"Any MAJOR dude with HALF a heart surely will tell you my friend. Any MINOR world that breaks apart falls together again." Major/Half/Minor. These cats were genius songwriters.
I see why. It does have a calming nature of sorts... Donald's lyrics and vocals just automatically make me feel ok for some reason. I guess I really do enjoy his work.
“Have you ever seen a squonk’s tears? Well look at mine”. Only other time I ever heard that in a song was 2 years later in 1976 on Genesis’ first post Gabriel album Trick of the Tail and their great track on it “Squonk”. Apparently it is a mythical creature that is so unhappy due to its ugliness, covered in warts and moles, that it constantly cries and hunters can easily find it by its trail of tears.
Yes, somewhat optimistic. I think it's also among their most beautiful, both in lyrics and music. Listen again to that dual guitar solo in the bridge -- exquisite! (And the sneaky little bass solo toward the end.)
Fagen's debut solo album is "The Nightfly" (1982). It is an extension of the Steely Dan oeuvre. You must hear it front to back. New artist alert !: Roy Buchanan (and the Snakestretchers), legendary blues guitarist, captured live on video in mid-1970s. Try "Roy's Blues" and "The Messiah Will Come Again" live from Austin TX (1976).
One more thing: I love five minutes from Barrytown. Don and Walter went to Bard College, right in my back yard, in Red Hook, NY ...Barrytown. Chevy Chase was their first drummer.
Hot damn!!! Love yer Steely Sunday's The end of this album is awesome with (Through w Buzz, 🥨 Logic, With a Gun, Charlie Freak, & Monkey in your Soul.). For my tastes Little Feat & Steely Dan created two of the greatest Album collections in the history of Rock & Roll.
Any Major Dude is one of my all time favorite Dan songs, plus I'm pretty sure it is about overcoming drug addiction. Thanks for another great Steely Sunday!
I'm of that first post-hippie-generation, ~~ in our early-to-mid-teens in the early-to-mid-70's (when these albums came out). And I'm sure I'm not the only one who rode that volume knob up to 10 when a SD track was fading out, just to catch *as much as I could* of a hot outro jam that could have easily gone on for another minute or two, or three .....
Sup Lee. Always appreciate your honesty and heartfelt and personal analysis. Though there's still much to learn you are well on your way. Rock steady man! ✌️
I had forgotten how much I liked and listened to this album when I bought it in 1975. I didn’t know I already knew “Night by Night”, but I am predicting licks before they come on. What a good song! Thank you, Lee! It’s nice to hear it again.
"I Can't Tell if it's Denny or Skunk" - Denny is the jazz guy and Skunk is the rock guy. This deosnt mean Denny won't play with some overdrive but the clue is in the lines. Blues rock lines with lots of bends will be always be Skunk. The guitarist on Major Dude is Dean Parks, who played on every SD album going forward
I'm with you on Night by Night... the music is great but I'll take the lyrics of Any Major Dude. I think you've achieved major dude status with your reactions... congrats!
Back when I was a kid, this was one of those album all the cool older kids were listening to. Both good songs, although "Any Major Dude" is clearly the better track IMO. It's a case study in great chord changes.
Pretzel logic the first Steely Dan album my Purchased was an bootleg eight track tape I found a gas station on my drive from Miami to Connecticut 1973 because of the song East St. Louis East St. Louis Toodle-Oo I now have the UHQR vinyl 45 RPM, which is beyond description
Jeff Skunk Baxter. Missle Defence consultant to Dept. Of Defence and many other US Agencies and Defence Contractors. Oh. Played with Steeley Dan, The Doobie Brothers and Spirit.
@@stevebinning977And members of Spirit Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes would form Jo Jo Gunne. Their debut album came out in 1972 and was a great sleeper. Run Run Run, Babylon, Shake That Fat etc. Not a bad track on it. But for some reason they never took off. Ferguson went on to have a solo career with his biggest hit being Thunder Island around ‘77. And Andes went on to form Firefall.
