Merry Christmas from Santa and Rose (part 11)

(from the Paul-dolph, The Red-Cheeked Daddy department)

Hi everyone,

We're on top of it this year!  Lights outside the house - festive spirit inside the house - and Santa photo taken early!

Again - this has been a transitional year for us!  But - a great year as well!  Plus - Rose is 10!  How did that happen??

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Pietromonaco family!

Cheers,
Paul

P.S.  No new shirt this year.  It's just too festive!

Steely Dan - Album By Album - Everything Must Go

(from the Everything Must Go department)

This might be the last review I completed - I'm still going through the archives.  Sadly - this is probably the last of the studio Steely Dan albums, since Walter Becker has passed.  I do hope that Donald releases some of the Steely Dan outtakes.  There aren't many, but there are a few - Steely Dan was playing live versions of these songs at some of their final shows with Walter.

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

Passenger Lizzy: What's the deal with Everything Must Go?

Walter Becker: It's a god-damn party record! You know what I mean? 

Passenger Lizzy: Yup

Walter Becker: It's like up! You know, the tempos are good. The lyrics are, you know, sparkling and, you know, bright and scintillating. Even the grim depressing ones, you know - which there, lord knows there's plenty - are just kind of, you know, make you want to dance or something.

- Taxicab Confessions DVD from the CD/DVD of Everything Must Go
​

And so - as far as we know - we come to the last Steely Dan album: Everything Must Go. I know I'm in the minority here - but I think this is a terrific album, and a perfect swan song for them.

At the time, I don't think anyone but Don'n'Walt knew it was their last - but - boy - in retrospect - did they lay it out for us.

Starting with the very first track The Last Mall. I think it's worth printing the lyrics here:

Attention all shoppers 
It's Cancellation Day 
Yes the Big Adios 
Is just a few hours away 

It's last call 
To do your shopping 
At the Last Mall 

You'll need the tools for survival 
And the medicine for the blues 
Sweet treats and surprises 
For the little buckaroos 

It's last call 
To do your shopping 
At the Last Mall 

We've got a sweetheart Sunset Special 
On all of the standard stuff 
'Cause in the morning --that gospel morning 
You'll have to do for yourself when the going gets tough 

Roll your cart back up the aisle 
Kiss the checkout girls goodbye 
Ride the ramp to the freeway 
Beneath the blood orange sky 

It's last call 
To do your shopping 
At the Last Mall 
​

They touch on it all, don't they?

• Drugs? "Tools for survival - and the Medicine for the Blues" - check.  
• Steely Dan Skeevy-ness? "Sweet treats and surprises for the little buckaroos" - check.  
• Post apocalyptic wasteland a la King of The World? "Ride the ramp to the freeway Beneath the blood orange sky" - check.

Plus - using the live band from the 2vN tour, this doesn't sound robotic. Almost sounds like a real band playing - which it was at this point. Just like on their first albums. 

Also of note - Walter and Donald play on every track. Again - this is something that ties it back to the beginnings of Steely Dan. And - just like then - recorded on analog tape, no less. Sure - I think there may have been some digital editing here and there - but still. 

(In fact, I know there was digital editing: Steely Dan 'Everything Must Go' | Mixonline )

Next up - Things I Miss the Most. Part tongue in cheek - part true regret. Another stellar tune on this album.

Blues Beach is a swinging tune. You kind of need it after the 1 - 2 punch of the opening. Plus - it has some interesting chord changes going on in the background. Again - exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to hear more of on 2vN. Maybe not the ultimate track of all ultimate tracks - but far more interesting to me than the low points on previous albums. Donald has mentioned it's kind of a successor to Deacon Blues:

To me it had a lot more in common with “Deacon Blues” and the idea of a sort of bohemian utopia. In “Blues Beach,” the guy definitely has mixed feelings about the place once he gets there - hence the line “the long sad Sunday of the early resigned”.​

Godwhacker I take at pretty much face value. They've denied it's about George W.:

Q: Is ‘Godwhacker’ George W. Bush?
WB: Somebody else asked us that, but no, we didn’t think of that.
DF: We were just thinking of the Western deity –
WB: Mr. Big –​

Donald has also said:

"One more word about my mother: She died horribly of Alzheimer's. One time, after not seeing her for a while, I visited her in a nursing home in Ohio. As I walked towards her, she stared at me with great interest and then said, "You know, I've always liked you very much." Not long after that, she was gone. How do you like that?

