October 27, 2025 • 21 mins
Join @thebuzzknight and @theharryjacobs for a look at music history for the week of 10-27.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Buzz night and welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
And this is another episode of this Week in Music History.
We turned to our right. I don't see him over there.
I turned to my left. No, he's not there. He's
right in front of me. He's at the music History disc.
He's Harry Jacobs. Welcome Harry. It's nice to see you again.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Happy to be here, buzz another great week from music
history and happy to contribute a little something to the cost.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
And this is the week of October twenty seventh, or
as we used to say in our programming, heyday.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
You know what I'm gonna say, October rocked home. I
was sitting with a bunch of guys a couple.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Of weeks ago and.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
We were talking about something that I said, well during October,
and one of the guys was a music not looked
at me and laughing, He's like, I remember October.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Oh yeah, I remember.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Listen. My fondest memory of October wasn't as as a programmer.
My fondest memory of October was as a as a
DJ at one O two seven W and e WFM,
because that station blew up October interesting. I think we
gave away one October the radio station gave away a
(01:22):
Porsche day Wow. Really yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
You know that that's one of those things that starts somewhere,
you know, someone, you know, someone with a brain like
Fred Jacobs says, you know, I'm going to invent something.
I'm going to change the name of October to October.
And then every rock station in every market, you know,
one rock station at least in every market, turns around
and says, I need October my station.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Well, I'll give my friend and former boss Charlie Kendall
the credit, because Charlie's view of the world was always
and probably still is to this day. I'm sure because
that's Charlie. If we're going to do it, we're going
to do it bigger and more badass than anybody else.
So that's how an e W did it. In fact,
(02:12):
what was also part of October It was something called
the Shootout at the hard Rock Cafe that Scott Muni hosted,
and this was a who's Who event of him broadcasting
his afternoon drive show from the hard Rock and one
really wild memory I remember walking in to go to
(02:32):
the event to see Scott, you know, at one of
the shows, and who's walking in behind me together. They're
not with each other, but they're walking in oddest combination
of people, Billy Joel and Frank Zappa walking in.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Oh, that is an odd I was gonna say, like
Phil Donahue and Ozzie Osborne.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Like, you know, Bill, Billy Joel and Frank Zappa. Yeah,
that's odd, that's odd.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, that really is well October and you mentioned Charlie Kendall.
His name came up on a thread with a guy
named Dave Van Dyke. You know, Dave van Dyke. Sure,
I love Dave van Dyke. Dave van Dyke lives down
the street. He and I are going to get together
and smoke a cigar. But Charlie Kendall popped up in
a thread on something. I thought, Oh, Charlie Kendall. He
what a great voice. Charlie Kendall.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, Charlie.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Week of October twenty seventh Buzz. In twenty thirteen, we
lost Lou Reed at seventy one. This guy was a
little disclaimer. I was never a huge Lou Reed fan,
but he was a very influential figure for not only
punk music but just the music scene in general, especially
(03:43):
in New York.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Big New York big ANYW artist, big big New York aura.
I appreciated him differently years later, and this was, you know,
kind of watching collaborations he did with his wife, you
know who was his wife? Is remind me the avant
(04:06):
garde Lorie Anderson, really experimental artist.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I'm drawing a blame, yeah, But so I started appreciating
him differently in his later years.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
In fact, one song which I think, you know, I
think I'm gonna queue it up at some point soon.
Remember Dirty Boulevard? Oh yeah, good tune. What about Sweet Jane?
Well sweet Jane was you know what was really cool
about Sweet Jane? At least we thought there was a
(04:40):
line in there that was sort of making reference to
any W. Remember I had listened to the song on
the New York station. You know, I think we thought,
even though there was nothing to you know, validate that,
we thought it was about any W. It probably wasn't.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
By the way, do you think anyone ever asked him
about that in an interview?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I don't know, because he could be persnicketty too. Oh yeah, yeah,
he did not have it.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
But he was not the affable, you know, fun He
wasn't the Tom Hanks of the music industry.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I got an interview. I'm going to see if I
can go find a copy of it. Maybe maybe I'll
bring it out on another episode to share a clip
of it. I think it's a great idea.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
October twenty eighth, nineteen seventy two, Steely Dan released the
single do It Again and and This You Know. First
of all, the album was you Know Something Else. It
was so different musically. They were so different musically when
you think about the different sound, especially.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
In that song here Now and there's so much going on.
