Steely Dan's Countdown to Ecstasy poll

imo it is, it kinda has everything and is situated early enough in their career to still have some residual can't buy a thrill flavor

Its a great intro album to a major act...especially as all 7 original albums are of almost equal stature imo

I quite like Steely Dan but I never listen to them. I've been listening to this album recently though. "The Boston Rag" wins this hands down.

Show Biz Kids making movies of themselves

woke up this morning with "Pearl of the Quarter" stuck in my head, it deserved much more love in this poll

It really is a great track. This was the first album I bought from them that wasn't a compilation, and it was obvious right away that they weren't just a singles band. A great album top to bottom.

Surprised at the love for "King of the World".

― o. nate, Tuesday, June 24, 2008 11:53 AM (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm surprised by this post! "King of the World" is probably my favorite song of all time. I guess post-apocalyptic desert jazz-pop w/synths isn't everyone's jam, but to my ears they really pulled it off.

Also as a kid I used to think Fagen was singing "any man laughed on the Rio Grande" in the chorus. Sometimes I still choose to hear it that way lol

Yeah, that's a great track too - the best album closer they ever recorded.

I like Aja and to a lesser extent Gaucho too, but when I revisit what they accomplished here, those later albums can feel kind of bland in comparison.

Yeah I see what you mean. I wouldn't call Aja or Gaucho bland, but they lack the tight-knit working rock band energy of the early Dan

I am most partial to Pretzel Logic.

the work day is done, time to kick off the Countdown

it's this one or Aja for greatest album ever and I'll never be able to decide

generally i respect their decision to not tour when they were making records but i feel like there are 500 killer live versions of "my old school" in a parallel universe somewhere and i'm sad i won't hear them

xxxp I might agree with that - it's really between Pretzel Logic and Countdown. A tough call because the approaches are so different. Regardless, albums #2 through 4 are the ones I enjoy most, and Steely Dan's grown on me to the point where I enjoy everything up to and including Gaucho.