One Song - The Music That Made Us

Episode Date: August 24, 2023

This time on One Song we’re flipping the script and doing something different: LUXXURY and Diallo will be sharing the songs that changed the way that they listen to music. So come along for the ride and hear about the song that convinced Diallo that he was no longer young, and one that still brings LUXXURY to tears.  Black Ego by Digable Planets West End Girls by Pet Shop Boys Pedestal by Portishead Protect Ya Neck by Wu-Tang Then She Did... by Jane's Addiction Every Nose by N.E.R.D Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Luxury, my friend. How are you? I am doing great. It's so exciting to be here and talking to you about music. One of my favorite things to do, talk about music. Talk to my friend Diallo combined. It's crazy. I know. Should we start the show? Let's start the show. All right. Today on one song, we're going to do something a little bit different. Instead of focusing on just one song, we're going to talk about the songs that had a big impact on us. That's right. We're going to talk about some of the songs that changed the way we think about music.

We're going to break the ice, and we're going to get to know each other a little better. Dale, I've known you for quite some time. I think I know you pretty well. You think you know me, but you don't know me. I apologize for implying that I know you. No, it's okay. You kind of know me. Okay, I kind of do know you? Yeah, a little bit.

But do I know you know you? Like, I don't actually know what songs you're about to pick. That's true. To talk about. So that'll be a revelation to me and vice versa. You don't know what I'm going to pick. No, I don't know what songs changed your life. And, you know, for what it's worth, I'm going to share, you know, a couple of songs.

You know, which song from my youth changed the way I think about music to this day. plus which song made me realize I am not 20 anymore. That's right. Yeah, we didn't share each other's answers ahead of time. So this is going to be revelations coming on both sides. Yeah, I am so curious to know which songs you picked. Me too. Me too, you. You know, before the show, the producers asked both of us which song we thought the other might choose. You know, one song I thought you'd choose.

Yeah. What'd you think? You know what's funny is I think it maybe would be blue sky by yellow. Interesting. That's such an interesting choice. Why ELO is not super far off base with me, but I'm curious why that song in particular? Because that is the ELO song that popped in my head just now. Because it's in every movie ever. Yeah. And also Com and sampled it for a decent song, I want to say, in the mid-2000s. But I'm, you know, I'm actually an E-LO. I won't call myself a fan because I don't really know their music. But I feel like whenever I look up that weird song, that I've heard a couple of times in life. And I'm like, who does this song?

It'll often be electric-like orchestra. Like, you know, Xanadu is an example. They have some great songs on that soundtrack. Oh, my God. But clearly, I'm way off. I'm way off. It's not ELO, but you're making me reconsider some of my choices.

I mean, ELO is in the pantheon of the greats for me. Jeff Lynn is one of my favorite all-time songwriter, producers. I have a friend. I think we have a shared friend whose mom is dating him right now. Oh, snap. It's pretty cool that he's in our lives. You've got the Jeff Lynn hot goss for you.

He's dating. I'm sorry to say that none of the three choices I did make today were Eola. Next time, though, next time for sure. I was wrong. I didn't get it. It's okay. We're still friends. Guess one of mine.

But with the caveat that it can't be one of the ones that is English-based. Oh, man. I probably would guess knowing how, well, we have a lot of overlap. That's one of the fun things about our friendship. There's a lot of areas where you know a category or an area. or something or an artist and I don't and vice versa. One shared area though is I know that you're like early 21st century New York

underground indie music fan. Oh cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, might be in there. Is it maps? That would have been an excellent choice. Maps? That would have been an excellent. Maps is not on there. No, okay. No. So we're over to, do we really know each other? No, I mean, that would have been a great choice. I will always, I will always, if I'm driving through L.A. and I'm feeling reckless, I will always throw on rich

or pin or bang those are probably my three favorite yeah yes we were texting the other night and like I was in the middle of watching meet me in the bathroom which is a documentary about this which you I think minutes later we're like I'm watching it like so we both

revisited what is now 20 years ago which is insane and by the way that documentary I both love it but I also find it infuriating for the things that I feel like they left out like I was reminded of the band chick chick chick chick chick chick and I was like how is there no chick chick chick chick chick in this document?

Because they're from Sacramento. All right. It was a New York movie. But you're right. It was a New York. Wait, Chick-G-G-Six. Not from New York? I'm like 99% positive.

They're from Sacramento. Okay, but they were definitely of that time and that scene. Totally. No, no, 100% right that that was musically, this post-punk, danceable with sort of faster punk and guitars, kind of jangly, kind of angular guitars, like Gang of Four Part 2. So great.

Redux. And they definitely are in there. And I saw them live, too. They were, I think they opened for LCD. That was quite a show. That's a good show. There's some great bands. My first pick is a song off one of my favorite records.

It's the second album from a group of three MCs who formed a rap trio they described as jazz-informed hip-hop. The song is Black Ego and the band is Diggable Planets. Wow. In the East I rose. Frozen and a pose of a land disease. Those that cool as summer breeze. Nicky to Kevin Modes, we got four in a lack.

As we sleep at Warp, Seven, hollad, hollad, crowd cast because look for fee is the color and buddy he do it love oh my god that song has everything that's the first song on the album isn't it it's um

I think there's like an intro and then it goes into that but yeah it's it it opens up that record and it's blowout comb slept on classic slept on classic album and can I just say that one of the highlights

I have two really big highlights of the pandemic era when everybody was on Zoom and people were DJing yeah one was we became friends right we became we're pandemic friends there was we did we did a podcast on the phone every couple days for free i'd call with like five minutes i'd be like hey this is a quick two minute question and then i'd look at my phone later and it was like two hours right but so our relationship could

but one of my other favorite moments of the pandemic was when i was djing and somebody added um in the comments they at um miss meck uh from this group and she came into the into my dj set are you serious and she was just like like, oh, I appreciate. She was like, I appreciate, you know, you playing some old, some old classics. And I was just like, you know, 15 year old me is flipping out because Ms. Mecca is in my comments, yo. Like, I wanted to tell everybody to just start listening to the show, um, just for that alone. I love diggible planets. They're finally getting their flowers. They got some flowers back then. I think they want a Grammy, right? But like, they kind of disappeared.

No, but they never, they never, they never got to be like at the center of the culture, the way the tribe and De La. I mean, I was actually talking about this to somebody recently, you know, he finally got to go see Diggleblank Plants, I think, like in 1997, they were opening for Shaw Day at Candlestick Park or something like that. But he was like, I feel like, you know, considering where musically they were at, like, why didn't tribe and like the native tongues crew like welcome them in? I don't want to take the, you know, the credit for somebody else's brilliant observation.

