SIS Archives -- November 1999

favorite song?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHahhhh

good one

Is Aja the elephant and we're the 5 blind men?...or is it an onion with layer after layer to be revealed? Or is it dark jewel scattering light like the fall sun over a disturbed pond? On the surface the lyrics seem Eastern mystic-lite. Even the music "sounds" a bit "oriental" as if played or heard by someone in a dream who knows the paradigms of Eastern music only to the depth of "Sukiyaki." But underneath the surface, isn't the bop core revealed? Musicians help me out here. Those chords are flavored with curry and MSG to sound Easter, but are they? probably not. The name Aja - isn't it Asia-lite as suggested by fezo. I don't see hidden and provacative eastern meaning - it's just that they like the spice - the surface. I mean, have Donald and Walter given away their $$, forsaken wordly possessions, pawned the recording gear (hardware) and gone running to the nearest Bodhisattva? or shaved their heads and moved to Barrytown??

But it gets hazy just as if one is peering though the opium smoke in a 19th Century Singapore den...the temptations of modern society: cheap songs, philosophy, women as well as drugs, selling out for a buck...but the truth keeps drawing us in - jazz. Pure music = enlightenment. It seems consistent with side A of the Aja album (when on vinyl). Black Cow, Aja, and Deacon Blues become a trinity of music philosophy.

As the mantra of Eastern mysticism lite once grunted by Bruce Lee exclaims: "Do not think! Feeeeell!" We hear this notion in both Aja and Deacon Blues. Most of what the typical American knows about eastern philosphy comes from Bruce Lee movies, the TV show Kung Fu, fortune cookies and The Karate Kid...all partially digested philosphy that the hungry American consumers swallow whole like a ravenous avian hatchling.

The search for musical purity and oneness are sought by thought (Aja) and deed (Deacon Blues). Black Cow pleads with the wayward musician to forsake the "opium den" and return to the "hill"

There's some truth in all the thoughts posed here lately, especially Herm's masterful thesis.

re: That Paul Griffin benefit on the ODP. "The Uptown Allstars" and "others"!
YGK - Get over to The Bottom Line!

Lit Phreak, was it really "brilliant" .?

Aja.

I've never really tried to delve that deeply into the meaning of the lyrics. Don't get me wrong; I've done just that with any number of other Dan songs, just not Aja - yet.

But "Aja" (the album) was really my first connection with Steely Dan. When they started playing "Peg" all over the radio back in '77 and '78, I liked it. My girlfriend at the time fancied herself a model and thought they must be singing about her (kinda reminds one of a certain Carly Simon song, eh?). But despite her apparent conceit, I was still infatuated with her and so if she liked "Peg" well enough to actually order "Aja" from Columbia House, then it was damn well good enough for me. We broke up soon after, but by that time I had heard enough of the rest of the album between replays of "Peg" that I knew I was onto something different, and remarkably cooler than anything else I'd been listening to. I'm still there.

Funny how memories are assigned to music...

Not only is it my favorite song, but hearing the first time was what completely turned me on to SD. Can't you tell? :)

aja

I've been on AOL since about July and I haven't gotten one spam...all my friends seem to have their inboxes filled, but I haven't gotten one...weird

I wonder if we can establish a poll somewhere where we could tally our favorite SD song...reading all this stuff about the song 'Aja' makes we wonder if it's not the favorite out there among the GB'ers

we have polls at OnHoops but I can only make them five options long

there's a new item on the ODP

sherlock--I hear you re "cherry" versus just "wine". I can remember a critic carping about Donald's singing he had plenty of Chesterfields. The critic complained that Don could have just as easily said cigarettes, and I always thought it was a ridiculous objection, criticizing a songwriter for embellishing and making more real, more evident his subject.

Oleander: You never cease to amaze me with your literary knowledge. Very impressive getting the Ginger Man post. I'll shoot another one your way soon.

RubyBaby: If that's the first time you've been spammed on AOL, then you're either lucky, or you're not hitting the same sites I hit. If you want to avoid spam (unsolicited porn and junk mail), then stay away from chat rooms, questionable sites, and any other BS out there on the net. There are people out there who run software programs which watch where you go, and if you fit their target market, you get a nice invitation to an adult porn site. I've got about ten of them (spams) sitting in my mail right now, I think I got stuck on a mailing list or something. AOL is definitely the spam capitol of the internet.

As far as Aja is concerned: I've always pictured the narrator of the song thinking of himself as some sort of Buddha figure. Maybe that's because Buddha was known to rest under Banyan trees. Anyway, that's my take on it.

--LP

Thoughts on 'Aja'

Wonderfully poetic.

Great drum solo.

Pure jazz, not rock, taking us across the river on this one cut.

It's the song that more than anything else, made me a jazz fan.

There is no one super key to solve Aja. It's not like finding the prize at the bottom of a Crackerjack box. If that's all there was to it, then it wouldn't be worth listening to after it was solved. Who reads solved crossword puzzles?

Ruby Baby,
Kanga Din? Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem about this person. He was a hell of a waterboy. He would never impersonate you on the net. He doesn't even own shoes. Something's amiss.

ruby baby-your strength through your faith inspires me. Perhaps it will do the same for whoever is abusing the names of people here on the GB.

aja

the weight of evidence falls to drugs - the same theme runs through 'Time out of Mind' (tonight when I chase the dragon\the water may change to cherry wine) .Once again we see the spiritual (quasi religious)coupled with a certain kind of modern lifestyle.The brilliance of adding"cherry" (to cheapen the image)when a lesser soul would have been happy merely with "wine"...

someone from the netherlands used my aol screen name and sent me a link to a porn site. I guess they just want me to know they can do such things. They probably sent it to others, too. I will say to that person, "Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world." and "No weapon formed against me shall prosper."

Just in case any one of you gets a letter from kanga, please just delete it! It's not from me. It may even have a virus.

I know it's from somebody who reads this guestbook.

rb

re: ? "no pants"

You're fantasizing...

I'm with jon. Stop thinking so much, just do. double helix. everything's there.

always was.

quark quark flap ribbit all the way to the top of the stairs.

animals! oops wrong room.

In the photos on http://www.steelydan.com/newcd.html it looks to me like they are not wearing pants.

Two Against Nature - exactly.

?

jon; I always took the whole song in the "materialism vs. spiritualism" context, whether it be a sexual reference or otherwise.

Always thought throwing out the hardware and doing it right was sexual reference not drug reference. Let's lose the needless sex toys and just use what God gave us.

Could the 'sea'be a sea of clouds with the himalayas as islands?
I don't see Chinese Tibet as a Dude Ranch, though. Although there is Richard Gere to consider...

Hey guys!

At a record fair on Sunday. Got myself a copy of 'Gotta Walk it.....' on vinyl. Cost me £3.

Guy didn't have a clue what he was selling. Got two Monk originals for like £4. Play beautifully as well. idiot!

Bye

SFK

I'm obviously joining the discussion very late, but after reading through some of the postings about "Aja" I couldn't help but wonder if "Up on the hill..." could be a reference to the Tibetan Monks. Anyone care to entertain this possibility?

Edd- If that's "the interpetation" you always had...then it MUST be it!!

re: Oleander and shamisen

That's the interpretation of "angular banjos" I've always had.

Love all of it! Despite my statement that I didn't really want to know what "Aja" is really about, I've thoroughly gotten into this discussion. Thanks everyone, for taking the time to post your insight/knowledge! My factual 2 cents: as I'm sure everyone here knows, D&W's first studio job was writing pop hits for others to sing-perhaps this is the dime dancing in "Aja". I can easily see them running home after a long day of selling their souls to escape in great jazz. And that kinda fits in with my initial impression of a young man starting out it the world, selling out (a little) to try and make it but knowing what he desired in his heart was far different. Thank goodness they were failures at pop hits!

aja

Mr. Stewart: If sanity was what we strove for, we wouldn't have put all of you through the misery of waiting twenty years for a new album. We also would have written clear, concise, and straightforward lyrics that left no room for interpretion. We wouldn't have left cryptic messages on our websight leaving you to guess about what songs would be included in that new album.

Sanity. Fuck sanity. Sanity gets you a quadruple platnium record one year, then completely forgotten the next. Sanity doesn't keep people interested in you, sanity makes you become predictable. And that's insane.

I raise up my glass to good king Double Felix for having the sanest Aja interpretation in the book.

Mr. Stewart

I forgot - double helix in the sky - the cosmic mysticism of the East reduced to Western science.

Aja - love the jazz analogy - but to me it's a piece of music about escape (from work i.e. recording \touring\ whatever) to find that elusive 'other' in an Asian culture.
The steely knife however stabs at the "home-style" resort in which the 'searcher' finds himself.
Dude Ranch, Banjoes, Hardware (pipe) -these are all Americana. The mispronunciation 'Aja' is pure New York .
He won't find anything at the Densasar Hilton that he can't find at home.The musical interludes are his daydreams poolside.

It's easy to overlook the most important clue about the meaning of the song, "Aja", and that is the spelling of the word. "j" substitutes for "si". Confused? Think of the most simplistic "code" you learned as a child. J = 10. S = 19. I = 9. J = 1+0 = 1. SI = 19 + 9 = 28 = 2 + 8 = 10 = 1+0 = 1. See? Same product in 25% less packaging. Aja = Asia.

God said, "Let there be Lite", and there was Aja.

Are you with me Deacon Blues?

"Just when I'd spent the last piaster I could borrow" = "When all my dime dancing is through."

The piasters have at once lost their mystery and gained value: A dime, with as little worth as it has, is still more valuable...more accessible...than a dead currency.

And that's what this album was all about. It brought Steely Dan into the mainstream where it could be heard and understood by more than a "cult" audience. And the numbers don't lie. Aja worked on every level. Chinese is not so difficult to master when the genetics of the race, (double helix), can be expressed numerically and thus, universally.

Less Hardware. More Software. Everything was changing at the time and no one saw it but Don & Walt. "They (we) just don't (didn't) care."

At the very least, "The Dude Ranch" was a recording studio. However, I prefer to think of it as "The Major Dude Ranch". And what is the difference between a "dude" and a "gaucho" anyway? That's another story.

...and don't expect beating hearts to be satisfied with ion grids for much longer...

DF

Ole: photon torpedoes on stun

http://www.lighttherapyproducts.com/products.html

Ruby--Think that'd work with the Elvis suit?

Mu--If I could find a 10K lux box that looked like the sun coming over the Blue Ridge instead of 3 am at WalMart, I think I would.

Herm, YGK, fezo--I LOVE it! You guys are ace fever dreamers. This song really does tend to incite the imagination more than any other.

I think these qualify as angular banjos (though they're Japanese):

http://www.trocadero.com/hosoge/items/3818/en1.html

Hutch: becalmed...I was correcting one of my frequent typos from hurried writing

wait... let me check my driver's license.

whew!

okay, carry on.

