Producer Richard Perry, leaning Barbra Streisand into a decidedly rock arena, discovers a song by a new duo that'll fit perfectly on an LP with songs by fellow rockers Carole King & John Lennon!
Your pieces are like an endlessly growing family tree map, with the branches shooting off in all directions. Or more accurately, an orchard of family trees, and each newsletter is a branch offering tasty fruit to be picked. As a big fan of everyone you mention in this branchy piece, I still learned around 27 different new things about them I had no idea of prior. Babs does Steely Dan? I have that Babs album and didn't know that!!!
And I especially did not know about Linda Hoover -- the irony (and sadness) of an album titled "I Mean To Shine" taking more than 50 years to be released is thick. What a lovely song that is. I need to listen to the whole album.
Thanks so much, Steve! I love it that you have the Babs album! And, are so cool to mention it! I had all her '70s albums, too, including her "Classical Barbra"!!
I can't take the Hoover album off the turntable (OK, fine, the Spotify Play button)! All respect to Linda, but with 5 Dan songs on it, and virtually all of them playing on it, that may contribute a huge listening quotient....although, I DO love her voice! As I hinted to Robert, a separate Linda article may be in the offing! 'Twould be well-deserved!
Your comment means a lot, too, because this may well be as challenging as it gets: The juggling of disclosing (as your comment proved) little-known info about a famous band (an asset!), with the ballooning of that info suddenly becoming the article's liability!
I went over that thing (I think it ended up at around 2400 words) several times, straining to find ANYTHING I could/should cut out, but decided the piece would suffer more without this or that, than it would be improved by excising, say, 300 words over there!
Yes, Babs does Dan....I entertained myself, early on, with trying to find similar cover analogies...like, Lola Falana does a Rush song, or Nancy Wilson does "Aqualung"---a great car game on the next road trip!
Man this was a wild story! Loved reading about the origins of Steely Dan and learned a heck of a lot about them today. Thanks for bringing this one to my attention!
Thomas Jefferson Kaye’s eponymous solo album was released by ABC-Dunhill Records, featured both Fagen and Becker, and was produced by Gary Katz who also produced Steely Dan. Kaye's second album, First Grade, used the same musicians and producer, and contained two songs written by Becker and Fagen, "Jones" and "American Lovers", the latter a "farewell" to the era's counterculture
Great add, Clarke! I didn't know all that, but this piece could've grown and grown (even more than it did!) had I let it! I'm glad your note is attached to this piece, though! It's all part of the amazing birth and story of "just another couple of staff songwriters"! Thanks!
You take it deep Brad. Discovering this piece about my favorite songwriters made my day. Growing up with KSHE as I mentioned I was bathed in Poco and relateds—never knowing that their cut “Dallas” was Fagen’s stinko 😂
I was as amazed then as you are now! I hadn't intended to find all that I found, and there simply was no editing that could be tolerated and the whole story still told! It was the Dan song covered by Barbra....that was going to be the story.
And, I kept pulling threads, and, well..........I may have spent a little too much time on Barbra early, but I still wanted to build a context that would reflect where Becker & Fagen were as Babs was doing her thing! And, isn't Linda Hoover's story a heartbreaker! She coulda had a career (blasted record companies)! Thanks again, Dee!
Hey Brad have you ever written anything bout the legendary saxophone man Tom Scott? One of my early faves and one of those connecting threads through so many bands, musicians, and other entertainers
No, sure haven't, Dee. Good question! Certainly aware of Scott's contributions, not only as a session cat, but a recording artist in his own right. Generally, my motivation and rationale for writing about an artist usually starts with A) inspirational songs, musicians/singers or moments as I was growing up (even in adult years) and/or B) they've not been super-exposed artists already. Generally.
FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE's rationale (I didn't know I'd write this much)!!!👇
I'm willing to bet, Scott (deservedly so) has had at least one book written about him, and certainly many mag and newspaper articles. So, my writing choices are not (necessarily) motivated by how famous or successful they are....in fact, if they're wonderful musicians/songwriters, and have NOT had massive airplay/sales, I'm much more likely to write about them, mainly because everyone and their grandmas haven't! And, it helps if I've been drawn to them musically, too, myself!
As I told Stephen Michael Schwartz at one point: "Elton John or Billy Joel could call me and ask me to 'house' their story on FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE, and I'd say no." First, more than enough ink has been spent telling both of their (granted) incredible stories, plus, they'd never notice. If it got through the multi-level ranks, say, of Elton's "people," it's likely he wouldn't have the time to read it.
If you haven't read Stephen's 20 articles here, please do. He's remarkably talented, but if you just went by his 15,000 units sold of his S/T debut 1974 RCA Records album, and lack of airplay, you might think, "Gee, he must not be very good. Bon Jovi and Journey sold billions. I guess they're really good!"
Fine; we could have that discussion, but the road to pop success, for decades, has been filled with talented artists who recorded great music, but radio deigned to not play them. Hence, no retail sales.
For however many millions of people who've never heard of Stephen, the industry knows (and has known) Stephen's talents! He's written songs (in the late-'70s) with Carole King's lyricist, Toni Stern, David Pomeranz (who landed two hits with Manilow...'76's "Tryin' to Get the Feeling" and '81's "The Old Songs"), living legend, Jeff Barry (Barry even PRODUCED Stephen's demos of their songs!), and Jay Asher (who's landed songs with Whitney, Donna Summer, and Julio Iglesias, and many others)!
You'll hear the fully-produced demo...a song that, by all rights coulda/shoulda been a hit for, say, a James Ingram, or someone artistically similar...in fact, Jay and Stephen got Clint Holmes to sing on the demo (all the songs mentioned above you'll hear the rare, exclusive demo in the article!)!
Clint recorded a '72 hit for Epic/CBS, "Playground in My Mind," and was the perfect choice to showcase Jay and Stephen's song! Listen to "Only Everyday" (and read the article to hear Stephen relate how it all came together!), and imagine hearing it on AM radio, late-'70s on heavy rotation! There....you've just created a hit in your head!
That's FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE in a nutshell. From the mid-'60s (Dad bringing home promos from the radio station he worked at) thru the early '80s (me working in radio and retail records, mid-'70s thru early -'80s), I heard virtually everything released in U.S. by major labels! Radio "let" you hear but a tiny fraction.
Artists like Stephen, Danny Wilde, Tandyn Almer, Jules Shear, Roger Saunders, Randy Edelman, Randy Van Warmer, Ned Doheny, Alan Tarney, Steve Forbert, Elliot Murphy, and The Williams Brothers (David and Andy), are just a small handful of singers/songwriters/players....all of whom have had album releases on major labels spanning the '60s thru '80s (all of the above, save for Shear and Saunders, I believe, I've written about in some form or other, here).
If you've not heard of them before, it's because radio didn't play them, and, unless you were an unusually adventurous record store shopper (and could listen to records before buying!), you never heard their records. But, all were (in their own ways) wildly talented, and deserve(d) to be heard!
And, that's why you're FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE! And, why I do what I do!
And, I'm glad you're here! Stay tuned! I'm happy to do what radio didn't!
Awesome Brad. Thanks for the complete answer and the lead to other stuff to read. I appreciate you. Tom Scott came to mind as I heard a 40 year old cut on one of my many mixes and thought “whoa I haven’t heard him in a long time—and remembered how vital he was to many of my favorite artists’ success.
He did seem to be everywhere, didn't he? And, he was able to fashion a solo career as well as a busy session musician. Am I recalling correctly that he (at least) once toured with Joni Mitchell in the '70s? I think he actually joined her touring band at one point. I'm sure he played on many of her records!