But my friend was like, it was almost like, you know, Bobby Rush in Chicago politics. He was like, don't bring us anybody. we don't already know. Like, it was like they weren't part of the Native Tungs clique. And so they were not allowed to become a part of the Native Tons. They're from like Seattle, I think, or they're from the West Coast. They're not literally from the East Coast. Yeah, I think Ishmael Butler was from Washington, I want to say.

And so he had moved to New York. And then Ms. Mecca, I'm not sure what her backstory was. And then Doodlebug was like actually down with J.Rue the Damager. And like, I feel like he was put with the other two because the label thought they'd be a good trio. But I mean, like, yeah, Diggable, I mean. But you're right, they are, are they a New York band, kind of. I mean, their albums are about New York. They were people who moved to New York, whereas, like, tribe, they're from Queens, you know, like,

their local dudes who, like, blew up on the New York seat. It is a little bit different, you know. But, I mean, like, Digible, first album, like, everybody heard it. Everybody had an opinion. I loved it. And then second album, I'm sure that label was like, oh, man, there's no, you know, slick like that on this album. But I think that second album,

needs a return list and some of the greatest sampling I've ever heard in a hip-hop album. Great, great choice, man. This record, this blowout comb is like... How did it change your relationship to music? I think it changed my relationship to music just as a listener to be recognizing the use of the Rhodes electric piano as such a like core aspect of what ties together, almost everything I love. And as a musician, I started to make music where that was the best.

backbone. A lot of my music that I've made probably comes from recognizing that watery keyboard sound, that kind of, it's, it sort of has an elongated and soft introduction. Like every time, every chord you play on the roads is a bit softer as you attack the chord. And then it's got this watery, elongated feeling. And this song is like the mastery of that. You really feel like you're, You're submerged and only your eyes can see above, like, a little bit because of the Langorus slow groove with that, like, insane meter sample. I'm a huge fan of the meters. So the drummer, the drum break is from the meters song. I think here comes the meter man.

I should double check that. But it's definitely Zigaboo Modeliste, who's my favorite in my top three. I just like the fact you pronounce that correctly. Zigabu Modeliste. What a name. And what a drummer. He does that insane, syncopated, boom, cat, boom, cat, cat, it's insane.

It's insane. Yeah. How syncopated it is. How not just boom, cat, boom, boom, cat. The opposite of just this simple funk beat comes into play here. I mean, no, you nailed it because I think one of the things we're doing with this episode is we're talking about the ways that we came to know each other better. And one of the things I like about the way you talk about music is like you break it down by the bass line, by the drums. Like, you know, I hadn't ever heard anybody talk like that about music before.

So I'm glad you're here. I'm glad we're friends too. I mean, that's what we're here for. And just to sort of finish my thoughts on this song, one thing that I think is cool from a like, what is happening creatively in the production process is they did something similar to Port His Head in that there's a combination of samples and live instrumentation happening. And I've done some digging. And I actually, I think Dave Darlington, I think is the name of the producer.

want to get that right. But a lot of the like bass playing and roads playing is actually not sampled. It just feels sampled. So you've got on the bottom layer, you've got that meters drumbeat. On top of that, you've got replayed or I think created. I don't think they're replaying a sample. I think that's just a song they wrote with those chord changes. It feels though like the entire thing is a breakbeat. It feels like it could be a Bob James sample. The drums, the roads and the bass together, but it's not. And then on top of that is the wrapping. So there's sort of three layers. is really cool when it's done. Yeah, I remember the single of that album was Eighth Wonder,

and I feel like sort of the same thing there. Eighth Wonder is a sample, but it also sounds like they've got some live instrumentation. I think that bass line, the don't, don't, don't, don't. Yeah, I love that. But that song comes, like, as a DJ, like, that song comes in big.

Like, when it's got the, wow, wow, wow, wow. Like, you're like, as a DJ, like, you just want to open up a big music festival with that. Just have the crowd be like, yeah. Right. Oh, right, because that's the, like, like James Brown, funky people sample that public enemy used for public enemy number one. Right, right. Oh my God. That's a huge part of what I love about, first of all, music, but

talking about music with Diallo. And the appreciation of it all is like how these things are connected, how you get from one artist to the other, from one era to the other, and how it's a history lesson when you break apart these songs and you start to realize, oh, this is coming from that. And one thing I'll go to the mat on, and that's maybe one of the big themes that run through all of our episodes and seasons. Go to the mat, man. Go to the mat. Is that that as a creative choice is so valuable to culture and at large. The idea that like reusing things not as what is some people consider laziness, but reusing and sampling comes out of an appreciation for and a reupping of, a remember this of, a kind of pointing to what came before as an education process. Absolutely. I love that part of it.

It's a conversation. So digible planets, one of my all-time favorites, black ego. I'm with you. Diall, I got a question for you. Oh, damn. What song did you choose? Well, you know, the first song I chose is by an English synth-pop duo. Don't tell me.

No, keep going with a hints, and I'll see if I can go. Okay, okay. These two, they met in 1981. Okay, keep going on. They shared an affinity for disco and electro-pop records. You know, it's funny. So far, that's still about 120 bands. It's like you've not narrowed to go. Keep going.

They're like, flock of seagulls. One part of their backstory that I like a lot is that they were apparently like reviewing songs by other artists when one of the people they reviewed was like, okay, so if you guys have such strong opinions, why don't you guys do better? And I feel like that's honestly. Yeah, yeah, go on. No, no, I think I know it is without hint. No, I mean, like, seriously, it's almost the reason I found myself with a writing partner, Bashir Salahdin, writing comedy. we were critics essentially of other people's movies and TV shows. We were like, oh, man, you know.

And someone called you out on it and challenged you? Like somebody was like, man, y'all think y'all could do better. You know, I don't know why I gave him that voice because they never, they never actually came at us that aggressively. But, you know, at some point we were like, you know, maybe we should do better. My mom was actually the one who was like, you know, you guys should start writing comedy because you're funny. And now, you know, thanks, mom.

I'm glad you brought that up. Sometimes critics push us into new areas. Exactly, exactly. Sometimes a little bit of aggression. and adversity brings about, you know, some good times. That's where the growth happens. I'll give you one more hint. In 1983, the two recorded a track inspired in part by a T.S. Eliot poem.

Any, any? No, I thought I had it. Now I've gone the other direction. I lost you a T.S. The other direction. The wasteland? The song title is West End Girls. And the group is.

