So... Alright - Musical Urban Legends

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

Geoff look at a few urban legends of the music industry, while lamenting a lamentable fact of the modern NBA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too.

Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. So I was at a coffee shop the other day. Is that the new I was riding my bike? I feel like I used to start every so all right with. So I was riding my bike and now I feel like it's so I was in a cafe. Well, I was at a coffee shop the other day and I saw somebody with a jacket on

that had patches on it and I noticed that they had a KMDFM patch, which is a KMDFM was a German. This is Future Jeff. I'm saying it wrong over and over again. It's KMFDM. I don't know what my fucking problem is. Future Jeff out. If I believe if I'm correct, German.

Yeah, I think German like industrial, I guess, band would be. I'm not I'm not a fan. Not not a fan. I just am. Not my kind of music. And I don't really know much about them. I experimented with industrial music in the early 90s, like a lot of people did, I think, because of ministry and skinny puppy and throbbing gristle and bands like that. But I wouldn't say it ever really hooked me. And but anyway, I saw the patch and it reminded me that that band existed.

And I thought, oh, yeah, isn't that the band that is named Kill Motherfucking Depeche Mode? That was always what you heard it stood for, at least in school. And I got to think that's probably not right. It's just that's probably an urban legend, but maybe it's right. Why did I look it up? And so I am going to. I thought it would be more fun to look it up with you guys. Then off camera, so I decided to make an episode about urban legends and music,

and I don't actually know the answer to this one because I wanted to find out live. So let's KMDFM. KMFDM, right? Yeah, there we go. All right. The band KMFDM's initials stands for Kill Motherfucking Depeche Mode stems mostly from fan speculation that resulted in a reporter asking if that was true and then them saying, sure, let's go with that.

When in reality it stands for kind, Merhit, Fer, Die, Mitleid, which roughly translates to no pity for the majority. Well, actually, I think it's a bad it's a it's a flawed phrase. It actually technically stands for no majority for the pity, which is essentially like no mercy for the masses. The urban legend is referenced in their songs sucks, where they state that they hate the Pesh mode among other pop artists. And the song Kunst, where the chorus kill Motherfucking Depeche Mode is sung. But the actual name of the band is, I guess,

Kain Merhet 4D Mitlid, or No Pity for the Majority, or No Majority for the Pity. Well, there you go. So it is not true, but it is something that the band has comedically leaned into, which I think is pretty fucking awesome. Let's keep going down this road though, and let's look at a few more pop culture urban legends.

So what do we got here? Oh, here's a great one, here's a great one. I actually watched a documentary, I shouldn't say I watched. I tried to watch a documentary about this a few years ago and The documentary was so fucking bad. I had to turn it off But it is this urban legend that Paul McCartney died in a car accident in like 1966 Right around the time they were recording sergeant pepper's lonely hearts club and I think and so the record label

Got a look-alike and a sound-alike from Scotland and replaced him supposedly the guy's name is William Shepherd Campbell who won a Supposedly won a Paul McCartney look-alike contest. Let's see what it says here supposedly clues to this are sprinkled throughout the group's post 1966 work especially with their album covers Abbey Road in particular where Paul being noticeably barefoot in the photo Corpses are usually buried barefoot in some societies. Well, that's a huge stretch right there. That is a huge stretch right there, especially in 1966, at the height of hippie culture, that you would find some,

you would describe some other meaning to him being barefoot. In addition to people believing the album cover was depicting a funeral procession with Lennon being the heavenly figure in his white suit, Starr as the undertaker in his black suit, and Harrison as the gravedigger in denim and jeans, McCartney was the corpse, his lack of shoes

and walking out of step with the rest of the Beatles as an example. The rumor only got squelched when reporters tracked Paul down at his farm in Scotland at the height of the frenzy. So they actually addressed it back then. Though there are still some true believers who believe it to this day. Uh, alright, here you go. He was actually wearing sandals during the Abbey Road photoshoot, but took them off because they were uncomfortable.

The whole Abbey Road cover wasn't even planned. It was just one of several photos of them crossing the street and was chosen as the cover Because they happened to be stepping in sync for that shot Huh? There's also no evidence of that contest ever taking place and that William Campbell never existed Yeah, and that documentary I watched I remember they called that they said they called privately they called him fall the For fake ball. They, privately they called him Fall for fake ball. They'd say, we called him Fall.

That's ridiculous. Here's a good one. This is on like a TV tropes website, by the way. When Mama Cass suddenly died from the mamas and the papas, rumors grew about her dying from choking on a ham sandwich. I thought that was true. That is not true.

