January 22, 2026 • 36 mins
It’s a yeehaw fever dream. Casey and Kevin dive into the mulleted monster hit that made Billy Ray Cyrus a country-pop icon and, eventually, Miley’s dad. Is it Wham! with twang? Is it Elvis with white Reeboks? Yes. Also: George Michael, Hank Williams, Jar Jar Binks, and how this boot-scootin’ banger somehow walked so “Old Town Road” could gallop.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Give it a chance, Give it a chance, Give it
a chance. Come morning, Give it a chance. Give it
a chance, Give it a chance, Give it a chance,
come morning. Give it a chick. You want to give
it a chance, Give it a chance, give it a chance.
Just give it a ch.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hi Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
What our listeners don't know is that we record this
on zoom and I usually make the link and I
have to admit you and imagine if we had a
whole episode where I didn't.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Ah, why would you do this? I hate you?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Ah?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
The truth comes out on epp. Six hundred and nineteen.
What app is this?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I have no idea. I think also, we've been doing
this thing. We've been recording them in advance, and then
I think we'll just kind of pick.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I don't tell them all our seeky's.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I'm telling them all. We were courd on zoom. I
don't like you.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
We don't know what number it is.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
We were going out of order.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
He's made of ai garble slop. They're not even real.
The ny Mets are my favorite squadron.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
That's right. I'm excited because this is a category or
a genre of music that we don't always do. Is
for this episode and actually actually all to pull the curtain.
I actually do want to do this, some of that,
but to pull the curtain the kurt back, and I
don't mean Cobaine, pull the curt back a little bit
(01:34):
more rest in peace. Well, I had a song and
then you were like okay, me like, yeah, I'd love
to fucking pull that one down a notch rest in
pieces of crap. But in the interim, in the time
(01:58):
that I waited, So I'm a little sick, so it
might be a little basice, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Everywhere it's is Basi, Jo Justice.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I'm you big, I'm everywhere.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It was bekist On alright, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yes, wow. I think that's like four tangents trying. I
picked a different.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
E M Warlord.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Joe, alright, Basis, if you're still listening, it's a song
than what I had, a different song than I picked.
And this song I've been wanting to do for a while.
It's been on my lisp and I'm very excited for
it because it's a silly one and as a genre
(02:52):
that we don't always do. And famous father.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
The singer is a famous father, famous father. All right,
the singer is a.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Famous father, a famous father father musician of a father. Oh,
I have a musician father musician of a musician child.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Musician who's now an adult. I would imagine the child, okay, child,
now you know, you know the current The child in
the equation is not currently a child in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I want everyone to know. Everyone probably thinks I come
up with these hints months of advance.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Ah, all right, so the father famous father of a
famous adult child. Bob Dylan.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Ooh, you think i'd be doing one headlight or no,
you'd think i'd be doing Bob Dylan Bob Dylan song.
We were talking right now, we were talking. You're right,
you're right, you're right, it's not but it's okay. I
will say that.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Oh, Billy Ray cyrus ake, you break your heart.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yes, my dude, that was so good.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
You're so good at it. People don't talk about it enough. People,
people don't talk about it enough.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Are you so good? I don't think I could ever
get these.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
You have to.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
You have to do one so and give me hinties
and then I want to see if I could do it.
Because you I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Why you're so right now on the spot.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
You're always like ugh, is it Bob Dylan?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
No?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Is it Billy Ray Silos Aggy Breaky Heart?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
The second the second famous father that we all know. Yeah,
first Bob Dylan, Then is Billy ray Sier.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
I completely missed Achy Breaky Heart in My Youth came
out nineteen ninety. I was five years young.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Are you really Yeah, it's ninety Oh.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
It's ninety two. Actually I'm wrong. I lied to you.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Sounds right to meet because I feel like there might
be well, you know, it's amazing. On the on the
streaming platform of my choice, it says there is a
twentieth Century Master album for Billy ray Cyrus. What in
the world, wow, could have possibly prompted? Like what other
(05:09):
song is there?
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I don't know, because George Lucas probably did it.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Maybe it's Actually it's funny. It says the best of
Billy Ray Cyrus, the Millennium Collection twentieth Century Masters. But
the picture is jar jar Bink really surpasing solo. Yeah,
it's one Bink, which was the original title of One Headlight. Yeah.
See they're coming to get me, dude, They're fucking coming
(05:36):
and get me. Finally for all my transgressions. Oh you guys,
can't hear the.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Cirrus, the storm, the Billy Ray Sirens.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Billy Ray Sirens. That was a good show on the
USA Network in the early early odds.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So I started to play so this came up. The
song also was recommended to me by somebody who was like, oh,
that's like an overplayed country song or like it's but
I don't know, I know it to be a song.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
You really don't know what have you ever heard it?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
I know the chorus, I could, I could sing it.
I've made up dummy lyrics to it, like don't kiss me,
but you know, like I've done that, you know, But
I don't know if I like, I've ever sat with it.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Okay, I've never had lunch, you're about to sit with it.
You've never dined on achy breaky Heart?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
True. So the song, I'm going to watch the video.
I'm gonna do you know, I do the video. I
watched like two seconds.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I'm always too different.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I have to do this. I have to do this
one because I watched two seconds of the video and
he's like getting out of a limo and like there's
like a crowd of people. I'm like, what song did
he have before? Breaky heart. But you know the country,
the country world is different.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I don't. That's a good question.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
I'm excited to get into it. We've been joking around enough.
It's serious from here on out.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
No more grab ass, fight me, somebody shit, Okay, set.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
The scene for me and for our listeners, because that,
to me feels like Wham goes Country. Because I was
watching the video and he's got like white sneakers and
tight jeans and like like an open shirt. He like
it kind of feels like very George Michael. He's like
dancing around, was playing guitars.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Looks like George Michael actually a little bit.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
And I always kind of thought like that was like
not like even if even if you were this sort
of posh country star, you were still like boots and like,
I'm a man, I drink cold beer. I'll have a truck.
I live on a dirt road. Like you have to
still like play the part, and if you don't play
that part, you're eye out. But he's like dancing arms
(07:48):
up also, which I love. When this happens the music
video for the song, the audience knows all the lyrics
and they're clapping along.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Oh that's great.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Like that's the best. It's like it's already a hit.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Joyful Yeah, yeah, yeah, what's it called. It's like a
manifesting it like it's a hit in the video, it's
going to be a hit in real life. Look at
these people are enjoying it.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Manifest Destiny's Child.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
My favorite American band, my favorite American pastime. Dude, Manifest
Destiny's Child. Yeah, the scene, So set the scene. I mean,
I like you setting the scene with the video because
we maybe another since this is a kind of BTS,
not K pop behind the scenes, this is another BTS,
kind of little little tidbit for our listeners and viewers.
(08:39):
We do, we do approach this differently. I tend to
listen without prejudice, just like George Michael. I tend to
listen to the streaming platform of my choice and read
the lyrics while I listen, and Casey tends to watch
the video and then we kind of convene. That's interesting.
(08:59):
I think we cover a lot of ground that way.
