1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:18,000
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a

2
00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:21,360
Speaker 1: story about one of the biggest pop stars on the planet.

3
00:00:21,960 --> 00:00:27,400
Speaker 1: A Grammy winning, chart topping, staggeringly successful musician, an artist

4
00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:32,680
Speaker 1: who refuses to be easily defined, a shape shifting, influential,

5
00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:38,720
Speaker 1: five tool multi hyphenate icon, a singer, a songwriter, an actor,

6
00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:42,839
Speaker 1: an endlessly compelling superstar with legions of followers from all

7
00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:47,880
Speaker 1: over the world. She's more than mainstream. She is the mainstream.

8
00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:52,560
Speaker 1: Yet she's the voice of the marginalized, the alienated, the isolated,

9
00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:57,959
Speaker 1: of freaks and monsters everywhere, and she inspires more than

10
00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:04,119
Speaker 1: just fandom and obsession. She's compelled countless conspiracy theorists whose

11
00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:08,240
Speaker 1: claims about her are as absurd as they are horrifying.

12
00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:12,600
Speaker 1: She's a man, She's a murderer. Are these claims true?

13
00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:17,399
Speaker 1: And if not, why won't they go away? What is

14
00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:23,040
Speaker 1: it about this artist that drives these persistent conspiracies. The

15
00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:27,720
Speaker 1: artist I'm talking about is, of course, Lady Gaga, an

16
00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:33,120
Speaker 1: artist who yes, makes great music. Unlike that music I

17
00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:35,600
Speaker 1: played for you at the top of the show. That

18
00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:39,039
Speaker 1: wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my

19
00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:45,679
Speaker 1: melotron called Fishnets on Delancey MK One. I played you

20
00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:48,720
Speaker 1: that loop because I can't afford the rights to so

21
00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:52,520
Speaker 1: What by Pink? And why would I play you that

22
00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:56,840
Speaker 1: specific slice of dirt bike dating Cheese? Could I afford it?

23
00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:01,840
Speaker 1: Because that was the number one song in America on

24
00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:05,120
Speaker 1: October fourth, two thousand and eight, And that was the

25
00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:09,960
Speaker 1: day Lady Gaga's friend and musical collaborator Lena Morgana died,

26
00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:14,040
Speaker 1: an event that kicked off one of the wildest, darkest

27
00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:20,120
Speaker 1: rumors in modern music history. On this episode, Influencer per

28
00:02:20,240 --> 00:02:26,040
Speaker 1: shape Shifter, Icon of sex or intersex, borrowed or stolen identity,

29
00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:31,800
Speaker 1: suicide or murder, Illuminati or Catholic schoolgirl gone wrong, the

30
00:02:31,880 --> 00:02:36,360
Speaker 1: Lady Gaga story you didn't know you needed. I'm Jake Brennan,

31
00:02:36,919 --> 00:02:56,280
Speaker 1: and this this Disgraceland. Most people spend hours perfecting the

32
00:02:56,320 --> 00:02:59,960
Speaker 1: outfits they're going to wear to gain entrance into exclusive nightclubs.

33
00:03:00,919 --> 00:03:04,160
Speaker 1: The opposite is true if one seeks admission to Berlin's

34
00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:09,800
Speaker 1: lab Oratory, part of the notorious Bergaine nightclub complex, which

35
00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:13,240
Speaker 1: opens at eleven fifty nine pm Friday evening and closes

36
00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:18,120
Speaker 1: around nine am Monday morning. Bergaine's doormen are as selective

37
00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:21,040
Speaker 1: as Studio fifty four, as notorious Mark Bennecket once was,

38
00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:27,480
Speaker 1: but twice as cruel at Bergaine, outrageous outfits are not encouraged.

39
00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:31,239
Speaker 1: It's best to rock your simplest jeans and T shirt

40
00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:34,040
Speaker 1: combo and act like you don't care, which, of course

41
00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:38,680
Speaker 1: you very much do. The doorman's harsh East German stare

42
00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:43,800
Speaker 1: betrays nothing. His face is blank as death and bleak

43
00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:47,680
Speaker 1: like a Berlin mourning. Though your heart is in your throat,

44
00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:52,400
Speaker 1: you play it cool. You're not drunk, you're not obviously high.

45
00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:55,480
Speaker 1: You haven't spoken a word while in line, so the

46
00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:58,640
Speaker 1: dorman has no idea that you don't speak German. He

47
00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:02,040
Speaker 1: gives you a slow one or with gestapo like suspicion,

48
00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:05,840
Speaker 1: and steps aside, clearing a free path to the heavy

49
00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:10,120
Speaker 1: industrial door covered in graffiti. You return a stare with

50
00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:13,360
Speaker 1: your own blankness and proceed through the door, which somehow

51
00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:17,320
Speaker 1: opens on its own before you get to it. Inside

52
00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:20,280
Speaker 1: this mammoth, fourth story brick and mortar tribute to Sodom

53
00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:24,520
Speaker 1: and Gomorrah, you're surrounded by a blackness, only penetrated in

54
00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:29,479
Speaker 1: minuscule moments by brief bursts of strobing white light. The

55
00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:34,560
Speaker 1: pulsing house music pommels you somehow, It's both muffled and

56
00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:39,440
Speaker 1: suffocatingly loud. Your ear drums hollow out. Then the walls are,

57
00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:42,560
Speaker 1: your stomach vibrate. You wonder if this is what havana

58
00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:47,160
Speaker 1: syndrome feels like. The thought disappears, and so does the

59
00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:50,479
Speaker 1: twinge of nausea as your heart rate quickens with anticipation.

60
00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:54,760
Speaker 1: While you pass through Brigaanne's labyrinth of long, winding hallways

61
00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:59,120
Speaker 1: beneath forty foot ceilings. You walk past secret passageways to

62
00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:02,080
Speaker 1: even more secret rooms where you and others will partake

63
00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:04,919
Speaker 1: and acts that, decades ago, where they not kept secret,

64
00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:10,960
Speaker 1: would have resulted in harsh societal condemnation, persecution, jail, violence,

65
00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:17,159
Speaker 1: and even death. You press on up countless staircases, slipping

66
00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:21,000
Speaker 1: through various entrances into a maze work of club settings.

