Steely Dan: "Steely Dan's name has been popping up as a hip musical crush. Remember, this glossy bop-pop was the indifferent aristocracy to punk rock's stone-throwing in the late 70's. People fought

thewufs-some interesting demographics here https://www.quantcast.com/pitchfork.com#!demo

also, what the hell is fardley?

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/uptown-guy-how-uptown-funk-almost-destroyed-mark-ronson-before-it-saved-him/

If Ronson is the guitar-wielding, band-leading Walter Becker figure, Chabon plays Donald Fagen as a silent partner whose words cut through the technically virtuosic, coke-encrusted soundscapes.

gross! should we start another "the Lennon/McCartney band model" thread for Don and Walt though?

Becker = Mark Ronson
Fagen = Michael Chabon

iirc Levon and Helm dated (maybe married?) the same woman, or Fagen married Levin's ex, or something, so I guess there's a connection there. Whatever happened, good to know they remained on good terms enough to invite Brad Dourif over for some scenes.

WSJ's Jim Fusilli on the Steely aspects of Uptown Funk:

Novelist Michael Chabon contributed lyrics that aren’t standard funk fare to nine of the album’s 11 songs, helping to craft stories with a wry, downtrodden worldview. “In the back room of the El Mago Casino under a portrait of Doris Day / You and I and a pair of C notes, soft candy betting hard eight” sets the tone in “Crack in the Pearl.” The tale told in “Leaving Los Feliz” opens with “I’m on the guest list down at Paul’s Baby Grand / That hipster doorman he don’t know who I am.” Mr. Chabon rhymes “cannonball” and “Adderall” in “In Case of Fire,” which has a Steely Dan vibe—not necessarily a good thing. At times, there’s a forced, shoehorn fit between music and words, but Mr. Chabon’s lyrics for “Daffodils,” a mix of psych rock and funk, roll off Mr. Parker’s tongue: “Start that kicking dragon beating / Step out on the patio / Follow where your Daddy-o’s leading.” What does "betting hard eight" mean?

it's a roll in craps that pays off huge

it's when you roll two fours (getting eight the hard way and not the easy way)

i mean we've been over this a million times already. great band, no defense required imo

fucking seriously!

ugh the chabon lyrics are not sitting well w me

This is really making Uptown Funk sound dreadful

sw00ds talks to Vic Perry:

http://rockcritics.com/2015/02/15/steely-dan-podcast-part-one/

Gaucho too obviously.

*too low

too obviously as well

listening to the podcast, lots of great conversation there although they are much more into the first several albums where I prefer the last few. Would love to chat with these dudes about Royal Scam, Aja, and Gaucho because there's so much there deserving of attention.

I listened to the seventh part first because, yeah, Gaucho is my second favorite. It's not theirs.

my dad, 70, just got a car with sirius, and he has discovered that he really likes steely dan. their music is smooth and tightly played, but if you listen closely, you realize it's really dark and acerbic.

dad otm

i'm on the look out for bands with dark and acerbic music matched with smooth and breezy lyrics

man there should be an all steely dan sirius channel

is there sirius in the caaaaar?

XXXXXXXXMMMMM...No Static At All!

Steely Dan are the foremost musical act in history whereby attempts at criticism always, and I mean always, make them sound even better.

70s/coke/smooth/jazz/guitar solos/sneer/Fagen/sarcastic/snobs/production

I don't think there's ever been a case where a critic has used the above words in a sentence to slag them off and actually made them sound crap.

treacle otm, they're obviously not beyond criticism but their critics always inadvertantly make them teflon

the Dan/Elvis Costello tour this summer is like a dream lineup for me, will hopefully catch a show

on the contrary: when my buddy heard the lineup I thought of Costello as the guy in "Third World Man," bunker full of sand, shriveling and dying, taking the audience with him.

just let out a sigh of relief when i saw the two dates closest to me would not feature EC

eh you guys are no fun. EC is just a support act and if you like his best early stuff at all he'll probably be playing a set chock full of it with 2/3rds of the Attractions.

Seen him twice, the second time supporting The Delivery Man. I'm done.

The attractions suck w out bruce tbrr. It took me a long time to realize that the best thing about early EC is Bruce's basslines.

Was talking about Bruce with a friend the other day. His basslines are just so creative and busy, we were trying to pinpoint some other contemporary doing the same thing. Like, I hear the Motown/Stax stuff he emulates, even early on, but he is so inventive and musical and fluid, almost like Jaco at times. Can't think of anyone like him. He really carries a lot of those melodies, or at least offers amazing counter melodies.
Seen EC a bunch since 1994-ish comeback - solo, with Nieve, with the Attractions, with the Imposters. I think I'm done, too. But he also plays really well as a support act of sorts, like when I saw him tour with Emmylou Harris, giving him a chance to bust out some classic country covers (of which he was a pioneer, as far as rock and roll/punk dudes go), plus duet with Emmy on some stuff. I imagine playing with SD would direct him more toward his most ornate material. Lotsa chords and whatnot.

