562 - Alex Pappademas (Author: Quantum Criminals)

Tangentially Speaking with Christopher Ryan

Chris Ryan

Society & Culture, Arts

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2023

⏱️ 91 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Alex wrote a book called Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan (beautifully illustrated by Joan LeMay). It’s a fantastic book about one of the most interesting bands of all time. They were a rock/pop/jazz band that wasn’t really a band, decided not to tour cause it was too much hassle, settled for nothing short of perfection, had no interest in fame, so cool they didn’t care a whit about being cool. I’m guessing Banksy is a fan of Steely Dan. Hope you dig the convo.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Radio mano, papà c'ango!
2:30.0	We read a book or listen to a song, the person who's singing it is assuming a character.
2:37.0	It's not necessarily their personal experience.
2:41.0	But it's a funny song because in 19, that's Ritha Franklin.
2:46.0	She don't remember the queen of soul.
2:49.0	He can't relate to this girl because she doesn't know who Ritha Franklin is.
2:56.0	It occurred to me when I was 30-31.
3:00.0	I was in a relationship with a 19-year-old.
3:03.0	I don't know if she knew who Ritha Franklin was, but she was Spanish, so she gets an excuse.
3:11.0	But it's an amazing song.
3:14.0	Next time you hear it, it's on the radio all the time.
3:16.0	Classic rock.
3:18.0	We'll go into Classic Rock, 89.9 FM on your dial.
3:25.0	The sort of chorus is the Quervo Gold, the fine Colombian make tonight a wonderful thing.
3:33.0	In other words, if I weren't drunk and snorting lines of fine Colombian cocaine, this would not work.
3:43.0	The only reason this is working is because I'm so fucking high.
3:49.0	Anyway, that's a long roundabout way to say that this episode of the podcast is very Steely Dan centric.
3:57.0	But even if you don't like Steely Dan, even if you don't know who the fuck Steely Dan or what the fuck Steely Dan is,
4:06.0	I would encourage you to stick around because the guy I'm talking with, Alex Papadimus, just wrote a book about Steely Dan.
4:17.0	It's about music. It's about being a musician.
4:24.0	It's about fiction.
4:27.0	It's about storytelling.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Chris Ryan, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Chris Ryan and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.