Episode 64 begins with the story of Cape Cod's oddest tourist attraction. For more than fifty years the SS James Longstreet sat in Cape Cod Bay, off of Eastham. It was a former Liberty Ship turned target ship. Routinely bombed for decades the Longstreet was also a popular photography subject as well as boating adventure. What ever became of Cape Cod's target ship?
This week's Road Trip heads into Central Maine and the little big town of Bangor. Though it maintains much of the quintessential Maine charm Bangor is also home to an international airport. What is there to see and do in Bangor? You'll find out!
20 years ago this week Grunge/Alternative music lost a vocal giant. Alice In Chains was at the forefront of the Seattle sound. Singer Layne Staley was a major part of that with his truly unique voice and hauntingly personal lyrics hat depicted his drug addiction. Hear more about his life, the impact his music left, and his sad ending that left a big hole in alternative music.
This week's Top 5 dives into some of the biggest product flops of the 1980's. Did you use any of these, or remember any of them?
There's a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule as well centering around the birthday of one of comedy's biggest icons, Eddie Murphy.
Be sure to watch for my livestreams called Without A Map Friday's at 8pm on Instagram which serve as a sort of postgame show for the podcast. Find them on IGTV after they've finished.
Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 63 here.
Episode 64 begins with the story of Cape Cod's oddest tourist attraction. For more than fifty years the SS James Longstreet sat in Cape Cod Bay, off of Eastham. It was a former Liberty Ship turned target ship. Routinely bombed for decades the Longstreet was also a popular photography subject as well as boating adventure. What ever became of Cape Cod's target ship?
This week's Road Trip heads into Central Maine and the little big town of Bangor. Though it maintains much of the quintessential Maine charm Bangor is also home to an international airport. What is there to see and do in Bangor? You'll find out!
20 years ago this week Grunge/Alternative music lost a vocal giant. Alice In Chains was at the forefront of the Seattle sound. Singer Layne Staley was a major part of that with his truly unique voice and hauntingly personal lyrics hat depicted his drug addiction. Hear more about his life, the impact his music left, and his sad ending that left a big hole in alternative music.
This week's Top 5 dives into some of the biggest product flops of the 1980's. Did you use any of these, or remember any of them?
There's a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule as well centering around the birthday of one of comedy's biggest icons, Eddie Murphy.
Be sure to watch for my livestreams called Without A Map Friday's at 8pm on Instagram which serve as a sort of postgame show for the podcast. Find them on IGTV after they've finished.
Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 63 here.
Intro
Hello World, and welcome to the in my footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and this is episode 64. This week's show starts off with the story of one of Cape Cod's oddest-ever tourist attractions. Cape Cod's own target ship, the SS James Longstreet. We're going to take a road trip up to Bangor, Maine and tell you what that town is all about why you should go visit. We're gonna go way way back in the day and reflect on the death of legendary grunge singer Alice In chains front man Layne Staley 20 years later, we're going to have a brand new top five that looks at the top 519 80s product flops. There's going to be a brand new this week in history and Time Capsule all coming up right now on episode 64 of the in my footsteps podcast. Welcome in everybody. Welcome into April. This is the first episode that is premiering in April. So I will say welcome to it, we are getting into the swing of spring. Thank you all for tuning in. I appreciate everyone that has checked out all the episodes any of the episodes leading up to now if this is your first time listening to the podcast, welcome in. This is also the first episode coming after the premiere of the lady of the dunes documentary that premiered last week, April 1st And 2nd, I would love to tell you how the premiere went, I'm assuming it went well. But I'm actually recording this before I go to the premiere. So I can't lie to you and say it was awesome. Or tell you that it was terrible. I think it's going to be great. But obviously next week on the podcast, I will have way more actual information on how that went. And anything that came from it. Because I do believe that this documentary premiere is going to open some more doors and help me kind of get the book published. Because that's the main thing, I'm still looking for an agent actually to help me pitch it to all the big publishers. Because this a true crime book that is one of definitely New England but America's longest cold cases and just a fascinating story. It's going to be something worth checking out. So I need to have aim to the highest I can go as far as publishers go. It's sort of appropriate as in April springtime, things are blooming. Everything's kind of changing for the better as far as outside goes with the weather. And I feel that way for myself with projects that are starting to come to fruition. The Lady of the dunes book is one the imminent opening of Cape kettlebell and Brewster which is my day job, that is another one. They're pushing up the re-release date for the Re-revising of my very first book in my footsteps at Cape Cod travel guide. So instead of it being due in December, it's due in July, which means it should be released in time for the fall. So that's another big feather in the cap for me and obviously, we've got several great episodes of the podcasts that are going to be coming in the month of April. And it all starts right now. When looking for subjects to talk about, especially from Cape Cod, since I mean, this is where I grew up. So if you're from here, you'll understand a lot of this, but if you're not, it's like trying to find things, that kind of crossover so that people that aren't from here will be interested in hearing about it. And so this lead story here this week is one of those. It's the story of one of Cape Cod's weirdest attractions, despite the fact that it was miles out in the ocean. For those of you that grew up here, I would say specifically 20 plus years ago and that time, you'll be very familiar with Cape Cod's target ship. For those of you that have never heard of it. We'll get ready for a crash course in just a weird and unique story. So coming up right now is the story of the SS James Longstreet. Cape Cod's target ship on episode 64 of the in my footsteps podcast.
