"TWO AGAINST NATURE"
Introductory Notes
"Gaslighting Abbie"
"What A Shame About Me"
"Two Against Nature"
"Janie Runaway"
"Almost Gothic"
"Jack of Speed"
"Cousin Dupree"
"Negative Girl"
"West of Hollywood"
Introductory Notes
Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, "Steely Dan Words + Music" (copyright 2000 Giant Records):
WB: We had been talking about the idea of doing this for a while. We had written songs together a couple of different times since "Gaucho." There was a time in the middle eighties when we got together and wrote some tunes. And then we worked on at least one tune for Donald's record. So we had in the back of our minds the idea that we had some songs and some ideas for a a new album, and I guess after the last tour in '96 we decided, well, Let's go and do it, if we're going to do it, and that's when we started.
DF: I think there was a couple songs that may date back, what, into the eighties?
WB: Yeah, definitely into the middle eighties.
DF: At least the germinal ideas of them, but those were probably as I remember rewritten extensively, and most of the songs were written in the '90's.
WB: It's always been our habit in writing to look at pieces that we've had laying around for years, or to rewrite songs that we've perhaps finished and decided weren't that good, but all of the lyrics and all of the finished song structures, melodies and so on, are really new.
DF: I think when we get together, we just end up with a certain style, you know, which hopefully has evolved over the years. I don't think we were really remembering what we used to do in the seventies or eighties, really, it was just a matter of collecting some fragments that we had worked on either alone or together and seeing if we could come up with some interesting music that was interesting enough so that we would actually want to make records out of the material.
WB: I think we actually started recording in November of '97.
DF: I mean, you know there was times in between when we went back to write some more or took off, but...
WB: Remember we took that weekend off...
DF: Yeah, that weekend... We went down to Tijuana...
WB: It was a long weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
...
DF: Yeah, this material is all pretty new, you know as I say some of the things may be based on ideas from many years ago that we had on tape, which is usually a cassette in a boom box, you know, old work tapes that we sort of collate once in a while. It's a renewable process, because obviously some things don't work out the way you want, so you end up with these fragments, which then can be later used for something else if they come along. For instance, if you're writing a song and a chord progression will lead to a spot where you say, "You know, this sounds familiar," and it'll turn out to be similar to a chord progression from some fragment that we never used, and we say, "You know, this effect might sound good here," you know, so we'll use that, and we'll just pick those things out. You end up sewing everything together in a way, and I think most things are so much more random than they seem, and then when you put them together hopefully they won't seem random.
WB: Yeah, it's true. It's surprising when you're writing stuff how many different ways a thing could work and still sound right. A lot of times we'll sit there and we're trying to figure out which is best. They all sound pretty good.
DF: What it is, is you'll be writing something and realize the section you're about to write you've already written for a song that never matured.
WB: Right.
DF: For instance, this one song, "West of Hollywood," has a chorus which we started playing something and it reminded us of a chorus of a sort of reggae song we wrote in the eighties, and so we dug it up and we adapted it, you know, but we had to change a few things, but essentially we were able to use that idea fifteen years later.
WB: We're very economical.
DF: Yeah.
WB: We like to use old little bits, scraps of things that we find.
Unfortunately, BTB has taken down his fine 2vN exegesis page. You can still hunt for Huysmans' A Rebours (Against Nature), which the Dan say inspired the album's title, and needless to say some of the content of this and I'll bet other of their works. To come: the rest of BTB's meritorious comments.
David Menconi, Raleigh News and Observer (7/21/00): "It's the idea that everyone is fighting nature and the aging process," Fagen says of the album title. "It's kind of an axiom that when you get to be our age, you can't have a rock 'n' roll band anymore. So we're fighting nature in that sense. There's also the idea of art vs. nature. Sometimes I think artists don't do well in nature, and they have to invent their own reality."
Paul Zollo, cdnow interview, somewhere near century's end ("Steely Dan Continues The Battle"):
CDNOW: Two Against Nature is an intriguing title, and the title cut of the album.
Donald Fagen: We made it the title cut because we thought it was descriptive of our condition at the present time, because when you start to get older, you really are fighting nature all the time. And musically you're fighting nature, trying to organize atoms of sound. There are a lot of interpretations. But you're trying to manipulate or overcome obstacles in nature. Of course, if you take the long view, what we do is part of nature because everything is. But as far as a subjective view -- you are really fighting nature …
Walter Becker: …Your own internal economy of time, energy, money, ideas, patience …
Fagen: Trying to balance your musical life with other parts of your life. It's essentially a classic struggle....
[CDNOW] On this new album, as in much of your past songs, the meaning of the some of the songs is very clear, while others are quite cryptic. Is it important for the meaning of a song to be clear?
Becker: I think, depending on what the song is and what it's about, it's more or less important that it have a very comprehensible narrative. And I think for example, a song like "What a Shame About Me" on the new record, I can't imagine anyone having any trouble knowing what that's about. Whereas a song like "Two Against Nature," people ask us about quite a bit and sort of wonder about it. And particularly foreign people who are sort of confused about what might
be meant by the idea of "Two Against Nature." Or a song like "Gaslighting Abbie," if you don't know about the movie Gaslight and that expression, you're screwed, right? You have no idea what that's about. And yet if you do know that, then I think you can make sense out it.
[CDNOW] Your use of the language and specific details, even when the meaning is not obvious, such as "now you're the wonderwaif of Gramercy [Park]" from "Janie Runaway" are so great.
Becker: [Laughs] We certainly were pleased with that. Donald and I probably sat there for two hours trying to come up with that line. We had all different parts of the city. We had … Let me look at my file here. We write the lyrics with me typing words on the computer, and I end up keeping a lot of the stuff we don't use. It just gets sort of dragged and dropped down at the end of the file. Let's see what I have -- It says, "Another year of dog patch would have done you in." [Laughs] Let's see: "My waif queen," "my waif supreme," "waif mistress," "the baroness of my Wall Street loft," "now you're the princess of Van Damme Street," "Lispenard Street," "Irving Place," "Waverly Place." We had the titles "Dixie Runaway," "Susie Runaway," "Polly Runaway," "Molly Runaway," "Annie Runaway...."
[CDNOW] "Jack of Speed" is one of the new songs that has a classic Steely Dan sound and groove. Is that title an idiom you created?
Fagen: Yeah, that one represents the personification of a kind of demonic obsession.
Becker: We just felt that "Good King Psilocybin" was too hard to sing [laughs]. So we decided to go with "Jack of Speed."Hutch (GB, 2/3/00): [from an article by Vic Garbarini in Guitar World] "... the good news is that the new record is an almost seamless continuation of the Steely Dan sound last heard on 1980's Gaoucho. Creepy characters and dark doings still haunt the band's gorgeous musical landscapes. But a sense of compassion has also surfaced amid the cynicisim".
Heidi hole (GB, 2/5/00): "Steely Dan Releasing New Album" (by Kevin O'Hare, Newhouse wire, describing the VH1Storytellers taping): It was insightful and at times quite amusing to see Becker and Fagen deal with the format of "Storytellers." the popular VH1 program includes not only performance, but a lenghty question and answer sessionwith audience members, focusing on the music and how the songs were written. Thats something Becker and Fagen have rarely, if ever, done is such a public setting, and at times they seemed to struggle with it.
Asked if any of their songs were autobiographical Becker quickly said "No,'' and drew laughs. But Fagen said that the writing process is based upon "partially your experiences, partially observations and partially dreams.'' They seemed taken aback by one audience member who said she was troubled by the lecherous relative detailed in "Cousin Dupree.'' Becker said the song was a joke take on "an original southern theme.'' Fagen modified that to say it was "a rural narrative.'' He then stressed that if listeners pay close attention, they'll realize that Cousin Dupree's advances are ultimately rejected. As for their music's staying power, Fagen and Becker seemed rather amazed. "We just wrote songs to amuse ourselves,'' Fagen said. "We never thought we'd be standing here 30 years later.'"Andy (GB, 2/11/00): From Walter's thank yous in the Kamakiriad liner notes:
The producer wishes to thank Elinor, Kawai and Sayan for
their patience and support. Likewise Wolf Chuckie,
Wolf Nancy, Mr. Bonhommie, *Spider King Demon*, Donald,
Bambi, Fluffy, Legba, Baron Samedi. Mahalo to Lisa,
gracias to Bobbi. Hubba-hubba to Helen, George and
the whole crew over at *Steamer Heaven*.Any of those references sound familiar? (If you don't get it take a listen to "Two Against Nature" and "What a Shame About Me").
Wayne Robins (LA Times, 2/17/00): Like many Steely Dan albums, there's a thematic consistency to "Two Against Nature," even if it is, as usual, a bit opaque.
"There wasn't actually any concept, but I think it's sort of like some of the other Steely Dan records, which were written in the same time period and we were thinking about certain things," says Fagen, 52. "Whatever was in our minds at the time. But there was a commonality of themes: Loss. Decay. Potential rejuvenation. . . ."
