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

Yep. I'd love to hear it, but not if the site is insecure...

 

Heard a couple of songs on the radio when I was young, but I was hooked after buying the soundtrack to FM. A few are hits n misses for me, but Aja is an all-time great.

 

I have a vinyl copy of Aja, which I bought from a Hi-Fi shop. It is an MCA album (MCA-1688), which has a Linn Selekt Record sticker on it. Sounds lovely...although my turntable is no Linn.

 

Cuervo is gross anyway.

 

It starts with Donald Fagen's voice, which just annoys me, and puts me in the mood to think that the protagonist in the song's story may just be a smartass douche.

 

I get that, but strangely, that's actually part of the charm for me. Every time I hear Donald Fagan, I picture in my mind Steve Dallas from Bloom County. Actually one of my favorite late night pastimes is having a drink and reading Bloom County while listening to Steely Dan. I think if they ever do an animated Bloom County, whenever they show the interior of Steve Dallas's apartment, Aja should be playing.

 

LOVE the 'Dan. Their classic albums are near flawless and I also love Fagen's first two solo albums. Alas, the reunion albums sound far too samey for me, as do the later solo records.

 

Agreed, on both counts.

Regarding the albums sounding "far too samey", that goes to show just how much the players' "feel" was to those classic Dan albums from 1972-1980. Yes, other skilled musicians can play those songs, but the feel and sound is not the same. Players such as Jeff Baxter, Denny Dias, Jim Hodder, Jeff Porcaro, Chuck Rainey. Michael Omartian, Larry Carlton, Bernard Purdie, Steve Gadd, Steve Kahn, etc. were a vital ingredient in those tracks being what they are

 

I've been a fan since the first time I heard Do It Again on the radio. I think the quality fades a little after Aja, but the 70's would have been very different without them. Wickedly intelligent geniuses. We're lucky to have them.

 

Absolutely, but my main problem is there's just no variation in the songwriting on the latter stuff.

 

My rating of the albums.

1 Aja
2 The Royal scam
3 Goucho
4 Two against nature
5 Can't buy a thrill
6 Pretzel Logic
7 Countdown to ecstasy
8 Kathy Lied
9 Everything must go

 

Ooooohhhh

Katy Lied
Aja
Pretzel Logic
The Royal Scam
Countdown to Ecstasy
Can't Buy A Thrill
Gaucho
Two Against Nature
Everything Must Go

But I want to say that I really like 2VN.

Solo:
The Nightfly
Kamakiriad
Circus Money
Sunken Condos
Morph the Cat
11 Tracks of Whack

 

Can't Buy A Thrill
Countdown to Ecstasy

 

You'e easily bored then?

 

2VN? Two Vine Nations, Two Victory Nurses?

 

I like their first run quite a lot, but don't care for anything post-1980!

 

Huh. If you don't hear any variation in just the three songs on Aja (Black Cow, Deacon Blues, and Aja) then I can't help ya.

 

Can't Buy A Thrill was so brilliant. Countdown To Ecstasy was one of the bigger bring-downs I ever got from a record. After that first album, it was more or less a new group for every outing. My opinion of Brecker and Fagan dropped mightily as I learned how poorly they treated all their various band mates. I vaguely remember them having to delay a tour because the rest of the band quit over low wages before they played a single date.

 

Brecker and Fagan, huh?

 

I's hab truble wit spelting!

 

I hear ya! I miss a lot of those jazzy chords and key changes.

 

But maybe Michael and Randy Brecker had a brother?

 

If you want to just dip your toes in the water I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to find a copy of Gold (Expanded Edition). That was my introduction to them and now I have everything they put out, plus the great Fagen solo disc 'The Nightfly'.

Gold, as well as the Citizen box set have the classic live version of "Bodhisattva" with the hilarious introduction by Jerome Aniton. Worth the price of the disc just by itself.

 

I like them. I must have Heavy Metal Be-bop Brecker on the brain.... I need some Funky See Funky Dew!

 

I guess I am the avarage casual fan; I like most of the hits, a few of the albums (esp. Aja), but after four or five tracks I need a detox by listening to some '80s Tom Waits or twenty minutes of Talk Talk or Kraftwerk. It's the detached atmosphere in combination with the recording and production perfection. And I think Kamakiriad is one of the finest cd's to cruise along the highway.