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

Barrytown is one of my faves. It feels like a lyrical outlier, but it's one of their most beautiful songs

also Through with Buzz is great

Royal Scam is probably underrated in some places (not here) because it doesn't have any recognizable classic rock radio staples. Maybe Kid C got played on your CR station, but not on mine.

xxxp nice explanation. i mainly meant Fagen's phrasing, which sounds almost like an imitation of Dylan

yeah esp the part when he says 'it was there when you came oooout,' can hear Dylan singing that line

I don't think it's a bad song at all, just kinda below them, somehow; subject matter seems too obvious and prosaic for the 'Dan. I liked it better when I thought it had something to do with Barry Goldwater

Also, fun to sing "I can see by the Drew Carey that you come from Barrytown"

I'll rep for Charlie Freak. They probably hate it.

Gaucho, for what it's worth, is one of Christine McVie's desert island discs.

Someone rep'd hard for Charlie freak in the poll and I love it now

Gaucho, for what it's worth, is one of Christine McVie's desert island discs.

― Master of Treacle, Saturday, February 28, 2015 10:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whoa cool! what are the others?

"charlie freak" is fucking awesome

nearly the whole of pretzel logic flows with a... um... logic that transcends the individual tracks, so even "filler" has very real pleasures. that said, i still can't quite figure out what "east st louis toodle-oo" is doing there, except as a tip of their hat to their jazz influences (and just one indication that they'd like to be understood--at least in part--as a member of that tradition)

also rep for Charlie Freak. such a desperate, compact, cold piece of storytelling/songwriting. it does seem like something they'd hate now though. it's pretty straight.

the royal scam is good, but yeah, maybe a shade lesser than the albums surrounding it. took me a while to realize that because it kicks off with Kid Charlemagne which fucking kills. that's the track that got me into them.

"and while he sighed his body died in fifteen ways" never fails to send chills. damn.

Royal Scam is a great bridge between early and late SD. It's not quite airless yet but it's moving in that direction.

TRS is the only Dan album that has yet to reveal its charms to me. I recently deleted it off my phone (have all the other Dan on there obviously). I like "The Fez", though.

For me, aside for the obvious greatness of kicking off an album with "Kid Charlemagne" and "The Caves of Altamira," the triple shot of "The Fez">"Green Earrings">"Haitian Divorce" is just perfect. I also don't dislike a single song on TRS.

I am a huge fan of the first four, but if I could only take one record with me, it would be Royal Scam...

Innaresting.

Don't get all tremulous, Alfred

I liked it better when I thought it had something to do with Barry Goldwater

Apparently it's about the Moonies:

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/staff_top_10/top-ten-obscure-steely-dan-lyrics.htm

Love this, where he shows how much thought goes into such a simple sounding song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP_2r9zbaIY

Only tangential, but this is the funniest thing ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOWdp1sOxvA

xxp: That article's a piece of poo. The Moonies didnt' set up shop in Barrytown until after pretzel logic came out. I've always thought it was a letter from a townie to the students of Bard.

Lol those are like the ten LEAST obscure Steely Dan lyrics, and he gets some of them wrong.

What I really want to know is what the Custerdome is.

yeah royal scam is the best

All right, fine. I convinced Bee OK to recount the votes:

http://i.imgur.com/qK92Lmv.jpg

I've recently started to think that Gaucho's title track is secretly the best SD song

i kind of agree. def top 5 for me. probably not new to anyone loitering in this thread, but check it from 1974

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QNK4Pc8W2A

Gaucho might be my favorite SD song. I have a half-baked theory (I forget if I said this upthread) that they were at their best when they let go of any need to make half-hearted gestures toward "rocking." I mean, maybe they actually liked rockin' out, but somehow I get the feeling they didn't really, and that a lot of the rock elements they used were concessions to the times and the audience.

Regardless, I feel like Gaucho (the song) is the apex of their entire aesthetic, compositional approach, lyrical approach, etc.

i totally agree re: the rocking, even though i love many of their early rocking guitar solos.

Sometimes I've thought about starting a separate Steely Dan lyrical analysis thread, does that seem worthwhile?

lol @ pplains

xpost I see no reason not to -- I spent a whole hour in the car recently listening to the second disc of the Showbiz Kids best-of with my mom & we had fun 'close-reading' favorite songs ("Haitian Divorce", "Your Gold Teeth"...)

forgot this thread:
http://ilxor.com/ILX/SiteNewAnswersControllerServlet

This is the thread were you explain Steely Dan lyrics to me

Ok fair enough "Pearl of the Quarter" is probably not the secret best Dan number, maybe I just have a soft spot for pedal steel (courtesy of The Skunk), but with all the Royal Scam love on this thread surely we can all agree that the actual secret best Steely Dan song is "Haitian Divorce"?

For real though, can we talk about Jeff Baxter for a minute?

What I really want to know is what the Custerdome is.

drug den

Think Custer's Last Stand

I think Becker has said that its a made-up name for a skyscraper

I don't believe anything they say about their own songs.

Drug Den fits my theory of the whole thing being about a botched drug deal

Ok fair enough "Pearl of the Quarter" is probably not the secret best Dan number, maybe I just have a soft spot for pedal steel (courtesy of The Skunk), but with all the Royal Scam love on this thread surely we can all agree that the actual secret best Steely Dan song is "Haitian Divorce"?

Not so secret in this house! My poor wife (who has come around the the 'Dan in recent years) once listened to me 'translate' each line of the song in real time, trying to mansplain the brilliance of it, lyric by lyric. I was younger and more arrogant / insufferable then, it is true; it's a wonder she didn't take the song's, err, advice to heart.

But yeah, I really, really love "Haitian Divorce."

Only thing keeping this song from being a perfect '10' is the dreadful talkbox effect on the guitar solo.

guy in my store yesterday:

"I like Steely Dan, too, he's sick..."

"Steely" Dan Kaplowitz

I think the sleaziness of the Haitian Divorce narrative justifies that guitar effect

Because you are the magnet, and I'm

http://i.imgur.com/Tec762V.jpg

One of the things that I love about "Gaucho" (the song) is now the odd rhythm of the lyric mimics the rhythm of a real argument, and the band follows that -- it almost sounds like one of those compositions written to match a piece of recorded speech.

But you...don't seem to understand

gaucho the song is abt an old rich guy who's young live-in boyfriend brings home someone he thinks is sketchy and/or uncouth

they said in some interview once that the Custerdome is a made up name of a high-rise building

cant believe it was about this time last year we were pollin'

gaucho the song is abt an old rich guy who's young live-in boyfriend brings home someone he thinks is sketchy and/or uncouth

they said in some interview once that the Custerdome is a made up name of a high-rise building

― gr8080, Monday, March 9, 2015 10:04 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think this is right but I think what happens is that the "old rich guy" is a drug dealer sketchy/uncouth guy gets in the way of a drug deal. "Just when I say 'Boy we can't miss, you are golden' then you do this" -- the boyfriend has gotten him some lucrative business previously but now is botching the current situation. "We got heavy rollers I think you should know" = we're dealing with people you don't fuck around with like this, stop embarrassing me (the "they" who are "laughing at me.")

Sometimes I think the chorus is actually in the voice of a different person, one of the 'guests' who is laughing at the speaker in the verses. The verses are an argument taking place somewhere off to the side while the guests are in the main room, the chorus is what the person (either a customer or a "connect" said -- I thought maybe the Spanish was supposed to imply a connect from south of the border).