TheOrgerFormerlyKnownAs said:

You better stop.

(more, more)



tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm

theAudience said:

Post more.

TheOrgerFormerlyKnownAs said:

You got it.



tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm

Fave Steely Dan tracks:

Do It Again
Only A Fool Would Say That
Reelin' In The Years
Bodhisattva
Razor Boy
Show Biz Kids
Rikki Don't Lose That Number
Any Major Dude Will Tell You
Pretzel Logic
Black Friday
Bad Sneakers
Kid Charlemagne
The Caves Of Altamira
Don't Take Me Alive
The Fez
Haitian Divorce
Black Cow
Aja
Deacon Blues
Peg
Home At Last
I Got The News
Josie
Babylon Sisters
Hey Nineteen
Time Out Of Mind
Third World Man
Gaslighting Abbie
Almost Gothic
Jack Of Speed
Blues Beach
Pixeleen

theAudience said:

everytime i hear Mike in the background in Peg im like "damn" that had to take alot out", because those vocals are Not easy

steely dan is the shit. i am so stuck in the 70s its a shame.

heybaby said:

No shame, man. Best decade for music. Ever.

Cloudbuster said:

I take that "man" bit back.

heybaby said:

I'm not.

edited,bad link.
[Edited 3/9/05 12:26pm]

heybaby said:

Just saw this.

It's part of...



...The Royal Scam.

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are my favorite songwriter/musicians next to Prince and Stevie.

EVERY SONG On AJA - Anyone who doesn't have that album...GET IT!!! The end of the title track AJA drives me nuts (in a good way).
MY OTHER MAJOR FAVORITES:

Any Major Dude
Caves of Altamira
Ricky Don't Loose that Number
Do it Again
Bodhistava
Reelin' In the Years
King Of the World
Night By Night
Pretzel Logic
Any World the I'm Welcome To
Don't Take Me Alive
Green Earring
FM
Hey Nineteen
Time Out of Mind
Two Against Nature

I.G.Y and New Frontier from Donald Fagens' Nightfly Album.

Besides the fucking great music and arrangements, you gotta love them for their lyrics. They are so intelligent, so full of atmosphere, contain such strong observations and feelings, I don't know any act that has better and more consistent lyrics than Steely Dan.

When I look at the cover of The Royal Scam, that's how I think Donald felt in the 70's. A lost soul having a hard time handling the harshness of modern life. An observer who is unable to take part, but sees everything. The enstrangement that often comes from their lyrics is striking.

I have often felt very enstranged myself too and that's why his lyrics have comforted me a lot. I still feel like hugging Donald if I ever see him, hehehe!

http://www.andymetzger.com/sounds/


go here for rare steely dan!

paligap said:

I have two version of The Second Arrangement and I love them both. One is a demo with just bass and piano and vocals, the other one is more fleshed out. It is really cool, because you can see the process of making a new track. I suspect the demo with only bass, piano and vocals is just Walter and Donald laying down the foundation, but it already really kicks ass! I freaked when I discovered these tunes, great stuff. I also wonder why they didn't want to rerecord it, because I think it is an awesome track.

The other one you are talking about I don't know, but I'll be on the lookout...

wallysafford said:

Wally, I love you!!! All you Dan freaks, check this site out!

You can amongst others find both the demo and the re-recorded full band outtake of The Second Arrangement that I just discussed here.
[Edited 3/10/05 3:17am]

funkaholic1972 said:

glad i could help,i love me some steely dan!

wallysafford said:

Is it just me or are all the links dead in this section?

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm

theAudience said:

some of them aren't working, but the most are just fine, particularly the outakes and alternate takes...

minneapolisgenius said:

Yeah. "you little bitty pretty ones..." Classic.

mltijchr said:

Unfortunately, from what I've heard they didn't have BADD Steve Gadd there to talk about his drumming on the title track to Aja. That's just too important to leave off. How could they?

funkaholic1972 said:

After the early years they weren't really a band. They were just Becker and Fagen picking studio musicians to fill out their arrangements. Maybe the musicians they chose were collectively genius.

