i agree, im drummer, i love play Steely Dan music

throwing feces at ther wall here, but try these: That Handsome Devil Ween Vulfpeck Which none of these guys's stuff i ever get burned out on. maybe vulfpeck sometimes.

Well said. My fav.

Spot on, Jesse. Same.

@@glennyates2194 Totally!

Yup, Steely Dan always right and never obvious.

There an amazing band with truly unique, hard-to-categorize music. HUGE fan.

They were so brilliant...I hear new stuff every listen. This music is so complex & at the same time, so relatable & funky that I think they were the cream of their time.

Amen.

Can't be helped.

Also 100 times BETTER than any current release of music.

If you want to hear a current form of music where people heard Steely Dan and have carried it on, listen to Japanese pop music. I know many people think the vocals are too twee for them. But musically, they completely paid attention to Steely Dan, jazz, classical. Japanese young people mostly now no longer listen to western pop music. They listen to Japanese and Korean music, because there’s no longer much music happening in most western pop music.

Maybe that is because todays music is so bad and bland in comparison. Manufactured vs old 70s not comparison.

Larry Carlton man, so damn good.

@@klinkov6393 The way he feels the rhythm on that intro is crazy. No beat behind him or tempo, just lays the arpeggio/slow rake out in a way where he feel a rhythm, then the space between the mute and bend that starts the song is ALMOST in the main tempo, just a little off to really give a build into the first beat of the track. Its insane levels of musician-ship and skill.

Yes!

I suspect it’s on the way. One can only hope!

Wouldn't that be something?

That would be phenomenal

My parents were neighbors of Don in Tennessee,on a lake in Winchester. Apparently he was a good dude,

I was just hearing reelin in the years in my head for first few minutes and then he plays it first, interesting connection.

😆 Great line! And Rick is a terrific musician with the heart of a kid.

Yessss

You need to work on your English grammar

Hope she found health and or peace

His multi-tracked harmonized vocals - such as in the chorus of Pretzel Logic - are some of my favorite male vocal recordings. He sings some of the parts in his "verse" voice, and some in a higher register, almost up in Geddy Lee territory. The mix is sublime though, so many listeners may never really notice how many voices there are.

I love Fagen's voice. Honestly, on their debut, I wished he had sung all the songs.

@@rockingbirdey Yup. When you 1st start listening to SD and become accustomed to hearing the signature Steely sound, of _any_ song, you _expect_ to hear Fagan. And when you don't, it's kinda weird on the ears. Sorta like takin' a big slug of what you think to be your ice cold fresh soft drink, but turns out you grabbed the one that has been there for 3 days with 2 cigarrette butts in it.

Absolutely the best for the job - fitness for purpose is perfection. Kinda tautological I guess.

Fagan has excellent phrasing and great control. He also has character and instant recognition. You hear him sing a phrase and you know it's him (if you're previously familiar with his voice). Take that in your band over technical excellence that has no feel any day of the week.

I was already "onto" jazz, but I thought it meant popular music was heading in that direction. 50 years later, pop still has not. Every once in a great while...

I love “Don’t Take Me Alive” but not sure it’s my favorite. Thinking back to Aja, I gave a copy to my girlfriend of a little over year when Aja came out for Christmas. She is now my wife of 38 years and our love of Steely Dan music has not only expanded our musical universe but our grown children’s musical universe as well! I also own one of Walter Beckers guitar amps now.

With the current mass shootings, l wonder what goes on in murderers people's heads. Agents of the law. Luckless pedestrians. I know you're out there with rage in your eyes and your megaphones...

ORAGONE

I couldn't agree more, phenomenal music.

Simply nothing like it.

Yep

I hate it. It’s too overproduced and the mix is sooo over-separated.

Did you know that Steely Dan "broke up" because Walter Becker's girlfriend (Karen Stanley) OD'd in their NY Apartment during the making of Gaucho? After the Gaucho sessions Walter moved to Hawaii to clean himself up off of drugs and that was the end of the band. I have Karen Stanley's RIAA Gold Record for Pretzel Logic from 1974 hanging on my wall.

