Thursday, October 16, 2014
KLEM FM
The number of people who saw Steely Dan play live in the 1970's must be small; they stopped touring a year after this video recording, still years away from some of their best material. They may be the most famous band who never toured. That's quite an achievement by itself - right up there with Robert Hunter getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for being the Boo Radley of The Grateful Dead.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
17 comments:
That's not the guitarist who played lead on the studio version. Go back and listen to that recording here.
Jimmy Page has reportedly said that Elliot Randall's solo on "Reelin' In The Years" is his favorite guitar solo of all time (I doubt Page included his own :)
Can anybody ID the guitarist in the first video?
The long haired guitar player is Jeff Baxter who after playing for The doobie Brothers among others, ended up awesome like this:
"Defense consulting career:
Baxter fell into his second profession almost by accident. In the mid-1980s, Baxter's interest in music recording technology led him to wonder about hardware and software that was originally developed for military use, i.e. data-compression algorithms and large-capacity storage devices. As it happened, his next-door neighbor was a retired engineer who had worked on the Sidewinder missile program. This neighbor bought Baxter a subscription to Aviation Week magazine, provoking his interest in additional military-oriented publications and missile defense systems in particular. He became self-taught in this area, and at one point he wrote a five-page paper that proposed converting the ship-based anti-aircraft Aegis missile into a rudimentary missile defense system. He gave the paper to California Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher, and his career as a defense consultant began.
Backed by several influential Capitol Hill lawmakers, Baxter received a series of security clearances so he could work with classified information. In 1995, Pennsylvania Republican congressman Curt Weldon, then the chairman of the House Military Research and Development Subcommittee, nominated Baxter to chair the Civilian Advisory Board for Ballistic Missile Defense.
Baxter's work with that panel led to consulting contracts with the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He now consults to the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. intelligence community, as well as for defense-oriented manufacturers including Science Applications International Corporation ("SAIC"), Northrop Grumman Corp., General Dynamics, and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. He has been quoted as saying his unconventional approach to thinking about terrorism, tied to his interest in technology, is a major reason he became sought after by the government.
"We thought turntables were for playing records until rappers began to use them as instruments, and we thought airplanes were for carrying passengers until terrorists realized they could be used as missiles,"[5] Baxter has said. "My big thing is to look at existing technologies and try to see other ways they can be used, which happens in music all the time and happens to be what terrorists are incredibly good at."
Baxter has also appeared in public debates and as a guest on CNN and Fox News Channel advocating missile defense. He served as a national spokesman for Americans for Missile Defense, a coalition of organizations devoted to the issue.
In 2000, Baxter considered challenging Rep. Brad Sherman for the 24th Congressional District seat in California before deciding not to run.[6]
In April 2005, he joined the NASA Exploration Systems Advisory Committee (ESAC).
Baxter was a member of an independent study group that produced the "Civil Applications Committee Blue Ribbon Study" recommending an increased domestic role for U.S. spy satellites in September 2005.[7] This study was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on August 15, 2007.[8]
Baxter is listed as "Senior Thinker and Raconteur" at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition.[9]
Baxter is a Senior Fellow and Member of the Board of Regents at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.[10]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Baxter
The Dark-hair guitarist is, I believe,
Denny Dias
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denny_Dias
I would love to be a top-rung rock guitarist / missile consultant / terrorist fighting genius motherfucker, or even just one of the above would be OK too. That has got to bring in the chicks big time. Not that us gay dudes care about that kind of thing.
Did Jeff Baxter work at the skunk works? How else did he get that name?
A girlfriend gave Ron "Pigpen" McKernan his nickname. Can you imagine?
I have always loved Steely Dan. I can't even adequately describe what I like so much, but I just love their music. One reason is that I would just love to be able to play that damned guitar. When I'm driving, and it comes on, I just soar. I suppose it also has a lot to do with when they were hot. I was in college. I was 19, and I drove 20 miles to class every day.
One night, while driving the back woods, drinking a beer and smoking a doobie with a friend, we came over a hill and a car was coming head on in our lane. The road was lined with trees, so I couldn't swerve off. We hit head on, and both me and my best friend went through the windshield. He started convulsing in my lap and almost died, but we both survived. The other driver was severely drunk. My crazy Mom settled for $1000 (we were poor, so it sounded like a lot). I think that's where I got Hep C. My face needed 52 stitches and a blood transfusion. My friend was worse, but we both eventually fully recovered.
Anyway, it was my first car, totally wrecked, and I had to move into a very small one-room dorm alone. All I had for the first month was my killer stereo and one album - Steely Dan - Asia. Yea, I wore it out.
"Who am I? Why am I here?"
My girl's out of town, the dogs are sleeping, and I only have this blog to talk to now.
I don't think chicks dig military consultants, bagoh20. I forgot why I came to that conclusion, but I think it's true.
All I had for the first month was my killer stereo and one album - Steely Dan - Asia.
I almost chose the title song from that album tonight. The Wayne Shorter saxophone solo on that song is every bit as good as the guitar work on "Reelin' In The Years."
Oh, now I remember....because in fantasy world, military consultant/hot shots are like Tony Stark who has Pepper Potts pining for his ____. But in real life, Pepper Potts is...well we know.
So anyways, I was reading about Aja and I learned that there's a whole TV series called "Classic Albums" which tells the story of the making of a slew of great albums including "Aja." I hadn't seen it so I went looking for it on YouTube. That's when I saw a live performance of Steely Dan and thought, "I have to blog that....Steely Dan is old news but who's every seen them live?"
That's how this post came about
I love the whole self-taught thing. I'm sure he sought out the help of some smart tutors at times, but avoiding the whole university ride with all it's expense, and distractions has got to be a real short cut for those sufficiently motivated, and passionate for the lernin'. Unfortunately, I was more passionate about the distractions myself.
I was so distracted that I forgot how to spell "Aja" after staring at the album cover for many hours.
OMG Bill Cosby.
I too suffer from autodidactism. It manifests differently in everyone -- as it should.
I love the whole self-taught thing. I'm sure he sought out the help of some smart tutors at times, but avoiding the whole university ride with all it's expense, and distractions has got to be a real short cut for those sufficiently motivated, and passionate for the lernin'.
I met my parents expectations by graduating from high school. I surprised them by going to college. They didn't understand why I went to graduate school.
Steely Dan toured this year. Here's the setlist from their final show.
I love this song. I'm a little bit of a Steely Dan fan, but this song is timelessly fantastic and classic. The guitar work is eternally yummy.
@ Bagoh - "The long haired guitar player" - um that's all of them. :)
Post a Comment