Episode 95 kicks off December and the Holiday season.
We start off with the sad yet inspiring story of the Great Hyannis Fire of 1904. Longtime Cape Codders likely don't recall a time when Hyannis' Main Street was anything but a bustling business center. More than a century ago it was a mix of business and residential homes. One December night in 1904 a terrible fire broke out and changed the face of Main Street forever. The story is one of loss and yet also the perseverance of a bygone generation.
This week's Road Trip is the delayed trip to the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Part city, part small town, this spot is known for its connection to the television show Family Guy as well as being the former home of the Pawtucket Red Sox. However, there is so much more to see and do, especially this time of year!
Youth of the 1980s rejoice. This week we're going Back In the Day to when hair metal ruled the airwaves both on radio and MTV. With roots in the elaborate stage shows of KISS and the frenetic frontmen like David Lee Roth of Van Halen hair metal carved out its own successful chapter in music. Some of the music has aged better than others and it is all covered here.
We've got a brand new Top 5 looking back at some of the biggest product failures of the 1970s. From food to automobiles, technology to beauty products, there's a lot of laughter and head-shaking to be had here.
There is also a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule looking back at the very first automobile race in the United States.
Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 94 here.
Episode 95 kicks off December and the Holiday season.
We start off with the sad yet inspiring story of the Great Hyannis Fire of 1904. Longtime Cape Codders likely don't recall a time when Hyannis' Main Street was anything but a bustling business center. More than a century ago it was a mix of business and residential homes. One December night in 1904 a terrible fire broke out and changed the face of Main Street forever. The story is one of loss and yet also the perseverance of a bygone generation.
This week's Road Trip is the delayed trip to the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Part city, part small town, this spot is known for its connection to the television show Family Guy as well as being the former home of the Pawtucket Red Sox. However, there is so much more to see and do, especially this time of year!
Youth of the 1980s rejoice. This week we're going Back In the Day to when hair metal ruled the airwaves both on radio and MTV. With roots in the elaborate stage shows of KISS and the frenetic frontmen like David Lee Roth of Van Halen hair metal carved out its own successful chapter in music. Some of the music has aged better than others and it is all covered here.
We've got a brand new Top 5 looking back at some of the biggest product failures of the 1970s. From food to automobiles, technology to beauty products, there's a lot of laughter and head-shaking to be had here.
There is also a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule looking back at the very first automobile race in the United States.
Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 94 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 95. Back after a week off celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. This episode kicks off December and we're going to start off the episode with a look back at the great pioneers Main Street fire of December 1904. That changes the landscape of the downtown area of Hyannis, Massachusetts. We're going to take a road trip to Pawtucket, Rhode Island like I had promised a few episodes ago. We're going to go way, way back in the day, and look at the heyday of hair metal, glam metal, that type of music get ready. It's going to be a brand new top five that are 1970s product failures. And of course, there'll be a brand new this week in history and Time Capsule all coming up right now on episode 95 of the In My Footsteps podcast.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Hopefully, you have all awakened from your food coma that came a week ago. It's always a fun time to just sit, relax, eat, see family and friends watch some football. And then hopefully most of you were lucky enough to have the next day off. Even though Black Friday sales would be crazy. But hopefully, you could relax and enjoy the food coma. Thank you all for tuning into the podcast. Stop me if you've heard this one before, but the month of November was my best month for downloads yet again for the podcast five out of six months. And that all comes down to you who are listening and sharing the podcast. And I'm so grateful and it always makes me excited to release a new episode to see what people think. Like I said, I've got hundreds of topics that I could share on the podcast. But now I get to the point where I'm looking to put together the best episodes weekly for you who are listening. If you want to support the podcast by making a donation you can go to buy me a coffee.com Find the In My Footsteps podcast just search for Cape Cod in New England. Any donation goes to advertising the podcast. But like I said you don't have to donate, the best thing you can do is share the podcast Listen, subscribe, rate it, review it all that good stuff. That's what gets more eyes on it. And speaking of more eyes, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I have been starting to put the old episodes, full audio up on YouTube, just as another way to allow people to experience the podcast. As of right now, I've got the first five episodes up there. Eventually, I will catch up so that the episodes will be over there as well as on normal podcasting platforms. So it's now December the holiday rushes on Have you gotten your shopping started? I know Black Friday was just a few days ago, and Cyber Monday as well. I like to experience all the holidays in full as they come Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. So it took all of my restraint to not immediately dive into Christmas-themed segments for the podcast because it's December. But don't worry, there's plenty to come. And at some point this month, I will likely have some good news big news who knows about the Lady of the Dunes book documentary, potentially the new interview with Frank Duran that we did last week. It's just a matter of editing and finding a spot to insert it into the podcast. But stay tuned. I've always got new news about the book. But once it's more concrete, I'll share it I don't like dealing with mystery surrounding it. But that's the future right now. We've got episode 95 of the podcast kicking off and we're going to start it with the story of a major fire that changed the landscape of Main Street of Hyannis, Massachusetts for you Cape Cod, as you know the area quite well. This story might change the way you look at it. So let's look at the Great Fire of December 1904 from Hyannis, Massachusetts, kicking off on episode 95 of the In My Footsteps podcast.
