Lionel Richie: The Commodores, Kenny Rogers, His Self-titled Debut Album & 1982 Pop | 50 For 50

WEBVTT

00:10.088 --> 00:21.962
[SPEAKER_00]: Mike, before we kick off our episode on the album for the year 1982, I have one question for you, and it's not meant to be negative.

00:22.082 --> 00:23.704
[SPEAKER_00]: It is not meant to be a pejorative.

00:26.508 --> 00:27.409
[SPEAKER_00]: Is Lionel Corny?

00:28.029 --> 00:28.710
[SPEAKER_01]: Hell yeah!

00:29.912 --> 00:30.452
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

00:30.472 --> 00:32.074
[SPEAKER_01]: Hell yeah Lionel Richie is Corny.

00:32.575 --> 00:34.577
[SPEAKER_02]: I...

00:34.597 --> 00:35.218
[SPEAKER_01]: He's...

00:37.460 --> 00:43.848
[SPEAKER_01]: when he even tries to be cool, he just comes off like a corny person trying to be cool.

00:44.329 --> 00:53.501
[SPEAKER_01]: Like Limerickie is like sweater vest, dead, you know, Danny Tanner, corny.

00:54.362 --> 01:00.650
[SPEAKER_00]: Now did his cornyness help him in his ability to cross over 100%.

01:01.972 --> 01:03.754
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you look at

01:03.852 --> 01:08.040
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody else who was popular around the same time that he was.

01:08.101 --> 01:09.812
[SPEAKER_01]: And

01:11.159 --> 01:30.151
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, some of these people, you know, look at Rick James, you look at a lot of these folks who were kind of threatening, at least in like a sexual sense, very like, you know, Mr. Stealier girl, way before Trace Long's came into the picture, they had that, you know, sort of like danger as vibe to them.

01:31.012 --> 01:35.580
[SPEAKER_01]: And Lionel was very, very safe.

01:35.560 --> 01:44.831
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he had worked with like Kenny Rogers and stuff before, so he definitely had like that middle America thing down Pat.

01:46.893 --> 02:01.129
[SPEAKER_00]: I come to that conclusion as well, and I kind of like that about him.

02:02.020 --> 02:13.759
[SPEAKER_00]: doesn't have to be like the coolest person, right, like they can just be maybe a little uncomfortable at times, maybe not the biggest social person.

02:14.360 --> 02:21.311
[SPEAKER_00]: And we both, you read his autobiography truly, I listened to the audio book.

02:21.331 --> 02:27.842
[SPEAKER_00]: And you could tell like there were moments in his young career

02:28.514 --> 02:43.333
[SPEAKER_00]: He may have not been the most comfortable person around and and so this this personality that developed it probably was away for him to kind of engage with others, you know, to not be.

02:43.887 --> 03:01.224
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, the center of attention necessarily, or maybe not be the person who people are just paying attention to and looking as like, no, I'm going to be this off to the side a little bit and kind of be funny here and there, but I'm not going to be like the rock star kind of person that he eventually did become, which is kind of interesting to think about.

03:01.244 --> 03:06.769
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I kind of, yes, also, you're background is still football.

03:07.930 --> 03:11.113
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, I'll have to change that.

03:12.595 --> 03:12.915
[SPEAKER_01]: Um,

03:14.026 --> 03:20.492
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like he talks about how, I mean, I'm not gonna give any spoilers away in the book.

03:20.512 --> 03:24.508
[SPEAKER_01]: How when he was younger, you know, there's like the country guys from Tuskegee, Alabama.

03:25.231 --> 03:27.514
[SPEAKER_01]: never really had a whole lot of play with the ladies.

03:28.276 --> 03:35.647
[SPEAKER_01]: Wasn't really like the typical rock star front person kind of musician.

03:35.687 --> 03:44.280
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he, you know, in the 70s, the Commodore's were like, this big funk band and he had to kind of play an image a little bit at least on stage.

03:44.661 --> 03:47.886
[SPEAKER_01]: But never seemed to be that kind of person behind the scenes.

03:48.567 --> 03:52.032
[SPEAKER_01]: But I feel like in the 80s,

03:52.012 --> 03:55.357
[SPEAKER_01]: dumped like I'm saying like letting's stop.

03:55.618 --> 04:11.223
[SPEAKER_01]: He dumped the flashy suits and The big Afro and just regular guided and I think that the regular guy Part of who he was and it wasn't playing a role.

04:11.243 --> 04:12.505
[SPEAKER_01]: It was very authentic to him.

04:12.525 --> 04:17.513
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a big part of the reason that he got over he wasn't

04:18.168 --> 04:21.251
[SPEAKER_01]: out there and like glitter suits, shaking his butt and doing a lot of stuff.

04:21.271 --> 04:32.121
[SPEAKER_01]: He was walking out there with like his sweater and his casual in pants and he was hosting award shows and being corny and again, that was part of his appeal.

04:32.501 --> 04:32.721
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

04:33.342 --> 04:34.363
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm with you.

04:34.443 --> 04:41.209
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what's interesting is, I'm reading Jeff Perlman's biography of Tupac Shakur.

04:41.750 --> 04:47.635
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, and what we'll do a Tupac album at some point during this project here.

04:48.897 --> 05:11.108
[SPEAKER_00]: one of the things that he is very he's done he did the lot of reporting on this and one of the things that that is kind of one of the themes of of this book is how unauthentic,

05:11.408 --> 05:20.283
[SPEAKER_00]: popularity and the respect that he had been yearning for, because he obviously had a pretty poor childhood, the attention that he yearned for.

05:20.643 --> 05:23.348
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he turns into this character, which is not him.

05:23.388 --> 05:29.017
[SPEAKER_00]: And he goes into gangster rap, and he was not a gangster.

05:29.118 --> 05:30.480
[SPEAKER_00]: He was like far from it.

05:30.540 --> 05:34.767
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like an art kid and just a poor kid who's just trying to be,

05:35.287 --> 05:38.593
[SPEAKER_00]: fun and have friends essentially.

05:38.614 --> 05:45.768
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I find that to be so interesting because to kind of compare to Lionel.

05:45.888 --> 05:53.683
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not until Lionel moves forward as a solo artist, which

05:54.102 --> 06:16.795
[SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, knows that he has to do it, and his peers are telling him, like, it's time, man, it's time, like you have to be, you know, you have this opportunity, you cannot turn this away, and then he becomes the Lionel Richie that we know, and in 1982, which is the year that we are talking about, his self titled debut comes out.

06:17.616 --> 06:18.878
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, before we get to the album,

06:19.921 --> 06:25.970
[SPEAKER_00]: 1982, you and I are like little kids, we are very, very small human beings.

06:26.291 --> 06:35.785
[SPEAKER_00]: So, the question is not even who was, what was this album to you in this time period because it wasn't anything to us, like we were too young.

06:36.286 --> 06:39.391
[SPEAKER_00]: But what is music like to you in 1982?

06:39.851 --> 06:42.616
[SPEAKER_00]: What is your relationship with music at that age?

06:43.196 --> 06:43.617
[SPEAKER_01]: Man.

06:45.436 --> 06:49.560
[SPEAKER_01]: So I got very deeply into music at a very young age.

06:49.800 --> 06:58.189
[SPEAKER_01]: I was three years old, four years old, and records and music were just a big part of who I was.

06:58.249 --> 07:10.802
[SPEAKER_01]: And I feel like the one thing that sealed the deal for me as far as that went is Christmas 1981, I was five years old, and my grandparents bought me a record player.

07:11.710 --> 07:16.160
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a Fisher Price record player, 10, 10 and white.

07:16.701 --> 07:17.803
[SPEAKER_01]: You plugged it into the wall.

07:18.244 --> 07:19.407
[SPEAKER_01]: You could play records on it.

07:19.687 --> 07:22.774
[SPEAKER_01]: It had like a little tini speaker that was built into it.

07:24.418 --> 07:25.019
[SPEAKER_01]: Super cool.

07:25.480 --> 07:26.522
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that record player.

07:26.683 --> 07:29.128
[SPEAKER_01]: And in that process,

07:29.412 --> 07:44.138
[SPEAKER_01]: or in the process of getting that I basically acquired all, not all, a lot of the records that my elder relatives who would left the home had left behind, didn't really want any more, could kind of do away with.

07:44.619 --> 07:51.792
[SPEAKER_01]: So I had this collection like built in from the time I was five years old and I

07:52.345 --> 07:56.190
[SPEAKER_01]: new who the popular musicians of the day were.

07:56.711 --> 07:58.954
[SPEAKER_01]: I knew what the radio stations in New York were.

07:59.014 --> 08:02.499
[SPEAKER_01]: I had all of this as a background.

08:03.079 --> 08:10.710
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was listening to a lot of music from the 70s because that those are the records that my family left behind.

08:11.611 --> 08:22.065
[SPEAKER_01]: And whatever was on the radio or whoever the

08:23.665 --> 08:32.377
[SPEAKER_00]: So you are way more advanced in music at this age than I am at, you know, I'm the most six euros for all right.

08:32.777 --> 08:41.629
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying to even think of what I would have been listening to if I could even remember 1982 very well.

08:41.730 --> 08:45.274
[SPEAKER_00]: Now of course not no Michael Jackson.

08:45.815 --> 08:46.055
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

08:46.096 --> 08:47.818
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know what will your parents listening to?

08:47.858 --> 08:53.065
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's I can't I don't even remember

08:53.534 --> 09:06.099
[SPEAKER_00]: because like there's like the cutting off period like because I start kindergarten and I think we move right before I start kindergarten into the house that I grew up with.

09:06.140 --> 09:07.061
[SPEAKER_00]: So that would have been 81.

09:09.567 --> 09:12.011
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm thinking of the setup.

09:12.292 --> 09:15.238
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I really don't remember, but

09:15.607 --> 09:18.594
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I don't even remember really listening to the radio that early.

09:18.674 --> 09:19.415
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm listening.

09:19.496 --> 09:32.805
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like really attentive to sports, but not I wouldn't say that I was all that attentive to music until maybe like two or three years later, where I can really remember, you know, what I was listening to, I can remember when I got my

09:33.022 --> 09:37.831
[SPEAKER_00]: little boom box, you know, and it was just taping stuff off of the radio.

09:37.911 --> 09:41.037
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I can tape this and I can listen to it again.

09:41.057 --> 09:47.149
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have to wait for, oh, okay, here's here's a song that I can clearly remember from that time frame.

09:47.770 --> 09:48.731
[SPEAKER_00]: I have the tiger.

09:49.672 --> 09:52.116
[SPEAKER_00]: Ah, yes, because of Rocky 3.

09:52.136 --> 09:54.018
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, there's a tie in there, right?

