Middle Aged Dummies!! Artists #1's have been posted!! (1 Viewer)

[Dr. Octopus]

I guess in a streaming world the more an artist throws out there the better for him/her.

 

[KarmaPolice]

I guess in a streaming world the more an artist throws out there the better for him/her.

King Gizzard approves of this message.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

I guess in a streaming world the more an artist throws out there the better for him/her.

King Gizzard approves of this message.

I mean there’s no way I’m buying five Ryan Adams albums by January 2nd but I and (others) will give them all a spin and some will get revisited. I do notice that Spotify now heavily pushes the artists tour schedules which is the only way they can make serious money now (in my limited understanding of streaming royalties).

 

[Eephus]

I read last year that Adams had cancelled all his live shows for 2024 so he'll have plenty of time to write and record more albums.

He's always been very prolific and used to fight battles with his labels about what got released. This blog tries to catalog all the unofficial releases. I can remember trying to track down some of them in the file sharing era. 48 Hours was a particular favorite of mine at the time.

 

[rockaction]

@MAC_32

Check out number one.

Green Day Albums Worst To Best

It does feel silly in 2024 to try to introduce a reader to Green Day, of all bands. You clicked on the headline, you know who Green Day are. My mom knows who Green Day are. I told my mom about this article and she said “Oh yeah, I know Green Day,” but not in the way that your parents lie to you...

www.stereogum.com

 

[kupcho1]

I do notice that Spotify now heavily pushes the artists tour schedules which is the only way they can make serious money now (in my limited understanding of streaming royalties).

I saw an article recently where an artist said that they're basically t-shirt vendors that play music. And on that note (get it?), went on to complain that the venues they play in take up to 25% of merchandise revenue
It's surprising anyone (without a legion of swiffers) can make a living.

 

[rockaction]

I do notice that Spotify now heavily pushes the artists tour schedules which is the only way they can make serious money now (in my limited understanding of streaming royalties).

I saw an article recently where an artist said that they're basically t-shirt vendors that play music. And on that note (get it?), went on to complain that the venues they play in take up to 25% of merchandise revenue
It's surprising anyone (without a legion of swiffers) can make a living.

Was just over at Steve Hoffman Forums (I'm not cheating, I swear!) and some of the musicians were talking about how impossible it was to make a living and that where it was trending were that only huge megastars or amateurs were going to be making music for consumption in the not-too-distant future. The argument went that the mid-range bands were getting squeezed so thin that they couldn't make a living off of it, and even though they'd keep creating, they wouldn't reach a big audience doing so.

 

[Pip's Invitation]

I do notice that Spotify now heavily pushes the artists tour schedules which is the only way they can make serious money now (in my limited understanding of streaming royalties).

I saw an article recently where an artist said that they're basically t-shirt vendors that play music. And on that note (get it?), went on to complain that the venues they play in take up to 25% of merchandise revenue
It's surprising anyone (without a legion of swiffers) can make a living.

Was just over at Steve Hoffman Forums (I'm not cheating, I swear!) and some of the musicians were talking about how impossible it was to make a living and that where it was trending were that only huge megastars or amateurs were going to be making music for consumption in the not-too-distant future. The argument went that the mid-range bands were getting squeezed so thin that they couldn't make a living off of it, and even though they'd keep creating, they wouldn't reach a big audience doing so.

It’s basically why …Trail of Dead broke up last year.

 

[Ilov80s]

I do notice that Spotify now heavily pushes the artists tour schedules which is the only way they can make serious money now (in my limited understanding of streaming royalties).

I saw an article recently where an artist said that they're basically t-shirt vendors that play music. And on that note (get it?), went on to complain that the venues they play in take up to 25% of merchandise revenue
It's surprising anyone (without a legion of swiffers) can make a living.

Was just over at Steve Hoffman Forums (I'm not cheating, I swear!) and some of the musicians were talking about how impossible it was to make a living and that where it was trending were that only huge megastars or amateurs were going to be making music for consumption in the not-too-distant future. The argument went that the mid-range bands were getting squeezed so thin that they couldn't make a living off of it, and even though they'd keep creating, they wouldn't reach a big audience doing so.

Sad. We are going to need to go back to the days the of patrons of the art paying bands to work and produce music without an expectation of financial gain.

 

[MAC_32]

@MAC_32

Check out number one.

Green Day Albums Worst To Best

It does feel silly in 2024 to try to introduce a reader to Green Day, of all bands. You clicked on the headline, you know who Green Day are. My mom knows who Green Day are. I told my mom about this article and she said “Oh yeah, I know Green Day,” but not in the way that your parents lie to you...

www.stereogum.com

This guy HATES aughts Green Day

 

[Eephus]

New song from friends of the thread The Decemberists, their first in six years.

Burial Ground

The Decemberists · Song · 2024

open.spotify.com

 

[Galileo]

For the Brandi Carlile fans out there. She killed it!
@JB Breakfast Club

 

[KarmaPolice]

I have some free time, so I guess I'll take my turn now...

Donald Fagen and Steely Dan are a fairly known commodity to the demographic that hang out here, and as such, many of you will have your own opinion already.

I'm not here to change it.

In fact, you may feel more entitled to have chosen my artist than me once you get to the end of the list and find your favorite(s) not on it, especially as it contains only 23 songs instead of 31.

As for the specifics of Mr. Fagen, the only real 'facts' one needs to learn about him, that can't be gleaned sub textually from his solo album The Nightfly, is that his drive for perfection in his songs rivals Stanley Kubrick in making movies, which also explains why the actual 'band' of Steely Dan was only consistently Fagen and his partner in perfection, Walter Becker, and why his/their songs have stayed relevant to me 50 years and counting.

As for why I chose him and his band, I'll paraphrase myself from earlier in this thread. Steely Dan's debut album caught my attention when I was only seven years old, and their successive songs that got airplay threaded themselves through my life while never becoming a 'thing' like other musical fads I went through growing up.

As for the list itself, I have applied his desire for perfection by only selecting my 'must-have' songs from his entire repertoire.

Ok, I got a laugh here, as I had this very thought this month. I am using our breaks between MAD31s to catch up on previous artists that stuck out the most and do my own deep dives/playlists for and if possible, get a book about the artist. Anyway, first up has been Steely Dan and it just so happens I am listening to an audiobook about Kubrick this month at work as well. Perfect timing!

So far, both have been great books and deep dives. If anybody is interested, the book about Steely Dan is from 2023 titled Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan. The Kubrick book is Kubrick: An Odyssey , and has also been great. It was also a newer book - released in 2024.

 

[Charlie Steiner]

I have some free time, so I guess I'll take my turn now...

Donald Fagen and Steely Dan are a fairly known commodity to the demographic that hang out here, and as such, many of you will have your own opinion already.

