Episode 6 transcript

Note: this transcript is AI-generated, and as such, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.

Chad (00:01.366)
Hello and welcome back to the Aural Mess podcast. I'm joined tonight by Manny Cruz. Manny, how are you?

Manny (00:07.476)
I'm doing good, how are you, Chad?

Chad (00:09.09)
Good thanks, I appreciate you coming on the podcast to talk to me. Manny and I met on Instagram on my Steely Dan meme page, so there's always that connection between Steely Dan nerds like us, I guess, but why don't you tell us a bit about yourself, and we'll go from there.

Manny (00:26.3)
All right, so as Chad already said, I'm Emmanuel Cruz. I also go by Manny. I am a classically trained musician. I went to school for it. And I'm also a colossal nerd. I don't know if you could see, I have a wearing a Dragon Ball shirt and I got a Ninja Turtle stuff in my bed, but music and my various geek.

Hobbies are my thing. I call myself the Tooney Tenor. If you want to follow me on Instagram and other social media at the Tooney Tenor T O O N E Y T E N O R.

I love music, obviously, I went to school for it twice. You know, I have experience as a as a performer, as in both, you know, classical music and in sacred music, secular music. I have experience as a music teacher as well. And a lot of what I enjoy or I shouldn't say, well, I mean, I enjoy it. But I mean, I trace the roots of my.

love of music to several sources. I mean, there's the encouragement of my first music teacher, Mr. Walker, rest in peace that he saw me as a child sing and took me under his wing as well as my grandmother, Aurora Cruz, a Cuban immigrant came to the States. She loved opera, couldn't do much with it because she was a single mom with two pain in the butts. Sorry, my dad and my uncle.

Chad (01:43.202)
Ha ha ha.

Manny (01:43.624)
And going back to what I said before with my teacher discovering me, I mean, he told me this often, you know, especially when I was an adult before he passed. But they would always say that you were singing the overture, not the overture, the one of the arias from the Barbara Seville, you know, the famous Figaro, Figaro. And he said, you were singing that in kindergarten. I thought you were just being disruptive, but you were being sincere about it. And then it took me a few years ago to realize I learned it by watching a Porky Pig cartoon.

Chad (02:12.278)
Yes, yes, didn't we all?

Manny (02:14.001)
And yeah, and I just I mean I love Warner Brothers cartoons in particular There's other things I'm interested in and I'm just trying to find ways to merge my Love of music and my training and all that and my experiences with the various pop culture things I'm into so like I said if you guys decide to do a follow You'll see maybe one minute's gonna be a little musical thing and then the next it's gonna be I don't know a clip from The Simpsons or whatever so

Chad (02:40.239)
That's the best kind of Instagram. And speaking of yours, I did check out some of your older posts, just kind of see what you were about before you came on. And beautiful voice, man. I watched you sing, I think it was in a church with a piano accompanist, and I was just blown away.

Manny (02:55.148)
Oh, thank you, man. I really appreciate that. It's funny you say that because I used to work at a AT&T a few years ago, you know, selling phones and whatnot. And I had a new employee come into the store and she's talking to me. And she's like, I think somebody told her, she's like, Manny, did you go to college for music? I'm like, yeah. She's like, you're they say like you're we have like a beautiful voice. I was like, yeah, it's all right. You know, but I appreciate it. She says, I would have never figured it out that you were a classical musician. I was like, why is it? Because you were on the floor talking about professional

of wrestling for a half hour before. It's just like, I guess it doesn't, maybe you have that idea or that stereotype of like someone who pursues a certain type of music. And it's like, no, it's just, it's, it's one aspect of what I do. And, uh, but I always do like the, uh, like the, the weird looks or the surprises when they, when they find that out. So.

Chad (03:27.662)
Ha ha ha.

Chad (03:48.546)
That's pretty cool. So you're a man of many interests and kind of like a Renaissance man. And you know, music's universal, I find. And, you know, like you said, people have like preconceived notions and things like that. But when it comes down to it, like I connect with people all the time, just simply on a love of music, because I like every kind of music, you know what I mean? Everything from classical. And again, you know, same as you, I sort of discovered classical through Bugs Bunny. So I want to talk about that at some length, but, um,

Manny (03:53.82)
Ooh. Yeah.

Manny (04:13.698)
Hehehehe

Chad (04:17.066)
You know, I think I just listened to everything and you know, I've gotten a lot of attention online. I've gotten a lot of guests on this podcast so far because of the whole Steely Dan connection. But, you know, I'm hoping to sort of branch out and talk about more things. So let's talk about the Looney Tunes thing a bit. So you're working on a podcast that y'all are basically going through and sort of analyzing every Looney Tunes cartoon. Is it everyone ever or in a certain era?

Manny (04:46.44)
Pretty much, yeah, everyone that came out during the classic period, as I tell a lot of people, they don't remember because... Well, not that they don't remember, it's just... it's lost the time in some aspects.

Chad (04:50.123)
Right.

Manny (04:58.86)
Warner Brothers, they commissioned Looney Tunes, two former Disney animators, Hugh Harmon and Rudolph Ising. They split from Disney. They made a pilot in 1929 that was one of the first attempts at synchronizing sound. They sold it to Leon Schlesinger. He had to deal with Warner Brothers and that's how Looney Tunes started in 1930. And then a year later, the sister series, Mary Melody, started in 1931. And I like to describe it to people that the original, especially in the 30s, not so much in the 40s and beyond,

especially with the merry melodies, their early music videos. Warner's had all this sheet music and the records that they wanted to sell. And if you look up the names of the older cartoons, the name of the cartoons are of song titles, you know, I only have eyes for you. I love to sing, you know, those beautiful names. And I'm actually the collaborator, one of his main collaborators, my buddy from Australia, Anthony Kodarak, that during covid

Chad (05:32.375)
Right.

Manny (05:58.016)
I was in grad school at the time. I was studying at the University of Houston, working on that beautiful voice, as you said, thank you again. And, um, just sitting in my dorm going crazy. Like, you know, I went to school to specifically get better at singing. And it's like, you know, we have to go online and, you know, obviously it's my God already four years since that craziness and

Chad (06:17.488)
Yes.

Manny (06:18.256)
I was like, I need something to do. Let me look up some, because I have YouTube Premium constantly listening to stuff about music, about fitness, about cartoons, you know, like that's my television right there. Or when I drive, I listen to a lot of YouTube and I was like, let me look up some Looney Tunes stuff. It's, you know, just for the heck of it. And I found his channel when he was still early on in the thirties, think he started cracking into the forties. So I reached out to him and I said, Hey, you know, um,

I am a huge Looney Tunes fan as well. I've been studying the history for the past 20 years, and I'm also a musician. So once you get into the really famous musical cartoons, like, you know, What's Opera Dock and The Rabbit of Seville, I'm your man, I could help you with that, the musical aspect of it. He's like, thanks, I appreciate it, but I already have someone who was at the time collaborating with him, Steph Stilley. Hi, Steph, if you see this. And then, I'd say about a few weeks, a few months later, he was like, hey, you know, come on board. Let's do a test run.

So we did, you probably remember it, Buckaroo Bugs, the cartoon with the really stupid cowboy in Bugs Bunny. I'm a right-hand side saddle. Classic, and I'm like, oh God, what a perfect one to come on. It's one of my favorite Bugs Bunny shorts. And just.

Chad (07:22.119)
Yes, yes.

