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All Times are Eastern (New York City) Time Zone.
Click for February 2002 BlueBook Entries
JANUARY 2002 BlueBook Entries
Date: Thurs, January 31, 2002, 16:12:41
Keith
Date: Wed, January 30, 2002, 19:36:41
Date: Wed, January 30, 2002, 18:30:00
R.J., I assume you mean the Enron executives' spouses ? Their workers wouldn't sing that. LAY'D ! HA
Since they won such a big award, I could see Steely Dan coming back to be polite.
See yas!
Michelle
Date: Wed, January 30, 2002, 16:28:00
Can't help but think of the Fall of '92" when I read about Enron. If WB redoes the lyrics, maybe he can have a part where they prod Geo. W. to give the $500K Enron campaign donations to the poor Enron employees who got "Lay'd" off. The song could be "Enron Wives." In it, the wives lament how all their money is tied up in their Swiss chalets, diamonds, Porches, poodles and furs and how they are suffering from a lack of "liquidity," Let them eat cake. Maybe "the wives" could sing an outro of "MacArthur Park." Boooo Hooooo........Let the workers eat cake.
Steve Martin's "Let's Get Small" is a classic.
R J
Date: Wed, January 30, 2002, 13:13:19
I say nyet but my wife says it's customary for the big winners to return to present. I say the Dan aren't customary. What are the odds?
Has Lorraine Feather ever worked with Becker or Fagen? Nice comments Dana.
Looks like Republican has his Steve Martin album out again. Nice to remember that one.
WoW
#########################################################
Date: Wed, January 30, 2002, 04:48:04
DANA! What are you doing here, nice to see you!
C
Date: Wed, January 30, 2002, 04:46:26
Clas, Stockholm
Date: Wed, January 30, 2002, 00:43:06
I think the Newsletter plugged Feather's NEWER one - New York City Drag -- but it's nice to hear that even her earlier stuff is good!
Date: Tues, January 29, 2002, 21:27:18
Where do I sign?
Ellison
Date: Tues, January 29, 2002, 17:18:57
Ed--
You should have gotten a long Digest yesterday. I will respond to your work email in a few and phone you if that doesn't work.
hoops
Date: Tues, January 29, 2002, 16:27:32
Received my copy of Lorraine Feather's "The Body Remembers" CD yesterday & can attest that it is indeed "hip, hilarious, and beautifully done" as described in the last SD Newsletter. Particularly like the "Boxboy" cut -- you too can have wonderfully fun fantasies while grocery shopping!
Lorraine has a great voice, wonderful phrasing, & funny lyrics -- definitely full of "Swing, Wit, Style"!
DanaG
Date: Tues, January 29, 2002, 16:06:09
Date: Tues, January 29, 2002, 14:22:45
Have you gotten my mail.
Ed
Date: Tues, January 29, 2002, 14:05:42
Steely Dan fans are fortunate to have an array of venues to express themselves, and they are free to select the one(s) which seem most appropriate and comfortable in the context of what they want to say at a particular instance.
All the other stuff: Maybe not true, but all a lot of fun.
h
Date: Tues, January 29, 2002, 12:30:38
That said, I think the Blue Book has become the old Yellow Book in the best sense of what it used to be before the Yellow Book became the Blue Book at it's worst. BTW: How does St Al ordain the chosen few who get to see the private info that goes with each post? Why do the chosen few need to know about all that stuff?
IP: logged
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0)
Click here for other Private Info (genital herpes, shoe size, extramarital affairs)
Date: Tues, January 29, 2002, 09:17:07
Date: Tues, January 29, 2002, 08:14:20
Obviously this is bologna. Who knows? Maybe there is more truth in this paragraph than any of the others that have been posted...only time will tell. I'm hoping that we'll have some new SD music, although I would be disappointed a little if it were not as well-produced as previous albums for the sake of getting some material on the market quickly.
Of course, from our friend Tristan who has to plagiarize a particular duo to come up with a name, maybe they have realized that all we want is the unedited garbage that Donald used to put out with his mini Yamaha keyboard and record on a boombox. Yeah, that's what we really want, a bunch of crap. I'm going to spend $16 for garbage.
Sorry Tristan, I'll take a new studio album any day. You can have their demos and their 25 year old bootlegs that sound like they've been recorded over three phone lines. SD has put a lot of work into their craft, and I would be EXTREMELY bitter if I were to miss out on new music because some guy wants to hear a garbled version of the way they played "Fire in the Hole" back in '73 or '74.
Earl
Date: Mon, January 28, 2002, 23:56:04
I'm thrilled, too, by the possibility of a 2002 tour; like any red-blooded Dan fan, my heart palpitates just thinking about it. And I do enjoy the churning of the rumour mill. However, to the fellow who mentioned advance venue booking with Clear Channel/SFX . . . there were similar reports about this time last year of bookings for the never-realized 2001 tour; I think it's simply standard practice among show biz kids to book well in advance if even the faintest glimmer of the possibility of a tour exists. I'd have to concur with the folks who've pointed out that given the Dan's famously glacial studio pace, 2003 or 2004 would be the earliest probable release date for The Next One and attendant tour.
Just my two cents . . .
Chris
Date: Mon, January 28, 2002, 22:40:15
TGFIII--I am unbearably offended by the sinister gaucherie of your use of "left-handed compliment."
Date: Mon, January 28, 2002, 22:20:29
Date: Mon, January 28, 2002, 21:25:29
Good news about the album. Speculation or not, I like the idea of live drums. Even if wrong, it's cool to consider. I really don't come here for the third degree from people. I like to chat and speculate. I used to be really reluctant to post anywhere because of the attitude of some people but don't let those types get you down.
R J
Date: Mon, January 28, 2002, 20:52:28
Oh come on. You live in England for Godsake! Their is no inside information in England! Come on.. come clean with it. Who's your contact? Austin Powers! Oh by the way, give Jon our best.
The Truth,
50/50 their will be a tour in '02. Ask Mark, he knows!
Cheers
Date: Mon, January 28, 2002, 20:44:18
The truth is this: friend of mine works scheduling at Clear Channel's concert division, formerly SFX Concerts. He's been told to hold slots for Steely Dan as a possibility this summer. Part of it is based on some Dan rumblings and a lot more is based on wishful thinking by Clear Channel.
That said, I concur, I offer what is STRICTLY OPINION. Afterall, I'm Not Quite The Truth. Despite wishful thinking on our part and John Herrington and his Webmaster's part, and maybe even Donald and Walter's part, I don't think they are going to do it this year. Kamakiriad was delayed 2-3 months JUST FOR REMIXIING. Walter hoped to have his new one out for the 1993 and 1994 tour, or he would redo it after the tour. Look what happened.
Date: Mon, January 28, 2002, 20:00:11
There will be NO 2002 summer tour. Not a chance, unless you want the album in late 2003 or early 04. 100%%%%%%%%%%%% No 2002 tour NO way.
I am Bernard Purdie's webmaster.
But, still no 2002 summer tour NO way.
Date: Mon, January 28, 2002, 19:52:28
I'm not disclosing my sources, but knowing that they are recording the CD using more "live" methods, I can only guess the new album will sound different than previous stuff...can't wait to hear it myself.
Mark
Date: Mon, January 28, 2002, 19:52:23
I'm not disclosing my sources, but knowing that they are recording the CD using more "live" methods, I can only guess the new album will sound different than previous stuff...can't wait to hear it myself.
Mark
Date: Mon, January 28, 2002, 18:03:44
Good news about the new album, Mark B! Are you really Jon’s webmaster???? Keep us posted.
Tristan, whoever you are, you are right. I would DIE for new Steely Dan stuff, even if it were dusted off from the attic! Don’t our boys realize they are sitting on a GOLDMINE!!! Isn't it dimunitive to go by the name Dinky? Why is he called Dinky? Uh-oh.......
I can’t wait to hear a polished version of This All Too Mobile Home.
What next? Will Pete Fogel be on TV about the Tyson-Lewis Bight, er, ummm, Fight? To keep this Steely Dan related, have Donald and Walter ever been bitten and did they show it to anyone? ;-)
I can’t wait for the new album and tour!
Michelle
Date: Mon, January 28, 2002, 16:23:05
Let's see, you're Jon Herington's webmaster right? So my guess is that Jon Herington gave you this information. Boy, that was a tough one.
'don't do it without your fez on'
Date: Mon, January 28, 2002, 14:44:07
Don't ask me how I know! Can't wait to hear it!
Mark B
Date: Mon, January 28, 2002, 14:25:05
Thank you for your initially kind word about my Appeal to D&W and the Fandom, and for your ultimate concurrence with its aim. I would like to allay, however, the cynical concerns you expressed as to Dinky Dawson's "motives" for wanting to facilitate the release of a 1974 Steely Dan concert, and my "motives" for referring to him in my essay.
First of all, here is a bit more of Dinky Dawson in own words, from the letter he wrote to me and which I quoted in my essay. I presented my essay to him before I sent it to Hoops, and requested his permission to quote from his book and from his letter to me. He not only kindly granted me this permission but fully concurred with the goal of my formal Appeal. The following excerpt should fully demonstrate that he has the same genuine and heartfelt yearning for an official release of a live 1974 Steely Dan concert that I do, and that I am sure the Loyal Fandom does as well: "The Seattle show was very special... Every note gave you goose bumps. You see the feeling of greatness was UNBELIEVABLE. Feeling this vibe lasts forever. It will be 28 years this year since that '74 tour in 2 years it will be true History. It is time for fans to feel the Original stage band vibe. If the fans unite and ask W & D to authorize the Seattle show, you will have true history in the making in your hands and ears." These are the words of a genuine fan and kindred soul, who, quite obviously, would like for us to hear what he was privileged to hear and record from his enviable perch at the soundboard during the original Steely Dan era, and to share in the "true history" of which he was privileged to be a part. There is no distinction between Mr. Dawson and the Loyal Fandom; rather, he ranks, of all the Fans in the Loyal Fandom, as The First, The Most Distinguished, and The Most Loyal. How on earth you arrived at the outlandish conclusion that he is "just another bootlegger" or some kind of opportunist is beyond me. And isn't a bootlegger someone who does NOT seek the permission of a given artist to release material under that artist's name? Or has your cynical predilection driven you to ascribe the title "bootlegger" to someone who asks permission?
As for Walter being the one from whom permission is being sought, that is what originally Dawson wrote to me. First of all, what is it to you? Secondly, do you think Walter won't discuss the matter with Donald? Thirdly, see the quote above, as it says "W & D." As for your surmising that D&W might "roll out the live stuff" after they "exhaust themselves making their mark as the epitome of a studio band" that is a curious speculation, but there is no reason why they can't do both right now. The Loyal Fandom fully deserves a '74 show, and has for three decades. It is high time for Walter and Donald to correct this omission whether or not they are in the studio recording an album.
If you ever read Dawson's "Life on the Road," and I encourage you to do so, you will see what a rare and truly genuine individual he is. He also holds D&W in very high esteem, and describes them as his friends. Your assertion that he would rip them off is silly. I'm sure that whatever fiscal arrangements would be made over such a concert release would not only be fully professional but also befit their close association over the years. Dinky Dawson not only got to mix some wondrous concerts in the Spring/Summer of 1974, but he also witnessed, and documented with the greatest disdain in his book, some really underhanded maneuvers by the corporate record world on Steely Dan. It is ridiculous and even shameful for you to suppose that he himself is now anxious to repeat such misdeeds on his two esteemed friends.
Secondly, as for the historical material that went into my essay, it was by no means based on Dawson's writings alone. It was culled from many interviews of D&W in print or audio form, as well as various articles about the 'Dan, from a wide variety of sources and time periods. Dawson's book was simply the latest acquisition to my collection of Steely Dan historical material. You assert that I am "representing Mr. Dawson's interests." As Lucy from the late Charles Schultz cartoon Charlie Brown would exclaim: "Good grief!" The Loyal Fandom has to date had only one book on the 'Dan, by Brian Sweet. I happily discovered another book that contains a chapter that treats of Steely Dan and felt The Fandom's attention had to be drawn to it. My hope is that the Fandom will enjoy this book as much as I did.
Mr. Dawson has not hired me as his agent to "represent his interests." I only discovered him by reading a re-posted SD Digest where Hoops referred to Dawson as having attended the SD Boston concert in 2000, and of the fact that Dawson lives in Boston. I then discovered his website, and that of Rykodisc, which then spoke of his intention to release soundboard tapes of the many artists for whom he has mixed concerts over the years, and my hope was that the 'Dan was part of this project. I have gone out on the limb of writing my Appeal entirely of my own volition, and Mr. Dawson was kind enough to grant me permission to quote him. But as Dinky Dawson has also earned my total respect and admiration, I also give him the credit which he is due. He is in a position to make something wonderful happen for both the Loyal Fandom and D&W. I have simply aimed to make this known, and to offer a variety of hopefully persuasive perspectives on the matter.
I'm sure that Mr. Dawson has for years wished the Fandom, as has the Fandom also wished, to hear a live 1974 Steely Dan concert. He was, after all, their sound engineer; and he is, moreover, the one person on the planet who has been there, and done that, with Steely Dan, and is in a position to make this release a reality. Why greet this welcome opportunity cynicism? We should all be rejoicing at the very possiblity, and of how close it is at hand, and tell D&W that it is time to get this process going. I ventured out into the murky thicket of Internet with what I hope was a thorough and well-reasoned appeal that would facilitate the likelihood and reality of such a release, with the sole motive that one day soon I and everyone else in the Loyal Fandom might be able to enjoy such wondrous concert material. It is an absolute "win-win" (I don't particularly relish that phrase) for everyone: for the Loyal Fandom, and for Donald and Walter as well.
Your argument that is based on inertia--the fact that D&W have to date not released more material from 1974 is sheer question-begging. I don't know that they are aware of how popular such a release would be, but the Fandom can certainly provide them with such an assurance. My essay offered several perspectives: (a) the personal history of a 'Dan fan (my own personal contribution and perspective to the discussion), (b) the general perspective of music fans who like a balance of studio and live music releases (a general statement with which I'm sure they can agree when it comes to having studio and live concerts of the jazz artists that they particularly relish), (c) from a comparative analysis of the 'Dan with the 'Dead, whose fans long-awash in live music they themselves once undertook to invite to become 'Danheads, and with The Eagles who recently presented previously unreleased live tracks, next to which they should not, on the basis of their own left-handed compliment from "Everything You Did," unfavorably compare (a tactical approach that seeks to tweak both shame and pride); and (d) from their own self-interest, in terms of correcting past wrongs to themselves, and from our self-interest, in correcting a long-standing omission regarding the Fandom. The point of this diverse approach is to attempt to persuade them to change their past practice. Again, a "win-win."
