
Okay
The number four song this week
Back on the iTunes chart of 2023
Morgan Wallen with Last Night
Think it's going to be a Strokes cover?
Last night
Last night she said
Picturing again
Just going back to medieval times
Last night she said
Grabbing the guitar
Oh yeah
I got a song
Last night she said
Baby don't
Baby don't you feel so bad
When you put me down
People at the pub just like
What the f*** are you talking about?
Speaking of Strokes covers
Yeah
We saw one this weekend
Oh that's true
We didn't talk about this earlier
But Nick and I went to the
Indian Wells
Tennis tournament
I wanted to say conference
It's a conference too
So we're checking out
Some of the matches
Learning about
Who plays tennis these days
Cause that's not Andre Agassi anymore
I'll tell you that much
Not even Federer
And Djokovic wasn't even allowed to play
So
We caught a lot of these younger cats
But
We're sitting there watching
This match
And then up on the screen it says
Don't forget at 4.30
Catch the Johnny Smith Band
And again this is a tennis tournament
But then you look
And it's a picture of John McEnroe
And his wife is Patti Smith
Not that one
Right
The other one
So he called himself the Johnny Smith Band
So then later we walk over
And he's playing
For like
You know
I would say like maybe a thousand people
Easily
That's
Easily?
Wait in the arena?
No it's kind of like
Over where people like buy drinks
Okay
They set up a little stage
It wasn't a main attraction
No cause there's constant
Playing happening
Okay
Right so people are going between different
Courts
Yeah because
And there's a huge like
Food court area
And
A lot of people hanging out
Yeah
Certainly hundreds of people watching
And he's up there with his band
Just ripping covers
And I don't know what I expected him to cover
But as we walked up
I just hear
(Humming)
And just like a truly wild
Raucous messy cover of The Strokes' Reptilia
Wow
Sixty something year old John McEnroe
And then at the end he was just like
Love The Strokes
I mean it makes sense cause then later he played
Let The Good Times Roll by The Cars
And he was just like
I loved this band growing up
And then of course in my number crunch head
I'm thinking like
I mean you weren't growing up when The Cars were out
You were in your twenties
Well
I guess when you're in your sixties
You're still growing up
Yeah I don't know
Growing up
Yeah I may be halfway there
At my age
I still think a little bit
Someone's talking to me like
Yeah you know when I was growing up
I'd think about like being eight
But fair enough you're in your sixties
What year was McEnroe born?
Can I get a real number crunch?
So John McEnroe
Was born in 1959
February 16th
He's 64
Oh okay
He's a little
Slightly younger than I thought
So he would have been
Cars came out like '79
He's 20
Yeah
Okay fair enough
Although
Yeah I guess I don't know
Maybe if I was talking to a
To a child
When I was 20
It was 2004
What came out in 2004?
The Killers first album
White Stripes or something?
Yeah
I definitely wouldn't say to somebody
Oh yeah
When I was growing up
There was this band The Killers
And they came out
And we said okay
This song called Mr. Brightside
I didn't know it was gonna be a big song
I thought it was a good song
I didn't know it was gonna be a big song
But you know when I was growing up
We had bands like The Killers
White Stripes
Yeah it's funny
For me when I was growing up
Was still
I just pictured being a kid
I was like when I was growing up
Was like the
The 90s
By the time I was 20
Anyway
When I was growing up
It was you know Taylor Dayne and
Right
Wait
Cause you were born in '77
Yeah
So you were
When I was growing up
It was like G&R
Yeah no exactly
So imagine if
Mali Crew then Nirvana
What bands came out in like
The late 90s
Like '97
Spice Girls
Third Eye Blind
Yeah so if Jake ever was
Out there
You're playing
Oh look what I'm playing
Yeah I'm just saying
You're out there playing
Richard Pictures
And you say you know guys
We're mostly known as
The Grateful Dead cover band
But this is a song I always really liked
From when I was growing up
Here's a Third Eye Blind with
I Wish You Would Step Back
From That Ledge My Friend
I'd be like what do you mean growing up
You're in college
We're splitting hairs
But anyway
These are things that I was thinking
As I watched John Maxon Rose
So how was the cover?
