0:06

hi so

0:07

i'm today, it was late writer, dan

0:10

kois, and then turning

0:12

the lights down then

0:14

why are you turning the lights down? i'm

0:16

setting the mood willow, we

0:18

have a fireplace in the studio

0:20

no make

0:21

yourself comfortable mellow

0:23

thank

0:24

you i i that let

0:26

me play a record for you on

0:28

the hi-fi

0:31

i

0:31

i love is moments here and there come

0:35

and go quietly i think

0:38

like silver bells

0:41

i'd about the throats of cats

0:43

hide about the throws the cats

0:46

dan would you please tell us what that is

0:48

that will have is the most popular

0:50

poet and american publishing history rod

0:53

mcewen i know the

0:55

hills and goalies of your body

1:02

total

1:02

all of you and tang industry because

1:06

i know it will be important later

1:09

rod mcewen sold multiple millions

1:12

of poetry books and the sixties and seventies

1:14

he was a celebrity he released

1:17

dozens of albums was a regular on late

1:19

night the was even nominated for an oscar

1:22

i think it's safe to say he is no longer

1:24

a household name

1:26

he fell out of fame hard

1:29

i only know and because i spent the entire

1:31

ninety nineties and thrift stores and use

1:33

bookshops and everywhere i went i

1:35

saw rod mcewen the name over and

1:37

over his , face

1:39

stared out of me from hardcovers paperbacks

1:42

dusty record albums adorned with titles in

1:44

the most seventies fancy ever saw he

1:46

wore a turtleneck and luxurious blonde

1:48

hair on the cover of come to me and

1:50

silence silence reclined

1:52

on a sandy beach on the front of seasons

1:55

in the sun on one paperback

1:57

he stared out to sea and the title of the book told

1:59

me just how

1:59

well

2:00

the loan

2:02

dot

2:03

inside each book and on every record

2:05

where these inexplicable poems

2:08

and songs

2:20

the what happened to rhonda

2:22

guillen that's

2:33

little decoder ring i will have hoskin

2:36

and i'm dan

2:37

for today's episode i went searching

2:40

for rod mcewen a famous poet

2:42

who shares and famous anymore i

2:44

learned that it takes a lot of dedication

2:46

and hard work to get famous to

2:49

, something more than that to avoid obscurity

2:52

obscurity along the way i met a guy who like me

2:55

was bewildered by the spirited forgotten

2:57

star until he became an

2:59

accidental fan and then even more accidentally

3:02

became the only person keeping rod mcewen

3:04

flame allies so

3:06

light a candle have another glass of

3:08

wine and follow me on my decoder

3:10

ring journey how on

3:13

earth did rod mcewen become the most popular

3:15

poets and american history why

3:17

was he totally forgotten

3:31

hi i'm forty revolution

3:32

i'm three and a blasio and we're here

3:34

to tell you about our new podcast

3:36

how they play after

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our reality tv debut our lives changed

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overnight all of all sudden everyone

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thought they knew they real us that's

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why on homecoming queen's we give your favorite reality

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stars the floor to set the record straight

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are they really villains or are they saying what

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was the truth behind that jaw dropping moments

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and was last movie right now that they're

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back home and everybody knows as

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there

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on homecoming queen's that we as the licensee

