Wonderful! - Wonderful! Ep. 4: Good As Hell

Episode Date: September 28, 2017

It's a very musical episode of Wonderful! this week, featuring segments on two extremely similar performers: Lizzo and Nick Drake! We also talk about naps and dandelions, just to round out the whole theme. Music: "Money Won't Pay" by Bo En and Augustus: https://open.spotify.com/track/5hs2nY40aeqM0mpP8SBOon MaxFunDrive ends on March 29, 2024! Support our show now by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join.

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hi, this is Griffin McElroy. And this is wonderful. This is a show about finding the bright points of light in the darkness. And I wish somebody else was doing wonderful so that I could listen to it this week. Because it's been, how would I describe this week? It has been a sort of barf-covered nightmare. A sort of barf-covered nightmare.

Yes. A sort of... I just realized as I was sitting down to record that I actually have a little bit of baby vomit on my jacket that I'm wearing now. And I was surprised by that, right? But then, like, thinking about it, why was I surprised by that? Because what objects in this house don't at least have a little bit of that stuff on there somewhere? house don't at least have a little bit of that stuff on there somewhere uh so sunday our our baby boy now 10 months old came down with some kind of stomach bug uh that still plagues him on and off still hitting still hitting uh hit griffin oh yeah got me good starting on tuesday yeah nipped me good got deep down in my gullies and made some stuff happen down there.

I will say, knock on wood. Rachel hadn't gotten it, but this weekend I'm looking forward to it. I have not gotten it yet. I, unlike the other boys in this house, big hand washer. I wash my hands. Don't say that. Henry doesn't because he's a baby. It doesn't happen.

I wash my hands all the time. I wash my hands. Don't say that. Henry doesn't because he's a baby. It doesn't happen. I wash my hands all the time. I honestly think Henry went on a fucking cruise by himself, like without telling us, brought home some of that good, good oceanic norovirus. Say, hey, dad, dad, kissy kiss time. And I was like, oh, here we go. And then passed it on to me. I think it was intentional. I think he is. You know what it is, too? What is it? So our son has been pretty much constantly teething, which means he puts everything in his mouth all the time. Yeah, sure, sure, sure. Which babies do anyway, but him especially at this juncture. He's a real typhoid Jerry, is what he is. But that's why this episode's late.

Sorry about that. I was dying yesterday, but now I'm doing okay. I'm stabilized. So we're gonna talk about some stuff if i'm being honest like the stuff that i could bring is i binge watched all of the good place there's a good little show i'm so glad you did from michael schur who made parks and rec which we talked about last week um it's good it took a little while for it to click with me i watched like the first five episodes a while ago and then kind of fell off but it does some

interesting stuff there at the end and i'm all cut up so we have another show we can watch together also like ginger ale i could talk a lot about ginger ale specifically verner's which we don't have but you know that's my jam i can get that for you if you want i got i got a guy you got is it verner himself no is it verner herzog it's the liquor store i'm verner herzog life is meaningless but my ginger ale is amazing. I started last week. Do you want to kick things off this week? Yeah, of course.

What you got? Trying to decide between my topics. I think I'm going to go with a particular artist I'm excited about right now. Okay. And a particular song by that artist. Ooh. The artist is Lizzo. Lizzo! You remember seeing her at ACL?

Yeah, we saw Lizzo at ACL. Tell me all... I have listened to a little bit of Lizzo's stuff on Spotify. By the way, I also have a musical artist, so this is going to be a very musical episode. So yeah, I've heard a little bit of Lizzo, but can you tell me some more about Lizzo? Yeah, so Lizzo has been making albums since 2010.

I first saw her at a Minnesota showcase at South by Southwest. It was after you moved here. I think it was 2013, maybe. I don't know if it was Minneapolis or Minnesota showcase, but she was touring for a while with Harmar Superstar. Oh, shit. Cool. Okay.

And she's kind of a solo hip hop artist, although she does always have backup dancers. The backup dancers were an enormous component of the show that I saw. There is a lot of sort of choreographed moments in it that were pretty exceptional. She also opened for Sleater-Kinney in 2015. How great is that? Unusual pairing, but I'm very, very into it. The song that I'm excited about is actually from 2016. It's called Good As Hell.

Oh, that's a very good one. And because of Radio Magic, we can Cut, which I did not see. I did not see that either, but that's great. When you say from, was it like the... It was on the soundtrack. But was it made for the movie? Probably not. Right.

If you watch the music video, there are a lot of scenes inside a barbershop. Oh, there's a music video. Okay. Yes. So the reason I like this song, besides it just being a jam, is it's kind of a breakup song, but it's done in a way where there is not a lot of dwelling on the person that has left the relationship. Okay. You know?

