Words of wisdom (?) from Neb (and maybe even Sigurd) as they struggle to get the playlist sorted out.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
What's new in Baltimore? = A Zappa bust
The city of Baltimore (Maryland, US) erects a bronze bust of rock artist and composer Frank Zappa. Zappa was born there in 1940 and lived in the city until the age of ten when his family moved to California. The bust project is supported by Lithuanian fans (!) who put up their own Zappa bust in their capital Vilnius in 1995. Read the article from The Baltimore Sun here:
Now and then we slap a video on this blog. And this time it is two videos by our Album of the Month artists; King Crimson! First of a collage of clips from the early days ofthe group. The sharer writes:
The classic 1972-74 line-up of King Crimson - Robert Fripp, John Wetton, Bill Bruford and David Cross (plus Jamie Muir on the earliest footage) - filmed in Europe and the US performing some of its better known compositions - "Easy Money", "Lament", "Starless", and "Larks' Tongues In Aspic" Parts One & Two. Rarely seen archives; only fragments are presented here so as to support rather than prevent an official release which is hoped for... eventually.
Carolyn Leonhart & Wayne Escoffery's If Dreams Come True was released seven months ago. May 26 is date set for Carolyn's new solo album Chances Are - The Romantic Music Of Robert Allen.
Robert who?
According to Wikipedia: Robert Allen (February 5, 1927-October 1, 2000) was a pianist and an arranger and writer of music for popular songs.He was an accompanist for Perry Como, Peter Lind Hayes, and Arthur Godfrey. Many of his compositions were collaborations with lyricist Al Stillman.
The album is released by President Records in England. And if you're an emusic.com subscriber you don't have to wait for May 26; you can download the album right now.
* The listener's Top 20. * Who won the April giveaway? * The connection between Carly Simon's brand new CD and Steely Dan. * An upcoming bunch of Steely Dan rereleases for the completist collector. * Album of the Month: King Crimson's The Great Deceiver.
Way back in the days of Napster and other whos names we've long ago forgotten, the natural choice was to go find music were you could find more than the Top 10, 20, 50 or 100 plus advertised stuff that any legal site could offer.
Looks like we're slowly getting there, although I would love to see a site or more that offered out of print stuff as well as obscure and the latest hits. A true one-stop for ones musical needs and explorations.
Here's a news item we found today that points in the right direction: Amazon has made deals with Sony BMG, EMI and other labels to bring hundreds of out-of-print albums to CD using their CreateSpace “Disc on Demand” system. The new CDs will be manufactured on-demand and shipped when customers place an order.
This blog is not exclusively Steely Dan, far from it. But as we keep an eye on that very same group we should've had this clip here eons ago. It was about that time we first heard Yacht Rock mentioned. And we meant to check it out. But you know how things go. You put it off and suddenly you're one way or another reminded that you haven't seen the clip yet. And you finally do and find it funny. And as we haven't had any clip here for quite some time we thought we'd give you Yacht Rock episode 10. The episode were we get to see how that feud between the two of the most successful 1970's bands played out. Steely Dan versus The Eagles:
P.S. It just struck us as somewhat odd in a perplexing way that more than 30 years on both groups are still around, touring and recording...
Did we miss this? Almost! Guitarist Jon Herington's The Complete Rhyming Dictionary from 1992 has been re-released with a brand new title; Pulse And Cadence. The record label/nuber is ESC 3726.
The album was recorded back in 1992 and features a stellar band:
Jim Beard: piano, keyboards, synthesizers, hammond, organ, vocals.
It's a bit of a pipe dream, but living in Europe we're allowed to nurture it. And after last year's world tour we imagined that just maybe, just maybe, Steely Dan would take the 2008 tour abroad as well.
With the latest update to drummer Keith Carlock's homepage those dreams look set to stay just dreams. Keith will be on tour with his own band Rudder in September andWayne Krantz in October. Somehow we find it hard to see Steely Dan touring with a different drummer. And going back on the road in November?
