Date: Tues, December 31, 2002, 14:46:10 ET
Posted by: W1P, LA

Have a Blue 2003 ya'all -- let's get ready to dissect the new release!

Date: Tues, December 31, 2002, 07:11:37 ET
Posted by: caller 9, hold the line

Thanks very much for the info. It's appreciated. I just wondered if this was what was left of the original, erased track, since we knew that it was wiped out for the most part and that it must have been more similar in structure to the demo version, like it is here, for the few bars we have anyway.

And thank you, Mr Hoops, for reproducing these articles for us.
Great Programme.

Date: Mon, December 30, 2002, 23:51:28 ET
Posted by: John Granatino,

To those who have asked about the 18-second segment ("Paging Rosemary Woods") of The Second Arrangement, I honestly can't remember where it came from. I am certain that I snagged it from somewhere else on the Web at the time (circa 1997) in my self-assigned role as "archivist."

I don't have any more of the song than that, sorry to say.

All the best,
John

Date: Mon, December 30, 2002, 15:48:05 ET
Posted by: h,

Steely Dan (Half of It, That Is) Strikes Back
by John Parcele
The New York Times
November 13, 1994

Fifteen years later, we find out who put the edge in Steely, Dan. It was Walter Becker, who played bass and guitar and left the lead vocals to his songwriting partner, Donald Fagen. On his first solo album 11 Tracks of Whack, Becker brings back everything fans cherished about Steely Dan: the desperate characters and elliptical narratives, the jazz harmonies and the ingeniously warped structure. And it turns out he has exactly the right voice for his own words: a groan that's jaded, long-suffering, cranky and shrewd. The first words Becker sings are "In case you are wondering, it's alive and well."

Becker is as much an oddball now as Steely Dan was during its million-selling rein in the 1970's. On seven remarkable albums from 1972 to 1979, Steely Dan perfected stealth pop: songs in which calm tempos and suave production cloaked unlikely musical twists and lyrics about topics like stock-market crashes, Puerto Rican immigration or the golden age of be-bop. Only Paul Simon, Randy Newman and the best Brazilian songwriters showed the same musical sophistication, while Steely Dan had a terse cynicism all its own: a fascination with sleaze and duplicity that was one part hipster slumming, two parts film noir.

The songs glided onto pop radio stations, and soon the musical surfaces of Steely Dan songs-the Ellingtonian chords, the urbane swagger-were imitated by hack songwriters and easy-listening pop-jazz groups. But few wanted to follow up on Steely Dan's lyrics or its sneakier musical ploys. The imitators merely created the dapper wardrobe, minus the switchblade in the inside pocket. Fagen has made two albums since Steely Dan dissolved in 1980: The Nightfly (1982), a fondly twisted reminiscence of the early 1960's, and Kamakiriad (1993), a loose travelogue. Becker produced albums, including Kamakiriad, before Steely Dan reunited for summer tours in 1993 and 1994; Fagen and Becker produced 11 Tracks of Whack together.

Steely Dan was precociously middle-aged. When its leaders were in their 20's, their lyrics scoffed at youthful passion, and their music had little use for rock's excesses, preferring the swing and tricky harmonies of be-bop and hard-bop. Becker, now in his 40's, is staring at actual middle age, and 11 Tracks of Whack, like Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years, applies singular musical ingenuity to visions of shrinking horizons and squandered opportunities. Steely Dan's snide intelligence has been fused with a sense of mortality.

Becker sings about junkies and cheating lovers, a space alien and a suicidal couch potato, old girlfriends and a spoiled son. Where Steely Dan usually kept a guarded distance from its characters, Becker shows some empathy. In "Junkie Girl," the narrator watches the hooker he loves die of an overdose; in "This Moody Bastard," a depressed loner obsesses over his long-gone college sweetheart. Becker is unsparing in "Cringemaker," a song about a "college belle" who became "the wife from hell"; after he wonders, with a sardonic female chorus, "Whatever happened to my ha-ha-yeah," he decides, "I guess we always knew ... who we would turn into." In "Hard Up Case," a bleak reggae march, the singer realizes his lover has given up on him and found another man, but he takes a parting shot: "Look at what you're dragging home—another hard-up case." There's no melodrama, but no detachment either; Becker's frazzled, cracking voice is quietly convincing.

Becker hasn't lost his sense of humor. In "Hat Too Flat," a sideways funk tune full of clattering cowbells and oblique guitar, the narrator is an extraterrestrial arrival from Arcturus who's trying to assimilate; he gets everything right except the language ("My English it is more better now") and the headgear. And "Little Kawai," a country waltz details a parent's half-hearted attempts to discipline a wayward son.

With Becker in charge, the songs move toward Steely Dan's jazzy side. Where Fagen relied on crisp keyboards, Becker features his own guitars, which make the arrangements slippery; notes hover and loop, buzz and tickle, as their sliding pitches reinforce the disorientation in the lyrics.

Naturally, Becker carries on Steely Dan's musical gamesmanship. Songs start in one key and end in another ("Cringemaker), bring in new material behind solos ("Book of Liars") and shift harmony from introduction to first verse ("My Waterloo"). In "Girlfriend," as the singer watches reruns, the song slouches down through chromatic harmonies; he wonders "Where does a guy like me fit in?" and is answered by a blurting bass-clarinet solo. "Lucky Henry," about a hobo's persistent reincarnation, meshes a sing-song melody with a double-time jazz vamp; "Surf and/or Die," about a hang-glider crash, floats glassy chords over an urgent riff.

Yet 11 Tracks of Whack doesn't hide behind its own craftiness. "I wear my heart on my sleeve/A sight you surely must have spied by now," Becker sings in "My Waterloo," and for all his self-consciousness, he means what he says. He's still smart, still a wise guy, still as cagey as any songwriter in pop. But now, he's also willing to show some bruises. He's older now; he doesn't have to worry about being cool.

---

Walter Becker, Whacked Out?
by Parke Puterbaugh,
Stereo Review
December 1994

Walter Becker, who has always been the non-singing member of Steely Dan, is making his debut as a vocalist in his mid-forties. But that's just part of the improbable appeal of his new solo album, 11 Tracks of Whack, which is uncompromisingly personal and serenely indifferent to prevailing commercial fashion. His voice won't make anybody forget Luther Vandross, his words meander from dead-on autobiography to cosmic metaphor, and the music vamps and grooves in a no-man's land between jazz, funk, and rock. But since I got this CD, I haven't been able to go a whole day without slapping the thing on and riding shotgun with Becker through his committed/detached, doped-up/rehabilitated, angry/indifferent, pop/anti-pop cruise through bad neighborhoods of the mind.

Drugs are a frequent topic here. Becker writes about addiction in the drily journalistic style of a William Burroughs, managing to come across as both an insider (who knows his way around the block) and a critic (who is not unscathed). In the album's opener, "Down In The Bottom," he lays his cards on the table from the first lines: "In case you're wondering it's alive and well/That little habit you left with me/How could you know that it would take me down/Down to the bottom of the wine-dark sea." This horrific tableau of a drug-wracked life is ironically sweetened by vibes, a bubbling bass line, and a comely melody. But relief pumped from a needle is ultimately self-destructive, and Becker makes that point, too, in his unsentimental but oddly affecting way. "Junkie Girl," for example, moves over the course of its verses from a commitment to stay with a junkie companion to a decision to leave.

In the album's larger story, related in cool and measured tones, the narrator stands indicted no less than any other character. In "Book of Liars"—a number whose powerful, pensive mood is heightened by a simple, repeated figure played on electric piano by Steely Dan partner Donald Fagen-Becker includes himself when he sings, "There's a star in the book of liars by your name." As a guitarist, he's a compulsive noodler, decorating the sleek, skeletal grooves with fluid runs rather than loading them with over-familiar riffs and progressions the way a more rock-oriented player would. But he doesn't allow craft alone to pass for content. The album is deliberately raw in places, from Becker's plainspoken voice on down to some of the sparse, boxy arrangements over which he declaims ("Surf and/or Die"). At the end, after eleven tracks of whack, Becker closes with a twelfth track, a disarmingly sweet ode to his son depicting familial domesticity in a series of vignettes that are as touching as they are amusing. And from there he seems to embark upon a new chapter, noticeably free of demons. If ever an artist has gotten his demons out of his system and onto a record, Walter Becker has done so on this endlessly intriguing, musically mesmerizing album.

 

---

Countown to Ecstasy
by Julian Moseley
The Guardian
September 21, 1994

Self-confessed Baby Boomer and British Steely Dan Fan Julian Moseley savors his favorite band live in Florida (The Guardian U.K. 9/21/94)

"Oh, no. Guadalajara won't do," bellowed the 30,000 in the ThunderDome, St. Petersburg, Florida, on Friday, August 19, 1994. "California, tumbles into the sea," they bayed. "Drink Scotch whisky all night long and die behind the wheel," they roared in empathy. I happily confess I was one of them. Dancing on the stepped floor of this huge indoor baseball pitch, hardly ever able to sit still in my very-comfortable-by-Wembley-Arena-standards, padded plastic reclining blue seat. The post-war baby boomers have had their kids and now we're back, Jack. Roll over Rolling Stones, there's a great new old band in town.

Couldn't believe my luck. There I was on holiday with the family, lying on the sand at St. Pete Beach, idly browsing through the evening paper when I read that Steely Dan—Steely fucking Dan, no less—were about to play their first concert in a month-long, 19-city tour about a mile away. My eldest daughter sportingly volunteered to baby-sit and off my wife and I went in the Dodge. By gum they do it right in America. Down the freeway, off at Exit 9, clearly marked ThunderDome, and there were men in luminous jackets with illuminated batons guiding you to the car park. Walked across the car park with every Dan track you can think of blaring from parked cars as the huge crowd slugged beer and got in the mood. And what an urbane, suave crowd they were, BMWs, Buicks and off-road vehicles everywhere. And yes, that unmistakable aroma of grass sneaking around as the setting sun turned the air gold. Up to the ticket counter and bought two of the best seats in the house, just like that. Off we went, found the entrance number, found the block, found the row, found the seat.

And there we were, surrounded by America in its thirties, twenties, forties and fifties wearing shorts and T-shirts, drinking beer, munching popcorn and dogs, whooping and yelling out song titles, and roaming ceaselessly in and out of the auditorium. Never have I seen such a movable crowd. Like a sequence from Koyanisqati, they wandered in and out throughout the concert without thought to the start or ending of songs. Apparently it's what American crowds do, regardless.

The stage looked like a spaceship hovering in front of us. We were stage leftest looking across the keyboards to the drum kit which must have had 20 cymbals. And just like that, they came on. Dennis Chambers on drums, Tom Barney on bass, Bill Ware on percussion, Warren Bernhardt on piano, Georg Wadenius on guitar. Three sax players including Cornelius Bumpus and three great backing singers, Catherine Russell, Brenda White-King and Diane Garisto. And Walter Becker. It occurred to me what a blindingly clever idea it is to get the best session players in the world to support you, once you've written the songs. You really can't go wrong.

They opened up with an instrumental I didn't recognize, followed by "The Fez" sounding warm and dangerous. And then guided by torchlight, wearing a white jacket, on came Donald Fagen. The audience went berserk, letting this man know exactly what his music has meant to them for the past 20 years. Fagen reeled in mock surprised, yelled, "Wow. Thank you," and proceeded to play "Aja," "Peg," "Josie," "Babylon Sisters," "Hey Nineteen"—which I decided then and there is my all-time favorite, "Third World Man," my real all-time favorite "Deacon Blues," "Tomorrow's Girls" and "Teahouse on the Tracks" off Kamakiriad. All sounding note for note like the records but brighter, fresher, sometimes slightly faster or slower or subtly rearranged like the gob-smacking moment when they halted "Kid Charlemagne" and all four saxes played a bridge sounding exactly like Glen Miller. Or when Fagen elaborated on his favourite type of tequila in time for us to roar back at him on cue. "The Cuervo Gold, the fine Columbian. Makes tonight a wonderful thing."

And what a wonderful thing it was. When I wasn't bellowing with delight, I sat with tears in my eyes as this timeless, bright, shiny music once again eased all the pain, and gave thanks for coincidences like tonight. But how do they do it? How on earth can they remember such complex music and play it so effortlessly? And when has a stadium-sized crowd ever sung along so wildly to such sophisticated music?

"My Old School" was the essential encore. I discovered I was involved in an impromptu dance routine with the guy next to me. We didn't care. My wife complained they didn't do "Rikki Don't Lose That Number." I got her a T-shirt with the lyrics printed on it to compensate. But they could have played for another three hours easily. Until dawn, preferably. There was no "Haitian Divorce," no "Here At The Western World." But there was an amazing "Bodhisattva," never one of my favourites, but what a rocker they made of it. A real stadium pleaser. And a great "F.M." "No static at all…eff emm," we howled. I saw Bruce Springsteen at the Hammersmith Odeon when he made it feel like West Side Story. I saw The Band rock Royal Albert Hall. And I helped organise the Who Live At Leeds.

But for me, none of them had the magic of Steely Dan at the ThunderDome, St. Petersburg, Florida. At the end, Becker said: "Thank you. We were a little worried playing live again and you made us feel real welcome. Florida has always played a special part in Dan fantasies."

Go back Jack and do it again, I say.

---

Jazz Infusion Takes Steely Dan Past Pop
by Mort Fega

A few weeks ago, I was sitting 10th row center on the floor of the Miami Arena, surrounded by a worshipfully rabid throng of Steely Dan fans. This was the fourth stop of an 18-city North American Tour, a sequel to last year's sold-out 25-city tour that heralded the first public performance in over 20 years by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, also known as Steely Dan.

What, you might ask, was a veteran jazz observer doing at a Steely Dan concert? After all, I'd attended the historic 1938 Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall concert; I was at The Newport Jazz Festival in 1956 when the Duke Ellington Orchestra and Paul Gonzalvez turned the crowd into one large undulation with their never-to-be-forgotten rendition of "Diminuendo And Chrescendo In Blue;" I'd even been privileged to emcee several times in the '60s at the same Newport Jazz Festival, where excitement and excellence of performance were commonplace.

The intervening years have been replete with many glorious experiences in jazz either as a producer, as a participant, or as an appreciative member of the audience. What, then, brought me to the Miami Arena this Sunday night?

About 10 years ago I learned that Becker and Fagen grew up listening to me on New York radio in the '60s when I was a late-nightjazz dee-jay. They were 12-or 13-year-old suburbanites staying up later than their parents would have preferred. Both say that my attitudes about jazz had a profound influence on their formative years in music, particularly jazz, about which I remain very pleased.

Steely Dan fans know how pervasive the jazz ingredient is in all their music. Their affection for, and devotion to jazz is demonstrated by the roster of jazz greats who have participated in their recordings over the past 22 years, players like Wayne Shorter, Victor Feldman, Tom Scott, Randy Brecker, Pete Christlieb, Larry Carlton, and Lee Ritenour. 'Nuff said?

After greeting the audience, Fagen introduced Roger Nichols, who was on-stage behind a sound console. Roger is the executive sound engineer for Steely Dan's fastidiously produced albums. He is probably the single most important member of the tour's company, overseeing the delivery of the optimum sound, which this night he did with stunning success. Dare we hope that Roger was also recording the performance for a future release? Amen!

Where to begin to describe the music of Steely Dan? It was, in Duke Ellington's words, "Beyond category." Any legitimate jazz aficionado would revel, as I did, in the excellence of music that came from the 10 players and three swinging backup singers. The singers added just the proper amount of body english making them as riveting to watch as they were to hear.

The cohesiveness of the music, arranged principally by Fagen, blew my mind. For over two hours these skilled musicians never let up, exchanging glances of encouragement and satisfaction among themselves. Backstage after the show, I told the highly respected jazz keyboardist Warren Bernhardt that I thought the evening's music was awesome, apologizing for using such a typically Valley Girl expression. Warren countered modestly, "Actually, it's still kind of rough. We've only been out four days…it'll get better."

Fagen's singing is the centerpiece of the program. When I asked him about his shyness onstage he said, "I am basically a shy person, but that's the dichotomy that you often find among creative people. When I feel that the audience is enjoying what we're doing, it gives me a good feeling, encourages me…like getting something back."

In spite of his shyness, Fagen exhibits a quiet, in charge assertiveness onstage, stemming, I'm sure, from his familiarity with and belief in the music that he and Walter created. The ensemble vocal sound that Donald and the backup singers produce is uniquely theirs, a signature. It's as though they aren't voices at all, but other orchestra instruments on whose sounds the words dwell.

