Tag: Music

Oh no, not them again…

Just can’t lose that hypnotic rhythm guitar part… part of the Haitian thing, no doubt.

Along with some of the most obscure lyrics the Dan ever penned.

Over the past weekend I was listening to Steely Dan’s Can’t Buy A Thrill album, and it staggers the imagination to think that this was their debut album.  I mean, first albums are generally a band’s attempt to get things together, and one expects that things can only improve.  That wasn’t the case here:  Fagen and Becker got it absolutely right, the very first time.  There’s not a single weak song — let alone a bad one — on the entire album.

Which would lead one to think, “Oh well, they’ll probably bring out another album or two, and things will just get worse.”  Except that Steely Dan never did:  every single subsequent album just got better — or maybe they didn’t, they just restated the obvious.  As one commenter said:  “These guys were from a superior musical universe and still are.”  And Can’t By A Thrill, when compared to other albums of 1972 (!!!FFS!!!), just establishes the truth of that statement.

Which brings to mind something that annoys me about the Dan:  every time I listen to one of their albums, it becomes my favorite Steely Dan album — until I listen to the next one.

This was the first bass part I ever learned — long before I ever started playing in a band.  Thank you, Hollies.

I just regret that I never got to play it live.

Just a few bars of this piece have stuck with me over the past few days, but of course I can’t actually create an excerpt of the exact passage.

So you’ll just have to listen to the entire Warsaw Concerto — this time performed by Valentina Lisitsa.  Sorry.

Hungry like a what?

Best description of Duran Duran was made by my old lead guitarist buddy Danny who said, “You know, their music sounds brilliant… but when you listen to it closely, you realize that there’s not much actually happening in there.”