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Turn It Upside Down
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Date Aired
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July 2, 2021
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Running Time
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20:46
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Website
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Intro[]
Todd: Many, many years ago, way before I thought to turn this into a show, I remember being on a [Todd scrolls down through a screenshot of...] music message board asking for examples of bands who destroyed their careers with one catastrophically bad release. And the first guy who responded to me was absolutely emphatic. [image fades in of...] The Spin Doctors. [pause] Really? The Spin Doctors?
Clip of "Two Princes"
Todd (VO): I'm, I mean, I know them? The-the '90s band, right? You know: [singing along] "If you... princes in the...before you, just go ahead now." Yeah, they had the guy with the beard and the dorky ear-flaps.
Todd: Couple big hits in the early '90s, and... and then they didn't have any more, I guess?
Todd (VO): Never heard anything about them besides that. Are you sure about this?
Todd: [impersonating the forum user] "No, no. Trust me, dude. The Spin Doctors."
Clip of The Spin Doctors performing on SNL
Todd (VO): They were on top of the world, and then they absolutely wrecked themselves with that second album. It was a total disaster.
Todd: Okay, but... like, how?
Clip of "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong"
Chris Barron: Little miss, little miss, little miss can't be wrong
Todd (VO): They were just a fun little pop-rock band with two radio songs. So was LMFAO! No one noticed when they disappeared.
Todd: A couple of hits doesn't automatically give you a following or momentum.
Todd (VO): I don't think anyone was eagerly awaiting the follow up to "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong"! No one cared about them, right?
Todd: Hold on. Let's correct that, first of all.
Clip of Phish performing at Amy's Farm in 1991
Todd (VO): In the late '80s, a new movement started to spring up, of bands inspired by the ethos of The Grateful Dead. Endlessly touring, doing long improvisations, never giving the same show twice, reeking of patchouli and weed. In 1992, a bunch of them joined forces to form [image of original poster for...] the Horde Festival, which became the flashpoint of the entire '90s jam band explosion.
Todd: In hindsight...
Clip of Pearl Jam - "Even Flow"
Todd (VO): Grunge and alternative take up most of the attention from that era, but the jam bands were arguably just as influential. I do remember the alternative kids, but I also remember way more guys with scraggly beards and tie dye T-shirts. I dodged...
Todd: ...a lot of hacky sacks in middle school.
Montage clips of The Spin Doctors performing live
Todd (VO): The Spin Doctors were one of the first bands on that inaugural Horde tour, and they were also the first one to have hits. The curse of the jam band is to kill on stage, but not be able to translate it in the studio. Have memorable songs, get radio play, album sales.
Todd: The Spin Doctors sold eight million records.
Clips of Blind Melon - "No Rain"; Dave Matthews Band - "Ants Marching"; Rusted Root - "Send Me on My Way"; and Blues Traveler - "Run-Around"
Todd (VO): And in their wake, tons of other rootsy neo-hippie bands started popping up on the radio. And they can thank the Spin Doctors, who basically busted open the door and proved the commercial power of this sound.
Todd: Okay, well, I'm still not convinced is what I thought. And I didn't explore the issue further. But it always lingered in the back of my mind.
Todd (VO): Why don't I know a third Spin Doctors song? So I began to do a little research into that second album, and...
Todd: ...when I did, I started seeing a lot of words like... [screenshots of Turn It Upside Down reviews with words highlighted...] "over-thought mess"; "dreadful"; "annoyingly quirky"; "bad decisions"; "tuneless"; "career killer"; "stinks".
Todd (VO): Maybe it's not the most memorable flame-out ever, but if you did, you can find a pretty serious impact crater from their fall.
Todd: What happened?
Todd (VO): Now I am curious. What could this perfectly mid-little singles band...
Todd: ...possibly have done to plummet that hard?
Clip of "Cleopatra's Cat"
Chris: The heat was on as you could see
Todd (VO): Is there gonna be a lot of scat singing on this?