Main Street Fire of 1904
Natural disasters come in all forms hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, earthquakes, tsunamis, and more attack without remorse and change land and lives in their wake. fires are sometimes natural disasters and sometimes man-made. They are no less devastating whatever their origin is. Cape Cod has seen its share of fires there have been some terrible forest fires over the centuries. However, what about fires that cause an overwhelming loss of property? One of the deadliest such fires occurred in the first decade of the 20th century and forever changed downtown Hyannis. This is the story of the Main Street Great Fire of 1904. On Cape Cod in the 2020s it's hard to imagine that there was a time when Hyannis has Main Street was anything but wall-to-wall shopping and restaurants. A century ago, however, it was dotted with residential homes as much as businesses. It has always been referred to by its ends. The East End, which lies near the end of the railroad tracks and is close to Cape Cod Hospital, while the West End is today near a rotary and close to the Cape Cod melody tent. The Main Street area of Hyannis had actually seen a pair of large fires in the preceding years, both in 1892 and again in 1894. What came in the early morning hours of December 2 and 3 1904, though topped both of them in terms of loss. The exact location and cause of the fire itself have never been truly established. However, it can be traced to one of two places. Although the fire could have begun at either LP Wilson's grocery store or Walter Baker's neighboring department store, both located near Center Street across from the railroad depot. It was Wilson who first was made aware of the Blaze. Living above his store. Wilson's mother alerted him and his wife and two children just before midnight on December 2, they were all able to escape the fire in the nick of time, with only the clothes on their backs. Wilson store was the easternmost location to be lost. Wilson's mother thought the fire began next door in Baker's building. However, with the buildings all being built so close together, some as close as six feet, it will likely never be known where the actual ignition location was. Shortly after midnight on Saturday, December 3, the alarm had been sounded for the fire department in the form of the bell atop the nearby Universalist Church. It is unknown just how long the flames had been roaring before being brought to anyone's attention. Wilson's Hyannis Public Market and Walter Baker's department store were the first structures to go but they weren't the last. Strong northeast winds coupled with the wooden buildings being so closely packed together meant that the fire spread easily. The flames were essentially blown right down Main Street. Luckily, many of the buildings in the path of the flames had items removed by volunteers before the flames could reach them. This included stock from some of the businesses. The Hyannis fire department got five pieces of apparatus together, but it was no match for the growing fire. calls were made to other local departments with firefighters from as far away as Middleborough Provincetown and Brockton making their way to help. In an extreme act of bravery. A man from the telephone exchange company was atop a nearby telephone pole, sending messages for help as long as he was safe. The fire ate through more than 600 feet of Main Street real estate. The exclamation point in the carnage came at just after 3 am When the steeple of the Universalist Church came toppling to the ground. A perimeter was set up using wet rugs and blankets on and around buildings that were just out of the fire's reach. Eventually, the strong northeast winds died down and by 4 am the fire had been contained. Heading west along Main Street the following businesses were destroyed by the fire. The Universalist Church post office, Richardson brothers photographers, William P Bearse and company who sold meats and provisions. P F Campbell and Company who were tailors Singer Sewing Machine Company, Charles W Megathlin's Pharmacy, A.P. and E. L. Eagleston's department store, New England telephone exchange, Julius Stephens dressmaker, James Baxter boots and shoes. Thomas Nickerson's marble and granite works and finally A.B. Nye and company's paint store. When all was said and done 15 buildings had been destroyed. Conservative estimates had the damage somewhere in the neighborhood of $150,000 or about $5 million when adjusted for today's money. For AB Nye , it was the third time that his paint store had burned down in 12 years, only once had the fire started on Nye's property. Sadly, 69-year-old retired Sea Captain William Penn