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nebula.tv slash song

0:35

vs. song. Amazing. Please

0:37

support us. Hi I'm Todd Nathanson. And I'm Lena

0:39

Moore.

0:40

Wow that was the I'm going to assume

0:42

that was a Springsteen impression.

0:48

You're an asshole. You're the worst. No.

0:51

I'll try again later on. I'll try again.

0:53

I'll try again later on. I'll try. I'll

0:55

try. I'll try again later. I'll keep

0:58

trying throughout the episode. I'm Lena Morgan.

1:00

Hi.

1:01

Hello. And this is song versus song where

1:04

we are doing a good

1:06

one today. We are doing Born

1:08

in the USA by Bruce Springsteen

1:11

versus Rockin in the Free World

1:14

by Neil Young. You know I got

1:16

to tell you something. These

1:19

songs are not actually pro-America. What? They

1:23

sound like they're pro-American

1:26

but they're not. But Ronald Reagan

1:29

loves Born in the USA

1:31

and Donald Trump loves Rockin in the

1:33

Free World. How could they not be the most

1:37

American songs. These

1:39

wonderful patriots love

1:42

patriotic songs. That

1:45

is true. I was like wait is Reagan

1:47

or Trump not American. And

1:49

then I remembered that you were talking about Neil

1:51

Young. Neil Young is a

1:53

Canadian.

1:54

These are both great songs though. Maybe

1:59

Ronald Reagan.

1:59

and Donald Trump like these songs because

2:02

they have good taste in music.

2:04

I doubt it. Maybe they're so good that

2:06

even if you don't have good taste in music you like

2:08

these songs. Maybe. Which

2:11

do you like? More than the other. Because

2:14

this is an easy one for me. This is also an

2:16

easy one for me. I can't wait to hear what you

2:18

think. My answer is

2:20

Born in the USA is the better record.

2:23

Rockin' in the Free World is the better song. That's

2:25

not what I wanted you to say. I wanted you to be

2:28

the Springsteen person. Because

2:30

we've been talking about Springsteen for the longest time because

2:33

you keep bringing up that you're from some place

2:35

that Bruce Springsteen is also from.

2:37

Where's that? I can't remember. Well

2:41

I'm sure we'll figure it out

2:43

when I'm on my 12th or 15th Neil

2:45

Young impression. It's

2:48

gonna be a great episode.

2:49

Born in the USA.

2:53

I have a specific thing in mind. I have

2:55

a specific thing I'm gonna do which is not

2:58

Neil Young singing Bruce Springsteen. But we'll get

3:00

there. What is your opinion?

3:02

Are you also gonna come down on the Neil Young side

3:05

of things? I suspect you are.

3:06

Yeah. Although the more

3:09

I listen. Great episode over Todd. It was a good one.

3:11

When I picked this episode

3:14

I was pretty solidly Neil

3:16

Young on the Neil Young side of it. And

3:19

the more I think about it the more that gap

3:22

closes. I

3:24

think I am still rocking

3:27

more in the free world than I am born in the USA. But

3:29

man it's I don't know.

3:32

My arguments feel a little weaker the

3:35

more I think about it the more I listen to Born in the

3:37

USA. Okay. I am willing

3:39

to entertain that as a thesis.

3:42

My reason why Born in the USA

3:45

does not move the needle for

3:47

me that much and honestly never has.

3:49

The song I mean not the album

3:52

is because it's

3:53

got this one thing this

3:55

one musical phrase for like

3:58

five minutes. Like

4:01

do you really like

4:05

enough that you would listen to it for five minutes straight?

4:08

You're gonna love it.

4:09

If that sounds tedious to you,

4:12

you might get bored of the song midway

4:14

through.

4:15

Because it's all it has to offer. Born

4:17

with the USA. Born

4:19

in East LA.

4:21

That's a Teach Marin song. Well

4:23

let me say it hits those two chords

4:26

and that riff really fucking

4:28

hard. Sure. Born

4:31

in the USA goes hard. I

4:33

think that there's

4:36

an interesting conversation to be had about

4:38

like a lyric versus lyric. Because

4:42

I think the lyrics of Born in the USA are probably

4:45

its greatest strength. How so? Is

4:48

this just you not liking that riff over and over? No

4:51

it's not really that. It's more that

4:54

if you sort of look side by side right like

4:56

Neil Young is not

4:59

as good of an economy of lyrics.

5:02

No he likes his words.

5:04

He likes his words. Yeah it's like there's

5:06

colors on the street red white and blue people

5:09

shuffle in their feet people sleeping in their shoes

5:11

but there's a word inside on the road ahead. There's

5:13

a lot of people saying we'd be better off dead. Don't

5:16

feel like Satan but I am to them so

5:19

I try to forget it anyway. It's

5:21

like

5:22

it's a lot and meanwhile it's

5:25

born down a dead man's town.

5:28

First kick I took was when I hit the ground.

5:30

End up like a dog that's been beat too much

5:32

till you spend half a year just covering

5:35

it up

5:35

and then right into Born in the USA. That

5:38

fucking kicks ass. If

5:41

we're going by lyrics and the

5:43

idea of like how you go from a lyric

5:45

to a verse man.

5:48

I would give it to Born in the USA every time.

5:50

Other than the

5:53

phrase about the yellow man

5:55

which I mean again like he's trying to express

5:57

like the actual way that.

5:59

that people who were in Vietnam spoke.

6:02

Not great, but like a reflection

6:04

of reality, still not a line

6:06

that's aged well, but like, you know,

6:08

I get it, I understand why it is

6:10

what it is.

6:11

It's a little blunt.

6:13

Let me tell you something.

6:15

My actual answer to this is,

6:17

you know how we sometimes have

6:19

the third party option?

6:21

Someone suggested the third party that I kind

6:23

of kicked myself for not thinking of, but go on. My

6:26

answer to this question is, Goodnight

6:29

Saigon. Goodnight Saigon, by

6:31

Billy Joel? Billy Joel. Billy

6:34

Joel wrote a

6:36

Vietnam, about Vietnam vets song

6:39

called Goodnight Saigon. It came out in

6:41

the mid 80s.

6:43

It moves. It's

6:46

big and theatrical and stunning

6:49

and like,

6:50

I don't know. I think that it's got a little bit

6:52

of what Neil Young does and a little bit of what Springsteen

6:55

does and a whole lot of obviously what Billy Joel

6:57

does. I very rarely pick Billy

6:59

Joel over Springsteen, but

7:02

man, I

7:03

think if you're doing a Vietnam song,

7:06

Goodnight Saigon is really something else. That's an incredible,

7:09

incredible tune. Anyway,

7:11

what was the actual third party option?

7:14

Pink Houses by John Mellencamp.

7:17

Oh, all right. I mean, really

7:19

obviously. Oh, but ain't that

7:21

America? The UN.

7:24

That one predates Born in the USA and

7:28

Rockin' in the Free World. So,

7:30

Mellencamp is actually ahead of the curve

7:32

of First Springsteen for once.

7:35

He's writing the anti-American

7:37

song, You Mistake for a Pro-American Song. Well,

7:40

in fairness, First Springsteen

7:42

was

7:44

working on Born in the USA for a while.

