July 29, 2017 • 50 mins
In today's SYSK Select episode, fly, robin, fly indeed. No musical genre has risen and burned out as quickly as disco, and historians are still trying to unravel the animosity aimed at it. Join Chuck and Josh as they dig into disco's underground roots and its sashay into the mainstream.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, it's me Josh and for this week's s
Y s KSE selects, I chose How Disco Works, which
is one of my favorite, all time favorite episodes. Um,
and you'll know what I'm talking about in a second.
When I say that, I feel like if we all
band together, we could still get Chuck to do that
how to video on the Hustle also domus Chuck's big
(00:22):
presentation after his first trip to Max Funcan instead of
listener mail, It's a very special treat. At the end
of this episode, which was first released in July of
two thousand twelve, enjoy Welcome to Stuff you Should Know
from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
(00:49):
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant
getting on down with his bad self. Get on down,
mat to cow the Hustle. H Oh, is that what
you're doing? Actually looked up the Hustle because I wasn't
quite sure what it was specifically, and yeah, because no
one who does it now and knows what they're doing. Yeah,
(01:11):
but then I saw it was like, oh yeah, sure,
like sort of the boogie night stance they did was
because they're like a hand rolling. Yeah, there's a little
step up, a little step back, a little like side
three sixty clap clap, little John Travolta Saturday Night fever
hand action, little little hand roll, the little uh what
do you call that? This would be much better visually.
(01:32):
I'll tell you what. Why don't we get you just
a quick how to video and we'll post it? Sound good? Yeah? Sure? Okay,
well you'll be held to that. Great. I'm gonna go
start looking for clothes after um, so, chuck, you're doing well,
feeling invigorated by the Presidential Executive Orders episode as you
(01:56):
ready for this? Buires me up for disco, so forward disco. Um,
let's start at the end. I thought that Molly did
a very good job with this. Is that really edmans jam? Um.
There was a night uh in nineteen nine. It was
July twelve in Chicago, and it was the White Sox
playing the Tigers and both of them were lousy other time. Uh,
(02:20):
the night before there had been uh, fifteen thousand people
for the Tiger socks. There's a double header today and
um they expected something like six thousand. All right, the
the I guess the owners of the White Sox had
started to create these promotions, and one of them that
night on July twelve, UM had been created by rock
(02:41):
DJ named Steve Dahl, who was the Chicago DJ. Yeah,
it looked him up. Actually, he was fired. This is
why he was. He was so angry. He was fired
by a station that switched to disco. He got a
job at the competing rock station, w l u P
ninety eight FM, which is why it was cents the loop.
That was the loop actually the loop, yeah, not the loop,
(03:04):
the loop, the loop. Okay, yeah, so yeah, anyway, he
got fired and said down with disco. Well, he said
disco sucks. There was a whole movement against disco t
shirts that said Disco sucks. Is before memes. This was
this was the real, Like you had to like run
out of your house, go across the street to a
(03:25):
neighbor's house, tell them disco sucks. They had to run
out of their house maybe a couple of blocks over
to their their their friends. That's how things spread back then.
And this thing was like virulent, right, I missed us
times honest night, even with this UM, this Disco Demolition
Night is what they called it. UM. They were expecting
like six thousand people, but they were going to put
(03:47):
on a heck of a show in between the two games.
Doll was going to take all the records that people brought.
If you brought a disco record, UM, you get in
for ninety eight cents, because that was points something. The
this is before his point. This is when it was
just ninety eight on your dial. Oh okay, I mean
technically it was, but it wasn't digital, so no one knew.
(04:08):
Oh god, you know what I'm saying. Uh, And ninety
thousand people showed up. Ninety thousand people showed up. Stadium
held like fifty so there's like thirty eight thousand people
outside the gates. When you have thirty eight thousand people
who are there for to see something destroyed, um which
(04:32):
love which Doll was going to do these records in
between games. They don't usually stay outside of gates. Fences
don't usually contain people in that state in that many
larger number they broke through. Um. The apparently players on
both teams put on their batting helmets because the crowd
was getting crazy while they were throwing the records like frisbees.
They were that's dangerous smoking weed in the stadium, like
(04:55):
Harry Carey, you know, a younger Harry Carey announced that,
you know, like he smelled me, I wanna this broadcast booth.
And they got loaded and because they were mad, so
angry about the form of music. So the first game
ends and I guess what you would call halftime comes
and Johnny Fever, I mean Steve dohl Uh compiles ten
(05:19):
thousand and estimated ten thousand disco records and sets him
on fire. Well he exploded him first, which took out
like a chunk of the field. Yeah. I was wondering
how they did that. Yeah, they were. He was hooked
up the pyrotechnics and there was a big explosion and
ten thousand disco records went booming pretty much, and a
little fire started. People went crazy. They trashed the place. Yeah,
(05:40):
they stormed the field and um they the Socks had
to forfeit the second game to the Tigers because they
couldn't play. The field was just too trashed. And that
was the night July twelve nine that most people point
to when they say disco died. Right then, Yeah, chance
of disco sucks. People smoking weed for a Harry carry
(06:02):
Uh And consequently that was the last forfeited major league
baseball game in the American League. Oh is that right?
The most recent that is? That is an amazing story.
But and and it makes a lot of sense. You
can find video this on YouTube. By the way, there
was that's awesome. There was definitely even I knew, like
there was an anti disco disco sucks sentiment. I remember it.
(06:25):
That's how old I am. Well, I remember it too.
I was like eight years old when this happened. I
was like three, Yeah, yeah, I was three. I was
actually this is three days before my third birthday. This
all went down. I don't remember this happening. But like
I knew people said disco suck like an airplane, um,
when the planes like making that crazy land and they
knock out a tower where the DJ's like saying, we're
(06:46):
disco lives forever. Right, I knew people hated disco. But
now reading this and figuring out that the disco was
this amazing cultural phenomenon and in unpacking like this story
behind it and the motives of hating it and all that,
it's really really interesting. It's not as cut and dry
as like, you know, Ted Nugent thinks disco sucks. So
(07:09):
it just goes sucks. Maybe Ted Nugent is a homophobe. Huh,
that's what cultural critics would say. Now, and we'll get
into that. We will, not Ted Nugent specifically, but anyone
who thought just goes sucks. It's not so cut and dry.
The music music, it was tent Yeah. Uh you know
what I would like in this to what zoot suits?
(07:30):
Oh yeah, good one. The interesting history. Then it turns
out there was like racial and misogynistic, well not misogynistic
and zoot suits, but in the case of disco, yes, homophobic. Yeah. Basically, Uh,
the straight white establishment does not like flashy dressing. Yeah,
and they don't like them them New Yorkers. Yeah, well
(07:53):
in their in their bars where they dance with their
shirts off. Yes, that kind of thing, e g. Gate clubs.
All right, so let's get into the music and then
we'll get into the politics. Okay. So um, well it
was Chuck the first disco record. Do you think disco duck? No,
(08:13):
the Dolly parton No Disco Dolly No. No, she actually
did some disco tinged stuff. So did the Grateful Dead.
Everybody did it, sucking, Carol King, Barbara Streisand it's amazing
the people that got caught up in this disco way, Disco, Christmas, Disco,
star wars, dude. Um, yeah, disco was huge from when
(08:36):
from what seventy four or seventy nine, Oh well yeah,
when it was huge, yeah yeah yeah. But um, some
trace of beginnings of disco to the early parties UM
in New York thrown by David Mancuso, these invitation only
parties that he had at his place called the Loft,
legendary first party called Love Saves the day they were
themed LSD. Yeah, and then there was a store in
(08:59):
these village called loups Is today. I don't know if
it's still there. It's like bric a brac, like everything's
coated and acid. That kind of like junk lands here
in Atlanta, that kind of Um. So a lot of
people trace it to Mancuso and in those early parties,
which later on was sort of the precursor to what
raves would be, right, that's exactly right, um and Mancuso
(09:23):
um kind of created this, um, this foundation that would
become kind of the basis of disco, which was it
was DJ driven and UM, the DJ didn't just like
one song didn't just fade out and they're like, Okay,
it's time for the next one and put on another record.
Mancusa actually dropped a bunch of money on a sound
(09:45):
system that allowed him to cut back and forth between
records and UM. He also liked to basically just just
use all sorts of different music and and create this
whole really cool set and music never stopped basically, no,
it didn't, UM and he So that was kind of
this this basis that you'll see turn up later in
(10:06):
hip hop, but first it appears in disco. But yeah,
he started throwing these parties in nineteen seventy, but I've
read sources that say it goes back even further than that.
Nineteen sixty The club was opened in New York in
nineteen sixty five, Arthur was open. They were because they
were UM, they were DJ driven, and that was like,
that's one of the basis of disco is the DJ.
(10:29):
And there's this guy named Terry Noll and he went off.
He became probably the first d J. I know that name,
don't I do? I maybe, I mean, he's pretty pretty big.
I mean he's like the godfather of DJing. I might know.
I don't know. DJ so much though, but so that
he branched off in UM he started working at gay clubs,
and gay clubs is where disco really started to emerge. UM.
(10:53):
So if you if you go back far enough, at
about the same time that Mancuso was throwing his parties,
the gay clubs had like DJ's playing Philly soul. Yes,
the New York City specifically, which is where they think
that disco originally came from. It's probably Philadelphia soul, Yeah,
Philadelphia soul. If you listen to works by um like
(11:15):
some people claim that things like Barry Whites Can't get
Enough of Your Love, Babe or um his love theme
from Yeah does very much sound like disco, even though
they were R and B soul singers. The same with
like Isaac Hay's right, but that is funk, clear and simple. Right,
Isaac Hayes is definitely funk, And a lot of people
rightly attribute the death of funk to disco, like they
(11:38):
both had this moment and disco just one out. Yeah,
it's easier to dance to for one reason. Should we
listen to the Barry White Yeah which one? This is
Love's theme from nineteen seventy three, and you can hear
like the big orchestral sound with like the M four
on the floor beat. So that's people say that that
(12:12):
may be the first disco one. Another one is Jerry
Butler's UM one Night Affair and this guy this song
really shows that disco hybridized out of Philadelphia soul. That's true.