Cape Cod’s Target Ship – SS James Longstreet
For more than five decades, a giant rusting hulk loomed large over Cape Cod Bay. It was battered, beaten and bruised, yet remained a stoic relic to a bygone day. It was created for World War Two and named for a Confederate Civil War General. Though not visible anymore today, it is still there lurking just below the surface, a Liberty ship, a target ship, a day trip boating adventure. This is the story of the SS James Longstreet. So first of all, who is James Longstreet Well, the man behind the ship's name was born in South Carolina on January 8, 1821, he graduated West Point in 1842 and would be given the rank of brigadier general. When James Longstreet joined the Confederate Army in 1861. He gained the trust of General Robert E. Lee, however, Drew opposed leaving strategic moves, beginning with the frontal assault known as Pickett's Charge on July 3 1863, at Gettysburg. In the end, anywhere from 5800 to 6200 of the 12 or 13,000 Confederate soldiers were killed on that fateful day. Long Street held several federal offices after the war, beginning ironically under former Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Longstreet was an ambassador to Turkey, as well as a US Marshal for the state of Georgia. Rumors of corruption led to his removal from the ladder post in 1884. Though, his post-war affiliation with the former enemy earned Longstreet some scorn from the Confederate loyalists. This was only exacerbated with his criticism of Lee in his memoir from Manassas to Appomattox in 1896. In 1897, Longstreet married Helen Dortch a woman more than 40 years his junior after being severely wounded in battle in 1864 Longstreet was told he would likely not live another decade. He persevered though and lived another 40 years, finally succumbing to pneumonia January 2 1904, just days shy of his 83rd birthday. A crazy story is a fact that his wife Helen lived until 1962 which made her a civil war widow living nearly a century after the war had ended. Known as the Confederate War Horse James Long Street's name would not completely fade into the history books. After the outbreak of World War II in America in 1941 2708, cargo ships known as liberty ships were built to help move supplies overseas. One such ship was a 417 foot long 7000 ton steel beast named after James Longstreet. This particular ship was assembled in Houston, Texas and put into wartime service in October 1942. The vessel would only make three journeys abroad though, they did include stops in Australia, India and England, but the end of active service for the SS James Longstreet came during the fall of 1943. It was one of four ships to be forced to ground at Sandy Hook, New Jersey on October 26 1943, and gale force winds. The ship sat on the tidal flats for a month before finally being refloated on November 23. Upon being towed to New York for further repairs, it was deemed a total structural loss and decommissioned, the SS James Longstreet was sent to a ship graveyard. In early 1944, the Navy acquired the longstreet as a target ship for surface-to-air missiles. It sat in New York Harbor until another big storm ripped it from its moorings and sent it drifting away. For weeks the ship was missing, but when found on December 4, it was towed to Norfolk, Virginia. It was around this time that the Navy began project dove, which was a guided missile project. They had been using areas of Monomoy Island and camp Wellfleet east of lookout hollow road on Cape Cod for land tests, and desired a target ship for water testing. The SS Longstreet provided just the perfect answer. On April 25 1945, just as World War II was starting to come to an end, the former Liberty ship was towed into Cape Cod Bay. It was anchored in shallow water off of Eastham on a spot called Newfound Shoal, which was an oval-shaped spit. The Long Street was ballasted with more than 10,000 steel drums and scrap metal as it was partially sunk and became the newest Cape Cod resident. And this is where most people listening to this will become familiar with the SS James Longstreet. The bombings of the ship went on day and night during the summer. The times were never known to residents of the surrounding towns of Eastham, Wellfleet, Orleans, and Brewster only the rumbles of approaching aircraft gave them any notice. So that must have been fun. Aircraft from as far away as Rhode Island came to lay waste to the behemoth in the shallows. July 4 bombing raids were of particular thrill to tourists and children. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Countless tons of ammunition was fired into and upon the vessel until it looked like steel Swiss cheese out in Cape Cod Bay. Those pilots prepared for the Korean War and later the Vietnam War by practicing on the long street. Naturally, not everyone was enamored with the capes, the oddest tourist attraction though. The noise and rumbling of windows of homes in the surrounding areas with bad enough, however, the occasional errant bomb was a different problem. most well-known of those such incidents was when a bomb exploded near the front door of a home on Shurtleff Road in Eastham on Mother's Day 1951. Thankfully, nobody was injured, but it was definitely a jarring experience for a rural beach town like Eastham. Time passed and the SS James Longstreet now rusted and full of holes was retired in 1970. The reasons were both due to the proximity to the public to the bombings and the closing of the Quonset Point Naval Station in North Kingstown Rhode Island. Despite it no longer being peppered with live rounds, it remained a hugely popular attraction for photographers, painters, and even some graffiti artists who in 1966 spray painted a large Playboy Bunny logo on the side of the ship. slowly over time, the long street looked less and less like a proud wartime cargo ship. Some calls came to officially sink it fully underwater. However, time did that on its own. In a fitting piece of full circle irony, a large storm finally did in the long street, much as had ended its active duty in 1943 April 1996, saw storm finally submerge the hall of the former Liberty ship. Occasionally the ship comes back to the forefront, either at very low tides when it peaks its head above the water or more chilling when an unexploded ordinance is discovered either on the surrounding beaches or by divers and fishermen in the waters around the ships resting place. Outside of those moments though, SS James Longstreet has been but a memory for over 25 years. It was once one of the most photographed locations on Cape Cod, and thus has been immortalized in countless images. If you do Google searches. You can find amazing photos of the destroyed hall of the Long Street at sunset. Some amazing ones. I'll try to post a photo on social media. But for those looking to perhaps catch a glimpse of this sunken legend. It sits approximately two miles off the coast of Eastham nearly do west of first encounter beach. I have had plans for a while to go with my buddy Steve out there at the lowest tides to try to see it. I have very few vague memories of it as a child having someone point to it off the coast and it just looked like a little island off the shore. But it's still out there. Like a horror movie villain just below the surface, the SS James Longstreet, the former Cape Cod target ship and that's the story of one of Cape Cod's oddest tourist attractions.
Road Trip: Bangor, ME
All right, it's road trip time again. And this week, we are heading off to Maine. We're going to visit the town in Central Maine Bangor, Maine. It's one of those towns that most people have heard of, I'm sure a lot of you have been to. But for those of you that have never been to it, I'm going to give you some reasons why you should go and check it out. So for me, Bangor is far enough north in Maine, that you get that sense of classic Maine, as I call it, the wilderness part. But it's not so far north that you're in where there are not even any towns Incorporated, where it's just woods and dirt roads all the way up to the Canadian border. For me from Cape Cod, it's about 300 miles north to get to Bangor, Maine, I think it takes me five and a half, six hours to drive there. I've only done it twice. So it's not like I do it all the time. For the rest of you get an idea of where it is. It's 130 miles northeast of Portland, Maine. So that should tell you it's up there. It's like the dead center in the state. Bangor is definitely an interesting dichotomy between small town and big city because it only has as of 2019 Bangor had a population of just over 32,000 people. So it's small-ish town to maybe medium size, but it also has an international airport. So that's like you need to be kind of a bigger city to get an international airport built in your town. This also makes it easier to get there so that if you're traveling from around New England or around the country, you can fly right into Bangor and see all this stuff without having to be like me and drive six hours. The only real catch with going to Bangor is that if you don't like winter, you're going to need to go in the peak of summer, July and August because obviously the further north you go in New England, the longer the winter is getting the shoulder season with the late fall or the early spring ends up still being winter up there. It's not like going up to northern Canada, but it's just one of those were October and March can be somewhat nicer down in southern New England up there. It's cooler. But if you go up there, what is it there to actually see in Bangor, Maine and do one interesting thing that I found kind of by accident was this giant statue of Paul Bunyan. It's at 519 Main Street and it's 31 feet tall. Although it can be debated Bangor claims to be the birthplace of Paul Bunyan and the lumber industry as well. Interestingly, the town of Akeley Minnesota also claims to be the home of Paul Bunyan, and they have their own statue. So it gets it's like a battle between the two towns to who can claim this American folklore legend. But to help out in Bangor's defense, they're the ones that have the official