Alan Cross (0:00)

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The app for pickup or delivery. Chipotle for Real what do you remember from history class back in school? Maybe a few dates and events, maybe the names of some important people and probably how dull a lot of those history classes were. I remember being inundated with a bunch of facts, which was fine, I guess, but it really didn't make history come alive, you know, and it didn't have to be this way. History is more than this country going to war with that one who married whom to create whatever royal alliance and which explorers went where to inflict harm on what indigenous people. There are many other branches of historical study. There's social history, economic history, the history of science and technology, and my favorite stupid history. These are stories of how civilization changed because of stupid people and stupid things. And if we had been taught stupid history alongside all the regular stuff, those classes would have been a whole lot more fun. For example, in 1545, winemakers in Saint Julien, France were in a panic because their vines were being eaten by weevils bugs. These vineyard owners were so upset that they brought legal action against the bugs. This was all very formal. Documents were drawn up and the weevils were appointed a defense lawyer by the court. There was a trial with a judge, and when it was all over, the weevils were found guilty of well being weevils and eating grapevines. Almost a year later, the presiding judge issued a proclamation demanding that the weevils cease and desist with their ravaging of the vineyards, which is Kind of dumb, right? But believe it or not, the weevils listened and somehow, and we don't know why, the infestation stopped almost overnight. There wasn't any kind of weevil problem in st. Julian for 40 years. And when they showed up again in 1587, the vineyards again took the bugs to court. Unfortunately, the result of that case is lost to time. But I love this. That is wonderful, stupid history. I had no idea that bugs and animals and other non human things could be taken to court back then. True music has its own stories like this. Yes, there are things that require serious, sober study. But then there's also the stuff that makes you think that really didn't happen, did it? Oh, yes, it did. And this is another round of Stupid History, the music version. This is the ongoing history of new music podcast with Alan Cross. Hi there, I'm Alan Cross, and we're about to get stupid again. Stupid History. The unbelievably dumb things humans have done over the centuries can be a lot of fun. Let me give you a few more examples. In 1952, there was a brand of cigarettes called L and M. And their slogan, and I'm not making this up, was just what the doctor ordered. May 10, 1975, was the fourth annual Human Kindness Day. 125,000 people came out to an event in Washington D.C. and when it was all over, police reported that the day saw 600 arrests, 500 robberies, 150 smashed windows, 120 public brawls, 42 looted concession stands, 17 assaults on police officers, and 14 destroyed cars. Again, this was all part of Human Kindness Day. Oh, one more. Madame de la Brise lived in Paris. When she died in 1876, she left behind 125,000 francs in her will with instructions that it be used to buy clothing for snowmen around the city. This is also the woman who is said to have dressed her goldfish in miniature suits because it just wasn't right that they spent all their time swimming around naked. When her will was challenged, it was held up in court, and for a while, Parisian snowmen were dressed really, really well. Now you see, isn't this fun? Stupid History should be its own faculty in universities around the world. And what we're going to do here is tackle more tales of stupid history. These are facts. These are events from around the world of music that actually happened. And we're going to start in the Philippines with something known as the My Way Murders. Karaoke is a very big deal in the Philippines because it's a cheap form of entertainment. There are plenty of establishments around the country where you can rent time on what they call a video key machine. It's about 10 cents and you can sing along. But people also take this very, very seriously. On January 16, 1998, someone was killed over their performance of My way by Frank Sinatra. And since then, January 16, 1998, it has been very risky in the Philippines to choose to sing this song at Karaoke. Since 1998, about a dozen people have been murdered in some kind of dispute involving a karaoke performance of my way. In 2007, a guy was shot by a bouncer for singing off key. A local official was shot in a drive by after he got the song wrong. Another man was stabbed by his neighbor during a birthday party where he was