I’d like to entertain a discussion, if I may, of one of my favorite artists.
I discovered Steely Dan only recently during the summer of 2000. A tune, a random one, kept running through my head mercilessly around April of that year. I asked my mom and dad if they had heard this tune, humming what I thought was the melody to no avail. Finally, a friend helped me out and told me that the song was something called Hey Nineteen. I immediately went to the record store and purchased a copy of their greatest hits and proceeded to acquaint myself with what has been an addiction for the past two and a half years.
Interestingly enough, the first exposure I had with SD involved what was their last hit for quite a period of time. The second album I got was Katy Lied. I played this album over and over weekly for probably a year, and it still gets a monthly play. This was new, intersting stuff: Real Music at Last, a reprieve from the recent Clear Channel/Westwood One phenomenon. Ever since then I have purchased another album of theirs quarterly. My favorite album currently would have to be the aforementioned Katy Lied, this recording being made during the period when they became a studio-based duo yet still with some of the past band members, allowing for a combination of interests that appeals to me. However, I must say that I celebrate the whole catalogue aside from playing favorites.
I was under the impression that their name is NOT a literary reference.
Another vote for Aja. Reeling in the Years is my favorite song.
Legend has it that Chevy Chase used to play with Becker and Fagen while in college.
Joe K, I discovered Steely Dan in exactly the same way - with “Hey Nineteen”. It was in '97 when I was a sophomore in college. I went out and bought the “Decade of Steely Dan” disc, and after listening, wasted no time and got the Citizen Steely Dan box set. Wonderful, wonderful.
I was very into Charlie Parker at the time, and hearing his influence in Becker and Fagen’s songs (check out that guitar solo in “Your Gold Teeth II!”) made it all the more blissful.
Favorite album - another vote for Aja.
Favorite song - currently, “Turn That Heartbeat Over Again”.
The book mentioned earlier, incidentally, is Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs.
They took it from William S. Burrough’s novel Naked Lunch. The dildoes name is “Steely Dan III” and a female character uses it to shove it up her boyfriend’s ass. I often find myself singing “Deacon Blue” when I’m feeling depressed.
A friend of mine was a big Steely Dan/Donald Fagan fan. I remembered him telling me that the first CD he ever bought was Fagan’s The Nightfly. Some time after that, Fagan released his next solo album, so knowing that my friend didn’t have the money for it, I bought it for him. He acted upset that I did it for him, but I have to think that he was happy to get it. A couple of months later, he died of AIDS. I miss ya, Jim. You were a good friend.
Amazingly, there appears to be only one bio of the duo available, Steely Dan: Reelin’ in the Years, by Brian Sweet, which - surprise, surprise - was done without their cooperation. The main contribution of the book, besides some basic material on their early days, is that it gives virtually a song by song breakdown of who played and how the song was put together, pretty essential for their studio years.
I have all the albums and still bought the 4-CD boxed set when it came out, just to make it more convenient to sit down and listen to everything they did. I can’t think of another band that was so consistently good on each and every song on each and every album. I have my favorites - though they vary and cycle over time - but their songwriting and lyric writing was exceptional, at least through Fagan’s The Nightfly. I haven’t really liked either of their solo albums or the 2001 reunion album.
I know rock purists have hated them from the beginning because of their perfectionism in the studio, but I believe that rock music over the past twenty years would have been much better if it had been influenced a little more by Steely Dan and their emphasis on getting the best musicians - especially jazz musicians - to play the best possible tracks and less influenced by loudness and attitude.
The problem, of course, is that they wre unique and you can never replace uniqueness.
That’s the disc I got too! I have yet to be really immersed in jazz, so I didn’t catch on to Parker’s influence in the guitar solo, but let it be known that that solo is one of my favorite guitar solos of all time (as well as my favorite of Jeff Porcaro’s drum parts).
Great to see we’ve so many fans so early! Who else is there?
I’ve been listening to them since roughly 1980, when Alexandra of Framingham turned me on to them. Beautifully wrought lyrics, thoughtful musicianship and impeccably engineering.
What’s not to love? PLUS-PLUS- they went to Bard College !!!
I got really and truly sick of them after knowing too many people who played them incessantly. But I will give them kudos for writing really entertaining liner notes.
Favorite CD: Katy Lied (with Aja a strong second).
I saw them play Merriewether Post Pavillion during their first tour in 20 years. It was a terrific, terrific show (10th row center seats put me in great position). When they performed “My Old School” all the W&M grads went bonkers, as you might expect.
Favorite song? A toss-up among “My Old School,” “Haitian Divorce,” and “Don’t Take Me Alive.”
Hard to pick a favorite album, but I’d go with “The Royal Scam,” since it has two of the three above.
Anecdote: My wife was talking about football team names, for some reason, and suddenly, out of the blue, said, “They call Alabama the Crimson Tide.”
I replied, “Call me Deacon Blues.”
I’ve been listening to Steely Dan since, oh let’s see, about 1972.
Now that I have my old fart credentials out of the way:
Compared to others, I’m not a big fan of Aja, but I still consider it a great album. My least favorite album, Countdown to Ecstasy, has my favorite song, “My Old School.”
Can’t Buy a Thrill is one of the most remarkable debut albums ever made. Every song is a gem.
If I had to choose a favorite album, I would say Royal Scam. It has “Kid Charlemagne,” “The Caves of Altamira” and “Don’t Take Me Alive,” then gets better.
It’s nice to see them appreciated by you younger folk.
For some reason, I seem to come across a lot of people who hate Steely Dan. Most of them were people who had a strong interest in music. I never inquired why, but of all the bad music out there, Steely Dan seemed to be their pet peeve. Anyone else have this experience?
Favorite songs would have to be Barrytown, My Old School, & Kid Charlemagne.
Best Anecdote - About two years ago (whenever their last tour was)we were driving back from the bar late at night, and the local public radio station said they had just received some tickets for the upcoming show. The first one to call during the next SD song would win. I don’t even know what the song was, but I recognized the sound, hit dial (I already had the number punched in), and won. As it turns out, these tickets were front row, dead center. We were so close our knees were touching the stage. The place held like 15,000 people, and the show was sold out…talk about being smug!