Then this is the purest evidence of it. And then
(12:44):
one more do you mind? So this one is this
is from Cameroon, a guy named Manu Dabango from the
island of Cameroon. Does the island No, it's not, well,
you know if it was an island, right, yeah, but
it's just Cameroon. We're going with um. His name is
Manu Dbingo and uh. He released a track called Soul
(13:07):
Makasa and Soul Macasa. UM is noteworthy because a lot
of people say it's the first disco song. Well, it's here,
so you're here. It's like very clearly a Cameroonian. It's
(13:28):
very African, very it's got that tribal beat, but it's
also discoe. The reason why people point to that song,
which was released in nineteen seventy two, is because a
year later, UM, a Rolling Stone um rock critic or
music critic named Vinceletti put a paper pen to paper
(13:49):
and described that the the reason behind this obscure Cameroonian
songs popularity is because of this new thing that's going
on own Queens and the Bronx and all the hip
kids are doing it, and uh, we don't know what
it's called. So let's just call it disco. And that
was the first mentioned what he coined. The term disco
(14:11):
is is applied to this music, and it was the
first written description of disco, vincelet n So I think
we failed to mention that disco obviously is short for discotheque,
which is the French term for nightclub, for a nightclub
where you listen to cammed music rather than alive. And
you still hear that, and see that when you go
(14:31):
all over Europe you still hear like disco thick, yes,
right right, guys, trying to get you in there, you know, yeah,
it's pretty great. That was a pretty good impression some
nameless country. I don't even know what that was, Eastern Bloc.
Let's just go with that. Is that I would have
I would have guessed, like Morocco, whatever it sounded like,
that's what I was doing. So the the the you
(15:23):
just kind of said something very important that a disco teque.
One of us just said it that a disco teque
is a dance club where there's no band, And this
flew in the face of the rock establishment at the time.
We're still like very much entrenched in the sixties led
Zeppelin and like you went and saw them, that was
the point, Like you went and saw their show, and
(15:43):
when when they weren't touring, you listen to their records
at home and sat on beambag chairs and worshiped at
their feet exactly. Disco was different. And the reason discoes
different is because nobody cared. They didn't want to hear
your live band. They went to go see the DJ.
Yeah uh, And that had a big impact on record
sales because people weren't you know, it was one hit
(16:04):
wonder after one hit wonder. For for the most part,
there were you know, quite a few that had multiple
hits but summer, but they were still like and far between, Yeah,
and they were confined to the disco era. Not not
too many lasted beyond unless they were like crossing over
to begin with, like Dolly Partner, Carol King got you,
Barbra streisand but you will hear, you know, since nine
(16:30):
with Rock the Boat by the Hughes Corporation, which, speaking
of one hit wonder, a lot of people say, that's
when it really really took off. Um lak, I'm sorry.
Left Freak by Chic and good Times by Chic Good
Times or did they do that? I will survive, of course,
(16:50):
the classic Anthem by Glory Gaynor, Funky Town Casey and
the Sunshine Band with their multiple hits. They were another
group disco group, Get Down Tonight, shake your booty, classic songs.
But I'm your boogie man. Play that funky music. Wild
hate that song. No, I really do too. That's up
there with bad to the Bone for me. Hey man,
(17:12):
George Thorogood is a okay. There's nothing that guy did
that stunk except for that god play that funky music.
I told you, George Thorogood worked out with me at
the y m c A in Hollywood. Yeah, like not
with me the last time we had this argument and
you told me and you still and you still maintain
that these stinks even though you know I don't maintain
(17:33):
these stinks. I think, George, you still maintain these good
that's what I meant. Okay, well you're wrong. Philadelphia Soul,
Josh is where it was born. We talked about that,
I know, and uh, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. Well, yeah,
so like if you didn't have one hit, you didn't
have groups generally that people followed or whose records they bought.
You had one hit wonders. So singles were kind of big,
(17:54):
and you had um DJ's. People went to specific clubs
to see specific DJs, and you had pretty users. People
would would get would find out like what song a
producer was making, and then they go see and they
go listen to that, right, like Gamble and Huff Uh.
I can't remember the name of their company, but it
was Philadelphia something and it was all about Philadelphia soul.
(18:16):
It started in the Philadelphia soul movement like previous in
the sixties and pretty much dwarfed Motown for a little while,
which was a big, big, big deal at the time
and my time was two huge. Yeah, Barry Gordy and
Motown took a hit when disco came around. There was
also a Giorgio Marauder. He was huge. He was a
(18:37):
huge disco He actually um produced Donna summers and then
the case they created Saucel Records, which is a pretty
big disco label. Well Gamble and huff Um you know
their work if you don't know their names. And they
wrote songs like Ain't No Stopping Us Now, that's a
good one, Love Train, that's a great one. And the
(18:58):
Sound of Philadelphia t s Op which you might not
recognize by title, but you might recognize by the fact
that it is also the Soul Train theme. That is
a very very good song, very good song. That's surprisingly good.
I remember Fresh Air played that when Don Cornelius died.
Uh so. And also, can I just interject one thing
(19:21):
if you're if you're bored right now? Um or I
should say, of course you how bored right now? Friends?
After the podcast, if you find yourself forward, go check
out um Moon Shoes Boogie Land. I think those four
words are actually just two words on YouTube, and you
will be treated to an awesome new I guess acid
(19:43):
disco track over um just laid perfectly over the Soul
Train like the march, the procession thing, the lines they did,
just clip after clip of that, and you will be
surprised to see a young rerun in the first A
couple of minutes. I think I've seen that clip. I
think I've seen him on Soul Train. Yeah, or he
(20:04):
just falls on his butt. Yeah. Man, that stuff was good.
I mean, how do you move like that? I couldn't
do any of those moves. No, I couldn't either, Moon Shoes,
Boogey Land. Yeah. And you know what, Also, if if
you're a little young but you're a Star Wars fan
you don't remember the Mecco Star Wars and other galactic funk,
go check that out. It's on YouTube. It's pretty amazing
(20:26):
to hear the Star Wars score orchestral arrangement to disco.
And it was a big, big hit that Well, that's
not the only one. Arthur Fiedler from the Boston Pops,
he had a night on Bald Mountain to disco. There
was I can't remember who who made it, but it's
on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, fifth of Beethoven. Yeah,
oh yeah, sure. People love to take classical stuff in
(20:46):
disco fight. They disco fight everything like you said, Dolly
parton Star Wars, Disco Duck Sesame street Head, not one
but two disco albums, Disco Christmas Albums, Discoes everywhere, And
even if you do say disco sucks, you cannot say
that musically disco sucks. Musically speaking, disco does not suck.
It is difficult to play. It includes generally tough orchestral arrangements.
(21:12):
And while it may be repetitive, and if you went
and saw your favorite disco performer playing a club, they
were just lip sinking, it's still Initially it was difficult
to make. Yeah, I think where disco takes the biggest
knock from from music rock music fans is lyrically right
and for good reason. Sure, so disco we were saying
(21:34):
it was. It flew in the face of rock, the
rock scene in Manhattan at the time, in part because
it was out in the Bronx out in Queens. It
was very popular among the working class, Yeah, Latinos, Italians.
It's spread out of the gay clubs UM so white
gay dudes in underground clubs dancing to music UM created
(21:59):
by black people, black groups UM. And then in her
mixed in with working class Italians and Latinos in that
same club that was disco and that is not with
the rich kids in Manhattan we're doing at the time
rocking out well, Yeah, and that's a point that a
lot of people, a lot of people were misguided and
saying at one point that disco was of the bourgeois
(22:22):
because Studio fifty four transformed from a dance club of
the people to a dance club of the elite and
everyone started grooming over grooming and dressing to the nines
and spin all this money. And well they did. Yeah,
but but once the rich people got involved, was like,
you can't keep up with that. Yeah, and it but
(22:42):
it started out as very much a music of the people. Um,
and like we said, disco Fever was like they were
doing the hustle in retirement homes, like disco classes. My
parents took disco dance lessons and my dad does not
take disco dance lessons, yet he did. That's pretty interesting,
Like that's how big it was. Well, I mean, if
(23:03):
you go back and watch like Sarah Nitye Fever for example,
that's some pretty good dancing in there. Yeah. Of course,
I'll bet your dad was like sexier when he was
taking disco lessons. So, um, we've got this thing and
it's weirdlet's I think it bears repeating, chuck, Like when
you think of disco these days. You think of Studio
fifty four, you think of cocaine, which is that there
(23:26):
there were symbiotic yeah. Um, you think of the beautiful
and the rich in in Manhattan, right that. But like
you said, that's not how it started out. It was
working class, across ethnic lines, gays were involved, um, and
it was it basically was co opted and usurped and
then all of a sudden, now there's a division between
(23:48):
it and the people who were criticizing it before really
started to speak up, meaning the rockers, and they really
had a point, Like you said, the lyrics fly Robin Fly,
who cares? Yeah, And the other part of the problem
was disco was meant for escape, like it was set
in this time of economic hardship. New York City was
(24:10):
hit particularly about getting out there and dancing your frustrations
out and forgetting in everything. The problem is is while
you're dancing, politicals don't dance, and while everybody else is dancing,
they're just doing whatever they want. No one's paying attention
because they're dancing. So um. Especially once it crossed over
to the rich and became like divided by class, rockers
really started to have some some ground to stand on
(24:31):
by saying just goes vapid and and politically and a
political and it sucks for those reasons. And it started
to become true after that point, right, right. Have you
ever seen Summer of Sam no good one. Yeah, that's
the Spike Lee one about the Son of Sam killings.
But beyond it's it's more a movie about that time
and period in New York City and that summer than
(24:53):
it is about this. I mean, Summer Sam figures are
Son of Sam figures in like huge, but it really
just capture is that time period. It's good and plus
that John Languizamo mhm, Saturday Night Fever changed everything, Josh, great,
great movie. Did you read the article? Uh? Yeah, I
read the article and I've seen the movie probably five
(25:16):
or six times, so I read the article recently, like yesterday. Yeah.
It's called um the Tribal Rights of the New Saturday Night.