Jim Gordon"story is one the saddist in Rock.He co-wrote Traffic's Low spark of High Heeled boys and Layla by Derek and The Dominoes. Then he Killed his mother with a hammer.
What a fucking shame. I wonder if he lost it or mom was the devil. I honestly don't know. I'm guessing the first one. Either way, there's no excuse for maternicide. Is that a word? I hope so.
@@L33Reacts Jim Gordon developed schizophrenia but doctors misdiagnosed him for alcohol abuse. In the early 70's he beat up his girlfriend, the successful singer Rita Coolidge. He was still undiagnosed more than a decade later when he murdered his mother, hitting her with a hammer and stabbing her with a butchers knife, claiming voices told him to do it. He was finally diagnosed in 2017, but he spent the rest of his days in prison and was refused parole ten times. He died in a California psychiatric prison in 2023.
@@L33Reacts Hey thanks bud. there is a small list of folks who say that to me. proud to have you on it! i cant get too crazy, i have a shift to pull tonight. LOL bills dont care who's birthday it is!
@timcardona9962 Better yet, I went to school with Jeff and hung out with him and SD, B&F during the gigs, both Fri. and Sat. nights, after all these years, a cherished memory and a wild weekend! Night by Night.
Get through life with the Dan. You haven't heard Parkers Band yet. Jim Gordon and Jeff Porcaro double drumming. Jeff was 19, and he was playing with one of his heroes. Jeff would eventually became one of many drummers hero.
Lead guitar on 'Night By Night' played by Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter. Skunks solos in general make use of full on overdrive or distortion, employ bends and vibrato and more Blues/Rock based lines, whereas Denny's are almost always cleaner toned, devoid of both vibrato and string bending and have lines that are more chromatic and Jazz oriented.
Drummers Jeff Porcaro and Jim Gordon are the best of the best. The back story on Jim is just crazy and sad. Jeff's death had some controversy around it, but ultimately he developed heart disease in his late 30s. Excellent musicians
He was really funny too, I went to school with him and his bros. and Lukather. Double drumming with Jim Gordon on Parkers Band, Jeff was playing with one of his heros!
Pretzel Logic... I love Steely Dan, but this phrase is problematic... as I heard it, the idea of "pretzel logic" (not the song, the concept) goes like this... I think it was Fagan or Becker that asked the question like, "Why get a pretzel from the vendor on the street corner (as in the pic on the album cover), when you can go into the nearby restaurant, sit down, and have a nice meal?" Which is meant as an analogy between live music and studio recordings. What he's saying is that there's no point to live music, you get a better sounding experience from the well-engineered studio recording, with no mistakes, so you're better off sitting at home with some earphones on, listening to these perfect versions. I'm doing this from memory, so apologies if I'm getting their argument wrong in any substantive way. I think this notion comes from the fact that they did take so much care in crafting their work with the many session players they brought in (you mentioned Porcaro on the drums who would, after this, play for Toto). There were 15 players on this album, and if you went on tour, you can't take them all with you... not that most of them would go in any case; that's the nature of the session players, they liked the studio, not touring so much, so they played sessions. As a result, Steely Dan's live performances did often have issues, as there are just some skills on display in the various Steely Dan songs that can't be wrapped up all into one musician on one instrument. Especially if you want to play songs from more than just the latest album, which, of course, you do in concert. So they didn't like touring, and essentially criticized the fans for wanting them to tour. Hm. What the question about the pretzel vendor misses is that people DO go and get pretzels from the vendor on the street corner (else where does the picture come from?). I myself, in fact, have a favorite street sausage vendor that I hit up as often as I have occasion to be able to. Yeah, it's inconvenient to then go and sit down next to the river on some concrete wall and munch a couple of dogs down. But there's something about being out in the open air, and buying in public that makes it worth it. In a live concert, part of the thrill is that the players, to use a different analogy, are playing like they're walking a tightrope without a net. If they screw up... they can fall, crash and burn. When they, through their exceptional amount of practice, manage to pull the music off, you get a sense of what humans are capable of when they put their minds to it, in the name of creating a moment of ephemeral beauty on the spot. And for many, maybe most (certainly myself), that's a thrill we can't do without. On the subject of songs and bands with nonsense names, often you'll find that there's absolutely a reason for the title that the band just doesn't explain in the song, that they'll reveal in an interview or something. On the other hand, then again, a little nonsense, now and then, is cherished by the wisest men (to quote Willy Wonka). You'll find that musical trends cycle much more constantly than you may perceive. Or, to quote Neal Peart's lyric from Rush's song Circumstances, a folksy chestnut of wisdom, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." Great reaction as always! Rock on, Lee!
