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

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There just aren't enough Steely Dan threads on here.

this quote was re: Two Against Nature. I'm sure the source of this is obvious. So is it the truth, or is it a baffling misrepresentation of a great band/duo of maniacs?

Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 13 February 2004 01:55 (twenty years ago) link

Most ridiculous thing I've ever read on ILM, including the profession of love for The Rapture, Al Sharpton, and prostate tickling.

roger adultery (roger adultery), Friday, 13 February 2004 01:57 (twenty years ago) link

It's a quote from pfork, btw.

Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 13 February 2004 01:58 (twenty years ago) link

Figures.

Dan I., Friday, 13 February 2004 01:59 (twenty years ago) link

Sorry but Steely Dan >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> the vast majority of so-called punk rock music.

o. nate (onate), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:00 (twenty years ago) link

yep

roger adultery (roger adultery), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:01 (twenty years ago) link

Steely Dan may be incredibly boring and overrated, but I'd still have to say that that quote is completely ridiculous. "Fought and died"? You mean played guitar and OD'd on heroin like morons? OH OKEY!

David Allen (David Allen), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:02 (twenty years ago) link

It's all wrong, anyway. They were a bunch of scathing smart-asses whose "glossy bop-pop" got much sample-love later and deservedly so.

Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:03 (twenty years ago) link

I dunno..."Cylctron" vs. "Do It Again"...that's a toughie, yessiree bob.

Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:03 (twenty years ago) link

yeah...

Walter Becker >>>>> Johnny Thunders
AJA >>>>> Never Mind the Bollocks
"Hey Nineteen" >>>>>> "London Calling"

roger adultery (roger adultery), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:04 (twenty years ago) link

'Steely Dan may be incredibly boring and overrated, but I'd still have to say that that quote is completely ridiculous. "Fought and died"? You mean played guitar and OD'd on heroin like morons? OH OKEY!'

You're incredibly boring and overrated

pete s, Friday, 13 February 2004 02:05 (twenty years ago) link

Possibly not overrated

pete s, Friday, 13 February 2004 02:06 (twenty years ago) link

Well lead me to the non-boring Steely Dan, I may have heard the wrong stuff. Show me the light.

David Allen (David Allen), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:07 (twenty years ago) link

"Deacon Blues!"

Curt1s St3ph3ns, Friday, 13 February 2004 02:09 (twenty years ago) link

non-boring: all of it

strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:11 (twenty years ago) link

Can't Buy a Thrill
Gaucho

These bookends to their - original - career are funpacked, not as knowing as what comes in between. Though some may disagree violently.

pete s, Friday, 13 February 2004 02:12 (twenty years ago) link

Also download 'Josie'(from Aja). Tell me this isn't the coolest, streetest, dirtiest, sweetest thing ever.

pete s, Friday, 13 February 2004 02:14 (twenty years ago) link

aor at its most unimaginative...

Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:17 (twenty years ago) link

zzzzzzzzzz

strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:20 (twenty years ago) link

where the fuck is d4rn1elle when we need him?

jody (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:25 (twenty years ago) link

They could play.. Then, so what, so could the entire Californian studio mafia too. More importantly, Steely Dan wrote classy songs, and they are one of still very few examples of a band breaking up, reuniting several years later and still being able to make great albums.

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:26 (twenty years ago) link

punk wasn't necessarily about making consumer artifacts though. its like comparing the results of an evening out (vomit, scars, vague memories) with the results of staying in and doing a bit of knitting.

mullygrubber (gaz), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:28 (twenty years ago) link

The pfork quote is obv. outdated ignorant crap. Really John Darnielle could explain why best. It betrays a hatred of the musical forms which the Dan use/are influenced by, the fact most happen to be black in origin is irrelevant, the fact that that they swing isn't. John Lydon was a fan of ABBA and Van Der Graaf Generator.
He didn't die; Sid Vicious did.

pete s, Friday, 13 February 2004 02:28 (twenty years ago) link

aw don't knock prostate tickling :(

g--ff (gcannon), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:30 (twenty years ago) link

i saw them right when they first went back out on tour and they just sounded amazing. just one great song after another.

scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:31 (twenty years ago) link

look, they were studio dudes. there is a *reason* they were studio dudes. they lacked the imagination and spark to do anything truly great. they are an energyless study in basic competence.

Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:32 (twenty years ago) link

Well put by Geir.

Great band. Once again, a Pitchdork writer postures but doesn't offer anything in the way of interesting musical insight. But hey maybe one of these days we'll get a "reassessment" of them too.

