wormtom (GB, 6/3/03): this track is very captivating and has a vampiric vibe

Clas (GB, 6/3/03):  I like the neon I love the music... (Green Book)
    I like the feathers and I love the hat... (Down In the Bottom)
    That's Becker.

DACW (GB, 6/11/03):  Green Book is virtual mail-order porno....construct your own Babe on-line...instant Pinochiette...singles site Geisha Girls programmed for pleasure - meet her in a smoky bar, slow dance to Aja...the dance, the dress, she's a concept more or less.

Gina (GB, 6/11/03):  ... about Green Book, i sense this Zappa-esque vibe in it, especially in the verse when Donald sings "i like the neon i love the music", then it's like he takes the listener right into what he's experiencing. and there it is, some Zappanisms. LOVE it.

Roy.Scam (GB, 6/12/03):  Jill St. John? Joey Heatherton? Marilyn Monroe? Tuesday Weld? This guy was paying attention when he was young. Is this another "Springtime" thing where technology lets you live your fantasies and/or memories? Or maybe it's a book of memories and this is sentimental ode to a long time lover. I could tolerate some occasional sappy romanticism from the bakers of cynicism.

DACW (GB, 6/15/03):  I'm thinking the Green Book is some kind of interactive computer Holodeck (a a la Star Trek TNG...I think Riker got laid once there. Who was that? - Minuet!)...The scenes are depicted are part of the programming, largely abstracted from the inner mind of the narrator...note "it's kinda scary to 'dig' yourself"...and "...the new cashier looks like Jill St. John. Can that be right" The narrator is surprised that such an image was lurking in his mind...where'd we sample those leg? I'm thinking sampling Marilyn (Monroe) 4.0...seems like he's introducing someon NEW to the "Greenbook" "grid of desire"...the virtual characters become real...until someone shuts of the computer ...essentially a virtual become real "blow-up doll"...beats picking Russian brides in the want ads!

Roy.Scam (Blue Book, 6/23/03):  "Green Book" works for me as a parade of memories mixed in with fantasies; maybe a journal or diary kept by someone who has non-factual flights of fancy. In a recent interview, Fagen said that he thinks it's important to keep your fantasies alive, even if you're in love and monogamous. I'm not admitting to anything here, but I think it's possibly when cataloguing memories and drifting down memory lane, that lovely thoughts of your one and only life partner can get overlapped with certain early Jill St. John, Joey Heatherton daydreams. I mean the brain is a complex machine and those memory cells can get their sharp edges shaved off with excessive use.

angel (GB, 6/24/03):  Favorite part is the "I'm so in love with this dirty city" line. That sounds so sincere, coming from Donald's lips. All I can think of is NYC.

Jane (Digest, 6/25/03):  I need some help with an interpretation of Green room.  Here are my thoughts so please put it together for me.  First, could the title be a take off on the name of the chat room green room?  The other computer reference I saw was "Marilyn 4.0".  The last line could also be talking about the guys seeing themselves talked about in the green room. Second, What does "three hand rose" mean?  Third, what city do you think they are referfing to "boardwalk..."?

hoops! (Digest, 6/25/03):  I'm viewing this song as being about virtual reality pornography, in a few years from now, via a virtual reality cave or some successor to the world wide web. One of the first lines in "Green Book" is "This is where I get off."   Think about it.  This is where the narrator (played by Fagen) gets off, gets his sexual jollies.
>  First, could the title be a take off on the name of the chat room green room?
No...the song was written before the "Green Room" was  created. Actually, the name "Green Room" as a name for chat was discussed last November when the idea of a companion chat room was first bandied about.  A Green Room is often the waiting room back stage  for guests stars to hang out in  before they appear on shows like Letterman, etc.  Works nice with the color BlueBook.  That's really all it is.  Coincidence.
>The other computer reference I saw was "Marilyn 4.0".
This could be the latest version of the cyber sex kitten you assemble by selecting from a palette of torsos, legs, faces, etc.  You could choose to experience the new and improved version of Marilyn, the vixen.  Heck, you could even pick who would be the receptionist at the meeting place.  This particular night, the avatar serving as desk
attendant is made to look like Jill St. John.
>The last line could also be talking about the guys seeing themselves
>talked about in the green room.
My take is that since the narrator (the character Fagen sings as in this song) went to this virtual reality pornography experience selected what the woman looked like (torso, legs, etc), what the sexual experience would be and what would happen, it's basically a reflection of his own inner sexuality.  In other words, he's fallen "in love" with something of his own devising, he's basically digging himself.  It's a cyber jerk-off.
>Second, What does "three hand rose" mean?
A "second hand rose" is an old slang for a woman who's been married before or been around the block.  Not such a big deal in these times. So to me, "a third hand rose" is a woman who's really been around the block, if not an outright slut.
>Third, what city do you think they are referfing to "boardwalk..."?
Not sure.

snakehips (GB, 6/26/03):  anyone else think "dirty city" is either the chat room or the internet itself?

