Welcome to A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. Hi and thanks so much for your company. Another great musical journey to explore today, but before we get into it, can I ask you to do me a little favour? If you enjoy listening to A Breath of Fresh Air, whether you’re tuned in on radio or on your favourite podcast platform, would you mind subscribing to it on Apple or Spotify and leaving me a rating and review? It really helps get the word out there and I’d be most grateful.
Thank you. Now I mentioned we’re going to meet someone with a great story to tell and today’s conversation is with an American guitarist who’s best known for being an iconic session musician who’s played with the likes of the Doobie Brothers, Carly Simon, Carl Wilson, the Blues Brothers and Peter Frampton amongst many others. He’s also renowned for playing guitar solos in Irene Cara’s song Fame as well as on this one from Steely Dan.
That solo on Relan in the Years was ranked as one of the best guitar solos of all time. Elliot Randall, however, thinks that’s no big deal. He’s a humble, softly spoken man who thinks he ought to be pretty good by now, given that he started making music in New York City at the age of five, albeit on the piano.
It was a disaster. My teacher was not the perfect example of a good teacher. If I held my hands wrong on the piano, she would smack them with a ruler.
But you know, it’s a good thing that I was able to survive that. And somehow by the time I was nine, my dad brought back a guitar for me to play. And I took to it like a fish to water.
It was just incredible. So your dad fostered your musicianship, didn’t he? Yeah. I mean, both my parents are musicians.
My dad was a professional musician. He literally had me reading music before I could read English. My mum was an amateur pianist.
So passion and music just always went together. So you were headed straight to music school. There was never any doubt about what it was that you were going to do with your life.
Yes, I knew I was going to be a musician from the time I was probably 12. In fact, at that point, I had printed up cards, business cards, in a printing shop in junior high school. And I said, have guitar, we’ll travel.
Then I became part of a singing group. And I played guitar for the singing group. And that kind of brought me into the today of those days.
So who were your musical influences then? Well, back then, in terms of contemporary slash pop music, I loved Dwayne Eddy. I loved The Ventures. And it was like, I want to be like them.
And then Richie Valens came out with La Bamba, and I wanted to be him. I just kind of took to these really wonderful musical role models, and did my very best to, if not emulate them, then incorporate the styles that they were playing. I think my own style came rather rapidly as a young guitarist.
So I was always aware that it wasn’t about trying to sound like somebody else, but trying to be a new voice. Well, you certainly became that. You went off to New York City’s High School of Music and Art, didn’t you, where you studied further.
And I believe you had a couple of to-be-famous classmates, Tom. Indeed. I think you’re referring to Michael Kamen, who wound up being probably one of the world’s most prolific film composers.
And then my dear friend Laura Nero, who was always an influence on my life. Her songwriting was wonderful. Her persona was her being.
It was just out of this world. Absolutely wonderful. My cares just drift right into space On the roof, the only place I know You just have to wish to make it snow Up on the roof Laura and I had a little singing group at the High School of Music and Art.
Now we’d go out and at lunch hour, we’d find these little tunnels in the park adjacent to the school. And the tunnels, of course, would produce reverberation. And it was just a thrill.
Absolutely a thrill. So while all the other kids in the school were out kicking footballs or jumping rope, you and Laura were out making music. Indeed.
And both of you went on to huge careers. Yes. So it wasn’t very long after that.
You were 16 when you ended up meeting Ritchie Havens in Greenwich Village. How did that come about? I was playing in a club in the Cafe Bizarre. Had a really demanding schedule for the 10 bucks a night or something that you would make.
We’d start at seven in the evening and then carry on till three in the morning. So there’d be like four different shows and each show would have four different acts. And Ritchie was one of the acts.
So we bonded very, very quickly and we became friends really until the day he passed. What was he like? He was a guru. I mean, he really, he was so plugged in to things in addition to music.
He understood history. He understood the civil rights movement. He understood how people should treat each other.
He was really an amazing numerologist. He was just all things, you know, and he was a wonderful man. He was a great man.
He had his own style. It was all chugging along really with intensity. I’d like to say that I was able to pick up some of that in my own style.
You were really at the right place at the right time, weren’t you? Luck always has something to do with it. Absolutely. I mean, the Café Bizarre actually launched big pieces of my career.
One of my first assignments, though, was to become the musical director for the Ronettes, just as they had their hit, Be My Baby. Not long after that, I was picked up by a group called the Capris, who had one really big hit record called There’s a Moon Out Tonight. I would travel throughout the Northeast with them as their accompanist.