birth certificate of Paul Bunyan at the clerk's office in town. And according to it, he was born February 12 1834. So take that for what you will. You go from one folklore legend, to an official legend. And you can go and check out the house of Stephen King, one of America's greatest authors, one of the greatest living authors and just a king of horror. Most of the stories that he's written are centered in Maine, and specifically Bangor in the area around it. So it's interesting to know that fact, and then go around Bangor and see if you can notice anything that would fit a Stephen King novel. The home is at 47 West Broadway. It was originally built in 1858 and has been owned by Stephen King and his wife Tabitha since 1980. The house is one of the most photographed celebrity homes in America behind you know Graceland with Elvis. I don't know too many others. If you're hoping to catch a glimpse of Stephen King there though, he typically spends his time in his other homes, although it's supposed to be open as a writer's retreat. But it's surrounded by iron gates and iron fences. So it's not like you can go in the house, you take a picture in front of it and know that that's where a lot of these tremendous books he made were created. If you want to stay kind of in the horror genre field, you go from Stephen King's House to the Mount Hope garden cemetery at 1048 State Street. It's the second oldest garden cemetery in the country. It was opened in 1834. These types of cemeteries are the idea of almost celebrating life and death together where the setting of the cemetery yeah, there's graves everywhere. But there's beautiful architecture and manicured gardens and trees, almost like it's a park with dead bodies all around it. If you don't mind the macabre and the kind of creepy, it's fun to walk around the cemetery and just look at the layout. It's beautiful sunsets and wintertime and in the fall. But maybe that's just me. A more traditional park if you don't want to hang out in a cemetery is cascade Park. It's located at 600 State Street. There are some beautiful short trails and these really nice bubbling fountains that shoot into the air and some waterfalls. I got some great pictures when I visited there. The park was originally built in 1934, with 1000s of cars going there daily to see the displays of the fountains and the waterways. It fell into disrepair in the 70s though, but luckily was renovated in 1988 and is still a great place to go check out today. Cascade Park is right along the waterway right along the Penobscot River. And that's one of those things like I see with a lot of these road trips to just kind of find your own place. And there's so much beauty along the waterfront in Bangor, Maine, that you'll want to just drive along and just find these little cozy nooks to park and watch boats go by. And with a lot of these places, like I say if you're close enough that you can go and drive there and have a day trip. That's great. You can see a lot of what there is to see in Bangor, but it might be better to spend the night there. In doing the road trip segments for the podcast, I tried to find local hotels. But unfortunately, there's not a lot. I've saw so many chain hotels that you can stay at in Bangor. And I think that is due to the fact that they have the International Airport, that all of the chains, the big chains are there. So just pick one of those, I'm sure they're fine. But even if you choose to stay at a chain hotel, where they have 1000s of them across the country, you can eat at a place that is very much local. And that's the timber Kitchen and Bar. It's actually inside the residence in at 22 bass Park Boulevard. So there you go, you maybe you stay at the Residence Inn, and then you eat here, visit them at Timber kitchen and bar.com. And you can see their menu and the great food they've got. It's all sorts of typical Americana food. But naturally, of course, they have Maine lobster, because a lot of people go up there for that. But there's so much more to see in Bangor with these segments, I can only give you so much. It's like an appetizer, like a taste of what you can find there. Go to visit Bangor maine.com and get a better idea of what they have to offer. And more images of the things I've described the Stephen King's House Cascade Park, look at the Paul Bunyan statue. And then even better yet, just drive up there and go around Bangor and find your own way. There might be things that I never saw that you'll find and let me know. And then I can go back to Bangalore and have a whole new adventure. Even though it's close to six hours away for me to get there. It is worth going to Bangor seems far away. But the drive is half the fun. And then you get there and there's so much to see and do. And that classic main feel that it's hard to describe. But when you're there and you feel it, you know it. That's going to wrap up this week's road trip. I'll be back next week as we find another beautiful quintessential New England town for me to share with you and hopefully you'll go check it out too.