It was written in seventies six. Guy named Nick Conan
was the cover story of New York magazine. Right, he
made it up? Did you know that? Apparently he came
out to the Guardian and said, like I I fabricated everything.
(25:38):
Tony didn't exist. Um No, Vincent the main guy didn't exist.
He said, he made up practically the whole thing, Like
he just got in to New York and like just
started hanging out and just wrote the thing. Wow, I
can't believe he made it all up. He did. Crazy
great movie though, and famous for the uh not only
the dancing, uh, great story, coming of age story. Um.
(26:02):
And the suit, the white suit with the black shirt.
The black shirt wouldn't have popped nearly as much without
that black no, no, no, the in the white vest,
which Jeans Ciskel owned for a while. Yeah, it's now
at the Museum of Music, and I think New York. Yeah,
well Ciscle cleaned up on it. He bought it in
(26:23):
seventy eight because he was such a huge fan of
the movie. Bought it for two grand, sold it in
nice that fat cat, and he's no longer with us. Um.
But the clothing was a huge deal. The fashion of
disco was arguably as important as it was just all
a part of the scene. It was all intermingled, the polyester,
(26:44):
the spandex, the tight clothes, revealing as much skin as
you can, jewelry, leopard prints. It was like out of control. Yeah,
and it's kind of come back of course, like all
fashion does. Yeah, well, especially with that early eighties throwback,
that skill went on or that was going on. No,
I think we've reached mid to late eighties, like the
the Fresh Prince years. It wasn't take twenty years supposedly
(27:08):
or something like that supposedly, So grunges next, I guess
we'll be flying the flannel. So not looking forward to that.
I still got my flannel. I'll be good. I'm covered.
You're like, hey, uh, you talked about Studio fifty four,
which is now still called Studio fifty four, but it's
a theater. Um another populo club. If you live in
New York, you might be walking by these places and
(27:29):
not even realize it. Yeah, like, um, the Sanctuary which
became Limelight made famous, and Party Monster that's now like
a church that you can shop in. Well, Paradise Garage,
very famous. Um on King Street in New York, very famous.
Discotheque is now Verizon, is there really? Yeah? Man Zenon
on West forty three Xenon was a huge discotheque and
(27:51):
it is now the Stephen Sondheim Theater. Okay, well you
can do worse than that, exactly. So if you're walking
around New York and you see these places, just remember
there was a lot of drugs and sex and dancing
going on there thirty plus years ago. Yeah, people forgetting
their economic turmoil troubles. That's right. Stop you know, stop
(28:15):
you stop, you know stop. Um So we said that, well,
(28:42):
you said that the record industry kind of took a hit,
um because of the disco. Yeah, people were not buying
their albums by their favorite artists because there were no
favorite artists, and there was like it took a little
while for the effects to show up, but from like,
records sales dropped by like two million units. That's a
(29:04):
lot um. And so the record industry turned on disco. Eventually,
this this thing that had created this kind of vapid
um very quick, very attractive, sexy movement, or helped promote
it and push it out into the mainstream like and
shoved down everybody's throats were the ones that turned their
(29:25):
back on it. Um. I don't think people were quite
ready to yet, but the record industry was. And um
that probably more than anything, led to discost demise more
than this Chamiskey Park thing. I mean that's like a
it was symbolic. It was very symbolic. But if the
record industry is no longer agreeing to produce disco records,
there's no disco records, and it doesn't matter if people
(29:47):
wanted it or not. And you know, looking back, it
was bound. It was bound to be a fad. It's
not a lasting thing, although it's come back around now
with stuff like Scissor Sisters and well not just that go.
The reason why this the title of this episode is
in present tenses because maybe the name died, but that
four on the floor beat and then what now a
(30:09):
company with like electronic music that never went away? No,
you're right, it may have fitted in the background. Now
it's like all over the radio, like Katy Perry stuff
and Britney Spears stuff. I'm told um they they they
used the same stuff. It's just disco. It's just a
different name for it. At its peak, Josh Disco was
(30:29):
a four billion dollar industry and they claim more than
fifteen thousand UH discos in the United States. It's a lot.
So they spread from the city's clearly to uh the
Bible Belt, the rust Belt, the Heartland, and uh as
we'll get into now. It wasn't very accepted by the
(30:49):
white male establishment a k a. Rock and roll fans exactly. Yea. Um,
and people just kind of on the surface, it's just
because you know, discoing rock, they don't they don't go together,
you know. But there's a lot of, like we said
at the beginning, cultural critics who say, you know that
(31:10):
people who were into disco didn't think about rock, they
didn't care about rock. No, they were high and dancing.
People who are into rock hated disco. Why it was
a threat, they claim, and they were probably very right
to their what they thought were good American values. They
(31:30):
didn't like gay people, didn't probably like black people in
latinos or women do. He was hogging the spotlight because
rock and roll in the nineteen unless your name is
like Patti Smith, it wasn't a big haven for female
singers or like a Grace Slick. She was backed up
by an all male band. You know, it was like
(31:50):
very rare for like a female lead. And even then
she was like the one girl and a guy band,
you know, unless they're the Runaways, I guess, right, which
is like they made a movie about him, was such
a big deal. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's a good point.
Chuck but for the most part, disco represented everything that
was a threat to the white straight establishment, and that's
(32:11):
why a lot of people think that this whole disco
sucks movement came about. So if you are one of
those people who's just like disco sucks, maybe should reevaluate
exactly why you think disco sucks. Is it really just
the music? And if it is, hey, man, like, I'm
sure that's the case. But if there's probably a lot
of people out there who think disco sucks and don't
even know that disco is pretty gay and maybe that's
(32:34):
why you don't like it, or disco is pretty black
and maybe that's why you don't like it, or maybe
you just hate women. Maybe maybe you should go work
on your relationship with your mother and then take another
listen to disco and see if it sounds any sweeter. Well,
it's the whole lifestyle was It was hedonistic. Uh, You
had the village people as sort of the cartoonish face
(32:55):
of of the gay movement at the time, you know,
dressing up and you know, it was it was not
accepted in in these rock and roll circles in the
Midwest and in the South, and it just was not cool.
But even in New York or London or wherever, like
you got punk punk punk, people hated disco, but at
(33:16):
least they for the most part had a legitimate like
the stand on which was punk was intended to be
political and disco was not political at all, like Mark
Mother's Ball, said, Mother's Ball or Mother's braw Okay. He
he apparently went to Studio fifty four and had a
crazy experience on pcp UM. But he said that disco
(33:38):
was like a dumb girl with good looks and good body, uh,
which is kind of like it's an apt description I
guess of disco in a way. Yeah, that makes sense.
So this guy who wrote this book, what's it called, Uh,
His name is Peter Shapiro. He wrote Turned the Beat
Around colon the Secret History of Disco. Yeah, he argues,
(34:01):
and he makes a pretty good point that disco was
the most democratic musical form ever in the history of music. Yeah,
he said, it's the most democratic form of popular music
ever conceived. And it really brought about the gay culture
into the mainstream, even though it wasn't super accepted in
(34:22):
all circles. It was the first time it was like
in your face out in the open. We're dancing, and
here's the village people exactly who I used to draw
pictures up. I still have one. Yeah, I still have
this crayon photo, our photo crayon drawing that I did
of the village people. And I wore that album out,
(34:44):
and I'm sure my parents were like, what's going on,
especially like Stone Mountain, Georgia, in like, can I just
like a leather daddy? For I thought the biker guy
was the coolest one. I was like, he's so tough.
Look at that must dand I, oh boy, it's funny too.
It was such an innocent time, you know, for me
(35:04):
at least, Yeah, it was. That was a good time
to grow up on aware because you could just love disco. Yeah,
doing all that stuff exactly. Uh what else you got? Oh,
I think we should we'd be remissing mentioning disco's role
in hip hop, like we said earlier, Um, you may
have noticed that that whole dejaying thing kind of crossed over.
(35:28):
And if you doubt disco as a foundation for hip
hop and rap, uh you look, you need to look
no further than what three the sugar Hill Gangs rappers
delight all that's almost all chics good times, just go anthem.
That's right, you were dead right, sir. Uh. And then
(35:51):
of course it's influence on, like we said, all dance
music to come, really electronica. It never stopped. You can't
stop the music, and I imagine it's going on now.
Like there's probably some very cool underground parties that you
and I will never ever ever ever know exist. Yeah,
um doing the same thing. Yeah, yeah, well Scissor Sisters
(36:15):
I mentioned them. I know there's a lot more bands,
but they're really like ripping on that old disco thing.
Very cool. Hercules and Love Affair, that's a good one.
I don't know them. There's Anthony and the Anthony of
the Johnson's Yeah, his side project. Oh really it's pretty
it's very discosed. Love that guy. Um boy, he does
such like Morow's orchestral downbeat, not like that really, it's
(36:38):
like his other in different He's got to get out
his happiness so he can go do the Anthony and
the Johnston's thing. I'm trying to imagine him happy. That'd
be so weird. Anyway, I'm a fan of his. I'll
check that out. Yeah, new disco, it's all over the place.
It is, um, if you want to oh wait quickly,
we should say r I P. Because we lost to
(36:59):
disco ends recently to cancer. Oh yeah, Donna Summer and
Robin Gibb both passed within the past like a month.
Oh yeah. And who will be the third? Yeah, the
disco third. Well, there were four not disco, but four
musicians with cancer, and like the span of six weeks
was sad well, um, adam ya can and leave on
helm Oh yeah, Donna Summer and Robin Gibb bam four
(37:22):
in a row. So then who will be the other two? Yes? Jeez,
I hope nobody. I hope not too. Yeah. Um, I
said we were done with disco. We are the Nights
on Broadway and we are done with disco. Very nice,
which sucks. Um. I didn't like the music, yeah, like
dis guy of music. No, it's not, you know I was.
(37:45):
I was listening to rock and roll pretty early on.
I like it, I like, I like it all. But
then also I was listening to the Smith's Death of
a Disco Dancer, great song, um, and it makes you
wonder like, exactly why did that disco dancer die? That's right? Huh. Um.
