Steely Dan or Sparks
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=112871
Printed Date: April 24 2024 at 19:57
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Topic: Steely Dan or Sparks
Posted By: Icarium
Subject: Steely Dan or Sparks
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 16:27
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Two bands from US like their similar minded art rock/pop, progressive pop pioneering acts of UK (10CC, ELO, Supertramp, Roxy Music and Queen) managed to movie between pop, theatre, satire, glam, jazz, humor and pop culture like nobodys buisness. With influence of Beat poet generation, science-fition, fassion, art school, and liberation within the format of rock. Which of these unikeUS acts do you like the mostly -------------  
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Replies:
Posted By: Squonk19
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 16:32
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Steely Dan - on a different level. ------------- “Living in their pools, they soon forget about the sea.” |
Posted By: YESESIS
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 16:33
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Can't vote yet because I know nothing of this 'Sparks' deal, but to me Steely Dan is great to say the very least. I've said it before on here but I'd put the first 7 Dan albums up against the first 7 from ANY music artist and like my chances. If Sparks is like them at all then I'm a fan already. |
Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 16:50
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Oh, I tried the Mael brothers - some early gig where Ron (?) is at an RMI Electra-Piano and the singer was *really* OTT, operatic even. Didn’t like it - AT ALL !! And, at least in a recent interview with them, they look kinda ‘scary’ to me. I remember a song from when I was about 8 years old, with a ventriloquist dummy singing ?? Never got into SD, but I don’t mind their songs when I hear them. |
Posted By: Icarium
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 16:58
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Tom Ozric wrote:Posted By: YESESIS
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 17:01
Or Katy Lied maybe for someone who hasn't heard one of their full albums before. It's pretty accessible imo.
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Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 17:07
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I’ve often looked over their albums, and Katy Lied always looked interesting (with the Katy Did ha ha) on the cover. I will try in good time. There’s just so much stuff I’m hung-up on, it’s a bit hard to get around to everything. |
Posted By: YESESIS
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 17:14
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Here's a track from it that might make you think of one of our members here lol. |
Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 17:29
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Thanks !! It’s pretty ‘smooth’, not my idea of Prog. Dodgy subject matter. Better than any Sparks I’ve heard. Their androgynous image is rather unsettling to me. |
Posted By: Lewian
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 17:31
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There are a handfull of Sparks songs that I really like (including most of their 2017 album) and quite a few that I really don't like. Whatever I heard of Steely Dan was nice but didn't move me much, so more feelings (though not all positive) and therefore the vote for Sparks. |
Posted By: verslibre
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 17:48
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Neither. ------------- https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay |
Posted By: Frenetic Zetetic
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 18:17
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Steely Dan. ------------- "I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021 |
Posted By: tboyd1802
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 18:21
 ------------- He neither drank, smoked, nor rode a bicycle. Living frugally, saving his money, he died early, surrounded by greedy relatives. It was a great lesson to me -- John Barrymore |
Posted By: omphaloskepsis
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 19:26
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Based on the 70's...Steely Dan hands down Since 2000, Sparks by a long shot
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Posted By: dwill123
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 19:36
| Steely Dan |
Posted By: YESESIS
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 20:18
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Oh ok, very 80's. And I recognize a member of the Go-Go's with them here as well. |
Posted By: Mista-Gordie
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 20:34
| So easy, Steely Dan is pure genius. Aja is easily a top 10 record of all time for me. Too bad for Sparks, they're pretty cool. |
Posted By: Manuel
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 21:22
Well said.
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Posted By: twosteves
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 21:33
| easily Steely Dan---an important band---Aja a great record----they went to an very good arty private school upstate near me---and made some good smart songs |
Posted By: Mortte
Date Posted: February 08 2018 at 22:19
| Definitely Sparks, I have found Steely Dan really boring. |
Posted By: hellogoodbye
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 00:50
| Boss |
Posted By: uduwudu
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 02:18
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Not heard Sparks before the video posted earlier. Not exactly how I'd consider it along with 10CC, Dan and all but there we go. Donald Fagen's ear for a jazz melody (Any Major Dude) and their laid back but killer grooves (The Fez) and the lyrical matter, murder, drug dealers all sorts of interesting stuff makes any contender against Steely Dan require some serious chops. Guess where my vote goes... |
Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 03:10
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Steely Dan |
Posted By: Mascodagama
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 03:10
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I feel bad for Sparks as they have some really excellent stuff and they are getting killed here. Then again, they are going up against one of the greatest musical and lyrical teams of all time, Messrs. Becker and Fagen. A total mismatch. SD, of course. ------------- Soldato of the Pan Head Mafia. We'll make you an offer you can't listen to. http://bandcamp.com/jpillbox" rel="nofollow - Bandcamp Profile |
Posted By: Mortte
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 03:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6siE-Vt1uI Here´s also great ending piece from same album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLAaAjEPIwA I think this is the most know Sparks-piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAzESJ62irI
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Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 03:34
| I love Sparks but have to go with Steely Dan here. |
Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 03:35
| Ok, since there is an option for Both, will go with that. Why choose one over the other? |
Posted By: Hercules
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 03:44
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Both are excellent bands, but Ron Mael's stage stare, comic mime routines and Chaplinesque (or possibly Hitler piss-take, since he's of Jewish ancestry) moustache mean I'm going for Sparks. They're also very funny at times. I saw them live and you could certainly not describe them as boring. ------------- A TVR is not a car. It's a way of life. |
Posted By: Mormegil
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 06:09
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Neither. ------------- Welcome to the middle of the film. |
Posted By: Jeffro
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 06:45
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Steely Dan rules. Even when I was really into heavier music back in the 80s, I loved Steely Dan. ------------- We all live in an amber subdomain, amber subdomain, amber subdomain. My face IS a maserati |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 08:03
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I predict that Steely Dan will win this poll. Did anyone see what I did there?