I really think "the band" wasnt as productive and/or diverse in thinking as the dynamic duo. The "creative differences" thing. Fagen and Becker were record producers and song writers not performers. Diaz was not a big performer. He was a student of stringed instruments. Skunk Baxter is a renaisance man with alot of performer in him. The singer was hired because Fagen hated doing it. Nobody else could do it with the wry savvy required. They were the least bound band ever, when they were a band.
If you give a bunch of top sessionmen a bunch of interesting charts you may well get some superior performances, even some exceptional ones... but a real band of kindred spirits is still better. Katy Lied was the first SD album that disappointed me. Too clean, too slick.
Jeff Porcaro is on drums on Night By Night. Jim Gordon on Any Major Dude will Tell You.
"Any MAJOR dude with HALF a heart surely will tell you my friend. Any MINOR world that breaks apart falls together again." Major/Half/Minor. These cats were genius songwriters.
And astronomically correct to boot!
Yeah I didn't even catch all of that on the first listen. My head was still buzzing from night by night LOL
Two great ones. For 50 years, “Any Major Dude” has been my ‘go to” song in times of insanity.
I see why. It does have a calming nature of sorts... Donald's lyrics and vocals just automatically make me feel ok for some reason. I guess I really do enjoy his work.
"Any Major Dude" is one of the few somewhat optimistic songs
Never a bad song.... never filler....genius.
Night by Night has the funked up Sound with solid vocals. Any Major Dude is an expression that so many fans used to describe what was going on !
I love that. The Dan fans have so many damn inside jokes lol
“Have you ever seen a squonk’s tears? Well look at mine”. Only other time I ever heard that in a song was 2 years later in 1976 on Genesis’ first post Gabriel album Trick of the Tail and their great track on it “Squonk”. Apparently it is a mythical creature that is so unhappy due to its ugliness, covered in warts and moles, that it constantly cries and hunters can easily find it by its trail of tears.
Squonk is my 2nd favorite genesis song right before "Firth of Fifth" such a powerful song. It never fails to bring me courage:)
Steely Sundays are my favorite !
Me too cynthia... me too. I love these guys.
Yes, somewhat optimistic. I think it's also among their most beautiful, both in lyrics and music. Listen again to that dual guitar solo in the bridge -- exquisite! (And the sneaky little bass solo toward the end.)
I used to sing Any Major Dude to my son when he was a baby - like a lullaby. It's actually optimistic!
Fagen's debut solo album is "The Nightfly" (1982). It is an extension of the Steely Dan oeuvre. You must hear it front to back.
New artist alert !: Roy Buchanan (and the Snakestretchers), legendary blues guitarist, captured live on video in mid-1970s. Try "Roy's Blues" and "The Messiah Will Come Again" live from Austin TX (1976).
"Any Major Dude" is one I listen to when I feel down. Yes, short and sweet, but tasty tune. Thank you.
I played a lot of SD albums to death, lol.
One more thing: I love five minutes from Barrytown. Don and Walter went to Bard College, right in my back yard, in Red Hook, NY ...Barrytown. Chevy Chase was their first drummer.
