Episode 88 kicks off the spooky season of October. It begins with the sad and somber story behind Provincetown's secret smallpox cemetery. Located in the overgrown woods with no names, only numbers, learn why fourteen people have their final resting places in an area most don't even know exists.
This week's Road Trip takes us to the largest town in New England, area-wise. No, it's not Boston. It's actually the town of Pittsburg, New Hampshire. More than double the land size of the next largest town find out what makes Pittsburg unique, well beyond its enormous size.
Eight years after Nirvana's leader Kurt Cobain ended his own life the band's final fully finished song was released. You Know You're Right was the last true moment in the spotlight for one of the most influential bands of the last half-century. Now twenty years to the week after the song's release we go way Back In the Day to look at the story of how it came together, and what it was like for me to hear it for the first time.
The scaries continue with my picks for my Top 5 favorite horror movies of the 1980s. Some of these might surprise you, some of them might not, but likely all of them will get you into the Halloween feelings.
There's a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule, looking back at the debut of the legendary TV show The Twilight Zone.
Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 87 here.
Episode 88 kicks off the spooky season of October. It begins with the sad and somber story behind Provincetown's secret smallpox cemetery. Located in the overgrown woods with no names, only numbers, learn why fourteen people have their final resting places in an area most don't even know exists.
This week's Road Trip takes us to the largest town in New England, area-wise. No, it's not Boston. It's actually the town of Pittsburg, New Hampshire. More than double the land size of the next largest town find out what makes Pittsburg unique, well beyond its enormous size.
Eight years after Nirvana's leader Kurt Cobain ended his own life the band's final fully finished song was released. You Know You're Right was the last true moment in the spotlight for one of the most influential bands of the last half-century. Now twenty years to the week after the song's release we go way Back In the Day to look at the story of how it came together, and what it was like for me to hear it for the first time.
The scaries continue with my picks for my Top 5 favorite horror movies of the 1980s. Some of these might surprise you, some of them might not, but likely all of them will get you into the Halloween feelings.
There's a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule, looking back at the debut of the legendary TV show The Twilight Zone.
Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 87 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 88. We are here in October spooky season has begun. This episode is going to celebrate the scary and the spooky. We're going to kick it off with the story of Providencetown's secret smallpox cemetery and the sad story behind it. We're gonna take a road trip up north to the largest town in New England, area-wise, that would be Pittsburg, New Hampshire. We're gonna go way back in the day. And look at the release of Nirvana's final ever song. You know you're right. 20 years ago, this week, there'll be a brand new top five and these are going to be my top five favorite 1980s horror movies. And there'll be a brand new this week in history and Time Capsule all coming up right now on episode 88 of the In My Footsteps podcast.
As I said, it's spooky season, it's October Halloween, and you're gonna hear a lot of the spooky music that I have pulled from YouTube's archives of music that I'm allowed to play. I love this time of year. I mean, all the way from right after Labor Day till the end of the year. I've said that a bunch. But combing my archives and the internet to find some scary stuff, especially things that are related to Cape Cod in New England. That's some good stuff to share. And oh boy, do I have some stuff already mentioned that's coming this week. But all through October, it's going to be some great stuff. That is if you like horror and scary and true crime if you don't, you might not like it. By the time you all listen to this, I will likely have gotten my little pumpkin. Last year I got a little pumpkin it was like a pie-sized one like a softball. And that thing lasted from mid-October into April. I remember it finally started to turn. I said I gotta get rid of it. But I'm gonna smash it first. So there's a video that I put together it took me three tries with a rock to smash it. So it was some outtakes and foolishness on my part. To all of you out there do celebrate Halloween, you know, do you get your house all decorated up. I love that kind of stuff. There are times that I wish I could still go trick or treating. I'm sure I could go and pretend that I have kids and that they're just at the next house and collect candy and do that at every house. But yeah, like always, I want to thank everyone who tunes in listens, shares the podcast reviews it. Anyone who donates. I mean, I use all that to advertise the podcast. September was another really good month for downloads. So I hope that the content that I've been sharing has been appealing. I hope it if it's drawing in new people, that's great. I always check so you can see where most of your downloads come from. So I know I've got a large Cape Cod and Massachusetts contingent of listeners, which makes sense because that's a lot of what this podcast is