I've listened to this song a thousand times and I still pick up on subtle things I've never heard before. The compositions of steely dan are just on another level.
The instrument in the beginning that’s sounds like bubbles 🫧 is a “flapamba”. It looks like a xylophone with wooden key heads, and the sound is resonated via wooden bases, or tubes, the mallets are usually tipped soft mallets, or even finger tips. It’s a very rare instrument, and recent in its creation, dating back to only 1960.
Steely Dan are musicians' musicians. So glad I grew up with this music. One of my fav bands. Walter Becker, the guitarist, recently passed, but, man, was he talented. So many more songs from this band.
Back in '74, my dad had gotten a very good job after having retired from the military. About ten years ago, I found a shoe box that had every check receipt he had gotten from that job. The very first check he got had his base pay listed. It was a bit over $5 an hour. In the '70s 15 cents didn't come easily...
I love how they add a voice to each Chorus. Sometimes it's a harmony, sometimes just an additional voice, (doubling, if you will). Little tricks like this I find to be genius level.
Sadly, most people have never heard of or know who the Wrecking Crew are and how THEY created 90% of the music we all know and love. Every big hit, be it rock n roll, R&B, pop, country, television theme songs, commercial jingles, they did all them. It didn't matter how talented a band was, record labels and producers wouldn't let the band members play on the recordings. They hired the Wrecking Crew to come in and make the songs hits.
I grew up, listening to Steely Dan. I fucking love this band so much and I mean so much. I love every song they’ve done, but this is my absolute favorite, the musicality lyrics. Everything about this song is genius.
I was lucky enough to see them on this tour and they did play this. The title track from this album, Preetzel Logic is one of my very favorite tracks by the Dan.
The Rikki in the song is Rikki Ducornet, an older classmate of Fagen's at Bard College. Not only was she an older woman, she was already married. He saw her at a party, tried some lines on her, which she ignored for obvious reasons. She was later amused by the song immortalizing her. She became a published novelist later in life and probably didn't recall their meeting until people kept asking her about the song.
Steely Dan is so deep - you will find at least 20 great songs in their catalog. Most reactors love "Peg", so I guess I'll suggest that one for your next Dan Dive.
I'm a gigging bassist, been doing it for five bands over 30 years, a big portion of set lists in two of them from the SD catalog. Point being that I want to highlight that the bassist for "Ricki" was (RIP) Walter Becker. His "signature" bass playing is marked with innovative and complex bass lines. Not difficult in themselves, but the bass lines are so unique that I think most bassists, including top-notch hired guns (greats like Chuck Rainey, Marcus Miller, and Anthony Jackson), as superb as they played, wouldn't have ever put together a groove/bass line like Walter's. It's difficult to describe how/why his style was so different, but when learning his bass lines--the most iconic being the mysterious (?) bass in "Deacon Blues"--only then could I appreciate his style, his thought process for creating a unique, yet perfectly suited bass line. He carried on with his unique playing when he transitioned to electric six-string guitar: mysterious, sensual, distinctive smooth soloing is Walter's trademark.
Another great guitar solo from Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. I think this was his last album with Steely Dan. He went on to join the Doobie Brothers after this.
This is country blues and Jazz. There's no one better than Steely Dan I am 64 and grew up with them first hand..The band plays all the genres' of music. It's hard to pin them down..
Elton John warned Queen about this point; "When you record a song, ask yourself this; are you prepared to perform this every night for the rest of your life?"
Love Steely Dan… my favorite is Hey Nineteen. Donald Fagan also had a popular solo song called I.G.Y. What a beautiful world… I absolutely love that song!
Fagen and Becker were great songwriters and as many do, they "borrowed" ideas from others. Listen to the opening to Horace Silver's Song for My Father then listen to this opening. Something similar happened with their song Gaucho from the album of the same name. Listen to the opening to Keith Jarret's song "Long As You Know You are Living Yours" from his album Belonging, then listen to the opening to Gaucho. Jarrett did, took them to court and won and is now credited with co-writing Gaucho. This song was a big radio hit for them.