A couple of days later, I started writing a lyric for this song "Godwhacker," which Walter and I completed and recorded for a Steely Dan CD. It's about an elite squad of assassins whose sole assignment is to find a way into heaven and take out God. If the Deity actually existed, what sane person wouldn't consider this to be justifiable homicide?"
​

I dig everything about this song - especially the melody and tasty guitar licks. I really enjoy it when I hear it live, too. It's been a mainstay in their sets for quite a while now.

Next up - the first real, official Walter Becker vocal on a (non-live) Steely Dan album. Slang of Ages is a perfect Walter song, with his trademark lyrical point of view and wordplay:

These tabs look iffy -- you say they're good 
Let's roll with the homeys -- knock on wood  ​

I really appreciate the care they took on his vocal here. It really works - and plays to his strengths. I was kind of hoping they'd use this as a blueprint for future Walter vocals, but - sadly - not to be.

Green Book - enigmatic porn sexiness. Catchy too. I think this one is better left less analyzed.

Pixeleen - it can be interpreted on many levels. To me, it kind of sounds like the narrator is watching a perfect Computer Generated female action hero movie, while his daughter talks on the phone. At the very end - it kind of sounds like a prescient inditement of the Hollywood casting system. Maybe that's even his kid in trouble? Or he's imagining if his kid were in trouble? Not exactly sure - but somehow, I kind of understand this song - maybe not on a conscious level - but I get it.

Now - one of my favorite songs on the entire album - Lunch With Gina. Dang - this song is great. Catchy as all get out - and the lyric writing structure is superb. Told in backwards chronological order - Memento style - it's about a relationship that's gone dangerously off the rails. Kudos to the soloing on this track too. Just jumps off the record in the best way.

And - finally - the title track Everything Must Go. Donald and Walter's farewell to Steely Dan and the work they'd created together. The last bit sums it all up, to me:

Can it be the sorry sun is rising 
Guess it's time for us to book it 
Talk about the famous road not taken 
In the end we never took it 
And if somewhere on the way 
We got a few good licks in 
No one's ever gonna know 
'Cause we're goin' out of business 
Everything must go 
​

For me - a victory lap of an album. One that stands firmly with their 70's releases, finally escaping from the prison they'd been in since Gaucho.

Again - I know I'm in the minority here. Most folks hear this one and think - huh - half assed Dan. But - to me - there's nothing further from the truth. They really had come to the end of their time together, and managed to put out one more record - a valedictory set. And - then - they were gone.

Everything Must Go.

Cheers,
Paul

Steely Dan - Album By Album - Two Against Nature

(from the It's A Thin Line Between Love And Hate department)

This was the hardest for me to review.

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

Honey how you've grown
Like a rose
Well we used to play
When we were three
How about a kiss for your cousin Dupree?

Yes - it's time to review Two Against Nature (aka 2vN).

It's been hard for me to approach this album. Unlike any other album in their catalog, I both love and hate this one.

So - Hate First, I guess:

Man - this album is even more hermetically sealed than Kamakiriad. I simply cannot detect one note out of place in the backing tracks. It literally sounds like you gave a robot a Steely Dan algorithm and this was the result.

Some folks have used the words "slow grower" with this one. That's a very apt description. Even more so than Gaucho in some ways, this one's all about The Sound© and The Groove®.