I saw 'em on the reunion tour as well! I drove three hours to see them in Indianapolis, in fact, because I couldn't get tickets for CHicago. Good show overall, although I will admit to being a bit disappointed at the time, probably just cuz I had built it up so much in my mind.

Broheems (diamond), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:33 (twenty years ago) link

they are an energyless study in basic competence.

If you want to insult them, fine, but accusing them of mere "basic competence" is a tad silly.

Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:39 (twenty years ago) link

'look, they were studio dudes. there is a *reason* they were studio dudes. they lacked the imagination and spark to do anything truly great.'

Where have your favourite bands made their greatest albums? In their kitchens? On a beach in Spain?

pete s, Friday, 13 February 2004 02:42 (twenty years ago) link

not really. what is the difference between a musician and brilliant musician? a musician is "competent". a brilliant musician has a command of songwriting and a creative spark thatgoes beyond competence. LISTEN to Steely Dan for God's sake, how can you argue this?

Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:43 (twenty years ago) link

uh, great tunes, witty lyrics?

mullygrubber (gaz), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:44 (twenty years ago) link

where?

Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:44 (twenty years ago) link

XTC, Prefab Sprout, Scritti Politti and Todd Rundgren are studio acts too. And they are all great. Just like Steely Dan.

Not to mention The Beatles from "Revolver" onwards.....

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:45 (twenty years ago) link

"Steely Dan's fifth album, The Royal Scam, was released on both sides of the Atlantic in May 1976. It was a nine-song collection which, despite Gary Katz's criticism of ABC Studios, had again been recorded there with additional sessions at A & R Studios in New York.

"By now, Becker and Fagen's pool of musicians had expanded into a veritable orchestra of session players. They thought nothing of flying a guitar player or a drummer -- or indeed both -- across the country to play little more than a few bars of one song which might not even make it onto disc. Expense didn't enter into it; their foremost consideration was to find the right stylistic match and to create as perfect a rendition of each composition as was humanly possible. Within a few years they would take their obsessiveness even further, using the latest technology to create absolute millisecond-perfect drum tracks, using either a drum machine, a computer, a live drummer, or a combination of all three.

"At the sessions for The Royal Scam, Fagen and Becker began to record each tune with six or seven different rhythm sections, switching the players around to try almost every configuration possible. They would record all the songs with Rick Marotta and then record them all over again with Bernard Purdie to see what each drummer could bring to the tunes.

"Bass players, guitar players, and keyboard players would flit in and out of a variety of studios so often they never knew what was going on. Different combinations of musicians were playing all the songs on successive nights and no one knew in advance -- including sometimes Becker and Fagen -- who (if anyone) would end up on the final track. On some frustrating occasions, after countless unsuccessful takes, a song would be dropped because Becker and Fagen decided that none of the multitude of efforts had come close to their vision of the song. Often Becker and Fagen's microscopic fastidiousness bewildered the session players, who thought every facet of the track sounded fine but which for some reason Becker and Fagen refused to accept. And no amount of talking could persuade them otherwise.

"Fagen and Becker took their controlled experimentation further with each album; it would reach its limit on Gaucho when it became increasingly unlikely that they would ever be satisfied with virtually any basic track. During Gaucho they employed an astonishing forty musicians and singers and worked on one song for so long and listened back to it so many times that they actually wore the oxide off the tape."

-from Steely Dan: Reelin' in the Years, by Brian Sweet, Omnibus Press 1994

jody (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:46 (twenty years ago) link

best driving music this side of AC/DC

roger adultery (roger adultery), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:46 (twenty years ago) link

(that's not a response to anyone, that's just a passage i really like)

(xpost)

jody (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:47 (twenty years ago) link

I think Bernard Purdie is Pretty brilliant.

Broheems (diamond), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:47 (twenty years ago) link

Steely Dan fans are inexplicable to me. This is a mediocre band at best.

Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:48 (twenty years ago) link

I don't have the energy to try to persuade anyone, but I think they made some great music, and their songwriting actually stands out as a strength.

Feel free not to like them.

Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:49 (twenty years ago) link

i do, i do!

Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:50 (twenty years ago) link

I always recall JBR's story about hearing some random Charlie Parker cd and realizing that a couple bars in the middle of one of his solos were transcribed to form that cool little coda at the end of "Parker's Band". I think that is brilliant. I always meant to try to hear the Parker cut.

Broheems (diamond), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:54 (twenty years ago) link

Steely dan's music, with it's incredible sonic palette, sly hooks and phat beats is almost tailor made for the Timberland/Neptunes era. They've won and they'll continue to win.

pete s, Friday, 13 February 2004 02:55 (twenty years ago) link

Broheems: The Parker cut is called "Bongo Beep" and is easily slskable.

jody (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:59 (twenty years ago) link

the burden of proof is on you, Orbit dude. You ain't doing too good so far.

dan roolz, Friday, 13 February 2004 02:59 (twenty years ago) link

Cool! I will seek it out.