7:47

And Rockin' in the Free

7:49

World was as much a song

7:51

about Neil Young's displeasure

7:53

with H.W. Bush as

7:55

it was about Vietnam. Yeah, I always

7:58

forget that this is not an anti-

7:59

It's not an anti Reagan

8:02

song. It's an anti

8:04

thousand thousand points of light. It always

8:06

makes me whenever you see that line where he

8:08

does the thousand points of light, I think of Dana

8:10

Carvey

8:11

and SNL

8:12

at the thousand points of light state,

8:15

state of the course. And they're like, you still look,

8:17

it's the debate.

8:18

It's him versus Bill Clinton. And they're

8:20

like, uh, Mr. Vice, Mr.

8:22

President, you still have, or whatever it is. Like,

8:25

like you still have another two minutes to

8:27

talk. And he's like, I do

8:29

a thousand points of light. Uh,

8:31

say the course, say the course.

8:33

I don't remember a real nothing burger. It's

8:35

weird to think that there are people that hated

8:37

H W Bush when Blake

8:39

he's, I

8:41

mean, he's awful, but like he's

8:43

not awful in the way that Reagan was awful.

8:45

George H W

8:47

I know a thousand points of light because country

8:49

singer Randy Travis, uh, wrote

8:51

a song that George W Bush H W

8:53

Bush commissioned called thousand points of light.

8:56

What was the thousand points of light? Do you know?

8:58

I don't remember, man. I was barely,

9:01

I was, you know, I was born in 80. My awareness

9:03

of American politics didn't

9:06

really start until after Clinton was the

9:08

president. And then, then I started being

9:10

a little more politically aware. Uh, anyway,

9:12

listen,

9:13

I think my, my opening salvo

9:16

is rocking in the free

9:18

world goes somewhere.

9:21

That's it. Why do I prefer it?

9:23

I think that musically it goes somewhere.

9:26

And the coolest part of that song is

9:28

E

9:29

minor, right? Don, don, don,

9:31

don, don, don, don, don, don. It's

9:34

what's yeah. Well, it's that, but it's also like, cause he

9:36

doesn't go keep on rocking in

9:38

the free world. Like that's not

9:40

it. It's that there's also that Dan

9:43

and that E minor

9:45

at the end, right?

9:46

And you listen to it and you're like, right. There's a reason

9:49

they call this man the godfather

9:51

of grunge.

9:52

Uh, I mean, obviously he had been, he had

9:54

been called that, um,

9:57

based on his seventies records.

9:59

I think an interesting thing to sort of note

10:02

is that

10:04

this song and indeed the

10:07

corresponding album, Freedom, was

10:09

sort of a,

10:12

I guess a return to form. I don't actually think

10:14

the album is that great.

10:15

Like it's a hodgepodge. There's like stuff that

10:17

he has that are like from like EPs

10:20

that never got released in the US and stuff that

10:22

he had done with like another band that he had

10:25

worked with on a previous record. And

10:27

then like, so like half the album is like

10:29

older materials and cover. And

10:32

then the rest of the album is new stuff

10:34

that was specifically for the record. I don't think it's a

10:36

bad record,

10:37

but

10:38

I think that the reason why people

10:41

went on fire for it was because of

10:43

the one song in particular and the fact that the

10:45

record in general felt like

10:48

1970s Neil Young and Neil

10:51

Young had a real Paul McCartney

10:53

of a 1980s, which is

10:55

to say a bad one. Like

10:57

Paul McCartney, he had a very rough decade.

11:00

I was just thinking about this, but like

11:02

Springsteen and Neil Young are simpatico

11:04

in many ways.

11:06

And you can imagine them like performing

11:08

together easily, but like the big difference

11:10

between them. I think I heard Springsteen

11:13

say once, man, you know, this

11:16

was before he became a big humongous superstar.

11:18

He's like, you know what I want? I

11:20

really want one of those big pop

11:22

hits, a big AM radio hit.

11:26

Yeah. I was like, he loved that

11:28

Born to Run blew up,

11:29

but Born to Run didn't like crossover to

11:32

like the pop stations.

11:33

It was, you know, an album rock station. It was like, man,

11:36

I didn't get like that one

11:38

song that gets everywhere on the radio

11:40

and Hungry Heart was

11:42

going to be it for him. And it was like, okay, I got one.

11:45

And then

11:46

Born in the USA comes out and he is like, that

11:48

thing's packed with hits. Yes. Oh,

11:51

it's absolutely ridiculous. It's packed with fucking hits from

11:53

beginning to end versus Neil

11:55

Young, who never gave a shit. Yeah,

11:58

I think and in general.

11:59

But I would also say like the 1980s is kind

12:02

of a,

12:03

I mean, it's an interesting time for both of them.

12:06

I suspect, you know, I brought up Paul McCartney for

12:08

a reason and not just because I like to bring up Paul

12:10

McCartney for Yux. But I think

12:12

that, you know, an album

12:15

like McCartney to is something that has

12:17

come to be appreciated more over time. And

12:19

I think that we're beginning to see that like something

12:21

like Neil Young's trans is starting

12:24

to get like,

12:25

oh, trans is great.

12:27

But like it's an album that at the time was

12:29

loathed. Oh, yes. He was despised

12:32

and like, and that was the thing is that Neil was kind of

12:34

just doing whatever he wanted and was completely

12:36

against

12:37

the idea of making what people wanted

12:39

him to make, which is to your point. Meanwhile, I

12:42

think what's interesting is that Bruce Springsteen is

12:44

not entirely different because while

12:47

yes, he did Born to Run like

12:50

once he did that, which is a very bright

12:52

album, right? He does. I

12:55

mean, literally the next episode, the next next album

12:57

is Darkness on the Edge of Town. And

13:00

then he really kind of follows that with the River and

13:02

especially the album that was immediately before Born

13:04

in the USA, which is Nebraska, which

13:07

is like

13:08

very much not my kind of Bruce Springsteen.

13:11

Like the Nebraska and like

13:14

goes to Tom Joe, like that kind of stuff doesn't really

13:16

like I there's an audience. Most Neil

13:18

Youngish type albums. Yeah, like I

13:21

don't really like those very much, but like I

13:23

don't look at Bruce Springsteen during that

13:25

time and thank God he was just so

13:27

reviled. You

13:30

know, he was never reviled.

13:32

Like Bruce was allowed to do

13:34

that strip back stuff. A thing to know

13:37

about Bruce Springsteen in case you did not know

13:39

is he had initially been sold

13:42

to a negative for him. He'd been

13:44

compared with Bob Dylan, right? Like he was like the new

13:47

Bob Dylan and being

13:49

sold that way actually did not help him and in

13:51

some ways harmed him at the start of his career.

13:54

And eventually after he

13:56

had a Tom

13:59

Petty esque. spat with

14:01

the label that he was a part of, he

14:03

finally started to be able to break out and do

14:05

his own thing. And that is sort

14:07

of where like Born to Run comes from.

14:10

But what's interesting is that

14:12

like, when you get to like

14:14

the river and Nebraska and stuff like that,

14:17

he does, he's very Bob Dylan on

14:19

those records. Like you can say that his

14:21

most nearly young, but like, they're also very

14:24

like, that's, that's him very Bob

14:26

Dylan, right? Like very like stripped back.

14:28

Nebraska, especially is like such a stripped back

14:31

record. Feels

14:33

very like, you know, early

14:36

kind of Dylan. And

14:37

there are people that really like that album. And

14:40

there are elements of that album that you can hear

14:42

in

14:45

born in the USA. But man, born in

14:47

the USA is like

14:49

a perfect pairing of

14:51

what he'd been doing in the

14:53

80s so far with the

14:55

best of what he'd done in the 70s.

