Babs' Cheap(skate) Christmas

Christmas comes early to the Hole, with this post from Babs! 

 

The other day, I was in shopping at Macy’s on 34th street here in “The Big Apple” [New York, Yew Nork - Ed] and noticed that even though it’s mid-October, Christmas items were on display everywhere, I mean, it’s not even freaking Halloween yet!  

 

As I was walking around the store, I stumbled across the Toy Department, so just for laughs, I thought I’d look around. Not having bought toys in several years, as my grandchildren are all now grownup, I wondered what were the hot toys for the 2022 holidays?  As I walked through the isles of toys I noticed that most toys require absolutely no imagination whatsoever, or for that matter, any type of physical exertion, except perhaps for the rapid movement of one’s thumbs.

After looking at toys, I went to the café, which is on the same floor.  While enjoying a double espresso and a chocolate croissant, I thought of a memorable Christmas in the late 50s, when I was around ten-years old.  My mother’s brother (Uncle Émile) and his wife (Aunt Avril), were coming down to Brooklyn from Quebec for the Holidays.  A few weeks before Christmas, Uncle Émile called us, and asked my brother and myself what presents we wanted.  When it was my turn to talk to him, I asked for a Pogo Stick, and he said, “OK, Babs, I’ll tell Père Noël” (that’s what French-speaking people call Santa Claus or Father Christmas).

 

 

What Babs didn't get from Santa

As an aside, did you know that George Hansburg invented and patented the Pogo Stick in 1919?  Hansburg claimed that on his travels through Burma, he met a poor Buddhist farmer.  The farmer had a daughter named Pogo, who was a devout little girl that wanted to go to temple every day to pray, but couldn't because she had no shoes to wear for the long walk through the mud and over the slippery rocks.  So Pogo’s father built a jumping stick for her, and Pogo was able to make daily trips to the temple.  When Hansburg returned home, he made a jumping stick of his own, attaching a spring to the wooden stick contraption that the poor farmer had introduced to him.  Another version of the Pogo stick’s origin is about a young bride named (you guessed it) Pogo whose father, hoping to spare her from soiling her wedding clothes in mud puddles, put a cross-piece on a post and had her jump across the street. Both are stories are far-fetched, but they are nice enough anecdotes.

But I digress

So, it’s Christmas morning, and Santa brought me a hula hoop, a paint by numbers kit, and a dollhouse.

Next to Émile and Avril were more presents, that I kept eyeing up, but none looked like they had a Pogo stick inside.  Émile handed me a present that was rectangular, thick and heavy, I quickly ripped the wrapping paper off, and to my surprise (and disappointment), it was a dictionary! I said to Uncle Émile, “This isn’t a Pogo stick!” “Babs, don’t be so rude.” interjected my mother. Uncle Émile smiled and said to me, “Yes, Babs, but Pogo stick is in the dictionary!” “Yeah, so is cheapskate!” quipped my brother. This caused my father to smack the back of my brother’s head, and ask him, “What did I tell you about being mister smart ass?”  My brother was, and even now at eighty-years old, is still a world-class smart ass. All my children and grand children fondly refer to him as “Uncle Smart Ass”.  My brother is aware of this, and is proud of his moniker.

Meanwhile, back in Macy’s, I finished my shopping, and took an Uber home.  When I returned home, I did a few hits of "OG Kush Breath" (for my glaucoma), and thought I’d play some Mose Allison, specifically a two CD retrospective called “Allison Wonderland: Anthology” which I saw earlier in the day on top of a few boxed sets.  When I picked up the Allison set, underneath it was: Donald Fagen’s boxed set “Cheap Xmas: Donald Fagen Complete”, which caused me to do a double take.  After looking around the room in my stoned state, and excepting to see Rod Serling across the room, I thought to myself: “This is going straight into The Good Old Major's Hole” [Yup, if it's cheap, it's just right for the Hole - Ed]

 

Don - looking as if he'd rather be anywhere else than in that room in front of a camera

Donald Fagen’s “Cheap Xmas: Donald Fagen Complete” is a five CD set, and was released in 2017.

 

Don - looking as if he'd rather be anywhere else than in that room in front of a camera

CD1 is “The Nightfly” from1982.
This is a long time favorite of mine, and to my ears, one of the best recordings released in the 1980s.  It is a classic, amongst classics.

CD2 is “Kamakiriad” from1993.
This is an album of slinking smooth sly witted jazzy funk, produced by Walter Becker, with audio that we’ve come to expect the duo.

CD3 is “Morph The Cat” from 2006.
More irresistible grooves, that you bop your head along with, even though the lyrics deal with alien invasion and death. This is the classic Steely Dan paradox, sugar-coated Cyanide. This record also has more guitar on it, since Steely Dan’s “Royal Scam” from 1976, courtesy of Jon Herrington, Wayne Krantz and Hugh McCracken.

CD4 is “Sunken Condos” from 2012.
‘Sunken Condos’ is jazzy, bluesy and as musically precise as anything Donald has recorded, with or without Steely Dan. No surprise, since many of the musicians have played with him in one form or another over the years. Most of the nine songs make room for efficient solos, tasteful backing vocals and a very clean production.

CD5 is “10 Extras”
A bonus disc, “10 Extras” features rarities such as demos, songs written for films and live tracks. My favorite track is “True Companion” which was recorded for the animated feature film “Heavy Metal”. It’s also the oldest song on this entire collection, and was recorded a year before “The Nightfly” in 1981. Musically, the first half of the tune is almost a mini guitar symphony for Steve Khan, on acoustic and electric guitars. The song also showcases Donald’s dense overdubbed vocal harmonies, he would go on to use again on The Nightfly‘s ‘Maxine’.

 

To qualify for this fabulous folder full of festive Fagen fare, just send the Hole a sample of your DNA (to be destroyed after we've cloned you) and answer the simple question that Babs is going to ask very shortly.