Deacon Blues - Steely Dan | College Students' FIRST TIME REACTION! 

Still waiting on Bodhisattva...

You can't feel this song until you're about 50 and you realize that at least some of the dreams you had when you had when you were 20 ain't happening.

This is the first time I've heard this. I love it! Next "Dirty Work"!

Deacon may grow on you because it did for me.

Yeah you guys should do "Home At Last" next.

Quite possibly the greatest album every recorded.

Don't forget the mastering. Back when mastering meant creating a unified experience across an entire album, rather than making every song as loud as possible, this album flows from one track to the next and immerses you into the vibe. The very worst thing about this album (on vinyl) is that you have to get out of your chaise lounge and turn it over.

@@michaelanderson2881 and editing too!!! No Pro Tools, Garage Band, etc. It was all on tape and edited by physically cutting tape and reassembling! I couldn't imagine doing that!

@@TrashWerewolf True.

@@michaelanderson2881 That at least kept your legs from falling asleep.

So true! Life doesn't always go the way we plan. Be thankful for what we have.

Truth!

Absolutely the truth.

fagen/becker were in their twenties when they wrote it

Just had to go there huh. lol

try being 16 listening to time by pink floyd in 1973, 'and then 1 day you find 10 years have got behind you, no one told when to run you missed the starting gun'. 50 years laters you would change that 10 for 50. Any song that puts us face to face with the reality that time is the most important thing we have, will resonnate with anyone paying attention to the lyrics and life.

Thank you! :)

Yes!

Josie is okay... I think there are SO many great Steely Dan tunes.. my fave... Babylon Sisters (Shake it), Janie Runaway, The Fez, Bad Sneakers (and a Pina-Colada my Friend).... just so many good tunes.

Yes! One of my favs.

Josie is in my top 3 SD songs.

@@connieb4372 Just goes to show how good SD is. I am also eagerly waiting for Don't Take Me Alive and FM

The tenor saxophonist, Pete Christlieb, said he went over to the studio and heard the track, and listened to what they wanted, did two takes, and left. Later, he'd hear himself while using the bathroom at airports around the world 😅.

So true....and a lot of it anazingly on AM radio!!

Guilty!

Omg TOTALLY agree!!!!

Wait. I was going to say that. I so took it for granted. Today’s music, by comparison, um. I feel sorry for this generation.

Truth, my friend. I weep for what we’ve lost.

Exactly what Susan said.

This song requires some kind of inate "jazz sensibility" which comes with preparation, exposure to jazz and age. Having Aja (song) or Deacon be your entree to Steely Dan would be difficult to truly appreciate if you hadn't already been exposed to that particular musical style on say Katy Lied (although Jamal over at Jamel aka Jamal had his first experience with the Steely Universe through a request for the title track Aja and now includes them in his Top 5 All Time... so it does happen). Andy prefers radio-friendly, pop-oriented Steely Dan, i.e. Peg, Reelin' but didn't quite "feel" Deacon Blues or Black Cow (two songs that epitomize Steely Dan for me every frickin' time I hear them) and that's fine; his jazz sensibility needs to mature a bit. Good things take time.

Susan Klasinski The biggest thing this song was lacking is the guitar solos that permeate most SD songs(I'm a guitar guy). I _still_ love this song, just not as much as some others.

And the very same thing could be said about "Black Cow." Perhaps Andy is a bit too young and not really accustomed to music derived from a foundation of jazz influences. I myself never had that problem. Black Cow and Deacon Blues are just the epitome of SMOOTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Being young means you can't appreciate the song....no....I was 16 when hearing it the first time, still love it 42 years later...but I'm a prog rock guy, jazz/rock fusion isn't a big deal to me...

That's awesome. It's also my favorite song. Forget Steely Dan or Beatles or Stones, it's my favorite song, period.

@@theivory1 very cool!

I know all the words....such a groove!

@@user-rs6ln7nc4g cool!

I (ah) I play just what i feeeeeeellll

perhaps a skulligan?

