Weekly Album Discussion #1: Can't Buy A Thrill
Marty LaDuke
I'm throwing this out there, let's see what happens.
CBAT is an interesting album, and gave us an inkling of what was to
come. The unpenetrable lyrics were unusual for a hit album, but let each
listener interpret them any way they wanted. I liked the fact that though
the music was new, it still sounded "traditional" as DF once said. My
faves on the album are:
Dirty Work
Brooklyn
Midnite Cruiser
Wow, I chose no DF sung numbers, weird. Any comments? Peace.
p thornton
In article <5efj15$q...@mtinsc04.worldnet.att.net>, Marty LaDuke
<t-wo...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> I'm throwing this out there, let's see what happens.
My
> faves on the album are:
> Dirty Work
> Brooklyn
> Midnite Cruiser
> Wow, I chose no DF sung numbers, weird. Any comments? Peace.
There is no question... Turn That Heartbeat... changed my life! Changed
the way I listened to music. Forever.
Andrew George
Marty LaDuke (t-wo...@worldnet.att.net) wrote:
: I'm throwing this out there, let's see what happens.
: listener interpret them any way they wanted. I liked the fact that though
: Dirty Work
: Brooklyn
: Midnite Cruiser
: Wow, I chose no DF sung numbers, weird. Any comments? Peace.
while dirty work is an okay song, i really don't like david palmer's vocals. i think that is
his name? i don't see why donald didn't have the sense of security to sing it. i guess they
were still sort of hung up on being song-writers rather than performers. at a concert this
summer, walter referred to midnight cruiser as "steely dan of the dinosaur age" -- or
something like that. i like the album, and it is obviously their most straightforward
classic rock album which is to be expected, but i prefer when they start to get weirder and
more decadent. it is my least favorite steely dan album, but that isn't really saying a hell
of a lot because i love them all. the cover art is laughable. just my one and a half
cents....
--
______________________________________________________________________________
Andrew George | "There's a lot to learn
Johns Hopkins University | For wastin' time
nigh...@cs.jhu.edu | There's a heart that burns
geo...@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu | There's an open mind."
http://www.ugrad.cs.jhu.edu/~nightfly | - Neil Young
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Varness
From the driving force of Reelin in the Years, to the latin tinged
phrasings of Only a Fool would Say That..this is a definitive Steely Dan
LP
Mr. Gone
Marty LaDuke wrote:
>
> I'm throwing this out there, let's see what happens.
> CBAT is an interesting album, and gave us an inkling of what was to
> come. The unpenetrable lyrics were unusual for a hit album, but let each
> listener interpret them any way they wanted. I liked the fact that though
> the music was new, it still sounded "traditional" as DF once said. My
> faves on the album are:
> Dirty Work
> Brooklyn
> Midnite Cruiser
> Wow, I chose no DF sung numbers, weird. Any comments? Peace.
This album makes my bladder weak.
(Burp)
JKS
This is a great alternative rock album (can you imagine how fresh this
would sound today compared to most of the so-called "alternative" on
the radio...:). Off kilter rhythms and lyrics...basically I think the
radio played Do It Again and Reeling without knowing or caring what
the lyrics were about...and we weirdos would hear them and go "yeah,
wow". Just a very cool unconventional album that has stood up *very*
well over time.
My favorite song here is probably one of the least heralded, "Turn
that heartbeat..." When he (I think Donald? anyone know?) sings "this
highway runs from Paraguay and I've just come all the way" the
harmonies give me chills every time. This could have been a huge hit
but for its weirdness. Personally glad it wasn't ..:)
ReyAnthony
Marty LaDuke wrote:
> ...faves on the album are:
> Dirty Work
> Brooklyn
> Midnite Cruiser
> Wow, I chose no DF sung numbers, weird. Any comments? Peace.
I thought Brooklyn WAS Fagen.
Tom Donovan
ReyAnthony wrote:
>
> Marty LaDuke wrote:
>
> > ...faves on the album are:
> > Dirty Work
> > Brooklyn
> > Midnite Cruiser
> > Wow, I chose no DF sung numbers, weird. Any comments? Peace.
>
> I thought Brooklyn WAS Fagen.
>
David Palmer on lead vocal,there. I know some people didn't like his
vocal, but I always thought he sounded quite sweet.
Although, I don't think he would have sounded right on, say, The Royal
Scam. Anybody know what happened to him ?