Supernova said:

Yeah, where his voice sort of cracks! You can hear some girls in the audience laugh at that. He must have been talking to them when he said that. I have this whole image in my head of how that intro goes.

I wanted to post the link to feverdreams.net, but the link did not work. sometimes you can access this site, sometimes not - I have no idea why.

I am glad that the last time I had access to the site, I copied ALL of the discussions to all of the SD & Fagen solo albums (except Walter's solo album)..

if you haven't been to feverdreams.net, here is a SMALL SAMPLE of some of the interpretations of some of the songs on Can't Buy A Thrill. again, these are simply the interpretations of the fans - some opinions are more reasoned & logical than others..
but I still got some good insights to things I had no idea about, like Cathy Berberian & squonks & other things..

for those of you REALLY into the Dan like I am, feverdreams.net is worth checking out, if you haven't already..




feverdreams.net – lyrical suppositions/interpretations of Steely Dan


CAN'T BUY A THRILL"
KEY WORDS: unofficial ; Conjugate IHO (IMHO, IYHO, IH/HHO, IOHO, IYHO, ITHO)
Introductory Notes
"Do It Again"
"Dirty Work"
"Kings"
"Midnite Cruiser"
"Only A Fool Would Say That"
"Reelin' In The Years"
"Fire In The Hole"
"Brooklyn"
"Change Of The Guard"
"Turn That Heartbeat Over Again"


Introductory Notes
Roy.Scam (GB, 12/9/98): Reason #235 to listen to Steely Dan: Better grammar. The power, prurience, irony, and wit of Becker & Fagen's lyrics aren't their only good features. They also promote respect for the King's English. Whilst other rockers are saying grammatically reckless things like "Don't Come Around Here No More", "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Me and you and a dog named Boo", the Dan only violate the laws of proper structure for legitimate artistically valid reasons. To wit, it was necessary, in the interest of rhyme and meter, to do grammatical downgrades on the following original phrases:
"over there in Barrytown, they do things very strangely."
"she doesn't remember the Queen of soul"
"any world to which I am welcome."

fez o'north (GB, 12/10/98): i figured out this morning on the drive in one of the reasons i'm so drawn to SD; it's the lyrics. there's a certain succinctness throughout--or to steal a line from "1776", a felicity of expression--that really pulls the listener in.
For a detailed and mindbending take on CBAT, see Breck's Bodacious Broadsides in Hear My Ax Declaim.

Daddy G (GB, 2/9/00): Speaking of CBAT, I just hauled out the vinyl and read the words, "Remember this one from college?" on the back cover. The first time I read those words, I actually *was* in college, so my reaction at the time was, "Wha? What do they mean? I *am* in college!" Now I get it. It just took me twenty-seven years to get their little time bomb of a joke, that's all.
offleash (Digest, 10/14/00): I think the hoopla about the lyrics being inscrutable is nonsense. They follow a Rimbaud/Dylan tradition (and owe to Dylan - I don't know if they publicly administer that). They're impressionistic. I LOVE it that their willing to leave things unstated and to occupy the grey zone, to
refuse to give the answer.

"Do It Again"
Brian Sweet describes "DIA" as "long and rambling... a story of murder, lynch mobs, and card sharps. The lyrics conjure up cinema-style images (as would many Becker/Fagen compositions) of a Sergio Leone spaghetti Western and could easily be a synopsis to one of his films." (RITY, p. 49)
Betrayal; frustration; bitterness; the sense that if you do not learn from your mistakes you are doomed to repeat them.Another turn on the wheel.
"A handle in your hand"--a slot machine. There are many gambling references in Steely lyrics. "The land of milk and honey" is of course a reference to the Biblical land of Canaan, promised to the Jews in Exodus 3: 8. It also can be seen as a bitterly ironic reference to twentieth-century America, which promises something other than what it gives.
One of my favorite rhymes--"beg us" and "Vegas."

