Steely Dan appreciation

Hi,

Edited by moshkito - September 26 2012 at 15:55

HolyMoly wrote: I got "Two Against Nature" when it came out, but something essential seemed to be missing.  It seemed to have all the style but none of the substance of Steely Dan. Granted, by the time of Gaucho, their sound had already begun to get more homogenized, but there were still interesting compositional quirks or unexpected happenings in the songs here and there.  Two Against Nature just sounds like warm milk - smooth and bland.  I haven't bothered to try "Everything Must Go", but I don't have my hopes up.

One of my favorite artists of all time. Along with the Beatles, I think I've known their work for all of my life, thanks in part to my parents playing them whenever my family went on a road trip.

Also, Donald Fagen is probably the best lyricist of the 1970s, at least in my book.

Donald Fagen is releasing a new album titled Sunken Condos on October 16th.  Here is an article and a link to listen to one of the songs.  http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/song-premiere-donald-fagen-im-not-the-same-without-you-20120917?link=mostpopular2

I'm a bit late to this discussion.  It seems Steely Dan have been moved to Jazz Rock / Fusion since it began.  But I agree with the other assessments.  They are better placed in Crossover.  As so many have pointed out, they are maybe prog's perfect representatives of Crossover, maybe even better than, say, Peter Gabriel.  They have the outsider, buck-the-convention attitude of a prog band, but with scores of pop hits and ear-friendly melodies to ensure their appeal to mainstream America.  But the beauty is, the people who listen to them for the pop hits and ear-friendly melodies are missing the point entirely.  Supposedly Rolling Stone called them the perfect musical antiheroes of the 70s, and that seems right.  They don't belong entirely to prog, that's for sure; but if you fail to acknowledge that there is something more going on in their music than anybody alongside of whom they are played on the radio, you've got it wrong.

Steely Dan are one of the best bands on the planet. Check out Donald Fagan and Walter Becker solo projects and albums created as a duo. They retain a lot of the typical Steely Dan sound, and are timeless additions to any collection. 

All of you fans, check out this album:

I think Countdown is the most  prog-compatible of their albums. After that, Aja for the two big jazz fusion-ish tracks and then Royal Scam has an APP rocking much harder than usual feeling.

Pretty great band.  My father was a pretty big fan in the 70s so I was very familiar with all their albums even way back then, and I still listen to them now.  I've never thought "Can't Buy a Thrill" was all that great, except for the godlike track "Do it Again".  But otherwise, all the albums through Gaucho are great.  My personal favorite is either "Countdown to Ecstasy" or "Royal Scam" - endlessly complex and entertaining, both of them.  Fagen's first solo album "Nightfly" is quite neat too - a real original sounding 50s/80s hybrid, very alluring. 

Edited by HolyMoly - May 25 2010 at 11:26

I do love the band: I still remember the first time I heard "Do it again", in 1973.