Polled At Last: STEELY DAN - ILM Artist poll #50

I'm with you SlimandSlam

"Aja" and "Gaucho" were my #1 and #2, so TOO LOW!

"Aja" is their symphony, and it truly stands alone in their catalog.

Steve Gadd/Wayne Shorter breakdown puts this tune over the top IMO.

YES! Also, the ending when Gadd finally hits that epic drum groove is the best way to end a song ever.

Re: show biz kids, with every song I've revisited due to this poll, the poll has been correct though.

King of the World behind show biz kids is a travesty on par with the 2000 election hanging chad fiasco.

Haha. I am inclined to agree. But I will study first.

Fagen and Derringer are the only ones in SBK who get to have any fun. Everyone else plays the same plodding riff (which doesn't even rise to the level of "groove") over and over and over and over. Bill Magill otm.

the #1 voters must speak!

Yes, reveal the secrets!

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-PqJucx523L0/U0DLVjcvYMI/AAAAAAAAAr8/7qVwS6sjlPw/w640-h320-no/Bad+Sneakers.jpg

13. Bad Sneakers
B-side "Chain Lightning"
From:: Katy Lied
Single Released: March 1975
767 Points, 39 Votes, 1 Number One

I can't. GO TO BED.

<3 bad sneakers <3

Is this like "My Bad Old Sneakers"?

My Bad (Sneakers)

"And for the coupa-de-GRAHHHSSS/they're OUTRAGEOUS" is one of the shittiest lyrics ever, that track spoils CTE bigtime

will all 7 classic period LPs have a top 10 track?

my bad sneakers is a classic example of a song i accidentally love, despite my best intentions.

absolutely did not vote for it.

kinda wishing i voted for Aja

love Bad Sneakers. being down 'n' out never seemed so alluring.

tbh I fucking love the countermelody the instruments play in the verses. But I did not vote for it.

Charlie, I wasted a vote on I got the news that I wish I have to Aja.

Just checking in. Who is the other person who had The Boston Rag at 1? Bring it back now!

― kornrulez6969, Saturday, 5 April 2014 23:53 (Yesterday)

http://libcudl.colorado.edu/sheetmusic/Images/Rag/RagBoston/RagBoston01b.jpg

Didn't have to think v.hard about it:

The Boston Rag, my favourite Dan song - the piano! The way it unfurls! "Any news was good news / And the feeling was bad at home / I was losing my mind and you were on the phone..."

Show Biz Kids in second place, really need to make a beardo edit of one of these days.

― etc, Friday, 20 June 2008 04:06 (5 years ago)

Would've been my #1 had I voted

will get that title fixed

And I'm going insane
And I'm laughing at the frozen rain
And I'm so alone
Honey when they gonna send me home

Sufjan, yeah i can't quite remember how Aja made its way out of my top 20, but it was a weird, ruthless decision.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-hUHlYO5EjrA/U0DdrTt26RI/AAAAAAAAAso/iMXAc8jOqIg/w563-h552-no/steely-dan-bad-sneakers-abc-2.jpg

1975: "Bad Sneakers" (B-side: "Chain Lightning")
Label: ABC 12128
Charts: 103 US Pop

Michael McDonald's vocals on the song are one of his first for the band; he would continue to perform background vocals for the band in recordings until 1980.

did not know that McDonald fact. Thanks!

Man, this is weird. 12 songs left and I only count 9 stone cold stunners unannounced!

