WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.580 I want to start today by talking about the way 00:00:02.580 --> 00:00:05.339 we all consume information. You know that feeling 00:00:05.339 --> 00:00:07.540 when you fall down a Wikipedia rabbit hole? Oh, 00:00:07.639 --> 00:00:09.820 yeah. You start looking up the history of rubber 00:00:09.820 --> 00:00:12.599 bands, and three hours later you're reading about 00:00:12.599 --> 00:00:15.019 the political structure of 14th century Venice. 00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:17.239 The infinite web. That's the whole point, right? 00:00:17.300 --> 00:00:18.980 Everything links to everything else. It's this 00:00:18.980 --> 00:00:21.339 giant interconnected map of human knowledge. 00:00:21.620 --> 00:00:25.620 Exactly. But here's where it gets interesting. 00:00:26.059 --> 00:00:31.579 There's a glitch. In that matrix, there's a specific 00:00:31.579 --> 00:00:34.500 classification of article known as an orphan. 00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:37.740 An orphan. It's a surprisingly emotional term 00:00:37.740 --> 00:00:40.619 for a database tag, isn't it? It really is. In 00:00:40.619 --> 00:00:43.380 the straight technical sense, a Wikipedia orphan 00:00:43.380 --> 00:00:46.280 is an article that has no incoming links from 00:00:46.280 --> 00:00:48.340 other articles. So it's an island. It's a total 00:00:48.340 --> 00:00:50.340 island. You can't stumble upon it by accident. 00:00:50.750 --> 00:00:52.909 You have to know it exists to find it. It's just 00:00:52.909 --> 00:00:55.149 floating there in the digital void. So it's effectively 00:00:55.149 --> 00:00:57.369 digital purgatory. The information is verified. 00:00:57.729 --> 00:01:01.609 It's archived. It's true. But it's completely 00:01:01.609 --> 00:01:03.270 disconnected from the rest of the conversation. 00:01:03.570 --> 00:01:06.930 And today we are going to build a bridge to one 00:01:06.930 --> 00:01:10.709 of these orphans. I stumbled across a page that 00:01:10.709 --> 00:01:13.450 is currently tagged this way. And the story is 00:01:13.450 --> 00:01:16.209 just a perfect storm of cultural history. Oh, 00:01:16.310 --> 00:01:18.569 interesting. It involves high society Boston, 00:01:18.810 --> 00:01:21.909 a catastrophic timing error around World War 00:01:21.909 --> 00:01:25.349 I, and a bizarre resurrection on national television 00:01:25.349 --> 00:01:28.969 30 years later. Wow. That is quite the journey 00:01:28.969 --> 00:01:31.469 for a topic that technically nobody links to. 00:01:31.609 --> 00:01:34.650 So today, we're doing a deep dive into the life 00:01:34.650 --> 00:01:38.170 cycle of a song called America's Crusaders. America's 00:01:38.170 --> 00:01:41.219 Crusaders. Just from the title, it feels... It 00:01:41.219 --> 00:01:43.920 feels like it's wearing a tuxedo and tails. It 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:46.439 absolutely is. And our mission today is to figure 00:01:46.439 --> 00:01:50.019 out why this song exists, why it failed so spectacularly 00:01:50.019 --> 00:01:52.359 at first, and how it managed to survive. Because 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:54.299 on paper, it really should have been a massive 00:01:54.299 --> 00:01:56.640 hit. It had everything. The pedigree, the funding, 00:01:56.859 --> 00:02:00.379 the patriotic fervor of 1918 behind it. And yet 00:02:00.379 --> 00:02:03.620 it became an orphan. Exactly. So let's unpack 00:02:03.620 --> 00:02:06.239 this. Where does the story of America's Crusaders 00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:08.699 actually begin? Well, to understand the song, 00:02:08.740 --> 00:02:10.460 you have to understand the ecosystem. it was 00:02:10.460 --> 00:02:13.479 born into. We're in Boston, 1918. The First World 00:02:13.479 --> 00:02:16.400 War is consuming everything. The whole country 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:19.159 is mobilized. And in the middle of this, you 00:02:19.159 --> 00:02:22.439 have a man named Charles Fontaine Manny. Now, 00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:24.500 looking at the notes on Manny, he doesn't seem 00:02:24.500 --> 00:02:27.180 like your typical struggling artist in a cold 00:02:27.180 --> 00:02:29.759 attic. Far from it. Manny is the establishment. 