#237. 'The Greatest Night in Pop'
Listen to this episode ↗on Substack, where the show lives now
All three hosts turn to The Greatest Night in Pop (2024), the Netflix documentary about the making of "We Are the World," with Sonny leading the praise — he calls its 96-minute runtime exactly right and singles out the early scenes of Lionel Richie recounting Michael Jackson stories (including the moment Jackson's pet snake "meets" Richie) as laugh-out-loud funny, while wishing more voices in the film (like Bruce Springsteen's) had openly admitted the song itself isn't very good. JVL agrees it's the rare Netflix release that's exactly the right length, and argues Quincy Jones is the movie's secret main character — a George Clooney-on-Ocean's-Eleven-style alpha who combines an artist's ear with an organizer's brain to wrangle forty gigantic egos — while also praising the film for playing the infamous Stevie Wonder/Swahili/Waylon Jennings incident as comedy rather than an indictment, since the whole room (not just Jennings) quickly realizes the idea is a bad one. Mike is more mixed, admitting he was bored through the first third's songwriting build-up but loved the "pressure cooker" recording-night section once the AMA-fresh, visibly sweaty and occasionally drunk (RIP Al Jarreau) stars show up; all three agree Huey Lewis has aged best of anyone in the new interviews. Before getting to the film, the trio spends a long chunk of the opener on Super Bowl ad and trailer chatter — JVL geeks out over the new Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire trailer's robotic "infinity gauntlet" Kong and stumps for the extended five-minute Dunkin' Donuts ad starring a washed-up, JLo-obsessed Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as an unheralded comic masterpiece, which Mike flatly says didn't work for him; there's also talk of the new Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes trailer, a historically dismal box office weekend led by Argylle's 64% drop, and previews of the already-infamous Madame Web. Sonny recaps an uneventful jury-duty dismissal and a long, winding tangent about a rabies-free but possibly leprous armadillo in his yard that spirals into an extended bit about leper colonies, while Mike works through a saga about benching a well-meaning but under-disciplined Little League coach for his son's spring team. The episode closes with a rapid-fire round on favorite We Are the World parodies, landing on the SNL "Whitewater" musicians sketch and 30 Rock's "Kidney Now."
From the show notes
Lion-el, you gotta hold Bubbles, Lion-el!
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00We just thought we'd pull together as many artists as we could and figure it out It was just a wish list said yes without knowing who was gonna be on it Bob Dylan Stevie Wonder Paul Simon Cindy Lauper at Midler Billy Joel Steve Perry Willie Nelson Take me up Tina Sheila eat Diana Ross Everybody was there
Mike00:00:30Welcome to the sub beacon podcast. I am your co-host Mike Warren. It's already lit tonight And as always I am joined by my two co-hosts Who know that we are the world and we are the children and we are the ones who make a brighter day So let's start giving and brighter day Sonny Bunch and Jonathan V last. It's also brighter day I'm looking at the lyric sheet right now sunny Join us over at sub beacon.com where you can become a patron tell your friends and family that they can leave a comment get those episodes every Friday and bonus episodes on Mondays over at sub beacon comm only at sub beacon Comm we are going to be talking about what is the name of this movie the greatest night and pop Greatest night and pop the greatest night in pop terror later later in the show Terrible name it is a terrible name, but we're not talking about it yet because we got to talk about About what's going on in your world JVL? Let's let's start with you. You got stuff you want to talk about
JVL00:01:37Yeah, Super Bowl. I want to talk about the movies. We were previewed during the Super Bowl because g-money G-money caught the kong-x rise of the new empire. Yeah, this is his Citizen Kane He is boy is he excited to see this is this in awful is this in a
Mike00:01:57in a franchise that
JVL00:02:00Already exists is this in the existing Kong franchise? Look Congress Godzilla. I mean they they turn so Godzilla gets red powers now Which seems cool? There is a giant red King Kong who uses a whip made of Bones maybe the whip is a spinal cord how the spinal does the the vertebrae are held together without the cord Don't matter But what's important is that they've made? an infinity gauntlet for King Kong and When when G money saw this like oh the people made conga robot arm He was he was into it
Sonny00:02:43So do we think do we think that Kong has like an a replacement robot arm or is it a glove that he puts?
JVL00:02:50No, it's a gauntlet. It is a robotic glove so that he can then It's basically Hellboy right now He has one fist That's made of you know, the right hand of God that he just punched things so hard Punch them so hard and as they say in the in the voiceover on this trailer one character says, you know Calling a Godzilla. They still don't like each other Yes, they don't have to like each other. They just have to work together. I was like, it's a buddy cop movie We've turned Godzilla and King Kong into Murtaugh and rigs and I am here for it Let's just go all the way. I hope in the next installment They develop language and they start talking to each other and for the first 15 minutes. It's subtitled But then by like minute 20 like in hunt for red October the music swells and when it swells back down They're speaking in languages that we can understand. I
Mike00:03:51was going to make a reference to another buddy cop comedy and then I realized like It's too problematic to make
JVL00:03:59That any which way but loose that wasn't where I was going that wasn't where I was going all right now
Mike00:04:06I agree with so well speaking of apes. There was also the I don't We're moving on we're moving on I'll talk to getting Michael canceled yeah exactly uh he's got a family to feed exactly But speaking of apes there's there was a there was a new planet of the apes movie trailer that that Erred during the Super Bowl right there was what was it? What's that one? It's the kingdom or kingdom of the apes so like or is it just kingdom of the apes it's those kingdom of the planet of the apes you got to have Planet of the apes there and in my wife like turned to look at me was like What wait there's another one? She had actually been completely unaware of the reboot of the planet of the apes franchise she missed the trilogy Yeah, I mean three of them she had like little children at the time so I can understand why she missed it, but yeah, she She didn't even realize that but like this is like A much more I don't know what you guys think about this like new trilogy. It's but it's like so much more It's it's more serious less campy than the original, but I do feel like we're gonna look back in like
JVL00:05:13Remember there was a there's one between the original. I know that's this one the timber timber one Oh, yeah with sexy monkey Helena Bonham Carter. Yeah, I
Mike00:05:25Just I just want them to make the Planet of the Apes musical From the Simpsons, but all of us dr. Zayas dr. Zayas dr. Zayas doctor
JVL00:05:36That could I play the piano That might be the single best 30 seconds. It's so great in all of the Simpsons
Mike00:05:46Because it's working on four different levels from chimpanzee to chimpanzee
Sonny00:05:59It was We have a we have like a fake Planet of the Apes musical poster in the other room in there. We have like a you know, it's like a
JVL00:06:15What I do want to talk about though was the the dunking the Dunkin Donuts Dunkin's ad which was just sort of weird But there is a five-minute extended cut of it on online and Might be I mean, I think Certainly should be nominated for an Oscar. Mm-hmm. Some might say best short film, but I don't see why it should be constrained by that 2024 is gonna be a down year. It's amazing
Mike00:06:44So let's let's give some context here because I assume everybody who's listening Saw the ad in in real time because it was it was a big hit and but it does you're right It starts in medias res. Yes. It's very jarring and you kind of like can't Quite figure out what's going on. He's in the car with some scruffy looking nerf herder like like he's just like I know She's not gonna let me in Goes in this recording studio. It's the whole thing is like kind of starts weird, right?