singing the song. And others have died for laughing at someone else's bad version of my way. It's now very difficult to find any karaoke bar in the country that offers My way as a selection. And many Filipinos won't choose it anyway because they've heard all these stories. But that's just in the Philippines, right? Well, no, There is something called karaoke rage which has been felt around the world. In March 2008, a man in Thailand shot eight people dead, including his brother in law over performances of Take me home, Country Road by John Denver. That December, a man in a coffee shop in Malaysia which just happened to have a karaoke machine, was was stabbed by other customers when he hogged the mic for too long. In 2012, there was a similar murder in China. Two people were killed with a meat cleaver when they refused to share the mic. The following year, an American was stabbed in Krabi, Thailand for exactly the same reason. And inevitably, there's a Florida man story. In the early morning hours of March 16, 2024, police say that Aaron Jablonski walked into the overtime sports bar in Clearwater. He found that the karaoke machine was unavailable, it was broken, and he was most upset about this. So he left the bar very angry. And when someone tried to calm him down, he pulled out a 9 millimeter Glock pistol, began waving it around and firing at least one shot. Jablonski, who has a record, was charged with aggravated assault and for being a felon in possession of a firearm. So let's remember, karaoke is a serious and dangerous business. Just ask the guy in Seattle who was attacked by a woman at a karaoke parlor called Change. When he refused to stop singing this song, the woman leapt out of the audience saying that his Singing sucked, jumped on stage and punched him multiple times. It took four people to drag this woman off the dude turn into something beautiful, you know? You know I love you so. The stupid and deadly history of the My Way murders in the Philippines and the global problem of karaoke rage. See, I bet you didn't realize that this was such a serious issue. This next story is also very serious. Although it starts with a silly premise, Going out for pizza doomed INXS and ultimately led to the death of singer Michael Hutchins. In 1992, when INXS was still one of the biggest bands in the world, Hutchence was on a bicycle touring through the side streets of Copenhagen with his then girlfriend, the Victoria's Secret model Helena Christensen. They just picked up some pizza and were heading back to their hotel. There was no drinking, there was no drugs, just a couple of slices of pizza. At some point, a taxi driver came up behind them and couldn't get past them because it was a really narrow laneway. The taxi driver got impatient and got out of his car and sucker punched Michael Hutchins from behind with no warning. Hutchins was still straddling his bike and eating his slice. And when he was hit, he fell back and hit his head on the curb very, very hard. Hutchins was unconscious with blood coming from his mouth and ear. The cabbie ran away. Christiansen thought that Hutchins was dead. The paramedics who looked after him recognized him immediately and assumed that he was just off his head on drugs. He wasn't, of course. He had been viciously assaulted. He woke up in the hospital, but he'd sustained some kind of brain damage in the incident. From the moment he opened his eyes after the attack, he was aggressive. He refused to stay and get treatment. He checked himself out of the hospital against doctors advice. They probably thought it was just a drunken or drugged out rock star. So okay, fine, go. For the next month, he suffered the after effects of a severe concussion. The headaches were bad. He was vomiting, not eating, not sleeping. Christiansen pleaded with him to see a doctor, but he aggressively refused. Finally, though, he agreed to have an MRI in Paris. And that's when the severity of his brain injury was discovered and it was irreversible. From that point on, the quiet, gentle Michael Hutchins was suddenly different. His personality was fundamentally altered. He couldn't finish conversations. He became obsessive over minor things, and he had a very short attention span for everything for the rest of his life. He was erratic, angry, and quick to fight. He often flew into rages, destroying furniture and in one case, a valuable guitar owned by bandmate Andrew Farris. On another occasion, he threatened to stab bass player Gary Beers with a knife that he'd brought into the studio. When he was calmer, he'd sometimes reveal to people that the punch to the head destroyed his sense of taste and smell. Something that's horrible for a person who was very deep into gourmet food and fine wine. His behavior got worse and worse. More drugs, more alcohol. And at the World