Todd: I'm starting to get worried.
Todd (VO): The Spin Doctors turn it upside down and fall flat on their face.
Todd: [scats rapidly] This is Trainwreckords.
Trainwreckords intro, followed by album cover for Turn It Upside Down
What Goes Up...[]
Clip of The Spin Doctors performing at a Greenpeace concert
Chris: We feel like princes.
Todd (VO): The date is January 7th, 1993. And the Spin Doctors have just achieved the one thing that all rock bands dream of.
Todd: The honor that proves you have reached the upper echelons of superstardom.
Todd (VO): That one glorious achievement. [image of The Spin Doctors on...] The cover of the Rolling Stone.
Todd: [singing "The Cover of the Rolling Stone" by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show] Rollin' Stone!
Footage of an early Spin Doctors concert
Todd (VO): A year before this, the Spin Doctors were dead in the water. They didn't have a lot of support from their label, which was investing most of its resources into Pearl Jam. [album cover for...] And despite a furious schedule of touring and promoting, their first album, Pocket Full of Kryptonite, had tanked.
Todd: The suits told them it was time to go back into the studio and try again...
Todd (VO): ...but the band said, "No. We think this record still has a shot." So they go back on the road some more.
Todd: And against all odds, it works.
Clip of Spin Doctors performing at the 1992 MTV VMAs
Halle Berry: Featuring a couple songs from their debut album, Pocket Full of Kryptonite, The Spin Doctors!
Todd (VO): The singles finally take hold on radio and on MTV; the album blows up. When all is said and done, that record will go six times platinum.
Clip of The Late Show with David Letterman
David Letterman: You all know about the CD. [holds up copy of Pocket Full of Kryptonite] This sold, like, four billion copies. This- this sold like Heineken, I'm telling you! This!
But it's taken a toll.
Todd: In the Rolling Stone cover story, the high point of their career, [screenshot of Rolling Stone article: "On the Road... Again"] the band sounds exhausted and edgy in sharp contrast to their free-willing image.
Clip of MTV interview with...
Todd (VO): In particular, lead singer Chris Barron sounds unnerved by success and self-conscious. They all seem to have growing concerns about their future, specifically...
Todd: How will they integrate the jam band following they earned originally with the Top 40 audience they have now?
Clip of Spin Doctors interview on The Howard Stern Show
Howard Stern: Alright, here's Spin Doctors, everybody.
Todd (VO): A year and a half later, they drop their second studio LP, Turn It Upside Down.
Todd: There will be no Rolling Stone cover for that album.
Todd (VO): By the end of the '90s, it will seem absolutely insane that the goddamn Spin Doctors were ever on the cover of Rolling Stone. And they will no longer be worrying about mixing their stoner fans with their mainstream audience because both will be long gone.
Todd: Now I've already said that this show is not for bands who just ran out of ideas. [clip of "Tucker's Town" by...] I did that once for Hootie and I'm not doing that again. But on first look, that's exactly what happened to the Spin Doctors.
Footage of The Spin Doctors performing at Woodstock '94
Todd (VO): They had years to perfect and test their first batch of songs, a lot less time to make their second. The couple positive reviews they got from that record seemed to think that the guys were playing it safe. There were several songs on that second album that were just old tunes that didn't make the first one; always a bad sign of a band petering out.
Todd: [shrugs] That's not what I'm looking for.
Todd (VO): But there is one thing that catches my eye.
Todd: The album is too obscure to be called infamous, but [screenshot of Against the Grain article with highlighted quote...] if anything about it can be called that, it's the lead single. Something called, [single cover for...] "Cleopatra's Cat". Everything I could find about them, including that one guy on that message board years ago, said it was this song specifically that ended them.
Video for "Cleopatra's Cat" starts
Todd (VO): Well, I gotta know.
Todd: Let's hear it.
Tripping Kitties[]
Chris: Cleopatra's favorite cat, got his hands on Caesar's spats
Todd: [puts elbows on piano] Curious.
