Bản chép lời đầy đủ của We Didn’t Start the Fire (1949–1989): Billy Joel Defines All of Our Generations

Yeah, this is 00:02:08.430 --> 00:02:13.409 my life philosophy, by the way. OK. I recently 00:02:13.409 --> 00:02:16.330 had a newborn niece enter the world, and one 00:02:16.330 --> 00:02:18.569 of the first songs I played for her was Billy 00:02:18.569 --> 00:02:20.889 Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire. Amazing. For 00:02:20.889 --> 00:02:23.629 two reasons. One, she needs to know about Billy 00:02:23.629 --> 00:02:27.009 Joel. It's part of her culture. Sure. And then 00:02:27.009 --> 00:02:29.590 the second is I just didn't know how to describe 00:02:29.590 --> 00:02:34.069 what was going on now to her, and so I just let 00:02:34.069 --> 00:02:36.479 Billy Joel do the talking. All right. Hey, I 00:02:36.479 --> 00:02:39.599 think it works for people keeping track of generational 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:43.180 theory like me. So Billy Joel is born in 1949. 00:02:43.659 --> 00:02:48.460 He writes the song in 1989. And so it chronicles 00:02:48.460 --> 00:02:52.479 the first 40 years of his life and what he saw 00:02:52.479 --> 00:02:55.180 on the news. Yeah. And I've recently turned that 00:02:55.180 --> 00:02:58.280 age. So maybe it's time for me to write a version 00:02:58.280 --> 00:03:00.949 of this song. Well, another 40 years will have 00:03:00.949 --> 00:03:02.949 passed since he wrote the song. That's right. 00:03:03.169 --> 00:03:06.370 In three years, which, of course, is 2029. Tiny 00:03:06.370 --> 00:03:09.469 Skull World, the culmination of Terminator. And 00:03:09.469 --> 00:03:12.289 Fallout Boy, unfortunately, did not do a good 00:03:12.289 --> 00:03:15.270 job at their version. So it makes sense. Let's 00:03:15.270 --> 00:03:17.030 do a trilogy. Maybe it's because they didn't 00:03:17.030 --> 00:03:19.189 wait the full 40 years to write their sequel. 00:03:19.610 --> 00:03:23.139 Here we go. All right. Ready? Everything is on 00:03:23.139 --> 00:03:27.300 fire still. Sam Altman, the guy named Dario. 00:03:27.780 --> 00:03:32.270 You really skipped to the end there. Really skipped 00:03:32.270 --> 00:03:35.830 about 39 years and went right to the catastrophe. 00:03:36.110 --> 00:03:38.509 Songwriting is all about improv. We're going 00:03:38.509 --> 00:03:42.449 to work on it. All right. Well, OK, so the song 00:03:42.449 --> 00:03:48.530 covers 1949 to 1989. This roughly covers like 00:03:48.569 --> 00:03:51.509 what they call the institutional high of the 00:03:51.509 --> 00:03:55.150 postwar fifties. Like communism was a big deal 00:03:55.150 --> 00:03:58.129 in this. Sure. Yep. Came up a lot. Picket fences 00:03:58.129 --> 00:04:00.849 and, you know, the nuclear family. And then like 00:04:00.849 --> 00:04:04.349 the counterculture awakening of the 60s and 70s. 00:04:04.409 --> 00:04:07.289 Woodstock and burning bras like you see in the 00:04:07.289 --> 00:04:09.490 music video. Did the burning bras get brought 00:04:09.490 --> 00:04:13.280 up in the? The chronological order of the song. 00:04:13.500 --> 00:04:15.240 No, I think

you see it in the music video, but 00:04:15.240 --> 00:04:17.620 it's not like one of the references of the song 00:04:17.620 --> 00:04:19.379 Yeah, but there are so many references. Sometimes 00:04:19.379 --> 00:04:21.759 I forget all of them. There's a lot of references 00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:24.180 I don't know that we'll get to all of them this 00:04:24.180 --> 00:04:26.779 might have to be an eight part series But see 00:04:26.779 --> 00:04:28.660 how far we can see how far we get and if you 00:04:28.660 --> 00:04:30.319 want to go in chronological order like let's 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:35.060 go but the burning bras Like there's not that 00:04:35.060 --> 00:04:39.180 many references about the the feminist wave and 00:04:39.180 --> 00:04:42.180 civil rights. So it's like Done from the perspective 00:04:42.180 --> 00:04:45.120 of a Long Islander, right? Sorta, yeah. Yeah, 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:47.879 let's talk about this. I kind of analyzed the 00:04:47.879 --> 00:04:51.100 structure of the song. Yeah from when he's born 00:04:51.100 --> 00:04:57.779 in 49 each year gets a verse and each verse has 00:04:57.779 --> 00:05:01.480 four to six references in it depending on how 00:05:01.480 --> 00:05:04.560 many syllables he decides to let each reference 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:08.579 sort of get and There's a lot of verses. There's 00:05:08.579 --> 00:05:11.879 like one for 49 Then there's one for 1950 and 00:05:11.879 --> 00:05:15.740 then there's one for 1951. And that kind of proceeds 00:05:15.740 --> 00:05:20.600 all the way up to JFK blown away. What else do 00:05:20.600 --> 00:05:24.540 I have to say? Exactly. And then suddenly the 00:05:24.540 --> 00:05:27.850 final two verses are just like 25 years crammed 00:05:27.850 --> 00:05:30.750 into like 45 seconds. We're rushing. Shakespeare 00:05:30.750 --> 00:05:34.649 of our time, though, right? Yep. Like, it's hard 00:05:34.649 --> 00:05:38.300 to... do iambic pentameter the entire way through 00:05:38.300 --> 00:05:41.040 so you're saying that it's every stanza is a 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:44.740 year yes at least for the majority of the song 00:05:44.740 --> 00:05:47.899 for like 1949 and until we get to jfk blown away 00:05:47.899 --> 00:05:49.519 right and he kind of throws it out the window 00:05:49.519 --> 00:05:51.220 i actually thought i haven't listened to this 00:05:51.220 --> 00:05:53.399 song in a while and i thought that that was the 00:05:53.399 --> 00:05:55.480 end of the song that's why i thought it was an 00:05:55.480 --> 00:05:58.379 incredible chronological order but now i know 00:05:58.379 --> 00:06:01.430 better he does do like Woodstock, Watergate, 00:06:01.610 --> 00:06:03.910 Punk Rock. I mean, he does like the late 60s 00:06:03.910 --> 00:06:07.009 and 70s, but it's all real fast. And it's post 00:06:07.009 --> 00:06:09.689 -JFK. Do you think that was a choice? Like, why? 00:06:10.129 --> 00:06:13.529 Well, this is my question. He's 24 years old 00:06:13.529 --> 00:06:17.689 when JFK gets killed. Wow. Formative. So do you 00:06:17.689 --> 00:06:19.529 think the stuff that happens to you before you 00:06:19.529 --> 00:06:22.730 turn 24 is much more formative than the stuff 00:06:22.730 --> 00:06:24.910 that comes after? Do you think he just remembered 00:06:24.910 --> 00:06:26.889 all that stuff, and then he was like, and then 00:06:26.889 --> 00:06:30.430 some things happened in my 30s? Yeah. probably 00:06:30.430 --> 00:06:33.810 yeah because i just saw a brain surgeon talking 00:06:33.810 --> 00:06:37.089 about how by the time you turn 20 you've already 00:06:37.089 --> 00:06:39.449 like kind of lived half of your perceived life 00:06:39.449 --> 00:06:42.149 because everything becomes like nothing's new 00:06:42.149 --> 00:06:47.129 anymore right that's also why they say that time 00:06:47.129 --> 00:06:50.490 seems to pass faster as you're getting older 00:06:50.490 --> 00:06:52.610 right than when you're young because you stop 00:06:52.610 --> 00:06:55.509 noticing things right because they're not new 00:06:55.509 --> 00:06:58.149 experiences they're repeated experiences we're 00:06:58.149 --> 00:07:01.110 gonna leave here and go do something crazy after 00:07:01.110 --> 00:07:04.069 this so we can feel alive and time can slow down 00:07:04.069 --> 00:07:06.350 i've still never gone skydiving i'm not doing 00:07:06.350 --> 00:07:09.769 that so any anything other than something that 00:07:09.769 --> 00:07:12.110 puts my life in danger i'm trying to like live 00:07:12.110 --> 00:07:14.750 life not like ends life by jumping out of a plane 00:07:14.750 --> 00:07:16.949 good luck doing that by yourself ej fair enough 00:07:16.949 --> 00:07:19.829 do you okay so you said you played this for your 00:07:19.829 --> 00:07:22.970 niece yes she loved it by the way she was like 00:07:22.970 --> 00:07:30.250 yes really yes Is it just the same upbeat musicality 00:07:30.250 --> 00:07:33.930 of one of those little play pens that just blasts 00:07:33.930 --> 00:07:35.949 bells at you? She was a blob when I played it 00:07:35.949 --> 00:07:38.750 for her, so she didn't actually react. I just 00:07:38.750 --> 00:07:41.050 felt it in her soul. But I will play it again 00:07:41.050 --> 00:07:43.889 for her very soon, because how are we going to 00:07:43.889 --> 00:07:46.529 explain robots to this girl, EJ? I'm not sure 00:07:46.529 --> 00:07:49.129 how. Just be like, hey, we didn't start the fire. 00:07:49.250 --> 00:07:52.790 That's literally the answer. Again, thank you, 00:07:52.829 --> 00:07:55.610 Billy Joel, for the life philosophy. Do you remember 00:07:55.610 --> 00:07:58.230 when you first heard the song or have you just 00:07:58.230 --> 00:08:00.910 been inappropriately singing about JFK blown 00:08:00.910 --> 00:08:05.310 away as long as you can remember? Well, I definitely 00:08:05.310 --> 00:08:07.490 heard this growing up. I don't remember what 00:08:07.490 --> 00:08:11.970 era this song is from in Billy