H.

I'm not Edd, but I saw him on TV

Willllbuuurrrrrrrrr...

warm cookies give me an angular banjo

did anyone see Mos Def's shoutout to SD in the new Rolling Stone? Twas nice, especially b/c I consider myself a fan of the MD

I'm sorry, I forgot to ask: would anyone like some cookies?

Mrs. Fleck

On the porch with a plate of warm tollhouse

My Bela started playing the banjo in 1973, when he was about fifteen years old. His first recordings were with a group from Boston around 1977 - 1978. So, since Aja came out in '77, it's doubtful those two nice boys from Steely Dan ever heard my son's angular banjo.

Warmest regards,

Mrs. Fleck

great job guys, these have been great to read. Thanks for taking the time out to do it...

Edd=DrMu

but does anyone know if Bela Fleck was playing in the mid-70s?

I was gonna say, jeez, Edd...

Herm=Hutch

It's just across the bridge over there to get off, get out of the East
Berlin prison, but the Rumanian guards are blocknig the way. I decide to run for it regardless, and remember too late that bridges are always to be avoided. The guards cannot miss me as I am stripped down to my underpants. I stand out like a Nazi in the Kruezberg 596. The two Muscovite mosquitos grab me and beat me senseless with their fists. One of them smashes my nose with his helmet. We begin what will become a two hour march across overgrown fields and marshes. I'll surely be shipped back to east Berlin. How many deutschmarks will it take for them to buy me back out? It had taken Pint DM 40000.

Heaven is a stone's throw away from hell.

Hutch: Damn, that's good...love it dude

Where I have "fezo", I meant to write, "YGK".

Don't ask why, I just did.

Herm

Okay, fezo, let's go one step further.

"Up on the hill
People never stare
They just don't care"

In the early 40's, Minton's Playhouse was a club where musicians went to jam after hours. It is said that because of "cutting contests", (musicians trying to out do or top each other on stage), that complicated chord progressions were developed to chase the less skilled players away. This club was run by a musician named Teddy Hill. So maybe, up on the "hill", (the club), is the one place where a musician could play the new sounds without getting stared at by the audience.

"Chinese music under banyon tree"

Chinese music is bop. A banyon tree, (not plural), is a tree whose roots grow above ground and often form other trunks. This clearly seems like a metaphor of jazz naturally splitting from it's roots into a seperate life of it's own.

"Here at the dude ranch, above the sea."

To me, a dude ranch is a place where people go to relax and hang out, so this could be another way to describe Minton's. Now, what if the next line is really, "above the C"? As in the note? Dizzy and others like to play in upper registers to show off their chops, and many bop songs fly off in to the stratosphere, as well.

"When all my dime dancing is through
I run to you"

When a hostess would dance with you for a dime, she wasn't doing it because she loved you, she was doing it for the money. And as I said before, many of these musicians were in other, more traditional bands, (for the money), and would sprint to Minton's after hours and play until sun up, and sometimes later, (for the love).

"Up on the hill
they've got time to burn
There's no return.
Double helix in the sky tonight
throw out the hardware
let's do it right."

Okay. I think this is a drug reference. They've got time to burn, is maybe a sarcasm toward all the time wasted taking heroin instead of practicing. There's no return could mean that there's no coming back from drug addiction. Double helix...could mean that a new sound is going to be born, perhaps by divine intervention, so throw out the hardware, (the drugs, the syringe), and let's play it the right way.

"They think I'm okay.
or so they say"

I agree with what fezo said, this could either be the audience or his peers saying he's okay.

"Angular banjoes", may mean Charlie Christian. He was a guitarist with Benny Goodman, but a regular at Minton's and one of the "founders" of bebop. Could just be a mention of him.

This whole record, though, could stand another analysis from a bebop standpoint. We already have a fever dream suggesting that "Black Cow" is about Thelonious Monk; "Deacon Blues" is about a guy plaing the sax; Josie rhymes scrapple with apple ~ "Scapple From The Apple" is a famous Charlie Parker song.

But, as the man said, it's all an educated guess.

Later,

Herm

Yeah...The Gorge...Good memories anyway...

weed=week

Ruby Baby: I'm twisted in a pretzel logic whether tiles 3 a and 3b referred to the same song or 2 different songs, but I'm leaning to the latter now. On any good multiple choice test there arre a number of "foils" designed to week out the guessers from those who understand or at least are proficient at memorization. Cash Only Island, Wet Side Story, and especially Hell Bound Train seem to be that. But I Can't Write Home About You appears out of the blue and much too often. Needless to say things are extra cryptic.

Ole: You should buy on of those lamp boxes to reset your circadian clock on those overcast, short days. I'm sure they are available commercially. One could even construct one's own. Use fluorescent light bulbs which have the kind of spectrum found in sunlight. 20+ min at 7 am or so should do it: a great conversation piece for breakfast! Otherwise, I'd have to show you how to massage the pineal gland and that's no picnic. As an act of desparation, a nasal suppository of melatonin might do the trick as the veins from the sinuses drain into the brain.

fezo: It could be another one of those allegorical stories about the music biz like Throw Back the Little Ones or as "Breen" suggested under the ax: "Do It Again." The "people up on the hill" are the usurous music execs, the "dude ranch" is the studio, "dime dancing" are the current popular and empty danceable dities, and "aja" refers to symbolically real musical roots like bop, Gillespe, Miles, etc.

police du ebay?
lawyers Warner?

It's a thin man in crisp blue line suit
Jack of Speed on his sleeve.

Look both ways before crossing the internet.

OK. wait. You there. You're coming with me, buster.

carry on.

ALSO: the inclusion of Mr. Shorter on the memorable solo is especially profound in this scene....

re: Bebop. If "Chinese music" in 'AJA' is a lyrical synonym for be bop, that would make sense with the phrase, "angular banjoes". The music can be quite angular in the intervals it may take, especially when written out. Anyone know if Bela Fleck was playing in the mid-70's?

Perhaps AJA could just be Fagen's word for bebop.
"When all [his] dime dancing is through, I run to you...."
the author goes home and puts on some bebop on his record player.

OR maybe....

"Up on the hill, they think I'm OK, or so they say...."
a musician who is invited to a circle of musicians, say bebop players, might be intimidated about his ability amongst older, wiser, perhaps more adept musicians or musicians who are 'out of his style' of playing. Of course, once the guy sits in on a tune, they could all dig the guys playing, leading to the phrase, "they think I'm OK, or so they say"...which is effectively true; musicians could dig your playin, but they won't necessarily say REALLY dig you till you're gone or have proved somethin over time.
(I know I've sat in with new guyes, there is a certain testing ground to see if I could fit in, and if I've received compliments, I realized that I must take it with a grain of salt. If they really like you, they'll invite you back, and when you return, you'll be able to 'feel the love' from the room about your playin.)

(And now running with this theme)
"Up on the hill, people never stare, they just don't care"
could describe the cats in this group 'high above the sea', whether physically above the sea or just high. It could be the dudes are just too cool - they 'never stare' or are too whacked out on the drugs/music to give a shit about who you are to stare. This would effectively describe more than several bebop 'scenes'.

Looked at in this light, AJA just might be Fagen's anthem for his love of bebop and his experience hanging with a bunch of bop players.

an educated guess, nonetheless....

ygk

ruby: i don't mind filler at all. some poster had just questioned the classification of the aja lyrics as such and i was trying to state my case.

thanks for an excuse to pull out some Beatles' CD's by the way.

The Warners' lawyers are on high alert about now.

Don't even think of it

HERM: That is a great bit of iNtuition. Chinese music is Gillespie. WOW!

To anyone with a promo copy of 2AN, can I give you some tips on how to use a sound recorder program and turn a song or two into a sound file? Pretty please?

maj©

minor: we miss your wit and wisdom

The wiz: minor world beats you with both hands tied behind his back, blindfolded and drunk. Of course, I've never seen him that way...

fezo: As long as it sounds okay and feels good to sing, I don't mind the "fillers," do you? The beatles used more fillers than anyone, I think.

oleander: One day, I wore it to clean house and I got a call from the school. They wanted me to come talk about my youngest kid immediately. So I went, clown suit & all. I forgot I had it on. It worked wonders - better than a robe and slippers. That was the last mischief he ever did at school!

rb

Walt Whitman I'm not, but I do feel qualified to say that lines like "up on the hill they never stare, they just don't care" sure sound like filler, like many of the other simplistic rhymes (tree/sea, burn/return) in "Aja" the song. I would, though, give extra credit for the use of phrases like "angular banjos" and "Chinese music".

I wasn't trying to trash "Aja" the album lyrically. "Black Cow" is brilliant as are "Josie" and "Home At Last".

Well, since everyone is talking about "Aja", I thought I'd try to add to the mystery. The line, "Chinese music always sets me free", makes me think of a story. In 1941 when Dizzy Gillespie was just figuring out what would later be called bebop; he was working in the trumpet section of Cab Calloway's band. Only, Cab was not very fond of the sounds that were coming out of Dizzy's horn, and derisively called it "Chinese music". So, whenever I hear that line, I automatically think of Diz, and wonder if the storyteller in the song is saying that bebop music frees him.

So there, it's finally off my chest.

Later,

Herm

Was over my great pal Pete Fogel's on Saturday night and he demonstrated the new Gaucho DTS surround sound version on his incredible 5.1-channel system: all I can say is Unbelievable!! You hear things you never heard before... Thanks Pete!

Thank God, it appears the Ebay Police are just as stupid as the run of the mill cops......whew !

Q

Re: the Black Cow intro glitch

I listened to the track over the weekend and heard the mystery glitch. The pitch of the note is a *B* though - not a C as others suggested. This makes the "accidental brush against guitar string" theory even more likely - because the note I hear
is the pitch of the open B string.

It's odd this wasn't spotted, but it's understandable how it could have happened. Guitarist moves his fingers into position a little before the A to C hammer on, and in the process accidentally brushes the open B string.

Howard

10 songs? Hmmm. Let me check my utility belt. Nope. Alfred? Why you old codger! Too many nines for there not be a ten? Sounds good to me. I've always had a fondness for zero.

Yes! After much stuggle, I was able to get my MIDI interface working again, all by my clueless self! Now I can finish MY GB Compilation piece and prep everything for mixdown day out at Armadillo Digital...the 12/15/99 ship date is looking good! In the interest of good politics (and of not pissing anyone off), I'm going to limit all artists to one song only...even if there is some extra room on the CD. Maybe next year we can do a double album and give everyone room for two songs...thanx for your understanding.

