Entertainment For Lively Minds
If you had to choose only one Steely Dan Song ...
Posted by Steerpike on 23 February 2010 - 9:25pm.
The Dan stir up strong feelings among the massive. I, for one, have been a fan longer than I care to remember - my old vinyl albums attest to that. Despite an oft quoted criticism of slick overproduction, the Dan's albums are very different from one another.
So if you had to choose just one Steely Dan song, one that crystallised the very essence of what you saw in them in the first place, what would it be?
My choice after 30 odd years of listening is 'Brooklyn Owes The Charmer Under Me' from the debut. Fagen does not sing on it and it has slide guitar - hardly my favourite instrument - but it is superb!
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Time out of mind.
From Gaucho. Polished. Perfect. The instrumental break from 2.03 to 2.49 is just about as good as they get...
is
the correct answer
Or "Dr Wu" (Katy Lied)
Iain McKinney
Speaks the truth.
It's the most graceful of pop songs and the arrangement is perfect.
Any Major Dude
One of my favourite songs by any artist. [Closely followed by Don't Take Me Alive]
I second that
It's stunning
Any major dude with half a heart
surely would tell you my friend, that Any Major Dude Will Tell You is the greatest Steely Dan song of all. Stands alone as a track while some others are best experienced as part of total immersion in a complete album, I find.
Tough call
But "kid charlemagne" nicks it.
Yup - Kid Charlemagne
The guitar solo alone would hit the number 1 spot for me, but then there's the rest of it.
Hey Nineteen...
..."That's 'Retha Franklin, she don't remember the Queen of Soul".
In regard to "Brooklyn" - great song but doesn't sound like Steely Dan (as we know them).
'Can't Buy A Thrill' is not typical Dan
... I can't argue with that - an attempt to establish themselves as a rock band they were never going to be. But I would contend that the lyric writing is very Steely Dan and one could also argue that Mark Knopfler's intervention on Gaucho and the disco stylings were not Steely Dan - as we know them - either.
To me each album is very different from any other. 'Time Out of Mind' is the best thing on Gaucho (IMHO). Who knows what the album's legendary lost track would have sounded like.
You mean The Second Arrangement?
It sounded like this:
Oh ...
... right. er ...it's ok. (shuffles off).
OK?!
It's wonderful.
I think it suffers from 'great lost song' syndrome
If it were on Gaucho it'd be "a pretty good track by Dan standards but not their best" but beacuse it was allegedly lost for ever and unheard it had been built up to be something it could never be.
'a pretty good Dan track'
...is still something special. It has such a lightness of touch and, in particular, a lovely bassline. I'd love to hear it 'properly'.
Deacon Blues
is the one that stays with me, when I went to see Weather Report at Hammersmith Odeon yonks ago, they played that song on the PA before the concert and it sounded (and still sounds) great. No idea what it's about. "Aja" and "Home at last" are still brilliant also.
The Royal Scam...
so many too choose but this one does it for me.
Deacon Blue
Would be the one for me if I really had to choose.
PLEASE tell me you mean Deacon Blues
and not Deacon Blue!
King of...
the World - from their best album
Kid Charlemagne
just for 'that' guitar solo.
Barrytown
from 'Pretzel Logic.'
Seconded
Very specific and unusual subject for a rock song, brilliantly observed and economical lyrics and a killer catchy tune. It's aces.
'Glamour Profession'...
Music as finely-honed as a cut diamond combined with a louche lyric. Steely Dan in excelsis.
What is it about Gaucho?
On first listen I found it too polished, too...antiseptic?
Then, it came out to me, almost like a mathematical formula.
It was like I had found the answer, but didn't care what the question was.
Does that make sense?
Do you care?
Can I go now?
It makes perfect sense...
as that's exactly how I felt!
It's Dansense
It is what it is and what it is it ain't.
My favourite album
Gaucho, Hey Nineteen & Glamour Profession -I can't decide which Is best.
6.05 outside the stadium,
Special delivery for Hoops Mcain.
I always read and enjoy a good first line in a book and that is the best first line in a song I can think of.
That first line in 'Glamour Profession' is what hooked me...
when I was around 15 years old. It's perhaps not the best Dan song, but it's the one that means the most to me personally.
First Love
The bit that first hooked me was Deacon Blues,
"Learn to work the saxophone
I play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whisky all night long
And die behind the wheel."
Another perfect vignette.
Actually that's my final choice of song. I spent a summer in the far North of Scotland with the GOLD album and when I got back to record shops bought all the albums during the next year. (imagine waiting a summer to buy some music now.)