Anyway, "One," those are my comments to your posting, most of the really lamentable content of which, I must admit, for a moment left me regretting I had posted anything to the Bluebook on this subject. Nevertheless, I hope my Appeal generates a more thoughtful response which emphasizes a unanimity of mind with regard to the desire of the Loyal Fandom to have the opportunity to hear how the original 'Dan delivered the songs from the first three LPs live, so that we DanFans, as we are so wont to do, may then listen to every nuance of a live SD song, and compare, debate, discuss, and analyze to our heart's content this greatly-treasured music in BOTH its original AND modern renderings.
Tristan Gustave Fabriani III, Esq.
Pretzel Logic & Analysis, Inc.
San Francisco
Date: Sun, January 27, 2002, 23:35:45
But I'd hesitate to encourage a live-MP3 frenzy in the Dead fashion . . . as a moderate Deadhead myself, I've certainly partaken of the offerings at gdlive.com and similar sites, but the sound quality of the non-soundboard fan recordings is abysmal at best and hardly does justice to the music.
Let's 'keep it real' . . . come on, D&W, unlock the concert-tapes vault!
C
Date: Sun, January 27, 2002, 14:58:08
http://www.nydailynews.com/today/News_and_Views/Daily_Dish/a-139473.asp
Rush and Malloy Column, Sun. 1.27.02
"REALITY BITE"
(PHOTO: A bodyguard comes between Lennox Lewis (l.) and Mike Tyson.)
"Don't tell Lennox Lewis his press-conference scrap last week with Mike Tyson was a publicity stunt — unless you have a strong stomach.
Wednesday night, Lewis and a date stopped by Le Bar Bat on W. 57th St. The champ couldn't have been friendlier until club manager Pete Fogel said there had been speculation that Tuesday's melee was a hoax.
"Yeah?" said Lewis. "Mother------- [that would be Tyson] bit me!"
Lewis then dropped his trousers. Besides revealing black briefs, Lewis showed "a raw pink bite mark the size of a half-dollar," Fogel tells us. "The skin was ripped off."
Tyson's early trainer Teddy Atlas believes he knows the reason for those teeth marks.
"I don't think he really wants to fight Lennox Lewis," Atlas tells New York magazine. "Mike has no idea who he is. He hates himself. He wins fights by intimidating the other guy, but I think he suspects he can't intimidate Lewis."
Tyson and Lewis -- I feel a Steely Dan lyric coming on!
A Steely Dan siting on this weekend's edition of NPR's "Rewind:" Still beating the "Bush and the Pretzel" story into the ground, one of the personalities says something like, "I was all set to send him a copy of Steely Dan's 'Pretzel Logic'." It was a kind of tortuous or awkward allusion in the flow of the conversation, like she was trying to work SD in to the show. Maybe the NPR personality is a Dan fan, saw the latest sd.com homepage and had to brag about the Dan. Anyhow, it woke me up out of my morning slumber.
I'd love get an official SD live album from the 70s--hell, I'd love anything new from SD--
but like "Second Arrangement," I think if they were going to do it, they would have already. Then like with AiA and the audience recordings from 93-94, there will be those that argue the boots are better than the official release--"Why was this tinkered with, why didn't they pick 'Reelin'' from Seattle rather than Santa Monica, why don't they have this song, etc."?
Some great matchups in the playoffs, this year, fer sher.
h
Date: Sat, January 26, 2002, 16:42:11
Unfortunately, One has to wonder what Dinky wants out of this.
Why should Dinky reap one red cent from this? He doesn't rightfully own the tapes; either the studio, management, or DF/WB own the music as intellectual property. Dinky emerges as just another bootlegger. Did Dinky ever attempt to release these earlier - doubtful. No, he waited for the Dan to reach their critical acclaim and public awareness zenith via the Gramms, RRHOF and ASCAP, so that he could now be the master manipulator/exploiter - too cynical?.
If you retort that Dinky has been trying for years, one must then wonder why Donald and Walter wouldn't have gone for it given the fiscal abuse that they were subjected to for so long up until '78-80 and beyond. Even after the Aja/Gaucho payoff they went through volatile times personally and financially. Why not score some green from such a release during the financially lean or the personally topsy turvy years? It would seem there is more to this than simply reticence or "recalcitrance".
One would think Walt and Don would give their approval if some of the types of issues described above were not playing in the mix here. Who knows, maybe Don and Walt are simply waiting to exhaust themselves making their mark as the epitome of the studio "band" once they release their final studio album, and then roll out the old live stuff.
Reading your fine post, one also has to wonder about your detailed characterizations about certain tour details and the personailities and stresses that you conclude likely lead to the original band's demise. If you are relying almost solely on Dinky for these representations then one has to reserve judgement at the least. We all hope that this is not the case as the historical elements of your post does inspire.
Also, why is it that Walter must give the approval? You mentioned Walter several times without mention of Donald's input. Can you clarify whether this was intentional on your part and, if so, why?
This is not an attack on you, but primarily an expression of cynicism regarding Dinky and his motivation and overall position here. You do come off as someone not ony representing the interest of the Loyal Fandom, but regrettably, also the interests of Mr. Dawson.
In the end, though, sure, we all want the music! Whatever it takes as long as the boys get their rightful share and don't get screwed again as in past fashion which you so eloquently described.
Date: Fri, January 25, 2002, 21:45:48
The Lovely Peg--He either had sticker shock or was trying to pick you up, girlfriend. I have this little glow of maternal pride that you have our sticker on The Kid.
Iron Dan! Love it.
Zane--They're in deep.
Date: Fri, January 25, 2002, 14:49:34
Ed
Date: Fri, January 25, 2002, 14:05:17
Date: Fri, January 25, 2002, 12:44:28
Date: Thurs, January 24, 2002, 23:51:51
I found this......
Scheiner Uses SREV1 Reverb
Hollywood--Producer/engineer Elliot Scheiner, who has been mixing classic records to surround for DVD-Audio, such as Van Morrison's Moondance and the Eagles' Hotel California, recently worked on a new Steely Dan record. Scheiner has been collecting Grammys for work with Steely Dan since 1977, and most recently, enjoyed the success of the triple Grammy-winning album, Two Against Nature. While working on the current project, Scheiner discovered an old familiar sound in the new Yamaha SREV1 reverb.
"If I closed my eyes and didn't know that I was listening to the SREV, I would have thought for sure it was an old 140 plate," says Scheiner. "I'm amazed at the sound of this reverb; it has the best-sounding plate I've heard in 25 years."
The SREV1 reproduces standard and specialized sound fields in stereo or surround, and enables the user to sample and create custom sound fields. With 24-bit/48 kHz, the 3U-high rackmount unit has a wide selection of editable reverb programs simulating environments ranging from room ambiences to stadiums, each offering control of pre-EQ, post-EQ and reverb parameters.
"I first had the opportunity to fool around with the SREV while mixing the song, 'Moondance,' in 5.1 surround," Scheiner recalls. "When I originally mixed it, I used 140 plates, and I was trying to recreate the same or similar sound. I didn't have 140 plates in the studio I was in, but by using the SREV, I was able to come pretty close to the plate sound that I had originally."
In addition to the yet-to-be-named Steely Dan CD slated for a 2002 release, Scheiner is currently in the studio with Natalie Cole, and recently produced the audio segments of the Country Music Awards (CMA).
SLATED ?
Date: Thurs, January 24, 2002, 22:09:20
And then came last May, when I think the sticker attracted the attention of a police officer. I was driving home for lunch when traffic got really thick and slowed, and on that road, it never gets that way. Charly is a fuel-efficient little beanie, and as usual I was behind a big, fat mini van. Couldn't see what was going on. Leaned out just a bit to try and look....finally the traffic moved, and blamo, on came the lights behind me! A fine officer of the law had been right behind me, and pulled me over because he thought I might be a drunken partying high-school kid, as it happened to be the LAST DAY of SCHOOL! And little Charly had apparently (gasp!) touched the center line when I looked to see what was going on! I had to assure the youngster I was not lit, and I was 42. But he still asked me if it was MY car.....
"Life Can Be Very Strange"
Date: Thurs, January 24, 2002, 17:42:48
Here's the URL to some photo albums which include John Beasley, his friend Emiel van Egdom, other american musicians Chico Huff and Zan Gardner (Bernard Purdie was captured by her composition Metaphoric Heartbreak and invited her to lunch) AND last but not least, a genuine Acoustic Bass, as original as they can get ...
Have fun watching ..
http://www.PictureTrail.com/reginav
Dansmiling,
G.
Date: Thurs, January 24, 2002, 14:27:23
Date: Wed, January 23, 2002, 18:02:14
Steely Dan in the Plaster Casters Cast of Thousands? Sounds like an occassion to me, but only if it means an immediate push in the form of more Dan product to be released. Live 70s CDs, new album, Steely Dan cookbook, Kamakiriad Road Atlas, and of course new and improved Honey Mustard. Will St. Pat put up another petition for us to sign?
Keith Thomas = K T ;-)
Date: Wed, January 23, 2002, 17:17:14
Isn't smelting just for iron? If you smelted a Steely Dan wouldn't it be an "Iron Dan?"
Iron Dan, Heavy Metal Stylings of Steely Dan Songs, now there's a cover band.
Date: Wed, January 23, 2002, 16:31:20
With this talk of Steely Dan and Dinky Dawson, it reminded me of a story I heard in a Dinky interview. Dinky said he was hoping to meet the Cynthia, the Plaster Caster lady. There's an article in today's paper about her.
In case you don't know, this woman has been going around since the 1960's making plaster casts of famous rock and roll figures' genitalia. Often these are men's penises and perhaps an adjoining part or two, and she also does women's breasts. She's casted bar band types to Robert Plant and Jimi Hendrix (who she says is biggest in her book.)
She's in her 40's or 50's now, but her penchant for plastering has not flagged. Last year, she came out with a movie, Plaster Caster: A Cockumentary Film.
So with Becker and Fagen having made the honor roll in all the proper clubs-Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Album of the Year, Les Paul Award, maybe now should come the thrust by us fans to get them into the ultimate Rock Star exhibit, Cynthia Plaster Caster's museum.
Plaster Dan? Maybe she should smelt a STEELY DAN! How could her collection be complete without the members of a band named for a dildo?
Zane
P.S. Maybe they are already in!?
THE MILK TRUCK EASED INTO MY SPACE, THE SMELL OF PRICKLY PEAR
Date: Wed, January 23, 2002, 14:07:38
S t e e l y D a n F r i e n d s h i p
Are you tired of the mushy "friendship" writhings that always sound good but never actually come close to reality? Well, here is a "friendship" writhing that really speaks to true friendship and
truth itself ...
Dear Dan Friend,
When you are sad, ...I will get you drunk and help you plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you sad.
When you are blue, ...I'll try to dislodge whatever is choking you.
When you smile, ...I'll know you finally got laid.
When you are scared, ...I will rag you about it every chance I get.
When you are worried, ...I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be and to quit whining!
When you are confused, ...I will use little words to explain it to your dumb ass.
When you are sick, ...stay away from me until you're well again. I don't want whatever you have.
When you fall, ...I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass.
This is my oath, ... I pledge 'till the end. Why you may ask? Because you're my friend!
- - - -
You got 11 months to work on the Scotch and Cubans.
Santa
P.S. A friend will help you move. A really good friend will help you move a body.
Date: Wed, January 23, 2002, 00:13:18
Ed--still lovin' it.
Zane--Poker. They are SO "House of Games."
TGFII--You GO. I am in line right behind you.
Date: Tues, January 22, 2002, 18:04:57
Hope you and our significant others can get together for a quality Dan social experience. I will E you!
I would love another Steely Dan live album. I'm surprised they don't sell these via their web site. At least fans could buy it there.
I can't see Steely Dan at ANY chain store. Yet, I could see them in a store to buy chains-----HA HA HA HA! Do they go for that kind of action?
See you later,
Michelle
Date: Tues, January 22, 2002, 14:18:09
I don't think we would find them at Walmart, although Cousin Dupree might frequent the Sporting Goods section from time to time.
Earl
Date: Tues, January 22, 2002, 14:11:09
After all the primping and editting Alive In America took, I can't see a live 1970s CD. Of course, maybe Steely Dan wouldn't care. Weren't sales for Alive In America pretty flat? No matter. It didn't cost $6 M to make.
K-Mart, Wail-Mart, Tar-zhayyy. Where Do you think da Dans shop? DILDOE-MART WAREHOUSE CLUB!
Date: Tues, January 22, 2002, 13:21:22
Date: Tues, January 22, 2002, 11:01:54
Peggy Lee. RIP. She gave me fevah! WoW!
WoW
#############################################
Date: Mon, January 21, 2002, 22:17:50
meds...meds...meds...need meds...
h
Date: Mon, January 21, 2002, 20:50:32
Posted by: Keith Thomas, Owings Mills, MarylandI've been told about the release of "Gaucho" on SACD. Is this something MCA is doing on their own without the approval of Steely Dan? I thought that Steely Dan was firmly in the DVD-A camp, with Elliott Shiner. Will it be an additional format? Will the DVD-A and DTS version of "Gaucho" still be out?
Posted by: Wendy, Golden, ColoradoHello Dan Fans!
Posted by: Michelle, Princeton Jct, NJHi everyone!
Posted by: R J, You're probably gonna win the bet, Cosmic.
Posted by: Cosmic Wow, Since they won last year's "Album of The Year," any chance that Becker/Fagen will present an award at this year's Grammys?
Posted by: Clas, StockholmIt should be:
Posted by: clas, stockholm, sweden you knowDana! What are you doing her, come to the yellow pages!
Posted by: NYC Drag Queen, NYCDana --
Posted by: Ellison, Unbelievable -- couldn't scroll fast enough - worthy of a PHD thesis.
Posted by: hoops, {Sorry about this message, folks. Ed and I are having some e-mail problems and our messages will be taken down after we connect. Thanks!]