Lewis died of a heart attack while saving his house from the fire. As day broke on that Saturday morning, all that was left with carnage, nearly 10 acres of property, retail, and residential government and worship all lay in ruins. With the perseverance of a bygone generation. Those Hyannis residents who lost their homes or businesses did not stay down for long. In fact, the post office was quickly moved into the home of Mrs. EC Benson. Thanks to the determination of postmaster Percy Goss, it was delivering its first shipment of mail by 730. That same morning, most of the businesses quickly set up temporary locations in and around the charred remains of their establishments. Insurance adjusters came later in the day on Saturday, and by the end of the day, plans were already being made for rebuilding Main Street. By April 1905. Only four months later, nearly all of the last buildings had been rebuilt, most of them in the same locations where they previously stood. Today, there is little to no reminder of the devastating fire that changed the face of Hyannis is Main Street. All of the new buildings are now nearly 120 years old themselves. They have seen generations of change on Cape Cod and in the world. The solitary reminder in plain sight is a historic marker at the intersection of Main Street and Ocean Street. This was roughly where the fire was stopped and shows a photo of the aftermath of the Blaze. Otherwise, this huge fire that changed Main Street is basically lost to history unless you go digging through newspaper archives. There's very little in the way of photographic evidence and eyewitness accounts being that it was almost 120 years ago. But next time you're on Cape Cod, you're in Hyannis, take a drive down Main Street, specifically the East End, and take a look around and try to imagine what it was like on that day in 1904. With all that you could see being flattened out charred destroyed. But then think about the perseverance that within four months everything was rebuilt into basically what you see today. It is a truly remarkable accomplishment.
Road Trip: Pawtucket, RI
This is the road trip that I had promised back in episode 93. But unforeseen circumstances that being the lady of the dunes being identified forced me to bump this to this week in Episode 95. Pawtucket Rhode Island is only a few minutes north of Providence, and about 45 miles southwest of Boston so it's really easy to get to from most places in central and southern New England. As of 2021, the population in Pawtucket was 75,387. So it's a large town slash small city. There are two things that I'm sure most people think of when I mention Pawtucket Rhode Island. It's either the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution or the former home of the Pawtucket Red Sox. Now the Worcester Red Sox or Woo Sox, I don't want to spend too much time talking about the Paw Sox because I'm going to do a segment on that in a future episode, but I'll give you a quick little overview. The Pawtucket Red Sox first came around in 1970 and they were a double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. Three years later in 1973 they became the AAA affiliate and stayed that way until the 2020 season. When that finished they wrapped up in Pawtucket and moved to Worcester. The Pawsox played at McCoy Stadium, which is at one Columbus Avenue. It had a capacity of just over 10,000 and as of when I'm recording this, it's still there. It's closed, but it's still standing. But that's soon going to be coming to an end. Only a few weeks ago, in November 2022. A vote was held where McCoy stadium is going to be knocked down and a new high school is going to be built where it stands. I can't find when any demolition would start. So I'd say if you want to see McCoy Stadium rushed out on there while you still can. But in good news, it's going to be the first new high school in Potok in 80 years and it will hold 2500 students. So even though it's going to be a loss of a beloved landmark of Pataki, there is some good that's going to come of it and it won the vote. So obviously more people see the value in education than in an old abandoned baseball stadium. As I said, a moment ago Pawtucket is also known as the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. And that's very much on display at the old Slater mill. It's a water-powered textile mill right on the shores of the Blackstone River. It's at 67 Roosevelt Avenue and was originally opened in 1793. In 1789, Providence merchant Moses Brown was looking for a way to build a factory along the Blackstone River to spin cotton fiber into thread. It was a failure until the following year 1789 When Samuel Slater emigrated from England, he