This Week In History
This week in history, we are going back 61 years ago this week, April 3 1961. And the birth of one of comedies greatest legends, the one and only Eddie Murphy. I could go on and on about Eddie Murphy and his impact on me as a kid. But there's only so much time for this week in history. He's a legend. He was on Saturday Night Live when he was 19. So he created all those characters there when he was Gumby and Mr. Robinson, and when he imitated James Brown and Stevie Wonder, but that was just the beginning. In the 80s he had some of the biggest movies from comedy classics like coming to America, which is one of my favorites ever to kind of action comedies like 48 hours and Beverly Hills Cop to underrated comedy gems, like trading places. And then there was his stand-up in the 80s with delirious and raw might mean his comedy back then was definitely heavy R rated. And here I am 10, 11, 12 year old white kid from Cape Cod, reciting all these things that I was watching, but it was so funny and revolutionary. How many stand-up comedians had these specials on TV on cable? You can only name a few back then. Richard Pryor, George Carlin. That might be it. I mean, there might be more, but there are really not many. Now today a lot more do. But back then Eddie Murphy and his stand-up was just revolutionary. Even in the 90s as he toned down his comedy and started making more family-friendly films. They still were good nutty professor was great. And Bowfinger with Steve Martin is supremely underrated. Then he got in the 2000s and kinda well I can't make any excuses for that. But the thing is, Everyone is just waiting for the comeback of Eddie Murphy, the old school Eddie Murphy, whether it's a Stand Up Tour, or it's making the movies like he used to make and think about it. He's been in the spotlight since he was 19 he got on SNL when in 1980. So we're talking 42 years that he's been in the spotlight and he's still young. He's only 61 years old. So there's loads of time for Eddie Murphy to make more classics. Do more stand-up. It's so hard to narrow down the best of the best for Eddie Murphy. For people that aren't familiar with his work, I would say find a clip show of SNL of his work. I would say check out coming to America for sure. Beverly Hills Cop. But oh man, Eddie Murphy was a huge important part of my childhood. And I'm just waiting for him to make, I don't want to say a comeback because he's always been around, but I want the old Eddie Murphy. I want the guy that was pushing the buttons and pushing boundaries back when I was a preteen. And he's still got plenty of time because His birthday was only 61 years ago this week in history. So he's still pretty young. And now it's time for another time capsule. We are going back 40 years ago this week, April 9 1982 40 years ago and I can actually remember this time in my life. The number one song was I Love Rock and Roll by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. This was off the album of the same name. I love rock and roll. And the song is actually a cover because it was originally written in 1975 by a man named Alan Merrill for his band the arrows for Joan Jett. It became her and her band's only number-one song it was number one for seven weeks, and the video for it was one of the first on MTV which had only been around for a few months at the time. And at the beginning of the video you can hear one of Joan jets other big songs bad reputation starting. The number one movie was Porky's. If you look it up, it's literally classified as a sex comedy. And that's the best way to describe it as very raunchy, especially for early 80s. It's supposed to take place in the 1950s and it's the escapades of some teenagers in Florida and a strip club called Porky's owned by a man named Porky. This is one of those types of films that is critically panned but financially successful. It's only 34% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Yet it made $160 million on a budget of between four and $5 million at the time, and it spawned several sequels to the number one TV show was Dallas. This was the saga of the Ewing family and the Big Oil Empire. They had a big time drama, and everyone knew this Jr. Ewing, who shot Jr was one of the biggest TV cliffhangers in history. It ran for 14 seasons, and 357 episodes between 1978 and 1991. And even spawned a successful spin off Knott's landing. And if you're around 40 years ago, April 9 1982. And you were looking for a luxury car to get to drive to show off. Well, you're in luck. You could buy a brand new DeLorean for $29,825 or about just over $87,000 today. And let me tell you when adjusted for inflation. A DeLorean back then is more expensive than the Porsche Macan SUV from 2020 to the Land Rover Defender SUV, and the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. I had to go check prices to see. So it was a pretty expensive car. But we all know it as a pretty big flop. So that's going to lead us into our top 5 1980s product flops. Is the DeLorean on the list. Well, let's find out right now.