I received an advance copy of Mel Torme's new book, My Singing Teachers, just moments before my conversation with Donald, and I told him that he had been named by Torme as one of the recent heavyweight composers, sharing honors with Henry Mancini, Michel Legrand, Stephen Sondheim. and Stevie Wonder, among others. This was the first he heard about it and Donald accepted such high praise with modesty, saying, "Gee, that's very nice of him."

Becker returned as Steely Dan's co-leader last year after embarking on a new career as a record producer when Steely Dan took a hiatus in the '80s. He was co-producer of Fagen's Grammy nominated solo album Kamakiriad. Onstage at the concert, Walter sang two songs from his first solo album, 11 Tracks of Whack, out September 27th on Giant Records.

Becker returned to performing because, as he expressed it, "at some point I decided that the artists I was producing were having all the fun and that the only way to continue was to become the artist myself."

When I told him that I didn't really know how to classify Steely Dan's music, Walter replied, profoundly, "I think that with the musical milieu we live in, when things get classified they're already starting to be tamed and dismissed."

---

Aside from above, what I believe to be "first-time-on-the-Internet" reprints, Dan fan John Granatino has lovingly transcribed some other issues of classic Metal Leg: they are archived at http://www.granatino.com/sdresource/mlintro.htm

And, of course, please note that Pete Fogel's Great Steely Dan website is at http://www.asan.com/users/petefogel/ and his place Le Bar Bat is at http://www.lebarbat.com Le Bar Bat has a fantastic evening planned for tomorrow night, New Year's Eve. Check out the Web Site for more info.

Date: Sat, December 28, 2002, 23:32:16 ET
Posted by: YoDudes, Duderotomy

Hi.

Nice to see so many Steely Dan fans here.

Any word on a tour?

I didn't get a Dandom email letter yesterday. Was there one? Actually, I want a Steely Dan email letter.

I was reading Penthouse and someone slipped in a page with a picture of Barney the Dinasaur. I'm shocked! I don't plan to sue, but want an apology. Here I thought these naked women were devilish and instead this pure image jumpes out. Halp!

Bye.

Date: Sat, December 28, 2002, 15:48:49 ET
Posted by: watermarks r us,

Plum - Caution -- you are in the process of busting one or more individuals in a very major way. Up to you.

Date: Sat, December 28, 2002, 15:20:58 ET
Posted by: Mike, Louisville, KY

Mandarin Plum: Whoa! You can't just throw that hat out and walk away. Outtakes? Sharon? Best of? Drop me an E-mail, we need to talk.

:-D

El Sup

Date: Sat, December 28, 2002, 14:33:24 ET
Posted by: J. Cricket,

M. Plum: 2vN outtakes? Don't we wish ;-)

Date: Fri, December 27, 2002, 18:44:32 ET
Posted by: hoops, chicago

Wonderwaif:
Oleander had some under certain terms and offers for a limited time a while back…don't know about her current terms…run on over to her site at http://home.earthlink.net/~oleander1/Index.htm (a really great site) and then you can get her preferred email address there to contact her.

Plum:
"Sharon?" Huh. Out takes?! Huh. Does SD know? For that matter, does Sharon know? Interesting. Never heard of it. Thanks for all the "Nightfly" details from circa 12.14.02

Schmoo:
1) Last we heard, they were still missing the masters from "Black Cow" and one or two others. I don't expect a DVD-A until they find'em. Have not heard if and when "Gaucho" will move beyond DTS 5.1. Is that linked to the DTS licensing of the album? Elephino.

2) Every Web server that I am aware of logs the IP number, the computer type and browser type, along with time and date. So the answer to your question is "yes AND no." You see, so much info is collected that is a pain in the ass to figure it out unless you have an analyzer for the logs files which I have not set up. Without the analyzer it's amazing tedious to review and interpret. Each individual view of the BlueBook adds something like six or seven entries to the log for the text, the graphics, the menu bar, etc. Put it to you this way, the logs for dandom.com this past year were about 3,500 TIMES the entire MB of all of the BlueBook posts for this past year. So yeah, your info could be gotten, but it's not kept "readily at hand" as with the app for the SIS GB. I don't know about daily hits per day either. Not a fan of those wacky counters. Hope that explains things, everyone can relax and drink Tang.

Another copy of "The Nightfly" DVD-A arrived today. Hmmmm…too much of a good thing?

Laters,

h

Date: Fri, December 27, 2002, 17:26:10 ET
Posted by: wonderwaif,

Happened upon this page in a futile search...does anyone happen to know where one might find a steely dan window sticker that one can put on their car? thanks!

Date: Fri, December 27, 2002, 16:13:08 ET
Posted by: Mandarin Plum,

I hope they include "Sharon" on the new one, that was definitely the best of the 2vN outtakes

Date: Fri, December 27, 2002, 07:08:49 ET
Posted by: caller 9, the crux of the biscuit

John Granatino, you have an 18-second arrangement of The Second Arrangement. Is there a longer version of that arrangement? And where does the .wav file come from? Quite a few people in Dandom would like to know about it, so an answer would be widely appreciated. Thank you.
And thanks for having put up your site in the first place. It was very informative and entertaining to go through the material, a true Steely Dan resource.

Date: Fri, December 27, 2002, 03:14:09 ET
Posted by: Lou Chang, Her brother

Hi John Granitino! I agree, the latter era Metal Leg stuff is good to see. Speaking of which, when are you going to update your site?

Hoops!!!! The Nightfly on Dts is great! 'IGY' means something much more to me now. WOW!

Date: Fri, December 27, 2002, 00:00:23 ET
Posted by: John Granatino,

Peaceful greetings of the season to all.

The prospect of a new year and new songs from Don and Walt have stirred me from my work-induced stupor. Cannot wait to see what they have to say!

All best,
John

P.S. Hoops, just catching up with the Blue Book after way too long and pleased to see the transcriptions of the later Metal Legs! Way to go!

Date: Thurs, December 26, 2002, 18:06:00 ET
Posted by: Michelle, Princeton Jct, NJ

Hi Everyone!

I don't get mad at people wishing me Merry Christmas. I just don't like that some people expect me to have certain ideas or intentions connected with what they are wishing me. But yeah yeah, peace on earth and good will to men and women/womyn! :-)

Let's forget this New Year's holiday business and get to the NEXT REAL HOLIDAY! The NEW STEELY DAN ALBUM DAY! YAaaaAAAyyyYYYYYY!!!!!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Mich

Date: Thurs, December 26, 2002, 14:35:53 ET
Posted by: Tom S., New Baltimore, Michigan

Count me in as eagerly awaiting another newsletter on the next album. Maybe new years day? steelydan.com is copyrighted 2003.

Happy Holidays!

Tom

Date: Wed, December 25, 2002, 17:06:43 ET
Posted by: hoops, chicago

I'm with you, Embarrassed Anon. LOL I was wondering the the same thing. Maybe a New Years Day surprise? Visions of Dan Sugar Plums dance in our heads. Will catch up with everyone later.

Merry Christmas!

h

Date: Wed, December 25, 2002, 17:00:28 ET
Posted by: Lou Chang, So Cal

We sail our ice cats on the frozen river
Some loser fires off a flare, amen
For seven seconds it's like Christmas day
And then it's dark again


Merry Christmas, all

Date: Wed, December 25, 2002, 16:58:05 ET
Posted by: Dave, (The Modest Modern Mohel)

Embarrassed Anon....not a bad dream and not an embarrassing thought. Quite excellent in fact.

We celebrate Christmas even though we're Jewish and we celebrate Halloween even though we're not Satan Worshippers, unless you count those times we play the plastic organ solo on Do It Again and all the Led Zepplin records backwards.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Dave, The Modest Modern Mohel

Date: Wed, December 25, 2002, 14:23:14 ET
Posted by: Embarrassed Anon,

After opening presents and shoveling snow and being awfully tired, I settled down for a long Christmas afternoon nap. Then about 20 minutes ago, I dreamed that Steely Dan Newsletter #20 or an SD.com site update was waiting for me under the proverbial tree. So I dashed outta bed and rang up the AOL to see what was the matter. Dash to my Email! Dash to my browser! Alas, there was no clatter. But at least I have pleasant dreams!

Merry Christmas everyone!

BTW: It's nice people are sensitive that they may not be Christians, but I wish EVERYONE prosperity and happiness that night overflow from Christmas. On behalf of myself and my Jewish dad, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Date: Tues, December 24, 2002, 22:51:25 ET
Posted by: Boston Rag,

Merry Christmas to all...and to all a goodnight!

Mark in Boston

Date: Tues, December 24, 2002, 16:08:16 ET
Posted by: Mr. LaPage, Not in the den

The fortune cookie msg could be from Lou Chang, her brother. She picked it up at Mr. Chow sometime between 6:05 pm and midnight, after the szechuan dumplings and the "deal". Outside the stadium, where the nights are not as bright as inside, she found that joy is complete after a thousand years roll by.

J.LaP.

Date: Tues, December 24, 2002, 14:42:54 ET
Posted by: Peg (yes it is my real name), neath mistletoe

A very merry to Hoopsie and to all fellow Dan Fans everywhere.

Well yes I wrote the second part of the Pretzels Roasting, but please don't hold it against me...songwriter's compulsion, 'twas what it was.

Smoochies.

Date: Tues, December 24, 2002, 12:09:45 ET
Posted by: HeyMike, These Suburban Streets

Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year Fellow Dan Heads!

Date: Tues, December 24, 2002, 10:36:25 ET
Posted by: Joe Schmoo, Schmoosville

Howdy! And Happy Holiday's to y'all!

That Pretzel Logic Roasting bit is funny. When did everyone write it?

Will Gaucho and Aja come out in DVD-A??? I'm waiting for my Nightfly DVD-A but it won't be here until Thursday at the earliest. Got it at Rhino.com

Can you guys see who I am? When I post at the yellow or the alt group, info about me is saved. Does that happen here?

Don't drink too much egg nog. Awww....hell....go ahead!

Joe

Date: Mon, December 23, 2002, 20:43:22 ET
Posted by: Sean, Quinzee

Merry Christmas, everyone.

See you in 2003.

Sean

Date: Mon, December 23, 2002, 17:43:20 ET
Posted by: hoops, chicago

Not sure if I will make it here again in the next few days, if not…Merry Christmas and all the rest.

From last year…

----------------------------------------------------------------

PRETZEL LOGIC ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIRE

"Pretzel logic roasting on an open fire
Jack of Speed nipping at your nose.
Scurvy songs being sung by a choir
Bare-m'driff'd 'neath the mistletoe.

Every Doctor knows
A Cuban breeze with Cuervo Gold
Helps to make the season bright.
Any major dude will tell ya it's true
We're gonna have a wing-ding tonight"

-Dandom Digest/BlueBook Danfans,
Dec. 2001 & Dec. 2002

----------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, December 23, 2002, 12:10:33 ET
Posted by: Rock the Nightfly,

Joe Strummer, lead singer for the Clash, is dead. There goes my hope for a duet on "Rock the Casbah" with Donald and Joe.

Date: Mon, December 23, 2002, 00:06:34 ET
Posted by: ,

our brain

Date: Mon, December 23, 2002, 00:05:00 ET
Posted by: µ,

I can confirm that The Nightfly DVD-A will play (and well) on my eMac with a combo drive (DVD and CDR, CDRW, CD-ROM). Just played the New Frontier Video - wow! The graphics for the songs come up, and if anything the controls are a little more flexible on the Mac DVD controller. Can anyone see rest of the fortune cookie message? "...oy is complete" can be made out...looks like "Joy" as in Where...Has to be, what else...certainly not Soy Boy or OY!


I'm guessing from DVD specs, but on a Mac or PC w/ a DVD drive of a DVD-V player, you're going to get the equivalent of the part of the information on a DVD-V that is dedicated to audio (losts will be for video which is storage "heavy."

Thus while DVD-A: 192K sampling, 4 Hz to 96 KHz, S/N 160 dB

The audio on a DVD-V player or Mac is DVD Linear Sound: 96K sampling 4 Hz to 44 KHz, S/N: 100 dB

Not quite the oomph of the same DVD-A on a DVD-A player, but it is still far better than a CD: 44.1K sampling 4 Hz to 20 KHz


The thing I love about DVD-A is how 'live' it sounds. When I play TvN or The Nightfly or the other 2 DVD-As I have, they just permeate the house without a lot of volume. The harmonics and richness are incredible. The one exception are the Wendel II drums on IGY and Green Flower Street. You can also hear every instrument - great spacing and this was an elegantly engineered album to begin with. The piano in the Maxine intro really does sound like like I have a Grand in the living room.

DVD-As seem to add that richness back, because they don't throw away thenatural "noise" that our ears are accustomed to when we listen to music. When someone blows on a trombone or hits a chord on a piano especially with the forte pedal down (a) you get harmonic frequencies at diminsihing magnitudes (sizes) as you move octaves away from the central frequency - CDs, especially early ones (like the original MCA masters of the Dan and Nightfly albums), didn't pick them up well - digital audio has it's early 80s roots in noise reduction design...and (b) the imperfections, impurities, and complexities of sound geometry and refraction, phase delays and all that crap create some "noise" that out brain accepts as a certain, and indeed critical part of the brass or grand piano or Stratavarius or the wood on an acoustic guitar or the physicality of a concert hall...DVD is especially good at picking up this stuff adding to the "realness" A pure note with no natural noise (not the random kind or pink kind) sounds weird to us

Date: Sun, December 22, 2002, 22:39:43 ET
Posted by: Kind of Blue Book,

There's a VH1 Storytellers DVD that has various artists, including Steely Dan on one track, Kid Charlemagne from the special. I don't see a version in European format though. Here's a link at the US Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0738921637/qid=1040614276/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/103-1736116-9335038?v=glance&s=dvd

The Nightfly DVD-A plays fine on my PC's DVD drive. Obviously, though, you don't get the DVD-A sound.

Heard David Essex's Rock On today. Haven't heard it in years. When I was a teen in 1973-1974, the eerie bass line, strings and and horns reminded me of Do It Again. For some reason, not being aware of Steely Dan back then, I thought it was the same band. The lyrics on Rock On aren't up to Dan standards but something about that sound is still pretty cool, 'specially on the bass line.

Date: Sun, December 22, 2002, 20:53:24 ET
Posted by: ed beatty, temecula

Boston Rag,
You can listen to this dvd(Nightfly) with your current configuration.

Ed Beatty

Date: Sun, December 22, 2002, 20:39:14 ET
Posted by: Boston Rag, DVD-A

I have a question about DVD-A. My DVD player is about 14 months old.
It has DTS Surround and Dolby Digital decoders built into it. Will I be able to play the new Nightfly DVD-A in 5:1 Surround or will I have to buy a new DVD player?

Merry Xmas to all!

Mark in Boston

Date: Sun, December 22, 2002, 10:53:53 ET
Posted by: Willem, Nederlands

Thank you for your reaction,

Here in the Netherlands in Europe it's difficult to get information about the Dan. I've seen them twice in my country because they did not came more to europe. does anybody know or they will be touring in 2003?

I'm a great fan of them and searching for DVD's of them except the DVD 2 against nature and aja. Are there more???

thank u all and have a nice X-mas.

Willem

Date: Sat, December 21, 2002, 21:59:27 ET
Posted by: µ, holy f*ck, that's great!

h: The Wells Fargo truck finally pulled up!

Nightfly DVD-A in stereo sounds amazing! (don't have the speakers for 5.1). It really opens up the record even more - like combining the sound of the vinyl Nightfly with the Dan re-masters, then a BIG B-12 booster shot...hearing stuff I had not or could not notice before. Rainey's bass on Green Flower Street is stunning...as with some DVDs, the disc is pre-set to play 5.1 unless you program using your TV/monitor and the "menu" button first. It is so way cool to see the New Frontier video triple entendre video again also - she IS a hot blond...I'm looking for the slide rule on that guy!!! LOL

Date: Fri, December 20, 2002, 21:56:57 ET
Posted by: John , Erie, PA

Hi!

With all this talk of the Nightfly, I thought of the New Frontier video.

Is it correct that there has never been a Steely Dan video? What about NY Rock and Soul?

There's only Donald Fagen videos.

New Frontier
Snowbound
Tomorrow's Girls

What others?

Haven't been able to find the Nightfly DVD yet.

Merry Christmas everybody!

John

Date: Fri, December 20, 2002, 18:34:22 ET
Posted by: kind of bluebook ,

hi willem

//THAT// CD is ALWAYS good to talk about...