@@billiondollarbaby3276 wow!

"Thelonious my old friend ... for one more time, let your madness run with mine" Steely Dann are Story tellers first and foremost. They later figured out that their stories could be better told with greater harmonic complexity.

They actually gave the musicians a lot of leeway and welcomed their input, often hiring them to put their spin on it.

@@markgriskey Drummer Jim Hodder, sang that song, so that makes three songs on the first Steely Dan album that were not sung by Donald Fagen I believe he is actually saying "Felonious"

Certainly agree on the sound quality of Gaucho!

As a s d fan Always though gaucho was their masterpiece

The guitarists and their musicianship on Gaucho are astounding.

Really? My least fav of the 6

@@patsfan4life your 6 may be upside down. Or are there 3 of their studio albums that are just off your list for some reason?

All carried by the inimitable Purdie shuffle....

Yes, they are one of a kind.

Denny is pure perfection. His phrasing and timing is exquisite.

All these years, I didn't know Larry Carlton worked with Steely Dan! I loved Larry's solo work back in the day.

Kid Charlemagne & Dont Take me Alive are my two favourite for music. Caves of Altamira for the lyrics and feel.

Precisely.

And you can drink it every day!

We do now, though, that's for sure!

Wait, I knew how good we had it! In 1973, Elton John was a headliner for one of the grandstand shows during the Iowa State Fair. The show included 3 groups before Elton, with the 3rd group being Steely Dan. Elton was riding high on his "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road tour", and "Countdown to Ecstacy" had been released only a month before. I wanted to see Steely Dan, though Elton sold the place out. Steely Dan didn't play!!! I recall the reason was due to the previous acts playing longer than planned. Shows at the Fairgrounds had to end by 10:00 pm due to residential neighborhoods not even 1/4 mile from the stage. However, commentary over the years on other SD videos claim the 2nd act used SD equipment and blew out their amps. Even though I was thoroughly impressed by Elton's show, especially with how hard he rock and rolled, to this day, I'm still disappointed I didn't get to see Steely Dan.

WABX was dope!

This also took place in Winnipeg on 92 CITI-FM in the summer of 78. It had just adopted a rock format in the spring of that year. Even as a high school kid, I picked up on the magnificent world-weariness in Deacon Blues.

I heard Peg a lot on Detroit radio back then as well.

I was surprised a couple of years ago to learn that some people can't stand Steely Dan.

@@wheatonna Yep, I was one of them but its music for grown ups so when I got older I could appreciate it

I know an 60ish year old 80's rocker type guitarist who doesn't think SD should have ever made it, I figure that's because he has no idea on how to play their styles!

Yes, but how many of them just never trust you? ("Katy lies...")

I'm a Dan fan. Good to meet you!

And Becker’s! 11 Tracks of Whack is criminally underrated

Pay anything to see that!!!

@@meatwad61 i love the lyrics on 11 tracks. circus money is good too. so glad you mentioned Walter

The Nightfly is flawless. To this day one of the best albums I've ever heard.

there are more and more "creepy" songs the more current the albums get, though. almost the entire album Two Against Nature, in fact. in the past steely Dan songs have a sarcastic twist to them, but these sound like they're written from personal experience, not a sarcastic parody of somebody

Nice story. Great to hear what kind of guy Jim Hodder was from someone who really knew him. It's always been disappointing to me how this guy who drummed on some of the band's classic tracks--Reelin' in the Years, Do It Again, Show Biz Kids, Bodhisattva, My Old School--never really got the credit he deserved. Once Jeff Porcaro came along, Hodder became an afterthought, if that. Of course Porcaro was a legend. But Jim Hodder's drumming holds up as solid, tasteful, and always musical. He never overplayed. He was an integral part of Steely Dan's early sound. He deserves more respect for his contribution to their legacy.

