In 1983 i was in college and we were waiting for the bus to take us back to town. The dude i was with said lets light one up. So we walked down side of hill. And this guy was biggest Steely Dan fan i ever met. So we were listening to Deacon Blues and passing that joint back and forth when suddenly a professor was standing in front of us. We looked at each other thinking expelled. And professor says "Nobody Smokes Pot On This Campus". And i was about shaking. And then he says Without Me". He grabbed that joint and took biggest hit i ever saw and said. "gotta love Steely Dan". And off he was. I will never forget that.
I’m not going to knock The Bee Gees, as they have definitely put out some classic material; but given the choice, I’m kicking back and listening to Steely Dan’s catalog of music, every time!
".....I crawl like a viper Through these suburban streets Make love to these women Languid and bittersweet I'll rise when the sun goes down Cover every game in town A world of my own I'll make it my home sweet home...."
This song is like gliding to earth in a paraglider. The descent is smooth, and you see life from a different perspective. Viewing things differently is natural, because after all, you "rise when the sun goes down."
The whole Aja album is fire 🔥! It’s one album you can listen to all the way through and get a different cool vibe on each song. Try the album title song ‘Aja’. That will take you on a trip!
You need to listen to the song Aja, from the Aja album. It’s a masterpiece! Wayne Shorter on tenor and Steve Gadd on drums. Steve is Killin’ on the outro! The piece is sooo ahead of its time! Oh, on Josie, Jim Keltner, my close friend of 60 years, on drums! It’s rally worth your listening to.
They used fantastic back up singers for the chorus in all of their tracks, just perfect like every other element. Scribe PLEASE cover one of their tracks PRETTY PLEASE!!!!
Ahhhhh... The sheer musical perfection that was Steely Dan! Aja was a tour de force album that stands as an all time great achievement. There's a fantastic BBC documentary on youtube about the making of the album. They had a stable FULL of players who'd be the cornerstones of smooth jazz, and were platooned on the different songs! (organized by guitar phenom Larry Carlton who wrote out the charts). Once again, I salute your border busting musical journey ma'am!
“That shape is my shade, there where I used to stand.” The shadow of his shameful past is always following him no matter where he stands today. F’ing genius! Nobody writes like this anymore. It’s all about a WAP now.
I'm a 70s baby I grew up on steely Dan all there music is so jazz vibe like mix with soul Donald said he grew up admiring black music listen to his song the fez and i.g.y. you'll love them both and guacho 👍👍👍👍👍
Majic, hard work, or both ? Everyone of their songs just make my ears and brain happy. Seems they always put in the work all the way down to pressing the record, recently replaced my 38 yr old tuntable, Aja was the first record I played for the neighbors, swear I heard one of them yell " Turn it up ", so good !!!!!
Their biggest song was Rikki Don't Lose That Number from 1974. It's still very smooth but has a little bit of a different sound. Look up their catalog and just pick one.
Song about a bored suburban man dreaming of learning to play the sax and living the "exciting" life of a jazz musician. Do "Josie" and "My Old School", you won't be sorry.
They trick you, baby. It's not just smooth. The verse, chord wise, is tense. It's beautiful, but strained. It has you wanting to get out of it. Then when it dose, the B section hit's you with warmth like the most expensive Alpaca blanket. It doesn't just give you relief. It gives you more. It's almost transcendent. These brothers were the top of the top shelf. I wish I could subscribe to you again.
The whole AJA album is smooth. It was recorded in 1977 but I remember a majority of the hits from around the summer of 1978. Peg is a good one and Josie.
This song is about 2 college football teams. The Alabama Crimson Tide vs the Wake Forest Demons. Alabama was on an insane winning streak while Wake Forest had possibly the worst record. Somehow, Wake Forest pulked out a win against Alabama.
Wonder if she's ever seen leadsheets to SD/Fagen's music? It's the CHORDS, those jazz-chords that set this music so far above ordinary pop. Not to mention the jazz-solos and jazz-arrangements.
"If you want to become a better guitarist,copy saxophone solos for two reasons;one,all saxophone notes are singular and two,the average saxophonist plays better than the average guitarist"-Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple.
He's just going to keep on doing it. That's what he was made to do. And no, there is no better use of his time. Must be nice to know you are one of the best. Party on tho. That's Y we love you.
Lol, Smooth like the Bee Gee's, first time I've heard Steely Dan compared to the Bee Gee's, I heard that Bono (U2) really likes the Bee Gee's as well? 👍
Watched you react to half a dozen SD videos. This one sold you. Could see it in your eyes. P.s. look up what a steeley dan is. You seem to have a great sense of humor. Think you'll smile.
Why this sounds so smooth is that the two minds behind the group who wrote this -- Donald Fagen (lead vocals) and Walter Becker (guitar) -- were perfectionists almost to the point of madness when it came to producing and arranging. I've linked a video that will show you what I mean; much of it has Becker (glasses) and Fagen showing them sitting at a mixing console what they were looking for and close to perfection performances weren't good enough for them--only *_exact_* passed muster. They play back a few guitar solos, and they all sound good--all of their sidemen were top musicians and singers (even the ones they didn't use). ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-waIBA6_0GQc.html
Steely Dan smooth and The Bee Gees smooth are two different smooths in my opinion. The Bee Gees smooth makes you wanna do the cool disco dance while the Steely Dan smooth makes you wanna drank scotch/whiskey in a hookah bar!
Steely Dan and the Bee Gees isn't the connection I would have made as a kid back in the 70's, but looking back now both groups did deploy top notch production values. I think I would have connected Steely Dan with late 70's Doobie Brothers maybe, in large part due to Michael McDonald's background vocals on "Peg". Definitely smooth, so smooth it may also have led to the formation of the smooth jazz genre, perhaps best epitomized by the 1984 song "Smooth Operator" by Sade. The most recent song that sounds this smooth which quickly comes to my mind is "Shiki no Uta" by Nujabes, aka, the ending theme to Samurai Champloo. And that song is 16 years old already.
You asked for more Steely Dan to react to? "Brooklin Owes the Charmer Under Me" is highly recommended. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rVns5KE13gs.html
I agree. Except I think you meant drum "fills". There is a thing called a "drum roll" but it involves one drum(snare or tom) and a sequence of many quick strikes in succession... usually drum "rolls" occur just before results are given in a public venue. A drum "fill" is a flourish involving as few as one drum up to as many drums as one has. Fills are named because they add flair, syncopation, punctuationn and/or tension and release... usually (but not always) at the end of a measure or set of measures... more often than not - "fills" end with cymbal crash(es). From a musician and die hard SD fan: What Mr. Gadd is doing on Aja is giving a master class on percussion. And showboating with some staggering "fills". What's unbelievable is that he played through the song once with no recording taking place. They turned on the equipment and KEPT HIS 1st TRY on "Aja".😳
Thank you for doing this one. Please give Hey Nineteen a listen, about an older dude still dating younger women and realizing it just doesn't work anymore. Been there