67
00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:25,720
Speaker 1: You wonder how you'll describe this the Burgane Nightclub Complex

68
00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:29,400
Speaker 1: to your friends. Imagine if Trent Reznor designed a music

69
00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:32,880
Speaker 1: and dance mall dedicated to debauchery. That's about the best

70
00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:35,039
Speaker 1: you can come up with. As you rub shoulders with

71
00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:38,840
Speaker 1: the like minded hedonists from all over the globe, different countries,

72
00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:43,000
Speaker 1: different backgrounds, with different looks and different sexual orientations, though

73
00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:46,320
Speaker 1: mostly gay, and each of them seeking a different version

74
00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:49,039
Speaker 1: of what you seek, the freedom to be who you

75
00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:52,480
Speaker 1: truly are, and to align your true identity with your

76
00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:58,400
Speaker 1: most honest sexual desires. The word freak seems pejorative, but

77
00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:01,480
Speaker 1: that's not how you see it. You view the word

78
00:06:01,560 --> 00:06:04,920
Speaker 1: the same as the composer of the Stuart Price remix

79
00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:08,440
Speaker 1: that's blasting across the Burganne dance floor, the same way

80
00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:11,880
Speaker 1: that that composer views the word freak as a badge

81
00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:15,880
Speaker 1: of honor. And that composer, of course, is not only

82
00:06:15,920 --> 00:06:20,800
Speaker 1: your favorite pop star. She's your champion, your icon. You're

83
00:06:20,839 --> 00:06:23,680
Speaker 1: one of her little monsters, and she's your quote unquote

84
00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:27,159
Speaker 1: mother monster. One of the biggest stars of the twenty

85
00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:32,719
Speaker 1: first century. Lady Gaga, who was just as you were,

86
00:06:33,400 --> 00:06:36,560
Speaker 1: born this way, an artist who told the world that

87
00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:40,120
Speaker 1: she always felt like a freak, An artist who took

88
00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:43,880
Speaker 1: her awkward feelings of high school alienation and isolation and

89
00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:47,920
Speaker 1: used them as fuel fuel to empower her and her

90
00:06:48,160 --> 00:06:51,520
Speaker 1: millions of fans, you included. She empowered all of you

91
00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:55,680
Speaker 1: to embrace your true identities and to reclaim the word freak,

92
00:06:56,480 --> 00:07:02,320
Speaker 1: and with that reclamation comes liberation. Freedom. And so here

93
00:07:02,360 --> 00:07:07,560
Speaker 1: you are inside the Bergane nightclub complex, outside the entryway

94
00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:11,840
Speaker 1: to the lab Oratory. The club stylizes its name as

95
00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:15,880
Speaker 1: lab dot Oratory, a semi clever take on the word laboratory.

96
00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:19,160
Speaker 1: Thus my kind of strange pronunciation of the club's name.

97
00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:23,800
Speaker 1: Lab Oratory isn't just any club. It's a sex club

98
00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:29,440
Speaker 1: with rules. Lab Oratory is for men only on most nights,

99
00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:34,080
Speaker 1: and the club's motto is play safe, dress dirty. Before

100
00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:37,160
Speaker 1: one can enter, one must make a prerequisite stop in

101
00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:42,160
Speaker 1: the locker room. You know the drill. Lab Oratory advertisements

102
00:07:42,200 --> 00:07:46,840
Speaker 1: are clear. There's a strict dress code, fully naked, shoes

103
00:07:46,880 --> 00:07:51,280
Speaker 1: only under the locker rooms fluorescent lights. You strip down,

104
00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:54,440
Speaker 1: stuff your clothes in a plastic bag and throw the

105
00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:57,880
Speaker 1: bag into a locker. Eagerly, you make your way into

106
00:07:57,960 --> 00:08:03,040
Speaker 1: lab Oratory, again, fully naked except for your sneakers. The

107
00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:07,640
Speaker 1: club's flyers prohibit not only clothing but also cologne, and

108
00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:12,360
Speaker 1: you immediately understand why. The smell hits you almost as

109
00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:15,960
Speaker 1: hard as the music. In a word, a club smells

110
00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:22,080
Speaker 1: like men, a raunchy, exhilarating mix of pheromones, sex, and

111
00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:26,120
Speaker 1: the sweet scent of vodka, which famously is odorless until

112
00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:29,840
Speaker 1: it passes through one's sweat pores. All of it fills

113
00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:33,280
Speaker 1: the air and your nostrils, and with the music, you're

114
00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:36,760
Speaker 1: already enthralled before your brain even begins to register where

115
00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:41,400
Speaker 1: your eyes are seeing black and white sexual psychedelia, a

116
00:08:41,520 --> 00:08:45,640
Speaker 1: dom doom dance floor jammed with different body types, all nude,

117
00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:49,560
Speaker 1: all sharing the same space, strangers clinging to some type

118
00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:52,880
Speaker 1: of communal intimacy, and you now know that you'll never

119
00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:56,800
Speaker 1: be able to explain this. It's something that can only

120
00:08:56,880 --> 00:09:01,080
Speaker 1: be felt. This is something far too experience, like love

121
00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:05,840
Speaker 1: or faith, something that words too often failed to describe.

122
00:09:06,080 --> 00:09:09,120
Speaker 1: Gas Masks hang from the wall. Men speak to you

123
00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:13,520
Speaker 1: with gestures, signals, not words. Words are no good here.

124
00:09:14,120 --> 00:09:16,520
Speaker 1: The music is too loud, and the shared frequency that

125
00:09:16,559 --> 00:09:20,680
Speaker 1: everyone is plugged into makes speaking unnecessary. You all want

126
00:09:20,720 --> 00:09:25,560
Speaker 1: the same thing, not sex, freedom, and everyone in this

127
00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:29,840
Speaker 1: club understands what that means. This isn't the nineteen seventies.