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Posted By: digdug
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 10:53
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Steely Dan is amazing wasn't a huge fan at first.... but they grew on me need to check out Sparks no vote ------------- Prog On! |
Posted By: cemego
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 12:59
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I like sparks and steely dan, but i never thought I would see them compared. They are so completely different stylistically I think this is an absurd poll. I voted for both. I think Steely Dan is more jazz where Sparks is like a new wave + prog cross over. This is just my opinion, but you cant compare these two like this. ------------- listen to streaming stuff! no commercials! http://wmom.servemp3.com:8000/listen.pls |
Posted By: maryes
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 15:17
Equal
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Posted By: YESESIS
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 16:07
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These two songs occur back to back on the Pretzel Logic album, and for me have always made one of the best 'one-two punches' I know of by any band. For whoever's interested. |
Posted By: Dr. Occulator
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 16:08
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Seriously? Steely Dan lives on the highest plateau of recorded music with very few peers. ------------- My Doc Told Me I Have Doggie Head. |
Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 16:27
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^Dr.Occulator summed it up.....The Dan of course....but then I am a bit biased. ;) ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 16:36
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I guess SD, but damn are they both a hard pass. ------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
Posted By: Rednight
Date Posted: February 09 2018 at 17:14
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Give me a choice and I'll tell you. ------------- "It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno |
Posted By: socrates17
Date Posted: February 18 2018 at 08:56
| Sparks is one of the great bands of all time. They're one of the few who have maintained their quality from their first album to their most recent, a huge span of time. Ron Mael is one of the very few songwriters of the rock era who is on a level with George & Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields, Oscar Hammerstein, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Vincent Youmans, Kurt Weill, Noël Coward, et al. Most songwriters of modern times can't begin to compare (John Cale & Peter Blegvad are also exceptions to that rule) and that has something to do with my preference for prog & jazz, where there is usually something interesting going on with the instruments. I've seen Sparks live multiple times, starting with their first lineup in 1971. I've never seen Steely Dan, nor owned a Steely Dan album, but what I have heard seems so serious! Do they have a sense of humor? I don't like music which lacks a sense of humor, something that Sparks has in abundance. Wit. It's about wit. |
Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: February 18 2018 at 10:04
| ^^ By no means is Steely Dan a dead serious type of band and certainly songs like Everything You Did are very funny. But it's more subtle/wry kind of humour while Sparks is outrageous. Different approaches and both work for me. |
Posted By: socrates17
Date Posted: February 19 2018 at 14:48
I freely admit that I respond more absurdist, Dadaesque humor, but Ron Mael's songs could be quite subtle. All You Ever Think About is Sex starts with a funny catalog of places the narrator and his lover got caught "doing it" but then it shifts to a minor key and the lyric is: "In a world of lovers, we don't love each other much; Fact is we're too busy to love each other much." Which is a rather melancholy way to conclude a funny song. Ron often makes you think.
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Posted By: Icarium
Date Posted: February 19 2018 at 14:51
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I find that Steely Dans biting irony and lyrics def have humor in it. Like satire, its tickling, observant and the way Fagen phraces and accents certain sylables def goes in the comedic category. In Seinfeld type of observational comedy. -------------
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Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: February 19 2018 at 18:16
Didn't mean to say that Sparks are NEVER subtle. But the outrageousness is right on the surface, both in the lyrics as well as the music. So it's a hook which Steely Dan don't have. I got into Sparks right away but with Steely Dan I had to persist. Both the beauty of their arrangements as well as their humour took some time to reveal their full splendour. |