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Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production

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of iHeartRadio.

1:00

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and

1:02

there's Chuck and Jerry's here too. And when

1:04

you put us all together, well

1:07

things get pretty great. How's

1:10

it going, man.

1:11

It's going great.

1:13

I've been listening to The Village People off and

1:15

on all day.

1:16

Yeah, same here and

1:28

what We're supposed to both come in. Sorry,

1:32

Chuck, did you pick this because

1:35

I cannot imagine that you weren't a

1:37

cute little seven year

1:39

old Village People fan. True,

1:43

So which one did you identify with the most?

1:46

Well?

1:47

I've told this story before because

1:49

I posted it on Instagram

1:52

way back when I talked about it.

1:55

But I still have a crayon

1:58

drawing of the Village People

2:02

because I would sit around and play

2:05

Cruising the record Cruising okay,

2:08

their third album, their third album, but the one with

2:11

YMCA and I Believe

2:13

in the Navy and like most

2:15

of their big hits outside of my favorite

2:17

Village People song, which is of course

2:19

Macho Man Sure such

2:22

a good song, And I

2:24

would just sit around and listen to Cruising and

2:27

stare at that record cover of

2:29

those guys you know on

2:32

the Horse and the most Cycle, the motorcycle

2:34

and the Bulldozer, and like I

2:36

would see them on American Bandstand

2:39

and Solid Gold and the

2:41

early music videos, and I would just I

2:43

thought they were the coolest, most

2:46

awesome dudes ever

2:49

in the world. And I would sit around and draw crayon

2:51

pictures of them, and I still have one of them.

2:53

Maybe I'll pint it on Instagram.

2:56

I'm sort of always laughed years later

2:58

that like, who knows what my peer parents

3:00

were thinking. And we'll

3:02

get into the you know, whether

3:04

or not village people count

3:06

or were in fact a gay band.

3:10

But I imagine at the time, in the early

3:12

to mid seventies, with Southern Baptist

3:14

parents, they either weren't

3:17

aware of that or were probably pretty

3:19

like worried about their son when

3:23

they needn't be, because either way it

3:25

would have been fine.

3:27

Yeah, well put man, you know what I'm saying.

3:28

But back in the seventies, in the in the rural, not

3:31

rural, but in a suburban, conservative

3:34

South, I'm I'm sure if they didn't,

3:36

if they did know what was going on, they're probably like, have

3:38

you seen these Crown pictures?

3:41

Like he drew Little counselor got in Touch.

3:44

I drew literal like pancake boobies

3:46

on the biker Guy because

3:49

I didn't know how to draw like a bear chest correctly.

3:53

Yeah hey that worked.

3:54

Yeah, So anyway, I'll either scroll

3:56

through my Insta or maybe I'll figure out how to pin stuff.

3:59

But definitely.

4:00

We're talking about village people

4:02

technically not the village people. It's

4:05

just sort of one of those things like Eagles

4:08

or hall of Oates, where you just you come to

4:10

be known by that name even though that's not your real

4:12

name.

4:13

Yes, like Edith

4:15

Burkell and New Bohemians.

4:17

Oh, is that what it is? It's not the New Bohemians.

4:20

Yeah. For some reason, I've always had this memory

4:22

of her correcting David Letterman on Letterman.

4:25

It's funny in like nineteen ninety or something

4:27

like that. I don't know why it stuck with me, but I

4:29

always she got the point

4:31

across.

4:32

Sure, And Indigo Girls is the other one. They're not the

4:34

Indigo Girls.

4:36

Yeah. I don't even say that to their face. They will

4:38

they will beat you up.

4:39

Well, if you say Hall of Notes to Daryl

4:41

Hall, he gets pretty salty. He's like,

4:43

we were.

4:43

Not hall of Oates.

4:44

We never were.

4:45

Oh really what were they?

4:47

Look at the the Hall and now every single

4:49

album it's Darryl holland John Oates.

4:52

They were never Hollan Oates.

4:53

And it just does he really get salty about that because

4:55

they are much much

4:58

greater things to be upset about that.

4:59

I've seen him a little salty, but I think it's

5:01

largely because they don't like each other.

5:05

Man, why are you telling me all that?

5:09

Sorry?

5:10

I want Daryl hall and and John Notes

5:12

to be like just the best guys ever.

5:14

You want to be like, it's like wow

5:18

or dare I say, Josh?

5:19

And I'm not participating

5:21

for the rest of this episode, but I have to chew on some

5:23

stuff.

5:24

All right, let's talk Village People.

5:27

Yeah. Actually, one of the things that stood out to

5:29

me is this is like the improved version

5:31

of our Milli Vanilli episode, because

5:34

one thing I didn't realize is that the Village

5:36

People were like a manufactured band

5:39

and they were the brain child

5:42

I guess collectively yea of Jacques

5:45

morale In Henrie Belolo,

5:49

who are both Moroccan born French

5:52

Minten Yeah, who I

5:54

guess separately kind of got into the music

5:57

industry by their own grit and determination

6:00

and didn't really know each other at first. They had their own

6:03

I think, starting in the fifties and sixties,

6:05

had their own careers that they were trying

6:07

to build, and eventually in

6:09

the seventies they came together. Henri

6:12

Bololo was kind of like the brains

6:15

the producer that kind of type.

6:17

Jacques Moraley was more he was a producer

6:19

as well, but more the hands on, creative type

6:22

of producer. And when they came together,

6:24

some sparks flew even before the

6:27

village people were ever around.

6:28

Yeah, there's no way to say this without

6:30

sounding completely like kind

6:33

of stuck up.

6:34

But I've been listening to a lot of French music lately.

6:37

Oh yeah, yeah, there's I mean,

6:40

if you're in the right mood there, if you look up

6:42

like eighties sort of new wave,

6:44

but French music, their version, it

6:47

is really really awesome stuff.

6:49

Nice. I will check that out.

6:50

Highly recommended. So yeah,

6:52

they were, like you said they were, had made a name

6:54

for themselves independently, I

6:57

believe in nineteen seventy three, Belolo

7:01

set up Can't Stop Productions a

7:04

couple of years later.

7:05

That's a great name, by the way. Oh yeah, it's just

7:07

stuck out to me all day.

7:08

Oh yeah, and I remember seeing that little

7:11

logo like

7:13

Can't Stop the Music. I think that was the name of the movie,

7:15

right.

7:16

Yeah. I didn't put those two

7:18

together, actually, don't just know.

7:21

But they eventually met up in the

7:23

United States and their first project

7:26

and release was a real banger.

7:29

You know, the song Brazil from the nineteen thirties,

7:31

the one from the movie Brazil. They

7:34

took that and updated it with a

7:37

female trio called the Richie Family as

7:40

a disco song, and it

7:42

is, like I said, it's a real banger, kind of a classic

7:45

disco song.

7:46

Yes, but it was disco before disco actually

7:48

existed. So a lot of people kind of credit

7:50

these two is really helping lay the

7:53

foundation for disco. It

7:56

was that that period, right

7:58

before disco became a thing. So it was a weird

8:01

transition between like, what's

8:06

the guy's name, Percy.

