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.
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!
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:)
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!
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 for filling in some gaps in my knowledge of Steely Dan. I'm as hard a fan of them as they come.
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!
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:)
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 ...
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!