Hudson River Radio dot com. You have the right to remain silent. I
choose to wave that right. How does south Side shot from the Asberry Jukes.
Hey, this is Tom Chapin. Hello, this is teaching in on
Rock and Roll History Show. You're listening right now, everybody. Welcome back
to the Rock and Roll History Show on Hudson River Radio on Brian Harrowitz coming
to you this week again from beautiful Biloxi, Mississippi, and we are going
to be doing Cops and Robbers Part two. But as always, before we
jump in, allow me to introduce all the crambones that are joining us here
tonight. First and foremost from the Richter Observatory. He believes every Olympic event
should have one regular person in it. Just as a reference, Neil Richter
is here. I would volunteer for that. Yeah, one regular guy.
Like can you imagine if you do, everybody keep hilarious. Yeah, it
would keep the stadium oup until the last marathon shows up later. I've been
I've been called a lot of things, but a regular guy never been one
of it. But that's why we keep you around, and I'm proud of
that. You go from paranormally yours. She wants to know if two vegans
get into an argument, is it's still called a beef cal nucleus. Sorry,
good question from the silver screen. She saw a man walk into a
bar. He lost three fingers in a tragic accident, and he has the
bartender if he'd ever be able to drive again. The bartender said probably,
but I wouldn't count on it. Mercedes Cancers here, everybody from her secret
bunker. She started doing lunges to stay in shape. It's a big step
forward. Becky Weisman's here. That's a good one. Brian, and of
course our newest official Crambone. She figured out that when Dwayne Johnson needs a
tool to cut with rock, pays for scissors. Jesse was a good one.
How's everybody doing to me? And joining us again? A special co
host from down here in Mississippi. He is a police sergeant since we're doing
ops and robbers, and a former Paramidi partner of mine. He knows the
difference between Harley and Hoover. One of them has the dirt bag on the
outside. Your boot is here, I'm I think, well, welcome back,
thanks for joining us anytime? All right? I think we should go
ahead and hop right back into Cops and Robbers, and Jess, you are
going to lead us off this week, so it's all you all right,
Well, I know everyone loves my how did I come to pick this song?
Stories? And I gotta tell you, this was a tough one.
So I started doing research for this episode, and I all the songs that
started to come up as suggestions were so polarized. They were either very anti
police and had themes against you know, police brutality and we're talking about that
theme. Or they were very you know, supportive songs and very like we're,
you know, we're the men and women in blue type of thing.
And I really didn't feel like getting into politics and doing anything quite that heavy,
so I thought I picked a song that was not nearly so heavy,
And actually, I think I'm kind of wrong. As I started to learn
a little bit more about this and the more I listened to it, there's
some some deep themes in this one too. So the song is called dream
Police by Cheap Trick. It was released on in September of nineteen seventy nine
on the album by the same name. The genre is considered to be classic
rock or power rock or pop rock. It was written by Rick Nielsen.
It charted at number twenty six on the Billboard Hot one hundred and the B
side to the album that song was called Heaven Tonight. So the themes,
you know what, let's take a listen and then we'll talk more about it.
Is she nice? Don't thank us? I trust awaiting puppy there be
for me when you say all say say side, I pray side to be
in my bay dreams of the jo oh t place because they're listening to me.
Was sleep and little spying on me? Die away with me? And
I say said, I try to sleep their wide away. They won't let
me alone. They don't get paid to take vacations. I let me alone.
They find me. I try to hide. They won't let me alone.
They person give me that a judge and jury on any wanted. It's
a waiting for me. They're looking for me, say say side by the
side, but the dam police stick come to be in the the dream police
stick coming to the sname the dream plays the day police. So Rick Nielsen
did a couple of different interviews about you know what the song was actually about
in a book called Reputation is a Fragile Thing by authors Haze and Sharp that
was published in nineteen ninety eight. Nielsen is related to have said that the
song was about taking a heavy thought that of a quick bit of rim sleep,
snatched right before waking up, and putting it into a pop format.
In a later article in twenty fifteen by author Dave Swanson in forty Years of
Cheap Trick, dream Police Becomes a Belated Smash, Nielsen also said that the
song was about big brother watching you. So even though it's a very poppy
song, which I think that the band really hit the nail on the head
in terms of wanting that, you know, pop kind of catchy song.