had worked for seven years in a textile mill in England. So his expertise helped to create this Slater mill named for him. There are guided tours of the Slater mill during the spring and summer, and I'll put a link in the description of the podcast to give you more info about it. Also, part of the Slater mill complex is the Sylvanus brown house. It was built around 1758 And although it's not officially part of the Slater mill complex, it's there to kind of show people visiting what colonial life was all about. So it's sort of like a living museum. As I said, the Blackstone River flows into the Seekonk River which runs through Pawtucket and that's where the Slater Mill is right on the water. And right on Main Street overlooking the river, there is an area called Potomac Falls, not to be confused with the Pawtucket falls that are farther north in Lowell, Massachusetts. There's something enjoyable about that constant rush of water that kind of drowns out all the rest of the noise around you. And if you'd like waterfront views, waterfront areas with that river running through Patuxent, there are a lot of places you can stop and just watch the water go by. This time of year, I would highly recommend going to Slater Memorial Park at 449 Newport Avenue. They've got something called the Pawtucket Winter Wonderland. It's a 30-acre Christmas display the largest in the state of Rhode Island. So if you enjoy the lights and just the festive atmosphere, you should go there. They have a website Winter Wonderland pataca.com. But it looks like it hasn't been updated since last year or the year before. So go to their Facebook page to get more updated info. The park itself is a place you can go any time of year. It's got picnic sites, tennis courts, playgrounds, bike trails, walking trails, and all the good stuff you want to kind of escape from the louder downtown city area of Pawtucket. And after you're done playing in the park, or doing some sightseeing around Patuxent, you've got to stop and get something to eat. You could check out Rasoi Restaurant at 727 East Avenue or Rasoi restaurant.com. That's R-A-S-O-I. It's a delicious Indian restaurant that's won multiple awards. It's got tons of positive reviews, just go to their website and look at their menu. They got photos of the food, so that'll get you in the mood. And they've got specials like a combo for two on Mondays and Tuesdays for convenience. Also at 727 East Avenue in the Blackstone place is Garden Grille, which is a more vegetarian vegan restaurant, which is something unique. Check them out at Garden Grille. ri.com Grille is spelled with an E because it's great to have options for those who don't want to eat meat. So vegetarian and vegan options are great. And they've got some unique ideas. They have nachos, risotto, cakes, sweet potato wedges, and tons of salads. Give it a try, just because you may not know what you're missing. And I always tell you that you should go and spend more than a day at any of these places I mentioned in road trip segments. It's the same for Pawtucket. The main thing is that they don't have any unique hotels. They have a Hampton Inn, but I don't like directing people towards the big chain hotels. So my recommendation would be to try air b&b. When I just looked it up. There are more than three dozen places you could stay that would be my option for you. Check out NRI chamber.com That's the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce that gives you a lot more ideas of things to see and do in Pawtucket because like I always say I can do my research, I can share my personal experiences, but nothing beats the people that live there sharing where they think you should go. Or if you don't want to take my word for it or their word for it, just go yourself and find your own way. There's nothing better than doing a road trip and just finding your own way out of your own mind. Maybe you'll love the Slater mill, maybe love Slater Memorial Park, maybe you'll find something different. Maybe you'll find a totally different hole-in-the-wall restaurant that will blow your mind. Maybe you'll park your car and just walk along the Blackstone River and find a vantage point that just opens everything up to you. But you'll never know if you don't go. It's only 45 miles southwest of Boston. It's right near Providence. It's a short hop, skip, and a jump from most places in Connecticut and Massachusetts, to go check out Pawtucket Rhode Island, the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, and so much more. And I'll be back next week to feature another of the hundreds and hundreds of beautiful cities and towns that the six states of New England have to offer and beyond.