Yeah. Like, the whole message is, it's over. Feel good about yourself. Yeah. Like, get it. Yeah. And I like that. I like that a lot too. There's a lot of breakup songs that are very much dwelling on how terrible the person was that has wronged them.

Sure. And how angry they are. And that, I mean, that might have some catharsis with this. But for me, I like the songs that are like, hey, you're incredible. Yeah. Good luck out there. Trying to think of other examples of this. I likece and the

machines dog days are over oh yeah that's a really good one yeah sure uh because there's not a lot of focus on the x there's just focus on the like we are coming out of this stronger yeah sure i like that a lot um so the the line the only line that really references the X that I like is it says, if he don't love you anymore, just walk your fine ass out the door. How great is that? That's very good. This is probably her most popular song, right? She's got a couple other ones. But yeah, I think, I mean, she's got some recent singles.

Actually, her more recent is Coconut coconut oil which uh this is another fun fact about lizzo lizzo from eighth grade through college played the flute and the piccolo and marching band okay this is not a factor in her act as far as i can tell in the single coconut oil she plays the flute oh that's extremely good But she, so I read this interview with her where she talks about kind of her philosophy of recently. And she said, I felt like I had maxed the level of self-love and I started to move into self-care, which is super important and still super important. I was kind of creating a foundation of strength so that when these building blocks get higher and higher, the harder it is to knock me down. When you listen to these songs,

you don't hear any vulnerability, you hear a lot of strength. I think I needed that as my thumbprint in the world, and as my first adventure into the mainstream and major label world. I think I needed that as my identity. I'm really proud of these songs. She's referencing Coconut Oil on the EP that came out. i needed that as my identity i'm really proud of these songs she's referencing coconut oil uh

on the ep that came out um and i just i just i like i like her her attitude yeah that's that's an incredible message and and her music really is like it is empowering but it is also like like you said earlier a fucking jam like this was we went to acl last year you were a hundred months pregnant and i was really worried because like i don't really go to outside i think is what people call it i don't go to outside very much like i hadn't been i used to go to music festivals all the time but now they bring me a lot of anxiety so i was kind of anxious but i also recognize like this is our last chance to do something like this before we have a baby and our first thing that we went to is lizzo and i was like i was like okay one in the afternoon now i'm fucking ready to take on the day and it ended

up being like a really terrific day because lizzo filled me with with strength and power yes and vitality yeah uh it's really good not taking away away from any of the women that do kind of scorned ex-lover songs, but I'm really feeling Lizzo right now and the kind of the empowerment she brings. Yeah, sure. In all of her songs have that connective tissue. That's great. Yeah, Lizzo's great. Now you maybe want to go listen to Lizzo.

I'm going to save my music one for the second one so we don't do them back to back. So my other thing that I'm going to talk about this week is naps. And maybe this one is sort of illness fueled because I've taken probably a cumulative total of about eight hours of naps over the last two days. Did you do research on naps? I did. I did a lot of research on naps. I love a nap. I love a good nap.

Sometimes. um i love a nap i love a good nap sometimes naps sometimes can twist on me because sometimes i'll take like an hour nap and that's never gonna be that's never gonna be great naps hit griffin like a bolt of lightning like i will be sitting with him on the couch and he will turn to me and he will just say as if uh a light bulb appeared over his head i think i'm gonna take a nap yeah and then he will just do it. He will just go. I'll just go and I'll do it. I work hard and I play hard is the thing that I made up about me.

I made up I work hard and I play hard. I made up Pobity's Nerfict and I made up. What are some other ones I made up? Same clowns, different circus. Yeah. Saying hashtag anything. Hashtag anything. I invented the hashtag.

Winning. Charlie Sheen got that from me. Yeah. No, that hashtag anything. Hashtag anything. I invented the hashtag. Winning. Charlie Sheen got that from me. Yeah, no, that's true. Yeah, those are all things I came up with. So naps are really terrific. And you get them in the middle of the day and you're good to go. There's a cutoff point. I think for me it's like 3 p.m.

Can't take a nap after 3 p.m. Because then it's too close to sleeping time. How early can you take a nap, though? I push the boundaries. I've seen you attempt a nap at like 9 a.m. Well, it's because you'll usually get up with Henry first. And then I'll chill with him. But there are some days where if he gets up super early, I will get up with him.

And it's like five 35. And I just like, can't like once he, once he is back down, it's like, okay, I will. That's the thing they say about babies is like you sleep when they sleep. And so I don't,

for me, that is the most satisfying nap. Yeah. Cause you earned it. You worked for that nap. It's like, he is asleep. We are all asleep.