Thanks, Dee, for appreciating my forays into lengthy discourse! Could a Tune Tag be in our future?😁
Thanks, David....it means a lot to have been helpful to a dedicated fan! It was truly a fun, musical onion to keep unpeeling! I felt like I was constantly going, "I'm sorry, what?!" at every turn of uncovering the ever-deepening layers of who these guys kept having interactions with! And, all of them contributed to building the little stairsteps that eventually led to their stardom.
Another fantastic article Brad, such a complex interwoven story of characters. I love how all these separate threads come together into a coherent story. I’m particularly saddened by the “what could’ve been” aspect of Linda Hoover’s tragically delayed release. I’m halfway through listening to it (had to put Boston on hold) and it’s lovely.
I’m also intrigued about Omnivore Recordings, described in The Guardian article on last year’s release of her album as “a new label specialising in excavating obscure or unknown albums with an interesting history”. Sounds right up my alley!
Thanks, Mark! I'm immensely proud of this one, I must say. It's one that grew, quite simply enough, from "hey, Babs recorded a Steely Dan song" before Dan was ever Steely, to "good grief, look at all this stuff"! Hoover's career outcome was truly sad as it was unusual if not mysterious.
It WILL be interesting to see where Omnivore goes, and what it can uncover!
Different outcome obviously but Linda Hoover’s story has a bit of a “Searching For Sugarman” kinda vibe. If you don’t know what that means then go watch the movie of that name (but go in blind without any googling)
Haven't seen that movie, and telling me to NOT Google something about which I know nothing.....well, let's just say I have no will power! Go ahead, tell me to NOT eat fried shrimp!🍤🍤🍤Guess what I'll end up eating tonight!😁👍I'll try to check it out, though!
I'm hip. I'll try, 'cause it does sound interesting. When you first wrote it, I misread it as "Searching for Superman." Then, my first thought was back to Babs, who released a "Superman" LP in '77! Guess I'm having a "Yentl" breakdown!
I loved reading this and the whole Bard story! (Rikki Ducornet, who met Fagen at a party at Bard and who reportedly inspired "Rikki Don't Lose That Number," wrote the forward for one of my books:)
Thanks so much, Michelle....much appreciated! Thanks, also, for subscribing...'tis an honor to have you FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE! I had always wondered about who "Rikki" was, and it's cool to know her possible linkage to that song! Feel free, Michelle, to let us know which one of your 8 books her forward appears! I'd be happy to have my readers know!😁
Thanks, Bryan! It was an amazing one to write....not only unearthing all the info and unlikely threads, but the music! Once I read about that low-budget movie they scored, I had no hope of finding the music anywhere, but there it was, on Spotify (of all places)! Same with "Dallas," not surprisingly finding the Poco cover, but then the Dan takes!
It all started with, "I'm sorry.....Babs covered a Steely Dan song, BEFORE they were Steely Dan?!?" At that point, when Richard Perry pitches the song to Babs, Becker/Fagen are just another two unknown songwriting partners, like Lambert & Potter, Boyce & Hart, etc.! Amazing!
Yes, thanks much for this good read and education on early Becker/Fagen. Hadn't heard any of it and now I can be an even more annoying Steely Dan fan. Ha!
Great....thanks! YOU'RE the one I was hoping to hear from.....the true Dan fan! I've loved all their work thru the decades, but have never heard everything! So, as I'm writing it, I'm fighting myself, wondering if everyone who's a much bigger Dan completist than I would just be yawning their way thru this i.e. "Yeah, yeah, I know, I know......."!
I appreciate your validation that what was news to me (all of it, really!) seems also to be new info to others!! Many thanks! You now have my permission to be that more annoying Dan fan!😁
Your pieces are like an endlessly growing family tree map, with the branches shooting off in all directions. Or more accurately, an orchard of family trees, and each newsletter is a branch offering tasty fruit to be picked. As a big fan of everyone you mention in this branchy piece, I still learned around 27 different new things about them I had no idea of prior. Babs does Steely Dan? I have that Babs album and didn't know that!!!