@@61moonshine Jimmy really liked Jeff Porcaro and saw him as a real comer. He said that they called him, "The Kid". Jeff and I are exactly the same age which blew me away and made me work harder. On Pretzel Logic, they bought in Jim Gordon (another favorite) and I believe it's Jeff and Jim playing together on Mr. Parker's Band. I'm sure Jimmy was disappointed when they got rid of him and the rest of the band but he didn't show it. His bona-fides are on tape for all the world to hear and he did an excellent job, IMHO. Steely Dan is one of my favorite bands and Jeff spoke of the sessions with them as "playing some of the most prestigious music in my history of doing sessions". I heartily concur. Peace.

Wow!

Also, Hodder sang lead vocal on Steely Dan's first single, "Dallas".

It is under-rated as is Countdown To Ecstasy. Still, although I love the song Everyone's Gone To The Movies, it reminds me of Steely Dan's fellow label (ABC Records) mate, Jimmy Buffet. It does a bit and I'm not a Buffet fan.

I mean if you listen to the Katy Lied demos a demo version of Black Cow is on there

I agree.

Before the song "Aja" there was "Your Gold Teeth II"

100%

had same experience but album was Desolation Angels

I just leave them to it. The complexity is too much for their brains...

@@podlou9939 I've thought about why people mightn't like Steely Dan, the only valid criticisms I have heard is that some of their mixes are a little too "thin", or "sterile", I don't completely agree, but it's interesting to hear critique. To me, Steely Dan are THE perfect band. The worst takes are the "It's elevator music", those people can go you know where!

​@@jeffsirnameSteely Dan elevator music?! Them's fighting words!!😄

It’s the same reason many people dislike good classical music. Often these are people who don’t care as much about music as a whole, and the impact of colorful chords. Either they’re casual listeners who have never been exposed to ‘colorful’ chords through classical/jazz/classic pop, or they’re musicians who love punk/basic rock, who legitimately dislike anything that isn’t power chords. The latter category may come around to more colorful music later in life, the former may never. Nothing wrong with people liking what they like. I do get annoyed when they act like Steely Dan empirically is bad music, some of the top musicians in the world in a diversity of styles are obsessed with Steely Dan, has been like that for a couple of generations now. I don’t like Taylor Swift’s songs but I wouldn’t say she just sucks, because clearly she’s doing the work to do her own thing. People should enjoy what they enjoy, but man do people say some stupid things about Steely Dan.

The responses to this question are a big reason why people dislike “The Dan”. It’s snob rock or the perception of that especially when they stoped functioning as a rock band. I love their first three albums because they were a band and that’s important when it comes to rock. When they stopped being a rock band, while the music was good/great, to me it was just a bunch of session guys nothing organic like a band going in and making that music. Aja is a great album but it doesn’t register as a rock album for me. I just can’t shake the penny loafer Volvo driving polo shirt wearing guy driving around playing later era Steely Dan. It can be snobby just like classical music.

Yes. However, not just guitar: the music, the lyrics, all of the musicians. Royal scam is the album (of any album) I would choose on an island if I could only have one album

Royal Scam, the song, plays in rotation at a restaurant I frequent. I pointed it out to the 23 year old waitress, and told her what the song was about. Her response of disinterest did not bridge our 40 year difference in age; however, I do know youngsters who do appreciate great music. I won't give up with sharing my appreciation and the pleasure I derive from music with anyone interested.

Totally agree, the best

Scam is my favorite too. Don't take me alive -- good Lord, Mr. Carlton! Green Earrings just transports me. I love The Fez -- Boz Scaggs said it has a groove so wide you could drive an 18-wheeler on it! 😂

I bet it brings back your Kauai days! Too bad you had to move.

sounds like awesome life

I was born in 1963... I grew up in a world with the greatest music ever... Then it got shittier and shitter ;} lol ...

