Ranking Every Steely Dan Song: The (Not Really) Definitive Tier List 

Steely Dan is my favorite band. You can ask 50 fans what their top 10 favorite steely Dan songs are and you will get 50 completely different lists.

If you don't cry every time that Any Major Dude comes on, you don't have a soul.

5 tracks off of Everything Must Go better than Black Cow, Peg, and Josie? You sir, are a mad man

i will not accept barrytown slander

Deacon Blues at #1 makes me really happy

Absolutely criminal not considering Haitian Divorce among the other top tier songs on Royal Scam. My lawyers will be in touch. Good video though.

As soon as you said Pretzel Logic was the worst album, you lost me. For me, it and Katy Lied are the perfect amalgamation of their jazz and rock. It’s the sweet spot.

finally one of these i can watch all through and have a different opinion on each and every one of them

doctor Wu is definitely my favorite

Dirty Work is a good song, and David Palmer does a fine job with it. I like the chord progression, and the subtle variations within it. C tier.

Deacon Blues is my favorite song of all time, it's so beautiful and the second Steely Dan song I ever listened to, and ever since I heard it I fell for all their amazing music

Glamour Profession is Steely Dan at their steeliest dannest. It’s got this sterile, almost alien detachment. The dense jazz harmony completely at odds with the relentless disco drum beat. A woozy, airless trip through the suffocating atmosphere they found themselves in in LA. All the hope and humanity of Aja behind them in the rear view mirror. The weirdness of the imagery. Name dropping fictional freaks and degenerates. So anxious. So smooth. Wonderful track.

Razor Boy .. you missed it. Another in the Dan's tastefully Latin-tinged yet lyrically obfuscated offerings in CBAT and CTE. Very satisfying musically on repeat listenings.

Hot take but i think third world man is their best song. Between the sorrowful, regretful tone, the dark, cryptic lyrics, the instrumentals and the harmonies between the guitars and the electric pianos, the absolutely transcendent outro. One of the most beautifully tragic songs i’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to.

Very entertaining video! My only major disagreement with you is on don't take me alive. That song blew my mind with the guitar solo intro and the super catchy chorus. I was very surprised on my first royal scam listen, not expecting a third absolute banger in a row after kid Charlemagne and caves.

I am glad I stumbled onto this. Man I have the best playlist ever for a road trip! Thank you for taking the time to do this.

Thank you for also ranking the soundtrack album and the pre-CBAT singles.

King of the World and The Caves of Altamira may be my favorites, but I love all 70s Steely Dan.

From another fellow SD enjoyer, these videos are fantastic. Thank you, these must take quite alot of time and work to make.

I surprisingly agree with a lot of your choices. Major exception, the Royal scam album. After Kid C, my next 3 favs are HD, SIS, and Don’t Take Me Alive. You have every other song ranked above those 3, I would have strongly done the opposite.

Excellent ranking vid! I probably would have given much higher marks to Rose Darliing and Your Gold Teeth II, but I appreciate your acknowledgment of their final two albums, which are oddly underrated. Found your channel through reddit, BTW!

My favs: 1. Doctor Wu 2. Here At The Western World 3. Black Cow 4. Everyone’s Gone To The Movies 5. Midnight Cruiser 6. Chain Lightning 7. Gaucho 8. Aja 9. Babylon Sisters 10. Lunch With Gina

Awesome video, I’m so glad I found this channel and someone else who feels the same way about Gaucho! Thanks for making these and thanks for the link in the description, I really appreciate that.

Great video,though I would have liked a little more sampling from each song than just background white noise steely dan

my biggest criticism: I fucking love sign in stranger

i see you're getting close to 1000 subs- you deserve that and much more! thanks for the great content.😎

Wow .. that took a lot of work to put together! Thank you for taking a stab at an impossible task and leading with your chin. I really enjoyed your review and reasons for your selections. I will have to give the last two albums more of critical listen as may top 20 SD songs would likely only have West of Hollywood and Jack of Speed in it. All the best!