One of the nice things, IMO, about CBAT is it's dversity. Three
different lead vocalists and sometimes combinations of Palmer and Fagen
give the album a certain freshness. Like all the Dan albums, it never
seems to sound dated or stale.
Cheers,
Tommy
Lorenzo St. Dubois
For those who've glanced the back cover of "Thrill," you may or may not
have noticed that "President Street Pete" was the 'beneficiary' of
"Brooklyn." For the last fourteen months my wife and I have lived one and
a-half blocks from President St. in Park Slope, Brooklyn, between 7th and
8th Avenues. I cross President St. every morning and evening to and from
the glorious D-Q station at Flatbush and 7th Ave. I suppose my question
is, does anybody know 'zactly where Becker and Fagen lived together in
Brooklyn?
Steven B. Diamant
I'll go song by song.
DO IT AGAIN: The song that started it all. Great beat, great hook, great
solos, but its 6 minute length makes it one of Steely Dan's duller
offerings.
DIRTY WORK: Instantly memorable, a bit of a sellout, but still a great
song. Palmer's vocal saccharine, it would have sounded better with Jim
Hodder. Jerome Richardson's tenor solo perfect.
KINGS: The boys hit their stride. The first of many perfect songs. Elliot
Randall's guitar solo highly innovative and relentlessly interesting.
MIDNITE CRUISER: Probably my favorite on the album. Jim Hodder's vocal
bittersweet without being sugary.
ONLY A FOOL WOULD SAY THAT: 3 perfect songs in a row. Wow. A rarely heard
falsetto from Donald Fagen. (What is he muttering at the end??)
REELIN' IN THE YEARS: Great song. Where does Elliot come up with these solos?
FIRE IN THE HOLE: Ends their streak of perfect songs, but still not
shabby. The first of SD's trademark twisted melodies.
BROOKLYN: Perfection again. David Palmer's voice exactly in the kind of
song where it belongs. Cryptic lyrics.
CHANGE OF THE GUARD: Steely Dan's most upbeat, optimistic song. Kudos to
the Skunk. A great song, too.
TURN THAT HEARTBEAT OVER AGAIN: This one sounds contrived to my ears. Not
one of my favorites. (Who is that singing when Donald isn't? i. e. "Looked
at my watch and started for the door")
Overall rating: A
Feel free to argue with my assessments.
-JSD
-JSD
DP Publications Company
I'd have to agree, esp. in the lyrics department. So many SD songs
seem to follow a story line ("Don't Take Me Alive" and "Kid
Charlemagne" from _The Royal Scam_, for example), be it personal or
historical. Also, anyone know of a reliable source for album-by-album
(or, even better, song-by-song) personnel listings? There are so many
performances that I'd love to be able to attribute to one musician or
other.
Jason Caddell
Rienk
Hello there, welcome to the show,
I like the idea of reviewing the SD work, altough I find the one song
a week option more interesting.
I hope that this discussion leads to a deeper level than just writing
which songs are your favourite ones. Perhaps someone could give some
technical comments on chords, lyrics etc. Because I'm not a native
english/american speaker it's difficult to understand the meaning of
some of the lyrics. Some explanations would be nice.
I'm willing to give some comments on drumtracks myself, maybe other
musicians could do this for other instruments.
Looking forward to hear from you,
Rienk
The Netherlands
Steven B. Diamant
I prefer the 1-song-a-week, but that didn't seem to be the general
will, so I went with the flow. I'll repost in much greater detail if you
so desire.
-JSD
Marty LaDuke
Some more musings about CBAT. Whether you consider "Turn
That Heartbeat" the centerpiece or a dud, I think it hinted at their depth
as writers, and had some cool vocals as well.This album was hard to
categorize because of the varying styles.I loved it, but it seemed a bit
remote; they were keeping me at arms length. BTW, anyone else hear echoes
of Wes Montgomery in "Only A Fool Would Say That"? Peace.
Steve Sauve
I remember 'Reelin' in the Years' as the first Dan song on the radio (was it
really 1972 or 1973?) that caught me by the throat and hasn't let go yet. I
carried it around as my 'favourite song on earth' for an awfully long time after
it had come and gone from the charts.
After buying CBAT I was was completely hooked on SD when I realized that there
were even finer tunes on the album. Kings, Midnite Cruiser, Brooklyn, Change of
the Guard, and Turn that Heartbeat Over Again. I savoured the variety of lead
vocals on the album that helped to keep it as far from monotonous as you could
get.
