WEBVTT - The Village People Episode 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:03.760 Hey, everyone, do you live in Washington, DC? Are you 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:07.400 sitting around fretting about this upcoming election? Maybe you're even 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:09.840 working on one of these campaigns. Well, we've got a 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:12.360 great stress reliever for you, and that's coming out to 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.240 see us on May thirtieth at the Warner Theater for 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:16.360 Stuff you Should Know Live. 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:21.320 Yeah, we guarantee zero political jokes, one hundred percent zero 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:23.960 political jokes if you come out and see us. We're 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:26.799 gonna be in Medford, mass on May twenty ninth. The 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:29.760 next night, we'll be in DC on May thirtieth, and 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:31.680 then the night after that we'll be at our old friend, 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:34.080 the Town Hall in Manhattan Town, NYC. 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:36.440 That's right, So check out tickets. You can go to 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:38.519 stuff youshould Know dot com, you can go to the 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:42.919 theater websites themselves, avoid those secondary ticket brokers, or check 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:44.800 out our link tree, right, Josh. 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:47.600 Yeah, link tree sysk Live. 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:58.160 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:02.480 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:04.959 Chuck and Jerry's here too. And when you put us 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:11.600 all together, well things get pretty great. How's it going, man. 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:12.520 It's going great. 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:15.480 I've been listening to The Village People off and on 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:16.040 all day. 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:32.240 Yeah, same here and what We're supposed to both come in. Sorry, Chuck, 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:36.520 did you pick this because I cannot imagine that you 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:42.800 weren't a cute little seven year old Village People fan. True, 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.520 So which one did you identify with the most? 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:46.520 Well? 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:51.280 I've told this story before because I posted it on 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:55.840 Instagram way back when I talked about it. But I 0:01:55.880 --> 0:02:03.000 still have a crayon drawing of the Village People because 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:08.640 I would sit around and play Cruising the record Cruising okay, 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:10.840 their third album, their third album, but the one with 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:15.120 YMCA and I Believe in the Navy and like most 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:18.200 of their big hits outside of my favorite Village People song, 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:22.680 which is of course Macho Man Sure such a good song, 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.120 And I would just sit around and listen to Cruising 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:31.720 and stare at that record cover of those guys you 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:34.480 know on the Horse and the most Cycle, the motorcycle 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:37.480 and the Bulldozer, and like I would see them on 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:42.359 American Bandstand and Solid Gold and the early music videos, 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:44.919 and I would just I thought they were the coolest, 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:50.440 most awesome dudes ever in the world. And I would 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:52.359 sit around and draw crayon pictures of them, and I 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:53.480 still have one of them. 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:55.480 Maybe I'll pint it on Instagram. 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:59.239 I'm sort of always laughed years later that like, who 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:02.639 knows what my peer parents were thinking. And we'll get 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:06.720 into the you know, whether or not village people count 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:11.120 or were in fact a gay band. But I imagine at 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.240 the time, in the early to mid seventies, with Southern 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:18.520 Baptist parents, they either weren't aware of that or were 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:24.120 probably pretty like worried about their son when they needn't be, 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:26.959 because either way it would have been fine. 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:28.919 Yeah, well put man, you know what I'm saying. 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:30.919 But back in the seventies, in the in the rural, 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:35.440 not rural, but in a suburban, conservative South, I'm I'm 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:37.200 sure if they didn't, if they did know what was 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:40.080 going on, they're probably like, have you seen these Crown pictures? 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:43.920 Like he drew Little counselor got in Touch. 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:47.880 I drew literal like pancake boobies on the biker Guy 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:51.200 because I didn't know how to draw like a bear 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:52.240 chest correctly. 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:54.240 Yeah hey that worked. 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:57.320 Yeah, So anyway, I'll either scroll through my Insta or 0:03:57.360 --> 0:03:58.960 maybe I'll figure out how to pin stuff. 0:03:59.000 --> 0:03:59.800 But definitely. 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:04.360 We're talking about village people technically not the village people. 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:07.840 It's just sort of one of those things like Eagles 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:10.520 or hall of Oates, where you just you come to 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:12.400 be known by that name even though that's not your 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:12.839 real name. 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:17.400 Yes, like Edith Burkell and New Bohemians. 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:19.720 Oh, is that what it is? It's not the New Bohemians. 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:22.359 Yeah. For some reason, I've always had this memory of 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.919 her correcting David Letterman on Letterman. It's funny in like 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.280 nineteen ninety or something like that. I don't know why 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.359 it stuck with me, but I always she got the 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:32.599 point across. 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:34.039 Sure, And Indigo Girls is the other one. They're not 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:35.080 the Indigo Girls. 