Posted by: Dana Graves, Berkeley, CA"A Rare Plug" Definitely Worth It!
Posted by: The Republican, not The TruthI heard that the album was put on hold since Donald and Walter were volunteering at a camp for young single women. They will be helping them get their start as unwed mothers. Or maybe it's Glenn and Don who are doing that. Those damn rumors.
Posted by: ed beatty, west of hollywoodHoops,
Posted by: hoops, Truth Hurts: I'm not The Truth but this is true:
Posted by: The Truth Hurts, It's all true! :-) :-) :-)
Posted by: Clean Kitty, Such quibbling! How about one or two live shows in some exotic (or at least interesting) locale, a harmonic convergence of Dan fans?? The tea leaves have spoken, and they tell me W. & D. are going to do what they damn well please anyway, so be patient, hush your whimpering! All in good time, my little pretties --- all in good time!
Posted by: Earl, DelawareMy sources say that there will be no new album. Don and Walt have decided to put an end to there efforts, and instead are setting out into a new line of work: pig farming. My sources say that they have waited all their lives to be able to buy a ranch of porkers, and now that they have their Grammies, they figure now is as good a time as any.
Posted by: Chris Mueller, counting down to ecstacyBelieve he meant "backhand compliment."
Posted by: oleander, on the other handI dunno, I think a little gossip at no one's expense livens things up. I guess one approach could be to have a band which gives a moment to moment update on an album's progress, a blog perhaps: "Today we laid take 187 of the hi hat on measures 8-12, which we're thinking of calling 'Haiku Greaseball,' or maybe 'Another Sheet To The Wind,' or maybe not...." Or just slam, present it to the world complete and packaged like Athena from the head of Zeus. Much as part of me would love to hear such minutiae, I kinda prefer the latter in this case. No foreplay. All come.
Posted by: Mr. T, No speculation. Fact is no 2002 summer tour is possible. have a nice day.
Posted by: R J, Dear Mark;
Posted by: Oh Wow! It's me again, hellMark B,
Posted by: Not Quite The Truth, The last post by "The Truth" should have put down "The Imposter" C'mon you fool!!! The Truth never speculates and just provides the facts. And like all those % signs are supposed to make your point more effective? Riiiiight.
Posted by: The Truth, Manchester,EnglandUnfortunately, Mark B your info is totally inconsistent with reality.
Posted by: Mark B, LondonJust 'cos I'm Jon Herington's webmaster doesn't mean my info about the "new" one came from him.
Posted by: Mark B, LondonJust 'cos I'm Jon Herington's webmaster doesn't mean my info about the "new" one came from him.
Posted by: Michelle, NJHi everyone!
Posted by: Oh Wow! It's me again..., Portland, Or. (via London)Mark B.
Posted by: Mark B, I won't disclose my sources, but SD were 3 tracks finished into a new CD at Christmas, last I heard, with the big news being that they are using different methods to record, this time predominantly "live" as a band ..using drummer Keith Carlock, Jon Herington, Ted Baker and other NY session greats. Hoping to tour summer 2002, apparently.
Posted by: Tristan Gustave Fabriani III, San FranciscoOne:
Posted by: Chris Mueller, returning after a few months' hiatusWow! What an effort by alias-Fabriani to churn out that manifesto. I'm with him, I suppose; the "official" master tapes from the early '70s want to be free and would make a hell of a box-set.
Posted by: hoops, at remote cyber cafe without access to my emailI am out of town traveling today without a laptop, and end up at a cyber cafe. Since I can't seem to access my email boxes (yet), newspaper junkie that I am, I start surfing the newspaper websites. Then I come across this at nydailynews.com. Check it out--tangentially Dan:
Yow! Talk about "Six Degrees of Steely Dan"!
Posted by: One, Tristan, congrats on one of the finest posts ever made to either GB over almost 10 years.
Posted by: oleander, aswoonEd--Scoopmeister!! Great news. Even if it is approximately 2002, that's something.
Posted by: edbeatty, @workSorry Angel its just slated-penciled in-greasepiant-marker board-maybe even a chalkmark in a rainstorm*nods to Joni mItchell*
Posted by: Mr Whatevah, Donald Fagen X McDonald's Happy Meal = Barry Manilow
Posted by: angel, Ed Beatty: Slated? Is that anything like penciled in?
Posted by: Ed Beatty, Hey,
Posted by: Peg, Sittin back in my easy chairHey Oleander! You sent me some stickers you had leftover about a year or so ago. I put the one that says "Never Going Back To My Old School" prominently on the bottom center of my new car's rear window. It gave both me and my car, Kid Charly, such pride. But trouble soon began (a little) when my mother took it literally and was offended, no doubt recalling all the millions she spent on my first college degree. Never mind the fact that I paid for my second one. Anyway, I assured her it was referring to a song. But to this day she's still not liking it, which only makes me enjoy it even more.
Posted by: Gina, Sun MountainJust crashing here or rather, sliding down from that Sun Mountain Bound to Snow ...
Posted by: a friend, Tristan, you're forgetting that D+W don't give a damn what we want.
Posted by: Keith Thomas, Owings Mills, MDA two CD set documenting the early 70s edition of the Dan. I have to agree. We need this. There is no officially released documentation of Mike McDonald and Royce Jones with Steely Dan. It's a side of the Dan we don't get to hear all that much about or experience in any way.
Posted by: R J, I think Donald's visit to Dr. Dot was a much bigger honor than Plaster Caster lady would be.
Posted by: Zane, Good one, Oleander!
Posted by: Santa, Miami with a babe wearing just a thongHey Dan Fans. I'm bored and done it all except one thing. With nothing else to do , I want to get on Oprah like David Letterman. In fact, I think I would be a better guest. Hower, fat, old white men who smoke pipes and wear bright red clothes trimmed in real fur apparently aren't chi-chi enough for the fat queen of talk. So while I am spending my time tanning in Miami----you don't really think I work year round at the North Pole? The elves do all the work.. I just show up for the scotch and Cubans left on Xmas eve. So I was saying, I am spending my time in Miami, writing a self-help manual so I can be on the show with the fat talk show host lady. It's called STEELY DAN FRIENDSHIP
Posted by: oleander, the crowds are goneLisa G--what UP?
Posted by: Michelle, Down U.S. 1 From Lisa G.Hey Girlfriend Lisa!!!!
Posted by: Earl, DELiarboy, I'd have to say with all of their songs that reminisce about the past (My Old School, IGY, etc), I think they would prefer to shop at the old 5 and 10 cent stores.
Posted by: Liarboy, LP: The Dead were upset because a fee was being charged for downloads.
Posted by: luckless pedestrian, w/ saladweren't some band members of the Dead on the bandwagon against the whole MP3 debacle? free music for all?
Posted by: Cosmic Wow, I'm all for it, whoever you are. But isn't this the same as those All Too Mobile Heart/Home/TrailerPark CDs you see at finer footware shops?
Posted by: hoops, with a terrific sinus headacheWow! That's some writing!!!! But I have a feeling Becker and Fagen would have put out or authorized such a recording if they wanted to. But then again, who am I to speculate, especially with a sinus headache.
Posted by: Tristan Gustave Fabriani III, An Appeal to Donald & Walter, and to the SD Loyal Fandom
“Sharing the things we know and love, with those of my kind.” The
Very Rev. Deacon Blues
The following example will begin to illustrate why. Back in my college days in the late 1970’s, I had a next-door-neighbor that was an ardent Deadhead. One could almost set one’s clock by the Saturday evening ritual when Grateful Dead music would filter through the thin dormitory walls (along with a certain distinctive aroma which would waft out through his windows and eventually into mine from the continual use of a formidable, and artistically very impressive, 13-hose hookah through which “the fine Columbian” was inhaled in earnest by his fellow Deadheads.) Altered states of consciousness aside, these Deadheads all had one uniform and very distinguished virtue as fans: not one of them had even so much as a single omission in their record collection of anything from the official catalogue of Grateful Dead releases, whether studio or live concert recordings.
At the same time, however, they also had hundreds of tapes of live concerts that the ‘Dead allowed them to record, whether off the soundboard or on cassette recorders hooked up to microphones placed at the front of the stage. Deadheads often told me how at a Dead concert the area in front of the stage would be swarmed by microphones and tape decks, on which the fans would record the concert for years of future enjoyment. That in turn spoke very highly of the band which trusted all the fans to buy whatever album was officially released, even as their fans freely collected and traded live concert music. In turn, the reciprocity of the Deadheads for their treasured band was absolute.
The experience for Steely Dandom in the 1970’s was the diametric opposite. The day on which Aja was released, students flocked to the record store and returned to their dorms to savor every sonic detail of the latest production of steely musical genius which, for weeks on end was the only music one could hear from any of the dorm rooms, mine included. I had some DanFans over for an Aja review and a couple of Deadheads came by to see what all the hoopla was about, and so we happily complied with the request to “turn up the ‘Dan cuz’ the Deadheads are listening.” They were mightily impressed, but when several of them asked me if I had any official live LP’s of Steely Dan live for them to borrow, they were absolutely dumbfounded when I sheepishly told them that the ‘Dan stopped touring in ’74 and had never actually released any live LP’s when they did.
Some “Welcome!” for a Deadhead after “converting” to the ‘Dan! An unpleasant “Surprise!” might be more in order, for the Deadhead would have found that the ‘Dan’s Achilles Heel—nay, rather, Foot—was its complete failure to have shared with its fans anything significant from its live concerts promoting Can’t Buy A Thrill, Countdown to Ecstacy or Pretzel Logic in the 1970’s’. The Deadhead would have further observed that Steely Dan Fans have remained loyal despite a long-standing drought of live concert recordings from the ‘70’s which stands in direct disproportion to the generosity with which the Deadheads were not only issued live concert releases but even freely permitted and encouraged by the ‘Dead to record concerts themselves for years of future enjoyment.
In an interview in the early ‘70’s, Walter and Donald once stated that they could “produce a live album anytime” as they had “recorded every concert they had ever performed.” Despite that, they have sadly refused to treat their distinguished fans to anything more than a single live track from their ‘70’s tours: the final performance of “Bodhisattva” from the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on 7/5/74, preceded by the unforgettable, scholarly lesson in refined elocution by Jerome Aniton. After the tune concludes, Donald Fagen thanks the audience for its applause, which is then faded out, thus indicating that the rest of the board tape is intact. It could and should have been released in full: it was, after all, the ‘Dan at their zenith and in their final concert. It is tragic and intolerable that “official record” of this period is a lone track, which, incidentally, was played so magnificently well that the Loyal Fandom in general, and Mr. Maruca and myself in particular, cannot help but wonder how incredible ‘Rag, ‘Again, ‘Dude, ‘King, ‘Brooklyn, ‘Rikki, ‘Pretzel, ‘School, ‘Reelin, ‘Mobile Home, and ‘Kids must also have sounded on that once glorious, magical evening...
When the ‘Dan finally resumed touring in ’93, ’94,’ ‘96, and 2000, there was every good reason to release a two-CD set of the best concerts from each of these four tours. But out of potentially eight dynamite live CD’s, all of which would have sold like hotcakes, the Steely Dan Loyal Fandom has so far gotten only one, which contains less than half a concert’s worth of tracks from the first two tours in ’93 and ’94 (the concerts of which exceeded two hours in length) and which awkwardly juxtaposed performances with two radically different lead guitarists and drummers. To one fan who complained on Steely Mail about this truncated live release and inquired if the two tours hadn’t produced enough material for at least two CD’s, Walter evasively, if quite cleverly, replied: “Yours didn’t come with two CD’s?” On the SD Internet Resource website and Steely Mail, innumerable postings from fans the world over who attended the ’96 and 2000 tours literally begged Fagen & Becker to release certain outstanding concert performances. To date, these sincere, even moving, pleas have not received a favorable response, notwithstanding the “Plush TV Jazz Rock” video the ‘Dan issued from their January 2000 “pre-tour” concerts at Sony Studios in New York City, which at long last constitutes a move in the right, live direction with regard to Two Against Nature.
The absence of a comprehensive and authoritative catalogue of live Steely Dan material from the ‘70’s through the ‘90’s and beyond is rendered even more painful by its contrast with the astounding overkill with which the Steely Dan studio tracks have been re-issued, and on an order of magnitude unsurpassed for those of any other band. Upon the arrival of the compact disc media, each LP was released in the new digital form. Subsequently, the record companies released “gold plated” CD’s and “specially re-mastered” CD’s which turned out in some cases to have been recorded from inferior, second-generation tapes of each album, rather than from the actual master tapes, some of which could not be found. The ‘Dan’s engineer, Roger Nichols, even threatened to quit the music business altogether, so frustrated was he over the consummate buffoonery on the part of the record companies, and in particular the otherwise state-of-the-art Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, whose “re-mastered” release of Aja contained, in his considered opinion, “totally dead cymbals.”
There were also several compilation CD’s with various selections of the best of the studio tracks: Steely Dan Gold in 1981, Gold - Expanded in 1982 and A Decade of Steely Dan in 1985. Each compilation contained a bonus track or two (either Donald Fagen movie soundtrack compositions, the live version of “Bodhisattva” from 7/5/74, Here At The Western World, FM) which were to entice its purchase by someone who nevertheless already had all the other tracks on CD and/or LP. Then in 1993 came the Citizen Steely Dan boxed set, which reissued the entire studio catalogue, and included only one “previously unreleased track”—a 1971 demo of “Everyone’s Gone to the Movies.” Apparently this was not a sufficient quantity of reissues, and so the entire studio catalogue was re-issued again, in 1999 and 2000, CD by CD, in a “Digitally Re-Mastered” form with new, but lamentably largely silly, liner notes by Becker & Fagen. These re-issues, it may happily affirmed, are a very definite qualitative cut above all the previous CDs for sound quality. Could it be that the Reissues had found their “Home at Last”? Not! In the summer of 2001, 33 studio tracks were re-issued in a two-CD package entitled Show Biz Kids—a collection which is somewhat reminiscent of the two-LP Steely Dan: Greatest Hits 1972-78 set that was issued back in 1978.