JVL00:07:12It is it so when you see the extended version you get the full scope of it that begins with a broken-down divorced probably recovering alcoholic Ben Affleck obsessively watching a videotape of some awards show at which He and Jay back when they were still a couple we're sitting at a table together and somebody is making snarky commentary about him Yeah, it's like probably Melissa Rivers or something and he's just fixating on this He's like the Steve Buscemi character and Billy Madison and he finally decides that he is gonna show JLo And he's he's just like I'm gonna I can dance too And so he he starts he writes his own rap track and he takes that To an engineer and he's it's on a CD It's this moment where he hands it to him and he's like look it's a little rough But also it's finished And every everything about everything we have loved about Ben Affleck and the work he's done in film for the last five years He's on display here. There is a little bit of Phil Knight. There's a little bit of his guy from the duel The prince or whatever his name and it's it just keeps getting better and better and better All the way through I highly recommend it to everybody
Mike00:08:33Okay I take your point JVL and I counter with It kind of sucked What? I didn't like it, but I didn't like the ad everybody loved it and thought it was great I thought it was like I don't like it. It it was it was cringe-worthy I thought the extended version because the 30 second one Did not do anything for me. I just okay. Well to me that the extended version was just like it was like to me it was like zooming out of a Ugly picture and seeing that everything else around it was ugly too. Like it like it. I just didn't I don't find I Find it funny, but I don't find it in the service of like Dunkin Donuts to be that Funny or interesting. I don't know. It's just something about it feel
Sonny00:09:29Offended on the behalf of Dunkin Donuts. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm offended by the fact that
Mike00:09:36Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are like debasing themselves. Oh To sell Dunkin Donuts. I just you know what I I get a fan
JVL00:09:46I could be offended if they were debasing themselves to sell crypto for them to be selling Dunkin Donuts is Perfect because they're from Boston the scene in which he's talking to this This influencer girl who none of us have any idea Who she is. No, no, her name is her name is Charlie D'Amelio But none of us actually know who she is and she has no Idea who he is. Right, right. That's asks him what he does And he's like I used to act and direct in movies and there's This pause. I don't think she says anything. She just gives a little bit of a questioning look And it was a form of entertainment was popular in the late 20th century It was it's it's it's amazing. You see the world weirdness. Everything About this is middle-aged Man left alone in his despair and it's like death of a salesman In five minutes, but with a million times more funny All right there there there it is. Sorry I didn't mean to I didn't mean to I haven't seen it. I haven't
Sonny00:10:45I haven't seen it. So I'm gonna I'm gonna have to watch this after the show. I'll weigh in next week. We can
Mike00:10:49Come back. We'll do more on this next week. I think it'll be returned to it. All right. What do Sonny what's going on up to? Um
Sonny00:10:57What is going on with me? Uh Well, I I had my jury duty. I had my jury duty. Well, but I
JVL00:11:03How many men did you condemn? I got it. I got it. We I went
Sonny00:11:07I it was it was real boring. I just went to the room. I went to a big room And the lady came up to the front of the room, which is like, all right I'm gonna go see if they need any juries for trials and you yelled guilty. She was gone
Mike00:11:19For like we don't do that now. We don't do that now. We have to wait. She was
Sonny00:11:22She was gone for 90 minutes. She came back. She was like, all right, no trials today And I was like, oh what there's no law breakers Anymore and I find that hard to believe this is a big city The big city there's there's probably horse thieves everywhere
JVL00:11:36I see a lot of law breakers, but not a police inside All right. All right. Anyway, uh, that was I'm sorry that you did not get to to feed any hobos to the meat grinder
Sonny00:11:48No, it was a real
Mike00:11:49Disappointing week not today. There's always tomorrow. There's always tomorrow in other texas news
Sonny00:11:55There was an armadillo in my side yard. Oh, I saw this Just hanging out in the middle middle of the day just in the in our yard digging it up And I was like first off aren't you supposed to only come out at night? So does it maybe you have rabies and I looked it up turns out armadillos They can get rabies very rare very rare much more likely that the armadillo has leprosy. Yep. Could you yes leave that? Leprosy is not great. You don't want to get leprosy. I I mean, I think it's I think you can cure that but I actually came up. I mean look i'm not gonna lie. I shoot it I started thinking about it and I was like well Is leprosy really that bad? I could go to one of those leper colonies
Mike00:12:35You never have to see there never have to see another person for the rest of my days
Sonny00:12:38I would never have is do they still have leper colonies? Are you still like if you get leprosy?