00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:33.080 The source describes him as a well -known Boston 00:02:33.080 --> 00:02:36.840 composer and choir director. But, and this is 00:02:36.840 --> 00:02:40.409 key, he was also an editor. An editor. A music 00:02:40.409 --> 00:02:43.090 editor, yes, for Oliver Ditson and Company. Okay, 00:02:43.129 --> 00:02:44.669 we need to pause on that name because if you 00:02:44.669 --> 00:02:47.150 aren't a music historian, Oliver Ditson just 00:02:47.150 --> 00:02:50.189 sounds like some guy. Yeah. But in 1918, this 00:02:50.189 --> 00:02:52.210 was a powerhouse, right? Oh, absolutely. Oliver 00:02:52.210 --> 00:02:54.229 Ditson was one of the major music publishing 00:02:54.229 --> 00:02:56.629 houses in the United States. Being an editor 00:02:56.629 --> 00:02:58.590 there meant Manny wasn't just writing music. 00:02:58.669 --> 00:03:01.370 He was deciding what music got sold. So he's 00:03:01.370 --> 00:03:03.949 a gatekeeper. A huge one. He understood the market, 00:03:04.090 --> 00:03:06.490 the trends, and he had the distribution network 00:03:06.490 --> 00:03:08.569 right at his fingertips. So he's an insider. 00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:10.780 He has the talent, he has the connections, and 00:03:10.780 --> 00:03:13.819 in 1918, he gets a commission that most composers 00:03:13.819 --> 00:03:16.939 would, well, kill for. The Boston Pops Orchestra. 00:03:17.319 --> 00:03:19.919 The legendary Boston Pops. They're planning their 00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:23.060 4th of July concert, which, even back then, was 00:03:23.060 --> 00:03:25.560 a massive cultural event. And the stakes were 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:27.780 incredibly high. This isn't just a summer picnic 00:03:27.780 --> 00:03:29.919 concert, it's the 4th of July, during the height 00:03:29.919 --> 00:03:33.060 of the Great War. Patriotism would have been 00:03:33.060 --> 00:03:36.060 at a fever pitch. Right. The audience wasn't 00:03:36.060 --> 00:03:38.120 just looking for entertainment. No, they were 00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:41.020 looking for meaning, for reassurance. So the 00:03:41.020 --> 00:03:43.699 organizers, specifically a man named Stephen 00:03:43.699 --> 00:03:46.060 Townsend, who was in charge of the choral sections, 00:03:46.300 --> 00:03:49.800 they come to Manny, and the request is very specific. 00:03:49.860 --> 00:03:51.900 They don't just want a song. The source says 00:03:51.900 --> 00:03:54.939 they wanted a commemorative work. That wording 00:03:54.939 --> 00:03:58.379 is crucial. Commemorative implies wait. They 00:03:58.379 --> 00:04:00.719 didn't ask for a toe -tapper or a marching song 00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:02.819 for the trenches. They wanted something monumental, 00:04:03.159 --> 00:04:05.360 something that would sound important in a history 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:08.340 book. And Manny delivers America's Crusaders. 00:04:08.840 --> 00:04:10.919 Now, before we get to the disaster that follows, 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:12.900 I want to try and hear this song in our heads, 00:04:12.979 --> 00:04:15.439 because the source material breaks down the publication 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:18.139 formats, and they paint a really vivid picture. 