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

it's the notes he *doesn't* play

slick, sure. "flumpfy," ok, you've invented a word

but i've seen that drum part played live (not by gadd) and it's staggering

Tarfumes' post should be a finalist for the Wrongness Monument design proposal

Make sure whoever designs it incorporates Traditional Grip, and can play a ratamacue.

I was asked to contribute to this, apparently because I haven't made it a clear enough how much I fucking despise steely dan and their entire ripple effect throughout the music world/constructions of what music is considered good, tasteful, or worth thinking about

― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Wednesday, November 20, 2019 10:29 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I would love to have read your taking down one of their albums

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, November 20, 2019 10:31 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

me too

i like steely dan but i sometimes have a whiney-like response to the amount of WOOOO STEELY DAN Y'ALL GOTTA LOVE THAT SLICK 70S SOUND that i hear

Damn, Steve Gadd's playing on "Aja" is absurdly good, that whole track is like a Steely Dan symphony.

And Wayne Shorter's solo takes it to the cosmic level.

appreciating this erasure of Brent DiCrescenzo's influence from Pitchfork but it won't be complete til they revisit Two Against Nature.

Two Against Nature is alright actually. Not a patch on the 1970s stuff, but that's to be expected. The moment had passed. It's a nice little lap of honour for them 20 years on.

Everything Must Go is the real turkey. I can't think of a single decent track on it, it really is a (mild) stain on their legacy.

wrong on both counts imo

two against nature is turned way inward songwriting-wise, though i’d say “jack of speed” and “west of hollywood” stand with the rest of their catalog. everything must go is way more consistent and hooky and contains the tremendous title track

Brad otm. The last half destroys me.

Walt Weiskopf is the star.

I hate it. Sorry. Even more tedious than Morph The Cat, which made me think for a while that Fagen had lost it for ever.

I'm with you on Morph the Cat.

but not the extent to which it signaled loss of imagination or power.

It came hot on the heels of Everything Must Go. Two clunkers in a row. Very disheartening at the time.

I was slightly surprised when Sunken Condos turned out to be great.

I've never heard either 2AN or EMG all the way through, and have no plans to do so. (Same goes for Kamakiriad and Becker's solo work. I have heard Morph the Cat, unfortunately.)

2AN is fine. It's up there (almost) with The Nightfly IMHO. Some great singles (or "catchy" tunes) surrounded a few deep cuts and filler. EMG I've never been able to warm up to.

Today is the first time I’ve ever sent my dad a Pitchfork.com link.

Becker's solo albums are both great imo

ftr I would also read the hell out of a katherine vs the dan piece

Echoing the feelings here about the reunion album. I know EMG is more highly rated but somehow I never manage dto get into it. Perhaps I was just burnt out at that stage of my Dan fandom. 2AN otoh is pleasant and inbconsequential like a nice 90's boomer album. 'West of Hollywood' is great though.

Janie Runaway sounds like it could have been sang by Jeffrey Epstein.

I know EMG is more highly rated

It isn't! Just here.

2AN otoh is pleasant and inbconsequential like a nice 90's boomer album. 'West of Hollywood' is great though.

Yeah that's exactly it. A bit like Harvest Moon (not sonically but spiritually), or Hourglass by James Taylor (ditto).

Mind you, it's been so long since I listened to it that I've forgotten what West Of Hollywood goes like. Must dig it out tonight.

I mainly remember it because of the great oboe solo

^^^ new board description

WELL THE

pic.twitter.com/hzLKWvfKyZ

— People dancing to Steely Dan (@steelydance) November 21, 2019

haha wow, twitter is good again

Confession: I don't think I've ever knowingly heard a Steely Dan song.

that is a really good twitter account xp

love the Stephen A. Smith appearance.

I want to shamelessly promote my Steely Dan Twitter account

Check out Steely Dan Lyrics (@SteelyDanLyrics): https://twitter.com/SteelyDanLyrics?s=09

UMS, If you ever feel the weight of such a burden of maintaining that acct, I'd gladly usurp it from you.