You've done an awesome job with it! I agree with you on almost all points, except perhaps some songs that had to be put in a higher position, for example King of the world (for me it stands in one of the best three). But, in genrral, very good job. I appreciate also the fact that you said that their last album is a very good one, although it is generally seen as a minor album of theirs; I love Everything must go.

thank you for the hour and a half long steely dan video that i needed at 3 am

Pretzel logic and Katy Lied are my two favorite of their albums.

i came here highly anticipating your take on Through With Buzz and was thoroughly pleased with it edit: then i watched until the end

Ah, perfect! After using your other videos and that Swedish site to create a complete SD discography, this one gives me an excuse to listen to them all in order. I greatly prefer this chronological tier approach to the countdown from worst to best approach. I'm pleasantly shocked how much material there is and how great it is.

Such a hard task. Well done! I wonder where The Second Arrangement would have come.

Very enjoyable video. Love The Dan!

This video has "labor of love" written on every inch of it. Thanks man.

I started by skipping to the end but I ended up watching just about all of it as every time I thought of a song, I went to the section with the corresponding album. Of course, there are many songs with which I might disagree with your tier placement, but instead of going through the subjective exercise of calling those out, I just want to appreciate the effort you put into this video and to thank you for an hour plus worth of entertainment!

I'm genuinely shocked that TAN and EMG had songs that scored so high. I'll have to give them another chance.

Thanks for the shoutout, glad you liked my illustration for Charlie Freak 🙂

Very high production value, top notch editing Dingus As someone whos not been in the SD community I'm surprised at all the "Dirty Work" hatred. That intro is one of my favorites but I agree it sounds more pop-y than their other work. For me "Fire in the Hole" and "Razor Boy" definitely crack into the S Tier, huge highlights of the early Dan

great vid, maybe you can rank the guitarists steely dan worked with next.

This is awesome holy sh*t I needed this.

fuckin' great work man, would love to see you rank the outtakes/steely dan apocrypha

Please make a Donald Fagen solo album tier list.

I wish more fans appreciated the reunion albums like you do, but it’s definitely a generational thing. Id love to do a collab sometime, maybe a ranking or review video!

sorry but Aja is number one! 😁

Steely Dan is my favorite band…..has been since 1974. Music critics suck, can’t wait to see/hear your list.

Razor boy is addiction personified. PS going postal is not about a video game

Don't you go baggin' on Pretzel Logic now!! Great job.

Well done for making a stab at this; I enjoy your videos, even if I disagree with how you weigh quality; what I most certainly agree with is the statement that ratings are 'fluid' and subject to revision.

I disagree with a fair amount of these but appreciate the video

Lonny swept the playpen and swallowed up all he found

Interesting that you rate the comeback albums so highly. Myself and all the Dan (yes we call them the Dan) fans I know are of a certain vintage (60+) and all are in agreement that the last couple of of albums are by some distance the weakest. Moreover, of the the original seven albums Gaucho seems to be the least loved and this is the album you proclaim the goat! Amongst my peers the albums that seem to come out on top are Pretzel logic, Aja and probably top of the pile the Royale scam. For many of us the comeback albums seem to lack energy, variety and hooks (though I do love almost gothic and everything must go song). Steely Dan were a consistently brilliant band so there is a lot of scope for disagreement over their output and I very much doubt I’ll ever see eye to eye with someone who rates negative girl above Don’t take me alive !!!??? But we can all appreciate their unique contribution to pops rich pageant and that’s all that matters in the end

You are an inspiration, all glory honor and power is yours, now and forever.

could you do a Donald Fagen solo work tier list? Maybe add Beckers solo work too? (if you do don't forget Centurys End)

Tough task, I"d move up Chain Lightning for its topic and Pearl for its lament.

Some great takes here but Dirty Work is much better than D tier. Forget that it's very un-Steely Dan - it's a great track. I don't like Gaucho nearly as much as you do but Time Out of Mind is definitely up there for me. But Caves of Altamira is probably my favorite of all.

"Dirty Work" has always been low on my personal Dan tier ranking, but when I say Steely Dan last summer my appreciation for the song went up a few notches. I suspect Donald felt an expectation to include this big hit in the show, but knew it wasn't his to sing, so he gave it to his backup singers to feature those seriously talented women and they knocked it out of the park.

Thank you. Fantastic work. For you Gaucho topped Aja. How do you top this?

It's taking me forever to get through this, as I'm listening to the songs as we go. :) I also get a Jack Stratton vibe from the commentary. That's meant to be a good thing. I'm almost through Two Against Nature as I type this comment. Really enjoying the journey!