There's like some.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Jazz and kind of fusion and rock and the rhythmic
you know, drums. It was just a very different That
song in particular was very different.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
But they were just so different. Oh God, Yeah, I
love them, love them. The song ended up getting to
number six.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
It was one of those songs that the top forty
stations played as well as the rock stations.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Sure it truly crossed over you right.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I had no idea that what that song was about
until I was doing the research for This Week Songs.
Basically a song that Fagan wrote. It's an autobiographical kind
of song about self destructive behavior. Go back Jack, do
It again, Like you didn't learn the first time, you
(06:34):
didn't learn the second time, you know what I mean? Like, yeah,
here we go, You're gonna just do it again. Which
I always find interesting to see after the fact, songs that.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
You maybe have your own meaning.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
For in your head, they mean something to you, but
then you hear what the artist, fact that the.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Artist even revealed. It is always interesting as well. Yeah,
because they all don't you know, these guys were the
original yacht rock guys. This is where I this is
where I pushed back, even though I know they were
part of the documentary in a brilliant way, the yacht
rock documentary, But I don't think of them that way.
(07:14):
I think lyrically and I think musically, and I think
what you said about them, which is you can't to
this day compare their sound to anything else. It's them.
It's their sound. They were constantly, you know, layering different
(07:35):
inventions every time, different groups of musicians every time. The
fact that the fact that David Palmer started out on
the first album and then suddenly goes off into obscurity
after singing on hits.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Right, this was the there were no real celebs at
this point on the first album in terms of studio musicians.
But but Skunk Baxter, who was on this podcast, was
on that it was on that song.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
And was on that album. Absolutely a member from the beginning. Celia, yep.
But I pushed back on the yacht rock thing only
because I'm a big Steely Damn fan. And even though
they are part of that let's say packaging, which yacht
rock is, and those that didn't know the story that
(08:29):
I think is hysterical. How they're in that documentary. Oh yeah,
I guess their manager, the Great Irving A's Off told
the director, Yeah, you're gonna hear from from him. You'll
get a hold of Donald Fagan, and he's for the documentary,
and so he was promised it, and I think six
(08:52):
days later he finally gets Fagan on the phone to
ask the question, I love this, I just love this.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
He gets the big fu literally, yeah, oh yeah, I
love it. It's the best, Like, Oh, you're gonna hear
from him, Irving, Yeah, you'll hear from him. He wants
to talk to you from Oh boy, oh man, there
there's some stuff out there. If you're a Steely Dan fan,
you probably have seen it. But there are some behind
(09:24):
the scenes making of certain albums that are out there.
Asia is one and protective, and it's just so fascinating
to me to listen to it and to have it
dissected and to realize how utterly complex the music is,
especially as someone who plays a little guitar. I hear
(09:49):
stuff like that, I hear the leads, I hear what
they're doing are the keyboards, And I have a little
musical sensibility to me, and and this is so far
over most people hats I.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Just thought lyrically musically, they constantly were trying to do
different things, top themselves, whatever you want to call it.
That there was always a new way to be wowed
by them. Now I will say I must say I
sound like Ed Grimley a little bit. Remember they were
(10:26):
never on the road, and then suddenly in early nineties
they're playing at Great Woods.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
So I say to money buddy, it's funny that you
said that, because I was thinking great Woods too.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
And so my buddy from Connecticut college friend and we
worked together at the radio station nine ninety five, Al
Taka al Al came up and we were like, we're
going to see Steely Dan. Big fans, right, So we
go to the show. Snoozer, Yeah, Snoezer show. Yeah, it was.
(11:05):
It was. I don't know what we were expecting. I
wasn't expecting fireworks, but I was expecting something a little
bit more engaging snoozer of a show. But it didn't
change my opinion of the band. I still continue to
this day. They hold a special place in my heart.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
When you go see Steely Dan, you're not you have
to be resign to the fact that you're not going
to see a rock show and and and of course
the band isn't the band you know completely anymore. But
you're you're seeing music nerds be music nerds, and they're
(11:42):
brilliant music nerds. But these are not guys that are
comfortable being rock stars. They're just not right and and
they never were. So they're players. They're players, and there's
nothing entertaining necessarily about them personality wise at the show
(12:03):
because I saw them. I may have even been at
Great Woods, but I saw him around that time too,
and I was really excited for it.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
I don't know what I wanted to get out of it.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
But if you're looking to go see a rock show
with some compelling lead singer, you know, artists that's a personality.