Manny (07:28.528)
The chemistry was there. I mean, Anthony is a little bit older than I am, but obviously I'm from the States. He's from Australia. And of course, you know, talking about you and I connecting over Steely Dan, he and I connected over our love and encyclopedia knowledge of the Simpsons and how we can speak in Simpsons to each other. And nobody else knows what we're saying, but we're quoting the show on a daily basis. And it's just like it's so awesome. And I've been collaborating with Anthony for the past three years, three, four years. And

Chad (07:48.002)
Hahaha

Manny (07:57.352)
You know, jumping on various shorts, he's currently now in the 50s. The cartoons ran from 1930 to 1969, but like the really famous ones are the, I would say the forties up until the early sixties. That's like the meat and potatoes of it. But you know, I'm doing some cartoons from 1953 now and he has me working my way back from the early shorts, the merry melodies of the thirties and early forties. And

kind of digging into my interest in musicology because I have a degree, my music degrees are in music education and music performance but some of my buddies and some of my professors said you're a musicologist and you don't realize it because I love history, I'm a huge history buff and you know I'm listening to these, watching the cartoons, I'm trying to watch every single Warner Brothers short in order, I'm behind, it's a thousand of them in total.

Chad (08:36.096)
Yep.

Chad (08:46.583)
Wow.

Manny (08:47.12)
But I'm watching them and, you know, obviously picking up some of the cultural references from the 30s in that time period, but just finding the song and looking up the songwriters and, you know, this where did these cart, these songs come from? Because most of them, like I said, they had sheet music records. They originally came from Warner Brothers films. And it's just I just go crazy over and exercise. Fascinating. And people like I call it Mandy's music time whenever I pop up on his.

his thing and uh... you know so far i've gotten a lot of good feedback and you know eventually i'd like to do that for other things both musical and non-musical

Chad (09:22.838)
That's really cool and I listened to an episode just to kind of get a feel and I'm definitely going to subscribe and work my way back to some of the other episodes because, you know, again, I have older siblings, right? So I'm 52, my sister is 13 years older than I am, my brother's a little bit older, he's 11 years older, and they were both really into Bugs Bunny cartoons so therefore I got my love of Looney Tunes and Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck and Porky Pig and the whole gang from them.

But like you said, like you guys have this sort of, you know, secret shared language with the Simpsons, the same with my siblings. Like we still to this day, we'll talk in Bugs Bunny quotes to each other, like at holidays and on the phone and like, you know, we'll text each other things and you know, my sister calls me and I'll answer the phone and go, that humor? Yeah.

Manny (09:58.728)
Ha ha ha!

Manny (10:07.6)
Is that how's is that you murk? How's every little thing? And it funny that you say that like a lot of the jokes in those older shorts Those are radio catchphrases, you know that you know, like is that you murder? You know, ain't I a stinker or you know, you know, he broke my widowhead. He booked my widow arms That's all you know, you know vaudeville and radio references from the 30s and 40s that we think oh, that's a Bugs Money phrase Or that's a porky pig phrase, but you know

Chad (10:17.451)
Right, right.

Chad (10:22.705)
Hahaha

Chad (10:33.035)
Right.

Manny (10:35.332)
And again, that's just like me getting into the whole history aspect of it. And, you know, like.

I mean, when I first started getting into the history of Looney Tunes, when I was a middle schooler, I mean, I didn't know how old you are. And you shocked me because I'm like, I look older than you. I'm 35 myself. I'll be 36 next month. And and it's funny that you were saying like, you know, you watch the cartoons on television and your siblings, like they started showing these cartoons on TV in the 50s. My father was the first generation of kids to watch them. My dad's 71. And I was the last. You know, I was what?

Chad (10:50.498)
Ha ha ha.

Chad (11:02.786)
Bye.

Manny (11:10.154)
started pulling these cartoons off of television, like all channels, because they started being shown only on Cartoon Network in the early 2000s, but from the end of the 90s, you know, 50s to the end of the 90s, they were everywhere. You know, local television, cable, whatever. And you know, I, great, I just forgot what I was going to go with this. Probably wasn't that important, but oh, sorry.

Chad (11:30.37)
Hahaha

Manny (11:34.324)
So I got into the history of them in middle school. One day I was like, the name Bosco popped in my head. And I was like thinking Bosco is chocolate syrup, but it's also this cartoon character that I vaguely remembered seeing as a little kid in the early 90s, like a black and white character. And I went on a computer, went on Yahoo, remember those days, and it brought me to this website, Looney Tunes and Mary Melodies the Early Years. And I was like, wait.

Chad (11:57.664)
Oh yeah.

Manny (12:03.236)
Looney Tunes are from the 30s. They're from. Bosco was a Looney Tune character. I was like, the porky pig isn't Tweety and, you know, the Tasmanian devil. And that's where it went from there. And. And then, like I said, there was other things that I'm passionate about, like, oh, I love Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You know, I grew up watching the cartoon, the movies, the toys. Oh, the first comic book was from 1984. It was in black and white. It was violent. Like, you know, just like it just starts spreading from there. And just everything that I'm into, it's like I have.

Even if I see like a movie or a TV show once, I have to go on the Wikipedia page. I have to dig into the details. I got to do the production credits. And obviously for music, too, it's just it's it's, you know, fascinating, you know, to obviously to look at like, oh, what musicians were shared and with this band or this band and.

Chad (12:40.619)
Yeah.

Manny (12:50.692)
Yesterday on my Instagram, I posted about Michael McDonald. His birthday was yesterday. I was like, oh, I was like, man, he was great by himself. And then he was with the Doobie Brothers. And of course, you know, I'm thinking of the vocals that he did for Steely Dan and all that other stuff. And it's just like and everybody else is just like, why do you just get so intrigued about it? I'm like, it's what I enjoy. You know, some people love like math. They think in mathematical terms, they think in, you know, expression or what? I don't know. I had a point somewhere. If you find it, let me know.

hahahaha

Chad (13:21.499)
No, you made the point and I think you made it well. And yeah, it's the same thing with me. Like, you know, I've listened to Steely Dan for quite a long time. I've talked about this a lot in previous episodes and stuff. And you know, my thing is I just started to get to the point with them four or five years ago where I got like obsessed, right? Where I, like you said, I had to go look at the production credits and then...

You started to see the common threads of, you know, Gary Katz produced everything and Roger Nichols was the engineer. And well, why did they have him on all their albums? Was he that good? And then you can read about Roger Nichols and you find out that he's like this engineering genius, you know, and same with me. Like when I get into something, I tend to want to know everything about it, right? So I go to the Wikipedia page, I go and, you know, see if there's a subreddit about it. I find like a Twitter community around it and I kind of immerse myself. And that's what happened with Steely Dan. And, you know, here I am.

How many years later and I'm still down that rabbit hole, you know rabbit hole, haha bugs bunny bugs bunny And a and a parent thanks and apparently by the way Becker and Fagen were both big Looney Tunes fans. Like they were they were like, you know giant bugs bunny watchers apparently so There's a connection

Manny (14:19.462)
Hahaha. Pretty good, Doc.