Whether further studio track reissues are in store for the Fandom is neither unknown nor unlikely, but the obsession with repeatedly reissuing the studio recordings while completely ignoring the ‘Dan’s concerts during late ‘72 through mid-‘73 (‘Thrill), Fall-’73 (‘Countdown), and the Spring/Summer-‘74 (‘Pretzel), and their more recent tours, simply defies belief. What Deadhead would find a familiar home in an environment with no live albums from the ‘70’s, just one live CD sparsely combining tracks from two separate tours in ’93 and ’94, no CD’s from the ’96 or 2000 tours, and just one live video filmed at Sony Studios in NYC in January of 2000? But one does not have to be a Deadhead to find that the lone shortcoming of Steely Dan—the absence of an exhaustive catalogue of live concert releases combined with a mind-boggling excess of the studio track reissues—is overwhelmingly frustrating and a source of deep and persistent disappointment.
Could it be said that the absence of live albums was due to the lack of stellar
performances by the ‘Dan during their ‘70’s tours? Well, Becker
& Fagen have been quoted in various interviews expressing dissatisfaction
with their early band. Walter once opined that the original band was “quirky”
and “just couldn’t do certain things,” and he added that some
of their concerts were “just disastrous.” The new liner notes to Katy
Lied baldly assert that the Steely Dan concerts in the ‘70’s “might
have sounded almost good.” Yet, Walter has admitted that the original band
did have “considerable talent” and that some of their concerts were
“really great.” While Donald has opined that the original band was
“put together very quickly,” he said in an interview with comedian
Robert Klein that when they stopped touring “we were getting really
good, but decided to quit while we were ahead.” Donald and Walter,
after their 1974 tour in England, commended their bandmates’ musicianship
and called their Pretzel Logic touring line-up their best-ever touring
ensemble.
But Fagen and Becker’s vacillations aside, we may now turn to those who
reviewed their concerts for another perspective. For example, the drummer for
the 1993 Steely Dan tour, Peter Erskine, had this to say about the Steely Dan
concert at the Winterland in San Francisco in May of 1973, which he reviewed:
“Their impact was strong and totally immediate… Donald Fagen’s
astounding solo on an extended version of ‘Do It Again’ was the high
point of the set. Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter played extraordinarily beautiful
pedal steel on the lithe, emotive ‘Brooklyn’ and scorching lead guitar
work on ‘Fire in the Hole.’ The six-part harmonies were as accurate
and soaring as on the album, but instrumentally the band far excelled the
already high standard of playing; extending and developing the songs far beyond
their studio interpretations. The band has a richness of sound and a degree
of fire and attack and puts Zeppelin, and undoubtedly Slade, to shame.”
(Emphasis mine.)
Of the ‘Dan’s concert at the Palace Theater in Manchester, England
in May of 1974, Peter Harvey wrote this terse panegyric: “They played so
extraordinarily well that you genuinely wanted to listen to them for hours.”
And Chris Welch penned these weighty words in Melody Maker: “They add
another dimension of vibrancy and improvisation that is not entirely conveyed
by the albums.” (Emphasis mine. The Manchester concert is also, incidentally,
the show that has been described by all the members of the original ‘Dan
as their finest ever.) Of the ‘Dan’s penultimate concert at the Santa
Monica Civic Auditorium on July 3, 1974, Richard Cromelin wrote: “The band
packed enough punch to wake any nearby dead; the musicianship was incomparable,
the interaction among the players almost telepathic, and there were countless
moments of uncanny exchange.” And last, but not least, Steely Dan’s
very own sound engineer for the 1974 Pretzel Logic tour, Stuart “Dinky”
Dawson, once opined: “They played incredibly.” Later, in his very
own book, Life on the Road, he lamented the end of the original ‘Dan
precisely because of the awesome musicianship and the tremendous feeling they
delivered live during the Pretzel Logic Tour. “I had never felt
this emotional about the end of a band,” he wrote, “this group was
just too good together to quit.”
As far as The Loyal Fandom is concerned, however, these memorable concerts might
fittingly be called “The First Arrangement,” only the difference here
is that while the hapless sound engineer who erased “The Second Arrangement”
from the master tape of Gaucho did so entirely by accident, Donald Fagen
and Walter Becker have intentionally withheld their live performances from the
‘70’s from their fans. “We’ve looked on the shelf,”
stated Walter Becker in attempting to explain why only one bonus track—the
1971 demo of Everyone’s Gone To The Movies—was included on the Citizen
SD boxed set issued in 1993, “and we pretty much came up empty.”
When I read this comment I was completely crestfallen. That boxed set would
have been awesome, I thought, with a generous release of live concert tracks
from the original Steely Dan concerts from the 1970’s.
Donald and Walter need only recall how absolutely crestfallen they must have
felt when they heard the alarming announcement that “The Second Arrangement”
had been accidentally erased by a studio engineer in order for them to get an
inkling of how The Loyal Fandom feels whenever it ponders, and pines for, live
Steely Dan tracks from the concerts in the 1970’s. While every line-up
of the ‘Dan is doubtless very dear to the Loyal Fandom, the powerful line-up
of the 1974 Pretzel Logic tour—with the added personnel of Michael
McDonald, Jeff Porcaro and Royce Jones—is held in particular esteem by
many members of the Loyal Fandom, but especially by its most seasoned veterans.
That band delivered the tracks from the first three albums with a percussive
punch and a downright dangerous, gutsy intensity that is captured neither by
the studio tracks nor by some of the modern quasi-“smooth jazz” concert
reworkings (i.e, the bland version of “’Rikki” in ’96 and
the tempo’d-down “Do It Again” sans Donald Fagen’s
keyboard solo in ’96 and ‘00) some of which re-assigned the stellar
guitar parts of certain songs (i.e., ‘Reelin’) to the horn section.
Donald Fagen has often claimed he had a personal aversion to fronting a band,
while Walter Becker flat out dismissed touring as a waste of time and inherently
in conflict with “the more satisfying experience of making records.”
(Citizen SD boxed set notes). But if they would broaden their perspective
to consider the yearnings of their loyal fans who listen to, and, after all,
purchase, their music, they would acknowledge that live performance is no less
a forum for “making a record” than the studio: it is in fact an extension,
fulfillment and even a surpassing of the creative recording experience in the
studio. Every music fan I know longs for performances add another
dimension of vibrancy and improvisation that extends and develops a song
far beyond the studio interpretation, but I know of no one who is devoted
to collecting repeated reissues of studio tracks at the expense of live concert
recordings, especially of those given by the band which recorded the songs.
The most compelling recent illustration of this principle is the truly phenomenal
live rendition of “Gaslighting Abbie” from the from the January 2000
Sony Studio “Steely Dan Plush TV Jazz Rock” concert video. While “Gaslighting
Abbie” is far and away the most brilliant, groovacious and musically interesting
track on Two Against Nature, the live version of this tune not only does the
studio version full justice but even takes it to spectacular new heights, and
to hear this live performance is a real pleasure. Here is one of the supreme
delights of being a music fan: to be able to savor a wondrous studio recording
and then hear how it is “stretched out” live not only by the band
that recorded it but also by subsequent band line-ups, and to have such recordings
of concerts for future enjoyment. As for the “promotional value” of
touring, it is ancillary, because there is no doubt whatsoever that everyone
who ever attended a Steely Dan concert either already had the record
they were promoting or were sure to go out and buy it anyway. Live recordings
do as much if not more in the way of “promotion” as they are not subject
to the ravages of time or fading memory, and are accessible to everyone, rather
than only to those who attended the concert.
The deeper issue from the 1970’s concerning the demise of the original
Steely Dan is that the band was signed to an exploitative, low-royalty record
deal from the very outset by ABC Dunhill Records, was paid very little for touring
and barely broke even after each tour. This of course speaks execrably of the
corporate record company world, and of the accompanying “management”
firms, which are notorious for squeezing every last dime and then the very life
out of a band. This is what really happened to the original Steely Dan.
On the one hand, Baxter, Dias and Hodder simply cannot be criticized for wanting
to play such great music live; on the other hand, Becker and Fagen were understandably
reluctant to spend months touring only to receive from the penurious corporate
fiscal section, as Walter once sadly described it, “next to nothing for
our live concerts.”
The ‘Dan was also often manipulatively scheduled by its ostensible management
to tour on the weekends while they were recording Countdown to Ecstacy
on the weekdays in the studio, which is obviously unnerving and exhausting for
a band that is trying to concentrate on recording an album. Worse still, even
as ‘the Dan toured England in May of 1974 to promote Pretzel Logic,
Walter Becker and a very ill Donald Fagen had to try to fend off over the telephone
at late hours of the night some unscrupulous maneuvers back in the States by
their “management” to blood suck even more money from the band’s
royalties and touring income. As Dinky Dawson put it in his book, an alarmed
roadie told him Fagen and Becker had been informed by their producer Gary Katz
that “…the managers are forming a conspiracy against the band, demanding
a greater share of the money and royalties from the record label.” Adding
that “we’re over here and Donald and Walter can’t even defend
their own interests,” the worthy and empathetic roadie advised proffering
as much support for them as possible because it was “really tough for them:
it was all about the music before, and now all they’re dealing with is
politics and business.”
Most DanFans are not aware of this, but as revealed by Dinky Dawson in his book,
the Steely Dan concerts that started in the latter half of June 1974 were aimed
not only at raising income to compensate for the loss of funds from the abruptly
canceled tour of England but also to support the costs of legal counsel which
Fagen & Becker had to secure to deal with their aggrandizing “management”
which they had fired while touring in England. Donald and Walter have opined,
in liner notes and interviews, that touring was “too stressful.” Given
the touring conditions that left them vulnerable to such exploitation, it simply
could not have been otherwise. Had they been managed by a rational and fair
management which established a touring regime which “promoted” not
only “the latest recording” but also the musical, emotional
and fiscal health, and therefore the longevity, of a band, the original ‘Dan
would certainly have survived as group much longer.
Indeed, in one of the interviews from a tour in the ’90’s Walter Becker
once said “if we could have had this much fun in the ‘70’s, we
never would have stopped touring.” Presumably part of the “fun”
for a touring band is that it actually garners a satisfying level of fiscal
reward for its efforts, and happily that is now happening for the ‘Dan
in its recent tours. (Surely the record companies make enough off the studio
recordings already!) But the break-up of the original Steely Dan was the consequence
of exploitation that originated outside the band itself, and was probably inevitable
under such circumstances. The tensions between some of the band members were
really the symptoms of this exploitation: some wanted to continue to play the
finest music around but were perceived by the composers as being in cahoots
with the management that had otherwise rendered their touring experience so
torturous from a fiscal and managerial perspective. The drastic action that
Fagen and Becker took, namely, to disband and retreat to the ostensibly safe
harbor of the studio (which, sadly, also proved to be treacherous—technically)
becomes understandable, although it remains very painful to every member of
The Loyal Fandom who either had, or had not, the privilege to attend their concerts
in the ‘70’s. The “management” of the ‘Dan reaped the
fruits of its penury and myopia when the original Steely Dan ceased touring
and then broke-up two and a half years after it was founded. The short-term
gain of a few became everyone else’s loss, and consequently, and indeed
amazingly, three decades later Bill Maruca, myself and the Loyal Fandom still
pine away for a generous release of live concerts from the original Steely Dan
era. Sigh...
Nonetheless, despite some of the admittedly discouraging experiences the ‘Dan
had on the road in the ‘70’s—with adequate time for pre-concert
sound checks, for example, at times ridiculously and pointlessly denied them—the
opportunity continues to present itself for them to release their best performances
from the 1970’s. This would allow them to finally turn a genuine profit
on their ‘70’s tours while rewarding their deserving Fans with recordings
of live concerts which so few were otherwise privileged to attend. How much
more popular and impressive would their reissues have proven had they extensively
and generously included—as have the reissues and/or the boxed sets of nearly
every other group from the ‘70’s—some “previously unreleased
live tracks”?
The Loyal Fandom would be treated to some real gems and surprises. They would
hear just how fantastic a live lead vocalist, keyboard player and soloist Donald
Fagen has always been, contrary to his self-deprecating remarks about his vocal
abilities and keyboard skills. He delivered especially fine lead vocals on “Rikki
Don’t Lose That Number” and ended the tune with a skeevy little chortle
that greatly assists with the lyrical interpretation of that song. Yet further
vocal treats abounded on the 1974 Pretzel Logic tour: Michael McDonald
sang “Show Biz Kids”; Jeff “Skunk” Baxter sang “My
Old School”; and the ever-soulful Royce Jones sang “Any Major Dude”
and “Brooklyn.” On “Pretzel Logic,” Donald Fagen,
Royce Jones and Michael McDonald each took one stanza’s worth of lead vocals,
with McDonald singing the celebrated line about the shoes—which was Donald
Fagen’s favorite concert moment. Instrumentally, while the whole ensemble
was incredible, the solos amazed. Jeff Baxter invariably delivered brilliantly
structured, soaring guitar solos on “The Boston Rag” and some blistering
leads on “My Old School.” “Bodhisattva” was transformed
into a roaring boogie, and a revved up “Do It Again,” featured a powerful
solo outing by Denny Dias on electric sitar and a magnificent organ solo by
Donald Fagen, and then was wrapped by a sizzling two-minute-plus percussion
coda that would have been the envy of Carlos Santana’s rhythm section.
Jim Hodder and Jeff Porcaro prefaced “King of the World” with a terrific,
incendiary double drumming introduction that not only rendered the album version
tepid by comparison, and once inspired Donald Fagen to shout “Cookin’!”
All the boys in the band got really wound up on “Pretzel Logic”
and delivered this classic blues number with a scorching intensity. Denny Dias
and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter held forth stinging unison and lead guitar
work on “Reelin’ in the Years”.
Apart from these highlights, there is another major one, which encompasses all
preoccupations with vocals and instrumental solos, and that is the sheer and
consistent pleasure that one could take throughout the Pretzel Logic
tour concerts in savoring the incredible bass guitar playing of Walter Becker.
His bass lines were distinguished by an arresting intelligence and inventiveness,
were right in the pocket, and left the listener very much impressed. The astute
and captivating walking bass lines heard on “Bodhisattva,” for example,
when Baxter the Skunk traded leads with Dias the Bebopper beneath the Bo Tree
live, would have drawn an approving nod and knowing smile from Ron Carter. Walter
has been self-effacing when comparing his bass playing abilities with others—“You
mean I’m gonna learn Chuck Rainey’s bass lines?” he queried in
one interview that proposed an original Steely Dan member reunion concert—but
anyone who ever heard the original ‘Dan live felt that Walter’s bass
work filled out each song with an authoritative harmonic foundation that contributed
mightily to the vibrant elevation of the tracks far beyond their studio interpretations.
