We’re all members of the Gentleman Loser club now
Or… did Steely Dan predict the future 50 years ago?
This summer I’ve been taking advantage of the fine weather to do a lot of outdoor jobs — many of them the kind of mindless activities (like repainting a barn) you can do while listening to iTunes and still having enough spare brain capacity to think about life, the universe, everything.
One of the bands I’ve been returning to is Steely Dan — and one of my favourite tracks by them is Midnite Cruiser from their debut album Can’t Buy a Thrill, which was released almost 50 years ago (yes, I’m really Reelin’ in the Years) in November 1972.
I guess as a member of the Baby Boomer generation, the lines about: the world we used to know… don’t turn no more… faces aren’t smilin’ like before… the time of our time has come and gone… I fear we’ve been waiting too long… strike home because I remember the optimism we shared in the 1960s. We really believed we were seeing the dawning of a new age of peace, love, and harmony but now half-a-century later, we face a dystopian future of broken social, economic, industrial, and political systems.