"However brief, however impermanent," adds Becker, 50.amazon.com (Interview, 2/00): Amazon.com: The title Two Against Nature implies both conspiracy and conflict.
Becker: For our personal situation, we felt that we were collaborating to keep the bubble of artistic concern that we live in inflated and thus spare ourselves the necessity of dealing with the mundane world, where all sorts of natural processes like aging, death, and decay are going on.
Fagen: As you get older, nature impinges on your play/free area. You have to be aggressive in defending it. I think you have to broaden the spectrum of the things you think are funny as you get older. Like, say, death. You have to take a different attitude about it.arteest (Digest, 3/1/00): i was curious if anyone else noticed a thread running through some of the new tunes? yeah, they're all wonderful but that ain't what i'm talkin' about... There's a lot of what one might call... occult... in there. i'm a graphic artist and i frequently refer to SD lyrics for imagery inspiration, (that's what the songs are like to me, by the way; paintings...) but i never noticed a bent for the horror-sort-of (almost gothic?)stuff.
here are just a few:
gaslighting abbie: aside from purposely driving someone insane, how about: "we'll do a fright night, with blood and everything..."
shame: "and you're talking to a ghost..."
2vN: The Whole Thing!
almost gothic: "she's pure science with a splash of black cat..." "this dark place is so thrilling and new, it's kind of like the opposite of an aerial view..."
negative girl: "her skin-like milk, it's like she's never seen the sun, some hearts to crunch, is more like her idea of fun..." "her reptile brain, locked down and ready in combat mode..."
oh, lighten up, jes' havin' some fun...cripes....
wait just a minute! what about the cover from AIA?? now that's really scary...Dr. Otto Kernberg (GB, 3/5/00): You see, my dear colleagues, Negative Girl and West of Hollywood need to be seen as part of a greater whole. Reminds
me of many a Borderline or NPD I've worked with...Bogus Spam Address (newsgroup, 3/2/00): I had made a cassette tape off of the Real Audio tracks of 2VN and while I loved getting the sense of the music I'm probably the last one to realize how much RA leaves out compared to the CD which I got yesterday. It was fun for me to finally read the lyrics to see how badly I was off. . .
1) In spite of the fact that I had access to the title, I could have sworn that the backup singers in Jack of Speed were singing "Check out Steve" (which I think sounds hipper)
2) It wasn't Aunt Bay's couch Dupris was falling off of, it was Aunt Fay's
3) My most disappointing gaffe was West Hollywood where the line goes "It started out good, then it got much better" I swear the RA version is "It started out good, then it got less better." The latter for me exemplifies the wordplay and irony I like about S Dan. Too bad they didn't write it that way. . .
My favorite lyric is What a Shame about Me, a great story song. First off, it's an unlikely phrase one would use, but it sets off the meaning of the song perfectly. I only wish they'd been less subtle in using the line "and make believe we're back in our own school" and made a more specific reference to the fact that she wanted to nail him.
My favorite song is West of Hollywood for both melody and lyric plus a killer sax solo. I enjoyed the gist of half the lyrics I did pick up and wasn't disappointed when I read the rest. You gotta give 'em credit for not only writing the line "riding the crest of a wave breaking just west of hollywood" but having it in meter and actually being able to sing the whole thing without screwing it up (say it fast 3 times. . .)Dr. Kernberg again (GB, 3/11/00): The reason women have trouble understanding the depths of men's feelings, is, among other things, that they place too much credence in the so-called differences between genders. Neither you, nor your gb colleagues should be so quick to jump to the conclusion that the relationships suggested in Negative Girl and South of Westwood are"dysfunctional" in the common sense of the term. Depth, and thereby, inspiration, REQUIRES a degree of "dysfuction," and THAT, m'dear is why celebration (albeit passive, sentimental and at times maudlin), rather than despondency is the primary spirit of these songs, including ESPECIALLY TAN, and indeed the whole album.
Clas (GB, 3/14/00): I have analysed all lyrics on Two Against Nature! Here you have the songinterpretentations:
The songs are about;
1. Gaslighting Abby - a flying saucer and collective unconsciousness
2. What a Shame About Me - a flying saucer and collective unconsciousness
3. Two Against Nature - a flying saucer and collective unconsciousness
4. Janie Runaway - a flying sausager and collective unconsciousness
5. Almost Gothic - a flying saucer and collective unconsciousness
6. Jack of Speed - a flying saucer and collective unconsciousness
7. Cousin Dupree - The Knoxville Intercourse
8. Negative Girl - a flying saucer and collective unconsciousness
9. West of Hollywood - a flying saucer and collective unconsciousnessDr. Mu (GB, 3/28/00): Hey, Have you all tried starting tvN with the title track??? Man, it's cool. Those Latin rhythms and staccato burts of the sax and the slow key chord change followed by the might bass line and Walter's threatening guitar - a great way to state they're BACK!!!. Follow the title track with What a Shame About Me THEN Gaslighting Abbie. The story now begins with the demons descending upon our hero-loser. While in a fit of self-pity he attempts to ward off an old flame...he get laid anyway - then bumps off the old lady. With renewed energy and the Life Insurance check, he buys the Red Blazer and find that lust is a game for three. They tie him up in a dungeon and get him hooked on the hard stuff. After a few nowhere gigs, he hits on a voloptuous cousin. Programmed by her putdowns he finds he's becomes involved in sensuous but empty relationships with uptown model after uptown model. He makes one last stand out West, runs out of gas and begins to tell his tale on the couch...Finnegan begin again...
Rick Baird (Digest, 3/31/00): I was listening to some old Zappa cds when I came across this: The second cut of the second disc on "You can't do that on stage anymore - Vol. 2 - The Helsinki Concert" (an entire concert taped from a small club in Helsinki, Finland circa 1974) is a song called, of all things, "Dupree's Paradise". It's a 24 minute jazz-acid rock fusion/ weird stuff/mostly instrumental jam with some dialog in the beginning about George Duke punishing himself with finger cymbals, Suzy Quatro (Leather Tuscedaro from Happy Days) music and Suzy Cohen (?) stealing towels from the Helsinki Hilton. Stuck in the middle, (about 4:30) Frank suddenly sings “Rikki don’t lose that number … you don’t want to lose that number Rikki”. Interesting coincidence eh?
Lastly, has anyone noticed a certain duality to the lyrics on 2vN? Several phrases or words not commonly seen in song lyrics are used twice on the album, in somewhat the same context. For example:I'm in the amen corner now (ag)
I tell myself that it's over and done, amen (ng)Gonna go bang-zoom to the moon on things unknown (2vn)
She's zooming on a couch somewhere (ng)First she's all buzz then she's noise-free (ag)
A goof - a buzz, If that is what it was (ng)Anybody else from our old crew (wasam)
Spider queen demon and that whole crew (2vn)Missy's kitty turn inside out she say (2vn)
The city - the cleanest kitten in the city (ag)It's a luscious invention for three (ga)
Exhausting and luscious (ng)And make believe we're back at our old school (wasam)
She's old school then she's like young (ag)Western science she strictly rinkydink (2vn)
She's pure science with a splash of black cat (ag)I’m not really attaching any special significance to this, But I thought it was interesting.
Lynn Ross (Digest, 3/31/00): In reference to the guy who posted the question about whether there are real Steamer Heavens around, I'd say there are not, at least I've not seen any. But that doesn't stop the furtile imaginations of our dynamic duo. If you'll recall, the Kamakiri is a "steam-powered 10", suggesting
that there would be (in the D+W universe) dealerships and repair shops that sold and serviced Kamakiris. I suppose then, that Steamer Heaven would be one of those repair emporiums. If Alan owns a chain of these shops, he's probably rolling in snow, far from the world we know, somewhere up on Mizar 5. Just a guess.Daily Steve (4/13/00): I just want to say how excellent it is, to be in NYC, from NYC, tired of NYC, and to hear all these subtly subversive references to the Big Apple. Do you know HOW refreshing it is to blast the title track into my own ears as I run, underground, to and from the #1 train and the Grand Central/Times Square Shuttle during rush hour twice daily? Now THAT's too against nature.
grateful purple (GB, 4/24/00): By the way, isn't Amen Corner one of the difficult spots at Augusta? And isn't that a bunker on the cover photo of TvN?
soout (GB, 4/25/00): ~amen corner: the 10th, 11th & 12th holes at the majestic augusta national in GA. (especially on sunday afternoon; the final round of the master's) that's were champions are made so-to-speak. it's the part of the course and the tournament where the extreme pressure and competition seperate the "chosen" from the also-rans. quite ironic given D&W's past emotional tribulations.