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:37.839 Yeah. I don't even say that to their face. They 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:38.960 will they will beat you up. 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.240 Well, if you say Hall of Notes to Daryl Hall, 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:43.599 he gets pretty salty. He's like, we were. 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:44.200 Not hall of Oates. 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:44.920 We never were. 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:46.960 Oh really what were they? 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.040 Look at the the Hall and now every single album 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:51.720 it's Darryl holland John Oates. 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:53.360 They were never Hollan Oates. 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:55.240 And it just does he really get salty about that 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:59.119 because they are much much greater things to be upset 0:04:59.120 --> 0:04:59.400 about that. 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:01.560 I've seen him a little salty, but I think it's 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:03.640 largely because they don't like each other. 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:06.800 Man, why are you telling me all that? 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:09.680 Sorry? 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:12.680 I want Daryl hall and and John Notes to be 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:14.040 like just the best guys ever. 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:18.480 You want to be like, it's like wow or dare 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:19.960 I say, Josh? 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:22.279 And I'm not participating for the rest of this episode, 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:23.760 but I have to chew on some stuff. 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:25.599 All right, let's talk Village People. 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:29.200 Yeah. Actually, one of the things that stood out to 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:31.920 me is this is like the improved version of our 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:35.080 Milli Vanilli episode, because one thing I didn't realize is 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:39.720 that the Village People were like a manufactured band and 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:44.440 they were the brain child I guess collectively yea of 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:51.279 Jacques morale In Henrie Belolo, who are both Moroccan born 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:56.040 French Minten Yeah, who I guess separately kind of got 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:59.760 into the music industry by their own grit and determination 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:02.480 and didn't really know each other at first. They had 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:05.520 their own I think, starting in the fifties and sixties, 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:08.159 had their own careers that they were trying to build, 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:12.960 and eventually in the seventies they came together. Henri Bololo 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:17.040 was kind of like the brains the producer that kind 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:19.919 of type. Jacques Moraley was more he was a producer 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:22.680 as well, but more the hands on, creative type of producer. 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:26.400 And when they came together, some sparks flew even before 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:28.560 the village people were ever around. 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:31.719 Yeah, there's no way to say this without sounding completely 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:34.440 like kind of stuck up. 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:36.960 But I've been listening to a lot of French music lately. 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:40.520 Oh yeah, yeah, there's I mean, if you're in the 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:43.320 right mood there, if you look up like eighties sort 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:47.080 of new wave, but French music, their version, it is 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:48.560 really really awesome stuff. 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:50.600 Nice. I will check that out. 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:54.160 Highly recommended. So yeah, they were, like you said they were, 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.760 had made a name for themselves independently, I believe in 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:04.039 nineteen seventy three, Belolo set up Can't Stop Productions a 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:05.119 couple of years later. 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:07.520 That's a great name, by the way. Oh yeah, it's 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:08.719 just stuck out to me all day. 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:13.280 Oh yeah, and I remember seeing that little logo like 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:15.200 Can't Stop the Music. I think that was the name 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:15.880 of the movie, right. 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:20.800 Yeah. I didn't put those two together, actually, don't just know. 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:24.920 But they eventually met up in the United States and 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:29.680 their first project and release was a real banger. You know, 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:32.440 the song Brazil from the nineteen thirties, the one from 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:36.240 the movie Brazil. They took that and updated it with 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:41.680 a female trio called the Richie Family as a disco song, 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:44.200 and it is, like I said, it's a real banger, 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:45.920 kind of a classic disco song. 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:49.560 Yes, but it was disco before disco actually existed. So 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:51.560 a lot of people kind of credit these two is 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:57.040 really helping lay the foundation for disco. It was that 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:00.640 that period, right before disco became a thing. So it 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:08.480 was a weird transition between like, what's the guy's name, Percy. 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:10.440 Fledge? 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:14.240 Is it Percy Faith in his orchestra? Okay, the transition 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:19.040 between Percy Faith and and John Travolta. This is like 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:23.240 that that slice of music, lots of strings, kind of 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:27.560 salsa based, lots of like chorus and vocals. It was. 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:30.000 It actually was up for the nineteen seventy six Grammy 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:33.000 for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and lost to The Hustle 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:35.320 if that gets it a cross, So like the Hustle 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:38.520 is like proto disco. Yeah, so was this version of Brazil. 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:41.080 And it's right before disco became a thing. 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:43.840 Yeah, Like on the matter of months though probably. 