Ever wondered how a stroll down memory lane with 80s music could stir up more than just fond recollections? Join me, Annette Smith, as I sit down with Harvey, the charismatic voice behind "Love is Black" and "Men Are the Prize," for a vivid trek back to the era of synthesizers, leg warmers, and MTV. We tap into the pulse of a decade that revolutionized the music industry, influenced fashion, and left an indelible mark on pop culture, all while spinning tracks that will surely hit you with a wave of nostalgia.
From "Moonlighting" to Madonna, Harvey unveils the tapestry of his 80s-inspired playlist, igniting conversations about the music videos that shaped our viewing habits and the TV shows that had us glued to our sets with eager anticipation each week. We wax nostalgic over the communal experiences lost to the modern binge-watching culture and the icons that graced our screens and boom boxes. As we traverse through the landscape of 80s entertainment, you'll be enamored by the tales of shoulder pads, big hair bands, and the magnetic pull of Columbia House Records deals that were too good to be true.
Ending on a note that's both poignant and personal, Harvey and I reflect on the emotional gravity of songs by artists like Eric Clapton and Bonnie Raitt, offering a window into how these melodies can be both a source of solace and a soundtrack to our lives. It's a heartfelt conversation that celebrates the beloved 80s and embodies the enduring power of music to connect us across time. So, whether you're here to relive your glory days or to understand what made the 80s tick, this episode promises to be an auditory embrace from a decade that continues to resonate with us all.
Watch the full episode on YouTube
Check out the Playlist on Spotify
Follow us Everywhere
Make sure to HIT that LIKE BUTTON and SUBSCRIBE to our Channel to be notified of new episodes!
We always have a new episode every Monday at 1 pm
Rock on
Ever wondered how a stroll down memory lane with 80s music could stir up more than just fond recollections? Join me, Annette Smith, as I sit down with Harvey, the charismatic voice behind "Love is Black" and "Men Are the Prize," for a vivid trek back to the era of synthesizers, leg warmers, and MTV. We tap into the pulse of a decade that revolutionized the music industry, influenced fashion, and left an indelible mark on pop culture, all while spinning tracks that will surely hit you with a wave of nostalgia.
From "Moonlighting" to Madonna, Harvey unveils the tapestry of his 80s-inspired playlist, igniting conversations about the music videos that shaped our viewing habits and the TV shows that had us glued to our sets with eager anticipation each week. We wax nostalgic over the communal experiences lost to the modern binge-watching culture and the icons that graced our screens and boom boxes. As we traverse through the landscape of 80s entertainment, you'll be enamored by the tales of shoulder pads, big hair bands, and the magnetic pull of Columbia House Records deals that were too good to be true.
Ending on a note that's both poignant and personal, Harvey and I reflect on the emotional gravity of songs by artists like Eric Clapton and Bonnie Raitt, offering a window into how these melodies can be both a source of solace and a soundtrack to our lives. It's a heartfelt conversation that celebrates the beloved 80s and embodies the enduring power of music to connect us across time. So, whether you're here to relive your glory days or to understand what made the 80s tick, this episode promises to be an auditory embrace from a decade that continues to resonate with us all.
Watch the full episode on YouTube
Check out the Playlist on Spotify
Follow us Everywhere
Make sure to HIT that LIKE BUTTON and SUBSCRIBE to our Channel to be notified of new episodes!
We always have a new episode every Monday at 1 pm
Rock on
Welcome everyone to music junkies, a podcast about people sharing extraordinary stories about how music has impacted their lives. Welcome everyone to music junkies. I'm your host, annette Smith, and today our guest is a host of two incredible podcasts. The first one is a relationship podcast that he does with his wife. That's awesome. I love that. You do that. It's called love is black. Because of the success of that podcast, you've now created another podcast men are the prize, which I love. Your little logo in the corner yes, that's all right when he isn't helping men have better lives. He's listening to the music, which I agree with you the decade of the 80s, which is the best decade for music movies, tv shows and I'm all in a hundred percent, harvey. So welcome to the show. I love it.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me. I don't need an excuse to talk about music or the best decade for everything, which is the 80s. Let's go in. I'm ready to talk about. People are sick of me talking about the 80s and such, so I'm going to have a good time talking about it.
Speaker 1:I love it. So what was your experience putting your playlist together for me today?
Speaker 2:It was it. I mean, I'm a music head in my core. I'm an 80s kid to my heart. So we were talking about music immediately. I'm you know, I'm pour some sugar on me I'm Bobby Brown, I'm new addition, I'm all this stuff. I had my. You know, I started off and I was a big hair guy. You know hair rock kids. So yeah, I grew up in Long Island. So, you know, in New York they just hand you Billy Joel, you know, that's what you just listen to. That's the way it is.
Speaker 2:And music is just kind of been a thread through my life for everything that I've dealt with in life and in general. And when life is killing me, it's just, you know, darkness, headset, place of music, and I can kind of zone out. So it was interesting putting this list together. I'm kind of thinking about situations. I'm not good with dates, with stuff, but music kind of brings me back to something that might have happened here, or what I was watching when I was 12 or 13,. You know what I was sneaking to watch at night when everybody was weeping such, and just all the, all the arguments or debates that I've had with people about how the 80s is just the best decade for everything. So it was cool to kind of go down that lane and talk. You know, talk about my favorite decade, so it was. I was glad to actually put this list together, so it was fun.
Speaker 1:I love it. That's my favorite part. I love people's experiences putting their playlist together and then their experience when they go through and do that. I had this lady on my show when I first started and she had no idea what to pick. She was a friend of mine in her 60s and I'm like I think you'd be a riot on the show, let's go and do the show. So when I asked her that question, she said that she had like 900 LPs just kind of like spread on her living room floor and she just sat there with her daughter and like talked for hours and I love that. I'm like that is so nice. She's like so I.
Speaker 1:So I love the process of putting the playlist together, which I think is is so good and to me, I find it so interesting that people can go and do that where I think I would just struggle. I've tried. I literally have like six songs on my playlist because my husband's like hey, I'll do yours, it'll be awesome, and I'm. I'm just still struggling with it. I have this podcast like that. So it's it's crazy and I love that. You love the 80s, because so do I.
Speaker 1:How many 80s parties have you had?
Speaker 2:Not a few, not that many, because you know I'm a dad of four, so I'm in dad mode most of the time, so they don't appreciate the 80s like I do, what they do, what they. What they hate, though, is and I'm I'm such a stickler for music to all these songs that they love. If you have young kids, it's stuff like trolls and all these songs that are in these movies, and they love these songs, and I'm really just that. God is that you realize that that's Prince, right, that's not that troll, that's singing that song in the movie. That song came out in 84. That you know I'm the guy to tell you. Listen, do you understand that sample? No, that's not the first time. That song they just copy in it. That was whoever, that was Miles Davis and that was whatever, and I'm that annoying friend who will be like that's a good song. You know why it's good? Because of the sample from 87. I'm the annoying friend, so not a lot of people are coming to my 80s party anyway.
