video: Matt Kerns
Golden City
Walter Becker, © 1994/2018
I pulled my house down and made my invocation To the clapped-out pleasures of a dying world A whole new fresh for ’94 situation A brand new city and a brand new girl
Then I went down to the Union Station Where I stood there crying in the lonely queue That’s when I knew my true destination That’s when I come all over again in love with you
Poor little match-girl heart I thought I felt you beating Against the crossed rhythms of your chorus line I’m not hard of hearing there’s no need in repeating I guess I already heard you now the second time
Spell out your demands on tattered funny pages Hung out like proud banners in the cobalt sky Strung out like a ribbon through the bars and the cages We’ll read them all weeping in the salty by and by
Yeah Kingdom come Seven come eleven
Yeah Kingdom come Seven come eleven
So I quit the pale precincts of your endless evening Of your long-suffering New Jerusalem You won’t do me with any easy loaves and fishes But hey that starlet rising, now that’s a nifty one
Last night I walked down to the near side of the river There was a golden city shining in the sun Where we all laughed and loved all our chump change sins forgiven But you know me I’ll believe it when that day is come
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Matt Writes ....
[Excerpted from today’s Newsletter ]
Well, that year went a lot like a Steely Dan lyric.
2020. It was a year. A pandemic, calls for social justice, a contentious election, an economic crisis...and none of them contained in just 2020, each threatening to spill over the border of 2021. That’s right, you heard it here first. The first part of 2021 is going to feel an awful lot like the last part of 2020. Except it will feel that way with a new (to you) Walter Becker track.
At this point, through the machinations and under the auspices of the Walter Becker Media, we’ve made thirty-four rare, unreleased, or demo tracks available for your listening pleasure, plus offered up a growing sampler of his unique prose to ponder
We’ve trusted you to accept these offerings as what they are: examples of Walter Becker the composer, arranger, musician, writer, and lyricist at work, but not necessarily—and in some cases not at all—indicative of what the final product might have been, had Walter chosen to pursue these germinal ideas to a satisfying conclusion.
The hope is that with each thing we send out into the world, the public understanding of Walter’s prodigious talents becomes a little bit broader and a little bit clearer...a little bit harder to ignore.
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To me the last lyric stanza really captures my feelings looking into 2021. I’d love to believe we’re heading into the bright golden city of the future, a brand new situation and a brand new lease on life. I’d love to believe that we’ll find peace in a new vaccine or a new political reality or a new tune. But you know me, I’ll believe it when that day is come.
In the meantime, I’m glad to have some prescient music to fill the silence. Welcome 2021.
-- Matt
As best we can tell, Walter started this song around 1991 or ’92. After the first Dan 2.0 tours and the release of Whack in ’94, he took it up again and the lyrics found their final form. It’s as though the earlier versions were idea placeholders and he returned to sharpen the imagery, meter, rhymes, and to “unique-afy” (his word) the language…which he most certainly did.
Compare:
I plowed my fields under and made my new vocation
The second hand sorrows of another world
A whole new fresh for 93 situation,
A brand new city and a brand new girl
Last night I walked down to the Mississippi Station
.
and
.
I read my crimes out on tattered funny pages
Strung out like kites against the cobalt sky
Hung out for delight of children of all ages
Blah blah by and by
An early recording also includes a strange and wonderful duet; if we can find a good edit we’ll post it here. {Ed 6/21: clip now posted here]
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This tune joins others on the site where Becker speaks with “another voice”: moving, relatively sincere, and rather ‘poetic’ — cf Don’t Let Us Go Down. I suspect that most of us infer that this voice expresses ”real” emotions and events — that the singer is, for the moment, transformed into a “personal confessional” type of artist —whereas the more familiar Becker voice is obviously that of a narrator/writer crafting a composed, created tale.
I think this might be an error. When I hear Walter singing in some “other voice”, including this one, I’m reminded of his ceaseless and focused intentions as a writer. He spoke of forms and voices he thought he wasn’t very good at — but wanted to be. Among these, he told me, was a non-adolescent erotica, “sincere-sounding” love songs (lol), and things that sounded (again: sounded) confessional and revealing. I don’t know that this is relevant here — a genuine poetic and emotionally expressive sensibility was definitely part of Walter’s personality and life — but I’m never quick to mistake what may be a writing exercise for a “truer”, deeper expression of his private emotions and memories.
I do love this song though, and spent a long time finding the best sounding take in a bad-sounding batch. It’s one I would have really liked to have heard fully realized