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

-- 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.

funny, i was just thinking about this thread.

one of my favorite things anyone wrote about a record is Christgau on David Palmer, the other vocalist on Thrill: "He fits in like a cheerleader at a crap game."

who's more yacht rock, palmer or fagen?

nuff said huh?

LOGGINS!

Author: William Burroughs

“I’m a Steely Dan fan so naturally I wanted to read the book they thought compelling enough to name their band after an element of.”

they admitted once in an interview that "glamour profession" MIGHT have been a conspicuous ripoff of "cherchez la femme."

Fagen: Your music has always had a life here in America apart from the films. In the past few years, though, your influence has surfaced in a lot of rock music and in the works of "avant-garde" composers. Why is this music from 25-year old Italian westerns the talk of the town?

Morricone: I don't know. You tell me.

Fagen: Well...

Morricone: But I have a hypothesis. When I begin a theme in a certain key, say, D minor, I never depart from this original key. If it begins in D minor, it ends in D minor. This harmonic simplicity is available to everyone.

Fagen: But isn't it true that the Leone films, with their elevation of mythic structures, their comic book visual style and extreme irony, are now perceived as signaling an aesthetic transmutation by a generation of artists and filmmakers? And isn't it also true that your music for those films reflected and abetted Leone's vision by drawing on the same eerie catalog of genres - Hollywood western, Japanese samurai, American pop, and Italian Opera? That your scores functioned both "inside" the film as a narrative voice and "outside" the film as the commentary of a winking jester? Put it all together and doesn't it spell "postmodern", in the sense that there has been a grotesque encroachment of the devices of art and, in fact, an establishment of a new narrative plane founded on the devices themselves? Isn't that what's attracting lower Manhattan?

Morricone: [ shrugs ]

Fagen: What about your use of unusual solo instruments? You've hired Zamfir, master of the pan-flute. You've featured whistlers and the human voice. Do you hear a specific color when you watch a scene?

Morricone: When I write a passage, I find out who's available. If the violinist I want is out of town, I'll use, say, a great flute player who is on a day layover in Rome. Sometimes its even simpler. In The Mission, the character in the film plays the oboe, so...

Fagen: After scoring so many films, it must be hard to come up with fresh ideas.

Morricone: I saw The Untouchables on Monday, I thought of the main theme in the cab back to the hotel and played it for De Palma on Tuesday.

Fagen: You've worked with many directors, each who must present a different set of problems for the composer. I have a list here. What was it like working for Bertolucci?

Morricone: Bellisimo!

Fagen: Pontecorvo?

Morricone: He is my old friend, bellisimo!

Fagen: John Boorman?

Morricone: Bellisimo!

Fagen: Terence Malick?

Morricone: A man with bad luck but bello, bellisimo!

Fagen: Roman Polanski?

Morricone: Bellisimo!

Fagen: Brian De Palma?

Morricone: Bellisimo!

Fagen: Leone?

Morricone: Bellisimo!

Fagen: Your scores for Leone in particular had a very sly humor. Will you be composing for any comic or semicomic films in the near future?

Morricone: If they offer. I can only choose from the films that are offered me.

Fagen: Maestro, are there days when you wish you were still playing the trumpet?

Morricone: The trumpet was exhausting. I have always wanted to compose.

i guess fagen did a few columns for them at some point!

http://www.vpoc.info/vpmaestro/6.JPG

P.S. Guess why the UK's car industry is dead

I'm computerizing to Pretzel Logic today!

I like it (first listen), but is it possible to love this band if you're a total non-musician?

I seriously doubt everyone who bought "Aja" was a musician.