Top 5: 1980s Product Flops
The 1980s were a great time to be a kid with the rise of cable TV, MTV, the rise of video games like the Nintendo Entertainment System, the dawning of compact discs in the Sony Walkman and all that great stuff. But of course, the 80s wasn't all fun and games not everything was a rousing success. There was definitely a fair share of flops in the 1980s and that's this week's Top Five the top 5 1980s product flops. Most of these I think you'll remember some of them you might not and you'll have to go look them up. But we're gonna dive right in now. And with all of these lists, they're in no particular order. The list itself is conversation enough. As always, we have some honorable mentions. So the honorable mentions for 1980s product flops include the Apple Lisa computer, lifesavers soda, which was based on the candy, Pepsi am which was a soda to go with your breakfast, and big perfume slash cologne which was made by the people that make the lighters and the pens. All of those failed. But speaking of failures, none can top the top five. So here we go top 5 1980s product flops. Number one. You heard about it before the DeLorean John DeLoreans car company didn't even last a decade and it started in the 1970s. The car is very well known today because of its role in the Back to the Future trilogy. But back then, in the 1980s, it was hugely overpriced. There was not a real huge amount of interest from consumers. I mean, it had a cool look with the gull-wing doors but it was so expensive and impractical. I mean, God forbid you get into a tight parking space and you can open your door because it has a swing upwards. If you want one though, if you go to classic dmc.com They have classic and refurbished DeLoreans. I just went to the site to check prices and of course, you know, when they say contact us for a price, it's too expensive. That's a shady tactic, but the cheapest one I saw was $60,000. So there you go. Number two was New Coke boy, what a failure. This was, why change the flavor of something that works? Who knows, Coke had been losing the market share for soft drinks in the 80s. So in 1985, they changed the flavor of their drink. It was such a humongous flop that within three months they brought back the original flavor and called it Coca-Cola Classic. New Coke was such a huge bomb, that it almost feels like they did it intentionally to get that market share back where they made a product so bad that people would long for the original, but who knows? Number three was Colgate kitchen entrees. That's right, microwave oven dinners made by a company that makes toothpaste. These came out in 1982 and were seen as an attempt by Colgate to capitalize on their popularity in the oral hygiene department by expanding into frozen ready-made meals. Unfortunately, people weren't willing to try beef lasagna or salisbury steak made by a toothpaste company and it flopped huge after doing that Colgate was smart and stuck to oral hygiene. Number four is the ET Atari game. Considered probably the biggest bust video game in history. The ET game was rushed in 1982 to get out in time for Christmas to capitalize on the movie. The graphics are nothing to write home about. I mean most Atari Games The graphics are not why you would play them today. Back then they were seen as great. But it was just boring and pointless. And it was rushed. So it looked like crap played like crap. So many of the cartridges were made. Now initially it sold well, with about 2.6 million games sold by the end of 1982. However, nearly 700,000 of those were returned sometime early in 1983. And somewhere between two and a half and three and a half million cartridges went unsold. Forever. I remember growing up there was the urban legend that a lot of these unsold cartridges got buried in the desert in New Mexico. And it ended up being true in 2014. They dug up the copies, it was mind-blowing, and this game itself was a huge contribution to the video game crash of 1983 that nearly killed the industry. And finally number five on the top 5 1980s product flops is the McDLT it first came out in 1984 and was really just a burger but it was the lettuce and tomato and the veggies on one side of the styrofoam with the burger on the other side. And the tagline was keep the cool side cool and the hot side hot. And it was a two-chambered styrofoam container so it was big and cumbersome. And it was just pointless. I don't think I ever got to McDLT when it was around in the 1980s because it was just like what is the point of this? charging extra money just to get the lettuce and tomato on the cool side. There is a famous commercial of a pre-Seinfeld Jason Alexander dancing around and singing the McDLT song but other than that was a huge bomb that lasted until the early 90s and contributed a lot of extra Styrofoam to landfills. But there you have it the top 519 80s product flops. Did you ever come in contact with any of these if you grew up in the 80s DeLoreans the New Coke flavor Colgate kitchen entrees Atari’s ET game or McDonald's McDLT the only thing I could think of is I've seen DeLoreans. All the others are just I've never seen played eaten any of those. But I'll be back next week with a brand new top five, filled with random fun.
