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Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.

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Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information.

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Speaker 2: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis.

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Speaker 1: Miles Davis.

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Speaker 2: His origins in Saint Louis, his assent to jazz Master,

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Speaker 2: and his turbulent relationship with drugs and women is so

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Speaker 2: complex that we needed two episodes to properly tell this story.

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Speaker 2: If you're just tuning in now, I suggest you hit

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Speaker 2: pause and go back to part one of the Miles

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Speaker 2: Davis story, where we discuss Miles's violent home life as

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Speaker 2: a child, his journey from bopping on fifty second Street

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Speaker 2: to living behind bars and a heroin addiction so public

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Speaker 2: that it nearly extinguished his career. In this episode, we

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Speaker 2: get into Miles's reinvention of himself, a second act that

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Speaker 2: features a wrecked Lamborghie, two broken legs, and a mountain

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Speaker 2: of coke and pills so massive that Miles almost never

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Speaker 2: made it down the other side. We also, of course,

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Speaker 2: get into the experimental music that Miles made great music,

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Speaker 2: unlike that music I played for you at the top

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Speaker 2: of the show that wasn't great music. That was a

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Speaker 2: preset loop from my melotron called on a daily bassist

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Speaker 2: MK one, I played you that loop because I can't

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Speaker 2: afford the rights to the three Bells by the Browns.

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Speaker 2: And why would I play you that specific slice of

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Speaker 2: Little Jimmy Brown Cheese? Could I afford it? Because that

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Speaker 2: was the number one song in America? On August twenty fifth,

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Speaker 2: nineteen fifty nine. In that it was the day of Bloodied,

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Speaker 2: Miles Davis left his own performance in handcuffs simply because

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Speaker 2: he was black, causing Miles Davis to reassess everything on

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Speaker 2: this episode two broken legs, fermentation, mountains of coke and pills.

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Speaker 2: In the reassessment of the original motherfucker Miles Davis, I'm

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Speaker 2: Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland nineteen fifty nine, four

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Speaker 2: years from Newport, ten years from Paris, fifteen years from

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Speaker 2: Juilliard and the dizzy and creative high of Bebop's advent.

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Speaker 2: Miles Davis was standing outside Birdland on forty fourth Street

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Speaker 2: smoking a cigarette. His name was on the marquis because

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Speaker 2: like Billy motherfucking Eckstein before him, Miles Davis was now

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Speaker 2: the motherfucking headline. Miles cut a cool figure on forty

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Speaker 2: fourth Street, cigarette in hand, bespoke suit made to measure

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Speaker 2: shades at night, somehow not looking like an asshole.

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Speaker 3: He was.

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Speaker 2: Miles, a true original, mostly clean and on top of

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Speaker 2: his game. It had been that way largely since Newport

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Speaker 2: Columbia Records, the crown jewel of the record industry, came calling.

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Speaker 2: They wanted to sign Miles to an exclusive record deal,

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Speaker 2: but there were conditions. Number one, no more heroin. Miles

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Speaker 2: kicked mostly. His passion for boxing, cultivated from an early age,

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Speaker 2: was his new source of discipline. It was hard, but

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Speaker 2: he was strong as tough.

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Speaker 1: As Heroine was.

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Speaker 2: Myles knew he was tougher. He also knew there were

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Speaker 2: much tougher motherfuckers out there doing much tougher things. His friend,

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Speaker 2: the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson tough as nails. Sugar Ray

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Speaker 2: jumped up a weight class to middleway, stared down the

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Speaker 2: bruiser Jake Lamada, and kicked his ass all over the

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Speaker 2: ring for thirteen rounds to take the championship off of him.

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Speaker 2: Prior to that, shook Savage Jimmy Doyle, knocking him unconscious

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Speaker 2: in the eighth. Doyle never got up. He died later

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Speaker 2: that night in the hospital. That kit was a motherfucker,

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Speaker 2: but it didn't keep Suparat down. He was tough as nails.

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Speaker 2: Miles would be too. Condition number two, put a band

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Speaker 2: together and keep it together. No more half assed, pick

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Speaker 2: up bullshit. Colombia wanted consistency. Columbia wanted to hear what

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Speaker 2: Miles could do without having to worry if the wind

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Speaker 2: was tight at his back. Colombia wanted Miles backed up solid.

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Speaker 2: Miles recruited Paul Chambers on bass, Philly Joe Jones on drums,

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Speaker 2: Red Garland on piano and on tenor saxophone, a young

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Speaker 2: dude who'd worked with Bird and Diz in the past

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Speaker 2: and was hustling down in Philly at the time. Whoeveryone

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Speaker 2: called train Train was short for John Coltrane. He got around,

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Speaker 2: found it hard to stick on to one group or

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Speaker 2: get much of his own thing going, but Myles believed

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Speaker 2: in him and so his the band was complete. Condition

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Speaker 2: number three Miles had to get out of his RinkyDink

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Speaker 2: Prestige record contract he'd signed back in nineteen fifty one

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Speaker 2: for allows he seven hundred and fifty dollars. Miles owed

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Speaker 2: Prestige five records for that seven hundred and fifty dollars

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Speaker 2: and couldn't go to Columbia, where the real money was

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Speaker 2: until he fulfilled his contractual obligation to Prestige. So Miles,

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Speaker 2: in his new quintet, got down to work. In less

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Speaker 2: than a handful of recording sessions, Miles led the recording

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Speaker 2: of five interconnected, long playing albums that were unmatched in

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Speaker 2: modern jazz at the time and that sound as fresh

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Speaker 2: today as they did upon their various release dates back

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Speaker 2: in the mid to late fifties. Miles cooking, relax and

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Speaker 2: working and steaming crackle with romance in intensity. Each album

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Speaker 2: is filled with jazz and pop standards, with Bebop's inimitable

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Speaker 2: approach stylizing each song. Miles's ever present romantic point of

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Speaker 2: view shines throughout, with John Coltrane leveling up to the

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Speaker 2: occasion on nearly every track. Coltrane comes alive on these albums,

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Speaker 2: as if given wings by the Master, permissioned to soar

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Speaker 2: like bird and to smolder like Miles. There wasn't a

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Speaker 2: lick of filler on any of the five Prestige albums.

