DISGRACELAND - Bonus Episode: Another Biopic Bites the Dust

Episode Date: September 10, 2026

What good is a Queen biopic if it reveals nothing real about Freddie Mercury? Are biopics just Marvel movies for music lovers? This and more, plus your voicemails, text, dms, and emails in this week’s After Party bonus episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is exactly right. Elvis. Hey, discos. Need a little more disgrace land in your life? Just a touch to get you through? Yeah, me too. This is the podcast that comes after the podcast. Welcome to Disgraceland, the After Party.

Welcome to the Disgraceland bonus episode. A little thing we like to call the after party. This is the show after the show, the party after the party. The bridge to get you from one full episode of Disgraceland to the other, the backyard to dig into the dirt. our mission as always guys to uncover the truth to confront the myth to reclaim the story and boy howdy do we have a subject for that this week for you with our new queen episode on this bonus episode we're going to get into the truth behind the queen's story and what was eventually put up on

screen in bohemian rhapsody we're also going to dig into some of the treatment that the critics gave to queen the band not the biopic the bohemian rhapsody biopick anyways plus we're going to get into your emails, comments, DMs, and as always, a whole lot of Rosie. This is the podcast for The Musically Obsessed, the Outsiders, just like you, the independent thinkers who know that the best history is the history that gets buried. Disgraceland is where I tell the stories you'll end up telling someone else. All right, Discos, let's get into it. By 1973, when Queen's first self-titled album was released, a critic from the new musical

Express tore it apart like a wolverine breaking its fast. He compared the group's debut with a quote-unquote bucket of urine. A few years later in 1975, when Queen released a night at the opera, the LP containing what would become Queen's iconic masterpiece Bohemian Rhapsody, Melodymaker, described that track, Bohemian Rhapsody, as a pastiche of superficial ideas. The Sunday Times question the quote legitimacy of its audience's hearing talking about queen's audience there. Quantifying the success of Bohemian Rhapsody is unnecessary. But just a massively successful song, you can just look around and see and hear the impact of the song.

That's how successful it is. Just open your eyes and your ears. It's been in our culture for the past 50 years. It has been impacting our culture for the past 50 years in movies on TV. streaming billions of times over. It's been parodied. It's been mimicked. It's been covered. And of course, it is playing right now on a classic rock radio station near you. Now, critics, especially those who came up in the 1970s, will tell you that this doesn't change a thing. To a critic, creative merit cannot be measured by mass appeal. In fact, serious cultural critics will

argue that achieving mainstream acceptance only proves that the art in question isn't serious, because commercial success is only rewarded to safe works of art that conform to what the mainstream audience wants. And the true art, art worthy of critical acclaim, can only be found in risk-taking works that push the medium, in this case rock and roll forward. So this, as my mother would say is a crock of shit. The Beatles, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band, Stephen King's Salem's Lot, Stephen Spielberg's Jaws, three examples, one an album, one a book, and another movie that all defy the definition of serious critical merit from serious cultural critics. Sergeant Pepper's abandoned traditional pop single song format and production for avant-garde

orchestral arrangements and instrumentation, and the result was not only a critical, creative masterpiece, but an instant commercial success as well. In Salem's lot, Stephen King teamed his plot-driven horror with blue-collar character studies. It was a combination nobody asked for, nobody wanted, and nobody saw coming. And initially, the critics relegated his bestseller to down-seller, but once it went paperback a few months after its release, they came around. Spielberg's Jaws was an instant cultural phenomenon, a monster movie that didn't fully show the monster until the third act. It was a genius move and a genius movie that no serious critic could deny. None of these works conformed to what mainstream audiences wanted in order to

obtain mainstream success. Like Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, a song that still, to this day, defies explanation, these works were previously unimaginable by anyone but their creators. So why was was Queen's work, panned, and the others weren't. That I can't answer. But I think it has something to do with the fact that most critics aren't writing about the thing they're writing about. They're writing about themselves. It's like when someone you know judges you in person or someone you don't know online comes at you in a comment. The critique is almost never about you. it's about them. And that's what music and cultural criticism is all about.