That just I'm just saying, it's interesting to me. It's
interesting to me that you wouldn't fucking do it the
way I do it. Do they, as your elder.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Do they have the claps at the end, like the
audience clapping because in the.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
At the end, oh no, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
No, and it's in the mix, I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
At the end of the track there was a kind
of standard like you know, what's it called tambourine rattle
and then a big like snare hit like you know, yeah,
that kind of announce yes, exactly exactly. I mean, what's
funny is so I forget I do vaguely remember because
even as like this is such a hit, this is
(09:39):
such a like a monster chorus, like the production, it's funny,
it's it's it does for ninety two March ninety two,
it says this comes out. It does like Veer late eighties.
It has more in common to me with the DNA
of like the sort of like a sunsets drip ballads
(10:01):
of that time, or like or even something like like
I think you know we're like bands like Winger and
Warrant and Cinderella and Poison and all of that stuff.
They all skid row. They all had like one song
that was like I feel like a lot of them
had They all have those songs that had like the
great big gated snare drum, and it was like kind
of almost like Heaven by Brian Adams, like a big
(10:22):
ballad but with a yustle power ballad.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Totally yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
But then they I think a bunch of them, like
Great White obviously Black Crows who are different than that,
but sort of traded a little bit on the shared
DNA they had with some of those like Zeppelin esque
bands and Stones obviously as bands, but like there was
also a little bit of a like you know, Once
Bitten Twice Shy, that Great White song which was a cover.
There's a little moment where some of these bands wanted
(10:48):
to have like a little country DNA, even like Guns n'
Roses on Sure GNR Lives or like there's a Stone
esy thing that has a touch of country.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Right Aerosmith, right, like.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Aerosmith exactly like American rock that nods towards So this achey,
breaky Heart is like a twang setting or two away
from it could have been like a Cinderella song. It
could have been like there, Cinderella is like sleazy Stones
homage when like that eighth note piano thing comes in
ding ping dingdingdingdingding, like that stuff. I'm like this is
(11:23):
it almost like predicts what's gonna happen in twenty five
years where all of these styles of music, like the
verse in a country song is like a hip hop verse, yes,
with like like a like a big rock chorus, and
then like the country part is either like the dress
code or the vocal setting or like the content like
(11:43):
I'm singing about great American stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Old Town Road even yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Exactly, and then like right the ways that kind.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Of he's on this, He's on the remix Billy Ray
Cyrus is on the Civil Town Road, which is kind
of full circle.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Which was his reintroduction as a non Miley's Dad entity
into the zeitgeist. Like I remember being like like that
was very knowing of whoever connected those people and of
Lil nas X to be like, oh, you know, it
would be funny for this country song as if or
cool or whatever is if I had Billy Ray Cyrus
on it.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
It was credibility too. It was credibility for the country world.
Because as much as like.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Credibility too is the sequel to credibility.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Ability, Yeah, as much as he seems as an outsider
of country, he does seem like he's not country, like
it seems like he's pop country at a time that
I thought maybe they'd be more authenticity. But also this
is two years after I got friends in Low Place
totally and it's like this similar DNA. It's very you know,
(12:44):
it's very similar. So it's it's I could see that
they just accepted it all because that's fun country. They're not,
you know, it's like, let's have fun, make you break
your hardest fun. So he is in. He lends his
credibility to little nas X. That song's huge, and.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Then well nas X is of course stamping him as
like someone that like a sixteen year old kid was
is like who's that guy? What's that? Or you know whatever? Yeah,
I mean it's funny. My memories of that of him,
it's like it's like a very fat, fuzzy almost a
fazzy from the Muppet's a very fuzzy memory of Billy
(13:21):
Ray Cyrus On the American Do you remember the American
Music Awards? Do those still exist? I don't know if
that's still a thing.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
American music.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
It was like the Golden Globes. Okay, it was kind
of like the Golden Globes to the Oscars, like the
American Music Awards to the Grammys.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah, yeah, yes, or and like.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
A little more fun, a little looser, certain things that
were like a little like less stiff might have been.
You know, like that's a place that like a band
like Guns and Roses would win a bunch of awards,
but they'd not even be nominated at the great you
know what I mean, like, yeah, kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
I can imagine it did like our Sinio host or something.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I'm sure he did, I know, uh, what's his name?
Did the year of We Are the World Lionel Richie.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
That's fun. Okay, so it's fun.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yes, And then like they would have it was definitely
like also like where you might see someone like get
drunk and curse at the you know, like one year,
like somebody like you know, I think Slash cursed. He
was clearly like, yeah, you're you're puritanical in that way,
and that's something also bts kpop and behind the scenes
that people should know about Basie. He is a puritan
(14:27):
that's right dressing right now. It was like a cool guy,
like someone that we could talk to. But honestly, but
the minute this stops, he laserrates me for my language
and my life. Choices too, I like buckles on my hat.
The end of this little stage setting for me, though,
is that's what I remember him playing this song at
the AMAS and people having fun and it being kind
(14:49):
of like a cheesy meal, but people definitely devouring it.
And I don't know anything about his career before or after.
I do know it seems like through Miley's ascension, it
does seem like there was some darkness that came with
Billy and inevitably it seems like with these people that
get that famous for one thing, and he was probably
you know, he seems like maybe there was some delusions
(15:10):
of grandeur in there. But I do think he might
have been more of a like traditional country artist beforehand.
This is a blind spot for me. He might But
I do think the thing you said about Wham is
funny because what I without looking at the video, what
I heard was that thing about like this is like
two clicks away from like could have been a filler
song or a The quality of the single is actually
(15:33):
this is a This is a single, not a filler song,
but on a hard rock band from the late eighties
early nineties, this could have been like slightly adjusted to
be one of their like poppier singles or something.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Yeah, it's tough though, because it's like I can never
imagine you know, those hair metal bands singing achy breaky
heart like.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Don't know lyrics.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, I mean it would be it would have to
be a real shift of it. But let's go into
the lyrics a little bit, because you don't know who
can get away with this. To be honest with you, well,
I give him points also because it's like it's so
kind of like corny, but it's like it's self aware
a little bit, you know what I mean, Like he's
you could tell he's like having fun. He's not like,
(16:17):
don't break my achy breaking heart. He's just like, no
break Come on, guys, Like I had a few drinks.
We're having fun. I'm a nice guy. I'm having fun.
I'll take it too serious, you know, because if she
breaks min I'm gonna die. I'm not really good.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Well if the heart blows up, though, it might blow
up and kill this man lyric.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
I realize until listening to this, that's a pretty. That's
a pretty.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
When I first heard that, like wait, what damn Billy Ray,
I feel like.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
You know, it's funny. The lyrical what what I'm thinking
about is like, this is an unformed thought, and what
better place to share that than on a public facing podcast.
I do feel like he it's ideally we'd like to think.
I think the bummer with people who have massive success
in like a semi novelty kind of way is that
(17:32):
when you then kind of find out that they do
take themselves pretty seriously, you're like, oh no, dude, come on,
you're you're not. This isn't like God only knows, this
is achy breaky Heart, like just have fun, don't don't
be dark, don't be dark. And I think he got
dark a little bit after, but you know that's the story.
(17:52):
Breaking dark. We've covered that many times, Achy Breaky Dark.
We have certainly covered that many times on this podcast.