It's very good. Yes, it's good. I also, like, I have a bad habit of staying up too late at night because I, it is, unless I'm, like, dog tired, it is actually kind of tough for me to fall asleep at night. And so if I have a bad night and I am up late and then the baby wakes up early, like, you know a nap's going to happen before 10 a.m., like, guaranteed. Naps are really terrific, though, and so I did some research about

naps, specifically about the idea of the power nap, which is a 20-minute long nap that you take in the middle of the day. Yeah, is that actually good? So, the idea with the power nap is that it, 20 minutes, will terminate the nap before slow

wave sleep, which, so it's like before you get in like a particularly deep rem cycle okay so it's just like your body shuts down for like 20 minutes and then you just get a little little get up and go that's what fucks me up is the hour-long nap is like i am asleep i am asleep i am unconscious yeah but 20 minutes doesn't seem like it could actually be restorative at all that it is the generally sort of general consensus like best time i think it's between 18 and 26 minutes is like the ideal time to get in there before you hit slow wave uh and you know i don't get in there with that slow wave um are you gonna talk about pazzes at all okay so we had an app that justin turned me on to there was what was it pazzes there was like a nap pazzes at all okay so we had an app that justin turned me on to there was what was

it pazzes there was like a nap pazzes and a sleep pazzes and this is an app where a gentleman with a deep wonderful voice would talk to you hello it's time to release all of the stresses of the day let them drip down to your toes like very much like deep sleep hypnosis shit. And so for the sleep app, it would just be like, I'm going to talk to you for however long you want me to, and then it'll shut off. And usually there's some soothing,

like, you know, waves and music and shit, but it was kind of like a guided meditation into sleep. And then the nap time one is just, you set how long you want your nap to go, and he'll just talk to you the whole time. I swore by it.

I remember talking to you about Paziz the day we met or at least the weekend we met i was like hey what's up i'm griffin i'm from chicago i think i'm in love with you but i use this app this guided meditation nap app um yeah you played it for me and i remember making fun of you that you needed the gentle voice of a man to get you the most soothing gentle voice of the most soothing gentle man. You used it once though, didn't you? Haven't you used it before? I know you've napped with me while I used it. Yeah, I feel like you've tried to get me into it. Hey, it works.

It works. That's all I'm going to say. But I don't really use it anymore. I just like a good nap because I'm- You have got me hooked on that white noise though. I need that now. Oh yeah, I got to use white noise no matter what. We have an air purifier in our room which does it for me most of the time do you want to talk about the

pillows too or no i we've talked enough about the pillows i sleep with four pillows one under the head a second one under the head and then one for my elbows where they connect and one of my knees where they connect with those latter two can be fulfilled by one long body pillow i actually bought a body pillow for Griffin. She did. It was a really amazing gift. I use it every day. It actually got me more pillows, too.

I got access to my pillows again. It unlocked two more pillows for Rachel. So, okay. 20 minutes can help refresh the mind, improve overall alertness, boost mood, and increase productivity. Napping may benefit the heart. In a six-year study of Greek adults,

researchers found that men who took naps at least three times a week had a 37 percent lower risk of heart-related death that's pretty good that's significant that's extremely good um and so there's like a lot of research into like uh sleep uh being introduced in the middle of the day and various health benefits and some of it is kind of tenuous like even that one uh the the 37 percent lower uh risk of heart related death is like well okay but if you're able to take a nap in the middle of the day that probably it says a lot of other things about the lifestyle that you are living vis-a-vis like employment and stress and all kinds of other stuff i literally no joke today thought about going out to my car and taking a nap in the parking lot uh because i was so dead tired yeah there's so i except for a very few like extreme cases like in most western

cultures like napping during the work day is not acceptable right i think that there are probably some like startup sort of environment places like google google definitely has those nap pods that you can go to huge beanbag chairs and like i i've worked from home for a decade and i cannot imagine not having that available to me because like sometimes i will go and i will eat my lunch in four minutes and then i'll just nap a roo i'll just get it i'll get a quick nap nappy nap in there it's really good i don't mean to brag. But there are other cultures, specifically in the Mediterranean and Southern Europe and Spain, where the siesta is like a thing. A siesta is like the post-lunch sleep session. It is the, what is, according to Wikipedia, the traditional daytime sleep of Spain and

through Spanish influence, the Philippines and many, many Hispanic American countries. Uh, what I, so I was reading about the siesta cause obviously like I, I know what it is, but I don't know like how widely it is practiced or why it is practiced. Uh, factors explaining the geographical distribution of the modern siesta are high temperatures and heavy intake of food at the midday meal. Literally, like, it's because it's hot and you just ate a bunch of food at noon. And now it's time to just go to sleep for a little bit. That is, like, sort of the most common explanation for where the siesta came from.