It's about the self-important critic. The writer from Rolling Stone magazine who called Led Zeppelin Weak. The writer from Cream Magazine who said the Stone's exile was the worst studio album they'd made or the writer from NME who compared Queen's debut to a bucket of urine.

You'll notice, I didn't mention these critics by name because, well, why give them the satisfaction? have been forgotten, yet the music lives on. Queen, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Stephen Spielberg, Stephen King, the Beatles. Pick your example. These artists risked failure by not only creating something previously unforeseen, but they dragged the culture along with them when they did it.

It's one thing for an artist to hide behind the novelty of their creation and claim that the world just isn't ready for them. And it's quite another thing for an artist to take something equally novel and execute it so brilliantly that it cannot be ignored. This is the difference between great artists and good artists. And the critics would know that if they weren't so busy exercising their own creative failures in the prose of their reviews. Now, I'm going to put my critics hat on and completely contradict myself. Not really, but some might think so.

The Queen Biopic Bohemian Rhapsody is bad. That's my one-word review. I'm going to let this week's disgrace land episode do the talking for me on this one. Listen to that episode if you haven't already and you will understand my opinion, my review, my one-word review, a little more fully. I gave it a one-word review because I'm not making it about me, okay? That's the point I'm trying to make. We talk about music biopics a lot here, and you know the ones that I like and dislike by now,

but there's a ton of great non-music biopics that are worth discussing as well and recommending to you guys, and Zeth and I are going to be digging into them in the exclusive section of this after-party at the end of the bonus episode for our all-access members. Go to disgracehandpod.com to sign up to become an all-access member if you're not one already. And you can unlock exclusive content like this plus ad-free listening. On this week's Queen episode, our full episode, we get into the following, okay? No studio on Earth would have greenlit the real story of Bohemian Rhapsody. Some people might think they know the Queen's story because they saw the movie.

But the movie didn't want to show you this other side of Queen. Right? Halloween, 1978, Queens having a party to celebrate their new album, Jazz. You show up. A greeter meets you at the door. And the first thing you're offered is oral sex. Your choice, man or woman, queen has got you covered. But this isn't all Queen is offering their guests on this night at their party. This is the Fairmont Hotel, by the way, in New Orleans. Inside, naked women are spread across banquet tables smoking cigarettes somehow from their vaginas. Don't ask me how. I don't know. But there's more. There's little people walking around the room with silver trays of cocaine strapped to their heads.

There are strippers dressed as nuns and dancing in bamboo cages. Fire eaters are swallowing flames while performers bite the heads off live chickens. I don't know if Ozzy was there or if this is where Ozzy got it from, but this was going on. There's also minstrels in blackface because strippers dressed as nuns just wasn't offensive enough. There's lobster, oysters, caviar, crystal by the bottle. The final bill is 200,000 pounds over a million dollars today.

And to Freddie Mercury and to Queen, this was pretty. much just a fucking Tuesday. All right? This is the real story of Queen. Bohemian Rhapsody, the biopic. It may have given you the songs, but it did not give you the story. Now, that's just a taste of the Queen episode.

Our most recent new full episode that we released this week, go check that out. Now, coming up next in the feed, right after this bonus episode, we're rewinding to our Blink 182, Tom DeLong story. Now in 2015, Tom DeLong quit Blink 182, one of the planet's biggest rock bands to go and chase UFOs.

But before we quit, back in 2014, Tom took a trip out to the desert, out to Area 51 in the middle of the night. Tom woke up in his tent because he heard voices outside. Too many voices to count. They woke them up, and these voices, they were not human. These sounds were unearthly. But still, they were strangely familiar, murmuring, whispering, whispering, freaking Tom out. Now, whatever Tom DeLong heard out in the desert on that night in 2014, it was enough to compel him to quit Blink 1282 and dedicate his life to learning more and compelling

those in power to share what they had already learned with the American public about those voices, about extra and ultra-terrestrials, about UFOs and UAPs. Tom DeLong was mocked mercilessly by an incurious press with headlines like Blink 182's Tom DeLong describes alien counter, says authorities tapped his phone. Tom DeLong just proved he's gone completely insane during alien rant. I'm not going to say Tom DeLong is bad shit crazy, but Tom DeLong ignored these stupid headlines and he used a mix of his celebrity and skills at politicking to set a meeting with a bunch of government aerospace contractors. The stakes of this meeting could not have been higher. There were four layers of security, armed guards, white noise pumping in through the speakers