00:04:18.360 --> 00:04:20.870 They do. It was published in two main formats. 00:04:21.149 --> 00:04:24.850 First, for a four -part ensemble of mixed voices, 00:04:25.029 --> 00:04:27.750 your standard choir. But the second format is 00:04:27.750 --> 00:04:30.449 the telling one. What's that? A four -part ensemble 00:04:30.449 --> 00:04:33.870 of male voices featuring a baritone soloist. 00:04:34.009 --> 00:04:36.389 A baritone soloist. So not a tenor hitting the 00:04:36.389 --> 00:04:39.089 high notes, but that deep, authoritative voice. 00:04:39.410 --> 00:04:42.410 Exactly. Picture the scene. You have the Boston 00:04:42.410 --> 00:04:46.029 Pops Orchestra. You have this wall of men in 00:04:46.029 --> 00:04:48.490 formal wear. And then a baritone steps forward. 00:04:48.589 --> 00:04:52.329 It screams authority. It projects a very masculine, 00:04:52.389 --> 00:04:55.550 very serious image of war. It's grounded. And 00:04:55.550 --> 00:04:57.430 the description of the musical style just backs 00:04:57.430 --> 00:05:00.370 that up perfectly. The notes describe it as cultivated. 00:05:01.410 --> 00:05:03.810 Cultivated, which is a polite academic way of 00:05:03.810 --> 00:05:06.329 saying fancy, or maybe even European. Right. 00:05:06.389 --> 00:05:08.269 It sounds like something you'd hear in a conservatory, 00:05:08.269 --> 00:05:10.870 not a dance hall. Precisely. And the rhythm is 00:05:10.870 --> 00:05:14.110 described as a heroic slow march. Now think about 00:05:14.110 --> 00:05:16.910 that phrasing. A slow march isn't for charging 00:05:16.910 --> 00:05:19.709 into battle. It's for a procession, for a ceremony. 00:05:19.769 --> 00:05:22.430 It's measured. The source even compares the texture 00:05:22.430 --> 00:05:25.750 of the song to upper class church anthems. And 00:05:25.750 --> 00:05:28.610 that is the perfect descriptor. It's the sonic 00:05:28.610 --> 00:05:31.230 equivalent of a stained glass window. It's stately, 00:05:31.410 --> 00:05:34.790 it's dignified, and it is undeniably wealthy. 00:05:35.529 --> 00:05:37.689 This is not the music of the doughboys in the 00:05:37.689 --> 00:05:39.550 mud. This is the music of the people funding 00:05:39.550 --> 00:05:42.089 the war. And that leads to a bit of a critique 00:05:42.089 --> 00:05:44.949 in the source material. It says that while the 00:05:44.949 --> 00:05:47.970 song was harmonically sophisticated, which you'd 00:05:47.970 --> 00:05:50.329 expect from an editor like Manny, it was also 00:05:50.329 --> 00:05:53.269 not at all innovative. It was safe. Totally safe. 00:05:53.350 --> 00:05:55.730 Manny was a professional. He gave the client 00:05:55.730 --> 00:05:59.149 exactly what they asked for. A highbrow, patriotic 00:05:59.149 --> 00:06:01.250 anthem that wouldn't ruffle any feathers. It 00:06:01.250 --> 00:06:03.310 didn't have the syncopation of ragtime. It didn't 00:06:03.310 --> 00:06:06.490 have that raw energy. of early jazz. It was traditional. 00:06:06.730 --> 00:06:08.810 It was the musical equivalent of a firm handshake. 00:06:08.889 --> 00:06:12.209 Exactly. Solid, dependable, and completely unsurprising. 00:06:12.350 --> 00:06:14.509 So we have the setting, high society Boston, 00:06:14.769 --> 00:06:17.810 we have the song, a slow church -like anthem, 00:06:18.009 --> 00:06:20.689 and we have the lyrics. The opening line is, 00:06:20.810 --> 00:06:24.490 as we go to battle, motherland, for thee. As 00:06:24.490 --> 00:06:27.370 we go to battle, hang on to that phrase. Because 00:06:27.370 --> 00:06:29.670 that phrase is about to become the single biggest 00:06:29.670 --> 00:06:32.310 problem in the history of music publishing. This 00:06:32.310 --> 00:06:34.230 is where we get into the terrible timing part 00:06:34.230 --> 00:06:36.670 of the story. This is a case study in the friction 00:06:36.670 --> 00:06:40.470 between the speed of art or, you know, physical 00:06:40.470 --> 00:06:42.790 publishing and the speed of history. Okay, so 00:06:42.790 --> 00:06:44.709 let's look at the timeline. The song is written 00:06:44.709 --> 00:06:47.889 for the July 4th concert in 1918. It's performed. 