Manny (14:32.92)
See that I didn't know that's yeah, that's pretty awesome. I mean it makes sense. I mean was it Fagen was 50 and No, if Fagen was 48 and Becker was 1950. So yeah, there were my they're literally a few years older than my dad So it completely makes sense and you know

Donald Fagen is my fellow Jersey boy. He's you know from South Brunswick. I'm from Elizabeth, New Jersey and you know and Becker from New York. My father was born in New York City. So and I even think about that too. Sometimes I'm like did dad ever Cross paths with them at one point before they made the move out to California You know, this is the stuff that keeps me up at night. So, you know

Chad (14:57.678)
Oh wow, okay.

Chad (15:10.651)
I never know. Right. Fellow North Jersey guy here, by the way. Yeah. Absolutely. I was born and raised in South Jersey, but I've been in North Jersey for a little over 20 years now, so I consider myself, you know, an unofficial North Jerseyan by association.

Manny (15:16.641)
Oh nice man. We're the best.

Manny (15:30.568)
So I have to ask this question and hopefully you get the right answer. That delicious pork product or that's like it's like it's like Canadian bacon, as I say to people who are not from this area goes great with eggs and cheese. I don't eat cheese. But what do you call that thing?

Chad (15:45.462)
It is pork roll, my friend, unfortunately. Ha ha

Manny (15:46.828)
Alright, I'm leaving, bye. I can't send you my North Jersey card. I can't submit you for membership. You still gotta work your way up.

Chad (15:58.27)
That's the one thing I hold on to. It's funny, you know? And New Jersey's official Twitter page just posts a bunch of fun stuff like yesterday and today about Valentine's Day. They had the little candy hearts with North Jersey, South Jersey, and then they skipped Central Jersey, so everybody was freaking out about that. I'm a big Central Jersey exists believer, so I had to jump into that conversation. But they did a Taylor Ham and pork roll thing, and I was just trolling.

everybody that was saying Taylor ham and I was like you spelled you spelled pork roll wrong guy. Sorry It's great My wife and I get into it because you know, she'll once in a while. We'll get some Taylor ham I'll say it she got she gets some Taylor ham at the store and I'll be like, oh, thanks for the pork roll, honey And she's like shut up Yeah

Manny (16:45.637)
I've done that too or like I've been in South Jersey. I was like, yeah, let me have a town ham an egg you're like

They're like looking at the menu say, you know what to call it. I was like, yeah, I just did. It's Taylor ham. And I find give me some pork roll. Or when you go to a was it a quick check? Because I have a quick check now far, you know, several in the area not far from where I work. And it's just I go in there and I'm like, like I cringe. Like, I don't want to call it. It's like, thank God they have the little computer screen. You could order it. You know, I'll just it's like it's like my secret shame. You know, it's bad enough. I accept Wawa. I'm not going to do that either. You know.

Chad (16:55.118)
Hahaha

Chad (17:12.834)
Ha ha.

Chad (17:20.058)
Hey, wah-wah is the way. I grew up on wah-wah. So, you mentioned teaching music by the way, so is that your day gig?

Manny (17:31.248)
Yeah, I've done it for a few years now. I teach elementary music for the time being, but I have experiences doing middle school. I've done a little bit of like literally I taught two classes at the college level because I was a graduate assistant. And yeah, you know, just trying to trying to educate the youth on just music and just more so much. I would say just an appreciation for it because. I.

trying to think what would be the best way of saying it. It's hard to get younger people's attention, especially nowadays because there's so many different choices of things you can do. And I don't expect every kid to love music or be interested in it or just play an instrument or sing in a choir, but.

My biggest goal is to just have a lifelong openness and appreciation of music in general. I mean, I always make the argument to younger people that it's like, you don't know how fortunate you are when it comes to

Music accessibility and I mean, yeah, we can get into the argument of how things are with streaming because I have all I love streaming and I also hate streaming for a bunch of different reasons. When it comes to, you know, the ethical issues of musicians and payments and royalties and all that. But it's like you pretty much have an entire buffet at your disposal whenever you want. Try just try. I remember hearing that rule where it's like if you hear a song, give it three times, you know.

Chad (18:38.411)
Yes.

Manny (19:05.524)
You you know by the third time, you know, you'll love it Or you don't like it and I said the beautiful thing is if you don't want to hear it You don't have to listen to it ever again. You don't have to worry about you know, oh you hear your favorite song and you hope and pray that there's a cassette inside your Inside your uh, you know your tape player and hopefully the dj is kind enough to say all right That was uh, I don't know. This is it by Kenny loggins or and you know, but it's that and that's just something that

Chad (19:14.263)
Bye.

Chad (19:29.422)
Right?

Manny (19:33.948)
that just that ease of accessibility. It's like, you know, take advantage of it. Take advantage of the knowledge and the resources that you have available to, you know, enjoy music. Because I also don't, I also say to my students, you know, all the students I've had, you know, my oldest students now are adults, you know, in their mid to late 20s now, when I first started teaching. But, you know, I said, you know what? At the end of the day.

You're going to see music as a source of, you know, as a positive thing, not just for enjoyment, but you want to go to concerts. You want to maybe sing in a community choir or a church choir. You want to pick up your instrument, play again. If you have children and if your kid says, hey, mom, dad, I want to go sing in a choir. You're not going to say, oh, well, Mr. Cruz was a real jerk to me 20, 30 years ago, whatever. It's like, no, I want you to sign up for it and I want you to have a positive experience from it.

Chad (20:25.482)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think, are they still, I know for a while that they weren't really a lot of schools to sit and have funding for music programs and they weren't doing like instrumental music. Like when I grew up and I went to public school in Atlantic City, you know, they even had.

instrumental music programs were like, you know, the school had a just closet full of instruments and you got assigned, you know, a trumpet, a saxophone, a violin, whatever your interest was. And you kept that instrument for the whole year to take home. And you know, you got lessons every week and then, you know, in junior high and high school, you could be in the band and you know, the orchestra and whatever else. But it seems like that's not so much of a common thing anymore.

Manny (21:05.392)
Yeah, I mean, it depends on obviously the district here in the school. I mean, in my teaching career, I've been fortunate that because I don't do instrumental, I do vocal music. But, you know, it's fortunate that, yeah, you want to play the saxophone. You know, you have to hit, you know, fourth, fifth grade or trumpet or violin. You could sign up for it. And, you know, you know, obviously, you get your pullout lessons, but it's just you have to deal with just the schedule. And then you obviously have to deal with the emphasis on

Chad (21:15.566)
Mm.

Manny (21:35.056)
just standardized testing. I think that's honestly, that's one of the biggest issues I have with being a teacher in general because it just eats away so much at the time of not just music teachers and you know, and gym teachers and art teachers, but just the classroom teachers themselves because I have been very fortunate to have in my teaching career have worked with so many amazing teachers. I mean, I just I hate, hate all the negative talk that

Chad (21:39.202)
Yeah.

Manny (22:02.6)
teachers get, you know, just the from people who think they know and they don't. And so many teachers, they pour out their, their hearts, their souls, you know, just to make sure that these kids have a bright future. A lot of them have their own children and it's like, they want their kids to succeed. They want these other kids to succeed as well. I don't have children at the moment. I have a dog as you probably could see behind me.

But at the end of the day, it's like, I'm going to be gone one day, and I want to set up a positive future for not only myself, but for them, if I ever have children or whatnot. And it's just, that's something that I feel gets lost in all the shuffle of people trying to tell you how to do your job. And it's like, no, this is not how it's done. Trust the people who know it. Or even like with just, you know.