Daddy G (GB, 4/25/00): Steven is right on about the Amen Corner. I would just add that "Amen Corner" could also be a metaphor for the concept of being in a situation where there is no turning back. "Amen" literally means "so be it," and the dictionary definition of the Amen Corner is a "conspicuous corner in a church occupied by fervent worshippers." I guess it doesn't matter whether you're at Augusta National or in a church -- if you're in the Amen Corner, you're pretty much committed.
Aja (GB, 5/11/00): Has anyone noticed how pathetic the men are on 2vN? I hear the CD and want to have a self-esteem raising session for them, they're so jerked around by their women and life in general. Negative Girl is almost emotionally abusive, yet the narrator keeps coming back for more (though he vows it's really over this time). The narrator in WASAM doesn't have the energy or desire for a reminiscent romp with a gorgeous ex-flame, he's so defeated by life. WOH, they're both at the bottom of the emotional well, but it seems to pain Kid Clean especially. Cousin Dupree? Enough said. AG-he knows she lies to him but he stays hypnotized.
NotMyNancy (GB, 5/11/00): In Don&Walt's lyrics, bad guys get sympathy and innocents/victims get scrutiny. But we still know who's bad and who's innocent. That's one more reason that the Dan is so great.
Dr. Mu (GB, 5/17/00): Trying Clas' lyric filter
Gaslighting Abbie: Guy gets laid - kills wife
What a Shame About Me: Guy doesn't get laid - just a shadow of the man that he once new back at his old school
Two Against Nature: Guy wants to get laid - wants his semi-mojo back
Janie Runaway: Guy gets laid - waits for the raid
Almost Gothic: Guy gets laid - wonders why they don't go out during the day
Cousin Dupree: Guy doesn't get laid - never got to school
Negative Girl: Guy gets laid - wonders why Porcaro always got the bubbly ones
West of Hollywood: Guy gets laid - just a shadow of the man that he once knewthe insider (GB, 5/18/00): song interpretations.....etc
Gaslighting Abbey-from the old Charles Boyer flick 'Gaslight' (with a little 'Manchurian Candidate') thrown in [
Two Against Nature-two 'doctors' escape from looney bin
Negative Girl-junkie chick breaks heart
West of Hollywood- musician heads west, girlfriend od's ("...almost got there...), one of the saddest 'Dan songs....maybe you can guess who wrote it....Roger Catlin, Hartford Courant (7/25/00) (quoted on HoustonChronicle.com) (Thanx, JW): Although the band toured in the 1990s, Steely Dan is presenting its first new songs in two decades, songs that fans have found have a direct connection with their classics.
"One of the interesting things to me -- which I picked up from people writing on the Internet -- is in what sense the characters on the new album seem to represent the same characters we've already written about (but) grown older," Becker said. [Robert Wilonsky, Dallas Observer (7/27/00) [a very funny inter/review] (Thanx, ever-vigilant BigFan): "Our songwriting is always a balancing act: Songs can't be too funny, they can't be too obscene, they can't be too nasty, they can't be too pretentious," Becker says. "We have to sort of try and juggle the different elements that we're using in the songs, and I think we've learned how to do that over the years so that the songs will sort of work on a bunch of different levels at once. You can listen to them one way and hear one thing, and you can listen to them one way and hear something different." If you know what this means, send your essay to The What The Hell Is Walter Becker Talking About Contest? c/o Dallas Observer, 2130 Commerce St., Dallas, TX 75201. Winners will receive a copy of Becker's novel Expressions to Avoid During a Recording Session, which includes such chapters as "My Spirit's Already Sore from the Last Thirty Takes," "My Girlfriend Sings Great Background Vocals," and "Play Something Paul Would Tell Linda to Play.")
YGK (GB, 3/12/02): 1) Who is Dr. Warren Kruger and why is he mentioned?
Dr. Warren Kruger is a deranged 'social scientist' a la Timothy Leary who has an office on the Upper East Side.....2) What is "The Tyranny of the Disallowed"?
The Quiet Rage of those who feel 'on the outside'3) What is "The Rebus Affair"?
It was a an affair which developed during desegregation.....4) What is "Hooterie"?
A gathering of freaky, wonderfully whacked, Dan heads.....also known on as Danfest5) Where is Port Blanc?
Next to Port CheninClean Willy (7/21/02): I don't know if anyone else felt this way, but TvN has been very difficult for me to get into. This is not incredibly uncommon for the Dan, or anything. Every time I purchased one of the seven albums, I would pop it in, listen for a run threw and think, "what happened? What is this?" Then I would listen a few more times, and the music began to clear up, the lyrics began to
solidify into thoughts, concepts and imagery. After a week I would inevitably be hooked, unable to listen to anything else. After every Dan purchase, all other music would be ruined for a good month.
With TvN, it seems different. There are songs that I have been able to get into, but on a whole I haven't felt that spark. I began to think that maybe this album was meant as a retrospective. The two of the album title are nessecarily Becker and Fagen (though it would be crazy to denounce them from the title altogether) but any two long time friends. The premise of the album seems to be this: What happens when the two coolest people in the world get old? The quick response is, they don't take it sitting down, they go against nature. They fight the good fight. TvN is about looking back at the attitude that defined you and working to make sure that it still means something to you.
Am I the only person to think that it's hysterical that the Coke in "Negative Girl" is actually and can of coca-cola?
When I look at Donald Fagen with his short white hair and clear rimmed glasses with blue lenses, I don't feel that the coolness he exudes is reliant upon history. They are just cool dudes and they are still oh so cool.
With that mindset, I'm becoming more comfortable with the album, but I still feel like I'm being played a little. This album would mean nothing to me if it weren't preceded by the brillance of the seven prior albums. TvN requires a knowledge of the Dan, it plays off the things we know about them. Just look at how many comments on this site discuss TvN characters as extentions of others (Cousin Dupree and Mr. LaPage or Franny and Peg).
These songs are filled with name dropping, only instead of people's names, it's places. NYU, Hollywood, Dean and Deluca, Gramercy Park are all places they TALK about going to, but never seem to. Consider the number of named characters in this album as compared to others. Abbey, Franny, Bobby Dakine, Barry Missy, Madame Erzule, T-Bone Angie, Brother Lou Garue, Jerry Garry. Those are all just from the first three tracks.
"She said, 'Talk to me, do you ever see anyone from our old crew?'" The album is filled with people and memories the title two talk about but don't know what to do with.
To me, our duo in TvN are sitting on a park bench in Central Park watching the girls go by on rollarskates (which makes it into the liner photos).One says to the other, "Let's go to Dean and Deluca." The other agrees, but neither gets up to go. Instead they just sit talking about
everything they've done and trying to find creative novelties in the world around them. If Steely Dan releases another album, I have a feeling that it won't have this tone. I think they needed to get 20 years of ruminating out of their system. Bizarre when you think of all the refernces to being too old
that appear in "Gaucho."
Listen to the music of TvN. This is the only Dan album that I find sonically unidentifiable. With the exception of one or two tracks, I don't think I name any of the songs on here if the words were removed. Compare that to the classic opening of "Reelin' Through the Years" or "Josie." Compare it
to the choruses on "My Old School" or "Hey Nineteen." The songs on TvN almost have a Hip-Hop quality to them. Listen to "Almost Gothic" or the title track with their 10+ instrumentalists and hear the way the same complex hooks and riffs appear to be repeated throughout each song. The beauty of the chaotism ties in with the idea that this album is a theraputic mission. "You, my fans" Fagen seems to say, "I need you to get this off my chest. I just need to put it all out their. So bear with me."
Throughout the whole album, the Dan tries to sound up-beat, talking about how great the days are. We still get around, we still drive with the top down and the radio up. Look at this perverted character trying to sleep with his cousin. This couple is trying to kill his wife. It's like clown make-up, our heros feel that if they let the image fall then we as fans will say "You lied!" or "You fakers!"
By the end, the whole experience culminates on "West of Hollywood" where Fagen sings "Look into my eyes, can you see the core is frozen?" then the kicker "You can't ask me to access the dreams I don't have now."
He drops the guard, the previous eight tracks of Steely Dan making "Steely Dan music." Then he surveys the scene and we as fans and followers say "You guys could never do wrong, we've loved you for years and that's not going to stop. We all dry our tears laugh and decide to go get a beer. On the
walk to the bar the Dan says "Don't you love Port Blanc when Hooterie is over? When the girls are easy and the crowds are gone." Just you and me, "a weekend of bliss. Then the rainy season."
"That's okay guys," we say, "your music is a two-way street. And this journey was as special as anything else we could have dreamed up in the last twenty years."
When I think about it like that, TvN is an incredible sad and sobbering album, but it is definitely a lot easier to swallow and it makes me feel rewarded to have spent all this time following the band with my eyes and ears.
Thanks guys.
For a fascinating e-commentary on "2vN" and Danness in general, go to "Post and Riposte" in "Hear My Ax Declaim."
