October 22, 2025 • 47 mins
We know what you're thinking. Just by a quick glance at our dumb faces would lead you to believe that of course we're into Steely Dan. But believe it or not, we've never listened to "Aja" before. Is it the masterpiece it's often made out to be? Or does nostalgia shade critics' opinions on it? Watch and find out! Plus, we count down our 10 favorite uses of samples in songs, and - as always - give you a playlist of five songs that will help renew your passion for music.
What do you think of "Aja?" What great instrumentals should we have included? Let us know in the comments!Listen to songs on the Extended Playlist (Spotify, YouTube)
Bonus Playlist: The Best Use of Samples (Spotify, YouTube)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:22):
It's extended play, renewing your passion. 5 songs at a time.
I'm E. I'm Tank, but you can call me
Deacon Blues. Do I have to?
No, I don't. Think I'd rather you didn't.
Yeah. More on that later.
Yes, that was an emergency text.Yeah, that was preparation.
Yeah, that was bad. Yeah.
We're going to get to the SteelyDan album Asia with our again,
(00:43):
non our UN review, right of justour thoughts and telling you if
you need to listen to it or not,right.
We're going to talk about the best use of samples and songs is
the EP 10. But first, we, like everyone
else, have noticed the avalancheof there's there's two very big
stories that are very much in the same vein right now, and
that is the NFL slash Roc Nation's announcement of the
(01:05):
Super Bowl performer being Bad Bunny and Zach Bryan catching
all kinds of heat from his ostensibly his core audience.
Oh, he's always kind of straddled the middle.
He he has, right. It's complicated because of his
veteran status and the fact he'sin the country world, but yeah.
Sure, but they you know his antiice.
(01:27):
I don't know what the whole songis.
I. Saw a teaser?
Yeah, it's a teaser, Yeah. Basically just saying, hey, just
don't fucking traumatize kids and take them from their
parents. Apparently that's controversial
in 2025. That's right.
So they are it's it's birds of afeather.
And my take on it, I mean, the, the Zac Bryan thing, it's, it's,
(01:48):
it's encouraging because you know, you, you have your far
left country guys that we've, you know, whatever we've been
glazing for years now. And then the far right ones like
the Morgan Wallins that ourselves and Hayley Williams
will always hate and never really read.
But there's, there's a handful of these guys kind of in the
middle. It's like they're trying to play
both sides. So to see one of them taking a
stand is a bit too strong of a turn, 'cause he's still in the
(02:10):
reaction. He's still definitely trying to
play the middle. Yes.
He's like, it's 2 wings, but we're the same bird, right?
Yeah, but to see the middle start to give way is
encouraging. Absolutely, yeah.
Yeah. And the influence, The thing is
he is such an outsider in that sort of country world.
I think a lot of it from the recent, recent headlines is self
(02:30):
self induced because he just seems like it'd be an asshole
who nobody wants to work with anymore.
But you know, the these kind of artists that we like the Zach
Bryant, the Jason Isbell, the people that sit on the very
outside of country music, You wonder how much impact it could
possibly have on the larger sortof country listening audience
though I would say, you know, Zach Bryan, Zach Bryan played
(02:51):
Ford Field here in Detroit not that long ago.
I would assume that that was vast majority.
Was he the Michigan Stadium guy?Oh, yeah, sorry.
Yeah. Michigan Stadium.
Yeah. Like 112 like yeah.
Set the world the world record. Yeah, they, you know, Ish.
Yeah. Right.
Yeah. OK, so yeah, I stand corrected.
But yeah. But the point being, my guess is
that the vast majority of that audience leans a certain way
(03:13):
politically, and it's Oh yeah, when we disagree with it.
Yeah, I'd say it's 40%, OK, Girls that used to be in
sororities with cowboy hats, that's a thing.
And the other 60%? Trump voters, yeah.
Country Country concerts are costume parties, which I think
is. Very odd, just especially here
in the north, like almost as farnorth as you can go.
(03:34):
Like what's funny about this stuff?
And again, it just, it speaks tohow irrelevant the music is to
me. It's just like Jimmy Buffett or
this other shit. It's like, it's not about the
music. It's I want to go cosplay for
three hours, which is fine, it'sfine.
But like these are the same people.
Like they would shit on like D&Dplayers or like furries or
something. It's to me, it's the exact same
(03:54):
as a furry convention. You're getting dressed up to go
do something with other people that like to dress up.
Yeah. And it's yeah, OK.
And people out from the outside don't understand.
It come on, you're you're a fucking account payable analyst
and then you have a pair of cowboy, but for what?
For when you got a round up steer on Saturday?
Fucking stupid it is. Strange.
(04:15):
It is strange. So Speaking of stupid, yeah, in
addition to that, the the Super Bowl choice of Bad Bunny.
Now, I was originally disappointed.
If it was ever going to be Metallica, it was going to be
this year. So I.
I didn't. Know but there had been rumors
circulating and it sounds like Metallica are their their own
biggest advocates for this that they essentially will like
whisper things in the press to like get people to invite them
(04:36):
so they they the first two timesthey were approached there they
said no I mean not that they were the choice but their
management was approached got itit's every time the Super Bowl's
in San Francisco. Oh, OK, They get approached, get
a local show. Yes.
Yeah. So it's in San and, you know,
clock's running on their feasibility to do it.
And they basically said, yeah, we'll do it.
OK. But OK.
(04:57):
But they will not. They insist on playing live.
And the Super Bowl is like, you are not gonna play live.
And that's what the deal breakerhas always been.
They won't play to a track. Super Bowl requires it.
Gotcha. OK, OK, so the best you could do
at the Super Bowl is vocals live, everything else to a
track. OK.
So that's why you see like guitars aren't even plugged in
half the time. Yes, yes.
(05:18):
And I don't know how they could.Of course they could pull it
off, but I don't know. I'm I'm fine with that.
Yeah, I think that's a fine stance to take.
I don't know that I even want tosee it.
What am I gonna get out of it? What are their fans gonna get
out of it, right? Right, Yes, you're gonna get.
What you're gonna get is a medley.
You're gonna get. Enter Sandman.
Nothing else matters. But like, because those songs
are so long, they're gonna have to build them into one.
It'd be funny if they just did like Orion and Shortest Straw
(05:40):
and then left anyway, but OK. So they announced Bad Bunny.
OK. I was completely agnostic about
the choice. I understand why he is what he
is. I I wouldn't know one Bad Bunny
song, and that's not an exaggeration.
Yeah, that's probably true for me too.
Yeah. I'm sure it's fine for some
people. To me, it all sounds the same.
(06:02):
A lot of his kind of music. OK, yeah, whatever.
I'm going to go take a piss. Like yeah, it just cracks me up
the the term snowflake and how it's supposed to apply to people
of our ilk. Right, right, right.
And it's like the amount of shitwe can let roll of our back
because it doesn't affect me. Absolutely.
Versus how apocalyptic. Is that a word?
(06:25):
I think that is the word apoplectic.
Sure, whatever. Tomato.
Tomato that that the Trumper type people get when something
just doesn't go their way. It doesn't even negatively
affect that it just doesn't go their way Yeah and they they
literally cry and whine I know and say this has to change now
(06:45):
what I I cannot wait to see is and and is gaining momentum is
the alternative halftime show. Oh yeah, yeah, sure.
So the fact that they are. Legitimately talking about Lee
Greenwood, that's so great. The speaker of the House said we
should. I would rather see somebody like
Lee Greenwood. Like is he going to do?
What's God? Bless the USA.
(07:06):
Yeah, God bless the USA Five times.
I mean, because what else is he going to do?
Is he going to? Does he need a nap halfway
through the performance? So weird.
Who wants to hear what politicians are recommending for
the musical act? Like, who's asking for that?
Who wants to know? Just like you know, and and so
then Creed was oh really? Yes, so the the room, so turning
point USA. Oh yeah.
(07:27):
No comment. Yeah, right.
Is they've confirmed they're going to put on a show.
OK. And the lead speculation was
Creed. OK, sure.
But then people pointed out that's impossible because Alter
Bridge, which is everyone in Creed but Scott Stapp, right,
has a show in Barcelona that night.
OK, so it's not happening. It's not going to be Creed
unless it is Scott Stapp solo Incredible.
(07:50):
Don't rule it out. Folks, don't.
No, don't. Like what?
OK, so you get him nudes. Like even if like even if
politically, OK, if I'm one of these people and I'm sitting and
I'm and I'm and I'm cheering on this development.
If you have even remotely decentartistic tastes, how do you not
look at that line of a go, man? Why do our guys suck?
Yeah we've talked about this before we never really dug in,
(08:13):
but I what a mind fuck that mustbe right, right 'cause we're all
the time you see like OK, so more middle of the road liberals
will be like we need to just like slow down You can't hate
the other side. We have to have dialogue and
this kind of stuff. We.
That is a thing. Like if I was sitting down and
talking with someone about music, there's no bridge there
(08:34):
for me. It's either everything good.
Yeah. Or Kid Rock and Lee Green would
that. That's it.
