Bernard "Pretty" Purdie - "Lialeh" (NSFW*)

Here's a video/music gift to all Steely Dan fans dropping by. It's movie music from 1974 written and performed by legendary drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. A guy who's played on thousands of recordings over the years including a few on Steely Dan's The Royal Scam and Aja.

This is the title track from the blaxploitation/"first major black porn" movie Lialeh. If you're offended by nude women you should skip this video and definitely the whole movie. The full movie also features a few nude men.
The music's funky stuff though, and the soundtrack was re-released in 2003. Sound in this clip is irritatingly out of sync, so just close your eyes and let yourself be seduced by the groove and Bernard's vocals. And (although we haven't checked) the whole soundtrack is apparently available on iTunes.

This track and a couple more from the soundtrack is currently on the Radio Dupree playlist.



P.S.
Hey Donald, Walter ... Michael; how about adding this in a jazzy, instrumental version as the opening song to the 2010 tour? Scantily clad woman optional. We are pretty sure that Walter could weave a suitably sordid/sweet/sleazy tale (pre- or post-coitus) to this one.

(*) NSFW = Not Safe For Work. From the Wikipedia entry:
Typically, the NSFW tag is used in E-mail, movies (such as on Youtube) and on interactive discussion areas (such as internet forums, blogs and community websites) to mark URLs or hyperlinks which may be sexually explicit or include audio containing profanity, helping the reader avoid potentially objectionable content.

Consider yourself warned.

And, no, the movie isn't as good as the music. Take our word for it.

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

A Merry Christmas to all Radio Dupree blog readers and to all of you who listen to Radio Dupree web radio!
If you need something to do during the Christmas and New Years holidays, you can always use your old useless cassette tapes to crotchet a neat top like this. (Thanks to the magazine Hemmets Journal for the tip and photo).
http://www.hemmetsjournal.se/Handarbete/Sok/virka/Virka-glittrig-partytopp-av-gamla-kassettband/?id=131134

//The Radio Dupree staff

Donald Fagen TV

He'll pop up as one of the guys in the band during the Levon Helm episode of the series, and probably just for a few seconds/minutes, but still...

Innovators In Music is "a new series of documentary profiles on six dynamic musicians from a variety of genres, backgrounds, and disciplines. The series premieres on Bravo! Canada on January 7, 2010 at 8:00PM EST with the Steve Earle episode. The rest of the programs include: Steve Earle, Levon Helm, Mickey Hart, Dave Stewart, Billy Bragg and Sonic Youth."

About the Levon Helm espisode:
January 14 - Levon Helm Come celebrate Helm's "Midnight Ramble Sessions: 69th Birthday Edition" directly from his home in Woodstock, NY, with his all-star band including Donald Fagen and Larry Campbell.

On the series official homepage you can find the quote: Innovators takes viewers behind-the-scenes into Levon's kitchen where the musicians work on te music together before the show. (Look for half of Steely Dan on the recorder!)

More on the series here.

And since we're nowhere near Canada and Bravo! we'd appreciate any help in a chance to view the espisodes. Drop us a line at radiodupreeATyahooDOTse.

Thanks.

Wanna hear a snippet from Philly '76?

http://zappa.com/flash/philly76/index.html

Take Two: Walter Becker and Donald Fagen repeat on BBC 4 December 23

We wrote about it when it first aired in January this year. Here's another chance to catch Take Two on BBC 4 and online when it is repeated December 23 at 23:30 (11.30 p.m.) local time.

Richard Coles presents a discussion series looking at collaborations between two musicians.

Richard analyses the partnership between Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, who formed the band Steely Dan in 1971. He is joined by author Brian Sweet and music journalist David Hepworth to analyse how the collaboration between Becker and Fagen developed and what effect it had on the popular music of the time. The programme also features extracts of some of the band's music and archives of interviews given by the band members over the years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00h30yr

And here's a world clock to help you find out what 23:30 in England equals in your part of the world.

An old friend returns...

I lent my copy to a friend a few years ago ... and there it stayed. You know how it sometimes is.
But today it was returned. And it was nice to have it back: The DVD Audio version of Two Against Nature.