Music Awards In Monaco in 1994, he tried to pick a fight with Prince. By 1995, he was locked into a complex breakup with Paula Yeats, the British TV personality and the father of his children. They got into a relationship that was not good for either of them, with lots of drugs and alcohol. It was messy, with lots of tabloid coverage. In excess fractured and their career dimmed, Hutchins spiraled. His relationship with Yates blew up. And on November 22, 1997, Hutchins was found dead in a Sydney hotel room, apparently by suicide. Yates died of a heroin overdose three years later. Those who knew Michael and who have gone back through what happened to him during the last five years of his life, say that what really led to his death was stopping for a slice of pizza in Copenhagen in August 1992. The blow to the head brought something out of Michael and it ended up killing him. David Bowie was one of the most important artists in the history of rock. His influence is felt through music, fashion, his shifting Personas and images, and more. Few musicians have more respect than Bowie. But there's also a stupid history side to Bowie's career. Between 1974 and sometime in 1976, Bowie was an absolute mess. Lots of drugs, especially cocaine, and far too much alcohol. And in this vulnerable state, Bowie did the worst thing he could possibly do. He moved to the cocaine capital of North America, Los Angeles. So much coke and Bowie turned out to be susceptible to cocaine influenced paranoia. And Bowie turned out to be susceptible to cocaine induced paranoia. Now this is a pretty common reaction. Up to 84% of Coke users experience some kind of paranoia issue. 55% may turn violent. It is a bad drug, especially for people who may have a pre existing psychiatric disorder like, say, alcoholism. Bowie was also going through a very rough divorce from his wife Angie, and he'd become a little too absorbed in his Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin sane characters. The focus of Bowie's paranoia was witches. This resulted from an encounter with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in a Manhattan townhouse. Page was Deep into the occult. And for some reason, Bowie believed that associating with Page had put his soul in danger. Specifically, he got it into his mind that witches. That's as specific as we can get. Were out to steal Bowie's precious bodily fluids. To make sure that didn't happen, he began saving all his urine. Couldn't let that get out of sight, you know, so he stored everything in a fridge. And to make sure his essence remained pure, Bowie ate nothing but bell peppers and drank little more than milk. And at one point, Bowie's weight dropped below 90 pounds. Bowie began seeing odd things. After observing Satan doing the breaststroke in the pool of his rented Hollywood house, he had a white witch fly out from New York to perform an exorcism. And if that wasn't enough, Bowie had become obsessed with Hitler and the Third Reich. He was always talking about the Nazis, including in interviews in 1976. He told Playboy magazine that Hitler was one of the first rock stars. There was also what appeared to be a Nazi salute to a crowd in London at a train station. It was all very dangerous. Bowie had no memory at all of recording the Station to station album in 1976. It wasn't until he and Iggy Pop had a moment of clarity that and decided that they needed to move to West Berlin to clean up, get sober, and dry out. Bowie needed to be able to see clearly again. I just wonder who had to clean out his fridge. Blue, blue, electric blue lights the color of my room where I will live Blue, blue Drugs can do very weird things. Michael Todd was the bass player in Coheed in Cambria until 2011. But then he made an error. He got hooked on OxyContin. On July 10, 2011, Coheed and Cambria's tour stopped in Mansfield, Massachusetts. Before the show, Todd took a taxi to a Walgreens drugstore in the nearby town of Attleborough. At around one in the afternoon, he walked up to the pharmacist and showed him a message on his phone. Give me Oxy. I have a bomb. If you don't give me what I want, I will blow this place up. Now, you don't argue with that. So the pharmacist handed over six bottles. Todd left the store, got into a taxi, and was driven back up to Mansfield and prepared to play that night's show. Naturally, the drugstore called the cops. Todd was tracked down through the cab company, and he was arrested on charges of possession and armed robbery. He was held on $10,000 bail. The band's keyboard player filled in on bass that night. Todd left the band on August 4th. He was sentenced to one year's home confinement and three years of probation and ordered to attend drug counseling sessions. Life got even more complicated when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2012. He