So how did that feel for you? You’d taken to the road, you were starting to make good money from what you were doing. How were you feeling? I was delighted. I couldn’t think of another job, and I say that in inverted commas, that I could have been more thrilled having.
Let’s go strolling through the park There’s a glow in my heart I never felt before There’s a girl at my side That I adore There’s a glow in my heart I never felt before Oh, darling, where have you been? I’ve been longing for you all my life After touring with the Capris, Elliot Randall found himself teaching at a music emporium in Ohio for a short time. In 1968, though, he felt the need to make his own music, so began producing demos with a couple of friends. The studio work really didn’t come in until about 1971.
I was the bandleader for the Broadway show for Jesus Christ Superstar. So one of the things that was really cool about it is that the orchestra, all of these players were doing it at night because we did Broadway shows at night, but they worked in the daytime as studio musicians. Now I reckon enough of them liked me enough to recommend me.
It was also very different to being on the road as a touring musician or a rock musician or whatever you want to call it. And I always loved both of them. So it was quite a challenge to be able to go out on the road for X amount of months and then come back and, you know, hope that nobody replaced you permanently.
So it worked. It worked really well. And I was able to do both.
How did you meet Donald Fagan and Walter Becker? I was friendly with a group called Jay and the Americans. This magic moment, so different and so new, was like any other, until I kissed you. And then it took me by surprise.
I knew that you felt it too, by the look in your eyes. Sweeter than a wine, softer than a summer night, everything I wanna have, whenever I hold you tight. This magic moment, while your lips are close to mine, will last forever, forever till the end of time.
I had a bunch of hits. Cara Mia, Only in America, and She Cried, bunches of stuff. Anyway, they asked me to come and join the band, their backup band.
Who was in the backup band? Donald and Walter. Oh, wow. And this is back in New York City again? Yes, yes.
We hit it off really, really well. And Kenny Vance, who was one of the Americans, was producing demos on Donald and Walter. So I was asked to come and play on their demos, which I gladly did.
It was loads of fun. And our relationships, both interpersonally and musically, grew. So by the time they went out to California and cut the first album back in 72, I was asked to become a member of the band, but I declined.
But I played on a couple of tunes on their first album, and one of those tunes happened to be Rihanna’s New Year. You’re everlasting summer, you can see it fading fast. So you grab a piece of something that you think is gonna last.
Well, you wouldn’t even know a diamond if you held it in your hand. The things you think are precious, I can’t understand. Are you reeling in the years? Stowing away the time? Are you gathering up the tears? Have you had enough of mine? Are you reeling in the years? Stowing away the time? Are you gathering up the tears? Have you had enough of mine? You’ve been telling me you’re a genius since you were 17.
In all the time I’ve known you, I still don’t know what you mean. The weekends at the college didn’t turn out like you planned. The things that pass for knowledge, I can’t understand.
Are you reeling in the years? Stowing away the time? Are you gathering up the tears? Have you had enough of mine? Are you reeling in the years? Stowing away the time? Are you gathering up the tears? Have you had enough of mine? Tell me just a little bit about what they were like, the two of them. Everybody you ask will give you a different story. For me, they were just really cool guys.
I really enjoyed them. I never felt that their work ethic was anything other than sincere and intense. They were always very supportive of the music that I was making for them.
In fact, it got to be a very good thing. It was a running joke where every time I’d come in an overdub, either Walter or Donald, they would take turns. As I’m about to start playing, one of them would come up and whisper in my ear, Elliot, play the blues.
Just play the blues. Which in some cases was appropriate and in others it wasn’t. We had so many laughs together.
It was wonderful. Was that your great love, the blues? You could say that. I mean, much of rock and roll and actually much of jazz is also based on the blues.
So if you wanted to get onto the musicological trip of it, it’s there. It exists everywhere. And so still to this day, I love playing the blues.
And he does that so very well. Let’s find out more about Elliot Randall’s involvement with Steely Dan in just a sec.
This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. We’ve already heard that Elliot recorded a few demo tapes with Walter Becker and Donald Fagan.
Surprisingly, in the first instance, when these were presented to a record company, they were passed on, because the record exec saw the pair as great writers, but not as a viable act. Eventually, it got through to Jay Lasker, who was the president of ABC Dunhill, that the band really did have an identity. And so rather than just being writers, they became artists.