Melodies are too subtle. I'm not sure I could sing anything from memory from the final stretch of the album. Songs like:

Janie Runaway - almost too cute lyric about hooking up with a runaway. Narrator's "skeevy"-ness to the fore. Melody almost annoyingly cute. Technically - there's nothing wrong with this track - but this almost seems like something that escaped Don'n'Walt's quality control filters.

Almost Gothic - I wish I were able to pull this one apart lyrically like others have. Unfortunately, to me, it just sounds like a love song about a slightly unpredictable partner. Possibly more Donald than Walt - nothing particularly memorable except for some tasty chord changes here and there. There's nothing wrong with it - there's nothing exceptional about it either.

Negative Girl - Another one that seems to evaporate after a listen. Lyrically clever - but - darn it - just not memorable. I don't know where these songs came from - are they Kamakiriad out-takes?

West of Hollywood - Wow - bland end to an album. It's pretty - I'll give you that. (More about this in a minute.)

Finally - It's the Steely Dan album I play the least - the absolute least.

So - Love Second:

Anyone expecting a half-baked Steely Dan album was stunned by this one. Lyrically, Don'n'Walt brought their "A" game.

Right off the bat we get Gaslighting Abbie. If you weren't aware of what gaslighting is, this song made it clear. One of the strongest songs on the album, married to one of the strongest lyrics. It almost feels like you're watching a 6 minute noir mini-movie.

The next song is even stronger.  What A Shame About Me is definitely one of the strongest songs they've ever recorded. And - unlike other songs - it sounds strangely autobiographical. I get the sense it might be Walter summing up where he found himself at that stage in his life - moreso than Donald. And the little musical call back to My Old School is genius.

Two Against Nature - the title track - is next. Musically this one is very strong - lyrically almost too dense. The lyrics are almost more like a instrument playing through the track - one of the few Steely Dan songs where I don't really care what they're saying, although a quick glance at a lyric sheet seems to indicate that they're about voodoo or dark magic or something equally spooky. Maybe it's better I don't know...

Jack of Speed - probably the highlight of the album. Perfection from start to finish. Even has a little bit of a morality play in the lyrics. Strong melody - strong lyrics. Love this track.

Unlike some reviewers, Cousin Dupree does not bother me. Oddly enough - it's one of the highlights. Definitely seems to have Walter's sense of humor, although Donald has called it: "A kind of traditional fun country sort of tune, yeah we have a little story in there that you know - that's a little - as my father would say - risque" on the Plush TV Jazz Rock program. And - wow - talk about catchy. Wouldn't you know that this is the one I can sing any time?

West of Hollywood - Wow - great end to an album - instrumentally. I love the sax outro on this one - one of the few improv moments on the record. It seems like real musicians for a change.

So - there you have it. Love and Hate. Peace and War. Two Against Nature.

I don't know where I'd even rank this one. Initially it was going to be my lowest - below even The Royal Scam. Now, after re-listening to it a few times, I'm not so sure. I am sure, though, that I'm glad they made it. The world would be a lot poorer without the return of Steely Dan and this album.

And - also - the best art is supposed to challenge us. And this album does that. It may be the perfect Steely Dan album - it may be the worst. It may be both at once - like all great art can be.

But like this is Lower Broadway
And you're talking to a ghost
Take a good look it's easy to see
What a shame about me
What a shame about me

Cheers,
Paul

Steely Dan - Album By Album - Kamakiriad and 11 Tracks Of Whack

(from the Surf and/or Die department)

We're reviewing the solo albums released just before Steely Dan reformed.  Donald - and for the first time - Walter both released albums and also produced each other's records.  They're kind of like different perspectives into the Steely Dan whole, so I decided to review them together instead of separately.  This was the result.