4:02

you're dying to know the answers sale here

4:04

all the exclusive guys by listening every

4:06

wednesday on the you podcast network or

4:09

was full episode on our eve easy

4:11

page welcome

4:17

the odd mcewen was born liar

4:21

the same storyteller

4:23

this was a real challenge for his biographer

4:25

it was a fabulous he made a lots

4:27

of stuff about himself

4:29

that very alfonzo

4:31

the music historian and he's the author

4:33

of the only serious biography of rod mcewen

4:35

called a voice of the warm

4:38

well course he claimed that he had been

4:40

a cowboy essentially

4:42

as a preteen that he was a lumberjack

4:45

as a as a teenager

4:47

you would say that he made records that he didn't

4:50

do that he made movies in japan that he

4:52

apparently never made and the ultimate

4:55

was that he claimed that he had two children so

4:57

like what draw that do you think having

5:00

a a terrible childhood in a sense

5:02

of inferiority robs

5:04

mother was unmarried when she gave birth to him

5:06

and charity hospital and oakland and nineteen

5:08

thirty three that would ever know who his father

5:10

was right of a little his mom

5:12

left him with her sister for months while she worked

5:14

as a taxi dancer in san francisco

5:16

when she returned she took him to nevada

5:19

for she'd married a violent hard drinking man

5:21

who abused rod physically and sexually

5:24

the family bounced from town to town

5:26

i became a chronic runaway and a street hustler

5:28

he was eventually sent to brutal reform school

5:33

at a time he was in high school he was desperate

5:35

to get famous if he couldn't get love

5:37

respect and validation from his family who's

5:40

gonna get it from everybody else rod

5:42

got his first shot before he even turns was

5:45

when the charismatic handsome teenager got teenager job

5:47

as job as on opens k r o w

5:49

radio station doing a show called

5:51

rendezvous with rama

5:54

it took a while to figure out the formula he

5:56

started out doing zany comedy sketches

5:59

many tribes winning popular records but

6:01

one day k r o w listeners

6:03

tuned in and heard this evening

6:07

, a lonely time especially

6:09

when especially man has nothing to do a known to speak to

6:12

tonight i would really be along because

6:16

you'll be air

6:18

i'm glad yeah i

6:21

, being with a woman like deal though

6:23

rod would try out a lot of other personalities

6:25

over the years

6:26

this was the first sign of the rod who would eventually

6:29

become famous lonesome the

6:32

game was romantically up

6:35

source last night night

6:37

a sharp pain as long as

6:39

can i with you here loneliness

6:43

is gone

6:44

this persona turned rendezvous with fraud and

6:46

do a hit but while he was pitching move

6:49

to teenage girls over the airwaves he

6:51

was also embracing a different identity and his private

6:53

life

6:54

in the spring of nineteen fifty three

6:57

the san francisco branch of an early gay rights

6:59

organization has first meetings

7:01

the minutes of the madison societies april

7:03

meeting most of the participants are anonymous

7:06

but one name appears over and over

7:09

the odd mcewen

7:10

it was only nineteen at a time when

7:12

should be gay was be considered sex offender a

7:15

communist or both

7:16

there he was urging members a lobby

7:18

candidates but also suggesting the

7:20

society rent a theater and throw a big party

7:23

everyone agrees madison

7:25

meetings are wonderful places for cruising he

7:27

said

7:27

better than bars very alfonzo

7:30

who found those madison records buried in an archive

7:33

he was at those early meetings in san francisco

7:35

beyond that ah it's very sketchy

7:38

he never spoke about the madison society

7:40

on the record to anybody

7:42

rod was drafted into the korean war and nineteen

7:45

fifty three the two years and

7:47

korea working on radio propaganda he

7:49

later claimed that he coined the phrase make love

7:51

not war as way of persuading

7:53

north korean soldiers returned to their girlfriends

7:56

and home there's no evidence that this

7:58

is true says burial that

8:00

the got back to california he continued

8:02

writing poetry he was lonely

8:04

love learn guy and his poems explored

8:07

these feelings that even as he was

8:09

digging the

8:10

the was also pulling out all the stops

8:12

the was going to become famous and he didn't particularly

8:15

care how it happen he

8:17

sang and read poetry at the famous purple

8:19

onion in san francisco research

8:21

stage of my arms with , days

8:23

was singing and dancing course course

8:25

a while he moved to l a to try to be movies be

8:28

even had supporting roles and forgettable t movies

8:31

playing characters with names like with been

8:34

a universal never gave him a big part even

8:36

though he wrote big fan letters from teenagers

8:38

the mail them to the mail every day and

8:42

he started making records for

8:44

practice romantic records instrumental

8:46

records everything that he thought might be

8:49

a hits and nineteen fifty nineteen

8:51

he cracked the top forty with a beatnik

8:53

seemed of novelty saw the

8:55

side was more jokes about the next attract

8:57

called be generation

9:02

be generations

9:05

i , let anything trouble my

9:08

mind mind

9:10

long does a generation

9:13

and everything's gone for

9:17

a solid decade roddick kept

9:19

trying to crack showbiz he

9:21

had a very minor hit with oliver

9:23

twist a riff on chubby checkers

9:25

oliver

9:26

the saying at bowling alleys and bars than

