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

in some ways, i think, guided by voices has spent the past 20 years trying to match "through with buzz," and failing.

and robert pollard could sing "maybe he's a fairy" without the slightest hit of irony, guilt or any second thought at all.

these images are making me impossibly happy.

Man, I could go line-by-line on "My Rival" - they do not put a foot wrong in the lyric, undercutting every noir signifier they introduce. "I'll match him whim for whim!" It's such a great Fagen showcase, too - how his delivery underlines "whining stranger," the punchline of "he weaaaars a heaaaring aid." I love that soap opera organ too, and the cry of the backup singer at the end just melting into the air...

TOO LOW

haha yeah on the soap opera organ

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-CpvhLBlDblo/Uz3m4YXjLHI/AAAAAAAAALU/qeaZX6d6S3I/w640-h320-no/Kings.jpg

52. Kings
From: Can't Buy a Thrill
Released: November 1972
171 Points, 9 Votes

wasn't there some ancient ilx thread where someone was doing lolcat-style steely dan macros and a picture of don & walt with the caption "MY RIVALS - SHOW ME THEM"? it's stupid but that still cracks me up.

wow, didn't expect "Kings" to make the cut

hot licks and rhetoric
don't count much for nothing

"Kings" very narrowly missed my ballot. it sounds like a preview of some of their grander later songs with the slightly more limited band they had in the early days, which gives it its own kind of charm.

"My Rival" is the first of my 20 to place. the groove and lyrics are gold. sounds like it would've fit and been by far the best track on two against nature had they saved it for some reason.

i still recall when i first held
your tiny hand in mine
i loved you more than i can tell
but now it's stomping time

"my rival" might have been my first steely dan love

Guitar solo on "Kings" is all-time.

It is. CBAT was the last classic-era SD fan I bought, and to hear what was an essence a songwriting collective feel their way towards finding the right arrangements and players for the material made the album sound special. This and Aja are the transitional albums for me: there's another Dan beyond those albums powerless to be born or something.

feels like it began a something Fagen and Becker had written as an exercise or dare--can we write a song that has one-line verses?---and then managed to turn into this wonderfully bizarre little song.

judging from that fagen instructional piano video someone else posted on the voting thread, "chain lightning" also occurred as a result of an exercise, which iirc is "what if we wrote a blues that never arrived at the iv chord"

i really like "kings", but I probably like pplains' picture more.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-uYbbfP1YK7c/Uz3rWfAZDwI/AAAAAAAAAMA/Dxax6EaZgWc/w640-h320-no/Jack+Of+Speed.jpg

51. Jack Of Speed
From: Two Against Nature
Released: February 29, 2000
176 Points, 8 Votes, 1 Number One

haha my number one

interesting. will have to spend some more time with this one.

he's gone — he walks through the old routines
but he's gone — guaranteed

haha my number one

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson)

Brad!

Amazing song, #8 on my ballot

kinda curious to hear what you guys' stories are re TAN. Did you buy it in 2000?

I've never paid much attention to My Rival beyond the "Jolly Roger" chorus, but the story is kind of hilarious (Mike Powell called him "a pirate w a hearing aid" in a Stylus piece on Gaucho). Cool synth solo too.

so that concludes the bonus 10 songs. reasons why i added these. first, two nights before this started i was looking at some other artist polls that were done and saw a bunch of these had more than a Top 50. second, the "My Rival" picture was already made up as both pplains and i thought is was a lock for making the Top 50. third, the "Second Arrangement" story. fourth, "Jack of Speed" getting a number 1 vote.

some of pplains best work were in those pictures, the last bunch he made up. not to say what is coming up is not great because it's actually is but i especially liked a few of those.

Kings was one of the final songs I had to cut

kinda curious to hear what you guys' stories are re TAN. Did you buy it in 2000?

― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, April 3, 2014 7:33 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my dad's 50th birthday was about 2 months after the album was released. his friends threw him a big party, and i believe Two Against Nature was both one of his gifts and the soundtrack for most of the party. i didn't buy a copy and give it much solitary listening until a few years later, though, after a purchase of Citizen Steely Dan had properly immersed me in the back catalog.

"Kings" was prob my last cut, #21.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-geOvLJDS_LY/Uz3ygoW5msI/AAAAAAAAAMw/xFffCBiVlrk/w640-h320-no/Brooklyn+%2528Owes+The+Charmer+Under+Me%2529.jpg

50. Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me)
From: Can't Buy a Thrill
Released: November 1972
179 Points, 9 Votes

Fantastic poll graphics here.

think i first heard two against nature when i was going through like my third dan phase, and i was like, "the reunion records, those are probably good at least." when i first heard it i thought it was my favorite dan record bc it elaborated on the jazzy implications in all of the previous records; after about the third listen i realized that the tunes weren't entirely there, except for "jack of speed" and "west of hollywood."

both two against nature and everything must go are probably my favorite dan records lyrically at this point

i don't really rate 2AN or EMG that highly and in fact never got into them enough to own them but i should probably revisit, i doubt i'd have to spend more than a few bucks on the cds. though i might wait for vinyl reishes.

"Queen Dan Approximately"

Cocaine was mentioned way upthread in relation to Gaucho...what exactly was their drug intake? Becker was deep into heroin and that young girlfriend OD'd in his house. But Fagen was like an occasional user of coke and never heroin, as far as I know. Anyone?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/files/2013/06/stats.jpg

I don't even know Fagen's drinking habits. Then again, I'm always curious about boomer drinking habits after seventies excesses.

i will drink a zombie from a cocoa shell someday

actually, songmeanings.com must be wrong. it has to be coco shell as in short for coconut no?

It's short for coconut. Cocoa beans come in big pods, but I can't imagine anyone serving a drink in them.

everything else is going to have more than 10 votes.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-T1tdq81A2Jo/Uz34dIxs-2I/AAAAAAAAANc/GXcfe9QSzXE/w640-h320-no/Sign+In+Stranger.jpg

49. Sign In Stranger
From: The Royal Scam
Released: May, 1976
189 Points, 10 Votes

nice, this was my #19

hey #19!

i always assumed 'home at last' was a sort-of it not direct sequel to 'sign in stranger', right down to the reprised melody.

pepe has a scar from ear to ear
he will make your mug shots disappear

that would make sign in stranger the iliad