…and all the girls I’ve ever dated do not.
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I decided to put together a playlist of some of my favorite Steely Dan songs to promote BYT’s Venereal Disease party this Sat at Jimmy Valentines (Erik’s bad ass flyer below) that I will be DJing at (along with Razzmatazz’s William Alberque). I probably won’t be playing any Steely Dan at the party, and I can guarantee that William does not own a single Steely Dan record, but for some reason it just felt appropriate.
I’m gonna make a prediction, Steely Dan are the next band that the hipsters will dig up and revere, and it will be cool again to like them. If not Steely Dan, then definitely Fleetwood Mac, if that hasn’t happened already. Or wait, maybe Yes. Whatever, Steely Dan may be the only cool jazz/rock band on the planet, I don’t care what you say. |
What makes Steely Dan so special is that they appeal to niche fans - musicians, production geeks, jazz aficionados, literary scholars, etc, yet they’re Grammy winning, top 40, FM mainstays. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are wicked smart ironic smartasses. It’s time for scenester embracing. I mean, they named their band after the dildo in Naked Lunch for chrissakes.
Do It Again - Track 1 from album 1, and it still holds up today. One of the many “oh, this is Steely Dan, I love this song” tracks.
FM - the title track to some piss-poor movie of the same name in 1978, it ended up being one of the best songs they ever wrote.
Show Biz Kids - From their rushed, poorly selling, and utterly brilliant 1973 sophomore record Countdown to Ecstasy. Such great lines in this one “They got the shapely bodies, they got the Steely Dan T-shirts, and for the coupe de grace, they’re outrageous” and the Super Furry Animals sampled “Show bus’ness kids makin’ movies of themselves, you know they don’t give a fuck about anybody else”
King of the World - Another from Countdown to Ecstacy, that guitar part in the beginning and the build up at the 3 min mark, Jesus! so good!
Kid Charlemagne - From 1976’s The Royal Scam. Might be my favorite Steely Dan song of all time, if not, at least the 3:20 min mark is definitely my favorite Steely Dan moment. Typical Steely Dan, a happy pop song that’s dark and tragic (and hilarious) when you go deeper.
Turn That Heartbeat Over Again - an odd track from their 1972 debut, doesn’t sound like them at all, but I love it.
Peg - from what many people consider to be their finest moment, 1977’s Aja. If you’re a really big geek you can track down the Classic Albums DVD that goes into the detail of the recording of this song, including hearing some rejected guitar solos from unnamed session players.
Green Earrings - Another great, and sometimes overlooked track from The Royal Scam. Probably the best album to pick up first.
The Fez - safe sex kids!
Pretzel Logic - Title track to the 1974 classic. This is where the critics realized there was more to this band than radio hits, and Becker and Fagen decided they hated playing live. They became a studio band only after this, until their reuinion tour in 1993, and haven’t stopped playing shows since.
The Caves of Altamira - another fan favorite from The Royal Scam, the guitar solos on this record are out of control.
Your Gold Teeth - Part 1 is my fav, but Your Gold Teeth II is also great.
Josie - another classic off Aja. Love Fagen’s inflections on this one. One of the best sounding records I’ve ever heard.
Rikki Don’t Lose That Number - I think this may be their most recognizable tune. The Horace Silver intro is brilliant. Who knows if they’re bullshitting or not. Brilliant.
Deacon Blues - I think this song from Aja best sums up Steely Dan. Absolute perfection.
Ok, so Steely Dan put out another decent record after all this, Gaucho, and it has some great songs on it, like Hey Nineteen & Babylon Sisters, buuuuut they don’t quite make this list. After that album, Becker and Fagen broke up for 20 years. There are two decent solo Fagen albums out there worth picking up, especially in their super slick 5.1 DVD-Audio versions. I.G.Y. from 1982’s The Nightfly almost made the cut. Becker put out some solo album too that I don’t think anybody ever bought. So then in 2000 they put out their first new material in 20 years. And it sounds like it came right after Gaucho. Amazing. There are some decent cuts on there (What A Shame About Me & Cousin Dupree) but it doesn’t quite hold up to the older material. This was followed by Everything Must Go in 2003 which didn’t really do anything for me. So even though this new material doesn’t match them in their heyday, I don’t think it detracts from it either, they’re still keeping it classy.
