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

you gotta bring it on home

Doctor Wu
Any Major Dude
The Caves of Altamira
Mr. Sam
Here at the Western World
Peg
You Got The Bear
The Boston Rag
Rikki Don't Lose That Number
Bad Sneakers
Black Cow
Reelin' In The Years
Pretzel Logic
My Old School
Charlie Freak
Deacon Blues
Time Out of Mind
Green Earrings
Third World Man
Josie

Thanks Bee OK and PPlains

ok pplains fess up: where did you source all the graphics from

My Old School
Kid Charlemagne
Black Cow
Night by Night
Deacon Blues
Home at Last
Pretzel Logic
Doctor Wu
Razor Boy
Bodhisattva
Dirty Work
Any World That I'm Welcome To
Kings
Bad Sneakers
Show Biz Kids
Pearl of the Quarter
Midnight Cruiser
Peg
Do It Again
Rikki Don't Lose That Number

Great poll, still kicking myself for leaving off Josie. It was murder to make this list, but "My Old School" never left the top spot, and it wasn't even close.

Stopped at my very favorites.

1. "Pretzel Logic" (40)
2. "Rikki Don’t Lose That Number" (36)
3. "King of the World" (33)
4. "Reelin’ in the Years" (30)
5. "Dr. Wu" (28)
6. "Midnight Cruiser" (26)
7. "Sign in Stranger" (25)
8. "Dirty Work" (24)
9. "Any World That I’m Welcome To" (23)
10. "Barrytown" (22)

Does Becker write any of the SD lyrics at all? Co-write? I've only ever seen reference to his "sensibility" in the lyrics

1. Kid Charlemagne
2. The Caves of Altamira
3. Babylon Sisters
4. Throw Back the Little Ones
5. FM
6. Josie
7. Pearl of the Quarter
8. Your Gold Teeth II
9. Deacon Blues
10. Green Earrings
11. King of the World
12. Third World Man
13. Any Major Dude Will Tell You
14. Bodhisattva
15. Black Friday
16. Rikki Don't Lose That Number
17. Your Gold Teeth
18. The Royal Scam
19. Through With Buzz
20. Charlie Freak

Dude that played bass on peg deserves a Nobel prize. The fact it's named after someone called Entwistle is hilarious

1. Bodhisattva
2. Midnite Cruiser
3. Reelin' in the Years
4. Kid Charlemange
5. Do It Again
6. Doctor Wu
7. Black Friday
8. My Old School
9. Deacon Blues
10. Any Major Dude Will Tell You
11. Haitian Divorce
12. Babylon Sisters
13. Jack Of Speed
14. Jose
15. Peg
16. Hey 19
17. Everyone's Gone To The Movies
18. FM
19. Fire In The Hole
20. Here In The Western World

been really into jack of speed and this moody bastard

dude who played bass on "peg" is chuck rainey, session man extraordinaire.

Awesome poll, missed the live rollout of the top 5 to watch Wrestlemania with future brother-in-law (sure Fagen and Becker would appreciate that somehow)...anyway, wanted to thank Bee OK for an awesome poll, and pplains, seriously A+ job on the graphics.

Pretty sure my top 3 would be the same if I had voted today but the rest is totally in flux and there are a ton of songs that I kinda felt dumb for excluding, but seriously, best fucking band ever.

My Old School
Razor Boy
Deacon Blues
Show Biz Kids
Third World Man
Any World (That I'm Welcome To)
FM (No Static at All)
Kid Charlemagne
Aja
Bad Sneakers
Gaucho
Home at Last
Peg
Your Gold Teeth II
Doctor Wu
Dirty Work
Glamour Profession
Your Gold Teeth
Everything You Did
Rikki Don't Lose That Number

nice, razor boy @ #2!

I made a feeble attempt to boost "Razor Boy" on the noms thread; was thrilled to see it place as high as it did tbh. Such a beautiful song.

So is someone going to send a link to this thread to Messrs. Fagan and Becker?