@@kualua6612 It does. I moved back in 2008 for a year. It’s not the quite the same place these days

@@JJJJJVVVVVLLLLL It has been, aside from my Mom getting MS and dying slowly, bedridden in a hospital for 20 years, never being able to play music again. Having to drop out of highschool to care for her, then ending up doing heroin with my Dad on and off for 20 years till he died on 4/20 age 69. Finally got my sh together, starting a business I built over 5 years from being homeless. Then the pandemic shut down my business, ended up homeless and on drugs again. Doing much better now 😁

Do It Again might be my favorite Dan song of all time. It's Genius!

Same

As much as I looked forward to hearing SD's tunes on the local rock radio stations back then, the obvious sophistication in the writing and lyrics suggested the music was intended for an audience somewhat older than me and my mid-teens friends- we loved the music but the lyrical references and contexts were largely lost on us. I do appreciate Steely so much more now!

@@RTDF516 I was 20 when I first heard them. My drummer was a DJ at the FM station and he was playing stuff from Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck, Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, as well as various obscure and famous rock bands. More variety than anything a few years later (when more FM stations followed and program directors started getting told what "the station's format" had become). At the time, the music was up to the DJs. A much more interesting approach.

Excellent comment. I'm grateful to be "of an age" where Steely Dan's music has always been in my life. Those early singles were like nothing else on the radio in the early '70s, and I got to follow along as they got even more sophisticated and arguably even better, if that's possible. They're utterly unique.

Yup! and Yup!

I thought it was Santana when I first heard it.

Amen! Second that wholeheartedly!

I always regarded them a pop band, with heavy influences from rock&roll, blues, country, soul, gospel, funk, jazz, and singer songwriter styles.

But their first album was pretty straight ahead poppy RnR

They were something along the lines of an aesthetic. Becker and Fagen wrote the music/lyrics. There are a few songs, I believe, and it’s only Fagen on vocals. Becker sitting in the booth working the board, studio musicians handling the music.

@@herrbonk3635 when you declare Steely Dan a pop band it humbles them. I know many people view Steely Dan as iconic and deservedly so. The album “ Aja” is a masterpiece similar to to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. I always thought of Steely Dan as fusion. Aja and Gaucho seem jazzy fusion to me. But labeling them as just a pop band seems like they were also radio friendly and commercial as well as innovative.

A g r e e d .

Absolutely!!

Royal Scam is a masterpiece!

The Royal Scam is also my favorite album.

My friends FORCED me...........

That is a great song. My favorite on that album.

I’ll bet that’s true with piano too

@@ChrisIn2010 Not to mention song composition, lyrics, sound engineering, scouting studio talent ...

Tony,me too, I forced myself to do it for that very reason...and I love Steely Dan! Also was the same for piano, made me a totally different musician...never thought I'd play jazz chords. They taught me!

I got the entire tombe OF their chords ,music and lyrics.,, i thought RUSH were difficult!!. 3 months later our mostly covers band 1 hour set at nearby pubs managed to add Josie & pretzel logic. The latter easier but few songs without more chords than bars! The mind melting Bb major 9 add 11 or... hard to believe inventions/inversions or "dislocations" to be medically apt. While attempting vocal harmonies..??. haha! Fun. Not for the main(drinking) audience Certainly great memories. Serious Respect to any guitarists or bands able to pull it off👍😎

I had a similar experience learning God Only Knows on guitar. Many of those chords are difficult to play on guitar and I had to learn them of a couple weeks. Once I learned them they became part of my routine when trying to find new progressions. There are so many layers to the GOK record, sometimes the chord progression gets under appreciated.

It’s their masterpiece.

That one doesn't get enough recognition. It's actually pretty ambitious in its structure, and I think if it was arranged differently it could very well be a great fit for Aja.

These guys were engineers or architects of song writing. So technical i dont know anyone who aplies such perfection except maybe pink floyd

For CBAT I'd say midnight cruiser or dirty work.

