Steely Dan: "Steely Dan's name has been popping up as a hip musical crush. Remember, this glossy bop-pop was the indifferent aristocracy to punk rock's stone-throwing in the late 70's. People fought

That's basically how I see them, though I have heard a few of their songs (because my dad likes them). It really just doesn't sound like something I could get into. Maybe someday...

Holden: You're in a desert, walking along in the sand when all of the sudden-
Leon: Is this the test now?
Holden: Yes. You're in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down-
Leon: What one?
Holden: What?
Leon: What desert?
Holden: It doesn't make any difference what desert, it's completely hypothetical.
Leon: But how come I'd be there?
Holden: Maybe you're fed up, maybe you want to be by yourself, who knows? You look down and you see Donald Fagan crawling toward you-
Leon: Donald Fagan, who's that?
Holden: Know who Walter Becker is?
Leon: Um, yeah.
Holden: His partner.
Leon: I've never seen Walter Becker. (pause) But I understand who you mean.
Holden: You reach down, you kick Donald Fagan over on his back, Leon.
Leon: Do you make up these questions, Mr. Holden, or do they write them down for you?
Holden: Donald Fagan lays on its back, his belly baking in the hot sun beating its legs trying to turn himself over but he can't, not without your help, but you're not helping.
Leon: What do you mean I'm not helping?
Holden: I mean, you're not helping. Why is that Leon? (pause) They're just questions, Leon. In answer to your query, they're written down for me. It's a test, designed to provoke an emotional response. (pause) Shall we continue? Describe in single words, only the good things that come in to your mind about... robotic, steam-powered stainless steel dildos.
Leon: robotic, steam-powered stainless steel dildos?
Holden: Yeah.
Leon: Let me tell you about dildos... (BANG!)

Mary is strapping on a rubber penis: "Steely Dan III from Yokohama," she says, caressing the shaft. Milk spurts across the room.

"Be sure that milk is pasteurized. Don't go giving me some kinda awful cow disease like anthrax or glanders or aftosa..."

"When I was a transvestite Liz in Chi used to work as an exterminator. Make advances to pretty boys for the thrill of being beaten as a man. Later I catch this one kid, overpower him with supersonic judo I learned from an old Lesbian Zen monk. I tie him up, strip off his clothes with a razor and fuck him with Steely Dan I. He is so relieved I don't castrate him literal he come all over my bedbug spray."

"What happened to Steely Dan I?"

"He was torn in two by a bull dyke. Most terrific vaginal grip I ever experienced. She could cave in a lead pipe. It was one of her parlor tricks."

"And Steely Dan II?"

"Chewed to bits by a famished candiru in the Upper Baboonsasshole. And don't say 'Wheeeeeeee!' this time."

"Why not? It's real boyish."

"Barefoot boy, check thy bullheads with the madame."

ame: Razor Boy
joebj@compmore.net
Location: Kanata, Ont Canada
Date: Wednesday, March 25, 1998 at 21:27:00
Comments:

The talk about the Oscars show tweaked my memory to that most gruesome of Steely Dan moments, when Donnie Osmond sang the first two verses of "Peg" during some Miss Teenage America Pageant in the late '70's. It made me a touch numb, and my mother asked me what the fuss was all about, after I lost my sense of decorum and uttered the most graphic of expletives. I told her that she wouldn't understand, and sucked it up and listened to Donny butcher the song.

http://www.retrocrush.com/archive2003/costumes/osmonddonny.jpg

My God, what I wouldn't give for that tape. Incidentally, all of that message board seems about this tightly wound.

I'm serious -- half the time all I want to listen to is "glossy bop-pop."

I was gonna write a review for this on the Rock Discipline thread. Maybe I still will...

At work we have this really crappy radio station that plays nonstop; New York's "chill"-- whatever that's supposed to mean; but they play Deacon's Blues every once in a while and it's hugely refreshing.

That is all.

I find it doesn't really affect my enjoyment of the album--like nate said, they're still great songs.

-- Matos-Webster Dictionary (michaelangelomato...) (webmail), March 2nd, 2005 8:29 PM. (M Matos) (link)

haha!

in dave marsh's heart of rock and soul or whatever it's called, he reviews A RECORD ON WHICH DONALD FAGEN IS SINGING and writes something like "boy, this palmer guy sucks--he's no donald fagen!"

My sister said that some people can be really blind yet they believe they can see. Is this true?

Yours sincerely

Caitlin 

***

Dear Caitlin

It's true, though it's a very rare condition.

If a person is blind, of course they can't really see. But there is a part of the visual system in the brain that can make up pictures that aren't really there...like when you imagine things or dream.

There's another part of the brain that gives you a feeling that what you are experiencing or thinking is real, or true. If these two parts of the brain don't work together properly (which is very unusual) then you can believe you are seeing things when, physically, you aren't.

If a blind person has this problem then they will 'see' what they expect to see.

For instance, if they are in their living room they think they can see the lounge suite, the coffee table, the TV, etc. But it doesn't feel to them like they are imagining it. They really believe it. They can't help it. No amount of arguing about it with them will convince them, even if they make mistakes.

For instance, someone might have moved the coffee table and the blind person walks into it. They wouldn't think that they hadn't seen it. Instead they would make up (and believe) an excuse. 'I just kicked that coffee table to see if it was made properly. You can't be too sure about the quality of workmanship these days.'

There is a famous case of a woman who wasn't blind but who had a similar problem with the part of her brain to do with location. No matter where she was she always believed she was in her own home. Once she was taken to hospital for some tests. While she was waiting in the foyer she looked at the row of shiny stainless steel elevator doors in front of her. She was most upset. She complained about the workers who were doing the renovations in her living room. She hadn't ordered elevators. They would have to take them out again. She was damned if she was going to pay the extra cost for their mistake...etc.

You see, the poor lady had to make up a reason to explain to herself what felt to be true to her--that she was always at home in her own place.

It just goes to show that so much of what we think is real is actually happening in our brain.

Of course, most of the time it is real. At least it is for me!

Yours sincerely ,
Virginia R. Claire

I've noticed that the lyrics have gotten much less willfully obscure (I think they cited Pynchon as an influence early on) and tell a coherent story now. Musically they're completely unchanged from what they used to do.