Bobby Fuller

We've reached number four on this countdown, and this one is, this is crazy.

It's unsolved mystery of Bobby Fuller and I Fought the Law.

He said, "My son, I fought the law and the law won."

Now Bobby Fuller emerged from El Paso, Texas in the early '60s as a very talented singer, guitarist, arranger, and a recording engineer all in one.

He viewed himself as a rightful heir to Buddy Holly's rock and roll legacy, also from that area.

Possessing a fiercely independent DIY ethos, Fuller constructed his own home recording studio, and he launched a local record label, and then he ran an underage music club to cultivate a fan base for this group.

I fought the law and the law won.

This is where things get crazy.

Anyway, yeah, it was on this Battle of the Garages compilation album.

Also, it was the first time I heard Letter Dance, the Bobby Fuller song.

Or at least, I don't know if he wrote that, but that was the earlier version by the Set Mothers.

The great version, Tell Me.

Maybe they were trying to convince him, and maybe things got out of hand.

Ross is talking about Bobby Fuller, guys, from the Bobby Fuller episode.

And maybe that is how things ended.

But I don't know.

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I wanna read you an email, disgracelandpod@gmail.com. A while back, I was contacted by a listener named Gina, and Gina's dad was in Bobby Fuller's band.

He wasn't in the Bobby Fuller Four.

returning to the tonic.

Now, the death of Bobby Fuller

is the black dahlia of rock and roll, a gruesome, cinematic, and profoundly baffling crime that feels more like a page from a James Ellroy novel than a standard music tragedy.

In July 1966, Fuller was the next big thing.

Then, on a sweltering Los Angeles afternoon, The music stopped in the most violent and inexplicable way possible.

Now, let's take a look at the scene at 1712 North Sycamore.

On July 18, 1966, Bobby Fuller's mother, Lorraine, stepped out of her apartment to check on Bobby's Oldsmobile.

She found the car parked in its usual spot, but inside was a sight that would haunt the music industry forever.

Our mission, to uncover the truth, to confront the myth, to reclaim the story.

On this bonus episode, I give you my thoughts on my visit to the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas, some home recording recommendations, your takes on Bobby Fuller's death with your emails, comments, DMs, voicemails, texts, and as always, a whole lot of Rosie.

This is the podcast for the musically obsessed, the outsiders, the independent thinkers who know that the best history is the history that gets buried.

Disgraceland is where I tell the stories you'll end up telling someone else.

All right, discos, let's get into it.

[upbeat music] So no one ever called Bobby Fuller punk rock because he existed before punk rock, though one of the greatest punk rock bands of all time further popularized his song, I Fought the Law.

I'm talking about The Clash, of course.

Bobby Fuller was not punk.

Number three, next week on Monday, we're bringing you our fully scripted and sound designed episode on Phil Hartman.

Number four, over on our sister show, Disgraceland, we've got a brand-new episode about Bobby Fuller, he of I Fought the Law and Let Her Dance fame, in which we ask, how did Bobby Fuller die? Ask four different people and you'll get four different answers.

Wikipedia will tell you that Bobby's death was an accident.

The LAPD will tell you Bobby committed suicide.

YouTube will tell you a lot of things with big, dumb, sensationalized thumbnails, but in the end they won't tell you anything at all.

The rock and roll history books, all but one anyway, will tell you that Bobby Fuller's death is an unsolvable mystery.

They are wrong.

Bobby Fuller's death is completely solvable, and by the time you finish listening to this episode, you'll know exactly how Bobby Fuller died, who killed him, and why.

I, I occasionally, like, trade stuff, or, like, stuff that I'm, a lot of times, like, if there's something I have doubles of, or, like, I already have something and I see a nice copy somewhere, I'll be like, I, I'll buy it just so, like, I can pass it along to somebody I know.

Like, there's a, there's a Bobby Fuller record called, uh, f- uh, what's it? It's Four Piece Funky Nitty Gritty Junky Band, which is, like, just this great little funky little song, just terrific, and I always have it in my, you know, DJ box, and whenever I run across a copy of that, I always buy it because, and then just pass it along the next time somebody I know who's a record guy, I'm like, "Dude, this is a great record.

Take it home," you know? Just to ha- just to spread the gospel, you know?

That's the best.

Now, if you wanna know how close Travis Scott came to being held criminally responsible for Astroworld and the deaths of 10 people, and how a festival built by a hometown hero fell apart and became one of the deadliest nights in recent concert history, then you gotta check out this rewind episode of Disgraceland.

Bobby Fuller was about to be the next Phil Spector, but then his mother found him dead in the front seat of her Oldsmobile.

Now, the LAPD will tell you that Bobby Fuller's death is unsolvable, but they never dusted for fingerprints.

They never fully investigated the many angles that showed that there was much more at play here with this crime.

Like, why was Bobby Fuller covered in gasoline? Why was he missing an eyelid? Why was his finger bent back and broken? He was clearly beaten, so why was this death ruled unsolvable? And what was the connection between Bobby Fuller and the Genovese crime family, and the Genovese crime family and Bobby Fuller's record label, Deli Records, the same record label that had a million-dollar insurance policy on Bobby Fuller.

So who killed Bobby Fuller? We know exactly who, and we know why, and you're gonna find out in the next episode of Disgraceland.

That's coming next week.

Our next new episode of Disgraceland on Bobby Fuller right after the Astroworld episode.

So some of this might be out of order.

Bobby Fuller.

Oh, they show the replay of Bobby getting hung by the Koloffs.

Well, hold on, hold on.