Chris: My girlfriend's cat is smarter than me
Todd starts snapping along to the beat
Chris: Those fascists don't play pretty games
Todd looks up after hearing more of the lyrics
Chris: Centurion to seek him out, centurions
Todd scratches his head
Chris: There go the centurions, Egypt is the place to be
Todd: Walk like an Egyptian? [throws hands up]
Chris: But Rome is a democracy
Todd (VO): Well, it's not the screamingly awful shit-fest I was afraid of.
Todd: But it is... what is it, I guess, is my question.
Chris: My girlfriend's cat is smarter than me
Todd (VO): I guess it's kind of a comedy song. It has the cadence of something that's supposed to be amusing, I guess. It's a story about [images of...] Cleopatra's cat [...a kitten playing with a shoelace] clawing up Caesar's shoes... [...and a legion of Roman soldiers] and he sends all of his soldiers after it. And that's what makes Brutus realize that Caesar's out of control, and so he assassinates him.
Chris: 'Cause they killed his ass in the second act
[sarcastically] Ha.
Todd: This isn't terrible. It's just... odd.
Chris: The senate tried to sympathize
Todd (VO): I think they were maybe expecting too much of their audience to get all these historic/literary references. Like, he's singing in Latin.
Chris: Jesu Christi Domine
Et tu, Brute
Todd (VO): Yeah, there's a whole bunch of [clip of dancing...] guys with hemp bracelets looking real confused right now. Like, [clip of Cleopatra's Cat"] you're going over their heads, Chris. Dumb it down.
Todd: But that's not really the problem. The problem is... this isn't a song.
Chris: My girlfriend's cat is smarter than me
Friends, Romans, can't you see?
Todd (VO): It's not a pop song; it has no chorus or structure. It just drifts all over the place while Barron goes skibbidy-dibbidy-bop all over it.
Todd: I know the '90s were...
Clip of Beck - "Loser"
Todd (VO): ...good for deranged novelty rock songs, but even most of those...
Todd: [air quote] ..."weird" songs were not so weird that they gave up on structure!
Todd (VO): And keep in mind, this isn't Beck or the Butthole Surfers; it's the "Two Princes" guys! This is not what their fanbase of twelve-year olds wanted!
Todd: Can you imagine listening to this between [brief clip of Melissa Etheridge performing...] "Come to My Window" and "Buddy Holly?!"
Chris: My girlfriend's cat is smarter than me
Todd (VO): I think what went wrong is that...
Todd: ...they were actively trying to kill the image they got from "Two Princes."
Video for "Two Princes"
Todd (VO): You know, a conventional, down-the-line radio band. Like, that song is four easy chords, repeated endlessly.
Todd: It's maybe not a song you want defining you.
Todd (VO): They wanted to prove they were serious and experimental, they had chops.
Todd: I found an interview where Barron is all defensive about their creativity, and he's asking them, like, [close-up screen capture of the interview in question] "When was the last time you heard a weird, modal a cappella intro scat tune on the radio that turned into a small medium tempo funk? When was the last time you heard that on the radio?" Fair enough. People hadn't heard anything like that on the radio before this. And afterwards, they still hadn't.
Todd (VO): Because this song did not do well. It barely cracked the Hot 100 and it disappeared after three weeks. I- I don't hate this, and I'd be fine with it if I heard it from someone jamming it at a blues bar or something while I got a drink, but...
Todd: ...this is a commercial, major-label release! [screenshot of Billboard Hot 100 chart with "Cleopatra's Cat" circled in red] When you're a multiple time platinum band, [Todd pans over to and circles...] and your lead single's being outplayed by the B-52s' cover of the Flintstones theme, you've seriously screwed up something! In hindsight, Barron called it, "over-confident". Yeah.
Clip of live performance of "Cleopatra's Cat"
Chris: Just might be ambitious, too
Todd (VO): It seems The Spin Doctors, much like Caesar himself, got a little too ambitious. But you can respect the attempt. I mean, Shakespeare references, Latin. For a...