to scramble any listening devices inside the dark windowless room where they were meeting. One of the contractors told Tom, he was a fucking lunatic, a conspiracy theorist that was wasting his time and he got up and left the room. Other contractors followed all but one, all but the lead contractor who listened to more of Tom's pitch. When Tom finished, the government contractor to Tom's amazement, agreed that slow disclosure of the UFO phenomenon. via culture, via a rock star like him, rather than exclusively through the incurious traditional media, could perhaps responsibly bring the public around to the mind-bending notion that, yes, aliens are real. Tom was right. Now, if you want to know exactly how Tom DeLong proved that he was right,

and the road that Blink 182 took to put Tom DeLong in position to make the moves he eventually made around the topic of UFO and UAP disclosure, be sure to check out this episode. Finally, next week, our next new episode is on the one and the only, the extremely talented and extremely unlikeable, by my estimation anyway, David Crosby. Now, did you know David Crosby carried a load of gun everywhere he went? It doesn't feel like he's the type of guy who would do that, but he did. And when cops asked why, he gave them two words, John Lennon. It was five years after Lenin was gunned down in the street,

and David Crosby wasn't wrong to be scared. But he also wasn't just scared. He was paranoid. And that kind of paranoia was just what David Crosby was showing on the surface. Underneath was one of the gnarliest freebase addictions you'll ever hear about. A home invasion, a gunshot to the face, a getaway plane that turned the softest voice and rock and roll into an actual FBI fugitive who was arrested just down the road from where I'm sitting

right now. All right, that's the David Crosby episode. When you're listening to this episode, be thinking about Crosby, be thinking about his bands, be thinking about the birds, Laurel Canyon in the 60s and 70s, how three guys from three broken up bands turned themselves into one of the greatest supergroups of all time, Crosby stills Nash and Young. And let us know what's your favorite supergroup. Okay, it doesn't have to be a group that was actually massive, like you know, Van Hagar or whatever. It can be, we can go indie here. When I say supergroup, I'm just talking more about super musicians coming together, joining forces,

more so than I am sort of super popularity like Crosby Still's Nash and Young. The coming together of it all is what I'm interested. Give me a call. Let me know your favorite supergroups. You might hear yourself in next week's after party. 617-9066638 voicemail and text at Disgracelam Pod on the socials. disgrace sampod at gmail.com for email. I'll be back right after this with your answers to last week's question of the week,

your voicemails, your text, DMs, emails, and more. In the phone booth. The one across the hall. My coffee's getting cold. I don't know how that's possible. I just made this thing. Not hot enough. The older I get, the hotter I like my coffee.

What's that all about? I feel like that's very David Lynchian. Anyhow, we get a show to do. Why am I blabbing about coffee? Okay, 617, 9066638. Last week's question of the week relative to our episode on Queen. We wanted to know who you think the real Freddie Mercury was and what the best biopic and what the best music biopic is. Let's go to Junior in the 714.

Hey, Jake, this is Junior, 714. Appreciate what you're doing like always. one of my favorite biopics, control about Ian Curtis from Joy Division. We don't know much about Ian Curtis's life, only what we hear from the guys from New Order and his wife and books and biographies. But the movie was done in black and white

because the director says you don't get a lot of color photos of Ian Curtis. Secondly, at the suicide scene, unfortunately, the idiot was playing on his turntable in the movie, which is documented. And he loved that album. But other than that, the movie was beautiful. It was believable and it was fast.

Jake, take it easy. Good talking to you. Peace. Keep doing what you're doing. Rock a roll. 714, Jr. Thanks, man. It's a dark one.

And I haven't seen it, even though we've produced an episode on Joy Division, New Order. I have not seen this. It's dark. There's something, there's a real darkness there. I haven't quite given myself over to Ian Curtis because, I don't know, man, not in the headspace. And I kind of missed it when it was happening. I was a little too young.

