Did you enjoy the hunt? Too hard? Not hard enough? There's over-easy and hard-boiled fans alike, I guess. WE hatched this plan way back. Are you shell shocked? We've got all kinds of yolks. Another egg pun? That's eggs-actly what I thought you said!
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- (Surprise Piano Version) This extremely early rundown of Book of Liars by The 11TOW band [Adam Rogers (Guitar): Fima Ephron (Bass): Ben Perowsky (Drums): John Beasley (Keyboards): Dean Parks (Guitar)] is interesting on several counts, not the least of which is the peek it affords into the studio process . Walter enjoyed almost everything the band played as it emerged from their interaction, rather then from any strong a priori “instruction” he offered. The rule seemed to be: Let’s just play it. See what we see. It’s interesting, for example, to hear one of the first rundowns of this tune took on a sort of calypso vibe. Yet all the tracks invariably developed, changed —through a combination of the creativity and explorations of the musicians playing together, and the small, subtle shaping that Walter would occasionally offer. It’s probably too obvious to observe that the feel of the final versions as we all know them from Whack and Alive in America traveled quite a distance from this earliest rundown. The 11TOW recorded version of this song has also long inspired speculation a’plenty about that rather unique keyboard solo. Here, on one of the earliest rundowns — and with only the above musicians in the room — we hear what might be its etiology. The quasi-comic conducting Walter would often exercise is in evidence here — “big piano passage”….then “Piano solo. Surprise piano solo!” (sandwiching an expression of juvenile gun-lust). A playful response follows, and that we hear a “yeah” during the staccato playing leads one to suspect the die on this one was cast early on; there was just something about that general vibe of this early keyboard part that he wanted preserved in the recorded version. We'll leave it to the listener to hypothesize who did or did not play the recorded solo or, at the very least, from whence its inspiration sprang. We see it springing right here. Then there’s “Fima’s got it” as a few players seem to momentarily lose their bearings in the unfamiliar chart….and of course the wonderful end-talk about different ideas for “the bridgy kinda thing”….and, well, from 5:14 out…that’s our Walter all over, isn’t it? Hope you enjoy. D-Mod P.S. Speaking of Book of Liars: Don Breithaupt's band Monkey House released a new album TODAY with their own cover of Becker's Book of Liars! You may know Don from previous Monkey House albums or from his insightful look at Steely Dan's Aja album for the 33-1/3 series. "As a lifelong Steely Dan fan, Walter's death hit me hard," said Don. "I thought it'd be a nice gesture to do one of his." The new album, " Friday ," also features the talents of Steely Dan musicians Michael Leonhart and Drew Zingg. It's a damn fine album, and it looks like listeners agree—" Friday " is currently sitting at the #1 spot on iTunes' Jazz charts. Congrats to Don and Monkey House! - Matt
- 1997 He Wants You (Out) words & music Walter Becker (1997) © Zeon Music LLC 2018 Well we all ride together in this world Fall together where we stand And we all got one slim chance to be heard It's all written in the plan This is all I ask of you Tell me sweetness tell me true From that very first soul kiss You knew it would be like this We all ride together in this world Well didn't we just girl He reads you — he reads you loud and clear He wants you — he wants you out of here He needs you — you and what army dear He wants you — he wants you out of here Well we all need protection from the pain For protection we will pay And we all seek the shelter from the rain Here comes that rainy day It won't make it real again Not all the horses all the men It won't do you any good Not all the pills in Hollywood We all need protection now and then Here it is again He loves you —he loves your story dear He wants you — he wants you out of here He sees you — he sees you disappear He wants you — he wants you out of here Well we all ride together in this world Wait forever on the curb And we all ask for much more than we need And we get what we deserve He hears you — he's seeming not to hear He wants you — he wants you out of here He's got you — he's had you up to here He wants you — he wants you out of here He needs you — you and what army dear He wants you — he wants you out of here He reads you — he reads you loud and clear He wants you — he wants you out of here Another one of Becker's infamous "Love Songs"! Anyone woman at all familiar with his Whack work and demos would think long and hard before sweetly trilling "write me a love song, dahling!" -- knowing she was as likely to get one of these than an Almost Gothic or a Paging Audrey . That musical bouquet of his was always as likely to conceal a shiv than sweet-nothings. This tune was one of three demos Walter sent me on a DAT in late 1997 (ever-thoughtful, he bundled it with a portable "Walkman"-type DAT player. Sort of like Voyager. I was impressed). I asked him: "so these are rejects from Whack ?" to which he replied nah, just a few things he'd been working on lately. By this time he was deep into writing for Two Against Nature with Fagen, so it took me a couple of beats to realize that after his Whack work, he and his Opcode had apparently just kept on trucking along. He must have liked this one, must have been keeping it on his "potentially active" list, since he was still occasionally listening to it few years later... ...as he was one afternoon in late '99 .... PS: His vocals on these three '97 demos were uncommonly lackluster, to put it kindly. One of them, in fact -- a tune called The Love You Ax -- will remain forever sealed, falling into the rare category of the demo vocal he would never allow out of the box. It's a nice tune though; perhaps one day 'll post an instrumental of its solo and outro, for a sense of its feel. I just have to guess first if that would make more of you pissed or pleased.
Is this egg about to be cracked open?
