Blue Moon Top 100 Bands Artists - Full List of Artists (pg 287)

[Protein Junkie]

Have a few listens to the track Kid Charlemagne.
It's got one of the best guitar solos in rock music.
You'll be hooked.

Thanks for the steer Bill - will do.

 

[peter.evans]

Pretty much my take on them. One of those that I feel I should like, but just cannot get into really. Up there with Supertramp in being clever for the sake of it. But many seem to love them, so ....

Ha ha that's the standard response I get from people who do not get the Dan. A bit like that Shakespeare, or Mozart or City under Pep, Steely Dan a bit too clever for their own good. Who do they think they are with their peerless musicianship, songwriting and lyrics !! Each to their own of course, but I do take offence at them being compared to Supertramp FFS Ha ha !!

 

[Bill Walker]

Steely Dan, a good 'best of' band. Funny how prog gets called self indulgent yet SD are 'cool'....

Not really steely Dan are a Band that fuse rock music with jazz.
The don't go in for 20-minute tracks with 10 minute solos like Prog. And they definitely don't wear capes

 

[RobMCFC]

Ok ,long story short,my mates brother emigrated to the states many years ago
and became quite successful so bought a house in Beverley Hills on a gated community.His next door neighbour was John Fogerty.My brothers mate has no interest in music but being neighbours he was invited to one of JFs parties, among the guests was non other than Bruce Springsteen who did a set with JF.
So when mmb had his party he invited JF and his wife,I chatted to him a bit but found him very quiet and quite unassuming .I don’t think the party was his scene as he didn’t stay that long and I think he was a little pissed off no body but me knew who he was.He sent me a signed a copy of ‘Blue Moon Swamp’ a few years after.

That's a fantastic story. Fancy having no interest in music but having John Fogerty as your next door neighbour!
Blue Moon Swamp is a good album.

 

[Bill Walker]

Ha ha that's the standard response I get from people who do not get the Dan. A bit like that Shakespeare, or Mozart or City under Pep, Steely Dan a bit too clever for their own good. Who do they think they are with their peerless musicianship, songwriting and lyrics !! Each to their own of course, but I do take offence at them being compared to Supertramp FFS Ha ha !!

I like Supertramp, but SD are on an entirely different technical level.
You can't compare the two really.

 

[Hart of the Matter]

Wowzers... Looks like Steely Dan more divisive on here than Morrisey .... Who would have thunk it?

 

[GoatersLeftShin]

In my house these artists and many more are played regularly and we have a dedicated channel playing regularly music of the 40's and 50's including the much underrated easy listening artists like Gene McDaniels who not many would know wrote Roberta Flacks Feel Like Making Love and Al Martino.

Al Martino had an incredible 45 studio Albums consisting of a diversity of older covers with completely new arrangements and original material.

This just to mention 2 of scores of talented artists with great songs to bring to the world.

His best known song Spanish Eyes written by the mercurial Bert Kaempfert ( ask Paul McCartney who he secretly would like to have the talent of ) albeit orignally recorded by Freddy Quinn is an all time classic.

Many of these artists and writers contributions will be played throughout the world for centuries to come.

That's great that! What is the dedicated channel you have as I would to have a listen myself. I used to love listening to "Wireless Hour" on Oldham Community Radio where they played a lot of songs from that era. Some fantastic songwriting in there!

 

[Saddleworth2]

Ha ha that's the standard response I get from people who do not get the Dan. A bit like that Shakespeare, or Mozart or City under Pep, Steely Dan a bit too clever for their own good. Who do they think they are with their peerless musicianship, songwriting and lyrics !! Each to their own of course, but I do take offence at them being compared to Supertramp FFS Ha ha !!

I take offence to them being compared to Mozart and Shakespeare never mind the glorious blues.

 

[Mancitydoogle]

Always liked ‘The Dan’ , possibly would made my top 30.
i remember being given a cassette back in the late 70s that had ‘Pretzel Logic‘ on one side and Robert Palmers’Double fun’ on the other, I used to play them to death in the car.
I was given the ‘Citizen Dan’ box set by ex when it was released.

 

[GoatersLeftShin]

For anyone who's looking at Steely Dan and wondering where to start, I think these songs will give you good intro to them:

Peg, Black Friday, My Old School, FM, Rikki Don't Lose That Number, Reeling In The Years, Do It Again and Haitian Divorce - some you'll have heard before. They really have done some absolutely top drawer songs. It's very difficult to pin down a handful! Their ability to mix jazz and rock with great lyrics and really catchy hooks is amazing.

Something to think about a song like Peg was recorded in 76/77 or so. Listen to pop songs 20 years (1957) before and how 'simple' they are. Musically they are simple, the lyrics are simple and the subject be a love song in some form. The production won't be particularly good either. Now listen to (say) Peg - the musicianship is on another level, not to mention the production. This isn't to say that in the 1950s musicians didn't have the same level of musical ability - they clearly did, but pop music was simple. It was for kids. It really highlights the transformation that happens in the 1960s. Music goes from 'pop', simple and easy to listen to, to something which is far, far more sophisticated. It's also worth bearing in mind that when Peg was made you'd have had punk, disco, heavy metal, 'classic' rock, funk and the likes of ABBA in the charts around the same time. I Feel Love was about to be released and within a couple of years you get the birth of hip hop!

I think that's what I find amazing about that era - listen to music 10 years before The Beatles and 10 years after and it's like you go back 100 years and go forward 100 years. Imagine a song from 2001 sounding incredibly old fashioned!

Also, try listening to Donald Fagen's "Nightfly" album which has some crackers on there as well. I re-discovered this album a few years ago and it gets played every now and again.