Joel's Discog. 00:08:12.029 --> 00:08:14.529 It all kind of blends together for me. I remember 00:08:14.529 --> 00:08:17.949 this song distinctly growing up. I also knew 00:08:17.949 --> 00:08:20.089 a lot of people. I'm sure you did as well throughout 00:08:20.089 --> 00:08:22.649 life. There are people that like learn the lyrics 00:08:22.649 --> 00:08:26.000 and then think it's cool that they know the lyrics. 00:08:26.519 --> 00:08:28.240 Yeah, I'm trying to remember. They might be a 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:30.500 Long Island thing. I remember people trying to 00:08:30.500 --> 00:08:33.039 learn all the lyrics to Lou Begg is Mambo number 00:08:33.039 --> 00:08:37.519 five and recite all the names of the girls. A 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:42.840 little bit of Monica in my life. So, yeah, I 00:08:42.840 --> 00:08:47.370 remember this from childhood, but yesterday was 00:08:47.370 --> 00:08:49.610 the first day that I actually examined it and 00:08:49.610 --> 00:08:53.129 then realized how little I know about. History 00:08:53.129 --> 00:08:56.370 and that's why I'm really happy that we're talking 00:08:56.370 --> 00:08:58.450 about it because you know a lot about history 00:08:58.450 --> 00:09:01.149 So we're you're just gonna explain every single 00:09:01.149 --> 00:09:04.149 word to me for your reference pretty much I mean, 00:09:04.169 --> 00:09:06.409 it's the ultimate reverence song It's just references 00:09:06.409 --> 00:09:08.870 being thrown at you. So it was like someone who 00:09:08.870 --> 00:09:11.730 could talk entirely in references. I respect 00:09:11.730 --> 00:09:14.409 that but Billy Joel apparently hates this song 00:09:14.409 --> 00:09:15.710 and he doesn't think it's all that creative. 00:09:15.830 --> 00:09:17.990 Yeah, I just saw he was on Stern talking about 00:09:17.990 --> 00:09:19.909 it and Stern was like, you hate this song. And 00:09:19.909 --> 00:09:21.110 he's like, I don't hate this song. It's just 00:09:21.110 --> 00:09:23.450 like musically bad because he wrote the lyrics 00:09:23.450 --> 00:09:26.750 first. And I like the song. First of all, he 00:09:26.750 --> 00:09:29.490 plays it all the time and it's one of his biggest 00:09:29.490 --> 00:09:31.990 hits. So like that's how that's how it works 00:09:31.990 --> 00:09:35.029 as an artist. I mean, Guns N' Roses hates Sweet 00:09:35.029 --> 00:09:37.490 Child of Mine. Yeah, because they they're like, 00:09:37.509 --> 00:09:39.690 it's too simple, but everybody loves it. Yeah. 00:09:39.710 --> 00:09:41.870 Get on the bandwagon. We're all we're all on 00:09:41.870 --> 00:09:46.710 board. The song starts with really aggressive 00:09:46.710 --> 00:09:51.149 bongos, which is just phenomenal. And I don't 00:09:51.149 --> 00:09:53.330 know if you if you've paid attention to how the 00:09:53.330 --> 00:09:55.590 song actually starts. There's a bunch of sounds 00:09:55.590 --> 00:09:58.509 that happen before the bongos. OK, so it's like 00:09:58.509 --> 00:10:02.490 some sort of roaring noise. Then there's a there's 00:10:02.490 --> 00:10:05.809 there's a crowd cheering and then there's a shot. 00:10:06.289 --> 00:10:10.149 And I think my theory is that it starts with 00:10:10.149 --> 00:10:13.360 JFK blown away as well. Got it. So it's the whole 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:16.840 thing is him looking back from being 40 and kind 00:10:16.840 --> 00:10:19.580 of reliving it all and then rushing at the end. 00:10:20.139 --> 00:10:22.379 Yes. To catch up. I like I think that that's 00:10:22.379 --> 00:10:25.320 what the sound is. Otherwise it would be like 00:10:25.320 --> 00:10:28.460 what's the what's the year he was born? 49. 49. 00:10:28.460 --> 00:10:31.159 So maybe something happened in 48 that would 00:10:31.159 --> 00:10:33.080 relate to all the sounds that happen. And like 00:10:33.080 --> 00:10:37.399 that starts the song. But I think from my analysis 00:10:37.399 --> 00:10:39.820 it sounds like it's a JFK reference. I think 00:10:39.820 --> 00:10:42.429 you're right. And I think the crowd could be, 00:10:42.429 --> 00:10:45.470 you know, them cheering as he was driving past. 00:10:45.690 --> 00:10:49.450 Maybe. Yeah. Yep. The shot noise also happens 00:10:49.450 --> 00:10:52.629 during him screaming JFK blown away. Got it. 00:10:52.629 --> 00:10:55.269 OK. Yeah. So that so that does make sense. And 00:10:55.269 --> 00:10:57.370 it happens in your right ear. And I don't know 00:10:57.370 --> 00:11:00.289 if that's like on purpose from a mixing point 00:11:00.289 --> 00:11:02.889 of view. I think they had just invented stereo 00:11:02.889 --> 00:11:04.429 sound or something and they were like, what can 00:11:04.429 --> 00:11:07.269 we do with this? Yeah. Like maybe a lot of interesting 00:11:07.269 --> 00:11:10.169 musical choices. OK. Not the least of which the 00:11:10.169 --> 00:11:12.909 bongos. You pointed out to me that they kind 00:11:12.909 --> 00:11:16.029 of cut that introduction out of the music video. 00:11:16.110 --> 00:11:17.649 The music video just kind of dives into the lyrics 00:11:17.649 --> 00:11:19.730 and stuff. But there is that like whole... Yeah, 00:11:19.789 --> 00:11:21.529 they didn't even do the bongos in the music video. 00:11:22.330 --> 00:11:24.490 He's like, I hate this introduction so much. 00:11:25.570 --> 00:11:28.129 Too iconic for me. I mean, they'll do that a 00:11:28.129 --> 00:11:31.250 lot. They'll cut out a bunch of stuff for the 00:11:31.250 --> 00:11:33.210 music video to make it like flow better. Or in 00:11:33.210 --> 00:11:35.190 the case of Thriller, they'll add a bunch of 00:11:35.190 --> 00:11:38.409 extra shit in. Music videos are my favorite art 00:11:38.409 --> 00:11:41.629 medium. And that was a great one. It's definitely 00:11:41.629 --> 00:11:45.370 distinctive and it does this interesting thing 00:11:45.370 --> 00:11:49.070 where it steps through the decades with basically 00:11:49.070 --> 00:11:51.490 them all in the kitchen showing the kids being

00:11:51.490 --> 00:11:54.009 born and growing up and their costumes changing 00:11:54.009 --> 00:11:56.850 and the decor of the kitchen changing. Yeah, 00:11:56.850 --> 00:11:59.210 it's really smart. And I was thinking there's 00:11:59.210 --> 00:12:02.149 a Tom Hanks movie that Robert Zemeckis made that 00:12:02.149 --> 00:12:06.860 came out a couple years ago where it's basically 00:12:06.860 --> 00:12:09.190 like all Robert Zemeckis movies are at this point, 00:12:09.350 --> 00:12:11.590 like a showcase for some kind of new technology. 00:12:11.889 --> 00:12:14.850 So it's Tom Hanks and what's her name? The Princess 00:12:14.850 --> 00:12:19.669 Bride. Jenny? Yes. Jenny! Wait, it's them again? 00:12:19.889 --> 00:12:21.830 It's them again, yeah. Forrest Gump and Jenny 00:12:21.830 --> 00:12:24.610 back again. I'll work on it. Okay, we'll workshop 00:12:24.610 --> 00:12:27.210 it. It's a stationary camera in their living 00:12:27.210 --> 00:12:29.559 room. And the entire movie takes place over the 00:12:29.559 --> 00:12:32.500 course of like 40 years and he de -ages them 00:12:32.500 --> 00:12:34.899 down to like 20 when they move into the house. 00:12:35.220 --> 00:12:36.399 Sorry, it's probably even more than that. It's 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:38.580 probably like 80 years or something. And then 00:12:38.580 --> 00:12:42.000 they all then they age up to dying. Yeah, like 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:43.759 over the course of like the 20th century. I don't 00:12:43.759 --> 00:12:46.320 think I want to see that film, but also it's 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:50.580 Gump and Jenny back again. Great. See, this is 00:12:50.580 --> 00:12:53.820 why this is why you're the artist. Yeah. So I 00:12:53.820 --> 00:12:56.159 think that sounds like a sad movie that I can't 00:12:56.159 --> 00:12:58.419 handle at this point in my life right now. So 00:12:58.419 --> 00:13:00.580 I was going to ask. This is feels like it was 00:13:00.580 --> 00:13:05.019 a hard songwriting task for Billy Joel to fit 00:13:05.019 --> 00:13:08.820 the syllables into. Well, I guess he wrote the 00:13:08.820 --> 00:13:10.779 you said he wrote the lyrics first and then added 00:13:10.779 --> 00:13:12.559 the music to it afterwards. So he kind of knew 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:14.500 everything that he wanted to say. But it still 00:13:14.500 --> 00:13:17.460 feels very hard to. fit everything like Tetris 00:13:17.460 --> 00:13:20.440 pieces into the right syllables and do it chronologically. 00:13:20.860 --> 00:13:23.720 Because I feel like when Fallout Boy did their 00:13:23.720 --> 00:13:26.559 sequel in 2023, they were just like, we're not 00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:28.120 putting the effort into making this chronological. 00:13:28.220 --> 00:13:30.799 We'll call it an artistic statement. No one remembers 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:33.980 what order things happen in anymore. But I really 00:13:33.980 --> 00:13:35.659 feel like they just kind of phoned it in. Yeah, 00:13:35.659 --> 00:13:38.159 they phoned it in. It was terrible. Sorry about 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:42.720 it, guys. Love you. Really bad. And and I don't 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:45.820 know. I don't know if I believe that. Billy sat 00:13:45.820 --> 00:13:49.820 down and was like hovered over a notepad being 00:13:49.820 --> 00:13:54.950 like how do I fit in all this stuff and I think 00:13:54.950 --> 00:13:57.090 it come like best songwriting and maybe this 00:13:57.090 --> 00:13:58.710 is why he thinks it's not his best songwriting 00:13:58.710 --> 00:14:02.269 best songwriting comes from Elsewhere so just 00:14:02.269 --> 00:14:04.490 kind of like you get you get connected with source 00:14:04.490 --> 00:14:06.570 and then it just kind of get downloads to you 00:14:06.570 --> 00:14:09.049 That's how most artists will describe like creating. 00:14:09.169 --> 00:14:13.769 Okay rather than like methodically figuring a 00:14:13.769 --> 00:14:16.600 puzzle out But if you methodically figured out 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:19.200 a puzzle and wrote this song on purpose without 00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:21.220 feeling it, then I can understand why he doesn't 00:14:21.220 --> 00:14:24.500 really like it that much. So William Martin Joel 00:14:24.500 --> 00:14:26.879 was born in 1949 in the Bronx, but he grew up 00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:31.419 in Hicksville. Okay, Martin. I love it. On the 00:14:31.419 --> 00:14:34.480 island known as Long. It's so long. So World 00:14:34.480 --> 00:14:36.279 War II has been over for like four years, so 00:14:36.279 --> 00:14:39.850 he's a full -blown boomer. Yes, he's like the 00:14:39.850 --> 00:14:42.090 king of the boomers. Yes. He's their patron saint. 00:14:42.090 --> 00:14:44.250 He's also the king of Long Island. He's our king. 00:14:44.509 --> 00:14:46.629 This is like, I'm like honored to talk about 00:14:46.629 --> 00:14:50.409 this man. I'm so glad. The song starts and the 00:14:50.409 --> 00:14:55.570 first stanza covers 1949. Harry Truman. Doris 00:14:55.570 --> 00:14:57.370 Day. Doris Day. Are we allowed to sing it or 00:14:57.370 --> 00:14:59.149 are we gonna get a cease and desist? I think 00:14:59.149 --> 00:15:01.269 you'll be fine. I'll be fine. Okay, so Harry 00:15:01.269 --> 00:15:02.529 Truman is obviously the president when he was 00:15:02.529 --> 00:15:06.990 born. Doris Day. I was reading recently, the 00:15:06.990 --> 00:15:08.789 producers of The Graduate really wanted Doris 00:15:08.789 --> 00:15:11.129 Day to play Dustin Hoffman's mom. Doris Day releases 00:15:11.129 --> 00:15:13.970 her debut album. We're just gonna skip over Truman? 00:15:14.350 --> 00:15:17.610 He was born into the nuclear era? Billy Joel. 00:15:17.830 --> 00:15:20.350 We dropped the bomb in 45. So that's when World 00:15:20.350 --> 00:15:23.190 War II ends. So it's four years after the end 00:15:23.190 --> 00:15:26.210 of World War II. So everyone has like readjusted 00:15:26.210 --> 00:15:31.629 to peacetime now. The US is in charge, like post

