@AirplayBeats reacts to Steely Dan’s My Old School Like comment and subscribe patreon.com/user?u=81569817 Airplay Beats 3609 Bradshaw Rd Ste H #337 Sacramento, CA 95827 Www.Airplaybeats.com
Translation; "Tried to warn her about Chino and Daddy G." Chino was slang in New York for Marijuana. Daddy G was G Gordon Liddy who waa the Attorney General in NY.
One often overlooked aspect in this song are the horn parts. They are amazing and difficult to play and really compliment everything else that is going on. If you listen to this song several times you should just allow yourself to pay attention to what the horn section is doing throughout the song. .
@Airplay Beats skunk is One of those guitar wizards hella slept on you should check out some of the deep tracks he does with the Doobie brothers,I got to see him do work live in Konocti Bay Ca shit was HARD!
Skunk always plays some tasty licks. He's a helluva pedal steel guitar player too. He's also a nuclear physicist or something like that. Interesting fella.
@@hog7203 He's a Vertical Lift Rocket Engineer. He studied advanced rocketry as a hobby and has been consulting the US Military for about 25 years now.
These guys just show you how much diverse music we had in the era. Zepplin, Santana, Yes, The Who, The Stones and Steely Dan the list is long... if you couldn't find a new good song to listen to... you weren't trying. We grew up in a great musical era.
100% Funny, though, I didn't really know it at the time. I just listened to all these good songs/bands and knew I loved the music. Now, reliving all this genius through the eyes and ears of others makes me realize how spoiled I was to have the privilege of growing up with it when is was new and fresh. Airplay Beats do a wonderful job with their reactions, and I can tell they know what they are talking about. Wouldn't it be fun for them to take a time machine back to those days and discover it at the same time we did?
Not to mention the '50s rock 'n' roll, doowop, R&B, surf, Motown, British Invasion, reggae, folk rock, blues, country, etc., music that the '70s music was influenced by and built on...the jukebox was crammed with great music...how could it not lead to more great music?
Song refers to 44 Bard College students arrested for marijuana in 1968, Fagan betrayed by his girlfriend, in jail his long hair cut off by police, vowed never to return to Annandale, NY. Prosecutor G. Gordon Liddy is "Daddy G", who was indicted and sentenced to federal prison for the break-in at Watergate around 1974. (HBO- The Whitehouse Plumbers). From this album "The Boston Rag" another story related to Bard College.
Not surprising that Nixon hired him to do illegal "surveillance" work. Nixon despised the whole hippie movement and was paranoid about the anti war demonstrations. See Kent St of course.
This song is about Becker and Fagen's experiences, which included a drug bust, at Bard College in Annandale, NY, where they met and attended school together.
Hmm... "My Old School." "Kid Charlemagne." "Glamour Profession." Kinda noticing a theme, maybe? What was that number for, the one Rikki wasn't supposed to lose? 😎
Skunk Baxter: not your typical missile defense expert nor your typical rock guitarist. This is a fun song with memorable guitar solos...wait, that's all Steely Dan songs!
“California Tumbles in to the sea” Ba-badaba-dabadaba-dabadaba-dap! The brass. It literally tumbles (into the sea) 😂😂👏🏼👏🏼. The Dan were (and remain) light years ahead! 🙌🏼
What never ceases to amaze me was their ability to write and squeeze MONSTER HOOKS into otherwise very complex arrangements. It was obvious they never lost sight of the fact that no matter how complex the song was, it still had to be catchy for the listener, and they were the best at always threading that needle…..at least through Fagans Nightfly album. 🎸🎼❤️😎
@@Ibanezed210 It's a common sarcastic phrase that symbolizes something that's not gonna happen, similar to "when hell freezes over" or "when pigs fly" as he refers returning to Annandale N.Y.
I listened to this album for the first time while cruising through the Tennessee countryside in a 1971 Plymouth Valiant. The windows were down, I was sipping whiskey, and the memories are indelible.
The guitar work is, of course, performed by Jeffrey Allen "Skunk" Baxter . He played on the first three Steely Dan albums. He also did a stint with The Doobie Brothers and also performed with a band called "Spirit" back in the day. This song is essentially about a drug bust at Bard College that he and Walter Becker attended. "Daddy G" mentioned in the song was no other than G. Gordon Liddy of Watergate fame. I believe that Liddy was involved in that drug bust.
When G Gordon was auditioning for the lead role in Tricky Dicks illegal "Plumbers Unit", he held the palm of his hand over a flame until it singed his flesh to prove what a tough "I'll do anything" ahole he was.