In the live concerts in the ‘90’s and onward, Becker always opines
in his band introductions that, “in addition to a great drummer, a band
must have a really great bass player” to succeed on a given concert evening,
and he has justifiably proffered abundant praise for bassist Tom Barney. But
one could have said of Walter during the SD concerts in the ‘70’s
the very same thing he himself now says about Tom Barney during the recent SD
tours—namely, that he was an “absolute knock-out” on bass—and
this without any exaggeration. If the Loyal Fandom is ever lucky enough to hear
a live SD concert from the ‘70’s, it will hear the kind of live bass
guitar lines that are deserving of being transcribed and printed in a textbook
for study by accomplished students of the bass guitar.
The allure of the original ‘Dan’s performances in the ‘70’s,
however, goes beyond their unforgettable renditions of the studio tracks from
the first three LP’s and extends to their creative encores. The Angels’
“My Boyfriend’s Back” concluded the tour promoting Countdown
to Ecstacy and was sung by the two female backing vocalists on that tour.
During the 1974 Pretzel Logic tour they encored with “This All Too
Mobile Home” which allowed the band members to depart the stage in pairs—first
Michael McDonald and Royce Jones, then Skunk Baxter and Denny Dias, then Donald
Fagen and Walter Becker—leaving Jim Hodder and Jeff Porcaro to engage in
a drum blitz at the end. Those who heard the concert at the Palace Theatre in
Manchester in May of 1974 have said it held forth as jaw dropping a display
of double drumming as one could ever wish to hear. For Fagen & Becker to
release such a performance would also pay tribute to the memory of these two
late drummers who both had the misfortune of dying in accidents. Here is another
worthy aim that no one can possibly dispute. (While there is a studio CD in
tribute to the late Jeff Porcaro on which many of his music friends perform,
the SD tune that was played in his memory, “Babylon Sisters,” is not
a track on which he ever played, although the CD’s “E Minor Shuffle”
briefly, if somewhat insufficiently, quotes from Katy Lied’s “Black
Friday,” on which, of course, Jeff Porcaro did play.)
Now, to any intractably petulant, small-minded curmudgeon who might caustically
object “who wants to listen to several different live versions of Bodhisattva?”
one may reply either (a) “every single member of the Loyal Fandom,”
or (b) “several different live versions of Bodhisattva are infinitely
preferable to having six or seven CD’s with the same old studio version
of Bodhisattva included in a re-packaging containing different arrangements
of the other original studio tracks.” But neither fiscal self-interest
nor a kindly willingness to provide to and reward the Fandom with the concerts
which were once described in the superlative case have persuaded Donald &
Walter to act in the peerlessly generous manner characteristic of the late,
but Grateful, ‘Dead, whose orphaned fans they once solicited on the SD
website to become members of the Loyal Fandom. But while to date such releases
were not, alas, to be, that is not to say that some day they cannot yet be…
In the Summer 2001 issue of the “Collector’s Choice Music Catalogue”
one will find advertised the latest two-CD compilation Show Biz Kids, the accompanying
caption of which boasts of “33 studio-perfect gems.” But right next
to this ad one will find another advertisement for a brand new boxed-set released
by no less than The Eagles, who as the SD Loyal Fandom knows received a sardonic
honorable mention in The Royal Scam track “Everything You Did.”
The caption which accompanies the Eagles’ boxed-set reads: “Probably
the most glaring omission among the boxed-set blitz of the last few years, the
Eagles finally receive their due with this 4-CD set, which includes 52 songs
and an ENTIRE disc of unreleased live tracks featuring everything from hits
like Hotel California and Peaceful Easy Feeling to surprises like Funk 49 and
Please Come Home for Christmas...” If anyone complies with the exhortation
to “turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening” both they and
their neighbors will be doing so with the greatest of pleasure and delight with
regard not only to the Eagles’ studio tracks but also to the generous allocation
of an entire CD’s worth of “previously unreleased live performances.”
As a member of the Loyal Fandom both I and my suit are a shade of bright Irish
green with envy, for an entire CD of unreleased live concert material from 1974
could and should also have accompanied the Citizen Steely Dan boxed-set.
Therefore, I propose to a certain distinguished, if hitherto recalcitrant, duo,
the adoption of a New Year’s, if not New Millennium’s, Resolution,
and formally appeal to you to commence with the process of officially releasing
a minimum of one full live Steely Dan concert from the 1974 Pretzel Logic
tour. If the Loyal Fandom is wondering if this worthy goal is within reach,
it should know that THE WORTHIEST of all in Dandom is prepared at this very
writing to release such a concert, for which he is awaiting Walter’s permission.
Those who have perused the website of the ‘Dan’s sound engineer from
the 1974 tour, Stuart “Dinky” Dawson (www.dinkysworld.com),
as well as that of the Rykodisc record label with which he is affiliated (www.rykodisc.com)
will discover that he intends to release CD’s of the best of his vast collection
of soundboard tapes that he amassed as the sound engineer in the 1970’s
for Fleetwood Mac, the Kinks, Joan Baez, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jeff Beck,
Steely Dan, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, J. Geils Band, Warren Zevon, Orleans,
and Ambrosia, the Byrds, and many others. Each band is the subject of a chapter
in his book Life on the Road which contains incredible accounts of his
experiences and can be purchased at either website.
In this book, Dinky Dawson offers the following opinion about what he felt was
the ‘Dan’s best concert from the 1974 tour: “One of Steely Dan’s
best shows was up in Seattle at the Paramount Theater, a place I’d worked
in a few times, so I instinctively knew the feel of that room. The Dan’s
groove was dead on, and with the equipment the group had, the show sounded like
it was happening in a living room—just perfect. The crowd gave them a standing
ovation after the first song, which gave me goosebumps again, just like in London.
Donald asked the audience how the sound was and a big roar went up, which made
me feel pretty damn good…” The delightful Mr. Dawson recently penned
to me the following words about that concert: “Every note gave you goose
bumps. You see, the feeling of greatness was unbelievable…”
Dinky has also indicated to me that with Walter’s approval he will issue
on Rykodisc a CD of the July 1, 1974 concert from the Paramount Theatre in Seattle,
which, he further added, had “the best energy of any show” he ever
mixed. Not a day passes that I don’t find myself hoping that Dinky Dawson
receives such permission from Walter. I see from the posting of Bill Maruca
that I am by no means alone in daily pining for a live 1974 SD concert, and
so I wonder if Donald and Walter might themselves take Bill’s inquiry under
favorable advisement and direct the record company which has the soundboard
tape of that final concert in L.A. to convert it to CD as well, so that the
Loyal Fandom may additionally savor its aural delights. At all events, the opportunity
to correct the glaring omission of live ‘Dan concerts from the ‘70’s
has never been better than now. And Dinky Dawson is now ready, willing, and
able, to correct it.
So, how about it, Donald and Walter? If there are some troublesome recollections
that linger from your touring days in the ‘70’s, simply declare with
the Chaplain of Steely Dan, The Very Rev. Deacon Blues “that’s
all in the past,” and henceforth remove all impediments to your issuing
live concert material from that era. You call me a fool or say it’s crazy
scheme? I can assure you that this one’s for real. And your Loyal Fans
would all very much delight in saying one day soon that they already bought
the dream-come-true in compact disc form. Have I been too loquacious in
setting forth my case? Sue me if I write too long. Every chapter in your band’s
history—past, present and future—means a great deal to us. We not
only look forward to The Next One with boundless anticipation, but also would
express boundless appreciation, in written and fiscal form, for your benevolence
toward us in at last releasing some of your best live concerts from the ‘70’s.
Therefore, this patient and loyal Danfan formally appeals to you to give
permission to your distinguished former soundman Stuart “Dinky” Dawson
to release, at least for now, the 7/1/74 Seattle concert, and then to consider
at a future date the release of other concerts such as the Santa Monica Civic
Auditorium on 7/5/74, and/or your celebrated Manchester Palace Theatre concert
on 5/17/74. This would be an obvious win both for yourselves and your fans,
for you would at last receive, for the splendid concerts you gave, the fiscal
rewards that were absconded with by exploitative record companies and manipulative
management firms, and we would at last be relieved of our perilous, drought-stricken
state with respect to your live concerts from the 1970’s.
And should you be plied this year with the usual plethora of anxious inquiries
as to the issuance date of your much anticipated next CD and the schedule for
the next tour, you will be favorably positioned to reply that you heeded the
wisdom of this Appeal and have thereby provided at least an interim answer to
both queries. Once you have sent an approving nod in a Bostonward direction
to Dinky, anticipate that the Loyal Fandom will soon shower you with innumerable
words of gratitude, accompanied by a veritable tidal wave of fiscal compensation
guaranteed to catapult you to a highly-touted feature on the next edition of
Robin Leach’s “Lives of the Rich & Famous.”
Danfans of the world: Unite! Surely you concur! It is high time we let Donald and Walter know how much we want to hear the awesome stage vibe of the original ‘Dan. I ask you to pen your opinions and entreaties to them. Perhaps some of you will also compose various “Top Ten” lists filled with well-nigh irrefutable, sagacious justifications for a project of such unrivaled moment?
Since I began this letter with a quote from the Chaplain of Steely Dan, The
Very Rev. Deacon Blues, I should end with his own adapted lyric: “Live
music, fine concerts, that stagger the mind…”
With all earnestness, a Loyal Fan in ‘Dandom,
Tristan Gustave Fabriani III, Esq.
CEO & El Supremo, Pretzel Logic & Analysis, Inc.
San Francisco, January 2002
P.S. As for Bill Maruca’s comment about Jerome Aniton, Dinky Dawson sets
the record straight: “Jerome was the (equipment) truck driver in 1974,
and S.D. did not travel in any bus. Jerome was replaced by the truck firm due
to two crashes: the first one was at the first gig and the second was in Cleveland
where he hit a bridge and ripped the roof off the trailer. Jerome only came
to see the boys in his hometown of LA. Walter saw him drunk and talked Jerome
into doing an introduction. Chris Adamson did 99% of the introductions. Chris
is the one that opens the Seattle show. You also hear Chris on a Pink Floyd
album, the meat and pudding thing.” (Dawson)
Date: Sun, January 20, 2002, 16:33:19
Posted by: Lisa G,
Message to Michelle from Princeton Jct., NJ:
Just read your post in the Digest version: Jan1-10. (I'm still catching up on mail from December, too.) Shout out to you from a neighbor and FagenFan from up north on Rte. 1.
Lisa G in East Brunswick, NJ
P.S. Hey to all you fine folks I've been missing! I'm still alive and kicking, but so incredibly drunk with life. I promise to make more time to hang in the future. Love from Daddy G, as well.
Date: Sat, January 19, 2002, 19:38:07
Posted by: Geoff,
Ed,
What is the date of the San Diego thing? I thought I saw April 14th somewhere once.
Geoff
Date: Fri, January 18, 2002, 21:24:17
Posted by: hoops,
I can always hope for an iPod each for the both of us Gina, heck all of us! (There Windows software for it too now).
LWO: From what I understand--someone will correct me if I am wrong--Pat 'St Al' Beemer and his lovely wife and kid are planning a vacation to San Diego and is organizing a wing ding for sometime in April.
See you guys later this weekend.
h
Date: Fri, January 18, 2002, 21:12:37
Posted by: hoops,
Hey Milwaukeeans and Chicagoans;
Yes, that list split will happen--just been snowed under. Next couple of days.
Want to make you aware of two shows coming through Chicago which I think have some tangential Dan interest, or at least ity should appeal to Dan fans.
March 8: Pat Metheny, Cadillac Palace Theatre on Randolph near Wells in Chicago's Loop. Tickets go on sale thru Ticketbastard Monday 1.21.02 for $30-something to $70-something. Whew! Small venue tho.
March 21: Herbie Hancock at the House of Blues at Marina City in Chicago. Standing Room only, Tickets like $22.xx. Hoping to make this one. This show should be pretty off-the-path for Herbie. His new album is "Future to Future" and I understand it to be his take on "the next thing" in jazz. I won't expect him to recreate "Gold Teeth II" for us. Then again you never know.
I've never seen Herbie live before. First time I saw Metheny was on his 1986 "Song X" tour with Ornette Coleman. Definitely not typical of Metheny, very Coleman. Horrible acoustics in the venue so it was a difficult experience. Then again, I was even less experienced with jazz then than I am now. Maybe I missed the point. I understand that Coleman crtitics would say there is no point.
hoops
Date: Fri, January 18, 2002, 19:57:38
Posted by: With a Gun, Barrytown
Black Jack.
Date: Fri, January 18, 2002, 13:53:40
Posted by: Little Wild One, work/Houston
Ed/Hoops,
Are there PAs re: what's going on in San Diego in April? I, by choice, am not in the "yellow" book loop. Please don't hesitate to spread the news to those of us on the fringes.
Earl, re: WOH: Having personally experienced the crash of a relationship recently (i.e., hitting the shore, hard) I think the "way deep" phrase is an attempt to explain the narrator's feelings afterward. On the contrary, I think the relationship was quite meaningful, but, when it's over...there seems to be little that is special. Maybe that's what Port Blanc and easy girls equate to.
Here's to a weekend of bliss, anyway. I think it's going to rain here.
LWO
Date: Fri, January 18, 2002, 08:30:33
Posted by: Earl the Pearl, Delaware
I always liked the game euchre, but I don't know the best way to incorporate that into a song (but I'm sure D+W could figure something out).
There are just so many layers to West of Hollywood. Whether it's that very interesting intro, or the guitar interlude, or the bridge vocals(my favorite), or the long sax solo with modulating scales.
I was listening to it in the shower this morning, and I stumbled upon the metaphor meant in the chorus. "Riding the crest of a wave breaking just West of Hollywood." Whatever this relationship was meant little to the narrator (Way deep into nothing special). But he was enjoying it so much (riding the crest) that he neglected to see the danger in riding that 15 foot wave...you've gotta come down at some point. And the imagery of a wave crashing against the shore just shows the exact way that things shook out for this guy.
I also like the final verse, especially from "Don't you love Port Blanc" on. For some reason that part of the song gives you a sense of emptiness, and I'm not sure why. I can very clearly feel that loss, though.