8:10

Fledge?

8:10

Is it Percy Faith in his orchestra? Okay,

8:13

the transition between Percy Faith and

8:17

and John Travolta. This is like

8:19

that that slice of music,

8:21

lots of strings, kind of salsa

8:23

based, lots of like chorus

8:26

and vocals. It was. It actually was

8:28

up for the nineteen seventy six Grammy for Best

8:30

Pop Instrumental Performance and lost

8:32

to The Hustle if that gets it a cross, So

8:34

like the Hustle is like proto disco. Yeah,

8:36

so was this version of Brazil. And it's

8:39

right before disco became a thing.

8:41

Yeah, Like on the matter of months though

8:43

probably.

8:43

Right, Yeah, I would say that, yeah,

8:45

okay, I.

8:46

Mean losing to the hustle. There's no there's no shame.

8:48

There, no, not at all.

8:50

So they had this pretty good hit with Brazil

8:53

again. I recommend you check it out. It's and

8:55

listen to all these songs are all great. Can't

8:58

Stop Productions was like, all right, listen, we need we

9:01

you know, back then they would just go from thing to thing

9:04

because it's not like you can ride out something like the Richie

9:06

Family forever, so they're always

9:09

looking for the next new thing. In seventy

9:11

seven, they were hanging out in Greenwich Village, New York,

9:14

which then, as it is now, is

9:16

a very friendly community for especially

9:19

gay men. Moraley was

9:21

gay, but Belolo was not. But

9:23

they were hanging out there. They were going to disco's,

9:26

they were going to bars and stuff, and

9:28

they started to see these guys

9:30

in these clubs that were dressed

9:33

up as these these sort of macho

9:35

American stereo types that they grew up

9:37

watching on you know, American TV

9:40

and American movies. And this

9:42

is a direct quote from Blolo. Dave

9:47

is encouraging me to read it with a French accent. I'm not

9:49

sure about that, but

9:51

I'll try this from Billboard magazine. We

9:54

saw different types of characters and bars.

9:57

That's how we decided to cleate a group that's

9:59

will represent different characters of

10:02

the American male. As

10:04

we had the idea in the village, we

10:06

decided to call the group the

10:08

Village People.

10:09

Simple.

10:12

That was a great pepulo peza.

10:15

Yeah, that was like they saw these guys

10:17

in bars fitting these sort

10:19

of archetypes or stereotypes

10:21

of what they thought like a macho American man

10:24

was, and they're like, hey, this is

10:26

like a concept right here, right in front

10:28

of us.

10:29

Yeah, And actually it's

10:32

possible that it was one specific guy.

10:34

They saw, Philippe Rose, Felipe

10:37

Rose, who was known as the Indian, who

10:39

dressed up as a Native American

10:41

Indian around Greenwich Village very

10:44

flamboyantly because he was a

10:46

Native American his father on his father's

10:48

side, he was Mescalero, Apache,

10:51

Lakota, and Cherokee, which is like that's

10:53

the trifecta, and

10:55

he was very proud of it. So he dressed up

10:57

in like moccasins and fringe

11:00

leather vests and all that kind of thing, and

11:02

they saw him and that

11:04

in addition to going to bars

11:07

like the mind Shaft, which was a BDSM

11:09

gay club, and then seeing

11:12

other people kind of dress up. That's where they put

11:14

the whole thing together. And Dave made

11:16

a really good point here that that whole

11:19

concept of dressing people up

11:21

as like stereotypical

11:23

American male, macho

11:27

like image images essentially

11:30

that an American producer probably would

11:32

have been like, that's not a great idea, it's kind

11:34

of lame. But these guys were like looking

11:36

at America from the outside in, and

11:40

I think, like you kind of alluded to, they were exposed

11:42

to this like their whole lives. This is like what they were

11:44

fed through American movies and TV.

11:47

So to them, they were like, this is amazing, what

11:49

a great idea, Like we want to celebrate

11:52

this American macho male and

11:54

that's where the village people came from.

11:56

Yeah, I'm not so sure about that part, but I respect

11:58

Dave's opinion. If you agree with.

12:00

Him, I do agree with him on that.

12:02

I respect you.

12:03

I'm going with Dave on this.

12:04

I bet they're American producers that are like, oh God,

12:06

that's right there in front of my face, can't believe it, and think.

12:08

Of Hey, yeah, in hindsight.

12:12

So Moroley started

12:14

writing songs. You

12:17

know, like you said, they were inspired by Felipe Rose. I

12:19

don't think you said. He was basically kicked

12:21

out of his house because he came out as gay.

12:24

So he was hanging out in the village, working in bars and

12:26

stuff. The Richie

12:28

family was, you know, they were trying to eke a little,

12:30

trying to ring that thing dry from

12:32

the Richie family. And they were getting a new album together.

12:35

They needed some backup singers, and someone

12:37

said, hey, there's this guy. He's

12:40

on Broadway right now in the Whiz. His name is

12:42

Victor Willis. The guy can really sing,

12:44

It's got a lot of personality, can dance a little

12:46

bit. You should bring him in here as a

12:48

backup singer. Roley brought him into the

12:50

studio and it was like, dude, you

12:53

are a star, so we

12:56

need to get you to record these other songs

12:58

we've written that. There

13:00

were no Village people yet, but in nineteen

13:02

seventy seven he cut their

13:04

very first disco hit. And you'll

13:06

see a lot of parentheticals because that was the time.

13:09

But this is called San Francisco parentheses.

13:11

You got me another

13:14

good song.

13:15

So, yeah, Victor Willis was the first.

13:17

This is long before Felipe Rose came along,

13:20

but after they had seen Felipe Rose,

13:23

right, so they were inspired to create the village

13:25

people. But Victor Willis was really

13:27

the only village person at the time.

13:29

Everybody else was just studio session

13:32

musicians and singers and stuff like that,

13:34

right, So that worked fine when

13:36

they cut that first album, which I think was like four

13:39

songs or something like that, and

13:42

they had that hit with San Francisco You Really Got

13:44

Me. And with that hit, they're like, okay, you

13:47

got Me San Francisco. Yeah,

13:49

which is funny because, as we'll see later on, Victor

13:52

Willis would become a fugitive from the law and

13:55

he would finally be arrested in San Francisco.

13:58

So he was so

14:01

but he was the village people. And now

14:03

that San Francisco Got Me was a hit, like

14:05

apparently an international club hit, they

14:08

needed more people, and

14:11

so they started looking for other village

14:13

people and the first one they recruited

14:15

was Felipe Rose, appropriately

14:17

enough, because apparently he was unknowingly

14:20

the inspiration for the whole thing.

14:22

Right, Funny enough, they were

14:24

San Francisco You Got Me was big in Australia.