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

Snowbound
Let's sleep in today
Wake me up
When the wolves come out to play
Heat up
These white nights
We're gonna turn this town
Into a city of lights

Welcome neighbor - buckle in! As I ease my new Kamakiri into traffic, let's spin some tunes. Here - enjoy some fresh veggies from the hydroponic garden in the back. While we're munching, let's listen to the new discs from Donald Fagen and Walter Becker.

Up first - Kamakiriad. This is Donald's return from the writer's block wasteland. Superficially - it's a story about a futuristic journey in some sort of possibly post-apocalyptic wasteland. It's also a metaphor for the trials and travails of middle age.

I must admit - I'm more in love with the concept of the album than the album itself. When I read what Donald has to say about the album - it sounds amazing. But there's a sameness to the tracks. Donald mentions it in his interviews - he perfected the groove in the demos then kept it in the finished tracks. To me - that gives the album a demo feel - even though there's a lot of overdubs.

Also switching from Gary Katz to Walter Becker as a producer seems to have taken some of the air out of the arrangements. Now it's hard to say if Donald would have returned to music without Walter - it seemed like they both helped each other escape the long shadow of Gaucho. But - for me - when Donald started producing himself, he started backing off the sterile feel.

The album starts off strong with Trans-Island Skyway. Lyrically it sets up the whole Kamakiriad concept - musically it just swings. Countermoon is next - more catchy than it appears on first listen. But - already - the album concept seems almost discarded at this point. Springtime is next - I don't mind the track - but I'll be darned if I can remember the chorus. (Looks it up) Oh yeah. Right.

Snowbound - the long awaited return of Steely Dan. Except that it's not. Still - definitely one of the high points of the album. And Donald's right - the lyrics that he and Walter worked on about the icecats are a blast.

Tomorrow's Girls should be more memorable - the video certainly is! The lyrics are a blast - but again - the sameness of the melody makes it hard to remember without looking at the lyric sheet. Same with Florida Room.

The album finishes with On The Dunes. That's an album closing track worthy of the Trans-Island Skyway opener. Except that it isn't. Weird. The actual last track is Teahouse On The Tracks which is pretty catchy.

The album is definitely a slow grower. I like it more now that I did when I first heard it. However - it does seem like the weakest of Donald's solo albums to me. Not that it's a bad album - just - maybe a product of its time.

Anyway, neighbor - relax and enjoy the ride. As the last notes of Teahouse fade away - the Kamakiri autodisc loader queues up 11 Tracks Of Whack. Walter Becker's first solo album.

Now - this is interesting. Where Donald's solo albums tend to have overarching literary concepts, Walter's doesn't. Right off the bat, we're back in Steely Dan territory - specifically the low-lifes and bottom dwelling denizens we all know and love. Kicking off with Down In The Bottom - I feel right at home. Sure - it kind of sounds like a demo - but who cares? With lines like:

In case you're wondering it's alive and well
That little habit that you left with me
Here in the suburbs where it's hard to tell
If I got the bear or if the bear got me

I love it. Super catchy too! But - that's just the introduction to Walter's world. Up next? Junkie Girl! Just as catchy - and somehow even more darker. So far, Walter is two for two. But - the centerpiece of the album is up next.

Possibly one of my favorite tracks in their whole catalog - Surf and/or Die.

The lyrics - a poem Walter wrote about a friend who died suddenly - set to prayers from Tibetan monks. Blows my mind every time I hear it. And - ever since Walter's passing - these lines just hit me like a ton of bricks:

And I know that some day you'll be showing me those blankets
All covered in glory on the hereafter side, saying
There was never any question, it was always all or nothing
Surf and/or die

Damn it Walter.

