2 Against Nature - 14 Years Later

More then any other album by Steely Dan, the streeting date of February 29th 2000 stands out from the crowd. First off, due to the release being on leap day, it only occurs every 4 years. So this year, being one of those non years, I will have to acknowledge the fact today, February 28th.

As with EVERYTHING Steely Dan, nothing is as it seems.

On February 29th, 2000, the band put out it's first album in 20 years...Two Against Nature. Shortly after this monumental day, I found an archives for Metal Leg, which was a fanzine for Dan Fans during the the Diaspora. Any trivial piece of information ended up in this magazine and is still a great read, decades later. *Note: You can find the issues going up on Facebook. John Granatino has moved them to a new website and makes the links available to fans of social media, via the fan group, Dandom dot com on Facebook.

Back to the story. Finding Metal Leg, led me to a place called Under the Banyan Trees (known as the Yellow) where Steely Dan Fans hung out. I met many friends and even became a posting member in early 2001. Now days, it's mostly exclusively on Facebook that I post, but most of the people are the same. It's been a wild ride, with lots of people who I still cherish, over a decade later.

So back to the album, CD, whatever...

Do I still like it? Yes, I definitely do.

Favorite tracks are:

Almost Gothic
West of Hollywood
Two Against Nature
Jack of Speed
Janie Runaway
What a Shame About Me
and Negative Girl

The funny thing is, I never did warm up to Gaslighting Abbie (which they played as the band walked up to the stage, the day they won the Grammy for Best Album) or for Cousin Dupree (which ended up being Song of the Year). Well, that shows that I have never been a hits kind of person, at least when it comes to the music of Steely Dan.

I thank them so much for going to the effort to give us new music, when others would just sit there playing their old hits.

Happy 14th Anniversary 2VN.

In honor of this almost day, here are a few of the lyrics to the title cut to the album. Don't try singing this without the words, it is probably almost impossible to do. :-)

Bad news breaking in 18A
Missy's kitty turn inside out she say
Spider queen demon and that whole crew
Across the lobby the wicker wing chair flew
All the nice people those goodly souls
Quaking in their respective hidey-holes
Everyone's wasted in this gruesome dream
Not a one of them left to hear you scream

CHORUS:
Two against nature don't you know
Who's gonna grok the shape of things to go
Two against nature make them groan
Who's gonna break the shape of things unknown

Happy Birthday Walter Becker

Walter Becker turns 64 today.

I always get a kick out of the fact that Donald's birthday is in early January, mine late January and Walter's mid February. It feels like I was destined to be part of the Steely Dan vibe. :-)

Walter is, of course the other half of the super group, Steely Dan.

Slightly out shined at times by Donald Fagen, but still a powerhouse, for the contributions he made to their many songs and records. He is particularly known for his "far out" biting lyrics and wonderful bass work...especially during the early years. A personal favorite bass line, is in his song, "Josie". Another is in the song, "Don't Take Me Alive".

I happen to love the man's work, similar to me loving John Oates' work, though many consider that it's all Daryl Hall, that makes up Hall and Oates.

The song I decided to link to, is Paging Audrey, from his 2008 release, Circus Money. It's a very sad song, but I love how powerful it is.

Please click the link...and enjoy.

Paging Audrey

In the littlest hours ‘tween the dusk and dawn
While the nightlight glows with the music on
You could climb so high in the dreamtime sky
And go anywhere

In that sometime place ever lost somehow
In the here and gone or the there and now
Did it all go bust — crumble down in dust
Or just slip away

Paging Audrey
Any random star
Lost and lonely
Somewhere very far
Paging Audrey
Come in from the cold

In that far-off room drenched in desert sun
Evil words were spoke — dirty deeds were done
Could we sail back there snatch them from the air
I dare anyone

Can we stand right here, call them back and say
Those were never meant to be heard that way
Let the heavens crack — let the day go black
I’d give anything

Paging Audrey
Somewhere very near
Safe and silent
There you are my dear
Paging Audrey
Anybody home

In a distant room certain things were said
As the loved one lies on the love-torn bed
And the night rolls on and by light of dawn
You’re not anywhere

Paging Audrey
This is who we are
Do remember
On any random star
Paging Audrey
Coming strong and pure

The Dukes Of September To Finally Air On PBS

You may remember that I reviewed Donald Fagen's book Eminent Hipsters a few months ago. The vast majority of the book concerns the tour that he, Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald participated in called The Dukes of September. During that tour, the Band taped a Great Performances Special which will finally air during PBS Station's March Pledge Drives.

I don't know what the set list is, but the cut that has surfaced, is a Steely Dan song called Kid Charlemagne and you can view it, HERE.

The venue is Lincoln Center and I think it is a magnificent setting for Donald Fagen.

Photo #2 has, in addition to Donald, Boz Scaggs playing guitar and Carolyn Leonhart-Escoffery directly behind Donald singing back up. I am not sure who the other performer is.

The DVD is available now. :-)

Lazy Nina

This cut from Soul Train turned up on You Tube recently. They have obviously been putting up some of the performances, from back in the day, for a new generation to find.

This particular video, was a song written by Donald Fagen for Greg Phillinganes, called Lazy Nina.

If you listen to the song, you can hear the Donald Fagen influence in it. A special little extra, is the nod to Soul Train in the Chorus of the song itself. You can see that in the lyrics down below.

