If you don't listen to jazz or know the harmonies you don't always know what to listen for with their writing.
And the lyrics are just amazing.
"2. The Boston Rag
Lonnie swept up the playroom
And he swallowed up all he found
It was forty-eight hours ‘til Lonnie came around
One the most opaque songs Becker and Fagen ever wrote, “The Boston Rag” refers not to a song or a newspaper, but to the old days, when the narrator’s gang of college buddies used to have fun (“back in 1965”), when his old flame was “Lady Bayside,” and their mutual friend Lonnie was “the kingpin,” before they were old and bitter. Somehow (“there was nothing I could do”), things went sour, and the song ends with the narrator pointing his “car down Seventh Avenue,” presumably leaving town, while Lonnie downs all the pharmaceuticals from their drug den, knocking himself unconscious. What’s fascinating about this song is how absolutely specific the lyrics are but how absolutely obtuse they remain. There is no Seventh Avenue in Boston – what city are they in? Does Seventh Avenue end in a highway? Or a cliff? "
If you don't listen to jazz or know the harmonies you don't always know what to listen for with their writing.
And the lyrics are just amazing.
"2. The Boston Rag Lonnie swept up the playroom And he swallowed up all he found It was forty-eight hours ‘til Lonnie came around One the most opaque songs Becker and Fagen ever wrote, “The Boston Rag” refers not to a song or a newspaper, but to the old days, when the narrator’s gang of college buddies used to have fun (“back in 1965”), when his old flame was “Lady Bayside,” and their mutual friend Lonnie was “the kingpin,” before they were old and bitter. Somehow (“there was nothing I could do”), things went sour, and the song ends with the narrator pointing his “car down Seventh Avenue,” presumably leaving town, while Lonnie downs all the pharmaceuticals from their drug den, knocking himself unconscious. What’s fascinating about this song is how absolutely specific the lyrics are but how absolutely obtuse they remain. There is no Seventh Avenue in Boston – what city are they in? Does Seventh Avenue end in a highway? Or a cliff? "
stylusmagazine.com/articles/staff_top_10/top-ten-obscure-steely-dan-lyrics.htm
Not trying to be a docuhe just saying.
Not trying to be a docuhe just saying.
What they really do is they have half step connectors but they don't resolve as often in steely dan songs. That's how they make it rock.
What they really do is they have half step connectors but they don't resolve as often in steely dan songs. That's how they make it rock.
So I've got one year of undergrad just buying Steely Dan albums and learning them. Probably the last chance I'll have to get better for a long time.
So I've got one year of undergrad just buying Steely Dan albums and learning them. Probably the last chance I'll have to get better for a long time.