Steely Dan - The Royal Scam poll

lol I just love this bands music so much

yeah I was gonna say lol, Green Earrings has those two guitar solos. not only some of the best in their body of work, maybe some of the best in all of 70s rock... if Band of Gypsys doesn't count.
I mean this is their guitar solo record. Yeah, Haitian
I also once thought of Rose Darling as inessential (like a lesser version of Any World That I'm Welcome To), but it's grown on me. I'd actually argue the back half of this is one of their best sides, and would probably chuck the first side, if only for Kid Charlemagne. that song was licensed and sampled SO MUCH when I was growing up in the 90s and early 00s that when I finally heard it in context, well, I was unable to hear it with fresh ears. it makes me think of cheese commercials and car insurance.

the ‘harmonic movement’ or whatever in the chorus of “rose darling” is phenomenal

You zombie! Be born again my friend.

funny I just listened to this last night. so many hot guitar solos. favorite song is definitely “caves”. love the doominess of the title track.

Thought this was pretty funny.

pic.twitter.com/Sq1nz8JIL2

— Good Steely Dan Takes (@baddantakes) July 28, 2020

I'd watch that.

Anyway, this may be one of my least favorite Steely Dan albums, but the guitar work is pretty excellent - it may be their best showcase for that instrument.

ahh caves... when fagen goes “for you and me we understood” it’s so reassuring, like I’m not crazy for loving music so much lol

Always thought this was a very unusual song for them to have dug up from their old demos and re-recorded in 1976. It's unimaginable on any of the subsequent records.

ive had record player issues for a long time on and off. i now own 4 turntables, 3 of which don't work and languish in my storage space. my wife ordered a new stylus for the functioning player. i went out front of my building to smoke a joint last night. came back in and checked the mail box in the lobby, the stylus had arrived. came in and played the first record to hand - this record - the A side of this just blew me away anew. i think i voted for kid charlemagne on this poll but i think caves of altamira is the one for me now. i still find the B side underpowered but "green earrings" has increased in my estimation

Haitian faux funk

for me, it's probably the weakest of the original run of albums

‘Caves’ is the most upscale piece of music ever recorded...in fact I only wanna become stinking rich to blast it every morning over my buffet breakfast in my mansion in Bel Air

Pretzel Logic is prob. my least fav of the original run--actually, probably Katy Lied--but it's got three of their career best songs, at least.

PL was mostly leftovers and it shows, but yeah it’s the Dan it’s all good

all v good.

KL snuck up on me and might be my second fav after Aja

PL and KL are actually my two favorites. Lyrically, both albums (especially KL) have a better balance between warmth and cynicism. Even the humor feels like a better balance between wryness and corrosiveness. (When Fagen cut The Nightfly, he told Robert Palmer of the NY Times that Becker was usually pushing for more irony and detachment. I'm not sure how much of that can be credited to Becker, but lyrically they probably headed further in that direction with Royal Scam.)

And musically, I think PL and KL are even more engaging. Even with the emphasis more on song craft than stretching out, I think the solos are every bit as memorable as those on Aja's. The solos on "Rikki," "Doctor Wu" and "Gold Teeth II" alone are probably better than anything on Aja, which is not a knock on that album. The Ellington cover on PL feels very appropriate - his most celebrated recordings were those 3-minute 78's of the early '40s, and you can't find a better example of great, concise solos within a larger ensemble. (I should note "Gold Teeth II" on KL is less song-oriented and more about stretching out, so it doesn't fit the mold as well.)

(And to be fair "St Louis Toodle-Oo" was recorded in the '20s and re-done in the '30s, but he continued to work the same basic format for 78's - the early '40s stuff is the peak of that development.)

I just don’t think most of the songs are of the same caliber... and it just doesn’t come together as well and feels like a bit of a step back after the perfection that is Countdown? just one opinion

I bought PL because the '70s wing of rock consensus said it was their best album. I liked it well enough. It took KL and especially CTE to Understand Them. Then Gaucho made me a convert.

"Any Major Dude" and the chorus kicking in on the title song are some of their best moments for sure

I love Countdown. I'm not sure I'd call either one a better album, even though I listen to PL more. Across those first four albums, the band seemed to evolve at a substantial rate, and Countdown and PL feel like very different albums to me. You still have great singles that are more traditional in structure - "My Old School" especially, one of my favorites - but a lot of the best stuff on Countdown isn't like that, beginning with the opener "Bodhisattva." If I try to view it from 1972, I could see it being a shock to a casual fan. The mainstream jazz influence is more apparent, and given the type of fusion that was selling at the time, it might've been pretty amazing to hear a hit rock band combine jazz and rock sensibilities in a different but arguably more accessible way. Granted, it reportedly didn't sell at the time, but a lot of those ideas carried over to PL, and I don't hear anything that's really a step back, more like a refinement that makes getting from Countdown to Aja look more like a logical development.