Book Of Liars is next. This track continues the string of great songs on the first side. I will note that the Steely Dan arrangement on Alive In America is more sympathetic to Walter's voice. In fact, that's the one complaint I have about this album. For some reason, Walter believed he couldn't double his vocal like Donald did. I remember reading this: Interview with Steely Dan’s Walter Becker (2008) 

When we first started to do this kind of stuff, and when Donald and I were writing songs and showing them to people, I sang a lot of the songs because I sang much louder. I liked to sing. Donald was sort of playing the piano and hunched over the piano and didn’t sing as loud. It was only when we actually really got in the studio and I heard his voice and heard my voice that I realized what a great singer he was and what a ****ty, out-of-tune singer I was. Now, at that time I was smoking two or three packs of Camels a day. Not to say that I still don’t have problems with that, but I just didn’t have that pitch thing down. And when you get to the point of recording, that really counts. And I saw that Donald had a really cool style, and that he could do all kinds of fancy intervallic things, and as we later discovered a little further down the line, he could create these stacks of harmonies that really added a lot to what we were doing. And not everybody can do that; he can do it partially because of the precision and repeatability of what he does. He can double his own voice because he basically sings the song the same way every time: He has a perfect picture in his mind of what the song is going to be.
​

What I notice especially on this album is they put Walter's voice front and center - almost by itself. It's too far forward in the mix - with no background singers most of the time. I think that with a more sympathetic producer, this "in your face" aspect of Walter's vocals would have been better managed. Certainly Larry Klein's production in Circus Money was a step in the right direction. I'm going to hold off on further discussion of Walter's vocals until we get to Everything Must Go. Just noting this and moving on to Lucky Henry.

Lucky Henry - what an odd melody and time signature. Took a bit - but yeah - I find this song catchy as heck! Moving on to a triple punch of Hard Up Case, Cringemaker, and Girlfriend. All great songs - but now the demo-like qualities of the recording are starting to show. Each track is sort of a lesser return on a common theme. This is an album that seems to be best taken in small doses - not as an aggregate whole.

I'm still digging into My Waterloo, This Moody Bastard and Hat Too Flat. For some reason, I'm still unlocking the final part of this album. It's almost like album burnout.

But - Little Kawai - wakes me back up and ends the album on a great note. Leave it to the most cynical member of Steely Dan to write the most heartfelt lyric - to his real-life son. At the end of the day, Walter was the biggest softie of all:

In the morning in spite of everything
We'll go driving in our car
Straight to IHOP where it's well-known
The world's junkest pancakes are
Maple syrup on those french fries
They say it's no good for you

But you're still growing
Little Kawai
What do they know
Do they love you
Not the way that I do
Not the way that I do

Truer words from a father to a son were never written. My daughter and I have made almost the identical IHOP trip.

So - two different albums from the masterminds of Steely Dan. Almost the perfect division between the two: Donald's the more professional, tuneful, polished - Walter's the darker, deeper, oddball. Put them together - you get Steely Dan. At this point - greater as a whole than the sum of its parts. But - that would change in a number of years.

Anyway - it's probably time to get off the Trans-Island Skyway for a while, and pull in for the night. It's been great travelling with you, Friend. We'll meet again at the signpost on the frozen river - just over there at the "Steely Dan":

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

Cheers,
Paul

Steely Dan - Album By Album - The Nightfly

(from the Well we're gonna have a shindig department)

Okay - okay - I know - this isn't a Steely Dan album.  It's a Donald Fagen solo album.  But - we're doing all of the albums - including solo projects.  So - this one's in!

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

"I'm Lester the Nightfly
Hello Baton Rouge
Won't you turn your radio down
Respect the seven second delay we use"

Well - radio listeners - you're just in time for Lester The Nightfly's review of Donald Fagen's The Nightfly.

In some ways - this is the ultimate reaction to Gaucho. Gaucho kind of ended up being a final statement from the original pairing of Don'n'Walt - kind of a weird goodbye to the 1970s. Now each of the Dan was free to follow their own destiny for a while. Walter went to Hawaii to regain his health and sanity - Donald ended up diving deep into the studio to tell a story of his youth and lose some of the snark he'd developed over the years.