And the record company really supported them all the way. Yeah. So you turned down the opportunity to join their band.
Why did you do that? Well, I knew the personalities of all the band members and I just had this gut instinct that the band as it was wasn’t going to last beyond 3 albums. And funny enough, true to my gut instinct, after 3 albums, they basically dismissed everyone in the band. Called me back in to do the 4th album and then the 5th album.
So it was a good move. We hear you’re leaving, that’s okay I thought our little wild time had just begun I guess you kind of scared yourself, you turn and run But if you have a change of heart Ricky, don’t lose that number You don’t want to call nobody else Offer the letter So he don’t lose that number I avoided all of the craziness. I always see a band as being a dysfunctional family.
There’s always going to be somebody or somebodies who are having too many goes at each other or jealous of each other. And I didn’t want that. I had enough problems with my own family.
So for me, it just felt the right thing to do to be a friend, a side man and be available when it was appropriate. To this day actually, the last 2 times they came and toured and hit London, I was invited to come and play. And I did and it was fantastic.
So it’s not a decision that you ever regretted? Correct. So turning down that offer, what then followed for you? A whole lot more studio work followed. And whose music were you playing on? Too many to name, but I’ll see if I can’t remember a few.
Pick out a couple, yeah, your favourite ones. But in the rock and roll realm, I did some stuff with some of the Kiss boys. I did a Gene Simmons record and I did a Peter Criss record.
But I was also enjoying doing these musical projects in the studio that in a sense rivaled what was going on on stage. Just stepping back a little bit, in 69 you joined the band C-Train and you opted to join that band rather than joining Wilson Pickett in Muscle Shoals. Can you share that experience? Yeah, it was an off-the-cuff decision.
It was a little bit tough actually to figure that out because I love rhythm and blues. There’s that word blues again. And I thought, well, it’s a record.
And I’ll get a chance to meet all the Muscle Shoals guys and all that. But C-Train was a very, very progressive rock group which had roots in not just rock, but in folk and in jazz and in blues. So I went with that.
I left in a little under a year. Not because I didn’t like the music, I really did, but it was a case where the management were ripping the band off. I just thought, this isn’t for me.
I don’t want to be in a fight. Music is supposed to be about laughter and love and creative interaction. Deep in the darkest hour of a very heavy week Three earth men did confront me And I could hardly speak They met me in a hurry They left me tired and sore And when I’m fated for wishing I hope they’ll come no more When I’m wishing I hope they’ll come no more Standing by the exit With one eye on the door I listened to them argue I asked them why, what for They showed me 19 terrors And each one struck my soul They threw me 13 questions Each one of them was cold 13 questions Each one endless cold Did you see the moon last night Run like a Chinese bow? You should have seen the moon last night At the party of us all You sound like the sort of person that always shies away from the drama no matter where it is.
If I can avoid bad drama, I will. There’s a number of other bands and acts that I’ve turned down as well. Like who? The Blues Brothers.
Did you? Yeah, I was asked to be a musical director for them. John Belushi had asked me. And why’d you turn them down? Well, I hope the listeners are okay with this.
There were too many drugs and too much insanity. And I remember telling John if I join, I’m afraid I’m going to die. And then a couple of years later, John passed away.
You were a little prophetic, really, weren’t you? Yeah, yeah. I wouldn’t claim to be talented in that direction, but it worked for me. So obviously at that time, there were lots of drugs and alcohol everywhere around you.
You managed to stay clean during that period? No, no, I was a bad boy too, but I always, I’m not sure if I fooled myself, but I used to think, well, I’m not doing as much as the other guys, so I must be all right. You knew when to cut out. Yeah.
After a while, it became old, the drug scene and the booze scene. And my body, you know, had a toll taken on it as well, you know. I wound up getting a liver disease.
It wasn’t hepatitis, but it was some crazy liver disease, and it made me stop drinking. So you’re travelling along, you’re doing lots of studio stuff. 1970 comes along and you manage to sign with the Robert Stigwood Organisation, which at that time was at its absolute peak.
It managed bands like Cream and the Bee Gees, John Mayall, as well as the Staple Singers. Yes. After I left C-Train, I hooked up with an old friend of mine, a very dear friend, who unfortunately just left us not long ago, a Canadian singer called Eric Mercury.