But I understand the greatness. And I'm sure I've heard a lot of people, a lot of people just outside of disgrace land, just friends of mine, people I know in the world, love this. this film and I don't doubt that what you're saying is spot on junior thanks for getting in touch this one from the seven three one me the best biopic of an artist would have to be the doors jim morrison thanks seven three one i love oliver stones the doors people rag on it they drag it um and i kind of get it it is sensationalized filmmaking, but it's kind of the best version of that, and it kind of broke the mold in a lot of ways.

It really, really took the biopic, the music biopic, Hollywood, took it to Hollywood in a way that hadn't been done prior to that. I don't think there's great biopics beforehand, but sort of don't have the spectacle that the Dors has. I heard a great thing about Val Comer when he died. You know, just happened with Dolly Parton, where folks pass away and people jump online and start sharing stories. And it was somebody, I think it was Meg Ryan. I could be wrong. It was somebody who was ultimately cast in the doors, I believe, and they're at casting. And they're all kind of like, you know,

it's like typically, you know, what you think of. They're all, you know, waiting in a hallway, sitting next to each other to go in an audition. And they're all just kind of in their street clothes, all the actors, not Val Kilmer. He rolled up in a 1960s Mustang, just like Jim Morrison drove like in full Morrison like leather pants shirtless the whole thing I think he had a bottle with him and he fucking stumbles he's just fully in character for the audition and of course he nailed it and he was great he was amazing amazing 617 90666 636 3 8 you guys want to be part of the conversation hit us up Jason in the 416 comes at us with this uh running through my woes in the 416 great episode on freddie mercury obviously I grew up loving their

I still keep my Moe, a chandon, a chandon, am I pronouncing that correctly, in a pretty cabinet. The movie, Bohemian Rhapsody, is another story. But I ask you, which movie is the biggest perversion of music history, Bohemian Rhapsody or Amadeus? I can't answer this question, Jason, and I'm embarrassed by it because I love Amadeus, but I do not know the history of Mozart well enough to comment. So, Jason, I'm asking you, write us back, text us back. text us back and and we will get into it here. Okay. Tell me, tell me what they got wrong. Tell me what the perversion was. I want to rewatch it. I love the movie. I really, really do. I think it's great.

Appreciate it. 416, Jason. 808, Texan. I'm going to go out of the box here, but as far as accurate biopics, I'd say almost famous. Although the characters are fictional, it's pretty accurate to a Cameron Crow experience. So the one that's 100% accurate is spinal Final tap, one plus two, for those who don't know, let's not ruin the twist. Okay, we will not. The Cameron Crow thing, I haven't read his book, so I can't fully comment. I'm supposed to make a comment about the sentimentality and almost famous. Usually when you say that, it means you're being negative and I'm not.

I love that movie. But it makes you think that, you know, maybe it's not that accurate. But I haven't read the book. It sounds like you have. So I'm going to go with you. I like it. Thank you. Appreciate this.

808. We got a cover almost famous in this film should be played loud. Eventually, we'll do that. Hey, Jake, Bex from the 401. Just listened to the Almond Brothers episode. Great info. Funny coincidence. I was listening to the episode while grocery shopping and turn back time started playing

after you mentioned share. Sometimes things just come together like that. Can't say enough how much I've been enjoying the show. Thanks, you got it, Bex. 617-9066638. you all want to hit us up about biopics about David Crosby about supergroups let's get into the supergroups conversation I want like like a subgenre supergroups punk rock scene supergroups hardcore hip hop what do you got hit me don't say Wu Tang they were a group that became a supergroup that's an interesting topic however

though kind of like Fleetwood Mac all right listen bohemian rhapsody massive undertaking Freddie Mercury's nearly six-minute song consists of five distinct parts, including an operatic middle section, of course, required hundreds of vocal and instrumental overdubs. It was funny. It was sad. It was exhilarating. But executives from EMI Records in the UK and Elektra Records in the U.S. demanded that it be edited for radio.

So, you know what happened? Freddie Mercury slipped to copy the song to London DJ Kenny Everd, who played it something like 14 times over the course of a couple of days. And then listeners, they decided, they loved it. They demanded that the radio stations keep playing it. They forced the record label's hands. So on Halloween in 1975, Bohemian Rhapsody was released as a single at its intended length, five minutes and 55 seconds.