Hey I have a question. Does the stuff from old regime not count

Everytime, i ask my self, how people doesnt consider Do It Again as the best song of Steely Dan. The melody is a step higher, the originality is unmatched and it's just beautiful. It doesnt even feel long, it is the opposite.

Let me reiterate, if you're not familiar with the early demo of Brooklyn, go listen to it, it's hauntingly beautiful, and the lyrics aren't nonsensical at all, they're deep and relevant to their love of New York City.

Enjoyable and respect to you for doing it...I'm glad you say your opinion tends to change depending on what you're listening to at the time. It needs to! We all have our favourites but the police will be coming round shortly to arrest you for what you've done to Barrytown. A special lack of grace indeed!!!

Peg at a notch below top tier??? Are you high??

Where would you rank their recently released cover of Carey?

Negative Girl is one of their most underrated, you have to give it 10 or 12 listens to start to 'get it', melodically it's a bit too complex, which is why we don't have a live version? It's a banger for sure.

Oh shit this is gonna be awesome

Chain Lightning .. you missed it. Fagen reverse engineers the classic blues progression .. see an entire YT video where he explains to a jazz pianist interlocutor.

you have no idea the joy you bring me dingus

I watched the whole video and enjoyed your take, although my list would be quite a bit different. My #1 is the same. But I think you have to be on drugs to put all of those songs you did over Dr. Wu (especially Slang of Ages...what the?)

Show Biz Kids .. underranked. Love the audacity of practically one-chord composition paired with Derringer's searing swampy slide guitar. Fagen and Derringer had their own music biz connection, see web page titled "Rick Derringer: Real McCoy"

I like that Gaucho makes gay people canonical in Steely Dan lore

Thought I was the only one who knew Lunch with Gina even existed let alone putting it on the top shelf. Might have a look at the rest of your stuff.

Turned the video off when you said Don’t take me Alive was the stinker off of The Royal Scam

Third World Man / Were You Blind That Day was leftover from Aja. And Glamour Profession is way better that Time Out Of Mind. Babylon Sisters and Glamour are the best two songs on the album.

This is a very good look at the individual songs, the session artists and the meanings behind them, which are always quite elusive with Steely Dan. But your criticisms of some, and your showering praise on some real dogs, I will have to disagree with. And then there's the random whimsical positioning of individual songs, where you'd place some in top tier, and then later move them all the way down to 3rd. It loses relevance when I see that happening. Like what you did with "Through With Buzz". While I didn't consider it a top tier from the start, you placed it at the Supreme level in the #1 spot, and then moved it down three levels.

The first song of theirs i had heard thay stood out to me was Gaucho. I was shopping in a good will years ago and the guitar/horn solo was so angelic. I Shazam'd the song and listened to it on my drive home. The rest is history lol

22:07 Whenever i listen to this song i can't help but imagine I'm scrolling infinitely on a TikTok for you page

Barrytown is one of my Faves😢

*THREE QUESTIONS:* 1. When are you gonna do this for the 6 solo albums? 2. What's your 2nd favorite band? 3. Have you ever heard this? (It's the guy who wrote Steely Dan FAQ and the premise is to take the outtakes and do them with an Aja/Gaucho type approach. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Pm2yhZ9pBsc.html

Another Dingus video, God has decided to smile upon me today: - Dirty Work is easily the most overrated SD song, but it doesn't deserve D-Tier, rather on C-tier. - Turn That Heartbeat Over Again is easily one of the most underrated SD songs, and I believe it should be A-Tier, but would settle on B-Tier. - Show Biz Kids is easily the worst song on CTE, C-Tier at BEST. - Night by Night is pretty underrated, and definitely one of the standout tracks on the album but not S-Tier, should be A-Tier. - Any Major Dude is somewhat overrated, but should be B-Tier. - East St. Louis Toodle-oo is poopoo. - I'd say Charlie Freak is the 2nd most Christmas-sy song to Turn That Heartbeat Over Again. - Monkey In Your Soul is in an appropriate spot, but the 2000 version is worth a listen, and if it were on this list it'd be in A-Tier. - DDLITNYCNM is like Monkey In Your Soul, in that the 2000 version stomps it, but by itself is much better than Monkey In Your Soul. - Throw Back The Little Ones is an underrated, great song, but nowhere near S-Tier. I'd say B-Tier, maybe A-Tier. - The Caves of Altamira is good, but not that good. A-Tier. - Two Against Nature really is one of their best albums, glad someone noticed, but the only placements I disagree with are Jack of Speed and Cousin Dupree. Jack of Speed is great, but with the 1996 and Plush-TV versions existing, it just can't hold a candle to them, and I'd put it in A-Tier. Cousin Dupree is a feel-good banger and deserves B-Tier at the LEAST. - Clearly, you haven't listened to The Last Mall in a mall/store. - Lunch With Gina is balling.