Yeah. It's what would the, you know,
extended family. If you are right leaning or full
right and you love music, what does this do?
You just have to divorce yourself entirely from all just
(08:55):
politics. It's all art.
It's all art. So it it's the exact same thing
that I, I would get drunk and have this argument in France all
the time. Oh, interesting is, you know, we
go to the bar, we get drunk. I'm the only American there.
So I become the sounding board for.
Here's what I don't like about your country.
Sure. Now, like you say that.
Yeah, all night, all music. They're not playing Daft Punk
(09:16):
for five hours, right? That.
'D be cool if they did but you're.
Listening to American Music. And on the way here, I walk past
3 cinemas, all American movies. Yeah.
So what if you hate us so much, right?
Why do you consume only our, let's say, current modern art,
right? Not sure.
Sure. Same thing with MAGA.
It's like you should be listening to nothing, but how do
you not the cognitive dissonanceof like, I really like this art.
(09:40):
Yeah, but I hate what they standfor.
How much of that can you tolerate before you start to
question right, why am I on thisside?
Because it's all because the thebeliefs are all embedded in the
art, right? Right.
It is. It's all in there.
It's in the music, it's in the physical art.
It that art doesn't get made if you don't believe the certain
things you do. No, it's, I mean the reason why.
(10:02):
I mean, the shortest explanationI've seen for why is it that all
successful entertainers, and that's not even an overstatement
really, what say that you did a right wing comedy fest?
Oh yeah, we got Rob Schneider. Yeah, Harlan, whatever his name
is, yeah. I mean, right, Joe Rogan.
Joe. Rogan Yeah, so good art requires
(10:24):
empathy. Yes.
You need to be empathetic and sympathetic to other people are
going through that. That is so incredible with not a
yes. If you had empathy you wouldn't
be OK with so much of what's going.
On you wouldn't say one of the first things out of your mouth
wouldn't be with bad when bad money performs at the Super Bowl
halftime where they're going to do ice raids on the parking lot.
(10:46):
Like it's just disgusting. And that, I mean, we're not even
touching on the race part of it,which is just so fucking
disgusting. Dude.
I know it gets you all riled. Up.
No, but like, OK, just if if you're if you're watching this,
go to your Facebook page. If you don't have an account,
make one and just browse around for comments.
The number of people who say that he should be deported back
(11:08):
to Puerto Rico, Right. You've ignorant dip shits.
It is mind blowing. Yeah.
And then and then if you catch them on it, they'll say, oh, but
it's not part of America. Told me there is Alaska, right?
So like there's no it's just thefact that he's an American
citizen. Yep.
Just blows their mind. Blows their mind because it's
brown and sings in Spanish. Yeah, that's it.
(11:29):
Big fucking deal. Yeah, now shout out to the
people of Chicago, the best cityin the United States.
That's the truth. Because with all this ice shit
going on, I was watching video the other day that people are
driving behind them and Hawking and alerting everyone that
they're coming. Yeah, they even saved a guy who
was being like, they were takinghim down.
They they got him out of there. And there's a there's a super
cut of I got to find it. And so you can link to it.
(11:51):
Yeah, but it, it juxtaposes Trump talking about how Portland
is burning and it's terrible with all this footage of people
in like inflatable costumes, like gyrating in front of the
ice people. They're doing the the Electric
Slide. I think things are fine there.
Yeah, they're doing great and. Pritzker is killing it too, by
(12:11):
the way. He's basically doing the Hayley
Williams Find me at Whole Foods.Bitch like to trump into the
camera. It's so good.
No, I'm I'm cautiously optimistic that people have
finally figured out. You know, like, again, usually
it's the the person that barks the most that has no bite, and
they're starting to realize a little bit of pushback.
Yeah. And this goes away.
Yeah. So what do you think about the
Super Bowl halftime show again? We're not Bad Bunny's not
(12:33):
targeting his music at us. It's like, for us, we're not
interested in it. But who gives a shit, right?
The numbers don't lie. I'll watch the Puppy Bowl.
Yeah, sure. Or I'll watch it and see, like,
what's this guy all about? Yeah, right.
What's the performance? The fucking pyro.
It'd be awesome. Yeah, anyway, what do you think?
Let us know in the comments. So just like Bad Bunny, same
core audience, Steely Dan. I mean old white guys do have
(12:58):
opinions on both. That's true.
That's true. So we're gonna talk about the
Asia. Yeah, this, of course, is a
classic in our classic crate current trifecta, Yeah, of
choices of albums to talk about.And we're not rating it, we're
not reviewing it. It's not giving a score.
We're just telling you if we think you, the faithful extended
(13:19):
play viewer slash listener, should go check it out.
Yes. So what were your thoughts?
Well, we hadn't. Again, that's that's a big
thing. We had not checked it out.
We'd heard the name over and over again.
Tank, you said you had a greatest hits.
Songs would come on once in a while.
OK, I knew the name. I knew there.
There's like a nerdy side of social media where there's like
white dudes who are like jammingout to Steely Dan and their and
(13:41):
their spouses don't get it and stuff like that.
Right. I've heard the reputation it has
as being Florida State produced.That that's my only experience
is that they this album in particular is treated as a
reference work. If you're buying a $50,000
stereo, you play this, got it. OK, because it you can hear
everything and OK, so that's my only and that's why I liked it
(14:02):
because that that's me. If I had more money, I'd have
that kind of stereo. That'd be pretty cool.
Yeah. Yeah.
This is going to be divisive, I think for our fans and between
us probably a little bit as well, which is fine.
That's that's why we'd kind of do this, right?
That's what makes this thing work.
We agree sometimes, we don't agree other times, but we'll see
where we land on this one. OK, so in our rating, not
(14:22):
rating. It's not a rating, it's a
recommendation. It's a recommendation.
Should everyone listen to this? Should fans of the genre listen
to this? Which is most people.
Yes, yeah, sure. Should fans of the artist only
listen to this and should or should no one listen to this?
And I'm going to come in with fans of the genre, if the genre
(14:45):
is. What is the genre?
It's not yacht rock because that's not fair.
Fusion Jazz. Fusion jazz, Sure, if you're
into that stuff. If you're into anything that
sounds like Steely Dan, I think you should listen to this
record. So my rating, yeah, is that no
one should listen to it. Excellent.
Now with an asterisk. Yeah, yeah.
(15:06):
That's not to say it's bad, although I kind of think it is
the reason I say no one, it's taking our audience into account
and just one watching this. Good point.
Needs to listen to Steely Dan. That's correct.
If so, I'm not saying no one in the world needs to listen to.
But if you're watching this, youare probably.
I'm not going to say middle of the road in a negative way.
(15:28):
Yeah, but the music you consume is not.
You're not going to like Steely Dan because I didn't.
Yes, Right. So, you know, if you like, thus
you like, blah, blah, blah. Birds of a feather and all, but
the kind of people who end up liking Steely Dan, it's not
because someone told them about it.
Oh, interesting. OK.
I feel like these are audio files.
OK, jazz enthusiasts. Musicians themselves musicians.
(15:51):
Themselves, Yeah, they are goingto find Steely Dan.
Yeah, yeah. Without our help, right?
Yeah. And they're not watching us.
Anyway, Steely Dan, I don't think it's the kind of band that
it's like, oh, someone said I should check it out.
I really liked it. No, you find it on your own
because you are really into someaspect of music.
Sure, that's that's fair. So that's why I say no one, and
also it's not very good. Well, that's and that's the
thing. Mine is a qualified fans of the
(16:12):
genre too, because I did not enjoy this.
I did not enjoy it really in anyway that I can measure other
than it was nice to be reminded of two hip hop songs and
listening to this. That was that was the best part
for me. I never thought I'd be so
excited to hear a clip from LordTariq and Peter Gunz, but Uptown
(16:33):
Baby, which is the first, the first song is Black Cow, right?
And it's got that. It's the entire bass line.
First song on Asia is a song called Black Cow in the.
(17:12):
funky jazzy beat that Lord 3 computer guns just completely
repurposed for Uptown Baby, and My first note listening to this
(17:54):
was this must be what Rush sounds like to eat.
Yes, yes. 100% you're having thesame experience you mean?
Right. I'm like, I'm like, I don't
enjoy this at all. It's and it just seems like just
awkward and not fun and not interesting and I'm like, I bet
this is what he hears when he hears Rush.
Yes like to me, Rush and Steely Dan completely different, but I
(18:14):
could totally see how someone would be like.
It's just like that. I don't like it.
Yes yeah, the what I some of my key takeaways were OK, like the
production side of it. I must.
I came away feeling kind of stupid because I'm like, I don't
get it. Like there must be a lot going
on. Maybe it's because I don't have
(18:35):
the nice stereo or I just, I don't understand enough about
music production, but this albumsounded so incredibly sterile to
me. Oh yeah, and mid and vanilla and
nothing that engaged me or made me feel anything.
Right. It's like they engineered the
passion. Out of it, yes.
Yes, like it all takes place in a vacuum and.
(18:56):
So I couldn't connect with, I couldn't connect with any of the
lyrics. I couldn't connect with any.