I read so many comments that this song is considered to be cheap Tricks like
number three hit and too. I don't know if you guys were familiar with
it, but I didn't even know this song. And I've been to c
Cheap Trick a couple of times, so pretty pretty significant. The song was
called everything from described as powerhouse, magnificent, a tour to force there's it's
it's really a significant hit for them. But my absolute favorite quote about you
know the song itself was from Tom McGuinness of AllMusic who called it a tongue
and cheek or Welly and nightmare, and I just thought that was like the
coolest description and it really kind of reflects the paranoia of the singer. But
then you think, like is it paranoia or is it this whole concept of
getting in trouble for you know, your thoughts and like what's going on in
your head when you're not in control of your thoughts and who's watching and who's
monitoring all that stuff. So not as light as I thought, but definitely
poppy sound and kind of catchy, catchy tune. So I don't know what
you guys think, but I almost picked that one. I really like that
song. Paranoia can work to your advantage sometimes. Absolutely, you kind of
got to keep your eyes open all the time. You never know. It's
not paranoid if they are watching you, Actually it is. You're just right
about it. Just because your paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get exactly
there you go, And how would you know if you're not paranoid? You
gotta pay attention. But I think, yeah, that the writer that said,
you know, the Orwellian, brave new world dystopian, you know,
Nightmare Future. It totally it totally. It was it was like, you
know, like a sci fi pop song. You know, it had all
all the right elements and the production is just fantastic and it's great. Great
song. Yeah, a song. All right, thank you, Jess Becky,
you are up. Well. I have to say I did my research
for the topic, and the songs we were just too sad and tragic for
me, you know, with all these crimes happening and or people wrongly accused.
So I went in a completely different direction and went with something completely fictional.
So the song I chose is Invincible by Pat Benatar. The song is
actually the theme song from the movie The Legend of Billy Jean from nineteen eighty
five. Now, I admit I thought I had seen the movie, but
apparently I think I just saw the video over and over and over and never
actually watched the movie. So I will give you a very brief synopsis of
the movie. The movie stars Helen's Later and Chians Later when he was super
young. It was it was released in nineteen eighty five, just like the
song, and so they're brother and sister in Texas and Billy Jean, you
know, she's pretty and the jerky rich dude at schools hitting on her,
and the little brother throws milkshake at him and he gets mad and he and
his clique of people come steal a little brother's scooter and they trash it.
They don't return it. She goes to the cops and said, hey,
you know, my brother's scooter is stolen. Okay, they say, don't
worry about it. So the scooter comes back all destroyed, and then the
brother is all beaten up. This is by the rich dude at her high
their high school kids or whatever. Yea, So, okay, scooter is
destroyed and it costs all of six hundred and eight dollars to prepare. This
is in nineteen eighty five, so they don't have the money for it,
and so Billy Jean goes to the rich guy and says, you have to
pay for this. And he goes to his dad and says, oh,
you know, you have to pay for this, and Billy Jean what Willie
Jean asks the dad for the money, and he tries to rape her,
and the little brother comes in. He was he was going in the cash
register trying to just he thought, oh, I'll just steal the money,
but he finds a gun instead, and so he it acts the guy who
owns it, the rich rich kid's dad who's trying to you know, rape
the sister. He's like, oh yeah, well, you know, that's
not even loaded. And so Billy Jean's brother just goes, oh okay,
boom, you know, goes off and then the guy gets shot in the
shoulder, and then oh no, so we gotta run away. So Billie
Jean and her brother's the character's name is Banks, and two of their other
friends they run off and they're they're on the run. Then they're like fugitives
because of this situation with this guy getting shot. Anyway, then they take
a fake hostage who apparently is the das son and another teenager, and you
know, like they make all these videos and stuff like we're demanding, you
know, we demand justice. But the thing I forgot to mention is in
the beginning of the movie Billy Jean, she just looks like a teenager,
a teenage girl, long blonde hair, really pretty and stuff. But then
once she's on the run, she cuts her hair and she's like, got
this crew cut, and she puts on this crazy outfit of a scuba top
and these you know, army boots and all the stuff. She's tough and
they say that she's like a modern day Joan of arc. So anyway,
I won't I won't borrow you anymore with this. But in the end they
get I don't know, I guess the guy, the dad, the guys
I have to find that. I don't remember the character's name. Hang on,
let me describing. And I remember, I think when we first got
cable when I was young. I think they must have shown it like repeatedly.