BTW, I've listened carefully to Fire in the Hole, trying to find the meaning in
it. The references seem to point to a soldier's life, probably in Viet Nam.
I'd like to hear what other folks think about it.
Cheers,
Steve Sauve
5206 41 St.
Cold Lake/Grand Centre, Alberta
Canada
T9M 2A4
will...@netcom.com
Steve,
I first heard Can't Buy a Thrill playing in the courtyard outside
McMurray Dormatory on the campus of Central Methodist College in the
spring of 1976. Some guys were playing frisbee and had set up their
stereo to face out the dorm window. Steely Dan became a favorite of mine
that day.
How cathartic to hear that I'm not the only one with almost spiritual
feelings about some of these songs. I'm carried the lyrics, hand
written, of Brooklyn in my wallet for years, but don't really know why.
Except it was and is my favorite rock/pop song.
Wm
Steve Sauve
(ssa...@incentre.net) wrote:
: I remember 'Reelin' in the Years' as the first Dan song on the radio (was it
: (403) 594-5611
--
William Homer|will...@netcom.com|ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/wi/william1/weh.html
- if i'm not using caps, i'm holding the baby.
Howard Wright
> > I'm throwing this out there, let's see what happens.
> My
> > faves on the album are:
> > Dirty Work
> > Brooklyn
> > Midnite Cruiser
> > Wow, I chose no DF sung numbers, weird. Any comments? Peace.
I think people's favourites will always vary. Just recently though, I ended up
thinking that 'Change of the Guard' was one of the wekaer songs on the
album. I heard comments by DF and WB that there were certain songs on their
earlier albums that they were not exactly proud of.
I would suggest that COFG might be one of them. The octave 'disco' bass
line, and the 'nah-nah-nah-nah' bits are perhaps a little too cheesy even for
Df and WB?
Another thing about this album - anyone else spotted some little mistakes?
At one point in 'Do It Again' the bass part misses one of the changes -
not surprising really, since it's been stuck on a Gm groove for a long time!
Also, on Brooklyn, near the end after the female backing singers have been
going for a while, I hear an editing mistake - or am I imagining it?
I think the backing vocals repeat four times, then on the next time round
i hear a tiny 'Broo -' then it's cut off, and the guitar outtro continues.
Did they edit the tape a fraction too late here?
I don't want to sound too negative here though! CBAT is a fine album.
Do it again is a superb song, and I've recently been getting into 'Fire
in the hole' a lot - what a piano solo!
Howard
--
*********************************************
Howard...@ed.ac.uk
*********************************************
Tom Donovan
Steven B. Diamant wrote:
>
> I'll go song by song.
>
> offerings.
This was the first Dan song I heard and it hooked me to the band from
then on. I originally bought the single which edited out the organ solo,
so it was a nice surprise to hear the full version on the album.
Is it true that Donald used a childrens' 'toy' organ for the solo on
this ?
>
> MIDNITE CRUISER: Probably my favorite on the album. Jim Hodder's vocal
> bittersweet without being sugary.
Yep, one of mine too. For some reason, this became the crowd favourite
at many of the gigs last year. Did'nt play it at the concert I saw,
though.:-(
>
> REELIN' IN THE YEARS: Great song. Where does Elliot come up with these solos?
Who could argue? However, I know this may sound sacreligious to some,
but I find it a bit overrated by Dan fans.
>
>
> BROOKLYN: Perfection again.
Of all the songs on CBAT, I play this more than any other.
Beautiful. No less.
>
> CHANGE OF THE GUARD: Steely Dan's most upbeat, optimistic song. Kudos tothe Skunk.
Better than Reelin' for me..much more imaginative solo.
>
> TURN THAT HEARTBEAT OVER AGAIN: (Who is that singing when Donald isn't? i. e. "Looked at my watch and started for the door") According to the album, it could be Donald, Walter or David. I'd plump for Walter.
But the burning question...who is Michael ?
Cheers,
Tommy
I ride on that train babe,
Can't buy a thrill..
cra...@aol.com
When I was in 4th grade, a friend gave me the "Reelin' in the Years" 45 for my birthday (along with "A Cowboy's Work is Never Done" by Sonny and Cher). "Fire in the Hole" was the B-side. Elliot Randall's guitar work on "Reelin'" still kills me. In fact, when I saw SD live a few years ago, I was really disappointed that that great guitar part was played by the horn section. When I was in high school, I finally bought the whole album (late '70s). "Turn that Heartbeat" was a favorite at the time, but not really anymore (although I love the lyrics).
