@AirplayBeats reacts to Steely Dan - King Of The World Like comment and subscribe patreon.com/user?u=81569817 Airplay Beats 3609 Bradshaw Rd Ste H #337 Sacramento, CA 95827 Www.Airplaybeats.com
Man...I was 13 in 1970 and thought I was alone that this song is f*cking phenominal. The guitar noodling thru most of the song!? love this track Any Major Dude is another fav. The 70s were unrivaled in music diversity. SD raised the bar.
Regarding Steely Dan's jazz interests - there used to be an NPR (radio) program hosted by well known senior jazz pianist Marian McPartland, and there is an episode with Fagen and Becker as guests (still on RU-vid). There are alternating segments of conversation about jazz with Fagen, and music, both S.Dan (with Becker and bass and drums) and jazz. Fagen plays some Duke Ellington and jams with McPartland. She had tons of great jazz pianists on her show.
One of the best anti-nuclear protest songs ever written...so evocative, it puts you hunched over that ham radio, searching, right along with the character...chilling!
This is one of the buried gems of Steely Dan. Jim Hodder's drumming on this is sublime and so are the various lines by Jeff Baxter and , I'm pretty sure it's Denny Dias on the git solo.
Thanks for a great start to the weekend. You can not go wrong with any Steely Dan. Have a great weekend my friends. Excellent reaction fellas. Appreciate you 🙏 ❤
Airplay Beats - Kings Of The Reaction Videos - I enjoy how you paint a picture with your commentary that brings new insight to the songs. Your hard work and knowledge are greatly appreciated.
They have used apocalyptic themes in other songs, too. In fact, one of the most upbeat songs they ever did was The Last Mall on their last album, Everything Must Go. Fagen gleefully sings about a family's last shopping trip before the world ends. Please do every song from Countdown to Ecstasy and hit some nuggets from their last two albums like Jack of Speed, Janie Runaway, Cousin Dupree, What a Shame About Me, Everything Must Go, Things I Miss the Most, Godwhacker, etc.
Some people dismiss the latter two albums, but Jack of Speed, Godwhacker, west of Hollywood are great. The albums are more jazz/blues than the first seven, but that’s their evolution.
Love your Streely Dan reactions. "Chain Lightning" should be played at some point. One of my favorite bands. Thanks for the entertainment...love watching your content ❤ #1
And if you do react, I'll tell you what Chain Lighting is about. It's classic Steely: talking indirectly about some unknown event, but once you know, it makes perfect sense.
Reminds me of Jan Hammer's Don't You Know? off of his Melodies album! Would be cool if you listened to see if you thought so, too!! Chord progressions sound very close in some parts....but, this is faster tempo'ed.... LOVE THE DAN!!! (Love Jan Hammer Group, too!!) HUGS, YOU-GUYS - HAPPY FRIDAY!!! WAY to START IT OFF!! THANKS! ❤❤❤
This album is SD's forgotten masterpiece...one pristine masterpiece after another on this album. Keep staying with it, " The Boston Rag " is especially tasty
KING of the WORLD AKA: END OF THE WORLD.... A song about the LA Area after a Nuclear War. "No Marigolds in the Promised Land... there is a hole in the ground where they used to grow...!
You're going to come across this again and again. Fagan and Becker were listening to late night FM when they were young and they got hit with Wes Montgomery and it so reflects in what they put out. Listen to that guitar light up the night! You haven't even heard "The Boston Rag" or "Razor Boy" yet. You're in for it. Countdown, The Scam and Gaucho are my favorite Dan albums. Of course that was until Nature came out. There is nothing, nor will there ever be, anything so close to insanely filthy as "West of Hollywood"!
I knew you guys would be crazy for this one! Imagine that this was written and produced at a time with Steely were still a touring band. They played this live! One of my favorites and a song that still sounds that it came out tomorrow.
Please don't miss Your Gold Teeth from this album. It's a really smart and cool song, about a female grifter who has worn out her welcome. Great reaction as always--your SD reactions are favorites of mine since you started.
FAVORITE Steely song! Thanks guys, sooo good, they were delivering at such a high level during this period. Love that synth solo or whatever it is, SO cool...and Denny's guitar outtro is off the hook! I think Skunk is on this one too..both amazing!
One of my favorite Bowie songs and by the way the dude CAN sing. For instance check out his vocals on SWEET THING/ CANDIDATE/SWEET THING(REPRISE) from his DIAMOND DOGS album and hear the emotional inflections from low moodiness arcing into a high pleading, but done so musically perfect.