00:06:48.149 --> 00:06:50.430 Everyone presumably likes it. Then it goes to 00:06:50.430 --> 00:06:53.480 the printers. It gets copyrighted on August 16th, 00:06:53.480 --> 00:06:56.540 1918. So far, so good. The war is raging. The 00:06:56.540 --> 00:06:58.660 American Expeditionary Forces are in the thick 00:06:58.660 --> 00:07:01.360 of it. The market for a song about going to battle 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:03.800 is huge. Every choir in the country wants something 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:05.959 like this. You'd think. But publishing sheet 00:07:05.959 --> 00:07:09.560 music in 1918 isn't like uploading an MP3. You 00:07:09.560 --> 00:07:11.939 have to engrave the plates, print the paper, 00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:14.800 cut it, bind it, box it up, ship it to stores 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:16.579 by train. It's a whole logistical operation. 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:18.899 And by the time America's Crusaders actually 00:07:18.899 --> 00:07:22.160 hits the shelves for the public to buy, it is 00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:24.899 November 1918. And for anyone who knows their 00:07:24.899 --> 00:07:27.980 history, November 1918 is the single worst month 00:07:27.980 --> 00:07:30.839 of the entire 20th century to release a war anthem. 00:07:31.100 --> 00:07:33.819 Because on November 11th, the armistice is signed. 00:07:34.250 --> 00:07:37.329 The war ends. Just ends. Imagine being the publisher 00:07:37.329 --> 00:07:40.290 at Oliver Ditson. You have warehouses full of 00:07:40.290 --> 00:07:42.689 the sophisticated, beautiful sheet music with 00:07:42.689 --> 00:07:46.250 the opening line, as we go to battle. And suddenly 00:07:46.250 --> 00:07:48.550 nobody is going to battle anymore. They're coming 00:07:48.550 --> 00:07:51.470 home. It's a marketing nightmare. The song is 00:07:51.470 --> 00:07:53.810 obsolete the moment it touches the shelf. The 00:07:53.810 --> 00:07:56.949 entire premise, the going to, is backwards. The 00:07:56.949 --> 00:07:59.649 tense is wrong. It brings up a really interesting 00:07:59.649 --> 00:08:03.160 point about commercial art during wartime. You 00:08:03.160 --> 00:08:05.660 are betting on the conflict continuing. It's 00:08:05.660 --> 00:08:07.699 a cynical way to look at it. But yeah, Manny 00:08:07.699 --> 00:08:10.279 and Ditson were betting on the war lasting through 00:08:10.279 --> 00:08:12.980 the winter. And they lost that bet. So what did 00:08:12.980 --> 00:08:14.980 Ditson do? Did they just burn all the sheet music? 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:16.980 No, they tried to pivot. And this is where it 00:08:16.980 --> 00:08:19.100 gets kind of desperate in a funny sort of way. 00:08:19.259 --> 00:08:22.620 The source says Ditson marketed it as a patriotic 00:08:22.620 --> 00:08:25.459 anthem for general use. General use? That sounds 00:08:25.459 --> 00:08:28.220 so vague. It's like selling a snow shovel in 00:08:28.220 --> 00:08:30.779 July and calling it a general purpose sand mover. 00:08:31.180 --> 00:08:33.200 That's exactly. Great for whenever you're feeling 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:35.759 vaguely American. They were trying to salvage 00:08:35.759 --> 00:08:38.379 the investment. But the source is pretty clear. 