Speaker 1:I love it. We're going to get started with your first song. You're ready.
Speaker 2:Yes, let's do it.
Speaker 1:All right, let's play a little bit of it so moonlighting, I feel like this is your jam for sure.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, first of all, if you haven't heard, I love the 80s. My favorite TV show of all time is Moonlight. I think it's the best thing ever done. This show is campy, it's fun. I love Bruce Willis, I love it. I will battle anybody on any shows being better. So since it's my favorite show, the theme song is going to be a song that resonates with me.
Speaker 2:I love Algero, I love that smooth jazz kind of singing, and so I love the song. I love the fact that half the time I have no clue what Algero is even saying. It just fits, it's just like great, it works, whatever it is, and so I used to watch that show happily, and obviously it's the emergence of Bruce Willis, before he did anything, before he did die hard and all this stuff. He starts here and I just love the connection that those two had, because while they were doing the show Bruce Willis and Sybil Scherber didn't even really like each other, but for some reason on the show they had a ball and for some reason that show really clicked with me and I would watch it at night and I enjoyed it and I love the theme and I've also of the impression that the 80s had the best sitcoms, best dramas and the best theme songs. We could do a whole episode on my favorite theme songs, but for me that's because it's connected to the best show ever made in my humble opinion, so that's why I love that song.
Speaker 1:I love it. So I was just thinking when you were talking about Bruce Willis and like who do you think has put more movies out, bruce Willis or Samuel Jackson? Because I feel like they're pretty close.
Speaker 2:Oh, they've, oh. But Samuel has done a. I know he's done a lot of stuff and you don't realize how much he's been in Little bits he's done. He's done everything he's made. I think he's what he's got the highest gross for any active all time in terms of movies. It just helps that he does a lot of the Marvel stuff. But he's been in so many right now.
Speaker 1:But Bruce did a lot of stuff but then he kind of slowed down and obviously now I feel like he's back again doing all these kind of small parts, and so I it's just kind of interesting all these kind of 80s actors Back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what's sad with I mean, we know, I don't know if you're aware with his health, like all this stuff he had filmed beforehand. Now all this stuff is coming out because I don't know, I don't know if we know how much longer we're going to have him. So it's kind of nice to see him acting, but knowing in the background that might this is kind of like this tour eventually we're going to lose him and such and moonlighting just finally available to watch our tickets on Hulu. For the longest time there were some issues with the company, with the music that was in the show, but now you can watch it and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that that his health is of issue. So you know, I watched that first episode. I watch it because it started off as like this TV movie that they made and then it became a series. So you know I'm sad.
Speaker 1:What fashion do you wish came back? That's gone from the 80s.
Speaker 2:Oh, the, oh, my God, the, the, the bright colors of Miami Vice John Johnson filled the vest.
Speaker 1:You wear this dude to the vest.
Speaker 2:It made no sense. It was terrible. Why are you walking around like that? I understand it's Miami, but still I'm wearing this light peach shirt with this white vest and I got to pull up the squeeze. And then you got Phil Collins in the background another person. I love the soundtracks, always so much fun. They're about to drive to some big event and it's all filled in the air. It's all serious hair blowing in the air and oh, and shoulder pads.
Speaker 1:I don't really know why guys had shoulder pads. That was kind of strange, but I don't get that either.
Speaker 2:I don't know I would. Maybe I was just young so I wasn't paying that much attention to the square. Look, or something. Yeah, yeah, that's true. What was it? You know what? That reminds me, that TV show. I forgot where it's, what's his, what's his name. Oh, my God, there was this weird electronic show, max head rule, I think it was.
Speaker 1:Do you remember Max head room?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was weird and he had like this kind of square kind of look to him. I don't know we were, I guess we weren't sure what it meant to look like a man in 80. So we just came up, we just threw everything out there and we see what's stuck on the wall.
Speaker 1:So it's just right together. Yeah right, your next song. Let's do it, pat Benatar.
Speaker 2:My favorite 80s movie, the legend of Billy Jean. Ah, so that's how I got into Pat Benatar. I'm I've of the opinion that the 80s doesn't have a lot of great movies, but you have great 80s movies. To me the 80s is an old, separate genre. So you got some movies that are just trash, but they're perfect 80s movies. Legend of Billy Jean is one of them. Like better off dead is one of them. You know, we got Ghostbusters and all this.
Speaker 2:Say anything, that whole run of the teen angst movies and such. Yeah, I love that song because it reminds me of Legend of Billy Jean. I think it's fair, is fair. It's all the stuff that I love about it. So anytime I hear Pat Benatar it's a lot of this just brings me back to a time where you don't have to care about anything. I was a you know preteen, then a teen, and I'm just enjoying movies and I'm watching the movie and the movie didn't even really make sense. There wasn't that great plot, but damn, that soundtrack was fire and I could listen to that over and over again. But Pat Benatar, you know, many crushed for me early 80s in it.
Speaker 1:Oh, did you have a Pat Benatar poster on the?
Speaker 2:wall. Oh no, that wasn't going to work out in my house. It wasn't strict yeah, strict enough that I wouldn't do that if I wouldn't have worked out, once I got older than it became like the, I think, the mistake they made on the sports head. So for Christmas I got the subscription. Do you remember those 80s commercials where if you subscribe to Sports Illustrated you got a gift? You get the football phone and stuff like that? So I got. So I got Sports Illustrated for a year and always the swimsuit edition. You know. So that was. I think my parents didn't realize that was coming to the house. So I got that snip, snip, snip that was on the wall so and that was a little extra and I was like 14, but you know whatever. So it was okay. But no, pat Benatar didn't make it onto my wall.
Speaker 1:No, but no, that was that was?
Speaker 2:that was yes, it was her. And then, eventually, lisa Bonet from the Cosby Shall.
Speaker 1:I Love to her and Felicia Shad.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, problems, absolute, problems.
Speaker 1:What about a Lisa Milano?
Speaker 2:Alyssa Milano from who's the Boss another great week. I loved her. Loved the themes onto that show. Such a cutie too. Oh yes, I loved her, I know.
Speaker 1:I was at an eighties rock party for Halloween and I was just curious like who's? Like? All of us were around the same age, so I'm like, who is your eighties girl cross? And it was amazing how many people like to listen to Milano like I and I do too. I thought she was amazing and I think she's beautiful. I just she just has this look to her and yeah, so it was amazing. Probably 10 people I asked and like eight said that.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, she was amazing. Oh yeah, I mean, there's a lot. I mean I watched the Wonder Years growing up. Winnie Cooper, that was another girl, it was, oh yeah, the eighties. We had a lot of fun because there was a lot of those teen shows. So we watched a lot of these boys and girls growing up and it's just that trope that they take guys, guys, friends, girl in the middle and then that's a whole show that you run with. So but I, yeah, so I remember Winnie Cooper, cooper, but of course, who's the boss? Because I'm a New Yorker, that's it. New York is a Connecticut and that's the whole show. So I'm telling you I'm a problem, I have way too much information in this.
