{"id":2182,"date":"2009-08-22T15:12:43","date_gmt":"2009-08-22T23:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=2182"},"modified":"2009-08-22T15:12:43","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T23:12:43","slug":"aja-at-the-gibson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2009\/08\/22\/aja-at-the-gibson\/","title":{"rendered":"Aja at the Gibson"},"content":{"rendered":"

MY OLD SCHOOL 1<\/span><\/p>\n

Insiders will tell you the best Steely Dan album is the second, "Countdown To Ecstasy", the one that ended their touring career, the one sans any hits.<\/p>\n

I disagreed.<\/p>\n

But last night I became a believer.<\/p>\n

"Bodhisattva" blistered.<\/p>\n

"Show Biz Kids" swung.<\/p>\n

But "My Old School" was STAGGERING!<\/p>\n

"I remember the thirty-five sweet goodbyes
When you put me on the Wolverine
Up to Annandale"<\/p>\n

For the uninitiated, for those who grew up in the midwest, or even further left, Annandale-on-Hudson is the location of Bard College, where those who were smart but thought high school was b.s. and didn’t have the grades commensurate with their intelligence ended up going to college to further their creativity.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s where Walter Becker and Donald Fagen went to school before they moved on to back up Jay Black as two of his Americans and ultimately get a deal with ABC Records, the worst of the major labels, where they were forced to get a lead singer, David Palmer, since Fagen’s voice was supposedly not radio-ready.<\/p>\n

Then the insane occurred.\u00c2\u00a0 Steely Dan was successful out of the box!\u00c2\u00a0 After struggling in the trenches for years, plying their trade far from the spotlight, Steely Dan was an AM radio fixture.\u00c2\u00a0 Not an FM staple.\u00c2\u00a0 FM was in the process of getting dumb, featuring meat and potatoes rock as opposed to intelligence, but the hooks of "Do It Again" and "Reelin’ In The Years" could not be denied by AM, "Can’t Buy A Thrill" became a huge hit, an album you saw oftenmost in the dorm rooms of those not quite hip, they didn’t have to worry about their cred, they were able to buy what felt good without worrying about external judgment.<\/p>\n

"Can’t Buy A Thrill" is a masterpiece.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, Mr. Palmer sang the lead vocal on the most legendary track, "Dirty Work", and therefore when done live it hasn’t got the same power, backup singers taking the lead, but Mr. Fagen still sings "Reelin’ In The Years"…<\/p>\n

You’ve been telling me you’re a genius<\/span>
Since you were seventeen<\/span>
In all the time I’ve known you<\/span>
I still don’t know what you mean<\/span><\/p>\n

In this era of self-promotion, "artists" tell us how great they are (can you hear me Kanye?), whereas the music used to speak for itself, it was your calling card, in an era that seems far distant.\u00c2\u00a0 But for those of us who lived through it, when we hear these Steely Dan songs we’re brought right back.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, last night Becker and Fagen and their troupe of hired gunslingers returned us to what was and who we used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 And one could say it was aged music, but like wine, some things get even better as the years go by.<\/p>\n

This is our classical music.\u00c2\u00a0 And even though youngsters might not understand, they’ll be positively blown away by the musicianship.\u00c2\u00a0 That was the focus, not staging, not production.\u00c2\u00a0 John Herington, a fellow most have never even heard of, blistered elite-level guitar solos, Jim Pugh blew his face out on the trombone, and Keith Carlock pounded the skins, earning Irving Azoff’s sobriquet as the best touring drummer.<\/p>\n

Still, we were there to hear the music.<\/p>\n

It was billed as a complete performance of "Aja".\u00c2\u00a0 And it was, right off the top.<\/p>\n

DEACON BLUES<\/span>

I’ll learn to work the saxophone <\/span>
I’ll play just what I feel<\/span><\/p>\n

Credit the Beatles.\u00c2\u00a0 They proved the older generation had no clue.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, the acts were in charge.\u00c2\u00a0 You could work in the studio of your choice, for seemingly as long as you liked, laying down your vision.<\/p>\n