9:29

graduated cabaret shows and nightclubs

9:32

the books of poetry out the front of his car

9:34

the was working the wasn't exactly

9:36

famous

9:38

then in nineteen sixty seven he released

9:40

an album called the see

9:45

the see didn't even feature robs

9:47

voice

9:48

it didn't sound like a novelty sign for him

9:50

trying to ride the twist bandwagon it

9:52

sounded a lot like rendezvous with

9:54

rama and abroad as poetry

9:56

and poetry and rooms across the country

10:02

perhaps the time will come when

10:04

i no longer smile away i did scorn

10:11

when you no longer turns just

10:13

so unfair

10:15

rod wrote the poems

10:17

and a successful composer and raise your name to need

10:19

a car wrote the music was credited

10:22

to a group they invented called the san sebastian

10:24

strings for , reasons

10:26

rod couldn't appear on the record surf the actor

10:29

jesse pearson best known from bye bye birdie

10:31

reading the cubans gentle commands tycoon

10:34

moon

10:36

the time winner

10:41

i do love you

10:43

the leave

10:45

if you're between forty five sixty five there's

10:47

a pretty good chance you were conceived to sell

10:50

any , the music historians and

10:52

are vital pretty sir it was was

10:55

was a make a record for life to the get

10:57

it was initially the does it taste

10:59

is it it does explain some of his popularity

11:02

which was emits it's sold

11:04

and sold and sold consistently for

11:06

years until fleetwood

11:08

mac's rumors came out it was the best

11:11

selling catalog album in the history

11:13

of warner brothers records

11:15

the same year the see was released rod

11:17

also signed a deal to do the thing that really made

11:20

it matches famous the lot

11:22

it poetry

11:24

legendary other and man to leave a random

11:27

house then at the very beginning of her career

11:29

paid rod seven hundred fifty dollars

11:31

to publish a book of poems called listen

11:34

to the warm the book contain

11:36

an instantly iconic poem called

11:39

a cat named sleepy once

11:41

, it's own the

11:44

new york's jungle in a tree

11:47

before i went into the world in search of other

11:49

kinds of love nobody

11:53

only about a cat named snoopy

11:58

would you like

12:01

grab she's been the only human

12:05

the never gave that love to me

12:11

ron performing live and sold

12:14

out carnegie hall he could do

12:16

this because driven by slip his popularity

12:18

the question is sold like crazy

12:23

this is not the way poetry cells now

12:25

and it wasn't the way pottery so bath

12:29

poultry held a slightly more exalted

12:31

play some a call from the nineteen sixties but

12:34

it was never a huge money maker sometimes

12:36

poets for children debate but serious

12:38

poets printed by don't publishers even

12:41

cultural heroes didn't sell like ron

12:44

take allen ginsberg how most

12:47

famous of the be pawns that book

12:49

took about fifty years to finally sell

12:51

a million copies

12:52

rob sold a million and nineteen sixty seven

12:55

alone

12:56

thus began the incredible peak

12:59

of rod miss you and space he became

13:02

unavoidable right away

13:04

random house bought the rights reprint the book even

13:06

selling out of his trump called stanyon

13:08

streets and other sorrows with

13:10

it raw did numbers know living room and

13:13

has come close to says he's old

13:15

three million books for random house and just

13:17

random few years at one point accounting for four

13:19

percent of the total sales of the entire company

13:22

the was profiled in life he got an oscar

13:25

nomination for song from the maggie smith movie

13:27

the prime of best team brody if

13:29

you turn on a tv very was game

13:31

so contestants panel personality talk

13:34

show guest par excellence here's

13:36

rod been introduced by johnny cash

13:40

in , know know and

13:42

older actor lumberjack actor

13:45

but most of all or most sensitive

13:48

and unique human being rod

13:51

mcewen even

13:54

commits none other than a frank sinatra

13:56

who was desperate to connect to new generation of fans

13:58

to record a whole

13:59

one a mcewen tunes i

14:02

have been have rover

14:06

i have walk alone

14:10

meanwhile rod was also diversifying

14:12

starting a hugely successful catalog

14:14

business cop standing and records

14:16

you that labeled a release all his own albums

14:19

many of which were just him reading as poems but

14:21

some of which are a little surprising

14:24

take this nineteen seventy four electronic album

14:27

music to freak your friends and break

14:29

your break week

14:37

and he also got labels to grants him

14:39

the rights to bunch of old music the wasn't cool

14:42

anymore the music of his youth and lots

14:44

of other people's youth and he released an outstanding

14:47

so , really likes tended to be

14:51

female vocalist from

14:53

what vocalist from time were twenty or thirty years before

14:55

people would come up

14:59

marlin to sylvia

15:01

sims alice fe viera

15:04

live

15:23

he has been sitting on your your share

15:26

of , on the stadium referees mailing

15:28

list and stanyon sent out catalogues

15:30

every couple of months and they developed into really

15:33

gigantic things he also use standing

15:35

in the cell a bunch of rod mcewen march

15:38

he was way ahead of the curve when it came to what we

15:40

would now think of as as lifestyle

15:42

branding branding greatest

15:44

objects from that period is something

15:46

is the rob mcewen

15:48

muck about which is