Speaker 1:No, I love it, I love it. And it's crazy because I heard this little tick tock the other day and I'm wondering if you think this is is true. So they were saying that there's no possible real way, with where our world is today, that we can go and create these funny movies like from the eighties, or controversial movies that we're kind of seeing, or even, like they mentioned, like super bad or something like that, because our world is kind of crazy right now.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we couldn't do some what do you think about going and creating an eighties movie nowadays?
Speaker 2:We could do it, but it wouldn't be as fun because you wouldn't get away with as much. Well, you could make a joke about just about anything to a degree, even like stuff like super bad. That's the. You know somebody would be offended, yeah, and I don't know, and that's sad. I don't feel like the eighties was that bad, but there are some. There are some bad ones because it was just nudity Any chance you could get like I remember a show when a boob was like in the first three minutes.
Speaker 1:You're like, yes, I'd probably watch the rest of it.
Speaker 2:Oh, I know, I know I was, I was watching it. You know I remember porkies and revenge of the nerds and all these. Yes, there was a boob somewhere in there and you know I had to watch it. And you know, pause that and maybe rewind and it's for plot. I just said it's important moment here.
Speaker 1:I have to see what's going on, but it's crazy how much. And then obviously that like you didn't have to be like an amazing writer to write an eighties movie. Like when you kind of go back and watch now it's like weren't they just fighting? How are they at the dance club? I'm like, where did the three hours go that they were? Like you sometimes get confused and then like, oh, it's an 80 show. Ok, that's all you have to say to yourself Ah, it's an 80 show, Makes sense and it fits.
Speaker 2:It fits. It's really its own genre. We weren't really hung up on plot. We just try to enjoy ourselves, to have fun. They fought, there's an interlude, some song playing, and then, oh, then they're at the club. You know, ok, you know, we keep it moving. I'm in total agreement.
Speaker 1:I think they were more keen on the soundtrack than they were on the actual action adventure storyline.
Speaker 2:Agreed, agreed. There's so many one hit wonders that are really just songs from soundtracks and you attach it to a movie and then you remember that scene because the song was great in the background. I'm definitely one of those guys. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1:All right. Next song Midnight train of Georgia.
Speaker 2:Oh, gladys Night in the Pips. I grew up working in that typical mall and Suncoast Motion Picture. It was one of those stores that sold videos and then eventually DVDs when they came out, and I made some really good friends working there and then eventually I left there and obviously my love for movies grew in that. I mentioned that only because I eventually moved and left there but took my love of movies and started working at a Barnes and Noble in like the music department, so that's where the movies and the stuff were, and I made even more friends there.
Speaker 2:And every year we would have this friend would have a Halloween party and everybody would get dressed and such I'm not a Halloween person, so I didn't really get dressed, but I think I was the only black guy in the group, so we would just play music, of course, but every time that song would get played, this girl who was my friend loved the song, so she would sing it, but it would be me and one other person in the background. We would be the Pips, she would be Gladys, and then we would perform the whole damn song. So it's her singing and then we would do all of it and that song reminds me of some friends that I had at this Barnes and Noble and that song was always so much fun and every year, even to the point when I stopped working there, I still find a way to make it to the party we would perform the song and it's a remembrance of friendships that I. You know that I was a part of growing up, so that's probably the most sentimental song, probably of this list, but I'm also a 60s, 70s, 80s R&B guy.
Speaker 2:Also, gladys Knight is legendary for that song and the time and the stuff that she wrote. I love that song and anytime I hear it I'm just like, oh my God, I remember my friends, but I remember the song. You know, every song should mean something to you and this song definitely means something to me and the moments that I was a part of because of Did you watch a lot of MTV growing up?
Speaker 1:Of course, Of course.
Speaker 2:I mean I loved my transition of what I loved, how I changed from rock to R&B and hip hop and all that. So I watched MTV when it started and how they really didn't want to play black artists, they fought it.
Speaker 1:Really I didn't want that.
Speaker 2:Oh, they didn't want to play because, I mean, the excuse that they gave, the PR excuse that they gave, is that they were a rock channel, so they didn't feel like it made sense to play Michael Jackson or Prince. But they didn't really take off until Michael Jackson. And you think about that thriller when you think of music videos, if you're our age and I'm sure I'm older than you, but the greatest videos are thriller, our Billie Jean, that stuff that comes. Mtv was nothing until you started playing those videos, how do you not play arguably the greatest artist ever and they fought it and like you have to play it. He played it and it was a whole big thing. So, oh, I loved, I loved MTV. And when I started to see more artists that looked like me, of course I liked it more, and Michael was one of my favorite artists, and obviously Prince and such. So, yeah, a whole lot of MTV.
Speaker 1:I'm reading the Madonna book right now and this writer I didn't quite know if I was going to like it, because I don't, I didn't really know if she was going to really be a part of it. But this writer did a phenomenal job because she's she'll introduce somebody to the book and then she'll kind of talk about what was kind of going on in that kind of realm or world. And so she said when Madonna came to New York, that was a tiny son of Sam Right, like crazy stuff like that. But they did mention MTV and they were talking about. So when Madonna was going to do her first video, they were talking about Michael Jackson and Thriller and Prince already out there and just kind of she utilized them. So the book is saying like literally, like those three people change the way pop music did music.
Speaker 2:Oh, definitely. Oh, Madonna is very much just paved the way for female artists to develop. She's like the female of the 80s I don't think there's a question about that Like a virgin and all the stuff in Boog and all these things that came out. She's the one, and definitely the fact that Michael and Prince and Lottie's artists were able to put stuff out. She fit right in. She was a pop star.
Speaker 2:Yeah but it needed to be seen in videos and the videos were great and she's quite. She's amazingly talented, so she fit. It makes complete sense. I didn't really connect us on the same thing. That's I know. I'm so crazy yeah.
Speaker 1:And then they're also saying that so, like Michael Jackson, can go on tour and do all these crazy things, prince could have like a bath on stage and wear, you know, g string underwear. But the controversy of her like doing like a virgin on, like laying on a bed or grinding up against the boombox, as they put it, and stuff like that, was like you know, she just got like ridiculed from the press.
Speaker 2:Like how crazy, though I didn't really realize how.
Speaker 1:You know how we have these male artists that are doing all this stuff and then these female artists are kind of following in their limelight. Like her whole set was, you know, pretty much designed by Prince she, you know she loved Prince. They hung out a lot and she's like I need the same stage designer that you have because, look at this, I want to go do this, I want mine to be theatrical and like this big production. So it's, it's so interesting back then when I never really realized it Obviously I'm older now so I didn't really see it and feel it back then but it is crazy how much she did take the way.