I'm not here to change it.

In fact, you may feel more entitled to have chosen my artist than me once you get to the end of the list and find your favorite(s) not on it, especially as it contains only 23 songs instead of 31.

As for the specifics of Mr. Fagen, the only real 'facts' one needs to learn about him, that can't be gleaned sub textually from his solo album The Nightfly, is that his drive for perfection in his songs rivals Stanley Kubrick in making movies, which also explains why the actual 'band' of Steely Dan was only consistently Fagen and his partner in perfection, Walter Becker, and why his/their songs have stayed relevant to me 50 years and counting.

As for why I chose him and his band, I'll paraphrase myself from earlier in this thread. Steely Dan's debut album caught my attention when I was only seven years old, and their successive songs that got airplay threaded themselves through my life while never becoming a 'thing' like other musical fads I went through growing up.

As for the list itself, I have applied his desire for perfection by only selecting my 'must-have' songs from his entire repertoire.

Ok, I got a laugh here, as I had this very thought this month. I am using our breaks between MAD31s to catch up on previous artists that stuck out the most and do my own deep dives/playlists for and if possible, get a book about the artist. Anyway, first up has been Steely Dan and it just so happens I am listening to an audiobook about Kubrick this month at work as well. Perfect timing!

So far, both have been great books and deep dives. If anybody is interested, the book about Steely Dan is from 2023 titled Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan. The Kubrick book is Kubrick: An Odyssey , and has also been great. It was also a newer book - released in 2024.

One place where I took some liberties in connecting the dots is in what fueled Donald and Walter's perfectionism; I went with the presumption that their shared college experience forged a kind of cynical smugness to them, and between them they were so brilliant that they were able to break music down to its essential components and even formula for building songs that they saw everything and everyone that went into it as nothing more than baking ingredients for their recipe. I'm not familiar enough with Kubrick's background to know if his drive for perfection was fueled by a similar kind of cynicism or just plain obsession with perfection, but the singular quest for perfection from both was rewarded over and over.

 

[KarmaPolice]

I have some free time, so I guess I'll take my turn now...

Donald Fagen and Steely Dan are a fairly known commodity to the demographic that hang out here, and as such, many of you will have your own opinion already.

I'm not here to change it.

In fact, you may feel more entitled to have chosen my artist than me once you get to the end of the list and find your favorite(s) not on it, especially as it contains only 23 songs instead of 31.

As for the specifics of Mr. Fagen, the only real 'facts' one needs to learn about him, that can't be gleaned sub textually from his solo album The Nightfly, is that his drive for perfection in his songs rivals Stanley Kubrick in making movies, which also explains why the actual 'band' of Steely Dan was only consistently Fagen and his partner in perfection, Walter Becker, and why his/their songs have stayed relevant to me 50 years and counting.

As for why I chose him and his band, I'll paraphrase myself from earlier in this thread. Steely Dan's debut album caught my attention when I was only seven years old, and their successive songs that got airplay threaded themselves through my life while never becoming a 'thing' like other musical fads I went through growing up.

As for the list itself, I have applied his desire for perfection by only selecting my 'must-have' songs from his entire repertoire.

Ok, I got a laugh here, as I had this very thought this month. I am using our breaks between MAD31s to catch up on previous artists that stuck out the most and do my own deep dives/playlists for and if possible, get a book about the artist. Anyway, first up has been Steely Dan and it just so happens I am listening to an audiobook about Kubrick this month at work as well. Perfect timing!

So far, both have been great books and deep dives. If anybody is interested, the book about Steely Dan is from 2023 titled Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan. The Kubrick book is Kubrick: An Odyssey , and has also been great. It was also a newer book - released in 2024.

One place where I took some liberties in connecting the dots is in what fueled Donald and Walter's perfectionism; I went with the presumption that their shared college experience forged a kind of cynical smugness to them, and between them they were so brilliant that they were able to break music down to its essential components and even formula for building songs that they saw everything and everyone that went into it as nothing more than baking ingredients for their recipe. I'm not familiar enough with Kubrick's background to know if his drive for perfection was fueled by a similar kind of cynicism or just plain obsession with perfection, but the singular quest for perfection from both was rewarded over and over.

My take is a lot of Kubrick's pickiness comes from his photography background. We was famous for his work in Look magazine, and because of that background he knew a lot about lighting, camera angles, etc.. Many of this battles were with his cinematographers and crew as he tried to get the shots just right.

I think the common link between Steely Dan and Kubrick is that they all seemed to have weird ability to hear/see what they wanted way ahead of everybody else and drove everybody crazy as they did take after take in an attempt to get that recorded. I was watching a short doc about the making of Aja and Goucho, and as I heard stories about them bringing in musicians for hours of playing just to use a 15sec clip of their work as they Frankensteined their albums I was reminded of stories of Stanley doing dozens of takes just to get an entrance to a room correctly or get an actor to give him line reading he had in his mind.

Kubrick was also similar to Don and Walt in that he seemed to have a distain for how their medium was produced. Kubrick went to see all the movies coming out at the time and very much had the attitude of "I could make a better movie than all of these", and he also crapped on his early work like Don and Walt seem to as well. I was reminded of this aspect of Kubrick while I was reading the book and they were talking about their love of jazz, but how they thought that the modern production was bad and how much they disliked modern pop music.

 

[Pip's Invitation]

I have some free time, so I guess I'll take my turn now...

Donald Fagen and Steely Dan are a fairly known commodity to the demographic that hang out here, and as such, many of you will have your own opinion already.

I'm not here to change it.

In fact, you may feel more entitled to have chosen my artist than me once you get to the end of the list and find your favorite(s) not on it, especially as it contains only 23 songs instead of 31.

As for the specifics of Mr. Fagen, the only real 'facts' one needs to learn about him, that can't be gleaned sub textually from his solo album The Nightfly, is that his drive for perfection in his songs rivals Stanley Kubrick in making movies, which also explains why the actual 'band' of Steely Dan was only consistently Fagen and his partner in perfection, Walter Becker, and why his/their songs have stayed relevant to me 50 years and counting.

As for why I chose him and his band, I'll paraphrase myself from earlier in this thread. Steely Dan's debut album caught my attention when I was only seven years old, and their successive songs that got airplay threaded themselves through my life while never becoming a 'thing' like other musical fads I went through growing up.

As for the list itself, I have applied his desire for perfection by only selecting my 'must-have' songs from his entire repertoire.

Ok, I got a laugh here, as I had this very thought this month. I am using our breaks between MAD31s to catch up on previous artists that stuck out the most and do my own deep dives/playlists for and if possible, get a book about the artist. Anyway, first up has been Steely Dan and it just so happens I am listening to an audiobook about Kubrick this month at work as well. Perfect timing!