about. But I do try to appeal to a larger audience with the road trips with the nostalgic 80s and 90s stuff. So if this is your first time checking it out, welcome in. Hopefully, I'm gonna have some good stuff that you will enjoy this week. But every podcast is basically all evergreen, you could listen to any of them. And it's not going to sound dated. Maybe the intros and outros, are a little more time-sensitive, but the actual content is not. And to those of you who have been here since day one, it's been almost two years. I appreciate all of you and you're the reason why I keep doing this. I love it. It's a great creative outlet for me. But knowing there are people that this is appointment listening for them. That gives me kind of a responsibility to make these as good as I can. And with that said, let's kick off episode 88 As we get into spooky season. This is the sad somber story of Providencetown's secret smallpox cemetery
Provincetown's Secret Smallpox Cemetery
Smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases ever known to mankind. Its roots were traced back as far as the third century BC in the Middle East. Its symptoms included fever and vomiting with the development of painful fluid-filled sores, which typically would scab over, though not a death sentence. The mortality rate was smallpox was 30%. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the mortality rates were higher among children who caught This disease. A vaccination for smallpox was first discovered in 1798 by British physician Edward Jenner. Despite this, the disease would continue to ravage the world before ultimately being eradicated. The last case of smallpox was diagnosed in October 1977 with the ailment being declared wiped out in 1980. Long before the victory over smallpox, countless millions of people worldwide died from the disease. It impacted every area of the world, including Cape Cod. There is the legend of Mr. Thomas Ridley, who I've spoken about before on the podcast. He contracted smallpox in the 1770s in Provincetown and was buried alone deep in the woods of Truro behind what is now Montano's restaurant on Route 6. Then there is Thomas Freeman, a skilled physician who contracted and died of the virus in 1766. He was buried in a solo grave in a field near his property along the Orleans-Chatham town line. Dr. Samuel Lord, who battled smallpox alongside Freeman during that time, also died of the disease and is buried in a grave that sits precariously close to the busy training field Road in Harwich. It's literally right in the front yard of this house, which is creepy in and of itself. There is even an isolated smallpox cemetery in Chatham along Old Comers Road in a conservation area. With all of these connections to smallpox on Cape Cod, there may be none more somber than the smallpox cemetery in Providence town. Located only a couple of 100 yards north of Route 6 in Providence town near Shank Painter Road, this cemetery is obscured and overgrown, and basically forgotten, hardly befitting one's final resting place. However, it is the overwhelming fear of the smallpox disease, which is what led to such a sad ending. The stones of this cemetery, which are no more than 18 inches tall, hide in the nook between a rather steep hillside and the wetland area surrounding Duck Pond. The stones themselves are numbered, there are no names, and only a few of them are still fully intact. And when the last person was laid to rest there, they numbered 14. The story and history of this final resting place can be traced back 150 years to the times when smallpox was still a formidable disease. A small eight-by-10-foot treatment building, called the pestilence, house or Pest House was built a few 100 yards north of present-day Route 6 around 1848. It was meant to keep those infected safely away from the rest of the town. Shortly thereafter, vaccination for smallpox was developed but not routinely used due to the fear of the effects of such a vaccination. By 1873, Dr. Horatio G. Newton, a consultant to the Provincetown Board of Health had felt the disease was eradicated in the town due to stricter isolation and vaccination rules. Unfortunately, in the time between many in the town died during outbreaks, from 1855 to 1873 14 people died of smallpox at the Pest House. Each of the people who died was buried with a numbered stone, perhaps to spare their families backlash from other townspeople. The Pest House was removed shortly after the final death in 1873, though a large hole remains at the head of the graves. As smallpox became a thing of the past. During the early 20th century, the small cemetery became overgrown, and forgotten, and the majority of the stones were damaged. As of today, only four stones remain in good condition. Those are numbers 569 and 10. Sadly, the names of those buried seem to have vanished with time as well, leaving them as unknown victims. The legend of the cemetery grew throughout the 20th century. And finally, the poor souls buried in the woods regained their names. In 1980, the book Provincetown, Massachusetts Cemetery Inscriptions was written by author Lurana Higgins Cook. Thanks to her research, a further light was shined on those buried in the cemetery. And the names of those poor souls that are laid to rest out there in the order of the stones are #1 Adam Dyer, #2 John Roberts, #3 Monson W. Barnard, #4 Elizabeth Hill, #5 Kennis Fergerson, #6 Antone Domingo, #7 Mary Rogers, #8 George G. Hallett, #9 Tamsin Manuel, #10 Frank Sofrine, #11 Manuel Terceira, #12 William H. Butler, #13 John McDonald and #14 Thomas Basell.
