Dissect DJs - James Brown - Living in America

Episode Date: July 3, 2020

In honor of our nation's celebratory day of Independence, we light up the 4th of July with one of the all-time patriotic bangers - James Brown's 1985 classic 'Living in America'. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Oh, Dicex DJs, 4th of July, we're about to get in. Knock out! It's the dot, dot, dot, dot, blah, my, dissect DGGGT is the week of the 4th of July. Happy Independence Day, everybody. It is the Datsc Dijs. What's going on, everybody? We back. It's Castle.

Don't worry, we are masked up. We are six feet away. All that bullshit. No, we're not. Yeah, we're actually sharing a microphone because one of mine won't work, so. You won't even tell. You would not know if I didn't tell you right at the beginning. But we figured out a way to do it.

Oh, ladies Joe, we just found out all the bars are shutting back down. The world is shutting back down. But guess what you, no, we will. You know why? Because guess what's not shut down? Dasak DJs, bringing you the best. You know what? Everybody is dealing with all the bullshit that's going on in the world.

You know what's going to keep you entertained? Netflix, Hulu, I don't know. Yourself? YouTube. Your dog. Also, the DICEK D-Js are here with you, and we have to pay homage to one of our favorite holidays. And there is absolutely only one song that we know to play on the celebration of this day. Absolutely.

And it is Mr. James Brown. Living in America. Oh, and real quick, before we get into the whole song, this song, Cassel and I have skateboarded different strands, different beaches, different boardwalks together on Fourth of July because we tend to be together. Tradition. And the only song that we tend to play throughout the entire day and just that day, because if not, you can't overplay, is this song, ladies you gentlemen, living in America, James Brown, if you don't feel American after hearing this song, you're probably not American. You're not American, I can guarantee it.

That's easy. You know what's funny is as we just started playing this song, I got nostalgia and realized, like, I have not heard this song since Fourth of July last year. And the first time we actually played this song all fourth was a few years back. Then I was looking for a good America song to like play for us to party with. And I realized like most actual like America theme songs are either like super old school patriotic. You know, stars and stripes are like, you're a grand old flag. It's a bunch of that shit.

Or really country. Like bro to be in America. Like nothing you really want to party to. And then I found this. And I was like, this makes me want to party for America. And then we did. We literally played it. the entire day.

And as we were going through, we're like, what if it gets played out? We're like, it's okay, the day it's done. as we were going through, we're like, after today it's done.

because of that, it gave it a little more of like, okay, I'm down to hear it again. , it's a fourth of July. It's like, no, not that right now. It's a time in place for that. Because, um... And you know what? It's time to party. Yeah, it is. I gotta be honest, James, I have no idea what you're talking about.

No, I do. Okay. I actually know exactly what James is talking about. Tell me what you're going on, because right now I'm hearing highways, and I'm hearing overloads and destinations to nowhere. I-to-eye stations. Talk to me, Castle. He's saying coast-to-coes highways, which is true.

Beginning by making a point on the transit of America, which is an interesting place to begin, but you know what? It is a place that we all know. We all know about the highways and they all are all over. The line that stood out to me and that, that I was actually like, fuck yeah, James, good call. Is where he says,

there's no destination that's too far. Like, we could go to Miami tonight, you know? And that's like as far away from us as possible. We could travel to Maine. Actually, Maine would probably need a connecting flight or something. But like, we could go to Miami tonight. And that's cool, you know? You can literally cover the whole coast on a single day.

And really, we can go, we have at our hill, the ability to travel anywhere to America that we want. And also in America, we have access to everything. Snow, mountains, oceans. I mean, I've just... And that's it. And that's only those two things.

But yeah, you know, we got like your country, you got the south. They got their whole flare. You go up north and see Washington and the whole Seattle, Gruncy. You know, you go over... We celebrate the Confederacy. No, it's bad. I mean, if you want to, you can. Actually, that's an option.

You go out to New York, you can see the city life out there. Oh, travel on the East Coast, see New England. Smoke weed in California. You can really do it all. In L.A. alone, you can kind of almost see the whole spectrum in this one city alone. So I think that line speaks to me. The rest of it is mostly about the transit. But you know what?

That's American. America, big on its whole transit system. A lot of people like to have freeway conversation. A lot of people like to talk, their routes to work. That's American. It might be other countries, too. I tell you, I love the dissect DJs because what they do is make me realize that there's a song that has words and there's meaning behind the words. And it took till the dissect DJs dissected the songs for me to realize that James Brown talks about transit for the entire first paragraph of his song.

And then just says, live in America. And proudly stating that he's living in America. I also like that you speak the dissect DJs as though it's an alternate group. in the third party station. Like, yeah, you know what I like about these guys? You know, now that I'm listening to them, these guys fucking get it, you know? You fuck with shit.