Mike00:12:43Do you go live in like hawaii somewhere where there are the leper there is an island in hawaii that was a leper colony
Sonny00:12:50Right molokai. Yeah, those are the that's the only leper colony. I know I assume that there are others in other places but like Like how does that actually work to me?
Mike00:12:59Developed that or more productive real estate uses so though the story with molokai is that it was It was protected from development because of its reputation as a leper colony, but it's not a leper colony But it's it's like basically the people who live there now are like don't bring the Don't bring the development. So it is essentially like a leper colony. You would love it. So you should go are
Sonny00:13:25Is leprosy like is leprosy like nuclear waste? Like when you die are there big pits like full of leprosy and you just don't go near him like I don't like I think
JVL00:13:35biblical times that was the case when there was No, I have a lot of questions. Did you kill the armadillo or not?
Sonny00:13:43No, I stuck my hand in there and tried to get bit What because I want to I want to go to the colony
Mike00:13:48That's I just want to live there from now on you don't need the leprosy to go to the colony Just just go just I could just go live in the left fake it
Sonny00:13:55You just tell them do I have to like put a bandana on like uh, don't look At me i'm rotting away under here. Have you seen
JVL00:14:02That you really have leprosy they assume that if you show up at the colony That you're in you don't need to don't worry about that
Sonny00:14:10I feel like I feel like they probably I feel like there are probably Pretty strict checks on this sort of thing. You don't want to you don't want to have some sort of gold They don't want some gold bricker showing up and Taking up space for the lepers Do you have to carry your own weight at the leper colony? Are do you like are there tasks? Here's the thing
Mike00:14:28If you yeah Even if you're a leper Even if you don't have leprosy and you show up at the leper colony you're getting leprosy
Sonny00:14:34So it's I don't even under I don't even really know how you catch leprosy I assume it's like skin-to-skin contact. Is that how you get it? I like it's not airborne. Is it no, but it's like
Mike00:14:44it's extremely contagious and
Sonny00:14:46This is what i'm talking about. Is there a big pit full of leprosy? No, but it's a it's they just throw all the bodies in there and light them on fire
Mike00:14:54I don't like is it like a zombie apocalypse? So so I believe it's a back. I believe it's a bacteria bacterial infection and um, it's it's like pretty it's pretty uh Easily treated. I mean, I'm sorry. It's it's easily. Um, uh transmitted. Um Uh, but i'm looking at wikipedia to see if I can learn did you pull up leprosy on webmd? No on wikipedia No on next door Ah, you know what? It says leprosy is not highly contagious. Look at that. See you're just full of you're just full of myths and Leper colonies still occur in some areas of india china the african continent and thailand thailand sunny. There you go
Sonny00:15:36I could go. I could go to thailand, huh?
Mike00:15:39You and michael jackson lady boys
Sonny00:15:43um
Mike00:15:44Wait, wait, we gotta talk about me. We gotta talk about me
Sonny00:15:48That was it was I was rolling after after that happened in the movie we'll get to that we'll get to
Mike00:15:59Michael, how are you? Uh, i'm fine. I don't this is this is a kind of lively. Uh dudes chatting, but I so I don't want you to bring things down Jesus No, but I I did have a problem like i've already i've already executed the plan So i'm not really asking for advice, but maybe for sort of an after action you're asking for absolution
Sonny00:16:22That's always the best idea. You just do it And then you you go to the priest and you're like I did it and i'm telling
Mike00:16:29You it's it's ah, so i'm sorry. So I hinted at this off air last week, but We had so we're getting ready for the spring season for little league and um, so some context i'm going to be coaching my almost six-year-old again, um My the guy I coached with a year ago. We're going to do it again. We're doing coach bitch. Um, so that's exciting That's fun So i'm back in on the coaching side of things but I always stay in the younger side because i'm not a good Baseball player and like it's I just want to be helpful and a helpful dad, but i'm i'm not very athletic So, um, I just help at that lower level At the upper level for my nine-year-old. Um They he was at last sunday two sundays ago, uh his evaluations for now that he's at Basically, it's all it is is they go to the gym, uh at the school down the street and they do um, they take some catches and throw them back Uh, and they run They see how fast they can run and they swing the bat. Um, take a few take a few hits off the tee Um, but you know, they want to see like, okay, if there's one kid who's throwing heat, you know, there's there's Six kids who are throwing heat make sure to distribute them to all the teams even And to determine okay, that's a 10. That's a that's a 10 year old who definitely Should or sorry That's like a nine-year-old who definitely should be playing triple a Or that's a nine-year-old who can who should play another season question that sort of thing question. Yeah, go ahead
JVL00:18:08Isn't that really the responsibility of the coaching staff and general manager for each team? Because if they can't do talent evaluation and make sure that they pick one of those six kids for their team And they just they make a dumb they pick some replacement level player With their their number one Overall pick so that one of the other teams winds up with two of the great players Well, isn't that just life? Isn't that how you start teaching the kids lessons now? I don't that's the failure of management. That's gonna happen. But see some teams are the oakland days and i'm sorry
Mike00:18:43But all the coaches are there so they're all making the decisions So, I don't know. I like what do you want me to do? What do you want me? What do you want me to tell you? Um, they do it this way, right? Um, we want you to do it, right?