In 2015, a simple granite marker was unveiled at the Winthrop Street Cemetery in Provincetown, commemorating those who rest in the small cemetery off of Route 6. So it is now possible to go to the Winthrop Street Cemetery. And remember those who are buried just hidden in the woods. I have been out there a couple of times the first time it was difficult to find, like I said, These stones are 18 inches tall, and they're in overgrown woods, there is no pathway, and there are no directions to get you there. It became an adventure to go and find these stones that I'm sure the majority of people have never even heard of. And even fewer have seen. It was sobering though, the first time I went out there, thinking about how it's always a fun adventure to go and find these graves. And then you get there. And there's a row of stones, the majority of them are broken. And the ones that are standing are numbered, there's no name. And you start to think about the grander scheme of things. These are real people who had real families. And because of smallpox, they were just discarded in the woods like trash. I understand the idea of wanting to protect the village from the disease and the idea of not wanting to disturb the final resting place of people. But hopefully, in time, they will do something to at least clean up the grounds, maybe give them more proper headstones with their names on them. The second time I went out there, I shot some 4k video and created a video on YouTube that I'll put a link to in the description of the podcast. Because yeah, you could technically go out there and find these graves, I wouldn't recommend it, especially heading down a steep decline. It was slippery with leaves and rocks and I wouldn't want people going out there to find these graves and getting hurt. It's similar to when I mentioned the Old West Barnstable brick factory remains in an earlier podcast episode, where I said I shot the video so that you don't have to go out there because it's dangerous. But next time you're driving along Route 6 into Provincetown, and you go past the intersection with Shank Painter Road, take a look into the woods and realize that there are 14 bodies buried in this overgrown secret smallpox cemetery. And just be glad that the disease has been eradicated because it was bad during its heyday. And there are constant reminders of the terrible wrath of smallpox all over Cape Cod.
Road Trip: Pittsburg, New Hampshire
So if I were to ask you what the largest city in New England was population-wise, that should probably be a pretty easy guess. It's the city of Boston, Massachusetts, with the Boston metro area having a population of just over 4.3 million people in 2022. That's the whole metro area. But then take it a step further. If I were to ask you what the largest city town in New England was land area-wise, that's going to be a harder one to guess. And God knows I had no idea. It's one of those things doing research for the podcast for these road trip segments. You find out little bits of trivia about cities and towns in the New England states. And it just becomes kind of a hook to get people interested in a place they may not know about. And that's what it is with the largest town in New England, area-wise, which is Pittsburg, New Hampshire. And that's Pittsburg with no Ah, so how big do you think Pittsburg is area-wise? Well, I'll tell you, it is 291.3 square miles. And that may not mean anything until I tell you what the second largest town in New England is area-wise. And that's Plymouth, Massachusetts, and that is 134 square miles. For less than half the size of Pittsburgh, it is as far north in New Hampshire as you can go. It borders the Canadian border. So to give you an idea of just how big Pittsburg New Hampshire is, route three goes all the way through it. It travels east along the waterfront of Lake Francis for a little while, but then it starts to head north. And to get from that southernmost point of Route 3 in Pittsburg, all the way north to the Canadian border takes almost a half hour of driving just to get through one town. That's how big it is. For all of its size. Pittsburg only has a population of 800 people as of 2020. So it's pretty stretched out. There's a lot of mountainous terrain and hiking trails, that's kind of what it's known for. The highest point is Stub Hill, which is 3627 feet tall. And if you're into mountain climbing or hiking, Pittsburg is the place for you. As I said a minute ago, there's Lake Francis and there's Lake Francis State Park, that's at 439 River Road, go to NH state parks.org To get a better idea of Lake Francis State Park. But to sum it up, it's 2000 acres