Becker is referring to Mile's Davis, "Kind of Blue." Many feel it is one of the greatest jazz albums ever. It came out in 1959 and was remastred a few years ago.

Amazon.nl and Amazon.uk will take you to this link for Miles Davis Kind of Blue. There you can read about it:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000024F6G/qid=1040426920/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_3_1/202-2685569-7360652

This next link takes you to a book about Kind of Blue. Donald Fagen is even briefly quoted in this book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1862075417/qid=1040427039/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/202-2685569-7360652

The amazing thing is that Kind of Blue sold less than 500,000 copies prior to 1997. Because of various exposure, since 1997, it has sold another 1,500,000 copies!

It's a great CD, although I didn't like it for the first couple of years I had it. Then I discovered it and loved it! My fav jazz CD.

Date: Fri, December 20, 2002, 18:03:12 ET
Posted by: Willem, Molenaar

Watching the DVD 2 against nature i heard in one of the short interviews with donald and walter that they were talking about an album of the dan that i had never heard of. It's called:

The blue kind or
Kind of blue.

Has someone heard of it???

I'm from europe, so it is hard to get information about the Dan.

thank u.

greetings from europe, willem

Date: Fri, December 20, 2002, 13:53:27 ET
Posted by: h,

µ:
Kama came out in the USA on May 25, 1993. ( I had odd this habit of stuffing the receipt in the back of the CD jewel case black tray and I saw I bought mine at 12:06 am. LOL!)

In the event this helps anyone else who ordered "The Nightfly" DVD-A from J & R, I did catch a real person at J & R yesterday and they did misplace my back order for "The Nightfly." In the mean time, I was able to pick it up for $14.00, including tax, at a local store in Chicago.

As I've explained, my sound system is all discombobulated so I got a store to play it for me on their system. I also got a kick out of the menu featuring an animation of Donald's cigarette smoking, although the cigaratte smoke thing gets a bit overdone in terms of transitions in the menus, etc., IMHO.

(Remember when the mid 90s Simon and Garfunkel box came out and Paul Simon had the cigarette air-brushed out of a popular, old photo of the duo?)

Also is cool to read Donald's take on the album and each song in the paper booklet. At the same time, I prefer the liner notes in the last round of Steely Dan remasters because they were much more funny!

I do have some caveats that I am sure would be minute compared to the great experience of listening to "The Nightfly" in glorious DVD-Audio.

First of all , all three copies of the DVD-A at the store had the booklet assembled incorrectly with one set of pages stapled in upside down. All the pages are there—just have to rotate the booklet to read.

The second thing, and perhaps this is related to my player or myself rather than the DVD-A itself: I can't read along with the on-screen lyrics while I listen to the song. Accessing the lyrics stops the music. Maybe that is me or the player, but really, I just wish the paper booklet came with the lyrics.

Also each track displays an image on your TV set, although the video experience is optional. I liked the one for "I.G.Y" best—an Ike/Kennedy-era family peering at a giant portrait of US astronauts in front a of a backdrop of a TV dinner.

But overall, I have to pass on these new images. I think they would be great featured at sd.com but I don't need them while listening to these songs. And that's what's so great about DVD-A as a format. You can turn off the images.

I guess what is so powerful about "The Nightfly" (and all Steely Dan albums) is that the songs on their own evoke a lot of images, and I don't need images supplied. For me, that black and white cover photo of Donald in the DJ booth and that back photo of the NJ tract house creates the "mind settting," if you will and that's enough. Or maybe I don't like my own mental images challenged after 20 years of privately developing them on my own. Anywhoo...I will pass on the visuals and look forward to my next DVD-A experience of this one.

BTW: Even if you don't have a DVD-A player or system, but do have a DVD drive on your PowerBook or PC, I think you fellow die-hard SD fans still will want to get this, even though you can't experience the best sound of all of the features.

Simply my two piasters.

h

Date: Thurs, December 19, 2002, 21:13:18 ET
Posted by: µ aka cheap bastard ,

hoops: I placed the DVD-A order with J&R on 10/11 for $12.99 plus $2.95 first class air shipping...a steal...at the time, but then I had expected a November release date. Soooooooo, the goody pack was mailed on the 14th, but no sign yet...caught in the Holiday mailjam somewhere...can't reach J&R by phone - their customer service is in material breach...and I coulda had Brown 2nd day for just a few more bucks...waaaaaahhh!

I think Kama was released in June (at least that's when it showed up in Texas), maybe May, 1993...

Robert Klein was a "young" 40 at the end of 1980.

Date: Thurs, December 19, 2002, 18:16:33 ET
Posted by: hoops, chicago

Hey, I'm as sick as you of hearing how sick I am of saying I've been sick as of late. This week's feature is "Chest Congestion, The Epilogue." Cough. Cough.

Some comments but need to catch up on more since I was out of town for a few days and then coughing for a few more.

jk, others...great research.

To be the curmudgeon let me ask, wasn't "Kama" set to be released in February 1993? Then it slipped to something Memorial Day. Just playing Devil's advocate. But 2.19.02 would be sweet. That fits in with the "Piano Jazz" appearance, but who "nose." Speaking of nose (how's that for a lame segué? ), scratch and sniff "Nightfly"? LOL. Speaking of Segways, anyone in Dan Land own one?

Regarding the JVC multi-disc player, I too, (like µ) caught that J & R was offering at a dirt cheap price what seemed to be a multi-disc version of the same single disc version I bought in early November. So I was slightly bristling at having missed the multi-disc version of $40 more, especially since I have barely used the one I just bought. So now I feel better in a weird sorta way, that I DID get the single disc version.

Speaking of J & R, along with the DVD-A player, I also advanced ordered a DVD-A "Nightfly" last month. Mine STILL hasn't shown up, and, it turns out, they haven't shipped it. Now it's on back order! So I called and they apologized and put a rush on it, whatever the hell good that does. Tower and Virgin have it for about $20 with tax. I'm tempted to run to the Loop and pay the extra $5.

Thanks to Ed and everyone else for "The Nightfly" DVD-A color and thanks to everyone for The Next One posts.

Hi Peg, Sharke, Mike, LC, etc.

Now that I have had a chance to listen to Joni Mitchell's "Travelougue" a bit more, I will say that the highlights for me "Flat Tires," "God Must Be A Boogie Man," and a couple of others are great, better than even the peaks on her last album, "Both Sides Now," but overall, I definitely prefer "Both Sides Now."

Catch you sooner rather than later, I hope.

—h

Date: Thurs, December 19, 2002, 17:30:32 ET
Posted by: h,

This week's installment of the Classic Metal Leg outtakes series features two outtakes from two other sources: a brief intro from Meloday Maker dated December 20, 1980 as well as a transcript of the infamous Robert Klein Radio show with Donald and Walter from 22 years ago this past week. This in turn appeared in Metal Leg #26 from February 1995.

As always, it would be cool to hear what you think about all of this. Send your comments to digest@dandom.com or post'em at http://dandom.com/guestbook

Once again, muchos gratias to Pete Fogel and company.

---

The Robert Klein Radio Show
Air Date 12/14/80

"If you're looking for the 1980-81 Steely Dan tour, this is it. It was three-quarters of a mile long and they had one roadie—the cab driver that brought them here. " Robert Klein is warming up his audience of less than 200 invited guests in an RCA recording studio on West 44th. Klein is a hip young Jewish comedian who has a nationally syndicated weekly radio show on which he interviews pop stars of the day, features a little live music and cracks a joke a minute. Today he is taping a program and his guests are Walter Becker and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan. Klein, for all his smart asides, isn't kidding. This is the only public appearance Becker and Fagen will make in support of the new MCA album Gaucho. It is also the first public appearance they have made as a "group" since the original Steely Dan band played their final concert on July 4th, 1974, at the Santa Monica Civic Center. And they won't play a single note of music. On the tiny stage they share with Klein and three giant boom microphones, Becker and Fagen do not look like rock and rollers. They look even less like pop studio wizards who have made fortune on a seamless hit sound bringing together such strange bedfellows as Brill Building pop, harmonic post-bop jazz tangents, session men sheen, and cynically obscure lyrics disguised as haiku poetry. Slouched in his chair, Fagen sports his omnipresent aviator sunglasses, a severely short haircut, and a crooked, almost malevolent smile. Becker has brown hair snaking down to his waistline, his own pair of shades and a broken leg. Neither looks like he has seen sunlight in years…

ROBERT KLEIN- Welcome. We have a very special show tonight-only one guest, actually two guests from one outfit-Steely Dan is our guest tonight.

(Lots of applause)

RK- You're lucky to be listening because if you're looking for their '80-'81 tour, this is it. It was approximately three-quarter's of a mile long and there was only one roadie. A cab driver picked'em up. They don't like to tour much; it's a difficult thing with touring and boy, I'm glad I'm not a rock and roll promoter. Where's the roadies? Where's the equipment? What do you mean the roadie is in Seattle? Steely Dan have never had a platform collapse; they've never had a crowd attack the podium; they've never had a riot out in the hall. They like to take time with their music, but their influence is incredible. Will you welcome Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, who are Steely Dan.

(More wild applause)

RK- How do you like that? Since you fellas never face your public, this proves that people are listening.

WALTER BECKER- That's a helluva round of applause. We're just sitting here.

RK- This is quite a tour. All the roadies, all the hotels, gee, it's all taken care of.

WB- We've got a helluva band.

RK- How do you guys buck the system that way, Walter, I don't understand.

WB- We fired all the roadies and said we couldn't go. How can we go? We can't lift these things.

DONALD FAGEN- There's no organization.

RK- No organization. The Holiday Inns weren't booked, there weren't two cases of Wild Turkey and eight sets of cousins. When was the last time Steely Dan did tour?

DF- Our last show was July 4th, 1974-and a good show it was. We were really good by then. We decided to quit while we were ahead.

RK- Where was that?

DF- That was Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, near the beach there. They have a nice driveway.

RK- Was that during Pretzel Logic?

DF- Yeah, I remember hearing the promos as you drive in to town from the airport.

(Plays "Pretzel Logic").

RK- So you started writing songs at ABC and various rumors and press releases have it that you could be heard giggling and kidding around and actually used ABC time to practice Steely Dan licks. Don't you think you owe them something?

DF- That's not far from the truth. We used to write songs that were slated for the Grass Roots and Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds were another very audacious group of the time…

WB- Law firm.

RK- Were they bodacious, too?

DF- They were also bodacious and a law firm and they were also registered nurses. At any rate, we'd take some time off and start rehearsing our own band when people weren't looking.

RK- I'm sure they've done very well by you.

WB- We haven't been charged for rehearsal space for a long time.

DF- And if we did owe ABC something, we wouldn't know where to send it.

RK- How on earth did you have hit records with abstract lyrics?

WB- Payola. Technical term.

RK- Excellent relationships with disc jockeys, right? Took them out to Broadway shows and wined and dined them.

WB- Personally, we did that.

DF- It's true, we just took Cal Rudman to see Annie, a wonderful show.

RK- Paul Simon and his new movie One Trick Pony kind of satirizes Cal Rudman. Supposedly he's powerful in the record business and my first comedy album, Child Of The Fifties in 1973 took me there. It's good, the kid's got style.

DF- There was a good scene in that movie, I thought, where he has to play in front of a record exec and he keeps answering the phone during the song. We used to have experiences like that.

RK- If I may sketch a silly parallel between Steely Dan and myself, it's that we enjoy what we do on our own terms. The thing I get most out of your career is you do it on your own terms, meaning you take the time you need to make what you think is the best you can do and avoid the things that don't make any sense. Does that make any sense?

WB- It sure does. It makes a lot more sense than what we were doing before, which was doing it on someone else's terms. I think anybody would do that in any situation given the chance, but for some reason in rock and roll you're expected to go out and entertain. It's really if you want to be an entertainer or a performer.

DF- We're not really performers—we used to throw up a lot before the show. It was messy. It was odiferous. It's much better this way.

RK- In other words you don't like to go on there and twirl your guitar and have a laser effect and wear make—up like Kiss.

DF- No, we gave away the smoke bombs and July 5th, 1974 was the last smoke bomb I saw go off.

WB- That wasn't even our smoke bomb. That was the Doobie Brothers' smoke bomb.

DF- That was Mike McDonald's personal smoke bomb.

WB- That thing used to blow up every night. The next day, there it was, perfect.

RK- You never broke your instruments like Townshend and Entwistle?

WB- No. I almost broke my knee once trying to break my instrument. Sheer frustration. On time I did knock over an amplifier because of unsatisfactory failure to modulate amplitude on the part of the guitar player next to me. Big Marshall amp, it was so loud that I just wanted to stop it. And he kept playing and there was nothing there.

DF- You were testy that night.

WB- It was a tough night, it was in Houston. So what did he do? He kicked my amplifier over.

RK- Performing and recording are just two distinct and separate things, aren't they?

WB- Unless you record while you perform. We have done that.

RK- Which one was live?

WB- Well, none of 'em actually, but the single that's being released from this album…

RK- Gaucho is the new album…

WB- …the single will be "Hey Nineteen" and the flip side of that will be a live recording of "Bodhisattva" from…

DF- …June 3rd, 1974, which was our penultimate performance.

WB- Right.

DF- July 4th was our last performance.

WB- No, July 5th was our last performance. We had July 4th off.

DF- Is that true?

(Plays "Bodhisattva")

RK- One of the things I love about you is that the discography is heavy. The latest one is Gaucho—as usual a terrific cover—but what is it, seven, eight albums?

WB- How many you got? See if we put them out every three months, our career would have been over in January of 1972.

RK- Well, if you were Frank Zappa you would have done that.

DF- I'll trade you two Lothar and the Hand People albums for one of those.

WB- But there aren't two Lothar and the Hand People albums.

RK- I'm sure you must have taken a lot of flak for not touring…

DF- And shrapnel, too.

RK- …but up until this huge legal battle that you were engaged in involving MCA and ABC it seemed kinda smooth, but I guess you had to fight for that.

WB- Actually what happens, there are no huge legal battles. We finished the record and then something comes up, some legal issue and other people argue about it for a month and then we hide the tapes somewhere and they tell us its cool.

DF- This time we hire William Jenning Bryant as our attorney.

RK- The point is you thought it was in your best interest to have the record released by someone else?

WB- No, actually that wasn't the point. I don't know what the point was, I can't tell you. We just wanted to hand in the record and it's released, which is what happens.

RK- ABC isn't any more (a reference to ABC Records having been acquired by MCA).

WB- No, they sold out…we were traded for…

DF- Walter has a great slam-dunk and they wanted to make sure…

RK- But you just carry along doing what you're doing.

WB- As long as there's three letters on the label we don't care: ABC, MCA, WEA, KKK.

RK- It's hilarious to analyze lyrics, but some wonderful interviewer said that obviously I can figure out such and such is a parable for Puerto Rican immigrants, but I'm still trying to figure out what a monkey girl does all night in Denver. They don't give up.

WB- That guy wouldn't give up, no.

DF- They take it very seriously you know. It's like a major breakthrough if they can interpret a particular line.

RK- Without trying to be analytical, there's nothing more ludicrous than trying to pick apart your lyrics and find something that was really an impulse of a creative mind, but don't you see in it a sense of a kind of lesson but there are abstractions here that needn't be rationalized about what they mean but they're feelings, the sound of the syllables clicking together in that music that just makes it.

DF- Yeah, that's basically a good way to describe it, Bob.

WB- Yeah, discourages further inquiry, anyway. On the other hand, anything worthwhile is worth wondering about. People's inquiries are a sign by itself that they are affected by it. It's a good sign and I think it encourages people to listen to it more than once.

DF- On the other hand we wouldn't wanna give the impression that these are random lyrics. A lot of thought goes into it.

(Plays "Time Out Of Mind")

RK- Actually, Steely Dan is an implement in William Burroughs' Naked Lunch. It was interesting because Burroughs is from a wealthy family and he was so outrageous…

WB- He was kind of paid to be elsewhere, huh? Rather than the hometown. Pensioned off?

RK- Yeah, he was the heir of a huge fortune.

WB- Burroughs Adding Machine.

RK- Is it true that you live above or below Mitch Miller?

WB- Yeah, I live in the apartment below Mitch Miller.

RK- Mitch Miller used to head Columbia Records.

WB- I heard a thud last night. I'd like to get the apartment, right, and I figure if I hear the right thud I can just tunnel up and answer his calls and live there, too.

RK- I understand he really loves your music, but he asks you not to play at five in the morning.

WB- Yeah, that's true.

DF- We get all our ideas from Mitch. We have a little microphone that we've snaked up through the pipes and when he's practicing his oboe we just flip on the recorder.

