Steely Dan: "Steely Dan's name has been popping up as a hip musical crush. Remember, this glossy bop-pop was the indifferent aristocracy to punk rock's stone-throwing in the late 70's. People fought

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I think the 2CD Showbiz Kids anthology is a better starting point than A Decade of Steely Dan. More tracks, obviously, and some better choices about what to omit.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Friday, 17 March 2006 18:57 (twenty years ago)

I'm not really into Aja personally - I haven't heard Countdown to Ecstasy yet but given how much I like Can't Buy a Thrill, Pretzel Logic, and Katy Lied, I'm probably in the camp that prefers their earliest period.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 17 March 2006 19:10 (twenty years ago)

Amazon Review of the Citizen Box, or Break Free While You Still Can for God's Sake:

Reviewer: GREENHOUSE EFFECT CLARK "KLAUSE" (SAN DIEGO)
We've all heard these songs 1000 times on the radio but it is for a reason.........to get to the song called; "DIRTY WORK"....ITS a good one, then theres "Any major dude" and lots a' other good clean listening fun here....This band is comprised of great musicians and quality songwriting that can get tedious and old ...but only after 1000 plays so..if yer not familiar with this, then I HIGHLY recommend you get INTO IT...IT WILL CHANGE YOU...IF YER STUCK ON 90'S PUNK ROCK, THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO BREAK FREE AND GROW UP STUPID and get out OF IT...THIS IS STEELY DAN...THIS AIN'T DIRE STRAIGHTS OR MTV OR STING...GET INTO THIS ...and get into Chicago...MAKE THAT BREAK NOW FROM LAME ALTERNATIVE ROCK WHILE YOU CAN ...before it destroys yer life and turns you into a 'life time boy" ...and you wake up at 40 where you WERE AT 26...UPSTAIRS IN YOUR BEDROOM NEXT TO YOUR MOTHER'S ROOM !

― Brakhage (brakhage), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:03 (twenty years ago)

otm

― gear (gear), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:06 (twenty years ago)

its not yr mama's music.

i saw steely dan with my mom, once. she likes them.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:12 (twenty years ago)

Who here has heard "You better walk it like you talk it or you'll lose that beat" ?

As much as I love Steely Dan, it's just of archival interest to me...

― Dave AKA Dave (dave225.3), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:13 (twenty years ago)

I thought that was a Velvet Underground song.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:39 (twenty years ago)

my mom loves the dan. but she doesnt know all the albums like me. im like this Royal Scam/Aja/Katy Lied/Pretzel Logic TIED FOR FIRST Countdown and Can't Buy a Thrill IN A CLOSE SECOND!

― chaki (chaki), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:41 (twenty years ago)

same name/ completely different!

xpost

― Dave AKA Dave (dave225.3), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:41 (twenty years ago)

snippets:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000011AA/104-8171844-8508707?v=glance&n=5174

― Dave AKA Dave (dave225.3), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:43 (twenty years ago)

my college radio had a copy of that. it wasn't very good.

― s/c johnson wax (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:44 (twenty years ago)

college radio STATION

― s/c johnson wax (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:44 (twenty years ago)

Do'h .. fuck that shit. I just discovered the Steely Dan Archive:
http://www.steelydanarchive.com/sounds/

― Dave AKA Dave (dave225.3), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:45 (twenty years ago)

(xpost to myself)

― Dave AKA Dave (dave225.3), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:45 (twenty years ago)

holy crap...I might take a whole day sometime so sift through that whole page and find tracks worth keeping.

― Alex in Baltimore (Alex in Baltimore), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:50 (twenty years ago)

I'm in for some downloading tonight I think... fucking goldmine. (even if it's just bronze...)

― Dave AKA Dave (dave225.3), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:51 (twenty years ago)

where's gaucho, chaki? : (

― gear (gear), Friday, 17 March 2006 22:07 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, where's GAUCHO??
Mine would a little something like this
-Gaucho/Countdown/Pretzel tied for FIRST 'but lately I'm thinking Gaucho might actually narrowly be the UNDISPUTED numero uno)
-Aja
-Can't buy a Thrill
-Katy Lied
-Two Against Nature
-Royal Scam

I don't "Everthing Must go" well enough yet.

