I see where you are going there but the Dan enjoyed creating a cast of characters - it would be a lost opportunity and let down to use one twice the storyline of an agents from the law is quite frenetically different then a reflective childhood memory perhaps tying two different situations "spaced in time" to one character in the same song might be more appropriate
Now I see your Babylon meaning and that makes perfect sense. I have ignored Alive in America because, from what I have heard, no one likes it. I look forward to reading up on that one but I am only on page 75 now. As for over the top, you should see my Scam lyric post above.
Partly- I’d always thought it was a given that there were hostages, otherwise there’s be no negotiators (“with your megaphones/ saying all is forgiven”), just a SWAT team. But he says “I don’t want to shoot no-one”, which to me implies he’s got some very reluctant company in his hideout. Today, this song suddenly has a new leading man. I’ll say no more.
Maybe I was not clear. His memory is where he would spend time as a kid. The agents only show up when he is an adult.
I can see your outlook now. I saw it only as he does not want to hurt anyone on the OUTSIDE who try to come in and get him. The dynamite could kill pedestrian passerby's as well as cops.
Owsley Stanley Childhood memories Reluctant outlaw Intergalactic mafia Condom capers And that's just side one This isn't a Pete Townshend concept album
Like I said earlier in the discussion Becker and Fagen would probably scoff heavily at the idea of concept albums and rock operas
I have this TVN promo not sure if anyone has mentioned it. Giant PRO-CD-100003 - Interviews/music with DF and WB Segment One: (16:14) 1.1 Two Against Nature 1.2 What A Shame About Me 1.3 West Of Hollywood Segment Two: (17:22) 2.1 Cousin Dupree 2.2 Janie Runaway 2.3 Jack Of Speed 2.4 Gaslighting Abbie 2.5 Negative Girl
Sunken Condos on Sunday night, followed by a free for all live/odds and ends discussion, at which point we'll have covered it all! Nicely done, folks- almost two months, over 3400 posts and total civility...I like it!
Oh no - I quite like Alive in America, myself. That being said - some of the bootlegs from around that time are amazing as well, and in some ways, have better performances than the ones picked for Alive in America. We haven't covered Alive in America yet - we're holding off on discussing it as an organizational move. Going through the studio main & solo releases first, then circling back to compilations, live albums, b-sides, ephemera, etc. @ohnothimagen's posts will always tell you where we are. Cheers, Paul
Would it be possible to have the occasional summary sheet of links to the start of each album for reference purposes?
Thanks for taking the time on this lyric. Great stuff and I agree with all of it. Nice posts from everyone about the lyrics. I still think the Dan must have laughed when they thought of the fans singing along to the radio when the lyrics were so nuts and maybe the fans didn't even know what they were really singing about.
Thrill to Whack can be found here: At last! The STEELY DAN Album-By-Album Thread Two Against Nature: At last! The STEELY DAN Album-By-Album Thread Everything Must Go: At last! The STEELY DAN Album-By-Album Thread Morph The Cat: At last! The STEELY DAN Album-By-Album Thread Circus Money: At last! The STEELY DAN Album-By-Album Thread
Frank Zappa once allegedly referred to their music as 'downer surrealism.' I did an article on them once, and not to copy Frank, referred to much of their music as 'singalong pessimism.' We are singing along to some fairly negative stuff, but not everyone stops to analyze it like we music buffs do.
I actually like 'Alive in America' a lot. I always like full concerts better and considering it's their only live release, it would have been better in full, but the version of "Aja" in particular is a big time highlight for me.
That is Harsh. I do not get that at all. It sounds great to me. And because of the subpar Bright Nightgown, I find Kamakiriad to be Fagan's best album.
Outside of Book Of Liars and the opining track I have never heard it. I will have to listen to it on youtube soon.