Sonny00:18:55Okay, well i'm not an agent of change you can't just can't just Float through life. Oh saying like oh I lost to the chili. That's no no fucking indian restaurant And is it chili? Oh The kids are getting deportioned in Sorry, I wasn't really paying attention to your baseball draft story. Oh, I I know you weren't um
Mike00:19:17No, but I did I am trying to be the change So but I happen to see a member of the little league board and i'm gonna try to be careful here to not like Reveal just I don't know who listens to this show. Um, but the One of the members of the literally board people. Um Who I said I said, hey, listen, um for the fall ball you Because he he ran the coaches in the in the fall Um, I said you said you were going to send out chance to evaluate coaches But you didn't and he was like, oh just email me Like if you have thoughts or there's a problem or an issue just email so I agonized over this email but we had a we had an issue with nine-year-olds team in the fall, which was very nice coach and assistant coach very very nice people and they were Very encouraging for the kids, which is great. You want people to be encouraging? Yeah, but but This was a team of like mostly players who had been at the at the Machine pitch level so they had moved up to the minor leagues To the double-a in the fall and my son had already done a spring season of double-a and I would say that the Attitude and approach of the coaches on this team Was not Commensurate with the level of play in which they were there was a little too much encouragement and not enough like Discipline in the dugout and making sure that the kids were like learning the skills they need to do and you know, there were there were Let me give you a sense of what the coaching was like in a game as a player is up to bat Okay from the coach, you know by the dugout Brandon get on the damn bag. No, no the extent of the coaching to kids who were up at the plate
Guest00:21:26generally went like Come on You can do it You got it You got this come on
Mike00:21:36Betting on you too. Yeah, a couple not to be fair a couple times There was you know, like hey, you gotta adjust this that or the other but it was really the exception not the rule and the discipline like in the dugout the knowledge of the rules of the double and everything about it was like it felt like a step backward in terms of both Development, which is fine. Like my my son is not gonna be like a Major League Baseball player. I'm a Thousand percent fine with that. I never thought that that would be the case. I just wanted to have fun I want him to get better every season and And I want him to like understand that like like, you know Success is about you know It's about improving from where you were and trying your best And I did not feel that this coach is that success?
Sonny00:22:35Success is success Okay, I mean I'm just I mean I'm just talking about definitions of words here
Mike00:22:45so I wanted to make clear point one that I Was not thrilled with this coach and I didn't want to make like a big thing about how like I think is a nice guy I really Generally think that I just didn't think it was like I didn't think it worked and I see even suggested I said like, you know, maybe some more like guidelines or resources for like structure of practices and you know emphasizing that like it's important to know the rules of like of Double-a when you're coaching double-a
Sonny00:23:22I'm sorry. Can we pause for a second keep referring to likes double-a mine? Like are these the names?
Mike00:23:29Of the the various let you the various levels in little league So like double-a is the lowest minor league level. It's it's which is to say it's the lowest kid pitch level Okay, so there is a big jump between machine pitch to kid pitch in terms of getting hit But it's just like in terms of okay now like we're out of the little kid Baseball, you know that starts at t-ball and then there's coach fish and then there's machine pitch which is kind Of a transition and then you're really in like, okay. Now the kids are pitching now. We're sort of getting into things like if that's the first level where this where the the score book is kept and there's a pitch count and These sort of things and it's and it's on strikeouts exactly and so it's all important to like No, like you're moving up levels and everything, you know Anyway, the point is is in the spring before we had A terrific coach that we had had before who struck the perfect balance of like taking it seriously but not taking it too seriously like this is the problem like you have coaches who take things way too seriously and are like Yelling at kids and it's not fun and kids and coaches who don't take it seriously enough And so we love that level and so to have this kind of setback In the fall was very frustrating So I just said, okay I think like he like he could use some more because I know he's going to be coaching in the spring and Then I sort of had to gently be like oh and by the way, I'd really like for my son not to be on his team in the spring and The response I got back was thanks so much for sharing this I can share this with the coaching coordinator I can put a note on his registration, but it's possible It's very possible the coach that you don't want to be on will see this and I had to make it it do you want me to put this note on his registration and And so I I I made the decision and and I said, yeah, go ahead put it on there. What yeah She that's cold hard core you think that's harsh
Guest00:25:43little
Sonny00:25:45Well, it's done is done. I don't know man. I think it's Boy, if he didn't want to get feedback, he shouldn't have been a coach I guess he's put it that way because that's the you know, nobody wants to be a coach
Mike00:25:59Nobody will drag wound into it. This is my this is my this is my conflicted feeling which is like it's an all volunteer League like you want to encourage people but here's the here's the Here's the catch in all this and the reason I felt like you know what I'm gonna say something So that that great coach that we've had that was lose the street I noticed he wasn't at evaluations. Um, he's a terrific coach. She's he's awesome And I texted him say and knows you weren't into valuations. I said, what do you think I should do? and he said he wrote back and said I think you should say something like every other parent is like trying to Manipulate the system to make it work for their kid. Like you should too. He said but I'm not coaching and I wanted to coach but I'm not coaching this this season Which is like shocking like I can't like like this is like exactly everything you want and a little league coach and they just didn't have room for and it's at that point I was like, okay if that guy is not coaching like The little league needs to like be aware that like parents are not happy with like the way things are going With certain coaches and anyway, so I felt like justified and being like well this other coach in a couple of years
JVL00:27:15He's gonna be telling his pitchers to headhunt your kid probably whenever you come up against them like oh, yeah
Mike00:27:21I was too positive for Jimmy, but the thing is is like I am by far the least of the baseball dads, you know Who are like like there are people who like out there in the offseason the batting cages up at that like working with their kids Like I know who they are in there. They're insane and like I don't care about any of that I don't care if like if where this goes. I just want I'm spending money For him to play like I want it to be I want him to have a good experience all around so I
JVL00:27:53Did what I did sound off in the comments if you think I did that's that's take their kids to the batting cages And the offseason are psychotic no no no I'm talking about screaming at
Mike00:28:05Screaming at the kids in the in the in the batting so
JVL00:28:09box office I'll do eight eight million dollars. We should we should we talk about office?
