"Aja""Aja"The liner notes for "Alive In America" offer this description: "Eclectic. Orientalism. Slide into decadence or healing regression? Structure: AABBCCAC." (For the third comment, cf. "Babylon Sisters." on "AIA.")
Is this not one of musicdom's most nearly perfect songs, in every
respect?
Mock Turtle (GB, 4/15/98) I think 'dime dancing' refers to the time-honored tradition of paying for your date. People would bring a pocket full of dimes and, at regular intervals, give their dance partner a dime. Particularly common practice by male Asian immigrants (there was a lack of Asian female immigrants), and in particular, Filipinos, in the early part of the century.
Prof.Steve v dan (GB,
4/15/98): lyric interpretation #2345...lyrics to 'Aja'....
possibly
desribing a prisoner of war in Korea..."Up on the hill": an army
hospital....."dime
dancing": his only respite dancing to an old jukebox at the village
cafe....
"double
helix
in the sky tonight":some sort of star alignment
...I once
had a dj friend who insisted that 'Aja' was the name of Charlie Chan's
#1 daughter...
kashi (GB,
4/16/98):
I have always been struck by it's imagery of an asian country. I
believe this song is a tribute to the viet-nam veteran who "never
really"
came back. It's descriptions about life in washington presents
the
lai-za-fare(sp), of how the war was treated.
The further
explaination of how the battle were fought, and what was done to forget
those battles, were very striking, worthy of being filmed in APOCALYPSE
NOW.
Roy.Scam (GB, 4/17/98): Kashi: Another thought provoking interpretation of Aja, the un-readjusted Nam vet. I've always thought the lyrical simplicity in that song was to intentionally not distract from the music (ie: Hey, I like oriental stuff.) I guess those lyrics have been hovering over my depths, waiting to plumb them. Your interpretation would explain the police whistle and the desire to throw out the hardware. Maybe the throwing out the hardware is a call to a final confrontation, a hand to hand combat of sorts (man vs. demons, man vs. death). That association reminds me of Bruce Dern in "Coming Home", ceremoniously laying down his military gear and walking into the surf, for that final resolution of his torment and confusion.
Spuds (GB, 4/19/98): About Aja: A gentle acquiesscence from god and country to just God--or at least the cognizance of something bigger than nationalism. The double helix symbolizes man as a species, not just as an ethnicity.
Earthbound (GB,
4/21/98):
Double helix...hardware...
Back in the
day when amyl was only available in certain more seedy establishments,
HARDWARE was the brand of choice. The li'l jar had a brite white
plastic shrink cote with the military-stencil lettering and a loose
caution
printed in lite royal blue. Hmm, just a thought.
oleander
(GB,4/25/98):
My take is that "up on the hill" is a mental institution, and not the
latter-day
managed-care kind where you for 72 hours and then out, but the
old-fashioned
kind from which "there's no return." That's why "they've got time
to burn." Nice irony with "dude ranch." That's also why
"people
never stare/ they just don't care," because no matter how weird you
are,
everyone else is so Thorazined of Haldol'd out they don't notice.
Are the Chinese music, angular banjoes, and double helix
delusions/hallucinations
(the latter, I guess, if you're psychotic)? drug side
effects?
an attempt by the singer to imagine himself out of that hellhole?
It reminds me of one of the Anais Nin books, where she described a
young
woman being "demonstrated" to a class of med students as a psychotic,
but
whose "visions" and words were lyrical, beautiful, and made complete
sense
in her idiosyncratic way. The idea was that she was actually sane
in a psychotic world. Also reminds me of a movie called "Man
Facing
Southeast"--similar idea--what is crazy, really, and to what horrors
are
supposedly crazy people subjected in the name of sanity?
And yet
another
association, with Jonathan Pryce in "Brazil," fantasizing himself out
of
surrealistic torture. And one more--thoughts of Charlie Parker in
Camarillo. Ruby, I had the same thought about "throw out the
hardware"--i.e.
do it bare, but without the you're-having -my-baby part. I also
had
a flash of straitjackets and ECT (electroconvulsive or "shock" therapy)
equipment as the hardware to throw out. The amyl ref is a good
one
too. Aja might be the angel he dreams to keep from drowning in
madness
or abuse, or an old flame who serves the same purpose. "They
think
I'm okay/ Or so they say": the "keepers" soothingly reassure the
singer that he's okay, but he doesn't believe them--he may be paranoid,
or just fully aware that if he WERE okay, he wouldn't be there.