Yes, I remember. The character is Piet Is the day. I
guess that's his last name. Uh. He offers in the end, you
know, to make things right, pay and she's like, I don't want
your money. And this was anyway, this was in Texas. That's like
gym class, isn't it. Yeah, And the brother gets shot in the
end in this kind of mix up where he's posing as Billy Jean when they
bring the few, the the hostage back or whatever. I didn't watch the
movie, so I can't really elaborate. All I know is it's about young
kids going on the run. And so the title song by Pat Benattar Invincible
is is Oh, I forgot to tell you who was written by, because
that's important. It was written by Holly Knight and Simon Klemy, and Holly
said that she had gotten the script so she she had a direction of what
to write about. So when we listen to the song, you'll hear,
you know, this like this power theme of like we're not going to give
up, We're invincible, and it's like this Billie Jean modern day Joan of
Arc on the run with her kids, and she inspires all the other kids
in the town to, you know, like be tough and strong and fight
for justice. So let's hear the song. This bloody real names mystery the
Sunda spoons. What are we waiting for? What? Ever? By hope,
what are we waiting? We get apart? They set mos to which
we will be smo in the shutter dream. You cannot just by welcome,
scream to satis, by what do we running? All? We've got gonna
right to be angry? What are we running? When? No, wen
we get the place and to all die situation, we will be in the
never with the fall conviction, no sacrifice, to all die situation, we
will be won and help. What do we run a when les so we
can't run to anymore, we cannot part, and the man day and you
all die, We will be and will fo no SI fight and you want
to die you wi mmmmmmmm. So as we were hearing the song, we
were just having a little sidebar about most people who feel that the movie is
terrible. So I don't feel so bad that I didn't see it, Mercedes
have it sounds terrible. I've not seen it, but I don't think it's
mandatory. Yeah, it's I think it really is a terrible movie. I
mean, we've talked about movies and songs before, and I did go and
watch the movies, but I couldn't do it with this one. So I
just launched the video again. And Pat Benatar is just, you know,
incredible, what a voice this woman has. I love Pat Benatar. This
was if I didn't mention, it was her seventh album. It was titled
seven the Hard Way. It was one album where she was she said it
was the most expensive album she's ever made and it sold the fewest copies.
And in the video, she you know, she looks really great, and
I guess she was trying to go in a different direction from like the whole
spandex thing and stuff that she you know, her image as she started in
the early days. I know we've talked about Pat Benatar before, so I
don't want to bore you guys with it, but just a refresher for Radio
Land, is that Pat Benatar, our neighbor, was born in Greenport,
Greenpoint, Brooklyn. She grew up lint in her Long Island. She was
a trained classical singer metzeo soprano, you know, and she just has an
awesome voice. She was going to go to Juilliard instead, she went to
Stony Brook for a year in health education. She dropped out and married her
high school sweetheart, Dennis Benettar that it was a short lived union. Was
that Spider, Oh Spider is Neil Giraldo. So that so this Dennis Bennettar
guy, He was a high school sweetheart who she married and he was in
the army and they lived in Virginia. Actually they lived in Devon's, Massachusetts,
then Virginia. And she was inspired by singing a concert with Liza Minnelli
to you know, go ahead full force on her professional singing career. Came
back to New York and got her big break as she was performing at Catch
a Rising Star and she had a three year contract there and then got picked
up by Chrysalis Records and when she started, you know, it's seventy nine
with her own musical career. That's when she met Neil Giraldo, her husband's
who is an awesome guitarist and he goes by the nickname Spider, and you
can see things like he plays a guitar where it actually says Spider on it,
which is really cool. And they were both together inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame in twenty twenty two. You can see an episode
Crossroads with Pat and Martina McBride on CMT, which is pretty cool as well.