If you want to learn more about disco, you can
type that in surprisingly enough to the search bar how
(38:07):
stuff works and it will bring up this article. And uh,
let's see. Since I said article, it's time for Chuck's presentation. Yeah,
Josh and Lieu of Listener Mail. Uh, I just got
back from Max fun con Um and I'm going to
(38:28):
do a little presentation called Max fun Plug because great
people are involved and we need to give them their day. Uh. Firstly,
I want to thank Jesse Thorn and recognize Jesse Thorn,
friend of a friend of stuff. You should know, godfather,
great guy. Uh. He has an empire out there in California. Um,
(38:49):
a podcasting empire and you can podcasting and knockoff wallets. Yeah,
he's a fashion icon. Uh, Jesse you can you can
go to maximum fund dot org to look up his bag.
He used to be the sound of Young America. Now
his main shows called Bull's Eye to the Interview show.
It's really great. We've been on it. Yeah, we talked
about Mexican wrestling on Was that on Bull's Eye? Yeah
(39:12):
it wasn't. I thought it might have been on Jordan
jesse Go oh Man, Okay, well, Jordan jesse Go since
I mentioned it is one of his other shows with
his partner Jordan's in there. That's a funnier one, although
they're all funny, but thanks to Jesse, he he has
this um concept that he's he's built the maximum fun
(39:32):
Empire on called New Sincerity. And it's just great. It's
nice people, it's it issues uh, cynicism, um and this
ironic crap. Oh that's cool that everyone does and it's
it's called new sincerity. It really says it all. Did
he found new sincerity? Is it like like a lightning
(39:52):
bull or a light bulb that he had? Yeah, that's cool.
I mean you google new sincerity and it comes up
as Jesse Thorne's mantra. I'm going to start taking him
more is more sincere than I always assumed he was
making fun of me. No, of course not. He's a
very sincere guy. And his wife Teresa and little little
baby Simon. We're all there and they're all doing great
and they're wonderful people. So Riff Tracks was in the
(40:14):
house yes, formerly Mystery Science Theater three thousand. Josh's Heroes
Uh Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, Uh, Tom Serbo and
crot Robot people. They are fans of stuff you should know.
And I flipped out email Josh and beyond that, they
are literally the two nicest guys I've met so far
(40:35):
in show business. You said that in the email. Yeah,
I can vouch for that. They are the nicest dudes
I've ever met in show business so far. That's awesome.
And then includes John Hodgman. Hodgeman is not gonna like that,
but maybe he'll step it up. And I would say
Hodgman will take that as a challenge. Uh. You can
(40:55):
go to Riff Tracks r I F F t R
a X dot com. You can buy their stuff. You
can buy I look out for Riff Trecks Live. They're
awesome and funny and we're supporting for sure. UM My Brother,
My brother and Me. We're on their show. The McElroy brothers, Justin,
Travis and Griffin hung out with them a lot, really
super cool dudes. They had their uh wives and girlfriends
(41:17):
with them, and uh, they were all sweet and funny
and nice and great people. And they have um a
great podcast called My Brother, My Brother and Me. New
episodes out every Monday. You can find that at maximum
fund dot org. Travis, who was the middle bro co
host a show also called In Case of Emergency that's
very funny. Um. And then Justin and his wife Sydney
(41:41):
have a show called Satellite Dish that's about TV shows
and they're both really funny. It was like literally all
six of them were six of the funniest people I've
hung around. That's really cool. It's like, man, Christmas must
be a blast around the map didn't even give each
other presence. This that around and like the light one another. Uh.
Mary Roach was there, author of Stiff, which we've plugged
Stiff Boink Spook Bonk Bonk Spook Spook and talking from Marsh.
(42:06):
Yeah what she likes, she's yeah. I didn't meet her,
but I heard her lecture. Susan Orlean lectures on science,
e authoring and cool stuff like that. So it was
like a workshop. Yeah, very cool. Susan Orlean was there.
She was great. Yeah, you know her as Meryl Street. Um.
(42:26):
I did not meet her, but she was. She was
great on stage as well. Josh Bierman who I met.
Joshua Bierman. He's one of Hodgeman's buddies. He is a
writer and you can find his work in Rolling Stone,
Wired Harper's This American Life, McSweeney's HuffPo. He's like all
over the place, and he is genuinely one of the
(42:47):
delightfully weirdest dudes I've ever hung out with in my life,
Like one of those guys just like, man, you are
so odd and I want to hug you. Talked to
you for hours. That kind of dude. Hodgeman has another
friend like that, David Reese, who I met. He's next
on you met David. Yeah, okay, he's awesome. I have
I have a David Reese story. Man. Well, let me
(43:07):
set up who he is first. David Rees is uh
and are He was formerly the cartoonist that you might
know from Get Your War On Great Political Cartoon and
during the Bush years. He is now an artisanal pencil sharpener.
And you heard me correctly. He sharpens pencils by hand. Um.
He goes on tour teaching this. He has a book
(43:28):
that you can buy called how to Sharpen Pencils, and
you can go to Artisanal Pencil Sharpening dot com. You
can send him your pencils. He will sharpen in my
hand and return the pencil and the clippings and the
clippings because the clippings belong to the client. And it's
not a joke, but it is a joke. It's funny,
(43:48):
but he's really serious about well yeah, I mean he'll
really sharpen your pencils and he really wrote a book
on it. I'm glad you met him. I didn't know
that he's awesome. So let's hear the story. I I, um,
you mean. And I went and saw his his I
Guess Book tour show um in Brooklyn when we were
there a couple of weeks ago, and uh, before the show,
I was talking to him and Hodgeman and we're all
(44:10):
hanging out, and um, I was like, well, break a leg.
And I turned to walk away and he goes, you too,
and I turned her around and he was just glowering
at Really yeah he was. He was pretty cool, dude. Yeah,
he was funny. He he had his video on Reddit
the other day and uh, he was posting comments that
people are making like assisted serious, Like I can't tell
(44:31):
that this is a joker or not it but it's both.
It's like funny, but he's really really serious about pencils.
I think it's just one of those things you just
no need to explain it. Man, take it however you want, agreed.
His class was one of the most popular ones there though.
Actually pencil was it like a bring your own pencil
or did he provide them? He provided the pencils in
the equipment, but you took home everything nice. Uh So, yeah,
(44:52):
by David's book how to Sharpened Pencils, it's excellent. He
said that one to me yesterday. Actually by mine. Really Yeah,
you mean I eat spot one? Well, I told him
I was going to plug it. You should need to
work it. Roman Mars was there. Yeah, did you get
to meet him? Huh? I didn't what I couldn't find?
Oh yeah, that's right. I meant to tell you. He
tweeted that. Like the low point was that he kept
(45:15):
missing you. Sorry I forgot to do so, Like I
looked around for him, and I guess we just missed
each other. I emailed on the other day he was sad. So.
Roman has a design and architecture podcast called Invisible, which
is great. Yeah, he did it cool and about the
twin towers on the rete and it was like he
got his hands on like a recording of the sound
they made, like swaying creaking. It was really cool. Well,
(45:39):
and the cool thing about that show is you don't
have to be into design or architecture to to think
it's an awesome show. Yeah, I just encourage you to
listen to it. Uh. And then the comedians there, Maria Bamford,
who's a stalwart at maximon Con. She's great Maria Bamford
dot com. Cameron Esposito did the morning Trivia with me.
She stepped up and co hosted UM. She uh sports
(46:01):
the side mullet, which he has coined that term like
all shaved on one side and hangs down on the other.
And she is super sweet and very funny and I'm
really rooting for her in her career. It is the
real Cameron Esposito dot com, uh w comal Bell w
comal Bell dot com. He has an upcoming show on
(46:23):
f X this fall, his brand new TV show premiering
after Louis So he's like, he's set kind of crap
in his fans right now, but I'm very exciting time
for him. It was cool to meet him at the
stage and the name of Kamal show is totally biased
and um. It premieres August nine at eleven pm on
FX That was a huge plug chuck uh, Steve A G.
(46:48):
Did you watch a Sarah Silverman show here there? He
was one of the neighbors, the two guys, the two
gay guys. He was like kind of a big slovenly dude.
Oh you're thinking of um Steve e Ag Okay, okay,
but he's very funny and um like all the other
comedians were doing this very like not avant garde. It's
(47:08):
very interesting, sort of different style of comedy. And then
he gets up there and starts making like poop and
marijuana jokes, which is refreshing for me. You can follow
him on Twitter at Steve A G. And that's a
g E or Steve a G dot tumbler dot com.
Chris Fairbanks performed Chris Fairbanks dot com. He was really great.
Didn't get to meet him, but he was super funny.
And of course John Hodgman follow John at Hodgeman, listen
(47:33):
to judge John Hodgeman. Can buy his books the areas
of my Expertise more information than you require, that is all.
And what's his website? I don't know. It's it's not that,
it's all. It's areas of my Expertise dot com. I
believe Okay, and John stepped up as usual and we
did a fun uh pub trivia together and uh, it's
(47:53):
just a great time, you know, Hodgi Oh yeah, good,
good dude, He's a great dude. I'm glad you had
a good time, Chuck. It was fun and it was
it wasn't quite last year with Upright Citizen's Brigade, Andy
Richter Like that was huge for me just personally. This
probably would have been bigger for you because of h
MST three K. Yeah, but they sent me an email
(48:17):
and they said to say hello and that you guys
are great. That is really something. Yeah, that is very nice.
So support all these people, support Jesse Thorne and his empire.
They're all good folks doing great work. I couldn't couldn't
support nicer people. Yeah, the next time you see a
knockoff Greucci wallet being sold on the street, to purchase it,
because the funds probably go to Jesse Thorn and to
(48:39):
provide for his family. That's right. Um, let's see, I
don't even know what to call for best disco song ever? Sure,
how about best overlooked disco song ever? Because yeah, I
mean we've all heard by Robin Fly and all the
other ones that we we mentioned in this episode Nights
on Broadways. Mind okay, Um, you can tweet to us.