Hoops McCann Band
Have you heard the album? It's a lot of fun
I'm afraid I can only imagine Hoops McCann...
doing a thirty year stretch in a Mexican gaol after one of his 'special deliveries' got intercepted.
Living hard...
...will take its toll.
Indeed!
Illegal fu-un, under the suuuun boys...
Nope
But I'm going to look now.
Dr Wu
Even if, bizarrely, it has no guitar solo. Might be the best ever solo in a rock song, though.
It's between...
My Old School and Bad Sneakers for me...Ooh but then what about Deacon Blues,Black Cow and Babylon Sisters.
No, going with My Old School at present,but it could have been one of ten or fifteen,there are so many good tracks to choose from.
Seeing them at Roseland NYC for the first time in 1996 was a great thrill and we all know that you can't buy a thrill!
"I remember the thirty-five sweet goodbyes when you put me on the Wolverine up in Annandale......"
Seconded
My Old School.
A third vote
for the alma mater.
The greatest single moment in a Dan song is
the lovely descending horn riff after "California, crumbles into the sea..."
Gaucho...
...the chorus is musical perfection. BONG... 'Who is the Gaucho, amigo' BONG... 'Why is he standing... in your spangled leather poncho and your elevator shoes...' deedle dingle dangle dong... with that beautiful, thick, analog synth swell swooshing around. Oh! High in the Custerdome, indeed. I want to go there.
If I'm going to be trendily obscure
I'd have to choose Showbiz Kids, I love the way it chugs
But if I'm going to be painfully honest it would have to be Do It Again, one of THE great intros of all time.
Oo gosh golly erm..
Probably Your Gold Teeth II. Funny time signatures, startling musicianship, blinding guitar solo, properly obtuse lyrics.. and it mentions teeth.
And vibes!
iTunes suggests Kid Charlemagne, in my case. I would have said The Boston Rag. Or Showbiz Kids. Or Everyone's Gone to the Movies. Or Haitian Divorce. Songs to learn and never truly understand. Or get tired of.
Josie, from Aja...
which for me is THE great SD album. I think of this song as quintessential Dan, partly because it's featured prominently on the brilliant "Classic Albums" programme, which I watch again and again.
Oh Bugger
I forgot Josie and Peg there are just too many crackers. McDonalds BV's are just perfect for those songs
Oh Bugger
I forgot Josie and Peg there are just too many crackers. McDonald's BVs are just perfect for those songs
Can I pick a second?
Parker's Band - two drummers! Exuberance a go-go throughout, topped off with a thrilling climax. Lovely.
Dig out the tapes of the 1974 West coast college tour
two drummers throughout (available from all the usual torrent sites). The version of Bodhisattva is titanic.
I wondered
if anyone was going to plump for Parker's Band (apart from me)? One aspect of it that defines it as authentic Steely Dan is that there's simply no other band that I could think of that could have produced this. Originality in spades. A top track even before we get to the sublime swirling saxes at the end. Fantastic, enervating stuff.
Are there any duff Dan songs?
Thinks..
Give me five minutes. I'll get back to you.
I've just checked
No, there aren't. Not really.
the closest
for me is "Black Friday" or possibly "FM". I'm not mad about "Haitian Divorce" to tell the truth although I know it's a favourite with a few.
An atypical Dan track - sounds more like Ry Cooder or Allman Brothers - is "Pearl of the Quarter" - but I have a soft spot for it.
Pearl of the Quarter
Me too. Thank heavens I never had a crush on anyone named Louise. That may just have tipped me over the edge.
The extended FM version is great..
On the soundtrack for the dire, dire film. I've got it on vinyl. With an off-centre hole so the thing wows like buggery.
Duff Dan Song
Show Biz Kids just goes on forever without going anywhere.
Your Gold Teeth II is the 1
The best guitar solo on any Dan record, and I love the piano on this too. Apparently it was a new grand piano the studio had just bought - you can almost hear the freshness.
Another thing about this track - I have a recording from one of the early takes when Fagen was doing vocals and, at the guitar solo, he says "now let me hear the guitar" - and when he hears what Denny Dias has played he gives out a joyous "FUCK!"
Dan guitar solo
I'm very partial to Jeff Baxter's on Bodhisattva. I have the Quadraphonic vinyl of Countdown to Ecstasy which I've never heard. Apparently there are some significat musical differences between it and the stereo version.
yeah, great solo
and Skunk's solo on the Boston rag is another killer. On the original inner sleeve notes, it says something like "Jeff Skunk Baxter reveals himself as a wild man"
The quintessential Word blog sentence ...
... has to be "I have the Quadraphonic vinyl of Countdown to Ecstasy which I've never heard".
My choice is Any Major Dude Will Tell You, by the way. I was once reprimanded by a friend simply for explaining what a squonk is.
