holy shit! steely dan and SNL connections run deep!
― M@tt He1geson: Sassy and I Don't Care Who Knows It (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 16 November 2006 21:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 16 November 2006 21:35 (seventeen years ago) link
is the 2nd person in "kid charlemagne" a prostitute, or a drug dealer?
― kyle gorman (killabee), Thursday, 16 November 2006 22:13 (seventeen years ago) link
I've always taken it as both. one of the creepiest songs ever.
― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 16 November 2006 22:15 (seventeen years ago) link
I always thought he was saying "chinos", 'cause Mr. LaPage wasn't beating around the bush
― Will (will), Thursday, 16 November 2006 22:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― Good-Time Slim, Uncle Doobie, and the Great 'Frisco Freak-Out (sixteen sergeants, Thursday, 16 November 2006 23:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 16 November 2006 23:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 16 November 2006 23:41 (seventeen years ago) link
Source, D. Fagen, "The Making of Aja" (DVD)
― bangelo (bangelo), Friday, 17 November 2006 00:21 (seventeen years ago) link
Up on the hill They've got time to burn There's no return Double helix in the sky tonight Throw out the hardwareLet's do it right Aja When all my dime dancin' is through I run to you
Up on the hill They think I'm okayOr so they say Chinese music always sets me free Angular banjoes Sound good to me Aja When all my dime dancin' is through I run to you
― gear (gear), Friday, 17 November 2006 00:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― bangelo (bangelo), Friday, 17 November 2006 00:31 (seventeen years ago) link
― J (Jay), Friday, 17 November 2006 02:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― kyle gorman (killabee), Friday, 17 November 2006 02:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Friday, 17 November 2006 02:55 (seventeen years ago) link
I guessed that they'd picked it out of an atlas, because they pronounce it wrong. The 'w' is silent, the locals say 'Muzzlebrook'.
― scriblerus (mike lynch), Friday, 17 November 2006 03:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Friday, 17 November 2006 03:37 (seventeen years ago) link
cheaters are eyeglasses
sigh, this thread...
― lsd sky chefs (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 November 2006 05:29 (seventeen years ago) link
No, it's "That's the way it is"
― whatever (boglogger), Friday, 17 November 2006 16:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 17 November 2006 16:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― Myonga Von Bodhisattva (M. Agony Von Bontee), Friday, 17 November 2006 17:01 (seventeen years ago) link
from http://www.steelydan.com/bbc.html
― Chuck Keller (c keller), Saturday, 18 November 2006 20:33 (seventeen years ago) link
Donald: It's a pretty straightforward story about a guy who visits the caves of Altamira which have famous drawings by prehistoric men or women as the case may be, and he registers his astonishment
Walter: It's a story about the loss of innocence.
― gear (gear), Sunday, 19 November 2006 00:05 (seventeen years ago) link
“Kid Charlemagne”: LSD chemist Stanley Owsley (maybe)“Hey Nineteen”: an older man’s affair with a college girl“Dr. Wu”: a heroin dealer “Chain Lightning”: a conversation among gangsters (maybe)“Fire in the Hole”: a nervous breakdown “Black Cow”: a girlfriend’s drug problem “Josie”: a gang-bang “The Boston Rag”: a memorable college party“The Caves of Altimira” : a childhood refuge “Third World Man” : a man barricaded in his house “Brooklyn”: a noisy neighbor“Barrytown”: prejudice“Pearl of the Quarter”: a prostitute“Charlie Freak”: a homeless man“The Fez”: birth control
Also, Cathy Berberian ("Your Gold Teeth") is an opera singer who was flattered (if puzzled) at being mentioned in a pop song. A roulade is a rapid run of several notes sung to one syllable of a lyric.
And, a bodhisattva is a future Buddha who, out of compassion, forgoes nirvana in order to save others.
― Dan Heilman (The Deacon), Sunday, 19 November 2006 02:38 (seventeen years ago) link
Some turnout, a hundred grandGet with it we'll shake his handDon't bother to understandDon't question the little manBe part of the brotherhoodYes it's chain lightningIt feels so good
Hush brother, we cross the squareAct natural like you don't careTurn slowly and comb your hairDon't trouble the midnight airWe're standing just where he stoodIt was chain lightningIt feels so good
― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Sunday, 19 November 2006 07:45 (seventeen years ago) link
Is The Royal Scam about Puerto Ricans? "City of St. John" = San Juan?
― for real molars who ain't got no fillings (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 16 March 2011 03:23 (thirteen years ago) link
A friend told me he always thought "Caves of Altamira" was about the first time the writer saw the word "fuck" written or painted somewhere. Becker's explanation seems similar.
― ellaguru, Wednesday, 16 March 2011 17:46 (thirteen years ago) link
which i think is a moment in 'catcher in the rye', not that that means anything
― thomp, Wednesday, 16 March 2011 18:01 (thirteen years ago) link
I've asked this before: What is up with "Brooklyn Owes The Charmer Under Me"?? Even the title is just plain weird.― Myonga Von Bodhisattva (M. Agony Von Bontee), Friday, November 17, 2006 12:01 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark
This question never got answered, apparently. Golf is also mentioned in this song, which is confusing. Please advise.
― Thraft of Cleveland (Bill Magill), Wednesday, 16 March 2011 18:09 (thirteen years ago) link
Walter Becker: Well, the charmer was a guy who lived under Donald's apartment when we were in Brooklyn. And the song is just a bunch of things that the guy and his wife had coming to them, you know, for the indignities that they suffered living in Brooklyn, sitting on the stoop and just shooting the shit about the Mets and that kind of thing for 20 years. So, you see, the song does yield to a valid interpretation."
