Anything about Steely Dan

Here are the boys talking about Deacon Blues:

http://fridaynightboys300.blogspot.com/2016/02/steely-dan-talk-deacon-blues.html

 

Nice. I love "Deacon Blues", my favourite on the Aja album. For a song that is so "down" (if not outright "depressing") whenever I hear that intro it makes me smile.

 

Me too!

 

What is this?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014MGPI2W

UPDATE: Never mind - looks like one of those quasi-legal FM broadcast discs. Back to the regularly scheduled discussion.

Cheers,
Paul

 

I don't find Deacon Blues depressing at all

Here is a guy that is living his night time underground lifestyle. Maybe he wasn't successful, but he lives life in his hipster terms

 

• Saturday 18 June 2016
• Steely Dan
  
  Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA, US
  

 

Anything about Steely Dan? The great Walter Becker chats about Steely Dan, Circus Money and Dan! The Musical...

FRIDAY NIGHT BOYS: Walter Becker on Steely Dan and Circus Money... »

 

I enjoyed 11 Tracks of Whack too - and Medical Science...

 

Ya cant go wrong with a bit of Steely Dan. IMO.

 

Never figured why that one didn't make the cut!

 

A question for the English speakers out there: what's the meaning behind the word "deacon" on "Deacon Blues"? I know about the theme of the song, its meaning and all that, but i don't understand the meaning of this word here. Isn't "deacon" some kind of cleric?

 

The song was largely written at Fagen's house in Malibu and was prompted by his observation that "... if a college football team like the University of Alabama could have a grandiose name like the "Crimson Tide" the nerds and losers should be entitled to a grandiose name as well." [1] The song's protagonist has been described by Fagen as "autobiographical' in that it reflected the dreams of both Fagen and Becker about becoming jazz musicians while they were living in the suburbs. Characterized as a "loser" by Fagen, the song's subject was meant to reflect "... a broken dream of a broken man living a broken life."[1]

The name "Deacon" was influenced by Deacon Jones, a professional football player who played for the NFL's Los Angeles Rams.[1]From Wikipedia

 

Has Fagen's demo of Love Will Make It Right ever surfaced?

 

One summer in college - I think it was 1995 - my best friend and I used to sit up until 3 or 4 in the morning, smoking cigars and listening to Steely Dan - especially "Deacon Blues". Sometimes, we'd drink a little and talk about girls. Sometimes we'd just sit in the dark and listen to the music.

Ah, good times. Anytime I hear the song, I remember those days.

 

On recommendations read here, playing HEADQUARTERS for the first time as I write this.

Wow. Damn good. Dan good

 

Indeed. Next, if you like post-Gaucho Dan, I'd recommend Bill LaBounty's Back To Your Star. And, as I mentioned elsewhere, Ed Motta's AOR and just-released Perpetual Gateways.

 

I'm more of 72-77 kinda SD guy, but I'll check them out anyway

 

I've been reading the updated "Reelin' In The Years" SD bio and Fagan makes an interesting and fairly important point regarding Walter Becker's contribution (or supposed lack thereof). People began really asking the question of what Becker actually did when "The Nightfly" was released since, to most ears, it sounded exactly the way the "next" SD album would or should have sounded in the context of their organic progression and development as a band.

When asked directly about this, Fagen said that this "sound" that people attribute to SD was developed over a period of 14 years very slowly and EQUALLY by he and Becker. "Can't Buy a Thrill" certainly sounds less like "Nightly" than "Aja" does, so one can actually trace that development over the course of their albums. So the sound and approach Fagen used on "Nightly," was theirs not his.

Adding to this, he used the same producer (Gary Katz) and engineer (Nichols) and studio musicians, so of course it's gonna sound like a Steely Dan album in terms of sonics. Also, Fagen has said that he normally takes the lead in terms of the harmonic construction of the initial song ideas (the majority of the time, but not always), which Becker then adds to and tweaks. To top it all off, Fagen's vocals are such a signature of Steely Dan that they trick people into overlooking the real major difference between SD and Fagen solo: the lyrics and attitude.

Fagen's solo lyrics certainly have a lot of wit, irony and intelligence - but they almost completely lack real bite and poetry. They tend to be rather plainspeaking and more personal and a tad more bland than SD. I've mentioned this before, but if Fagen sang every song on Becker's "Circus Money" people would say it was the real return to to form SD album. "11 Tracks of Whack" was the anomaly and Becker had just produced Rickie Lee Jones' album and was enjoying the looser approach, even using some of her original demos on the album (with some overdubs). He, bravely, decided to try to write and record is own album in that spirit and, while it doesn't sound like SD, it is a successful and enjoyable collection of cool songs in its own right (which, not incidentally, Fagen produced). It's even easy to imagine a few of the songs, like "Book of Liars," done up in full SD mode with Fagen singing on an official SD album.

Anyway, I was struck by Fagen's comment that what people define as "the SD sound" was developed over a decade by he and Becker, 50/50. It's a very simple, obvious idea that people tend to overlook, at best, and ignore or deny, at worst, when considering Walter Becker's contribution to Steely Dan.

 

Why do you say this? I always thought it referred to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, who are def losers in college sports compared to the Tide, whereas Deacon Jones was a huge star in the NFL and later even became an actor. Not saying you're wrong, just curious how you know...

 

I didn't say it.

 

From the WSJ article:

"Mr. Fagen: When Walter came over, we started on the music, then started filling in more lyrics to fit the story. At that time, there had been a lineman with the Los Angeles Rams and the San Diego Chargers, Deacon Jones. We weren’t serious football fans, but Deacon Jones’s name was in the news a lot in the 1960s and early ‘70s, and we liked how it sounded. It also had two syllables, which was convenient, like “Crimson.” The name had nothing to do with Wake Forest’s Demon Deacons or any other team with a losing record. The only Deacon I was familiar with in football at the time was Deacon Jones."

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Hey—Luke Wilson!!!

Hey Luke Wilson »

 

More Walter: FRIDAY NIGHT BOYS: Walter Becker and Larry Klein: Circus Money »

 

Nice!