managed to bounce back from that and he has been working on some low key solo projects. Let's have a listen to Go Heat in Cambria with Michael Todd on bass. This is from their 2010 album Year of the Black Rainbow. And this is We Are the Juggernaut. More examples of stupid history coming up first is Guys Wear that guy's Wear, the modern man's clothing brand that makes you feel good to be a guy. Whether you're dropping controversial hot takes in the group chat or trying not to pull a hammy in a pickup game, Verst keeps you cool and comfortable in any situation. That's V R S T Versed shop Guys Wear now only at Dick's. Hit pause on whatever you're listening to and hit play on your next adventure. Stay two nights and get a $50 best Western gift card. Life's a trip. Make the most of it at best Western. Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions. This is another episode examining stupid history in music, the kinds of stories and facts that have been forgotten, buried, and perhaps suppressed from the historical record. But like I said at the beginning, it's colorful stuff like this that makes history interesting in the first place. When it comes to the unluckiest members of Metallica, the award has to go to Cliff Burton. He was the one who was killed in that awful tour bus accident in Sweden back on September 27, 1986. Metallica was on tour in support of their Master of Puppets album and was between Stockholm and Copenhagen. The band had drawn cards to see who would get which bunk on the bus. Cliff drew the ace of spades, which was the high card. So he got to choose his bunk first, and he chose the bunk that Kirk Hammett had been using. And then he went to bed. Kirk didn't really care. I'll sleep up front. I don't care. It's probably better there anyway. As Cliff slept and as dawn approached, the bus hit some black ice around 7am the driver lost control. The bus started violently weaving from side to side and then it left the road. Cliff was thrown from his bunk and through the window, and then the bus rolled on top of him as it fell onto its side. This alone might not have killed him, although he was badly hurt. Cliff was trapped under the bus until rescue Crews arrived as a winch and crane were used to raise the bus off cliff. The cable slipped and he was crushed a second time. And that most certainly killed him. James Hetfield went up and down the highway looking for this black ice, but he couldn't find any. This has left rumors swirling about drugs, alcohol and falling asleep at the wheel. There was an investigation and it was ruled a fairly routine type of winter traffic accident. And here's the stupid part. It all started with a cut of the cards. Here's a slice of Metallica from Master of Puppets, an instrumental called Orion, which was written mostly by Cliff Burton. It was played at his funeral. Everyone knows Eddie Vedder is the frontman for Pearl Jam and as an artist in his own right. But had things gone differently, Eddie might have pursued a career as a professional model. And not just any professional model. Eddie was a child model growing up in Chicago. Mum paraded Eddie through endless photo shoots and TV commercial auditions. He had a headshot and profile. Eddie J. Mueller. Height 43 inches. 38 pounds 5. Hair Light brown blue. If you know where to look, you can find pictures of Eddie modeling the latest in back to school wear for the stylish five year old. He appeared in at least five different department store catalogs. He appeared in TV commercials for Hallmark greeting cards and Chuckles candy. And if you're a certain age, you may remember a commercial for Mattel's Big Wheel than ran during Saturday morning cartoons. One of the kids on the Big Wheel, Eddie Vedder. This is proof. This is from 1972. Eddie was seven or eight at the time. I can't show you the video, obviously, but here is the audio and trust me, Eddie's involved. Big Wheels are a rolling. Listen to them speak. It's the Big Wheels tongue of power with the speed you need to win. Winning, it's the coolest adjustable seat you ride low and neat. Look at that Big Wheel it turns on a dime. Roaring, spinning, winning. This Christmas it's the Big Wheel. By marks, Eddie's biggest triumph was probably his appearance on the nationally broadcast Bozo the Clown show in the early 1970s. Now, of course, Eddie is a grunge icon with serious social, political and environmental views. He would rather not be known as the cute child model for Bloomingdales. One of the greatest songs in the Clash catalog is Rock the Kasbah from the Combat rock album of 1982. It was one of the few Clash singles that had any kind of proper chart action. However, it may not be 100% original. One day during the recording sessions Drummer Topper Heaton was alone in the studio. He decided to work on an idea that he had