I will coin the other three the 'triforce'

13) 767 Bad Sneakers 1-39
14) 761 Show Biz Kids 2-32
15) 732 Aja 3-30
16) 722 FM (No Static At All) 34
17) 699 King Of The World 2-28
18) 686 Pretzel Logic 3-33
19) 678 Josie 1-32
20) 669 Gaucho 2-27

21)646 The Boston Rag 2-27
22) 644 Reelin’ In The Years 32
23) 628 Third World Man 1-26
24) 627 The Caves Of Altamira 25
25) 575 Black Friday 28
26) 556 Barrytown 1-27

27) 543 Only A Fool Would Say That 22
28) 540 Time Out Of Mind 24
29) 522 Night By Night 24
30) 513 Razor Boy 22
31) 492 Rose Darling 24
32) 478 Your Gold Teeth II (2-23)
33) 475 Haitian Divorce 23
34) 468 Your Gold Teeth 1-23
35) 433 Bodhisattva 1-20
36) 427 Glamour Profession 21
37) 418 Don’t Take Me Alive 1-20
38) 408 Home At Last 1-19
39) 402 Midnight Cruiser 18
40) 374 Any World (That I'm Welcome To) 1-15

41) 308 Pearl Of The Quarter 14
42) 304 The Royal Scam 16
43) 302 Everyone’s Gone To The Movies 17
44) 268 Charlie Freak 1-12
45) 264 The Fez 13
46) 259 Green Earrings 1-13
47) 244 Here At the Western World 13
48) 227 Daddy Don’t Live In That New York City No More 13
49) 189 Sign In Stranger 10
50) 179 Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me) 9

just popping in here to say that i never vote in these things but i'm glad this one has led to a critical mass of dan appreciation.

I hate to say it, but Bad Sneakers is too high!

^^^

it was my no. 6, so pretty stoked for its surprisingly good showing

My #10. A perfect song.

Who is that

― Master of Treacle

I've been out, but in case your question never got answered, the girl in the graphic for FM is Jan Smithers, better known as Bailey Quarters of WKRP in Cincinnati.

It's a perfect song, but not as perfect as most of the previous 20-25 songs in the list.

I couldn't disagree more! So many relative duds so far it's amazing

Waiting for "With A Gun" to take the top spot

boooooooo

Do you respect wood?

do you take me for a fool
do you think that I don't see
that ditch out in the valley
that they're digging just for me

my steely dan saturday: drove down magnolia boulevard (did not notice any fearsome excavations) on the way to a barbecue, where the host's yacht rock-ish pandora station played "midnight cruiser" and fagen's "green flower street" back-to-back.

Has "Any Major Dude" turned up yet...

even if we all do like every single SD song there are some very big differences in SD songs we LOVE. like, i'm baffled by all the Aja love and with Galdston's idea of relative duds (which for him include Night By Night, Razor Boy and Barrytown)

well said

i had no idea before today that "king of the world" was so well loved. it always struck me as a bit of a throwaway musically, and a bit too on-the-nose for becker and fagen lyrically -- kind of like the next album's "charlie freak," which i spent years skipping over -- and I'm still not sure what it adds to the literature of apocalyptic pop. on the other hand, i've always loved the last line of the chorus: "any man left on the rio grande is the king of the world as far as i know." that wonderful qualifier "as far as i know" nearly saves the song for me.

i was not one of the #1 votes for "show biz kids," but i do love that one. i like all the obvious little moments -- the steely dan t-shirts, the show business kids not giving a fuck about anybody else, fagen's hysterically elongated phrasing of "coup de grace" (a move he would perfect a few years later with "is there gas in the car?"). i think the static, repetitious groove builds a momentum of its own that is paid off by the angry release of the "making movies of themselves" bit. i like to think frank ocean was paying homage to this song with "super rich kids," which i love equally.

i screwed up by not voting for "throw down the jam till the girls say when" in the lyrics subpoll. very happy to see the "josie" love.

Steve Gadd/Wayne Shorter breakdown puts this tune over the top IMO.

Shorter's great here, but Gadd's solo is the reason I couldn't vote for this. For me, it's the apotheosis of LA studio hackdom in drumming, the sound of someone who thinks Elvin Jones' approach needs to be tidied up. It's by far my least favorite moment in a Dan song, which is too bad, because apart from Gadd, I love "Aja."

feeling kinda vindicated that it looks like my 2 favorite albums, Countdown and Scam, placed every single track in the countdown (so did Gaucho, but an easier feat at only 7 songs).