My favorite off Aja

'In the corner . . . . of my eye' 👁

Rudy's is a real dive bar in the Hells Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan.

@@seeburg10 yes! I made a little pilgrimage there back in 2018 , I couldn’t be in Manhattan and not go there, is that weird ? 😅

@@Phoebedumplings not at all! My local friend took me there for the same reason. I liked it on its own merits too.

Love the reggae vibe.

The best lyricists pack more into a single line than others do in a whole song.

@@reverb.deluxe "Now we dolly back. Now we fade to black." The best directors always leave the nasty bits to the imagination.

They were poking fun at everything

love the dynamite shout haha

I love that idea, and can totally see it! Clearly, they knew what they were doing. The whole time!🤟😎

Cool

Saw them in cinci

BOOM!

Yes, if you get a chance to experience a live show, It can be life changing. Absolutely the best live show ever, I have seen, & I have seen mostly all the greats of the classic rock era.

That must have been awesome

I love that bit too!

The Royal Scam is thee masterpiece. 👍🏾👍🏾

Brilliant song My Old School. For that matter, I don't think there is a single band, including the Beatles, who produced less filler per album than Steely Dan. Every damn song they made was great.

I do love that cynical verse "California...that'll be the day..."! I loved it when I was 11 years old and had no idea what he meant.

I always felt similarly, on top of their frankly being ‘allowed’ to

Love The Nightfly!

Gaucho is my favorite as well

Gaucho is my favorite SD album, Night Fly is one of my fav sings as well

When I bought a new cartridge for my record player the Nightfly was the record he used to demonstrate. That album sounds phenomenal and I love I.G.Y.

IGY is also a phenomenal song!

I’m surprised that Rick didn’t break down any songs from Katy Lied. I think there is a natural progression from songs like “Doctor Wu” to the material on Aja. I like The Royal Scam just fine, but to me it’s a step back into rock/blues/funk territory.

The cats could play the chords.

@@davidzack8875 My thoughts exactly. And Michael Omartian's piano is the key connection between Katy Lied and Aja. When Royal Scam came out I thought, cool rock sound but kind of harsh. Where's the smooth complexity of Doctor Wu or Bad Sneakers? The former would fit on Aja as--is; Bad Sneakers with a slightly different arrangement would fit too.

They actually moved to LA to record their first album, Can't Buy a Thrill. They got a job at ABC Dunhill records as songwriters through Gary Katz, who was a staff producer at ABC Dunhill and eventually Katz told them to form their own band. So they sent for Dias, Baxter, Hodder and David Palmer, who were in New York. Their transition began during Pretzel Logic sessions when they started to use LA studio ace players.

Night by night is the cool smash hit - I get shivers even writing about - and I know there are so many 🤗😂💪🏼

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They played it at Chastain Park in Atlanta this past month June 2022. Loved hearing it as the opening Dan tune of the show.

the song that made me an sd addict. making pretzel logic the first album i bought when i left home to join the military and lost access to my familys record collection. next day i went and bought the lot. that was over 25 yrs ago. now i've seen them 3 times (i live in england. lol. if american i'd follow them round. i got all my girlfriends into them. crowbar them in with a tune you know they'd like. my last g/f got really serious into music and i woke one morning to her actually listening to one of my charlie parker albums. can't help but love them. best lyricists ever with music that makes your body move. love home at last. charlie parker was the sound track to heroin. steely dan finished it off with music and lyrics. love home at last. love em all. literally saved my life. their music got me through countless detox's. daddy don't live in that new york city no more. larry carlton.

It could be a scam don't trust it

@@jamesreding6336 that's quite a name, I must say

Give Ween a listen. Start with quebec or white pepper. Then their 12 golden country greats. Song to song album to album they touch every genre and keep changing. Very creative, very underated, but always recognizable. I thInk Rick don't like them. I've never heard him mention them once. SD, black sabbath, ween, the Beatles and Jethro tull is my top 5 go to bands.