I couldn't perceive any emotion behind the music or the lyrics.
So what was there for me to grabonto?
It was just slippery. And I didn't, I didn't get it
100%. Yeah, OK.
I mean, no, that's why I alludedto it earlier.
But you know, the bulk of my reverence or any positive bias
that I have for them, it came from their reputation, from
(19:18):
their production. But as a listening experience,
Straight cheeks. Straight cheeks, cheeks like
ass. OK, I like it.
Now, it's important to point outthis is critical.
Yeah, the name Steely Dan. OK.
You don't know this. I think I read it.
It's better than you think. OK, go for it.
It is a steam powered dildo. Jesus.
(19:42):
Christ, really. Yeah.
That's not OK. OK, wow, so I might be a little
bit wrong because I did some homework on this.
So Steely Dan, by the way, the homework he did is he was
looking for alternative power dildos and he stumbled upon the
Steely Dan. It's a rare time where my
obsession with sex toys and steampunk, every now and then
(20:04):
there's a Nexus and it's amazing.
Steely Dan 3 from Yokohama. It's in Is it Naked lunch?
Oh, OK. Oh, William S Burroughs.
Yes, right. Or Hunter Thompson.
Yeah, it's a apparently there's some graphic scenes and it is
Burroughs I believe, but Steely Dan's the name of the steam
powered dildo, which is fitting.This is about as interesting to
(20:29):
me as steam powered dildo and isuseful.
Yes. And so we were we were joking
about the song Deacon Blues. Now Deacon Blues in particular.
Yeah. A little bit of background on
this earlier this week. I'm out doing the things that I
do. I get a steampunk dildos.
(20:49):
I get a text from E being talking about Deacon Blues.
I can't take it anymore. I got to take a break.
This is horrible. And now viewers, slash listeners
will recall that there's a huge,the biggest gap between us
musically is the 70s. Yes, 100%.
There's a lot of 70s stuff I love, sometimes for nostalgia,
sometimes for the music. And he generally will not like,
(21:11):
that's right. And I'm thinking this is another
example of that. And I'm like, I have the
greatest hits. It's not that bad.
I go, I'm going to get home. I'm going to listen to him and
be like, come on, you're going. Deacon.
(21:53):
But then I did give Deacon Bluesa listen immediately, like in
the car before I even got home. And it starts to repeat itself.
Yes, again, there's nothing interesting happening.
The lyrics are horrible. Oh, horrible.
And I get 3 minutes in and I've heard the chorus, maybe the
second, maybe third time, whatever.
And I look at the the thing, thelittle bar, and I'm like, it's 7
(22:15):
1/2 minutes long. There's actually a line in this
song that says sue me if I play too long, I will see you in
court, motherfucker, because that song was much longer than
it needed to be. Holy shit, no, I, I literally, I
wrote down a quote of I quoted myself because out loud I got 2
1/2 minutes into it and I said out loud to no one down here in
(22:36):
the extended play studios. Oh, I fucking hate it.
Like I needed to hear it to validate myself, my own
feelings. Yes, yeah, it does.
It's the it's at its worst when it's the smooth 70s yacht rock
without any of the sort of whiteboy soul.
Right, right. So the vocals are terrible on
(22:59):
this album. They are double tracked,
unemotional bullshit that is notinteresting to me at all.
The dude can't really sing, but not even in like in a charming
way, right, right. It's just there's nothing again,
nothing for me to grab onto until we get to I got the news
and I hear a little Michael McDonald in the background.
(23:19):
I'm like, no, there's a fucking guy who's in this seemingly in
this world, kind of maybe not jazz fusion, but.
And there's some soul in his voice.
Like it is possible to make easily digestible music.
Yeah, right. That you can put on the
background that does still have soul.
Yeah. OK.
This is not it. No, yeah.
(23:40):
By track 6. So bored.
Yep. Thank God it's a 7 tracks. 7
tracks, but like almost 7 minutes at all for all the
songs. Yeah, it was a fucking rough.
It was a. Slog.
I mean the only to be bright spots.
I mean, relatively speaking, yeah, Black cow was at least a
little bit funky. It's funky.
Peg is fine. It's it's daylight.
(24:02):
I only like it because it's a daylight, but it's at least it's
like it's a pleasant box of sorts.
Yeah, I like your bitch. I keep it with your little.
It back to you.
(24:40):
Hey, we'll come. Back to you.
So by the time I got to the end of the album, I'm like, all
right, I know what they're abouthere and I might respect it.
I just don't like it. Yeah, yes, yeah, that's fair.
You know, there's a they've madea lane.
It's a lane that it OK, it exists again, it's the hyper
produced, yes, meticulous, but again, it sucks the life out of
it. I I agree that's how we feel
(25:01):
about it. So yeah, that's how we feel
about it. Yeah.
What do you feel about it? Let us know what we're missing
if I mean, we said all the things that we're supposed to
know. I'm sure there's a Steely Dan
fan that's going to give us a fucking asshole an ass full of
Steely Dan. That's even the greatest hits.
(25:22):
I've had an asshole of Steely Dan, I'll tell you that much.
I don't need any more. But I mean, yeah, come at us in
the comments. Let us know what you think about
this record. What are we missing?
Is there something akin to this that we should have listened to
instead? Right.
Maybe there's a better example of this jazz fusion type stuff.
I don't know. Yeah.
Let us know. Boz Skaggs.
Maybe. Sure, now it's time for the EP
(25:47):
10. Today we're counting down the
top 10 best use of samples and this comes from the inspiration
comes from listening to that piece of shit album Asia by
Steely Dan and the two prominentsongs Black Cow and Pegas were
that were used for hip hop samples.
So. And then today, not a countdown,
no, we're these are just 10 'cause it's not so much like
(26:10):
this is good or bad, it's just sample.
I took the approach of where arethe samples most prominent?
OK, cool. Where are the songs?
That is nothing without the sample.
OK, and you just chose 10 Diddy songs, 5 Diddy songs.
You thought about it? You could have.
Yeah. OK, well the first one I went
with was a song called Pearl by Chapter House.
(26:31):
Chapter House is a 90s shoegazy.Type thing.
I liked it. I was going to ask you who that
was. Yeah.
(27:11):
And this song doesn't sound likethey sound like.
Typically I won't buy the album.And I thought of it because
they're touring again for the first time in a long time.
Pearl contains. It's the drum samples that get
me. I'm sure you heard it too.
I initially I recognized the drum sample from Susie and the
Banshees. Kiss them for me.
That's not the origin. The origin is from Hold Up, Wait
(27:34):
for it, Hold Up. It's from a Schooly D song.
(28:01):
understand A1 homeboy became a man.
As for the way. No, yeah, that.
Well, there's that that's got tobe sampled and that is 176 songs
contain that sample. The other major drum sample is
from when the Levee Breaks. Oh, nice.
The whole thing is when the levee breaks, which is really
cool. I think anytime you take you do
a genre swap, like what hip hop song takes a Hard Rock or
(28:24):
however you, you know what I mean, you mix it up.
I think it's fun. The first one that I have on my
list, no particular order is Tribe Called Quest.
Can I kick it? But she never lost her head,
(29:31):
even when she was giving head. She says hey babe, take a walk
on the wild side, said hey. Babe.
Take a walk on the wild side. Again, there's that is the song
matter of fact, if you just played that bass slide.
Yeah. I would say 70% of people are
(29:52):
going to go that's try to call Quest song.
Oh really? And like the origin so heavily
used in in the sample that I think people wouldn't.
A lot of people don't even know of the original.
Probably not. My second choice is a song
called Hit Him with the He. Which I was not aware of until
today. The remix.
The extended remix by Missy Elliott featuring Lil' Kim and
(30:12):
someone named Mocha. I don't know who what part Mocha
handles in this song. What made me think of this was I
was listening to the song Yoga by Bjork, which I've gone on
record saying I love the stringsat the beginning of the song and
throughout. And halfway through, hit him
(31:03):
with the he. The song just stops.
And then the yoga strings come in.
Yeah. And then Timberland starts
rapping over. Yes.
And he does the sort of Mounds Almond Joy bit where sometimes I
feel like making a beat, sometimes I don't.
(31:49):
know? I was wondering what the hell is
going on with that? And so he didn't feel like
making a beat, he just took the yoga thing and just lifted it
entirely and then did some program jumps over it.
There's also a random horse sample throughout the song I.
Noticed that? Yeah, it's fair.
That's what you were going for. Pretty odd, yeah, Yeah.
But really fun. Really fun.
There's also an Al Green sample in the song.
(32:09):
But yeah, the fun thing for me is the Bjork sample.
My next one is Nothing but Samples, and it's a song about
stealing samples. It's Ice Cube jacking for beats,
which is a really fun song. It is a fun I can't believe I
didn't think. I haven't thought about that
song in years and it's fantastic.
You. Give me that beat, fool.
It's duck like.
(33:00):
That it's like it's if you haven't heard it, it's Ice Cube
basically, you know, saying it'sgoing to Jack you for your
beats, but it's maybe 10 or 12. Just classic hip hop songs.