14:27

As you'll see, that's become a recurring thing. It seems

14:30

like Australians love the Village People. Yeah,

14:32

so I'm curious to hear from them that

14:34

if you look at that first album cover, it

14:37

is not the Village People. And I

14:39

don't even think Victor Willis is

14:41

on the cover. It's just it's a bunch of

14:43

guys. There is a

14:45

guy wearing a

14:47

Native American headdress, but I don't think it's

14:50

Felipe Rose, No, none of

14:52

them. There's a flannel

14:54

shirt, hard hat guy, and

14:56

there is a biker. But that's

14:58

it, just those three sort of village

15:01

people that we went on to know and love. Everyone

15:03

else is just a bunch of guys stand

15:05

around in T shirts looking

15:08

tough with a motorcycle

15:10

and frame.

15:11

Yeah. I mean, so they had the concept,

15:14

they just didn't have the people yet. So they're slowly

15:16

starting to assemble this. Now they have Victor

15:18

Willis and Felipe Rose.

15:20

They've got the first two and

15:23

they actually put an ad in the paper,

15:26

I would guess the Village Voice looking

15:30

for gay men,

15:32

singers and dancers with

15:34

mustaches to basically audition

15:37

for the roles

15:39

in this band, not like can

15:41

you play the bass? Can you? Can

15:44

you play the drums? But do you have a mustache?

15:46

And are you good looking? And a singer

15:49

and dancer? And they got from what I

15:51

saw like thousands of replies.

15:52

Yeah, this was They were never a band. It was always

15:55

just supposed to be a singing group, and

15:58

they did. I believe Felipe or

16:00

I'm sorry. Glenn Hughes, who was

16:02

the biker. He worked at the Brooklyn Battery

16:05

Tunnel collecting tolls, saw

16:07

the ad. By his memory, the ad said

16:09

seeking gay singers and dancers, very

16:12

good looking and with mustaches.

16:16

Probably wasn't hard to find at that time.

16:18

Well, all his friends were like, Glenn, that's

16:20

you, buddy, Like you need to get in there.

16:22

Yeah, So Glenn Hughes became the village

16:25

people's leather man, which

16:27

apparently was not a stretch for him.

16:29

I think he was already in the leather at the time,

16:32

so he became the leatherman slash biker,

16:34

right.

16:35

That's right. He was the third. I

16:37

think.

16:37

The second one to join up was Alex Briley,

16:40

who came at Victor Willis's recommendation.

16:43

He was the original sort of stereotype

16:46

for him was he was the athlete, but

16:48

then they changed that pretty quickly to the army

16:51

guy. He was the gi and also

16:53

the Navy sailor, so he kind of crossed

16:56

over the different arm

16:58

services, I guess, yes.

17:00

And then another guy who responded to the ad

17:03

was David Hodo. He had

17:05

just gotten done with the musical about the

17:07

Grand Old Opry and basically went out for the

17:09

cowboy. They're like, nope, you're a construction

17:11

worker. Through and through, a guy named Randy

17:14

Jones became the cowboy, and so you had

17:16

Victor Willis, Felipe Rose, Alex Bridley,

17:18

Randy Jones, David Hodo, and Glenn

17:20

Hughes, which, by the way, I realized

17:23

earlier today that I could rattle off

17:25

the names of the original village people now.

17:28

But that's who the village

17:30

people were at first. And I say we take a break,

17:33

because now we've got this murderer's row

17:35

of mustachioed, generally

17:37

gay guys ready to hit the disco

17:40

scene and they're about to blow

17:42

up.

18:04

All right, so we're back. We have our

18:06

village people assembled. I

18:09

think we failed to mention earlier that Dick Clark

18:11

and American Bandstan American

18:13

Bandstand. The TV show had already sort of reached

18:16

out after they had San Francisco

18:18

You Got Me as a hit, but they were like, there

18:20

is no village people yet, we can't just you

18:22

know, send one guy out there. So they got

18:24

these other guys together. In December

18:27

of nineteen seventy seven, they appeared

18:29

for the first time on American Bandstand. I

18:32

could not, for the life of me find this exact

18:34

performance. Oh yeah, no,

18:37

I couldn't find it anywhere. I mean they were on quite a few

18:39

times, but I never saw the one from seventy

18:41

seven somehow. But

18:44

that was their American you know, TV debut

18:46

and debut of the world when they sang

18:49

San Francisco or I guess lip SYNCD and

18:52

and the song in Hollywood parentheses

18:56

everybody is a star.

18:58

Yep, And you're right, pentheses where

19:00

a thing back then? I just died

19:03

in your arms tonight?

19:05

Is that a real one?

19:06

Yeah?

19:06

I remember we talked about it a few weeks ago, that

19:09

cutting crew song.

19:10

I just didn't know if you fooled me then or

19:12

not.

19:12

No, no, no, it's it's legit.

19:15

Have you been walking around wondering that?

19:17

Yeah for three weeks.

19:19

So we're onto your favorite song, Chuck,

19:21

which I agree. I think it's the best Village People

19:23

song. Macho

19:25

Man. Yeah, and that was in their second

19:28

album. So their first album, like you said, was

19:30

called Village People. It came out in nineteen seventy seven.

19:32

Their second album came out in nineteen seventy

19:34

eight, and that was

19:37

the one. It was. The album was called Macho

19:39

Man, and the big single from it was called

19:41

Macho Man as well.

19:42

Is it okay if we read some of the lyrics to some of these songs?

19:45

Yes, I saved them too, Oh you did, Okay?

19:49

I think you should sing them.

19:51

Not going to sing them, okay, though it might

19:53

be hard not to.

19:53

And I'm not going to read them all because there's that

19:55

intro, that great intro to Macho

19:58

Man, when they're going, you know, body, body,

20:01

and he's going to want to feel my body, such a

20:03

thrill, my body, want to touch my body. That's

20:05

all that long intro. And

20:07

then here here's some of

20:09

the words to the verse. Every

20:11

man wants to be a macho Macho man,

20:14

to have the kind of body always in demand,

20:16

jogging in the mornings, go man, go, workouts

20:19

in the health spa, muscles grow, you

20:25

can tell a macho man. He has a funky walk.

20:27

His Western shirts and leather always looks so boss

20:30

punky with his body. He's a king. Call

20:32

him mister Ego. Dig his chains.

20:36

Every man ought to be a macho macho man

20:38

to live a life of freedom. MACHOs make

20:40

a stand, have your own

20:42

lifestyle and ideals, possess the strength

20:45

of confidence. That's the skill.

20:48

But it's so if you dig into

20:50

that last bit, this song goes

20:52

from essentially

20:54

just total body worship and like working

20:57

out at the spa and all that stuff and

20:59

however, but he wants to be a macho man to

21:01

essentially like that. The

21:04

last verse is about gay

21:06

liberation and basically coming out of the closet,

21:08

it sounds.

21:09

Have your own lifestyles and ideals possessed the strength

21:11

of confidence. Yeah, say exactly.

21:13

Yeah. So it really takes like a sudden turn

21:16

there because it's like the most superficial

21:18

vein song of all time, and

21:21

then it suddenly like kind of is a

21:23

shout out for gay liberation. Yeah,

21:26

this was like it's kind of tough to

21:28

wrap your head around here in twenty twenty

21:31

four. Sadly, it's not as tough

21:33

as it should be, but it's still tough to

21:35

wrap your head around just how big

21:37

of a deal it was for

21:40

men to be like

21:42

on stage singing

21:44

songs gay like I'm

21:46

gay everybody, There's just no

21:48

question about it. I'm a gay person.