So far, both have been great books and deep dives. If anybody is interested, the book about Steely Dan is from 2023 titled Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan. The Kubrick book is Kubrick: An Odyssey , and has also been great. It was also a newer book - released in 2024.

One place where I took some liberties in connecting the dots is in what fueled Donald and Walter's perfectionism; I went with the presumption that their shared college experience forged a kind of cynical smugness to them, and between them they were so brilliant that they were able to break music down to its essential components and even formula for building songs that they saw everything and everyone that went into it as nothing more than baking ingredients for their recipe. I'm not familiar enough with Kubrick's background to know if his drive for perfection was fueled by a similar kind of cynicism or just plain obsession with perfection, but the singular quest for perfection from both was rewarded over and over.

My take is a lot of Kubrick's pickiness comes from his photography background. We was famous for his work in Look magazine, and because of that background he knew a lot about lighting, camera angles, etc.. Many of this battles were with his cinematographers and crew as he tried to get the shots just right.

I think the common link between Steely Dan and Kubrick is that they all seemed to have weird ability to hear/see what they wanted way ahead of everybody else and drove everybody crazy as they did take after take in an attempt to get that recorded. I was watching a short doc about the making of Aja and Goucho, and as I heard stories about them bringing in musicians for hours of playing just to use a 15sec clip of their work as they Frankensteined their albums I was reminded of stories of Stanley doing dozens of takes just to get an entrance to a room correctly or get an actor to give him line reading he had in his mind.

Kubrick was also similar to Don and Walt in that he seemed to have a distain for how their medium was produced. Kubrick went to see all the movies coming out at the time and very much had the attitude of "I could make a better movie than all of these", and he also crapped on his early work like Don and Walt seem to as well. I was reminded of this aspect of Kubrick while I was reading the book and they were talking about their love of jazz, but how they thought that the modern production was bad and how much they disliked modern pop music.

There’s a reason why that, when Becker and Fagen started doing themed Steely Dan concerts, for the shows where they played an album in order, it was Royal Scam, Aja or Gaucho. Those were the three that were made how they wanted and achieved the result they wanted.

Later they added Countdown to Ecstasy, which was not made how they wanted but achieved the result that they wanted — an album whose songs would work onstage.

 

[KarmaPolice]

I have some free time, so I guess I'll take my turn now...

Donald Fagen and Steely Dan are a fairly known commodity to the demographic that hang out here, and as such, many of you will have your own opinion already.

I'm not here to change it.

In fact, you may feel more entitled to have chosen my artist than me once you get to the end of the list and find your favorite(s) not on it, especially as it contains only 23 songs instead of 31.

As for the specifics of Mr. Fagen, the only real 'facts' one needs to learn about him, that can't be gleaned sub textually from his solo album The Nightfly, is that his drive for perfection in his songs rivals Stanley Kubrick in making movies, which also explains why the actual 'band' of Steely Dan was only consistently Fagen and his partner in perfection, Walter Becker, and why his/their songs have stayed relevant to me 50 years and counting.

As for why I chose him and his band, I'll paraphrase myself from earlier in this thread. Steely Dan's debut album caught my attention when I was only seven years old, and their successive songs that got airplay threaded themselves through my life while never becoming a 'thing' like other musical fads I went through growing up.

As for the list itself, I have applied his desire for perfection by only selecting my 'must-have' songs from his entire repertoire.

Ok, I got a laugh here, as I had this very thought this month. I am using our breaks between MAD31s to catch up on previous artists that stuck out the most and do my own deep dives/playlists for and if possible, get a book about the artist. Anyway, first up has been Steely Dan and it just so happens I am listening to an audiobook about Kubrick this month at work as well. Perfect timing!

So far, both have been great books and deep dives. If anybody is interested, the book about Steely Dan is from 2023 titled Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan. The Kubrick book is Kubrick: An Odyssey , and has also been great. It was also a newer book - released in 2024.

One place where I took some liberties in connecting the dots is in what fueled Donald and Walter's perfectionism; I went with the presumption that their shared college experience forged a kind of cynical smugness to them, and between them they were so brilliant that they were able to break music down to its essential components and even formula for building songs that they saw everything and everyone that went into it as nothing more than baking ingredients for their recipe. I'm not familiar enough with Kubrick's background to know if his drive for perfection was fueled by a similar kind of cynicism or just plain obsession with perfection, but the singular quest for perfection from both was rewarded over and over.

My take is a lot of Kubrick's pickiness comes from his photography background. We was famous for his work in Look magazine, and because of that background he knew a lot about lighting, camera angles, etc.. Many of this battles were with his cinematographers and crew as he tried to get the shots just right.

I think the common link between Steely Dan and Kubrick is that they all seemed to have weird ability to hear/see what they wanted way ahead of everybody else and drove everybody crazy as they did take after take in an attempt to get that recorded. I was watching a short doc about the making of Aja and Goucho, and as I heard stories about them bringing in musicians for hours of playing just to use a 15sec clip of their work as they Frankensteined their albums I was reminded of stories of Stanley doing dozens of takes just to get an entrance to a room correctly or get an actor to give him line reading he had in his mind.

Kubrick was also similar to Don and Walt in that he seemed to have a distain for how their medium was produced. Kubrick went to see all the movies coming out at the time and very much had the attitude of "I could make a better movie than all of these", and he also crapped on his early work like Don and Walt seem to as well. I was reminded of this aspect of Kubrick while I was reading the book and they were talking about their love of jazz, but how they thought that the modern production was bad and how much they disliked modern pop music.

There’s a reason why that, when Becker and Fagen started doing themed Steely Dan concerts, for the shows where they played an album in order, it was Royal Scam, Aja or Gaucho. Those were the three that were made how they wanted and achieved the result they wanted.

Later they added Countdown to Ecstasy, which was not made how they wanted but achieved the result that they wanted — an album whose songs would work onstage.

That is next level weird to me - I get not liking how the album turned out, but what does that have to with the live show? I guess so anal about it they don't even want to acknowledge those albums at all or encourage people to seek them out and listen?

 

[Pip's Invitation]

I have some free time, so I guess I'll take my turn now...

Donald Fagen and Steely Dan are a fairly known commodity to the demographic that hang out here, and as such, many of you will have your own opinion already.

I'm not here to change it.

In fact, you may feel more entitled to have chosen my artist than me once you get to the end of the list and find your favorite(s) not on it, especially as it contains only 23 songs instead of 31.