You know, you're not gonna you're not gonna get that
in a Seely Dan show, but you're going to get
amazing music, beautiful arrangements and really talented players.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Amazingly talented. Now, did you ever read the book Nightfly,
The Life of Steven Dan's Donald Flip Fagan? Did not?
That's a that'll give you a taste of the tortured
artist known as Donald.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
These guys that are really really good at their craft,
you know, they torture themselves.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah, and it's it's a it's a tough way to be,
but it makes them great. Yeah. Yeah, Well they hold
a special special place for me for sure.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
October twenty ninth, nineteen seventy one, Dwayne Alman passed away
at twenty four. Guitar legend with his brother Greg and
the Almond Brothers, with Eric Clapton in Derek and the
Domino's and just a legendary player. And he was riding
(13:21):
his Harley Davidson Sportster down the road and crash.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Now, you and I have had this conversation before the
Pop Quiz Pop Quiz.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
I've given you the answer to this question already, probably
six months ago.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Maybe coming up on a year.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
You know, you hear that the album Eat a Peach,
which was released after his death. As matter of fact,
they were working on it during that time. They called
it Eat a Peach because he had an accident on
his Harley Davidson sportster with a peach truck.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Is this true or false? I believe it's true. Bus.
I'm gonna need to stay after class. Now, this is something.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
You know, he crashed into a flatbed truck and making Georgia.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
You're in detention. You know this.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I gave you this information. This is like an open book,
but it's six months old. But it's open book.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah, so that's happened in six months.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah, you ain't kidding. So he he crashed into a
flatbed truck. And I don't know how many folks we
have that are motorcycle riders. I've been riding for thirty
five or for more years, and we have a saying
in the motorcycle world, it's always the left turns that
get you. It's always someone making a left turn in
(14:42):
front of you, either in your lane or in opposing traffic,
because they cut you off, especially the people that are
coming across the left lane in front of you. It's
always the left lanes that'll kill you. And that's what
killed Dwayne Almon was a left one left turn from
a flatbed truck and making huge loss loss. October thirty first,
(15:03):
nineteen seventy five, Little rabbit Hole. On this one, Queen
released Bohemian Rhapsody. This thing was epic on so many levels.
Think about the operatic sound. Think about the fact that
the video which is famous, of those guys in that
black you know, they just their faces are there. Yeah,
(15:25):
the video that was done, That was done years before MTV.
It took them like four hours or something and the
equivalent at that point in time of like five grand
to make it. But that video would set the stage
for what would be to come, you know, seven years later,
eight years later with MTV. The entire album I'm sorry,
(15:51):
the entire song rather was written and arranged by Freddy
so many different But you're talking about the complexity of
Steely Dan, you know, with their music. Bohemian Rhapsody is
one unto itself. It's like number one of one. There
are no other songs as complicated with that many changes
(16:14):
that I can think of. There's only one other song
that was really really complex, and it wasn't that way
for instrumentation. It was more vocally and that was I'm
Not in Love by tencc. Wow, And it's a beautiful song.
There's a video on the making of it and how
they recorded it and how there's no real there's a
(16:36):
little light acoustic guitar in it, but it's all tracks,
it's all people making sounds, and it's layered.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
I have a question from the back. I have a
question from the back of the room.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
You were in the front of the room before you
got the Dwayne Allmond thing wrong. I got relegated to
the back go ahead.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Is it true recently in the last month that for
the first time with the remaining men members of Queen,
that that song was done truly in an opera setting.
Did you hear this? No? I did not hear boy,
that would be something else, I believe, for the first
(17:15):
and only time once again in the last month. We'll
have to look this up. It was a big event
across the pond, and I was surprised that it had
never it had never.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Happened, given the amount of people that have played with
symphony orchestras.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
I'm looking this up right now if you want to
look at Claude since they've been a sponsor as well,
Claude dot AI right now, see what I swear I
heard this correctly? Yes, this is interesting.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Brian May Roger Taylor performed Bohemian Rhapsody with the full
orchestra for the first time at the BBC's Last Night
of the Poems September, literally a month ago, September twenty
Chtember of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
I thought that was interesting. Wow, I have to and
I was surprised that that had not happened previously.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, given all the people that have played with orchestras,
right the opera section alone at the time took them
three weeks to record that. Brian May Roger Taylor sang
back up for ten to twelve hours, layering their voices
to create the choir of that there are Listen to this.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
The ten CC thing is one thing with a mount
of love. On Bohemian Rhapsody.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
There are one hundred and eighty separate vocal overdubs on
that song, stacked.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
One over another, one over another.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
The tape had been used so much that when they
were done with it, it was practically see three Wow.