00:15:31.629 --> 00:15:35.269 World War II. 1949, like the dust is kind of 00:15:35.269 --> 00:15:36.889 still settling in other parts of the world from 00:15:36.889 --> 00:15:39.809 World War Two. And 1949 is when the communists 00:15:39.809 --> 00:15:43.450 take control in China. The next line is Red China. 00:15:43.789 --> 00:15:46.950 Johnny Ray. Johnny Ray is also a singer. Yeah. 00:15:47.129 --> 00:15:49.669 Rock and roll progenitor. Signs his first recording 00:15:49.669 --> 00:15:55.509 contract with OK Records. OK. Records. You're 00:15:55.509 --> 00:15:58.889 welcome. South Pacific, the award winning musical 00:15:58.889 --> 00:16:01.669 opens on Broadway. I was in that. Were you? I 00:16:01.669 --> 00:16:04.720 was. when I was in ninth grade. Was I in South 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:08.259 Pacific? I might have not been in the theater, 00:16:08.259 --> 00:16:10.159 but I might have been backstage. Does that make 00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:13.039 sense? Sure. I think I missed being in that musical, 00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:15.940 but I was very involved in the production and 00:16:15.940 --> 00:16:17.600 then I was the lead of all the rest of them. 00:16:17.639 --> 00:16:21.600 All right. No big deal. Walter Winchell, an influential 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:24.259 radio and newspaper journalist, begins to denounce 00:16:24.259 --> 00:16:26.299 communism as the main threat facing America. 00:16:26.500 --> 00:16:29.539 So he seems like a real Joe McCarthy, Father 00:16:29.539 --> 00:16:32.659 Coughlin, Tucker Carlson sort of right -wing 00:16:32.659 --> 00:16:35.179 radio guy. So he gets on the radio and he's like, 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:37.879 communism's a real big deal. Right. Yeah. Is 00:16:37.879 --> 00:16:40.320 communism currently a real big deal? There's 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:42.960 no one in the Western world at this point going 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:44.899 around calling themselves communist. China, I 00:16:44.899 --> 00:16:47.899 think, is very, they call themselves very like 00:16:47.950 --> 00:16:51.090 politically communist in that it's not a democracy, 00:16:51.190 --> 00:16:53.850 it's a one -party system, but they're not very 00:16:53.850 --> 00:16:56.509 economically communist at this point. They're 00:16:56.509 --> 00:16:58.190 not pooling their money. It's very capitalist. 00:16:58.590 --> 00:17:01.350 There's a lot of people I see mostly on TikTok 00:17:01.350 --> 00:17:02.929 that go and visit, and they're like, these cities 00:17:02.929 --> 00:17:05.289 are amazing. Right. And it's a very market -based 00:17:05.289 --> 00:17:07.970 economy. They have billionaires. They have businesses 00:17:07.970 --> 00:17:11.349 that invest. Complicated, real large country. 00:17:12.150 --> 00:17:14.190 The final reference in the first stanza is Joe 00:17:14.190 --> 00:17:16.130 DiMaggio, who signs a record -breaking contract. 00:17:16.289 --> 00:17:17.950 of a hundred thousand dollars with the New York 00:17:17.950 --> 00:17:19.289 Yankees. This is the beginning of his career. 00:17:19.430 --> 00:17:22.069 Got it. He also dated Marilyn Monroe. Absolutely. 00:17:22.269 --> 00:17:24.869 Does she come up yet or later? Next stanza. Oh, 00:17:24.970 --> 00:17:27.250 they're related and married and divorced as well. 00:17:27.470 --> 00:17:31.289 Yes. Yes. I mean, my main takeaway is 1949. There's 00:17:31.289 --> 00:17:35.069 a lot of like the real politics of the post -World 00:17:35.069 --> 00:17:38.769 War Two just kind of like settle here. And the 00:17:38.769 --> 00:17:41.309 status quo is kind of like created pretty close 00:17:41.309 --> 00:17:44.329 to when he's born. And then also. A lot of rock 00:17:44.329 --> 00:17:46.130 and roll is invented like right when he's born. 00:17:46.289 --> 00:17:49.450 Right. A lot of media. Oh, yeah. So he's like, 00:17:49.849 --> 00:17:51.490 you know what? I love this so much. I'm going 00:17:51.490 --> 00:17:54.880 to dedicate my life to it. Be the rock and roll 00:17:54.880 --> 00:17:58.319 man. Yeah. And I mean, man, he's he's the piano 00:17:58.319 --> 00:18:01.559 man. Yeah. But he's also like pointing out his 00:18:01.559 --> 00:18:03.519 personality would not have been the same if he 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:06.299 had been born into like 20 years earlier or something. 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:08.299 Totally different music, totally different technology. 00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:10.490 Wouldn't have been the same at all. Yeah, this 00:18:10.490 --> 00:18:12.710 period of time started the fire of Billy Joel. 00:18:13.230 --> 00:18:16.210 Did you see the Billy Joel documentary series 00:18:16.210 --> 00:18:19.789 recently? I've seen him in MSG three times. OK, 00:18:19.809 --> 00:18:21.670 this is the biggest regret of my life. And I 00:18:21.670 --> 00:18:26.339 am so, so sad that I did not go to MSG. He was 00:18:26.339 --> 00:18:28.619 there for like years. Sure. And I was like, I'll 00:18:28.619 --> 00:18:30.880 get this every month. And then I literally was 00:18:30.880 --> 00:18:32.500 like, all right, I'm going to see Billy Joel 00:18:32.500 --> 00:18:34.420 this year. And Billy Joel was like, I'm done. 00:18:35.319 --> 00:18:38.339 And so I will have lived my life not ever seeing 00:18:38.339 --> 00:18:42.799 my favorite. performer perform. How was he at 00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:44.759 Madison Square Garden? I mean, amazing. You know 00:18:44.759 --> 00:18:48.740 every song. The audience is so into it. Yeah. 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:51.920 It's like he's in his home turf. What do you 00:18:51.920 --> 00:18:54.200 call it when you play at home court advantage? 00:18:54.339 --> 00:18:57.740 Yeah. Yes. Big time. I would argue that he's 00:18:57.740 --> 00:19:00.119 almost more at home in MSG than any of the sports 00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:03.299 teams that play there. Go next in five. The series 00:19:03.299 --> 00:19:05.640 that came out, me and my best friend Cassie. 00:19:05.730 --> 00:19:08.430 sat down to watch it one rainy day and

it's like 00:19:08.430 --> 00:19:11.670 many episodes we had to stop watching it at some 00:19:11.670 --> 00:19:14.170 point because the whole series is about like 00:19:14.170 --> 00:19:16.190 when is Billy Joel like gonna make it and like 00:19:16.190 --> 00:19:18.210 break through and like it just talks about how 00:19:18.210 --> 00:19:20.589 like Billy Joel is gonna make it and like he 00:19:20.589 --> 00:19:22.769 kept going through these things that kind of 00:19:22.769 --> 00:19:24.589 held him back like he released a hit and then 00:19:24.589 --> 00:19:26.170 like it wouldn't work out and so now the joke 00:19:26.170 --> 00:19:28.369 between me and Cassie is like yeah do you think 00:19:28.369 --> 00:19:30.869 Billy Joel ever made it like it's like a very 00:19:30.869 --> 00:19:32.769 drawn -out story about how like Billy Joel almost 00:19:32.769 --> 00:19:36.569 didn't make it he's like The biggest thing that's 00:19:36.569 --> 00:19:39.250 ever happened actually to Long Island. I hope 00:19:39.250 --> 00:19:42.329 you made it to Long Island No, like he's big 00:19:42.329 --> 00:19:46.309 in Mexico, man. He could tour Poland He is he's 00:19:46.309 --> 00:19:49.890 big in karaoke bars everywhere everywhere. Yep. 00:19:49.950 --> 00:19:54.420 This man is an international superstar Well, 00:19:54.519 --> 00:19:58.819 he gets to 1950 in the second stanza and you've 00:19:58.819 --> 00:20:02.740 got Joe McCarthy Richard Nixon I think as a kid 00:20:02.740 --> 00:20:05.230 I thought Studebaker television was one thing, 00:20:05.250 --> 00:20:07.190 but it's two separate things. Yeah, it's a car 00:20:07.190 --> 00:20:11.509 and TV. Yes, North Korea, South Korea and Marilyn 00:20:11.509 --> 00:20:17.769 Monroe. So again, you've got like communism with 00:20:18.089 --> 00:20:20.170 Joe McCarthy, like totally starting right now, 00:20:20.329 --> 00:20:23.950 the Red Scare. So Richard Nixon in 1950 is elected 00:20:23.950 --> 00:20:26.269 to the United States Senate for the first time. 00:20:26.990 --> 00:20:30.309 Nixon was around forever, like almost longer 00:20:30.309 --> 00:20:33.619 than Trump has been around, because we're going 00:20:33.619 --> 00:20:36.480 to end up like living in the Trump era for like 00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:38.740 12 years. Nixon was almost kind of like the original 00:20:38.740 --> 00:20:40.640 Trump because he was around for so long. He gets 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:44.759 elected in 1950. And then later when it's like 00:20:44.759 --> 00:20:48.700 Richard Nixon back again, it's because he was 00:20:48.700 --> 00:20:52.839 gone for several years, came back, ran for president, 00:20:53.339 --> 00:20:57.549 and then won as president. Yeah. So that's what 00:20:57.549 --> 00:21:00.309 Richard Nixon back again like means later on. 00:21:00.490 --> 00:21:03.769 in the 60s and 70s. Nixon had been accused of 00:21:03.769 --> 00:21:06.029 improprieties related to a fund established by 00:21:06.029 --> 00:21:08.890 his backers