WB- Actually he can't play the oboe any more.

DF- His beard grew up and into his mouth.

WB- It's an “in-growing” beard.

RK- Hey, you wrote the score or was it a tune for FM–a movie that didn't do too well.

DF- Just the title song.

RK- Does this interest you? It occurred to me that it's a natural direction for Steely Dan to do a film score. Does that interest you, Donald?

DF- Yeah, we've talked about it from time to time, but our experience with FM wasn't that good. It was like the Heaven's Gate of low-budget movies.

WB- Except it wouldn't go away. We were warned up front that this might not be Lawrence of Arabia. Just do your song and that's it.

RK- I think a lot of your music is very cinematic. It implies motion somehow.

DF- Are you saying that you see movies in your head when you listen to these records, Bob?

RK- Unfortunately, yes.

WB- Back screen projection.

RK- It's just that the music is so multi-layered. I think that's the essence of Steely Dan, it requires some attention from the listener.

WB- Actually, hopefully it doesn't because a lot of people listen to it in their car and we try to make it so that it'll sound good on that level, too.

RK- You guys are good, can you come on every week? We'll change your names. Ted Nugent's cousin is here. Anyway, I identified a lot with "Hey Nineteen." I'm also getting older and perspectives have to change otherwise criminal charges can be placed.

WB- If that's a hit record, it'll be because the 19-year-olds identify with it.

DF- We used to open for a lot of interesting groups, mid-'70s, Uriah Heep, groups like Rare Earth. A lot of the groups we opened for had different musical values than we did.

WB- I know you won't believe that.

RK- The only people I can think of in the business remotely like you—they're eclectic and original-is Gentle Giant. They experimented and took chances, they used to anyway.

DF- That's a new one on me, Bob.

WB- I thought that was a bear on a television show.

RK- English band, most of them conservatory—trained and they go their own way.

WB- That's probably why we haven't run into them. Where are they now? It's not necessary for two acts in concert to be the same but…

DF- If they are a creative group as you say, it's not surprising that we've never heard of them.

WB- It's an uphill fight and everything going against them. Probably blacklisted.

RK- Incidentally, I don't want to patronize, I think it was from the curriculum of one of America's finest music schools, I'll even mention it—Berklee. Are you aware, gentle- men, that you are the subject of a songwriting class?

DF- No, this is news to us.

RK- Well, you are and I'm calling the principal, Mr. Dugan, right now to see if you can pass your own test.

DF- There was a piano teacher there who was very good-jazz pianist and I remember I had a course with him and he had to leave-he got a good gig-he had a series of lessons he was supposed to give over a period of three or four months. But at the last moment he decided the gig was more important, so in one day he gave a three months' lesson. He was sitting there saying "now the function of the half diminished chord is..." He went through all of music history in three hours.

RK- A lot of this is purely subjective, for example, (reading from the class materials) "Steely Dan's 'The Royal Scam' provides an excellent example of the rhymes contribution to exposing the real form of a song." This is part of the curriculum. (Quotes opening lyrics then plays 'The Royal Scam.')

WB- Hey, is he making fun of us, or what?

RK- You don't put out an album every three months; you take your time about it. You use just the finest musicians available, if you look at the latest record you see different drummers on most of the cuts and each person you use for what they can do best. How dare you use such excellence?

DF- It costs us a pretty penny, too, I'd like to say.

RK- It also says that you are low-profile professionals quietly avoiding media personality mongering. I think that's an outrage.

WB- Sounds like the Mafia.

RK- Is there anyone else who approaches the recordings the way you do? You choose the personnel…

WB- Yes, it is actually common practice. Paul Simon does it. Groups like the Mamas and the Papas are obviously not a self-contained musical unit so they did the same thing we did and a lot of groups that were ostensibly self-contained like The Beatles did the same thing we did. We did it when we were ostensibly a self-contained group.

RK- Clearly there's no trade-off with strangers playing together, 'cause everyone sounds good.

WB- No, it works very well because the people that you hire to come in and make your record, that's the very thing they do for a living. Sounds good.

RK- Would you say that performing live in front of people is still something that you haven't changed your attitude about? I would think that Steely Dan fans would be among the most behaved in rock.

DF- Well, things have changed if that's the case. I remember some pretty rowdy audiences. Basically our attitude's still about the same. Neither of us like life on the road, the traveling and so on and since we don't have a band at this time, it would be very difficult to perform.

RK- You also used "bodacious." I looked it up in two or three dictionaries, it doesn't exist.

DF- You must know what “bodacious” means.

RK- I do in the slang way, but the title tune has the expression "bodacious cowboys." Isn't that your own word?

WB- Now it is. Yes, it's our word. We get royalties on the word?

RK- What does it mean?

WB- It's a type of cowboy.

(Plays "Gaucho")

DF- Wasn't "bodacious" an old Duke Ellington record.

(Plays "East St. Louis Toodle-OO.”)

RK- That was one of the few that you did that wasn't a Steely Dan composition.

WB- That was the whole few.

RK- Is it true on Gaucho an engineer erased a completed track?

WB- Not an engineer. Not any more. A busboy erased one of the tracks. Something like that happened, yes. It was the worst thing. It was complete. He was really embarrassed.

DF- His face was red.

WB- Beet red.

RK- So no touring, huh?

WB- Last time we tried we found we had made it so thoroughly impractical that we couldn't even rig it up if we wanted to.

RK- What do you mean? In terms of taking things with you?

WB- In other words it would have taken six months to rehearse a band to do a month's worth of concerts and even then it wouldn't have been what you expect to see at a concert, which is a band that have been playing together for some amount of time. There’s a time element—you just can't have guys reading music on stage.

RK- You simply didn't think you could got it the way you wanted it?

DF- Well, most popular artists, it's just a matter of course to go out and recreate their records. It's not like jazz, it's not an improvisational form really to any great extent and we're just not interested in reinterpreting or recreating every night what's on record. To keep ourselves interested we need new music. It's just not that exciting to us.

WB- This is better.

RK- You almost toured with Aja. What happened with that?

WB- As I say, we started, we had a couple rehearsals…

DF- Tell him about the escalating pay scale.

WB- We figured out who we wanted to go out on the road with us—mostly studio musicians-and everybody said “Well, I'd love to do it, but I'm gonna miss a lot of dates so I'm gonna need x-amount of dollars a night.” Everybody got what they wanted. First rehearsal there were three people there and they found out they were all getting different amounts—it was a keyboard section rehearsal-there was some unionizing going on, you know, and suddenly we felt like lawyers…

DF- One guy got up on a table with a sign.

WB- One of the guys said “I'm not gonna do this for $600 a night.” The other guy said “You're only getting $600 a night?” Donald and I excused ourselves, left the room and that was the end of the tour.

(Plays "Deacon Blues")

RK- Do you prefer living here in the east, New York?

DF- Well, we're basically city boys. I'm from Jersey and he's from…where are you from?

WB- East of Jersey, where it's all happening.

DF- East of Eden. Forest Hills.

RK- For a while you spent some time in L.A.

DF- Well, that's where the work was.

RK- I like California a lot.

WB- I don't like California at all.

RK- I think Yellowstone Park is really fantastic and I…*

DF- The tar pits are nice on a Sunday afternoon.

RK- I became acquainted with Steely Dan by listening to the radio and hearing wonderful songs like "Reelin' In The Years" initially and then "Rikki" and songs like that and every time I said “Yeah, I like this song, I like that song.” I'd then find out it was Steely Dan. That's how I found out I was a Steely Dan fan. On our stations across the country that carry The Robert Klein Show, some program a little more Carly Simon, some less, some none, some more Ted Nugent, some less, but they all program Steely Dan in a very big way. It's against all bets.

WB- Well, there are times when I hear our music on jazz stations, for example, that strikes me as remarkable, because it just isn't jazz. But other than that, now when I listen to the radio the format that they have seems to me they're playing the same record over and over again. A new album comes out, they play three of the ones from the new album. If it sells a lot they drop two, keep one.

RK- "Do It Again" is real close-if it isn't jazz, it's close. It's quite clear that you have listened to a lot of jazz and admire it, appreciate it. Isn't that so?

WB- That is so.

DF- We grew up listening to jazz radio which unfortunately no longer exists.

RK- Symphony Sid. Mort Fega.

WB- Why did he play all that Latin jazz?

RK- You didn't like that?

WB- No.

DF- He's known in some quarters as the “Jazz Trader,” because he started playing Latin music, but gotta give him the benefit of the doubt.

WB- He was playing a particular type of music, though, that was just as much as our music isn't jazz without arguing about definitions. No one would mistake it for jazz and no one would mistake Ray Barretto for the Miles Davis Quintet, unless he was playing with the Miles Davis Quintet.

RK- What kind of things do you listen to?

WB- Well, we listen to jazz. In good times when there's lots of interesting music on the radio and rock and roll stations—or some anyway—there are times anyway—maybe this isn’t one of them—but I listen to the radio.

RK- A trend towards less loud and mellow, or what?

WB- All kinds of things happen, it’s just a question of whether you like what’s going on now, if you like the new Diana Ross record that’s a hit now or if something interests you. At this particular moment, I must tell you, my clock radio’s just a clock.

RK- So it’s not thrilling you one way or another?

WB- No it’s not killing me.

RK- When are you guys gonna sell out and compromise? It’s getting me pissed off! You’re just doing your own thing. When are you gonna pay attention to some very nervous record executives and a soft market?

WB- What’s a soft market?

RK- Sounds awful, doesn’t it? It means it’s hard to sell records lately. Have you so far proved them wrong, that you don’t have to go out and tour and hype and promote hard and so on?

WB- We sell more records than we did when we were touring, if that proves anything. On the other hand, if we were to tour, we would sell more records still.

DF- So what we have here is some sort of oxymoron or paradox.

WB- I don’t think we have an oxymoron here.

RK- (Calling out) Dictionary, please. They never said, “You know” once. They never used the word “super.” On your income tax, do you put “rock and roll singer?”

DF- That's tough. People sometimes ask me what I do for a living and I'm really hard put to give them a good answer.

RK- You're not an entertainer as such, because you don’t go in front of people, but you're a musician/composer. Try that.

WB- Self-employed will do.

RK- Why don't you guys pep it up a little bit and go on the $20,000 Pyramid? Wouldn't you like to?

DF- Don't we get some sort of consolation prize tonight or what?

WB- I want the china with your picture on it that they get at the end of Hollywood Squares.

RK- We had a superb time tonight-Walter and Donald—speaking to Steely Dan and these are guys that like to write their own ticket. The new album is Gaucho and they have a saxophone on almost every cut. Both of you played sax, didn’t you?

DF- Yeah, we tried.

WB- Less, we played. More or Less. He had an alto, I had a tenor.

DF- Isn't it great to carry them around in those leather gig bags?

WB- He didn't have a gig bag, he had a trunk.

RK- Thank you very much, good night.

DF- It’s been a pleasure, Bob.

---

Metal Leg's introduction borrowed from David R. Fricke’s article, “By Their Own Rules,” which appeared in the December 20th, 1980 issue of Melody Maker.

---

Aside from these "first-time-on-the-Internet" reprints, Dan fan John Granatino has lovingly transcribed some other issues of classic Metal Leg: they are archived at http://www.granatino.com/sdresource/mlintro.htm

And, of course, please note that Pete Fogel's Great Steely Dan website is at http://www.asan.com/users/petefogel/ and his place Le Bar Bat is at http://www.lebarbat.com

Date: Thurs, December 19, 2002, 14:29:21 ET
Posted by: ,

"Sorry. Angel. You must take what YOU see" and put it on the piss pages.

Really, it's not any "incovenience" to check out the blue pages. To the contrary, it's quite pleasurable. But I WOULD call the piss pages "insufferable" at times.

Date: Wed, December 18, 2002, 23:21:59 ET
Posted by: µ,

m.e.: good heads-up. Main concern are complaints related to the transport system - skipping problems.

I have the less exciting, but more dependable single disc player: JVC XV-SA75GD:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005RI9K/qid=1040271488/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1_etk-electronics/104-6710159-2749526

Date: Wed, December 18, 2002, 22:22:52 ET
Posted by: moray eel, Buyer Beware

Some negative reviews of the JVC XV-FA95GD:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/electronics/B00005RI9O/customer-reviews/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/104-2859756-4254339

m.e.

Date: Wed, December 18, 2002, 22:08:02 ET
Posted by: ed beatty, Temecula

Hi,
I am also in reciept of the DVD-Audio version of the Nightfly and I'll
comment on that later.
The ending statement on the liner notes are very interesting as penned
by Donald.

"During the final mixdown of the album,I started to feel kinda funny,and that feeling turned into an even weirder feeling that had to do with work and love and the past and mortality and so forth.I wouldn't complete another CD until 1993.So I'm glad that I made The Nighfly before a lot of the kid-ness was beat the hell of me,as happens to us all

--Donald Fagen
Manhattan,September 2002

Get a DVD-AUDIO player

Ed

Date: Wed, December 18, 2002, 21:10:00 ET
Posted by: µ,

Lou: I'm salivating...while waiting for the Pony Express to change horses and finally get that freakin' DVD-A here, found a great deal ($159) at J&R for a 7 disc DVD changer that plays DVD-A, DVD-V, CDs, you name it:

http://www.jandr.com/JRProductPage.process?RestartFlow=t&Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=935&Product_Id=2007030&showcase=t

Date: Wed, December 18, 2002, 02:40:20 ET
Posted by: Lou Chang, So California

Hi all,

I'm new to posting on the blue, although I've been peeping in from time to time for years. I wrote a review for The Nightfly DVD-Audio board I thought I would share:

THE NIGHTFLY (DVD-Audio)
RELEASE DATE: 12/17/02
RATING: 5 (out of 5)

This is a great example of the way all DVD-A should be made, and what better choice than this classic from one-half the braintrust of Steely Dan. I was confident they would do a stellar job on this disc, what with master mixologist Elliot Scheiner (who did the 32-track mixdown on the original) at the helm.

Musically, every song is a gem. If you like Steely Dan you may like this even better. The songwriting here is a little more personal and sentimental, good things in this case. It feels like a concept album, with each song thematically linked. But the lyrics still ring of that irony, humor and literacy you expect from The Dan. Among my favorites are Green Flower Street, Maxine, The Nightfly and The Goodbye Look. Heck, I like ALL the songs on this one!

Sonically, what can I say? The 5.1 surround mix is just simply perfect for these songs. Every one. It opens them up and adds an airiness to the lushness of all the instruments. And what about those instruments, with incredible session players on board like Marcus Miller, Larry Carlton, Jeff Porcaro, Michael Brecker, Michael Omartian...the list goes on. The sample rate is 48/24, but take a listen and it's not missing a thing. This is the best sounding DVD-A I own, period. It has a real warm sound in stereo too (listen in All Stereo mode).

Each song has its own artful video still, with on-screen lyrics as an option. Select Main Menu and smoke rises from Donald's cigarette (Chesterfield Kings, oc). You also get the video of New Frontier as a extra, which is cool and funny and loungy. I can't say enough good things about this album and DVD-A. Get it!!!

Date: Tues, December 17, 2002, 17:43:31 ET
Posted by: jk,

i asked a guy at another japanese cd imoprt place for any info he had. he wrote:

HI

It has not the bonus tracks
As same as usa release

ohkura

Date: Tues, December 17, 2002, 16:01:11 ET
Posted by: sharkdeville, sedona, arizona

Here's Walter's quote about Christian:

"The history of the electric guitar as an important jazz voice certainly begins with Charlie Christian. Fundamentally a swing player, he is nevertheless often considered a proto-bopper of sorts. Indeed, many of the most admirable elements of bop musicality — the soaring excursions beyond the confines of the familiar, the joyous sense of real-time discovery and delight, and that wonderful combination of "freshness" and "rightness" that distinguishes the playing of the great early boppers — are present in abundance in his work. The originality of his conception, the hard-driving swinging qualities of his sinuous lines, and the perfect marriage of tone and content in his playing are, in my opinion, unmatched to this day. Charlie Christian is deservedly considered the most influential electric jazz guitarist of his or any time, and listening to his recordings is always a blast."
—Walter Becker (Steely Dan)

To hear what others had to say go to:
http://www.charlie-christian.com/testimonials.html

Date: Tues, December 17, 2002, 09:07:19 ET
Posted by: Mandarin Plum,

Yes, and my Japanese contacts tell me that their understanding is that the new SD album will be released in February, not just in Japan but in the USA as well! That WPCR label number definitely means it's The New One, as assigned by Warner Bros.

