Podcasts about i fought

DOCKET ALERTS:   Washington Post opinion writer Karen Attiah, who was fired for her remarks after the death of Charlie Kirk, has been reinstated to her job after winning in arbitration.   Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook responded to Trump's latest effort to fire her by pointing out that multiple members of Trump's own cabinet made the same paperwork error she did on a mortgage application, and no one is accusing them of fraud.   Judge David Hittner, an 87-year-old Reagan appointee, struck down Texas's drag ban, finding that it would necessarily criminalize a lot of performances that are not obscene … including ones by Dolly Parton.   DOOFUS OF THE DAY:   Mike Lindell, the crackpot pillow pumper, lost his bid to be the Republican gubernatorial candidate in his home state of Minnesota. And he missed the deadline to pay for a recount. But he's not letting that stop him! He's suing everyone in sight demanding they surrender proof that the entire thing was rigged.   MAIN SHOW:   Florida Republicans are embroiled in a massive corruption scandal involving $10 million in taxpayer dollars for children's prescriptions, laundered through First Lady Casey Desantis's charity, and used for partisan political purposes, including defeating a marijuana legalization referendum. CBS in Miami got the grand jury report.   Judge Fernando Rodriguez, Jr. rebuffed Minnesota's motion to force Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to extradite ICE agent Christian Castro. Castro shot a man in Minneapolis and then lied about it, including filing a false police report. He was indicted in Minnesota, but Texas refuses to sign an extradition warrant, and now Castro has been released from jail.   Judge Cooper held a hearing today on the future of the Kennedy Center, after the board voted again to chisel Trump's name into the marble on the front of the place.   Judge Indira Talwani ordered the state plaintiffs to file an amended complaint in their effort to block the Trump administration seizing control of mail-in voting pursuant to Trump's executive order. Last week, the Supreme Court's conservatives blocked Judge Talwani's prior injunction on the theory that the states hadn't yet been harmed when they filed their original complaint.   SUBSCRIBER BONUS:   Update on Tuesday's hearing in our FOIA suit to get the evidence in the DOJ's ethics complaint against Judge Boasberg.   The Washington Post Fired Me. I Fought—and Won My Job Back. https://karenattiah.substack.com/p/the-washington-post-fired-me-i-foughtand   Extragrams LLC v. Paxton [TX drag ban] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67660604/extragrams-llc-v-paxton   Walz v. Abbott [S.D. Tex. extradition case; docket via CourtListener] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/74662182/walz-v-abbott/   Trump v. California [Supreme Court order re: voter lists EO] https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/26a124_hgci.pdf   League of Women Voters v. Trump [D. Mass. voter list case before Judge Talwani; docket via CourtListener] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73133197/league-of-women-voters-of-massachusetts-v-trump/   Grand jury finds DeSantis administration "misappropriated" $10 million in taxpayer money to Hope Florida https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/grand-jury-report-hope-florida/   Res Ipsa Media LLC v. DOJ https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71236135/res-ipsa-media-llc-v-department-of-justice/ Show Links: https://www.lawandchaospod.com/ BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPod Threads: @LawAndChaosPod Twitter: @LawAndChaosPod  

This week on Bad Dads Film Review, it is prison week — although with Riggs and Chris missing, Sidey and Dan are doing hard time as a two-man crew.Before the main feature, we look at memorable prisons and prison stories from film, TV and music. That means everything from miscarriage-of-justice anger to escape-movie comfort food, brutal borstal drama, wizard prisons, sitcom prisons and, naturally, George Clooney being offensively cool in Out of Sight.Along the way we discuss:In the Name of the Father and the fury of the Guildford Four injusticeThe Shawshank Redemption, new fish, Red, Andy Dufresne and the power of endless TV rewatchabilityThe Green Mile as another Stephen King prison classicBirdman of Alcatraz, Escape from Alcatraz and The Rockwhy Pete is missed whenever a Sean Connery impression is requiredBrubaker, with Robert Redford discovering prison corruption from the insidethe glorious stupidity of Prison Break and its tattooed escape-plan premiseScum, Midnight Express, Azkaban and The Great EscapeFolsom Prison Blues, Jailhouse Rock, I Fought the Law and John Lennon's Attica StatePorridge, HMP Slade and Fletcher trying to survive the system by wisecrackingEscape from Sobibor and the power of stories about people walking out through horrorOut of Sight, Glades Correctional Institution and the possibly illegal hotness of George ClooneyThen we review Sing Sing, directed by Greg Kwedar and starring Colman Domingo as John “Divine G” Whitfield. Inspired by the real Rehabilitation Through the Arts programme at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, the film follows a group of incarcerated men who use theatre to build community, process emotion and make something together in a place designed to strip people of freedom.The film opens with Divine G performing on stage. For a moment, it could be Broadway. Then the prison reality returns: standing to attention, routines, walls, control. That contrast becomes the film's central power. Inside the rehearsal room, the men are not reduced to their crimes or their sentences. They are actors, writers, collaborators, comedians and friends.A big part of the film's authenticity comes from the cast. Alongside professional actors like Domingo and Paul Raci, many performers are real RTA alumni and formerly incarcerated men playing versions of themselves. Sidey and Dan both pick up on how much that matters. The film feels lived-in because many of the faces on screen have lived some version of this world.The main dramatic spark comes when Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin joins the theatre group. He is guarded, tough and suspicious of vulnerability, but he is also the person who suggests the troupe should make a comedy instead of another serious drama. That choice leads to Breakin' the Mummy's Code, a real RTA production full of time travel, ancient Egypt, Hamlet and absolute chaos.Sidey had not heard of Sing Sing before this week and might not have watched it without the nomination, but he is very glad he did. Dan is just as positive. The dads admire the film's warmth, pace and humanity, and the way it avoids becoming either a grim prison misery parade or a simplistic “art fixes everything” story.It is moving, funny, generous and grounded — a prison film about performance, friendship, grief, justice and purpose.Strong recommend from both dads.You can now text us anonymously to leave feedback, suggest future content or simply hurl abuse at us. We'll read out any texts we receive on the show. Click here to try it out!We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com. Until next time, we remain... Bad Dads

Thanks for Listening to Skiba News Nation! BOBBY FULLER WAS MURDERED?! The Music Industry's Darkest Secret | EP. 160 Join @JeremiahSkiba & @Jaketohuman as they cover some MIND BLOWING TOPICS LIKE:

Steve King and Johnnie Putman are live in the WGN Skyline Studios on a rainy Lollapalooza Saturday night. Steve and Johnnie are joined by Ron Smith, Author of He Fought The Mob, his book about famed singer Bobby Fuller; best known for the hit song “I Fought the Law,” his hits and misses, links to […]

In the summer of 1924, five gold prospectors working a remote claim on the southeastern shoulder of Mount St. Helens came down off that mountain with a story nobody wanted to believe and almost nobody could forget. They claimed that a group of 7-foot, hair-covered creatures had laid siege to their cabin through the night, hurling boulders against the walls, tearing at the chinking between the logs, and reaching a massive arm through a window before the men drove it back with an axe.The men were Fred Beck, his son George, John Peterson, and 2 unrelated prospectors who shared the surname Smith, Marion and Roy. By the time they reached the little settlement of Cougar, the tale was already taking on a life of its own, and within days the Oregonian ran the headline that would echo for a century, "Ape Men Sought in Mt. St. Helens."This episode walks the whole thing from the ground up. We lay out the verifiable history first, the daylight sighting across the canyon, the 3 rifle shots Fred Beck swore struck one of the creatures and sent it tumbling into an inaccessible ravine, and the long night that followed back at the cabin.We cover the Forest Service investigation that came after, when rangers J. H. Huffman and William Welch hiked to the site, climbed down into that supposedly unreachable canyon, found no body and no blood, and then demonstrated how those 14-inch tracks could be faked by a man walking in his sock feet and twisting his heel in the soft dirt. Their conclusion was blunt. The men had probably spooked themselves, maybe seeded a few rocks near the cabin to dress up the tale, and let the dark and the isolation do the rest. And yet, as one writer put it decades later, people still wanted to believe, and the story refused to die.From there we move past the record and into the cabin itself, into a long-form dramatization built entirely on the facts as the men reported them. We imagine the weight of that first footprint pressed into the earth at dusk, the bar dropping across the door, the first rock hitting the roof just after midnight, and the slow, sickening realization that whatever was outside was working together, testing the walls, learning where the men were weakest. It is a reconstruction, not a transcript, and we are honest about that line. But every beat of it sits on something Beck himself described.We also follow the story forward in time, through Beck's 1967 booklet "I Fought the Apemen of Mt. St. Helens," where an aging man added a strange spiritual dimension to the account, suggesting the creatures could come and go as they pleased and were never entirely of this world. We talk about how the 1924 incident got folded into the Bigfoot phenomenon decades later, after Bluff Creek and the coining of the name itself, and how a narrow gorge on the mountain came to be called Ape Canyon as a permanent marker of the legend.And we close on the mountain as it stands now, its old cone blown open by the 1980 eruption that buried the cabin site forever, leaving the truth of that summer locked somewhere under the ash. You can take the rangers' side or you can take Beck's. What you cannot do, once you have heard it, is pretend the story doesn't get under your skin. As always, my read is a flesh-and-blood one. Whatever those men met on that mountain, I don't think it came from another dimension. I think it walked in on 2 legs, and I think it walked back out.Have you experienced a Bigfoot sighting, Sasquatch encounter, Dogman experience, UFO sighting, or any unexplained cryptid or paranormal event deep in the woods? We want to hear your story.Email your encounter to brian@paranormalworldproductions.com for a chance to be featured on a future episode of Backwoods Bigfoot Stories.Backwoods Bigfoot Stories is a paranormal storytelling podcast featuring real Bigfoot encounters, Sasquatch sightings, Dogman reports, cryptid experiences, and true scary stories from the backwoods.Follow the show and turn on automatic downloads so you never miss a chilling encounter from the forest. Listen with the lights off… if you dare.

n Week 4 of our I Fought the Law series, we explore a powerful truth: God's laws were never meant to imprison us—they were designed to protect us. Looking at the teachings of Paul, Peter, James, and John after Jesus' ascension, we discover that the moral standards they repeatedly emphasized were not about legalism, but about living within God's loving guardrails.Using the image of guardrails on a mountain road, this message examines how idolatry, sexual purity, pornography, gossip, slander, anger, and unforgiveness can create openings for the enemy, while obedience to God's Word provides protection and freedom. We also discuss how Christians are called to lovingly engage those who do not yet know Christ—leading with grace, relationship, and the gospel rather than condemnation.Ultimately, this sermon reminds us that the law points to the Lawgiver. God's boundaries are not signs of restriction but expressions of His love, wisdom, and desire to keep His people on the path of life.Key Scriptures: Ephesians 4:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, Matthew 5:28, Romans 2:4, Romans 8:1-4, 1 John 1:9#IFoughtTheLaw #LivingHopeChurch #BiblicalTruth #ChristianLiving #GodsGrace #Holiness #Discipleship #FaithInAction #SermonSeries #JesusChristWelcome to Living Hope Church! These podcasts are our weekly Sunday sermons. We hope you enjoy them.

In Part 3 of our "I Fought the Law" series, we explore one of the most important themes in the Christian life: repentance. Many people confuse repentance with feeling guilty, being sorry, or facing consequences, but true biblical repentance is much deeper. It is a change of heart that leads to a change of direction—turning away from sin and turning toward God.Through the stories of Cain, King David, Zacchaeus, and the Old Testament scapegoat, we see the difference between worldly sorrow and genuine repentance. Cain regretted the consequences of his actions but never turned back to God. David, after his sin with Bathsheba, humbled himself before the Lord and sought restoration. Zacchaeus demonstrated that true repentance produces visible fruit in a transformed life.We also examine the difference between sonship and fellowship. As believers, our failures do not remove us from God's family, but sin can affect our closeness and intimacy with Him. Through confession and repentance, fellowship is restored, and we experience once again the joy of walking with our Heavenly Father.Most importantly, we discover that Jesus is the fulfillment of everything the Law pointed toward. He became the ultimate sacrifice, carrying away our sin so that we can be forgiven, restored, and brought back into relationship with God.Key Scriptures: Leviticus 16:20-22, Matthew 3:1-3, Genesis 4:6-14, Psalm 51, Luke 19:1-10, 1 John 1:9Main Idea: Repentance is more than saying "I'm sorry." It is turning away from sin and turning toward God, finding forgiveness, restoration, and renewed fellowship through Jesus Christ.Welcome to Living Hope Church! These podcasts are our weekly Sunday sermons. We hope you enjoy them.

Send us Fan MailAngelo, Rhea, and Jay — and they're leading with a question nobody in late night wants to answer: what happens when you spend your final week trying to "kill it" instead of doing what made the show great? Stephen Colbert's finale gave Billy Crystal, Ben Stiller, and Robert De Niro thirty seconds each, closed with green screen gimmicks, and ended with an 83-year-old Paul McCartney — who can't hit the notes anymore — turning off the lights on 11 years of television. Angelo, who hosted for over 30 years, gets unexpectedly honest about the ending he wishes he'd had. The gang debates whether any live show has ever actually nailed its goodbye... and the answer might surprise you.THEN: The Mandalorian and Grogu opened to $100 million over Memorial Day weekend.  That makes it the lowest-grossing Star Wars debut in franchise history, and Jay, a lifelong fan, chose a Gordon Ramsay burger over buying a ticket. Meanwhile, a $1 million horror movie called Obsession has made $75 million on word-of-mouth alone, and Backrooms, made by a 20-year-old YouTube creator, is tracking for a $50 million opening. Is this the year audiences stop showing up for IP and start demanding good movies?ALL THAT PLUS: The FCC is threatening to reclassify The View as a news program, Rhea recommends I Fought the Law on PBS Masterpiece, Angelo brings Crime 101 on Amazon Prime, and much MUCH MORE!MAKE SURE TO VISIT OUR SPONSOR: Steven Singer Jewelers!The TV Show is a weekly podcast hosted by Jay Black, with regular guests Angelo Cataldi and Rhea Hughes. Each week, we dive into the new Golden Age of Television, with a discussion of the latest shows and news.AskSonnet 4.6

This Pentecost Sunday message continues the “I Fought the Law” series by exploring the purpose of God's law, the danger of self-righteousness, and the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit. Through Scripture, real-life examples, and the story of Pentecost in Acts 2, we are reminded that we were never meant to earn God's favor through bargaining or perfection. Instead, Jesus fulfilled the law and gave us the Holy Spirit to guide, convict, comfort, and transform us from the inside out. This sermon challenges believers to stop making deals with God, reject pride and performance-based faith, and fully surrender to the leading of the Holy Spirit.Welcome to Living Hope Church! These podcasts are our weekly Sunday sermons. We hope you enjoy them.

In the first message of our new series, I Fought the Law, Pastor Bill explores the purpose of God's law and why Jesus is its ultimate fulfillment. Through Scripture, history, and powerful real-life stories, this sermon examines how the law reveals God's character, exposes the condition of our hearts, and shows us our need for grace. Jesus raises the standard beyond outward actions to the thoughts and intentions within us, proving that no one can earn salvation on their own. From the remorse of Judas to the restoration of Peter and the salvation of the thief on the cross, this message reminds us that while the law exposes sin, Jesus offers forgiveness, redemption, and unmerited grace to all who turn to Him.Welcome to Living Hope Church! These podcasts are our weekly Sunday sermons. We hope you enjoy them.

Nil Moliner se une al festival de festivales pop. Todo sobre FUTTTURA Tour de Tini en España. En LOS40 Classic, De canción olvidada a patrimonio del punk: Así fue el viaje de ‘I Fought the Law'. Esta semana: Nos preparamos para el nuevo disco de Harry Styles, 'La Insurrección Tour' de Dani Fernández y un nuevo episodio de 'CARA C'.

Our guest is actor Bryony Corrigan, a core member of Mischief Theatre and one of British comedy's most recognisable faces. She's brought joyful chaos to audiences around the world in the hit Goes Wrong productions, including Peter Pan Goes Wrong, A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong, Groan-Ups, and The Goes Wrong Show. Her improv brilliance has also shone in Mischief Movie Night In, which streamed globally to huge acclaim.Beyond Mischief, Bryony's screen credits include Good Omens, Holby City, Inspector George Gently, The Walk-In, My Lady Jane, and I Fought the Law. In 2024, she received What's On Stage and UK Theatre Award nominations for her powerful performance as Katie in I, Daniel Blake, confirming her range and reputation as one of the most exciting talents in British theatre today.Subscribe to the Fit2 Perform Podcast for more conversations with incredible guests from stage and screen.For inquiries or feedback, email talk@fit-2.co.uk.

