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Steely Dan Appreciation Thread |
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dwill123 
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Joined: December 19 2006 Status: Offline Points: 4455 |
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 Posted: April 09 2022 at 07:16 |
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I've been a fan since the beginning. I remember watching them on the 'Midnight Special' in my college dorm room and that's been a while ago.
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Stressed Cheese
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Joined: March 16 2022 Location: The Netherlands Status: Offline Points: 540 |
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Posted: April 09 2022 at 17:02 |
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Steely Dan is one of my top three artists of all time for sure! Years ago when I was trying out some new artists on Youtube, I put on Pretzel Logic. Four or so songs in I had already ordered a CD of the album and I had to force myself not to listen to the rest of the album (kinda spoils the fun of getting a new CD). Anyway, it rarely happens that I immediately have to buy an album after sampling it, and I got the rest of their studio albums shortly thereafter.
Either Pretzel Logic or Countdown is my favorite album(usually I can pick my definitive favorite of an artist, but not with these guys). In their early days they had a very unique pop-rock-y sound, and later on they had a very unique fusion sound. I've yet to hear something that truly sounds similar to anything they made from 1972-1980 (well, The Nightfly, and I've always kind of considered that their unofficial 8th album - no disrespect meant to mr. Becker of course). Especially towards the late 70's their chord progressions are very unpredictable in a fun way, if that makes any sense. Their two 00's albums are also not too shabby, though they are a bit formulaic. Oh, and my favorite song's gotta be Any Major Dude Will Tell You.
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BrufordFreak
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Honorary Collaborator Joined: January 25 2008 Location: Wisconsin Status: Offline Points: 7955 |
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Posted: April 09 2022 at 17:32 |
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Me, too: I've been a fan since their beginning--will never forget the feeling of hearing "Do It Again" for the first time in October of 1972 while riding in the car with my family through the expressways of Detroit. (I thought it was Santana) and then watching it wallow around the bottom of CKLW's weekly Top 30 for a few weeks. Can't Buy a Thrill was one of the first albums I ever bought. Pretzel Logic was my favorite album for about a year.
Though I loved Aja and Gaucho, it took me a long time to warm up to Katy Lied and The Royal Scam. Their sound production was always so great that I used to scour the news for any and all albums graced on the production side by Gary Katz, Walter Becker, and Donald Fagan. Also, many of the musicians who played on the band's albums were "names" that I gravitated to when looking at other new and old releases from the LA music scene, e.g. Sample, Feldman, Parks, Carlton, Omartian, Findlay, Tom Scott, Horn, Grolnick, Anthony Jackson, Steve Khan, the Breckers, Hiram Bullock, Bernard Purdie, Gadd, Porcaro, etc. |
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Drew Fisher
https://progisaliveandwell.blogspot.com/ |
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AFlowerKingCrimson
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Joined: October 02 2016 Location: Philly burbs Status: Offline Points: 16199 |
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Posted: April 09 2022 at 18:49 |
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I like Steely Dan. I disagree with those who say nobody is like them. I hear similarities to Toto and the Doobie Brothers. Ok, maybe nobody is exactly like them but you could say that about a lot of bands.
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rogerthat
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Joined: September 03 2006 Location: . Status: Offline Points: 9869 |
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Posted: April 10 2022 at 02:23 |
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I think both Toto and Doobie Brothers (later, under Michael McDonald) resemble the Gaucho-era Steely Dan. But I haven't heard anything from them that is like the Pretzel Logic-to-Royal Scam phase of Steely Dan, which is basically like putting vocals on top of jazz-fusion. If anything, it is some songs of Stevie Wonder that resemble the Steely Dan sound but obviously, Wonder was coming at it from an R&B perspective.
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Sean Trane
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Prog Folk Joined: April 29 2004 Location: Heart of Europe Status: Offline Points: 19618 |
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Posted: April 10 2022 at 03:14 |
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something is not right, here  How
can you be in a college dorm in 2000/01 (this track is from Two Against
Nature) and be a fan "since the beginning" in 1972/3? You were born in 72 while listening to can't Buy A Thrill??   Or are you Reelin' in The Years ?? 
no
opinion about Toto sounding like SD, but for the Doobies, trouble
started after the Dan broke up (as a touring band, anyways) when Skunk
Baxter stunk up the band (Stampede) and later MMcD joined them for
Streets. I know Skunk played on Vices, but he wasn't a member yet. I stopped liking Doobies after What was once Vices....