However, it should be noted that Japanese music Web sites are notorious for providing release dates prematurely, which then change often before it's actually released... But for now, it's Feb. 19.

Hey Peg, yes I did get the Charlie Christian, but not the boxed set. I saved some piasters by getting the single-CD sampler of the boxed set, which has the same liner notes by Walter. He basically just cited Charlie as a huge influence on his playing.

Date: Mon, December 16, 2002, 22:30:11 ET
Posted by: moray eel, North Side

Had a nightmare last night.

Donald was playing piano during a John Wayne concert. John Wayne singing. Donald on piano. That's it.

I couldn't decide if I wanted a copy of the show or not. Scary stuff.

m.e.

Date: Mon, December 16, 2002, 22:13:03 ET
Posted by: Peg,

Dave, your Blues remarks remind me of a cartoon I've had stuck near my piano for years: It depicts a living room in a mansion, chandelier, etc. A grand piano is there, and a man is sitting at it. His wife, seated nearby, says, "Why don't you plays some blues, darling?"
Hey did anybody know that Walter Becker is cited as one of the "Guitar Giants" who is giving a testimony on the new Boxed Set (4 CDs) collection of Charlie Christian's reissued recordings? Anybody out there hear what Walter says yet about the "Genius of the Electric Guitar"? I bought it as a gift for a friend so I will have to wait until he gets it open. On the box, it says others who talk about Charlie's genius include Wes Montgomery and many more.
February for ThE NeXt OnE? They have enough time to make it a scratch-and-sniff affair, I hope. Would the Surgeon General have to put a warning label on the sniffable Nightfly cover?

Date: Mon, December 16, 2002, 17:14:24 ET
Posted by: Michelle, Princeton Jct, NJ

That's is encouraging, JK! I'm sooooooo EXCITED!!!!!

Have a great week everyone!

Mich

Date: Mon, December 16, 2002, 15:41:19 ET
Posted by: jk,

if you go to the newmusicmachine.com site it says the new steely is coming out on feb. 19 03. the catolog # is wpcr11441. if you do a search for that # you get:

http://mediamax.sumiya.co.jp/music/popular/artist/WPCR-11441.asp

that confirms it is a warners release. warners would not put out one of those old boot /demos.

?

jk

Date: Mon, December 16, 2002, 13:16:41 ET
Posted by: jk,

NOTHING BUT YAMAHA SREV1 FOR SCHEINER AND STEELY DAN

—Engineer/Producer Talks Shop on Reverb and DM2000 at Yamaha AES Booth—

LOS ANGELES, CA (October 5, 2002)—If you haven't heard by now, Elliot Scheiner has a Yamaha DM2000 digital production console in the comfort of his very own studio. He'll be talking about his use of the console and the projects he's currently working on during the AES Show at the Yamaha booth (#1401) on Saturday, October 5th between 1:00 – 3:00 PM and again on Sunday, October 6th between 1:00 – 3:00 PM.

The five-time GRAMMY winner, producer and engineer has also been a long-time advocate of the Yamaha SREV1 digital audio reverb, which he used exclusively on the new Steely Dan album, set to be released in 2003. "We were looking to get the plate sound we had on earlier Steely records for this CD," he states. "We brought the SREV1 into the studio, and after Walter and Donald listened to it with me, we continued to use it for the entire project. It's outstanding…we didn't need to use any other reverb at all, that was it.

"I'd use the SREV just for the 140 sound," Scheiner continues. "If I closed my eyes and hadn't known it was a digital reverb, I would have thought it was an old 140. "I'm amazed at the sound of this reverb; it has the best plate sound I've heard in 25 years."

As for the reverb's pre-delays; on one of the new Steely tracks, Walter [Becker] and Scheiner were attempting to get an analog sound. "I thought I'd put in a pre-delay using an analog tape machine," he explains, "but when it was all said and done, the pre-delays within the SREV1 itself sounded better than the analog delays. The quality was phenomenal."

Scheiner is currently putting the finishing touches on the new Steely Dan CD, and is busy working on a host of new projects using his DM2000-equipped studio, Sear Sound. First up is an REM 5.1 project, followed by the Allman Brothers' Live from the Fillmore, followed by a new album for Olivia Newton-John, and a Derek & the Dominos project. "I'm more amazed with the DM2000 now than I was six months ago," he says. "The quality of the mixes coming out is greater than I ever imagined—both in stereo and 5.1. I recently did a Christmas record with Steve Lukather and a bunch of his friends for Bop City Records, a new label that Al Schmidt, Ed Cherney and I started. 'Luk said it was one of the best sounding records he's ever made."

For more information on the SREV1 and DM2000, visit Yamaha at the 113th Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention, Los Angeles Convention Center, Booth 1401; write Yamaha Corporation of America, Commercial Audio Systems Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; e-mail ; or visit www.yamaha.com/proaudio.

Date: Mon, December 16, 2002, 11:05:07 ET
Posted by: Dave,

Here's an oldie but a goodie someone just sent me again.

-----------

HOW TO SING THE BLUES: If you are new to Blues music, or like it but never really understood the why and wherefores, here are some very funnamennal rules:

1. Most Blues begin with: "Woke up this morning..."

2. "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line like, "I got a good woman, with the meanest face in town."

3. The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes - sort of: "Got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Yes, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher and she weigh 500 pound."

4. The Blues is not about choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch...ain't no way out.

5. Blues cars: Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or Sport Utility Vehicles. Most Blues transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft and state-sponsored motor pools ain't even in the running. Walkin' plays a major part in the Blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.

6. Teenagers can't sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. Adults sing the Blues. In Blues, "adulthood" means being old enough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.

7. Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or anywhere in Canada. Hard times in Minneapolis or Seattle is probably just clinical depression. Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Memphis, and Nawlins are still the best places to have the Blues. You cannot have the Blues in any place that don't get rain.

8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the Blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg 'cause you were skiing is not the Blues. Breaking your leg 'cause a alligator be chomping on it is.

9. You can't have no Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.

10. Good places for the Blues
a. highway
b. jailhouse
c. empty bed
d. bottom of a whiskey glass

11. Bad places for the Blues
a.Nordstrom's
b. gallery openings
c. Ivy League institutions
d. golf courses

12.No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, 'less you happen to be an old person, and you slept in it.

13. Do you have the right to sing the Blues?

Yes, if:

a. you're older than dirt
b. you're blind
c. you shot a man in Memphis
d. you can't be satisifed

No, if:

a. you have all your teeth
b. you were once blind but now can see
c. the man in Memphis lived
d. you have a 401K or trust fund

14. Blues is not a matter of color. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the Blues. Sonny Liston could have. Ugly white people also got a leg up on the Blues.

15. If you ask for water and your darlin' gives you gasoline, it's the Blues. Other acceptable Blues beverages are:

a. cheap wine
b. whiskey or bourbon
c. muddy water
d. black coffee

The following are NOT Blues beverages:

a. Perrier
b. Chardonnay
c. Snapple
d. . Slim Fast

16. If death occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die.

So are the electric chair, substance abuse and dying lonely on a broken-down cot. You can't have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or while getting liposuction.

17. Some Blues names for women:

a. Sadie
b. Big Mama
c. Bessie
d. Fat River Dumpling

18. Some Blues names for men:

a. Joe
b. Willie
c. Little Willie
d. Big Willie

19. Persons with names like Michelle, Amber, Jennifer, Debbie, and Heather can't sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

20. Blues Name Starter Kit

a. name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.)
b. first name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi, etc.)
c. last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)

For example: Blind Lime Jefferson, Pegleg Lemon Johnson or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Well, maybe not "Kiwi.")

21. I don't care how tragic your life is: if you own a computer, you cannot sing the blues, period. Sorry!!!!!

Date: Sun, December 15, 2002, 08:47:24 ET
Posted by: On Green Hornet Street,

If you //sniff// Donald's cigarette on the cover of The Nightfly DVD-A, you can //smell// the cigarette smoke. Gather your friends around and try it !!! Mmmmmm.... If you sniff the New Frontier Lyrics page, it smells like Ambush. My Nightfly DVD-A came with samples of Ambush and Tigress for my girl. Fabrege Xmas Gift set with pink faux fur French Twist included for her too! Smell the glove!

Be sure to order a copy of Sonny Rollins' Contemporary Leaders when you buy the Nightfly DVD-A, assuming you don't already have one.

Why do they make those DVD-A cases just enough bigger that they don't fit in my shelving unit???

Is there any word on an Aja DVD-A or SACD? Could they make a SCAD from those quadrophonic albums they had out in the 70s?

See ya!

Green Hornet

Date: Sat, December 14, 2002, 11:40:29 ET
Posted by: µ, Tejas

Plum: R&D mailed my copy of Nightfly DVD-A yesterday...I'm waiting by the door like anxious puppy - hey, shouldn't you spring for a DVD-A player? Hoops mentioned previously that the the price of the JVC XV SA75GD has dropped - I can attest that TvN sounds spectacular on it!!

Date: Sat, December 14, 2002, 10:05:57 ET
Posted by: Her brother, That's where you'd be if you found one....

....Mr.Plum! Thanks. Life is getting good again......

Date: Sat, December 14, 2002, 09:29:00 ET
Posted by: Mandarin Plum,

Not only is The Nightfly DVD-Audio not delayed, but I already received my copy yesterday, having pre-ordered it from Rhino directly. This is a great package, a must-have for all Dan fans. You don't need to have any elaborate 5.1-channel setup to enjoy it, though I'm sure it will sound wonderful in surround. I just have a basic DVD player hooked up to my TV, and if you pop this DVD-A in there, you can enjoy "watching" The Nightfly for the first time. They have some neat background graphics on the screen as each song is played, which Donald approved, and of course there is the bonus of the original New Frontier music video, the first video they ever did and probably the best. There are also new liner notes from Donald, with insights into each song. He mentions that Maxine was originally going to be titled Francine -- and that's the same Franny who later turned up in What a Shame About Me! The remastered stereo mix sounds fantastic, even just through my TV's speakers. My favorite background graphic is the one that appears when the titles menu is on the screen ... it shows the original cover graphic from the album, with Donald as the DJ with a cigarette in his hand, only this time the smoke is actually rising from his cigarette -- very cool effect! Go out and get it.

Date: Fri, December 13, 2002, 23:56:03 ET
Posted by: Mike, Louisville, KY

Hey,

I don't kow if anyone has thrown this out yet but the official site mentions The Nightfly DVD-A:

http://www.steelydan.com/nightf.html

Hopefully that indicates it will NOT be pushed back again.

El Sup

Date: Fri, December 13, 2002, 09:01:48 ET
Posted by: Randy, Northern NJ/USA

Steely-folk:

If there is anyone out there who has all of the live 2000 tour and/or studio rarity Steely Dan tracks which were on Andy Metzger's site, please e-mail me privately if you'd be willing to burn them in a trade arrangement; thanks in advance-

Randy
NIGHTFLY62@aol.com

Date: Thurs, December 12, 2002, 21:59:00 ET
Posted by: Santa Claus aka Hannah Klaus, waiting to be drunk on Christmas wine

* . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . *

Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho!!!!

That time of year again. Merry Christmas, Hanukkah (ok, it ended almost a week ago), Kwanzaa, <insert your favorite holiday here>!

All you Steely Dan fans are known for your impeccable taste in music, cars, romance and computers and more. A much smarter than average bunch.

But another thing I know about Steely Dan fans is that after they shell out those bucks, piasters shillings, shekels, etc, for that new CD burner or BMW or latest DTS 5.1 remaster for themselves, they are also a generous bunch with a big heart.

But you guys are also a busy bunch.

So that's why once again I am stopping by to "tickle" you--to remind you about doing that generous deed you were going to do when you were thinking of those kids and people who don't even have food or clothes or simple trinkets gifts under the tree, assuming they can afford a tree, let alone a PowerBook Titanium, a DVD-A system, the latest SD remasters, etc.

Knowing you generous Steely Dan fans, I know you want to give but may not know how. In case you're stuck for some ideas, once again, here's a few to get you started:

* Many large post-offices, especially like the main Post Offices in Manhattan and Downtown Chicago and L.A., have in their lobbies stacks of letters addressed to me (Santa) from kids who have very modest wishes for Christmas . I was looking at some of these letters this evening at a big urban post office--some of these kids just want boots (real ones for their feet and not of the 2000 tour) or coats for Christmas so they can be warm. I need your help. Maybe you can get to such a Post Office or maybe you can find an equivalent organization in your area. Grab a letter and buy that kid their gift.

* More modestly, you could find out if your local public library has all of Steely Dan's CDs available for check out. If not, you could buy a fresh set or donate your older 1993 remasters. (Of course you better check first--some librarians may not want Steely Dan in their offerings in their library . Please send me their names and I will leave these evil sons-of-bitches and bastards a truck load of coal in their parking lot this holiday season. )

* Maybe you could take some time out from chatting on the Blue Book, SIS GB, alt group, Dandom Digest, etc, to help out at a local soup kitchen or other charity. Or go visit a nursing home. I bet you'll find at least one jazzer who was really around to experience Miles or Charlie Parker or Coltrane (etc) first hand rather than through the CD shop at Borders like many of us. I'm sure they'd love to talk about it --or maybe not, but who knows. I do know they'd like a visit. They could use your attention (rather than some of the anon dorks who show up in some SD Internet venues) and maybe you could turn them on to Steely Dan, if they aren't already. Remember 80 year-old Maggi McCoy?

* Best Buy stores are accepting toys and other gift items on behalf of Toys for Tots through this Sunday, December 15. Maybe you can pick up a toy or two and drop them in the box near the entrance. Or maybe you have some never used toys around that you have never got around to getting a home for. Drop 'em off.

Hopefully, these are just a few ideas to get you going. You Dan fans are such a creative bunch so I sure you even have better ideas.

Of course, all of us Steely Dan fans--Santa included--know the secret self-benefit behind this: We may have to wait just a little while longer for the new Steely Dan album and tour but doing stuff like that suggested above can give you the same major equivalent buzz but NOW instead of later--spread the news!

Thanks for reading and to all and all the Dan Fans a good night.

Santa aka Hannah Klaus

* . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . *

Date: Thurs, December 12, 2002, 14:53:15 ET
Posted by: humbug, .

My guess - The 2/19/03 CD at the tower japan site will turn out to be one of the early demo bootlegs that end up getting distributed into the SD bins even at tower records. Wasn't one of the old demos called Undecided?

Date: Thurs, December 12, 2002, 06:34:10 ET
Posted by: norm,

h - have you ever seen http://www.engrish.com ? That quote you found belongs there. It's a great page, I especially love the Eric Crapton CD.

Date: Wed, December 11, 2002, 23:41:33 ET
Posted by: oleander, less than zeroh

M. Zeroh--Them's tantalizing words. But I find it hard to imagine a "lukewarm" album.

If anyone wants to ante up, i.e. throw a date into the betting pool for the Next One, check out which dates are taken at http://home.earthlink.net/~oleander1/nextpool.html and email me with your coin flip, Ouija message, insider scoop, or imaginative Japanese translation. There truly will be a worthy prize or two....

Date: Wed, December 11, 2002, 21:29:39 ET
Posted by: h,

BTW: The translation of the towerrecords.jp page is a real hoot. I quoteth:

"The genius chestnut thornback tar which represents the music * scene, 4 sections was awarded ?????? * Don's who consists of the ???? * ????? and the Walter * ????, ???? prize the new * album after " to * ?????? * nature " empty 3 years release decision. "

"This time the great guest wide participation schedule, being new century, never, such as him who does not have the fact that it fades the unique sound world being able to have enough you are not wrong! "

Not that I don't think this isn't a delightful clue!!!

h

Date: Wed, December 11, 2002, 21:26:40 ET
Posted by: hoops,

Well, that's pretty fascinationg with towerrecords.jp. Thanks VERY MUCH for posting that one, Lee.

Of course, I'm still waiting for my "Nightfly" DVD-A :-)

That's so nice of you all to send get well wishes, and yes, to those of you who wrote, I was just kidding about being phoned about the SD Newsletter #19. Now it SD was on love broadcast and you didn't call...;-)

Well, this is all tres exciting. I feel much better, thanks in part to this and that Elderberry extract.

h

Date: Wed, December 11, 2002, 21:12:51 ET
Posted by: Lee,

If you go to the following Alta Vista Babelfish translation page...