09:54.078 --> 09:55.460
[SPEAKER_01]: You were in the sports.

09:55.480 --> 09:57.002
[SPEAKER_01]: Rocky 3 was a sports movie.

09:57.723 --> 10:00.126
[SPEAKER_01]: And I have the tiger was a theme of Rocky 3.

10:00.146 --> 10:01.428
[SPEAKER_01]: It was all over the radio.

10:02.028 --> 10:04.552
[SPEAKER_01]: So that makes perfect sense.

10:05.553 --> 10:10.960
[SPEAKER_00]: So the year in music, 1982, I just kind of jotted some things down to see if you would

10:11.159 --> 10:14.323
[SPEAKER_00]: remember, uh, any of any of this stuff.

10:15.145 --> 10:24.297
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so the Grammys in February, 24th, 1982, obviously it's the previous year's music.

10:24.357 --> 10:25.920
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's all in the music from 1981.

10:27.081 --> 10:28.864
[SPEAKER_00]: Quincy Jones is the host.

10:29.845 --> 10:32.549
[SPEAKER_00]: And he also wins a total of five awards.

10:32.769 --> 10:40.440
[SPEAKER_00]: John Lennon and Yokohono's double fantasy, which was the final album released by Lennon while he was alive.

10:40.555 --> 10:52.610
[SPEAKER_00]: wins album of the year, right, uh, Betty Davis eyes wins both record of the year and song of the year, and she and a eastern wins best new artist.

10:53.732 --> 10:58.258
[SPEAKER_00]: I, uh, I can't even see this is where I'm like 1981, 1988.

10:58.918 --> 11:00.881
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't really know any of this stuff.

11:00.921 --> 11:06.428
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is a nice, this is part of the reason why I wanted to do this project is so I can go back.

11:07.015 --> 11:14.767
[SPEAKER_00]: and really catch up and learn about stuff, you know, that I didn't really that I don't really remember from the timeframe.

11:15.809 --> 11:19.936
[SPEAKER_00]: So March 18th, Teddy Pentegras, car accident.

11:20.156 --> 11:20.496
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

11:21.458 --> 11:26.827
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's paralyzed from the chest down from the car accident, March 18th, 1982.

11:27.127 --> 11:29.631
[SPEAKER_00]: April 15th,

11:30.134 --> 11:40.547
[SPEAKER_00]: Billy Joel seriously injured in a motorcycle accident in Long Island, he spends over a month in the hospital undergoing physical therapy for his hand.

11:41.868 --> 11:43.971
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even remember him being injured.

11:44.932 --> 11:46.434
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that retroactively.

11:46.654 --> 11:57.407
[SPEAKER_01]: I like I remember the Teddy car crash real time.

11:57.640 --> 12:04.827
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, maybe not so obviously for people who might not know, but very much in the Black community is like as big as it gets.

12:05.767 --> 12:10.031
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was covered quite a bit in the Black press.

12:10.532 --> 12:12.213
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know if it's six years old.

12:12.514 --> 12:14.355
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I guess it was April, so I wasn't even six yet.

12:14.816 --> 12:16.677
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know if I knew what paralyzed meant.

12:17.038 --> 12:17.258
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

12:17.278 --> 12:18.979
[SPEAKER_01]: But I knew that it was serious.

12:20.100 --> 12:20.401
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

12:20.421 --> 12:25.065
[SPEAKER_00]: And then if you are 1997, the nutty professor,

12:25.366 --> 12:32.296
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, Eddie Murphy brings back Teddy Pentegras because he's a Sherman clump is a big fan of Teddy Pee.

12:33.618 --> 12:41.550
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you don't know Teddy Pentegras, maybe you you may remember him from that movie for from Sherman clump doing his version of close the door.

12:42.612 --> 12:49.101
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, if you do not know who Teddy Pentegras is, please go to your music streaming service of choice and go listen to some Teddy Pentegras.

12:50.603 --> 12:51.325
[SPEAKER_00]: Go ahead, Teddy Pee.

12:51.966 --> 12:53.668
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, okay April 30th.

12:54.442 --> 13:03.197
[SPEAKER_00]: influential rock journalist, Lester bangs dies in his New York apartment of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.

13:03.417 --> 13:18.002
[SPEAKER_00]: And the reason why I know this information is because he is played by Philip C. More Hoffman in the movie almost famous, and which is the the Rolling Stone,

13:18.725 --> 13:26.192
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of biographical tale about being a young music journalist I've never seen almost famous.

13:27.053 --> 13:28.374
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I think you would dig it.

13:28.834 --> 13:33.498
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very pop culturey for that time for I think you'd really like it.

13:33.779 --> 13:34.740
[SPEAKER_00]: It makes sense.

13:34.760 --> 13:41.245
[SPEAKER_00]: October 1st, the very first compact disc appears in a music store in Japan.

13:41.266 --> 13:43.247
[SPEAKER_00]: 1982, man.

13:44.368 --> 13:45.509
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, there you go.

13:46.510 --> 13:47.331
[SPEAKER_00]: You got all of them.

13:48.593 --> 13:51.636
[SPEAKER_00]: every compact is that has ever been made since 1982.

13:53.277 --> 14:02.045
[SPEAKER_00]: And then November 30th something near and dear to our heart, Michael Jackson releases his sixth studio album Thriller, which would go on to be the greatest selling album of all time.

14:02.606 --> 14:09.051
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a nice little nice and list to hear people are probably like why aren't they talking about Thriller?

14:09.071 --> 14:12.094
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's because we're going to talk a whole lot about Michael Jackson.

14:12.114 --> 14:12.515
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

14:12.535 --> 14:18.600
[SPEAKER_01]: Throughout this series, you're going to get sick of Michael Jackson.

14:18.580 --> 14:22.866
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, plus how much is there left to talk about through it?

14:22.886 --> 14:26.851
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, that album has been blood dry.

14:27.251 --> 14:28.453
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, absolutely.

14:28.573 --> 14:33.299
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so let's lean into this Lionel Richie project here.

14:33.460 --> 14:45.636
[SPEAKER_00]: But before you actually talk about Lionel Richie, you have to talk about the Commodore's because as of the recording of the album, Lionel Richie is actually still a member of the Commodore's.

14:46.096 --> 14:48.199
[SPEAKER_00]: Correct.

14:49.040 --> 14:58.881
[SPEAKER_00]: a burgeoning artist who doesn't really fit inside the lines of what being a funk band is and what the comedors want.

14:59.182 --> 15:14.100
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, he's not even like when when this band was developed many years prior because they'd been a band all the way going back to college, he wasn't even like a big deep, like he wasn't the biggest deal in the group, like he was a sex player.

15:14.340 --> 15:14.901
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

15:15.021 --> 15:19.567
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you think about it, you're like, man, how could Lionel Richie kind of be a background player?

15:20.127 --> 15:28.918
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's what happens sometimes when you're a part of a band, but it's also what

15:29.320 --> 15:33.486
[SPEAKER_00]: the most popular person or the lead singer and they kind of branch out.

15:33.967 --> 15:38.072
[SPEAKER_00]: He kind of becomes bigger than the Commodore's at that time.

15:38.713 --> 15:38.813
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

15:38.833 --> 15:48.968
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's so much interesting information about like him leaving and them, what how they felt about it versus how he felt about it.

15:49.308 --> 15:50.931
[SPEAKER_00]: You mentioned the Kenny Rogers song.

15:51.411 --> 15:54.315
[SPEAKER_00]: He writes a lady for Kenny Rogers.

15:54.836 --> 15:57.640
[SPEAKER_00]: In his book he talks about having all of these

15:57.957 --> 16:14.084
[SPEAKER_00]: that didn't really fit the Commodore's or he would try and get them recorded and then they'd be like, you know, we don't want those kind of songs, um, even though when they did do stuff like that in the Commodore's like three times a lady are easy, they were big big songs.

16:14.384 --> 16:19.493
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but it was also maybe not with the what the Commodore's as a group.

16:19.473 --> 16:23.362
[SPEAKER_00]: wanted to be their signature songs.

16:23.522 --> 16:34.849
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, Lionel has a bunch of these songs saved around and you know, he's obviously very interested in making music that fits that more adult contemporary or R&B genre.

16:35.350 --> 16:38.477
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he creates this big hit for Kenny Rogers.

16:38.677 --> 16:52.419
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he creates, and thus endless love for himself in Diana Ross, for a Brooke Shields movie, which if you look at this poster of this Brooke Shields movie, it's like, he's 17.

16:53.060 --> 16:53.861
[SPEAKER_00]: She's 15.

16:53.881 --> 16:58.268
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm like, um, is that really in the poster?

16:58.408 --> 16:59.510
[SPEAKER_00]: That's on the poster.

17:00.412 --> 17:01.053
[SPEAKER_00]: Yikes.

17:01.133 --> 17:02.134
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm not.

17:02.154 --> 17:03.256
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a different time, y'all.

17:03.456 --> 17:05.680
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not about to watch that movie, but.

17:06.031 --> 17:12.945
[SPEAKER_00]: I have heard endless love many times and he tells the story in his book about how he actually got Diana to record the song.

17:12.965 --> 17:14.768
[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't actually record it together.

17:15.069 --> 17:19.037
[SPEAKER_00]: They recorded her vocals and then he put his vocals in after.

17:20.259 --> 17:24.828
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's actually becoming a pretty big deal.

17:25.550 --> 17:28.275
[SPEAKER_00]: And as always, when you're a part of a

17:28.576 --> 17:30.862
[SPEAKER_00]: a record company who wants hits.

17:31.323 --> 17:34.351
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a pressure for him to go solo.

17:34.371 --> 17:39.525
[SPEAKER_00]: Do more of lady and endless love because we can sell that.

17:39.605 --> 17:41.791
[SPEAKER_00]: We can get that stuff on the radio.

17:41.851 --> 17:43.716
[SPEAKER_00]: We can make that music successful.

17:43.696 --> 17:53.449
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, first of all, to go back to Endless Love for 10 seconds, I believe that Endless Love was the first movie that Tom Cruise was in.

17:54.150 --> 17:54.591
[SPEAKER_01]: No way.

17:55.011 --> 17:57.414
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I believe that is his first movie.

17:57.434 --> 17:59.918
[SPEAKER_01]: I might have to verify that via Wikipedia.

17:59.958 --> 18:01.520
[SPEAKER_01]: He is in the movie.

18:01.540 --> 18:03.423
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure if he's his first or second appearance.

18:04.164 --> 18:06.767
[SPEAKER_01]: But to roll back to the Commodore stuff,

18:08.182 --> 18:11.747
[SPEAKER_01]: So all groups, all bands start out as a democracy.