And one month later, it became a number one hit on the UK chart. How's that? There you go. A little history there for Bohemian Rhapsody from our Queen episode this week. I'll be back in a flash with your emails. All right, guys, we are rounding the corner heading into the home stretch here in the after party, into the third act, so to speak. I cannot let you guys go, though, without getting into some of these emails. Jessica writes in, hey, it's your friendly massage therapist friend.

Queen is one of my all-time favorite bands, and I loved this episode. I loved how true you were to Freddy's life and personality. I was saying almost exactly what you were saying as this episode unfolded. I discovered Queen when I was about 13 and I became obsessed and had to know everything I could about Freddie. And now I only date guys who look similar. Wow, you know what you like. Jessica, there you go. Thanks for the message.

Stoked you like the episode. Got a couple comments on Instagram. This one from Michael. Great episode. Any chance for an Elton John one coming soon? Maybe. I don't know. That one's complicated for reasons I don't want to go into.

Pete writes in, hey, the Freddie Kenny and Die story was filmed for a British show called Urban Myths, which you can find on YouTube. There's another story from Brian May that while recording the show must go on, Freddie was in a bad way. And I said, Fred, I don't know if this is going to be possible to sing. And he went, I'll fucking do it, darling. Vaughn't get down and killed it. Completely lacerated his vocal. That's how the movie should have ended.

There you go. All right, that's from, who's that from? Pete. Tim writes in, I'm going to say that the Liberace biopic is definitely the most accurate. Matt Damon definitely likes, okay, okay. All right. Oh, Tim, Tim, Tim, Tim, Tim, Tim, Tim. All right, so I was talking about Salem's Lot earlier. This one comes from Delbert Brown, I think because I mentioned Salam's Lot with Zeth in the Hollywood Land episode we did this week in the rap party. Delbert writes in, man, Salem's Lot was the... the first time as a terrified 10-year-old that I could not sleep until I had turned the last

page and made sure that Barlow wasn't under my bed. Definitely a classic. My personal favorite, though, is Duma Key. There's something so unsettling yet sad and hopeful. I couldn't put that one down either. We'd definitely check it out. And as a Bostonian, you, not me, the girl who loved Tom Gordon is required while some of the survival tropes were thin. The fact that her love for a Red Sock fan keeps it going. The Mr. Mercedes trilogy is fantastic. Honestly, the Brendan Gleason TV adaptation isn't too shabby either. It's good stuff.

Hearts and Atlantis, a sleeper, too. Okay, I'm going to go through this. Salem's Lot. I don't remember it being this good. I really don't. I don't remember Stephen King being this good. And I say this as a Stephen King fan. I love Stephen King.

I've read many of his books, many of his classic books, some of the new ones. I read Mr. Mercedes. I don't remember it being a trilogy, though, so maybe I only read one of the books. I read the girl who loved Tom Gordon a long, long time ago. And I've read a bunch of the classics, The Shining, et cetera. I think there's even a sequel to The Shining. I think I read that. I don't remember it being this good. I don't remember. I've always thought he was great. Don't get me wrong. But Salem's Lot is exceptionally good. And I did start, I tried reading a new Stephen King book recently and I got two chapters in and I put it down. I just, it just all felt very, it felt kind of

tired to me, felt very rote. It felt not like Stephen King. So what I'm going to do actually after I finished Salem's Lot, Halloween's coming, St. Michael's Lent as well, I'm going to read the Exorcist again. I'm going to reread it because I want to compare that to Salem's Lot. And then I'm going to go and I'm going to read Carrie after that because I have not read Carrie yet. I read Coojo, I read Pet Cemetery, Shining, like I said, different seasons. I'm going to see if like Salem's Lot. So Carrie was number one, Salem's Lot was number two in Stephen King's releases. And I just want to see if like it was all heat in the beginning, all fastballs.