128
00:09:30,240 --> 00:09:34,559
Speaker 1: This isn't New York's meatpacking district. Floor shows and spectacle

129
00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:38,640
Speaker 1: fisting are outre This is the twenty first century. And

130
00:09:38,679 --> 00:09:42,200
Speaker 1: though lab oratory is primal, and though nearly every kink

131
00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:47,600
Speaker 1: is allowed, this space is also profoundly respectful. To repeat,

132
00:09:48,040 --> 00:09:52,480
Speaker 1: the so called freak is celebrated, and with this respect

133
00:09:53,040 --> 00:09:56,440
Speaker 1: comes the type of tenderness that would otherwise be absent

134
00:09:56,559 --> 00:09:59,560
Speaker 1: from a nightclub full of naked men dancing and fucking

135
00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:03,360
Speaker 1: to the sound pounds of Lady Gaga house mixes. After all,

136
00:10:04,040 --> 00:10:07,679
Speaker 1: laboratory is the setting for one of the most notorious

137
00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:11,479
Speaker 1: chapters of what has become the myth of Lady Gaga.

138
00:10:12,280 --> 00:10:15,760
Speaker 1: It's the place where one of the most unsettling and

139
00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:20,360
Speaker 1: controversial conspiracy theories surrounding the pop star would be finally

140
00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:48,520
Speaker 1: put to bed. Ever since Lady Gaga burst into mainstream

141
00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:52,400
Speaker 1: public consciousness in two thousand and eight, conflicting information about

142
00:10:52,440 --> 00:10:55,359
Speaker 1: who she was and where she came from has persisted.

143
00:10:56,360 --> 00:10:59,559
Speaker 1: To hear Gaga tell it back then. Anyway, the young

144
00:10:59,640 --> 00:11:02,520
Speaker 1: twenty three year old pop star described herself to interviewers

145
00:11:02,559 --> 00:11:06,080
Speaker 1: as having grown up as an outsider, a quote unquote

146
00:11:06,240 --> 00:11:10,160
Speaker 1: goth girl with hair dyed black. Equally obsessed with David

147
00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:14,520
Speaker 1: Bowie and Judy Garland. Gaga strategically offered other bits for

148
00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:17,720
Speaker 1: her past, too, like the fact that before she became

149
00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:21,439
Speaker 1: a global sensation selling out stadiums and countries all over

150
00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:24,320
Speaker 1: the world, she worked a poll on New York's Lower

151
00:11:24,360 --> 00:11:27,840
Speaker 1: East Side as a burlesque dancer. Or that Gaga, like

152
00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:31,360
Speaker 1: many feral denizens of the LS back in the mid oughts,

153
00:11:31,440 --> 00:11:34,760
Speaker 1: from the Strokes to Ryan Adams, knew exactly what it

154
00:11:34,800 --> 00:11:38,760
Speaker 1: meant when a fellow barhawk whispered meet me in the bathroom.

155
00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:42,920
Speaker 1: These biographical sketches of Lady Gaga's past, doled out in

156
00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:46,360
Speaker 1: the many interviews she gave as her career began to skyrocket,

157
00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:50,240
Speaker 1: are not false, but they do color only between the

158
00:11:50,280 --> 00:11:54,480
Speaker 1: lines of a carefully designed, artist driven creation myth. It's

159
00:11:54,520 --> 00:11:58,280
Speaker 1: an origin story that leaves out a lot, and as

160
00:11:58,280 --> 00:12:01,880
Speaker 1: it pertains to Gaga's high school year, presents it almost

161
00:12:01,960 --> 00:12:05,760
Speaker 1: and I say the word almost very intentionally, an almost

162
00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:09,719
Speaker 1: false depiction of who she was. Do I think that

163
00:12:09,760 --> 00:12:13,040
Speaker 1: we should fault Lady Gaga for this? Absolutely not. Most

164
00:12:13,080 --> 00:12:15,240
Speaker 1: of the best artists, from Bob Dylan to Lou Reed

165
00:12:15,280 --> 00:12:17,800
Speaker 1: to Jack White Bowie and too many others to name.

166
00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:22,200
Speaker 1: The best artists painstakingly fueled their own myths by carefully

167
00:12:22,240 --> 00:12:26,440
Speaker 1: cultivating their origin stories Bob Dylan wasn't raised by Carnie

168
00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:29,480
Speaker 1: Barker's and Lou Reed didn't go to Harvard. Jack White

169
00:12:29,559 --> 00:12:32,640
Speaker 1: wasn't Meg White's brother, David Bowie didn't fall to Earth,

170
00:12:32,880 --> 00:12:35,720
Speaker 1: and Lady Gaga wasn't born with a penis. More on

171
00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:38,360
Speaker 1: that when we returned to Labratory in a moment, But first,

172
00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:42,720
Speaker 1: let's quickly look at who Lady Gaga was before she

173
00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:50,280
Speaker 1: was Lady Gaga. She was Stephanie Germanada, and she grew

174
00:12:50,360 --> 00:12:54,040
Speaker 1: up rich on New York'supper West Side. You know the

175
00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:56,720
Speaker 1: guest wi fi you used to get onto the Internet

176
00:12:56,800 --> 00:13:00,439
Speaker 1: with your computer in hotels, the one that's literally called

177
00:13:00,720 --> 00:13:05,720
Speaker 1: guest WiFi. Her dad, Joe Germanada, invented that. He also

178
00:13:05,800 --> 00:13:11,559
Speaker 1: invented Stephanie Germanada aka Lady Gaga. Joe and his wife

179
00:13:11,679 --> 00:13:15,480
Speaker 1: raised their daughter Catholic, sending her to a prestigious private school,

180
00:13:15,920 --> 00:13:20,000
Speaker 1: the exclusive all girls Convent of the Sacred Heart in Manhattan.