Is James Brown just describing the story of a... Look a truck driver almost. A truck driver railroad. I'll give them this. Well, most people who want to, like, sing a song about the greatness of America, like, James is keeping it real simple. He's like...

Blue collar. Yeah. He's asking me as a railroad worker. We got smokestack, fat back. Don't even know what he's talking about there. but it sounds like super blue-color basic. Many miles of railroad track, still in the transit system. He loves the transit system.

Really big on that. All-night radio, keeping on running. Okay, it feels like we're describing the life of a truck driver. Or railroad. Or a bricklayer, I don't know. Through your rock and roll soul, all-night diners keep you awake. Hey, I'm black coffee and a hard roll. A hard roll doesn't even sound delicious.

Black coffee and a hard roll sounds like the worst meal you could ask for. So... Hey, but that's America. That's... Okay. Hey, America comes in all sizes, shapes, forms, and glamour. And this is clearly on the low end of the glamour. But that's what James is trying to say.

It's not all just the Hollywood lifestyle. These dudes rolling through the night on black coffee and a hard roll. Going through a railroad track with a smokestack and a fat back. Do you think fat back is like a... I don't know what that is, but I know he's hung up all-night diners. I just wonder if he ever used the line... Excuse me, Flo? any dumb and dumber person gets that reference

I'm a dumb and dumber person that I don't remember the time he talks to the waitress and then she comes back she's like is that her name it's from like an old movie they're like that looks delicious you know what I think I'll take that sounds good yes of course I remember that like

just before that though he goes excuse me flow I don't recall that line really but you know what I thought it was good to be good I thought you would be there with me I think we need to do a three things we got to talk about episode it's um a dumber coming to your podcast here soon y'all i'm thoroughly convinced at this point this is him putting himself in the persona of a truck driver i figured it out

he's singing a country song like this feels like it was written for like a blue-collar country singer and james brown is showing who the fuck james brown is by being like i take your lyrics and i'm gonna make it row you know like he's turning into a bump and soul track And he said this was supposed to be Living in America Railroad tracks Station to station Yeah exactly

Living in America Yeah Hand to hand to hand Across the nation Yeah And this will Jerry Rogers Across the nation Hell

Whoa Okay I see what you're doing Yeah he's really showing his skills right here I gotta think that this probably was not written from You know there's actually I would like to actually look into it But I bet you this song was written for somebody else and he just like jumped on and he was like, I got this.

Oh, I look it. You know, like, James is showing how he can take any lyrics and turn it into a party. And as we said at the beginning, this is the only song that's like American theme that I can think of that really makes us just want to France.

Oh, I thought he was going to miss L.A. there for a second. Well, it felt like he just tossed it in there because he forgot about it. Like, everything else had New Orleans. New Orleans. Detroit did it. Detroit did it. Dallas, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.

Literally at the end, he just threw Chicago and LA together because I was like, oh, hey, I got no more room. Those are two our big cities I forgot about. You would think he would have been able to put L.A. before, like, Kansas City. Los Angeles instead of Kansas City sucks. I don't fault the order. Pittsburgh sucks and stuff for the Steelers, right? I've never been. I can't tell you.

Pittsburgh sucks a step before. Here's what I think he's doing here that I actually enjoy about this, is he says before that you might not be looking for the Promise Land, but you might find it anyway. Under one of those old familiar names, and that's when he starts listing them. And when you look at the list of cities he names off, he really kind of circles all the different cultures.

You got New Orleans, that kind of southern party lifestyle, you know, Bourbon Street and all the good folk down there. Detroit City, that's a blue-collar kind of like old-school, what-America was built-on type of city. Same with Pittsburgh, you know, New York City. No, Pittsburgh is Steel a nation. Steel Town. Steelers! Steelers! You're good? You're done? New York City. That's, you know... Glad to.

Yeah, everybody knows. You've got to include New York City. Why is Kansas City being throwing? Because that's the center of the country that often gets overlooked. Yeah, but Kansas City sucks. It's in two states. It's in the middle of the country sucks, but you've got to rip it. That's a huge part of the country. Kansas City is not even in Kansas. It is. Kansas City is not even in Kansas. It's in Missouri and Kansas. He just said it was in Tennessee. Either way, he's not trying to say right now, what are the hottest cities in America that you want to go party? And he's as it seems to be the bare bones. The story of this song is America is not just glamour.

It's not just Hollywood. It's not just New York City. It's a lot of blue-collar people driving through the country, going to diners, living off black coffee and hard rolls, going over train tracks. What highways are they going to use? I don't know, but they're all over the country. Kansas City is one of those cities. that just describes that kind of middle of the country that is a whole bunch of people that are like

this is how we know America as and he's playing to all of them. He's not just playing to Hollywood, you know? Kansas City sucks. He does throw L.A. in there, though, because he didn't even have to harp on it. He just tossed it in there at the end. Shut up.