My own introduction to Squonks
was via this track, and had no idea what they were supposed to be:
so I'd probably have been grateful to be told.
I seem to remember the inner sleeve of TOTT
had a note explaining what a Squonk was?
EDIT: "The Squonk is of a very retiring disposition and due to its ugliness, weeps constantly. It is easy prey for hunters who simply follow a tear-stained trail. When cornered it will dissolve itself into tears."
Indeed
I think I first heard it on a home taped C90 of Seconds Out, followed eventually by a cheap Portugese vinyl import of TOTT, not absolutely sure I had this info for a while ;-)
Reelin' In The Years - 'nuff said
Only one Steely Dan song
A tough choice to make, as I'm rather partial to a bit of Steely Dan, but I'll go for My Old School. Just a great song from an excellent band.
Right, that's it
the Steely Dan best of that I bought a month or so ago is going into the car CD to and from work until I can take part in this thread properly. Bloody ipods, bloody internet, bloody life that means I don't listen to music properly anymore. As you were.
OK journey into work
with Steely Dan best of on shuffle on ipod (it's been forgiven) i learnt that.
1/ I know all the singles "Do It Again" is brilliant. They are just the sort of great pop that I love, so why didn't I follow it up sooner? Don't know.
2/ Love the cha cha / swing stuff more than the reggae, not sure about "Haitian Divorce"
3/ China Crisis obviously listened to a lot of Steely Dan, especially the singer.
4/ Reminded me of Rosie Vela, which is a great thing (see one album wonders thread)
5/ Going to listen to more on the way home. Imagine hearing some of this stuff for the first time!
Good.
One of them produced China Crisis. Twice. Both produced and wrote for Rosie Vela. But you knew both of these facts.
I so envy your fresh discovery.
Did know about Rosie Vela
genuinely didn't know about China Crisis. It was the Steely Dan vocal that made me think of them.
Seems like a good reason to post this,
The connection
is even more obvious now and I really liked China Crisis back in the day.
Can't get Haitian bloody Divorce out of my head now and yet I wasn't keen when I listened to it earlier.
I've managed
to listen to all 33 tracks on "The Very Best Of" which has proved how little time I have to actually listen to music. I only knew the big hits, FM" was a slightly odd moment as it is a song I know very well but had completely forgotton about I think my older brother must have owned it. Anyway I am hugely impressed by the number of styles jazz, swing, cha cha, funk, reggae all gloriously overproduced, self indulgent, proper pop songs I will definately listen to again.
Two observations, George Michael just slowed down the "The Fez" for "Careless Whisper" and I've always loved De La Soul so "Peg" was an absolute treat
Sorry Dave...
but I have to take issue with 'over-produced' and 'self-indulgent'. To my way of thinking their records are neither of those things. They may have worked extremely hard on the production, but the remarkable thing about Becker and Fagen is that they knew when to stop. Their records don't seem stodgy (like ELO's, for example), rather they seem light and airy with plenty of space for the music to breathe. They could do 786 takes of a cowbell part because they were so disciplined; hence they never lost track of the sound they were after in the first place.
Self-indulgent? I don't think so. Steely Dan have a completely undeserved reputation for muso noodling, whereas in reality they made supremely well-crafted pop records with a minimum of excess flab. Their perfectionism should not be confused with indulgence.
Patrick
I love over produced, self indulgent music it was a back handed compliment but of course it was based in most cases on one listen. Some of the solos were overlong for me but imagine, I've got the whole Dan catalogue to start on thanks to this place. I'll bow to the better judgement of those who know Steely Dans music better than I do, I was just trying to describe the feeling of hearing these songs for the first time. In my novices opinion they didn't leave much in the studio, but that's not a bad thing.
Their influence on 80's music is obvious and the 2 examples above, especially the "Careless Whisper" one were not the only ones I noticed.
Couldn't agree more
Have an up
what about
"all around my hat" that's quite jolly.
True story ...
... much time after school was spent in record shops, looking through the racks, memorizing the lyrics on the LP sleeves. I spent so much time with those Steely Dan albums that I was constantly in close proximity to Steeleye Span - next to it in the racks. When I got finally round to listening to an album a new love of folk rock was conceived.
Speaking of 'solo'
I know we're all probably very familiar with Fagen's The Nightfly (favorite song, The Goodbye Look), but how about Becker's 11 Tracks of Whack? I played it over and over when it came out in the mid-90s and have such a soft-spot for it. I remember seeing the Dan in Glasgow probably in '96 and they played one song from it - Book of Liars, I think.
Anyone else similarly affectionate towards this lost gem?