As for the specifics of Mr. Fagen, the only real 'facts' one needs to learn about him, that can't be gleaned sub textually from his solo album The Nightfly, is that his drive for perfection in his songs rivals Stanley Kubrick in making movies, which also explains why the actual 'band' of Steely Dan was only consistently Fagen and his partner in perfection, Walter Becker, and why his/their songs have stayed relevant to me 50 years and counting.

As for why I chose him and his band, I'll paraphrase myself from earlier in this thread. Steely Dan's debut album caught my attention when I was only seven years old, and their successive songs that got airplay threaded themselves through my life while never becoming a 'thing' like other musical fads I went through growing up.

As for the list itself, I have applied his desire for perfection by only selecting my 'must-have' songs from his entire repertoire.

Ok, I got a laugh here, as I had this very thought this month. I am using our breaks between MAD31s to catch up on previous artists that stuck out the most and do my own deep dives/playlists for and if possible, get a book about the artist. Anyway, first up has been Steely Dan and it just so happens I am listening to an audiobook about Kubrick this month at work as well. Perfect timing!

So far, both have been great books and deep dives. If anybody is interested, the book about Steely Dan is from 2023 titled Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan. The Kubrick book is Kubrick: An Odyssey , and has also been great. It was also a newer book - released in 2024.

One place where I took some liberties in connecting the dots is in what fueled Donald and Walter's perfectionism; I went with the presumption that their shared college experience forged a kind of cynical smugness to them, and between them they were so brilliant that they were able to break music down to its essential components and even formula for building songs that they saw everything and everyone that went into it as nothing more than baking ingredients for their recipe. I'm not familiar enough with Kubrick's background to know if his drive for perfection was fueled by a similar kind of cynicism or just plain obsession with perfection, but the singular quest for perfection from both was rewarded over and over.

My take is a lot of Kubrick's pickiness comes from his photography background. We was famous for his work in Look magazine, and because of that background he knew a lot about lighting, camera angles, etc.. Many of this battles were with his cinematographers and crew as he tried to get the shots just right.

I think the common link between Steely Dan and Kubrick is that they all seemed to have weird ability to hear/see what they wanted way ahead of everybody else and drove everybody crazy as they did take after take in an attempt to get that recorded. I was watching a short doc about the making of Aja and Goucho, and as I heard stories about them bringing in musicians for hours of playing just to use a 15sec clip of their work as they Frankensteined their albums I was reminded of stories of Stanley doing dozens of takes just to get an entrance to a room correctly or get an actor to give him line reading he had in his mind.

Kubrick was also similar to Don and Walt in that he seemed to have a distain for how their medium was produced. Kubrick went to see all the movies coming out at the time and very much had the attitude of "I could make a better movie than all of these", and he also crapped on his early work like Don and Walt seem to as well. I was reminded of this aspect of Kubrick while I was reading the book and they were talking about their love of jazz, but how they thought that the modern production was bad and how much they disliked modern pop music.

There’s a reason why that, when Becker and Fagen started doing themed Steely Dan concerts, for the shows where they played an album in order, it was Royal Scam, Aja or Gaucho. Those were the three that were made how they wanted and achieved the result they wanted.

Later they added Countdown to Ecstasy, which was not made how they wanted but achieved the result that they wanted — an album whose songs would work onstage.

That is next level weird to me - I get not liking how the album turned out, but what does that have to with the live show? I guess so anal about it they don't even want to acknowledge those albums at all or encourage people to seek them out and listen?

They never intended to become a band in the first place. They wanted to be songwriters-for-hire, but no one wanted to record their songs because they were so idiosyncratic and so suited for Fagen's voice and not really anyone else's. So their first album (Can't Buy a Thrill) is their own recordings of some of the songwriters-for-hire material -- which is not what they wanted to do. CtE is the second album, and by that point they knew they had to at least pretend to be a working band, and they knew they were going to have to perform the songs live on the road, so they wrote more harder-rocking songs than usual so that they would come across in concert. The third album, Pretzel Logic, was also recorded with the knowledge that they needed to act like a real band and tour, but those songs are extremely stylistically diverse and the record feels kind of aimless as a result even if many of the tunes are individually strong. The fourth album, Katy Lied, was the first recorded in the format they wanted -- with no touring obligations and no pretense of being a real band anymore -- but technical errors in the mastering left them deeply unsatisfied with the final product and they have always disavowed the record. Then came Royal Scam, Aja and Gaucho, which were made how they wanted and came out the way they wanted. Then they broke up and didn't return until the '90s as a live act and 2000 as a studio act.

It's not like they don't play anything from the earlier albums, they just don't devote special concerts to them (except Countdown to Ecstasy on rare occasions).

 

[KarmaPolice]

I have some free time, so I guess I'll take my turn now...

Donald Fagen and Steely Dan are a fairly known commodity to the demographic that hang out here, and as such, many of you will have your own opinion already.

I'm not here to change it.

In fact, you may feel more entitled to have chosen my artist than me once you get to the end of the list and find your favorite(s) not on it, especially as it contains only 23 songs instead of 31.

As for the specifics of Mr. Fagen, the only real 'facts' one needs to learn about him, that can't be gleaned sub textually from his solo album The Nightfly, is that his drive for perfection in his songs rivals Stanley Kubrick in making movies, which also explains why the actual 'band' of Steely Dan was only consistently Fagen and his partner in perfection, Walter Becker, and why his/their songs have stayed relevant to me 50 years and counting.

As for why I chose him and his band, I'll paraphrase myself from earlier in this thread. Steely Dan's debut album caught my attention when I was only seven years old, and their successive songs that got airplay threaded themselves through my life while never becoming a 'thing' like other musical fads I went through growing up.

As for the list itself, I have applied his desire for perfection by only selecting my 'must-have' songs from his entire repertoire.

Ok, I got a laugh here, as I had this very thought this month. I am using our breaks between MAD31s to catch up on previous artists that stuck out the most and do my own deep dives/playlists for and if possible, get a book about the artist. Anyway, first up has been Steely Dan and it just so happens I am listening to an audiobook about Kubrick this month at work as well. Perfect timing!

So far, both have been great books and deep dives. If anybody is interested, the book about Steely Dan is from 2023 titled Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan. The Kubrick book is Kubrick: An Odyssey , and has also been great. It was also a newer book - released in 2024.

One place where I took some liberties in connecting the dots is in what fueled Donald and Walter's perfectionism; I went with the presumption that their shared college experience forged a kind of cynical smugness to them, and between them they were so brilliant that they were able to break music down to its essential components and even formula for building songs that they saw everything and everyone that went into it as nothing more than baking ingredients for their recipe. I'm not familiar enough with Kubrick's background to know if his drive for perfection was fueled by a similar kind of cynicism or just plain obsession with perfection, but the singular quest for perfection from both was rewarded over and over.