Listening to the album now, I'm struck by how polished it sounds for a first album. Fagen and Becker became better songwriters, but every song on the album has its moments. It also sounds like nothing else from that era (early 70's). Fagen's vocals sound much better than Palmer's (at least, to my ears). "Dirty Work" is a terrific song in spite of Palmer. Favorite tracks: "Do It Again," "Only a Fool Would Say That"("Unhand that Gandhi gun, There's no one to fire upon"), "Reelin' in the Years," "Fire in the Hole."
ct
Steven B. Diamant
In article <5eug05$f...@scotsman.ed.ac.uk>, h...@einstein.ph.ed.ac.uk
(Howard Wright) wrote:
> Also, on Brooklyn, near the end after the female backing singers have been
> going for a while, I hear an editing mistake - or am I imagining it?
> I think the backing vocals repeat four times, then on the next time round
> i hear a tiny 'Broo -' then it's cut off, and the guitar outtro continues.
> Did they edit the tape a fraction too late here?
I heard that, yes, but I never really thought much of it. It sounded good,
and I assumed it was an intentional little trick, somthing I certainly
wouldn't put past Don and Walt (or Gary and Roger the Immortal, for that
matter).
-JSD
Steven B. Diamant
In article <19970225225...@ladder02.news.aol.com>,
cra...@aol.com wrote:
"Unhand that Gandhi gun???" No. "Unhand that gun, be gone!"
-JSD
came...@ccc.govt.nz
In article <diamadozen-23...@ip160.islip.ny.pub-ip.psi.net>,
diama...@earthlink.net (Steven B. Diamant) writes:
> ONLY A FOOL WOULD SAY THAT: 3 perfect songs in a row. Wow. A rarely heard
> falsetto from Donald Fagen. (What is he muttering at the end??)
Jeff Baxter mutters... "Solamente un tonto le decira eso" or "Only
a fool would say that"
Don
Steven B. Diamant
I should know that-I've been taking Spanish for 8 years.
-JSD
Ryan Conners
Wow....heard this in college on a dusty old tape owned by my next door
neighbor. I had heard of Steely Dan previously....my mom owned ^Gold^ so I
was familiar with their style. But to see this, for a debut album, was pretty
darn impressive.
My faves? "Dirty Work" (one of a series of Great Radio Singles if They Had
Only Been Released), "Brookyln" (tho I'd probably take the Fagen demo if I
had to choose) and "Turn That Heartbeat Over Again." There really aren't any
I skip, cept "Do It Again" cuz I hear it on classic rock ststions all the
time and sadly, I'm pretty much burnt out on it.
Line of the album: "You've been telling me you were a genius since you were
17/and all the time I've known you, I still don't know what you mean."
Hindsight would probably say that Fagen should take taken all the vocals ,
but I think the potpourri adds to the presentation, and keeps the action
moving. (It also reveals Fagen's great grasp of harmony singing, which would
come into play in later albums.) Also, since it's by far their most
collaboarative effort (in terms of actual band members playing, and not
studio wizs) it seems a lot more laid-back and loose-limbed. The eventual
morphing into the Becker/Fagen hit machine was a process I personally thought
made their later albums a tad processed, so hearing this always makes it seem
like their "perky" album.
Obcom: I interviewed acclaimed singer/songwriter Freedy Johnston, who told me
that ^Can't Buy a Thrill^ is one of his favorite albums of all time. So we're
among good company, and to throw in a shameless plug, his new album ^Never
Home^ is highly recommended.
Off subject yapping: In the most recent issue of the Onion (a satrical
newspaper of a National Lampoonish variety, published in Madison, WI and
distributed elsewhere) there is featured a testimony from former president
Ronald Reagan about the dangers of doing "dogs." Basically, the whole thing's
a play on his Alzheimer's problem (sample sentence: "I say now, from the
blotto of my heart: pill lady! Hello, Pill lady! Pill lady best friend")
Anyway, the end finds the president signing his name.....Donald Fagen. *g*
Their web page is www.theonion.com....
Adam J. Ostermann
aoste...@hotmail.com