in his head. He recorded most of the parts piano, drums, bass himself, and he also wrote some lyrics. But those lyrics were about how much Topper missed his girlfriend, something that didn't sit well with Joe Strummer. So he stepped in with some new words, which included the phrase Rock the Kasbah, which he'd written down in a notebook for future use. Joe came up with new lyrics after he heard a news report about how people in Iran were being sentenced to flogging just for owning a rock album. Strummer sang lead on the recording. Mick Jones contributed an electronic sound effect about two minutes into the song, which came from an alarm on Mick's digital wristwatch. Combat Rock was released on May 14, 1982, and Rock the Casbah was released as the second single on June 11. It was top 10 in Australia and the US and top 20 in Canada. As a single, it sold about 3 million copies worldwide. But this may only be part of the story. In 1982, the Clash played a show in Paris. Afterwards, an Algerian singer songwriter named Rashid Taha came up to Joe. He was the leader of a French Arab punk band called Residence Pyramid and he handed Joe a cassette demo of his stuff. Rashid never heard back from Joe, but a year later he turned on the radio and heard some song called Rock the Caspa, which stylistically anyway, sounded an awful lot like some of the stuff on the demo cassette that he gave Joe was Rock the Kasbah inspired by what was handed to Joe on that sidewalk that night? Maybe. Whatever the case, Rashid went on to have success of his own. And he never seemed bitter in any way because he even recorded his own version of Rock the Casbah. Not the Clash, but Algerian Rashi Taha. Did the Clash rip him off? Didn't seem to be any hard feelings, so we'll have to say no. Coming up, two more examples of stupid history, including the story of an insanely large breakfast. You'll see what I mean in a second. This episode is brought to you by the Toyota Grand Highlander from daily routines to life changing adventures, the Toyota Grand Highlander is spacious, powerful and ready to take on life's grand challenges. Advanced safety features and innovative technology give you confidence for whatever life throws at you. And it's available in a hybrid Nightshade special edition which includes sophisticated gloss black exterior accents and 20 inch black alloy wheels. Learn more@toyota.com GrandHighlander Toyota let's go Places this episode is brought to you by Disney's Lilo and Stitch only in theaters this Memorial Day. A reimagining of Disney's animated classic, Lilo and Stitch is the wildly funny and touching story of a lonely Hawaiian girl, Lilo, and the fugitive alien Stitch, who helps to mend her broken family. Lilo and Stitch crashes into theaters May 23rd. Rated PG. Get tickets now. Hi, I'm Donna Friesen from Global National Life moves fast these days and we want to make it even easier for you to get the news you need. That's why you can now get Global National Every Day as a podcast, the biggest stories of the day with analysis from award winning global news journalists. New episodes drop every day, so take this as your personal invitation to join us on the Global National Podcast. You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts. I have a couple more stories for this episode on stupid musical history and this one might make you feel queasy. Pete Docherty is a beloved English musician who was part of a couple of cult bands, Libertines and Baby Shambles. He's also known as a druggie schlub who somehow managed to stay alive despite copious amounts of heroin, coke, crack and meth, while also somehow managing to date supermodel Kate Moss. There's a lot of stupidity in Pete's life, but I want to focus on something that happened on Tuesday, August 21, 2018. Pete was in the English town of Cliftonville in Margate and was feeling a bit peckish. He chanced upon the Dalby Cafe which was still serving breakfast. What's more, the cafe had one of those eating challenge meals. It consisted of four eggs, four strips of bacon, four sausages, hash browns, onion rings, beans, a quarter pound hamburger patty, some French fries and two thick slices of toast. The deal was that if anyone could finish this plate in 20 minutes and the meal was served on a plate the size of a toilet seat, it was free. In the four years that the cafe had been offering the challenge, maybe a half dozen people had completed it. Now Pete is a very skinny guy, but he is also 6:3. He thought he'd give it a go and he was successful, washing everything down with some coffee and with a strawberry flavored drink called Yazoo, which sounds lovely. This feat was viewed with such incredulity and wonderful that it became a national news item in the UK and since 2018 fans have flocked to the Darby Cafe to see if they can repeat Pete's