181
00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:23,679
Speaker 1: The school is set in a converted mansion, and if

182
00:13:23,679 --> 00:13:25,679
Speaker 1: you want an idea of what type of exclusivity we're

183
00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:29,880
Speaker 1: talking about, Convent of the Sacred Heart's past students include

184
00:13:30,120 --> 00:13:34,600
Speaker 1: Anderson Cooper's mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, heiress to the Vanderbilt Fortune,

185
00:13:34,720 --> 00:13:38,360
Speaker 1: Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy in

186
00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:43,240
Speaker 1: both Paris, and Nikki Hilton. I didn't attend Catholic school,

187
00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:47,199
Speaker 1: but I imagine it's a fairly stuffy experience. I can

188
00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:50,319
Speaker 1: see how someone like Lady Gaga might describe her experience

189
00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:53,360
Speaker 1: there as that of an outsider being made to feel

190
00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:57,720
Speaker 1: like a quote unquote freak. But former classmates and photos

191
00:13:57,760 --> 00:14:01,000
Speaker 1: of Stephanie Germanada's school days, which one can now find

192
00:14:01,040 --> 00:14:04,280
Speaker 1: on the Internet, they all paint a different picture of

193
00:14:04,320 --> 00:14:09,800
Speaker 1: her school days. Classmates describe her as social involved. Even

194
00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:15,280
Speaker 1: outgoing photos reveal a smiling, fresh faced, enthusiastic student wearing

195
00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:19,000
Speaker 1: her school uniform to code and eagerly participating in masks

196
00:14:19,040 --> 00:14:23,560
Speaker 1: and in student plays in musicals. To this day, Lady

197
00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:26,840
Speaker 1: Gaga remains close with a number of her high school classmates.

198
00:14:27,440 --> 00:14:30,000
Speaker 1: Her loyalty to her friends is surpassed only by her

199
00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:33,560
Speaker 1: loyalty to her family, where Gaga has made no secret

200
00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:36,000
Speaker 1: about the fact that, despite being one of the biggest

201
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:38,800
Speaker 1: stars on the planet, she still often returns to her

202
00:14:38,840 --> 00:14:41,880
Speaker 1: parents three story duplex to surround herself with their love

203
00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:45,520
Speaker 1: and the familiar comforts of her childhood home. All of

204
00:14:45,560 --> 00:14:49,360
Speaker 1: this is at odds with how Gaga has described herself.

205
00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:53,560
Speaker 1: We're all very aware of how nineties and early aughts

206
00:14:53,560 --> 00:14:57,880
Speaker 1: outsiders and freaks looked and behaved. They were seldom seen

207
00:14:57,960 --> 00:15:01,840
Speaker 1: smiling in yearbook photos with other student it's eagerly attending

208
00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:05,960
Speaker 1: Catholic Mass, ambitiously going for lead roles in school plays,

209
00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:08,680
Speaker 1: or heading home on weekends to hang with their parents.

210
00:15:08,800 --> 00:15:13,400
Speaker 1: After becoming rock stars, their histories look quite different. Actually,

211
00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:17,800
Speaker 1: late nineties and early odds outsiders were infrequently, if ever,

212
00:15:17,920 --> 00:15:21,880
Speaker 1: pictured in candid moments in their yearbooks smiling. Real music

213
00:15:21,960 --> 00:15:26,720
Speaker 1: driven outsiders didn't eagerly attend anything except punk and DII shows,

214
00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:29,560
Speaker 1: never mind Catholic Mass, and they didn't go out for

215
00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:33,120
Speaker 1: school plays, and, god willing they ever achieved rock star status,

216
00:15:33,240 --> 00:15:34,880
Speaker 1: the last place they were going to go as a

217
00:15:34,920 --> 00:15:37,400
Speaker 1: young twenty something was home to mommy and daddy on

218
00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:42,080
Speaker 1: the weekend. But all of this said, I don't think

219
00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:45,920
Speaker 1: Lady Gaga was lying about feeling like an outsider, despite

220
00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:48,640
Speaker 1: the person we now know that she was pretty fame

221
00:15:49,760 --> 00:15:53,080
Speaker 1: because Lady Gaga had something that ninety nine percent of

222
00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:58,720
Speaker 1: her fellow humans don't have a blinding, almost suffocating ambition

223
00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:03,800
Speaker 1: to be the biggest star on the planet. From an

224
00:16:03,840 --> 00:16:07,720
Speaker 1: early age, she was absolutely driven to make it as

225
00:16:07,720 --> 00:16:12,240
Speaker 1: a performer, specifically as a singer and songwriter. You can

226
00:16:12,280 --> 00:16:15,080
Speaker 1: see it in those pictures from Sacred Heart, and you

227
00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:18,160
Speaker 1: can see it in those embarrassing videos of Stephanie Germanada

228
00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:21,040
Speaker 1: from her NYU days back in the early two thousands

229
00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:24,680
Speaker 1: on stage at the Bitter End, about as uncool a

230
00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:26,640
Speaker 1: New York venue as you could find at the time,

231
00:16:27,040 --> 00:16:29,560
Speaker 1: fighting her way through led Zeppelin covers to a near

232
00:16:29,600 --> 00:16:32,800
Speaker 1: empty room with a half ass hippie band backing her up.

233
00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:35,640
Speaker 1: And you can see it in later photos of a

234
00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:39,200
Speaker 1: reinvented Lady Gaga from her Lower East Side days, working

235
00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:42,360
Speaker 1: the bars on Ludlow and Delancey for every ounce of

236
00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:45,840
Speaker 1: credibility she could scrouch and leotard's and go go boots.

237
00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:48,520
Speaker 1: During a time when she was clawing her way toward

238
00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:53,080
Speaker 1: a major label record deal, Stephanie Germanada wasn't going to

239
00:16:53,120 --> 00:16:55,640
Speaker 1: be denied. If you spoke to those who have known

240
00:16:55,720 --> 00:16:58,000
Speaker 1: Lady Gaga for a long time, they'd I'll tell you

241
00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:02,320
Speaker 1: that this ambition was always there. She was always hustling.