21:51

Yeah.

21:51

That was a big, big deal at

21:53

the time. And then to sing about

21:56

it, yeah, and to sing about how that was a good

21:58

thing that was that was

22:00

really daring and it

22:02

was really it's neat that they

22:05

did that. Likes it just should not go unnoticed

22:08

or mentioned, and it's hard

22:10

to overstate what a big deal it was.

22:12

And then it's even harder to overstate how

22:15

huge of a hit Macho

22:17

Man was for the village people.

22:19

Yeah, I mean little seven year old Chuck

22:21

in Stone Mountain, Georgia dancing

22:24

around in the shower to that

22:26

song. Yeah, Like it truly

22:28

reached every corner if that was what was going

22:30

on. They went out on the road,

22:32

which is not something that a lot of disco acts

22:34

did that. Disco wasn't known as a great like

22:37

sort of live touring thing.

22:39

Well, it was, like we talked about in our Disco episode,

22:41

it was a really anonymous type

22:43

of music, like you might have

22:46

never see a picture of the person who who

22:48

is your favorite you know, who sang your favorite song

22:50

at the time.

22:51

Yeah, so, you know, there were some package things here and

22:53

there, but generally going on the road as

22:55

a disco act wasn't a very big thing to

22:57

do, but the Village People did it. From

22:59

the store, Art and Dave dug up the thing from

23:01

the Washington Post in seventy nine

23:04

that said that their first

23:06

tour had you know, usual stage and equipment

23:08

problems, but also the group was

23:10

forced to endure all manner of verbal and physical

23:12

abuse from the audience, which

23:15

means that people were

23:17

either dragged there or went there to you

23:21

know, to boo to boo

23:24

like a hate watch.

23:25

Yeah, which is crazy. It

23:28

is crazy, But I mean we're talking nineteen seventy

23:30

nine, you know.

23:31

I guess so, but like to spend your six

23:33

bucks or whatever to

23:36

like, Hey, We're going to go down to Madison Square Garden

23:38

and boo the Village people. I

23:40

don't know, I guess that was a thing.

23:42

Yeah, I'm sure that was a thing, but I think more

23:44

often than not they were just loved.

23:47

I read a quote from Glenn

23:49

Hughes, the leather Man, who

23:52

said he basically had to beat back women,

23:54

Yeah, who wanted to sleep with him.

23:56

And he's like, he's like, I got a headache.

23:58

Yeah, he said, I have a headache.

24:01

So apparently some people just didn't get it, some

24:03

people didn't care, other people did get it. It cared

24:05

one way or another. But they were

24:08

huge. I think for the most part, people were either

24:10

not reading into it or just look like

24:13

purposefully being obtuse and looking past it.

24:15

I'm not sure, but they were enormous. You

24:17

mentioned Madison Square Garden. They definitely

24:19

played Madison Square Garden. They were in

24:21

the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in nineteen

24:23

seventy eight. They were huge.

24:26

But if you look back on when they were huge,

24:29

it apparently lasted twenty

24:31

two months, less than two years, but

24:33

they were at the top of the heap during

24:35

that time.

24:36

Yeah, because you know disco and again,

24:38

like Josh mentioned, we had one of our favorite episodes

24:41

is on Disco many years ago.

24:42

Yeah, it was great.

24:43

It was you know, not a flash in the pan, but it was a pretty

24:45

brief stay. Yeah.

24:48

You know, I guess we should get into this whole notion of whether

24:50

or not village people were you know, a

24:52

quote gay group end

24:55

quote. Because that's always been

24:57

a question, Like, you know, when I was a kid, I

24:59

believe, you know, people finally started

25:01

telling me, like, you know, those guys are all

25:04

gay, and I

25:06

don't know if it was I'm

25:09

not sure how common knowledge because pre Internet,

25:11

any of the real truth was. Back

25:14

then, Randy Jones, who

25:16

was the Cowboy, said, we

25:18

didn't start as a gay group, and not everyone

25:20

in the group was gay. That's an incorrect

25:22

notion. So much of our music was

25:25

played in black, Latin and gay underground

25:27

clubs, though that's where the first Village People

25:29

album found its initial audience.

25:32

Victor Willis, who you know, to a

25:35

lot of people, kind of was and is the Village

25:37

People because he was the super,

25:40

super talented Broadway guy. He was the guy

25:42

that co wrote a lot of their big

25:44

songs. Was not just sort of a

25:46

backup singer.

25:47

He was the cop.

25:48

He was the cop as the front man,

25:51

and he was not gay. He was, in

25:53

fact, for four years married to Felicia at

25:56

the time, Felicia airs Allen, who would later

25:58

become Felicia Rashad, the wife

26:01

on The Cosby Show, is what she's most well known

26:03

for. But they were in the Whiz together

26:05

on Broadway and then eventually

26:07

got together to make music with Moraley.

26:10

I think they got together to write a concept

26:13

album for her called Josephine Superstar

26:15

about the life of Josephine Baker, which I

26:18

haven't heard, but I'm going to try and find that.

26:20

If it's in French, it's really going to knock your socks

26:22

off.

26:23

Yeah, but so Victor Willis was not gay. He

26:25

was the frontman and lyricist, but

26:28

like they had songs about Fire

26:30

Island and San Francisco and

26:33

Key West, Greenwich Village and Key West, and

26:35

if you look at the lyrics, like it's pretty clear

26:38

that like this stuff was either

26:40

coded for gay or just basically

26:42

like, if you don't know what we're talking about, then you're pretty

26:44

dense.

26:45

But if you were even remotely hip and

26:47

you read some of the contemporary

26:50

or contemporaneous articles

26:52

on them, like all

26:55

the journalists wanted to know, like are you

26:57

gay? Right? I read a New Music

26:59

Express article from like, I think nineteen seventy

27:01

eight, and the guy's asking Randy

27:03

Jones the Cowboys, like are you a gay group?

27:06

And apparently Randy Jones was sick of hearing

27:08

this at the time. Yeah, it was barely

27:10

containing his anger, and he's like, why does

27:12

it matter. He's like, we're not a gay group or

27:14

a disco group. Right. Over time, they

27:17

definitely evolved into a gay group. I think

27:19

it. I

27:22

think it kind of occurred to them, like what a

27:24

huge impact they were having just by basically

27:26

being ambassadors of gayness

27:29

to the rest of the world and

27:31

showing everybody, like, you like our music,

27:34

you know, like us too. Yeah,

27:36

maybe like the gay dude that you work.

27:38

With exactly, And that's what

27:41

I think.

27:41

Victor Willis says, as the straight lead singer,

27:44

and this is touching on YMCA, which we'll

27:46

get into, but he said, you know, I

27:49

wrote those lyrics, so technically

27:51

it's not a gay song because I'm not gay

27:53

and I wrote it, but I never had any qualms

27:55

that it was embraced by the gay community.