My take is a lot of Kubrick's pickiness comes from his photography background. We was famous for his work in Look magazine, and because of that background he knew a lot about lighting, camera angles, etc.. Many of this battles were with his cinematographers and crew as he tried to get the shots just right.

I think the common link between Steely Dan and Kubrick is that they all seemed to have weird ability to hear/see what they wanted way ahead of everybody else and drove everybody crazy as they did take after take in an attempt to get that recorded. I was watching a short doc about the making of Aja and Goucho, and as I heard stories about them bringing in musicians for hours of playing just to use a 15sec clip of their work as they Frankensteined their albums I was reminded of stories of Stanley doing dozens of takes just to get an entrance to a room correctly or get an actor to give him line reading he had in his mind.

Kubrick was also similar to Don and Walt in that he seemed to have a distain for how their medium was produced. Kubrick went to see all the movies coming out at the time and very much had the attitude of "I could make a better movie than all of these", and he also crapped on his early work like Don and Walt seem to as well. I was reminded of this aspect of Kubrick while I was reading the book and they were talking about their love of jazz, but how they thought that the modern production was bad and how much they disliked modern pop music.

There’s a reason why that, when Becker and Fagen started doing themed Steely Dan concerts, for the shows where they played an album in order, it was Royal Scam, Aja or Gaucho. Those were the three that were made how they wanted and achieved the result they wanted.

Later they added Countdown to Ecstasy, which was not made how they wanted but achieved the result that they wanted — an album whose songs would work onstage.

That is next level weird to me - I get not liking how the album turned out, but what does that have to with the live show? I guess so anal about it they don't even want to acknowledge those albums at all or encourage people to seek them out and listen?

They never intended to become a band in the first place. They wanted to be songwriters-for-hire, but no one wanted to record their songs because they were so idiosyncratic and so suited for Fagen's voice and not really anyone else's. So their first album (Can't Buy a Thrill) is their own recordings of some of the songwriters-for-hire material -- which is not what they wanted to do. CtE is the second album, and by that point they knew they had to at least pretend to be a working band, and they knew they were going to have to perform the songs live on the road, so they wrote more harder-rocking songs than usual so that they would come across in concert. The third album, Pretzel Logic, was also recorded with the knowledge that they needed to act like a real band and tour, but those songs are extremely stylistically diverse and the record feels kind of aimless as a result even if many of the tunes are individually strong. The fourth album, Katy Lied, was the first recorded in the format they wanted -- with no touring obligations and no pretense of being a real band anymore -- but technical errors in the mastering left them deeply unsatisfied with the final product and they have always disavowed the record. Then came Royal Scam, Aja and Gaucho, which were made how they wanted and came out the way they wanted. Then they broke up and didn't return until the '90s as a live act and 2000 as a studio act.

It's not like they don't play anything from the earlier albums, they just don't devote special concerts to them (except Countdown to Ecstasy on rare occasions).

Great read, thanks! I am pretty much diving in cold, so my knowledge is limited to the youtube doc and 40pgs of the book I posted. Appreciate the info, and that makes more sense.

While you are around (and forgive me if you wrote of this in your posts that round) - did you read the recent Rik Emmett book, Lay It On the Line? Triumph is one of the previous MAD artists I am deep diving into and working on a playlist for. I thought the book looked good, but my library didn't have it. I figured I'd ask before buying. I have Triumph, Doobie Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Nina Simone, and Prince all getting the deep dive treatment, and all had books I wrote down that looked like good reads.

I was grumpy that I couldn't find a decent book for Aimee Mann, but she talks about Steely Dan a ton so I am reading that one first for research. One of her albums is based on a memoir, so I am going to read that as well.

 

[KarmaPolice]

I also just last night found out where Steely Dan's name comes from

 

[Pip's Invitation]

I have some free time, so I guess I'll take my turn now...

Donald Fagen and Steely Dan are a fairly known commodity to the demographic that hang out here, and as such, many of you will have your own opinion already.

I'm not here to change it.

In fact, you may feel more entitled to have chosen my artist than me once you get to the end of the list and find your favorite(s) not on it, especially as it contains only 23 songs instead of 31.

As for the specifics of Mr. Fagen, the only real 'facts' one needs to learn about him, that can't be gleaned sub textually from his solo album The Nightfly, is that his drive for perfection in his songs rivals Stanley Kubrick in making movies, which also explains why the actual 'band' of Steely Dan was only consistently Fagen and his partner in perfection, Walter Becker, and why his/their songs have stayed relevant to me 50 years and counting.

As for why I chose him and his band, I'll paraphrase myself from earlier in this thread. Steely Dan's debut album caught my attention when I was only seven years old, and their successive songs that got airplay threaded themselves through my life while never becoming a 'thing' like other musical fads I went through growing up.

As for the list itself, I have applied his desire for perfection by only selecting my 'must-have' songs from his entire repertoire.

Ok, I got a laugh here, as I had this very thought this month. I am using our breaks between MAD31s to catch up on previous artists that stuck out the most and do my own deep dives/playlists for and if possible, get a book about the artist. Anyway, first up has been Steely Dan and it just so happens I am listening to an audiobook about Kubrick this month at work as well. Perfect timing!

So far, both have been great books and deep dives. If anybody is interested, the book about Steely Dan is from 2023 titled Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan. The Kubrick book is Kubrick: An Odyssey , and has also been great. It was also a newer book - released in 2024.

One place where I took some liberties in connecting the dots is in what fueled Donald and Walter's perfectionism; I went with the presumption that their shared college experience forged a kind of cynical smugness to them, and between them they were so brilliant that they were able to break music down to its essential components and even formula for building songs that they saw everything and everyone that went into it as nothing more than baking ingredients for their recipe. I'm not familiar enough with Kubrick's background to know if his drive for perfection was fueled by a similar kind of cynicism or just plain obsession with perfection, but the singular quest for perfection from both was rewarded over and over.

My take is a lot of Kubrick's pickiness comes from his photography background. We was famous for his work in Look magazine, and because of that background he knew a lot about lighting, camera angles, etc.. Many of this battles were with his cinematographers and crew as he tried to get the shots just right.

I think the common link between Steely Dan and Kubrick is that they all seemed to have weird ability to hear/see what they wanted way ahead of everybody else and drove everybody crazy as they did take after take in an attempt to get that recorded. I was watching a short doc about the making of Aja and Goucho, and as I heard stories about them bringing in musicians for hours of playing just to use a 15sec clip of their work as they Frankensteined their albums I was reminded of stories of Stanley doing dozens of takes just to get an entrance to a room correctly or get an actor to give him line reading he had in his mind.