Shut the fuck up. I even did. It's probably fine. I'm sure it's cool. We'll bring Cam down here right now. I'll tell him. Kansas City, it should not be on this list. They could have been any of the Oklahoma City.

It ought to have been cooler. Cam, come down here. Somebody needs to talk of Kansas City sucks. All right. Stop belaboring that point. Let's just get back to living in America. All right, let me go off on a little tangent. I'm going off all these names.

If you talk about Kansas City anymore, I'm going to smack you. No, no, I'm not going to, but I might. New Orleans, Poplar City, Detroit, Dallas, all these. They all have history. Kansas City ain't got no history. Sure they do. It's a city in Kansas, and it's not even in Kansas. Doesn't make sense.

You know what? Anybody that lives in Kansas City, call in 888-426-8712. We literally have one. He could bring him down. Fuck Kansas City. At this point, he's just going off. Making sure you know America's being lived in. But the saxophone is keeping alive.

Tots that in there. James Brown feels good. I feel good. It's Fourth of July, baby, on a Saturday. I feel pretty good. I feel good, man. I can't wait for Fourth of July. We get to have masks on and cover our faces and stay away from everybody.

But enjoy the freedom that this country provides us. I can't wait. And takes away from us. Yeah. And just as quickly. So freedom, prosperity, the ability to do what I feel I want to do in this life. I feel good. I also love that James

I did it on that note because that's the ultimate James Brown note to hand on right there. You know? I said it feel good. I feel like if he was in concert he would go from that to I feel good the song and then it would just be easy transition. Transition rights itself. Actually it was written by him so I guess I didn't. All right guys. Well, with that

Castle, our ultimate Fourth of July song, how many slaps and how many snaps are you giving this? And by the way, I think I got the slaps thing right. You for the first time, I remember, you actually got, how many? Oh, what is that? Who is that? Come in. Open it up. Oh, man. Cam's, KC overheard us just talking shit. We're called Jagg talking shit. You heard me. All right. So we're going over the lyrics, living in America. He calls out Kansas City.

No, but he calls out a bunch of cities. He calls out New Orleans, Dallas, L.A., Chicago. In Kansas City. And Kansas City. And I was like, what the fuck is Kansas City on this list? Kansas City sucks. And then he talks about Kansas City for like five minutes to do. Fuck Kansas City.

Well, Kansas City is in Kansas. First of all, Kansas City is both in Missouri and in Kansas. Exactly what I said. And it is the home. It's a universal home of barbecue, which may be one of the most American things on the face of the earth. Who gave them that's that? Kansas City is America.

And it's actually one of the, it's almost dead center in the entire United States. That's what I said. It's like the little almost dead center. Going back to what you said, who gave them the, the accredation, accreditation, accreditation, accreditation of being the number one

barbecue. I've never heard of Kansas barbecue. What? Ever. I've definitely heard of that. Who, what barbecue have you heard of then? Bob's barbecue Is that your fucking neighbor?

What are you talking about? I don't know Sounds terrible But Kansas City barbecue is fantastic Trust me I moved there and I gained like 100 pounds Eating barbecue What's in Kansas City other than barbecue?

It's got the city called Overland Park Which is actually one of the Most popular cities That young Americans are moving to Because it's very inexpensive to live there And there's a lot of cool stuff to do Also home to the largest rail yard in the United States

See, that's American right there. That's one of the things... That's one of the things I love about traveling across the country is these cities that don't have as much to, like, present, will be like, well, we got the world's largest stamp. That's something Cleveland has. They'll be like the world's largest stamp, right? Yeah, check it out.

Like, they'll just make something random as fuck. Like, that city on the way to Vegas, that's just like, oh, we got the biggest turnometer. Take a picture with it, you know? So Kansas City has the biggest railway, and for some reason, that's a factor. And it's active. It's huge.

You see it. It's a very... To make your city sound better is the biggest rail. All right, listen, it is Kansas City. The place is kind of shitty. I do it! But that's America. It's America.

That's what America's about. It's got a lot of these big-ass cities that are in the middle of kind of nowhere and they, like, glorify something like the world's biggest stair rail. And what was the last time the Chiefs were, like, fucking 1970? What was it?

This year? January The baseball team won four, five years ago, four years ago than won the world series. Yeah, the royals actually have a more recent World Series

than the Dodgers and the Indians. It's fucked up. That's got to hurt. What about the Steelers? Oh, I'm going to leave. I'm going to do Diasek D-Js with Kim from here and out.