When will you get to SD ‘s Two Against Nature? It’s a 2000 Grammy album!!!!!! Please start with Jack of Speed and West of Hollywood!!!!!!! You guys have done a superb job of reacting to their music…..None better!!!
This made my day! One of the things I love about these kinds of reactions is that you’re able to spend some time with the individual songs and appreciate them apart from the rest of of the album. They are SO GOOD and I feel like they deserve some attention, y’know? On a side note, I always thought that if I had an all-girl band I’d name it No Marigolds as a little shout out to these lyrics. 🧡
Steely D. meets Mad Max.....I LOVE this tune! One of the most underrated tunes in the SD catalogue, IMHO. Totally evocative, you can picture the scene and play out the story in your mind. And yes, although different from other SD tunes, the musicianship is just killer! guitar and drums! (I believe Skunk and Dias on the ax and Porcaro on drums) Fantastic Rxn, LA and Chi!
Post-apocalypse, sci-fi theme, as Fagen reaches out for signs of humanity "on this old ham radio". Upbeat & jazzy, juxtaposed against a bleak hell-scape - vintage Steely Dan. The execution and musicianship is top-notch as usual, featuring Denny Dias on guitar. When I think about the subject matter, I imagine the repetitive synth as an air raid siren. One of my top 10 SD cuts.
So funny, I was just looking for your reaction to this song this morning…I was shocked you guys had not heard it….and then 1 hour later I get notified…remember to like, subscribe and click than notification bell….don’t want to miss a reaction…Happy Friday
You asked what else can we listen to? Two Against Nature Grammy Award winner of 2000. Start with Jack of Speed and then West of Hollywood. Simply Great!
Not sure if it would generate a great audience for reactions, but 11 Tracks of Whack solo album by Walter Becker is a gem well worth listening to, if not on reacting to, at least on your own time. Completely different sound and Walter Becker doing all the vocals. A lot of it reflecting on his time living in Hawaii.
More Donald Fagen: New Frontier (long version), Maxine, Tomorrow's Girls, On the Dunes, Florida Room, Teahouse on the Tracks, H-Gang, Great Pagoda of Funn, The Night Belongs to Mona, Slinky Thing, Good Stuff, Weather in My Head, Marlene
We were rock kids who grew up listening to our parents jazz albums (if we were LUCKY) and Steely Dan just hit that sweet spot. My mom & sibs all huge fans from beginning to end and then Donald Fagen. RIP Walter Becker, and thanks for all the decades of exquisite music & joy you gave me...and my family & friends.🥰
Love the reaction! This is one of my favorites. The guitar work (Denny Dias) is great! "Pearl" of the Quarter" and "Razor Boy" are also great tracks on this album if you haven't reviewed them yet.
I bought the Citizen Steely Dan box set when it came out and I listened to it from beginning to end. 66 songs and I liked them all. That doesn't happen too often; a band with no bad songs? Steely Dan is really something special.
Another great SD reaction from the pros! Jazz - yes, Fagen & Becker are both *huge* Jazz fans and they've always said that their aim was to combine their favorite elements from Jazz with Rock & R&B. This track in particular featured the incredible guitar playing of Denny Dias who studied with BeBop masters
You love your Steely Dan brothers, some of the finest music ever produced. I had the pleasure of seeing them do this song live a number of times in 1974 with their newly hired drummer Jeff Porcaro. Spectacular! Listen for yourselves, there are a number of live sets on RU-vid from 1974. I like Live at the Record Plant or the Sopwith Camel in Glendale, I was there!
21st Century Steely Dan - my recommendations: From Two Against Nature (4XGrammy winner): Jack of Speed, Janie Runaway, What a Shame About Me, Almost Gothic, Negative Girl, West of Hollywood (be prepared to be blown away by WoH!). From Everything Must Go: Godwhacker, Pixeleen, Lunch with Gina, Everything Must Go.
The whole album is fire. It was my first Dan album that I bought I think in 73. I immediately then went out and bought Can’t Buy a Thrill and have been hooked ever since.
When I first encountered this album back in the 80s, this tune was on endless replay for me, and is still my favorite from Countdown. Great reaction! Thanks.
Because this was just their second album, Fagen and Becker still relied mostly on their original band members, with a few guest musicians (Victor Feldman, Rick Derringer, Ray Brown). As a result, they were not yet able to achieve their full vision that they would later when they went all in on using studio musicians exclusively. Still, even with such "handicaps," they still recorded great songs that stood out from the rest of the pop/rock pack.