Christian College Sex Comedy: Part 4 Kung Fu Fighting In 30 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the podcast at Explicit Novels.             Giving can make you richer while keeping leaves you only with what you have   Somewhere along the line the burn in my thighs and arms began to register with my hormone-stoked mind but the fires of lust kept me standing and humping. I was beginning to think I'd crash to the floor when Leigh's face lit up with passion and fear. "Put me down, Zane, put me down," she urged quietly. It took me a second to register the request and another to start maneuvering so that I could disconnect us, but that turned out to be a moment too long. Leigh hadn't been in pain; she had been on the verge of orgasm, and my jolts were the final straw. Leigh screamed loudly and in a way that could not be confused with anything but a woman coming to fruition. "Zane!!!!" she howled in a wall-shaking sonic explosion. Damn, she had to use my name, didn't she? We spun around and collapsed on the bed, Leigh on top for the nonce. She was still going off so I figured 'what the hell' and rolled over on top of her and went back to pounding away. Leigh's head was thrashing from side to side violently while her body trembled with the aftershocks of her detonation. "Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck ,  harder," she rasped out. As Leigh looked at me hungrily and began tearing kisses from me with bestial fury, I was beginning to think I'd short-circuited her higher brain functions. Her motor control skills were a function above par as her tongue, fingers, and cunt could attest. "Oh damn," she gasped, "oh fuck, oh damn ,  ah, ah, ah, ah , . Ah Fuck!" she groaned out before screaming her lungs off, shouting out my name again. She was driving her pelvis up against me, clawing at my shoulders and back, and kissing the hell out of me yet I still couldn't come. Leigh's eyes blinked then focused on me. "Are you trying to kill me?" she panted. I shook my head. "Why haven't you come?" she tried next. I had no good answer to that but Leigh rolled me over and started a slow but accelerating bounce, Cowgirl style. "I'm going to make you cum, you Bastard," she grinned ferociously. I admire a girl who likes a challenge but seriously, Leigh had seemed like such a sweet girl. "I'm going to own you, Zane Braxton," she growled as she continued to rock my world. "You can fuck the rest but you are coming home with me," she declared. Huh? Where did that come from? "Make me your bitch!" Ex-squeeze me? "Leigh?" called a worried female voice from outside the door, accompanied by a sharp knock. In a life approaching normalcy, this would be the point where we wrapped up in the sheets before the door opened; unfortunately, I was in Crazy Town. Leigh kept pounding me hard enough to make the bedsprings squeak. "Oh, God," gawked a fellow sorority sister as she opened the door and looked inside. "I , had nothing that came to mind that would obfuscate the situation. "He is so fucking good," gloated Leigh as she kept riding me. Her 'sister' stepped into the room and shut the door. "Hey, can I get up now?" I inquired. "No!" they both shouted at me. "You need to keep it down," the newcomer insisted. "They can hear you over the music by the pool," which meant they could hear Leigh, not me. With her message delivered I would have expected the second lady to leave but she didn't. Trying to change things up, I grabbed both of Leigh's wrists and pushed them behind her back. Leigh toppled forward allowing me to push her arms together and grip them in one of my hands. I used my now free hand to bring one of her breasts to my mouth and I took a nibble. "Make me scream," she begged. Been there, done that, been warned from doing that again. "You," I addressed the as-of-yet-unnamed sorority sister, "get me the sash from her bathrobe and her pillowcase." She looked at me with confusion. "Do it!" We kept going at it like wild animals until the girl came back with the sash and shook the pillow free from the pillowcase. "Here you are. What do you want me to do with this? And by the way, I'm Paris," she got out. "Paris, bind her hands behind her back with the belt," I instructed. Paris looked skeptical. "What about the pillowcase?" she questioned. "I'm going to gag her with it," I explained. Leigh looked frightfully turned on by the prospect. "I'm not sure about this," Paris worried. "Do it and then you can join us," Leigh offered; Paris almost bound my hand to Leigh's wrists, she was moving so fast. Paris gave me the pillowcase and I held it up for Leigh to bite down on which she promptly did allowing me to tie it behind her head. If nothing else, this was a learning experience for having fun with Barbie Lynn later. "What do I do?" Paris asked eagerly. "Strip," I commanded. As she was doing so I pulled Leigh off and positioned her at the head of the bed, face down and knees propped up on her pillow. Paris came to me; I pulled her into my lap and we started kissing. First Leigh growled in frustration, then she started groaning in arousal as Paris and I got into it. When I felt Paris was ready I bent her over and directed her toward Leigh's rear end. "What?" Paris wondered. "Taste her," I told Paris. She leaned forward and gave Leigh's cunt a good solid kiss, followed by a lick as Leigh moaned in response. Paris put a hand on each of Leigh's buttocks as a prelude to diving into her sister's favors. They developed a back and forth vocalization as Paris pushed Leigh forward before rebounding back. That part of the threesome off to a rocking start, I took an identical place behind Paris. She shuddered and spread her legs a little wider as I took my first taste of her. "Umm , she exhaled as I went from teasing her lips to dipping my tongue into her depths and twisting it among her folds, inserting a finger into her cunt just below. The clitoris came next, followed by slowly darting my tongue toward her anus. "Ah ,  wow," she moaned as I first touched it. When I went back down she actually twitched her ass and tried to lower herself down to catch my action. Ahead of me I could hear Leigh starting to go off again, muffled somewhat by her gag. Paris was preoccupied so I figured it was an opportune time to kneel behind her and insert my cock into her nicely snug cunt; for a moment I was afraid she was a virgin. I tried to moderate my progress into her but when I passed the halfway mark, Paris shoved her ass back against me. "Ugh ,  ah ,  that's ,  fantastic," Paris moaned as I flexed my member inside her cunt. Leigh mumbled something that I assumed was in the affirmative. A series of pushes and shoves were getting us into a good cadence to the point I finally felt my gut beginning to tense in preparation of my own climax; then the door opened. "Zane," Tawny stated with steely resolve. Both Leigh and Paris separated and rolled to their sides, staring warily at their Sorority President. I was sort of left on my knees with my pecker at attention. "I told you," Christina retorted smugly to Tawny, as if I was some prized pet. "Thirty-three minutes," Tawny noted on her watch. "It took him thirty-three minutes to bed two of my girls. That has to be some kind of World record." I had to think fast. "It's all my fault. I fell into the pool, pulling Leigh in with me, and when Paris showed up, I fumbled through. ", She fell into bed with you while simultaneously losing all her clothing as well?" Tawny taunted me. "That explanation works for me," I shyly agreed. "Zane, why is Leigh tied up and gagged?" Christina noted. "Rumor has it that Leigh is a screamer," Tawny informed Christina. "Oh, I think we can chalk that rumor down as confirmed," Christina smiled. "Can we get dressed and forget this ever happened?" I suggested. "The girls can get dressed, Zane, but what are you going to wear?" Tawny smirked as she kicked my pile of wet clothes. "Leigh, why don't you go over to Zane's place and ask his Aunt to give you a fresh set of clothes," Christina asked. Paris was rapidly getting redressed but when I crawled around her to free Leigh's hands she turned on me, pressed me to the mattress and gave me a serious oral assault. Leigh removed her gag, Paris sat up to resume dressing, and then Leigh took her turn kissing me before I could rise. "Enough," snapped Tawny to her two horny sorority sisters. Soon enough both ladies had left, but not before Leigh turned and mouthed 'catch you later' to me; I was left trying to decide if that was a promise or a threat. "Do I get something to wear now?" I pleaded. "No," Tawny responded, taking a seat at Leigh's desk and looking me over. Christina came over and sat at the head of the bed (I was still down by the foot). "So, Zane," Tawny mused, "does this happen to you often?" "No, well, actually, yes," I muttered in embarrassment, "though this is my first three-way since coming back to the States." "We could have another one right now," Christina stated, her voice husky with desire as she reached for my hand. I'm not sure what look of surprise/horror must have come over my face because both Christina and Tawny burst out laughing. "At least you don't assume you are 'all that,'" Tawny chuckled. "Oh, he has his egotistical moments," Christina informed her, "isn't that right, Zane?" I took that moment to cover my crotch with Leigh's pillow, which seemed only polite. Tawny waved her hand majestically. "Huh?" I wondered, which only had her make the same dismissive wave with her hand. "You have got to be kidding me?" Tawny looked to Christina who nodded her assent. "I, the protest began but I realized it was pointless so I removed the pillow exposing my still hard and as yet unrelieved cock. "To answer Christina's earlier question, I do have my moments but I think most of Christina's problems with me relate to the fact that I'm going to put her through a moral realignment," I related. "Oh?" Tawny looked surprised. "Do tell." "You saw that girl with more metal than sense that came in with us? Zane has gotten it into his head that he needs to defend her," Christina explained. "She deserves a chance here just like everyone else," I countered. "She's a thief, drug user, vandal, and generally violent to those around her; she's a felon," Christina lectured me. "You used to wear diapers; do I call you a bed-wetter?" I lashed back, followed by a moment of silence. "I see what you mean, Christina; he's very defensive of her. She must be pretty good in bed," Tawny observed. "As far as I know, they've never slept together; they are only friends," Christina informed her. "That's charming," Tawny remarked softly. "I found it quite grating at first but I confess his attitude has grown on me," Christina admitted. "You would think that given his living circumstances, he'd be more self-centered, " "Or gay," Tawny finished. "Don't you have boyfriends you should be meeting, or discovering?" I questioned. "I'm happy where I am," Christina answered. "Me too," Tawny added. I got up and headed for the door when Tawny stopped me. "Where do you think you are going?" "I need a wash cloth," I answered. "I'm a bit of a mess," I indicated my cock with a flicker of my eyes. Of course, my sneaking down the hall, naked, in the middle of a party would cause its own problems. "I'll take care of that," Tawny grinned. I had this sudden vision of Tawny going down on her knees and cleaning my cock with her lips and tongue but in reality, she headed to the door, called over a sister, and sent her on the errand. I flopped back on the bed with a sigh then let my eyes wander around the room. They came to rest on Christina who was studying me. I leaned over, propped myself up on my tortured knees and leaned in to kiss her because it was something I wanted to do since I first met her. "No," she responded. I kept leaning in until she raised a finger to my lips to stop my progress. "No," she repeated, but a playful fire danced in her eyes. I stopped and rocked back onto my ass. Tawny had watched the exchange with interest and now came off the chair and stood before me. I was looking into the cleavage of her burgundy shirt and nice, if not Barbie-licous, tits. I rose up, put my hands on her elbows, and started to pull her toward me but she shook her head. Tawny took my hands, untangled them from my hold on her, and pressed them behind my back. This has the unwelcome effect of propelling her pubic area onto my over-eager cock. I had the strangest feeling Rio had scrawled 'Lil Bitch' on my forehead with red lipstick because I was being freaking abused by these two. She drew me into a kiss that rolled into another like waves crashing upon the beach. By the end we were both panting, our bodies pressed tightly together. Tawny rested her head against my chin (she's tall with heels) and looked upon Christina. "Aren't you worried about someone taking him away?" she teased her fellow Alpha female. "He'll be there when I want him," Christina stated smugly. "I think we need to clarify our relationship," I mutter to Christina through Tawny's hair. "I was leaning more toward making you my sex toy and keeping you in my basement." "Truly, Zane, would you ever restrain me?" Christina asks seductively. "Physically or emotionally?" I ask. "Emotionally," she answered. "No. I could never do that to you, Christina. It would kill you inside," I respond truthfully. "See?" Christina told Tawny, "He loves me." Tawny's reaction is not what I expected. She turned back so that our eyes are only inches apart. "If you ever need help getting over that heartache, you know where to come," she breathed into me. "Ah, thank you?" I managed to get out. A girl knocked on the door, breaking our embrace as Tawny had to go to the door and get my wash cloth and towel. By the time I was done Leigh had come back breathless with a fresh set of clothes for me. While I got dressed Tawny and Christina left, dragging Leigh along with them. I hadn't been here an hour but I already felt like I'd been through three rounds of a prize fight. Reaching Heaven Sliding through the halls I ended up near the game room when someone backed into me. It was Heaven being aggressively advanced on by a tall, slender guy in an AKA jacket, so I side-stepped Heaven and placed an arm around her waist. Heaven's head flashed toward me first in anger, then in surprise. "Hey, Heaven," I greeted her, and since she was still looking at me, I kissed her lightly on the lips. Fortunately, Heaven actually managed to look grateful for the intervention but things weren't over yet. "Hey, buddy," the guy smiled with not a hint of friendliness as he pushed my chest, "I'm working here." "Hey, buddy," I grinned right back, "she came here with me." "Ha," he snorted, "this is an AKA, Kappa Sig function. If you crash the party, you should expect to share," as if my ladies were a candy bar or a pack of gum. As he spoke, he reached for Heaven's arm to pull her away but I caught his wrist. "We were invited too so you should back off and find someone else more appreciative of your charms," I warned him. He shook his wrist free and gave us an evil grin as he backed off. "She's not worth it," he sneered. "Loser," Heaven shot right back, giving him a palpable slap to his ego. I caught sight of Chastity watching the whole exchange, giving me a quick nod before feigning attention for a blonde, buff AKA brother; Heaven had another guardian but I'd interfered before she'd come into play. "Zane, you can let go of me now," Heaven muttered. "No. You have to kiss me first," I whispered into her ear. "Not going to happen," Heaven declared softly. I waited for her to shrug me off but she didn't. "Do you want to go out back?" I asked. "No," was her monosyllabic response. "Listen, we can go outside and have a good time, or I can take you upstairs and fuck your ass until, I whispered into her ear ", you beg me to stop." "I'm not afraid of you," she defied me, at which point I steered her to the stairs heading up. We found the linen closet open and unoccupied so we slipped in, shut the door, and turned off the light so the only illumination came from the slats in the door. I pressed Heaven's back against the wall and dove into her tasty lips. Heaven responded hungrily, wrapping her arms around my neck and running her hands through my hair. I had to remind myself that this woman had been painfully cruel to me on multiple occasions. "Thank you, Zane," Heaven whispered up to me, her dark eyes glimmering in the pale light seeping in from the door. I decided to not ask what she was thanking me for. "You aren't trying to get out of having sex with me, are you?" I taunted her back. My first instinct was to force her to turn around facing the wall and having my way with her, there was still a bit of lingering hate on my part going on but, "Turn around," I requested. Seeing her hesitation,  "I really want you right now." "Oh," she exhaled, then she giggled and turned around, taking little steps and rubbing against me. "Let me know what you like," I whispered into her ear. I let my hands coast along her throat until my fingertips touched, then I withdrew them back around and down her shoulders. I felt a slight flutter course through Heaven before I worked down her back to linger at her ass. I knelt behind Heaven and began massaging each cheek in turn, moving them together then pulling them apart. I kept the massage going for two minutes before Heaven began slipping her high heels farther apart and pushing back against me. I let my hands slide down to the bottom of her short red dress, then began hiking it up to the small of her back. She had on a thong which I imagined made strapping down her own cock a little difficult. I kissed her left cheek first; Heaven trembled so I kissed the other, inducing a tiny moan. I rested my hands on her hips and pulled her back into my kiss, swiveling her hips sensually around so that I could bring them to my lips. In the dim light I could see Heaven ball up her fists and claw the wall in sexual tension. I pulled her ass floss aside and began to dart my tongue from the top of her ass and working my way down. Heaven pushed up on her toes eagerly, trying to move my tongue to her anus. "Do you want me to stop?" I asked her. "Stop and I'll beat you back into high school," she growled in a throaty voice. I'm not sure how hard you would have to stomp someone to beat them back a whole school year but I definitely decided to not find out. I began slowly probing her ass with my tongue, occasionally licking up to the cleft and down to the cloth covering her balls. "Ugh, ugh, ugh, ah, ah, ah, ah," Heaven panted. "Oh, yes, fuck yeah, right there," she went on and on. I sneaked a hand between her legs and brought it up subtly to her contained cock and began to rub it, causing her to jolt, clench her teeth, and stifle a yelp. "Am I better than Christina?" I asked. Heaven shimmied in agitation before responding. "No, but you are good," she allowed. I answered that with a finger coming up and pressing into her ass. I alternated between tongue and finger until she was good and slick. I stood up, unzipped my pants, and pulled them down with my underwear. "I hope you are ready," I informed her, with my need evident as my cock came free and rubbed up between her ass cheeks. Heaven started trying to reposition herself to capture me inside her. "Are you going to make me your lover?" I whispered into her ear. "Shut up," she gasped back. I drew back even as she pushed up as far as she could go and tried to wiggle her asshole onto my cock. "I don't want this to be some random fuck, Heaven. I want to do this again. Make me your lover," I repeated. Heaven groaned loudly. "No," she choked back a sob. I pressed the tip of my cock against her opening and she responded by slowly pushing against me. "I, I'm, Zane, I'm, she whimpered with self-doubt. "You are beautiful," I told her softly. "Ah, she gasped as her resistance collapsed and my prodding head popped in. "Zane," she purred, "so good." I was sure it was painful but Heaven wouldn't show it. "Make me your lover," I said yet again as I slid a bit more of me into her rectum. "No," she moaned, so I stopped myself and held us there. "Don't pull out," she begged. "I'm not going to," I promised her, "but say it anyway." "You are my lover," she whispered. "You are my lover," she repeated a little louder. "Now tell me you're my bitch," I taunted her. "You are my bitch," she teased me right back between sobs of pleasure. "I'll take that," I told her, before nibbling on her earlobe. I kept tantalizing he ear, neck, and shoulder as I let her gently adjust to my cock as it entered her. "Oh, God," she exhaled softly, "is there more?" "Yes, but you are over half way," I calmed her. "We'll take it easy." "Oh, oh, oh, God, fill me up, you bastard," she panted. "I can take it, oh, God, I can take it." She was psyching up for the extreme sensations she was going through. She wasn't losing her anal virginity; she was losing it again but in her way, on her terms. I slowed my entrance when I heard her choked sobs. I pressed down on her until my head was beside hers. It was left unspoken that I was here if she needed to express herself. "Ah, ah, ah, ah, then she noticed how I was positioned and she fell silent for a moment. "Zane, I'm, okay." "Damn, Heaven, you are so sexy right now," I groaned, "so damn tight." "Fuck me like you mean it," she replied, "like I'm your woman." "I'm not all the way in yet," I cautioned her. "Oh, well, get to it. I, I can take it," she ground out somewhat fearfully. "Promises, promises," I playfully scolded her, accentuated by short jabs deeper into her ass. "Oh, fuck you," she gasped. "I can, I can do this, I can do this, oh, God." On the last 'oh God,' I finally pressed as tightly to her ass as I could and settled there. We remained locked together until Heaven reached back and ran her fingers through my hair. "I'm ready," she whispered to me. "Heaven, I'm going to do what I promised; I'm going to fuck you until you can no longer stand," I reminded her. "You don't, have, what it takes, freshman. Give it, your, best shot," she panted. I didn't rush to her challenge right away, taking it nice and slow at first. My cock withdrew until my cockhead was at the point it distended her anus. "Ah, perfect," she whimpered and started to tremble uncontrollably. I started returning to her, letting her vibrations rise and crash as I made my way back down. On that last inch down Heaven suddenly pushed back against me and cried out, "Yes!" This made me smile. Sex is good, but sex when your partner is totally into the sex is fantastic. It still baffled me that people would want to use sex as pain, to punish. It is like cooking a five-course meal and eating the ashes of your campfire instead. I moved my hands from her hips to her breasts, caressing them as I repeated the process of receding then plunging in deep. Heaven reacted by thrusting my cock home and grunting from her gut as she did so. Our pace and tempo increased until I was slamming her hard, the sweat on her ass and my thighs enhancing the 'slap, slap' as we went at it. Heaven shuddered, then she desperately reached out and fumbled among the towels. A hand towel came flying my way and I noticed she grabbed another one and began shoving it between her legs, she was about to orgasm. "Don't let me scream," she hissed. Since one hand was down below and the other was keeping me from pumping her through the wall, I figured she wanted to be muffled. I got there right on time as Heaven made seven sharp intakes of breath then cried out. I reveled in her anal ring spasms around me, the heat of her body burning my cock with her intensity. When Heaven began to slump as she coasted down from her high I released her breast and wrapped an arm around her waist and held her against me. Heaven's knees wobbled but she didn't fall so it was time to turn up the screws. "Round two, Heaven," I warned her as I picked up my piston-like motion once again and released the towel on her shoulder. "Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, you bastard," she gasped. Now I rested my hands on her hips once more to maintain our rhythm. I could feel Heaven struggling to keep up her breathing with her diaphragm constantly disrupted by her sexual aftershocks. My pounding into her weak flesh caused her tight, firm ass to ripple and brought forth more animalistic noises from Heaven. "What a great piece of ass," I praised her. "I want you, Heaven, and I'm not going to stop loving your body until you can't take it anymore." "Fuck you, oh, yes, God,  God yes, I'm, and I muffled her once again as the second eruption came quickly after the first. I remained merciless in my assault, to the point I had pushed her fully against the wall, still on the tips of her toes. I wouldn't stop; I felt this was a challenge we should both meet. "Ah, Zane, tell me, you, love me," Heaven wheezed. "I love you, Heaven. You feel so right in my arms," I gasped. She sighed lustfully and I kept thrusting. "I, I can't take anymore," she begged with bated breath. "I want to hear you say that you surrender to me," I growled as I let my cock reach its farthest penetration, then gave one might shove entering new territory. Heaven's mind and body collapsed at that moment. She hit her orgasm as she lost total emotional and physical control. She was flopping against me until she retreated from her third climax and she was pretty much at my mercy. I pulled her off me, slowly rolled her over on the wall and let her slide down. Heaven's crotch was covered with a towel. I stepped forward with my cock pressing toward her face. "Suck it," I demanded of Heaven. She looked up at me defiantly, then to my cock with fatigued breaths. My cock had just come out of her ass and here it was within tongue's reach of her lips. Heaven looked over her options and right at the point I was sure she would refuse, two trembling hands rose up and took hold of my shaft and balls. Her tongue licked the tip of my cock; Heaven judged the taste and she went back down to take in more of my cock. One hand stroked the staff while the other began massaging my balls. After several efforts to swallow most of my chock she started talking. "You Bastard," she gulped. "Next time cum in my ass, but right now I'm thirsty." I took my hands to her head and began fucking her face at a steady pace. Heaven pressed her hands against my thighs to stop me then started bobbing her head instead. She wasn't the best yet but she was improving wonderfully, learning more patience as well as becoming a better judge of my reactions to what she was doing. Gobbling and slurping noises followed as her uncertainty faded and she began to bask in the power she had over me. "Ready to cum, Zane?" she said with a sloppy wet smile. I nodded vigorously. "I'm not done with you yet," she laughed, "so you had better keep it together." "Crap," I gasped, as she took in more of me than previously done. She let my cockhead rub against the back of her mouth repeatedly before finally pushing it past her gag reflex. She couldn't do it for long but she kept at it until I couldn't take the throat contractions anymore. "Cumming," I gasped. Heaven grabbed my ass cheeks and pulled me in as far as she dared. She didn't press her nose to my stomach but she came close. I grabbed her head and began shooting off into her throat. Heaven choked and sputtered, drinking me down in several gulps. She ran her tongue along my shaft as she languidly withdrew me to her lips. She sealed her blowjob with a final kiss and lick to my head, catching that last drop of semen. Heaven slumped against the wall panting heavily, licking her lips and letting her hands fall to her lap. Kung Fu Fighting "Is this what it is like?" she whispered more to herself than me. I lifted her up onto her shaky legs and pulled her tightly to my chest. "No, she muttered, but then her tone changed and she wrapped her arms around my waist, "Fuck it," she sighed, and put her head on my chest. "I can hear your heartbeat," she commented. "Your breath against my chest feels pretty good too," I whispered to her. "Let's get dressed," she responded after a moment. "We should get back to the party." "I hate you," Heaven declared as we were cleaning up. "Why?" I wondered. Had I accomplished nothing? "You are fun," she snapped, as if she was declaring me to be a Satanist. "That is a bad thing?" I questioned. "Yes, no, damn it, I want to spend time with you and that's not right," she explained desperately. Seeing that her message wasn't getting through, "You are a man," she added. "I have no idea what you have against my gender but can't you take a chance and believe that I'm not like other men who have been in your life?" I suggested. "See, that is why you are bad for me," she sounded exasperated. "I want to believe you and I know you only want me for the sex." "Yes, absolutely; I want to have sex with you. Heaven, you are a terribly attractive woman and what is wrong with wanting to make love to you?" I countered. That brought her up short as she looked deeply into my eyes. "Zane, I'm not a woman; I'm a guy," Heaven whispered. "Did we just make love?" I reposed. I could see her struggle with that and then I knew; she'd been fucked and used like some, piece of meat but a man had never made love to her until now. "Yes, Zane, yes, we did," she said softly. "We made love." "Good, because I'd like to do it again. Can I expect to see you once a month?" I requested. "Once a month," Heaven told me with a sweet smile on her face, "I'm far hungrier than that." "We may have to work something out with Barbie Lynn," I pointed out. "Barbie Lynn can kiss my ass," Heaven declared, and to emphasize her point, she grabbed my cock through my pants, saying "Mine!" with a shark-like snarl. "Weren't you kicking my ribs in three days ago?" I reminded her. "Oh, don't be a wimp," she snapped, but like lightning flashing across the horizon, she changed tack. "I promise I'll make it up to you," she moaned as she rubbed her body against me. "I'd like for you to make it up to Rio too," I hinted. "Hell, no!" Heaven growled. "There is no way I'm going to fuck Rio." "Damn right; if Rio knew she was going to have sex with you, she'd go out and buy the biggest strap-on possible and you wouldn't walk straight for a week," I nodded. "You would like to see that, wouldn't you?" she suspiciously accused me. "No. That would hurt like a bitch and I don't want to walk funny for a week," I replied straight-faced. For a millisecond Heaven got angry, then she let it bleed away and laughed instead. Maybe Rio taking my ass with a dildo was something Heaven found amusing. "Fine, Joker. Let's get back to the party before Christina realizes I'm missing," Heaven told me. "Turn around," I asked her. Heaven glared at me then rolled her eyes in mock disgust, turned around, and thrust her ass back. I leaned down and bit each cheek once more. I was rewarded with another sharp intake of breath by Heaven which she attempted to hide. "Can't get enough?" she purred while looking at me over her shoulder and smiling. Heaven was clearly enjoying herself, which was kind of neat, but I didn't want her getting too cocky. I stood and spanked her hard on the ass causing her to jump. "Ow!" she got out before I took her jaw in hand and kissed her. Our tongues wrestled and entwined deeply before we separated and made for the door. We stepped out to mild applause from a gathering of eavesdroppers before making it to the stairs. Out of the blue, Heaven reached out and interlaced her fingers in mine as if it was the most normal thing in the world. As we walked into the kitchen Hope detached herself from some guy who was busier staring at the cleavage of her strapless white dress than actual conversation. "Where have you guys, oh, my God," she giggled as she looked into Heaven's blushing face. "Shit, Zane, how many girls do you plan to nail tonight?" "It's not like I have some Grand Plan, Hope," I shrugged helplessly. "When is my turn?" Hope joked as the guy she'd been talking to came up. Heaven gripped my arm tighter but I had the feeling that had more to do with Hope's comment. "October twenty-second at eight-thirty," I tossed back to her. Hope smiled at us before pulling Heaven to her. "Let Zane go for a while," she told Heaven softly. "We know where he lives ,  and where he sleeps." Together, the two ladies turned to face the 'guy', allowing me to head out in search of Iona. Oh, So This is How I Got Here I found Iona corned by some dark-haired stocky man against the bar. Iona had 'victim' written all over her face and he was coming across as a pit bull with the scent of blood. "Zane!" Iona squeaked as she forced herself past him and into my arms. "Hey, Babe," I responded with real affection, stroking her hair gently for emphasis. "I told you my boyfriend was coming for me," Iona told the AKA man scowling at me. He skulked off for greener pastures and Iona wrapped her arms around my waist. "I prayed you'd come back for me. You left me and I couldn't find you," she pleaded. "Iona, why didn't you simply text me using '911'?" I questioned her. "I'd have come running." Iona, our tech-genius, blushed in embarrassment at my simple suggestion to her dilemma. "Oh, yeah, I could have done that," she mumbled. We spent several minutes rocking slowly to the music, Iona pressing with her back to me and my arms around her. "I have to go to the bathroom," she told me quietly. "Come with me?" "Girl's bathroom, here we come," I smiled down at her. We made our way to the middle of the house to one of two lower bathrooms, this one devoted to girls for the night. As Iona gave me a quick, shy grin and disappeared behind the door, I realized some asshole was giving me the once over. It was the AKA who had been scoping out Heaven. I met his glare until he turned away and left. Cappadocia gave me a friendly bump as she slipped past me and went into the bathroom as well. "Oh, Zane, giggled Cappy, mimicking Leigh's earlier outburst which led me to groan and slump against the wall. Iona came out and beamed with pleasure, maybe dreading that I would have abandoned her again. Something caught her eye that caused that smile to fade into concern. I looked her way and saw the pit bull, and he'd gained a buddy. Fortunately, the hall ran both ways so I took Iona by the arm and turned to go the other direction, where I saw Heaven's old beau and he'd grown two AKA clones. With pain so imminent on the horizon I had to wonder if I'd been such a total bastard. "Get help," I hissed to Iona before pushing her away from me. I moved so my back was to the bathroom door. "Zane-boy," mocked the Heaven guy, "let's go out back and talk." "No, thanks," I smiled, "I may be a horny fucker but you are too much of a cunt for me." As you might guess, that didn't go over well. I weighed my responses and decided my best option was to drag things out until a few FFU ladies could come to my rescue so I let them grab hold of me. What I had underestimated was their sense of entitlement. They didn't feel the need to hide my beat-down. They shoved me through the girl's bathroom door and poured in after me, ready for an immediate infliction of my punishment. The one silver lining was that they'd thrown the first punch so I was free to lash out. I kicked the first guy coming for me, knocking him back into the wall beside the door. I snaked a punch past the second man's guard but then they overwhelmed me and slammed me into the far wall. I blocked with my thighs and forearms until they pinned my arms, then the body blows began. "Hold him up," the Heaven butthole growled to his buddies, "I'm going to kick his ass." "Since your fist is as tiny as your cock, that's hardly a threat," I gasped. My dumb comment earned me a crunching blow to the ribs. Right then, the stall beside us opened up revealing Cappadocia as she stepped out. "Get out of here, bitch," the guy closest to her snapped. Cappadocia had a moment to assess the situation. "I kick ass for the Lord," she stated clearly. "Huh?" the guy had just enough time to say before Cappadocia's spin-kick caught him along his jaw line, slammed his face into the tiled wall, and re-arranged his dental work. At the same time, my main assailant hammered me again but Cappadocia rapidly became a primary diversion. It was a real pity; they should have been watching the door because Heaven came storming through and kidney punched the first (non-me) bastard she came across. A third guy managed to raise his arms fast enough to partially deflect Cappadocia's next punch. As they released me, I slumped half-way down the wall before Heaven's bastard launched another kick at me. I was able to block it with my arms. He hauled back again with a snarl on his face when Heaven blazed up behind him, grabbed the back of his head, and pummeled it into the wall. Heaven spun around as Cappadocia yanked me up. Against us, the last three AKA were gathering themselves for our rush. Another frat-boy opened the door. "Guys, is everything, he began before Rio smashed that nice looking vase I'd last seen in the entryway over the man's head. The guy staggered and fell to one knee so Rio kicked him in his ass and sent him sprawling on the floor. Before she could get off more than one war-whoop, yet another AKA yanked her into the hall. Heaven was fierce and I knew Cappadocia could fight but I was far less certain of how well Rio could defend herself; we charged. Now, please understand that FFU does not turn out super-commandos. It stresses physical fitness and discipline but that doesn't overcome the basic advantage of height, weight and reach of the average AKA brother. Add to that, we were outnumbered two to one and things were looking bad. One unforeseen advantage we possessed was that if you were FFU, every guy was the enemy (some were still a little conflicted by my existence). The same did not hold true for Alpha Kappa Alpha. Nearly half the girls were Kappa Sigma. All it really took was Iona being a smart little camper. Iona found Christina and Tawny and rapidly brought them up to speed with the crisis. Christina quickly moved to get her girls out while Tawny rallied her troops to break up the fight. It was inevitable that some confused AKA punched out a Kappa Sig, at which point chaos broke out. In the midst of this, Rio and I bolted for the back in order to gather all the girls in the back of the house. Heaven and Cappadocia did the same, heading up to the front. The plan was, we'd make for my house with as many as we could gather. With some effort I made it out the back gate with eight of my ladies and we ran for the wood line separating the properties. As we broke through into view of Aunt Jill's house, we ran into Christina and the rest of our expedition. A quick check showed that though we were bloody and torn, we were all accounted for. The look Christina gave me was scathing and I accepted it with shame because I'd promised my school mates a fun time, not a melee. I was figuring this was the end when Heaven came up and took my hand, smiling up at me. "That was fun," she laughed. Charity, Faith, and Hope nodded, along with more than half of the other girls. "What the fuck?" I muttered. Rio laughed and slapped me on the back. "Just like old times, minus the gunshots and sirens," Rio declared ecstatically. On cue, the sirens began in the distance. As we raced to the house, Heaven couldn't stop grinning like a maniac "Damn it, Zane, you stapled a smile to her face," Christina glowered at me once we got inside and, with the quartet, we separated from the rest. "You fucked her, didn't you?" "What makes you think that?" I evaded. It wasn't like she was either of our parents. "Assume for a moment I haven't known her like she's my own twin sister, no, wait, you can't because she is like my twin sister," Christina pointed out. She reached out and took Heaven by the arm. "Tell me you didn't let him fuck you," she pleaded with her friend. "I, uh, yes, I dragged him into a closet and let him fuck me up the ass until I could no longer stand, and I loved it, and he wants to do it to me again," Heaven fought back, "and again." "Zane, why did you do this to her?" Christina turned back to me. "Duh!" I grumbled, "She's hot and she likes sex. I wasn't aware I needed any more motivation." Chastity lost it and began giggling, which brought down Hope's iron exterior as well. Christina shot them a glance but Chastity wouldn't stop. "Christina, I think we have a bigger concern," Chastity stated. "What is that?" Christina responded cautiously. "I'd worry about which one of us Zane nails next," Chastity explained between snickers. "Wow," I sighed, "you make it sound like I'm some sort of sexual predator." "Zane, you are a sexual predator," Hope pointed out. "I prefer the term service provider," I quipped. Heaven snuck up on me and took my hand. I immediately suspected a judo throw was in my future but instead, she snuggled around my arm like a mini Barbie Lynn. I was suddenly missing the Heaven who wanted to kick me because I knew that personality, where this new one was a mystery. "Heaven?" Christina questioned her, clearly as confused as me. "Hey, I've never had a boyfriend before," Heaven shrugged. "I want to get some use out of him." Christina had no comeback for that. I'm thinking 'boyfriend?' "You do realize you are going to have to share him?" Hope pointed out. "As long as those other girls know their place, I'm okay with that," Heaven stated matter-of-factly. "On that note, I'm going to go look for some ladies that actually appreciate me," I announced as I untangled myself from Heaven. As I broke free, Heaven made a grab for my elbow. "Can we, you know, get together tomorrow?" she asked. I stroked her cheek around her ear and into the hair at the back of her head, bringing her head to me so that we could kiss. "Sure. I'll pick you up around five. We can hit a restaurant then can catch a movie," I outlined. Heaven blinked with uncertainty. "I, what?" she muttered. "Heaven, Zane is asking you out on a date," Christina explained to her friend. Heaven looked over to me for confirmation so I nodded. "Say 'yes'," Chastity goaded Heaven, who had been rendered speechless. "Yes," Heaven said to me. "I'll pick you up in the parking lot at five," I told her before departing in search of Rio, Iona, and Barbie Lynn. Running Away From the Fight "Zane," Barbie Lynn greeted me happily and swept into my arms. Rio couldn't stop grinning like a lunatic and even Iona looked pleased. I was getting ready to do some serious tonsil hockey with Barbie when, "Zane," called out Aunt Jill sounding worried and confused. I took a deep breath and headed to the stairs were she was standing, still groggy from sleep, in her dressing gown. "Hey, Jill, the party is over and we'll be heading out soon. There is nothing to worry about," I soothed her. "Is that sirens I hear?' she inquired. "I'll go out and check," I promised her and with her nod I whispered good-bye to my closest girls and headed for the front door. As I opened the door Christina moved to my side with a questioning glance. "I need to find out how much trouble I've caused the Kappa Sig's," I explained. "I agree, we need to go find out how bad the trouble is and apologize to Tawny," Christina corrected me. We walked once more across the lawn, this time in silence. As we crossed into Kappa Sigma property we noted that most of the cars had departed already but two Sheriff's Deputies had arrived. Tawny Flores (the Kappa Sigma Chapter President), Leigh (a sister) and some guy I didn't recognize were talking to them. "That is Richard O'Fallon, the President of the AKA Chapter," Christina informed me in a hushed tone. They all flashed us looks as we stopped close by, the lead deputy looking our way. "That is Christina Buchanan from FFU; she's was a guest at our party, and the boy next to her is Zane Braxton, our next door neighbor," Tawny introduced us. I waited for the other shoe to drop but it didn't. No one was pressing charges and after taking our statements the Deputies left, somewhat perturbed. Richard gave the briefest of nods before departing himself. From inside the Sorority house we could hear the noises of the sisters cleaning up. "Well?" Christina asked of Tawny. "I'm still thinking it over," Tawny responded. "It isn't like a bunch of frat boys are going to admit some girls from a Christian school kicked their asses. Now I need to decide what to do with you. Zane, who threw the first punch?" "I don't know his name but he was the AKA brother who had been hitting on Heaven earlier. He and four of his brethren shoved me into the downstairs women's bathroom. Earlier he had made a grab for Heaven so I grasped his wrist, but that was as far as that encounter went and that was over an hour before the fight," I related. "Kappa Sigma has had a relationship with Alpha Kappa Alpha for nearly fifty years. They say you started it. Why should I believe you?" Tawny persisted. "You may not know me well and I may not be the smartest guy in the world, but do you really think I'd start a fight with five guys in a girl's bathroom?" I answered. "Yet you still managed to win," she smiled inquisitively. "I lay the blame for my legendary fighting prowess on Heaven who was the first to come running, and Cappadocia who was actually in the bathroom when the fight started. She's sub-captain of the Karate Team and one of the guys called her a bitch. He'd be the brother on the way to the dentist," I added. "I'll vouch for them," Christina stated, "and for Zane. He's not in the habit of being truthful, but he's not going to blame someone else for things he's done either." Considering how tumultuous our relationship had been, that was high praise from Christina indeed. "I believe that the sisters and I will have to vote on this matter," Tawny addressed Christina. "We will let you know of our decision in a few days." With that we were dismissed. I walked by Christina's side as we made our exit. At the tree line I looked to Christina. "I'm sorry," I said softly. "Did you mean to start a fight?" Christina inquired calmly. "No." "Have you ever been to a frat/sorority party before?" she continued. "No." "Then what are you apologizing for? You didn't see this coming and you didn't force anyone to show up with you. We came to have fun, we made a mistake, and now I will deal with the consequences," she finished saying. I reached out, took her hand and she didn't pull away. It took about thirty minutes to get all the FFU girls squared away and most on the road home. Heaven made sure to give my ass a quick squeeze as she departed. By the time I trundled Jill off to bed I'd convinced her that Rio, Iona, and Barbie Lynn could stay. Rio and Iona would share my bed while Barbie Lynn would get the one finished guest room and I'd get the couch downstairs. I lay downstairs for some time, ruminating over the mess I'd made of things and trying to figure a way out of it, but eventually sleep overcame me. In my dreams my mind wandered over all kinds of improbable events but became focused on a fantasy where Rio, Barbie Lynn, and Leigh were looking down on me and smiling and I was sure sex would ensue. "Zane, Zane wake up," Barbie Lynn whispered to me. "Huh, what, am I awake? Is this real?" I muttered. Now, two things of note; the girls were lined up leaning over the back of the sofa, Barbie Lynn closest to my head, then Rio, and Leigh (at my waist) and that Barbie Lynn and Rio, not having any sleepwear, were wearing my white dress shirts, closed by only the two lowest buttons, while Leigh was in a thin white tank top and short cut-off denim shorts (which I would see in a moment). It was around sixty-five degrees outside so Leigh's thick, long nipples were poking through. Rio and Barbie were proving that no matter how crisp the look, a girl always looks better in your shirt than you do. Rio's breasts were playing peek-a-boo with me, but Barbie's were clearly on the verge of busting loose with two luscious mounds of succulent flesh. Barbie Lynn kicked up her heels and tipped over the back of the sofa and dangled her boobs over my face. "Is this real enough for you, Honey?" she murmured to me. "Are you sleeping in the nude, Zane?" Rio teased me. She knew that I was wearing gym shorts. "I'll check," Leigh volunteered. Before I could do much more than prop myself up on my elbows, and bury my face into Barbie Lynn's chest, Leigh had a hand underneath my light blanket, on top of my shorts, and caressing my throbbing member (I was having a good dream). "Poo," Leigh pouted, "he has shorts on." "Hurry and take them off," urged Rio. "He hasn't has sex in over two hours; the poor bastard must be near death from under-stimulation!" "Your compassion overwhelms me," I muttered sarcastically through Barbie's bounty. By some mystic convergence I ended up with a nipple in my mouth smothering further protest. I was aware of the blanket being yanked away, my shorts being pulled down my legs and then someone standing on my chest, gak! Barbie Lynn pulled away from me, moving around the head of the sofa and exposing me to the sight of Rio balancing on my chest and stripping off her shirt. Leigh gingerly vaulted over the back, shimmied her tiny denim shorts down exposing her neatly trimmed cunt for everyone to see. Rio tossed her/my dress shirt aside, displaying her lack of underwear, and Barbie quickly revealed the same as she appeared once more beside my head. "What the hell is going on?" I growled. I should be forgiven for my non-sexual thoughts because I'd had sex earlier in the evening, I was concerned over the damage I may have done to Christina, and it was my prudish Aunt's house. "I was asleep with Iona when this horny bitch, Leigh," Rio gestured to Leigh while rhythmically balancing from foot to foot on my chest, "came climbing through your window." "I left it open when I came over earlier to get your clothes," Leigh confessed. What she didn't mention was how she had to scale the trellis to get to the second floor. "She was kinky enough to put her tongue into my ear," Rio continued, "like the fucking tease she is but stopped when I turned over looking for a little hot, sweaty lesbian action." "I didn't want to stop," Leigh protested. "I only suggested that we add Zane in." "And Barbie Lynn?" I questioned, which caused Rio to roll her eyes. "I figured you weren't lame enough to actually be sleeping where you were supposed to be so we went over to Barbie-luscious' room, licked her to multiple orgasms," Rio went on. "No, they did not," denied Barbie Lynn. "We might have if she had not been up waiting on you," Leigh grinned. "So we came down to find you," Rio finished. "Where is Iona?" I asked. "We left her in bed," Rio confessed. Leigh scooted down my legs, past my knees and wrapped her hand around my cock. I took that as an invitation to let my left arm drape off the sofa to Barbie Lynn's leg just shy of her ankle and then worked my way up. Rio drew my gaze and settled down on her knees so that I could place my right hand between her legs. "You were going to have an orgy and not invite her?" I said, rapidly followed by, "Rio, you forgot two of your piercings," I reminded her as I playfully tugged on her lower lip

In this bonus episode, Greg pays tribute to Sonny Curtis, the undersung artist who wrote the original version of "I Fought the Law" with The Crickets. Sonny died on September 19, 2025, at the age of 88.Join our Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3sivr9TBecome a member on Patreon: https://bit.ly/3slWZvcSign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/3eEvRnGMake a donation via PayPal: https://bit.ly/3dmt9lUSend us a Voice Memo: Desktop: bit.ly/2RyD5Ah Mobile: sayhi.chat/soundopsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I Fought the Law Determined to overturn double jeopardy, Ann takes her fight to the Home Secretary and the House of Lords. The law is eventually repealed, and Julie's killer is finally convicted of murder and given a life sentence at the retrial (TVNZ1 and TVNZ+, from Sunday). Wayward A small-town cop suspects that the local school for troubled teens and its dangerously charismatic founder may not be all it seems (Netflix). House of Guinness In 1868, the Guinness family patriarch is dead in Dublin; his four children, each with dark secrets to hide, hold the brewery's fate in their hands (Netflix). LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After ABC pulled the plug on Jimmy Kimmel Live but then enraged US president Donald Trump by reinstating him, C21's Jordan Pinto discusses the ramifications [02:26]; Hera Pictures' Liza Marshall and Charlotte Webber on new ITV drama I Fought the Law [19:50]; and MultiChoice's Nomsa Philiso on what Canal+'s takeover means for the African media giant [38:20].

It's Emmy time again and this month we're chatting about the good and bad choices made this year. Which is also an excuse to talk about The Penguin. We've also been watching King of The Hill, Only Murders in the Building, I Fought the Law, Hostage, The Newsreader, King & Conqueror, and Unknown Number: The High School Catfish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on TV Gold, Andrew Mercado and James Manning discuss four new series: Top End Bub (8 episodes, Prime), I Fought the Law (4 episodes, Stan), Morning Wars (10 episodes, AppleTV+), and Aka Charlie Sheen (2 episodes, AppleTV+) • Top End Bub (8 episodes, Prime)Miranda Tapsell has co-created an impressive sitcom spun off from her 2019 movie Top End Wedding. • I Fought the Law (4 episodes, Stan)A memorable performance (again) from Sheridan Smith, this time as Ann Ming in the inspiring real-life story of a mother who, driven by unimaginable grief, finds strength to challenge the centuries-old British Double Jeopardy Law to see her daughter’s murderer finally brought to justice after a 15 year battle. • Morning Wars (10 episodes, AppleTV+)Following last season's merger between the UBA and NBN networks, there are more unhinged power grabs for the TV business, plus a plane crash unfolding live on air, unbelievable romantic liaisons, an unlikely story involving false imprisonment, a Russian oligarch and a night at the opera…and that’s just some of the plot lines that the cast led by Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston take viewers on. • Aka Charlie Sheen (2 episodes, AppleTV+)With seven years of sobriety behind him, Sheen opens up like never before, tackling the rumours, scandals, and self-inflicted chaos that have always threatened to cut him down. The doco features revealing interviews with those who know Sheen best, from family and friends to Hollywood insiders — and even his former drug dealer! Interview guests include Denise Richards, Heidi Fleiss, Jon Cryer, Sean Penn, Ramon Estevez, Brooke Mueller, Chris Tucker and Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Emmys are nearly upon us so it's prediction time as Neil, Grace and Adam give their thoughts (and Damo's) on some worthy winners. We mark the occasion with a special First (Emmys) Of Us game, can you name the years and beat our scores?Plus spoiler-free thoughts on new shows The Guest, I Fought the Law, Atomic and The Paper, old shows Andor, Peaky Blinders and Enlightened and reality TV shows Love is Blind UK, Great British Bake-Off and The Inheritance.Plus previews of upcoming shows and TV news.If you would like to support the work of TV DNA, you can donate the price of a cup of coffee at www.ko-fi.com/tvdna We can't wait for you to hear our thoughts on the latest episodes and for you to give us yours too. You can find and follow us on all the socials @tvdnapodYou can also email us on tvdnapod@gmail.com And, you can now check out our YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@TVDNA-t7uWe have recent specials on The Last Of Us and Andor, our back catalogue includes Blue Lights, Severance and Happy Valley. Listen here https://open.spotify.com/show/7eh93AAcO5y1m5jdEcTqAk?si=7l1do-YcQNS-eQ1YMIdCHAWe're on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, Breaker and Radio Public so be sure to subscribe to the pod and please leave us a review. Thanks as always to JComp for our logo and Roman Senyk Music for our theme. Adam, Grace, Neil, Damian and Isabel

Ian and Hannah review the biggest new films and bingeable shows on UK streaming services for the week beginning Friday 5th September, including:In 80s Billingham, a mother fights tirelessly for justice following her daughter's murder and police failings. Sheridan Smith stars in haunting new ITVX drama I Fought the Law, based on a true story.Detective Anais Mallory returns to her home town of Queenstown and faces a number of startling homicides amid the backdrop of past ghosts. As she unravels the mysteries, she sets in motion a desperate cover-up, in new crime drama A Remarkable Place to Die, on U.The stars of Peep Shows return in an inventive and very sweary new sketch show, Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping, on Channel 4.In Europe, Tony DiNozzo, Ziva David and their daughter Tali are forced to go on the run while trying to work out who is after them, in new spin-off series NCIS: Tony & Ziva on Paramount Plus.Follow Bingewatch on all major podcast players for your weekly rundown of the best binge-worthy shows across Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and more.Remember to leave a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser and Goodpods AND you can now show your support and leave a tip for Ian and Hannah.You can also stay in touch with the team via Twitter AND if you like Bingewatch but you're looking for a specific review, check out BITESIZE BINGEWATCH, our sister show making it easier to get the bits you want!For ad and sponsorship enquiries, email liam@mercurypodcasts.com now!Mentioned in this episode:Tha Colossal Apostle, Fletchy's Debut EP Out NowThis episode is sponsored by Fletchy and his debut EP Tha Colossal Apostle. Stream it now!Ad - Fletchy

TV is finally back in a normal rhythm, and that means the podcast is back! Matt and Dawn are joined by Dawn's podcast co-host Lucy from The Shipyard to review four shows available this week. It's September, and it's ITV, so by law, Sheridan Smith must portray a real person in a true crime drama. Sticking to tradition, she stars as Anne Ming, in, I Fought the Law, the story of a mother's fight for justice when her daughter's body is found in her own home. Next, the BBC has a crazy thriller inspired by The Hand That Rock The Cradle and others of that ilk. Eve Myles and the brilliant Gabrielle Creevy star in in The Guest. Already on Netflix, Surrane Jones stars in a crazy pollicital thriller that sees her husband kidnapped and become a 'Hostage' Lastly, and perhaps the most important show of the week, Channel 4's fixed-rig cameras return to Thornhill Academy for a second series of the probably brilliant Educating Yorkshire, over 10 years since the first. Then, Dawn and Lucy test their knowledge of TV's biggest slow burn relationships for our quiz.    