14:58

Like it took me a while to really

15:00

get into Born in the USA. I don't

15:03

know, to me, like, when I was first getting

15:05

into Springsteen, I listened to Born to Run and

15:07

I was like, man, this is the one of the greatest albums

15:09

ever. Everyone was correct. I listened to Born in the USA.

15:12

And I'm like, this is the pop sellout album.

15:15

And I wasn't into it as much.

15:17

And I still wouldn't rank it super

15:19

high among my favorite albums or anything. I liked

15:22

Dancing in the Dark. I liked Bobby Jean and the

15:25

rest I could take her leave. Oh,

15:28

we are going to part ways on this.

15:31

So Born in the USA was

15:33

probably the first

15:36

rock album that I was ever

15:38

in. It's entirely exposed to my

15:41

grandmother

15:43

loved Born in the USA. It's

15:45

like her favorite album.

15:47

And she every time I went over to her house, which was

15:49

often

15:50

she would she would play

15:52

this album, and we would jump up on the bed

15:54

and like dance around to it. And

15:57

she gave me her cassette tape. She gave

15:59

me her copy. I assume she probably wouldn't put a second

16:01

copy of it for herself, but like, I,

16:04

it was probably, I think the first tape I

16:07

ever owned of a full album was born in the

16:09

USA. And I would just listen to it

16:11

back to front because I had a very

16:14

potent, very beautiful

16:17

relationship with my grandmother and she

16:19

was my favorite person growing up and she

16:21

loved that album. And so I loved that album. So

16:24

that's sort of like, I, like, I think like I'm going to come

16:26

at it with a bit of a bias and

16:29

it's not, even like a New Jersey bias. Like

16:32

it's not even that it really is. We

16:34

said the thing, take a drink, take

16:36

a drink, take a drink. I said, I'm, I'm from New Jersey.

16:39

Take a drink. But it really, this is about,

16:42

this is about my, my grandmother really.

16:46

But I loved this album and I, I,

16:49

I never liked the song born in the USA.

16:51

I would skip past it, but I loved

16:55

I thought, man, cover me. Oh, what

16:57

a great song. And I'll tell you something else.

16:59

Even as a kid, even though this is this song is

17:01

like the most dark fucked up

17:04

Nebraska era

17:05

song.

17:07

Oh, I'm on fire. What

17:09

a track. Holy shit.

17:11

Is that a fucked up tune? It's

17:13

vibey, man. It's like, it's, it's

17:16

the best, I guess that this is the best of his earlier

17:19

1980s stuff where like he goes to darker places,

17:21

right? Like it's just, it's

17:24

a beautiful, beautiful song. And I also, I'll

17:26

tell you as a kid, I really liked glory days. And I'm not sure

17:28

that I love it now as an adult, which

17:30

is ironic. You'd think it'd be the other way around. I don't

17:33

know. That's, it's such a dad song.

17:36

Sure.

17:37

But I don't know. I just, I like everything on

17:39

this album for the most part, except

17:41

for, I don't really like born in the USA

17:44

and I don't really like my hometown.

17:46

Sorry. My hometown. I don't

17:48

really like, I don't like my hometown

17:50

of bleep New Jersey. Um, yeah.

17:53

I just, but I think on the whole, it's a really strong

17:56

record. I actually think it holds up really well.

17:58

I,

17:59

it's always. to sound like

18:02

it came out in 1984 or 85, right? Like

18:05

it sounds like the middle of the 1980s. Although

18:08

I

18:08

will say Springsteen

18:12

is not really like representative

18:15

of the decade as a whole. Like

18:18

when I say it sounds like 1984, 85, I

18:20

mean like it sounds like Bruce Springsteen in

18:22

that time period and that he was so dominant

18:25

at that time that it's

18:28

representative of that period in the decade. But

18:30

like I

18:31

don't know that there were a ton of artists that

18:33

could do what he did, right? Like

18:35

you've pointed out that Johnny Cougar

18:38

had put out a song that was similar, but like Johnny

18:41

Cougar doesn't have- Johnny Cougar, I

18:43

like that you refuse to even call him

18:45

John Cougar,

18:47

let alone the name he actually goes by. Yes,

18:49

by the way, he was, was he Johnny

18:51

Cougar at the time? I'm trying to remember, I was trying to

18:53

be period accurate. At the time

18:55

he was John Cougar Mellencamp. Okay,

18:58

all right, if you say so. I

19:01

just don't

19:02

think that he

19:03

has the deuce that the boss has.

19:06

No, there's

19:08

a big difference between Mellencamp and

19:11

Springsteen. I would not

19:13

say they are many similarities, but

19:16

they are not the same tier of artists.

19:18

I wanna ask you a question.

19:22

When is the last, when is the first time you ever

19:24

heard

19:26

Rockin' on the Free World? Do you remember? Oh

19:28

gosh, no, I was one of the ones I caught on

19:31

to really early in my learning

19:33

about music phase. I

19:35

don't remember when I would have heard

19:37

it. I'm

19:39

gonna guess you heard about it from Pearl Jam, right?

19:42

1993, baby. Yep. I

19:44

heard it in 1993 at the MTV VMAs.

19:48

I'd never heard it before.

19:50

They came out and played it. Neil Young came

19:52

out and played it with them. And I thought,

19:55

this fucking rules.

19:59

What is this?

19:59

I'd like, I didn't really like, I knew nothing

20:02

really about Neil Young at the time. In 93?

20:06

No.

20:07

I had, I'd never, I don't even

20:09

know if I'd ever heard of Neil Young. No,

20:12

I watched that one recently

20:14

for the Neil Young episode I did on YouTube and

20:17

like, my God, like I'd

20:19

always known Neil Young was just like

20:21

a, you know, a killer guitarist, but like

20:24

he is like tearing that instrument

20:26

apart. Well, and he was also imagining

20:28

their energy because I think like prior to them actually

20:31

doing that song, like they'd already like just like

20:33

thrown like a mic stand out into the audience

20:36

and like, like destroyed some equipment,

20:38

you know, like he was matching their energy

20:40

and I think gleefully so because he's already

20:43

got that. He already had that, you know? Yeah.

20:46

I mean, like he's already, was already well known for

20:47

his unhinged, violent guitar

20:49

solos. That's yeah. So again,

20:51

Neil

20:52

Young quite famously is

20:55

referred to as the godfather of grunge.

20:57

I think

20:59

pretty famously, Kurt Cobain

21:03

loved Neil Young so much that he like quoted

21:05

Neil Young in his suicide letter. Trigger

21:08

warning for that. Like,

21:10

sorry, should I say that? Eddie Vedder

21:12

and Curtin, a lot of those guys all,

21:15

I mean, a lot of them knew they owed a huge

21:17

debt to Neil. I think a lot of people,

21:19

whether they said it or not, like

21:21

that entire genre, that entire early

21:24

90s period of music wouldn't exist

21:27

without Neil Young and Rockin'

21:29

in the Free World is,

21:32

you know, for a time that Neil

21:34

was not really making that kind

21:36

of music for him to come back and make that

21:38

song was incredible because

21:40

it felt like totally have

21:43

a piece with the best of what he'd done in the 70s.

21:45

And in some ways, I mean, like maybe one of his top

21:48

five most iconic songs.

21:51

Here's my case for

21:53

liking Rockin' in the Free World over Born in the USA.

