There are certainly plenty of things to be said about Can’t Buy A Thrill and most of those things have been repeated, but for our purposes that’s probably unnecessary. I might however say that perhaps the first volume of Every Steely Dan Song Ever shares a few things in common: the poppy, punky energy of something new, a certain looseness of theme, and of course the stern influence of one Billy Burroughs.
So it is with the next volume of ESDSE and its wellspring, Countdown to Ecstasy. One can imagine that there is a certain focus and intention born of freedom at the begiinning of the work… “We’ve shown them we can rock, and the kids wanted to dance to it, so let us do our things and show you we’re the real deal. And by ‘real deal’ I mean ‘weird’. ” So if we were to make a prediction based on some sort of houdou cultural entanglement, what can you expect from the second volume of ESDSE? It will be called fascinating, a classic, a sophomore step-up, and while none of the stories will by themselves be hits, the volume as a whole will be remembered as the best one of the early volumes, the first three, before the auto-da-fe.
Editor (and contributor) Garrett Cook and I are keen on how long this project will take. Personally, I am facing major health problems involving my brain and when actively working on this project was doing about a piece a month. At that rate ESDSE will finish July 16, 2020. Unacceptable. I’m going to screen out the sorrow and try to write more, but here’s where you come in…
I’d like to bring in some ace sidemen. Not to say that Garrett is “strictly union”- the opposite, in fact- but his talents as producer are invaluable. I know plenty of you out there love Steely Dan. Maybe not in the deep, metaphysical way that I do, but enough. And plenty of you out there are writers.So I invite you to come dance a sweet routine with me. The theme for Can’t Buy A Thrill is ‘post-apocalyptic’. Now, I know “King of the World” is the only track there that is explicitily PA, but try listening to the album with that as the first track. Do it. I dare you.
Get ‘holt of me on Facebook or comment here if you want to be involved in writing ESDSE and we’ll get it going.
The Imperial Youth Review 