Full Description
"ONE OF THE SHARPEST, FUNNIEST, AND BEST BOOKS EVER ABOUT ANY ROCK ARTIST"-Rolling Stone
"WEIRD AND WONDROUS"-New York Times
"I ADORED IT"-Michael Chabon
A literary and visual exploration of the songs of Steely Dan.
Steely Dan's songs are exercises in fictional world-building. No one else in the classic-rock canon has conjured a more vivid cast of rogues and heroes, creeps and schmucks, lovers and dreamers and cold-blooded operators-or imbued their characters with so much humanity.
Pulling from history, lived experience, pulp fiction, the lore of the counterculture, and their own darkly comic imaginations, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker summoned protagonists who seemed like fully formed people with complicated pasts, scars they don't talk about, delusions and desires and memories they can't shake. From Rikki to Dr. Wu, Hoops McCann to Kid Charlemagne, Franny from NYU to the Woolly Man without a Face, every name is a locked-room mystery, beguiling listeners and earning the band an exceptionally passionate and ever-growing cult fandom.
Quantum Criminals presents the world of Steely Dan as it has never been seen, much less heard. Artist Joan LeMay has crafted lively, color-saturated images of her favorite characters from the Daniverse to accompany writer Alex Pappademas's explorations of the famous and obscure songs that inspired each painting, in short essays full of cultural context, wild speculation, inspired dot-connecting, and the occasional conspiracy theory. All of it is refracted through the perspectives of the characters themselves, making for a musical companion unlike any other. Funny, discerning, and visually stunning, Quantum Criminals is a singular celebration of Steely Dan's musical cosmos.
Contents
1. Jack
2. Walter
3. Donald
4. King Richard/King John
5. Lady Bayside
6. Chino & Daddy Gee
7. Michael/Jesus
8. The Charmer
9. The Fella in the White Tuxedo
10. Dan
11. David
12. Mr. Whatever
13. Louise
14. Cathy
15. The El Supremo
16. The King of the World
17. Rikki
18. The Major Dude
19. Mr. Parker
20. Buzz
21. Napoleon
22. The Archbishop
23. Dr. Wu
24. Mr. Lapage
25. Owsley
26. A Bookkeeper's Son
27. The Eagles
28. Babs & Clean Willie
29. The Old Man
30. Pepe
31. A Wooly Man without a Face
32. Peg
33. Sayoko
34. The Expanding Man
35. Broadway Duchess
36. Josie
37. The Babylon Sisters
38. Hoops McCann/The Dread Moray Eel
39. The Dandy of Gamma Chi
40. The Gaucho
41. A Jolly Roger
42. Third World Man
43. Abbie/Dupree
44. Franny from NYU
45. Lizzie
46. Jill
47. Gina
48. Dave from Acquisitions
49. Daddy
Acknowledgments
Notes