Kubrick was also similar to Don and Walt in that he seemed to have a distain for how their medium was produced. Kubrick went to see all the movies coming out at the time and very much had the attitude of "I could make a better movie than all of these", and he also crapped on his early work like Don and Walt seem to as well. I was reminded of this aspect of Kubrick while I was reading the book and they were talking about their love of jazz, but how they thought that the modern production was bad and how much they disliked modern pop music.

There’s a reason why that, when Becker and Fagen started doing themed Steely Dan concerts, for the shows where they played an album in order, it was Royal Scam, Aja or Gaucho. Those were the three that were made how they wanted and achieved the result they wanted.

Later they added Countdown to Ecstasy, which was not made how they wanted but achieved the result that they wanted — an album whose songs would work onstage.

That is next level weird to me - I get not liking how the album turned out, but what does that have to with the live show? I guess so anal about it they don't even want to acknowledge those albums at all or encourage people to seek them out and listen?

They never intended to become a band in the first place. They wanted to be songwriters-for-hire, but no one wanted to record their songs because they were so idiosyncratic and so suited for Fagen's voice and not really anyone else's. So their first album (Can't Buy a Thrill) is their own recordings of some of the songwriters-for-hire material -- which is not what they wanted to do. CtE is the second album, and by that point they knew they had to at least pretend to be a working band, and they knew they were going to have to perform the songs live on the road, so they wrote more harder-rocking songs than usual so that they would come across in concert. The third album, Pretzel Logic, was also recorded with the knowledge that they needed to act like a real band and tour, but those songs are extremely stylistically diverse and the record feels kind of aimless as a result even if many of the tunes are individually strong. The fourth album, Katy Lied, was the first recorded in the format they wanted -- with no touring obligations and no pretense of being a real band anymore -- but technical errors in the mastering left them deeply unsatisfied with the final product and they have always disavowed the record. Then came Royal Scam, Aja and Gaucho, which were made how they wanted and came out the way they wanted. Then they broke up and didn't return until the '90s as a live act and 2000 as a studio act.

It's not like they don't play anything from the earlier albums, they just don't devote special concerts to them (except Countdown to Ecstasy on rare occasions).

Great read, thanks! I am pretty much diving in cold, so my knowledge is limited to the youtube doc and 40pgs of the book I posted. Appreciate the info, and that makes more sense.

While you are around (and forgive me if you wrote of this in your posts that round) - did you read the recent Rik Emmett book, Lay It On the Line? Triumph is one of the previous MAD artists I am deep diving into and working on a playlist for. I thought the book looked good, but my library didn't have it. I figured I'd ask before buying. I have Triumph, Doobie Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Nina Simone, and Prince all getting the deep dive treatment, and all had books I wrote down that looked like good reads.

I was grumpy that I couldn't find a decent book for Aimee Mann, but she talks about Steely Dan a ton so I am reading that one first for research. One of her albums is based on a memoir, so I am going to read that as well.

I have not read Emmett's book. I have not read or watched a lot of things that I would like to. That's just how I roll.

 

[Eephus]

The fourth album, Katy Lied, was the first recorded in the format they wanted -- with no touring obligations and no pretense of being a real band anymore -- but technical errors in the mastering left them deeply unsatisfied with the final product and they have always disavowed the record.

This has been canon for fifty years--I can remember reading music magazines when I was a teenager in the 70s where Fagen and Becker complained about the noise reduction kerfuffle. It was a great story that illustrated the duo's uncompromising attitude towards their music. But it's been a half century and the album has been remastered multiple times. Surely the original sin must have been corrected at some point assuming the error occurred during mastering and the original analog tapes were OK. I did a quick search of r/steelydan to see I could find the answer and there are posters complaining about the 2025 remaster--there's just no pleasing audiophiles.

Katy Lied is the only Dan album that made my top 70 list. I think it's their best collection of songs and I don't have the audio equipment or ears to spot what ruined it for the boys.

 

[Pip's Invitation]

The fourth album, Katy Lied, was the first recorded in the format they wanted -- with no touring obligations and no pretense of being a real band anymore -- but technical errors in the mastering left them deeply unsatisfied with the final product and they have always disavowed the record.

This has been canon for fifty years--I can remember reading music magazines when I was a teenager in the 70s where Fagen and Becker complained about the noise reduction kerfuffle. It was a great story that illustrated the duo's uncompromising attitude towards their music. But it's been a half century and the album has been remastered multiple times. Surely the original sin must have been corrected at some point assuming the error occurred during mastering and the original analog tapes were OK. I did a quick search of r/steelydan to see I could find the answer and there are posters complaining about the 2025 remaster--there's just no pleasing audiophiles.

Katy Lied is the only Dan album that made my top 70 list. I think it's their best collection of songs and I don't have the audio equipment or ears to spot what ruined it for the boys.

Some people just can't let things go.

In 2010 I went to their "Rarities" themed show in NYC. They rarely play Katy Lied material live other than Black Friday so I figured we'd get some that night. But only one (Dr. Wu).

 

[shuke]

For the Brandi Carlile fans out there. She killed it!
@JB Breakfast Club

She was on SNL a few weeks ago also if anyone didn't catch it.

 

[Zegras11]

Hi guys, home should be finished next week. I'll start a new thread probably a week from today for Round 6. You can post your Rd 6 selection in here now if you want, but I will need you to repost it next week also. thanks

 

[The Dreaded Marco]

Hi guys, home should be finished next week. I'll start a new thread probably a week from today for Round 6. You can post your Rd 6 selection in here now if you want, but I will need you to repost it next week also. thanks

Glad to hear the house repair is nearly complete!

 

[Don Quixote]

Hi guys, home should be finished next week. I'll start a new thread probably a week from today for Round 6. You can post your Rd 6 selection in here now if you want, but I will need you to repost it next week also. thanks

Glad to hear!

I’ve posted already, but I’m still planning on Aretha Franklin.

 

[Eephus]

So is this the MADs thread we're using now?

It's like trying to figure out which soccer thread to post in.

 

[The Dreaded Marco]

I’m going with Yo La Tengo.

 

[KarmaPolice]

You guys doing another one anytime soon?

Hi guys, home should be finished next week. I'll start a new thread probably a week from today for Round 6. You can post your Rd 6 selection in here now if you want, but I will need you to repost it next week also. thanks

@kupcho1

 

[KarmaPolice]

Hi guys, home should be finished next week. I'll start a new thread probably a week from today for Round 6. You can post your Rd 6 selection in here now if you want, but I will need you to repost it next week also. thanks

Glad to hear!

I’ve posted already, but I’m still planning on Aretha Franklin.

I'm looking forward to this one. I almost started a deep dive on her, but then you posted a while ago this was your artist and saved me a little trouble. I had listened to Spiri in the Dark and was blown away by that album, so I am eager to see what you come up with for the playlist.