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:46.240 Right, Yeah, I would say that, yeah, okay, I. 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:48.440 Mean losing to the hustle. There's no there's no shame. 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:50.000 There, no, not at all. 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:53.400 So they had this pretty good hit with Brazil again. 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:55.719 I recommend you check it out. It's and listen to 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:58.959 all these songs are all great. Can't Stop Productions was like, 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:01.880 all right, listen, we need we you know, back then 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:04.920 they would just go from thing to thing because it's 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:06.760 not like you can ride out something like the Richie 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:10.120 Family forever, so they're always looking for the next new thing. 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:12.920 In seventy seven, they were hanging out in Greenwich Village, 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:16.319 New York, which then, as it is now, is a 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:21.840 very friendly community for especially gay men. Moraley was gay, 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:24.640 but Belolo was not. But they were hanging out there. 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:26.920 They were going to disco's, they were going to bars 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:30.880 and stuff, and they started to see these guys in 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.880 these clubs that were dressed up as these these sort 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:38.120 of macho American stereo types that they grew up watching 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:42.800 on you know, American TV and American movies. And this 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:47.680 is a direct quote from Blolo. Dave is encouraging me 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:49.560 to read it with a French accent. I'm not sure 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:54.560 about that, but I'll try this from Billboard magazine. We 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:57.920 saw different types of characters and bars. That's how we 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:01.599 decided to cleate a group that's will represent different characters 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.480 of the American male. As we had the idea in 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:09.480 the village, we decided to call the group the Village People. 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:10.400 Simple. 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:13.520 That was a great pepulo peza. 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:17.800 Yeah, that was like they saw these guys in bars 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:22.160 fitting these sort of archetypes or stereotypes of what they 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:25.760 thought like a macho American man was, and they're like, hey, 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.240 this is like a concept right here, right in front 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:28.520 of us. 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:34.480 Yeah, And actually it's possible that it was one specific guy. 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:38.240 They saw, Philippe Rose, Felipe Rose, who was known as 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.880 the Indian, who dressed up as a Native American Indian 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:47.080 around Greenwich Village very flamboyantly because he was a Native 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:51.760 American his father on his father's side, he was Mescalero, Apache, Lakota, 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:56.000 and Cherokee, which is like that's the trifecta, and he 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:57.960 was very proud of it. So he dressed up in 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:01.480 like moccasins and fringe leather vests and all that kind 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:05.400 of thing, and they saw him and that in addition 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:08.640 to going to bars like the mind Shaft, which was 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:13.040 a BDSM gay club, and then seeing other people kind 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.240 of dress up. That's where they put the whole thing together. 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:18.199 And Dave made a really good point here that that 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:25.360 whole concept of dressing people up as like stereotypical American male, 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:32.040 macho like image images essentially that an American producer probably 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:34.280 would have been like, that's not a great idea, it's 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:36.880 kind of lame. But these guys were like looking at 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:41.040 America from the outside in, and I think, like you 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:43.200 kind of alluded to, they were exposed to this like 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:45.199 their whole lives. This is like what they were fed 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.480 through American movies and TV. So to them, they were like, 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:51.120 this is amazing, what a great idea, Like we want 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:55.199 to celebrate this American macho male and that's where the 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:56.400 village people came from. 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:58.440 Yeah, I'm not so sure about that part, but I 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:00.800 respect Dave's opinion. If you agree with. 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:02.720 Him, I do agree with him on that. 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:03.280 I respect you. 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:04.400 I'm going with Dave on this. 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:06.720 I bet they're American producers that are like, oh God, 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:08.520 that's right there in front of my face, can't believe it, 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:08.920 and think. 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:11.400 Of Hey, yeah, in hindsight. 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:17.520 So Moroley started writing songs. You know, like you said, 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:19.680 they were inspired by Felipe Rose. I don't think you said. 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:22.240 He was basically kicked out of his house because he 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:24.880 came out as gay. So he was hanging out in 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:29.000 the village, working in bars and stuff. The Richie family was, 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:30.760 you know, they were trying to eke a little, trying 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:33.719 to ring that thing dry from the Richie family. And 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:35.840 they were getting a new album together. They needed some 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.520 backup singers, and someone said, hey, there's this guy. He's 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:42.599 on Broadway right now in the Whiz. His name is 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.079 Victor Willis. The guy can really sing, It's got a 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:48.000 lot of personality, can dance a little bit. You should 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:50.360 bring him in here as a backup singer. Roley brought 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:52.960 him into the studio and it was like, dude, you 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:56.760 are a star, so we need to get you to 0:12:56.840 --> 0:13:00.400 record these other songs we've written that. There were no 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.800 Village people yet, but in nineteen seventy seven he cut 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:07.280 their very first disco hit. And you'll see a lot 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:09.640 of parentheticals because that was the time. But this is 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:11.439 called San Francisco parentheses. 