242
00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:04,760
Speaker 1: She worked her way into a development deal with the

243
00:17:04,800 --> 00:17:09,120
Speaker 1: top notch producer. She was writing, demoing, constantly, chasing down

244
00:17:09,160 --> 00:17:12,000
Speaker 1: live gigs, hanging out at the right places, showing up

245
00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:14,520
Speaker 1: at the right parties, seeking out the right people to

246
00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:17,080
Speaker 1: be seen with, and sleeping with the hottest bartender on

247
00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:19,680
Speaker 1: the Lower East Side, a long haired metal head named

248
00:17:19,720 --> 00:17:22,720
Speaker 1: Loof because of course he was. And she was scouring

249
00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:25,480
Speaker 1: the trendy digital blog pages of last night's party and

250
00:17:25,520 --> 00:17:28,800
Speaker 1: the Cobra Snake for pictures of herself from the night before.

251
00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:34,760
Speaker 1: For Lady Gaga, the hustle never stopped. She lived, worked, slept,

252
00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:39,360
Speaker 1: and dreamed. Hustle. Everything she did, including engaging in her

253
00:17:39,359 --> 00:17:43,919
Speaker 1: favorite topic of conversation, herself, was all about making it.

254
00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:49,400
Speaker 1: This type of ambition isn't only blinding, it's isolating. When

255
00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:51,880
Speaker 1: you orient your life around a goal with the type

256
00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:54,439
Speaker 1: of drive that causes you to behave differently than anyone

257
00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:57,200
Speaker 1: else you know and come in contact with, well, you're

258
00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:03,119
Speaker 1: by definition alienating yourself. So was Lady Gaga an outsider

259
00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:08,000
Speaker 1: back in her formative years, Yes, absolutely she was. She

260
00:18:08,160 --> 00:18:11,159
Speaker 1: just invented an origin story her audience could better relate

261
00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:14,920
Speaker 1: to and that speaks to her genius. But what about

262
00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:18,480
Speaker 1: her penis you ask? Oh? Yeah, right back to the

263
00:18:18,560 --> 00:18:25,280
Speaker 1: lab oratory in Berlin. When Lady Gaga and her entourage

264
00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:29,840
Speaker 1: entered the Bergane nightclub complex in twenty ten, Stephanie Germanada's

265
00:18:29,880 --> 00:18:33,119
Speaker 1: identity had long since been supplanted by the Mother Monster,

266
00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:38,240
Speaker 1: the Gagaloo, Gags Gaga, Lady Gaga, the new queen of pop.

267
00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:42,600
Speaker 1: By twenty ten, Lady Gaga was caught in a hurricane

268
00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:46,280
Speaker 1: of unprecedented success for a new artist. I could fill

269
00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:50,440
Speaker 1: the entirety of this podcast giving examples of just how

270
00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:55,160
Speaker 1: staggeringly successful Gaga had become by twenty ten, only three

271
00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:58,040
Speaker 1: years into her professional career, but I'm not going to

272
00:18:58,080 --> 00:19:01,560
Speaker 1: do that. After releasing her day album The Fame in

273
00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:04,480
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, the woman didn't just have hit singles.

274
00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:07,919
Speaker 1: She had the biggest selling singles of the year. She

275
00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:10,760
Speaker 1: captivated the world with her performance at the fifty second

276
00:19:10,840 --> 00:19:14,040
Speaker 1: Grammy Awards, drew more than a few comparisons to mid

277
00:19:14,119 --> 00:19:17,320
Speaker 1: career Madonna, chief among them by pissing off the Catholics

278
00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:21,280
Speaker 1: with their song Alejandro, which the Catholic League deemed blasphemous

279
00:19:21,760 --> 00:19:25,560
Speaker 1: and as she won three Grammys, countless MTV Video Music Awards,

280
00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:29,280
Speaker 1: topped critics lists, and Rolling Stone, seemingly everywhere else, and

281
00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:32,000
Speaker 1: by the end of twenty ten was named by Time

282
00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:34,719
Speaker 1: magazine as one of the one hundred most influential people

283
00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:38,439
Speaker 1: in the world. She also became the first person ever

284
00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:42,160
Speaker 1: to achieve a billion views on YouTube for her Bad

285
00:19:42,280 --> 00:19:46,760
Speaker 1: Romance video. But it was her Glastonbury performance in two

286
00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:50,520
Speaker 1: thousand and nine that really stoked the imaginations of the

287
00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:57,760
Speaker 1: conspiracy theorists. The show was a triumph. It cemented Lady

288
00:19:57,800 --> 00:20:01,439
Speaker 1: Gaga on the world stage. The audience simply could not

289
00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:06,360
Speaker 1: get enough of Gaga, not just her performance, but her personality.

290
00:20:06,880 --> 00:20:09,680
Speaker 1: They ate, as they say, from the palm of her hand,

291
00:20:10,359 --> 00:20:13,120
Speaker 1: and in the end, Lady Gaga sent them away by

292
00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:17,640
Speaker 1: shooting flames out of her nipples literally well literally out

293
00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:22,440
Speaker 1: of her bra anyway. But shortly thereafter, videos and photos

294
00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:27,800
Speaker 1: from the performance began circulating online. Videos and photos that

295
00:20:27,920 --> 00:20:32,800
Speaker 1: online sluice claimed showed a bulge beneath Gaga's skirt, a

296
00:20:32,880 --> 00:20:39,040
Speaker 1: bulge that supposedly proved that Lady Gaga was intersex quotes

297
00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:43,119
Speaker 1: fake quotes that is from Gaga supposedly confirmed that she

298
00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:47,920
Speaker 1: had both male and female genitalia. They went viral instantly.