Speaker 2:Oh, very much. So it's just something that you because when you're in it you don't really realize how important it is right, you're just kind of seeing it, it's just happening. But later on, after 20 years or so, you can look back and say like, was there who was like the pop star before Madonna? I'm thinking when I think the 80s and I think of women, I think of like Hart, the band I don't really I don't know if a singular and even Pat Benatar, but they're more rock stars. Yeah, but when you think of a pop star then eventually you get Janet and you get all these great women and it took and there's, in a lot of ways, there's the benefit of somebody else paving the way first. So maybe for Madonna it's these back artists. What's interesting with Madonna is for the longest time she was played on black radio.
Speaker 1:We didn't know she was white.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I grew up in the 80s listening to 8.7 KISS FM and they would play her and people were like, when you saw this white girl singing with this kind of soul, like who in the entire book is that? That's? She's the one singing that song, Borderline. We swore she was black for the longest time and she was playing and you're like, OK, I love her. Now her video has to come out. Now she fits in that same genre with Michael and Prince, like they'll play thriller, then they'll play PURPORAINE and then they'll play Borderline. And it fits and it makes sense. So they're, they're all together. That 80s she's. She's very representative of that decade.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that you said that, because that's exactly what they were saying in the book, that they all just thought that she was black. Oh, yeah, her because of her voice.
Speaker 2:Soful. So so I love Borderline. Oh my God, I also love who's that girl. That's one of my favorite movies. One of my favorite movies. It's terrible, but it's such a great 80s movie, Great soundtrack. Oh, oh my God, it's a.
Speaker 1:we should do an 80 soundtrack, one that would be fun Easily easily, I can tell you.
Speaker 2:I sent you this list and then I was just looking back over just to be kind of ready for it. If I had to do this again an entirely different list it wouldn't have any of these songs. Eighties, ten different tracks, and it would be amazing. I could do 80 soundtrack without a problem. Oh, it's me.
Speaker 1:I love it All right, I love this guy, billy Joel.
Speaker 2:Billy Joel, like I said, grew up in Long Island. You know you go down the Lyle and Expressway, here you go, here's your Billy Joel greatest hits. Take that and head home. And it was the. I first heard it on an episode of Moonlighting from my favorite show. It's on an episode, you know, that kind of old school Everybody's in the dance and around. I love that song and from there I just fell into Billy Joel. Oh, my God, damn, this guy's amazing. I think I listen to that. And then I bought the greatest hits.
Speaker 2:If you remember the 80s, do you remember being able to get like 12 CDs or 12 cassettes for one cent? That's right. Oh, I got my greatest hits, I'm afraid. And I'm like, oh, wow, piano man, wow, vienna, wow, just the way you are, wow, who is this guy? And for and I had my Billy Joel's, you know, for a while I was strictly him and that's all I was listening to Um, but it connects with my favorite show. So it's a great song and not song that a lot of people talk about when it's or I believe, I mean he's got such a great catalog that you think about piano man and moving out, and he's, he's done so many. What's, what's the movie? I'm thinking of Buzzing Buddies. My life, that's him too. He's done so much. But I really love that because I think I like that big band, because I'm a jazz fan also, so it fits into that and just gives me an excuse to watch Moonlight again.
Speaker 1:I feel like if Columbia House Records was like we're just going to call in all of you guys that owe us a cent and the interest, like they could come back strong. They could come back strong.
Speaker 2:Oh, I had eight or nine different names. Oh, I would come up with something else and two, three weeks All these cassettes came. Oh, I'd be broke if that happened.
Speaker 1:Because I feel like once you did that, the CDs were actually quite expensive.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, mm. Hmm, he's like how did they make money on that? I don't understand. I never got it. But I wonder if Columbia Records is owned by somebody else? I never really. If they were owned by the record label, it doesn't cost them anything, so I have to hope that's what it is. Otherwise I don't care. My CD collection is solid. So thank you to Columbia, you know. But yeah, easily, easily. Billy, which one of my favorite artists in my decade, in my show, my favorite show, is just easy to listen to Happy. I'll be listening to that afterwards. That interest just bang, just hits you and I just love, I love really good music. So much for me.
Speaker 1:So elementary school, did you carry a boombox and walk around the school?
Speaker 2:That you know what. You know how stereotypical that would have been. They were just walking around.
Speaker 1:I know I couldn't we did, we did all the time.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't have one of those. I just waited till I got home, then I listened to you.
Speaker 1:No, I literally walked around. There was two like top girls being another girl or whoever it was, and we would carry our boombox and like people would just follow us as we walked around at recess, walked around at lunch. I went through so many double D batteries Like oh God that's right, there is always music.
Speaker 2:I had music all the time I was. I was still in my early rock phase there. But for me when I see the boombox to me, I start seeing you know beatbox and start seeing the breakdancing and our move over there. So I wasn't there yet. If I was I probably would have had. When I would have to fight to get the parents to buy me I would have.
Speaker 1:I would have? Did you learn how to breakdance at all?
Speaker 2:Oh, no, no.
Speaker 1:No, I can't even do the work.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I know Listen. I'm a man who knows his limitations. I'm not a dancer.
Speaker 1:So I got no dancing at all.
Speaker 2:I can dance, I can carry it. You know I can hold the note, carry tune, but I'm not doing it publicly. You know I dance. I dance for amateurs. That's as far as I go. I'm not doing it.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love it All right. Next song the heart is a home for love.
Speaker 2:Hmm, the five heartbeats, that's the movie. I am a movie head Also and I love movies and all like the Godfather is my favorite movie. But there's different genres that fit different things and growing up I always look to be represented, whether it's music or movies or TV shows and such. So the five heartbeats is a classic black film. That's just that's for us and not if not everybody loves it, but we do. And the soundtrack is amazing. Robert Townsend, one of my favorite directors. It's just black for me.
Speaker 2:I think black people when we come to music and movies, we love music, we love a story, we look kung fu, we love all that stuff. This movie has family music. We love the Commodore. It's a four top, so essentially that kind of story they're talking about. So this is part of a fantastic soundtrack of a great black movie and it's it's, it's amazing. It's just something you have to see, you have to to appreciate it, to see, and it's something that you can watch anytime it's on. It's that movie I can catch halfway in. I'm finishing, god forbid, I catch the opening credits. Just get out of here. I'll see you in two hours and I'm watching it and I'm loving it. We love the harmonies. We love a great story and we love seeing them break down and we like to see them get back together. It's just connected to one of my favorite movies, which is the five heartbeats, so that's what I love for a lot.
Speaker 1:I love it. What is like if we look in today's age you have four kids. You said you had four kids. Yeah, so I have two, they've grown up, they've moved out. One's married 26 and in 28. But I look at where kids are today and they just kind of seem I don't want to say lazy, it's just they have everything just kind of at that at their cell phone. I guess you could say Right.
Speaker 2:What is?
Speaker 1:one thing that you feel like your kids are going to miss out on. That we got to partake when we were growing up.
Speaker 2:That's such a good Because I'm a TV head. I don't know what. If there was any particular shows you loved growing up, but I'll give the perfect example is in the 80s, the Cosby show needed to be watched Thursday night. You needed to be home at eight. I'll get what you were doing food shopping at 7.45 this time to go, because you needed to see that episode. We don't really have that anymore because now people just wait and they binge it on Netflix.
