Half the Dan He Used to Be
January 25th, 2006 - 9:23 pm
Steely Danster Donald Fagen has a new solo album coming out in March. Longtime readers probably understand just how excited I am about that.
Anyway, you can download the first single, “H Gang” at iTunes right now.
Downloaded it, listened to it, love it. Have no idea what he’s singing about, but that’s OK because I’m often in the same position as many others who are looking for their H Gang without knowing why their sights are set or upon whom they are looking but, hey,… it’s Steely Dan, as if those two words even make any sense outside the fact their music coats the ears with wax-loving sounds that make those little hairs inside my earballs say ‘Ah, send us more.”
Thanks, Stephen. I also downloaded the single. Great stuff. I completely destroyed my “Nightfly” cassette tape from excessive usage.
Read your old piece about “Peg” and Josie”…I’m convinced that “Lunch With Gina” from the relatively recent “Everything Must Go” is of a piece with those earlier classics. Crazy woman…
“She’s comin’ round the corner
her body’s just a blur,
I pull out like a flash,
it don’t mean boo to her,
So I duck into Nino’s, she’s barred from the place
The minute I walk out she’s right in my face
She’s got nothin’ but time.
No use in tryin to be clever,
Lunch with Gina…
it’s forever
I’m hooked forever.
What sets the Dan apart is the fact that the music can’t be easily pigeonholed into a category. They have always had their own “sound”, period.