Broheems (diamond), Friday, 13 February 2004 03:02 (twenty years ago) link

LISTEN to Steely Dan for God's sake, how can you argue this?

LEAVE GOD OUT OF THIS.

Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 13 February 2004 03:04 (twenty years ago) link

SD are massively brilliant, lyrically and musically, and I think they're actually a lot more diverse than people give them credit for. It's rock/pop music as subversive satire or really wry melancholy.

This is the first time I'm squarely in Geir's corner! :o

Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 13 February 2004 03:04 (twenty years ago) link

the opening quote is ridiculous, of course. but i wonder aloud to the people "who were there" (mistahs sinkah, kogan, and currie?) -- was steely dan one of the enemies of the punkers? i would think that they'd just have ignored them instead of actively sneering or abusing them.

Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 13 February 2004 03:09 (twenty years ago) link

I loved them when I saw them on tour last year. "Everything Must Go" features so many lyrics that catch my ear or crack me up, and I'm not much of a lyrics person. It's such a great concept album, like midlife crisis as metaphor for the end of the world. Or maybe the other way around.

Oddly enough, the only other Dan album I listen to regularly is "The Royal Scam," which I feel has always gotten short shrift. I once heard a DJ mix in "The Fez," and the crowd went nuts. The interview I once did with Becker/Fagen was a hoot, too.

Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Friday, 13 February 2004 03:12 (twenty years ago) link

that early 70's band rocked live. or at least on the stuff i've heard. i would have loved to see that.

scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 13 February 2004 03:13 (twenty years ago) link

Party at Scott’s house

calstars, Saturday, 2 September 2023 17:18 (one year ago) link

one month passes...

They stabbed him with their steely knives

Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Tuesday, 10 October 2023 22:47 (one year ago) link

One of these Nightflys

The Royal House of Hangover (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 10 October 2023 23:29 (one year ago) link

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

calstars, Thursday, 19 October 2023 16:19 (one year ago) link

all the poor people eatin with the cheese on the fries

budo jeru, Thursday, 19 October 2023 17:04 (one year ago) link

Tell all your buddies that it ain't no drag

Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 19 October 2023 17:25 (one year ago) link

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

calstars, Thursday, 19 October 2023 17:38 (one year ago) link

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

Florin Cuchares, Friday, 20 October 2023 03:57 (one year ago) link

one month passes...

43rd anniversary of the release of Gaucho

butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Tuesday, 21 November 2023 22:23 (eleven months ago) link

"Hey Sixty-Two"

Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 22 November 2023 00:02 (eleven months ago) link

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

, Wednesday, 22 November 2023 17:24 (eleven months ago) link

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

Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 22 November 2023 17:32 (eleven months ago) link

I mean, they did name an album after pretzels.

Oh I believe in Yetis' Day (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 22 November 2023 18:48 (eleven months ago) link

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.

Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Wednesday, 22 November 2023 18:49 (eleven months ago) link

poll

flopson, Wednesday, 22 November 2023 19:01 (eleven months ago) link

hard not to vote for szechuan DUMPLINGS!

flopson, Wednesday, 22 November 2023 19:02 (eleven months ago) link

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

you gotta roll with the pączki to get to what's real (snoball), Wednesday, 22 November 2023 19:09 (eleven months ago) link

Breadisattva?

Reelin' in the Yeast?

Katy Fried?

Oh I believe in Yetis' Day (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 22 November 2023 19:19 (eleven months ago) link

three piña coladas sounds nice

is he disgruntled adrian? (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 22 November 2023 19:30 (eleven months ago) link

libations

calstars, Wednesday, 22 November 2023 20:37 (eleven months ago) link

Deacon Blueberry

Oh I believe in Yetis' Day (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 22 November 2023 21:18 (eleven months ago) link

Charlie Crepe

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 22 November 2023 21:56 (eleven months ago) link

The Royal Ham

The First Time Ever I Saw Gervais (Tom D.), Wednesday, 22 November 2023 22:06 (eleven months ago) link

