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

rockcrits hate cocaine

and yet think about how many fucked up classics were the direct product of cocaine abuse in the 70s!

it's a less realized Gaucho, although I like it.

otm

no more interruptions.

we shall continue.

are you drinking

he was snorting coke, duh.

i had something to do and no i'm not drinking.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Sx2Buh4Ggk0/Uz3EjNlsLNI/AAAAAAAAAGk/BE5UaQiNEPc/w640-h320-no/Almost+Gothic.jpg

59. Almost Gothic
From: Two Against Nature
Released: February 29, 2000
76 Points, 4 Votes

might be my favorite image.

here's my ballot for the albums poll -- from the looks of the results I was the only one who went all out and ranked all the solo albums and the live disc:

The Royal Scam
Countdown To Ecstasy
Aja
Pretzel Logic
Katy Lied
Can't Buy A Thrill
Circus Money
Gaucho
Two Against Nature
Sunken Condos
Everything Must Go
Alive In America
The Nightfly
Morph The Cat
Kamakiriad
11 Tracks of Whack

"almost gothic" is great, awesome image

Wow, surprised that "Almost Gothic" made it. It's a fine track but not a standout on that album for me. Then again, there's only about 60 tracks on the first seven albums.

i'm working on gospel time these days

i'm so excited I can barely cope
i'm sizzling like an isotope

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-WMmjeoOgQD0/Uz3LS77Ea4I/AAAAAAAAAHc/pWl2IJncpiQ/w640-h320-no/Parker%2527s+Band.jpg

58. Parker's Band
From: Pretzel Logic
Released: February 20, 1974
79 Points, 4 Votes

can somebody do a Spotify?

it's like you read my mind
http://open.spotify.com/user/1219464571/playlist/3WxVfruSRGjCsxQsrtZNuG

although it just occurred to me that I'm going to be super busy all day tomorrow, so I made it collaborative, people are welcome to add songs if I'm not keeping up w/ it.

Soooo...Parker's Band! Like that one!

wow that's low. though i love "parker's band" a wee bit less than i used to (the arrangement is a bit fussy, and i could do without the sibiliant S's in that first line), i still love it as both a joyful tribute to music itself and as a statement of purpose for these particular musicians: "if you can't fly, you'll have to move in with the rhythm section" would have been a good note to leave on the steely dan studio door, though by the end, of course, if you couldn't fly they wouldn't even let you into the rhythm section.

perfectly sequenced after "East St Louis" (bop after hot jazz): Pretzel Logic is the Dan at their most earnest, jazz-nerd-wise, in its way.

always loved the "parker's band" early version/demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfY0q7FA4H8

(who's that guy singing with fagen in that demo? is that becker?)

The "We will spend a dizzy weekend" section really catapults this song.

It may sound odd, but Parker's Band reminds me a bit of "Down on the Corner." Similar subject matter, but obviously Creedence left out the bizarre bridge.

"Parker's Band" was my #20, and

The "We will spend a dizzy weekend" section really catapults this song.

this is why

I like how "Parker's Band" is about the incantatory power of Steely Dan's own music.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-frrNr49ncrQ/Uz3OMAiU0qI/AAAAAAAAAH4/6G7T04Fzv40/w640-h320-no/The+Second+Arrangement.jpg

57. The Second Arrangement
Unreleased
90 Points, 5 Votes

hahaha

"The Second Arrangement" had been a favorite of producer Gary Katz and Nichols. In late December 1979, after weeks of working on a particular recording of the track, approximately 3/4 of the song was accidentally erased by an assistant engineer who had been asked by Katz to ready the track for listening. The band attempted to re-record the track, but eventually abandoned the song entirely.

Steely Dan biographer Brian Sweet has written that the group abandoned the song in favor of focusing on "Third World Man." "The Second Arrangement" was never played live by Steely Dan until a rarities show on September 17, 2011; a studio recording of the song remains unreleased. However, a handful of demo and outtake recordings of the song exist in bootleg form.

In addition to "The Second Arrangement", a number of songs were written for the album, but ultimately left off Gaucho. A number of these songs were included on a bootleg titled The Lost Gaucho, which represents recordings from early in the album's sessions. Song titles include "Kind Spirit", "Kulee Baba", "The Bear", "Talkin' About My Home," as well as "The Second Arrangement". An early version of "Third World Man" with alternate lyrics is included under the title "Were You Blind That Day." This recording dates from the Aja sessions.

so happy "The Second Arrangement" made it (with my help!)

here's the studio bootleg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgugMZI18pc

and here's a live version from a 2011 'rarities night' show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=filvJyO89EI

i remember the engineer story (never heard this song though). man "accidentally erasing 3/4th of an obsessively-worked-on Steely Dan track" is up there with your all-time bad days at work

The horror that engineer must've felt as Katz kept saying, "Go ahead and pot it up, we're ready. What's happening back there?"

I like how "Parker's Band" is about the incantatory power of Steely Dan's own music.

― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, April 3, 2014 5:19 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

um how on earth is that song anything but a Charlie Parker tribute?

yeah but it's also a comment on their own music; that's how it reads to me

Tributes and homages are by nature acknowledgments of limits or showing how far you've matched or outperformed the subject imo

lol can you imagine Donald and Walter on album 3 going "welp, we're as good as Bird now, if not better"

I can imagine them thinking that around album 6, true or no

on the fine Colombian, sure

xpost

the existence of that 2011 rarities night show really gives me a little hope that someday SD will loosen the reigns of perfectionism enough that they may do an archival project with unreleased songs. even new re-recordings of some of those old rarities would be cool.

this poll is already making me look at the songs that have placed so car in a new light. that fuzzy little bass or low guitar line in "Monkey" is so cool.

(xp) i'm not sure all tributes/homages are specifically acknowledgments of how you've matched or not matched the subject, but i do think all tributes/homages are at least as much about the author as they are about the subject.

how the hell can Becker toss off a solo as precise and awesome as the one in that "Second Arrangement" clip? Cuz he's Walter Becker.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-hp6LjbRalf8/Uz3VWyoszoI/AAAAAAAAAIo/SNtocPFlNHU/w640-h320-no/Everything+You+Did.jpg

56. Everything You Did
From: The Royal Scam
Released: May, 1976
101 Points, 5 Votes

turn up the eagles
the neighbors are listening

^^ the highlight of Side B

my favorite on royal scam, and a very late drop for me. i want an office/listening room that looks exactly like that image.

also, how did "turn up the eagles..." not win the lyrics subpoll?

In the song "Everything You Did," a lyric says, "turn up The Eagles, the neighbors are listening." Glenn Frey of the Eagles said, "Apparently Walter Becker's girlfriend loved the Eagles, and she played them all the time. I think it drove him nuts. So, the story goes that they were having a fight one day and that was the genesis of the line." Given that the two bands shared a manager (Irving Azoff) and that the Eagles proclaimed their admiration for Steely Dan, this was more friendly rivalry than feud.

Later that year in a nod back to Steely Dan for the free publicity, and inspired by Steely Dan's lyric style, the Eagles penned the lyrics, "They stab it with their steely knives but they just can't kill the beast" in their hit "Hotel California". Frey commented, "We just wanted to allude to Steely Dan rather than mentioning them outright, so 'Dan' got changed to 'knives,' which is still, you know, a penile metaphor."

Timothy B. Schmit, who played bass on The Royal Scam and two other Steely Dan albums, would later join the Eagles.

which is still, you know, a penile metaphor

well, yeah.

This seems like a good spot for the Steely Dan/Eagles episode of Yacht Rock:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb_XEwgfmDk

Didn't want to embed it and clutter the thread.