Not My Nancy (6/10/98): "Wheel turning round and round" is a nearly explicit reference to the Buddhist wheel of life, which (I think--no scholar on the topic) is what one ascends, incarnation-by-incarnation, through truer adherence to the middle way. Thus, if you fail to get to Nirvana on this go, you..."go back, Jack, do it again."

Interesting to think that both CBAT and Countdown start with a nod to Buddhism--the first sincere (though realistic), the second tongue-in-cheek.
The Nightfly (8/9/99):This is in my opinion the most dark and mysterious SD song of all. It starts out referring to the obvious literal, and then moves toward a more spiritual connotation. The man oviously commits murder, and is apprehended. He is then released because the executioner is unavailable. The wheel referred to may in fact be an explicit reference to the Buddhist Wheel of Life, in which there are animals in the center, and Nirvana as the outer ring, with all manner of humans in between; or perhaps it is simply another way of saying "what goes around comes around" since the man obviously does evil, and then receives evil. I think the land of milk and honey is referring to the final Judgement Day when all deeds good and bad by every person are revealed. "Land of Milk & Honey" is commonly used by the evangelical Christian sector as another name for Heaven.
Reelin' In The Years, by Brian Sweet
"Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts" by Bob Dylan, on "Blood On The Tracks" reminds me of this Western-themed romance/ tragedy

"Dirty Work"
Brian Sweet says, "Beneath the sweet and almost sentimental music, there were hidden barbs in the song. The narrator realises he is merely a sexual plaything at the beck and call of his lover, but is so infatuated he is powerless to bring their lusty trysts to an end. In the second verse Becker included a reference to the game of chess ('Like the castle in its corner/ In a medieval game')." (RITY, p. 49)
Kim (Digest, 6/16/00): [on hearing The Bare Midriff Section do this tune in concert] I always felt it was a "girls" song!
Reelin' In The Years, by Brian Sweet

"Kings"
As quoted by Brian Sweet, Messrs. Becker & Fagen describe this as "a 'vacuous historical romance.' " (RITY, p. 50)
Daddy G (GB, 2/10/00): This one always seemed to be the most straightforward to me — it’s about King Richard I (AKA Richard Coeur de Lion), from the late 12th Century. This book on this guy was that he was so busy running around the world fighting the Crusades (remember, “the sun never sets on the British Empire”), that he was hardly ever home. In fact, he spent only six months of his ten-year reign actually on the island of England. That’s the reference for the line:
While he plundered far and wide,
All his starving children cried.
Interestingly (or not), this was not the only song that came out in ’72 that referenced Richard I. Al Stewart, best known for his hit “Year of the Cat,” had a song on “Past, Present, and Future” called Soho that also gives a nod to this ambitious monarch. In Soho, Stewart laments the decline of Western civilization thusly:
The sun goes down on a neon eon
Though you’d have a job explaining it to Richard Coeur de Lion
Good King Richard was succeeded by John Lackland. (Raise up your glass to Good King John.)
When Kings first appeared on CBAT in ’72, this track featured the following disclaimer on the back cover: “No political significance.” Guess D&W didn’t want the protagonist confused with the other Richard in the news that year.
Luke (8/31/00) I always thought there was resonance with Richard Nixon and John Kennedy in "Kings," but I've never been able to pin it down. Historically tricky as well--John was the bad Brit king and Dick was the good (could the Dan be engaging in *gasp* irony?!?). But I always get that vibe when I hear it. "No political significance" indeed!


