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

well, one of WA's guitarists thinks so:

More specifically, Powell believes that the stirring outro to Blowin’ Free was a direct influence on two of rock music’s classic songs: “It was among the most borrowed ideas of the era; I can hear [the twin-guitar finale] in Steely Dan’s Reelin’ In The Years, and also, of course, in The Boys Are Back In Town by Thin Lizzy – that was definitely influenced by Blowin’ Free.”

xp
I was there (maybe a bit after its peak) and I heard it, so it must have gotten some radio play. I bought WA's Live Dates album, which came out at the end of 1973, and I never bought things "sound unheard."

But you could also scrape up some Allman Bros track that did the twin lead thing too.

caught them live for the first time a few weeks ago in an outdoor amphitheatre in concord, california. incredible show. their drummer is insane. DF seems like he's having a blast

Gonna see ‘em tomorrow night at an outdoor pavilion. Gonna lay back on my blanket, smoke a jazz cigarette and reel away them years.

Hate to say this, but I can definitely imagine their shows being better now that Becker is gone. Both times I saw them, he seemed inebriated in his long-winded rants and erratic playing. (Miraculously, his solos were fine at the second show, but they were awful at the first.) It was a little bit of a shock because when I saw them play live on TV years earlier, he wasn't like that at all. I didn't know he had cancer and in retrospect, I wonder if he was just inebriated as a way of dealing with it, similar to how Warren Zevon went crazy with his long-dormant vices when he found out he was terminal.

His long winded monologues during hey nineteen were hilarious and a very big part of the shows for me. It was so "them" and I'm sad he isn't around anymore. His guitar playing was exquisite.

They were a part of the set btw and half scripted. He wasn't out of it man you just missed that it was a bit.

It was kind of obvious a large chunk of what he said was scripted when he repeated a lot of stuff both times I saw them (in the span of a year and a half probably). I was referring more to his tone and demeanor, even when he introduced the show with the boilerplate “we’re going to play all your favorite hits.”

I saw a recent "news headline" where Steve Jones would rather listen to Steely Dan than the Sex Pistols..

Well, why not? Sure he's not going to get entertainment from listening to himself

lol I saw a news story about how John Lydon actually likes Pink Floyd

worlds are colliding https://t.co/S7vvZza04e

— Good Steely Dan Takes (@baddantakes) June 12, 2022

Steely Your Face

Obligatory: Deadhead/Danfan Conversion Chart

now that's a nice cover! maybe not quite as funky as the original, but Don brings a lot of energy to the mix

"Bad Sneakers"? xp

Saw them outside of Houston a week or so ago. They were really good, better than the last time I saw them... 5 years ago maybe?

The only let-down was the new second guitarist. They gave him the solos in My Old School and he was not up to snuff.

The main guitarist is super good and I gather he's been the bandleader for a little while. I guess they wanted to give the new guy a spotlight but he did not shine.

the woman in front of me at the steely dan concert is reading the wikipedia page for steely dan pic.twitter.com/ZznmmUPsSb

— vermont postsal service (@ThePostsOffice) June 24, 2022

"They're named after A WHAT!?!?!"

https://t.co/7jgousn9bs pic.twitter.com/jhCTABUCwE

— Good Steely Dan Takes (@baddantakes) June 16, 2022

We’ll adopt your baby. pic.twitter.com/n2oXMrrk3Y

— Andrew Marzoni (@andrewmarzoni) June 27, 2022

If I was a video streaming site, I would give Fagen some money to put together an all-star group including guys that played on the records playing 1-2 nights in a theatre and some well-chosen guests and film it for my site.

For what they are spending on so much crap podcast and standup stuff, they could make a ton of these type of shows. I think they would prove profitable. I think Steely Dan could do a cool video like this. Get John Mulaney to MC.

Yeah, you would think Millennial and Zoomer Dan love could justify something like that. Although I guess those recent live albums function in a similar way.

Related:

Weatherman: “Dress for the 90s today”
me and the crew: pic.twitter.com/mGj4rgIfgk

— Good Steely Dan Takes (@baddantakes) July 3, 2022

nothing to see here, just an obscure funk 45 cover of "do it again"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xezXoOd00g

deep heat — "do it again" (1975)

this is cool:

pic.twitter.com/79zWqC6ZFs

— steely dan video (@steelyvideo) July 5, 2022

that's from an old instructional video donald did a while back, the whole thing is on youtube in pieces

here's more:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP_2r9zbaIY

whoops forgot to include pt 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0UVxZGRwC4

Very cool. Thanks!

