Steely Dan

My younger brother likes them.

I'd always assumed that it was a tribute to Tommy Cooper's refusal to go onstage without his trademark headwear.

2. You make 'coke-driven arid muso nightmare' sound like a bad thing, Dr. C! I wuv SD partly because of their slick anal session muso jazzbo chops, 'cos such mad skillz are not normally applied to corking pop songs - you get to hear Larry Carlton or Steve Gadd playing some v. tasty solos without having to totally surrender to Bob James-style 'smooth jazz'. Becker and Fagan tend to bring out the best in their collaborators - Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, for example, played some wonderful stuff on their early recs (just listen to that solo on 'Riki Don't Lose That Number') but did nothing of interest once he left the SD set-up. I don't think there's anything wrong w/ muso perfectionism, any more than there is w/ punk amateurism - whatever works for the rec, right? People don't accuse the sainted Brian Wilson of being a muso 'cos he made 100s of takes of 'Heroes and Villains' before he was satisfied - surely Becker and Fagan should be allowed to do the same thing? Although their songs are v. tightly arranged and composed, I think they weren't totally afraid to surrender control to a 'player' when occasion demanded - see Wayne Shorter on 'Aja' or Phil Woods on 'Doctor Wu'.

I suppose they were pretty much the first group to do the pleasant pop tunes undercut by evil lyrics schtick (this became more apparent when Fagen took over the singing - he's one of pop's all-time great sneerers.) They could be nasty, bitter, exotic, clever, horny, science fictional (William Gibson is a huge fan), wry and sometimes even touching - there's a pleading quality to Fagen's voice that cuts through the cynicism on tunes like 'Deacon Blues' and 'Doctor Wu' (which is one of the greatest songs ever written abt addiction.) And they were also damm funky at times - look how often their rhythm tracks have been sampled, most notably De La Soul's steal of 'Peg' for 'I Know'. For the novice I'd say start w/ the first two albs, 'Can't Buy A Thrill' and 'Countdown To Ecstasy', when they were still (sort of) a 'proper' pop group rather than a purely studio creation, and avoid 'The Royal Scam' (their slightly ho-hum disco alb, the first to heavily feature Chuck Rainey on bass), 'Gaucho' (which I love, but boy is it coked-up slickness personified), 'Kamakiriad' and 'Two Against Nature', 'cos they don't seem willing or able to write a decent pop tune anymore.

Yikes! I went there, too!

What was it that clicked, Tom - how and why doth you love them? I'm interested to hear more.

Would also like to hear what Marcello has to say about SD.

What I love about them is the hooks - once I'd got those then the tasty solos don't feel so in the way. The first SD song I liked was "Dirty Work", which is one of the ones David Palmer sings on, and the rest of the first album fell into place pretty quickly. I like lyrics, and Steely Dan have quite good ones, so that helped too. They were also a kind of gateway into my appreciating FM rock, AOR etc as a pop style rather than as something to be reviled. My all-time favourite SD song is "Barrytown" though, off the third album, which is as poppy as ever they got.

I heart Royal Scam probably for the same reasons Andrew doesn't (altho' it has the worst cover art ever ever ever). By contrast, I find the first two albums hard to get into, the hits aside. I really need to hear Aja and Gaucho, I think - their time has probably come at last.

SD are pop and fun. The words are supposed to be clevah but I never listen to words.

But, by applying sinkerlogic aren't they alien and unwelcoming and therefore punXOR? Or summat

Donald Fagen on Ike Turner (!)

I am a Royal Scam man through and through.

Dr. C = british Alex in NYC??

many thanks, matos.

Saw them at the Beacon theatre in NY last night. A fairly left-field selection of songs I thought. They opened with 'Royal Scam.' Others they played were 'New Frontier,' 'Pretzel Logic,' 'Show Biz Kids,' 'Third World Man,' 'Hey Nineteen,' 'Peg.'

Walter sang 'Gaucho' which was probably the lowpoint.

They closed with 'Kid Charlemagne,' which seemed to be everyone in the crowd's favorite song.

Oh, and the drummer was phenomenal.

Praying for euro dates
http://steelydan.com/tour11.html

do they have a new album coming out? also, lol at pretty much everything on that webpage!