to reimburse him for political expenses. 00:21:09.730 --> 00:21:13.170 Okay. So this is during the 1952 presidential 00:21:13.170 --> 00:21:17.200 election when he was Eisenhower's nominee. for 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:19.579 vice president he had to give a speech called 00:21:19.579 --> 00:21:21.799 the checkers speech where he refers to his dog 00:21:21.799 --> 00:21:24.200 checkers yeah during the speech he stated that 00:21:24.200 --> 00:21:26.900 he intended to keep one gift regardless of the 00:21:26.900 --> 00:21:29.380 outcome a black and white cocker spaniel that 00:21:29.380 --> 00:21:33.059 his children had named checkers boo someone gave 00:21:33.059 --> 00:21:36.700 him a dog yeah yuck i didn't know what that speech 00:21:36.700 --> 00:21:39.660 was about at all somebody gave him a dog he had 00:21:39.660 --> 00:21:42.880 to say and i'm sorry speech done Do we have live 00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:45.500 television at this point? Sure, yeah. Yeah, it's 00:21:45.500 --> 00:21:48.200 live television. That's what's big about television 00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:51.079 in general. And so this man gets on TV and he's 00:21:51.079 --> 00:21:53.720 like, I got a dog named Chekhov and I'm not giving 00:21:53.720 --> 00:21:58.480 him back. 1951, you've got Rosenberg's H -bomb. 00:21:58.660 --> 00:22:02.119 I don't know who the Rosenberg's are. They were 00:22:02.119 --> 00:22:05.200 convicted of spying for, yeah, communist Russia. 00:22:05.359 --> 00:22:09.960 Were they executed? Yes. Yuck. Sugar Ray, Pam 00:22:09.960 --> 00:22:12.650 and John. What's Pam and John? A border village 00:22:12.650 --> 00:22:14.990 in Korea, which is the location of truce talks 00:22:14.990 --> 00:22:16.910 between the parties of the Korean War. Okay. 00:22:17.349 --> 00:22:19.849 Brando, he's an actor. I know him. The King and 00:22:19.849 --> 00:22:23.470 I opens on Broadway. And The Catcher in the Rye. 00:22:23.609 --> 00:22:25.549 The most boring of the books. You don't like 00:22:25.549 --> 00:22:28.670 it? I mean, it's like hyped. Let's put it that 00:22:28.670 --> 00:22:31.259 way. Although I did love Igby Goes Down. Did 00:22:31.259 --> 00:22:34.160 you ever see that movie? Igby Goes Down was Ciaran 00:22:34.160 --> 00:22:36.359 Culkin before Ciaran Culkin was Ciaran Culkin. 00:22:36.599 --> 00:22:40.220 Yes. But also as Ciaran Culkin was Ciaran Culkin. 00:22:40.759 --> 00:22:43.579 And it's like J .D. Stalinger never sold the 00:22:43.579 --> 00:22:46.039 rights to the movies. He didn't want a movie 00:22:46.039 --> 00:22:49.119 made of it. So they got as close to the source 00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:51.400 material as they could. And it's like a very 00:22:51.400 --> 00:22:54.180 like teen angsty. Formative like I watched a 00:22:54.180 --> 00:22:56.700 lot when I was 15. Oh interesting. Okay, and 00:22:56.700 --> 00:22:58.819 then me and Cassie met Kieran Culkin in real 00:22:58.819 --> 00:23:02.039 life because we manifested Meeting Holden Caulfield 00:23:02.039 --> 00:23:04.839 on the Long Island Railroad into the city and 00:23:04.839 --> 00:23:07.220 I swear to god I swear to god this is true We 00:23:07.220 --> 00:23:09.859 like snuck into a bar and Kieran Culkin's at 00:23:09.859 --> 00:23:13.480 the bar like a celebratory going away party of 00:23:13.480 --> 00:23:15.460 one of his friends. And we played beer pong with 00:23:15.460 --> 00:23:17.460 Ciaran Culkin that night. And it was awesome. 00:23:17.480 --> 00:23:19.200 I've never heard this story. It's amazing. It's 00:23:19.200 --> 00:23:21.180 amazing because we were like on the train, like 00:23:21.180 --> 00:23:22.920 we're going to meet Holden Caulfield. Like that's 00:23:22.920 --> 00:23:24.480 what we're going to do. We're going to go because 00:23:24.480 --> 00:23:26.539 we couldn't get into a bar. We didn't think right. 00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:28.759 So we're going to go be Holden Caulfield's meeting 00:23:28.759 --> 00:23:31.140 Holden Caulfield. And then we met Holden Caulfield. 00:23:31.180 --> 00:23:32.720 It was awesome. Like that's interesting. You 00:23:32.720 --> 00:23:35.000 found the book boring, but we're still inspired 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:37.359 by Holden Caulfield. Yeah. The Ciaran Culkin 00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:41.289 version. OK. It's Ciaran Culkin, man. Catcher 00:23:41.289 --> 00:23:44.369 in the Rye is also the book that was like supposed 00:23:44.369 --> 00:23:47.130 to be the book in Field of Dreams Kevin Costner 00:23:47.130 --> 00:23:50.029 goes looking for the author of his favorite book 00:23:50.029 --> 00:23:51.789 because he feels like the voice in the cornfield 00:23:51.789 --> 00:23:56.529 told him to and He goes to find a reclusive author 00:23:56.529 --> 00:23:58.490 living out in Boston who ends up being played 00:23:58.490 --> 00:24:02.660 by James Earl Jones And it's a stand -in for 00:24:02.660 --> 00:24:04.819 Salinger, you know, as the incredibly reclusive 00:24:04.819 --> 00:24:07.359 author of Catcher in the Rye. Got it. And was 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:10.680 James Earl Jones the actor of every baseball 00:24:10.680 --> 00:24:14.180 movie growing up? Isn't he in Sandlot? He is 00:24:14.180 --> 00:24:16.039 in Sandlot. Those are his two. Yeah. Those are 00:24:16.039 --> 00:24:17.859 his two big baseball movies. That's great. Kevin 00:24:17.859 --> 00:24:19.980 Costner's in a lot of baseball movies also. All 00:24:19.980 --> 00:24:22.680 right. Where are we in space and time? We've 00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:25.680 only made it to 1951 so far. So yes, now they're 00:24:25.680 --> 00:24:28.500 like testing, they're testing more nukes. Such 00:24:28.500 --> 00:24:33.880 a good idea. 1952, Eisenhower vaccine, England's 00:24:33.880 --> 00:24:36.799 got a new queen. I know a lot about that. That's 00:24:36.799 --> 00:24:40.180 when Queen Elizabeth became queen, very young, 00:24:40.180 --> 00:24:41.759 and then she was queen for a very long time. 00:24:42.099 --> 00:24:44.839 Very long time. I think the

longest reigning 00:24:44.839 --> 00:24:47.339 monarch. Monarch. Yeah, I watched Netflix, The 00:24:47.339 --> 00:24:49.579 Crown. So before the queen, what are we saying? 00:24:49.859 --> 00:24:52.819 England's got a new queen. Yeah. Well, Eisenhower 00:24:52.819 --> 00:24:56.059 vaccine. So Eisenhower wins the 1952 presidential 00:24:56.059 --> 00:24:58.700 election with Richard Nixon as his vice president. 00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:01.900 And the chubby checker speech happens as a dog. 00:25:02.680 --> 00:25:04.579 The chubby checker speech. I think you're combining 00:25:04.579 --> 00:25:08.359 some things. Vaccine is the polio vaccine developed 00:25:08.359 --> 00:25:12.839 by Jonas Salk. So big year for vaccines. And 00:25:12.839 --> 00:25:15.720 then it was all downhill from there. It eliminated 00:25:15.720 --> 00:25:19.950 polio. for kids from like 1952 onward. And how 00:25:19.950 --> 00:25:22.430 we think we doing with all that today? Polio 00:25:22.430 --> 00:25:24.589 is still good, measles not so much. I just read 00:25:24.589 --> 00:25:27.089 something on the way over here that measles is 00:25:27.089 --> 00:25:30.029 taking some kids out in New York. Oh, it's really 00:25:30.029 --> 00:25:31.990 not great. Not great. It's because we lost the 00:25:31.990 --> 00:25:34.910 herd immunity because New York didn't stop vaccinating, 00:25:35.430 --> 00:25:40.849 but individual people did. And other states loosened 00:25:40.849 --> 00:25:42.829 their like vaccine mandates for going to school. 00:25:43.380 --> 00:25:46.000 Oh, boy. There's really no good answer for that 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:49.440 one. My mom is born in 1952 as well. So this 00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:52.619 is the beginning of my parents' generation as 00:25:52.619 --> 00:25:56.359 boomers. Wait, Billy Joel is older than my parents? 00:25:56.880 --> 00:26:00.319 Oh, my goodness. King of boomers. The boomer 00:26:00.319 --> 00:26:04.180 era is really anyone born from like 45 to 64, 00:26:04.519 --> 00:26:07.240 something like that. So he's an elder boomer. 00:26:07.380 --> 00:26:10.880 Yeah, that's a long generation. Is the Millennials 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:13.920 spanning that long as well? Yeah, millennials 00:26:13.920 --> 00:26:18.259 are, I think anyone born from like 82 to 96, 00:26:18.480 --> 00:26:20.460 something like that. It's almost 20 years. Fun 00:26:20.460 --> 00:26:24.509 fact, babies born now are not even... They're 00:26:24.509 --> 00:26:26.150 not Gen Z, and they're not Gen Alpha. They're 00:26:26.150 --> 00:26:28.670 the next ones. They're Gen Beta. They're called 00:26:28.670 --> 00:26:30.990 Gen Beta? Until we come up with a better term. 00:26:31.150 --> 00:26:34.529 Oh, no. I feel like after Millennials, we really 00:26:34.529 --> 00:26:36.569 started phoning in the name of generations. And 00:26:36.569 --> 00:26:41.130 we just started. Z -A -B -C. Yeah. We didn't 00:26:41.130 --> 00:26:43.710 start the fire. You know, they should be played 00:26:43.710

--> 00:26:46.849 in every delivery room. As a form of indoctrination. 00:26:47.150 --> 00:26:50.710 To absolve them of original sin. Funny. So here's 00:26:50.710 --> 00:26:53.630 the thing about this song. I don't think Billy 00:26:53.630 --> 00:26:57.369 Joel really has a political philosophy. He's 00:26:57.369 --> 00:27:01.210 not necessarily saying, you know, it would be 00:27:01.210 --> 00:27:04.930 good if we had vaccines. Fascism is bad, and 00:27:04.930 --> 00:27:06.950 so we should try to avoid that happening again. 00:27:07.250 --> 00:27:10.089 Communism is bad, but so is the Red Scare. He's 00:27:10.089 --> 00:27:13.869 not really taking a position. He's just listing 00:27:13.869 --> 00:27:16.069 all the shit that happened. But then he says, 00:27:16.289 --> 00:27:18.230 we didn't start this. And then he says, it's 00:27:18.230 --> 00:27:20.299 not my fault. It's not my fault, but I think 00:27:20.299 --> 00:27:23.670 that is a political statement in a way. I think 00:27:23.670 --> 00:27:26.130 if there's a point to the song, it's about and 00:27:26.130 --> 00:27:28.569 this is kind of what all that generational theory 00:27:28.569 --> 00:27:31.650 is about, too. There's a cyclicalness to stuff 00:27:31.650 --> 00:27:33.890 that happens in history. Yes. I mean, the way 00:27:33.890 --> 00:27:37.230 I look at it is, yeah, society is a mob and there's 00:27:37.230 --> 00:27:41.869 a cyclicalness to its moods, the phases it goes 00:27:41.869 --> 00:27:44.309 through, the way that generations grow up, because 00:27:44.309 --> 00:27:47.009 you're always kind of. Rebelling against your 00:27:47.009 --> 00:27:48.730 parents generation. So if your parents generation 00:27:48.730 --> 00:27:51.809 was hippies, you're gonna crave stability If 00:27:51.809 --> 00:27:55.130 your parents generation was uptight, you're gonna 00:27:55.130 --> 00:27:57.549 try to break free of that be hippies be hippies 00:27:57.549 --> 00:28:00.410 Yeah, so I do think that there is that cyclicalness 00:28:00.410 --> 00:28:05.029 to society, but hopefully even though it goes 00:28:05.029 --> 00:28:09.289 through waves We ride out the next wave so that 00:28:09.289 --> 00:28:13.470 it's less destructive than the last time when 00:28:13.500 --> 00:28:17.450 the crisis period was fascism and there was a 00:28:17.450 --> 00:28:19.210 world war and a lot of people died like hopefully 00:28:19.210 --> 00:28:22.650 we're like better at riding out the crisis wave 00:28:22.650 --> 00:28:27.339 hopefully where even if we're the Same version 00:28:27.339 --> 00:28:29.480 of the generation that came 80 years before we're 00:28:29.480 --> 00:28:31.920 like a smarter version of that, you know, hopefully 00:28:31.920 --> 00:28:34.519 yeah, I would hope so this is really interesting 00:28:34.519 --> 00:28:38.750 because The boomers themselves feel like they 00:28:38.750 --> 00:28:40.750 have a little bit of a we didn't start the fire 00:28:40.750 --> 00:28:43.609 mentality in general,

