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Sunday, September 10, 2017
Steely Dan: Haitian Divorce
Walter Becker of Steely Dan died last Sunday. This isn't the bands best record, but it is the one I remember most from the British charts.
It was Christmas 1976 and a friend had bought me How to Beat Bobby Fischer - a collection of all the competitive games the American world champion had lost.
I suppose the central idea was a gimmick, but it turned out be that most valuable of things for the improving player: a collection of well-annotated grandmaster games. The great Russian player Peter Svidler says it was the book that made him fall in love with chess.
Anyway, I spent that Christmas sitting by the fire and playing through these games. As I remember it, Haitian Divorce was always on Radio 1.
For me, it is also a Christmas 1976 memory. I was living in London. It was a song that I had floating through my brain to my great delight.
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