I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: STEELY DAN-Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972) & Countdown to Ecstasy (1973) & Pretzel Logic (1974) & Katy Lied (1975) & The Royal Scam (1976) & Aja (1977) & Gaucho (1980).

My theory about Steely Dan is that they are the definition of Adult music. No one under the age of 25 should listen to them. I hated Steely Dan all through high school and college, and then sometime around the age of 30, I suddenly liked them. So, it’s something about the style, and the sound, and Donald Fagan’s voice, and Walter Becker’s whatever, that should be utterly anathema to anyone under 25. If you’re under 25 and you like a Steely Dan song or two, then, maybe get the greatest hits, or if you are really adventurous, get Countdown to Ecsatsy, but otherwise stay away, wait until the Steely Dan gene fully develops in your body, and then give them a shot. And none of this is because they are offensive or rude or anything, they’re just mellow, jazzy, adult music. Barely rock and roll at all, and yet they’ve had rock hits.

Sarah has a funny story of going to karaoke and hearing someone do “Hey Nineteen,” which, if you know the song, you know has something like a two minute instrumental break, and the rest of the song is just them singing “The Cuervo Gold.” What a great mental picture that serves.

I first heard about Steely Dan through the Columbia House Record and Tape (all for a penny!) Club. Every magazine ad, every catalog in the mail, every time you saw a Columbia insert, there was STEELY DAN: AJA (you recognize it, right? And who the hell knew how to pronounce it…not until you hear the song and know it’s pronounced A-ZHA.) But in recent years, I got into Steely Dan because of a great Welsh band Super Furry Animals. They recorded a song call “The Man Don’t Give a Fuck,” which samples a line from “Showbiz Kids” from Countdown to Ecstasy. But the sampled line “You know they don’t give a fuck about anybody else” is essentially the whole song, repeated over and over. And it rocks!! So I thought I’d check out the Steely Dan record. Countdown to Ecstasy is still my favorite Steely Dan album.

Let’s face it, most of the Steely Dan songs sound the same, or at least similar. With Richard Thompson, I said that his songs sounded similar, but were really undated, just sort of timeless. With Steely Dan, the songs all sound similar, but they sound similarly 1970s. It’s like a time capsule. But the thing about Steely Dan is just how impeccable the songs sound. The main guys spend a huge amount of time trying to get every note to sound just right, and it is cool that the end result can sound so effortless. They are just so smoooooth. And they border on cheesy, but I don’t think they ever cross the line (you’ll agree with me after you turn 25).

[PAUSED: July 20, 2007] On Beauty.

As I mentioned previously, Harry Potter comes out tomorrow. I’m only on page 200 of On Beauty, so it must be put on hold. But this post will ensure that I finish it once HP is done. So, in the meantime:

I can’t get over how much I am enjoying this book! Obviously, I was interested in reading it or it wouldn’t have been on my ‘to-do’ list. The thing is, I read some great reviews of the book, but I guess I never really has a sense of what the book was about. I knew there was lots of reference to E.M. Forster, and how the book was kind of an homage, but beyond that I didn’t know very much. So, everything in the story is new to me. The basic gist: Howard & Kiki are a married couple. She’s from Florida, he’s from England. They met in England, and have now settled in the ‘burbs of Boston with their three kids. Howard is an art history professor at a small institution. Here’s where the conflict arises: Howard has had an affair with one of their circle of friends. And he lied about it. And the shit is hitting the fan as I press pause on the book.

Here’s another interesting aspect of the story: Howard is white. Kiki is black. Their kids resemble and identify racially with their mom. Of the three kids, Levi is the youngest, and the one who most identifies with his black heritage (he was the only one born in the U.S.). He affects a tough Roxbury attitude even though he lives in posh Wellington. Zora, the middle child attends school at the University where her father teaches, and is currently trying to take a class with the professor her father had an affair with. Jerome, the oldest is currently away at school at Brown. Jerome caused his family further consternation because (oh, let’s just start a new paragraph for this).

In the other major sticking point for the family, Howard was academically dressed down by Monty Kipps, a publicly famous art critic and public speaker. Monty is a British, conservative black man who is opposed to affirmative action and everything else that “liberal academics” believe in. Monty and Howard are also academic opposites when it comes to Rembrandt. When Howard saw an opportunity to prove Monty wrong, an error on Howard’s part allowed Monty to publicly ridicule Howard. Jerome, meanwhile, was summering in London, with the Kipps family; he had won the Kipps’ scholarship. Rubbing salt into Howard’s wounds, Jerome sent his father a hasty email stating he was getting married to Monty’s daughter.

Oh, and now the Kipps family is in Wellington for a semester because Monty is a guest lecturer. Kiki, feeling oppressed by the affair, and the fact that she is one of the few blacks in Wellington, tries to befriend Monty’s wife, an older black woman whom she feels degrees of kinship with. And, Veronica, Monty’s daughter has just signed up for Howard’s class.

There’s also a subplot about a “street” poet who forms a potential conflict with the academic poets. And, clearly Levi is headed for trouble; and who knows what is going to happen with Jerome.

And, I’m only half way done. I can’t wait for more!

All of this sounds very soap opera-y when I try to describe the plots, but Smith’s writing is really beautiful. She is able to convey the different speaking styles of the various characters with uncanny precision. And, she makes the character’s transitions from educated upper middle class to Southern poor (as they tease their mother or father) so natural, that it is never jarring. Plus, her prose in general is a treat to read. I am already looking forward to reading her other two books as well. And maybe some E.M Forster, while I’m at it.