And every few bars he goes from one, like from Humpty Dance to
Welcome to the Terror Dome and you know, just one, one after
another. He just raps over it and it
actually blends way better than it has any right to.
(33:22):
Yes, and it is so ahead of its time.
Like this is pre hip hop mixtapes really right It's true
where they just would lift beatsfrom other like that's why it
couldn't be official because youwere lifting somebody else's
beat, right. He just I guess paid for all of
it, right? He bought.
Story jacked him. Story jacked him.
Yeah, yeah, he specifically saidit was a full time Jack move.
(33:43):
Full time, I mean, yeah, not part time to put everything else
on hold over 32 hours of jacking.
Which, by the way, is also how Irefer to most of my weekends.
Whether Steely Dan is involved or not.
No. Well then it's who's doing the
jacking at that point at. Least you either do the jacking
(34:03):
or you're the one game. You're getting jacked.
My next choice is the song GloryBox by Portishead and this is
for the Ike's rap. I apologize now
(34:41):
one that can straighten it. Sample the strings.
It's entirely again, entirely lifted from Ike's rap 2 by Isaac
Hayes. And then also there's this I did
not pick up on. There's a small, there's a lot
of little tiny samples in in Portishead's music, right?
You're hearing like a little tiny drop here and there.
They do sample a song by Clarence Wheeler and the
(35:04):
Enforcers called Hey Jude. Really.
(35:41):
And. It's Hey Jude, but it's like a
funk version of it and they justcherry pickle.
It's pretty awesome. Like I would recommend listening
to it. Yeah.
Do you? Want to make that the your
playlist song? I could, but I'm not going to
all. Right.
That's his right. Yeah, that's his right.
Oh, by the way, sorry, that songis also sampled in the song
Dwick, which, you know, that's Gang Star.
(36:03):
OK, great, nice. Or maybe both.
Nice and smooth and then back tothe grill.
All nice. Back to the grill again.
The grill again. Speaking of on the same time
frame, contemporaries, My third one is DJ Jazzy Jeff and The
Fresh Prince Summertime. You know what?
He made a lot of money off lifting songs that no one
(36:27):
realized he was lifting. OK, for instance like forget me
not. Oh, right, right.
Like. A lot of songs that were not so
Wild West exactly. Yeah, sure.
So this is one that I, I didn't know, I don't know how much of
it was lifted, but definitely that the noise that you're
thinking of for this song, that kind of that'd be a drop if we
(36:49):
were still doing drops. Yeah.
From Kool and the Gang Summer Madness.
(37:11):
Yeah, which is my choice for theextended playlist because that's
just it's, it's as funky as the day is long.
Excellent. Yeah, We need more funk in our
lives. Yeah, we do.
My next choice is by Alt J. It's called Hunger of the Pine.
Take. You have an Alt J album?
I do. I have a relaxer.
OK, This is not this. Is that a song?
I think Relaxer is the name of the album, Yes.
(37:32):
OK this is not on that. I don't remember what alt Ji
think. It's on the second Alt J album.
I like alt J. They're weird.
Then two vocalists who are very different from each other, often
the same in the course of one song.
Anyway, there's a Miley Cyrus sample in this song.
(38:19):
It doesn't one I'm the female rebel.
Like females can't be rebel. It's a weird sample to use in a
(39:02):
sort of like an indie rock avant-garde type type of song.
It turns out that one of the guys from Alt J produced a Miley
Cyrus album or a couple tracks and so he liked this way this
lyric sounded so he put it in the song.
The song it's lifted from is called 4x4.
It's featuring Nelly. It's a piece of shit song.
(39:24):
OK I mean it's Miley Cyrus a piece of shit song that includes
the lyrics. Driving so fast, bout to piss on
myself so it's it's so weird. I do not recommend you listen to
that song or maybe listen to it.Is the bout to piss why they're
driving fast or they're driving so fast like the centripetal
forest is gonna pull the urine out of their urethra?
(39:45):
Possibly both. I don't know.
I didn't look that deeply into it.
OK, you know, all right, Yeah. Good time.
Anyway. Hunger.
The pine's still. A good song despite all that.
My penultimate choice is VanillaIce Ice ice baby.
I mean pretty obvious under pressure.
Remember when he tried to pawn off that?
(40:05):
That's not what he had. So good, we can.
You can. See it right now in your mind's
eye. I know you can't.
That grainy MTV News with him and his stupid shaved eyebrow
going, you know, it's you know what I'm talking about.
And he's. But I never caught that.
He's winking and smiling the whole time.
Really. He's like, right, Of course it's
lifted. Yeah, yeah.
Again, I think we talked about before, that was our
(40:26):
introduction to that song. Sadly, we're of that generation
that we didn't know about Under Pressure till we heard Nice Ice
Baby. Yeah, my final choice.
I think that's my this is my final choice.
I believe it is my. Final choice is Cypress Hill
hand on the pump. Fucking great song.
(41:04):
It made my very short list of myfavorite hip hop songs.
I have a playlist somewhere. It's the Duke of Earl, which
starts the song off, which is like a whatever 50s Doo wop
song, essentially. So and and an incredibly popular
song that was like in the culture and then just completely
repurposed for hand on the pump,which is, you know, essentially
(41:26):
about shooting people, right. There are a number of samples in
that song. DJ Muggs was on his shit.
He was jacking for beats. He was the song Shotgun the
Junior Walker and his All Star song.
You know that one. OK, a song called Cold Feet by
Albert King, which is a Blues song, the song Tramp by Otis
Redding, which it has that sample tramp.
(41:48):
You heard another thousand 90s hip hop songs, but the one that
is going to make the playlist injust a minute that they sample
from is Theme from the Black Hole by Parliament.
And it is. Talk about funky.
A toast to the booty. I'm going to quote it here in a
(42:27):
minute. Once I pull it up and it's, it's
pretty explicit. OK.
Also, that song happens to be sampled on.
I looked, I've looked and who sampled the theme from the Black
Hole, which is about booty, which many Parliament songs are
about. It is sampled on 69 songs really
well. There should be a ban on
(42:47):
sampling. They should.
That's it, no more. Samples then my final choice a
little bit different than the previous four.
The the previous four I was saying OK which which songs
would be nothing without the sample.
This last one, the sample is small part of the song time
wise, but the only part of the song you remember right which is
Information Society. What's on your mind?
(43:07):
Parentheses. Pure energy?
That's really if you just. I do wonder how popular would
(43:30):
the song be if you just took that sample out.
Not at all, right? Probably it'd be a a middling
80's pop song exactly, but it was a kind of a big hit.
I I just, I can't think of a song where such a short, yeah,
non sequitur sample has such a big impact on the lasting effect
of the song. Yeah.
And famously, it's Leonard Nimoy, right?
(43:52):
Yes. Yeah.
It's like from Star Trek, I think.
Yeah. Yep.
Cool, that's it. What?
What are your favorite songs that are mostly made-up of
samples or what are your favorite samples using songs?
Any or all of the above? Let us know in the comments.
I will make a playlist of this and put it in the show notes so
you can all listen to this pretty awesome and diverse
sampling of music. And now it's time for the
(44:15):
extended playlist where we boil down everything we just talked
about into a palatable, edible, munchable, crunchable list of
five songs for you to enjoy the hell out of.
All right, so we're going to include Peg off of Asia because
we both agree that album is largely unpleasant.
So that's what we've both been described as before.
(44:37):
Exactly. So that's that.
Then from the sample list, you know, we talked about kind of
giving some credit to shout out to the the source of these songs
that we cited for mine Kool and the Gang Summer Madness.
Yeah, excited to listen to that.And something that will dovetail
nicely with that, which is themefrom the Black Hole by
(44:57):
Parliament, which is all about that booty and it's as funky as
you could possibly get. That was sampled in hand on the
pump by Cypress Hill. Yes.
And in case you missed that lyrically, the lyrical genius
here from George Clinton and thegroup.
Quote. Quote a toast to the booty.
Feel that. Do that for How else can you
(45:18):
capture a boogie if you don't attack from the back?
I mean, that's my yearbook quote.
One of life's great questions, it's true.
How can you? And then for our wild cards,
where we kind of just pick a song, it's random, but also kind
of feels the vibe of the show. Yeah, I went with the number
song by DJ Shadow, 1/2. 345 breakdown
(46:04):
Of course, I'm biased because Metallica's baseline for Orion
is kind of the spine of that song.
But samples everywhere, yeah. You know, kind of a classic of
that genre. Yeah, Orion mentioned in our
previous episode about our favorite instrumentals.
Yes, Yeah, Orion, everywhere. Yeah, I chose a song called
Primitive by Real Estate becauseit is this sort of non offensive
(46:25):
vibe, almost like modern yacht rock, which I prefer greatly to
any piece of dog shit that was on Asia so.
(47:07):
You can make inoffensive, sort of pleasant music.
Right, Right. And I will still like it.
It's not a SO anyway. Yeah, primitive by real estate.
All right, well, we will. We'll go take a rest and prepare
for the onslaught of angry 60 year old men telling us we're
ugly and stupid where we can putour steely dance.
