WEBVTT - In a Metal Mood 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:15.796 Pushkin. 0:00:18.916 --> 0:00:24.836 This episode contains explicit language. 0:00:25.436 --> 0:00:29.596 You're listening to the smooth stylings of Patrick Charles Eugene 0:00:29.996 --> 0:00:33.796 pat Boone, pop star of the nineteen fifties, host of 0:00:33.836 --> 0:00:38.636 the Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, maybe the whitest, squarest rock 0:00:38.756 --> 0:00:43.116 musician of all time. In nineteen ninety seven, Pat Boone 0:00:43.156 --> 0:00:47.516 put out an album covering, among others, Judas Priest, Metallica, 0:00:47.996 --> 0:00:51.436 Ozzy Osbourne, led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple. 0:00:52.636 --> 0:00:54.756 Well, we all came down. 0:00:54.596 --> 0:00:55.556 To the true. 0:00:56.516 --> 0:00:57.476 On the lad. 0:00:58.956 --> 0:01:02.436 On the front of the album, Pat Boone looks out maniacally, 0:01:03.036 --> 0:01:05.996 or at least as maniacally as he can, wearing only 0:01:06.036 --> 0:01:07.716 a black leather vest. 0:01:09.276 --> 0:01:10.956 Exam, I am the mother. 0:01:13.276 --> 0:01:13.596 Place. 0:01:14.036 --> 0:01:16.396 You can find the whole thing on YouTube. In a 0:01:16.436 --> 0:01:17.996 metal mood, no more. 0:01:17.876 --> 0:01:21.636 Mister nice guy, I mean all great songs that he 0:01:21.716 --> 0:01:23.516 was chosen and peckahol. 0:01:28.036 --> 0:01:38.396 Fires, Pat Boone performed an act of cultural appropriation, outrageous 0:01:38.436 --> 0:01:42.676 cultural appropriation. A square white guy, a middle aged crooner, 0:01:43.076 --> 0:01:47.956 walked in and shamelessly appropriated the heavy metal cannon. Here's 0:01:47.956 --> 0:01:53.676 my question, what should we make of that fact? How 0:01:53.716 --> 0:02:02.516 should we feel about? In a metal mood? Yes, so, 0:02:02.636 --> 0:02:05.476 I asked my friend Dave Hill. Dave is a metal 0:02:05.516 --> 0:02:10.716 aficionado lead guitarist for Valley Lodge and Witch Taint, maybe 0:02:10.796 --> 0:02:14.156 the most metal band name ever. If you root around 0:02:14.156 --> 0:02:16.956 the internet, you can find some videos we've done together 0:02:17.036 --> 0:02:21.596 over the years, which have literally hundreds of likes. We 0:02:21.636 --> 0:02:25.316 go to the same coffee shop, say hello to Dave. 0:02:25.716 --> 0:02:25.916 Well. 0:02:25.996 --> 0:02:31.676 The Devil's Interval is the beginning of metal. Basically, it's 0:02:31.716 --> 0:02:33.236 the flat at fifth. 0:02:39.516 --> 0:02:43.436 I assigned Dave in a metal mood as homework. Listen 0:02:43.516 --> 0:02:47.396 to it, break it down, report back to me. That's 0:02:47.716 --> 0:02:50.636 how this whole thing began. At the time he puts 0:02:50.636 --> 0:02:56.156 this out, he's sixty three. He's been a krooner. He's 0:02:56.156 --> 0:02:59.316 an evangelical Christian. He's been a crooner for forty years. 0:03:00.476 --> 0:03:05.436 He's best known for sporting like v Nex sweaters and 0:03:05.516 --> 0:03:10.156 khakis and topsiders yeah, or not even top upsiders. Those shoes, 0:03:10.196 --> 0:03:13.636 those those white box Yeah, that's what he does. 0:03:13.756 --> 0:03:15.316 I like a nice white can you. 0:03:15.316 --> 0:03:19.956 You couldn't have imagined a less metal pedigree than Pat. 0:03:19.796 --> 0:03:23.996 Boonth No, he's pretty not metal, but it depends how 0:03:23.996 --> 0:03:25.116 you define metal. 0:03:25.276 --> 0:03:25.796 I mean. 0:03:27.236 --> 0:03:30.676 Musically, no, but very metal in many other ways. 0:03:31.556 --> 0:03:32.916 Tell me what you mean by just like. 0:03:33.356 --> 0:03:38.436 As far as like committing to being a crooner? Pretty metal? 