Steely Dan - The Royal Scam poll

and the lilt of "Third World Man." I always imagine this crab sinking slowly to the bottom of the sea, as thin layer upon layer of sand buries him.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

SEE THE GLORY

justice is served, although I'm surprised by zero votes for "Green Earrings" - that's a solid tune with some really nice breezy combo work and one of the most hermetic lyrics in the SD canon

yeah, "my rival" is the only track I can't get into on gaucho. still, I probably rate countdown and gaucho as my faves these days.

I used to not be feelin' gaucho/nightfly much, but now I love em both. probably more to do with my personal trajectory re: the dan than anything. mostly worked my way through the back catalog chronologically since just about each album is slicker than the last and it was a little bit of a problem for me at first.

The Nightfly is wonderful for entirely different reasons.

gaucho was a dead last for me (of the first 8) for years, but its stock has risen considerably as i've gotten older. top tier w/ Aja, Katy & Countdown now.

Scam's the one that kinda leaves me cold these days, even though it's still v v awesome.

Didn't Gaucho win the overall SD album poll?

no and no:
POLL: Best Steely Dan album
Best Steely Dan/Donald Fagen/Walter Becker Album

first 7, that is

this album is so deep. i love it.

it's like they made a whole album of deep cuts

totally... how deep is the rhodes all over this album

seems like it gets an unfair rap as their "least great" album or whatever

It's always been my favorite.

Christ but what an astonishing album.

did we all know that the cover art for the royal scam was originally created for a van morrison album? seems important, somehow.

the van morrison album (which was never released) was supposed to be called Mechanical Bliss. seems important, too, somehow.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/777bb5ecd0620c09e156ec3ec8bcac8b/tumblr_mmsrebP52I1qzy30io1_500.png

Somehow I did not know that. Neat.

here's a big thing about it (and a speculative version of that unreleased van LP)
http://www.themidnightcafe.org/?p=4119

also funny, via wiki: In the liner notes for the 1999 remaster of the album, Fagen and Becker claim it to be "the most hideous album cover of the seventies, bar none (excepting perhaps Can't Buy A Thrill)."

The Chrysler Building:

http://www.cepolina.com/photo/America/New-York/skyscrapers-New-York/5/New-York-Chrysler-building-skyscraper.jpg

http://fineprintnyc.com/images/blog/old-new-york/part-8/1930-Margaret-Bourke-White-Photographs-Chrysler-Building-Views.jpeg

On some days, this is their best.

well I CROSSED my OLD MAN back in OREGAHN, don't take me alive

that's cool that caves got so many votes, what a jam

Green Earrings into Haitian Divorce is just ridiculous

those RINGS OF RARE DESIGN
I remember
the LOOK in your EYE

Lol for the longest time I thought it was the “the rings of Randy’s eyes”

I don't mind

it's like they made a whole album of deep cuts

― any major some dude will tell you (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, November 19, 2008 11:12 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Heh, most OTM post on this thread.

So true

Thanks for the revive - reminded me to pull this out and give it a spin.

Most off-the-money thing about this thread was the zero votes for "Green Earrings".

yeah jesus

GE is great but you’re talking such

I mean there’s no fucking with KC right?

eh, overexposed

I voted "Sign in Stranger" in the original poll, but would gladly vote "Green Earrings" in a rematch. There are at least 6 songs on here I could see myself voting for at any given time.

Agree

I've said it before somewhere, but I love how the title track sounds like a Norman Whitfield production.

caves of altamira has such a huge, lush-sounding hook, odd it’s only been sampled once afaict, by some italian rappers

Last time they played Don't Take me Alive in Portland everyone cheered after each instance of OREGAHN, great fun, great show maybe the best I've ever seen

Also yeah Green Earrings thoroughly robbed, nice to see reps for Haitian Divorce tho

Lol for the longest time I thought it was the “the rings of Randy’s eyes”

― flappy bird, Friday, December 1, 2017 9:42 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I used to think it was "rings of round design" and was confused because surely all rings are of round design?

"sign in stranger" has quietly become my favorite dan song of all time

Yeah except for the outro

Sign in Stranger has always reminded me of Spoon circa Gax5.

Paul Griffin is a hero

finding a new song to obsess over from this record every month or so lol

right now, it's "everything you did."

You were a rollah skatah