‘I was on the high of highs, and suddenly it was over’: at the age of 71, singer-songwriter Linda Hoover is finally releasing her debut album – 50 years after she made it. She explains how Becker and Fagen lent a hand to a must-have record for Steely Dan fans.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jul/07/linda-hoover-on-her-great-lost-lp-with-steely-dan-i-mean-to-shine

I recall either Becker or Fagen being somewhat dismissive of this record in an interview, saying something like "she had written three songs: one about her boyfriend, one about her mother and one about autumn leaves".

LINDA HOOVER: "Big deal. The Gaucho album is a song about a girlfriend, another song about another guy fucking said girlfriend, and a buncha songs about the Coke Dealer who's fucking both of them."

DON: "Well, yeah."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DULtC-_dDu4

STEELY CRUE

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/steely-dans-classic-abc--mca-records-catalog-to-be-remastered-from-original-tapes-and-reissued-on-180-gram-black-vinyl-via-ume-and-uhqr-and-sacd-via-analogue-productionsquality-record-pressings-301625901.html

$30 for that sweet analogue dirty work

thirty bucks would be a steal! those puppies are $150. https://store.acousticsounds.com/d/171031/Steely_Dan-Cant_Buy_A_Thrill-UHQR_Vinyl_Record

Oh

Finally we can be rid of the lovely light and dark patterns that can be seen on the surface of the pressing of Katy Lied!

Stomping $150 copies of Can’t Buy a Thrill on the avenue by Radio City

$30 for that sweet analogue dirty work

Yeah absolutely worth it

wow pic.twitter.com/KsmOqCxPf3

— ｂｏｏｓ (@bosscrood) October 6, 2022

Perhaps the nerdiest SD thread on SD Nerd Twitter: a deep dive on fonts!

I can’t reply to your tweet so I’m starting a thread of Steely Dan fonts.

Can’t Buy A Thrill (1972): The squiggly band type was obviously custom-drawn, but the album title uses Mistral. https://t.co/Gc9NChwy8k pic.twitter.com/sH2u8UM24u

— James Campbell Taylor (@jamestaylor) October 18, 2022

Listening to 'Pretzel Logic' today, I had a thought to wonder if that record was a bit of a cleaning the books of all their good stuff they had starting from when they were staff writing at ABC. The reason I kinda say that was that it was both the end of the live band and all the tunes are really tight for the most part at or under 3 minutes a tune - kinda classic AM radio kinda stuff. Really after that, they started going much more jazz with 'Katy Lied' playing down the guitars and bringing in more horns.

Yes, a lot of those songs are pre-Steely Dan or pre first album.

tired: owning Aja on vinyl
wired: owning Classic Albums: Aja on VHS pic.twitter.com/iNDiZWkxm2

— Good Steely Dan Takes (@baddantakes) January 4, 2023

75!

when it's your special day pic.twitter.com/AOL6u1PGVj

— Good Steely Dan Takes (@baddantakes) January 10, 2023

top 4 Dons:

1. salt & pepper sunglasses at night Don (~2000)
2. late-era melodica and track jacket Don (~2017)
3. business casual Don (~1991)
4. adjunct professor at an undergrad party Don (~1982) pic.twitter.com/ukKqgpJ7Uq

— Jokermen (@JokermenPodcast) January 10, 2023

Back cover of Countdown Don

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3kxID00jios/YC1FkS3km_I/AAAAAAAAQAQ/en-YGWBn9GIpRZ40Hnfm040WID34wRxXgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Steely%2BDan%2B-%2BCountdown%2Bto%2BEcstasy%2B%25281973%2529%2Bfront%2Bback%2Balbum%2Bcovers.jpg

"My Old School" on American Bandstand Don:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1JxEOqSMouU/maxresdefault.jpg

Listening to Can't Buy A Thrill while I play RISK so I can feel what it's like to be Skunk Baxter

— Jonathan Weier (Contemporary Performing Artist) (@classicweier) January 14, 2023