27:58

Yeah, he's like, nothing, there's anything wrong with that.

28:00

Yeah, basically.

28:02

So on the other hand, the Hodo

28:04

the construction worker says, I mean, look

28:07

at us, we were a gay group. The song

28:09

was written to celebrate gay men at the YMCA

28:11

was it, Yes, absolutely, and gay people

28:13

loved it. YMCA

28:16

was you know, is the song I

28:18

think Macho Man is a much better song, but YMCA

28:22

is became part of the cultural zeitgeist,

28:24

like forever.

28:26

Yeah, I saw somewhere I

28:28

couldn't find it, but that's it's

28:31

in a time capsule in orbit around Earth

28:33

right now. It was included in like a bunch

28:35

of songs that was sent out into space.

28:37

Oh yeah, for sure it was.

28:39

Yeah, it was a huge hit. Like that's just yeah,

28:41

it's part of American culture, I guess

28:43

international culture really. But

28:45

the idea behind it

28:48

is that Randy Jones the Cowboy,

28:50

when he moved to New York in nineteen seventy five,

28:52

one of the first things he did was join the

28:55

YMCA on West twenty third Street in

28:57

Manhattan, which became the inspiration

28:59

for song YMCA because he

29:02

took Jacques Morale to

29:05

the YMCA with him to work out with

29:07

some of his buddies, who apparently were gay adult

29:09

film stars, and Jacques Moraley

29:11

was just blown away that there was this place.

29:14

Yeah, it's like this secret hidden

29:17

gay oasis. I'm

29:20

the cheap right, Like it costs

29:22

almost no money to not only like work

29:24

out there, but get a room there.

29:26

You'd stay there at the time, So apparently

29:28

he.

29:28

Was just starstruck at the whole idea

29:30

and loved going to the YMCA and decided

29:32

to write a song about it. So he wrote the Bones

29:35

of YMCA, and then Victor

29:37

Willis came in and wrote kind of the rest

29:39

of it. But the whole idea behind

29:41

YMCA is that it was an ode to

29:45

just the gay experience at YMCA.

29:48

And Victor Willis, though, he wrote a

29:51

lyric that I hadn't noticed until I

29:53

was listening to it yesterday where

29:56

he's talking about how

29:59

just he arrived in this new city and he was very unhappy

30:01

about being there. Huh, he said,

30:03

I thought the whole world

30:06

was so jive. I noticed

30:09

so jive, Like he just didn't like

30:12

anything. He thought the whole world was drive until he discovered

30:14

the YMCA and realized that this place

30:16

is awesome and amazing, and the world in

30:19

term was pretty amazing too. I

30:21

had never heard that lyric before noticed

30:23

it, and when I did, I was just I just

30:25

thought that was so great.

30:26

That's a great lyric.

30:28

If you look at the original music video,

30:31

it has a close up shot of the McBurnie

30:33

YMCA at the very beginning there on what's

30:35

twenty third, and it's basically

30:37

just a video of them dancing in the street outside of it.

30:40

As far as.

30:41

The the YMCA

30:44

hand gestures, they did not create

30:46

that. They if you if you look

30:48

at that video and basically

30:51

any performance of them doing it on

30:53

the Why, like you know, it builds.

30:55

Up, it's

30:58

funny and they go they.

31:00

Throw their arms up on why. Yeah,

31:02

And what they're doing is they were just kind of throwing

31:04

their arms up in unison as like a dance

31:06

move, but it sort of looked like a

31:08

why. And as Randy Jones tells

31:11

it, that it was a live performance where

31:13

some of the audience like just started

31:16

doing the you know, the why, and then the MCA

31:18

and they the audience sort of started it.

31:21

Yeah. They so they when they threw their arms

31:23

up, the audience mistook that is like the beginning

31:25

of them spelling out why with their arms,

31:28

and they took it from there. And so some

31:30

kids on American Bandstand are the ones who actually

31:32

came up with the YMCA dance.

31:34

Yeah, And Hodo said, here's the quote.

31:37

When I saw the movements, I thought, wow, this

31:39

is so stupid. Then everyone

31:41

in America started doing it, and I thought, wow,

31:43

this is so brilliant.

31:45

Yeah, that's pretty awesome, and the YMCA

31:48

itself apparently, remember this is not a time

31:50

where everybody's like, hey, kay is great. The

31:52

YMCA was like, you can't use our name

31:54

like that, right, it's trademarked, and

31:57

I guess got in touch with Cosablanco Records,

31:59

which was producing The Village People at the time,

32:02

and it just petered

32:04

out. It just went nowhere. They

32:07

ultimately decided not to I think they

32:09

kind of concluded it was actually way

32:11

better press to just leave it as is, and

32:14

that they risk getting terrible press for suing

32:16

the Village People for singing

32:18

how great YMCA is. So yeah, they

32:20

just left it.

32:21

I think in the movie version, it will be like

32:24

the head of the YMCA is on the

32:26

phone to the record company, and

32:28

right before he goes to tell

32:31

them that he wants to cease and desist letter drawn

32:33

up, some kid, you know,

32:35

some low level worker bust in

32:37

the room and goes boss and he comes

32:39

up with the phone memberships are through the roof,

32:43

and then it just you know, never mind,

32:45

this is all good.

32:46

Yeah, he's a wrong number.

32:48

So before we break, we'll talk quickly about

32:51

the fact that you cannot

32:53

go to a baseball game

32:55

anymore. Without hearing YMCA

32:57

like a Major League Baseball game, especially

32:59

the young, especially the Yankees that

33:01

all started at spring training in Tampa. I'm

33:05

not sure if the Yankees are still there, but that was their home at least

33:07

at the time, and in nineteen

33:10

ninety six. This did not happen in

33:12

the seventies. It was in the mid nineties. Top

33:14

of the fifth inning, the grounds crew came

33:16

out to take care of the infield like they always

33:18

do midway through the game, and they

33:21

broke into the YMCA,

33:24

you know, spelling out those letters

33:26

as the song played, and everybody

33:29

thought it was the best thing ever. And that's

33:31

how it was born. It was transferred to

33:34

the new Yankee Stadium, and then it just

33:36

became a thing.

33:37

Yeah. You can hear Larry David as Steinbrenner

33:39

ordering them to take their YMCA

33:42

dancers in the grounds

33:44

crew. Yeah, but yeah, I saw a video of

33:46

it from a Yankees game and they're just out

33:48

there doing like the raking like normal,

33:50

and then YMCA's playing like it's

33:53

just playing as a song for the crowd, and then all

33:55

of a sudden, when it gets to the YMCA,

33:57

they just drop their rakes and start dancing and

33:59

then when that's done, they pick up their res and go

34:01

back to work. It's pretty great, did it You

34:04

want to take that break you promised, Let's do it.

34:07

Okay, Well we'll be right back, okay,

34:30

Chuck. So we've hit Macho Man,

34:33

Ymca, I think

34:36

it's time for in the Navy, which was their last

34:38

big hit, their last big single.