21:57

You can't mistake the meaning of

21:59

it.

22:00

Like there's, you know, I

22:02

guess you can fucking Donald

22:04

fucking Trump, but Yeah, I

22:06

mean it's never never

22:09

Never underestimate people's ability for ignorance,

22:12

but I would say well, let me say it. Let

22:14

me say like this I don't begrudge

22:16

people if they didn't get that

22:18

born in the USA is

22:20

not a

22:22

Straightforward patriotic anthem

22:24

because it absolutely sounds like it is it

22:27

absolutely sounds like that Yeah, I mean

22:29

also if you if you didn't if you didn't get

22:31

what rocking in the free world meant if you didn't get

22:34

that That line was sarcastic. You're a fucking

22:36

idiot.

22:37

How could you possibly mistake that?

22:39

Well, Nell Young is much better at cynicism

22:41

That's the other thing right is that like I don't

22:44

like listening to born in the USA I don't

22:47

find it.

22:47

I don't find it to be ironic. I

22:50

don't find it to be cynical I find

22:52

it to be very heartfelt, right?

22:55

Like this is strongly how Bruce

22:57

Springsteen feels he

22:59

is pouring his the blood out

23:02

of his heart to you

23:04

Nell Young is like

23:05

anyway fuck all of you He

23:09

just doesn't like people by the way,

23:11

do you ever think about how the song

23:13

by Nirvana? Polly just sounds

23:15

like a Neil Young song.

23:17

I did not think of that. But now that

23:19

you mention it think about it All right. So like if Kurt's

23:21

doing it, right? It's like Paulie

23:24

wanna cracker right like he's got

23:26

that very like deep like very

23:28

like but like if it's if you just take it up Up an

23:30

octave. It's Polly wanna

23:33

cracker like it's just immediately

23:35

it's a Neil Young song Yeah, it's

23:38

weird that Springsteen is not

23:40

thought of in the same terms because like Eddie Vedder

23:42

and Bruce Springsteen are also very

23:45

Sympatico similar types

23:47

of rock stars have the same politics.

23:50

They have like the same approach to

23:52

their politics. They're very

23:54

Earnest about it like Eddie Vedder.

23:56

I don't think of as like a cynical

23:58

person at all the way that

23:59

Neil Young is. Yeah, so here's

24:02

the thing that I think is really not how much

24:05

this is related to the songs, but it is a thing

24:07

that it's hard not to think about.

24:09

They're both such good live

24:11

acts. This is a thing that's really challenging.

24:13

Like who do you even give it to? Right. Like

24:15

I don't think I've ever actually seen Neil live

24:17

and in person, but I've seen Bruce again.

24:20

I am from the state of New Jersey. And let me

24:22

be very clear about this. If you

24:24

grow up in the state of New Jersey, someone

24:27

will just hand a Bruce Springsteen

24:29

ticket to you. You

24:31

won't have to pay for it. They'll just go. You're from New

24:33

Jersey. Go see it. Like it's

24:36

like living in Green Bay. You're automatically like

24:39

an owner of the Packers. Yeah. I

24:41

mean, I can promise you I have seen Bruce

24:43

Springsteen live. I have never paid for a ticket

24:45

in my life. Never.

24:47

Someone just always has an extra Bruce Springsteen

24:49

ticket. You want to come see Springsteen? Sure. Why not? And

24:53

Springsteen

24:54

his thing is

24:56

that he and the East Street

24:58

band

25:00

will just play anything, right? Like you can shout

25:02

out the name of a song. They've never played before

25:04

and

25:05

they'll figure it out in a couple of minutes

25:07

and then play it for you and it'll be great. Neil

25:10

Young is very electric.

25:12

Very like like you said, like he's got like

25:15

that before, you know, curtain

25:17

and them were like busting up amps

25:19

by throwing their guitars into them. Right. That

25:22

was that was like Neil Stick first,

25:25

which is incredible. And I guess

25:28

it's the same thing where it's like the

25:31

one

25:32

Bruce is this very sort of like

25:35

all American good guy. Very

25:37

heartfelt, very genuine, very hard on the

25:39

sleeve and Neil

25:41

is

25:42

bitter and angry and

25:45

if you also want

25:47

to pay into your own bitter,

25:49

angry, nice good news. Neil's

25:52

great for that. He's very cathartic. Yeah.

25:55

I think the thing

25:56

about Springsteen is that when you get there,

25:58

he

25:59

will play the hits for you.

26:01

He's feel good, that's it. Bruce Springsteen,

26:04

again, lyrically, Born

26:07

in the USA is excellent, and I

26:09

actually think it has, as Economy

26:11

of Lyric goes, I think it's the better song.

26:14

But like you said, if you

26:16

watch the music video, it starts on

26:19

an American flag waving, it

26:21

ends on Bruce Springsteen's butt,

26:25

like he's George fucking Michael. But

26:29

American, and the American

26:31

flag again, it's like he is the

26:34

original America's ass. Yes, that

26:36

is. I was actually thinking about

26:38

this, about Bruce Springsteen as

26:40

Captain America.

26:42

You said like this song isn't really that 80s, I'm

26:44

like no, it's extremely 80s, it's the most 80s

26:46

song that's ever existed. Like

26:48

it is no wonder that Reagan tried to

26:51

adopt this as his theme song,

26:53

because it sounds like a Reagan

26:56

theme song.

26:57

I was thinking about this, does

26:59

that make it bad, or does that make it better, or is it

27:01

like clever, ironic? And

27:04

I was thinking about like how Captain America

27:07

is like a blonde,

27:09

blue-eyed Ubermensch, but

27:11

he hates Nazis.

27:14

Springsteen is the Reagan aesthetic

27:16

used against Reagan.

27:18

Part of me thinks that like a song

27:20

that

27:20

is that Reagan-y is not, it

27:23

just doesn't work for me.

27:25

And on the other hand, it's hilarious that

27:28

there is like

27:29

a such a heartland song that

27:31

is so markedly

27:34

anti-Ragan's America, or

27:36

like Reagan's America is bullshit,

27:39

where

27:39

it's still got homeless

27:40

Vietnam vets laid

27:42

off factory workers on the streets.