18:12.528 --> 18:16.574
[SPEAKER_01]: You're four friends, five friends, six friends, however many you like.

18:16.594 --> 18:20.459
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna split this up each equally, each way.

18:20.940 --> 18:22.783
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we're all poor, we're all struggling.

18:22.823 --> 18:23.784
[SPEAKER_01]: We all wanna make it.

18:24.325 --> 18:27.790
[SPEAKER_01]: We all wanna get the same level of fame.

18:28.631 --> 18:33.598
[SPEAKER_01]: And you go in sort of blind to the fact

18:34.557 --> 18:50.237
[SPEAKER_01]: It's never going to be completely even nothing ever works out that way in a group setting someone always ends up getting more of the attention more the women more the money whatever it is than then someone else and the Commodore started out as a pretty funky.

18:51.871 --> 18:52.913
[SPEAKER_01]: soul band.

18:53.334 --> 19:00.269
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you know, a lot of their early songs were very much in line with what else was coming out in the mid 70s.

19:01.091 --> 19:09.188
[SPEAKER_01]: And Lionel had a particular ability to write certain songs that

19:09.573 --> 19:25.395
[SPEAKER_01]: word, and I don't say this to, I don't say this in a negative way that we're not particularly funky, but we're very much straight down the middle of the road, love songs, easy listening songs that had universal messages, whether it's easy or three times a lady or still.

19:25.455 --> 19:33.707
[SPEAKER_01]: And those songs, because they were such like fastballs down the middle,

19:33.687 --> 19:50.051
[SPEAKER_01]: became the biggest hits and that created a power imbalance and then, you know, like you said, the Kenny Rogers song song comes out, it's a huge hit everywhere like it's a big country hit, it's a big pop hit, Kenny Rogers is one of the biggest stars in the universe at this time.

19:50.692 --> 19:57.282
[SPEAKER_01]: So Lionel Richie writes in and produces the song, it becomes a big song and all of a sudden it's

19:57.262 --> 20:18.983
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, up until that point, it felt like Lionel was slowly becoming a bigger star than the rest of the band, but Lady put him out there like front and center as Lionel Richie, not just, you know, a member of the Commodore's, and I think once you cross that, it's really hard to go back into a group dynamic.

20:18.963 --> 20:29.296
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so like you said, between that and this love and this love spent nine weeks at number one, which at that time was ridiculous, uh, it was, it was my aunties wedding song.

20:29.476 --> 20:35.244
[SPEAKER_01]: It was, you know, just, uh, I'm pretty sure for the next 10 years of ton of people to use that as a wedding song.

20:36.025 --> 20:42.633
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, it was just this big, big pop culture moment, uh, you know, Lionel got to sing it on the Oscars, all this other stuff.

20:43.114 --> 20:45.477
[SPEAKER_01]: So it just created.

20:45.457 --> 21:02.041
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, it creates this huge power imbalance where like Lionel's here the rest of the Commodore is like here's somewhere and it's like how do you go back to work and like Split the money up and split the work division up six ways when you've got this dude Who's like, oh, I can do bad all by myself.

21:02.501 --> 21:09.912
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's really hard and it sounds from the book like Lionel Really wanted to continue that band dynamic, but

21:10.820 --> 21:17.211
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't feel like the ability to kind of fold himself back into that would have been sustainable.

21:17.913 --> 21:21.299
[SPEAKER_00]: It would have become Lionel Richie and the Commodore and not just the commuters.

21:21.780 --> 21:33.300
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, from a racial component, obviously, in Motown, Barry Gordy, the head of Motown,

21:33.668 --> 21:39.035
[SPEAKER_00]: having a black man be the guy who runs that label very powerful.

21:40.096 --> 21:46.964
[SPEAKER_00]: And then as Lionel branches out, what branching out actually means is he's getting more pop fans.

21:47.545 --> 21:52.531
[SPEAKER_00]: He's getting, he's working with Kenny Rogers who is not African American.

21:52.571 --> 22:02.764
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a country

22:03.183 --> 22:04.305
[SPEAKER_00]: for the Commodore's.

22:04.405 --> 22:15.206
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a little bit of a racial component of like the idea of crossing over like Lionel was crossing over very few artists were able to do that as successfully, especially at that time.

22:15.727 --> 22:21.958
[SPEAKER_00]: He Lionel specifically is sort of non-political in this book, so he's not just bringing any of that up.

22:22.159 --> 22:25.545
[SPEAKER_00]: But I kind of do wonder as I was reading it, I was wondering

22:25.897 --> 22:30.565
[SPEAKER_00]: about that part of what crossing over meant to the music and to his band.

22:31.507 --> 22:47.955
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he does bring it up sort of peripherally in the book and you know, in the early 80s, particularly late 70s, well, throughout the entire 70s into the 80s to explain it for younger people,

22:48.948 --> 23:02.856
[SPEAKER_01]: on the billboard charts and at radio, in order to get, if you are a black artist, to get into the mass appeal pop charts, get into the billboard hot 100 to get on top 40 radio.

23:03.106 --> 23:24.709
[SPEAKER_01]: You had to first build up a base at Black radio and then cross your song over and to a large extent that's why a lot of R&B records that are huge huge huge hits were not big pop hits because there was a whole like political thing you had to go through that was, you know, very unfair to Black artists and what.

23:24.689 --> 23:38.632
[SPEAKER_01]: Lionel did is he wrote songs that were not trying to be careful with my words here, that were not stereotypical R&B records.

23:39.233 --> 23:46.064
[SPEAKER_01]: They could have been sung by anybody of any color and often fit multiple radio formats.

23:46.084 --> 23:48.368
[SPEAKER_01]: Like three times a lady is

23:49.259 --> 24:11.065
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's not really son or written in like an R&B fashion three times a lady is like an easy listening song even like a country song yeah easy is a country song kind of they you know and it's not in authentic like these from Tuskegee Alabama But these are songs that didn't necessarily fit.

24:11.382 --> 24:14.347
[SPEAKER_01]: the mode of what black radio was playing at the time.

24:14.768 --> 24:24.185
[SPEAKER_01]: So Lionel caught a fair amount of shit through a lot of his career into well into his solo career for kind of being not black enough.

24:25.307 --> 24:31.618
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that I'm sure that that caused some

24:31.598 --> 24:33.861
[SPEAKER_01]: weird feelings in the comedors as well.

24:33.881 --> 24:40.611
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, what do you try to bring to our music, your diluting our music or making our music sound different or misrepresenting the group in somewhere or whatever?

24:40.651 --> 24:43.755
[SPEAKER_01]: So again, just a whole bunch of different dynamics at play.

24:44.256 --> 24:51.025
[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, even to this day, look, uh, the powers that be whether it's Spotify or whoever tries to keep

24:51.832 --> 25:11.715
[SPEAKER_01]: artists almost separated by race, you know, contingent to the type of music that they play, even though I think realistically speaking like the lines are more blurred than they've ever been between genres, but I think the reason that a lot of these genres are created in the first place is to separate people by race.

25:13.317 --> 25:20.185
[SPEAKER_00]: So the break when Lionel does go solo, the idea

25:20.435 --> 25:29.524
[SPEAKER_00]: to disband from the Commodore's it is to stick around and stay with them, but he just becomes so big that it is unable to to happen that way.

25:30.685 --> 25:35.890
[SPEAKER_00]: I found an article, the L.A. Times, March 31st, 1985.

25:38.192 --> 25:45.399
[SPEAKER_00]: William King from the Commodore, still a member of the Commodore's, still hasn't forgiven Richie.

25:46.260 --> 25:49.243
[SPEAKER_00]: The problem King explained isn't that Richie left,

25:49.628 --> 25:51.070
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the way he left.

25:51.751 --> 25:58.199
[SPEAKER_00]: The Commodore's were in limbo throughout 1982, while their most valuable member worked on outside projects.

25:58.439 --> 26:01.883
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's King's quote.

26:01.903 --> 26:03.906
[SPEAKER_00]: He kept saying he'd be back.

26:04.466 --> 26:07.330
[SPEAKER_00]: First, he was coming back after working with Kenny Rogers.

26:07.871 --> 26:09.453
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he had to do Diana Ross.

26:09.913 --> 26:11.335
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he had to do his own album.

26:11.695 --> 26:13.337
[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, we couldn't work.

26:14.078 --> 26:18.724
[SPEAKER_00]: He wouldn't go on tour.

26:19.025 --> 26:21.588
[SPEAKER_00]: Would they book the Beatles without Paul McCartney?

26:22.108 --> 26:24.030
[SPEAKER_00]: Richie was our McCartney.

26:24.471 --> 26:27.474
[SPEAKER_00]: We weren't mad because we decided he decided to leave.

26:27.975 --> 26:30.538
[SPEAKER_00]: We were mad at the procrastination.

26:30.758 --> 26:36.905
[SPEAKER_00]: He never called up and said, I'm going over there to do this and I won't be there to work with the group.

26:36.925 --> 26:40.469
[SPEAKER_00]: Not one of the days that he promised to be back did he show up.

26:41.089 --> 26:44.593
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, we had to go on without him.

26:45.215 --> 26:53.984
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know how much of that is three years later, he gets so giant and they're kind of left behind.

26:54.124 --> 26:55.846
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know how much of that is bitter.

26:56.366 --> 27:04.775
[SPEAKER_00]: How much of that is, you know, maybe Lionel not being the most upfront with his feelings, which is really hard when you're in a group.

27:05.636 --> 27:11.682
[SPEAKER_00]: And he obviously cared a lot about those dudes but at the same time, new what was in front of him.

27:12.142 --> 27:14.665
[SPEAKER_00]: But I just found that quote to be interesting

27:15.590 --> 27:29.583
[SPEAKER_00]: At this time in 1985, they do an album without line only actually have a hit, which when we do our, we're gonna do another episode of our top five Commodore and Lionel Richie hits.

27:30.023 --> 27:31.645
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we can talk about that then.

27:32.185 --> 27:43.015
[SPEAKER_00]: But I just like, by the way that Lionel explained it in his book, I didn't really sense that there was that much frustration, but it sounds like there was a lot of frustration.

27:45.340 --> 27:57.932
[SPEAKER_01]: It would be really interesting to be a fly on the wall when those conversations took place in real time because there's that quote,

27:58.047 --> 28:02.656
[SPEAKER_01]: is definitely different from the way Lionel presented it in his book.

28:03.518 --> 28:09.190
[SPEAKER_01]: And if the timelines right like the Commodore is released in album at the end of 1981, after endless love.

28:10.532 --> 28:17.526
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was a hit and they went on tour and Lionel's solo album came out a year later.