She died in her sleep of heart failure. The rumor started after a half-eaten ham sandwich was found in the room she died in. Motherfucker. No kidding. Boy, there's a million music-related urban legends, but you know, this Paul McCartney one reminds me that there are similar ones about Avril Lavigne and Andrew W.K. Let's look into those Avril Lavigne replacement conspiracy theory. The origins of the replacement theory can be dated back to 2011

when a Brazilian blog named Avril Estimorta or Avril is dead, although some sources say that the rumor dates back as far as 2005. The theory alleges that the pressure of fame combined with the death of Avril's grandfather sent her into a deep depression after the release of her 2002 album Let Go and that the singer died by suicide shortly after. According to this theory, a lookalike named Melissa was originally hired to distract the paparazzi protecting a

reclusive Levine. It alleges that Levine befriended Melissa and then shortly before the singer's supposed death, her body double was taught how to sing and perform like the magician. Jesus Christ, man. It's fun. Like conspiracy theories are fun. They are.

But it's such another lot. You have to take such a leap to actually believe some of this shit and to think that it's plausible, not only possible, but plausible and that you could pull it off and that enough people would be able to keep the secret. And, you know, we're reading about it on Wikipedia, so I think that would be impossible. It's so well, we're reading about it on Wikipedia. So I think that would be impossible. It's so well, let's see what it says. The conspiracy theory soon gained traction on Internet forums such as ATRL. What is ATRL? ATRL, Absolute TRL.

It's an Internet forum that discusses pop culture, absolute TRL. Oh, okay. Huh. Where self-proclaimed Avril Ringer shared evidence. One post in 2012 suggested that the original Avril may actually be alive using a picture of what appeared to be the singer buying cheese at a time when the new Avril was supposedly battling Lyme disease. In addition to the changes in her appearance,

the theory alleges that the title and artwork of her second album, Under My Skin, and the lyric songs, My Happy Ending Together and The Best Years of Our Lives, are subliminal messaging. That's a, the whole subliminal messaging thing kills me. The, and this is why the original blog further suggests that Melissa feels guilt over participating in this farce leading to her putting the subliminal messaging in the songs.

First off, if you're being hired to replace the real Avril Lavigne, whoever the people that are doing this, that are machinating this, the puppeteers behind this, they're not letting you write your own music. Also, assume that that's true for a second. Avril Lavigne must be a skilled musician with a tremendous amount of talent. Now, I don't know if she writes all of her own music or if it's produced by committee

like a lot of pop artists are, but regardless, a certain amount of ability and talent has to be present for someone to even become a puppet of the producer class, right? So how the hell is this Melissa suddenly a good enough singer and dancer who looks just enough like her to pull it off. Now she's also such a skilled songstress that she's deftly writing subliminal messages into music.

It hurts inside that people would believe that. It's hockey season and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost almost anything. So, no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats, Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app

for details. Oh interrupting their playlist to talk about defined gravity are we? That's right Newton. With a Bronco and Bronco Sport, gravity has met its match. Huh maybe that app will hit me a little harder than I thought. Yeah you should get that checked out. With standard 4x4 capability, Broncos keep going up and up. Now get purchase financing from 0% APR for up to 60 months on eligible 2024 Bronco family models. Visit your Toronto area Ford store or ford.ca. Andrew W.K. Let's see here. Andrew W.K. was born Andrew Wilkes Creer.

That much is generally accepted as fact without dispute. The author, the writer of this article says, I think that's the first act of misdirection. As I see it, this is where the maze starts. According to an old bio, Andrew is named after a drunk driver turned drugstore, cowboy turned murderer named Andrew Stevenson who started calling himself Andrew White and then was given the alias the white killer by the Michigan police force who was tracking him down. Here's an actual line from the actual bio Andrew's father was fond of his this name and as a chief officer of the police force he named his son after

the killer once they caught him and executed him in 1987 Police chief his guess is does this even sound like a true story to you police chief names his son after dirtbag drifter Who'd been executed for three murders? You know what I uh I Don't think I did this Andrew WK thing is too fucking deep. It's too much of a labyrinth to dive into right now. I can't I can't I'm going to come back to it for sure.

I was just going to do a quick synopsis, but this is going to take me a fucking hour to read through. So let's put a pin in Andrew WK and whether he's multiple people or not. And let's wrap up with a different urban legend. Oh, here's a great one. Do you know the song In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins? Supposedly Phil Collins was at the beach

or at a lake or something, and he saw someone drowning and he was too far away to help. And there was somebody else that was close to help but chose not to. And so essentially the person drowned because of this other person's inaction. And Phil wrote the song about that to say, like, I saw you motherfucker. And then he invited the person.

The person doesn't know who Phil Collins is, right? They just get two free tickets to a Phil Collins performance and at a show. And so they go to the show and then he performs the song for the first time at that show in front of the person. And they realize, oh, my God, Phil Collins knows I let that person die. That was a big rumor when I was a kid, probably not too long after that song came out, right? I think I think in some of the versions, the guy who the guy who he's singing

to either gets arrested for for not saving a drowning person or they like are so overcome with grief that they that they killed themselves Phil Collins himself has said that it he has no idea where that came from I think some people are taking some of the lyrics of the song hyper literally and apparently he didn't even know about it till he came home on tour and his wife told him that she had heard it. And she was like, oh, here's the new rumor about you. Absolute nonsense.