Because it was all analogal nothing digital, one hundred and
eighty separate overdubs, and Brian May used his famous red guitar.
He calls that the Red Special, and he did some
(19:12):
really interesting guitar orchestration kind of stuff, note by note,
did a lot of harmonic work, just harmonized guitar playing,
they call it. And he called that his piece of
that song, his guitar orchestra. But you know, in the end,
what became an epic song was hated by the label
(19:35):
because it was six almost seven minutes.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Long or something like that.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Wow, you know it was I'm sorry it was five
fifty five, Yeah, almost six minutes. You didn't get a
hit single out of a six minute song, No, you didn't, right,
you think about that time, there were edits, like there
was a you know, I'm sure Hotel California didn't come
out as a seven minute song. There was an edit
of you know, I mean, all those long songs had
had edits.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yeah, but album rock stations didn't play edits.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
No, but to get it on top forty forties, they
had to play it. It's yeah, So anyway, em I
hated that at the time, but they released it and
it became just an epic song that was so much
work to do it. Wouldn't you know think about what
a I you know, you could probably make that song
on a day, yeah, probably an hour? Yeah yeah crazy. Anyway, Uh,
(20:24):
November second, the last day of the week for this
week in Music History, nineteen sixty seven, Cream began their
final US tour and this was you know, at the
at the I guess at the at the peak of
their time as a band, but but this was this
will be it for them.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
It was a Swan song.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
It was fizzling, yeah, yeap, fizzling because of drugs and
because of you know, mostly drug.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Good yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
And anyway, there's the week in music A couple of
couple of big ones, you know this week, So I
appreciate the time and and love.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Doing the homework for it. Well, thank you for this, Harry.
I got a tie off after that one. That was
quite a week. This week he music history for the
week of October or October the twenty seventh, And thanks
Harry for all your work on it, and thanks for
listening to all of you to the table
Buzz night and welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
And this is another episode of this Week in Music History.
We turned to our right. I don't see him over there.
I turned to my left. No, he's not there. He's
right in front of me. He's at the music History disc.
He's Harry Jacobs. Welcome Harry. It's nice to see you again.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Happy to be here, buzz another great week from music
history and happy to contribute a little something to the cost.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
And this is the week of October twenty seventh, or
as we used to say in our programming, heyday.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
You know what I'm gonna say, October rocked home. I
was sitting with a bunch of guys a couple.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Of weeks ago and.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
We were talking about something that I said, well during October,
and one of the guys was a music not looked
at me and laughing, He's like, I remember October.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Oh yeah, I remember.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Listen. My fondest memory of October wasn't as as a programmer.
My fondest memory of October was as a as a
DJ at one O two seven W and e WFM,
because that station blew up October interesting. I think we
gave away one October the radio station gave away a
(01:22):
Porsche day Wow. Really yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
You know that that's one of those things that starts somewhere,
you know, someone, you know, someone with a brain like
Fred Jacobs says, you know, I'm going to invent something.
I'm going to change the name of October to October.
And then every rock station in every market, you know,
one rock station at least in every market, turns around
and says, I need October my station.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Well, I'll give my friend and former boss Charlie Kendall
the credit, because Charlie's view of the world was always
and probably still is to this day. I'm sure because
that's Charlie. If we're going to do it, we're going
to do it bigger and more badass than anybody else.
So that's how an e W did it. In fact,
(02:12):
what was also part of October It was something called
the Shootout at the hard Rock Cafe that Scott Muni hosted,
and this was a who's Who event of him broadcasting
his afternoon drive show from the hard Rock and one
really wild memory I remember walking in to go to
(02:32):
the event to see Scott, you know, at one of
the shows, and who's walking in behind me together. They're
not with each other, but they're walking in oddest combination
of people, Billy Joel and Frank Zappa walking in.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Oh, that is an odd I was gonna say, like
Phil Donahue and Ozzie Osborne.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Like, you know, Bill, Billy Joel and Frank Zappa. Yeah,
that's odd, that's odd.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, that really is well October and you mentioned Charlie Kendall.