Bernard Purdie didn’t play drums on Aja. It was Steve Gadd.

@@johnlylemusic Incorrect. Purdie played on Deacon Blues. Gadd played on the SONG Aja and did the incredible solo, but did not play on this song. Five different drummers played on the album: Paul Humphrey, Rick Marotta, Ed Greene, Gadd and Purdie. Look it up.

@@andrewtrotter9023 you’re absolutely right, I had my songs mixed up as I was simultaneously watching another video where they were reviewing the SONG Aja. I always get into trouble when I multitask! My bad!😀😬

@@johnlylemusic All good, brother. Loved the Dan for 45 years (I’m old AF!)

@@andrewtrotter9023 me too! I’m 59 years old and I’ve been a huge fan ever since they came out. I have a six carousel CD player in my car, and all six are currently SD records. I’m a professional guitarist, and I just recently spent about a year working out a solo guitar version of Deacon Blues. It was a total labor of love! 👍🏼🎸❤️😎

💯

And where surrounded by them too!

Yes I was posed the same scenario, i chose dan too. Reason being, i never tire of their music. Complex and cerebral.

I listen to Steely Dan at work almost every day.

Exactly

I'm 63 and bought the album on vinyl the year it came out. I think I must have listened to that record a hundred times in the first two weeks I had it. LOVED it. After a couple of days, I started skipping over Deacon Blues because I thought it was kind of dull and generic soft jazz-pop. My opinion about it hasn't changed over the years.

@@bobbabai Same, except I'm 69 now.

I agree. I was disappointed they were doing Deacon Blues, as it's not a favorite. I haven't heard it in many years, and I'm very surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Still, I agree with Andy...I like the other songs much more.

@@TallyDrake but a B is a bit low for me. To each his own.

Yea, I was just thinking, they never play SD anymore on the radio. And yes I still love the radio.

@@maryannanderson1744 Look for a classic rock or easy listening (🤮 I hate that label) station.

Between SiriusXM’s Yacht Rock, 70s on 7, and most of the classic channels, you can hear this song 2-3 times in an hour. They play it pretty frequently.

@@radsterman I know 💜 I listen to an "oldies" station at work all day, when not listening to my Amazon music playlists. Unfortunately that, plus a classic rock station, is all that comes in.

JUnior HIgh era for me.... just moving into High School

Speaking of Lou Reed, would love to see a reaction to Take A Walk On The Wild Side. A little curveball for the boys.

@@scottingram7634, that and Intro/Sweet Jane!

The saxophone solo on Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" is performed by Ronnie Scott, a jazz musician.

@@robny1461, yeah. I've been suggesting that for awhile now. Hoping they broaden their scope just a lil bit to cover urban stuff. If they did the whole RnR Animal album I think my head would explode. With joy. Like seeing a boy grow up.

@@privatename123 I've actually never listened to that whole album either!

Yep, definitely need to do Aja.

Lost in lyrical sauce, and freaking with the drums and sax eargasms. Trust us!

Yes, Gadd just went crazy in Aja.

I agree, I think their ready for AJA

I've been waiting for them to do the song "Aja" since they first dipped into this album. I can't wait for the reactions to *everything* that is "Aja".

I agree 100%

Show biz kids

The value in these first time reaction channels is that it turns on new generations or new people to the music and for good channels, like Andy and Alex, there is a reciprocal exchange. Collectively we are dj for them, taking them on a journey of exploring these great songs of the past and they offer a unique perspective, which I won't speak for you, but sometimes they pick up on things I've never heard before, or at the very least we get to hear these songs vicariously through them as new and novel. I'm younger than you but older than Andy and Alex and to be honest besides Do It Again, I thought Steely Dan was awful when I was younger. This channel has at least given me a perspective as to why people in your generation thought so highly of this band.

Yes!

