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

Not jinxing my #1 by calling it yet.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kpZAtwAGeuk/U0HHPluBvJI/AAAAAAAAA0M/3j9-loiGoSs/w640-h320-no/Rikki+Dont+Lose+That+Number.jpg

6. Rikki Don't Lose That Number
B-side: "Any Major Dude Will Tell You"
From: Pretzel Logic
Single Released: April 25, 1974
1,158 Points, 46 Votes, 4 Number Ones

Did not vote for this great great song. Magnificent solo.

my #1. such a weird, complex, abstruse, yet ridiculously catchy and marvelously open-ended, pop hit.

not 'what it's about' (that ew story i'll link to whenever the now overrated - ht armond - 'my old school' finally places is probably right on that front) but the gay reading of this song is probably one of my more favorite analyses on ilm

to this day i remain puzzled by the switch from first person plural in the first line to first person singular in the second.

I called Deacon Blues two weeks ago. still stand by it (and crossing my fingers)

xp similar pronoun weirdness in the first verse of "My Old School," with the referent of "you"

Rikki my #3. love the drum sound going into the first lyric so much, ba-dum-ba-dum, "we heard you're leaving..."

SEYMOUR DOAN LOSE THAT NUM-BA
YOU DOAN WANNA CALL NO-BODY ELSE

i am totally blanking on what 2 of the remaining 5 could be, stoked for the madness

also love the strange rhyming pattern in the verses: ABBC

and euler otm about that opening drum sound.

"Rikki" was the song that turned me around on the Dan--for years I didn't really pay much attention them (though I'd heard "Do It Again" "Reelin'" "Hey 19" and "Peg"). To me they were just some AOR band like Santana or something. But then I heard "Rikki" on the radio and decided I had to now more about this group.

xxp: I know all 5, but no idea what order they'll be in.

It'll be really awesome if one of them TOTALLY sweeps the others though.

i guessing either of the two out of five i actually voted for will be number one

Didn't vote for "Rikki" due to my severe over-exposure to it, but I've been wishing I had.

This was such an incredible band.

I think I know the top five, too. Four of them got votes from me, and I'd be okay with any of them as #1. The fifth may well cause me to become a bookkeeper's son if it takes the top spot.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-H2t_UkgkAmU/U0HLDfUuoNI/AAAAAAAAA00/kegUrOzQhgE/w450-h451-no/Steely%252BDan%252B-%252BRikki%252BDon%2527t%252BLose%252BThat%252BNumber%252B-%252B7-%252BRECORD-156582.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-k0TOgywDqRo/U0HLLCYRggI/AAAAAAAAA1Y/6j1lkmB0BEA/w450-h449-no/Rikki+7.jpg

April 25, 1974: "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" (B-side: "Any Major Dude Will Tell You")
Label: ABC 11439
Chart: US Pop 4

"Rikki Don't Lose That Number" was the most successful single of the group's career, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1974.

Victor Feldman's flapamba (a variant of the marimba) introduction to the song, which opens the album, is cut from the original ABC single version. The MCA single reissue (backed with "Pretzel Logic") includes the flapamba intro but fades out just before the actual end of the track. The introductory riff is a direct nod to Horace Silver's jazz classic "Song for My Father".

In the March 24, 2006 issue of Entertainment Weekly, in an article titled "Back to Annandale", it was revealed that Rikki Ducornet was the apparent inspiration for the song due to her friendship with songwriter Donald Fagen while he attended Bard College. Ducornet was pregnant and married at the time, but recalled that Fagen did give her his phone number at a college party at Bard and said that she believed she was the subject of the song. Fagen, however, would not confirm the story.

Incredible "bAnd". More like floating recording collective.

Top five are very apparent. Voted for all of them.

voted for 3. surprised by the other two. love them all.

voted for only one of the top five, and would be both shocked and maybe even a little sad if it was number one.

one of these is my mom's favorite steely dan song. I played it in the car in high school and she sang every word.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-CKCrpE355yA/U0HRdloOqgI/AAAAAAAAA2U/IjlprrhhZag/w640-h320-no/Kid+Charlemagne.jpg

5. Kid Charlemagne
B-side "Green Earrings"
From: The Royal Scam
Single Released: May 1976
1,203 Points, 50 Votes, 5 Number Ones

^^ thought this would be number one

oh good. great song that i could honestly go without hearing again

there's gas in the caaaaAAAaaar

all time great guitar solo

look at all the white men on the street

every a-frame. this slipped in at 19 on my ballot, but was my favorite SD song when I first got into them.