Been in this big city You know long enough I spend all day Working all night Things are getting mighty rough Take this time I made back Take one down Rockin’ around 99 I’m going home Rolling, rolling I’m going home Rolling, rolling I’m going home Eric was handled by the Robert Stigwood Organisation. They then arranged for me to do two albums on Polydor Records. At the same time, Stigwood had just bought the rights to Jesus Christ Superstar.
Hence becoming the musical director on the show. Exactly. It all worked out perfectly.
It’s as though somebody wrote the book. Beautiful, lovely Yvonne Elliman was there doing her Mary thing. It was beautiful.
It was great. There was no musical bigger than Jesus Christ Superstar at the time. It was a phenomenon.
It really was. I remember once, I mean we were a phenomenon. In America, a phenomenon can spell lots of different things.
A lot of the really religious, right fanatics didn’t like it very much. And I recall being in Mobile, Alabama. And we’re getting ready to do the show and all of a sudden people come running out to the stage.
You gotta get out of here. There’s a bomb threat for the theater. So, okay.
But it overcame that. And I think it became one of the beacons of people trying to modernize Christianity. Every time I look at you I don’t understand Why you let the things you did Get so out of hand Now why’d you choose Such a backward time And such a strange land Before B.C. had no mass communication Don’t you get me wrong Don’t you get me wrong Don’t you get me wrong Don’t you get me wrong All you wanna know All you wanna know All you wanna know Jesus Christ Who are you Jesus Christ Jesus Christ Who are you Jesus Christ After one year, So I think virtually to the day, I decided to take my leave.
Because if you’re playing a Broadway show, you have to play the parts as written. Because you’ve got actors and dancers and everybody else depending on your being dependable. It was like being a secretary typing the same letters every day.
That’s the way I saw it. Yeah, no, I get that. The show that really defied that ethos was Hair.
Because you could only? Oh God, yeah. The musical director at one point said, if I catch anybody playing the same part twice, two nights in a row, you’re fired. I did that show.
It ran for a little under a year on the West End here in London. And they were wonderful days. So 72 rocks around Elliot Randall, and all of a sudden you’re off to the sunny West Coast of California.
What’s happened? Well, I’d been involved in a marriage between two very young people. I was one of them. And it didn’t work out.
So at the end of the marriage, it was like I better try and pull myself together and a change of scenery might help. I decided to live in California. It brought about the situation where I got a call from Donald and Walter saying, would you come and play on our first album? So that was kind of the highlight of my living in California.
♪ Times are hard, you’re afraid to pay the fee ♪ ♪ So you find yourself somebody who can do the job for free ♪ ♪ When you need a bit of loving ♪ ♪ Cause your man is out of town, that’s the time you get me running and you know I’ll be around ♪ ♪ I’m a fool to do your dirty work, oh yeah ♪ ♪ I don’t wanna do your dirty work no more ♪ ♪ I’m a fool to do your dirty work, oh yeah ♪ When the record came out and was a pretty big success, the phone never stopped ringing. Didn’t stop ringing for years and years and years. You know, people either wanting me to be the same guy that I was on the record, which was a no-go for me.
Like, I’ve already done this, let me do something else. But it was magic, it really, really was. Did you become part of the touring band at that point too? No, just recording.
And the band was, in terms of its touring stuff, was rather short-lived. And one of the reasons it was short-lived is that Donald and Walter, being perfection seekers by the time the third and the fourth records came out, weren’t very happy with what the audience was hearing. And so they tried to do a deal with Sony where everybody in the audience would get a set of headphones so that they could listen to a really great mix.
Because you couldn’t duplicate the sound of the studio live in an auditorium. Exactly. And so that tour never happened.
And that was the end of their touring until the 90s. What do you think it was about the whole album that really got everybody going? It was original, it was fresh, it didn’t sound like anybody else. The lyrics were rather left-field, so was the music.
The boys were really, really into certain areas of jazz, bebop. They were into exploring rock and roll in a way that had never been explored before. You know, rock and roll is generally thought of as three or four chord changes in a tune, and there’s a verse and a chorus and a rest of it.
And these guys turned it all on its head. And I think that people really appreciated it. When you recorded that album with them, did you have a sense of what a hit it was going to be? No, I had no idea.
By that time I’d already figured out that you can guess all you want, but there are so many factors that make a hit. And it’s not always about the quality of the music. It could have to do with the promotion, it could have to do with the timing.