And I didn't know this. Two things I didn't know. I just
want to mention, is that okay? She Apparently there was a musical called
Invincible that Neil Giraldo did all the orchestration and it's a modern day rendition of
Romeo and Juliet and it was in based on the movie No which is so
funny because it's got the stake, it's got the same name as the song
from the movie, but it has nothing to do with the movie, which
is good because I also read that in concert she would say that this is
this is a great song from a terrible movie. I don't know if that's
true. I did see her live in Manchester, New Hampshire, and it
was awesome. She did not sing this song, which was okay, or
maybe she did, I don't remember. I just remember like being in that
variety. It was at the time Verizon Wireless Arena huge like for hockey games,
and just thinking, oh my gosh, I'm bringing the same air as
Pat Benatar. I can't even believe this. I was so excited and oh,
it's just so awesome. Anyway, the other thing I was gonna say
is that Pat and Spider are going to be on. Excuse me, I
always get froggy when it's my turn. Austin City Limits, September twenty four.
I can't wait to see that. So I don't know when it will
air, but that's when they're going to be on. I don't know if
I left anything out, but she's if you don't mind. With regards to
the Terrible movie, did it have Did it result in a spike in sales
of scooby gear and scuba related clothing? No, but you know what,
Brian, I just remember the most important thing I was going to say about
it that I completely forgot. So listen carefully because you have to answer this
quiz. One of the characters in the movie is named Putter, played by
yard Lee Smith, a young yard Lee Smith. Uh huh does that name
ring a bell? Uh? Yeah, And Brian will tell us who Yard
Lee Smith is? Lisa Simpson. That's right, Simpson. Yep. So
there's the redeeming factor of this movie. In addition to the awesome song by
Pat Benatar's, yard Lee Smith was in it, and yep, she she
went, she's down there. Remember. I just I don't remember the plot.
I just remember watching it, and I remember Yardly because she had like
a shorter kind of haircut. I just remember. Yeah, I don't know.
It must have been early cable days or something. Must have been a
real cheap movie because it was so bad that they could just show it over
and over again. Yeah, and you know they do. Apparently they have
shown it over and over and people. Even though it's considered a terrible movie
by most, it's also considered a great movie by so many. And if
you do some research on this song online, you'll read so many comments by
people about oh, this is a great movie. Oh I loved this movie.
I used to watch this all the time in the eighties and this was
so awesome. So, you know, all right, more power to anybody
who enjoyed this movie. I'm sorry, you know, if I if I
heard anybody's feelings, I like, I said, I haven't seen it,
but I'm getting you haven't. I'm guessing to watch it now. If you
did watch it back then, it would not be as good as you remember,
wouldn't hold up, you know, I'm thinking, I'm guessing not so
much. It's ninety minutes the probably aged Badley House. Yeah, although it
might change your fashion. You might start wearing scuba gear out. I kind
of want to see with all that's about. Yeah, I'm sort of curious
now, say, haven't been scuba diving a number of times that trying first
of all, trying to put your dive skin on is not easy, but
they're so hot if you're not in the water that it just seems like the
dumbest choice to be out there fighting bad guys in scooba gear. You might
as well just cover yourself in saran wrap. Well, that is why she
cut the sleeves off, and that makes it really tough, like it's like
a Scooba vest because she cut the sleeves off. Yeah, but you could
do that, you know, with a cotton T shirt and a movement of
a cotton T shirt. It's not vigilante Joan of arc cool. You know
you have to have if you steal it and then cut the sleeves off,
now you now it's larceny and criminal mischief, so you're double criminal. Sounds
like the Warriors. Sounds like one of the Warriors gangs. This sounds like
the conversation is going out longer than the movie. Did it better than the
movie was? Well? Yeah, I think so indeed. But yeah,
I would say if you haven't seen it, that's okay. I think the
song more than makes up for it because such an awesome song, and pad
Vanantar is such an awesome person, and congrats to her revinally making the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame last year, And that's what I choose for my
fictional crime fugitive song. All Right, she's so good. And I think
I've said this before on the show, but I'm going to repeat it.
Did I tell you I was at her release party for her house record.
You have to tell us. Yeah, it was very cool. Yeah,
I mean, well we got pressed copies. I mean, you know,
pressings of the first record, which I still have. It's like unlabeled and
I still have it somewherews. Oh wow, yeah for Christmas. I just
look up that's she's. You know, if you think about people you want
to meet in your lifetime, if you have like this short list, like
she's at the top of mine, it's like, oh if I could just
have a conversation with her, and I just I'm so inspired by her voice
and her life and everything. So I will be careful about be careful about
meeting your heroes. What's up? And be careful about meeting your heroes,
Oh, because when they crush your dreams and pop your bubble. Yeah whatever,
crush your bubble. Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, you know,
I met Hart and I had my picture taken with them, but it was
a behind the scenes thing at one of the concerts. But they didn't actually
talk so really at all at all. I thought it should be a meet
and Greek, but it was more like a stand and get your picture taken
thing. That's rude. Yeah, I was really disappointed. Wow, I'll
tell you about Sorry sorry, probably, but I tell you about the kiss,
meat and greet that they did during COVID. Did you say there was
glass or something. There was glass between the band and the person getting their
picture taken, so they were like like staying. That's like they were in
like in plastic like a Barbie dollar would be or something. It was hilarious.