What else did he do?
Alright here's his set list
He's got the set list
Set list FM
Alright so he opened with
Jumping Jack Flash
Okay
Missed that one
I mean that's what I would have guessed
Is this a power trio?
I think there was
Four?
No there were at least four people on stage
And I think he brought his daughter out
To sing at some point
But yeah the core crew was four
And then he goes into
Just Like Heaven The Cure
I wish I caught that
Okay
Glory Days
Okay that's exactly what I'm expecting
Glory Days
By Bruce
Yeah by Bruce
Glory Days
Slides into
Beds Are Burning
Midnight Oil
So he has a taste for like
Kind of alternative indie rock
Yeah
He did Plush Stone Tone
STP
Oh wow
Okay Curveball
And by the way he goes
So much depends
And he goes from STP into the Strokes
So we just missed Plush
I like that
And then he goes into
Let The Good Times Roll
And then
That sounded pretty good
Cause Reptilia was like
And also by the way
I just also wanted to say
He did have a sense of humor
He was kind of like
Guys we're up here having fun basically
And then like he broke a guitar string
And he's like any questions
And he's kind of like
Razzing the audience a bit
He was good natured
And he goes from
Let The Good Times Roll
And you'll remember this
He goes into this song
And it says unknown here
Whoever, they couldn't pinpoint it either
It sounded like Johnny B. Goode
But it had like
Jonathan Richman type vocals
Very different vocals and weird lyrics
They didn't know what it was?
And they didn't know what it was either
Oh maybe it was an original
And then Walking on Sunshine
Katrina and the Wave
Wait that was his daughter came out for that?
Yeah
And then that's sort of when we left
And then we missed Bad Reputation
Joan Jett
That's exactly what I would have expected
This is pretty interesting
And he goes
He probably relates to that song
I don't give a damn about my bad reputation
Yeah
I mean that sort of seems like
In the movie
That's what he's walking out to
Oh yeah totally
You could just
I mean they probably
Didn't they literally make this movie?
Which is Shia LaBeouf
No I just pictured
I told you
That's a good movie
Yeah right
It's like somebody plays
Becker
Somebody plays Boris Becker
Or whatever
Yeah that is a cool movie
It is
It's a weird vibey movie
And then it's just like
Everybody's like
McEnroe's coming
Like Shia LaBeouf walks out
I don't give a damn about my bad reputation
Yeah
And then
So he goes from Joan Jett
Into Go With The Flow
Queens of the Stone Age
Okay
And then into
And he ends
With the Foo Fighters learn to fly
Okay
Wow
It's really covering this
And he's covering a lot of ground
Yeah spanning some eras
I mean I guess it does make
The Plush one is so real
Bummed
Left turn there
One time Richard Pictures did
At the pub
We did Althea into Plush
Back into Althea
Whoa
Yeah
Is there a tape?
I don't think so
But anyway
People were loving it
It was a great vibe
Sounds awesome
Yeah they weren't taking themselves too seriously
Anyway
Here's Morgan Wallen
With his
His take on the strokes
Sorry I have to just interrupt that
Uh
Eddie Van Halen
And Eric Clapton
Taught McEnroe to play guitar
Really?
According to McEnroe
Interesting
That's so funny
What does that even mean?
I mean yeah
They sat down for 40 minutes once
And like hey
He paid them for lessons?
I don't know
He paid them?
I was
When he was growing up
I brought
When he was just growing up
We were just like doing an interview
Like I can just picture this
It's like so random
This is John McEnroe
Sits down with Larry King
I understand you got a band
Oh that's right
Who taught you to play guitar?
Eddie Van Halen
And Eric Clapton
Pretty impressive
Yeah
They're my friends
Yeah how many lessons were they like
So did you pay them?