The tone of The Nightfly belies its composition. According to Wikipedia: "Sessions often stretched long into the evening; Fagen would often refer to this as 'being on the night train.' In the end, the album took eight months to record, and was mixed in 10 days."

Kicking off with I.G.Y. - an acronym for International Geophysical Year - Donald immediately sets the tone of the album. Not burned out and cynical like Gaucho - but optimistic - looking towards the future. He couples these upbeat lyrics with an amazingly hummable melody - and BOOM we're in new territory. The sparkle of the brand new 3M digital system just about seals the deal.

Green Flower Street follows next - one of the more story-like narratives that Gaucho attempted, but this time - it works. The melody leaps out of the speakers - and so does the keyboards.

Ruby Baby - the only cover on the record - is next. I didn't want to like this one - but it's so darn infectious - I ended up loving it anyway. To me - it has a big band swing sound - brassy horns and sassy backup singers.

Maxine finishes out the side - quiet slow gorgeous harmonies - and yeah - quite possibly Donald's best vocal performance(s). Teenage angst and yearning at its finest. The fact that it was created from a discarded drum track just blows my mind.

New Frontier starts out side two. Burbling synth groove perfection - and one of my favorite Donald lyrics. The melody and the story are amazing - and the little touches - the tiny voice singing "Brubeck" in the background after Donald's Brubeck line - amazing. Easily one of my favorite tracks in all of Donald's work. I spent eons analyzing the words in this one: Ambush and a French Twist - I hear you're mad about Brubeck - I like your eyes, I like him too - etc. The eager young suitor as narrator. And - the promo video on the CD Video I mentioned earlier? Also terrific - and still looks amazing today - even converted to HD on YouTube.

The Nightfly was a track I had never really paid close attention to - until I saw it live this year. Then - I really clicked with the lyrics. Now - it's one of the highlights of the album for me. Like reading a pulp novel - set to a great melody.

And speaking of pulp novels - probably my second favorite song on the album - The Goodbye Look. For me - the narrative drive of the lyrics really makes this one. I find the melody as compelling as the other songs - but the lyrics - wow. They're kind of like the culmination of the story of tropical lowlife of Doctor Wu and Here At The Western World - only this time - he knows what's up and he has to get the hell out of that un-named country.

Finally - Walk Between Raindrops. This is the only disappointing song for me on the record. And - it's not a major disappointment by any means. I like the song - it just sounds like anyone could have written it. Which is its charm, I suppose. Donald finally writes the "standard" he'd been hoping to write. Still insanely catchy - and fits perfectly - just... not quite... my jam... I guess...

So - yeah - probably one of the strongest Steely Dan albums that's not a Steely Dan album. Right up there with Aja and Katy Lied for me - even though - lyrically - it's the complete opposite of cynical and bitter. (Which I do happen to normally enjoy - almost too much 😊 )

It also seemed to point to a new future for Donald. Instead - it turned out to be his curtain call for a long time. As he put it, it was the culmination of "whatever kind of energy was behind the writing I had been doing in the '70s.".

Next up - 11 years of... well... not much...

Stay tuned though - in a decade, with the help of therapy, Donald will beat the writer's block he's been struggling with - and finally reconnect with Walter, driving in his Kamakiri.

In the meantime, I'm Lester The Nightfly - signing off... reminding you that we're...

"An independent station
WJAZ
With jazz and conversation
From the foot of Mt. Belzoni"

Cheers,
Paul

Steely Dan - Album By Album - Gaucho

(from the Holding the Mystical Sphere department)


This one's pretty complete.  No real explanation required.

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

Okay - without further ado - the Gaucho review.

Now - in 1980 - I had started High School. (We had 3 year Junior High and 3 year High School - yup - that's the way it was back then!) I remember hearing Hey Nineteen on the radio - and going "Ugh - what the hell happened to the Rikki and the Peg guys? This song is plodding as hell and a complete downer." Also - I wondered "Why is he whining about a 19 year old? Dude - you be kind of creepy." In retrospect, it's hard when you're a teenager yourself to sympathize with the protagonist in that song.