in the Great North Woods, hunting, fishing, hiking, they've got loads of ATV trails. So if you're into that you can camp up there getting your ATV and there's trails, 1000 miles of trails. So there you go over ATVs Pittsburg is just the great outdoors at its best. What I noticed and as you know, with all these road trip segments, I give you places to stay and places to go and eat and such. What I noticed is if you want to stay in Pittsburg, you're gonna have to choose between different campgrounds and campsites, and they're not all outdoor camping like tents in the woods. There are cabins, I guess some of it could be that glamping where it's sort of luxury camping, check out Lopstick cabins there at 45 Stewart Young Road, or lopstick.com. They're right across the street from First Connecticut Lake. So you can camp at lopstick in one of the cabins and then go across Route 3, which even though it's a State Route, it's not that busy way up there. A hike around the lake lop stick cabins was established in 1928. And all the cabin rooms that they have, they're all unique, some right on the lake some further from the lake. But I'd highly recommend you make that your home base. If not, there are others like tall timber lodge, bear tree cabins, and more. There is no shortage of places to stay up there. You can hike out to Garfield Falls. It's a beautiful secluded waterfall. It's only about a mile round trip height to get out to it and back. There's a parking lot on Garfield Falls Road. And even though it's a popular hiking trail and spot going to this 35-40 foot tall waterfall. It's still so far up north in the woods, that you're still going to get that secluded solitude that people usually crave that head way up to northern New Hampshire. And it's interesting because even though it's right on the Canadian border, it's still 130 miles east of Montreal. So it's not like you're in the middle of nowhere, but you're still pretty far removed from any big city. You're 200 miles north of Boston so you're really far from there. As far as places to eat, there's no shortage depending on what you're looking for when you're in Pittsburg. If you want snacks and basic amenities, there's the first Lake General store which is at 3316 Route 3. And if you're up there during the summer season, it's within eyesight of moose alley cone so you can get some ice cream right next to it. But if you're looking for an actual sit-down meal, you could check out the Rainbow Grille and Tavern that's at 609 Beach Road right on the shores of Beck Lake. They're also at Rainbow grill.com Grille is spelled with an E they're an award-winning restaurant best of New Hampshire they've been voted rave reviews from Yankee Magazine, Boston Globe so many more. They're known for two things right on the front of their website woodsmen steak, which is a one-pound ribeye and Mill Cove pie which is not a dessert. It's a casserole haddock scallops shrimp, crab meat stuffing as Iago cheese cracker crumbs. So you've already got two choices when you go Oh, they're all for the best of both worlds. You could visit the Buck Rub pub and lodge at 2253 North Main Street or the buckrub.com food, and lodging campground. So it's sort of the best of all worlds right there. As far as food, it's what you would expect classic pub fare, nachos, pub fries. Case A D is classic sandwiches, subs, burgers, pizza, and so much more. And then if you go there, eat dinner, have a few drinks, you can literally stay there for the night. I mean, talk about convenience, visit the chamber of the North country.com. That's the Chamber of Commerce for Pittsburg and the whole area up in northern New Hampshire because I can describe this area as best I can, but it's better to go to their official site. They will know what to share with you and where to direct you on places to go and places to stay. But you know, if you're going to northern New Hampshire, it's going to be a lot of mountains and hills and wide open spaces. There are covered bridges and lakes and beaches up there. And just imagine how the foliage must be. So if you're looking for a little escape from city life, do some leaf peeping hunting, fishing, ATV riding, or if you just want to visit the largest town in New England, area-wise, check out Pittsburg, New Hampshire. It's right on the Canadian border. And who knows you go up there just random hikes, take your car, and drive you're gonna end up finding things that I had no idea about that I didn't share with you. And that's the best part of these road trips, having a plan or an itinerary and then veering off of that itinerary and finding something you never even knew you wanted to see.