Right
Are you buying 10 lessons at a time?
Maybe it was like a master class situation
Like an online
Between 1995 and 2000
Eddie Van Halen was giving him weekly lessons
He actually toured with Van Halen as a roadie
Okay here's Morgan Wallen
With his cover of The Strokes "Last Night"
Okay actually
I don't think it's a cover
Last night we let the liquor talk
I can't remember everything we said
But we said it all
You told me that you wish I was somebody you never met
But baby baby
Something's telling me this ain't over yet
No way it was
Last night I kissed your lips
Make you grip your sheets with your fingertips
Last bottle of Jack we split a fifth
Just talking 'bout life going sip for sip
Yeah you, you know you love to fight
And I say that only
Oh interesting
He's not credited as a songwriter on this
Really?
I guess it's just real Nashville stuff
This song is written by
John Byron, Ashley Gourley, Jacob Kasher, Hendlin, and Ryan Wojcik
I sent a Morgan Wallen song to Jake over text the other day
Did you?
Yep
What'd you send?
98 Braves
Oh right
That's a good title
It's a great title
And it's a great song
Is it a rocker?
Yeah
It's sort of a metaphor comparing his relationship to this woman
To the 98 Braves
They were so close
But they couldn't make it
Could've been 96 Braves too
Up 2-0 in the World Series and they blow it
98 Braves
Let me just see
Not a fan
The Stroke song's better
If it's performed by John McEnroe
I can go
My number one is John McEnroe doing the Strokes
Then Morgan Wallen, then the Strokes
The number three song back in 1990
Okay, here's a great
This is the best of what '89-'90 had to offer
This is the B-52s with Rome
Great song
I hear a wind
Through southern air
Whispering in my ear
Oh, Mercury
Shoots through every degree
Oh, girl dancing down those dirty and dusty trails
B-52s are such a great collection of voices
Lots of idiosyncratic but great singers
Around the world
Around the world
The trip begins with a kiss
Rome if you want to
Rome around the world
Rome if you want to
Without wings, without wheels
Rome if you want to
Rome around the world
Rome if you want to
Without wings, without love with me
He knew they didn't need him on this one
Rome!
Come on, Rome!
It's pretty tight that the B-52s are like
decade plus into their career
You know, totally like
cool 70s punk adjacent band
and they just come back hard with this album
with Love Shack and Rome
Just two all-timers
B-52s with a wildness
Around the world
The trip begins with a kiss
Rome if you want to
Rome around the world
Rome if you want to
Without wings, without wheels
Rome if you want to
Rome around the world
Rome if you want to
Without wings, without love with me
He knew they didn't need him on this one
Rome!
Come on, Rome!
It's pretty tight that the B-52s are like
decade plus into their career
Wow, wow
And her brother Ricky
who was an original member of the B-52s
died in '85 of AIDS
So this is only
they're probably working on the song
only a few years after that
Whoa, deep, I never thought about that
B-52s, excellent
Great song
The next song
I can't remember if we
Oh yeah, we did talk about this
because I said this song is
kind of funky uncle
This is Miley Cyrus with Flowers
Hit
Off the hit album
Endless Summer Vacation
Oh, this album's called
Endless Summer Vacation?
Sick
I think last show I was like
the title's
Endless Summer Vacation
We were right
'til we weren't
Built a home and watched it burn
I didn't want to leave you
I didn't want to lie
Started to cry
But then remembered that I
I can buy myself flowers
Write my name in the sand
This was number one last week
'cause then it sent us down that
Right
Cardigans
Yeah, yeah, right
So if you don't understand
I can take myself dancing
Wow, you really hear
her voice is aged
Yeah, I love this kind of smoky
Like a fine wine
Yeah
A fine Tennessee whiskey
It does sound like
whiskey and cigarettes
I can love me better, baby
Can love me better
I can love me better, baby
Paint my nails cherry red
Match the roses that you lay
No remorse, no regret
I forget every word you say
Ooh, I didn't want to leave, babe
I didn't want to fight
Started to cry
But then remembered I
I can buy myself flowers
Write my name in the sand
It's also got kind of like, yeah
I will survive energy
Serious Bee- I was just gonna say
Yeah
Bee-Gee's energy
Yeah
With those strings
I can take myself dancing
It's also very fastball
That's a good call
Deep hole there
Yeah, fastball
That's some real funky uncle
Slightly generic
Slightly throwback
Very like proficient pop song writing
Director of public reception
Or a 299-
Is available only at the
Is this fastball?
