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

bogey boogie blues

Turn up the eagles the neighbors are listening

unrelated: i recently picked up You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It... from the local record shop, just on a "wtf is this?" kinda standpoint. have only given it one listen but it's pretty fun to hear! the Dan-ness is legible in most of the tracks. one or two could, with some polish and added rockness, fit pretty nicely on Can't Buy A Thrill. i'm kinda surprised i'd never really registered its existence before.

There's a bit in a Steely Dan biography where they re-enact Fagen's cameo in that movie for a journalist or radio DJ, to illustrate its lameness. "Was that funny? Are you laughing?" asks Don.

This is amazing:

thinking again about how one of the best Gaucho knockoffs is by...McGruff the Crime Dog?? pic.twitter.com/ztKvSlg2eM

— Good Steely Dan Takes (@baddantakes) February 24, 2021

omg

Fagen might have tried another take for the lead vocals, though.

See also: Rolo Tony

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G217BHRg4ZM

More of a mike McDonald thing, so steely adjacent

damn that mcgruff song rocks

There are some other jams on there, although not Dan-influenced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMOXxX5_wAA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTl6aip7zqg

The marijuana track has a "Cold as Ice" Foreigner vibe. Maybe some Styx in there too.

Not sure what "Cocaine and Crack" is going for - Captain & Tenille?

tough to say... it def has an aesthetic of its own but some of it may be accidental, iow going for some other sound we can't hear and winding up with this due to the limitations of their drum machine and Casio resources.

"roly tony" is incredible, agreed it's less Dan and more general Yacht but very very well executed! clearly booked more studio time and more engaged musicians than the entire McGruff album.

The Crack & Cocaine chorus sounds like Couldn't I Just Tell You by Todd Rundgren

"Alohol" has a Yachtski score of course: https://www.yachtornyacht.com/personnel/4951/McGruff-the-Crime-Dog

alcohol that is

pretty bummed a) that there is no 3 or 4 minute version of "Rolo Tony" b) that none of my friends to whom i sent the link really seemed to appreciate it

Send it them every day. It gets better and better

Walter Becker and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan with Moby at the 16th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony which was held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, NYC, 2001 pic.twitter.com/3F6CoyzuKC

— Barney Hurley (@barneyhurley1) May 9, 2021

Fagen's tie is so on-brand it may as well have piano keys printed on it. Not sure what kind of gang sign he's flashing though.

the h gang

What's Don doing with his hands?

Looks like his pockets are too small

no he’s flashing the h gang sign

MAY 19!

No we can't dance together

People fought

Whatever happened to Steely Dan? Some people say Steely Dan's name has been popping up as a hip musical crush. Remember Steely Dan? This glossy bop-pop was no match for punk rock in the late 70's. Then Obama started putting in restrictions. People fought and died so our generation could listen to something better. Okay? So Kurt Cobain died of an overdose. He still had soul. Steely Dan! Keep up the good fight. Sad!

no we've got nothin in common. no we can't talk at all

God I still wake in terror when I remember the Great Black Cow Battle of Williamsburg back in ought-seven. Horrible.

she don't remember the queen of soul

God I still wake in terror when I remember the Great Black Cow Battle of Williamsburg back in ought-seven. Horrible.

i can't cry anymore

Was that the battle that involved a case of dynomite?

Or wait, maybe that was in Oregon.

Either way, I vowed that they wouldn't take me alive.

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 70s.

The Brutal Language’s own Julian Gutman is the author of the outstanding graphic novel Stripes At The Breakfast Table, with Michael Workman. (And no, that’s not a typo in the title. His mother was born in 1948.) Julian is a die-hard fan of the Steely Dan legacy, from their unlikely reunion in 1997, through to the final, bloated farewell tour of 2007.

He’s teamed up with the all-star illustrator Giuseppe Camuncoli for a new comic strip collaboration called Steely Dan Adventure.

she don't remember the queen of soul

― burnt hombre (stevie), Wednesday, May 19, 2021 1:20 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

lol a 19 year old not knowing about Aretha in 1980 is like a 19 year old today not knowing about Rihanna

I feel like culture moved a lot faster then though

Tim F's fine Spotify playlist has a cool "Time out of Mind" cover at # 39.

I feel like culture moved a lot faster then though

Definitely there was a shorter memory for pop music. If it wasn't in the charts, it was pretty invisible.

yep pre internet, hearing about and actually hearing stuff from 15-20 years ago took some effort

Yeah, but Aretha Franklin?

I think artists had more staying power, since you only heard about them on the radio, one of the three TV channels or certain places like your local jukebox or record store. I mean, the Beatles were still huge throughout the 70s. "Dark Side of the Moon" stayed on the album charts for 14 years. Outside of Diana Ross, there wasn't a more famous "R&B/Soul" singer than Aretha. If you knew who Donna Summer was, you knew Aretha too.

I guess if you were in the top 1% of back catalog artists like the Beatles, then people still knew about you. But even with the Beatles, unless you were spending your own hard-earned money on buying their records, you only heard the songs that played on oldies stations for the most part. I mean I never heard "Sgt Peppers" until I could afford to buy it, in high school. It was a revelation, when I mostly knew them for "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and the like. For kids who didn't spend their money on records, I can easily believe they had little knowledge of those back catalog stars.

Outside of Diana Ross, there wasn't a more famous "R&B/Soul" singer than Aretha.

And inside of Diana Ross, there simply wasn't room for any additional singers.

the nineteen-year-old in the song might also be playing dumb to humor the coked-out older gentleman she's chatting with

I mean, she was in the Blues Brothers that year!

heyy nineteen, that's john belushi

Aretha's career was in a downturn before Blues Brothers and Hey Nineteen was probably written before the movie came out.

yeah Aretha was a crossover non-entity between "Until You Come Back to Me" and "Jump to It," and even that's generous. "Freedom of Love" was the first time the hey-nineteen would've heard her.

I can't speak for the nineteenager in the Dan song. But I could sort of understand a youngster not making an instant connection between the singer of "Ain't No Way" (1968) and the singer of "Who's Zoomin' Who" (1985).

In the early 80s there were loads of young white people who didn't really have much familiarity with Motown / vintage soul / R&B prior to seeing Blues Brothers, Big Chill, and St. Elmo's Fire.

I don't know. I remember a lot of hit singles that came out when I was 12, the age the 19yo would have been in 1973 when "Until You Come Back to Me" went to #3.