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Speaker 2: Each record was part of the lead up to Miles

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Speaker 2: Davis's first creative master stroke, his Columbia breakthrough Kind of Blue.

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Speaker 2: Change was necessary for this new creation. Miles wasn't about

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Speaker 2: to rely on standards for his Columbia coming out party.

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Speaker 2: Miles was going to be Miles, which was to say,

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Speaker 2: he needed to bring something fresh, something cooler than before.

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Speaker 2: He tweaked his Quintete, kept Coltrane, and slid Cannonball utterly

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Speaker 2: into the chair next to train on alto Sachs. Miles

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Speaker 2: then replaced Red Garland with pianist Bill Evans, who Miles

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Speaker 2: had worked with prior, and brought in Jimmy Cobb to

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Speaker 2: replace Philly Joe Jones on drums. Paul Chambers remained on bass,

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Speaker 2: and Miles assembled for a Kind of Blue produced one

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Speaker 2: of jazz's greatest achievements, one of music's greatest achievements, one

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Speaker 2: of art's greatest achievements. Kind of Blue is as much

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Speaker 2: of a masterpiece as any music in popular culture before

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Speaker 2: or since, Like the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's or Picasso's Ganica.

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Speaker 2: There was nothing before like these works, and nothing after

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Speaker 2: these works that would ever be the same. Miles took

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Speaker 2: a new approach to composing the songs for Kind of Blue.

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Speaker 2: He employed the modal method, which meant abandoning chords and

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Speaker 2: relying instead on scales, and just sketches of scales at that,

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Speaker 2: not full compositions. This forced himself and the other musicians

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Speaker 2: to be more inventive with their playing, gave them more space,

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Speaker 2: more freedom. The result was a greater emphasis on melody

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Speaker 2: and in turn, an intense inventive romance shines through on

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Speaker 2: the album, a new kind of romance to go along

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Speaker 2: with Miles has already established new kind of cool, hence

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Speaker 2: kind of blue. The album was an instant smash and

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Speaker 2: to this day is one, if not the most successful

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Speaker 2: jazz album of all time. Miles was quickly elevated to

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Speaker 2: mainstream success. He was now getting paid, and he reinvested

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Speaker 2: in his cool more bespoke suits, fast cars, and beautiful

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Speaker 2: famous women. He had Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner coming

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Speaker 2: to Birdland every night. Ava was even slipping into his

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Speaker 2: dressing room, sneaking kisses and asking him out to parties.

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Speaker 2: Miles Davis was jazz music's first and only rock star.

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Speaker 2: Sophisticated cool, hip, ultra clean, black all man, and he

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Speaker 2: took no shit off, no motherfucker.

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Speaker 1: Like his music.

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Speaker 2: As a man, there was no one liked Myles at

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Speaker 2: the time, and in nineteen fifty nine in America, being

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Speaker 2: Miles Davis, living loud and proud while black, was nothing

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Speaker 2: short of daring risky. Again, just like the music he played,

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Speaker 2: Miles wasn't averse to risk. He knew that's where the

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Speaker 2: rewards were in the dirty sh shadows, but not everyone

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Speaker 2: saw it that way, especially not the cops milling about

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Speaker 2: outside Birdland that night on August twenty fifth, nineteen fifty nine,

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Speaker 2: Miles was cool, leaning up against the wall outside the club,

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Speaker 2: dragging on a smoke, trying to beat the humid nighttime

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Speaker 2: August air smoldering inside the venue. A friend of his,

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Speaker 2: white woman, started to come through the outdoor. Miles held

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Speaker 2: it open for her and then kept stride with her

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Speaker 2: to her waiting taxi. He opened the cab door let

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Speaker 2: her in, saw her on her way backstepped into the

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Speaker 2: curb and turned toward his post outside the club. Then

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Speaker 2: there in front of him a big white uniformed cop.

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Speaker 1: Move along.

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Speaker 2: The cop didn't say it, but Miles could hear the

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Speaker 2: word N word ring out at the end of the

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Speaker 2: sentence move along.

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Speaker 1: Miles knew enough.

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Speaker 2: About phrasing in space to know that oftentimes what wasn't

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Speaker 2: said was just as important as what was said. Motherfucker

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Speaker 2: said it, even though he didn't say it. Move on

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Speaker 2: for what I'm working downstairs. That's my name up there.

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Speaker 2: Miles pointed to the Birdland Marquis. The cop didn't give

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Speaker 2: a shit.

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Speaker 1: I don't care where you were.

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Speaker 2: If you don't move along, I'm going to arrest you.

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Speaker 2: Miles just stared and the cop stared back. The tension

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Speaker 2: quickly enveloped both of them. Miles wasn't moving along anywhere.

