The songs on the whole album take place in very late fifties / very early sixties, that's the key.
There was incredible optimism and idealism in America in the late fifties and than at the beginning of the Kennedy Administration, Camelot.
WWII, the Eisenhower admin, the McCarthy scare over communists everywhere was over , (except in the minds of Fred C Koch and his fellow members of the John Birch Society) There was this feeling that we American was on the brink of a new millennium. There was a feeling that science could and would solve all of the problems of the world. There was a feeling of future plenty for everyone In the world.
The International Geophysical Year (57-58) was a year dedicated to science, science solving all problems, International scientific cooperation especially with the USSR.
Spandex was a new tough "modern" fiber that wouldn't wear out easily
a New York to Paris undersea railroad, nothing seemed impossible for science.
"Just machines to make big decisions/ Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision"
Everyone trusted science to provide all the answers
then there was the Castro takeover, the Bay of Pigs failed invasion, the Cuban missile crisis, the Kennedy assassination by person or persons unknown in Dallas, the Viet Nam war, DDT, the Silent Spring, etc etc and all that late fifties and Camelot optimism collapsed
The songs on the whole album take place in very late fifties / very early sixties, that's the key.
There was incredible optimism and idealism in America in the late fifties and than at the beginning of the Kennedy Administration, Camelot.
WWII, the Eisenhower admin, the McCarthy scare over communists everywhere was over , (except in the minds of Fred C Koch and his fellow members of the John Birch Society) There was this feeling that we American was on the brink of a new millennium. There was a feeling that science could and would solve all of the problems of the world. There was a feeling of future plenty for everyone In the world.
The International Geophysical Year (57-58) was a year dedicated to science, science solving all problems, International scientific cooperation especially with the USSR.
Spandex was a new tough "modern" fiber that wouldn't wear out easily
a New York to Paris undersea railroad, nothing seemed impossible for science.
"Just machines to make big decisions/ Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision"
Everyone trusted science to provide all the answers
then there was the Castro takeover, the Bay of Pigs failed invasion, the Cuban missile crisis, the Kennedy assassination by person or persons unknown in Dallas, the Viet Nam war, DDT, the Silent Spring, etc etc and all that late fifties and Camelot optimism collapsed
Fagen, always sardonic, yes.