Oh my God. The Pet Shop Boys. The Freckin love them. Let's hear a little bit. Neil Tennant used to write for like, was it NME? Or I think he was a writer. It was a critic for Enemy. Yeah.

And let's see if we can listen to some of the young folks in the room who may not already know. Here is West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys. So sick. Pure 1983. It stands the test of time. And yet it is so timestamp. It sounds so good. It is so 1980.

You know, let me just say right off the bat that my first memory of this is I was sitting in elementary school. And I was like, you know, singing this song. And like, all the kids knew it because, you know, at that age, you're all listening to everything. But I'll never forget one girl saying, like, oh, man, you like white music? Oh, it's got to be like that. Oh, but this song is so good. I mean, like, I can remember in Atlanta where I grew up, like, there was definitely a line in the sand between the black stations and the pop stations. And so, yes, I did listen to V-103, but I also did listen to.

I don't remember what the call sign was for the white pop station. But that was where I got stuff like Pet Shop Boys and Swing Out Sister and like all these like groups from that era. And I just I just remember thinking at the time and like most of the kids, even though they would clown me for listening to white music, it was we all thought it was rapping. That's what's interesting. In 1983, he's basically rap. He's basically right. He's not really singing that song. We didn't know Austin Powers yet, but it honestly sounded like if Austin Powers could rap.

It's like, I'm tall and you bet it off dead. You know, like it was just, you know, and I think about it. that, like, it comes in hard. Like, Pet Shop, like, what's it? Sometimes you're better off dead. There's a gun in your hand and it's pointed at your head. Like, woo. That's like Grandmaster Flash. That's like the message.

There's drama. Is a person feeling suicidal? Like, what? It didn't even make sense to me, but I just knew that was some hard, that was some hard stuff for 19. In a City Prussia, right? Isn't that the, um, oh my God. Flight of the Concords, right? With like In a City Pressure. You haven't seen that?

Oh, they do a Western Girls parody. Yeah. Their West End Girls parody is in a city pressure. You know, how did I miss that one? But I just feel like this song was so cool. And I think the reason why it's personal for me is because it was one of the first times in my life that I was aware of the fact that I was listening to not just what my immediate friends in my elementary school classroom would listen to. I was listening to, you know, something that was different. And granted, it was a big pop song at the time.

So it's not like I'm like a eight-year-old out there, you know, going through the record stacks. But it was one of the first times I was like, oh, I listened to a little bit of everything. Right. You know, and now it's like a bragging right, you know, like everybody's like, oh, I listen to everything. But like in the 80s, like you, I love the movie SLC punk because they're like the new romantics hated the punks and the punks hated, you know, the grease. Like, everything was divided so much by music. And it was definitely no different in Atlanta. But, you know, I just feel like it was it was a time when I was just discovering that there was a lot of music.

So was this song, the one that broke through? And like before this, prior to this, maybe you felt like the music and the group that you were part of were connected. And suddenly you were like, there's something outside of this group. And I need to make a choice whether I'm going to go for it and be like, yes, I like things outside of the group. Or no, you're right. This sucks. I think it was, like I said, you know, your world in elementary school is the people that you're in that classroom went, you know, and I, and it occurred to me that through my radio, through my

alarm clock, which had in the radio, radio, right now, every Gen Z person is like, what, those two devices were to combine? My, my alarm clock had a radio and whatever that pop station was, I was listening to that just as much as I was listening to, you know, the Black Radio station. So I, I, you know, at that time, like Michael Jackson was probably getting played on both, you know what I mean? Prince was probably getting played on both, but, you know, I need a bigger one getting paid on both. You know what I mean? Right. And so I had my Anita Baker's side, but I also had, you know, Pet Shop Boys and, you know,

wingo boingo was like something that I really seemed to like a lot back in the days, mainly because, you know, his songs, you know, Danny Elfman's songs were getting into movies like Back to School of a Rodney Dangerfield, you know what I mean? Yeah, like I would hear them. Yeah, like I would hear a song either on that pop radio station or in a movie and think, oh, I really like burning down the house because my parents let me watch. you know, Revenge of the Nerves before I was ready to watch it. Well, it's so interesting that, like, that's, that, first of all, I love this song, I love

your choice. And I'm thinking about how interesting it is because that era of music of what was on the pop charts, which had come out of kind of, a lot of it was coming out of a post-punk movement, which was the integration in rock music of lots of things that came from dance music and came from black music and came from disco and come from reggae. Like, if you think like culture club, these are those are reggae songs. That's crazy, right? Right? Culture Club and the police were clearly influenced by reggae.

And I think about it, I wasn't really into like Guns and Roses and... But that's what I'm saying. The Rock. I mean, I heard those songs too, but that wasn't my thing. I really liked stuff on keyboards and synthesizers. You know, haul and notes, I always talk about the fact that you and I both agree. You can play hollow notes for almost any type of music fan. And that goes over.

big. You know, like, there's something about Hall of Notes that just crosses so many lines. Right. And one thing that all of those acts share is how rhythmic it is, meaning the drums and bass matter. And there are syncopated rhythms in the bass. Like, that really basic thing carries through in a way very differently from just the guitar-driven rock music that came before. And the tempos are more danceable. Like a lot of what was integrated into white music, into white pop music, especially the British invasion, humanly kind of era stuff. where Pet Shop Boys fit perfectly and Durandrine, and all of those guys were doing that.

I'm surprised that nobody has done anything with West End girls. I feel like you could take their vocals out and put Luther Vandros over it, and it would make sense. Yeah. Like, because that baseline is so throaty. So wobbly. It's so wobbly and dope. That song's produced also by Bobby O, Bobby Orlando, who did like the flirts.

You know that song? I know the flirts. There's that song that Felix the Housecat samples. Passion. Yeah. For those those things passion, it's a great. Italian disco song. The genre is called Italo Disco,

but it's a great Italian disco song. If you get two seconds, go on YouTube, find the flirts. The name of the song is Passion, and you'll probably hear some connective tissue between that and West End Girls.

Well, my next song is a song that stopped me in my tracks when I first heard it. I literally felt like I couldn't move. It's by a British band out of Bristol. Hint, hint, hint. That actually narrows it down to three,

right? The three big Bristol bands. I think I know it. I think you may know it. Whose debut album, Dummy, was a commercial and critical success. The band is poured his head. The song is 1994's pedestal. When it goes up to half-step right here.