299
00:20:48,520 --> 00:20:53,040
Speaker 1: Gaga refused to deny the claims. Her management denied them

300
00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:55,000
Speaker 1: for her, which, given the fact that her father is

301
00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:57,960
Speaker 1: part of her management team, you can understand why. But

302
00:20:58,040 --> 00:21:02,160
Speaker 1: still Gaga said nothing on the subject. In the corner

303
00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:04,440
Speaker 1: of the Internet that is concerned with all things Gaga

304
00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:11,840
Speaker 1: was flooded with altered imagery exaggerating the bulge in her crotch. Silly, yes, absolutely,

305
00:21:12,359 --> 00:21:15,959
Speaker 1: but it's astonishing how many people fell for this ridiculousness

306
00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:20,920
Speaker 1: and how persistent this rumor was until Gaga visited lab

307
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:28,760
Speaker 1: Oratory with her entourage. After visiting lab Oratory, Gaga, her security,

308
00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:32,600
Speaker 1: a few friends, her makeup artists, and the British journalist

309
00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:36,200
Speaker 1: Caitlyn Moran from the Times of London filled the dance

310
00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:40,080
Speaker 1: floor of another Bergang complex nightclub, this one with its

311
00:21:40,119 --> 00:21:44,520
Speaker 1: own set of sex swings, bathtubs and beds. According to Moran,

312
00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:48,359
Speaker 1: Gaga was unlucky in love this evening. Despite her pop

313
00:21:48,359 --> 00:21:52,080
Speaker 1: star status. The gay clientele were happy to host, but

314
00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:55,480
Speaker 1: Gaga apparently struck out in her attempts to get laid

315
00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:58,720
Speaker 1: that hole, not having a penis thing being an issue

316
00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:01,520
Speaker 1: in all, but that's not the proof that should have

317
00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:06,600
Speaker 1: finally dispelled the intersex rumor. After ditching her McQueen designed

318
00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:10,440
Speaker 1: cloak and braving the bar by herself wearing just her fishnets,

319
00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:14,280
Speaker 1: panties and a bra, Gaga invited Katelyn Moran into the

320
00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:17,800
Speaker 1: Berganne Club's bathroom for what Moran thought would be an

321
00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:21,040
Speaker 1: opportunity to do blow with her favorite pop star, but

322
00:22:21,119 --> 00:22:24,400
Speaker 1: which turned out to instead be an extended girl hang,

323
00:22:25,119 --> 00:22:28,920
Speaker 1: whereupon the reporter witnessed with her own two eyes Lady

324
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:32,399
Speaker 1: Gaga squat on the toilet and relieve herself through her

325
00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:38,360
Speaker 1: fish nets and so irrefutable proof of Lady Gaga's lack

326
00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:42,520
Speaker 1: of male genitalia was famously published by Kitlyn Moran in

327
00:22:42,560 --> 00:22:47,320
Speaker 1: the Times, but of course the conspiracy theorists wouldn't accept it.

328
00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:52,080
Speaker 1: A year later, in a sixty minutes interview with Anderson Cooper,

329
00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:55,760
Speaker 1: no less, Gaga wondered aloud why she should quote waste

330
00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:57,960
Speaker 1: my time and give a press release about whether or

331
00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:01,159
Speaker 1: not I have a penis. My fan don't care, and

332
00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:05,879
Speaker 1: neither do I. The conspiracy theorist went wild with this

333
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:09,280
Speaker 1: non denial head over to Reddit, and you'll find that

334
00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:11,720
Speaker 1: they still haven't let go of it. And to think

335
00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:16,120
Speaker 1: the whole quote unquote, Lady Gaga is a hermaphrodite thing

336
00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:20,920
Speaker 1: is only the third most popular conspiracy theory surrounding this

337
00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:28,840
Speaker 1: global pop star. We'll be right back after this. We're, We're, We're.

338
00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:38,600
Speaker 1: Lady Gagay wasn't the least bit phased about anonymous Internet

339
00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:43,240
Speaker 1: trolls questioning her physiology online, but having her home invaded

340
00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:50,920
Speaker 1: that was truly horrifying. Flashback two thousand and six, New

341
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:55,479
Speaker 1: York's Lower East Side. The shower felt good on her body,

342
00:23:56,240 --> 00:23:59,440
Speaker 1: despite the fact that it, like most of the utilities

343
00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:03,159
Speaker 1: and Lady got one seventy six Stanton Street apartment, barely

344
00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:09,840
Speaker 1: worked half the time, unlike her Stephanie Germanada, worked all

345
00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:13,240
Speaker 1: the time. At least it seemed that way. Even when

346
00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:16,040
Speaker 1: she wasn't working, she was looking for work, which in

347
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:20,320
Speaker 1: itself was its own kind of work. Her friend, Lady Starlight,

348
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:23,840
Speaker 1: danced burlesque at the Slipper Room on Orchard and Stanton,

349
00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:29,560
Speaker 1: close by Stephanie's apartment. Burlesque dancers are often confused with strippers,

350
00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:33,520
Speaker 1: but the difference between the two is significant. The point

351
00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:36,600
Speaker 1: of burlesque is to tease and entertain, to tell a

352
00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:40,440
Speaker 1: story through the dancing on stage. The removal of clothing

353
00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:44,480
Speaker 1: typically never gets fully nude. The point of stripping or

354
00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:49,560
Speaker 1: pole dancing is often sex. Strippers, depending on local laws,

355
00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:53,240
Speaker 1: remove as much clothing as possible, usually until they're fully nude,

356
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:56,359
Speaker 1: and they entice clients into back rooms for paid private

357
00:24:56,400 --> 00:25:01,320
Speaker 1: shows and often more. But like stripping, burless dancing is

358
00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:05,159
Speaker 1: hard work. More often than not, the dancers work on

359
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:09,080
Speaker 1: stage in heels, and it's a real workout, and it's intense.

360
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:12,520
Speaker 1: Which is not to suggest that though burlesque is considered

361
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:15,840
Speaker 1: more of an art form than stripping, the creeps aren't

362
00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:19,440
Speaker 1: part of the gig. They are, and the sexual harassment

363
00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 1: can be just as stressful as the physical fatigue. None

364
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:26,480
Speaker 1: of this stopped Stephanie Germanada from pushing Lady Starlight to

365
00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:29,119
Speaker 1: get her an audition as a burlesque dancer at the

366
00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:33,600
Speaker 1: Slipper Room. Stephanie needed the money and perhaps the experience

367
00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:37,920
Speaker 1: as well. These were the days before Stephanie became Lady Gaga.