Over on steelydan.com they've gigs listed until August 9, so theoretically they could add a few international dates for the remainder of the month. Hmmm... OK. It's back to dreaming!
But before we go a question: Carly Simon has just released her first album of new songs in eight years. It's called This Kind Of Love and has a clear Steely Dan connection. What is that connection? No, it's not drummer Rick Marotta who also played on Gaucho, Aja and The Royal Scam. The correct answer to the question will be posted here this weekend if we don't get it in the comments to this post!
I can still remember the excitement when I got it in my hand...the first volume of Frank Zappa's You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore. And that is 20 years ago now. It was just around the time of the European leg of Zappa's 1988 tour. (His last tour.) I recall sitting in the lobby of the Falkoner Theatret in Copenhagen just before the concert when someone pulled out a copy of the two brand new 2 CD sets, You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore (YCDTOSA) and Guitar. I was very excited just to be able to read through the song titles. The excitement may also have depended on the fact that I had tickets for three different Zappa shows that week!
Great mix Anyway, the first volume of YCDTOSA, the retrospective collection of live tracks from Frank's entire carreer, was awaited for a long time by the fans, and I think most of us loved it. Unfortunately, some of the following YCDTOSA volumes were not of similar standards. Volume 1 is a great mix of different bands and great performances and it included several unexpected tracks as the previouosly unreleased song Rollo that came at the end of the Yellow Snow suite (London 1979). So along with all this live King Crimson stuff, Steely Dan and David Bowie, you can also expect some You Can't Do That On Stage music on Radio Dupree in May.
Just a few days left to join our giveaway! Win our Album of the Month! Last day is Wednesday, April 30. We are giving away a copy of Wild In London by The Tubes. Nice fold out cover. Comes with a nifty little booklet. All mint condition! Send an e-mail to radiodupree@yahoo.se No catch! We will announce the winner on our website and/or blog, BUT we assure you that name and adress information will be handled in a discreet way. We are doing this just to bring some extra festivitas to our little 5 year anniversary! Yep, Radio Dupree has been on "the air" since April 2003. C'mon lads and ladys...send in your e-mails! radiodupree@yahoo.se
Prepare for an orgy of King Crimson live recordings from the magical era 1973-74. Radio Dupree's Album of the Month for May is the 4 CD monster set The Great Deceiver. The Great Deceiver was first released in 1992 and is a "must have" for true crimheads, but has been a "hard to get" item for years. But some months ago the 4 CD set was re-issued as two double CD sets. Anyway, be sure to tune in to Radio Dupree to hear songs like Exiles, Starless, Shark's Lungs In Lemsip...and Doctor Diamond, a song that never was released on any of the ol' KC albums. Enjoy the collective musical efforts of Robert Fripp, John Wetton, Bill Bruford and David Cross!
So who's in the Steely Dan orchestra for the 2008 summer tour?
If we're to believe what's posted over on waltweiskopf.com this is the lineup:
Donald Fagen, Walter Becker, Jeff Young, Jon Herington, Freddie Washington, Keith Carlock, Carolyn Leonhart, Cindy Mizelle, Michael Leonhart, Walt Weiskopf, Jim Pugh & Roger Rosenberg.
April 7 we promised a post in regard to Mr Donald Fagen the next day. So it's long overdue. But here it is. Finally.
While Walter Becker's Circus Money will be out June 10, the other half of Steely Dan will beat him to appearing on a new record. Donald Fagen plays on one of the tracks on Martha Wainwright's new album I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too. The release dates are as follows:
UK - May 12th Australia- May 13th Germany - May 23rd All Europe - May 26th Canada - June 3rd USA - June 10
The track Donald is on is titled So Many Friends. Now, that's a song she has been playing live for some time, and you can actually find and listen to three different preformances of the song on the Internet.