The the sort of pitfalls of this kind of like
flash celebrity thing, but no, I do think like lyrically,
what's funny is I had never paid an ounce of attention.
I haven't heard this song probably in thirty years, but
I haven't paid an ounce of attention to the verse lyrics.
(18:16):
And I think my primary issue from a Chancy perspective
is I give him credit for there's a theme he's
going through parts of his body in the first verse, right, yeah,
that's funny and silly. But when he gets in the
second verse, it becomes chaotic. And this is usually what
happens with these songs, Like the koke might have ran
out whatever's going on in the writing room for something
(18:38):
like this. By the second verse, it's like some weird
blend of like family members and body parts.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yeah, and there's a lyric, if I remember correctly, he
says something like mice. He says, myself already knows I'm
not okay, but myself is. I think he says, myself
already knows I'm not okay.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
That's insane, right, that's second versus my It's also got
that line that's like you could tell your brother Cliff,
whose fist can tell my lips? Never liked me anyway,
but like that's okay, So he punch, but no one's
ever like you know like that, you know, like you
have your fist tell my lips, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Wait, I think it says that sort of there's two
things where hands are telling lips. You can tell my
lips to tell my fingertips. They won't be reached. So
his lips are speaking to his fingertips. It kind of
rids with this, Oh, that's good my lips, but fingertip
would be this.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
That's like you're gonna puke. You put one finger up.
That's how I about the puke. That's what I just
put one finger out and find. Yeah, they won't be
reaching out, do you know more? I can't not. It's
like that's the that's the genius of the song that
I will give a credit you. I can't even look
at the lyrics without doing the melody.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah, the melody is super catchy.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
It's drunk catchy. It's like you could tell them it's
a kid's song. Tipsy, it's tipsy, it's tips. I'm actually
like really coming around to it as the kind of
song it is, and I actually love the lyrics and
I love the writing assignment. Lisa and I always talk
about there was this like era of rap and like
the twenty tens, like where like you know, two Chains,
(20:27):
Big Sean. Yeah, they would like beyond these songs, whether
there'd be like a title and then everyone would write
versus to that, and it was like a writing assignment.
It actually started even more so with like the Locks
and like DMX. There was a song called like twenty
four Hours to Live and they all had a writing assignment,
Like it felt like they were like in the studio,
like all right, everyone go off into your corner and
(20:49):
it's just like you had twenty four hours to live,
what would you do? And they all wrote straight and
and then that like twy tens era, it was like
songs like a song called Click and they're like, no,
I'm better than Mike Lick and then they're all right,
like right towards that I found this town, run this
town like jay Z and like everyone's just like ten like.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
The ten Crack Commandments, the Biggie song that then becomes
the Hamilton song, the ten Dual Commandments. Yeah, yeah, it's
like yeah, writing to a prompt.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
And it's a writing assignment and because sometimes like there
is actually I learned this thing recently that I'll drop
on you guys right now. Because we're not part of
the country culture and we're not really part of the
rap culture. I wouldn't claim it to be, but I
always love it. And I feel.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Like have more. You're better verse than the hip hop.
You have more hip hop. I feel like knowledge than
I do broadly. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Yeah, like, and I grew up with a group of
friends in Staten Island that was like very into hip hop,
so I'm saying yeah. So the thing that I found
out recently is that you know how people are always like, hey,
you know that he's doing this freestyle on the radio station,
but it's clearly like written and memorized, and people are like,
(21:58):
that's not a freestyle. That is actually because the origins
of freestyle is that it's free of a writing style.
Not that he's coming from off the top of his
of his dome. It's it's free of a writing style.
So especially early on, it's like, here's that was the
writing assignment. So it would be like you know, Sugar
Ray Gang or whatever, like they would write a song
that would be like for a certain specific thing. This
(22:21):
was free of style. Yes, so you could write about
anything about how great you are about your car, like anything.
It could just go into it. And so that's the freestyle.
So when people are like, he's not in every styling,
he's not freestyling, he is.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I never knew that. That's actually yeah, yeah, it's interesting,
it makes sense sense, It totally makes sense. It's also
useful to be reminded that like everything comes like I
think that sometimes we it might surprise people. It kind
of surprises me a little bit when you're reminded that
like there is an orthodoxy to stuff like that, like
even like rap, like there was like it was like, well,
(22:58):
there's a style, and there's there's prompts, and we write
to this, but a freestyle is when we have the
opportunity to just say whatever comes to us. Like that's
kind of funny that there is this like methodological approach
to it that's not just like not everything is like
free jazz or whatever. There is a like yeah, like
like bumpers in the bowling alley or whatever. Yeah, it's funny.
(23:18):
I feel like that is a great call. This This
is one hundred percent best viewed almost as like someone
submitted this as a creative writing assignment. Like the teacher
was like, I want you to write a kind of
fun country song, and I want you to write it
about the different parts of the body and what might
happen if you know your partner left you now, but
(23:41):
of course no dirty language and no body language to
figure out. And this was like the gold Star assignment,
like achy Breaky Heart that's amazing. And you know this
is how he hits. This is a home run for him.
He nailed totally, and each ever say he nailed, and
and it's.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
You know what it is. It's it's it's you doing
that assignment with your class like those kids, and you're like,
should we do a bridge? And then that day they're
like no, and there's no bridge mine.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
And what's funny about how this school I was thinking
about the bridge with this song, he by doing the thing.
It's not only a down chorus that second repeated chorus
before the very end, it's a cappella like everything goes
away except for the vocal and the harmony. And when
I mean, I've actually kind of always felt like when
(24:28):
you do something like that, it's a cheat. It's cheat
is the wrong word because it sounds negative. It stands
in as the bridge, Like that is a bridge in
a sense because in a technical sense, a bridge is
something that's meant to happen. Although this also gets moved
around sometimes structurally too, but like once in a song, right,
it gets us from B back to A or whatever.
(24:53):
But it's only supposed to show up one time. So
when you do something like that, you're kind of like
turning the core into a bridge and it's very effective
like this, He's like they I kind of think they
were like, we don't need this chorus is so huge
and the riff it's so like it's just perfect. So
(25:15):
it was like standard.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
It would be it would almost hurt the song if
there was a bridge that took it in a different direction,
and this like brought it home in a fun way.
And it does the same trick, which is like a bridge,
a good bridge should like peak your interest, like as
you're halfway through, halfway through, and it does that, it's like,
oh okay, well okay, this switched up.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
And there are a ton of songs I feel like
too where there's a lot of and by like people
very different artists than Billie Ray Cyrus. Something I love
is actually when somebody at the very end of a song,
when they're going through like their last chorus, or they
make us one chord change right in that last chorus
at the very end to extend out the chorus, and
(26:07):
that chord change kind of tends to be like I
feel like, if they haven't gone to the minor yet,
they go to the minor or, if they've gone to
the miner already. They might go to like the major seven,
and like there's this little like or the seven, not
the major seven, and there's this little like tension that happens.
