Taking Sides: ELO vs Steely Dan

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Let the cheesy synth lines begin!

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 27 September 2004 15:54 (twenty-one years ago)

ELO: songs about women (mostly evil) and the weather

Steely Dan: songs about cine-pedophiles, circle jerks, coke dealers, brothel patrons, hostage crises, and the joys of recreational heroin use

And you want to talk synth lines?

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 27 September 2004 15:59 (twenty-one years ago)

do they have anything even remotely in common?

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 27 September 2004 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

they both had a lot of hits in the 70's.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 27 September 2004 16:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Late 70's Pop/Rock.
Glossy Production.
Semi-clever compositions.
A dollop of sarcasm.
So Melodic even Geir would like them.

So, yeah, they do have some things in common.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 27 September 2004 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

hmmmm.

Late 70's Pop/Rock.

um, can't argue with you there. (except to say both bands were popular starting in the early '70s.)

Glossy Production.

every successful band in the '70s had glossy production. not to mention every successful band in the '80s. but steely dan's pristine and meticulous jazz-rock perfectionism and elo's orchestral wall-of-sound don't sound much alike at all beyond that.

Semi-clever compositions.

steely dan were most definitely going for clever. it never occurred to me that elo were. they wrote pretty straight-up pop/rock songs, didn't they?

A dollop of sarcasm.

steely dan had way more than a dollop. elo did not.

So Melodic even Geir would like them.

their melodic sensibilities were so different, though. elo's best ("can't get it out of my head" or "telephone line," say) had an instantly pleasing classical symmetry to them. very very geir-friendly, i'd say. steely dan's were weird things borne out of their strange chord voicings that were more of an acquired taste.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 27 September 2004 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

(which is not to say that steely dan didn't have some great grab-you-by-the-balls melodies, because they did, or that elo didn't have a lot of strangeness in them, because they did. but in general, that's how i hear 'em.)

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 27 September 2004 16:34 (twenty-one years ago)

This is harder than I though it would be. You all know how I feel about the Dan, but I LOVE ELO.

― Ain't That Peculiar (kenan), Monday, 27 September 2004 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

When Steely Dan have finished stomping the bloody corpse of ELO into beautifully orchestrated atoms, I'll get back to you with the result.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Monday, 27 September 2004 17:05 (twenty-one years ago)

ELO: Glossy, stupid, whimsy, chirpy, poppy, bubbly, strenuously Beatlesesque
Steely Dan: Cynical, jaded, muso, black cofee, jazzbo, sneeringly Burroughsesque

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 September 2004 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

This comparison doesn't really work. Maybe ELO vs. Supertramp or Steely Dan vs. the Eagles.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 September 2004 17:58 (twenty-one years ago)

steely dan vs the eagles seems less apt than the original comparison.

― peter smith (plsmith), Monday, 27 September 2004 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

As an aside:

> every successful band in the '70s had glossy production.

Not entirely: War, Three Dog Night, KISS, and Elvis Costello didn't have productions that I would call "glossy."

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 27 September 2004 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

depends how you define it, i guess. what makes production glossy? i was using it as a synonym for expensive and careful, which is quite possibly wrong. but if you mean glossy in the sense of smooth, shiny and lustrous, i'd argue that steely dan weren't particularly glossy for most of their career. they were super-crisp and professional and expensive and perfectionist, but that's a whole different thing. (and it doesn't apply to, say, elvis costello, but elvis in the '70s wasn't exactly successful in steely dan or elo-like terms).

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 27 September 2004 18:11 (twenty-one years ago)

alex OTM. i think steely dan vs. the eagles is a pretty interesting match-up. east-coast-cool vs west-coast-cool. perfectionism vs. perfectionism. "show biz kids" vs. "life in the fast lane."

elo, on the other hand, would squash supertramp like a half-dead bug.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 27 September 2004 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Steely Dan vs. the Eagles.
Euwwww. Why don't we pit Einsturzende Neubauten vs Tom Petty while we're at it.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 27 September 2004 21:27 (twenty-one years ago)

(spoken as someone who actually likes the Eagles greatest hits records.)

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 27 September 2004 21:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm sorry but Steely Dan = Einsturzende Neubauten?

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Monday, 27 September 2004 21:30 (twenty-one years ago)

It was the first band I could think of that didn't sound like Tom Petty.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 27 September 2004 21:37 (twenty-one years ago)

(there is no relation between Steely Dan and Einsturzende Neubauten. Steely Dan are native to thus universe. Ein Neu were spawned in The Other Universe.)

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 27 September 2004 21:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Steely Dan vs. the Eagles

Well, "They stab it with their steely knives" was a tip of the ol' hat...

― Edward Bax, Monday, 27 September 2004 21:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Exactly, Edward. Steely Dan and the Eagles were actually contemporaries and rivals. The comparison makes perfect sense. I'd side with the `Dan, being from NYC, but also because they were a bajillion times cooler than the Eagles (not, admittedly, a difficult feat).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 September 2004 21:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Cabaret Voltaire vs Warrant

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 27 September 2004 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Boston vs Throbbing Gristle

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 27 September 2004 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Kansas vs Whitehouse

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 27 September 2004 22:08 (twenty-one years ago)

turn up the eagles, the neighbours are listening.

― derrick (derrick), Monday, 27 September 2004 22:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Steely Dan's songs are all ABOUT the Eagles, aren't they?

― Kris (aqueduct), Monday, 27 September 2004 22:58 (twenty-one years ago)

If "Turn That Heartbeat Over Again" is about the Eagles then I will be the happiest man alive.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 27 September 2004 23:13 (twenty-one years ago)

dan vs. eagles is a good comparison i think. eagles were gram parsons for the masses, pretty broad "critique" of california, hedonism, etc. not all that convincing to me at least, whereas steely really seemed to get at something in their nyc-meets-l.a. fashion. as in "kid charlemagne" or the nostalgia inherent in "my old school." actually do like "take it to the limit" by eagles but that's about it, the rest of it makes me barf. both bands far too skilfull to totally dis but my ears hear more in dan's jazz lifts than eagles' country-rock steals. elo is great cheesy pop a la the four seasons or something, what those songs are about i have no idea. i will always prefer the move but elo is pretty undeniable as radio fare, as were the guess who, bto, many others.

how about steely dan vs. randy newman?

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 15:25 (twenty-one years ago)

three weeks pass...

If you stretch the definition of ELO to include The Move..."Do Ya" was pretty good.

I saw Matthew Sweet cover "Do Ya" live a few years ago. Caught the audience completely off guard (he hadn't yet released it on that Letterman comp.).

The song got a bigger audience response than any of his own material.

― Edward Bax, Thursday, 21 October 2004 23:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Just got Can't Buy A Thrill on CD, heard it for the first time in several years; it's true, they could do no wrong.

― derrick (derrick), Friday, 22 October 2004 04:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, Do Ya is an awesome stadium rock song. And if that's all that ELO(Move) had ever done, then good on 'em. But Jeff Lynne has SOOO much to answer for .. and Steely Dan is damn near untouchable. no contest.

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 22 October 2004 10:47 (twenty-one years ago)

But Jeff Lynne has SOOO much to answer for..

I agree completely.

― Edward Bax, Friday, 22 October 2004 11:28 (twenty-one years ago)

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