0:03:39.836 --> 0:03:47.876 Did you catch that, Pat Boone? Pretty Metal? My name 0:03:47.916 --> 0:03:52.116 is Malcolm Gladwell. You're listening to Revisionist History, my podcast 0:03:52.156 --> 0:04:06.676 about things overlooked and misunderstood. This episode is the official 0:04:06.876 --> 0:04:10.196 launch of my campaign to get Boon into the Rock 0:04:10.276 --> 0:04:13.916 and Roll Hall of Fame. We're climbing aboard the Pat 0:04:13.956 --> 0:04:18.956 Boone train. Why because if there is ever a cultural 0:04:18.996 --> 0:04:23.076 figure who has been misunderstood and overlooked who fits the 0:04:23.276 --> 0:04:27.916 literal definition of the Revisionist History mandate, it is Pat Boone. 0:04:31.676 --> 0:04:35.836 You think I'm joking, I'm so not joking. What follows 0:04:36.196 --> 0:04:41.076 is an argument in two parts. Part one, Pat Boone 0:04:41.676 --> 0:04:46.676 no longer mister nice guy. Part two, Taco Bell. 0:04:54.836 --> 0:04:56.356 It's very secure. 0:04:56.476 --> 0:04:59.916 Got a wait for this top secret. 0:05:00.396 --> 0:05:03.476 Taco Bell is so important to my defense of Pat 0:05:03.516 --> 0:05:07.996 Boon that I traveled clear across the country to Irvine, California, 0:05:08.316 --> 0:05:12.236 to the INTERN national headquarters of Taco Bell and talk 0:05:12.316 --> 0:05:16.116 my way into their inner sanctum through double sets of 0:05:16.156 --> 0:05:19.916 security doors, all sorts of scanning of ideas. I feel 0:05:19.916 --> 0:05:27.156 like I'm in the CIA retinal scan exactly. They sit 0:05:27.276 --> 0:05:30.156 me down. They ply me with one delicious bit of 0:05:30.196 --> 0:05:34.356 fast food after another, including most memorably one of Taco 0:05:34.396 --> 0:05:40.716 Bell's top selling concoctions. Then ny could chicken chilloupa. I 0:05:40.756 --> 0:05:41.196 have not. 0:05:41.316 --> 0:05:44.476 Nobody was asking for this because it wasn't even people 0:05:44.516 --> 0:05:45.916 don't even comprehend this idea. 0:05:46.036 --> 0:05:47.076 That's really what. 0:05:47.876 --> 0:05:48.636 It's really good. 0:05:49.076 --> 0:05:49.996 Yeah, but it is. 0:05:49.916 --> 0:05:51.956 One of those things you could never sit with consumers 0:05:51.996 --> 0:05:53.676 and they would say, you know what I would like, 0:05:53.796 --> 0:05:55.276 I'd like you to make me this right? 0:05:55.676 --> 0:05:57.156 Where do we know where? 0:05:57.316 --> 0:05:57.436 So? 0:05:57.796 --> 0:05:59.596 Do we know the idea where this came from? I 0:05:59.636 --> 0:06:08.796 mean it's the Banana's idea. That Banana's idea came from 0:06:08.836 --> 0:06:13.236 Talk Bell. Oh and it was good. Hold that thought. 0:06:13.916 --> 0:06:17.436 We're coming back to Taco Bell, but first, Dave Hill 0:06:17.436 --> 0:06:18.836 and I have some work to do. 0:06:27.516 --> 0:06:31.316 I skipped right ahead to Holy Diver by Dio, and 0:06:31.356 --> 0:06:35.196 I was really impressed with it because that song, the 0:06:35.276 --> 0:06:39.916 original version, there's a minute in twenty seconds of just 0:06:39.996 --> 0:06:46.436 kind of ominous like Middle Earth sounds. 0:06:57.556 --> 0:07:01.796 Holy Diver might be the quintessential metal song. Dave Hill 0:07:01.836 --> 0:07:04.916 considers it Ronnie James Dio's masterpiece. 0:07:30.316 --> 0:07:31.916 Dive You've been. 0:07:31.796 --> 0:07:36.596 Down Young in the Middes, so yeah, but even just 0:07:36.636 --> 0:07:39.636 the pure balls to be like, I'm gonna make everyone 0:07:39.636 --> 0:07:43.996 wait a minute and twenty seconds before I even smack 0:07:44.076 --> 0:07:46.956 you around with one of the greatest metal songs of 0:07:46.996 --> 0:07:50.316 all time. And then I was like, well, Pat Boone 0:07:50.316 --> 0:07:53.396 doesn't have the balls to commit to that, but sure 0:07:53.516 --> 0:07:58.636 enough he did. He did so right there, Huge fan. 0:08:14.876 --> 0:08:18.276 Track number eight on in a metal mood, right after 0:08:18.316 --> 0:08:22.436 Pat Boone's cover of Enter Sandman by Metallica. 