My Beadwork Beat Library for Introspective Beading

For those times when I need quieter, more introspective music, which occasionally happens while I am cleaning and organizing, too, I turn to my all-time favorite mind music. I get some kind of mental nourishment from the calm, mysterious and enigmatic opposite of any of the above artists from one of my very favorite bands, Steely Dan.

Steely Dan are not so much a "band" in the traditional sense as they are a partnership between writer/musicians Donald Becker and Walter Fagan, who have written and composed all but a very few of the tunes on their albums, backed by the finest studio musicians, sound engineers, producers, backup singers and other musical and engineering talent.

I find their music to be compelling. The writing is intellectual, fascinating stories are told, the themes are quixotic, arcane, and Becker and Fagan are absolute perfectionists in all they do. Kind of like me LOL!

Okay, maybe I'm not at that level, but still, I like to imagine myself there on those days when the self-esteem is up and I'm feeling good. Of course, I'm nowhere near their artistic level, but I do identify with the strange depths and that perfectionist thing, and to their music play while I bead helps me to be a better beader. These are my favorites by "The Dan" as they are referred to by longtime fans:

• Steely Dan: A Decade of Steely Dan A double-CD set, stuffed with all the greats, a few of the more interesting being songs that were fairly popular but never hit that #1 spot on the charts.
• Steely Dan: Greatest Hits A Canadian release, with a nice compilation of songs up to the release of Aja.
• Steely Dan: Can't Buy a Thrill The first album released. I'm still trying to figure out who's hand is on the mixing board on the back cover.
• Steely Dan: Countdown to Ecstasy The second album recorded, just as incredible as the first one.
• Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic Beguiling and bewildering. I knew what it meant, but no one else did. Or, maybe it was the other way around. Their music is like that.
• Steely Dan: Katy Lied Fourth album and such a sad loss; the Master tape was stolen mid-recording and mastering, but the remade album was still brilliant.
• Steely Dan: The Royal Scam Album five is brilliant, edgy and rather more guitar-driven than usual. I've seen the cover art in person; it's 12' X 12' huge and simply amazing.
• Steely Dan: Aja Fifth album by the duo, and is considered by most critics to be the Steely Dan Masterpiece. It is brilliant, gives me tingles and is especially relevant when I need to get that perfectionist thing going.
• Steely Dan: Gaucho Album Six before Becker and Fagan took some time apart, and is a favorite of mine, as I find it playful and a little amusing. I think they were poking fun at the Glamorous Life.

This music keeps me beading along for hours but is not always the best to listen to when I'm trying to write up a project tutorial or do any other writing. While I can accomplish a lot of "office work" or tidying up in the studio in general while listening to this music, I try to reserve it for beading, since it just works for me in that capacity.

Even the songs I've been listening to since they were first released in 1971 still stir me; making me think, ask questions of myself, of the characters in the songs, of the songwriters, and of the stories contained in the lyrics. Then there's the music, which is always perfect. And I mean perfect because Becker and Fagan are both admitted OCD-types when it comes to perfecting their music, to the point that a single song on the Aja album took an entire year to record. The one and only exception to the Rule of Perfection is the entire Katy Lied album. This is because the Master tape was stolen while the album was being produced, thus forcing the team to start again from scratch. The music never did live up to the hopes and expectations held by Becker and Fagan, and to this day they will not discuss the album or anything about it in interviews.

But we're not talking trivia so much as inspiration, and that's what this music is for me. Just the different types of songwriting, the process, and the perfection just makes me want to sit and listen while I bead, absorbing the lyrics and the stories, the characters, the insights, try to figure out the meanings, the concepts, the ideas behind the words, and to let all of that flow down into my beadwork.

I'm sure that everyone has his or her own musical inspiration, their own personal heroes and artists who never let them down. My only advice on the whole concept of music and beading is to just do it - if you enjoy it. I didn't for a while, and I think my beadwork showed it; I was missing the "spark" of the music in my brain, and the inspiration and creative "juices" it causes to flow. Silence is lovely, as are the reassuring sounds of Nature, the family, and other sounds of life, but music is the only input I know of that can give my creativity the "added value" that really shows through.

If you haven't tried using music to bead by lately, give it another change. Go through your collection, in whatever format, and pick out the sounds that just appeal to you, give you images of beading, or make you want to grab the beads and play. Then turn it on, turn it up, grab your beads and send me pictures of what you accomplish. I bet it'll be some seriously inspired beading.