― Le Baaderonixx de Benedict Canyon (baaderonixx), Friday, 17 March 2006 22:30 (twenty years ago)

OH SHIT! Gaucho is 1 1/2 place.

― chaki (chaki), Friday, 17 March 2006 23:11 (twenty years ago)

I grew up listening to Steely Dan, and always hated it...

...until about a year ago. It started sounding good. I just didn't get it before. This is a really interesting thread and a good starting point for me to start exploring their work.

― josh in sf (stfu kthx), Saturday, 18 March 2006 01:37 (twenty years ago)

1st tier: Gaucho, Countdown, Everything Must Go
2nd tier: Katy Lied, Pretzel Logic, Aja
3rd tier: Can't Buy a Thrill, Two Against Nature, The Royal Scam

i grew up listening to Steely Dan; my dad was a big fan. I've gone through periods of listening to them less, but they've been an official 'favourite band' since i was 12 or so. a number of songs have a lot of childhood associations for me. i.e. asking my dad what 'Charlie Freak' was about, and learning all about drugs!

― derrick (derrick), Saturday, 18 March 2006 07:26 (twenty years ago)

That Pitchfork quote in the thread title is similar to a Mark E. Smith quote (see the Auteurs entry in Rough GD to Rock.) He was telling Luke Haines that he didn't like his band's glossy Steely Dan sound, saying something like, "We fought wars to kill off that shit."

The Yacht shall rise again.

― ramon fernandez, Monday, 20 March 2006 08:05 (twenty years ago)

steely dan pwns the fall ten times over

― gear (gear), Monday, 20 March 2006 08:15 (twenty years ago)

Amen

― Le Baaderonixx de Benedict Canyon (baaderonixx), Monday, 20 March 2006 08:43 (twenty years ago)

Steely Dan is like the soundtrack to realizing growing up could be more fun than you thought.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Monday, 20 March 2006 15:10 (twenty years ago)

"Holy shit - I never realized doing coke w/ an underage girl could be so much fun!"

― David R. (popshots75`), Monday, 20 March 2006 15:15 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

i am up at 5 am coding, stoned, listening to aja, discovering first that aja/dante is gone and then that ysi is also dead. steely dan never sounded this good.

― lf (lfam), Thursday, 6 April 2006 07:35 (twenty years ago)

I am now dancing to 'Time out of Mind' in my hotel room in Tunisia. On my own.

― Le Baaderonixx de Benedict Canyon (baaderonixx), Saturday, 8 April 2006 15:25 (twenty years ago)

these are really special moments.

― lf (lfam), Saturday, 8 April 2006 18:01 (twenty years ago)

Why does every Steely Dan thread make me feel like I've stumbled into Bizarro ILM?

I honestly don't think I will ever like this band. Lord knows I've given them chance after chance, usually upon having someone recommend one song or another as the one that stands out above the pack. I remain unconvinced. Others on the board have managed, at long last, to help me begin to understand what they appreciate about them, but SD sounds deeply, fundamentally wrong to my ears. But I suppose that much of the music that I enjoy would likely provoke that reaction in others. To each their own, yeah?

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Saturday, 8 April 2006 20:05 (twenty years ago)

you sound like a weirdo. what do you listen to? don't say radiohead.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 8 April 2006 20:19 (twenty years ago)

~~Radiohead.~~ Coldplay.

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Saturday, 8 April 2006 20:23 (twenty years ago)

you sound like a norwegian

― gear (gear), Saturday, 8 April 2006 20:33 (twenty years ago)

hey deric,

quit being such a hater.

love,
music

― lf (lfam), Saturday, 8 April 2006 20:35 (twenty years ago)

music asked me to pass that on

― lf (lfam), Saturday, 8 April 2006 20:35 (twenty years ago)

Dear music,

I love you. I truly do. And it is with love that I ask: exactly how much Scotchgard did you huff before giving birth to that flipper baby that you call Steely Dan?

LYLAS,
Deric

Oh, now that was just unfair of me...