The Royal Scampi

nickn, Wednesday, 22 November 2023 22:35 (eleven months ago) link

Countdown to Eggstacy

J. Sam, Wednesday, 22 November 2023 23:34 (eleven months ago) link

Everyone’s Gone to the Mochi

calstars, Wednesday, 22 November 2023 23:39 (eleven months ago) link

Pretzel Lobster

birdistheword, Thursday, 23 November 2023 00:46 (eleven months ago) link

i just got this email TODAY

https://i.imgur.com/YAa2514.png

omar little, Thursday, 23 November 2023 02:10 (eleven months ago) link

Barry Town obviously

Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Thursday, 23 November 2023 02:26 (eleven months ago) link

Wish they had gone into Steely Dan solo projects as well, if only to nab the mango cooler from Morph the Cat.

peace, man, Saturday, 25 November 2023 17:21 (eleven months ago) link

If you wanted to see the killer "Show-Biz Kids" Midnight Special clip in its original context:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0PLCH0TYB0

BILLY PRESTON! BO DIDDLEY! NED DOHENY!

an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 29 November 2023 02:14 (eleven months ago) link

They play My Old school at the end too

calstars, Wednesday, 29 November 2023 03:14 (eleven months ago) link

five months pass...

2/2
It continues… pic.twitter.com/Wvt16ZLeux

— Jerry Koenigsmark (@jkingsmoney) May 10, 2024

fagen completely otm on both whiplash and fred armisen

z_tbd, Sunday, 12 May 2024 15:22 (five months ago) link

z_tbd otm

omar little, Sunday, 12 May 2024 17:16 (five months ago) link

May Nineteen

calstars, Sunday, 19 May 2024 16:44 (five months ago) link

"white people invented jazz" LOL

I haven't seen the Armisen sketch - if it's really that bad, I'm not surprised but massively disappointed if Carrie Brownstein approved (and I imagine she probably did only because it's her show too).

My favorite takedown of Chazelle's film came from Glenn Kenny, which he saw about the same time he caught Birdman (made by another director whose work he usually didn't like):

Birdman made its positive impression on me because it swept me up in the contrivances of its world. Damien Chazelle's Whiplash did not. On leaving the screening I attended, I thought, "It's not that the movie gets jazz wrong—although it does—it’s that it gets LIFE ON THE PLANET EARTH wrong." (The aforementioned Mr. Brody has written most trenchantly on how it gets jazz wrong.) There's a lot of dynamic filmmaking on display here, most of it in the service of utter horseshit.

birdistheword, Sunday, 19 May 2024 19:24 (five months ago) link

I haven't seen the Armisen sketch - if it's really that bad, I'm not surprised but massively disappointed if Carrie Brownstein approved (and I imagine she probably did only because it's her show too).

It's not from Portlandia, it's a bit from an Armisen stand-up show.

JRN, Sunday, 19 May 2024 20:59 (five months ago) link

Whiplash is like a dream where an annoying angry bigot yells at you and the music sucks

z_tbd, Sunday, 19 May 2024 23:35 (five months ago) link

The tempo of the song “whiplash” must be played at 330+ bpm because any slower version of it would take even longer to listen to and would cross the line into the unendurable

z_tbd, Sunday, 19 May 2024 23:37 (five months ago) link

Make it ring, make it bleed, make it really sore

A So-Called Pulitzer price winner (President Keyes), Sunday, 19 May 2024 23:44 (five months ago) link

Whiplash is like a dream where an annoying angry bigot yells at you and the music sucks

That's reality, and it's the Kanye listening party

omar little, Monday, 20 May 2024 00:45 (five months ago) link

Fred Armisen's bit on jazz sucks, because Fred Armisen sucks. But it also sucks because it's just a dumber version of Paul F. Tompkins' bit, which is actually good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CxTyWquofo

Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Monday, 20 May 2024 01:06 (five months ago) link

May the nineteen be with you!

Muad'Doob (Moodles), Monday, 20 May 2024 01:12 (five months ago) link

two weeks pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1EFFao9oT0

I hadn’t heard this, maybe you haven’t either

calstars, Friday, 7 June 2024 02:47 (four months ago) link

I had not. I wonder if with The Second Arrangement having a good-enough version out there we might see some official release of the other stuff once day.

Chewshabadoo, Saturday, 8 June 2024 09:17 (four months ago) link

I hadn't heard that or "The Bear" until just now, wow. I think both are up there with the better moments on Gaucho, what a shame that these songs were never finished

Vinnie, Saturday, 8 June 2024 11:22 (four months ago) link

I didn't know this one, it's quite good -- really does feel more "Nightfly" than "Gaucho" though -- also if you dig up the version from which Jive Miguel has done this remaster, you can hear the drums better, and the drums are awful good. the overall quality of JM's mix is very cool and really gets the Aja/Gaucho horn tone but the drums suffer imo

J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Saturday, 8 June 2024 16:25 (four months ago) link


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