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

my #3 - i'm no closer to knowing what it's about than i was before i ever heard it, but what a fucking great song

also i love how it seemingly takes place in new york

One more of mine - "Black Friday" - has shown up.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-eMK-HqT2Lrg/U0B2U0xwpKI/AAAAAAAAAjs/-J0V7Nyi_oc/w640-h320-no/Gaucho.jpg

20. Gaucho
From: Gaucho
Released: November 21, 1980
669 Points, 27 Votes, 2 Number Ones

Reelin' In the Years only #22? What kind of people are you?

bodacious cowboys.....yet I welcome them!

pointed my car down 7th avenue

totally surprised that Gaucho isn't higher. it wasn't on my ballot but i know there are some serious partisans on this board.

"gaucho" is a perfect song

i forgot to vote for it

love this song, made my ballot.

gaucho was my #2

Gaucho is great! Not on my ballot.

totally surprised that Gaucho isn't higher. it wasn't on my ballot but i know there are some serious partisans on this board.

The lyrics list at the top features at least four different lines from the song.

#9. I thought this was a #1 contender...

love how the synths seem to microwave the chorus

The outro is marvelous. The song is a thing of beauty.

also love the percussive guitar in the chorus, damn

Would you care to explaiiiiiiiinn

so i have been getting this info from here: http://www.steelydandictionary.com/

Custerdome: A fictional skyscraper containing the luxury apartment where the song's plot unfolds. Editor's note: I decided to make an exception to my usual "no fictional words" rule and include this in the dictionary for two reasons: A) It's the word I get asked about most frequently by site visitors; and B) Temporarily abandoning their reticence to discuss lyric interpretations, Becker and Fagen kindly explained its exact meaning during an interview: "It exists only in our collective imagination. In the Steely Dan lexicon it serves as an archetype of a building that houses great corporations..."

Gaucho: A South American cowboy. Originating from the pampas in Argentina, gauchos were familiar figures in the 18th/19th centuries, and typically were daring and skillful horsemen and plainsmen. Immortalised on film thanks to the 1927 Douglas Fairbanks swashbuckling epic The Gaucho.

i might emerge from this poll with the royal scam as my new favorite LP

― °ㅇ๐ْ ° (gr8080), Saturday, April 5, 2014 3:53 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yaaaaay

i never thought "Reelin'" would rank lower than "Do It Again" and "Dirty Work," weird

One of my best friends we nicknamed the Gaucho cuz of his ridiculous clothes and ways with women

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dlJsxYHS6A0/U0B_wCBiA0I/AAAAAAAAAkY/G4TgKvTHV-g/w640-h320-no/Josie.jpg

19. Josie
From: Aja
Released: September 23, 1977
678 Points, 32 Votes, 1 Number One

fuck yeah

shine up the battle apple

shocked that this is only 19, was my number 4.

RAW FLAME, LIVE WIRE!

so few of SD's album closers feel like closing tracks to me. like almost everything besides "King Of The World," "Royal Scam" and "Third World Man." i kind of respect that, though, gives the albums an interesting flow.

My No. 1. For this week anyway.

xp

I agree, "Home at Last" would probably bee the most traditional closer for Aja

Lot of talk about how Steely Dan has stood up to repeated listens, except for maybe Reelin' In the Years. I agree, but I also worked for a classic rock station for eleven years. "Josie" is the only song of theirs that I never turn off, and keep in mind that I'll leave the other ones on too nine out of ten times.

She prays like a Roman with her eyes on fire.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me9ab4KlTU1ri63dso3_400.gif

TOO LOW! but then i recall it got stiffed in the AJA poll.

still surprised "Josie" got released as a single; record companies be taking lessons from the success of Rumours.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vk8FfjoN8tg/U0CDnPlJnMI/AAAAAAAAAlA/v069iZ_Otg8/w500-h498-no/Steely%252BDan%252B-%252BJosie%252B-%252B12-%252BRECORD-MAXI%252BSINGLE-500549.jpg

1978: "Josie" (B-side: "Black Cow")
Label: ABC 12404
Chart: US Pop 26

I think I'm coming around to "Third World Man," but for me both Aja and Gaucho seem to drop off a little with the last two tracks. I like "Josie," but it's probably their most forgettable single.

Damn, how did I not vote for "Josie." Probably the one I regret leaving off the ballot most.

Definitely can't argue with these two being in the top 20

one of my favorite fagen vocals

Was out earlier, but "Caves of Altamira" was my #2. Absolutely love that song, and have since I first heard it at age 5 1/2 in 1978 when my older cousin spent the summer with us. She was a huge Steely Dan fan, and she brought with her all their albums.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-EfCuafZSPX8/U0CJzPI10YI/AAAAAAAAAlw/LrBtUiXsQlo/w640-h320-no/Pretzel+Logic.jpg

18. Pretzel Logic
From: Pretzel Logic
Released: February 20, 1974
686 Points, 33 Votes, 3 Number Ones

Yay Pretzel Logic, I was getting worried that it wouldn't make it.

I had somehow forgotten about "Josie" until I was finishing my list, but I made sure to make room for it.

...and here is "Pretzel Logic," one of my two that I thought might not make the list.

still kicking myself over forgetting FM

My 'Boston Rag' story: during the time that I was I listening to the song for the first time, I lived on 7th avenue and used to get 'out of my mind' on grass every chance I got. The girl that I was into at that time lived in Astoria ( not Bayside but same borough). One weekend afternoon I was out of my mind as usual and she drunk dialed me out of the blue

Another great song. This is probably going to be all killers from here on in.

On some days I think "Pretzel Logic" is my favorite SD song. Glad it's top 20. Love Becker's solo here - his first on record!

yeah "Pretzel Logic" is my #5, wrote a bit about it on some other thread about how it's a canny reflection on the ephemeral and thus their best blues jam

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IOgj_3nbtZo/U0CPZkUtncI/AAAAAAAAAmc/bUaPw8XImFs/w563-h552-no/steely-dan-pretzel-logic-1974.jpg

1974: "Pretzel Logic" (3:59 edit) (B-side: "Through With Buzz")
Label: ABC 12033
Chart: US Pop 57

"Pretzel Logic" is a single released by Steely Dan from their album Pretzel Logic, originally released in 1974 by ABC Records. It reached number 57 in the Billboard charts. In the lyrics, the speaker describes wanting to visit the Southern United States with a minstrel show, wanting to meet Napoleon Bonaparte because Napoleon is lonely, and being the victim of fashion by being questioned about his shoes, to which he answers that he saw them in motion pictures and television and that "the times are changing".

In Brian Sweet's 1994 Steely Dan Biography Reelin' in the Years, Donald Fagen states that the lyrics are actually about time travel. Sweet also hypothesizes that the first verse was inspired by the band's distaste for touring, particularly the tours of the American South that their record label had sent them upon the previous year.

This is one of the first Steely Dan songs to feature bassist Walter Becker as a lead guitarist. He would do so periodically on every Dan release since.