Sonny00:28:16I think it's the worst box office in history literally and recorded history like non-pandemic Are you sure one of like not including? Yeah, not including the pandemic, but like like cuz Argyle's number one of just a regular week's releases like It's it's one of the lowest Box office weekends of all time. So I like there's not there's not really a whole lot
Mike00:28:39So it's our girls our guy Argyle's now at 22 million dollars
Sonny00:28:43Argyle drops six Argyle drops 64 percent. It's at six point two million for the weekend So that's a big drop. It's it's it's a big drop, but it didn't have very far to drop because it didn't open you know very big it just At least a Frankenstein, you know the the new Diablo Cody movie. Yeah, that's number two It's a disaster. How was madam webb? Well that comes out Well that came out on thing Thanksgiving that came out on Valentine's Day And it it's first weekend will be this weekend. It's one of the worst movies I've ever seen Are we gonna do an episode on it? We should we should maybe do an episode on it. It's so bad
JVL00:29:26I think we should yeah, I think we should see it. I mean next For next week didn't Dakota Johnson fire her
Sonny00:29:33Manager agent. Yes, she fired her because of this moment. Well, apparently Apparently all of the all of the women the lead women, you know, so Sydney Sweeney is also in this movie barely It's such a bizarre move. We'll talk about it more last week next week, but apparently all of the women in this movie were under the Assumption that they were in an MCU movie And this is not an MCU movie. This is a this is a Sony/Marvel partnership so but so
Mike00:30:03At what point did they realize what at what point in production did they realize?
Sonny00:30:09that the Spider-Man movies have always been a little bit weird because like You know the spider-man is the rights to spider-man are held by Sony Sony and and Marvel slash Disney have a deal that allows Marvel to use spider-man in some movies and spider-man has MCU Characters coming over and like remember no way home had the whole doctor strange thing mm-hmm So they have it they have a partnership there and the the still like broader spider verse movies my understanding is That Kevin Feige hates them and wishes that that studio would fall into the ocean Never to rise again because he's tired of having to that's like their dumb fire That's like an in carnage and all that venom and venom - and Morbius and now madam webb and then
Mike00:30:58there's a Craven the hunter coming later in them and these are not in the
Sonny00:31:04X-Men Deadpool universe correct no that that's and so X-Men and Deadpool That that was a 20th Century Fox Project so the anyway the the the It's bad, it's well, maybe we'll do it next week, but it's it's bad on every level. It's just so bad It's one of the worst movies I've ever seen on it on of just a very straightforward Storytelling level it's one of the worst movies I've ever seen but like on top of everything else You know it's trying to like so he keeps making these spider-man universe movies without spider-man in them at all and like I don't Understand what they're doing because I hate to break it to them but venom and madam webb and Morbius and Craven the last hunter these are characters that only make sense in the context of spider-man question literally only make context makes sense In the context of being his villain question yeah in these in this
Mike00:32:05Universe of movies yeah, even though spider-man is not in them Who is the hypothetical spider-man is it the Tom Holland spider-man who is in this universe?
Sonny00:32:17Well, so there was some there was some Talk about that's the end of no way home right we should just say we should I never saw no way home So let's just save this for okay. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. Okay, cuz it's
JVL00:32:28Let me tease this unpopular opinion Dakota Johnson is great. I
Sonny00:32:33Don't think that's an unpopular opinion. Everybody's very funny. Very good actress there. She's fine
Mike00:32:39All right, she's of the Nepo babies in Hollywood. Like there are many many worse nepo All right, so let's let's move on to the movie that we're talking about this week Which is a documentary called the greatest night in pop. Can we just call it? We are the world
Sonny00:32:57Yeah, we'll just call it. We are the world Fine, I don't want but then we'll get confused with the song. All right, let's just call it the greatest night in pop
Mike00:33:04Until we get through Sonny's review. So Sonny give us a big boy review of the greatest night in pop
Sonny00:33:09the greatest night in pop It's about the the tape the the writing and taping and distribution of we are the world Which was a big song organized after Bob Geldof did what which one did he do and aid?
Mike00:33:27The that was the Christmas Time do they know it's Christmas? Yeah, right band. Yeah, that was band. Yeah, I just with the so so Bob Geldof does this and
Sonny00:33:36The musicians in America are like this. Limey fuck is showing us up. We got a we got to make our own
JVL00:33:43Ethiopia, it's a Harry Belafonte thing. So it's a racial justice thing. The inspiration is Harry Belafonte Record I just want to record this but that's literally what he said. He was like
Sonny00:33:58We got these guys doing it. We we don't have black folks trying to say black lives, right?