Think
Catch-22. I appreciate the explanation of "dime dancing"--I
thought
it was from the Depression, when people came up with all kinds of
ingenious
things to stay alive, including marathon dancing ("They Shoot Horses,
Don't
They?") and paying per dance.
RubyBaby (GB,
4/26/98):
Aja is so complex and unique it leaves a whole lot of room for
interpretation.
It can be anything we want it to be on any given day. I've come
to
think of *dime dancing* to be what his other relationships amount to in
comparison with the thing he had or has with Aja. I'm not sure if
he runs to her only in his mind (memories are powerful things for
escapists),
or if he actually runs to her. In either case, he has a tendency
to engage in meaningless escapades, doesn't he?
But we
still
adore him...
THINK before you post (GB, 4/26/98): Dime Dancing = when you go to your job and work for the money. The guy goes to a dude ranch on his vacation god damn it.
Clas (GB, 4/26/98): I read somewhere, a long time ago...that "we never write in code, never has, never will." But hell, who knowes? But maybe that was a code or something. Personally I believe that the Dude Ranch is a Dude Ranch and Up On the Hill is Up On the Hill. Not down in the bunker.
Gap Brandy (GB, 4/27/98): Donald abhors meaningless situations / relationships. The problem is that the majority of our relationships are destined to be meaningless. Donald does a good job of stating that fact and stepping out of the line of fire.
Roy.Scam (GB, 4/28/98): I presumed that Bad Sneakers is about an incarcerated mental patient. Is this a recurring theme?.... Isn't a helix also the curved part of an ear? Maybe the double helix is a pair of ears in the sky tonight, as in 'God is listening.'
oleander (GB, 4/28/98): I can see Sigmund Freud and Gertrude Stein in a solemn pavane, she saying "a rose is a rose is a rose," and he "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."
stevevdan (GB, 11/8/98): with all this Newt Gingrich talk I keep hearing the phrase "up on the hill"...which of course brought to mind Steely's 1977 epic track 'Aja' (again!)....could the songs character be some sort of military intelligence/pow....and "up on the hill" refer to US Government funding...the por guy is wasting away in a pow camp....dreaming of romancing....sort of Apocalypse Now meets Victor Mature meets....a really good bag of weed (oops soory we're all clean and sober now!)...
F#maj (GB, 9/16/99): re:Viet Nam- I suspected that Aja didn't take place in some mental facility.... The angular banjo, the Chinese music sounded like a hillbilly sort talking... maybe from "over the hill", like a grunt who has bid a hasty and most unofficial East St.Loo Toodle to his unit and now has time to burn with others he has hooked up with at the dude ranch. I wear this interpretation like a loose garment though.... There is no dime dancing like humping the boonies.
Slint (9/24/99):
I have it on good authority that "up on the hill" refers to an EST camp
in the late 60's and early 70's, EST being a fast, fly by nite
religion/lifestyle
invented by a rather shaky psychiatrist (can't remember his name
dammit)
.. EST was trendy, expensive and popular for a couple of years in
Northern
California ... it died a fairly fast death .. it was bullshit.
By 'good
authority", I refer to an interview with Donald Fagen I read years
ago....he
explained AJA ... the WHOLE album... AJA is a simplisitc love song
that's
been written a thousand times, only not by Steely Dan...only Donald
Fagen
could throw such a studio screw into somthing this obvious.... Again,
from
the interview with Mr Fagen and with what I know about EST make this
just
perfect...I don't know why he chose EST to compare values
here....perhaps
he tried it....he never did mention in the interview....at any rate, in
proper Steely Dan fashion, Donald is in love again. only this time, he
is reaching for something better in his life....he's reaching for
perfection,
self fulfillment....actually, EST is a good variable here, it just hit
me, only because I'm writing about it....trust him eh...."above the
sea"
- the first EST camp was started in Northern California atop a
cliff....reason
being, the hasbeen psychiatrist who "invented" EST thought it to be a
wonderfull
notion to have the reality of death ever present while he and his
followers
danced (a BIG part of EST, self expression, freedom, dancing with
whomever
they cared -'dime dancing') and studied the positive perfection that
life
was supposed to hold for them...interesting note here..Charles Manson
visited
this first camp in early summer 1969, a couple of months before he
turned
his rejected little troops upon Los Angeles and the outlying
region...he
was positively shunned by the group; they ignored his presence
totally....tells
you about HIS vibes....anyway, the cliff was chosen to constantly
remind
his followers that life triumphs over death, the cliff being a 10
second jump to the latter. Enough said. This camp is "up on the
hill".
