Steely Dan: "Steely Dan's name has been popping up as a hip musical crush. Remember, this glossy bop-pop was the indifferent aristocracy to punk rock's stone-throwing in the late 70's. People fought

i enjoyed yr review, hopefully going to go see them at the mn state fair this year

Saw them last weekend at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods. Seats were $55, but we were pretty far back. Good show, tight horn section, but frankly don’t see the point in seeing them live again unless I’m down front. Pretty much sounded like carbon copies of the recordings. And Walter Becker’s soliloquies were pretty annoying.

The quickly established and towering consensus seen on this thread made me incredibly happy to read. My girlfriend got us tickets for my birthday to see Gaucho ("and other hits") performed in its entirety in a few weeks... I can't wait.

And Walter Becker’s soliloquies were pretty annoying.

I love these guys live but this is otm

To be fair most of the audience seemed to love his monologues (there was a long one during "Hey Nineteen"), but I found them fairly tedious.

what does he blather about? Fagan has always seemed like the more interesting one to me

When I saw them, Fagan hardly spoke, but Becker did give a long monologue - I think it was also during "Hey Nineteen" so maybe they had planned for that in the rehearsals. I can't remember what he talked about, but I remember it being somewhat droll and not that annoying.

he did a pervy monologue about wining, dining, and sexing your lady during "hey nineteen" when I saw them. it was pretty weird but not that big a deal.

but he also sang lead on "gaucho" which really did not sit well with me. one of my faves!

curious that you find him to be the more interesting of the two, shakey. care to expand on that? strictly as a personality? because on, say, the musical merits of their respective solo albums, I don't think it's even close!

Yes, that's the same story I heard. Definitely pre-written and rehearsed. I just didn't find it that amusing, but I rarely ever find long monologues interesting during concerts.

So reading through this I noticed I still hadn't come around to the Dan in 2004...not sure when it happened, probably a few years after that. Wondering how many other people arguing against them upthread have had similar changes of heart.

http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=1007

Sick, sick San Diego '74 show. I only know two 1974 boots--Record Plant and Rainbow Theatre--this isn't necessarily the best of the three but it's great to hear a crowd so into it and it's got alot of energy!

yeah, i dig this one because it sounds like more of a rowdy bar scene.

Why so few threads on Steely Dan?

because they are terrible

damn these dudes are incredible

terriBLY GOOD!

http://thriftyvinyl.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/dsc04287.jpg

The best...

god look at Becker's waist

he's actually 3 ft closer to the camera than fagen

two steps closer to our hearts

try this weird old tip for a flat belly

haha

Did Fagen ever ride the white horse or just WB? Don't recall him having any substance problems...

or "chase the dragon" would be more appropriate

Becker was also having personal difficulties. His girlfriend at the time, Karen Stanley, died of a drug overdose in their shared Upper West Side Apartment. Becker was hit with a $17 million wrongful death suit, later settled out of court in his favor, but he was shocked by the accusations and the tabloid press coverage that followed. His own substance abuse problems made matters worse. Not long after, Becker was struck by a taxi while attempting to cross a Manhattan street, shattering his right leg in several places and forcing him to use crutches. He jokingly told Rolling Stone magazine that he and the taxi were in breach of the laws of quantum physics, trying to occupy the same space at the same time.

cool story, bro

he and the taxi were in breach of the laws of quantum physics, trying to occupy the same space at the same time.

can't understand why this lyric hasn't made it into one of their songs

One of my favorite bands ever. The fact that I'm getting to see Steely Dan and Kraftwerk in the same 12-month span blows my mind... If you had told me back in college--when I did four-hour radio shows dedicated to both of those bands--I would one day see them both in concert, I would have called you nuts.

OK, who on here is going to see this majestic three-fer:

Donald Fagan, Michael McDonald, and Boz Scaggs sharing the stage as the Dukes of September, on a stage near you this summer!

was bummed I missed them at last year's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

Donald Fagan, Michael McDonald, and Boz Scaggs -- some motherfuckers with some dark secrets
http://cdn.ticketfly.com/i/00/00/21/04/59-atlg.jpg

R-L in order of dark to darkest, based on photo above

Boz looking like Michael Savage in that pic.