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:14.760 You got me another good song. 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:18.440 So, yeah, Victor Willis was the first. This is long 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:22.320 before Felipe Rose came along, but after they had seen 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:24.880 Felipe Rose, right, so they were inspired to create the 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:28.400 village people. But Victor Willis was really the only village 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:32.280 person at the time. Everybody else was just studio session 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.960 musicians and singers and stuff like that, right, So that 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:38.240 worked fine when they cut that first album, which I 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:42.200 think was like four songs or something like that, and 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.480 they had that hit with San Francisco You Really Got Me. 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.800 And with that hit, they're like, okay, you got Me 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:51.079 San Francisco. Yeah, which is funny because, as we'll see 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:54.520 later on, Victor Willis would become a fugitive from the 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:57.520 law and he would finally be arrested in San Francisco. 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:03.080 So he was so but he was the village people. 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:05.360 And now that San Francisco Got Me was a hit, 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:09.720 like apparently an international club hit, they needed more people, 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:14.200 and so they started looking for other village people and 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:18.200 the first one they recruited was Felipe Rose, appropriately enough, 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:22.040 because apparently he was unknowingly the inspiration for the whole thing. 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:25.960 Right, Funny enough, they were San Francisco You Got Me 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:28.920 was big in Australia. As you'll see, that's become a 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:32.440 recurring thing. It seems like Australians love the Village People. Yeah, 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:35.000 so I'm curious to hear from them that if you 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:37.760 look at that first album cover, it is not the 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:41.640 Village People. And I don't even think Victor Willis is 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:44.120 on the cover. It's just it's a bunch of guys. 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:49.360 There is a guy wearing a Native American headdress, but 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:52.880 I don't think it's Felipe Rose, No, none of them. 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:56.880 There's a flannel shirt, hard hat guy, and there is 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:00.520 a biker. But that's it, just those three sort of 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:02.880 village people that we went on to know and love. 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:06.160 Everyone else is just a bunch of guys stand around 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:10.840 in T shirts looking tough with a motorcycle and frame. 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:14.280 Yeah. I mean, so they had the concept, they just 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:16.680 didn't have the people yet. So they're slowly starting to 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:20.480 assemble this. Now they have Victor Willis and Felipe Rose. 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:24.560 They've got the first two and they actually put an 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:28.480 ad in the paper, I would guess the Village Voice 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:35.840 looking for gay men, singers and dancers with mustaches to 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:41.000 basically audition for the roles in this band, not like 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.840 can you play the bass? Can you? Can you play 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:47.000 the drums? But do you have a mustache? And are 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:50.240 you good looking? And a singer and dancer? And they 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:52.760 got from what I saw like thousands of replies. 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:54.920 Yeah, this was They were never a band. It was 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:58.440 always just supposed to be a singing group, and they did. 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:02.560 I believe Felipe or I'm sorry. Glenn Hughes, who was 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:06.600 the biker. He worked at the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel collecting tolls, 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.360 saw the ad. By his memory, the ad said seeking 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:14.160 gay singers and dancers, very good looking and with mustaches. 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:17.960 Probably wasn't hard to find at that time. 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:20.760 Well, all his friends were like, Glenn, that's you, buddy, 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:22.160 Like you need to get in there. 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:26.720 Yeah, So Glenn Hughes became the village people's leather man, 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:29.480 which apparently was not a stretch for him. I think 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:32.400 he was already in the leather at the time, so 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:35.120 he became the leatherman slash biker, right. 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:37.520 That's right. He was the third. I think. 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.360 The second one to join up was Alex Briley, who 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:45.240 came at Victor Willis's recommendation. He was the original sort 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:48.680 of stereotype for him was he was the athlete, but 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.040 then they changed that pretty quickly to the army guy. 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:54.920 He was the gi and also the Navy sailor, so 0:16:55.320 --> 0:17:00.240 he kind of crossed over the different arm services, I guess, yes. 