27:45

I go back and forth on it, like

27:47

if I listen to Born in the USA, it'll

27:49

get me. Even though like I've always

27:52

been kind of resistant to me, it'll get me, those drums

27:54

hit so fucking hard,

27:56

and it'll hit the same

27:58

buttons that like live on a-

27:59

a prayer or don't stop believing

28:02

or you know just unironic

28:04

feel good pump up anthems do

28:07

even though that's not what it's about well

28:09

look here's what I'll say I

28:12

I still ultimately am

28:14

always gonna land instinctively on the fact

28:16

that it

28:17

having just the one basic

28:20

phrasing throughout the whole song I think

28:24

wears me out

28:25

I think you could also make an argument

28:28

that wears me down right

28:30

so I can't resist it anymore I think

28:32

that's interesting what I was going to say is I

28:35

think that there's an argument to be made that

28:37

he's writing a song about people feeling

28:40

trapped in their own circumstances mm-hmm

28:42

and here is a song that

28:45

really is just repeating the one phrase over

28:47

and over again so it is

28:49

like you're trapped in this one feeling

28:52

that you're supposed to have right

28:54

you're supposed to feel good about being born in the USA

28:56

you're supposed to be fist pumping to

28:58

born in the USA but it

29:01

is going to wear you down in the sense

29:03

that like also you're

29:06

living in a dead man's town like you know me like

29:08

it everything else is also

29:11

happening right

29:12

so the harder you try and and keep

29:15

along with just that one phrase over and over

29:17

again the more exhausted you become I

29:19

don't know if that was the intention but

29:22

it does kind of

29:24

accidentally or on purpose

29:26

make you feel what the song

29:29

is lyrically supposed to make you feel which

29:31

is like

29:33

I am fucking tired of pumping my

29:35

fist about America America

29:37

keeps screwing me the

29:40

the people misunderstanding what born in the

29:42

USA is about will always

29:44

be a part of that songs narrative and

29:48

we can sit here and feel small he's like oh you

29:50

don't get it here's what it's actually about

29:52

like I read an article that

29:54

was argued like no people do get what it's about

29:57

or if they tell you or they don't care

30:00

It works exactly as well if

30:02

you'll remain oblivious to the song's

30:04

meaning. Well, I think people just... And I can't

30:06

help but hold it against... I guess. Hold it against Born

30:09

in the USA. I don't know. I think people just

30:11

can't understand the lyrics when it first came out.

30:13

Like people weren't reading the lyrics, you know, it's

30:15

like... Born in the USA!

30:21

Born in the USA! Hit the ground!

30:23

You're like, got it. I got the word ground.

30:25

We are the world. We

30:27

are the children. We're

30:30

somewhere between Springsteen and Dylan because

30:32

we cannot like scream at each other over

30:34

our mics. That's true. It'll be

30:36

really weird.

30:37

I'll try and add into my repertoire

30:39

as you know. The only two that I really do

30:41

consistently is Dylan

30:44

and Kermit the Frog.

30:45

I've seen you do Born in the... Born to Run in Karaoke

30:47

and you do that song real well. Oh. I

30:50

mean, I do try to put a little bit

30:52

of the Springsteen on it. I

30:54

mean, we love Springsteen here at Song

30:57

vs. Song. We really do. Don't get that mistaken.

31:00

I mean, again, I think my

31:02

argument is that I'm very pro

31:04

that album and I just

31:06

think that

31:08

Born in the USA as a song is too

31:10

repetitive. That's it. Like it's...

31:12

I don't have any other argument

31:15

against it.

31:16

I just wish that it had a

31:18

bridge. I wish it went somewhere

31:21

and it just doesn't and I find

31:24

that that wears me out.

31:26

It does need like a solo somewhere,

31:28

doesn't it? Doesn't have a solo? I

31:31

don't know that it... No, it just hits that riff again and

31:33

it like... And the drums go

31:35

nuts. I'll tell

31:37

you what is the best... Who's

31:39

doing the best work on that album is the drummer or

31:42

at least on that song. You're giving it to old

31:44

Maxie, eh? Everybody loves Max Weinberg. Is

31:46

that Weinberg? That is Max Weinberg of

31:48

the Max Weinberg 7.

31:51

He's going fucking nuts

31:53

on Born in the USA.

31:54

The thing is that at first it's

31:57

just him going bap,

31:59

bap.

31:59

Yeah. So there's a lot of bap, bap, bapping.

32:02

So like when he finally is given an opportunity

32:04

to go crazy, he absolutely goes

32:06

for it and he goes whole hog, which is wonderful.

32:09

The best part of rocking in the free world

32:11

is the guitar solo.

32:13

It's again, to me, the best part

32:15

of rocking in the free world is the chord

32:17

E minor. Bannan and down.

32:21

Oh, every time I hear it, I'm like, oh,

32:23

this is, this is the reason

32:25

this song is great. And that's the, the

32:27

difference, right? Is that it goes someplace

32:31

in its musical phraseology that you don't

32:33

expect it to go.

32:35

No matter how many times you hear it, it's still refreshing

32:37

when it goes there.

32:39

And

32:40

born in the USA is just this one thing

32:42

flat all the way through. Um,

32:45

as far as the melody is concerned, that's

32:48

it. Like we've been talking for over

32:50

half an hour. That's really all I can

32:52

say about it. That's, that's literally my argument

32:55

for why ultimately I prefer one over

32:57

the other. That's it.

32:58

I like how cranky Neil Young is.

33:01

Sains it. It's,

33:03

it's, it's almost like a George Carlin routine

33:06

going there. He's just like, we got department

33:08

stores and toilet paper, got styrofoam

33:11

boxes for the ozone layer. We

33:13

got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand.

33:16

This

33:16

is primo shit from Neil Young. I,

33:19

I, I really love rocking in the free

33:21

world.

33:22

I think we've got a couple of comments on there that saying

33:24

like,

33:25

I actually don't like the cranky old manness

33:28

of rocking in the free world.

33:29

That's what makes it great.

33:31

The crankiness is what makes it great.

33:34

I mean, we keep talking about the, uh, you know,

33:37

the, the studio version, but like there were two versions

33:39

of that floating around back when. Yes.

33:42

I mean, also there's the fact, yeah, I mean, like literally the

33:44

album is, it starts on the live

33:46

acoustic version and then ends on the electric

33:48

version. That's studio, right?

33:50

Yeah. And for the record, I would, I would stand up for freedom.

33:53

Freedom is a good album.

33:54

I don't think it's a bad album. I think that it's,

33:58

Neil Young said it was like listening to the radio.

33:59

because like every song that was

34:02

like kind of felt like a different like a slightly

34:04

different side of the dial right like a different station

34:06

and I I don't know that I feel that way about every

34:09

song but I kind of get what he's saying again

34:12

it's a bit of a hodgepodge of a record because

34:14

there's stuff that was on an EP

34:16

that was released in like Japan that never

34:18

got released here in the States and

34:21

then there was stuff that he had recorded

34:23

with this this other band

34:26

on the previous record he put out that

34:28

didn't make that record and then there's

34:30

yeah there's like on Broadway which is a cover song

34:33

obviously and that's like six

34:35

of the songs basically and

34:37

then the other half is stuff that he did specifically

34:40

for this record and like as a result

34:43

it just it's vibes right like

34:45

yeah there's no other singles

34:48

like I don't listen to it and go like man these songs

34:50

sound like they could literally be on the radio

34:53

except for rocket in the free world whereas

34:56

everything on important the USA

34:59

sounds like you could get airplay and good

35:01

and did oh I mean good

35:04

grief

35:05

how many singles off of that yeah

35:08

it's obscene so

35:10

dancing in the dark dancing in the dark dancer in

35:12

the dark good god that's

35:15

a Bjork movie don't excuse me a Bjork

35:17

movie don't

35:18

don't watch it in the USA

35:21

if you if you want unless you want to be real depressed so

35:24

that was that that peaked at number two cover

35:26

me number seven born in the USA

35:28

I guess was number nine I'm looking at the

35:31

song facts here I'm on fire I'm

35:33

on fire was a chart

35:35

topper that's wild to me

35:37

number six glory days number five

35:40

I'm going down down down down over

35:42

nine and

35:43

and my hometown was number six that's

35:45

a lot seven

35:48

top ten hits off of that album I think

35:50

he had like basically like a year and a half to two

35:52

years

35:53

worth of just being able to have more singles

35:56

coming out that's like when no doubt put out tragic

35:58

Kingdom and like toward it for for like

36:00

two years straight.