Like sometimes it's similar to my experiences as being a musician. It's like, I'm the kind of person, I'm not gonna give you my opinion unless you ask for it. And then if you say, or your expertise, and if I give it to you and if you don't like it, it's like, well you asked me and I know what I'm talking about, so maybe you should do it. You know, it's like, oh wow, I feel like crap right now. Let me go to a doctor, and you go to the doctor and he tells you something, it's like, okay, you have this problem, you need to do this. Oh, I'm not too happy about that. Well.

then why did you bother asking the expert in the first place?

Chad (23:19.08)
Hahaha

Chad (23:25.479)
Yeah, I used to play in bands and I still play guitar just for pleasure. My daughter who's 17 is very musically inclined. She has great taste in music. You know, I don't even want to pretend to take credit for more than half of it because she's discovered so much on her own, you know, between like just friends and...

social media, you know, I mean, and at some point I'm going to have her on here. She wants to do an episode with me to talk about, you know, how she's discovered all this music, because she'll just come downstairs like singing like Duran and my wife and I look at each other like, where the hell did you hear that? You know, and she's like, oh, TikTok, duh, you know. So, I mean, it's just amazing how these kids, like you said, they have like this unlimited world of media accessible to them at all times.

Manny (23:58.237)
Ha ha!

Chad (24:12.522)
And just to build an appreciation for it, I think, and to sort of get your head around the fact that music is not just a hobby. It's not just something that you do when you're not doing other things. It's for a lot of people, it's life-saving, it's life-changing. And you know, they've done studies, they prove that it helps with math.

comprehension and reading and everything else. So I just feel like, yeah, like you said, like having teachers and trying to tell them what to do and just not teaching to a curriculum and teaching to a standardized test, it's just ridiculous.

Manny (24:44.772)
Yeah, I mean I could spend another two hours talking about you know, it's not just like oh I want there You know, they're pulling away from the music part. It's not just that It's like, you know, just having a well well-rounded individual and you were saying about you know music saves lives Where I went I went to Montclair State from undergrad and they have an awesome music therapy program. I Remember in high school my band teachers like the music therapists They're there

Chad (24:48.043)
Ha ha.

Manny (25:12.412)
Just just leave them be. And then as I got older, I was like, oh, you know, they actually do like a lot of cool stuff, you know, just, you know, using music for therapeutical purposes, you know, for children with special needs, for the elderly, for people who are recovering from, you know, injury or whatever. And there was a video that I saw, I don't know if you ever saw it. I think it was like a trailer for a documentary. And it was this lady and her father was.

probably in his 80s or 90s at this point, could barely speak, excuse me, elderly guy, and he talked to him, he's mumbling all his things, and this is when, I would say like the mid 2000s, late 2000s, when the iPod was still kind of brand new, I think it was the iPod Mini, and I forgot the name of the music expert, he was a doctor or something, oh yeah, a doctorate in music, and they said,

Why don't we put the music that he loves and enjoys inside this device? And it was gospel music. It was spirituals and a lot of stuff from like Cap Calloway, you know, a lot of amazing black music from the thirties and thirties and forties. And, you know, his daughter puts on the headphones and like, literally it's like a light switch turning on.

Chad (26:31.627)
while.

Manny (26:31.768)
And it's just like he becomes comes back to life. He starts singing along. He sings, you know, like the melodies just come back to him, the words. And then the doctor said something like music's the quickening art. And they take off the headphones and they start talking to him. His name was Henry. And he's like, Henry, yeah. Did you like the music? Yeah, I loved it. Like you were able to understand him. And he's like, yeah, I love listening to Cab Calloway and this and that. And then he starts singing and he starts scatting like Cab Calloway.

Chad (26:56.239)
Oh wow.

Manny (27:00.98)
It's just like literally a light switch turned on you see his daughter like in tears Just like I can't believe just by him listening to his favorite music. He came back It's like my father has returned and like I can't help like tearing up a little bit whenever I see that part But it's just it's crazy and we have the means the technology to do that kind of stuff now

Chad (27:15.839)
Yeah.

Chad (27:21.842)
Yeah, that's amazing. I'll have to go check that out. So, and it's funny you say like, you know, people, I can't remember sometimes what I had for breakfast two days ago, but I can play every drum fill, you know, air drumming in the car of, you know.

Manny (27:35.176)
Mm-hmm.

Chad (27:41.034)
15 different Steely band songs. Right? Or, you know, any other music that I'm into. But I mean, like, it's just funny. It's like music is so ingrained in me and it's just in my brain. You know what I mean? So I can see how that could be a thing where that would turn on a light switch.

Manny (27:44.354)
So it was like...

Chad (27:58.151)
So, still a den.

Manny (27:58.272)
One day you're driving, I was gonna say like one day you're in the hotter mood and then you're in a purdy mood and then marotta. Yeah.

Chad (28:06.132)
Hottar, you know, I think Hottar doesn't get enough love. But let's talk about Steely Dan, because again, like I think that's how we sort of initially, you know, kind of stumbled across each other on Instagram. But you know, when did you get into the band?

I hate ranking and I hate saying your favorite thing because for me it changes every five minutes. My favorite album, my favorite drummer, my favorite this, my favorite that. But give me some highlights, give me some things that you like in their catalog and let's dig into some of that.

Manny (28:24.177)
Yeah.

Manny (28:34.68)
All right, so how did I get into them? And I hope you don't mind me shoving my this is my delicious dinner. My smoothie is I'm trying to cut some weight. So, I mean, I got into them just late in general because I mean, was it Gaucho released eight years before I was born? So, yeah, there's that. So I. So, OK, now I know the exact time period. So when I started downloading music.

Chad (28:39.246)
Ha ha ha. Not at all.

Manny (29:02.156)
in less than legal means back in the day, you know, in middle school and high school. So I remember, you know, using Napster and LimeWire and screwing up my family computer without realizing it. And I grew up like, well, I don't belong in this time period in terms of my musical taste. I mean, I said I'm 35. You know, I was born in the late 80s, whatever. So what is the music of my time period? You know?

Chad (29:04.833)
haha

Chad (29:09.802)
Yup.

Manny (29:31.264)
Backstreet Boys, Nsync, Britney Spears, Christine Aguilera. I mean, at the Super Bowl a few days ago, everybody my age was going crazy over Usher and Alicia Keys and all that. And obviously I know that because I remember hearing it in school. I remember hearing it in, you know, my friends talking about it. But me as a kid, I listened to 106.7 Light FM in New York City. And I was hearing...

Chad (29:40.463)
Oh yeah.

Chad (29:57.462)
Ha ha ha.

Manny (30:00.048)
You know, Billy Joel, I was hearing James Taylor and Elton John and all that, you know, soft rock, whatever the 60s or the 80s. My dad that I credit both my parents are not musicians. They don't know squat about music. I got the musical connection from my grandma because she sang and knew a little bit about it. But I always credit both my parents for some of my musical tastes. I mean, my mother is Puerto Rican and she came here when she was about 17, 18 and a lot of music she played back then. I hate it.

Now I enjoy like a lot of salsa music, boleros, Mexican music from like the 60s, 70s and 80s. Just very beautifully sung guys like Jose and you know salsa music like Hector Lavo and whatever that I eventually wound up singing and I love singing salsa music. But from my old man, you know, like I said, he was born in New York and he grew up in Northern Jersey. He was always putting on 101.1 CBS FM, the greatest hits of all time. And from him, I got doo-wop.

Chad (30:54.045)
Oh yeah.

