Steely Dan

Brainwrong

Spaktacuradge
Private Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
I cannae stand this band.

Up until this week.

Well, that's not the full story, but the full story is dull (duly detailed down der --->).

Suffice to say, this is how I would now classify their music:

33.3% of it gives me the aural boak.
33.3% of it makes me wish they'd done it the way I would have done it.
33.4% is abject sonic beauty.

If I were to compare them to any band(s), I'd say they're a cross between Zappa & Floyd, but all the worst bits.

But, for some fucking annoying reason, I've spent the whole week listening to the 1972 album 'Can't Buy A Thrill'.

The first time I heard Steely Dan was around 1998 when a pal, whose taste I respect 95% of the time, couldn't believe I had no awareness of them. So, I listened to them. And stopped. Quickly.

Then, in 2011, I heard Dirty Work (that's the track at the start of American Hustle) drifting over the gardens at the back of mines, through my bog window as I had a sneaky fag. And I thought; "That chorus is fucking excellent". I typed in Dirty Work into my phone, found it was Steely Dan and thought 'Meh, I'll check them out at some point'...

I saw American Hustle 2013 and (upon hearing that track again) decided to check the band out. Previewed the whole album but decided to just buy that one track. Because the rest sounded shite.

For some reason, I decided to buy the rest of the MP3s for that album this week and, although I still can't stand the band holistically, there's something original and annoyingly brilliant about them.

Anyone think these guys are brilliant / shite / twats / non-existant?

Thoughts?
 
Black Cow is a choon, well MF Doom & "Deja vu" made it listenable. My entire knowledge of Mr Dan.
 
as i read this the very band came on radio 6 - my opinion of them hasnt changed with hearing a track id not heard before - not for me.
 
The whole early 70's period between rock'n'roll and punk that allowed this sort of soft-rock-jazz-fusion-prog nonsense to flourish confuses me in the extreme. Pretentious guff of the highest order in my opinion. I blame rich hippies.

I have an uncle who loves all that pish though, many a drunken argument has ensued when we both get on the topic of music.

So, eh, aye - not for me. danniiR