I am always imagine Boz as impeccably dressed, even though I don't think I've ever seen his image. Who wins best dressed, Boz, Charlie Watts, or Bryan Ferry?

wow -- tough. Bryan Ferry would know the best wine but Scaggs would feed them at his Frisco jazz club.

Michael McDonald is flying he well groomed Jefferson Davis look in that picture.

Pitchfork's 1970s album list included no Steely Dan. They found room for only one Roxy Music album. They picked the wrong Randy Newman, left out the Roches and Pere Ubu and Michael Hurley, and picked only one record with George Clinton on it.

Um....where was I....oh yeah....No Steely Dan! Mother fucker.

Look, there is something about the Pitchfork aesthetic that is so yick. They are so anti-Jann Wenner that they become some kind of creepy hipster yawn weiners. Let's check out their number one albums of the decades: 70s: Low. 80s: Daydream Nation. 90s and 00s: Radiohead & Radiohead, OK and Kid A.

Any patterns emerging here? All of their decade winner choices bespeak a certain kind of extended adolescence, a fetishization of alienation as some kind of major artistic statement. Steely Dan in particular, as well as the other bands named above (two Radiohead albums, holy crybaby), were adult in a way (compromised by life!) that is probably still beyond the Pitchfork crew, or at least their official version of themselves.

i know this thread's TITLE comes from pitchfork being smh and awful re: steely dan but at this late date i don't know if we even need to dwell on it.

no Steely Dan in the Pitchfork 70's list?? that's incredible.

a tangent, but daydream nation does this weird thing where it seems to fetishize adolescent alienation not from within, but from sort of fond, aesthetically motivated remove. underneath the artfully scruffy disaffection, it seems to be reaching towards the comfortable adult acceptance that characterizes sonic youth this side of Y2K. like the key line is not "out here in this whirlpool world, dreaming of a pitchfork kiss" but "your sister is a beauty when she's naked, like my kid."

but yeah...

OK contenderizer, I'll give it a bit more chance. I don't have anything against Sonic Youth but the surface structure bores me the way that....oh I guess the way that the surface structure of Steely Dan bores others!

hey a a s (sd) I think somebody ought to dwell on the Pitchfork album lists, given the alleged influence of that site. Anyway, not here is fair. I'm surprised there weren't Pitchfork album list threads formed long ago.

o god, believe me, there's no shortage of pitchfork list discussion on ILX (starting to feel like someone's pulling my leg here).

i can see why DN might seem boring. it's more uniform gray, less texturally varied than either sister or goo. suppose that helped it seem like a statement album at the time, but at this remove, i like the songs better than the whole.

can't get too worked up over pitchfork's failure to recognize steely dan. lot of great music in the 70's, and though i do like them, i'm not the world's biggest steely dan fan.

Ok pulled leg, pardon my newness to the site. I did find a discussion of that particular list - about fifty threads in - once I just searched for "Pitchfork". I see why there would be a move to NOT talk about Pitchfork given the kind of search results I came across.

I see why there would be a move to NOT talk about Pitchfork given the kind of search results I came across.

advice i should probably take to heart

plus welcome to ILX, challops to your right, clusterfucks to your left, mind the bobbins as you board

Sonic Youth and Steely Dan are prob my 2 favorite bands of all time so any attempt to put one down to benefit the other just makes my head hurt, it's possible to love both

I had a huge SY phase followed by a Dan phase a few years later and still love both groups. I guess the midway point between the two would be the Minutemen (or maybe Joni Mitchell?).

there was an issue of sonic death, the old sonic youth fanzine, that had a quote from a Walter Becker interview where he said something like "I always check out the latest Sonic Youth alb", def don't see the two in conflict either

woah that's awesome