You can well, you can tweech us s y s
(49:01):
K podcast. You can join us on Facebook at facebook
dot com slash stuff you should know, um, and you
can send us an email right right, I'll give you
the email address. Send a second, but Chuck, I want
to play us out with what I think is the
greatest discos song of all time. All right, what's your
A taste of honeyes? Fogi? Yogi yogi? So you got
(49:21):
that plan right now? You can send us an email
to Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com for more on
(49:56):
this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff
works dot com
Hey there, it's me Josh and for this week's s
Y s KSE selects, I chose How Disco Works, which
is one of my favorite, all time favorite episodes. Um,
and you'll know what I'm talking about in a second.
When I say that, I feel like if we all
band together, we could still get Chuck to do that
how to video on the Hustle also domus Chuck's big
(00:22):
presentation after his first trip to Max Funcan instead of
listener mail, It's a very special treat. At the end
of this episode, which was first released in July of
two thousand twelve, enjoy Welcome to Stuff you Should Know
from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
(00:49):
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant
getting on down with his bad self. Get on down,
mat to cow the Hustle. H Oh, is that what
you're doing? Actually looked up the Hustle because I wasn't
quite sure what it was specifically, and yeah, because no
one who does it now and knows what they're doing. Yeah,
(01:11):
but then I saw it was like, oh yeah, sure,
like sort of the boogie night stance they did was
because they're like a hand rolling. Yeah, there's a little
step up, a little step back, a little like side
three sixty clap clap, little John Travolta Saturday Night fever
hand action, little little hand roll, the little uh what
do you call that? This would be much better visually.
(01:32):
I'll tell you what. Why don't we get you just
a quick how to video and we'll post it? Sound good? Yeah? Sure? Okay,
well you'll be held to that. Great. I'm gonna go
start looking for clothes after um, so, chuck, you're doing well,
feeling invigorated by the Presidential Executive Orders episode as you
(01:56):
ready for this? Buires me up for disco, so forward disco. Um,
let's start at the end. I thought that Molly did
a very good job with this. Is that really edmans jam? Um.
There was a night uh in nineteen nine. It was
July twelve in Chicago, and it was the White Sox
playing the Tigers and both of them were lousy other time. Uh,
(02:20):
the night before there had been uh, fifteen thousand people
for the Tiger socks. There's a double header today and
um they expected something like six thousand. All right, the
the I guess the owners of the White Sox had
started to create these promotions, and one of them that
night on July twelve, UM had been created by rock
(02:41):
DJ named Steve Dahl, who was the Chicago DJ. Yeah,
it looked him up. Actually, he was fired. This is
why he was. He was so angry. He was fired
by a station that switched to disco. He got a
job at the competing rock station, w l u P
ninety eight FM, which is why it was cents the loop.
That was the loop actually the loop, yeah, not the loop,
(03:04):
the loop, the loop. Okay, yeah, so yeah, anyway, he
got fired and said down with disco. Well, he said
disco sucks. There was a whole movement against disco t
shirts that said Disco sucks. Is before memes. This was
this was the real, Like you had to like run
out of your house, go across the street to a
(03:25):
neighbor's house, tell them disco sucks. They had to run
out of their house maybe a couple of blocks over
to their their their friends. That's how things spread back then.
And this thing was like virulent, right, I missed us
times honest night, even with this UM, this Disco Demolition
Night is what they called it. UM. They were expecting
like six thousand people, but they were going to put
(03:47):
on a heck of a show in between the two games.
Doll was going to take all the records that people brought.
If you brought a disco record, UM, you get in
for ninety eight cents, because that was points something. The
this is before his point. This is when it was
just ninety eight on your dial. Oh okay, I mean
technically it was, but it wasn't digital, so no one knew.
(04:08):
Oh god, you know what I'm saying. Uh, And ninety
thousand people showed up. Ninety thousand people showed up. Stadium
held like fifty so there's like thirty eight thousand people
outside the gates. When you have thirty eight thousand people
who are there for to see something destroyed, um which
(04:32):
love which Doll was going to do these records in
between games. They don't usually stay outside of gates. Fences
don't usually contain people in that state in that many
larger number they broke through. Um. The apparently players on
both teams put on their batting helmets because the crowd
was getting crazy while they were throwing the records like frisbees.
They were that's dangerous smoking weed in the stadium, like
(04:55):
Harry Carey, you know, a younger Harry Carey announced that,
you know, like he smelled me, I wanna this broadcast booth.
And they got loaded and because they were mad, so
angry about the form of music. So the first game
ends and I guess what you would call halftime comes
and Johnny Fever, I mean Steve dohl Uh compiles ten
(05:19):
thousand and estimated ten thousand disco records and sets him
on fire. Well he exploded him first, which took out
like a chunk of the field. Yeah. I was wondering
how they did that. Yeah, they were. He was hooked
up the pyrotechnics and there was a big explosion and
ten thousand disco records went booming pretty much, and a
little fire started. People went crazy. They trashed the place. Yeah,
(05:40):
they stormed the field and um they the Socks had
to forfeit the second game to the Tigers because they
couldn't play. The field was just too trashed. And that
was the night July twelve nine that most people point
to when they say disco died. Right then, Yeah, chance
of disco sucks. People smoking weed for a Harry carry
(06:02):
Uh And consequently that was the last forfeited major league
baseball game in the American League. Oh is that right?
The most recent that is? That is an amazing story.
But and and it makes a lot of sense. You
can find video this on YouTube. By the way, there
was that's awesome. There was definitely even I knew, like
there was an anti disco disco sucks sentiment. I remember it.
(06:25):
That's how old I am. Well, I remember it too.
I was like eight years old when this happened. I
was like three, Yeah, yeah, I was three. I was
actually this is three days before my third birthday. This
all went down. I don't remember this happening. But like
I knew people said disco suck like an airplane, um,
when the planes like making that crazy land and they
knock out a tower where the DJ's like saying, we're
(06:46):
disco lives forever. Right, I knew people hated disco. But
now reading this and figuring out that the disco was
this amazing cultural phenomenon and in unpacking like this story
behind it and the motives of hating it and all that,
it's really really interesting. It's not as cut and dry
as like, you know, Ted Nugent thinks disco sucks. So
(07:09):
it just goes sucks. Maybe Ted Nugent is a homophobe. Huh,
that's what cultural critics would say. Now, and we'll get
into that. We will, not Ted Nugent specifically, but anyone
who thought just goes sucks. It's not so cut and dry.
The music music, it was tent Yeah. Uh you know
what I would like in this to what zoot suits?
(07:30):
Oh yeah, good one. The interesting history. Then it turns
out there was like racial and misogynistic, well not misogynistic
and zoot suits, but in the case of disco, yes, homophobic. Yeah. Basically, Uh,
the straight white establishment does not like flashy dressing. Yeah,
and they don't like them them New Yorkers. Yeah, well
(07:53):
in their in their bars where they dance with their
shirts off. Yes, that kind of thing, e g. Gate clubs.
All right, so let's get into the music and then
we'll get into the politics. Okay. So um, well it
was Chuck the first disco record. Do you think disco duck? No,
(08:13):
the Dolly parton No Disco Dolly No. No, she actually
did some disco tinged stuff. So did the Grateful Dead.
Everybody did it, sucking, Carol King, Barbara Streisand it's amazing
the people that got caught up in this disco way, Disco, Christmas, Disco,
star wars, dude. Um, yeah, disco was huge from when
(08:36):
from what seventy four or seventy nine, Oh well yeah,
when it was huge, yeah yeah yeah. But um, some
trace of beginnings of disco to the early parties UM
in New York thrown by David Mancuso, these invitation only
parties that he had at his place called the Loft,
legendary first party called Love Saves the day they were
themed LSD. Yeah, and then there was a store in
(08:59):
these village called loups Is today. I don't know if
it's still there. It's like bric a brac, like everything's
coated and acid. That kind of like junk lands here
in Atlanta, that kind of Um. So a lot of
people trace it to Mancuso and in those early parties,
which later on was sort of the precursor to what
raves would be, right, that's exactly right, um and Mancuso
(09:23):
um kind of created this, um, this foundation that would
become kind of the basis of disco, which was it
was DJ driven and UM, the DJ didn't just like
one song didn't just fade out and they're like, Okay,
it's time for the next one and put on another record.
Mancusa actually dropped a bunch of money on a sound
(09:45):
system that allowed him to cut back and forth between
records and UM. He also liked to basically just just
use all sorts of different music and and create this
whole really cool set and music never stopped basically, no,
it didn't, UM and he So that was kind of
this this basis that you'll see turn up later in
(10:06):
hip hop, but first it appears in disco. But yeah,
he started throwing these parties in nineteen seventy, but I've
read sources that say it goes back even further than that.
Nineteen sixty The club was opened in New York in
nineteen sixty five, Arthur was open. They were because they
were UM, they were DJ driven, and that was like,
that's one of the basis of disco is the DJ.
(10:29):
And there's this guy named Terry Noll and he went off.
He became probably the first d J. I know that name,
don't I do? I maybe, I mean, he's pretty pretty big.
I mean he's like the godfather of DJing. I might know.
I don't know. DJ so much though, but so that
he branched off in UM he started working at gay clubs,
and gay clubs is where disco really started to emerge. UM.
(10:53):
So if you if you go back far enough, at
about the same time that Mancuso was throwing his parties,
the gay clubs had like DJ's playing Philly soul. Yes,
the New York City specifically, which is where they think
that disco originally came from. It's probably Philadelphia soul, Yeah,
Philadelphia soul. If you listen to works by um like
(11:15):
some people claim that things like Barry Whites Can't get
Enough of Your Love, Babe or um his love theme
from Yeah does very much sound like disco, even though
they were R and B soul singers. The same with
like Isaac Hay's right, but that is funk, clear and simple. Right,
Isaac Hayes is definitely funk, And a lot of people
rightly attribute the death of funk to disco, like they
(11:38):
both had this moment and disco just one out. Yeah,
it's easier to dance to for one reason. Should we
listen to the Barry White Yeah which one? This is
Love's theme from nineteen seventy three, and you can hear
like the big orchestral sound with like the M four
on the floor beat. So that's people say that that
(12:12):
may be the first disco one. Another one is Jerry
Butler's UM one Night Affair and this guy this song
really shows that disco hybridized out of Philadelphia soul. That's true.