0:08:22.516 --> 0:08:25.516 Holy Diver, You've been down too long in the mid 0:08:25.596 --> 0:08:28.836 and I see, Oh, let's become of me. 0:08:31.676 --> 0:08:34.556 By the time you can see his strikes. But you 0:08:34.596 --> 0:08:35.236 know where he's me. 0:08:35.956 --> 0:08:38.356 Oh, don't you know what I mean? 0:08:39.796 --> 0:08:41.156 You gotta get away. 0:08:41.436 --> 0:09:02.316 Epic, simply epic. This concern with Pat Boone's legacy did 0:09:02.316 --> 0:09:05.156 not start with me or Dave Hill. It started with 0:09:05.196 --> 0:09:08.276 another friend of mine, Bruce Hedlin, my oldest friend in 0:09:08.316 --> 0:09:11.796 the world, and that on the first day of first grade. Bruce, 0:09:12.076 --> 0:09:14.636 the producer Rick Rubin, and I are now partners on 0:09:14.676 --> 0:09:19.036 the Broken Record Music podcast, another epic Pushkin Industry's production, 0:09:19.356 --> 0:09:23.316 which you should be listening to anyway. Bruce always had 0:09:23.316 --> 0:09:25.596 a b in his bonnet about Pat Boone. 0:09:25.916 --> 0:09:27.796 I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 0:09:27.836 --> 0:09:30.836 in Cleveland, which I'd never been to, and I went 0:09:30.836 --> 0:09:32.676 downstairs where it all kind of starts, and you see 0:09:32.676 --> 0:09:35.516 these you see exhibits like the precursors to rock and roll, 0:09:35.556 --> 0:09:38.996 and then you walk into what is probably the biggest 0:09:38.996 --> 0:09:40.156 part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 0:09:40.196 --> 0:09:42.876 the most famous part, which is the Elvis section, how 0:09:42.916 --> 0:09:48.476 Elvis basically founded rock and roll. And I was kind 0:09:48.476 --> 0:09:51.236 of amazed. I went through it. I looked at all 0:09:51.316 --> 0:09:53.676 these exhibits. All I could think of was, where is 0:09:53.716 --> 0:09:58.676 Pat Boon? Now? Why would I be Why would I think? 0:09:58.676 --> 0:09:59.476 Where is Pat Boone? 0:09:59.476 --> 0:09:59.636 Well? 0:09:59.636 --> 0:10:05.516 Pat Boone had an amazing career before Elvis, and in fact, 0:10:06.076 --> 0:10:08.196 Pat Boone did a lot of the things Elvis did 0:10:08.236 --> 0:10:12.756 before Elvis did it. I mean, just by raw numbers alone, 0:10:13.556 --> 0:10:17.596 he was Pat Boone was on the top one hundred 0:10:17.636 --> 0:10:20.636 charge the hot one hundred. I guess it's called for 0:10:20.756 --> 0:10:25.036 I think two hundred and twenty consecutive weeks. That record 0:10:25.116 --> 0:10:28.236 stood for I think close to fifty years. I think 0:10:28.276 --> 0:10:31.436 the only people who've been on longer were Lil Wayne 0:10:31.596 --> 0:10:33.956 and Drake. Lil Wayne Drake. 0:10:34.076 --> 0:10:36.356 And Pat Poot and Pat Pat. That's your that's our 0:10:36.396 --> 0:10:36.876 top three. 0:10:37.156 --> 0:10:37.356 Yeah. 0:10:41.316 --> 0:10:43.396 The nominating Committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of 0:10:43.396 --> 0:10:47.476 Fame is made up of rock music insiders, serious music people. 0:10:48.076 --> 0:10:50.836 They meet every September and have a day long debate 0:10:50.876 --> 0:10:52.716 about the ten or twenty names that should be on 0:10:52.716 --> 0:10:56.516 the ballot for the upcoming year. The whole thing is secret, intense. 0:10:57.076 --> 0:11:00.996 There's lobbying, campaigning. I asked Terry Stewart about the process. 0:11:01.316 --> 0:11:03.316 He ran the Hall of Fame for fourteen years. 0:11:03.436 --> 0:11:05.276 You know, I had some people that weren't very nice. 0:11:05.316 --> 0:11:07.396 People would back you against the wall in the corner 0:11:07.396 --> 0:11:10.956 and motherfucker. You know, there's sort of all that sort 0:11:10.996 --> 0:11:13.116 of stuff. So it would go a lot, it would 0:11:13.196 --> 0:11:15.156 go it could go dark, but you know it's I 0:11:15.196 --> 0:11:16.956 understand that it meant a lot to these artists, and 0:11:16.996 --> 0:11:20.996 I try to explain that there was a very methodical process. 