Steely Dan... What Do You Think???

I like Steely Dan but the only ones that pushed me to purchase were:

Can't Buy A Thrill
Countdown To Ecstasy
Pretzel Logic
The Royal Scam

 

Almost too clever for their own good, but only almost!! Class music and wry lyrics make for a great combination. Some Dan or Fagen solo is never far from my ears.....

 

Countdown is my fave album ... followed by Katy

They started to lose me with Aja -- love the title track, but the rest of the album felt like it was too much of a push for commercial success, IMHO.



She loved the million dollar words I say
She loved the candy and the flowers that I bought her
She said she loved me and was on her way
Singing voulez voulez voulez vous...

.

 

A Top 5 band for me: I only hold The Beatles in higher regard.

I discovered them Christmas 1973, when my girlfriend's brother bought her Countdown To Ecstasy, in the sure knowledge that she wouldn't like it, and so he could claim it back. What he wasn't counting on, was that I would. That album started a life long love, that has lasted as long as my 40 year marriage to the same girl. When my brother-in-law died unexpectedly at the age of 50, I read a eulogy, and I took that same album along, explaining about our shared love of music, and what a bond we'd had because of it. Whenever I play that album, or something by my brother-in-laws real love, Bob Dylan, I always imagine he's sitting there beside me. I obviously have the chair with the sweet spot.

 

favorite songs..
Any Major Dude Will Tell You
Razor Boy
Aja
Gaucho

favourite albums
Countdown To Ecstasy
Pretzel Logic
Katy Lied

tours
1996 and 2000. Saw both.

favorite solo album from the guys
The Nightfly
11 Tracks Of Whack

 

In the seventies, I don't appreciate them at all.
Didn't like the vocals, songs didn't grab me.
In the last few years I have become I huge fan.
Aja, Royal Scam and Gaucho are my favorites.
Love the Becker and Fagen solo stuff as well
Circus Money is one of the best recorded CDs I have ever heard.
Glen

 

I love the band but the cost for tickets on the last tour that came through was more than I could reason. For two, it was over $500 all in. I decided to stay home, just listen to five SD albums and pay much less for beers.

I think they are more of a studio band anyway.

 

Interesting- you'd think the push for "commercial success" started with their very first album...if "Dirty Work" and "Reelin' In The Years" ain't commercial, I don't know what is! After years of slogging it, busting their keisters trying to "make it" in the music business -and not just as songwriters or anonymous sidemen for the likes of Jay and the Americans- I think Becker and Fagen went for it from the get go as soon as they got their ABC contract and assembled the band. It was make or break time. After all, Countdown To Ecstacy -an album much loved by Danfans- was initially considered unsuccessful because it lacked a "Do It Again" or "Reelin' In The Years" kind of hit. Countdown To Ecstacy almost seems like the anti-Can't Buy A Thrill in retrospect.

Actually with Aja Becker and Fagen were a bit concerned that they might have gone a bit too far in pursuing a more esoteric sound- "Too ambitious for our own good" was how I believe Walter Becker put it (in the aforementioned Reelin' In The Years bio.) They had no idea the Aja album was going to be as huge a success as it was. Now, with Gaucho, there I think they were trying a little too hard to put a more 'commercial' slant on the Aja sound/style.

I think nowadays the problem with Aja is that people associate it too much with "Peg" and "Josie". "Peg", admittedly, is very overplayed. IMO, they're the 'worst' (for lack of a better term) songs on the album!

 

Where Cousin Dupree is concerned, that's definitely a good thing that he doesn't understand!

 

Not heard everything after their initial 1972-80 run, but I like Everything Must Go and I like The Nightfly.

They can't do much wrong in my book.

 

Where a lot of their songs are concerned, it's a good thing he doesn't understand. Like I've said before, it'll be interesting when he's a teenager and realizes that this music he loved as a kid was predominantly about sex and drugs and low friends in high places and whatnot...

(for that matter, it's a good thing my wife doesn't really realize what they're singing about most of the time, either!)

 

I've always wanted to get into Steely Dan, where should I start. Do they have a good compilation or should I just start with their albums.

 

I play Katy Lied the most , in fact I was playing it before I saw the thread!

 

You might as well start with the albums or something like the Citizen Steely Dan box set. There's only one compilation out of their many compilations that encompasses their whole career (i.e. including songs from the two 2000's 'reunion' albums)

 

I would start with Can't Buy A Thrill and Pretzel Logic, but that's because they're my 2 faves. Hard for me to say which one is better but they're both stone cold brilliant.

 

I saw them in Pittsburgh, on what I think was their only tour, when they opened for the Beach Boys, back in '74, I guess it was. I was already a big fan at the time. It was a cool story to tell people about it, until the started touring again in the 90s.

'I was smoking with the boys upstairs, when I heard about the whole affair."

 

Love The Dan!

Love all albums up to and including Gaucho with possibly the exception of Pretzel Logic which has some weak moments imo. But on the other hand the title song and Any Major Dude are among my favorite Dan songs.

 

If you think Pretzel Logic has weak moments than I would love to see your record collection...perfect LP in my book!

 

Liked all their cd's up to gaucho. Great sounding group of high quality musicians.

 

Sorry, Bibijeebies, but Veovis and I are in exact agreement as far as Pretzel Logic goes. Personally I think it's their weakest album (including the two 'reunion' albums), other than "Pretzel Logic", "Rikki" and "Major Dude". I suppose "Night By Night" is alright as well, but I have no use for the rest. But what the hell...if our musical tastes were completely identical then this would be one boring music discussion forum, wouldn't it?

 

in my top ten all-time.

 

Oddly, I'm thinking about "Showbiz Kids" right now.

 

Always not far from my car cd player

 

Start at the very beginning.

It's a very good place to start.

Then, what riches you'll have in store.

 

Pretzel Logic is the one I always come back to. It has everything -- dark, funny, pretty, ugly -- and some jazz references I didn't get for a long time. Like the way "Parker's Band" concludes with a lick straight out of Bird's "Bongo Beep"...