Neil returns, joining Adam and Damo to discuss Atomic on Sky/NOW, Hostage on Netflix and BBC's King and Conqueror.Plus spoiler-free thoughts on South Park, Destination X, Alien Earth, The Wire, Dexter Resurrection, Fortune Hotel, The Assassin, This Country, Mandy, LimitlessAnd films Better Man, Will and Harper, In the Land of Saints and Sinners and Eanie Meanie.And the First of Us quiz is back, can you name the year, match the characters to the shows and beat Neil and Adam's scores?Plus previews of upcoming shows and TV news.If you would like to support the work of TV DNA, you can donate the price of a cup of coffee at www.ko-fi.com/tvdna Trailers discussed include:-I Fought the Law - ITVX 31st Augusthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvbP0mFRbjQThe Guest - BBC 1st Septemberhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wmk72Hz_fAThe Runarounds - Prime Video 1st Septemberhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CWi5_hU_-oUniversal Basic Guys - ITVX 3rd Septemberhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYo5gtH6tlQParallel Me – Paramount+ 4th Septemberhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbOENvnHdD0The Paper - Sky Max/Now 5th Septemberhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5v4LJJkvUUColdwater starring Andrew Lincoln, Indira Varma, Ewen Bremner and Eve Myles. Begins 14th September on ITVX - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD34hEV7meIMGM+'s Billy the Kid season 3 28th September - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWMJejievcgMGM+'s Robin Hood - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVJDfraQSqQ with Sean Bean as the Sheriff of Sheffield…sorry Nottingham on 2nd November.We can't wait for you to hear our thoughts on the latest episodes and for you to give us yours too. You can find and follow us on all the socials @tvdnapodYou can also email us on tvdnapod@gmail.com And, you can now check out our YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@TVDNA-t7uWe have recent specials on The Last Of Us and Andor, our back catalogue includes Blue Lights, House of the Dragon and Succession. Listen here https://open.spotify.com/show/7eh93AAcO5y1m5jdEcTqAk?si=7l1do-YcQNS-eQ1YMIdCHAWe're on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, Breaker and Radio Public so be sure to subscribe to the pod and please leave us a review. Thanks as always to JComp for our logo and Roman Senyk Music for our theme. Adam, Grace, Neil, Damian and Isabel

Barry and Abigail discuss Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians and sample Cherry Limeade, Peach Kill All The Golfers, and Yacht Rock from B. Nektar Meadery in Ferndale, Michigan.Cherries are, in fact, both deciduous fruits and stonefruits.Edie Brickell and Steve Martin released a bluegrass album together in 2013, Love Has Come For You.The “flanged” guitar in the breakdown of What I Am reminded Abigail of Peter Frampton speaking through his guitar in Do You Feel Like We Do - Live.Abigail learned all about Edie Sedgwick and Little Miss S. from this article!Air of December reminded Abigail loosely of a poetic form called a sestina.Abigail entered The Wheel into the Abigail Hummel School of Speaking Smartly About Music with a comparison to I Fought the Law by The Clash. Abigail also wanted to remind everyone that the concept of the multiverse was first proposed by Hugh Everett III, the father of E of Eels. Listen to our episode on Eels: Owlectro-Shock Brews (Eels and Dangerous Minds Brewing Co.) or read this great biography of Hugh Everett III.Abigail compared the mystery percussion in Love Like We Do to the percussion in This Means War by Marianas Trench.Content-wise, Abigail compared Circle to THE GREATEST by Billie Eilish. Barry thought it was more similar to Transit Town by Harborcoat.She prompted Abigail to educate Barry about the concept of the manic pixie dream girl. Lyrically, it reminded Barry of Mean girls by Charli xcx.The “fact” we learned in Carlo's Corner has been partially debunked. If you're interested, you can learn more about Niels Bohr, Carlsberg, or Jarlsberg.Barry took an opportunity to plug our friend Kevin Richberg's Slate Hill Edible Forest.Nothing reminded Abigail of the Greek myth of Odysseus and Polyphemus. Barry brought up the hypothesis that fossilized dwarf elephant skulls may have inspired myths of Cyclopes. (And dinosaur bones dragons! And rhinos unicorns! And manatees mermaids!)Abigail then entered Nothing into the A.H.S.O.S.S.A.M. with a comparison to Crazy Love, Vol. II by Paul Simon.Listen to our resequenced playlist of this album, which we have called Retooling Rubberbands at the Stars.Up next… Navy Blues by Sloan, submitted to our Jukebox by Paul ZawackiJingles are by our friend Pete Coe.Visit Anosmia Awareness for more information on Barry's condition.Follow Barry or Abigail on Untappd to see what we're drinking when we're not on mic!Leave us a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky | YouTube | Substack | Website | Email us | Virtual Jukebox | Beer Media Group

Bobby Fuller had it all: talent, ambition, and the hit single "I Fought the Law." But just weeks after climbing the Billboard charts, he was found dead in his car. In Part 1, we trace the rock star's path to stardom and the subtle, chilling signs that his success may have come at a deadly cost. Murder: True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. For ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Don't miss out on all things Murder: True Crime Stories! Instagram: @murdertruecrimepod | @Crimehouse TikTok: @Crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios X: @crimehousemedia YouTube: @crimehousestudios To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mike Kofman and Ryan brought out the mics to discuss the pressing issues in the war between Ukraine and Russia. They focused on drones, the state of the front, manpower, Putin's approach to Washington, and the contested policies around continued aid from the United States to Ukraine.    This episode features meaty excerpts from an episode of The Insider, featuring an interview with Jakub Jajcay talking about his article, "I Fought in Ukraine and Here's Why FPV Drones Kind of Suck" as well as an episode of The Russia Contingency featuring a two part conversation with Stephen Kotkin, the leading historian of Russia and authoritarianism. If these excerpts leave you wanting more, you can listen to them by becoming a member: https://warontherocks.com/membership. Our prices are going up soon so today is the perfect day to join. 

Lou ,Mark and Perry listen to Buzzcocks play "Autonomy" also music trivia and a listen to B-Sides of hit records play The Pogues w/Joe Strummer play "I Fought the Law" and random relish topics and lote of extra fun stuff

I Fought the Law and the Law Won Are you carrying more than you should? Life can feel like a constant balancing act—until the weight becomes too much. In Exodus 18, Moses reunites with his family, only to receive a blunt but life-changing challenge from his father-in-law, Jethro: “What you are doing is not good.” Jethro's wisdom reshapes how Moses leads, showing us that leadership isn't about doing it all—it's about equipping others to share the load.  So, who are you empowering? And who's speaking wisdom into your life? Let's talk about it.  Exodus 18  Discussion topics What part of this sermon, or this passage stands out most to you and why?  In Exodus 18:7-12, Jethro celebrates what God has done for Israel. Why is it important to share testimonies of God's faithfulness with family and friends? Who is someone in your life that gives you wise advice when you need it? Who in your life do you allow to challenge you and say, "What you are doing is not good"? How can you be more open to wise counsel? Have you ever been in a situation where you were trying to do everything yourself? What happened? Where do you need to delegate or ask for help in your life—whether in family, work, ministry, or personal growth?  Next week Navigation Church moves back to two services.  Who is someone in your life that you would love to see sitting next to you?  Would you commit to making a personal invite to them this week? Check out our other audio series and video playlists that can help you find Jesus in every moment and then discover what's next

In 1966, Bobby Fuller was a rising rockstar. His eponymous band and their song "I Fought the Law" was climbing the charts when he suddenly died. As is the case with many rockstars, theories about his death abound. Was his death really an accident or suicide, or could it have been a hit from the LA mob…or even Charles Manson? Conspiracy Theories is on Instagram @theconspiracypod! Follow us to keep up with the show and get behind-the-scenes updates from Carter and the team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode #163 of the Last Call Trivia Podcast begins with a round of general knowledge questions. Then, we hope you won't object to our theme round of “I Fought the Law” Trivia!Round OneThe game kicks off with a Health Trivia question about a medical condition most commonly found in children.Next, we have a Characters Trivia question that asks the Team to identify a character based on one of their famous quotes.The first round concludes with a Words Trivia question about a type of facility whose name derives from the Latin words for “water” and “place.”Bonus QuestionToday's Bonus Question is a follow-up to the Words Trivia question from the first round.Round TwoOrder in the court! Now, that we have your attention, let's get ready to argue our case in a round of “I Fought the Law” Trivia.The second round begins with an Objects Trivia question about a notorious figure who was well known for his use of 1-dollar postage stamps featuring Eugene O'Neill.Next, we have a Terms Trivia question about a legal term that describes the formal process of resolving disputes in a court of law.Round Two concludes with a Law Trivia question that asks the Team to identify the type of guilty plea in which the defendant asserts innocence and does not admit to the criminal act.Final QuestionWe've reached the Final Question of the game, and today's category of choice is Movies. Who's in for a laugh?The Trivia Team is asked to name five comedy films given their subtitles.Visit lastcalltrivia.com to learn more about hosting your own ultimate Trivia event!

-It's a Bugaboo Tuesday….what's bothering Bill today?-Also, SONG OF THE DAY (sponsored by Sartor Hamann Jewelers): "I Fought the Law" - The Clash (1977)Show sponsored by SANDHILLS GLOBALOur Sponsors:* Check out Cigars International and use my code EARLYBREAK for a great deal: www.cigarsinternational.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

*VOTE *South State Road and Bailey Road projects *Cuyahoga Falls Firefighters Memorial Foundation Bourbon raffle *Lions Park Story Walk *Fall leaf pickup *Winter planter cleanup *Good Neighbors collecting *Daylight savings *Bob Feldbush *Trick-or-treaters *CFHS Presents Mary Shelley's Frankenstein *Northeast Ohio Hammered Dulcimer Weekend *Frank Ravanelli book release party *Dear Evan Hansen at EJ Thomas *Parking Meters on Parade Thank you for listening. We are always in the market for article submissions and suggestions for podcast interviews. If you are interested in volunteering with on The Falls Free Press or the Fallscast, or are a musician wishing to showcase your music on the podcast, drop us a line at fallsfreepress@gmail.com. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts to let others know to listen. Be sure to stop into Shelf Life Bookstore, or visit https://www.shelflifebookstore.com/joyjar to contribute to the Joy Jar. Fallscast theme and interstitial composed and performed by Alex Hall. Interim music: “I Fought the Law" by the Bobby Fuller Four (1966) Censor sound Effect from Pixabay.

Stephanie G'Schwind is the editor-in-chief of Colorado Review and the director of the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University. She has edited two anthologies, Man in the Moon: Essays on Father and Fatherhood and Beautiful Flesh: A Body of Essays, which won the 2018 Colorado Book Award for Anthology. Harrison Canelaria Fletcher is the author of Descanso for My Father, Presentimiento: A Life in Dreams, and Finding Querencia: Essays from in Between. Besides being G'Schwind's fellow nonfiction editor at Colorado Review, he's been an editor at Shadowbox, Upstreet and Speculative Nonfiction. He teaches at Colorado State University and Vermont College of Fine Arts. All four of the essays from recent back issues discussed in this episode involve identity, place, and survival. The first is “Who Lives in That House” by Emily Winakur. For her the home operates on the level of being a dream about the self, what matters, what the risks are, why it is that a party of our brain is devoted to memories and specifically a sense of place. As a psychologist, Winakur uses her curiosity and concern for her patients to serve almost like a home inspector, making sure they're safe. In turn, Shze-Hui Tjoa's “The Story of Body” concerns a mind-body split that causes the author to mostly describe herself as a distanced, alienated “Body” and “Mind” that struggles under parental demands to become an exceptional musician. In Sarah Curtis's “The Ghost of Lubbock,” she's not a musician, but her dad is; in fact, he played with Buddy Holly and wrote “I Fought the Law” among other notable songs. But who is her dad, really: the stage performer, or the quiet guy who deflects questions? In Jarek Steel's “Nesting,” confinement and becoming are the dominant motifs. As a pregnant 19-year-old, she occupies a “garbagehouse” of a place, but transforms herself into a man who can look back at a very primal, vulnerable part of life and put the pieces together. Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of ten books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

If you go camping in these woods, be sure to wear ear protection. Because the noises you'll hear are anything but subtle... Send in an outdoor story for narration http://eeriecast.com/outdoor "Alone in the Ozarks" - 01:35 "My Great Grandfather Took Her Skin" - 22:58 "Mendocino Monster" - 32:10 "The Time My Friends and I Fought a Wendigo" - 42:33 "Fleshgait/Skinwalker encounter in Western CO" - 55:38 Listen to more horror stories narrations http://eeriecast.com/ Follow NaturesTemper on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NaturesTemper And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/NaturesTemper Sound effects from POND5 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This year, you all sent me hundreds of hours of SCARY true stories to narrate. But these are my hand-picked favorite throughout the year! Enjoy these 27 SCARIEST True Stories of 2023. Follow the Unexplained Encounters podcast! https://pod.link/1152248491 Join EERIECAST PLUS to unlock ad-free episodes and support this show! (Will still contain some host-read sponsorships) https://www.eeriecast.com/plus SCARY STORIES TIMESTAMPS: 0:00  0:54 Strange Occurrences at my Friend's Graduation Party from SnappingThragg 7:55 The Chainsaw Masked its Footsteps from Neurotica Rampage 23:39 I Don't Go In Attics Anymore from Neurotica Rampage 42:51 Fragile Therapy from Valentina 50:57 Mard Azma from Anonymous 1:11:02 What Lives on the Island from countrydweller05 1:20:07 When the Ground Shakes from Yosemite Sam 1:33:09 Stone's Throw Away from appalachiansalamander 1:40:45 It Wasn't a Raccoon from Redscarecrow99 1:46:51 Banshee in the Fog from Celtic Kin 2:02:55 One of Actually a Few Weird Things from Mhopper1000 2:09:11 My Weird Childhood from JollyJello 2:13:44 Faceless Men of Weed Hill Road from MimiClyde 2:23:40 I Fought a Demon and Won from Visigoth 2:39:15 Curse of the Morris Minor from AmmeJeanRomeo 2:45:44 The Animal Skinner from jdixon55 2:54:02 The Black Dog from The Wolfman 3:01:54 The Pig Farm Werewolf from BenjyB 3:16:16 The Visitors from MattoMan 3:19:43 The Pinyon Skinwalker from Sienna 3:24:51 Visit in the Woods from Hunter L. 3:31:48 Something Got In My House from Sunshine 3:38:17 Stinker in the Fields from RD in Hull 3:51:00 Behind the Mound from Merthra 3:56:18 Sasquatch is Real from Shroomer 4:13:21 Lunch Break Road Rage from Michigan Maniac 4:18:12 Scary Trucker Story from Anonymous Join my Discord! https://discord.gg/3YVN4twrD8 Get some creepy merch at https://eeriecast.store/ Follow and review Tales from the Break Room on Spotify and Apple Podcasts! https://pod.link/1621075170 Follow us on Spotify! https://open.spotify.com/show/3mNZyXkaJPLwUwcjkz6Pv2 Follow and Review us on iTunes! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/darkness-prevails-podcast-true-horror-stories/id1152248491 Submit Your Story Here: https://www.darkstories.org/ Get Darkness Prevails Podcast Merchandise! https://teespring.com/stores/darknessprevails Subscribe on YouTube for More Stories! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh_VbMnoL4nuxX_3HYanJbA?sub_confirmation=1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I Fought the LawBobby FullerPutinAnti Authoritarian TypesIntimacy among Men in Federal PrisonsThe Mullahs of IranKGB & Successor OrganizationsWrigley FieldCapitol Hill Rioting MoronsMBS & The Bonesaw OptionAnd More...

I Fought the LawBobby FullerGeneral NoriegaProud BoysA Mob of Moronsa Collective: an Anus of AssholesThe Sharpe RatioFederal Penitentiary & Sexual ViolationInvading the US CapitolNancy PelosiChinese Maxims

On this episode, Payton discusses the rising rockstar Bobby Fuller and how he, along with his band, almost reached the top before tragedy struck. https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband “I Fought the Law: The Life and Strange Death of Bobby Fuller” by Randell Fuller and Miriam Linna The El Paso Times - https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/history/2016/06/25/broken-melody-bobby-fuller-story-part-1/86139192/ LA Times - https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-bobby-fuller-i-fought-the-law-death-book-signing-20150304-story.html#:~:text=Texas%20guitarist%20and%20singer%20Bobby,He%20was%2023. The Hollywood Reporter - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/celebrating-a-disturbing-new-bio-780611/ Far Out Magazine - https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-strange-death-of-bobby-fuller/ Grunge.com - https://www.grunge.com/307646/the-biggest-mysteries-in-classic-rock-still-unsolved-today/ Loudersound.com - https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-death-of-bobby-fuller-an-untimely-tragedy-and-an-unsolved-mystery AllThatsInteresting.com - https://allthatsinteresting.com/bobby-fuller TheGuardian.com - https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/16/the-short-life-and-mysterious-death-of-bobby-fuller-rocknroll-king-of-texas UDiscovermusic.com - https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/bobby-fuller-short-life-strange-death/ Unsolved.com - https://unsolved.com/gallery/bobby-fuller/ MusicInfluence.com - https://musicinfluence.com/rock-and-roll-tales/the-unsolved-murder-of-bobby-fuller/ WayBackAttack.com - https://www.waybackattack.com/rodgersjimmie.html#:~:text=Yet%20his%20entire%20life%20took,though%20Jimmie%20has%20said%20he History.com - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sam-cooke-dies-under-suspicious-circumstances-in-la Wikipedia.com - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Fought_the_Law Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At the height of the rock and roll revolution of the 1950's and 1960's, we lost so many great musicians. One that is consistently overlooked is Bobby Fuller, the man whose band popularized the song "I Fought the Law." Was his death an accident? A suicide? Or something more sinister?This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4106013/advertisement

This week we revisit our first ever series of episodes. Part 1 of our 3 part series on the infamous Reverend Willie Maxwell takes place in another small town in Alabama, Alexander City as well as its surrounding communities. Buckle up for this ride. After this, go back and check out Part 2 "I Fought the Law" and Part 3 "The Rest is Still Unwritten." All of the episodes are in season 1! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/truecrimeoneasystreet/support

What demons do you deal with? Cuz this guy was attacked by an actual demon creature and lived to tell the tale! Get some creepy merch at https://eeriecast.store/ Follow and review Tales from the Break Room on Spotify and Apple Podcasts! https://pod.link/1621075170 Join EERIECAST PLUS to unlock ad-free episodes and support this show! (Will still contain some host-read sponsorships) https://www.eeriecast.com/plus SCARY STORIES TIMESTAMPS 0:00 INTRO 1:11 Haunted by a Little Girl from Anonymous 4:59 Voices During the Whiteout from Ragnarok-16 11:25 I Fought a Demon and Won from Visigoth 26:59 Weirdo at the Hospital from Billy T. 30:05 Becky is Haunted from Aaron LC 37:52 Daytime Cleaning Haunt from SpoopyCleaner 44:29 A Threatening Walk Home from KaiCarp LINKS:  Join my DISCORD: https://discord.gg/5Wj9RqTR3w Follow us on Spotify! https://open.spotify.com/show/3mNZyXkaJPLwUwcjkz6Pv2 Follow and Review us on iTunes! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/darkness-prevails-podcast-true-horror-stories/id1152248491   Submit Your Story Here: https://www.darkstories.org/ Get Darkness Prevails Podcast Merchandise! https://teespring.com/stores/darknessprevails Subscribe on YouTube for More Stories! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh_VbMnoL4nuxX_3HYanJbA?sub_confirmation=1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tune your ears to another extra-special episode of Fire and Water Records! In part 2 of a super-smash crossover event with Pop Culture Affidavit, the brothers Ryan and Neil Daly welcome guest host Tom Panarese to continue their already-three-hours-long discussion on favorite cover songs for another equally-long-conversation (seriously, what the hell is wrong with these guys?!!). What makes a great cover song? What's the point of covering somebody else's music? Do women sing Tom Waits songs better than he does? Do punk bands play Bob Dylan songs better than he does? Why does Panarese hate his sister? What genre does Neil like more than rock 'n roll? What song makes Ryan think about dying, but like, y'know, in a good way, maybe? All these questions, and many more than you want to know, will be answered on this episode of Fire and Water Records! Track list "Hey Jude" (The Beatles) covered by Wilson Pickett "La Bamba" (Traditional/Ritchie Valens) covered by Los Lobos "Desolation Row" (Bob Dylan) covered by My Chemical Romance "Got to Get a Message to You" (The Bee Gees) covered by Swamp Dogg "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" (Bruce Springsteen) covered by David Bowie "Higher Ground" (Stevie Wonder) covered by Red Hot Chili Peppers "Both Sides Now" (Joni Mitchell) covered by Neil Daly "Get Down, Make Love" (Queen) covered by Nine Inch Nails "Landslide" (Fleetwood Mac) covered by Smashing Pumpkins "Drive" (The Cars) covered by Britta Phillips "Ol' 55" (Tom Waits) covered by Sarah McLachlan "Love is All Around" (Sonny Curtis/"The Mary Tyler Moore Show") covered by Joan Jett "Stand By Me" (Ben E. King) covered by Playing For Change "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" (R.E.M.) covered by Great Big Sea "Walk This Way" (Aerosmith) covered by Run D.M.C. Additional songs: "I Will Always Love You" performed by Whitney Houston; "I'm a Believer" performed by The Monkeys; "Bring it On Home to Me" performed by The Animals; "Respect" performed by Aretha Franklin; "Losing My Religion" performed by Ryan Starr; "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" performed by Guns 'n Roses; "Over the Rainbow" performed by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole; "Hazy Shade of Winter" performed by The Bangles; "Whole Lotta Love" performed by The Hollywood Vampires; "Gin and Juice" performed by The Gourds; "I Fought the Law" performed by The Clash; "All I Wanna Do (Is Make Love to You)" performed by Halestorm; "You Should Be Dancing" performed by Foo Fighters; "Gold Dust Woman" performed by Hole; "What I Like About You" performed by Poison; "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" performed by Them; "Romeo & Juliet" performed by The Indigo Girls; "Boys of Summer" performed by The Ataris; "Come On, Eileen" performed by Save Ferris; "You Really Got Me" performed by Van Halen; "I Think We're Alone Now" performed by Tiffany, To hear part 1 of our discussion on Pop Culture Affidavit, click here. Check out Neil's now-classic take on "Both Sides Now" right here. Let us know what you think! Leave a comment or send an email to: RDalyPodcast@gmail.com. Like the FIRE AND WATER RECORDS Facebook page at: This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK. Visit our WEBSITE: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/ Follow us on TWITTER – https://twitter.com/FWPodcasts Like our FACEBOOK page – https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Use our HASHTAG online: #FWPodcasts Subscribe to FIRE AND WATER RECORDS on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fire-and-water-records/id1458818655 Or subscribe via iTunes as part of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST: http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-fire-and-water-podcast/id463855630 Support FIRE AND WATER RECORDS and the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Thanks for listening!

Tune your ears to another extra-special episode of Fire and Water Records! In part 2 of a super-smash crossover event with Pop Culture Affidavit, the brothers Ryan and Neil Daly welcome guest host Tom Panarese to continue their already-three-hours-long discussion on favorite cover songs for another equally-long-conversation (seriously, what the hell is wrong with these guys?!!). What makes a great cover song? What's the point of covering somebody else's music? Do women sing Tom Waits songs better than he does? Do punk bands play Bob Dylan songs better than he does? Why does Panarese hate his sister? What genre does Neil like more than rock 'n roll? What song makes Ryan think about dying, but like, y'know, in a good way, maybe? All these questions, and many more than you want to know, will be answered on this episode of Fire and Water Records! Track list "Hey Jude" (The Beatles) covered by Wilson Pickett "La Bamba" (Traditional/Ritchie Valens) covered by Los Lobos "Desolation Row" (Bob Dylan) covered by My Chemical Romance "Got to Get a Message to You" (The Bee Gees) covered by Swamp Dogg "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" (Bruce Springsteen) covered by David Bowie "Higher Ground" (Stevie Wonder) covered by Red Hot Chili Peppers "Both Sides Now" (Joni Mitchell) covered by Neil Daly "Get Down, Make Love" (Queen) covered by Nine Inch Nails "Landslide" (Fleetwood Mac) covered by Smashing Pumpkins "Drive" (The Cars) covered by Britta Phillips "Ol' 55" (Tom Waits) covered by Sarah McLachlan "Love is All Around" (Sonny Curtis/"The Mary Tyler Moore Show") covered by Joan Jett "Stand By Me" (Ben E. King) covered by Playing For Change "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" (R.E.M.) covered by Great Big Sea "Walk This Way" (Aerosmith) covered by Run D.M.C. Additional songs: "I Will Always Love You" performed by Whitney Houston; "I'm a Believer" performed by The Monkees; "Bring it On Home to Me" performed by The Animals; "Respect" performed by Aretha Franklin; "Losing My Religion" performed by Ryan Starr; "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" performed by Guns 'n Roses; "Over the Rainbow" performed by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole; "Hazy Shade of Winter" performed by The Bangles; "Whole Lotta Love" performed by The Hollywood Vampires; "Gin and Juice" performed by The Gourds; "I Fought the Law" performed by The Clash; "All I Wanna Do (Is Make Love to You)" performed by Halestorm; "You Should Be Dancing" performed by Foo Fighters; "Gold Dust Woman" performed by Hole; "What I Like About You" performed by Poison; "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" performed by Them; "Romeo & Juliet" performed by The Indigo Girls; "Boys of Summer" performed by The Ataris; "Come On, Eileen" performed by Save Ferris; "You Really Got Me" performed by Van Halen; "I Think We're Alone Now" performed by Tiffany, To hear part 1 of our discussion on Pop Culture Affidavit, click here. Check out Neil's now-classic take on "Both Sides Now" right here. Let us know what you think! Leave a comment or send an email to: RDalyPodcast@gmail.com. Like the FIRE AND WATER RECORDS Facebook page at: This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK. Visit our WEBSITE: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/ Follow us on TWITTER – https://twitter.com/FWPodcasts Like our FACEBOOK page – https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Use our HASHTAG online: #FWPodcasts Subscribe to FIRE AND WATER RECORDS on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fire-and-water-records/id1458818655 Or subscribe via iTunes as part of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST: http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-fire-and-water-podcast/id463855630 Support FIRE AND WATER RECORDS and the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Thanks for listening!

A Really Good UFC Fight Night: Main Card,and I'll Breakdown the Prelims Tomorrow and Friday on Savage Inc Pick's617. A Few Changes Coming. Time to keep Evolving. I'm gonna Have a Reaction Channel Podcast So I Can Introduce PeopleTo Epic Music

Happy Spooky Season! Join us for a very special episode with a very special guest, friend of the HistoryBoiz, Tyler Mitchell AKA Tmitch! Tmitch is going to tell us a very personal story that happened way back in 1924 and about his connection to the overall Sasquatch lore. You won't want to miss this one!Sources:Beck, Fred. I Fought the Apemen of Mt. St. Helens. Self, 1967.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Episode 18 – Misplacing the Blame for Crime…Again Its crimes and Mr. Weiner this week on The Middle. See what we did there?  In a special episode of the show, Anthony takes a long look at the recent rise in crime in New York – and everywhere else – and wonders about the blame game underway.  Politicians predictably see scapegoats in other politicians, while criminologists ponder the evidence. The police seem beleaguered and advocates for reform are feeling stymied. These are tough issues, so Anthony got help this week from Professor Eugene O'Donnell of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and civil rights attorney and former candidate for Attorney General, Charlie King. Also this week : Jordan returns from camp; the Secret Service loses its, uh, stuff; and, there are lots of remakes of “I Fought the Law”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