But a fun story. It was definitely one of those ones you heard told a lot when you were a kid on the on the playground. I think that's probably enough urban legends and music for right now. I'm going to come back and visit this subject again in the future because I want to dive into the whole Andrew W.K. thing in a way that I can understand it and then relay it back to you because I was getting,

you know, you didn't see the sparks, I cut it out, but I probably spent 15 minutes just sitting here trying to understand what the fuck it was all about. Plus there are one billion music-related urban legends for us to dive into. I did, however, want to end by talking about you guys have got me all excited about talking about the NBA these days, and so I'm going to keep doing it today. I'm going to talk about the thing that is the most frustrating

about being a fan of the NBA in 2024, and that is fucking injuries. I can't believe how many players are hurt right now and not just players, but like all stars and all NBA level players are hurt. I'm going to go through the list. I'm going to ignore all the day to day injuries. Right. Those are normal. Those are like, oh, I tweaked an ankle. I got a contusion on my hip.

Be out for three games, maybe two games, whatever. I'm talking about real, legitimate injuries. Kobe Buffkin for the Atlanta Hawks is a good, promising young player. He is not an all-star by any means, but he still is a big potential contributor on that team. Bogdan Bogdanovich for the Hawks is out. De'Andre Hunter is out.

If you don't know who these people are, trust me when I tell you, these are players that get solid minutes in a game. For the Celtics, of course, Chris Asperzingos is out. He's been out all year. The Brooklyn Nets are missing Bojan Bogdanovich and Deyron Sharp. For the Chicago Bulls, somehow Lonzo Ball, who just got back from a almost, what, two and a half year injury, is already back out. He's hurt his wrist somehow. He's in a brace.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are living without Max Struce right now. All right, some of these are, these are definitely not starting. Let me, all right, I'm gonna raise the level. Okay, here we go. Denver Nuggets are missing. Aaron Gordon, that's a fucking killer for them

because they are already as thin as it gets. Ossare Thompson is out for the Detroit Pistons. He's their youth. Kyle Anderson is out for the Golden State Warriors. They seem to be fine without him though. The Indiana Pacers are missing half their fucking team. Aaron Neesmith, Andrew Nimhard, James Wiseman, Isaiah Jackson, all out.

Kawhi Leonard is forever out. The Lakers are missing, who cares? The fucking Memphis Grizzlies cannot stay healthy. They had more injuries last year than I think any team in the last couple decades. We're already, what are we, 12 games into the season? Desmond Bain, Marcus Smart, Vince Williams Jr., John Morant, Cam Spencer, and Gigi Jackson are all out.

That's like 70% of the talent on that team. Damian Lillard and Chris Middleton are both out for the Bucks and out out. Jose Alvarado, Zion Williams, Jordan Hawkins, Herb Jones, CJ McCollum and Dejante Murray are all out for the Pelicans. That is an entire starting lineup gone. The New York Knicks are missing Precious Achua

and Mitchell Robinson. The Oklahoma City Thunder are missing Chet Holmgren for a while, like three months a while. Jalen Williams, Isaiah Hartenstein, another two months easy. The Orlando Magic are now missing Paolo Banquero, their star, for at least the next two months, probably three for a right torn oblique.

The Philadelphia 76ers have a hobbled Paul George, an incredibly out of shape, who can't stay on the court, dwell in bead, who you can't tell me isn't hurt and they're not trying to hide it. And now Tyrese Maxey, the only bright spot on that team, sustained a right hamstring strain and he's going to be evaluated in a couple of weeks. He's gone. He was the only thing they had going for him. You see where I'm going with this? The Phoenix Suns. I said this was going to be a problem for them. They're missing Nurkic, whatever, but now they're missing Kevin Durant. He had a left calf strain. That's probably a month for KD at his age and with his injury history.

The Portland Trail Blazers are missing Deandre Aitin and Matisse Thiebaud. Malik Monk is still out for the Sacramento Kings. The list goes on. Scotty Barnes is out for the Raptors. Bruce Brown is out for the Raptors. Emanuel Quickly is out for the Raptors. Sadiq Bey is out for the Wizards. How the fuck is Malcolm Brogdon already hurt?

Oh my God. This is the most frustrating part of being an NBA fan is that injuries have become so prevalent and it's because of the speed and the pace and the athleticism. People are going so fast and doing such complicated stuff and colliding into each other in the air. And all of these injuries are a result.

And it's inevitable. And what are you going to do about it? You can't slow the NBA down. But goddamn, dude, it's like half of the NBA is on the injured reserve list. It becomes a war of attrition in many cases of just like, how do you bandaid together a team that's healthy enough to make it to the playoffs, right? It's just a frustrating thing that I'm lamenting, I guess, as every time I turn on ESPN, it's like, oh, Paolo Bencaro out six weeks. Oh, De'Jante Murray broke his wrist or whatever.

He's out two to three months. Kevin Durant's out now. God damn. OK, so here's a song of the day on the way out. We're going to pick today a band called Algae Bloom. This is existential crisis as a wave machine setting. Check it out. Let me know what you think. As always, my email address is Ericic at jeffsboss.com and I will see you next week.

Alright.