You calling yourself a dildo or you're just being a dork here, Pedro??   .
Edited by Sean Trane - April 10 2022 at 03:16 |
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let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
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moshkito
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Joined: January 04 2007 Location: Grok City Status: Offline Points: 16163 |
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Posted: April 10 2022 at 07:52 |
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Hi, Just a fun bit of humor that a lot of folks did not know about ... and the stories in the 80's about the little pipes going about, with so many girls laughing that the boys wouldn't even touch it. Such was life at UCSB at a lot of parties with SD playing in the background along with everything else. I was already aware of the name, and thought it silly ... but it got a lot of attention, although I know folks that got off the band's wagon when they came to know what the name was about ... and read the book in a class at UCSB. Goodness ... the faces alone were a treat. And a lot of TA's and Professors thought that SD did not exactly gave the name a good vibe, as the book did for the writer. Some weirdness for you from the UCSB days in the late 70's and early 80's. And how so much of it, did not add up to its conceptual nature anymore ... it was all just a bunch of words now, meaningless and dork'd out by fans that were not interested in books in the first place. The dope was better! BUT, THE MUSIC WAS VERY NICE and I will not put it down EVER.
Edited by moshkito - April 10 2022 at 07:53 |
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Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com |
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dr wu23
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Joined: August 22 2010 Location: Indiana Status: Offline Points: 20468 |
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Posted: April 13 2022 at 20:08 |
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Great band... a fan from the first lp which I bought shortly after it came out on a recommendation from a friend. A little later read a review that mentioned the origin of the name.....bought the book by Burroughs, Naked Lunch, and was disappointed in the 'novel'. ( 'The Soft Machine' is the 2nd book in a trilogy by Burroughs ...the band took their name from it.)
Katy Lied is my personal favorite because of the songs themselves but Aja is a masterpiece of sound quality as mentioned by several here. After Aja and Guacho I was disappointed in the later lp's but even so they are well worth having. |
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One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin |
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Necrotica
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Posted: April 13 2022 at 20:35 |
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Nice username  As far as the band's later stuff goes, I was really surprised at how much I ended up loving Two Against Nature. It basically took their older material and added more fusion elements, which I definitely appreciate. Plus, the atmosphere is so chill and relaxing. Everything Must Go though? Probably my least favorite of their work.
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Take me down, to the underground
Won't you take me down, to the underground Why oh why, there is no light And if I can't sleep, can you hold my life https://www.youtube.com/@CocoonMasterBrendan-wh3sd |
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Guldbamsen
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Posted: April 14 2022 at 01:21 |
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I’ve always found Steely Dan to be somewhat of a weird case…not exactly music-wise but more to do with the peeps actually listening to it.
Personally I was introduced to ‘The Dan’ via my old punk and black metal friends…and well still to this day I am surprised to learn just how many fans of harder and darker styles of music seemingly gravitate towards the suave nature of Steely Dan. Last time I visited Copenhagen I was at a punk-like bar with perhaps 90% of the attendees being dressed in black - clearly digging the vibes of Danzig, The Clash, Bauhaus, Iggy and the like whilst shooting pool and drinking beers n Jack D. All of a sudden the bartender in his Konkhra t-shirt whips out the ol’ Aja and pretty much everyone start nodding their heads in agreement. I really dig Steely Dan like that - in a smoky bar, chitchatting with friends over brewskis. It’s rare that I sit down and listen to an album though. Edited by Guldbamsen - April 14 2022 at 01:23 |
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“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
- Douglas Adams |
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Atavachron
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Posted: April 14 2022 at 01:29 |
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^ Yes they are some odd ducks...in the best way. I've never fully grasped SD which is just how I like it, but The Royal Scam is what turned me from disinterested observer to fan. They're often labelled 'jazz-rock' on Wiki which shows how uncategorizable and misunderstood they are. Edited by Atavachron - April 14 2022 at 01:30 |
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy
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Guldbamsen
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Posted: April 14 2022 at 02:03 |
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The Royal Scam just so happens to be my fave SD album
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“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
- Douglas Adams |
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Syzygy
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Posted: April 14 2022 at 10:36 |
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It's my favourite as well. Objectively I acknowledge that Aja is their best album in terms of writing, playing and production, but The Royal Scam is the one I actually listen to the most. |
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'Like so many of you
I've got my doubts about how much to contribute to the already rich among us...' Robert Wyatt, Gloria Gloom |
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Grumpyprogfan
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Posted: April 14 2022 at 12:04 |
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Anyone going to see Steely Dan on tour this year? I saw them in 1996, awesome show.