There's like a there's a moment where it's it's kind
of a Beatles thing and I definitely not to you know,
(26:30):
if you're playing bingo at home, you can place your
chip now. Elliot Smith did this a lot where there's
a lot of it's like the bridge almost becomes a
ten second moment of the song towards the end, where
one subtle shift happens that changes the emotional texture and
melodic texture and then the plane lands that counts like
(26:50):
that can be sometimes that's like the best bridge you
can you can do? Actually is that totally and in
a way he totally does that with this. So it's
like take everything out and just have it be that crazy, catchy,
funny vocal thing right up front. It's also a dare.
It's kind of a cool thing to do in a
song that's this like boisterous to like cut everything away
(27:11):
except you and the fucking background singers for a full
chorus three minutes into the song. It's not it's kind
of a cool production choice pop songs. You know.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
I also like to you to your point, Like the
first chorus it's just his vocal, there's no harmony, and
then the second chorus that harmony is like that, like
you know, the one's like.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
No fifth maybe yeah, yeah, yeah?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Is that what it is? Country style? Like like that
that like and it's you're kind of like sustaining that
one note, you know what I mean? Like yes, yes, yeah, right,
Like it's that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
He's probably singing the root Noe Like I can't like
whatever the key song is because that works with everything.
You could just like kind of go like this, I
possibly I'd have to listen to it again, but yeah,
I know, I like it almost becomes like.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Yeah, that band that you know, that guy Clem Snide.
You probably know him a little bit I do. The
band is Clem Snide. That guy's like F his first names,
like F Yeah, Clem Snyde has some fun harmonies that
are like that, like they touch upon the country stuff
(28:24):
in a way that's like a little bit more alternative.
And I totally really appreciate, Like I love a little
twang when it's done right, it's it's it speaks to me.
And and you know, I like a lot of country Western,
old country Western. There's like a lot that I like
about Elvis and that era. You know, like even like
(28:46):
the timing of like that, that kind of stuff is
so cool. It's it's it's, it's it's more. I give
it more more credit for country Western than rock and
roll because rock and roll is a little bit more
backbeat and it's it is soulful, whereas country western's like
(29:08):
it's it's off, it's in a cool way. And and
I like, you don't hear a lot of that anymore,
Like you don't hear those sort of weird syncopations. Yeah,
maybe actually in like a what's what's the word for it,
like a reggaetone kind of right, you know, like that
kind of thing. But it's it's still yeah, very much.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, Yeah, I mean I feel like that's the Elvis
Thing's a good point because I definitely feel like while
he's in he's kind of credited or you know, obviously
debated in a in a for for very valid reasons,
but often as if not the creator of a key
progenitor of what becomes rock and roll, and like but
(29:53):
what I think he's there, and that's like he's touring
with people like Jerry le Lewis and Johnny Cash and
obviously coming from black soul music, black folk music. Like
there's this moment with all that stuff where it's like
the blues country, this stuff is all in this soup
folk the stuff on that like the anthology of folk music.
They're all like speaking to each other and it's this
(30:14):
soup that then kind of gives birth to things like
Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Jered Ley Lewis, which
then of course gives birth to like the early Beatles,
and then it's everything kind of goes from the and
the Stones and all this other stuff. But I feel like,
to me, what's funny is you can hear in this
(30:34):
song like one of the things I do feel like
it's well, sorry to touch on what you feel like,
my brain's all over the place. What you said about
the syncopation and that rhythmic it's funny because what's cool
about that is it's simple. It's simple, but it's dramatic,
right dun duh, dun dunh. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel
like the other thing that that sort of country music
(30:57):
doesn't often Thank Hank Williams, right, is I kind of
like canonical you know, god teer og country musician, And
for good reason, those songs are kind of unbeatable at
a certain way. He's also like a doomed like a
classic doomed singer songwriter guy like fucking drinks himself to
death in the back of a car. Was like definitely
(31:18):
like a really hard, hard living Like I feel like
his music as a place where very early you hear
like someone really moving through like the experience of depression,
like the experience of like what it is to be
like and trying to make sense of that in this
in this particular art form that maybe isn't like super
built for it, or he's building out a wing of
(31:41):
it that's still being kind of iterated to this day.
But also that music was at times really fucking funny,
and sometimes really funny in a way that was almost
like novelty, like you know, move it on over, slad
it on over, Like it's like he's moving into the
literal doghouse with his dog because his wife is kicking
out those songs like they're like there's an aspect of
(32:02):
them that are like funny, and this is in that
tradition he's like doing, they're like writing prompts. It does
situate him in the country lineage, white sneakers, George Michael
haircut or not. And what's funny is even when he
does in the chorus that that is totally something that
would be in a Hank Williams song. Hank Williams og
(32:24):
The song itself has more in common with Hank Williams Junior,
you know, than it does with his dad. Hank Williams
Junior is like this kind of like it's Monday night football.
He literally had likes Monday. It's like the Hollday Night
Football song.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Will Chris Farley impression that he did, like yes, coming
over to night Bengals in the jack is going ov. Yeah,
that sketch, that's that's exactly. That's so funny. Well that's
him and his nickname. This is very niche for like
six people listening to this, that's correct that I remember
(32:59):
that from this, Yeah, from the sketch and that's yeah,
that's her buddy Chris right Cephas's.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
That's a that's a Staten Island royalty right there, god
tyr Staten Island dude, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
That's so funny. I always thought about that whenever you
guys called them Cephus, I was always like, is that
anything to do with bo Cephis? The Chris Farley impression
of a person. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
My understanding of that is that our friend when he
was like fourteen, was like drinking in a park in
Staten Island and his neighbor, who was a cop, found
him in the park and knew he was like thirteen
or fourteen and was like, Chris, what are you doing.
I gotta tell your parents. I got to bring you
you know, I gotta bring you in. I gotta tell
your parents. And he said, he said, I don't know
(33:41):
if you just learned this story from the Bible or
what it was, but he said like basically said like yo, seef,
this chill out, get off my back or something like that.
But he called the cop Cephis, and everyone on there
thought that was fucking great. And then suddenly, so if
anyone's out there and they want to know, this is
the o g this is the origin story of Cephis,
(34:04):
Chris O'Brien, Billy Ray, Civas, Billy Ray Cephis. That's right.
So ultimately, where do you land to me, it pleasant,
pleasant experience listening to it. Oh wait, I have an
important question though, because you watch the video. Was there
a dance like an achy breaky heart? Do they do
like a like a like a choreographed dance memory of that.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
He did a dance, he danced, but there was no
like even like country line dancing. It was just like
he was just like putting his hands up, shaking his
hips like it was. Yeah, it was like a mom
at a wedding, you know what I mean, Like who's
like you know, like Abby is playing and she's just
like too.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
It's that's that's the rascal flats. Rascal flats flats.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Maybe as a callback to seize one, but yeah, that
I think I land with it feeling great. I really
kind of enjoy the writing assignment of it, and I
think it's fun.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
I do you think the second verse, if I had
to give one one anti.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Chance he's listening.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
I know, we we love this the second the lyrics,
But I do have to say the second verse for
me is a little bit like we were dangling off
the edge of the cliff a little bit with the
with your aunt Louise, your brother Cliff, but also myself
and my mind and my eyes. You could tell my
eyes to watch out from my mind.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Is perfect. I think that's perfect. I have no notes.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
It is.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
It is because I've actually said that before.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
You do say that, you say that to last.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Yeah often, all right. You could tell my fist to
kiss your lips. You could tell.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
My thumb to tell my baby brother that I think
that the chances outside, and you guys say all right,
chancers say good night, come on, I could tell you
that baby cab
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Check
Give it a chance, Give it a chance, Give it
a chance. Come morning, Give it a chance. Give it
a chance, Give it a chance, Give it a chance,
come morning. Give it a chick. You want to give
it a chance, Give it a chance, give it a chance.
