Hey all-
A quick shout-out from the dusty temporary grave of RKBS industries. I have little great thoughts about the passing of Walter Becker over the weekend, and initially I had almost no reaction other than a "what can ya do" shrug. After thinking about things, though, I realized that he and the various Steely Dan incarnations made more of an impression on me than my inner Americana/ pop rock/ punk/ etc aficionado would like to admit. I can get particularly stinky about late '70s Steely Dan but had forgotten how much I loved "Pretzel Logic", and that "Steely Dan Greatest Hits" tape ('72-'77 so no "Gaucho"!) that Dillo and I used to play on the commute to New Rochelle during our senior year in high school.
So, pouring one out, here's a re-posting of a recording from the 2012 Harpswell Hootenanny (another brief tradition that's also hopefully in only a temporary grave): "Barrytown" from 1974's "Pretzel Logic", which was and is my go-to album from those crusty bastards. Paul B sings lead and plays the Wurlitzer and the close-out guitar lick. Paul C on bass, Roady on drums, me on the Gretsch and tambourine and some singing.
JK
https://app.box.com/s/ylkqjl5vvrzksvlkrxym
Never much took to Steely Dan, either, though great memories of my first weeks away from home when Aja was big
ReplyDeletePlaying in the background of student spaces at UCSB in the summer of 1978
Rose to #3 on the charts, Christgau gets it about right
My wife suggests that by now they realize they'll never get out of El Lay, so they've elected to sing in their chains like the sea. After all, to a certain kind of reclusive aesthete, well-crafted West Coast studio jazz is as beautiful as anything else, right? Only I'm no recluse. I hated this record for quite a while before I realized that, unlike The Royal Scam, it was stretching me some; I still find the solo licks of Larry Carlton, Victor Feldman, et al. too fucking tasty, but at least in this context they mean something.