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

What the hell do the lyrics to "Rain Dogs" and "Lowside Of The Road" and like 50% at least of the rest of the Waits ouevre mean??? Surely he was kidding around.

xpost

"When I hear "It's Tricky" or "King Of Rock" I want to drink Clorox to get the taste of Adidas tracksuits & rope gold chains out of my mouth!"

"When I hear "Mr. Tambourine Man" or "Turn Turn Turn" I want to jump in front of a train so I never again have to think of shag haircuts, "Laugh-In", and Nehru jackets!"

"When I hear "Bizarre Love Triangle" or "True Faith" I want to slit my wrists to escape the thoughts of neon wristbands, shoulder pads, and acid-wash denim!"

I mean, really.

-- The Good Dr. Bill (fadeout9...), April 12th, 2006 10:06 AM.

never wronger!

-- Tantrum The Cat (tantrumtheca...), April 12th, 2006 1:16 PM.

Well, it's my honest reaction. It's why I'm listening to this record over and over to try to overcome my negative associations and actually hear what's there.

Would you say that music can have positive associations but not negative ones?

Would you say that music can have positive associations but not negative ones?

All kinds of associations will colour your perception of music, but I think it's a copout to dismiss a band based on the particular era of fashion that band existed in. That's all I was trying to say.

My favorite part of the alt.music thread is this speculative quote about Elvis Costello's purported Steely Dan love:

Of course, now Elvis is a pop gourmand and I'm sure would praise the Dan to the skies, but then I guess he had to be an angry young asshole. (And thank God he was, or we never would have had "Lipstick Vogue," among other delights).

Please lock thread.

This is a good reason why I love them.

-- Tantrum The Cat (tantrumtheca...), April 12th, 2006 1:42 PM.

I don't think I dismiss them on that basis. After several more spins of Katy Lied, I've come to the conclusion that the music doesn't engage me emotionally, so I have nothing but era-trappings to associate it with. The music doesn't speak to me, it doesn't result in perceptual changes or create its own set of associations sui generis. Nature abhors a vacuum, and the one Steely Dan creates in me gets filled with thoughts of snarky yacht rockers coking their brains pans shiny.

The Dan is a great nickname for Dan Perry, though.

He seems a bit out of touch with the currents of indie hipster taste:

...in 2006, being a Dan Fan is no picnic. Most of your hippest friends think you suffer from a streak of bad taste run wildly amok.

This fact — and it is a stone cold truth-and-a-half — sends me into musical lament. O, why-oh-why is Steely Dan so reviled by today's rock aficionados and indie-pop hipsters? Must I really live in a world where my recent attendance at a Donald Fagen solo concert (supporting his new album Morph the Cat) is a shameful secret to be hidden from all those under the age of 40? Can it be true — can it?! — that Steely Dan truly is nothing more than a mush of smoove jazz topped with indecipherable lyrics, an abomination that simply hypnotized us in the '70s because we didn't know any better?

Hey Susan, show some respect for the Seward pater familias!

I really should like Steely Dan - there's something willfully perverse about their focus on aesthetics at the expense of, well, everything. I have to assume two well-read fellas like Fagan & Becker were making a Huysmans reference in titling an album Two Against Nature. Such madness I would normally find endearing.

The PopMatters article hints that they sowed the seeds of their disfranchisement by blazing a path for the likes of Mangione, et al. While I can't blame any artist for the sins of their progeny, is Steely Dan's sound merely dated?

Are there any covers of Steely Dan songs - preferably acoustic solo performances - that anyone can recommend? I suspect my trouble with their stuff is embedded in the music itself (I find the chord progression of the chorus in "Everyone's Gone To The Movies" irritating), but a different take on the material might give me some perspective?

js, I take back what I said about you writing the dumbest thing I've ever read here.

It may have been mentioned already, but the Minutemen do a fine "Doctor Wu."

the minutemen one and the Mountain Goats track i mentioned are good, tho.

It's not a strawman, and it mostly came from returning to the board after a brief break and reading the Beatles unreleased materials thing. But I was already thinking about the irony of the way people still defend SD here with an air of going against the grain somehow. (Maybe that's a strawman, but it is my impression.)

re: covers. Good point, Alfred, I love The Minutemen's "Dr. Wu" - just wondering if others have had similar luck. Is it striking anyone as ironic that the two bands noted for covering Steely Dan are indie bands?

I certainly don't find fault with folks who don't enjoy SD. I can honestly see how someone who Loves Music might find it offensive - be it personal associations, Fagens's voice, antiseptic musicianship, or SD's perceived cynicism (which I think may be often overstated). Of course, these are some of the very reasons I love 'em. Go figure...

I'm kinda surprised Pitchfork excluded Steely Dan from their Best of the 70s list, honestly.

look for them in two years when they "reassess" that 70's list.

Point is: Did anyone else think the description, "Glass guitar and percussion clink along steadily like a chorus of jangling Tag Heuers, automatic Lexus locks, popping Le Croix cans, clicking laptop covers, crystal Cristal toasts, and smacking Hollywood cheek-kisses" made it sound really, really awesome? A chorus of jangling Tag Heuers sounds like the absolute shit.

Madly OTM. And I don't see many people defending Steely Dan because they think it's a subversive thing to do. It's just one of my favorite bands ever. I can only speak for myself.

Mine changes frequently, but right now its probably Brian Jonestown Massacre or Spiritualized or Meat Puppets. Never Steely Dan.