Wait, what was the point of this? Oh yeah, come party with us tomorrow, it will be a fun time:
Steely Dan’s Peg is always in my cd book. Unfrotunately my vinyl copy of Aja (that was stolen from my parents colelction) has been beat to shit from too many love-ins… Gaucho is a top notch album as well.
Steely Dan has always been and will always be cool.
February 15, 2008 at 2:31 pmi agree, mr. burns. any band named after a steam-powered dildo *has* to be cool.
February 15, 2008 at 2:36 pmI mentioned the origin of the name and Gaucho in the post.
Thanx for reading!
February 15, 2008 at 2:39 pmI also have the DTS version of Gaucho, they made a few of these before the SACD and DVD-Audio formats took over. It’s pretty tight.
February 15, 2008 at 2:42 pmthat’s kinda like when i write “best weekend bets” and michael complains about me excluding something THAT IS ALREADY IN THERE.
generation ADHD.
LOL Steely Dan: PEG is suddenly a hilarious name for that album based on their name origin + new meaning of that word.
Didja know they used to hang out at this one hotspot in Georgetown with all the diplomat’s kids and eurotrash in the 70s and thats where this came from:
They got the house on the corner
With the rug inside
They got the booze they need
All that money can buy
They got the shapely bods
They got the Steely Dan T-shirt
And for the coup-de-gras
They’re outrageous!
Sound familiar?
February 15, 2008 at 2:48 pmn1ce
you forgot FEZ though
=)
No, I didn’t.
Please people, read before commenting.
k, thnx, bye.
ouch. back to speed-reading school. i read this, i swear.
ok, well do you know how naked lunch got it’s name? even funnier. ok, i’ll quit posting.
February 15, 2008 at 3:01 pmI’m stuck at work without my copy of The Royal Scam. What happens at 3:20 in “Kid Charlemagne”? Is that where Fagen does the falsetto “Yes there’s gas in the car” line? If so, I’m with you. Some enterprising Broadway producer could turn The Royal Scam into an excellent musical.
February 15, 2008 at 3:05 pmYes sir!
February 15, 2008 at 3:07 pmChevy Chase played drums for a time with the college band The Leather Canary, headed by school friends Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. At the time, Chase called the group “a bad jazz band,” but Becker and Fagen went on to success after they changed their band’s name to Steely Dan.
February 15, 2008 at 3:11 pmAt least you included Bodhisattva. Would have a been a crime to forget that!
February 15, 2008 at 3:30 pmSteely Dan is a broke ass Hall and Oates.
February 15, 2008 at 3:55 pmI’ve been a fan of Steely Dan always. I was a little one when they were big and once I learned how drop a needle on a record the SD records never stopped playing at our house. Though they’re not hurting for anymore accolades, as a long-time SD proselytizer, I’d love for them to gain everyone’s respect if not devotion. And I want to add that when listening to Peg (one of my favorites too) you can catch a slight sound effect that simulates how old projectors would slow and the film sound would droop and pick up again. Subtle and brilliant. I won’t comment on your SD top ten in general because I love them all. I’ll just add that whichever tracks you choose, they’re session players and production are impeccable with the exception the first five tracks before Fagen took over the vocals. I’m definitely for a SD revival. But I’m gonna take issue with your comments about Fagen’s first two solo albums. “Decent”, really? Only “decent”? Sheesh, what does it take to please you?! I think they’re fabulously sublime. The Nightfly is one of the most intensely personal and intriguing albums I’ve ever heard and is simultaneously a walk through Fagen’s mind and the history of jazz. Kamikiriad is just the slickest thing I’ve ever heard and I never tire of contemplating it’s layers and grooves. Anyhow, for your overall point that SD will be the next “retro-it” band for hipsters to pin reprinted buttons to they’re chest and proclaim they’re love for proudly, yeah I think you could be right. Yeah, they’re named after a dildo. Just wait until the kids figure out that Time Out of Mind is about heroin and Everyone’s Gone to the Movies is about a child molester and his victim. Pretty much every song is seedy and sinister but it gets past the radar so well that you hear this stuff playing at every Safeway and Bath and Body Works across the U.S. And what does it say about us that we don’t notice it. We just be-bop along tossing things in our cart and handing over the plastic. That’s way above the usual fodder for hipster irony.