0:11:21.196 --> 0:11:23.996 So then I asked him did things ever get dark 0:11:24.436 --> 0:11:25.396 over Pat Boone? 0:11:25.556 --> 0:11:27.876 There wasn't a lot of discussion about Pat Boone. 0:11:28.036 --> 0:11:31.716 Has he never even made the ballot? No, he's never 0:11:31.756 --> 0:11:33.236 made it out of that ballot that comes out of 0:11:33.236 --> 0:11:33.516 the room. 0:11:33.596 --> 0:11:34.916 Yeah. 0:11:35.036 --> 0:11:38.236 Now, if you know anything about popular music, you'll know 0:11:38.316 --> 0:11:41.716 why Pat Boone is persona non grata in Cleveland. It's 0:11:41.716 --> 0:11:45.316 because he made his name during the nineteen fifties covering 0:11:45.396 --> 0:11:48.916 black R and B songs. A handsome young white guy 0:11:49.516 --> 0:11:53.236 just graduated from Columbia University, and his record company has 0:11:53.276 --> 0:11:56.196 him doing these whitewashed versions of songs by people like 0:11:56.236 --> 0:12:01.316 Little Richard and Fats Domino. For music officionados, the idea 0:12:01.356 --> 0:12:04.596 of Pat Boone as a serious musician is offensive. 0:12:05.596 --> 0:12:08.916 But it took a lot of hutz futter really even 0:12:09.276 --> 0:12:14.076 bring it up, because of that feeling that you know, 0:12:14.156 --> 0:12:17.436 he had stolen this music. The majority of the people 0:12:17.476 --> 0:12:21.396 involved always felt fairly strongly that it wasn't appropriate to 0:12:21.476 --> 0:12:24.076 have Pat Boone in the Hall of Fame. But that's 0:12:24.076 --> 0:12:26.756 the way it all. X Y's he never made the ballot. 0:12:28.116 --> 0:12:31.596 It was discussed, but never made the ballot. And that's 0:12:31.756 --> 0:12:33.516 that's just the nature of the beast. 0:12:34.116 --> 0:12:37.196 In other words, Pat Boone's album in a Metal Mood 0:12:37.476 --> 0:12:40.356 is not some weird one off. It's what he does. 0:12:41.076 --> 0:12:44.596 He wanders into someone else's world and he takes their music, 0:12:45.436 --> 0:12:48.156 and that does not pass the smell test at the 0:12:48.236 --> 0:12:50.636 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But are they right. 0:12:51.316 --> 0:12:53.396 That's what Dave Hill and I were trying to figure out, 0:12:53.716 --> 0:12:57.556 which is why we sat in the studio together deconstructing 0:12:57.676 --> 0:13:00.236 Pat Boone's cover of Holy Diver. 0:13:02.556 --> 0:13:03.716 You can see his fights. 0:13:03.756 --> 0:13:08.436 There's no reason see right away when deals things about 0:13:08.476 --> 0:13:11.956 the tiger, You're like, that's a scary tiger, Pat Boone. 0:13:11.956 --> 0:13:15.196 They're like, I'm not afraid of that tiger. Get over here, tighter. 0:13:15.836 --> 0:13:18.556 I mean, so, what's he doing here with this song? 0:13:19.236 --> 0:13:23.356 I don't know, like I immediately or like you hear 0:13:23.436 --> 0:13:25.556 and you're like, hey, did you Has anyone seen the 0:13:25.556 --> 0:13:27.556 guy with the chicken skewers? I wanted to get some 0:13:28.156 --> 0:13:30.716 of those, do you know what I mean? Like it's 0:13:31.396 --> 0:13:36.716 it's like it's sort of an early cocktail party, corporate 0:13:36.756 --> 0:13:38.116 fundraiser scenario. 