Tribute to Steely Dan

Looks like today morning is a spontaneous tribute to Steely Dan. Found a booklet in a box set which I had bought maybe 5 years ago. I hadn’t listened to it much after I bought it since I had lent it to a friend. Recently I got the box set back from him as I felt the desire to get into their groove. The opening page of the booklet is a letter from Donald Fagan and Walter Becker to Andy McKaie, the vice president of MCA Records at that time. Am reproducing the whole letter since it hit some nice chords, hopefully neither the band nor MCA will mind (especially since am not getting paid for this).

The letter opens with a quote from Andy Mckaie made earlier about the band – “ Oy, Vey!! These boys are really off-the-wall, so enjoy ‘em before all the dough they’re making straightens ‘em out. It happens to the best of the sickies, y’know.”

And the letter is as follows:

Dear Andy:

Greetings and salutations from the heart of the hinterlands! The Steely Dan tour ’93 is in its last two weeks and the long promised historical material for the fabulous Steely Dan box set is likewise in the final editorial phase. Last minute tweaks and adjustments are being dialled in even as we speak. At this time it is our great personal pleasure to present you with the finished biographical notes for the long-awaited Steely Dan box set. Allow us to make, for your edification and for that of the loyal fandom, the following small but-not-i-hope-insignificant points:

1.       We were of course only having a little joke last week when we pretended not to recognize you at the splendid MCA Platinum record presentation in the men’s room at the Greek Theatre in LA when Walter said to you. “Ha! So we meet at last!”, he was simply commenting on the fact that you were the last of the MCA bigwigs present that day to be introduced to us at that particular function. Could we ever forget our previous meeting in the Auxiliary Echo Chamber at Village Recorder, or the splendid plaque you gave us that day, or the fine photo of that historic meeting, later published in Billboard magazine for all the world to see? I don’t think so.

2.       We are truly sorry about the delay in collecting and editing this material. We know you’ve been desperate to front-load the retail racks in time for the Christmas crush. Unfortunately, we are dependent on certain obsessive fans and demi-cultish publications for the old photos, reviews, ads, etc that will make this a fun package. After many hours of tiresome telephone conversations with these collectors, the big envelopes finally arrived, most often in rough condition, and/or stained with suspicious substances. We then began the tedious selection process, punctuated by frequent breaks to recuperate from the violent humiliation of seeing how we looked in 1971, ’72, ’75, ’78, ’81. Andy, just imagine how you might feel if photos of yourself from the ‘70s (big stoner grin, greasy hair down to your scrotum, wearing a psychedelic flower shirt, a cowhide vest, extra wide Britannia corduroy bell bottoms over shapeless Acme engineer boots) were plastered all over public square.

3.       One realizes that the addition of outtakes, demos, remixes and so on can enhance a collection of frequently repackaged product. In our case, though, the shelf is pretty much empty. One decent find was a somewhat lame experimental version of “Everyone’s gone to the movies” that somehow survived storage in a damp, verminous locker for over twenty years. This might be added, not only for historical reasons, but also to give Flo and Eddie (who harmonized on the chorus) the proof they’ve worked with us in the “old days”. Furthermore the inclusion of this track (an unused B side from the original band’s first studio sessions, which predated “Can’t buy a thrill” by almost a year) might serve to curb the brisk trade in bootleg editions of this and various other demos, live recordings,etc, that now glut the “import “ racks of the very same stores that sell our legitimate albums.

4.       By the way, please note that the above review fragment is excerpted from a piece you yourself wrote on one of our early albums. As you are now in a position to realize, you needn’t have worried back them that we would be ruined by all the money we were making because, at the time, we weren’t paid squat for our records and performances. Now, of course, quite well fixed, we most certainly have been ruined – but by time, not by money.