For a fascinating (some may say annoying and completely wrong-headed) review of "2vN" by Nick Hornby, the author of High Fidelity, check out "Reeling In The Years: The Return of Steely Dan," The New Yorker, 3/27/00, pp. 137-139.
"Gaslighting Abbie"
Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, "Steely Dan Words + Music" (copyright 2000, Giant Records):
DF: "Gaslighting," actually, its origin was from the classic film "Gaslight," and to gaslight is what Charles Boyer did to, who was it? Ingrid Bergman or someone...
WB: Yeah...
DF: He tried to convince her that she was insane by moving things around in the house and...
WB: ...constantly turning the lights lower and lower, you know...
DF: ... it's about a guy who along with his secret lover is essentially trying to get rid of his wife or drive her insane...
WB: ... that's right, yes, that's right...
DF: ...they steal her clothes, and they get 15 watt lightbulbs and put them in place of the usual lightbulbs so it looks really dark in the house. It's very menacing.
WB: Yeah, it was sort of meant to be harmonically the effect of a knife up between the ribs there.
DF: It's sort of like the aural equivalent of an Alfred Hitchcock movie.Oh (GB, 2/6/00): I know an old guy with an evil stepdaughter. Whenever the old man does his laundry, the stepdaughter steals a sock from the dryer and hides it in a bag she keeps in the back of her closet. The old man howls in frustration every time. "I must be going crazy!" he yells.
He's not crazy, of course. He's simply a victim of "gaslighting."
The term comes from this 1944 movie ["Gaslight"], a dark tale of elaborate deception and psychological manipulation, directed by George Cukor. Charles Boyer, starring as Ingrid Bergman's cold-blooded husband, concocts a cruel and elaborate scheme to convince his new wife that she's going out of her mind. (The name of the movie comes from the way the husband secretly plays with the gaslights every evening, leading the wife to believe she is delusional.) Boyer's plans are threatened however, by a Scotland Yard officer (played by Joseph Cotton) who takes a special interest in the nubile young Bergman. GASLIGHT won Ingrid Bergman her first Oscar, and introduced a new word into our lexicon. Special bonus: Angela Lansbury as a hot-to-trot house nurse.
-- Mark Frauenfelderrubybaby (GB, 2/11/00): yep, gaslighting is about driving someone crazy. But that part about her missing skirt showing up on ms "cara mia" is brilliant. Trust me, I know.
Tim K. (incognito, Digest, 2/13-14/00): Cara Mia was a song by Jay & the Americans. Isn't it mentioned in Gaslighting Abbie?... as in "bad thru and thru..."
Wonder Waif (GB, 2/15/00): How about this for an interpretastion: the solitaire they are referring to in GA is the solitaire game on your computer! That makes it kind of fit in to the Guestbook/Internet flaming interpretation, no?
Schwinn (GB, 3/2/00): "Gaslighting" means the equivalent of "slipping someone a mickey". This has nothing to do with the Disney empire though I do know that a dose of Deludin will make you feel "goofy".
Matt (3/7/00): One plush summer you come to me ripe and ready
And bad through and through
With that deep mystical soul synergy pumping steady
Between me and you
Lovin' all the beautiful work we've done, cara mia
And it's barely July
If we keep on boppin' until Labor Day
Li'l miz Abbie - bye byeThe speaker meets a new woman in the first four lines ("cara mia" = my dear). There's one problem: the speaker is with Abbie. Being "bad through and through", the new woman helps him get rid of Abbie. They've been "gaslighting" Abbie, or driving her insane to get her out of the picture. The plan's going well, and soon enough Abbie will be clinically insane.
What will it be - some soothing herb tea?
That might be just the thing
Let's say we spike it with Deludin
Or else - maybe tonight a hand of solitaireThe two spike Abbie's tea with deludin (notice the similarity to the word delusion), making her think she's having some sort of nervous breakdown. the solitaire thing could be that cards are missing, or it could be what Abbie does to calm down.
CHORUS:
Flame is the game
The game we call gaslighting Abbie
It's a luscious invention for three
One summer by the seaThere are three people involved; the speaker, the new chick, and Abbie. They are alone for the summer, so Abbie has only the two others as company.
With the long weekend that's comin' up fast
Let's get busy
There's just too much to do
That black mini looks just like the one She's been missin'
Feels good on youThey steal some of her things ("I was sure I'd left it here!") and then (I'm going out on a limb) the new girl wears Abbie's skirt (during sex?) in some sick game that arouses the speaker.
There's a few items we need in town - allez-vous girl
There's no time to waste
Such as fresh cable and fifteen watt bulbs
Couple dozen - it's a big old placeThe two go to town. Summer continues as the speaker and new girl get dimmer lights to make Abbie think she's losing her vision (I believe this is what happens in the movie "Gaslighting"). The three are in a big, empty house for the summer (I think of "The Shinning").
Let's keep it light - we'll do a fright night
With blood and everything
Some punky laughter from the kitchen
And then - a nice relaxing hand of solitaireThey stage some sort of attack and make Abbie think she assaulted one of them. The "punky laughter" could have several different meanings. "Punky" can mean rotten, so perhaps it's the two evildoers plotting their bloody prank against Abbie. It could also just be them making Abbie think she's hearing things.
You can choose the music
I'll set up my gear
Later on we'll chill and watch the fireworks from hereEither they've reached the Fourth of July and they're celebrating their success making Abbie a nutcase, or it could be an allusion to the fourth of July, in that the "fireworks" are pranks they play on Abbie, or maybe the last few grains of sanity popping into nothingness.
How can you knock this mighty spitelock
Check out the work itself
A mix of elegance and function
That's right - a tweak or two and then she's out of hereThe speaker alters items in the house so that Abbie is no longer able to use them (maybe she can't open a door or something). This could also be a reference to the movie (which I haven't seen). Regardless, the speaker is proud of his work, and says that with a few more modifications to her head they'll have to throw her in the booby hatch.
Hank Silvers (3/23/00): in "Tell Blondie..." Donald comes up with the word "spitework", then uses "spitewaves" in "Springtime." A few years later,
Walter calls the Internet "Spiteweb", and finally (or at least, lately), we find a mighty spitelock in "Gaslighting Abbie." In spite of everything, I'm starting to detect a pattern...MOJO interview (10/95, sniffed out by the eidetic Hank Silvers ):
Becker: Some of Jay's [Black, of Jay and the Americans] friends were the same guys from Good Fellas - they were not all fictional characters. I think what his life was like - he was married to the niece of one of the guys, which I think was a survival move: he was levering himself up into a position where he could be forgiven some debts. We would see them once in a while around the office. Some guys would come in and say, 'Hey Jay! Whyn't you get these guys to take a fuckin' haircut?' Or they'd come backstage after show and say, 'Hey Jay, your voice sounded beautiful, but that drum, that fuckin' drum's givin' me a headache! Can you tell 'em to turn down that fuckin' drum?!'
Fagen: See, now you can't help talking about this stuff, it's like you're in a groove...
Becker: I know. I'm programmed. It's like The Manchurian Candidate. In fact, I'm thinking of going over to Elsa Lanchester's house after the interview!
Fagen: How about a game of solitaire to pass the time?
Becker: Good idea! I'm thinking of catching the Senator's speech later, down at the Press Club. Wanna come with me? You can carry some of my stuff. See, I've identified with my captors now - I'm thinking of going into journalism.wormtom (GB, 3/28/00): the read I get is that the couple are a bunch of voyeurs who woo another women out to the vacation cottage and have their way with her. Not sure whether he or she is doing the wooing, but they go from a brainless let's watch a gore flick (bored in paradise) to stiffing her drinks to make her more accessible. date rate game for three only two know they are really playing
Midnite Cruiser (GB, 4/5/00): WOW! Just finished watching The Manchurian Candidate on AMC and that was an awesome movie! Lots of cool twists and turns, some I saw coming and some blindsided me. Didn't realize there were so many Dan references there though. Besides what's already been discussed regarding TvN, I learned that Raymond's [Laurence Harvey's] girlfriend/wife was named "Josie" and that the the first joke Raymond made, while still in his costume, was that he looked like "Gaucho" Marx! Maybe Donald and Walter have been long time fans of this film and we just didn't know it?
Dr. Mu (GB, 4/5/00): How about that Frankenheimer teleplay-like directing full of angles and chopped frames in black and white ZombieVision? Wasn't there a line about a cool, dark place? - like the one Raymond perched up in with non-aerial view (a slit) at the end with about a 15 Watt bulb for illumination. Josie was a knockout - a little solitaire, a tweak or two and she's outta here. Good catch on the Gaucho Marx line also...Whoa, did Laurence Harvey and Frank Sinatra have more sweat on their upper lips than Nixon at the '60 debates?
Aaron (GB, 7/26/00): RE: Gaslighting Abbie, some of Fagen's thoughts
"And the couple in 'Gaslighting Abbie' who are trying to dispose of the wife in the triangle," continues Fagen, "even though they seem to be some kind of psychopaths, they're also very cheerful in the way they're going about their business."