Earl
Date: Fri, January 18, 2002, 06:20:49
Posted by: Gina, Sun Mountain
HOLD IT HOOPS!!!I ain't got that cuty thing (yet), was just rambling away my crush for that peace in aPod here ....
and yes indeed, nice topics here, music, music, music ..
love it!
have a nice weekend all,
G.
Date: Thurs, January 17, 2002, 20:42:00
Posted by: edbeatty, way deep in being timed out
Hoops,The call is coming your way,unless during the move you changed numbers.?
Ed
Date: Thurs, January 17, 2002, 19:15:42
Posted by: hoops,
Sorry to be so scarce…lotta great topics.
WOH: Epic song on 2vN although some seem to like it more than others. I think it's great, spec' the sax solo. I remember having to be all anal and "shhhh" people during the sax solo at the 2K shows. Some people didn't get it. Watching Ari get physical blowing the solo versus Bob being cool was a curious comparison with Chris on the PBS special. That was Bill Griffin who kept chasing WOH all over, never to catch it. The opening piano evokes an image of skimming across the water up to the shoreline, not unlike the opening of the Jackie Gleason show in the late 1960s when the camera would skim up the ocean to Miami. What an image. Boston Rag, thanks for the reminder to get Newport 56.
Ed. I hate doing public address messages, but your Digests come back timed out. Call or phone me. That said, San Diego would be great; we need a Dan event this spring, St Al seems to be getting things together so cool. However, Classes end April 26 and Finals start right after. It's a busy time and students expect me to be around, so it's not looking so good. Gonna try. Still, San Diegoans, if I can help get the word out somehow, please let me know. Whenever the next tour is, I want to get to shows in So Cal and the Southwest and Southeast. Missed it last tour.
Hearts and Old Maid would be out but the other games all have their merits as Steely Daneque card games. 52-Card Pickup? What the hell is that? Rikki don't lose those playing cards…
Gina: Congrats on the iPod. I'm envious. Only one I've seen was some guy groovin' on the subway to one last week. I don't know how Apple does it, but like Roger Nichol's notes on the 20-bit Gold Kama, it must qualify as "magic." I was reading that front page Time Advertisement Apple got and that whole perfection thing Ives and Jobs got going remind of Becker/Fagen. All four of them inspire me to no end. My budget is tight and am weighing a mid-range G4Ti PB versus the 14.1" iBook. Can't afford the 667. Need to DigiVideo, you know.
Agreed, the pretzel jokes have saturated the airwaves. I saw a wax museum in England (not sure if it was Madame T.'s) redid Bush's sculpture with a bruise on his face and a pretzel in his hand. At any rate, sd.com was the very first pretzel joke I saw, those guys set the trend again.
LWO: A love affair amongst Enron/Andersen fallout: I feel a Steely Dan Song Part II coming on: THE FALL OF '02
Agreed, what I saw of "Burns' Mark Twain" was stiffer than Mark Twain's corpse, or that of William Wright, for that matter.
Michelle: Yes, they did do "My Boyfriend's Back" with vocals by the girls they had. I think it was an encore. Maybe.
Will right more laters.
Cool thoughts you all.
h
Date: Thurs, January 17, 2002, 17:54:00
Posted by: Joe Rockhead,
Hoopsie
Listening to Joe Roccisano on Radio Free Dandom right now. Playing Take Five. He's got a touch of Mancini going, YOU THINK??????
Date: Thurs, January 17, 2002, 16:32:27
Posted by: Boston Rag, Great Moments in Sax
Ahhhh...West of Hollywood. I can still remember where I was the first time I heard Potter's solo. You just shake your head in amazement.
I got the same feeling when I first heard Paul Gonsalves' 27 chorus solo in "Diminuendo In Blue And Crescendo In Blue" from the Ellington at Newport '56 concert. Now THAT was a jaw dropping sax solo!!!
Mark in Boston
Date: Thurs, January 17, 2002, 14:51:47
Posted by: ed, West of Most of you
Hi,Lp i'm always somewhere.
Because no matter where I go,there I am..(apologies to BB-GREAT dvd btw)
West Of Hollywood proved to me that the magic is still lurking within B&F
I also have it on DVD-AUDIO and WOH and the whole album blows me away on this format.
Chris Potter is so much more dynamic in the DVD-A mix and the surround quality is dynamic with out making you turn your head too often.
There...
.
Who's coming to San Diego in april?
Ed
Date: Thurs, January 17, 2002, 13:01:55
Posted by: Charlie Freak, Near the Freakway
I vote for "52 Card Pick-up." Great game, assuming you're the dealer.
WOH---Whoaaaaa....mesmerizing...Potter's Sax solo is hypnotic. There was that guy from Boston who kept trying to catch a Steely Dan shows that played WOH and he kept catching the ones that they didn't play it. Sheeesh...no mercy.
Date: Thurs, January 17, 2002, 12:53:35
Posted by: Zane,
Hey Card sharks!
Seems to me that Steely Dan types would be huge card players. What card game do you think most embodies Steely Dan????
Poker? Pinochle? Hearts? Black Jack? 21? Spades? Old Maid?
Just a thought I had when I saw a casino bulletin board on the way in to work.
I'm thinking 21 or Pinochle.
Zane
"YOU GO BACK JACK DO IT AGAIN!"
Date: Thurs, January 17, 2002, 10:21:10
Posted by: µ, Tejas
Ed, LP: What a song - the key is the whirling dirvish chord changes on the Rhodes. Walter's guitar solo and the bridge shine - the thing really moves it along. The DVD-A edition is VERY, VERY lively. Have you noticed that if you whistle the chorus and the tag before the guitar burst - you can go just right into the theme from "The Price is Right??!!!!"
" I like jazz, and fake jazz... and fake, fake jazz." - Donald Fagen
Date: Thurs, January 17, 2002, 09:36:56
Posted by: luckless pedestrian, @work
ED!!!! so this is where you are - yes, i am a big fan of west of hollywood - it is in my top 3 (what a shame about me and janie runaway are the other 2) from 2vN - i too love that line "i'm way deep into nothing special", it cracks me up every time! - great guitar work (not a musician, so i won't analyze it) too - how are you doing, btw?
Date: Wed, January 16, 2002, 23:42:06
Posted by: Little Wild One, Houston, TX
Hey Ed,
Interesting you should bring up WOH. Just this evening, I was re-reading The Village Voice article that came out shortly after 2VN's release. The author (name escapes me) emphasised that the majority 2VN's lyrics center on the 4 L's (love/lust/libido/loss).
As I read the descriptions of each track, ending with WOH, natch, strains of "I'm way deep into nothing special" screamed through my brain. What a tune to leave us with! And to think they skipped that one at the Houston show.
It was then I realized how damned routine my life has been with no tour, no NYC shenanigans and no MPP C2E's (IV? V?) to look forward to.
Does anyone have a cure for this monotony called work, work, work?
Living in the shadow of the Enron/Andersen fallout,
LWO
Date: Wed, January 16, 2002, 21:33:54
Posted by: ed beatty, Temecula,California
Hey,I'm still in awe of West of Hollywood and was wondering of anyone
felt the same about this song now that its almost 2 yrs since the release.
Ed
Date: Wed, January 16, 2002, 16:03:24
Posted by: Charlie Freak,
Earl...I feel your pain. Really tho, be it Clinton choking on Monica's muff or on a pork rind or a pretzel incident with Bush or George H. Bush refluxing all over some foreign head of state, the opportunity would and should be seized to make fun. See, I think making fun of the president, regardless of party is a good thing: I don't think we've made fun of the Prez since Sept. 11. This shows the USA healing and getting our humour back. Glad we're lightening up and getting back to normal.
But I sure hope Letterman lets up on the Pretzel thing. Last night was over the top. Maybe it's just exuberant release after not satirizing our state officials for 4 months.
Just my two pretzels' (or pork rinds') worth. Heck, even our boys thought it was funny enough to put on their site.
(Hoops, is this SD-related enough?)
Date: Wed, January 16, 2002, 14:42:47
Posted by: Earl Reed, Delaware
I guess since the Democratic Party has such a graceful, honorable figurehead in Bill "Choke on the Cigar" Clinton.
Hey, at least he wasn't choking on a pork rind.
Earl
Date: Wed, January 16, 2002, 13:35:27
Posted by: Charlie Freak,
How can you make all these jokes about Bush and his run-in with such a terrible twist of fate last Sunday?
Date: Wed, January 16, 2002, 11:18:27
Posted by: Dragon Chaser AKA Mike From Queens, Queens NY
Hello one and all,
I'm looking for a list of all MISCELLANEOUS Dan tunes FM, Western World, SD Song, etc. let me know !
Thanky very muchy!
Date: Tues, January 15, 2002, 21:01:35
Posted by: Peg, The Natti of Cin
Regarding Bush, since he is Son of Bush, methinks we need to refer to him as...Shrub!Cheeryos,
~Peg
Date: Tues, January 15, 2002, 20:32:00
Posted by: Pret Zel'ogick,
COUGH COUGH COUGH! I got Bush in my throat! Hmmm.......I feel a Steely Dan song coming on.
Date: Tues, January 15, 2002, 15:40:55
Posted by: Huck Finn,
OK. So Ken Burns isn't as pompous as he was with JAZZ. Then again this is only 4 hrs long. I mean, I was waiting for there to be a series of books, "Ken Burns' Mark Twain," where has excerpts of the all of Twains classic books condensed to 10-12 pages. Each manages to leave out some major details, like "Ken Burns ' Huck Finn" when Huck decides not to turn in Jim is omitted due to contested copyright details. At least that was what it was like with all those "Ken Burns' Jazz" CDs, brought to you by GM and PBS, EIEIO.
Date: Tues, January 15, 2002, 13:00:11
Posted by: Cosmic Woe,
Wow. So what?
Now I sound twisted, watch out for that pretzel. Maybe it's really a huge gential wart on Bush's head----he is a dickhead, ya know----and the pretzel choking/fainting/'bruise" story is another coverup of those "youthful indiscretions" he had in his late 30s from which he has learned.
Speaking of so what, Twain would hate this Ken Burns special. The show has the ambience of a Hallmark shop. I think Twain/Clemens would be a helluva lot more wry and bawdy and fun, not unlike Becker and Fagen.
My two €.
Woe
Date: Tues, January 15, 2002, 11:58:16
Posted by: Cosmic WoW,
Yo!
Looks like I wasn't the only one who thought of the "pretzel logic" of Bush's choking incident. There's an update at steelydan.com
Now that IS cosmic. LOL
WoW
######################################
Date: Mon, January 14, 2002, 17:04:26
Posted by: Steely Dan De Quille, Hannibal Toodle-oo
Actually, Walter Becker appears to be a Mark Twain fan. At least he thanks Twain in the acknowledgments to 11ToW. Moreover, on "Turn That Heartbeat Over Again" (CBAT) there's an insider's reference to Mark Twain -- the lyric beginning "We warned the ghost of William Wright...".. William Wright was the actual name of Dan De Quille, Twain's fellow reporter on the Virginia City Enterprise in the 1860s. Wright/De Quille was a rather obscure character, so Becker and Fagen would have had to be pretty familiar with Twain's life in order to namecheck Wright specifically. Too bad Ken Burns didn't interview Becker and Fagen for his Twain bio!
Date: Mon, January 14, 2002, 15:02:41
Posted by: sdgfdfgs, dfgdsdfgdf
!= means not equal to. It looked OK when I filled out the form. Hoopsie: When do we get to add HTML? I am hungry for it.
Date: Mon, January 14, 2002, 14:59:25
Posted by: dahjsdahj, sdafsdaf
Steely Dan + Mark Twain != Shania Twain runnething around on Spreadeth legs with a Steely Dan
Date: Mon, January 14, 2002, 13:24:39
Posted by: Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, Hannibal
Last year it was Ken Burns telling us that Wynton Marsalis is g-d and that Jazz ended when Satchmo died in the early 1970s.
This year we get treated to his know it all spin on Mark Twain. Haven't seen it but can you blame me for being aprehensive????
Anywho, I think it is noteworthy as Jazz is one side of Steely Dan and satire is another side of B/F. Perhaps the greatest American satirist is Mark Twain. And am the only one who thinks Twain would be this huge Steely Dan fan if he were around today? Shit. Walter Becker could have a career as the New Mark Twain, at least following in his footsteps. Books were the media of the 19th Century; recorded music, the 20th. Yeah, Steely Twain.
Was listening to Royal Scam over the weekend. It made me realize that Fagen has lost some of his edgey delivery in his vocals on TAN. Fagen's vocals on Jack of Speed are like he's on qualudes. I miss Walter's out there and in your face delivery on his 1996 tour version.
laters.
Date: Sun, January 13, 2002, 12:50:10
Posted by: Michelle, Deep in NJ
Hi Everyone!
I heard that Steely Dan used to perform "My Boyfriend's Back-You're Gonna Be In Trouble" back in the 1970s. Did the girls do the vocals? I can't see Donald on that one. David Palmer?
Rickee Lee Jones is sorta like Joni Mitchell's kid sister if you ask me.
Off to the shopping strip this afternoon. Going to get the VH1 DVD I asked for but didn't get at the holidays.
Michelle
Date: Sun, January 13, 2002, 12:46:21
Posted by: Starved for good music,
Hey gang, Pat Metheny Group is on the prowl again and I think that the CD and shows are going to be really great - check out the CD and tour at www.patmethenygroup.com === they will be appearing at at venue near you! === donald and walter love pmg, so it is your duty to dig 'em toooo!
AND CHECK OUT THIS CRAZY COOL GIG ->
The Pat Metheny Group's highly anticipated tour to support their
soon-to-be-released album, SPEAKING OF NOW, has a unique, fan-friendly twist that is available only through Adventures in Rock, Inc. Travelers will not only see the concert from great seats, but will also have the opportunity to meet Pat Metheny after the show at an exclusive VIP reception.
The "Meet Metheny" weekends take place in Chicago (March 8-10), New York City (April 12-14), Boston (April 13-15), and London (May 9-13). All packages include premium concert tickets, 4-Star hotel accommodations, VIP reception with Pat Metheny, guided night on the town with a local music expert, a souvenir program, collectable aftershow pass and more. City-specific bonuses include a Jazz tour of Harlem, Marathon Monday in Boston, and a guided tour of historic Royal Albert Hall in London.
