#21

Oh, it’s just an aside. I hold them mostly responsible for their terrible music.

2 Likes
#22

I really like the song Dirty Work but everything else I’ve ever heard by them is a bit rubbish. 2/5 just because of Tony Soprano

#23

Hold up are we about to start talking about bands doing drugs? Coz boy have I got some news for you…

8 Likes
#24

Love them 5/5

My school music teacher had quite an influence on me. He played Bass in a band who had a song that reached like number 38 or something like that in the early 70’s I wish I could remember the name of the band but I can’t. Anyway. In the school music room there was a record player and maybe 5 or 6 vinyl LP’s these were records that belonged to my music teacher. We were allowed to use the record player in our break etc.
I remember one of the records being Variations by Julian Lloyd Webber (south bank show theme)!? And the only other record I remember was pretzel logic by Steely Dan. This was my music teachers favourite band. He would talk about them a lot. So I would play it and I too loved them. A few years later I investigated their other stuff partly due to the De La Soul sample and partly through my love of Pretzel logic.
Their songwriting is exceptional but their musicianship is equally exceptional. What a tight sounding band. So many layers. A very influential band.

3 Likes
#25

No different to Arab Strap really?

#26

Responsible for two great songs :wink:

So it’ll be a 4.

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#27

they’re miles from being elevator cocaine music or whatever people say but think a lot of acts they’ve influenced sound kinda like that, sort of ripping off their vibe without the substance of the lyrics and songwriting

trying to think of a contempary band that does their influence justice. maybe field music?

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#28

We could fill this whole thread with songs that sample Steely Dan (118 according to WhoSampled). This is my favourite though

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#29

If you are going to steal, steal from the best

On the other hand, they’ve been ‘ripped off’ themselves hundreds of times - it’s just how music is.

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#30

don’t think you’d like them at all but maybe slip them a 5 anyway?

1 Like
#31

image
image1024×1024 127 KB

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#32

For you, Shrewbs, consider it done.

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#33

Never knowingly heard and don’t think I’ve even heard of them beyond seeing them mentioned on this forum - had to do a quick check that they weren’t an elaborate Herbert Spellerman style hoax.

I would have guessed they’re 70s easy listening as that’s a big blind spot for me usually but I’m reading jazz, Zappa and smartarse in the initial posts itt and thinking they may well be for me. Going in.

3 Likes
#34

lets post some lyrics

Double helix in the sky tonight
Throw out the hardware, let’s do it right
Aja, when all my dime dancin’ is through
I run to you

Hello one and all
Was it you I used to know?
Can’t you hear me call
On this old ham radio
All I got to say
I’m alive and feeling fine
Should you come my way
You can share my poison wine

I remember the thirty-five sweet goodbyes
When you put me on the Wolverine
Up to Annandale
It was still September
When your daddy was quite surprised
To find you with the working girls
In the county jail

love that whole cryptic storytelling thing. was just googling them and john ashbery to see if anyone had made the comparison, had no idea him and walter becker died on the same day!

7 Likes
#35

Another one for the ‘didn’t get them until I got them, and then I totally got them’ brigade. Was a realitively recent thing for me too, about five years ago. My mum is a big fan too, so always nice that we can listen to them together now. Would agree that Aja is the best way in.

They just sound ridiculously good. Got them on shuffle now.

3 Likes
#36

Incredible production, boring songs 2

#37

There’s two types of people, those that rightly love Steely Dan and those that aren’t yet ready for Steely Dan.

I grew up hating them. Dad used to play them all the time and they were like nails on a chalkboard to me. Then one day in my teens they just clicked.

Posted this on the social board yesterday, it’s a text I got from my ex yesterday…
Screenshot_20200830-192253

Can’t fault anything about them really.

5/5.

Can we also talk about how good Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly is?

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#38

I feel a bit disloyal to Walter, but I probably listen to The Nightfly more than any Dan album (except Aja). It’s a brilliant set of songs.

2 Likes
#39

Yes, without hip hop I don’t think I would have become a fan. Gas Drawls probably the track that got me to give them a listen as it coincided with me getting the internet and becoming able to find out where stuff was sampled from and then get the original track off Napster.

And once I started delving I realised how many people had sampled them. Seemed such an unlikely fit.

4 Likes
#40

I had such fun the day I found out that they’d been sampled on loads of hip hop. Probably owe my love of De La Soul to them weirdly.

1 Like