28:17.566 --> 28:19.330
[SPEAKER_01]: So,

28:19.681 --> 28:25.331
[SPEAKER_01]: in that timeline where would there have been an opportunity for the band to make another album and tour?

28:26.192 --> 28:43.782
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't line up correctly with timing, but also it's like, okay, so you're saying William King that you need this guy because he is your palm a cartony, but

28:43.930 --> 28:51.481
[SPEAKER_01]: the way Lionel tells it, it feels like the other members of the band were being resentful that he was a McCartney.

28:52.062 --> 28:54.345
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like, you can't have it both ways.

28:54.385 --> 28:54.946
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'm saying?

28:55.727 --> 29:03.419
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and maybe it's a little bit of revisionist history because you see how big he got.

29:03.539 --> 29:05.061
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you go back and go,

29:05.632 --> 29:17.505
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, even if we wouldn't have been happy, if it became Lionel Richie in the Commodore's, we would have sold way more record than made much, way, and made so much more money even having to split the money.

29:18.025 --> 29:19.407
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.

29:19.427 --> 29:26.474
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I found that interesting in 1985, Ellie Times, the author is Dennis Hunt.

29:26.574 --> 29:28.516
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you want to go back and check that piece out.

29:28.596 --> 29:29.277
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so

29:29.813 --> 29:39.214
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about the album here, the Richie Co. produced the album with long time Commodore's producer, James Anthony Carmichael.

29:40.015 --> 29:47.552
[SPEAKER_00]: The album is in a immediate success, peaking at number three on the Billboard 200 and spending 140 weeks,

29:47.532 --> 29:57.866
[SPEAKER_00]: On the best sellers list in the US, it sold over 4 million copies in the US and was also a top 10 success in the UK.

29:58.386 --> 30:01.650
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we've talked about this before on a previous episode.

30:02.191 --> 30:05.616
[SPEAKER_00]: How many versions of this album do you own?

30:05.656 --> 30:06.737
[SPEAKER_00]: One.

30:07.218 --> 30:07.498
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

30:07.718 --> 30:08.019
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

30:08.339 --> 30:09.300
[SPEAKER_00]: This one here behind me.

30:09.621 --> 30:10.402
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

30:10.963 --> 30:12.004
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I've bought it.

30:13.672 --> 30:16.996
[SPEAKER_01]: In every conceivable format, I've had a CD copy.

30:17.036 --> 30:18.517
[SPEAKER_01]: I've had a tape.

30:18.577 --> 30:23.403
[SPEAKER_01]: This is, I think, my second vinyl copy, but we're just on one copy.

30:24.244 --> 30:30.751
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you think it stands today, listening back as a debut solo album?

30:30.771 --> 30:31.552
[SPEAKER_01]: It sounds like 1982.

30:31.572 --> 30:36.277
[SPEAKER_01]: It is, I don't think it's his strongest solo record.

30:37.138 --> 30:41.383
[SPEAKER_01]: There are some good songs on it and there are some songs that are,

30:42.123 --> 30:51.334
[SPEAKER_01]: pretty I was going to use the word corny again and I'm not sure that that's the word I want to use although the other word that I want to use is boring.

30:56.040 --> 31:10.797
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I found and what's that specifically I think the song is it is it my love is that the country is kind of song

31:11.148 --> 31:22.468
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, wow, he just really was like, okay, I'm just going to remake this version, but by myself, and that's, it really sounds very similar to it if you, if you check it out.

31:23.991 --> 31:27.878
[SPEAKER_00]: So, by the way, your Tom Cruise anecdote was right on the money.

31:27.918 --> 31:32.747
[SPEAKER_00]: His very, he did two movies in 1981, endless love and taps.

31:33.248 --> 31:34.590
[SPEAKER_00]: Aha, there you go.

31:35.228 --> 31:36.049
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, all right.

31:36.069 --> 31:38.372
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's let's talk a little bit about the singles here.

31:38.392 --> 31:41.115
[SPEAKER_00]: A truly is the first single.

31:41.936 --> 31:47.603
[SPEAKER_00]: And it is the kind of song that maybe the Commodore didn't want to do.

31:48.043 --> 31:48.223
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

31:48.484 --> 31:50.666
[SPEAKER_00]: And he leads off the album with it.

31:51.367 --> 31:52.769
[SPEAKER_00]: What are your thoughts on truly?

31:56.033 --> 31:58.676
[SPEAKER_01]: This is where I struggle between corny and boring.

32:00.538 --> 32:02.080
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a

32:04.068 --> 32:12.718
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a, if you were to put right along a risky song into chat GPT, truly is what it would come out with.

32:12.738 --> 32:12.938
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

32:13.419 --> 32:15.181
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a very simple piano ballad.

32:15.781 --> 32:24.872
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a very straightforward, low song, lyrically, it, you know, plugged right into what easy listening radio would have been like in 1982.

32:25.993 --> 32:28.776
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, it's, it's,

32:31.270 --> 32:34.336
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a well-written, well-performed song.

32:34.356 --> 32:35.799
[SPEAKER_01]: It just doesn't hit me any kind of way.

32:37.101 --> 32:37.242
[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.

32:37.262 --> 32:41.009
[SPEAKER_01]: Kind of like just kind of like fluked in the air above me and like, okay.

32:41.510 --> 32:44.496
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's not one of my favorite, my whole Richie songs.

32:45.798 --> 32:48.764
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a top-the-build-board hot 100 for two weeks.

32:50.126 --> 32:52.992
[SPEAKER_00]: And the adult contemporary chart for four weeks.

32:53.950 --> 32:58.014
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know what song prevented it from reaching number one on the R&B chart?

32:58.595 --> 33:01.458
[SPEAKER_00]: Sexual healing, sexual healing.

33:01.798 --> 33:01.998
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

33:02.359 --> 33:04.661
[SPEAKER_00]: And infinitely superior song.

33:04.681 --> 33:08.085
[SPEAKER_00]: And a polar opposite kind of song.

33:10.287 --> 33:11.989
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Lionel was truly in love with you.

33:12.329 --> 33:16.093
[SPEAKER_01]: Marvin wanted to give some, yeah, exactly.

33:17.374 --> 33:20.718
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like when, oh, when it was it.

33:20.738 --> 33:23.721
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was a Chris Rock song.

33:24.393 --> 33:27.557
[SPEAKER_00]: uh, Marvin was saying, let's get it on.

33:28.518 --> 33:31.001
[SPEAKER_00]: And now the rappers today say, let's fuck.

33:33.764 --> 33:37.709
[SPEAKER_00]: Before the Marvin was the truly, and then it just it just kept going.

33:37.990 --> 33:38.250
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

33:38.490 --> 33:38.750
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

33:38.911 --> 33:39.191
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

33:39.291 --> 33:47.801
[SPEAKER_00]: Second single, you are reach number four and a hot 100, uh, Lionel co-wrote this with Brenda Harvey Richie.

33:47.842 --> 33:48.422
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

33:48.442 --> 33:53.168
[SPEAKER_00]: It would did he say that he co-wrote or

33:53.603 --> 34:10.009
[SPEAKER_00]: He talks about them getting a divorce and he's going through the whole idea of like why she gets so much of his work credit and he was saying like, you know, she was in inspiration, but some of the things that.

34:10.934 --> 34:12.778
[SPEAKER_00]: She make it credit for being an inspiration.

34:12.858 --> 34:25.804
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not like they were just me writing songs that I knew would work not necessarily writing for my own auto biographical experiences, but did she actually help him write this song?

34:26.155 --> 34:27.156
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I don't know.

34:27.176 --> 34:29.559
[SPEAKER_01]: It's an interesting thing.

34:29.579 --> 34:35.825
[SPEAKER_01]: There's the possibility that she and Lionel were tossing ideas back and forth.

34:36.225 --> 34:42.992
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a possibility that she may have thrown out an idea or a lion or a lyric that ended up working its way in the song.

34:43.633 --> 34:44.574
[SPEAKER_01]: Or it could have just been that.

34:44.674 --> 34:49.739
[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, oh, I'm so in love with my wife and if she wasn't here, I don't know who would inspire these songs.

34:49.759 --> 34:50.941
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to give her writing credit.

34:52.062 --> 34:52.522
[SPEAKER_01]: Who knows?

34:52.903 --> 34:55.285
[SPEAKER_01]: Brenda ain't talking.

34:55.265 --> 34:56.747
[SPEAKER_01]: I really like the song by the way.

34:56.927 --> 34:58.489
[SPEAKER_01]: You are as a great song.

34:59.070 --> 34:59.590
[SPEAKER_00]: I love the song.

34:59.610 --> 35:00.031
[SPEAKER_00]: Fantastic.

35:00.391 --> 35:00.612
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

35:00.632 --> 35:09.603
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll talk about songs on this album and what playlists you may have them on in another section of this show.

35:09.623 --> 35:13.928
[SPEAKER_00]: But I, you know, listening to that song again, it just takes you to a place, man.

35:13.969 --> 35:17.773
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, I'm just like, it's super smooth.

35:18.614 --> 35:19.956
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, it.

35:20.729 --> 35:38.712
[SPEAKER_01]: is very catchy, it's definitely up there in terms of like Limerous, he songs that I 100% love, every time I was singing a song to myself earlier today, I think, because I knew we were going to record this episode and I had a line on the bucket in my head.

35:38.992 --> 35:42.016
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, but still, great song.

35:42.096 --> 35:46.602
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a happy song to just put you in a really good mood, which is,

35:47.189 --> 35:51.215
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, something that's really good about connecting with music.

35:52.136 --> 35:52.417
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

35:52.437 --> 35:58.926
[SPEAKER_00]: The third single was the aforementioned my love that that I said sounds very much like easy.

35:59.186 --> 35:59.407
[SPEAKER_00]: Easy.

35:59.847 --> 36:01.109
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, it's the third single.

36:01.390 --> 36:03.332
[SPEAKER_00]: It went to number five on the hot 100.

36:03.372 --> 36:08.981
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, and I guess Kenny Rogers sings on this song.

36:09.101 --> 36:10.363
[SPEAKER_00]: And then is it in the background?

36:10.683 --> 36:10.863
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

36:10.883 --> 36:12.586
[SPEAKER_00]: He's background vocalist.

36:12.606 --> 36:13.467
[SPEAKER_01]: I, you know,

36:13.801 --> 36:23.440
[SPEAKER_01]: I had, for whatever reason, never looked at the liner notes until fairly recently and I always would hear that song and be like, it really does sound like Kenny Rogers' sense.

36:23.460 --> 36:25.825
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm wearing that and I finally looked at the liner notes and confirmed it.

36:26.466 --> 36:29.532
[SPEAKER_01]: But yes, Kenny Rogers sings background on my love.

36:29.866 --> 36:30.467
[SPEAKER_00]: That's cool.

