Peg was a friend of the band who wanted to make a little money doing a blue movie in Europe, thinking no one would ever find out here in the US, but Peg, it will get back to you!
Yes, it's definitely the deepest rabbit hole you can get into. Believe me, no fillers, not a single bad song in any album of theirs! Funk, jazz, pop, r&b, soul, there's everything in their songs. Great reaction, anyway!
Yes Luca!! The Guys hit Pay Dirt in the hole this Rabbit lies. Heard " Rikki Don't Loose That Number" at 16 years old, and followed since. It's been a great trip with them, at 65 years.
Man the bass grooves in this one. Chuck Rainey disobeyed Fagen and Becker by popping the strings. They told him not to do it, he turned his back to the control room and took off!
Somehow, I think they knew how much it added to the bass track and decided to leave it in. How can you hire Chuck Rainey for the gig and not let Chuck do Chuck? Chuck is in the upper echelon of bada$$ mofos of the lower register!
Chuck Rainey and Drummer Rick Marotta were fresh off 2 years touring together with Roberta Flack when they recorded this. Such a groove with that subtle hi hat.
Checked it out, you're definitely correct. I guess I got mixed up on it; in the making of video where Bernard was talking about hiding with Chuck so he could slap without getting caught. Maybe that was just in practice sessions.
I first heard Steely Dan as a teenager and stuck with them for over 40 years. Other artists come and go but I’ll never leave SD. Thanks for playing them.
Just when you think you've heard the most mind blowing music from a Walter and Donald album, the very next album will blow you to smithereens when the groove hits you Welcome to the club
I've always been like this guy, listening to what the instruments are doing before paying attention to the lyrics. There's so much going on, that's what it makes you keep coming back....40+ years later.
Songs to React to from Steely Dan: FM, Kid Charlemagne, Green Earrings!!! Night By Night, Haitian Divorce, Hey 19, Time Out of Mind, Babylon Sisters. Janie Runaway, West of Hollywood, Glamour Profession, Doctor Wu, Chain Lightning, Pretzel Logic (title trick), Everything Must Go (title track), Lunch with Gina, Jack of Speed, Rikki Don't Lost that Number, Do it Again, Bad Sneakers, Your Gold Teeth, Your Gold Teeth II, Razor Boy, Aja (title track), Gaucho (title track), Don't Take Me Alive, Home at Last, Any World, Caves of Altamira, I Got the News...and on and on and on
This entire album is my favorite !!!! They use a lot of studio musicians. The main guys Donald Fagan & Walter Becker …. Who sadly is no longer with us ….. make up this phenomenal band …… Michael MacDonalds voice ads to the success of this GREAT GREAT GREAT BAND !!! ENJOY 😘
This is definitely R&B. If you look at the personnel on the records, they're the same players that ripped it up for Al Jarreau, George Benson, Anita Baker, etc. etc. Chuck Rainey, Greg Phillinganes, Tom Scott, Bernard Purdie, Jay Graydon, Ricky Lawson, Tom Barney, and on and on and on. As you say, ELITE. The best of the best of the best.
SD is the peak of sophisticated pop and they used the top groove musicians to make their incredible records. Loved your reaction. They are one of the groups who are actually in the elevated orbit of EWF.
They played this and other Steely Dan on classic rock stations all the time, but even more predominantly on easy listening rock stations because of that chill vibe.
Here's the deal on the whole "Rock" thing. In the 60's Rock bands pretty much seemed to dominate mainstream AM radio. Because other pop genres were also played on these mainstream stations the term Rock sort of became a catch-all term for general popular music regardless of whether or not it was actually closer to Jazz or R&B and Soul (as with Steely Dan, Hall & Oates etc.). Also check out Boz Scaggs - Lowdown!
This track is about a Girls first time doing a nude photo shoot, AND you cannot find a better Rabbitt Hole to venture down, thier Albums from Can't By A Thrill ( Thier Debut) To Gaucho are Impecible! This Band is litterally your favorite Musicans favorite Band!
Fagen and Becker are like the clever parents who figured out a way to sneak veggies into their children's meals. So many young rock fans of their time, who would turn their noses up at the thought of jazz, would groove along to Steely Dan, never realizing...
😢I was 11, when their first album came out. I wasn't listening to them then. AJA, changed everything, for many of us. As the brothers say, there are five hit songs on the album. I enjoy listening to the two of you a lot. Keep it up!!
The 70's were a great time for radio. In a half hour you could hear this followed by Johnny Cash, followed by a fifties or sixties pop song, topped off by the who.
“Do It Again”, “Dirty Work”, “Reelin’ In the Years”. I bet you also heard these songs on the radio and it didn’t know it was Steely Dan. Would like for you to react to these at some point. Thanks for getting into this band.
Steely Dan had more of a rock feel in their earlier albums. Check out Reelin in the Years and Do IT Again from their first album, Can't Buy a Thrill, 1972.
you're EWF observation is more than a little eerie. Jay Graydon - who did the guitar solo on Peg also was one of the writers of EWF's "After the Love is Gone"
I was 16 and a new hire at a record store in Eugene, OR when Aja was released. Couldn't keep it in stock. Vinyl, cassette and 8-track all flew off the shelves. Oh yeah, I was hooked also.
Steely Dan was in the Classic Rock genre of the 70's. Played in the Billboard Top 40 on the radio, promoted by the likes of Casey Kasum & American Bandstand. Others would include Simon & Garfunkel, Cat Stevens, and Billy Joel, etcetera:)
Guys! It’s ‘all about that bass’! Was hooked at like 10 yrs old on the excellent bass lines ( and yes, the horns too!). Agree that Peg has a funky EW&F vibe - good observation!
Steely Dan is simply one of the greatest bands of all time! You might as well stay with the Aja album and check out Home at Last. It has a great R&B feel to it.
It's a trip how many times we hear a song and we never know the name or the group. But we could sing the lyrics at any time. I know what you mean brotha.
The background vocals of the word peg are from Michael McDonald Of The Doobie Brothers just to fill you in if you weren't aware And I believe he CO wrote the song
@@AirplayBeats All good music is what holds the world together keeps me going every day Open your mind and expand your horizons all music is great Brings people together That's what it's all about
@@AirplayBeats Yes a good thing you're doing I didn't mean just you personally to open You're horizons 2 different music I meant everyone Music is the language of all people one love
While recording vocals for chorus on this song, Michael McDonald said this was the hardest thing he has ever done. They asked him to sing a chord. A chord has minimum 3 notes. So he had to do each note of the chord when he sang “Peg”. So a C chord has the notes C, E, G. So he had to say Peg as C, then E, etc. wow, you guys think this sounds like game show music , SMDH. You guys don’t know what the song is about. Have you not listened to words. It’s a bout a girl who decides to pose for a nude magazine. He says ai got your pin shot ( which refers to pin up picture or centerfold). Usually the name of model was above the pic, and they always listed the models Favorite movie. What you call the rock element, is the great Jay Gruden playing that guitar, did it in one take, after Steely Dan auditioned dozens of guitarists. The great Chuck Rainey, one of the greatest bass players of all time playing the bass on this song. You guys should look at the liner notes for these songs, look at who the players are, the singers, learn something about the song that you are reviewing. No man, it’s not everybody wants your woman smiling for the camera, it’s about a Pin-Up model, playboy, penthouse, etc. Damn. And they are not a band, they are two guys who get the best musicians available to play their songs. Research please
Great reaction to a great tune! And yes, it’s soulful and jazzy. Speaking of Earth Wind & Fire, yesterday was September 21st, the last night of Summer. I think of their song: “Do you remember … the 21st night of September … Ba-dee-ya, say, do you remember? Ba-dee-ya, dancing in September.” Great track. 😊
@@AirplayBeats got to meet Maurice White (founder of EW&F) about ten years before he died, he was my friend's godfather. Really great guy. Also was blessed enough to see EW&F at their peak play live at the Hollywood Bowl when they absolutely blew the f**king roof off the sky!! What a show!!
Loved your Steely Dan/EWF connection. Aja took over as my favorite album in my teenage years, finally knocking EWF’s “Way of the World’ record off my turntable for a minute. Those were indisputably 2 of the best and most popular jazzy, funky, fusion albums of the 70’s. Happened to meet Peg’s background singer, Michael McDonald in Maui around that time, as he enjoyed his huge success with the Doobies. Those were the days… thanks for helping me relive them.
@@AirplayBeats I wanted to ask you earlier if you had seen them live? Their concerts were great! My husband admitted it was the best concert he went to. I can't say that because there are 10 others that I also call my favorite. But it's in the top 10.
Glad to follow you on your trip down the Steely Dan rabbit hole. Can't go wrong with any of the AJA songs .. my favourites from this album (other than the two you have covered Peg and Black Cow) Home at Last, Josie, Deacon Blues, and AJA. So much greatness to enjoy on the other albums too. Have fun!
Michael McDonald on the smooth high background vocals he was in Doobie brothers and went solo.. Including... I keep forgetting..... the song that was sampled In the warren G. song Regulators
This has been my favorite song for 40 years. They are my favorite artists. And I've never made the EWF connection and now that you mentioned it I'm surprised I never noticed it before. And I've listened to this song more than I've listened to any other song! This is my first reaction I've seen from you. I'll be spending the weekend watching your other videos!
Peg, it will come back to you. Also, go watch the making of Peg. It's on youtube. It's fascinating, behind the scenes stuff. How they mixed it, who played and sang on it.
EW&F and Steely Dan are similar in their pursuit of musicianship and sophistication. Both had the production, arrangements and much that were way ahead of their peers. EW&F Aja, was the I Am album in 79. Listen to the production, arrangement, horns and musicianship.
I found you all by accident when I typed in Steely Dan, just to see if they had any videos online. Bands come and go, but Steely Dan is forever. When I lived in NYC, they used to do an annual "residency" at the Beacon Theater. My husband and sons like Steely Dan, but I LOVE Steely Dan, and spent good money every year to go see them. My biggest regret was not going to see the show they called "21st Century Dan," which is all their later stuff, before Walter Becker died. It's different from albums like Gaucho and Aja, but still very cool. I have loved them since I first heard them in college 40+ years ago. And now I am a subscriber to your channel, because watching you all get into SD for the first time did my heart good. Keep rockin', brothers!
It's really not weird that you've heard this. All different sorts of stations played this back in the day. The R&B station in St. Louis used to play this track all the time.
This song is about Peg an aspiring model/actress whose ex-boyfriend that the song is written from his point of view. Getting his revenge, "it will come back to you" Peg's pin shot and foreign movie(B) and his wish to get Peg back. (Jilted) Love this song and your reactions.
You guys haven't heard anything yet. Listen to "Do It Again", "Reelin' In The Years", "Dirty Work", "Deacon Blues", "Kid Charlemagne", "Rikki Don't Lose That Number", "The Fez", and let me think.... Oh, about 100 more. They are IMO America's greatest R&R band. However, you should listen to these guys using a lyric video. Their lyrics are smart, adult, clever (sometimes perhaps too clever) and interesting. All a continuing list of SD's losers, misfits, and occasionally, idealists. This song is about a young lady that has had a photo taken or made a movie that SD feels was detrimental to her, and ultimately will come back to haunt her...and no, it is not about 1920's actress Peg Entwhistle that committed suicide. That is of course Michael McDonald on background vocals. Let SD songs play to the fade out.