Guerrilla ... You thought they were awful?! Man, if you were around in the 70's you and I would not have hit it off, musically anyway. ✌

@@brucedillinger9448 I heard them initially as a kid from my Dad's CD collection. I liked more of the Zeppelin, Stones, Sabbath stuff from that era, the heavier more uptrmpo Rock. Although Pink Floyd was one of my favorites as well. Steely Dan sounded too pop to me. Then throughout my teen and young adult years, I gravitated more towards contemporary music. However, I did pick up guitar and I found out how relatively difficult some of these jazz phrasings are. I just never went back and listened to Steely Dan until this reaction channel.

The more you listen to them the more you will like them. It will grow on you til the day you started singing "they call Alabama the Crimson tide" to yourself. I had honestly forgotten how much I liked Steely Dan. Haven't heard them for years but the words all came flowing back to me.

Yup, and the bass drum samba ostinato is just perfect for this track.

Purdy is a rhythm god.

Steve Gadd played the drums on Aja, but Bernard Purdie played on MANY great Steely Dan songs!

Or - you finally got girl friend.

It's funny you should say that. I was just thinking that I used to take Steely Dan for granted. I think as a child of the 70s, my ears were flooded with so many types of great music, that I just assumed all music was high quality! And sadly, I think I assumed it always would be.

Well said ! 🍻

@@kathynicholson103 Their music just got better and better in those mid-70s huh? I remember hearing 'Do it Again' the first time and the guy I was playing pool with said 'Whoa, this song is soooo good", we were both lost in it.

I like to think Donald Fagen's character in his solo song, New Frontier, is the younger, innocent, bright eyed version of this sad and cynical dude from Deacon Blues.

Beautifully said

2nd best opening lyric from same album (?) - ‘In the corner of my eye, I saw you in Rudy’s...you were very high (you were high)’😎

@@kevinkuckkan5102 I grew up in West San Fernando Valley and Santa Monica so their visuals about, cruising down Sunset to the sea are everything. 🌊 🌞 🌴

@@b2squared Babylon Sisters, great tune...have never been there but ‘see’ it ev time I hear that song...’just until we’re out of town...’

Agreed

Me too and we got spoiled. This was weekly with some band!

Billie Whyers - I really don’t think most of today’s music will be listened to 20 years from now. The music in that sense has died. Even from the perspective of sampling today’s music in the future as we do now with past generations of material. So much current music has no substance and nothing to draw from

@@cirenosnor5768 yes most of today’s music is not what I would call truly good music.

Steely Dan, one of a kind, never imitated impossible to duplicate. Don't take me alive still is as good as first day I heard it.

Agree! This album and Dire Straights “Brother in Arms” are the best to test speakers. Still wish I had my family’s ESS speakers. What I heard some of the best albums on.

Becker and Fagen said its about the waking daydream of 2 white suburbanite teens longing to fit in with the 52nd Street "Hep Cat's" of NYC's Birdland and Blue Note jazz scene and imaging themselves as part of that scene. Think Thelonius Monk in Chinos and Chuck Taylors.

The lyric is much more Walter Becker than Donald Fagen.

Dude I kid you not, I always thought it's "dine behind the wheel" like eating burgers while driving or something haha

@@MartijnFrazer LOL!!!

@@MartijnFrazer Me too!

YES!

I have to go with Alex on this one. You can see the growth and maturity in Steely Dan on this album.

A critic, addressing this couplet, took to task the notion that playing too long was the sin; that it should've been "sue me if I play it wrong," amplifying the emotion. It's an opinion that's long stuck with me, and I believe it's valid, to the point that when I sing along I use that line.

@@WRRHalum whatever floats your boat.

@@WRRHalum nah, "play too long" get's us to the notion of the could-have-been about the character in this song. There's a breathless sort-of melancholy to the whole number and this phrase tightly fits into the feeling of the piece, like a middle-aged saxophonist who has lost his luster playing at 2 AM when most of the crowd at the jazz club have gone home and it's quiet and almost dewy outside

Don't take me Alive! After I heard that song the first time I couldn't stop playing it. Steely Dan, what an amazing and difficult road taken to achieve success and fulfill a vision.

