KISS THE FROG

"I remember I wanted to get in and out as soon as possible. Larry Carlton and Chuck Rainey were there, pretty much business as usual. Then they counted off this tune...the first thing I heard was the lyrics 'agents of the law/luckless pedestrian,' and I almost stopped playing. I thought, 'I'm listening in my phones to this guy who can really sing, and the tune sounds amazing, and the band is amazing,' it was just...different. You have to kiss a lot of frogs when you're a studio player. After that I had to stop and collect myself.

This reminds that in commercial photography as well as session musicianship you have to have an attitude toward the job. That was Rick Marotta a drummer who did some Steely Dan sessions in the seventies. His first look was 'business as usual' but he got a suprise, a good suprise.

When you take on a fashion session, even if as a test, you sometimes have less control as you'd like but the idea is to work to make whatever is in front of you as good as possible. Even if the m.u. and the clothes are not to your personal taste.

It may look like a frog but kiss it anyway and the suprise may come

Back to the Steely Dan players

Heres one person who wouldnt kiss the frog because he thought the music was 'schlocky'

So he didnt get hired and get the good suprise

"There was a situation during the time that Steely Dan was really hot. Larry Carlton recommended me to those cats to play on a track. There had been a date that I had done three years prior to that recommendation, where it was some schlocky. music and I said, "Ya know, I don't really want to play this," and I just played very mediocre. The "one thing" Fagen and Becker happened to have heard me play on was a tape of that one track. They told Carlton, "We've heard this cat; he's not happening." Carlton told me the story afterwards. So it doesn't pay in the long run to do that. "

Kiss the frog. It pays in the long run.