@@leeadickes7235 I gave Ween a bunch of listens many many years ago and they weren't really up my alley then, but I'm older now and my musical tastes have evolved & matured, so Ween probably deserves a deeper investigation now on my part. Which 3 Ween albums should I start with and in what order should I listen to them?

Study The Beatles… same… they broke new ground with every album and took us to a new place every time… and yet there was no mistaking who the band was.

Dirty Work chorus always reminds me CS & N.

I loved that band from the moment I heard the opening lick to Reelin' in the Years on an AM radio when I was a lad.

Literally? Like you put the music on a scale and weighed it, and it weighed a ton?

It's "Aja no "'h' at the end.

yes!

Yeah! Caves of Altamira, Pearl of the Quarter, East St. Loius Toodle-oo, Dirty Work... My Rival, Third World Man, Home at Last, on and on... Greenbook, Just West of Hollywood, Negative Girl, Pixeleen... and my FAVE: (the title cut!) Gaucho "Bodacious cowboys, such as your friend, will never be welcome here - high in the Custerdome" What was that?!! Oh,... "somebody screamed somewhere"...

Yeah I wouldn't say "Steely Dan CHANGED their sound," as if they just woke up one day and decided to do everything differently. It evolved over time and was always varied, due to the rotation and shuffling of musicians who appeared on the albums.

I agree. Rick's assessment of Gaucho is bizarre. It's like he has never listened to the album. Maybe he hasn't.

it was a major drop in quality from Aja. is it a good album? Yes. Is it a great album like Aja? No.

@@jamesrudd8705 "Major Drop"? Hardly. Are you a musician perchance?

Not a big fan of Hey 19, but Time Out Of Mind is one of their very best, IMO.

@@casparuskruger4807 no, actually Rick's assessment is right. the single best thing about Gaucho is the cover! Nice painting of a couple dancing a tango. The only musical highlight is Larry Carlton's guitar playing. The lyrics are pointlessly obscure and even juvenile. I wasn't surprised when they broke up after that awful album. It was so disappointing to me that when the Nightfly came out I almost didn't buy it. But I liked the single I.G.Y. so I went ahead and bought the Nightfly - and found it to be head and shoulders above Gaucho. Ever since i've wondered if Gaucho was a "contractual obligation" type of album. And now I know I'm not the only one who suspects that.

Me too. To my ears it's Skunk's take on Jimi, especially "The Wind Cries Mary."

Totally agree…also the solo on “Boston rag” from CTE is ,for me , mind altering…Skunk is right up with the best. Been a Dan fan forever and ever.

We see what you did there!

There are so many great songs on all of their albums.It's well worth listening to all of them.

@@philliesfan1971 and Rick gets it! And passes it along to us. ain't it a wonderful life?

I live in Florida, and unfortunately the band with that many songs on the rock stations (it after all, mostly nu-country) is The Eagles 😔

I feel the exact same when it comes to Death and Black metal..... different strokes for different folks

Weather Report

I’m just discovering Joni Mitchels concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl w Joco Pastorius and Pat Metheny. You are so correct!

Great comment. I think most people need something really obvious and commercial to wrap their head around, i.e. Singer wearing a giant leather cod piece that shoots lasers. But I agree 100 percent!

@@Hogprint25 Dig…Miles of Aisles…another top drawer live JM release around 1974.

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Gaucho works equally well - especially for guitar work.

I'm a big metal head and I own every Dan CD. They're so good.

Great song. He nailed the nostalgic emotion to match the lyrics so well. “The world that we used to know, people tell me it don’t turn no more ….” was written about the late 60’s probably, but mirrors the way I feel about the early 70’s when I came of age.

I love this song too! Hodder's voice is so distinct, and really fitted the song.

I do too. What wonderful regret. At about age 21 or so! But time was both very rich and passed very fast in one's late teens and early 20's.