But Steely Dan was not on Warner, they were on the aforementioned ABC, they had to earn this right.\u00c2\u00a0 Which they did with not only their spectacularly successful debut album, but the hit "Rikki Don’t Lose That Number" off their third disc, "Pretzel Logic".\u00c2\u00a0 It was no longer about hits, it was about EXCELLENCE!\u00c2\u00a0 Becker and Fagen were competing with no one other than themselves.<\/p>\n

The apotheosis was "Aja".\u00c2\u00a0 When they didn’t give a fuck what their audience thought and delivered a jazz-influenced album.\u00c2\u00a0 To a world that was enraptured with corporate rock.\u00c2\u00a0 Listeners dropped the needle and were surprised.\u00c2\u00a0 There was the mellowness of a corner club, where in this year of the Sex Pistols punkers were not pogoing, but old jazzbos were blowing.<\/p>\n

But "Aja" was so right, that despite having no AM hits it became a staple on the soft rock FM stations, and in the houses of those not only sipping wine, but denizens addicted to sound, Steely Dan was the foremost warrior on this front, in an era when squashed MP3s, never mind compressed CDs, were unheard of.<\/p>\n

JOSIE<\/span><\/p>\n

Dancing is an involuntary motion.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe not for Paula Abdul, but for the rest of us, especially we self-conscious white folk.\u00c2\u00a0 But sometimes the sound emanating from the speakers is just SO funky that you turn into Gumby, you’re shimmying and shaking, even if you previously believed you had as much soul as Steve Martin in "The Jerk".<\/p>\n

"Josie" is the last track on the second side.\u00c2\u00a0 There are only three cuts on side one, a risk heretofore unknown in the rock world.\u00c2\u00a0 You could have ONE cut per side, like Jethro Tull, but THREE?<\/p>\n

Whereas the first side ends with the reflective "Deacon Blues", side two immediately stands at attention with "Peg", as if the singer had gone to bed, and gotten up to do it all over again, not like a star, but a musician.<\/p>\n

The band finished "Aja", there was a standing ovation.\u00c2\u00a0 And then the show truly got good.\u00c2\u00a0 "Aja" put the butts in the seats, it was the draw, performed flawlessly, it still had a sense of nostalgia, a sense of calcification.<\/p>\n

Then Steely Dan blew the roof off the joint.<\/p>\n

They played tonight’s "Babylon Sisters".\u00c2\u00a0 The anthem for the change of the decade, from the seventies to the eighties, as the boomers finally realized they were getting older and became reflective, before they raped and pillaged in the Reagan decade.<\/p>\n

They also performed "Hey Nineteen" and "Time Out Of Mind" from "Gaucho".<\/p>\n

But we also had Becker standing up to the mic to sing "Daddy Don’t Live In That New York City No More".\u00c2\u00a0 As unexpected as that performance was, the killer of the evening was "Don’t Take Me Alive", in a sneak peek from Monday’s show.<\/p>\n

But the surprises were from "Countdown To Ecstasy".\u00c2\u00a0 Hearing John Herington play the lead on "Bodhisattva" was like visiting a future world where the seventies were perfectly preserved, but still positively ALIVE!<\/p>\n

DEACON BLUES 2<\/span><\/p>\n

This is for me <\/span>
The essence of true romance <\/span>
Sharing the things we know and love <\/span>
With those of my kind <\/span>
Libations <\/span>
Sensations<\/span>
That stagger the mind<\/span><\/p>\n

This was not an AC\/DC show, not a Rolling Stones extravaganza, I didn’t see a single person under the age of twenty in attendance, no parents bringing their kids to expose them to what once was, when they had all their hair and their bodies were not lumpy.\u00c2\u00a0 This was a pilgrimage to Mecca, a journey to what once was and still is for those who lived through an era when if you wanted to know which way the wind blew you didn’t fire up the Weather Channel or Accuweather.com, you put a record on the turntable.\u00c2\u00a0 The limit-testers were not techies, but musicians, all of whom had seen the Beatles and picked up instruments, practiced and then gone off in divergent directions, all of which we paid attention to.\u00c2\u00a0 We could love the Allman Brothers and Joni Mitchell.\u00c2\u00a0 James Taylor and David Bowie.<\/p>\n