Speaker 2:That, that anticipation for a new episode of a great show. You don't really get that. My kids, oh, I want to watch this show, I'm just going to wait and then they'll sit there and watch three seasons of a show, versus me waiting for the following Tuesday for moonlight and come on, or Thursday night to wait for everybody to fall asleep so that I could watch LA law, because I love LA law. You don't get the benefit of that anticipation. You just I'll just wait and then I'll watch 14 episodes of a show. It's not the same. It's not the same. We're. Everything is kind of handed to us. I feel like you know what. I have to wait. I'm annoyed. What happened? What's going to happen next?
Speaker 1:And I feel like forced families to watch TV together. Now we have like 15 different TVs in the house, which is crazy and we're kind of separate, like I look at, when our kids were growing up, we'd have a TV in the basement living room. They had TVs in the room. So, I don't even know what the hell they were even watching.
Speaker 2:Right, Right. Really I don't know what they're.
Speaker 1:Now I think back. I'm like I have no idea what you guys were watching, like who knows what you're. You had access to Netflix. He had access to all these different you know, the internet, all those kind of stuff, right, they never really even thought about it, but you're right. But even that, like I remember my mom would be like, oh, this movie's on like member super channel, right, and you're like, I don't like this one. I'm going to do the next channel, the next, and you get that movie. But then we would like make popcorn and we, you know, I would lay with my dad and my mom would have the other couch, right, and she'd eat cheeses and smoke cigarettes and it was like, whatever, that's what we did.
Speaker 2:TV used to be more of an event and now it's because it's so accessible and there's so many different ways and so many things to watch. It's kind of changed. It's good and it's bad. If you're part, if you're just the person and you just want to watch something, it's good. But you know, as a family that kind of that's kind of gone. It's a lot of this. Everybody's in their own room and their own device and so it's a fight to get us to watch a family movie together when it's something that was just something you do Like. It's like yeah, remember driving? Did you ever take a little family go to drive in movie? I loved it. I'd love that. I wish I had what. I would take the kids and we would go watch. We could go sit there and watch Hocus Pocus or something, or just sit and watch the Goonies or something Good family stuff. But now we don't have that. My kids would. I'm still trying to get them in some great 80s stuff, but it's a bad view Like I don't understand.
Speaker 1:why are they not like what's happening?
Speaker 2:What's what is going on? Let's watch Beetlejuice. Like I forced them to watch Beetlejuice and like, yeah, it's okay, or whatever. Or I'm a horror person and I have two older daughters and I'm like, if you like horror, the greatest one is. My favorite horror is the Exorcist and I watch Exit and they'd like they were bored. I'm like get out of my house. What's wrong with you? You mean, you're bored, it's the greatest care that crap out of me.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, I watched this by myself. I'm like what do you mean? Oh my God, these kids don't appreciate it. They don't. I'm the old man yelling. That's just me.
Speaker 1:I also miss being like getting up. Or it was a weekend and you had phoned your friend and they went in answer and you're like, meh, I'm just gonna walk 3,000 miles to their house, exactly. And then it's crazy. I don't know how it would work, but the universe would bring that person and you would just meet up and what were you doing?
Speaker 2:I was walking to your house.
Speaker 1:I was walking to your house, or if they weren't there, you went to like the place that you would eventually all see each other. I miss that too. I don't think our kids were got to experience that.
Speaker 2:Socializing has changed so much.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:I have everybody's got a phone and that's how everybody connects, but everybody's in their house, nobody goes out. I used to leave the house, get on my bike and run around and play with kids and that's what we would hang out for the day. And there's so many different factors because I could just leave my house and play and my mom and dad knew I was coming home. I can't be good conscious that my eight year old just go out there, right, I don't know what's out there, unfortunately. So a lot of things have kind of changed. We don't have, there's a. The idea of safety is really something. That's not the same. You know, sending the kids out go play I'll see you later on tonight, or something, not a chance. So sadly, that's something we've kind of lost. But they, I don't know, they socialize through video games, through their phones, stuff like that. But you know, I don't think it's the same, it's not the same.
Speaker 1:I don't think it's the same too, and I think it breeds different types of people. I feel like they lose out on their social skills. Like I look at, you know our kids they're social but not really social. They used to have like 50 friends. Yep, not the same or like three, four friends or one or two friends. It's bizarre to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like friends are. I guess if they like the same genre of stuff, you don't have like that collection of friends who like this with different interests. You know we don't like the same thing, but we like Dungeons and Dragons, so that grew by hanging out with, or we like this band, so we hang out with them. Now which you know, it's kind of have one or two things we like and three or four friends and that's it, and then we just hunker down with them, which is kind of sad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is sad, right, I love this guy too. ["the Star-Spangled Banner"] Eric Clapton Pearson Heaven.
Speaker 2:I there's MTV, there we go. We were talking about MTV. I watched that unplug and was hooked. I had no clue who Eric Clapton was not a clue and watched it and I, my love of jazz was coming, so my love of blues was coming, and then I saw that unplugged, this guy won. I'm like I never really listened to guitar and appreciated how well it was playing. He's one of the greatest guitars of all time.
Speaker 2:After listening to that unplugged, I went into that catalog and I'm Clapton, which everybody says Clapton is God, and obviously the story behind that song is sad. I'm a parent so I can't imagine just losing my child. His son, you know, was out the window when he died. It's a beautiful song and it's live, which is something I appreciate. I love musicianship, so like the fact that he could play it. Obviously he goes into studio when there's a studio version, but that song and he's sitting there on the stage and he's playing it, it's wonderful. I played that song to death all the time, over and over again, over and over. I love that song very much and really fell deep into Eric Clapton. I listened to everything that he did and obviously the next song fits that too, because he's in the next one. But he really for a while was like my favorite artist. I listened to everything he did before, everything he did after, the blues stuff. I've seen him in concert. I saw him and BB King together.
Speaker 1:No way.
Speaker 2:That would have been amazing. It's insane. The best concert I have ever been to.
Speaker 2:That would be, amazing Two gods on guitar and I got to sit there and appreciate it Like BB solo for 10 minutes and you're like God, go ahead, man, amazing, don't even get up, just sit there and play. And Eric is like all right, I'm gonna cat and he's going. It's good music, it's beautiful, and that's music I could sit there and I could listen to Like late at night. I don't know if I can fall asleep, so I'm gonna put that on. I'm gonna listen to cocaine. I'm gonna listen to oh, oh, great stuff, phenomenal stuff. So Eric has a special place in my heart because I found him and then I dove in to all his stuff.
Speaker 1:Did your parents listen to a lot of music when you were growing up?