Manny (30:57.752)
I got Motown, I got stuff from the 70s and my dad loves Philly Soul, I got that from him too. I mean I love the stylistics and Harold Melvin, the Blue Notes and also Classic Rock. I mean my favorite, I don't want to say, I'm a little nervous now because again it might change but for years I've always said my favorite band is The Doors. But Steely Dan might take over that title sooner or later but you know.

Chad (31:04.29)
Hmm. Oh yeah.

Manny (31:24.368)
So anyway, I would be making compilations of my music because again, my classmates were listening to Ludacris and Lil Jon. And I was like, I want to listen to Peebo Bryson singing if ever in your, my, like I, oh my God, I wish I still had the CDs of, I wrote like a manuals music volume one. And it's like, I remember I would go from like Laughter in the Rain by Neil Sadaka.

Chad (31:32.136)
hahahaha

Chad (31:37.238)
Ha ha ha.

Manny (31:47.548)
to If You're Ever In My Arms Again by Peebo Bryson to In The Club by 50 Cent. That was one of the few hip hop songs I heard back then. I mean, I was in high school when it dropped. I had to put it and I did like it. And one of those songs in that compilation was Do It Again. It was the only Steely Dan song I knew. I thought that Steely Dan was a one hit wonder and that's it. And I liked Do It Again because I probably heard it on 101.1 and whatever. Life goes on. So then.

Chad (31:53.73)
hahahaha

Chad (31:58.414)
Of course.

Chad (32:03.362)
Oh wow.

Manny (32:17.224)
I'd say around 2013, it's just like the universe or whatever was conspiring for me to become a fan of the Dan. And I remember a teacher I worked with, a band teacher, John Riley, awesome guy, drummer. He had the cover of, and this is what I said back then, I was like, what's this Aja thing that you have on in there? He's like, yeah, it's Steely Dan. I was like, oh, I've heard of them, but what's the Aja?

So it's like their best album, whatever. And then I go on Facebook and one of my fraternity brothers was talking about Steely Dan as well as I write more clues are coming in. And I have a buddy of mine, a professional opera singer, Keith Fares, awesome guy. He loves the rock. He loves a lot of like Philly soul Motown, you know, similar musical tastes. And every day, like he puts up.

Chad (32:45.859)
Ha ha.

Manny (33:11.336)
clips of, you know, like today's so and so's birthday. So he'll put their music on YouTube. And I heard him talking about Steely Dan as well on Facebook. So now I was like, you know what? Let me let me check these guys out. And I think it was my fraternity brother that mentioned either the Royal Scam, the album or maybe one song in particular. And that's my I guess my gateway was the Caves of Altamira. And I heard I was like, man, the horn section is just

Chad (33:36.828)
Oh yeah.

Manny (33:41.876)
rock solid on this thing and I just kept listening to it more and more. And around that time I bought a CD copy of Aja and I just let it sit there for a few months and then I went to California to do an opera program and then when I came back I was like, you know, let me finally put this thing in my computer and I ripped the CD, I put it onto iTunes and then I obviously started with Black Cow and worked my way down. I was like, all right.

Chad (33:51.972)
Hahaha

Manny (34:11.152)
some cool things, whatever. And I think by the second time, it's just like, that's when just the change happened. And I'm like, holy cow, I gotta do more. So then I think I got the rest of the Royal Scam. And then I just, I was like, I have to listen to more. I mean, it happened with Billy Joel, it happened with the Doors, other things. I just have to listen to the entire discography. And that's just when the floodgates open, just constantly listening to, you know, all the albums and.

And then I think in the same year, I saw that they were performing in Red Bank. So I saw them at Red Bank. I got to see, uh, at the count Basie theater and it's just like, and then. At the, that show at the souvenir booth or the merchandise booth, they had a hoodie of, and now I could finally say it right of Asia. And I was like, Ooh, I got to wear this hoodie. I have to, and it was, it wasn't cheap, but I still have it to this day. And I've had some people just like, dude, like.

Chad (35:00.534)
Hehehehe

Manny (35:10.112)
awesome hoodie, like phenomenal album, blah, blah. And it just it goes in, you know how it is. It's like it goes in waves. You listen to them and then you Peter off and then it happens again. And I've made a joke about it. It's like, oh, I'm on my yearly Steely Dan kick. And it happened a few months ago and right around the time too, that I found out about the new pressings, the ultra high quality pressings that analog productions did and listening to the guys like talking about like.

Chad (35:11.867)
hahahaha

Chad (35:23.63)
Ha ha

Manny (35:37.788)
you know, finding the master tapes and like really. And I mean, especially Asian gaucho are just so well produced. But like I'm like, it's one hundred fifty dollars. But I really want to get it. And my birthday is next month. And if somebody wants to get it, please do so. But it's yeah, it I would say since then, they've definitely been my second favorite band. I said my creep over to number one.

Chad (35:45.186)
Yeah.

Chad (35:49.297)
hahahaha

Manny (36:04.024)
I think because of the longevity, like I've been listening again to The Doors, it's been a while, but... And just like the stories themselves about, you know, like the Fagen and Becker stories and just like the rotating cast of musicians. And then like I look at, you know, just the murderers row of people that they had on their records. I mean, like McDonald and Purdy and Larry Carlton and all these other guys. And then I see like, holy cow, like they also worked with...

the Doobie Brothers and Stevie Wonder and all these other phenomenal musicians. And now I'm thinking Billy Joel Phil Woods, who did the sax solo on Dr. Wu. And it's just like, oh, just and I don't know that it's because I've heard some people say like with Dan, it's like either love him or hate him. And I haven't found too many people that hate him. But like, yeah, like you and me and some other people, like said, my buddy, Keith.

Chad (36:40.971)
Yeah.

Chad (36:51.619)
Yeah.

Manny (36:59.888)
and a few other people, friends of mine, that once they found out I was a Dan fan, they were just like, oh my God, like, Manny, we gotta hang out. And I know there's another friend of mine, Zoe, that when she found out I just converted to the Church of Dan, that she was like, you gotta listen to Fagin's solo album. So she sent me the Night Flight trilogy. And I mean, I actually never fully listened to Morph the Cat and Comic period until years later. And they're both great.

Chad (37:28.526)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Manny (37:29.744)
But, I mean, the Nightfly is just, oh, such a great album. Such good stuff. Ha ha ha.

Chad (37:36.914)
Oh yeah, great stuff. And you totally nailed it. I think the Dan is very polarizing. You know, you don't find people who are just casual listeners, and if they are, they're just into so many other things, and Steely Dan's just sort of there in the rotation, but you've either got like the hardcore fanatics, or you've got the people that just can't stand them, or don't get them, you know, and those are not mutually exclusive. So, yeah. And the solo stuff, how about Walter Becker's solo albums? Have you dug into those at all?

Manny (38:05.392)
I've listened to them a few times, but not as much as Fagen's stuff. I mean, I've listened to, yeah, it was 12 tracks of Wack and Circus Money, and I've enjoyed them, but I guess when it comes to just how he constructs things musically, I guess my tastes lean more towards what Fagen did. Because lyrically, like, all that, I mean, they were both, you know, just two sarcastic

Chad (38:27.231)
Yeah, same.

Manny (38:34.676)
from Northeast, but I think like, especially with the stuff I've listened to and read from Becker, it's like he leans more into that cynicism and that sarcasm and, and wit. I mean, the guy was absolutely witty and I was fortunate to have seen Becker, I think three times before he passed. And whenever he does his whole spiel, uh, just before he does the ending of a Hey 19 and I'm just like, yeah, that's a stuff. And then.