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish

And then under "translate a web page" enter ...

http://www.towerrecords.co.jp/sitemap/CSfCardMain.jsp?GOODS_NO=641285&GOODS_SORT_CD=101

and to the right of that, enter "Japanese to English", and then click "translate", you will find a surprise. While the photo of the CD is of the 2VN CD, also notice that at the top is the artist name: Steely Dan. Just below that is the title: "Undecided"!! To the right of the photo is the "sale day: 2003/02/19", i.e., February 19, 2003. To the right is mentioned "reservation acceptance". The verbiage below is confusing to say the least. But I note the following words: "the new * album after " and then the word "to", then some empty boxes, obviously a translation problem (against, maybe?), and then the word "nature". I can fathom the idea that the photo is of the latest they have (2VN) but this is the announcement of the upcoming unnamed (undecided, as it is written on the site) Steely Dan CD, the new album after Two Against Nature, that will be on sale February 19, 2003, which can be reserved now for future purchase on that date (maybe only to be reserved on that date). To further guess, note the words "empty 3 years release decision", which to me is referring to the fact that there will have been 3 years of no releases between 2VN and this new, unnamed Steely Dan CD. Furthermore, if you click on the artist name up top, you go to a page of Steely Dan releases. At the top is the listing "Undecided" with the same release date noted above and with the word "reservation" to the right. Just below is the listing for 2VN (it has to be so, listed second as the next latest, and 2VN is not listed further down the list), listed as the aforementioned "to" then 6 symbols and "nature", backing up my interpretation above.

I think this is it!! I am guessing that either we can order it in February or it will be out in February. And is it a coincidence that they are on the NPR radio show THIS FEBRUARY all of a sudden? I think not. That is the beginning of the PR push, in my mind at least.

Date: Wed, December 11, 2002, 20:50:08 ET
Posted by: hoops, chicago

Now the Classic Metal Leg outtakes series moves to Issue #26, from February 1995. Pete Fogel and Bill Pascador included a lot of great info on Walter Becker's new album, 11 Tracks of Whack—below is some of it.

Metal Leg's "I Got The News" update gave me a few chuckles. I got a kick on how we all expected what became Alive In America to be a double-album. It was also funny reading a blurb about the Digest and how to get online—via many defunct ISPs, not to mention that old funky URL that preceded today's http://dandom.com. Somethings have changed a lot and somethings stay more the same, LOL! I had also forgotten about that Sheryl Crow lyric.

Metal Leg Issue #26 was also dedicated to the memory of the late Steven Kranz who was a friend to Metal Leg as well as a huge early supporter of the Digest. Steven is still sorely missed.

This same issue also included the results of a circa-1994 joint "Fantasy Set List" poll for readers of Metal Leg and the Digest. It's fascinating to see what songs have yet to appear during subsequent Steely Dan shows, especially in the most requested tunes section. We'll have to formally conduct a similar poll again right after the first of the year. In the mean time, I hope you will pick this thread up here in the Digest and BlueBook.

Finally, I want to thank all of you who have written with private Emails appreciating these various reprints in the Dandom Digest and on the BlueBook. It's very kind of you, although fact is really get my jollies just revisiting all these classic stories and interviews. And on top of that, it's so humbling to be able to re-feature excerpts from the best Steely Dan fan entity (Metal Leg) that there's ever been. That's payoff enough. I would be tickled pink if these various interviews, outtakes and reprints stoked you into writing your own responses and commentaries for the Digest. Write'em and send'em to digest@dandom.com or post'em at http://dandom.com/guestbook

As always, merci beaucoups to Pete Fogel and company.

---

I Got The News

[Highlights]
Metal Leg #26

"Steely Dan's more sarcastic half emerges with his own caustic voice and songs that are as ingenious as they are cranky,…" was the blurb that New York Times music critic Jon Pareles wrote to describe 11 Tracks of Whack in his annual list of the top ten best albums of 1994. Now while Mr. Pareles' top ten list also included the bands Green Day, Hole, Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden, we're going to give him at least some credit for picking one album for grown-ups."

11 Tracks of Whack, or 11TOW, received universal critical acclaim upon its release with most reviews focusing in on "now we finally understand the role that Walter Becker played in Steely Dan." Now we don't completely understand what the critics meant by that, but we totally agree that 11TOW is superb. The CD with its wonderfully twisted lyrics set against incredibly cool grooves and musical changes has prompted many comments like "this album lives on my CD player," and "it keeps getting better and better with every listen."

11TOW has had some tough times fitting into the narrow radio station formats in today's U.S. marketplace. Nevertheless, songs from the album have received airplay by renegade Album Rock DJ's ignoring their program directors' playlists, College Radio DJ's with the freedom to play songs with the word "fuck" in them, and AM Talk Radio stations which played the song "Book of Liars" throughout the 1994 Congressional campaign.

And in New York City's hottest nightspot~ Le Bar Bat, 11TOW is played constantly between live music sets (Pete books the bands at the club!). An interesting observation is that when Walter's album is playing, the guys in the club continue to drink their beer and talk amongst themselves. The women, however, become entranced by the music and start grooving as if they're in their own little world. It's quite entertaining and it happens night after night.

Now, for those of you looking to buy a second copy of 11TOW, we now have an excuse and it's called "Medical Science," a 12th "Whack Track" which wasn't included on the Domestic release, but was included as track 13 on the CD released in Japan. The song is simply amazing and many people who got the import CD say it's their favorite track. Some of they lyrics are:

Ivory Eddie/Half dead already
But too dumb to lie down
or let a brother know
Trouble's cruising/Ed's still using
Never known for passing on a chance
to just say "Yo "
Nobody's gonna blame you
Scratch 'em right off that list
But medical science is helpless
Helpless in a case like this

You can get the Japanese import of 11TOW, catalog # BVCG-631 (Giant) for around $32 (depending on fluctuations in the Yen exchange rate) from your local specialty CD stores…

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The delayed Steely Dan Live Album is definitely going to happen. In fact, while you are reading this, Walter Becker and Roger Nichols will be in New York working with Donald on selecting the performances and mixing the tapes. The CD is tentatively scheduled for a mid to late-May [1995] release, so that should give you plenty of time to buy a new stereo for your home or mini-van.

Look for a double-CD set, with performances selected from both the 1993 and 1994 U.S. tours. Since they recorded over 1,100 tracks during the last two tours, it will be interesting to see which cities' performances are selected for which songs. Will they pick one of the Great Woods performances for "Hey Nineteen" to get the audiences reaction to "sweet things from Boston'?" Or the Shoreline Amphitheatre for "Babylon Sisters" and the "San Francisco show and tell"? Or any California performance for 'My Old School" and "California tumbles into the sea?"

Another interesting question is will Donald and Walter and Roger edit out all the people in the audience screaming out "Rikki," "The Boston Rag," "Dirty Work," "Kulee Baba," and "Brain Tap Shuffle" in between songs?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Back to last summer's tour [1994], it was another tremendous success as Becker and Fagen spent their third summer on the road. While fans in New York and Philadelphia kept asking themselves, "Why'd they dis us?", fans in British Columbia, Florida, Colorado and Washington who had said the same thing a year ago were finally visited by the Dan of Steel. And the lucky fans in the 10 states they played last year got a second helping. And, of course, Metal Leg Editor Pete Fogel was on the scene for many of the gigs.

Compared to last year, they replaced guitarist Drew Zingg with Georg Wadenius, and drummer Peter Erskine with Dennis Chambers. The rest of the band remained the same. They dropped "I.G.Y.," "Teahouse on the Tracks" and "Countermoon", "Book of Liars" and "Fall of '92". They added "Sign In Stranger," "Kid Charlemagne," "Down in the Bottom," "Hard Up Case" and the full version of "Aja." For the overture, they substituted "Parker's Band" and "The Fez" for "Bad Sneakers' and the instrumental version of "Aja." They also performed instrumental versions of "True Companion" and "Chain Lightning" for opening the second set instead of "Tuzz's Shadow." The encores remained the same with "My Old School" and "FM."

The biggest hit with the crowd was "Kid Charlemagne" by far. "Sign in Stranger" seemed to take the crowd by surprise and left them stunned by the end of the song.

Also compared to last year, Fagen grew a beard and Walter grew his hair back to rock star length. Becker's solo stuff sounded fantastic live and the "procession to the concession" was cut down dramatically. "Hard Up Case" sounded Steely all the way with born arrangements by Fagen. The sound of Walter's voice mixing together with the female backup vocalists was superb. The first-time cities provided the best audience responses, especially in Miami. In the other cities, the audience response was great, but not quite at the pandemonium levels achieved in '93

In the Drew versus Georg debate, there was a mixed response. Some people said they preferred Zingg's technically intense and showy playing style, while others said they preferred Wadenius' more laid-back, studio playing style which made the songs sound more like the original recordings.

The audience definitely took to Dennis Chambers' harder hitting playing style and really got into the great groove between Chambers and bassist Tom Barney. Becker and Fagen also seemed to be taken by the playing of Chambers, especially during his solo on "Josie."

All in all, it was another dream summer for Dan fans. Word around the campfire says the boys are probably going to take the next summer off, but 1996 is only a little more than a year away.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

As mentioned in a previous issue of Metal Leg there is a great deal of discussion and information about the Dan on the Internet, that highly-hyped "International Information Highway." While various on-line computer services offer "chat areas" and "bulletin boards" for Dan fans, the El Supremo source for computer-based Dan info on the Internet is the "Steely Fan Digest." This information service is based at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and operated by Arts and Multimedia Researcher Jim "hoops" McKay. The service was started about two years ago by Hoops! and cohorts. It has evolved to include members across the globe who interact via a daily electronic mail newsletter and a "World Wide Web" (WWW) hypermedia server.

Because the "Steely Fan Digest" and WWW server is based at a major university, the mission of the info service is to move beyond superficial "fan chat" and delve into in-depth discourse and conversation about the Dan's work. As one participant described it, "it's as if the service were an electronic coffee house dedicated to the Dan."

Recent discussion topics have included an in-depth analysis of "Dr. Wu," Walter and Don's songwriting technique, and the work of Larry Carlton. Of course, it isn't all quite as dry as it sounds: A healthy dose of Dan-inspired humor and fiction is also included. Of special note to Metal Leg readers is the new on-line comprehensive index of Metal Leg issues started by a "Steely Fan Digest" contributor, the late Steven Kranz. While it is not affiliated with Steely Dan nor "Metal Leg," the "Steely Fan Digest" is the perfect complement to these other two fine institutions.

The "Steely Fan Digest" and associated services are free. All you need is an account on some Internet mail service. Access to America Online, Prodigy, GEnie and Delphi, for example, will work. (Prodigy does charge for Internet service in some areas.) Many users connect via Internet connections provided at their workplace. To begin access to the "Steely Fan Digest" and World Wide Web server, simply send an electronic mail message to:jjmckay@uiuc.edu For those of you with World Wide Web access the experimental "Steely Fan" WWW site is located at: http://itchy.hrfs.uiuc.edu/dandom.html [Obviously this is now at http://dandom.com in 2002].

As everyone is hooking up to the information superhighway, Metal Leg can be reached via Internet as well at…

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

In Gary Katz news, he is currently producing a new acid jazz band from England called Raw Stylus. The members of the band are heavy-duty Dan fans and actually wrote a song called "37 Hours" which chronicles their whirlwind trip to the U.S. for the sole purpose of attending one of the Steely Dan concerts. Guitarist Elliot Randall and drummer Bernard Purdie play on their record. Gary Katz's production of the hip-hop, soul-jazz group Repercussions will be released on March 14th on Reprise Records. Repercussions played a live gig at New York's Le Bar Bat club in November and Gary Katz was one hand to check out the show. Another one of Gary's productions the acid jazz group Groove Collective is currently out on Reprise Records and is a great introduction into the world of acid jazz. The band also features the Steely Dan tour vibe player Bill Ware. All three of these Katz-produced bands are managed by Maurice Bernstein of the NYC-based company, Groove Academy.

At Katz & Fagen's River Sound studio, notable artists including Slash (of Guns 'n Roses), A Tribe Called Quest, Aerosmith, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have been reported to been working on various projects.

Drew Zingg, the Steely Dan'93 Tour-guitarist has landed a gig with a new Broadway musical featuring the music of Leiber and Stoller ("Ruby Baby"). The show's called Smokey Joe's Cafe and it starts in early March.

Donald Fagen attended this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction in New York. For everyone's information, Steely Dan becomes eligible for the Hall in 1997. Walter Becker attended the January NAMM convention in Los Angeles

And, in other trivia, rock-babe Sheryl "All I Wanna Do" Crow mentions the boys in a song from her popular debut album Tuesday Night Music Club called "The Na-Na Song." The lyrics are:

Steely Dan Rather be a hammer
than a nail
The Serbs, the Poles, and the
check's in the mail

The song is a rant about TV, politics, pop culture, and sexist men.

---

1994 Metal Leg/Steely Fan Digest Fantasy Set List Contest

Here's the composite fantasy Steely Dan concert set list which was tablulated from all the entries submitted by Metal Leg subscribers and the Internet's "Steely Fan Digest" bulletin. We'd like to thank everyone who participated in the contest and hope to do some more of these types of surveys in the future to get a better idea of the interests and preferences of the heavy-duty Dan Fan.

O V E R T U R E
Royal Scam
Rikki Don't Lose That Number
East St. Louis Toodle-Do

F I R S T . S E T
Black Friday
Bodhisattva
Home At Last
Reelin' In The Years
F.M.
Don't Take Me Alive
Hey Nineteen
Peg
Aja
Josie

I N T E R M I S S I O N

S E C O N D . S E T
Deacon Blues
Caves of Altamira
Do It Again
Bad Sneakers
Babylon Sisters
Haitian Divorce
Black Cow
Dr. Wu
Here At The Western World
Kid Charlemagne

E N C O R E S
My Old School
Pretzel Logic

TEN MOST REQUESTED TUNES

In tabulating your entries, we were able to compile a list of the top ten most -requested tunes that you wanted to hear live.

1. Kid Charlemagne
2. Aja
3. Bodhisattva
4. My Old School
5. Deacon Blues
6. Josie
7. Reelin' In The Years
8. Dr. Wu
9. Haitian Divorce
10. Hey Nineteen

 

---

Q&A with Walter Becker

The following Q&A with Walter Becker was compiled from various newspaper interviews which appeared across our fine country in September and August 1994 [in support of the release of 11 Tracks of Whack].

Q- Why did you decide to do a solo album after all these years?

A- I know it's a bit odd in some ways. I never felt any particular passion for doing it all the years we were doing Steely Dan records. That was a satisfactory outlet for me. I got to write and be co-author of these things without having any onerous duties like singing. It was only recently that I had the idea it would be a good time to do something like this. Producing Donald's "Kamakiriad" project actually put me back in that Steely Dan frame of mind. It was a bridge to connect up with my own experiences in the studio as an artist.

Q- What prompted you to write songs with such dire titles as "Down in the Bottom" or "Book of Liars" and lyrics such as "What ever happened to my college belle" When did she turn into the wife from hell?"

A- They seem like such cheery lyrics to me.

Q- Why did you put 12 songs on the record and call it 11 Tracks of Whack?

A- We noticed that, too.

Q- Was that a dig at Sting for putting I I songs on his last album and calling it 10 Summoner's Tales?

A- How was I supposed to know about Sting? They keep his records in a part of the store I don't like to go into.

Q- Did you try to make l1TOW sound like Steely Dan?

A- It wasn't either a goal or something to avoid. I figured inevitably there would be things reminiscent of Steely Dan and things that would be a contrast.

Q- What approach did you take in writing your new songs?

A- Most of the tracks are computer-based sequences. When we were making Steely Dan albums, that technology didn't really exist. In the old days, writing a song was sitting around the piano and plunkin' along. We would work separately, too, but when the actual songs were being written, it was the two of us back together, in the Tin Pan Alley scenario, flinging ideas back and forth. And nowadays, a groove or a track can be used as a sort of blueprint. I did almost all the writing myself. Writing without Donald, it would not be to my advantage to try and develop these really elaborate harmonic structures. I wanted the most direct, strongest and simplistic things I could write.

Q- What do you and Fagen each bring to the table when collaborating on songs?

A- I bring the food and Donald sets the table.

Q- How did you decide to take a whack at vocals this time around?