right? They're like, oh 00:28:43.609 --> 00:28:47.049 well Like on the way over here. It's I was I 00:28:47.049 --> 00:28:50.130 was walking down 14th Street near Union Square 00:28:50.130 --> 00:28:53.509 where the doomsday clock is yeah, and Do you 00:28:53.509 --> 00:28:55.289 know how much time is left on the doomsday clock? 00:28:55.390 --> 00:28:57.230 Oh, it's I don't like four years or something. 00:28:57.230 --> 00:29:00.150 It's two years it's two years and it's counting 00:29:00.150 --> 00:29:05.829 down and like most of the boomers I know are 00:29:05.829 --> 00:29:09.799 just like yeah, well You know? Like, oh yeah, 00:29:09.859 --> 00:29:11.599 well, you can't afford a house, oh yeah, well, 00:29:11.740 --> 00:29:13.500 there's no jobs, or you don't work hard enough, 00:29:13.579 --> 00:29:16.000 or whatever. Like, they don't take responsibility. 00:29:16.400 --> 00:29:19.970 Right. Right? Well, they're the ones who... when 00:29:19.970 --> 00:29:22.710 they were born the assumption was that like your 00:29:22.710 --> 00:29:23.890 children's generation was going to be better 00:29:23.890 --> 00:29:26.829 off than yourselves yeah so they're born to the 00:29:26.829 --> 00:29:29.470 greatest generation and they were indeed better 00:29:29.470 --> 00:29:30.730 off than the greatest generation i mean they 00:29:30.730 --> 00:29:32.569 had wars they had the korean war and the vietnam 00:29:32.569 --> 00:29:35.430 war but there wasn't like a total mobilization 00:29:35.430 --> 00:29:38.869 of the home front where everything got rationed 00:29:38.869 --> 00:29:42.569 for decades but vietnam they got their numbers 00:29:42.569 --> 00:29:45.269 called on tv yeah yeah they got traumatized especially 00:29:45.269 --> 00:29:48.299 traumatizing for them yeah yeah But I think part 00:29:48.299 --> 00:29:50.539 of the reason that they were mad is because that 00:29:50.539 --> 00:29:53.579 one felt like a war of choice. Yeah. Speaking 00:29:53.579 --> 00:29:57.579 of these generations, there's actual scholarship 00:29:57.579 --> 00:30:01.339 on like how each generation is a reaction to 00:30:01.339 --> 00:30:05.759 their parents. The greatest generation is called 00:30:05.759 --> 00:30:08.519 a hero generation or like a civic generation 00:30:08.519 --> 00:30:11.200 because they were inspired to go get involved. 00:30:11.539 --> 00:30:14.240 The generation that came after that was the silent 00:30:14.240 --> 00:30:18.490 generation. They are Adaptive or an artist generation 00:30:18.490 --> 00:30:20.990 and they're the ones who elected Nixon the one 00:30:20.990 --> 00:30:24.529 after that was the baby boomers and their Idealists 00:30:24.529 --> 00:30:26.970 which like I sort of get they're the ones who 00:30:26.970 --> 00:30:29.549 are like we're born Everything's gonna be better 00:30:29.549 --> 00:30:31.730 for us because each generation is better off 00:30:31.730 --> 00:30:33.809 than the last one and they got to buy really 00:30:33.809 --> 00:30:36.549 cheap houses So that kinda worked out for them 00:30:36.700 --> 00:30:39.380 Not all of them, right? Like the suburbs. My 00:30:39.380 --> 00:30:42.500 mom grew up in the first suburb. But there's 00:30:42.500 --> 00:30:44.680 people that didn't get to grow up in the suburbs 00:30:44.680 --> 00:30:46.500 because they weren't allowed to buy there. It 00:30:46.500 --> 00:30:49.700 was redlining. There were inequities. Absolutely. 00:30:50.359 --> 00:30:52.940 Some people got to buy cheap houses. Some demographics 00:30:52.940 --> 00:30:58.119 got fucked. Absolutely. Gen X is called a reactive 00:30:58.119 --> 00:31:01.359 generation because... My God, are they? Yep. 00:31:01.619 --> 00:31:04.019 And they're also kind of... are conservatives 00:31:04.019 --> 00:31:06.400 at this point. They're kind of the ones going 00:31:06.400 --> 00:31:08.279 into the MAGA direction. Yeah, we leave them 00:31:08.279 --> 00:31:12.299 alone. They're very weird, always have been very 00:31:12.299 --> 00:31:14.619 weird. They don't understand humor. And when 00:31:14.619 --> 00:31:16.579 I talk to them, I'm like, you guys did not grow 00:31:16.579 --> 00:31:18.500 up with the Internet. You don't get the jokes. 00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:20.819 You don't get the jokes. They try to participate 00:31:20.819 --> 00:31:23.700 in the jokes and they miss the point of things 00:31:23.700 --> 00:31:27.680 being like sardonic or funny. And I'm sure that 00:31:27.680 --> 00:31:30.519 Gen X is the same shit about us. Sure. That we're 00:31:30.519 --> 00:31:34.230 like cringe and. We do the millennial paws and 00:31:34.230 --> 00:31:36.930 wear the wrong jeans and my side bangs. I don't 00:31:36.930 --> 00:31:39.470 have side bangs anymore because of them. Well, 00:31:39.509 --> 00:31:41.390 here, this is going to make sense then. So now 00:31:41.390 --> 00:31:44.940 the cycle starts again. We're the next generation, 00:31:45.059 --> 00:31:47.900 the millennials, and we're back to being the 00:31:47.900 --> 00:31:51.940 hero or civic generation. And then a hero comes 00:31:51.940 --> 00:31:58.019 along. Another Long Island royalty member, Mariah 00:31:58.019 --> 00:32:00.039 Carey. She's from Comac. Is she our Billy Joel? 00:32:00.720 --> 00:32:03.319 Is she the voice of our generation? No, Billy 00:32:03.319 --> 00:32:06.720 Joel is the voice of my multiple generations, 00:32:06.980 --> 00:32:08.779 not just boomers. He's what's it called? The 00:32:08.779 --> 00:32:11.480 arc, the generational arc, the whole thing. An 00:32:11.480 --> 00:32:15.259 80 year period is called a seculum. Yeah, he's 00:32:15.259 --> 00:32:19.910 the Seculum King. That sounds real nice. Gen 00:32:19.910 --> 00:32:23.289 Z is gonna be the next, like, silent generation. 00:32:23.490 --> 00:32:25.609 They're an adaptive generation. Okay, and then 00:32:25.609 --> 00:32:27.470 we're the heroes. This makes sense. And what's 00:32:27.470 --> 00:32:29.630 Gen Z? Like, the silent generation, the ones

00:32:29.630 --> 00:32:32.170 who got worried about communism and elected Nixon. 00:32:32.789 --> 00:32:35.690 Silent? That's not my experience of them. No, 00:32:35.789 --> 00:32:38.069 but they were called the silent generation when 00:32:38.069 --> 00:32:40.210 they voted for Nixon because Nixon was like, 00:32:40.369 --> 00:32:42.450 I'm gonna get elected. There's a silent majority 00:32:42.450 --> 00:32:46.549 out there that's gonna elect me. I think the 00:32:46.549 --> 00:32:50.289 thing to take from this is when Gen Z ages up 00:32:50.289 --> 00:32:53.609 into the voting populace, they're going to be 00:32:53.609 --> 00:32:56.190 huge. They're going to have a massive voice. 00:32:56.890 --> 00:33:02.670 If they really find millennial optimism to be 00:33:02.670 --> 00:33:06.069 so cringe and bullshit, they're going to rebel 00:33:06.069 --> 00:33:10.569 against that and elect people who are much more 00:33:10.569 --> 00:33:15.289 realistic or reactive. Or they might just decide 00:33:15.289 --> 00:33:17.690 not to vote. And they'd be silent that way. Gen 00:33:17.690 --> 00:33:20.289 Z might just be silent that way until maybe some 00:33:20.289 --> 00:33:22.369 maybe a Nixon comes along. A hero for them comes 00:33:22.369 --> 00:33:24.650 along and inspires them to stop being silent. 00:33:24.890 --> 00:33:28.869 But yeah. Do you think that that person will 00:33:28.869 --> 00:33:32.470 be a Gen Z or will it be you, E .J.? Are you 00:33:32.470 --> 00:33:35.829 going to rally the silent generation? I think 00:33:35.829 --> 00:33:38.970 I'm I think I'm all in on millennial optimism. 00:33:39.630 --> 00:33:42.750 I'm still I'm still a sucker for no, no, no, 00:33:42.750 --> 00:33:44.609 there's a way to fix this Yeah, or just like 00:33:44.609 --> 00:33:46.630 enjoy it while it lasts because we didn't start 00:33:46.630 --> 00:33:49.809 the fire Because that's very true like this this 00:33:49.809 --> 00:33:52.130 song could have started at the beginning of time 00:33:52.299 --> 00:33:55.039 Right. Like you can list everything that ever 00:33:55.039 --> 00:33:57.440 happened and then you're like, oh, it's not like 00:33:57.440 --> 00:34:00.460 particularly awful. Right. This moment in time, 00:34:00.460 --> 00:34:03.319 it's always been particularly awful depending 00:34:03.319 --> 00:34:06.359 on the lens that you take. And Billy Joel's lens 00:34:06.359 --> 00:34:08.780 happens to be like very focused on like politics 00:34:08.780 --> 00:34:10.639 and communism. And but he could have written 00:34:10.639 --> 00:34:13.420 this song about beautiful art that was developed 00:34:13.420 --> 00:34:15.980 or, you know, community building or the civil 00:34:15.980 --> 00:34:17.699 rights doesn't even show up in the song at all. 00:34:17.739 --> 00:34:20.480 Right. Not that that was a beautiful thing that 00:34:20.480 --> 00:34:23.090 happened, but. There's that's a great point. 00:34:23.269 --> 00:34:28.250 I mean He starts skipping ahead after 63

and 00:34:28.250 --> 00:34:30.110 he really skips the whole civil rights movement 00:34:30.110 --> 00:34:34.789 at 64 and 65. Yeah, which I you know If he wasn't 00:34:34.789 --> 00:34:36.809 a freedom rider or anything like that, maybe 00:34:36.809 --> 00:34:39.230 he just personally didn't get involved, you know 00:34:39.230 --> 00:34:41.030 He didn't have anything to do with it. He was 00:34:41.030 --> 00:34:43.690 trying to make it it took him a really long time 00:34:43.690 --> 00:34:48.449 according to the documentary and He he cites 00:34:48.449 --> 00:34:51.860 a couple of women In this song I would say he 00:34:51.860 --> 00:34:56.539 cites way more men. I didn't do the math But 00:34:56.539 --> 00:35:00.559 the women that he cites are like famous but I 00:35:00.559 --> 00:35:03.639 mean the early ones are kind of sex symbols like 00:35:03.639 --> 00:35:06.599 Marilyn Monroe right like eventually gets up 00:35:06.599 --> 00:35:09.150 to like Sally Ride Oh, does he say Sally Ride? 00:35:09.250 --> 00:35:10.969 Yeah, I missed it because it was probably like, 00:35:11.769 --> 00:35:13.550 well, it's that last verse that you forgot existed. 00:35:13.849 --> 00:35:18.349 OK, yeah. It ends on rock and roll of Cola Wars. 00:35:18.730 --> 00:35:21.409 And I couldn't find it on the Internet. The Cola 00:35:21.409 --> 00:35:23.750 Wars, meaning Coke and Pepsi. Yeah, Coke and 00:35:23.750 --> 00:35:27.909 Pepsi like hiring rock and rollers like Michael 00:35:27.909 --> 00:35:30.309 Jackson, the most famous people of the 80s. They 00:35:30.309 --> 00:35:31.750 were paying them millions and millions of dollars 00:35:31.750 --> 00:35:34.130 to drink Coke versus Pepsi. This is the way we 00:35:34.130 --> 00:35:37.949 end the song. So we skip over, we mention the 00:35:37.949 --> 00:35:40.230 queens and the princesses. We don't mention any 00:35:40.230 --> 00:35:43.269 black queens at all. Like there's no Rosa Parks, 00:35:44.369 --> 00:35:47.070 like Tony Morrison, nobody. And then there's 00:35:47.070 --> 00:35:50.670 no civil rights. I love Billy Joel, but like 00:35:50.670 --> 00:35:52.510 going back to his perspective, it's like, you 00:35:52.510 --> 00:35:56.750 know, from a perspective, from a time. And now 00:35:56.909 --> 00:36:01.730 you end on rock and roll of Cold War. The most 00:36:01.730 --> 00:36:06.559 important thing that happened. It's an anti -climactic 00:36:06.559 --> 00:36:08.420 ending, it's true. Right? It's crazy. He was 00:36:08.420 --> 00:36:11.780 just like, I'm tired. Although, speaking of like, 00:36:11.780 --> 00:36:13.920 things never ending, if we keep moving a little 00:36:13.920 --> 00:36:16.860 bit, 52 goes Eisenhower vaccine, England's got 00:36:16.860 --> 00:36:20.599 a new queen, Marciano, Liberace, Santayana. Santayana 00:36:20.599 --> 00:36:22.519 is the guy that says, if you don't know history, 00:36:22.639 --> 00:36:24.599 you're doomed to repeat it. Okay. Yep. That's 00:36:24.599 --> 00:36:26.039 why he mentions him. Yeah, I think that's why 00:36:26.039 --> 00:36:29.480 he like fit him in. Then you get to 53, Joseph 00:36:29.480 --> 00:36:33.400 Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser... Prokofiev, Rockefeller, 00:36:33.559 --> 00:36:37.210 Campanella, Communist Bloc. We get to 54 and 00:36:37.210 --> 00:36:40.670 he goes, Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron. 00:36:40.710 --> 00:36:43.309 Who? Dan Ben, Few Falls, Rock Around the Clock. 00:36:43.789 --> 00:36:46.409 Roy Cohn. This is the part of the song that I 00:36:46.409 --> 00:36:47.889 do not understand. Well, there's a lot of politics 00:36:47.889 --> 00:36:53.690 in here. Roy Cohn was Joe McCarthy's lawyer who 00:36:53.690 --> 00:36:59.369 helped him run the Red Scare and blacklist people 00:36:59.369 --> 00:37:03.039 and drive people out of government. and gin up 00:37:03.039 --> 00:37:06.619 like communist scare tactics. Roy Cohn goes all 00:37:06.619 --> 00:37:10.480 the way back to 1954 when he's the power behind 00:37:10.480 --> 00:37:14.699 Joe McCarthy. 30 years later, Roy Cohn trains 00:37:14.699 --> 00:37:19.679 a New York guy named Donald Trump on how to use 00:37:19.679 --> 00:37:23.800 like hardball tactics to drive people out of 00:37:23.800 --> 00:37:26.440 his like real estate developments. Same human. 00:37:27.789 --> 00:37:31.599 Our version of The red scare happening now, the 00:37:31.599 --> 00:37:35.780 MAGA movement, really gets its DNA directly from 00:37:35.780 --> 00:37:38.119 McCarthyism in the 50s. Because it was the same 00:37:38.119 --> 00:37:41.539 guy who trained them both. Like, can you imagine 00:37:41.539 --> 00:37:47.000 that your incarnation in the world is just rallying 00:37:47.000 --> 00:37:53.030 shit up? Like, go find a hobby. Like, what on 00:37:53.030 --> 00:37:56.079 earth? I just don't understand. these people 00:37:56.079 --> 00:37:59.079 that are, these men that are obsessed with power. 00:37:59.360 --> 00:38:02.900 I'm just like, once I get my bag, I'm done. I'm 00:38:02.900 --> 00:38:06.219 out. Like a little bit, and I'm out. And you 00:38:06.219 --> 00:38:09.539 keep going. For what? You okay? You're not okay. 00:38:09.940 --> 00:38:12.880 It's depressing to think that the fastest way 00:38:12.880 --> 00:38:17.039 to power is to be an asshole. Yeah. Or to rally 00:38:17.039 --> 00:38:19.599 people against most of the other people. I mean, 00:38:19.699 --> 00:38:22.119 it's like, yeah, a lot of people want power, 00:38:22.340 --> 00:38:24.650 but... Many of them want power to do something 00:38:24.650 --> 00:38:28.110 really positive or to be the next inspiring Lincoln 00:38:28.110 --> 00:38:30.369 or Obama or something. But then there's plenty 00:38:30.369 --> 00:38:33.469 of people who are like, yes, the fastest way 00:38:33.469 --> 00:38:37.010 to power is just to fucking hate something and 00:38:37.010 --> 00:38:39.949 rally people against it. And you have to know 00:38:39.949 --> 00:38:43.289 the laws and the rules of power in order to