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Speaker 1: That was clear.

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Speaker 2: The cop called it, You're under arrest and reached for

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Speaker 2: his cuffs. Miles had seen enough Sugar Ray Robinson fights

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Speaker 2: to know that distance can kill. Distance can give your

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Speaker 2: opponent the requisite space needed to drive power for their

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Speaker 2: punch to knock you the fuck out. So Miles leaned

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Speaker 2: in toward the cop while the cop fumbled for his cuffs.

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Speaker 2: The cops stumbled backwards, fell onto the sidewalk out to

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Speaker 2: the pavement, spilled his cuffs as Billy club is keys.

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Speaker 1: Now a crowd was gathering.

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Speaker 2: Audience members from inside the club, Miles's friends, fans, other folks,

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Speaker 2: white folks just walking down the street, curious at this scene,

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Speaker 2: a dapper black man standing above a uniform white cop

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Speaker 2: on the ground grappling for his cuffs, and then out

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Speaker 2: of no a second cop. The detective sprung from behind

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Speaker 2: Miles and bashed him over the head with his fist,

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Speaker 2: quickly putting an end to the confrontation. Miles was arrested

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Speaker 2: and booked, incredibly for resisting arrest. Clearly he didn't resist

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Speaker 2: in the slightest He was arrested for being black and

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Speaker 2: for not immediately submitting to the bullshit demand of a

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Speaker 2: white cop.

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Speaker 1: His head gushed blood, his khaki suit took most of him.

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Speaker 2: The newspapers were on the scene at the fifty fourth

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Speaker 2: precinct for Miles's discharge. The photo was brutal. A bloody

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Speaker 2: black man leaving the station in the arms of his

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Speaker 2: beautiful girlfriend, A clear victim of some kind of brutality

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Speaker 2: unclear in that moment, but later confirmed by the court's

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Speaker 2: dismissal of his quote unquote resisting arrest charge that it

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Speaker 2: was police brutality. While on trial, Miles lost his cabaret licensing,

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Speaker 2: couldn't perform. It was a brutal lesson. Didn't matter how

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Speaker 2: tight you got your shit. Didn't matter how much shine

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Speaker 2: was on your name. This was America nineteen to some,

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Speaker 2: you were still just that black boy, country as fuck,

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Speaker 2: zero sophistication, lesser than him the other. It was enough

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Speaker 2: to make a man's blood boil with rage. It was

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Speaker 2: enough to make Miles.

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Speaker 1: Davis reassess everything.

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Speaker 2: Young Miles Davis was back in the woods in East

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Speaker 2: Saint Louis, thirteen years old, listening to birds, hearing their call,

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Speaker 2: providing his response in the horn.

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Speaker 1: His father bottom. It was a distraction.

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Speaker 2: He was far enough away he couldn't hear his father's

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Speaker 2: erupting temper, his mother screams, from the pain, from the horror,

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Speaker 2: from the abuse. These memories never went away. They were formative,

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Speaker 2: and as such, always there lying in wait, like a

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Speaker 2: snake trauma, just under the surface, skin deep, peering out

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Speaker 2: through his current drug Hayes. Years later, nineteen sixty five,

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Speaker 2: two hip surgeries, one bad, the other the fix. Both

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Speaker 2: hurt like a motherfucker. Miles was laid up, bedridden, booze

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Speaker 2: pills cocaine to dull the pain. His wife, world renowned

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Speaker 2: dancer Francis Taylor, had retired to Miles's kitchen from the

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Speaker 2: stage prior to the operation on his insistence was where

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Speaker 2: she belonged.

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Speaker 1: He said, fuck her career.

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Speaker 2: He said he was a musician after all, he said,

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00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:48,640
Speaker 2: leggy Ballerinas didn't compare. He needed the support. His creativity

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Speaker 2: drained him. It knew no bounds. After Kind of Blue,

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Speaker 2: Miles followed up as Columbia breakthrough with another groundbreaking long player,

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Speaker 2: Sketches of Spain.

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Speaker 1: At the top of his game in sixty.

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Speaker 2: Five, but stretched out on a mattress, dependent on the

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Speaker 2: debilitating cocktail of coke and pills to fight the pain,

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00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:09,480
Speaker 2: Miles Davis was depressed when he did manage to make

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00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:14,400
Speaker 2: it out. He was paranoid, jealous. Quincy Jones was a friend,

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Speaker 2: but slippery as he was slick out in the clubs.

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Speaker 2: Francis paid q too much attention. Handsome motherfucker like Quincy

231
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Speaker 2: Jones is liable to smile at you coming in through

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Speaker 2: the front door and escort your wife out the back,

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Speaker 2: So went Miles as thinking, anyway, Francis is too Why

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00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:35,120
Speaker 2: else would you tell Miles Quincy was handsome? That didn't

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Speaker 2: Miles whacked Frances around. Francis could tolerate a lot, and

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Speaker 2: leaving behind her successful career to support the genius of

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Speaker 2: a man she loved. Sure, but take the back of

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Speaker 2: his hand even once. Fuck that Francis took those long

239
00:14:49,880 --> 00:14:55,520
Speaker 2: legs and walked train walked too, took a giant step

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Speaker 2: toward his own mythmaking left Miles's group. Miles picked himself up,

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00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:04,080
Speaker 2: put together another quintete, Herbie Hancock on piano, Weighing Shorter

242
00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:07,760
Speaker 2: on sacks, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums.

