So Heart of Stone, it's one of those idioms that
really feels like it's been around since we lived
in caves, just staring at the fire. Yeah, absolutely.
You hear those three words and you just immediately
know the architect we're talking about, like
the cold villain or the. the unfeeling ex -partner.
Or that corporate shark who just fires people
without even blinking. Exactly. It's this universal
concept. It really is the ultimate shorthand
for emotional impenetrability. It implies a very
distinct lack of empathy. Precisely. But today
on this deep dive, we aren't here to just give
you a dictionary definition. No, I think you
already know what it means. Right. We're here
because we've been looking through this absolutely
massive stack of data. cultural databases, copyright
registries, historical archives. Even medical
journals, which we will get to. Oh, we are definitely
getting to that because we found something really
weird. We as a species are just absolutely obsessed
with this specific combination of words. Obsessed
is definitely the right word. When we started
pulling the source material for this deep dive,
I honestly, I expected maybe a handful of songs
and like a movie or two. Standard pop culture
stuff. Right. Standard stuff. But the sheer volume
of content titled Heart of Stone is, it's staggering.
It's a complete data obsession. And it isn't
just the volume either. It's the variety. I mean,
we are looking at a phenomenon that links 1920s
German silent cinema, 1980s heavy metal. by Thirlers
from 2023. Yes, and this is my favorite part,
literal medical textbooks. It really is the title
that refuses to die. It just keeps reinventing
itself for every single generation. So here is
our roadmap for this deep dive. We're going to
unpack a timeline that spans over two entire
centuries. Which is wild. It is. And we're going
to look at the musical tug of war over who actually
owns this title. Because literally everyone from
Cher to Motorhead seems to think it belongs to
them. And we are going to finish with the most
surprising twist in the research, which is that
biological reality I hinted at, because it turns
out having a heart of stone isn't just a metaphor.
It is an actual medical diagnosis. It is. OK,
so let's start with the visual side of things.
Film and television. I was I was scanning the
release dates in the database and there's this
incredible book end effect happening that I really
need to ask you about. You mean the gap between
the 1924 film and the recent blockbuster. Exactly
that. So in 1924, you have a German silent film
titled Heart of Stone or Das Kalte Herz in the
original German. Right. that is literally a century
ago, black and white, expressionist, very atmospheric.
And then you fast forward to 2023, which is basically
yesterday. And you have this massive budget American
spy action film starring Gal Gadot. Also titled
Heart of Stone. Also titled Heart of Stone. I
mean, think about the technological leap there.
This title has survived the transition from silent
film to talkies to technicolor to the digital
age. And now it's surviving streaming algorithms.
It suggests the phrase is completely genre agnostic.
Right. It doesn't sound dated. Exactly. It doesn't
feel old timey like saying the cat's meow. But
it also doesn't feel... overly futuristic. It
just sits in this really weird, timeless space.
It really does. And the list in between those
two dates is so eclectic. You've got an East
German film from 1950, then you jump to 2001,
and there's an American psychological thriller.
Yep. than a 2009 documentary. It is everywhere.
That East German production from 1950 is super
interesting, actually. Why is that? Well, because
usually titles are very specific to their cultural
moment. You know, a title like Rebel Without
a Cause screams 1950s America. Oh, sure. But
Heart of Stone works for a communist era state
production, just as well as it works for a slick
Hollywood blockbuster. It implies a moral center
or maybe a lack of one that resonates totally
regardless of the political backdrop. That makes
a lot of sense. But it's not just the big screen,
though. The television writers are arguably even
more addicted to this trope. Oh, they love it.
They do. But I notice a pattern in the show list.
It isn't usually like sitcoms or police procedurals
using this title. It's very specific. No, it
is almost exclusively speculative fiction, sci
-fi and fantasy. Right. The sources list, Star
Trek. Deep Space Nine, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland,
and an animated show called Mysticons. Right.