00:08:38.759 --> 00:08:42.320 Ditson made only a modest effort to promote it. 00:08:42.399 --> 00:08:44.940 They knew. They knew the public mood had shifted. 00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:48.100 And that shift was drastic. Huge, wasn't it? 00:08:48.159 --> 00:08:51.159 Yeah. You have to remember, after November 1918, 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:54.519 the country just wanted to forget. They wanted 00:08:54.519 --> 00:08:56.539 to move on. We were heading into the roaring 00:08:56.539 --> 00:09:00.340 20s. People wanted fast tempos, jazz, fun. They 00:09:00.340 --> 00:09:03.299 wanted shorter skirts and faster cars. They decidedly 00:09:03.299 --> 00:09:05.960 did not want a heroic slow march that sounded 00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:08.580 like an upper class church service. So America's 00:09:08.580 --> 00:09:11.299 Crusaders is the wrong song with the wrong lyrics 00:09:11.299 --> 00:09:14.600 at the exact wrong time. It misses the bus completely. 00:09:14.840 --> 00:09:16.860 It does. It fails to become a hit. It doesn't 00:09:16.860 --> 00:09:19.740 become over there. It just vanishes from the 00:09:19.740 --> 00:09:22.429 mainstream. And this is why I love digging into 00:09:22.429 --> 00:09:25.649 these orphans. It didn't die. It just went underground. 00:09:25.870 --> 00:09:28.370 It entered its dormant phase. It hibernated. 00:09:28.490 --> 00:09:31.070 The source has this fascinating list of where 00:09:31.070 --> 00:09:33.590 the song actually was performed in the years 00:09:33.590 --> 00:09:35.490 after the war. And it's not the Boston Symphony 00:09:35.490 --> 00:09:38.350 Hall anymore. No, it's the amateur circuit. And 00:09:38.350 --> 00:09:40.870 when you look at who was performing it, you get 00:09:40.870 --> 00:09:44.029 a real snapshot. of a certain slice of American 00:09:44.029 --> 00:09:47.809 life that was holding on to those pre -war values. 00:09:48.190 --> 00:09:51.370 One of the first mentions is patriotic services 00:09:51.370 --> 00:09:55.230 by Presbyterians in Philadelphia right in November 00:09:55.230 --> 00:09:58.769 1918. That tracks perfectly. We just discussed 00:09:58.769 --> 00:10:01.169 the church anthem style. Of course, a Presbyterian 00:10:01.169 --> 00:10:02.950 service would find this appropriate. It fits 00:10:02.950 --> 00:10:05.870 the liturgy. It's safe. It's solemn. Right. It 00:10:05.870 --> 00:10:08.049 doesn't sound like a cabaret. Then we see it 00:10:08.049 --> 00:10:10.129 in civic organizations. But the one that really 00:10:10.129 --> 00:10:12.549 stood out to me was the schools. There's a record 00:10:12.549 --> 00:10:14.710 of it in the school report of the city of Portland, 00:10:14.870 --> 00:10:18.669 Maine from 1923. 1923, five years after the war 00:10:18.669 --> 00:10:21.529 ended. Five years. Yeah. Why are high school 00:10:21.529 --> 00:10:24.690 kids in Portland, Maine singing this in 1923? 00:10:25.070 --> 00:10:27.350 Well, think about the economics of public schools. 00:10:27.509 --> 00:10:29.590 The sheet music was probably available, maybe 00:10:29.590 --> 00:10:31.529 even discounted because Ditson was trying to 00:10:31.529 --> 00:10:33.769 clear out the stock. Good point. But also think 00:10:33.769 --> 00:10:35.870 about the culture of a school board in 1923. 00:10:36.070 --> 00:10:37.850 They aren't going to have the choir sing the 00:10:37.850 --> 00:10:39.789 new jazz hits from the speakeasies. Definitely 00:10:39.789 --> 00:10:42.259 not. They aren't singing the Charleston. No. 00:10:42.299 --> 00:10:44.399 They want something cultivated. They want something 00:10:44.399 --> 00:10:47.879 that teaches good values and discipline. Manny's 00:10:47.879 --> 00:10:50.220 song was perfect for that. It was the vegetables 00:10:50.220 --> 00:10:52.779 of the music world. Eat this. It's good for your 00:10:52.779 --> 00:10:55.399 character. Precisely. It was nutritious music. 