And so, like, I've heard of the siesta, right? But apparently it is not as and I again, this is just sort of a cursory search that I did. But in Spain, at least today, it's not like super prevalent. It is not like everyone does it. In modern Spain, the midday nap during the working week largely has been abandoned among the adult working population. According to a 2009 survey, 16.2% of Spaniards polled claim to take a nap daily, whereas 22% did so sometimes, 3.2% weekends only, and the remainder, 58.6% never. So at least in Spain, it's not like every, it's like ding-dong, ding-dong, oh, it's noon, good night.

Yeah, well, I mean, with a global economy, I imagine that you can't say, oh, I would love to meet with you via teleconference at 2, but I will be napping. I will be napping. Obviously, there are other countries in which this is practiced, and I don't have those exact statistics, but I thought that was interesting. I also wanted to talk about polyphasic sleep or biphasic sleep. I guess if you sleep from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., and then you get a nap in there, you have two sleep cycles throughout the day. That's biphasic sleep. And anything more than that is polyphasic sleep.

And this is something that, like, it's mostly apocryphal, but, like, people will talk about different sort of geniuses in polymaths throughout history, and it's like, oh, Benjamin Franklin, you know, he would sleep. There's very little, like, evidence of, maybe Benny Franklin. People always talk about Ben Franklin. Benny Franklin probably did. He's probably got some shit on the books. But, like, people say, like, ben franklin you know you would sleep there's very little like evidence of maybe maybe benny

frank about ben franklin benny franklin probably did he's probably got some shit on the books but like people say like oh plato only slept blah blah blah uh but the idea is that like you have a sleep schedule where you just take little naps every few hours or so and that is all that you do that sounds terrible to me it sounds really really bad to me uh it's designed though for those who have lifestyles requiring 24 plus hours of wakefulness in a day actually it wouldn't be in a day because there's only 24 hours in a day but you know what i mean um or any other sort of scenario where normal like circadian sleep rhythms are impossible so like things like if you're in the military uh or if you're working for certain

emergency services, it could be something that kind of makes sense. There's a sleep researcher named Sarah Mednick, who wrote a book called Take a Nap about this topic. And she says this practice rests upon one important hypothesis that our biological rhythms are adaptable. That means we can train our internal mechanisms, not only when to sleep and wake but when to get hungry have energy for exercise perform mental activities uh inferred in this hypothesis is that we have the power to regulate our mood metabolism core body temperature endocrine and stress response basically everything inside this container of flesh we call home it's a tall fucking order and this is why it is not something that most people do. The generally like understood sort of analysis of this thing is that acclimating to a polyphasic sleep schedule is extremely difficult. And any success stories that have come out of it are mostly anecdotal.

And it's pretty much unsustainable for a normal person. Yeah. Anybody I know that has worked night shifts has never really been able to switch over. Yeah, so that's the most extreme nap case. I'm a huge advocate for taking a midday nap because I genuinely have had days where I can't imagine not having them in the middle of it. And some days coffee just don't cut it.

You know what I mean? Big fan of naps. Yeah, no, I, um, I've noticed a change in you, uh, as a napper. Oh. I think, I think it's, it's a good pick me up. Although I will say it, it kind of creates a cycle where you continue to stay up very late at night and nap during the day. Yeah. Because you're just kind of reinforcing that habit.

Maybe, but I do have days. I don't nap every day. I just nap a lot of days. I'm not like Winnie the Pooh over here. I do love a nap on the weekend. A weekend nap is the best. A Saturday night nap, you start up your Saturday and it's like anything's possible. And then you eat a bunch of French toast and you're like, one thing is possible.

And that's me being in bed right now. Yeah. The French toast nap, the heavy breakfast food nap is a fucking delight. Oh, it's so good. It's so good. This is why I think brunch matters at all. Oh, and Thanksgiving naps and Christmas naps. Oh, and Thanksgiving naps and Christmas naps. Oh, thanks. We were robbed

of our Thanksgiving nap by our selfish baby who just had to be born that day. That selfish, selfish... I was all ready for a big old turkey belly and to watch my cowboys get up... I don't really think that was... Get up there and watch my Dallas cowboys

get up there and do the great big passes and touchdowns. America's team. And our baby was like, no, it's labor time. Yeah. Start punching his way out of you. Yeah. Horrible manners.

Do you think it's because all the turkey pushed him out? We've never really talked about this. And maybe this is the exact circumstance. But Rachel went into labor with our son on thanksgiving last thanksgiving and i think it's because you ate a bunch of pie and turkey meat and mashed potatoes and they just were pushing on him and he was like oh i guess it's time to go somebody else had got somebody else trying to move into my apartment here i need to go i actually when we showed up at the hospital and i was in labor i thought like oh but there's gonna be a lot of women here like i thought like this is a thing

uh not no we were basically alone um hey should we talk about our advertisers i would like to do that uh hey griffin? Can I steal you away? Mm-hmm. Ooh, happy Halloween. Oh, that's nice. That's nice. I like that. Although you've burned it very early. No, you're going to do it every week of the month, September, October.

