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

the one on the band was a good one, filmed during danko’s lifetime

The Aja episode is good because the jams with the musicians is really tight. They got scenes with them playing together, most of those documentaries you might get an isolation section on a musician going over a certain part on the recording.

Coincidentally I gave 'Can't Buy a Thrill' and 'Pretzel Logic' a listen earlier today.

I got wondering if the later Dan ever re-visited 'Dirty Work' and/or 'Midnight Cruiser'. Probably not, but I like those two tracks.

classic albums are the best, love that show

Yes...'from the Jurassic period of Steely Dan.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTIRk0rn1Jo

Harmonized part of the solo was really cool.

Misses the big electric ascending lick that is on the recording. That's one of the best hooks in the original.

those guys are such good hosts in their own weird way it really would have been cool to see them go through their entire discography like this

(classic albums)

Agreed.

Mike Judge's show fits a niche on 'how crazy were they? pretty damn crazy.' Those are great for interviews with sidemen too.

Got really into Aja after I bought it in San Francisco, thinking I might never be in America again. The Classic Albums documentary got me into them. No desire to hear anything else, so I'll go to that thread now.

just watched the Aja doc, 90s Fagen looks like the bad guy from the "Love Is A Battlefield" video

We are young
Heartache to heartache we stand
Got a case of dynamite
I could hold out here all night
Both of us knowing
Don't take me alive

Come on with it,
You don't fight fair
That's okay, see if I care
Knock me twice, rap with your cane
It feels so nice, and you're out of the rain

I've been (re)trying to connect with "Gaucho" (the song) after it topped unperson's list last week, but it still sounds like the 1984 Saturday Night Live in-house band playing over the end credits, when the host and cast come out to bid everyone goodnight. That corny sax riff is the point in the dan discography when the old indie hipster me reasserts himself and says "Enough!"

Here's my list of the Four or Five Actually Bad Steely Dan Songs 1972-1980:

1. Gaucho - see above
2. Everything You Did - stultifying mid-tempo blandness
3. Monkey In Your Soul - chord changes thrown in at random, irritating baritone sax hook
4. My Rival - dumb "humour", hammy vocal, irritating organ solo
5. Through With Buzz - borderline, may be too weird and short to be bad

i could get talked into a couple of those being bad, but then i'd have to live with these bad songs popping up in my head all the time. i'm closest to you on "everything you did," furthest on the magnificent "gaucho." kinda wanna see what my version of this list would be.

I think if I were to make such a list almost all the songs would be from Pretzel Logic.

"My Rival" is the only song in their classic period I don't like. "Monkey in Your Soul" is great!

"Gaucho" is their best song.

I'm with you on "Everything You Did" and, like unperson, am less a fond of PL these days, possibly because it was my entry point twenty years ago and in retrospect doesn't seem representative.

I think PL is probably my least favorite of the classic era

I could do without the whole second side, excepting the title track.

it’s the only one besides RS I’ve never been obsessed with for weeks on end. I love them both (Scam slightly more), but i can’t say either have ever rotated through my ever-changing favorite 3 or so

i love morph the cat! not that i could tell you why or anything about the songs, really. just enjoy the floating, drifting nature of it, plus it just sounds pretty as hell.

anyway looking forward to this, love the title, feels like an abstract of the greater fagen/becker lyrical project

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Friday, August 24, 2012 2:16 PM (eight years ago) bookmarkflaglink

morph the cat is the only fagen record i wouldn't recommend, the songs kinda go nowhere. sunken condos is funky and great

― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Monday, August 15, 2016 12:06 PM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

What happened, Brad?

Nothing on The Royal Scam has ever really clicked for me. It's too, I dunno, antsy or something?

idk i’m a big enough dan fan that i got really into morph the cat at the start of the decade but i gradually realized the songs aren’t really there

It's my least favorite SD-associated album.