34:40

It came out in nineteen seventy nine. That

34:42

was on the album Cruising, which

34:44

I guess YMCA.

34:45

Was as well, right, Yeah, that was the one that I

34:48

had.

34:48

So that was the third album, second album in

34:50

nineteen seventy eight. These guys released two

34:52

albums in one year.

34:54

I thought it was all three? Was it just two two?

34:57

No, the first one was nineteen seventy seven Macho

35:01

Man, and Cruising came out in nineteen seventy eight, and

35:03

then there was whatever

35:06

the third of Yeah,

35:08

I guess it was three. There was no there's

35:10

three singles, four albums, so I'm missing an

35:12

album. But that album

35:14

came out in nineteen seventy nine.

35:16

The fourth one, Yeah, that last album was Go

35:18

West.

35:20

Yes, which, by the way, I always thought that was a

35:22

pet Shop Boys song because it was on their

35:24

album Vary from the nineties, and

35:27

I was listening to Village People and came across

35:30

that and was like, Oh, I've never realized it was a Village People's

35:32

song.

35:33

Okay, I actually had this album too, now that I'm

35:35

seeing the cover, because it's basically

35:37

them on a well clearly a

35:39

green screen, but like a tropical island setting,

35:44

and that had In the Navy on it. So I think

35:46

I'm just getting those confused because

35:48

I had both records.

35:49

Sure, but can we read

35:51

a little bit of in the Navy?

35:54

Yes, all right, here

35:57

we go, Everybody in the Navy by Village

35:59

People.

36:00

Where you can find.

36:00

Pleasure, search the world for treasure, learn

36:03

science technology where you can begin

36:05

to make your dreams all come true. On the land

36:08

or on the sea, where you can learn to fly, play

36:10

in sports and skin dive, study

36:12

oceanography, sign

36:15

up for the big band, or sit in the grandstand

36:17

where your team and others meet. In

36:20

the Navy And that's when

36:22

it starts that great chorus.

36:24

And then weirdly, at the

36:27

end of the song, they're singing like the in

36:29

the Navy part over and over again, and Victor

36:32

Willis is, I guess,

36:34

singing about how he doesn't want to join the navy,

36:36

and at one point he goes, but I'm afraid of the

36:38

water. Yeah, And it's

36:41

hilarious. It's like purposely funny.

36:44

And that really kind of to me captures like what

36:46

the village people were doing, Like they were balancing

36:49

like really good disco music with

36:51

high camp, right. I mean, these guys were dressed

36:54

up as just macho stereotypes with

36:56

like like genuinely funny lyrics

36:58

sometimes, and I

37:00

think that really kind of captured it for me.

37:02

I saw that in that New Music Express

37:05

article. The author said that they

37:07

were experts at balancing what

37:09

is deft and what is daft?

37:13

Can I read verse two?

37:14

Yeah? Oh yeah, sorry, I didn't know you were.

37:15

Oh no, that's right.

37:17

I think it works better to split it up to people can

37:19

just fully absorb if

37:21

you'd like adventure. Don't you wait to enter

37:24

the recruiting office fast. Don't

37:26

you hesitate. There is no need to wait. They're

37:28

signing up new seamen fast.

37:31

Maybe you're too young to join up today,

37:34

but don't you worry about a thing, for I'm sure there will

37:36

be always a good navy

37:38

protecting the land and sea. And

37:40

there's another line in the chorus about

37:43

you know you can protect the motherland

37:45

like it is a legit Navy

37:47

recruitment song. Yeah, so much

37:49

so that the Navy said, you

37:52

know what, we'd like to actually use this for

37:54

recruitment, and in exchange,

37:56

we will let you film your

37:58

music video aboard word like,

38:01

we'll completely help you out and not charge

38:03

you money.

38:03

We'll give you all the.

38:05

Navy semen that you want as

38:08

background actors and stuff, and

38:10

you can shoot it above aboard our active

38:13

ship, the USS Reasoner. And

38:16

that's what they did. They said, all right, great, we got a lot of production

38:18

value here. You can use it as an official

38:20

recruitment song.

38:21

Yeah. I mean that's

38:23

just amazing that, Like,

38:26

that's just crazy, but that's what happened.

38:28

Apparently the Navy, any ship that

38:30

had a closed circuit TV system got

38:33

that video and I guess would play it over and over

38:35

again, which I mean, luckily,

38:37

it's a good song and it's an interesting video.

38:40

Yeah.

38:41

I was at a Dunkin Donuts the other day and

38:44

they had the Super Bowl Ben Affleck

38:47

Jennifer Lopez commercial on

38:49

loop. Oh boy, and everyone

38:51

inside we're completely out

38:54

of their minds. It was an awful,

38:56

awful scene, terrible place to.

38:58

Be Yeah, oh man.

39:00

So what I'm saying is I don't think that would have happened

39:02

on board those Navy ships because it was a pretty good

39:04

song.

39:05

Yeah, and I think their they're actual recruitment

39:07

did like increase, supposedly while

39:10

the song was out and being used. I

39:13

think the American military was

39:15

maybe like my parents. They weren't like, wait

39:18

a minute, what we what

39:20

song are we using and by what band as active recruitment

39:23

for our US military?

39:24

Right?

39:24

But you know, I'm glad they were daft

39:27

enough to not recognize that.

39:29

I guess they're right. Well, the other thing

39:31

about it is I didn't see a single

39:33

kind of gay innuendo lyric in

39:35

that song. It was more just

39:37

a gay group singing about

39:39

being in the navy, which you

39:41

know, coded for There

39:43

are plenty of like gay dudes in the Navy secretly

39:45

at the time, and I'm sure still are, but I'm

39:48

sure it's much less secret. So I think that's

39:50

more what it was than it being like

39:52

a gay song. Sure, it was, like you

39:54

said, a straight up, like

39:57

like promotional song for the Navy.

39:59

Yeah, it doesn't say in the Navy you

40:01

can maybe meet your next husband.

40:04

Right right, exactly? That got cut.

40:06

Yeah, got cut.

40:08

So that was, like we said, the last big hit. It

40:12

was in nineteen seventy nine. And I alluded

40:14

earlier. I think I just said out right, didn't even allude

40:16

to it. They had a twenty two month run just

40:19

Burned White Phosphorus Hot. During

40:21

those twenty two months, I saw that both

40:24

Madonna and Michael Jackson opened

40:26

for them while they were on tour during this time.

40:29

My guess would be nineteen seventy eight.

40:31

Wow, Michael Jackson surprises me.

40:33

Yeah, because he was already like famous from the Jackson

40:36

Five. But I mean that goes to show

40:38

you just how crazy huge

40:40

the Village people were for a time.

40:42

Yeah, and this is.

40:43

Before Michael Jackson himself was like

40:46

just the world's biggest star. Yeah,

40:49

but yeah, it still says quite a bit. And

40:53

they kept it going, they kept trying

40:55

to go with it, and they released

40:57

a movie, as you do said

41:00

earlier, it's called Can't Stop the Music,

41:02

Very bad. I can't even make it through the trailer.

