| Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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@[Hoops:30683] McCann - Well done sir! I view the entire work of Steely Dan as a Beat Opera. I suspect Boroughs Nova Theory and the way he mixed up his story's is ever present in all of Steely Dans work. This may be the reason that it is felt things may belong of fit in better somewhere else. 3rd World Man is a Rondo that directs us back to the start to do it again. I agree, It is an awesome song..I have always liked the sound images of the razor on the mirror that is created with a cymbal during the chorus. Literary time travel is something I have experienced often. I spent alot of time starting in the 1950's going to the movies on Saturdays. Still, 'til this day I am hooked on all sorts of literature! Each time I left the theater I experienced a jolt, a realization, focusing me back to reality, at times it was the bright sunlight & wall a of humidity that snapped me back from Treasure Island or the rain that woke me up from being underwater in some Jules Verne tale of thought experiment... The mechanized hum of another world has always held an escape for me from the time period I often find myself stuck in but can't find a way out or hitch a ride to a more comfortable place. Steely Dan does this for me also. I like the literary ideal of time travel as well as going to places I have yet to go. Being On the Road is something we all seem to desire when we're stuck, Reelin, panic stricken with the toils of everyday life, sorta, kinda like Virginia in the novel The Years. You have a gift Hoops! Napoleon Hill is a guy that was secretly admired by a select social sect, if you will... Handsome as the day is long, not to mention he looked and had a build that was much like that of Brother Neal Cassady. But Nappy wasn't a cuckold, (see author Edgar 'laughing' Chance for more context) although a women tried to make him one when he was 15. But he stood up to her and did what he knew was right and left her. He wasn't a loser! This at a time when it wasn't too cool, socially. He went on to make money and teach many others to do the same. His picture is featured on the cover of 'Can't Buy A Thrill' I wish I had the skills to write as nicely as you Hoops. Well done and Thank You for your valuable insights. |
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| Steely Dan – Razor Boy Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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I apologize for the poor proofreading skills I displayed. Cages, the place where they put you when you are picked up on the street (NYC) for being suspected of being a hustler of some sorts. Daddy, (Baba Boroughs) was surprised to hear that Baba Lu (Carr) was being held in the cages with the scum of the city. Boroughs (also stalking Carr) was in love with Lucien and hated seeing him being treated like a street criminal. After all, he only murdered a stalking deaf guy who was also in love with Lucien. (Carr's defense was that he was defending himself from a gay stalker) As Walter Becker has often observed... What a bunch of LOSERS! |
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| Steely Dan – Razor Boy Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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"Polite" tribute to Summerset Maugham's "The Razors Edge". As in this novel the author in there, reporting. At times it seems this is the wat the Steely Dn writes. As reporters who keep journals turning them into prose. I continue to see all sorts of literature in the lyrics of the Dan's tracks. Especially the "beats"... The Razor Boy is Lucien Carr. He stabbed an admirer who stalked him from East St Louis to a college in Mass and finally to NYC and murdered him in the park. Baba Lu went to jail and Kerouac and Boroughs also aided and abetted the lad. Boroughs was also in 'luv' with Lucien. Carr later introduced Neal Cassady to the group. The Razors Edge title comes from a translation of a verse in the Katha Upanishad, paraphrased in the book's epigraph as: "The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard." As always the style of bop, spontaneous prose or pretzel logic is present here as well. Telling 3 tales that can fit into most all humans life's. Boroughs chopped up Naked Lunch into 3. Someone is dealing drugs to everyone. Poor folks trade and barter due to lack of actual funds. |
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| Steely Dan – Your Gold Teeth II Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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The Merry Pranksters and Further going from town to city with a nod to Augustus Owsley Stanley Gold Teeth reference the myth of taming the bulls and using them to plough the fields and plant the Gold Teeth of the Beats to grow into knights or warriors for the cause. It didn't work this time either. May 1970 Wall St and construction workers hold their own protest and it dwarfs any anti-war protest at the time. It kills the entire revolution. Chain Lightning is a report of this day when it wasn't too safe to cross Washington Sq as a freak. Later this year, 1970, The Sterling Hall Bombers make a last ditch effort at the Uof W@[Madison:30461] to take revenge for Kent State. One of them ends up in Mexico working as a Gaucho according to FBI reports released after he was taking alive in a warehouse in San Rafael. |
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| Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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Time traveling back to the days of Jack Kerouac's dream of being in a band, Parkers Band to be exact. I like that concept for all of the Dans art. I have come to believe that all of Steely Dans art is about the Beats particularly Cassady, Kerouac and Boroughs... Lucian Carr and Gary Snyder are represented as well. As is Carlo (Ginsberg) Marx... (BTW - Edie Parker is Rose Darling and Joan Boroughs is Snake Mary} The term "Pretzel Logic" is a way of expressing Kerouac's "Bop, Spontaneous Prose" But art is whatever we need or want it to be. There are NO WRONG opinions of art! Can't be... As Kerouac explains, put these 3 items into rings because it's not linear logical but more Spenglerian (Oswald Spengler) circular, into one (as a pretzel) and when you listen, consume thru your ears, head and heart then rattles around in your brain to become whatever it may mean to you. We can only hear what we already know about. Learn about the Beats and how they were losers. Steely Dan are reporting real life events as reporters might. Accurately. IMO When Kamakira was being promoted Fagen said it felt good to write fiction for a change. Not that I trust anything they may say about their work. Like all artist's they want us to figure it out for ourselves. I don't trust the words that end up printed in their lyrics either. Too many homophones are used to only have one meaning. |
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| Steely Dan – Kings Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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Kings is Steely Dans version of Neal Cassady's obit. Most of this album's focus is on Neal and the way he lived and died ( Neal "Couldn't buy a thrill") but Kerouac and Boroughs are also showcased throughout all their work. Steely Dan's art is a reflection of many of the Beats work. |
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| The B-52's – 53 Miles West Of Venus Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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I'd like to think that Venus is an actual person. Not sure if anyone can get 53 miles close to the planet Venus except in our imagination. But art is or can be anything we want or need it to be. If not a person then my 2nd choice would be a city. Like a Venus, Georgia??? I'd wouldn't be surprised, in fact I'd be interested, perhaps intrigued, by any other accounting except for the actual, literal one that is supplied. I think the B52s write about 'on the road' stuff quite abit. Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac thought and spoke as if they were always going or been someplace. I'm just too lazy to look up how many towns and cities are actually named Venus in the USA. Regardless, I like the art reflecting back to me a vision of another human named Venus that I can't wait to see and hold again. "I'm your Venus, I'm your fire" |
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