This Week In History
This week in history, we are going back 63 years ago, October 2 1959, and the debut of one of the most influential shows in television history, the Twilight Zone, created and narrated by Rod Serling when I say this is influential, I'm not even doing it justice. Just the influence on The Simpsons Halloween episodes is enough because honestly, it's like every Simpsons Halloween episode has at least one segment that's tied to a Twilight Zone episode. The first run of the series ran from 1959 to 1964. And that's the classic one. There are 156 Total episodes. And I would say except for a rare few they're all classics. They were typically a cross between sci-fi and horror and suspense. But these are just brilliant ideas for premises for the show that were come up with by Rod Serling the talking Tina doll, the one with William Shatner with the Gremlin on the wing of the plane, the one with the evil little boy that can read your mind and if you piss him off, he sends you away into the cornfield. The To Serve man episode, it's a cookbook when the aliens come down. I could make this all about just naming my favorite episodes, but I think most of you know what I'm talking about. A lot of these original episodes featured soon-to-be-famous actors. Like I mentioned William Shatner, but there are so many more. Charles Bronson, Robert Duvall, Telly Savalas, Dennis Hopper, Robert Redford, I could just keep naming them. Typically during this time of year October, there's usually a marathon of Twilight Zone on Sci Fi, or New Year's Eve New Year's Day or anytime there's never a bad time for a Twilight Zone marathon. It has that just earworm iconic music, you can hear it now the theme. Everything about this show is just as close to perfection as you can get. And maybe I'm a little biased because I love the show, but I think most of you would agree at least in some part. When it ended in 1964. There were contradictory reasons with the network's saying the show was over budget and its ratings weren't good enough. But then Rod Serling said he decided to cancel the network. The series has been rebooted three different times, and there was a movie in the early 1980s. And that was pretty cursed. Unfortunately for Serling, he had a heavy smoking habit, and this contributed to a series of serious heart attacks in 1975, which led to his death at the age of 50. But his contributions to television to entertainment will live forever. And it all started with his magnum opus, the Twilight Zone, which made its grand debut 63 years ago this week in history. And now it's time for a brand new time capsule. We're going to stick to the same day that the Twilight Zone made its debut October 2 1959. Let's see what was going on in the world of pop culture when Twilight Zone made its debut. The number one song was Mac the Knife by Bobby Darin, not to be confused with Mac Tonight, the moon-headed McDonald's mascot from the late 80s. The song was originally written more than 30 years earlier, in 1928 for a German film called The Three Penny Opera. Bobby Darin recorded it in 1959. For his album, that's all. Darin was reluctant to release it as a single as Dick Clark had said that with the song being so closely associated with an old opera, it might not lend itself to be a hit single. But obviously, it went to number one, it got Bobby Darin two Grammys, and Dick Clark admitted the error of his ways. The number one movie was but not for me. This starred Clark Gable and Lily Palmer, with Gable playing an older Broadway producer who's out of money. So he retires but then falls in love with his young secretary. And so he writes a play based around that and that is his big comeback. The movie has a 71% Positive audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. There's no consensus from critics. And with a lot of these old movies, it's hard to find box office numbers. It made $2.5 million in US and Canadian rentals. So I don't know if that's from the day it was released or what the timeframe is, but do with that info what you will. The number one TV show was the 1959 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago White Sox. The Dodgers won the series four games to two. With pitcher Larry Sherry winning the World Series MVP. That Dodgers team had some all-time icons of baseball like Sandy Kofax Gil Hodges Don Drysdale and for the White Sox this was their first time getting to the World Series since the infamous Black Sox Scandal of 1919. So that itself was no wonder why this was such a big deal in the TV ratings. And if you were around back then if you were a kid back then October 2 1959. You're watching the World Series on TV, maybe you want to run down to the corner store. Buy yourself a pack of baseball cards, thinking you might get one of your favorite players. While you're in luck because a pack of Topps baseball cards would cost you a whopping five cents, or about 51 cents per pack when adjusted for inflation. Which shows you how much the baseball card companies are overcharging you today. But let's say you got a pack of those cards. What were the most valuable cards in the packs? According to oldsportscards.com. The most valuable from the 1959 Topps is Sandy Kofax, which in mint condition is valued at $2,750. There's the Bob Gibson rookie card, which will be valued at $6,500. And the king of them all New York Yankees outfielder Mickey Mantle whose card is valued at $8,000. Not bad for a five-cent potential five-cent investment. that'll wrap up another time capsule another this week in history. Now it's time to get spooky again, in the top five. As we look at my favorite 1980s horror movies coming up right now.