March, 2006 she performed So Many Friends and two more songs on Minnesota Public Radio. Here's the link. There are two listen-links up and to the right on the page.
Go listen to all versions and try to figure out what Donald will do on the keyboards with this song!
And for all who've missed Michael Leonhart's Memory Man videos on YouTube. Here they are, featuring Harlan Post Jr. as the Memory Man. Now, doesn't Harlan look familiar...? ;)
Rikki don't lose that number You don't wanna call nobody else Send it off in a letter to yourself Rikki don't lose that number It's the only one you own You might use it if you feel better When you get home
Back in 1974 the song Rikki Don't Lose That Number from Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic was a big hit. Who Rikki really was and if she/he really existed has been debated.
In the article Back To Annandale published in Entertainment Weekly in 2006 Rikki might be the wife of a professor:
"One such unrequited crush might have been a professor's young wife named Rikki Ducornet, whose first name will be familiar to Steely Dan fans. Fagen won't admit it — he's always been extremely reluctant to explain his songs — but it's easy to imagine that Ducornet was the inspiration for one of his band's most famous tunes, ''Rikki Don't Lose That Number.'' ''I remember we had a great conversation and he did suggest I call him, which never happened,'' says Ducornet, now a well-regarded novelist and artist. ''But I know he thought I was cute. And I was cute,'' she laughs. ''I was very tempted to call him, but I thought it might be a bit risky. I was very enchanted with him and with the music. It was so evident from the get-go that he was wildly talented. Being a young faculty wife and, I believe, pregnant at the time, I behaved myself, let's say. Years later, I walked into a record store and heard his voice and thought, 'That's Fagen. And that's my name!'"
So is Rikki about Rikki Ducornet? Or maybe about guitarist Rick Derringer? Or is it a tale of gay lovers ... or some other explanation presented as fact? We don't know and Donald and Walter won't tell.
More on Rikki Ducornet and her writing can be found here.
The dance duo Gnarls Barkley is the latest artist trying out the free download of music. But since the new album is called The Odd Couple it's being done ... the odd way:
What you do get if you go to http://www.fronttobackbacktofront.com and register is a file with the complete album ... in reverse! The file type? It's an OK 160 kbps mp3.
Mad Libs (a play on ad lib, from Latin ad libitum - as you wish) is a word game where one player prompts another for a list of words to substitute for blanks in a story; these word substitutions have a humorous effect when the resulting story is then read aloud. The game is especially popular with American children and is frequently played as a party game or as a pastime. Mad Libs was invented in the 1950s by Leonard Stern and Roger Price, who published the first editions themselves.
So get reading and playing filling in those missing words! And there's also more than one reminder to sign up for the walterbecker.com newsletter if you're - as it is phrased - interested in any possible early acquisitions.
: : : : Steely Dan's summer tour 2008 : : : :
Meanwhile the number of shows that make up this summer's Think Fast, Steely Dan tour grows. As this is being typed there are 25 shows listed and the brand new issue of the steelydan.com newsletter promise that more still will be added. No word on any dates outside of the U.S. and Canada. And it might just be our negative disposition, but we doubt this tour will turn into a world tour like the one in 2007.
Thanks to Carsten who wrote us about this cover version of Steely Dan's Black Friday. A band from Florida, USA named Ben Jackson Group that according to the groups MySpace page plays metal/progressive/rock. You can hear a minute of the Black Friday version four minutes into the track named New Record Preview.
And amazon.com have the 12 tracks. No listen-to links though.
: : : : :
Correction time! (a few hours after the original post)
A wlm kindly points out in his comment walterbecker.com has listed track 11 as God's Eye View. And just this once we'll go with walterbecker.com rather than amazon.com ;) Now, let's see who'll be first with the 30 second preview clips of the songs!
Playing music they like for other people over the Internet isn't always enough for Nebukadnessar Stephenson and Sigurd Huckle.
Here's another way to keep things interesting. At least to themselves.