Spent a great day on Saturday listening to "AIA", "Gaucho" & "11TOW" while blazing down the runs at Mountain High, one of our local SoCal ski resorts ~ my Y2K-compliant snowboard was a veritable magic carpet, and my legs turned to spaghetti after 14 runs! Time to put my rickety ass to bed...

I sent this email to (this piece of shit) McDode. His response is in all CAPS. I think that everyone here should write this con-man and tell him what we think of him!!!!

<< Subj: Cut It! Date: 11/28/99 12:31:58 PM Pacific Standard

McDode- The entire Steely Dan Community is on to YOU and YOUR FAKE autographs. If your not aware by now, ebay is now being policed! In our town, you're the #1 target!
ÊÊHave a nice day :)

OH REALLY? WHY IS IT THEN WHEN I PURCHASE A STEELY DAN LP OF OFF EBAY ITS REAL AND NOT A FAKE? AND YET ANOTHER SELLER HAS IT UP FOR AUCTION I BUY IT WITH A WINNING BID AND RELIST IT ON MY SITE THEN IT BECOMES FAKE. YOU ARE WASTING YOURE TIME AND YOUR OPINION. STEELY DAN I CAN CARE LESS ABOUT A $50 SIGNATURE OF A WASHED OUT BAND WITH NO NUMBER ONE HITS.YOU NEED TO GET A LIFE
AND POLICE YOURSELF.
HAVE A GREAT DAY.

Rube--Yes, they get me down. Does that suit make you look like David Byrne? In that case, come on over, I'll put on my Late Elvis jumpsuit, and we'll rock the night away.

minah--In your case I know that not posting is a sign of restraint, not of having nothing to say. How's it going? I know you're exhausted--hope you're also deliriously happy.

restless--what matters is that you get it. It's just gravy if someone else does.

Mu, No Kulee--That was my guess too. I hope so. I went through a period last summer of listening to it about ninety times in a row.

WHAT is this about "Aja" lyrics?? Of course the music comes first; Messrs. Fagen & Becker have said that themselves. But then who else writes such evocative, clever, literate, poetic, moving "filler"? I mean, this is the album with "Home At Last," one of the most spare and brilliant rock lyrics ever! And "Deacon Blues"! And "Josie," with "she prays like a Roman with her eyes on fire"! And--oh, stop me before I quote again! Just because some of it is opaque doesn't mean it's inferior. Look at all the fever dreaming around these seven tunes--more than anything else they've done. That's an indication of how rich they are. (http://home.earthlink.net/~oleander1/aja.htm)

We can discuss SD in detail AND talk about other things-I love getting diverse takes on life and SD, and find I learn a lot from both.

aja

i guess you don't understand me - Dan rules! happy now. I wrote a Master's paper on Fagen's use of the fallable narrator 10 years ago. i won't bore you with it.

Hutch; That's an unusual situation - your bass player friend marrying someone who disliked music. Perhaps it was for religious reasons. I've seen that before. What a waste.

minor world- Speak for yourself. Maybe
that's why you don't post here anymore. MOST of us have plenty to say about STEELY DAN. (THAT'S WHY WE'RE HERE!)

All of a sudden you just pop in with
your opinion. Come back in a couple of more months when you want/have something to say about the subject in matter. I like it here. Sometimes I learn MORE about Steely Dan. That's what I'm here for.

Q: part of the bands dogma included "literary pretensions" and for me (at their best) that's the major appeal - but ,hey, the musics pretty good too!
BTW - to those who complain when the conversation strays from the golden boys - some of us have said just about all we have to say over the years -isn't it good to share ideas about anything with people with whom we have ONE thing in common. You might learn something, I know I have.

FYI:
We wil be focusing on only the most terrible of items up for sale on eBay. Forbidden items on eBay:
1. Human body parts - no more kidneys, lungs, hearts, brains (no eBay user has any that are worthwhile anyway)
2. CDR's We don't care when, how, what - no more CDR's Period.
3. Toy Rocket Engines: These have to be the most dangerous items on eBay and must be banned.
4. No alcohol. We don't want the rest of the population to end up like the guy in The Onion bidding on bootleg Steely Dan CD's and complete sets of Momma's Family.
5. No firearms - don't hurt yourself now.
6. No items by anyone who has a letter Q in their name. Nuf said.
7. No Al Stewart, Celine Dion, or Sheryl Crow. These artists are considered too bogus for serious consideration on eBay.

Further banned items will be listed as they are uncovered.

why can't i find M white's comments on launch.com?

jk

fezo-I agree with you about "Aja" lyrics. That's probably why there are so many different interpretations. I think it's more fun (and personally significant) to give them one's own meaning. I don't really want to know much about D&F in "real life" because what I hear in their music speaks to me so much more the less I know. I don't want to know exactly what "Aja" is about. And that brings me to WasAZ-liked your post! I don't know if I "get it", but I love what Steely Dan music brings to me. When my sister died suddenly last year, I found that a good dose of cynicism, a shot of irony, and cautious optimism were the most soothing to my grieving soul. Now that I'm on the other side of the grief cycle, I find that Steely Dan music still expresses what I'm feeling more than any other band. And I'm having a damn good time salivating over what the new one might be like!

ruby baby-liked your take on hardware! Gotta throw it out now and again :)

Miz Ducky-liked yours, too. Interestingly, one day I was bored at work (what a surprise) so I searched "Aja" and found a link to an Indian guru. Hmmmm.

Off to go sign up for the SD newsletter! Welcome back to the workweek, all!

aja

Thanks WebDrone!

DrMu: So, did you try to match the little photos with the song titles? I had only heard of nine titles, which meant I had to guess at a tenth one. I picked I Can't Write Home About You cuz I love that one.

WasAZ: Higher awareness? I always just thought we steely dan fans shared a mysterious brain-wave frequency. It's outrageous!

Oleander: Are the shortened days bumming you? I don't like to see you all maudlin. I have this one-piece pants suit that's all baggy and silly. The kids call it my "clown suit." I must come over there wearing it, and cheer you up. We'll dance to Show Biz Kids. (Don't take pictures!)

rb

Fezo, I think you could definately argue that Aja is one of the least stimulating of Dan albums lyrically,;however, then you have to acknowledge it's overall musical genius even more !

I think Dan lyrics are generally only meant to accentuate minor messages, and provide varying backdrop for the music itself.

ebay police.....now there's a scary thought.....

Hutch
"Album", I think, is still correct.
a cd just the format. So you could say that a cd is an album. So's an LP.

say cheese!

WasAZ
uh huh. I get that. Kama here, sigh... Snowbound.. there's about 20 seconds at about 3:40 that just get me. and did someone mention OTD?

Sometimes though, I (blush) don't 'get it' , so I just sort of twitch and sway, scrunch my eyes and almost don't breathe. I guess I look a little like a caucrajian charles-smaller specs, tho. kinda freaky.

I don't find myself turning others onto SD too much. They're all still new ones to me. I think they always will be. That's probably what I like. What tends to happen here in my life is that I'll get some inkling and drop a lyric into the conversation. It's pretty rare that someone will pick it up and when they don't, I feel a little guilty for just letting it drift out there. But that happens to me, too. the other way
Someone will make some allusion and it won't be til later that I pick it up and swirl it around inside out. tasty.

one long song. sexy, sensual, sinewy, slick and wet. damn.

c

I like Tony Bennett. I only meant that in the sense that it makes SD (and me!) seem like old relics.

H.

WasAZ - Enjoyed reading your post. It's good to have you here. Of course everyone around here is about to pee in their collective pants over the release of D&W's new album. (I still call 'em albums) so this will be an interesting time to join in on the fun!
You know, I doubt if some of the people will ever get it. And I mean that in a more universal sense when it comes to popular music. Never forget that in marketing and advertising the old "K.I.S.S." rule always holds forth. Keep It Simple, Stupid. If you *consciously* write to appeal to the lowest common denominator and don't demand any brain work on the part of the consumer you'll probably do well. Outside of music, professional wrestling is the certainly a classic example. But it can get really scary... I knew a bass player a few years ago who told me he had to leave the band he was in because he was getting married and his fiance didn't want him to be in the band. I asked him why. He said, "She doesn't like music". Now, I've heard people say they didn't like Country or Jazz but I'd never heard of someone who simply didn't like music!
I really can't see why anyone wouldn't like SD's music. So much of it has that great "snare on the two and four" beat and those sassy tempos like Time Out of Mind or Countermoon. It just makes you wanna get up and dance!
Maybe since some of their stuff has been sampled (ughh) now and some younger people have gotten a taste of it, perhaps the new cd will bring about a new cult following. I hate to say it but, maybe like what's happened with Tony Bennett of late.

WasAZ: They didn't listen; they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.

very cool pic on the home page of the official site.

Actually, I wrote "Hell Bound Train." It was completely autobiographical, the story of my life before I met my wife.

Q: interesting story on the front of today's Post about ebays efforts to police the site. they've gone out and hired a guy who's a former federal prosecutor, Rob Chesnut, who actively searches the site for potential frauds and then calls up the violators. So next time McNade pops up with his fake SD stuff (Becker and Fagen, Live at Pompei), give a headsup to Chesnut.

As I type this, "Black Friday" wafts from the speakers. There's no real significance to this; Supertramp came forth just prior.

I'm sorry; perhaps there is significance.

I love Steely Dan, as it seems most of the rest of you do. How easy it is, after all, to enjoy and cherish what The Dan have done, if you "get it".

Do you "get it"? I'm not speaking cryptically - or, at least, I don't mean to. But I've found, as I make my way through these pathways I call my life, that many around me don't "get it".
That is, they don't understand the magic that is Steely Dan.
If Donald or Walter happen to read this (like they would; I feel like Ed Grimley even saying this, I must say.), they might find it amusing and somewhat pathetic, that someone would equate enjoying their music to some kind of higher level of awareness.

It's not all that heavy. I just like 'em. But people seem to always ask me why, and I can never answer them adequately (at least, for them), so I inevitably invite them to listen to a few tracks. And when they do, some of them just don't understand it. Oh sure, I try to fit the tracks played to their taste in music (i.e. guitar to guitar; jazz to jazz (the Dan's musio offering an abundance of both (or neither, depending on your point of view))). But it doesn't matter. Either they like it or they don't. And if they don't, they look at me like I'm some kind of gimp-brain (which I very well might be, though on a whole nuther level and for completely differenr reasons).

So I guess my question to all you Guestbook denizens is not "Do you get it" but rather "Is there any chance that any of "them" will someday get it"?

PS: Now "Katy Lied" is playing, and I have to ask the question again. If you don't like this song, you must be a different kind of human from me. Could it be?

Thank God I'm one of the most shallow people I know, else I would start taking even myself, much less others, seriously.