Then - John Lennon was assassinated a month later - and I became a rabid Beatles fan with no more time for Steely Dan. 😞

Flash forward to post-2000 me. I had purchased all of the albums and the Showbiz Kids compilation. I was discovering all the joys of Katy Lied and The Royal Scam - which I had never heard in their entirety before. But - Gaucho - ergh.

I did at least listen to the Gaucho cuts on Showbiz Kids. I remember thinking "Hey - this Babylon Sisters is pretty good. Hey Nineteen is now tolerable - at least I kind of get where he's coming from now. Hey Time Out Of Mind is really catchy. What the hell is this plodding Third World Man?"

So - finally I took the plunge and listened to the whole thing.

My review? Overall? Plodding and lifeless.

Babylon Sisters is amazing - one of the highlights. Hey Nineteen - I recognize it as a classic. Yes - it's a highlight of the live shows. No - it's still not a runaway fave - but over time - yeah - I dig it. Glamour Profession and Gaucho work better as stories than songs to me. Yes - the groove is good, if a bit mechanical - but man - the melodies are locked into step, if you will. Time Out Of Mind is my second highlight - still love the melody and groove in this track.

My Rival suffers from the same prioritization of groove over melody, but the lyrics are fun. Let me print them for a second:

The wind was driving in my face
The smell of prickly pear
[My rival - show me my rival]
The milk truck eased into my space
​

So - I take this as a guy locked in a suburban hell. Just an average Dad, living a boring life - fighting milk trucks for parking spaces. He tries to spice up his life by imagining himself as a Sam Spade-like detective:

Somebody screamed somewhere
I struck a match against the door
Of Anthony's Bar and Grill
I was the whining stranger
A fool in love
With time to kill
​

Keeping on with the Sam Spade, bad-a** detective motifs:

I've got detectives on his case
They filmed the whole charade
[My rival - show me my rival]
He's got a scar across his face​

Oops - we're back to reality - his imaginary rival is probably a retiree walking by.

He wears a hearing aid

Sure he's a jolly roger
Until he answers for his crime
Yes I'll match him whim for whim now
​

Now we get to his real rival - for his and his wife's affections - his own toddler son:

I still recall when I first held
Your tiny hand in mine
[My rival - show me my rival]
I loved you more than I can tell
But now it's stomping time

Sure he's a jolly roger
Until he answers for his crime
Yes I'll match him whim for whim now
​

Basically - there's two rivals in this song - the imaginary rival he creates to keep himself engaged. And his real rival - his toddler. 😃

Wish the melody was a bit more compelling for this one - I love the lyrics and the various interpretations you can create. 😃

Finally - Third World Man. Melody is okay - lyrics kind of obvious somehow. The first draft lyrics to this tune - then called "Were You Blind That Day" - weren't better or worse - just different. The Third World Man lyrics are more imaginative, to be sure - the imagery is kind of cool - but they don't seem to really go with the melody behind them. Ends the album on kind of a wrong note.

So - yes - Gaucho is not one of my fave Steely Dan albums - ranks even below The Royal Scam for me. That being said - even the worst Steely Dan is better than a ton of other bands. And - yes - the surround mixes are fun. Sad way to see the run of the original Steely Dan 7® albums end - but then - we get the gift of The Nightfly.

Cheers,
Paul

Steely Dan - Album By Album - Greatest Hits

(from the Here At The Western World department)

We're not supposed to tackle compilations yet - but I did anyway.

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

Well - before I tackle Gaucho - let's talk about Greatest Hits. 