So just listening back to that track, I'm remembering, I mean, it just instantly transports me back in time as music wonderfully does so often. But one thing that struck me on this listen is the baseline. It goes up that half-step, and it's a certain frequency. I'm going to stop right there with the word. frequency in sciencey stuff, partially because it's kind of like, you know, it's a little bit beyond the scope of the show, but I also don't know it that well. I'm not a scientist of sound, but I do know that certain frequencies can like make you poop and certain frequencies can make you just stop dead in your tracks. Is that what they call the brown note? That's the brown note.

Oh my gosh. I thought that was an urban legend. No, I don't know if it is, but I read about it in a tin tin a long time ago, so it must be true. And, um, you're like, all I know is I always whenever I hear that sound. That track, that port is said, the production on that is so insane that they have somehow captured this one bass note where I can't move.

It's like I am in the sunken place of sound while that song is playing. It's really like a dream where you're like, you see things happening and you just can't do anything. So another wonderful thing that I was thinking as we just listened back was the line that she sings

and she's barely singing. That's a wonderful thing about Beth Gibbons It's her voice is like she's kind of It's like Amy Man She's one of those singers who's she's obviously singing But it's like she's not belting it She's not shaka conning it She's kind of like just singing it like this

Really close to the mic If microphones weren't invented She couldn't be a singer Like she's one of those kind of crooner types But she's about to sing You Abandon Me How I Suffered And that line just like when I first heard it I was going through a breakup

It was really dark She wasn't calling me back and to the present day, it still is kind of a marker of very sad moments. Very recently, I had something happened and everything's fine now, but I put that record on. I made the mistake of putting that record on. And I was crying. I was bawling midday on a Tuesday. It's just got that power, power of the emotional content of both her voice and the bass.

I love a good lyric that, you know, like we all hear, you know, I was talking to Kevin Hart just recently. He was like, anytime he tries to sing, he always starts with the word girl. So it's always like, girl. And then whatever follows after that. But I- That's brilliant, actually. Good creative technique. Yeah. But one thing, I like a lyric that's like incredibly sad or dark.

And you just, you know, I remember on that reason, everything, but the girl song, nothing to lose, nothing left to lose. She says, she sings, kiss me while the world decays. Like, I was just like, oh, like, what a gut. punch that is so i've been there i've been there when that one lyric is just like i can't believe this is happening marvin gay's got some lyric um oh you know and um in the song i think uh what's happening brother or it's on what's going on but um it's the it's the line where he says uh you know he's talking about war is hell when will it end you know and he's talking about all

this stuff that sucks and he's like oh and by the world and by the way how the hell have you been There's something about the way he sings How the hell have you been? It's so heartbreaking. Wow. Because you get the sense that he's like really feeling in. This other person he's talking to

is probably really feeling it, but he's checking in with him all the same. Wow. So, you know, the power of a lyric. Right. Sometimes. I was thinking the Marvin Gaye sounds like the zooming out on the awful,

but then like the zooming in on the personal. Yeah, he's been talking about, you know, like, you know, how's our team doing? You know, do you think they stand a chance? You know, like he's singing about everything else else having the world, but then he zooms in out of nowhere. And he's like, and by the way, brother, how the hell have you been?

I'm not going to hit falsetto next to the way he does. It moved me. But he hits that hell. I felt moved. And you feel, yeah, you feel moved. There's something really powerful about a voice in your ear, as we ourselves are right now to the listeners out there whose ears we are tickling with our flights of fancy of prose about music, dancing about architecture. But it is powerful, endlessly powerful. And the reason why I love music so much, especially recordings, like recorded music is a beautiful phenomenon.

because recording from 20, 30, 40, whatever years ago can have an emotional resonance throughout your entire life. Absolutely. And it's like a rock that stays consistent for you. It's something you can rely on. One thing about Portishead, number one, I always liked Portis Head. Portis Head, massive attack, without stepping too far outside the genre. I even put some of the primal scream stuff in there.

And I feel like DJ Shadow was big in that time. Like there were a lot of people who were sort of like just... Crooder and Dorfmeister. They were Crooder and Dorfmeister. all sort of, in my view, sort of just east of hip-hop. You know, like they were sampling. It was very moody in the way that 90s hip-hop was very moody. And even though they were selling, it wasn't like in your face pop. You know, like it was. Right. Well, I'm just making the connection now as you're saying it. It's the same thing that happened in West End Girl. Yes. Which is that

the British were listening to. British white people started to bring in a more recent black music phenomenon of hip-hop. So it's the tempos. It's the break beats. And there's, are singing their white people songs on top of it. And that's its own beautiful format, but how interesting that it's connected to the other one. It turns out white people doing black music sells pretty well. This didn't just happen once. This didn't just happen once.

But that is a great group. And I honestly wish I knew them a little bit better because I feel like I know sort of the big port of set songs. I don't know like the smaller ones. Even massive attack. I consider myself a fan. You know, I know Teardrop and some of their other songs. but it's not, you know, maybe because it wasn't made to be a radio single.

I don't know all the songs. I'll make another connection to my previous song, by the way, that I just thought of about Portishead is they did a similar phenomenon. But they went a step further in terms of sampling. They didn't sample anything. I take that back. I think on their record they have maybe two or three samples. But everything that sounds sampled in most of their work is themselves jamming and then recording the jam and then pressing up an acetate, an actual vinyl copy. of their jam.

So they basically made a record of them playing something so they could manipulate it like they were sampling somebody. Precisely right. And so the aesthetic quality of the sound would feel like the samples that had been in the culture for the previous 10 years, which are sampled off the wax. I really want to make an acetate now.

It's so cool. It is pretty cool that they did that. Yeah. And it also avoids the whole, I haven't said of this episode. So I have to interpolation. It was interpolating. They were interpolating themselves.

They were a little bit interpolating themselves, but they're avoiding the sampling interpulation side of hip hop that can get other people into hot water. Absolutely. They did license the one or two samples they do use on that record. But anyway, so Portishead is a real through line

through my, you know, emotional through line, I'd say, through my years. I've been on a journey with Portishead that I think will never end. I love it. I love it. You know, I love the fact we're sharing these songs. I feel like I'm learning so much more about you. Me too.

This episode. Depth. Death is happening in real time. I love it. So Diallo, what's your second song? This next song, you know, is from a group. To me, it changed the way I heard hip hop. In fact, I can remember sitting in my friend's car and he was like, yo, check this out.