You look at like some of the tracks on the Nightfly or Kamakiri it in particular, just the more the I guess sentimental stuff. I mean, I like said, Nightfly album top to bottom, but I really love Maxine. I just it's a gorgeous, gorgeous. I'm a sucker for ballads in general. And a part of me is like I would have liked to have seen more of that stuff from them. But at the same time, that's not who they are. But it was nice to see like kind of.

Chad (39:19.64)
Yes.

Chad (39:23.51)
Yeah.

Chad (39:29.547)
Right?

Manny (39:32.072)
You know, just how it is, you know, falling in love and just thinking, you know, this is going to be it. And then obviously going into New Frontier, it's just thinking of the optimism of when we were younger. And some of the stuff too on Sunken Condos, like the first few songs in that album, I just absolutely love. I mean, Slinky Thing in particular. And yeah, like the, I remember about two, three years ago, I finally, like I said, got into Kamakiriad

Chad (39:53.163)
Yes.

Manny (40:00.752)
And I was listening to On The Dunes. And that song does not feel like eight minutes long. And it's like the perfect song. I would tell people it's like, you're driving down either Route 9 or you're going down... Yeah, I would say Route 9, like you're going towards the shore and put on On The Dunes. It's like, as I do on my Looney Tunes channel, chef's kiss. Perfect. It's like the perfect driving song for that. Ha ha ha.

Chad (40:05.735)
It doesn't.

Chad (40:18.206)
That's perfect.

Chad (40:24.682)
It is, totally is. And Maxine, yeah, I mean, to me, it's like the first part of Nightfly, you know, you've got that sort of optimism and you've got that young person's verve, but then Maxine's like, he grows up and moves to the city, right, that song to me always just felt like New York. And Comicuread, took me a while to get into Comicuread. You know, I was around when it came out and I remember.

Manny (40:39.904)
Yeah.

Chad (40:50.99)
You know, I was a big MTV head back in the day, and I just remember seeing the video for Tomorrow's Girls, right, and thinking, you know, just loving Steely Dan at that point already, and thinking, oh wow, you know, Fagen's pretty cool, he's got this song on MTV, and you know, whatever, but.

Besides the novelty of that coming out and it being like new, you know, Donald Fagen stuff, which didn't really have an impact on me at the time. You know, I had the CD and I just couldn't really get into it for whatever reason. You know, it just, it just didn't feel right. But then later on, it just, I think every album in its own way has just hit me at a certain point in time, you know, whether it's where I am in my life or where I am in my musical education, because that never stops, right? And they just sort of grabbed me in different ways.

If you haven't sort of delved into that whole thing, I was really into that album for a long time. The Night Belongs to Mona. It's one of my favorite Fagin songs ever. It's just beautiful. It's like haunting, but in a good way.

Manny (41:50.368)
Yeah, speaking of haunting, I think I mean, Morph the Cat itself, I really like that's probably of the of the four Fagen albums that I mean, I've listened to it a decent amount of times, but it's just like that's not the one that really jumps at me as much. Not saying it's bad at all, but now you say like haunting. I love Bright Night Gown.

Chad (42:11.039)
Yes.

Manny (42:11.204)
And also like lyrically when I realized what it was about. And that's the other thing, too. Like I'll explain it to, you know, like non-Dan fans. It's like, oh, this song is about and they're like, what? I'm like, I would say why we tell people pay attention to the words. Like I was not that long ago, you know, telling my mom about The Royal Scam. And then when I realized what the song's talk... well, I know.

Their lyrics are always up to interpretation, but it's like, you know, the city of St. John, that's San Juan. Talking about the Puerto Ricans that came to, you know, this part of the country, like my family and my other relatives. And just, yeah, we got the short end of the stick in many different ways. And like, I'm explaining that to her. I was like, Mom, like this would resonate with you because this is your family. This is your experience to an extent. And then, or.

And I'm always the kind of guy, like, when I listen to music, I care about the music first. I want to listen to the melody. I want to listen to the what's going on with the arrangement, the instrumentals, whatever. It's it's never like, oh, my God, like, you know, I got to focus on the lyrics. That's more secondary for me. But I remember when I was started to listen to Everyone's Gone to the Movies. And that was one of the songs that I'm just driving like everyone's got. And then, like, like my face just.

Chad (43:23.075)
Hahaha

Manny (43:28.668)
gets horrified in the middle of the drive and is like, oh my God, I hope it's not what I think it's about. I mean, I love that song, but it's like, oh my God, it's terrible.

Chad (43:28.946)
It hit you. Ha ha ha.

Chad (43:37.389)
That one? Yeah.

Yeah, that one and Cousin Dupree, it's just like, what the hell?

Manny (43:46.433)
You just tell someone it's a great song, don't look up the lyrics please for the love of God don't.

Chad (43:51.595)
Yeah, don't read too much into it. That's funny. So, you mentioned that your favorite band at the moment is The Doors and I'm not really a big Doors fan, I have to say. I like them. I like some of the hits, the songs that everybody knows, but what sort of drew you to The Doors and what's special about them for you?

Manny (43:53.404)
Yeah.

Manny (44:11.364)
Um, well, like I said before, my dad, I got a, you know, my, my classic rock taste from him and classic Motown R&B. So when I was really little, my dad had their first album, which a lot of people say is their best one. Um, you know, you got, you know, break on through the end, light my fire, um, other songs like that. Soul, a crystal ship, love the piano solo on that one. But he had that album and he would play it a lot. You know, I remember I'm like, what?

six, seven years old and my dad's listening to the end, father, yes son, I want to kill you. And I'm just looking at him. I'm like, you're all right, dude. I mean, it drives me nuts, but. And also the, I only went, I went to Puerto Rico once. It was actually 30 years ago and, you know, visit my mom's family and whatnot. And we brought the, the doors first CD with us because my brother and I, my older brother, we just loved the listening to break on through. We just kept repeating it over and over again on the CD.

Chad (44:43.146)
Ha ha

Manny (45:07.712)
And my brother, you know, he and I don't always see eye to eye on things, but we, our musical tastes are very different. He sometimes gets a little frustrated because of how like passionate I am about music. But, you know, that was something like we kind of like enjoyed and he, you know, he likes some of the door stuff as well. And actually crediting him to an extent. So, yeah, in middle school, once again, you know, we were on a computer and my brother downloaded Peace Frog.

from their fifth album, Morrison Hotel. And I just started listening to it again, ka-dung, with the guitar in the beginning with Robbie Krieger. And that was like my gateway into the door. It's like I already knew their first album from top to bottom, but I didn't really pay too much attention to it. But then, yeah, I heard Peace Frog. I was like, my God. And I hear that song, and I get transported back to seventh grade. And then I was like, from there, I started asking my dad,

can I get the other Doors albums? And he was like, yeah, you know, I love listening to them back in the day. And, you know, I'd be with my dad in the car and playing LA Woman and Morrison Hotel and the soft parade. And he's telling me, yeah, I used to listen to this one back in, you know, 71 and blah-de-blah, blah-blah. And like kind of a cool way of bonding with my dad. And then of course, he likes, you know, we have similar musical tastes. And I used to have, you know, the little package with all your CDs in your car.

Chad (46:24.415)
Yeah.

