POLL: Best Steely Dan album

Gaucho

― groovemaaan, Friday, 27 July 2007 12:06 (5 years ago) Permalink

Picking "Aja" here, but "Gaucho" is great too.

Yet, "The Nighfly" is even better than any of them.

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 27 July 2007 12:13 (5 years ago) Permalink

Difficult, but going with Countdown to Ecstasy

― Joe, Friday, 27 July 2007 12:22 (5 years ago) Permalink

I could swear I already voted for Katy Lied--two months ago.

― sw00ds, Friday, 27 July 2007 12:50 (5 years ago) Permalink

I searched for a Steely Dan poll, couldn't find one. Apologies if this has been done before.

― nate woolls, Friday, 27 July 2007 12:57 (5 years ago) Permalink

Bollocks, you're right, here it is:

Best Steely Dan/Donald Fagen/Walter Becker Album

Although that one is for Becker & Fagin solo albums as well, so there's less choice here.

― nate woolls, Friday, 27 July 2007 13:00 (5 years ago) Permalink

Somehow I must have missed that earlier poll. Tough choice : it's between Countdown and Scam for me.

― o. nate, Friday, 27 July 2007 14:20 (5 years ago) Permalink

Anyway, to go back to the initial question, the 'Best of' shoudl give you a pretty clear idea of which SD period you prefer, no? The rockier beginnings or the smoother afterglow.

― baaderonixx, Friday, 27 July 2007 16:55 (5 years ago) Permalink

Holy shit, I can't believe this poll didn't happen 'til now. The punchy pop of <i>Countdown</i> just barely wrestled the title from <i>Royal Scam</i>'s sleazy disco jaws...

Maybe teaching myself "My Old School" on the piano this morning had something to do with it...

― Davey D, Friday, 27 July 2007 16:58 (5 years ago) Permalink

Grrr BBcode

― Davey D, Friday, 27 July 2007 16:58 (5 years ago) Permalink

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

― ILX System, Wednesday, 1 August 2007 23:01 (5 years ago) Permalink

AAAARGGGH! There are tracks I love off of each one.

― the next grozart, Wednesday, 1 August 2007 23:41 (5 years ago) Permalink

pretzel logic, but you've caught me at a bad time. i've recently been coming down off of my steely dan obsession ans don't see myself listening to them for a couple of months.

― Charlie Howard, Thursday, 2 August 2007 07:46 (5 years ago) Permalink

can't buy a thrill, for me no doubt, though most everyone who cares disagrees

― oo, Thursday, 2 August 2007 07:49 (5 years ago) Permalink

Pretzel Logic now and always.

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 2 August 2007 08:03 (5 years ago) Permalink

C'mon we already did this poll. Gaucho won. Go home, people.

― baaderonixx, Thursday, 2 August 2007 08:28 (5 years ago) Permalink

That other poll also included solo albums - NOT THE SAME THING AT ALL. But seriously though, I missed the other poll, so this gives me a chance to vote.

― o. nate, Thursday, 2 August 2007 15:15 (5 years ago) Permalink

Besides, Katy Lied won the other poll, which is clearly a miscarriage of justice that must be redressed.

― o. nate, Thursday, 2 August 2007 15:19 (5 years ago) Permalink

Royal Scam -- "sleazy disco jaws" is OTM. It catches them at this perfect moment between their boho roots that apexed w Katy and their Ramada Inn bar later sound. And the tunes are aces.

― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 2 August 2007 15:23 (5 years ago) Permalink

Countdown to Ecstasy vs. Katy Lied vs. Aja? Countdown to Ecstasy for me.

― Bill in Chicago, Thursday, 2 August 2007 16:07 (5 years ago) Permalink

their Ramada Inn bar later sound

Hahaha, OTM back at you

― Davey D, Thursday, 2 August 2007 22:50 (5 years ago) Permalink

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

― ILX System, Thursday, 2 August 2007 23:01 (5 years ago) Permalink

amazing.

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 2 August 2007 23:03 (5 years ago) Permalink

the split is amazing. to vegas with these odds = everybody wins (well, except for those who hold out for the later work). i voted for countdown to ecstasy.

― tricky, Thursday, 2 August 2007 23:47 (5 years ago) Permalink

I would have voted for The Royal Scam.

― Andy K, Friday, 3 August 2007 00:22 (5 years ago) Permalink

hanging chads

― Joe, Friday, 3 August 2007 00:24 (5 years ago) Permalink

It seems most of those who voted for "Gaucho" last time around didn't bother this time.

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 3 August 2007 01:21 (5 years ago) Permalink

After TAN bored me several years ago, I am shocked to discover EMG last week and to love it: "Godwhacker," "Pixaleen," the title track," "Lunch with Gina." Tight live arrangements that don't sound antiseptic.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 4 September 2012 22:00 (8 months ago) Permalink

i love how there's an almost perfectly equal spread among the first 7 albums. probably the greatest run since the Beatles imo.

