DISGRACELAND - Bonus Episode: Great Actors of the 1970s, Juvenile Delinquency, and the Luck of The Draw

Episode Date: August 1, 2024

This week in the After Party, Jake dives into your thoughts on the greatest actors of the 1970s and ponders the road not taken by Al Pacino in this week's episode. Plus, another tale of juvenile delinquency from Jake's past! And we're getting ready for next week's episode on Metallica and the late, great Cliff Burton - we want to know: Which artist or musician affects you so deeply that you couldn't bear to lose them? Who can't you live without? Join the party at 617-906-6638, [e-mail], or on socials @disgracelandpod.To cop some new merch, head to disgracelandpod.com/merch now!To hear an extended version of the After Party and more from the DISGRACELAND community, become a Disgraceland All Access member at disgracelandpod.com/membership. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is exactly right. Double 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 dark. dirt on this bonus episode. We are talking about juvenile delinquency and how it could possibly prevent great art. Ozzy Osbourne, more on Al Pacino and of course your voicemails, text, DMs, and more. And as always, a whole lot of rosy. All right, discos, let's get into it. I've never been arrested. I've never been part of some criminal scandal. I've never done time.

I've never spent the night in jail. The closest, I came to getting into real trouble, real trouble with The law was I was caught shoplifting in Ozzy Osbourne cassette when I was in the seventh grade. I didn't get arrested, but I did get in trouble and have to go to court where the judge, in all seriousness, asked me, son, did Ozzy Osbourne make you do this? Ridiculous question, of course. I've told some of you this before, I'm sure my friends have all heard this story. And those who have heard it know that the rest of this story goes as follows. My father, who was accompanying me to my court date, nearly fell out of his chair laughing.

And even so, everything ended fine. I still can't tell if the judge was serious or not. I was let go on the promise that I'd never shoplift again. I'd never get into trouble again. I was a minor. I didn't even get a black mark on my record. Nothing really happened. Thankfully, because I acted like an idiot.

But the whole experience, it was scary. It woke me up. It taught me, I guess, that there are real consequences. there were real consequences, I should say, for my juvenile delinquency and my budding career as a teenage dirtbag. I think where I grew up, Clinton, Massachusetts, a small town west of Boston, a town that through no fault of its own didn't have a lot to offer me by the time I hit my teens, and I didn't have a lot to offer it either. Like a lot of the kids I grew up with, I was a tough kid. I don't mean like tough like fighting, blah, blah, blah. I mean tough like I, then I didn't realize

it, but now I do. I put up with a lot and I developed some resiliency because of my upbringing. But like most kids, 13, 14 years old, back then I didn't know what I wanted out of my life. I was unknowingly doing most things wrong, as I'm sure that a lot of latchkey kids were doing at the same time back in the late 80s. I smoked. I drank. I got really shitty grades. I skipped school as much as possible. I cursed like a freaking sailor. I didn't listen to really anything my parents had to say. I listened to just enough to keep them off my back when they were around, I guess. My dad lived in the city.

My mom and stepdad who were raising me were distracted, was trying to make enough money to keep the lights on and raise three kids. Parenting the oldest, that would be me, out of a life of crime. That's an overstatement. A life of juvenile delinquency. That didn't fit into their schedule. And even if it did, by that point in my young life, I doubt that it would have mattered.

That was 1987. I was pretty convinced that I'd be dead by the time I was 18 years old. And I'm not exaggerating. I was sure, as I'm assuming, a lot of young people are now, that the world was going to blow itself up. The threat then was nuclear war. Today, it's the ever constant threat of climate catastrophe. And back then it was the Russians.