INTRODUCTION: Why Love? A couple of years ago, I heard about a man who committed to living like Jesus for an entire year. Wow! That's some commitment. I imagined the transformation that would undoubtedly happen. To find that joyful peace, or is it unwavering grit, insightful compassion, or humble adoration? Whichever way, each way, in all ways, life would never be the same.  I thought about how I would approach that challenge. How would I know that I was truly living like Jesus? Then it hit me; John says God is love. So to live like Jesus would be living love. But what is love? And how would I live love while crossing cultures with one foot on U.S. soil and the other in places like Haiti, where love is both obviously abundant and seemingly scarce, challenging and effortless simultaneously?  Not wholly unfamiliar, just listening to music, reading books, and sitting through many sermons, I have learned a thing or two about love. I know that it is universal, timeless, and ageless. It is a feeling, a choice, a given. It is all-encompassing, enduring, and everlasting. Love conquers all, never fails, and keeps us together. But it hurts, gets lost, and takes time. There are love bugs, love seats, and love boats. There are love notes, love songs, and love birds. Love is a dare, a game, a language. You can be lovesick, loveless, and lovely. You can fall in love, be addicted to love, would do anything in the name of love, playing the game of love with the power of love.You can't hurry it or buy it and don't know if it will be there tomorrow. Yet love is all you need. They say love the one you are with, and find the love of your life because love wins. There's even a “Love Chapter” in the Bible. We've heard the “Love Chapter” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) read and expounded on many times (mostly at weddings). It's one of the most memorized, admired, and well-known passages in all Scripture, even by non-church folk. We've heard this famous passage so often our eyes kind of glaze over. “Love is patient; love is kind, does not env…” Yeah, yeah. We know how this goes.        But what is love, really?  So John says God is love. Bob the Tomato says God is bigger than the boogie man, Godzilla, and the monsters on T.V. So the love that is God must be way bigger than my love of black licorice and movie theater popcorn.  Jesus named the number one law of all of the laws, and there were tons. Leviticus, the third book of the Torah and the Old Testament, lists most of the 613 rules of conduct. He could have picked any one of them. Murder is pretty heavy. Stealing isn't exactly harmless. Adultery can destroy families in a hurry. Lying about someone could get you and them into a heap of trouble. But with no hesitation, he picked the one that sat right in between “don't carry a grudge or seek revenge” and “don't mate two different kinds of animals.” (Leviticus 19:18) Jesus basically said, “That's an easy one. Love God and love people.” Just like that. There is no exception clause, no fine print, no room for interpretation, love people, all of them, every single one.+           Even deeper, Paul said that you can't go wrong if you love people because love is the fulfillment of the law. Fulfillment, like an Amazon order, picked out of the warehouse, loaded, delivered, fulfilled. It's complete, buttoned-up, stick a fork in it, done. All of it, all 613 laws, if you love with the same love that God is, you don't break any. So WWJD (what would Jesus do) is interchangeable with WWLD (what would love do).  It makes sense then if you understand love than live love, your life would change. If that love got a little contagious, the whole world could be a better place.  I will figure out love one word at a time, taking 1 Corinthians 13 to heart and feet. Live it, learn it, love it. It is quite a list, a list that I think I already know, but somehow I think I have a lot to learn.  “Love is patient; love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.” I Corinthians 13: 4-8 N.I.V. INCLUDED IN THIS EPISODE (But not limited to): ·      The Benefits of Black Licorice ·      Becoming a Widow·      Success and Failures·      Surviving Cancer·      The Beauty of Death·      Leaving Medical Diagnoses on Voicemails·      The Pain of Mammograms·      Can't Pray the Gay Away·      The Difference Between God and the Church·      The Pressures of Living a Lie·      A Spotlight on Haiti  CONNECT WITH KIM: Website & Books: https://www.KimSorrelle.comYouTube: https://bit.ly/3vRFWXfFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/loveisbykim/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimsorrelle/?hl=enTwitter: https://twitter.com/Kim_SorrelleLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3tEzK24 KIM'S RECOMMENDATIONS: ·      All You Need Is Love (The Beatles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7xMfIp-irg  CONNECT WITH DE'VANNON: Website: https://www.SexDrugsAndJesus.comYouTube: https://bit.ly/3daTqCMFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/SexDrugsAndJesus/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sexdrugsandjesuspodcast/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TabooTopixLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devannonEmail: DeVannon@SexDrugsAndJesus.com  DE'VANNON'S RECOMMENDATIONS: ·      Pray Away Documentary (NETFLIX)o  https://www.netflix.com/title/81040370o  TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk_CqGVfxEs ·      Upwork: https://www.upwork.com·      FreeUp: https://freeup.net·      Disabled American Veterans (DAV): https://www.dav.org·      American Legion: https://www.legion.org ·      Black Licorice (consult your doctor):https://www.webmd.com/diet/black-licorice-health-benefits#1 ·      What The World Needs Now (Dionne Warwick): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfHAs9cdTqg  INTERESTED IN PODCASTING OR BEING A GUEST?: ·      PodMatch is awesome! This application streamlines the process of finding guests for your show and also helps you find shows to be a guest on. The PodMatch Community is a part of this and that is where you can ask questions and get help from an entire network of people so that you save both money and time on your podcasting journey.https://podmatch.com/signup/devannon  TRANSCRIPT: [00:00:00]You're listening to the sex drugs and Jesus podcast, where we discuss whatever the fuck we want to! And yes, we can put sex and drugs and Jesus all in the same bed and still be all right at the end of the day. My name is De'Vannon and I'll be interviewing guests from every corner of this world as we dig into topics that are too risqué for the morning show, as we strive to help you understand what's really going on in your life.There is nothing off the table and we've got a lot to talk about. So let's dive right into this episode.De'Vannon: Hey everyone. And welcome to the sex drugs and Jesus podcast. I'm so thankful to have you with me again this week. God bless each. And every last one of you, Kim Sorrelle is my guest. Today. She is the author of two beautiful books and she has an incredible story. This is a woman has become like a sister to me and I am so excited to present her to the world.And in today's episode, we're going to talk about the benefits of black licorice. She's going to [00:01:00] tell us about how she became a widow. We're going to talk about the beauty of death and why doctors should not leave negative medical news on voicemails. Now, cam has a special love in our heart for Haiti.And so we spend quite a bit of time talking about Haiti, and then we get into a little bit about a voodoo, take a close, listen to this episode, and I hope you get a lot out of.Good morning. Good morning, Ms. Kim. So REL, welcome to the sex drugs and Jesus pod has today in the name of God. How are you doing woman?Kim: I am doing fabulous and I am so grateful to be here. And how are you?De'Vannon: I am fan fucking tastic van fucking tabulates and scrum daily. I'm shit. If I do say so myself, so I'm so happy to have you with me today. [00:02:00] I do believe that you're going to breathe in a shitload of value to my beautiful audience out there. Kevin likes to keep it real everybody. And so here we go. She's an author.She's an entrepreneur. He's a speaker. She's a cancer survivor and T the lover of black liquid. I'm going to give you a moment to talk about like your own history and your own way and adjust the second. But I wanted to dig into this a lover of black licorice, because never before what I've read into somebodies headlines on their profiles and things like that, that they mentioned any sort of candy or derivative of a, of a root or plant Loeser what licorice is.So I want you to tell me what is so special. What's so damn special about this black licorice, that it was worthy to go into your heading.Kim: How does a good question? Well, I feel like more people don't like black licorice than do like black licorice. And I can't imagine my life without it. It's just one of [00:03:00] those things I grew up. My, my favorite aunt, my aunt Rita, my great aunt always had black licorice in her pantry and she ran a home for old folks and I love going there and helping her out.And at the end of the day, having a piece of black licorice as a treat and I that's. Where am I love started for black licorice and it continued on. Apparently De'Vannon: Did you know, my dear that there are health, health benefits to black licorice. Kim: tell me. De'Vannon: So when I came across this, on your profile, it stood out to me. And so then I went digging around and shit as I do. And And so what I found, and I'm going to put a link of this link to web MD in the show notes of people can go and look it up, but it says it can help.It can help digestion blacklist by the laser. It's gonna help your digestive system work more [00:04:00]effectively. It can ease symptoms from indigestion, heartburn and ulcers. Black licorice extracts have been linked to a reduction in the bacteria that calls cause ulcers. And I could've sworn, I read something about this.Can have some sort of like maybe cancer-fighting qualities too. And so considering your history with cancer, which I'm going to let you tell us about, I was wondering if maybe a Lord was watching out for you. Early on in life before you got your diagnosis, because sometimes we have a taste for things that are going to heal us, and we don't necessarily realize it at the time.We just know we keep craving that for some reason. And so I'm wondering if perhaps you were drawn to that in order to help you overcome, you know, what you would be fighting later on in life.Kim: Interesting. Yeah. I love the idea of that. I have to say. Cause that's true. Like you hear about women that are expecting babies and crave certain things because there's [00:05:00] iron in it or there's something in it that, that they need or the baby needs or people in general. So yeah, couldn't possibly be for sure.De'Vannon: Yeah. So I'm just gonna read this real quick, then I'll hush and let, I was just so fascinated by this cause I'm a, I'm a licensed massage therapist and I like to get into natural healing and stuff like that. I have a shitload of essential Earls and everything like that. And so anything natural that we can do for ourselves, you know, sometimes the remedy that we need are like right there on the shelf in the house.And we don't know, you know, Kim: Right, right. De'Vannon: you know, then we go run into doctor via pumped, full all these drugs. Sometimes that's a good thing. Sometimes it's not. So I'm just gonna read this here. So it says a substance extracted from licorice root little cow cone dash a has been shown to have antitumor activity and acute leukemia breast and prostate cancer cell lines by lowering the amount [00:06:00] of BCL two, whatever the fuck that is a drug resistant protein excessive amounts of this protein are frequently associated with these cancers.Licorice is actually a plant and is found in like a couple of different countries in the world. And then that's how they make that black licorice candy. But it's not all sugar. It's bitter. Isn't that like the sweetest thing on the shelf. So yeah. I want you to know that and everybody else let's get some licorice y'allKim: There you go, you just see a level bunch of people. De'Vannon: so, so tell us about like what you, whatever you want to say about your history, and then go ahead and segue into the cancer story.Kim: Sure. Yeah. So I was going to be the first woman. That was my plan. And so I had my life laid out before me and knew where I was going to go. And when I was going to do, and then may of my senior year in high school, this man walked through the door [00:07:00] and I fell head over heels in love with him after swearing, I would never get married and have children because I had my life laid out.And 10 days after I met him, I asked him if he'd marry me. And he said, yes. And then we got married a little bit less than a year later. And so I was 17 when I got engaged in 18. When I got married, he was 22 when we got married. And he was the love of my life. I mean, I felt like we dated for a whole bunch of years.A couple years later, the baby started coming. I've got five kids and 11 grandkids and So big family. I know it's fun. It's so fun. And I love taking them to Disney world. They have this place on earth and they do sell like licorice at this new world. So that's good too. So, yeah, and I started my first business right out of high school.I'm not, intrepreneur sure. I've had businesses my whole life and and I run a nonprofit organization. I coached [00:08:00] varsity volleyball for 25 years and just whatever, been active and busy. And I've written a couple of books. De'Vannon: You know what? That's not a bad life. Kim: No, It's a great life.De'Vannon: It's not a bad life at all because you've, you've taken risks. You understand failure. You tell me about, tell me about at any point in your life where you failed at something, maybe it was a business, something that you try to do, and it didn't work out. Cause I wanted to illustrate because clearly you didn't get discouraged and you kept trying, and business can be a bitch to get into all the obstacles, the paperwork, the documentation.There's not really a clear path. And in, so sometimes we fail and we don't try again. So tell me about a time that you tried to do something. It just didn't work out.Kim: Yeah. Well, there's more than one of those stories to tell. I'll tell you that. I tried different businesses over the years. I was in business [00:09:00] on some businesses with my, my brother and my dad and some businesses alone and whatever. But we one business that didn't work out for me was fine dining. I have a golf course and and banquet facilities. So we do events, but we had fine dining. And that was, that's a tough road, man. Anybody in the restaurant business, I have so much respect for. I've been in the catering business for years, you know exactly how many people are coming, what time they're coming and what they're eating.Restaurant business is a whole different game, even staffing and knowing what food to have on hand and everything else. And there's so much loss of food and you can overstaff, or you can understand it. It's the, there's such a science to it. And to have one standalone restaurant and survive is amazing miracle hats off to those people.A lot of times you need more than one to [00:10:00] share expense and true income coming in. So yeah, that's that's, that's somebody, I have a whole lot of respect for people in the restaurant. This. De'Vannon: Yeah, I've been a server I've worked in restaurants. I've worked for catering companies. Yeah, it's, it's a bitch of an industry to be in, especially in the states because of the attitude that, that is here. You know, this may be the last country on the planet that actually still tip servers rather than just paying them, being fucking done with it.So I've wanted to highlight that because you know, with the pandemic and everything, people, you know, the world has. Like a sun has arisen over us. And I'm thankful for the disruption of the Corona virus, because it's shaken a lot of people up out of their bullshit as lie of a life that they had told themselves they were.But what I'm saying is that they were living a life that they really weren't happy with in the first place, they were lying to themselves and [00:11:00] accepting that as reality, they weren't happy. So the Corona virus took them away from the delusion long enough to get a new perspective. And then so a lot of people didn't go back to the bullshit.However, just because they're on a new path, doesn't mean it's going to be all gravy and flowers. You know, Dick sucking and all of that, you know, this is going to be some fuckery along the way. And so what, what, what words of encouragement that you say to people who are new to entrepreneurship, especially in this time that we live with so many people are, are trying new things and it doesn't matter if it's, you know, starting your own Lyft or Uber business, you're still an entrepreneur, you know, what would you say.Kim: I would say, do not give up. Don't give up. Don't give up. No, there been so many stories, story after story of people who their first try failed for second, try failed. Their third thing failed, you know, whatever in the publishing world. There's one of the books that has sold more books than [00:12:00]practically any other book in the world, maybe any other book in the world is the chicken soup for the soul series.If you've heard of it, I'm Jack Canfield and they had 144 rejections before they got a publisher to publish their book 144 and they have sold 650 million books. 650 million books. That's Yeah.no kidding. And so, so you look at that and go, well, what if they would've stopped at 1 42. And just given up, right.Harry Potter was rejected 11 times before publisher said yes. What if she wouldn't? What if JK Rowling's would have stopped that number 10 and just didn't put it out there anymore. Just don't give up. Don't believe in what you're doing. Work your butt off. Realize that entrepreneurship is the hardest road you sometimes I think people look at it and go, oh gosh, you're [00:13:00] your own boss?True. Oh gosh, you can set your own hours. Yes. But your own hours are more than anybody else. That's going to work for you. And you have to do everything alone at first, you know, like it takes up a long time to be in business before you take a vacation. So it's it's the hardest work you'll ever do.The most rewarding work you'll ever do. And really you, your name, your own price, you know, however hard you decide to work, whatever you decide to put into it is what you're going to get at. De'Vannon: Correct. And I couldn't agree more from having my own businesses and everything like that. It's bittersweet in that aspect. Like you do call your own shots. So it depends on what your value system is. Like. I value freedom. I love to come and go as I please. And I don't like being told what to do.Therefore, even though I got to go out there and hustle and make my own money every day, [00:14:00]my mental health is in a better state because I would rather the pressure of having to make my own money than to have a dumb ass boss telling me what to do and dumb ass coworkers, fucking up my vibe. Kim: So the military was great for you then. De'Vannon: the military and suck my fucking Dick.But yeah, I was 17 when I went to the military. I don't recommend that. You don't recommend it at all. Nothing. Since we mentioned Ms. JK Rowling, I always like to say, fuck you, JK Rowling for for being a damn turf, you know, and tariff is a trans exclusionary radical feminist because he has those strong views against like in like, you know, people, women who transitioned because he's like, I'm a real woman.Those bitches are not. So she's. Kim: I didn't know that about her. De'Vannon: Oh, God Google it. This bitch has been being bragged for filth and by the gay community of the two S LGBTQ plus community [00:15:00] for quite a while now, because she has liked certain posts and say a certain things, especially on her damn Twitter, I think so we love her forgiving us, Harry Potter.We love her for giving us the gay Dumbledore that was at a cute little sneak attack that she, you know, did that, or at least the fact that he was gay after all the books came out. So I appreciate the fuck out of her for that, but so she's not like against the gay people, but I don't like how she is against the trans girls to, you know, Kim: Yeah, that's too bad. Yeah. De'Vannon: it is too bad, but, you know, so she's bittersweet, you know, you know, and that's just where I stand on that. So, so let's talk about. The cancer. So some of my research and you, it wasn't just you who had cancer, you had breast cancer and said your husband had pancreatic pancreatic cancer. Now it's not very often. I talked to a person who were two people in their household had cancer at the same time. So walk me through the emotion.I [00:16:00] want to know where you were when you found out he had cancer. When you had cancer, where you were physically and where you were mentally.Kim: Yeah, well, hopefully this will be valuable to people. I was 47 years old when I found out I had cancer and I Fought getting a mammogram because I thought, oh, it's just a medical system making money. There's no breast cancer in my history that I would know if I had cancer. Like I just, I fought getting them a grams.And so I did not get them every year. Like you're supposed to, they're painful. They're horrible. It was obviously a man who invented the machine that turns your breast into a pancake. It is not a comfortable thing to have to do. And so I, I didn't want to do it. So I, I had you know, but like every few years and you're supposed to go more often than I, I was going.So my doctor convinced me to go and I went, I actually went to the [00:17:00] doctor because I tend to sell well. And she said, you know, you've not had a mammogram for a while. You really need to go. And so I went kicking and screaming and I said, Poor sweet ladies that were working at the Betty Ford clinic. I said, I am not having to be here.Like, this is ridiculous. I, this is a waste of my time. I'm a busy person. I shouldn't even have to be here doing this. And they were very sweet and very nice and did the mammogram, and then they make you wait. And then they wanted to do an ultrasound and they did that and they scheduled me for biopsy. And I was like, this is such a waste of time.There is no way there's anything wrong. And then on a Friday afternoon, two days after my birthday, actually, I wish I had a couple of my grandbabies in the bathtub and my phone rang at like three o'clock in the afternoon. And and they said Kim, the biopsies back, and you have breast cancer.And [00:18:00] that's pretty much all I heard. It was like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We'll call you on Tuesday. I was like, what? And they're calling me on a Friday afternoon, you know, and I watch lifetime movies. I like the lifetime good lifetime movie. And that never happens that way. You get called into the office.They tell you face to face. You can ask questions, you know, it's the big dramatic moment, right? No, they called me on the phone on a flip and Friday afternoon when I can ask no questions. That was frustrating to me. And so anyway, I didn't even know how to react. I started crying. I called my husband on the phone.He was at work and, and I could, could barely get the words out and, and it seemed like seconds later he was there and any did the right thing. All of you who have a significant other out there, he did, this is what you should do. He just grabbed me and held me. He just held me and we cried together.Cause we [00:19:00] didn't know what the future health and that cancer word is a scary, scary word. And so the next day I went to the bookstore and all the books about breast cancer were either very depressing or just medical. And I thought, I want to know what it's going to feel like. I want to know what it's like, you know, and I knew better than.Go tracing things on the internet because you see things you don't ever want to see. And so so I started writing actually, it was incredible therapy for me, but it was, I started out just as a way to inform friends and family. Instead of calling everybody, can't go to the doctor tomorrow, you know, whatever.But my writing turned into way more than, than just I'm going to the doctor tomorrow. It was what I was going through. And there are so many choices you have to make, like, one of the choices is I had the choice. I [00:20:00] had to have a mastectomy, but to take off one side or both. And I didn't know. I mean, how do you know what to do?I've never been through this before. I didn't know what the right answer was. And we were sitting around the table, a dinner table one night and talking about it. And I said, I don't, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I've got to make a decision. And one of my son said, mom, Would you get new siding on just half the house?And I went alcohol. Good point you're right. Yeah, we'll go for, we'll go for two here. So anyway, so like I was writing, continued to write my, my husband started having stomach issues. And so it was early September that I was diagnosed that I got the phone call and then the end of September, his stomach was hurting.He went to the doctor and they said, take some Rolaids it's because your wife has cancer, you know, whatever. You're just nervous. And then November, he went back again because it wasn't getting any better. And they told him the same thing, gave him [00:21:00] an appointment for a gastro guy. And the day that his appointment was not until January, it took forever to get into somebody.But the next day I was having a complete hysterectomy and so at a colonoscopy. So I was doing a clean-out the day that he went in. So I wasn't going to. Farther than five feet from my bathroom. And so he went by himself and I was the mouth. So I would have asked a hundred questions. He just went and didn't really ask questions and they did nothing.They basically told him the same thing. It's just, you're just nervous. You don't take some, Rolaids take some Tums, whatever. And I was so mad, but I couldn't really do anything about it. When he came home and told me, you know, whatever, and then the next day I had surgery and so week out of surgery and they found bladder cancer too, during my surgery, whatever.But anyways, so I was still healing and I [00:22:00] woke up in the morning. And he was sitting up in bed and did not look good. And he said, guy, my stomach, it kept me up. I just couldn't sleep. And I said, that's it go to the ER, because they'll do something, you know, at least they'll do something. The doctors are doing nothing.At least I'll run a test, they'll do something. So he drove himself to the emergency room. And my husband was a rule follower. So it said no cell phones in the emergency room. So his cell phone was off. So I'm waiting and waiting and waiting for him to call me. And as I'm still in pajamas watching reruns of Grey's anatomy or something, you know?And so he finally, he called and he said, Well, I guess they're going to keep me off or night. And I'm like, keep you overnight. They don't keep anybody overnight. Like, what are you talking about? Keep you overnight. And so I threw on like human clothing and ran out the door. And in my Vicodin ado, state drove like a bat outta [00:23:00] hell, down the highway to get to the hospital to find out what was going on.And shortly before I got there, my phone rang again and he said I guess there's a spot on my liver. I just started bawling. I could barely see to drive and I don't even remember parking. I just remember running in holding body parts because I had surgery after surgery and I was in pain, but I was, I went running through the door and they told me where he was and he was behind a curtain and I whipped back the curtain and he's just sitting on the edge of the bed.Like nothing is going on is I am balling, I'm sobbing. And, and he said I'm not going to invite you places anymore. If this is the way you're going to behave. And I said, wait a minute, you are not allowed to be funny right now. So it took us a couple of days. He spent a few more days in the hospital and they did some biopsies and a colonoscopy.They did whatever. And so it took [00:24:00] a few days for us to get a diagnosis. And I, I was fighting the doctors every step of the way they, they came in and said that his blood work, that they never saw levels like that. There's some, there's some cancer markers that they, they can tell on your, in your blood. And and the doctor came in and said he never saw the numbers like that.Never that high, never that high. And, and I'm like, well, then the lab screwed up re rewrite. When he said, no, no, no mistake with the lab. I said, really, your lab never makes a mistake. They must've made a mistake. You know, they, they act love if you've never seen numbers like this. And he's like, Nope, Nope, whatever.Anyway, I fought it and fought it, but you know, not that my fighting did any good of course, but so then when we got his diagnosis, I was actually back in the hospital again, because I was doing too much, I think, out of surgery and ended up with a bad kidney infection. And so he's [00:25:00] being released as I'm being admitted and it was just a mess.And but then we got his diagnosis and of pancreatic cancer. And that is just the worst kind. I mean, you know, with. Breast cancer has come a long way. You know, there's different kinds of breast cancer, but it sure has come a long way, you know, but pancreatic cancer just hasn't like, there just isn't a cure.And so we knew what that meant. And so we just. Started praying, man, you know, some miracle give us a miracle, like like the lame and the blind and the deaf got, you know, back in Jesus days and or the greatest miracle of heaven, but don't let them suffer was our prayer. And we had a great time together actually. Funny [00:26:00] as that may sound, we watched cash cab every day and we just enjoyed being together and spent the whole time together thinking that he had a year, they were saying probably a year. And six weeks, six weeks later, he all the whole six weeks were, were really pretty good. He, he wasn't in.And our prayer was being answered. And then but the last couple hours of his life, he was miserable. And he I called hospice to come and help with more meds or, you know, whatever to get them comfortable again. And I was holding him. He was sitting on the edge of the bed because it hurt to lay down and I was just holding him from behind.And I just felt his pain, just the agony, absolute agony that he was in at that time. And, and I just whispered in his ear as a baby, just go. And he did. That was it. He took his last [00:27:00] breath and, and that was, that was it. And it was crushing, because I was still in love with him. And after all those years, we were married a month shy of 29 years.That was 47 years old. And I expected to be that couple rocking on the porch, drinking lemonade, you know, too old to do anything else. And we were going to grow old together. And so it was quite a shock loose him because it wasn't just losing him. It was losing the dream of our future. We had just become empty-nesters and we're so looking forward to that, and I don't know why if you get to run around and make it, or I don't know what it is about that, but we were so looking forward to that, and finally it happened for us.And I believe in [00:28:00] an afterlife, I believe in heaven. And my husband was. An amazing guy who was faithful and true and a great friend of people, an incredible boss people who had great respect for him, he was generous and kind. And so I've never begrudged him. I've never like been angry at him for dying.Like I'm happy for him. Like at 51 years old to never pay a bill again, you know, or have to worry about illness or anything. Go him. Like he did it, he ran the race and finished strong and, and I miss him like crazy. If he walks through the door right now, I'd be the happiest person on earth. But I know it's not going to happen.And so I still had to deal with my stuff. You know, I had to deal with, with my cancer still, and I had to deal with life [00:29:00] now without the love of my life. And. Wasn't sure what life was going to bring. And, but I was sure one thing, I was not gonna stay in the grief. I wasn't gonna let that bring me down.I've known people that stay there. You know what I mean? Do you know people like that, that they lose somebody and they just kind of can't overcome it. They, they don't see a way out of it. And I was determined that, that I, I know there were things that happened that I wouldn't choose. I wouldn't choose to have cancer.I wouldn't choose to lose my husband and I wouldn't choose for him to have cancer, but the choices that I can make are how I'm going to live now. And I can choose to be joyful. And I can choose to embrace life and enjoy it and, and I can choose to be happy. And [00:30:00] though, so those are the choices I decided I would make.De'Vannon: Well to answer your question. Yes. I do know people who tend to get stuck in grief particularly over the death of people with. You know, it's perspective and our value system, you know, well, one thing you have in your favor is that you have an understanding of the life to come in the world to come.Usually when people die, they don't actually see still exist, you know, and, and we get people coming back to visit us in dreams and all sorts of stuff who have passed on. And this is evidence of what I'm telling you. You know, our more permanent form is our spirit form anyway. So when we die, we really become our truest selves.At that point, you know, we here on the earth are actually not yet at our highest state of evolution. So when people, and I'm seeing people cry and fall all over the casket at funerals and everything is all very dramatic, you know, what, what, what, what I feel like people really cry [00:31:00] for it. Death is the fact of.Whatever this person brought to their lives. You know, there are people who are crying over what that person can do for them anymore. Whether it's not bringing them, whether they're bringing them some sort of comfort or whatever, you know, oh my God, this person has gone. How am I going to move on? We'll see.That's really all about you. You know, from there, from the dead person's perspective, they're like peace out, you know, hell yeah. You know, I get the rest now. So I don't cry for the dad anymore because I was, I was at the hospital when my pastor died and she was like a mother to me. And that's what changed my perspective on it because she was like, okay, Yep.Yeah. She's 80 years old. She's like Bundy getting my wings. I'm not leaving this hospital, but y'all y'all are then it was just me, her and her husband was sleeping on the couch and I had served them as like their alter bore and assistant throughout high school. And so I w I went to the hospital that night.I wasn't expecting her to die. You know, it was like, okay, she'll get a miracle, you know, really [00:32:00] powerful prophetess, you know, religious woman and everything like that. I'm like, you know, very clever way and everything, you know, she can't die, you know? So she just had me like, call like one of her daughters and, you know, her daughter that lived in Texas. And, you know, and then everything is kind of like when, you know, went from there and then she did die. And I'm like, you know, I heard that last, like some call it like a death, how that lasts like gas. Life, you know, the part from her, but she was so happy. She wasn't regretting anything to you. Like I'm not in any pain.I feel totally great. Life's been great. Bye. Kim: Yeah. De'Vannon: You had like the best attitude ever. So, and then I cried because okay. I was okay. I was just been with somebody, they die. This is a first. And so but now I was like, you know what? She was really happy about this whole death thing. Old, what the fuck am I crying for?Kim: Yeah, [00:33:00] right. I mean, yeah. I, I think you're absolutely, you're hitting the nail on the head. I mean, we do, we, we mourn for ourselves, right. I cried for?them and we, they got it made, you know, we're the ones. In fact, during the time during that six weeks with my husband, there were times I would just start crying because I just couldn't help it.And, you know, try to be all tough for him, whatever. And I just started crying and he just would me and hold me. And he'd say, don't cry for me. Cry for me, cry for you. But don't cry for me. De'Vannon: He told you, right. And he had a good mind. He's like a very wise Sage. And look, I get that kids are going to die and stuff like that. And it really rips my heart apart when, when marriage is in ended because of the death of a child, I've never been in that situation only once in my life have I heard heard it said where a couple lost the kid.And they were like, you know what, we're thankful for the time God gave us what that kid made, the kid [00:34:00] was 17, but, and then they move it on. Not saying it was just that either. I don't know if they went to counseling or whatever, but you know, it's about perspective even in the death of like a kid, you know, that kid belongs to God first, before it does to the, before that he, before that individual does to the parents.And so. You know, we can have a plan for our child, but God might have other plans. And so we gotta be willing to let those plans go, you know, you know, shit, something in, and you know, sometimes we're just too married to how we think someone else's life is supposed to go supposed to end or even our own, you know, but they're there in lies the differences between somebody who has surrender to God and who not, you know, so Kim: Right. De'Vannon: it's easier to deal with the bad things in life.If you understand it all, doesn't have to go in whatever sort of way that you've already processed it in your head. Like it's going to be. And so. You mentioned [00:35:00] that they left your cancer diagnosis on a voicemail. So they left my, my doctors left my HIV diagnosis on a voicemail. It was a Saturday night, new year's Eve and much the same way, like man, really on a Saturday night, new year's Eve, you couldn't have would've fucking waited until like Monday on like on the second, you know,Kim: Oh, my word De'Vannon: So let me say to doctors in medical professions out there, just because we may or may not sign some shit that says you can leave voicemails.We mean, we still need you to exercise some modicum of discretion about what you choose to. It doesn't mean you're just billing everything on there. We like to hear good shit, good test results, appointment reminders. If it's a life altering diagnosis, even though we may have given you permission, just because you can doesn't mean you should.We would very much like you to bring us into the office and tell us if we have HIV cancer or something else, do not leave it on a voicemail and not on a Friday or Saturday night when we're trying to enjoy our [00:36:00] damn wine.Kim: Yeah, new year, happy new year. Oh, my word. I think too, like with the medical profession, like they have to deliver news like that. So often that maybe they just become a little, yeah. A little callous. Right. And so they're not necessarily paying attention to the calendar or time of day or you know how they're doing It but man, if it's something that two days or three days, isn't going to make a difference in your life, you know, health wise wait the two or three days for goodness sake.Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy.De'Vannon: It matters how we deliver bad news to people. And I didn't learn this or know it until I got that voicemail. It just does like the setting, the atmosphere, you know, I never talked to a psychologist, smart doctors bring a person. And even in the case of cancer, I would imagine you want to have the mental health staff.You want to have everybody [00:37:00] right there in the room, so that that person doesn't run out and go do something to hurt themselves. You know, something like that, you know, cause you never know what a per house person might react. And by leaving a voicemail, you Rob with the patient of the luxuries, I'm not even the luxury of the bare minimum necessities of having all the care there or at least set the appointments before they leave.I never talked to a doctor about it again, really. I never went to a, a mental health. I decided that I was going to die. And so then I became homeless and then I started getting arrested and everything. And so, you know, I had the wrong perception of what HIV was, but I wasn't in a doctor's office to get any education.And they told me the word infectious disease. And I was like, fuck, I don't want to go talk to those people. It sounds disgusting. So I was freaked out by the name of everything and I just ran. I ran ran from it.Kim: I, I can't say as I blame you, I mean, you know, HIV is certainly things have [00:38:00] changed a lot over the years, right? As far as medications, treatments and whatever, but there was a time, not that long ago that that was a death sentence. And I would think that's the first thing that's going to come to your mind is, oh my gosh, it.HIV I'm going to die.Is that what you thought? Like, is that what you were thinking?De'Vannon: It did, because at that time in Houston, when I was living in Houston, Texas, I would walk into like a gay bar and be like, Hey, where's Timmy or whatever. And they'd be like, oh, he died. He had aids or another fellow drug dealer of mine die from aids. Someone when I was growing up, when I was younger, died from aids, everyone I knew had died from aids.And so it doesn't matter how far the medication has come and the science has come and how well something can be treated if somebody doesn't know that that is just like, well, they don't know that. So, and so if you, and I didn't know that. And I didn't know anyone living a healthy life that I was good friends with.You know, [00:39:00] I might've talked to at many, met a guy on a hookup app that may have had HIV, but having sex with somebody and being okay that they're HIV positive is not really, they didn't really give me insight into exactly how they were living it. And I pushed that out of my mind because I just wanted Dick.And so I, didn't never, I didn't look at that as an opportunity to explore how one could live healthily with the virus, because I was just horny and trying to fuck, you know, so I let an opportunity pass me by, but you know, I have a different perspective about things now. I want you to you've mentioned that the mammogram was like turning like the breast and into if the pancakes and that it's a painful experience that, you know, a woman isn't probably gonna look forward to.What, what can you, what can you tell me about this machine and what it, what it does, but I'm trying to imagine the sort of torture device that you see.Kim: It's exactly what it is. You you like, you put your arm [00:40:00] up and try to get as close into the machine as you possibly can. And then it literally squishes you from the top and bound me, you know, like turn a knob or something and it goes farther and farther, farther, and it. Wishes you in there. It is painful.And I I don't know if it's better, if you're big busted or small breasted, I don't know what the difference would be. I've always known Ben well, in doubt. And so I, I had a lot to squished and it hurts. I mean, it, it, other women, maybe we're fortunate enough to have different experiences than I did, but any mammogram I ever had her like, crazy, like that was one of the blessings of may having a double mastectomy is I would never have to have another mammogram and I'm okay with that.But cause there's gotta be some silver lining. Right. But yeah, it just, it just goes squishes. Yeah. And yeah, that hurts. [00:41:00]De'Vannon: Damn. I wish I wish I thought you were telling me like what the blood work that they can detect, you know, there's cancer markers, but I wish that y'all could just get blood work done instead, but clearly that's not the case. Otherwise they wouldn't be making you go through the mammogram. So gosh, girls, I, I have the utmost respect for women, you know, from the, from having studied the the period, the menstrual cycles during the massage therapy, which.I'm telling you become a massage therapist, you have to learn so much, so much about the anatomy, things that in the body you'll never touch. And so just learning about how y'all's bodies change when you're trying to bear a child and everything like that and everything that's going on, you know, in the different, or, or Oregon's in the different anatomical structure of a female, you know, I have so much respect for women.You know, y'all are, y'all are strong, you know, mentally and physically and everything like [00:42:00]that. And in my opinion, quite unbreakable.Kim: Ah, I love that. I agree. I think women, we have to be strong and I think we need to support each other more than what we do sometimes. Like there should be a sisterhood, you know, like we should be supportive of each other and, and aren't always, you know, we can be, sometimes we can be the worst enemies and it shouldn't be like that.Like, There should be this strong bond between us. Cause we, we do have to put up with a lot. So then what happens is we put up with a sense from the time we were 10, 11, 12 years old, right. We have to deal with, with periods and cramps and pain. And then childbirth is no joyful moment. You know, it's nice.You get a baby at the end, but but it's hard, you know, and painful and pregnancy can be tough and all of that. And so then later in life, when men, you have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom more often because of [00:43:00] prostate issues, it's sort of payback in a way. It's like, oh, the one thing that the money I have to deal with kind of my, yeah, De'Vannon: Well boys, boys with better mind what energy we send out there, because it's going to come back to us later on. Kim: that's right. De'Vannon: So I played women, great respect. I identify more women than I do men, nothing against men. I mean, I like to go both ways and all the different ways that I can in the world sexually speaking, and, you know, spiritually speaking and energetically speaking for them to feel like a man to another, feel like a woman I'm not confused.I just want it all. AndKim: know, you know, the beauty of that is that I really believe that God created people to be who they are. And there are so many people out there that don't feel like they can live their authentic self, their real self, right. Because of things that they were taught growing up, or a lot of times churches doing so.much damage to [00:44:00] people saying, oh gosh, you can't be like that.Like my daughter had probably, I don't know if I should be saying this on the radio, but it's okay. But my daughter married a man. And she got pregnant on her honeymoon and when she was in the hospital delivering. He told her he was gay and wanted out of the marriage. And, but he grew up in the super strict Baptist home where you're not allowed to be gay.You know that that's a sin. Well, not all that creates you. How God creates you. You be who you are. Like there's beauty in that there's beauty in the diversity, right? People should just be allowed to be who they are without judgment or condemnation. Just be who God created you to be. De'Vannon: Fuck. When I was in California, I went through this phase where I was trying to pray the gay away, and there is a documentary and I I've been keeping this in my show notes for. Shit since it came out. So it's been a running thing [00:45:00] that I've had in my show notes for quite some time, it's called pray away.There's a documentary on Netflix about the old exited Exodus conversion therapy movement. The people who used to run that who supposedly got converted and were ungay and told everybody else has changed their ways, which resulted in suicides and deaths. Well, now they're still gay and they've come back to spill all the tea about the Exodus movement and how bullshit conversion therapy really.And so I do recommend that, that, that fucking documentary to everybody, it is some tea being spill, pour your wine, get your favorite beverage out, roll you up a blunt, whatever it is that you do, because that shit is to piss you off. But it's real. But I went through that too. I got me a girlfriend. I hung out with straight guys. I tried to fast and pray as Jesus to make me ungay and it didn't work. And I dated this girl for six months and ultimately I ended up just breaking her heart because the shit wasn't real, you know? And so where did I ever learn that something was wrong with me from the church? You know, God never [00:46:00] told me that, you know, it, look, y'all not every preacher is preaching.The truth is that we've got to get past this believing this, that somebody is on a pool pit or on television or in a suit up on a platform like they know better than, than, than you do. They don't Kim: Right. Exactly. Yeah. That, that, and and that is not the church, you know, it's churches that hurt people. God's not hurting. Right. And so sometimes people get angry about what they've been taught in church, and then they realize that they've been taught wrong, or the church that they went to can be so harsh or, you know, whatever.And that's church's fault. You know, that that unfortunately reflects on God in some people's eyes, but it's not God that God loves that is love. That's what it says in John, that God is love. Not that he loves, but that he is loved. Like in love, love, doesn't do that. Love. Doesn't [00:47:00] make people fit into some box because people are more comfortable with it loved to let you be who you are love.Just allows you to live your real self and without judgment, without thinking that you're better than, or higher than, or no more or whatever. De'Vannon: I agree with what you're saying, Kim, it, and it will take some time for people to accept that sort of truth and then internalize it, you know, because we're, we believe what we are taught growing up until we come into independent thinking. That's why I appreciate the mindfulness movement that's happening right now.And the, the push for autonomous mental thought. When I got kicked out of Lakewood church in Houston, Texas for not being straight, it caused a rift between me and God. Now I hadn't been in church. And like I said, serving my past and all of that until I was in high school and went to the military, I always held a volunteer position in church.They kicked me out and that [00:48:00] stopped me from praying is a, why did that happen? Because I had conflated. The God in the church as to one. And no, that was not, I was not as mature as I thought I was. And I was not as spiritually strong as I thought I was because had that happened. I should've just said, okay, well fuck this church, but not fuck the God.And I just said, fuck everything you see. And so, but now I would never do that because now I finally get, as I'm almost 40 years old, you know, that there's a difference in between the physical church and God himself. And the two should never church, as I say, a church is nothing more than an accessory to your spiritual walk, your most valuable time to be your alone time with God, so that when these pastors show up in their fucking scandals and when they do dumb shit, like kick us out for not being straight and the, in the straight people see them, see their friends getting abused by churches for not being straight.You know, we can still keep our relationship with God. So Jerry [00:49:00] Falwell, Jr. Did you see his latest bullshit? You know, after all of his shit, he finally came out in an article and said that he, that it was all a ruse, him running the that fucking seminary that his dad created and trying to do all that.He said, it's all a lie. He wasn't ever about all that. He wants to just, you know, do him. And that is not who he is. He ain't about all this Jesus stuff. So finally just fucking admitted it, bitch. Should we knew that because you know, when he had to address the pool boy scandal, you got, you got the pool boys running around and you got your, your pants unzip.And while you taking selfies with a bitch, that's not your fucking wife. We knew. So that whole message was to his brain fucked church followers and his evangelicals and everything like that. Like boy, and by we already knew.Kim: Yeah.but knowing, and then somebody admitting meeting two things, right? Like it can be hard when you're, when you're in the [00:50:00] spotlight and, you know, I think it can be easy for people to get wrapped up in ego. And I mean, how many people we've seen fall and it, and it can, the higher you build your pedestal the longer the fall is down.And it's sad to see. It's sad to see for sure. De'Vannon: His pedestal was fake though. But what you said is what he said. He was like, it was so much pressure to live up to this expectation of his dad, but you know, or he could have said, you know what, dad, fuck you. This is not who I am. I'm going to go have my pants up and on cruise ships and fucking pool boys.That's what I want to do. Okay. That's what you want to do, Jerry. Then go have your three ways and bring whatever, you know, we always have a choice. And so the let's make sure our pedestal is built on truth and not on a lie.Kim: Yeah, for sure. For sure. De'Vannon: So, [00:51:00] so, so we're going to close to the end of our hour here. We're definitely going to have you back on because you wrote two books one's called love is, and the other one's called cry and tell you lab. And we haven't had time to get into them at a feeling this would happen because you have so much substance going on with you.And sometimes I might have to have someone back on my show two or three or four times or whatever the case may be. And if that's the case, you know what, so be it then. But I want to talk about Haiti a little bit because God bless that nation. You know, they've been through so much. And I really want to shine a spotlight on, on Haitian people.I really, really do. And it seems like you have a strong heart for Haiti, and I love how then I was reading your book. You went there for the first time in the year 2000, and you were like talking about the poverty and the, the, the, the rank air and everything. And you it's like, you were fighting, falling in love with it, but nevertheless, here you are.And you're still in love with it. Sometimes in life. I've had that experience where my [00:52:00] first brush with something I'm like, I feel indifferent for it, or like I'm propelled by it. And really at the end of the day, I was falling in love with it. And I was like some of my favorite things, things that I hated at first, I find love now more than anything else.And I read that in the story. So the hate has been through so much. And when they had that last earthquake, a relative in my family said some stupid fucking shit like this. He was like, okay, just because of all that witchcraft they have down there, this is why this punishment has come upon them. And which I responded to his ignorance just a little bit.I was like, I'd probably say, it's something like, if you're not going to pray about them or speak something positive, then shut the fuck up because you don't know what the fuck they're doing. You know, he's never been Haiti. You know, he doesn't have, he's drawing all these conclusions from a distance yet.We'll speak about it as if it's fact. And so that shit pisses me off. And so [00:53:00] you've lived among the people. And so you have every right to have written the things that you have written. So I want you totell, to speak to me about your joy and your love for Haiti. And then I want to talk about the voodoo before we, before we wrap up, and then we're going to talk about the book in depth. The next time I have you back on and we're in really, really, really talk about Haiti alive.Kim: Yeah, I do. I love, I love Haiti. You know, people are people all over the world and we tend to put labels on people, right? Republican, Democrat, Bexar anti-vaxxer Haitia and America, and, you know, whatever, we, we put labels on people, but people aren't, their labels. You know, a person is not a label that we all have our names.We're all individuals. We all have our names and people are people all over the world. Haitian. [00:54:00] People, unfortunately, that are living in Haiti. You know, it's the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. The average Haitian eats three meals a week. Most do not have clean water. So they've got water that makes them sick.They had an earthquake in 2010 that killed over 200,000 people. And then the UN police that are there are supposed to be peacekeepers there. They end up putting their latrines way too close to the river, which is a source of water for people. They bathe in it, they wash their clothes in it, like it it's life to them.And because their latrines were too close, they introduced cholera into the country, Colorado that had, hadn't been in the country for a hundred years now, cholera's back in Haley and lots of people, thousands of people have died because of cholera because of the UN police. And it's it's. It is it's kind of thing after thinking of, to saying.Haiti is wonderful, wonderful, [00:55:00] incredible, loving people that are living in really tough conditions is really what it comes down to. And I think there's a misconception, like in some people's minds, poverty and laziness go together and poverty and laziness have nothing to do with each other. There, they shouldn't even be in the same sentence.What, what people in Haiti lack is opportunity. There are no jobs. We've done so much damage to Haiti. The world bank has done a lot of damage to Haiti. Other countries have done the understand Haiti because people make money on poverty. And so it's two people in this world's advantage financially, take heap people down and keep them living in poverty, which is. The biggest crime of all probably. Right. And so it's not a lack of intelligence. It's not a lack of [00:56:00] work ethic. It's that keeps them in poverty. It is it is lack of opportunity. It is lack of opportunity. I don't know, a lazy Haitian I'm sure. You know, like anything else there's going to be lazy people, but I don't know any people that I know work hard and, and take opportunities to work when, when the opportunity is there.It's just not always, there is the problem. And voodoo, I think is so misunderstood. You know, w we, if we break a mirror at seven years of bad luck, or, you know, a black cat crosses your path or Friday the 13th, or don't walk under a ladder, like we have our own superstitions. Right. And they're just sort of cultural superstitions within our country.And We have movies based on our cultural superstitions. Well, voodoo there's cultural voodoo. It's not all just on a [00:57:00] religious voodoo there's cultural voodoo. And so some of the beliefs, some of the, you know, things like if you pick up a baby from behind that baby is not going to grow to haul, you know, some things like that, that we'd go, what are they talking about? Well, they go, what are you talking about? You can't walk under a ladder, right? You can open an umbrella inside. You know, I mean, each culture probably has their own set of those kinds of things, but people love Jesus and have voodoo in their life at the same time. And one does not have to exclude the other because voodoo, I think people think of zombies or they think of, of animal sacrifice or human sacrifice, whole.Buddha is so much more than that. There are so few doctors and so little healthcare in the entire country that there are Buddha doctors and you don't just become one. You know, your dad was one. So your one, your grandpa, your great grandpa, and it [00:58:00] is herbal remedies and different ways to handle health issues.That's what a voodoo doctor does. It's not about curses and whatever. It's about, you know, they're in a community, there's no healthcare anywhere that you can walk to that you can get to at all. So there's a doctor basically in the community and there are some I'm sure, very valuable things we could probably learn from them with natural remedies. like you were talking about Blackwood for sure earlier, right? And that's Buddha, they're a voodoo doctor, but they're not. Skin and animals, you know what I mean? It's, there is some of that, certainly some extreme voodoo like there's extreme, anything else. But I would say, I mean, I don't know the statistic, but I know a whole lot of people in Haiti and people that I know it's they're culturally, there's voodoo, but they're not sacrificing [00:59:00] anything.They're not, you know, some of the stuff you see in movies or read in books or whatever, that's not happening. They're just people living like we're living in and it's part of their culture.De'Vannon: Well, like you said, there's two sides to everything. You have the extreme size of it and the bad side of it. When I have you go on the next time, we're going to get more into the vote. And I'm going to talk about the experience that I had when I was in high school, where somebody practiced the negative side of voodoo on me.Kim: Oh, I can't wait to hear about it. De'Vannon: And because they're both, they're both the true, you know, you have a, and then, you know, I have a couple of voodoo stories that I live here in Louisiana and voodoo is a big thing, voodoo who do whatever you want to call it, especially down in new Orleans, you know, it's serious. We, we actually still have a place called Marie.Lavos a house of voodoo, which I think is the house she used to live in. And it was soon turned into like a [01:00:00] store in her honor. You can go there and buy candles and voodoo dolls and different sort of magic accessories to do your magic craft with and stuff like that. And I love American horror story.Season three is about the a, which is the new Orleans. And and there Angela Bassett plays Marie Laveau in in, in American horror story coven is what it's called. And it's just very, it's very entertaining as the kick ass, the way that they portrayed her. But you mentioned two, two things that I wanted to touch on, and then I will let you have our last word. You mentioned that poverty and laziness, you know, you're not overly fond of those two things being coupled together. I wanted to give you a nod on that because the same, the same dumb ass relative who was talking shit about the Haitian people after they suffered the tragedy of the second earthquake than a reason of relatively short amount of time. We were driving around one day and somebody was like [01:01:00] homeless and he was all like, oh, I know they just go somewhere. And like in a program, you know, like fix that or whatever. Okay. And I think at this point I had already been homeless before that he said this stupid shit in my presence. And so I agree with you.It's not about laziness. It's about access opportunity. And then I'm going to add to that and say, state of mind, having lived amongst the homeless people and not everybody wants to become homeless, that everybody out there is unhappy. You have people living in mansions who go and fucking kill themselves or other people in the house.You know, there, there could be chaos, you know, in the richest places, but somebody out there shit. When I was in California to see the homeless people, sleeping, sleeping under the Palm trees in Cal, in Santa Monica, you know, They look fine, you know, just because we see somebody and what we consider to be the greatest state doesn't mean that they consider themselves to be in a degraded state of that they're unhappy, or that we need to go run, trying to fix them, or that there's anything [01:02:00]wrong with them being like that.And so, but it's not just because they're lazy or they don't want to work. Maybe they've had everything before they are. They don't want the pressures that come with having a successful life. Maybe they just fucking don't want anyone calling them. They don't fucking want any appointments. They don't want any meetings.They just want to round the street, get high, fuck and just go to fucking sleep.Kim: So funny that you say that I live, I live not in a huge city. It's the second biggest city in Michigan grand rapids. And there are home. We have homeless and I know a lot of them, I live right downtown. I know a lot of them by name and I know people that are afraid of homeless people. And it's like, when was the