All's well that ends well...

And I'm happy I didn't have to buy it again. A new copy is $107.77 on amazon.com or £76.99 on amazon.co.uk. A used copy goes for a mere $37.50 on amazon.com or £35 on amazon.co.uk.

Come to think of it, this would make a nice gift for your friend who's into Steely Dan and haven't heard the "96 hHz/24 bit advanced resolution multi-channel surround sound" version of this great album.

Tomorrow: What you shouldn't buy for your Steely Dan fan friend this Christmas. (OK, so it took until January 4 to get that post posted ... but there you have it!)

Zappa musicans played at private party

Denny Walley and Rolf Hedqvist. Photo: P. Öberg.

***

What a party band! Yesterday Erik Palm, head of department at

NorrlandsOperan Musik in Umeå, Sweden, threw a great 50th birthday party. On stage were ex Frank Zappa sidemen Napoleon Murphy Brock and Denny Walley, and Mats Öberg and Morgan Ågren.

The festivities took place in an old factory building by Umeälven (the Umeå river).
Guitarist Jimmy Ågren and his band opened with their high energy blues rock. Kind of like AC/DC meets Captain Beefheart. Then Denny Walley came up and played songs from his rhythm & blues repertoire plus the Zappa song Bamboozled By Love. The "backing" musicians during the evening were keyboardist Mats Öberg, drummer Morgan Ågren, bass player Gustav Hielm and the Jimmy Ågren band with Rolf Hedqvist on bass.
Zappa lead vocalist Napoleon Murphy Brock opened his part of the show with some Christmas songs with a little Broadway touch, then the travel into Zappa land started with Advance Romance. Napoleon is such a showman. Never a dull moment on stage.
Denny did a hot slide solo, pretty much like on the Bongo Fury version. Definately goosebumps category. We also got to hear Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance, What's The Ugliest Part Of Your Body?, Uncle Remus, Magic Fingers, The Idiot Bastard Son and the suite from the Roxy & Elsewhere album: Village Of The Sun/Echidna's Arf/Don't You Ever Wash That Thing.

Left to right: Morgan Ågren, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Erik Palm, Mats Öberg, Gustav Hielm. Photo: P. Öberg.
***

Napoleon and Mats also did a nice version of I Love The Blues, She Heard My Cry by George Duke. Last songs were San Ber'dino and Muffin Man. A great evening! Erik looked like he had the time of his life, of course.

New Zappa cd shipped now

"Yes, yes...it will be here soon...every bit of it..."
***

Yesterday we got an e-mail from www.musictoday.com
They have now shipped the new Frank Zappa cd to the persons who pre-ordered it.
We have planned to have the new double cd Philly '76 for Album of the Month in January. But we may not be ready to play it on Radio Dupree on January 1 already, since it will take a couple of weeks for the packet to reach Sweden. So please be patient.

Zappa fan sets a record

Ever heard of Serious Request? It' s a project started by Dutch radio station 3FM back in 2003. The concept is easy enough: Lock up a couple of radio DJ:s for a week and let the listeners decide on the playlist by requesting songs and at the same time give money to a worthy cause.

More countries and radio stations are adopting the Serious Request idea. In Sweden it goes by the name Musikhjälpen (Music Aid) and this is the week it's on the air.

You SMS tour request/gift with one of three set sums; 50/100/200 Swedish kronor. That's 4.80/9.6/19.15 Euro or 7/14/28 US Dollars. But you can give more. And Tuesday a Frank Zappa fan paid 3 750 Swedish kronor (359 Euro/524 US Dollars) to hear Joe's Garage!

If you want to sample what the listeners pick to play here's the complete playlist for Tuesday.

Here's a link to the radio broadcast if you feel like listening in. You can also watch it live here.