Yeah, exactly. And spoiler, I beat you to it.
(47:30):
But that's it for this episode. That's right.
We'll be back next week with another one and keep coming
back. Like subscribe Patreon.
Yes, Patreon. You get an.
Extended overextended playlist of 10 songs.
More booty, more dildos. Sure.
More extended play. See you next week, folks.
It's extended play, renewing your passion. 5 songs at a time.
I'm E. I'm Tank, but you can call me
Deacon Blues. Do I have to?
No, I don't. Think I'd rather you didn't.
Yeah. More on that later.
Yes, that was an emergency text.Yeah, that was preparation.
Yeah, that was bad. Yeah.
We're going to get to the SteelyDan album Asia with our again,
(00:43):
non our UN review, right of justour thoughts and telling you if
you need to listen to it or not,right.
We're going to talk about the best use of samples and songs is
the EP 10. But first, we, like everyone
else, have noticed the avalancheof there's there's two very big
stories that are very much in the same vein right now, and
that is the NFL slash Roc Nation's announcement of the
(01:05):
Super Bowl performer being Bad Bunny and Zach Bryan catching
all kinds of heat from his ostensibly his core audience.
Oh, he's always kind of straddled the middle.
He he has, right. It's complicated because of his
veteran status and the fact he'sin the country world, but yeah.
Sure, but they you know his antiice.
(01:27):
I don't know what the whole songis.
I. Saw a teaser?
Yeah, it's a teaser, Yeah. Basically just saying, hey, just
don't fucking traumatize kids and take them from their
parents. Apparently that's controversial
in 2025. That's right.
So they are it's it's birds of afeather.
And my take on it, I mean, the, the Zac Bryan thing, it's, it's,
(01:48):
it's encouraging because you know, you, you have your far
left country guys that we've, you know, whatever we've been
glazing for years now. And then the far right ones like
the Morgan Wallins that ourselves and Hayley Williams
will always hate and never really read.
But there's, there's a handful of these guys kind of in the
middle. It's like they're trying to play
both sides. So to see one of them taking a
stand is a bit too strong of a turn, 'cause he's still in the
(02:10):
reaction. He's still definitely trying to
play the middle. Yes.
He's like, it's 2 wings, but we're the same bird, right?
Yeah, but to see the middle start to give way is
encouraging. Absolutely, yeah.
Yeah. And the influence, The thing is
he is such an outsider in that sort of country world.
I think a lot of it from the recent, recent headlines is self
(02:30):
self induced because he just seems like it'd be an asshole
who nobody wants to work with anymore.
But you know, the these kind of artists that we like the Zach
Bryant, the Jason Isbell, the people that sit on the very
outside of country music, You wonder how much impact it could
possibly have on the larger sortof country listening audience
though I would say, you know, Zach Bryan, Zach Bryan played
(02:51):
Ford Field here in Detroit not that long ago.
I would assume that that was vast majority.
Was he the Michigan Stadium guy?Oh, yeah, sorry.
Yeah. Michigan Stadium.
Yeah. Like 112 like yeah.
Set the world the world record. Yeah, they, you know, Ish.
Yeah. Right.
Yeah. OK, so yeah, I stand corrected.
But yeah. But the point being, my guess is
that the vast majority of that audience leans a certain way
(03:13):
politically, and it's Oh yeah, when we disagree with it.
Yeah, I'd say it's 40%, OK, Girls that used to be in
sororities with cowboy hats, that's a thing.
And the other 60%? Trump voters, yeah.
Country Country concerts are costume parties, which I think
is. Very odd, just especially here
in the north, like almost as farnorth as you can go.
(03:34):
Like what's funny about this stuff?
And again, it just, it speaks tohow irrelevant the music is to
me. It's just like Jimmy Buffett or
this other shit. It's like, it's not about the
music. It's I want to go cosplay for
three hours, which is fine, it'sfine.
But like these are the same people.
Like they would shit on like D&Dplayers or like furries or
something. It's to me, it's the exact same
(03:54):
as a furry convention. You're getting dressed up to go
do something with other people that like to dress up.
Yeah. And it's yeah, OK.
And people out from the outside don't understand.
It come on, you're you're a fucking account payable analyst
and then you have a pair of cowboy, but for what?
For when you got a round up steer on Saturday?
Fucking stupid it is. Strange.
(04:15):
It is strange. So Speaking of stupid, yeah, in
addition to that, the the Super Bowl choice of Bad Bunny.
Now, I was originally disappointed.
If it was ever going to be Metallica, it was going to be
this year. So I.
I didn't. Know but there had been rumors
circulating and it sounds like Metallica are their their own
biggest advocates for this that they essentially will like
whisper things in the press to like get people to invite them
(04:36):
so they they the first two timesthey were approached there they
said no I mean not that they were the choice but their
management was approached got itit's every time the Super Bowl's
in San Francisco. Oh, OK, They get approached, get
a local show. Yes.
Yeah. So it's in San and, you know,
clock's running on their feasibility to do it.
And they basically said, yeah, we'll do it.
OK. But OK.
(04:57):
But they will not. They insist on playing live.
And the Super Bowl is like, you are not gonna play live.
And that's what the deal breakerhas always been.
They won't play to a track. Super Bowl requires it.
Gotcha. OK, OK, so the best you could do
at the Super Bowl is vocals live, everything else to a
track. OK.
So that's why you see like guitars aren't even plugged in
half the time. Yes, yes.
(05:18):
And I don't know how they could.Of course they could pull it
off, but I don't know. I'm I'm fine with that.
Yeah, I think that's a fine stance to take.
I don't know that I even want tosee it.
What am I gonna get out of it? What are their fans gonna get
out of it, right? Right, Yes, you're gonna get.
What you're gonna get is a medley.
You're gonna get. Enter Sandman.
Nothing else matters. But like, because those songs
are so long, they're gonna have to build them into one.
It'd be funny if they just did like Orion and Shortest Straw
(05:40):
and then left anyway, but OK. So they announced Bad Bunny.
OK. I was completely agnostic about
the choice. I understand why he is what he
is. I I wouldn't know one Bad Bunny
song, and that's not an exaggeration.
Yeah, that's probably true for me too.
Yeah. I'm sure it's fine for some
people. To me, it all sounds the same.
(06:02):
A lot of his kind of music. OK, yeah, whatever.
I'm going to go take a piss. Like yeah, it just cracks me up
the the term snowflake and how it's supposed to apply to people
of our ilk. Right, right, right.
And it's like the amount of shitwe can let roll of our back
because it doesn't affect me. Absolutely.
Versus how apocalyptic. Is that a word?
(06:25):
I think that is the word apoplectic.
Sure, whatever. Tomato.
Tomato that that the Trumper type people get when something
just doesn't go their way. It doesn't even negatively
affect that it just doesn't go their way Yeah and they they
literally cry and whine I know and say this has to change now
(06:45):
what I I cannot wait to see is and and is gaining momentum is
the alternative halftime show. Oh yeah, yeah, sure.
So the fact that they are. Legitimately talking about Lee
Greenwood, that's so great. The speaker of the House said we
should. I would rather see somebody like
Lee Greenwood. Like is he going to do?
What's God? Bless the USA.
(07:06):
Yeah, God bless the USA Five times.
I mean, because what else is he going to do?
Is he going to? Does he need a nap halfway
through the performance? So weird.
Who wants to hear what politicians are recommending for
the musical act? Like, who's asking for that?
Who wants to know? Just like you know, and and so
then Creed was oh really? Yes, so the the room, so turning
point USA. Oh yeah.
(07:27):
No comment. Yeah, right.
Is they've confirmed they're going to put on a show.
OK. And the lead speculation was
Creed. OK, sure.
But then people pointed out that's impossible because Alter
Bridge, which is everyone in Creed but Scott Stapp, right,
has a show in Barcelona that night.
OK, so it's not happening. It's not going to be Creed
unless it is Scott Stapp solo Incredible.
(07:50):
Don't rule it out. Folks, don't.
No, don't. Like what?
OK, so you get him nudes. Like even if like even if
politically, OK, if I'm one of these people and I'm sitting and
I'm and I'm and I'm cheering on this development.
If you have even remotely decentartistic tastes, how do you not
look at that line of a go, man? Why do our guys suck?
Yeah we've talked about this before we never really dug in,
(08:13):
but I what a mind fuck that mustbe right, right 'cause we're all
the time you see like OK, so more middle of the road liberals
will be like we need to just like slow down You can't hate
the other side. We have to have dialogue and
this kind of stuff. We.
That is a thing. Like if I was sitting down and
talking with someone about music, there's no bridge there
(08:34):
for me. It's either everything good.
Yeah. Or Kid Rock and Lee Green would
that. That's it.
Yeah. It's what would the, you know,
extended family. If you are right leaning or full
right and you love music, what does this do?
You just have to divorce yourself entirely from all just
(08:55):
politics. It's all art.
It's all art. So it it's the exact same thing
that I, I would get drunk and have this argument in France all
the time. Oh, interesting is, you know, we
go to the bar, we get drunk. I'm the only American there.