You put your finger on one of SD’s sneaky superpowers; tucking dark lyrics/shady characters within soothing, beautiful music and sick grooves. Novelist Wm Gibson wondered; do people really *hear* what they’re singing along with, when ‘Hey 19’ pipes thru the grocery store?! It was this musical smuggling, he said, that qualified SD as perhaps the most *subversive* artists in popular music
I generally like Steely Dan when I was a kid and this was coming out. But over the years as I have played in bands and matured as a musician. Everytime I go back and revisit the stuff, I am more and more blown away. I mean I definitely was impressed at the time but now it's even more. This was a great reaction guys.
A memory of the days at the private liberal arts college where Fagen and Becker met was transformed into the standout R&B-inspired groove with the Iconic Skunk Baxter solo killing it on guitar in My Old School. The toughness and bitter lyrics are because the memory was about a drug bust. Steely Dan's paradox lyrics, characters, women, gangsters, situations, and how they frame stories with illuminated musicality and arrangements are the hallmark of Steely Dan's legacy. Music that is unique unto itself. Thanks, Guys for featuring so much great music.
This is my favorite steely Dan song. Which makes it one of my very favorite songs in the whole world. It was through this song that my brother, who has since died, introduced me to steely Dan. Although he died 32 years ago, it is by sheer coincidence that I am wearing his shirt right now. When I saw steely Dan in concert a few years ago, I started crying uncontrollably when they played this song.
This song is about the pot raid when Donald Fagen, along with his girlfriend, were arrested and had his hair cut off at the college. Awesome riffs, piano, horns, and drumming. Rock's out! Thank you Guys for great reaction.
Simply one of the best recordings ever made. The freaking composition and arrangement is beyond great. And then the guitar choices and playing sends it into the stratosphere. Leonid and Friends with the ROX brothers do a great cover.
The guitarist Jeff Skunk Baxter also played with the Doobie Brothers and Spirit. He later became a missile defense expert/consultant and testified in front of congress on that specialty.
Every note, every sound is measured in most of their music. Its all perfection and Fagens lyrics make the work of other artists lyrics look they were done crayon.
One of my very fav Steely Dan songs. Some of the most wicked guitar work ever, and some of the coolest horns ever, on the same record? That's just unfair.
You guys are doing a great job. This album came out as I was finishing high school. We got seven Steely Dan albums in eight years and boy what a ride it was. We used to have to wait a year for each record and it was a big deal for us every time the new album was dropped. Then they vanished. 20 years later they reappeared with two more brilliant records (and some more live shows!) By then the music industry was paying attention, and gave them a bunch of Grammys. You have a long way to go but it's worth staying on the train. The title track from Pretzel Logic is brilliant.
I've seen Steely Dan twice in the last 10 years, once with Walter and more recently, in Philly, on the tour that was part of the "North east Corridor Steely Dan LIVE" release. Both times this was the Encore song and everybody was up singing every word and shouting "I am NEVER going back to My old school!" Absolutely great Experience.
Great observation about dark subject matter and somewhat bright and uplifting music/musicality. Really sets them apart from the dark subject matter dark music or light and light. Steely could take you to all kinds of different places in one tune and yes, damn, the guitar solos in most of their songs are sooooo top notch👍👍🙏
I grew up near Bard College in upstate NY. Donald, Walter and Chevy Chase all went to college there. When they originally got together they were named Leather Canary. Chevy used to sit in quite a bit as the drummer for Leather Canary. Great Band!!
I am so happy to have been 13 in 1970! The music was unbelievable. So many incredible bands and sounds. I love all of it. What happened? Not nearly half as many these days and I look!
Keyboards, guitars, horns, percussion and vocals all amazing in this. One of my all time favorite SD songs. Used to listen to this in Junior High all the time.
Great song, nifty neat Skunk Solo. He often performed sitting in a chair. He was all known for giving the Doobie Brothers a hand in their later albums.
So many fantastic tunes by The Dan and this one tops them all for me especially with Skunk Baxter’s unforgettable lead guitar playing. The storyline is also an incredible mostly true as well!😊
Great arrangement of vocals - listen to how the last 'never going back' is sustained and more emphatic than the first two times. Little details, perfect results.
One of the rare instances where Messrs Fagen and Becker were NOT being snarky or vague when saying something. My Old School is literally about their Old School, Bard College in Annandale NY. The phrase "that's old school man" didn't exist back then. People didnt talk about the 1940s being "Old School" in the 1970s.
Skunk Baxter is a legend and still touring! He blazes through his solos on this song. He might sound familiar as he did the guitar solo for Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff". BTW, the song was about getting busted for drugs at their college. He did go back, but not until 1985 for an honorary degree. There's a wiki page if you want to know more about the song: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Old_School_(song)
Actually it was not a big AM radio hit, although it should have been. More of an FM album cut minor hit. Do it Again reached #6 and Reelin from the debut album reached #11. The two highest charting singles from Countdown were My Old School at #63 and Show Biz Kids at #61 on Billboard. So while it became a fan favorite concert staple, it was NOT a big hit.