0:13:38.796 --> 0:13:44.756 Pat Boone is the poster child for cultural appropriation. Now, 0:13:44.796 --> 0:13:47.836 why does this make me think of taco bell? Because 0:13:47.916 --> 0:13:51.436 taco bell is the same thing for food. The bell 0:13:51.596 --> 0:13:54.396 in taco bell is not some reference to the classic 0:13:54.476 --> 0:13:59.756 bell towers in Spanish colonial architecture Elle Campanario. No, the 0:13:59.796 --> 0:14:02.996 bell in Taco Bell refers to Glen Bell of the 0:14:03.116 --> 0:14:06.716 Iowa Bells, a white guy who in the mid nineteen fifties, 0:14:06.916 --> 0:14:11.196 decided to open a fast food restaurant in San Bernardino, California, 0:14:11.596 --> 0:14:16.276 Glen Bell's Tacos Taco Bell. It became a chain. Whenever 0:14:16.316 --> 0:14:18.796 he opened a new restaurant, Glen Bell would hire a 0:14:18.836 --> 0:14:23.116 mariachi band. On the cover of his biography, Taco Titan, 0:14:23.556 --> 0:14:27.116 Glen Bell of the Iowa Bells is wearing a sombrero. 0:14:28.036 --> 0:14:32.036 Glen Bell is Pat Boone, two white guys in the 0:14:32.076 --> 0:14:37.076 mid nineteen fifties appropriating someone else's culture. So if we 0:14:37.196 --> 0:14:39.716 have a Pat Boone problem, we should also have a 0:14:39.756 --> 0:14:43.516 Taco Bell problem, which I'm not happy about, by the way, 0:14:44.036 --> 0:14:53.316 because I love Taco Bell. That was my moral quandary. Okay, 0:14:54.116 --> 0:14:57.396 So Laverne, We're going to start with Laverne Baker. I'm 0:14:57.396 --> 0:15:00.876 sitting around my dining room table with Bruce Jacob Smith, 0:15:00.956 --> 0:15:04.836 my producer, and Justin Richmond, the producer of Broken Record. 0:15:05.556 --> 0:15:10.196 We decided to convene a cultural appropriation summit to figure 0:15:10.236 --> 0:15:16.036 out who is the appropriate appropriator. Bruce o'was from rural 0:15:16.076 --> 0:15:20.676 southwestern Ontario. Jacob a half Jewish, half Catholic millennial from 0:15:20.756 --> 0:15:24.356 Long Island. Justin, a mixed race hipster from Long Beach, 0:15:24.436 --> 0:15:30.316 California and me Jamaica, Canada, England whatever. I felt we 0:15:30.396 --> 0:15:37.316 needed to cover as many bases as we could. We're 0:15:37.356 --> 0:15:40.556 listening to Laverne Baker, an early R and B legend, 0:15:40.876 --> 0:15:43.596 perform Tweedledee in nineteen fifty five. 0:15:58.156 --> 0:16:02.556 Lady, all right, what's the other one? 0:16:02.916 --> 0:16:07.036 Georgia Gibbs, which, by the way, if you do the search, 0:16:07.116 --> 0:16:09.996 comes up right underneath it she Gibs. By the way, 0:16:10.036 --> 0:16:12.276 Georgia gives his real name is FRIEDA. 0:16:13.116 --> 0:16:15.516 Lipshitz, something like that Lipschitz. 0:16:15.076 --> 0:16:18.196 From I'm assuming. Several years after, Laverne Baker does the 0:16:18.196 --> 0:16:23.756 black version of Tweedledee, Georgia slash Frieda does the white version. 0:16:24.756 --> 0:16:38.076 Tweet tweet D happy asking Ben is it's Jim many Jack? 0:16:38.476 --> 0:16:41.276 You make my heart? Don't clay class. 0:16:42.676 --> 0:16:44.036 Tweet tweet D. 0:16:44.476 --> 0:16:46.996 All right, what's to compare those two versions? 0:16:48.716 --> 0:16:51.316 Do I like the first one better? Yes? Are they 0:16:52.196 --> 0:16:53.156 almost identical? 0:16:53.356 --> 0:16:53.516 Yes? 0:16:53.676 --> 0:16:55.596 Did she lift the arrangements? Yeah? 0:16:55.676 --> 0:16:58.156 Of course second was not so bad. Actually I can't 0:16:58.196 --> 0:16:59.276 you know, no, but. 0:16:59.316 --> 0:17:00.916 It's precisely like the first one. 0:17:01.196 --> 0:17:01.436 It is. 0:17:02.076 --> 0:17:05.396 Laverne Baker actually famously had to take out flight insurance 0:17:06.116 --> 0:17:09.116 once she was on tour, and she named Georgia Gibbs 0:17:09.236 --> 0:17:13.356 as her beneficiary because she said, if the plane goes down, 0:17:13.516 --> 0:17:14.356 her career is over. 0:17:14.476 --> 0:17:19.076 Too amazing. 