So I become the sounding board for.
Here's what I don't like about your country.
Sure. Now, like you say that.
Yeah, all night, all music. They're not playing Daft Punk
(09:16):
for five hours, right? That.
'D be cool if they did but you're.
Listening to American Music. And on the way here, I walk past
3 cinemas, all American movies. Yeah.
So what if you hate us so much, right?
Why do you consume only our, let's say, current modern art,
right? Not sure.
Sure. Same thing with MAGA.
It's like you should be listening to nothing, but how do
you not the cognitive dissonanceof like, I really like this art.
(09:40):
Yeah, but I hate what they standfor.
How much of that can you tolerate before you start to
question right, why am I on thisside?
Because it's all because the thebeliefs are all embedded in the
art, right? Right.
It is. It's all in there.
It's in the music, it's in the physical art.
It that art doesn't get made if you don't believe the certain
things you do. No, it's, I mean the reason why.
(10:02):
I mean, the shortest explanationI've seen for why is it that all
successful entertainers, and that's not even an overstatement
really, what say that you did a right wing comedy fest?
Oh yeah, we got Rob Schneider. Yeah, Harlan, whatever his name
is, yeah. I mean, right, Joe Rogan.
Joe. Rogan Yeah, so good art requires
(10:24):
empathy. Yes.
You need to be empathetic and sympathetic to other people are
going through that. That is so incredible with not a
yes. If you had empathy you wouldn't
be OK with so much of what's going.
On you wouldn't say one of the first things out of your mouth
wouldn't be with bad when bad money performs at the Super Bowl
halftime where they're going to do ice raids on the parking lot.
(10:46):
Like it's just disgusting. And that, I mean, we're not even
touching on the race part of it,which is just so fucking
disgusting. Dude.
I know it gets you all riled. Up.
No, but like, OK, just if if you're if you're watching this,
go to your Facebook page. If you don't have an account,
make one and just browse around for comments.
The number of people who say that he should be deported back
(11:08):
to Puerto Rico, Right. You've ignorant dip shits.
It is mind blowing. Yeah.
And then and then if you catch them on it, they'll say, oh, but
it's not part of America. Told me there is Alaska, right?
So like there's no it's just thefact that he's an American
citizen. Yep.
Just blows their mind. Blows their mind because it's
brown and sings in Spanish. Yeah, that's it.
(11:29):
Big fucking deal. Yeah, now shout out to the
people of Chicago, the best cityin the United States.
That's the truth. Because with all this ice shit
going on, I was watching video the other day that people are
driving behind them and Hawking and alerting everyone that
they're coming. Yeah, they even saved a guy who
was being like, they were takinghim down.
They they got him out of there. And there's a there's a super
cut of I got to find it. And so you can link to it.
(11:51):
Yeah, but it, it juxtaposes Trump talking about how Portland
is burning and it's terrible with all this footage of people
in like inflatable costumes, like gyrating in front of the
ice people. They're doing the the Electric
Slide. I think things are fine there.
Yeah, they're doing great and. Pritzker is killing it too, by
(12:11):
the way. He's basically doing the Hayley
Williams Find me at Whole Foods.Bitch like to trump into the
camera. It's so good.
No, I'm I'm cautiously optimistic that people have
finally figured out. You know, like, again, usually
it's the the person that barks the most that has no bite, and
they're starting to realize a little bit of pushback.
Yeah. And this goes away.
Yeah. So what do you think about the
Super Bowl halftime show again? We're not Bad Bunny's not
(12:33):
targeting his music at us. It's like, for us, we're not
interested in it. But who gives a shit, right?
The numbers don't lie. I'll watch the Puppy Bowl.
Yeah, sure. Or I'll watch it and see, like,
what's this guy all about? Yeah, right.
What's the performance? The fucking pyro.
It'd be awesome. Yeah, anyway, what do you think?
Let us know in the comments. So just like Bad Bunny, same
core audience, Steely Dan. I mean old white guys do have
(12:58):
opinions on both. That's true.
That's true. So we're gonna talk about the
Asia. Yeah, this, of course, is a
classic in our classic crate current trifecta, Yeah, of
choices of albums to talk about.And we're not rating it, we're
not reviewing it. It's not giving a score.
We're just telling you if we think you, the faithful extended
(13:19):
play viewer slash listener, should go check it out.
Yes. So what were your thoughts?
Well, we hadn't. Again, that's that's a big
thing. We had not checked it out.
We'd heard the name over and over again.
Tank, you said you had a greatest hits.
Songs would come on once in a while.
OK, I knew the name. I knew there.
There's like a nerdy side of social media where there's like
white dudes who are like jammingout to Steely Dan and their and
(13:41):
their spouses don't get it and stuff like that.
Right. I've heard the reputation it has
as being Florida State produced.That that's my only experience
is that they this album in particular is treated as a
reference work. If you're buying a $50,000
stereo, you play this, got it. OK, because it you can hear
everything and OK, so that's my only and that's why I liked it
(14:02):
because that that's me. If I had more money, I'd have
that kind of stereo. That'd be pretty cool.
Yeah. Yeah.
This is going to be divisive, I think for our fans and between
us probably a little bit as well, which is fine.
That's that's why we'd kind of do this, right?
That's what makes this thing work.
We agree sometimes, we don't agree other times, but we'll see
where we land on this one. OK, so in our rating, not
(14:22):
rating. It's not a rating, it's a
recommendation. It's a recommendation.
Should everyone listen to this? Should fans of the genre listen
to this? Which is most people.
Yes, yeah, sure. Should fans of the artist only
listen to this and should or should no one listen to this?
And I'm going to come in with fans of the genre, if the genre
(14:45):
is. What is the genre?
It's not yacht rock because that's not fair.
Fusion Jazz. Fusion jazz, Sure, if you're
into that stuff. If you're into anything that
sounds like Steely Dan, I think you should listen to this
record. So my rating, yeah, is that no
one should listen to it. Excellent.
Now with an asterisk. Yeah, yeah.
(15:06):
That's not to say it's bad, although I kind of think it is
the reason I say no one, it's taking our audience into account
and just one watching this. Good point.
Needs to listen to Steely Dan. That's correct.
If so, I'm not saying no one in the world needs to listen to.
But if you're watching this, youare probably.
I'm not going to say middle of the road in a negative way.
(15:28):
Yeah, but the music you consume is not.
You're not going to like Steely Dan because I didn't.
Yes, Right. So, you know, if you like, thus
you like, blah, blah, blah. Birds of a feather and all, but
the kind of people who end up liking Steely Dan, it's not
because someone told them about it.
Oh, interesting. OK.
I feel like these are audio files.
OK, jazz enthusiasts. Musicians themselves musicians.
(15:51):
Themselves, Yeah, they are goingto find Steely Dan.
Yeah, yeah. Without our help, right?
Yeah. And they're not watching us.
Anyway, Steely Dan, I don't think it's the kind of band that
it's like, oh, someone said I should check it out.
I really liked it. No, you find it on your own
because you are really into someaspect of music.
Sure, that's that's fair. So that's why I say no one, and
also it's not very good. Well, that's and that's the
thing. Mine is a qualified fans of the
(16:12):
genre too, because I did not enjoy this.
I did not enjoy it really in anyway that I can measure other
than it was nice to be reminded of two hip hop songs and
listening to this. That was that was the best part
for me. I never thought I'd be so
excited to hear a clip from LordTariq and Peter Gunz, but Uptown
(16:33):
Baby, which is the first, the first song is Black Cow, right?
And it's got that. It's the entire bass line.
First song on Asia is a song called Black Cow in the.
(17:12):
funky jazzy beat that Lord 3 computer guns just completely
repurposed for Uptown Baby, and My first note listening to this
(17:54):
was this must be what Rush sounds like to eat.
Yes, yes. 100% you're having thesame experience you mean?
Right. I'm like, I'm like, I don't
enjoy this at all. It's and it just seems like just
awkward and not fun and not interesting and I'm like, I bet
this is what he hears when he hears Rush.
Yes like to me, Rush and Steely Dan completely different, but I
(18:14):
could totally see how someone would be like.
It's just like that. I don't like it.
Yes yeah, the what I some of my key takeaways were OK, like the
production side of it. I must.
I came away feeling kind of stupid because I'm like, I don't
get it. Like there must be a lot going
on. Maybe it's because I don't have
(18:35):
the nice stereo or I just, I don't understand enough about
music production, but this albumsounded so incredibly sterile to
me. Oh yeah, and mid and vanilla and
nothing that engaged me or made me feel anything.
Right. It's like they engineered the
passion. Out of it, yes.
Yes, like it all takes place in a vacuum and.
(18:56):
So I couldn't connect with, I couldn't connect with any of the
lyrics. I couldn't connect with any.
I couldn't perceive any emotion behind the music or the lyrics.
So what was there for me to grabonto?
It was just slippery. And I didn't, I didn't get it
100%. Yeah, OK.
I mean, no, that's why I alludedto it earlier.
But you know, the bulk of my reverence or any positive bias
that I have for them, it came from their reputation, from
(19:18):
their production. But as a listening experience,
Straight cheeks. Straight cheeks, cheeks like
ass. OK, I like it.