It's funny how easily I overlooked this tune the first 3 or 4 times I heard it. I guess that's the difference between listening and hearing. When I finally got it I had to ask if this was a literal interpretation or some twisted metaphor. I guess I had it mostly right.fezo (GB, 5/2/01): in my mind, it's always been more of an ode celebrating the creative process; be it song writing, drafting a tax plan to help ones' rich buddies in the oil industry, or getting rid of a pesky spouse. the narrator is simply proud of the scheme ("lovin' all the beautiful work we've done", "check out the work itself") and as such i think the whole song is more pleasantly interpreted as one championing the pride of authorship.
Blaise (GB, 5/2/01): And literally at times "you can choose the music, I'll set up my gear...", yes. Definitely an appreciation of the work itself while in progress("A tweak or two...") mixing up with the evil plan theme. It's telling of their perfectionist perspective in artistry and the fun they have in the process, yes.
Blaise encore (5/3/02): In Gaslight [the movie], I forgot to say... that I think the song Gaslighting would fit at that moment when Charles Boyer, the wicked piano player is contemplating what Angela Landsbury, the maid, tells him about Bergmann not being the only one in the house. Like an invite to sordid things and there's this split second when he considers having her involved and the song then, the song would speak of this passing fantasy of his. It would be the soundtrack to it and make a lot of sense. That hit me on second view of this particular scene.
There's also an old lady who prides herself in being known as "Bloodlusting Betsy", who loves a good murder mystery. And that was another possible hint in the song.
Hey, content is content, right? lol
"What A Shame About Me"
Barney Hoskyns, author of the splendid rock history Waiting for the Sun (buy & read!), interviewed Messrs. Fagen & Becker in The Guardian (1/14/00): " 'I guess in my mind the lower Broadway of What a Shame About Me was the lower Broadway of about 1966 rather than of today,' says Fagen, who recalls selling college textbooks on lower Broadway's timeless Strand bookstore."
WASAM (GB, 2/8/00): ...the pity fuck scenario at the end.
Tapeworm (Newsgroup, 2/11/00): I was especially taken by "What A Shame About Me." Upon the 2nd or 3rd listen in as many days, it hit me: The characters seemed familiar.
I first put together that Franny, back from Hollywood, her films and shows and CD's may have had a stage name: Peg.
I always interpreted the song Peg to be a story of "I knew her back when." The words seem to me to be a guy either writing a letter trying in vain to get in
touch with Peg, or Our Hero simply watching Peg on TV as she makes her way along the Academy Awards runway. He smiles at the TV, alone in his room, remembering what it was like when they were dating. Now, here it is the late 1970's and Peg has become a star. Our Hero is still just a regular guy who knew her back in the day, but now can't get the time of day from her.
Fast forward to 1999. Like Faye Dunaway, once a hot commodity and now in three short scenes in the Thomas Crown Affair, Peg may no longer have her name in lights above her pin shot. She wants to reconnect with her old friends, her true friends, perhaps a little sorry that she got so taken with herself when fame hit.
Does anyone else think that characters in Steely Dan songs may be somewhat serialized across the years? Any possibility that What a Shame's Barry the Software King and Bobby the Bunsen Prize winner were the boys upstairs, smokin' with Our Hero back in My Old School? Could Franny be the one who put Our Hero on the Wolverine up to Annandale?Hank Silvers (2/17/00): Here's one thing I like right now: in What a Shame, Donald sings about the Jane Street sunrise, and the music changes to a lighter, even happy tone for a few bars...puts me in mind of the scene in Casablanca when Bogart is remembering the happy times in Paris with Ilse...then the lead guitar begins throwing some negative notes in, and eventually the whole song returns to the present day.
Also, What a Shame reminds me of Ray Charles after the final chorus, when the bare-midriff section is laying down "Shame" and we can just see Donald in
shades bobbing back and forth like the man himself...fezo (2/17/00): "this is lower Broadway/ and you're talking to a ghost"
God, I love that line. Have you ever read Doctorow's "Waterworks"? The quote at the end of the WASAM really conjures up the central theme of that book for me. In the novel, a newspapers editor seeks to discover the fate of one of his stringers in late 19th Century New York City. Turns out the young man has been creeped into seclusion by two spottings of his long dead father on the streets of Manhattan. Once in a carriage, and once just walking on the street. Wonderful imagery.Wayne Robins (LA Times, 2/27/00): "I think it should have been called 'What a Shame About Us,' kind of a generational thing," Fagen offers. "It's about expectations."
"Let's face it," Becker adds, "us '60s folks had pretty high expectations. It's not hard to imagine being disappointed in the end."
There are also titillating touchstones to Steely Dan's past. In "What a Shame About Me," an old college girlfriend, now a movie star, shows up and suggests getting it on for old times' sake, making believe they're "back in our old school"--a fan-friendly reference to their 1973 track "My Old School."
Becker: "It's sort of an attempt to be somewhat self-referential."
Fagen: "We're just trying to connect, you know. . . ."
Becker: "And trying to acknowledge our own position in all this."Seth Markow (GB, 3/1/00): re: Bobby Dakine
"Da kine" is Hawaii pidgin for "whatchamacallit" or "what's-his-name."JWMalibu (GB, 3/31/00): Yes, 'da kine can be used as a catch-all phrase, but more than not (it's a worldwide surfer's term), it's an adjective for high-quality...as in, "these buds (pot) are 'da kine", or, in its truncated form, "yeah bra', the waves today were 'kine"...
Greg Anderson (newsgroup, 3/5/00): What A Shame and the title track have quickly become my two favorite songs on 2vN. Maybe it's because I am married to an author, but I find the lyric absolutely heartbreaking. Here is this guy who probably had some early success and was supposed to be "the next big thing," but now has completely given up on himself ("you're looking at a ghost"). Everyone in his old crew has hit it big, while he's stocking cutouts at a music store in the Village. His failure has probably even led to impotence -- hence his refusal to go back to his old flame's hotel room and disappoint her.
It's a classic tale, and all artists know someone like this -- hit it big right out of the box, couldn't handle the sudden fame and fortune, threw it all away on
Lost Weekends, never caught lightning in a bottle again. Heartbreaking.
Did anyone else notice that the story is basically lifted from Harry Chapin's "Taxi," updated for the new millennium? Except in this case, the girl really is
successful, and the guy doesn't take her up on her offer to relive their glory days.sooutrageous (GB, 3/13/00): I don't want to micro-criticize but what's up with Donald using the "like" totally street-hip word "like" twice on the disk. It's almost as if he's trying to come off as conversationally flippant on "What a Shame about me" when he says "But like this is lower broadway and you're talking to a ghost", but instead he just comes off as trite. When he "like" uses the word again in "Almost Gothic" (first she's old school; then she's like young", he's trying to come off as fauningly reflective but once again simply sounds like another X-Gen writer trying to catch the crest of the Tarrantinoesque-Zeitgeist wave breaking just West of Hollywood.
Mike (Digest, 3/27/00): Just FYI the term "Da Kine" is also Hawaiian slang for "The Kind", and is frequently used to describe a certain breed of 'illegal Hawaiian smokable substance' - from what I'm told there is no better 'stuff' than 'Da Kine'. I can't tell you how I know this....
Chris Lonn (Digest, 3/29/00): The info on Robert DaKine in interesting. If DaKine has some drug connotation (big surprise) then the lyrics for "Shame" make more sense. Perhaps Bobby DaKine winning the BUNSEN prize refers to a Bunsen Burner. That is to say, Bobby is using a Bunsen Burner to make dope. The next line -- that he is coming out with something new -- may mean that good ole Bobby is brewing up a new concoction to sell on the street. Maybe Bobby ought to meet Mr. Owlsey from Kid C.
Steve Polevoi (Digest, 3/30/00): Ask anybody from Hawaii -- DaKine is used as a "catch-all" phrase when you don't know the name of a person, place or thing. Sort of like when you're trying to describe someone's name that you've forgotten, old "Whatshisname." DaKine is used the same way, but not
limited to a person's name. It makes total sense in the context of the song as Frannie is relating to "our old crew" and can't really remember Bobby's last name.
You know that great guitarist that played on "Black Cow," Larry DaKine?Lolita (Digest, 4/2/00): The Strand is a famous discount bookstore in NYC on 12th Street and Broadway. It is huge; many publishers send the review copies there and most of the books are almost 50% off. I think cutouts are these marked down books. That's where the line comes from 'this is lower Broadway and you're talking to a ghost'. NYU is located in that neighborhood, so when he refers to the two of them being classmates at NYU, it shows that he hasn't come very far because he never left the neighborhood after graduation.