California Couple lays their cards on the table for everyone to poke fun at. STEELY DAN-CAN’T BUY A THRILL (B) 1. Do It Again (A) 2. Dirty Work (A+) 3. Kings (C+) 4. Midnight Cruiser (A+) 5. Only a Fool Would Say That (B+) 6. Reelin’ in the Years (A) 7. Fire in the Hole (C) 8. Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer in Me) (C) 9. Changing of the Guard (C) 10. Turn That Heartbeat Over Again (C-) STEELY DAN-COUNTDOWN TO ECSTASY (A-) 1. Bodhisattva (A-) 2. Razor Boy (A-) 3. The Boston Rag (A-) 4. Your Gold Teeth (B) 5. Show Biz Kids (C-) 6. My Old School (B) 7. Pearl of the Quarter (A) 8. King of the World (A-) STEELY DAN-PRETZEL LOGIC (C+) 1. Rikki Don’t Lose That Number (A+) 2. Night By Night (C+) 3. Any Major Dude Will Tell You (A-) 4. Barrytown (D+) 5. East St. Louis Toodle-Oo (D-) 6. Parker’s Band (D+) 7. Through with Buzz (B-) 8. Pretzel Logic (A+) 9. With a Gun (C-) 10. Charlie Freak (C+) 11. Monkey in Your Soul (B) STEELY DAN-KATY LIED (A+) 1. Black Friday (B-) 2. Bad Sneakers (B) 3. Rose Darling (B) 4. Daddy Don’t Live in That New York City No More (A) 5. Doctor Wu (A+) 6. Everyone’s Gone to the Movies (A-) 7. Your Gold Teeth II (B) 8. Chain Lightning (A+) 9. Any World (That I’m Welcome To) (A-) 10. Throw Back the Little Ones (B+) STEELY DAN-THE ROYAL SCAM (B-) 1. Kid Charlemagne (B) 2. The Caves of Altamira (B+) 3. Don’t Take Me Alive (B-) 4. Sign in Stranger (C+) 5. The Fez (C.) 6. Green Earrings (C-) 7. Haitian Divorce (A) 8. Everything You Did (C) 9. The Royal Scam (B+) Here At the Western World (A+) STEELY DAN-AJA (A+) 1. Black Cow (A+) 2. Aja (A+) 3. Deacon Blues (A+) 4. Peg (B+) 5. Home At Last (B) 6. I Got the News (D-) 7. Josie (A) STEELY DAN-GAUCHO (A) 1. Babylon Sisters (A+) 2. Hey 19 (B-) 3. Glamour Profession (B+) 4. Gaucho (A+) 5. Time Out of Mind(B-) 6. My Rival (A) 7. Third World Man (A) STEELY DAN-TWO AGAINST NATURE (B-) 1. Gaslighting Abbie (C+) 2. What a Shame About Me (D) 3. Two Against Nature (C+) 4. Janie Runaway (B+) 5. Almost Gothic (A-) 6. Jack of Speed (B+) 7. Cousin Dupree (C+) 8. Negative Girl (C+) 9. West of Hollywood (A+) STEELY DAN-EVERYTHING MUST GO (A-) 1. The Last Mall (C-) 2. Thing’s I Miss the Most (B-) 3. Blues Beach (A+) 4. Godwhacker (B) 5. Slang of Ages (B) 6. Green Book (A+) 7. Pixeleen (A) 8. Lunch With Gina (A+) 9. Everything Must Go (C+) ************************** DONALD FAGEN- THE NIGHTFLY (B-) 1. I.G.Y. (A+) 2. Green Flower Street (C) 3. Ruby Baby (C-) 4. Maxine (C-) 5. New Frontier (A) 6. The Nightfly (A+) 7. The Goodbye Look (C) 8. Walk Between Raindrops (C) DONALD FAGEN- KAMAKIRIAD (A) 1. Trans-Island Skyway (A) 2. Countermoon (B-) 3. Springtime (B-) 4. Snowbound (A) 5. Tomorrow’s Girls (A) 6. Florida Room (A-) 7. On the Dunes (A+) 8. Teahouse on the Tracks (A) DONALD FAGEN- MORPH THE CAT (A) 1. Morph the Cat (A) 2. H Gang (B) 3. What I Do (B) 4. Bright Nightgown (C) 5. The Great Pagoda of Fun (A) 6. Security Joan (A) 7. The Night Belongs to Mona (A) 8. Mary Shut the Garden Door (B) 9. Morph the Cat (Reprise) (A) DONALD FAGEN- SUNKEN CONDOS (C) 1. Slinky Thing (C+) 2. I’m Not the Same Without You (C) 3. Memorabilia (C) 4. Weather in My Head (B-) 5. The New Breed (B-) 6. Out of the Ghetto(C-) 7. Miss Marlene (C-) 8. Good Stuff (C-) 9. Planet D’Rhonda (A-) *********************** WALTER BECKER- 11 TRACKS OF WHACK (B-) 1. Down in the Bottom (A) 2. Junkie Girl (A+) 3. Surf and/or Die (B-) 4. Book of Liars (A+) 5. Lucky Henry (C) 6. Hard Up Case (C) 7. Cringemaker (B) 8. Girlfriend (A-) 9. My Waterloo (C) 10. This Moody Bastard (C) 11. Hat Too Flat (C-) 12. Little Kawai (B-) WALTER BECKER-CIRCUS MONEY (B-) 1. Door Number Two (B-) 2. Downtown Canon (A-) 3. TBob Is Not Your Uncle Anymore (B+) 4. Upside Looking Down (B-) 5. Paging Audrey (A+) 6. Circus Money (C) 7. Selfish Genie (C+) 8. Do You Remember the Name (C) 9. Somebodies Saturday Night (C+) 10. Darkling Down (C) 11. God’s Eye View (C+) 12. Three Picture Deal (B) 13. Dark Horse Dub (A) (thanks to WW for the template)
Apologies if this has already been pointed out in this monster thread but does anyone else think that the title track of Everything Must Go has a strong resemblance to Donald's Big Noise New York?