I'll admit it - my #1. Such great storytelling. The first time I heard it, when it first came out, the smartness of the lyric blew me away. I was familiar with who Owsley was, and I knew immediately knew exactly who this was about.

Listened to The Royal Scam a lot in high school. Didn't really care for "Kid Charlemagne," haven't heard it in 35+ years, just listened to it off YouTube. Still don't care for it. But finding out it's about Owsley, who I wouldn't have known anything about at the time, is neat.

this probably is a thought that's been expressed in ilx before but it's kind of crazy that Breaking Bad never used it. (i'm glad they didn't)

This was the last song I cut from my ballot, if I was voting today it'd be in the top 15 no problem.

"Rikki" was the song that turned me around on the Dan--for years I didn't really pay much attention them (though I'd heard "Do It Again" "Reelin'" "Hey 19" and "Peg"). To me they were just some AOR band like Santana or something. But then I heard "Rikki" on the radio and decided I had to now more about this group.

― I got the glares, the mutterings, the snarls (President Keyes), Sunday, April 6, 2014 5:50 PM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

For me, "Rikki" was the only Dan song I liked; I considered it an accidental masterstroke by an otherwise awful band. Friends of mine who loved Dan hated "Rikki," confirming my theory. Once I got heavily into Dan (and subsequently changed my opinion of them), "Rikki" was still my favorite.

Kid Charlemagne - yet another outstanding cut that did not make my ballot.

I cut Rikki at the last moment.

i think i finally appreciate how totally deranged "Show Biz Kids" is

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-hvb6BrSMnRY/U0HT5EFoVaI/AAAAAAAAA28/a75i2tZbyIA/w509-h511-no/Kid+7.jpg

May 1976: "Kid Charlemagne" (B-side: "Green Earrings")
Label: ABC 12195
Chart: US Pop 82

Writers Walter Becker and Donald Fagen have stated that the lyrics were loosely inspired by the exploits of the infamous 1960s San Francisco-based LSD chemist Owsley Stanley — although it conflates the core story with numerous other images of the Sixties:

On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene
But yours was kitchen clean
Everyone stopped to stare at your Technicolor motor home

Every A-frame had your number on the wall

The first two lines draw on the fact that Owsley's acid was famed for its purity, and the third line is likely a reference to the famous psychedelic bus named Further, which was used by the Merry Pranksters, who were supplied their LSD by Owsley himself.

The lyric "You'd go to LA on a dare and you'd go it alone" alludes to a story in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test about a trip taken by chief Prankster Ken Kesey.

The final verse foreshadows Owsley's eventual bust:

Clean this mess up else we'll all end up in jail
Those test tubes and the scale
Just get it all out of here
Is there gas in the car?
Yes, there's gas in the car

I think the people down the hall know who you are

Owsley and another person were arrested after their car ran out of gas.

In 2007, Kanye West released the song "Champion" on his double-platinum album Graduation that samples "Kid Charlemagne" extensively.

Kid Charlemagne was my number 1. My favorite Dan tune since 1978.

The lyric "You'd go to LA on a dare and you'd go it alone" alludes to a story in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test about a trip taken by chief Prankster Ken Kesey.

Fagen, sitting in with Levon Helm's band, covering the Dead:
http://youtu.be/WRscoPmXA0U

It's all a rich tapestry.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-8Ieg9D9MFu0/U0Hbbwk0UGI/AAAAAAAAA3s/EjgC4B_dK74/w640-h320-no/Doctor+Wu.jpg

4. Doctor Wu
From: Katy Lied
Released: March 1975
1,252 Points, 44 Votes, 7 Number Ones

that's the one I was forgetting about

too low

Wu my #1. Are you with me.

never been a huge fan of the song. although i had Double Nickels On The Dime before i had Katy Lied, and never much liked the cover much, cool as it was that the Minutemen covered the Dan.

i neglected to vote for "dr. wu" and i am completely perplexed as to why. i had apparently spent the last piaster i could borrow on some other katy lied track.

How much of a Minutemen bounce does this song get? Would it be Top 5 without their cover?