Then this is the purest evidence of it. And then
(12:44):
one more do you mind? So this one is this
is from Cameroon, a guy named Manu Dabango from the
island of Cameroon. Does the island No, it's not, well,
you know if it was an island, right, yeah, but
it's just Cameroon. We're going with um. His name is
Manu Dbingo and uh. He released a track called Soul
(13:07):
Makasa and Soul Macasa. UM is noteworthy because a lot
of people say it's the first disco song. Well, it's here,
so you're here. It's like very clearly a Cameroonian. It's
(13:28):
very African, very it's got that tribal beat, but it's
also discoe. The reason why people point to that song,
which was released in nineteen seventy two, is because a
year later, UM, a Rolling Stone um rock critic or
music critic named Vinceletti put a paper pen to paper
(13:49):
and described that the the reason behind this obscure Cameroonian
songs popularity is because of this new thing that's going
on own Queens and the Bronx and all the hip
kids are doing it, and uh, we don't know what
it's called. So let's just call it disco. And that
was the first mentioned what he coined. The term disco
(14:11):
is is applied to this music, and it was the
first written description of disco, vincelet n So I think
we failed to mention that disco obviously is short for discotheque,
which is the French term for nightclub, for a nightclub
where you listen to cammed music rather than alive. And
you still hear that, and see that when you go
(14:31):
all over Europe you still hear like disco thick, yes,
right right, guys, trying to get you in there, you know, yeah,
it's pretty great. That was a pretty good impression some
nameless country. I don't even know what that was, Eastern Bloc.
Let's just go with that. Is that I would have
I would have guessed, like Morocco, whatever it sounded like,
that's what I was doing. So the the the you
(15:23):
just kind of said something very important that a disco teque.
One of us just said it that a disco teque
is a dance club where there's no band, And this
flew in the face of the rock establishment at the time.
We're still like very much entrenched in the sixties led
Zeppelin and like you went and saw them, that was
the point, Like you went and saw their show, and
(15:43):
when when they weren't touring, you listen to their records
at home and sat on beambag chairs and worshiped at
their feet exactly. Disco was different. And the reason discoes
different is because nobody cared. They didn't want to hear
your live band. They went to go see the DJ.
Yeah uh, And that had a big impact on record
sales because people weren't you know, it was one hit
(16:04):
wonder after one hit wonder. For for the most part,
there were you know, quite a few that had multiple
hits but summer, but they were still like and far between, Yeah,
and they were confined to the disco era. Not not
too many lasted beyond unless they were like crossing over
to begin with, like Dolly Partner, Carol King got you,
Barbra streisand but you will hear, you know, since nine
(16:30):
with Rock the Boat by the Hughes Corporation, which, speaking
of one hit wonder, a lot of people say, that's
when it really really took off. Um lak, I'm sorry.
Left Freak by Chic and good Times by Chic Good
Times or did they do that? I will survive, of course,
(16:50):
the classic Anthem by Glory Gaynor, Funky Town Casey and
the Sunshine Band with their multiple hits. They were another
group disco group, Get Down Tonight, shake your booty, classic songs.
But I'm your boogie man. Play that funky music. Wild
hate that song. No, I really do too. That's up
there with bad to the Bone for me. Hey man,
(17:12):
George Thorogood is a okay. There's nothing that guy did
that stunk except for that god play that funky music.
I told you, George Thorogood worked out with me at
the y m c A in Hollywood. Yeah, like not
with me the last time we had this argument and
you told me and you still and you still maintain
that these stinks even though you know I don't maintain
(17:33):
these stinks. I think, George, you still maintain these good
that's what I meant. Okay, well you're wrong. Philadelphia Soul,
Josh is where it was born. We talked about that,
I know, and uh, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. Well, yeah,
so like if you didn't have one hit, you didn't
have groups generally that people followed or whose records they bought.
You had one hit wonders. So singles were kind of big,
(17:54):
and you had um DJ's. People went to specific clubs
to see specific DJs, and you had pretty users. People
would would get would find out like what song a
producer was making, and then they go see and they
go listen to that, right, like Gamble and Huff Uh.
I can't remember the name of their company, but it
was Philadelphia something and it was all about Philadelphia soul.
(18:16):
It started in the Philadelphia soul movement like previous in
the sixties and pretty much dwarfed Motown for a little while,
which was a big, big, big deal at the time
and my time was two huge. Yeah, Barry Gordy and
Motown took a hit when disco came around. There was
also a Giorgio Marauder. He was huge. He was a
(18:37):
huge disco He actually um produced Donna summers and then
the case they created Saucel Records, which is a pretty
big disco label. Well Gamble and huff Um you know
their work if you don't know their names. And they
wrote songs like Ain't No Stopping Us Now, that's a
good one, Love Train, that's a great one. And the
(18:58):
Sound of Philadelphia t s Op which you might not
recognize by title, but you might recognize by the fact
that it is also the Soul Train theme. That is
a very very good song, very good song. That's surprisingly good.
I remember Fresh Air played that when Don Cornelius died.
Uh so. And also, can I just interject one thing
(19:21):
if you're if you're bored right now? Um or I
should say, of course you how bored right now? Friends?
After the podcast, if you find yourself forward, go check
out um Moon Shoes Boogie Land. I think those four
words are actually just two words on YouTube, and you
will be treated to an awesome new I guess acid
(19:43):
disco track over um just laid perfectly over the Soul
Train like the march, the procession thing, the lines they did,
just clip after clip of that, and you will be
surprised to see a young rerun in the first A
couple of minutes. I think I've seen that clip. I
think I've seen him on Soul Train. Yeah, or he
(20:04):
just falls on his butt. Yeah. Man, that stuff was good.
I mean, how do you move like that? I couldn't
do any of those moves. No, I couldn't either, Moon Shoes,
Boogey Land. Yeah. And you know what, Also, if if
you're a little young but you're a Star Wars fan
you don't remember the Mecco Star Wars and other galactic funk,
go check that out. It's on YouTube. It's pretty amazing
(20:26):
to hear the Star Wars score orchestral arrangement to disco.
And it was a big, big hit that Well, that's
not the only one. Arthur Fiedler from the Boston Pops,
he had a night on Bald Mountain to disco. There
was I can't remember who who made it, but it's
on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, fifth of Beethoven. Yeah,
oh yeah, sure. People love to take classical stuff in
(20:46):
disco fight. They disco fight everything like you said, Dolly
parton Star Wars, Disco Duck Sesame street Head, not one
but two disco albums, Disco Christmas Albums, Discoes everywhere, And
even if you do say disco sucks, you cannot say
that musically disco sucks. Musically speaking, disco does not suck.
It is difficult to play. It includes generally tough orchestral arrangements.
(21:12):
And while it may be repetitive, and if you went
and saw your favorite disco performer playing a club, they
were just lip sinking, it's still Initially it was difficult
to make. Yeah, I think where disco takes the biggest
knock from from music rock music fans is lyrically right
and for good reason. Sure, so disco we were saying
(21:34):
it was. It flew in the face of rock, the
rock scene in Manhattan at the time, in part because
it was out in the Bronx out in Queens. It
was very popular among the working class, Yeah, Latinos, Italians.
It's spread out of the gay clubs UM so white
gay dudes in underground clubs dancing to music UM created
(21:59):
by black people, black groups UM. And then in her
mixed in with working class Italians and Latinos in that
same club that was disco and that is not with
the rich kids in Manhattan we're doing at the time
rocking out well, Yeah, and that's a point that a
lot of people, a lot of people were misguided and
saying at one point that disco was of the bourgeois
(22:22):
because Studio fifty four transformed from a dance club of
the people to a dance club of the elite and
everyone started grooming over grooming and dressing to the nines
and spin all this money. And well they did. Yeah,
but but once the rich people got involved, was like,
you can't keep up with that. Yeah, and it but
(22:42):
it started out as very much a music of the people. Um,
and like we said, disco Fever was like they were
doing the hustle in retirement homes, like disco classes. My
parents took disco dance lessons and my dad does not
take disco dance lessons, yet he did. That's pretty interesting,
Like that's how big it was. Well, I mean, if
(23:03):
you go back and watch like Sarah Nitye Fever for example,
that's some pretty good dancing in there. Yeah. Of course,
I'll bet your dad was like sexier when he was
taking disco lessons. So, um, we've got this thing and
it's weirdlet's I think it bears repeating, chuck, Like when
you think of disco these days. You think of Studio
fifty four, you think of cocaine, which is that there
(23:26):
there were symbiotic yeah. Um, you think of the beautiful
and the rich in in Manhattan, right that. But like
you said, that's not how it started out. It was
working class, across ethnic lines, gays were involved, um, and
it was it basically was co opted and usurped and
then all of a sudden, now there's a division between
(23:48):
it and the people who were criticizing it before really
started to speak up, meaning the rockers, and they really
had a point, Like you said, the lyrics fly Robin Fly,
who cares? Yeah, And the other part of the problem
was disco was meant for escape, like it was set
in this time of economic hardship. New York City was
(24:10):
hit particularly about getting out there and dancing your frustrations
out and forgetting in everything. The problem is is while
you're dancing, politicals don't dance, and while everybody else is dancing,
they're just doing whatever they want. No one's paying attention
because they're dancing. So um. Especially once it crossed over
to the rich and became like divided by class, rockers
really started to have some some ground to stand on
(24:31):
by saying just goes vapid and and politically and a
political and it sucks for those reasons. And it started
to become true after that point, right, right. Have you
ever seen Summer of Sam no good one. Yeah, that's
the Spike Lee one about the Son of Sam killings.
But beyond it's it's more a movie about that time
and period in New York City and that summer than
(24:53):
it is about this. I mean, Summer Sam figures are
Son of Sam figures in like huge, but it really
just capture is that time period. It's good and plus
that John Languizamo mhm, Saturday Night Fever changed everything, Josh, great,
great movie. Did you read the article? Uh? Yeah, I
read the article and I've seen the movie probably five
(25:16):
or six times, so I read the article recently, like yesterday. Yeah.
It's called um the Tribal Rights of the New Saturday Night.
It was written in seventies six. Guy named Nick Conan
was the cover story of New York magazine. Right, he
made it up? Did you know that? Apparently he came
out to the Guardian and said, like I I fabricated everything.