Okay. God, we need to figure out our fucking costumes and if we're even going to bother. We don't leave the house after six anymore, so I don't know what the use case of that is. It's what we wear when we sit out in front of the house to get people from ringing our doorbell. But kids don't give a shit. This message is for Nicole. It is from SC. These last four years together have shown me how incredibly lucky I am to have someone like you in my life.

No matter what challenges I face, they're always made easier knowing I'll have you by my side. Even if it does mean I'll always have to buy the fancy Parmesan. Happy anniversary, you nerd. I love you. P.S. You're the cutest. No take backs. Oh, gosh, that is sweet. It is sweet, but you should not be grousing even a little bit about having to buy the fancy Parmesan. Oh, yeah. That makes a huge difference. It's a huge difference. It's a huge difference. It's a huge difference.

Buying a cheese that's a little bit more than the other cheese, it's never not a good idea. I've got another message. This one is for Alicia and it's from Crystalie who says, Alicia, I hope grad school is fun. Thank you for welcoming me into your family

and giving me your parents. I love being your sister and I'm glad I can talk to you about anything. You are wonderful for spreading your enthusiasm about our big, beautiful green earth

by teaching kids and me about the environment and sustainability. That is so sweet. That's very sweet. Alicia, try to protect our world. I appreciate that.

What a good group of messages. There's a lot of good love in this. I feel God in this podcast tonight. Hi, I'm Ben. And I'm Adam. And we host The Greatest Generation. And we're here to announce a new show. The Greatest Discovery is Maximum Fun's new podcast about the new Star Trek series, Star Trek Discovery.

We're going to be recapping every single episode. It's going to be a limited run podcast, and we hope you'll join us. It's a show that we're really excited to watch and we're really excited to talk about it and provide our signature f***ing fart joke coverage of a new entry in the Star Trek franchise. So if you like irreverence, adult humor, irreverence again,

and Star Trek, we really hope you'll join us on Tuesdays on Maximum Fun or wherever you get your podcasts to the greatest discovery. Oh, they made us edit dick out of the last promo that we submitted. You should keep that part in the promo. Do you want to do your second thing, baby?

Yeah. My second thing. Dandelions. Okay. Didn't expect this from you. I never thought of you as a dandelion person is that the concept of them or do they fill some sort of role and i guess i'll find out i'm on pins and needles uh so i i okay dandelions are weeds yeah i was about to say it's a super obnoxious uh and that they spread themselves everywhere all over your art all the time.

But as far as weeds go, kind of interesting, super lovely. Yeah, they're definitely, dandelions and the, are dandelions also the ones that turn into the little puff balls that you can blow around? Why does that happen? Sometimes they're yellow and sometimes they're little puff balls why does that happen dandelions have uh been thought to evolve from 30 million years ago oh damn dandelions so like when all those continents were still smushed together yeah sure yeah that's incredible uh dandelions also another fun fact uh they close up at night.

Did you know that? Yeah, they go inside of their little... I didn't know that. Their little husk. Yeah. Uh, a lot going on in these little weeds. Their scientific name is Taraxicum. What are you laughing about?

It's just the things that you've selected to talk about the humble dandelion, it's just, it's charming the pants off me. Well, so the dandelion, it comes from the French dent de lion, meaning- One more time. Dent de lion, meaning lion's tooth. Okay. I think it's because of those leaves, those like sharp, pointy leaves on dandelions. So, okay, I'll admit, I don't think they're wonderful when they're all

over my yard but the dandelion by itself i like the concept i like the concept of a weed with some aesthetic value like if roses were weeds like wouldn't that be kind of dope like oh man there's violets all over my fucking yard there's orchids all over i hate these orchids okay so to your point uh the flower heads mature into spherical seed heads uh called blow balls that can't be what they're called that's what it says blow balls or clocks clock like c-l-o-c-k c-l-o-c-k yes uh in both british and English. Both are really good. I don't know which of those I like better. Look at all these clocks.

I kind of like blow balls. I mean, blow balls is extremely good. So, as you know, they contain many single-seeded fruits. And each fruit is attached to fine hairs, which enable wind-aided dispersal over long distances. That's what I like about these guys. That's what I think is cool. These motherfuckers are like, I know how to get there to be a billion of us all over. Yeah, they don't need to be pollinated.

You know, they don't need bees. They can just pick up, transport themselves. And you can eat them. Yeah, you can. I've never, nor would I ever, but you can saute these little guys up in a pan and eat them for a little dish i guess little dandelion greens can go in a salad i always enjoy the concept of it just a thing you can just pick up out the ground and eat me too did you ever have a like honeysuckle honeysuckle i had a honeysuckle bush in my neighbor Courtney's yard, and we'd go over there and just like pop, we'd just drop some suckle.