This Week In History
This week in history, we are going back 127 years ago, November 28, 1895. And the very first-ever automobile race. When you think about today's NASCAR Formula One, car races are common all the time, it's a sport. So it's hard to imagine that there was an actual time when there was a very first-ever race. And this one was held in Chicago. On Thanksgiving Day in 1895. The automobile was still new, not too many people had them, and they looked a lot different than they do now. So this was seen as a way to promote the automobile. It was the idea of a man named H. H. Kohlsaat who was the publisher of the Chicago Times Herald. Like I said it was a way to promote the automobile industry. But he also saw it as a way to sell more newspapers. The neat thing is that this race was open to anyone who could basically build their own car, or as it was called back then a self-propelling road carriage. The race was called a prize for motors. And it was a $5,000 purse, which is equal to about $177,000. Today. Initially, this race was going to be from Chicago to Milwaukee. But when they plotted out the actual course there were some bad roads. Remember, back then there were no paved roads, it was dirt roads, so they probably had a bunch of potholes and uneven surfaces. So it ended up becoming a 54-mile race from Chicago, to the town of Evanston and back with the starting line being close to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago today. Another really funny thing about this race was that the automobile was so new that nobody knew what to call it. They didn't call it an automobile, they had a contest to see what they should call these things. The choices included horseless carriage, vehicle motor, automobile carriage, and motocycle. Motocycle was what they called the car back then for this race. Race Day the temperature was 30 degrees. There were six inches of new snow and drifts along the road up to two feet high. Initially, there were going to be 80 entrants in the race, but the weather was so bad that only 11 agreed to run in such weather, and only six of them actually showed up. And out of those six that did the race only two actually finished boy what a great race. Hieronymus Miller and company of Decatur, Illinois had a modified Mercedes Benz and Jay Frank Duryea had his own built car. Duryea was the winner. So J. Frank Duryea won the very first ever Auto Race. The 54-mile course was finished in seven hours and 53 minutes with an average speed of seven miles an hour. That is slower than most people ride bikes that is slower than a lot of people can run. And it took three and a half gallons of gas to finish this race. And that first ever automobile race in Chicago, Illinois, took place 127 years ago. Oh, this week in history. And now it's time for a brand new time capsule. We're going back 71 years ago this week to December 1, 1951. Let's see what was going on in the world of pop culture back then. The number one song was Cold Cold Heart by Tony Bennett. The song was first recorded by country music legend Hank Williams and was adapted from a 1945 song by T Texas Tyler, Tony Bennett sang while Percy Faith conducted the orchestra. The song spent 27 weeks on the charts topping at number one. And although Hank Williams called Tony Bennett to ask him why he ruined his song, it was just a joke, and he actually liked his recording of it. The number one movie was an American in Paris. This movie starred Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, three friends who struggled to find work in Paris. And it becomes more complicated when two of them fall in love with the same woman. It's a musical comedy. It's 96% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and it made $7 million on a budget of 2.7 million. The number one TV show was Texaco Star Theater. This is way back in the infancy of television. It was a comedy variety show. And like many TV shows back in the early 50s. It actually started earlier as a radio show. From 1938 to 1949, Texaco Star Theater was a radio broadcast, and it was on TV from 1948 to 1956. It is remembered mainly for being hosted by Milton Berle, who was nicknamed either Uncle Miltie or Mr. Television. In 1953. When Texaco ended its sponsorship of the show it changed its name to the Milton Berle show, but it was still the same format. And if you were around back then December 1, 1951, maybe looking to buy your first home. If you were living in Massachusetts, you are in luck. You could get yourself a three-bedroom ranch home with oak floors on these beautiful wooded lots in the Randolph and Holbrook area for $6,999 or just under $80,000. Today, these were cookie-cutter houses, they all look the same. But if you were looking for the same type of house today in the same area, three bedrooms in Randolph or Holbrook, the average ones are between four and $600,000. And I don't know what the 80,000 would get you that it was adjusted for today, maybe a shed. But that'll wrap up another time capsule another this week in history. Now it's time for a brand new top five as we dive into the top five product busts of the 1970s coming up right now.
