| Re: Steely Dan........ [message #339895 is a reply to message #339616 ] |
Thu, 08 May 2008 18:40   |
 bilco
Messages: 110
Registered: January 2005
Location: Austin,Texas |
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Larry Carlton on "Don't Take Me Alive" has urgency that fits the song exactly, great work.
I LIKE Fagan's voice. It has character; you know exactly who the band is when you hear that voice.
Countdown to Ecstacy is probably my favorite. Aja isn't as spontaneous maybe, but there is some great playing on there and it's also tied to good memories of meeting my wife and playing "albums" on a "record player."
I should write a song anywhere near the caliber of their work.....
I would imagine they are pretty demanding to engineer a session for or play with as a sideman; I don't think they pull any punches, but lots of less talented artists are just as demanding, even down at my level of the food chain........
Where's the love?
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| Re: Steely Dan........ [message #339899 is a reply to message #339616 ] |
Thu, 08 May 2008 18:49 |
Robert Shelton
Messages: 169
Registered: June 2007
Location: East Bay, CA |
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To me the greatness of Steely Dan is more in the songs themselves than in how they were realized. I think many of the recordings worked very well, but just following a leadsheet to Deacon Blues (or many others), and hearing that melody over those chords, I have to marvel at the craftsmanship. The progression itself is so distinct and powerful you know the song even without the melody. But I, too, lost interest after Aja. And I think they never had much to do with rock and roll.
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| Re: Steely Dan........ [message #340087 is a reply to message #339616 ] |
Fri, 09 May 2008 14:01 |
burp182
Messages: 111
Registered: October 2005 |
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Becker and Fagan did Marian McPartland's NPR show a ways back and detailed a little about the songwriting. In particular, I was struck by a comment about the lyrics. Fagan said he tends to write a much longer story and then has to throw out most of it because it won't fit with the melody and length of the song. What remains is a wildly edited version which gives the elliptical quality that is a trademark of SD lyrics.
I agree about the loss of rock energy in the later albums, but I had occasion to listen to the latest album while driving, not having heard it in months, and was struck by the quality. No matter what, no one can say these guys don't know a groove when they find it.
And I should be so lucky to write a peculiarly evocative line like, "Before the fall, when they wrote it on the wall, when there wasn't even any Hollywood". Beats the hell out of my "moon-June" crap. Maybe not yours, but certainly mine.
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| Re: Steely Dan........ [message #340096 is a reply to message #339616 ] |
Fri, 09 May 2008 14:19 |
jwhynot
Messages: 974
Registered: April 2004
Location: Los Angeles |
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I like their earlier records too - up to and including Aja.
The sound of Gaucho I find extremely irritating. It's a mystery to me why people love it so. I'm not exaggerating - it sets my teeth on edge from "play" to "eject".
But - carry on, if it floats your boat.
JW
www.natashaschneider.org
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| Re: Steely Dan........ [message #340141 is a reply to message #339616 ] |
Fri, 09 May 2008 16:56 |
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Andy Peters
Messages: 916
Registered: April 2004
Location: Tucson, AZ |
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On the Live Sound side of this web site, every few months some FNG asks, "So what music do you use to tune the room?"
Inevitably the thread devolves into a "You have to use Steely Dan because it's the LAW" vs "If you play a Steely Dan song to 'tune' the PA in my venue, you will be forcibly ejected" discussion.
Lost in the discussion are valid points such as, "You can't 'tune' a room, except with a bulldozer" and "The Nightfly wasn't Steely Dan, it was a Donald Fagan solo record."
NB: I like the Dan of Steel, but I fall into the "forcible ejection" crowd. FWIW, I like to listen to Metal Machine Music when I "tune the room" with a D9 EQ.
-a
"On the Internet, nobody can hear you mix a band."
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| Re: Steely Dan........ [message #340245 is a reply to message #339784 ] |
Sat, 10 May 2008 11:44 |
mdbeh
Messages: 99
Registered: April 2004 |
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| PRobb wrote on Thu, 08 May 2008 10:57 |
I try to make a distinction between "like" and "good".
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I just don't buy that distinction at all, because it relies on a sort of Ultimate Arbiter of Truth that doesn't exist in the real world.
Something only becomes music through individual perception. Before that, all you've got are vibrating air molecules.
Of course, that argument goes way beyond Steely Dan...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatism
Brian Harper
Chicago, IL
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| Re: Steely Dan........ [message #340271 is a reply to message #340245 ] |
Sat, 10 May 2008 14:58 |
RSettee
Messages: 4957
Registered: November 2006
Location: Winnipeg, MB |
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Steely Dan did make some pretty well crafted records. I'm not a fan, per say, but then again, they seem to be in one of those guilty pleasures like an ELO or ELP (one bloody letter away!), Yes, Supertramp or Genesis or Alan Parsons Project or Floyd or whatever, where you hate the next studio oriented guilty pleasure band for as many reasons as you like your own studio oriented guilty pleasure band.
ELO fan to ELP fan: "ELP sucks, because they spend way too much time in the studio with overindulgent, overprogressive music"
Yes fan to Steely Dan fan: "Steely Dan sucks because they spend way too much time in the studio with overindulgent, overprogressive music"
Floyd fan to Supertramp fan: "Supertramp sucks because they spend way too much time in the studio with overindulgent, overprogressive music"
Ryan Settee,
Instrospection Records
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