That's amazing!
😲
Hot damn!!! Love yer Steely Sunday's
The end of this album is awesome with (Through w Buzz, 🥨 Logic, With a Gun, Charlie Freak, & Monkey in your Soul.). For my tastes Little Feat & Steely Dan created two of the greatest Album collections in the history of Rock & Roll.
Any Major Dude is one of my all time favorite Dan songs, plus I'm pretty sure it is about overcoming drug addiction. Thanks for another great Steely Sunday!
Oh, man these are two Major songs by SD. Love both of them a crap ton! Always worth a visit to one of the best RUclips channels out there.
I wouldn't say all that but I appreciate it my friend. 😉😊 glad you enjoyed
I'm of that first post-hippie-generation, ~~ in our early-to-mid-teens in the early-to-mid-70's (when these albums came out).
And I'm sure I'm not the only one who rode that volume knob up to 10 when a SD track was fading out, just to catch *as much as I could* of a hot outro jam that could have easily gone on for another minute or two, or three .....
The guitar in Night by Night really pushes my buttons,but then,I say that about EVERY Dan track.
Phenomenal band,a one off.
Lee...when you have a sec read about Jim Gordon. What a fucked up tale!
This album twisted my brain.
Any major dude is a great tune
No bad SD songs, but Any Major Dude is particularly sweet ❤
Sup Lee. Always appreciate your honesty and heartfelt and personal analysis. Though there's still much to learn you are well on your way. Rock steady man! ✌️
Always more to learn. That's why I'm here. :) thank you my friend.
I a tually found a 78 r.p.m. record ofDuke Ellington with East St Louis Toddle Do
Night by Night is always great to hear again and again. What a great song. Now I need to listen to the whole album again while I do my Sunday.
I had forgotten how much I liked and listened to this album when I bought it in 1975. I didn’t know I already knew “Night by Night”, but I am predicting licks before they come on. What a good song! Thank you, Lee! It’s nice to hear it again.
"I Can't Tell if it's Denny or Skunk" - Denny is the jazz guy and Skunk is the rock guy. This deosnt mean Denny won't play with some overdrive but the clue is in the lines. Blues rock lines with lots of bends will be always be Skunk.
The guitarist on Major Dude is Dean Parks, who played on every SD album going forward
"I think I liked 'em better when they were a band." Me too, sir!
Ned from Spain stopping in for a hot cup of Steely. Congrats on 20 k Lee
Thank you Ned from Spain! Gracias Mi amigo
BTW, a squonk is a mythical creature that lives in the forests of North PA
I'm with you on Night by Night... the music is great but I'll take the lyrics of Any Major Dude. I think you've achieved major dude status with your reactions... congrats!
Back when I was a kid, this was one of those album all the cool older kids were listening to. Both good songs, although "Any Major Dude" is clearly the better track IMO. It's a case study in great chord changes.
I get such an Easy Coast vibe listening to this record. Dig your reactions.
Was down now Steely Dan up!👍🎉💕
Pretzel logic the first Steely Dan album my Purchased was an bootleg eight track tape I found a gas station on my drive from Miami to Connecticut 1973 because of the song East St. Louis East St. Louis Toodle-Oo I now have the UHQR vinyl 45 RPM, which is beyond description
Jeff Skunk Baxter. Missle Defence consultant to Dept. Of Defence and many other US Agencies and Defence Contractors. Oh. Played with Steeley Dan, The Doobie Brothers and Spirit.
Spirit were a great band too. "The 12 Dreams of Doctor Sardonicus" (1970) would be a good place to start.
@@stevebinning977And members of Spirit Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes would form Jo Jo Gunne. Their debut album came out in 1972 and was a great sleeper. Run Run Run, Babylon, Shake That Fat etc. Not a bad track on it. But for some reason they never took off. Ferguson went on to have a solo career with his biggest hit being Thunder Island around ‘77. And Andes went on to form Firefall.