Now, it's important to point outthis is critical.
Yeah, the name Steely Dan. OK.
You don't know this. I think I read it.
It's better than you think. OK, go for it.
It is a steam powered dildo. Jesus.
(19:42):
Christ, really. Yeah.
That's not OK. OK, wow, so I might be a little
bit wrong because I did some homework on this.
So Steely Dan, by the way, the homework he did is he was
looking for alternative power dildos and he stumbled upon the
Steely Dan. It's a rare time where my
obsession with sex toys and steampunk, every now and then
(20:04):
there's a Nexus and it's amazing.
Steely Dan 3 from Yokohama. It's in Is it Naked lunch?
Oh, OK. Oh, William S Burroughs.
Yes, right. Or Hunter Thompson.
Yeah, it's a apparently there's some graphic scenes and it is
Burroughs I believe, but Steely Dan's the name of the steam
powered dildo, which is fitting.This is about as interesting to
(20:29):
me as steam powered dildo and isuseful.
Yes. And so we were we were joking
about the song Deacon Blues. Now Deacon Blues in particular.
Yeah. A little bit of background on
this earlier this week. I'm out doing the things that I
do. I get a steampunk dildos.
(20:49):
I get a text from E being talking about Deacon Blues.
I can't take it anymore. I got to take a break.
This is horrible. And now viewers, slash listeners
will recall that there's a huge,the biggest gap between us
musically is the 70s. Yes, 100%.
There's a lot of 70s stuff I love, sometimes for nostalgia,
sometimes for the music. And he generally will not like,
(21:11):
that's right. And I'm thinking this is another
example of that. And I'm like, I have the
greatest hits. It's not that bad.
I go, I'm going to get home. I'm going to listen to him and
be like, come on, you're going. Deacon.
(21:53):
But then I did give Deacon Bluesa listen immediately, like in
the car before I even got home. And it starts to repeat itself.
Yes, again, there's nothing interesting happening.
The lyrics are horrible. Oh, horrible.
And I get 3 minutes in and I've heard the chorus, maybe the
second, maybe third time, whatever.
And I look at the the thing, thelittle bar, and I'm like, it's 7
(22:15):
1/2 minutes long. There's actually a line in this
song that says sue me if I play too long, I will see you in
court, motherfucker, because that song was much longer than
it needed to be. Holy shit, no, I, I literally, I
wrote down a quote of I quoted myself because out loud I got 2
1/2 minutes into it and I said out loud to no one down here in
(22:36):
the extended play studios. Oh, I fucking hate it.
Like I needed to hear it to validate myself, my own
feelings. Yes, yeah, it does.
It's the it's at its worst when it's the smooth 70s yacht rock
without any of the sort of whiteboy soul.
Right, right. So the vocals are terrible on
(22:59):
this album. They are double tracked,
unemotional bullshit that is notinteresting to me at all.
The dude can't really sing, but not even in like in a charming
way, right, right. It's just there's nothing again,
nothing for me to grab onto until we get to I got the news
and I hear a little Michael McDonald in the background.
(23:19):
I'm like, no, there's a fucking guy who's in this seemingly in
this world, kind of maybe not jazz fusion, but.
And there's some soul in his voice.
Like it is possible to make easily digestible music.
Yeah, right. That you can put on the
background that does still have soul.
Yeah. OK.
This is not it. No, yeah.
(23:40):
By track 6. So bored.
Yep. Thank God it's a 7 tracks. 7
tracks, but like almost 7 minutes at all for all the
songs. Yeah, it was a fucking rough.
It was a. Slog.
I mean the only to be bright spots.
I mean, relatively speaking, yeah, Black cow was at least a
little bit funky. It's funky.
Peg is fine. It's it's daylight.
(24:02):
I only like it because it's a daylight, but it's at least it's
like it's a pleasant box of sorts.
Yeah, I like your bitch. I keep it with your little.
It back to you.
(24:40):
Hey, we'll come. Back to you.
So by the time I got to the end of the album, I'm like, all
right, I know what they're abouthere and I might respect it.
I just don't like it. Yeah, yes, yeah, that's fair.
You know, there's a they've madea lane.
It's a lane that it OK, it exists again, it's the hyper
produced, yes, meticulous, but again, it sucks the life out of
it. I I agree that's how we feel
(25:01):
about it. So yeah, that's how we feel
about it. Yeah.
What do you feel about it? Let us know what we're missing
if I mean, we said all the things that we're supposed to
know. I'm sure there's a Steely Dan
fan that's going to give us a fucking asshole an ass full of
Steely Dan. That's even the greatest hits.
(25:22):
I've had an asshole of Steely Dan, I'll tell you that much.
I don't need any more. But I mean, yeah, come at us in
the comments. Let us know what you think about
this record. What are we missing?
Is there something akin to this that we should have listened to
instead? Right.
Maybe there's a better example of this jazz fusion type stuff.
I don't know. Yeah.
Let us know. Boz Skaggs.
Maybe. Sure, now it's time for the EP
(25:47):
10. Today we're counting down the
top 10 best use of samples and this comes from the inspiration
comes from listening to that piece of shit album Asia by
Steely Dan and the two prominentsongs Black Cow and Pegas were
that were used for hip hop samples.
So. And then today, not a countdown,
no, we're these are just 10 'cause it's not so much like
(26:10):
this is good or bad, it's just sample.
I took the approach of where arethe samples most prominent?
OK, cool. Where are the songs?
That is nothing without the sample.
OK, and you just chose 10 Diddy songs, 5 Diddy songs.
You thought about it? You could have.
Yeah. OK, well the first one I went
with was a song called Pearl by Chapter House.
(26:31):
Chapter House is a 90s shoegazy.Type thing.
I liked it. I was going to ask you who that
was. Yeah.
(27:11):
And this song doesn't sound likethey sound like.
Typically I won't buy the album.And I thought of it because
they're touring again for the first time in a long time.
Pearl contains. It's the drum samples that get
me. I'm sure you heard it too.
I initially I recognized the drum sample from Susie and the
Banshees. Kiss them for me.
That's not the origin. The origin is from Hold Up, Wait
(27:34):
for it, Hold Up. It's from a Schooly D song.
(28:01):
understand A1 homeboy became a man.
As for the way. No, yeah, that.
Well, there's that that's got tobe sampled and that is 176 songs
contain that sample. The other major drum sample is
from when the Levee Breaks. Oh, nice.
The whole thing is when the levee breaks, which is really
cool. I think anytime you take you do
a genre swap, like what hip hop song takes a Hard Rock or
(28:24):
however you, you know what I mean, you mix it up.
I think it's fun. The first one that I have on my
list, no particular order is Tribe Called Quest.
Can I kick it? But she never lost her head,
(29:31):
even when she was giving head. She says hey babe, take a walk
on the wild side, said hey. Babe.
Take a walk on the wild side. Again, there's that is the song
matter of fact, if you just played that bass slide.
Yeah. I would say 70% of people are
(29:52):
going to go that's try to call Quest song.
Oh really? And like the origin so heavily
used in in the sample that I think people wouldn't.
A lot of people don't even know of the original.
Probably not. My second choice is a song
called Hit Him with the He. Which I was not aware of until
today. The remix.
The extended remix by Missy Elliott featuring Lil' Kim and
(30:12):
someone named Mocha. I don't know who what part Mocha
handles in this song. What made me think of this was I
was listening to the song Yoga by Bjork, which I've gone on
record saying I love the stringsat the beginning of the song and
throughout. And halfway through, hit him
(31:03):
with the he. The song just stops.
And then the yoga strings come in.
Yeah. And then Timberland starts
rapping over. Yes.
And he does the sort of Mounds Almond Joy bit where sometimes I
feel like making a beat, sometimes I don't.
(31:49):
know? I was wondering what the hell is
going on with that? And so he didn't feel like
making a beat, he just took the yoga thing and just lifted it
entirely and then did some program jumps over it.
There's also a random horse sample throughout the song I.
Noticed that? Yeah, it's fair.
That's what you were going for. Pretty odd, yeah, Yeah.
But really fun. Really fun.
There's also an Al Green sample in the song.
(32:09):
But yeah, the fun thing for me is the Bjork sample.
My next one is Nothing but Samples, and it's a song about
stealing samples. It's Ice Cube jacking for beats,
which is a really fun song. It is a fun I can't believe I
didn't think. I haven't thought about that
song in years and it's fantastic.
You. Give me that beat, fool.
It's duck like.
(33:00):
That it's like it's if you haven't heard it, it's Ice Cube
basically, you know, saying it'sgoing to Jack you for your
beats, but it's maybe 10 or 12. Just classic hip hop songs.
And every few bars he goes from one, like from Humpty Dance to
Welcome to the Terror Dome and you know, just one, one after
another. He just raps over it and it
actually blends way better than it has any right to.
(33:22):
Yes, and it is so ahead of its time.
Like this is pre hip hop mixtapes really right It's true
where they just would lift beatsfrom other like that's why it
couldn't be official because youwere lifting somebody else's
beat, right. He just I guess paid for all of
it, right? He bought.
