Cuban Heels

April 9, 2021 9:36 AM

Posting this as a companion piece to Uncleozzy's used car salesman track. It's a demo that I never really finished because it sounds like an outtake from Pretzel Logic. One of those unpleasant realisations that dawns on you when you've nearly finished something and you go "Ohhhh fuuuuck....". But it did amuse me to include a sly nod to Rikki Don't Lose That Number in the chorus (the bass line), which of course itself is a nod to Horace Silver's Song For My Father. A lot of nodding going on there......

Oh and for the US contingent, an MoT is a test that all cars in the UK over 3 years old have to pass to certify their roadworthiness. If they fail, they're not legal to drive on the road. MoT = Ministry of Transport.

posted by MajorDundee (5 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

It really does sound very Steely Dan-ish, but the lyrics would need to be a bit more allusive/cryptic to really take it there. Well done!
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 5:54 PM on April 15, 2021


I think you're getting the wrong end of the stick old fruit. I scrapped this track precisely because it sounded too much like SD. It wasn't something I set out to do. It's worthless.
posted by MajorDundee at 12:46 PM on April 16, 2021


It was clear that you didn't like the outcome of a making a Steely Dan soundalike song, but it also sounded like you were deliberately leaning into that (why have a bassline that's a nod to a Steely Dan song if you don't want to sound like Steely Dan?) Maybe you set out to do something completely original, realized it was drifting in a direction you didn't care for, but decided to lean into it anyway? Or you're a self loathing steely dan fan? Anyway, I enjoyed it and think that you succeeded at doing something that you perhaps didn't wish to do.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 6:13 PM on April 16, 2021


You’re overthinking it. The riff wasn’t a deliberate nod at SD - it was only after a while that the penny dropped. It was nicely ironic because in their turn they’d “borrowed” the same figure from Horace Silver. For all I know he might have pinched it from someone else - and on and on ad infinitum. I don’t want to be churlish - if you enjoyed the track that’s cool. And I am a SD fan - no self-loathing about it. It’s a very precious thing for me that I managed to see the guys twice when they visited the UK a few years back. RIP Walter.
posted by MajorDundee at 1:18 AM on April 17, 2021 [1 favorite]


As someone who's been deliberately writing soundalikes lately, but as someone who also sort of loathes Steely Dan, I'm conflicted here. :)

Nah, this is great, and I really love the bass playing, and that thick, silky lead tone, damn.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:30 AM on May 3, 2021


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