A- At first it was going to be instrumental. But I decided I needed to have some lyrics to be able to create the kind of interesting effects that I thought I could produce. It's hard with instrumental music to have the same kind of impact. At that point I was locked into singing. It was an exercise in self-reliance, and being able to work by myself and not having to rely on other people and their schedules. When Donald and I were first writing songs, we used to share leads. But when we got into the studio, I had trouble singing in tune. I have a low range; plus, I was smoking very heavily. At some point, you have to decide whether you're going to sing or smoke. I decided I was going to smoke. I didn't really have to invent a singing style out of whole cloth. Singing in concert last year taught me a lot, especially about my limitations as a singer. I was kind of lucky when it came time to sing on "11 Tracks" that, through the passage of time and from singing on tour last summer, my voice had kind of aged, it had a little bit of a sheen. It was kind of a ruin by the time I got around to singing these songs; it had a kind of falling-apart quality that is maybe interesting.

Q- Tell us about "Down in the Bottom."

A- "Down in the Bottom" kind of started off as my feeling about a certain guy that I know. He was having this relationship with a woman and he withheld some essential part of himself in a really obnoxious way. That song started from that and I just elaborated various other characters out of it.

Q- Tell us about "Surf and/or Die."

A- That was a song I wrote for a friend of ours in Hawaii who was killed in a hang-gliding accident. I had written this little poem about the immediate aftermath of something like that. How you're caught up in a mixture of the mundane things that need to be attended to; and this vast, yawning gap in your life where this person used to be. When this actually happened, they had a little service for this guy, where the Tibetan lama who lives in the town I live in, came and made a little speech…We later recorded with four lamas. We played the thing back and the pitch was right in tune with the track and it had a rhythmic relationship with the track as well. Like I say, I guess the evidence is there that I want to continue to write unusual songs.

Q- "Little Kawai" isn't something most people would expect from Walter Becker.

A- I liked the fact that the "Little Kawai" song, that's the last song in the world we would have written for or included on a Steely Dan album. I thought that putting it on would be a sort of test of courage. Besides, my wife and my kid (son Kawai) had heard it, and I felt I would gain brownie points from here to eternity if I put the thing on there.

Q- So what are you going to do after the tour?

A- I've been kind of stalling my wife on a couple of things. You know, that cabinet in the kitchen, the door is hanging by its last screw and the lawn is in kind of bad shape.

Q- Will there ever be a new Steely Dan studio album?

A- It's a thinking in our eyes at this point-and a slight additional bounce in our step. Of course you never know. It wouldn't be the first time we'd talked about something and not done it.

©1995 Pete Fogel and Bill Pascador. Reprinted here with kind permission.

---

Aside from these "first-time-on-the-Internet" reprints, Dan fan John Granatino has lovingly transcribed some other issues of classic Metal Leg: they are archived at http://www.granatino.com/sdresource/mlintro.htm

And, of course, please note that Pete Fogel's Great Steely Dan website is at http://www.asan.com/users/petefogel/ and his place Le Bar Bat is at http://www.lebarbat.com

Date: Tues, December 10, 2002, 21:24:07 ET
Posted by: Mr. LePage, I'm laughing, like always, and having fun!

It will soon be time to "break out the hats and hooters..."

"Who says today's a fun day"

"..on this glory day... it's the smile on my face"


JL

Date: Tues, December 10, 2002, 21:05:44 ET
Posted by: Vince, I still don't believe it but........

Zeroh....You made my day! Thanks!

Date: Tues, December 10, 2002, 20:01:10 ET
Posted by: Ground Zeroh,

Hello fellow fans.

I know a thing or two, a person or two. I hear things, or several things.

The prevailing wisdom is that if it is a good CD, then it'll come out sooner than later to get a good buzz going before the tour. If it is lukewarm, they'll put it out just before or during the tour.

Having heard a thing or two, I'll go with April 1.

Very good things to cum, kiddies!


Mr. Zeroh

Date: Tues, December 10, 2002, 10:51:16 ET
Posted by: Sean, Quinzee

Howdy Dan Fans;

Put me down for the April 1, 2003 as the release date, too. I can't imagine a better date. Of course, who said anything about a tour? What if they do what they did with the majority of their albums? I think they will tour but what if they don't?

Arvell Shaw, R.I.P.

Sean

Date: Tues, December 10, 2002, 09:21:18 ET
Posted by: heymike, these suburban streets

How about 03-03-03, might be too soon however!

Date: Tues, December 10, 2002, 04:14:02 ET
Posted by: W1P,

4/1/03 is my guess

Date: Tues, December 10, 2002, 01:13:07 ET
Posted by: tones,

Hank - Thanks for that heads-up on the McCartney sidebar. Of course! The single tracked bass & drums. How would Purdie explain that? Kinda makes me mad that he would dis Ringo all these years...

t

Date: Mon, December 09, 2002, 23:28:18 ET
Posted by: ed beatty, Home for once

Hoops,
You looked so comfortable finally getting to sleep so we decided not to wake you.

Ed

Date: Mon, December 09, 2002, 23:11:04 ET
Posted by: oleander, not counting down quite yet but

Vince--ah, but track records are made to be broken.

Hoops--well of course you can ante up too, but April Fool's is gone. Now rest up and don't you worry about hints and innuendo. Just let it wash over you.

Date: Mon, December 09, 2002, 22:05:57 ET
Posted by: Peg, still on ceiling

Hoopsie, I hope you're finally better soon. May I suggest Elderberry. Get the capsules. It really, really works.

Date: Mon, December 09, 2002, 22:01:26 ET
Posted by: Peg, ceiling

Okay, so I'm on a time delay...just found out...YEAH!

Oleander, I was going to guess May 6 of 03, but I'm in such a bliss of optimism at this point I think I'll guess Jan. 1 (just kidding).

Speaking of, I'd be interested to hear any guesses regarding 1. Form (which TV shows, if any, etc., such as PBS, network Morning shows; and/or slight 'surprise' visits in clubs..) and 2. Function (live music, interview, etc.) in which the Next OnE will be promoted?

Wherever is Mike and the other Danfest folks from Cincinnati? We need to plan a major wingding.

Date: Mon, December 09, 2002, 21:55:01 ET
Posted by: hoops, chicago

Well, my firends, been sick in bed most of the weekend, but now I come back and I have that warm tingly feeling all over—no not that one nor the one from the Vick's VapoRub, but rather that tingly feeling one gets at the thought of a new Steely Dan album. (How come no body called me at home to wake me from my Nyquil-induced slumber?)

Sure, this is sorta parallel in schedule to the realease of The New One, now also known as The Last One, but right about three years ago, a few days before Christmas, we started having the first leakage of "Cousing Dupree" in SF and Seattle. Maybe they aren't that far along? Maybe they have to get their hair redone.

What about the date? They can't do February 29, so I humbly suggest a release date of TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 2003. Yeah, that's what I would nominate for these jokesters' consideration. These winter cold and flu drugs do crazy thangs to ya. Will that be the release date? I dunno. Oh, I stil owe-O. "The Complete Steely Dan, Digitally Alphabetized By Title for the First Time." So I'm probably not elligible to compete. Then when the release date slips from April Fool's Day, they can issue a simply press release, that classic DF line, "See ya next year!" LOL.

I don't know if this all makes sense, it sure doesn't to me, but I hope by April I'll have money left after all these cases of Kleenex and Lemon Tea. Then I will buy a case of The Next One.

Danfests. Hey Ed, everyone, Yeah. Let's talk…

Nitey.

hoops

Date: Mon, December 09, 2002, 11:19:01 ET
Posted by: Matt, Chattanooga, Tn

In the background comes a booming rendition of Handel's Messiah, true and ccurate other than the use of saxaphones and a lydian scale bassed guitar solo.

See, this is the day I have waited so long...a day after a day after a day which will live in infamy...if this release can somehow make the year '03 match the year'00, my life will be the single greatest life ever lived by a man, woman, or child outside of the confines of several royal European houses, Biblical narrative, or the adult film industry. Mine time has come.

Ramblin' Matt

Date: Mon, December 09, 2002, 04:28:06 ET
Posted by: Jaco, UK

I think we should have the big Danfest in England....

....Right guys?





.............................................Guys?




Regards


Jaco

Date: Mon, December 09, 2002, 00:14:40 ET
Posted by: Vince, Brooklyn, NY

Ole- I'm keeping my guess at 5/28/05. I still don't believe it's coming out in '03. I been through this before. Track records don't lie.

Date: Sun, December 08, 2002, 23:20:20 ET
Posted by: ed beatty, home

Ok,
So there's one in the can.
Should there be the DANFEST TO END ALL DANFESTS IN THE YR 03?
Somewhere where we could all show up to.
Somewhere memorable or at the least if we all showed up it would be
just that memorable.
Something like a summer smoker just not underground.
Ideas,sugestions,comments,critiques,sarcasm all welcomed?


?

Ed Beatty

Date: Sun, December 08, 2002, 20:47:05 ET
Posted by: oleander, blissed out

Yowie!!!

O ye of little faith who chose '04 or '05 dates for the pool--you may wanna change those!!

Ha! Finite waiting! I can deal with that.

Date: Sun, December 08, 2002, 07:24:20 ET
Posted by: Kelly Dwyer, Chi

http://www.steelydan.com/

!!

TWO AGAINST NATURE, LOVE THIS GIG!!

Date: Sun, December 08, 2002, 02:18:57 ET
Posted by: ed beatty, home

Jim (not Hoops)
Contact me if your still interested in the topic as we discussed in August
I think we have reason to discuss (SEE ODP)

Ed B

Date: Sun, December 08, 2002, 02:16:15 ET
Posted by: Jaco, UK

Oh My! An updated site?


My stars!



*swoons*



Regards



Jaco

Date: Sun, December 08, 2002, 02:11:29 ET
Posted by: ed beattty, Home

Hey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See The ODP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess I'm a bit excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Is it too EARLY TO PLAN FOR THE TOUR??????


Ed (TOURING) Beatty

Date: Sun, December 08, 2002, 01:12:44 ET
Posted by: µ,

The CUBS WIN THE PENNANT!!!
The CUBS WIN THE PENNANT!!!


OK, just checking...

Date: Sun, December 08, 2002, 00:59:10 ET
Posted by: µ ,

ODP Alert!!!! ODP Alert!!!!!!

As the graphic comes up, note the soon to be hidden caption "the next one"

Date: Sat, December 07, 2002, 21:31:41 ET
Posted by: Hank Silvers,

The January 2003 issue of Modern Drummer magazine has a feature on Abe Laboriel Jr. -- you've heard Abe Sr. playing bass on New Frontier -- and a small sidebar on Abe's current boss, Paul McCartney.

During the interview, the topic of Bernard Purdie comes up, and Sir Paul gives the final word on the Hitmaker and the Fab Four. In short, it didn't happen. And, Paul reminds us, "I was there."

No online link to the interview, but it's on newsstands now...

Date: Sat, December 07, 2002, 11:52:59 ET
Posted by: StAlphonzo, Seattle, WA

Hey gang!

Distributed computing. Do you know about it? For those that don't -- a brief explanation. Distributed computing is a method of combining the unutilized power of PC's across the Internet in an effort to solve complex problems. The most popular example of this is the work done by SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). However, a much more practical use is to harness this power to solve the huge mathematical calculations done by the folks trying to find cures for Cancer, Diabetes, Genome mapping, etc.

To this end I've formed Team Steely Dan in an effort to help with cancer research. These teams have a webpage which shows their statistics in relation to other teams across the Internet, and can be a lot of fun for almost NO effort. After all, the average PC sits idle for 99% of the time it is on, and this includes when you're sitting in front of it. CPU's are totally underutilized and this is where distributed computing comes in.

So, why not do something more useful than posting to Internet forums and put you PC to work for a GREAT cause. Go here for more information. Join the team today! And don't worry. This isn't a way for the government to spy on you. Check out United Device's privacy statement if you're concerned.

http://www.banyantrees.net/cancer

StAl

Date: Fri, December 06, 2002, 18:40:15 ET
Posted by: hoops,

While sifting through my collection of SD clippings, I came across a really great interview with Walter Becker that appeared in the 7.27.2000 edition of the "Dallas Observer" right before the Dallas Steely Dan concert. The article is still on line. Below is its link, along with an excerpt to whet your appetite and goose you on to read the whole thing, in the unlikely event you haven't already.

"The Content Partners:
Any major dude will tell you a Steely Dan story is not to be trusted"
BY ROBERT WILONSKY

http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2000-07-27/music.html/1/index.html

Excerpt:

-----

(This is as good a time as any to point out that Walter Becker really was interviewed for this story, and he proved an amiable enough dude to answer any question asked of him, save for the one about his ill-fated marriages to Fiona Apple and Edie Brickell during the late 1980s. Some random answers are included forthwith, but it should be noted that their earnestness belies deep-rooted post-ironic irony, meaning they should be taken with a grain of sand. For example:

"Our songwriting is always a balancing act: Songs can't be too funny, they can't be too obscene, they can't be too nasty, they can't be too pretentious," Becker says. "We have to sort of try and juggle the different elements that we're using in the songs, and I think we've l;earned how to do that over the years so that the songs will sort of work on a bunch of different levels at once. You can listen to them one way and hear one thing, and you can listen to them one way and hear something different." If you know what this means, send your essay to The What the Hell is Walter Becker Talking About Contest? c/o "The Dallas Observer," 2130 Commerce St., Dallas TX 75201. Winners will receive a copy of Becker's novel "Expressions to Avoid During a Recording Session," which includes such chapters as "My Spirit's Already Sore From the Last Thirty Takes," "My Girlfriend Sings Great Backing Vocals," and "Play Something Paul Would Tell Linda To Play.")

-----

Anywhoo. I found it quite entertaining upon reading last night. Looking forward to hearing your own comments, assuming you didn't already make them back in 2000.

h

Date: Fri, December 06, 2002, 12:35:30 ET
Posted by: W1P, LA

As you all know (and I'm sure are quite sick of hearing about by now), we are soon to release our Pink Floyd compilation CD "A Fair Forgery of Pink Floyd" As part of our work, we have acquired a large number of other Pink Floyd tribute CDs just to keep abreast of the "competition." Much to my horror, in September a CD entitled "An All Star Lineup Performing the Songs of Pink Floyd" was released featuring 11 songs performed by some of the best musicians in the world. I acquired this CD hoping against hope that it would be bad. It's not. It's terrific. Why do I post something in the Blue and Yellow about the competition? Well because I know that many here are intense music fans and there are some tracks that ya'all might be interested in. Two in particular. Any Colour You Like, performed by Robben Ford, Tony Franklin, Aynsley Dunbar and Steve Porcaro, is a stunning take on this Floydian instrumental classic from The Dark Side of the Moon. Breathe (In The Air), performed by Robin McAuley, Skunk Baxter, Phil Soussan and Eric Singer, harkens back, to all things, Pearl of the Quarter and has a distinct and extended guitar solo that is well worth the price of admission. I don't want to pump up this project too much -- the other 9 songs also are terrific, although (in contrast to our project) the songs are all "hits" and confined to the same general genre. Anyway, if you are a Floyd fan and/or have a Floyd fan on your shopping list this is a unique gift that they will enjoy (and next year you can buy them "A Fair Forgery")

Date: Thurs, December 05, 2002, 18:35:55 ET
Posted by: hoops, sniffle, sniffle, cough, cough

Pete Fogel and Bill Pascador’s issues of Metal Leg included a news briefing. The following are a few excerpts from the April 1992 edition of Metal Leg. I hope these news bits might spark some discussion or add some perspective to some discussion topics that have appeared in the Dandom Digest or the BlueBook or both. Thanks, as always, to Swami Pete and Company.

---

I Got The News
April 1992

Donald's Solo Record

"I wish I could push out records quickly just to keep my career afloat, but I don’t know how. The only way I know is to let time pass and the record makes itself,” Donald told the "Independent" in late '91. Well, despite the drawn-out process, Fagen is moving along slowly, but surely on his record and we hear that the November ‘92 release date is still on schedule.

Fagen spent the entire month of February in Maui at Walter's studio working on the album and will return in April after a couple of appearances at Libby Titus' New York Nights showcases at the Lone Star Roadhouse in NYC at the beginning of that month.

So to bring everyone up to date on all we know about the record, we'll first start off with the players that have been in the sessions. Four drummers have been involved: Chris Parker, Denny McDermott, Buddy Williams and recently Leroy Clouden.

On bass, Zev Katz and Lincoln Schleifer were also in the studio. And on guitar, George Wadenius who played on "Century's End". We don't know who of these players will make the final mix but it looks like Walter Becker will be all over the record on bass and guitar. Fagen we know will be singing and playing the Fender Rhodes piano.

Fagen has said in recent interviews that his project could be considered a science fiction-rooted "concept album." Set in the near future, it follows a protagonist on his journey in an "environmentally correct steam-powered car that has a hydroponic farm in the back."

