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

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.

Back in 2006 I was the dandy of Gamma Chi

My college did not really have a frat culture so I had no context for Gamma Chi.

That said, I used to be in a band with a dude who had been in a fraternity. We once did a cover of the Loggins/Messina "Danny's Song" ("even though we ain't got money" etc.) And he sang it as Delta Chi, which I guess was his collegiate affiliation.

in 2006 the first record i played at my new apartment was aja

In 2006 I had a Morph the Cat poster over my desk at work

holy christ scott, what a thing of beauty

Wow yeah I need that Here at the Western World 12". Some days it's my favorite Dan song

Party at Scott’s house

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/steely-dan-drop-off-eagles-tour-dates-due-to-illness-donald-fagen-reportedly-hospitalized/

The Eagles killing Fagan is a little too on-brand.

They stabbed him with their steely knives

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzTvGKBXsAEZltJ.jpg

"Et tu, Henley?"

"Well, yeah."

One of these Nightflys

On my lunch break in midtown Manhattan eating Nathan’s cheese fries outside and listening to Countdown to Ecstasy

all the poor people eatin with the cheese on the fries

Tell all your buddies that it ain't no drag

It was fo-dee-eight hours til Lonnie came arouuuuunnnnnnd

my retirement plan is to stay after closing time at the guernsey fair until I detect the el supremo

43rd anniversary of the release of Gaucho

"Hey Sixty-Two"

Here is every food and drink Steely Dan have ever mentioned in a song. pic.twitter.com/hbAgl1O9WO

— Joan Ocean . Com (@Joanocean) August 3, 2023

It depends if you think the "fine Columbian" is a reference to peanut butter

https://intelligence.coffee/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image2-1.jpg

I mean, they did name an album after pretzels.

Christgau's latest Substack newsletter is a review of a book about SD (with references to several others) and man, if you thought he was a shit writer in short capsule form...he really has disappeared entirely up his own ass.

poll

hard not to vote for szechuan DUMPLINGS!

I can't decide whether an SD cookbook or SD drinking game would be more enjoyable. SD themed edition of Great British Bake Off?

Breadisattva?

Reelin' in the Yeast?

Katy Fried?