-Albert

I have been slacking lately! it's a fun little exercise, like trying to make these little haikulike snippets. try to stick to the old Twitter character limits

I followed you, so no pressure!

I've never heard this Steve Gadd story from 2015 before:

An engaging Q&A with Gary Katz, the bone-dry Brooklynite, in which his deep love of music and musicians shines across the orchestra pit at the Bloomsbury Theatre. It was organised by the London Song Company, and its founder Julian Marshall (who has worked with Mr Katz) led the questions. Lots to enjoy, but the heart of it was how much Katz loved working on these great songs with most of America’s greatest musicians a phone call away. It was interesting to note that Katz’s working relationship with Donald Fagen ended after Nightfly because of Fagen’s insistence on using Wendell, the prototype drum machine that engineer Roger Nicholls built by hand on Fagen’s command, instead of the mere humans (aka America’s finest drummers) who had done service on all the Steely Dan records up to Gaucho. One thing that resonated was how many of the great solos on Steely Dan tracks were done in one take, considering the Dan’s penchant for taking months fretting about the placing of one beat. Phil Woods on “Dr Wu”, Wayne Shorter on “Aja”, Jay Graydon on “Peg” – all one pass at the track, pack away the instrument, go home.

Perhaps the most astonishing of all was Steve Gadd’s drumming on “Aja”. Apparently, Becker and Fagen (and Katz) always talked about using him, but every time they came close, one of them would say, “I don’t really love his backbeat…” (laughter) and they wouldn’t call him. Having problems with the drum track (and extended solo) on “Aja”, Katz told us:

“Someone said, ‘Maybe this would be a good time to try Gadd’. (At this time) Steve had a distinct problem with drugs. When he came into the room he said, ‘Let me put the score up…’ It was a very long score, because of the eight minutes, so they set up a semi-circle of music stands. He said, ‘Can we just run it down so I can mark it?’ So Chuck Rainey, Victor Feldman, great musicians, ran it down, Gadd marks it. Said ‘Okay, I’m ready’. Walter and I were in the control room, Donald was outside with his back to us, doing the scratch vocal. He only played it once. The only time he played it, is what you hear (sounds of incredulity from audience). Walter says, ‘You know, we may have made a mistake about Gadd’. (laughter)

“So six months go by, as they usually do on our records, we went back to New York to mix, and we were just about finished mixing the song, and someone said, ‘You know, Gadd’s down the hall working on a Michael Franks record’, and Don says, ‘Go get him, and let him hear this.’ So we go down, say we want to play him something – he was a mess… he sat in front of the console and we played it really loud, really good sound. The track is over, he goes ‘Wow… who’s playing drums?’ We just look at each other, ’cause he wasn’t kidding. I said, ‘You did, Steve’. He said, ‘I’m a motherfucker’ (audience collapses)”.

lmao amazing

That's great. Where'd you find it Josh?

No idea *how* I found it, but I found it here:

https://fivethingsseenandheard.com/tag/steve-gadd/

There was some joking and disbelief on the yacht rock discord the other night when the subject of that “one take” from Gadd on Aja

Wikipedia says it was two takes, but I can totally believe Gadd not remembering that he'd played on the track.

Yeah, that whole "one-take" garbage is just myth-building.

The journo even mentions Graydon's "Peg" solo, which in reality was a series of takes which he was motivated to finish because he was getting exhausted:

http://popdose.com/anatomy-of-a-song-jay-graydon-discusses-steely-dans-peg/

what does he mean by "three punch-ins?" or "a few passes?" is he talking about attempts at the solo, overdubs, just a few tweaks? I'm a little confused.

anyway, looking it up some more everything I read about the gadd story sounds more true than not. It sounds like it really was one take. he may have been called back sometime later to touch up the solo, but it's unclear if he actually did anything else, or if any other work was used.

Wayne Shorter's part was reportedly two takes, and he and gadd were never in the room together.

haha Gadd what a hack having to take TWO WHOLE TAKES

if that’s what it takes ...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/60/If_That%27s_What_It_Takes_%28Michael_McDonald_album%29.jpg