I mean, kiss you know what the band in the bubble, Oh
hilarious. You know, they're so badass and there they are there in full
makeup and they lean against the glass. Now they're going to smush the makeup.
And then they got a kiss in print that my friend went and I
got it. He sent me a picture that would have been funny. He
sent me a picture and I was dying. Thing I ever saw. It's
just you and a giant reflection when the flat go off and you're just standing
and you're standing there, I swear kisses behind me and everybody's like yeah,
uh huh, yeah right, yeah, you're just taking the wax museum behind
the class exactly. That would have been a better experience. It sounds like
crazy, all right, Thank you, Betty. We went off topic.
You're welcome, Brandon. Just a little bit, all right, I think
we all need a breather. We're gonna take a real quick break, and
we'll be back with more right after this. Hudson River Radio dot Com.
It beats listening to nothing. This concludes the first part of this cassette.
Please turn the cassette over and begin again on side two. Hudson River Radio
dot Com. And welcome back to the Rock and Roll History Show tonight.
It's part two of Cops and Robbers and we are up to Gail, So
Gail take it away. Hopefully my colleagues will correct me if I'm wrong.
But I don't think we've ever talked about Adam and the Ants on the Rock
and Roll History Show. I don't think no. But they're awesome. Thank
you Gail for talking about them. Well, I think I'm the one who
suggested this topic, and this song is what made me suggest the topic because
I get inspired usually when I'm driving two or from my office, because I'm
an old fashioned person that still listens to the radio in the car and I
listen to a public radio station and they have all different music that they play
from different genres and different times and it's so a lot of times I'll hear
a song that I haven't heard in forever, and this one just hit me
because I remember the music video. Adam ants actual given name was Stuart Leslie
Goddard, which I never knew. Doesn't this sound like a professor or something
sounds like? And before he formed Adam and the Ants, he played bass
in a pub rock group called Bazuka Show. And I'm sure Neil and or
Mercedes probably know this already. Actually I had not heard that. You know,
yeah, he was around the you know, the early British punk scene,
but I did not know about Bazuka Joe. Well, as you mentioned
the British punk scene. What Bazuka Joe was really known for now was for
headlining the show at which the Sex Pistols played their first gig on the sixth
of November nineteen seventy five at Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design.
But Bazuoka Joe disbanded soon after that. Adam and the Ants formed in London
in nineteen seventy seven, so that was literally just the year before I lived
there for a little bit. Now, there were two versions of the band,
both of them were fronted by Adam Ant between nineteen seventy seven and nineteen
eighty two. The first version of the band was founded in May nineteen seventy
seven, and they were called The Ants Ants not Aunts, because because in
the U, well in the US we say ants and ants, but other
places they say ants and aunts. You know, aunt being your mother's sister
or your father's sister, whichever, you know. Anyway, they were called
the Ants until November of seventy seven, but they changed their style from punk
punk punk rock to post punk and new wave. Now, I didn't know
what's the difference between punk rock and post punk. I came first. J
Well, exactly there was a difference. I try, I try. The
post punk new wave is that when they plugged in the synthesizers, Oh okay,
they went well. I doubt they were acoustic before that. But anyway,
so uh, as I said, they changed their style from punk rock
to post punk and new wave, and they released one album. The final
lineup of this version consisted of Dave Barbarossa, Matthew Ashman, and Lee Gorman,
but they all left the band in January nineteen eighty at the suggestion of
their manager Malcolm McLaren and they formed Bow Wow Wow, Mmm Wow, which
was to me, to me that really, I can't even remember what the
song was it they had out, but I remember the name. Yeah,
they were. They were epitome of eighties music now because I'm not real familiar
with the whole punk and new wave genre wasn't my thing back then. This
is the same Adam and the Ants that did what that could. Yes,
yes, I had a picture of him up on my wall so I could
have a good model or how to put my eyeliner on in the morning.
