Music Redux

We have a neighbor who is a really nice guy, unassuming, doesn't talk about himself, loves our dog, etc. He has two pet birds named Chris and Warren. Anyway, he had surgery recently, and Mrs. shnooky helped him with his postoperative care, changing his dressings, etc. While she was in his apartment, she noticed a platinum record on the wall. It was for Aja by Steely Dan and it was inscribed to our neighbor. When the Mrs. got home, we did a Google search for our neighbor's name and Steely Dan, and we found an interview with Donald Fagen. Turns out our neighbor was the tour manager for Steely Dan (when they still toured), and Fagen kept in touch with him. When Fagen was working on lyrics for the Aja album, he needed a sports team metaphor for a song. Fagen knew nothing about sports, so he called our neighbor, whom he knew was a sports fan, and asked him to name some colleges and their sports nicknames -- Notre Dame Fightin' Irish, Michigan Wolverines, Washington Huskies, Florida Hurricanes, North Carolina Tarheels. When he got to Alabama Crimson Tide, Fagen said "that's it."

So our neighbor and friend is responsible for the lyric "They call Alabama the Crimson Tide -- Call me Deacon Blues."