15:50

a

15:51

it's a sort of hobby yellow

15:54

windbreaker kind of a canary

15:56

yellow thing with us with an

15:58

odd racing stripe or two

15:59

running across it and it is

16:02

to contemporary eyes one of

16:04

the ugliest objects of all

16:07

time

16:07

there are plenty of other times to calendars

16:10

note pads little books of aphorisms

16:13

he made a deal for rod mcewen branded to with

16:15

you could send your loved ones and he's you

16:17

little forty fives you could mail the friends with messages

16:19

that i'm sure seemed very sensitive

16:22

it's time i get off

16:24

on you

16:25

really

16:28

for a while i thought

16:30

i was never gonna find anybody who is

16:33

tuned in on the same wavelength as me

16:36

or maybe somebody i could to

16:38

him who was all

16:41

the stuff for sure who were

16:43

the people loved rod mcewen

16:46

you make me laugh

16:49

that something

16:51

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16:55

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17:01

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17:29

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19:03

rodney humans whole deal does not exactly

19:05

fit into my sense of the tumultuous late sixties

19:07

early seventies

19:09

and yet

19:09

robbie human was there as biggest star

19:12

in his own world is dylan was in his hand

19:14

and as way as much a sign of the times a

19:17

sign that even the buttoned up kids are

19:19

searching for something new there was this

19:21

great longing for closeness

19:24

and connection

19:27

that people have all different backgrounds

19:29

felt that time very alfonzo

19:31

brats biographer

19:32

they they didn't want to go out and and smoke pot

19:35

and get naked at the love in but

19:37

they wanted to see a likely to get

19:40

beyond the sort of stultified

19:42

wales men and women

19:44

and people in general what relating

19:46

to one another

19:47

i wonder where we go from here

19:53

the arrogant

19:55

try to

19:56

nora ephron profiled rod and esquire

19:59

and nineteen seventy one here's how she described

20:01

the crowd at a mcewen show

20:02

you won't see any of your freaks here no sir

20:05

any of your tied i people this is

20:07

middle america nineteen

20:09

sixty nine there were about forty million

20:11

americans between fifteen and thirty

20:14

four hundred thousand of them went to woodstock

20:17

what about all the rest

20:19

i discovered ride mcewen

20:21

in nineteen sixty

20:25

six

20:27

working at a radio station

20:30

and point to city oklahoma noble

20:34

you babies the twelve thirty

20:36

on your dial the boys and choice

20:38

of north central oklahoma

20:40

the mcleod lives in tulsa now he's

20:42

an adjunct professor and retired public school

20:45

teacher as a teenage boy

20:47

i felt sad about

20:50

lots of things

20:52

hi seem to be sad and

20:54

by george rod make you

20:56

and was sad to an end

20:58

we we could be said together

21:01

they did read some other posts but rod

21:03

was the one he loved the most in large part

21:05

because rather work with soap approachable

21:08

his poems are our

21:10

, he

21:13

doesn't start he doesn't with a capital

21:15

letter a his point is like

21:17

is hawking the year and

21:21

not only that he's talking to you but

21:23

he's talking only d

21:26

that's one connection between the reader

21:28

and rod

21:29

rod poems helped make connections between

21:31

readers to

21:33

several people i talk to mention the lots of their

21:35

old rod mcewen paperbacks have

21:37

handwritten inscriptions and the from

21:39

they were often given as gifts

21:41

the max the syncing was

21:43

that people were

21:45

sure that they could say or that maybe

21:47

they didn't feel courageous enough to say or

21:49

maybe they didn't feel like well i'm not a poet

21:51

so i can't really say this but

21:54

i guess what this guy mcewen is

21:56

saying and i want i want somebody

21:58

else to understand this about me

21:59

about us

22:01

inside my copy of standing and street

22:03

another sorrows purchased from a used

22:05

bookstore in reno nevada there's this inscription

22:08

and neat cursive

22:10

lane here is a beautiful

22:12

book for a beautiful person

22:15

mcewen , cool guy who knows

22:17

had a really express himself and

22:20

i think you're one person who can understand

22:22

what he's trying to say they

22:25

call kiddo love nance

22:28

rod helps people connect

22:30

sometimes to him sometimes to lovers

22:32

sometimes to young friends sometimes

22:34

even to their own family

22:36

i spoke with a woman named mary lou for

22:38

for madison wisconsin she fell

22:41

in love with a cat names will be when she first

22:43

heard it she became a lifelong rod

22:45

mcewen fan

22:46

the patches , assault or

22:49

whether stream of consciousness poetry

22:51

or even his singing and he just

22:54

pulls out of you the i'm said things the

22:57

pot the feelings and

22:59

then and then some there any like

23:01

that's how i feel years

23:04

later she took her daughter to iran mcewen

23:06

concerts and then mary wrote mary

23:08

poem about

23:09

titled i thought she wasn't listening

23:12

the read some of it to me

23:14

my daughter who until that had wanna

23:16

look of impatient suddenly fifteen

23:18

me and softly spoke to

23:20

this

23:21

the man who had been a part of my

23:23

deepest reflections for

23:25

what seemed like forever and

23:28

he said i grew up listening

23:30

to your poetry always talked about lot

23:32