People that don't want to hate on in those cities. Wait, there's one more thing I want to bring up about this song, though, that we haven't touched on yet. And that's a Rocky Four. The one when Apollo Cree. fights Yvon Drago and Apollo Creed comes to the ring

with this song which is always what I associate this song with and James Brown actually plays him in and Apollo Creed goes on to do a like nine minute dance number before he has a professional boxing fight and loy behold maybe not the best decision because he gets his ass

rocked by Drago and fucking like dies he does kind of sad it gets dark real quick are we going to talk about this Yeah, he definitely dies. He's a fact. He dies.

So Apollo comes out. He's dressed like Uncle Sam, basically, full on, like, American top hat, all that. He's got, like, a big rope. He does a whole dance number. I feel like he may have even had, like, those little sparklers in his hand. But, yeah, James Brown plays him out, which was actually a culture, I think that boxing was moving towards. I actually remember a guy in the mid-90s named, like, Prince Nassim or something, who used to do, like, a whole dance number before his songs on the way.

Like, Camacho used to do that. Yo. Yeah, Camacho used to do that. He used to have, like, a... The Prince he used to do. to be one of my favorite fighters. You remember that guy? I do remember that. He was ridiculous. He'd do like a whole dance routine on his way to the

ring and shit. He'd be doing crazy stuff. He's actually decent. I don't know what his record was. He was okay, yeah. But then like the thing about that whole shtick is as soon as you get knocked out, like you're kind of dead. You're dead. You're not like an idiot. You're dead. You're not like Apollo dead. But you're, you know, you're dead. I can make that joke because, you know, Apollo was a character

in a movie. And unless you're really closely tied to Rocky Ford. You're not going to be offended. He was okay. He went on to play Chubbs in Happy Gilmore, you know. The actor lives on. He's good. First of all, one of my favorite movies ever, Heavy Good War.

Had Carl Weather's, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, me too. We're gonna have to do with three things on that, too. But, uh, all right, I think we should finally get into the slaps because we never actually did. Our, uh, homie upstairs heard us talking shit about Casey, ears are burdened, had to come down, lay the smackdown on behalf of Casey.

And now I want barbecue from Casey. I'm telling you, it's fantastic barbecue. I know that's... Here goes my slaps. I got to be honest, that's all I ever really hear about Casey. see and like I'm sure it is it's bombed but like gotta be gone if they're talking that much about it's got to be bom all right here go my slaps ready let's go five slaps in america simply from nostalgic purposes and james brown and it talks about america which i'm a part of i'm american

Puerto rican and we're supposed to be proud of ourselves because that's what americans do that's what americans do oh that is what americans do actually funny topic i wanted to bring out what a perfect place to bring it up are you offended that Washington d.c is going to be a state before Puerto Rico? No. No. A staple? Simple? A state.

A state. Yeah, so... I'm Puerto Rican, but I grew up in Fontana, California, in Southern California. I don't speak a word of Spanish. And although I claim Puerto Rican, all I have is moves, dance moves. That's all they gave me. Also, when you went back there and visited it finally, you're like... Oh, man, Puerto Rican suck.

I fucking hate my culture. I'm like, I was so disappointed in all my people. I was trying to fuck my people. I like, Cam, this is something you can learn. You don't necessarily need to rep from a place Just because you came from there You could turn around I don't know

I used to rep Puerto Rico nonstop The moment I went there I came back I stopped wearing all their shit Because Puerto Ricans I love my Puerto Ricans But we suck I don't know

Kansas City's awesome I'm just saying You can throw them under the bus The same way he does You're out in L.A. It's true You're getting it out of that bitch I did make it out

But Kansas City is a cool place It's like you eat barbecue Get Fat and It was. Cool place if you want to make a bunch of money and you don't want to pay a bunch of rent. That's true. They do have that out of us.

Fucking see. All right, Castle, give me your slaps. You know what that was? That was a three slaps. Sit back, thought about it.

And I was like, you know what? It's the Fourth of July week. Let me get another one. Four slaps for Fourth of July. Four slaps for Fourth of July. I'm taking one of my slaps away because Ford's good and you had a good reason.

I already made the sound effect that goes with you doing the five slaps. So I can't take that back. It's in the books now. Well, fuck it. Five Slapper. I love it. It's for America.

It's for America. It's James Brown. Who apparently really wants to belabor the point that we have highways, black coffee, and hard rolls. In Kansas City. In Kansas City. And that's what America's all about. All right. Well, have for this light, y'all.

Stay safe. Cover your faces. Don't go with JPP and blow off any fingers. Be safe for them fireworks. But light off some fireworks if you got them. That shit looks cool. Thanks, James. Appreciate you.

It makes this guy look fun. podcast sponsored by TSSCleaning.com Next Next