Steely Dan

Lavinda Past said:
Further hampered by one of them dropping dead.

Great band. Pretzel Logic and Aja are excellent albums.
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I am not sure they did a bad record albeit I don't know their last two that well and Gaucho was more uneven. I liked Royal Scam a lot more than others did, but after Aja I think Katy Lied is my favo(u)rite. But I could put on any of them and be happy.
 
Out of interest I asked AI about steely Dan there was loads of information of course but there was a random bit of info that said Paul McCartney loved Steely Dan but John Lennon hated them, this is probably due to their Jazz harmonies and inflections.
John hated anything to do with Jazz as he thought it was musical snobishness from his growing up his in the 50s when it was Jazz v rock and roll at the cavern.

Before The Beatles were famous the Silver Beatles were booed of the stage at the Cavern for not playing Jazz.
 
Yes, massive Dan fan. My all time favourite 'group' if we can call them that. How much of a Dan nerd am I ? Well, when the guy had them as his specialist subject on Mastermind a few years ago, he got 14 and I got 16, only getting one question wrong, what was the price of pretzels on the front cover of the album Pretzel Logic !
 
Bill Walker said:
Out of interest I asked AI about steely Dan there was loads of information of course but there was a random bit of info that said Paul McCartney loved Steely Dan but John Lennon hated them, this is probably due to their Jazz harmonies and inflections.
John hated anything to do with Jazz as he thought it was musical snobishness from his growing up his in the 50s when it was Jazz v rock and roll at the cavern.

Before The Beatles were famous the Silver Beatles were booed of the stage at the Cavern for not playing Jazz.
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Paul Mcartney was at the Hammersmith Apollo Dan show in 2009, as was Dave Gilmour !
 
A truly top band/musicians who have produced some wonderful music over many albums. It took me a while to appreciate much of their work but as I've matured so has their music to my sensibilities. The run of albums from 1972's Can't Buy a Thrill to Gaucho in 1981 after which they disbanded for a number of years is pretty peerless in my opinion.
 
Boo or Boo-urns said:
Got educated in Steely Dan from samples used in 80s-90s Wrap musak.
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Steely Dan - Samples & Covers
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Brilliant. Thanks for sharing.
 
Ignominious said:
A truly top band/musicians who have produced some wonderful music over many albums. It took me a while to appreciate much of their work but as I've matured so has their music to my sensibilities. The run of albums from 1972's Can't Buy a Thrill to Gaucho in 1981 after which they disbanded for a number of years is pretty peerless in my opinion.
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I agree and would also extend that peerless run another year to 1982 to include Fagen's Nightfly debut ! by the way, their 21st century albums and solo efforts are all worth buying and of a very high standard wih some great songs, though not quite hitiing the heights of the 72-82 run.
 
Now the difficult task of rating their albums by personal preference…………..

1. Aja
2. The Royal Scam
3. Gaucho
4. Katy Lied
5. Countdown to Ecstasy
6. Two Against Nature
7. Can’t Buy A Thrill
8. Pretzel Logic
9. Everything Must Go

That said they are all brilliant albums. If you include Donald Fagen’s first solo album Nighfly that would go in at 4.5

They are still the gold standard for production quality and are a good choice for testing HiFi equipment and headphones!
 
alib said:
Now the difficult task of rating their albums by personal preference…………..

1. Aja
2. The Royal Scam
3. Gaucho
4. Katy Lied
5. Countdown to Ecstasy
6. Two Against Nature
7. Can’t Buy A Thrill
8. Pretzel Logic
9. Everything Must Go

That said they are all brilliant albums. If you include Donald Fagen’s first solo album Nighfly that would go in at 4.5

They are still the gold standard for production quality and are a good choice for testing HiFi equipment and headphones!
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I agree that EMG is number 9 but even that has some superb songs on it ! The rest I could not begin to rank. They are all stupendous, as someone once said !
 
You know how certain albums (or singles) are associated with a particular girl (or boy…)? I first heard Can't Buy A Thrill in Bristol, in the summer of 1974. Steely Dan were unknown to me. I was sleeping on the floor of a house (I think I was paying some rent, but I'm actually not sure), where that record was played over and over and over. There was also a girl staying in that house, who was mad about that record, especially “Do It Again” — she'd just been turfed out of Bristol University, had failed the exams — and she was definitely interested in me. And I would have been definitely interested in her. But I was doing alternate weeks of nights and days under shattering conditions in a bread factory in the south of the city. And I was just too damned tired…
Ah well. You win some. You lose some. But that record will forever be associated with that one that got away.
 
BLUEinTheUSA said:
Kid Charlemagne is one of my favourite guitar solos of all time. Also, if I'm not mistaken, one of the first instances of a "tapped" note before EVH popularized the technique.
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Yes, the guitar solo in "Kid Charlemagne" is widely regarded as a classic and a favorite among many guitarists. It's particularly known for Larry Carlton's performance, which is often praised for its complexity, melodic phrasing, and overall brilliance.
 
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