Listen to Jethro Tull "We Used To Know" and then The Eagles "Hotel California". Hotel California was written after Tull's song, but there's no denying the similarities are more than coincidence. But Ian Anderson of Tull gives his take in this video: ruclips.net/video/xny0Uj4--tk/видео.html
Steely Dan is best know as Your Favorite Band's Favorite Band. People didn't really know t hem, but knew the music, but ask any musician in the 70s - 2000 and that was it.
You cant predict this band cause your listening to the greatest band of all time!!! So many brilliant songs!! I was so lucky to be brought up in the 70s and getting all their great albums when they were released
I want to hear and see reactions to these groups: Montrose 1. Bad Motor Scooter 2. Space Station #5 Fastway 1. Stand Up 2. Don't Stop the Fight Blues Image 1. Take Me 2. Fugue U/Parchman Farm/Wrath Of Daisey 3. Clean Love 4. Reality Does Not Inspire Ten years after 1. I'd Love To Change The World 2. Love Like a Man Especially Blues Image, such a vigorous mixture
You guys always keep it real, you allow one another the freedom of differing opinions. I respect you guys for being open to so many genres of music, especially music that for the most part was probably before you were born. You are keeping the music alive!
I love hearing stuff fresh from your ears. I was a teenager when this came out; music like this was all around, just in the air. It was a wonderful time for music 🎶.
"You tell yourself you're not my kind But you don't even know your mind" My favorite line. Not my fav SD song, heard way too many times as a kid but that line always stuck with me.
Love Steely Dan ❤! Great reaction! Was it know that Jeff Porcaro played drums on Black Friday and Bad sneakers? Lee Ritenour and Larry Carlton have played guitar. Guys so many songs FM, Deacon Blues, Babylon Sisters, hey 19, Peg with Michael McDonald on backup vocals! ❤ Grew up on this incredible music through my father who had a scholarship at University of Kentucky for trumpet. Incredible time in the world for music 🎵.
I bet if Ryan heard this as a small child he'd of loved it. That was the case with me, I was hooked. It wasn't until years later that I learned it was Steely Dan, as my first boyfriend brought the album Aja for us to listen to. It was like a light bulb moment when I realized that that was the group from my childhood that I'd loved so much. Gentleman, please continue to react to Steely Dan. They're such an intellectual band with a huge catalogue. IMO they don't have a bad or even mediocre song.
Steely Dan is Donald Fagen (keyboards, vocals) and Walter Becker (Lead Guitar). Becker passed away a while back. The others are different studio musicians and they change somewhat from album to album. But the core duo is Becker and Fagen.
Steely Dan is a band that grew on me. I remember when Rikki Don't Lose that Number and Reelin' in the Years came out. They weren't my favorite songs, but I enjoyed them. I think the one that really hooked me was Deacon Blues. And then I began listening to an Album Oriented Rock station back in the mid-1970s, and they played deeper cuts such as My Old School, and then Gaucho came out. I've been a fan ever since.
![Lethal Company Music Video 🎵 "Follow The Orders" [VERSION A]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QeooZB4Z7RA/mqdefault.jpg)
this is my favorite steely dan song
Steely Dan. .... Your favorite bands favorite band.
I've listened to this song a thousand times and I still pick up on subtle things I've never heard before. The compositions of steely dan are just on another level.
Like peeling an Onion.👏👏👏
PLEASE play "Don't Take Me Alive," and "Kid Charlemagne."
Yes and yes!
Two of their best!!
Yes do!
That's what is so great about Steely Dan. Every song is different and amazing!
The opening bass line was a homage to jazz master, Horace Silver's "Song For My Father"
Exactly 😊
I love watching a budding Steely Dan fan, and three at once is just the cherry on top.
The instrument in the beginning that’s sounds like bubbles 🫧 is a “flapamba”. It looks like a xylophone with wooden key heads, and the sound is resonated via wooden bases, or tubes, the mallets are usually tipped soft mallets, or even finger tips. It’s a very rare instrument, and recent in its creation, dating back to only 1960.
Steely Dan are musicians' musicians. So glad I grew up with this music. One of my fav bands. Walter Becker, the guitarist, recently passed, but, man, was he talented. So many more songs from this band.
My favortite Steely Dan song!
The instrument in question is a flapamba, a variant of the marimba.
Thank you 👍..
You guys got me at big crunchy pretzel - I'm all in now 😄
Back in '74, my dad had gotten a very good job after having retired from the military. About ten years ago, I found a shoe box that had every check receipt he had gotten from that job. The very first check he got had his base pay listed. It was a bit over $5 an hour. In the '70s 15 cents didn't come easily...
That intro always makes me think I' 'cleaning my palette", like when tasting wines or whiskeys.
"Dirty Work", "Don't Take Me Alive", "The Caves of Altamira"!!!!!
It just warms my heart how the younger generation with ears on get how great they were.
Great to see the younger generations keeping this music alive❤
Please keep going with the Dan, you will not regret a moment of it.
I love how they add a voice to each Chorus. Sometimes it's a harmony, sometimes just an additional voice, (doubling, if you will). Little tricks like this I find to be genius level.
BTW, Ryan will like "The Gaucho." The sax baby!
This song brings me back to being 17yrs old. I can smell it, taste it.
reeling in the years if you havent already reacted to it
Lettah, numbah, bettah.... this is how I knew it was Steely Dan when I was a little kid. As an adult I cannot live without them!!!
My favorite Steely Dan song ever!!
Don't matter how you spell it, a pretzle is a pretzel is a pretzel is a pretzle .... pretzel logic!
They are completely original and so versatile ! All their songs sound like Steely Dan but none of their songs sound like the others
The late, great, Wreaking Crew drummer, Jim Gordon.
Sadly, most people have never heard of or know who the Wrecking Crew are and how THEY created 90% of the music we all know and love. Every big hit, be it rock n roll, R&B, pop, country, television theme songs, commercial jingles, they did all them.
It didn't matter how talented a band was, record labels and producers wouldn't let the band members play on the recordings. They hired the Wrecking Crew to come in and make the songs hits.
A HUGE hit in the summer of 1974. Almost banned from the radio because people thought it was about a joint. This song made me a SD fan for life..
Love you guys!!
This is a great song. Period.
The incomparable studio drummer, Jim Gordon. R.I.P. July 14, 1945 - March 13, 2023.
I heard these songs on the radio as a pre teen and they blew my mind now I appreciate the musicianship
More STEELY DAN plz!😁
A really fun and overlooked song by Steely Dan is Show Biz Kids. So great. Haitian Divorce too. But Steely Dan’s catalog is truly amazing.
From the request box. Still waiting on Billy Squire. Every song on his first album were a huge hit.
Don’t tease us with Steely Dan this far in advance!😂❤
It the harmonizing in the chorus for me
The music of my youth. So good… thanks guys
This is Steely Dan's highest charting single, peaking at #4 in 1974.
More hooky than a fishing tackle shop.
So damn cool. Thanks
Steely Dan is a third of my top three band catalogues while stranded on an island.
I used to have the refrain as my ring tone.
I grew up, listening to Steely Dan. I fucking love this band so much and I mean so much. I love every song they’ve done, but this is my absolute favorite, the musicality lyrics. Everything about this song is genius.
On the same album the track Night by night masterpiece. CAPOLAVORO 🔝🔝ciao 🇮🇹
I've heard this song a thousand times and never knew what it was about. Thanks for the lesson.
That opening sound is a Marimba
I was lucky enough to see them on this tour and they did play this. The title track from this album, Preetzel Logic is one of my very favorite tracks by the Dan.
You guys rock, oh man watching these videos, always makes me laugh. :)
You don't know how many people were late to work because this song was on the car radio while in the parking lot.
New sub! Thanks for the stroll down memory lane! Love from Texas🤠🤠🤠
The Rikki in the song is Rikki Ducornet, an older classmate of Fagen's at Bard College. Not only was she an older woman, she was already married. He saw her at a party, tried some lines on her, which she ignored for obvious reasons. She was later amused by the song immortalizing her. She became a published novelist later in life and probably didn't recall their meeting until people kept asking her about the song.