368
00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:41,680
Speaker 1: These were the formative years Stephanie was still defining herself

369
00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:44,640
Speaker 1: as an artist. She was signed to a development deal

370
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:48,359
Speaker 1: with Rob Fusari, a successful producer who'd worked previously with

371
00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:54,400
Speaker 1: Destiny's Child and Will Smith. This guaranteed Stephanie precisely nothing. However,

372
00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:57,800
Speaker 1: she had no record deal, not yet, so every bit

373
00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:00,520
Speaker 1: of her energy was focused on creating a demo with

374
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:03,800
Speaker 1: Fusari that would net her one, and the fact that

375
00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:06,520
Speaker 1: she was involved in an on again, off again romantic

376
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:09,399
Speaker 1: relationship with her producer only made this time in her

377
00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:15,359
Speaker 1: life more messy. Stephanie made Lady Starlight proud. She nailed

378
00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:18,600
Speaker 1: her Slipper Room audition, and soon the pair had their

379
00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:22,919
Speaker 1: own show, The New York Street Revival and Trash Dance.

380
00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:30,600
Speaker 1: The lights in the slipper Room fade to black, the

381
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:34,720
Speaker 1: audience a mix of downtown hipsters and bridge and tunnel herbs,

382
00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:38,399
Speaker 1: all of them sipping cheap, overpriced beer and wine and

383
00:26:38,520 --> 00:26:46,720
Speaker 1: water down cocktails. Eagerly awaits the show, and then Queen's

384
00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:51,320
Speaker 1: Radio Gaga explodes from the speakers, and there she is

385
00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: a dancer like they've never seen, five foot two but commanding. Nonetheless,

386
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:02,720
Speaker 1: her hair is black, bangs peased out over her shoulders.

387
00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:07,200
Speaker 1: She's in fishnets and panties and grinding to Queen, which

388
00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:11,480
Speaker 1: transitions effortlessly into a song the audience doesn't recognize but

389
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:17,680
Speaker 1: vibes with. Nonetheless, it's one of Stephanie's originals, Electric Kiss.

390
00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:22,880
Speaker 1: As the show progresses, Stephanie strips down tojust her panties

391
00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:26,000
Speaker 1: and pasties, and the show is Trey rock and roll,

392
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:29,960
Speaker 1: which is to also say, it's dirty and slutty, and

393
00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:34,119
Speaker 1: the audience is enthralled. The club's owner is happy, but

394
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:38,960
Speaker 1: he knows what's coming, and that would be jealousy. The

395
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:41,399
Speaker 1: other girls aren't going to stand for this much attention

396
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:44,920
Speaker 1: being heaped upon one dancer. The discord is going to

397
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:47,800
Speaker 1: lead to changes, and he knows he'll soon have to

398
00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:51,600
Speaker 1: fire Stephanie, whose star is clearly too big for the

399
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:57,119
Speaker 1: slipper room, which he does. Trapesing home through the grime

400
00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:00,720
Speaker 1: of the Lower east Side, Stephanie, with her big eighties

401
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:04,159
Speaker 1: metal hair and leotard and go go boots, is gockdat

402
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,360
Speaker 1: and mocked by some neighborhood boys who mistakenly take her

403
00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 1: for a sex worker. She ticks it in stride, unlocking

404
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:13,879
Speaker 1: her Stanton Street apartment building door to head in for

405
00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:18,680
Speaker 1: a much needed shower, and the water is hot and

406
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,959
Speaker 1: the steam is thick. Her body seems to melt with

407
00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:28,880
Speaker 1: satisfaction under the shower's pressure, and then a noise, a clanging.

408
00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:32,760
Speaker 1: What the hell is that? Stephanie whips back the shower

409
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:35,399
Speaker 1: curtain and she swears she sees the outline of a

410
00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:38,600
Speaker 1: body escaping from her bathroom doorway through her tiny apartment.

411
00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:43,400
Speaker 1: She grabs a towel and gets out of the shower. Motherfuckers.

412
00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:47,800
Speaker 1: Those neighborhood boys, the shits followed her home and somehow

413
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:50,000
Speaker 1: that jimmyed her door and work their pervy asses into

414
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:52,680
Speaker 1: her apartment to sneak a peak of her naked in

415
00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:58,600
Speaker 1: the shower. There was a gross invasion of privacy One then,

416
00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:02,320
Speaker 1: like her experience berlet dancing, no doubt helped shape the

417
00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:06,360
Speaker 1: songs she was currently demo, songs that would eventually appear

418
00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:11,920
Speaker 1: on her debut album, The Fame, specifically her song Paparazzi,

419
00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:16,160
Speaker 1: which is both a devotion to and a critique of fame.

420
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:20,600
Speaker 1: The influence of Lady Gaga's apprenticeship on the Lower East

421
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:25,200
Speaker 1: Side on her art is immense. You can still feel

422
00:29:25,240 --> 00:29:28,000
Speaker 1: the burlesque influence in her music as recently as her

423
00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 1: latest twenty twenty five Grammy nominated album Mayham. Perhaps more

424
00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:36,280
Speaker 1: significant is the camp influence Gaga pulled out for her

425
00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:40,320
Speaker 1: iconic arrival at the Met in twenty nineteen, choosing as

426
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:43,520
Speaker 1: one of her four outfits a fishnet and panties number

427
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:47,960
Speaker 1: with bangs but minus the teased hair to elevate burlesque

428
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:52,200
Speaker 1: into high fashion, her nostalgic return to where burlesque influence came.

429
00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:55,880
Speaker 1: Mind you after she obtained true pop icon status by

430
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:58,800
Speaker 1: turning into critical and commercial star performance on the big

431
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:02,240
Speaker 1: screen opposite at the Cooper in the blockbuster remake of

432
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 1: Judy Garlands and then Barbara Streisand's A Star Is Born.