Story jacked him. Story jacked him.
Yeah, yeah, he specifically saidit was a full time Jack move.
(33:43):
Full time, I mean, yeah, not part time to put everything else
on hold over 32 hours of jacking.
Which, by the way, is also how Irefer to most of my weekends.
Whether Steely Dan is involved or not.
No. Well then it's who's doing the
jacking at that point at. Least you either do the jacking
(34:03):
or you're the one game. You're getting jacked.
My next choice is the song GloryBox by Portishead and this is
for the Ike's rap. I apologize now
(34:41):
one that can straighten it. Sample the strings.
It's entirely again, entirely lifted from Ike's rap 2 by Isaac
Hayes. And then also there's this I did
not pick up on. There's a small, there's a lot
of little tiny samples in in Portishead's music, right?
You're hearing like a little tiny drop here and there.
They do sample a song by Clarence Wheeler and the
(35:04):
Enforcers called Hey Jude. Really.
(35:41):
And. It's Hey Jude, but it's like a
funk version of it and they justcherry pickle.
It's pretty awesome. Like I would recommend listening
to it. Yeah.
Do you? Want to make that the your
playlist song? I could, but I'm not going to
all. Right.
That's his right. Yeah, that's his right.
Oh, by the way, sorry, that songis also sampled in the song
Dwick, which, you know, that's Gang Star.
(36:03):
OK, great, nice. Or maybe both.
Nice and smooth and then back tothe grill.
All nice. Back to the grill again.
The grill again. Speaking of on the same time
frame, contemporaries, My third one is DJ Jazzy Jeff and The
Fresh Prince Summertime. You know what?
He made a lot of money off lifting songs that no one
(36:27):
realized he was lifting. OK, for instance like forget me
not. Oh, right, right.
Like. A lot of songs that were not so
Wild West exactly. Yeah, sure.
So this is one that I, I didn't know, I don't know how much of
it was lifted, but definitely that the noise that you're
thinking of for this song, that kind of that'd be a drop if we
(36:49):
were still doing drops. Yeah.
From Kool and the Gang Summer Madness.
(37:11):
Yeah, which is my choice for theextended playlist because that's
just it's, it's as funky as the day is long.
Excellent. Yeah, We need more funk in our
lives. Yeah, we do.
My next choice is by Alt J. It's called Hunger of the Pine.
Take. You have an Alt J album?
I do. I have a relaxer.
OK, This is not this. Is that a song?
I think Relaxer is the name of the album, Yes.
(37:32):
OK this is not on that. I don't remember what alt Ji
think. It's on the second Alt J album.
I like alt J. They're weird.
Then two vocalists who are very different from each other, often
the same in the course of one song.
Anyway, there's a Miley Cyrus sample in this song.
(38:19):
It doesn't one I'm the female rebel.
Like females can't be rebel. It's a weird sample to use in a
(39:02):
sort of like an indie rock avant-garde type type of song.
It turns out that one of the guys from Alt J produced a Miley
Cyrus album or a couple tracks and so he liked this way this
lyric sounded so he put it in the song.
The song it's lifted from is called 4x4.
It's featuring Nelly. It's a piece of shit song.
(39:24):
OK I mean it's Miley Cyrus a piece of shit song that includes
the lyrics. Driving so fast, bout to piss on
myself so it's it's so weird. I do not recommend you listen to
that song or maybe listen to it.Is the bout to piss why they're
driving fast or they're driving so fast like the centripetal
forest is gonna pull the urine out of their urethra?
(39:45):
Possibly both. I don't know.
I didn't look that deeply into it.
OK, you know, all right, Yeah. Good time.
Anyway. Hunger.
The pine's still. A good song despite all that.
My penultimate choice is VanillaIce Ice ice baby.
I mean pretty obvious under pressure.
Remember when he tried to pawn off that?
(40:05):
That's not what he had. So good, we can.
You can. See it right now in your mind's
eye. I know you can't.
That grainy MTV News with him and his stupid shaved eyebrow
going, you know, it's you know what I'm talking about.
And he's. But I never caught that.
He's winking and smiling the whole time.
Really. He's like, right, Of course it's
lifted. Yeah, yeah.
Again, I think we talked about before, that was our
(40:26):
introduction to that song. Sadly, we're of that generation
that we didn't know about Under Pressure till we heard Nice Ice
Baby. Yeah, my final choice.
I think that's my this is my final choice.
I believe it is my. Final choice is Cypress Hill
hand on the pump. Fucking great song.
(41:04):
It made my very short list of myfavorite hip hop songs.
I have a playlist somewhere. It's the Duke of Earl, which
starts the song off, which is like a whatever 50s Doo wop
song, essentially. So and and an incredibly popular
song that was like in the culture and then just completely
repurposed for hand on the pump,which is, you know, essentially
(41:26):
about shooting people, right. There are a number of samples in
that song. DJ Muggs was on his shit.
He was jacking for beats. He was the song Shotgun the
Junior Walker and his All Star song.
You know that one. OK, a song called Cold Feet by
Albert King, which is a Blues song, the song Tramp by Otis
Redding, which it has that sample tramp.
(41:48):
You heard another thousand 90s hip hop songs, but the one that
is going to make the playlist injust a minute that they sample
from is Theme from the Black Hole by Parliament.
And it is. Talk about funky.
A toast to the booty. I'm going to quote it here in a
(42:27):
minute. Once I pull it up and it's, it's
pretty explicit. OK.
Also, that song happens to be sampled on.
I looked, I've looked and who sampled the theme from the Black
Hole, which is about booty, which many Parliament songs are
about. It is sampled on 69 songs really
well. There should be a ban on
(42:47):
sampling. They should.
That's it, no more. Samples then my final choice a
little bit different than the previous four.
The the previous four I was saying OK which which songs
would be nothing without the sample.
This last one, the sample is small part of the song time
wise, but the only part of the song you remember right which is
Information Society. What's on your mind?
(43:07):
Parentheses. Pure energy?
That's really if you just. I do wonder how popular would
(43:30):
the song be if you just took that sample out.
Not at all, right? Probably it'd be a a middling
80's pop song exactly, but it was a kind of a big hit.
I I just, I can't think of a song where such a short, yeah,
non sequitur sample has such a big impact on the lasting effect
of the song. Yeah.
And famously, it's Leonard Nimoy, right?
(43:52):
Yes. Yeah.
It's like from Star Trek, I think.
Yeah. Yep.
Cool, that's it. What?
What are your favorite songs that are mostly made-up of
samples or what are your favorite samples using songs?
Any or all of the above? Let us know in the comments.
I will make a playlist of this and put it in the show notes so
you can all listen to this pretty awesome and diverse
sampling of music. And now it's time for the
(44:15):
extended playlist where we boil down everything we just talked
about into a palatable, edible, munchable, crunchable list of
five songs for you to enjoy the hell out of.
All right, so we're going to include Peg off of Asia because
we both agree that album is largely unpleasant.
So that's what we've both been described as before.
(44:37):
Exactly. So that's that.
Then from the sample list, you know, we talked about kind of
giving some credit to shout out to the the source of these songs
that we cited for mine Kool and the Gang Summer Madness.
Yeah, excited to listen to that.And something that will dovetail
nicely with that, which is themefrom the Black Hole by
(44:57):
Parliament, which is all about that booty and it's as funky as
you could possibly get. That was sampled in hand on the
pump by Cypress Hill. Yes.
And in case you missed that lyrically, the lyrical genius
here from George Clinton and thegroup.
Quote. Quote a toast to the booty.
Feel that. Do that for How else can you
(45:18):
capture a boogie if you don't attack from the back?
I mean, that's my yearbook quote.
One of life's great questions, it's true.
How can you? And then for our wild cards,
where we kind of just pick a song, it's random, but also kind
of feels the vibe of the show. Yeah, I went with the number
song by DJ Shadow, 1/2. 345 breakdown
(46:04):
Of course, I'm biased because Metallica's baseline for Orion
is kind of the spine of that song.
But samples everywhere, yeah. You know, kind of a classic of
that genre. Yeah, Orion mentioned in our
previous episode about our favorite instrumentals.
Yes, Yeah, Orion, everywhere. Yeah, I chose a song called
Primitive by Real Estate becauseit is this sort of non offensive
(46:25):
vibe, almost like modern yacht rock, which I prefer greatly to
any piece of dog shit that was on Asia so.
(47:07):
You can make inoffensive, sort of pleasant music.
Right, Right. And I will still like it.
It's not a SO anyway. Yeah, primitive by real estate.
All right, well, we will. We'll go take a rest and prepare
for the onslaught of angry 60 year old men telling us we're
ugly and stupid where we can putour steely dance.
Yeah, exactly. And spoiler, I beat you to it.
(47:30):
But that's it for this episode. That's right.
We'll be back next week with another one and keep coming
back. Like subscribe Patreon.
Yes, Patreon. You get an.
Extended overextended playlist of 10 songs.
More booty, more dildos. Sure.
More extended play. See you next week, folks.
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