No: I'm starting to believe about "I Can't Write Home About You." Why not 10 tracks for the new one? Base ten for the millenium and Century's End. The CD would still clock in at under 60 min in all likelihood. A wonderful song. We might see "Cash Only Island" and "Wet Side Story" as B tracks on singles n'est ce pas? Thanks for the heads up SDDrone.

I'm sure "Android," "Wet Side" and the others are included as jokes. In fact, "Hell-Bound Train" was a live song written for David Palmer to sing, if I remember correctly.

I don't think they feel like joking about "Second Arrangement"

Late as usual, but I just wanna say thanx: to the WebDrone, for splashing a little life into the wait; to Life in the--that was depressing but just shows that the music biz is about like everything else; to aja & la canarde for those cool thoughts and to everyone who's contributed a fever dream; to the Titanic Troika of Dandom--Pete Fogel, Hoops!, and St. Al; and to Roy.Scam and Shak' for the Words of the Week: Laura Nyrosis and fumblature.

And to just about allaya for being who you, well, post.

jk--what are liners?

Bode Grrl--I think I'd rather let them surprise me with that one, thanks.

Whatevah--e me.

Bonus tracks???

It looks like "I Can't Write Home About You" made it. Cool!

GAS LIGHTNING ABBIE?

sheesh...

STEELY DAN: REELING IN
ANOTHER ALBUM, 19 YEARS
LATER

Two Against Nature will be the first Steely
Dan album since 1981's Gaucho. Giant
Records has announced that Two should be released on February 29,
2000, nearly two decades after the world last heard any new Steely
Dan material. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen began work on the
album following their 1994 reunion tour and have been in the studio for
the past four years.

Becker and Fagen co-produced the nine tracks, which include typical
Dan titles like "Jack of Speed," "Almost Gothic" and "Gas Lightning
Abbie." Among the session players who joined the Dan ranks are Ricky
Lawson, who has played drums on albums by Whitney Houston and
Mariah Carey, and Hugh McCracken, a guitarist who has played with
Aretha Franklin and Paul Simon.

Michael White, who has played drums for Diana Ross, also contributed
to some of the tracks. He told Launch.com about the lavish expense
and stellar cast of musos. "It was the most first-class recording I've ever
been on in my life. The money was outrageous everything was
outrageous," White enthused.

He continued: "Engineers they had the best engineers on the planet
there. The greatest rhythm section players. It was just amazing: Tom
Barney, Paul Jackson Jr., Dean Parks, John Beasley, Joe Sample it
was amazing! Great drummers Ricky Lawson, Sonny Emory, Vinnie
Colaiuta just great. It was incredible."

The band's Web site is typically mysterious about the new album's
contents. Instead of information on the nine tracks, there are instead
nine cryptic images, including an adaptation of a Roy Lichenstein
painting.

Among the documents related to Two Against Nature are a (possibly
fictional) letter from Walter Becker explaining his studio requirements.
The list includes a "Rickie Lee Jones hula doll," "Traci Lords tapes,"
and "my lucky Rainbow Wahines t-shirt collection."

A memo from the band dated January 28, 1999, (also possibly
fictional), implies that there may be no end in sight. "D & W" ask, "Are
we gonna have a shot at getting some of that good old-fashioned
paid-for-by-the-record-company PR or is this ridiculous impeachment
business still going to be jamming up the airwaves?"

The memo also says, "It seems like the days are getting longer all the
time, or maybe we're getting so much work done that it just feels that
way." For Dan fans waiting for some new music, it's been even longer.

Giant Records can do the same for me!

Giant Records can suck my big fat cock.

SDWebDrone: Thank you. Now I can kiss the rest of my sanity (and patience) goodbye. :-) No, really--thank you.

To all the rest of you: check out what else they've just added to the Official Site ...

(Is there a full moon out? I feel the need to bay at it.)

/Miz Ducky
howling with the wolves

My own personal take on the lyrics of "Aja:"

For me, the key to understanding the lyrics is the phrase "the dude ranch above the sea." That, along with the sorta-echoes-of-Bohdisattva orientalist lyrics, evokes for me certain West-Coast alternative-spirituality retreats such as the Esalen Institute, in the middle of the Big Sur region of the California coast. Now, I've never been inside Esalen, though I've driven past it once or twice; but I have heard a lot of legends about its reputation, and Esalen could quite accurately be described as a kind of organo-groovy "dude ranch above the sea." Apparently, in the 1960s and 70s it was really famous (or notorious) for overnight retreat-workshops on trendy cutting-edge personal-growth topics ... as well as all sorts of extra-curricular recreational activities with recreational substances. I doubt it's anywhere near as wild as it once was, but I Could Be Mistaken ... :-)

Anyhow, the lyrics for me turn into a kind of loose metaphorical meditation on the kind of let-go-of-the-mundane-dime-dancing-world, get-in-touch-with-yourself-and-be-groovy thang that might have happened at a place such as Esalen. The narrator of the song, of course, has the usual Dannishly ironic attitude towards such letting-go, but not so much that he isn't still willing to come a-running for the experience anyway. It's almost like he's grudgingly admitting "yeah, it's corny as all hell, but I really do get something out of those wild nights under the stars ... "

Whether the name "Aja" represents an actual woman he's running to, or is more a metaphor for the whole experience isn't so important to me as that general mood of semi-irony/semi-idealism that the song evokes.

It's also interesting to me to compare this retreat-to-the-sea with the darker, more decadent retreat-to-the-sea portrayed in "Babylon Sisters."

YMMV and all other appropriate acronyms apply.

/Miz Ducky
endevouring to "ef" the "ineffable"

aja: I like your take on aja! I always thought of "the hill" as Capitol Hill for some reason.

I have thoughts on "double helix in the sky tonight," but we need the next sentence, "throw out the hardware, let's do it right." I look at that as a techno/romantic way of saying "let's make a baby." (DNA in that double helix formation and we all love to ditch the "hardware" sometimes, right?)

rb

Greetings All:

We would like to call your attention to the launch of the *Steely Dan Newsletter*

Registered Recipients will get first notice of some pretty good stuff (IMHO) coming up in the next several months. There may even be some exclusives to registered Recipients. [Translation: Even if you get the contents of the Newsletter from some shared or disseminated source, you should definitely consider becoming a Registered Recipient yourself].

You can register at:

http://steelydan.com/newsletter.html

Please note that the information you provide at registration will be used only for activities of The Steely Dan Website and will never be given to anyone else, period. You will also be able to unsubscribe at any time.

Cheers,

SD WebDrone

perhaps of all songs by our heroes, aja is the one i've always thought is the most lyrically insignificant. the music itself drives the song both in complexity and pure length. the words seem like filler and i've never been able to find any meaning behind them

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!

oleander-more musing on "Aja": I was surprised (and interested) to read that a lot of people hear a story of a Viet Nam vet or a mental hospital in that song. What I've always envisioned when I hear "Aja" is a young man just starting out in the world, similar to Nick Carraway in "The Great Gatsby"; he's making a living among the disaffected rich ("up on the hill, people never stare, they just don't care") but is not really a part of their society ("they think I'm okay, or so they say") but part of him feels as if he's selling out something of himself ("dime dancing"). At the end of the day he runs to his true love, Aja, where he can finally be himself. I hear "Aja" as being music, an idealized woman or relationship, drugs, or any form of escape. The music changes tempo (or something like that, I'm not a musician) and becomes more dreamy and hypnotic when DF sings the Aja chorus, so that enhances the escape theme for me. As for "double helix in the sky", I have no idea what that could be!

Miz Ducky-any Stevie Ray Vaughn CD is good, but I especially like his posthumous "The Sky is Crying" because it's got some interesting songs he experimented with but didn't think suited his CD's. He has a beautiful jazzy song, "Chitlins Con Carne" which is unlike anything I've ever heard him do, and a great acoustic blues song, "Life By The Drop", which has so much soul you'd have to be dead not to feel it. This CD also contains one of my favorite musical orgasms on it ("Little Wing") and I think you'll agree with me if you haven't heard that one before!

Enjoy the long weekend!

aja

i don't know what this means. And did they memtion the name and date of the release?

> Subject: re:AAA stations and Steely Dan

>

> The two members of Steely Dan have agreed to do liners for R&R/BDS AAA

> stations prior to the release of their new single.Please solicit your

> R&R/BDS AAA stations for scripts so we can get these done in the next

> couple of weeks. I will need these scripts by early next week. Feel

free

> to e-mail them to me.

> thanks,

Also. Andy kaufman and steely dan have Hal blaine in common. He is in the new movie and he played on katy.

jk

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

kabe- They both have done nothing the last 20 years?

returned from Tampa last night to find this.

passin it along.

> Subject: re:AAA stations and Steely Dan
>
> The two members of Steely Dan have agreed to do liners for R&R/BDS AAA
> stations prior to the release of their new single.Please solicit your
> R&R/BDS AAA stations for scripts so we can get these done in the next
> couple of weeks. I will need these scripts by early next week. Feel free
> to e-mail them to me.
> thanks,

Hutch, Howard: Yes, that works and explained the prolonged nature of the sound. The seems more likely than even a brush against a string which is partially held down by a finger in the left hand (assuming a right-handed guitarist), but not all the way down to the fret board (did I say that correctly?) - or in other words the business side of the neck of the guitar.

A riddle:
What do Andy Kaufman and Steely Dan Have in common?

Yeah, that's the spot.

Even if it is "organic" in origin, I still can't believe it was allowed to remain. It seems TOO easy to make it be gone...

Hutch: thanks for the kind words regarding my Steely Dan guitar tab collection.

One thing though - for black cow, the C9 chord I wrote isn't
the one that's strummed (slowly, twice) during the intro. The chords I did for this song work well if you want to play the song on one guitar, so they try to incorporate all the key harmonic ingredients (keyboard, bass and guitar parts) into a single playable guitar part.

This is why I didn't write out the guitar riff that uses a chord that slides up and down, e.g "In the corner of my eye" - you know the bit I mean. If you try and do the "slidey bit" it's very hard to keep a nice low C on the 8th fret, bottom string.

So, I wrote out a single C9 chord (8x878x) as the best bet if you just want to strum along. Try sliding the xx878x up and down two frets, and adding the top C on the E string for the full guitar riff.

The C9 chord that the guitar strums in the intro section is, i think (from memory - don't have my guitar to check!):

x x 8 7 10 8

About your chord : 0 11 11 11 12 11

You're right, it's a devinely beautiful chord - I know it well!
It features in Zappa's "Zoot Allures". Once I discovered it there, I couldn't stop playing it!

If you look at the notes, from the bottom up, you have:

E G# C# F# B D#

now, E G# F# B D# would give us Emaj9, so with the C# (a 6th) you could call the chord Emaj9add6.

... or maybe Emaj13 (depending on what your views are on the age-old guitarist's question of whether 11ths and 13ths should *always* have a 9th in them or not!)