February 15, 2008 at 3:55 pmLOLOLOL U FORGOT DO IT AGIN DON’T U KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT STEELY DAN??
February 15, 2008 at 3:58 pmYou’ve got to be kidding me — no room for Josie?
This ommission really compromises your credibility.
February 15, 2008 at 4:02 pmThe mere mention of Steely Dan makes me feel like I’m a 16 year old girl getting hit on by one of Dad’s friends. I see penny loafers, tucked in polo shirts with sweaters drapped over shoulders… there are pony tails in this vision as well. Somewhere at this very moment, there’s a lawyer “jamming” one of these songs in his BMW, thinking he’s hip.
February 15, 2008 at 4:05 pmRe: pedro
I love Bodhisattva, and the live version off the Hey Nineteen single, but it just doesn’t quite make my Top 15. Probably in the to 20.
Re: Lea
I don’t think my review of Fagen’s solo work was that harsh, I recommended picking both up and even said one song almost made it on my list! I was actually a fan of Kamikiriad before I even know who Steely Dan was. Trans-Island Skyway almost made the cut too. Oh, and Tomorrow’s Girls! Fucking great! But, still, I’d have to rank them after the 70’s albums. And I don’t think they’re going to convert the hipsters over to the dark side like the 70’s albums would…
Re: Smooth Jazz Esq.
I think Steely Dan wrote a song about that guy…
Steely Dan (dumb name). Their music makes me want to rip the wings of fledgling cardinals.
February 15, 2008 at 4:35 pmI was just about to post: “Michael? Hello? Where is your Steely Dan fucking sucks comment?”
February 15, 2008 at 4:43 pmI was busy all day at work playing Bowmaster Prelude.
February 15, 2008 at 4:47 pmAnd all this time we just assumed that you were busy using a Steely Dan on yourself.
February 15, 2008 at 5:37 pmI happened to really enjoy listening to the rejected solos on Peg. I wonder what it would’ve been like if that was done on a computer instead of on tape…
February 15, 2008 at 6:18 pmCale, true enough but I wasn’t trying to slam you. It was more of a friendly ribbing. I’m so enamored with The Nightfly and Kamikiriad; I couldn’t call them anything less than perfection. (I readily admit Morph the Cat isn’t so great BTW). In all, you’re right, I don’t see the DF solo albums gaining wider appeal either.
February 15, 2008 at 9:01 pmi am so, so late to this party but i just had to chime in and say how much i fucking love fucking steely fucking dan.
fuck.
and obviously the eagles can suck it, big time:
http://www.channel101.com/shows/view.php?media_id=1766
February 17, 2008 at 7:19 pmyou did forget:
haitian divorce and dirty work.
the 2 best steely dan songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcokCLbdxuw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGRCelgIHbk&feature=related
Haitian Divorce could have easily made the list, and while I love Dirty Work, it’s not in my top 15, sorry.
July 1, 2008 at 11:44 amI just checked and yep, Steely Dan still fucking sucks.
July 1, 2008 at 12:17 pmPeg would be the greatest song of all time if no one ever wrote Werewolves of London.
July 1, 2008 at 12:54 pmyou could have a change of hearrrrrt… mikey don’t lose that number…
July 1, 2008 at 1:13 pm
do you know how steely dan got their name? it’s pretty funny.
February 15, 2008 at 2:29 pm