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

Folk music, otoh, has probably been associated with dancing forever.

Mostly but thinking of a strain of Irish (and other probably) trad music that’s very story based and would have mandated close listening to follow the words.

Good point; when we think of how bards memorized Homeric poetry or the Mahabharata or Gilgamesh or whatever, the feats of memory must have been music-adjacent.

I am a 52-year-old white collar knowledge worker / office drone and I have to alphabetize things surprisingly often. I cannot alphabetize things without singing the song in my head.

There are hundreds of folk ballads, not designed for dancing, from England, Scotland, Ireland.

Yes and also hundreds of pieces that are - jigs, reels, morris-adjacent material, plus polkas and waltzes and gavottes and square-fance material and quite a lot of fiddle music and line dances and and and

I don't think I said that there isn't non-dance music, nor did anyone say that there isn't dance music. There is plenty of both, and lots in between. Not sure why this is even being presented as a conflict or argument

I think because we were talking about a shift in the 60s, which was when Greenwich Village folk was more of a sit and listen thing than a dance-a-jig thing

Another example of a dance form becoming art music for seated enjoyment: in 1924 you had Paul Whiteman commissioning George Gershwin to write “Rhapsody in Blue” which was billed as “An Experiment in Modern Music” and performed in a classical music venue.

Another example of a dance form becoming art music for seated enjoyment: in 1924 you had Paul Whiteman commissioning George Gershwin to write “Rhapsody in Blue” which was billed as “An Experiment in Modern Music” and performed in a classical music venue.

Who gives a shit

Can we get back to talking about bad sneakers

what is the danciest steely dan track, and is it the fez

"Peg" is pretty dancey.

"King of the World" is one of my favorite deep cuts - that would get me dancing

Are there any Steely Dan songs with extended segments (not just a couple of measures) in non-standard time signatures like 5, 7 or 9? For that matter, I'm having trouble thinking of any in 3 or 6 (except parts of "Aja").

When I think of the Dan I don't really think of time-signature wankery. Close harmony, yes. 5s and 7s and 9s, not really. They're not Dream Theater.

I think "Two Against Nature" is said to be 6, which is really just 3 if you squint right, but I have never had to count it in a performance setting and I hope I never have to.

Closest I can think of is "Babylon Sisters" & "Home At Last" which both employ Bernard Purdie's shuffle, essentially (quarter note) triplets over half-time.

https://francisdrummer.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/steely-dan-babylon-sisters-drum-sheet-music.png

...all of this is in the radical 4/4 time obviously, but the polyrhythms at play (esp the ghost notes) is where it gets "fun".

Sure, they subdivide beats into triplets all the time, it's the basis of swing.

A half-time shuffle does not (to me) read as odd. If I have think about it (which I mostly don't), I regard it as a two-bar phrase.

It really is 4/4 at heart. Instead of having the main snare accent snare on 2 and 4, you just put it on the 3. But in actual practice, most people aren't really counting - once you have the feel internalized, you don't need to count.

I can really get down to night by night (dance wise)

https://i.ibb.co/48fdtc3/Screenshot-20230630-140854.png

xpost to Songs You Sing to Your Cat

Are there any Steely Dan songs with extended segments (not just a couple of measures) in non-standard time signatures like 5, 7 or 9? For that matter, I'm having trouble thinking of any in 3 or 6 (except parts of "Aja").

"Gaucho" is in 4/4 but I think there are a couple measures of 6 in the verses (or 2, depending on how you break it down) that give it a rhythmically off-kilter feel.

The intro to "Your Gold Teeth II" seems to have some bars in 6 or 7 as well as 4, and the whole song is in 6 as well.

...and I guess you could say some parts of the guitar solo are in 9.

My cats only like modal jazz in odd times

This is their favorite video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_8iD5xS1hI

That would be a jazz cat (ducks)

And Your Cat Can Swing

https://www.b98.tv/video/katnip-kollege/

Chatting on a msgbrd about the Purdie shuffle is admittedly rather precious in AD2023 but can I just say it is also it is really not "just 4/4"... I/you(?) can count it with internal 12/8 and 12/4 with 16th trips.

my SD dance jam is probably Time Outta Mind, esp the hi-hat closes.

You CAN count a Purdie shuffle as 12s but there is no pressing need to do so. Triplets are all over contemporary music, true, but they generally sit fine inside music that is overwhelmingly 4/4 in overall structure.

The club was so small there wasn't enough room for a cat to swing

i bop hard to “Kid Charlemagne”

I’ll take “Black Friday”

"Peg"

Will throw shapes to "Bodhisattva"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsawrH9bnFI

All time banger. One of my entry points into getting into Steely Dan.

Gaddtastic!

might as well drop this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg17hJq7H0Q

Groovy
I need to make some SD vapor

https://www.vulture.com/2023/06/steely-dan-the-second-arrangement-found.html?fbclid=IwAR1TNcC6uxMT1CjzQwW3AzcmwToFEt36ZwQ_oPazo00hFUF7qbdlsnwoznk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWc9AMB6Jh0

Cimcie sharing some rehearsals from 2000
Some Bad Sneakers snippets around 22:00

^ Very nice, new one for me that.

I also enjoyed this Morris Mobley cover from about 5 years ago - love the elastic bassline: https://morrismobley.bandcamp.com/track/glamour-profession

Had never listened to "Aja" till a few years back but knew that Shakir tune and when it clicked...my WORD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b6fPnBtUqw

a bit weird and unsettling to see Don enjoying himself so much

Fagen's recoil from the mic after every line is such an odd tic.

I'm not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on some of your note choices there, Jeff