Prices start at only $790 per person and are based on double occupancy. These prices do not include airfare. <ONLY!!!!!!>
yours, sfgm
Date: Sat, January 12, 2002, 23:01:32
Posted by: DrMu, Tejas
I understand Suriname to also have a healthy Asian population from India, China, Malaysia...bet that spices up the music even more...
Date: Sat, January 12, 2002, 20:14:04
Posted by: Boston Raga, living where else?
The Globe has a story about how Jerry Garcia willed five of his guitars to the dude who made them for him. But get this---the living Dead (apparently Mickey Hart and Bobby Weir)have contested Jerry's will saying that the whole band owns the guitars, they're not Jerry's to give. one twist to the story is this: the guitar maker was in a serious hit and run accident and is now desitute, homeless and disabled. He wants the guitars to so he can auction one and so he can have some money. You'd think these hippies would take care of their own. I dunno, maybe there is more to this. The other twist to the story is that at least one of the guitars in question are currently on display in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Then again there was that ruckus back when Jerry first died where Jerry's estarnged wife, Mountain Girl" and their daughters got next to nothing in his will. But then his recent new wife, who married Jerry not too long before his death, got almost everything. She married him not too long before his death. She sounds like an instant Yoko. Maybe this is why Lesh doesn't speak with Hart and Weir, or why Bruce Hornsby dropped away from the post-Dead band scene. Here all those Deadheads thought they had peace at last and instead they are just as fucked up, if not more, than everyone else.
I mention this as it made me think of a lyric I've always thought of as anti-hippie: "A world become one, of salads and sun, only a fool would say that."
Date: Sat, January 12, 2002, 16:56:02
Posted by: Keith, Owings Mills, Maryland
Call me $2.00 Bill Clinton short. I forgot to say in my last post, HOPE IT WAS A GREAT ONE, DONALD!
Great! That makes two of us Dr. Mu. Has anyone heard Howard Jones' version of IGY? Pretty damn good. He says IGY is one of the best songs ever written. HoJo seems like a guy who is really talented but is typecast in Reagan-era powersynth chords. See what a record company'll do to ya? Forever remembered as being a "spiky hair."
By the way, RLJ's new live album doesn't include "Horses" which was co-penned by WB. I think someone said it did.
Happy weekend everyone.
Keith Thomas
Date: Sat, January 12, 2002, 16:54:20
Posted by: Gina, Peace in iPod Mountain
yes, happy Don day indeed ...
something Don-nish ... Big Band music. Emiel van Egdom (www.emielvanegdom.com, Bob Sheppard, Eric Gale, Bob Militello (Brubeck) and others are present in a delightful way on his CD's), a dutch guitarist and among many other talents, a multiple wizard when it comes to computers (he showed me the Mac ropes so it convinced me to discard the "Microsob Windoze") something he picked up when studying at Berklee more than 20 years ago because they knew computers were destined to be THE tools for musicians in the future ... to catch a breath ... a friend of John Beasley and living just a stones' throw away from my place, well, he has this great trumpeter over for a few days and i met the man, an American from Memphis and Chicago who lives in the Netherlands ... mr. Charles Green who played with Dexter Gordon and numerous others from the "olden" days .. Charles Green is one of the main forces in the Fra Fra Big Band, a big band of many sounds, it blends jazz and rhythms, percussion in a way it spices up even the most boring thing one can think of.
Suriname is a former dutch colony and the music shows all kinds of influences, latin, caribbean, african .. the bandmembers are as colorful as the music. americans, united kingdom, suriname, the netherlands.
Charles Green is the musical leader and director, one of the arrangers and writers. his compositions vary from intoxicating gently weeping willow trees ready to put you in a trance, to complex dialogues portraying what life brass can bring forth using man's ability to exhale used oxygen translating it into music. really great stuff. Big Bands like the Fra Fra which is originated from the Surinam language are a treat to the ears!
Lester Bowie played Green compositions.
Donald Fagen has a soft spot for big bands, right?
about Mac. that iPod thingie is something different for sure!
about Mac. their sense of humor and sense for shape and efficiency and logic is beyond discussion.
about Mac. it's not close to anything elite, because it enables a user to access anywhere the (creative) mind desires and GIVE access just the same. user friendly indeed, especially since i am not as deeply involved in the computer stuff and as ignorant as i was, using a Mac tuned into what works for me without the need to upgrade or rebuild or de-crash because of errors in a system beyond my ignorant control.
about Mac. it seems expensive, but any investment in one of their products NOW will certainly be overruled given a few years of stuff you have to buy to improve a pc, or take it to repairs and anything ...
who's talking money spent or wasted in nowadays society ... are we aware of what we waste each day ...
AARRGGHH. and that cuty iPod mp3 player/data host ... to be able to play a 1000 songs, shuffled or in random order ...
sorry for this Macarant.
it's inspiring stuff, really makes me feel part of an era embracing all kinds of ... it has freedom written all over it, doesn't it?
have a nice weekend, Danned & Steely Ones,
G.
Date: Fri, January 11, 2002, 23:47:42
Posted by: oleander, a dollar short
Happy birthday to Mr. Fagen, plus one. May the last couple of years be the dawn of a newly reproductive period.
Date: Fri, January 11, 2002, 17:46:20
Posted by: DrMu, Texas
Keith: Nightfly DVD-A would be fab. That and Katy are my favs...but TvN DVVD-A turrned up loud ROCKS! Wet drums revealed - sounds more and more like Plush - very Alive!
Date: Fri, January 11, 2002, 15:37:38
Posted by: Keith,
Any word on a DVD-A version of The Nightfly? Even a remasterd for conventional CD would be great. It's such a perfect album, better than Kamakiriad and Two Against Nature, if you ask me. Those two are so sterile and artificial sounding. At least 11 Tracks of Whack sounds real.
Keith
Date: Fri, January 11, 2002, 13:47:56
Posted by: Mr.Sticks,
Orange County fans, TONIGHT is your night to catch the slick sounds of Steely Fan Band LIVE! ! It's a tribute night to remember!Be at THE COACH HOUSE, one of OC'S premier concert venues, located in San Juan Capistrano at 8:00pm Friday, January 11! Admission is ONLY $8.00 and you get three of the greatest tributes around:
Highway 61 Revisited
Steely Fan Band
Led Zepland
A great night of music for everyone
Thanks
Mr.sticks
Steely Fan Band
Date: Thurs, January 10, 2002, 21:39:44
Posted by: Danfiend,
Happy Birthday Donald!
Infinite Thanks for the 30 years of unfathomably gorgeous music, and I'm looking forward to many more!
Who said your Birthday isn't a national holiday, I've been celebrating all week. Happy 54th, baby, and
many many more!
Love,
LaToya "Danfiend" B.
Date: Thurs, January 10, 2002, 18:47:35
Posted by: Michelle, Princeton, Jct, NJ
Hey everyone!
The New York Times article about Steely Dan's ex-manager is on the web too at: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/10/business/10MUSI.html It's funny for a business story.
Happy Birthday, Donald, You've got ME wild and I hope you can tell!!!!!
Wearing Ambush and a French Twist in honor of Donald's 54th.
Nitey!
Michelle,
Date: Thurs, January 10, 2002, 14:47:07
Posted by: Mr.Sticks,
LA fans, TONIGHT is your night to catch the slick sounds of Steely Fan Band LIVE! ! It's a Steely Fan Band dance party!Be at THE BARFLY, one of Hollywood's hippest night spots,at 9:30pm,Thursday January 10th! Be sure to mention at the door that you are there to see the band and you WILL GET IN FREE!
The address is 8730 West Sunset Blvd.
Thanks
Mr.sticks
Steely Fan Band
Date: Thurs, January 10, 2002, 14:18:54
Posted by: Cosmic WoW,
Happy Birthday, Donald. Thanks for the funked up music!
WoW
#############################################
Date: Thurs, January 10, 2002, 10:52:58
Posted by: The Loyal Dandom,
Happy 54th, Mr Fagen,
and many, many more.
Date: Thurs, January 10, 2002, 10:51:46
Posted by: hoops,
Steely Dan siting in today's New York Times. Irving Azoff is on the cover of the Business Section. It shows him standing in front of platinum records, including one for "Aja." Irving was SD's manager in the late 70s and was of course the founder and head of Giant Records until it was rolled into Warners last year.
The article talks about several power players in the Music business and how Azoff and others are trying to do that by offering full service management companies, blah, blah, blah.
It also talks about Azoff's legendary personality, like giving Joe Walsh a chainsaw as a gift so he could tear up hotel rooms and how he and "another artist" where they would watch Johnny Carson, and if they agreed that he looked thirsty, one or the other would pour a refreshing beverage into the TV: repeat until the TV explodes. Roger Ames, head of Warner Music group and an Azoff pal, says while a lot of people see him as "destructive," Ames thinks Azoff is pleasantly "mischievous." Also mentions how Azoff started at the University of Illinois (promoting REO and Dan Fogelberg) and actually he started at the Red Herring Coffee House where I used to have lunch a lot. Very humble, place in the basement of a Unitarian church.
Currently his roster includes Don Henley, Seal and Christine Aguilera.
Irving sounds like a fun guy. Would be cool to meet, methinks. Check out the article.
hoops
Date: Wed, January 09, 2002, 20:20:28
Posted by: oleander, you say it's your birthday
I'm celebrating his birthday with noise-free buzzers.
Thelonious, you are ON!! For ALL of it!! If you can make it from Whitefish I can make it from here!
Date: Wed, January 09, 2002, 17:56:30
Posted by: hoops,
Huh? Naked lesbians? Who's stealing my name to post about Donald's Birthday?
How about celebrating DF's birthday with a little music? Here's my pick of three tunes that somehow make me think of Donald Fagen:
* "Ruby, My Dear"— Monk
* "Audrey"— Brubeck & Desmond
* "In a Sentimental Mood"—Duke & Coltrane
Regarding information gathered when you post:
Most all web servers logs info on the IP number of the computer from which the web page (and each item on a page) is being viewed. They often also capture info on what browsers and computer type are being used to view. However, to tabulate and make sense of that info is very tedious, unless you have some analysis utility. Sorry, I'm too busy to mess with that.
On a practical, basis, really the only information I could reasonably take a look at is the IP number of the computer where a post was submitted, if there was a seriously compelling reason to check it out (like a serious threat of bodily harm.) For most all of you, this IP changes with a partial degree of randomness each time you dialup or boot your computer.
The dandom.com webserver doesn't gather email addresses from posts unless you deliberately include it when you post. You will probably remember that the idea behind furnishing the email address was so that you could be contacted if there was some question or concern about one of your posts. Without it, contact would be difficult.
A related concern are web spiders that harvest email addresses from pages for spam purposes. This page and others on dandom.com have this "leeches" feature embedded that is supposed to send such spiders off in to a land of bogus email addresses rather than grabbing your legitimate one. However, I have some questions about the effectiveness of the "leeches" feature. In the event you are concerned about this, but yet want to leave an email address with your post, feel free to add a bogus note to you address.
Example: instead of hoops@dandom.com, I might leave hoopsREMOVELETTERSIN CAPS@dandom.com.NOT I think you get the idea.
Also, this site does not use cookies. I don't like them and if for some unlikely reason it ever becomes necessary, I will announce it in advance.
There had been some requests to be able to add HTML hot linked URLs. That capability will be added on a trial basis next week.
Please, let me know if you have questions. Thanks for reading this since it's boring compared to talking about Steely Dan, music and humor. Also, thanks always for making the digest, the bluebook and dandom.com happen.
Great resolutions, Thelonious. I'm not big on the resolutions thing, but you make a great case for having them.
h
Date: Wed, January 09, 2002, 08:54:16
Posted by: Comic WoW,
Hi gang!
I'm celebrating Donald's birthday with plenty of java and some Chesterfield Kings.
Hoops: how about substituting Taliban wives for the lesbians?
Happy Birthday, Donald!
WoW!!!!!!
################################################3
Date: Wed, January 09, 2002, 00:28:14
Posted by: Thelonious, Mondo, Montana
Some of my Steely resolutions for the new year.
¥ To buy the new, new one the day it is released.
¥ To buy the new Donald Fagen solo album the day it is released.
¥ To be at as many of the 2002 Tour shows as possible.
¥ To catch the next New York Rock & Soul Revue Show when it happens.
¥ To see Mose Allison at a fine NYC Jazz Club and catch a glimpse of Donald across the room.
¥ To stay in better touch with the members of the clan of dan and be at another great party (like HofF week) with the people that share my flavor of dementia.
¥ To learn Tomorrow's Girls, Third World Man, and Only a Fool on guitar
¥ Pray for World Peace
Happy New Year everyone. See ya at the Gorge!
Date: Tues, January 08, 2002, 19:22:18
Posted by: Dave, The Mohel,
Donald's birthday? Already? Another year older? Then what could be next but another tour!??? Wishful thinking. National Holiday? No mail on Donald's birthday?
I vote for serving some good bagels, lox and black cherry soda. Then we could have some take out from Dean and Deluca's followed by a hearty, gulpy wine.
Sleep on beach and make it, throw down the jam until the girls say, "when."
Or, let's all drink Scotch whiskey all night long, but let's not die behind the wheel.
Happy 54!
Dave
Date: Tues, January 08, 2002, 19:22:03
Posted by: Dave, The Mohel,
Donald's birthday? Already? Another year older? Then what could be next but another tour!??? Wishful thinking. National Holiday? No mail on Donald's birthday?
I vote for serving some good bagels, lox and black cherry soda. Then we could have some take out from Dean and Deluca's followed by a hearty, gulpy wine.
Sleep on beach and make it, throw down the jam until the girls say, "when."
Or, let's all drink Scotch whiskey all night long, but let's not die behind the wheel.
Happy 54!
Dave
Date: Tues, January 08, 2002, 18:53:52
Posted by: gypsyqueeninafairytale,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY,DONALD!!!!
I've already been to Carolyn & Cynthia's sites,but thanks anyway.
Date: Tues, January 08, 2002, 18:32:37
Posted by: Michelle, Princeton Jct, NJ
Hey everyone!
You mean DF's B-day isn't a National Holiday?
