Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, this is Chris bamber Bauer and you're listening
to the Shirley You Can't Be Serious Podcast with my
friends Jason Colvin and James D. Graves Party On Dudes.
Speaker 2: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Surely You Can't
Be Serious Podcast Special Edition Five Minutes of Fire. We
are here talking about the lyrics of We Didn't Start
the Fire by Billy Joel. We're covering only five minutes
at a time, which is about to link with the song,
so it works out kind of nicely. So please join
us as we dive into some new lyrics today.
Speaker 3: All right, guys, So here are the topics that we're
going to be covering today. Tuscanini, Docron, d NBN, food,
falls and rock around the Clock. Around the Clock.
Speaker 2: Okay, Jason, tell me what you can about Tuscanini. All right.
Speaker 3: Hero Tuscanini was an Italian conductor once can I get
the Conductors and is known as one of the most
acclaimed musicians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Was known
for his intensity, perfectionism, musical ear, and photographic memory. Was
called the greatest conductor in the world by Benito Mussolini.
In nineteen nineteen, but in nineteen thirty one he refused
to conduct a Fascist piece and was forced to leave Italy.
From there, he moved to New York became the conductor
of the New York Opera House. Later became the conductor
of the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Here's the interesting thing. In
nineteen fifteen, he will returned to Italy was booked on
the Lusitania liner. This was sunk by the Germans and
effectively started World War One.
Speaker 2: Our entry into it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, it got America involved, but he had to
make a change at the last second and took a
different ship. He's actually known and kind of as an
innovator because he would conduct opera on the radio, for
live broadcasting and for records. In nineteen forty six, he
returns to Milan and in the city's most famous opera house,
Life Oscala. He inaugurated the theaters first season after World
War Two, after it had been bombed in nineteen forty three.
Tuscanini returned to conduct it after sixteen years in exile,
and it is basically thought of as the beginning of
Italy's reconstruction. Died January sixteenth, nineteen fifty seven at the
age of eighty nine. All Right, d what can you
tell me about dacron?
Speaker 2: Dacron or polyethylene tarifthalate is what you and I know
as polyester. Jason, did you know that you can take
old plastic bottles and turn them into clothes?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's what happened in nineteen fifty four. It
became the new wonder material. It hit the market, and
then just twenty years later, John Revolta was wearing a
white polyester suit pitting that dance move for all of
us to see in Saturday Night Fever. Be sure and
go check out our Saturday Night Fever episode. All right, Jason,
what can you tell me about dnbien Pugh and Wyatt
fell So.
Speaker 3: Dmbienfu is a reference to the climactic battle between March thirteenth,
nineteen fifty four and May seventh, nineteen fifty four. It
was fought between the French Union Colonial Far East Expeditionary
Corps and the Viet Min Communist revolutionaries. So the French
had established a stronghold at d'en bien Fu in late
November of nineteen fifty three. They were trying to disrupt
the trade lines between China and Laos, which were both
communists at this time. So after a while it did
not disrupt the trade route, and this stronghold was surrounded
by the Viet min The final assault came May first,
nineteen fifty four. Viet Minh took it over. That ended
the First Indo China War. All right, Dee, what can
you tell me about Rock around the clock? One, two,
three o'clock, four o'clock Rock said, seven o'clock, Hey o'clock.
Speaker 2: R Well, I can tell you that it is by
Bill Haley and the Commets. I think it's cool that
Billy Joel has given us in all of this history,
he's also given us a history of rock and roll. Now,
Bill Haley had grown up loving country music. Also born
blind in one eye. He got a recording label and
they said, we want you guys to record a version
of the song Rocket eighty eight. But Bill Haley was like,
this is an R and B song and we're a
white guy band. What are we doing here? And he's like,
I really think this is going to do something great. Well,
they put a little boogie to it, they put a
little country style to it, and they released it and
it is now considered probably the first rock and roll
song that was released. That song just sold a few
thousand copies regionally where it was but Bill Haley continued
using this kind of formula of taking R and B songs,
putting some country twang to it, and developing this because
all of the younger teenagers really loved this style of
music and they were trying to appeal to the crowd
that was buying their music. Rock around the Clock was
another song that they released, but it only sold about
seventy five thousand copies when it first got released. What
happens then is they released the song Shake, Rattle, End Roll,
which becomes a huge hit for them, which then results
in Rock around the Clock being part of the closing
credits in the very famous movie The Blackboard Jungle. That
reinvigorated the song. People became obsessed with it, they re
released it, and it became the biggest hit for Bill
Haley in the comments of their career. He went on
to lots of fame, but ultimately, because of bad business decisions,
he ended up owing money to the irs having no
money and spent the next twenty years trying to pay
this back. But then in nineteen seventy four song becomes
famous again when it is the intro song to a
TV show we all grew up with called Happy Days
You got It. Fortunately, by that time, his irs debts
had been paid back and so when it hit the
charts again, he got all that money and was able
to not die in poverty. Okay, guys, that does it
for today's episode. Join us next time for five minutes
of fire. Hey guys, we hope you enjoyed the episode.
Just to let you guys know, it literally takes us
hours of research just to give you five minutes worth
of podcast. So if you wouldn't mind helping us out,
you can do so by joining our Patreon page.
Speaker 3: Go to patreon dot com slash Shirly Podcast and help
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and we're not asking for something for nothing. When
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Patreon fans. So if you can help out, we would
really appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Thanks guys,