― some dude, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 01:19 (8 months ago) Permalink

I'm amazed "Kid Charlemagne" is regarded well enough to buoy The Royal Scam into second place.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 01:28 (8 months ago) Permalink

a) Royal Scam is tied for first, b) it's my and lots of people's favorite and c) if any album is buoyed by the single it's Pretzel Logic

― some dude, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 01:31 (8 months ago) Permalink

^^What he said.

― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 01:32 (8 months ago) Permalink

oh right: I forgot you guys bought the stuff that Kid Charlemagne sells.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 01:37 (8 months ago) Permalink

he deals clavinets and talkboxes?

― some dude, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 01:44 (8 months ago) Permalink

i mean i don't go talking about how funky and dynamic my favorite LP is compared to your beloved washed out lethargic Gaucho oh wait

― some dude, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 01:53 (8 months ago) Permalink

Please do! Szechuan DUMPLINGS! at Mister Chow's when our deal is done.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 01:55 (8 months ago) Permalink

lol that autoreplace never gets old

― some dude, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 01:57 (8 months ago) Permalink

I underrate The Royal Scam routinely - when I look at the tracklisting, the strongest songs are some JAMS: "Kid Charlemagne" of course, "Green Earrings" is an easy all-timer & one of their best grooves, title track is unbelievable in every way, "Don't Take Me Alive" is a classic...but "Everything You Did" is imo one of their weakest songs & the Fez is fine but I could live fine without it. Katy Lied is superior imo

― we don't wanna miss a THING!!! (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:22 (8 months ago) Permalink

the title track is a vaporous nothing and "The Fez" actively annoys me but you're OTM about KL.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:24 (8 months ago) Permalink

Alfred what the hell, you're a Stevens man aren't you?

And they wandered in from the city of St. John without a dime.
wearing coats that shined both red and green,
colors from their sunny island.

come on now man we can go right down through that song there is nothing for a poetry man not to love in it

― we don't wanna miss a THING!!! (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:29 (8 months ago) Permalink

except "shined" in place of "shone" but what can you do some of this shit you have to live with if you listen to rock music

― we don't wanna miss a THING!!! (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:29 (8 months ago) Permalink

WHERE THEY LEARN TO FEAR AN ANGRY RACE OF FALLEN KINGS, THEIR DARK COMPANIONS

― we don't wanna miss a THING!!! (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:30 (8 months ago) Permalink

"Haitian Divorce," man! fuckin' "Caves of Altamira"

― some dude, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:33 (8 months ago) Permalink

yeah but "dime" "shined" "island"....binds the language together better I think....or maybe we cd pretend it's "shine" which I've always heard & which kinda works given my shaky advanced grammar?

― theStalePrince, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:35 (8 months ago) Permalink

ps--am i supposed to write "xpost" whenever anybody overlaps me even if there's no likely confusion?

― theStalePrince, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:35 (8 months ago) Permalink

sure but Stevens had music. "The Royal Scam" (the song) is words on a page.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:37 (8 months ago) Permalink

I could never really get down with "Haitian Divorce" for the very silly reason that when I bought this album I was in the middle of my first big Steely Dan obsession and I had a lot of expectations for a title like that, which the song did not fulfill.

xp "shined" is the wrong word there and if that foils an internal rhyme hope for the author then he needs to rewrite the line. I am very merciless about this kind of thing

― we don't wanna miss a THING!!! (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:37 (8 months ago) Permalink

"Don't Take Me Alive" is cool -- it's made a couple mix CD-R. The talk box on "Haitian Divorce" is the aural equivalent of Bud and coke at 5 a.m.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:38 (8 months ago) Permalink

Alfred I ain't buyin this on that song. "How they are paid in gold just to babble in the back room and waste the time/and they wandered in from the city of St John without a dime" as the seal-it-up couplet closing a very tightly-told story? musically I guess the song isn't on Aja/Katy levels but it's full of so much that makes Fagen great

― we don't wanna miss a THING!!! (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:40 (8 months ago) Permalink

the way the talkbox does call-and-response with the marimba (i think? or xylophone?) is so heavenly

― some dude, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:56 (8 months ago) Permalink

yeah I can't really get w/that, I don't hate but it's sorta doesn't speak to me. the talkbox. doesn't ~speak~ to me are you feeling me here, I am bringing the good jokes

― we don't wanna miss a THING!!! (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:58 (8 months ago) Permalink

"Don't Take Me Alive" is one of the only SD songs that comes across as kind of cheesy to me. it's good but i'd never opt to listen to it outside the album.

