CB

Steely Dan, “Here At The Western World”

Some song lyrics are cryptic, but we don’t need to “figure out” the meaning. We can suspend disbelief and just live in the mood or the world they create.

“Here At The Western World” is certainly an oblique lyric (like those of most Steely Dan songs), but it’s one of those where the details are so specific, and hang together so well, that it’s hard to resist trying to sleuth out the story.

The music is laid back, smooth, almost innocuous (but this is SD, so the lyrics scratch the surface to reveal the darkness underneath). There’s an implied bossa nova rhythm (similar to “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”/“Song for My Father”), which brings us to… South America.

No way could I pin down this song’s meaning on my own, so I googled a few times over the years, and found that the most coherent explication was this: it’s about Nazi war criminals who found refuge in South America after the war. The narrative zeros in on one character, who happens to be a junkie, a heroin addict in search of a fix.

Down at the Lido (Italian for a beach resort, but here probably a night club/restaurant) there’s sausage and beer, a German tipoff right off the bat. Search Wikipedia for “Klaus,” and Gestapo mass murderer Klaus Barbie — “The Butcher of Lyon” — is in the top five. He ended up living and thriving in Bolivia, hobnobbing with fellow fascists in high places, including dictator Hugo Banzer Suárez. Suárez was part German (the Banzer part), and has been called “a bantam rooster in uniform.” Klaus and the Rooster.

Our character, though he’s welcome at the fancy spots — he’s one of the boys — is headed for a seedier joint, a place where the mayor, not the president, hangs out, and where you might find a sailor “blacked out on the stairs.”… Continue reading

Amateur

The professional blogging sites (and courses, and books) say the savvy blogger should become an expert at something. No, more precisely, you should be perceived to be an expert. I’m not an expert at anything, even the things I love. I love = amateur.

Experts (the real ones, not the “perceived as” types) burrow as deeply as possible into a topic, whether it’s early punk music, or JFK conspiracy theories, or vintage motorcycles… they know the whole history, the tiniest details — and we need these people; they write the histories. And don’t get me wrong, they love their subjects; they all started out as amateurs.

I’ve just never had the inclination to be an expert on any one topic, or a “critic" for that matter. I hope that my writing here (especially about music) comes across more as appreciation, from the heart of an amateur.

Steely Dan cast of characters

For no particular reason, here’s a list of named characters who appear in Steely Dan songs:

Felonius (my old friend)
Cathy Berberian
Dr. Warren Kruger
Kid Clean
Ann de Siècle
Pixeleen
Charlie Freak
Kid Charlemagne
Lonnie
Lady Bayside
Deacon Blues
Buzz
Abu
Peg
Josie
Gina
Yvonne
Rikki
Abbie
Pepe
Aja (? a woman or a drug ?)
Doctor Wu
‘Retha Franklin
Jill St. John
Marilyn 4.0
Katy
Rudy
Carlo
(oh) Michael (oh Jesus)
(the corpse of) William Wright
Good King Richard and Good King John
(my) Louise
the Queen of Spain
Napoleon
Hoops McCann
Jive Miguel
Miss Fugazi
Dave from Acquisitions
Franny from NYU
Bobby Dakine
Mr. Parker (Bird)
Little Eva
Klaus (Barbie?)
The Rooster (Hugo Banzer Suarez?)
Ruthie
Mr. LaPage
Babs and Clean Willie
Papa (Doc Duvalier)
T-Bone Angie
Madame Erzulie
Brother Lou Garue and the Jerry Garry
Chino and Daddy G (Gordon Liddy)
Rose Darling
Snake Mary
Janie Runaway (and her friend Melanie)
Binky
Daddy
Lucy (still loves her Coke & Rum)
Dupree

Music & Mindfulness

As I said earlier, this isn’t an “oldies music blog” (first few posts notwithstanding). It’s not really a “music blog” either, although I’ll probably write more about music than about any other topic. One big area I want to explore is Mindfulness, particularly from a Buddhist perspective. Although, I’d never call myself “a Buddhist.”

Twelve Thirty

Listen to Hal Blaine’s drumming on the “quiet” parts of The Mamas & the Papas’ “Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)”. No wonder the Wrecking Crew got the big bucks back then. BTW, this is a song I can put on repeat for an hour and still want to listen again. Perfect.

Music we enjoyed in 2018

I say “we” because Valerie and I discovered and experienced most if not all of these together. Not necessarily stuff that was released in 2018, but that we discovered (or rediscovered) and enjoyed this past year.