I guess it still is. But what was the point? Why study? Why get good grades? Why go to school? Why get a date to the city hospital? Why cut my hair just because my baseball coach told me to? By the time I was in seventh grade, I was such a little unknowing nihilist that I brazenly pocketed that Ozzy Osbourne cassette,

the Randy Rose tribute, didn't matter the consequences. And I did so because heavy metal was at the time one of the only things in the world that made sense to me, that in girls. But I'm going to skip the girls part for now and focus on the metal and the consequences of my juvenile delinquency for the moment. Heavy metal was everything. You ever see the movie Heavy Metal Parking Lot? Okay, that vibe was pretty much my ideal notion of heaven in the seventh grade, of paradise, unlimited good times, and no parents in sight. And for those of you who don't know, heavy metal parking lot is a documentary, I guess. Basically, it's a camera crew set loose in the parking lot of a stadium where Judas Priest and Dockin are about to play a concert in 1986.

I think it's in Maryland or Delaware or somewhere on the East Coast. So it looked very familiar to me. It looks very familiar to me, I should say. The filmmakers interview a bunch of teenage wasteoids, dudes in half shirts with their cut abs showing and feathered hair parted in the middle. Chicks and spandex and hair aquanetted to the moon. Most are wasted. All are having the time of their lives.

Where are they now? Who knows? how many of those metalheads are living full, rewarding lives? I'm going to guess that most are, because that's human nature. People find their way. I found mine, but I very easily could have been rerouted, gone through the wrong sliding door or whatever, fucked up bad, real bad, as some of my friends did, friends who ended up dead, friends who ended up in prison.

There wasn't much difference between their childhoods and mine, so why did I end up here right now talking to you? incidentally you might be able to tell from the sound of this recording i'm not in my studio at the time i'm in a cabin whereas my six-year-old calls it a cabbage in the middle of uh the woods on an island you can probably hear my kids outside running around they're they're bug hunting right now i've got the microphone set up in the middle of the cabin here it's quite idyllic even if it doesn't sound so uh we'll be back in the studio next week but the point is i'm recording this on vacation and it's a pretty awesome vacation, if I'm being honest. A vacation in a place that's so beautiful, I didn't even

know it existed when I was a teenager, in a place so idyllic that I never would have imagined I'd ever have been able to visit here if I was aware of it, but here I am. And a lot of this is luck. A lot of it is randomness. Life can turn bad in an instant. And sometimes we have no control over it, but sometimes we do. Al Pacino, as a young juvenile delinquent, he knew he had control over his life, the free will to write what was almost a terrible wrong, so wrong that he was about to get into serious life-altering trouble for an act that he hadn't even followed through with.

This story, as you probably know, is the subject of our last full episode of Discraceland. Now, Al Pacino's choice to act his way out of what was almost a 10-year prison sentence, a role that had he not aced, would have, resulted in the world being a little less interesting, or perhaps a lot less interesting, depending on your point of view. Now, perhaps had Al done that time, that prison time, he would have got out of jail and resumed his acting career and became a version of the same star that he is today, but I highly doubt it. Prison, despite what authorities and social

scientists preach doesn't really reform criminals, it refines them, gives them the skills that they need to become better criminals, not better people. So Al likely, after 10 years and lockup, would have emerged more criminal-minded than he was when he went in and likely would have wound up back in prison at some point and not starring in some of the greatest films in Hollywood history. Okay? These films, particularly the iconic ones from the 1970s that Al Pacino made, never would have existed. Or if they did, they'd be a lot different without Al Pacino. I guess that's the point.

Is the godfather any good with Robert Redford in the role of Michael as the studios wanted? I don't think so. Does Serpico even get made without Al Pacino? Who plays sunny in Dog Day afternoon? Dustin Hoffman? I can actually see that one. Who does Robert De Niro star opposite in heat? I have no answer for you on that one.

Sylvester Stallone is Scarface, definitely not. As far as I'm concerned, no one about Al Pacino could have played Lefty and Donnie Brasco. And on the other hand, the dude who served me, my coffee at Dunkin' Donuts this morning, could have done a better job than Al did as Jimmy Hoffa and the Irishman. But Al gets a pass for that one. There's a lot of what if says my problem. And I can't imagine a Hollywood history without Al Pacino, or at least I don't really want to.