Todd: ...bad comedy song, it's pretty high concept stuff.
Clip of Rolling Stone interview
Todd (VO): And for what it's worth, Barron is an educated guy. In his Rolling Stone interview, he talks about, like, Celtic ruins and Tchaikovsky.
Todd: And that first album does have some pretty colorful and interesting imagery on it.
Clip of interview with...
Todd (VO): Longtime friend, John Popper of Blues Traveler, called him, like, "a samurai with his lyrics."
Todd: They actually do seem to be aiming for a more intellectual brand of goofiness.
Todd (VO): So, I can see where maybe they reached a little too high, but I'm willing to give them some leeway on the album proper.
Todd: This is the new, more cerebral version of The Spin Doctors. Let's give it a shot.
Give Up The Funk[]
Clip of Spin Doctors on Live at Farm Aid 1994
Chris: This next song is called, "Big Fat Funky Booty."
Todd says nothing and looks unamused
Chris: Gotta love it, it's my duty, she got a big fat funky booty
Todd: [beat] A samurai with words, huh?
Chris: Not above it, makes me moody
Todd (VO): This is the album opener. It is indeed called, "Big Fat Funky Booty". This is one of their earliest songs; it's a staple of their live shows since the very beginning, but it did not make their first album...
Todd: And there's a reason - it sucks.
Chris: Her booty fine
Todd (VO): I don't wanna hear these guys sing about funky butts. [clip of The Commodores - "Brick House"] Like, yes, booty jams have always been a proud tradition in funk songs, but usually it would have to be performed by actual funkmeisters, not snickering dorm-room jokers like the Spin Doctors!
Todd: I'm sure, like, maybe this song works as a fuck-around live jam...
Todd (VO): ...but at the beginning of the actual record, all it does...
Todd: ...is make me immediately irritated.
Chris: That's my duty, she got a big fat
Todd: This is so stupid. Let's move on to the next song.
Too Fast, Too Little, And Much Too Late[]
Video for "You Let Your Heart Go Too Fast"
Todd (VO): And that'll take us to the second song, which eventually became the second single, "You Let Your Heart Go Too Fast."
Chris: You ought to know that girl by now, she'll never settle down anyhow
Todd: Oh, thank God! They can still write hooks!
Chris: You let your heart go too fast, you let your heart go too fast
Todd (VO): Unlike the lousy couple of songs I've already shown you, this - this - is the pop song you would've wanted and expected from this band.
Todd: It's catchy, it's upbeat, it's what you buy a Spin Doctors record for.
Todd (VO): Anyone would've predicted that this would've been the lead single.
Chris: You let your heart go too fast
Todd: [pause] I absolutely get why this was not the lead single.
Todd (VO): Like, yeah, this is what you'd expect from the Spin Doctors. It's way too much what you'd expect from the Spin Doctors. There's no surprises, there's nothing interesting about it.
Todd: It's just "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong," but a tiny bit worse.
Clip of "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong"
Chris: It's been a whole lot easier since the bitch left town
Todd (VO): For what it's worth, Barron did worry that "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" made them look misogynistic. And, you know, maybe it was. Todd: But we've all had a "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" in our lives, and it's fun to tell her off.
Todd (VO): But this song is about... chiding a friend for getting in too deep with a girl who's not that interested in him.
Chris: She'll never settle down anyhow
I don't really feel invested in that; I totally get why they took a swing on "Cleopatra's Cat" instead.
Chris: This is a song you might've heard on the radio. It's called, "You Let Your Heart Go Too Fast."
Todd: Yeah, you might have. [shrugs] But you also might not have.
Todd (VO): This is by far the most successful song from this record, and it still didn't crack the Top 40.
Todd: Although, if you want a kick...
Clip of...
Todd (VO): ...here's a pre-NSYNC JC Chasez performing this on The New Mickey Mouse Club.