Just give it a ch.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hi Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
What our listeners don't know is that we record this
on zoom and I usually make the link and I
have to admit you and imagine if we had a
whole episode where I didn't.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Ah, why would you do this? I hate you?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Ah?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
The truth comes out on epp. Six hundred and nineteen.
What app is this?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I have no idea. I think also, we've been doing
this thing. We've been recording them in advance, and then
I think we'll just kind of pick.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I don't tell them all our seeky's.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I'm telling them all. We were courd on zoom. I
don't like you.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
We don't know what number it is.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
We were going out of order.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
He's made of ai garble slop. They're not even real.
The ny Mets are my favorite squadron.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
That's right. I'm excited because this is a category or
a genre of music that we don't always do. Is
for this episode and actually actually all to pull the curtain.
I actually do want to do this, some of that,
but to pull the curtain the kurt back, and I
don't mean Cobaine, pull the curt back a little bit
(01:34):
more rest in peace. Well, I had a song and
then you were like okay, me like, yeah, I'd love
to fucking pull that one down a notch rest in
pieces of crap. But in the interim, in the time
(01:58):
that I waited, So I'm a little sick, so it
might be a little basice, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Everywhere it's is Basi, Jo Justice.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I'm you big, I'm everywhere.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It was bekist On alright, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yes, wow. I think that's like four tangents trying. I
picked a different.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
E M Warlord.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Joe, alright, Basis, if you're still listening, it's a song
than what I had, a different song than I picked.
And this song I've been wanting to do for a while.
It's been on my lisp and I'm very excited for
it because it's a silly one and as a genre
(02:52):
that we don't always do. And famous father.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
The singer is a famous father, famous father. All right,
the singer is a.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Famous father, a famous father father musician of a father. Oh,
I have a musician father musician of a musician child.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Musician who's now an adult. I would imagine the child, okay, child,
now you know, you know the current The child in
the equation is not currently a child in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I want everyone to know. Everyone probably thinks I come
up with these hints months of advance.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Ah, all right, so the father famous father of a
famous adult child. Bob Dylan.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Ooh, you think i'd be doing one headlight or no,
you'd think i'd be doing Bob Dylan Bob Dylan song.
We were talking right now, we were talking. You're right,
you're right, you're right, it's not but it's okay. I
will say that.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Oh, Billy Ray cyrus ake, you break your heart.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yes, my dude, that was so good.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
You're so good at it. People don't talk about it enough. People,
people don't talk about it enough.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Are you so good? I don't think I could ever
get these.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
You have to.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
You have to do one so and give me hinties
and then I want to see if I could do it.
Because you I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Why you're so right now on the spot.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
You're always like ugh, is it Bob Dylan?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
No?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Is it Billy Ray Silos Aggy Breaky Heart?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
The second the second famous father that we all know. Yeah,
first Bob Dylan, Then is Billy ray Sier.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
I completely missed Achy Breaky Heart in My Youth came
out nineteen ninety. I was five years young.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Are you really Yeah, it's ninety Oh.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
It's ninety two. Actually I'm wrong. I lied to you.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Sounds right to meet because I feel like there might
be well, you know, it's amazing. On the on the
streaming platform of my choice, it says there is a
twentieth Century Master album for Billy ray Cyrus. What in
the world, wow, could have possibly prompted? Like what other
(05:09):
song is there?
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I don't know, because George Lucas probably did it.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Maybe it's Actually it's funny. It says the best of
Billy Ray Cyrus, the Millennium Collection twentieth Century Masters. But
the picture is jar jar Bink really surpasing solo. Yeah,
it's one Bink, which was the original title of One Headlight. Yeah.
See they're coming to get me, dude, They're fucking coming
(05:36):
and get me. Finally for all my transgressions. Oh you guys,
can't hear the.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Cirrus, the storm, the Billy Ray Sirens.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Billy Ray Sirens. That was a good show on the
USA Network in the early early odds.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So I started to play so this came up. The
song also was recommended to me by somebody who was like, oh,
that's like an overplayed country song or like it's but
I don't know, I know it to be a song.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
You really don't know what have you ever heard it?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
I know the chorus, I could, I could sing it.
I've made up dummy lyrics to it, like don't kiss me,
but you know, like I've done that, you know, But
I don't know if I like, I've ever sat with it.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Okay, I've never had lunch, you're about to sit with it.
You've never dined on achy breaky Heart?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
True. So the song, I'm going to watch the video.
I'm gonna do you know, I do the video. I
watched like two seconds.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I'm always too different.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I have to do this. I have to do this
one because I watched two seconds of the video and
he's like getting out of a limo and like there's
like a crowd of people. I'm like, what song did
he have before? Breaky heart. But you know the country,
the country world is different.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I don't. That's a good question.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
I'm excited to get into it. We've been joking around enough.
It's serious from here on out.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
No more grab ass, fight me, somebody shit, Okay, set.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
The scene for me and for our listeners, because that,
to me feels like Wham goes Country. Because I was
watching the video and he's got like white sneakers and
tight jeans and like like an open shirt. He like
it kind of feels like very George Michael. He's like
dancing around, was playing guitars.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Looks like George Michael actually a little bit.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
And I always kind of thought like that was like
not like even if even if you were this sort
of posh country star, you were still like boots and like,
I'm a man, I drink cold beer. I'll have a truck.
I live on a dirt road. Like you have to
still like play the part, and if you don't play
that part, you're eye out. But he's like dancing arms
(07:48):
up also, which I love. When this happens the music
video for the song, the audience knows all the lyrics
and they're clapping along.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Oh that's great.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Like that's the best. It's like it's already a hit.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Joyful Yeah, yeah, yeah, what's it called. It's like a
manifesting it like it's a hit in the video, it's
going to be a hit in real life. Look at
these people are enjoying it.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Manifest Destiny's Child.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
My favorite American band, my favorite American pastime. Dude, Manifest
Destiny's Child. Yeah, the scene, So set the scene. I mean,
I like you setting the scene with the video because
we maybe another since this is a kind of BTS,
not K pop behind the scenes, this is another BTS,
kind of little little tidbit for our listeners and viewers.
(08:39):
We do, we do approach this differently. I tend to
listen without prejudice, just like George Michael. I tend to
listen to the streaming platform of my choice and read
the lyrics while I listen, and Casey tends to watch
the video and then we kind of convene. That's interesting.
(08:59):
I think we cover a lot of ground that way.
That just I'm just saying, it's interesting to me. It's
interesting to me that you wouldn't fucking do it the
way I do it. Do they, as your elder.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Do they have the claps at the end, like the
audience clapping because in the.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
At the end, oh no, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
No, and it's in the mix, I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
At the end of the track there was a kind
of standard like you know, what's it called tambourine rattle
and then a big like snare hit like you know, yeah,
that kind of announce yes, exactly exactly. I mean, what's
funny is so I forget I do vaguely remember because
even as like this is such a hit, this is
(09:39):
such a like a monster chorus, like the production, it's funny,
it's it's it does for ninety two March ninety two,
it says this comes out. It does like Veer late eighties.