Yes - I know the rules - but this one in particular seems like it should be discussed here - as opposed to a compilation section later. A few reasons in my head for this:

1. It was released while the band was an ongoing concern, instead of posthumously. 

2. Don'n'Walt picked the tracks. 

3. They added a unreleased cut. 

One thing that I keep in mind with compilations like these are how they affect subsequent release(s). An example of this might be the The Beatles - Hey Jude compilation album. There's a theory that the inclusion of "Don't Let Me Down" on that record may have been the reason Phil Spector left it off of his assemblage of Let It Be.

So - according to the Steely Dan FAQ:

With the phenomenal success of "Aja," Donald and Walter are under considerably less pressure to release new material quickly. ABC releases a Greatest Hits package in November 1978 which includes one unreleased track "Here At The Western World." This collection also goes platinum and reaches #30 on the charts. Tiring of the L.A. scene, Becker and Fagen move back to New York to start recording their new album.​

The track selection on Greatest Hits is top notch - especially considering the restrictions of the double album vinyl format, and the large amount of material they had to cover. 

Basically, if we break it down:

1. "Do It Again" 
2. "Reelin' In the Years"

Two cuts from Can't Buy A Thrill - both A sides of the US released singles

3. "My Old School" 
4. "Bodhisattva" 
1. "Show Biz Kids" 

Three cuts from Countdown To Ecstasy - both A sides of the US released singles and a deep album cut as a bonus.

2. "East St. Louis Toodle-oo""
3. "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" 
4. "Pretzel Logic" 
5. "Any Major Dude Will Tell You"

Four cuts from Pretzel Logic - both A sides of the US released singles, a B side and a promo single! Somebody knows how to sequence compilations!

Yes - Toodle-Oo was a promo single - not just a deep album cut. The promo sleeve is fascinating - it's just text: "A Special Programming Serivce. Steely Dan recorded their first instrumental a few months ago. It was a labor of love and it was a Duke Ellington song - as a matter of fact his one-time theme song "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo". We thought you might like it." That sounds like Don'n'Walt text to me.

1. "Here at the Western World" 

Genius track - criminally overlooked when it was recorded. Added to the double album lineup as both a carrot to entice hard-core DanFans to pick up the album, and also as a natural side 3 kickoff. It stands strongly with the official "Hits" on this album, and sounds "of a piece" with the songs following before and after it. 

Also - I don't think there's anything tricky about the meaning of the verses:

Down at the Lido they welcome you
With sausage and beer,
Klaus and the Rooster have been there too,
But lately he spends his time here.

Hanging with the mayor and all his friends
And nobody cares,
Where the sailor shuts out the sunrise
Blacked out on the stairs​

Basically - the narrator is already at The Western World - and he's talking about a nicer place he used to go to - The Lido. I parse this as Klaus still goes to the Lido, but the Rooster now hangs out at The Western World with the Mayor, the Narrator, and all of his friends. A drunken sailor passed out on the stairs - skinny girls - it kind of sounds like a 3rd world bordello to me - possibly Argentina with the strange German names. This verse really cinches it for me:

Ruthie will give you the silver key
To open the red door:
Lay down your Jackson and you will see
The sweetness you've been crying for ​

Yup - it's a bordello. Moving on...

2. "Black Friday" 
3. "Bad Sneakers" 
4. "Doctor Wu" 

Three from Katy Lied - both A sides of the US released singles, and a deep album cut.

5. "Haitian Divorce" 
1. "Kid Charlemagne" 
2. "The Fez" 

Three from The Royal Scam - both A sides of the US released singles, and an A side from a UK single (Haitian Divorce).

3. "Peg" 
4. "Josie" 

Two from Aja - two of the A sides from the US released singles. (There was at least one more US single released.) 

And there it is - kind of a perfect summation of where Steely Dan was in 1978. 

The other nice thing to note about the vinyl is the side loading. A quick, off the cuff calculation shows

Side 1: 21:28
Side 2: 19:56
Side 3: 20:36
Side 4: 16:56

Those aren't bad running times for double vinyl. CD should have a running time of 78:56 - which is long-ish for a single CD - but do-able.

Cheers,
Paul