Michelle Soto (Digest, 4/3/00): cutouts are what they used to call overprinted albums way back in the olden days when i worked in record stores. they had the upper corner of the cover cut, hence "cut out".
i'm in publishing now and our version of the cutout is called a remainder. the line in this song made me laugh because it brought together my past and
present. yesterday's cutouts = today's remainders.sooutrageous (GB, 5/15/00): [Is] steely dan Lyricism is a bastion of reflection and reverie on secure, well-grounded relationships?
listen to brooklyn, dr. wu, everyone's gone to the movies, black cow, peg, everything you did, gaucho, the goodbye look, on the dunes, janie runaway, cousin dupree, west of hollywood.
contrarily, the entirety of their work addresses askewed relationships of some sort. i honestly can't think of more than a scant few tunes that speak to the promise, the redemption of love. even these raise suspicion! (Almost Gothic, Aja)
perhaps none of us really knows what the fuck a 'healthy relationship' is.
it's clear from the lyric that the 'Shadow Man' from steely an isn't holding out hope for a healthy relationship any longer. his ideals are blown away. His dreams which were so much a part of his life, have began to give way to bleary resignation. maybe bad love is better than no love; he opines. we've all been faced with that question. loneliness is a tough act to swallow.only someone aquainted with grief could be the poignantly honest bookclerk in what a shame about me.Candelightly (GB, 5/15/00): who started the healthy relationship kick?
these guys are (big R) totally smitten and intoxicated with the scent of a woman.
There are as many valid interpretations of their take of woman's give as there are tasters.Aja (GB, 5/15/00): D&W seem to use their female characters (on 2vN, anyway) to illustrate the emotional states of the men. You deliberately don't know much about the women because it would be a distraction from the story the song is telling. We don't know a whole heck of a lot about Janie because the song is about the disillusionment the narrator has found with middle age, and how he's revitalized by an underaged runaway in a pathetic way (taking her to Binky's place for a threesome, as if that will change anything about his dreary life in the long run). We don't know anything about the woman plotting against Abbie except that she's as amoral as the narrator, wearing Abbie's clothes while planning to get rid of her. The women on 2vN are almost used as different hues in each song, painting the overall picture D&W have created.
wormtom (GB, 5/18/00): the What A Shame About Me last verse is simple he thinks he is totally losing it and washed up she doesn't see it, and sees the old him with potential in tact and no focus on his negativity she wants an afternoon of rekindling and he is so down on himself that he can't even follow through on a simple request
Mr. LaPage (GB, 5/18/00): RE: SHAME-They do speak to Shame being an urban tragedy about resignation and the realization that there's a point in life when introspection brings us to enlightenment that what we are today is all we're ever going to be. Sort of like; we ARE what we're going to be when we grow up. Needless to say, it's not always a pleasant epiphany.
I personally equate the man in Shame to the sadly-resigned dreamer in CBAT's 'Brooklyn.' They were both so full of promise. They were indeed 'charmers', exuding brut and charisma et.al. They both realize that the reality of their day-to-day brown-shoe existence is so much different than what they had dreamed, had hoped for.
You can picture "Brooklyn's" lonely front-stoop dweller as a young man. So full of promise, handsome, cocky, unbowed by life.
'He's a real charmer', the girls in the neighborhood can be overheard saying, while sharing a black cow over at the sweetshop.
He marries one of these beautifully wistfull girls from the block. He promises her the world. His promises have gone unfulfilled. She's disenchanted, world-weary. Her beauty's fading, yet she's still so in love wth him.(His lady's aching to bring her body down.She daily preaches on where she wants to be) He's disillusioned; still dreams of a better life. Even fantasises that his wife is someone wonderous, an exotic woman(an evening with a movie queen). His most poignant dream is the wish to recapture his lost hope, his youth, his promise of tomorrow. The heart-rending line 'the whole of time we gain or lose and power enough to choose," is the heart and soul of this song and pretty much encapsulates the spirit and soul of the 'Steely Dan Everyman' throughout the works that followed.(Brooklyn is probably our introduction to this character)
The clerk in Shame is simply the sad dreamer from "Brooklyn" who has crosses the river with a milion other computers each morning to 'do his 9-5' and head on back home to his wife and family and the chilling realization that 'maybe...just maybe...this is it.'
For the things this Steelyman has sacrificed, lost or gambled away in his life, "Brooklyn" indeed owes this charmer so very, very, much. He'll take the debt to his grave.Hank Silvers (GB, 5/18/00): One quibble to the otherwise spot-on What A Shame analysis: The guy in Shame wasn't so much lazy as merely stranded between the Green Acres of good intentions and the Twilight Zone of zero self-control. Yes, seems we've heard this one before.
CHI-RIVAL (GB, 5/18/00): How many of us have become all that we aspired to be? If any of you have attended your class reunion(s) there is a underlying pressure to be successful to your peers.
This guy in shame graduated from a class of superstars so the pressure was even greater. He probably never expected to see Frannie walking through the door so he was immediately humbled by that meeting. She also started bragging about herself.
What I thought was very interesting and also showed how D&W's Story telling skills are excellent. Despite the narrators constant be littling of himself Frannie stil remembers how great he was and still liked him for him.
Yet he still couldn't bring himself to go for the gusto.
I tell you what, if I went to school with Jennifer Lopez and she saw me working at McDonalds and asked me to grab a cab to my hotel so we could make believe were back in our old school.
I would say lets grab a limo, so we can get started on the way.Mr. LaPage (GB, 5/18/00): Chi~ sort of like we're a harsher judge of ourselves than others are. We find it hardest to forgive ourselves for our shortcomings.
SHAME- Franny's into her own trip. She's not assuming anything about her old college flame. He's still got that glow. She still sees the man she once shared so much with back in the day. She's certainly not being judgmental. After all, she doesn't make the proposition for the afternoon tryst until AFTER he's bared his soul about rehab, giving up on the novel and his resignation that the present pretty much holds the key to his future. He has already cast judgment on himself. He's found himself wanting. In actuality it may not be too late for him. He's still surrounded by literature and culture in one of the grooviest bookstores in the city. He's faring well with the rehab(so far). He hasn't ACTUALLY quit writing his novel. He's still plugging away. Still dreaming. Still plodding along.
I'm may be wrong about his ultimate fate. He hasn't resigned from life. At least, not yet. Perhaps Franny's visit will serve as a catalyst for him. Perhaps he'll recommitt himself to the completion of his novel. He was obviosly very talented. She remembered him that way. Other's have told her about his great potential.(Somebody told me in the early eighties, you're gonna be the next big thing. *High praise indeed for any NYU alum.) If he gets his demons under control, recommitts to success and begins to dream again, perhaps this 'ghost' can find new life.
"I'm worrying about the future now but maybe this is it.' Well......in his case, with alittle determination:maybe NOT.
What A Shame if he gives up!CHI (GB, 5/18/00): La Page, You know how D&W leave their characters.
High and dry.....
I think our boy in shame will always be a slave to his own shortcomings. I agree with you about Frannie seeing the old him.
But often times our vision of ourselves is just like hindsight.
We have grown up hearing that most stories have a happy ending. But we also know that those are fairy tales....
In real life they oftentimes don't end happy and in The land of Dan... They never end happy.
"See the glory(then the backup singers sound exhalted)
"Of the royal Scam.(contradiction. twist of words Smile hiding a frown) you get the picture...Skip Waring (Digest, 5/27/00): The guy is a writer and a doper, self-deprecating, always sorry for himself, with suicidal tendencies, but a great writer. He was always that way, even when he and Franny were an item at NYU. In fact, his artistic self-loathing was a turn-on to her - - that, and the fact that she was insecure and liked drugs too.
She climbed the ladder of success in Hollywood based more on the fact that she's gorgeous and willing, less on talent. She knows that he sees through her, and she still likes to get high, so an afternoon with him in a hotel room is a chance for her to let her defenses down.
He's reluctant, morbid, and defeatist, so he says no to her advance at the Strand. But when she licks her lips at him in that special way he gives in, as he's always done with her in the past. Of course, she's holding some dope at that very moment, and they go to the hotel to use, then engage in sexual escapades for hours.
He's off the wagon again, and has probably lost his his job in the bargain. Yeah...that's it. He's lost his job and crawls back to his hovel, goes back to writing and lives off ATD: Aid to the Totally Disabled.
She goes back to her life the next day, and he...What?...I don't know! Just make it up!
He probably finishes the book in spite of/because of his red pain and becomes a huge literary hit, his personal sufferings and weaknesses only adding to his dark artistic persona.Not My Nancy (GB, 8/29/00): Just read a comment on Ole's Fever Dreams from Hank Silvers noticing that "Steamer Heaven" is both in the liner notes for 11TOW and in the lyrics of Wet Side Story.
It being the Nance's job to serve as resident low-hanging fruit-plucker, I remark that Alan owns a chain of Steamer Heavens.
