Noticing xcv - karaoke

Yesterday on FB I mentioned something about our upcoming Antarctica "cruise" (which it hardly is: it's a small boat, and there will be approximately ten of us passengers onboard). That prompted a sly remark from a friend I met in Vietnam last year, asking whether I'm practicing up on my karaoke.

It so happened that just that morning, searching for a photo on Flickr by keywords, I stumbled on a picture of the one and only time I've ever done karaoke. It happened to be in Vietnam. Said friend was a witness. And I'm sure I mentioned to him that I never ever thought I would ever participate in the sport. (He has a long memory, I'm learning.) Here's a photo he took, with my Flickr caption:

I have always (always always always) sworn I would NEVER
(never never EVER) be caught DEAD (I will refrain from
continuing the refrain) doing karaoke. But in Vietnam,
our fearless leader, Susan, celebrated her... 50-somethingth birthday,
and our fellow birders Jules and Ange (in the upper left of this photo)
arranged a smashing birthday bash, complete with karaoke.
When the second song came up and it was "What a Wonderful World"
and for some reason people started gesturing to ME to
get up and sing... well, I did. Because I love that song. Channeling Louis?
There's nothing better. Fortunately, Susan, Dixie, and Gill joined in,
and although I have no sense of whether I'd performed "well,"
I did have an enjoyable moment in the karaoke spotlight.
And now: never never EVER again. (Sorry for the lousy quality,
but it was dark and this was sent to me by a friend from his phone,
so I had nothing to do with the quality.
But I'm kinda happy to have this memento.)

I told this story to David this evening over dinner, and he said that the only way he would ever do karaoke was if Steely Dan's "Deacon Blues" came up. I scoffed, wondering what the chances of that song being on a karaoke machine were. He countered that it's a classic, considered Steely Dan's very best. I love the song; I wasn't scoffing at the song. Just at karaoke machine programmers' literacy and ability to appreciate a masterpiece like that.

Anyway, that got us humming the tune, and trying to recall the lyrics. And David mentioned an article he'd run across that delved into the making of the song, in all its creative wonderfulness. (Unfortunately, the WSJ has a paywall, so access to the article requires a bit of finesse.) The article opens, "As midlife-crisis songs go, Steely Dan's 'Deacon Blues' ranks among the most melodic and existential. Recorded for the album 'Aja' in 1977, the song details the bored existence of a ground-down suburbanite and his romantic fantasy of life as a jazz saxophonist."

So here are the two karaoke songs in question: "What a Wonderful World" (my karaoke debut and swan song) and "Deacon Blues" (David's in-the-distant-future maybe debut).