Yeah
There's no alternative
Okay
Yes
Na na na na na na na na
They made up their minds
And they started packing
This band has always been
Fascinating to me
It's like
Did you like this song?
No
It was too throwback
Yeah
And exit to eternal summer slacking
Kind of like- I like like some squeeze songs a lot
Oh yeah, I love squeeze
I like squeeze
What about Cake?
I can get down with Cake
Is this same year as Sex and Candy?
This is like '90
Yeah, exact same era
When I was growing up
When Jake was growing up
Mackerel, when you were growing up
It was like the monkeys
That would be-
I love the monkeys when I was growing up
Then as I got older
I got into some new-
I got into some new wave stuff
I would have loved it if
Mack and Rowe just dropped some monkeys
Yeah, that'd be sick
All sixies
When did John Mack and Rowe go professional?
Like when did he go pro?
He's born in '58, we said?
I just feel like if he's already pro
Late '70s?
Yeah
He can't say he's growing up
If he's already a professional
He probably feels like he's grown up in public
'78
That's when the cars came out, so
Yeah, but he's already got a full-time job
Maybe the timeline's boring, man
He's 65, 64
Maybe he just believes that he never stopped growing
That's right
Yeah, he's just like
And this is another song from when I was growing up
It's by The Strokes, Reptilia
But back to Miley Cyrus for a second
I just-
Is this supposed to be kind of like a single anthem?
Or is it supposed to be-
Is she an unreliable narrator in the song?
'Cause it doesn't feel very cheerful
It feels kind of sad
I didn't want you to go
I haven't tapped into the lyrics yet
Okay, we were right 'til we weren't
Built a home and watched it burn
Damn, harsh
I didn't want to leave you
I didn't want to lie
Started to remember
Oh, started to cry
I can buy myself flowers
I can promise?
I can buy myself flowers
Write my name in the sand
Talk to myself for hours
Say things you don't understand
I can take myself dancing
And I can hold my own hand
I can love me better than you can
See, to me, it's-
Because it has this kind of sad French-
French blues chords
It's similar to
It Was a Good Day by Ice Cube
This is a fantasy
But this was a fantasy
It's a bit of a-
My take is that it's a delusion
That's why the song is so bittersweet
It's basically like
I didn't want you to leave
I didn't want you to go
But then I really desperately
Had to craft a narrative
To make myself feel good about this
'Cause I was falling into a pit of despair
And then I realized something
I can buy myself flowers
Yeah, that might not be
Most people's top three things
That they value in a relationship
But you're right
You can buy yourself flowers
You don't need a boyfriend
Or a girlfriend to buy you flowers
I can write my name in the sand
Okay, you get a little random
You're pretty low-stakes there
Get a little-
Okay, you're right
You could have written your name in the sand before
Talk to myself for hours
Sure
Yeah
We all do that to some extent
That's not-
That sounds kind of sad
Say things you don't understand
Yeah, we're all-
Many of us are trapped in our heads
Saying things incomprehensible to other people
For most of our lives
Which is part of why
Those moments when you can connect with somebody else
Can feel like a relief
And then
I can take myself dancing
Eh
Try and-
Yeah, I mean
Say I could go dancing with my friends
I could understand that more
If you're like, you know what?