Top 5: Product Busts of the 1970s
These lists are always fun to make when looking back at products from the past that were thought to be revolutionary and had so much promotion and advertising behind them. And maybe were even initially successful and popular, but that ultimately failed. Way back in episode 64, I did a top 5 1980s product busts so it's fitting to finally dive back into this subject. And now we're going to look at 1970s product busts. As always, with these lists, there are some honorable mentions to kind of whet your appetite and get you ready for what's to come in the actual countdown. I won't spend too long on you'll have to do your own research. Honorable Mentions for 1970s product busts include toaster eggs, the AT and T picture phone, the laser disc, and the Ford Pinto. When it comes to these products, they had to have been invented in the 1970s. They didn't have to necessarily fail then, and you'll see why I'm bringing that up. And as I always say the top five are in no particular order. So let's just dive right in with the number one touch of yogurt Shampoo. This product was invented by Clairol and it came out in 1979. I don't know where the idea came from that the solution for oily hair would be to put some yogurt in a shampoo. This product failed and you could probably guess why. If you've ever seen TV commercials where stunts are performed and it says Do not attempt it's because there are people so stupid that they will try to do things they see and then sue the company. So if you got a shampoo that said it had yogurt in it and you were a complete idiot, what do you think you would do? You would try to eat it and people did. That's what makes me laugh is that there were people so stupid in this world that they thought shampoo was edible because it said it had yogurt just unbelievable. And speaking of things that people thought were edible, number two is Mcspaghetti. This is a legendary flop. Imagine a fast food company like McDonald's thinking that creating a spaghetti dish would be successful. This was introduced in the early 1970s. It was a pasta dish linguini with marinara sauce, cheese, and sometimes meatballs. And from the pictures I've seen, it looks like it was served in one of the Big Mac containers like those cardboard clam shells. But honestly, who was going to go to McDonald's to have spaghetti I'm sure maybe one or two of you out there are holding up your hands but seriously, it's right up there with epic fails like they're Mc Hot Dog and Mc pizza because everything is Mc. Shockingly though, as big of a failure as Mcspaghetti was here in the United States in the Philippines, they still have it. So if you are really dying to get Mcspaghetti, you could fly to the Philippines and try what it was all about and then probably be disappointed. Number three is Betamax. This is what I meant by saying the product had to be invented in the 1970s Betamax came out just before VHS and was the way to record television shows on a video cassette back in the early days of VCRs. Betamax was originally released in 1975. By the time I was growing up in the 1980s, I could remember Betamax being a punch line in the mid-1980s. As soon as VHS came around, the quality was so much better. And the tapes could be extended play long play Super long play. So you get six hours sometimes on tapes Betamax did not have that. Sony was the company behind Betamax and they held out as long as they could but by 1988 Even they were creating VHS tapes rather than beta. Number four is Gerber singles. This you have to see to believe Gerber is baby food you think of baby food right? This was basically baby food for adults. These came out in 1974 and were marketed towards college students and busy adults. Honestly Imagine going to the store and seeing these jars of what literally looked like baby food. Are you going to get that? Unless you were drunk or stoned or looking for a laugh? Why would you buy that with flavors like beef burgundy? Could you imagine a mosh meat mush in a jar? Gerber severely overestimated the population that would want to try that. And now it's a punch line is one of the biggest failures of food of the 1970s. And finally, number five is the Coleco Telstar gaming console. These were the first generation home video game console systems created by Colico starting in 1976, based on the popularity of Pong. Ultimately, there were 14 consoles in the Coleco Telstar system that were released. But these only played a total of three games. So you could see where when Atari came out with the 2600 you had the cartridges, meaning you could play countless numbers of games that the Coleco kind of fell out of favor. It only lasted until 1978. Ultimately, the fading out of the popularity of Pong nearly caused Coleco to go bankrupt in 1980. I don't even know if these Coleco Telstars if you have one in the attic or something. I don't even know if it's worth anything on eBay. But those are the top 5 1970s product busts. Did you have any of these did you ever hear of any of these? Touch of yogurt shampoo? Mix spaghetti Betamax Gerber singles and the Coleco Telstar gaming consoles. That's some sad failures right there. But I'll be back next week with a new top five that will be more uplifting and less full of failures and sad.
Hair Metal Glory Days
Unless You grew up in the 1980s, or at least the late 70s through the early 90s. It's hard to explain what hair metal or glam metal really was. And honestly, it's because a lot of the music did not age well, the music videos. I think a lot of people today when you hear hair metal, you think of this very specific type of music type of band like you can see it in your head. The huge teased-up hair, maybe some of the men in the band wore makeup, a lot of leather or chains, screeching guitars, sometimes screeching male voices. And I'm sure a lot of the concerts had tons of Pyro in the show is more theatrical than just straight-ahead rock and metal. For a time hair metal was the in thing and not all of the hair metal bands were the cheesy one-hit wonders that you might be thinking of the genre in and of itself got its roots from actual metal and actual rock. When you look at bands like Kiss and bands even like Van Halen. Think back to David Lee Roth as the frontman of Van Halen, very much hair metal. They just happen to have one of the greatest guitarists ever playing for them. It was the late '70s, and early '80s when hair Metal first kind of got its footing on the East and West Coast. LA, New York. Like I said, the musical style like Van Halen, like Kiss the showmanship of David Bowie. When I was young first getting into music. There were a lot of hair metal bands, I enjoyed Quiet