272 - Dead Kennedys with Decibel's Justin Norton “Kill the Poor” Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables 1980 T/S #1 Patrick #1- San Fran scene “California Uber Alles” California Uber Alles single 1979 “Let's Lynch the Landlord” Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables 1980 T/S #2 “Pull My Strings”(Live at Bay Area Music Awards) Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death 1980 “Police Truck” Holiday in Cambodia single 1980 “Holiday in Cambodia” Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables 1980 “Drug Me” Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables 1980 “Chemical Warfare” Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables 1980 Patrick #2- Roadie Life Patrick #3- Punks on the Road T/S #3 “I Fought the Law” Play New Rose For Me/Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death 1986 T/S #4 Patrick #6- Logo, Boston, DK Patrick #4- Moon Over Marin “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” In God We Trust, Inc. 1981 “I Am the Owl” Plastic Surgery Disasters 1982 “Moon Over Marin” Plastic Surgery Disasters 1982 “Riot” Plastic Surgery Disasters 1982 “Bleed For Me” Plastic Surgery Disasters 1982 Patrick #8- Alternative Tentacles T/S #5 Patrick #9- Frankenchrist “Soup is Good Food” Frankenchrist 1985 “Goons of Hazard” Frankenchrist 1985 “MTV-Get Off the Air” Frankenchrist 1985 “Chicken Farm” Frankenchrist 1985 Patrick #10- Raid T/S #6 Jello on Oprah (fade out at 3:05) “Jock-O-Rama” Frankenchrist 1985 “Cesspools in Eden” Bedtime in Democracy 1986 “I Spy” Bedtime in Democracy 1986 “Chickenshit Conformist” Bedtime in Democracy 1986 Patrick #5- End of Band Patrick #7- Post DK/Prison/Writing T/S #7 Patrick #12- DK legacy “Stars and Stripes of Corruption” Frankenchrist 1985 Patrick #11- R'ship with Band