36:30.527 --> 36:33.911
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a little scratch scratch your back, since you scratch my back.

36:34.232 --> 36:36.575
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Lionel scratch was a lot bigger than Kenny's.

36:36.695 --> 36:37.536
[SPEAKER_01]: But you never go left.

36:37.717 --> 36:39.139
[SPEAKER_01]: It's so good.

36:39.159 --> 36:41.081
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, quick pro quo.

36:41.562 --> 36:49.132
[SPEAKER_00]: Kenny's scratching of the back as explained in Lionel's book is letting he and Brenda stay at the guest house.

36:49.432 --> 36:49.713
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

36:50.073 --> 36:51.816
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for and they never wanted to move.

36:51.836 --> 36:54.119
[SPEAKER_00]: They really love that guest house.

36:54.139 --> 36:55.541
[SPEAKER_00]: What was he paying Kenny rent?

36:56.202 --> 36:58.725
[SPEAKER_00]: He said that Kenny didn't want

36:59.330 --> 37:05.886
[SPEAKER_00]: rant originally, but then he kind of made Kenny set a price for them.

37:06.206 --> 37:07.530
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think you've been back then.

37:07.550 --> 37:09.534
[SPEAKER_00]: He said it was like three grand or something.

37:09.675 --> 37:14.947
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's like, which was a lot, a lot back then three grand a lot now.

37:15.549 --> 37:16.090
[SPEAKER_00]: But.

37:16.407 --> 37:35.749
[SPEAKER_00]: in that area and for the space and everything he was like we could afford it and it was it was totally fine so yeah 100% get somebody to hook you up a real estate man okay so uh those are the hit singles there any other songs on this album that you find yourself really enjoying

37:36.168 --> 37:53.873
[SPEAKER_01]: Actually, yes, there is one song called Serves You Right, which is probably like the most uptempo, like funky sound on the album, great playing games, yeah, yeah, I mean, and you know Greg feeling games who did a lot of work with Mike and feels like

37:54.477 --> 38:00.174
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael and Lionel kind of traveled along this parallel path through a lot of their careers.

38:00.616 --> 38:08.098
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, even to the point where like this album and thriller came out pretty much right next to each other, but they used a lot of the same musicians, their kind of thing.

38:08.635 --> 38:16.366
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and it does, you could picture, uh, servers here, I has a little bit of like a PYT, baby, be mine trying to feel to it.

38:17.208 --> 38:18.509
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I love that song.

38:18.970 --> 38:32.390
[SPEAKER_01]: And wandering stranger, which I think is, uh, no, it's not the last song on the album, but it's also like a, uh, very, um, like mysterious sounding ballad has like some sound effects happening.

38:33.311 --> 38:37.377
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, maybe a little bit more adventurous than truly or my love.

38:37.357 --> 38:47.408
[SPEAKER_01]: And I used to play it a lot because one of the first records I bought as a kid was the 45 for all night long, and wondering strange it was a beside.

38:48.670 --> 38:54.076
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, there are a couple of songs on the album that I still gravitate to that were not the singles.

38:55.257 --> 39:02.045
[SPEAKER_00]: And people are probably wondering, like, where does all night long come, and it's literally the next album that comes up next.

39:02.065 --> 39:03.887
[SPEAKER_01]: First single off the next album, yeah.

39:04.137 --> 39:04.918
[SPEAKER_00]: can't slow down.

39:05.820 --> 39:05.920
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

39:05.940 --> 39:11.289
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so I'm going to ask you some some question before we get to that.

39:11.309 --> 39:19.463
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a remaster of this of this album where you get endless love, but it's just line off the day and the art is not there.

39:19.966 --> 39:27.457
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and then there is an instrumental to you are, which you get Lionel singing the chorus, but that's it.

39:27.798 --> 39:30.602
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, it's just Other than that, it's instrumental.

39:30.622 --> 39:33.787
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's kind of an interesting like Bonus track.

39:34.007 --> 39:37.492
[SPEAKER_00]: Just to get the Lionel part on endless love and then that Instrumental.

39:38.474 --> 39:39.135
[SPEAKER_00]: So you are.

39:39.696 --> 39:40.196
[SPEAKER_01]: It's funny.

39:40.317 --> 39:49.230
[SPEAKER_01]: There is, there's a Diana album With endless love on it and it's just her.

39:50.678 --> 39:51.359
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that means.

39:51.419 --> 39:52.540
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, yeah.

39:53.300 --> 39:55.402
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so I have some questions for you here.

39:55.883 --> 39:56.243
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

39:56.263 --> 40:01.068
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I will answer and say that you are as my favorite song on the album.

40:01.248 --> 40:01.728
[SPEAKER_00]: What is it?

40:01.748 --> 40:02.809
[SPEAKER_00]: Your favorite song on your...

40:03.170 --> 40:04.711
[SPEAKER_00]: It is, yes, your favorite song as well.

40:05.011 --> 40:06.873
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so that we get that out of the way.

40:07.354 --> 40:11.858
[SPEAKER_00]: You already mentioned that you own the album one vinyl as people watching on video can see behind you.

40:13.759 --> 40:15.721
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, now let's get to the playlist question.

40:16.062 --> 40:16.262
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

40:16.282 --> 40:17.563
[SPEAKER_00]: You're making a playlist.

40:18.438 --> 40:24.228
[SPEAKER_00]: what's the song and what kind of playlist?

40:24.248 --> 40:28.435
[SPEAKER_01]: So you are, is on a couple of my playlists.

40:28.455 --> 40:34.204
[SPEAKER_01]: I have kind of like a smooth, just like a smooth mellow playlist that that's on.

40:34.325 --> 40:40.615
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a yacht rock playlist that's on in New York.

40:41.658 --> 40:43.283
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that it might actually still exist.

40:43.323 --> 40:44.307
[SPEAKER_01]: I haven't done my research.

40:44.768 --> 40:48.862
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a radio station called WLTW, Light FM.

40:49.965 --> 40:50.487
[SPEAKER_01]: And...

40:51.344 --> 41:06.504
[SPEAKER_01]: As I was growing up, into well into my 20s actually, I would listen to light a time to go to sleep a night, but my grandmother would play light a time in the house and through into the 90s, you would hear you are on that radio station.

41:06.564 --> 41:09.087
[SPEAKER_01]: It was, you know, very much an evergreen song.

41:09.408 --> 41:11.550
[SPEAKER_01]: So I've got a light a fem play list at that song.

41:11.911 --> 41:21.283
[SPEAKER_01]: You are fits in a few different boxes, but anything smooth or mellow, it immediately goes on to.

41:21.652 --> 41:41.352
[SPEAKER_00]: And we do this thing right before the school year starts again, where we kind of created this thing with my kids and my ex wife and crystal in myself and my step kids were we kind of have like a last summer summers about to be over kind of party.

41:42.414 --> 41:50.562
[SPEAKER_00]: And we jokingly decided, at least the first time we jokingly were like, why don't we just make some kebabs.

41:50.997 --> 42:15.908
[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll call it the kababaq and so that is corny it is now I think it's like three or four years we've we've done this part so now the kids like invite their friends and we invite some of our friends we just have this like barbecue essentially but it's not actually it's that like we're not grilling where we're just you know we just serve food and so I make a playlist every year.

42:16.985 --> 42:26.449
[SPEAKER_00]: that summary kind of like laid back sound of you are will make next year's kababi Q playlist for you.

42:26.469 --> 42:31.281
[SPEAKER_01]: I was about to ask you have kids who are

42:32.493 --> 42:35.636
[SPEAKER_01]: Like early 20's ish mid 20's mid 20's ish.

42:36.256 --> 42:38.038
[SPEAKER_01]: I see.

42:38.058 --> 42:43.022
[SPEAKER_01]: And I have a step kids who are maybe a decade, decade and a half younger.

42:43.502 --> 42:51.089
[SPEAKER_00]: Decade, decade younger for the twins who are sophomores in high earth, sophomores in high school.

42:51.830 --> 42:59.216
[SPEAKER_00]: But my oldest is actually 16 years older than my youngest stepchild.

42:59.596 --> 43:01.538
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh wow.

43:01.518 --> 43:05.865
[SPEAKER_01]: Do they had a concept of who Lionel Richie is?

43:05.885 --> 43:13.759
[SPEAKER_00]: I think my kids, my oldest kids would know him more from American Idol than anything else.

43:13.979 --> 43:14.821
[SPEAKER_00]: That would be my guess.

43:15.021 --> 43:17.085
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't talked to the song like we've talked about Lionel.

43:17.866 --> 43:26.040
[SPEAKER_00]: A song that we will talk about a little bit when we do our next episode of The Top Five when we talk about Lionel is

43:26.847 --> 43:27.668
[SPEAKER_00]: I call love.

43:27.868 --> 43:32.093
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure my kids know that song because I would have played it in the car when they were younger.

43:32.113 --> 43:36.498
[SPEAKER_00]: So that might be it, um, you know, they may know all that.

43:36.518 --> 43:40.222
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, all night long is kind of hard to not know.

43:40.242 --> 43:43.966
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't miss that song and then maybe we are the world as well.

43:44.026 --> 43:46.369
[SPEAKER_00]: They may know in a little bit.

43:46.389 --> 43:53.597
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was at work a few days ago and a coworker.

43:54.033 --> 43:59.161
[SPEAKER_01]: and I were standing in front of like the snack tray, just talking, whatever.

44:00.182 --> 44:05.811
[SPEAKER_01]: We have, when you walk into our office, you walk through the door and there's a big screen that is usually playing the video.

44:06.411 --> 44:08.154
[SPEAKER_01]: The video that was on was we are the world.

44:09.416 --> 44:15.585
[SPEAKER_01]: My coworker, we're talking, and he, like, post means like, yeah, Mike, I was like, what's that?

44:17.152 --> 44:21.158
[SPEAKER_01]: And I looked at sweary guy, I looked at him for like 10 seconds.

44:21.238 --> 44:22.961
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was stuck on stupid.

44:22.981 --> 44:24.243
[SPEAKER_01]: It just had, did not know what to say.

44:24.263 --> 44:26.086
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, you don't know where are the world?

44:26.106 --> 44:27.889
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, dude, how old are you?

44:27.909 --> 44:29.872
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, I'm 33.

44:31.194 --> 44:37.424
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, how do you, as a 33-year-old, not know where are the world?

44:37.965 --> 44:43.193
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was like, it came out seven years before I was born.

44:44.270 --> 44:45.351
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I did the math on my head.

44:45.371 --> 44:48.314
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, ah, it doesn't make any sense.

44:48.334 --> 44:50.036
[SPEAKER_01]: It dropped it.

