Here’s a post that’s going to age fast because I’m going to use this space to reflect back for a moment on what a disaster the past year has been. I figure that by the end of January 2021, any further discussion about 2020 will result in a $500 fine, thirty days in jail and a twelve month ban from Twitter.
That wasn’t ever the plan; it’s way more fun to wax poetic about fantastic new music from freakishly talented/tragically neglected musicians and ignore the ignominy swirling all around (and fear not, I’ll get right back to doing that). But with a new Walter Becker track plopped on our laps to ring in the new year, it’s hard not to place his music within today’s context.
It’s taken circumstances brought on largely by human failings and resembling a dystopian world described in a cheap science fiction novel, but Millennials everywhere are reluctantly admitting that their Boomer dads were right all along about the luscious inventions of Steely Dan. Becker and Donald Fagen are goddamned oracles when society takes a dive toward depravity, willful ignorance and divisiveness, and when it drives you to the gates of cynicism, they are standing there smirking and asking you what took you so long to realize what any major dude could have told you from the start.
And now we have new stanzas to ponder over from the beyond, where one-half of that duo currently resides. Walter Becker recorded this demo for a ditty “Golden City” in 1994 right after he released Eleven Tracks of Whack, a song he had toiled over for a few years but never brought across the finish line. I’ll be the first to admit it needed some more work, yet it’s bristling with potential.
But within this stillborn song from 26 years ago, Becker leaves us with his take on the promise of a better year in 2021 (emphasis mine):
Last night I walked down to the near side of the river
There was a golden city shining in the sun
Where we all laughed and loved all our chump change sins forgiven
But you know me I’ll believe it when that day is come
Will a vaccine and a new sheriff in town bring about good times? It probably will and we should always hope for the best. But it’s too early start celebrating just yet. Don’t give Walter a reason to smirk at you again.
- Soft Machine – ‘Høvikodden 1971’ (2024) - June 24, 2024
- Aurora Nealand, Mark Helias, Tim Berne – ‘Live at the 188 Club’ (2024) - June 23, 2024
- Ron Miles – ‘Old Main Chapel’ (2024) - June 19, 2024
