Taking Ganja's cue I am now gonna be writing about the 31 songs that rocked my world to it's very foundations. "Rock out with your cock out" and a bag of chips. These are the songs that have nostalgia, brilliance and an undeniable sense of cool associated with them. The cool could be a laid back I'm-fuckin-cool cool or the bleedin'-solo-with-crotch-out-fuck-you cool. But the fact remains, that they are cool.
Song #17: Reelin' in the years
Artist: Steely Dan
Album: Can't Buy A Thrill.
This one falls smack in the middle of the two categories I mentioned earlier. It's a laid back bleedin' guitar solo that reduced His-Royal-Shredness The Divine Jimmy Page himself to his knees! Right from the very moment Elliot Randall picks up that guitar on a standard blues distortion patch he bends his way down the fretboard like there's not gonna be any tomorrow. Bends, pinches, blues scales and some really really smooth arppegio's. Everytime the guitar kicks in to the song it will make you want to make you S-C-R-E-A-M! Because fuck it's so full of the highest degree of pseud that it makes you ache in the pain of not being a God like said Mr.Randall.
Did I mention it also has like the coolest drum rolls. The kind that confuse you. Should I even try air-guitaring? Or should I be whacking the person next to me turning them into the high-hat at the end of groovy bar!?!?! FUCK I don't know, it's a dilemma I've faced since the first time I heard the song in a senior's room who was so enthralled by the band that he went on to write a brilliant tribute to the band on the college magazine.
And for the lyrics... makes a man weep. It's nostalgia packed into a neat little 4 and a half minute tracer bullet and aimed straight for the JJ Cale-wind-blowing-in-corridors-with-exam-the-next-day pleasure center of one's brain... scratch that... heart!
"Your everlasting summer you can see it fading fast,
So you grab a piece of something that you think is gonna last"
(whimper)
As the senior once wrote, now you really CAN by a thrill!
3 comments:
Link up the previous ones mama!
Helps souls like me to download some 'cool' tracks and get to know more about good music.
And I am in no mood to type words like 'lukmdxpw' for the verification. So fuckin disable that.
Amen Brutha !! Steely Dan's just soooooooo smooooooth !!
"Reeling in the years" is an absolute classic. I've been hooked onto "Godwhacker" l8ly , I'd do anything to have those killer vocals and the background vox going Run!Run!Run! oooooooh , goosebumps !!
Can't Buy A Thrill is really different from Steely Dan's other stuff, although it's definitely my favourite album of theirs, and the one that got me listening to them.
Pinky
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