Speaker 2:No, not at all. I mean not a lot. My dad did. This is interesting. So I grew up in the 80s in New York and Light FM was a station that just played like what's so interesting is what they play now, like that rock top of stuff. They would just play that calm stuff. My dad loved Frank Sinatra. There was I don't think it was this radio station. There was one radio station that, like Saturday nights at 10, would just play Sinatra all the way through.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:So he just he loves Sinatra to the point where he had, like it's not eight track, it's the music on the rolls or whatever, and he had bought it. Yeah, he had the whole collection of Sinatra and he loved it. That's the only thing we kind of get. We connect his love of Sinatra and his love of Woody Allen, cause he loved Woody Allen as a director. So we will go see these movies. But he wasn't a big music person. I was, because my household was kind of shady, so I was in my room and I needed something to listen to, and so I dove into music.
Speaker 2:but, yeah, he loves Sinatra. I'm not the biggest fan of it, but of him. But no, we both like music.
Speaker 1:We'll say that we're growing up in New York, Is it like how everybody would say like you have to be tough.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, to be tough. Oh, definitely. I mean see, when you're talking to a black guy, there's a different vibe that you're going to get for New York, cause I was lucky enough to grow up in a pretty nice neighborhood so I didn't have a lot of people who look like me. So in general, it's just kind of our nature. New Yorkers were hard yeah, so don't talk to us a specific kind of way. But my experience is going to be a little bit different, cause all those New Yorkers who were talking one way, they talked to me a different way because of this. But I'm proud to be a New Yorker in terms of the sports that we love. We have the best pizza on earth, we have the best bagels, we have all of it, and we're in New York with the best city. Plenty of movies are based in our town. Philadelphia is afraid of us, you know all that stuff. So, yes, as a New Yorker, we are egocentric about our city.
Speaker 1:But I look at just not just that. I also look at you know, cause I read lots of biographies of artists and stuff like that and like that was a place to go, like. I even look at this book of Madonna that I'm reading. You know she's constantly going back to New York. She got, you know, found in New York and all of these people around her were all New York. You know they're talking about, like all these different artists they're doing the anyways, all this kind of stuff. And then I look at fashion. Oh yes, look at, you know it's, that's a place to go. Right, you want to go there for fashion week. You want to be a part of that. So I think it just has so much culture.
Speaker 2:Yes, we're the greatest city in the world. We, yeah, we are the center of a lot. A lot of music. Hip hop is created in the Bronx, new York. A lot of stuff, a lot of things that are created are here. A lot of people came into this country. They came into New York Well, that's New Jersey, but they came in and then they went into New York. All this, this amalgamation of all these different cultures, all these different races, all these people, and it creates all these different things. We you're completely right.
Speaker 1:I just don't feel like we got that in Canada. You know what I mean. Like it's crazy if I really kind of start to go down the rabbit hole of all the artists and all the music I know and all of that kind of stuff that we just talked about. Where did I learn that shit? Because, like, canada is not like there's no hub, you know, it's not like oh, hey, yes, okay, toronto, but not really like, not really Not like New York.
Speaker 2:Right, I mean to be fair, there's very few cities like New York. Yeah, I mean, you guys, hockey is like, I think, when I think of Canada, honestly that's what I think of, and I don't know if that's right or not that you guys created this great sport and then we love it here too. But I don't know, is there any genre of music that you guys kind of pioneered?
Speaker 1:or anything? I don't think so.
Speaker 2:I guess, all right, then you, it's still time, you guys come up with something new.
Speaker 1:We're going to redo Eddie's music Exactly. There we go. I love it All. Right. Another Clapton song. It's crazy. And BB King.
Speaker 2:This was around the time that this album came out and obviously Clapton is a big blues guy and he loved BB King. They were friends and they did writing with the King. I think that's the. That's like the, the single from the same title album. And then there was two legends playing together and the album was good, but it looks like they're having so much fun. It's just they're just playing music and you can hear it even when they're singing, like BB's having the time of his life and we're getting towards the end of his life too.
Speaker 2:I two of my favorite artists and again, I love musicianship, so I appreciated hearing them playing and saw that concert and was just in awe. I spent way too much money on the tickets, I'll tell you that much, and but it was worth it. It was the best show I've ever seen. Two great artists, blues, just kind of pop-ish type of stuff, but it's wonderful, absolutely wonderful. And then I did the same thing, even before, I guess, when they did this together. I eventually I dove into the BB King stuff and I love the blues. I mean you know Robert Johnson and all these great artists and such BB was amazing, and then add Eric to it. It's just easy. I mean, I have to listen to that album. These kids are going to hate me for the next few days I'm playing stuff they don't want to hear. They're going to hear this. They're going to go. Oh my God, who is this? It's not Brittany. It is not our in-a-grand day. It is not Taylor Swift.
Speaker 1:No this is good music here, so it's true, but when you say that, the first thing that kind of comes to my mind is these two people probably appreciated each other.
Speaker 1:Oh, so much and then got a chance to play together, which they probably never even thought that that would even really happen. And then they go and play together and they both admire each other. That is Special for them. But, as you know, fans, that's especially, you know especially special to watch because you know you get to play with your. It's like playing with you know, somebody that you admire so much, you just appreciate it so much. That would have been like an incredible show, phenomenal to see just that kind of connection. And then, obviously, feeding off of each other oh really, you can do that. Okay, well, I'm gonna do this. Okay, you know, you're outpin' each other, you're making each other better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's all in love, it's all in, like they're playing, like, oh, I can do this. I got this solo in me. Then I got this solo in me and, yeah, obviously Clapton grew up loving Bebe and Bebe appreciated the talent that was there. So you get two people who love music, who know that guy's awesome. I'm gonna play with him and I think Eric was more, clapton was more in awe of.
Speaker 1:Bebe, because it's like that's Bebe, fuck me I came over there and I was playing and was like what the hell?
Speaker 2:Like just appreciate it. But it's interesting because if you think of rock and a lot of these guitars, a lot of them look at Clapton the way Clapton probably looked at King. So you're sitting there like, oh my God, I'm sitting on stage with Eric Clapton, but Clapton is that's Bebe, but then that is amazing. It's cool to see and it's just respect that they had with each other and it's wonderful so wonderful.
Speaker 1:I love it All right.
Speaker 2:Next song Ooh, ["Sing it Smile"]. 29 pearls in your kiss. A singing smile.
Speaker 1:Everybody here wants you.
Speaker 2:Definitely I, because I'm an 80s kid, I'm a lover of, like, blue-eyed soul. So it's Holla Notes, it's Phil Collins, it's George Michael and Jeff. I don't even remember where I heard this song. Somebody must have given me this album and I'm like, wow, this particular song is so fucking smooth. Like I listened to this song and I could say badly. You know, in the days where you used to make a mix CD for some girl you were interested in.
Speaker 1:This was on every day.
Speaker 2:I'm so not even named, like hey girl, and I love this song and I listened to the album and the album is great. It's rocky, had a really smooth, soulful voice and we lost him early. He died a lot earlier than you should have, but this is a great, great song. It's just I don't know how much it led me to a lot of other artists that kind of fit him and that's by the time I got to him I. You know I loved a lot of these other artists and such, but this kind of kind coalesced and put everything together it's just a great love song. I like a good love song, right and it fit, it's easy, and I try to introduce people to Jeff Buckley based on Star Heap. This is not typical of him, but this is a great start. I think you will really enjoy him. So I love that song.
