BOWIE VS STEELY

OH MAN BUT WHEN THEY GET HOME FROM THE WINE BAR

Steely Dan, easy.

That scathing scare-quotation of "the Dan" is the moneyshot up there.

http://homepage.mac.com/alexinnyc/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2007-09-28%2005.59.27%20-0700/Image-C30C58296DC111DC.jpg

No patches, but...

i've seen your picture...

(I always thought Alex tolerated - maybe even begrudgingly respected - "the Dan")

I begrudgingly respect the dan and even agree that CBAT is a pretty can't-miss album but up against the bowie they are some watered-down chardonnay

If Alex had ever been to a wine bar, he'd know that a jacket with elbow patches is the LAST thing you'd wear.

Knew that picture would come back to haunt me. Just out of shot, of course, it my BEER (I don't do wine well).

I respect the Dan, but that doesn't mean I have to like nor listen to them. And compared to Bowie? Give me a break. That don't stand a chance.

And that jacket's not corduroy, btw.

Seriously, though, Steely Dan never rocked. Never shocked. Never pushed the envelope. Never challenged. They just make jazzy muso sophisto-pop. Yawn.

you're drinking HEINEKEN in that picture though is the thing

All in fun, Alex. Just that your original comment gave me some deja vu.

TAKING SIDES: Steely Dan vs. The Circle Jerks

It was the only beer on offer (high school reunion held at restaurant of former classmate's father. Open bar. Wine or Heineken. I chose Heineken. And would again).

your original comment gave me some deja vu.

Clearly, I'm running out of tricks.

i was just kidding too. and i feel like i've made fun of that heineken before

I begrudgingly respect the danBowie and even agree that CBATChangesbowie is a pretty can't-miss album but up against the bowieSteely Dan they are some watered-down chardonnayhe is a soulless robot.

ok if you think david bowie is a soulless robot compared to Dan I'm really not sure how you listen to music
aja sounds like it was made with fucking pro tools, in a bad way

jazzy muso sophisto-pop

I feel like I'm repeating myself, too, but this sounds awesome.

aja sounds like it was made with fucking pro tools, in a bad way

slick =/= emotionless

actually in terms of sound quality it is very slick, but totally and analog album, not thin or grating sounding like bad pro tools stuff.

Bowie "pushed the boundaries"?

funny, they both look worse compared to the other, to me. against steely dan, bowie's working class intellectual theatre bs looks sort of grasping and desperate. against bowie, steely dan's perfectionism looks really paranoid and fearful. they're both... thin skinned? in a way.

tom i think the production technology SD used in the studio was just a small mountain of cocaine

i love steely dan to death. i unreservedly love every album they made in their original go-round. and i think "the rise and fall of ziggy..." and "low," to name just two, completely blow away anything they ever did. so. bowie.

It's a close tie these days. At their best Bowie and SD are absolute triumphs of persona, sound, and vision (har har). For me both Low and Gaucho delineate a kind of urban malaise; the latter just happens to be the West Coast kind.

David Bowie has never made an album I could listen to all the way through. On the other hand, there are times when spending my whole life listening to Gaucho on a loop seems very appealing indeed.

this is easy because Bowie made plenty of genuinely shitty records, which SD never did

Bowie "pushed the boundaries"?

It may seem laughable today, but yes. Yes, he did.

bowie made a video referencing la jetee

bowie has portrayed both nikola tesla and pontius pilate in films

I can also hear Bowie singing "Third World Man."

I want this to exist. If only to pick it apart and decide it's nowhere near as goos as Dan.

Bowie "pushed the boundaries"?

It may seem laughable today, but yes. Yes, he did.

Low still sounds fresh, and inventive, today. (I like Steely Dan fine, though).

The Dan never had an album cover as unfortunate as "Diamond Dogs."