44:50.496 --> 44:58.804
[SPEAKER_01]: But someone at this point, someone in there, almost mid 30s, wouldn't have been born at the time where y'all the world came out.

45:00.085 --> 45:05.390
[SPEAKER_00]: So the documentary came out in 2025 called The Greatest Night in Pop.

45:06.852 --> 45:11.256
[SPEAKER_00]: And it tells the story of Lionel.

45:12.198 --> 45:18.888
[SPEAKER_00]: And Michael and Quincy, putting together the stems of what became, we are the world.

45:18.928 --> 45:22.774
[SPEAKER_00]: Stevie's supposed to be involved, but Stevie's never turned in phone calls or something.

45:22.794 --> 45:24.517
[SPEAKER_00]: There's some reason why Stevie comes in.

45:24.597 --> 45:25.358
[SPEAKER_00]: Always late.

45:27.000 --> 45:29.464
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, it really,

45:30.052 --> 45:32.674
[SPEAKER_00]: They're trying to create this anthem.

45:33.115 --> 45:37.078
[SPEAKER_00]: They're very much inspired by what was the song that had come out.

45:37.138 --> 45:38.359
[SPEAKER_00]: The Christmas song that had come out.

45:38.379 --> 45:40.622
[SPEAKER_01]: If you didn't know it's Christmas, by the end of the year.

45:41.262 --> 45:42.864
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they were very much inspired by that.

45:43.804 --> 45:58.978
[SPEAKER_00]: And they wanted to do something to create an opportunity to give to Africa, what was the chair, the... What was the famine release for EZopia, primarily?

46:00.038 --> 46:21.760
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if it was a charity, but there was a, there was a, a thing that they, that they called it that I can't remember right now, but anyway, so they create this song and it's Michael and Lionel and Quincy and then all of a sudden the word gets out and so they're kind of, you know, maybe we'll add this person in and then they add and then one of the people says yes.

46:22.280 --> 46:26.211
[SPEAKER_00]: And then like Bruce Springsteen says, yes, and all of a sudden like all these other people get interested.

46:26.813 --> 46:33.030
[SPEAKER_00]: And so now it's not just this project that is Michael Lionel and Quincy, it's like this giant project.

46:33.090 --> 46:37.723
[SPEAKER_00]: And so how do you get everybody to record a song together

46:38.429 --> 46:49.627
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you do it at the American musical words where everybody almost everybody's going to be there anyway, so they created this documentary about the creation of the song came out on Netflix.

46:49.688 --> 46:50.449
[SPEAKER_00]: It's still on Netflix.

46:50.469 --> 46:59.644
[SPEAKER_00]: You could check it out and it was perfect for me to go back and what I'd watched when it came out, but I wanted to go back and watch it after reading.

47:00.434 --> 47:03.738
[SPEAKER_00]: Lionel's book, and it's just so fun.

47:03.818 --> 47:09.526
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I think when you and I were growing up, that we are the world video was on a lot.

47:09.666 --> 47:16.155
[SPEAKER_00]: So we got to see, and then there was a making of, we are the world, which we probably saw ten times or more.

47:16.896 --> 47:20.941
[SPEAKER_00]: But seeing this in the documentary form as it was, there's new footage in there.

47:20.981 --> 47:29.412
[SPEAKER_00]: There's Algero, they got to keep the wine away from Algero, because he's having too much fun, and he's acting a little bit of a fool sometimes,

47:29.965 --> 47:39.958
[SPEAKER_00]: And the whale and Jennings walks off the stage because he doesn't want to sing and swahili, which they don't even do it in the end.

47:40.058 --> 47:40.799
[SPEAKER_01]: And never use it.

47:41.060 --> 47:41.580
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

47:41.600 --> 47:45.445
[SPEAKER_00]: And whale and he's like, nope, this country boy, he's not gonna do that, so he leaves.

47:46.006 --> 47:48.970
[SPEAKER_00]: And then just to see like I was telling Crystal,

47:48.950 --> 47:52.133
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, oh, look, Dan Akroyd and she's like, Dan Akroyd.

47:52.153 --> 47:53.054
[SPEAKER_00]: Why would he be there?

47:53.555 --> 47:54.495
[SPEAKER_00]: Bluesburg, right?

47:54.776 --> 47:55.396
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Bluesburg.

47:55.416 --> 47:58.720
[SPEAKER_00]: There's then also Ghostbusters to just, you know, had just come out.

47:58.820 --> 48:01.122
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's like really hot at this point.

48:01.823 --> 48:04.485
[SPEAKER_00]: And so just, it's like a who's who.

48:04.545 --> 48:15.396
[SPEAKER_00]: And then poor Sheila E. She realizes during the session that, oh, I'm here because they think Prince is going to come.

48:15.983 --> 48:22.922
[SPEAKER_00]: And she's like, damn it, she's he could tell she's still she's still bothered by that a little bit even even today.

48:23.290 --> 48:30.998
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but Huey Lewis gets the Prince part that they had saved for Prince hoping that he was going to be there and Huey's like nervous.

48:31.939 --> 48:41.049
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, Cindy Loppers got so much background noise on our audio and they can't figure out why and then they realize it's because of all her earrings and All the jewelry.

48:41.549 --> 48:43.251
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's just like it's fun.

48:43.912 --> 48:46.935
[SPEAKER_00]: It is something that could not happen today.

48:47.422 --> 48:51.267
[SPEAKER_01]: You like, they did, we are the world for Haiti.

48:51.548 --> 48:55.533
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to say that was like 2010, 2015, bebers on it.

48:56.214 --> 48:58.037
[SPEAKER_01]: So Kanye is a very interesting person.

48:58.057 --> 49:00.260
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a very famous on it, Lord Hammeracy.

49:00.921 --> 49:10.033
[SPEAKER_00]: But even then though, even when they did that, it's still the idea of who are the biggest artists today.

49:10.133 --> 49:11.235
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, could you get

49:11.772 --> 49:16.382
[SPEAKER_00]: 40 artists like that in one room and say, all of these people are famous.

49:16.522 --> 49:19.228
[SPEAKER_00]: You couldn't, like, probably doesn't work like that anymore.

49:19.589 --> 49:29.270
[SPEAKER_00]: You could get, you could get 10 maybe and everyone would know who those 10 are, but then there'll be 30 others and you'd have half of the people going like, who's that?

49:29.290 --> 49:29.590
[SPEAKER_00]: Who's that?

49:29.610 --> 49:29.951
[SPEAKER_00]: Who's that?

49:30.452 --> 49:31.755
[SPEAKER_00]: And on this video,

49:32.275 --> 49:39.668
[SPEAKER_00]: There are, you know, when even when I was a kid, there's probably like 10 people who I was like, I'm not really sure who that is, but they're just famous for some reason.

49:40.169 --> 49:40.429
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

49:40.850 --> 49:41.851
[SPEAKER_00]: But today, you couldn't.

49:42.092 --> 49:43.594
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything is so amazing today.

49:43.935 --> 49:45.618
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's no monoculture anymore.

49:45.918 --> 49:49.164
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, like, I'm thinking back to watching, we are the world for the first time.

49:49.184 --> 49:51.308
[SPEAKER_01]: And I knew who most of those people.

49:51.328 --> 49:57.338
[SPEAKER_01]: I only person that I can think of the top who I didn't know was Bob Dylan.

49:57.740 --> 50:02.694
[SPEAKER_01]: Otherwise, I'm pretty sure I knew every single, and I might not have known Steve Perry's name.

50:02.734 --> 50:03.937
[SPEAKER_01]: I knew he was a guy from Journey.

50:04.218 --> 50:04.799
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

50:04.839 --> 50:05.802
[SPEAKER_01]: I would have known Steve Perry.

50:06.544 --> 50:13.082
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, because there's a powerhouse moment where you go Steve Perry and they're a haul back to back.

50:13.282 --> 50:25.028
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, oh my gosh, those guys can sing just as good as, you know, Stevie and NMJ and Lionel can two, two of the best white singers of all time.

50:25.590 --> 50:32.505
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, but anyways, it was a little bit of an aside, but I wanted to mention we are the world because.

50:33.194 --> 50:39.296
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, 82 to then 85 is not that long of a time.

50:39.537 --> 50:43.913
[SPEAKER_00]: No, like Lionel goes from going solo to becoming

50:44.517 --> 50:51.369
[SPEAKER_00]: one of the biggest stars, one of the biggest entertainers going in a short amount of time it is absolutely incredible.

50:51.930 --> 50:55.136
[SPEAKER_00]: And he is seen as that guy.

50:55.156 --> 51:03.391
[SPEAKER_00]: He comes off so the story of this recording is, Lionel is hosting the American Music Awards.

51:03.431 --> 51:07.538
[SPEAKER_00]: Lionel is winning the American Music Awards.

51:07.889 --> 51:15.822
[SPEAKER_00]: And he is screaming out a word outrageous over and over and over.

51:15.962 --> 51:21.791
[SPEAKER_00]: And he kind of makes fun of it in the book, but it's something that you and I have had jokes about for the last 20 years.

51:22.152 --> 51:22.592
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.

51:22.612 --> 51:24.275
[SPEAKER_00]: And just the idea of him.

51:24.315 --> 51:28.522
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is this goes back to the corniness of Lionel, right?

51:29.123 --> 51:32.428
[SPEAKER_00]: He, he wins an award and he goes,

51:32.408 --> 51:48.926
[SPEAKER_00]: Outrageous and then he says it like two more times like in like this interesting Way as this hilarious if if you watch it back, but yes, so like he it this but that just shows you how giant of a star He is in in just two and a half short years.

51:49.246 --> 52:01.740
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, all right, so let's go back to these questions Here's a what if Okay, Kenny Rogers comes over and he's like hey man, uh, you know, I'm looking for a song

52:02.716 --> 52:15.254
[SPEAKER_00]: And Lionel knows that he's got the idea for Lady in his back pocket and he's like, you know what, I could give this to Kenny and Kenny will probably sing the hell out of this song.

52:16.055 --> 52:17.357
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm keeping this one for me.

52:17.417 --> 52:24.287
[SPEAKER_00]: And instead, Lady becomes the first single on Lionel's debut album.

52:24.728 --> 52:25.189
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.

52:25.429 --> 52:26.571
[SPEAKER_00]: Does anything change?

52:26.871 --> 52:31.558
[SPEAKER_00]: Does does does does does it become a

52:32.281 --> 52:41.797
[SPEAKER_01]: I think part of what set Lionel up for the success, the level of success that he had was that Kenny Rogers opportunity.

52:45.003 --> 52:50.492
[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, that I turned my notifications off anyway.

52:52.092 --> 52:53.094
[SPEAKER_01]: probably not.