of and i've never forgotten that

23:35

and used to this man who had given so

23:37

much love nothing

23:39

in return with cuba his

23:43

mine too

23:44

charcoal out

23:45

listen to me

23:47

the mood what i wanted to say

23:50

seen shows all and i

23:52

know i know she'll be okay you

23:55

memories one simple thing the thing

23:57

it matters the most time spent

23:59

with

23:59

the time well spent their

24:02

, again and for

24:04

all those years i thought

24:06

the was not listening

24:09

so here's rat

24:12

this , whose poetry music so

24:14

many people who dreamed of being famous

24:17

and then sold so many books he had by

24:19

thirty room mansion in beverly hills

24:23

hills that's not the whole the because

24:25

even as he was succeeding the on measure

24:28

he was also he joke dick

24:31

cavett call them the most understood

24:33

how the and america and

24:36

ninety six years the editor of poetry magazine

24:38

house of hero a former poet laureate of

24:40

the u s wrote it is irrelevant

24:42

to speak of mcewen as a post his

24:44

poetry is not even tracks

24:47

and making sixty nine l a times review said

24:50

one can find better versed on the walls of

24:52

wrestler broad

24:54

brush the critics off

24:56

i never really call a poetry myself he said

24:58

and eighteen sixty eight litre

25:01

, you've got harsher as he got richer

25:03

he started a bristle bristle

25:06

are a lot of people who take pot shots at me because they

25:08

feel i'm not writing my kids for elliot he

25:10

says ninety seventy one and yet

25:13

i've been compared to both of them so figure

25:15

so around

25:17

at least was a famous rich guy in a position

25:20

to defend themselves but critics also

25:22

came for his fans ones who like

25:24

rods work because it's so because

25:26

inaccessible louis cox

25:28

wrote in the new republic and making seventy people

25:31

who ordinarily read scarcely at all

25:33

can fall in and out of his poetry even

25:35

if you do move your lips rapidly as you read

25:39

the disdain directed at mcewen and

25:41

his fans if they want to defend him from a bunch

25:43

of did keeping stuff

25:47

there are ways to do that mcewen

25:50

writing in the nineteen sixties

25:52

has poetry this overwhelmingly

25:55

feeling oriented he

25:57

is not afraid to

25:59

the game and right about sorrow or

26:02

grief or love or excitement

26:04

or loss or fear

26:06

the charter is a professor of english at willamette

26:08

university free studies the intersection

26:10

of poetry and pop culture he offered

26:12

in different model of masculinity

26:15

ah to people about how they conceal

26:17

the world and name the world

26:21

in ways that weren't necessarily

26:23

publicly available mike also

26:25

connects mcewen to the beats who so prized

26:27

authenticity to the confessional poets

26:30

of the sixties including sylvia plath robert lowell

26:32

and especially to walt whitman women

26:35

to had sequences of love poems

26:37

and that by today's ears sometimes

26:40

sounds schmaltzy to am but women

26:42

never shied away from being a poet a ceiling either

26:44

i can see all of this

26:47

i also see how tremendously meaningful

26:49

rod is to people and i move by

26:51

that

26:52

and yet the problem is

26:54

like so many of his snobby critics i

26:56

think a lot of rod mcewen poetry sucks

27:00

it's not just that the poems or dole or

27:02

small see i find them actively

27:04

embarrassing

27:05

no i am

27:06

oh

27:09

mom

27:11

and to apologize a little lies

27:14

lies

27:16

homeowners no time to explain the

27:18

truth there is something about

27:21

bad poetry that may be

27:23

more painful than any other bad are

27:26

so open so deeply

27:28

sincere and yet so empty

27:30

it reveals the yawning banality

27:32

at the center of all our souls

27:35

i read rod mcewen poems and i think

27:37

look at the be minus hallmark card

27:40

and in fact in the mid nineteen seventies

27:42

rod actually signed a deal with hallmark

27:45

it was for a series of reading cards that included semi

27:48

personalized recordings for the one

27:50

hundred fifty most common first

27:52

names of the time i stacey

27:55

like you stacey thank

27:58

you for being new

27:59

hi tammy

28:01

hi tina hi paul

28:04

hi richard

28:06

the juri

28:08

you virginia like

28:11

you grandma

28:13

thank you for being you thank

28:15

you for being you thank

28:17

you for being you

28:19

perhaps it seems cruel to dig up

28:21

this forgotten poet whose only remember

28:23

by people who love him that like

28:25

i even think he was full of shit i

28:27

think of the beginning he really was sincere

28:30

it's not an accident that this was the stuff

28:32

that made him famous dot novelty

28:34

songs are movie acting

28:36

the meant it and people could feel

28:38

that there's barry alfonzo

28:41

the think he was tapping into a real longing

28:44

in a real loneliness that he had and

28:47

finding a way to market it

28:50

the trouble for mcewen

28:52

maybe the trouble with mcewen came

28:54

as he kept having to perform longing

28:57

and loneliness to perform heartfelt

28:59

sincerity over and over

29:01

how often can you market your sincerity

29:04

before isn't sincere anymore

29:13

the nineteen seventies as rod was walking

29:15

this fine line if have been beloved productive

29:17

and yeah also totally disparaged who's

29:20

watching another find

29:22

poems and songs alluded to

29:24

cruising to trysts with countless

29:26

lovers male female gender

29:29