Sunken Condos in about an hour. I am actually going to have to dig around and find my old Alive In America CDR...listened to that album exactly once!
Okay, an hour and fifteen minutes...sue me if I audit too long Wiki sez: Sunken Condos is the fourth solo album from Steely Dan co-founder Donald Fagen, released in October 2012 through Reprise Records. It contains eight new songs and a cover of Isaac Hayes' "Out of the Ghetto". Fagen began recording the album in 2010 and described it as having a lighter feel than his earlier work, rather than being a continuation of his Nightfly trilogy. On September 17, Rolling Stone posted a full-length preview of the song "I'm Not the Same Without You". The song charted at number 28 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 in October 2012. It also entered the official UK album chart at number 23 on October 21 and number 12 on the Billboard 200, becoming his highest charting solo album since 1993. Critical response The album was listed at No. 25 on Rolling Stone's list of the top 50 albums of 2012. The magazine stated that "the music is deceitfully lush, a snazzy cascade of rock, R&B and swing, with production as costly as a Santa Monica beach house." [19] They also named the song "Weather in My Head" the 21st best song of 2012. Fagen appeared on Late Show with David Letterman and performed "Weather in My Head" to promote the album. Track listing (All songs by Donald Fagen, except where noted) "Slinky Thing" – 5:12 "I'm Not the Same Without You" – 4:31 "Memorabilia" – 4:14 "Weather in My Head" – 5:29 "The New Breed" – 4:35 "Out of the Ghetto" (Isaac Hayes) – 4:54 "Miss Marlene" – 4:43 "Good Stuff" – 4:54 "Planet D'Rhonda" – 5:35 Personnel Donald Fagen – lead vocal, piano, Prophet 5, Wurlitzer, B3 organ, clavinet, melodica, background vocals Harlan Post (alias Donald Fagen) – synth bass ("I'm Not the Same Without You", "The New Breed", "Miss Marlene", "Good Stuff") Michael Leonhart – trumpet, flugelhorn, mellophone, Fender Rhodes, minimoog, clavinet, L100 organ, M100 organ, Prophet 5, Wurlitzer, mellotron, Juno 6, accordion, vibraphone, percussion, glockenspiel, background vocals Earl Cooke Jr (alias Michael Leonhart) – drums Jon Herington – acoustic bass, guitar, twelve-string guitar, rhythm guitar Walt Weiskopf – alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, clarinet Charlie Pillow – tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, bass flute Roger Rosenberg – baritone saxophone, bass clarinet Jim Pugh – trombone Carolyn Leonhart – background vocals, ad lib Jamie Leonhart – background vocals Catherine Russell – background vocals Cindy Mizelle – background vocals Joe Martin – acoustic bass ("Slinky Thing") William Galison – harmonicas ("I'm Not the Same Without You", "The New Breed") Lincoln Schleifer – bass ("Memorabilia", "Weather in My Head", "Planet D'Rhonda") Gary Sieger – guitar ("Memorabilia") Larry Campbell – rhythm guitar ("Weather in My Head") Jay Leonhart – acoustic bass ("The New Breed") Freddie Washington – bass ("Out of the Ghetto") Antoine Silverman – violin ("Out of the Ghetto") Aaron Heicke – bass flute ("Miss Marlene") Kurt Rosenwinkel – solo guitar ("Planet D'Rhonda")