36:01

This is basically why like why 1984 is just like

36:04

such an

36:07

insane year for

36:09

pop music that Springsteen was like the

36:12

third

36:13

most famous

36:14

pop star of that year. In

36:17

any other year, he would have been like bigger

36:20

than any other human being alive, but

36:22

like this was the year of Michael and Prince and Madonna,

36:25

so he is like- Well, although I will

36:27

say Prince had taken

36:29

over for a little while from him because

36:32

Born in the USA was not the first

36:35

track, it was not the first single.

36:37

That was in fact Dancing in the Dark. So

36:40

I think when they actually

36:42

released Born in the USA as a single

36:46

that he overtook Purple

36:48

Rain again for a little while, like

36:51

which is wild. What a wild

36:53

time, holy cow. That

36:56

is incredible, think about that. I mean 1984

36:58

for many reasons is like I think sort

37:00

of notoriously like from a pop

37:02

culture standpoint is one of the most

37:05

important years in pop culture history. Oh yeah, it's like a fucking

37:07

Godzilla of a year and Springsteen

37:09

was like a gigantic part

37:11

of that. And Neil Young was just

37:14

never that guy. He famously said

37:16

like

37:17

when he first started having big pop hits like,

37:19

well, I was in the middle of the road

37:21

and it was real boring, so

37:23

I drove into the gutter. Yeah, I like

37:26

Neil,

37:26

but that's sort of him by intention. And

37:29

I mean, here's the thing of note,

37:33

when you listen to Born in the USA,

37:35

you can listen to it on Spotify. That's

37:39

right.

37:39

Neil loves to make it hard. He

37:42

loves to make it hard for everybody. I

37:45

needed to find the

37:47

Rockin' in the Free World clip for one of my YouTube

37:49

videos

37:50

and boy was that not easy.

37:53

Like did you go try and watch the

37:56

video? No, I didn't even, I watched.

37:58

Well, if you did, you would have failed. Okay,

38:01

I believe you.

38:02

I don't know why Neil got to be like that Why

38:04

do I have to buy a fucking title subscription

38:06

to the stream your stuff Neil?

38:08

I respect him I respect Neil for being

38:11

who he is Yeah, I got I have no come like

38:13

other than the complaint of I wish I had easier

38:16

access to the thing I

38:18

don't know. I respect it. I respect

38:20

Neil young. I want to say he like had

38:22

his own like mp3 player

38:25

that he was trying to sell that you could only his

38:27

stuff was exclusive to that for a little bit

38:29

Rio Sorry, no,

38:32

no, I just I made I've named

38:34

like the cheapest brand of doesn't

38:36

really work

38:38

And well, you know what? But but like the pre

38:40

iPod days, I want to say

38:42

he had an exclusive

38:45

player like

38:46

Kanye does now

38:48

for his fit for his stuff because

38:50

he refused To

38:53

let it be played in inferior quality

38:55

Like the streaming sites do

38:58

and that was like the longest

39:00

like for the longest time. That's why it wasn't on streaming It

39:02

wasn't it wasn't Joe Rogan. It was

39:04

I don't like your sound compression. That's

39:07

what that's what Neil then I respect it I

39:09

really does what the fuck he wants as as

39:12

you know, I have very strong feelings about

39:14

audio and video fidelity Anyway,

39:18

listen, we've talked about this a lot and I feel that

39:20

we can do the questions now I think we've reached question

39:22

time.

39:23

All right, let us do

39:25

the questions So do these four questions

39:28

It's a it's a means with which to take all

39:30

the nonsense that we've spoken about for

39:32

however long and try and make sense out of it

39:35

first question is One

39:38

of these songs it's gonna it's gonna stick around

39:41

the other ones going away forever like

39:43

it never existed Todd

39:45

For the culture which song

39:48

has to stay I Think

39:51

it's got to be born in the USA, right? So

39:54

here's a question What is what

39:56

does Reagan get elected the second time?

39:59

out born in the USA.

40:01

He was going up against Walter

40:03

Mondale. The answer to that question is yes. Here's

40:07

what I'll say to this. Maybe Walter

40:09

Mondale would have won more than one state. Still

40:13

would have lost, but man, maybe

40:15

he would have won like one more state. Maybe

40:18

he would have won his own state. I don't even think that happened.

40:21

Anyway, yeah, you're right. I mean,

40:24

I love rockin' on the free

40:26

world, but the thing is Neil

40:28

Young would still have been the godfather

40:30

of grunge without that.

40:31

Would he? Yes, absolutely.

40:33

Because he hadn't had a hit in a bajillion years before

40:37

Rockin' in the Free World. But that's not,

40:39

Rockin' in the Free World is not

40:41

the reason why he's

40:44

that guy.

40:47

Russ never sleeps

40:49

is sort of the thing that made him

40:52

known as that because he has that

40:55

the use of like really sort of like distorted

40:57

guitars and stuff like that. So

40:59

I would say that yeah, even

41:02

if you subtract Rockin' in the Free

41:04

World, so long as 1979's Russ

41:08

never sleeps

41:09

exists, he's okay. Well that

41:11

tour where he also had Sonic Youth opening

41:14

for him, that was also probably a big deal.

41:16

Yep,

41:18

for sure. But like born in the

41:20

USA is like a huge towering

41:23

song.

41:24

But I feel like Springsteen would have been exactly

41:26

as big without

41:28

Born in the USA on that album.

41:31

I don't know.

41:32

I don't know about that.

41:34

Born in the USA is... I don't know, like Glory Days would take

41:36

its place in the pantheon. I don't

41:38

think so. It's

41:43

not the same as...

41:46

Yeah, no,

41:48

I don't know who Bruce Springsteen

41:51

is without Born in the USA.

41:53

I think that that song's a little too career

41:56

defining. That's my opinion. Alright,

41:58

question number two.

41:59

You can be a fly on the wall. You

42:01

can experience Souped Nuts everything, including the music

42:03

video if you like, for one and

42:06

only one of these two songs, Todd.

42:08

Which one do you wanna see how the sausage

42:10

got made?

42:11

Hmm, I don't know, the entire

42:14

E Street band is there. That's

42:17

a big deal. Although, is Crazy

42:19

Horse on a, I like Crazy

42:21

Horse. No Crazy Horse on that

42:23

one? This is a post Crazy Horse era. I,

42:27

Springsteen seems like he'd be more

42:30

fun to watch. Springsteen and

42:32

Andy. Well there's also,

42:32

there's competing stories about what actually happened

42:35

with that song and like how it actually took

42:37

the form that it took. So I would like to

42:40

see

42:41

what the actual process was. Be

42:44

able to squash the conflict over

42:47

who actually started what, what, how,

42:49

who

42:50

on born the USA.

42:52

And also you kinda get all the, I

42:55

guess in that case you'd kind of get to be

42:57

a fly on the wall when, when Bruce

42:59

Springsteen had,

43:02

when Bruce Springsteen had

43:06

that conversation with Ron Kovik.

43:09

Oh that's right, he, it was based

43:12

off of Born on the Fourth of July, the memoir.

43:14

Yeah, we didn't even talk about that

43:16

shit. Yeah, so I would say just

43:18

for that and like in particular cause like,

43:21

that's a really hard complicated

43:23

story and like I, I don't know man,

43:25

like I think that that's one of the most relatable

43:27

things about it is Bruce Springsteen's whole thing

43:30

is he fought really hard

43:32

to avoid the draft.

43:36

He like said he was gay, he did a

43:38

bunch of stuff to like avoid the draft.