Steely Dan by a couple of lightyears. I never really got the appeal of Bowie except "Rebel Rebel" which is divine.

muso-imago-grammatically speaking: singular plural vs plural singular.
which, honestly speaking, in this particular case i don't give much of a toss at the moment. cannot recall when was the last time i listened to either of them with any eagerness.

the older I get, the less I give a whoop-de-doo about bowie, and the more I understand Steely Dan on a frightening, soul-sick level. :(

(esp. Gaucho.)

b-b-but did vote for bowie tho. for i remember liking some of his stuff a lot once a-ponzatime. never been much of a dan admirer, really.

Steely Dan never performed on "Soul Train".

but they so could have!

the older I get, the less I give a whoop-de-doo about bowie, and the more I understand Steely Dan on a frightening, soul-sick level. :(

It's called dementia.

Did Bowie ever have fans like these?

xpost Yes, it is.

The Dan never had an album cover as unfortunate as "Diamond Dogs."

The hell they didn't.

http://img.crocmusic.com/l/albums/50/steely_dan_countdown_to_ecstasy.jpg

As I get older, I find it difficult to appreciate pushing-the-boundaries for its own sake. Low is a great record without worrying about how fresh it sounds. Judging acts by innovative they are is self-defeating.

i like bowie and steely dan both very much.

i think gff is right they hit me as being more alike in a weird way than most of the ppl on this thread would admit

Steely Dan = always boring
David Bowie = only sometimes boring

Is Fake Tuomas branching out into crustier realms of RONGness?

-- David R., Tuesday, May 6, 2008 6:47 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Steely Dan have always been awful, wine-bar, patches-on-the-elbows-of-your-corduroy-blazer CRAP. Bowie's had his rough moments, but he's capable of a brilliance that "the Dan" could never hope to attain in a thousand years.

-- Alex in NYC, Tuesday, May 6, 2008 7:09 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Is Fake bizarro-world burt stanton branching out into crustier realms of RONGness?

That could possibly sum up this thread in a nutshell

David Bowie is one of the most worthless pop stars EVER.

but seriously, i have been tempted to listen to steely dan several times in the past few weeks, but have been unable to consumate. i suspect this is largely b/c my copies of aja and gaucho are in storage at the moment, and i am not feeling the earlier stuff just at this moment.

in any case, based on comments upthread, i have to say that i appreciate the way that gershy's mind works.

Let's put it this way: Steely Dan did the smart thing by sitting out the eighties.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

you guys are going to be so aggravatingly ILM about this shit aren't you

And only you can divert the ILM Space Ark from its collision course with the asteroid.

ILM is so fuckin ILM sometimes

steely dan: loved by chaki, bozelka, gabbneb and that fuck from the mountain goats.

i agree with gabbneb on ILE somewhat frequently.

enjoy your tofu, douche parade
</hstencil>?

somebody's got to pick up the slack

I was gonna refuse to vote on this cos it's impossible but instead I've reacted against the terrible negative campaigning on this thread.

niles is otm. It's like when you turn on MTV and you say "yup, that's exactly what I expected to see.." This thread made me say that.

I don't think there is a single artist or band that I would choose over Steely Dan.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

McCain vs Obama.

whatevs, amigos.

wow!!!

lurkertronics

haha wow, indeed. I'm pretty sure I didn't even vote.

http://i32.tinypic.com/11w9b48.gif

an example of the Politics of the Old.

you guys, people can vote once a day.

Hey, chaki's right! I never knew that before.

you guys, people can vote once a day.

Ah, that would explain why The Dan got as many votes.

There's no one who can hold a candle to the Dan. Pretzel Logic - what a masterpiece.

Wasn't there a "holding a candle to the Dan" scene in Naked Lunch? Come to think of it, wouldn't Burroughs be the pivot man in this whole circle jerk?

you guys, people can vote once a day.

-- chaki, Monday, May 12, 2008 7:22 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

I haven't been able to do this lately. Not that I ever did in a serious poll such as this. I figured maybe they fixed then glitch

fuck!
"the glitch"

then is the new teh

Let's put it this way: Steely Dan did the smart thing by sitting out the eighties.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, May 6, 2008 9:27 PM (1 year ago)

That quote is beyond priceless.