I struggled with 'Gaucho' (the song) at first but I love it now, it's so grandiose and ridiculous (in a good way).'My Rival' on the other hand is a song I enjoy but definitely one where I can sort of see that the band's detractors have a point, the organ solo is pretty bad.

The outright bad songs though, yeah I'd agree with 'Everything You Did' and some of the ones on Pretzel Logic - 'East St. Louis' and 'With a Gun' as well as 'Monkey...'.

Preztel Logic is the one I'm just sorta getting around to in 2020, several years after my original Dan rush. No beef with it, I just kept not finding copies of it at the record store! It's got some pretty awesome songs so I figure if I give it enough spins my brain will get aligned with it.

Royal Scam def has some of my least beloved Steely Dan songs when I'm just scanning the titles and thinking about them (Sign in Stranger, Everything You Did, the title track) but then when I put it on I'm like "ehhh this record's still kind of a jam." It helps that the first three tracks are just monsters, and that "Haitian Divorce" is such a huge earworm for me.

I struggled with 'Gaucho' (the song) at first but I love it now, it's so grandiose and ridiculous (in a good way).

Yeah, same. Especially love how the ridiculousness is buoyed by all-too-real lines that could have been lifted from any petty domestic squabble.

No he can't sleep on the floor
What do you think I'm yelling for?
I'll drop him near the freeway
Doesn't he have a home?

And

Don't tell me he'll wait in the car!

Get rid of him!

Bad Sneakers is a major vibe

My favourite Fagen solo song (post-Nightfly) is The Night Belongs to Mona from Morph the Cat. Its portrait of depression makes me wonder if it was inspired by his stepson whose story is mentioned in Eminent Hipsters, and who would die in 2009. The characters in too many of his other songs of the period are cartoons of Randy Older Guy and Hot Young Chick.

Someone upthread mentioned American Lovers on Thomas Jefferson Kaye's First Grade from 1974. Jones is also another great Becker/Fagen song on that album, a portrait of 70s affluent anomie that's basically The Ice Storm in a song. Or Billy Joel's Captain Jack sans masturbation and nose-picking.

pretzel logic was mostly leftovers from the first two album from what I read and yeah it shows. still pretty good but yeah my least favorite of the originals. Never spent any time with the reunion lps.

4. My Rival - dumb "humour", hammy vocal, irritating organ solo

the organ tone is incredible on this song smh

Am I really going to have to comb through their discography to find my least favorite tracks now? I know it would at least include "I Got The News".

I'm sure I've mentioned this here before, but part of my enjoyment of "My Rival" is imagining that said rival is Billy Joel.

my rival is good as hell

"i got the news" was a song i didn't get until i tried to jam on it with some friends, and it was very much fun trying to keep up with that jerky rhythm and close keyboard clusters. so now i'm a fan.

@ Moodles - you definitely have! Back in the ballot poll thread. "Surely Anthony's Bar and Grill is owned by the guy from Movin' Out." it's all I think about whenever I hear that song!

5. Through With Buzz - borderline, may be too weird and short to be bad

this is one of the best pretzel logic tracks, the second part of your description is correct

i still keep hearing it as "Through With Bugs," and specifically, chapter-book supervillain Bugs Meany.

"I Got the News" = ideal car jam, especially when driving + shaking your shoulders and hips.

Lol, Doc C., I truly have like 5 insights into music that I will keep coming back to until I'm dead.

you just summed up my ILM posting history, to be clear

also just remembered that i think on first hearing I had it as "Through With Bubs," as in the Homestarrunner character.

my rival is good as hell

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, December 3, 2020 11:09 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

sure, he's jahh-ly rah-ger, until he answers for his crime!

Does anyone know why Glamour Profession has a reputation for being hated? I would love it just for the guitar solo and riff on the fade-out.

i'd guess it's an easy target for those who don't like gaucho because of its length and ultra-smooth sheen.

Brut and charisma

I love "Glamour Profession".

I think I'd have to add "Show Biz Kids" to my most hated list. That "lost wages" gag grows old real quick.