41:05

No, it's it's well known as

41:08

like one of the worst movies of all time, just

41:10

a disco fluffball that keeps

41:12

hitting you in the head over and over again. Steve

41:15

Gutenberg is the star. Yeah.

41:19

The whole thing is kind of like a fictitious

41:21

or fictionalized version

41:23

of the story of how the Village People

41:26

came to be. So he plays an

41:29

americanized, fictionalized version of

41:31

Jacques Morelli. His

41:33

name is Jack Morrell in it, and

41:35

again he roller skates everywhere and finally

41:38

puts together this group that

41:40

became the Village People. And

41:43

it was so bad that apparently it inspired

41:45

the Razzie Awards.

41:46

Right as the story goes,

41:48

it was helped create the Razzies,

41:51

and the inaugural Worst

41:53

Picture and

41:56

Worst Screenplay winner in nineteen eighty

42:00

was a modest hit, though I

42:02

do Australia.

42:04

I think that's where they made just the tiny

42:06

amount of money that they made back, that's where

42:08

they made it.

42:09

Back, I guess.

42:09

So I would love to hear from some Aussies

42:12

of a certain age that could testify

42:14

as to whether or not.

42:15

This is true.

42:16

I would love to hear that as well.

42:18

Yeah, so we'll find out.

42:19

Yeah, I think the guy, one of the guys who created

42:22

the Razzies the Golden Raspberry Awards, which

42:24

for those of you who don't know, it's like for the worst

42:26

movies of the year. They hand these out.

42:31

He went and saw a ninety nine cent double

42:33

feature of Can't Stop the Music

42:35

in Xana Do and wanted his money

42:37

back. That's how bad he thought

42:39

that movie with Xanadu was great. He clearly

42:42

was not talking about Xana Do. He must

42:44

have just completely been focused on Can't

42:46

Stop the Music.

42:47

When was the last time he saw Xana Do?

42:49

Not that long ago? Okay, I love

42:51

it. It's also got a great soundtrack too.

42:54

It does.

42:54

I mean, this was the time when they were making these big

42:57

sort of movie musical like

42:59

pop pop movie pop music

43:01

movies.

43:03

Yeah, it was a strange.

43:04

Time, and everyone was on roller skates.

43:06

Yeah, you know, none of them had like were

43:09

the best, like plotted, you know, and

43:11

they were just were what they were, which was can we

43:13

get someone into the movie theater that likes this

43:15

music?

43:16

Yeah, and roller skates.

43:19

After Disco Village,

43:21

people did try their

43:24

hand at new Wave, because that's.

43:25

What came next.

43:27

It did not work out.

43:30

Victor Willis left the band in nineteen seventy

43:32

nine, and this is where the story

43:35

gets you know, sad. I guess

43:37

sad in one way or just a

43:39

little confusing because Victor Willis, who a lot

43:41

of people say, like, Victor Willis was Village

43:43

People as the leader, as the original singer and

43:45

songwriter, but he left

43:48

had many many run ins with the law,

43:50

awful drug problems, many

43:54

warrants out and you know for like

43:56

illegal firearms and cocaine

43:59

possession and stuff like this kind of over and over and

44:01

over, kept getting second chances from

44:04

sympathetic judges that were like, hey, listen, you know

44:06

you got a lot to offer the world, like can you get yourself

44:08

clean? In the meantime, Ray

44:11

Simpson Sugar Ray Simpson took over his lead singer

44:14

and like for thirty years and

44:16

all new Village People save

44:19

Phelipe Rose and Alex Briley as

44:22

the Indian and Gi toured

44:25

and played sold out cruise

44:27

ships and county fairs like all

44:29

over the country in world for like thirty years

44:32

without Victor Willis, they would do.

44:34

Two hundred and eighty shows a year.

44:36

Yeah, I mean very successful touring like

44:39

nostalgia touring group, but without

44:41

Victor Willis.

44:42

Yeah, And Victor Willis was not very happy about that.

44:44

So he'd been again. You said,

44:46

he had huge, huge self inflicted problems

44:50

and run ins with the law. He was on an episode

44:52

of America's Most Wanted once because he kept skipping

44:54

bail. I know he

44:57

At the same time, he definitely had

45:00

and taken advantage of I can't stop the music

45:02

productions. Early on, he'd only

45:04

gotten less than two grand in album

45:07

even back in nineteen seventy eight. That wasn't

45:09

that much money for something that was just super

45:11

megahits. He got one and a half

45:14

percent of Village People royalties for

45:16

the songs that he co wrote, co wrote,

45:18

like he wrote significant portions

45:20

of these songs, and like you said, to a lot

45:22

of people, he was the village People. So

45:25

there was a point in time where the Village People were

45:28

playing the San Mateo County

45:30

Fair and a mile away, Victor

45:33

Willis was in the San Mateo County

45:35

Jail. Probably could hear

45:37

at least a little bit of it from miss Jail's

45:40

cell, right, So it was pretty bad. And

45:42

apparently the lowest point came in two thousand

45:44

and eight when they got a star on the

45:46

Hollywood Walk of Fame.

45:48

Yeah, I look this up and apparently

45:51

they've edited out anything, because

45:53

I watched sort of the whole ceremony. But apparently

45:56

Willis was in the crowd in

45:58

that copy uniform, like yelling

46:00

and screaming and talking about how it was fake and

46:03

caused a disruption. So I don't know if they just

46:05

got him out of there and did the ceremony, or if they

46:08

edited the thing out. But it

46:10

is not in the YouTube

46:12

video. But what is evident

46:14

when you're watching that YouTube video, no

46:17

disrespect to these guys, but those

46:19

aren't the village people. No, when

46:21

you watch those guys are like, that's not those

46:23

aren't the guys. You know, there's not the

46:25

guys I drew in crayon.

46:27

It's kind of like if you see a guy dressed like the Incredible

46:30

Hulk, you're like, that's not the Hulk. He represents

46:32

the spirit of the Hulk, and in the

46:34

same way, these people represented the

46:36

spirit of the village people. They were

46:38

there to accept the award in

46:41

honor of the village people. I hope they realized

46:43

that that's what they were doing.

46:44

They didn't even mention Willis, so like they were listing

46:46

off names and no one said Victor Willis's name.

46:49

Yeah, there were a lot of sour grapes. Yeah,

46:51

I think, and so Willis actually

46:53

took can't stop productions

46:55

to court, and in a really

46:57

rare and usual turn, he

47:00

he won big time. As

47:02

a matter of fact, they went from giving

47:04

him one point five percent of royalties to fifty

47:07

percent totally. I didn't see did he get

47:09

back royalties.

47:10

I don't know that. I was really curious about.

47:11

That because he just became

47:14

probably something close to a billionaire overnight

47:16

if they did, and then he this,

47:19

this is this to me where I was like, I wish

47:21

this hadn't happened. They also gave

47:23

him full control over the

47:25

Village People like name

47:27

and likeness, the name of the band, the whole

47:30

intellectual property that was the

47:32

Village People.