The randomness of life is so absolute sometimes that when we consider what we have for films, for music, the astonishing art that's part of our modern culture on screen and in our speakers, we are so lucky. We are blessed. Think of these artists, these actors, the musicians. Think of the way they lived their lives. How close to the edge they were. How close to death they came.

never mind prison and how they survived only to continue making great art the beetles were lucky to make it out of germany alive in their early days imagine if john's nazi goose stepping on stage insulted the wrong tough as nails german from the reaper bond district and he wound up dead imagine if sean penn assaulted the wrong dude on the set of colors and ended up with a bullet in his belly instead of a light 60-day jail sentence what if easy e suffered the same drug dealer's fate as his dead cousin horace what if george lucas died in that car crash as a kid? What if Madonna and Blondie's Debbie Harry didn't overcome the trauma of being raped? What if Marilyn Monroe didn't overcome the sexual abuse she suffered as a child? Can you imagine a world where we have no Beatles, no NWA, no Star Wars, no Madonna, no Marilyn, no Al Pacino? I can't. It all

makes me wonder now what we're missing. What incredible works of art, what albums, what movies were never because the people who would have made them never had the opportunity because they were jailed or they died too young. However you look at it, the fact of the matter is that Al Pacino survived and became one of the greatest actors of all time. Last week, I asked you guys in preparation of our full Al Pacino episode if Al was the greatest actor of the 70s. And we'll get into that answer in a bit, but I can share with you now.

A lot of you submitted Al's friend, John Cazel, as your answer. And on this sort of cultural sliding doors topic that we have here, John Cazel is a perfect answer. Cazale, of course, played Fredo in The Godfather and was romantically involved during his career with Merrill Street. But more important, John Cazil died young at the age of 42 from chain smoking cigarettes. He died to lung cancer.

But before he died, and here's the point, he made only five movies, and each of them is an undeniable masterpiece. Each movie that John Cazel made all three. five of them were nominated for Best Picture, The Godfather, Godfather 2, Dog Day Afternoon, Deer Hunter, and Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation. What the hell would John Cazel's career have been like had he lived? What movies would he have starred in that don't exist right now? What would he in Merrill Street have given us beyond the deer hunter? It's fun to think about. I'll get more to John Cazale when I answer your calls and texts in a bit.

But right now I want to hit on next week's disgrace land subject real quick. I want to hit on Metallica. This episode on Metallica is largely about Cliff Burton and the impact of his death on the band. And Metallica is such an institution now that it's hard to fully understand how important Cliff Burton was to Metallica. He was the group's heart and soul. He was the metal in Metallica. the band beat to his heart rate. If Metallica broke up after Cliff's death in 1986,

as Led Zeppelin had broken up after John Bottom's death in 1980, 1979, I think it was early 80, I doubt that those who knew Metallica personally would have been surprised if they broke up because Cliff was that important. And Cliff's death was a giant loss that the band somehow overcame. So when you're listening to the Metallica episode next week, I'm going to ask you guys to think about,

the episode's theme of loss and think about which living artists you can't afford to lose and why. Why would you be devastated if God forbid we lost Dave Grohl or Taylor Swift or Beyonce or Morgan Wallen or Jack White or Casey Mosgraze or Chris Stapleton or Billy Elish or Lady Gaga or Adele? Any modern artists, which modern artists can't you afford to lose and why? What do they provide for you? What do these artists give you that makes them so indispensable to your lives? I want to know. Who can't you live without right now? Call me. 617-906-66-6638 to let me know. Leave me a voicemail, send me a text, or hit me up on the socials at Disgraceland Pod.

I'll be back in a flash. All right, let's get into your voicemails. Let's get into your text. Last week, like I mentioned before, we asked in honor of Al Pacino, who the greatest actor of the 1970s. Might have been? Who you think deserves that crown? Got some interesting answers from a bunch of you. Let's check out this answer from Cynthia in the 508.