"Midnite Cruiser"
"Felonious" is a punny reference to Thelonious Monk. If you haven't listened to him, log off and go do so right now. Try "Monk's Dream," "Blue Monk," "Monk's Music," or "Underground" for an intro. Yes, I know this isn't a lyrical comment. So sue me.
I think of this as something of a prelude to "Deacon Blues."
This song has an interesting literary link: In his fabulous Neuromancer (1984), William Gibson names a bar "The Gentleman Loser." There are numerous other Dan references in Gibson's works; part of what Ursula Hegi calls "unearned pleasures" is finding them as you go. In fact, in Idoru (1996) a group called Lo/Rez is central to the plot--a two-man band, around for decades, who employ various studio musicians in their releases. We see "Lo/Rez in all their Dog Soup [early label--DSSD?] glory. Rez with his shirt open (but entirely ironically) and Lo with his grin and a prototype mustache that hadn't quite grown in" (Idoru, p. 18). In another chapter, the heroine finds in her hotel bathroom three shelves of shrink-wrapped dildos. Coincidence? I don't think so. Reportedly, Gibson and Messrs. Fagen & Becker are mutual fans. There has been some comment in the Guestbook and the Digest on Gibson links, and I'll mention more as we proceed.
stevevdan (GB, 6/16/98): For some reason people think this song is about Thelonious Monk... but I never knew why... to me it sounds like a song about someone (a political agitator of some sort, maybe one of Becker's friends in college) who hadn't realized times had changed...
Reelin' (9/1/99): I've always seen Felonious as the singer/writers alter ego. The name alone seems to confirm that. It reminds me of my grandmother from Brooklyn. When I misbehaved it was Tommy McGillicuddy who was the miscreant, not I.
I regularly thank God that I developed my musical sensibilities before music videos. I still invision a knight in full regalia when I listen to the Moody Blue's Nights in White Satin, though I'm fully aware of the spelling difficulties.
Breck (11/5/00): "Midnight Cruiser" is about two artificially-aged pop stars meeting:1) who, past ditched by the industry for being too musically-minded or political in the wrong way 2) are aware that too much "pushing the enelope" might make too many enemies 3) are unwilling to be zombified and mouth whatever "counter-cultural" phrases are currently demanded 4) and who would still like to play music to some large audiences and possibly make a living thereby.
"Felonius my old friend" -"Felonius", a pun combining "Felony" and "Thelonius", as in "Thelonius Monk", legendary be-bop enemy of the top-40 status quo. True art is a felony in the "Art / Empire / Industry" (quoting quote Bill Nelson).
"Streets still unseen we'll find somehow" -"Streets" a euphemism for music style; as in U2's "Where The Streets Have No Name", for example. Look and you'll find other examples.
"Midnight Cruiser" -Now, to say this briefly, rebellious pop artists often refer to times of the day in regards to how much musical freedom they have. The late 60s and early 70s were a time of great freedom; new and exciting music forms were popping up BIG everywhere; the Beatles saw it coming ("Here comes the Sun -it's alright- Sun sun sun here we come) -but knew that as "Dinosaurs" they'd be forced to sell out completely so they broke up while they could. When "Night" comes to the music scene you'll find many references to the "Moon" [often in very disparging ways -I think "Moon" is the industry forcing artificial roles on the musicians]. Good God, there's many examples of what I describe -look for them if you dare or challenge me for a special e-mail message.
But these outcast musicians are "Midnight Cruisers"; like, say New Wavers in today's Rap/Soulless Pop scene. They are "Gentlemen Losers" -They wanted to play music, not fight City Hall; they backed out gracefully from superstar zombiehood. There's a similar concept in Brian Eno's old song, "Cindy Tells Me" ["Cindy", by the way, being short for Cynthia, which means "Moon"] -"Some of them lose and some of them lose - But that's what they want, that's what they choose -It's such a burden, such a burden, to be so relied upon".
"The world that we used to know, people tell me it don't turn no more." WHAT? There is NO LONGER a morning coming?? No more chance of a truly spontaneous "happening"? All musical or cultural events just a product of corporate "Synergy", planning and manipulation?
Oh you musicians who thought you would be doing things "your way". Well, morning may never come; the industries who originally used you to make their piles have found other dupes, and you're forever cruising "Harlem" -a dangerous slum now but once a rich international culture spot- yes, Harlem "or somewhere the same."
See above for Monk directions. There are many more. For a great Monk page, go here.