Episode 141 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “River Deep Mountain High'”, and at the career of Ike and Tina Turner.  Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Also, this episode was recorded before the sad death of the great Ronnie Spector, whose records are featured a couple of times in this episode, which is partly about her abusive ex-husband. Her life paralleled Tina Turner's quite closely, and if you haven't heard the episode I did about her last year, you can find it at https://500songs.com/podcast/episode-110-be-my-baby-by-the-ronettes/. I wish I'd had the opportunity to fit a tribute into this episode too. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Wild Thing" by the Troggs. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources As usual, all the songs excerpted in the podcast can be heard in full at Mixcloud. Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era by Ken Emerson is a good overview of the Brill Building scene, and I referred to it for the material about Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. I've referred to two biographies of Phil Spector in this episode, Phil Spector: Out of His Head by Richard Williams and He's a Rebel by Mark Ribkowsky. Tina Turner has written two autobiographies. I Tina is now out of print but is slightly more interesting, as it contains interview material with other people in her life. My Love Story is the more recent one and covers her whole life up to 2019. Ike Turner's autobiography Takin' Back My Name is a despicable, self-serving, work of self-justification, and I do not recommend anyone buy or read it. But I did use it for quotes in the episode so it goes on the list. Ike Turner: King of Rhythm by John Collis is more even-handed, and contains a useful discography. That Kat Sure Could Play! is a four-CD compilation of Ike Turner's work up to 1957. The TAMI and Big TNT shows are available on a Blu-Ray containing both performances. There are many compilations available with some of the hits Spector produced, but I recommend getting Back to Mono, a four-CD overview of his career containing all the major singles put out by Philles. There are sadly no good compilations of Ike and Tina Turner's career, as they recorded for multiple labels, and would regularly rerecord the hits in new versions for each new label, so any compilation you find will have the actual hit version of one or two tracks, plus a bunch of shoddy remakes. However, the hit version of "River Deep, Mountain High" is on the album of the same name, which is a worthwhile album to get,. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Today's episode is unfortunately another one of those which will require a content warning, because we're going to be talking about Ike and Tina Turner. For those of you who don't know, Ike Turner was possibly the most famously abusive spouse in the whole history of music, and it is literally impossible to talk about the duo's career without talking about that abuse. I am going to try not to go into too many of the details -- if nothing else, the details are very readily available for those who want to seek them out, not least in Tina's two autobiographies, so there's no sense in retraumatising people who've experienced domestic abuse by going over them needlessly -- but it would be dishonest to try to tell the story without talking about it at all. This is not going to be an episode *about* Ike Turner's brutal treatment of Tina Turner -- it's an episode about the record, and about music, and about their musical career -- but the environment in which "River Deep, Mountain High" was created was so full of toxic, abusive, destructive men that Ike Turner may only be the third-worst person credited on the record, and so that abuse will come up. If discussion of domestic abuse, gun violence, cocaine addiction, and suicide attempts are likely to cause you problems, you might want to read the transcript rather than listen to the podcast. That said, let's get on with the story. One of the problems I'm hitting at this point of the narrative is that starting with "I Fought the Law" we've hit a run of incredibly intertangled stories  The three most recent episodes, this one, and nine of the next twelve, all really make up one big narrative about what happened when folk-rock and psychedelia hit the Hollywood scene and the Sunset Strip nightclubs started providing the raw material for the entertainment industry to turn into pop culture. We're going to be focusing on a small number of individuals, and that causes problems when trying to tell a linear narrative, because people don't live their lives sequentially -- it's not the case that everything happened to Phil Spector, and *then* everything happened to Cass Elliot, and *then* everything happened to Brian Wilson. All these people were living their lives and interacting and influencing each other, and so sometimes we'll have to mention something that will be dealt with in a future episode. So I'll say here and now that we *will* be doing an episode on the Lovin' Spoonful in two weeks. So when I say now that in late 1965 the Lovin' Spoonful were one of the biggest bands around, and possibly the hottest band in the country, you'll have to take that on trust. But they were, and in late 1965 their hit "Do You Believe in Magic?" had made the top ten: [Excerpt: The Lovin' Spoonful, "Do You Believe in Magic?"] Phil Spector, as always, was trying to stay aware of the latest trends in music, and he was floundering somewhat. Since the Beatles had hit America in 1964, the hits had dried up -- he'd produced a few minor hit records in 1964, but the only hits he'd made in 1965 had been with the Righteous Brothers -- none of his other acts were charting. And then the Righteous Brothers left him, after only a year. In late 1965, he had no hit acts and no prospect of having any. There was only one thing to do -- he needed to start making his own folk-rock records. And the Lovin' Spoonful gave him an idea how to do that. Their records were identifiably coming from the same kind of place as people like the Byrds or the Mamas and the Papas, but they were pop songs, not protest songs -- the Lovin' Spoonful weren't doing Dylan covers or anything intellectual, but joyous pop confections of a kind that anyone could relate to. Spector knew how to make pop records like that. But to do that, he needed a band. Even though he had been annoyed at the way that people had paid more attention to the Righteous Brothers, as white men, than they had to the other vocalists he'd made hit records with (who, as Black women, had been regarded by a sexist and racist public as interchangeable puppets being controlled by a Svengali rather than as artists in their own right), he knew he was going to have to work with a group of white male vocalist-instrumentalists if he wanted to have his own Lovin' Spoonful. And the group he chose was a group from Greenwich Village called MFQ. MFQ had originally named themselves the Modern Folk Quartet, as a parallel to the much better-known Modern Jazz Quartet, and consisted of Cyrus Faryar, Henry Diltz, Jerry Yester, and Chip Douglas, all of whom were multi-instrumentalists who would switch between guitar, banjo, mandolin, and bass depending on the song. They had combined Kingston Trio style clean-cut folk with Four Freshmen style modern harmonies -- Yester, who was a veteran of the New Christy Minstrels, said of the group's vocals that "the only vocals that competed with us back then was Curt Boettcher's group", and  they had been taken under the wing of manager Herb Cohen, who had got them a record deal with Warner Brothers. They recorded two albums of folk songs, the first of which was produced by Jim Dickson, the Byrds' co-manager: [Excerpt: The Modern Folk Quartet, "Sassafras"] But after their second album, they had decided to go along with the trends and switch to folk-rock. They'd started playing with electric instruments, and after a few shows where John Sebastian, the lead singer of the Lovin' Spoonful, had sat in with them on drums, they'd got themselves a full-time drummer, "Fast" Eddie Hoh, and renamed themselves the Modern Folk Quintet, but they always shortened that to just MFQ. Spector was convinced that this group could be another Lovin' Spoonful if they had the right song, and MFQ in turn were eager to become something more than an unsuccessful folk group. Spector had the group rehearsing in his house for weeks at a stretch before taking them into the studio. The song that Spector chose to have the group record was written by a young songwriter he was working with named Harry Nilsson. Nilsson was as yet a complete unknown, who had not written a hit and was still working a day job, but he had a talent for melody, and he also had a unique songwriting sensibility combining humour and heartbreak. For example, he'd written a song that Spector had recorded with the Ronettes, "Here I Sit", which had been inspired by the famous graffito from public toilet walls -- "Here I sit, broken-hearted/Paid a dime and only farted": [Excerpt: The Ronettes, "Here I Sit"] That ability to take taboo bodily functions and turn them into innocent-sounding love lyrics is also at play in the song that Spector chose to have the MFQ record. "This Could be the Night" was written by Nilsson from the perspective of someone who is hoping to lose his virginity -- he feels like he's sitting on dynamite, and he's going to "give her some", but it still sounds innocent enough to get past the radio censors of the mid-sixties: [Excerpt: Harry Nilsson, "This Could Be the Night (demo)"] Spector took that song, and recorded a version of it which found the perfect balance between Spector's own wall of sound and the Lovin' Spoonful's "Good Time Music" sound: [Excerpt: MFQ, "This Could be the Night"] Brian Wilson was, according to many people, in the studio while that was being recorded, and for decades it would remain a favourite song of Wilson's -- he recorded a solo version of it in the 1990s, and when he started touring solo for the first time in 1998 he included the song in his earliest live performances. He also tried to record it with his wife's group, American Spring, in the early 1970s, but was unable to, because while he could remember almost all of the song, he couldn't get hold of the lyrics. And the reason he couldn't get hold of the lyrics is that the record itself went unreleased, because Phil Spector had found a new performer he was focusing on instead. It happened during the filming of the Big TNT Show, a sequel to the TAMI Show, released by American International Pictures, for which "This Could Be the Night" was eventually used as a theme song. The MFQ were actually performers at the Big TNT Show, which Spector was musical director and associate producer of, but their performances were cut out of the finished film, leaving just their record being played over the credits. The Big TNT Show generally gets less respect than the TAMI Show, but it's a rather remarkable document of the American music scene at the very end of 1965, and it's far more diverse than the TAMI show. It opens with, of all people, David McCallum -- the actor who played Ilya Kuryakin on The Man From UNCLE -- conducting a band of session musicians playing an instrumental version of "Satisfaction": [Excerpt: David McCallum, "Satisfaction"] And then, in front of an audience which included Ron and Russel Mael, later of Sparks, and Frank Zappa, who is very clearly visible in audience shots, came performances of every then-current form of popular music. Ray Charles, Petula Clark, Bo Diddley, the Byrds, the Lovin' Spoonful, Roger Miller, the Ronettes, and Donovan all did multiple songs, though the oddest contribution was from Joan Baez, who as well as doing some of her normal folk repertoire also performed "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" with Spector on piano: [Excerpt: Joan Baez and Phil Spector, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'"] But the headline act on the eventual finished film was the least-known act on the bill, a duo who had not had a top forty hit for four years at this point, and who were only on the bill as a last-minute fill-in for an act who dropped out, but who were a sensational live act. So sensational that when Phil Spector saw them, he knew he needed to sign them -- or at least he needed to sign one of them: [Excerpt: Ike and Tina Turner with the Ikettes, "Please, Please, Please"] Because Ike and Tina Turner's performance at the Big TNT Show was, if anything, even more impressive than James Brown's performance on the TAMI Show the previous year. The last we saw of Ike Turner was way back in episode eleven. If you don't remember that, from more than three years ago, at the time Turner was the leader of a small band called the Kings of Rhythm. They'd been told by their friend B.B. King that if you wanted to make a record, the person you go to was Sam Phillips at Memphis Recording Services, and they'd recorded "Rocket '88", often cited as the first ever rock and roll record, under the name of their sax player and vocalist Jackie Brenston: [Excerpt: Jackie Brenston and the Delta Cats, "Rocket '88"] We looked at some of the repercussions from that recording throughout the first year and a half or so of the podcast, but we didn't look any more at the career of Ike Turner himself. While "Rocket '88" was a minor hit, the group hadn't followed it up, and Brenston had left to go solo. For a while Ike wasn't really very successful at all -- though he was still performing around Memphis, and a young man named Elvis Presley was taking notes at some of the shows. But things started to change for Ike when he once again turned up at Sam Phillips' studio -- this time because B.B. King was recording there. At the time, Sun Records had still not started as its own label, and Phillips' studio was being used for records made by all sorts of independent blues labels, including Modern Records, and Joe Bihari was producing a session for B.B. King, who had signed to Modern. The piano player on the session also had a connection to "Rocket '88" -- when Jackie Brenston had quit Ike's band to go solo, he'd put together a new band to tour as the Delta Cats, and Phineas Newborn Jr had ended up playing Turner's piano part on stage, before Brenston's career collapsed and Newborn became King's pianist. But Phineas Newborn was a very technical, dry, jazz pianist -- a wonderful player, but someone who was best suited to playing more cerebral material, as his own recordings as a bandleader from a few years later show: [Excerpt: Phineas Newborn Jr, "Barbados"] Bihari wasn't happy with what Newborn was playing, and the group took a break from recording to get something to eat and try to figure out the problem. While they were busy, Turner went over to the piano and started playing. Bihari said that that was exactly what they wanted, and Turner took over playing the part. In his autobiography, Turner variously remembers the song King was recording there as "You Know I Love You" and "Three O'Clock Blues", neither of which, as far as I can tell, were actually recorded at Phillips' studio, and both of which seem to have been recorded later -- it's difficult to say for sure because there were very few decent records kept of these things at the time. But we do know that Turner played on a lot of King's records in the early fifties, including on "Three O'Clock Blues", King's first big hit: [Excerpt: B.B. King, "Three O'Clock Blues"] For the next while, Turner was on salary at Modern Records, playing piano on sessions, acting as a talent scout, and also apparently writing many of the songs that Modern's artists would record, though those songs were all copyrighted under the name "Taub", a pseudonym for the Bihari brothers, as well as being a de facto arranger and producer for the company. He worked on many records made in and around Memphis, both for Modern Records and for other labels who drew from the same pool of artists and musicians. Records he played on and produced or arranged include several of Bobby "Blue" Bland's early records -- though Turner's claim in his autobiography that he played on Bland's version of "Stormy Monday" appears to be incorrect, as that wasn't recorded until a decade later. He did, though, play on Bland's “Drifting from Town to Town”, a rewrite of Charles Brown's “Driftin' Blues”, on which, as on many sessions run by Turner, the guitarist was Matt “Guitar” Murphy, who later found fame with the Blues Brothers: [Excerpt: Bobby "Blue" Bland with Ike Turner and his Orchestra, "Driftin' Blues"] Though I've also seen the piano part on that credited as being by Johnny Ace – there's often some confusion as to whether Turner or Ace played on a session, as they played with many of the same artists, but that one was later rereleased as by Bobby “Blue” Bland with Ike Turner and his Orchestra, so it's safe to say that Ike's on that one. He also played on several records by Howlin' Wolf, including "How Many More Years", recorded at Sam Phillips' studio: [Excerpt: Howlin' Wolf, "How Many More Years?"] Over the next few years he played with many artists we've covered already in the podcast, like Richard Berry and the Flairs, on whose recordings he played guitar rather than piano: [Excerpt: The Flairs, "Baby Wants"] He also played guitar on records by Elmore James: [Excerpt: Elmore James, "Please Find My Baby"] and played with Little Junior Parker, Little Milton, Johnny Ace, Roscoe Gordon, and many, many more. As well as making blues records, he also made R&B records in the style of Gene and Eunice with his then-wife Bonnie: [Excerpt: Bonnie and Ike Turner, "My Heart Belongs to You"] Bonnie was his fourth wife, all of them bigamous -- or at least, I *think* she was his fourth. I have seen two different lists Turner gave of his wives, both of them made up of entirely different people, though it doesn't help that many of them also went by nicknames. But Turner started getting married when he was fourteen, and as he would often put it "you gave a preacher two dollars, the papers cost three dollars, that was it. In those days Blacks didn't bother with divorces." (One thing you will see a lot with Turner, unfortunately, is his habit of taking his own personal misbehaviours and claiming they were either universal, or at least that they were universal among Black people, or among men. It's certainly true that some people in the Southeastern US had a more lackadaisical attitude towards remarrying without divorce at the time than we might expect, but it was in no way a Black thing specifically -- it was a people-like-Ike-Turner thing -- see for example the very similar behaviour of Jerry Lee Lewis. I'm trying, when I quote him, not to include too many of these generalisations, but I thought it important to include that one early on to show the kind of self-justification to which he was prone throughout his entire life.) It's largely because Bonnie played piano and was singing with his band that Turner switched to playing guitar, but there was another reason – while he disliked the attention he got on stage, he also didn't want a repeat of what had happened with Jackie Brenston, where Brenston as lead vocalist and frontman had claimed credit for what Ike thought of as his own record. Anyone who saw Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm was going to know that Ike Turner was the man who was making it all happen, and so he was going to play guitar up front rather than be on the piano in the background. So Turner took guitar lessons from Earl Hooker, one of the great blues guitarists of the period, who had played with Turner's piano inspiration Pinetop Perkins before recording solo tracks like "Sweet Angel": [Excerpt: Earl Hooker, "Sweet Angel"] Turner was always happier in the studio than performing live -- despite his astonishing ego, he was also a rather shy person who didn't like attention -- and he'd been happy working on salary for Modern and freelancing on occasion for other labels like Chess and Duke. But then the Biharis had brought him out to LA, where Modern Records was based, and as Joel Bihari put it "Ike did a great job for us, but he was a country boy. We brought him to L.A., and he just couldn't take city life. He only stayed a month, then left for East St. Louis to form his own band. He told me he was going back there to become a star." For once, Turner's memory of events lined up with what other people said about him. In his autobiography, he described what happened -- "Down in Mississippi, life is slow. Tomorrow, you are going to plough this field. The next day, you going to cut down these trees. You stop and you go on about your business. Next day, you start back on sawing trees or whatever you doing. Here I am in California, and this chick, this receptionist, is saying "Hold on, Mr Bihari, line 2... hold line 3... Hey Joe, Mr Something or other on the phone for you." I thought "What goddamn time does this stop?"" So Turner did head to East St. Louis -- which is a suburb of St. Louis proper, across the Mississippi river from it, and in Illinois rather than Missouri, and at the time a thriving industrial town in its own right, with over eighty thousand people living there. Hardly the laid-back country atmosphere that Turner was talking about, but still also far from LA both geographically and culturally. He put together a new lineup of the Kings of Rhythm, with a returning Jackie Brenston, who were soon recording for pretty much every label that was putting out blues and R&B tracks at that point, releasing records on RPM, Sue, Flair, Federal, and Modern as well as several smaller labels. usually with either Brenston or the group's drummer Billy Gayles singing lead: [Excerpt: Billy Gayles with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm, "Just One More Time"] None of these records was a success, but the Kings of Rhythm were becoming the most successful band in East St. Louis. In the mid-fifties the only group that was as popular in the greater St. Louis metro area was the Johnny Johnson trio -- which soon became the Chuck Berry trio, and went on to greater things, while the Kings of Rhythm remained on the club circuit. But Turner was also becoming notorious for his temper -- he got the nickname "Pistol-Whippin' Ike Turner" for the way he would attack people with his gun, He also though was successful enough that he built his own home studio, and that was where he recorded "Boxtop". a calypso song whose middle eight seems to have been nicked from "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?" and whose general feel owes more than a little to "Love is Strange": [Excerpt: Ike Turner, Carlson Oliver, and Little Ann, "Boxtop"] The female vocals on that track were by Turner's new backing vocalist, who at the time went by the stage name "Little Ann". Anna Mae Bullock had started going to see the Kings of Rhythm regularly when she was seventeen, because her sister was dating one of the members of the band, and she had become a fan almost immediately. She later described her first experience seeing the group: "The first time I saw Ike on stage he was at his very best, sharply dressed in a dark suit and tie. Ike wasn't conventionally handsome – actually, he wasn't handsome at all – and he certainly wasn't my type. Remember, I was a schoolgirl, all of seventeen, looking at a man. I was used to high school boys who were clean-cut, athletic, and dressed in denim, so Ike's processed hair, diamond ring, and skinny body – he was all edges and sharp cheekbones – looked old to me, even though he was only twenty-five. I'd never seen anyone that thin! I couldn't help thinking, God, he's ugly." Turner didn't find Bullock attractive either -- one of the few things both have always agreed on in all their public statements about their later relationship was that neither was ever particularly attracted to the other sexually -- and at first this had caused problems for Anna Mae. There was a spot in the show where Turner would invite a girl from the audience up on stage to sing, a different one every night, usually someone he'd decided he wanted to sleep with. Anna Mae desperately wanted to be one of the girls that would get up on stage, but Turner never picked her. But then one day she got her chance. Her sister's boyfriend was teasing her sister, trying to get her to sing in this spot, and passed her the microphone. Her sister didn't want to sing, so Anna Mae grabbed the mic instead, and started singing -- the song she sang was B.B. King's "You Know I Love You", the same song that Turner always remembered as being recorded at Sun studios, and on which Turner had played piano: [Excerpt: B.B. King, "You Know I Love You"] Turner suddenly took notice of Anna Mae. As he would later say, everyone *says* they can sing, but it turned out that Anna Mae could. He took her on as an occasional backing singer, not at first as a full member of the band, but as a sort of apprentice, who he would teach how to use her talents more commercially. Turner always said that during this period, he would get Little Richard to help teach Anna Mae how to sing in a more uncontrolled, exuberant, style like he did, and Richard has backed this up, though Anna Mae never said anything about this. We do know though that Richard was a huge fan of Turner's -- the intro to "Good Golly Miss Molly": [Excerpt: Little Richard, "Good Golly Miss Molly"] was taken almost exactly from the intro to "Rocket '88": [Excerpt: Jackie Brenston and the Delta Cats, "Rocket '88"] and Richard later wrote the introduction to Turner's autobiography. So it's possible -- but both men were inveterate exaggerators, and Anna Mae only joined Ike's band a few months before Richard's conversion and retirement from music, and during a point when he was a massive star, so it seems unlikely. Anna Mae started dating Raymond Hill, a saxophone player in the group, and became pregnant by him -- but then Hill broke his ankle, and used that as an excuse to move back to Clarksdale, Mississippi, to be with his family, abandoning his pregnant teenage girlfriend, and it seems to be around this point that Turner and Anna Mae became romantically and sexually involved. Certainly, one of Ike's girlfriends, Lorraine Taylor, seems to have believed they were involved while Anna Mae was pregnant, and indeed that Turner, rather than Hill, was the father. Taylor threatened Bullock with Turner's gun, before turning it on herself and attempting suicide, though luckily she survived. She gave birth to Turner's son, Ike Junior, a couple of months after Bullock gave birth to her own son, Craig. But even after they got involved, Anna Mae was still mostly just doing odd bits of backing vocals, like on "Boxtop", recorded in 1958, or on 1959's "That's All I Need", released on Sue Records: [Excerpt: Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm, "That's All I Need"] And it seemed that would be all that Anna Mae Bullock would do, until Ike Turner lent Art Lassiter eighty dollars he didn't want to pay back. Lassiter was a singer who was often backed by his own vocal trio, the Artettes, patterned after Ray Charles' Raelettes. He had performed with Turner's band on a semi-regular basis, since 1955 when he had recorded "As Long as I Have You" with his vocal group the Trojans, backed by "Ike Turner and his Orchestra": [Excerpt: The Trojans, Ike Turner and His Orchestra, "As Long as I Have You"] He'd recorded a few more tracks with Turner since then, both solo and under group names like The Rockers: [Excerpt: The Rockers, "Why Don't You Believe?"] In 1960, Lassiter needed new tyres for his car, and borrowed eighty dollars from Turner in order to get them -- a relatively substantial amount of money for a working musician back then. He told Turner that he would pay him back at a recording session they had booked, where Lassiter was going to record a song Turner had written, "A Fool in Love", with Turner's band and the Artettes. But Lassiter never showed up -- he didn't have the eighty dollars, and Turner found himself sat in a recording studio with a bunch of musicians he was paying for, paying twenty-five dollars an hour for the studio time, and with no singer there to record. At the time, he was still under the impression that Lassiter might eventually show up, if not at that session, then at least at a future one, but until he did, there was nothing he could do and he was getting angry. Bullock suggested that they cut the track without Lassiter. They were using a studio with a multi-track machine -- only two tracks, but that would be enough. They could cut the backing track on one track, and she could record a guide vocal on the other track, since she'd been around when Turner was teaching Lassiter the song. At least that way they wouldn't have wasted all the money. Turner saw the wisdom of the idea -- he said in his autobiography "This was the first time I got hip to two-track stereo" -- and after consulting with the engineer on the session, he decided to go ahead with Bullock's plan. The plan still caused problems, because they were recording the song in a key written for a man, so Bullock had to yell more than sing, causing problems for the engineer, who according to Turner kept saying things like "Goddammit, don't holler in my microphone". But it was only a demo vocal, after all, and they got it cut -- and as Lassiter didn't show up, Turner took Lassiter's backing vocal group as his own new group, renaming the Artettes to the Ikettes, and they became the first of a whole series of lineups of Ikettes who would record with Turner for the rest of his life. The intention was still to get Lassiter to sing lead on the record, but then Turner played an acetate of it at a club night where he was DJing as well as performing, and the kids apparently went wild: [Excerpt: Ike and Tina Turner, "A Fool in Love"] Turner took the demo to Juggy Murray at Sue Records, still with the intention of replacing Anna Mae's vocal with Lassiter's, but Murray insisted that that was the best thing about the record, and that it should be released exactly as it was, that it was a guaranteed hit. Although -- while that's the story that's told all the time about that record by everyone involved in the recording and release, and seems uncontested, there does seem to be one minor problem with the story, which is that the Ikettes sing "you know you love him, you can't understand/Why he treats you like he do when he's such a good man". I'm willing to be proved wrong, of course, but my suspicion is that Ike Turner wasn't such a progressive thinker that he was writing songs about male-male relationships in 1960. It's possible that the Ikettes were recorded on the same track as Tina's guide vocals, but if the intention was to overdub a new lead from Lassiter on an otherwise finished track, it would have made more sense for them to sing their finished backing vocal part. It seems more likely to me that they decided in the studio that the record was going to go out with Anna Mae singing lead, and the idea of Murray insisting is a later exaggeration. One thing that doesn't seem to be an exaggeration, though, is that initially Murray wanted the record to go out as by Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm featuring Little Ann, but Turner had other ideas. While Murray insisted "the girl is the star", Turner knew what happened when other people were the credited stars on his records. He didn't want another Jackie Brenston, having a hit and immediately leaving Turner right back where he started. If Little Ann was the credited singer, Little Ann would become a star and Ike Turner would have to find a new singer. So he came up with a pseudonym. Turner was a fan of jungle women in film serials and TV, and he thought a wild-woman persona would suit Anna Mae's yelled vocal, and so he named his new star after Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, a female Tarzan knock-off comic character created by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger in the thirties, but who Turner probably knew from a TV series that had been on in 1955 and 56. He gave her his surname, changed "Sheena" slightly to make the new name alliterative and always at least claimed to have registered a trademark on the name he came up with, so if Anna Mae ever left the band he could just get a new singer to use the name. Anna Mae Bullock was now Tina Turner, and the record went out as by "Ike and Tina Turner": [Excerpt: Ike and Tina Turner, "A Fool in Love"] That went to number two on the R&B charts, and hit the top thirty on the pop charts, too. But there were already problems. After Ike had had a second son with Lorraine, he then got Tina pregnant with another of his children, still seeing both women. He had already started behaving abusively towards Tina, and as well as being pregnant, she was suffering from jaundice -- she says in the first of her two autobiographies that she distinctly remembered lying in her hospital bed, hearing "A Fool in Love" on the radio, and thinking "What's love got to do with it?", though as with all such self-mythologising we should take this with a pinch of salt. Turner was in need of money to pay for lawyers -- he had been arrested for financial crimes involving forged cheques -- and Juggy Murray wouldn't give him an advance until he delivered a follow-up to "A Fool in Love", so he insisted that Tina sneak herself out of the hospital and go into the studio, jaundiced and pregnant, to record the follow-up. Then, as soon as the jaundice had cleared up, they went on a four-month tour, with Tina heavily pregnant, to make enough money to pay Ike's legal bills. Turner worked his band relentlessly -- he would accept literally any gig, even tiny clubs with only a hundred people in the audience, reasoning that it was better for the band's image to play  small venues that had to turn people away because they were packed to capacity, than to play large venues that were only half full. While "A Fool in Love" had a substantial white audience, the Ike and Tina Turner Revue was almost the epitome of the chitlin' circuit act, playing exciting, funky, tightly-choreographed shows for almost entirely Black audiences in much the same way as James Brown, and Ike Turner was in control of every aspect of the show. When Tina had to go into hospital to give birth, rather than give up the money from gigging, Ike hired a sex worker who bore a slight resemblance to Tina to be the new onstage "Tina Turner" until the real one was able to perform again. One of the Ikettes told the real Tina, who discharged herself from hospital, travelled to the venue, beat up the fake Tina, and took her place on stage two days after giving birth. The Ike and Tina Turner Revue, with the Kings of Rhythm backing Tina, the Ikettes, and male singer Jimmy Thomas, all of whom had solo spots, were an astonishing live act, but they were only intermittently successful on record. None of the three follow-ups to "A Fool in Love" did better than number eighty-two on the charts, and two of them didn't even make the R&B charts, though "I Idolize You" did make the R&B top five. Their next big hit came courtesy of Mickey and Sylvia. You may remember us talking about Mickey and Sylvia way back in episode forty-nine, from back in 2019, but if you don't, they were one of a series of R&B duet acts, like Gene and Eunice, who came up after the success of Shirley and Lee, and their big hit was "Love is Strange": [Excerpt: Mickey and Sylvia, "Love is Strange"] By 1961, their career had more or less ended, but they'd recorded a song co-written by the great R&B songwriter Rose Marie McCoy, which had gone unreleased: [Excerpt: Mickey and Sylvia, "It's Gonna Work Out Fine"] When that was shelved they remade it as an Ike and Tina Turner record, with Mickey and Sylvia being Ike -- Sylvia took on all the roles that Ike would normally do in the studio, arranging the track and playing lead guitar, as well as joining the Ikettes on backing vocals, while Mickey did the spoken answering vocals that most listeners assumed were Ike, and which Ike would replicate on stage. The result, unsurprisingly, sounded more like a Mickey and Sylvia record than anything Ike and Tina had ever released before, though it's very obviously Tina on lead vocals: [Excerpt: Ike and Tina Turner, "It's Gonna Work Out Fine"] That made the top twenty on the pop charts -- though it would be their last top forty hit for nearly a decade as Ike and Tina Turner. They did though have a couple of other hits as the Ikettes, with Ike Turner putting the girl group's name on the label so he could record for multiple labels. The first of these, "I'm Blue (The Gong Gong Song)" was a song Ike had written which would later go on to become something of an R&B standard. It featured Dolores Johnson on lead vocals, but Tina sang backing vocals and got a rare co-production credit: [Excerpt: The Ikettes, "I'm Blue (The Gong Gong Song)"] The other Ikettes top forty hit was in 1965, with a song written by Steve Venet and Tommy Boyce -- a songwriter we will be hearing more about in three weeks -- and produced by Venet: [Excerpt: The Ikettes, "Peaches 'n' Cream"] Ike wasn't keen on that record at first, but soon came round to it when it hit the charts. The success of that record caused that lineup of Ikettes to split from Ike and Tina -- the Ikettes had become a successful act in their own right, and Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars wanted to book them, but that would have meant they wouldn't be available for Ike and Tina shows. So Ike sent a different group of three girls out on the road with Clark's tour, keeping the original Ikettes back to record and tour with him, and didn't pay them any royalties on their records. They resented being unable to capitalise on their big hit, so they quit. At first they tried to keep the Ikettes name for themselves, and got Tina Turner's sister Alline to manage them, but eventually they changed their name to the Mirettes, and released a few semi-successful records. Ike got another trio of Ikettes to replace them, and carried on with Pat Arnold, Gloria Scott, and Maxine Smith as the new Ikettes,. One Ikette did remain pretty much throughout -- a woman called Ann Thomas, who Ike Turner was sleeping with, and who he would much later marry, but who he always claimed was never allowed to sing with the others, but was just there for her looks. By this point Ike and Tina had married, though Ike had not divorced any of his previous wives (though he paid some of them off when Ike and Tina became big). Ike and Tina's marriage in Tijuana was not remembered by either of them as a particularly happy experience -- Ike would always later insist that it wasn't a legal marriage at all, and in fact that it was the only one of his many, many, marriages that hadn't been, and was just a joke. He was regularly abusing her in the most horrific ways, but at this point the duo still seemed to the public to be perfectly matched. They actually only ended up on the Big TNT Show as a last-minute thing -- another act was sick, though none of my references mention who it was who got sick, just that someone was needed to fill in for them, and as Ike and Tina were now based in LA -- the country boy Ike had finally become a city boy after all -- and would take any job on no notice, they got the gig. Phil Spector was impressed, and he decided that he could revitalise his career by producing a hit for Tina Turner. There was only one thing wrong -- Tina Turner wasn't an act. *Ike* and Tina Turner was an act. And Ike Turner was a control freak, just like Spector was -- the two men had essentially the same personality, and Spector didn't want to work with someone else who would want to be in charge. After some negotiation, they came to an agreement -- Spector could produce a Tina Turner record, but it would be released as an Ike and Tina Turner record. Ike would be paid twenty thousand dollars for his services, and those services would consist of staying well away from the studio and not interfering. Spector was going to go back to the old formulas that had worked for him, and work with the people who had contributed to his past successes, rather than leaving anything to chance. Jack Nitzsche had had a bit of a falling out with him and not worked on some of the singles he'd produced recently, but he was back. And Spector was going to work with Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich again. He'd fallen out with Barry and Greenwich when "Chapel of Love" had been a hit for the Dixie Cups rather than for one of Spector's own artists, and he'd been working with Mann and Weill and Goffin and King instead. But he knew that it was Barry and Greenwich who were the ones who had worked best with him, and who understood his musical needs best, so he actually travelled to see them in New York instead of getting them to come to him in LA, as a peace offering and a sign of how much he valued their input. The only problem was that Spector hadn't realised that Barry and Greenwich had actually split up.  They were still working together in the studio, and indeed had just produced a minor hit single for a new act on Bert Berns' label BANG, for which Greenwich had written the horn arrangement: [Excerpt: Neil Diamond, "Solitary Man"] We'll hear more about Neil Diamond, and about Jeff Barry's work with him, in three weeks. But Barry and Greenwich were going through a divorce and weren't writing together any more, and came back together for one last writing session with Spector, at which, apparently, Ellie Greenwich would cry every time they wrote a line about love. The session produced four songs, of which two became singles. Barry produced a version of "I Can Hear Music", written at these sessions, for the Ronettes, who Spector was no longer interested in producing himself: [Excerpt: The Ronettes, "I Can Hear Music"] That only made number ninety-nine on the charts, but the song was later a hit for the Beach Boys and has become recognised as a classic. The other song they wrote in those sessions, though, was the one that Spector wanted to give to Tina Turner. "River Deep, Mountain High" was a true three-way collaboration -- Greenwich came up with the music for the verses, Spector for the choruses, and Barry wrote the lyrics and tweaked the melody slightly. Spector, Barry, and Greenwich spent two weeks in their writing session, mostly spent on "River Deep, Mountain High". Spector later said of the writing "Every time we'd write a love line, Ellie would start to cry. I couldn't figure out what was happening, and then I realised… it was a very uncomfortable situation. We wrote that, and we wrote ‘I Can Hear Music'…. We wrote three or four hit songs on that one writing session. “The whole thing about ‘River Deep' was the way I could feel that strong bass line. That's how it started. And then Jeff came up with the opening line. I wanted a tender song about a chick who loved somebody very much, but a different way of expressing it. So we came up with the rag doll and ‘I'm going to cuddle you like a little puppy'. And the idea was really built for Tina, just like ‘Lovin' Feelin” was built for the Righteous Brothers.” Spector spent weeks recording, remixing, rerecording, and reremixing the backing track, arranged by Nitzsche, creating the most thunderous, overblown, example of the Wall of Sound he had ever created, before getting Tina into the studio. He also spent weeks rehearsing Tina on the song, and according to her most of what he did was "carefully stripping away all traces of Ike from my performance" -- she was belting the song and adding embellishments, the way Ike Turner had always taught her to, and Spector kept insisting that she just sing the melody -- something that she had never had the opportunity to do before, and which she thought was wonderful. It was so different from anything else that she'd recorded that after each session, when Ike would ask her about the song, she would go completely blank -- she couldn't hold this pop song in her head except when she was running through it with Spector. Eventually she did remember it, and when she did Ike was not impressed, though the record became one of the definitive pop records of all time: [Excerpt: Ike and Tina Turner, "River Deep, Mountain High"] Spector was putting everything on the line for this record, which was intended to be his great comeback and masterpiece. That one track cost more than twenty thousand dollars to record -- an absolute fortune at a time when a single would normally be recorded in one or two sessions at most. It also required a lot of work on Tina's part. She later estimated that she had sung the opening line of the song a thousand times before Spector allowed her to move on to the second line, and talked about how she got so hot and sweaty singing the song over and over that she had to take her blouse off in the studio and sing the song in her bra. She later said "I still don't know what he wanted. I still don't know if I pleased him. But I never stopped trying." Spector produced a total of six tracks with Tina, including the other two songs written at those Barry and Greenwich sessions, "I'll Never Need More Than This", which became the second single released off the "River Deep, Mountain High" album, and "Hold On Baby", plus cover versions of Arthur Alexander's "Every Day I Have to Cry Some", Pomus and Shuman's "Save the Last Dance", and "A Love Like Yours (Don't Come Knocking Everyday)" a Holland-Dozier-Holland song which had originally been released as a Martha and the Vandellas B-side. The planned album was to be padded out with six tracks produced by Ike Turner, mostly remakes of the duo's earlier hits, and was planned for release after the single became the hit everyone knew it would. The single hit the Hot One Hundred soon after it was released: [Excerpt: Ike and Tina Turner, "River Deep, Mountain High"] ...and got no higher up the charts than number eighty-eight. The failure of the record basically destroyed Spector, and while he had been an abusive husband before this, now he became much worse, as he essentially retired from music for four years, and became increasingly paranoid and aggressive towards the industry that he thought was not respectful enough of his genius. There have been several different hypotheses as to why "River Deep Mountain High" was not a success. Some have said that it was simply because DJs were fed up of Spector refusing to pay payola, and had been looking for a reason to take him down a peg. Ike Turner thought it was due to racism, saying later “See, what's wrong with America, I think, is that rather than accept something for its value… what it's doing, America mixes race in it. You can't call that record R&B. But because it's Tina… if you had not put Tina's name on there and put ‘Joe Blow', then the Top 40 stations would have accepted it for being a pop record. But Tina Turner… they want to brand her as being an R&B artist. I think the main reason that ‘River Deep' didn't make it here in America was that the R&B stations wouldn't play it because they thought it was pop, and the pop stations wouldn't play it because they thought it was R&B. And it didn't get played at all. The only record I've heard that could come close to that record is a record by the Beach Boys called ‘Good Vibrations'. I think these are the two records that I've heard in my life that I really like, you know?” Meanwhile, Jeff Barry thought it was partly the DJs but also faults in the record caused by Phil Spector's egomania, saying "he has a self-destructive thing going for him, which is part of the reason that the mix on ‘River Deep' is terrible, he buried the lead and he knows he buried the lead and he cannot stop himself from doing that… if you listen to his records in sequence, the lead goes further and further in and to me what he is saying is, ‘It is not the song I wrote with Jeff and Ellie, it is not the song – just listen to those strings. I want more musicians, it's me, listen to that bass sound. …' That, to me, is what hurts in the long run... Also, I do think that the song is not as clear on the record as it should be, mix-wise. I don't want to use the word overproduced, because it isn't, it's just undermixed." There's possibly an element of all three of these factors in play. As we've discussed, 1965 seems to have been the year that the resegregation of American radio began, and the start of the long slow process of redefining genres so that rock and roll, still considered a predominantly Black music at the beginning of the sixties, was by the end of the decade considered an almost entirely white music. And it's also the case that "River Deep, Mountain High" was the most extreme production Spector ever committed to vinyl, and that Spector had made a lot of enemies in the music business. It's also, though, the case  that it was a genuinely great record: [Excerpt: Ike and Tina Turner, "River Deep, Mountain High"] However, in the UK, it was promoted by Decca executive Tony Hall, who was a figure who straddled both sides of the entertainment world -- as part of his work as a music publicist he had been a presenter on Oh Boy!, written a column in Record Mirror, and presented a Radio Luxembourg show. Hall put his not-inconsiderable weight behind promoting the record, and it ended up reaching number two in the UK -- being successful enough that the album was also released over here, though it wouldn't come out in the US for several years. The record also attracted the attention of the Rolling Stones, who invited Ike and Tina to be their support act on a UK tour, which also featured the Yardbirds, and this would be a major change for the duo in all sorts of ways. Firstly, it got them properly in contact with British musicians -- and the Stones would get Ike and Tina as support artists several times over the next few years -- and also made the UK and Europe part of their regular tour itinerary. It also gave the duo their first big white rock audience, and over the next several years they would pivot more and more to performing music aimed at that audience, rather than the chitlin' circuit they'd been playing for previously. Ike was very conscious of wanting to move away from the blues and R&B -- while that was where he'd made his living as a musician, it wasn't music he actually liked, and he would often talk later about how much he respected Keith Richards and Eric Clapton, and how his favourite music was country music. Tina had also never been a fan of blues or R&B, and wanted to perform songs by the white British performers they were meeting. The tour also, though, gave Tina her first real thoughts of escape. She loved the UK and Europe, and started thinking about what life could be like for her not just being Ike Turner's wife and working fifty-one weeks a year at whatever gigs came along. But it also made that escape a little more difficult, because on the tour Tina lost one of her few confidantes in the organisation. Tina had helped Pat Arnold get away from her own abusive partner, and the two had become very close, but Arnold was increasingly uncomfortable being around Ike's abuse of Tina, and couldn't help her friend the way she'd been helped. She decided she needed to get out of a toxic situation, and decided to stay in England, where she'd struck up an affair with Mick Jagger, and where she found that there were many opportunities for her as a Black woman that simply hadn't been there in the US. (This is not to say that Britain doesn't have problems with racism -- it very much does, but those problems are *different* problems than the ones that the US had at that point, and Arnold found Britain's attitude more congenial to her personally). There was also another aspect, which a lot of Black female singers of her generation have mentioned and which probably applies here. Many Black women have said that they were astonished on visiting Britain to be hailed as great singers, when they thought of themselves as merely average. Britain does not have the kind of Black churches which had taught generations of Black American women to sing gospel, and so singers who in the US thought of themselves as merely OK would be far, far, better than any singers in the UK -- the technical standards were just so much lower here. (This is something that was still true at least as late as the mid-eighties. Bob Geldof talks in his autobiography about attending the recording session for "We Are the World" after having previously recorded "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and being astonished at how much more technically skilled the American stars were and how much more seriously they took their craft.) And Arnold wasn't just an adequate singer -- she was and is a genuinely great talent -- and so she quickly found herself in demand in the UK. Jagger got her signed to Immediate Records, a new label that had been started up by the Stones manager Andrew Oldham, and where Jimmy Page was the staff producer. She was given a new name, P.P. Arnold, which was meant to remind people of another American import, P.J. Proby, but which she disliked because the initials spelled "peepee". Her first single on the label, produced by Jagger, did nothing, but her second single, written by a then-unknown songwriter named Cat Stevens, became a big hit: [Excerpt: P.P. Arnold, "The First Cut is the Deepest"] She toured with a backing band, The Nice, and made records as a backing singer with artists like the Small Faces. She also recorded a duet with the unknown singer Rod Stewart, though that wasn't a success: [Excerpt: Rod Stewart and P.P. Arnold, "Come Home Baby"] We'll be hearing more about P.P. Arnold in future episodes, but the upshot of her success was that Tina had even fewer people to support her. The next few years were increasingly difficult for Tina, as Ike turned to cocaine use in a big way, became increasingly violent, and his abuse of her became much more violent. The descriptions of his behaviour in Tina's two volumes of autobiography are utterly harrowing, and I won't go into them in detail, except to say that nobody should have to suffer what she did. Ike's autobiography, on the other hand, has him attempting to defend himself, even while admitting to several of the most heinous allegations, by saying he didn't beat his wife any more than most men did. Now the sad thing is that this may well be true, at least among his peer group. Turner's behaviour was no worse than behaviour from, say, James Brown or Brian Jones or Phil Spector or Jerry Lee Lewis, and it may well be that behaviour like this was common enough among people he knew that Turner's behaviour didn't stand out at all. His abuse has become much better-known, because the person he was attacking happened to become one of the biggest stars in the world, while the women they attacked didn't. But that of course doesn't make what Ike did to Tina any better -- it just makes it infinitely sadder that so many more people suffered that way. In 1968, Tina actually tried to take her own life -- and she was so fearful of Ike that when she overdosed, she timed it so that she thought she would be able to at least get on stage and start the first song before collapsing, knowing that their contract required her to do that for Ike to get paid. As it was, one of the Ikettes noticed the tablets she had taken had made her so out of it she'd drawn a line across her face with her eyebrow pencil. She was hospitalised, and according to both Ike and Tina's reports, she was comatose and her heart actually stopped beating, but then Ike started yelling at her, saying if she wanted to die why didn't she do it by jumping in front of a truck, rather than leaving him with hospital bills, and telling her to go ahead and die if this was how she was going to treat him -- and she was so scared of Ike her heart started up again. (This does not seem medically likely to me, but I wasn't there, and they both were). Of course, Ike frames this as compassion and tough love. I would have different words for it myself. Tina would make several more suicide attempts over the years, but even as Tina's life was falling apart, the duo's professional career was on the up. They started playing more shows in the UK, and they toured the US as support for the Rolling Stones. They also started having hits again, after switching to performing funked-up cover versions of contemporary hits. They had a minor hit with a double-sided single of the Beatles' "Come Together" and the Stones' "Honky-Tonk Women", then a bigger one with a version of Sly and the Family Stone's "I Want to Take You Higher", then had their biggest hit ever with "Proud Mary". It's likely we'll be looking at Creedence Clearwater Revival's original version of that song at some point, but while Ike Turner disliked the original, Tina liked it, and Ike also became convinced of the song's merits by hearing a version by The Checkmates Ltd: [Excerpt: The Checkmates Ltd, "Proud Mary"] That was produced by Phil Spector, who came briefly out of his self-imposed exile from the music business in 1969 to produce a couple of singles for the Checkmates and Ronnie Spector. That version inspired Ike and Tina's recording of the song, which went to number four on the charts and won them a Grammy award in 1971: [Excerpt: Ike and Tina Turner, "Proud Mary"] Ike was also investing the money they were making into their music. He built his own state-of-the-art studio, Bolic Sound, which Tina always claimed was a nod to her maiden name, Bullock, but which he later always said was a coincidence. Several other acts hired the studio, especially people in Frank Zappa's orbit -- Flo and Eddie recorded their first album as a duo there, and Zappa recorded big chunks of Over-Nite Sensation and Apostrophe('), two of his most successful albums, at the studio. Acts hiring Bolic Sound also got Tina and the Ikettes on backing vocals if they wanted them, and so for example Tina is one of the backing vocalists on Zappa's "Cosmik Debris": [Excerpt: Frank Zappa, "Cosmik Debris"] One of the most difficult things she ever had to sing in her life was this passage in Zappa's song "Montana", which took the Ikettes several days' rehearsal to get right. [Excerpt: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, "Montana"] She was apparently so excited at having got that passage right that she called Ike out of his own session to come in and listen, but Ike was very much unimpressed, and insisted that Tina and the Ikettes not get credit on the records they made with Zappa. Zappa later said “I don't know how she managed to stick with that guy for so long. He treated her terribly and she's a really nice lady. We were recording down there on a Sunday. She wasn't involved with the session, but she came in on Sunday with a whole pot of stew that she brought for everyone working in the studio. Like out of nowhere, here's Tina Turner coming in with a rag on her head bringing a pot of stew. It was really nice.” By this point, Ike was unimpressed by anything other than cocaine and women, who he mostly got to sleep with him by having truly gargantuan amounts of cocaine around. As Ike was descending further into paranoia and abuse, though, Tina was coming into her own. She wrote "Nutbush City Limits" about the town where she grew up, and it reached number 22 on the charts -- higher than any song Ike ever wrote: [Excerpt: Ike and Tina Turner, "Nutbush City Limits"] Of course, Ike would later claim that he wrote the music and let Tina keep all the credit. Tina was also asked by the Who to appear in the film version of their rock opera Tommy, where her performance of "Acid Queen" was one of the highlights: [Excerpt: Tina Turner, "Acid Queen"] And while she was filming that in London, she was invited to guest on a TV show with Ann-Margret, who was a huge fan of Ike and Tina, and duetted with Tina -- but not Ike -- on a medley of her hits: [Excerpt: Tina Turner and Ann-Margret, "Nutbush City Limits/Honky Tonk Woman"] Just as with "River Deep, Mountain High", Tina was wanted for her own talents, independent of Ike. She was starting to see that as well as being an abusive husband, he was also not necessary for her to have a career. She was also starting to find parts of her life that she could have for herself, independent of her husband. She'd been introduced to Buddhist meditation by a friend, and took it up in a big way, much to Ike's disapproval. Things finally came to a head in July 1976, in Dallas, when Ike started beating her up and for the first time she fought back. She pretended to reconcile with him, waited for him to fall asleep, and ran across a busy interstate, almost getting hit by a ten-wheel truck, to get to another hotel she could see in the distance. Luckily, even though she had no money, and she was a Black woman in Dallas, not a city known for its enlightened attitudes in the 1970s, the manager of the Ramada Inn took pity on her and let her stay there for a while until she could get in touch with Buddhist friends. She spent the next few months living off the kindness of strangers, before making arrangements with Rhonda Graam, who had started working for Ike and Tina in 1964 as a fan, but had soon become indispensable to the organisation. Graam sided with Tina, and while still supposedly working for Ike she started putting together appearances for Tina on TV shows like Cher's. Cher was a fan of Tina's work, and was another woman trying to build a career after leaving an abusive husband who had been her musical partner: [Excerpt: Cher and Tina Turner, "Makin' Music is My Business"] Graam became Tina's full-time assistant, as well as her best friend, and remained part of her life until Graam's death a year ago. She also got Tina booked in to club gigs, but for a long time they found it hard to get bookings -- promoters would say she was "only half the act". Ike still wanted the duo to work together professionally, if not be a couple, but Tina absolutely refused, and Ike had gangster friends of his shoot up Graam's car, and Tina heard rumours that he was planning to hire a hit man to come after her. Tina filed for divorce, and gave Ike everything -- all the money the couple had earned together in sixteen years of work, all the property, all the intellectual property -- except for two cars, one of which Ike had given her and one which Sammy Davis Jr. had given her, and the one truly important thing -- the right to use the name "Tina Turner", which Ike had the trademark on. Ike had apparently been planning to hire someone else to perform as "Tina Turner" and carry on as if nothing had changed. Slowly, Tina built her career back up, though it was not without its missteps. She got a new manager, who also managed Olivia Newton-John, and the manager brought in a song he thought was perfect for Tina. She turned it down, and Newton-John recorded it instead: [Excerpt: Olivia Newton-John, "Physical"] But even while she was still playing small clubs, her old fans from the British rock scene were boosting her career. In 1981, after Rod Stewart saw her playing a club gig and singing his song "Hot Legs", he invited her to guest with him and perform the song on Saturday Night Live: [Excerpt: Rod Stewart and Tina Turner, "Hot Legs"] The Rolling Stones invited Tina to be their support act on a US tour, and to sing "Honky Tonk Women" on stage with them, and eventually when David Bowie, who was at the height of his fame at that point, told his record label he was going to see her on a night that EMI wanted to do an event for him, half the record industry showed up to the gig. She had already recorded a remake of the Temptations' "Ball of Confusion" with the British Electric Foundation -- a side project for two of the members of Heaven 17 -- in 1982, for one of their albums: [Excerpt: British Electric Foundation, "Ball of Confusion"] Now they were brought in to produce a new single for her, a remake of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together": [Excerpt: Tina Turner, "Let's Stay Together"] That made the top thirty in the US, and was a moderate hit in many places, making the top ten in the UK. She followed it up with another BEF production, a remake of "Help!" by the Beatles, which appears only to have been released in mainland Europe. But then came the big hit: [Excerpt: Tina Turner, "What's Love Got to Do With It?"] wenty-six years after she started performing with Ike, Tina Turner was suddenly a major star. She had a string of successes throughout the eighties and nineties, with more hit records, film appearances, a successful autobiography, a film based on the autobiography, and record-setting concert appearan

