If You're Listening To Music Right Now III

you all remember hearing this one. from fagen’s first solo project. not until now did i know what the song was about…

another stroke of fagen’s genius and engineering perfection. ‘sparkling’, as becker called it. incredibly crisp and clean.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ueivjr3f8xg[/youtube]

Standing tough under stars and stripes, we can tell
This dream’s in sight
You’ve got to admit it
At this point in time that it’s clear
The future looks bright

On that train, all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well, by '76 we’ll be A-OK

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

Get your ticket to that wheel in space while there’s time
The fix is in
You’ll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky
You know we’ve got to win

Here at home we’ll play in the city
Powered by the sun
Perfect weather for a streamlined world
There’ll be spandex jackets, one for everyone

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

On that train, all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
(More leisure for artists everywhere)

A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellas with compassion and vision
We’ll be clean when their work is done
We’ll be eternally free, yes, and eternally young

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

let me show you something rather interesting. when you listen to IGY now… after learning what the song is about… a strange kind of paradox emerges. the song’s intent is to make a caricature out of the idea of this ‘beautiful world’, but in listening to it… or as you listen to it, it builds in your mind an image of such a possible beautiful world… so at the same time you are disposing of the idea of the possibility of such, you are in fact designing one in your mind. now watch, if you put those same lyrics on a categorically different kind of groove, you’d not have the same effect. to divine the image of this beautiful world you’d need a particularly nuanced musical composition, one which is as sophisticated, fresh, joyful, and in the best taste, like you’d imagine this world to be.

anyway the paradox is that the song makes possible as an idea the very thing it calls into question with its mockery and sarcasm. in your head you’re seeing this world as the song carries you along, and it’s working.

But the million dollar question is… what would a backing vocal track for the chorus sound like if it were done by Michael McDonald. I surmise it would sound something like this.

streamable.com/qe6olk

I know not of these people you speak of, but when I searched that guys name up and went to images, a site called Jew or Not Jew, run by Jews, came up in the search results… some of the profiled profiles write-ups are brilliantly hilarious.

youtu.be/GrE22Lw1vmQ

Yeah he’s got Jewish family, though I’m not sure what his views are regarding that. I can’t find anything about being religious or not. If I had to guess I’d think he’s atheist. But before all that he’s a capricorn from jersey who was designed by fate to be a song writer and luckily was introduced to the right shit at the right age to develop that extraordinary talent and uniqueness of his.

Sometimes in history there are music artists so profound that nothing else would be capable of producing that music if fate had not brought them into being. It is as if the song is already written in some platonic ecmanduian hyperdimensional reality, for which Fagen was called to create.

The prime years right? To pull this track off live like this without softening it up. Only in the years that the material is written can it be played with such energy. When the guys get older they don’t play em like they used to.

the shine of your japan. the sparkle in your china. yes I’ll be there.

youtu.be/oLH2V1BegVI

So that’s how they do it. The secret steely dan ‘mu major’ chord.

youtu.be/vSDD8rgUiNc

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDZdNr9PHao[/youtube]

I found this a tad hypnotic from Josh Joplin. A slight ‘walk on the wild side’ vibe going on.

youtu.be/_Sl6uD9xmnQ

Not quite. But I do like some more and others less. I like rap less, for example. I’d rather listen to the variety of R&B that was popular during the late 80’s / early 90’s known as “New Jack Swing”. Not exactly sure why. Perhaps it’s because I grew up with that sort of music, maybe it’s because it’s more melodic, maybe because it’s a fusion of several distinct genres . . . I don’t know.

Bruno Mars is trying to revive it:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsoLEjrDogU[/youtube]

Michael Jackson had a phase with it (I think he even started it):

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeiFF0gvqcc[/youtube]

May be…

I was a fan of Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall and prior, and some post… Jam, Scream, etc…

Bruno Mars appears to have copied Michael Jackson’s musical composition, somewhat.

Not their biggest fan, but saw Bruno live at a bar once… he was swamped with admirers… of both genders. That guy is so popular, it’s unbelievable.

—-

He’s got something (I mean Bruno.) Look at his dance moves. He’s moving like a feather. Much better than anything I every saw from MJ. And he’s hailed as some kind of dance king, I am not really sure why (too jittery and weird for my taste.)

His disco period . . .

But disco period was too gay (even though music wasn’t that bad.)

I am not a fan of bearded castrato singers in tight jeans . . .

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNFzfwLM72c[/youtube]

And I am not a fan of Travolta dancing to them either (nor anyone else.)

Well no… very few songs from his disco period, and prior he was more rare groove… Jam and Scream onwards, offered some good tracks.

Grease and Staying Alive are memorable tracks, but not much else of theirs… those two tracks are still relevant to this very day… I wasn’t really into Disco, I was far too young for that, I grew up on Caribbean ska and other such genres… some was ok, some was not to my taste lol.

I’ve been known to only like part of a song, not the whole song, but just part of the song… or only even one song from an album or artist.

one that never made it to Gaucho, the album following Aja. this is from one of the engineer’s casette recordings of the session. the story has it that recording Gaucho was beset by all kinds of problems; becker gets hit by a taxi and breaks his leg, one of the engineers accidentally erases like twenty five hours of recording for another song that was supposed to be on the album - ‘the second arrangement’ - and the guys are so disappointed they don’t record again. fagen literally walked out of the studio he as so pissed.

I just discovered all this yesterday.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vedh5kOFVPU[/youtube]

Sweet holy Jesus what a night
Saint Augustine was right

youtu.be/5bQ0GW3acE4

youtu.be/wRYidi0e-BA

That should be his bio, somewhere, for some site or other, of his.

The future Akashic Records of music, that he tapped into… I’d heard of Steely Dan, when growing up, yeah…

mess around a little, boys. show us what you’re working with…

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3rDQUCHnMI[/youtube]

perfect. clean it up and put it on the album…

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHSnt9BTJbM[/youtube]

Welcome to Techno City. Hope you enjoy your stay.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIQAZGzhqWk[/youtube]

From video description:
“Recorded in Februrary 1989 at the Brotherhood Club, Detroit, MI”

Detroit take on (model of?) European electro scene.