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

This calls for a little detective work,
Miss Batersby.

"Fucked by Monty." indeed!

Men died! Died!

Maybe the problem is that I'd been listening to real jazz right before it, but the smoove was overpowering. Pleasant, and I don't have any hate for it, but like baby food. Like jazz pre-chewed.
I liked Deacon Blues OK, and I thought Josie was pretty cool. I like the bass sound that they've got, warm and mid-'70s. But things like the disco-ish beat on Black Cow and the endless vapid crooning (I know, I know, everyone loves the lyrics. But Home At Last is pretty damn empty, at least to me). Too much pretention in this yacht rock. If I'm going to listen to smoov, I want something a little more fun and a little less late night AM radio. Too much REO Speedwagon. Too much Hall and Oates ballad. And I know, I know, those guys didn't do it as meticulously (or something). And Steely Dan passes on the practical scale— you can tell that they succeeded at putting out albums that sounded like they wanted them to sound, even if that meant saxophones so slick that they glisten like slug trails. And if the argument is going to be that you simply need to be a musician to comprehend their consumate skill, well, I'll cop to feeling a little more populist on that front (while acknowledging the contradiction between that and eschewing 'smooth,' 'accessible' music).
I'm not even going to bother with the real/memorex distinction about whether or not anyone here's crush on Steely Dan is genuine/backlash, except to say that the endless hype did make me expect something more. Sorry, I'll take my Sex Pistols album over Aja any day, and rating the other way seems to be more contrarianism than conviction.
Weirdly enough, the "slick disco" isn't as much of a problem for me as the slick jazz. I've been tussling with my dad (also an ILMer) over Donna Summer and my growing appreciation for her this last week, but he loves Steely Dan in a way that I don't get. It sounds too much like the theme from 'Taxi.'
And, given the choice of studio lunacy, I'll take 10cc any day. At least they seemed like they were having fun, rather than placing a coke-fueled chrome polish onto Randy Newman song suites. Out of 10, I'd put it Aja at 5.5 or so, a bit above "I'm Your Captain." Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe I'll listen to it again in five years.

this is almost a Steely Dan song in itself... of the four Dan albums I have Aja is far and away my least favorite (don't give up js)

just going through the steely dan archive site upthread; it's amazing how perfectly formed these songs all were. the piano/bass demos for Gaucho are nearly identical to the final versions.

Not sure this is necessarily a bad thing. Even kind of clever, if you think about it.

Congratulations! You've written the dumbest thing I've ever read.

And this is a bad thing?

my dad (also an ILMer)

What?

http://www.nanopac.com/images/Victor%20Reader%20Vibe%20Talking%20Book.jpg

yeah, bob james was no slouch. go find another tv theme to pick on.

Perhaps I do not give a shit about and/or understand music.

I've been trying to force-feed myself Katy Lied and it's really not working out for us.

so...steely dan is still good.

but so are the sex pistol. the worst thing abt. steely dan debates is that sometimes two things i love get pitted as mortal enemies or something. it's weird....

On a basic level, I don't think that people who dislike Steely Dan actually give a shit about or understand music.

But I'm not about to make such a ridiculous (and frankly offensive) statement. I know the statement wasn't directed at me personally, but still. You could easily make a case that I don't understand music (at least in the way that someone who plays music or has a grounding in music theory might), but disliking Steely Dan (or any pop band) ≠ not giving a shit about music. That's purely a matter of personal taste, and having an opinion about a band would seem to indicate shit-giving on some level. Overblown statements like that probably aren't going to swing the Anti-Dans to the Other Side. Cogent arguments have a better track record, dude.

(IOW, the Jan Wenner reference was actually important to the meaning of the post it is attached to and the preceding post and I respect the people who understood that and continue to mock and laugh at the people who didn't.)