Any reference to anything while the narrator is there is simply a
reference
to what works better and always will, even though he is striving for
something
better and less simple....his love....the name AJA was chosen for one
reason...the
two "boys" had gotten this Chinese sounding riff going while
writing
the song and hence decided to implement it thereafter. Calling his love
Gloria with this gorgeous studio work would never have worked. "People
never stare, they just don't care" .. "Up on the hill, they think I'm
ok,
or so they say" .. He's trying to fit into this new world of his,
but he knows that there is nothing better than his love for AJA. He
knows
love is the key, that there is no other answer. Love, after all, IS the
key, and is the most commonly written song, but only these guys could
do
it like this, with top notch studio help and with the primal musical
skills
that they both hold. I think AJA is the most powerfull song they have
ever
written. Steve Gadd just pounds the message across, especially in the
end.
It's a grand tour of what these two guys could accomplish together, all
wrapped up in one awesome song.
"AJA, when
all my dime dancing is thru, I run to you...." .... What more can
one say :]
est
(Erhard Seminars Training) was the brainchild of Werner Erhard, ne Jack
Rosenberg, a car salesman from the Midwest who emigrated to California
and set himself up as a spiritual leader/ motivational speaker/ cult
stoker.
He was not a psychiatrist and seemed to be pretty much an autodidact
[pun
intended]. He set up weekend-long seminars billed as
self-exploration
and mind-expansion, kind of along the lines of Zen with the goal being
to "get it" about yourself and the world. These were
characterized
by physical deprivation (few water, meal, or toilet breaks) and
haranguing
by him or other staff, both methods widely used in cults, were quite
expensive,
and caught on big. He set up a neat Ponzi scheme wherein the
grads
would show their worth or gotitness by going to work for est as
organizers,
trainers, gofers, etc., for insanely long hours and low pay.
There
were lots of questions about creative financing, sybaritic lifestyles
at
the top, etc. Most people who had anything to do with est and
speak
publicly about it are blisteringly critical of the experience--which of
course begs the question of why so many were attracted to it in the
first
place. There was also a tell-all book several years ago, and a
"Sixty
Minutes," in which his daughters described some pretty scary
things
about how the guy really was behind the closed doors of home. For
an erstwhile estie's account of his experiences, visit this
site. Many of the refs on the web to est are on cult lookout
sites, e.g. this
one. For even more description of the "philosophy," go here.
"Aja" as
a dis of a representative new age brainwash job--I LOVE it! There
are so many things that fit. For example, "They think I'm OK"
makes
me think of Transactional Analysis, a pop psych form which was also
popular
then and unlike est still has some legitimacy, and whose motto
was
(all together now) "I'm OK, you're OK"--I mean, can you imagine the hay
Mr. F and Mr. B would have made with that, much as they loved LA?
If anyone
knows how to get hold of the article, please let me know.
aja (GB, 11/22
& 26/99):
I've never thought "Aja" was a woman, but rather any form of
escapism
from the ordinary and mundane ("dime dancing"). Is it not the most
beautiful
7 minutes 56 seconds ever recorded?
