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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Psychedelic Good Trip, Apr 5, 2016.

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  1. Psychedelic Good Trip

    Psychedelic Good Trip Beautiful Psychedelic Colors Everywhere Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York
    The Dan has been around over 40 years these guys still make albums and tour. Just spinned some of my Dan vinyl old, some new than I just figured I'd start a thread on the Dan.. thoughts..favorite songs.. albums.. tours ..best written Fagan Becker songs.. Maybe a favorite solo album from the guys. Or maybe you have knowledge of the original members besides Fagan and Becker. ..




    Aja - Steely Dan (Full Album) »
     
  2. TheDailyBuzzherd

    TheDailyBuzzherd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    The American jazzy Procol Harum. From New York.
    So, Procol Harum West.

    That's what I think. Try a spin of "The Royal Scam".
    Fits the times, doncha think?
     
  3. Psychedelic Good Trip

    Psychedelic Good Trip Beautiful Psychedelic Colors Everywhere Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York
    Big time.....love Scam....
     
  4. apple-richard

    apple-richard *Overnight Sensation*

    Love Can't Buy A Thrill. After that they have bored me for the rest of my life.
     
  5. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    I totally don't agree but that made me laugh, thanks.
     
  6. TheDailyBuzzherd

    TheDailyBuzzherd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    Hi Steve. Drink?
     
  7. Psychedelic Good Trip

    Psychedelic Good Trip Beautiful Psychedelic Colors Everywhere Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York
    Great album Thrill. Cleaned my original vinyl spinned and loved it for the billionth time....
     
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  8. TheDailyBuzzherd

    TheDailyBuzzherd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    The question remains ... Trip or Scam?

    Mmmm ... what would Momma do?

    Heh-heh ...
     
  9. Nostaljack

    Nostaljack Resident R&B enthusiast

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Hard life.

    Ed
     
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  10. jeffd7030

    jeffd7030 I can't complain, but sometimes I still do.

    Location:
    Hampden, ME
    I love Steely Dan too!
    Aja is one of my all time fave albums (possibly top 3 faves).
    Gaucho, Royal Scam, Cant Buy a Thrill and Katie Lied are great but i find that the other records are a bit spotty for my taste.
     
  11. pool_of_tears

    pool_of_tears Searching For Simplicity

    Location:
    Midwest
    The kool aid is spiked, man!

    I discovered Steely Dan a month after high school, along with a girl I dated for a few years...to be young and 18 again :sigh:

    The music takes me back to 1994/95
     
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  12. Sneaky Pete

    Sneaky Pete Flat the 5 and That’s No Jive

    Location:
    NYC USA
    I can't get enough of them. All the tasty playing impeccable recording and finely honed songwriting keep drawing me in. Aja is their magnum opus to me but none of the albums are weak.

    I found it interesting, in my experience, the people in their 20's now, who get into Steely Dan seem to gravitate to Gaucho. It is the most atypical Steely Dan album from those core years. I think the drum sound works for those kids raised on drum machines, whereas I'll take Steve Gadd, or Bernard Purdie any day of the week.
     
  13. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    The Dan are in a class of their own. Fagen/Becker elevated rock by staying true to their jazz Gods.

    The sophistication peaked with Aja, although I personally prefer Countdown to Ecstasy. In Aja, the title track, they are not singing of a woman or drug, but of the psychological landscape where their muse lives. Specifically, "up on the hill" refers to the Camarillo State Mental Hospital, where Charlie "Byrd" Parker was committed for a time. I think Black Cow has similar inspiration. Rudy's refers to Rudy van Gelder's studio, where most of Fagen's jazz heroes recorded their seminal albums.

    My favorite solo album is of course Fagen's Nightfly, which has a genuinely more optimistic flavor, despite The Goodbye Look being about the Cuban revolution.
     
  14. They've never made a bad album, and I put them up with the Beatles and similar as some of the best popular music of the 70s onwards. Wish they were a little more prolific, but I'll take quality over quantity.
     