Girlfriend
if it can't be you...
love it
love 11 Tracks of Whack
and Circus Money too. "Paging Audrey" from that album is my favourite Dan related track at mo
Almost worth another thread. "How come Donny steal the limelight - don't Walt got chops too?"
Eleven Tracks
I got back into it a couple of years ago. Very understated but very good. I'm still struggling a bit with Circus Money, though.
11 Tracks
I enjoyed "11 tracks of whack" but I struggled with "Circus Money" -the bass-playing seemed odd and undermined the feel of the rest of it, was my impression at the time.
Of course, I'll go back and give it another go - I may well have been wrong!
I.G.Y. ...
... from The Nightfly is one of the best songs to play on a sunny Saturday morning. If we ever get another one, play the song - it does the trick.
I got on board in 1993...
...with Fagen's Kamkiriad. So can I choose Snowbound? It might as well be an SD track.
Or else the encore of My Old School I heard them do in 2006 in Hammersmith.
Anybody got any selections from either of the Noughties records?
Hammersmith 06
My Old School:
I'll take Cousin Dupree or Things I Miss The Most from the noughties.
I think it's 90's
Rather than naughties but I love West of Hollywood from the later stuff
The live album...
...contains a magic version of Reelin' in the Years, slowed to half-pace and with a gorgeous, melancholy horn figure. Yum.
On the Dunes
for me is the one from Kamakiriad.
Laconic Fagen elegance in every guitar figure and each syllable
Drive along the sea
Far from the city’s twitch and smoke
To a misty beach
That’s where my life became a joke
As you spoke you must have known
It was a kind of homicide
I stood and watched my happiness
Drift outwards with the tide
Who needs Roth and Saul Bellow when you have The Dan and The Don and their perfectly crafted paeans to dreams and their dissolution.
Those slick but sad serenades in the fading light. At the dark end of the street in the city on the hill.
I like...
...that Glasgow gets a mention in Kamakiriad, the title track.
Re - 'All around my hat'
last month, Mrs G greeted me one morning with 'I thought you and Chris would be making more fuss about that Steely Dan singer dying' (Chris is my best bud and a Dan obsessive)
'WHAAAAAAAT'!
'Yeah, it was on the radio'
It took a clammy palmed internet search and a few tense minutes...
Oh, I know its like saying 'Stairway to Heaven' but, for me, 'Haitian Divorce' is utter perfection. Its hard to imagine that it was a 'POP' single.
As someone once said - even the title - in two words- is full of narrative, allure and mystery. Something bad happens, somewhere exotic and scary. And we want to know what and why.
Those 10 post-text message seconds....
...were horrible. Thankfully I'd already taken The Times obituary pages that morning.
what, who?
did Maddy Prior die?
Are they talking about Tim Hart ?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8435839.stm
Sign here
It has to be Sign in Stranger for me. Great melody and brilliant lyrics.
'Do you have a dark spot on your past, leave to my man he'll fix it fast, Pepe has a scar from ear to ear, He will make your mug shots disappear.'
I also love Don't Take Me Alive - for the sheer cheek of starting a track with a long guitar solo and not any old solo but one that is incredible.
Chain Lightning is also great. Especially when I heard that it could be about about two old Nazis revisiting the site of rallies when they where younger.
Things I Miss The Most is a fantastic recent track. Once again, it's not just the music or the lyrics but the whole concept that makes it special - in this case a man breaking up with a richer and more successful partner!
Chain Lightning
Glad to see this get a mention. I couldn't possibly choose just one Dan song,but Chain Lightning comes closer than most. It swings like a bastard, doesn't it?
Guitar Solo is really fun to play,
too, isn't it!
Oh so many.......
I sometimes put 6 Steely Dan albums in my car cd player and hit random play. I am never 'disappointed' in the next track.
I'll learn to work the saxophone
I'll play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whiskey all night long
And die behind the wheel
They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues
Larry Carlton - damn fine guitarist.
On 20th October 1995 I went to the Glasgow Film Theatre just to hear Gary Katz talk about Steely Dan and his part in it all. It was FREE too! And he was a very nice guy answering even the daftest questions.
Nope - I refuse to select just on song. I thought I could - but I can't. Already I'm remembering driving along the coast of Southern Ireland past Bantry Bay listening to Barrytown just like it was now.
Jeff Porcaro - damn fine drummer.
Steely Dan - damn fine
Oh go on...
There's really only 9 albums to choose from!
OK S...
just for you - and for today only (coz it will be another tomorrow)- I will go for Deacon Blues. Tomorrow it might well be Peg - or maybe Bodhisattva - see what I mean?
