Reelin' in the Poll: STEELY DAN - ILM Artist poll #50 (voting closed)

Luckless pedestrian!

Oh shit :-) Just had The Original Soundtrack pre-Dan record on this morning. Nothing life changing on that but still quite fun stuff. This should be a great poll - co-sign on Western World, it's fantastic.

― jamiesummerz, Wednesday, March 19, 2014 9:10 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This record would be perfect on the soundtrack of PT Anderson's upcoming Inherent Vice (Pynchon)

I cannot possibly order this list

also, I want to leave The Fez on my list, if only to counteract the Royal Scam hate, but it really is almost a Phish song.

Was just having that same thought about Sign In Stranger!

gtfo both of you

holy shit, I can see that

No, I mean, I came to Steely Dan through Phish. The Phishheads who turned me on to SD were huge fans of Royal Scam. There is a very obvious influence.

^ the wolfman's brother

Phish never wrote lyrics or arrangements as great as the Dan's, but the similarities are obvious when the Dan get goofier. The funkier and proggier elements were attractive to many jam bands. I attended many Umphrey's McGee shows in high school that had Dan covers. ;_;

"Jack of Speed" and "Godwhacker" are definitely the two post-hiatus songs I'm voting for. The latter is also the only SD song I learned anything about from Eminent Hipsters -- DF decided to write a song about putting a hit out on God after the death of his mother.

also, I want to leave The Fez on my list, if only to counteract the Royal Scam hate, but it really is almost a Phish song.

I plan to put The Fez on

yeah, I couldn't take if off

Scam is wonderful, often my favorite Dan album -- "Haitian Divorce," The Caves of Altamira," the title track, good lord those are some jams

yes! both are in my top 10, I think.

I love "Sign In Stranger" and "Kid Charlemagne" but have trouble remembering the back half even after playing it hundreds of times.

"Green Earrings"+"Haitian Divorce" is a vinyl turner for me. I'd probably skip side A before missing those.

I must be atypical because I love Royal Scam and find Katy Lied to be the weakest album in their catalog.

(pre-comeback catalog that is)

I totally agree!

KL has second side problems too, but also "Throw Back the Little Ones" and "Everyone's Gone to the Movies."

http://www.achewood.com/comic.php?date=06112004

But, yes, very excited for this poll. I'm hoping things have slowed down enough at work that I can submit a ballot.

xp and "your gold teeth part 2"!

pretzel logic is weakest for me. but I don't think I really understand it. I do love "Barrytown" and "Charlie Freak."

Haven't even started configuring my ballit, but Any World (that I'm welcome to) is a keeper. I'm basically gonna have problems eliminating anything from Katy through Gaucho.

And a significant portion of Countdown to Ecstasy.

royal scam is better than albums 2, 3, & 4 imo.

I can't think of TRS without hearing the talkbox.

I'd rank them:

CTE
Gaucho
Pretzel Logic
Can't Buy a Thrill
Katy Lied
Aja
Everything Must Go
Two Against Nature

oops: with TRS between Aja and EMG.

madness

remarkable spread on the second of these polls:

Best Steely Dan/Donald Fagen/Walter Becker Album

POLL: Best Steely Dan album

best album track rediscovery so far today: "through with buzz"

biggest album track disappointment so far today: "parker's band." i've long thought this might be my favorite dan song, but the arrangement isn't at all how i'd remembered it in my head. it's still on my list, but more of an 11-20 than a 1-10. there's an "early steely dan" piano demo that's been issued a few times on various weird labels that i think i like better,

favorite otherwise non-available song from those aforementioned early dan demo albums: "a little with sugar"

Such a fun band to chew over. It's weird, though, more than any other act I love for me they stand or fall with the lyrics, to the point where if I wasn't an English speaker I don't think I'd get them all. The whole "most of their songs are really about murder or abuse or meth" thing was my vector to getting properly engrossed in them – of course that would pretty quickly exhaust itself if it wasn't for how the words work against the arrangements, but I don’t have it in me to appreciate most of that heroic sessioneering in of itself (Purdie is the exception). Something like “Time Out Of Mind” – where the sordidness is stuck to the cliches it comes wrapped in, where chasing the dragon and water turning into cherry wine are simultaneously goofy pompousness and awesome mysteries – I don’t know, it seems so dependent on the lyric being a cross-grain to the instrumental.

Fagen said "we knew something was good if we would really laugh at it when we played it back,” which for me goes right back to Kafka laughing hysterically when he read his work to friends.

chasing the dragon = heroin FYI

throwing some early support behind Rose Darling, a kinda heartbreaking song that details a narrative in which the meaningless and insipid hours drag, and the precious moments aren’t rightfully yours for the taking.

also one of the first appearances by michael mcdonald on a steely dan song, which is key.

Black Friday-Bad Sneakers-Rose Darling-Dr. Wu is the greatest foursome in SD's discography. Unequaled depths of intelligence, feeling, and instrumental craft.

otm

I can't think of TRS without hearing the talkbox.

the talkbox/vibraphone (i think?) duet on "Haitian Divorce" is one of my favorite instrumental moments in the SD catalog

yeah, I don't even know what each sound is in that song, but I love it.

The first nine on my ballot were easy--the eight I keep on the computer, plus another one I should have on there. Thought about filling the 10th spot with De La Soul's "Eye Know," but I went with another one I like a lot--even though there might be another song on those first few albums I like better (too lazy to start checking). Didn't vote for "Peg"; like De La Soul's sample much, much more.

In the corner
Of my eye
I saw you in Rudys
You were very high
You were high!

that is creepy. I was listening to that as I read it just now. not black cow. that very measure of black cow.

basically every quote is going to be as great as every other one...the consistency of those records is amazing

Actually, "Have you ever seen a squonk's tears, well look at mine" isn't exactly great--scratch that.

it is DISGUSTING how many bulletproof five star songs i am left with no choice but to leave off of my ballot

Looking forward to voting in this, but I'm the guy who's going to make you all go "Really? How did that one get so many points?"

Meanwhile, I'm sitting here going "Oh, yeah. Which one of them was the one about seeing kangaroos."

I was listening to citizen steely Dan box in my car earlier. Riki don't lose that number was on. Pulled into the grocery store parking lot just as the song finished. Walked into the grocery store just as Riki was startingv on their in storeb play.

pretzel logic is weakest for me. but I don't think I really understand it. I do love "Barrytown" and "Charlie Freak."

Yeah pretzel is the least of their orig run for me too. My golden quartet is Countdown-Katy-Aja-Gaucho.