Hey, Jake. It's Cynthia. I've been thinking about what you were saying about the best 70s, who owned the 70s as far as acting. And I got to say Donald Sutherland because, well, I think of movies like MASH and Animal House, don't look now, which I just saw not too long ago, really freak me out, and invasion of the body snatchers, which traumatized me as a child. But honestly, he runs the gamut of genres. and it's not a 70s movie, but in 1980 he did Ordinary People,

which is completely different from the other movies that I mentioned. So I just got to say his face was everywhere and in all of these movies that have longevity, that will be forever. That's my input. Thanks. Donald Sutherland is a sneaky pick and not one that I would have thought of. I wouldn't claim Donald's. I wouldn't give him the crown,

but he's up there in a handful of grades from the decade for sure, if for no other reason that his brief pantsless role in Animal House, which I just, every time I see it, I laugh my ass off. Also, a mash. Is Clute the 1970s? Or is that like 69, 68, 69, something like that?

Love Donald Sutherland. Rest in peace. He just passed away a little while ago. On the same subject, the 302 writes in, Gene Hackman, shit. He's been out of the spotlight for years since slipped from my mind. Hackman or Pacino. I don't know, dude, that's a fucking Sophie's choice conundrum. I feel like Gene Hackman is a just great, one of the greatest actors of all time for sure.

And we overlook him, all of us. I feel like he doesn't get mentioned enough. And when we talk about the greatest actors, he's tremendous. and everything I've seen them in. Even movies I don't like, if I'm switching through the channels and I see Gene Hackman's face, I'm going to stop and I'm going to watch it.

Off the top of my head, these aren't 70s movies, but Hoosiers hits, a chorus world, Tenen bombs, even the firm, he's fantastic in the firm. I almost said cocktail.

He's not in cocktail. But Tom Cruise is in a tropical place in both those movies. Have you guys seen the recent, you said he's not in the spotlight here, the 302 mentioned that, but have you seen, the recent pictures of Gene Hackman. I believe there are some paparazzi got photos of him.

I think he lives in like New Mexico or Arizona or something like that. And he's getting out of his pickup truck at 90-something years old. He looks nothing like you would expect. Google these images. They're really, they're really fantastic. Kind of shocking, given how different he looks. But he's old, but he's up and around, man. He's up and around. Him and Clint Eastwood, get a hand it to those guys. Yeah, where's Clint Eastwood on the list of 70s actors? I don't think anybody mentioned Clint Eastwood. 818 text in, hey, Jake, Mickey here. On the topic of best actors in the 70s, I think we both know that a lot of peeps will say De Niro. It's tough not to, but I'm going to throw this name in the hat, Mr. Richard Pryor. Not all of them comedies either. Lady Sing's the Blues,

for example. A very solid 70s catalog for the man. Until next time. Mickey, I could very easily Google Richard Pryor's videography from the 1970s, but I'm not going to do that right now because I want to keep talking to you, but hit me back. Give me more besides Lady Sings the Blues. I'm thinking of prior movies, and I guess

maybe it's because of my age, but I'm thinking 80s. I'm thinking Brewster's millions. I'm thinking the toy. I know I have some big ones that I'm missing here. What is that one? Blue Collar, the Paul Schrader film. That's 70s, I believe, with Harvey Kite. and Richard Pryor.

Yeah, there's a lot from the 70s, but there's not a lot that's popping off at the top of my head right now. Also, why can't you find Lady Sings the Blues anywhere? What's the story with that? I want to watch that movie again. It's a Billy Holiday story,

and you can't find it anywhere. If you have the reason, Mickey, let me know, get back in touch. On Instagram at Young Bay Steeze, writes in, the greatest actor of the 1970s is John Cazale. He made five movies. All of them were great.