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Saturday, 8 April 2006 21:17 (twenty years ago)

(All previous and subsequent replies to this thread written with full knowledge that criticising the Dan on ILM is a battle already long-lost.)

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Saturday, 8 April 2006 21:20 (twenty years ago)

the emperor wears clothes, the kid is just high

― gear (gear), Saturday, 8 April 2006 21:37 (twenty years ago)

Well, I mean honestly: all anti-Dan sentiment espoused on this board is met with responses ranging from disingenuous snarkiness to outright hostility (excepting those few among us with dissenting opinions). There seems little to be gained in mounting a defense against the deluge of ILM Steely Love, and I assure you that I'm not the one who's going to be able to provide a solid, ready-for-print dissection of that which makes Steely Dan unpalatable. The fact that I've done little more than toss in my two cents and a bit of snark in return doesn't mean that there isn't a case to be made against. It just means I'm not much cop as an intraweb pundit.

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Saturday, 8 April 2006 21:51 (twenty years ago)

"but SD sounds deeply, fundamentally wrong to my ears."

how exactly do they sound deeply, fundamentally wrong?

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 8 April 2006 22:04 (twenty years ago)

oh jesus christ how many times have we had this fucking "i dont get sd" discussion then a year or two later dood comes back and says "i cant stop listening to aja!"

― shredding repis on the gnar gnar rad (chaki), Saturday, 8 April 2006 22:12 (twenty years ago)

Their music always sounds, to me, as if it's been drained of something essential. Vitality, spark, et al. World-weariness and cynicism seem to be prime among Steely Dan's lyrical themes, which is wholly valid except that it seems somehow ingrained in their very character and somehow carries over into their music.

(Now before anyone shows up to pummel me with anecdotes about Fagen and Becker's eternally sunny dispositions and how this informed their music ironically, please note that I'm operating from a non-fan perspective here. By which I mean that I don't know a lot of the background details, but that I'm simply relating what seems to me to be the case.)

In short: (almost) everything of theirs I've heard sounds like elevator music. Which is not the type of thing I enjoy listening to. I'm still willing to be convinced otherwise, but the Dan Fans are batting a big fat goose egg in that arena thus far.

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Saturday, 8 April 2006 22:18 (twenty years ago)

(In re: the possibility of being convinced and shredding's comment above, note that my position on Fleetwood Mac was similar until fairly recently, when I came to realize that the Buckingham songs on Tusk are a wonder to behold. But I've heard an awful lot of Steely Dan.)

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Saturday, 8 April 2006 22:21 (twenty years ago)

WHY DID YOU ENCOURAGE HIM, SCOTT??

― shredding repis on the gnar gnar rad (chaki), Saturday, 8 April 2006 22:21 (twenty years ago)

i'm sorry. i was bored and he wouldn't go away.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 8 April 2006 22:24 (twenty years ago)

lol

― shredding repis on the gnar gnar rad (chaki), Saturday, 8 April 2006 22:25 (twenty years ago)

you aren't ready yet, deric. give it time. if you were meant to receive the glory, you will certainly receive it someday. but you can't force these things. your epiphany, if it comes, will be blinding and instantaneous. you will remember nothing of your former ignorance.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 8 April 2006 22:28 (twenty years ago)

Ha ha. It's happened before (Royal Trux being another "once dismissed, now beloved" example that springs to mind), so it can't be discounted completely out of hand.

I think that I can at least respect them on the basis of their obsessiveness, which is something that often fascinates me and attracts me to music/art in general. There's something in the quality of their obsession, though, that seems to suggest that they don't know when or where to quit (much like myself w/r/t this thread). Just because you can achieve a high-gloss sheen through obsessive attention to detail doesn't mean it's necessarily advisable.

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Saturday, 8 April 2006 22:42 (twenty years ago)

yes it does! (although i might just be like that). and if you can come around with royal trux (finger down throat rolling eyeballs around) then certainly steely has a chance...

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Saturday, 8 April 2006 22:46 (twenty years ago)

lol i love susan

― shredding repis on the gnar gnar rad (chaki), Saturday, 8 April 2006 22:55 (twenty years ago)

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