, nonspecific wrote about his days

29:31

as a as but he never

29:33

ever said he ever gay stephanie

29:36

burke as a poet and critic who poet at harvard

29:39

course he was out in

29:41

that era let's see knighted sixty three to

29:44

seventy five you had sixty three of choices

29:46

you

29:46

the be studiously a set

29:48

the woman try to be famous for something else so

29:50

that people just wouldn't think about her you slept with

29:53

you , be really

29:57

says gleaming week there

30:00

and obviously super

30:02

guess let you could be liberace that

30:05

, third way which is the way that

30:08

that mcewen as a manager

30:10

of his own public image seems to have chosen chosen

30:13

to be soft

30:16

focus the mall

30:18

are romantic and

30:21

carefully non specific you say

30:24

i don't like to put labels on thanks

30:27

serial bonzo describes rods public

30:29

treatment for his sexuality as personally

30:31

discreet the strategically

30:34

provocative if you knew what you're

30:36

looking for if you are specific segment

30:38

a broader audience he was there all

30:40

those judy garland reissues and standing

30:42

records the disco album broader least

30:45

featuring a crisco slathered fist on

30:47

the cover

30:48

in nineteen seventy seven rod campaigned

30:51

against anti gay laws and florida it

30:53

was the only real political stance he ever took

30:56

when , spokesman for save our children

30:58

lumped rod and with all the other quote unquote

31:01

perverts rod said he'd give him

31:03

a hundred grand if he could prove he was a homosexual

31:06

rudd said rudd attracted to men

31:08

and i've been attracted to women i have a sixteen

31:10

year old son you put a label on

31:12

me

31:13

this is a boulder spots

31:15

for sure i can eleven

31:18

i would also note that in classic

31:20

rock mcewen fashion there was no son

31:23

as far as burial father could find all rods

31:25

close relationships with women were platonic be

31:27

claim for decades he had illegitimate children and

31:29

france but nope he never did

31:32

they didn't have a life partner though a man

31:34

he loved and lived with for decades the

31:36

man's name is edward had the

31:38

who he met in san francisco

31:40

and

31:42

they were together with some breaks from

31:44

the late fifties early sixties

31:47

through rods death

31:49

right it varies points his career asserted

31:52

that was his photographer his manager

31:55

his biographer

31:57

some point to justify ads constant presence

32:00

i made up another story

32:01

right wing that his mother adopted

32:04

or it

32:06

so are they were

32:08

they were brothers maybe was just to end the conversation

32:10

where it's my brother

32:12

the end of story

32:13

rod mcewen told the world it didn't

32:15

matter who you love

32:17

the told the world you should be open earnest

32:20

with your feelings put it all out there

32:22

the fostered connection a way for

32:24

people to tell others what they couldn't say themselves

32:27

the lived in a world where he couldn't put it all out

32:29

there

32:30

the couldn't say everything

32:33

this brings me back to some of what he did say

32:35

what is fibs ariel

32:37

father told me that despite everything he

32:40

ended up feeling forgiving toward rod

32:43

pretty much all of his with his wives

32:45

were the if there is

32:47

such a thing white lies harmless lies

32:50

and i have to admit the to some degree

32:52

i give him a pass for that even though it made

32:54

my job very very hard because

32:57

it seemed like he didn't harm anyone

33:01

by doing this maybe

33:03

it's harmless even kind of charmingly

33:05

brazen to say you invented the phrase

33:07

make love not war or midnight

33:10

cowboy another one he claimed was his or

33:12

, write your own fan letters but

33:15

when you're telling people you have illegitimate children

33:17

and meanwhile the man you love standing next

33:19

you pretending to be your brother you

33:22

don't seem so on harm yourself

33:45

hi i'm will have hoskin host

33:47

of decoder rings there's a new podcast

33:49

as an into lately and welcome to provincetown

33:52

follows the story of a summer

33:53

he part when the population

33:55

of provincetown a tiny seaside town

33:58

cells from three thousand to sixty

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that and patted him on the lgbtq

34:02

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34:05

actors artist drag queens playwrights

34:07

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34:07

and no makers and the show follows

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the lives of group of workers performers and

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send all set on a two three town

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at the end of a sanskrit surrounded

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by some of the most

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34:19

show is about what their summers hold and whether

34:21

their dreams can commit

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after

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and what's life really like now that they're

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you're dying to know the answers sales here

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all the exclusive guys by listening every

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wednesday on the you podcast network or

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was full episode on our eve youtube