East St Louis Toodle Doo is pretty skippable after you've heard it a few times

@@brianmiller1077 I don’t even skip ⏭ that track!‼️

Fire In The Hole stinks, but 90% success rate on a debut record is still pretty impressive.

Sadly...they were a great band! Waaaah!

Dead on it!

Amen!

Not to mention Wayne Shorter's sax solo ..

And he hid it in a single take, without even listening to the music beforehand!

Yes. Aja. Please

Delicious isn't appropriate. Insane is more like it. Check out Rick Beato on it.

Or Lowdown. Or Miss Sun. Or Breakdown Dead Ahead. Or...... 😊

That's a great song. I think A&A would love it.

They MIGHT have done it already? Not positive

The Silk Degrees band was pretty much the origins of Toto.

I think they already did it...

FM has always been my fav

The whole album a banger

:Show business kids makin' movies of themselves. You know they don't give a fuck about anybody else."

Zsa Zsa Gabor! LOL!!!

We needed to wrap Andy more for negative opinions! Lol 😆

Zsa Zsa Ha ha! Shout out to my Hungarian roots!! Always get Ava and Zsa Zsa mixed up,lol.

@@jgsrhythm100 They really could have been twins!

@@susanklasinski1805 Green Acres is the place for me.

Not bad choices.

@@triscat Thanks, but I forgot... • Dirty Work • Hey Nineteen

@@joannwoodworth8920 I'm a huge Dan fan, but for some reason have always thought that Hey 19 was one of their weaker efforts, even though it was enormously commercially successful. And Walter used to be very, very funny with his monologue during the live shows with this song. Just a personal thing.

Black Cow

@@Sanderay007 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qQJ8SpomQbg.html

Yeah, I think that after hearing this song over many years, this is one that lives in your head. Alex says he loves a good chorus and this one does stick with you.

I love the version that they have done in concert over the last few years with the background women taking all the vocals on that one. I know it's up on youtube.

Andy, I think you were underwhelmed by Deacon Blues because you have entrenched in your brain the other songs like Peg and Reelin In The Years already. Back then when the other songs were new, I had already heard them many times, before hearing Deacon and I felt the same way, even though it’s another “Picasso” by Steely Dan.

Completely agree. I’d also throw Babylon Sisters up there. Well, I’d throw tons of Dan songs in there actually.

Kid Charlemagne

Can't go wrong with any of these!

Still rooting for “Don’t Take Me Alive” as well!!!

Excellent song.. I'm with you on that.

FM

Pre-Two against nature? No. That album scratched no itches for me. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Aint it cool

Wayne and Joni are EPIC...

Check out Tom Scott's saxophone work on the theme from TAXI DRIVER. Exquisite.

@@robertjewell9727 You're right! Scott has a massive discography.

Pete Christlieb from Johnny Carson’s band.

@@alzucca He was in the Tonight Show band led by Doc Severinsen, yes.

Yes and like 90% actually happened to Cameron Crowe.

@@darrens2558 I know the movie so well. Fantastic music throughout the whole movie.🎥

One of my favorite movies EVER!

@@jennhurl Definitely in my top 3!

I wanna say 1975... Lake LBJ in Texas.. parents stayed in a cabin.. kids (cousins) stayed in a screened in cabana, we played this album over and over.. playing games and listening to Steely Dan after a day of water skiing. Great times indeed.

As much as I have pushed for the title track, yes, the album deserves to be heard in order.

YES!

Agreed. Even Home At Last, which never ever gets a mention, is brilliant.

@@triscat Yes! My personal favorite off of this album.

That's the year I got my license and finally was able to drive was 1979, and I listened to this song too.

Mine too. It’s like - screw everything I’ll do what I want

@@jeanpotter4603, exactly. It was that period in my life when I felt stress about not meeting the expectations of people around me. I was feeling restless, but unsure of what to do. This song made me think, screw it. I'm doing things my way.

For me that band is Radiohead it always comes down to what kind of mood I am in.

Agreed. Also, I so much respect the honesty of the reviews.