243
00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:12,280
Speaker 2: Motherfuckers All sixty five turned to sixty six and in

244
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Speaker 2: sixty seven, the summer of love, speed of the decade

245
00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:18,040
Speaker 2: in Ti died technicolors. Straight past sixty eight and into

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Speaker 2: sixty nine. Miles looked up from his bandstand and it

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00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:23,920
Speaker 2: was as if the entire world had changed in the

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00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:28,520
Speaker 2: quick flutter of notes ringing from his last run. What

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00:15:28,560 --> 00:15:33,000
Speaker 2: the fuck was this? White kids were on some other trip.

250
00:15:33,800 --> 00:15:36,880
Speaker 2: Long ass hair ass for days, fucking in the mud,

251
00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:40,560
Speaker 2: fucking in the streets into his music, not directly, but

252
00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:43,920
Speaker 2: all this NEWTLEI rock improv nonsense was pulled direct from

253
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Speaker 2: his toolkit, and it was filling stadiums at a time

254
00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:50,240
Speaker 2: when Miles was having a hard time filling clubs. Rock

255
00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:52,720
Speaker 2: was in the scent, jazz was going the other way.

256
00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:56,640
Speaker 2: As a result, Miles wasn't making the bread he needed when,

257
00:15:56,680 --> 00:16:00,240
Speaker 2: in contrast, rock artists on Columbia, Blood, Sweat and Tear

258
00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:04,800
Speaker 2: in Chicago were getting paid. Miles storm president of Columbia

259
00:16:04,840 --> 00:16:08,280
Speaker 2: Records Clive Davis's office and demanded money, A fuck ton

260
00:16:08,360 --> 00:16:08,480
Speaker 2: of it.

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Speaker 1: Where the fuck is my money? Motherfucker? You and your

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00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:13,960
Speaker 1: so called artists so ripping my shit off.

263
00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:17,840
Speaker 2: Miles demanded to be released from his contract. Clive Davis

264
00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:20,960
Speaker 2: wouldn't have it. Clive offered instead to get Miles dates

265
00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:23,960
Speaker 2: on the club circuit, performing with rock bands and four

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00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:24,840
Speaker 2: rock fans.

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00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:27,360
Speaker 1: Miles took it as the best solution he was going

268
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Speaker 1: to get and went at it head first. Sly Stone

269
00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:31,400
Speaker 1: knew where it was at.

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00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:34,840
Speaker 2: He and his band could play, and audiences rewarded them

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Speaker 2: for it, showing up in droves.

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00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:41,000
Speaker 1: Sly got paid, so too, then did Miles.

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00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:45,600
Speaker 2: He went at the rock audience full board, switched up,

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00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:49,880
Speaker 2: changed up his band, electric bass, electric guitar, four percussion players,

275
00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:54,360
Speaker 2: two bassis, multiple keyboard players, all dueling with each other simultaneously.

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Speaker 2: They had permission to play whatever they heard, permission to

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Speaker 2: delve into a new kind of improv None of that

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00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:03,680
Speaker 2: quote unquote pre arranged shit Miles's new band. Creatively, it

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00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:06,639
Speaker 2: was a far cry from his early to mid sixties efforts.

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00:17:06,800 --> 00:17:09,760
Speaker 2: This wasn't just jazz or even pop. This was something

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00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:13,960
Speaker 2: entirely new. Miles got it all down on record bitchesbur

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Speaker 2: a spellbinding, free fall and head spinning melting pot of

283
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Speaker 2: an album.

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Speaker 1: Kids loved it.

285
00:17:20,080 --> 00:17:23,040
Speaker 2: Even jazz heads came around to love it like kind

286
00:17:23,080 --> 00:17:26,760
Speaker 2: of blue. Bitchesburu bridged Miles to jazz musician, to a

287
00:17:26,840 --> 00:17:31,680
Speaker 2: much broader audience, and sold like crazy. The album was wild.

288
00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:36,639
Speaker 2: Miles's new fashion reflected the new, wild, electrified improvisational music

289
00:17:36,680 --> 00:17:40,439
Speaker 2: he was making. Inspired by his new girlfriend, musician Betty Maybray,

290
00:17:40,560 --> 00:17:44,640
Speaker 2: Miles traded bespoke suits for fringe jackets and flamboyant handkerchiefs,

291
00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:47,240
Speaker 2: and in his album cover artwork he traded in the

292
00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:52,280
Speaker 2: sentimental for the psychedelic. Nineteen seventy two, Miles Davis was

293
00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:56,320
Speaker 2: now a full fledged rock star. Rock Stars didn't take

294
00:17:56,359 --> 00:18:01,240
Speaker 2: the a train. Rock Stars drove fast. Sports car Ferraris

295
00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:06,040
Speaker 2: Lamborghini's Miles Davis wound his Lambeau north on Manhattan's West

296
00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:10,480
Speaker 2: Side Highway Midtown to Harlem, racing toward and resenting every

297
00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:11,920
Speaker 2: red light in the process.

298
00:18:12,359 --> 00:18:14,120
Speaker 1: Speed, motherfucker speed.

