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

Dias was working with his own band out of his basement in Hicksville, New York, when he placed an ad in The Village Voice[1] in the summer of 1970 that read: "Looking for keyboardist and bassist. Must have jazz chops! Assholes need not apply".[2] Donald Fagen and Walter Becker responded to the advertisement.

They joined his band and immediately began playing their own material.

lol

Well, yeah.

per a YouTube interview I've just learned that it's Denny Die-ass, not Denny Dee-ass as I have been hearing in my head for some decades

Planning to tour in support of Aja, Steely Dan assembled a live band. Rehearsal ended and the tour was canceled when backing musicians began comparing pay.

Happy to report I just got pegged to ‘Peg’

Sure looks good on you.

They joined his band and immediately began playing their own material.

It wasn't like they usurped the band, though. Dias said he recognized that Becker and Fagen's songs were much better than their own material.

"Must have jazz chops! Assholes need not apply"

Can totally hear Fagen singing this to the tune of "Aja"

“Up on the hill, ain’t nobody got time for assholes”

Peg, you must have some jazz chops
And, you must not be an ass
It's your favorite foreign movie

xposting from hard to find internet thread to inform you all that I finally found a solo Denny Dias track and it is kind of amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ajTUKO5Tps

Holy shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8NIdnEX2hI

Wow!

How is this one of their better songs and lost for 50 years?

Cimcie is my hero

https://i.imgur.com/fa5b58E.jpg
Salad days

I think I’m in the position to say that “Wu” is my favorite SD track

He’s finally got to you

^

there's a bit in dr wu that ruins it for me - a part of the sax solo where it sounds exactly like a part of "a whole new world" from aladdin

shame i heard the aladdin song about 20 years earlier. it's not fair

there's a bit in dr wu that ruins it for me - a part of the sax solo where it sounds exactly like a part of "a whole new world" from aladdin

shame i heard the aladdin song about 20 years earlier. it's not fair

Relevant to my interests pic.twitter.com/XX8awrfGd4

— Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) August 24, 2023

I bet they won’t be cheap.

hoping everyone has seen the excellent Gaucho meme that has been going around today— first I saw it posted was from former ilxor corey

don’t think i saw that one (someone plz share!) but did chuckle at this one the other day

pic.twitter.com/uOBnLRj5Vu

— Good Willsmith (@GoodWillsmith) August 28, 2023

is james fallows a rockist y/n

2/ Continuing the No One Asked Me But™ retrospective:

Looking at the music of the (otherwise) blighted 1970s, can any musical group top the creativity and genius of Steely Dan? From 1972 (Can't Buy..) to 1980 (Aja then Gaucho) ... who can top that?

The end.

— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) August 28, 2023

Just picture him grooving to "Deacon Blues" in the Carter White House

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/James_Fallows_-_NARA_-_178392.tif/lossy-page1-1280px-James_Fallows_-_NARA_-_178392.tif.jpg

Just picture him grooving to "Deacon Blues" in the Carter White House

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/James_Fallows_-_NARA_-_178392.tif/lossy-page1-1280px-James_Fallows_-_NARA_-_178392.tif.jpg

ugh sorry!

That is a very bad necktie.

I love ties in general, I own many, and I still wear them (although no one else in my professional or personal orbit does so). But that one is... not good.

how a person can consider the 70s blighted but love steely dan is beyond me. they were hardly an anachronism

also their run of stone-cold classics ended with aja, unfortunately. gaucho has a couple good songs but aja was in a completely different league

Gaucho is wall-to-wall bangers.

Gaucho forever

Seventies were supposedly blighted because... bubblegum? Glam?

this is obviously a "disco, amirite?" dude

I think I'm Gaucho > Aja at this point.

"70s music sucked" was a widely held opinion when I was growing up, a reaction against prog, disco and dinosaur rock I guess.

Yep, Gaucho is their greatest

the charting music of the early seventies that wasn’t philly soul was also very bad, tony orlando osmond shit

Whatever Steely Dan album that is your favorite out of the first seven, I agree with you wholeheartedly.

that

interesting how "the seventies" means different things to different people. i think of steely dan, bowie, talking heads, neil young, the dead.... can't say i know much about what was charting though, was there an unusual amount of dross compared to other decades?

tbh i guess i think this way about the 80s - i can only name a couple of bands i like from the whole decade

(my fav changes all the time but usually oscillates between countdown to ecstasy, aja and pretzel logic)

That is a very bad necktie.

I love ties in general, I own many, and I still wear them (although no one else in my professional or personal orbit does so). But that one is... not good.

They got a name for those ties in the world.

https://i.imgur.com/jFEfUxd.jpg

Fallows was born in 1949 and so perhaps overly venerates the 1960s music of his teenage years and unfairly maligns what came after.

I honestly don't know which of their pre-Two Against Nature Albums is best, though I frequently choose The Royal Scam & Gaucho when pressed. Currently I've convinced myself Katy Lied is a whole lot better than I used to think. D. Fagen and W. Becker were just unbearably talented songwriters, above everything else, then you get to the music.

Alive in America has been on rotation quite a bit too. I'm sure there are better live performances out there, but it's such a great collection of many of my favorites... "Green Earrings" goes all the way.

Pplains, houndstooth is not automatically off limits.

But that tie does not spark joy.

Bold patterns can work, but not at that scale. I can imagine a foulard or floral pattern or even a tartan that could work, but. Seriously. No. That is some bad tie action.

That is some bad tie action.

You don't want to see his sneakers then.

scored near mint promo 12-inch singles of "here at the western world" and "josie". wide groove steely dan.

https://i.discogs.com/84dGjobudSG7vLgTaDdLG1EIJJ9WBroIOM0wOqNN-g0/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTIxNDU0/NzQtMTQ2NzAxMzk4/OC03MzI0LmpwZWc.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/pgjaddv3jbGHfoM2Wxe_fkZ7zLXwaO_yK4LBraZl-t8/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:597/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTIxNDU0/NzQtMTY2NTkzMTA1/Ny05OTUzLmpwZWc.jpeg

I have been right about Gaucho since 2006.