0:17:19.356 --> 0:17:22.676 That is okay, so oh we agreed though. That is 0:17:23.036 --> 0:17:26.396 if you want a definition of cultural appropriation, that's it. 0:17:27.076 --> 0:17:31.036 Next we turn to Elvis. Everyone loves Elvis, right. Remember 0:17:31.116 --> 0:17:33.956 the last episode of season three of Revisionist History where 0:17:33.956 --> 0:17:37.236 I put Elvis on the couch and everything ended in tears. 0:17:37.836 --> 0:17:41.076 I love Elvis well. In his early years, a lot 0:17:41.116 --> 0:17:44.476 of Elvis' songs were written by a man named Otis Blackwell. 0:17:45.236 --> 0:17:47.916 He is black He was a songwriter. He wrote probably 0:17:47.956 --> 0:17:49.916 his most famous song is Fever, which was a Peggy 0:17:49.996 --> 0:17:53.636 Lee song later Madonna song. But he wrote don't be cruel. 0:17:53.836 --> 0:17:56.596 All shook up, paralyzed, returned to sender. 0:17:56.796 --> 0:17:59.716 Here we are, Yeah, yeah, great ball's a fire he wrote, Yes, 0:17:59.716 --> 0:18:02.036 wrote great balls fla he did, yeh, yep, Oh my god, 0:18:02.116 --> 0:18:06.196 guys genius. Otis Blackwell writes the songs, then records a demo, 0:18:06.796 --> 0:18:10.836 gives the demo to Elvis. Ready, this is Elvis doing 0:18:10.996 --> 0:18:12.556 his version of don't be cruel. 0:18:13.676 --> 0:18:19.836 You know I can't be sitting all alone if you 0:18:20.076 --> 0:18:20.636 can't come. 0:18:22.396 --> 0:18:25.996 Please, please tell the phone, don't be cruel. 0:18:27.516 --> 0:18:28.476 Hard It's true. 0:18:31.636 --> 0:18:35.956 Okay, that's Elvis. Now, this is Blackwell doing his version, 0:18:36.316 --> 0:18:39.676 the version that came first. He's performing it on an 0:18:39.716 --> 0:18:42.596 old episode of Late Night with David Letterman. 0:18:43.916 --> 0:18:48.956 Alone. 0:18:56.156 --> 0:19:02.716 Oh my god, it's the same song. As we're listening, 0:19:03.196 --> 0:19:06.276 Justin puts his head in his hands. I'm sorry, that's brutal. 0:19:06.756 --> 0:19:09.036 I forget how I forget how bad it is A 0:19:10.036 --> 0:19:11.676 This is just Elvis Well. 0:19:12.316 --> 0:19:14.196 This is the king of rock and roll, the singer 0:19:14.316 --> 0:19:17.316 with his own vast, dedicated room at the Hall of Fame. 0:19:17.916 --> 0:19:21.036 Now imagine how Otis Blackwell or any of the other 0:19:21.156 --> 0:19:24.356 black songwriters of that era felt about what Elvis did. 0:19:25.076 --> 0:19:27.076 They'd been asked to write a song for someone much 0:19:27.116 --> 0:19:30.556 more famous than they were. Fine. What hurts is when 0:19:30.596 --> 0:19:33.036 a so called genius takes the song that you wrote 0:19:33.356 --> 0:19:36.436 and that came out of your cultural community and doesn't 0:19:36.476 --> 0:19:42.476 change a lick of it. One Broken Heart for Sale, 0:19:43.156 --> 0:19:45.796 a hit song written by Otis Blackwell for Elvis in 0:19:45.916 --> 0:19:46.836 nineteen sixty two. 0:19:51.716 --> 0:20:00.916 Excud is that Otis It's done might be Elvis demo 0:20:01.076 --> 0:20:03.036 in and the Otis demo. 0:20:03.356 --> 0:20:08.836 Yeah, that's Otis Blackwell. Did you guys think it was Elvis? 0:20:09.236 --> 0:20:19.676 Yeah, I think that's Elvis Demoinda, Oh my god, that's 0:20:19.676 --> 0:20:21.396 Alas black Wait. 0:20:21.676 --> 0:20:23.996 This is a perfect illustration of what we're talking about. 0:20:24.276 --> 0:20:27.356 We're listening to a song on YouTube that's supposed to 0:20:27.356 --> 0:20:30.036 be by Otis Blackwell, and we have no idea whether 0:20:30.036 --> 0:20:33.476 it's Otis Blackwell or Elvis, because Elvis is completely Yeah, 0:20:34.436 --> 0:20:37.876 he's completely stolen the sky's sound. Maybe this is why 0:20:38.036 --> 0:20:40.196 not everyone out there likes Elvis as much as the 0:20:40.276 --> 0:20:43.236 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame does. People like Justin 0:20:43.636 --> 0:20:46.796 a purist on some level. He feels like it's his 0:20:47.036 --> 0:20:50.756 music that's being violated here. And immediately Justin brings up 0:20:50.836 --> 0:20:53.076 Public Enemy and their frontman, Chuck D. 0:20:53.476 --> 0:20:55.316 Because I feel like Chuck D is the reason Elvis 0:20:55.396 --> 0:20:55.876 is so hated. 