Is it acceptable to tour without Becker? He is essential, like Peart was to Rush. No? |
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Guldbamsen
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Posted: April 15 2022 at 03:39 |
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I recently learned a lot about Aja by watching various vids of musicians and producers talking shop - effectively highlighting one of the most seminal late 70s albums. I had no idea that the band effectively was auditioning musicians for pretty much every part  Sounds like a fairly competitive and uneasy atmosphere to work in. It obviously ended up providing us with one of the most ‘picture-perfect productions’ of all time…but I wonder how it had ended up sounding like with a more…err natural approach.
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“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
- Douglas Adams |
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Necrotica
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Posted: April 15 2022 at 03:54 |
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Did you ever check out the making-of documentary for the album? It definitely provides a lot of insight into just how difficult the two were to work with, especially when it came to Peg. They went through about seven or eight guitarists (including Walter himself), and even Jay Graydon's iconic solo required about five or six takes before being accepted by the duo. Crazy stuff Funny enough, the title track - despite being the most complex song on the album - was the easiest and quickest one for the band to record
Edited by Necrotica - April 15 2022 at 03:56 |
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Take me down, to the underground
Won't you take me down, to the underground Why oh why, there is no light And if I can't sleep, can you hold my life https://www.youtube.com/@CocoonMasterBrendan-wh3sd |
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Marcos87
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Posted: April 21 2022 at 07:08 |
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I discover SD around the year 2015 and i've a blast with their music. At that time i was a fan of Toto and I always hear interviews of Steve Lukater (or David Paich) praising Steely so the next step for me was sitting alone, put Aja and try to understand why that music is special and why all talks so good about them. It' wasnt love at first listen but with every day it grows on me. "Deacon Blues" was one of my favorites of Aja, but when I listen to "Gaucho" it fits more with the music I was used to enjoy at that moment. With repeated listens I find also that "The Royal Scam" it's a very good record too (the tracks "Kid Charlemagne" and "The Fez" stands out). The solo records of Donald Fagen are excellent too, specially "The Nightfly" and "Kamikiriad". The later ones of SD and Fagen are similiar in his "laid-back" approach but all have good compositions and excellent musicianship (one of the strongest points of SD was his personnel: always has top-notch LA musicians). I also read that they was obsessed to get records produced to the detail, so it make the music of SD more interesting: they had good songs, intelligent lyrics, the best musicians around and also the best production... all of this makes a perfect combo.
Edited by Marcos87 - April 21 2022 at 07:12 |
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galeriaderaices.bandcamp.com/
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Stressed Cheese
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Posted: April 29 2022 at 09:47 |
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Extremely late reply, but it's true that to some degree all bands 'sound like no other bands' and all bands have some similarities to other bands as well. With Steely Dan, though, the former aspect is especially strong IMO. I've never been satisfied when people have given me suggestions about artists similar to SD.
I've never really been able to come up with a good genre label for their first 4-5 albums. Aja onwards is Fusion, but their earlier stuff is hard to label. Maybe Art Rock if you take that as meaning prog-lite, or perhaps Soft Rock... I've just stuck it all under Jazz Fusion in iTunes for lack of a better term. Curious to see what other people would say.
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Necrotica
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Posted: May 02 2022 at 16:43 |
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I definitely agree there. I can't tell you how many people have told me that Chicago's early work was similar to Steely Dan, but Chicago have never scratched the itch that SD have for me
Edited by Necrotica - May 02 2022 at 16:43 |
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Take me down, to the underground
Won't you take me down, to the underground Why oh why, there is no light And if I can't sleep, can you hold my life https://www.youtube.com/@CocoonMasterBrendan-wh3sd |
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Saperlipopette!
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Posted: May 02 2022 at 16:48 |
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AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: