Pretzel Logic

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This is the thread where we list the names of bands that consist of nouns plus logical connectors. Here are two:

1. Man ... or Astroman?
2. Q and Not U

How many more can you find?

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 00:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Aw man, I thought this was a Steely Dan thread.

― Every country has their stupid (AaronHz), Friday, 19 November 2004 00:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Sorry, maybe we should ask a mod to put "(Not A Steely Dan Thread)" up top.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 00:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Was (Not Was)

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Friday, 19 November 2004 00:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Everything But the Girl

― Sanjay McDougal (jaymc), Friday, 19 November 2004 01:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Add (N) to X

― Sanjay McDougal (jaymc), Friday, 19 November 2004 01:04 (twenty-one years ago)

(Okay maybe not the second one, strictly speaking.)

― Sanjay McDougal (jaymc), Friday, 19 November 2004 01:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Men Without Hats

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Friday, 19 November 2004 01:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Aw man, I thought this was a Steely Dan thread.

echoed

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Friday, 19 November 2004 01:07 (twenty-one years ago)

British See Power (mostly American power nowadays)

Port Is Foot (A lesser known Bristol band)

Fun Love In 'Crimean Al's' (some kind of dodgy brothel)

― outspan, Friday, 19 November 2004 01:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Boys II Men

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Friday, 19 November 2004 01:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Pube Lick Enemy

What??

― outspan, Friday, 19 November 2004 01:28 (twenty-one years ago)

"Pube Lick Enemy" is a (thankfully) long forgotten concept album by Anita Bryant in which she covered "Caught With the Meat in Your Mouth," "Lickin' Stick," "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)," "I'll Do Anything for Your Love (But I Won't Do That)," "Big Ten Inch (Record)," "Pearl Necklace," "Baby What A Big Surprise," "Please Please Me," and "Cocksucker's Blues."

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Friday, 19 November 2004 01:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Yo La Tengo

Mazz y Star

― Outspan, Friday, 19 November 2004 01:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Tony! Toni! Toné!

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Friday, 19 November 2004 01:46 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, I think we've got that covered. Thanks, guys.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 02:29 (twenty-one years ago)

This was the most poorly conceived and poorly worded thread possible.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 02:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, my Dirk McQuickly one was arguably worse.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 02:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Any thread that I'm welcome to.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 02:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Is better
than the one
that I come from.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 02:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll never post a joke answer and mess up someone else's thread again.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 02:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Let's just talk about Pretzel Logic now.
My favorite song is Barrytown.

C'mon, Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic, OPO!

― Every country has their stupid (AaronHz), Friday, 19 November 2004 02:58 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost
Well, perhaps that's a bit hasty.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 02:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Barrytown is great. Am I the only one who thinks it sounds a lot like the Beatle's Tell Me What You See?

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:00 (twenty-one years ago)

i can hear it now that you mention it

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:01 (twenty-one years ago)

The album title is supposedly a reference to the swastika, hence

Pretzel Logic = Nazi Thinking

Or is that just an urban legend?

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:03 (twenty-one years ago)

The melody is similar. I think that both the Beatles and the Dan were trying to sound like Dylan on their respective songs.

― Every country has their stupid (AaronHz), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Man it's a great album, but I can't remember exactly what tracks are on it. Black Friday? Dr Wu is on Katy Lied right? What about Through With Buzz?

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Rikki Don't Lose That Number
Night By Night
Any Major Dude Will Tell You
Barrytown
East St. Louis Toodle-Oo
Parker's Band
Through With Buzz
Pretzel Logic
With A Gun
Charlie Freak
Monkey In Your Soul

― Sanjay McDougal (jaymc), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:09 (twenty-one years ago)

"Through With Buzz" is a nice little song -- it's only 1:34!

― Sanjay McDougal (jaymc), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Black Friday and Dr. Wu are both on Katy Lied.

― Every country has their stupid (AaronHz), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:10 (twenty-one years ago)

xxpost

Thx Sanjay.

Does everybody know where the bass part for Rikki came from?

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I've heard but can't think of the artist/song right now.

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Horace Silver, "Song for My Father"

― Sanjay McDougal (jaymc), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Although didn't Donald and Walter disavow this and claim it as a happy accident?

― Sanjay McDougal (jaymc), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:17 (twenty-one years ago)

And it is exactly the same, but nothing to sue over.

X-post, yep, that's the one.

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I would take anything those jokers said in a interview with a grain of salt.

― Every country has their stupid (AaronHz), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:18 (twenty-one years ago)

It's kind of hard to copywrite a bassline.

Through With Buzz is about trying to kick heroin isn't it? My guess is most of the album is about the same substance.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:21 (twenty-one years ago)

i thought 'through with buzz' was about neil armstrong

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:24 (twenty-one years ago)

He takes all my money
He's not very funny
(or the other way round)

doesn't sound like an astronaut to me, what with all those space hijinks they get up to.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)

This version of the thread is hardly doing any better than its first incarnation.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Then try a new incarnation. I've always thought that the first side of Pretzel Logic was one of the greatest album sides ever. Other contenders would be side two of Rod Stewart's Every Picture Tells A Story or side two of The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society. Anybody have any other suggestions? Not whole albums, mind you, just sides. The rest of the album can suck (XTC's White Noise comes to mind--great first side, boring second), as long as one of the sides is great.

― Robert Myers, Friday, 19 November 2004 05:16 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't think that the title pretzel logic has anything to do w/ nazism (i've never heard THIS particular urban myth). i think that it just means a really screwy, "pseudo-rational" way of thinking ... kinda like (to get political a moment), "supply-side economics" (further e.g., "cutting taxes will actually INCREASE revenues!")

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 19 November 2004 05:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Pretzel is "Bretzel" in German, nicht wahr? And "Bretzle" in Bavarian dialect, oder?

Google seems to tell me that this urban legend is exactly that, with only extremely vague hints from Fagen and Becker as very tenuous possible confirmation.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 05:38 (twenty-one years ago)

serious question -- were steely dan the originators of this particular phrase? i have DEFINITELY heard it used in non-steely dan contexts (again, to describe a really convoluted way of thinking or arriving at a particular [usually crazy] conclusion).

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 19 November 2004 05:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I think so, otherwise we wouldn't have urban legends about what it means precisely. Go over to Amazon and check out the way it is used in "Pretzel Logic: A Novel," if you dare.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 05:50 (twenty-one years ago)

PL is probably SD's crowning glory. Struck the right balance between conventional pop structures, MOR and whatever it is that they do. I love the wintery feeling of the thing ("We could stay inside and play games, I don't know), perfectly reflected on the cover shot.

― Baaderonixxx le Jeune (Fabfunk), Friday, 19 November 2004 10:15 (twenty-one years ago)

death cab for cutie

porter and dolly (both abstract nouns)

yeah, "pretzel logic." I listened to it a billion times, got into Ellington because of their Bubber Miley rip there. It's a good 'un, it sounds a bit sterile to me and maybe they intended it that way. But I mean "Rikki" is as fine a song to play many times on the radio as any I can think of. They're hipsters...the bridge on "Parker's Band" is pretty amazing, it must have gratified them to no end to be able to stick that in there.

Still, there's just something so enclosed in that familiar '70s manner here that I can't quite get past any more. Prefer "Countdown" and actually some of their later stuff, they go whole hog into being super-glossy and you can't help admiring it.

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Friday, 19 November 2004 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

"East St. Louis Toodle-Doo" rules.

Of course there are other great songs too, but that beforementioned cover is one of few rare cases where I really love a cover version. Being able to play that stuff using "rock" instruments is just impressive.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 20 November 2004 03:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't listen to PL that much, and def. not as much as Countdown, Katy Lied, and Gaucho.

My favourite song is easily Any Major Dude. Joe Jackson did it live, solo piano, when I saw him.. his story was that there was only one show ever that he'd gone to, for which he'd brought a notepad to write down the songs played, and that was at a Steely Dan show in 1994, right at the front of the stage. I loved the image of then then-mature and rather famous Joe Jackson scribbling down the songs like a teenage fanboy.

― derrick (derrick), Saturday, 20 November 2004 06:42 (twenty-one years ago)

three years pass...

"night by night" is the fucking jam

― max, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:41 (eighteen years ago)

thirteen years pass...

Those days are gone forevah

― calstars, Friday, 12 February 2021 01:49 (five years ago)

oh yeah

― brimstead, Friday, 12 February 2021 02:30 (five years ago)

I have used some version of "those days are gone forever/over a long time ago" numerous times--a title for blog entries, a page in a school yearbook, posts, e-mails--as a shorthand for the world not caring anymore about stuff that still means something to you (not necessarily how they meant it, in view of some of the sings they're singing about).

― clemenza, Friday, 12 February 2021 15:45 (five years ago)

"Some of the sings they're singing about" is good, but that should read "things."

― clemenza, Friday, 12 February 2021 15:46 (five years ago)

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