Why do you think these genres specifically gravitate
toward it? I think it comes down to the fundamental
nature of the characters in those worlds. In
a sitcom, characters are usually just humans
dealing with awkward everyday situations. But
in sci -fi or fantasy, you're often dealing with
entities that are struggling with the very definition
of humanity itself. Like shapeshifters or cyborgs
or magical beings. Exactly. Take that episode
of Star Trek, Deep Space Nine. The episode titled
Heart of Stone centers on the character Odo,
who is a changeling, in Colonel Kira. The tension
in that universe is often about logic versus
emotion, or duty versus love. When a sci -fi
writer slaps Heart of Stone on a script, they
aren't just saying someone is being mean. They're
being literal. Often, yes. They're exploring
a literal shedding of humanity. A character is
becoming a machine or a statue or losing their
soul to magic. So in a realistic drama, it's
just a metaphor. But in fantasy, it's often an
actual physical threat. or a transformation.
Precisely. It really raises the stakes. If you
have a heart of stone in a fantasy show, you
might actually be actively turning into stone.
Right. Well, speaking of raising the stakes,
let's move to the section of the notes that honestly
gave me a headache just trying to organize it.
The music. The music section is absolute chaos.
It really is. It seems like every musician in
the last 40 years looked at their track list
and said, you know what's missing? A song called
Heart of Stone. It is the ultimate default setting
for a rock or pop song. But there is a pattern
in the chaos if you look closely. Well, there
is definitely a center of gravity in the data.
We need to talk about the Cher Nexus. Ah, yes,
the late 80s saturation point. This is wild.
So looking at the data here, in 1989, Cher releases
a massive album. The title, Heart of Stone. Such
an iconic era for her. Big hair, leather jackets,
music videos filmed on battleships. But she is
not done. In 1990, just a year later, she releases
a single. The title of the song, Heart of Stone.
She doubled down. She planted her flag. She did.
But here's the twist. That song she released
wasn't an original. No. It was a cover. It was
originally released by the British group Bucks
Fizz in 1988. So let's map that timeline out.
1988, Bucks Fizz releases the song. 1989, Cher
names her entire album after the phrase. 1990's
Cher covers the song. Wow. Within a 24 month
window, the charts were just pummeled with this
one phrase. It was a hardest stone gold rush.
Everyone wanted a piece of that real estate.
But we can't talk about this title without acknowledging
who likely made it cool in the first place. The
Rolling Stone. 1964. This is the real anchor
point. Before 1964, the phrase was mostly literary
or folkloric. But when Mick Jagger sings it,
it completely changes the texture of the words.
How so? It wasn't just about being unfeeling
anymore. It became about being tough. The Rolling
Stones made Heart of Stone a badge of honor.
It implies you've been hurt, so you calcified
yourself to survive. That toughness clearly appealed
to a specific crowd, too. Because when I was
looking through the list of artists who have
a song called Heart of Stone, the genre whiplash
is hilarious. It really is. It's like hitting
shuffle on the weirdest iPod in history. Give
us the spread. Give us the genres. Okay, so in
the Tough Guy corner, we have Motorhead. Their
song is on the Iron Fist album from 1982. Let
me kill mister singing about a heart of stone
that I immediately believe. Absolutely. That
fits the brand perfectly. It sounds like armor.
Then you got Whitesnake giving us their version
on the Slash and Blood album in 2019. You've
got the metalcore band Under Oath in 1999. And
the band, you know, the final countdown guys,
they had a Heart of Stone on that same album
in 1986. So that is very much the leather and
pyrotechnics camp. For them, Heart of Stone is
something you wear into battle. It means you
can't be hurt. Exactly. But then you flip the
record over and who else is using this title?
Taylor Dane. Pop dance icon of the 90s. A completely
different emotional landscape. Totally. Erasure.