Riot, Motley Crue, and Ratt. Those were the first ones I think of but when you pull back from those bands that were kind of defined as hair metal, there were other bands that kind of dabbled in it. Bon Jovi and Def Leppard. Especially at the beginning. If you look at Bon Jovi, their first album with Runaway on it from 1984 they're way more hair metal than just rock. And I suppose it's just a sign of the 80s the teased-up hair and possibly makeup-wearing male singers, that if you look back on it now it's like, Ah, why would I ever want to listen to that type of music? But it was huge back then. Definitely a sign of the times Hair Metal differed from traditional rock and metal base, like I said on the look of the bands, but also Yeah, they had electric guitars and they had that loud sound, but it was also more melodic, filled with a lot more of the power ballads that that's kind of a staple of air metal. You had that first wave of the hair metal bands like I said, Quiet Riot, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, and Dokken they'd have album covers that looked like movie posters, theatrical movie posters. I mean, God Twisted Sister Dee Snider used to scare the hell out of me in his videos. We're not going to take it and I want to rock where you've got this huge guy that looked like he was wearing football shoulder pads, but he had that teased blond hair and makeup on. When you're a kid seven, or eight years old, you don't know what to make of it. But that was another way that hair metal differed from traditional rock and metal was it was very colorful. When you think of heavy metal you think of something like Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, dark darkness. And even if the hair metal bands were dark, it was a fake darkness. If you think of tough hard rock heavy metal acts, you don't think of even the best hair metal bands Motley Crue Def Leppard Bon Jovi they don't strike you as tough as the 80s went on though, and hair metal got way more mainstream that's when you saw a lot of the second wave I guess lesser talented I guess I would say Hair Metal bands start to come around. These are the cheesy one-hit wonders that started to give hair metal a bad name. Poison was all right with Bret Michaels. But other ones like Skid Row, Cinderella Warrant, and Whitesnake Slaughter. kids and teens of the 80s probably have fond memories of a lot of those bands. And yeah, they had some big hit songs. Each of those bands I just named even their one hits were big and popular. But those original hair metal bands that started off that way like Def Leppard and Bon Jovi, started to drift away from that as the 80s went on. And maybe it's just that they were more talented than all the others but In doing the research for this segment and seeing their names lumped in there, I never really thought of Bon Jovi and Def Leppard as hair metal, but as a teenager of the 1990s, I may not have had tons of experience with hair metal. But I had tons of experience with the subgenre of music that basically killed Hair Metal and that was grunge, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains. They gave this alternative to kids from that era. And suddenly, it was cooler to be torn jeans and flannel and real than it was to be spandex leather, colorful hair, and seemingly theatrical playing a character in your music videos. The early 90s definitely saw the end of hair metal. I couldn't tell you what the last real big hit of hair metal was. But there were some great hair metal songs. And I'm talking beyond Def Leppard and Bon Jovi and Motley Crue because you could make a whole list of just there's I'll put together a playlist on Spotify of just my choices of best hair metal songs. But lucky for you a lot of these bands are now nostalgia acts which really makes me feel old. Go and pick up Monster Ballads the album that came out in 1999 that has a lot of those arena-thumping ballad songs from those hair metal bands. Heaven by Warren is this love by Whitesnake. Don't know what you got till it's gone by Cinderella. When I look into your eyes by Firehouse, When I see you smile by bad English. Those of you longtime listeners know that way back in episode 14. I did it back in the day segment about being a little metalhead when I was 789 years old. Having albums like Ratt's Out of the Cellar, Motley Crue's Theater of Pain, Van Halen 1984 which isn't really hair metal, but David Lee Ross was still there. Quiet riots mental health. Now when it comes down to hair, metal, glam metal, or whatever you want to call it, your view and my view might differ. You might think of Def Leppard and Bon Jovi as definite hair metal or Definitely not. Hell, I've even seen people say that early Guns and Roses are hair metal because Axl Rose had the teased-up hair. I think part of the reason why I look at bands like Guns and Roses, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and even Van Halen are not Hair Metal, is because there's a stigma with hair metal, that you're more sizzle than steak, more flash than talent. And I don't think that's entirely true. I think there were definitely B-level Hair Metal bands that weren't that good, but faked it somewhat with how they dressed and just the show above all else. But the more I've researched this subject, the more I'm talking about it now, and the more I realized that Hair Metal actually had some really great bands and great songs. And for a good 10-year run, you couldn't turn on the radio or turn on MTV and not see some sort of big hit song by one of these bands. And I'm talking the one-hit wonder ones where there'll be a flash where Warrant or Cinderella or Skid Row or Poison or Whitesnake was hot. And then they quickly got replaced by whoever was next. Until grunge came along, and then nobody was next. Except now it's reunion shows where you get these festivals where three or four of these former Big hair metal bands will get together and tour. But there's nothing wrong with listening to Hair Metal and enjoying it. I may have never had the hair to tease up like some of these bands did. But I sure as hell enjoyed some of the music when it was there. What about you? Did you listen to hair metal? Who are your favorite bands, your favorite songs? Did you ever go to any of the concerts? Have you gone to any of the reunion shows? It's always fun to look back at the music of your childhood kind of in the grand scheme of things. So it was fun to look back at Hair Metal. I think at some point I will do a new wave segment and maybe a rap and hip-hop segment. But right now I might go turn on some Twisted Sister or Skid Row or Warrant or something and reminisce about hair metal from God 40 years ago now.
