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Favorite Steely Dan Album

Favorite Steely Dan Album

  • CAN’T BUY A THRILL

    Votes: 6 7.8%

  • COUNTDOWN TO EXSTACY

    Votes: 8 10.4%

  • PRETZEL LOGIC

    Votes: 5 6.5%

  • KATY LIED

    Votes: 10 13.0%

  • THE ROYAL SCAM

    Votes: 10 13.0%

  • AJA

    Votes: 22 28.6%

  • GAUCHO

    Votes: 12 15.6%

  • TWO AGAINST NATURE

    Votes: 4 5.2%

  • EVERYTHING MUST GO

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    77
duncan said:
Voted for Gaucho, though my favorite bit of Fagen & Becker (and I know I'm in a tiny minority here) is Kamakiriad, the only Steely Dan album that was never a Steely Dan album.
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Not my favorite, but it is a really great record.

However, I do have to add that it is not the only Steely album that was never a Steely Dan album. There’s also their pre-Dan soundtrack for the film You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It (Or You’ll Lose That Beat). For those who have not heard it, Kamakiriad is much better.
 
Karmices said:
Ray Brown was brought in as no one else in band was played string bass. That was more of an added instrument, rather than a move towards using studio musicians over the band at that point.
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Fair enough, but how do you explain Victor Feldman, Ernie Watts, Ben Benay and Rick Derringer, among others? It's a slippery slope, I tell ya!
 
noogies said:
Fair enough, but how do you explain Victor Feldman, Ernie Watts, Ben Benay and Rick Derringer, among others? It's a slippery slope, I tell ya!
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Again, those guys played instruments (sax, vibraphone, marimba etc.) the band members didn't, except for an acoustic guitar that Benay played.
 
Karmices said:
Again, those guys played instruments (sax, vibraphone, marimba etc.) the band members didn't, except for an acoustic guitar that Benay played.
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They actually also used session musicians on Can't Buy a Thrill (some of whom played instruments the Dan were fully capable of playing), but that sort of ignores my point, which is this: the music was evolving and would eventually get to the point where Becker and Fagen not only needed more varied instrumentalists and soloists, but they were becoming less satisfied by the performances they could get from regular band members. This, coupled with Fagen's issues about touring (which resulted in no live dates to speak of after 1974) precluded the need for a central core of band members and resulted in regulars getting passed over more and more frequently in favor of session performers in order to achieve necessary levels of virtuosity or specialized sounds. By The Royal Scam they were actually auditioning different musicians for each track on the album.

To get from a six piece rock band to a virtual orchestra of hired guns was a gradual process.
 
noogies said:
They actually also used session musicians on Can't Buy a Thrill (some of whom played instruments the Dan were fully capable of playing), but that sort of ignores my point, which is this: the music was evolving and would eventually get to the point where Becker and Fagen not only needed more varied instrumentalists and soloists, but they were becoming less satisfied by the performances they could get from regular band members. This, coupled with Fagen's issues about touring (which resulted in no live dates to speak of after 1974) precluded the need for a central core of band members and resulted in regulars getting passed over more and more frequently in favor of session performers in order to achieve necessary levels of virtuosity or specialized sounds. By The Royal Scam they were actually auditioning different musicians for each track on the album.

To get from a six piece rock band to a virtual orchestra of hired guns was a gradual process.
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And the fact that when they quit touring, band members quit the as they wanted to tour, i.e. Jeff "Skunk" Baxter
 
Karmices said:
And the fact that when they quit touring, band members quit the as they wanted to tour, i.e. Jeff "Skunk" Baxter
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Okay, you win. I'm sure Jim Hodder would have had no problem with the drum part on"Aja" if only the band had stayed together and kept touring.
 
Me and my buddy just listened to The Royal Scam last night for the first time on my main system since I purchased my Parasound JC3+. Man what a great sounding album! Going to have to listen to some other stuff by Steely Dan that I haven't heard since getting the Parasound.
 
Katy Lied, Pretzel Logic or Royal Scam. They had a more guitar driven sound, and less "sterilized" over-production (like Aja and Gaucho...)
 
Jeff449 said:
Walter Becker was asked which of his albums was his favorite.
He said "Kind of Blue."
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Perhaps the "kind" of album he wished he could have made. But they were perfectionists, and would never be "loose" enough to accomplish, or be satisfied with something like that.
 
Surprised Pretzel Logic doesn’t get more love. I bought it when I was about 14 so it’s ingrained in my brain as to what Steely Dan is. Not that the other albums aren’t fantastic. The simple genius of the writing in ‘Any Major Dude’, ‘Pretzel Logic’, ‘Ricky Don’t Lose That Number’ still has me in awe. It seems a bit of a quaint and old fashioned album in comparison to Aja I suppose.
 
It's a fine line. Although I previously voted for "The Royal Scam", my vote might have been different on another day. I enjoy all of their albums and listen to them regularly.
 
Morph The Cat. Or Two Against Nature. I don't know which SD album I like best. I have them digitized and pick out songs. I like Babylon Sisters. Or FM. Or Boston Rag. Or Deacon Blue. ( obviously this could go on for quite some time )
 
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