I just heard this while I was up in New York. And I remember him popping in the tape because it was a cassette deck. And I remember being moved and like wanting to get into a fight like I was so hype. But at the same time, I was like, is this even hip hop? Because it just didn't sound like anything that we had ever heard. I have no idea with this is. I'm so excited. Oh my gosh.

You got some hints for me? I'm not even going to say. What's a hint? I need a hint. I probably won't know. Quentin Tarantino became a friend of one of the members famously. I don't know. Later.

DMX? I can see Quentin and DMX being buddies. That'd be interesting. I have no idea who it is. I'm excited. Oh, my God. Give me a hint. I need a hint.

I'm excited to play it for you. Okay. But I can't play it until after the break. Oh, you tease. Welcome back to one song. the show where we deconstruct and celebrate some of our favorite songs from the past 60 years until you why it deserves one more

listen. Before the break, Dialla was just about to tell us which song changed his life. I mean, it definitely changed my relationship to hip hop because I was like man, if they're making hip hop that's produced and sounds like this, anything is possible. This is a hip hop group

out of Staten Island, whose members include Method Man, Ghost Face, Old Dirty Bastert. Staten Island is all I needed. You got Jiza, the The Rizza, inspected that, Rick Kwan, the Schiff, you know, listen, it's, it's so many members. I mean, like, I don't think there was a, I don't think there was a black group with this many members since the Commodores had, like, 26 dudes on stage. I think Clinton had, like, 50 on stage, yeah. I always used to joke that, like, when Lionel was, like, introducing the rest of the group, like, he had to set aside the last 25 minutes of the performance.

Like, there were so many Commodores. If I'm convinced there were so many Commodores, Lano was like, you know what, I'm going to do this next album by myself. So much introducing. The group is, of course, Wu-Tang Clan and the song. There are a lot of songs, but this one, I just remember very clearly. The song is Protect Your Neck.

Like smoking joke, razor. The hell wasa. Raising hell with the flavor. Terrorize the jam like troops in Pakistan. Look at the neighborhood, Spider-Man. Tick-T-Tick-Tickin. When I get you flipping off the shit, I'm kicking.

The lone ranger. Co-Hat. Danger! The dark with the art to rip the charts apart the vandal. Too hot the handle your battle. You're saying goodbye like Kevin Campbell. Oh my God. It's just, it's always crazy to me.

We were just talking about lyrics. It's always crazy to me that somewhere in this brain, you know, like I had to remember the names of my kids. I had to remember like the combination to a door. Somewhere is filed away almost every single lyric on Enter the 36 chambers. You might need it at some point. I mean, yes, yes. They're going to be like, we have a good. to your head, comrade. Now

recite perfectly the torture sketch. And I would. I'd be able to be like, torture, mother-a-torture. You know, like, I don't even know if Sirius allows this much profanity. You would survive in the test like that, so you're safe. Look, man, I'm telling you, protect your dad. All I can remember

straight up was like nothing sounded like this. Like, they didn't sample James Brown. You know, shout out to EPMD and everybody who was sampling they didn't sample James Brown. Or if they did, it was completely you couldn't make it out in the song. Like they were sampling weird, you know, they were sampling weird martial arts exploitation films.

You know, they were sampling the Charmels. They were sampling some really obscure stuff and chopping it up in ways. Shout out to the Risa. Choping it up in ways that we had just never heard before. I mean, you know, this was hip-hop in the 90s. It was the intro to a culture. It was all about being, you know, part of that 5%, you know,

nation in New York and I just I was there for it. It was just, you know, it blew my mind. And the whole conceptual thing, the whole like there's so much lore. There's so much lore involved that was crafted. Now, let me say this. Before Wu-Tang Clan, there was Fushnikens, which is a forgotten group from the 90s. And I remember initially among me and my friends, they were like, oh, Wutan Klan, they just copying Fushnikens. And now it's like, how many people remember, you know, I am a true. What? I am a true Fushnik. How many people are. How many people People even remember that. But you got to remember.

There was not a lot of like nowadays, you know, we've got these streamers and, you know, you can watch so much stuff from so many decades. But back in the day, like on Saturday afternoons, there was only Godzilla movies in these kung fu flicks, you know. And so we'd all seen these flicks and the idea that somebody was sampling them and putting them with like samples of like Voltron cartoons. Like it was almost like an early introduction to the culture of black nerd. Shout out to all the black nerds out there.

Like, you know, were not trying to like play in wa because that was the pop hip hop of the time but like this felt underground and this felt like catered to us you know what i mean i mean he got method man he literally you know he it's such a it's such a beautiful double entendre like on the one hand method met that was like a slang at the time for like marijuana but also he you know he had listened to method of modern love by hollow notes once again crossing the line which he interpolates in that track which he interpolates on the track like it was just Oh, you know, I'm just saying, like, the Wu-Tang, they spoke to us, you know?

Like, to us, it was like, it was nerdy music. Right. I've got such a question about the lore aspect of it. Was that part of what drew you in? Was it appealing to you that there was more than the music? There's the gang. There's the nine of them. There's sort of the troop.

The fullness of a group of people. I mean, like, I think it was easily the biggest crew. At a time when every hip-hop video had, like, the rapper or like the rappers in the front of, like, 80 dudes, you know, like, all standing in the background, like, waving their hands from side to side. It sort of implies that there's, like, a story behind it that you're curious to know more about. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess the idea of having a posse and having you and all your boys around, but it wasn't just one of you rap, but it might be two of you.

It might be three of you. Wu-Tang was the first to say, no, everybody gets a verse. Everybody, we're going to have nine verses on this song. And you're going to wait till we're done. And you just have to be there for every verse. And to this day, I can walk up to a black, I feel like I can walk up to any black dude of a a certain age and just start rapping the lines that open up Wutang triumph and they'll go along with me. You know, I can walk up like, you know, like I bomb atomically. Sophically's philosophy is

like hypothesis. Like Muffalo start losing their mind and it's because we know all those Wutang lyrics. I see somebody in the studio like just going like yeah. Like it's just something about knowing Wutang lyrics. Like they were just they were writing lyrics. You got to also realize where we are. This is right before Outcast comes out. So like we, We've been treated to the, I would say, the NWA, you know, early Dr. Dre sound of the West Coast. We definitely have Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth, which is, you know, DJ Pete Rock's the producer there. Guru, DJ Premier, he's got a sound. You know, they're very distinct sounds. Rizzo was on none of that. You know, like he had absolutely his own sound. This is before our jazz.

