Witness the spectacle of today’s inter-band email exchange:

From: KBilly
Subject: Zowie
To: “Mike”, “Scotty”, “Charley”
Date: Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 1:08 PM

http://www.ejthomashall.com/eventsearch/?title=Steely

From: Mike
Subject: Re: Zowie
To: “KBilly”
Cc: “Scotty”, “Charley”
Date: Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 1:51 PM

I like Steely Dan, but I’d only pay $61+ if they played “Can’t Buy a Thrill” in it’s entirety. Dirty Work, Midnight Cruiser, Reelin’ in the Years… come on, seriously, Aja had Peg and Josie and that’s about it. I mean I like those songs, but waaaay back in 1979 I decided to NOT buy Aja because it only had two songs I liked on it, which I got a copy of on cassette.

My first exposure to the world of Rock and Roll was when a neighbor gave us a Doors album and Can’t Buy a Thrill by Steely Dan. I’ve listened to Can’t Buy a Thrill at least 1,000 times, and I still can’t get enough of it.

“You’ve been telling me you’re a genius since you were 17, in all the time I’ve known you I still don’t know what you mean. The weekend at the college didn’t turn out as you planned. The things that pass for knowledge I just can’t understand.”

As if lyrics like aren’t enough, Jimmy Page once described the solo in that song as his all time favorite guitar solo. I’m gonna have to go listen to that again…

From: KBilly
Subject: Re: Re: Zowie
To: “Mike”, “Scotty”, “Charley”
Date: Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 3:40 PM

Now, see, I think Aja is the best Stilly record. Love every tune, and the whole thing has a great flow.  And get this: it was my first Stilly record.  hmmm, I sense a trend.  One’s first Stilly is one’s fave Stilly.

Alternative reply:  Peg and Josie?  Dude, EVERY song on Aja is a motherfucker.  You can take your Dirty Work and work your dirty peter with it.  I always thought that was CSNY, and I don’t like it any better since I’ve learned the truth.  In fact, now that I like CSNY, I feel bad having assigned it to them.  Of course, I thought Do It Again, was Santana, and Brown-Eyed Girl was the Stones.  Can’t Buy An Ear.

Anyway, everyone knows Kid Charlemagne is the best guitar solo ever.  Jimmy Page just didn’t hear the whole solo because all the notes wouldn’t fit through his speaker wires, or he wouldn’t have said that shit.

(OK, that comes from something some loser told me in high school:  Jimmy Page can play faster than Eddie Van Halen, but he plays so fast that not all the notes come through his guitar cable, that’s why it sounds sloppy, too.  The jackass meant it, and he suffered for it.)

Having seen the E Street Band play Born To Run last night, I now question the value of such antics.  I was pretty hyped when (after I already bought tix) I heard they were going to play that record.  So, maybe I was expecting too much.

The band was great (though it took them about an hour to relax and the kick drum was entirely too loud – echoing like a goddamned fireworks display)  If anything, I think they played TOO close to the record.  Come on, Clarence, you did 16 hours of takes for Bruce to comp that solo – don’t you remember ANY of the other lines you played?  Then again, motherfuckers would probably bitch if they stretched out and ‘took liberties’.

Aja wasn’t my first rock record by a long shot.  Someone gave me a cassette copy in 1990 and I didn’t listen to it for years.

My introduction to rock came when one of the kids from my block offered to sell me two records, but I could only afford one.  I chose Captured (Journey, double-live) over Paranoid.  At least Journey was a good band at that point…

Trivia: When DTS attempted to make a 5.1 version (of Aja), it was discovered that the multitrack masters for both “Black Cow” and the title track were missing. Donald Fagen has offered a $600 reward for the missing masters or any information that leads to their recovery.

$600.  Nice.