43:41

And what had occurred to him

43:43

afterwards was somebody

43:46

went in his place, who died so

43:48

that Bruce Springsteen could live.

43:50

You know, like who got their fucking leg blown

43:52

off? He didn't know. And then all of a sudden

43:54

to be like sat down

43:57

with Kovik and he had read

43:59

more and more.

43:59

on the 4th of July, like he bought

44:02

it at like a drug store or something like a bodega

44:04

or whatever, you know. And I think

44:06

it had really

44:08

moved him in a way that was very uneasy.

44:10

And

44:11

when he talked to Kovik about

44:13

it, it was like

44:15

an awareness of how in

44:18

a lot of ways he felt that he was unimportant,

44:21

that he listened to the stories

44:23

of all the people who had gone to war

44:26

and not come back at all or came back

44:28

with parts of them gone

44:31

or just came back with horrific

44:33

PTSD.

44:34

And that's

44:37

one of the most

44:38

important things about Bruce Springsteen

44:40

is that he didn't go, well, thank

44:42

goodness I got to be a rock star, right?

44:45

Thank God it's

44:48

them instead of you. But

44:51

like truly and

44:53

also this notion like

44:56

someone else would go, well, I'm a rock star, therefore I'm

44:58

more important. But Bruce's outlook on

45:00

it was that he felt suddenly extremely

45:02

insignificant by comparison to these guys

45:04

that had gone off to die.

45:06

And I think that that's a really important part of that

45:09

story. I think that's part of what makes the

45:11

song great. If you know that,

45:13

I think you gain an extra appreciation

45:15

for why he created it in the first

45:17

place. So yeah, I mean, like if you get to kind of

45:20

witness that actual conversation, I think

45:23

that that's a no brainer. Like that's an easy answer

45:25

to I'll take born in the USA. If I get that part,

45:28

like that's to me like that sounds like such

45:30

a deep, profound, moving conversation

45:33

like a life changer.

45:34

Yeah, that's a that's a that's a pretty

45:37

unbeatable argument, I think.

45:39

All right. I love being right.

45:40

Question number three,

45:43

a real weird one. Megan Thee Stallion's

45:45

gonna

45:47

get out to a night of hot girl shit as

45:49

she does.

45:50

She's gonna get ready for it.

45:52

She's got a playlist. She's listening

45:54

to get ready for the said night of hot girl shit. One

45:56

and only one of these two songs is going to be on

45:58

it.

45:59

I could make a case for both, I really could.

46:02

Is Hot Girl Shit? I don't, I

46:04

mean... My answer

46:06

is neither. This is a real like, neither

46:09

of these really feel like Hot Girl Shit songs.

46:11

They're too serious. I would say both feel like Hot

46:14

Girl Shit songs.

46:15

I mean... Very rarely

46:17

do I say this is specifically

46:20

Hot Boy Shit. But

46:22

kind of. Kind of.

46:24

Yeah.

46:25

Like, look, I don't, I don't

46:28

want to binary this. I don't

46:30

want the two genders this. But

46:33

like, if there are two genders... Some

46:35

things are binary. If one

46:37

of the genders is Megan Thee Stallion, the

46:40

other is Bruce Springsteen, right?

46:42

Like, those are two very

46:45

opposite. Those are like two very, like not, I'm

46:47

sure they would get along, but like,

46:48

they're very different. I can't.

46:51

The idea of Bruce Springsteen as Hot Girl Shit

46:53

is like...

46:54

I mean, prove me wrong, Bruce. Make

46:57

me a Hot Girl Shit anthem.

47:00

That would be incredible. Neil, do

47:02

the same.

47:03

You should both try and see who comes out

47:05

on top.

47:07

Or bottom in that case. I

47:09

feel like they both probably not do great, but may

47:12

I be curious? But no, I don't. I think that

47:14

my answer to this is

47:15

it's a rare neither for me. I

47:18

feel like born in the USA is a

47:20

pump up anthem for everyone, even

47:22

the people he was insulting. So

47:25

I feel like you can make that into Hot Girl

47:28

Shit. Well, really. So born in

47:30

the USA is sweeping so far. It

47:32

really is. Yeah.

47:33

All right. Well, now for the fourth question. Most

47:36

important question that we ask on the show, not

47:38

just the most important question of the show, but the most important

47:40

question I think that a human being can

47:42

ask. Period.

47:44

William Shatner, thespian

47:46

equestrian

47:48

singer. Sure, we're going to give it to him. He's going

47:50

to do a William Shatner version of one and only

47:52

one of these two songs. Todd, which

47:55

one of these songs must be shot upon

47:58

born in the USA is almost.

47:59

was this Shatner

48:01

song already it feels like he

48:04

could do good things with Rockin in the

48:06

Free World but

48:07

born in the USA just

48:09

fits too perfectly which is funny because

48:11

he wasn't born in the USA

48:13

no and that's kind of why I give it to

48:15

Rockin in the Free World it's just it's it's

48:18

it's two Canadians two birds

48:20

of a Canadian feather

48:22

and also I just they're also

48:25

both cranky old men yeah I

48:27

don't know I think that there's color

48:29

colors on the street red white and blue people shuffling

48:31

their feet people sleeping on their shoes like that feels

48:34

like a Shatnery lyric to me like

48:37

people shuffling their feet people

48:39

sleeping in their shoes yeah

48:43

hmm but there's a warning side

48:45

actually you're telling this

48:48

on me there's

48:49

a lot of people saying we'd be better

48:52

off dead and and

48:54

of course him saying don't feel like Satan but I am to

48:56

them is of course

48:57

of course he's thinking

49:00

about Twitter Shatner

49:02

being like those people on Twitter don't

49:04

like me I'm just kidding he doesn't really use Twitter he's got

49:06

somebody tweets for him anyway yeah

49:08

for me it's Rockin in the Free World I think that lyrically

49:12

that is it's because

49:15

it doesn't have economy of words because there's like so

49:17

much

49:18

I think that like man Shatner

49:20

can make such a meal out of it it'd take forever

49:23

but boy I'd go I'd

49:25

go on that journey

49:27

so it's one it's it's one to three

49:29

it's Bruce Springsteen's game to lose

49:33

Todd

49:34

now that we've been fools for the

49:36

last 50 some odd minutes

49:39

let's let the people with brains in their heads have

49:41

something to say what are the listeners think

49:44

all right guy with head rights

49:47

I'd like to cast my third party vote for

49:50

America fuck yeah yeah

49:55

let's let's cancel the entire episode forget

49:57

me nevermind don't why do you

49:59

look

49:59

listen to this episode and was a waste. America

50:02

fuck yes the winner.

50:03

Alright.

50:04

Apocalypse then writes, Bruce's

50:07

anger sounds like a man shedding

50:09

a single tear while watching the American

50:11

flag get torn apart by a strong wind and

50:14

contemplating the deeper meaning of what this means

50:16

for the country he loves.

50:18

Neil's anger sounds like anger. Neil

50:20

wins. Yes, absolutely.

50:23

Yes. Alright. Yerpul

50:25

writes, I went Neil Young

50:28

since Springsteen's shit, Springsteen's

50:30

shtick is basically heteronormative

50:32

Queen. There's

50:34

a puzzled look on Lena's face as she

50:37

muses on this.

50:38

I have to consider it. I

50:41

don't think I can answer that with a yes or a

50:43

no right away. I think I see

50:45

it

50:46

or hear it I guess but I'll have to think

50:48

about it. I'll get back to you.