Anyway, when you were sucked in to the world of folk music via Steely Dan, did that lead to Fairport Convention? I'm going off to see them in Dumfries next Tuesday. Saw them there last year and I would recommend them on their current tour if they are coming your way.
On the Steely Dan front, I have been recalling back in the 80's when my then squeeze had been in Australia visiting family. On her way back, she stopped of in LA at the invitation of some Americans she met in Oz. They were pretty rich dudes and held a big party just for her and invited a load of friends. When she got back she was telling me all about it and mentioned that she had ended up on the porch with some 'old guy' who 'was a musician with one of those crap American bands of you like' (she was into toni basil and the kids from Fame at the time). Anyway, after some elimination and investigation, I established that he was called some daft name like 'Skunk' or something. She didn't mention my name to him. She's history , of course.
Great story.
...
Great story.
...
Yes to the Fairports,
RT, Nick Drake and all those of that era. Re Jeff Skunk Baxter - was there ever a better rock and roll photo than the back cover album shot of the band with Baxter's feet on the mixing desk - the dude abides!
Skunk...
...and now he's a 'defense' tech consultant. Funny old world.
Have to cop out too.
and nominate two favourites:
Don't Take Me Alive for the sheer turbulent beauty of those "electric" guitars and the fascinating chords, and
Babylon Sisters for the fabulous 3D production and that fantastic shuffle beat.
But there are many others and, correct, no duffs. Can I also say that Donald Fagen is my favourite singer?
Babylon Sisters seconded
It's all there - in a handful of words - to a pristine backdrop: the jaded palate, the seedy swinger's retreat, the awkward silence of worn-out intergenerational relationships, the lies shared out equally between self and others, Proustian memories of earliest weaknesses, and the whisper of death and decay blowing over the open-top: "Here Come Those Santa Ana Winds Again".
Like "Barry Lyndon" or Hogarth it appears sumptuous from a comfortable distance, but closer inspection merely betrays its rottenness.
I'd have to go with
Any World (I'm Welcome To)
one of my faves too
I've never really understood what effect the problems in the recording of Katy Lied had on the finished result. Donald Fagen has said he can barely bring himself to listen to it.
But then he is Donald Fagen.
According to Brian Sweet's "Reelin' in the years"..
Becker & Fagen were not keen on Dolby noise reduction and Roger Nichols suggested putting the Katy Lied mixes through the new DBX technology. Disastrously, on playback, the sound reduction system was pumpimg and sounding odd. They frantically tried to recover the sound, flew to the DBX factory in Boston, and the album came close to being scrapped as it wasn't that that went down on tape.
Ironically, Katy Lied is the album where the band detail the extreme care they go to to capture performances as truly as possible (which was true) but then only to have this havoc wreaked upon them.
Thanks Declan
... but can you tell when listening to the album today?
Yep.
The vinyl is ropey, the original CD awful and, I think, the digital remaster even worse. The better the reproductive kit, the worse it sounds.
Well below the the fidelity of their other records..
has always had a strangled quality about it, no real openness of the sound stage, all of which is particularly noticeable on the drum sound, as if they're being played under a blanket.
To my ears 'countdown to
To my ears 'countdown to ecstasy' is the worst sounding.
Yup
Really headachey. Great songs, but I was really disappointed when I first heard it.
Never trust Dobbly :-)
Showbiz Kids..
..I've only recently started cautiously investigating the Dan. After years of turning my nose up I'm almost ready (probably the onset of middle age). I can't say I've had their albums on constant rotation but this song really jumped out..
Third World Man
I plump for Third World Man.
Mysterious. Complex. Endlessly satisfying. The Dan in a nutshell.
I that's probably the one for me as well
though statistically on the iPod it ties for 6th place, after Razor Boy, Haitian Divorce, Do It Again, Rose Darling and Gaucho.
The Dan song that I am *really* playing a lot lately though is the YouTube video that I was pointed to from this site, this cover of Rose Darling.
So thanks ...
That's lovely...
They're so little covered, the Dan. Rose Darling is an interesting choice. Pity they had to eschew the delicious pre-chorus riff and layered harmonies of the original, but full marks anyway.
Seconded
that really is beautiful.
Thirded..
really lovely.
But the album costs fifty quid on Amazon!
Any of the Massive heard it?
wonderful album
"Fire in the Hole - Sara Isaksson and Rebecka Törnqvist sing Steely Dan" is one of my favourite albums of recent years, and my favourite covers album by anyone, ever. I'm a big Steely Dan fan, but Sara and Rebecka's versions of the songs are so sublime that, in many cases, I prefer them to the originals. They're somehow more intimate, less sardonic.