Yes, we talked about that at Young Basties. And I also, what we didn't talk about when we mentioned, John Cazel, is the fact that John Cazale was born, I believe, in Revere, Massachusetts, and he's buried in Malden. He was a Boston boy. I think he hooked up with Pacino in Boston in the episode that we have on Al Pacino. Al Pacino, this incident that I talked about where he gets hauled in by police, he gets arrested.

That happens in Rhode Island while Al Pacino was on his way to Boston, do some acting to try and pick up an acting gig. And I believe that's where he and Cazale hooked up and became fast friends and started to act in off Broadway, not off Broadway, just out of New York theater. And then I don't know where the relationship went from there, but they obviously became friends. Cazale made a bunch of great movies. And here we are. And even though Cazale made those five great films, he didn't carry those films. So it's tough to count Cazale as the greatest actor of the 70s at Young Basty's. And honestly, if I'm answering this question, I don't know that I haven't answered Al Pacino or Robert De Niro, but I think I'm leaning De Niro.

No, I don't know, because I feel like the stuff with De Niro that really, really hits hard for me, not that mean streets isn't great, not that Godfather 2 isn't great, but I think most of De Niro's truly great stuff for me happens in the 80s. So I think I'm giving the 70s crown to Al Pacino. Yeah. Guys, listen, we got more text, more voicemails being answered in the exclusive part of this episode, which is for our all access members, which you could join for just $5 a month. Go to disgracelandpod.com slash membership to sign up there. You know the drill. You get this exclusive portion of the after party. You get one free full episode per month. And you also, what else do you get? Oh, yeah, ad free listening. How cool is that? I'm going to take a quick break. I'll be back on the other side here with the winners. of our merch contest in just one bit. All right, guys, you do the drill. You leave a good review for us on Apple Podcasts. You engage with us on Spotify.

Hit us up at Disgraceland Pod. Share something on social media. Spread the love for Disgraceland. We're going to pick some winners every week, and we're going to award you guys some free T-shirts. We got Disgraceland shirts stocked up. We got Rocka-Rola shirts stocked up. We're doing these epistles.

episode episodic shirts, as you know, Avi Spivik, the great artist who does all of our episode art. We're making t-shirts out of this art now. We're going to have that for you as well. So all you're going to do, you're going to go on Apple Podcasts, leave a review of disgrace land. Okay, engage with us on Spotify or share something on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook. What your love for the show? I'll pick out some winners every week, just like I'm going to do right now on Spotify. Let's do Spotify first. No more lullabies. That's the handle. No more lullabies on Spotify. It's very inspirational episode, guys. So here for Slick Rick.

That is in response to the Slick Rick Rewind episode that we just released. Listen, no more lullabies. If you hear this, get in touch. Hit us up at disgracelam pod on Instagram on X. And let us know that you heard this and give us your address and we'll get you out a t-shirt. All right. We'll get your size. All that stuff will take care of you.

Over on Apple Podcast, I'm going to give this one up to Sprugg Nasty. I'm going to spell this. S-P-U-R-G-E-N-A. A S-T-Y, who we just also released another Rewind episode on M&M. And Spragnasty gave us five stars, but had a critique. And I don't blame them. So in the M-N-M episode, right? You know how I do the, you know, that wasn't great music bit at the top of each thing?

And I say the artist made great music. And that episode, I don't want to call myself out here and just unleash the torrent from the M-N-M-M-Fans out there. But in that episode, I talk about how Eminem actually didn't. not make great music. And I'm not going to go back and edit that, but I've since changed my mind. I've since become an M&M fan. That episode was released probably three, four years ago,

something like that. My kids, more than anything, have opened my ears to Mr. Marshall Mathers. So anyways, Sproganasty, I don't know how to pronounce this, dude. S-P-U-R-G-E-Nasty. What is that? Spurg-Nasty. Spurg-nasty writes in,

come on, bro. You have to admit, E-made great music. Now that doesn't mean you have to like it. I love your show. Keep it up. All right, thanks for having an open mind sprug nasty and not torching me over the coals for my take on Eminem. I appreciate it. Get in touch at Disgraceland Pod. Quickest way to get me to respond is to hit me up on Instagram X.