Episode one hundred and forty of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Trouble Every Day" by the Mothers of Invention, and the early career of Frank Zappa. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Christmas Time is Here Again" by the Beatles. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources I'm away from home as I upload this and haven't been able to do a Mixcloud, but will hopefully edit a link in in a week or so if I remember. The main biography I consulted for this was Electric Don Quixote by Neil Slaven. Zappa's autobiography, The Real Frank Zappa Book, is essential reading if you're a fan of his work. Information about Jimmy Carl Black's early life came from Black's autobiography, For Mother's Sake. Zappa's letter to Varese is from this blog, which also contains a lot of other useful information on Zappa. For information on the Watts uprising, I recommend Johnny Otis' Listen to the Lambs. And the original mix of Freak Out is currently available not on the CD issue of Freak Out itself, which is an eighties remix, but on this "documentary" set. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Just a quick note before I begin -- there are a couple of passing references in this episode to rape and child abuse. I don't believe there's anything that should upset anyone, but if you're worried, you might want to read the transcript on the podcast website before or instead of listening. But also, this episode contains explicit, detailed, descriptions of racial violence carried out by the police against Black people, including against children. Some of it is so distressing that even reading the transcript might be a bit much for some people. Sometimes, in this podcast, we have to go back to another story we've already told. In most cases, that story is recent enough that I can just say, "remember last episode, when I said...", but to tell the story of the Mothers of Invention, I have to start with a story that I told sixty-nine episodes ago, in episode seventy-one, which came out nearly two years ago. In that episode, on "Willie and the Hand Jive", I briefly told the story of Little Julian Herrera at the start. I'm going to tell a slightly longer version of the story now. Some of the information at the start of this episode will be familiar from that and other episodes, but I'm not going to expect people to remember something from that long ago, given all that's happened since. The DJ Art Laboe is one of the few figures from the dawn of rock and roll who is still working. At ninety-six years old, he still promotes concerts, and hosts a syndicated radio show on which he plays "Oldies but Goodies", a phrase which could describe him as well as the music. It's a phrase he coined -- and trademarked -- back in the 1950s, when people in his audience would ask him to play records made a whole three or four years earlier, records they had listened to in their youth. Laboe pretty much single-handedly invented the rock and roll nostalgia market -- as well as being a DJ, he owned a record label, Original Sound, which put out a series of compilation albums, Oldies But Goodies, starting in 1959, which started to cement the first draft of the doo-wop canon. These were the first albums to compile together a set of older rock and roll hits and market them for nostalgia, and they were very much based on the tastes of his West Coast teenage listenership, featuring songs like "Earth Angel" by the Penguins: [Excerpt: The Penguins, "Earth Angel"] But also records that had a more limited geographic appeal, like "Heaven and Paradise" by Don Julian and the Meadowlarks: [Excerpt: Don Julian and the Meadowlarks, "Heaven and Paradise"] As well as being a DJ and record company owner, Laboe was the promoter and MC for regular teenage dances at El Monte Legion Stadium, at which Kip and the Flips, the band that featured Sandy Nelson and Bruce Johnston, would back local performers like the Penguins, Don and Dewey, or Ritchie Valens, as well as visiting headliners like Jerry Lee Lewis. El Monte stadium was originally chosen because it was outside the LA city limits -- at the time there were anti-rock-and-roll ordinances that meant that any teenage dance had to be approved by the LA Board of Education, but those didn't apply to that stadium -- but it also led to Laboe's audience becoming more racially diverse. The stadium was in East LA, which had a large Mexican-American population, and while Laboe's listenership had initially been very white, soon there were substantial numbers of Mexican-American and Black audience members. And it was at one of the El Monte shows that Johnny Otis discovered the person who everyone thought was going to become the first Chicano rock star, before even Ritchie Valens, in 1957, performing as one of the filler acts on Laboe's bill. He signed Little Julian Herrera, a performer who was considered a sensation in East LA at the time, though nobody really knew where he lived, or knew much about him other than that he was handsome, Chicano, and would often have a pint of whisky in his back pocket, even though he was under the legal drinking age. Otis signed Herrera to his label, Dig Records, and produced several records for him, including the record by which he's now best remembered, "Those Lonely Lonely Nights": [Excerpt: Little Julian Herrera, "Those Lonely, Lonely, Nights"] After those didn't take off the way they were expected to, Herrera and his vocal group the Tigers moved to another label, one owned by Laboe, where they recorded "I Remember Linda": [Excerpt: Little Julian Herrera and the Tigers, "I Remember Linda"]  And then one day Johnny Otis got a knock on his door from the police. They were looking for Ron Gregory. Otis had never heard of Ron Gregory, and told them so. The police then showed him a picture. It turned out that Julian Herrera wasn't Mexican-American, and wasn't from East LA, but was from Massachusetts. He had run away from home a few years back, hitch-hiked across the country, and been taken in by a Mexican-American family, whose name he had adopted. And now he was wanted for rape. Herrera went to prison, and when he got out, he tried to make a comeback, but ended up sleeping rough in the basement of the stadium where he had once been discovered. He had to skip town because of some other legal problems, and headed to Tijuana, where he was last seen playing R&B gigs in 1963. Nobody knows what happened to him after that -- some say he was murdered, others that he's still alive, working in a petrol station under yet another name, but nobody has had a confirmed sighting of him since then. When he went to prison, the Tigers tried to continue for a while, but without their lead singer, they soon broke up. Ray Collins, who we heard singing the falsetto part in "I Remember Linda", went on to join many other doo-wop and R&B groups over the next few years, with little success. Then in summer 1963, he walked into a bar in Ponoma, and saw a bar band who were playing the old Hank Ballard and the Midnighters song "Work With Me Annie". As Collins later put it, “I figured that any band that played ‘Work With Me Annie' was all right,” and he asked if he could join them for a few songs. They agreed, and afterwards, Collins struck up a conversation with the guitarist, and told him about an idea he'd had for a song based on one of Steve Allen's catchphrases. The guitarist happened to be spending a lot of his time recording at an independent recording studio, and suggested that the two of them record the song together: [Excerpt: Baby Ray and the Ferns, "How's Your Bird?"] The guitarist in question was named Frank Zappa. Zappa was originally from Maryland, but had moved to California as a child with his conservative Italian-American family when his father, a defence contractor, had got a job in Monterey. The family had moved around California with his father's work, mostly living in various small towns in the Mojave desert seventy miles or so north of Los Angeles. Young Frank had an interest in science, especially chemistry, and especially things that exploded, but while he managed to figure out the ingredients for gunpowder, his family couldn't afford to buy him a chemistry set in his formative years -- they were so poor that his father regularly took part in medical experiments to get a bit of extra money to feed his kids -- and so the young man's interest was diverted away from science towards music. His first musical interest, and one that would show up in his music throughout his life, was the comedy music of Spike Jones, whose band combined virtuosic instrumental performances with sound effects: [Excerpt: Spike Jones and his City Slickers, "Cocktails for Two"] and parodies of popular classical music [Excerpt: Spike Jones and his City Slickers, "William Tell Overture"] Jones was a huge inspiration for almost every eccentric or bohemian of the 1940s and 50s -- Spike Milligan, for example, took the name Spike in tribute to him. And young Zappa wrote his first ever fan letter to Jones when he was five or six. As a child Zappa was also fascinated by the visual aesthetics of music -- he liked to draw musical notes on staves and see what they looked like. But his musical interests developed in two other ways once he entered his teens. The first was fairly typical for the musicians of his generation from LA we've looked at and will continue to look at, which is that he heard "Gee" by the Crows on the radio: [Excerpt: The Crows, "Gee"] He became an R&B obsessive at that moment, and would spend every moment he could listening to the Black radio stations, despite his parents' disapproval. He particularly enjoyed Huggy Boy's radio show broadcast from Dolphins of Hollywood, and also would religiously listen to Johnny Otis, and soon became a connoisseur of the kind of R&B and blues that Otis championed as a musician and DJ: [Excerpt: Zappa on the Late Show, “I hadn't been raised in an environment where there was a lot of music in the house. This couple that owned the chilli place, Opal and Chester, agreed to ask the man who serviced the jukebox to put in some of the song titles that I liked, because I promised that I would dutifully keep pumping quarters into this thing so that I could listen to them, and so I had the ability to eat good chilli and listen to 'Three Hours Past Midnight' by Johnny 'Guitar' Watson for most of my junior and senior year"] Johnny “Guitar” Watson, along with Guitar Slim, would become a formative influence on Zappa's guitar playing, and his playing on "Three Hours Past Midnight" is so similar to Zappa's later style that you could easily believe it *was* him: [Excerpt: Johnny "Guitar" Watson, "Three Hours Past Midnight"] But Zappa wasn't only listening to R&B. The way Zappa would always tell the story, he discovered the music that would set him apart from his contemporaries originally by reading an article in Look magazine. Now, because Zappa has obsessive fans who check every detail, people have done the research and found that there was no such article in that magazine, but he was telling the story close enough to the time period in which it happened that its broad strokes, at least, must be correct even if the details are wrong. What Zappa said was that the article was on Sam Goody, the record salesman, and talked about how Goody was so good at his job that he had even been able to sell a record of Ionisation by Edgard Varese, which just consisted of the worst and most horrible noises anyone had ever heard, just loud drumming noises and screeching sounds. He determined then that he needed to hear that album, but he had no idea how he would get hold of a copy. I'll now read an excerpt from Zappa's autobiography, because Zappa's phrasing makes the story much better: "Some time later, I was staying overnight with Dave Franken, a friend who lived in La Mesa, and we wound up going to the hi-fi place -- they were having a sale on R&B singles. After shuffling through the rack and finding a couple of Joe Huston records, I made my way toward the cash register and happened to glance at the LP bin. I noticed a strange-looking black-and-white album cover with a guy on it who had frizzy gray hair and looked like a mad scientist. I thought it was great that a mad scientist had finally made a record, so I picked it up -- and there it was, the record with "Ionisation" on it. The author of the Look article had gotten it slightly wrong -- the correct title was The Complete Works of Edgard Varèse, Volume I, including "Ionisation," among other pieces, on an obscure label called EMS (Elaine Music Store). The record number was 401.I returned the Joe Huston records and checked my pockets to see how much money I had -- I think it came to about $3.75. I'd never bought an album before, but I knew they must be expensive because mostly old people bought them. I asked the man at the cash register how much EMS 401 cost. "That gray one in the box?" he said. "$5.95." I'd been searching for that record for over a year and I wasn't about to give up. I told him I had $3.75. He thought about it for a minute, and said, "We've been using that record to demonstrate hi-fi's with -- but nobody ever buys one when we use it. I guess if you want it that bad you can have it for $3.75."" Zappa took the record home, and put it on on his mother's record player in the living room, the only one that could play LPs: [Excerpt: Edgard Varese, "Ionisation"] His mother told him he could never play that record in the living room again, so he took the record player into his bedroom, and it became his record player from that point on. Varese was a French composer who had, in his early career, been very influenced by Debussy. Debussy is now, of course, part of the classical canon, but in the early twentieth century he was regarded as radical, almost revolutionary, for his complete rewriting of the rules of conventional classical music tonality into a new conception based on chordal melodies, pedal points, and use of non-diatonic scales. Almost all of Varese's early work was destroyed in a fire, so we don't have evidence of the transition from Debussy's romantic-influenced impressionism to Varese's later style, but after he had moved to the US in 1915 he had become wildly more experimental. "Ionisation" is often claimed to be the first piece of Western classical music written only for percussion instruments. Varese was part of a wider movement of modernist composers -- for example he was the best man at Nicolas Slonimsky's wedding -- and had also set up the International Composers' Guild, whose manifesto influenced Zappa, though his libertarian politics led him to adapt it to a more individualistic rather than collective framing. The original manifesto read in part "Dying is the privilege of the weary. The present day composers refuse to die. They have realized the necessity of banding together and fighting for the right of each individual to secure a fair and free presentation of his work" In the twenties and thirties, Varese had written a large number of highly experimental pieces, including Ecuatorial, which was written for bass vocal, percussion, woodwind, and two Theremin cellos. These are not the same as the more familiar Theremin, created by the same inventor, and were, as their name suggests, Theremins that were played like a cello, with a fingerboard and bow. Only ten of these were ever made, specifically for performances of Varese's work, and he later rewrote the work to use ondes martenot instead of Theremin cellos, which is how the work is normally heard now: [Excerpt: Edgard Varese, "Ecuatorial"] But Varese had spent much of the thirties, forties, and early fifties working on two pieces that were never finished, based on science fiction ideas -- L'Astronome, which was meant to be about communication with people from the star Sirius, and Espace, which was originally intended to be performed simultaneously by choirs in Beijing, Moscow, Paris, and New York. Neither of these ideas came to fruition, and so Varese had not released any new work, other than one small piece, Étude pour espace, an excerpt from the  larger work, in Zappa's lifetime. Zappa followed up his interest in Varese's music with his music teacher, one of the few people in the young man's life who encouraged him in his unusual interests. That teacher, Mr Kavelman, introduced Zappa to the work of other composers, like Webern, but would also let him know why he liked particular R&B records. For example, Zappa played Mr. Kavelman "Angel in My Life" by the Jewels, and asked what it was that made him particularly like it: [Excerpt: The Jewels, "Angel in My Life"] The teacher's answer was that it was the parallel fourths that made the record particularly appealing. Young Frank was such a big fan of Varese that for his fifteenth birthday, he actually asked if he could make a long-distance phone call to speak to Varese. He didn't know where Varese lived, but figured that it must be in Greenwich Village because that was where composers lived, and he turned out to be right. He didn't get through on his birthday -- he got Varese's wife, who told him the composer was in Europe -- but he did eventually get to speak to him, and was incredibly excited when Varese told him that not only had he just written a new piece for the first time in years, but that it was called Deserts, and was about deserts -- just like the Mojave Desert where Zappa lived: [Excerpt: Edgard Varese, "Deserts"] As he later wrote, “When you're 15 and living in the Mojave Desert, and you find out that the World's Greatest Composer (who also looks like a mad scientist) is working in a secret Greenwich Village laboratory on a song about your hometown (so to speak), you can get pretty excited.” A year later, Zappa actually wrote to Varese, a long letter which included him telling the story about how he'd found his work in the first place, hoping to meet up with him when Zappa travelled to the East Coast to see family. I'll read out a few extracts, but the whole thing is fascinating for what it says about Zappa the precocious adolescent, and I'll link to a blog post with it in the show notes. "Dear Sir: Perhaps you might remember me from my stupid phone call last January, if not, my name again is Frank Zappa Jr. I am 16 years old… that might explain partly my disturbing you last winter. After I had struggled through Mr. Finklestein's notes on the back cover (I really did struggle too, for at the time I had had no training in music other than practice at drum rudiments) I became more and more interested in you and your music. I began to go to the library and take out books on modern composers and modern music, to learn all I could about Edgard Varese. It got to be my best subject (your life) and I began writing my reports and term papers on you at school. At one time when my history teacher asked us to write on an American that has really done something for the U.S.A. I wrote on you and the Pan American Composers League and the New Symphony. I failed. The teacher had never heard of you and said I made the whole thing up. Silly but true. That was my Sophomore year in high school. Throughout my life all the talents and abilities that God has left me with have been self developed, and when the time came for Frank to learn how to read and write music, Frank taught himself that too. I picked it all up from the library. I have been composing for two years now, utilizing a strict twelve-tone technique, producing effects that are reminiscent of Anton Webern. During those two years I have written two short woodwind quartets and a short symphony for winds, brass and percussion. I plan to go on and be a composer after college and I could really use the counsel of a veteran such as you. If you would allow me to visit with you for even a few hours it would be greatly appreciated. It may sound strange but I think I have something to offer you in the way of new ideas. One is an elaboration on the principle of Ruth Seeger's contrapuntal dynamics and the other is an extension of the twelve-tone technique which I call the inversion square. It enables one to compose harmonically constructed pantonal music in logical patterns and progressions while still abandoning tonality. Varese sent a brief reply, saying that he was going to be away for a few months, but would like to meet Zappa on his return. The two never met, but Zappa kept the letter from Varese framed on his wall for the rest of his life. Zappa soon bought a couple more albums, a version of "The Rite of Spring" by Stravinsky: [Excerpt: Igor Stravinsky, "The Rite of Spring"] And a record of pieces by Webern, including his Symphony opus 21: [Excerpt: Anton Webern, "Symphony op. 21"] (Incidentally, with the classical music here, I'm not seeking out the precise performances Zappa was listening to, just using whichever recordings I happen to have copies of). Zappa was also reading Slonimsky's works of musicology, like the Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns. As well as this "serious music" though, Zappa was also developing as an R&B musician.  He later said of the Webern album, "I loved that record, but it was about as different from Stravinsky and Varèse as you could get. I didn't know anything about twelve-tone music then, but I liked the way it sounded. Since I didn't have any kind of formal training, it didn't make any difference to me if I was listening to Lightnin' Slim, or a vocal group called the Jewels (who had a song out then called "Angel in My Life"), or Webern, or Varèse, or Stravinsky. To me it was all good music." He had started as a drummer with a group called the Blackouts, an integrated group with white, Latino, and Black members, who played R&B tracks like "Directly From My Heart to You", the song Johnny Otis had produced for Little Richard: [Excerpt: Little Richard, "Directly From My Heart to You"] But after eighteen months or so, he quit the group and stopped playing drums. Instead, he switched to guitar, with a style influenced by Johnny "Guitar" Watson and Guitar Slim. His first guitar had action so bad that he didn't learn to play chords, and moved straight on to playing lead lines with his younger brother Bobby playing rhythm. He also started hanging around with two other teenage bohemians -- Euclid Sherwood, who was nicknamed Motorhead, and Don Vliet, who called himself Don Van Vliet. Vliet was a truly strange character, even more so than Zappa, but they shared a love for the blues, and Vliet was becoming a fairly good blues singer, though he hadn't yet perfected the Howlin' Wolf imitation that would become his stock-in-trade in later years. But the surviving recording of Vliet singing with the Zappa brothers on guitar, singing a silly parody blues about being flushed down the toilet of the kind that many teenage boys would write, shows the promise that the two men had: [Excerpt: Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, "Lost in a Whirlpool"] Zappa was also getting the chance to hear his more serious music performed. He'd had the high school band play a couple of his pieces, but he also got the chance to write film music -- his English teacher, Don Cerveris, had decided to go off and seek his fortune as a film scriptwriter, and got Zappa hired to write the music for a cheap Western he'd written, Run Home Slow. The film was beset with problems -- it started filming in 1959 but didn't get finished and released until 1965 -- but the music Zappa wrote for it did eventually get recorded and used on the soundtrack: [Excerpt: Frank Zappa, "Run Home Slow Theme"] In 1962, he got to write the music for another film, The World's Greatest Sinner, and he also wrote a theme song for that, which got released as the B-side of "How's Your Bird?", the record he made with Ray Collins: [Excerpt: Baby Ray and the Ferns, "The World's Greatest Sinner"] Zappa was able to make these records because by the early sixties, as well as playing guitar in bar bands, he was working as an assistant for a man named Paul Buff. Paul Buff had worked as an engineer for a guided missile manufacturer, but had decided that he didn't want to do that any more, and instead had opened up the first independent multi-track recording studio on the West Coast, PAL Studios, using equipment he'd designed and built himself, including a five-track tape recorder. Buff engineered a huge number of surf instrumentals there, including "Wipe Out" by the Surfaris: [Excerpt: The Surfaris, "Wipe Out"] Zappa had first got to know Buff when he had come to Buff's studio with some session musicians in 1961, to record some jazz pieces he'd written, including this piece which at the time was in the style of Dave Brubeck but would later become a staple of Zappa's repertoire reorchestrated in a  rock style. [Excerpt: The PAL Studio Band, "Never on Sunday"] Buff really just wanted to make records entirely by himself, so he'd taught himself to play the rudiments of guitar, bass, drums, piano, and alto saxophone, so he could create records alone. He would listen to every big hit record, figure out what the hooks were on the record, and write his own knock-off of those. An example is "Tijuana Surf" by the Hollywood Persuaders, which is actually Buff on all instruments, and which according to Zappa went to number one in Mexico (though I've not found an independent source to confirm that chart placing, so perhaps take it with a pinch of salt): [Excerpt: The Hollywood Persuaders, "Tijuana Surf"] The B-side to that, "Grunion Run", was written by Zappa, who also plays guitar on that side: [Excerpt: The Hollywood Persuaders, "Grunion Run"] Zappa, Buff, Ray Collins, and a couple of associates would record all sorts of material at PAL -- comedy material like "Hey Nelda", under the name "Ned and Nelda" -- a parody of "Hey Paula" by Paul and Paula: [Excerpt: Ned and Nelda, "Hey Nelda"] Doo-wop parodies like "Masked Grandma": [Excerpt: The PAL Studio Band, "Masked Grandma"] R&B: [Excerpt: The PAL Studio Band, "Why Don't You Do Me Right?"] and more. Then Buff or Zappa would visit one of the local independent label owners and try to sell them the master -- Art Laboe at Original Sound released several of the singles, as did Bob Keane at Donna Records and Del-Fi. The "How's Your Bird" single also got Zappa his first national media exposure, as he went on the Steve Allen show, where he demonstrated to Allen how to make music using a bicycle and a prerecorded electronic tape, in an appearance that Zappa would parody five years later on the Monkees' TV show: [Excerpt: Steve Allen and Frank Zappa, "Cyclophony"] But possibly the record that made the most impact at the time was "Memories of El Monte", a song that Zappa and Collins wrote together about Art Laboe's dances at El Monte Stadium, incorporating excerpts of several of the songs that would be played there, and named after a compilation Laboe had put out, which had included “I Remember Linda” by Little Julian and the Tigers. They got Cleve Duncan of the Penguins to sing lead, and the record came out as by the Penguins, on Original Sound: [Excerpt: The Penguins, "Memories of El Monte"] By this point, though, Pal studios was losing money, and Buff took up the offer of a job working for Laboe full time, as an engineer at Original Sound. He would later become best known for inventing the kepex, an early noise gate which engineer Alan Parsons used on a bass drum to create the "heartbeat" that opens Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon: [Excerpt: Pink Floyd, "Speak to Me"] That invention would possibly be Buff's most lasting contribution to music, as by the early eighties, the drum sound on every single pop record was recorded using a noise gate. Buff sold the studio to Zappa, who renamed it Studio Z and moved in -- he was going through a divorce and had nowhere else to live. The studio had no shower, and Zappa had to just use a sink to wash, and he was surviving mostly off food scrounged by his resourceful friend Motorhead Sherwood. By this point, Zappa had also joined a band called the Soots, consisting of Don Van Vliet, Alex St. Clair and Vic Mortenson, and they recorded several tracks at Studio Z, which they tried to get released on Dot Records, including a cover version of Little Richard's “Slippin' and Slidin'”, and a song called “Tiger Roach” whose lyrics were mostly random phrases culled from a Green Lantern comic: [Excerpt: The Soots, "Tiger Roach"] Zappa also started writing what was intended as the first ever rock opera, "I Was a Teenage Maltshop", and attempts were made to record parts of it with Vliet, Mortenson, and Motorhead Sherwood: [Excerpt: Frank Zappa, "I Was a Teenage Maltshop"] Zappa was also planning to turn Studio Z into a film studio. He obtained some used film equipment, and started planning a science fiction film to feature Vliet, titled "Captain Beefheart Meets the Grunt People". The title was inspired by an uncle of Vliet's, who lived with Vliet and his girlfriend, and used to urinate with the door open so he could expose himself to Vliet's girlfriend, saying as he did so "Look at that! Looks just like a big beef heart!" Unfortunately, the film would not get very far. Zappa was approached by a used-car salesman who said that he and his friends were having a stag party. As Zappa owned a film studio, could he make them a pornographic film to show at the party? Zappa told him that a film wouldn't be possible, but as he needed the money, would an audio tape be acceptable? The used-car salesman said that it would, and gave him a list of sex acts he and his friends would like to hear. Zappa and a friend, Lorraine Belcher, went into the studio and made a few grunting noises and sound effects. The used-car salesman turned out actually to be an undercover policeman, who was better known in the area for his entrapment of gay men, but had decided to branch out. Zappa and Belcher were arrested -- Zappa's father bailed him out, and Zappa got an advance from Art Laboe to pay Belcher's bail. Luckily "Grunion Run" and "Memories of El Monte" were doing well enough that Laboe could give Zappa a $1500 advance. When the case finally came to trial, the judge laughed at the tape and wanted to throw the whole case out, but the prosecutor insisted on fighting, and Zappa got ten days in prison, and most of his tapes were impounded, never to be returned. He fell behind with his rent, and Studio Z was demolished. And then Ray Collins called him, asking if he wanted to join a bar band: [Excerpt: The Mothers, "Hitch-Hike"] The Soul Giants were formed by a bass player named Roy Estrada. Now, Estrada is unfortunately someone who will come up in the story a fair bit over the next year or so, as he played on several of the most important records to come out of LA in the sixties and early seventies. He is also someone about whom there's fairly little biographical information -- he's not been interviewed much, compared to pretty much everyone else, and it's easy to understand why when you realise that he's currently half-way through a twenty-five year sentence for child molestation -- his third such conviction. He won't get out of prison until he's ninety-three. He's one of the most despicable people who will turn up in this podcast, and frankly I'm quite glad I don't know more about him as a person. He was, though, a good bass player and falsetto singer, and he had released a single on King Records, an instrumental titled "Jungle Dreams": [Excerpt, Roy Estrada and the Rocketeers, "Jungle Dreams"] The other member of the rhythm section, Jimmy Carl Black, was an American Indian (that's the term he always used about himself until his death, and so that's the term I'll use about him too) from Texas. Black had grown up in El Paso as a fan of Western Swing music, especially Bob Wills, but had become an R&B fan after discovering Wolfman Jack's radio show and hearing the music of Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. Like every young man from El Paso, he would travel to Juarez as a teenager to get drunk, see sex shows, and raise hell. It was also there that he saw his first live blues music, watching Long John Hunter, the same man who inspired the Bobby Fuller Four, and he would always claim Hunter as the man whose shows taught him how to play the blues. Black had decided he wanted to become a musician when he'd seen Elvis perform live. In Black's memory, this was a gig where Elvis was an unknown support act for Faron Young and Wanda Jackson, but he was almost certainly slightly misremembering -- it's most likely that what he saw was Elvis' show in El Paso on the eleventh of April 1956, where Young and Jackson were also on the bill, but supporting Elvis who was headlining. Either way, Black had decided that he wanted to make girls react to him the same way they reacted to Elvis, and he started playing in various country and R&B bands. His first record was with a group called the Keys, and unfortunately I haven't been able to track down a copy (it was reissued on a CD in the nineties, but the CD itself is now out of print and sells for sixty pounds) but he did rerecord the song with a later group he led, the Mannish Boys: [Excerpt: Jimmy Carl Black and the Mannish Boys, "Stretch Pants"] He spent a couple of years in the Air Force, but continued playing music during that time, including in a band called The Exceptions which featured Peter Cetera later of the band Chicago, on bass. After a brief time working as lineman in Wichita, he moved his family to California, where he got a job teaching drums at a music shop in Anaheim, where the bass teacher was Jim Fielder, who would later play bass in Blood, Sweat, and Tears. One of Fielder's friends, Tim Buckley, used to hang around in the shop as well, and Black was at first irritated by him coming in and playing the guitars and not buying anything, but eventually became impressed by his music. Black would later introduce Buckley to Herb Cohen, who would become Buckley's manager, starting his professional career. When Roy Estrada came into the shop, he and Black struck up a friendship, and Estrada asked Black to join his band The Soul Giants, whose lineup became Estrada, Black, a sax player named Davey Coronado, a guitarist called Larry and a singer called Dave. The group got a residency at the Broadside club in Ponoma, playing "Woolly Bully" and "Louie Louie" and other garage-band staples. But then Larry and Dave got drafted, and the group got in two men called Ray -- Ray Collins on vocals, and Ray Hunt on guitar. This worked for a little while, but Ray Hunt was, by all accounts, not a great guitar player -- he would play wrong chords, and also he was fundamentally a surf player while the Soul Giants were an R&B group. Eventually, Collins and Hunt got into a fistfight, and Collins suggested that they get in his friend Frank instead. For a while, the Soul Giants continued playing "Midnight Hour" and "Louie Louie", but then Zappa suggested that they start playing some of his original material as well. Davy Coronado refused to play original material, because he thought, correctly, that it would lose the band gigs, but the rest of the band sided with the man who had quickly become their new leader. Coronado moved back to Texas, and on Mother's Day 1965 the Soul Giants changed their name to the Mothers. They got in Henry Vestine on second guitar, and started playing Zappa's originals, as well as changing the lyrics to some of the hits they were playing: [Excerpt: The Mothers, "Plastic People"] Zappa had started associating with the freak crowd in Hollywood centred around Vito and Franzoni, after being introduced by Don Cerveris, his old teacher turned screenwriter, to an artist called Mark Cheka, who Zappa invited to manage the group. Cheka in turn brought in his friend Herb Cohen, who managed several folk acts including the Modern Folk Quartet and Judy Henske, and who like Zappa had once been arrested on obscenity charges, in Cohen's case for promoting gigs by the comedian Lenny Bruce. Cohen first saw the Mothers when they were recording their appearance in an exploitation film called Mondo Hollywood. They were playing in a party scene, using equipment borrowed from Jim Guercio, a session musician who would briefly join the Mothers, but who is now best known for having been Chicago's manager and producing hit records for them and Blood, Sweat, and Tears. In the crowd were Vito and Franzoni, Bryan Maclean, Ram Dass, the Harvard psychologist who had collaborated with Timothy Leary in controversial LSD experiments that had led to both losing their jobs, and other stalwarts of the Sunset Strip scene. Cohen got the group bookings at the Whisky A-Go-Go and The Trip, two of the premier LA nightclubs, and Zappa would also sit in with other bands playing at those venues, like the Grass Roots, a band featuring Bryan Maclean and Arthur Lee which would soon change its name to Love. At this time Zappa and Henry Vestine lived together, next door to a singer named Victoria Winston, who at the time was in a duo called Summer's Children with Curt Boettcher: [Excerpt: Summer's Children, "Milk and Honey"] Winston, like Zappa, was a fan of Edgard Varese, and actually asked Zappa to write songs for Summer's Children, but one of the partners involved in their production company disliked Zappa's material and the collaboration went no further. Zappa at this point was trying to incorporate more ideas from modal jazz into his music. He was particularly impressed by Eric Dolphy's 1964 album "Out to Lunch": [Excerpt: Eric Dolphy, "Hat and Beard"] But he was also writing more about social issues, and in particular he had written a song called "The Watts Riots Song", which would later be renamed "Trouble Every Day": [Excerpt: The Mothers of Invention, "Trouble Every Day"] Now, the Watts Uprising was one of the most important events in Black American history, and it feels quite wrong that I'm covering it in an episode about a band made up of white, Latino, and American Indian people rather than a record made by Black people, but I couldn't find any way to fit it in anywhere else. As you will remember me saying in the episode on "I Fought the Law", the LA police under Chief William Parker were essentially a criminal gang by any other name -- they were incompetent, violent, and institutionally racist, and terrorised Black people. The Black people of LA were also feeling particularly aggrieved in the summer of 1965, as a law banning segregation in housing had been overturned by a ballot proposition in November 1964, sponsored by the real estate industry and passed by an overwhelming majority of white voters in what Martin Luther King called "one of the most shameful developments in our nation's history", and which Edmund Brown, the Democratic governor said was like "another hate binge which began more than 30 years ago in a Munich beer hall". Then on Wednesday, August 11, 1965, the police pulled over a Black man, Marquette Frye, for drunk driving. He had been driving his mother's car, and she lived nearby, and she came out to shout at him about drinking and driving. The mother, Rena Price, was hit by one of the policemen; Frye then physically attacked one of the police for hitting his mother, one of the police pulled out a gun, a crowd gathered, the police became violent against the crowd, a rumour spread that they had kicked a pregnant woman, and the resulting protests were exacerbated by the police carrying out what Chief Parker described as a "paramiltary" response. The National Guard were called in, huge swathes of south central LA were cordoned off by the police with signs saying things like "turn left or get shot". Black residents started setting fire to and looting local white-owned businesses that had been exploiting Black workers and customers, though this looting was very much confined to individuals who were known to have made the situation worse. Eventually it took six days for the uprising to be put down, at a cost of thirty-four deaths, 1032 injuries, and 3438 arrests. Of the deaths, twenty-three were Black civilians murdered by the police, and zero were police murdered by Black civilians (two police were killed by other police, in accidental shootings). The civil rights activist Bayard Rustin said of the uprising, "The whole point of the outbreak in Watts was that it marked the first major rebellion of Negroes against their own masochism and was carried on with the express purpose of asserting that they would no longer quietly submit to the deprivation of slum life." Frank Zappa's musical hero Johnny Otis would later publish the book Listen to the Lambs about the Watts rebellion, and in it he devotes more than thirty pages to eyewitness accounts from Black people. It's an absolutely invaluable resource. One of the people Otis interviews is Lily Ford, who is described by my copy of the book as being the "lead singer of the famous Roulettes". This is presumably an error made by the publishers, rather than Otis, because Ford was actually a singer with the Raelettes, as in Ray Charles' vocal group. She also recorded with Otis under the name "Lily of the Valley": [Excerpt: Lily of the Valley, "I Had a Sweet Dream"] Now, Ford's account deserves a large excerpt, but be warned, this is very, very difficult to hear. I gave a content warning at the beginning, but I'm going to give another one here. "A lot of our people were in the street, seeing if they could get free food and clothes and furniture, and some of them taking liquor too. But the white man was out for blood. Then three boys came down the street, laughing and talking. They were teenagers, about fifteen or sixteen years old. As they got right at the store they seemed to debate whether they would go inside. One boy started a couple of times to go. Finally he did. Now a cop car finally stops to investigate. Police got out of the car. Meanwhile, the other two boys had seen them coming and they ran. My brother-in-law and I were screaming and yelling for the boy to get out. He didn't hear us, or was too scared to move. He never had a chance. This young cop walked up to the broken window and looked in as the other one went round the back and fired some shots and I just knew he'd killed the other two boys, but I guess he missed. He came around front again. By now other police cars had come. The cop at the window aimed his gun. He stopped and looked back at a policeman sitting in a car. He aimed again. No shot. I tried to scream, but I was so horrified that nothing would come out of my throat. The third time he aimed he yelled, "Halt", and fired before the word was out of his mouth. Then he turned around and made a bull's-eye sign with his fingers to his partner. Just as though he had shot a tin can off a fence, not a human being. The cops stood around for ten or fifteen minutes without going inside to see if the kid was alive or dead. When the ambulance came, then they went in. They dragged him out like he was a sack of potatoes. Cops were everywhere now. So many cops for just one murder." [Excerpt: The Mothers of Invention, "Trouble Every Day"] There's a lot more of this sort of account in Otis' book, and it's all worth reading -- indeed, I would argue that it is *necessary* reading. And Otis keeps making a point which I quoted back in the episode on "Willie and the Hand Jive" but which I will quote again here -- “A newborn Negro baby has less chance of survival than a white. A Negro baby will have its life ended seven years sooner. This is not some biological phenomenon linked to skin colour, like sickle-cell anaemia; this is a national crime, linked to a white-supremacist way of life and compounded by indifference”. (Just a reminder, the word “Negro” which Otis uses there was, in the mid-sixties, the term of choice used by Black people.) And it's this which inspired "The Watts Riot Song", which the Mothers were playing when Tom Wilson was brought into The Trip by Herb Cohen: [Excerpt: The Mothers of Invention, "Trouble Every Day"] Wilson had just moved from Columbia, where he'd been producing Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel, to Verve, a subsidiary of MGM which was known for jazz records but was moving into rock and roll. Wilson was looking for a white blues band, and thought he'd found one. He signed the group without hearing any other songs. Henry Vestine quit the group between the signing and the first recording, to go and join an *actual* white blues band, Canned Heat, and over the next year the group's lineup would fluctuate quite a bit around the core of Zappa, Collins, Estrada, and Black, with members like Steve Mann, Jim Guercio, Jim Fielder, and Van Dyke Parks coming and going, often without any recordings being made of their performances. The lineup on what became the group's first album, Freak Out! was Zappa, Collins, Estrada, Black, and Elliot Ingber, the former guitarist with the Gamblers, who had joined the group shortly before the session and would leave within a few months. The first track the group recorded, "Any Way the Wind Blows", was straightforward enough: [Excerpt: The Mothers of Invention, "Any Way the Wind Blows"] The second song, a "Satisfaction" knock-off called "Hungry Freaks Daddy", was also fine. But it was when the group performed their third song of the session, "Who Are The Brain Police?", that Tom Wilson realised that he didn't have a standard band on his hands: [Excerpt: The Mothers of Invention, "Who Are the Brain Police?"] Luckily for everyone concerned, Tom Wilson was probably the single best producer in America to have discovered the Mothers. While he was at the time primarily known for his folk-rock productions, he had built his early career on Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra records, some of the freakiest jazz of the fifties and early sixties. He knew what needed to be done -- he needed a bigger budget. Far from being annoyed that he didn't have the white blues band he wanted, Wilson actively encouraged the group to go much, much further. He brought in Wrecking Crew members to augment the band (though one of them. Mac Rebennack, found the music so irritating he pretended he needed to go to the toilet, walked out, and never came back). He got orchestral musicians to play Zappa's scores, and allowed the group to rent hundreds of dollars of percussion instruments for the side-long track "Return of the Son of Monster Magnet", which features many Hollywood scenesters of the time, including Van Dyke Parks, Kim Fowley, future Manson family member Bobby Beausoleil, record executive David Anderle, songwriter P.F. Sloan, and cartoonist Terry Gilliam, all recording percussion parts and vocal noises: [Excerpt: The Mothers of Invention, "Return of the Son of Monster Magnet"] Such was Wilson's belief in the group that Freak Out! became only the second rock double album ever released -- exactly a week after the first, Blonde on Blonde, by Wilson's former associate Bob Dylan. The inner sleeve included a huge list of people who had influenced the record in one way or another, including people Zappa knew like Don Cerveris, Don Vliet, Paul Buff, Bob Keane, Nik Venet, and Art Laboe,  musicians who had influenced the group like Don & Dewey, Johnny Otis, Otis' sax players Preston Love and Big Jay McNeely, Eric Dolphy, Edgard Varese, Richard Berry, Johnny Guitar Watson, and Ravi Shankar, eccentric performers like Tiny Tim, DJs like Hunter Hancock and Huggy Boy, science fiction writers like Cordwainer Smith and Robert Sheckley, and scenesters like David Crosby, Vito, and Franzoni. The list of 179 people would provide a sort of guide for many listeners, who would seek out those names and find their ways into the realms of non-mainstream music, writing, and art over the next few decades. Zappa would always remain grateful to Wilson for taking his side in the record's production, saying "Wilson was sticking his neck out. He laid his job on the line by producing the album. MGM felt that they had spent too much money on the album". The one thing Wilson couldn't do, though, was persuade the label that the group's name could stay as it was. "The Mothers" was a euphemism, for a word I can't say if I want this podcast to keep its clean rating, a word that is often replaced in TV clean edits of films with "melon farmers", and MGM were convinced that the radio would never play any music by a band with that name -- not realising that that wouldn't be the reason this music wouldn't get played on the radio. The group needed to change their name. And so, out of necessity, they became the Mothers of Invention.