― some dude, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 03:02 (8 months ago) Permalink

He1geson has said that Zep:Presence::Dan:Royal Scam a few times on ILM over the years and no one seems to have ever backed him up on it so I would just like to say ftr that he is 100% correct.

― bentelec, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 03:10 (8 months ago) Permalink

i dig both albums more than the average fan but i'm not really seeing any meaningful parallels off the bat, will have to check out how he explained it

― some dude, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 03:12 (8 months ago) Permalink

Just go with me on this and we can do the whole New Jersey thing all over again.

― bentelec, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 03:19 (8 months ago) Permalink

lol

― some dude, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 03:24 (8 months ago) Permalink

Ha ha I am otm though, and royal scam kills gaucho

― Jandek at the Disco (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 03:28 (8 months ago) Permalink

any one of the OG 7 steely dan albums might be my favorite, entirely dependent upon my mood or the weather or w/e.

― omar little, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 04:17 (8 months ago) Permalink

long as we're talking about lyrics "don't take me alive" contains my favorite steely dan lyric

i hear my inside
the mechanized hum of another world

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 06:43 (8 months ago) Permalink

yeah the writing on "don't take me alive" is p fuckin spectacular & the harmonies on the chorus are really something

― we don't wanna miss a THING!!! (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 06:49 (8 months ago) Permalink

Totally feeling the "Presence" = "Royal Scam" thing. ("Gaucho" = "In Throught the Out Door")

― aerosmith suck because their corporate rock that sucks (Myonga Vön Bontee), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 14:23 (8 months ago) Permalink

I nominate "Haitian Divorce" for best use of a talkbox in any song ever - it's so fucking seedy, like the unmentioned philanderer who drives the marriage apart or something. I'm just beginning to appreciate the Royal Scam, and I no longer have any clear idea of my favorite Dan record - just say that through Gaucho I love them all.

― mobs of burly teen christgaus (thewufs), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 20:10 (8 months ago) Permalink

Gaucho is so much better than In Through The Out Door in both relative (to the respective catalogs) and absolute terms

― look at this quarterstaff (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 20:19 (8 months ago) Permalink

Gaucho's where they completely throw rock out the window, like "this shit is even more bankrupt than the soul of the narrator in Babylon Sisters", it's such an angry record to my mind, like "fuck you America of 1980, cheesy smoothness is all you deserve"

― look at this quarterstaff (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 20:21 (8 months ago) Permalink

motherfuckers act like they forgot about BAD SNEAKERS

― Jandek at the Disco (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 20:24 (8 months ago) Permalink

Gaucho is so much better than In Through The Out Door in both relative (to the respective catalogs) and absolute terms

― look at this quarterstaff (Hurting 2), Wednesday, September 5, 2012 4:19 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

"Babylon Sisters" and "Fool In The Rain" have two of the most sublime shuffle beats ever

― some dude, Thursday, 6 September 2012 01:48 (8 months ago) Permalink

I wish I enjoyed the 33 1/3 book on Aja more. They should have done one on Gaucho, or Katy Lied. Most to chew on

― Iago Galdston, Thursday, 6 September 2012 01:53 (8 months ago) Permalink

this shit is crazy. i love all the first 7 like children, but if i were to pick the two i listen two least? PL & RS

― it's smdh time in America (will), Thursday, 6 September 2012 01:56 (8 months ago) Permalink

listen to

― it's smdh time in America (will), Thursday, 6 September 2012 01:57 (8 months ago) Permalink

Yep, this is pretty much the toughest question ever asked on ILX.

― Clarke B., Thursday, 6 September 2012 02:45 (8 months ago) Permalink

whenever I doubt Gaucho I play "Third World Man." Then the title track. Then "Hey Nineteen." Then I say fuck it and play the rest.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 6 September 2012 02:48 (8 months ago) Permalink

I think Pretzel Logic (the co-winner!) is the worst of the original 7: everything on side two except Parker's Band" is pretty meh--tho I did crank "Barrytown" the other day in honor of the late Rev Moon....

― theStalePrince, Thursday, 6 September 2012 02:50 (8 months ago) Permalink

Gun to head it's probably Countdown to Ecstasy for me. Each song feels like an epic, and nothing feels tossed off. And the playing still has a bit of looseness to it and really just blazes.

― Clarke B., Thursday, 6 September 2012 02:50 (8 months ago) Permalink

Oh shit, "Third World Man"... The guitar outro... I saw them do Gaucho in its entirety last year, and it was great.

― Clarke B., Thursday, 6 September 2012 02:51 (8 months ago) Permalink

I also feel Can't Buy a Thrill is a bit under-loved. "Kings"! "Change of the Guard"!

― Clarke B., Thursday, 6 September 2012 02:57 (8 months ago) Permalink