"Only A Fool Would Say That"
This is the song that made me fall in love with the Dan more than two decades ago. it begins with a simple two-line evocation of utopia, and then backhands it with a sarcastic put-down. Who is the "boy with a plan"? I have a montage of the Lone Ranger, John Wayne, and JFK. The next lines remind me of a Zen koan--what is the sound of a gun with no one to fire it on? Then, if this "natural man" is raising his gun-encumbered hands in the air, he's making a fake gesture to us, to the Fool, to life as it could be. He is, after all, still holding it. This is quite an apropos phallic image.
Then the singer accosts us with "I heard it was you"--scorning us for considering the possibility of Utopia. And here comes one of the loveliest Steely double entendres: only a fool would say that utopia is possible--or would only a fool say "it just couldn't be"? They've got us coming and going.
Then there's a vignette of the average working Joe--see R. Crumb's "Whiteman," perhaps revisited in "Kid Charlemagne." The brown shoes may be a nod to Frank Zappa's "Brown Shoes Don't Make It." Put yourself in this guy's place--many of us don't have to stretch much.... He comes home, clicks the remote, and who's on the screen? THE man with a dream, Martin Luther King, Jr.? An adman pitching a materialist fantasy? An artist with an irrelevant but beautiful vision?
And then an (I assume) inadvertent, non-classic haiku:
anybody on
the street has murder in his
eyes. You feel no pain
Stands great alone. "And you're younger than you realize" is another line that cuts two ways: is it that you're fresher, more open than you think, or does it emphasize how long a road you actually do have to walk in those brown shoes?
The Spanish at the end is a hacked-up rendition of "only a fool would say that": "Solamente un tonto diria eso," reportedly by Skunk Baxter.
Doug (12/11/00): I've always thought the song was about John Lennon and his politics of the late 60's / early 70's. "Natural man" makes me think of the bed-in and the Lennon & Ono naked portraits; "white Stetson hat" makes me think of Lennon's white suit and hat of the period; and "brown shoes" reminds of the Beatles "Old Brown Shoe". Any one else ever raise this possiblity? Any record of Becker and Fagen's relationshhip with, or views on Lennon?
Sis Sparki (!/3/02): I think "a world become one, of salads and sun," is a reference to the hippie ideal, and to California, where everyone would sit in the sun and eat natural vegetarian foods and live an earthy and idealistic lifestyle.
( Be sure to check out Sparki's Dan Noir Vignettes)


"Reelin' In The Years"
The liner notes for "Alive In America" offer a rare and spare exegesis: "Reclaimed juvenilia. 'Infernal woman.' Escape from relationship."
diggy (9/17/99): Reelin in the Years has one of the greatest guitar intros in music history. I used to think the narrator was talking to his girlfriend, but now I realize it is a father talking to his daughter. (CBAT sleeve notes: "How's my little girl?") The three verses are in chronological order. First, she is a teenager and doesn't know the difference between reality and a fantasy. Ask a thirteen year old girl is she "LOVES" her boyfriend at school. She will say yes and babble on about him for an hour. But next week she "LOVES" a different guy. To quote from Bread, teenagers "change their partners like they change their underwear."

In the second verse, she is a college student and quite full of herself. In the third, she gets married and daddy feels left behind. The song points out that a young girl/woman runs through life at a rapid pace and rarely notices the years reelin' by. But the father watches his little girl and wishes she and time would slow down --- they grow up too fast.
Daily Steve (4/13/00): The truth is, somehow, Walter and Donald watched as my folks went through their divorce, and expressed all the personal anger in the single best pop-rock diddy ever written. The pain is gone, has been for nearly 30 years (LIAR my therapist yells), taken flight on a riproaring riff and questioning chorus. I've learned my mantra is Paul (McCartney)'s advice to another only child of divorce, Jude (Julian Lennon); hey, I've taken a sad song and made it better. Mamma's remarried, Dad's remarried, even I'm remarried! But a big part of the healing is this bitchslap of a song.