Aja could fit the aesthetic of a ballad 100%

You're not kidding about the bridge of Time Out of Mind. I could listen to that bridge forever. I had a few polar opposite picks, but overall we are very close in tastes, excluding the top ten. That's an odd one.

Top five of today could be Razor boy, Any major dude..., King of the world, Caves of Altamira and FM

I got an original pressing of Gaucho when I was strolling through antique stores during a work break. One of the best purchases I’ve ever made.

Dallas and parts of Sail the Waterway sound like they'd been listening heavily to Tumbleweed Connection. The segment on Fire in the Hole was great, alerting me to a lot of stuff I'd missed. On Razor Boy, the part that goes "I guess only women in cages" is paraphrased from the instrumental middle 8 of the Beatles' Anytime at All. I hadn't noticed it as much in the past but SD really studied the Beatles, Dylan, Bacharach et al. On Pretzel Logic, Rikki is really puzzling. I loved it when I first heard it and it's packed with hooks, but unlike almost every other SD hit, it's easy to get tired of, and reading the book "The Nightfly", it was that way for them too. Whenever they complain about live audiences wanting to only hear hits, Rikki is the example they always give. Getting tired of songs with great hooks is usually due to absence of a bridge but this has a nice one (you tell yourself you're not my kind). I guess it's that there's so much repetition of the bossa nova bass figure. Actually bossa novas in general. It's the same thing with Jobim. I fell head over heels in love with every one of his songs, only to tire of it in relatively short order. I think that's the single biggest element of the Beatles' genius. They almost never repeat a hook exactly the same way and never let a song outstay its welcome (until Let It Be, when they got lazy). The best Steely Dan does this too, but it's much more challenging for them because their songs are so much longer in general. I think Morph the Cat is the best SD Christmas song though - listen to the vocal stem on the chorus. I think they left This All Too Mobile Home off of studio albums because of it being a bit too similar to Rock & Roll Woman by Buffalo Springfield.

Completely 100% disagree about 'Dirty Work'. Its one of my favorite Steely Dan songs.

My new pup is named after Walter.

"Brooklyn" is a loose musical re-working of Bob Dylan's "Queen Jane Approximately." Same chord progression, similar melody. The lyrics came across better on the demo, where it has an extra verse and more powerful lead vocal by Fagen.

im dna on fagan becker. had to go with you on 90% on this ranking.

Good list....I concur.

Hey, it's that dingus fellow

"Cant Buy A Thrill" is one of the most solid albums ever. No fillers, no mediocre songs, and each track so different from the previous one.

Was introduced to steely dan in the 70s , had pretzel logic on reel-to-reel tape that was played nightly, I very much agree with you comments on "Almost gothic", I would listen to it just to hear the horns part, it's a beautiful song, thank you and I must go and rediscover some of the other albums like "everything must go" , Ray Brown (Bass) is incredible and featured on "Razer Boy", I would have added a comment.

Never gonna do it without the Fez on!!!

10) Bodhisattva 9) Any major dude 8) Doctor Wu 7) The caves of Altamira 6) Black cow 5) Brooklyn owes the charmer under me 4) My old school 3) Don't take me alive 2) Babylon sisters 1)........... Of course....... D*E*A*C*O*N* B*L*U*E*S* 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

Everything You Did is ahead of it's time. It's about a dude getting cucked, and he doesn't just want to hear about it, at the end of the song, he expects her to perform those actions on him. It's not clear if he gets around to murdering the other guy.

Katy Lies You could see it in her eyes. But imagine my surprise when I saw you. Doctor Wu is their all time best.

Grab the popcorn. This’ll be a good one

Kulee Baba an outtake from Gaucho on RU-vid their is an almost finished demo one of their very best My personal favourites : Your gold teeth II Glamour Profession Negative girl Almost Gothic Black Cow Home at last Pixeleen Godwhacker Aja The royal scam Green earrings great review thanks !