Top 5: 1980s Horror Movies
This is going to be fun, this will be a fun top five to scare all of you. But only if you go and watch these movies. So many of these lists are subjective. They're always in no particular order. This week is going to be different because it's not subjective. These are my picks for my favorite 1980s horror movies. So I'm pretty sure that a lot of your lists will differ from mine. But who knows there might be movies on here that you never thought to watch and maybe I'll influence you to go and check them out. And I did some research going through a whole bunch of 80s horror movie titles to make sure I didn't forget any. And it's sort of a hybrid list, meaning I'm looking at the movies that I love loved as a kid in the 80s and ones that I love now and kind of mash them together, because there's at least one on this list that I didn't remember ever watching as a kid, but now it's one of my favorites. And of course, as always, we've got some honorable mentions. Those honorable mentions include Gremlins Hellraiser, Cujo, Child's Play, and Halloween II. So there's a good week's worth of horror movie watching for you just there. But let's get into the actual top five with number one. Friday the 13th part three. I know I know, it's not the original. That's why this is my list. Part three came out in 1982. It is known for being in 3D or at least shot in 3D So if you watch it now it looks kind of weird. I love it because it is well in 3D, but it's also where Jason Vorhees gets his iconic hockey mask. And he is scarier because he still runs after you instead of being undead zombie Jason later on. It's got just enough 80s cheese and just enough good gory kills. If you've never seen the dude walking on his hands get killed, you're missing out. Just go find that clip. I probably could have put five Friday the 13th movies on this list and just made it that but that wouldn't be a good list. Number two is A Nightmare on Elm Street. Yes, the original is one of the best horror movies ever made. Freddy Krueger his debut where he haunts your dreams and if he kills you in your dreams, you die for real. And this original was when Freddie was truly menacing where he wasn't the king of one-liner comedy that he became in later installments of the series. This is one of those horror movies that changed the game when it came out in 1984. One of director Wes Craven's masterpieces, a lot of creative kills. I'm sure everyone's one they remember is Johnny Depp getting dragged into his bed. Ironically, I saw Nightmare on Elm Street Part Two before I saw Part One. And I mentioned way back when I talked about movies that gave me nightmares that when I saw part two, I had to leave my friend's house where I was sleeping over. My mother had to walk from home to escort me back because I was so scared. And when I look back on it now, part two is just terrible than Part one is a masterpiece. Number three is the shining. This is the one I was talking about that I didn't watch this as a kid. And I guess I could see it either being too cerebral, at least at the beginning. It's not just a slasher body count movie. And as a kid with a short attention span, I think you need people dying every five minutes to keep you invested. Now looking back at it, it's one of the best horror movies ever made. Jack Nicholson at the Overlook Hotel as he goes slowly insane and torments his wife and son. There's so much disturbing imagery in it. The twin girls and just the scene of them all butchered in the hallway. I'm trying to not spoil anything. Although when you think about it, the most recent movie on this list is from like 34 years ago. So if you haven't seen them yet, that's kind of on you. That scene with Jack Nicholson chopping through the bathroom door, yelling Here's Johnny. It's one of the most iconic scenes in horror movie history. Number four is the blob. This is the remake from 1988 of the original big movie that had Steve McQueen in it about that gelatinous blob that comes from outer space and just basically eats everyone. I liked this one because it was great with special effects. It was very gory. If you watch the original movie, it's not gory at all. This is one of those I think is underrated. If you've never seen it, you should check it out. Even if you've seen the original. Even if you go on YouTube and find the clip of the blob sucking the guy down the sink drain. I mean, that's one of the most well-known scenes from the movie. Typically remakes of horror movies are just not good. Look at Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, which were both terrible remakes, but for some reason, the blob worked. And finally, number five on my list of my top five favorite 1980s horror movies is Creepshow. If you had told 10-year-old me that I would put this on my list of favorite 80s horror movies when I was an adult. I said no way because it scared me too much and I'd never want to watch it again. From the very first segment in this anthology horror movie where the father is the zombie just yelling where's my cake and attacking everyone, Stephen King being in it as a man who gets the space seeds on his hands and he basically becomes consumed by grass. And Leslie Nielsen being evil, which I just didn't expect. It's got so many good memorable moments and memorable scenes. And it's aged well, I think, because there was the second one the sequel that didn't age quite as well so it makes the first one look even better. If you've never seen the original creep show, you've got to go and watch it. That does it though. For the top five. How many of those have you seen or how many of those do you think should be on this list or not on this list? Friday the 13th part three A Nightmare on Elm Street, the Shining, the Blob, and Creepshow or maybe you've got a totally different list shoot me a message and let me know. And I'll be back next week with another top five maybe connected to the spooky season in October.