Closing
That's going to wrap up episode 95 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Thank you so much to everyone for tuning in for making November my best month ever. Just continuing an upward trend. I'm so grateful to everyone who tunes in and to those of you who Enjoy my New England Cape Cod-centric travel and history, who enjoys some fun 80s and 90s nostalgia and some fun lifestyle topics and stories that poke fun at myself because those are the best self-deprecating humor as always good. The best way to support the podcast is by sharing it word of mouth. But if you want to donate you can buy me a coffee at buy me a coffee.com If you can't get enough of me and my content, find me on YouTube, Instagram, the in my footsteps podcast blog@blogger.com my homepage Christopher setterlund.com. I'm constantly trying to add new content to those photography's easy on Instagram. But as far as videos and blog posts, those take more time, and sometimes there's not enough time in the day. Stay tuned next week for Episode 96, where we really dive into the Christmas spirit. I'm really excited to finally talk about E to Ville railroad and Carver and my memories of it and just the story of that place. We're gonna take a road trip way up north to Shelburne, Vermont, which is the home of the Vermont teddy bear factory. We're gonna go way way back in the day and look at magazines that were geared towards kids and teens, this might be part one of two because I have found a whole lot I want to talk about. There are going to be the top five TV Christmas specials ever to really get you in the spirit of what to watch. And of course, there'll be a brand new this week in history and Time Capsule all coming up next week on episode 96 of the In My Footsteps podcast. As we creep closer to episode 100. I'm kind of on the fence as to whether I want to do a clip show slash Greatest Hits, or just a regular episode. Maybe I'll put it to a vote I'll do a poll on Twitter or Instagram to see what people think I should do. Because I want to make it the best episode possible. So be on the lookout for that poll. As then you can always send me a message to Christopher setterlund@gmail.com Let me know what you think I should do for episode 100. A big celebration. Just another episode. I don't know. As we get closer to the holiday season, celebrating it now. You might be looking for gifts to get for those that you love. Check out Kiwis Kustoms at etsy.com, both spelled with K's. Kaleigh Marks has tons of jewelry crocheted items, balaclavas, and cat and dog sweaters. She's got little stuffed animals. And she just created a tangled Sun crochet top. It took her months to make it it's so intricate. I don't know how she does these types of things. If you go to the shop and you see something that looks close to something you might like send her a message. She's always willing to try something new. So check out Kiwis Kustoms at etsy.com, perfect handcrafted gifts for the holiday season, what could be better? And as Christmas draws near the holiday season draws near whatever you celebrate, I hope that it's great. I hope you get to spend it with family, friends, and those that you enjoy being around. I've learned as I've gotten older, it's less about gifts and more about time with people. Because at some point, it's going to be the last holiday that you see somebody and you don't get that news in advance. So make sure you enjoy it all. That's good for your mental health. Especially this time of year when it's now cold and the days are short. Four o'clock is getting dark. It's important to lean into the things that make you happy. Whether it's certain foods, certain people, certain places you go, hell, it could be certain podcasts or certain YouTube videos, whatever it is. If it's not hurting anyone else then just do it. It doesn't matter. Life is too short. If you try to please everybody, the person you end up not pleasing is yourself. And remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps create your own path, and enjoy every moment you can on this journey because you never know when the journey ends. Thank you so much to all of you for tuning in to Episode 95 This has been the in my footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund and I will talk to you all again soon