Roger Nichols RIP:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118035225?refCatId=16

My beloved and I keep thinking of going to see the local Steely Dan tribute act.

I think my wife would probably never agree to that. But a friend did suggest we go see 'Nearly Dan' at the Jazz Cafe. Tempted.

our local steely dan tribute band is called Stealing Dan

a race of angels
bound with one another
a dish of dollars
laid out for all to see
a tower room at eden rock
it's golf a noon for three

How bizarre that of all bands, this is the band that becomes a summer outdoor concert perennial. They were just here, but I skipped it. I figured, you know what? The last time I saw them they did "The Royal Scam" from the start to finish, with Larry Carlton sitting in. That may be the last of the live Dan I enjoy.

yeah it is kind of weird that they're out there with, i don't know, santana or something on the outdoor shed circuit.
was just listening to babylon sisters -- "here come those santa ana winds again." these guys really do southern california the best. better than the beach boys!

the pedal steel on "Razor Boy" is a thing of beauty

I went with my bf to see the Dan at Merriweather Post Pavilion and it was awesome

they did a long vampy James Brown cover and Walter Becker did some great rambling monologues

having the female back up singers do "Dirty Work" was cute

no "Black Cow" or "Deacon Blue" or "The Fez", but lotsa great jams anyway

I just saw them two nights in a row. First night was Aja in its entirety (plus assorted other songs), and the second night was (supposedly) fan requests. In practice, they were fairly similar sets, just in a different order. Still a lot of fun, though, esp. since I'd never seen them before.

Kind of surprised you didn't get "Black Cow," Dr3w, since they played that one on both nights. (They did "Deacon Blue" only on the Aja night.)

yeah they teased us with "Black Cow" during the encore but didn't actually do it

"Aja", "Peg", "Reeling in the Years", "Babylon Sisters", "Dirty Work", "Bodhisattva" all present and correct tho

Hey I was at that Merriweather show too! Great show, and I had never seen 'em live so I didn't know what to expect. Was surprised they were as friendly as they were - not to say that they were overly talkative, but they seemed happy to be there, happy to play. Really like the changed-up version of "Showbiz Kids" they did.

i was at Merriweather too! brought my Dan-loving dad to the show, which really made his day.

there's really nothing bizarre about SD playing big outdoor venues, though; any acts that had a gang of AOR hits and gold albums in the '70s can do that these days.

The idea of SD touring AT ALL is weird

kinda, but they've been doing it for almost 20 years now, so i can't pretend i can remember a time when they were still studio-bound recluses

caught the rarities show in nyc last night. they played "second arrangement," "the bear," "this all too mobile home" and perhaps the deepest cut of all, "american lovers" from the thomas jefferson kaye album that fagen and becker did some writing on. didn't much care for "american lovers" but it was def a treat to hear the outtake stuff.

they also played some hits that they got sick of and rarely do live. "rikki don't lose that number" (eh, whatever) and "reelin' in the years" (don't remember if they do this one live much, actually). but my fave rare/not rare jam was def "doctor wu."

becker also looking pretty fat these days.

aw damn, i didn't know they were doing a rarities show! that's the only thing that could possibly make me feel like the show i saw this summer was less perfect. "This All Too Mobile Home" an "Second Arrangement" are all-time favorites.

i wonder if this indicates any chance that they may actually someday give official release to all the studio outtakes that still only exist in bootleg form -- a SD vault compilation or box set would be so great.

agreed and I was wondering the same thing but who knows with fagen and becker behind the wheel. kinda feel like fagen would prob rather spend his time writing weird smartass letters to the nytimes or whatever.

holy shit that show sounds amazing

yeah, it was pretty special. any problems I can think of are pretty minor compared to hearing "second arrangement" live.

the drummer the dan are touring with right now is pretty sick btw. killed it on "aja".

yeah "Aja" was nuts at the show i saw, really finally won me over to properly appreciating that song

yeah, that was the last one off of that album to click for me as well. strangely, it was this house track that did it (linked from another dan thread):

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

"aja" really is all about the drums and the buildup to that amazing outro in particular.