I'll have to have another proper listen to Black Cow to see if I can spot that glitch. Does everyone agree - it has a clear pitch, around C above middle C, and it comes just around the time of the lone snare hit, beat four of bar 2?

i.e:

Bar1:

A-C hammer-on ... funky clavinet/bass riff ... lone snare hit

Bar2:

A-C hammer-on ... funky clavinet/bass riff ... snare hit+glitch

Howard

Imagine...you hear a tiny, interesting anamoly about six seconds into the intro of a favorite song. Go ahead and buy the most expensive headphones in the world. I sell them for less! Isolate the pesky nuance and analyze its structure with the finest endosonic detonolator on the market. I invented it! So trust me on this one: It's a hang nail grazing a capoed "C" at the 5th fret. And it's an electric guitar.

Shareware and Manicures,

Shaktur Smith

Thunder- What do you mean by "thunder stolen"? Did I review the new one? Did I give away any lyrics or what the songs are about? NO I didn't! Don't worry people, I won't spoil the "surprise" for you. Wouldn't you rather hear about Donald singing Jack Of Speed here on the guestbook, rather then in some newspaper review in January?...I would!

To q only: This new one sounds GREAT!

Just wanted to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving!

BC

ole--the tax return on my bet was that I'll calculate what vital organ the government will take.

aja--hope you visit frequently. Liked your take on "Aja."

Sebastian--you're the Ginger Man, of course, but it's been so long since I read it I can't remember big plot chunks, much less any lines. That's why I'm rereading a lot of stuff lately, fluffing the neurons a bit.

David--check your e. Mazel tov on your New One. Looking forward to it.

Lynn Schwann--hey, man, my ice cream is late! Where you been?

T Muzz--Yeah, that's the inimitable Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz. At least The Dan got handsomely remunerated for its use.

Ruby--Ooh, I like that theory.

Herm--And speaking of romance, I've said it before, but my swooniest pick is "Concierto" by Jim Hall. Constructed like an act of love, about long enough to do the trick, and just gorgeous. Couple it with OTD and I'm over the top.

Happy holidays, all

Edd & Howard - Here's my theory on that glich on beat four of measure two on Black Cow.
I believe it's an open string that the guitarist touched with his thumb just before he does the second hammer on to the high C note. Of course this means he's finger-picking, not using a pick. Now, the open string he accidentally touches is indeed a C (an octave above middle C, I believe) so the problem is, since none of the open strings on a guitar (in standard tuning) is a C how is he touching an open string that's a C? I think the answer is that he has a capo on the 5th fret! With the capo on, an inadvertent touch of the open 3rd string yields a C.
Another reason I think he's finger-picking is the "plucky" sound of the C9 chord on the first beat of the 5th measure. Look at Howard's tablature for the song. (See his web-site address on my post a few scrolls ago) I think those chords... or forms of them...can all be played with a capo on the 5th fret.
Well, for what it's worth, that's my theory. I could be totally wrong, but it seems to make sense to me.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody..
Gee, TNO is Official, JW is doing a great job on Technicolor Motorhome (with the cooperation of all the musicians..), we have nipples getting hard, & panties parachuting through the air..
All this & More at Century's End...

Speaking of musical orgasms ... I was awakened about an hour ago by my clock-radio (set it so I could get up in time to start working on my Thanksgiving potluck contributions), and in my extreme grogged-out state I thought for a moment that the music waking me was the intro to an as-yet unknown SD song. YIKES!!!!

Well, of course, I woke up a little further--very quickly!--and realized it was something else entirely (turned out to be some Stevie Ray Vaughn, whose stuff I really must get to know better).

But I have to tell you folks, that split-second when I was still half-dreaming and convinced, lying there with my heart pounding out of my chest and, um, other somatic disturbances happening--MAN! What a way to wake up on a holiday!

Wow, and if that's my reaction to a false alarm, I can hardly fathom what a state I'm going to be in when I hear for-real the first single. Let alone when I first spin my very own copy of 2AN. I better start laying in some supplies. And a, erm, assistant or two ...

/Miz Ducky
wishing there was someone around to cool me with his/her fan

Re: Musical Orgasms....I always thought Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" was the musical equivalent of an orgasm. Not foreplay and all that it leads to but just from the pounding to the actual orgasm and the nice little twitches felt after the cascading waves begin to subside. And not the 45 version but the album cut. You get all those nice little aftershocks on the LP version.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it!!

Wishing all a wonderful day!

Altamira: Have you ever heard the Seventy Sevens? There's this song called "Don't, This Way." The guitars on that are so outstanding it takes my breath away. It's probably also about the saddest song I've ever encountered, but the beauty of it overcomes me so I listen to it anyhow. It's found on their outtakes album, Sticks And Stones (the only outtake album I like besides Goucho Outs.)
As for the AIA Reelin - I play it sometimes while I'm getting ready for a date. I'm not sure why, but it works just as great as my lucky perfume.

I had a dream the other night that I had a "second arrangement." Is that common? I'm kind of hoping I'm not the only one.

HappyHappy Thanksgiving

rb

Hey Howard!!
If you are who I think you are (and I think I do)you're Mr. Howard Wright, the best guitar tablature guy around!
Folks, I've said it before and I'll say it again... if you're a guitar player and you want correct tabs for SD songs go to:

www.ph.ed.ac.uk/~haw/music/tabfiles.html

Howard ~ I've got a question for you. I discovered a chord a while ago that I play around with. Actually it's used on the song I wrote and submitted to the GB Compilation CD. Unfortunately, I'm not up enough on my theory to know what the name of it is. Can you help me out?

Low E string open
5th string on 11th fret
4th string on 11th fret
3rd string on 11th fret
2nd string on 12th fret
1st string on 11th fret

So, you see, you're barring with your first finger from the 5th string to the first string on the 11th fret and placing your 3rd finger on the 12th fret just above the bar. You play all six strings with the low E open.
It's a beautiful sounding chord. What is it??

How's the weather in Scotland?
Thanks Howard!!

Hutch

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
I would like to take this opportunity to announce the arrival of a whole garage full of CD's that showed up yesterday afternoon.

If you would like to support my Indie effort please send $10 plus $3.20 priority shipping to:

David Moore Music
113 Dowling ave .
Port Charlotte, Fl. 33952

I will ship your CD post haste.
It will make a nice appetizer for the Feb release of 2AN.
I know all of you have spent more money on Lesser music.
Enjoy!

www.davidmooremusic.com
* thanks to Steely Dan .com for allowing me this soap box!

I listened a few more times last night. The closest thing I can imagine the glitch sounding like is the sound an electric door lock makes when you buzz someone in...

Hey KD, you ever seen Faith Hill? I'm inside that whenever I want. I doubt you'll ever come close.

Edd: thanks for the info. I was listening to a different bit. I'll have another listen, around the time of that snare hit at end of bar 2.

Could it be an artefact caused by a bad CD pressing? My CD copy of Aja has another small glitch near the end of Josie - it skips a tiny chunk, producing a soft click sound.

Jimmy: there is more than one time zone in the world! Not everyone has their lunch at "USA lunch time"!

Howard

JW - Watch out for falling snowcaves - better stick to the main runs - we had some bad news down here this year and lost a few good snowboarders like you.

last time I hooked up with a girl (been two months because of mono) she was playing Tim McGraw.

ugh, the things we do for.....

Hey, I've been out evangelizing. I had lunch today with a charming and intelligent man I met on the Steely Dan news group; we were exchanging some CDs. I told him about the GB and encouraged him to join in. I hope to see him here soon; I'm sure he'd have a lot to contribute. Also, when we went to lunch, Alive in America was playing on the stereo at the restaurant - now what are the chances of that happening, they usually play Grateful Dead at that restaurant. Anyway, I finaly got to here the new version of Reelin' In the Years, and I loved it.

Baller - The Captain and Tenille? Why? I'm just curious, that's all.

jk - I hope Walter will be singing a few songs, since he does sing reasonably well and he is one half of Steely Dan, but Donald does sing far better and his is the voice that most people associate with Steely Dan, so I hope he will be singing most of the songs.

Big Red - Donald is singing Jack of Speed, not Walter? That doesn't seem right; Walter always sang that song live, and since he was slated to sing some of the songs on the new CD, I figured that would be one that he would sing. Oh, so you have the New One and a big cock? Well, isn't that special!

Clas - David Duke's father lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland, not far from Rockville, Maryland, where I grew up, and not far from Washington, DC, where I live - pretty scary.

Schwinn - I remember You and Me and a Dog Named Boo - well, in my case, it's me and cats named Ahimsa, Artemis, Cerridwen, Gwynedd (pronounced "Wyneth"), Jane, and Nyja, but they have generic knicknames and one of them is Boo - they all respond to it. (Gwynedd is "Baby Boo," since she is a kitten.) But I'm not free; no one with six cats ever is.

Regarding orgasm songs - The last time I had an orgasm directly tied to a piece of music, it was J.S. Bach's "Oh Lord We Seek Thy Face." Just me, I guess. I was envisioning red tulips at the time; I have a strange reaction to tulips.

Miz Ducky - I feared that the Fox News piece might not stay up for long, so I saved the article and the accompanying photograph. I've already sent them to one person and am about to send them to a few more folks who might be interested. Fox News might change what information they present, but they can't foil those who have saved what came before. I so wish that Kulee Baba, I Can't Write Home About You, and the Second Arrangement would be on the new CD, but it doesn't seem likely at this point. Now as to what might have been recorded and might trickle down somewhere...but I shouldn't go there.

Larry - I always have admired Stevie Ray's music; I couldn't have done anything for him physically, but I'm glad that your friend did.

I went to the book/music sale at my parish on Sunday and bought a CD by someone called Owsley, simply because his name reminded me of a name I had seen here a while back. Well, it turns out that young Will Owsley is distantly related to the famous one, but he has other SD connections too - his record label is Giant, and he was once part of a band called Semantics, along with Ben Folds, who has been discussed here. Owsley's CD is marvelous, rather reminiscent of the Beatles but with his own imaginative touches as well. Unlike our boys, he plays all the instruments himself, except for the B-3 Hammond organ and the bass on two tracks. The songs are well written, both in terms of music and lyrics, and well played also. I was thoroughly delighted by the album and recommend it highly to every one.

...or clever, but my latest Freudian is probably more appropriate for "cut and paste" art.

latest BCS art crime...The Nebraska Pornhustlers moved up 2 points by taking the week off...you figure

Big Red - you've finally completely lost your mind.

Q

Happy Thanksgiving all!!

Hutch: I agree with your comments overall. Ironically, the first Dan sampling I heard was on a "song" called "eye know" by de la Soul. The album is actually quite cleve in places

For my money, the best musical representation of orgasm (except , of course, for "Oh Come All Ye Faithful"), is still the intro to "Countermoon". The horns even declare the exact moment of release. I don't allow myself to listen to it more than twice in succession.

