A nice Ode to Escapism, American-style. What's great is the realistic aspects of it are being used as the fantastical part. It's envisioned as a road trip, but it isn't a song about a road trip per se... along the 'ride' there are glimpses of various pieces of Americana which are all laced with meaning as it would relate to the real Donald Fagen's life, how he envisioned life... so you see, what I think he does so uniquely in his songs (along with Walter Becker), is place reality as the thing that means so much to the author's life, but only as he envisions it in his mind, and, to some extent, that ability to envision it comes around to impact his real life. Instead of fantastic thoughts or idealized thoughts about what we don't have, he is only opting for a slightly idealized or envisioned embellishment upon the already uniquely, if subtletly so, aspects of American culture and life as they already exist. Some of the most mundane things, like a road trip or hot chick or James Dean-esque car wreck or a drive-thru theatre or a little motel like the ones that you used to always have along the major highways, or (this one is mine) the local convenience store... he also incorporates the whole aspect of technological innovations... ones that geeks like a lot (this was written a little before the whole internet thing kicked off)... talks about nature, man's (primitive) nature and the nature all around us (including the impending natural disasters that will let us know that we are much less in control than we'd like to think we are) And the line 'some kids just drive too fast' is fairly self-explanatory, I think.
A nice Ode to Escapism, American-style. What's great is the realistic aspects of it are being used as the fantastical part. It's envisioned as a road trip, but it isn't a song about a road trip per se... along the 'ride' there are glimpses of various pieces of Americana which are all laced with meaning as it would relate to the real Donald Fagen's life, how he envisioned life... so you see, what I think he does so uniquely in his songs (along with Walter Becker), is place reality as the thing that means so much to the author's life, but only as he envisions it in his mind, and, to some extent, that ability to envision it comes around to impact his real life. Instead of fantastic thoughts or idealized thoughts about what we don't have, he is only opting for a slightly idealized or envisioned embellishment upon the already uniquely, if subtletly so, aspects of American culture and life as they already exist. Some of the most mundane things, like a road trip or hot chick or James Dean-esque car wreck or a drive-thru theatre or a little motel like the ones that you used to always have along the major highways, or (this one is mine) the local convenience store... he also incorporates the whole aspect of technological innovations... ones that geeks like a lot (this was written a little before the whole internet thing kicked off)... talks about nature, man's (primitive) nature and the nature all around us (including the impending natural disasters that will let us know that we are much less in control than we'd like to think we are) And the line 'some kids just drive too fast' is fairly self-explanatory, I think.
@caucasian Excellent review. Just getting into solo Fagen, the dude is unreal, he's like a cultural historian.
@caucasian Excellent review. Just getting into solo Fagen, the dude is unreal, he's like a cultural historian.