 

[KarmaPolice]

I’m going with Yo La Tengo.

I might know 1 song of theirs, so this will be a new adventure.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Aimee Mann still. We will have songs from 'Til Tuesday, The Both, and solo albums on the playlist.

 

[The Dreaded Marco]

I’m going with Yo La Tengo.

I might know 1 song of theirs, so this will be a new adventure.

I think they might be kind of in your wheelhouse.

 

[Don Quixote]

Hi guys, home should be finished next week. I'll start a new thread probably a week from today for Round 6. You can post your Rd 6 selection in here now if you want, but I will need you to repost it next week also. thanks

Glad to hear!

I’ve posted already, but I’m still planning on Aretha Franklin.

I'm looking forward to this one. I almost started a deep dive on her, but then you posted a while ago this was your artist and saved me a little trouble. I had listened to Spiri in the Dark and was blown away by that album, so I am eager to see what you come up with for the playlist.

I do love that album. I ranked Spirit in the Dark highest of any of her albums during Dr. O’s albums countdown.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Lots of flute. Jethro Tull.

 

[Charlie Steiner]

Charlie Steiner Presents:

Charlie Steiner's Little Red Fire Truck #6


From the beginning, every Middle-Aged Dummy Countdown has been a lesson in humility for me.

At first, it was just simple hubris, a case of underestimating how well, and in some cases, how much better than me that other participants knew their artist than I knew my own (except for The Seldom Scene) and told their stories so much better than I could. In each successive countdown, I vowed to myself that I would provide better, more in-depth information about my chosen artist, but ultimately my efforts bored even me upon reading them. The one exception to this was my effort to learn more about Whitney Houston, whom I had always kept at arm's length because I wanted to keep my image of her as beautiful and perfect as her voice. Ironically, it was learning Bobby Brown's background that I came to better see what had happened in her life and realized things between them were fated to play out the way they did.

In the real world, I listen much more than I speak and enjoy when others open up and share their knowledge/feelings, so I hope as always that my artist and the songs presented will generate more from others than they do from me.

With that off my chest, I will now introduce my artist.

This one pulled me a little out of my comfort zone because I was only familiar with maybe 8 or 10 songs, so getting to 31 was going to take more work than ever. Like with all my selections, because I stopped buying and following music thirty years ago, this one's heyday was in the late 80s-late 90s, and I knew nothing after 2007, leaving nearly 20 years worth of material to listen to in order to catch up, as well as deep dive into earlier material as well. Fortunately, not only did I get to 31, but also for the first time in six tries, I have a Last Five Out.

I'm sure most of you will know the name and at least the one song that put her on the map. For me, a song that charted before that one captured me first. Her voice is not overpowering but neither does it yield, and the last thing that probably comes to most listeners' minds is the first word that came to mine all those years ago: seductive. Her songs aren't sexual in nature and when I say 'seductive', I don't mean it strictly in carnal terms; rather, it's more that her voice draws me in and makes me want to be close to/intimate with the singer. I'll go even further and say that probably the last thing anyone would say about my selection is that she matches the term I finally figured out fits my image of her.

I've beaten around the bush too long, so I now present my choice for the 6th iteration of the Middle-Aged Dummies countdown, Gen X's Original Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Suzanne Vega.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Lots of flute. Jethro Tull.

Grammy winning, heavy metal icons Jethro Tull?!!

Heroes of my metal heroes, so I am looking forward to this one as well. Like Aretha, another artist that somebody here saved me a bit of work on a deep dive. The only album I have listened to from Tull is Stormwatch since it was one Mikeal from Opeth was gushing about.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Charlie Steiner Presents:

Charlie Steiner's Little Red Fire Truck #6


From the beginning, every Middle-Aged Dummy Countdown has been a lesson in humility for me.

At first, it was just simple hubris, a case of underestimating how well, and in some cases, how much better than me that other participants knew their artist than I knew my own (except for The Seldom Scene) and told their stories so much better than I could. In each successive countdown, I vowed to myself that I would provide better, more in-depth information about my chosen artist, but ultimately my efforts bored even me upon reading them. The one exception to this was my effort to learn more about Whitney Houston, whom I had always kept at arm's length because I wanted to keep my image of her as beautiful and perfect as her voice. Ironically, it was learning Bobby Brown's background that I came to better see what had happened in her life and realized things between them were fated to play out the way they did.

In the real world, I listen much more than I speak and enjoy when others open up and share their knowledge/feelings, so I hope as always that my artist and the songs presented will generate more from others than they do from me.

With that off my chest, I will now introduce my artist.

This one pulled me a little out of my comfort zone because I was only familiar with maybe 8 or 10 songs, so getting to 31 was going to take more work than ever. Like with all my selections, because I stopped buying and following music thirty years ago, this one's heyday was in the late 80s-late 90s, and I knew nothing after 2007, leaving nearly 20 years worth of material to listen to in order to catch up, as well as deep dive into earlier material as well. Fortunately, not only did I get to 31, but also for the first time in six tries, I have a Last Five Out.

I'm sure most of you will know the name and at least the one song that put her on the map. For me, her song that chart before that is the one that captured me. Her voice is not overpowering but neither does it yield, and the last thing that probably comes to most listeners' minds is the first word that came to mine all those years ago: seductive. Her songs aren't sexual in nature and when I say 'seductive', I don't mean it strictly in carnal terms; rather, it's more that her voice draws me in and makes me want to be close to/intimate with the singer. I'll go even further and say that probably the last thing anyone would say about my selection is that she matches the term I finally figured out fits my image of her.

I've beaten around the bush too long, so I now present my choice for the 6th iteration of the Middle-Aged Dummies countdown, Gen X's Original Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Suzanne Vega.

As I told you - I think I just know 2 songs, and these are some of my favorite artists for this format - where I knew and loved a few songs (and probably owned an album in the 90s), but never followed them after and didn't know they still produced music. Candlebox, Our Lady Peace, and others fall into this category.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Yes, I think the Grammys are dumb. Yes, this stat still angered me when I just was looking at wiki:

Metallica: 9 nominations, 7 wins.

Megadeth: 11 nominations, 1 win.

 

[Charlie Steiner]

Charlie Steiner Presents:

Charlie Steiner's Little Red Fire Truck #6


From the beginning, every Middle-Aged Dummy Countdown has been a lesson in humility for me.

At first, it was just simple hubris, a case of underestimating how well, and in some cases, how much better than me that other participants knew their artist than I knew my own (except for The Seldom Scene) and told their stories so much better than I could. In each successive countdown, I vowed to myself that I would provide better, more in-depth information about my chosen artist, but ultimately my efforts bored even me upon reading them. The one exception to this was my effort to learn more about Whitney Houston, whom I had always kept at arm's length because I wanted to keep my image of her as beautiful and perfect as her voice. Ironically, it was learning Bobby Brown's background that I came to better see what had happened in her life and realized things between them were fated to play out the way they did.