This isn't that jazzy tribe and digible stuff we were talking about. This is like, it feels like punk. You know, but from a black point of view. Well, you mentioned public enemy. It seems to have a connection to that lineage, too. But see, I would say the public enemy is more of the bomb squad, and it didn't sound like the bomb squad either. It really was just its own, because it's so stripped down. In a weird way, it's the anti-bomb squad,

because the bomb squad was so layered and it had so many different things. Like, when you go back and listen to those public enemy records, which I love, they've got, like, 30 uncleared samples. Right, right. But with the Rizzo, like, it's not just, what he's sampled, it's the space he leaves in between the beat. Like, if you listen to protect your neck, or

if you listen to Cream or so many of those early, you know, Wu-Tang tracks, like, it's the space in between that feels very Spartan. I think that's what sounded almost eerie and haunting and almost like horror movie

about those early, you know. And again, I'm in Atlanta. This is before Andre and Big Boy starred Outcast. We're just not used to these sounds. The sounds were just out of the box. Right. It was just different. That's so cool.

This is so awesome, D'all. I'm learning so much about you. I thought I knew you so well before, but this is like another layer of richness to our friendship. Let me do. Super cool. The feeling is mutual. My man, luxury, what is your third song? I wonder if you can guess.

I'm not sure that you know that I even like this band. Give me one hint and it can be a really obscure hand. All right. Well, it's Los Angeles. Okay. Los Angeles. LA and it's band. L.A.

LA band. L.A. Band. LA band, Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's not the chili peppers. You're not wrong in terms of the cohort. The doors. You went back too far.

You went back too far. Right cohort, though. The chili peppers were in the crew. All right. We're going the wrong direction now. No. Here's what's going on here. The last song I chose, Diallo, is probably the song that's impacted me the most out of

these three, at least emotionally. Maybe not as much musically. It's a band that rose to fame on the L.A. rock scene in the late 80s. And the song itself is a bittersweet Ode, two lost loved ones. It's called Then She Did by Jane's Addiction. You know, one of the reasons I look forward to our conversation is because you know bands that I know, but don't know super well.

And I feel like Jane's Addiction is one of those. I'm about to blow your mind. Not only is this band, but Blake, this guy, Luxury's real name Blake, when he was before luxury, I was so obsessed with this band that I had dreadlocks and I had the little metal things in the dreadlocks just like the lead singer Perry Farrell. The obsession was sad, not sad. I'm going to be kind to my younger self. It was very deep, though. This song, it was pure. It was very pure. And part of it, I think it's not insignificant that this song hit me in my teen years because I just really connected to that we were talking about sort of the

tribal aspect of bands with Wu-Tang. The tribal aspect of the band, Dane's Addiction. I wanted to be in the band. I wanted to be all of the performers. I was also, learning instruments. And I can say, like, as I think about it, actually, I was going to say the drummer really influenced me, but all four band members, their influence on my particular connection to the instrument, Eric Avery on bass, Stephen Perkins on drums, Dave Navarro on guitar. Oh, Dave, is Dave Navarro in this band? I told I forgot about that.

They all had massive influence on me at an impressionable young musician age because they were bringing all these elements together. They've got some very clear. There's some Led Zeppelin in there. There's some this, there's some that. But also, I'll just never forget, like, I read this interview with Dave Navarro when he talks about, he's an insane guitar player.

He's one of our greatest living guitar players, but he's a little bit humble about the guitar playing because it's a lot about the chest and the tattoos. But I really loved the man, and he said something that really influenced me where he's talking about Robert Smith from The Cure is one of his biggest guitar. influences. And Robert Smith from The Cure is not much of a guitar player. He's a competent

player of the instrument. But his point was, like, you don't have to be great to write great songs. To be a motive with it. And oh my God, that made such an impression on Young Luxury's life to be like this rock god is saying you don't have to be a rock god to make music. So that was a huge thing for me. With this song in particular and that moment of it, like, I'm glad we played that snippet and not the one at the end because I would burst into tears again. These are all the songs that make me cry that I chose. I'm just noticing.

A lot of people are listening on their radio, so you can cry all you want. Okay. Well, the tears will be tears of emotional joy and breakthrough. It's a song about his mom who committed suicide when he was a kid. And it's really, the lyrics

are so much more poignant when you know that, but you don't need to know the story to kind of feel that that's what it's about. And I had a friend who passed away who committed suicide a few years ago. And when I recently listened to it, it kind of piled up. And I had another Tuesday cry on the couch

when I was listening back to the song a few weeks ago. And so it just reminded me of like, again, the beauty of why music is good and important in life because it can stir emotions. And that's everything to me. Like I think for some people it's film and I'm certainly capable of feeling emotion from a film. But the emotion that I feel from a song

is its own kind of thing. And this song has so much that it carries with it. It's so interesting because I think we take our musical taste wherever we go. And, you know, like, you know, it's not one of the songs that I picked. But some people would probably find this really weird. But the underworld song, the underworld is like a dance group. But their song, Cherry Pie, is it cherry or cherry pie? I forget.

But the first time I heard it, I got chills. You know what I mean? And it's... Oh, I love that. That's when music works, right? Chills from music. It's like it bypasses the brain, the logical thinking. It makes no sense in some ways.

Goes straight to the heart. There aren't even any lyrics to cherry pie. And I think that, you know, it's clearly just something that the music is doing that's making me feel something primal that is in there. But, you know, talking about Jane's addiction, I always like James addiction. Anytime I heard Jane's addiction, I liked it. Like been caught stealing. like it's got this baseline that's like

kind of aggressive and hard and then Perry's voice comes like I was in once when I was five you know like that's not the voice I expected over these guitars you know there's that and can I just admit one of my absolute favorite songs of the 90s of the 90s is

Pets by PORNO for Pirates who plays a guitar on that because that that's one of my favorite sort of like can almost give me chills if I'm in right move sort of things. I guess it may not be his, his Jane's addiction. Well, it's half of Jane's addiction. It's the side project. It's him and again on drums, Stephen Perkins, who's in my top three, my top three drummers of all time are Stephen Perkins, Ziggaboo Moad Leastaste. We got two out of three of them today. And the third one would be John Bonham and Led Zeppelin. He's probably

my number one. Oh, fantastic. Drums are my first instrument. That was the first thing I learned to play. And that was something we only learned recently that we had in common was that, you know, we both We both started our music path as drummers. What are your top three drummers? Oh, well, now you put me on the spot. Well, I'm going to not come up with the cool answers. I'm going to come with the truthful answers. The first drummer I fell in love with was Animal from the Muppets.