On the other hand we were heartily impressed by your understanding of the tradition of urban humor that nurtured our own sensibilities, as evidenced by the (Lenny) Bruce inflected lingo, the yiddishisms, etc in your piece. Reading this musty old quote allowed us to forget for a brief moment that we are even now, as another Bruce (Jay Friedman) once put it, “ Far from the city of class”. Trudging across the flyovers is the price the piper demands from fellows like us. Stranded and perplexed in our mid-forties, wildly eccentric if not actually crazy as dancing mice, we have thrown away reclusivity in a desperate late bid to insure our financial well – being. Casting our dignity aside, we plod from one sad town to the next, pitch our little tent and offer our crisp yet generous program to the locals, who inundate us with cheers and applause and generally set us awash in a sea of glory. The next day we are pelted with dungballs by the entertainment reviewers of the local rags, who are generally predisposed against our sauve, and dynamic renderings by years of hard drinking and coarse thinking, who are in many cases openly anti-Semitic, and who tend to view our humble efforts through the crusty lens of their own failed ambitions and dismal prospects for redemption. In spite of everything we carry on. We’re hoping the end of this tour will find us each perched on a modest mountan of moolah, down whose generous slopes we might coast smoothly past the millennium and on into the 21^st century.

Finally, to you, our good friend and beloved colleague, a word of caution: like us, you’ve passed life’s halfway marker, you drift towards oblivion, wearing the bottoms of your trousers rolled up. Andy, don’t let the company rob you of your dreams. It happens to the best of sickies, y’know.

 Yours always,

Donald and Walter.

Other quotes in the booklet on the band:

“America’s finest maybe rock non-band” – Robert Palmer, New York Times, 1977

“Steely Dan isn’t a group, its a concept” – Creem

“Steely Dan is the best band in America” – Richard Cromelin, Creem

“The lyrics baffle me. Maybe they know what they’re talking about but I can’t get a clue” – Stereo Review

“Steely Dan may not be the greatest American rock band (by a long shot) but it remains unquestionably the weirdest “ – Dave Marsh

“Its nice to hear the word ‘Muscatel’ in a song” – review quoted in Metal Leg

“ If there is one band around at the moment who deserve to make it without gimmicks, Steely Dan are they” – Melody Maker review of Countdown to Ecstasy

“They obviously sleep all day.. they don’t even own a scrabble game, as it turned out” – Rolling Stone

“ I was lucky enough to see them at Milwaukee’s Humpin’ Hannah’s  that year (1972), a now somewhat unique experience, since they no longer tour, for fairly obvious reasons.” – Gary Peterson, Capital Times, Madison, WI

“ I like to think that Walter Becker and Donald Fagan have more class than that” – Mark Kmetzo, Scene

“Downer surrealism”  - Frank Zappa

“ Dangerously close to the valium-jazz that has enervated so much of today’s pop music... enjoy it as it goes down, but be ready for the after effects” – Richard Cromelin, LA Times

“Rarely have such glossy petals concealed such sharp thorns” – Robert Palmer, NY Times

“They’re bound to either take off completely or become cult heroes. The latter seems more likely” – Downbeat

“They describe they’re song writing as junk sculpture and I won’t argue with that” – let it rock

“When we saw them live, they were awkward and uncomfortable” - Wayne Robbins and Georgia Christgau, Creem

“Finally they gave up” – Joseph Rose, Hit Parader. Guess he spoke too soonJ))))

“It would, I feel, be unfair to judge them on this display” – Melody Maker

“The Dan’s forte is more cha cha than churning chomp” – Jim Isaacs, Rolling Stone

“As is of natural consequence, the words have returned to the hermetic, collegiate inscrutability of’Can’t buy a thrill’” – Rolling Stone

“Some may find his arcane references bewildering, but to others it is food for thought” – anonymous

“Over the course of five albums, Steely dan have turned from being shrewd shapers of fetching hits to becoming insular craftsman of arcane concepts, a motion widely regarded as a sophisticated progression, but just as often interpreted as illusory aberration” – olling Stone

“They’re too damned perfect” – Peter Rodman, Colorado Springs Sun

“...sounds like it was recorded ina hospital ward” – Robert Palmer

“In fact, most of the tracks on the album, just don’t make the grade. Later with repeated listening, they approach average” – Disc

“Are Becker and Fagen trying to be , of all things, sincere? And are they capable of it?..Steely Dan’s initial premises have outlived their usefulness” – Ken Emerson, Boston Phoenix

“This album worries me. It worries me because so much of the music here is so blatantly lacklustre compared with the exhilarating standards already set by Steely Dan. The lyrics are often perplexing and inconsequential, the musicmanship just as often tardily professional in the appreciably arch-sessionman style.” “...things may deteriorate further” – Nick kent

Trajectory Change?