No, I don't like that expression. We would drop some honeysuckle, and it was so, so good. And I always liked that. I always felt like I was fucking Swiss Family Robinson, just like living off the land, having my little drops of, you know, flower candy. Yeah. like living off the land having my little drops of you know flower candy yeah and they're they're not great for people that have pollen allergies uh but i think that they're lovely for a weed uh i have no problem with them and i just wanted to give a little shout out to the humble dandelion thank you dandelions um all right dentillion denton uh i my last thing is like i mentioned earlier a

musical artist uh who is nick drake uh who i mentioned last week i think somebody yeah somebody mentioned the fall playlist and i have a few artists on it and i mentioned uh brighter later by nick drake and i realized like um that i wanted to talk more about Nick Drake because I think he's a super fascinating guy and his music means a whole lot to me. And it is this time of year where it's just like, you can attest to this, it's all I listen to. I get these periods, especially right when it starts to cool down. I don't know why. I want to talk more about the phenomenon of seasonal music. I wanted to talk more about the phenomenon of seasonal music.

I don't know why it happens like that, but like every fall I have like three or four artists that I want to listen to with the windows open and Nick Drake is like chief among them. So Nick Drake, if you've never heard him before, which is pretty unlikely if you've ever seen like a movie or a television show or a commercial, is a British folk artist from the 60s and 70s. I'm going to play a song here just to set it up for folks who've never listened before. Yeah, so this is Pink Moon. This is probably one of his best known songs. so he he is fascinating because uh nick shrake has become like widely loved and recognized

almost entirely posthumously like almost completely uh he he he received almost no recognition at all in his day yeah uh so he he started making music when he was in college he actually dropped out of cambridge to start making music um and uh when when he was making that music uh the thing that kind of defines him and you can hear it in all of his songs is, and the thing that like, I appreciate so much about him is he used these very, uh, nonstandard guitar tunings,

a lot of open tunings, uh, with these like weird cluster chords. So like just the songs themselves sound very unique. And there is just not very many folk artists like that out there. There's like not a whole lot of music out there that sounds like nick drake's music um but also like his lyrics were very heart-wrenching and um poignant and they were delivered with vocals that were like the most gentle vocals of any human being who's ever recorded music before um so he he released his first album in 1969 uh five leaves left uh

in when he was just 21 and there were a lot of great tracks on it time has told me river man thoughts of mary jane um and it was a great album like you can listen to it now and it's like a really terrific folk album but he was pretty much ignored by the folk community and his album was never critically or popularly well received well this was during like protest song time that's true like yeah the the thing the common criticism was like people want a chorus in your song and that was like super super not his his style um and pretty much instantly like he stopped playing live performances and this would never be another like in in his whole, it would never be a facet of his. Mostly because he played these weird open tunings.

So between every song, he would have to stop at the concert and be like, Hold up, I need to get to CAC GDE real quick. Unless he was one of those musicians that just had 15 guitars on stage. I don't think that was him because he like paid like 15 pounds for his first guitar i don't think it was like he was never really strapped with cash um and so he was pretty much ignored um except by like some like hardcore fans of his and so in 1971 he released brighter later which i mentioned last week uh and he incorporated some more like jazzy influences and more like bluesy influences into his music um and there's some really good songs on that one

at the chime of a city clock one of these things first uh northern sky uh and that album had contributions from members of velvet underground and the beach boys um it sold fewer than 3 000 copies oh my gosh uh and so he became like deeply deeply depressed after that he suffered from like depression his entire life uh but after brighter later like tanked after he thought that it was going to be this huge phenomenon um he he became like extremely reclusive and uh his the the record label that was releasing these albums at the time was called Island. They did not expect him to ever do another album. And yet, same year, 1971, he came back to them and gave them Pink Moon, which Pink Moon was his final album. It was just pared down, him and his guitar.

That was it. No Beach Boys jazz on it. I think Pink Moon actually has some piano in it that he played, but that was it. The rest of it's just him and his guitar. And finally, Pink Moon was well some piano in it that he played, but that was it. The rest of it's just him and his guitar. And finally, Pink Moon was, like, well-received by critics. And people were, like, recognizing, like, okay, this guy is legit. It sold worse than his other two albums, though. Just nobody bought it.

Well, the big reason is because Drake was, like, hyper-reclusive, and so he refused to do any promotion for his albums at all. And back then, like, promotion and live performances were like yeah big big deals um and that was very frustrating for the publisher of this music obviously because like the people at island were like oh man this album is fucking fantastic please do some live performances please get out there and he he would not do that um and so after after pink moon tanked he retired from music um and his health deteriorated in the years following pink moon's release until he died from an overdose of the antidepressants he was taking uh at age 26 oh man yeah it's it's very, it's very, very awful. And there was very little fanfare following his death in, I think, 74. In 78, Island, the record label that had published his three albums, compiled them all into a box set called Fruit Tree. And that was only an effort done by people at Island who thought he was this fucking poet genius.