I'm telling you, I don't know who. I know he's based on Keith Moon. I know he's based on Keith Moon, but Animal was like, I was like, I want to play that instrument because he's crazy and I want to be crazy too. That's awesome. I told you, I'm going to answer completely truthful. That's actually pretty cool, though. I thought Questlove was great before I met him.

The very first time I actually talked to him, he was standing outside of Tower Records in Atlanta by Atlantic Square Mall. And I recognized him, and he had the big fro back then. And I walked up, I was like, hey, man, I really think, do you want more as a great album? And he was like, oh, you know, that's cool, man. He had his, you know, he had a bunch of records on his arm. He talked to us, you know, nobody's for like five minutes, you know? And I was just like, and then I had no idea that years later, I would be in future. I would be a writer on Fallon working with them for four years.

And then after that, oh, gosh, you know, let me hold off on that because I feel like there's somebody who I'm 100% forgetting. But you know, who is Quincy Jones's drummer on Off the Wall and Thriller? I feel like we should know who that is. I think it might be John Robinson, but I. Oh, my God, John Robinson. Very, wow, you just pulled that out of it. I do. Every now and then the brain works like Google.

I'm very impressed. Yeah, John Robinson, I think it has to be up there just because he did so many iconic. It's really easy to forget that, you know, it's the same reason why I feel like people should not rag on Ringo Starr. It's hard for a drummer to both come up with, like, iconic drumming, but also not get in the way of everything else that's happening. Right. And I feel like that's the case with Ringo Starr. I feel like that's the case with John Robinson. Frankly, Meg White deserves her flowers.

Hell, yeah. Love Meg White. It would make no sense. like a drummer that was doing the typical thing in the typical way would be boring. Part of what gives that band character. Love Meg White. Meg White. No, she's great.

White stripes. Jane's addiction. Yeah, Jane's addiction, man. I hope the shock has worn off that that was one of my selections. I'd love you to give me like a playlist of like some Jane's album. Not Jane says, which I think is a beautiful song about kicking an addiction. Right. But give me like three or four album cuts.

Happy to, yeah. after the show that I should listen to because I feel like I would like, you know, and my last sort of like Perry Farrell thing that I have to bring up is that one of the first concerts I ever went to was Lollapalooza 2 back when it was still touring the country. And I went to go see Ice Cube, but I'll never forget as I sat all the way in the back towards the fence waiting for Ice Cube to come on, a band I'd never heard of was singing at Lollapalooza 2. And I was like, oh, this sounds pretty good. And that guy's got a good voice.

And it was Pearl Jam. Oh. I had never heard of the group before, and I went out and bought 10 the same day, and I really got into Grunch. You know, not that I hadn't been into a little bit. You know, Nirvana smells like Teen Spirit was like the song that ate radio that year. But when I heard 10, I was like, I really loved him so much. I want to get into it with you at some point about Pearl Jam, because I'm going to hold my tongue a little bit. But Pearl Jam, I have another list that Pearl Jam falls on, along with the killers.

These are bands that I, for many years, have tried, and I just can't find my way in. So maybe you'll make that playlist for me and bring me into the Pearl Jam universe. I mean, it's one of those things where I have not listened to Ten probably in 20 years, but I remember loving 10 at the time. And I remember loving Blood Sugar Sex Magic by the Chili Peppers. That was the year I got my first car. So I was driving around playing a lot of those bands. Yeah, me too, actually.

But I wasn't playing the Pearl Jam. But maybe you will bring me, because sometimes with the band, all it takes is someone. to introduce you to that right song at the right context and maybe it's time for me to open my mind. I should probably listen to it again. I might go back and listen. There are some bands that I used to love. I've gone back to listen to their records

recently. I'm like, this isn't as good as I remember. We'll jump it at 10. Diallo, we got one more and I can't wait to hear what you have for your final selection. Listen, we've been talking about the songs that have had the biggest impact on us. And my next and final song is

by a producer who's been making hit music for decades. He's a 13-time Grammy Award-winning producer who in 1999, do you know who it is yet, who in 1999 teamed up with Chad Hugo. Oh, well, obviously.

And drummer, Shea Haley, to form N-E-R-D, no one ever really dies. The artists we're referring to is Ferell of the Neptunes, and the track is everyone knows all the girls standing in the line for the bathroom. Cool choice.

Let's listen. Girls are going out tonight You all the planning It's all right Everyone knows Everyone knows Like apple pie Okay, so

Like a couple, do you know it? Okay, so A couple of quick things Number one The very first time I heard this song I was in an all black club, but by the time this song came out, I'm going to have to do the math.

I think I'm 31. I think I'm 32. And this song came on in an all-back club, but I was aware that I was like, maybe just a little bit older than the 24 and 25-year-olds in the club. This song came on. Everybody knew every single word to it already.

And I was just like, where have I been? Like, I know I have a job. You know, but like, where was I? when everybody was learning all these lyrics. And it was the first time I've ever, it was the first time in my life. And sadly it was not the last. It was the first time I realized

I was not the youngest person in the club anymore. You know what I mean? Like, it really was. That's a tough moment in every man's life. It's a tough time in anybody's life. But I also knew what made the song brilliant because I feel like it was the previous summer that I had gotten a membership card

at a place called the Spider Club. And the Spider Club was this club above the Avalon Theater here in Hollywood. And I don't know how I got the membership card. Probably scammed my way in somehow. But it was like a place you could go. And every Friday or Saturday night, you would see like the Lindsay Low Hands.

And you would see all these people in there. And it was a crazy hip-hop party where they took a lot of hip-hop. It mixed in like a little bit of like The Killers or the Rapture. This is like the DJ AM era. It's the DJ AM era of Hollywood Nightlife. which sort of found its climax with banana split on Sundays at, I think the club was called LAX. And, you know, this was like at a time when hipster culture and hip hop culture was really, really emerging. You know, out of this sort of cultural stew, we got Kid Cuddy, whose song Day and Night to me encapsulates that period.

Because day and night, sort of like this song, it didn't feel like mainstream hip hop radio. it felt like it was paying attention to what was happening in, you know, the electronic world where daft punk was really big by this point. And in the hipster world where, like I said, you know, anything from like, you know, the killers to hot, hot heat. Like we were all sort of going to each other's parties. And yes, there were a lot of drugs at, you know, these parties. So when I heard everyone knows, I was like, NOS.

And O'S. Yeah, nose spelled like NOS. Like, I was like, yeah, for real. tapped into whatever Hollywood's swinging was in the late 70s. Like that sounds like going on Hollywood in late 70s. This was what it was like going out in Hollywood, 2006, 2007. Everyone knows. I feel like I missed that.