In the real world, I listen much more than I speak and enjoy when others open up and share their knowledge/feelings, so I hope as always that my artist and the songs presented will generate more from others than they do from me.

With that off my chest, I will now introduce my artist.

This one pulled me a little out of my comfort zone because I was only familiar with maybe 8 or 10 songs, so getting to 31 was going to take more work than ever. Like with all my selections, because I stopped buying and following music thirty years ago, this one's heyday was in the late 80s-late 90s, and I knew nothing after 2007, leaving nearly 20 years worth of material to listen to in order to catch up, as well as deep dive into earlier material as well. Fortunately, not only did I get to 31, but also for the first time in six tries, I have a Last Five Out.

I'm sure most of you will know the name and at least the one song that put her on the map. For me, her song that chart before that is the one that captured me. Her voice is not overpowering but neither does it yield, and the last thing that probably comes to most listeners' minds is the first word that came to mine all those years ago: seductive. Her songs aren't sexual in nature and when I say 'seductive', I don't mean it strictly in carnal terms; rather, it's more that her voice draws me in and makes me want to be close to/intimate with the singer. I'll go even further and say that probably the last thing anyone would say about my selection is that she matches the term I finally figured out fits my image of her.

I've beaten around the bush too long, so I now present my choice for the 6th iteration of the Middle-Aged Dummies countdown, Gen X's Original Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Suzanne Vega.

As I told you - I think I just know 2 songs, and these are some of my favorite artists for this format - where I knew and loved a few songs (and probably owned an album in the 90s), but never followed them after and didn't know they still produced music. Candlebox, Our Lady Peace, and others fall into this category.

I've also been humbled over these countdowns by how little music I've been aware of (including unfamiliar/deeper cuts from artists I already knew), and thanks to the folks who have contributed to these countdowns, how good a lot of it is.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Lots of flute. Jethro Tull.

Grammy winning, heavy metal icons Jethro Tull?!!

Heroes of my metal heroes, so I am looking forward to this one as well. Like Aretha, another artist that somebody here saved me a bit of work on a deep dive. The only album I have listened to from Tull is Stormwatch since it was one Mikeal from Opeth was gushing about.

There just might be one or two songs from that album. I'm at the song selection phase now. I have only 67 songs to consider. Oh, dear.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Lots of flute. Jethro Tull.

Grammy winning, heavy metal icons Jethro Tull?!!

Heroes of my metal heroes, so I am looking forward to this one as well. Like Aretha, another artist that somebody here saved me a bit of work on a deep dive. The only album I have listened to from Tull is Stormwatch since it was one Mikeal from Opeth was gushing about.

There just might be one or two songs from that album. I'm at the song selection phase now. I have only 67 songs to consider. Oh, dear.

I get it - my Aimee Mann list started at over 80+ and it has taken me forever to get it down to 31 (a task that was just finalized today). Now I am dreading the ranking portion of the program and was considering doing a random playlist.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Charlie Steiner Presents:

Charlie Steiner's Little Red Fire Truck #6


From the beginning, every Middle-Aged Dummy Countdown has been a lesson in humility for me.

At first, it was just simple hubris, a case of underestimating how well, and in some cases, how much better than me that other participants knew their artist than I knew my own (except for The Seldom Scene) and told their stories so much better than I could. In each successive countdown, I vowed to myself that I would provide better, more in-depth information about my chosen artist, but ultimately my efforts bored even me upon reading them. The one exception to this was my effort to learn more about Whitney Houston, whom I had always kept at arm's length because I wanted to keep my image of her as beautiful and perfect as her voice. Ironically, it was learning Bobby Brown's background that I came to better see what had happened in her life and realized things between them were fated to play out the way they did.

In the real world, I listen much more than I speak and enjoy when others open up and share their knowledge/feelings, so I hope as always that my artist and the songs presented will generate more from others than they do from me.

With that off my chest, I will now introduce my artist.

This one pulled me a little out of my comfort zone because I was only familiar with maybe 8 or 10 songs, so getting to 31 was going to take more work than ever. Like with all my selections, because I stopped buying and following music thirty years ago, this one's heyday was in the late 80s-late 90s, and I knew nothing after 2007, leaving nearly 20 years worth of material to listen to in order to catch up, as well as deep dive into earlier material as well. Fortunately, not only did I get to 31, but also for the first time in six tries, I have a Last Five Out.

I'm sure most of you will know the name and at least the one song that put her on the map. For me, her song that chart before that is the one that captured me. Her voice is not overpowering but neither does it yield, and the last thing that probably comes to most listeners' minds is the first word that came to mine all those years ago: seductive. Her songs aren't sexual in nature and when I say 'seductive', I don't mean it strictly in carnal terms; rather, it's more that her voice draws me in and makes me want to be close to/intimate with the singer. I'll go even further and say that probably the last thing anyone would say about my selection is that she matches the term I finally figured out fits my image of her.

I've beaten around the bush too long, so I now present my choice for the 6th iteration of the Middle-Aged Dummies countdown, Gen X's Original Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Suzanne Vega.

As I told you - I think I just know 2 songs, and these are some of my favorite artists for this format - where I knew and loved a few songs (and probably owned an album in the 90s), but never followed them after and didn't know they still produced music. Candlebox, Our Lady Peace, and others fall into this category.

I've also been humbled over these countdowns by how little music I've been aware of (including unfamiliar/deeper cuts from artists I already knew), and thanks to the folks who have contributed to these countdowns, how good a lot of it is.

I will say you aren't alone in these sentiments. What I have realized is that I have always listened to a lot of music, but I have not ever really learned much about the artists that I listen to or the whats and whys they are singing about. Hell, I didn't know there was a pre-Perry Journey before listening to them a couple years ago. Just as embarrassingly, I had 0 clue Aimee Mann was the singer for 'Til Tuesday until I started digging into her stuff a year or two ago.

 

[Yambag]

Still going with The Pixies for round 6.

 

[tuffnutt]

I'm going back to early 2000s and selecting one of my all-time favorites... PINBACK

 

[-OZ-]

Who to pick, who to pick.

Oh yeah

Currently in deep dive for the moody blues. Some weird ****.
Blue stones were awesome. Blue Swede looks like it will be okay. We’ll finish the colors while transitioning to food with blue oyster cult and the black eyed peas.
Fwiw, I’ve been in color band mode since July with Black Sabbath.

 

[Charlie Steiner]

Currently in deep dive for the moody blues. Some weird ****.

Like ten billion butterfly sneezes.