I don't need you
It's time to just focus on
Me and my friends
And then
I can hold my own hand
That's when I'm starting to be like
Okay, this is a sad person
Just trying
I can hold my own hand
What do you mean?
No, you can't hold your own hand
You could put your hands together
You could clap
You could rub your hands together
You could do the money thing
Or like you're hungry
You could rub your hands together
You're not holding
That's not what it means
You can't hold your own hand
And then it says
And I can love me better than you can
Which
I understand the sentiment
Because of course
It's a concept in popular culture
Which I think has real meaning
If you don't love yourself
And you're not okay with yourself
You can't accept other people's love
And you might not be able to love them
I understand what you're saying
Loving myself is important
Being okay with yourself
Liking yourself
These are all really important things
But now in the context of this song
This sounds kind of like sad
I can love me better than you can
Maybe she doesn't really believe it
That's my take
This is a sad song
It's not empowering
Is it supposed to be?
Yeah, I take it
It seems very straightforwardly sad
And like
I don't know
Seinfeld
You're out there on social media
I don't know how much people are talking about it
In the kind of Seinfeld space
But in the larger social media world
Is this song seen as empowering
Or sort of like about the
The delusional bargaining
Some person might do
If their heart is broken
Yeah, the second one
That's how people are interpreting it
In the Seinfeld space?
No, the Twitter sphere in general
That's kind of what it boils down to
Okay, so it is accepted
This is a sad song
100%
Okay
With a deceptive title
Correct
Flowers
Yeah
Like sort of ironically
Like a deliberately deceptive title
Yeah
She's in on it
Because in fact
It brings to mind the classic line
Written by Prince
In the Sinead O'Connor hit
"Nothing compares to you"
I could eat my dinner
At a fancy restaurant
But
What did they say?
I could eat my dinner
At a fancy restaurant
That only remind me of you
Yeah, something like that
Yeah
I go out every day
Yeah, so maybe the songs
Are saying the same thing
This one's just more
It's interesting
It's just more delusional
Yeah, the Prince song
It's a much more jarring image
Eating by yourself
At a fancy restaurant
Yeah, right
That's a much more
Viscerally emo
I could buy myself flowers
Sure you could
I could go
You're at the Vons
You're picking up a pint of ice cream
Yeah
I'll get some flowers
What the hell
For sure
It's like whatever
Why not?
I could go eat my dinner
At a fancy restaurant
You're like
Yeah, you could
You're starting to lose
Table for one?
You're starting to lose
80% of the listeners
Because they're just like
I would not want to go
Eat my dinner
At a fancy restaurant
By myself
And then it's kind of like
You know what?
I could go on a romantic trip
By myself
And props to people
Who do stuff by themselves
I like to do stuff
By myself sometimes
Some people don't even like
To go to the movies
By themselves
Oh, I love doing that
Yeah, I like to do that
Fascinating song
And moving
Very convincing
And moving
No, no
I'm giving up for this song
That it is deep
And clearly
This is the
As Seinfeld's telling me
This is how everybody's
Interpreting it
I mean, it's pretty
Straightforward to me
That it's a sad breakup song
It's sad, but I guess
When I first heard it
Maybe this is just
My own naivete
I just assumed that
It was turning a little bit
To be like
But you know what?
I can buy myself flowers
Because it doesn't go quite as hard
They don't go for the jugular
And then like
And I could eat my dinner
At a fancy restaurant
But
There's never a but
The hook goes
Yeah, I can love me better
I can love me better
So it's like
You really have to sit with it
To interpret it as
I don't believe you
I think you guys should try
To patch things up
Yeah, I don't know
I don't know exactly
What the problem is
I don't know why this guy
Was leaving
But
Things don't seem good over there
In the Cyrus House household
Next song
I've always wondered about this song actually
Because I don't know it very well
Lana Miles with Black Velvet
This is the most 1990 thing ever
Yeah, this is pure 90
I hated this song
Oh, I loved it
So this is kind of like
This is kind of like a rootsy song
Like a Texas Roadhouse
Blues rock song
Did you
I heard it for the first time
See, I only know the chorus
With the video
Yeah, but
And I remember it being pretty horny
Oh, it's a horny video?