(25:38):
Tony didn't exist. Um No, Vincent the main guy didn't exist.
He said, he made up practically the whole thing, Like
he just got in to New York and like just
started hanging out and just wrote the thing. Wow, I
can't believe he made it all up. He did. Crazy
great movie though, and famous for the uh not only
the dancing, uh, great story, coming of age story. Um.
(26:02):
And the suit, the white suit with the black shirt.
The black shirt wouldn't have popped nearly as much without
that black no, no, no, the in the white vest,
which Jeans Ciskel owned for a while. Yeah, it's now
at the Museum of Music, and I think New York. Yeah,
well Ciscle cleaned up on it. He bought it in
(26:23):
seventy eight because he was such a huge fan of
the movie. Bought it for two grand, sold it in
nice that fat cat, and he's no longer with us. Um.
But the clothing was a huge deal. The fashion of
disco was arguably as important as it was just all
a part of the scene. It was all intermingled, the polyester,
(26:44):
the spandex, the tight clothes, revealing as much skin as
you can, jewelry, leopard prints. It was like out of control. Yeah,
and it's kind of come back of course, like all
fashion does. Yeah, well, especially with that early eighties throwback,
that skill went on or that was going on. No,
I think we've reached mid to late eighties, like the
the Fresh Prince years. It wasn't take twenty years supposedly
(27:08):
or something like that supposedly, So grunges next, I guess
we'll be flying the flannel. So not looking forward to that.
I still got my flannel. I'll be good. I'm covered.
You're like, hey, uh, you talked about Studio fifty four,
which is now still called Studio fifty four, but it's
a theater. Um another populo club. If you live in
New York, you might be walking by these places and
(27:29):
not even realize it. Yeah, like, um, the Sanctuary which
became Limelight made famous, and Party Monster that's now like
a church that you can shop in. Well, Paradise Garage,
very famous. Um on King Street in New York, very famous.
Discotheque is now Verizon, is there really? Yeah? Man Zenon
on West forty three Xenon was a huge discotheque and
(27:51):
it is now the Stephen Sondheim Theater. Okay, well you
can do worse than that, exactly. So if you're walking
around New York and you see these places, just remember
there was a lot of drugs and sex and dancing
going on there thirty plus years ago. Yeah, people forgetting
their economic turmoil troubles. That's right. Stop you know, stop
(28:15):
you stop, you know stop. Um So we said that, well,
(28:42):
you said that the record industry kind of took a hit,
um because of the disco. Yeah, people were not buying
their albums by their favorite artists because there were no
favorite artists, and there was like it took a little
while for the effects to show up, but from like,
records sales dropped by like two million units. That's a
(29:04):
lot um. And so the record industry turned on disco. Eventually,
this this thing that had created this kind of vapid
um very quick, very attractive, sexy movement, or helped promote
it and push it out into the mainstream like and
shoved down everybody's throats were the ones that turned their
(29:25):
back on it. Um. I don't think people were quite
ready to yet, but the record industry was. And um
that probably more than anything, led to discost demise more
than this Chamiskey Park thing. I mean that's like a
it was symbolic. It was very symbolic. But if the
record industry is no longer agreeing to produce disco records,
there's no disco records, and it doesn't matter if people
(29:47):
wanted it or not. And you know, looking back, it
was bound. It was bound to be a fad. It's
not a lasting thing, although it's come back around now
with stuff like Scissor Sisters and well not just that go.
The reason why this the title of this episode is
in present tenses because maybe the name died, but that
four on the floor beat and then what now a
(30:09):
company with like electronic music that never went away? No,
you're right, it may have fitted in the background. Now
it's like all over the radio, like Katy Perry stuff
and Britney Spears stuff. I'm told um they they they
used the same stuff. It's just disco. It's just a
different name for it. At its peak, Josh Disco was
(30:29):
a four billion dollar industry and they claim more than
fifteen thousand UH discos in the United States. It's a lot.
So they spread from the city's clearly to uh the
Bible Belt, the rust Belt, the Heartland, and uh as
we'll get into now. It wasn't very accepted by the
(30:49):
white male establishment a k a. Rock and roll fans exactly. Yea. Um,
and people just kind of on the surface, it's just
because you know, discoing rock, they don't they don't go together,
you know. But there's a lot of, like we said
at the beginning, cultural critics who say, you know that
(31:10):
people who were into disco didn't think about rock, they
didn't care about rock. No, they were high and dancing.
People who are into rock hated disco. Why it was
a threat, they claim, and they were probably very right
to their what they thought were good American values. They
(31:30):
didn't like gay people, didn't probably like black people in
latinos or women do. He was hogging the spotlight because
rock and roll in the nineteen unless your name is
like Patti Smith, it wasn't a big haven for female
singers or like a Grace Slick. She was backed up
by an all male band. You know, it was like
(31:50):
very rare for like a female lead. And even then
she was like the one girl and a guy band,
you know, unless they're the Runaways, I guess, right, which
is like they made a movie about him, was such
a big deal. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's a good point.
Chuck but for the most part, disco represented everything that
was a threat to the white straight establishment, and that's
(32:11):
why a lot of people think that this whole disco
sucks movement came about. So if you are one of
those people who's just like disco sucks, maybe should reevaluate
exactly why you think disco sucks. Is it really just
the music? And if it is, hey, man, like, I'm
sure that's the case. But if there's probably a lot
of people out there who think disco sucks and don't
even know that disco is pretty gay and maybe that's
(32:34):
why you don't like it, or disco is pretty black
and maybe that's why you don't like it, or maybe
you just hate women. Maybe maybe you should go work
on your relationship with your mother and then take another
listen to disco and see if it sounds any sweeter. Well,
it's the whole lifestyle was It was hedonistic. Uh, You
had the village people as sort of the cartoonish face
(32:55):
of of the gay movement at the time, you know,
dressing up and you know, it was it was not
accepted in in these rock and roll circles in the
Midwest and in the South, and it just was not cool.
But even in New York or London or wherever, like
you got punk punk punk, people hated disco, but at
(33:16):
least they for the most part had a legitimate like
the stand on which was punk was intended to be
political and disco was not political at all, like Mark
Mother's Ball, said, Mother's Ball or Mother's braw Okay. He
he apparently went to Studio fifty four and had a
crazy experience on pcp UM. But he said that disco
(33:38):
was like a dumb girl with good looks and good body, uh,
which is kind of like it's an apt description I
guess of disco in a way. Yeah, that makes sense.
So this guy who wrote this book, what's it called, Uh,
His name is Peter Shapiro. He wrote Turned the Beat
Around colon the Secret History of Disco. Yeah, he argues,
(34:01):
and he makes a pretty good point that disco was
the most democratic musical form ever in the history of music. Yeah,
he said, it's the most democratic form of popular music
ever conceived. And it really brought about the gay culture
into the mainstream, even though it wasn't super accepted in
(34:22):
all circles. It was the first time it was like
in your face out in the open. We're dancing, and
here's the village people exactly who I used to draw
pictures up. I still have one. Yeah, I still have
this crayon photo, our photo crayon drawing that I did
of the village people. And I wore that album out,
(34:44):
and I'm sure my parents were like, what's going on,
especially like Stone Mountain, Georgia, in like, can I just
like a leather daddy? For I thought the biker guy
was the coolest one. I was like, he's so tough.
Look at that must dand I, oh boy, it's funny too.
It was such an innocent time, you know, for me
(35:04):
at least, Yeah, it was. That was a good time
to grow up on aware because you could just love disco. Yeah,
doing all that stuff exactly. Uh what else you got? Oh,
I think we should we'd be remissing mentioning disco's role
in hip hop, like we said earlier, Um, you may
have noticed that that whole dejaying thing kind of crossed over.
(35:28):
And if you doubt disco as a foundation for hip
hop and rap, uh you look, you need to look
no further than what three the sugar Hill Gangs rappers
delight all that's almost all chics good times, just go anthem.
That's right, you were dead right, sir. Uh. And then
(35:51):
of course it's influence on, like we said, all dance
music to come, really electronica. It never stopped. You can't
stop the music, and I imagine it's going on now.
Like there's probably some very cool underground parties that you
and I will never ever ever ever know exist. Yeah,
um doing the same thing. Yeah, yeah, well Scissor Sisters
(36:15):
I mentioned them. I know there's a lot more bands,
but they're really like ripping on that old disco thing.
Very cool. Hercules and Love Affair, that's a good one.
I don't know them. There's Anthony and the Anthony of
the Johnson's Yeah, his side project. Oh really it's pretty
it's very discosed. Love that guy. Um boy, he does
such like Morow's orchestral downbeat, not like that really, it's
(36:38):
like his other in different He's got to get out
his happiness so he can go do the Anthony and
the Johnston's thing. I'm trying to imagine him happy. That'd
be so weird. Anyway, I'm a fan of his. I'll
check that out. Yeah, new disco, it's all over the place.
It is, um, if you want to oh wait quickly,
we should say r I P. Because we lost to
(36:59):
disco ends recently to cancer. Oh yeah, Donna Summer and
Robin Gibb both passed within the past like a month.
Oh yeah. And who will be the third? Yeah, the
disco third. Well, there were four not disco, but four
musicians with cancer, and like the span of six weeks
was sad well, um, adam ya can and leave on
helm Oh yeah, Donna Summer and Robin Gibb bam four
(37:22):
in a row. So then who will be the other two? Yes? Jeez,
I hope nobody. I hope not too. Yeah. Um, I
said we were done with disco. We are the Nights
on Broadway and we are done with disco. Very nice,
which sucks. Um. I didn't like the music, yeah, like
dis guy of music. No, it's not, you know I was.
(37:45):
I was listening to rock and roll pretty early on.
I like it, I like, I like it all. But
then also I was listening to the Smith's Death of
a Disco Dancer, great song, um, and it makes you
wonder like, exactly why did that disco dancer die? That's right? Huh. Um.