50:50

Alright. Robert boy genius writes,

50:53

I just assumed Neil Young is actually

50:55

a real hobo who walked who rants and walks

50:57

around LA about how the government is putting chemicals

51:00

in the water and the music video is just them

51:02

following him around. It

51:03

seems weirdly plausible. He's

51:05

right.

51:07

Until he starts talking about chemtrails he's right.

51:09

Alright. Don't start

51:11

singing about chemtrails Neil. Alright. Aaron

51:14

Westaway writes,

51:15

I didn't hear Rockin in the free world on the radio

51:18

for years and kept forgetting to look it up

51:20

so because of the notes were similar enough in my

51:22

head I would follow the line keep

51:24

on rockin in the free world

51:27

with Sia's ooh part from

51:29

wild ones keep on

51:31

rockin in the free world ooh

51:38

it's weird

51:39

it's weird it works I hadn't thought of that.

51:42

Bunker King writes,

51:44

anyone that actually takes a drink when Lena

51:46

mentions Jersey is in genuine danger.

51:49

That's well no actually could have gone a lot

51:51

worse I think. Yeah we only did it you

51:53

know two or three times. Yeah I

51:55

talked I talked more about my grandmother than about

51:58

New Jersey this time. I don't think we're

51:59

We're ever going to have to do a Lena talks about

52:02

her grandmother, take a drink. But

52:04

in this episode, you might have been in danger.

52:06

And one last one. Gene

52:09

Youngkin writes, this is

52:11

just unfair. Bruce Springsteen

52:14

owns blue collar songs about America

52:16

the same way Weird Al Yankovic owns parody

52:19

songs about food.

52:20

Like it? Well, I guess we're going to find out

52:23

how was it unfair.

52:25

All right. You, when I when

52:28

I when I threw this one at you, you thought it was

52:30

unfair. Do you still

52:32

think it's unfair? Do you think what

52:34

do you think it

52:35

turned out? The thing is that like, I

52:38

think that born

52:41

in the USA has an unfair advantage

52:43

because it is the more iconic song.

52:46

But

52:48

I would like to think that

52:49

Rocket on the Free World gave it a run for its

52:51

money.

52:52

But

52:53

it's really going to boil down to how

52:56

good is our fan base, Todd? That's

52:59

the real question.

53:00

How close this race is depends

53:02

on how much respect I have for you, the

53:04

listener. That's not

53:06

true. But yeah.

53:08

All right. All right. The actual

53:10

total. For

53:13

a total of four ninety eight to

53:15

two fifty six. That's a

53:18

sixty six thirty four split. And

53:20

even two thirds. I

53:23

was born into

53:25

USA.

53:27

And you know, that's you know, it's a decent

53:30

he didn't get blown out.

53:31

No, it was it really, it really should have been

53:33

close to fifty fifty, though, I think. And

53:36

again, I mean, my my my preference for Neil

53:38

Young,

53:38

for sure. I just think again, like

53:40

it just has a movement that born in the USA doesn't.

53:43

Now, something I will say for

53:45

this episode wraps. For those

53:48

of you who watch Todd's

53:50

videos as they come out, I

53:52

would like to heartily recommend,

53:54

of course, that

53:55

you watch his train record on

53:58

Ringo the Fourth.

54:00

However, I

54:02

would also like to recommend that

54:04

you listen to Ringo

54:06

the Fourth because I think Ringo

54:09

the Fourth is good actually. That's

54:11

an insane take. I

54:14

absolutely insane take. I think

54:16

that history is going to bear me out. I think

54:18

if people actually gave it a shot, they would appreciate

54:21

it. I like Ringo's weird voice on

54:23

it. I like how like

54:25

husky it gets. I

54:27

like

54:28

a lot of that album and

54:30

I don't really know how to

54:33

explain it other than I think

54:35

that if you

54:37

listen, if you watch it, if you watch a Todd video,

54:39

like a train record, and

54:41

just go that record must be bad,

54:43

you're probably going to come out being correct

54:45

more often than not. However,

54:48

this is a rare instance wherein

54:50

Todd brought up this album. I thought

54:52

I've never actually listened to Ringo the Fourth before.

54:55

I sat down and listened to it and was like, I'm

54:57

vibing to this. I

54:59

like this. That is bizarre. It has, okay,

55:01

whatever. Hey, if

55:04

you like it on LP and listen to it all the

55:06

time, if you like our show,

55:08

please

55:09

give us a good review. Please

55:12

give us some money on Patreon. If

55:15

you give us a lot of money, you can suggest a movie for

55:17

us to watch this. This month we

55:19

are watching the Muppet movie. Yes.

55:22

Also, by the way, in many

55:24

months in the past, somebody has tried

55:26

to get people to vote for trans,

55:30

which is the corresponding

55:32

human highway. But

55:34

that's sort of like similar movie.

55:37

I would say that if

55:39

you

55:41

get, if they bring that up again

55:43

and we watch it,

55:44

I promise that we will also listen

55:46

to trans and talk about it in that episode.

55:49

That's a promise from me to you. And

55:52

if you can't, if you can't support

55:54

us financially,

55:56

just give us a five star review and listen to Ringo

55:58

the fourth.

55:59

All right.

56:01

You ready for the next episode?

56:03

Oh, uh, yeah, I

56:05

guess so. I kind of wanted to call

56:08

an audible and do one of my own because I keep

56:10

threatening it, but,

56:11

uh, you feel really strongly

56:14

about what, uh, doing something for the first one

56:16

of July. I don't actually, I'm going to,

56:18

I,

56:19

I was going to throw an audible myself on something

56:21

I had picked.

56:22

So I was going to throw an on myself, but like, you

56:24

know what? You surprised me.

56:27

Okay. So this is a thing that I had been

56:29

saying. I thought we should do forever. And

56:31

as it happens, I was at a

56:33

friend's birthday party. I

56:35

encountered in real life, they

56:37

do exist, Todd, a fan of the show.

56:40

And I told them an episode that

56:42

I said that we would be doing

56:44

maybe even very soon. And they

56:46

were absolutely delighted at the prospect.

56:49

And so

56:50

we are going to do battle of the

56:52

ska cover songs at long last. We are going to

56:54

do real big fishes cover of aha's take

56:57

on me versus save Ferris

57:00

is cover

57:02

of Dexi's midnight runners. Come

57:05

on, I lean. I feel like you regret, don't

57:08

you regret putting me in the

57:10

driver's

57:11

seat? You know, I've, I've thrown weird

57:14

ones at you and really I've always wanted

57:16

to

57:17

do a Scott one and it's been a long time since I've been

57:20

in the driver's seat.

57:21

And really I've always wanted to do a Scott one

57:24

and it feels like Scott mostly existed

57:26

to do cover songs of eighties new

57:28

wave classics. So this is like more

57:30

appropriate than any other Scott thing we could

57:32

make. I could come up with so many other

57:35

good Scott match ups, but I think that if

57:37

you were going to do ones that people had really

57:39

genuinely actually heard of

57:41

most people have heard these two for sure.

57:44

And it's also like weirdly I, I

57:46

could have just sold it not as a Scott cover

57:49

crossover. We could have literally just done

57:51

take on me versus come on Eileen. I think

57:54

it's done a period, but the Scott cover,

57:56

I think is the thing that really makes it work. All

58:00

right, we're doing it. Whoo. All right,

58:03

so long