I mean, how many well there are a few, but how many men
can be gorgeous while wearing makeup? Like three of us right now. I've
never seen any of you in eyeliner. Yeah, well, I don't know
if he can handle it. I'm getting I'm getting a visual on it,
and it's a little scary, but that's okay. Anyway. After those guys
left to form Bow Wow Wow, the newer version of Adam and the Ants
included guitarist Marco Pironi and drummer A producer Chris Hughes. And I hope somebody
knows what this is because I don't. They were noted for the use of
Burundi drums. M anybody, no no idea, and I didn't have a
chance to look it up anyway, So they that version existed from nineteen eighty
to nineteen eighty two, and they achieved huge commercial success in the UK their
music videos, which I remember as being awesome, awesome, awesome, creative.
They received a lot of airplay on MTV and apparently Adamant appeared as a
guest VJ on the station, and they're associated over here in the US,
they're associated with the Second British Invasion. Now, of course, the song
I chose because we're doing Cops and Robbers is called stand and Deliver and it
was the released as the lead single from their third studio album, which was
Prince Charming, and that came out in nineteen eighty one. It was their
first number one hit in the UK. Now, the phrase stand and deliver
your money or your life used in the lyrics is associated with highwaymen in eighteenth
century England, and there's where we get the Cops and Rubbers reference, because
they're obviously the robbers. It became their first number one and it remained there
for five weeks. It was listed as the third best selling single of nineteen
eighty one, and it has sold one point zero three million copies in the
UK. On the US Dance Chart, Stand and Deliver peaked at number thirty
eight. I have a couple more little facts to give you. Let's listen
to the song. I spend my catchup looking having your attention. But take
this conection next. People think the same question, So what's the I robery
when nothing is must takes? What the big mistake is my mistee? Dandy
homeband some time excuses but dick meetings philosophies where on the shows loses with the
dandy huband hither qutation the boss joined out in secreationl your soul, that's say
my mom, that's my, that's my, my my, that's his songs
are always so much fun, oh my gosh, full of energy, just
crazy fun, awesome videos. And I found out something that I thought maybe
but I didn't know this was true. When I saw the video for Stand
and Deliver, it made me think of the Dennis Moore sketch from Monty Python's
Flying Circus. Absolutely and and guess what it was heavily influenced by that sketch.
I mean you figure the song came out in nineteen eighty one. The
Monty Python stuff was probably in the nineteen seventies. Yeah, nineteen seventy three
was the Monty Python sketch Dennis Moore, which was about a highwayman that was
stealing loupins, which are flowers. For those that people don't know, loopins
are flowers and that's what Dennis Moore was stealing and telling people to stand and
of her. And part of there was a song that went with it,
Dennis Moore Denis Moore Riding through the Night. But that's that's another hole.
Yeah, I remember the sketch. I think it was on one of the
one of their albums too, one of Monty Python, remember, you know,
playing you know over and over. I just the connection is so cool
because I love Monty Python and I love adam Ant, and what a wonderful
what a wonderful connection they are now. In two thousand and three, adam
Ant embarked on an ill fated attempt to raise awareness of the plight of the
endangered mountain gorilla in Central Africa. He reworked Stand and Deliver into Save the
Gorilla. Say they Go, Rula, But Apparently it didn't go over too
well. Imagine didn't catch didn't catch on like no. It was supposed to
have been the lead track of a five track EP, with the remaining four
tracks all being covers chosen for a jungle slash primate theme. I would have
been like grabbed d banana. There's yeah, there's a lot. So two
thousand copies of that were pressed. Co writer Marco Peroni and the original song
publishers yah My Publishing blocked its release just days before its intended release on seventeenth
November, and the EP was withdrawn after paying for it. Wow. Yeah,
yeah, So I very highly suggest people look up the video for Adam
and the Ants doing Stand and Deliver and look up the Monty Python sketch.
Dennis Moore's probably on YouTube somewhere, and I think you will very much enjoy
both. I'll be doing that. Yeah, that's serious. Yeah, you're
gonna like it. You're gonna like it. Trust me. It's just a
flesh I know. I know this might this might shock you, But I
actually saw Adam and the Ants live. I've been concert and oh I'm so
jealous. It was it was sometime in the eighties. Obviously it was.