I see that the album's available from this Swedish site, CDON, for 129 Swedish kronor (about £11).
http://cdon.se/musik/isaksson_sara_%26_rebecka_t%c3%b6rnqvist/fire_in_th...
Incidentally, a friend of mine here in Stockholm bumped into Sara & Rebecka's manager in a bar just after this album came out. He asked him whether the ladies would be doing any gigs to support the album. "No - they don't feel like it" was the reply. Pity.
"No, they don't feel like playing any gigs"
I guess he must know just how The Dan's managers felt during the 1970s
Thanks duco..
that's good news and praise indeed, so a must buy.
Thanks also duco
I am sure it was your posting I saw-quite agree with you re this cover-2ill be getting that album.
My Old School
After much deliberation - it's got a mysterious story and great horns, 2 of their great attributes
That's my choice too
Great lyric and sentiment
California...
...tumbles in to the sea (beedle-daddle-doody-diddle-deedle-addle-OMP)
Dunno
-which one's the shortest?
Through With Buzz...
...I think, at 1min 30. Which is a cracker.
I don't agree with the sentiment...
but that honestly made me laugh out loud.
Ditto..
..I love the Dan, but that WAS a very witty comment!
kind of you both to say so
The Dan are one of the few Massive-approved acts that I just can't get on with. I've tried - even tonight - but could only manage 14 seconds of that Gaucho track posted above before I felt my sinuses start to play up. I honestly don't know what it is, but the Dan make me feel ill.
Sinuses...
...that's amazing. I get the very same reaction when I listen to, or even think about (it's happening now, seriously!) Public Image Limited, in particular the Live In Tokyo set. I borrowed it from a girl at school once (thanks Cheryl) in order to appear cool. It was really, really awful, and I felt ill for quite a while after it.
Even looking at John Lydon sort of makes me feel under the weather these days.
Up arrow
I was going to say "it would be one too many" but I can't because you said this. And I think my iPod plays them more than anything else.
I'm going to stick up for the newer stuff
... and nominate 'Janie Runaway'.
Insidious horns, beautiful chunky chords and a truly debauched lyric.
Hank Easton
Google that name for all the DAN solos in one showy off guitaring sequence
West of Hollywood
Because it was the most recent one I listened to.
Everyone's Gone To The Movies
takes some beating and I 'less than 3' both Your Gilded Hampsteads as well. 'Time Out Of Mind' (the opener at Edinburgh Playhouse last summer) probably the best mid-period song for me...everything just 'so' about it, not a lick or a fill wasted on the whole damned thing.
"Gilded Hampsteads.."
Had to think about that a bit. Ah. Yes.
Thine Aureate Teds both primary and secondary. Or Twin FGC's, if you prefer.
Fire In The Hole
When this comes on shuffle, I just have to stop whatever I'm doing.
Rikki Don't Lose That Number
always reminds me of going to see them in 1974.
(Sighs)......... but there are so many......could be anything off 'Aja' .... (Wayne Shorter's sax and Steve Gadd's drums at the end of the title track kill me every time)
If I had to choose only one Steely Dan song
I'd be in a constant state of indecision for the rest of my life. Can someone ask an easier question?
I admit to being surprised
by the number of votes for songs from 'Gaucho'. At the time I remember there being criticism that the album was too cold, clinical, slick etc; that messrs Fagen and Becker were just bored with it all. It was certainly not my favourite either.
However, I do agree with the other posters who say that it makes much more sense now, after all this time. And songs such as Time Out of Mind, Hey Nineteen and the title track are hookier than the net of a deep sea trawler. (If such a net actually has lots of hooks).
Anyworld (that i'm welcome
Anyworld (that i'm welcome to) from Katy Lied. Am i the only one to pick this one? It is a truly great track off my favourite Dan album.
Surely it should have been titled
Anyworld (to which I'm welcome)?
I'd have expected better from alumni of Bard College.
Just to be wilfully obscurist, I'll say 'Dallas'
from the Plus Fours EP :-)
First Time Poster...
For my inaugural post, I'm going to cast my vote for 'Kid Charlemagne'.
My first introduction to Steely Dan was through the great 'Reelin' In The Years' double vinyl comp which came out some time in the '80s (1987?) and 'KC' was one of the songs which captivated me from the very first time I heard it. For me it encapsulates everything great about the Dan - great songwriting, wonderful musicianship (without descending into that calculated session musoship you sometimes hear).
I love the way the guitar and clavinet play off each other throughout the song, the Owsley references in the lyrics ('On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene/But yours was kitchen clean'), the line 'is there gas in the car? Yes, there's gas in the car' (perhaps my favourite Dan lyric ever), then of course enter Larry Carlton, and at 3:40 hark! is that Michael McDonald I hear in the background? Marvellous!
