The songs on the whole album take place in very late fifties / very early sixties, that's the key.
there was this idea in the late fifties/ early sixties that if you built a fallout shelter in the back yard, put in food in there was a nuclear war with the Commies, you could go down and pop back out in a few months and be fine. You'd "survive" a nuclear attack.
They apparently didn't know that the half life of uranium 236 was some 50 years, that's the date when half the radiation would be gone... and everyone and everything would be destroyed...
But people still bought fallout shelters. And there was such naïve optimism and trust in science! ( a running theme)
Tuesday Weld was one of the most beautiful actresses of all time. She was on the TV show "the Many Loves of Dobie Gillis". She is on the front and back he cover of the famous 1990 Matthew Sweet album "Girlfriend" . Check her out. Just really spectacularly pretty .
Ambush was a famous cloying perfume of the time.
a French Twist? You see Joanie in Mad Men with her hair up in a French Twist a lot.
Women looked, women dressed like goddesses then. Dresses, spike heels, stockings, garter belts, makeup, puffed up hair like French twists, Ambush, etc. see Mad Men. see Fagen's video of this (if you can find it) of this girl dressed like this climbing down into the fallout shelter ladder.
Limbo was a popular group dance for parties.
Dave Brubeck was the first (white) Jazz musician with broad appeal among college kids and especially whites. His band was integrated. Before that, many jazz combos were black and many whites looked down their noses at jazz... Brubeck also appealed to people who liked classical music. The song by his sax man "Take Five" is still a revolutionary jazz classic. it is played in the unusual in 5/4 meter. He was a jazz "pioneer".
the guy in the song wants to take the girl into the fallout shelter and seduce her, of course.
@rash67 One caveat: Americans built bunkers because there was the possibility of surviving an atomic bomb, but as soon as thermonuclear bombs became available that hope was dashed. Otherwise, good analysis.
@rash67 One caveat: Americans built bunkers because there was the possibility of surviving an atomic bomb, but as soon as thermonuclear bombs became available that hope was dashed. Otherwise, good analysis.
@rash67 The half life of Uranium 236 is 23 million years, but that's not a common isotope in bomb fallout, anyway. Surviving after emerging from a nuclear shelter is not impossible, even after a thermonuclear blast, @Skavius, but it depends upon the details.
@rash67 The half life of Uranium 236 is 23 million years, but that's not a common isotope in bomb fallout, anyway. Surviving after emerging from a nuclear shelter is not impossible, even after a thermonuclear blast, @Skavius, but it depends upon the details.
The songs on the whole album take place in very late fifties / very early sixties, that's the key.
there was this idea in the late fifties/ early sixties that if you built a fallout shelter in the back yard, put in food in there was a nuclear war with the Commies, you could go down and pop back out in a few months and be fine. You'd "survive" a nuclear attack.
They apparently didn't know that the half life of uranium 236 was some 50 years, that's the date when half the radiation would be gone... and everyone and everything would be destroyed...
But people still bought fallout shelters. And there was such naïve optimism and trust in science! ( a running theme)
Tuesday Weld was one of the most beautiful actresses of all time. She was on the TV show "the Many Loves of Dobie Gillis". She is on the front and back he cover of the famous 1990 Matthew Sweet album "Girlfriend" . Check her out. Just really spectacularly pretty .
Ambush was a famous cloying perfume of the time.
a French Twist? You see Joanie in Mad Men with her hair up in a French Twist a lot.
Women looked, women dressed like goddesses then. Dresses, spike heels, stockings, garter belts, makeup, puffed up hair like French twists, Ambush, etc. see Mad Men. see Fagen's video of this (if you can find it) of this girl dressed like this climbing down into the fallout shelter ladder.
Limbo was a popular group dance for parties.
Dave Brubeck was the first (white) Jazz musician with broad appeal among college kids and especially whites. His band was integrated. Before that, many jazz combos were black and many whites looked down their noses at jazz... Brubeck also appealed to people who liked classical music. The song by his sax man "Take Five" is still a revolutionary jazz classic. it is played in the unusual in 5/4 meter. He was a jazz "pioneer".
the guy in the song wants to take the girl into the fallout shelter and seduce her, of course.
"The New Frontier" was a Kennedy Admin slogan.
Donald Fagen is always sardonic...
@rash67 One caveat: Americans built bunkers because there was the possibility of surviving an atomic bomb, but as soon as thermonuclear bombs became available that hope was dashed. Otherwise, good analysis.
@rash67 One caveat: Americans built bunkers because there was the possibility of surviving an atomic bomb, but as soon as thermonuclear bombs became available that hope was dashed. Otherwise, good analysis.
@rash67 The half life of Uranium 236 is 23 million years, but that's not a common isotope in bomb fallout, anyway. Surviving after emerging from a nuclear shelter is not impossible, even after a thermonuclear blast, @Skavius, but it depends upon the details.
@rash67 The half life of Uranium 236 is 23 million years, but that's not a common isotope in bomb fallout, anyway. Surviving after emerging from a nuclear shelter is not impossible, even after a thermonuclear blast, @Skavius, but it depends upon the details.
@rash67 I found the video https://www.google.com/search?q=donald+fagen+new+frontier+videos&newwindow=1&sca_esv=80565d2b7391f165&sca_upv=1&rlz=1C1CHBD_enUS909US909&sxsrf=ADLYWIIOkWnBuDr6N3OlVkXzbr5xdHkcrQ%3A1714814289115&ei=Uf01ZpfZBu21wN4PsN6q4A4&oq=donald+fagen+new+frontier+video&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiH2RvbmFsZCBmYWdlbiBuZXcgZnJvbnRpZXIgdmlkZW8qAggAMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBhAAGBYYHjILEAAYgAQYhgMYigVI5S1QhBBY0RlwAXgBkAEAmAFYoAGSA6oBATW4AQHIAQD4AQGYAgagAqsDwgIKEAAYsAMY1gQYR8ICCBAAGIAEGKIEmAMAiAYBkAYIkgcBNqAH0Bo&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:e6e92abc,vid:FtovFI8etOg,st:0
@rash67 I found the video https://www.google.com/search?q=donald+fagen+new+frontier+videos&newwindow=1&sca_esv=80565d2b7391f165&sca_upv=1&rlz=1C1CHBD_enUS909US909&sxsrf=ADLYWIIOkWnBuDr6N3OlVkXzbr5xdHkcrQ%3A1714814289115&ei=Uf01ZpfZBu21wN4PsN6q4A4&oq=donald+fagen+new+frontier+video&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiH2RvbmFsZCBmYWdlbiBuZXcgZnJvbnRpZXIgdmlkZW8qAggAMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBhAAGBYYHjILEAAYgAQYhgMYigVI5S1QhBBY0RlwAXgBkAEAmAFYoAGSA6oBATW4AQHIAQD4AQGYAgagAqsDwgIKEAAYsAMY1gQYR8ICCBAAGIAEGKIEmAMAiAYBkAYIkgcBNqAH0Bo&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:e6e92abc,vid:FtovFI8etOg,st:0