It was like later on and you know, and I had heard all the
songs and his luck, Oh that'll be fun. Now I hate to you
know, maybe burst your bubble or whatever. But they did not translate live
as well as they did on on record. Oh I can imagine. I
can imagine. The stage set of it. It was kind of like this,
uh it kind of looked like the Hollywood squares. Okay, like it
was like this, all these these like you know, boxes stacked up and
each member of the band was in one of the boxes. If I recall
it was was he at least the center square. It was chaotic. I
actually it was. It was like I was, I was really kind of
like, what what's going on here? You know? I mean there was
I think there were there were a lot of drums. I don't know if
there were those uh yeah, yeah, but I mean, which makes sense
because that was predominant even on their records. There was a lot of a
lot of percussion going on, which was you know, pretty neat. But
yeah, I had no idea what was going on and what kind of you
know, made the whole thing goes sour on me? Like I was,
and I wasn't that old back then, but I felt like I was had
gone to grade school because I was just a bunch of screaming pre teen girls
or you know. Yoh no, I said, I think I'm in the
wrong place at the wrong time. But so yeah, and I was kind
of disappointed, unfortunately, But I still like the records, and you know,
I think he's cool. Yes, and let's bring back that eyeliner.
Yoh yeah, everybody there eyeliner. Still I'm still horrible at putting eyeliner on,
and I usually give up because I just I look ridiculous. It takes
a lot of practice. Tutorials coming would that now it's a second career.
He could put you know, tutorials on how to do eyeliner and you know
makeup, makeup, tip nail. There's ten billions, yes, yes,
and you really got to time it right, the whole lighter to the eye
because it's been a long time since. I don't know. I would.
I would take a reverse approach and just cover everything and then remove what you
don't want. There you go, that might actually work, So I don't
know, it couldn't be any worse. This next week, Well, you
know, somebody will take that idea, Brian, and they'll go on YouTube
and it will go viral, like, oh, let's you know for eyeliner,
just like make the whole eye black and then should all removed? Say
it out loud, that big that eyeliner company, I think Sharpie. I
think they're called all the way around. And then you take it all one
of the little prep pads and you just wipe off what you don't need.
It'll be like one of those things you used to buy when you were kids
and you would scrape off all the black and it had the color underneath.
Yes, yeah, okay, how much? What what can we give Brian
to do that next week? Banana banana? That sounds good. That seems
fair. You've got to do that tutorial, all right, We'll see how
it goes with the Sharpie you think. Oh and Becky's going to wear the
scuba outfit from Billy Jean. Oh yeah, but in hot pink and black.
Yes, I think that's more than fair. Yeah. I actually did
have I had a swimsuit, just not a scuba suit, but a scuba
inspired pink and black swimsuit in nineteen eighty eight mins three years after this movie.
So I missed that. I missed the whole look, you know,
like the Scooba thing. It was great you were bringing it back, Yeah
you were. Okay, if I don't see this, I'm gonna be really
upset. So I don't know about anybody else. They think I'm not going
to do this. Oh I'm excited. We know you. Yeah all right,
well thank you gal. Now you gave me a whole bunch of homework
to do, yea, And you set the stage perfectly for me to bring
everything crashing down into a horrible mood, as it is my specialty. So
yeah, I've been trying to figure out what's cups and rubbers about this song.
Yeah, yeah, So well, why don't we dig into it and
let's find out. We're going to go back to the early nineteen thirties and
a New York City public school teacher named Abel Mirapole who wrote a poem that
he called Bitter Fruit, which was inspired by a haunting photograph he had seen
of two young black men hanging from a tree because they had been lynched.
Talk about going in one hundred and eighty degree different thing. Now, that
wasn't the criminal part, because, believe it or not, lynch wasn't illegal
at the time, so the poem Bitter Fruit was first published in a nineteen
thirty seven edition of the New York Teachers Union newsletter. Mirapol was also an
amateur musician, and he set his poem to music. A nightclub owner heard
the song and passed it on to Billie Holiday, who sang in her act
almost every night for months. She wanted to record it, but her label,
Columbia Records, wouldn't touch it because even though the song didn't specifically mention
lynching, it was very provocative and very political. A smaller company named Commodore
Records agreed to record it under a new title, Strange Fruit. It never
had significant airtime. Radio stations in the South refused to play it outright,
and radio stations in the North were afraid to stir up controversy, so most
of them avoided it as well. But even without the support of radio,
the song struck a nerve with the public, and it made it to number
sixteen on the Billboard charts, which is unheard of for a song that had
no real commercial support. So it definitely affected people and it got people's attention.