participate. 00:38:43.429 --> 00:38:45.630 Because if you're a good person, it's true. You 00:38:45.630 --> 00:38:48.110 need influence in order to kind of counteract 00:38:48.110 --> 00:38:51.489 the evil in the world. But then you can get very 00:38:51.489 --> 00:38:53.750 lost on that journey of like, you know, accumulating 00:38:53.750 --> 00:38:55.550 wealth in order to like turn around and help 00:38:55.550 --> 00:38:58.130 people. But then you're like losing touch with 00:38:58.130 --> 00:39:00.710 the thing that you're trying to help. And it's 00:39:00.710 --> 00:39:03.369 very complicated. But have you heard of the book? 00:39:03.849 --> 00:39:06.269 I think it's called The Rules of Power. No. OK. 00:39:06.570 --> 00:39:09.510 I bought it once because I thought if I'm going 00:39:09.510 --> 00:39:12.730 to like be in this game, I should learn what 00:39:12.730 --> 00:39:15.730 people know in order to so that I can see it 00:39:15.730 --> 00:39:17.409 happening to me, because I'm like a pretty empathetic 00:39:17.409 --> 00:39:22.539 person. And Deal in power sometimes right like 00:39:22.539 --> 00:39:25.079 I get I come up against it and so I wanted to 00:39:25.079 --> 00:39:26.960 know what they knew I started reading it and 00:39:26.960 --> 00:39:29.599 I'm like, this is bad vibe book it's like teaches 00:39:29.599 --> 00:39:32.519 you how to manipulate people and like how to 00:39:32.519 --> 00:39:35.760 It's like worse. I've read the art of war once 00:39:35.760 --> 00:39:38.019 Okay, and it's real worse than that Like the 00:39:38.019 --> 00:39:40.699 art of war is like do this like you the whole 00:39:40.699 --> 00:39:42.920 point of the book is like the best fight is the 00:39:42.920 --> 00:39:45.880 one that never happens Yeah, right. So The laws 00:39:45.880 --> 00:39:48.780 of power though are like insidious and so I started 00:39:48.780 --> 00:39:50.280 reading this book and then I was like this is 00:39:50.280 --> 00:39:52.599 a bad vibes book and I got rid of it. I was like 00:39:52.599 --> 00:39:55.139 I cannot have this in my house. That's also the 00:39:55.139 --> 00:39:57.360 point of Machiavelli. Like everything Machiavelli 00:39:57.360 --> 00:39:59.739 wrote was about how to wield the levers of power 00:39:59.739 --> 00:40:02.349 and he was doing that in the 1500s. Something 00:40:02.349 --> 00:40:04.510 like that? Yeah. I think these guys need hobbies. 00:40:04.929 --> 00:40:07.510 I've read a bunch of declarations of war. Have 00:40:07.510 --> 00:40:09.829 you ever read a declaration of war? Interesting. 00:40:10.050 --> 00:40:13.550 I read some of the statements by the official 00:40:13.550 --> 00:40:16.829 statements of the states that seceded at the 00:40:16.829 --> 00:40:18.849 beginning of the Civil War. Were they like, OK, 00:40:18.949 --> 00:40:22.369 we're good. Bye. Well, and it's just funny in 00:40:22.369 --> 00:40:24.630 retrospect that people argue that it was about 00:40:24.630 --> 00:40:26.489 states'

rights and it wasn't about slavery because 00:40:26.489 --> 00:40:28.429 most of those statements say explicitly, no, 00:40:28.489 --> 00:40:29.730 no, no. This is about slavery. This is why we're 00:40:29.730 --> 00:40:32.079 doing this. It's slavery. It's awful. When's 00:40:32.079 --> 00:40:34.460 the age of Aquarius, EJ? You keep telling me 00:40:34.460 --> 00:40:37.579 it's coming. We're getting ever closer to Terminator. 00:40:38.300 --> 00:40:40.800 We have to be the heroes of something. OK, well, 00:40:40.860 --> 00:40:42.579 actually, I mean, so this is like an interesting 00:40:42.579 --> 00:40:45.519 thing to bring up. So I. kind of said at the 00:40:45.519 --> 00:40:48.500 beginning that he's born after World War II, 00:40:48.579 --> 00:40:51.980 after that crisis period ends, and the 50s are 00:40:51.980 --> 00:40:54.159 an institutional high. They're building like 00:40:54.159 --> 00:40:57.039 new institutions, they invent the United Nations, 00:40:57.380 --> 00:41:00.639 they invent all of the post -World War II, they 00:41:00.639 --> 00:41:02.900 invent NATO, you know, they invent all these 00:41:02.900 --> 00:41:05.199 institutions meant to prevent like another World 00:41:05.199 --> 00:41:07.900 War. They start building in the post -war period, 00:41:08.239 --> 00:41:10.119 like that's when they built our highways, the 00:41:10.119 --> 00:41:12.199 Eisenhower highway system, like a bunch of the 00:41:12.199 --> 00:41:14.510 infrastructure that we have today. got built 00:41:14.510 --> 00:41:18.170 in the peacetime after World War II. Yeah. So 00:41:18.170 --> 00:41:20.710 theoretically speaking, after our current crisis 00:41:20.710 --> 00:41:25.050 is over, you know, after the Trump era and all 00:41:25.050 --> 00:41:27.190 the chaos that we're in right now, and by the 00:41:27.190 --> 00:41:30.030 way, we still don't know any idea how long the 00:41:30.030 --> 00:41:32.309 chaos is going to go or how chaos it's going 00:41:32.309 --> 00:41:36.170 to get. Yeah. But theoretically, and right now 00:41:36.170 --> 00:41:40.539 the estimate is like 20, 30 ish. After 2030, 00:41:40.760 --> 00:41:43.440 we would presumably pass out of the current crisis 00:41:43.440 --> 00:41:46.719 period and into a new institutional high. Someone 00:41:46.719 --> 00:41:49.840 will figure out how to build new institutions 00:41:49.840 --> 00:41:54.400 for the next 80 years. Climate management. Yeah. 00:41:54.539 --> 00:41:58.079 How do we fix the climate? How do we prevent 00:41:58.079 --> 00:41:59.980 this kind of chaos from happening again? How 00:41:59.980 --> 00:42:04.079 do we build new? institutions, domestic and international 00:42:04.079 --> 00:42:07.519 to prevent wars and to prevent trade wars like 00:42:07.519 --> 00:42:10.239 we have now and all the kind of chaos that we're 00:42:10.239 --> 00:42:12.920 seeing. You're gonna be busy. Well, someone has 00:42:12.920 --> 00:42:15.280 to like figure out like new solutions that aren't 00:42:15.280 --> 00:42:18.179 just let's bring back the old ones. Let's do 00:42:18.369 --> 00:42:21.610 NATO again like social security again yeah they're 00:42:21.610 --> 00:42:23.730 gonna be like you're just kidding so i i mean 00:42:23.730 --> 00:42:26.070 i do think that in like upcoming presidential 00:42:26.070 --> 00:42:28.110 elections it'll be people with new ideas that 00:42:28.110 --> 00:42:32.050 we've never you know programs and new models 00:42:32.050 --> 00:42:35.969 of oh no is it robots no but there are like proposals 00:42:35.969 --> 00:42:40.269 to like tax ai on a per token basis and make 00:42:40.269 --> 00:42:42.820 that like the government's income from now on. 00:42:42.960 --> 00:42:45.440 Is that going to work? I have no idea. But ship 00:42:45.440 --> 00:42:48.420 sails. I think there's going to be like new proposals 00:42:48.420 --> 00:42:51.599 of crazy new stuff that wouldn't have even made 00:42:51.599 --> 00:42:54.239 sense in the last eight years. Right. So I don't 00:42:54.239 --> 00:42:56.019 know. We'll see what happens. We'll see what 00:42:56.019 --> 00:42:59.139 happens. Where are we in the song? We just made 00:42:59.139 --> 00:43:02.239 it to 1954. Rock Around the Clock was released 00:43:02.239 --> 00:43:04.980 as a hit single. Billy Joel's what? Five? He's 00:43:04.980 --> 00:43:07.539 five. Oh my God. We're Billy Joel. Is he ever 00:43:07.539 --> 00:43:13.929 going to make it? 1955, Einstein dies. James 00:43:13.929 --> 00:43:16.349 Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team. Davy Crockett, 00:43:16.449 --> 00:43:18.849 Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland. So rock 00:43:18.849 --> 00:43:21.989 and roll is coming along. Still happening. Inspiring 00:43:21.989 --> 00:43:24.010 the heck out of Billy Joel. Elvis Presley signs 00:43:24.010 --> 00:43:29.750 with RCA Records. 1956, Bardo, another sex symbol, 00:43:30.210 --> 00:43:32.070 Brigitte Bardo. Okay, I didn't know who that 00:43:32.070 --> 00:43:35.489 was. Stars in God Created Woman, a film that 00:43:35.489 --> 00:43:37.449 establishes her international reputation as a 00:43:37.449 --> 00:43:40.690 French sex kitten. Great, so I think we know 00:43:40.690 --> 00:43:44.190 where his head was at. Yeah, as he hid his formative 00:43:44.190 --> 00:43:48.969 years. I mean obviously Marilyn Monroe is one 00:43:48.969 --> 00:43:53.250 of our Queens But also there were others of us 00:43:53.250 --> 00:43:57.550 I know Marie Curie was before this song but like 00:43:57.550 --> 00:44:00.510 for instance there were scientists sure now we 00:44:00.510 --> 00:44:03.820 know so much more about like the women mathematicians 00:44:03.820 --> 00:44:05.739 who helped land on the moon and stuff. I mean, 00:44:05.800 --> 00:44:08.760 he's going to gloss over all that. Jane Goodall 00:44:08.760 --> 00:44:11.679 didn't come up. Alabama, Khrushchev, Princess 00:44:11.679 --> 00:44:14.300 Grace. What is Alabama? Is that civil rights? 00:44:14.460 --> 00:44:17.619 The site of