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00:18:14,520 --> 00:18:19,320
Speaker 2: Miles drove like Charlie Parker, played fast like lightning. Didn't

300
00:18:19,359 --> 00:18:21,520
Speaker 2: matter if he was straight, didn't matter if he was high,

301
00:18:21,520 --> 00:18:24,480
Speaker 2: which he most certainly was now Screaming up the three

302
00:18:24,520 --> 00:18:27,520
Speaker 2: way between lights. The Lambeau moved so damn quick he'd

303
00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:29,119
Speaker 2: get at the sixty in an instant and then have

304
00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:32,040
Speaker 2: to stop the next red light. The further north he'd got,

305
00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:34,160
Speaker 2: the fewer the lights, and the more he could open

306
00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:36,960
Speaker 2: it up. The sleeping pill he took earlier, it just

307
00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:41,040
Speaker 2: kicked in above fifteen minutes too early, fifteen minutes before

308
00:18:41,040 --> 00:18:44,479
Speaker 2: he was to arrive at his destination a Harlem after hours.

309
00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:46,520
Speaker 1: Miles thought about reaching.

310
00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:48,320
Speaker 2: Into one of the bags of cocaine on the passenger

311
00:18:48,359 --> 00:18:50,280
Speaker 2: seat next to him and fingering out a bump.

312
00:18:50,119 --> 00:18:52,199
Speaker 1: To keep his head right. Mother fucker.

313
00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:54,720
Speaker 2: The exit one hundred and twenty fifth Street from the

314
00:18:54,800 --> 00:18:57,240
Speaker 2: left lane, Myles caught hard right across the three lanes

315
00:18:57,280 --> 00:19:00,199
Speaker 2: of traffic at sixty miles per hour. Myles and his

316
00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:02,520
Speaker 2: lime green Lamborghini hit the stone wall in the off

317
00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:07,280
Speaker 2: ramp with maximum forks. The tiny sports car buckled, so

318
00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:10,520
Speaker 2: too did both of Myles's legs broke in an instant.

319
00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:14,080
Speaker 2: His bones compound fractured through the leather of his tight pants,

320
00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:17,760
Speaker 2: and the cocaine in the passenger seat balloon burst confectionery

321
00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:21,600
Speaker 2: plumes all over the interior. Miles was covered in white dust,

322
00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:25,280
Speaker 2: high as a motherfucker, but grounded in place. He wasn't

323
00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:28,400
Speaker 2: going anywhere at the moment. He was in bad shape.

324
00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:31,080
Speaker 2: A white dude in another fast car rolled up on him,

325
00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:34,720
Speaker 2: quick to help. He instantly recognized Myles. He saw the

326
00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:37,080
Speaker 2: bags of cocaine on the seat, grabbed them and stuffed

327
00:19:37,080 --> 00:19:39,320
Speaker 2: them in the nearest sewer. Then he started scooping up

328
00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:41,320
Speaker 2: rain water out of the puddles and wiping down the

329
00:19:41,320 --> 00:19:45,840
Speaker 2: interior of Myles's cocaine dusted car. Miles sat in agony,

330
00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:48,760
Speaker 2: two broken stems, and the police made the scene in

331
00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:51,199
Speaker 2: an instant. Just after the white dude completed his good

332
00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:54,760
Speaker 2: Samaritan drug cover up. He sat by looking dumb. The

333
00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:57,760
Speaker 2: cops told him to scram he did. Myles was taken

334
00:19:57,760 --> 00:20:00,080
Speaker 2: to the hospital and of course give him more painkiller.

335
00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:03,080
Speaker 2: It would be a long time before we'd recover from

336
00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:06,480
Speaker 2: his injuries in a long time before Miles Davis would

337
00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:09,919
Speaker 2: take the stage or even think of making music again.

338
00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:15,399
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this.

339
00:20:15,560 --> 00:20:23,639
Speaker 2: We're, We're, We're. The coke kept you up, even if

340
00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:25,960
Speaker 2: you had nowhere to go besides to the coke dealer.

341
00:20:26,320 --> 00:20:29,440
Speaker 2: The painkillers knocked the coke back and eventually knocked you out,

342
00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:32,840
Speaker 2: put you down, and then in sleep the coke would

343
00:20:32,880 --> 00:20:37,360
Speaker 2: come back full force, rouse your subconscious, give your dreams,

344
00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:41,760
Speaker 2: big Hollywood blockbuster, budget sized impact with Fellini like twists.

345
00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:46,000
Speaker 2: And the car was always stuck, fine machine like that.

346
00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:49,119
Speaker 2: Not going anywhere was a motherfucking shame. Not up the

347
00:20:49,119 --> 00:20:51,960
Speaker 2: West Side Highway, not south toward Philly, not over the

348
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:56,720
Speaker 2: GW New Jersey, nowhere, dead on the side of the road,

349
00:20:58,119 --> 00:21:02,240
Speaker 2: Clive Davis's head scurrying at on Ava Gardner's body, stashing

350
00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:05,639
Speaker 2: your coke, offering you blowjobs, but not trying as hard

351
00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:08,560
Speaker 2: as he she would if your dick was white. The

352
00:21:08,680 --> 00:21:11,879
Speaker 2: Lambeau wrecked on the side of the highway, then the

353
00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:15,680
Speaker 2: Ferrari years earlier, down on Fifth Avenue. This shit was real,

354
00:21:15,920 --> 00:21:19,320
Speaker 2: This shit happened, This shit haunted you. Motherfucking white cop

355
00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:21,760
Speaker 2: couldn't cope with your black ass winding through his city

356
00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:24,440
Speaker 2: in a car that cost about four times his annual salary.

357
00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:26,960
Speaker 2: So he fucked with you just because he could not

358
00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:29,399
Speaker 2: because you were a vicious drug feed not because you

359
00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:32,960
Speaker 2: were a vicious jazz man, because you were black. There

360
00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:35,760
Speaker 2: was no end to the rage that shit filled you with.