If you want to learn more about disco, you can
type that in surprisingly enough to the search bar how
(38:07):
stuff works and it will bring up this article. And uh,
let's see. Since I said article, it's time for Chuck's presentation. Yeah,
Josh and Lieu of Listener Mail. Uh, I just got
back from Max fun con Um and I'm going to
(38:28):
do a little presentation called Max fun Plug because great
people are involved and we need to give them their day. Uh. Firstly,
I want to thank Jesse Thorn and recognize Jesse Thorn,
friend of a friend of stuff. You should know, godfather,
great guy. Uh. He has an empire out there in California. Um,
(38:49):
a podcasting empire and you can podcasting and knockoff wallets. Yeah,
he's a fashion icon. Uh, Jesse you can you can
go to maximum fund dot org to look up his bag.
He used to be the sound of Young America. Now
his main shows called Bull's Eye to the Interview show.
It's really great. We've been on it. Yeah, we talked
about Mexican wrestling on Was that on Bull's Eye? Yeah
(39:12):
it wasn't. I thought it might have been on Jordan
jesse Go oh Man, Okay, well, Jordan jesse Go since
I mentioned it is one of his other shows with
his partner Jordan's in there. That's a funnier one, although
they're all funny, but thanks to Jesse, he he has
this um concept that he's he's built the maximum fun
(39:32):
Empire on called New Sincerity. And it's just great. It's
nice people, it's it issues uh, cynicism, um and this
ironic crap. Oh that's cool that everyone does and it's
it's called new sincerity. It really says it all. Did
he found new sincerity? Is it like like a lightning
(39:52):
bull or a light bulb that he had? Yeah, that's cool.
I mean you google new sincerity and it comes up
as Jesse Thorne's mantra. I'm going to start taking him
more is more sincere than I always assumed he was
making fun of me. No, of course not. He's a
very sincere guy. And his wife Teresa and little little
baby Simon. We're all there and they're all doing great
and they're wonderful people. So Riff Tracks was in the
(40:14):
house yes, formerly Mystery Science Theater three thousand. Josh's Heroes
Uh Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, Uh, Tom Serbo and
crot Robot people. They are fans of stuff you should know.
And I flipped out email Josh and beyond that, they
are literally the two nicest guys I've met so far
(40:35):
in show business. You said that in the email. Yeah,
I can vouch for that. They are the nicest dudes
I've ever met in show business so far. That's awesome.
And then includes John Hodgman. Hodgeman is not gonna like that,
but maybe he'll step it up. And I would say
Hodgman will take that as a challenge. Uh. You can
(40:55):
go to Riff Tracks r I F F t R
a X dot com. You can buy their stuff. You
can buy I look out for Riff Trecks Live. They're
awesome and funny and we're supporting for sure. UM My Brother,
My brother and Me. We're on their show. The McElroy brothers, Justin,
Travis and Griffin hung out with them a lot, really
super cool dudes. They had their uh wives and girlfriends
(41:17):
with them, and uh, they were all sweet and funny
and nice and great people. And they have um a
great podcast called My Brother, My Brother and Me. New
episodes out every Monday. You can find that at maximum
fund dot org. Travis, who was the middle bro co
host a show also called In Case of Emergency that's
very funny. Um. And then Justin and his wife Sydney
(41:41):
have a show called Satellite Dish that's about TV shows
and they're both really funny. It was like literally all
six of them were six of the funniest people I've
hung around. That's really cool. It's like, man, Christmas must
be a blast around the map didn't even give each
other presence. This that around and like the light one another. Uh.
Mary Roach was there, author of Stiff, which we've plugged
Stiff Boink Spook Bonk Bonk Spook Spook and talking from Marsh.
(42:06):
Yeah what she likes, she's yeah. I didn't meet her,
but I heard her lecture. Susan Orlean lectures on science,
e authoring and cool stuff like that. So it was
like a workshop. Yeah, very cool. Susan Orlean was there.
She was great. Yeah, you know her as Meryl Street. Um.
(42:26):
I did not meet her, but she was. She was
great on stage as well. Josh Bierman who I met.
Joshua Bierman. He's one of Hodgeman's buddies. He is a
writer and you can find his work in Rolling Stone,
Wired Harper's This American Life, McSweeney's HuffPo. He's like all
over the place, and he is genuinely one of the
(42:47):
delightfully weirdest dudes I've ever hung out with in my life,
Like one of those guys just like, man, you are
so odd and I want to hug you. Talked to
you for hours. That kind of dude. Hodgeman has another
friend like that, David Reese, who I met. He's next
on you met David. Yeah, okay, he's awesome. I have
I have a David Reese story. Man. Well, let me
(43:07):
set up who he is first. David Rees is uh
and are He was formerly the cartoonist that you might
know from Get Your War On Great Political Cartoon and
during the Bush years. He is now an artisanal pencil sharpener.
And you heard me correctly. He sharpens pencils by hand. Um.
He goes on tour teaching this. He has a book
(43:28):
that you can buy called how to Sharpen Pencils, and
you can go to Artisanal Pencil Sharpening dot com. You
can send him your pencils. He will sharpen in my
hand and return the pencil and the clippings and the
clippings because the clippings belong to the client. And it's
not a joke, but it is a joke. It's funny,
(43:48):
but he's really serious about well yeah, I mean he'll
really sharpen your pencils and he really wrote a book
on it. I'm glad you met him. I didn't know
that he's awesome. So let's hear the story. I I, um,
you mean. And I went and saw his his I
Guess Book tour show um in Brooklyn when we were
there a couple of weeks ago, and uh, before the show,
I was talking to him and Hodgeman and we're all
(44:10):
hanging out, and um, I was like, well, break a leg.
And I turned to walk away and he goes, you too,
and I turned her around and he was just glowering
at Really yeah he was. He was pretty cool, dude. Yeah,
he was funny. He he had his video on Reddit
the other day and uh, he was posting comments that
people are making like assisted serious, Like I can't tell
(44:31):
that this is a joker or not it but it's both.
It's like funny, but he's really really serious about pencils.
I think it's just one of those things you just
no need to explain it. Man, take it however you want, agreed.
His class was one of the most popular ones there though.
Actually pencil was it like a bring your own pencil
or did he provide them? He provided the pencils in
the equipment, but you took home everything nice. Uh So, yeah,
(44:52):
by David's book how to Sharpened Pencils, it's excellent. He
said that one to me yesterday. Actually by mine. Really Yeah,
you mean I eat spot one? Well, I told him
I was going to plug it. You should need to
work it. Roman Mars was there. Yeah, did you get
to meet him? Huh? I didn't what I couldn't find?
Oh yeah, that's right. I meant to tell you. He
tweeted that. Like the low point was that he kept
(45:15):
missing you. Sorry I forgot to do so, Like I
looked around for him, and I guess we just missed
each other. I emailed on the other day he was sad. So.
Roman has a design and architecture podcast called Invisible, which
is great. Yeah, he did it cool and about the
twin towers on the rete and it was like he
got his hands on like a recording of the sound
they made, like swaying creaking. It was really cool. Well,
(45:39):
and the cool thing about that show is you don't
have to be into design or architecture to to think
it's an awesome show. Yeah, I just encourage you to
listen to it. Uh. And then the comedians there, Maria Bamford,
who's a stalwart at maximon Con. She's great Maria Bamford
dot com. Cameron Esposito did the morning Trivia with me.
She stepped up and co hosted UM. She uh sports
(46:01):
the side mullet, which he has coined that term like
all shaved on one side and hangs down on the other.
And she is super sweet and very funny and I'm
really rooting for her in her career. It is the
real Cameron Esposito dot com, uh w comal Bell w
comal Bell dot com. He has an upcoming show on
(46:23):
f X this fall, his brand new TV show premiering
after Louis So he's like, he's set kind of crap
in his fans right now, but I'm very exciting time
for him. It was cool to meet him at the
stage and the name of Kamal show is totally biased
and um. It premieres August nine at eleven pm on
FX That was a huge plug chuck uh, Steve A G.
(46:48):
Did you watch a Sarah Silverman show here there? He
was one of the neighbors, the two guys, the two
gay guys. He was like kind of a big slovenly dude.
Oh you're thinking of um Steve e Ag Okay, okay,
but he's very funny and um like all the other
comedians were doing this very like not avant garde. It's
(47:08):
very interesting, sort of different style of comedy. And then
he gets up there and starts making like poop and
marijuana jokes, which is refreshing for me. You can follow
him on Twitter at Steve A G. And that's a
g E or Steve a G dot tumbler dot com.
Chris Fairbanks performed Chris Fairbanks dot com. He was really great.
Didn't get to meet him, but he was super funny.
And of course John Hodgman follow John at Hodgeman, listen
(47:33):
to judge John Hodgeman. Can buy his books the areas
of my Expertise more information than you require, that is all.
And what's his website? I don't know. It's it's not that,
it's all. It's areas of my Expertise dot com. I
believe Okay, and John stepped up as usual and we
did a fun uh pub trivia together and uh, it's
(47:53):
just a great time, you know, Hodgi Oh yeah, good,
good dude, He's a great dude. I'm glad you had
a good time, Chuck. It was fun and it was
it wasn't quite last year with Upright Citizen's Brigade, Andy
Richter Like that was huge for me just personally. This
probably would have been bigger for you because of h
MST three K. Yeah, but they sent me an email
(48:17):
and they said to say hello and that you guys
are great. That is really something. Yeah, that is very nice.
So support all these people, support Jesse Thorne and his empire.
They're all good folks doing great work. I couldn't couldn't
support nicer people. Yeah, the next time you see a
knockoff Greucci wallet being sold on the street, to purchase it,
because the funds probably go to Jesse Thorn and to
(48:39):
provide for his family. That's right. Um, let's see, I
don't even know what to call for best disco song ever? Sure,
how about best overlooked disco song ever? Because yeah, I
mean we've all heard by Robin Fly and all the
other ones that we we mentioned in this episode Nights
on Broadways. Mind okay, Um, you can tweet to us.
You can well, you can tweech us s y s
(49:01):
K podcast. You can join us on Facebook at facebook
dot com slash stuff you should know, um, and you
can send us an email right right, I'll give you
the email address. Send a second, but Chuck, I want
to play us out with what I think is the
greatest discos song of all time. All right, what's your
A taste of honeyes? Fogi? Yogi yogi? So you got
(49:21):
that plan right now? You can send us an email
to Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com for more on
(49:56):
this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff
works dot com
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