Son-Of-A-Bitch, I hate it LAZL! Getting me nostalgic, here.
Me and my roommate introduced Dodge City to Steely Dan in 1972. We kept going to stores asking for the album and 45, calling the only rock station on the High Plains. They final started playing them. I went out last summer to visit some buddies, I always say; all I needed is to smell the cow shit of the feed yards and hear Steely Dan, and I'm 18 again. Damn for the 2nd time in 50 years, just as I was arriving into south Dodge and got a whiff, "Reelin' in the Years" comes on the radio. It's tea leaves brother. This year, by the way, is the 150th Anniversary of Dodge; the "Wickedest Little City In America." I arrived on the 100th in August '72, going back this summer.
Funny, my roommate was our QB from Oyster Bay, Long Island. His older brother was our WR coach and grew up going to school with Billy Joel. Another guy from their home town, Chilton, came out and ended up staying and teaching school, had been suspended with Billy in 8th grade when they got caught smoking. Out there in the middle of nowhere, he didn't even know he was a rock star till he heard him on the radio.
One of my Punta Gorda home boys went to Clarion State, didn't like it, returned home and got to see Steely Dan in Tampa the fall of 1972. He said they came out in softball uniforms and hit balls into the crowd. They only toured for six months and that was it. Lucky bastard got to see them before coming out and becoming an NAIA All American in the KCAC.
Here's a great one (lyrics anyway, but some nice guitar picking) from that first album. It was released in 1972 just before I was among the first 18 year-olds to vote in America. Some debate, but I think given the timing, its Nixon, not the Lionhearted. But then again, with Dan songs, you never really know.