361
00:21:36,119 --> 00:21:40,400
Speaker 2: It consumed you like Ava Gardner, consumed men like Clive Davis,

362
00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:43,760
Speaker 2: consumed bagels with locks and ice cream for dessert. Fuck

363
00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:47,240
Speaker 2: Columbia Records, racist motherfuckers that they were. You told the press,

364
00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:49,879
Speaker 2: so yourself told him. They didn't promote black artists the

365
00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:52,040
Speaker 2: same as they did white artists. The proof was in

366
00:21:52,119 --> 00:21:54,280
Speaker 2: how they fucked up. You're on the Corner record. That

367
00:21:54,359 --> 00:21:56,600
Speaker 2: shit was crazier than your coke dream, But they tried

368
00:21:56,680 --> 00:21:58,720
Speaker 2: selling it to straight jazz heads when they should have

369
00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:01,120
Speaker 2: been leaning into the white rock audience. But they had

370
00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:05,439
Speaker 2: Herbie's New Headhunters record for that. Imagine that your side

371
00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:08,000
Speaker 2: fucking man making more noise and more money than you.

372
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:11,479
Speaker 2: That shit burned Columbia Records. I guess you only get

373
00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:14,040
Speaker 2: muscle for one black motherfucker at a time. On the

374
00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:16,720
Speaker 2: Corner didn't make it to the fucking corner or anywhere else.

375
00:22:16,520 --> 00:22:20,439
Speaker 1: For that matter. That record bombed. Fuck first on the corner.

376
00:22:20,520 --> 00:22:22,959
Speaker 2: Never get out of park, just like you down on

377
00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:26,600
Speaker 2: fifth and your ferrari stuck standing in a no standing

378
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:32,119
Speaker 2: zone license and registration. Fuck is this in the glove

379
00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:33,720
Speaker 2: box next to the registration?

380
00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:35,280
Speaker 1: Brass knuckles?

381
00:22:35,760 --> 00:22:43,800
Speaker 2: Motherfuck cuffed booked back in the Hoo's cow bullshit In

382
00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:48,120
Speaker 2: and out of jail turnstile style. What was jail anyway?

383
00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:51,400
Speaker 2: It wasn't just thirty two bars lined up to hem

384
00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:56,040
Speaker 2: you in. It was modal, a fucking concept. Society was jail.

385
00:22:56,119 --> 00:22:58,800
Speaker 2: Columbia was jail. Music was jail. It was up to

386
00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:01,119
Speaker 2: you to change your state of being, to transcend what

387
00:23:01,240 --> 00:23:05,960
Speaker 2: rained you in socially, professionally, creatively. Right now, there was

388
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:06,679
Speaker 2: no change.

389
00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:08,480
Speaker 1: Right now. Was all jail.

390
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:12,160
Speaker 2: Right now, your desolate townhouse on West seventy seventh Street

391
00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:15,360
Speaker 2: was jailed. You didn't play, you didn't write, you didn't leave,

392
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:18,159
Speaker 2: you used. It was a years long hiatus. It was

393
00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:21,560
Speaker 2: just coke, booze, pills and whores. You didn't run them.

394
00:23:21,600 --> 00:23:24,520
Speaker 2: They ran you ran you down like that voodoo, for

395
00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:27,560
Speaker 2: your money, for your fame, for their own benefit. EVA

396
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:31,320
Speaker 2: couldn't finish you off in your dream. You awoke unsatisfied, looking.

397
00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:31,840
Speaker 1: To score.

398
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:36,119
Speaker 2: Back of the West Side Highway, your white manager in

399
00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:38,639
Speaker 2: the back of the Chaufford car with you next to

400
00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:42,040
Speaker 2: your date. He wanted a fucker. Everyone wanted a fucker

401
00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:45,359
Speaker 2: except you. You wanted to get high. Sex was like

402
00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:49,239
Speaker 2: music these days, a non fucking starter. You left them

403
00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:52,159
Speaker 2: alone in a limo. You climbed the tenement stairs. You

404
00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:55,240
Speaker 2: gave the man you cash, took his drugs, now your drugs.

405
00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:57,400
Speaker 2: Hop back in the limo, accused.

406
00:23:57,080 --> 00:23:59,520
Speaker 1: Your white manager of wanted to fuck your black girlfriend.

407
00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:01,280
Speaker 1: Were wrong, You didn't care.

408
00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:04,639
Speaker 2: You got ripped, You crashed, You dreamed, woke scored, ripped,

409
00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:08,679
Speaker 2: crash dreamed, woke, scored, ripped, crash dreamed. You woke up

410
00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:11,200
Speaker 2: almost six years later, and it was nineteen fucking eighty

411
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:13,880
Speaker 2: and you were still Miles mother fucking Davis. Thank God,

412
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:21,120
Speaker 2: or more to the point, thanks Cicily Tyson. Cicily Tyson

413
00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:25,720
Speaker 2: was the real miracle worker. The Oscar nominated actress had

414
00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:29,160
Speaker 2: been reappearing in Miles Davis's life since the mid sixties,

415
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:32,480
Speaker 2: first on his TV screen for East Side West Side,

416
00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:35,240
Speaker 2: then in real life on the Upper West Side, where

417
00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:38,600
Speaker 2: they fell in love well before their marriage in nineteen

418
00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:41,240
Speaker 2: eighty one. She got him to quit smoking cigarettes and

419
00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:45,080
Speaker 2: drinking hard liquor for a few years. Anyway, now she

420
00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:47,479
Speaker 2: nursed him back to life on a diet full of

421
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:50,960
Speaker 2: fresh juices and vegetables, squared away in their own private

422
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:54,960
Speaker 2: piece of Malibu. But most importantly, she fed them the

423
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:58,600
Speaker 2: confidence to return to music, a reason to move forward,

424
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:01,439
Speaker 2: a reason to show the motherfucker's they still had a

425
00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:06,719
Speaker 2: lot to learn. Miles kicked. Then he put a band together,

426
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:09,600
Speaker 2: a new electric band, and went and saw his old

427
00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:13,600
Speaker 2: friend in concert promoter, George Ween. He played George the tapes.

