Who Else Is Like Steely Dan?

some similarities to be found along the journey ...

The Kozmigroov Konnection
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The Kozmigroov A-list
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According to William Burroughs there were three Steely Dans, but only one, Steely Dan III, survived.

 

just before the tape recorder fell out....

 

Monkey House very similar

 

The easiest way to find bands that sound like Steely Dan is to find groups of the studio musicians who played on Dan albums who then played together on other projects. One I can think of that sounds similar to the Dan is Pages:

 

Another album that featured a lot of Dan studio guys was Dane Donahue's s/t album:

 

Bill LaBounty's late '70s and early '80s work has a lot of Dan studio personnel, and he frequently has rather cynical, sarcastic lyrics, which is very Dan-esque.

 

The song strikes me as a "Kid Charlemagne" imitation too.

 

Here's another band with loads of Dan contributors who have a good Dan vibe, both musically and lyrically:

 

And of course, there's... uh... this Hawaiian gem. Who? Steely Dan? Never heard of them, brah.

 

Maybe later Doobie Brothers with Michael McDonald and Jeff Baxter. Both Steely Alums. Not really Steely Dan sound but sophisticated arrangements and vocals/ guitar from the same family. Minute By Minute might sit nearby Steely in your LP rack. Also, there is some 70's/80's era jazz fusion that can remind you of some similar playing. As for Fagen and Becker solo work, I really count that as part of the same catalog. Those albums could certainly have been Steely Dan albums IMO. Fagen produced Becker's 11 Tracks of Whacks and Becker produced Fagen's Kamakiriad amongst other cross over there.

 

This albums a Poor man's steely Dan very close Doobie brothers living on the fault line Jeff Baxter and Mike MacDonald are heavy in the mix and studio slickness

 

Agreed doobies were close, like a steely Dan sandwich with mustard but no roast beef

 

No one. But closest would be Joe Jackson.

 

McDonald toured with Fagen more recently (within past 10 years?). Dukes of September also with Boz Scaggs. I'd put Scaggs in a similar genre as well.

 

Actually, this is the correct answer.

 

And tied into that, Patrick Simmons' solo album was the poor man's poor man's Steely Dan in that it's basically a McDonald-era Doobie Brothers album. Very Dan sound on many of these tracks:

 

Looked up Donohue; can't say I was expecting medical device fraud. Interesting article—
The Lost Prince of Yacht Rock

 

Yeah, his journey has been an interesting one. Good news is that he's back on the straight and narrow and producing music again, so hopefully we'll get some more smooth goodness.

 

Horace Silver's Song For My Father. At least that's where they ripped off the riff for Ricky Don't Lose That Number.

 

More of a Josie feel to me, but definitely has that Dan feel.

 

I was in a band that played whatcha gonna do by Pablo cruise and everyone thought it was steely Dan we use to have a contest, guess the artist Steely Dan was always the guess

 

Good thing Peter Grant wasn't their manager!

 

Good album

 

Deely Stan