The sun is setting on these baby boomer acts.\u00c2\u00a0 Their audience is getting older, fans don’t feel the same need to go to the show.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you’re a musician as opposed to a star, you play anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what you’re in it for, not the fame, not the riches, but the SOUND!<\/p>\n

Last night we exulted in the sound.<\/p>\n


MY OLD SCHOOL 2<\/span><\/p>\n

California tumbles into the sea_<\/span>
That’ll be the day I go_<\/span>
Back to Annandale<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though "Aja" was released when I was firmly ensconced in Los Angeles, its performance brought me back to college, when the future was an irrelevant haze and I lived to spin records, nothing else on my mind.<\/p>\n

Getting nostalgic for New England, the band swung into this 1973 tune.<\/p>\n

I was thinking about the east coast game, getting good grades to get into a good college, the brisk fall days, the emphasis on intellectual activities, and then I heard the above lines.<\/p>\n

EXACTLY!<\/p>\n

When the Big One hits, that’s when I’ll think of moving back east.\u00c2\u00a0 Because just like all those bands, Steely Dan included, I moved to California to ESCAPE!\u00c2\u00a0 The hierarchy, the b.s.\u00c2\u00a0 I needed to be free!<\/p>\n

I’m not talking about Republican free, where you can’t marry who you want to, where the government is in your personal business, but a sixties free, which extended, just like Steely Dan, into the seventies.\u00c2\u00a0 Where the world was a land of possibilities, and it was up to you to grab hold and go for a ride!<\/p>\n

DEACON BLUES 2<\/span><\/p>\n

I cried when I wrote this song <\/span>
Sue me if I play too long<\/span><\/p>\n

The foremost misquote in the Steely Dan canon.\u00c2\u00a0 Those who were casual listeners, who didn’t purchase the album, who didn’t live for the music, are under the impression it’s: "Sue me if I play it WRONG!"<\/p>\n

An artist can’t worry about the audience’s judgment, the only right and wrong is in his head.\u00c2\u00a0 The only thing an artist can worry about is if people stop paying attention.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, are you willing to take this risk?<\/p>\n

No one is anymore, not anyone with any traction.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re afraid of giving up what they’ve got.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, even Garth Brooks failed with Chris Gaines. You’re supposed to give people what they expect.<\/p>\n

But music blew up because that precept was nowhere to be seen.\u00c2\u00a0 No label honcho could envision, never mind execute, "Sgt. Pepper".\u00c2\u00a0 It took Steely Dan six albums to get to "Aja".\u00c2\u00a0 And what resulted was not only completely unexpected, unlike the evanescent hits of the day, that drivel you can look up on "Billboard"’s site, "Aja" has got legs, it sustains, it sounds as fresh today as it did back then.\u00c2\u00a0 Truly.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what originality will do for you, whether it’s Becker and Fagen or Picasso.<\/p>\n

Too much of what Steely Dan represents has not only fallen by the wayside, it’s been actively SUPPRESSED!<\/p>\n

Kids are not liberal arts majors, contemplating existence, they study business.\u00c2\u00a0 What kind of music does a business major make?<\/p>\n

I ain’t got much money.\u00c2\u00a0 But like that old Frank Sinatra song, I’ve done it my way.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s been rough, but worth it.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve got no regrets, nobody I fucked over to get ahead.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve got the music.\u00c2\u00a0 And my writing.\u00c2\u00a0 And I constantly get e-mail telling me there’s too much, to not only not overload people, but to release it in drips and drabs, to improve my career arc.\u00c2\u00a0 But my creative process does not work that way.\u00c2\u00a0 And I keep writing not only to get it down, but in search of the Holy Grail, where I get it EXACTLY RIGHT!\u00c2\u00a0 Like my heroes of the sixties and seventies, who worked in a different medium, sound as opposed to print, but were on the exact same journey.

This brother is free <\/span>
I’ll be what I want to be<\/span><\/p>\n

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MY OLD SCHOOL 1 Insiders will tell you the best Steely Dan album is the second, "Countdown To Ecstasy", the one that ended their touring career, the one sans any hits. I disagreed. But last night I became a believer. "Bodhisattva" blistered. "Show Biz Kids" swung. But "My Old School" was STAGGERING! "I remember the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-shows","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-zc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2183,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2182\/revisions\/2183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}