I just found out the release date for the next Smashing Pumpkins album. You guessed it: 2-29-2000. I mentioned the possible demographic conflict to my 17 year old and he said that since he and his brother are probably the only two people in the world who listen to Steely Dan AND Smashing Pumpkins, the simultaneous release isn't likely to affect the sales of either.

You children have a good day tomorrow and count yer blessings,
RS

Balla: Your sense of humor made my night and things were going pretty well already.

Just listening and trying to suspend disbelief with "Air" on now. You have to be hearing my side-splitting laughter from there. This is cutting edge stuff - in '81 maybe. An absurd blend of Euro-disco, Abba, Kraftwerk, and the soundtrack from "The Hitchhiker" that sounds like the music you'd here in a French porn shop. The French are as a rule always most hilarious when they're not trying to be...and whose singing Jeanne, the French "Lulu"???!!!! BTW, that was a cello, I believe on Through With Buzz.

with a cough I shake it off

That's odd, this IS a STEELY DAN MESSAGE BOARD!!

orgasm : 'la danse du bonheur' by shakti - anyone who's heard it knows what I mean.

I should take that back. I do have a soft spot in my heart for The Captain and Tenille.

Later,

-B

T Muzzy - Yeh... that sampling and looping crap is pretty disgusting all right. I was in a record store the other day and I heard the intro to (what I thought was) "Bennie and the Jets". I thought... "Cool! I haven't heard that song in a while". After the intro some woman comes in singing arbitrary bull shit while the intro keeps looping. Arghhhhhh!!!

On a happier note... I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving holiday!

Hutch

I've never understood what any of you were speaking about when you mentioned the glitch in the first few seconds of Black Cow. I have always wondered what that strange flatulent noise at the end of "Through With Buzz," was all about though. It sounds like a horn instrument, but it could be someone blowing their nose. Also, what significance does this noise have to the song?

My latest music orgasm:

http://source.astralwerks.com/air/radioair.html

Try track five. It's purely in French, but very sexy and sad and beautiful. It's by Air, a band which most of you, or all of you have probably have never listened to, but then again, all you assholes care about is Steely Dan and classic rock, which I've already had my love affair with and moved on. Trust me, though, guys, check this song out, it's very nice.

Later,

-B

now i don't care if the new Steely Noballs Cd comes out at all.

I think walt should be singing a song or 2. (geez, walt I think 2 or 3 people might not buy our cd if you sing on it - Wow, don how can we make tons of money for ourselfs that way - take me off the singing!

jk

I was unfortunate enough to hear a rap song recently that has the intro to Black Cow sampled and looped. It was depressing to part of such an awesome song mutilated like that. The other day, I put on Aja and somebody said: "Oh yeah, I've heard this on the radio" only to shut up when the vocals came in.

sorry, you're bluffing the wrong guy

how can Zeus steal what already belongs to him?

Big Red, I really wish you'd, um, like, shut up, you know?

Dr Mu - thanx for the info. Is that true, plastic surgery? Scary.

re: "New Kid In Town", recording to Marc Eliots "To The Limit" that song aint about any person in reality. "It reurns the Eagles
to the more specific and accesssible turf of teenage boyland, capturing a precise and spectacular moment immediately to any guy who's ever felt the pain, jealousy, insecurity, rage, and heartbreak of the moment he discovers his girlfriend likes someone else better and has moved on..."

C, going home.

q- Fuck You! Oh, and I'm sure you're very happy that Donald, NOT Walter sings Jack Of Speed on the new one! Oh yeah, one day, 16 hours and 14 seconds left to purchase the 2AN cd. I just raised the price (just for you) to $40,000.

q, you hate it, don't you!? I have two things you wish you had, and you can't get, and it's driving you crazy! 1- The NEW Steely Dan cd and 2- a BIG cock!

See ya later fool!

JK - vodka only!........but I don't care if it's shaken or stirred......
Anyway, I think that briefcase is on ebay already.........

Do a Search under: Big Red Are You Touching My Hiene ?

YGK ~ Got your e-mail shortly before my PC started misbehaving, and have noted your song selection...that was the one I would've picked as well.

10 of 12 submissions for the GB compilation have arrived, so we're on the home-stretch here! I'm trying to get my Opcode MIDI interface to work on my new "screamer machine" to put the finishing touches on MY submission, but it's not recognizing it and I'm a complete idiot when it comes to IRQs and other PC arcana..S'ok though, had the foresight somehow to bump my music bed to my VS-880 anyway, so full-speed ahead with the 12/15/99 ship date...

It's finally been cold enough for our SoCal ski resorts to blow snow...yes! My fav resort, Mountain High opened yesterday, and your intrepid GB producer will be snowboarding his butt off this Saturday...Oowwwwwwwooooooo!

Happy Thanksgiving, All!

Did I really write "beat four of measure to"?

{dope slap}

YGK, Howard: I think we are talking about something different. I notice the subtle beat change I think...the drummer may have gotten too excited at the beginning of the song?

Edd: Sorry to bring back bad memories. While listening to the first 8 sec of the song on headphones a few times, I made the following observations:

1. If 9 o'clock is full left channel, 3 o'clock is full right channel, and 12 o'clock means equally shared between both channels - I hear the guitar at 9:30 and the glitch ALSO at 9:30.

2. I really don't hear a pure square wave function and the pitch seems to waver a bit

3. I swear I hear a little dampened resonance

All inconsistent with a purely electronic source independent of the guitar. I recall when I was small, I played some guitar. My mother tried to have my brother play the piano. He couldn't - at the time he had a learning disability that he outgrew. Mom made us switch. I was never as proficient with the keys...the old left hand always lagged behind...wish I had stayed with the guitar as I enjoyed it better. A Gibson would be a great cause for a lottery ticket. Anyway, it almost sounds like a sustained brush or knock against a wound metal string. On some guitars the middle strings are a little higher than the highest pitched string, so when one brings the pick back it can "massage" a lower pitched string. The sound would be much more easily picked up on an electric over an acoustic guitar.

Edd: I heard it - but at least its on the beat.....

Dr Mu/Edd/Audiofiles, etc: When I read that you were talking about a glitch in Black Cow, I was thinking, "FINALLY" someone heard it!
But then - to my dismay - I read that the glitch you were speaking of was something else.

I hear a distinct yet subtle tempo change in the opening of BC - in measure 3. Like a breeze pushing the beat a 'bit'.

It also seems to me that the high note in the opening is a Clav, the chord, a guitar. The Clav may be doubled with gueetar.
Your comments are always welcome.

JWMalibu: U OK? and did you get my last mail?

ygk

BTW - Howard. Just to make sure you're listening to the right thing, the abominable sound occurs approximately at beat 4 of measure to, just about the same time as the snare.

It's an electronic sounding "hum" or "buzz" pitched approximately an octave above middle C.

The glitch at approx 00:06 (where Doc Mu noted) seems gated to me. Instant on, sustain, instant off. There also appears to be no timbral development, no change in the sound over time.

I can't imagine what purpose it would serve. Or why it wasn't removed. It's horrible, horrible.

Roger, make it be gone.

Howard- Do you always have lunch at either 5:00am or 8:00am? What time is dinner?

Dr Mu:

Not sure what you mean by the "glitch" in the intro to Black Cow.
I may have understood you wrong - but this is how I hear it:

On the very first beat, the guitar plays two notes - a very quick A followed by a hammer-on to C, which is the note that sustains.
This is repeated a little later.

I'm sure that the A is intentional in both cases. As you say, it's right on the beat, and it dies quickly because of the hammer-on to the C three frets higher.

Howard

Mu: The greatest Dan deconstruction occurs between Your Gold Teeth and Your Gold Teeth Part II.

Also, I'm impressed that you still spin the black vinyl circle. It's got soul, brother!

...and ruffles have ridges...

Lynn Schwann

the lines "In that sunny room she soothes me...cools me with with her fan...we're drifting, a thousand years roll by" are from Green Flower Street, of course

Clas: David Duke is the former head (Imperial Wizard or something like that) of the KKK and a resident of Louisiana. He had plastic surgery, put his hood in the closet and ran for public office. The scary thing is that he was not far from becoming Senator and Governor.

The Mobile Fidelity Aja has graced the changer a bit the last few days in anticipation of a showdown with the re- re- remaster. I obssessed over the glitch noted by Edd sometime ago near the beginning of Black Cow until my eardrums ached. This occurs shortly before the *second* simultaneous striking of the high guitar note and the clavinet (I think - damn Mobile Fidelity). I could be wrong, but I've convinced myself that it *is* the guitar pick striking an adjacent string (that's why its a lower pitch) before that beautiful note is plucked again. It's a glancing blow (creating a dampened and plateaued attack) and right on time as if preparing or a mini-windup before the blow. Since it's right on beat the guyz left it in there - I'm sure it didn't get by them.

Couldn't figure out theough the "boinking" sound (no pun intended ladies) during the outro for Deacon Blues. I think it's Walter's guitar...but that echo thing! How the hell did he and Roger Nichols come up with that?

Miz Ducky: I'm fond of that channel vibration in NF also with the keys. There's some channel bouncing that's even more subtle after the lines "In that sunny room she soothes me...cools me with with her fan...we're drifting, a thousand years roll by"...*here* where the keys descend down each chord and from one chord to the next - gotta have a Chesterfield King after hearing that...a major highlight.

fezo: That interplay between Bernhardt and Erskine on Book of Liars is the climax of AiA. I think Walter's vocal performance is particularly strong on BOL. The new horn chart Fagen sneaks into the end of Sign in Stranger is not far behind.

Stranger- that's because you have to pay for sex. Right?

Gee, all this talk about sex makes me think about money.

Speaking of SRV, "Riviera Paradise" is about as come hither as it gets.

Also "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo".

Love Bein' a Free Man,

SEMB

Is that your *final* answer?

Gaslighting Abbie - tile 1
What a Shame About Me - tile 4
2 Against Nature - tiles 3a and 3b
Janie Runaway - tile 2
Almost Gothic - tile 5
Jack of Speed - tile 6
Cousin Dupree - tile 7
Negative Girl - tile 8
West of Hollywood - tile 9

hey with the sexy stuff:

Is that all there is? - peggy lee

Cheepnis - zappa

Tomorrow never knows - rutles

Hey q, i'm the one who stole your briefcase that can freeze a Hienken in .4 seconds ( as far as i'm concerned, for everyone's safety, all Heinekens should be frozen so that nobody can drink one).

Do you want to buy it back from me for $25,000!?

jk

You are that Q aren't you?