I'm slow with Disgracelandpod at gmail.com. That's going to take me some time. I apologize. But hit me up or you can text me 6790666. Let me know. Winners, let me know you heard this. And we'll talk. I'll figure out a way to get you these t-shirts.

All right. Speaking of emails, Kim Anderson writes in. Subject is adoration, message. Hey, just subscribe to disgrace them because the compulsion, nay, the personal mandate directed me. So thank you for by now incalculable hours. I say that right. Incalculable hours of free audio pleasure. Thanks and thanks again.

But now so stoked to pay you the cash money you deserve. Stay curious, buddy. Love your output. Thanks, Kim. I think Kim is referencing paying. the five bucks a month to become an all access member. We appreciate it. Appreciate you guys.

I've been a little slow in the Patreon chat the last week or so, and that's because I am on vacation, but I will be back in there shortly. If you guys want to sign up again, that's disgracelandpod.com slash membership. Hit that up. Like I said, you're going to get the extra episode. You're going to get the ad-free listening

and you're going to get the always-on chat. And you're also going to get the extra portion of this bonus episode, which is coming up just a bit for you all-access members. All right, for everyone else, this episode is nearing its end, but the after party continues for, like I said, for our all access members. Sign up today. You'll hear an extended version of the after party. Get into your text, voicemails, and dive deeper into some of the stories that we've been talking about here. I'll be back in a flash. All right, welcome back. I'm about to get out of here. But before I do, before next week's Metallica episode is going to be a rewind episode from our archive popping up in your feeds. Guys, we have so many episodes in our archive. We talked a lot about teenage delinquency. And I'm

our episode today and, of course, some heavy metal. And on the teenage delinquency tip, we invite you to dive into our archive to check out the story of TK47, a young aspiring hip-hop artist whose life-imitated art in one of the worst ways possible as he found himself,

the subject of a nationwide manhunt for murder while at the tender age of 17. TK47 is episode eight of disgrace land going back all the way to season one. It was originally released on May 15th, 2018, and also in this episode, we of course talked about Ozzy Osbourne, who was at the center of my own juvenile delinquency, like I mentioned.

And back on April 28, 2020, we released our Ozzy Osborne episode. That's episode number 56 from season 5 of disgrace land. That's in the archive. So check that one out now. All right. That brings us nearly to an end, folks. So let's recap, shall we? Number one, right now in your feed, a brand new episode on Al Pacino.

Number two, coming tomorrow, a special rewind episode from our archive. And we are talking Metallica next to. week and the loss of founding member Cliff Burton. And I want to know which living artist or musician inspires you guys so much speaks to you so directly that you cannot bear to lose him or her. Who is it? And why? What do your favorite living artists mean to you? How do they help you? How do they inspire you? Why can't you live without them? And who are they? Let me know. Hit me up. Number three, hit me up. 617-906-6638. You got to tell me. Call me on the telephone, send me a text or hit me up at discreet.

Baseland Pod on the socials. Merch winners, get in touch. You know who you are. Number five, I skipped a bunch of numbers here. I don't care. Number five, remember, no one cares about great storytelling more than you do. And well, that's a disgrace. All right, in honor of Al Pacino's buddy, the great John Cazel, who died on March 13th,

1978, I give to you, me reading you the Billboard charts from that week. Number one, love is thicker than water. Andy Gibb. Last week, one. Peak position, one. Weeks on chart, 19. Number two, night fever, BGs. Last week, five. Peak position, two. Weeks on chart, six. Number three, sometimes when we touch, Dan Hill, last week, three. Peak position, three. Weeks on chart, 16. Number four, Emotion. Samantha Sanchez. Last 10.

Number four. A recipient station. For Samantha. Sanchez. Last 16. Two. Number five. Position.

Lay down. Sessions. Talking and start mixing. Kuhl.