Back In the Day: Layne Staley’s Death 20 Years Later
Those of you that know me in real life, and those of you that have listened to a lot of episodes of this podcast, you know that I obviously child of the 1980s, teenager of the 1990s and grunge music, that genre slice of alternative music was my life. From the time I was in seventh grade all the way up through that post-grunge period. The few years that came after Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain killed himself. I always lump it together grunge and alternative because Grunge is very specific. When you think of bands, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden and a few others, it's kind of centric to Seattle, but not limited to it. So I lump in grunge and alternative because there are other bands that are very similar in style. Bands like Stone Temple Pilots Smashing Pumpkins. An unfortunate sort of footnote to the grunge alternative movement of the 1990s is the sheer number of artists and musicians who died young, whether because of drugs or depression and suicide, from the death of basically the voice of my generation Gen-X Kurt Cobain in 1994. The later on deaths of Scott Weiland and Chris Cornell, grunge has seen its share of big-time names leave this earth early 20 years ago this week, one such big name left this earth and that was Layne Staley of Alice In chains. And so we're going to kind of dive into who he was what he meant, and his tragic story because his may be the saddest of all of them. But that's all up to debate. Alice In chains was formed in Seattle in 1987. And they burst on to the mainstream scene in 1990. With their album Facelift had the big rock hit man in the box it also had we die young bleed the freak these other original type grunge songs before it became the in thing to enjoy grunge in 1991 when Nirvana's Nevermind came out, my eyes weren't open to grunge music until I first heard Smells Like Teen Spirit in August 1991. So I wasn't familiar with Alice In chains until after Facelift come out it was more when their second album dirt came out in 1992 that I became aware of who Alice In chains was because once Nirvana came out, and I realized that there was more to music than just the pop that you heard on the radio. Nirvana was the gatekeeper that got me in and I got into all these other bands, Alice In chains was definitely one. They had this and I mean this in the biggest compliment way this sort of grimy sludgy sound, especially with their guitars, they were always tuned down. Just they sounded dark and as gritty and grimy as the music was, it was the vocals of Layne Staley that tied it together. He had a voice that was one of the most unique in music, at least at the time. And that's all up for debate. It depends on when you came up in the world, what you see as a unique voice or unique music. Alice In chains album dirt was just an eye opener, with songs like rooster and Would? angry chair, down in a hole. These are icons of 90s grunge alternative music, and I played the hell out of that album. And I still play that music all the time. The music that you enjoyed growing up seems to be the music that sticks with you all through adulthood. It was like I said the gritty grimy music Jerry Cantrell played some great guitar, but it was also the singing of Layne Staley, the vocals, the lyrics that were just full of darkness and despair and little that I know now looking back, do I realize that a lot of it was him like autobiographical about his issues his demons that would eventually end up costing him his life. Layne Staley had met model Demaree perote in 1988, and they started dating and they were engaged to be married. They were described by friends as soulmates. But with the success of dirt in 1992, they began to drift apart before the engagement broke off in 1994. This is an important thing because, yes, Elaine was involved in drugs as was Demaree. But when they split up, it got worse. And her addiction was the first one to end a life where she ended up getting really sick from the addiction and dying in 1996. And Elaine was really never the same again. After Layne was told about her death in October 1996 He was actually put on suicide watch for 24 hours. If you go back and listen, there are several songs by Alice In chains that were written by Layne Staley about his relationship with Demaree they include the songs Godsmack sludge factory Shame In you and the last song ever recorded by Layne with Alice In chains, which is appropriately entitled Died. As a teenager in high school, you don't you see these rock stars and you don't think that they may be suffering from drug addiction or mental health issues because me I was too young to know. So Alice In chains had dirt. They had jar of flies, which was an EP in 1993 that had some amazing songs like nutshell, rotten apple, don't follow them. They had another EP just called SAP that had got me wrong, which was a huge hit. Then they had their self-titled album in 1995. So my junior year, that's the one that has the cover with the three-legged dog on it. And this was when the band was already falling apart lanes drug addiction was bad. And eventually it came to a head at the unplugged show where it was kind of the rumor is that Layne was on something and he was zoning out. And so they'd be doing the songs and Jerry Cantrell will be singing but Layne would be like eyes closed. But when it came to the part for him to sing, he'd be awakened into it. He left Alice In chains not too long after, and it kind of went downhill from there, he became very reclusive after denri died. In the end of 1996. He just sunk into drug addiction. They reunited the band for the best of the box in 1999 which had a few new songs on it, like get born again. And Layne even did the song for the faculty movie. He was in that supergroup class of 99 that did another brick in the wall. So there was always hope that Alice In chains would fully reunite. But it was just never to be. I had always assumed that Layne kind of became a shut-in. But I always assumed that he was alone. Only now recently researching this for the 20th anniversary of his death do I realize that family and friends did see him but it became more common for them not to see or hear from him for weeks at a time. It was just the way it was, as he was just wasting away and his appearance. He was losing his hair and his teeth and he got so thin that he was under 100 pounds. It was as if he had vanished off the face of the earth although he was still alive. And I could always lose myself in the music and just say all you know someday, Alice In chains will reunite and they'll make a new album. Because Jesus I mean Stone Temple Pilots got back together after