Good Old Boys | Revisionist History | Malcolm Gladwell

[@cae02]

Cavett is great; how Jim Brown handled himself, impressive.... Thanks Malcolm for enlightening us to this music and song writer

[@SunnyDayStyle1]

Malcolm - As you recounted a fan in Santa Monica telling you - "I love what you do, Bro!"... I wholeheartedly agree. You bring insights into the smallest details that always give me delight. Thanks for what you do.

[@papimimi5469]

This series should become a junior/high school sosial studies class.

[@TheJonCarrollMusic]

That so many are unaware of the brilliance and lusciously copious catalogue of Newman is lamentably consistent with our atavistic cultural regression. This is a spot on exposè and celebration. So many “went in dumb, come out dumb too”. Alas.

[@MrGreenWhiteRedTulip]

What

[@libraryanne2392]

Many years ago, the debate raged on about whether or not the University of Western Ontario should let Anne Coulter speak on campus despite angry protests to the contrary. Our library science class took on this topic framed as thus: censorship versus freedom of speech in the context of the role of the library in the community. There were strong opinions on both sides and I'm not even sure if the question was fully resolved. I do remember my take being to let her speak because otherwise evil thrives in the shadows. Give them an audience. Shine the light. Let people see what we are up against. This is why Dick Cavett invited Lester Maddox onto his show.

[@R005t3r]

Thank you! "You can't not play it, just because it makes you uncomfortable." Because that is the impetus for change.

[@tomfielden2153]

I love this series.

[@solreinecke6084]

May true artists always take us on a trip beneath the ripples of reality, so that we can gaze upwards and have perspective.

[@davidwilkie9551]

"Separate but equal". Unique in uniqueness, from a singular continuous, unique origin. Absolutely True.

[@willmpet]

I saw Randy Newm an live and he sang “Sail Away”. I can still remember his song, Political Science.

[@MizzyLQ]

In the '70s, I loved the Sail Away album and played it often. One of my closest friends, a black man, got SO angry with me when he heard the title song. I said to him, "This is satire." It was something he usually loved and appreciated. "Why don't you recognize it here?" He couldn't answer. I didn't understand and still don't, but I've seen it many times, over the years. People often become blind to satire when the subject hits too close to home. It's been most noticable to me when friends become parents. Jokes they once got are no longer funny. I often wonder if my friend would have heard that song differently if a black person had written and recorded it.

[@SurferJoe1]

That's a fascinating observation.

[@jimiverson3085]

You're lucky you didn't play "Political Science" for that friend.

[@MizzyLQ]

He totally got "Political Science."

[@youngatheart7106]

It just makes me cry.

[@usaturnuranus]

​@@youngatheart7106Yep. Here we are, still sadly facing storm clouds from the past that should have cleared up eons ago. History evidently repeats itself even if one knows the story.

[@cherylcarlson3315]

When Randy's songs came out, I only had pocket radio. Loved the sound and only got maybe 1/3 the meaning. Feel stupid now

[@noturdaddyblameyomomma8354]

You never disappoint Malcolm. Keep up the good work!

[@Edo9River]

Maddox was so representative of the Southern culture of the 1950-60s. The Southern Silent Majority was there in the background

[@lostcat9lives322]

What's changed?

[@MrWhit30]

Great irony and sarcasm often goes right over the heads of its target, esp if theres a catchy chorus.

[@Edo9River]

this song reminds me of some of the dozen of characters created by Joni MItchel

[@nathanngumi8467]

Very interesting tale!

[@naftalibendavid]

Art that makes you uncomfortable…we don’t do that anymore.

[@jimmynickles828]

You….um.!.said…..”n…”. You can’t talk about Sail Away without mentioning the Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee version- absolute gold!!

[@James-cz5hf]

Here in the south, the Lester Maddoxes still rule. They look a little different with 3 toes and breasts, but there they are saying the same thing, "Wanna fight about it?" That's really all they ever say.😢

[@TisDana]

He actually sounds more lucid than Qaron.

[@timcikra4186]

Amazing insight into the america I grew in. Shame on them. Thanks.

[@mustbtrouble]

I just keep hearing south parks “ fatty doo Oo” parody

[@willmpet]

I loved Jim Brown, who had a rule put into Lacrosse that Lacrosse sticks had to be 40” long. The Twin Cities Lacrosse Club was terrible but good. He ran for the Cleveland Browns and Syracuse University. A mother wrote to the school where her son went to school “I don’t want to complain about my son saying that to him, we don’t talk that way in our family, what I want to know is how a fifth grader hit him so hard that he had to stay home from school for a week.”

[@Edo9River]

Why did Dick let Lester get control of the conversation? That was poor preparation by Dick"s staff. Dick,'s hackles were raised by one audience member, how crass.

[@murrayscott3513]

I wonder if that was the first time the mainstream heard that cockroachs would out last homosapians on the planet?

[@bobhoward5002]

Wow.

[@csrouse33]

You guys!

[@SurferJoe1]

I just watched a video about the recent censorship of a scene from "The French Connection" in which Gene Hackman's character, a corrupt cop, uses the ultimate epithet. So are we making Popeye Doyle a role model?

[@brucestaples4510]

If memory serves me, he wasn't corrupt...quite the contrary.

[@tonyballz9023]

Great stuff. A lot of Randy Newman documentaries tend to gloss over Good Old Boys and Sail Away because they deal with uncomfortable subjects but they're obviously his best work. Strangely enough, Linda Ronstadt's cover of Sail Away leaves in the "little wog" line. Maybe if Linda actually knew what the word meant she would have changed it.

[@dexstewart2450]

She knew...

[@L33PL4Y]

Awfully mean-spiritedly presumptuous to assume she didn't know. What makes you think she didn't, that she's a woman...?

[@Splinter8859]

Great podcast.