00:10:55.580 --> 00:10:57.940 There's one other performance location in the 00:10:57.940 --> 00:11:00.379 notes that's actually quite poignant. It was 00:11:00.379 --> 00:11:02.840 performed at the base hospital at Camp Jackson, 00:11:03.080 --> 00:11:07.509 South Carolina in 1919. Ah. That one hits differently, 00:11:07.629 --> 00:11:09.230 doesn't it? That stops you in your tracks a bit. 00:11:09.370 --> 00:11:11.950 It really does. You imagine a hospital ward full 00:11:11.950 --> 00:11:14.490 of wounded men recovering from the war, maybe 00:11:14.490 --> 00:11:17.250 amputees, maybe men recovering from gas attacks. 00:11:17.629 --> 00:11:20.970 And this song is played, America's Crusaders. 00:11:21.110 --> 00:11:24.169 In that context, the lyrics change meaning completely. 00:11:24.570 --> 00:11:26.990 As we go to battle isn't a literal instruction 00:11:26.990 --> 00:11:29.929 anymore. It becomes a memory, a reflection. And 00:11:29.929 --> 00:11:32.509 the title Crusaders becomes an honorific. Yes. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:35.580 It's validating their sacrifice. It's not about 00:11:35.580 --> 00:11:37.580 the future. It's about honoring the immediate 00:11:37.580 --> 00:11:40.379 past. So it shows that even though the song failed 00:11:40.379 --> 00:11:43.720 commercially, it still had utility. It still 00:11:43.720 --> 00:11:45.480 meant something to the people who actually lived 00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:47.580 through the crusade. That's a beautiful way to 00:11:47.580 --> 00:11:50.240 put it. So for about a decade, the song clings 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:53.279 to life in these pockets. Churches, schools, 00:11:53.799 --> 00:11:57.799 hospitals. But eventually, the Jazz Age wins. 00:11:58.220 --> 00:12:01.820 Source says by the mid -1920s, the song receded 00:12:01.820 --> 00:12:05.279 from view. It stayed in the Ditson catalog. Publishers 00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:07.620 rarely throw things away. But it was effectively 00:12:07.620 --> 00:12:10.480 dead. A relic. Just another piece of paper in 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:13.580 a filing cabinet. So now we fast forward. We 00:12:13.580 --> 00:12:17.279 jump 20 years. It's 1946. World War II has just 00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:19.940 ended. A whole new war. Charles Fontaine Manny 00:12:19.940 --> 00:12:22.340 is an old man now. And he does something that 00:12:22.340 --> 00:12:24.679 on the surface makes absolutely no sense. He 00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:26.440 renews the copyright. He renews the copyright. 00:12:26.620 --> 00:12:29.120 Why? Why pay to protect a song that hasn't sold 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:31.679 a copy in 20 years? It does seem strange. Was 00:12:31.679 --> 00:12:33.980 it vanity? Just an old man holding on to his 00:12:33.980 --> 00:12:36.240 glory days? Or did he think, hey, World War III 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:37.919 is around the corner. Let's get ready. I doubt 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:39.820 he was betting on World War III. But remember, 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:41.940 Manny was a businessman. He was an editor. He 00:12:41.940 --> 00:12:44.320 understood intellectual property. Maybe he just 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:46.259 followed procedure. Or maybe he had a hunch. 