New appreciation for Steely Dan

[Cunamara]

[Christian Miller]

Fagen mentions in the book that he thinks of SD as having a rebellious Punk attitude, but he calls the music of the punk bands as "adolescent, and dumb. Really dumb."LOL!

Yeah I kind of see what he means. They weren’t singing about elves and pixies lol.


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[Doctor Jeff]

I love Gaucho. VERY reflective of the time when it was made in every way. By the end of the 70s everyone was WORN OUT, strung out, just out.

I appreciate the focus on the crazy process of making records, but in the end it’s the vinyl result (see what I did there) that counts.

[Woody Sound]

Favorite jazz covers of Steely Dan tunes?

My absolute favorite, the great Liane Carroll. The whole vid is worth listening to, but the real swing starts at about halfway through at 3:00.

[Woody Sound]

My absolute favorite, the great Liane Carroll. The whole vid is worth listening to, but the real swing starts at about halfway through at 3:00.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but here's more from LC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=VZkXAu735is

[wolflen]

I didn’t get the Dan until about a year ago. It only clicked when I started listening to the words.


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The band name it self should be a big clue..

blueprint blue..really...

[Doctor Jeff]

I didn’t get the Dan until about a year ago. It only clicked when I started listening to the words.


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Well the words are dense and funny and artistic, but what makes the songs are the way Fagen sings them. Has anyone ever conveyed pure cynicism and sarcasm better?

(Well, Dylan I guess. But his voice isn't as good as Fagen's, and his songs aren't as complex in construction and recording.)

Oh no, Guadelajara won't do.

[Dennis D]

I didn’t get the Dan until about a year ago. It only clicked when I started listening to the words.


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For me it was just the opposite. I liked their music from day one, because it was the nearest to jazz on the radio.

But regarding their lyrics, which fit the music very well when they were ' on, ' I never bothered much with what they may have meant.
So, I settled on the Aja and Gaucho LP's from day one, and left their references in my ' oh well / so be it / who cares ' category.

Reminds me of the American Bandstand record ratings - - " I'll always give them an 85 for the music 'cause it sounds good and is easy to dance to, but I don't understand a lot of the lyrics. "
" But hey, if my girl and I are dancing, who cares what the song's supposed to be about ? "

MHO : )

[Christian Miller]

For me it was just the opposite. I liked their music from day one, because it was the nearest to jazz on the radio.

But regarding their lyrics, which fit the music very well when they were ' on, ' I never bothered much with what they may have meant.
So, I settled on the Aja and Gaucho LP's from day one, and left their references in my ' oh well / so be it / who cares ' category.

Reminds me of the American Bandstand record ratings - - " I'll always give them an 85 for the music 'cause it sounds good and is easy to dance to, but I don't understand a lot of the lyrics. "
" But hey, if my girl and I are dancing, who cares what the song's supposed to be about ? "

MHO : )

Yeah I really didn’t get the music on its own. It’s like ‘that’s nice, but sounds a bit like pop-fusion, not my thing.’ As a musician I could appreciate the objective merits of the music and performances but it just didn’t connect as a whole for me… then I heard ‘your obsolete …’ and they had me haha… horses for course as they say


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[sgcim]

My absolute favorite, the great Liane Carroll. The whole vid is worth listening to, but the real swing starts at about halfway through at 3:00.

She's fantastic! Piano and vocals, the whole deal.
Fagen's kind of weird about covers of his songs though.
He said that he gets covers of his tunes sent to him in the mail a lot, but he looks on them as as 'elevator music'.
I'm sure he'd appreciate Liane's amazing talent, but that has nothing to do with it.
It's hard to understand; traditionally, composers/songwriters are supposed to appreciate other artist's interpreting their songs, but he's not like that. I don't know if it's just instrumental versions, or if he feels the same way about tribute bands, and vocal versions, but he strongly dislikes covers of SD When SD were inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame, they mocked the whole thing, and didn't even take their trophies .

, and left saying that they were 'PERSUADED' that it was a great honor.LOL!
It will be interesting to see what happens when Fagen gets inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in June, but they voiced extreme hatred of the R&R Hall of Fame, so it won't be into a Q&A session about Jimmy Carl Black, the one member of the MOI who wasn't admitted into the R&R HOF.

[sgcim]

The band name it self should be a big clue..

blueprint blue..really...

Yeah, anyone whose fave writers were Burroughs and Kerouak was coming from a whole different place...

[Woody Sound]

She's fantastic! Piano and vocals, the whole deal.
Fagen's kind of weird about covers of his songs though.
He said that he gets covers of his tunes sent to him in the mail a lot, but he looks on them as as 'elevator music'.
I'm sure he'd appreciate Liane's amazing talent, but that has nothing to do with it.
It's hard to understand; traditionally, composers/songwriters are supposed to appreciate other artist's interpreting their songs, but he's not like that. I don't know if it's just instrumental versions, or if he feels the same way about tribute bands, and vocal versions, but he strongly dislikes covers of SD When SD were inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame, they mocked the whole thing, and didn't even take their trophies .

, and left saying that they were 'PERSUADED' that it was a great honor.LOL!
It will be interesting to see what happens when Fagen gets inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in June, but they voiced extreme hatred of the R&R Hall of Fame, so it won't be into a Q&A session about Jimmy Carl Black, the one member of the MOI who wasn't admitted into the R&R HOF.

They seem to feel they are SO important. After "rebelling" against the same thing they had become. Hypocrites.

[wolflen]

They seem to feel they are SO important. Hypocrites.

hmm..could be that "new york" thing..reading the new york times does that

[Woody Sound]

hmm..could be that "new york" thing..reading the new york times does that

Funny, my step-daughter moved from upstate to NYC for grad scl and stayed there. Took on that attitude that nobody outside of there has a clue.

[pingu]

1329753[/URL]]They seem to feel they are SO important. After "rebelling" against the same thing they had become. Hypocrites.

They are SO important ….

[Dennis D]

They are SO important ….

....to paraphrase that song by those other guys, after all is said and done, it really is only rock and roll.......

[sgcim]

hmm..could be that "new york" thing..reading the new york times does that

This could erupt into an East Coast vs. West Coast Jazz thing! LOL!
I used to play with a musician who was heavy into that. He played on the album by Woody Herman "East Meets West, and he went on the road with Chet Baker for eight months. He was so traumatized by being on the road with Chet that he couldn't even talk about it. We worked together for three or four years, and he wouldn't say one word about his experience with Chet!
One time I played the head to a tune that I copied from an old Howard Roberts album, and he snapped at me,"That sounds like one of those West Coast jazz things. Do me a favor, don't play any of that BS!"
I don't know if he knew the tune, or just knew the way they wrote tunes, but he was right, it was a West Coast jazz tune that I thought was very obscure.

[sgcim]

They seem to feel they are SO important. After "rebelling" against the same thing they had become. Hypocrites.

If you really want to find out what asshats they could be, read the biography of Warne Marsh called, "Unsung"
Warne tells the inside story of the album they produced called "The Warne Marsh and Pete Christlieb Quintet-"Apogee".

They took what could've been a great jazz album, and chopped it up so much, that Warne said they totally destroyed it.
Warne spends a whole chapter saying what jerks they were, and by the time you finish reading that, you'll lose any musical respect you might have had for them.
It was similar to the experience Jim Hall had when he made an album with Pat Metheny. Hall said by the time Pat made all the little fixes that he makes to all his recordings, it didn't resemble anything that took place in the studio that he remembered. He called it a Frankenstein monster.

[sgcim]

....to paraphrase that song by those other guys, after all is said and done, it really is only rock and roll.......

'fraid so.