Nirvana's Final Song - 20 Years Later
I have mentioned numerous times on this podcast, the influence of Nirvana their music the lyrics of Kurt Cobain, on myself and my formative years held back episode 38. The bonus episode is all about Nirvana's Nevermind album and just the importance of it, not just in my life, but in music in general. Way back in the day when Nirvana was still around, and right after Kurt Cobain killed himself. He was a connoisseur of unreleased Nirvana material. I spent or wasted, depending on your view, lots of money on import CDs at Spinnakers Records in Hyannis, these European or Japanese versions of CDs that would have one or two unreleased songs on them. And I'd be spending $20 on a CD for one song. But it was important to hear something new from a band that was not going to have any more new music, just to try to recapture the feeling that they gave me the first time that I heard it. And I think all of these songs, the unreleased ones, ended up getting released on their box set that came out in 2002. But to me back then, in the mid-1990s, I felt like I had information that not everyone had. But with Nirvana being a real band for God, probably less than six years, there was only so much water in that well when it came to new material. So after a while, I stopped looking, I realized that I was not going to find anything new, which probably saved me money. But around the turn of the 21st century, rumbling started that there was new material, or at least new in the fact that nobody had heard it. And it's hard to believe it's been 20 years now, this week, since the release of Nirvana's final song ever, you know, you're right. But that's what I'm doing here is going way back in the day, which I guess 20 years is to what it was like when that song got released. The song you know, you're right, and the box set in general is so mired in anger and lawsuits between Courtney Love and then Dave Grohl and Chris Nova Selleck, that for a while, it seemed like it would never get released. Ironically, something is going on right now, between the surviving members of the band Soundgarden and the widow of Chris Cornell, where I guess there are unfinished tracks or Chris Cornell vocals that the band wants to make into one final Soundgarden album, but there's all this legal battle going on. And that's very much how it was 20 or so years ago. Except back then Courtney Love and Dave Grohl hated each other. So I really thought they'd never let the new song see the light of day. The song itself was recorded at, I guess it would be one of the last studio sessions Nirvana ever had in January 1994. And it was the last real finished complete song the band ever had. Not too long after that, they embarked on their European tour. That's where Kurt Cobain Odede the first time but they brought him back to life. And then he went to rehab but fled rehab and went back to Seattle and the rest is history. Interestingly, Courtney love's band Hole actually used to play the song long before it got released to the public. Calling it you've got no right which I never listened to whole, so I would have never heard it. But it was an interesting full circle moment when I first heard, you know, you're right for the first time it mirrored when I first heard Smells Like Teen Spirit, or 11 years earlier in the fact that I could remember exactly where I was. Everything about it Smells Like Teen Spirit, it was more of a magical movie moment it changed the trajectory of my life. You know, you're right, it was less of a magical moment, as I was working landscaping, and you can go back to Episode 34 to hear my landscaping love letter about my misadventures from that time. But I can still remember driving in the truck with the boss, the guy that owned the company, and probably heading to a job it was early afternoon. And I caught the song he had been flipping around the stations and it came on during the middle of the song, much like Smells Like Teen Spirit, it was right in the middle, it just kicks you right in the face. And I just remember this feeling of holding my breath. Like I was hearing a ghost speaking to me with Kurt Cobain singing and just howling, screaming the chorus pain. And it was this kind of out-of-body experience. And then when it gets to the end, and it's just a continuing chorus of you know, you're right. And I'll never forget the boss changing the channel in the middle of the song and I literally wanted to push his ass out of the car. Because it was like he robbed me of the finish of that song to complete the moment. I calmed down pretty quickly after. Eventually, I got to listen to the full song and just immerse myself in it how it starts off, getting slow and quiet and loud and slow and quiet like a lot of classic Nirvana songs. And that's what it was. It felt like a warm blanket like a familiar shirt that you haven't worn in forever hearing something new quote unquote, from someone who had been dead for eight years. They even made a video where they spliced together old concert footage to make it look like Kurt Cobain was singing it. It was important for fans of Nirvana. Much like when the Beatles released their anthology and they did Free as a Bird and Real Love with John Lennon's vocals, or even The Doors when they did that Orange County Suite. That was a Jim Morrison poem they put music to, for fans of the artists to get to hear something new. It's just really cathartic. And for me going through a bad period of depression, especially in 2002. To get to hear a new song from one of the people who influenced my creative aspect of life more than anyone. It was really something that was necessary for me for life. The song was released on a self-titled Nirvana album as just a bonus new song. Because the battle over the box set continued for another few years. Until with the lights out came out in 2004. The song You Know You're Right got heavy rotation on radio on MTV because they still played music back then. It went to number one on Billboard's mainstream and Modern Rock Charts. It reached number 45 on the Billboard Top 100. But that Nirvana was never a top 100 band. They only had four singles get into the top 100. It ended up being a perfect bow on the legacy of Nirvana as a band. And that whole thrill of the unreleased music. It's there for a lot of artists that have since passed on. I look at Prince where there are so many unreleased songs by him and Michael Jackson. And as I mentioned with Soundgarden, it's a weird sort of holding out hope, even though the artists themselves have passed on, that you might hear something from them that's new to you. It's an interesting look into the psyche of the person. And their musical influences, inspirations, and such. It could be that I'm just diving way deeper into this. And that some of you out there don't have any musicians or artists that influenced you that much that you are sitting waiting for their new material to come out. But I think most of you know what I mean. For me with Nirvana and the impact they had on my formative years heading into, you know, 7th, 8th grade, high school, the fact that a new song could come out years later, and bring me right back to being 13. Again, it just shows the impact that music can have on you. And it's crazy to think that it's been 20 years since that final song was released. And unless there's some other rabbit to pull out of the hat for Nirvana, I think is going to be the final ever new song that the band releases. But hey, they left a big enough legacy for me.