....I was surprised (and interested) to read that a lot of people hear
a story of a Viet Nam vet or a mental hospital in that song. What
I've always envisioned when I hear "Aja" is a young man just starting
out
in the world, similar to Nick Carraway in "The Great Gatsby"; he's
making
a living among the disaffected rich ("up on the hill, people never
stare,
they just don't care") but is not really a part of their society ("they
think I'm okay, or so they say") but part of him feels as if he's
selling
out something of himself ("dime dancing"). At the end of the day he
runs
to his true love, Aja, where he can finally be himself. I hear "Aja" as
being music, an idealized woman or relationship, drugs, or any form of
escape. The music changes tempo (or something like that, I'm not a
musician)
and becomes more dreamy and hypnotic when DF sings the Aja chorus, so
that
enhances the escape theme for me.
RubyBaby (GB, 11/25/99): I always thought of "the hill" as Capitol Hill for some reason. I have thoughts on "double helix in the sky tonight," but we need the next sentence, "throw out the hardware, let's do it right." I look at that as a techno/romantic way of saying "let's make a baby." (DNA in that double helix formation and we all love to ditch the "hardware" sometimes, right?)
miz
ducky (GB, 11/26/99): For me, the key to understanding the
lyrics
is the phrase "the dude ranch above the sea." That, along with the
sorta-echoes-of-Bohdisattva
orientalist lyrics, evokes for me certain West-Coast
alternative-spirituality
retreats such as the Esalen Institute, in the middle of the Big Sur
region
of the California coast. Now, I've never been inside Esalen, though
I've
driven past it once or twice; but I have heard a lot of legends about
its
reputation, and Esalen could quite accurately be described as a kind of
organo-groovy "dude ranch above the sea." Apparently, in the 1960s and
70s it was really famous (or notorious) for
overnight
retreat-workshops on trendy cutting-edge personal-growth topics ... as
well as all sorts of extra-curricular recreational activities
with
recreational substances. I doubt it's anywhere near as wild as it once
was, but I Could Be Mistaken ... :-)
Anyhow, the lyrics for me turn into a kind of loose metaphorical
meditation
on the kind of let-go-of-the-mundane-dime-dancing-world,
get-in-touch-with-yourself-and-be-groovy
thang that might have happened at a place such as Esalen. The narrator
of the song, of course, has the usual Dannishly ironic attitude towards
such letting-go, but not so much that he isn't still willing to
come
a-running for the experience anyway. It's almost like he's
grudgingly admitting "yeah, it's corny as all hell, but I really do get
something out of those wild nights under the stars ... "
Whether the name "Aja" represents an actual woman he's running to, or
is
more a metaphor for the whole experience isn't so important to me as
that
general mood of semi-irony/semi-idealism that the song evokes.
It's also interesting to me to compare this retreat-to-the-sea with the
darker, more decadent retreat-to-the-sea portrayed in "Babylon Sisters."
Come
to think of it, there's a great scene in Tom Wolfe's The Electric
Kool-Aid
Acid Test in which Kesey and the Merry Pranksters completely
disrupt
a serious, placid get-together at Esalen. Check it out.
Meanwhile,
back at the dude ranch, check out this GB exchange:
Sociable Hermit (GB, 11/29/99): Well, since everyone is talking about "Aja", I thought I'd try to add to the mystery. The line, "Chinese music always sets me free", makes me think of a story. In 1941 when Dizzy Gillespie was just figuring out what would later be called bebop; he was working in the trumpet section of Cab Calloway's band. Only, Cab was not very fond of the sounds that were coming out of Dizzy's horn, and derisively called it "Chinese music". So, whenever I hear that line, I automatically think of Diz, and wonder if the storyteller in the song is saying that bebop music frees him.
fezo (GB, 11/29/99): Walt Whitman I'm not, but I do feel qualified to say that lines like "up on the hill they never stare, they just don't care" sure sound like filler, like many of the other simplistic rhymes (tree/sea, burn/return) in "Aja" the song. I would, though, give extra credit for the use of phrases like "angular banjos" and "Chinese music".
YGK
(GB,
11/29/99): re: Bebop. If "Chinese music" in 'AJA' is a lyrical
synonym
for be bop, that would make sense with the phrase, "angular banjoes".
The
music can be quite angular in the intervals it may take, especially
when
written out. Anyone know if Bela Fleck was playing in the mid-70's?
Perhaps AJA could just be Fagen's word for bebop. "When all [his]
dime dancing is through, I run to you...." the author goes home
and
puts on some bebop on his record player.
