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

" 'Kid Charlemagne' is the story of a drug dealer on the run."

"Hey Paul de Revere, that's Owsley Stanley.
He don't remember the king of acid.
Also Charlemagne was this guy in Europe,
The Hold Steady mentioned, but I'm just growin' old"

I got the horse's ass right here
The name is Paul de Revere

The Cure play a similar trick on listeners, reminding us that uptempo music doesn’t equal upbeat, even if a Cure song can make you feel happy or sing along....

The Dismemberment Plan indulges in similar musical dorkitude to the Dan, mining similarly weird funky grooves while simplifying and sweetening complex arrangements.

as anyone could beat a word to death, this is a dis on the editor more than the writer

those are lead sentences too

Was that piece really so important and timely it couldn't go through a single round of copy editing before being posted?

'similarly' might be the worst word

I'm not really sure if most things that get posted on "The Pitch" go through any editing.

Funny, but not surprising, how the writer comes across as more out-of-touch than his targets. Does the Gen Y Rolling Stone really think its readers need some barely postcollegiate clot's hipstersplaining to make sense of the Dan's snazzy jazz rock? This is the same mag that fetes every reissue from Bowie to Beefheart to Coltrane with a 9.0 or above.

Also, do barely postcollegiates even read Pitchfork in 2015? I would think that by now its demographic is pushing 30 at least, in which case this piece was even less necessary.

omg does the article you guys are quoting actually exist?

it's almost offensive bc writers putting out pieces like this are merely tacitly acknowledging as some sort of valid opinion the received wisdom of Steely Dan as square music for your parents, i mean we've been over this a million times already. great band, no defense required imo. people fought and brent dicrescenzo died for that much.

I'm not really sure if most things that get posted on "The Pitch" go through any editing.

Almost every article on Pitchfork has at least one glaringly awful turn of phrase, spelling/punctuation fuck-up, or something else that indicates editing is a low, low priority.

kind of amazed at near-total absence of dan coverage in pitchfork, kind of amazed the review quoted for this thread title is still there

many xposts but after levon helm died i remember reading that him, fagen and motherfuckin' brad dourif would hang out in woodstock together. THAT is a dream team right there.

Levon Helm… had to have been some barn show with Fagen and Roger Waters at one point.

thewufs-some interesting demographics here https://www.quantcast.com/pitchfork.com#!demo

also, what the hell is fardley?

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/uptown-guy-how-uptown-funk-almost-destroyed-mark-ronson-before-it-saved-him/

If Ronson is the guitar-wielding, band-leading Walter Becker figure, Chabon plays Donald Fagen as a silent partner whose words cut through the technically virtuosic, coke-encrusted soundscapes.

gross! should we start another "the Lennon/McCartney band model" thread for Don and Walt though?

Becker = Mark Ronson
Fagen = Michael Chabon

iirc Levon and Helm dated (maybe married?) the same woman, or Fagen married Levin's ex, or something, so I guess there's a connection there. Whatever happened, good to know they remained on good terms enough to invite Brad Dourif over for some scenes.

WSJ's Jim Fusilli on the Steely aspects of Uptown Funk:

Novelist Michael Chabon contributed lyrics that aren’t standard funk fare to nine of the album’s 11 songs, helping to craft stories with a wry, downtrodden worldview. “In the back room of the El Mago Casino under a portrait of Doris Day / You and I and a pair of C notes, soft candy betting hard eight” sets the tone in “Crack in the Pearl.” The tale told in “Leaving Los Feliz” opens with “I’m on the guest list down at Paul’s Baby Grand / That hipster doorman he don’t know who I am.” Mr. Chabon rhymes “cannonball” and “Adderall” in “In Case of Fire,” which has a Steely Dan vibe—not necessarily a good thing. At times, there’s a forced, shoehorn fit between music and words, but Mr. Chabon’s lyrics for “Daffodils,” a mix of psych rock and funk, roll off Mr. Parker’s tongue: “Start that kicking dragon beating / Step out on the patio / Follow where your Daddy-o’s leading.” What does "betting hard eight" mean?

it's a roll in craps that pays off huge

it's when you roll two fours (getting eight the hard way and not the easy way)

i mean we've been over this a million times already. great band, no defense required imo

fucking seriously!

ugh the chabon lyrics are not sitting well w me

This is really making Uptown Funk sound dreadful

sw00ds talks to Vic Perry:

http://rockcritics.com/2015/02/15/steely-dan-podcast-part-one/

Gaucho too obviously.