What in the hell is a Steamer Heaven? Some Maui take-out joint? An Annandale-on-Hudson beanery?Ed Beaty (GB, 8/30/00): Back east, Clams are referred to as Steamers...
So the reference Steamer Heaven is .....for CLAMS...
Maybe...rumblestrip (GB, 8/30/00, with recipe hints): You're right & I'm glad somebody brought that up! In fact they sell certain kinds of clams expressly for that purpose. They are easy to cook although it is imperative that you wash them thoroughly and check that they are alive first. They are SOOO good. I must point out that 'Down the Cape' they pronounce it 'stee-mahs'!
Steamer heaven is (GB, 8/30/00): A brothel in New Orleans?
A simple hot-dog joint?
A place you end up in if you haven't been really good or really bad?Clas (GB, 8/30/00): Tina Turner sang the song "Stevie Winwood", which rhymes with steamy window. What you get when you make love in a small room with only one window is a "steamy window".
So, Steamer Heaven is the room you're making love in. You're making love, you sweat, and you're hopefully in heaven.Blaise (GB, 11/20/00): What's the Steamer Heaven intrigue that a few songs refer to lately?
Alan owns a chain of them. The lovely Janine worked at one before it went up in flames. There's Aunt Faye and Dupree and some kids... It's less a subtext than a storyline unfolding on the side, at the margin. It spills into the lyrics sometimes.Hank Silvers (Digest, 2/20/01): I've seen this question asked in various regions of Dandom, but haven't yet seen it answered. After DF sings "tell the truth" at the end of What A Shame About Me, he mutters another line. What's he saying?
Well, I used GoldWave to try to separate the vocal from those few seconds of music, and although it wasn't perfect, it sounds to me like he sings "I'd prefer not to."
On the 2vN DVD version of WASAM, DF sings it twice, and it's a little clearer on the second one.
I believe I've heard that line "tell the truth" in R&B songs; then "I'd prefer not to" just twists the prior line in a Steely way. That narrator feels like a schmendrick (or is it schlmiel?) anyway.
And don't forget his Waiting for the Sun: Strange Days, Weird Scenes, and The Sound of Los Angeles. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996.
"Two Against Nature"
David Menconi, Raleigh News and Observer (7/21/00): Oddly enough, the voodoo-suffused title track is the one song on the album that's least concerned with sexual matters.
"I wonder how we missed that," Fagen says drily. "If I'd known that, I would've put some in. But there's a lot of voodoo imagery in that particular song. We're kind of elevating ourselves to a heroic position. Our fans are being troubled with demons of aging, insanity; and we're offering up ourselves as someone who can deal with it -- kind of a 'Ghostbusters' theme, if you will, the idea that art can be curative. Listen to this, maybe it will cheer you up."
Miz Ducky (GB, 2/5/00): Heh. The song "Two Against Nature" is in fact crammed chock-full of Voudou references. Madame Erzulie and Baron Samedi are just two of the loa that I count amongst the lyrics, along with other and stranger spirits, all despatched by our two valiant and enterprising hoodoos. Can the Guyz have been consulting with Dr. John, I wonder?
Diane (Newsgroup, 2/14/00): that lyric-fitting thing [as seen in "Surf And/ Or Die"] is something i also notice on the title track of 2vN. it's hard to do this well, and another time they did it very well was on 'reelin' in the years,' which seems even more lyric-packed when heard live. But on Two Against Nature, the lyrics just seem to spill over from one line into another in many places, making it very hard to follow without a lyric sheet.
Dr. Mu (GB, 2/28/00): Yeah, I like the notion of Walter and Donald as a couple of New Orleans witch doctors: "Yeah, we gwine beat that human nature right outta you...'Western Science she *still* strictly rinky dink'" at handling the demons, the doubts, the Id (not the Edd), the changing hormone pulses as the hypothalamus settles down for a long winter's nap and the limbic system goes for a walk - wait 'til the hippocampus starts to go! But, life is somethin' ya get over. Vitamin E + lipoic acid is the only safe way now to smooth out the bumps long term. It's a chronic irritation/inflammation thing. Titration of cytokine inhibitors, inducible nitric oxide synthase inhibitors and NF-kappaB inhibitors and ikappaB activators are still a ways off (damn, I come her to get away from this on occasion)...gotta stick to ratbone to sooth the gnarly downside 'til we know bettah.
Slint (3/1/00): Do you know what happens to me when I listen to the song "Two Against Nature"? I suddenly stop whatever I'm doing and within moments, the song has taken over my mind and body. I'm suddenly dancing like a wildman while deep dark subconscious thoughts ooze into my mind...hot sex...fast driving....many many evil thoughts....this doesn't stop until the song has faded to an end and I can think again. Within 30 seconds, I listen to it again and transform once more.
This song is another finely crafted Steely Dan masterpiece. It is an absolute KILLER tune. Lyrics are irrelevant in this song. It casts a magic eerie spell upon the listener. Don't drive a motor vehicle while listening to this song...
I'm still looking for the disclaimer in the liner notes...Bill (Digest, 3/2/00): Excellent lyrics calling to mind a cross between Ghostbusters, The Exorcist and the X-Files (Wm Gibson connection??), but these poltergeist-hunters really love their gig! From the sax-squawks to the odd piano stabs to the percussion to DF's most "Countdown to Ecstacy"-style lead vocal in decades, this track is worth the 20 year wait in itself. (P.S. Lou Garou is a reference to the Louisiana werewolf legend Loup Garou).
Gyro Gearloose (GB, 3/3/00): Q: What in blue blazes is the title track all about?
WB: We made the unfortunate decision of choosing a name for the CD before we had a song. Before we knew it, boom,
a million inserts printed and no title track.DF: And, I might add, the original art was in color but had to be scrapped due to this glaring omission.
WB: Yes, much like that pie-in-the-sky project with Dr. Krueger.
DF: Thanks for bringing that up, Mr. "I'm the lead guitarist".
Q: So you're implying that at least some of your cryptic allusions are really just emotional outbursts in reaction to severe
bungling?DF: It's all there in black and white, fella.
WB: You should have seen it in Krueger Color! Fantastic!
diane (newsgroup, 3/4/00): In the voodoo (or voudou or voudon or vodon whatever way you prefer to spell it) ti bon ange [
is one- half of a person's soul. It's the half that travels during sleep and leaves the body when a person is possessed by a loa during a religious ritual. It is depicted as somewhat vulnerable, even though it's simultaneously a guardian, apparently of the body. It's believed that evil spirits can sometimes capture ti bon ange while she's out there traveling around.
When a person dies, ti bon ange leaves that body for good, joining the spirit world, and is never reincarnated or used by another person.
Steely Dan have used voodoo references in songs before--at least, they used 'zombie.' [
10cc also make reference to voodoo--Baron Samedi--on one of their albums from the Seventies... is it "How Dare You?" I have it around here someplace. And of course, there's Doctor John, a/k/a Mac Rebbenack, say na more, say na more... And I'm sure there are many, many other voodoo/occult references in rock and roll songs.
I'd say, though, that when Steely Dan make reference to something as arcane as the subconscious part of the soul (as in 2vN), it has more effect with me
than some toss-off attribution in some other average rock and roll tune.
That's part of what intrigues me about the title tune on 2vN, and sort of seems to extrapolate into the suite of songs on this album. Everything can be taken in part or as a whole. There may be messages there, and there may not be. But the images invite the poetically inclined (as well as the highly imaginative, which is what my mother always said I was, with great disdain, by the way) to take it all in and then run with it.
Donald and Walter seem reluctant to explain their lyrics. I think part of the reason for that is that these groups of words are not necessarily intended always to make sense. Many songs have the feel of a 'cut-up,' which is a form of writing conceived by Brion Gysin and perfected by William S. Burroughs, where
essentially, random groups of words are cut up and then pasted back together, creating entirely new thoughts. In one long-ago interview Donald mentioned
that if he got stuck for a line, he'd just ask Walter for something. In a more recent interview, the duo seemed to intimate that sometimes they put words together simply because they like the way they sound, and not to make sense.Corvid (newsgroup, 2/29/00): "Two Against Nature" (the song) seems to be railing against the icky inevitability of "things unknown /unseen / undead" i.e. the
creepy-crawlies both literal and figurative that pervade our lives, no matter how hard we try to ignore them or make them go away. "Soak the timber with special spray / Nuke the itty bitty ones right where they lay / Whip the bastards while they still green / Take the firemop - sweep it kissing clean". Seems to me like Don & Walt will stick around and fight the good fight for a while longer. "Two against nature, love this gig / Pull up the weeds before they're too damn big". Kind of gives me hope for another album before too long.diane (newsgroup, 2/29/00): I think trying to interpret it begins with committing to a point of view. One POV is gotten by seeing it as a rallying cry not to give up the good fight. Another one is to view it as a dark, nihilistic condemnation of society, vis-a-vis a protest song. Still another is some combination of both, and another could be that it's simply an abstract-expressionistic word painting.