It has more in common to me with the DNA
of like the sort of like a sunsets drip ballads
(10:01):
of that time, or like or even something like like
I think you know we're like bands like Winger and
Warrant and Cinderella and Poison and all of that stuff.
They all skid row. They all had like one song
that was like I feel like a lot of them
had They all have those songs that had like the
great big gated snare drum, and it was like kind
of almost like Heaven by Brian Adams, like a big
(10:22):
ballad but with a yustle power ballad.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Totally yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
But then they I think a bunch of them, like
Great White obviously Black Crows who are different than that,
but sort of traded a little bit on the shared
DNA they had with some of those like Zeppelin esque
bands and Stones obviously as bands, but like there was
also a little bit of a like you know, Once
Bitten Twice Shy, that Great White song which was a cover.
There's a little moment where some of these bands wanted
(10:48):
to have like a little country DNA, even like Guns n'
Roses on Sure GNR Lives or like there's a Stone
esy thing that has a touch of country.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Right Aerosmith, right, like.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Aerosmith exactly like American rock that nods towards So this achey,
breaky Heart is like a twang setting or two away
from it could have been like a Cinderella song. It
could have been like there, Cinderella is like sleazy Stones
homage when like that eighth note piano thing comes in
ding ping dingdingdingdingding, like that stuff. I'm like this is
(11:23):
it almost like predicts what's gonna happen in twenty five
years where all of these styles of music, like the
verse in a country song is like a hip hop verse, yes,
with like like a like a big rock chorus, and
then like the country part is either like the dress
code or the vocal setting or like the content like
(11:43):
I'm singing about great American stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Old Town Road even yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Exactly, and then like right the ways that kind.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Of he's on this, He's on the remix Billy Ray
Cyrus is on the Civil Town Road, which is kind
of full circle.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Which was his reintroduction as a non Miley's Dad entity
into the zeitgeist. Like I remember being like like that
was very knowing of whoever connected those people and of
Lil nas X to be like, oh, you know, it
would be funny for this country song as if or
cool or whatever is if I had Billy Ray Cyrus
on it.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
It was credibility too. It was credibility for the country world.
Because as much as like.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Credibility too is the sequel to credibility.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Ability, Yeah, as much as he seems as an outsider
of country, he does seem like he's not country, like
it seems like he's pop country at a time that
I thought maybe they'd be more authenticity. But also this
is two years after I got friends in Low Place
totally and it's like this similar DNA. It's very you know,
(12:44):
it's very similar. So it's it's I could see that
they just accepted it all because that's fun country. They're not,
you know, it's like, let's have fun, make you break
your hardest fun. So he is in. He lends his
credibility to little nas X. That song's huge, and.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Then well nas X is of course stamping him as
like someone that like a sixteen year old kid was
is like who's that guy? What's that? Or you know whatever? Yeah,
I mean it's funny. My memories of that of him,
it's like it's like a very fat, fuzzy almost a
fazzy from the Muppet's a very fuzzy memory of Billy
(13:21):
Ray Cyrus On the American Do you remember the American
Music Awards? Do those still exist? I don't know if
that's still a thing.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
American music.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
It was like the Golden Globes. Okay, it was kind
of like the Golden Globes to the Oscars, like the
American Music Awards to the Grammys.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah, yeah, yes, or and like.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
A little more fun, a little looser, certain things that
were like a little like less stiff might have been.
You know, like that's a place that like a band
like Guns and Roses would win a bunch of awards,
but they'd not even be nominated at the great you
know what I mean, like, yeah, kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
I can imagine it did like our Sinio host or something.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I'm sure he did, I know, uh, what's his name?
Did the year of We Are the World Lionel Richie.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
That's fun. Okay, so it's fun.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yes, And then like they would have it was definitely
like also like where you might see someone like get
drunk and curse at the you know, like one year,
like somebody like you know, I think Slash cursed. He
was clearly like, yeah, you're you're puritanical in that way,
and that's something also bts kpop and behind the scenes
that people should know about Basie. He is a puritan
(14:27):
that's right dressing right now. It was like a cool guy,
like someone that we could talk to. But honestly, but
the minute this stops, he laserrates me for my language
and my life. Choices too, I like buckles on my hat.
The end of this little stage setting for me, though,
is that's what I remember him playing this song at
the AMAS and people having fun and it being kind
(14:49):
of like a cheesy meal, but people definitely devouring it.
And I don't know anything about his career before or after.
I do know it seems like through Miley's ascension, it
does seem like there was some darkness that came with
Billy and inevitably it seems like with these people that
get that famous for one thing, and he was probably
you know, he seems like maybe there was some delusions
(15:10):
of grandeur in there. But I do think he might
have been more of a like traditional country artist beforehand.
This is a blind spot for me. He might But
I do think the thing you said about Wham is
funny because what I without looking at the video, what
I heard was that thing about like this is like
two clicks away from like could have been a filler
song or a The quality of the single is actually
(15:33):
this is a This is a single, not a filler song,
but on a hard rock band from the late eighties
early nineties, this could have been like slightly adjusted to
be one of their like poppier singles or something.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Yeah, it's tough though, because it's like I can never
imagine you know, those hair metal bands singing achy breaky
heart like.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Don't know lyrics.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, I mean it would be it would have to
be a real shift of it. But let's go into
the lyrics a little bit, because you don't know who
can get away with this. To be honest with you, well,
I give him points also because it's like it's so
kind of like corny, but it's like it's self aware
a little bit, you know what I mean, Like he's
you could tell he's like having fun. He's not like,
(16:17):
don't break my achy breaking heart. He's just like, no
break Come on, guys, Like I had a few drinks.
We're having fun. I'm a nice guy. I'm having fun.
I'll take it too serious, you know, because if she
breaks min I'm gonna die. I'm not really good.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Well if the heart blows up, though, it might blow
up and kill this man lyric.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
I realize until listening to this, that's a pretty. That's
a pretty.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
When I first heard that, like wait, what damn Billy Ray,
I feel like.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
You know, it's funny. The lyrical what what I'm thinking
about is like, this is an unformed thought, and what
better place to share that than on a public facing podcast.
I do feel like he it's ideally we'd like to think.
I think the bummer with people who have massive success
in like a semi novelty kind of way is that
(17:32):
when you then kind of find out that they do
take themselves pretty seriously, you're like, oh no, dude, come on,
you're you're not. This isn't like God only knows, this
is achy breaky Heart, like just have fun, don't don't
be dark, don't be dark. And I think he got
dark a little bit after, but you know that's the story.
(17:52):
Breaking dark. We've covered that many times, Achy Breaky Dark.
We have certainly covered that many times on this podcast.
The the sort of pitfalls of this kind of like
flash celebrity thing, but no, I do think like lyrically,
what's funny is I had never paid an ounce of attention.
I haven't heard this song probably in thirty years, but
I haven't paid an ounce of attention to the verse lyrics.