Oh, for sure
Yeah
So
Probably why I love this song
So her boyfriend wrote this song
Christopher Ward
The sun is setting like molasses in the sky
The sun is setting like molasses in the sky
Everything
Always wanted more
This song was written about Elvis Presley
Whose portrait was often painted on black velvet
Oh, right
Black velvet and that little boy's smile
Black velvet with that slow southern style
She's a Canadian icon
Oh, she's Canadian too?
Oh, yeah
So is she like huge in Canada?
This is like one of many hits
I wouldn't
I would say this was her biggest hit
She wasn't really on my radar
Is Elvis the little boy in the song?
I guess so
Sick bass
She's referring to just like a 25 year old Elvis as a little boy
White lightning bound to glide you wild
I guess I always heard it
When I would see this in like those ads
They're just like
The greatest hits of the 80s and 90s
And I would just hear the chorus
Black velvet
I always thought it was black velvet in that little boy's smile
I was like what does that mean?
Wait, what is the lyric?
It's black velvet and that little boy's smile
Little boy?
Yeah, I don't know
The little boy's Elvis?
No, that doesn't make sense
It's too weird to call him
No, that doesn't work
What's going on Seinfeld?
Anybody help us out here?
Looking it up on
But then she says
It's black velvet and that little boy's smile
Black velvet and that slow southern style
A new religion that'll bring you to your knees
Black velvet if you please
I'm with it
Oh, velvet Elvis
Yeah, that's what, yeah
But what's the little boy's smile?
Who's the little boy?
Elvis?
No, I don't know
A new religion that'll bring you to your knees
He's a little boy the way McEnroe is growing up at 20
Right, right
You know, so maybe he's, you know
Yeah, and I guess
How old was Elvis?
Like 19 or something when he
He died in his like early 40s I think
Yeah, he was like 42
But I'm saying when he blew up in like 1957 or whatever that was, 56
What year was Elvis born in Seinfeld?
Elvis was born 1935
Okay, so he was like 21 or something when he became a huge deal
Nothing about Elvis' persona evokes little boy
His little boy
No
Yeah, he was like a young man
Yeah, I think it's
They just did their best
They just couldn't figure it out
Black velvet and that young man's smile
Black velvet and that
Black velvet and that cool dude's smile
Black velvet and that little boy
Yeah, they wanted to be little boy
Black velvet and that little man's smile
He was a little man
Black velvet and that Elvis Presley smile
Black velvet and that Presley man's smile
Black velvet and that southern man's smile
Black velvet and that slow southern style
Okay, so that's what we got there
A lot of miles
I do feel like I learned a little something today
Pretty rough, 1990 so far
I do like the dunk
I like the shuffle
Okay, the number two song on the iTunes chart right now
Smoke Sprite featuring RM
I know, we all know RM is from BTS
Built to Spill?
Yeah, okay, no, the band is So Youn
And then we got RM from Built to Spill
And the song is called Smoke Sprite
It's a typo, it should be featuring DM, Doug Marsh
Okay, we found one more layer to the Built to Spill joke
Take all my needs
Struck you in the deep
Time flow like a tide
Take all I could be
It hurts, it hurts, it hurts
So all the members of BTS have put out solo records? Is that right?
This is RM from BTS is just a guest on So Youn's song
So Youn is the leader and front person of Korean-based band See So Neon
I don't wanna come back
If I can't make you my friend
What does it sound like? It's a little Kanye with a big synth
I like that bass synth
I just know
And there's still your body and soul
All in English so far
Does it sound like that Donald Glover, that Childish Gambino song, Redbone a little bit?
Yeah, a little bit. What else am I thinking?