In the recent cabinet reshuffle, the one move that caught my eye was that of Jairam Ramesh from the environment ministry to rural development. I have been following news around Mr Ramesh in the past months. He has been putting curbs on the entry of the energy, mining and other industrial sectors into ecologically sensitive areas across the country. I have felt that here is a man who has brought the environment in our country into the prominence that it requires as probably the most important area for our existence, even more important than economic progress. There were a couple of times when I chewed on the idea of writing to him and offering my services in any way that could help the cause.

In the recent months, the PM has been under visible pressure from energy, mining and other industries to move Ramesh out. There has been growing noise about how Ramesh is hindering economic progress for India Inc and depriving it of vast amounts of foreign investment that will enable every Indian to possess a car and a mobile. Given the economist that the PM is, he also shares the view that the way to poverty eradication is to flood the entire population of India with cash so that it percolates all the way down (hopefully).

In what could be a pivotal move for the country’s future, it appears to me that he has taken the step of clearing the way for further economic progress as against a more ecologically aligned one that probably is a much more crucial but unstated(??) need for life in India. With this, five coal based thermal projects that were stalled when Mr Ramesh was around will proceed. The new environment minister has sent out the message that things will now happen rapidly and my understanding is that this message is directed at the industrial sector.

An opportunity to set a sturdy framework for possible sustainable development has been lost. India’s biggest problem by far (and also the world’s) is the mammoth size of its population. The stress placed by this on food, water and the environment is staggering. We are rapidly running out of agricultural land, fresh water sources and possibly most importantly the natural ecosystems that almost subtly sustain ALL life on the subcontinent. The focus for all of us and most definitely our leadership, should be to ensure that these essentials are not jeopardized because without this our billions may have all the gadgets and fuel but no food and water. But then the ideal picture for any economist is the market with its buying power and not the ground realities of nature.   

If we stood firm on protecting the environment, this would have forced the energy, mining and other industries to accept their greater responsibility to our future rather than looking at the year end balance sheet. This would have forced them to start thinking to innovate( at least now) if required to come up with sustainable options or step aside rather than take the easy but short sighted approach that they have been taking for too long. There is an urgent need to phase out coal based power and bring on more and more cleaner options like nuclear, solar and wind energy. The recent discovery of uranium reserves as well as the large land areas should provide the impetus for the shift to these cleaner options. But then the impetus required is huge and time consuming . Even though this is critical it is always approaching elections and public opinion that constantly takes precedence.There is a huge misconception among many people about the harmful effects of nuclear energy and the recent Fukushima incident has further fuelled this (along with the vested interests who have a huge stake in the existing industries). My understanding is that since the advent of nuclear energy, the number of persons who have died in total due to exposure to nuclear radiation mishaps including Chernobyl is under 500 as against the millions who have died due to direct and indirect exposure to coal and other thermal energy sources. The waste from a life time operation of a nuclear plant can be housed in a tank the size of your overhead water tank (and buried safely underground) as against the tonnes and tonnes of fly ash from a thermal plant.

Mining in ecologically sensitive areas for commercial metals is fuelled by various local and international industries and the products of these are mostly useless displays of economic status often in other countries. If Indian industry is as great as it thinks it is, it should be looking to provide leadership in ecologically sustainable alternative materials for these products rather than destroying our sources of food and water. If commercial mining is to be done this should be restricted to clearly identified safe spots (if there is such a thing). Mining in forest areas should only be permitted for extremely rare minerals of utmost national importance and that too after a clear understanding of the adverse impacts.  There is a huge risk of rebellion by the millions and millions who are increasingly being deprived of their land and finding essentials going out of their reach. In such a scenario the urban image of economic driven well being could be torn down and we could quickly slip into tribal mode. The upheavals in recent tribal and agricultural areas are ominous signs. Unbelievably, industries seem in no way ready to accept their environmental responsibility and since they fund our political parties, arm twisting is easy. But then as long as the buying continues, the killing will.  This has happened for too long and the exit of Mr Ramesh could signal the advent of increased natural exploitation and nature’s fearsome response in addition to huge upheavals among the teeming millions whom our leaders are supposedly trying to provide the good life for. These are critical times as always.

Still Photographs From the Mind

It’s been one year of freedom but looks like corporate practices of periodic status reporting are deeply embedded in the system. Here’s a thought status report for anybody (or nobody’s, i don’t care) perusal:

·         Surrender yourself to the forces of nature and life will take its course. As naturally as a small seed becomes a gigantic tree

·         I’m working on a energy efficiency programme on the best machine I could lay my hands and mind on – myself

·         In a world full of rebels, one more rebel just adds to the crowd?