OR maybe....
"Up on the hill, they think I'm OK, or so they say...." a
musician
who is invited to a circle of musicians, say bebop players, might be
intimidated
about his ability amongst older, wiser, perhaps more adept musicians or
musicians who are 'out of his style' of playing. Of course, once the
guy
sits in on a tune, they could all dig the guys playing, leading to the
phrase, "they think I'm OK, or so they say"...which is effectively
true;
musicians could dig your playin, but they won't necessarily say REALLY
dig you till you're gone or have proved somethin over time.
(I know I've sat in with new guyes, there is a certain testing ground
to
see if I could fit in, and if I've received compliments, I realized
that
I must take it with a grain of salt. If they really like you, they'll
invite
you back, and when you return, you'll be able to 'feel the love' from
the
room about your playin.)
(And now running with this theme)
"Up on the hill, people never stare, they just don't care" could
describe the cats in this group 'high above the sea', whether
physically
above the sea or just high. It could be the dudes are just too cool -
they
'never stare' or are too whacked out on the drugs/music to give a shit
about who you are to stare. This would effectively describe more than
several
bebop 'scenes'.
Looked at in this light, AJA just might be Fagen's anthem for his love
of bebop and his experience hanging with a bunch of bop players.
... ALSO: the inclusion of Mr. Shorter on the memorable solo is
especially
profound in this scene....
Dr. Mu (GB, 11/29/99): It could be another one of those allegorical stories about the music biz like Throw Back the Little Ones or as [Breck] suggestedunder the ax: "Do It Again." The "people up on the hill" are the usurous music execs, the "dude ranch" is the studio, "dime dancing" are the current popular and empty danceable dities, and "aja" refers to symbolically real musical roots like bop, Gillespe, Miles, etc.
Sociable
Hermit (GB, 11/29/99): Let's go one step further.
"Up on the hill
People never stare
They just don't care"
In the early 40's, Minton's Playhouse was a club where musicians went
to
jam after hours. It is said that because of "cutting contests",
(musicians
trying to out do or top each other on stage), that complicated chord
progressions
were developed to chase the less skilled players away. This club was
run
by a musician named Teddy Hill. So maybe, up on the "hill", (the club),
is the one place where a musician could play the new sounds without
getting
stared at by the audience.
"Chinese music under banyon tree"
Chinese music is bop. A banyon tree, (not plural), is a tree whose
roots
grow above ground and often form other trunks. This clearly seems like
a metaphor of jazz naturally splitting from it's roots into a seperate
life of it's own.
"Here at the dude ranch, above the sea."
To me, a dude ranch is a place where people go to relax and hang out,
so
this could be another way to describe Minton's. Now, what if the next
line
is really, "above the C"? As in the note? Dizzy and others like to play
in upper registers to show off their chops, and many bop songs fly off
in to the stratosphere, as well.
"When all my dime dancing is through
I run to you"
When a hostess would dance with you for a dime, she wasn't doing it
because
she loved you, she was doing it for the money. And as I said before,
many
of these musicians were in other, more traditional bands, (for the
money),
and would sprint to Minton's after hours and play until sun up, and
sometimes
later, (for the love).
"Up on the hill
they've got time to burn
There's no return.
Double helix in the sky tonight
throw out the hardware
let's do it right."
Okay. I think this is a drug reference. They've got time to burn, is
maybe
a sarcasm toward all the time wasted taking heroin instead of
practicing.
There's no return could mean that there's no coming back from drug
addiction.
Double helix...could mean that a new sound is going to be born, perhaps
by divine intervention, so throw out the hardware, (the drugs, the
syringe),
and let's play it the right way.
"They think I'm okay.
or so they say"
I agree with what fezo said, this could either be the audience or his
peers
saying he's okay.
"Angular banjoes", may mean Charlie Christian. He was a guitarist with
Benny Goodman, but a regular at Minton's and one of the "founders" of
bebop.
Could just be a mention of him.
This whole record, though, could stand another analysis from a bebop
standpoint.
We already have a fever dream suggesting that "Black Cow" is about
Thelonious
Monk; "Deacon Blues" is about a guy plaing the sax; Josie rhymes
scrapple
with apple ~ "Scapple From The Apple" is a famous Charlie Parker song.