Scott Weiland went to jail. So I was like anything is possible. But his drug addiction was so bad and it was never going to let him go people tried to get him help. He didn't want help. You know, I think you can't force someone to get better if they don't really want to they have to at least subtly, somewhere subconsciously want to get help. He died of a speedball it's called the mixture of heroin and cocaine. Mike Starr, who was the basis for Alice In chains was actually with Layne Staley the day before he died, and in an interview had said he wanted to call 911 to get him help, but Layne would not let him so he left and Lane died. A sad kind of irony is that he died on April 5 2002. The same day that Kurt Cobain died eight years earlier. The irony was that neither man was found the day they died. It took three days to find Kurt Cobain's body. It took two weeks for someone to finally go check on Layne Staley because they figured he just was never around. It ended one of grunge music's biggest names, biggest personalities, the voice silence the voice and it's just sad. Because I love that music from that day but there's so much sadness tinged in all of it. Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, all have this underlying sadness because of deaths that came in the band. And now with the death of Foo Fighters, drummer Taylor Hawkins just last week. Now it's going to tinge their music with sadness, too. It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since he actually died. He was only 34 and definitely had many years of great music ahead. But the addiction got him. Alice In chains actually got back together a few years after his death, and they still make music to this day. It's hard for me to listen to them though, because I remember Layne Staley. And I suppose that's unfair. A lot of people say their new music is great. It's just tough for me. And like I said, those of you that know me know, I'm a grunge alternative kid. But there's that underlying sadness to the music that I grew up loving. Because now as I get older, so many of them have been lost to drugs and suicide. But Layne Staley of Alice In chains was a one of a kind with a one of a kind voice that luckily at least has been captured on several great Alice In chains albums if you like the music, if you know it, then you know what I'm talking about. If not, you should definitely go and check out at least a few of the songs to get a sense for what a great unique voice this man had. Go listen to man in the box or Would, or better yet, just throw on a playlist and put it on shuffle. I know that I'm going to look back and I'm going to remember and smile at the great music that brings me back to Great times in my own life when things were less complicated. But 20 years ago this week, grunge alternative music lost one of its giants when Layne Staley passed away due to drug addiction at the age of 34.
Closing
That's going to wrap up episode 64 of the in my footsteps podcast. Thank you to everyone who has been tuning in, I really appreciate it. Thank you again for making the month of March, the best month ever for downloads for the podcast. Setting a number like that means a lot more now, because I've been doing this podcast for 18 months 64 episodes. So knowing that it's still growing in audience really makes me hopeful going forward. Because honestly, I have a lot of fun doing these and getting feedback from people about things that I talk about that they find interesting or funny and such. So knowing the audience is growing makes me want to just keep going. Remember to tune in Fridays at 8pm on Instagram for the without a map live streams, sort of a sister podcast where we go over the most recent episode, and dig a little deeper. And there's friends and family and other people listeners that come in and it's just a lot of fun. If you want to support the podcast by buying me a coffee go to buy me a coffee.com Anything that's donated goes towards advertising the podcast. And of course, I'll be sure to thank you in a future episode, if that's any motivation. But the best way to support the podcast by sharing it and spreading the word that means more because positive word of mouth I think is even more important than seeing an advertisement online for something you're not sure of. So thank you to those who do share it. On social media. You can find me on Twitter, find me on YouTube, obviously Instagram, I've got a Facebook fan page. Visit my homepage Christopher setterlund.com created run updated by my oldest friend Barry Menard, a great graphic designer, if you ever need anything done. He has got the skills he's got skills that I could only dream of having. If you're in need of some healing and or wellness, whether it's physical mental emotionally come down to mind body spine Chiropractic in Brewster. We've got so much stuff down there for you to help you physically, and emotional wellness. It's all amazing. Dr. Michael Singleton is the head coach. We are his quarterbacks, myself, trainer TKO. Kaylin Orr, Heather is our super glue that holds the place together and check out Cape kettlebell.com To see our sister gym that is going to be opening I would say in the next month but you never know. Just go over there and keep yourself updated because there's so much info coming up. And speaking of coming up next week is episode 65. I'm going to share the story of Cape Cod's suicide alley. We're going to take a road trip to Old Saybrook Connecticut. We're going to go way way back in the day and look back 35 years ago this month to the debut of married with children and what that show meant for me as a 9, 10, 11 year old boy getting to watch it on Fox. We're gonna have a brand new Top Five that is the top five movies to ever receive a Razzie Award. We're gonna have a brand new this week in history and time capsule. All of it coming up next week on episode 65 of the in my footsteps podcast. And as I say at the end of all of these podcasts, remember to take care of your mental health. Lean into the things that make you happy. Who cares if people like it, agree with it if you're not hurting anyone else, do what makes you happy. Just because your mental health means more than anything. And as you get older, you realize that more that things and people that make you happy are way more valuable than anything else. So thank you again for tuning in to Episode 64, or any of the preceding episodes. And remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path, and leave the biggest footprint you can in this world before it's too late. I'll be back next week. But until then, whatever you do, have fun doing it. Have a great day, and a great weekend, and I will talk to you all again soon.