Poll 1

1. Deacon Blues
2. Caves Of Altamira
3. Babylon Sisters
4. Night By Night
5. Peg
6. Josie
7. Black Cow
8. Aja
9. Kid Charlemagne
10. Haitian Divorce
11. Pretzel Logic
12. Hey Nineteen
13. Any Major Dude Will Tell You
14. Throw Back The Little Ones
15. FM
16. Bad Sneakers
17. Rikki Don't Lose That Number
18. My Old School
19. Reelin In The Years
20. Do It Again

Poll 2

1. IGY
2. The Nightfly
3. Tomorrow' s Girls
4. Magic Smile (Rosie Zaza)
5. H Gang
6. New Frontier
7. Maxine
8. The Goodbye Look
9. Lazy Nina (Greg Philliganes)
10. Snowbound

Poll 3

1. The Nightfly 
2. The Royal Scam
3. Katy Lied
4. Pretzel Logic
5. Aja
6. Gaucho
7. Countdown To Ecstacy
8. Can't Buy A Thrill

That whole Rosie Vela album is really great!

1. Barrytown
Only a Fool Would Say That
Night by Night
The Caves of Altamira
Deacon Blues
Rikki Don't Lose That Number
Your Gold Teeth II
King of the World
The Boston Rag
Kings
Your Gold Teeth
Third World Man
Bad Sneakers
Rose Darling
Black Cow
My Old School
Here at the Western World
Home at Last
Green Earrings
20. Midnight Cruiser

My ballot would definitely be different if I redid it today but I always knew that would be the case. I should've had 'King of the World' in my top 5, my favourite SD song changes all the time but that's always been a contender.

Big thanks to Bee OK and PPlains, have really enjoyed following this. I think I started reading ILX not too long after I first got into Steely Dan and I've always appreciated how widely-loved they seem to be on here.

Went deep cut heavy

1. Show Biz Kids
2. Monkey In Your Soul
3. King of The World
4. Bodisattva
5. Daddy Don't Live That New York City No More
6. Time Out of Mind
7. The Boston Rag
8. Sign In Stranger
9. Rose Darling
10. Your Gold Teeth
11. FM (No Static At All)
12. Charlie Freak
13. Josie
14. Green Earrings
15. Your Gold Teeth II
16. Turn That Heartbeat Over Again
17. Pearl of The Quarter
18. Everything You Did
19. Home At Last
20. Midnight Cruiser

Albums:

1. Countdown To Ecstacy
2. Katy Lied
3. The Royal Scam
4. Pretzel Logic
5. Aja
6. Can't Buy A Thrill
7. Gaucho

Ups to Bee Ok and PPlains for putting this together and succeeding with this most precious of polls.

yeah, great job guys. very enjoyable rollout

Great work, fellas. Very exciting poll. My ballot:

Green Earrings
Peg
Gaucho
Caves of Altamira
Your Gold Teeth II
Aja
Any Major Dude
Dr. Wu
Glamour Profession
Kid Charlemagne
Razor Boy
Do It Again
Barrytown
Bad Sneakers
Showbiz Kids
Night By Night
Home at Last
Babylon Sisters
The Fez
Everyone's Gone to the Movies

1. Pretzel Logic
2. Charlie Freak
3. Aja
4. Do It Again
5. The Royal Scam
6. Throw Back The Little Ones
7. Only A Fool Would Say That
8. Kid Charlemagne
9. Night By Night
10. Home At Last

11. The Caves Of Altamira
12. East St Louis Toodle-oo
13. Josie
14. Third World Man
15. Deacon Blues
16. Babylon Sisters
17. Black Cow
18. King Of The World
19. Kings
20. My Old School

Aja was the only album I knew well before this poll - I've probably marked its cuts too high, because on listening it turned out to be their poppier and blusier cuts I dug the most. The band's basic perversity sits nicely among very complicated bubblegum.

Enjoyed following this enormously. Thanks to Bee OK. And amazing work, pplains.