428
00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:16,399
Speaker 2: George wrote out a check for thirty five large for

429
00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:19,640
Speaker 2: two concerts, thirty five more. After the gigs were through,

430
00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:24,880
Speaker 2: Miles channeled Sugar Ray Robinson, swung that sweet science trained

431
00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:27,560
Speaker 2: put in work, got his bag back together, and tore

432
00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:31,240
Speaker 2: the motherfucking stage up, and the audience loved him, and

433
00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:36,280
Speaker 2: the audience wanted more more. Miles Miles for days, Miles

434
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:39,040
Speaker 2: stretched out as far as the eye could see, Miles

435
00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:42,720
Speaker 2: for miles and Miles, and Miles. Miles took to his

436
00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:46,480
Speaker 2: new claim fame with a fury He embraced modern music,

437
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:50,240
Speaker 2: that electric eighties feel since pre recorded tracks.

438
00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:51,680
Speaker 1: None of it scared Miles.

439
00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:54,960
Speaker 2: He was all about that change as always, like he

440
00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:57,159
Speaker 2: was with Birth of the Cool, like he was with

441
00:25:57,280 --> 00:26:00,399
Speaker 2: Kind of Blue, like he was with Bitch's Brew. If

442
00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:02,840
Speaker 2: anyone wants to keep creating, they have to be about

443
00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:05,040
Speaker 2: to change.

444
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:05,359
Speaker 1: The same hell true.

445
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:09,720
Speaker 2: Now Miles wasn't about no safe, tired yesterday bullshit for

446
00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:13,239
Speaker 2: a constantly searching jazz man, steeped in improvisation, and then

447
00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:17,560
Speaker 2: the avant garde. Pop music wasn't safe. Pop was the opposite.

448
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:22,720
Speaker 2: Pop was risk, and now Miles was pop. Miles was everywhere.

449
00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:26,240
Speaker 2: Miles hit the talk show circuit, letterman Ursineo. Miles was

450
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:28,560
Speaker 2: on Miami Vice with Don mother fucking Johnson and that

451
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:31,000
Speaker 2: other dude. Miles ate up the eighties like a man

452
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:35,480
Speaker 2: making up for lost time. Miles was embraced mainstreamed. Miles

453
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:39,640
Speaker 2: was a new man, a living legend, an icon. Miles

454
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:42,919
Speaker 2: was stuck on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway

455
00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 2: in his Ferrari with a white motherfucking cop in his

456
00:26:45,680 --> 00:27:09,280
Speaker 2: face because something's never change. The California's son beat down

457
00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:12,840
Speaker 2: on Miles Davis in his sports car. The cop wanted

458
00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:15,120
Speaker 2: to know of Myles had seen him in his rear view.

459
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:18,399
Speaker 2: Hell no, Miles told him, I wasn't looking behind me

460
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:23,040
Speaker 2: watching you. You're watching me. Miles's new girl was asleep

461
00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:26,560
Speaker 2: in the passenger. See Miles was clean. Cop wanted to

462
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:28,800
Speaker 2: know if he was drunk. Hello, motherfucker.

463
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:30,240
Speaker 1: The ship was old.

464
00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:34,359
Speaker 2: Every single time it happened, it further cinged Miles. He

465
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:38,080
Speaker 2: carried the ship, the anger, the rage. He used it,

466
00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:41,560
Speaker 2: channeled it into his music, even the pop stuff. That's

467
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:44,520
Speaker 2: what the album You're Under Arrest was about. Clearly, the

468
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:47,879
Speaker 2: numerous injustices were fuel. They were for him, just like

469
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:51,040
Speaker 2: they were for his old friend, Sugar Ray Robinson. Sugar

470
00:27:51,119 --> 00:27:53,840
Speaker 2: Ray was a pure fighter, one of the best. It

471
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:56,440
Speaker 2: was long gone, and Miles was on his.

472
00:27:56,440 --> 00:27:58,520
Speaker 1: Way out too. He knew it.

473
00:27:58,800 --> 00:28:04,440
Speaker 2: He was tired, a long for this world. It was

474
00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:09,199
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety one. Miles was sick a stroke, pneumonia and

475
00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:13,600
Speaker 2: respiratory failure. He was in bed in the hospital. Change

476
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:15,880
Speaker 2: was coming now, motherfucker, and not in a good way.