^^^track is brilliant btw

yeah after the SD show i remembered listening to that track the first time it was posted and really wanting to hear it again and didn't know where it was, so thanks!

still blows my mind that they left "here in the western world" off of the royal scam, could have cut "the fez" IMO

yep

"the fez" has its charms but gets old pretty quickly imo

"Here" is a good song but Royal Scam is almost perfect to me and i don't think it would have been any better with it, or if there's a song on there i'd happily swap out for it

― some dude, Tuesday, September 20, 2011 1:56 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah i mean i'm not throwing shade on the royal scam, probably my fav or 2nd fav SD record...but to me it's the darkest most despairing steely dan record and western world fits better to me...though maybe they thought it would make the album way too dark

really? "Dark" and "despairing" are often used about RS but to me those adjectives best describe Gaucho. To me The Royal Scam sounds like party that goes mad at 1 a.m.

there's obviously plenty of darkness in Steely Dan but 'despair' for me conjures a level of wallowing and seriousness that i don't associate with them at all

"Third World Man" comes closest to your definition of despair.

even that has such an abstract (afaict) narrative that i never get through the layers enough to hear despair -- some lines even seem hopeful

yeah i guess i just kinda typed despair and didn't really think abt it that hard

it's ok, dude

http://mediacdn.disqus.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/147/9676/original.jpg

really? "Dark" and "despairing" are often used about RS but to me those adjectives best describe /Gaucho/. To me /The Royal Scam/ sounds like party that goes mad at 1 a.m.

lol @ steely don - gives me an idea to start a band called Steely Din, a Steely Dan cover band that only uses steel drums

Steely Djinn

hey I started a SteelyDanLyrics Twitter account - follow if you like getting Steely Dan lyrics sent to your via Twitter!

http://twitter.com/#!/steelydanlyrics

I'm gonna follow the shit out of that.

Also, I don't really follow the display names threads, but I appreciate the shit out of yours.

thank you sir!

i support this twitter account

love's not a game for three

I know this super highway, this bright familiar sun

this is basically a great excuse to listen to the citizen steely dan box set on spotify every single day of my life

http://twitter.com/#!/CrankyFagan

started by my friend after i told him about the lyrics twitter

haha yeah i saw that! we've already tweeted! hope this doesn't turn ugly

cranky fagan and steely dan lyrics twitters are dead :\

Amazon's got all of their remastered studio albums on CD for dirt cheap (most in the $4.99-5.99 range).

I think Billy Joel's "Los Angelinos" is not quite SD class but it's pretty close

get out.

should I see these guys in july for $100 y/n

y

K thx

Do they alternate small shows and big shows? Few years ago they were playing some place in DC and tix were like $120. Couldn't really justify the price. Then they came back the next year to play Merriweather Post Pavilion, a much bigger venue, and tix were $35 and I couldn't buy them fast enough. But yes, they are absolutely worth seeing (as I mentioned upthread).

can't believe it's been 20 years since I've steen steely dan live. And I spent most of the show worrying about when my bunk acid was gonna kick in.

big how's aka the steenliver.

rustic italian bunk acid

lol

It's sad that Don and Walter can't just be anonymous and walk around gramercy park and smoke weed and then go persuade the strand. Who knows, maybe they do

"persuade the strand" sounds like a euphemism for something. i guess not smoking weed, though, since the sentence also contained the phrase "smoke weed."

walk about gramercy park and get blazed, smoke weed, toke up, burn doobie, and then go persuade the strand,

Bryan Ferry would never go halfway and just persuade the strand.

Would anyone actually enjoy to persuade the strand while high after toking mad doobies? That sounds like a thrill I wouldn't want to buy.

Fucking spell check. Peruse was the verb I was going for there. But persuade is more steely or whatevah

Bad Sneakers

Doesn't anyone else feel like The Dukes of September ought to be touring every September? Maybe mix it up every year, lose an old Duke, throw in a new Duke...

Get literal: Hire Duke Robillard.

https://expandingdan.substack.com/p/second-arrangement-steely-dan-roger-nichols-tape

Fuck dudes, "Second Arrangement" is good shit.

Feel like rhe lyrics are a little half baked but w/e