After some hunting, stalking, treks through the tall grass, and stare-downs with circa-1999 HTML, I came upon the slender payload. Suffice it to say, the track is everything the proper WB fan would hope for. It’s a great performance and a great recording.
Thanks go to the Moderator, not only for making this track (and many others) available, but for capturing the spirit of the golden age of the SD Internet scene. In a past life, I was quite involved with this scene, but the Internet (and, if I’m to believe recent reports, nostalgia) isn’t what it used to be. These kinds of rabbit-hole exercises were a staple of the steelydan.com of old. It was this air of mystery and impishness that made being an SD devotee so fun.
From someone who was among the first to crack the code: Thank you and well done!
And I must ask, especially after the cryptic reference at the top of this thread: Was Walter part of the “WE” who “hatched this plan?” It sure feels like his work.
For those that know about that show - which might be a few hundred people - it was staring them in the face. That's awesome. Did Walter have tapes from bands before he worked with Donald, or owned up to doing jingles on radio in the late 60s? I still can't believe no footage exists of them with Jay and the Americans, esp. when they had a big hit at the time.
alright, i'm not too proud to ask for a hint - i'm on the page with the chess image and the ... fake song titles? anagrams? what now?
in case you're still there; pieces on the board are talking. one says something you may recognize, sing it all the way through
12 hours since my last post and less than 2 hours of Easter Day to go (in England). I still haven't found the chess board page people keep mentioning (apart from the image in "forum-1". I thought I was quite smart, but obviously not.
Anyone having issues, if you don't mind posting your OS and Browser, I'll make sure everything works for your configuration.
Hi Matt - Yes, it doesn't appear to be working for me. I'm using Windows 10 Pro 64-bit and have tried the following browsers:
Google Chrome 65.0.3325.181
MS Edge 41.16299.248.0
IE 11.309.16299.0
Nothing on the chessboard (and I believe I'm on the correct version of said chessboard pic) is speaking to me. And I've disabled ad-blockers and html-5 blocking extensions in Google Chrome. Try a different browser?
Mac OS 10.6.8 with Firefox or Chrome and tried 10.12.6 with Chrome 65.0.3325.181. Just not sure I have found the correct chess board. However, the one in Forum-1 has a Menu icon that does nothing.
pedder29 im moving your post over to the HINTS thread---will answer there
take that back pedder29, cant seem to move. OKyour first clue is on a POST in the forum. We can assume we will be within the RARE category,, yes? Once in there we want (hint) EVERYBODY to READ it, right? so start scanning posts for what will obviously be a clue post...using hint above for where to start
pedder please post next question on Hints thread
Thanks for the intriguging/amusing/compelling/frustrating/maddening/still amusing/cathartic adventure wbm and mod. Great way to spend a day!
Thanks mod for a great hunt! Having nostalgia for a bygone internet is a strange feeling.
As for the payoff, it was superb. Here's to hoping there's more where that came from..
this was a lot of fun - without giving too much away, I scoured html to get to what I later found out was the next to last step early on in the day, but convinced myself it was a red herring or perhaps a mistake copied and pasted from another image map on the site. I focused way too long on the hidden text, the meaning of which I still can't figure out beyond one obvious anagram. Thankfully there were plenty of hints which got me back on track (and, to be honest, I would not have figured out the final step without them).
As for the egg itself ... all I'll say for now is that it's worth it. I mean, you all probably have an idea of what it is. But so cool to finally hear something of it after all these years. Must have been quite a night.
Thanks everyone for the kind words on our little puzzle . I'm especially touched by those of you for whom the hurt is still fresh and who feel , as I do, that our little world here at WBMedia is somehow mitigating some of the hurt. But for whatever the reason, I'm glad you enjoyed the egg hunt (solved or not), and posted .Of course there's a couple of dozen people who at this moment are probably planning a painful demise for me and my partner in inflicted pain . I'm sure WBM will have his own comments to add, but you should know -- especially those planning our demise -- that we could have had a riot here last night instead of a frustrating but fun puzzle session ; you should have seen the things WBM WANTED to put in!
Cheers, everybody...
D-Mod
Thanks again for the help last night!
Long story short, I met Walter before a show in 2011.
I got to speak to him for a few minutes. He was very nice and we had a great talk. I'll remember it forever.
onthecorner -- you got the "double prize" we intended; 1, the track itself , and 2, confirmation of what we have in hand . we have to believe this is the only copy since surely in all these years something so sought after would have surfaced if it was out there . we have it now :) [PS and yes, you can bet we have convrted an transfered and backed up this baby to within an inch of her life: All these years on DAT tape -- it's a miracle it was playable at all]
For the record, I still think a cryptographic cypher based on Fermi's paradox, Drake's equation, and Robert Katz's non-Newtonian calculus is a solid idea. Or some kind of semi-religious Dan Brown shit, only with the titular character from Josie as a stand-in for the Welsh fertility goddess Arianrhod.
Or a little on-screen keyboard where guests would have to play the intro from Paging Audrey to open the door, like Willy Wonka playing the Marriage of Figaro to open the door to that room with the chocolate river. I mean, who amongst us hasn't done the old GbΔ7aug - Cm7(b5) - EbmΔ9(13), walked back to Abadd9 on occasion? These guys would definitely have gotten that, right?