There’s all sorts of weird things. So, in a sense, it was luckiness. For the man who stole your water And you’ll fight till he is gone But they catch you at the border And the mortars are all slangin’ As they drag you by your feet But the hangman isn’t hangin’ And they put you on the street Yeah, you go back, Jack, do it again Wheel turnin’ round and round You go back, Jack, do it again When you know she’s no high climber Then you find your only friend In a room with your two-timer And you’re sure you’re near the end Then you love a little wild one And she brings you all their sorrows All the time you know she’s smilin’ You’ll be on your knees tomorrow Yeah, you go back, Jack, do it again Wheel turnin’ round and round You go back, Jack, do it again More to come, hang in
This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. It was 1980 when John Belushi asked Elliot Randall to be the musical director for the Blues Brothers, another position he turned down.
And when Jeff Porcaro and David Paich offered him the chance to become a founding member of Toto, he rejected that one too. Elliot was hugely in demand as a session guitarist, particularly after his legendary guitar solo performance on Steely Dan’s Reelin’ in the Years. Well, I had a ball doing it.
It was done in one take. Was it? Which for most people they go, one take, impossible. You have to punch in this and that.
No, it was just I played what I felt and somehow it wound up, and I’m not giving myself credit for it, it just wound up being appropriate and what the boys wanted. So there we went, not a single direction. It was just, Elliot, do it, you know, take it wherever you want to take it.
I just remember asking the guys if I could see a set of the lyrics before I played because I wanted to know the mood and the feeling that I was playing into. So, Elliot Randall, tell us what went on in your head that came out through your fingers in that guitar solo because of course that was ranked the 40th best guitar solo of all time by readers of Guitar World magazine and the 8th best guitar solo by Q4 Music. That’s big stuff.
That’s nice. I’m glad to hear that. I just went for it.
I mean, there was no, oh, I think I should play this here, I think I should play that there. The beginning of the introduction, which is basically an indirect quote of the chorus. I played it as though I were a saxophonist.
That’s just what occurred to me as the tape was rolling. That’s what I played. There was absolutely no thought whatsoever.
It was all about emotion. So can you describe the emotion? I was really excited by the music, so the emotion would have been, you know, one of being thrilled to have the opportunity to play it. It’s also really hard to understand how a short solo like that can define your ongoing career because that’s in fact what happened.
Yeah, I have no idea. And I’ll be forever grateful that the gods of music were smiling on me that evening. And you said that the phone didn’t stop ringing after that.
That’s right. Once it became a hit, I guess people wanted me on guitar. I got a call from Michael Gore, who produced the music for the movie Fame, and he was looking for something that reminded him of Relin and the Years.
Well, he didn’t get the Relin and the Years solo, obviously, but he got the tone and he got the intent and he got the same guy who played it. And that made me really fortunate and I’m really pleased. The music for Fame is really quite extraordinary.
The phone keeps ringing after that, too. Yeah, I was very fortunate in that I hooked up with the Doobie Brothers for a while. You know, we had some mutual friends.
I wound up not recording with them, but going out and touring with them. It was a situation where I didn’t have to worry about a long term commitment. It went along with Elliot’s ethos.
Just have a good time. Yeah. I mean, the Doobies were a very exceptional group of guys, especially in those days where the most important thing for them to do was to have a great show, to make people thrilled, to give the audience 120%.
And, of course, they received 140% back from the audience, which was great. So when you’re having a really good musical conversation with somebody, you can have five guitar players. If they’re all doing the right thing by each other, it’s going to wind up being a beautiful tapestry.
That must have been awesome to be out on the road with the Doobies. At that time, also, you were, as a session player, playing with people like Carly Simon, Carl Wilson, Peter Frampton, James Galway. The best of the best was wanting you in that studio with them.
So you were never short of a day’s work, really, were you? No, no, no. Again, I chalk it off to good fortune. As much as I do, me being a talented guy, that’s subjective.
But it was wonderful that I had all those opportunities. Did you have to practice a lot? Do you continually practice? I don’t practice a whole lot anymore because a lot of my focus these days has been on music production. That’s not to say that my technique has gone down the drain.
I mean, if I have something very important to do, I’ll spend three or four days really woodshedding, really doing my scales and all that horrible stuff that people don’t like to do. But, yeah, I can bring back my technique pretty easily. Yeah, because, of course, these days you’re busy recording, producing, consulting on a whole lot of different things.
Ads and jingles for TV and radio and cinema. You’ve made a huge name in that sphere. But you’ve also been recording and consulting on streaming internet content.
