your jazz ears?

Any major dude with half a heart surely will tell you my friend.

of Steely Dan but I do think appreciation of the Dan is often consciously couched in exclusive terms by fans. They're one of those groups you're not supposed to "get" without first subjecting yourself to a thorough examination of your own merits as an appreciator of music. That's a deliberate overstatement but it's to show what end of the musical spectrum the Dan seem to reside in, largely based on the people I know who are Dan fans.

Appreciation of the Dan seems to require a more cerebral contemplation of what makes them special. In other words I don't think it's easy to like the Dan instinctively just by hearing them for the first time but they can be revelatory if you retune your cogitative frequencies.

Or you get some jazz ears.

I like The Dan and listen to them fairly often, but I'm not particularly sure why I do. Their sound is extremely slick and polished, which is something I often dislike in music, but with them it just seems to work. I really think it comes down to the quality of the songs.

That said, if you don't like them, I wouldn't beat yourself up about it. You've obviously given them a chance and the world would be a dull place if we all liked the same thing.

and maybe one day you'll hear a song of theirs, it will suddenly make perfect sense and you'll end up loving them.

Just go back, Jack, listen again...

Struggling with The Blue Nile?! I'm tempted to say you're beyond all hope but try "Peace at Last." If you're still struggling, well, I fear the monkey in your soul...

But that doesn't mean everyone else has to. Taste is just that and subjectivity is not a crime.

Unless it's Belle and Sebastien we're talking about.

and in my impetuous 20's could not find a single redeeming quality in 'ver Dan whenever they were played in-store, dismissing them as "Muzak" to all and sundry. Then Fagan brought out "Kamakiriad" and it just sort of subconsciously..clicked. I really liked it. That then made me reappraise Dan and I found that I really enjoy their stuff - particularly their early "Can't buy a thrill" and the later "Aja" and "Gaucho" (which is just so decadent and jaded that I can almost imagine my nostrils tingling with the jazz talc).
The Blue Nile are peerless however. If you've been with them since 84 then it was akin to being in a very special cult, each new release has become a bit of an event. It's the combination of Buchanan's voice, the simple and expressive lyrics and their incredibly emotional live shows which have many in tears (myself included).
Sometimes stuff clicks and sometimes it doesn't. I don't get Dylan and my loathing of Oasis has been a constant in my life since they first inflicted their mewlings upon us. Live and let live, eh?

I was thinking, 'I like them, but why do their songs have to be so long?'.

You have to be in the mood.

Loved a bit of Dan ever since hearing Can't Buy A Thrill when it was first released.The same with The Blue Nile and just like me mucker Grant I can't stand Oasis Quo,have to disagree about His Bobness though.I guess It's just that old chestnut "a matter of taste."

put Do It Again on and dance.

Back in '76, guy at school lent me a tape of Can't Buy A Thrill and I was hooked before Do It Again was more than half-way through. They remained a constant all through the "revisionist years" though I must admit their post-Aja albums don't really do it for me. But those first six albums have at least 3 or 4 songs apiece that would jostle for a place in my all-time top fifty. But as several have said, it's all subjective. According to a recent Word article some band called the "Black Eyed Peas" are the biggest in the world on some reckoning. I'm not aware of ever having heard a single note by them. Should I?

or maybe not

.... brilliant tune, there's no hope for you liking SD. There's not even Fagen singing to put you off.

and after the Richard Thompson style excitements, surely time for Don and Walter to grace the cover with the big interview treatment. That'll keep the copies nailed to the shelves.

loves the music of t'Dan but has a problem with Fagen's voice which he finds too whiny. I remember when he told me this and can recall how my brain registered and processed his comment. Since then I have found myself finding his voice whiny sometimes and I've had to change the music. It just strikes me as strange how an opinion can effect you in that way. I'm sure there's some Freudian explanation given it was my father who made the comment.

Oasis were a good band too, IMO

"Like I care. That guy over there? He don't like me either. About him? I do care. Know why? I owe him money. He owes me dope. So, last night, aspirated by Thelonius, the Cuervo Gold and beloved Josie by my side, I says "you think that scar make you scary?". He says "no - my gun does". And he walked away. Smiling. Josie looking on. Now he's back. Josie's gone - and the dope? Another no show. Walt. Walt? Are you even listening?"

"Not really" said Walt. "And neither's Jimmy Shoes"

and I was particularly thrilled when I later heard 'Showbiz Kids' being familiar with this:

So to me, it started with a sample and a mate lending me vinyl copies of Aja and if I remember correctly Katy Lied. Eventually I bought the box set which all but the last two LPs. Quality control is extraordinarily high, hardly a duff track across the whole lot.

I can totally understand why you wouldn't like them. I recall the bloke from Crowded House saying he disliked them because there were too many chords or something...but I think you can never have too many chords.
But no shame whatsoever here, The list of 'Word Favourites' that I don't care for is a very long one, and really I haven't exhausted the supply of music I really want to hear before I get around to things I feel somehow obliged to check out. But the well will have to run seriously dry before I dig into Springsteen or Tom Waits' back pages for example.

thanks to this blog and really enjoyed it. It's a regular on the drive home although I haven't tried any other albums yet. £ 4.99 on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Showbiz-Kids-Best-Steely-Dan/dp/B0000C8YKW/ref=s... If you really don't get them after that, move on.

I loved Can't Buy A Thrill and declared Reelin' In The Years to be a top notch rock song. Pretzel Logic was pretty good too.

Thereafter, the Dan appeared to lose their rock mojo and cast me adrift in a sea of their bland, jazz tinged albums.

Mrs Shoes is away this weekend so I will hunker down with your recommendations and go over the top one last time. If they are still a fug to my ears I will stick on Mule Variations, grab the Makers's Mark and go and build something in my shed.

The best of Dan IMHO

...and only a finite amount of love.

As in all matters of the heart, there is no point spending your love in directions where it will not bear fruit. Better by far to love the things you already like than try to love things you find it hard to like. As I frequently find myself saying on this site, it's pop music, not double geography.