Closing
And that's going to do it for episode 88 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Thank you to everyone who tunes in. Whether this is the first time checking it out or you've listened to all 88 episodes including this one. Know how much I appreciate everyone who tunes in those of you who leave reviews share the podcast and take time out of your day to send me a message to let me know things you enjoyed. If you want to donate you can go to buy me a coffee.com and Find the In My Footsteps podcast, you should be able to put in Cape Cod or New England In My Footsteps and find it any donation just goes towards advertising the podcast so it just one hand washes the other. This content creation is really what I love to do, the creativity. I'm all over social media, Instagram Facebook fan page, Twitter, and YouTube, I just shared a New 4k New England video from Point Judith lighthouse in Narragansett Rhode Island. There's the In My Footsteps podcast blog, which for October it's true crime spooky season. Check out my latest article up there about a pair of terrible murder-suicides on Cape Cod in the late 1890s. Both caused by jealous slash scorned lovers. This is the time of year when I don't feel too bad about researching murder and crime because it fits the season. And speaking of true crime hopefully, by the end of this year, I will have some sort of concrete news about the publishing of my Searching for the Lady of the Dunes book. I'm working on trying to get the film the documentary shown at the Chatham Orpheum Theatre. Hopefully, I'll have some dates nailed down. And there will likely be a new interview podcast with Frank Duran, the producer and hopefully, Steven the medium will be there too, as we plan on doing an interview both audio and video from the actual crime scene where the lady of the dunes body was found likely in November. Our goal, all of us, is to get this case solved in terms of having the lady of the dunes' identity revealed so that she can have an actual real name on her tombstone. So just because you don't hear me talk about it all the time or post about it all the time on social media. My goal Frank's goal, it's all the same, give her her name back. And we're going to continue with the spooky season next week on episode 89 of the podcast. We're going to talk about the story of Bathsheba Spooner, who was the first woman executed in this country after the Declaration of Independence, and her murder-for-hire plot which is too unbelievable to not be true. But I will balance it out with the funny story of the worst speeding ticket I ever got. It's another story that's too unbelievable to not be true. There's going to be a special this week in history and time capsule with a birthday flare. And a lot more coming up next week on episode 89 of the In My Footsteps podcast. I hope you'll be there for it. And if the cooling weather has got you kind of stiff come on down to Mind Body Spine Chiropractic and Brewster and our sister gym Cape Kettlebell. We are so much more than just chiropractic Dr. Michael Singleton, he's got all the knowledge, all the tools, but we are trying to be a one-stop shop for health wellness, visit our websites and see for yourself because I am a personal trainer, corrective exercise specialist as my day job. So if any of you ever have questions about that, or if you're ever interested in me possibly doing fitness and health segments for the podcast, shoot me a line and let me know because as we go, I'm always willing to switch things up a little physical wellness, mental wellness, overall health, mental health, it's also important this time of year, I always say it's my favorite time of year. So it's easier for me at this time of year to have good mental health just being outside enjoying fall, Halloween, and all the holidays that come up. But for others it's difficult and they hate this time of year or you're just going through a rough patch. Try to lean into things that make you happy, whatever that might be certain YouTube videos, music, a place you like to go food, whatever it is that you need to make you feel better to get through hard times, just do it. Like I say if you're not hurting anyone else, who cares what anyone else thinks? And I'll be here with the podcast, hopefully giving you a little bit of a respite from whatever's going on, or adding to your good day. Who knows? But remember in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps, create your own path, leave the biggest footprint you can, and enjoy every moment because you never know what tomorrow brings. Thank you all so much again for tuning in. This has been the In My Footsteps podcast. I have been Christopher Setterlund. I will talk to you all again soon.