Various Artists, A Day in the Life: Impressions of Pepper
Each song re-imagined by a contemporary jazz artist, sometimes recognizable, sometimes not so much, always invigorating.
Hear Mary Halvorson’s “With A Little Help From My Friends” on YouTube

Donny McCaslin, Blow.
The new fusion? Smart jazz-rock with hooks. Great show at The Sinclair in Cambridge.
Hear Donny McCaslin’s “Club Kidd” on YouTube

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, Live at KEXP
Old school soul, baby! These guys burned it up at Atwood’s Tavern last June. Love Jimmy James’ guitar work!
Watch the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio’s half-hour KEXP set on YouTube

Jenny Scheinman live at Big Ears
The Mischief and Mayhem outfit veered between punk and jazz, klezmer and noise; Jenny’s violin and Nels Cline’s guitar trading ferocious licks and squonks.
Watch Mischief and Mayhem on YouTube

The Curtain Society 30th Anniversary show at Bull Mansion, Worcester
Wonderful to see and hear these guys, with years of experience under their belts, reprise their catalog to a full house of fans.
Hear The Curtain Society’s “Two Wonderful Stars” on YouTube

Sons of Kemet, Your Queen Is a Reptile
Jazz beyond genre, black power, nine songs, nine queens.
Watch Sons of Kemet’s “Your Queen Is A Reptile” video on YouTube

Schaun Tozer, Intelligence OST
Vancouver-based crime drama from the mid-2000s. The series is addictive, with sympathetic characters on all sides of the law. And Schaun Tozer’s score (beats, synths, sitars) is perfect (and memorable).
Hear Schaun Tozer’s theme music for Intelligence on YouTube

Olafur Arnalds, Broadchurch OST
Understated, evocative music for a great British detective series.
Hear Olafur Arnald’s theme music for Broadchurch on YouTube

Charles Lloyd and the Marvels, Vanished Gardens
I’m sure this made lots of album-of-the-year lists – how could it not, with Lloyd, Lucinda Williams, Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz involved?… Continue reading

Gary “U.S.” Bonds, Quarter to Three (1961)

This record changed my life.

I was ten years old. How many of us, at around that age, heard new music because of a friend’s access to his or her older sibling’s records? Summertime — a friend said, “You ever hear U.S. Bonds?” And then (to quote Lou Reed), my mind split open.

I grew up in a pre-rock family. As a little kid, I lived in the world of my mother’s music: classical and pop from the 1920s through the 1950s. I latched onto this set of RCA Victor albums she had called “60 Years of Music America Loved Best” (1959-1960). This was my musical education. The collection was eclectic, to say the least:

  • Marian Anderson, “Go Down Moses”
  • Vladimir Horowitz, “Variations on Themes from Carmen”
  • Paul Whiteman, “Whispering”
  • Perry Como, “Prisoner of Love”
  • Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy, “Indian Love Call”
  • Fritz Kreisler, “Liebesfreud”
  • Harry Belafonte, “Day-O”

…and many more (Duke Ellington, Eddy Arnold, Jascha Heifetz, Artie Shaw, Mario Lanza, Toscanini, Rachmaninoff, etc.…)

Despite the obvious omissions (blues? R&B? bebop?), it was a good introduction to 20th-century music for a mid-century kid. None of it prepared me for “Quarter to Three”. The bits of rock ’n’ roll I had heard (probably via a babysitter listening to local top 40 station WORC), the ones that made an impression, tended to be novelties: “Purple People Eater,” or “Witch Doctor,” or “On the Telephone” (Stan Boreson’s parody of Jimmie Rodgers’ “Honeycomb”). Little kids used to love that stuff. Maybe a little Fats Domino or Elvis in the mix. “Quarter to Three” revealed a whole other world. Gary and crew weren’t just doing a song about a wild party, the song was the party. A party happening at the bottom of the sea, from the sound of it. There may have been more instruments involved in the session, but the only audible ones were saxes and some kind of distorted-beyond-recognition drum thing.… Continue reading

Drive time

A chugga-chugga motion like a railroad train, now!

There’s an element in early ’60s pop songs – not only non-ironic optimism, but also something in the drive of the music itself – maybe the same drive that would enable an entire nation to pursue crazy goals like putting a man on the moon… and a quality in the vocals – just enough youth, just enough street – I’d swear, you can almost hear Little Eva popping her chewing gum, and I love her for that. Combine all this with the BIG SOUND they got from recording real people on analog equipment with very limited track counts, and you have something that was “of its time,” and will never come again.

When I say drive, it’s not just about tempo, it’s the feel, the attitude, the sound itself. Hear it (and feel it!) in Little Eva’s “The Loco-Motion” (1962 – my favorite dance record ever), “Tell Him” (1962) by The Exciters, “Let Me In” (1962) by The Sensations, The Crystals’ “Da Doo Ron Ron” (1963), Bobby Lewis’ “Tossin’ and Turnin'” (1961), Dee Dee Sharp’s records, and in so much of Motown, but especially “Dancing in the Streets,” Martha & the Vandellas’ 1964 coded anthem for the civil rights movement. The beat is propulsive, and the songs seem to breathe – again, it’s something built into not only the musicians’ performance, but the recorded sound itself. (Dance music of today uses heavy sidechain compression to evoke a hyped-up version of this breathing effect.)

All these records came out of northern urban centers (and L.A.); worth noting that southern soul tended to be a bit more laid-back — the famous behind-the-beat feel of Stax drummer Al Jackson Jr. vs. the pumping pop-soul “Sound of Young America.”

Some of these songs were covered in later years, but the drive was lost (and youth was no longer youth, if that makes any sense).… Continue reading