the Montgomery bus boycott. Yes. 00:44:17.980 --> 00:44:21.139 OK. So he does mention the civil rights. Kind 00:44:21.139 --> 00:44:25.380 of. You really got to know. Alabama in general. 00:44:25.559 --> 00:44:28.380 OK, moving on. 1956. Yeah, OK. It didn't fit 00:44:28.380 --> 00:44:33.199 in Montgomery bus thing. No. See this is, he 00:44:33.199 --> 00:44:36.360 gets seven references into this stanza. Princess 00:44:36.360 --> 00:44:39.340 Grace, Peyton Place, trouble in the Suez. The 00:44:39.340 --> 00:44:43.280 canal. Egypt. There was a problem with Suez Canal 00:44:43.280 --> 00:44:45.719 a couple years ago when a giant ship got stuck 00:44:45.719 --> 00:44:48.079 in the canal for like three weeks. Oh yeah. What 00:44:48.079 --> 00:44:51.059 was the trouble in the Suez at the time? The 00:44:51.059 --> 00:44:53.599 Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab -Israeli 00:44:53.599 --> 00:44:57.920 War, was a war between Israel and Egypt. We didn't 00:44:57.920 --> 00:45:00.889 start the fire. That has nothing to do with what's 00:45:00.889 --> 00:45:03.309 going on today. I guess there's gonna be a lot 00:45:03.309 --> 00:45:07.329 of Middle Eastern Israeli Wars that show up like 00:45:07.329 --> 00:45:11.329 every 10 years in Every 10 years or so that show 00:45:11.329 --> 00:45:16.329 up in the song. We do get to 1957 Little Rock 00:45:16.329 --> 00:45:20.789 which is standoff between the governor in eisenhower 00:45:20.789 --> 00:45:23.309 over the little rock nine attending a previously 00:45:23.309 --> 00:45:25.750 whites -only high school so they're so integration 00:45:25.750 --> 00:45:28.889 shows up okay i was wrong civil rights is in 00:45:28.889 --> 00:45:31.670 the song i apologize billy jull pastor knack 00:45:31.670 --> 00:45:35.329 is a russian author mickey mantle carowak sputnik 00:45:35.329 --> 00:45:37.849 zoan lye now i didn't know who zoan lye was but 00:45:37.849 --> 00:45:40.250 he was the premier of the people's republic of 00:45:40.250 --> 00:45:44.329 china survived an assassination attempt and then 00:45:44.329 --> 00:45:46.130 bridge on the river quay bridge on the river 00:45:46.130 --> 00:45:48.909 quay one best picture it had alex guinness in 00:45:48.909 --> 00:45:52.219 it long before he was Obi -Wan Kenobi, who's 00:45:52.219 --> 00:45:54.820 a character in Star Wars. I know. I just don't 00:45:54.820 --> 00:45:57.699 know. I thought that was somebody else. Well, 00:45:57.800 --> 00:46:00.280 in the 70s movies, it was Alec Guinness. And 00:46:00.280 --> 00:46:02.739 in the 90s prequels, it was Ewan McGregor. Oh, 00:46:02.880 --> 00:46:05.159 that's where I'm getting confused. Yes. I'm like, 00:46:05.280 --> 00:46:07.599 I know what Obi -Wan looks like. And it's not 00:46:07.599 --> 00:46:09.699 anybody but Ewan McGregor. It's funny, because 00:46:09.699 --> 00:46:11.960 at this point, Ewan McGregor has been playing 00:46:11.960 --> 00:46:16.260 Obi -Wan Kenobi for like 30 years, whereas the 00:46:16.260 --> 00:46:20.340 OG Alec Guinness did it for Six years tops. Ewan 00:46:20.340 --> 00:46:23.179 McGregor is the Nixon of Star Wars. Oh my god. 00:46:23.820 --> 00:46:26.619 1958, Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, who by the 00:46:26.619 --> 00:46:30.519 way is still in 58, president of France long 00:46:30.519 --> 00:46:33.760 after World War II. Yeah, I'm aware of this man, 00:46:33.760 --> 00:46:35.679 but I don't know why. Charles de Gaulle has an 00:46:35.679 --> 00:46:40.940 airport named after him. That's why. Okay, mystery 00:46:40.940 --> 00:46:43.840 solved. Well, first he was the French general 00:46:43.840 --> 00:46:48.960 who retook, who helped the Allies retake France. 00:46:49.210 --> 00:46:53.210 from the Nazis. Then he became president of France 00:46:53.210 --> 00:46:57.349 in the 50s after the war. And then he got an 00:46:57.349 --> 00:46:58.869 airport named after him. Do you think he read 00:46:58.869 --> 00:47:02.239 the power book? I don't know the answer to that. 00:47:02.300 --> 00:47:03.920 I think it's possible. I think it's possible, 00:47:04.420 --> 00:47:07.840 too. California baseball, Starkweather homicide, 00:47:08.179 --> 00:47:10.659 and children of thalidomide. So I don't know 00:47:10.659 --> 00:47:12.400 that I would know anything about thalidomide 00:47:12.400 --> 00:47:14.559 if not for this song. So many questions and I 00:47:14.559 --> 00:47:17.800 know nothing about thalidomide. Thalidomide. 00:47:18.260 --> 00:47:20.900 Thalidomide. Is it? like they got poisoned by 00:47:20.900 --> 00:47:23.219 something. Let me just guess what this is. Please 00:47:23.219 --> 00:47:25.559 do. Let me just do a rapid fire guess at what 00:47:25.559 --> 00:47:28.739 children of thalidomide is. It's like where children 00:47:28.739 --> 00:47:31.719 got born and they got poisoned by some company. 00:47:31.960 --> 00:47:34.619 Is that it? Yep. Okay, great. Many pregnant women 00:47:34.619 --> 00:47:37.599 taking the drug thalidomide had children born 00:47:37.599 --> 00:47:40.280 with congenital birth defects. Oh my god, I do 00:47:40.280 --> 00:47:45.079 know about this. Horrific. Yeah. Not great. Oh, 00:47:45.199 --> 00:47:47.019 I'm just saying like there's a lot of things 00:47:47.019 --> 00:47:49.179 that we do that like we don't know the full impact 00:47:49.179 --> 00:47:52.900 of I do think there are one or two giant instances 00:47:52.900 --> 00:47:56.860 of like a medicine having horrific side effects 00:47:56.860 --> 00:48:00.159 That you know, it ends up confusing the science 00:48:00.159 --> 00:48:04.239 around the other like 98 % Right medicines, right 00:48:04.239 --> 00:48:06.579 and then it's like what's what like I'm on a 00:48:06.579 --> 00:48:09.239 GLP. We'll see We'll see what happens. Yeah. 00:48:09.440 --> 00:48:11.880 I mean, when were those invented? Like five years 00:48:11.880 --> 00:48:14.280 ago, seven years ago? I would hope longer. We 00:48:14.280 --> 00:48:16.320 don't know the long term effects of

that. I heard 00:48:16.320 --> 00:48:18.960 before they became accessible to the public, 00:48:19.059 --> 00:48:21.880 they were accessible to Hollywood. And so when 00:48:21.880 --> 00:48:25.719 I was told about them, like the woman that does 00:48:25.719 --> 00:48:29.199 my face told me not to lose weight rapidly. And 00:48:29.199 --> 00:48:32.019 I was like, but this was before GOPs were like 00:48:32.019 --> 00:48:35.119 in, you know. in society that way. And I was 00:48:35.119 --> 00:48:36.500 like, what are you talking about? I've been trying 00:48:36.500 --> 00:48:38.320 to lose weight my entire life. I'm not going 00:48:38.320 --> 00:48:41.239 to lose weight rapidly. Like, thanks. Like, I'm 00:48:41.239 --> 00:48:44.099 good. You'll see me just as big as next time. 00:48:44.340 --> 00:48:46.119 And then I found out about GLPs and she was like, 00:48:46.199 --> 00:48:47.940 oh, yeah, like Hollywood's been taking them for 00:48:47.940 --> 00:48:51.340 years. So I was hopeful that at least there was 00:48:51.340 --> 00:48:54.679 some time and a couple of people that had survived 00:48:54.679 --> 00:48:56.760 it. But we'll all see you together. OK, yeah, 00:48:56.860 --> 00:48:58.860 well, we'll all find out and check in in 10 years. 00:48:59.119 --> 00:49:03.670 Yeah. We get to 1959. Buddy Holly, which of course 00:49:03.670 --> 00:49:06.789 the Weezer song. Buddy Holly has a lot of songs 00:49:06.789 --> 00:49:10.269 about him. The Weezer song is, I would argue, 00:49:10.469 --> 00:49:12.550 one of the happier songs. And then the day the 00:49:12.550 --> 00:49:16.000 music died. Oh, I don't want to talk about this. 00:49:16.260 --> 00:49:19.179 Yeah. He died in a plane crash. Right. In 1959. 00:49:19.519 --> 00:49:22.360 Oh, that's why he's being sung about. Yes. That's 00:49:22.360 --> 00:49:24.920 why he's mentioned here in 1959. It's true. Apparently 00:49:24.920 --> 00:49:26.820 Billy Joel really remembered that happening. 00:49:26.920 --> 00:49:29.239 He was young. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and 00:49:29.239 --> 00:49:31.539 the Big Bopper were all very young. Yeah, he 00:49:31.539 --> 00:49:36.460 was 22. My god, yeah, I mean and James Dean gets 00:49:36.460 --> 00:49:38.579 a mention too. So he really does point out when 00:49:38.579 --> 00:49:42.360 young people die. Mm -hmm Ben her movie with 00:49:42.360 --> 00:49:44.420 Charlton Heston space monkey mafia, which as 00:49:44.420 --> 00:49:47.960 a kid I Thought was one thing. Yeah I was I thought 00:49:47.960 --> 00:49:49.679 you were about to propose to me that it was one 00:49:49.679 --> 00:49:51.719 thing and I'm like those are two things DJ Now 00:49:51.719 --> 00:49:54.400 I know that like space monkey mafia. What's that? 00:49:54.400 --> 00:49:56.360 I'm pretty sure it's two things. It sounds like 00:49:56.360 --> 00:50:00.050 a great concept for a movie Don't pitch me this 00:50:00.050 --> 00:50:01.610 because I'm not allowed to hear movie pitches, 00:50:01.730 --> 00:50:04.289 but you should go write that. Hula hoops, self 00:50:04.289 --> 00:50:06.929 -explanatory. I don't think so. They invented 00:50:06.929 --> 00:50:09.570 the hula hoop. I don't think hula hoops is explanatory 00:50:09.570 --> 00:50:11.449 at all. What are you talking about? You talk 00:50:11.449 --> 00:50:14.670 about major crises, the most horrible thing that's 00:50:14.670 --> 00:50:16.869 ever happened, and hula hoops. It was a big fan. 00:50:17.110 --> 00:50:19.989 It was the Cabbage Patch Kid of its day. I will 00:50:19.989 --> 00:50:22.349 say I hula hooped a lot on Long Island growing 00:50:22.349 --> 00:50:25.510 up. It was, if you remember, one of my first 00:50:25.510 --> 00:50:28.960 memories. That's right. Was I won a hula hoop 00:50:28.960 --> 00:50:30.900 contest when I was about four years old. Yes. 00:50:31.320 --> 00:50:33.980 And one is a loose term. I think I got a participation 00:50:33.980 --> 00:50:35.960 trophy. Right. But I remember it. I think we 00:50:35.960 --> 00:50:38.000 decided it was the first ever participation trophy. 00:50:38.219 --> 00:50:41.039 It was the first participation trophy. And then 00:50:41.039 --> 00:50:43.599 Castro, which is Fidel Castro coming to power 00:50:43.599 --> 00:50:47.079 in Cuba, and Edzaliza Nogo. I don't even know 00:50:47.079 --> 00:50:50.679 what you're saying. The Edsel was a model of 00:50:50.679 --> 00:50:54.000 car that famously like didn't run. Okay, like 00:50:54.000 --> 00:50:56.059 caught on fire upon ignition. It's considered 00:50:56.059 --> 00:50:59.800 one of the like biggest flops in motor history. 00:51:00.219 --> 00:51:02.559 Do you know what our modern equivalent of that 00:51:02.559 --> 00:51:06.800 is? What? Tesla's are all Ubers. Okay, that takes 00:51:06.800 --> 00:51:08.619 us to the end of the 50s. This might be a good 00:51:08.619 --> 00:51:12.079 place to like do it to be continued. You know, 00:51:12.159 --> 00:51:15.179 I learned a lot today. Not the least of which 00:51:15.179 --> 00:51:18.300 is that Trump is all some other guys fault. So 00:51:18.300 --> 00:51:20.059 this kind of brings up a question that I like 00:51:20.059 --> 00:51:22.480 always have, which is, if you watch the music 00:51:22.480 --> 00:51:24.960 video, you're watching it and you're like, oh, 00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:28.280 this is clearly showing us the 50s. You got to 00:51:28.889 --> 00:51:31.610 Housewife dressed as Lucy cooking a pot roast 00:51:31.610 --> 00:51:35.389 in the oven, you know, it's like very 1950s nuclear 00:51:35.389 --> 00:51:37.710 family. Yeah. Do you want to know why women have 00:51:37.710 --> 00:51:39.989 lost the recipe for pot roast? And I'm really 00:51:39.989 --> 00:51:42.070 proud of us for that. Okay. We can't make them 00:51:42.070 --> 00:51:44.670 anymore. No, they don't make them like that anymore. 00:51:44.730 --> 00:51:47.429 Oh, really? No, don't ask us to make pot roast. 00:51:47.510 --> 00:51:50.789 It's not happening. Like the