Synth pop legends. They had one on The Innocents
in 1988. Silver Convention in the disco era,
1975. See for erasure or Taylor Dane a heart
of stone isn't something they have it's something
they are running up against It's usually a song
about unrequited love. It's why won't you let
me in versus motorheads? You can't hurt me. It's
the exact same three words, but diametrically
opposite meanings That is fascinating and it
doesn't even stop at pop and rock musical theater
fans You aren't safe either right musical six,
which has become this massive global phenomenon
recently Right the show about the six wives of
Henry VIII Toby Marlowe and Lucy Moss wrote a
song called Heart of Stone for Jane Seymour's
character in 2018, which is this beautiful sweeping
ballad. And in that context, she is saying she
needs a heart of stone to survive the king's
love, to survive the loss. But she can't force
herself to have one. It is entirely about vulnerability.
And just to prove this isn't some retro trend,
we have a source from this year, 2024, Jelly
Roll, the country rap crossover star. He has
a song called Heart of Stone. It literally hasn't
retired. From the Rolling Stones in 64 to Jelly
Roll in 24, that is 60 years of musicians saying,
yep, that is the title I want. It really raises
the question, is it just laziness? Or is the
phrase just so perfect that you genuinely can
improve on it? I think it's the rhythm of it,
heart, stone. It's bunchy. It is. Oh, and I have
to mention one more music detail because I just
love a bit of Eurovision chaos. The Andreas Kummert
story. Yes. So in 2015, Andreas Kummert is competing
to represent Germany in Eurovision. The song
he is singing, hardest done. Naturally. He actually
wins the national selection. The audience votes
for him. And then he famously declines to go
right on live television. Right on stage, he
hands it over to the runner up. Talk about a
twist. But you mentioned something earlier about
Germany, because we had that German silent film,
the East German film, and now a German Eurovision
contestant singing a song with that title. This
is where the deep dive gets really interesting.
We tend to think of this as an English idiom
because of the Rolling Stones or Cher, but the
roots of this phrase, specifically as a title
for a story, seem to dig really deep into German
soil. Okay, let's unpack this. We saw the 1924
film. Was that the start? Not even close. The
oldest source in our stack is from 1827. 1827,
that is nearly 200 years ago. It is. It's a German
fairy tale titled Das Kalte Herz. Literally the
cold heart, but it's often translated and adapted
as heart of stone. It was written by Wilhelm
Hof. I don't think I know that one. What is the
actual premise? It's a classic Faustian bargain,
but with a twist. The protagonist, a guy named
Peter Monk, wants to be rich. He is tired of
being poor and invisible. So he goes to a forest
spirit called Dutch Michael. Okay. Michael tells
him that his emotions, his fear, his anxiety,
his empathy are what is holding him back from
success. So they make a trade. Let me guess.
He trades his heart. Literally. He gives up his
beating, living heart and the spirit replaces
it with a heart made of marble. Cold stone. Wow.
And suddenly he's successful. Wildly successful,
he becomes a wealthy timber merchant. But he
can't feel joy, he can't love his wife, he can't
even taste food properly. He becomes a monster.
Not because he's inherently evil, but because
he is completely numb. That is profoundly relevant.
Isn't it? It frames the heart of stone not just
as being mean, but as an economic transaction.
You trade your humanity for success or stability.
That connects so perfectly back to the Star Trek
and sci -fi examples we talked about earlier.
The cyborg who trades flesh for efficiency, it
is the exact same story as the 1827 fairy tale,
just with spaceships instead of dark forests.
Exactly. The medium changes. You go from folklore
to silent film to synth pop to sci -fi, but the
core anxiety remains exactly the same. What is
the cost of stopping the pain? If I turn my heart
to stone so I don't feel hurt, do I end up losing
everything else? That is heavy. We also have
a literary mention here, by the way, a novel
from 1996 by Sebastiano Vasale called Heart of
Stone. It seems the novelists are in on it, too.
It really does cover every medium. It is omnipresent.
It is just the story we can't stop telling ourselves.
But speaking of literal meanings, you promised
us a twist at the beginning. I did. We have talked
about metaphors, songs, movies, and fairy tales.