JVL00:34:03This is the some say it's not about America Limey bastards, but it's a it's all part of the 70s Afrocentrism
Sonny00:34:11anyway So Harry Belafonte gets together with Lionel Lionel Lionel Richie Lionel Richie who gets together with Michael Jackson and this is the best the best the best part of this whole documentary We I think we'll have a lot to say about this but the best part of the whole documentary is early on when when Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie are trying to write this song and Lionel Richie's just kind of hanging out at Michael Jackson's house and and Dealing with the menagerie of creatures like and a like it's it's so funny too because you know it on the one hand you have Michael Jackson who is beloved and dead and like you would think that they would like People would be you know, you know kind of Lionel Richie's just like make just like making fun of Michael Jackson and his
JVL00:35:05They've known each other animals for forever They knew each other Motown because Lionel Richie was the lead singer of the Commodores and Michael Jackson was the the front man for the Jackson 5 they'd known each other since they were kids basically
Sonny00:35:18And so anyway, so like that that part's all great and then it's then there There's there's a whole section on Quincy Jones getting everybody together and there then they do the record look They it This is a pretty straightforward talking heads documentary with archival footage I there's not a whole lot to review here just it but it's uh, it it's incredible Look, it's 96 minutes long. It's incredibly entertaining I I laughed I didn't cry I Was I was reminded several times of the Simpsons gag speaking of the Simpsons from but the Simpsons episode where they were Krusty is explaining how they do the well song remember cuz Bart gets stuck in the well And they're like yeah, you know we got you got to pay for limos to drive people here You got to pay for the recording studio whatever money's left. We'll throw down the well Like that's kind of how I feel about about we are the world I if you really wanted to make a documentary about we are the world you would make a documentary about where that money went and the like Ethiopian warlords who like I mean just like the famines in Africa were weapons of war they weren't like ecological or they weren't entirely ecological disasters like you pair this movie with Blackhawk down and and you get it you'll get a better sense of like How things were actually you know working or not working anyway? I like this movie a lot It was it was incredibly entertaining again The whole section where Lionel Richie is telling Michael Jackson stories is like a laugh out loud funny
JVL00:36:58Secret hero of the Michael Jackson voice doing in the Michael Jackson voice to it Lionel Lionel
Guest00:37:05My snake you found my snake he was lost and he heard a singing and he came out to hear it my Lionel meet my snake
Mike00:37:12I just like Lionel saying then Lionel Richie then saying I'm not touching that snake because I've seen this movie
JVL00:37:20And it doesn't work out well for the brother
Sonny00:37:25It's great, but I want to I want to I want to Focus on one thing here because there's a moment there's a there's a moment in this documentary that could have been played one of two ways all right, so about They're they're recording this or they're practicing the song they're practicing the song getting ready to sing it Yeah, and although all of a sudden Stevie Wonder's like we know some Swahili in this song. We need some Swahili and He comes up with a Swahili phrase and everybody's kind of like I can't I don't know what these words are what are what are What I don't know what I'm saying here and eventually Waylon Jennings Who's I just a good old boy that that guy isn't that is that him is that his oh, yeah? I don't know Waylon Jennings. I don't know country singer country singer Outlaw country pieces out pieces out in just in the middle of the taping It's just like no good old boy ever saying Swahili I'm out of here and there are two ways that this could have been portrayed in the documentary one is like look at this redneck bigot doesn't understand the importance but I think and I think this seems to be what actually happened during the the During the making of the song is that everybody else realized this was a terrible idea Yes, everyone else was like everyone else was like first off. We don't know what you're saying second off They don't speak Swahili in in Ethiopia and and third like if it's turning off Waylon Jennings the guy who is here hanging out with all the other Musicians it's gonna turn off other people to like this is like we don't want to do it Divisive thing and I I think that I think the documentary plays it It plays it in in a way that I found like I actually kind of appreciate it because it could have been
Mike00:39:10Can I say something about that moment because I thought that was like a key moment in the in the documentary which was It's played It's it is played like a comic Like a comedic scene the whole thing is like it has like perfect beats comedic beats in it in terms of the editing and the way the story is told the way the talking heads are like are are filtered through because it starts off and it starts off with that though with that Stevie Wonder suggestion and You get like you get the kind of mania of the moment It's like kind of seeps through and like people are like talking to each other and be and and then you have the Waylon Jennings moment Which like has that seriousness of like Oh Waylon's it's gone and he they say what he says, you know, no no good old boy ever spoke so I'll heal he's I'm out of here and and then like There's the perfect beat. Is it I don't even know if they tell us who says it But I think it might be Quincy Jones who is like the secret power in this whole movie Like he's like the the puppet master and the whole thing who says like they just perfectly They wait that beat and they have the perfect cop community timing for him to say They don't speak spy heel in Ethiopia and like there's this moment where everyone's like so relieved that somebody has given them an out to say to Stevie Wonder and and then to have like Bob Gelof swinging it's like swoop in there and like kind of talk Stevie off the ledge with like We wouldn't be talking to the people who have the money Not the people who are starving, you know And it's like it's Stevie's kind of like walked off the ledge like every bit of that is just so well timed and there's another
JVL00:40:58Two which is that Stevie Wonder is the first person who is contacted to come and write the song Yes, but Stevie doesn't return anybody's phone calls for three weeks because he's off doing Stevie Wonder shit And he then finally shows up after Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson have written this song and done the demo and he's like, okay I'm here to here to write and immediately starts making suggestions, right? So this is like wonder is one of those guys who like just shows up 20 minutes late and then Starts like well, but what if we did this? But what if we did this every person who's ever worked in any organization and had a meeting knows this guy and it's hysterical It's very funny. Yeah, and he's beloved. Everybody loves it
Sonny00:41:39but it's like it's funny too because it's funny too because he could also like get away with it because he is because he's Incredibly talented the my other favorite moment in the movie is I have two more two more things I just want to highlight before before we go to you guys is Bob Dylan trying to sing the song so like Bob Dylan's trying to sing the song the video and he's and he's kind of like And everyone's like what is he doing? Why isn't he singing? Why isn't he singing and eventually I think it's Stevie Wonder, right? Yes, like he goes Stevie Wonder calls him over and he's like Bob you got to sing it like this and then he just sings like Bob Dylan and Bob Dylan's like, oh, yeah That's how I say that's how that's how I do it. That's right. I forgot I forgot and then just goes and sings like Bob Dylan It's like oh, that's that that was a very that was very funny the the final thing I have to say is that there is this Nobody really talks about the quality of the song the the lyrics and you know that nobody nobody really nobody really Discusses that except for Bruce. Yes, who says very early on he's like, you know, it's a really broad Song as something like this has to be to get everybody as you know as this as it and then later on later on He says something very similar again. He's like he's like, you know, it's it's it is what it is Oh
Guest00:43:01It's a song that it's it's what he says it's a tool
Sonny00:43:05Yeah, the song is a tool to raise and I was just like I would like that is my one critique of the movie Really is that I needed more people to shit on the axe or actual song, which is not it's not a good song Yeah, but I like the whole thing is great Can we just say the person who looks best in all of the the new interviews? Huey Lewis. Oh, yeah, hasn't Huey Huey Lewis has aged the best Out of all those guys by far right like he looks like a college professor With his with his beard and his yeah, cuz he's no I agree with you. He's he's like
Mike00:43:38He had I think the right level of fame to like sort of like come out of it all like Basically, okay Like he's like I'm sure he made a ton of money off of that off of the power of love and in Before yeah and for and the power of love and all that stuff But like he's not it wasn't ever like giant superstar So he's like probably well-adjusted and and as far as those things go I agree JVL. What do you think I?