0:20:56.516 --> 0:20:58.276 Yeah in black because. 0:20:58.396 --> 0:20:59.716 Elvis was a here at the most, but it never 0:20:59.756 --> 0:21:01.276 meant shit to me because he strayed our racist to 0:21:01.276 --> 0:21:03.396 Suckle was simple and playing motherfucker men, John Wayne. 0:21:03.516 --> 0:21:08.236 Elvis wasn't here. Elvis was here the most, but he 0:21:08.316 --> 0:21:23.316 never meant shit. I'm proud most of my heroes don 0:21:23.356 --> 0:21:24.436 a peeral, no stamp. 0:21:25.716 --> 0:21:28.876 Oh hell, this let's take a break, and when we 0:21:29.036 --> 0:21:32.116 come back, we're going to eat some more. Taco Bell 0:21:39.516 --> 0:21:42.516 Glen Bell was born in nineteen twenty three grew up 0:21:42.556 --> 0:21:44.876 in the Depression. It was a hobo for a while, 0:21:45.196 --> 0:21:48.276 riding the rails, living by his wits. During the war 0:21:48.556 --> 0:21:51.196 he was a steward for a Marine Corps general, and 0:21:51.276 --> 0:21:54.036 when the war was over, he came back to San Bernardino, 0:21:54.116 --> 0:21:59.356 California and decided to open a hamburger stand. At first, 0:21:59.876 --> 0:22:02.036 tacos were just something that he added to the menu. 0:22:02.556 --> 0:22:05.196 He'd eaten them in the Mexican restaurants of southern California 0:22:05.476 --> 0:22:08.116 and thought they were the perfect fast food, easy to 0:22:08.156 --> 0:22:11.796 make and eat, super cheap. Then he added refried beans. 0:22:12.436 --> 0:22:15.316 Then he dropped the burghers and fries altogether, and after 0:22:15.396 --> 0:22:20.116 a decade of stops and starts, he opened Taco Bell Tacos, tostadas, 0:22:20.436 --> 0:22:24.996 Frijulaz burritos, all for nineteen cents each. By the late 0:22:25.116 --> 0:22:29.076 nineteen sixties, Taco Bells are everywhere with a standardized look, 0:22:29.596 --> 0:22:33.076 slumpstone brick which looks a bit like adobe red clay 0:22:33.196 --> 0:22:36.556 tiles on the roof Bell Tower, Mexican food in a 0:22:36.636 --> 0:22:40.916 building straight out of Mexico. Taco Bell is as bad 0:22:40.956 --> 0:22:48.836 as Elvis, except have you ever been to a Taco Bell? 0:22:49.516 --> 0:22:53.956 Where are the carnadas? They don't have carnadas, don't spill 0:22:53.996 --> 0:22:57.876 the beer. Oh yeah yeah, way way way off the menu. 0:22:58.196 --> 0:23:01.836 So you pekin, this is our. When I was in 0:23:01.916 --> 0:23:04.956 the test kitchen at Taco Bell's headquarters, the question of 0:23:04.996 --> 0:23:08.236 carnadas came up, and they said that, for whatever reason, 0:23:08.676 --> 0:23:12.436 shredded me meat doesn't work for them. Or Molay. If 0:23:12.476 --> 0:23:15.076 you were ripping off Mexican food, if you wanted to 0:23:15.156 --> 0:23:18.716 be Elvis of Mexican food, you would have Molay. But 0:23:18.836 --> 0:23:20.636 there's no mole at Taco Bells. 0:23:20.476 --> 0:23:23.636 Or ras Basket Inspired and it's just not familiar enough. 0:23:23.796 --> 0:23:26.716 And if it's not familiar enough, again in thirty seconds, 0:23:26.836 --> 0:23:28.236 we can't make it familiar to you. 0:23:28.836 --> 0:23:29.996 This is Renee Peshati. 0:23:30.076 --> 0:23:32.036 We just can't, as much as we'd love to. 0:23:32.276 --> 0:23:34.196 What's hard about moley sauce, for example? 0:23:35.716 --> 0:23:40.316 Mole sauce, So first off, I think there's so many different. 0:23:40.036 --> 0:23:42.716 Types, and this is Liz Matthews, head chef. 0:23:42.876 --> 0:23:46.436 I think Molay in general, especially a red moley, it's 0:23:46.636 --> 0:23:49.236 rich and earthy, and I don't think that's something that 0:23:49.356 --> 0:23:51.276 people are familiar with. 0:23:51.636 --> 0:23:56.796 Are ready another thing. We're the soft corn tortillas. Nothing 0:23:56.876 --> 0:24:00.196 is more quintessentially Mexican than the traditional soft corn tortilla. 