00:12:46.500 --> 00:12:50.350 Maybe. Because three years later, in 1949, this 00:12:50.350 --> 00:12:53.610 forgotten orphan song gets the biggest break 00:12:53.610 --> 00:12:56.669 imaginable. It goes from the dusty archives of 00:12:56.669 --> 00:12:59.899 Oliver Ditson. To the newest, most explosive 00:12:59.899 --> 00:13:02.580 medium on the planet. Television. We're talking 00:13:02.580 --> 00:13:05.000 about the documentary series Crusade in Europe. 00:13:05.100 --> 00:13:06.879 And this wasn't just some small show. This was 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:09.720 a cultural event. It was based on General Dwight 00:13:09.720 --> 00:13:12.419 D. Eisenhower's book about World War II. This 00:13:12.419 --> 00:13:16.019 was the definitive visual record of the war for 00:13:16.019 --> 00:13:18.299 the American public. Everyone was watching this. 00:13:18.360 --> 00:13:20.860 Everyone. And the producers need music. They 00:13:20.860 --> 00:13:24.320 need a theme. They could have hired a contemporary 00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:26.940 composer to write something modern, something 00:13:26.940 --> 00:13:30.620 cinematic, but they didn't. No, they went digging 00:13:30.620 --> 00:13:34.340 and they found America's Crusaders. And the source 00:13:34.340 --> 00:13:37.500 says the song was sung in part at the start and 00:13:37.500 --> 00:13:39.639 at the finish of the documentary. It bookended 00:13:39.639 --> 00:13:41.980 the entire experience. Think about the title 00:13:41.980 --> 00:13:44.299 match. Eisenhower's book is Crusade in Europe. 00:13:44.679 --> 00:13:47.379 Manny's song is America's Crusaders. It's almost 00:13:47.379 --> 00:13:49.779 too perfect. It really is. It's linguistic fate. 00:13:49.980 --> 00:13:52.000 But it's more than just the title, isn't it? 00:13:52.039 --> 00:13:54.419 Yeah. It goes back to that cultivated slow march 00:13:54.419 --> 00:13:57.299 style we talked about earlier. Exactly. If you're 00:13:57.299 --> 00:13:59.480 making a serious documentary about the liberation 00:13:59.480 --> 00:14:01.700 of Europe, about the Holocaust, about D -Day. 00:14:02.669 --> 00:14:06.950 You don't want bouncy 1940s swing music. You 00:14:06.950 --> 00:14:08.750 don't want the Andrews sisters singing Boogie 00:14:08.750 --> 00:14:11.190 Woogie Bugle Boy. No, you want gravity. You want 00:14:11.190 --> 00:14:13.889 that upper class church anthem vibe. You want 00:14:13.889 --> 00:14:17.169 exactly what Manny wrote in 1918. The stiffness 00:14:17.169 --> 00:14:19.789 that made the song fail in the jazz age was exactly 00:14:19.789 --> 00:14:22.549 what made it perfect for a 1949 history documentary. 00:14:22.929 --> 00:14:24.710 It sounded timeless. It sounded like history 00:14:24.710 --> 00:14:27.549 itself. It's just incredible irony. In 1918, 00:14:27.769 --> 00:14:30.370 the song failed because the war ended too soon. 00:14:30.669 --> 00:14:33.690 In 1949, it succeeded because the war was over 00:14:33.690 --> 00:14:35.629 and we were looking back at it with reverence. 00:14:35.710 --> 00:14:37.769 The context completely changed the value of the 00:14:37.769 --> 00:14:40.570 art. Same notes, same lyrics. But in 1918, it 00:14:40.570 --> 00:14:43.970 was bad timing. In 1949, it was definitive. And 00:14:43.970 --> 00:14:46.049 Manny lived to see it. He did. He renewed that 00:14:46.049 --> 00:14:48.950 copyright in 46. The show aired in 49. He saw 00:14:48.950 --> 00:14:51.330 his failure become the soundtrack for the victory 00:14:51.330 --> 00:14:53.690 of the next generation. I wonder if he felt vindicated. 00:14:54.059 --> 00:14:56.620 He must have. It validates the quality of the 00:14:56.620 --> 00:14:59.019 work. It proves that the song wasn't bad. It 00:14:59.019 --> 00:15:02.620 was just early. Or maybe it was just waiting 00:15:02.620 --> 00:15:04.940 for the right technology. That's the key, isn't 00:15:04.940 --> 00:15:07.259 it? It was waiting for television, a medium that 00:15:07.259 --> 00:15:09.059 didn't even exist when the notes were put on 00:15:09.059 --> 00:15:11.740 the page. It really makes you rethink the concept 00:15:11.740 --> 00:15:15.139 of a failed piece of art. America's Crusaders 00:15:15.139 --> 00:15:19.879 was a commercial flop, but culturally. It ended 00:15:19.879 --> 00:15:22.460 up defining the memory of World War II for millions 00:15:22.460 --> 00:15:25.879 of people, so... Was it a failure? It's a survivor. 