I thought she was the wife of a professor at the college
Steely Dan is so deep - you will find at least 20 great songs in their catalog. Most reactors love "Peg", so I guess I'll suggest that one for your next Dan Dive.
🔥🔥🔥
Flashbacks 😂❤
This song is a Time Machine, It's like a stomach punch, then I'm back there.
Huge hit in the summer of '74.
Crunchy "Pretzel Logic"...😂
Great song, definitely on the radio all the time back in the day
So love Steely Dan ❤
I'm a gigging bassist, been doing it for five bands over 30 years, a big portion of set lists in two of them from the SD catalog. Point being that I want to highlight that the bassist for "Ricki" was (RIP) Walter Becker. His "signature" bass playing is marked with innovative and complex bass lines. Not difficult in themselves, but the bass lines are so unique that I think most bassists, including top-notch hired guns (greats like Chuck Rainey, Marcus Miller, and Anthony Jackson), as superb as they played, wouldn't have ever put together a groove/bass line like Walter's. It's difficult to describe how/why his style was so different, but when learning his bass lines--the most iconic being the mysterious (?) bass in "Deacon Blues"--only then could I appreciate his style, his thought process for creating a unique, yet perfectly suited bass line. He carried on with his unique playing when he transitioned to electric six-string guitar: mysterious, sensual, distinctive smooth soloing is Walter's trademark.
Their best song, their biggest hit and my favorite by them.
Looking forward to this one! Love you guys
The flapamba (a variant of the marimba) is the instrument in intro
Another great guitar solo from Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. I think this was his last album with Steely Dan. He went on to join the Doobie Brothers after this.
The Doobies are awesome too
That one of more from Steeley Dan went to the Doobies makes total sense. The two groups have a lot of similarities and cross over.
This is country blues and Jazz. There's no one better than Steely Dan I am 64 and grew up with them first hand..The band plays all the genres' of music. It's hard to pin them down..
I'm 64 too!!
I would dispute country.
The opening rhythms of the song was lovingly taken from jazz musician Horace Silver's Song For My Father.
Back then they am. Radio played at over and over, we got burnt out. Radio did that to great songs. But it was nice to hear it again.💃💃🍀🍀
Smooth perfection.
Elton John warned Queen about this point; "When you record a song, ask yourself this; are you prepared to perform this every night for the rest of your life?"
How "clean" is that track? Impeccable on the headphones and stood out at 16 and became a FAN.
That is the sound of the 70”s. 1974 I was 10yrs old
Love Steely Dan… my favorite is Hey Nineteen. Donald Fagan also had a popular solo song called I.G.Y. What a beautiful world… I absolutely love that song!
Fagen and Becker were great songwriters and as many do, they "borrowed" ideas from others. Listen to the opening to Horace Silver's Song for My Father then listen to this opening. Something similar happened with their song Gaucho from the album of the same name. Listen to the opening to Keith Jarret's song "Long As You Know You are Living Yours" from his album Belonging, then listen to the opening to Gaucho. Jarrett did, took them to court and won and is now credited with co-writing Gaucho. This song was a big radio hit for them.
Listen to Jethro Tull "We Used To Know" and then The Eagles "Hotel California".
Hotel California was written after Tull's song, but there's no denying the similarities are more than coincidence. But Ian Anderson of Tull gives his take in this video:
ruclips.net/video/xny0Uj4--tk/видео.html
Marimba, probably. Anyhow, teenage drummer learning Zepp, Rush, etc, heard this, there was always more to learn . Love it. Those harmonies.
Steely Dan is best know as Your Favorite Band's Favorite Band.
People didn't really know t hem, but knew the music, but ask any musician in the 70s - 2000 and that was it.
I need you to listen to the Bee Gee's. TO MUCH HEAVEN this music is from my times.
Peg peg peg peg........
A Flapamba - wooden xylophone/vibraphone instrument.
This band was led and played by absolute perfectionists. I'm sure you guys can tell.
Please, please, please react to "In The Beginning," by Emerson, Lake, & Palmer.