  15. full moon

    full moon Forum Resident

    I love them. Keep the SACD coming.
     
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  16. Static Discharge

    Static Discharge Forum Resident

    Location:
    Selkirk, NY, USA
    Katy, Countdown, and Gaucho are probably my favorites. I was never able to dig Pretzel much.
     
  17. drewslo

    drewslo Forum Resident

    Countdown to Ecstasy, Katie Lied and Royal Scam are my favorite albums but they are all great.
    Favorite Songs? Tie between Doctor Wu and Don't Take Me Alive.
    Favorite Solo album is probably "Morph The Cat".
    Favorite Tour that I saw was probably 1996 with 2000 a close second.
     
  18. lonelysea

    lonelysea Ban Leaf Blowers

    Location:
    The Cascades
    Each album a classic unto itself, at least up until (and maybe including) Gaucho. Katy Lied my personal favorite.
     
  19. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    I never 'discovered' Steely Dan until a few years ago, and my life is definitely richer as a result.

    I mean, sure, I'd heard most of the 'hits' at one time or another, "Reelin'" and "Hey Nineteen" etc (even though I freely admit the first time I heard "Do It Again" I thought it was Santana:laugh:) but I'd never heard any of the albums. One day my best friend and I were having a few at our favourite watering hole, talking about music as usual, and my friend mentioned Steely Dan. I said, "You know, I've never actually heard them, aside from a song or two..." My friend was like, "Really? You've never heard Aja, even? Oh, man, Aja's awesome, you'd like it for sure!" I had to plead ignorance, even though I knew it was one of those things where one way or another I'd have to seek out the album (given that my friend and I have known one another for thirty years when one of us makes a musical recommendation we do so knowing the others' musical tastes like the back of our hands). A few days later I went to my girlfriend's to pick her up to go out for dinner and, perusing her mum's CD collection, I noticed Aja in there (no, I can't remember if it was Steve's mastering or not:laugh:.) I held the CD up and said, "Funny, Matt and I were just talking about this album the other day...I've never heard it." And, once again, I get: "You've never heard Aja?!":laugh: So we ended up having a smoke and she put the damn CD on. And that was it...after that I was like, "Right- I want to hear every f--king album these guys ever made." Within about a week or so, I did:righton:

    My kids' introduction to music, when he was about three days old, was The Nightfly. I still have the little video of him grooving away in his bouncer chair to the title track. The kid's only three now (almost- two more months) but he loves Steely Dan, even if he doesn't understand what the hell Fagen is singing about (which is probably a good thing...)

    Click on the link to my website in my signature, go to the music page and give my Chocolate And Cigarettes album a listen. It's my version -homage, if you will- of the Dan. And not to blow my own horn or anything, but on some of the tracks I nailed the sound if I do say so myself...if you like Royal Scam/Aja period Dan, songs like "Do It For Love" and "Galveston" in particular will be right up yer alley!
     
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  20. SquaRoots

    SquaRoots The North Star Grassman

    Location:
    AM✫dam.nl
    Just finished reading Brian Sweets' book "Reelin' In The Years" and listened to most of their albums once again.
    What a joy!

     
  21. Holy Diver

    Holy Diver Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    I think they rule, myself. Love the songs, and all the guitar players in them. Here's one of my favorites.

     
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  22. October Man

    October Man Extraordinary tunes from the hard drive

    The Dan are one of my core bands. :)
     
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  23. Haven't listened much the last few years...kinda burned out on them. Great band though and I'm sure I'll get back into them soon enough.
     
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  24. enfield

    enfield Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex UK
    I think a lot of their success relies on the fact that they are one of the few groups that are meticulous about sound and recording quality.And have been over such a long period.I own most of their output including their solo work.If they had standard sound quality,i'm sure i would have a lot less of their material.
     
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  25. Ed Hughes

    Ed Hughes Senior Member

    Location:
    phila.pa.
    Love SD. Been a fan since day one. Going to see them again this summer.
     
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