I miss New York at the beat me in the bathroom. Just hang out with me, man. I'm where every scene is at right now. I wasn't born yet for like the Andy Warhol, like that scene. It was a fun-ass scene. I always say that like, you know, as a comedy writer and as a, you know, as a filmmaker, I hope to capture the energy. The very first time I heard another seminal song for this period,

D-A-N-C-E by Justice. Yeah. I remember the first time the Steve Aoki put that on at Banana Split. Everybody was really excited because it had actually come out on the, this is the blog house here. It had actually hit really big on hype machine earlier that week. So everybody was like listening to dance by Justice and thinking like, yo, I can't wait until I hear this for the first time in the club.

And then the first time he put it on, I'll never forget this. because, you know, Lindsay was, like, friends with Aoki and A.m. And Lohan, like, jumps out onto the dance floor and starts dancing like a freaking maniac. And, like, the dance floor parted. Not because she was Lindsay. Low Hand, she had a red hoodie on. I don't ever forget she had a red hoodie on. Unless you'd already known that she had a American Apparel hoodie.

You didn't know it was. That was an American Apparel hoodie. People, it probably was. People were clearing the dance floor because who's this crazy maniac dancing like this, dancing hard and clearing the dance floor. But it was the first time we heard, do that dia and see. I was not expecting a Lindsay Lohen anecdote. I didn't know it was coming up either.

Do you have a Paris Hilton anecdote too? Paris, you know what? Nobody sweated her. In fact, I remember one time I was DJing at a club and she came up into the DJ booth with her laptop, big bulky laptop. And she was like, can you show me how to hook this up? The owner wants me to play like some songs.

So we had to like stop what we were doing, hook everything up for her. And she had like, I'm going to start some beef with Paris. She didn't know how to hook anything up. Oh, man. You know, we had great. female DJs in that time. Samantha Ronson was amazing, but Samantha was old school. Samantha would actually still show up with like a crate of records. You know what I mean? And she'd dump the

records down and she'd be like, I got my own needles and she would go chap, tap, chap, tap, tap. And she would start spinning and like props to her. You know, her and Mark Ronson were great DJs. But like, that was the beginning of the celebrity DJ who can't hook up in the booth. But they get people to the club. But, well, not that night because she was a surprise DJ. So much a surprise that I didn't know she was coming. You know, shout out of Boulevard. R3. That was a hot, you know, nightclub at the time. It's where I met my wife. You know, shout out to my wife, Brittany,

listening, hopefully. I do not have a Paris Hilton anecdote to match that one, but I almost did. And I'm kicking myself because I, there was a Hilton ad on TikTok, and I was recruited as one of the influencers to be in this ad. And did you refuse?

No, but I set my price. We did the negotiation, and they went another direction. I'm using air quotes right now. So I was so excited. to come with a Paris Hilton story at some point. I will just say that, you know, to me, Pharrell and NERD, they were always exactly where the Hollywood Party Times, Zyggeist, was from the time they dropped the first album.

The first time I saw a Von Dutch hat. I feel like it was like the very next... Listen, the very next week, I'm an intern. I'm barely getting paid any money. I'm an intern at Virgin Records, and they were like, hey, here's the Neptunes album. They didn't even call it the NRD. They were like, here's the Neptune's album.

And I saw that cover with dude wearing, you know, the hat with the brain on it playing video games. And I was like, this is hot. And all the label execs were like, I don't know. This seems like a really weird. We want Farrell on the cover. I think that's Shay on the cover. I could be wrong. I think that's him on it.

Like, you know, the whole album did, they wanted basically what he had done for Jay Z and everybody else up until then, Nory. they wanted that as a hip hop album sort of to go up against another similar hip hop album the violator volume one album which was also like sort of like hey here's some of our favorite producers working with a whole bunch of artists no NERD they were always looking forward

and they called the Von Dutch hats they called you know the sort of hipster weirdness and the American Apparel stuff that was coming so you know I had to put this one on there because you know this to me was sort of like a soundtrack to me living in L.A. and going to parties in the 2000s. And Farrell is such a genius. I'm such a fan.

And that song is such a testament to his genius. Because it sounds like, it's similar to the Portishead story. It sounds like there's lots of samples getting chopped up. But that's all stuff that he played. I bet you a lot of his just original stuff. Yeah. He's triton. He's playing his buckets for the beats. Yeah.

And it's just the way it's produced is to make it sound as though it's got the texture and the aesthetic resonance of an actual sample. But it was made, it was original material that they just like, chopped up and self-appropriated for the track. Yeah. So that was NERD. Everyone knows all the girls standing in the line. I love all those stories, too.

Really long title. Really long title. 2006 encapsulated. Wow. Luxury has been so great getting to know you a little better today. This has been super fun. I have to say that I genuinely, I had no idea about the songs you were going to pick,

and it was really fun hearing you talk about them. I feel like I have another layer of understanding of the de yawks. The Diallo. There's some surprises there. I can't believe Porta. I thought you were going to say the clash somewhere in there, but Portis had big surprise. Jane's addiction. You know, again, it's one of those groups I feel like a lot of us know, but we don't really know.

You know, sort of like how you and I know each other, but we don't really know each other. Yeah, and I thought the same way. When you selected, like Pet Shop Boys, I really love that Pet Shop Boys, they almost feel like you're Jane's Addiction. Like, there's something really deep and rich about them and your connection to them emotionally. Well, yeah. And I will say that I am a true Pet Shop Boys fan. So a little bit of me regrets that I named West End Girls because that's sort of like, you know, it's like, oh, man, you can't pick a favorite child.

Oh, I'm into Blur. Oh, I like song, too. I thought you were going to pick Blur, by the way. Don't do that. Like, you know, don't tell a Blur fan you like song, too. My favorite album is Beatles' greatest hits. You can't do that. Oh, I love Bob Marley.

Legends. I can't believe they got so many hits on one album. That's the greatest hits in case those of you don't know. But yeah, I think this has been full of surprises. Yeah. By the way, we're not gatekeepers. you are allowed to like greatest hits, and you are allowed to wear the band t-shirt to the show.

We don't have those kinds of, like, snobby rules on this show. We're all in Christmas. No, not at all, not at all. But this has been a lot of fun. I am producer, songwriter, and DJ Luxury. And I'm actor, writer, and sometimes DJ Dialla Riddle. And this is one song. Until next time.