Not sure SD could support a Sirius station, mostly because of the relatively limited catalog (even including solo stuff) and lack of much heyday live material. SD live these days, as always, goes pretty far to recreate the records, though the soloists do get some time to shine. What I would like is if they gave Becker and Fagen a show, like Dylan had and Petty has. Those shows were/are great, and let the personalities have a lot of fun, both as speaking DJs and as pickers of surprising songs.

Bruce Thomas is brilliant and integral to the albums but the band is fine live, if i had to swap out one member it'd be him over Steve or Pete for sure

Man, I couldn't swap out any of those dudes. Everyone was integral. We're not talking Steely Dan here.

I mean, we are, but ...

i saw costello on the when i was cruel tour and he brought the house down

yeah i saw that tour too and it was killer. saw him again a few years later and he was kinda coasting. can't see how he couldn't do a solid hour and 15 minutes tho -- dude's catalogue is pretty deep, his voice is still in good shape, steve nieve is still very entertaining.

It was my first time too – a killer set.

he played a lotta loud, distorted guitar.

There's a Steely Dan vibe to some of this album, especially in the lyrics novelist Michael Chabon wrote for you. How much did you have that band in mind?
They're always the good standard that you shoot for if you're trying to make lyrics about interesting characters and weird antiheroes. I feel like Steely Dan's presence has never been more felt in music that's considered hip and vital---you've got the Daft Punk records, and I hear it in stuff like Ariel Pink.
Did you have a second choice for a famous novelist? Like, do you think Jonathan Franzen would have killed it?
(Laughs) Michael was the only person I thought of. In my mind, it was an experiment to see if it worked. With a Pulitzer-Prize-winning author, it's like, "When is it OK to ask him if he's down to rewrite something?" But he was definitely cool with it. I was thinking of records like "Automatic" by the Pointer Sisters, where i's a pop-R&B records that has lyrics in the verse like, "All I can manage to push from my lips is a stream of absurdities." I want to inject some turns of phrase every now and then.
-----from "Mark Ronson Q&A" by Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, February 12, 2015

Damn, typo right off: he said "*gold* standard," not "good standard."

is there gas in the prose? yes, there's gas in the prose

and keep my advent to yourself

Steely Dan are the foremost musical act in history whereby attempts at criticism always, and I mean always, make them sound even better. 70s/coke/smooth/jazz/guitar solos/sneer/Fagen/sarcastic/snobs/production

Pretty weak argument to say that describing them as "smooth jazz" makes them sound better to an unjaundiced eye. You're clearly already on the Steely Dan train so of course you'd feel comfortable twisting those (fairly accurate) barbs around to make them sound like attributes of great distinction. I dislike Steely Dan, and the above words certainly don't make me think they're better than I gave them credit for.

listening to the sw00ds broadcast on Sunday and rehearing these fine songs, I realized I've barely listened to their lyrics.

how is "smooth" a "barb"? actually it's kind of meaningless thing to say.

Smooth jazz is almost always a negative phrase in criticism. It's a shorthand for music that sounds like Kenny G.

enlightening, thank you

hasn't steely dan been cool again with the teenagers for like 3 years now

in addition, Becker and Fagen heard Steely Dan the other night and liked what they heard.

I liked 'em best on the first two albums, and also Pretzel Logic, but the foregrounding of jazz elements was maybe a cause for trepidation, because it's very spare, very careful especially after the expansiveness of Countdown To Ecstasy. Would like to hear PL's songs live, hopefully just a little more relaxed, a few more solos, more jazz. What the hell, there's some great stuff on there as is, esp. the version of Ellington's "East St. Louis Toodle-Loo."
After that, it's cherrypickin' time: "Aja," Fagen's "New Frontier"---how is Becker's solo album?
I should listen to Katy Lied and The Royal Scam.
Saw Fagen's New York Rock and Soul Review (if that's the name) do a show for PBS, really liked it: refined without being too slick or pristine; refined (and propulsive) as in self-discipline.
The smooth jazz is usually boring at best, although the smooth jazz self-pity of "Deacon Blues" was a pisser at the time. Didn't help that I was living in Tuscaloosa, and the Crimson Tide line meant that it got meant played even more than it would have otherwise. Also that was in the Age of Punk dammit.

I just listened to Katy Lied! Seems splendid for the most part, with classic Dan melodic devices, but also distinctive solos, rhythmic turns--nothing too smooth, but not fusion-bound either, and Fagen seems passionate, the character just going for it, no matter how paranoid or desperate he may be, gotta take a chance baby, while things are kinda beautiful sometimes, "wear down the weary hours," o yes. 10 songs in 35 minutes, and rich stuff.

"Any world that I'm welcome to is better than the one I'm from," firm and determined.

Kind of Blue is smooth