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:03.080 And then another guy who responded to the ad was 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:07.240 David Hodo. He had just gotten done with the musical 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:09.520 about the Grand Old Opry and basically went out for 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.400 the cowboy. They're like, nope, you're a construction worker. Through 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.240 and through, a guy named Randy Jones became the cowboy, 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:18.480 and so you had Victor Willis, Felipe Rose, Alex Bridley, 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:22.119 Randy Jones, David Hodo, and Glenn Hughes, which, by the way, 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.359 I realized earlier today that I could rattle off the 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:29.360 names of the original village people now. But that's who 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:32.399 the village people were at first. And I say we 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:35.320 take a break, because now we've got this murderer's row 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:40.199 of mustachioed, generally gay guys ready to hit the disco 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:42.639 scene and they're about to blow up. 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.480 All right, so we're back. We have our village people assembled. 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:11.280 I think we failed to mention earlier that Dick Clark 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:15.640 and American Bandstan American Bandstand. The TV show had already 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.600 sort of reached out after they had San Francisco You 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:20.560 Got Me as a hit, but they were like, there 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:22.800 is no village people yet, we can't just you know, 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:25.120 send one guy out there. So they got these other 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:29.360 guys together. In December of nineteen seventy seven, they appeared 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:32.879 for the first time on American Bandstand. I could not, 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:37.040 for the life of me find this exact performance. Oh yeah, no, 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:38.840 I couldn't find it anywhere. I mean they were on 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.000 quite a few times, but I never saw the one 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:45.840 from seventy seven somehow. But that was their American you know, 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:49.040 TV debut and debut of the world when they sang 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:52.760 San Francisco or I guess lip SYNCD and and the 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:57.480 song in Hollywood parentheses everybody is a star. 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.440 Yep, And you're right, pentheses where a thing back then? 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:04.240 I just died in your arms tonight? 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:05.720 Is that a real one? 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:06.640 Yeah? 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:08.440 I remember we talked about it a few weeks ago, 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:10.000 that cutting crew song. 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:12.280 I just didn't know if you fooled me then or not. 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:16.320 No, no, no, it's it's legit. Have you been walking around 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:16.919 wondering that? 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:18.600 Yeah for three weeks. 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:22.080 So we're onto your favorite song, Chuck, which I agree. 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:26.280 I think it's the best Village People song. Macho Man. Yeah, 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.439 and that was in their second album. So their first album, 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:31.320 like you said, was called Village People. It came out 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:33.879 in nineteen seventy seven. Their second album came out in 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:37.919 nineteen seventy eight, and that was the one. It was. 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:40.600 The album was called Macho Man, and the big single 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:42.400 from it was called Macho Man as well. 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:44.159 Is it okay if we read some of the lyrics 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:45.040 to some of these songs? 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:49.639 Yes, I saved them too, Oh you did, Okay? I 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:51.119 think you should sing them. 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:53.320 Not going to sing them, okay, though it might be 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:53.760 hard not to. 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:55.720 And I'm not going to read them all because there's 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:58.920 that intro, that great intro to Macho Man, when they're going, 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:02.000 you know, body, body, and he's going to want to 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:04.119 feel my body, such a thrill, my body, want to 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:08.160 touch my body. That's all that long intro. And then 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:11.760 here here's some of the words to the verse. Every 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:14.399 man wants to be a macho Macho man, to have 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:18.000 the kind of body always in demand, jogging in the mornings, 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:21.600 go man, go, workouts in the health spa, muscles grow, 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:27.560 you can tell a macho man. He has a funky walk. 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:30.959 His Western shirts and leather always looks so boss punky 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:33.720 with his body. He's a king. Call him mister Ego. 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:37.639 Dig his chains. Every man ought to be a macho 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:40.800 macho man to live a life of freedom. MACHOs make 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:44.840 a stand, have your own lifestyle and ideals, possess the 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:46.959 strength of confidence. That's the skill. 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.280 But it's so if you dig into that last bit, 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:56.720 this song goes from essentially just total body worship and 0:20:56.800 --> 0:20:59.439 like working out at the spa and all that stuff 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:01.320 and however, but he wants to be a macho man 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:06.480 to essentially like that. The last verse is about gay 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:09.360 liberation and basically coming out of the closet, it sounds. 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:12.400 Have your own lifestyles and ideals possessed the strength of confidence. Yeah, 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:13.680 say exactly. 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:16.200 Yeah. So it really takes like a sudden turn there 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:20.240 because it's like the most superficial vein song of all time, 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:23.399 and then it suddenly like kind of is a shout 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:28.320 out for gay liberation. Yeah, this was like it's kind 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:30.600 of tough to wrap your head around here in twenty 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:33.800 twenty four. Sadly, it's not as tough as it should be, 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.800 but it's still tough to wrap your head around just 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:40.800 how big of a deal it was for men to 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:47.600