And I especially did not know about Linda Hoover -- the irony (and sadness) of an album titled "I Mean To Shine" taking more than 50 years to be released is thick. What a lovely song that is. I need to listen to the whole album.
Great work, as always.
Thanks so much, Steve! I love it that you have the Babs album! And, are so cool to mention it! I had all her '70s albums, too, including her "Classical Barbra"!!
I can't take the Hoover album off the turntable (OK, fine, the Spotify Play button)! All respect to Linda, but with 5 Dan songs on it, and virtually all of them playing on it, that may contribute a huge listening quotient....although, I DO love her voice! As I hinted to Robert, a separate Linda article may be in the offing! 'Twould be well-deserved!
Your comment means a lot, too, because this may well be as challenging as it gets: The juggling of disclosing (as your comment proved) little-known info about a famous band (an asset!), with the ballooning of that info suddenly becoming the article's liability!
I went over that thing (I think it ended up at around 2400 words) several times, straining to find ANYTHING I could/should cut out, but decided the piece would suffer more without this or that, than it would be improved by excising, say, 300 words over there!
Yes, Babs does Dan....I entertained myself, early on, with trying to find similar cover analogies...like, Lola Falana does a Rush song, or Nancy Wilson does "Aqualung"---a great car game on the next road trip!
Man this was a wild story! Loved reading about the origins of Steely Dan and learned a heck of a lot about them today. Thanks for bringing this one to my attention!
Thanks, Ryan......glad you enjoyed!
Thomas Jefferson Kaye’s eponymous solo album was released by ABC-Dunhill Records, featured both Fagen and Becker, and was produced by Gary Katz who also produced Steely Dan. Kaye's second album, First Grade, used the same musicians and producer, and contained two songs written by Becker and Fagen, "Jones" and "American Lovers", the latter a "farewell" to the era's counterculture
Great add, Clarke! I didn't know all that, but this piece could've grown and grown (even more than it did!) had I let it! I'm glad your note is attached to this piece, though! It's all part of the amazing birth and story of "just another couple of staff songwriters"! Thanks!
You take it deep Brad. Discovering this piece about my favorite songwriters made my day. Growing up with KSHE as I mentioned I was bathed in Poco and relateds—never knowing that their cut “Dallas” was Fagen’s stinko 😂
I was as amazed then as you are now! I hadn't intended to find all that I found, and there simply was no editing that could be tolerated and the whole story still told! It was the Dan song covered by Barbra....that was going to be the story.
And, I kept pulling threads, and, well..........I may have spent a little too much time on Barbra early, but I still wanted to build a context that would reflect where Becker & Fagen were as Babs was doing her thing! And, isn't Linda Hoover's story a heartbreaker! She coulda had a career (blasted record companies)! Thanks again, Dee!
Hey Brad have you ever written anything bout the legendary saxophone man Tom Scott? One of my early faves and one of those connecting threads through so many bands, musicians, and other entertainers
No, sure haven't, Dee. Good question! Certainly aware of Scott's contributions, not only as a session cat, but a recording artist in his own right. Generally, my motivation and rationale for writing about an artist usually starts with A) inspirational songs, musicians/singers or moments as I was growing up (even in adult years) and/or B) they've not been super-exposed artists already. Generally.
FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE's rationale (I didn't know I'd write this much)!!!👇
I'm willing to bet, Scott (deservedly so) has had at least one book written about him, and certainly many mag and newspaper articles. So, my writing choices are not (necessarily) motivated by how famous or successful they are....in fact, if they're wonderful musicians/songwriters, and have NOT had massive airplay/sales, I'm much more likely to write about them, mainly because everyone and their grandmas haven't! And, it helps if I've been drawn to them musically, too, myself!
