I discovered Steely Dan when I was 15. I loved them then and I still do, even though for most of my life I didn't think I liked jazz at all. This is very consumable jazz though.
I'm posting this so I can come back and listen when I want to.
I was out of step with my peers then and I still am. It used to bother me, but I've got used to it.
I don't remember listening to much of Steely Dan music back then, so I thought I'd google around and read about them. The first thing I read surprised me so much. This is the first thing I saw about how they chose their name, "Fans of Beat Generation literature, Fagen and Becker named the band after a "revolutionary" steam-powered dildo mentioned in the William S. Burroughs novel Naked Lunch." It's true! I was so surprised by that.
ReplyDeleteWell I had no idea where they got the name Robin. I never even wondered! Quite subversive, which I guess is what you'd expect from artists and musicians. I will have to find out what the Naked Lunch was all about now.
DeleteI never read Naked Lunch, but I did drive William Burroughs from the Kerouac Conference to his hotel one evening in 1982. He is often considered one of the very first voices of The Beat Generation. I love this creative connection between Steely Dan and William Burroughs. I would have never known, if not for this post. Thank you!
DeleteRobin I didn't know anything about Burroughs but I Googled him. Seems like quite a dysfunctional character! How did you find him?
DeleteBurroughs was part of the Beat movement of the 1940s and 50s. He was older than most of the cohort. He was definitely a dysfunctional man. I was the volunteer coordinator for the Kerouac Conference in 1982 in Boulder, Colorado at the Naropa Institute. We gathered all the old beat writers to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the publication of On The Road. One evening I drove Burroughs to his hotel. He was a very strange man. (I tried to leave this comment yesterday, but blogger wouldn't let me!)
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