Audi TT (GB, 6/26/03):  I think the song "Green Book" literally describes a future virtual reality technology which people can role play in and (what else?) have sexual encounters. In the narrator's case, "dirty city" is the virtual reality scenario that he plays and is also a play on words that its for sexual purposes as is "grid of desire" and "where I get off". Cities are in a grid and the term "grid" has technology/networking/sci-fi connotations. Perhaps they chose a term like "Green Book" because they didn't want to be tied down with some descriptive term for or explaination of the technology that's making it all happen. It doesn't matter if its a Star Trek Holodeck, direct sensory input like The Matrix, or whatever. So he's in some sort of Raymond Chandler 1940's film noirish scene, but there are some anachronisms like Jill St. John (can that be right? - she's from the '60s) and whatever the music is that he comments on. The festive icons along the way could be the user interface for the technology, sort of like The Matrix's  telephones. Maybe you can also interact with other avatars of oneself like the last girl, who's got the mood and the moves. Its kinda scary to dig yourself in the Green Book. It sounds like a very addictive place.

DACW (GB, 6/27/03):  Exactly. Kind of like a Porno Matrix or the Holodeck in Star Trek TNG. The sensualist (if that's a word) selects the envirornment from probably a menu, and then can put together a la carte the components of their latest or previous virtual blow-up doll. The "dirty city" is a favorite haunt of the User yet again...just like St. Andrew's is my favorite golf course on my kids' Tiger Woods PlayStation2 DVD. The rest is filled in and garnered from the mind of the user...that's why "it's scary to DIG   yourself"...The experiences are beyond virtual - there more real, like the Holodeck. This time in the song Green Book the Sensualist or User brings along someone new...does she "like to watch?" Is it a "virtual threesome?"

wormtom (Guestbook, 7/8/03):  the "dig yourself" comment in Green Book is either  admiring your own created virtual reality portfolio on line or digging to the deeper levels of the cyber erotica

Cringemaker (7/11/03):  First, I view this song as a bifurcated ode to the narrator's longtime loves of partner and New York City. Specifically, "Green Book" is a reference to
annual:  The Green book : official directory of the City of New York. New York (N.Y.); 1985- More information at following url:  http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcas/html/greenbook.html
    The narrator "gets off" sexually and is figuratively dropped off by a cab to arrive at dark and seamy New York City night sites. Jill St. John look-alike discloses narrator's penchant for Mensa-smart attractive women. On laying eyes on his beloved the narrator draws parallel to her as exquisitely complicated and dangerously seductive as the women chracters and plot in the 1955 atomic/apocalyptic B-film noir, Kiss Me Deadly. Imho, this is a device with which our boys overlay complex meaning into lyrics. One could easily fly off on this tangent for hours. He, the narrator,imagines/recalls/relishes sexual play in location after location with his love in his beloved NYC. These two morph into one another and are inextricably entwined. It could be cyber sex, but not necessarily. Grid of desire could be street map of city. The mind is a wonderful thing.
    He waxes on the loveliness and merits of his beloveds. Marilyn 4.0 refers to the pleated white halter dress skirt fly-up over the NYC sidewalk grate shot of Ms. Monroe in Seven Year Itch. I would argue 4.0 refers to top-graded perfection rather than software release version. I think our boys also toy with us by using Marilyn along with Green Book as an oblique reference to Marilyn Chambers, famed porno star of 1970's Behind the Green Door. Marilyn Chambers was a photographic model prior to becoming a porn star. She was the familiar face on Ivory Snow holding a baby. St. John, Monroe, and Chambers; all stunningly beautiful women.
    The rest of the tune is juxtaposed images of the thrill of fulfilling love in the very real/surreal location of NYC. The last line is the narrator pinching himself declaring that his pleasure and happiness are almost frightening.

oleander (GB, 1/11/04):  "The eyes are keepers"--I mentioned that "keepers" rhymes with "peepers," old slang for eyes--but more than that, the peepers are keepers suggests the old song, "Jeepers Creepers":

JEEPERS CREEPERS
Al Donohue/Johnny Mercer

Jeepers, creepers, where'd ya get those peepers,
jeepers, creepers, where'd ya get those eyes?
Gosh all, git up, how'd they get so lit up,
gosh all, git up, how'd they get that size?
Golly gee! When you turn those heaters on
woe is me, got to put my cheaters on.
Jeepers, creepers, where'd ya get those peepers?
Oh, those weepers, how they hypnotize!
Where'd ya get those eyes?

Sung both by Sinatra and Armstrong & I'm sure others of note.

And of course you noticed "cheaters," used in "Everyone's Gone To The Movies."