Aja Poll

Aja and a lot of steely dans work has a topanga canyon feel, even thought doesn't precisely reflect the music of that area I guess. I feel like the royal scam is the pt of frisson where the 60s dream burns away and melts into late 70s sleaze and Aja and gaucho is the takeover by the survivors who have cashed in but remain fucked up and hanging on to the more base elements of their youth minus the empty idealism. Or at least that's how those albums sometimes sound. Whatever the case they sound like nothing but LA. I feel like I prepared myself pretty well for this city by listening to steely Dan and ice cube, though admittedly the times had changed somewhat since those albums.

I would be tempted to go for I Got The News...not solely because I am contrary but also because it's brilliant.

Aja is my first foray into Steely Dan.

http://devonrecordclub.com/2014/06/17/steely-dan-aja-round-68-toms-selection/

What should I get next?

GAUCHO

nah they're all good

Gaucho

Gaucho, Aja, Royal Scam

Steve Gadd on the outro to the title track surely must rank as one of my favourite drumming moments ever - both the playing itself and how the drums sound. Exquisite.

otm

that moment when he finds a totally new cymbal groove and it only lasts like 20 seconds...

Yeah, especially that bit! Superb playing.

title track

maybe because it's the most earnest & sentimental song they ever recorded, & it's a tour de force for all the players involved. that final drum solo at the end is always so so thrilling

Wayne Shorter's solo is nothing to sneeze at either. I love that one ascending part where it feels like he's reaching for the cosmos.

I've been on a bit of a Steely Dan kick the last couple of days, and Aja has been hitting the spot like never before. The first four albums are all long been huge favourites of mine, but I think I'd rank Aja ahead of The Royal Scam now. I still don't really rate Gaucho, even though it's very well produced and engineered (as you'd expect) - I've a little warmed to 'Babylon Sisters' (even though I find it a lesser version of 'Home at Last'), 'Hey Nineteen', the title track and 'Third World Man', but find the rest of the tracks lacking.

Pretzel Logic is the only stepchild in the SD discography for me

Really? Why d'you say that? Because it's their most concise/poppiest record?

Wayne Shorter's solo is nothing to sneeze at either. I love that one ascending part where it feels like he's reaching for the cosmos.

― Moodles, Tuesday, September 12, 2017 3:05 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah it's just astonishing

xpost

I would have to go look at the tracklist but it's the only one that has real lulls for me. Obv it has some immortal stuff on it.

'Any Major Dude...' is one of my all-time favourite Steely Dan tracks.

Oh definitely. Maybe top 5 for me.

i don't think there's a dud on Gaucho, the ones you didn't mention (Glamour Profession, My Rival, Time Out Of Mind) are all pretty close to the equal of the four you like!)

btw re: the title track, never knew about the Keith Jarrett lawsuit (I'm sure it's been covered here), but damn I guess he had a good case...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QNK4Pc8W2A

Yeah, I don't really like either 'My Rival' and 'Time Out Of Mind' ... 'Glamour Profession' sounds great for its first minute but then I find myself tuning out... it's probably the weariest sounding "disco" tune I've ever heard, but weary sounding disco was probably what they were going for.

yeah it definitely was, I can see how you could see that song as conceptually or intellectually interesting but not enjoyable musically. it's probably my favorite SD song, but only if i can have the demo where Fagen sings the chorus & it sounds like a C90 bounce.

That's prrrrobably my favorite SD lyric

Glamour Profession is the essence of Gaucho for me and one of the greatest things they ever did

I like the way Fagen sings "Barbados" as "Barbadeuce" ...

I totally agree with the above re: Glamour Profession. Perfect portrait of a specific type of hanger-on cretin that you'll no doubt meet in the drug world & in LA. I love the second verse so much, the last line is amazing in the context of the song: "I drove the Chrysler / watched from the darkness while they danced."

I still have a dream of making a cool house track out of Glamour Profession samples, but I haven't been able to make it work so far

brut and charisma poured from the shadow where he stood

Jack with his radar
Stalking the dread moray eel

Scam has one foot in LA / "elsewhere" but the album art is so overt with the Chrysler building reference that to me it's an NY album

They hated that cover, though, and it was originally created for an unreleased Van Morrison album.

I don't mind it, but it's still one of my least favourite Steely Dan sleeves... Can't Buy a Thrill is probably their worst.

The sleeve to Katy Lied is my favourite.

even so, it captures the atmosphere of the record perfectly... all i see is steam & grit & smog & slime... definitely a new york record

this is neat, haven't heard it in a while, don't remember the audio quality being this good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7EkDDzpPrk

wow...very nice! sounds like Gadd on drums?
and that staccato part ~~~~~~~
whole thing almost like a sister to aja.

mp3
https://ufile.io/lt3n4

Am I the only fan of this band that doesn't care for Deacon Blues at all?

nope, same here.

come on the lyrics alone make it classic

Love it, but I actually don't care that much for Josie.

Yeah, I love the lyrics to 'Deacon Blues' ... the first two lines are such a fuckin' funny way to open a song.

I used to think that I Got The News was the only dud here, but I've learned to love the herky-jerk rhythm and Victor Feldman's piano

yup the piano makes that track

'I Got The News' rules.

aw man, when Michael McDonald comes in on that one, so good

Glamour Profession, My Rival and Time Out Of Mind are my favorite Gaucho songs. „Show me my rival, I'll match him whim for whim now“ is the quintessential Steely Dan battlecry

Yeah those three are heart of gaucho for me as well

weird, i would rate the other four tracks ahead of those

I don't dislike any of the songs on Gaucho, but side 1 is perfect.