@@midnightrambler7716 I believe members of Jo Jo Gunne were in the eighties version of Heart.
You can’t go wrong with this band’s catalog. My personal favorite, because it’s about my old friend Bear, is Kid Charlemagne.
Always loved this song. Hmmm, maybe Jim Gordon gets us to the Dominoes. I didnt know he played on this song.
Jim Gordon"story is one the saddist in Rock.He co-wrote Traffic's Low spark of High Heeled boys and Layla by Derek and The Dominoes. Then he Killed his mother with a hammer.
What a fucking shame. I wonder if he lost it or mom was the devil. I honestly don't know. I'm guessing the first one. Either way, there's no excuse for maternicide. Is that a word? I hope so.
@@L33Reacts Jim Gordon developed schizophrenia but doctors misdiagnosed him for alcohol abuse. In the early 70's he beat up his girlfriend, the successful singer Rita Coolidge. He was still undiagnosed more than a decade later when he murdered his mother, hitting her with a hammer and stabbing her with a butchers knife, claiming voices told him to do it. He was finally diagnosed in 2017, but he spent the rest of his days in prison and was refused parole ten times. He died in a California psychiatric prison in 2023.
Drinco De Mayo is my Bday.
SOLID choices!!!
wish id made the live broadcast but i was out getting party supplies 🥳
Hahah be safe my friend! Happy birthday!!
@@L33Reacts Hey thanks bud.
there is a small list of folks who say that to me.
proud to have you on it!
i cant get too crazy, i have a shift to pull tonight. LOL
bills dont care who's birthday it is!
it's nice to see the cover of crucify cd single
Duuuuuuuude you should check out the live '74 album, this band was absolutely FEROCIOUS in a live setting. 2 DRUMMERS
Porcaro and Hodder, I saw them at the Sopwith Camel, Glendale CA, March 1974. A partial set is on RUclips, that's me screaming!
@@SeaMark782 That's awesome!
@timcardona9962 Better yet, I went to school with Jeff and hung out with him and SD, B&F during the gigs, both Fri. and Sat. nights, after all these years, a cherished memory and a wild weekend! Night by Night.
@@SeaMark782 HA! WHat I wouldnt give....
Gotta do The Boston Rag, and Brooklyn.
Prime cuts.
Get through life with the Dan. You haven't heard Parkers Band yet. Jim Gordon and Jeff Porcaro double drumming. Jeff was 19, and he was playing with one of his heroes. Jeff would eventually became one of many drummers hero.
Guitar solo = Skunk Baxter. Denny Dias never bent strings.
Had the big bands embraced Rock & Roll, this would have been the result...
Jeff Porcaro was the drummer for Toto
Lead guitar on 'Night By Night' played by Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter. Skunks solos in general make use of full on overdrive or distortion, employ bends and vibrato and more Blues/Rock based lines, whereas Denny's are almost always cleaner toned, devoid of both vibrato and string bending and have lines that are more chromatic and Jazz oriented.
See, now I won't get them confused. Denny - clean skunk - distortion
That's all I needed. Thank you, my friend.
Drummers Jeff Porcaro and Jim Gordon are the best of the best. The back story on Jim is just crazy and sad. Jeff's death had some controversy around it, but ultimately he developed heart disease in his late 30s. Excellent musicians
Yeah what a fucked up story... I've heard Jeff has a great catalog for how long he was here. I'll have to check more out
Fucked up story being Jim's not Jeff's lol
Just check out Jeff Porcaro’s discography. Son of the great drummer Joe Porcaro, the sweetest and most generous person I’ve ever known
I will! Thank you for the suggestion
He was really funny too, I went to school with him and his bros. and Lukather. Double drumming with Jim Gordon on Parkers Band, Jeff was playing with one of his heros!
Jim Gordon was a great studio drummer. Do a dive into his bio. So sad....