You’ve really kept up with the times and moved with what’s happening today, haven’t you? Well, I think it’s important to do that. Streaming is a funny bugger, you know, because it has robbed a lot of my friends, myself included, of a lot of money. And that makes me sad.
So what do you see as the future for musicians? Well, we’re going to have to find one, aren’t we? I do a bit of teaching. I have one student who is absolutely spectacular. And he understands what the hustle is.
He knows how to go out and befriend people. He puts on a great stage show. And he’s just joined a young British band.
And they look and sound great. There’s a chance that they might make it. But what does make it mean? Back in the old days, make it means you’re going out and you’re touring and you’re getting really, really good money for touring.
And the touring is also, by virtue of the fact that so many people get to see you, it’s selling your record. And the proceeds from those record sales, and writer sales as well, were really great. And it’s those proceeds that I’m talking about that have sort of disappeared because of the likes of the streaming services.
So it’s hard not to go sour grapes on it. But I’m not going to do that because it doesn’t serve any purpose. And you’re definitely not that kind of guy.
I’m hoping that everything old becomes new again and we have a return to that heyday of music. I mean, we always talk about those days as being the best days of music. And it’s not only the way that artists were getting paid or performing.
It was the music itself that was so original and so embracing, I guess. Yes. Yes, it was.
Good seats on you Still I remain by you She keeps me safe and warm So long as that’s my friend Danger I thought to myself, well, why don’t I give it a try doing the London recording scene, knowing that that too was on its way out, but not as much as it was in New York. So I opened up shop in London, so to speak. And I had a really good time and I was being pretty successful.
But the music was changing and the technology was changing. And I remember going in to do. I’ll leave the artist’s name off because he’s a big guy.
But I’m in there doing overdubs for his single. And I get as far as the end of the first verse. And the producer looks at me and says, that’s great.
OK, we’re just going to copy and paste that into all the verses. Now all we need to do is the chorus. And I just thought to myself, oh, this is the worst nightmare.
Because when you’re playing a record, it’s all about interacting with the record, not cutting apart and having it tapestried in. That was round about the beginning of the end. So I have a little studio here in New York.
I entertain myself by opening up a new Pro Tools session or a Logic session. And looking at it as though it were a blank canvas. And so I make my musical artwork from scratch, just from, OK, what can I do here? Oh, this would be nice.
At the same time, I’ve got loads and loads of tapes that I brought over from America, from the 70s, the 80s, some of which was never completed. Some of it would be not completed because it wasn’t good enough. But others really had potential.
So I’ve had those tapes digitised and I’m sitting here working on material that’s both old and new. And I just love the heck out of that. You got back together with Steely Dan a couple of times, didn’t you? You mentioned earlier that they asked you to play on the third and the fourth album.
That was Katie Lied, 75, and The Royal Scam in 76. But then you joined them again when they came to London in 2019. Yes, I mean, good friendships don’t die.
If friends have a chance to have fun with each other… Why not? And that’s the way it worked with Donald and Walter and myself. I remember That sweet goodbye When you put me on the Wolverine Of you and him there It was still September When your daddy was quite surprised To find you with the working girls in your carriage, yeah I was smoking with the boys upstairs When I heard about the whole affair I said, whoa, no William and Mary won’t do Well, I did not think the girl Could be so cruel And I’m never going back To my old school Ooh Ellie, you have been so generous with your time with us today. I better let you go.
Thank you very, very much for sharing tales of your musical journey. I know that my audio engineer in Brazil, a guy named Ricardo, is one of the biggest Steely Dan fans there is. So he will be so excited to hear you, as will a lot of other people who have followed your work for so many years.
I’m going to pass the name Ricardo on to Donald, because it’s a good name for a piece of a Steely Dan lyric, isn’t it? Oh, my friend Ricardo would be absolutely rapt. He has them as gods. Isn’t that awesome? Ellie Randall, thank you so, so much for your time.
I know that everybody listening is going to take from this conversation your ethos to life, which is just have fun and enjoy and stay away from the drama. I’m going to walk into my day with that today. Thank you, Sandy.
It’s been an absolute pleasure. Thanks for your company again today, too. I hope you’ve enjoyed the show.
I’ll look forward to being back with you again, same time next week. Take care of yourself in the meantime, won’t you? Bye now. It’s a beautiful day.
You’ve been listening to A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. Beautiful day. Oh, baby, any day that you’re gone away, it’s a beautiful day.