Speaker 1:I want all of the mixed tapes I ever got or ever made back. Oh Did you imagine. Like that would be such a crazy song. It would be crazy time to just kind of put them in the tape recorder and be like oh interesting.
Speaker 2:I used to love this, I used to like this song, or I've heard this song before, maybe I forgot Somebody made this for me and maybe somebody made a mixed tape for me that really changed my trajectory of my love of music and like I heard maybe one song off of that CD and I'm like who is this? And led me to just a whole lot of different music that I didn't know I would have loved, until somebody introduced me to something that's great about a really good mixed CD. So I'll agree, it's so much fun. Give back, give back. I'll take it.
Speaker 1:I actually had a guest on a couple of weeks ago and I love listening to people's playlists because it helps me just kind of get into their head a little bit and he had Stacey Q Two of Hearts I probably have not heard that song and I died. My husband was like what the hell? And the kids came over. I was like oh, we're listening to this song. I used to love this song and they were like this is really painful, mom, like this is really painful. And I'm like, no, you don't understand. Like I listened to this song all the time but how much I forgot about that song and then just hearing that song brought me back to Samantha Fox and all of this stuff.
Speaker 1:Oh, my god, I haven't heard this stuff forever, oh wow.
Speaker 2:Stacey. Oh my god, two of Hearts. Oh, like I think we're alone now. Yeah, all these great. Oh my god, did she do anything, isn't?
Speaker 1:she just one hit one.
Speaker 2:That was it. She dropped that single and is nowhere to be found.
Speaker 1:And damn it. That was you have to watch the video.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, I loved her.
Speaker 1:He looks like she's 14 years old, like she could be, though I don't know she could be.
Speaker 2:But I like that. That. That was fun too. The 80s I mean aside. She was young, but that's Belinda Carlisle.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Go-go's and all these girls. Oh my god, oh my god, these kids are truly going to be listening to that. What Whoa.
Speaker 1:Like you're not allowed to talk to a net for music junkies anymore. She was bringing up some stuff that I want to listen to dad, OK.
Speaker 2:Memories, memories. Oh my god, that's great. I forgot about that song.
Speaker 1:That's exactly how I felt. I'm like oh my god, I have to listen to this song 30 times now for the next couple of months.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah. And I got that Amazon thing in the kitchen so I can just blast it there while I figure out what I'm going to feed them. Yes, that's right, I don't know what we're eating, but I know what we're listening to. Yes, we're listening to this. Oh, samantha Fox too, I know.
Speaker 1:I actually am talking to her publicist right now just to try to get her on the show, because I had Rob Booland on the show. Do you know who that is? He wrote Rock Me On my Dales. Oh wow, look at that. And so he remembers like he wrote some songs for Samantha Fox. So I'm like, oh my god, when I was in grade seven I did a lip sync to the whole entire school To the song Touch Me and you couldn't do that back then.
Speaker 2:You couldn't do that now.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, you've been so much trouble and I'm like, oh my god, I got to get Samantha Fox on this show just for I can tell her Right Now she'd be like oh my god, you can never do that now.
Speaker 2:But yeah, oh yeah, she was great. Oh, good luck with that. She did stuff with Full Force too. I think they started writing stuff for her. She was super sexy. Yeah, I remember her. Oh yeah, oh, she was. I really hope. I'm begging you to get that. I'm listening as soon as that comes out. Good luck, keep talking to that publicist.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's awesome, I love it All. Right next song you will know.
Speaker 2:Ah, black Men, black Men, you Lied. It's not a real group, but for one song I think it's on the Jason's Lyric soundtrack they all got together and did this song and it is an affirmation for Black Men Life is tough, you will struggle, it's a beautiful song. A lot of my favorite artists are on that song, you know. It's reminiscent in the 80s, I think it's the 90s, so remember when everybody would get together, we are the world, or this is Christmas, and we said all these great everybody get together and let's just do a song. And it's amazing and it's all the great artists of that time. It is one of my favorite songs. It's you know I'm low or something and struggle. I'm trying to get something going. It's very, very affirmational. It's very positive that it understands the struggle and it's really, really a good song. And Jason's Lyric's a really good movie too. It fits, but it's a lot of those Black, young, black male artists singing about positivity. So that's why I love that song.
Speaker 1:Do you enjoy? Like, do you like NWA? Like, did you grew up with MW? Like did you like oh yeah, I grew up with it?
Speaker 2:But I didn't really connect with Gangster app. I'm a New Yorker so you know Biggie's one of my favorite artists, so Big Daddy Kane, and eventually Jay-Z and Nas and stuff. So that music was there. I saw it, but I didn't. I don't think I love my music aggressive. I guess I'm a lover, not a fighter when it comes to my music. So what they were talking about and it's because of my experience I didn't have that experience. I grew up in this, you know middle class, so I didn't. So when NWA they were talking about that experience of the fuck, the police and you know police brutality and drugs and all this stuff that was happening. So I could appreciate the music but it didn't connect with me because at that time I wasn't going through it. I understand now what they were talking about, yeah, but for me it was just the artists around me While I lived in Long Island Biggie's Brooklyn, jay-z's Brooklyn, big Daddy Kane is around, heavy D all these artists are around, so I liked them but it wasn't like the stuff I listened to, not yet.
Speaker 1:I asked that question because in Canada obviously it was hard to get albums like that, like we would get them like bootlegs, so like Ice Tea, cop Killer, like stuff like that. Like we craved that stuff. We fell in love with that stuff because we couldn't get that stuff. So it was almost like we did anything that we could to get it and then we listened to it and then it was like cool to listen to, right.
Speaker 2:So, obviously, being in New York, I guess the US compared to Canada, right, it's?
Speaker 1:like you guys get access to a lot more stuff. Then we have to wait 20 years later to oh wow. No, I'm not saying it's that bad.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. You got no, I'm never to me we better chips than we do.
Speaker 1:You know, let's be honest, 75 different kinds of Oreos yeah, I know we get the same one. So I'm just always curious, if you know lots of people listen to that, because it was just like whatever. Here we were like what that's an X-rated, you know? Yeah, that started a whole thing I had to do this it reminds me of.
Speaker 2:you know, back then, before you could just get music digitally, like, tuesday was the release date for the music, so that Tuesday morning if there's that artist you've been waiting for and, excuse me, that cassette or that CD eventually came out. You got to be earlier. You had to, where you live, you have to find your record store or your store to pick up that cassette or that music to listen to. And it was just that used to be a big deal that, before you know, eventually we had Sam Goody and all these places where you could get music. But it was your mom and pop spot that had the cassettes, that had the CDs and you know all that stuff, great music, like. I bought my cassettes and the first thing I did was open a plastic. I didn't play it, I took that record. I loved looking through the liner notes. I wanted to see the lyrics, I wanted to see all that stuff. But it's obviously changed. It is a lot different now but a lot of those memories, that's my favorite part.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love lyrics. I love seeing who wrote it. I love the sample. You know that of course that comes back, but I like to see where that stuff came from. And it's so different. Now that the album is just out I press a button. I'm not even really paying for it, I just pay a monthly fee for some service that plays it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's different, it's very different, because I and, of course, learning the lyrics right.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm Yep.