ancient secret of 00:51:50.789 --> 00:51:52.530 Greek fire. We just don't have the recipe anymore. 00:51:52.550 --> 00:51:55.900 We got rid of it. But you could look at People 00:51:55.900 --> 00:51:58.380 with those hairstyles and dressed up that way 00:51:58.380 --> 00:52:00.739 and immediately know that decade My question 00:52:00.739 --> 00:52:02.679 and you kind of can do the same thing with like 00:52:02.679 --> 00:52:04.659 the 50s and 60s in the 70s If you just saw like 00:52:04.659 --> 00:52:07.639 a photograph you'd be like, oh that Is from that 00:52:07.639 --> 00:52:10.000 decade. I don't know if decades are distinctive 00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:12.719 like that anymore, you know, if you saw someone 00:52:12.719 --> 00:52:18.449 if you saw a family dressed like the 2000s Is 00:52:18.449 --> 00:52:20.150 that going to be like really distinctive from 00:52:20.150 --> 00:52:23.889 like the 2010s or the 2020s like do our decades? 00:52:24.380 --> 00:52:27.320 have that distinctiveness, like the 50s, 60s, 00:52:27.340 --> 00:52:31.280 70s? I'm not sure. I think maybe it stopped in 00:52:31.280 --> 00:52:34.000 the 90s. I think it's really hard to see when 00:52:34.000 --> 00:52:37.139 you're inside of it. I think with distance, you 00:52:37.139 --> 00:52:39.280 can see it. Like if you were to ask us the same 00:52:39.280 --> 00:52:41.340 question in the 90s, we'd been like, no, this 00:52:41.340 --> 00:52:45.000 is modern and it's hard to see. Now we look back 00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:48.280 and it was all like neon and like bug cars, buggies. 00:52:48.440 --> 00:52:51.429 What are they called? Volkswagen's, Volkswagen's 00:52:51.429 --> 00:52:55.329 and peace sign aliens and a lot of 60s stuff 00:52:55.329 --> 00:52:59.369 and blow up chairs. This is my childhood. The 00:52:59.369 --> 00:53:02.550 early internet. And now, yeah, I think it's hard 00:53:02.550 --> 00:53:05.889 to see the progression because maybe like our 00:53:05.889 --> 00:53:09.510 cell phones look similar year over year and our 00:53:09.510 --> 00:53:12.210 clothing doesn't seem super distinctive. But 00:53:12.210 --> 00:53:17.989 also, Y2K fashion was specific. OK, like. it's 00:53:17.989 --> 00:53:21.670 coming back. And so all the younger Gen Z girls 00:53:21.670 --> 00:53:24.630 are wearing it and are posting it. And we're 00:53:24.630 --> 00:53:26.070 looking at it being like that's what we were 00:53:26.070 --> 00:53:29.610 in college. It was like we get made fun of for 00:53:29.610 --> 00:53:32.590 wearing like business attire to the club. Like 00:53:32.590 --> 00:53:35.690 we used to wear like skirts, pencil skirts and 00:53:35.690 --> 00:53:38.309 silly things like that. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe 00:53:38.309 --> 00:53:40.670 it's just because I'm like too close to it. And 00:53:40.670 --> 00:53:44.190 we'll definitely look back and be like, oh, yeah, 00:53:44.269 --> 00:53:47.719 the yeah, the 2010s were maybe we'll say The 00:53:47.719 --> 00:53:51.920 2000s were auto -tuning and Britney Spears body 00:53:51.920 --> 00:53:55.840 suits. And then the 2010s were their own thing. 00:53:55.920 --> 00:53:59.679 Yeah, I just don't know. Yeah. T -Pain and the 00:53:59.679 --> 00:54:02.059 ho -hey era of music where everything was like 00:54:02.059 --> 00:54:04.840 stomp clap. I think that's what the Gen Zers 00:54:04.840 --> 00:54:06.440 are making fun of now when they're making fun 00:54:06.440 --> 00:54:08.820 of. It's very funny. Millennial. Millennial optimism. 00:54:09.059 --> 00:54:11.440 I've seen it on TikTok. It's very funny. There 00:54:11.440 --> 00:54:13.500 are a couple of people dressed up as it for Halloween. 00:54:13.619 --> 00:54:16.400 I was like, yeah, we're we still think it's going 00:54:16.400 --> 00:54:19.929 to be all right. I'm still optimistic. Don't 00:54:19.929 --> 00:54:22.150 take it away from me. It's on fire. We didn't 00:54:22.150 --> 00:54:23.510 start it. We didn't start it. But we're going 00:54:23.510 --> 00:54:25.809 to try to fight it? That's a little bit too much. 00:54:25.949 --> 00:54:27.809 I think it's just you pick up the baton and you 00:54:27.809 --> 00:54:30.070 do the best you can. I think you do the best 00:54:30.070 --> 00:54:33.309 to influence positively the lives of people around 00:54:33.309 --> 00:54:35.829 you. And then if you're so ambitious to acquire 00:54:35.829 --> 00:54:38.590 power and wealth, you try to use that for good 00:54:38.590 --> 00:54:40.989 if you're a good person. What can you really 00:54:40.989 --> 00:54:44.289 do? And do you want to? These are the questions 00:54:44.289 --> 00:54:46.679 I ask myself every day. Historians ask themselves 00:54:46.679 --> 00:54:48.900 that question too. It's called the great man 00:54:48.900 --> 00:54:51.420 theory of history. It's like is history really 00:54:51.420 --> 00:54:55.500 driven by like one person coming along and inventing 00:54:55.500 --> 00:54:59.519 some radical thing or doing some Radical politics 00:54:59.519 --> 00:55:02.119 or something or was it all like inevitable anyway, 00:55:02.219 --> 00:55:04.019 just because that's the way that society flows 00:55:04.019 --> 00:55:06.880 Yeah, like I would say Oppenheimer didn't need 00:55:06.880 --> 00:55:09.139 to do what he did I think his argument was that 00:55:09.139 --> 00:55:11.690 they the Germans were gonna do it anyway Right, 00:55:11.929 --> 00:55:13.809 well that's our argument with AI right now. It's 00:55:13.809 --> 00:55:16.050 like China's gonna do it, so might as well have 00:55:16.050 --> 00:55:18.429 the killer robots first, right? Goodbye, good 00:55:18.429 --> 00:55:21.409 night. Yep. Let's hope for the age of Aquarius. 00:55:21.909 --> 00:55:23.750 Let's hope. In the afterworld. Well, you and 00:55:23.750 --> 00:55:27.150 I will have to return someday to completing the 00:55:27.150 --> 00:55:29.570 rest of the song, which it does speed up when 00:55:29.570 --> 00:55:33.099 we get to JFK blown away, but... At any rate, 00:55:33.260 --> 00:55:35.119 I am wondering, like, would you rather go back 00:55:35.119 --> 00:55:39.480 to 1949 or 1989 when the song begins or when 00:55:39.480 --> 00:55:42.780 the song ends? I choose the Rock and Roller Cola 00:55:42.780 --> 00:55:46.860 Wars. Thanks. As we've discussed, it was better. 00:55:47.260 --> 00:55:49.659 We're the millennial optimists. We were raised 00:55:49.659 --> 00:55:53.559 on Ninja Turtles and neon things and Titanic, 00:55:53.619 --> 00:55:56.639 and I would go back and do it again. The 90s 00:55:56.639 --> 00:55:59.300 are still the best decade to relive. Yeah, I 00:55:59.300 --> 00:56:01.380 agree. Anything you'd like to plug today, Jenna? 00:56:01.599 --> 00:56:06.179 You can add to my list of things I do. I'm multi 00:56:06.179 --> 00:56:11.039 -hyphenate in art and in life. So I'm a singer 00:56:11.039 --> 00:56:13.699 -songwriter. I am in the process of thinking 00:56:13.699 --> 00:56:17.300 about picking up music again, inspired by the 00:56:17.300 --> 00:56:22.739 great Billy Joel. And I'm a technologist, strategist, 00:56:23.139 --> 00:56:27.440 video game enthusiast, as well as a coffee entrepreneur. 00:56:28.360 --> 00:56:32.170 So if you like coffee, shoot me. a DM and we 00:56:32.170 --> 00:56:34.789 can chat about some nerdy coffee stuff. I'm getting 00:56:34.789 --> 00:56:38.510 into it. Awesome. Yeah. Well, thanks on, you 00:56:38.510 --> 00:56:42.909 know, a big political week diving into political 00:56:42.909 --> 00:56:47.449 and sex symbol history with me, with We Didn't 00:56:47.449 --> 00:56:49.550 Start the Fire. Appreciate it, Jenna. Thanks 00:56:49.550 --> 00:56:52.030 so much, EJ. Just don't worry about it, okay? 00:56:52.210 --> 00:56:53.909 It's all gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine. We 00:56:53.909 --> 00:56:56.170 didn't start it, but... We'll try to put out 00:56:56.170 --> 00:56:58.510 a little bit of it. ...until the age of Aquarius. 00:56:58.699 --> 00:57:01.800 or the doomsday clock runs out. My god. Thanks, 00:57:01.960 --> 00:57:04.420 Jenna. See you soon. Bye.