Episode one hundred and thirty-eight of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “I Fought the Law", and at the mysterious death of Bobby Fuller. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a fifteen-minute bonus episode available, on "Hanky Panky" by Tommy James and the Shondells. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com No Mixcloud this week due to the large number of tracks by the Bobby Fuller Four Resources Information about the Crickets' post-Holly work comes from Buddy Holly: Learning the Game, by Spencer Leigh. There are two books available about Bobby Fuller -- the one I consulted most is Rock and Roll Mustangs by Stephen McParland, which can be bought as a PDF from https://payhip.com/cmusicbooks I also consulted I Fought the Law: The Life and Strange Death of Bobby Fuller by Miriam Linna and Randell Fuller. One minor note -- both these books spell Bob Keane's name Keene. Apparently he spelled it multiple ways, but I have chosen to use the spelling he used on his autobiography, which is also the spelling I have used for him previously. There are several compilations available of the Bobby Fuller Four's material, but the best collection of the hit singles is Magic Touch: The Complete Mustang Singles Collection.  And this is an expanded edition of the Crickets' In Style album. Erratum I say Sonny Curtis wrote "Oh Boy!" -- I meant Sonny West. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A warning, before I begin. This episode, more than most, deals with events you may find disturbing, including graphic descriptions of violent death. Please check the transcript on the podcast website at 500songs.com if you are worried that you might be upset by this. This episode will not be a pleasant listen. Now on with the episode... More than anything, Bobby Fuller wanted desperately to be Buddy Holly. His attitude is best summed up in a quote from Jim Reese, the guitarist with the Bobby Fuller Four, who said "Don't get me wrong, I thought the world of Bobby Fuller and I cared a lot for him, so I say this with the best intentions -- but he was into Buddy Holly so much that if Buddy Holly decided to wear one red sock and one blue sock and Bobby Fuller found out about it, Bobby Fuller would've had one red sock and one blue sock. He figured that the only way to accomplish whatever Buddy Holly had accomplished was to be as much like Buddy Holly as possible." And Reese was right -- Bobby Fuller really was as much like Buddy Holly as possible. Buddy Holly was from Texas, so was Bobby Fuller. Buddy Holly played a Fender Stratocaster, Bobby Fuller played a Fender Stratocaster. Buddy Holly performed with the Crickets, Bobby Fuller's biggest hit was with a Crickets song. Buddy Holly recorded with Norman Petty, Bobby Fuller recorded with Norman Petty. Of course, there was one big difference. Buddy Holly died in an accident when he was twenty-two. Bobby Fuller lived to be twenty-three. And his death was no accident... [Excerpt: The Bobby Fuller Four, "I Fought the Law"] After Buddy Holly quit the Crickets in 1958, they continued recording with Norman Petty, getting in guitarist Sonny Curtis, who had been an associate of the band members even before they were a band, and who had been a frequent collaborator with Buddy, and vocalist Earl Sinks. But while they kept recording, Petty didn't release any of the recordings, and the group became convinced that he wasn't really interested in doing so. Rather, they thought that he was just using them as leverage to try to get Buddy back. "Love's Made a Fool of You" was the record that made the Crickets lose their faith in Norman Petty. The song was one that Buddy Holly and Bob Montgomery had written way back in 1954, and Holly had revived it for a demo in 1958, recording it not as a potential song for himself but to give to the Everly Brothers, reworked in their style, though they never recorded it: [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, "Love's Made a Fool of You"] When Holly and the Crickets had parted ways, the Crickets had recorded their own version of the song with Petty producing, which remained unreleased like everything they'd recorded since Buddy left. But on the very day that Buddy Holly died, Petty shipped a copy of the tape to Decca, express mail, so that a single could be released as soon as possible: [Excerpt: The Crickets, "Love's Made a Fool of You"] The Crickets never worked with Norman Petty again after that, they were so disgusted at his determination to cash in on the death of their friend and colleague. Petty continued to exploit Holly's work, getting in a band called the Fireballs to add new instrumental backing to Holly's old demos so they could be released as new singles, but the split between Petty and Holly's living colleagues was permanent. But the Crickets didn't give up performing, and continued recording new material, mostly written either by Sonny Curtis or by the group's drummer Jerry Allison, who had co-written several of the group's earlier hits with Holly. "More Than I Can Say" was written by Curtis and Allison, and didn't make the top forty in the US, but did become a top thirty hit in the UK: [Excerpt: The Crickets, "More Than I Can Say"] That was later also covered in hit versions by Bobby Vee and Leo Sayer. The B-side, "Baby My Heart", wasn't a hit for the Crickets, but was covered by the Shadows on their first album, which made number one on the UK charts. That performance was one of the few Shadows records at this point to have vocals: [Excerpt: The Shadows, "Baby My Heart"] The group's first post-Holly album collected all their singles without Holly to that point, plus a few new filler tracks. The album, In Style With the Crickets, didn't chart in the US, but was a success in the UK. Around the time that album was released, Earl Sinks quit the group, and became a songwriter. He collaborated with Buddy Holly's old musical partner Bob Montgomery on a variety of hits for people like Brenda Lee, and in the seventies went back into performing for a while, having minor solo country hits as Earl Richards, and then bought a chain of abbatoirs. Allison and Curtis supplemented their income from the Crickets with session work -- Allison backed the Everly Brothers on "Til I Kissed You": [Excerpt: The Everly Brothers, "Til I Kissed You"] and both of them played on Eddie Cochran's last studio session, playing on "Three Steps to Heaven", with Curtis playing the electric lead while Cochran played the acoustic: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran, "Three Steps to Heaven"] After that, the group went on tour in the UK as the backing band for the Everly Brothers, where they coincidentally bumped into Cochran, who told them "If I knew you guys were coming, I'd have asked you to bring me a bottle of American air.” They would never see Cochran again. Shortly after that tour, Sonny Curtis was drafted -- though while he was in the army, he wrote "Walk Right Back" for the Everly Brothers, as we discussed in the episode on "Cathy's Clown": [Excerpt: The Everly Brothers, "Walk Right Back"] Joe Mauldin gave up on music for a while, and so for a while The Crickets consisted of just Jerry Allison, new singer Jerry Naylor, and guitarist Tommy Allsup, who had played with Holly after Holly left the Crickets. That lineup recorded the "Bobby Vee Meets the Crickets" album, with Bobby Vee singing lead: [Excerpt: Bobby Vee and the Crickets, "Well... All Right"] Curtis would return once his time in the army was over, and eventually, in the 1970s, the group would stabilise on a lineup of Curtis, Mauldin, and Allison,  who would play together more or less consistently until 2015. But for a few years in the early sixties there was a lot of lineup shuffling, especially as Allison got drafted not long after Curtis got out of the Army -- there was one UK tour where there were no original members at all, thanks to Allison's absence. When Curtis was out of the group around the time of the Bobby Vee album, Snuff Garrett tried to get a friend of his to join as the group's new lead singer, and brought him to LA, but it didn't work out. Garrett later said "He and Jerry didn't hit it off in the way I imagined. After a few months, it was over and the guy started playing clubs around LA. I did demos with him and took them to my boss, the president of Liberty, and he said, ‘You've got enough of your friends signed to the label. You've signed the Crickets and Buddy Knox and they're not doing much business, and this guy can hardly speak English.' I said, ‘Well, I think he's going to be something.' ‘Okay,' he said, ‘Drop one of the acts you've got and you can sign him.' I said, ‘Forget it.' A year later, he was an international star and his name was Trini Lopez" Lopez's big hit, "If I Had a Hammer", was recorded in a live show at a club called PJs: [Excerpt: Trini Lopez, "If I Had a Hammer"] PJs was owned by a gangster named Eddie Nash, who is now best known as the prime suspect in a notorious case known as the Wonderland Murders, when in 1981 four people were horribly beaten to death, either with the assistance of or to send a message to the porn star John Holmes, depending on which version of the story you believe. If you're unfamiliar with the case, I advise you not to google it, as it's very far from pretty. I bring this up because PJs would soon play a big part in the career of the Bobby Fuller Four. Bobby Fuller was born in the Gulf Coast of Texas, but his family moved about a lot during his formative years, mostly in the Southwestern US, living in Lubbock, Texas, Hobbs, New Mexico, and Salt Lake City, Utah, among other places, before finally settling down in El Paso. El Paso is a border town, right up close to the border with Mexico, and that meant that it had a complicated relationship with Juarez, the nearest large town on the Mexican side of the border. Between 1919 and 1933, the selling and consumption of alcohol had been made illegal in the United States, a period known as Prohibition, but of course it had not been criminalised in Mexico, and so during those years any time anyone from El Paso wanted to get drunk they'd travel to Juarez. Even after Prohibition ended, Juarez had a reputation as a party town, and Randy Fuller, Bobby's brother, would later tell a teen magazine "You can grow up in El Paso and get really bad -- it's Juarez that makes it that way. Whatever personality you have, you have it 100%. You can go to Juarez and get drunk, or stay in El Paso and get religion" Of course, from the outside, that sounds a whole lot like "now look what YOU made ME do". It's not the fault of those white people from Texas that they travel to someone else's city in someone else's country and get falling-down drunk and locked up in their jails every weekend, but it's the fault of those tempting Mexicans. And when Bobby and Randy Fuller's older brother Jack disappeared in 1961, while Bobby was off at university, that was at first what everyone thought had happened -- he'd gone to Juarez, got drunk, and got locked up until he could sleep it off. But when he didn't reappear after several days, everyone became more concerned. It turned out that Jack had met a man named Roy Handy at a bus depot and started chatting with him. They'd become friendly, and had gone off to do some target shooting together in the desert. But Handy had seen what looked like a wad of thousand-dollar bills in Jack's sun visor, and had decided to turn the gun on Jack rather than the target, killing him. The thousand-dollar bills had been play money, a gift bought for a small child who lived nearby. Because of the murder, Bobby Fuller moved back to El Paso from Denton in North Texas, where he had been studying music at university. He did enroll in a local college, but gave up his studies very quickly. Bobby had been something of a musical prodigy -- his original plan before going to North Texas State University had actually been to go to Juilliard, where he was going to study jazz drumming. Instead, while Bobby continued his drumming, he started living a party lifestyle, concentrating on his car, on women -- he got multiple women pregnant in his late teens and early twenties -- and on frequent trips to Juarez, where he would spend a lot of time watching a local blues musician, Long John Hunter: [Excerpt: Long John Hunter, "El Paso Rock"] Meanwhile, a music scene had been growing in El Paso since the late 1950s. A group called the Counts were at the forefront of it, with instrumentals like "Thunder": [Excerpt: The Counts, "Thunder"] The Counts splintered into various groups, and one of them became The Embers, who Bobby Fuller joined on drums. Fuller was also one of a tiny number of people at this time who actually had a home studio. Fuller had started out with a simple bedroom studio, but thanks to his parents' indulgence he had repurposed a big chunk of their house as a studio, including building, with his brother Randy, an echo chamber (though it didn't work very well and he stuck with tape echo). It was in that home studio that the Embers recorded their first single, "Jim's Jive", with Fuller on drums and Jim Reese on lead guitar: [Excerpt: Jerry Bright and The Embers, "Jim's Jive"] That was released on a tiny local label, Yucca Records, which also released the Embers' second single -- and also released two Bobby Fuller solo singles, starting with "You're in Love": [Excerpt: Bobby Fuller, "You're in Love"] That was recorded at Fuller's home studio, with the Embers backing him, and became the number one single locally, but Yucca Records had no national distribution, and the record didn't get a wider release. Fuller's second single, though, was the first time his Buddy Holly fixation came to the forefront. Fuller was, by many accounts, *only* interested in sounding like Buddy Holly -- though his musical tastes were broad enough that he also wanted to sound like Eddie Cochran, Ritchie Valens, and the Crickets. But that was the extent of Fuller's musical world, and so obviously he wanted to work with the people who had worked with Holly. So his second single was recorded at Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico, with Petty's wife Vi, who had played keyboards on some Buddy Holly records, on keyboards and backing vocals: [Excerpt: Bobby Fuller, "Gently My Love"] But as it turned out, Fuller was very underwhelmed by the experience of working with Petty, and decided that he was going to go back to recording in his home studio. Fuller left the Embers and started performing on his own, playing rhythm guitar rather than drums, with a band that initially consisted of his brother Randy on bass, Gaylord Grimes on drums, and Jim Reese on lead guitar, though there would be constant lineup changes. Two of the many musicians who drifted in and out of Fuller's revolving band lineup, Larry Thompson and Jerry Miller, were from the Pacific Northwest, and were familiar with the scene that I talked about in the episode on "Louie, Louie". Thompson was a fan of one of the Pacific Northwest bands, the Frantics, who had hits with tracks like "Werewolf": [Excerpt: The Frantics, "Werewolf"] Thompson believed that the Frantics had split up, and so Fuller's group took on that name for themselves. When they found out that the group *hadn't* split up, they changed their name to the Fanatics, though the name on their bass drum still read "The Frantics" for quite a while. Jerry Miller later moved back to Seattle, where he actually joined the original Frantics, before going on to become a founder member of Moby Grape. Fuller started his own record label, Eastwood Records, and put out another solo single, which covered the full breadth of his influences. The B-side was "Oh Boy!", the song Sonny Curtis had written for Buddy Holly, while the A-side was "Nervous Breakdown", which had originally been recorded by Eddie Cochran: [Excerpt: Bobby Fuller, "Nervous Breakdown"] Everything was very fluid at this point, with musicians coming and going from different lineups, and none of these musicians were only playing in one band. For example, as well as being lead guitarist in the Fanatics, Jim Reese also played on "Surfer's Paradise" by Bobby Taylor and the Counts: [Excerpt: Bobby Taylor and the Counts, "Surfer's Paradise"] And Bobby's record label, renamed from Eastwood to Exeter, was releasing records  by other artists as well as Bobby and the Fanatics, though none of these records had any success. In early 1963 Fuller and his latest lineup of Fanatics -- Randy, drummer Jimmy Wagnon, and guitarist Tex Reed -- travelled to LA to see if they could become successful outside El Paso. They got a residency at the Hermosa Biltmore, and also regularly played the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, where the Beach Boys and Dick Dale had both played not long before, and there they added some surf instrumentals to their repertoire. Bobby soon became almost as keen on surf music as he was on rockabilly. While in LA, they tried all the record companies, with no success. The most encouragement they got came from Bob Keane at Del-Fi, the label that had previously been Ritchie Valens' label, who told him that the tapes they brought him of their El Paso recordings sounded good but they needed better songs, and to come back to him when they had a hit song. Bobby determined to do just that. On their return to El Paso, Bobby Fuller and the Fanatics recorded "Stringer" for Todd Records, a small label owned by Paul Cohen, the former Decca executive who had signed Buddy Holly but not known what to do with him: [Excerpt: Bobby Fuller and the Fanatics, "Stringer"] Fuller also opened his own teen nightclub, the Teen Rendezvous, which he named after the Balboa ballroom. The Fanatics became the regular band there, and at this point they started to build up a serious reputation as live performers. The Teen Rendezvous only stayed open for a few months, though -- there were complaints about the noise, and also they booked Bobby Vee as a headliner one night. Vee charged a thousand dollars for his appearance, which the club couldn't really afford, and they didn't make it back on the doors. They'd hoped that having a prestigious act like Vee play there might get more people to come to the club regularly, but it turned out that Vee gave a sub-par performance, and the gamble didn't pay off. It was around this time that Fuller made his first recording of a song that would eventually define him, though it wasn't his idea. He was playing the Crickets In Style album to his brother Randy, and Randy picked up on one song, a Sonny Curtis composition which had never been released as a single: [Excerpt: The Crickets, "I Fought the Law"] Randy thought the Crickets' actual record sounded horrible, but he also thought the song had the potential to be a really big hit. He later explained "The James Dean movie Rebel Without a Cause had made a big impression on me, and I told Bobby, 'Man, let's do that one... it oughta sell a million copies'. Everyone was into the whole rebel thing, with switchblades and stuff like that. It just seemed like a natural thing for us to do." Fuller recorded his own version of the song, which once again became a local hit: [Excerpt: Bobby Fuller, "I Fought The Law (El Paso version)"] But even though the record did get some national distribution, from VeeJay Records, it didn't get any airplay outside the Southwest, and Fuller remained a local star with absolutely no national profile. Meanwhile, he was still trying to do what Bob Keane had asked and come up with a hit song, but he was stuck in a musical rut. As Jim Reese would later say, "Bobby was a great imitator. He could sing just like Holly, McCartney, Lennon, or Eddie Cochran. And he could imitate on the guitar, too. But Bobby never did Bobby". To make matters worse, the Beatles came on to the American musical scene, and caused an immediate shift in the public taste. And Bobby Fuller had a very complicated relationship with the Beatles. He had to play Beatles songs live because that's what the audiences wanted, but he felt that rock and roll was *American* music, and he resented British people trying to play it. He respected them as songwriters, but didn't actually like their original material. He could tell that they were huge Buddy Holly fans, like him, and he respected that, but he loathed Motown, and he could tell they were listening to that too. He ended up trying to compromise by playing Buddy Holly songs on stage but introducing them by talking about how much the Beatles loved Buddy Holly. Another person who was negatively affected by the British Invasion was Bob Keane, the man who had given Fuller some encouragement. Keane's Del-Fi Records had spent the previous few years making a steady income from churning out surf records like "Surf Rider" by the Lively Ones: [Excerpt: The Lively Ones, "Surf Rider"] And the Surfer's Pajama Party album by the Bruce Johnston Surfing Band: [Excerpt: Bruce Johnston, "The Surfer Stomp"] But as surf music had suddenly become yesterday's news, Del-Fi were in financial trouble, and Keane had had to take on a partner who gave the label some financial backing, Larry Nunes. Now, I am going to be very, very, careful about exactly what I say about Nunes here. I am aware that different people give very, very, different takes on Nunes' personality -- Barry White, for example, always said that knowing Nunes was the best thing that ever happened to him, credited Nunes with everything good in his career, and gave him credit on all his albums as his spiritual advisor. However, while White made Nunes out to be pretty much a saint, that is not the impression one gets from hearing Bob Keane or any of Bobby Fuller's circle talk about him. Nunes had started out in the music business as a "rack jobber", someone who ran a small distribution company, selling to small family-owned shops and to secondary markets like petrol stations and grocery stores. The business model for these organisations was to get a lot of stock of records that hadn't sold, and sell them at a discount, to be sold in discount bins. But they were also a perfect front for all sorts of criminal activity. Because these were bulk sales of remaindered records, dead stock, the artists weren't meant to get royalties on them, and no real accounting was done of the sales. So if a record label "accidentally" pressed up a few thousand extra copies of a hit record and sold it on to a rack jobber, the artists would never know. And if the Mafia made a deal with the record pressing plant to press up a few thousand extra copies, the *record label* would never know. And so very, very, quickly this part of the distribution system became dominated by organised crime. I have seen no proof, only rumours, that Nunes was directly involved in organised crime, but Bob Keane in particular later became absolutely convinced he was. Keane would later write in his autobiography: “I wondered if I had made a deal with the Devil. I had heard that Larry had a reputation for being associated with the Mob, and as it turned out three years later our relationship ended in deception, dishonesty, and murder. I consider myself very lucky to have come out of my relationship with Nunes in one piece, virtually unscathed." Again, this is Keane's interpretation of events. I am not saying that Larry Nunes was a mobster, I am saying that Bob Keane repeatedly made that accusation many times, and that other people in this story have said similar things. By late 1964, Bobby Fuller had come up with a song he was pretty sure *would* be a successful single, like Keane had wanted, a song called "Keep on Dancing" he'd written with Randy: [Excerpt: Bobby Fuller, “Keep On Dancing”] After some discussion he managed to persuade Randy, Jim Reese, and drummer DeWayne Quirico to move with him to LA -- Bobby and Randy's mother also moved with them, because after what had happened to her eldest son she was very protective of her other children. Jim Reese was less keen on the move than the others, as he thought that Fuller was only interested in himself, not in the rest of the Fanatics. As Reese would later say, "Bobby wanted us all to go to California, but I was leery because it always had been too one-sided with Bobby. He ran everything, hired and fired at the least whim, and didn't communicate well with other people. He was never able to understand that a musician, like other people, needs food, gasoline, clothes, a place to live, etc. I often felt that Bobby thought we should be following him anywhere just for the thrill of it." Eventually, Fuller got them to go by agreeing that when they got to LA, everything would be split equally -- one for all and all for one, though when they finally made a deal with Keane, Fuller was the only one who ended up receiving royalties. The rest of the group got union scale. Keane agreed that "Keep on Dancing" could be a hit, but that wasn't the first record the group put out through one of Keane's labels. The first was an instrumental titled "Thunder Reef": [Excerpt: The Shindigs, "Thunder Reef"] That wasn't released as by the Fanatics, but as by The Shindigs -- Keane had heard that Shindig! needed a house band and thought that naming the group after the show might be a way to get them the position. As it happened, the TV show went with another group, led by James Burton, who they called the Shindogs, and Keane's plan didn't work out. The Shindigs single was released on a new Del-Fi subsidiary, Mustang, on which most future records by the group would be released. Mustang was apparently set up specifically for the group, but the first record released on that label was actually by a studio group called The Surfettes: [Excerpt: The Surfettes, "Sammy the Sidewalk Surfer"] The Surfettes consisted of Carol Connors, the former lead singer of the Teddy Bears and writer of "Hey Little Cobra", and her sister Cheryl. Carol had written the single with Buzz Cason, of Brenda Lee's band, and the session musicians on that single included several other artists who were recording for Del-Fi at the time -- David Gates, Arthur Lee, and Johnny Echols, all of whom we'll be hearing more about in future episodes. Almost simultaneously with the Shindigs single, another single by the Fanatics was released, "Those Memories of You": [Excerpt: Bobby Fuller and the Fanatics, "Those Memories of You"] That single, backed by a surf instrumental called "Our Favourite Martian", was released on Donna Records, another Del-Fi subsidiary, as by Bobby Fuller and the Fanatics, which made the other group members furious -- what had happened to one for all and all for one? Randy Fuller, who was a very aggressive young man, was so annoyed that he stormed into Bob Keane's office and frisbeed one of the singles at his head. They didn't want to be Bobby's backing band, they wanted to be a proper group, so it was agreed the group's name would be changed. It was changed to The Bobby Fuller Four. Jim Reese claimed that Keane and Fuller formed The Bobby Fuller Four Inc, without the other three members having participation, and made them employees of the corporation. Reese said "this didn't fit in with my concept of the verbal agreement I had with Bobby, but at least it was better than nothing". The group became the house band at the Rendezvous, playing their own sets and backing people like Sonny and Cher. They then got a residency at the Ambassador Hotel in Hollywood, and then Jim Reese quit the band. Fuller phoned him and begged him to come back, and as Reese said later "I again repeated my conditions about equal treatment and he agreed, so I went back -- probably the biggest mistake I ever made." The group's first single as the Bobby Fuller Four, released on Mustang as all their future records were, was "Take My Word": [Excerpt: The Bobby Fuller Four, "Take My Word"] The record was unsuccessful -- Keane's various labels, while they were better distributed than Bobby's own labels back in El Paso, still only had spotty distribution, and Mustang being a new label it was even more difficult to get records in stores. But the group were getting a reputation as one of the best live acts in the LA area at the time. When the club Ciro's, on the Sunset Strip, closed and reopened under its new name It's Boss, the group were chosen to perform at its grand reopening, and they played multiple four- to six-week residencies at PJ's. The next record the group released, "Let Her Dance", was a slight rewrite of "Keep on Dancing", the song the Fuller brothers had written together, though Bobby was the only credited writer on the label: [Excerpt: The Bobby Fuller Four, "Let Her Dance"] That was the first single they recorded at a new state-of-the-art studio Keane had opened up. That studio had one of the first eight-track machines in LA, and a truly vast echo chamber, made up from a couple of unused vaults owned by a bank downstairs from the studio. But there were big arguments between Fuller and Keane, because Fuller wanted only to make music that could be reproduced live exactly as it was on the record, while Keane saw the record as the important thing. Keane put a percussion sound on the record, made by hitting a bottle, which Fuller detested as they couldn't do it live, and the two would only end up disagreeing more as they continued working together. There's a lot of argument among Fuller fans about this -- personally I can see both sides, but there are people who are very much Team Bobby and think that nothing he recorded for Mustang is as good as the El Paso recordings, because of Bob Keane diluting the raw power of his live sound. But in an era  where studio experimentation was soon to lead to records like "Strawberry Fields Forever" or "Good Vibrations", I think a bit of extra percussion is hardly an unforgivable dilution: [Excerpt: The Bobby Fuller Four, "Let Her Dance"] KRLA radio started playing "Let Her Dance" every hour, at the instigation of Larry Nunes -- and most of the people talking about this have implied that he bribed people in order to get this to happen, or that it was through his alleged Mob connections. Certainly, he knew exactly when they would start playing the record, and how frequently, before they did. As a result of this exposure, "Let Her Dance" became a massive local hit, but they still didn't have the distribution to make it a hit outside California. It did, though, do well enough that Liberty Records asked about putting the record out nationally. Keane came to a verbal agreement, which he thought was an agreement for Liberty to distribute the Mustang Records single, and Liberty thought was an agreement to put out the single on their own label and have an option on future Fuller recordings. Liberty put the record out on their own label, without Keane having signed anything, and Keane had to sue them. The result was that the record was out on two different labels, which were suing each other, and so it hardly had any chance at any kind of success. The legal action also affected the next single, "Never to Be Forgotten": [Excerpt: The Bobby Fuller Four, "Never to Be Forgotten"] That's often considered the best of the band's originals for Mustang, and was written by the Fuller brothers -- and both of them were credited this time -- but Liberty sued Keane, claiming that because they'd released "Let Her Dance", they also had an option on the next single. But even though the group still weren't selling records, they were getting other opportunities for exposure, like their appearance in a film which came out in April 1966. Though admittedly, this film was hardly A Hard Day's Night. Indeed, a lot of people have claimed that The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini was cursed. The film, which went through the working titles Pajama Party in a Haunted House, Slumber Party in a Haunted House, Bikini Party in a Haunted House, and Ghost in a Glass Bikini, was made by the cheapy exploitation company American International Pictures, and several people involved in it would die in the next four years, starting with Buster Keaton, who was meant to appear in the film, but had to back out due to his health problems and died before the film came out. Then on the first day of filming, a grip fell to his death. In the next four years, two of the film's young stars, Sue Hamilton and John Macchia, would die, as would Philip Bent, an actor with a minor role who died in July 1966 in a plane crash which also took the life of Peter Sachse, an extra on the film who was married to a cast member. Three more stars of the film, Francis X Bushman, Basil Rathbone, and Boris Karloff would also all be dead within a handful of years, but they were all elderly and unwell when filming started. I don't believe in curses myself, but it is a horrible run of bad luck for a single film. To make matters worse, the group weren't even playing their own music in the film, but lipsynching to tracks by other musicians. And they had to play Vox instruments in the film, because of a deal the filmmakers had made, when the group all hated Vox instruments, which Jim Reese thought of as only good for starting bonfires. For the next single, Keane had discussed with Fuller what songs the group had that were "different", but Fuller apparently didn't understand what he meant. So Keane went to the rest of the group and asked them what songs always went over well in live performances. All three band members said that "I Fought the Law" should be the next single. Bobby disagreed, and almost got into a fistfight with his brother over it -- they'd already released it as a single once, on his own label, and he didn't want to do it again. He also wanted to record his own material not cover versions. But the others prevailed, and "I Fought the Law" became the record that would define the group: [Excerpt: The Bobby Fuller Four, "I Fought the Law"] "I Fought the Law" became the group's breakthrough hit. It made the top ten, and turned the song, which had previously been one of the Crickets' most obscure songs, into a rock and country standard. In the seventies, the song would be recorded by Hank Williams Jr, the Clash, the Dead Kennedys and more, and all of them would be inspired by the Bobby Fuller Four's version of the song, not the Crickets' original. Around this time, the group also recorded a live album at PJs, in the hope of duplicating Trini Lopez's success with his earlier album. The album was shelved, though, because it didn't capture the powerhouse live act of the group's reputation, instead sounding rather dull and lifeless, with an unenthused audience: [Excerpt: The Bobby Fuller Four, "Oh Boy!"] While "I Fought the Law" was a huge success, it started a period of shifts within the band. Shortly after the PJs album was recorded, DeWayne Quirico quit the band and moved back to El Paso. He was temporarily replaced by Johnny Barbata, who would later become a member of the Turtles, before Fuller's preferred replacement Dalton Powell was able to get to LA to join the band. There seems to have been some shuffling about, as well, because as far as I can tell, Powell joined the band, then quit and was replaced by Barbata returning, and then rejoined again, all in about a six month period. Given the success of "I Fought the Law", it only made sense that at their first recording session with Powell, the group would record more tracks that had originally been on the Crickets' In Style album. One of these, their version of "Baby My Heart", went unreleased at the time, though to my taste it's the best thing the group ever did: [Excerpt: The Bobby Fuller Four, "Baby My Heart"] The other, "Love's Made a Fool of You", became the group's next single: [Excerpt: The Bobby Fuller Four, "Love's Made a Fool of You"] "Love's Made a Fool of You" was also a success, making number twenty-six in the charts, but the group's next session, which would produce their last single, was the cause of some conflict. Keane had noticed that soul music was getting bigger, and so he'd decided to open up a sister label to Mustang, Bronco, which would release soul and R&B music. As he didn't know much about that music himself, though of course he had worked with Sam Cooke, he decided to hire an A&R man to deal with that kind of music. The man he chose was a piano player named Barry White, still several years from making his own hit records. White had had some success as an arranger and producer already, having arranged "The Harlem Shuffle" for Bob and Earl, on which he also played piano: [Excerpt: Bob and Earl, "The Harlem Shuffle"] Despite White's remit, the records he produced for Bronco and Mustang weren't especially soulful. "Back Seat 38 Dodge" by Opus 1, for example, is a psychedelic updating of the kind of car songs that the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean had been doing a couple of years earlier: [Excerpt: Opus 1, "Back Seat 38 Dodge"] White was present at what became the final Bobby Fuller Four session, though accounts differ as to his involvement. Some have him arranging "The Magic Touch”, others have him playing drums on the session, some have him co-producing. Bob Keane always said that the record had no involvement from White whatsoever, that he was there but not participating, but various band members, while differing on other things, have insisted that White and Fuller got into huge rows, as Fuller thought that White was trying to turn his music into Motown, which he despised. The finished record does sound to me like it's got some of White's fingerprints on it: [Excerpt: The Bobby Fuller Four, "The Magic Touch"] But "The Magic Touch" flopped -- it departed too far from the updated Buddy Holly sound of the group's hit singles, and audiences weren't responding. “The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini” came out and was an embarrassment to the band – and on July the eleventh the next in that horrible series of deaths linked to the film happened, the plane crash that killed Philip Bent and Peter Sachse. On July the sixteenth, William Parker, the long-serving chief of the LAPD, had died. If, hypothetically, someone wanted to commit a crime in LA and not have it investigated too closely, the few days after Parker's death, when the entire department was in mourning and making preparations for a massive public funeral, would have been a good time to do so. Two days after Parker's death, July the eighteenth 1966, was going to be the crunch point for the Bobby Fuller Four. They had a recording session scheduled for 8:30AM, but they also were planning on having a band meeting after the session, at which it was likely the group were going to split up. Jim Reese had just got his draft notice, Bobby and Randy were getting on worse, and nobody was happy with the music they were making. They were going to finish the album they were working on, and then Bobby was going to go solo. Or at least that was what everyone assumed -- certainly Ahmet Ertegun had been sniffing round Bobby as a solo artist, though Bobby kept saying publicly he wanted to continue working with the band. There were also later rumours that Morris Levy had been after Bobby, and had even signed him to a deal, though no documentary evidence of such a deal has surfaced. It seemed that if there was to be a group at all, it would just be a name for any random musicians Bobby hired. Bobby also wanted to become a pure recording artist, and not tour any more -- he hated touring, thought people weren't listening to the band properly, and that being away from home meant he didn't have time to write songs, which in turn meant that he had to record what he thought of as substandard material by other people rather than his own original material. He wanted to stay in LA, play clubs, and make records. But even though making records was what he wanted to do, Bobby never turned up for the recording session, and nor did he turn up for the group meeting afterwards. The group's next single had been announced as "It's Love Come What May": [Excerpt: Randy Fuller, "It's Love Come What May"] When that was released, it was released as a Randy Fuller solo single, with Randy's voice overdubbed on top of Bobby's. Because there was no use putting out a record by a dead man. Here's what we actually know about Bobby Fuller's death, as far as I can tell. There are a lot of conflicting claims, a lot of counternarratives, and a lot of accusations that seek to tie in everyone from Charles Manson to Frank Sinatra, but this is as close as I can get to the truth. Bobby and Randy were living together, with their mother, though Randy was out a lot of the time, and the two brothers at that point could barely stand to be in the same room with each other, as often happens in bands where brothers work together. On the night of July the seventeenth, Bobby Fuller left the house for a couple of hours after getting a phone call -- some people who were around said he was going to see a girlfriend named Melody to buy some acid from her, but she says he didn't see her that night. Melody was a sex worker, who was also reputedly the girlfriend of a local nightclub owner who had Mob connections and was jealous of her attachments to other men -- though she denies this. Nobody has ever named which club owner, but it's generally considered to be Eddie Nash, the owner of PJs. Melody was also friends with Larry Nunes, and says she acted as a go-between for Nunes and Fuller. Fuller got back in around 2:30 AM and spent some time having beer with the building manager.  Then at some point he went out again -- Bobby was a night owl. When his mother, Lorraine, woke up, she noticed her car, which Bobby often used to borrow, wasn't there. She had a terrible bad feeling about her son's whereabouts -- though she often had such feelings, after the murder of her eldest son. She kept checking outside every half hour or so to see if he was coming home. At 5PM, two musicians from El Paso, Ty Grimes and Mike Ciccarelli, who'd come to LA to see Fuller, pulled into the parking lot near his apartment block. There were no other cars nearby. A car pulled in beside them, but they didn't pay any attention. They went up the stairs and rang the doorbell. While they were ringing the doorbell, Lorraine Fuller was out checking the mail, and noticed her car, which hadn't been there earlier. She opened the door. Ty Grimes later said "When we walked back to Mike's car, Bobby's car was now parked next to Mike's, and he was laying in the front seat already dead. We also saw his mom being helped toward the apartment." Fuller had been dead long enough for rigor mortis to have set in. While Lorraine Fuller later said that his hand had been on the ignition key, there was actually no key found in the car. He had apparently died from inhaling petrol. His body was covered in bruises, and the slippers he was wearing looked like they'd been dragged across the ground. His body was covered in petrol, and his right index finger was broken. Bob Keane has later said that Larry Nunes knew some details of the crime scene before he was told them. According to the other members of the band, there was an eight hundred thousand dollar life insurance policy on Bobby's life, held by the record company. Keane didn't get any money from any such policy, and stated that if such a policy existed it must have been taken out by Nunes, who soon stopped working with Keane, as Keane's labels collapsed without their one remaining star. The death was initially ruled a suicide, which would not pay out on an insurance claim, and later changed to accidental death, which would. Though remember, of course, we have only the word of Bobby's other band members that any insurance policy existed. No real police investigation was ever carried out, because it was such an open-and-shut case. At no point was it ever considered a murder by the famously corrupt LAPD. Bob Keane hired private investigators to investigate the case. One of them was shot at, and the others gave up on the investigation, scared to continue. The autopsy report that was issued months after the fact bore no resemblance to what any of the witnesses said they saw of the state of Fuller's body. More than thirty years later, Keane tried to get the information the LAPD held about the case, and was told that it could only be accessed by a family member. Keane contacted Randy Fuller, who was then told that the entire case file was missing. So all we can go on as far as the official records go is the death certificate. Which means that I lied to you at the start of the episode. Because officially, no matter what impression you might have got from everything I just said, Bobby Fuller's death *was* an accident.