And definitely, I'm still thinking of Kanye
I'm good
Welcome to Good Life with Michael Jackson sample
But yeah, it does sound like a lot of modern R&B, American R&B
I wonder why this song is called Smoke Sprite
What do you think that means?
I'm feeling that song
It was pretty good though, yes
Let's finish this
The number one song back in 90, Escapade by Janet Jackson
Classic
This is from the Rhythm Nation 1814 album
Is 1814 a reference to something?
Yeah, actually, every time I hear that album name, I always think that and I never look it up
Why was it called Rhythm Nation 1814?
Rhythm Nation 1814
Feels like it's going to Prince 1999
1814 is the year the national anthem was written
I'm feeling that
Thanks Janet
That's a little chat GBT, but the Janet delivery is so cool
R&N Rhythm Nation are the 18th and 14th letters of the alphabet
Jackson said this was coincidental
I do think with so many songs, every song needs some kind of regular lyrics to tell the story
So she's saying, "We'll have a good time, leave your worries behind"
That's pretty chat GBT, but in between she's saying, "Es-ca-pade"
And that makes all the difference
So I feel like chat GBT, if they write a Janet Jackson song about having fun
They might say, "We're going to have a good time, leave your worries behind"
But what we really need from chat GBT is to say, "Here's the idea, the song is called Escapade"
Yeah, we need a title
We need that word that's a little bit weird
That's just one degree off and that's what can often make a great pop song
Do those chat GBT lyrics have titles?
They do not
That's also some bullsh*t
Title is like 50% of the songwriting
Yeah, ask it to come up with a title
Give me the title for a Janet Jackson song about summer
It's going to say, "Endless Summer Vacation"
"Summertime Magic"
No! Come on man
Endless...
So you can't do the left field non-secondary thinking
Wait, the Miley Cyrus album is called Endless Summer Vacation?
You know what would actually be a sick name that's also one word too many?
Endless Summer Rental
Because that actually gets you thinking
That could be like a Mountain Breeze album, Endless Summer Rental
I also love that idea about just saying
Not even just like
Imagine if the vacation went on forever
Or imagine if we owned our own summer house
Like Brooke, can you imagine if we could rent this place forever?
The rental never ended?
It's an endless summer rental!
The rental never ends!
I told it to try another one, it said "All Night Summer"
Then I said, "Another please"
It said "Sun Kissed Summer Love"
Then I said, "Make it weirder"
"Neon Beach Party Nights"
Oh god, that's not Janet
Get out of here
It's pretty good
It's not weird
Neon Beach Party Nights?
No, that's...
Neon Beach Party Nights is if like you're like
Come up with like a song about summer
By like a really generic indie band from the early 2010s
I was going to say it sounds like a Miley Cyrus song about summer
Alright
Well Miley could, yeah, "Neon Summer"
It paints a picture of the beach
Neon Summer, what is Neon Summer?
Neon Beach Party Nights
Yeah, but that's not Janet Jackson
If you told me that there was a band from the early 2010s
Called Sad Beach Monkey or something
And their album was called Neon Beach Party Nights
Fair
Yeah, I mean we're getting away from Janet Jackson territory, I agree
Very disappointed with the chat, GPT
Come on, get your stuff together
The number one song
Which probably deserves a bit of discussion but
Here we are at the end, I don't know if we're going to talk about it that much
This is pretty weird
What is this?
The number one song on iTunes right now
Is Donald J. Trump
And the J6 prison choir
Justice for All
What?
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
This is deep
This is bizarre
This is a charity record by Donald Trump and the J6 prison choir
A choir of about 20 men in prison for their involvement
In the January 6th United States Capitol attack
Justice for All
Consists of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance
Interspersed with the J6 prison choir
Singing the Star Spangled Banner with an ambient backing track
Oh say can you see
This was planned
This wasn't just like audio from his presidency
It's original
He recorded it
I think they said, Donald we need you on the charity single
And he said, I got a home studio, Mar-a-Lago, come through
Strange stuff
We'll see you guys next time
Bye bye
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