35:20

page love em

35:26

the nineteen seventies rod mcewen did more

35:28

work than many people do in a lifetime

35:31

there's will to succeed is dr defame

35:33

seemed insatiable the

35:36

seventies came to an end run mcewen

35:38

with start to disappear the

35:40

new decade rod became seriously

35:42

depressed aids was devastating generation

35:45

of gamers

35:46

the longtime friend rock hudson died of the

35:48

disease and eighteen eighty five

35:50

the total romantic and erotic

35:52

freedom

35:53

the rotted written about in the sixties and seventies

35:55

was over abruptly

35:57

horrifyingly

35:59

i never the yard for two years rod

36:01

said the didn't answer the phone

36:04

outside yard the culture was changing

36:07

the kind of soft sensual fourteen

36:09

us was no longer and vote

36:12

for many people rod mcewen became someone you

36:14

were embarrassed you ever loved when you're young

36:16

and all those books with the

36:18

dedications and them from a girl who eventually dumped

36:20

you could you never quite figured out how to get in touch with your

36:22

emotions

36:23

the goes straight to goodwill

36:25

meanwhile the rod mcewen new product

36:27

pipeline slowed to a trick

36:30

the anti vax

36:31

i suspect

36:32

that he must have thought at that point okay i've

36:35

made more money than i'm ever gonna need

36:37

far more and this this gonna

36:39

keep rolling in as i really don't have to worry

36:41

about this

36:42

let a lot of opportunity slide as

36:44

he said he didn't answer the phone licensing

36:47

deals expired books when out of print

36:49

and no one work to bring them back he lost track

36:51

of all the royalties he was do from other artists

36:53

covering a songs are the payments coming

36:55

in from europe asia everywhere in the world

36:57

the ninety nineties rod

37:00

mostly putter around his mansion looking

37:02

at his awards and memorabilia spending

37:04

his money

37:05

it became very well known among the employees of his local

37:07

tower records because nearly every night

37:10

he'd show up by a bunch of cds

37:12

and then file them away still in their original packaging

37:14

and the mammoth music library in his basement

37:17

there were moments in

37:19

those decades when you could have imagined rod

37:21

mcewen making a comeback when

37:23

other artists paid tribute to his influence

37:26

the early nineteen seventy seven for example richard

37:28

hell released a seminal track of

37:30

new york pump called of white settlers

37:51

generation

37:57

the long as a generation

37:59

mcewen probably

38:02

could have had a giant chunk of the

38:04

publishing on blank generations that he cared

38:06

to pursue the matter he did not care

38:08

to pursue the matter

38:10

the decade later nirvana recorded a demo

38:13

covering rod song seasons in the sun

38:15

which another artist terry jackson taking the number

38:17

one in the seventies give up easily

38:25

like nothing

38:28

ever came of it although you'll be totally

38:30

on surprised to hear surat later claimed

38:33

he and kurt cobain kurt plan to write plan song together

38:35

before cobain die

38:37

between richard how kurt cobain

38:40

even an album covers from one of the guys and wean

38:43

it's not like it's impossible to imagine people

38:45

rediscovering fraud mcewen

38:47

the rod mcewen machine at shutdown

38:50

that's part of the problem with being a

38:52

one man show like this is that's

38:55

without without the real infrastructure

38:57

to cut a keep it all together is that's you're

38:59

constantly being asked for fifty things at once

39:01

and so unlike in of his contemporaries

39:04

in that period say of the like porn

39:06

actress who who had

39:08

that infrastructure mcewen

39:10

didn't have there was always somebody for burt

39:12

bacharach who was who was in bacharach

39:15

inc or whatever it was was always marching

39:17

cameron

39:18

rod was never marching forward no

39:21

one was marching forward

39:22

no one was even opening the mail so

39:24

he faded from the cultural landscape

39:27

the didn't keep playing shows from time to time though

39:30

in two thousand one and his ex went to one

39:33

like me and he had gotten interested in mchugh and after

39:36

seen as books and records oliver thrift stores

39:38

it went along with our

39:40

with our brady bunch fetishism and

39:42

are partridge family fetishism was the ironic

39:44

universe in which i dwelled i'm for

39:47

much of the nineties

39:48

when you heard about a show with the performing arts center in thousand

39:50

oaks california he wanted to go as

39:52

a joke basically i mean how can i

39:54

not go to this i'm i figured

39:57

okay it's gonna be kids it'll be hilarious

39:59

though our and it will be sat down and wife

40:02

went down and mcewen came out and it

40:04

was just him backed by a small

40:06

jazz combo and

40:09

he played for about

40:11

having was like three hours with a with an intermission

40:14

and it was one of the greatest live performances

40:17

i've ever seen arm and i say

40:19

that with no irony at all i see

40:21

that completely genuinely i'm

40:24

he tore people's hearts out and i

40:26

walked out of this thing thinking

40:28

like okay i i've

40:31

been wrong about this guy and a whatever i thought

40:34

i knew about this guy whatever i thought i understood

40:37

hi

40:38

i was wrong

40:41

andy had been transformed

40:44

from someone who ironically appreciated

40:46

rob mcewen to someone who genuinely

40:48

loved rod mcewen

40:50

i've experienced that kind of transformation myself

40:53

not with rod mcewen but with many

40:55

many other artists it's totally

40:57

magical suddenly something hits

41:00

you a song or a painting or a poem

41:02

as it's like a new room opens up in your

41:04

heart rod might have let

41:06

most everything fade away the he could

41:09

still do that

41:14

mcewen died in two thousand and fifteen the

41:16

only times obituary noted that he was survived

41:19

by his half brother edward

41:21

mcewen habib after

41:23

rod died edward was left with a real mess

41:25

a mansion full of stuff that no one had dealt with

41:27

for decades he threw up his hands

41:30

trashed a lot of it gave a lot of stuff away including

41:33

handing over all of rodman humans master

41:35

tapes to a friend

41:37

that's who they were with when andes asks

41:40

who for his day job as a producer specializing

41:42

in historical audio and our final releases

41:45

wondered what was happening with them

41:47

the knew that nothing was going on and i thought

41:50

well

41:51

maybe this is something i should get involved with let's

41:54

see what's up and tried to negotiate

41:56

with a guy for months but the deal fell apart