But able Mirapole's story is even more complex. He was a Communist,
as were many New York City teachers at the time. Keep in mind this
is early nineteen forties, before World War Two, before McCarthyism. He wound
up getting called before a state committee investigating communism in public schools. The committee
wanted to know specifically if the American Communist Party paid him to write the song,
which they did not. Mirapole wound up leaving the Communist Party shortly thereafter,
and he also quit teaching in nineteen forty five. Later on, in
nineteen fifty three, after World War Two had ended and around the beginning of
the Cold War, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed for espionage, leaving behind
two young sons. You might remember that they were accused of passing sea of
the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. Later that year, at a Christmas
party, Mirapole was introduced to the two young sons, the two young Rosenbergs,
and within weeks they were living with him. He gave them a home
because they didn't have parents anymore. Given that McCarthyism was in full swing,
it was actually a pretty courageous thing to do, and I think it was
a very nice thing for him to do, because the kids had nothing to
do with any of it. Strange Fruit has been covered countless times, but
I thought we would go with the original by Billie Holiday. Billy was born
Eleanora Fagan in nineteen fifteen. She had a rough childhood, just way too
much to cover here on this show right now. She started performing in clubs
and Harlem as a teenager under her stage name, which she got from an
actress she liked, named Billy Dove, and the last name came from Clarence
Holiday, which is the man who was probably her father, but no one's
really sure. It was originally spelled h l I Day, but everybody got
it wrong, so she just changed it to Holiday, like we know now.
She had a unique way of phrasing and pronunciation, and she had the
ability to improvise with her voice, which brought her a lot of mainstream success
even though she had no formal training. Unfortunately, she had some major drug
problems which led to prison time and it wound up tanking her career. She
wound up developing crosis of the liver, and she died in nineteen fifty nine,
and she was only forty four years old, which is a real shame,
a career cut short. So she hit it big and came crashing back
down. So let's check out a really exciting, uplifting song about lynching,
written by a communist and sung by a convicted drug abuser. How's that for
a downer? Sian trees bear strange fruit, blood on leaves and blood at
the black bodies swinging in the side. Then breathe strange fruit hanging in the
mid from the poplar trees, past scene of the gallant south, the buching
ass and the twisted mouth set of magnolia sweet free. Then the sudden smell
of burnea flash he of fruit for the crows to plant Father together Father the
wind to set Father sent to father tree to draw. He a strange and
bitch Cora kind of makes you pausing place for a minute, doesn't it.
Oh yeah, yeah, thanks for setting me up for that girl. So
okay, I don't need George Orwell for nightmares tonight. Just let's say it
after that song. Yeah, it's brutal, and I think you can definitely
see why Billy Holliday wanted to record it. Yeah, well it's it's she
sings it. I mean, she's amazing. Yeah, but she sings it
so beautifully. Yeah, and you're you're mesmerized. It's like you have to
listen to it and like catch every word. Yeah, Now did she who
wrote the music for it or who arranged it? Do we know that?
Because I don't know who arranged that version? Was just certain points in there,
like that one spot where they just hit that one note on the piano
that accented that one word. That was cool. Yeah, and then yep,
thanks, Oh, you're welcome. That's what we do here pretty much
every week. Somebody has to pick it down and I try to pick the
down. He is down that I can all right, yea, what are
we doing after this? To this? Well, this is why I chose
a song about a fictional situation, because that's I did you know strange fruit
I read about and I was like this is just too heavy and depressing.
Yeah, but right good, she's legendary. Yeah, this is amazing.
Thanks a lot, Brian, You're welcome. You're welcome again. I'm going
to take it as a as a cue to pull the plug and we'll call
my night. Give everybody a lot to think about so they can start to
research therapists. Yeah, yeah, all right, well, thank you Crambones,
excellent selection as always, and thank you everybody for joining us here on
the Rock and Roll History Show. Don't forget to subscribe in your favorite podcast
app, and be sure to check out all the other shows we do with
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