Great great song , one of the best guitar solos
Skunk Baxter
This song was it😊. I was 10 years of age
You cant predict this band cause your listening to the greatest band of all time!!! So many brilliant songs!! I was so lucky to be brought up in the 70s and getting all their great albums when they were released
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter was the guitarist on this piece............he is SO recognizable and the whole piece is ultra-memorable. LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!
I want to hear and see reactions to these groups:
Montrose
1. Bad Motor Scooter
2. Space Station #5
Fastway
1. Stand Up
2. Don't Stop the Fight
Blues Image
1. Take Me
2. Fugue U/Parchman Farm/Wrath Of Daisey
3. Clean Love
4. Reality Does Not Inspire
Ten years after
1. I'd Love To Change The World
2. Love Like a Man
Especially Blues Image, such a vigorous mixture
You guys always keep it real, you allow one another the freedom of differing opinions. I respect you guys for being open to so many genres of music, especially music that for the most part was probably before you were born. You are keeping the music alive!
Panicking! I only have 30 minutes left to get rid of my company before my guys premiere starts😳 Wish me luck🤞😂😎
I'm sure he thought this song would be fast because of Phil Collins' "Billy, Don't Lose My Number".
I love hearing stuff fresh from your ears. I was a teenager when this came out; music like this was all around, just in the air. It was a wonderful time for music 🎶.
"You tell yourself you're not my kind
But you don't even know your mind"
My favorite line. Not my fav SD song, heard way too many times as a kid but that line always stuck with me.
Love Steely Dan ❤! Great reaction! Was it know that Jeff Porcaro played drums on Black Friday and Bad sneakers? Lee Ritenour and Larry Carlton have played guitar. Guys so many songs FM, Deacon Blues, Babylon Sisters, hey 19, Peg with Michael McDonald on backup vocals! ❤
Grew up on this incredible music through my father who had a scholarship at University of Kentucky for trumpet. Incredible time in the world for music 🎵.
The opening riff (after the marimba) is the same riff as "Song For My Father" by jazz great Horace Silver.
My favorite Steely Dan song ... 8th grade summer, two-week-long girlfriend at the beach, I'll always associate this song with her.
I'm supposed to be doing dishes, but I'm dancing in the kitchen instead. Arguably my favorite Dan song, love the piano and the guitar solo.😊🥰
I'd like to see a future episode where you each share your top 5 songs that you have found since doing this.
I bet if Ryan heard this as a small child he'd of loved it. That was the case with me, I was hooked. It wasn't until years later that I learned it was Steely Dan, as my first boyfriend brought the album Aja for us to listen to. It was like a light bulb moment when I realized that that was the group from my childhood that I'd loved so much. Gentleman, please continue to react to Steely Dan. They're such an intellectual band with a huge catalogue. IMO they don't have a bad or even mediocre song.
Reeling in the Years got me hooked at 9 years now old! Blew my head apart❤😂
Steely Dan is Donald Fagen (keyboards, vocals) and Walter Becker (Lead Guitar). Becker passed away a while back. The others are different studio musicians and they change somewhat from album to album. But the core duo is Becker and Fagen.
These pretzels are making me thirsty!!!
Steely Dan is a band that grew on me. I remember when Rikki Don't Lose that Number and Reelin' in the Years came out. They weren't my favorite songs, but I enjoyed them. I think the one that really hooked me was Deacon Blues. And then I began listening to an Album Oriented Rock station back in the mid-1970s, and they played deeper cuts such as My Old School, and then Gaucho came out. I've been a fan ever since.
back in the day a joint was also referred to as a number
Marimba is the instrument you’re looking for
Maybe a vibraphone?
@@jasonremy1627 It is a flapamba.
Plz do ‘Hey Nineteen’ (their best song imo) ‘Reelin In the Years’ and ‘FM’. These are 3 of their top 5 and you haven’t even hit them yet. 🔥🔥🔥
Sorry, can’t allow you to call Hey 19 their best song unchallenged 😉.
master musicians... composers maxxxx 💥🎸💯
The lead guitar was Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, who also played in the Doobie Brothers.