·         We love to hoist people up on a pedestal and then do our best to tear them down. It’s a very universal human trait. Ask any godman or politician. Is that what makes them so insecure and greedy?

·         If you want to know how I am, I am a content man. If you want to know the sources of my contentment, go find your own

·         It’s always our dearest ones whose show of affection we are blind to. A small gesture from a stranger is something we often appreciate more. To be loved by all seems to be man’s constant endeavour. This blindness to those close to us seems to be the case in our outward actions and show of love as well

·         Toughen your body and mind through the right use of your energy so that you can become a container for the purest flame there is and then a dazzling lamp to the world say the babas.

·         In spite of trying to disconnect from the money making system, I still check my share values frequently. The insecurity and dependency that comes out of a life spent intimately with money is incredible

Plant of Consciousness

Receive, transform, give. The plant absorbs cosmic energy and photosynthesizes it into a form that is compatible to feed all of life. It also on a subtle level transforms this energy to transmit beauty and tranquillity that nourishes all who receive it on a mental plane. Its every action is life supporting and nourishing.

Humans today don’t perform this kind of a role in the scheme of nature until possibly the day they die when their bodies are consumed back by the earth. Then from a life perspective what is the benefit for nature of having a species like humans around? If you look at the damage done in the last 10,000 years you would think that there is absolutely no benefit that nature has derived from this species other than destruction of everything that it has taken billions of years to create. With the exponential evolution ( degeneration?) of our intelligence in such a short time frame, we have reached a stage where we now realise that our misdirected intelligence can destroy life on a devastating scale. There is no proof yet that with this intelligence we can sustain life, let alone even dream of controlling it though many of us may have these delusions.

I have come across texts that say that the purpose of humans is to transmit consciousness. Like plants provide physical nourishment, humans have the potential to provide spiritual nourishment for all of life through the right use of the senses, intelligence and consciousness. Are we flattering ourselves here or can we reach such a noble state given that at the moment most of us are far from providing spiritual nourishment to even ourselves let alone others? Ancient texts talk about wise human beings who lived with nature as her children, keepers and guardians living in harmony with all of life in a perfect balance of give and take.

We are all receivers, transformers and givers. We are receiving various forms of energy every day, absorbing some of what we receive, transforming and transmitting it. The quality of what we are receiving, how we are absorbing what we receive and what this is doing to our minds and bodies is a reflection of our current state of consciousness. This level of consciousness is being projected out into the external world through our actions whether we like it or not and this is having direct and subtle impacts on all life around us.   The question to ask oneself is what am I receiving, absorbing and transmitting? What is the level of consciousness I am projecting and who or what is being influenced and benefiting (positively or adversely) from it? Am i a plant of consciousness living up to my full potential and transmitting at full power? Am I fit for nature, a positive benefit for nature or a liability that nature will tire of and discard when she runs out of patience?

Total awareness of everything we receive and receiving without resistance is the way to learn. Everything we receive from the external world – food, air, sounds, experiences, impressions, all have an effect on our bodies and minds, on our consciousness. Observing the effect that each input has and starting to control this for the benefit of life (not just ourselves as individuals, not even just humans as a species, but all of life) is when we start to transform. What is appropriate for our nature and constitution transforms us into better and better humans. The quality of what we transmit then through our thoughts and actions becomes more focussed and clear and starts to impact all life around us in positive ways that are both obvious and subtle. In this way we could become plants of consciousness and sources of spiritual energy for the less conscious like the plants are sources of physical energy for dependent life forms.

In a world which we humans have almost singlehandedly brought to the brink of the destruction of life through our selfish greed, as we head towards mindboggling adversities on both the physical and mental planes, as nature prepares for a reboot, the quality of life for all of life’s children will depend on what we have learnt and what we can transmit to our descendents. It may be too late to change the current course of things but we may still be able to create a future better class of human survivors, a small number that will be the wise men and women of the future to meet the needs of nature, humans that can then love her as a mother and live as her children, as plants of consciousness rather than as parasites or viruses. Possible??