JVL00:44:06Mean this is the first thing I've ever watched on Netflix. That was the right length. Oh yeah, I was stunned at how it was it's the perfect length because they everything that you need is in it nothing that you don't need is and I You know in a weird way. I think it's better that the song is Itself is such a train wreck Because that lens almost like a Christopher Guest style layer of Absurdity on top of it where if the song had only been middling if it had been a forgettable song Then there didn't be no pathos to it But the fact that it is a legendarily terrible song that everybody knows and everybody can mockingly sing because it's it's a dirge And it's a it's a terrible dirge Adds to the amazingness of it and the fact that we have all the footage Yes from it the fact that it was all shot in one night I mean, I didn't know any of this about it. I I was alive when this happened I remember when it was released and it was on, you know, twice an hour on every radio station no matter what I Want to say this about Quincy Jones Because I I don't if you guys remember this but when oceans 11 was filmed it was the first Dream team movie that had been made in Hollywood in a long time Where the like all of a sudden we just had seven or eight leading men all in one place and I remember in the aftermath of that people talking about how with all of those people put together George Clooney was the Alpha Automatically without anybody even think like Brad Pitt deferred to him Matt Dame everybody deferred to George Clooney And because he was just the coolest motherfucker in the world. Oh, yeah, that's Quincy Jones Quincy Jones is the you know, my motherfucker so cool that sheep count him He just you know the extent to which and part of it. I think is because he's one of these guys who combines The artist brain with an organizational brain, which none of these people Right. I mean, they're all flighty and but uh, but he's he can think to call People and to get lighting because he knows they're gonna need lighting in the space and have that planned out To plan out catering to plan. I mean, this is hey, we're gonna have to figure out. How are we gonna have people stand? and I
Mike00:46:42Don't what a what a cool guy totally now a thousand percent agree He had he had the chops to help, you know produce and arrange the thing But also it's like the management of all of his egos It's like something that he was clearly like So my thought through the whole movie was like, okay Lionel Richie is clearly the focus of this part of this of this documentary because he's alive And he's here and he wrote the song co-wrote the song And he has a lot of leadership qualities that I think come through in in it like he he is charismatic is the charisma of a leader and the kind of energy At that point in his career and in his life and with all of these people that like he's just he was very clearly Lionel Lionel was somebody that you wanted to follow that on that evening, but but it's But it is clear that Quincy is like is as I said the puppet master like he is the brains of
JVL00:47:49Everything and the only reason first to him totally everybody defers and I this is another interesting thing and this is really about just about famous people and the three of us each know a few famous people not a lot but a few and The thing which interests me about this is and somebody says this early on in the show when The weirdness of all of these famous people being locked in a room together Cut off from their entourages and remember this pre cell phone. So nobody nobody's texting And they're just they're used to having layers upon layers of people insulating them from contact with anybody else Yeah, there's the manager the assistant the agent the publicist all and They were short of them and so you've got these 50 40 people put together in a room and for the for many of them Like not necessarily true of Dylan probably but for a lot of them First time they've been naked like that in a long time and they were confused. They didn't quite know what to do Yeah, and I just find that fascinating totally. Yeah, so I disagree with you
Mike00:49:04Sorry, I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you what I think about this. Maybe now unless you're unless you're done
JVL00:49:10If you hate this and then liking argyle
Mike00:49:15No, I love this movie, okay, I think you're not I did not like the first third of it I was kind of bored in with the whole build-up because I I part because I just found the Songwriting stuff not that interesting to me Because they didn't actually for all the funny stuff with the Michael Jackson, you know interaction They didn't actually go into the songwriting itself Which may be hard to do to convey in a documentary format But it was just kind of like oh, yeah Then we had to do it and there was like ten days that it was nine days and we wrote it and it was there
Sonny00:49:53Look, no offense man, but like we're all writers like Explaining imagine explaining like yeah, and then I and then I was writing my madam web review and I had to I had to come
JVL00:50:05Up with a intro paragraph. I nailed this transition between the first and second section like you can't believe I'm not asking
Mike00:50:13I'm not asking for that. But like when multiple musicians are like coming up with stuff together I mean we saw this in the in the get-back documentary that like I don't know if you guys watched it But I watched it and I loved it like the development of songs and ideas That the Beatles did like in a studio. It can be interesting So I think the answer is that it wasn't that interesting. Well, it's also not a great song So, of course, that's why but but but but I come here not to not to bury it but to praise this documentary because once they get to the night of from from the American Music Awards To to to the end of the film is great because it's like a pressure cooker and it is Intense and all the reasons that JVL you just mentioned like it's interesting to see these these artists all together like it was like it was nerve nerve-wracking and Fascinating and fun to see them just sweating and to see like by the way I as soon as I saw Al Jarreau, I was like that guy's drunk as hell and then like They're like he was a little drunk and it's like yeah, no shit. Like he just come from the AMAs
JVL00:51:25So right, you know a bunch of yeah, uh, and but
Mike00:51:28They like show him like sitting on the ground with like a bottle of wine turned upside down like just all all of that the sort of I loved the pressure cooker aspect of it and I agree. It's a terrible song But I loved seeing the different artists of different kind of backgrounds kind of realizing either in real time or they were sort of talking like Dionne Warwick was talking about it like like oh like We have stuff In common, even if it doesn't look like like she was very worried about standing next to Willie Nelson because she's like I'm Dionne Warwick. She's got like this amazing voice and Willie Nelson. I love Willie Nelson But it's not like the greatest pipes in the world. He's got a distinct voice But there was something sort of magical about Them all realizing. Oh, we can all kind of sing this together and and make something interesting and and and the way in which they were sort of A few of them, maybe not all of them, but a few of them like Huey Lewis and others were sort of like I can't believe I'm here. Yeah, I thought that was I thought that was one of these things is not like the others, right?