(18:16):
And I think my primary issue from a Chancy perspective
is I give him credit for there's a theme he's
going through parts of his body in the first verse, right, yeah,
that's funny and silly. But when he gets in the
second verse, it becomes chaotic. And this is usually what
happens with these songs, Like the koke might have ran
out whatever's going on in the writing room for something
(18:38):
like this. By the second verse, it's like some weird
blend of like family members and body parts.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yeah, and there's a lyric, if I remember correctly, he
says something like mice. He says, myself already knows I'm
not okay, but myself is. I think he says, myself
already knows I'm not okay.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
That's insane, right, that's second versus my It's also got
that line that's like you could tell your brother Cliff,
whose fist can tell my lips? Never liked me anyway,
but like that's okay, So he punch, but no one's
ever like you know like that, you know, like you
have your fist tell my lips, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Wait, I think it says that sort of there's two
things where hands are telling lips. You can tell my
lips to tell my fingertips. They won't be reached. So
his lips are speaking to his fingertips. It kind of
rids with this, Oh, that's good my lips, but fingertip
would be this.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
That's like you're gonna puke. You put one finger up.
That's how I about the puke. That's what I just
put one finger out and find. Yeah, they won't be
reaching out, do you know more? I can't not. It's
like that's the that's the genius of the song that
I will give a credit you. I can't even look
at the lyrics without doing the melody.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah, the melody is super catchy.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
It's drunk catchy. It's like you could tell them it's
a kid's song. Tipsy, it's tipsy, it's tips. I'm actually
like really coming around to it as the kind of
song it is, and I actually love the lyrics and
I love the writing assignment. Lisa and I always talk
about there was this like era of rap and like
the twenty tens, like where like you know, two Chains,
(20:27):
Big Sean. Yeah, they would like beyond these songs, whether
there'd be like a title and then everyone would write
versus to that, and it was like a writing assignment.
It actually started even more so with like the Locks
and like DMX. There was a song called like twenty
four Hours to Live and they all had a writing assignment,
Like it felt like they were like in the studio,
like all right, everyone go off into your corner and
(20:49):
it's just like you had twenty four hours to live,
what would you do? And they all wrote straight and
and then that like twy tens era, it was like
songs like a song called Click and they're like, no,
I'm better than Mike Lick and then they're all right,
like right towards that I found this town, run this
town like jay Z and like everyone's just like ten like.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
The ten Crack Commandments, the Biggie song that then becomes
the Hamilton song, the ten Dual Commandments. Yeah, yeah, it's
like yeah, writing to a prompt.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
And it's a writing assignment and because sometimes like there
is actually I learned this thing recently that I'll drop
on you guys right now. Because we're not part of
the country culture and we're not really part of the
rap culture. I wouldn't claim it to be, but I
always love it. And I feel.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Like have more. You're better verse than the hip hop.
You have more hip hop. I feel like knowledge than
I do broadly. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Yeah, like, and I grew up with a group of
friends in Staten Island that was like very into hip hop,
so I'm saying yeah. So the thing that I found
out recently is that you know how people are always like, hey,
you know that he's doing this freestyle on the radio station,
but it's clearly like written and memorized, and people are like,
(21:58):
that's not a freestyle. That is actually because the origins
of freestyle is that it's free of a writing style.
Not that he's coming from off the top of his
of his dome. It's it's free of a writing style.
So especially early on, it's like, here's that was the
writing assignment. So it would be like you know, Sugar
Ray Gang or whatever, like they would write a song
that would be like for a certain specific thing. This
(22:21):
was free of style. Yes, so you could write about
anything about how great you are about your car, like anything.
It could just go into it. And so that's the freestyle.
So when people are like, he's not in every styling,
he's not freestyling, he is.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I never knew that. That's actually yeah, yeah, it's interesting,
it makes sense sense, It totally makes sense. It's also
useful to be reminded that like everything comes like I
think that sometimes we it might surprise people. It kind
of surprises me a little bit when you're reminded that
like there is an orthodoxy to stuff like that, like
even like rap, like there was like it was like, well,
(22:58):
there's a style, and there's there's prompts, and we write
to this, but a freestyle is when we have the
opportunity to just say whatever comes to us. Like that's
kind of funny that there is this like methodological approach
to it that's not just like not everything is like
free jazz or whatever. There is a like yeah, like
like bumpers in the bowling alley or whatever. Yeah, it's funny.
(23:18):
I feel like that is a great call. This This
is one hundred percent best viewed almost as like someone
submitted this as a creative writing assignment. Like the teacher
was like, I want you to write a kind of
fun country song, and I want you to write it
about the different parts of the body and what might
happen if you know your partner left you now, but
(23:41):
of course no dirty language and no body language to
figure out. And this was like the gold Star assignment,
like achy Breaky Heart that's amazing. And you know this
is how he hits. This is a home run for him.
He nailed totally, and each ever say he nailed, and
and it's.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
You know what it is. It's it's it's you doing
that assignment with your class like those kids, and you're like,
should we do a bridge? And then that day they're
like no, and there's no bridge mine.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
And what's funny about how this school I was thinking
about the bridge with this song, he by doing the thing.
It's not only a down chorus that second repeated chorus
before the very end, it's a cappella like everything goes
away except for the vocal and the harmony. And when
I mean, I've actually kind of always felt like when
(24:28):
you do something like that, it's a cheat. It's cheat
is the wrong word because it sounds negative. It stands
in as the bridge, Like that is a bridge in
a sense because in a technical sense, a bridge is
something that's meant to happen. Although this also gets moved
around sometimes structurally too, but like once in a song, right,
it gets us from B back to A or whatever.
(24:53):
But it's only supposed to show up one time. So
when you do something like that, you're kind of like
turning the core into a bridge and it's very effective
like this, He's like they I kind of think they
were like, we don't need this chorus is so huge
and the riff it's so like it's just perfect. So
(25:15):
it was like standard.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
It would be it would almost hurt the song if
there was a bridge that took it in a different direction,
and this like brought it home in a fun way.
And it does the same trick, which is like a bridge,
a good bridge should like peak your interest, like as
you're halfway through, halfway through, and it does that, it's like,
oh okay, well okay, this switched up.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
And there are a ton of songs I feel like
too where there's a lot of and by like people
very different artists than Billie Ray Cyrus. Something I love
is actually when somebody at the very end of a song,
when they're going through like their last chorus, or they
make us one chord change right in that last chorus
at the very end to extend out the chorus, and
(26:07):
that chord change kind of tends to be like I
feel like, if they haven't gone to the minor yet,
they go to the minor or, if they've gone to
the miner already. They might go to like the major seven,
and like there's this little like or the seven, not
the major seven, and there's this little like tension that happens.
There's like a there's a moment where it's it's kind
of a Beatles thing and I definitely not to you know,
(26:30):
if you're playing bingo at home, you can place your
chip now. Elliot Smith did this a lot where there's
a lot of it's like the bridge almost becomes a
ten second moment of the song towards the end, where
one subtle shift happens that changes the emotional texture and
melodic texture and then the plane lands that counts like
(26:50):
that can be sometimes that's like the best bridge you
can you can do? Actually is that totally and in
a way he totally does that with this. So it's
like take everything out and just have it be that crazy, catchy,
funny vocal thing right up front. It's also a dare.