Does Becker write any of the SD lyrics at all? Co-write? I've only ever seen reference to his "sensibility" in the lyrics

― Iago Galdston, Sunday, April 6, 2014 10:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's always been my impression that they collaborate on lyrics. and of the handful of songs that have been anecdotally linked to their own lives, about half of them seem to be about Becker's life, not Fagen's. plus his solo albums maintain the SD sensibility about as much as Fagen's.

Yeah, I spotted the differences when I bought The Nightfly.

Tracks:

My Old School
Time Out Of Mind
Bad Sneakers
Black Cow
Any World (That I’m Welcome To)
Daddy Don’t Live in That New York City No More
Dr. Wu
Haitian Divorce
Show Biz Kids
The Boston Rag
Glamour Profession
Caves of Altamira
Pretzel Logic
FM
Babylon Sisters
Pearl of the Quarter
Peg
Hey Nineteen
Kid Charlemagne
Here at the Western World

Solo Tracks:
Donald Fagen - Morph the Cat
Donald Fagen - I.G.Y.
Donald Fagen - Brite Nitegown
Donald Fagen - H Gang
Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
Donald Fagen - Mary Shut the Garden Door
Donald Fagen - Security Joan
Donald Fagen - New Frontier
Donald Fagen - Slinky Thing
Donald Fagen - The New Breed

i would just like to say "My Old School" is a masterpiece and it tickled me to see so many people flabbergasted that it made it to #2

ok pplains fess up: where did you source all the graphics from

― °ㅇ๐ْ ° (gr8080), Sunday, April 6, 2014 10:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ this, plz

excellent poll, thanks everyone

The thing about My Old School is that, even if you don't like searing raucous soul songs about love and loss and minor vice, you have to at least acknowledge that Jeff Baxter's fills and solos in this thing are absolutely indomitable.

otm

Does Becker write any of the SD lyrics at all? Co-write? I've only ever seen reference to his "sensibility" in the lyrics

I remember reading an interview where Fagan said that most of the time one of them would write a draft of a song and then give it to the other, who would change it up and then give it back.

Gaucho (G)
Third World Man (G)
My Old School (CTE)
Doctor Wu (KL)
Hey Nineteen (G)
Pearl of the Quarter (CTE)
Rose Darling - (KL)
Deacon Blues (A)
Bad Sneakers (KL)
Midnite Cruiser (CBAT)
Only A Fool Would Say That (CBAT)
Time Out of Mind (G)
Glamour Profession (G)
Peg (A)
Babylon Sisters (G)
Reelin in the Years (CBAT)
Kid Charlemagne (TRS)
Turn That Heartbeat Over Again (CBAT)
Your Gold Teeth (CTE)
Show Biz Kids (CTE)

Looking back I want to move Show Biz Kids up a bunch more

I kinda smiled secretly inside when I found out a few other posters had Third World Man at #2 too

BTW there is a line of beauty products called Dr. Wu

http://i.imgur.com/jW9QBXc.jpg

Again, I seem to remember Don saying that 'Barrytown' was all him, and that it "hadn't worked out so well", or something similar

Bad Sneakers
My Old School
Rikki Don’t Lose That Number
Doctor Wu
Only a Fool Would Say That
Here at the Western World
Barrytown
Do it Again
Boston Rag
Pearl of the Quarter
Gaucho
Deacon Blues
Everyone’s Gone to the Movies
Kid Charlemagne
Peg
Dirty Work
Any Major Dude Will Tell You
Hey Nineteen
Brooklyn (owes the charmer under me)
Your Gold Teeth

Boy, this was great fun. Am honored to be a part of the Everything Must Go fan club, with votes for "The Things I Missed the Most" and the title track.

Former NFL linebacker Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson, an inspiration for "Glamour Profession" (my #2):

Henderson's destructive lifestyle of drugs and alcohol began to catch up with him. During many games, he snorted liquid cocaine from an inhaler he hid in his pants.