Here
are some beautiful angular
banjos (though Japanese).
Dr. Mu (GB,
11/30-12/1/99):
Is Aja the elephant and we're the 5 blind men?...or is it an onion with
layer after layer to be revealed? Or is it dark jewel scattering light
like the fall sun over a disturbed pond? On the surface the lyrics seem
Eastern mystic-lite. Even the music "sounds" a bit "oriental" as if
played
or heard by someone in a dream who knows the paradigms of Eastern music
only to the depth of "Sukiyaki." But underneath the surface, isn't the
bop core revealed? Musicians help me out here. Those chords are
flavored
with curry and MSG to sound Easter, but are they? probably not. The
name
Aja - isn't it Asia-lite as suggested by fezo. I don't see hidden and
provacative
eastern meaning - it's just that they like the spice - the surface. I
mean,
have Donald and Walter given away their $$, forsaken wordly
possessions,
pawned the recording gear (hardware) and gone running to the nearest
Bodhisattva?
or shaved their heads and moved to Barrytown??
But
it gets hazy just as if one is peering though the opium smoke in a 19th
Century Singapore den...the temptations of modern society: cheap songs,
philosophy, women as well as drugs, selling out for a buck...but the
truth
keeps drawing us in - jazz. Pure music = enlightenment. It seems
consistent
with side A of the Aja album (when on vinyl). Black Cow, Aja, and
Deacon
Blues become a trinity of music philosophy.
As
the mantra of Eastern mysticism lite once grunted by Bruce Lee
exclaims:
"Do not think! Feeeeell!" We hear this notion in both Aja and Deacon
Blues.
Most of what the typical American knows about eastern philosphy comes
from
Bruce Lee movies, the TV show Kung Fu, fortune cookies and The Karate
Kid...all
partially digested philosphy that the hungry American consumers swallow
whole like a ravenous avian hatchling.
The
search for musical purity and oneness are sought by thought (Aja) and
deed
(Deacon Blues). Black Cow pleads with the wayward musician to forsake
the
"opium den" and return to the "hill"....
The
gaucho is the horse-back riding cowboy of the plains of Argentina known
as the pampas. They are known for a bit more colorful dress than the
cowboy
of the American West. A wide rim black hat perhaps with tassles, a
scarf,
vest, and flowing shirt adorn the gaucho amigo.
A
"dude"
is a tourist or "city slicker" who vacations a faux Western ranch to
get
a taste of the old cowboy life. "Dude ranches" sprang up in California
and other areas in the 70's as middle-aged urban and suburban white
collar-types
spent a few bucks to get in tune with themselves, nature, and hard
physical
work...kind of pathetic. Anyway, Walter and Donald were probably seen
by
some jazz purists and perhaps even one or two of their session players
as "dudes" kneeling near the sacred temple of jazz. I wouldn't be
surprised
if they coined that relationship for themselves in the studio...of
course
later the kids picked it up and became household by the time "Fast
Times
at Ridgemont High" was released.
tom (GB, 12/13 & 15/99): in Aja I misstook "dime dancing" for "dying dancing".... relistening to aja it indeed sounds like "dime dancing" but the intonation and delayed delivery certainly sound like "dying dancing" - again the context fits both interpretations - the mudane necessity versus the escape he longs for.
Daily
Steve (4/13/00): I understand this song to be a reference to
a 'sport' of ancient Upperclass China. Travelling up the hill to
the dude ranch where men used hardware to assassinate birds flying
across
the sky. To catch a pair while in the double-helix throes of
making
love in the air was to really do it right.
Our hero
somehow is above all of this, although he fakes it well enough for them
to think he's OK, as we all must do at some point in our lives.
He
gets through it by being freed by the angular banjoes and banyan trees,
and looks to finish his time up there dime dancing with the ladies,
only
to hurry back to his true love, Aja, back to farming the Good
Earth.
Can't you hear the joy in the percussion once he gets there?
