Bob Dylan the DJ!

Bob Dylan - songwriter, artist, living legend ... and DJ! For the past 13 weeks he's played his favourite tracks on the Theme Time Radio Hour that can be heard every Wednesday on the satellite radio network XM Radio.

Every show has a theme. Weather, Mother, Drinking, Baseball... The latest is Rich Man, Poor Man.
It says that he picks the records from his own collection and you can see what songs he's been playing here.

But, you might ask, can I hear the actual shows? Well if you live in the U.S. you can subscribe and listen. If you live in any other country you have to sign upp using an U.S. billing address. Which means that you're pretty much screwed if you're not in the States.

But ... here's where the beauty of the Internet comes to the rescue of the curious who'd like to hear how Bob manages as a "radio personality". The shows are available on more than one BitTorrent site as well as other places. Just go do a search for Bob Dylan and Theme Time Radio Hour. Not in the mood for a search? >>OK<<

Weekend-movie: The Big Lebowski - F*cking short version

With the past couple of movie related posts, it's only suitable to enter the weekend with one more.
The movie The Big Lebowski is a Radio Dupree favourite. Created by Joel & Ethan Coen it has a fair amount of that word "f*ck".

An obvious fan of the movie has gone through the trouble of cutting out all 280+ utterings of said word. It ended up as a 2 minutes and 14 second movie. Here it is. And if you haven't seen the full The Big Lebowski please do yourself a favour and rent it. Why not this weekend?

Steely Dan and the movie "You, Me and Dupree"

We did a quick mention of the movie two weeks ago over at the Radio Dupree homepage. "The homepage that is updated once a month".

Since then the premiere has come and gone. It was this past weekend. And the reviews are in and ... well ... let's just say they're not the best we've seen. Not even OK.

We mentioned the movie because of the Dupree-connection to Steely Dan's track Cousin Dupree as well as Frank Zappa's Dupree's Paradise. However, if you look at the storyline you could argue that the character played by Owen Wilson in this film isn't that unlike the character in Steely Dan's Cousin Dupree!

Time for another tongue-in-cheek letter from Donald Fagen & Walter Becker to Owen's brother actor Luke Wilson regarding what Owen has to to to make things right.
Read the letter here or by clicking the pic to the right. You'll get a chance to brush up on your Lovin' Spoonful trivia at the same time!

As far as You, Me and Dupree goes you can read some reviews as well as more about the movie over at rottentomatoes.com.

I get the distinct feeling this could be a direct-to-DVD movie here in Sweden. Tried to find any info about a Swedish release date, but no luck.
It looks like the film will start showing in a bunch of European countries in August/September though. Maybe we'll have to go to Finland to catch the premiere. Then again maybe not.

"Knocked up" with a Steely scene

Could Knocked up be a film worth watching? Well...
Movieweb has an on-the-set interview with two of the leading stars in the comedy; Seth Rogen (left picture) and Paul Rudd (right picture). A couple of paragraphs caught our attention:

Paul Rudd: "I like doing comedies like this because when something organic happens, it can be so weird and funny. And just from a creative stand point, it's fun to go to work everyday because you don't know what the scene will yield. We have yet to actually - it's very rare that we film a scene exactly as it was written in the script; sometimes it'll go off into different directions. Like the one the other day - the whole Steely Dan run.

Seth Rogen: Oh yeah, that was so strange.

Paul Rudd: I play a guy in the music business, and we had no idea where everything went, and I was saying that a band like Steely Dan could never get signed today and they'd never get any radio play - and he says, 'That's because Steely Dan sucks.' And we get into this whole thing like 'no, Steely Dan is amazing, the early Steely Dan,' and you said something like 'I don't think you'd get into a Steely Dan concert without wine and cheese. If you ever catch me listening to Steely Dan, you could cut my head off with a Spiro [sic] Gyra record.'

OK. So a Steely Dan mention. If the scene isn't left on the cutting room floor.

Read the whole piece here.

And when can you expect to see the movie? It will premiere in August. 2007.