Lazy Nina

In my life I have been all kinds of places
I have lived for the action and the thrill
Yes I've seen a thousand children sing
A sunset in Japan
When I close my eyes I see them still

But the road seems to lose it's fascination
And I find there's a picture in my mind
Of a room with windows on the sea
Yes she's waiting there for me
I drop out of space and time

[Chorus:]

Back in the maze with Lazy Nina
Walkin' the dog and watchin' Soul Train
Readin' the paper, goin' to movies
And at night we sing
Da Da Do Da Da Ooh Ya Ya

There are days when I wake up with a feeling
That the world is a strange and sunless place
It's a world where words have lost their sense
Where nothin' seems to fit
And then suddenly I'll see her face

In a dream I will drive along the ocean
At the end of a dark familiar ride
And I know the house I'm searchin' for
Yes she's standin' at the door
And I'm right there by here side

My Facebook Map From Last Year

Last year at this time, I started Grad School with a class called Social Networks and the Web.

The main assignment for class, was rendering a map of my Facebook friends via a program called Gephi.

I worked on it for several weeks and when I finally got it to the point that I liked it, I decided it was worthy of a post.

When you look at this graph, the first thing you see is how very large the yellow area is.

Those are all my Steely Dan friends, on the lower left side. Since I was drawn into the Facebook world by 2 Steely Dan friends, this is not really a surprise to me.

The other large groups are as follows.

The Unit fans are over on the lower right side. The top, is college friends on the far left, high school friends on the mid left and family sort of center. Oh, the final group on the top right is is my son's friends...including my "Other" sons. :-)

I thought it came out particularly beautiful. Sort of like a Spirograph.

This semester is my final one. After it is over, I will have earned a Graduate Certificate in Integrated Media and Social Networks. I can't believe how fast it is going.

4 months to go.

Reeling In The Years - Le Bar Bat 2001

The 13th Anniversary for this event is coming up on March 19th.

2001 was the year that Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (the induction ceremony was at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC). In the spirit of celebration, we fans decided to have a Dan Fest.

We came from miles around and congregated at a club called Le Bar Bat. The biggest Steely Dan fan, was the booker for the club and one of the people he got, was Elliot Randell (who plays that cool lead guitar on Reelin' In The Years. Another big name he booked that same night, was bassist, Chuck Rainey. You can hear Chuck on most of the Royal Scam album and (of course) their masterpiece, Aja. One of the things they did that night was play Reelin', so that Elliott could do his famous guitar solo. They brought up Dan fan, Amelia Ray, to sing and she did quite a nice job with the song. Chuck...was Chuck. Laying down that always perfect bass line.

I truly enjoyed that evening and the second night, when The Steely Damned (a band from San Diego) played for over 4 hours, into the wee hours of the morning. My Husband and I got to see how to deal with The City that never sleeps...we were going home on the train, just as the first commuters were making they way into New York, to begin their work day. It was an unforgettable Dan Fest and THIS video, which recently surfaced on Youtube, brought it all back.

Check it out and Enjoy.

They Stabbed It With Their Steely Knives

Since the day I learned about this, I have always liked the fact that Steely Dan was referenced in the Eagles most famous song, Hotel California.

As a matter of fact, a fan made CD from a Steely Dan Fan page in the early part of the 2000's, Under the Banyan Trees, was called Steely Knives. You can sort of catch the spirit of the CD from this page, with (probably broken links) to mp3 copies of the songs...but I digress.

Here, via screen captures, is part of the story from one of the principals, Glenn Frey. (If you have trouble reading them, click on the photos).

Happy 66th Birthday Donald!

Well, it's still his birthday...barely. I didn't think to post the news over here, because I put it up on my angel blog, as usual.

My Mistake.

Donald Jay Fagen, was born in Passaic New Jersey, 66 years ago today.

As people who read this blog know, he is the frontman to super group, Steely Dan. He also tours with Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs, as a piece of the Dukes of September Rhythm Revue. He is now also a published author, with Eminent Hipsters.

He is an all around talented performer and he has made it to another Birthday.

We, his fans, are happy he did so and hope he continues to make music, far into the future.

Happy Birthday Donald!

Ricky Lawson

One of the people who were instrumental in the return of Steely Dan in 2000, was a drummer named Ricky Lawson.

He played with the band on the video known as Steely Dan: An In The Spotlight Special and during the tour that same year. Though he was out of the band by the year 2003, he put his mark on some of their songs and is remembered by fans, to this day.

We had heard the news of his falling ill a few weeks ago and shortly thereafter, he was reported as brain dead. So the news wasn't good, in the way of him having a full recovery. In the midst of Christmas week, the news came out that he finally died on Monday December 23rd.

You can read the official obituary HERE.

In his honor, I give you Ricky Lawson playing Pretzel Logic.

RIP Ricky.

Internet Handles

I am doing a paper on Internet Identities and I wondered what the percentages were for my Facebook friends in the Steely Dan world.

I happen to go by a handle in this world and I have for 12 years, but when I did this (obviously unscientific) study of my friends, these are the totals I got.

I was actually shocked that handles didn't win this survey, (they lost 16 to 18) because I have so very many friends who I have 2 names in my memory banks. Their handle and then their real name.

What did actually affect the data, were a few musicians who I am friends with, via the Steely Dan universe. They, of course do not go by handles.

Still, an interesting look at a subject that I find of interest.