Sign in Stranger
Janet L Neeley
I've been lurking in this group for quite some time due to the fact
that I love SD, and that this group is small enought to read every
message in one sitting. Some of you are right: now it is getting too
small. So here is my humble contribution to future largeness.
One of my all time favorite Dan tunes is Sign in Stranger. From its
lyrical content, and from what I've gleaned from reading your posts, I
can only surmise that it is based on a (science fiction) novel. Does
anyone know if this is the case.
Noel St. John
Jessica A. Mason
I don't know if Sign in Stranger is based on a sci-fi novel, some
friends of mine and myself thought there was a more insidious underworld
element to it. Since so much of SD's lyrics seem satricle, we figured
this is another case-undercover agent theme perhaps
Jessica
Jonathan E. Sigel
Seems to me to be about a place you can go to have a completely new
identity created for you by seedy scam artists.
turnip
I don't think the two are exclusive. There could be a lot of
crime on a frontier boom planet (organized or otherwise).
turnip
Jonathan E. Sigel wrote:
>
> Seems to me to be about a place you can go to have a completely new
> identity created for you by seedy scam artists.
This fits in with the whole colony planet / mobster theme.
The whole Sign in Stranger theme always makes me think of the
French Foreign Legion even though I don't think that that's a
particular good place to make your fortune.
Tom Donovan
It seems to be taken from several SF sources.
According to a quote from DF " Of course, it does take place on another
planet. We sort of borrowed the Sin City/ Pleasure Planet idea that's in a
lot of science fiction novels."
Cheers
Tommy
john nicol
>"Tom Donovan" <Tomm...@dial.pipex.com> wrote:
>Thanks Tommy.
>That was not the answer I wished for - I was hoping to add another
>book to my 'must read' list - but it is an answer that satisfies the
>question. I guess I'll just have to brush up on my SciFi reading. Do
>you think or know if D&W were Robert Heinlein fans?
Dunno. However, according to Brian Sweet's SD bio, Donald Fagen's favorite
sf author is Frederik Pohl. I recommend "Space Merchants", the first three
"Gateway" books, "Drunkard's Walk"... That should give you a taste.
(I am of the opinion that the cover of the Nightfly is based upon a picture of
Frederik Pohl, who was on a radio talk show for a while in the 50s... see his book
"The Way the Future Was").
The sf cyberpunk author William Gibson is heavily into SD (and I think they gave
a nod to his works in an interview). "Neuromancer","Mona Lisa Overdrive","Count
Zero", "Virtual Light" are all excellent (and you can find various SD
references in the books... "razorgirl" and "Gentleman Loser" in Neuromancer,
"any major dude" in the dedication of "Virtual Light",
"Deacon Blues" in "Mona Lisa Overdrive", etc etc).
If you want "must reads" not in sf, B&F have mentioned Vladimir Nabokov (of
"Lolita" fame), Thomas Pynchon, and of course William Burroughs (who, BTW, is
*not* a fan).
John
Scott Andrew Borton
john nicol <jni...@cs.uiuc.edu> wrote:
> The sf cyberpunk author William Gibson is heavily into SD (and I think they gave
> a nod to his works in an interview).
"Lucky Henry" over on the mailing list related a conversation that he had
with W. Gibson at a book signing, where Gibson explained his feelings about
the Dan. It was very interesting, but one would probably have to search
through the archives to find it.
Another *potential* Dan reference in Gibson's work involves a scene near the
end of the original "Johnny Mnemonic" short story, where the eternal Molly
is fighting on the Killing Floor., which pops up in Your Gold Teeth. Of
course, "killing floor" has been a term commonly used in the blues
community, and there's a pre-SD Led Zep tune with the same name...
Semi-relatedly, Nicholson Baker also paid some sort of Steely homage in one
of his books, either "The Mezzanine" or "Vox" IIRC. I'll coincidentally be
re-reading "The Mezzanine" tonight so I'll know for sure by then. :)
--scott
--
scott andrew borton
http://sooshi.scs.uiuc.edu/~scott/steely-dan/
Christopher Lampton
Science fiction writer Carter Scholz and a collaborator whose name I forget
published a novel back in the mid 1980s called Palimpsests. It was about
cave paintings. It opens with a bunch of anthropologists singing, "Before
the fall, when they wrote it on the wall, and there wasn't even any
Hollywood...."
--Chris
Nucars
In article <3476cedf...@news.mindspring.com>, jinx...@mindspring.com
(Janet L Neeley) writes:
Just found out about this newsgroup last night. Anyway, I too like "Sign In
Stranger." Haven't a clue what it really means though. Oops! Oh well. Anyway,
I've been hanging out in alt.fan.frank-zappa now for a while and enjoy that for
the most part but, really enjoy SD so searched you guys out and here I am. I
was listening to SD all through highschool and the 4 years I spent in Germany
(U.S. Army) Lot's a nights playing cards, drinking German beer, and listening
to "The Dan!!" Good memories. Mid 70's!!! Anyway, lets keep this newsgroup
going? Later, Cliff
Cliff
jonathan shayne
Janet,
my take is that it has something to do with Fagan's wanting to know
and perhaps find out more about some girl: "Do you have a dark spot on
your past?"
It's hard to know though with SD lyrics- their hard to get mental
traction on.....
Jon
Phila. PA
TomC
You offer vague evidence that somewhere out there sits someone obsessed with
the exact same odd combination of stuff as me.
I'm a huge Baker fan. As for Steely Dan, I suppose the mere fact of being a
visitor to this ng tells that story. The Fermata is one amazing book btw.
Tom
Scott Andrew Borton wrote in message <65gg8b$3vi$1...@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>...