Oh yeah, one more thing: Seth is also in the new comedy with a thin-but-still-Zappa/Steely Dan/Radio Dupree connection in the title that we mention on the Radio Dupree homepage; You, Me and Dupree.

Steely Dan's Walter Becker co-writes song on Madeleine Peyroux new album

The opening track of Madeleine Peyroux forthcoming third album is a song called I'm All Right, co-written by Madeleine, her producer Larry Klein and none other than Walter Becker.

We don't know what it'll sound like, but based on her two albums so far it'll be classy and jazzy.
If you're not familiar with Madeleine you can hear short previews of the songs on her 2004 CD Careless Love here.

The new album, titled Half The Perfect World, will be releasd in the USA September 12 with the UK (and Europe? the rest of the world?) following November 6.

Larry Klein and Walter Becker recently crossed paths on another singers album; Tough On Crime from Rebecca Pigeon.

And let us not forget that Larry is involved in Walter's next solo album as well!

Another Steely Dan Greatest Hits compilation?

The answer is "yes". Despite the fact that there are a number of compilations available from 1978's Greatest Hits to the latest Showbiz Kids: The Steely Dan Story 1972-1980 released back in 2000, the powers that be find it suitable to get another one out this August 1.

The title of the 2-CD compilation is Steely Dan: The Definitive Collection. And you do get tracks from all albums, but nothing new. Here's the track listing:

1. Do It Again
2. Dirty Work
3. Reelin' In The Years
4. Bodhisattva
5. My Old School
6. Rikki Don't Lose That Number
7. Black Friday
8. Bad Sneakers
9. Kid Charlemagne
10. Deacon Blues
11. Peg
12. F.M.
13. Hey Nineteen
14. Babylon Sisters
15. Cousin Dupree
16. Things I Miss The Most

We'll do a rundown of all Steely compilations available when we update the Radio Dupree homepage in a couple of weeks time. Take a look at what's out there and what Greatest Hits you should get to get the best one.

And true to their previous records Donald and Walter doesn't appear on the cover of this one either. Just two male shadows.

Syd Barrett dead

Syd Barrett, the lead vocalist from the original Pink Floyd died last Friday.

Barrett wrote most of the songs on Pink Floyd's first LP The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967).

However he had to leave the group a while later since he couldn't handle the pop star life. To speak frankly he got a drug problem.

Barrett recorded a couple of solo efforts after that but never got close to the magic of the songs he did for the very psychedelic Pink Floyd of the 60's.

Swedish Broadcasting reports that Barrett died in his home in Cambridgeshire.

He suffered from diabetes.

* * *

Watch this early Pink Floyd (with Syd) clip from the TV show The Look Of The Week. Music and interview:



Pink Floyd "Jugband Blues":

A fine Fogerty-weekend!

John Fogerty was back in Sweden once again playing to an appreciative audience. Everything was pretty much as expected. The big difference for me personally was the fact that previous times I've seen John it was indoor arenas. This time on the beach at Piteå Havsbad way up north.
A beautiful Swedish summer evening where the daylight rfused to leave. 12 000 people in the audience got two hours full of Fogerty classics delivered with an amazing energy whe you consider that he's 61 years old and has played these songs a few hundred (thousand?) times by now.

John Fogerty and the band have been mixing it up on this tour, from an early Creedence track like Porterville to his latest solo work. Almost all shows have seen some changes in the set list. In Piteå they premiered Jambalaya (from 1973's Blue Ridge Rangers) and Blueboy (from Blue Moon Swamp released in 1997.

Piteå was the eight stop on a 15-date tour of Europe. It's followed by an additional 30 + dates in the States this autumn.

Although I haven't seen/heard it yet, the recently released live concert DVD The Long Road Home sounds like it comes with the same shortcomings as the live CD and DVD Premonition from 1998; pristine picture and sound but lacking that rawness and rock n roll that very much is a part of a Fogerty show. If you're looking for a live record I'd recommend you go search for the Live At Roskilde 1997 bootleg. That's the way a John Fogerty live record should sound!

Creedence Clearwater Revival:
John, Doug Clifford, Tom Fogerty and Stu Cook.

/This has been Neb Stephenson reporting!