JC: You let your heart go too fast
Todd (VO): I mean, you can't say the single failed after that. I mean, they got covered on The Mickey Mouse Club. What more do you want from them?
Todd: So, no, I'm not super impressed with this. But, it was at least hooky and easy on the ears, so... it's not all gonna be jammy clown shit. [beat] Right? Let's move on to the next song.
Jam Like No One's Listening[]
Live performance of "Cleopatra's Cat"
Chris: Centu...
Todd (VO): No, we did that one already. Alright, next song. Okay, track four. This one is called, "Hungry Hamed's." It's about a little greasy spoon diner.
Todd: Little slice of life, I guess.
Chris: Hungry Hamed's, baby, just three blocks from Bergen Street
Oh, yeah
Oh, yeah
Todd: [beat] Is- is there a chorus to this, or is it just, "Oh, yeah?"
Todd (VO): Let's move down the record. We got something called, "Biscuit Head."
Chris: Hey now, Eddie, all covered in confetti, d'mon over here
Todd: What is this hippie gibberish?
Chris: Biscuit Head, you have a biscuit head,
Biscuit Head, a double-decker biscuit head
Todd (VO): Is this song very annoying or is it just me?
Todd: Actually, hold up. Maybe the problem is me. Like...
Todd (VO): ...I don't think I'm doing this right. Lemme fix this.
Todd takes a hit from a vape and coughs
Todd: Let's see if that helps. [pause] And for the benefit of any YouTube algorithms that might be listening, let me state for the record that the flavored e-juice in this vape device has [text appears: "DISCLAIMER: The flavored e-juice in the vape device shown on-screen has..."] zero psychoactive ingredients and is legal in all states. So there is no reason to demonetize this video. And also, I didn't even get the really strong stuff anyway, so... I mean, come on.
Chris: Hey, big biscuit head
Todd coughs after taking another big vape hit
Todd (VO): [sighs] I'm gonna have to take a lot of hits of this non-psychotropic vape juice before this album starts to sound good. Every song seems to wander pointlessly over the same mid-tempo groove.
Todd: In fact, I'm beginning to see what went wrong.
Todd (VO): Prior to this album, there was a pretty serious backflash to the Spin Doctors brewing. "Two Princes" is a song too catchy to not listen to, but [screenshot of "Most Annoying Single" list from 1993 with "Two Princes" highlighted at #5] it persisted long after the point where it got irritating. And compared to the grunge bands and even their own jam band peers, I think they were considered lightweights. [clip of Farm Aid performance of "Cleopatra's Cat"] This whole album is, I think, an attempt to re-establish their cred and make them look smarter and heavier.
Todd: It's not working.
Todd (VO): All the tracks sound like a bad Red Hot Chili Peppers song with all their dumbest lyrics but not any of their muscle. It's all very samey and indistinguishable. [clip of Spin Doctors performing "Indifference" at Woodstock '94] The one time they try to switch it up is a slower track that they let the guitar player sing.
Todd: Unfortunately, it is called, "Indifference."
Eric Schenkman: Sew the thread of indifference
Todd (VO): Boy, what a title. They should've named the record that.
One More Try[]
Video for "Mary Jane" starts
Todd (VO): After the second single underperformed, they put out one more. It is entitled...
Todd: [sighs heavily] ..."Mary Jane."
Chris: Mary Jane, Mary Jane
Todd: I hope I am not shocking you with this, but I do not think this song is about a girl named Mary Jane.
Chris: I wanna roll you
>Way down in the fields
Where you were born
Todd: [sighs again] This music's gotta sound good eventually. [takes yet another vape hit]
Todd (VO): I cannot hit any more of this. Look, I'm- I'm gonna be honest. I don't actually like smoking. I don't enjoy the sensation and I'm pretty sure I've never done it right, so maybe I'm not the person to be judging this.
Todd: But even if you are a serious pot-head, I can't imagine this song doing a lot for you with its, you know, "wink-wink, tee-hee" bullshit.
