Never known a band to be on the lookout for such mind numbingly boring material and then once found have the audacity to record and release it.
They're on their way to Oz for the first time. Suppose they forgot why nobody wanted them here in the first place. Perhaps I should remind them that they suck.
Hard.
kyle m
Have you ever lent somebody $20 and never seen them again? It was probably worth it.
My favorite Steely Dan songs: The killer Don't take me alive."I crossed my old man back in Oregon,don't take me alive". Also Pretzel Logic,a great tune.
"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"
I love Steely Dan, they are an American musical treasure of a timeless nature.
At the moment, my favourite track is "The Fez". Plus this other one about the high time drug chemist that winds up left by all his former patrons "in the red, and all his low-rent friends are dead"...
sweetcharmedlife Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My favorite Steely Dan songs: The killer Don't > take me alive."I crossed my old man back in > Oregon,don't take me alive". Also Pretzel Logic,a > great tune.
Yeah killer guitar solo on the intro of that song.
I think it is Larry Carlton on that solo.
Again just so nice........the lyrical phrasing, impeccable timing, vibrato...........all the elements of a great guitar solo.
Elmo Lewis Wrote: -------------------------------------------------------
> In the American south circa 1979 - Alabama Crimson > Tide was a powerhouse football team. They got a > name for the winners of the world .....
I was attending The U of Alabama at the time. It was amazing when that song came out. It seemed like Bama owned the world! I always smile when I hear that song.
My first Steely Dan exposure happened when I was about 9 or 10 years old, and Do It Again was saturating the radio airwaves. Then came Reelin'In The Years, and Rikki Don't Lose That Number. It's a small part of the soundtrack to my early youth.
Then came all the other "hits" mentioned above. I wasn't a huge fan at the time, but you couldn't escape them...they were always on the radio. Don't Take Me Alive is great, a killer guitar with great lyrics and vocals. Black Friday...the same, excellent tune. Bodhisatva...FM...Deacon Blues...Chain Lightning...Black Cow Aja...Hey Nineteen...Babylon Sisters...all great.
I was able to see them reunited (Becker/Fagan) live about 15 years ago, and it was indeed a great show.
Steely Dan is awesome! I don't think any other rock act could have gotten away with so obviously "borrowing" the Horace Silver Quinet's riff for "songs my father taught me" but they did and they pulled off "Rikki don't lose that number" without a hitch.
My favourite is "Katy Lied" and then the live soundboard stuff from 1973 in LA. The only good bootleg stuff out there by them.
Angee,I don't know where you are, but SD is touring the States, I believe, right now. Might indeed be very different from the live Dan outfit of the early 70s (before they'd withdraw into the studios for a couple of decades to come) you might have missed... but still...
Charles, "Katy Lied" is and has always been my favourite SD album too.
The subject of Steely Dan is not so OT after all when one considers the cynicism of their lyrics, reminiscent of some of the Stone's own lyrics from the "classic era".
they have some amazing stuff: the royal scam, don't take me alive, bodhisattva, the boston rag, haitian divorce are among my faves of theirs. great guest guitarists: derringer, jeff skunk baxter, etc.
imho, a real drop in quality in writing, arrangements, and guitar for the last 3 releases though i hear they're good live ever since they finally started touring in the '90's after a huge layoff. best bet for the money is 2 cd set "the steely dan story"; -has like 5 cuts each from their brilliant first 5 albums.
This reminds me of the intoxicated stage introduction "Bodhisatva" gets from their truck driver, I think at the Roxy in L.A. (not sure), anyway the live version that's on one single B-side and also on the Citizen box set... Must be the funniest drunken "performance" I have ever heard outside Foster Brooks's!!
Here's a video clip I did of "Don't Take Me Alive" last summer. It was a real bitch trying to shoot from the 3rd row. Steely is very anti camera and video during their shows.
Dr. Katy Wu taught a philosophy class I attended at U of A. If she lied to me, I'm not aware of it : )
She actually didn't know the song "Dr. Wu" (who is portrayed as a male in the song so it might have been about her husband who was also a professor...).
I love this band BUT I saw them live 4 years ago and although they were more than musically sound, they were BORING!!! They played some very intricate lines, jazzy solos, BUT VERY BORING. Low energy, little talking to the audience, what they did say was inaudible. Still, I love their cds and I think that they were able to last because no one else sounds like Steely Dan.
mickschix, does Becker still fiddle around on lead guitar every time Fagen opens his mouth? ...Or lets say every two words? God if there is one thing I hate from their post 2000 music it's that! It does not embellish the songs but distracts from it! Becker would be much better sticking to rhythm guitar and the bass...
Charles Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Steely Dan is awesome! I don't think any other > rock act could have gotten away with so obviously > "borrowing" the Horace Silver Quinet's riff for > "songs my father taught me" but they did and they > pulled off "Rikki don't lose that number" without > a hitch. > >You'd expect someone like Don would own a vast library of jazz recordings from which to "borrow" but in an interview that was posted on his website last year he said he mainly listens only to the 40 or so jazz albums he owned when he was in high school.