David Byrne on Imelda Marcus

Looks like David Byrne's next album will be about former Phillippine First Lady Imelda Marcus and the woman who raiseed her. Here's what's written in a mailing list update that arrived today:

I have, after many years, finished the Here Lies Love CD project - at least this iteration of it. It will come out in late February on Nonesuch. It's a collaboration with Fatboy Slim , an upbeat series of songs sung each one by a different singer. The songs are about Imelda Marcos and Estrella Cumpas, the woman who raised her. The package includes 2 CDs (22 songs), a DVD with videos of 6 of those songs, and a 100-page book that explains it all. Singers include Florence Welch (of Florence + The Machine), Sia, Santigold, Nellie McKay, Sharon Jones, St. Vincent, Róisín Murphy and many more (even me on 1 and 1/2)... I am pretty excited about this, but who knows, it might just make people crazy.

OK. Looking forward to it.

Secret Steely Dan message revealed!

A sensational find over on steelydan.com by your ever-inquisitive Radio Dupree!

What usually happens on the official homepage once a Steely Dan tour is over is that the tour listings are replaced with a non-tour page while waiting for the next thrilling news.
Not so this time.


While the final show of the 2009 tour took place in Montreal on November 28 there's been no apparent change to the front page listing the tour dates. It's been the same for the past couple of weeks.
But wait!

If you scroll way down to the very bottom of the page you can find the odd looking letter ß.
A typo? An error by the webmaster? Maybe, but we don't think so.


Now, in German the letter ß is used to replace the double s in a word. However, ezsett or scharfes s, as it is called, does carry some extra, hidden meaning this time around. It is a fact a message to all the curious Steely Dan fans wondering what will happen next. A new album? A live recording on CD, DVD or whatever? A new tour? The final break up? Producing/guesting on other artists recordings/tours? Solo recordings? Absolutely nothing at all?


Back in the beginning of November Donald Fagen was quoted in an article saying that he had a bunch of new songs and was going to record a solo album in the spring of 2010.
Now, saying and doing are two different things, but this ß at the bottom of the homepage is a clear sign that a solo album from Donald Fagen is what's in store next.
How can we be so sure? Easy:

The way to write the letter ß in unicode is U+00DF... That's "DF" as in "Donald Fagen".

See this hidden message as an early Christmas gift from Donald and Walter.

:: This has been the first post in a series of stunning revelations. Your life will never be the same again ::

Fact checked and cleared for Radio Dupree by Doktor Tore Fullständigt-Trams

Eric Woolfson (The Alan Parsons Project) dead at 64

The Telegraph obituary here.

ericwoolfsonmusic.com

Radio Dupree Top 20 - December 2009

1. Joe Jackson - Chinatown - Night And Day

2. The Beatles - Hold Me Tight - With The Beatles

3. The Doors - Break On Through - The Doors

4. Egba - On Don Den - Amigos Latinos

5. The Beatles - Within You Without You - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

6. David Bowie - Silly Boy Blue - Bowie At The Beeb

7. Steely Dan - Sign In Stranger - The Royal Scam

8. Klaatu - Mrs Toad's Cookies - Magentalane

9. Frank Zappa - Bognor Regis - 1970 promo single B-side

10. Genesis - Dusk - Trespass

11. Frank Zappa - Sharleena - 1970 promo single edit
12. Steely Dan - Reelin' In The Years - Can't Buy A Thrill
13. The Beatles - Love Me Do - Live At The BBC
14. Talking Heads - The Big Country - More Songs About Buildings and Food
15. Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - Holiday In Berlin, Full Blown - Burnt Weeny Sandwich
16. Jimi Hendrix - Hear My Train A Comin' - Live At Woodstock
17. Steely Dan - Doctor Wu - Katy Lied
18. The Beatles - Think For Yourself - Rubber Soul (2009 Remaster)
19. Santana - Evil Ways - Santana
20. Frank Zappa - Plastic People - You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 1

-------------------------------------------------------
Chart compiled by listeners voting
on the songs they hear on Radio Dupree

The final chart of the year topped by Joe Jackson with a sprinkling of The Beatles, Steely Dan and Zappa making up the main part of the rest. Our Album of the Month; Talking Heads More Songs About Buildings And Food made number 14 with one song. And a bit of a surprise to find Swedish prog/jazz band Egba making it all the way to number 4!

Beatles 3000