52:54.216 --> 52:56.119
[SPEAKER_01]: It would have been a big hit no matter what.

52:56.600 --> 53:00.026
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just such a timeless song.

53:00.266 --> 53:05.396
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, one of those like wedding songs, but I feel like there's like a progression.

53:05.436 --> 53:10.725
[SPEAKER_01]: There's like comedors, then there's Kenny, then there's Endless Love, and that kind of like,

53:11.296 --> 53:17.147
[SPEAKER_01]: created the runway for him to really take off in like a major major fashion.

53:17.447 --> 53:22.256
[SPEAKER_01]: Lionel actually did eventually in the 90s record a version of lady, which is very good.

53:22.497 --> 53:24.059
[SPEAKER_01]: But he recorded with Kenny.

53:24.681 --> 53:27.145
[SPEAKER_01]: No, actually I think he recorded it.

53:27.125 --> 53:41.603
[SPEAKER_01]: He recorded it in the 90s by himself and then when he had that Tuskegee album out, right, which is him remaking all of his songs in a country fashion, then he re-recorded it as a duet with Kenny.

53:42.424 --> 53:45.528
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm on Wikipedia trying to verify that right now.

53:45.769 --> 53:47.791
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm pretty sure that's the case.

53:48.092 --> 53:54.820
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, he

53:55.627 --> 53:57.509
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you seen Lionel and Concert?

53:57.889 --> 54:01.333
[SPEAKER_01]: I've not sadly, and that makes me very sad.

54:01.733 --> 54:04.156
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if I would want to see him now.

54:04.196 --> 54:06.258
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Lionel's in his late 70s.

54:07.939 --> 54:10.282
[SPEAKER_00]: That dude looks so good for his late 70s.

54:10.762 --> 54:12.244
[SPEAKER_01]: Lionel's in Lionel has some work done.

54:15.387 --> 54:20.672
[SPEAKER_01]: Lionel went to Smokey's plastic surgery.

54:21.243 --> 54:27.051
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if I was to find a decent tick, if you're scoring a tour again, and I was to find a decent ticket price, I'd go from nostalgia's sake.

54:27.371 --> 54:28.192
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

54:28.373 --> 54:32.919
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if I would, I don't know if it would be a great show, but just to catch that vibe.

54:33.139 --> 54:36.464
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you know, he's not, he's not selling out arenas at this point.

54:36.504 --> 54:38.346
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be a much smaller thing.

54:38.627 --> 54:39.908
[SPEAKER_00]: It wouldn't be that much smaller.

54:39.948 --> 54:41.250
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't think so?

54:41.570 --> 54:44.615
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I mean, Lionel could sell out the garden easy.

54:46.397 --> 54:50.102
[SPEAKER_01]: Because now it's like,

54:51.196 --> 55:02.110
[SPEAKER_01]: people his age and people are age and then all of these young people who are know him from American Idol now and so he's just got like this multi-generational fan base.

55:02.130 --> 55:07.778
[SPEAKER_01]: He did a tour a couple years ago with Mariah and I wish I'd have gone to that because it would cross them both off my right.

55:08.579 --> 55:11.062
[SPEAKER_01]: I regret not not seeing that show.

55:12.484 --> 55:15.468
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, I've come up with something called the no-skips rating.

55:15.928 --> 55:20.494
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, the idea behind the no-skips

55:20.862 --> 55:27.709
[SPEAKER_00]: from front to back and when you have the feeling of like, I'm not really into this song.

55:27.729 --> 55:28.310
[SPEAKER_00]: You skip it.

55:28.390 --> 55:30.312
[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, uh, you know, I don't need to hear this song.

55:30.392 --> 55:31.653
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not my favorite or whatever.

55:32.775 --> 55:35.417
[SPEAKER_00]: So, there's only like nine songs on this album.

55:36.559 --> 55:42.205
[SPEAKER_00]: So, if you skip a handful of them, you know, the skip's rating is probably going to be a little low, but skip's rating goes one through ten.

55:42.325 --> 55:44.507
[SPEAKER_00]: Ten is like no skips at all.

55:44.622 --> 55:48.007
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're not going to do an album on this project.

55:48.027 --> 55:49.930
[SPEAKER_00]: That's going to be a low skip rating, obviously.

55:49.970 --> 55:53.816
[SPEAKER_00]: But where do you fit truly with in your skip rating?

55:54.117 --> 55:54.798
[SPEAKER_00]: No skip rating.

55:56.180 --> 55:56.841
[SPEAKER_01]: The album.

55:57.722 --> 55:59.525
[SPEAKER_01]: So 10 is no skips?

56:00.667 --> 56:00.927
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

56:01.468 --> 56:02.109
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, not truly.

56:02.169 --> 56:03.591
[SPEAKER_00]: The self title that I'm sorry.

56:06.135 --> 56:08.539
[SPEAKER_00]: I would put it at about a six.

56:08.559 --> 56:12.385
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I was thinking seven myself here.

56:12.837 --> 56:25.219
[SPEAKER_00]: When I, so what I, there was kind of like my absorption of the material is, I listened to the album, first, then I went into the autobiography.

56:25.259 --> 56:36.820
[SPEAKER_00]: I got the thing on the audio book and then I went into the Commodore's then I went to his solo stuff and then I came back to the debut album and I think,

56:37.897 --> 56:45.647
[SPEAKER_00]: after listening to everything coming back to the debut album, I liked it a lot better than I did when I had just kind of started the things.

56:45.827 --> 56:47.810
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I've been most of this stuff before.

56:47.850 --> 56:53.577
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I'd ever heard it, kind of all the way through just in the album before like that.

56:53.657 --> 56:59.905
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think once I sort of realized his story and things like the

57:00.188 --> 57:05.476
[SPEAKER_00]: just having the comprehensiveness and the understanding of his story.

57:05.997 --> 57:07.459
[SPEAKER_00]: I like the album a lot better.

57:07.840 --> 57:11.165
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I would say six or seven is kind of right on the money.

57:11.926 --> 57:24.847
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I talk crap about truly, but truly is one of those songs where I never need to want to listen to it again, but I know every single word to that song, right?

57:25.708 --> 57:25.928
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

57:27.210 --> 57:28.272
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, 100%.

57:29.163 --> 57:29.964
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, okay.

57:29.984 --> 57:33.228
[SPEAKER_00]: So I wanted to also do something, and I didn't tell you about this.

57:33.848 --> 57:36.111
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, well, the Grammys redo.

57:36.712 --> 57:38.354
[SPEAKER_00]: Ooh, let's so.

57:39.255 --> 57:40.876
[SPEAKER_00]: So 1983 Grammys.

57:41.777 --> 57:45.682
[SPEAKER_00]: He wins pot mail vocalist for truly.

57:46.583 --> 57:52.229
[SPEAKER_00]: But I wanted to go through all of the other R&B and mail performances awards.

57:52.850 --> 57:54.512
[SPEAKER_00]: And just see.

57:54.644 --> 58:02.993
[SPEAKER_00]: if he would fit anywhere in these awards, if you could kind of do them over again, and you are a Grammys official auto from historical.

58:03.033 --> 58:05.336
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how closely you follow the Grammys these days.

58:07.759 --> 58:09.701
[SPEAKER_00]: It might be fun for us to do.

58:10.322 --> 58:18.991
[SPEAKER_00]: When the Grammys comes along again to do a solo episode to talk about them, but so, but I know historically you have great knowledge of these awards.

58:19.051 --> 58:19.572
[SPEAKER_00]: So,

58:19.940 --> 58:23.904
[SPEAKER_00]: uh, best rhythm and blues vocal performance male.

58:24.585 --> 58:25.126
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh-huh.

58:25.146 --> 58:27.408
[SPEAKER_00]: The nominees were Marvin gay sexual healing.

58:28.329 --> 58:33.354
[SPEAKER_00]: Stevie Wonder, do I do Luther Vandross forever for always for love?

58:34.496 --> 58:36.137
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, Ray Parker Jr. the other woman.

58:37.339 --> 58:39.401
[SPEAKER_00]: George Benson, turn your love around.

58:39.481 --> 58:42.804
[SPEAKER_00]: Lionel was not nominated in this award.

58:43.285 --> 58:45.908
[SPEAKER_00]: The winner was Marvin gay sexual healing.

58:45.948 --> 58:48.090
[SPEAKER_00]: How does that one hold up for you?

58:48.138 --> 58:49.159
[SPEAKER_01]: it was the right choice.

58:50.401 --> 58:55.087
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just kind of going through the list in my head again.

58:55.147 --> 59:00.094
[SPEAKER_01]: All of those songs are perfectly good songs, perfectly fine songs.

59:00.734 --> 59:04.559
[SPEAKER_01]: Sexual healing is in all timer.

59:04.780 --> 59:11.288
[SPEAKER_01]: Like in Marvel game made amazing records throughout his career, but sexual healing is one of those songs that just will live forever.

59:11.669 --> 59:13.291
[SPEAKER_01]: It is, you know, one of one.

59:14.833 --> 59:18.077
[SPEAKER_00]: So best rhythm and blues song,

59:18.580 --> 59:20.765
[SPEAKER_00]: goes to turn your love around.

59:21.366 --> 59:26.296
[SPEAKER_00]: Stevie gets nominated twice for do I do and that girl.

59:26.356 --> 59:31.186
[SPEAKER_00]: Let it whip is also nominated as is sexual healing.

59:31.968 --> 59:37.299
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to take a miracle is the other song that's nominated, but turn your love around is what wins.

59:38.201 --> 59:39.103
[SPEAKER_00]: How does that hold up?

59:39.286 --> 59:46.907
[SPEAKER_01]: not well, I would have given it to sexual healing and my runner up would have been one of the Stevie songs.

59:46.927 --> 59:50.196
[SPEAKER_01]: That girl I think is a much better record than do I do is.

59:52.081 --> 59:54.207
[SPEAKER_01]: But yes, I mean,

59:54.676 --> 01:00:04.470
[SPEAKER_01]: It's actually healing was kind of risque at the time, so I can see why they wouldn't have given that song an award, you know, Grammy voters back then were super, super conservative.

01:00:05.993 --> 01:00:15.867
[SPEAKER_01]: In turn, you'll ever end as a fine song, but second again, sexual healing is just such a great record, it just blows all the competition away even when the competition's good.

01:00:17.569 --> 01:00:18.270
[SPEAKER_00]: Album of the year.

01:00:18.331 --> 01:00:20.734
[SPEAKER_00]: Toto 4.

01:00:21.457 --> 01:00:25.945
[SPEAKER_00]: Billy Joel, the nylon curtain, Donald Fagan, the nightfly.

01:00:25.965 --> 01:00:26.707
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that one.

