Thread: Steely Dan - GAH week 4 - 11.26.22

Steely Dan is one of those bands that if you asked people, few would say "Steely Dan is the greatest American band."

The chart success and popularity metrics don't overwhelm.

They barely toured.

Donald Fagan's voice isn't everyone's cup of coffee (we *are* in America dammit, the Brits can keep their tea).

To say Steely Dan is the greatest strains credulity.

To make this claim, one has to be of the mind that "yes, they aren't universally acclaimed...YET!"

One must imagine they have found Mussorgsky 's forgotten musical manuscripts twenty years later, and realized the greatness within, and then, like Rimsky-Korsakov, set forth to champion a nobody...and succeed.

Because the music does the heavy lifting.

I wore out a copy of “A Decade of Steely Dan” back in the day. Bunch of talented musicians in that band. Definitely worth an honorable mention in your list, Hawg.

Originally Posted by Slick

I wore out a copy of “A Decade of Steely Dan” back in the day. Bunch of talented musicians in that band. Definitely worth an honorable mention in your list, Hawg.

Same here. I had a sort of superficial, but still strong, relationship with the band. Until my bro exposed me to what I had missed, and then I realized there was so much more to them.

The more layers I peel, the more I dig in, the more impressed I am...usually it goes the other direction.

If Steely Dan was the *greatest*, and not *best*--because best is a bit more subjective and easier to defend--these are some reasons:

1. Perfectionism and absolute refusal to publish tripe.
2. SEVEN albums, all of which are gems (the lowest of the seven is rated 3.77 on RYM, which is higher than most bands' best album) -- IMO the deepest catalog of exquisite music
3. The best musicians in the world, all at Becker-Fagan's fingertips to use to perfection
4. Massive hip-hop sampling
5. Replayability because they were musical geniuses who pushed boundaries and never settled

I struggle to imagine a band with superior musicianship...

Of course, there are way too many to fully rank, but at the very least, do you guys have a top 5. Interesting thought i just had and it's pretty difficult but here's mine.

Chuck Rainey - This was really hard to decide but, here it is. Played almost the entire Aja album with the exception of 'Deacon Blues', and had an incredible groove on most of the Royal Scam tracks as well as the two tracks he did for Gaucho and Katy Lied. What puts him over the no. 2 slot is how each of his bass lines (at least for Aja) are not only pivotal, but memorable. Black Cow, Peg, Josie, and Home at Last all are examples of this.

Larry Carlton - Going between him and Chuck were incredibly difficult. Carlton of course could potentially be put on top just for his solos on 'Kid Charlemagne' and 'Aja' alone.

Jeff Porcaro - Pretty telling that Jeff is apparently the one on most of the demo recordings, on top of all the actual studio cuts he ended up on. When Walt and Don had an idea, they had Jeff to set it to a rhythm.

Denny Dias - It took a while to argue whether to put him on the list given he was an actual member of the band before it became studio-exclusive, but just remembering that Dias was the only one of that original band Donald and Walter kept bringing back in the studio to contribute says a lot about his musicianship and trust the two had in him.

I had to stop at 4 because it became really difficult to try and argue between the tens and tens of session musicians W&D used, but Hugh McCracken, Dean Parks, Bernard Purdie, and Steve Gadd all contend for that 5th spot. Purdie, if you make me choose one from those 4.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteelyDan/c...ion_musicians/

Cool story bruv...

It’s been twelve years since the last Steely Dan album,*Gaucho*, and many drummers probably don’t know what the fuss is all about, as Jeff Porcaro can attest to. “I did a clinic a couple or years ago at the Dick Grove School,” Porcaro says in his groggy baritone. “The students brought CD of my stuff to play and ask me questions about. I knew what would happen; they’d ask about the ‘Rosanna’ beat, which is probably the most unoriginal thing I’ve ever done, yet I got all this credit for it. Stupid. So I brought along the CDs of the records I stole the beat from — “Fool In The Rain” from Led Zeppelin’s In Through The Out Door,*and Bernard Purdie’s ‘Home At Last’ and ‘Babylon Sisters’ with Steely. Without saying anything, I put on the CD and played ‘Babylon Sisters.’ Half the class knew the song, but none of them knew who the drummer was. This is a class of 18 to 33-year-olds. Then I played ‘Home At Last,’ which I copped all the shit for ‘Rosanna’ from. Once again, no one knew the drummer. I said, ‘Guys, it’s Bernard Purdie. Who in this room has heard of Steve Gadd?’ All the hands went up. ‘Aja?’ All hands up. ‘I’m sure you all know Steve won Performance Of The Year for that in Modern Drummer. Well. you’re all ****** up! I just played you ‘Home At Last’ with Bernard Purdie, and that’s on the same record. What do you do, listen to ‘Aja’ and then take the needle off? As musicians you should know everything I just played for you. Some of the best drum shit ever is on that record. Each track has subtleties.”

The same can be said about all of the Steely Dan releases. Let’s go back and explore each of those records, from the beginning.

1972-’73: Can’t Buy A Thrill & Countdown to Ecstasy ...

http://steelydanreader.com/1992/11/0...of-steely-dan/

“They were very strict to the point of super precision,” Purdie recalls. “Really picky. They wouldn’t take no for an answer and they wouldn’t accept mistakes — period. It was truly frustrating in the beginning. I come from the school that when you feel good about what you’ve done, it’s hard to do better. It only goes downhill from there. I learned to curtail my own feelings and just wait. They wanted it their way, so you had to do many takes.”

Drummer Rick Marotta, who already had had super-session duties at that time with Linda Ronstadt, Paul Simon, John Lennon, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, and Tom Scott, didn’t know who Steely Dan were when he sat dawn to record “Don’t Take Me Alive.” “I remember I wanted to get in and out as soon as possible. Larry Carlton and Chuck Rainey were there, pretty much business as usual. Then they counted off this tune… the first thing I heard was the lyrics ‘agents of the law/luckless pedestrian,’ and I almost stopped playing. I thought, ‘I’m listening in my phones to this guy who can really sing, and the tune sounds amazing, and the band is amazing,’ it was just… different. You have to kiss a lot of frogs when you’re a studio player. After that I had to stop and collect myself: ‘ This*is real.’ Every time I went in with them I knew it was going to be something really historic.

“They were the most demanding of anybody I’ve ever worked with,” Marotta says. “Donald was like the Prince of Doom. For instance, I’d walk in the control room and it would sound unbelievably great, and he’d just sit there, looking at the floor, saying, ‘Yeah, I guess it’s okay’.

I'm just listening to all these drummers on these cuts.

This music is going to stand up for a long time.

If you only know the popular songs, the hits, I'd suggest playing the album Aja on loop until it clicks. It is generally considered their masterpiece. It's only 7 songs!

Is it the high point of western music?

Mute the Broncos game and throw on the Dan.

Who names their kid Steely Dan?

Originally Posted by aberdien

Who names their kid Steely Dan?

Prolly Dapper Dan. Compensating for a life of being chided for his fancy name.

Originally Posted by aberdien

Who names their kid Steely Dan?

Jack Lambert, bitch.

Originally Posted by aberdien

Who names their kid Steely Dan?

no one. Steely Dan refers to a vibrator, it's not a person you moron

all I have to say is that these are the days of the expanding man

And Donald Fagan is the voice of Steely Dan whether its' your cup of tea or not. just like Michael McDonald of the Dooby Brothers, although MM is probably a more appealing singer. But Donald is a genius for sure. I love Steely Dan. so many good tunes.

Had this song pop up on my ipod yesterday while working and i immediately thought of this thread.