See if they've or Sam's Lot is an outlier, if it's just really the real exceptional. one. I'm interested. Fascinated by this all of a sudden. Thanks for indulging me. And Delbert, thank you for your email. I mentioned Hollywoodland. We have our first Hollywoodland episode that we ever, or second actually, Marilyn Monroe was one. Our second was this one, Fatty Arbuckle. That's available for you. You want to check that out over there. We got into a great kind of weird conversation, Zeth and I in the rap party, did some recommendations on fantasy and scandal content, songs about fantasy and movies about scandals, obviously relative to Roscoe, Fatty Arbuckle. Get over to the Hollywoodland feed and subscribe to Hollywoodland if you're not already on Apple

Podcasts, I art radio app or wherever you get your podcast. Filming a new, I got all this new equipment here on my desk. I got to put this together tomorrow because Zeth and I are kind of up in the production a little bit for this film. Should be played loud. We're filming a new one next week on gross point blank fantastic movie with an excellent soundtrack if you're not watching our video podcast

this film should be played loud and get over to Patreon and sign up to become an All Access member so that you don't miss the greatest podcast ever about movies and music the movies you love and the music in them that you love

okay it's just it's the only movies and music podcast that matters Joe Stormer said that you can look it up It's true. That's this film should be played loud. You know what you also get if you're an All-Axist member? You get this conversation coming up right now with Zeth and I about biopics that are not about musicians, but are fantastic. That's coming up right now.

If you're not an All right access member, go to disgracelandpod.com to sign up and become one. We'll be back right after this. All right, we are back and ready to split. But before we do, get into that archive of nearly 300 episodes of Disgraceland. New listeners, 300, nearly, nearly. 300 episodes of Disgraceland on artists from every genre, pretty much. And I don't know, you've got a favorite artist and you're like, damn, why hasn't Disgraceland covered Jeff Buckley? Well, we have. And you can go find that in our archive. Why hasn't Disgraceland covered Lil Peep? Well,

we have. And you can go find that in our archive. Why hasn't Disgraceland covered Gigi Allen? There's a G.G. Allen biopic coming out. Why hasn't that been covered? Well, we did. We did cover Gigi Allen back in, I believe, season one. Matt will put the episode information in the show notes section of this here, bonus episode, make it easy to navigate to those stories. Hit me up directly at Disgraceland Pod. 617906666638 voicemail and text. Disgraceland pod at gmail.com. If you have an episode, you're curious about, an artist you're curious about, you want to know if we covered them or not, or if you think you have an artist that would make for a great episode of Disgraceland, let us know. I got to get out of here, number one. This week, our new episode on Queen is available for you right now. Number two in the rewind slot this weekend, our classic episode on Tom DeLong in Blink 182. Number three, next week, our next new episode. That's on David Crosby. Numero Quatro, Zethe's giving you those Hollywood and crime vibes in Hollywoodland, so make sure you're subscribed. I'm going to give you my music recommendations in the rap party over in the Hollywoodland feed every week. Make sure you're subscribed to Hollywoodland on Apple Podcasts

or Spotify or the IHart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast. Someone just walked into my house. I can hear and blabbing over there. Number five, this film should be played loud. Our video podcast episode on Lickrish Pizza is available for you right now. Our next episode on Gross Point Blank is coming September 23rd. Go to disgrace-slandpod.com. Sign up to become an all-access member. I can lower my voice now. They stop talking. Number six, six one seven, nine oh six six six three-eight. Your voice keeps us digging into the dark corners of music history. So keep calling, texting with your answers to this week's question of the week or with whatever else you want to talk about. Number seven, don't forget discos. This isn't just comment.

It's a community, a community of the obsessed, and no one cares about music, books, records and the crime and grime that ties them all together like you do, and well, that's a disgrace. All right, back on November 2nd, 2018, Bohemian Rhapsody, the biopic was released, and this is what America was listening to on that day, according to the Billboard charts. Number one, thank you next, Ariana Grande. Last week, not applicable. Weeks on chart. Number two,

girls like you, Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B. Last week, one. Peak position, one. Weeks on charge, 24. Number three, sicko mode, Travis Scott. Last week, two. Peak position, two. Weeks on charge.

14. Number four, happy. With marshmallow and besteele of last week. Weeks on streaks. Peak position. Number six. Number five. Weeks on church.

12. Number five. Music dreams. Juice. Quit talking and start mixing. Cut it!