But there is one category in our source stack
that doesn't fit with the arts at all. the medical
category. I honestly thought this was a mistake
in the notes at first. I thought maybe the search
algorithm just grabbed a bad result, but it's
really there. It's there. Heart of stone is a
colloquialism and sometimes even a descriptive
term used in pathology for palsification of the
heart. Specifically, conditions like calcific
constrictive pericarditis. OK, please break that
down for us non -doctors. What is actually happening
inside the body? So the heart is surrounded by
a sac called the pericardium. It is supposed
to be flexible like a balloon, allowing the heart
to beat and expand normally. But in certain disease
states, things like chronic inflammation, tuberculosis,
things like that, calcium deposits begin to form
on that sac. Calcium like bone. Exactly like
bone. Over time, that flexible sac creates a
hard shell. It literally turns into an eggshell
-like casing around the entire heart. The surgeons
describing it say it physically feels like tapping
on a stone. It is terrifying. And the physiological
result is fascinatingly ironic. We use heart
of stone to describe someone who is strong, unyielding,
maybe a bit ruthless. But biologically, a heart
of stone is weak. Because it can't move. Right,
because the casing is hard, the heart muscle
can't expand to fill with blood, it is constricted,
it works harder and harder just to pump a tiny
amount of blood. So all these poets and songwriters
singing about a heart of stone to describe their
tough, unfeeling ex -lovers, they're accidentally
describing a heart that is suffocating itself.
It is the ultimate irony. A calcified heart is
a failing heart. It bridges the gap between the
poetic and the pathological in a way I really
don't think most songwriters realize. It adds
a whole new layer of darkness to the lyrics.
If Cher or Mick Jagger knew that, the songs might
have been a lot sadder. It suggests that the
armor we build around ourselves, metaphorically
speaking, actually stops us from functioning.
Wow. So we have covered a massive amount of ground
here. We have gone from Wilhelm Hoff's fairy
tales in 1827 to Jelly Roll in 2024. We have
gone from East German cinema to Eurovision drama,
from heavy metal posturing to calcified pericardiums.
It is a complete journey through human anxiety,
really. What is the big takeaway for you? Why
is this specific combination of three words,
heart of stone, have such a grip on us? Why not
heart of ice or heart of iron? I think heart
of stone is the ultimate blank slate title. Think
about it. If you say heart of ice, it implies
coldness, maybe death. Heart of iron implies
machinery industry. But stone. Stone is natural,
but it's dead. It's ancient. It's heavy. It carries
more weight. It works for everyone. If you are
a heavy metal band, Heart of Stone sounds strong
and impenetrable. If you are a pop singer, it
sounds tragic and lonely. If you're a spy movie,
it sounds mysterious. And if you're a doctor,
it's a diagnosis. It changes color depending
entirely on the background. It is the universal
adapter of idioms. And it speaks to that fundamental
contradiction we all feel. We all want to be
strong, right? We want to be... rock solid so
things can't hurt us, but we're also terrified
of losing our softness, our ability to genuinely
love. The phrase captures both that desire for
strength and the fear of numbness perfectly.
That's such a great way to put it. It's the tension
between being unbreakable and being unable to
connect. And as long as humans are trying to
figure out that balance, I don't think this title
is going anywhere. So here is my question for
you listening to this right now. We have cataloged
over a century. of Hearts of Stone. It has been
used in every genre imaginable. Is it time to
retire it? Have we squeezed every drop of meaning
out of this stone? Or does its persistence prove
that we're still trying to figure out what it
means to be cold in a chaotic world? I have a
feeling we will see another one before 2030.
Maybe a VR experience or a TikTok trend. I definitely
wouldn't bet against it. Next time you are scrolling
through Spotify or browsing Netflix, keep an
eye out. you will probably spot a heart of stone
in the wild sooner than you think. And when you
do, remember, it might mean strength, it might
mean heartbreak, or it might just mean you need
to see a cardiologist. Thanks for diving in with
us. Take care.