477
00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:20,639
Speaker 2: Miles accepted it. Turns out change was not only in necessity,

478
00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:24,879
Speaker 2: it was also inevitable. He lay back his woman at

479
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:27,119
Speaker 2: his side in the bed. Fucked those doctors, fucked the

480
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:30,320
Speaker 2: way things were done. His girl could stay. He was

481
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:36,240
Speaker 2: the one going someplace. He closed his eyes, he could

482
00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:39,720
Speaker 2: hear the crowd, and they roared. Sugar Ray danced in

483
00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:44,040
Speaker 2: the ring. Myles sparred with him, friendly but fierce. Ray

484
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:48,320
Speaker 2: bounced in between the ropes. Came his detractors, one final fight,

485
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:54,200
Speaker 2: one after another. First, his father, a big motherfucking swang,

486
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:55,240
Speaker 2: the one he kept.

487
00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:57,760
Speaker 1: Coiled for Miles's mama. Miles leaned back.

488
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:00,120
Speaker 2: He knew at a lean, did it on stage all

489
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:03,440
Speaker 2: the time, perfected that trumpet player lean that he perfected

490
00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 2: that junkie lean. His old man's haymaker didn't stand a chance.

491
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:09,600
Speaker 2: Swung himself out of the ring. In his place, the

492
00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:14,600
Speaker 2: Bird sang out, and then Bird himself. His punches were different, verbal,

493
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:18,360
Speaker 2: big brother, abusive type shit. Bird had no control over

494
00:29:18,400 --> 00:29:22,040
Speaker 2: his mouth, over his appetite. Miles blasted back with his horn.

495
00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:25,640
Speaker 2: Bird ran rings around his journeyman, jive master that he was,

496
00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:26,959
Speaker 2: but Miles was strong.

497
00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:29,080
Speaker 1: Bird was flying south on his way out.

498
00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:33,640
Speaker 2: Next came the critics, fucking morons, every last one. Miles

499
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 2: made quick work of the dance jab shut jive, toyed

500
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 2: with them and then knocked them the fuck out. Then

501
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:43,160
Speaker 2: came the horse, big, strong, a beast that corralled him.

502
00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:46,360
Speaker 2: It knocked him down standing eight count down, but not out.

503
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:49,720
Speaker 2: Miles was strong too. He heard Sugar Ray's voice. It

504
00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:52,840
Speaker 2: propelled him. He overcame, ran that horse out of his

505
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:56,960
Speaker 2: ring for good, and then became Captain Cocaine aka La

506
00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,160
Speaker 2: Cocoroca aka Boom Boom.

507
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:00,440
Speaker 1: Bumci flashy fast.

508
00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:02,760
Speaker 2: He tired Miles out in the three endless rounds, but

509
00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:05,800
Speaker 2: Miles kept pace, reserving a little extra energy for later

510
00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 2: when he knew the Captain would let his guard down,

511
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:11,560
Speaker 2: and when he did, Miles would punish him. When he

512
00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:14,040
Speaker 2: knocked out Captain Cocaine, they carried him out of the

513
00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:15,840
Speaker 2: ring of the stretcher Jimmy Doyle style.

514
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:19,600
Speaker 1: Sugar Ray cringed, Miles shrugged, fucker had it coming.

515
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:24,880
Speaker 2: Then came the cops, one after another over the rope.

516
00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:29,080
Speaker 2: They all wanted a piece. They surrounded Miles. Miles swung this.

517
00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 1: Way, then that, he pulled from deep down.

518
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:34,520
Speaker 3: With every punch he summoned all that rage and all

519
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:36,560
Speaker 3: that pain, all the hate they made him try to

520
00:30:36,600 --> 00:30:42,800
Speaker 3: swallow and pummel them one after another. Down, Down, Down, Down,

521
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:48,720
Speaker 3: Miles Davis saw himself emerge victorious. He exited the auditorium

522
00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:50,479
Speaker 3: through the wild applause of the crowd.

523
00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:54,640
Speaker 1: He didn't give a fuck. Applause was cheap like dancers.

524
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:56,920
Speaker 1: There then gone.

525
00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:01,800
Speaker 2: That cool air hit his sweats, silk skin. He hopped

526
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:05,080
Speaker 2: into his new Lamborghini the when he ordered special with

527
00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:09,160
Speaker 2: his final drive, the one with the ragtop. He peeled

528
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:13,080
Speaker 2: out on that lamp helped the Pacific Coast Highway topped down.

529
00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:17,360
Speaker 2: He raised his fist defiantly to the sky and extended

530
00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:22,880
Speaker 2: his bony middle finger high into the air. Later, motherfuckers,

531
00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:30,400
Speaker 2: Miles Davis was gone dead on September twenty eighth, nineteen

532
00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:32,800
Speaker 2: ninety one, and forever changed.

533
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan in this his Disgraceland.

534
00:31:50,160 --> 00:31:52,960
Speaker 2: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in

535
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:56,400
Speaker 2: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be

536
00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:59,840
Speaker 2: found on the show notes page at disgracelamdpod dot com.

537
00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:03,240
Speaker 2: If you're listening as a disgracelan All Access member, thank

538
00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:05,880
Speaker 2: you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it, and

539
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:08,280
Speaker 2: if not, you can become a member right now by

540
00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:12,680
Speaker 2: going to disgrace lampod dot com Slash membership, members can

541
00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:16,600
Speaker 2: listen to every episode of disgracelan ad free, Plus you'll

542
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Speaker 2: get one brand new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted

543
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544
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Speaker 2: and events. Visit disgraceslampod dot com slash membership for details,

545
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Speaker 2: rate and review the show, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter,

546
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Speaker 2: and Facebook at disgracelampod and on YouTube at YouTube dot

547
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Speaker 2: com slash at disgracelampod.

548
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Speaker 1: Rock a roller, He's a man,