47:33

You feel bad for the other guys, Yes, yeah.

47:36

That's so wrong. They kept the thing going for

47:38

decades. And what did he do.

47:42

Well?

47:42

I mean, he started playing shows

47:44

as Village People with you know, an

47:47

entirely set of new guys behind him.

47:49

He fired them. He fired some of the

47:51

original Village People, like you said, I think it was

47:54

Alex Bridley and Llebe Rose

47:57

and Ray. He was not the original, but he came

47:59

in so closely after Victor

48:02

Willis did. He was, for all intents and

48:04

purposes, an original, but he was the.

48:06

Cop what are you gonna just say, all right now, put on the

48:08

some the GI uniform.

48:10

Sure, and now Alex probably would be like, I'm the GI.

48:13

It probably would have gone back and forth for a little while.

48:15

He could have accommodated them. Instead, he was like,

48:17

you guys are out, and I

48:19

don't know that they had anything to do with the

48:22

decision to, you

48:24

know, mess over Victor Willis,

48:26

and yet he took his angst and anger

48:28

out on them, and I thought that that was wrong.

48:31

Yeah, I don't know enough of the story to judge it because I

48:33

don't know how they treated him when he was down

48:35

and out, So.

48:36

Well, that's the best way to judge his story.

48:38

I'm gonna just reserve

48:40

my judgment on this one. I do think it's

48:42

a shame that they couldn't get the original

48:45

group back together for at least a

48:47

show, because when I saw the the

48:49

what I considered the not real village people

48:52

performing online, was like, this

48:54

isn't right. And then when I saw Victor

48:56

Willis and those guys he got together,

48:59

I was like, well this isn't right either, right.

49:02

You know, Yes, I wanted I wanted all

49:04

I wanted a gang back together. I wanted all my

49:06

gay friends that I gazed upon and

49:10

drew and crayon. I wanted them to reunite.

49:12

I'm with you, you you wouldn't be

49:14

able to. Unfortunately, Glenn Hughes

49:16

died of lung cancer and

49:18

I think two thousand or something like that.

49:21

Yeah, is he the I believe he's the only one that

49:23

passed.

49:24

Right, I believe so. But both I

49:27

think on Reebololo and Jacques

49:30

Morelli are both dead. I think

49:32

Jacques died of AIDS sadly, and

49:35

on Riebololo died in like the

49:38

late two thousand and tens. I think,

49:40

I'm not sure what, but

49:42

yeah, So there are some village

49:44

people out there still. You can go see him touring. You

49:47

can see the Victor Willis version at

49:49

the San Diego County Fair on

49:52

July fourth, and if

49:54

you happen to be in Santiago, Chile or

49:56

Bogatah, Columbia, you can see them in May.

49:59

All right, Okay, so

50:01

that's your assignment stuff. You should know, Army. Go out

50:03

and see the village people and let us know what you think.

50:07

In the meantime, you can sit

50:09

there and listen to listener mail.

50:11

Oh interesting, I was just making

50:13

I was trying to verify really quickly if they were all

50:15

alive, because that's important.

50:17

Yeah.

50:18

Sure, and I just saw here that and

50:20

this is real time fact, everybody.

50:23

Alex Briley supposedly

50:26

that his brother was thought to

50:28

be the falling man from

50:30

the nine to eleven building.

50:32

No way, wow,

50:34

nos man, that took a very strange

50:37

turn here, that.

50:38

Did take And I believe

50:40

that you're right. I believe that.

50:42

I believe that Glenn Hughes is the only one who's

50:44

passed away. So the rest of the guys are still trying

50:47

to trying to do stuff, is it. Randy

50:49

Jones, He's He released a song in

50:51

twenty seventeen that reached number

50:53

forty two on the Billboard Dance Club

50:55

Song Charts, So that's not too bad. Randy

50:58

Jones was the cowboy, Yeah,

51:00

cowboy.

51:00

So you never answered which one did you identify

51:03

with the most, or did you identify with them as a group.

51:08

I don't know, Like identify as a

51:10

is a weird word because I didn't like identify

51:13

as and like I wanted, I think I'm one

51:15

of those guys. But I

51:17

think I thought that the biker was the

51:19

coolest because like

51:21

that leather man that mustache and that chopper,

51:24

Like, I thought that was just the.

51:25

Coolest thing ever.

51:27

Dig those chains.

51:28

Yeah, so I think definitely the biker, you

51:31

know. I mean that's the one who I drew with a little

51:33

round boobies.

51:35

I always saw them pretty much collectively,

51:37

but if any of them stood out to me, it was probably

51:39

the construction worker.

51:41

Yeah, you're always a blue collar kind of guy.

51:44

I think it was this sirp a line jean jacket

51:46

that always stood out to me. And then the mirror

51:49

aviators.

51:50

Those Toledo roots. Oh yeah, the aviators.

51:52

Right, Okay, now everybody,

51:55

it's time for listener mail.

51:56

I think, well,

51:59

I don't have a listener because I thought we could

52:01

just talk a little bit about our upcoming

52:03

live shows. Oh yeah, let's do that

52:05

as just sort of an in show announcement

52:08

because we are hitting the road. This is

52:10

a very fun show that you

52:13

put together, and we've

52:15

been getting emails from parents like, hey, can my kids

52:17

come? Kids are always welcome at our shows.

52:19

Sure, it's kind of a

52:23

well it's a kid friendly topic in that it's not, you

52:25

know, not kid friendly. But it's not about Barney

52:28

the Dinosaur, you know.

52:29

It's not terrifying, though, it's pretty funny.

52:31

If you're cool with your kids. Here in the S word

52:34

occasionally you're fine.

52:35

Yeah, yeah, we have a cussword or two here and there,

52:37

but it's not too bad. But we were going to be

52:40

We're going to be in Medford, mass

52:42

On May twenty ninth, then d C on

52:44

the thirtieth, and New York on the thirty first. Then

52:47

this summer we're going to hit the road in August

52:51

on the seventh, eighth, the ninth to Chicago,

52:53

Minneapolis, and Indianapolis for the

52:56

first time. Very nice, and then we're going to wind

52:58

it out in September on the fifth and seventh than

53:00

Durham, North Carolina, and here in Atlanta.

53:02

Tickets are moving pretty good in most cities,

53:06

but we really want to make sure this first

53:08

leg gets close to sold out.

53:10

Yeah, for sure, we would love that. If

53:12

you would like to come see us, we would love that

53:15

too. And you can get all the info

53:17

you need. You can get links to ticket sites

53:19

and all that kind of stuff by going

53:21

to our website stuff you should know dot Com,

53:23

clicking on the tour button, or you

53:25

can also go to our link tree, link

53:28

Tree slash sysk Live

53:30

and it'll give you all the stuff you need to come

53:33

see us, because again, we would love that,

53:35

right, Chuck.

53:36

It's a good time.

53:36

Yeah yeah. And in the meantime, if you want

53:38

to get in touch with this v email, you can send it

53:40

off to Stuff Podcasts at iHeartRadio

53:43

dot com.

53:47

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53:50

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