The new front page at walterbecker.com shows the insert, front and back, included in Sonic360's UK/International distriution of Circus Money. [Make sure to "refresh" or "reload" the page for the latest revision. Graphics also below].
I've always liked that picture. We had a day's notice to get "art" for the insert...so we wandered around the building and finally found our spot in the laundry room :-). He insisted that I not correct the green florescent ambience...
Bittersweet to read Walter's words, acknowledging the hard work of all the musicians, and hoping that we, their "imaginary playcousins", their " cherished and hoped-for listeners", will be pleased ("amused", he said) by their efforts.
Don't know about you, no need to preach to the choir here, but I for one am going to transform myself this evening into one of their cherished and hoped-for listeners, and spin CM once again.
o I do so miss you, honey. So many of us miss you.
[Edit: Don't forget there is still more of the Chalk Miller Saga in the hidden lyrics of Dark Horse Dub, posted a while back]
I just got my car back from the body shop on Friday, it had been almost a month since I last drove it (Pro tip: don't get into a wreck just before the holidays when shipping parts takes forever and places are closed in the middle of the week). Once I got in, I couldn't remember what album I had last queued up on my phone to play over the Bluetooth connection. I was treated to Circus Money. Can confirm: I was amused.
Love it, Dan. And as we know from before, you are definitely one of the "cherished and hoped-for listeners".
Hey D! Question: What do you think Walter meant by OTB?
Thanks,
J. Kelley
This means Off Track Betting --- a very well-known abbreviation, at least here in NYC. These are (or were, traditionally; maybe they've been cleaned up like most of the rest of the previously grimy city) little grimy storefronts all across the city -- the "legal" locations for placing bets from somewhere other than the track. They have the odds boards displayed, sometimes on a Chalk (!) Board, a couple of scattered school chairs, crumpled bet slips and snapped pencils and cigarette butts and broken dreams scattered on the floor...and a guy that seems to be there all the time...and can, ahem, can take a little action on the side, if he knows you. AKA, a bookie.
Thanks D! I wonder if a case could be made that "Chalk Miller" (besides having the same initials as "Circus Money") is so named since he is a habitue of these, ahem, chalk mills? As opposed to the "gin mills" C.M. doubtless haunted between the track and Barnum & Bailey's. I am not being too serious here, of course. Mr. Becker brings out the lexically playful and the semantically expansive like none other, so I think he would applaud this kind of word-riffing, or at least tolerate it....