01:00:27.268 --> 01:00:27.528
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

01:00:28.691 --> 01:00:31.796
[SPEAKER_00]: John Cougar, American Fool, Paul McCartney, tug of war, Lerick.

01:00:31.816 --> 01:00:36.666
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's no R&B album that is nominated for album of the year.

01:00:36.866 --> 01:00:38.689
[SPEAKER_00]: And the winner is Toto Four.

01:00:39.932 --> 01:00:40.613
[SPEAKER_00]: How does that hold up?

01:00:41.285 --> 01:00:51.180
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I am familiar with all five of those albums, I've owned them at various points in my life, maybe except for the Billy Joel album.

01:00:51.921 --> 01:01:05.841
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so Donald Fagan, for those who don't know is the vocalist of Steely Dan, um, and, uh, this was his first solo record, uh,

01:01:05.821 --> 01:01:19.708
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say of those five albums, it is the most R&B oriented and did get some like, you know, Black Ray or Airplay back in the day and is the only one of those five albums that I still own.

01:01:20.069 --> 01:01:23.235
[SPEAKER_01]: So by default, and not even by default.

01:01:23.256 --> 01:01:25.059
[SPEAKER_01]: That tunnel figuring out was actually really good.

01:01:26.342 --> 01:01:28.065
[SPEAKER_01]: So I would have probably given it to that.

01:01:29.311 --> 01:01:30.733
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, record of the year.

01:01:30.793 --> 01:01:34.980
[SPEAKER_00]: Toto for Rosanna, Joe Jackson for stepping out.

01:01:35.281 --> 01:01:37.705
[SPEAKER_00]: McCartney and Stevie Wonder for Ebony and Ivory.

01:01:37.745 --> 01:01:41.411
[SPEAKER_00]: Willie Nelson always on my mind.

01:01:41.831 --> 01:01:43.334
[SPEAKER_00]: And is it Van Jellis?

01:01:44.375 --> 01:01:47.481
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just going to go as far as I go as Van Jellis, too.

01:01:49.103 --> 01:01:53.210
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm not sure if it's if what the pronunciation of the G is.

01:01:53.811 --> 01:01:55.774
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Toto wins for Rosanna.

01:01:56.682 --> 01:01:59.429
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, man, uh, I totally was fine.

01:02:00.171 --> 01:02:05.165
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, I, I don't know if I was voting if I would have given them any of those awards.

01:02:05.666 --> 01:02:07.551
[SPEAKER_01]: Every new library has a soft spot in my heart.

01:02:07.912 --> 01:02:11.923
[SPEAKER_01]: It's called, corny is going to be the operative word of this.

01:02:11.903 --> 01:02:22.454
[SPEAKER_01]: As corny as Ebony and Ivory is, it's also the first 45 record that I ever bought, so that song will always hold a special place in my heart.

01:02:22.774 --> 01:02:29.841
[SPEAKER_01]: But that said, I would probably have given the award to Joe Jackson, stepping out is another fantastic record.

01:02:30.562 --> 01:02:40.172
[SPEAKER_01]: And one that I still listen to quite a bit now.

01:02:41.013 --> 01:02:44.858
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, this is not an award here, but I'm gonna get your thoughts.

01:02:45.740 --> 01:02:48.764
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you go, Ebony and Ivory?

01:02:50.386 --> 01:02:55.093
[SPEAKER_00]: Say, say, say, the girl is mine or that's what friends are for.

01:02:57.436 --> 01:03:08.472
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so in order from song, I like least to song, I like most.

01:03:11.320 --> 01:03:20.723
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what friends are for, and I will say that earlier this year, I saw Glad is and Patty in concert together.

01:03:21.378 --> 01:03:29.567
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, and Gladys sang the song by herself, but, oh wait, Patty's not even on that record.

01:03:29.847 --> 01:03:30.187
[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry.

01:03:30.768 --> 01:03:34.632
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, I saw Gladys' night in Paddle Bell and shocked on the stepping notes.

01:03:34.652 --> 01:03:35.072
[SPEAKER_01]: They were great.

01:03:35.353 --> 01:03:36.734
[SPEAKER_01]: Gladys sing that's what friends are for.

01:03:36.774 --> 01:03:41.919
[SPEAKER_01]: And then as I was standing online at the merch table, the overhead PA was playing that's what friends are for.

01:03:41.939 --> 01:03:43.541
[SPEAKER_01]: And I saw like tearing up.

01:03:43.561 --> 01:03:44.883
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, what's going on?

01:03:44.983 --> 01:03:48.246
[SPEAKER_01]: I hate this fucking song.

01:03:48.226 --> 01:04:00.126
[SPEAKER_01]: So sometimes it's a song just has to like hit you a certain way, but with that said, that's what friends are for is probably the song I like least out of that bunch, then the girl is mine.

01:04:00.258 --> 01:04:13.077
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, then I would say, say, say, say, say, and everything that I've ever kind of neck and neck, um, say, say, say, is probably better song, but again, every and every, I just have that, uh, you know, that soft spot.

01:04:14.259 --> 01:04:14.399
[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.

01:04:14.419 --> 01:04:14.720
[SPEAKER_01]: For it.

01:04:14.960 --> 01:04:16.122
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't know.

01:04:16.442 --> 01:04:18.586
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be, yeah, one, two.

01:04:19.387 --> 01:04:21.810
[SPEAKER_00]: Final, final Grammy redo here.

01:04:21.870 --> 01:04:22.491
[SPEAKER_00]: Song of the year.

01:04:22.552 --> 01:04:26.497
[SPEAKER_00]: Always on my mind, Rosanna.

01:04:26.517 --> 01:04:28.881
[SPEAKER_00]: IGY would a beautiful world.

01:04:29.350 --> 01:04:31.773
[SPEAKER_00]: I had the tiger, it's my goodness.

01:04:32.835 --> 01:04:36.480
[SPEAKER_00]: Ebony and Ivory and the winner was always on my mind.

01:04:37.421 --> 01:04:38.663
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, hi, the tiger.

01:04:38.703 --> 01:04:40.105
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's a songwriting award.

01:04:43.009 --> 01:04:46.194
[SPEAKER_01]: But I had the tiger, it's just a perfectly written song.

01:04:50.280 --> 01:04:57.450
[SPEAKER_01]: encapsulates the feeling of the film that it was written for,

01:04:58.882 --> 01:05:03.287
[SPEAKER_01]: You could enjoy out of eye of the tiger and never have seen a rock in the people before in your entire natural life.

01:05:03.367 --> 01:05:10.195
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just like it's one of those, you know, when I used to run regularly, I had the tiger, I was one of my running songs.

01:05:11.296 --> 01:05:13.138
[SPEAKER_01]: There is no lose yourself by M&M.

01:05:13.278 --> 01:05:16.282
[SPEAKER_01]: If there isn't an eye of the tiger, right?

01:05:16.742 --> 01:05:20.286
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it's just one of those, it's perfect for what it is.

01:05:21.087 --> 01:05:21.328
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

01:05:21.368 --> 01:05:23.370
[SPEAKER_00]: So does Lionel's,

01:05:23.755 --> 01:05:32.050
[SPEAKER_00]: self-titled debut album fit on any, in any of those spaces or was he rightfully left out of all of those spaces?

01:05:32.671 --> 01:05:43.030
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, so technically I think the reason he was left out, at least in the album categories, is because the album came out after the deadline, like the way the Grammy's work is,

01:05:44.208 --> 01:05:49.120
[SPEAKER_01]: for the year that they're voting for it starts October 1st.

01:05:49.140 --> 01:05:53.149
[SPEAKER_01]: They're roughly October 1st of the previous year and then ends like September 30th.

01:05:53.250 --> 01:05:59.685
[SPEAKER_01]: So if this is the 1982 awards, then it's everything that came out from October 1st.

01:05:59.665 --> 01:06:11.320
[SPEAKER_01]: 1981 to September 30th, 1982, and I think truly came out before that, but the album came out after that, which is why Lionel ended up winning the one award he was nominated for for truly.

01:06:12.141 --> 01:06:15.044
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I could have been nominated for record of the year, a song of the year.

01:06:15.104 --> 01:06:29.082
[SPEAKER_01]: Truly is not rightfully not in the R&B category because it is not in R&B song.

01:06:29.905 --> 01:06:39.157
[SPEAKER_01]: But uh, yeah, I mean, there are certainly songs in the record and song of the categories that truly is as good as.

01:06:39.217 --> 01:06:42.001
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

01:06:42.301 --> 01:06:49.390
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think we're done here with with this episode, 1982.

01:06:49.811 --> 01:06:53.736
[SPEAKER_00]: So we got another one in and uh,

01:06:53.952 --> 01:07:04.215
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we just to let people know like we have an idea of what the majority of the albums are that we want to talk about we haven't slotted everything in and I'm not even sure.

01:07:04.617 --> 01:07:08.762
[SPEAKER_00]: the order in which we are going to post these, but we're not going to go in order.

01:07:08.782 --> 01:07:11.686
[SPEAKER_00]: We're just going to kind of throw them around and we'll grab where.

01:07:12.246 --> 01:07:22.899
[SPEAKER_00]: So the previous one that I can say this because I know Lionel is going to be number two, but the previous one was the the new addition heartbreak.

01:07:22.919 --> 01:07:25.883
[SPEAKER_00]: We didn't do a no skips for new addition.

01:07:26.875 --> 01:07:30.925
[SPEAKER_00]: What would you, what would you have for no skips rating for new additions, Heartbreak?

01:07:30.945 --> 01:07:33.270
[SPEAKER_00]: Heartbreak is like an eight and a half for a nine.

01:07:33.370 --> 01:07:34.032
[SPEAKER_00]: I was gonna say nine.

01:07:34.333 --> 01:07:37.881
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, competition is the only song that I don't play.

01:07:38.941 --> 01:07:39.722
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

01:07:39.742 --> 01:07:40.003
[SPEAKER_00]: There we go.

01:07:40.023 --> 01:07:41.064
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're on the same page with that one.

01:07:41.084 --> 01:07:41.345
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

01:07:41.365 --> 01:07:44.890
[SPEAKER_00]: So thank you for tuning in and we'll be back.

01:07:44.930 --> 01:07:48.496
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, like I said, we're going to have these side episodes.

01:07:48.516 --> 01:07:53.263
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to do our top five for the vinyl and top five for common the Commodore.

01:07:53.283 --> 01:07:56.107
[SPEAKER_00]: So that'll probably be the next thing for for this one, though.

01:07:57.169 --> 01:07:58.170
[SPEAKER_00]: For Mike.

01:07:58.191 --> 01:08:01.135
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm double G. We'll see you when we see you piece.