Royal Scam will always be my sentimental favorite. The last few songs kind of lose steam and the title track goes absolutely nowhere for six-and-a-half minutes but before then, every song is like The Maltese Falcon as directed by William Friedkin – inscrutable mini epics of gritty mid-70s urban drug-fueled paranoia, replete with double crosses, getaway cars and seedy cocktail lounges. Musically it’s the best fusion of their early Denny Dias rock sensibilities and latter day incarnation as the Ramada Inn house band, with surprising horn charts and ensemble vocals, Larry Carlton guitar solos so tasty you can chew them and the finest Chuck Rainey/Victor Feldman/Bernard Purdie porno grooves ever put to vinyl. I love it.

"Any Major Dude" is awesome, it's close to my favorite track on PL next to "Rikki." The title track (and also the LP title alone) is brilliant, moreso now I'm sad to say.

As much as I like The Nightfly and Aja, Gaucho has never been a favorite Dan album. "Hey Nineteen" is GREAT, "Time Out of Mind" is excellent, especially live (I wish Fagen had recorded an extended solo for the original album, his solos on it are usually a highlight of Dan's later concerts). But there's something lacking about the rest. When Fagen talked about moving on and doing something on his own, his reasons for doing so feel pretty understandable after hearing Gaucho - it sounds very insular compared to The Nightfly.

xp. bernard purdie is so damn good

The insularity is what makes Gaucho their peak for me. This is the sound and sensibility they'd been building toward. I come close to crying only twice listening to SD's catalog: the title track and "Third World Man."

my v important ranking of SD title songs:

"Gaucho">"Aja">>>"Pretzel Logic">>>>>>>>>"Royal Scam"

(and i still really dig "RS")

I'd nestle "The Nightfly" between "PL" & "RS"

pic.twitter.com/iYy2NofI9g

— Z. Doom 👑 (@World0fEcho) February 1, 2021

i never knewwwwwww you
you were a ROLLLA SKATA
you're gonna SHOW me LATE-A

A terrible bridge to a weak song!

I used to find that song off-putting but now I love every second of it

Turn up the Eagles
the neighbors are listening

A terrible bridge to a weak song!

― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, February 10, 2021 11:42 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

if by "terrible" you mean great, and by "bridge" you mean "chorus," and by "weak" you mean "also great," then yes.

I don't hear any choruses in that song, just the verses and the bridge played twice.

Should have had "Here at the Western World" on The Royal Scam in its place.

lots of SD songs from katy lied onward don't really have bridges. the solo section usually has chords distinct enough from the rest of the song to play that role.

there are exceptions, obviously ("sign in stranger," and i guess "don't take me alive" has an instrumental bridge)

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2981/5924/products/df9da21b7b6e58956761b8841434a07d_2048x2048.jpg

Should have had "Here at the Western World" on The Royal Scam in its place.

― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, February 10, 2021 1:46 PM (thirty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

"Here At the Western World" is definitely the superior song (and actually in my personal top 5 SD songs over anything on the Royal Scam), but I think they were right to leave it off the album because it doesn't really fit the Royal Scam vibe. It feel more Katy Lied-ish to me, kind of their last shot at that sound before cranking up the slickness and funk factor.

Yeah heavy KL vibes on that one

Actually I'm kind of torn about "...Western World", because it's such a great song that it deserves a place on a proper album, but at the same time its orphan status kind of enhances its already cryptic and mysterious aura.

I can see that point of view, but I think Everything You Did is the least typical song on RS anyway. It's like an uninspired takeoff on Bad Sneakers.

In terms of tempo and instrumentation, not lyrics.

"not as good as bad sneakers" is a quality "everything you did" shares with 99.5% of all other music, so

The Royal Scam the song is way underrated here. Incredibly heavy and funky in its own way. I love the background vocals and muted horns. Maybe one of their bleakest and least funny lyrics, just hammering home the emptiness and unfulfilled promises of the American Dream for immigrants. The fact that it doesn't go anywhere is kind of the point, imo: The last lyric is the first line repeated. The cycle continues.

Everything you did also great, the pop clarity breakthrough of I NEVER KNEW YOU, the Eagles line referenced above, great funny/gross lyrics. Am I alone in thinking Sign in Stranger is the weak link here?

"sign in stranger" is glorious for paul griffin's dancing piano and elliott randall's gorgeous outro guitar solo.

"the fez" is the obvious weak link, tho i appreciate its oddness and wouldn't remove it off the album

"dont take me alive" got played on the local classic rock radio as much as "reelin" or "hey 19" when i was a kid. i guess it was still dj's choice there before clear channel bought up everything. i was surprised to learn later that it wasn't a single.

Whitey otm re: The Royal Scam title track. It's maybe the only song I would describe as "plodding" in a good way. For me the weak link is "Don't Take Me Alive." The verses and guitar work are awesome, but the chorus has always struck me as uncharacteristically clunky, particularly "Well I crossed my old man back in Oregon/Don't take me alive"

Always felt that the absent 'bastard' in Everything You Did could be the narrator from Dirty Work.