Oh, and if we can include solo works, can I also put in a word for the truly wonderful "Maxine" from the incomparable 'Nightfly'?
T shirt
Welcome! Have you seen the T shirt with "Is there gas in the car " etc and the bonnet of a Chevvy but where it would say Chevrolet it says Charlemagne?
Splendid.
VH1 Storytellers
On the VH1 show, Walter Becker tells how a NY taxi driver told him that was "the stoopidest lyric anytime, any song".
"They got their shape-e-ly bodies....
...they got their Steely Dan T Shirt (widdle-dee-deet doot deedoooo)"
Actually one of the other good Dan covers
have this album-must listen to it again
http://www.amazon.com/Its-Like-This/dp/B001QI00X2
Night By Night
No votes for this yet, but I listened to it this morning, and its class.
I do believe the guitar "chu, chu, chu, chu, cherggh" sound at around 2.44 (just after the solo), provides the guitar template for what Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield based their entire careers around.
Dan influence Metallica? Are you mad, Iain....?
Can't post a clip as I'm in work, but you all know the song...
Pete Christlieb
...is a great tenor sax player who solos on FM, (and Deacon Blue although there his contribution is much shorter) and that is just such a blitzing piece of work, I could listen to it on a loop.
Just been pounding my cross-trainer though to the background of "Kamakiriad" and getting into its great grooves, favourite of which is "Countermoon" with Fagens drily spooky lyrics...
Hand in hand
You walk along the river
You stop to clutch and caress
A countermoonbeam
Comes sweeping off the water
She says "You're not my Jackie.
My Jackie was the best."
Spitewaves are threatening
The seaside hotels
It's nasty weather for July
Last night you loved her
Tonight you wonder why
Now, I'm a fully paid up
Now, I'm a fully paid up real-ale-supping, fairport-admiring, long-haired beardy wierdy who has enjoyed listening to an awful lot of music in my time and...but having read through this thread I still don't think I could hum, whistle or even confidently name a Steely Dan song. I'll get me coat.
Better still,
get the "Citizen Steely Dan" box set.
Which includes.....
A terrific live version of 'Bodhisattva' which appears to be introduced by some random drunk they dragged in off the street (but apparently was their truck driver), with the band loudly guffawing in the background.
"Here is the magnificent one, the one and only one - Mr Steely Dan whatever!"
Yesterday , as I was nightshift....
...I had the house and the morning to myself. I couldn't pick out one favourite track in my head so I decided to pull out the boxset and have a listen again. I got right through to the live version of 'Bodhisattva"...about 2 hours worth, before stopping. I'd listened to(not simply 'heard') the whole of "Can't Buy A Thrill", "Coundown To Ecstacy" and "Pretzel Logic" and I still can't pick a favourite. Apart from 3 or 4 tracks from "Pretzel Logic" that I'm not so keen on, the rest was fantastic!
I'm just out of bed and have a good hour to myself again...."Katy Lied" is next.
Which is what I did
http://www.7digital.com/artists/steely-dan/citizen-1972-1980/
I bought all the albums on cassette 20 years ago when at university but these have long since disappeared into the technology abyss, so earlier this year I downloaded them all again.
Favorite song - either Deacon Blues or FM but will always be late night listening for me.
or maybe
Hey Nineteen
First 3 albums
were to my mind the best 3 consecutive albums ever released by anyone. Listing a favourite is extremely difficult - I would probably go for Barrytown, The Royal Scam, Hey nineteen or Rikki....
I never used to like Show Biz kids but in recent years that has really grown on me. It is strange that their biggest seller Aja is my least favourite although still awesome by others standards. To me it was a little too stylised.
I reckon
if I had the Steely Dan albums up to Gaucho and the Little Feat albums up to "Down on the farm" I could probably live without all my other CDs. Everything is there.
an entirely credible
point of view
I can't believe no one has done this yet...
but just to avoid any arguments I've put everything up to Gaucho on here
http://open.spotify.com/user/gunsofbrixton/playlist/5kHGFrmhBrjO4soMgxC5...
Just a thought...
did Steely Dan invent sampling?
Thinking of Rikki Don't Lose That Number's xeroxing of Horace Silver's Song for my Father. I feel their perfectionism makes this closer to sampling than mere 'inspiration' as in 'He's So Fine' / 'My Sweet Lord' for example.
Not a critical comment by the way - as with the above mentioned 'My Sweet Lord' or (connection ahoy) Weller using 'Taxman' as the basis for 'Start!', the final song is utterly different to the original.
They took it a little too far though
on Gaucho and lifted an entire melody line from a Keith Jarrett tune. I believe Jarrett sued them, but don't know the outcome.