433
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:10,880
Speaker 1: But back in the mid adds on the Las, Stephanie

434
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:14,120
Speaker 1: Germanada was still trying to find herself amid the crime

435
00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:18,200
Speaker 1: and grime of Lower Manhattan. For starters, she needed a

436
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:22,400
Speaker 1: stage name. Stephanie Germanada wasn't going to cut it. Her

437
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:24,920
Speaker 1: father had done a lot for her career. He used

438
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:28,800
Speaker 1: his connections to secure her early gigs, paid for piano lessons,

439
00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:32,640
Speaker 1: negotiated her contract with Rob Hussari, even paid for her

440
00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:35,800
Speaker 1: Stanton Street apartment. But he hadn't given her a stage

441
00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:40,760
Speaker 1: name at birth, as Madonna's father had Queen's Radio Gaga

442
00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:44,200
Speaker 1: wasn't just a song Stephanie danced to. It was a

443
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:47,440
Speaker 1: song she was obsessed with, so much so that her

444
00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:52,320
Speaker 1: producer began playfully calling her Radio Gaga. And one day

445
00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:57,520
Speaker 1: her producer, Rob reached out to Stephanie via text Radio Gaga,

446
00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:01,080
Speaker 1: meet you at the studio at noon. But Rob's phone

447
00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:05,200
Speaker 1: auto corrected his message from Radio Gaga to Lady Gaga.

448
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:09,960
Speaker 1: And that was that. Stephanie Germanada had a new name.

449
00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:15,360
Speaker 1: That's if you believe her version of her origin story.

450
00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:19,720
Speaker 1: There's another Lady Gaga origin story from back in those days,

451
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:23,760
Speaker 1: a story that doesn't involve cute, rom com rated text

452
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:52,080
Speaker 1: message anecdotes, a story that instead involves murder. On October fifth,

453
00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:56,400
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, a major motion picture entitled A Star Is Born,

454
00:31:56,760 --> 00:32:01,440
Speaker 1: co starring the by this time massively successful popstar Lady Gaga,

455
00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 1: was released on YouTube. A video promoting the film prompted

456
00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:09,680
Speaker 1: this comment from a user and I quote. And then,

457
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 1: on the ten year anniversary of her suicide, Lady Gaga

458
00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:16,800
Speaker 1: releases a movie about an aspiring pop star who benefits

459
00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:19,440
Speaker 1: from using the look and sound of another star who

460
00:32:19,480 --> 00:32:23,840
Speaker 1: was driven to kill himself for the sake of her career. Okay,

461
00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: and what the hell is this all about? That's what

462
00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:29,880
Speaker 1: you might be asking yourself, Or if you're a massive

463
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:32,520
Speaker 1: Gaga fan, you might have been asking yourself this back

464
00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:37,959
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen. Who's suicide? Exactly? Exactly? Who is this

465
00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:43,640
Speaker 1: YouTube commentator talking about? The digital conversation swiftly moved over

466
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:47,000
Speaker 1: to Reddit, where one commentator added in response to the

467
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:50,800
Speaker 1: YouTube comment, Yeah, like taking her song, changing one letter

468
00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:53,760
Speaker 1: and branding it as hers, while basically also stealing her

469
00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:56,840
Speaker 1: music style and fashion style as well, taken on by

470
00:32:56,840 --> 00:32:59,440
Speaker 1: Gaga right after she sacrificed her buddy for it all.

471
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:03,480
Speaker 1: Another user chimes in with, on the other hand, Gaga's

472
00:33:03,520 --> 00:33:06,200
Speaker 1: adoption of her friend's style after her sudden death might

473
00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:08,440
Speaker 1: just be how she's coping with losing a close friend.

474
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:10,840
Speaker 1: It might be her way of keeping her friend alive

475
00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:15,320
Speaker 1: in her heart. But this sober reasoning is quickly torpedoed

476
00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:18,640
Speaker 1: by yet another commenter, who says, the way I heard it,

477
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:21,440
Speaker 1: her friend actually killed Lady Gaga and has been wearing

478
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:26,840
Speaker 1: her skin for the last couple of years. So who

479
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:33,320
Speaker 1: is this friend who suddenly died? Who killed herself. Who

480
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:36,520
Speaker 1: is Lady Gaga being accused by conspiracy theorists on the

481
00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:41,440
Speaker 1: internet of murdering after stealing both her music and style

482
00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:46,240
Speaker 1: to obtain fame, and that friend of Lady Gaga's would

483
00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:51,320
Speaker 1: be Lena Morgana. Lena Morgana was more than a friend

484
00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:55,760
Speaker 1: to Lady Gaga. She was an artistic collaborator. The two

485
00:33:55,760 --> 00:33:59,640
Speaker 1: of them worked together alongside producer Rob Hussari during Gaga's

486
00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:03,400
Speaker 1: early demo days. In pictures of the two from that time,

487
00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:06,880
Speaker 1: they do indeed resemble one another, with a similar sense

488
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:12,160
Speaker 1: of fashion and attitude, but only one aspiring artist became

489
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:16,720
Speaker 1: a star. The other one, Lena Morgana, will be dead

490
00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:20,359
Speaker 1: before Lady Gaga released her first album, before her first

491
00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:23,920
Speaker 1: single made the charts, before her first major music videos

492
00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:28,720
Speaker 1: were ever released. One of those videos, for the song Paparazzi,

493
00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:32,360
Speaker 1: shows Lady Gaga being thrown to her death from a building.

494
00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:35,919
Speaker 1: The video was released in May two thousand and nine.

495
00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:41,840
Speaker 1: Seven months before that, Lena Morgana was found dead thrown

496
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:47,480
Speaker 1: from the roof of the Staten Island Hotel. I'm Jake Brennan.

497
00:34:48,040 --> 00:35:04,600
Speaker 1: In this episode of Disgraceland is to be continued Disgraceland

498
00:35:04,680 --> 00:35:07,239
Speaker 1: was created by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership

499
00:35:07,280 --> 00:35:10,400
Speaker 1: with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found

500
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:13,960
Speaker 1: on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com. Rate

501
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:16,680
Speaker 1: and review the show and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter,

502
00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:21,000
Speaker 1: and Facebook at disgracelampod and on YouTube at YouTube dot com,

503
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:29,359
Speaker 1: slash at disgracelandpod, rock a roll up. He's the Bad

504
00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:30,279
Speaker 1: band Land