His name came up on a thread with a guy
named Dave Van Dyke. You know, Dave van Dyke. Sure,
I love Dave van Dyke. Dave van Dyke lives down
the street. He and I are going to get together
and smoke a cigar. But Charlie Kendall popped up in
a thread on something. I thought, Oh, Charlie Kendall. He
what a great voice. Charlie Kendall.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, Charlie.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Week of October twenty seventh Buzz. In twenty thirteen, we
lost Lou Reed at seventy one. This guy was a
little disclaimer. I was never a huge Lou Reed fan,
but he was a very influential figure for not only
punk music but just the music scene in general, especially
(03:43):
in New York.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Big New York big ANYW artist, big big New York aura.
I appreciated him differently years later, and this was, you know,
kind of watching collaborations he did with his wife, you
know who was his wife? Is remind me the avant
(04:06):
garde Lorie Anderson, really experimental artist.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I'm drawing a blame, yeah, But so I started appreciating
him differently in his later years.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
In fact, one song which I think, you know, I
think I'm gonna queue it up at some point soon.
Remember Dirty Boulevard? Oh yeah, good tune. What about Sweet Jane?
Well sweet Jane was you know what was really cool
about Sweet Jane? At least we thought there was a
(04:40):
line in there that was sort of making reference to
any W. Remember I had listened to the song on
the New York station. You know, I think we thought,
even though there was nothing to you know, validate that,
we thought it was about any W. It probably wasn't.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
By the way, do you think anyone ever asked him
about that in an interview?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I don't know, because he could be persnicketty too. Oh yeah, yeah,
he did not have it.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
But he was not the affable, you know, fun He
wasn't the Tom Hanks of the music industry.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I got an interview. I'm going to see if I
can go find a copy of it. Maybe maybe I'll
bring it out on another episode to share a clip
of it. I think it's a great idea.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
October twenty eighth, nineteen seventy two, Steely Dan released the
single do It Again and and This You Know. First
of all, the album was you Know Something Else. It
was so different musically. They were so different musically when
you think about the different sound, especially.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
In that song here Now and there's so much going on.
There's like some.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Jazz and kind of fusion and rock and the rhythmic
you know, drums. It was just a very different That
song in particular was very different.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
But they were just so different. Oh God, Yeah, I
love them, love them. The song ended up getting to
number six.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
It was one of those songs that the top forty
stations played as well as the rock stations.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Sure it truly crossed over you right.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I had no idea that what that song was about
until I was doing the research for This Week Songs.
Basically a song that Fagan wrote. It's an autobiographical kind
of song about self destructive behavior. Go back Jack, do
It again, Like you didn't learn the first time, you
(06:34):
didn't learn the second time, you know what I mean? Like, yeah,
here we go, You're gonna just do it again. Which
I always find interesting to see after the fact, songs that.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
You maybe have your own meaning.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
For in your head, they mean something to you, but
then you hear what the artist, fact that the.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Artist even revealed. It is always interesting as well. Yeah,
because they all don't you know, these guys were the
original yacht rock guys. This is where I this is
where I pushed back, even though I know they were
part of the documentary in a brilliant way, the yacht
rock documentary, But I don't think of them that way.
(07:14):
I think lyrically and I think musically, and I think
what you said about them, which is you can't to
this day compare their sound to anything else. It's them.
It's their sound. They were constantly, you know, layering different
(07:35):
inventions every time, different groups of musicians every time. The
fact that the fact that David Palmer started out on
the first album and then suddenly goes off into obscurity
after singing on hits.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Right, this was the there were no real celebs at
this point on the first album in terms of studio musicians.
But but Skunk Baxter, who was on this podcast, was
on that it was on that song.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
And was on that album. Absolutely a member from the beginning. Celia, yep.
But I pushed back on the yacht rock thing only
because I'm a big Steely Damn fan. And even though
they are part of that let's say packaging, which yacht
rock is, and those that didn't know the story that
(08:29):
I think is hysterical. How they're in that documentary. Oh yeah,
I guess their manager, the Great Irving A's Off told
the director, Yeah, you're gonna hear from from him. You'll
get a hold of Donald Fagan, and he's for the documentary,
and so he was promised it, and I think six
(08:52):
days later he finally gets Fagan on the phone to
ask the question, I love this, I just love this.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
He gets the big fu literally, yeah, oh yeah, I
love it. It's the best, Like, Oh, you're gonna hear
from him, Irving, Yeah, you'll hear from him. He wants
to talk to you from Oh boy, oh man, there
there's some stuff out there. If you're a Steely Dan fan,
you probably have seen it. But there are some behind
(09:24):
the scenes making of certain albums that are out there.