Great Porcaro drum track...Skunk on lead, i do b'leave....
I'm referring to night by night of course
Do you know the Jim Gordon story? Sad and scary.
I do. Fucking horrible. I forgot about it till someone reminded me this morning lol
@@L33Reacts sorry...
Huh?? Oh not you bro it was in the chat this morning lol
@@L33Reacts ok, good 😆
Pretzel Logic... I love Steely Dan, but this phrase is problematic... as I heard it, the idea of "pretzel logic" (not the song, the concept) goes like this... I think it was Fagan or Becker that asked the question like, "Why get a pretzel from the vendor on the street corner (as in the pic on the album cover), when you can go into the nearby restaurant, sit down, and have a nice meal?" Which is meant as an analogy between live music and studio recordings. What he's saying is that there's no point to live music, you get a better sounding experience from the well-engineered studio recording, with no mistakes, so you're better off sitting at home with some earphones on, listening to these perfect versions.
I'm doing this from memory, so apologies if I'm getting their argument wrong in any substantive way.
I think this notion comes from the fact that they did take so much care in crafting their work with the many session players they brought in (you mentioned Porcaro on the drums who would, after this, play for Toto). There were 15 players on this album, and if you went on tour, you can't take them all with you... not that most of them would go in any case; that's the nature of the session players, they liked the studio, not touring so much, so they played sessions. As a result, Steely Dan's live performances did often have issues, as there are just some skills on display in the various Steely Dan songs that can't be wrapped up all into one musician on one instrument. Especially if you want to play songs from more than just the latest album, which, of course, you do in concert. So they didn't like touring, and essentially criticized the fans for wanting them to tour. Hm.
What the question about the pretzel vendor misses is that people DO go and get pretzels from the vendor on the street corner (else where does the picture come from?). I myself, in fact, have a favorite street sausage vendor that I hit up as often as I have occasion to be able to. Yeah, it's inconvenient to then go and sit down next to the river on some concrete wall and munch a couple of dogs down. But there's something about being out in the open air, and buying in public that makes it worth it.
In a live concert, part of the thrill is that the players, to use a different analogy, are playing like they're walking a tightrope without a net. If they screw up... they can fall, crash and burn. When they, through their exceptional amount of practice, manage to pull the music off, you get a sense of what humans are capable of when they put their minds to it, in the name of creating a moment of ephemeral beauty on the spot. And for many, maybe most (certainly myself), that's a thrill we can't do without.
On the subject of songs and bands with nonsense names, often you'll find that there's absolutely a reason for the title that the band just doesn't explain in the song, that they'll reveal in an interview or something. On the other hand, then again, a little nonsense, now and then, is cherished by the wisest men (to quote Willy Wonka). You'll find that musical trends cycle much more constantly than you may perceive. Or, to quote Neal Peart's lyric from Rush's song Circumstances, a folksy chestnut of wisdom, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."
Great reaction as always! Rock on, Lee!
Fallout Boy is Radioactive Man's sidekick from The Simpsons. :)
Jim Gordon played drums on a lot of great records. Sad that he never got his schizophrenia under control.
So very unfair...
I really think "the band" wasnt as productive and/or diverse in thinking as the dynamic duo. The "creative differences" thing. Fagen and Becker were record producers and song writers not performers. Diaz was not a big performer. He was a student of stringed instruments. Skunk Baxter is a renaisance man with alot of performer in him. The singer was hired because Fagen hated doing it. Nobody else could do it with the wry savvy required. They were the least bound band ever, when they were a band.
If you give a bunch of top sessionmen a bunch of interesting charts you may well get some superior performances, even some exceptional ones... but a real band of kindred spirits is still better. Katy Lied was the first SD album that disappointed me. Too clean, too slick.
All those songs you mentioned from Pretzel Logic are all really good. In case you haven't heard Pretzel Logic is another way of saying twisted logic 🥨