0:24:00.956 --> 0:24:04.396 There are no soft corn toutias at Taco Bell. They 0:24:04.476 --> 0:24:06.916 tried it once Mexican street tacos. 0:24:07.436 --> 0:24:09.756 What happened we had we We're getting a lot of 0:24:09.876 --> 0:24:14.716 calls from customers that they got a taco but the 0:24:14.916 --> 0:24:18.836 shell was raw, the shell was uncooked. They had no 0:24:18.996 --> 0:24:23.036 reference for a cornth or tilla that wasn't deep fried, like, 0:24:23.676 --> 0:24:25.756 they had no idea what a soft fresh. 0:24:25.636 --> 0:24:28.636 Corn or tia was all about. It was a crisis. 0:24:29.316 --> 0:24:32.636 These were calls from Indiana. I mean, I just remember 0:24:32.756 --> 0:24:34.676 they started streaming in. I'm like, oh my god. People 0:24:34.716 --> 0:24:37.596 are worried that we're serving them uncooked food. There was 0:24:37.716 --> 0:24:39.236 no reference for it whatsoever. 0:24:39.796 --> 0:24:42.836 Now, the Taco Bell guys weren't upset by that reaction. 0:24:43.556 --> 0:24:48.156 Their attitude isn't, oh, our customers have to get more sophisticated. No, 0:24:48.476 --> 0:24:50.396 to them, it's just a reminder that they aren't in 0:24:50.436 --> 0:24:53.636 the business of making real Mexican food. That's not why 0:24:53.716 --> 0:24:54.796 people go to Taco Bell. 0:24:55.036 --> 0:24:59.916 I don't think people want to see authentic for they. 0:24:58.516 --> 0:25:03.316 Want the variations and different. I don't know that that's 0:25:03.436 --> 0:25:06.156 just not us. That's not who we are. We're inspired 0:25:06.236 --> 0:25:08.396 by it, but that's not what we're driven by. 0:25:09.116 --> 0:25:12.956 Taco Bell is an interpretation of Mexican food, a riff 0:25:13.156 --> 0:25:15.876 on Mexican food for people who don't necessarily think of 0:25:15.916 --> 0:25:19.556 themselves as people who eat Mexican food. That's a very 0:25:19.636 --> 0:25:22.716 different game, and a harder game, by the way, because 0:25:22.796 --> 0:25:25.956 you have to find the familiar part of the unfamiliar 0:25:26.516 --> 0:25:30.196 and somehow make it seem new. If you were the 0:25:30.276 --> 0:25:33.476 Elvis of Mexican food, you wouldn't need a test kitchen, 0:25:33.516 --> 0:25:36.796 would you. If you're stealing something, why would you need 0:25:36.876 --> 0:25:41.556 to test it? You test what you invent. Case in point, 0:25:42.076 --> 0:25:46.516 the naked chicken chiloopa. The inspiration came from Taco Bell's 0:25:46.556 --> 0:25:49.276 Heather Motorshaw, one of the foods signed tots I was 0:25:49.356 --> 0:25:49.716 meeting with. 0:25:50.356 --> 0:25:52.836 I remember Heather said something like, Steve, what do you 0:25:52.996 --> 0:25:55.836 think if we made you know, a taco shell out 0:25:55.876 --> 0:25:57.756 of chicken something? And I'm like, well, what are you 0:25:57.796 --> 0:25:59.356 talking about? It was sort of like, well, you know, 0:25:59.516 --> 0:26:02.996 like chicken milonaise. So in my mind I'm thinking like 0:26:03.556 --> 0:26:06.276 literally like chicken milonaise, pound it out, you know, chicken 0:26:06.316 --> 0:26:09.636 breast and that flavor profile, thinking like you're Heather, But 0:26:09.716 --> 0:26:12.756 what really comes out is, you know, she's probably onto something. 0:26:12.836 --> 0:26:16.196 We probably they ended up with a white meat chicken breast, 0:26:16.756 --> 0:26:19.516 deep fried in batter, molded into the shape of a 0:26:19.596 --> 0:26:24.876 taco and filled with lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, and avocado ranch sauce. 0:26:25.516 --> 0:26:27.956