Asia is one and protective, and it's just so fascinating
to me to listen to it and to have it
dissected and to realize how utterly complex the music is,
especially as someone who plays a little guitar. I hear
(09:49):
stuff like that, I hear the leads, I hear what
they're doing are the keyboards, And I have a little
musical sensibility to me, and and this is so far
over most people hats I.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Just thought lyrically musically, they constantly were trying to do
different things, top themselves, whatever you want to call it.
That there was always a new way to be wowed
by them. Now I will say I must say I
sound like Ed Grimley a little bit. Remember they were
(10:26):
never on the road, and then suddenly in early nineties
they're playing at Great Woods.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
So I say to money buddy, it's funny that you
said that, because I was thinking great Woods too.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
And so my buddy from Connecticut college friend and we
worked together at the radio station nine ninety five, Al
Taka al Al came up and we were like, we're
going to see Steely Dan. Big fans, right, So we
go to the show. Snoozer, Yeah, Snoezer show. Yeah, it was.
(11:05):
It was. I don't know what we were expecting. I
wasn't expecting fireworks, but I was expecting something a little
bit more engaging snoozer of a show. But it didn't
change my opinion of the band. I still continue to
this day. They hold a special place in my heart.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
When you go see Steely Dan, you're not you have
to be resign to the fact that you're not going
to see a rock show and and and of course
the band isn't the band you know completely anymore. But
you're you're seeing music nerds be music nerds, and they're
(11:42):
brilliant music nerds. But these are not guys that are
comfortable being rock stars. They're just not right and and
they never were. So they're players. They're players, and there's
nothing entertaining necessarily about them personality wise at the show
(12:03):
because I saw them. I may have even been at
Great Woods, but I saw him around that time too,
and I was really excited for it.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
I don't know what I wanted to get out of it.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
But if you're looking to go see a rock show
with some compelling lead singer, you know, artists that's a personality.
You know, you're not gonna you're not gonna get that
in a Seely Dan show, but you're going to get
amazing music, beautiful arrangements and really talented players.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Amazingly talented. Now, did you ever read the book Nightfly,
The Life of Steven Dan's Donald Flip Fagan? Did not?
That's a that'll give you a taste of the tortured
artist known as Donald.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
These guys that are really really good at their craft,
you know, they torture themselves.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah, and it's it's a it's a tough way to be,
but it makes them great. Yeah. Yeah, Well they hold
a special special place for me for sure.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
October twenty ninth, nineteen seventy one, Dwayne Alman passed away
at twenty four. Guitar legend with his brother Greg and
the Almond Brothers, with Eric Clapton in Derek and the
Domino's and just a legendary player. And he was riding
(13:21):
his Harley Davidson Sportster down the road and crash.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Now, you and I have had this conversation before the
Pop Quiz Pop Quiz.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
I've given you the answer to this question already, probably
six months ago.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Maybe coming up on a year.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
You know, you hear that the album Eat a Peach,
which was released after his death. As matter of fact,
they were working on it during that time. They called
it Eat a Peach because he had an accident on
his Harley Davidson sportster with a peach truck.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Is this true or false? I believe it's true. Bus.
I'm gonna need to stay after class. Now, this is something.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
You know, he crashed into a flatbed truck and making Georgia.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
You're in detention. You know this.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I gave you this information. This is like an open book,
but it's six months old. But it's open book.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah, so that's happened in six months.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah, you ain't kidding. So he he crashed into a
flatbed truck. And I don't know how many folks we
have that are motorcycle riders. I've been riding for thirty
five or for more years, and we have a saying
in the motorcycle world, it's always the left turns that
get you. It's always someone making a left turn in
(14:42):
front of you, either in your lane or in opposing traffic,
because they cut you off, especially the people that are
coming across the left lane in front of you. It's
always the left lanes that'll kill you. And that's what
killed Dwayne Almon was a left one left turn from
a flatbed truck and making huge loss loss. October thirty first,
(15:03):
nineteen seventy five, Little rabbit Hole. On this one, Queen
released Bohemian Rhapsody. This thing was epic on so many levels.