Speaker 1:Nowadays, I don't know if you really have to learn the lyrics. Like there's not a lot of you know, yeah, like it's not the same as how it was where you were really learning the lyrics. And now it's like, uh, whatever, and you're just like it comes up on your screen.
Speaker 2:If you listen to it using whatever, you can just put the lyrics up and you're like, oh, and I do that with songs that I thought I knew and I'm like that's what you're saying. I was off, terribly off the song. Now it doesn't mean the same that you used to.
Speaker 1:What song? What song would you say that you thought it went this way and it was another way?
Speaker 2:Um, oh, wait a minute. What's the name of it?
Speaker 1:It was one, oh God, um what about like free, like Tom Petty, free falling. Did you say any different? Just be comical like instead of free falling, did you?
Speaker 2:free. I tree ballin, but that was like a frapping. I'm sure I said that at some point. Um, baby got back was one that I thought I knew. I don't remember what I thought, but then some lyric came up and changed something for me. Um, not Michael, I always had that down Phil Collins, susie studio. I thought I knew what that was. Some stuff changed Um, it's not an 80s one, but um, the song is the hook. Who is the band? Um, I forgot the name of the band. Big guy who played to her Monica, and that's terrible. They might even be Canadian, for all I know. The whole brings you back. Oh my God, I had absolutely no idea what the hell that song was about.
Speaker 2:I used to just say the hook will bring you back. And I would just hum the rest of it and didn't realize that the song was basically saying that the only reason you like this song is because of the hook. I can say whatever hell else I want throughout the song, but the hook brings you back. I'm upset that I don't remember the name of the band, but you will, yes. It's as soon as we're done, it'll come.
Speaker 1:So we're going to be on your last song, but before I go there I want you just to kind of share a little bit about, you know, both of your podcasts your podcast with your wife and then obviously, the one that you're doing solo. How did they get started? Where can we find them?
Speaker 2:So the first podcast, love is black. During COVID, when we couldn't leave the house, we had always said we were going to, we should do a podcast. Then we're like, well, we're home, can't go anywhere, let's do the podcast. So we started doing the podcast. We have divergent opinions on a lot of things politics, religion, whatever stuff so let's just turn on a live mic and talk. We are five seasons into that podcast now.
Speaker 2:First season was just our relationship, how we got together and the reason we did it. One we love their conversations. But two, neither one of us liked the way black love is perceived in movies, in song, in TV shows, and we wanted to show love in a positive light. Black love is no different than any other, but it's always something ridiculous involved and black love is good. So that's what we did. That first season was just us. Second season, we brought couples in. It's a whole season of couples telling us about how they met, about their struggles, their ups and downs and all that, and it's just good love. And then we kept growing up. Threes and threes season just more love than in couples. We are in season five right now.
Speaker 2:We are writing a love story together. We have two characters. She's writing with the woman. I'm writing the guy every week a different chapter. She writes one, then I write one and she writes one, and that's what we're doing. So as we record, we're like 15 chapters in. It's going to be a long book and it's just a good black love story. While doing that, I'm like I like this podcast thing. I want to do my own.
Speaker 2:I started Men Are the Prize, a podcast for men, because men aren't made to be open and expressive of emotions. I wanted to create a space for men to be able to talk about anything. Let's just talk, because I would see men, we commit suicide at a much higher rate, we have depression, we struggle, we are the killers, we are all these negative things that are talked about. Men, I just just a space, just talk about whatever, and it leads to a lot better dealing with situations, dealing with life. I am about to season three starts January 1st, so I'm getting to that season and we're talking about fatherhood, we're talking about vulnerability, we're talking about everything, and the really most important thing is talking. I almost don't care what you're telling me, I'm just happy you're talking, and that's what I created it for. So Men Are the Prize, which is my baby, and I love talking to men, so it's the. It's a wonderful thing.
Speaker 2:If you want to listen to Love Is Black, you can go to LoveIsBlackPodcastcom. That's my website for me and my wife, kareece. If you want to listen or watch Men Are the Prize, you can go to my website that is HarveyLaguercom. So H-A-R-V-E-Y-L-A-G-U-E-R-R-Ecom and you can watch the first two seasons. Season three is coming out soon. Social media just Men Are the Prize. You'll find me That'll. That's pretty much me for everything, but that's that's the podcasting with the wife, which is just great, but the podcast I talk with men, that's a special place in my heart. I'm here to help men be more positive, to be go open, emotional, vulnerable and no matter how I get people to do it, just talk and we have fun.
Speaker 1:So thank you so much for allowing me to tell you about that, yeah, for sure, and we'll make sure that we put all of your websites and your social media link it to the podcast as well.
Speaker 2:And then, anytime you have stuff new, we'll put it out. I love it, so appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much All right, we're on your last song, Are you ready?
Speaker 2:Oh yes.
Speaker 1:Interesting ending song for you I can't it is.
Speaker 2:It almost fits. It almost seems like it kind of fits, doesn't it Like? Our relationship has come to an end. I know I'm sad. Now I know Bonnie Raitt is so incredibly underrated, underappreciated and we were talking about opening up that cassette and looking at the lyrics. Is there a more heartbreaking song I don't think so Than this. Oh, I love her voice Obviously blues. Her dad was blues and it's so good. It's such a great song.
Speaker 2:I love this song and George Micro covered it. I love his version too. I don't know if I love. I don't know what happened if I was going through some shit. I don't know if something happened. Maybe that's why the song stuck. But it's an beautiful song. It really is. It's emotional. I love a good love song. This is the end of love song, but it's powerful and she really can sing and you can feel it with every note. I think I actually like George Micro's version a little bit better, but I tend to be more loving the originator. But I love Bonnie Raitt. I love Bonnie Raitt and I love this song and several people have covered it. But it's just. I like the original and I like George Micro doing it and it's like it's on, I can't. I don't cry about stuff, but if I did George Micro's version like it feels like the relationship is ending right now, like he's just making that final.
Speaker 2:You just break up with me, like right now I know, like it's over right now, and I had like eight minutes and I wrote a song about it Like it's it's rough you didn't even give me a chance. I know, not a chance. Oh, turn out the lights like, just yeah, just go.
Speaker 1:It's a beautiful song, though, great Thank you so much, harvey, for joining us today on Music Junkies. I had so much fun with you, right? I love I don't get to talk about the 80s very much Like and I love the. My friends know I love the 80s too, so I love. It's always nice to find somebody that loves the 80s and can appreciate the 80s. I loved how you're open and honest and raw about your stories and I just appreciate that. So thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me, and you know when it's time to talk about the 80s again, you know where to find me. We can do this again, so I appreciate you giving me some time. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:You're very, very welcome.