And this confirms there aren't many "Chain Lightning" supporters:

Donald I'm very fond of Rick Derringer's solo on Chain Lightning
Walter I never liked that one that much.
Donald I'm sure Rick will be glad to read that.

my ballot:

1. Any World That I'm Welcome To
Rikki Don't Lose That Number
Dr. Wu
Any Major Dude Will Tell You
Black Friday
The Royal Scam
Charlie Freak
Night By Night
Through With Buzz
Peg
Pretzel Logic
Rose Darling
Reelin' In The Years
Monkey In Your Soul
Kid Charlemagne
Deacon Blues
Josie
Black Cow
Throw Back The Little Ones
20. Bad Sneakers

Thought I remembered reading somewhere that the reissue liner notes were all Becker. Easily the funniest liner notes ever to appear with any recording, ever.

My ballot:

Aja
Gaucho
Babylon Sisters
Deacon Blues
Doctor Wu
Glamour Profession
FM
Hey Nineteen
Black Cow
Kid Charlemagne
Peg
My Old School
Haitian Divorce
The Royal Scam
Josie
Everyone's Gone to the Movies
Green Earrings
Bad Sneakers
Daddy Don't Live in That New York City No More
Your Gold Teeth II

This poll exposed me to many Steely Dan songs I wasn't familiar with. I can not for the life of me get "Through With Buzz" out of my head. And lyrics aside, "The Royal Scam" could've almost been a Neil Young song circa. After the Gold Rush.

This was Bee OK's poll. I was more of a Michael McDonald (or Rick Derringer) to this than a Walter Becker. I enjoyed being a part of the backend and I thank Bee for letting me have a hand in it.

I said to Bee that Steely Dan on the surface comes across as this very polished, at times sterile, version of Rock N' Roll, but it's only when you start paying attention to them on the headphones or alone in the radio station's lounge room that you hear something else you don't hear on the speakers at the grocery store. Almost like the Sears catalog, an innocent tome for the whole family, delivered to your doorstep before every Christmas and filled with some of the nastiest, sleaziest images available.

I mean, I kinda got grouchy about the trend of adding +porn to any hobby that people really get into, like abandoned parks or maps. But here's a true example of being able to use "catalogue-porn" without changing the meaning. These faded 35 mm images of attractive people lounging about in their underwear under bad lighting seemed a perfect conduit to cataloguing popular Steely Dan songs on the Internet.

And when I hit the motherlode of these images here, that's when I hurried up and volunteered for the job. It was only until later that I realized Wait, these are all winter catalogues. What am I going to do when Babylon Sisters comes up? So that's when I also started exploring old cigarette and liquor ads.

I tried to keep the images to the same era as the songs. The Gaucho ones were fun because boy, by the time 1980 had rolled rolled around, everything was starting to turn into a shitshow. And I learned the hard way when we extended the poll to 60 including the Two Against Nature songs, that print catalogs from Y2K are damn near hard to find online.

Here are a few that got left on the cutting room floor.

http://i.imgur.com/2AYbSCr.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ExULsyf.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/bhFZeE6.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/92SA0w3.jpg

And as God as my witness, I tried my damndest to find a 70s houndstooth hat from a catalogue, to no avail.

Thank you all for the kind words!

Brilliant work, pplains.

Holy crap, I think that might be Fagen right there on the left in that last image!

Amazing

Great work Bee OK and pplains!

huge wishbook fan over here

pp/BeeOk: did either of your do an imgur gallery w/ all the images on one page?

if not, i can.

Hell, I'll hand you the keys to my dropbox folder, if you want.

(How do I hand someone keys to my dropbox folder, anyone?)

right click, share

Many thanks to Mr. OK for running this. It will live forever in the Caves of Altamira of my heart.

My ballot:

The Boston Rag
Any Major Dude Will Tell You
Rikki Don’t Lose That Number
Doctor Wu
Rose Darling
Razor Boy
Barrytown
Do It Again
Deacon Blues
Reeling In The Years
Dirty Work
Show Biz Kids
Peg
Kid Charlemagne
Pretzel Logic
Here At The Western World
King Of The World
Your Gold Teeth II
The Royal Scam
Hey Nineteen

And the visuals were the best in ILM poll history. Holy mackerel.