― Godzilla vs. Rodan Rodannadanna (The Yellow Kid), Wednesday, 16 March 2011 20:44 (thirteen years ago) link
Ahh the old days, when you could easily tailor your display name to make it more thread-appropriate. ("Von Botany" and "Von Botulism" I particularly recall)
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Wednesday, 16 March 2011 20:54 (thirteen years ago) link
(xpost thanks Godzilla!)
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Wednesday, 16 March 2011 20:55 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah, thanks, that explanation actually makes sense!
― Thraft of Cleveland (Bill Magill), Wednesday, 16 March 2011 20:59 (thirteen years ago) link
Chinese music under banyan trees Here at the dude ranch above the sea
somebody plz tell me wtf this song has to do with a quiet relatio ship with a beautiful woman kthxbi
― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 17 March 2011 00:18 (thirteen years ago) link
For starters, I have a theory that Gaucho is about a drug deal that gets botched because the partner's idiotic friend, and possibly lover shows up and makes a scene, and the customers balk. Do others hear it that way?
For reference
Just when I say"Boy we can't missYou are golden"Then you do thisYou say this guy is so coolSnapping his fingers like a foolOne more expensive kiss-offWho do you think I amLord I know you're a special friendBut you don't seem to understandWe got heavy rollersI think you should knowTry again tomorrow
Can't you see they're laughing at meGet rid off himI don't care what you do at home Would you care to explain
Who is the gaucho amigoWhy is he standingIn your spangled leather ponchoAnd your elevator shoesBodacious cowboysSuch as your friendWill never be welcome hereHigh in the Custerdome
What I tell youBack down the lineI'll scratch your backYou can scratch mineNo he can't sleep on the floorWhat do you think I'm yelling forI'll drop him near the freewayDoesn't he have a home
Lord I know you're a special friendBut you refuse to understandYou're a nasty schoolboyWith no place to goTry again tomorrow
Don't tell me he'll wait in the carLook at youHolding hands with the man from RioWould you care to explain
Who is the gaucho amigoWhy is he standingIn your spangled leather ponchoWith the studs that match your eyesBodacious cowboysSuch as your friendWill never be welcome hereHigh in the Custerdome
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Tuesday, 3 March 2015 04:44 (nine years ago) link
I get lover from "I don't care what you do at home," "holding hands with the man from Rio," "bodacious cowboys"
I kind of picture him suddenly coming out of the bedroom right in his outlandish outfit right as the deal is going down, the song is the argument that follows.
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Tuesday, 3 March 2015 04:47 (nine years ago) link
This used to be one of my least favorite Dan songs, but I came around on it after the poll. For some reason, I've always taken it as a rebuke to Becker fucking up their career with his drug use. The bodacious cowboy lover being allegorical. Like, hey your addiction stands out so much it's like having a whole other person in the room soaking up all of the attention.
― how's life, Tuesday, 3 March 2015 14:40 (nine years ago) link
In re "dime-dancing" in Aja, reading The Quiet American now, and the Vietnamese hostesses who charge for a dance reminded me of that line, maybe something along those lines.
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Tuesday, 3 March 2015 14:41 (nine years ago) link
I want to go into My Rival too, been really digging that song lately
I've got detectives on his caseThey filmed the whole charadeHe's got a scar across his faceHe wears a hearing aid
hilarious lyric, but not sure what it means -- I kind of get the impression that he's a boob who incorrectly thinks his wife or gf is having an affair with someone, but I feel like there are details I'm not getting
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Tuesday, 3 March 2015 14:48 (nine years ago) link
I've mentioned this on other threads, but I always imagine the rival to be Billy Joel
― Free Me's Electric Trumpet (Moodles), Tuesday, 3 March 2015 14:50 (nine years ago) link
So does everyone accept the common explanation of "Peg" that it's about a woman about to (perhaps) star in her first adult film? Like is "foreign movie" sort of a euphemism for the kind of "classy" porno that would play in theaters in the 70s?
― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Thursday, 17 September 2015 19:47 (nine years ago) link
'dressed up in blueprint blue' certainly supports that reading
― calstars, Thursday, 17 September 2015 19:51 (nine years ago) link
found this, kind of interesting:
Couldn't Peg be Peg Entwistle - the actress who thre herself off the Hollywood sign?Bobb - La, Ca
Bobb in LA, I was thinking the same: the story of young starlet Peg Entwistle who threw herself off the Hollywood sign, after her big debut. The studio hated the film, and cut most of Peg's part. What is noteworthy is that -- at the time in 1932 when she commited suicide -- the sign was then not a symbol of movies, but rather of "Hollywoodland," promoting real-estate development in the hills. So the reference to "Blueprint Blue" makes sense. The pin-up shot he keeps with "your letter" is her suicide note, found in Peg's purse and published in the local newspapers. And "it will come back to you," both a reference to the karmic retribution for her sin, and the fame that would accompany her as a result of Peg's action. Of course, favorite foreign movies are known for their tragic endings -- unlike the happy "Hollywood" ones. Would WB & DF give us a clue?Thom - L.a., Ca
― Ma$e-en-scène (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 17 September 2015 20:15 (nine years ago) link
that is awesome
― flappy bird, Thursday, 17 September 2015 20:31 (nine years ago) link
nice. "blueprint blue" is a great turn of phrase
― tylerw, Thursday, 17 September 2015 20:34 (nine years ago) link