feat. I just get sick Thinking about it. This is from the Libertines debut album in 2002, which was produced by Mick Jones of the Clash. It's called Can't Stand Me. Now on the brown corner the boy kicked out of the world the world kicked back a lot Fucking hard at all if you wanna try if you wanna try oh, I forgot to mention that Pete's Big Breakfast also included a large portion of bubble and squeak, which is made from cooked potatoes and cabbage, and that's all fried together. One more lesson in stupid history. And I'm afraid we have to go back to the topic of urine. The date was October 31, 1993. Blind Melon was in Vancouver wrapping up their tour of duty as the opening act for Lenny Kravitz at the Pacific Coliseum. Totally sold out. Crowd 13,300 people. And because it was Halloween, there was an extra bit of party atmosphere in the arena that night. And as an added bonus, there was a full moon. Singer Shannon Hoon thought that was cause for celebration, so during the band's set, he stripped naked for the last three songs. I'm sorry, he said, but I'm having just too much fun. This included simulating sex with a poor roadie dressed up in a bee costume. The bee was there because the final song of the set was no Rain. And a bee, of course, figured prominently in the music video. And after pretending to goose the bee, Shannon then started peeing all over the stage, and then he turned to the audience in the front row. The band tried to make a break for it after their set, but they found their tour bus blocked by police cruisers. And that's when Shannon jumped on the roof of the bus and started screaming at cops at the top of his lungs. He was very stoned, very drunk, or both. It took 15 minutes for the rest of the group to talk Shannon down from the roof of the bus. And when they got him down, he was arrested and charged with committing an indecent act. They threw him in the drunk tank to sober up. And meanwhile, the promoter spent the next couple of weeks apologizing to those who were peed upon. Kind of gives whole new meaning to the title, this song, huh? It's not San I Just Want Someone Now. Make no mistake about it, there is a lot about history that needs to be taken seriously. It is, after all, something that we need to study if we want to know why things are the way they are and how things may play out in the future. But as we've seen, humans are weird creatures who often do strange and stupid things. These things also become part of the historical record, or at least they should. And they require their own study because these people and these events and incidents give us extra insight into someone or something. They may reveal knowledge of great importance, or they might be just good for a laugh. In any event, I don't think we should forget about this stuff, which is why there will be another installment of Stupid History in the future. If music history and analysis is your thing, you should check out the hundreds and hundreds of ongoing history shows available as On Demand Podcasts. They're all free and you can download them wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're in a podcast listening mood, download a few episodes of Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry. That's my True Crime meets Music Podcast. And those shows can be deadly serious. But there is also a stupid side to music and true crime too. You'll see what I mean. We can connect on all the social media networks. I'm always updating my website with music news and information. That's ajournalofmusicalthings.com, which comes with a free newsletter and you can always email me about anything. I'm available through AlanLancross CA Technical Productions by Rob Johnston I'm Alan Cross. Welcome to the Bad Parents Podcast, the parenting podcast, where we're just as confused as you are. Seriously, we have no idea what we're doing, but we're doing it loudly. I mean, parenting is basically just keeping tiny humans alive while trying not to lose your mind, right? Exactly. So if you've ever, ever hidden in the bathroom for five minutes a piece, or accidentally eaten your kid's last piece of Halloween candy, or just wondered how the heck other parents have it all together while you're covered in applesauce, you're in the right place. I'm Johnny. I'm Shawna. And I'm Ryan. Each week we'll share hilarious parenting fails, survival tips and moments that remind us why we haven't run away to a deserted island yet. So grab your coffee, your wine, or whatever's in that sippy cup and join us for some laughs, some advice, and a whole lot of you're not alone. This is Bad Parents, where parenting is messy, loud, and somehow still the best thing ever. Join us for a new episode of Bad Parents every Wednesday on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. And now you can also Watch us on YouTube.