Think about the operatic sound. Think about the fact that
the video which is famous, of those guys in that
black you know, they just their faces are there. Yeah,
(15:25):
the video that was done, That was done years before MTV.
It took them like four hours or something and the
equivalent at that point in time of like five grand
to make it. But that video would set the stage
for what would be to come, you know, seven years later,
eight years later with MTV. The entire album I'm sorry,
(15:51):
the entire song rather was written and arranged by Freddy
so many different But you're talking about the complexity of
Steely Dan, you know, with their music. Bohemian Rhapsody is
one unto itself. It's like number one of one. There
are no other songs as complicated with that many changes
(16:14):
that I can think of. There's only one other song
that was really really complex, and it wasn't that way
for instrumentation. It was more vocally and that was I'm
Not in Love by tencc. Wow, And it's a beautiful song.
There's a video on the making of it and how
they recorded it and how there's no real there's a
(16:36):
little light acoustic guitar in it, but it's all tracks,
it's all people making sounds, and it's layered.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
I have a question from the back. I have a
question from the back of the room.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
You were in the front of the room before you
got the Dwayne Allmond thing wrong. I got relegated to
the back go ahead.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Is it true recently in the last month that for
the first time with the remaining men members of Queen,
that that song was done truly in an opera setting.
Did you hear this? No? I did not hear boy,
that would be something else, I believe, for the first
(17:15):
and only time once again in the last month. We'll
have to look this up. It was a big event
across the pond, and I was surprised that it had
never it had never.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Happened, given the amount of people that have played with
symphony orchestras.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
I'm looking this up right now if you want to
look at Claude since they've been a sponsor as well,
Claude dot AI right now, see what I swear I
heard this correctly? Yes, this is interesting.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Brian May Roger Taylor performed Bohemian Rhapsody with the full
orchestra for the first time at the BBC's Last Night
of the Poems September, literally a month ago, September twenty
Chtember of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
I thought that was interesting. Wow, I have to and
I was surprised that that had not happened previously.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, given all the people that have played with orchestras,
right the opera section alone at the time took them
three weeks to record that. Brian May Roger Taylor sang
back up for ten to twelve hours, layering their voices
to create the choir of that there are Listen to this.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
The ten CC thing is one thing with a mount
of love. On Bohemian Rhapsody.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
There are one hundred and eighty separate vocal overdubs on
that song, stacked.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
One over another, one over another.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
The tape had been used so much that when they
were done with it, it was practically see three Wow.
Because it was all analogal nothing digital, one hundred and
eighty separate overdubs, and Brian May used his famous red guitar.
He calls that the Red Special, and he did some
(19:12):
really interesting guitar orchestration kind of stuff, note by note,
did a lot of harmonic work, just harmonized guitar playing,
they call it. And he called that his piece of
that song, his guitar orchestra. But you know, in the end,
what became an epic song was hated by the label
(19:35):
because it was six almost seven minutes.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Long or something like that.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Wow, you know it was I'm sorry it was five
fifty five, Yeah, almost six minutes. You didn't get a
hit single out of a six minute song, No, you didn't, right,
you think about that time, there were edits, like there
was a you know, I'm sure Hotel California didn't come
out as a seven minute song. There was an edit
of you know, I mean, all those long songs had
had edits.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yeah, but album rock stations didn't play edits.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
No, but to get it on top forty forties, they
had to play it. It's yeah, So anyway, em I
hated that at the time, but they released it and
it became just an epic song that was so much
work to do it. Wouldn't you know think about what
a I you know, you could probably make that song
on a day, yeah, probably an hour? Yeah yeah crazy. Anyway, Uh,
(20:24):
November second, the last day of the week for this
week in Music History, nineteen sixty seven, Cream began their
final US tour and this was you know, at the
at the I guess at the at the peak of
their time as a band, but but this was this
will be it for them.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
It was a Swan song.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
It was fizzling, yeah, yeap, fizzling because of drugs and
because of you know, mostly drug.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Good yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
And anyway, there's the week in music A couple of
couple of big ones, you know this week, So I
appreciate the time and and love.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Doing the homework for it. Well, thank you for this, Harry.
I got a tie off after that one. That was
quite a week. This week he music history for the
week of October or October the twenty seventh, And thanks
Harry for all your work on it, and thanks for
listening to all of you to the table
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