I'm going to celebrate by wearing Ambush and a French Twist!
http://www.fragrancenet.com/cgi-bin/stock.pl?cmd=list&gvmi=W.AMBUSH
"Launched by the design house of Dana in 1955, AMBUSH is classified as a sharp, oriental, woody fragrance. This feminine scent possesses a blend of lavender, jasmine, oakmoss, sandalwood and patchouli. Accompanied by fruity notes of fresh citrus, melons, peaches and plums. It is recommended for daytime wear."
I say, BRING ON THE PATCHOULI!!!!!!
I'll pass on the lesbians, Hoops.
Nitey!
Michelle
Date: Tues, January 08, 2002, 17:50:26
Posted by: hoops, Chicago
I'm celebrating Donald's birthday by hiring a troupe of beautiful Lesbian nymphomaniac mimes to traipse naked through the Daley Center Plaza fountain, near the Picasso. Noon. Thursday. Be there. I'll eventually post an iMovie—someday—so those who couldn't be there, Donald included, could see it, assuming that interests anyone.
Speaking of Someday, I will post in a little bit about what is gathered when you post, which is next to nil, IMHO.
h
Date: Tues, January 08, 2002, 13:13:21
Posted by: Good King John, Erie, Penn.
Looks like the holidays are over. Lots of activity everywhere on the boards.
How does everyone plan to celebrate Donald's 54th birthday on Thursday? Should we bake a cake or higher an exotic dancer?
Also been meaning to ask what sort of information is collected about us when we post here on the Blue Book. I noticed all this profiling on the Yellow Pages, like it's guarded by the National Guard and has security check points Am I missing something or can all that info be somehow seen here too?
Just wondering.
Not a MAC fan. I am clearly a Dan Fan.
John
Date: Tues, January 08, 2002, 10:59:14
Posted by: Earl Reed, Delaware
CosmicWow,
Football players: "They call Alabama the Crimson Tide" is a reference in general to the dominant football teams from the 70's.
I don't know about baseball per se. I believe that the "amen corner" line in the song "Almost Gothic" has a dual reference to both religious settings as well as Augusta National. Amen corner is a famous stretch of holes at Augusta (10-12), where the Masters tourney is played. You can't win the tournament at those holes, but you sure can lose it there. "I'll just have to make it work somehow, I'm in the amen corner now" could definitely mean he's in a situation where he's gotta find a way just to get through his dilemma (wait out the storm), and not try to bite off more than he can chew. On 10-12 at Augusta, you take your pars and get out. If you get greedy on Sunday, you will probably end up out of contention.
But what do I know???
Earl
Date: Tues, January 08, 2002, 10:40:14
Posted by: Cosmic Whatevah,
Wow, Don't think I Agree comparing apple and Steely Dan is like comparing Apple and Oranges. Not even that. Both aren't fruits.
Date: Tues, January 08, 2002, 10:02:14
Posted by: Cosmic WoW,
Forgot
StevieDan, I'd make the gigs but I live too far away.
One more thing. I got the America: A tribute to Heros DVD and it's really good. Even stuff I normally hate is great. Stripped down. Makes the money pitches tolerable. Of course, if Steely were on it, it would be even better.
WoW
##########################################
Date: Tues, January 08, 2002, 09:56:59
Posted by: Cosmic Wow,
The new iMac is very cool. Now watch PC makers slap a flat panel on a box and say it is just as cool. It's just like people who say Steely Dan is Lite Jazz. I agree more than not: Apple and Steely Dan have a lot in common.
WoW
#############################################
Date: Mon, January 07, 2002, 20:37:38
Posted by: hoops,
Gypsy: Here's a few to get you started:
Patti Austin:
http://imusic.artistdirect.com/showcase/urban/pattiaustin.html
Carolyn Leonhart:
http://www.carolynleonhart.com
Cynthia Calhoun:
I geuss I don't expect or for that matter want them to be dishy or be so explicit about Walter and Donald are like to work with. My favorite creative people often have quirks that are maybe misundertstood in a negative light when discussed even though they are really not bad, and, professionals these people are, they are sure aren't going to kiss and tell. It's not like working with Elton John or Cher ;-)
Regarding Apple and Steely Dan: For starters: Sure, they are not identical in every way. BUT, I think both are committed to new technology, to a vision of perfect user/listener experience, that is beyond ordinary or "good enough." Same for BMWs and some other fine autos. That's a start about what I am talking about. Some people get it and for others, it goes over their heads which to them seems "elitist."
O. Thanks again for the VF stuff!!! 8-)
h
Date: Mon, January 07, 2002, 19:10:53
Posted by: gypsyqueeninafairytale,
I was wondering why I can't seem to find any interviews or comments from Michele Wiley,Carolyn Leonhart,Victoria Cave,Cynthia Calhoun,Clydie King,Venetta Fields,Sherlie Matthews,Lani Groves,Patti Austin(did i miss anyone),on how it was really like working with Don & Walt?I'm just curious.....I've read comments from male band members,but rarely from female vocalists.They don't have to tell us everything,but juicy tidbits would be nice.
Ayanna
Date: Mon, January 07, 2002, 15:51:36
Posted by: Dave,
I don't see any similarity between Apple and Steely Dan. Apple's computers are a lot of pretty fluff with no substance. Sounds like Britney Spears to me. Then there is Apple's high prices. Sounds like an Eagles ticket to me. A metsiye they t'aint. Kind of elitist, if you ask me. And Apple has computers for computer wimps, and we all know that Steely Dan have some of the beefiest chops in the music biz. You Mcintosh fans can keep'em. A deyge hobikh.
Elton John album? Phooey! How come no talk about the great Bob Dylan album? How about track six where Dylan sings about lusting for his cousin? How come no big stink? OK for Bob but not for Steely Dan? Go figure.
Dave
Date: Mon, January 07, 2002, 15:10:55
Posted by: Todd,
HOOPSIE!!!!
How's life in Chicago? Apple like Steely Dan? I "no-get" What, fans of both suffer from a persection complex???? Next time you talk to Elton, tell him to say Hi to Cher for me, LOL!
Todd
Date: Mon, January 07, 2002, 14:19:41
Posted by: hoops,
On the cover of "Time" (again).
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020114/cover.html
My only question: when do Walter and Donald get to be on the cover?
hoops
Date: Mon, January 07, 2002, 14:11:07
Posted by: hoops,
Yow! Have you checked out the new iMac intro'd today ( http://apple.com )
For all the reasons I love Apple I love Steely Dan. Perfection and grace. And I think they get ripped for a lot of the same reasons, on a certain level. Rave on!
Ole: Yow^2 !!!! Thanks oodles for the headsup on "Vanity Fair." I haven't been able to find it and I, like so many of us, live for this Dan stuff.
h
Date: Mon, January 07, 2002, 09:11:15
Posted by: Cosmic Wow,
Hi Gang.
"Glamour Profession" features a basketball player, right? Is there a Steely Dan song that features football or baseball players as characters?
Hoops: saw your post about Elton John on the Yellow Pages. I think EVERYTHING he has ever done is "crap", not just the past 25 years as EJ claims.
WoW
################################
Date: Mon, January 07, 2002, 01:14:03
Posted by: oleander, doo wopping
Peg--You make at least one Xmas song tolerable.
Hoops--Sorry, my telepathy was on the fritz and I couldn't get the whole message to you. Gotta talk to my TSP.
But here's the scoop:
The November Vanity Fair has a long article on the Brill Building era--"The Hit Factory," by David Kamp. Lots of short interviews and funny vignettes, including this one:
"But such triumphs as '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman' were by now infrequent for the old gang; the bloom was off. By the time two naive kids from Bard College named Walter Becker and Donald Fagen entered the Brill Building to sell their songs in 1969, the place was no longer the musical wonderland it had been at the beginning of the decade.
"WALTER BECKER, Steely Dan: You could tell already that this was something that was a bit down on its heels. The people we had contact with were clearly people who were proposing to make this sort of difficult transition from one pop-music era to another, and you could see how ridiculous it was, what they were trying to do. That reflected itself in all sorts of ways, including the way they looked and the cheesy musical stuff they were doing, trying to capture the psychedelic momentum of the day.
"Perhaps it was according to this logic that longhaired Becker and Fagen got staff jobs as songwriters for JATA Enterprises, the publishing company of the past-its-prime pop group Jay and the Americans, who also employed the duo as touring musicians.
"JAY BLACK, Jay and the Americans: We had these two kids sing some stuff for us, and they were so talented, I said, "Would you like to play for us?" And they worked for us. Now they're Steely Dan. So I wonder why they left--I was paying them a hundred dollars apiece!
"WALTER BECKER: The songs we had were utterly bizarre songs. There was no chance that anybody would record any of them. I remember us going down to Jeff Barry's office and playing a tune for him and, you know, having him get impatient before the chorus came in. He could tell pretty quickly that these weren't hit tunes. Jerry Leiber compared our music to German art music or something like that.
"Becker and Fagen proved to be the last great Brill Building songwriting team--in a delayed-reaction sort of way. In their year plus with JATA Enterprises, they managed to use the dilapidated old demo studio in the building to record 15 to 20 songs, a few of which would later emerge, in rerecorded form, as Steely Dan songs."
Copyright Vanity Fair, November 2001. Lots of cool photos, but none of the Duo. A don't-miss anyway.
Date: Sun, January 06, 2002, 19:21:38
Posted by: Mr.Sticks,
Happy New Year!If you have yet to see the Steely Fan Band perform LIVE...you have two chances THIS week!
THIS THURSDAY, January 10-The Barfly- presents:SFB Dance Party!
8730 West Sunset Blvd. -Cross Street is La Cienaga
West Hollywood,Ca.-9:30pm
This a FREE SHOW! Mention, at the door, your there to see the band and you get in free!!!
THIS FRIDAY, January 11-The Coach House-San Juan Capistrano-8:00pm
Performing Live:
Highway 61 Revisited
Steely Fan Band
Led Zepland
$8.00 at the door!! For 3 great tributes on one bill!!!!!
We look forward to seeing everyone at the shows!
Mr.Sticks
www.steelyfanband.com
Date: Sat, January 05, 2002, 21:01:32
Posted by: Dave,
Hi!
Yeah, the Grammys will be a huge snoozefest as usual, save for last year. I think the U2 song that did so well last year came out as a single in advance of the album. That's how it got to be elligible.
Anything on a broadcast of that event on Dec. 1 where Les Paul gave Don and Walt an award?
Date: Sat, January 05, 2002, 17:15:00
Posted by: R J,
Larry Carlton has been nominated for a Grammy. Don't think I will be watching since Steely Dan aren't up for anything.
Best Pop Instrumental Performance
"Room 335," Larry Carlton and Steve Lukather
"Reptile," Eric Clapton
"Short Circuit," Daft Punk
"Rain," Eric Johnson
"There You'll Be," Kirk Whalum
I thought that the U2 album had nominated tracks last year as well. How can they do that?
"Best Rap" ??????
R J
Date: Thurs, January 03, 2002, 19:59:27
Posted by: Gina, Sun Mountain
My best wishes to the Blue Book Danned and their patient loved ones for enduring the never ending anything tangentially Dan from breakfast til midnight snacks.Hoops, today i enter the world via an iMac and can't get enough of it, what endless possiblities!!!!!!
Did i hear RLJ being mentioned?
Off to be like a Macaroon in Steely Wonderland,
Gina
Date: Thurs, January 03, 2002, 19:09:15
Posted by: hoops,
Michelle: I think it's more like diffferent facets of getting the Dan. Some people just don't like them. Some of these include those who think "The Fez" is a serious Disco song with no humor. Then there are those who think Steely Dan is "pleasant," perfect for jaz radio and store music. Then there are those who get the musicianship and craft. And finally those who get the delightfully wicked satire of the Dan. I'm suspect there's a facet I'm missing and/or don't get. Some get all of it, some get some of it and some get none of it.
R J, Whatever: I missed the '96 shows that had "Major Dude." Bring it on, I say.
Facinating story about Rosie and Jeff Lynne and George Harrison.
Not worrying about Donald and Walter's hair,
Happy New Year,
hoops
Date: Thurs, January 03, 2002, 17:54:50
Posted by: Michelle, Princeton Jct., NJ
Hi everyone!
I found out today that one of my co-workers doesn't like Steely Dan. Getting them fired would be the best reaction. But instead, I blurted out, "You either get them or you don't. It's like Star Trek or a Robert Altman film."
I dunno. Does that make sense? Anyhow, it seemed cute at the moment.
I also didn't know Major Dude was played in 96. It must have been just for some shows.
Good night everyone!
Michelle
Date: Thurs, January 03, 2002, 12:56:58
Posted by: Whatevah happens,
R-J,
Any Major Dude was played on the '96 tour.
Date: Thurs, January 03, 2002, 12:32:06
Posted by: Cosmic Wow,
Good points, Oh Wow and Hoops. Je regrets my spin on things.
This is tangentially Steely Dan. I was reading the latest "Rolling Stone" which is devoted to George Harrison. Jeff Lynne talks about his last visit with George Harrison right before he died in L.A.. He says that he visited George with his girlfriend, Rosie Vela. Rosie surprised George and Jeff by bringing him a ukulele. Lynne played George some George Formby tunes on the ukulele. A very sweet thing of Jeff and Rosie to do.
I wonder if the Steely Dan and Rosie stay in touch.
WoW
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Date: Wed, January 02, 2002, 18:39:50
Posted by: R J,
Hola Dan Fans,
All the best to everyone in 2002. Amen on the album and tour. Methinks fall. 10 years since the New York Rock and Soul Revue. Maybe a tenth anniverdary tour WOULD be the thing to do, especially if there is no album.
Dave: Yeah, "The Fez" parodies Disco and K.C. was a prime example of generic Disco. But I don't think "The Fez" was a take off specifically on that K.C. Sunshine.
"Dr. Wu" and "Major Dude" would be great next tour. Don't get why no "Major Dude" on tour yet.
Be cool in 2002,
R J
Date: Wed, January 02, 2002, 18:39:02
Posted by: Michelle, Princeton Jct., NJ
Happy New Year everyeone!
Here's to 2002, Steely Dan, and a much better year than 2001. Next year at this time, I hope we are all reminiscing about the tour and new album in 2002. However, the last Steely newsletter makes it seem like that won't be for another year. Oh well!
See you later.
Michelle
Date: Wed, January 02, 2002, 12:18:34
Posted by: Ellen, Tararam, New York
I'm glad Donald and Walter don't wear their hair in a comb-over.
little e
December 2001 Guestbook Entries