Finally!!! I'm curious. Are there a lot of sales of their albums? Seems like they're all behind paywalls, but I'm always curious which 60/70s band/artist is popular, and why. The only band I have seen four times. I have their books. I love the Lost Gaucho Tapes - highly recommend -Kind Spirit -The Bear -This All Too Mobile Home -The Second Arrangement
Aja is a little too smooth for me and Gaucho is my least favorite...all that being said, a band should be so talented to have such two great albums as their lesser albums in a stunning discography. Katy Lied, Countdown...trying to pick a fave...can't. Up to and through Royal Scam....genius killer stuff...the other two are just short of genius , but still are fantastic. It is just that Aja and Gaucho have a couple songs each I skip...over played on the radio back in the day I guess.
In the 70s, Rick Wright expressed his admiration for the album, "The Royal Scam", but went on to say what a great song it was, and mentioned the very beginning. Almost like "Oooh, this is already great!" I tried to find some other things, and did see it on a list of his Top 10 albums Pink Floyd member Richard Wright named his 10 favourite albums of all time
@MortSahlFan ...Interesting to see your handle (Mort Sahl Fan). I saw him by accident in 1970 or 1971. We were to see Jefferson Airplane at a smallish venue in the university student union, but they canceled for some reason. Strangely, a non musical act, Mort Saul, was the substitute act booked and we really enjoyed his biting political satirical humor. We chose to go instead of getting a refund...we loved him.
Wow, how cool! It's almost impossible finding fans, especially being born in the 80s. I was a 'pal' of his; met him 4 times. I can't remember which book it is in, or if it's one of those Pink Floyd questionnaire comics, but Steely Dan selected their likes, which included Mort Sahl. This is different, but found this, too.. "They revere Mort Sahl and Charles Mingus and other icons, but they also gleefully trampled over taboos across the board." https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/shanah-tova-from-donald-fagen
Not highjacking the thread as Mort was a favorite of Steely Dan... Mort was kind of our young underground hero that appeared on shows like The Smothers Brothers... he was on the final show just before they were cancelled for being too political. Hard pressed to find a comedian nowadays that is so intelligent. who doesn't resort to crude humor to get a laugh. On getting censored...Dick & Tom...I am sure Smothers Brothers would have had the Dan on if they hadn't been cancelled. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTiBWSlr748
The best two minutes in comedy. I've probably uploaded 90% of his videos on YouTube. I put myself in further debt paying a ton for interviews, and there's still a ton out there. I miss him very much. I used to have Thursdays to look forward to, where he had a live audience, but would take our questions from Periscope/Twitter/Facebook and I recorded almost all of them from 2014 onward and uploaded quite a bit. His last stand-up show would have been Feb 2020, and then COVID shut down all the theatres in California.. Sadly, I knew this would bad for him, because in his last interview, he said "Working and talking to people is the thing that keeps me alive".
I always knew who Steely Dan was and had a few singles. When I started working and could afford albums getting all the Steely Dan records was high on my list. I went into Wax Trax and Round Records and dug through their used bin and happily I found all the Steely Dan albums at 99 cents. Seeing the cheap price tag on the Aja album still makes me smile especially after a trip to Barnes and Noble where new copies of Steely Dan albums are priced considerably higher.
I did not write this introduction, but I'm cautious about providing the link or telling others where I got it since the last time I did this, the article got erased without my consent.
Aja and Gaucho are my two absolute favorite Steely Dan albums with The Royal Scam and Katy Lied coming in third and fourth places.
My first encounter with Steely Dan, or so I always thought, was in high school in 71 when a friend had a copy of an Ultimate Spinach album. This thread prompted me to look up the band where I see Jeff Baxter was a member, so maybe that doesn't count. I was attending an Air Force tech school during the spring of 73 and my roommate drove an AMC Javelin with an 8-track deck in it. We listened to Can't Buy A Thrill and Dark Side Of The Moon over and over while cruising in that Javelin. Somehow, I missed buying Countdown To Ecstasy when it was released. The Air Force moved me to Wichita Falls, TX in 74 and I bought Pretzel Logic when it was released. I had a little stereo and played the heck out of that album. In 75, the Air Force sent me to Thailand where I bought a copy of Katy Lied. With no stereo of my own over there, I had to listen to my albums on a friends stereo. At some point in 76 I bought the first two Steely Dan albums along with The Royal Scam. Aja, and Goucho were both purchased at time of release. I also bought the first two Donald Fagen albums at time of release. All of these were on vinyl. When Citizen Dan was released I bought it so I could listen to SD's music on cd. I can't say I loved the Citizen Dan cds with the albums being cut up to fit the cd length. Much later I bought the original Steely Dan cds individually. If I had to rank the original albums, my favorite to least favorite list is: Katy Lied Aja Pretzel Logic Countdown To Ecstasy - Goucho (tied) The Royal Scam Can't Buy A Thrill One more thing, when I see a thread asking for "perfect" albums, I always contribute with Pretzel Logic. I consider it a perfect pop album, start to finish. Just perfect for its' time. Steely Dan never made a bad album.
So you're saying Spiritual Architect was wrong about PL? Difficult third albums I never forgot what he said, btw, and immediately spotted him when he came back as California Couple (though he denied it): 7 ABC/MCA Steely Dan albums in 7 days challenge
You know, I'm not sure I ever knew it was a woman. Anyway, if she ever returns, she'll probably be very careful when discussing Pretzel Logic.
I'd had the Decade of... comp CD since about 1988 and got to know the hits pretty well. Then, in 2019, I got the Citizen box set and have enjoyed it immensely. Since then, Katy Lied, Royal Scam and Can't Buy A Thrill have become my favorite albums, but all seven from that classic era are fantastic. (On my last trip to my hometown in New York a few years ago, I even made a quick trip to Annandale to see the "Old School" campus of Bard College!)
I heard Countdown very late, years after all else pretty much, and I think I had some preconceived idea before that, that it was a kind of weak interim record between the first and third albums, and that it had no hits and a weak cover artwork, so it couldn't be great. But, no, it's great. Easily compares with everything else they ever did. These days it is probably my second favorite record of theirs, next to Pretzel Logic. It may be lacking the super crispness of some stuff on Aja and The Royal Scam, but the songs, the lyrics, the arrangements, the killer guitar solos....it's still epic.
I remember hearing Haitian Divorce and Kid Charlemagne on the radio in the mid-70s and I must have bought Royal Scam and then the EP with Dallas, Sail the Waterway, Kid Charlemagne and Do It Again; shortly after, I bought the FM soundtrack and then the double greatest hits. The rest is history!did have
It’s funny - Gaucho is often the album that gets the most stick, but it might be my favourite of theirs. To be fair, though, they never made a bad album.