SteveVDan (GB, 11/19/00): ... was talking with an employee of SONY, he was extollong the virtues of the SACD player, and I sold him a copy (papersleeve edition) of 'Aja'...he remarked that the word "aja" meant "vanity" in Japanese....and also "love"....interesting, I always wondered about the spelling of that.....
Roy.Scam (GB, 8/12/01): For no real good reason, I was thinking about Thorton Wilder's play, "Our Town" recently, and I remembered the scenes in the cemetary. As I recall, the graveyard was on a hill in or near the town, and , metaphysically, was a place where the spirits of the deceased resided, quietly, non-judgementally reflecting, and gradually losing interest in the activities of the living. I couldn't help thinking of the lyrics of "Aja" and phrases like, "people never stare; they just don't care.", above the dude ranch", "when all my dime dancing is through.", "throw out the hardware." One could argue that 'up on the hill' could be a manifestation of the next stage after death. Anyway, it sometimes conjures up that feeling to me. I haven't worked out the demographic study explaining why Chinese music rules the airwaves in the afterlife.
Kurt
(8/17/02):
"Double helix in the sky tonight... throw out the hardware, let's do it
right..."
Dear Oleander and others, I do believe that with regard to the lyrics
of
Aja (the song), Steely Dan's mention of "Double helix in the sky
tonight..."
most likely refers to deoxyribonucleic acid, or "DNA", which is of
course
the DOUBLE stranded, HELICALLY twisted or "wound" strands of genetic
material
that comprises chromosomes, and the genes contained there-in. In
other words, it's my opinion that SD is "poetically" referring here to
the consummation of the sexual act which may result in the union of
sperm
and egg, where-in the SINGLE-stranded DNA of sperm and egg combine to
create
a zygote (fertilized egg) with the normal complement of double-stranded
DNA and chromosomes. Simply put, this lyrical line is most likely
referring to the authors' hunch that sex and the EXCHANGE OF
SEXUAL
FLUIDS (DNA-- sperm, egg...) seems likely on the evening in question,
and
the line, "Throw out the HARDWARE, let's do it right..." perhaps refers
to the protagonist's lustful wish to avoid sex toys such as a dildo or
vibrator on this special occasion,in order to instead rely on the "real
thing" of simple yet exquisite sexual intercourse , which might well
result
in the union of sperm and egg, as alluded to by "Double helix in the
sky
tonight..". And, as far as the double helix being in "the sky
tonight...",
I'm reminded of the old Batman comics, in which the Bat symbol would be
projected onto the night-time sky when Batman was summoned for help in
Gotham, and with respect to he lyrics in question here, it may simply
refer
to the protagonist's sense or wish that on this particular evening, and
with a particular love object, that sexual union seems to be written in
the sky and stars above.
At any rate, I believe the above-mentioned lines of lyrics have nothing
to do with DRUGS, and everything to do with SEX and the basic BIOLOGY
of
sex.
Jeffrey Lange (11/10/03): Think of Aja an oriental prostitute working at a brothel "up on the hill". The dime dancing as a $10 sex act and "throw out the hardware, let's do it right". as no sex toys just straight sex. What do you think? Sex drugs and rock and roll.
"Apocalypse
Now," directed by Francis Ford Coppola (1979). If you haven't
seen
this dark epic, one of the most powerful films
ever
made, go get it right now and watch it. As
of 2001, you will also be able to see "Apocalypse Now Redux," reedited,
restored, and reprinted, with many previously-cut scenes added to the
miasma
"Coming Home," directed by Hal Ashby (1978). Great cast (John
Voight,
Jane Fonda, Bruce Dern) and soundtrack.
"Brazil," directed by Terry Gilliam (1985). Kind of a downer, but
wonderful.
"Relaxin' at Camarillo," by Charlie Parker. You can hear it on
(among
other discs) "Yardbird Suite: The Ultimate Charlie Parker
Collection," Rhino Records.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. If you haven't read it, yadda
yadda.
"They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" directed by Sydney Pollack (1969),
another
Jane Fonda movie, as it happens.
See Joe Murtha's comments in "Bodhisattva," on "Countdown
To Ecstasy."
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,
by Tom Wolfe, now in Bantam, 1968.
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925. I believe
the Dan definitively have given the lie to what he said: "There
are
no second acts in
American lives."