*too low

too obviously as well

listening to the podcast, lots of great conversation there although they are much more into the first several albums where I prefer the last few. Would love to chat with these dudes about Royal Scam, Aja, and Gaucho because there's so much there deserving of attention.

I listened to the seventh part first because, yeah, Gaucho is my second favorite. It's not theirs.

my dad, 70, just got a car with sirius, and he has discovered that he really likes steely dan. their music is smooth and tightly played, but if you listen closely, you realize it's really dark and acerbic.

dad otm

i'm on the look out for bands with dark and acerbic music matched with smooth and breezy lyrics

man there should be an all steely dan sirius channel

is there sirius in the caaaaar?

XXXXXXXXMMMMM...No Static At All!

Steely Dan are the foremost musical act in history whereby attempts at criticism always, and I mean always, make them sound even better.

70s/coke/smooth/jazz/guitar solos/sneer/Fagen/sarcastic/snobs/production

I don't think there's ever been a case where a critic has used the above words in a sentence to slag them off and actually made them sound crap.

treacle otm, they're obviously not beyond criticism but their critics always inadvertantly make them teflon

the Dan/Elvis Costello tour this summer is like a dream lineup for me, will hopefully catch a show

on the contrary: when my buddy heard the lineup I thought of Costello as the guy in "Third World Man," bunker full of sand, shriveling and dying, taking the audience with him.

just let out a sigh of relief when i saw the two dates closest to me would not feature EC

eh you guys are no fun. EC is just a support act and if you like his best early stuff at all he'll probably be playing a set chock full of it with 2/3rds of the Attractions.

Seen him twice, the second time supporting The Delivery Man. I'm done.

The attractions suck w out bruce tbrr. It took me a long time to realize that the best thing about early EC is Bruce's basslines.

Was talking about Bruce with a friend the other day. His basslines are just so creative and busy, we were trying to pinpoint some other contemporary doing the same thing. Like, I hear the Motown/Stax stuff he emulates, even early on, but he is so inventive and musical and fluid, almost like Jaco at times. Can't think of anyone like him. He really carries a lot of those melodies, or at least offers amazing counter melodies.
Seen EC a bunch since 1994-ish comeback - solo, with Nieve, with the Attractions, with the Imposters. I think I'm done, too. But he also plays really well as a support act of sorts, like when I saw him tour with Emmylou Harris, giving him a chance to bust out some classic country covers (of which he was a pioneer, as far as rock and roll/punk dudes go), plus duet with Emmy on some stuff. I imagine playing with SD would direct him more toward his most ornate material. Lotsa chords and whatnot.

Not sure SD could support a Sirius station, mostly because of the relatively limited catalog (even including solo stuff) and lack of much heyday live material. SD live these days, as always, goes pretty far to recreate the records, though the soloists do get some time to shine. What I would like is if they gave Becker and Fagen a show, like Dylan had and Petty has. Those shows were/are great, and let the personalities have a lot of fun, both as speaking DJs and as pickers of surprising songs.

Bruce Thomas is brilliant and integral to the albums but the band is fine live, if i had to swap out one member it'd be him over Steve or Pete for sure

Man, I couldn't swap out any of those dudes. Everyone was integral. We're not talking Steely Dan here.

I mean, we are, but ...

i saw costello on the when i was cruel tour and he brought the house down

yeah i saw that tour too and it was killer. saw him again a few years later and he was kinda coasting. can't see how he couldn't do a solid hour and 15 minutes tho -- dude's catalogue is pretty deep, his voice is still in good shape, steve nieve is still very entertaining.

It was my first time too – a killer set.

he played a lotta loud, distorted guitar.