JVL00:52:39You get Paul Simon Bob Dylan Diana Ross, right? And then Huey Lewis, but you know what? Sheila E. Yeah. Well, we could talk about Sheila E. Cindy Lauper. Yeah, Huey Lewis nails
Mike00:52:52His his thing like he nails what he's supposed to do But he has this kind of like I shouldn't be here the Sheila E. thing Kind of bad for Sheila like Like just the whole
JVL00:53:04They asked her because they were hoping she'd bring Prince
Mike00:53:06Yeah It's like she's self-aware Yeah, you could say that at least Anyway, so I thought That whole the whole aspect of it Of that was terrific They never answered why Dan Aykroyd was there Well, Blues Brothers
JVL00:53:23Yeah, the weirdest Dan Aykroyd is like the Forrest Gump of the 70s, isn't he? He's this talentless Guy who just shows up
Mike00:53:33No, no, no, he's not talentless I disagree with that Oh, he's like He's you should watch Those first years of Saturday Night Live He's like he's the glue of that Of that cast he does He does everything Like to fill in Where they need it and Just watch the The sketch where he's with Eric Idle And they're speaking in gibberish Just look that up Anyway, but he shouldn't be there At We Are The World I don't know Any other thoughts on We Are The World Or Or this documentary This is the promise of Netflix
JVL00:54:15Right, if Netflix was good It would do Because this would have been a New Yorker essay And you could Take it and do a visual Version of it that Tickles all of our nostalgia Member berries And it's also interesting as a historical document itself Because it has all this footage that I don't think Many people have seen, maybe people have seen it before But it was certainly new to me And you could do it all in an hour and a half And it's cheap and I think that'll long play too Right, there should be a long tail for it Instead of giving us The eight episode Docu-series Where each episode is 55 minutes long and it should be 22 Minutes long This is great, this is perfect
Sonny00:55:01And it's the sort of thing I never would have gone to see this In a theater, I never would have This is like a high toned MTV original Like And that's perfect And it's well made
Mike00:55:15It's a lot of documentary, it's well made Have you noticed, did you guys notice that Maybe I don't have My documentary Influences correct But like, the interviews Feel like the last dance Like the angles of the interview Like I just felt like Every time they put somebody in the chair I was like, oh this is Is that just the way they do documentaries now?
Sonny00:55:41It's just a talking head documentary There's like nothing, there's nothing fancy here
Mike00:55:45No, but like, it was like It's like the diagonal angle You know, where they're like Sitting in the room, that seems like A new development over the past couple of years Maybe I'm looking into this
Sonny00:55:56Maybe, I don't know I don't know, I like Again, it did not leap out to me as like Particularly visually interesting It was a lot of guys in chairs
Mike00:56:08Final question What is your favorite Parody, if you have one, of We Are The World? Mine is either The Saturday Night Live Musicians Explaining Whitewater Scandal from like 1994 Or 1993 Which is Uh Very funny and has all these musicians Like saying these extremely complicated Lyrics to the tune of We Are The World About like the details of like Hillary Clinton's, like the Roseloff All that stuff Or the 30 Rock Uh, Kidney Now Uh, parody Which they have actual Cyndi Lauper is actually in that one as well So, any thoughts? No parodies?
JVL00:56:52I didn't even realize this was a genre All I know is the weird Aliankovic We Are The Worms, which I really hated
Sonny00:56:59I, I, again, I would go with Like The Simpsons But it's not really a It's not really a We Are The World parody It's just in that style
Mike00:57:10Alright, alright Any final thoughts? No, it's great
JVL00:57:15Looking forward to Madam Web
Mike00:57:17That'll be next week And you can join us next time That's all the time we're giving to this episode We'll see you next week
Sonny00:57:27Bye-bye
?00:57:57Bye-bye Bye-bye Bye-bye Bye-bye
Mike00:57:57Bye-bye
JVL00:57:57Bye-bye Bye-Bye whenever you happen to be listening to the radio and the DJ on the radio puts the song on.
Mike00:59:02So it's, you know, it was a different, a different time, man. It was a different time, man. But it was also a time with like all these weird performative, like it's the same time as like hands across America. Like what was going on in the eighties? This was, this was the extent to
JVL00:59:17which David from makes this point in his really, really excellent book about the seventies. Yeah. The beginning parts of most decades often encapsulate all the stuff that we associate with the preceding decades right and so when we talk about the 70s we're really talking about or sorry when we talk about the 60s we really are talking about 1968 through 1970 etc and there was a whole lot of this stuff this weird mid-70s like the hippies grown up kind of thing kind of like on their way to growing up but i mean somebody one of this one of the artists in this i forget who it was says it they're like i believe rock and roll can change the world that's the thing that people would say with a straight face right which which today you would only say in a sarcastic knowing way yeah oh yeah rock and roll will change the world right and uh i don't know but also you got to realize that all of these things exist history is closer together than we think and so so much of we are the world comes directly out of motown right and and the motown world is like barely post-desegregation yep you know like this is all of these things which is something i didn't appreciate in the 1980s the idea that you know i was living in a world that was super close to jim crow and rosa parks was it's like man that's like talking about uh ancient times you might as well be talking about
?01:00:53something
JVL01:00:53and it's not those things you know these things are all right next to me the weirdness of lionel ritchie i only knew lionel ritchie as lionel ritchie solo act oh not through detroit right yeah i'm sure it's fine
Spot something wrong in this episode? Suggest a correction →
Comments
Loading…