As I told Stephen Michael Schwartz at one point: "Elton John or Billy Joel could call me and ask me to 'house' their story on FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE, and I'd say no." First, more than enough ink has been spent telling both of their (granted) incredible stories, plus, they'd never notice. If it got through the multi-level ranks, say, of Elton's "people," it's likely he wouldn't have the time to read it.
If you haven't read Stephen's 20 articles here, please do. He's remarkably talented, but if you just went by his 15,000 units sold of his S/T debut 1974 RCA Records album, and lack of airplay, you might think, "Gee, he must not be very good. Bon Jovi and Journey sold billions. I guess they're really good!"
Fine; we could have that discussion, but the road to pop success, for decades, has been filled with talented artists who recorded great music, but radio deigned to not play them. Hence, no retail sales.
For however many millions of people who've never heard of Stephen, the industry knows (and has known) Stephen's talents! He's written songs (in the late-'70s) with Carole King's lyricist, Toni Stern, David Pomeranz (who landed two hits with Manilow...'76's "Tryin' to Get the Feeling" and '81's "The Old Songs"), living legend, Jeff Barry (Barry even PRODUCED Stephen's demos of their songs!), and Jay Asher (who's landed songs with Whitney, Donna Summer, and Julio Iglesias, and many others)!
In fact, here's Jay's and Stephen's song, "Only Everyday," probably my favorite of the five in the 5-part "Off the Clef" mini-series! https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/stephen-michael-schwartz-off-the-399
You'll hear the fully-produced demo...a song that, by all rights coulda/shoulda been a hit for, say, a James Ingram, or someone artistically similar...in fact, Jay and Stephen got Clint Holmes to sing on the demo (all the songs mentioned above you'll hear the rare, exclusive demo in the article!)!
Clint recorded a '72 hit for Epic/CBS, "Playground in My Mind," and was the perfect choice to showcase Jay and Stephen's song! Listen to "Only Everyday" (and read the article to hear Stephen relate how it all came together!), and imagine hearing it on AM radio, late-'70s on heavy rotation! There....you've just created a hit in your head!
That's FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE in a nutshell. From the mid-'60s (Dad bringing home promos from the radio station he worked at) thru the early '80s (me working in radio and retail records, mid-'70s thru early -'80s), I heard virtually everything released in U.S. by major labels! Radio "let" you hear but a tiny fraction.
Artists like Stephen, Danny Wilde, Tandyn Almer, Jules Shear, Roger Saunders, Randy Edelman, Randy Van Warmer, Ned Doheny, Alan Tarney, Steve Forbert, Elliot Murphy, and The Williams Brothers (David and Andy), are just a small handful of singers/songwriters/players....all of whom have had album releases on major labels spanning the '60s thru '80s (all of the above, save for Shear and Saunders, I believe, I've written about in some form or other, here).
If you've not heard of them before, it's because radio didn't play them, and, unless you were an unusually adventurous record store shopper (and could listen to records before buying!), you never heard their records. But, all were (in their own ways) wildly talented, and deserve(d) to be heard!
And, that's why you're FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE! And, why I do what I do!
And, I'm glad you're here! Stay tuned! I'm happy to do what radio didn't!
Awesome Brad. Thanks for the complete answer and the lead to other stuff to read. I appreciate you. Tom Scott came to mind as I heard a 40 year old cut on one of my many mixes and thought “whoa I haven’t heard him in a long time—and remembered how vital he was to many of my favorite artists’ success.
Cheer
He did seem to be everywhere, didn't he? And, he was able to fashion a solo career as well as a busy session musician. Am I recalling correctly that he (at least) once toured with Joni Mitchell in the '70s? I think he actually joined her touring band at one point. I'm sure he played on many of her records!
Thanks, Dee, for appreciating my forays into lengthy discourse! Could a Tune Tag be in our future?😁
Perhaps. 🤔
Great story Brad!!!
Thanks for filling in some gaps in my knowledge of Steely Dan. I'm as hard a fan of them as they come.
Thanks, David....it means a lot to have been helpful to a dedicated fan! It was truly a fun, musical onion to keep unpeeling! I felt like I was constantly going, "I'm sorry, what?!" at every turn of uncovering the ever-deepening layers of who these guys kept having interactions with! And, all of them contributed to building the little stairsteps that eventually led to their stardom.
Another fantastic article Brad, such a complex interwoven story of characters. I love how all these separate threads come together into a coherent story. I’m particularly saddened by the “what could’ve been” aspect of Linda Hoover’s tragically delayed release. I’m halfway through listening to it (had to put Boston on hold) and it’s lovely.
I’m also intrigued about Omnivore Recordings, described in The Guardian article on last year’s release of her album as “a new label specialising in excavating obscure or unknown albums with an interesting history”. Sounds right up my alley!
Thanks, Mark! I'm immensely proud of this one, I must say. It's one that grew, quite simply enough, from "hey, Babs recorded a Steely Dan song" before Dan was ever Steely, to "good grief, look at all this stuff"! Hoover's career outcome was truly sad as it was unusual if not mysterious.
It WILL be interesting to see where Omnivore goes, and what it can uncover!
Different outcome obviously but Linda Hoover’s story has a bit of a “Searching For Sugarman” kinda vibe. If you don’t know what that means then go watch the movie of that name (but go in blind without any googling)
Haven't seen that movie, and telling me to NOT Google something about which I know nothing.....well, let's just say I have no will power! Go ahead, tell me to NOT eat fried shrimp!🍤🍤🍤Guess what I'll end up eating tonight!😁👍I'll try to check it out, though!
Trust me, if you haven’t seen the movie you’ll LOVE it! Better to watch it with no spoilers though
I'm hip. I'll try, 'cause it does sound interesting. When you first wrote it, I misread it as "Searching for Superman." Then, my first thought was back to Babs, who released a "Superman" LP in '77! Guess I'm having a "Yentl" breakdown!
I loved reading this and the whole Bard story! (Rikki Ducornet, who met Fagen at a party at Bard and who reportedly inspired "Rikki Don't Lose That Number," wrote the forward for one of my books:)
Thanks so much, Michelle....much appreciated! Thanks, also, for subscribing...'tis an honor to have you FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE! I had always wondered about who "Rikki" was, and it's cool to know her possible linkage to that song! Feel free, Michelle, to let us know which one of your 8 books her forward appears! I'd be happy to have my readers know!😁
Another fantastically deep dive - I'm a huge Steely Dan fan and I'd never heard of 'Dallas'! I will need to hear it now ...
Thanks, Bryan! It was an amazing one to write....not only unearthing all the info and unlikely threads, but the music! Once I read about that low-budget movie they scored, I had no hope of finding the music anywhere, but there it was, on Spotify (of all places)! Same with "Dallas," not surprisingly finding the Poco cover, but then the Dan takes!
It all started with, "I'm sorry.....Babs covered a Steely Dan song, BEFORE they were Steely Dan?!?" At that point, when Richard Perry pitches the song to Babs, Becker/Fagen are just another two unknown songwriting partners, like Lambert & Potter, Boyce & Hart, etc.! Amazing!
Yes, thanks much for this good read and education on early Becker/Fagen. Hadn't heard any of it and now I can be an even more annoying Steely Dan fan. Ha!
Great....thanks! YOU'RE the one I was hoping to hear from.....the true Dan fan! I've loved all their work thru the decades, but have never heard everything! So, as I'm writing it, I'm fighting myself, wondering if everyone who's a much bigger Dan completist than I would just be yawning their way thru this i.e. "Yeah, yeah, I know, I know......."!
I appreciate your validation that what was news to me (all of it, really!) seems also to be new info to others!! Many thanks! You now have my permission to be that more annoying Dan fan!😁