thisnewday (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thisnewday) wrote2024-11-12 06:00 pm
thisnewday) wrote2024-11-12 06:00 pm
Perfect Pitch
Every so often, like a completely random thought, a few notes of a song will float through my head.
Most times, unless there's the fragment of a lyric with it, I've no way to figure out what song it is. Because, with a lyric, we can always query the internet. Otherwise, nada.
(If I had perfect pitch, the ability to name a musical note upon hearing it, an internet query could be constructed around that. Alas, I don't. Nor does 96-plus percent of the human race.
Pete McHugh was one, of that less-than-4-percent, who actually did. He was a senior violin major when I was an incoming freshman at SUNY Fredonia. But to my roommates, who were freshman violin majors, he was already a god.
One of their stories was that Pete was walking off-campus with a friend, one day, when someone in a passing car beeped their horn.
The friend challenged Pete to say which two notes combined to make the sound of the horn. Pete said that there weren't two notes, but three, and proceeded to name them.
And thus a legend was born. At least among the campus fiddleheads, lol.)
Anyway, in this instance, I had either the fragment of a lyric or a vague recollection of the artist's name. Through which I arrived at "I.G.Y." (International Geophysical Year), by Steely Dan--a song-writing and performing duo consisting of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker.
After listening to IGY on YouTube, I turned to that universal fount of all knowledge and wisdom, Wikipedia, and found that Fagen had published an autobiography titled "Eminent Hipsters," as well as producing a solo album, "Nightfly." And that, more recently, Peter Jones had published a biography, "Nightfly: The Life of Steely Dan's Donald Fagen."
Since I had an appointment on the east side of town with my ENT doc, I decided to stop at the nearby Barnes & Noble to see if either of the books, or the CD, might be available.
The books weren't in stock, so I ordered them. Then the nice lady who was helping me suggested we look through the racks for the CD. And there it was! On sale!
So now I've gotta get my Blu-ray player hooked up so I can listen to Fagen's "Nightfly" album while I wait for my books to arrive.
Hope everyone has a good day...
LPK
Dreamwidth/LJ
11.12.2024
Most times, unless there's the fragment of a lyric with it, I've no way to figure out what song it is. Because, with a lyric, we can always query the internet. Otherwise, nada.
(If I had perfect pitch, the ability to name a musical note upon hearing it, an internet query could be constructed around that. Alas, I don't. Nor does 96-plus percent of the human race.
Pete McHugh was one, of that less-than-4-percent, who actually did. He was a senior violin major when I was an incoming freshman at SUNY Fredonia. But to my roommates, who were freshman violin majors, he was already a god.
One of their stories was that Pete was walking off-campus with a friend, one day, when someone in a passing car beeped their horn.
The friend challenged Pete to say which two notes combined to make the sound of the horn. Pete said that there weren't two notes, but three, and proceeded to name them.
And thus a legend was born. At least among the campus fiddleheads, lol.)
Anyway, in this instance, I had either the fragment of a lyric or a vague recollection of the artist's name. Through which I arrived at "I.G.Y." (International Geophysical Year), by Steely Dan--a song-writing and performing duo consisting of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker.
After listening to IGY on YouTube, I turned to that universal fount of all knowledge and wisdom, Wikipedia, and found that Fagen had published an autobiography titled "Eminent Hipsters," as well as producing a solo album, "Nightfly." And that, more recently, Peter Jones had published a biography, "Nightfly: The Life of Steely Dan's Donald Fagen."
Since I had an appointment on the east side of town with my ENT doc, I decided to stop at the nearby Barnes & Noble to see if either of the books, or the CD, might be available.
The books weren't in stock, so I ordered them. Then the nice lady who was helping me suggested we look through the racks for the CD. And there it was! On sale!
So now I've gotta get my Blu-ray player hooked up so I can listen to Fagen's "Nightfly" album while I wait for my books to arrive.
Hope everyone has a good day...
LPK
Dreamwidth/LJ
11.12.2024