It sold very badly. Nobody bought it. But his posthumous popularity and relevance grew really steadily in the decades following his death. Fun piece of trivia, Robert Smith of The Cure named The Cure The Cure after a Nick Drake lyric from Time Has Told Me, a lyric that goes,

a troubled cure for a troubled mind. That's where The Cure comes from. It's from a Nick Drake song. He Has Told Me, a lyric that goes, a troubled cure for a troubled mind. That's where the cure comes from. It's from a Nick Drake song. He was cited regularly as inspirations for various British performers. And those citations made him finally gain recognition from music critics who sort of found him to be this doomed. The quote that was pulled on Wikipedia was doomed romantic hero. There were a couple documentaries released about him in 99 and 2000. And then later in 2000, The Guardian placed Brighter Later at number one in its alternative top 100 albums ever list.

And now his songs are everywhere in TVs and movies. He has music in the soundtrack for the Royal Tenenbaums. I was actually turned on to Nick Drake by the soundtrack to Garden State, which I do not think is a film that has held up especially well, but that soundtrack is like, was very informative to me when I was 16, 17, however old I was when Garden State came out. Um, that, that Garden State had one of these things first, which is like one of my favorite Nick Drake tracks. It's also on TV, likeood and this is us um i remember very strongly pink moon being in a car commercial yeah pink moon was in a car commercial there was some commercial that had um from the

morning in it which is a beautiful beautiful song that i love so much um one last thing about sort of his posthumous like um following is that interest in like his very unique style of music uh led people to uh learn more things about his family because he came from like a family of artists his sister was an actress um and his mother was a poet and musician molly drake and she also wrote and recorded at home with Nick at their like family home where he lived for the final years of his life. She wrote these beautiful, like heart wrenching songs that were also delivered like really softly.

And you hear them. And it's such a unique thing hearing these songs by his mom that sound like it's the, Oh, this is where you got it. Like, this is why you do the music that you do is because of your mom and so like only a couple of years ago uh the first full

album of molly drake music was was released and it's absolutely beautiful stuff and it was like and it was like a key into the life of this like super secretive super reclusive very like sad genius who released this beautiful like um sorrowful but it's sometimes like uplifting very like soothing music um i i don't i think i nick drake's music is, I've been listening to it since high school, I guess, since I saw Garden State. And yeah, it occupies a very singular space in my life of just like, there is no other music or musician that like has made me feel the way that Nick Drake makes me feel. Well, and there's something about it, like there is a sadness to it. I feel like Nick Drake has this kind of, I don't know, it's not dour.

You know, like when I listen to Nick Drake music, I don't feel like this overwhelming sense of darkness. There's definitely like a lot of sadness in a lot of his lyrics, but I... But it feels contemplative, you know, it doesn't feel like dwelling on a particular... I don't think if I had... I knew some of this stuff before researching for this episode. And so I knew he was a fairly depressed dude. But I don't think you get that just listening to his music. It's very good music to fall asleep to, also.

So it goes hand-in-hand with my naps. That's nice. A little theme good music to fall asleep to also. So it goes hand in hand with my naps. Oh, that's nice. A little theme, a little theme episode. My naps thing earlier. Nick Drake, it's,

he's, he's, he was a genius. And I'm glad that like he gained the recognition that he did partially because like he absolutely deserved it. But also I would not have, how many other artists are, this is what this mostly makes me think of.

It's like, how many other artists are this is what this mostly makes me think i was like how many other artists are there throughout time who have created music that is this beautiful and poignant but wasn't well received at its time and then didn't gain recognition afterwards well i mean we wouldn't we wouldn't know that's that's what i'm saying though is like if if nick drake's music hadn't been like uh cited by all of these like uk artists and hadn't been like finally recognized by these different critics like would would we be talking about this right now like how many other artists are there out there who have made like these this genius stuff that just for whatever reason nobody liked nobody liked at the time and nobody bought at the time.

I don't know, man. Yeah. I mean, the person that comes to mind whenever I hear about Nick Drake is Jeff Buckley. Yeah. Because it's the same kind of story of somebody who was very talented, very young and died surprisingly before they really became huge. Yeah. So, hey. I know, Griffin.

