Showing posts with label Steely Dan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steely Dan. Show all posts

Thursday, 30 May 2024

The Roaches Document New York Apartment Life At Its Worst

On the final strait of "The Roaches Have No King" by Daniel Evans Weiss and it is full of sexism, racism, misogyny and more, but this is the New York Humans observed by the cockroaches. It is readable and varies between darkly funny and disgusting (even for me), but I have read much worse. I was surprised that this was the only book I could find by the author, I mean have written more than one.

I am also reading "Carol" by Patricia Highsmith, a recommendation from my work LGBT+ book club, so I will have two on the go, and that is not a bad thing.

I recently discovered that my American Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here. It only shows on the .com site but not on others. C'est La Vie.

The music is "Dirty Work" by Steely Dan

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

  1. Barter Books - An Amazing Bookshop In A Railway Station In Alnwick
  2. The Plagiaristic Poetry Series - Poems Taken From Random-Themed Lines
  3. Another Raven - A Take On Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
  4. The Cleaner - An Autism-Focused Christmas Special
  5. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
  6. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
  7. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
  8. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer and this is her Instagram

Friday, 31 July 2020

CDVSDJ


When I work in the office I do not listen to music or podcasts because I think it's courteous to be available to my work colleagues. At home it's different, I always have noise on which falls into the following groups:


  • CDs - Currently working my way through my box sets
  • 6Music - My goto radio station
  • BBC Sounds - For Sound Mixes , Programs I've missed and podcasts

Each one has it's own benefits and drawbacks . When you listen to your own music collection you have the choice of what is played , with options to repeat or skip.

BBC Sounds is slightly similar in that you can stop and fast forward, switch and pause, although you do need to be able to stream or download what you need to listen to.

Radio is similar to sounds except that it's live and with both you can discover new music (this happens a lot to me as I subscribe to the 95% is rubbish so look to find the 5% and there is always great music being produced).

So today I am currently listening to 6Music but will soon switch to may latest box , "Citizen" by Steely Dan which I didn't get round to yesterday, and will be fine for this sunny Friday , so I will share "Sail The Waterway" the other Steely Dan song that is not officially available in any digital format, apart from Youtube.

I have decided to go with #AnimalAugust in which every song I post this august will be in some way animal related , either in th eband name , the song name or something closely related like the record label. I should be able to do that.

Thursday, 30 July 2020

Grimalkin


Today is grey so that's why the post title came to mind . I thought Grimalkin was a witch's cat it in "Macbeth" (it was a familiar of the three witches) , but it's also an archaic generic name for a cat. While I like photographing cats I treat them like dogs and children , ok as long as they go back to their owners. I tag my pictures with #CatsInNam and was surprised to find an Instagram Influencer Profile here.  I tried searching for #CatInNam on Google but every site that maybe had something then redirected , so you will have to search for yourself on Instagram or Twitter or my tag @mikeydred96 .

My intention today was to listen to "Citizen" by Steely Dan , a great compilation but missing two of my favourite Steely Dan songs "Dallas" and "Sail The Waterway" which the band thought were so bad that they never appeared digitally, but they appear as vinyl rips on Youtube and I recently rebought the 12" vinyl copy from Discogs. So that's why I am sharing "Dallas" with you.

However I picked up on "Babylon's Burning" a rough and ready guide to punk from 1973-1978 and the four CDs while consisting mainly of demos and live takes was very listenable to my ears. I had been thinking of selling the box but it definitely earned it's place in my collection with lots aof great bands on there, and by four thirty with systems not behaving at work I thought it was a good time to wind down.

Steely Dan will be tomorrow, and my box also contains a burned copy of  "Can't Buy A Thrill" augmented by the aforementioned favourites , so I have a lot to listen to tomorrow as well.


Thursday, 30 April 2020

That Other Song


As I get older I seem to enjoy sleeping more , and I want to be in bed now. I thought as you aged you needed less sleep, maybe that's for people who aren't working any more. I'm always impressed by people who play advanced games (I have a few on my Wii and Quake II is about my limit for FPS) and binge watch TV series (although tonight I did two episodes of "Vikings"), I don't see me staying up all night to complete series three and then zap through the rest. I have managed, at a leisurely pace four series of "Black Sails" , three of "Lucifer" all of "Parks and Recreation" and "30 Rock" and working through "Devs" as well, but Morpheus beckons.

I've been searching for the Lockdown episode of "Parks and Recreation" which is being broadcast tonight but I'm not sure where to get it (It's on NBC which in the UK I don't have access to and I can supposedly get it through HULU and Amazon Prime , but that's a task for tomorrow.

I got another subscriber on my Youtube channel (88 now) but I think why subscribe to me, I'm hardly prolific ofn there.

So because I want to share another song tomorrow, the song that was ousted by "Ooh La La" by Run The Jewels was "House Music All Night Long" a suitable anthem for these days. I know this is an extremely short post but it is time for bed , but enjoy this. The song is "House Music All Night Long" by JARV IS (Jarvis Cocker) and it is remarkably uncatchily catchy . Made me think of a school friends (Jon Ashurst - "Trash") opinion on Steely Dan "The word's greatest most boring band".

Saturday, 30 November 2019

Black Friday

I know it's the day after Black Friday but until last year I didn't know why Black Friday was called Black Friday. I'd always assumed it was something bad like the Black Friday stock market crash of 1869 or the Black Monday one of 1987 and the Black Friday of 1989, and this was reinforced by the Steely Dan song I'm going to soundtrack this with from "Katy Lied".

But now Black Friday is the "sale" to mark companies going into the Black,except really we know that isn't true, it's just another "sale" to offload the crud that they couldn't sell at full price to make way for "new stock".

The thing is something is only a bargain if you wanted it anyway, I knew a guy who bought industrial coffee makers each Black Friday which was going to cost a fortune in running costs. I said I got my beans freshly ground at Pumphreys, and I have a cafetiere and that more than does me, though I'm hardly a coffee aficionado.

This month this blog has had over 50K visits, I'm not sure that'll happen again though I said that last month when I went over 40K so who knows.The post a day for this year is something within reach and if I don't do it now I won't do it so in December you will see days with multiple posts like today.

So I will leave you to enjoy a little Steely Dan (and if you want to know the origin of that check out "The Naked Lunch" by William Burroughs.


Thursday, 25 April 2019

#AprilSongs #26 Black Friday


This is early because tomorrow morning I need go and get some milk, go to the Post Office Depot to pick up "All Good Clean Fun" on vinyl, then post a "Best of" Sandie Shaw to fulfil a Discogs order (I notice that a new one on Amazon will set you back £143 maybe the buyer saw this), then go to work, and afterwards go to the Boiler Shop to see Half Man Half Biscuit.

So for the #AprilSongs sequence I'm closing Friday with Steely Dan's "Black Friday", the opening song from "Katy Lied" which featured a Katydid on the cover. Steely Dan took their name from a Steam Powered Sex Toy in William Burroughs "The Naked Lunch". I only recently found out that "Black Friday" was when businesses finally hit paydirt and went into profit for the financial year supposedly, though it may have once been true, I doubt it happens today.

So this is my third post today although it's an early installment for tomorrow so I will now leave you to enjoy some classic live Steely Dan.

Friday, 5 April 2019

#AprilSongs #5 - Friday


Still banned from posting on Facebook and no one has noticed, am getting about four visits for each of the #AprilSongs posts, but also the realisation that I am maybe too reliant on Facebook to spread my posts.

Anyway back to the sequence and the first thing that came to mind was "Friday on My Mind" the first UK Number one by an Australian band The Easybeats and covered by Bowie on his generally excellent "Pin Ups" album, but I have shared this before, though that is not a reason not to share again.

Instead I've gone into my JJ Cale catalogue and simply "Friday" with his wonderful hypnotic laid back guitar sound.from his "5" album, referring to weekly pay and a five day week, which are both gone for so many people these days. Seriously I think this song contains just a single chord, absolutely amazing but very listenable, with some sweet guitar licks.

I've also just heard an amazingly trippy piece by him called Durango which I have never heard before but is definitely JJ Cale territory with a touch of Steely Dan's "Do It Again".

So it's Friday morning and if you have a non working weekend have a great day.

Monday, 6 August 2018

Answers on a Postcard


Remember that for competitions and requests? This morning I emailed John Hilcock standing in for Chris Hawkins on 6Music and got a positive response withing five minutes. There are some ways we have progressed. John was asking about songs about Dallas and I immediately thought of  Dallas by Steely Dan, one of their finest songs, but they rated so lowly that it's never had a digital release.

The Matt Haig Book is a little weird with the main protagonist thinking about ending his life but finding a reason to continue. I saw a meme about suicide that it doesn't stop the pain it just passes it on to others, and that is something that I am sure would stop me were I ever in that black a place. The number of good things in, and peripheral to my life of worth looking forward to. Enjoyin TV and holiday s with Fiona and friends, seeing Juliet's amazing fodcreations when as a small child pizza was a base with cheese and ham, no tomato, going to gigs and meeting up with Kirsty and Juliet and Molly, Mark's music and car perfection talks and his continual excellent taste in music, phone calls to my dad who can still be a curmudgeon, and then all my friends in Newcastle and Preston.

If we sit down and started writing a list of what we have to look forward to most of us would only stop when our arm started to ache.

So it's back to work today, and I am even looking forward to that, there's a lot aI could complain about but far more positive things.

So I am  sure I was going to write about about more things and a couple of years back I started an #August50 target to hit 50 posts in a month. When I first tried I hit  30, though the most I've done in a month is 43, but I could probably hit 50 this August so I'm going to set myself that target to do it. It's still less thatn two posts a day. I once saw a blog which had hundreds of posts each day, but each post was just a link to anther site. Very strange.

It's grey out but there's lots to look forward to, including mowing the lawn one evening this week, the football season has started, Preston won their first match despite missing two key players, and  my friend Krista is back from Finland so it is going to be a great week.

Have a good one everyone.

Wednesday, 30 November 2016

The Last Day Again



As the wind howls down the chimney, I was thinking I should go to bed, but I don't really have to get up too early tomorrow, so I thought I'd write another post. To have my most productive year in number of posts I'd need to write about seventy posts before the year trots out, that's like five posts every two days, and that's not going to happen. Second most productive year is a definite possibility, I only need maybe twenty five posts, so that's less than one a day.

I am glad I have actually begun to start posting again, the longer you go without doing it, the more likely you are to put it off for another day.

A propos of nothing, I'm still being bombarded with "Black Friday" advertising on devices and TV. I thought "Black Friday" was last Friday, and it only lasted 24 hours but according advertising, it's still Black Friday. Well I didn't buy anything, and if you don't want or need a thing then it's not a bargain , it is just you parting with more money. And I keep hearing the phrase "Everybody Loves A Bargain", well I don't. I look for value for money always , and 99% of "bargains" are useless tat that corporations unload on  the "less discerning" public.

So anyway, I think I will go to bed now, and this gives me an excuse to play the wonderful "Black Friday" by Steely Dan. Sleep well my friends and don't be seduced by corporate snakes convincing you that you need to buy their latest product.

Saturday, 28 November 2015

Black Friday Has Gone (Hopefully Forever)


Well Black Friday has come and gone , retailers would have the rabble spending money they haven't got on things they never needed. Black Friday to me was the Stock Market crash in the late eighties when we let the idiot traders freed by the idiot right wingers have computers so then could predict how they were going to mess up so much faster. My biggest ever financial loss came when I bought shares in Lastminute.com and some other company that bombed on recommendations from Morgan Stanley, and I bet at Ladbrokes and William Hills. Stock Market Traders aren't that much different than the guy who goes down th ebookies except they are paid to do it with other peoples money.

I Will Be Here Soon
Anyway you what I did yesterday after work. I spent a great night with friends who I hadn't seen in ages , laughing chatting , drinking eating and catching up , and that put a huge huge smile on my face and theirs. The only money that was spent was on food and drink , and a couple of expensive taxis. That is the way to have a Friday , having a great time with great friends laughing and giving hugs.

Obviously only one song for this , and John Scott will hate me for it. Black Friday by Steely Dan.

Have a brilliant brilliant weekend everyone , CSI Ambleside is calling and you know what that means..


Friday, 28 November 2014

No Black Friday Here



Well it's Friday and I'm waiting for my hire car to be delivered so I can drive down to Ampleforth to the holiday cottage for a week of quite after two hellishly intensive weeks. In that time I managed to see an amazing gig and a great talk about robots and what fun they can be and how great libraries are. And that reminds me that last week the BBC were celebrating libraries and Scroobius Pip wrote a poem for them to celebrate all that was good about libraries.

I'm still raving about Jordan Reyne and am going to have to order the rest of her albums, as she has been my going to sleep music all this week. I really wish I'd have bought all her albums at the gig. But anyway , the weather is still grey (and it was yesterday too) , but that's the only thing that is not great today. I'm feeling excellent and happy and looking forward to next weekk/

Did you realise that a week on Sunday it's the anniversary of  the bombing Pearl Harbour? I wonder what put that into my head.

Katy Lied? ... Katy Did
Today I know lots of idiots are getting into fights , being conned by the big stores into buying stuff they don't want. There's fights and police involvement , very seasonal indeed, but that's not for me , I don't do queuing unless there is absolutely no other option. Most of my friends are the same.



The only Black Friday I have time for is the Steely Dan song from Katy Lied and with that I will leave you for today. Hope you have a very enjoyable day.

Saturday, 16 June 2012

Some Bands Do .... Some Bands Don't


Thanks to Carol for reminding me I'd not posted for ages. This has been running around in my head for a couple of weeks. It is a post in response to John Scott and possibly Gavin Webster's detestation of Steely Dan. John's original gripe was that reruns of The Old Grey Whistle Test were marred when Souixsie and The Banshees were juxtaposed with the video below, and I fully support him on this however ......



 
 

Reelin' in the Years is a damned fine song . This video doubly marred by the performing seal / walrus hybrid jumping around on staging during his guitar solo. Not good.

In the seventies a friend of mine, Jon Ashurst,  described Steely Dan as the greatest most boring band in the world ,and listen to them and you can see why that description  fits so well.  The music papers used phrases like "educated rock" etc , which , lets face it rock is meant to blow you away  , if you want sedating listen to the charts.

Then at som point they released the lead track for the film "FM" . "No static at All" they promised and we know that was a lie. AOR (Adult Orientated Rock)  Boz Scaggs , Kenny Logins et al paving the way for poodle rock balladeers of the eighties like REO Speedwagon , the descent into syrup rock of Chicago and other musical disasters and cul-de-sacs.

Steely Dan are probably more detested fro what they caused than what they are.

The thing is Steely Dan have no place next to punk rock , but I have Steely Dan and The Ramones and Sex Pistols in my collection , and dont feel that's a problem . Below is a playlist of half a dozen listenable Steely Dan songs and you should try it , you might enjoy it. Incidentally both "Dallas" and "Sail The Waterway" , "B" sides from their first two singles have been disowned by the band and never officially appeard in digital format , but they are two of my favourite Steely Dan songs! Though my all time favourite is still "Barrytown".



Listenable Steely Dan by Mike Singleton on Grooveshark


Steely Dan arent for everyone , but they are and excellent band , well worth a listen.