Miz:
Since I'm sure many of you found out you can't print the Fox pages directly, I thought I'd post the titles from the CD for those of you who might have missed them:
1. Gaslighting Abbie
2. What a Shame About Me
3. Two Against Nature
4. Janie Runaway
5. Almost Gothic
6. Jack of Speed
7. Cousin Dupree
8. Negative Girl
9. West of Hollywood

(Giant Pro-CD-10119, For Promotion Only. Not For Sale. All songs written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen)

Hermit-please post more often! Laughing out loud always makes for a particularly lovely breathless release. Perhaps it completes the surrender. I am touched (no pun intended) by your concern about my sexual gratification, but fear not; "Aja" is prefaced by many long minutes of musically sensuous pleasure, including "Snowbound", "On The Dunes", "Babylon Sisters", et al.

If seeking a jazz/fusion orgasm, I recommend Miles Davis' "In A Silent Way", the entire thing.

Miz Ducky-so it is! Hmmmm, the Boys keep throwing curve balls, don't they?

Larry-did Stevie Ray wing as well as he played?

baller-learn something, kid. This is much more fun, as tonight will be.

aja

The first 45 seconds of Don't Take Me Alive is one awesome quickie for my ears. No foreplay needed.

rb

John Klemmer's "Barefoot Ballet" is pretty cool to hump to. BTW, Klemmer is all over The Royal Scam.

Fire in the hole is my orgasm song.

Hey All,

Don't mention it. Anytime I can get other people to think about sex is my pleasure ~ as well as yours, and as many times as you can acheive it.

That Woman ~ sorry for the mess, I'll mail you a soft cloth.

My orgasm song of late is sung, (or should I say whispered), by the incomparably seductive Julie London. It's "Come On-A My House", with only bongos and a bass as accompanyment. Sweet.

aja ~ I understand your choice of "Aja" as an orgasm song in theory, but in practice, well, I just hope that the song is on a compilation tape, because it's only the second song on the album for godssake! I'm sorry, but five minutes and seven seconds of Black Cow just doesn't qualify as foreplay. At least choose, "Home At Last": that not only allows some thirty-four minutes of pre-heating, but it can also serve as a metaphor for your breathless release.

Looking over to my left, I see in the shadows a pair of white cotton panties and a chew toy. Could mean a couple of things.

Damn clues...

Later,

Herm

Musical orgasisms -- I have a lot

All of "Kind of Blue"

"Slave to Love" by Bryan Ferry

"Dulcinea" by Placido Domingo

the real long female vocal (Claire Terry?) at the end of side one of Dark Side of The Moon

my favorite Dan one of the moment is on the live version of "Book of Liars". The piano solo into Walter's last verse takes me away.

Well, this is interesting.

Someone on alt.music.steelydan tipped me off: the Fox News item about the New One is still up in the Foxnews.com archives, but the song-by-song track listing has been mysteriously edited out. Everything else is there, including the Leap Year Day date, and the two songs the columnist does mention by name, but ... hmmmmm ...

Curiouser and curiouser, said the Mam'zelle. Maybe this means "Wetside Story" and/or "Cash-Only Island" will be on this sucker after all. Ball's still in play, folks ...

/Mam'zelle Daphne Canard
your eagle-eye duckling

P.S. My favorite Dan musical orgasm changes from day to day. Right now it's "New Frontier" -- especially with headphones on, so that I get the full stimulating effect of that wacky channel-switching thang Don and Roger got going on there ...

Aja- I had this lady friend that was working as a waitress in a resturant that Stevie Ray Vaughn was hanging out at in NYC. Stevie asked her out (around 1987) and nobody was able to find either one of them for 3 or 4 days. As it turned out, my lady friend took Stevie back to her apartment in Queens where she "Little Winged" him for 72 hours non-stop! True story.

Geez Aja, now look what you've done!

After all the venom that's been spewed all over this GB, I'm glad the topic is now sex! Something fun and healthy for a change. And speaking of which, my favorite recorded orgasms are "Aja" (of course) and "Little Wing", the Stevie Ray Vaughn version. If that one doesn't come up behind you and start nibbling slowly, all over, and working its way down.....

Sociable Hermit-look at the mood you've put me in. Thank you!

aja

Hermit- What did you do? You just came all over my computer screen!

Q- 11TOW is good stuff!!

Hey Everyone,

Long time no see/hear/feel (the keypad). My computer was on the fritz for much longer than I think it should have been, but as of last night, I've finally regained my online powers. Odd, isn't it, that for thirty-four years prior, all I had was the phone, the U.S. mail, and personal contact, yet, I'm now without my MSN account for two weeks, and I feel like I'm transported back to the Stone Age. Anyway, it's good to be back.

Hello to all the oldies, and to all the newbies. February of 2000, huh? Good to see that we've been given another nostrum to appease us all for a while. I mean, where would we be without false hope? Probably in the Stephen King guest book. He's got a new one every couple of days ~ no need for panic or desperation there! I must say, though, that the idea of our boys putting out that puzzle for us is more than a little off-putting. Why spend time dangling the enigmatic carrot in front of our collective noses, why not just put out the damn album? And if you can't put it out just yet, then don't tease us, tell us. It's frustrating guys. Could you imagine being with a beautiful woman who hasn't slept with you for twenty years, but keeps leading you on with the promise that, "One of these days I will again, and it's going to be great"? And to keep you on your toes, she leaves little clues for you around the house that speculate on different positions and areas of eroticism.

I, ahh, have to go now...

Later,

Herm

Q,
Thanks. The same for Texas A&M. No problem. Check your Yahoo email.

With all of the intelligent dialogue concerning Walter's singing attributes, do you think he will sing the lead vocals on "Jack of Speed" like he he did during the 96 tour? I listened to it today twice driving in to work (terrible fog) and it doesn't sound bad - of course the live version has all of those horns and female backup singers. I won't be surprised if we haven't heard the last of Wetside story - too polished to just throw out - perhaps that extra tarck on the import CD.

maj: I don't know, man. as far as wallpaper goes, I find that image a little scary. Our heroes look like Uncle Fester and his evil crony Bart, who are planning to sneak into your house in the middle of the night and look through the underwear drawer. I wallpapered a while back the home page on sd.com. That makes for a much more soothing pic.

ruby: only requirement for the Christmas card libation is that it has a warming effect on the heart and mind.

anyone hear that Skunk is probably not going to run for Congress afterall? It seems that there are "certain lifestyle issues relating to his days touring with the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan in the 70's" that the pollsters and consultants feel would impact negatively his electability.

What kind of flowers are these?
No matter they are sweet, and remind me of my babe
But I don't know where she is
All I can recall is in the year of rat

The flowers were picked
The bees were stalled
I must have lost it in shopping mall

I keep a pen and paper next to me
And in the middle of the day write down my dreams
If I ever wonder what they mean
There's a little old lady lives across the street

She tells me things for free
These things are small
I must have lost it in the shopping mall

Schwinn - sombrero?

Dr Mu -"salt of the earth type of folks", yeah they are the best. Who is David Duke?

KD - Jackson was born in German, but he grew up in LA. So it can't be him.

Sergio - it's a rubber dick. If it's still a band too, well, we have to wait and see. But I doubt that.

BTW, do I know you from another life?

Clas, -45 and I call the world my own.

February 29!!.......Hmmmmm!! I don`t know about that, i`ll beleave it when it`s going around in my CD player!.....Anyway us fans were told that we would be the first to know about the release date on the official SD Web Site!!........REMEMBER!!!!! Fanofdan!! sorry I haven`t rang yet, I carn`t get get away from the video player! The more I watch it the better it gets!!!

Life (in the music biz),

Gosh, that makes the "Technicolor Motorhome" look really economical!

Pinchin' Pinatas,

SEMB

Guldurn you, Hoops! Posting tantalizing tidbits like that! Now ***I*** won't be able to sleep!!!

:-)

/Miz Ducky
preternaturally awake

I COUNDN'T SLEEP. Sure I know that the new one is more than three months away but tonight and lied awake as visions of the new one danced in my head. Then at midnight I had to go make do:

"Beastie Boys? Metallica?"

"No, Steely Dan reissues--'Royal Scam' and 'Aja'."

"TWO copies!?"

"Yeah, a set for me and a set for Melissa as compensation for the Viagra cake shoot."

"Allrighty--I bet you have been in line for these for the past twenty years or so\..."

"Well, in a way, I have..."

------

Hey they're here and they are great...do buy them both...the essay spans both CDs. The bass is full low and the cymbals shimmer better than ever, just like the shiny "Scam" logo and bright red as the 'Aja" logo.

If you need to make $600 this Holiday season, they got that for you in the "Aja" notes. Or maybe you want to find out out about the value of your "Pretzel Logic" re-re-remaster.

My fav excerpts so far:

Fagen: Bastard!
Becker: Liar!
Fagen: You shitheel!
Phalen: Is that you Donald?
Becker: Geuss again, dicknose
Phalen: Walter?

Buy both CDs to see how it turns out...

"We strongly urge that you return to the record store immediately and purchase vols. 1-5 of the Steely Dan reissue CDs before..."

Off to bed and a life.

Life In the Music Biz,
Wait a minute. I see catering as part of your expenses. That means you also earned some hamburgers and coffee with the petty cash. More seriously, thank you for taking the time to relay this story so well. It's an ugly but valuable education.

major.DUDE!: love what you did with the photo. I wonder if I can make it into a screen saver?

oleander: I know you're a savvy chick and have this knack for guessing, but why do I get the feeling that they peeked at the betting pool and then decided the release date? That's way more romantic.

Q: damn, the next thing we'll notice is your name in the NY Times crossword puzzle. I 'll hear my sweatheart from across the room say, "Honey, what's a 2 letter word for the hottest guy on the net, et al?" And I'll say, "Qs. But there's really only one Q." And he'll say, "Oh yeah..."

JW: You deserve an hour long massage for all you've been through.

fezo: Do you think the Christmas card writing would work as well with Cutty Sark as it does with burbon? I found some in the attic, you see...

re Aja(the song): The most beautiful description of that song I ever heard was written by YGK about a year ago. St.Al, can you run that one again?

rb

consumable supplies = weed

Am I right?

Therapy? Sloan and Stereolab

Buffalo Tom

blasts from _my_ past

not that I liked them, BT was alright

When I started playing guitar, 12 years old, I got a couple 'how to survive in the music bidness' books, I didn't tell anyone I wanted to be a rock star (besides my bitch lips), they just gave me a book...all it did was help with learning fractions and percent figures

which helped when I'm trying to figure out free throw/field goal/three point percentages...jeez my life is weird

5 of 7, 71%, I'm so sad

Life in the Music Biz- Wow, that was too real. I love reading stuff like that. I guess there's something to be said for being a nobody.
I own the gear ,write the songs,record,produce,master,have a lot of fun doing it all...and then sell them on the gigs and owe nothing to anyone.Plus ,I get to sleep in my own bed in my beautiful home...never hear me complain.
A nice break from the fantasy life the Big Guys" might" live.