"Fire In The Hole"
Brian Sweet comments that this is "a very strange old song.... The title was taken from a phrase used by American soldiers in Vietnam. When raiding a Vietcong village and uncovering a hidden bunker, the camouflage matting would be lifted and a grenade thrown down into the pit with the comment "Fire in the hole".... The song also alludes to how so many students succeeded in dodging the draft back in the late Sixties and early Seventies." (RITY, p. 49)
I don't have a clue as to what he means by that last sentence. What I hear in this song is a young man whose life is exploding, as if he were in a hole with figurative napalm all over him--it doesn't just blow up, it keeps on burning, and he has nowhere to flee. He's full of angst as to his identity and his place in this society, regarding himself from a distance ("am I myself or just another freak?"), and yearning for escape or someone to "open up the door." I love the lines "With a cough I shake it off/ And work around my yellow stripe." (hi jon!) He squares his hunched shoulders and cops to his fears--doesn't battle them but sidles by them; doesn't pretend to be something he's not.
Matt D (Digest, 2/21/99): The song always seemed Orwellian to me, despite Brian Sweet.
Slither (6/27/00): Does anyone else think the lyrics of "Fire in The Hole" are from the perspective of Winston Smith from Orwell's 1984? The hole being the incendiary "Memory Hole" where Winston throws his doctored newspaper articles.

The verses, although sparse, roughly follow the first half of the book. In particular the line "A woman's voice reminds me to serve and not to speak" in remeniscent of the telescreen and "with a cough I shake it off" is almost a line in the book, in reference to the protagonist's persistant cough.
Third World Man (1/17/01): Did you know that Fagen tried hard not to sing during the first tour? He hated singing in front of crowds. The song seems to be about Fagen, who realizes the craziness of all around him (fans?), while everyone else thinks he's lazy (not willing to sing on tour?). Fagen acknowledges his fear, his cowardice, his yellow stripe. He exclaims, Fire in the hole, a typical military phrase warning sailors about fire in the sub, soldiers about fire in bunkers, etc, signifying trouble in himself/his band. Then he realizes he wants to leave, but (as co-leader of the band and main lyricist) he has nowhere to turn but to assume the lead singing role. Fagen sings about his own fear and realization about what he has gotten himself into (the record label agreed to cut and distribute the record as long as the band toured).

Alan B (3/6/03): I noticed that the various opinions of the meaning of "Fire in the Hole" did not touch on oral sex i.e. cunnilingus. If my memory serves me correctly I read at some point in the seventies an interview with Becker and Fagen where they said that the inspiration for this song came from the exploits of a fellow student who could perform this sexual act with such efficiency that he turned into an art-form and became something of a very minor celebrity. Apparently, he felt that he had transformed himself into something of a freak and later regretted the reputation he had made for himself. Thus the "fire in the hole" is the woman's desire, both virtually literal if you want to be crude, and metaphorical; and "nothing left to burn" the man's inability or unwillingness to satisfy such needs any more. This makes the meaning of "a woman's voice reminds me to serve and not to speak" clear. Of course this metaphor can be taken much less explicitly as the general inability to satisfy a demand that has been created and the millstone around the neck that fame can bring.

The oral sex story of course may be just another of Becker and Fagen's deceptions and should be taken with a pinch of salt. I am sure that I did not imagine reading this although I have no idea exactly when the interview took place, who it was with or where I read it. Had I realised at the time that Dan's lyrics would lead to such fascination and frustration I would have kept the article for posterity....

RipHer2Shreds said:

Ain't she though?

TheOrgerFormerlyKnownAs said:

You do good work.

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm

paligap said:

Aah...Glamour Profession works!

Now I can lay the cool Steve Kahn guitar parts over the track.

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm

TheOrgerFormerlyKnownAs said:

Very cute.

mltijchr said: