Firstly, thank you for creating this site and forum, what a treasure and it's great to learn of Walter's affection for his fans.
SD music has always been able to take me places without leaving the chair, I'm sure it affects others the same way. Much of it is the fact that what they are saying is not direct and it is not immediatley clear what the song is actually about until years of listening. They always seemed to be ahead of the curve.
Then Walter decided to make a record, I confess I was obsessed with 11TW. I listened to it in the car mostly, as I've now heard from him direclty, it was made for it (thx again!). When I gave it to others to listen to I got what you all got from them, "it's great but, it's a little dark!
Then came CM, it's just as dark as 11TW yet somehow, it's more up beat LOL. Darkling has the word right in it but isn't it a chippy tune as well?
I'm a worker Bee, so, I don't get a lot of time "in my place". When I get there, it usually is a spot with the ocean running right up to the door and with my libation I listen to CM, Home At Last, On The Dunes and I'm in "my place".
Certain musicians die and you know it hurts more than others, Lennon sure, Mark Sandman (morphine, treat her right etc) and Walter Becker. You just knew they were going to wri
TBD, your observations reminded me of some text on the old Circus Money storefront. The promo blurb ended with: "listening to Circus Money produces an unquestionably Beckeresque experience. Singular, sublime, and just a little warped; there can be no imaging this music as coming from anyone else." Amen.
Was thinking last night how Walter or what Walter ended up doing. He was not only, a songwriter, a producer, musician, friend, father, not to cut it short, etc. The other thing he did in my mind is create something that didn't exist before! Not many people can be held to having created a style that only they could have created. Sure, this rock, that rock, different Jazz, different lots of musical styles, things have been created. What Walter did was create somwething that was HIS and only his! Think about it, his love of different styles of music, jazz, rock, blues and reggae but, what he did was take that Reggae, not use it as is but, make it to his ears and liking. Changing if ever so slightly so that it doesn't actually sound like pure reggae right, then add his wit in lyrical format, until he created something unique.
For proof, I'd say you will never hear is someone say, I play Walter Becker Style music! Because if they did what they essentially would have to be doing is, only playing Walters's music!!
Jimi did it, I had a few others in my head last night but perhaps others can come up with them as well. He made a style or type of music never done before IMO humble opinion.
All I can say is I feel it too! Endlessly enjoyable!
Know why the Religious Right in this country doesn't believe in evolution...they haven't experienced it yet.
Sigh ... both Becker and Klein spent a lot of time explaining evolutionary psychology to a group of hapless interviewers.
Ahh, wasn't sure of the lot there, from your mentions, it would be a while getting caught up. I mostly liked the capture of what DF/WB actually said as opposed to trying to say I knew what EXACTLY they were doing or trying to do at times.
I'm glad to know it has history, legitimacy and depth and it is important!
Did you ever see or hear Walter answer about Selfish Gene? Someone asked if it was about himself. Walter's response was so casual and funny, to paraphrase "yeah, it could also be"....on reference to Dawkins". It was funny to think about the interviewer and how indeed, you have to know your shit to go in with those guys!!
Thanks MOD
Connoisseur of the levels-of-conciousness Oleander! She is a charter Member of the Great Things On The Web where the SD community is concerned -- one of her many gifts to the fandom was her Fever Dreams website. It's a shame it went inactive, but I can blame no one - least of all her -- for deciding to have a life rather than endlessly futz around with websites. At least a knd and generous person (THANKS, BEN!) has kept the archive alive.
It would be easy enough to start a thread here, slap on "Fever Dreams" as the title, and invite posts. But when you browse the real thing you immediately see how the site was so, SO much more than posts: it was the tie-togethers, the elaborations, the Advanced Humanities seminar , the distinctive, intellegent, compassionate interstitial voice of the hostess herself that was the heart and soul of the enterprise. Irreplaceable.
We all can, however, hope that this place and its readers are open enough to invite what could be called Fever-Dream-like observations and discussions. We've alread seen it, your introductory posts being good examples.
Welcome, TBD :-)
Yeah, posting was slow and corrections only made it worse, sorry to leave you hanging!
You or I knew those special ones lost were going to write and provide more things for us to enjoy endlessly is what I thought I had said :-)
I think personally that Walter grew in his writing for his own work between 11TW and CM and I think it connects to his "little tweaky hand movements" in the CM Promo clip, many of the songs on it do coincide with those quirky hand gestures.
Anyway, No brains, no regrets, no worries Hidey hi, hidey hey, hidey ho.
Another place I stumbled upon in the spidey...
http://feverdreams.whatsmykarma.com/
TBD...way to leave us hanging! "You just knew they were going to wri"......wri.....wri?
Come back, TBD, and tell us more!