... I feel D&W are making a sincere, human statement about the inhumanity of our world today. The numerous references to killing, destroying, etc., especially the "itty bitty ones," "maggoty ones before they hatch" "while they still green" and "weeds before they too damn big" seem to me to be metaphors for children--perhaps children with guns.
I don't mean to say they are advocating genocide of children, but rather, that they are POINTING OUT our own unacknowledged genocide of children (at least here in America, where a first- grader can take a gun to school and kill another, as happened again just today).
Taken further, treating timber with a "special spray" could be a call to reform. Timber IS treated with chemicals which are intended both to kill any invasive insects and their eggs (maggots) and to preserve the life of the wood itself. There's a metaphor phor ya.
... If you listen to this song with images of teenagers in long black dusters carrying automatic weapons, backlit, coming out of the fog (a cinematic cliche), you might hear the words entirely differently. If you try to listen to it and take the various occult references literally, you'll get all balled up. That's why I'm convinced the metaphors run deep in this one. It's also why I don't accept Donald and Walter's own explanations, in radio interviews, that this is some simple allegory about the two of them getting older, any more than I accept their explanation in the Aja documentary that "Black Cow" is merely a soft soda fountain drink. They are disengenuous about this stuff. I imagine that's because they really don't feel like explaining themselves too much, to interviewers or to anyone.wonderwaif (GB, 3/6/00): I just think it's so funny that they managed to get in a line from Ralph Kramden of the Honeymooners into the song Two Against Nature "bang-zoom to the moon". All it's missing is Alice!
FazChanders (GB, 3/7/00): I think D&W are picking up on the recent medical news that soon we'll be able to fundamentally (genetically?) alter our bodies to defy the ageing process. Instead of growing old, and dying, we can choose to extend the lives of our bodies by hundreds of years. But, if you do this, you're living for living's sake. And if you're living for no reason other than to live forever, then maybe you too are just a zombie, walking, talking, shagging (Madame Erzulie) and so on. D&W are perhaps prophesising a world one day where all there'll be are zombies roaming the earth, living forever and ever. Terrifying, isn't it?
Daddy G (GB, 3/7/00): FazChanders: Your last post sent chills down my spine, especially the part about “D&W are picking up on the recent medical news
that soon we'll be able to fundamentally (genetically?) alter our bodies to defy the aging process.”
Meet if you will, Doctor Warren Kruger: http://www.fccc.edu/research/reports/current/kruger.reportframe.html
The second sentence of the text says it all: “The focus of this laboratory's research is to identify and understand how alterations in DNA influence the formation of disease states.”
Mom-mee … Uncle Donny and Uncle Walty are scaring me again.Hank Silvers (3/23/00): The way Donald's voice fades rapidly on the last "things unknown" of the first chorus of the title track. I can almost see him tossing his head back a la Ray Charles as he sings it...
M. LaPage (GB, 5/7/00): My take on the title track: the madame is not only a horny voodoo priestess but she's also............A MAN!(aggggggggggh!!)
Thus the 'call your Dr/shrink' lyric. The passage graphically describes what is probably one of the top 3 worst things that can befall an unsuspecting male-on-the-prowl: The Jaye Davidson thingy.Fletch (from New Zealand) (GB, 5/7/00): Just talking to a friend last night, about cool words and meaning etc, and I brought up the word 'grok' from 2VN etc.
He reminded me that I had seen the word before when I was a kid.
You remember those british 2000 AD comics with Judge Dredd?
He used to use 'grok' as a swear word.....lol
Like of like saying, 'shit!', he'd say 'Grok!' when someone was blown away or whatever.
"Janie Runaway"
Evan (GB, 2/4/00): Some of the most beautiful love lyrics ever:
Who makes the traffic interesting?/ Who rescues a dreary Sunday? / Who makes me feel like painting again? / Honey,
it's you, Janie Runaway
Of course, the ironic twist is that the girl is probably underage (anyone see a theme on the album...) and the guy is really creepy (Who goes to Spain on her birthday? / Possibly you, Janie Runaway) How condescending!jon (still @ his yellow stripe) (GB, 2/5/00): Janie Runaway--Opening suggests "Daddy..." is here and sure enough we find ourselves in NYC. D+W have the uncanny ability to screw you into a time and place, wherever and with whomever they please, and 45 seconds into it I'm soiling myself. This tune alone was worth waiting 19 years for.
kd (GB, 2/25/00): it's clear to me that Ms. Runaway is performing tasteless deeds on the narrator while he's stuck in traffic, thus making it interesting.
Hutch (GB, 2/25/00): I think the narrator in Janie Runaway has become jaded by simply living in the world and hitting that mid-life crisis. Believe me... it happens! His new found young lover has re-awakened his appreciation of the simplest things. She's let him rediscover the innocence and excitement of youth. She not only rescues a dreary Sunday but she rescues him from the dreariness of every day of the week. The dark cloud of unfulfilled dreams dissolves for a while to reveal the blue skies of creative possibilities he would have otherwise ignored. He's got money alright. They're going to Spain for her birthday. But money doesn't equate with happiness or contentment. It never has and it never will. They may not live out the rest of their lives together. Most likely they won't. He will always remember what she did for him though in the time they were together. And Janie will probably remain oblivious to it all.
Mitch (GB, 3/1/00): Janie`s new friend could well be Mr. La Page! (see Dr. Pretorius below--11/27/02)
Jive Miguel (GB, 3/1/00): Mitch / DJ, that's it, Mr. LaPage has resurfaced in Janie Runaway! His lucrative 8mm film business from the late '70's has afforded him a lush lifestyle and some very nice caprices ("I know you're used to 16 or more, sorry we've only got 8")! Maybe LaPage lived in Southern Florida in the seventies!?! Now he's the "Lucky Guy" of Gramercy Park!
Brent (Digest, 3/2/00): [reporting on the Rockline special] Walter characterized "Janie Runaway" as "an exuberant song, all about life."
Lolita (Digest, 3/2/00): Dean & Deluca is a gourmet grocery store in Soho NYC - the home of the $5 head of lettuce and $2 imported apple. The food is great, but definitely not for the plebian masses - you don't run there for a gallon of milk.
diane (newsgroup, 3/4/00): Janie is a runaway--probably lived in one of our classically American dysfunctional families--who probably had ideas of living the Big Life in the Big City. Once she arrives, she's plucked like a ripe plum by an opportunistic older man who offers her treats like she's never seen in Tampa--gourmet deli food, grown-up wine, the luxuries of a Gramercy Park townhouse, money--and he is a Svengali of sorts to her. He likes the little sex games--"You be the showgirl/I'll be Sinatra"--and sex is, in fact, his one and only interest when it comes to this gullible but nubile nymph. She's indebted to him, and he raises the stakes--"Who gets to spend her birthday in Spain/possibly you"-- to the point of blackmail, in exchange for Janie arranging a threesome with another of her nubile friends.
It's really as simple as that. The guy is just another sleazy archetype in the Steely Dan catalog.Chris (newsgroup, 3/4/00): Maybe it's just me, but "Janie Runaway" sounds like a parody of several old TV themes, mostly notably the one from the Mary Tyler Moore show. ("Who can take a nothing day/And suddenly make it all seem worthwhile."), not to mention banal light rock songs like "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes." In the Dan's subversive take, "That Girl" becomes underage jailbait from Tampa.
I love that oh-so-subtle way that the adverb "_possibly_" abruptly enters the picture at the end. Yeah, she'll spend her birthday in Spain -- possibly -- if she
agrees to a threesome with the narrator and her best friend. Oh, yeah, she loves to try new things.Hank Silvers (3/25/00): Just occurred to me...D+W cheat in that final chorus of Janie Runaway. The first two choruses, they rhyme something with "runaway" (fun day/Sunday) So what if that last chorus doesn't follow the same rule?
I mean, lines like "who makes me feel like painting/sailing" can almost make you believe there is honest affection between the singer and Janie. Then,
bored with jailbait, he reveals what he wants next, and Donald and Walter expose him for the creep he is in just a few lines. It's great storytelling. It just might not get them an "A" in a songwriting class, that's all...Daddy G (GB, 4/21/00): That reminds me ... of another classic lyrical twist, when the boys say, "That black mini looks just like the one she's been missing, FEELS good on you." Anybody else would have said "LOOKS" good on you. That one tweak makes all the difference in the line, IMHO.
Daddy G (on a roll. GB, 4/26/00): The letter I just got from General Motors...
Dear Mr. Daddy G:
Thank you for your interest in our new line of Chevy Blazers for 2000. We feel confident that you will find the Blazer to be an elegant, yet rugged vehicle — perfect for all of your transportation needs. From the streets of Manhattan to the rugged terrain of Pennsylvania, Chevy Blazer is equipped with all the features you’ll need to take on whatever Mother Nature has to offer.
&nbs