Chad (46:33.694)
Right.

Manny (46:34.144)
And he comes up to me one day. He's like, I got some bad news. I'm like, what's up, dad? Your CDs are broken I was like, how did that happen? Yeah, you know, I took your CD thing and I put it on top of the car for a minute and then I forgot I drove away and i'm like man if I did that you would have Screamed at me until the cows come home So, I mean now obviously everything's digital, but I think

Chad (46:46.64)
Ha ha

Chad (46:51.65)
Ha ha

Manny (46:58.288)
And I know I could see some of the criticisms that people have of the Doors. I had a high school band instructor that was like, I bleeping hate the Doors. And like, I guess it was because of the lyrics and yeah, some of the lyrics, they're not that great. I'll admit it. And kind of like the pretentiousness of Morrison. Um, or I shouldn't say, yeah, kind of that, but just also like how he's become like such a huge figure. But it's like, for me, it's like, you can't discount.

You know the work that the other guys did you know Ray Manzarek and who I got to see in John Densmore I met him at the Bergen County a few years ago and Robbie Krieger who I also got to see and like musically they were just doing such cool things at the time and really pushing psychedelic rock and Again yesterday on my Instagram. I posted about Ray Manzarek. He was his birthday yesterday as well and just some of his the stuff he did on the organ and playing the bass part as well when they were playing live like

Chad (47:40.802)
Yeah.

Manny (47:55.388)
Just musically, it always appeals to me. And I guess they still remain my favorite one because they were like the first band that I really got hardcore into. And I still love their music, but I can see some of their critics, what people criticize and same thing like I'm a huge Billy Joel fan. I, you know, I got obsessed with them in high school. He's my favorite musician. But, you know, some of the criticisms, especially some of his lyrical choices, I'm like, yeah, I can kind of see your point. But the guy was a master at melody.

Chad (48:24.424)
Oh yeah, for sure.

Manny (48:24.804)
You can't, it's like, you know, he idolizes, you know, Lennon and McCartney. He's like, well, clearly you have the gift of melody that they got. So you learn from the best and then Beethoven as well. So he did something right.

Chad (48:36.906)
He did a lot right. I'm a big Billy Joel fan, even to this day. I was really excited with the new song that came out, although honestly, it wasn't crazy about it. It was pretty, it's pretty good. But, you know, yeah. I just felt like, because it was such a buildup and it was so long, you know what I mean? It's a great song, but I think it was just not, it didn't live up to the hype that I built in my own head for it, right?

Manny (48:48.036)
I'm the same way with it.

Chad (49:04.046)
But my brother, again, he wore out Billy Joel albums when I was a kid and I used to hang out in his bedroom. And, you know, he had the stereo system with the big speakers and he would play 52nd Street and The Stranger. And then Glass Houses came out when I was eight years old. And that was one of the first records. I think it was like one of the first three or four records that I bought with my own allowance money. Right. So I just played that thing to death.

Manny (49:25.922)
Hahaha

Chad (49:30.266)
I still to this day, I think it's my favorite album. I mean, I just know every single piece of every single instrument and vocal on that whole album. And I stuck with him through the 80s and the 90s. Wasn't really a huge fan the last couple albums, a couple of good songs on there, but I felt like I respect the fact that he went out on top, right? Like, and was it 93, I think he just said, you know what, I don't have anything else to say. I've said what I wanna say, I'm done.

I want to focus on playing piano and arranging and composing, you know, more classical stuff. And I just don't have another pop record in me and, you know, I'm not going to do it just for the money. Right? So you got to give props to the guy for knowing when to get out of the game. But that catalog, I mean, Turnstiles, another one of my favorites, just, you know, I know those albums.

backwards and forwards in no small part because of my brother, but even, you know, as I got into adulthood, I just kept listening to them because they're that good.

Manny (50:29.716)
That's something that's always bummed me out about like my, my taste in music because I am removed from the, you know, like from the, just like the impact that it has on pop culture because, you know, we were talking about comic area and, and river of dreams, the last album he did. I mean, I remember hearing the song, the river of dream, which, which I love that song constantly, but

Yeah, those albums, you know, Kim Carriot and River of Dreams came out in 93. I was only five years old at the time. So I don't remember any, you know, and obviously all the great albums from the seventies and eighties, I wasn't around. I mean, for Joel, I was only alive for Stormfront from 89 and River of Dreams. And yeah, I agree, you know, from the bridge on.

Chad (50:59.453)
Right.

Manny (51:16.964)
Kind of more hit and miss. I mean, there's, you know, some standout tracks in all of them and River of Dreams. Like I said, the title track I love a lot. Lullaby, All About Soul, The Great Wall of China. But it's you hit the point that I was really thinking about. It's just like one of the reasons why I just also respect him so much is that he has that integrity. So I look I'm kind of running on fumes at this point, you know, and literally his last song on River of Dreams, the famous last words.

And it's just like, look, I could just keep churning out stuff. And it's just, you know, the law of diminishing returns. And again, he built such goodwill throughout the, you know, the 70s and 80s. I mean, it's funny when you were you started mentioning his albums. I was like, yes, he nailed my top two, because I know everybody goes with the strangers. Number one. I mean, that was well, I'll get to that in a second. But the stranger. But my personal favorite is 52nd Street.

Chad (51:52.855)
Yeah.

Chad (52:03.906)
Hahaha.

Chad (52:13.132)
Okay

Manny (52:13.32)
Love the album from top to bottom. Until the Night is my favorite Billy Joel song. I've never heard him play it live. If he ever does, I mean, I'm going to try to see him one more time at The Garden. Excuse me. I've seen him four times and, you know, I'll cry like a baby if he does it. But, you know, like I said, the Caves of Altamira was my Steely Dan gateway. Peace Frog was my Doors gateway. The title track of The Stranger was my gateway because.

Chad (52:17.099)
Yeah.

Manny (52:39.452)
I knew his stuff. I mean, again, listening to Light FM, I heard Just the Way You Are. I heard Only the Good Die Young. I heard River of Dreams. I heard, uh, New York State of Mind. All like I was familiar with them and I liked those songs. They were part of my, uh, my Manny's Mix, uh, back in middle school and high school. But I had, um, a good friend of mine. His name is Tommy Stathis. He's connected to my cartoon side. He's a, uh, he's a year younger than me. He's, he's from Queens, but.

Chad (52:56.934)
That CD, yep.

Manny (53:08.664)
He's again, he's a he's another old soul when it comes to our musical taste. We're, you know, similar things that we enjoy. And he's an expert on silent animation. Like he literally has thousands of film reels and he teaches about it. He's a well-respected silent animation historian. And we were on a message board for, you know, cartoons for, you know, older cartoons. And.

We were messaging each other one day on aim. Remember those days? And he was like, do you like Billy Joel? I was like, yeah, I like some of his stuff, you know, the popular ones. He's like, you ever heard this song? So he messaged me a file of the stranger.

Chad (53:36.054)
Yes, I do.

Manny (53:47.076)
And I heard it, I'm like, oh, this, this whistling, this piano, it's so good. And then it gets to the rock part and then it's like, oh my God, I need more. I need more. And then I got, and then when I looked at the track list of the strange, I was like, Oh, I know most of these songs and just, it goes from there. And

I said all these years later, you know, just still into the stuff. It's just that music still has a charm to it. And I'm glad that he finally released that new song. Not 30 years, because some people are like, he hasn't done a new song. I was like, no, he did, you know, all my life that he wrote for his ex-wife. It was it was all right. Another sappy ballad. And he did Christmas and Fallujah that someone else recorded. But I mean.