Q in the Flaroom - your verbal oddysey was fun this week too! I've done business with you and you're A-OK in my book.And out of your own pocket have sought to preserve something worth preserving...you go boy.
As usual this place continues to entertain me...you guys are the best.

Oleander - where do I send your prize stuff?

David

There's this band. They're pretty ordinary, but they're also pretty good, so they've attracted some attention. They're signed to a moderate-sized "independent" label owned by a distribution company, and they have another two albums owed to the label.

They're a little ambitious. They'd like to get signed by a major label so they can have some security, you know, get some good equipment, tour in a proper tour bus: nothing fancy, just a little reward for all the hard work. To that end, they got a manager. He knows some of the label guys, and he can shop their next project to all the right people. He takes his cut, sure, but it's only 15%, and if he can get them signed then it's money well spent. Anyway, it doesn't cost them anything if it doesn't work. Fifteen percent of nothing isn't much!

One day an A&R scout calls them, says he's "been following them for a while now," and when their manager mentioned them to him, it just "clicked." Would they like to meet with him about the possibility of working out a deal with his label? Wow. Big Break time.

They meet the guy, and y'know what! He's not what they expected from a label guy. He's young and dresses pretty much like the band does. He knows all their favorite bands. He's like one of them. He tells them he wants to go to bat for them, to try to get them everything they want. He says anything is possible with the right attitude. They conclude the evening by taking home a copy of a deal memo they wrote out and signed on the spot.

The A&R guy was full of great ideas, even talked about using a name producer. Butch Vig is out of the question: he wants 100 g's and three points, but they can get Don Fleming for $30,000 plus three points. Even that's a little steep, so maybe they'll go with that guy who used to be in David Letterman's band. He only wants three points. Or they can have just anybody record it (like Warton Tiers, maybe: cost you 5 or 10 grand) and have Andy Wallace remix it for 4 grand a track plus 2 points.
It was a lot to think about.

Well, they like this guy and they trust him. Besides, they already signed the deal memo. He must have been serious about wanting them to sign. They break the news to their current label, and the label manager says he wants them to succeed, so they have his blessing. He will need to be compensated,
of course, for the remaining albums left on their contract, but he'll work it out with the label himself. Sub Pop made millions from selling off Nirvana, and Twin Tone hasn't done bad either:
50 grand for the Babes and 60 grand for the Poster Children, without having to sell a single additional record. It'll be something modest. The new label doesn't mind, so long as it's recoupable out of royalties.

Well, they get the final contract, and it's not quite what they expected. They figure it's better to be safe than sorry and they turn it over to a lawyer, one who says he's experienced in entertainment law, and he hammers out a few bugs. They're still not sure about it, but the lawyer says he's seen a lot of contracts, and theirs is pretty good.

They'll be getting a great royalty: 13% (less a 10% packaging deduction). Wasn't it Buffalo Tom that were only getting 12% less 10? Whatever. The old label only wants 50 grand, and no points. Hell, Sub Pop got 3 points when they let Nirvana go. They're signed for four years, with options on each year, for a total of over a million dollars! That's a lot of money in any man's English. The first year's advance alone is $250,000. Just think about it, a quarter-million, just for being in a rock band!

Their manager thinks it's a great deal, especially the large advance. Besides, he knows a publishing company that will take the band on if they get signed, and even give them an advance of 20 grand, so they'll be making that money too. The manager says publishing is pretty mysterious, and nobody really knows where all the money comes from, but the lawyer can look that contact over too. Hell, it's free money.

Their booking agent is excited about the band signing to a major. He says they can maybe average $1,000 or $2,000 a night from now on. That's enough to justify a five week tour, and with tour support, they can use a proper crew, buy some good equipment and even get a tour bus! Buses are pretty expensive, but if you figure in the price of a hotel room for everybody in the band and crew, they're actually about the same cost. Some
bands (like Therapy? and Sloan and Stereolab) use buses on their tours even when they're getting paid only a couple hundred bucks a night, and this tour should earn at least a grand or two every night. It'll be worth it. The band will be more comfortable and will play better.

The agent says a band on a major label can get a merchandising company to pay them an advance on T-shirt sales! Ridiculous! There's a gold mine here! The lawyer should look over the merchandising contract, just to be safe. They get drunk at the signing party. Polaroids are taken and everybody looks thrilled. The label picks them up in a limo.

They decided to go with the producer who used to be in Letterman's band. He had these technicians come in and tune the drums for them and tweak their amps and guitars. He had a guy bring in a slew of expensive old "vintage" microphones. Boy, were they "warm." He even had a guy come in and check the phase of all the equipment in the control room! Boy, was he professional. He used a bunch of equipment on them and by the end of it, they all agreed that it sounded very "punchy," yet "warm."

All that hard work paid off. With the help of a video, the album went like hotcakes! They sold a quarter million copies!

Here is the math that will explain the real story:

(These figures are representative of amounts that appear in record contracts daily. There's no need to skew the figures to make the scenario look bad, since real-life examples more than abound. Income is boldfaced, expenses are in normal type, comments are in italics.)

Advance: $250,000
Manager's cut: $37,500
Legal fees: $10,000

Recording Budget: $150,000
Producer's advance: $50,000
Studio fee: $52,500
Drum, Amp, Mic and Phase "Doctors": $3,000
Recording tape: $8,000
Equipment rental: $5,000
Cartage and Transportation: $5,000
Lodgings while in studio: $10,000
Catering $3,000
Mastering: $10,000
Tape copies, reference CD's, shipping tapes, misc expenses: $2,000

Album artwork: $5,000
Promotional photo shoot and duplication: $2,000

Video budget: $30,000
Cameras: $8,000
Crew: $5,000
>Processing and transfers: $3,000
Offline: $2,000
Online editing $3,000
Catering: $1,000
Stage and construction: $3,000
Copies, couriers, transportation: $2,000
Director's fee: $3,000

Band fund: $15,000
New fancy professional drum kit: $5,000
New fancy professional guitars (2): $3,000
New fancy professional guitar amp rigs (2): $4,000
New fancy potato-shaped bass guitar: $1,000
New fancy rack of lights bass amp: $1,000
Rehearsal space rental: $500
Big blowout party for their friends: $500

Tour gross income: $50,000

Tour expense (5 weeks): $50,875
Bus: $25,000
Crew (3): $7,500
Food and per diems: $7,875
Fuel: $3,000
Consumable supplies: $3,500
Wardrobe: $1,000
Promotion: $3,000
Agent's cut: $7,500
Manager's cut. $7,500

Merchandising advance: $20,000
Manager's cut $3,000
Lawyer's fee: $1,000

Publishing advance: $20,000
Manager's cut: $3,000
Lawyer's fee: $1,000

Record sales: 250,000 @ $12 = $3,000,000 gross retail revenue

Royalty (13% of 90% of retail): $351,000 less advance: $250,000 Producer's points: (3% less $50,000 advance) $40,000
Promotional budget: $25,000
Recoupable buyout from previous label: $50,000 Net royalty: (-$14,000)

Record company income: Record wholesale price $6.50 x 250,000 = $l,625,000

gross income Artist Royalties: $351,000
Deficit from royalties: $14,000
Manufacturing, packaging and distribution @ $2.20 per record: $550,000

Gross profit: $710,000

THE BALANCE SHEET:

This is how much each player got paid at the end of the game.

Record company: $710,000
Producer: $90,000
Manager: $51,000
Studio: $52,500
Previous label: $50,000
Agent: $7,500
Lawyer: $12,000

Band member net income each: $4,531.25

The band is now 1/4 of the way through its contract, has made the music industry more than 3 million dollars richer, but is in the hole $14,000 on royalties. The band members have each earned about 1/3 as much as they would working at a 7-11, but they got to ride in a tour bus for a month.

The next album will be about the same, except that the record company will insist they spend more time and money on it. Since the previous one never "recouped," the band will have no leverage, and will oblige.

The next tour will be about the same, except the merchandising advance will have already been paid, and the band, strangely enough, won't have earned any royalties from their T-shirts yet. Maybe the T-shirt guys have figured out how to count money like record company guys.

Walter, please book the E-Center in Camden, NJ for another "...damn fine night..." and then Garden State Arts Center so I can hang with Vin the Shotman.

For anyone jones-ing for a Dan fix -- no, not a copy of the CD -- head over to this URL. Copy the image. It'll make great wallpaper. I added some text over the picture. Enjoy.

http://careerfrontier.net/dan_promo.jpg

Kinky's girlfriend with a beard, that was funny.

maj©

My wife and I fell in love to Aja many times........

It is the best 7 min 56 sec. ever recorded.....

Certainly the best musical analog of an orgasm EVER produced.

Sorry if a "sold you out" Big DanFan......it was a neccesary evil....thanks for going along...

JoeP. is still THE MAN.

Sorry to hear about the bus accident. Bless all at PSU.

Q

oleander/Hank Silvers-found it, thanks! Lots of material for thought and interpretation. Will be visiting often. My 2 cents as I was reading people's interpretations of the song "Aja": I've never thought "Aja" was a woman, but rather any form of escapism from the ordinary and mundane ("dime dancing"). Is it not the most beautiful 7 minutes 56 seconds ever recorded?

Hutch-I'm with you!

Is the food fight over now?

aja

the Reprise site has been updated:

http://www.repriserec.com/newreleases.html

tour site wish: Ariel Theater at Bayou Place in Houston...part of the newly refurbished downtown. Excellent acoustics. Fourplay was there recently

Hey, StAl -- glad you made it home from Comdex in one piece.

Yeah, I've been going insane with new-album delirium too. And anticipation of the triumphal tour ... I'm stoking up the savings acount and emptying out the credit cards NOW, because I know for damn sure that one show is ***not*** going to be enough. And none of this seats-on-the-lawn crap. I wanna be close enough that I can throw the Guys roses.

/Miz Ducky
revealed as a True Romantic

Re: Chick Corea - an under-achiever. Still playing like he did 20 years ago ( nice when it started) -just listened to 'Best of Return to Forever' -welll... don't reallly want to say

Who the hell Steely Dan is?

KIDS!

Sheesh!

Besides Q, Walters voice is like a fine bottle of cheap wine. It's an acquired thing.

I don't know about everyone else but the excitement and anticiaption makes up for half the fun. I don't want to hear it until it's official. Like opening your Christmas presents on Christmas Eve. Just aint the same. I hate the month of February. Now I actually have something to look forward to.

Like Hoops says, my nipples are getting hard just thinking about this Summer. I just spent a couple of days at a convention in Vegas. This time I'm flying down there. House of Blues this time?

And then there's the Gorge...

Pat