41:59

then honey eighteen edward

42:01

died

42:02

the little while after that the guy called andy

42:04

back saying you know those tapes

42:06

that i own i can't afford store

42:08

them anymore and so i'm going to have them

42:10

destroyed

42:12

and you know to me there

42:14

are few worse sentences in the english

42:16

language

42:18

that you could say to me than than i'm going

42:20

to destroy the master tapes

42:23

so and he made a deal so the tapes

42:25

wouldn't be destroyed so they could stay in their climate

42:27

controlled storage facility and

42:30

that's how andes acts accidental

42:32

rod mcewen fan ended up paying

42:34

an enormous amount of money every year to

42:36

store the complete recorded output

42:38

of rod mixture there's

42:41

a catch though he can't do

42:43

anything with the people who own

42:45

the rights to use this material or

42:47

edwards airs who don't seem to see

42:49

what could be so important about all this and have been

42:51

unable to agree on any kind of deal

42:54

so i'm in the odd a

42:56

somewhat peculiar situation

42:59

, being the guardian of rodman humans master

43:01

tapes which i have no right to release

43:04

or monetize or do anything with really

43:06

other than i can listen to them privately

43:09

he's been trying to get the library of congress are some

43:11

university archives to take them them

43:13

one wants the tapes because ride

43:16

mchugh and has no cultural profile but

43:18

i'll never recover their profile unless someone

43:20

uses the uses the most saleable

43:23

poet and american history and

43:25

now he can't get anyone to give a shit talking

43:27

to handy

43:28

i found it incredibly frustrating essentially

43:32

a bunch of random decisions

43:34

by people who aren't even rod mcewen

43:37

have led to situation which there isn't even

43:40

a way for this material to

43:42

come back into the conversation when

43:44

you walk away material and when things

43:46

are consigned to various memory holes and media

43:49

storage facilities ah they

43:52

can slip away

43:55

one of the weird contradictions of living

43:57

in the future the every this

44:00

is at the tip of your fingers you can

44:02

only find who your fingers know to search

44:04

for the not so distant

44:06

past artist could avoid slipping away

44:09

just thanks to the physical evidence a record

44:11

in a thrift store a used book

44:13

with a man and a white turtleneck on its cover

44:16

murmuring to the bewildered shopper who

44:19

am i who did i matter to

44:21

who that i stop mattering to

44:25

try to explain what was driving me crazy

44:27

to andy

44:28

keep thinking about the difference between

44:31

modify algorithm

44:33

which directs you towards things

44:35

that other people like right now and

44:38

a thrift store which directs you

44:40

towards things the people like twenty years ago

44:42

and then sold for stores and the like

44:45

were really foundational for me

44:49

you never knew what you would find

44:51

and when you did find something he

44:53

would often be confusing

44:55

i would say that's that's

44:57

sometimes the best stuff of all

44:59

the

45:00

the stuff that doesn't make sense the stuff it may

45:02

seem irritating the sense that it first

45:04

you you just you can't really even

45:06

figure out a response to other than other than

45:08

to ironically last at it because you don't

45:11

even have an emotional vocabulary little properly

45:13

describe what you're experiencing

45:16

i definitely don't have the emotional vocabulary

45:19

to properly describe the rod mcewen

45:21

experience maybe someday

45:23

i'll have the epiphany and he had a

45:25

maybe i want but , some

45:27

of you will will that kind

45:29

of kind so rare

45:31

and so wonderful that really puts

45:33

my reflexive judgments in their place in

45:36

the face of that who cares when

45:38

i think the well mcewen

45:41

for solid decade rod

45:43

mcewen was the most sincere man in

45:45

america is art came directly

45:47

from assault i remain bewildered

45:50

by that are by a spain's i

45:52

as eighty years of love and lies

45:55

but i'm also amazed and hardened that

45:57

someone this weird this pure

45:59

this told

45:59

the unique got to be mega

46:02

famous and a bygone america

46:05

i may never be on the same wavelength

46:07

as rod but , know what i

46:10

still get off on him

46:13

hi dan hi , do

46:17

thank you rod

46:18

thank you for being you

46:22

this is decoder ring i'm

46:24

damn place you can find me

46:26

on twitter at damn place k

46:28

place i s

46:30

and i will have hoskin you have any cultural

46:32

mysteries you want us to decode you can email

46:34

us at decoder ring athlete dot

46:37

com this podcast was written

46:39

by dan coys it was edited by will have

46:41

hoskin who also produces decoder ring

46:43

with katie shepherd derek john sr

46:45

supervising

46:46

reserve narrative podcast narrow jacob

46:48

is our technical director special

46:50

thanks to bury alfonzo and his

46:52

acts eric novel and journalism's

46:56

if you haven't yet please subscribe and ray

46:58

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47:00

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47:02

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47:25

plus today phoenix

47:45

hi i'm court a revolution

47:47

and i'm selena blasio and we're here

47:49

to tell you about our new podcast

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after

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all reality tv debut our lives

47:55

changed overnight all of a sudden

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everyone thought they knew the real us

48:00

why on homecoming queen's we give your favorite reality

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stars the for to set the record straight

48:05

as it really villains or are they saying what

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was the chimp behind that jaw dropping moment

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and what's life really like now that they're

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back home and everybody knows as

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there

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on homecoming queen's that we as the

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licensee you're dying to know the answers to

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hear all the exclusive guys the by listening

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every wednesday on the you podcast network

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or was full episode our eating

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