(edit) I checked the aforementioned 'Reeling In The Years' book by Brian Sweet. Apparently, when challenged, Fagen admitted to being 'heavily influenced' by the Jarrett composition. Jarrett sued for plagiarism and won. He was subsequently granted a co-writing credit.
Iirc
they'd also already more or less said they'd nicked it in an interview, perhaps unwise, but I don't think they expected he'd sue ...
Jarrett piece was "Long As You Know You're Living Yours"
which is indeed not a million miles away from this
Dirty Work
I first heard this years and years ago in a bar in Ibiza. The sax solo blew me away then and still does now.
Probably...
'FM' for me. However it is quite hard to choose. I love 'Reelin' In The Years' too.
I want a name when I lose.......
Deacon Blues for me. This is the day of the expanding man.....
Could play on repeat all night.
Reference the Feat
You can get their first 5 albums just released in the 'Original album series' for about £14.00 from Amazon. Less than £3 quid an album for genius. Have just ordered 5 Jeff Beck albums in the same series for same price. Worth it just for Blue Wind and Goodbye Pork pie hat.
How far off the beam can I be
I'm going for Babylon Sisters. Meaningless lyrics (to me anyway), but a brilliant groove. Can't understand why so few seem to love it that much.
Drive West on Sunset to the Sea
You could well be right but I'm keeping my powder dry - currently on a business trip to California where I was Oh So Many years ago when I first heard "Reeling in the Years" in wonderfully conducive circumstances (drink has been taken). This thread is rather awe-inspiring and I hope I can get a proper response together before it all evaporates.
I want to say thanks
Never been particularly aware of The Dan due to my, ahem, tender years (I'm 23). but remember my Dad has a CD. I saw him at the weekend, borrowed the CD (Best Of: Reeling In The Years) and have been playing it non-stop!
I bought Can't Buy a Thrill last year, didn't hugely like it and have been rediscovering it this week - it's fantastic. I also remember nearly all the songs on the best of from growing up, though I barely recognise the titles. I never knew there was the one De La Soul sampled, I never knew Michael McDonald cropped up on a couple of tracks.
I'm rediscovering the entire back catalogue simultaneously, so picking one favourite is difficult but, today, it's Peg... no, Dr. Wu... no, Haitian Divorce, no... Reeling in the Years. Aw, this is too hard.
This is why I love this site, I think a life-long love affair may just have started.
Buy 'Aja'
Do it now and get back to me!
Since you're such a fan
do you have one of these? http://bit.ly/auSgCz :)
the dan
they got their steely dan t-shirts
I love them all but
babylon sisters. A killer song and the drumming from Bernard Purdie is just simply sublime.
love them
i love them all to
I'm at home and at a loose end today.
The Citizen Steely Dan box set is making seductive cooing noises from the other side of the room.
Incredibly difficult to try and capture l'essence du Dan in just one song, although on a different topic, I've found Peg to be a wonderfully effective entry-level point if you're trying to create a new convert. In the realm of the personal favourite, I've always thought this one was particularly sublime.
Anyone familiar with the Live At The Record Plant "official bootleg" from 1974? Worth a Google search, I can assure you.
Aja
The track, not the whole album. Steve Gadd's drum break has never been bettered.
Rikki Don't Lose That Number
In fact I'd go for the trio of tracks that kick off 'Pretzel Logic': 'Rikki', Night by Night' and 'Any Major Dude Will Tell You'. Possibly the greatest opening to any album ever. Every time I hear 'Skunk' Baxter's solo in 'Rikki' I am, in the immortal words of Jungle Book's Baloo the Bear, 'Gone man, solid gone....'
Sara Isaaksson and Rebekka Toernquist..
mentioned above, to which let me add..
The album arrived from Sweden, have listened once. Remarkably great versions, many hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck moments (wow!), and a Do It Again that stripped away some of the Dan laconicism and bounce to reveal a dark heart of jaded existentialism. Remarkable, Brian.
All you Dan fanciers need this album now.
Everything You Did
from the Royal Scam with the great lyric - turn up the Eagles, the neighbours are listening :-)
I'm going to have to buy all the Fagen Solo stuff again
which I lost somewhere (or lent and didn't get back). Having re-read this thread has reminded me of so much wonderful music.
Also, not strictly a Dan track, but the set list of a band that I was in for a short-lived duration introduced me to Becker's live band playing 'Drowning in a Sea of Love', with Boz Scaggs on excellent vocals. Can only find a version on Youtube, with not very good sound (but a great Drew Zingg guitar solo).
Anyone know where the original can be found?
New York Rock and Soul Revue
is the album you need.
That is the stand-out track, as I recall