"I guess it has a social level on which you can take it," Fagen said of the album in a November 1991 "L.A." Times interview. “It's sort of a metaphor that can be seen on any number of different levels—as a personal life story, a cultural life story. It's like, 'What do you do with what you're given, and how do you transform it into something worthwhile?’ That's really what it's about."

The theme of the album is not really Sci-Fi, Fagen elaborated to Ken Sharp in “FMQB Magazine” in mid-February 1992. Sci-Fi is "rather a device in which to exploit other themes that I'm interested in. It has to do with life itself and the problems of being in the middle of life and looking ahead with a sense of mortality, which tends to be on your mind when you get into your forties as you'll unfortunately find out. (Ken is 28). I wanted to address that problem. To do it, I came up with an idea of someone who's on a journey, and the journey takes place several years in the future. That's what made me use a lot of Science-Fiction devices which I felt helped tell the story."

Although Fagen hasn't let on the working title for the album, three song titles from the album have been reported: "Snowbound", "Dunes", and "Tea House".

Walter Becker is still handling production duties with Roger Nichols at the controls.

Walter's Solo Record, Etc.

Although its release is even farther away than Fagen's new album, Walter Becker's debut solo album is in the early stages and is generating enthusiasm from those close to the project, including producer Donald Fagen.

Fagen told “Rolling Stone,” "I've heard some stuff that was just great. He's a totally original person, and the songs really express his personality. It's a kind of pop music, but very funny. It's really smart and witty, and I think it will do very well."

Ken Sharp, in his interview with Fagen brought up whether Walter was confident singing. "Well, you know I think this is more of a confidence problem because he's always had a great voice, but he’s never been very confident about it; but he's a great singer as I'm sure everyone will find out

For those of you who have the pre-Steely Dan demo album '"The Early Years", we believe that Walter sang the lead on "Mock Turtle Song," which is a pretty funny song-

In addition to working on his own stuff and Donald's record, Walter is producing jazz albums for Windham Hill and Triloka Records. Walter was hustling his Triloka projects on an interview on NY’s CD101.9-FM with D.J. Ray White. [A transcript of this interview appeared in the same April 1992 issue of Metal Leg, as well as in the Dandom Digest of November 16-22, 2002 and posted here on the BlueBook on November 21, 2002. ] Walter was accompanied by two of the artists he produced.

Pianist Andy Laverne whose recent release called "Pleasure Seekers"(Catalog #186) features Bob Sheppard on saxophone, clarinet and flutes, John Patitucci on acoustic and electric bass and Dave Weckl on drums.

LeeAnn Ledgerwood, also a pianist, was on-hand to promote her recent release "You Wish" (Catalog #187) which features Jeremy Steig on flute, Bill Evans on tenor & soprano saxophones, Eddie Gomez, Steve LaSpina on bass and Danny Gottlieb on drums.

Although, trumpeter/vocalist/keyboardist Jeff Beal didn't make the interview, his Becker-produced effort "Objects In The Min-or" (Catalog #189) features songs Beal composed on his Macintosh computer. Saxophonist Bob Sheppard, Paulinho DaCosta on percussion and guitarists Steve Cardenas and Danny Heine.

Upcoming 1992 Triloka/Becker albums are flutist Jeremy Steig's "Jigsaw" (Catalog # 190) to be released in early April (1992), and pianist David Kikoski's "Persistent Dreams" to be released in early May (1992).

In the fall, Becker will produce a second Andy Laverne release, and in the winter, Electric Wind Instrument (EWI) player, Steve Tavaglione.

In addition to all of the aforementioned projects, we discovered that Becker co-produced and mixed a 1991 jazz album by Maui's own Bob Bangerter. Called "Looking At The Bright Side", this guitarist’s album was discovered in a Maui record store and is not available in mainland stores. However, if you’re interested in buying a copy, you can write to his record label: Don't Stop Music, P.O. Box 423, Kula, Maui, Hawaii 96790. [Note: this address is over 10 years old and may no longer be current.]

Going back to Water Becker's work on Rickie Lee Jone's "Flying Cowboys", a song they co-wrote '"Me Horses" has been covered by a new Australian singer Daryl Braithwaite from his new release on Epic Records, "Higher Than Hope." Daryl has a great voice and did a beautiful job on the tune.

Speaking of Rickie Lee Jones, although Becker didn’t produce her latest album, "Pop Pop", her time with Becker certainly had an impact on her. To this day, she still quotes Beckerisms ("Use an accordian, go to jail") and lauds his studio skills ("He's really smart, and he has a lot of integrity").

Are You Talkin' To Me?

Donald Fagen, along with his other projects has been working on the soundtrack to an upcoming Robert DeNiro movie that's supposedly titled "Night and the City". Also working on the project is Jimmy Vivino, the frontman and guitarist for the Little Big Band.

Their job is to pick songs from a large record collection to go along with the different scenes in the movie. (Like "Gooffellas" used songs like "Layla"). The songs that Vivino and Fagen are picking from are classic Rock and Soul tunes and ifs easy to see how they got the gig. In addition to songs by die original artist, some songs will be re-worked by the NY

Rock and Soul Review including "Tell Mama" and "Wrap It Up", which will be sung by Catherine Russell.

Some Steely Dan songs might be included in the movie since Donald and Walter have agreed to offer their songs for consideration. A scene in the movie we’ve heard about has a girl going to a jukebox, putting in a quarter, and "Hey, Nineteen" starts blasting.

This wouldn't be the first time Steely Dan or Donald Fagen solo songs were used in movies. 'Me most notable songs and movies were: "F.M." from the opening and closing credits from the like-titled movie, "True Companion" from a taxi driver scene in the animated "Heavy Metal", and "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" in a lip-synched, off-key performance by a happy father in "Say Anything." The movie "Mask" with Cher also included some Dan tunes, and "Air America" with Mel Gibson included "Do It Again".

And finally, in director Savage Steve Holland's classic "One Crazy Summer", John Cusack plays Hoops McCann, the lead character, who incidentally, can't play basketball. No Dan tunes appear on the sound track, but Demi Moore/Willis does sing several songs in the movie.

©1992 Pete Fogel and Bill Pascador. Reprinted here with kind permission.

---

Aside from these "first-time-on-the-Internet" reprints, Dan fan John Granatino has lovingly transcribed some other issues of classic Metal Leg: they are archived at http://www.granatino.com/sdresource/mlintro.htm

And, of course, please note that Pete Fogel's Great Steely Dan website is at http://www.asan.com/users/petefogel/ and his place Le Bar Bat is at http://www.lebarbat.com

Date: Thurs, December 05, 2002, 16:52:08 ET
Posted by: h, and his remedies

Here's one from right after Two Against Nature came out and I haven't been able to find it on the web anywhere. Maybe this is a new one for you and it will stoke some new thoughts. I don't agree with everything this guy says, but overall it's pretty good.

---

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Sunday, March 5, 2000
Arts & Entertainment Section
Page 5F

CDs

"Two Against Nature"
Steely Dan/Giant Records

It's taken Donald Fagen and Walter Becker 20 Years to make another Steely Dan studio album, and two decades notwithstanding, it's as if they haven't skipped a beat. Amid the band's trademark pristine jazz-influenced pop formulations, it's not surprising to find lyrics that suggest the state of their art.

"The original classic thing — more of the same," Fagen sings in "Negative Girl," in "Gaslighting Abbie" he describes "the work itself, a mix of elegance and function."

Reforming to tour and release a live album over five years ago, Becker and Fagen haven't succumbed to the temptation to attempt a trend-driven effort.

In the sophisticated pop vein of "Aja," the band's strongest jazzy effort. "Two Against Nature" emphasizes the duo's soulful R&B smarts and crisp instrumental exchanges. Becker's guitar solos sparkle and shine, while Fagen drips cool in his biting vocal delivery.

As in the past, they find support in some of the best horn players and studio hounds in the business, all performing with a moving, soulful presence. Check out the amazing tenor sax solo by Chris Potter on "West of Hollywood."

People with the usual rough crowd — the dangerous woman of "Almost Gothic," the girl in danger of "Janie Runaway," the druggie of "Jack of Speed," and the incestuous "Cousin Dupree" — Steely Dan's cast of narcissists and philanderers are not to be pitied. They're best recognized sight and avoided. Lacking the timelessness of "Deacon Blues" and "Peg," and the poetic genius of "Home At Last," Fagen and Becker fail to match the power of "Aja," but over come the limp listlessness that dominated "Gaucho."

Still cool, but not too frosty, Steely Dan is resuscitated and vital again on "Two Against Nature."

—Brian Q. Newcomb

 

Date: Thurs, December 05, 2002, 09:20:25 ET
Posted by: Hutch, Snowbound in va.

norm - Agree on Brooklyn for sure. Love to hear that one live. I wonder if Jon Herington can play pedal steel. Beautiful chord progression and WB's bass playing is awesome on that cut.
Have they ever done Time Out of Mind live? That'd be a great set opener.

Date: Thurs, December 05, 2002, 01:37:58 ET
Posted by: Alan Lund, television city, ca

Joe! Let's hope "The Libster" spends a ton.....the more she spends....they more they NEED to tour!

Date: Wed, December 04, 2002, 19:47:29 ET
Posted by: gypsyqueeninafairytale,

Just Wondering-Well,I just LOVE the whole tune but there's that very special part of the song towards the end where Donald stops singing and its just music(keys,sax,drums,etc.)and its just beautiful.....DAMNIT!!!
I get lost in it.
Parts of it make me wanna cry and other parts make me wanna uh well...do something that involves taking off my clothes and rolling around on a bed preferably with someone...

Date: Wed, December 04, 2002, 16:32:42 ET
Posted by: Joe Bell,

Can we have a pool to guess how much Libby is going to
spend this year XMAS/Hanukkah shopping ?

Date: Wed, December 04, 2002, 10:32:23 ET
Posted by: Left of Hollywood,

how about The Fez with vocals?? That's my suggestion for an '03 tour. I know they did an instrumental version of that in '94 during the "overture" on some dates of that tour. Now that would be funky.

Date: Wed, December 04, 2002, 09:46:15 ET
Posted by: norm,

More To Come - I like your list a lot. I'd add Brooklyn (with either Fagen or Becker singing), Your Gold Teeth II, and Walk Between Raindrops to that.

Also agree with Gypsyqueen re: On The Dunes. I'll leave it to her to explain why to Just Wondering, but I just think it's really ginchy.

My laugh for the day: Michael Jackson (oh jeez, not THAT guy again!) testified at trial the other day for an alleged breach of contract when he backed out of a concert. When the attorney asked him if he had memory problems, he answered, "Not that I can recall." I'm here all week, folks, tell your friends, and don't forget to tip the waitress!

Date: Wed, December 04, 2002, 08:34:48 ET
Posted by: More to More to come,

to add to the "wish list" for the next tour, of tunes they haven't done live:

how about:

Haitian Divorce
Your Gold Teeth
Turn That Heartbeat Over Again

Date: Tues, December 03, 2002, 21:49:58 ET
Posted by: Just Wondering, on the Inter-net

GypsyQ. On the Dunes might be the best tune on that album but why do you think so? I'm all ears. It's definitely a bit different than other tracks. No James Brown funk on it. Tell more.

Tomorrow's Girls is the Cousin Dupree of Kama. Both are the easiest to digest.

Date: Tues, December 03, 2002, 21:04:53 ET
Posted by: Ben Feldman, San Francisco

If you like Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder & such, come down & check us out.

Show is on Thursday (12/5) at 9:30 at the Blue Lamp in SF (561 Geary, between Jones & Taylor in San Francisco). Cover is $3 and bring your green earrings.

http://www.steelywonder.com

Date: Tues, December 03, 2002, 19:22:18 ET
Posted by: gypsyqueeninafairytale,

I'll take Florida Room over Tomorrow's Girls anyday.
More importantly ON THE DUNES IS EASILY THE BEST TRACK ON KAMAKIRIAD!!!


peace

Date: Tues, December 03, 2002, 10:37:06 ET
Posted by: More to come,

My personal list of favorite SD/DF/WB tunes they have not resurrected live since they reformed in the '90s, which I would like to hear on their next tour. Please? In no particular order:

(1) I Got the News.
(2) Doctor Wu.
(3) My Rival.
(4) Razor Boy.
(5) Fire in the Hole.
(6) Everything You Did.
(7) Parker's Band (with vocals this time!).
(8) Here at the Western World.
(9) Snowbound.
(10) New Frontier.
(11) The Nightfly.
(12) Gaucho.
(13) Caves of Altamira.

Date: Tues, December 03, 2002, 01:30:57 ET
Posted by: moray eel, Mother's

Oleander: I got the disk. It made my day at work quite stimulating. I was going to show it to the other guys in my office, but I figured it would just make them jealous. Oh, and put me down for April 15th, 2003.

LePage: I've always liked that bridge. The song seems to lose it's forward momentum as the horns fade and it suddenly becomes quite intimate... almost as if someone is telling you a secret. The introduction of the piano on "night breezes" is refreshing.

m.e.

Date: Mon, December 02, 2002, 23:17:37 ET
Posted by: John Sorens, Los Angeles, California

Dear M.r La Page;

I enjoy your observations and that of others. I like how things are informative and occassionally funny. Often though, I lurk as I don't have much earthshattering to say. But I quietly appreciate all that dan fans write and look here regularly.

I can't comment on the Boddhissatva covers as I don't know them.

I do like the part (bridge?) in Tomorrow's Girls where they have the vocals sing in harmony. But the tops for me is when the guitar solo kicks in right after. I remember the video might have had this staticky TV set shown at that point. I also like the name list rap at the end. Tomorrow's Girls is easily the best track on Kamakiriad. I've noticed that it is not budget line priced while Nightfly is. I think Nightfly is a better record.

I will go out on a limb and say that Steely Dan waits for leap day 2004 to come out with the next album. Then they could say they only come out with records on leap day!

Sincerely,

John Sorens

Date: Mon, December 02, 2002, 20:09:52 ET
Posted by: Mr. LePage, Oh, baby, come on...

Hey, what gives? My TWO-part post of 11-27 (20:24:49) has not received nary an opine (thx Tristan) save ONE (muchas gracias), which appears immediately above the very-recently-aforementioned-post. I must say, surely some Danfan can offer some interesting response to part one and/or to part 2.

"...please... come on..." "soon it will be too late..."

JLe

Date: Mon, December 02, 2002, 07:22:14 ET
Posted by: Howard,

Joni talk:

hoops - yes, the paintings in "Travelogue" are very interesting. I love the one of Bush, eyes closed, with the old woman behind him, giving him a hard look. Pretty powerful. In the Twin Towers picture I see the face of Bush in the smoke, and the face of Bin Laden in the fire. I could be wrong, but that's what I see...

Not sure exactly what to make of the "Bin Laden and woman showing off her tits" picture...!

Had my first chance to really listen to Travelogue over the weekend. It sounds wonderful - fab arrangements, Joni in fine voice. Much more enjoyable than "Both Sides Now" - not sure if this is because the songs on the new one are all Joni's, or whether the arrangements etc just work better.

Pivotal Pete - your guess about Jungle Line (a surrealistic image-poem about the influence of industrialization and drugs on art (music and visual)) sounds pretty good to me. Lyrics were never my strong point, so I'm not sure if I can add much to this - but I was wondering what Joni meant by "The Jungle Line". The line between nature and modern man's industrialised world? As well as the contrast in these physical landscapes, maybe she's also hinting at the line between more primitive, animal-like behaviour in man (which drugs can to some extent re-awaken) and the more controlled/conditioned behaviour we are more used to?

(For lyrics: http://www.jonimitchell.com/Hissing75LyricsHome.html)

Release date for new SD album? Need to think about that...

Howard

Date: Sun, December 01, 2002, 22:27:36 ET
Posted by: oleander, you must put them on the table

Hey, sports fans!

It's time for THE NEXT BETTING POOL!

Some of you may remember that before the release of "Two Against Nature," fever dreams sponsored a betting pool to guess the release date. Well, it was such a success (i.e., I won), and the rumors of The Next One have attained such a fever pitch, that The Next Betting Pool is now up and running at http://home.earthlink.net/~oleander1/nextpool.html

Email me your guess for the release date (month, day, AND year) of the Dan's alleged new album, and, if you wish and are of that persuasion, of any hoped-for solo efforts. Yes, there will be prizes, but not of the cash variety. This is not your pedestrian office pool.

(Um, be sure to take the "nospam" out of the address.... And please stick around to visit. I finally updated.)

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