Chad (54:15.941)
Hahaha

Chad (54:26.111)
All right.

Manny (54:29.244)
You know, some people are saying, you know, maybe he has another album in him. And I was reading about the co-writer of the new song, turn the lights back on. Uh, Freddie Wexler, he's what? Two years older than I am. And, and he's like, he was able to pull, you know, like, like get the, you know, the, the guy who retired is like, come on, champ, you got one more fight in you. And, and it's like, it's crazy how. You know,

Chad (54:38.922)
Yeah. Yeah, I saw that whole thing. That was crazy.

Manny (54:54.004)
It's a young person who we, again, we were removed in time from the impact of Joel was able to convince him to do it. And it's like, I have those days where it's like, you know, I'll tell my dad or I'll tell other people that.

You know, we're alive for these acts like I wish I was there to experience it in person. But then another side of me is like, I'm kind of glad to see it from a historical perspective because, you know, it removes the baggage or maybe, you know, the critical response or just, you know, the perception of it. I mean, like another person I absolutely adore Stevie Wonder and, you know, I listened to this stuff from the 70s from like, you know, music of my mind and

Manny (55:37.226)
getting back then I'm like, man, I wish I was there to just see like Stevie and his prime, you know, or these other guys that I'm into. But, you know, great music transcends time. It's like, you know, another catchphrase of mine is, you know, great, great music doesn't have an expiration date. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

Chad (55:55.528)
That is correct. Well that's a great place to end because we're getting just close to a little bit under an hour here and I like to keep these right around that time frame. But anything else you want to cover before we go?

Manny (56:09.269)
I think I covered all in my head. I'm just like I was like dude shut up shut up like Chad talks it but

Chad (56:13.792)
No, no, not at all. You've been great, man. This has been fantastic.

Manny (56:18.64)
Well, something I will say is that is that Miles Davis behind you? Okay. I guess, uh, I guess a nice way to wrap this up, but, uh, the song Birdland weather report, I, um, love the song. I first played it in middle school jazz band and, uh, it wasn't until recent that.

Chad (56:22.314)
Yes sir it is.

Manny (56:38.656)
I found the vocal version of it. You know, I found lyrics to it and I'm like singing along to it, whatever. And I actually, I did it at work for the concert and, you know, like teaching about Art Blakey and Miles Davis and whatever, it's like perfect. And then I didn't.

Realized that the lyrics were from the Manhattan transfer version of it from 1979 and I feel like an idiot I was like, oh my god, I should have found this months ago and I'm like you should have gone on Spotify and YouTube you have no excuse and I also collect I don't have one in front of me But uh, I used to have 300 of them with the little Funko pops with the big heads and the big black eyes Like I have ones of you know, especially for black history month. I have one of Lionel Richie and Aretha Franklin I ordered Michael Jackson from him wearing the beaded

Chad (56:59.062)
right.

Chad (57:02.881)
Hahaha

Chad (57:13.49)
Oh yeah.

Manny (57:24.43)
outfit and I'm like I gotta get that Miles Davis one too just him holding the trumpet and now I gotta go listen to Kinda Blue as well now that I mentioned it.

Chad (57:27.339)
Yes.

Chad (57:35.478)
Miles was my gateway to jazz and specifically that era of jazz. And the poster has kind of a funny story too. So I used to work at a school district. I work in IT, so I've been doing technology for years. But I worked at a school district in the late 90s. And this is when Apple had their Think Different ad campaign, where they had like all different pioneers and visionaries and things in their ad campaign. And they had this whole great sort of

you know, photography campaign around it. So Miles was one of the people that was featured and the school where I worked, Apple had given us a grant, we got a bunch of computers and stuff like that. And with it, they sent a bunch of promotional materials. So we got all these great posters to hang around the school, you know, think different, you know, this and that. So when I saw that we had a bunch of the Miles ones, I kind of quietly just took one and like tucked it into my jacket and I was like, this ass going home with me.

Manny (58:29.106)
Hahaha!

Chad (58:33.01)
And it just sat and I put it in a tube for safekeeping and I held onto it and I always meant to get it framed then it kind of got lost in the shuffle and then I moved. And then long story short is that the first Christmas that my wife and I were together, we were going through some stuff in storage or whatever and it came out and I showed it to her. And lo and behold on Christmas morning, it was wrapped up and she'd gotten it framed. So yeah, it was really cool. So I've had it on the wall pretty much ever since then.

Manny (58:56.016)
Aww.

Chad (59:01.666)
But parting question for you, you mentioned that you played in jazz band in middle school. What was your instrument?

Manny (59:06.696)
I was a sax player. I played alto for my first two years tenor, and then I switched to bari sax. And sadly, I gave it up at the beginning of, when I started at Montclair, I only played it for a semester because I had to focus on choir and opera. But, you know, one of these days I'll pick it up again and I don't know, try to play along with one of the songs, I mean, probably terribly, but. I'll try to play along with it. I just, I would just rather, you know, do the.

Chad (59:21.933)
Sure.

Manny (59:34.452)
I think I'll have a better chance of doing the vocals, you know, trying to get my best Donald Fagen going on.

Chad (59:40.014)
There you go. Fellow alto sax player here. I played in marching band, jazz band, and stage band in junior high. Long story, and I talked about it on my last episode if you want to check it out later, but didn't follow me through high school. I had too much else going on. But yeah, so it's kind of funny and nice to have another fellow sax player on the podcast. So Manny, you've been great. It's been fantastic talking to you.

Manny (01:00:04.368)
Yeah. Ha ha ha.

Chad (01:00:09.066)
Anything you want to plug? I mean, I'm definitely going to link to your other podcast that you're on. Um, and I'll put a link to your Instagram as well, but anything else you wanted me to share with my 15 listeners? Yeah, hopefully.

Manny (01:00:21.676)
All right, hopefully we'll get 16 by the end of this. Like I said before, Emmanuel Cruz, Manny Cruz, the Toonie Tenor. Follow me on socials at the Toonie Tenor. You know, just for now, trying to find as any gigs possible. I mean, at the I used to sing in a Latin band. Hopefully I'll get that up and running again. I do a lot of.

Singing at churches for the time being you know for masses and different things so if you're in the northern Jersey area You might see me there And definitely check out the work. I've been doing with my buddy Anthony his channel on YouTube is Anthony's animation talk and you know enjoy just me geeking out about that and

Hopefully one of these days. I mean, there is a little cover of me singing the second arrangement on my Instagram page, so definitely check that out. And that's in my top 10 of Steely Dan songs, by the way. Second arrangement, yeah. Ha ha ha.

Chad (01:01:13.042)
Mine too. I will have to go find that. And if you get the band together, let me know, because I'm within a hitting distance of where you're at. So if you're gonna play, I'll come see you.

Manny (01:01:24.88)
Yeah, like I said, we'll, you know, check out the show. We'll have a good time. We'll get some wah-wahs before or after, you know. And I'll make it. I was like, you better order Taylor Hammer else.

Chad (01:01:30.631)
And some Taylor Ham. Great. Alright, thanks again, Manny. I'll talk to you soon. Alrighty, bye.

Manny (01:01:38.896)
All right, thanks, Chad. Bye.