This is supposed to be wonderful. I know. I think it is. I think it is. His life was sad. His life was sad. He was a very sad man. And very little was done by the consumers of music at that time to time to i guess make him feel accepted or whatever

and so that that sucks and that happens a lot for a lot of artists throughout like the fullness of time but i think it is like incredible that like there are lots and lots of people who love his music and love him very very very much that he'll never know about. But like, he, he, I don't know, he has gained a sort of relevance that is stretched far, far beyond anything that he probably expected in some of his like, sadder days. Yeah, and I have to imagine that was his ultimate hope. You know, I think anytime you create something that's that personal, and that raw, you're hoping at some point somebody will connect to it. So hopefully your connection and our listeners' connections

to it is a good thing. The endless colored ways. Go play the game that you learned from the morning. That is our episode this week of Wonderful. This is a soothing episode, I thought. We came at you with Lizzo first, and you were like, oh yeah, party time. And then we were like, well, hold on. Nap, Stand the Lions, and Nick Drake. That was the crescendo. And then we're just going to come down gentle. Come down soft.

Griffin, do you want to thank people for the stuff we got in our PO box? Yeah, we've gotten a lot of great stuff lately. Thank you to Stephanie and Dana for sending us some very, very cute Blizzard-themed baby gear. I appreciate that a lot. We got a Lucio onesie that I'm very excited to put on our boy. We got a I Do Love You cross-stitch,

and that was from Jess. Thank you, Jess. Oh, I've broken my phone. Sarah sent us a Capybara-themed baby book called The Wump World, which I'm very excited to dig into. And Sasha made us a little crocheted taper,

which I'm very excited about. It was knit, actually. Oh, knit? A knit taper? And yeah, we've gotten a lot of great stuff. Oh, and we forgot to do wonderful submissions from listeners. I have some here. Do you want to hear them? Yes, of course. This is one from Chase who says

I have a strange enthusiasm for buying physical media and specifically the inexplicable joy of unwrapping the plastic on movies, music, and video games. My wife makes fun of me, but she still honors me by usually saving them for me to do the honors. Yeah. I love cracking open some plastic

on a DVD or a game that I know I'm about to play. I used to have one of those little things. It was like a little half of a puck with a blade in it. Those were nice. Those were nice. Connor says, I'm an adult man who keeps buying juice and other drinks in pouches like Capri Sun. Does it remind me of a simpler time? Yes.

Does it feel a bit like I'm sucking the juices out of a bug? Also, yes. Yeah, we got those Honest Tea pouches juice pouches yeah damn i fucking wrecked those putting that little pointy straw through the little aluminum it's barbaric and satisfying yeah uh also i mean i can only get like a good two gulps out of a pouch i wish i wish they made like big pouches i guess that's what like a camelback is anyway uh emily says i recently got into cake decorating and hot diggity shit. If I could spend every minute, every waking hour of my day baking and decorating cakes, I would.

There's something so satisfying about having an idea in your mind and making it come to life with frosting and chocolate. Yeah. She also sent some pictures of some Moana themed cakes that she made. Oh, that's neat. With the little ore thing that Mauiui used and it was very they looked very tasty and good you know this is my shit you know i stay up until 2 a.m watching tasty videos in bed just like yeah i cannot see enough mirror glaze cakes i can't see enough mirror glaze cakes i asked griffin i was like haven't you watched this video before and he said no there are a lot of

mirror glaze cake they're very very hot right hot right now. Yeah. Seth Carlson. Thank you, Seth. Also sent one in, said for the last five or six years, I've had a routine where some nights when I go to bed, I pull up a radio app on my phone, pick a random station in a foreign country and listen to it for an hour or so before falling asleep. That's cool. My family never really traveled when I was growing up, and I only traveled out of the country for the first time in the last year.

And so I've always loved hearing these small slices of other cultures. Last night, I found a radio station in Osaka that played back-to-back Hatsune Miku and Bob Dylan. That's extremely good. That's a really good one. Yeah, that's a really clever idea. Delivery Man delivers across all the podcasts. Yeah, I think that's it. Thanks to Maximum Fun for having us. You can go to MaximumFun.org, check out all the podcasts. Yeah, I think that's it. Thanks to Maximum Fun for having us.

You can go to MaximumFun.org. Check out all the great podcasts there. You can go to McRoyShows.com to see our other podcasts and video stuff that we do. Anything else, babe? No, that's it. Oh, thanks to Bowen and Augustus for the use of our theme song, Money Won't Pay. It's a very, very good track, and you can find a link to it in the description. I think that's it.

Thanks for listening. Until next time, we really need to talk when we're not recording ourselves about what we're going to say at the end here um i don't think this is it though this isn't it uh what about join us next week for more wonderful wednesday tales from griffin and rachel that's it we're to say it exactly like that in those exact words every week. You got it, babe. So just do it again right now, just as a clean run.

Again, word for word, exact same tone. Just to wrap it up. And that'll be the last thing people hear. Join us again next week. Thank you. Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

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