It's kind of a cool thing to do in a
song that's this like boisterous to like cut everything away
(27:11):
except you and the fucking background singers for a full
chorus three minutes into the song. It's not it's kind
of a cool production choice pop songs. You know.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
I also like to you to your point, Like the
first chorus it's just his vocal, there's no harmony, and
then the second chorus that harmony is like that, like
you know, the one's like.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
No fifth maybe yeah, yeah, yeah?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Is that what it is? Country style? Like like that
that like and it's you're kind of like sustaining that
one note, you know what I mean? Like yes, yes, yeah, right,
Like it's that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
He's probably singing the root Noe Like I can't like
whatever the key song is because that works with everything.
You could just like kind of go like this, I
possibly I'd have to listen to it again, but yeah,
I know, I like it almost becomes like.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Yeah, that band that you know, that guy Clem Snide.
You probably know him a little bit I do. The
band is Clem Snide. That guy's like F his first names,
like F Yeah, Clem Snyde has some fun harmonies that
are like that, like they touch upon the country stuff
(28:24):
in a way that's like a little bit more alternative.
And I totally really appreciate, Like I love a little
twang when it's done right, it's it's it speaks to me.
And and you know, I like a lot of country Western,
old country Western. There's like a lot that I like
about Elvis and that era. You know, like even like
(28:46):
the timing of like that, that kind of stuff is
so cool. It's it's it's, it's it's more. I give
it more more credit for country Western than rock and
roll because rock and roll is a little bit more
backbeat and it's it is soulful, whereas country western's like
(29:08):
it's it's off, it's in a cool way. And and
I like, you don't hear a lot of that anymore,
Like you don't hear those sort of weird syncopations. Yeah,
maybe actually in like a what's what's the word for it,
like a reggaetone kind of right, you know, like that
kind of thing. But it's it's still yeah, very much.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, Yeah, I mean I feel like that's the Elvis
Thing's a good point because I definitely feel like while
he's in he's kind of credited or you know, obviously
debated in a in a for for very valid reasons,
but often as if not the creator of a key
progenitor of what becomes rock and roll, and like but
(29:53):
what I think he's there, and that's like he's touring
with people like Jerry le Lewis and Johnny Cash and
obviously coming from black soul music, black folk music. Like
there's this moment with all that stuff where it's like
the blues country, this stuff is all in this soup
folk the stuff on that like the anthology of folk music.
They're all like speaking to each other and it's this
(30:14):
soup that then kind of gives birth to things like
Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Jered Ley Lewis, which
then of course gives birth to like the early Beatles,
and then it's everything kind of goes from the and
the Stones and all this other stuff. But I feel like,
to me, what's funny is you can hear in this
(30:34):
song like one of the things I do feel like
it's well, sorry to touch on what you feel like,
my brain's all over the place. What you said about
the syncopation and that rhythmic it's funny because what's cool
about that is it's simple. It's simple, but it's dramatic,
right dun duh, dun dunh. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel
like the other thing that that sort of country music
(30:57):
doesn't often Thank Hank Williams, right, is I kind of
like canonical you know, god teer og country musician, And
for good reason, those songs are kind of unbeatable at
a certain way. He's also like a doomed like a
classic doomed singer songwriter guy like fucking drinks himself to
death in the back of a car. Was like definitely
(31:18):
like a really hard, hard living Like I feel like
his music as a place where very early you hear
like someone really moving through like the experience of depression,
like the experience of like what it is to be
like and trying to make sense of that in this
in this particular art form that maybe isn't like super
built for it, or he's building out a wing of
(31:41):
it that's still being kind of iterated to this day.
But also that music was at times really fucking funny,
and sometimes really funny in a way that was almost
like novelty, like you know, move it on over, slad
it on over, Like it's like he's moving into the
literal doghouse with his dog because his wife is kicking
out those songs like they're like there's an aspect of
(32:02):
them that are like funny, and this is in that
tradition he's like doing, they're like writing prompts. It does
situate him in the country lineage, white sneakers, George Michael
haircut or not. And what's funny is even when he
does in the chorus that that is totally something that
would be in a Hank Williams song. Hank Williams og
(32:24):
The song itself has more in common with Hank Williams Junior,
you know, than it does with his dad. Hank Williams
Junior is like this kind of like it's Monday night football.
He literally had likes Monday. It's like the Hollday Night
Football song.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Will Chris Farley impression that he did, like yes, coming
over to night Bengals in the jack is going ov. Yeah,
that sketch, that's that's exactly. That's so funny. Well that's
him and his nickname. This is very niche for like
six people listening to this, that's correct that I remember
(32:59):
that from this, Yeah, from the sketch and that's yeah,
that's her buddy Chris right Cephas's.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
That's a that's a Staten Island royalty right there, god
tyr Staten Island dude, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
That's so funny. I always thought about that whenever you
guys called them Cephus, I was always like, is that
anything to do with bo Cephis? The Chris Farley impression
of a person. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
My understanding of that is that our friend when he
was like fourteen, was like drinking in a park in
Staten Island and his neighbor, who was a cop, found
him in the park and knew he was like thirteen
or fourteen and was like, Chris, what are you doing.
I gotta tell your parents. I got to bring you
you know, I gotta bring you in. I gotta tell
your parents. And he said, he said, I don't know
(33:41):
if you just learned this story from the Bible or
what it was, but he said like basically said like yo, seef,
this chill out, get off my back or something like that.
But he called the cop Cephis, and everyone on there
thought that was fucking great. And then suddenly, so if
anyone's out there and they want to know, this is
the o g this is the origin story of Cephis,
(34:04):
Chris O'Brien, Billy Ray, Civas, Billy Ray Cephis. That's right.
So ultimately, where do you land to me, it pleasant,
pleasant experience listening to it. Oh wait, I have an
important question though, because you watch the video. Was there
a dance like an achy breaky heart? Do they do
like a like a like a choreographed dance memory of that.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
He did a dance, he danced, but there was no
like even like country line dancing. It was just like
he was just like putting his hands up, shaking his
hips like it was. Yeah, it was like a mom
at a wedding, you know what I mean, Like who's
like you know, like Abby is playing and she's just
like too.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
It's that's that's the rascal flats. Rascal flats flats.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Maybe as a callback to seize one, but yeah, that
I think I land with it feeling great. I really
kind of enjoy the writing assignment of it, and I
think it's fun.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
I do you think the second verse, if I had
to give one one anti.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Chance he's listening.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
I know, we we love this the second the lyrics,
But I do have to say the second verse for
me is a little bit like we were dangling off
the edge of the cliff a little bit with the
with your aunt Louise, your brother Cliff, but also myself
and my mind and my eyes. You could tell my
eyes to watch out from my mind.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Is perfect. I think that's perfect. I have no notes.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
It is.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
It is because I've actually said that before.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
You do say that, you say that to last.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Yeah often, all right. You could tell my fist to
kiss your lips. You could tell.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
My thumb to tell my baby brother that I think
that the chances outside, and you guys say all right,
chancers say good night, come on, I could tell you
that baby cab
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Check
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