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:28.379 It hibernated. And it's a great reminder that 00:15:28.379 --> 00:15:31.419 orphan doesn't mean dead. This Wikipedia article 00:15:31.419 --> 00:15:33.919 we found, it has no links pointing to it. It 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:36.840 sits there alone. But the subject of the article, 00:15:36.980 --> 00:15:40.720 it connects everything. It connects WWI to WWI. 00:15:40.899 --> 00:15:43.799 Sheet music to television. The Boston elite to 00:15:43.799 --> 00:15:45.960 high schoolers in Maine. It's like a secret thread 00:15:45.960 --> 00:15:47.899 running through the first half of the 20th century. 00:15:48.039 --> 00:15:50.019 Exactly. And if we hadn't looked at this orphan, 00:15:50.159 --> 00:15:51.440 we would have missed that thread completely. 00:15:52.090 --> 00:15:53.990 It makes me look at the digital world a little 00:15:53.990 --> 00:15:56.809 differently. I mean, we generate so much content 00:15:56.809 --> 00:16:00.629 today, podcasts, blogs, videos, memes, and so 00:16:00.629 --> 00:16:02.629 much of it just vanishes into the feed. It gets 00:16:02.629 --> 00:16:05.009 orphaned by the algorithm in about 24 hours. 00:16:05.090 --> 00:16:07.330 Right. We assume that if something doesn't go 00:16:07.330 --> 00:16:10.769 viral immediately, it has no value. We judge 00:16:10.769 --> 00:16:13.590 success by the speed of the reaction. But the 00:16:13.590 --> 00:16:15.730 story of America's Crusaders suggests that's 00:16:15.730 --> 00:16:18.600 just the wrong metric. It is. Maybe the value 00:16:18.600 --> 00:16:20.899 of a piece of work isn't determined in the first 00:16:20.899 --> 00:16:23.700 week or even the first decade. Which leads to 00:16:23.700 --> 00:16:26.759 a pretty wild thought to wrap this up. If America's 00:16:26.759 --> 00:16:28.940 crusaders had to wait 30 years for the invention 00:16:28.940 --> 00:16:31.960 of television to find its true purpose, what 00:16:31.960 --> 00:16:34.299 is out there right now, sitting in a database, 00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:37.240 orphaned and ignored, waiting for a technology 00:16:37.240 --> 00:16:39.399 we haven't even invented yet? That is the question. 00:16:39.769 --> 00:16:41.330 Maybe there's a piece of digital art or some 00:16:41.330 --> 00:16:43.610 strange blog post or a piece of code that looks 00:16:43.610 --> 00:16:46.889 useless to us today. But in 2050, when we have, 00:16:46.889 --> 00:16:49.289 I don't know, neural implants or holographic 00:16:49.289 --> 00:16:51.710 projection, it becomes the defining masterpiece 00:16:51.710 --> 00:16:55.029 of the era. It's entirely possible. The next 00:16:55.029 --> 00:16:57.649 America's Crusaders is probably sitting on a 00:16:57.649 --> 00:17:00.509 server right now gathering digital dust, just 00:17:00.509 --> 00:17:02.710 waiting for its moment. Context is everything. 00:17:02.870 --> 00:17:04.970 We just have to be patient enough to let it arrive. 00:17:05.969 --> 00:17:08.589 So, next time you fall down a Wikipedia rabbit 00:17:08.589 --> 00:17:11.009 hole and land on a page with no links, don't 00:17:11.009 --> 00:17:13.190 just click away. There might be a ghost in the 00:17:13.190 --> 00:17:15.150 machine waiting to tell you a hell of a story. 00:17:15.690 --> 00:17:17.710 Thanks for taking the deep dive with us. Always 00:17:17.710 --> 00:17:19.210 a pleasure to connect the dots.