Todd (VO): If you wanted a stoner anthem from just that year alone, why would you choose this when other bands were making [brief clips of Cypress Hill's...] "Hits from the Bong" and [...and Sublime's...] "Smoke Two Joints?!"
Todd: Although, I do notice one interesting thing in this video.
Video for "Mary Jane" shows Barron playing lead guitar and only two other band members
Todd (VO): I could've sworn there were four members of this band. [album cover for Turn It Upside Down] Yeah, see, right on the cover: One, two, three, four. [clip of "Mary Jane"] One, two, three... Hmmm.
Todd: Well, there's a reason for that.
It All Falls Apart[]
Clip of Spin Doctors performing "Indifference"
Todd (VO): As suggested by that uneasy Rolling Stone article, behind the scenes, The Spin Doctors were absolutely imploding. Lead guitarist Eric Shenkman has been fighting with Barron over every little thing. Especially this album, which he says is, quote, [image of movie poster for...] "half-baked." Eventually, it comes to a head, and he just walks off stage in the middle of the show, not to return for nearly a decade. The Spin Doctors would never recover.
Todd: After the halfway point, neither will the album.
Todd (VO): The first half of the CD is obnoxious, but it's better than the second, which... I cannot tell you how pointless and boring it is. [Todd scrolls down the track listing for Turn It Upside Down on Spotify] In fact, if you look at the stream counts on Spotify, you can see them steadily dropping as people realized the album's not going to get any better. It's entirely possible that they just couldn't come up with any more catchy choruses, but I get the impression that this was done intentionally.
Todd: Like they thought that if they avoided the obnoxious earworms, they'd prove that they deserved to be taken seriously.
Todd (VO): But the problem wasn't that the songs were too catchy; it's that they were a bunch of grinning yucksters who did annoying things like scat singing! The catchiness was what made it okay! They've completely run away from their strengths and leaned into their weaknesses!
Outro[]
Todd: For what it's worth, even though the album did nowhere near as good as the one before, it did still go platinum. And Barron would point to that as proof that it did not fail...
Todd (VO): ...but the fallout was undeniable. The badness of the record and the lack of hits could only signal the death of the band's time as a public concern. They would eventually put out more records in the '90s with a couple different guitarists, but they'd never trouble the charts after '94.
Todd: Meanwhile, the career they probably wanted...
Video for "What Would You Say" by...
Todd (VO): ...instead went to a group that made their own debut that year, the Dave Matthews Band, who were much better at integrating their die-hard live fanbase with their radio listeners. In fact, [book cover for Dave Matthews Band: All That's Left to Know About the Most Popular Jam Band] I found a book about them that was all, like, "Well, we're not saying the Spin Doctors' failure set up the opening for the DMB..."
Todd: "...we're just saying the timing's really interesting."
Clip of recent Spin Doctors performance of "Two Princes"
Todd (VO): After recovering from a rare form of vocal paralysis that nearly ended his career, Barron seems mostly content now to be proud of his accomplishments, have not too many regrets, and post pictures of cats on Twitter. The original Spin Doctors lineup reunited in the mid-2000s and they've toured and recorded off-and-on since, but their moment has definitely passed.
Todd: And it's a shame, 'cause by the late-'90s, grunge and alternative had...
Montage clips of Barenaked Ladies - "One Week"; Third Eye Blind - "Semi-Charmed Life"; and "Cleopatra's Cat"
Todd (VO): ...thoroughly been displaced by clean and polished, loose and fun pop rock. The Spin Doctors could have been the kings of that, but they blew it all on a misplaced push for cred.
Todd: In hindsight, it seems that trying too hard was their own kryptonite. [shrugs]
Chris: Cleopatra's cat
Ending music: Todd plays "You Let Your Heart Go Too Fast" on piano
THE END
"Turn It Upside Down" is owned by Epic Records
This video is owned by me
THANK YOU TO THE LOYAL PATRONS!!