Passing Thoughts

Like a faithful medium, I write down thoughts that enter my mind, coursing through my muscles and transforming into ink on paper. Is there any meaning or objective in the act of putting to words one’s thoughts other than a selfish desire to find recognition, power and material benefits? An exploration of truth? Is this really required?  How many times has this been done since man started measuring time and how many more times will this be done? Cannot wisdom course through all humans without words like it does through all plants, animals, stones, etc? Are words the debris and junk that mark the end of the journey of man’s lost mind from the garden of eden?

Can we ever go back to the garden of eden? After that what?

Truth can be found in the bridges/spaces between:

·         Male and female

·         Dark and light

·         East and west

·         Life and Death

·         Knowledge and ignorance

·         Time

·         Inhaled and exhaled breath

·         Good and evil

·         Duality

Dietary decisions

This body is a living being. For it to survive it needs energy. Energy is obtained from all forms of living matter. You may choose to eat one form or the other, this is purely your choice. Your constitution may determine what is palatable for you or not. Often our decisions are made on the basis of emotions or sentiments. You would not want to consume things that you perceive are in your so called circle of morals. You would rather consume things that you do not have any attachment to. A fundamental assumption made here is that the living thing that you are consuming does not experience feelings like your favourite cow, brother or tree. I make a decision that I will consume x rather than y because x is a lower form of life or does not have feelings and emotions and so is more apt for my consumption. Is there anything like a lower form of life? Who decides what is a lower or higher form of life and what should be consumed and what shouldn’t? Life feeds on life

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Some questions for deaf ears like so many times before.

·         Can we live in a world where the amassment of wealth is not the single driving force of mankind?

·         Can we live in a world where leaders are driven by moral responsibility to all living creatures in their areas of influence? Can our great thinkers devise a system that selects and produces these leaders?

·         Can our instinct for war be quelled?

·          Can the hunger for power be fettered?

·          Can nature be saved? Can we be saved? Nature will probably survive us like a bad case of food poisoning

·         What made us into these vain creatures that we have become? The creations of our minds – the gods, the wise men and their philosophies or each one of us who has taken this path as a result of free will?

·         Can we locate the gene for greed and silence it across the world?

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Every moment, instant to instant,

Live instinctively according to your true nature

That’s all it takes to take you through this life effortlessly

Driven by your karma to your final destination, your heaven or hell,

Like an arrow on a straight line path to its target

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The last thought

The thought of death

The death of thought

And then what?

Bliss???

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Stock up your grass for the cold and rainy day

Just like the farmer stocks up his food and wood

Because just like your body needs nourishment in times of scarcity

So does your mind

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Any action or thought done with complete focus and dedication for long enough will energise all your chakras

If you reach a level of awareness early in the process, then the process will be a pleasure that much longer

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The most viable form of human relationships is love, the path of least resistance

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Shiva has never existed in flesh and blood and neither has Vishnu or Brahma. All three are thought patterns that reflect the current state of man’s collective consciousness at any point in time. Just like every cell knows when to create, sustain and destroy so too does collective human consciousness. Brahma was prominent during the early phases of man’s mental evolution and has faded away since, Vishnu has been prominent during the last 6000 years of man’s stable existential phase. When the time is right for us to decline as a species, Shiva will become prominent and dominate man’s consciousness. He will guide our consciousness blissfully to our doom using the wrathful energy of Shakti

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Vision of Shiva for the lovers of flesh

I had this vision of Shiva as the linga. Ganga gushing from the top of his head like the penis in ejaculation – symbolism for supreme bliss... Supreme bliss obtained by raising your Kundalini to your head and connecting with the universal energy.

Tantra is the path of the yogi who does not fixate on sex, intoxication and other such means which are partial glimpses of the truth. He simulates his god head with yoga, nature and right thoughts and attains bliss eternally by conjugating and bathing in the juices of the universal energy

Maya has gained tremendous power. Her veils of multiple hues enchant men and women alike. Can we blend her hues together so that the divine unity is revealed instead of trapping ourselves in the short term pleasures that each hue gives us?

Conquest of Maya can happen only in one place and that is your mind.

Grass is a jet engine for the mind on its journey into the exploration of awareness and super consciousness. Maybe if your mind is far removed from reality or rigid, you may not be able to initially handle the intensity of what you experience. This journey is however brief and only a glimpse which is why it is called a reality revealer. Once the journey is over your mind is tired since you have burned energy at a high rate. Yoga is the journey into the super conscious that can be more permanent and which leaves you energized and blissful longer.

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