She Was Good

This track is a mystery, and in solving it, your guess will be as good as mine

Walter mentioned once or twice , when talking about

musical cliches and how we identify the writer of a song, that he sometimes thought about writing a set of songs that mimicked the musical styles of the day (hey, not all of his concepts were winners; he wanted to do an album of "scary children's songs", too). His argument was that this mimicking was generally easy to do, and that you could do it in a subtle way; you weren't limited to just lifting riffs . He said that to illustrate, he had written a song way back in the early 90s, meant to evoke what he thought was an overexposed musical act of the time-- an act that was a bit too popular among his friends and family for his comfort. He told me the act. But did he tell me the name of his song ? He did not. Did he play it for me? He did not. Does the engineer David Russell remember WB saying any such thing about this track? He does not.

(Dave does however point out that Walter's guitar in the outro has a clean, “pre Bogner/ Mesa Maverick tube amp rediscovery” sound, and indeed it does)

I was only reminded of the mimic conversations when I came across an early track that I had never heard before, that was a distinctly unique style for Walter. "Let me put it this way doll"; it doesn't sound at all like Walter. But it did put me immediately in mind of that same overexposed musical act of the late '80s. So as for me, I'm pretty sure this was his imitation track.

But why don't you take a listen, and see what you think? Post your honest first opinion below. If a trend emerges toward the act he named to me, we can be more sure— but never certain — this was his “imitation track”

Heard by by very few until now.

It seems that “Let me put it this way doll” was used in “Slang Of Ages”.

Let me put it this way doll And I know it's getting late I can tell from the planes of your face That you're from out of state

I can’t say that right off the bat it reminds me of any particular musical act of that era, but boy does it sound great and fits in perfectly to my ears with the other music he was creating at that time. It’s always so nice to hear his voice and beautiful guitar work on something new. Made my day, thank you D-Mod!

So who is the group he is supposed to be aping? I don't remember any "Big" groups in the late 80's but I was listening to a lot of Independent stuff at that point and had tuned my nose up at the major labels mostly till they signed Husker Du and the Replacements.

Yeah...I’m stumped on who the group is he’s imitating. I’m just hearing “Walter.“ And I hate that the guitar on the fade doesn’t last forever.  

I am not hearing any immediate connection to whatever he might be imitating. I do like the song though! Cool rhythmic thing going on here, and that chorus is such a great resolving contrast from the rest of the song. Catchy.

Love the song, especially the sweet guitar solo at the end! Like others have said before me, nothing jumps-out at me to whom it could be aping. I'm wracking my brain and actually did a search of the biggest 80's performers, in case I was forgetting someone, but nothing gelled. Will keep listening, obviously, and perhaps I'll have an "A-Ha" moment...wait...was it them? :-)

1. thank you

2. thank you

3. chops

4. I don't know the focus of the 'tribute' either and don't want to know until it hits me like a tonne of ticks.

5. Thank you.

6. tone

This sounds like pure Walter to me, but I also get something of a Prince vibe from it. I wish that guitar outro went on longer!

Interesting that you thought of Prince because I remember hearing the same thing about DF’s Kamakiriad when it came out around that same time. I think his singing on Trans Island Skyway reminded some of Prince. Since Walter was involved with that record, maybe there’s something to your idea.

I just re-listened to "Trans-Island Skyway" with that in mind. Even if it's not a direct riff on Prince, it sure sounds like it shares some DNA.

Quick takes, first impression (not thinking what it might actually be modeled after).

Seeing the song title in the announcement immediately thought for some reason: that's Lennon-ish.

After first listen: Norwegian Wood had an expanding, attenuating ripple of its own genre, this is somewhere in the reflection space.

Second listen: Feels like the handclaps would have eventually been arranged out or to the side, a sketch placeholder for something else.

Third listen: read along with the printed lyrics. Noticing "Good!" am reminded of Ben Folds one-word "hook" "Kate!" - pretty tight right there, nice tight corner around that lyric and changes.

All listens: mostly am feeling the half spoken-word minor 3rd toggling vocal melody - a deliberately paced catharsis.

Re: Trans-Island Skyway, perhaps the Prince leanings are down to falsetto vocals combined with Walter's master class in funk bass throughout? As for this one, I don't hear Prince. But I do hear a kind of 80s pop two chord shuffle kind of thing going on, and light (for Walter) lyrics that don't seem to cover some deeper under-the-surface story. One question that I ask myself as I listened to this was "I wonder what Walter thought of the pop music around him?" Like what were his non-musician friends and family listening to, and how might he have reacted? Like if you're Walter Becker and Vanilla Ice comes on the radio over and over again and your next door neighbor is blasting that shit while he's grilling bratwurst or whatever, or your kids are playing whatever kids are playing at any given point...how does all of that sift through your own musical sensibilities and skillset and...what did D-Mod call it...context thesaurus? Like, I don't think this is the band he's comping here, but for example, what if Walter's girlfriend in 1977 was super into Fleetwood Mac? How would Walter have received that music and processed it? What if he's loved it and wanted to explore writing that kind fo song? What if he'd hated it and wanted to mock it or show how simple it was, in context with his own stuff? Of course we can't know for sure now, but it is an interesting exercise to consider all the possibilities. And it is telling that perhaps even in deliberately emulating or interfacing with other artists work, Walter never really loses the core genius that makes him so damn special.

I get an association with Frankie from Sister Sledge. It has the same vibe and rythm.

I think it may be Prince. I'm hearing 'Let's Go Crazy', maybe 'Delirious'..

Personally I'm astounded that no one has reacted publicly to the specter of Walter Becker...skipping

D,it's a thing of pure joy

Thank you for this wonderful site.